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"Poor people … are not poor because they lack money. They're poor because they lack values, ethics and morals."
— Cincinnati radio host BILL CUNNINGHAM, discussing black people on welfare during the Jan. 4 broadcast of Clear Channel's "The Big Show With Bill Cunningham"

"I have black people in my family tree. If I recall, they're still hanging there."
--— One of four racist jokes circulated in a Jan. 4 mass E-mail from Staten Island Community Education Council appointee SALVATORE BALLARINO that superimposed word balloons onto photos of a presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama

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"What's the difference between a black man and a picnic table? A picnic table can support a family."
— Another joke from SALVATORE BALLARINO, who called his Jan. 4 E-mail "a political cartoon" and said he was no racist because he has "plenty of black friends" and "drove black people home from work"

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"It's a class … to teach normal men how to have sensitivity to a psychopathic sex-change operative who should be in a mental hospital."
— Radio host MICHAEL SAVAGE during the Jan. 7 broadcast of "The Savage Nation," criticizing a San Francisco Police Department training program for detectives on transgender issues

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"We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles … because his father was black."
— RUSH LIMBAUGH, bemoaning the inauguration of Barack Obama to Fox News host Sean Hannity during an "exclusive" Jan. 21 interview on "Hannity's America"

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"If Mexico collapses … does anyone think there will be a rush of people … rushing our border? … Have you heard that … they're going to reclaim California? That they're going to reclaim Texas?"
— Host GLENN BECK, referencing the racist Aztlan conspiracy theory on the Feb. 3 broadcast of "The Glenn Beck Program" on Fox News

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"Homosexuality will always be a sexual perversion. … What are the morals of a gay person? You can't answer that because anything goes. … [Gays] are probably the greatest threat to America going down I know of."
— Utah State Sen. CHRIS BUTTARS, quoted in a documentary released Feb. 17, in comments that led to his being removed as chairman of the state Judiciary Committee

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"White folks in America … are not responsible for the fact that African Americans commit crimes at seven times the rate of white Americans … gang rapes, gang assaults, the numbers are almost 100 to one."
— MSNBC commentator PAT BUCHANAN on the Feb. 19 edition of "Hardball" quotes on this page were compiled from media accounts, web pages, e-mail groups and Media Matters for America, a website that monitors the far right.