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View Full Version : McCain: "I hate the gooks!"




markpa
01-31-2008, 09:54 AM
PST Greenville, S.C. -- Arizona Sen. John McCain refused to apologize yesterday for his use of a racial slur to condemn the North Vietnamese prison guards who tortured and held him captive during the war.

``I hate the gooks,'' McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. ``I will hate them as long as I live.''


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2000/02/18/MN32194.DTL

Looks like this was in 2000 but I've never heard of it before. It just goes to show that the media picks and chooses what to report on. :mad:

Redcard
01-31-2008, 10:06 AM
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2000/02/18/MN32194.DTL

Looks like this was in 2000 but I've never heard of it before. It just goes to show that the media picks and chooses what to report on. :mad:

Uh, the media made a HUGE deal of it back then. It's hypocritical if you want them to drop the Ron Paul Newsletter BS but not the statement that McCain made.

spacehabitats
01-31-2008, 10:17 AM
but then that is his middle name.
What is incredible is that he has a media-enhanced reputation as a "straight shooter".
How ironic.

ARealConservative
01-31-2008, 10:21 AM
Uh, the media made a HUGE deal of it back then. It's hypocritical if you want them to drop the Ron Paul Newsletter BS but not the statement that McCain made.

The difference is McCain actually said this and it is easily verifiable.

austinchick
01-31-2008, 10:21 AM
gosh, that man is sadly pathetic

Convert
01-31-2008, 10:26 AM
When you go in the military during war time, you are taught to hate the enemy. My dad hated "Krauts" and "Japs" but got over it. My husband hates "gooks". He would probably hate them more had he been a POW at the Hanoi Hilton. My sister had a thing about stinking towel heads (was in Desert Storm). It's racist but understandable IMO. These people were shooting at them and killed their buddies.

ARealConservative
01-31-2008, 10:29 AM
I would like to see a you tube of McCain criticizing Romney from making money at the expense of jobs.

Then add his statement after he initially voted against the tax cuts about how the rich don't need a a tax break.

McCain is a class warfare liberal, but conservatives don't realize this about him.

ARealConservative
01-31-2008, 10:30 AM
When you go in the military during war time, you are taught to hate the enemy. My dad hated "Krauts" and "Japs" but got over it. My husband hates "gooks". He would probably hate them more had he been a POW at the Hanoi Hilton. My sister had a thing about stinking towel heads (was in Desert Storm). It's racist but understandable IMO. These people were shooting at them and killed their buddies.

I agree.

And all those people aren't fit to be president.

You can't hold hate for groups of people and be a good president in a country that embraces liberty for all.

Redcard
01-31-2008, 10:33 AM
I agree.

And all those people aren't fit to be president.

You can't hold hate for groups of people and be a good president in a country that embraces liberty for all.

He doesn't hold hate for groups of people. He holds hate for the particular ones that tortured him. That seems pretty fair, don't you think?

I mean, why is it a "thoughtcrime" to not like the people that tortured you? Why are we having "thoughtcrime" and "speakcrime" here?

Bison
01-31-2008, 10:57 AM
The guy was tortured for six years, what do you want the guy to say? Thank you?

I would doubt that there is a man or woman here that wouldn't feel the same way.

ARealConservative
01-31-2008, 11:00 AM
He doesn't hold hate for groups of people. He holds hate for the particular ones that tortured him. That seems pretty fair, don't you think?

I mean, why is it a "thoughtcrime" to not like the people that tortured you? Why are we having "thoughtcrime" and "speakcrime" here?

If he doesn't have the sense to not use such a racially charged word, he isn't fit to lead a nation of 300 million.

VoluntaryMan
01-31-2008, 11:05 AM
``I hate the gooks,'' McCain said yesterday in response to a question from reporters aboard his campaign bus. ``I will hate them as long as I live.''

McChINA? The Manchurian Candidate? "Hate[s] the gooks"? He doth protest too much, me thinks. Probably just the programming talking, to dispel suspicion.

markpa
01-31-2008, 11:06 AM
He can say whatever he wants to say but I think people should realize that they are voting for someone who hates a sizable group of citizens.

Redcard
01-31-2008, 11:08 AM
He can say whatever he wants to say but I think people should realize that they are voting for someone who hates a sizable group of citizens.

PEople realize he hates a sizable group of .. what?

You think former North Vietnamese POW Prison Guards who Tortured US Soldiers DUring the Vietnam War are a large group of citizens?

BigRedBrent
01-31-2008, 11:55 AM
The guy was tortured for six years, what do you want the guy to say? Thank you?

I would doubt that there is a man or woman here that wouldn't feel the same way.

Prove it. He has done everything in his power to keep the records classified. The only thing we know is that he made about 32 propaganda tapes for the enemy, and even those are classified thanks to him. He was even able to come home early at one time but did not because he would have been disgraced as a collaborator. Sounds like a collaborator to me, but since he did everything in his power to hide the information we may never know.

And this is also why pow/mia groups hate his guts. He is keeping records from them that could help them find more prisoners of war. They would like to see him rot the rest of his life in a prison for this.

This is all public record, but to many sheeple don't give a rat's ass.

McCain is a scum bucket and should be kicked in the balls, not given the highest government position in the nation.

markpa
01-31-2008, 11:58 AM
PEople realize he hates a sizable group of .. what?

You think former North Vietnamese POW Prison Guards who Tortured US Soldiers DUring the Vietnam War are a large group of citizens?

Don't play semantics...everyone knows it's not specific to certain prison gaurd at a certain place and time.

It's generally accpeted as meaning "asians" in general.


http://kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu/Dictionary/gook.htm


1. n. [1920s+] (orig. US military.) a derogatory term for foreigners, especially south-east Asians, e.g. (in chronological order of use) Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, and Vietnamese.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs


Gook
(U.S. military slang) an Asian person, especially an enemy (e.g. Koreans or Vietnamese during the Korean and Vietnam wars). By extension, any Asian person. Derived from the Korean words “hanguk” and “miguk”. Guk is from the Chinese word guo, which means country. “Hanguk” refers to Korea[77] and “miguk” is the common word for the United States.[78] American troops thought "miguk" sounded like "me gook" (i.e. "I am a gook"). The word persisted during the Vietnam War, perhaps also because the Vietnamese people have a similar word “quốc”, meaning "country". "Gook" was also used by white soldiers in Africa to designate enemy insurgents.[79]

ryvin1
01-31-2008, 11:58 AM
PEople realize he hates a sizable group of .. what?

You think former North Vietnamese POW Prison Guards who Tortured US Soldiers DUring the Vietnam War are a large group of citizens?

If he hated all black people and uses the N word because someone black did something negative to him people would freaking fry him, he wouldn't even be able to run for any public office... but it's a "so what" comment because it only Vietnamese people who are being degraded with such a comment? WTF

Is it ok for the possible president of the USA to say something like that against an entire race of people because he was a POW in time of war? It's would be ok for him to slandered other races if he gets robbed by a minority? or worse someone close to him is killed by a minority he can just hate the entire race and carry that hate to the lead our country.

I personally am offended by such a comment being Vietnamese, and wouldn't know what to do if that war mongering bastard became president, because I know the president hates me.

He may say such things saying he only means to target a smaller group of people but such comments are insulting and degrading to the entire race.

johngr
01-31-2008, 11:59 AM
I'd be willing to wager he hates the towelheads as well.

Redcard
01-31-2008, 12:11 PM
Is it ok for the possible president of the USA to say something like that against an entire race of people because he was a POW in time of war? It's would be ok for him to slandered other races if he gets robbed by a minority? or worse someone close to him is killed by a minority he can just hate the entire race and carry that hate to the lead our country.


If you're a republican, you're in the WRONG party to start casting blame for being stereotypical. Remember? Osama , wanted, Dead or Alive? The song "America, F*** yeah!", "We'll put a boot up your ass.."

I mean, honestly. That type of talk works in the Republican party, and has been accepted in the republican party. I've been a democrat for most my life and been called a pussy by people in the "republican party" base. You don't like that kind of talk from McCain, well, heck, neither do I. But guess what? You're in the party of the racist. The party of the bigot. The party of the Nascar loving (okay, not fair, I love Nascar too :) ) wrasslin lovin (Okay.. like that too :P ) beer-swillin god fearin jesus lovin redneck.

This stuff SELLS in the Republican party. Let it go. You'll only make him a bigger war hero by chasing it down.

ryvin1
01-31-2008, 01:43 PM
If you're a republican, you're in the WRONG party to start casting blame for being stereotypical. Remember? Osama , wanted, Dead or Alive? The song "America, F*** yeah!", "We'll put a boot up your ass.."

I mean, honestly. That type of talk works in the Republican party, and has been accepted in the republican party. I've been a democrat for most my life and been called a pussy by people in the "republican party" base. You don't like that kind of talk from McCain, well, heck, neither do I. But guess what? You're in the party of the racist. The party of the bigot. The party of the Nascar loving (okay, not fair, I love Nascar too :) ) wrasslin lovin (Okay.. like that too :P ) beer-swillin god fearin jesus lovin redneck.

This stuff SELLS in the Republican party. Let it go. You'll only make him a bigger war hero by chasing it down.

WTF? I back the ideas of a smaller government, defending civil liberties and the constitution, sound dollar and responsible spending.. I don't want a welfare state... now where does it say Republicans stand for racism and bigots.

and Looks like McCain steped back from those statements and apologized...

http://www.asianam.org/mccain.htm
McCain apologizes for using slur: GOP candidate renounces `bigoted' language

Feb 24, 2000 San Jose Mercury News

Retreating from his adamant defense of his use of an ethnic slur, Sen. John McCain has apologized and issued a statement renouncing ``all language that is bigoted.''

The GOP presidential candidate and former prisoner of war said he regretted any pain caused by describing his Vietnam War captors as ``gooks.''

The apology was apparently released Monday, a federal holiday, but came to light only Wednesday as the Arizona senator arrived in California, a state where one in four residents is foreign-born. He landed in Sacramento on Wednesday night and planned to attend a rally this morning as the presidential race heads into the ``Super Tuesday'' primaries.

On March 7, voting in California, New York and nine other states will determine the allocation of about 60 percent of the delegates needed for the Republican presidential nomination.

McCain said his original use of the slur stemmed from the intense feelings he still harbors as a result of being imprisoned, held in solitary confinement and tortured so severely that he attempted suicide. Even now, he cannot raise his arms above his head because of the injuries he received.

``For 5 1/2 years, I was mistreated by Ho Chi Minh's henchmen. My fellow prisoners were treated even worse,'' McCain said in his statement. ``Although I will never forgive my prison guards for the atrocities they committed against my cellmates, I have always held the people of Vietnam in the highest regard and have worked in support of the Vietnamese-American community in this country at every opportunity.

``I will continue to condemn those who unfairly mistreated us. But out of respect to a great number of people whom I hold in very high regard, I will no longer use the term that has caused such discomfort.

I deeply regret any pain I may have caused by my choice of words. I apologize and renounce all language that is bigoted and offensive, which is contrary to all that I represent and believe,'' McCain said.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, however, McCain suggested he did not view the matter as a misstep.

``You can view that as a misstep if you want to,'' he told the paper. ``I'll call sadists and murderers a lot worse than that.''

Blunt response

The issue hit the front pages last week after McCain was asked by the Mercury News about his use of the slur in October. McCain's response aboard his campaign bus, ``The Straight Talk Express,'' was blunt.

``I'll call, right now, my interrogator that tortured me and my friends a `gook,' OK, and you can quote me,'' McCain said last week. Adding that all his fellow prisoners of war used the same term, McCain said his tormentors ``were cruel, mean, vicious, sometimes sadistic people. And `gook' is the kindest description I can give them, the most printable.''

Then, after taking a two-minute phone call, McCain returned to the subject unprompted: ``I hated the gooks,'' he said. ``And I will hate them for as long as I live.''

Those words caused pain in a community where many support McCain for his understanding of Vietnam and his work helping Vietnamese families immigrate to the United States. He also helped President Clinton win congressional support for normalizing relations with Vietnam.

Apology welcomed

Community leaders welcomed McCain's apology Wednesday and some discussed the issue in a Vietnamese-language community forum on Saigon Radio, a San Jose talk show.

``I'm glad and immensely pleased. He's a better man for that,'' said Minh Dovan, a San Jose attorney. Dovan said hearing McCain's use of the term to discuss his captors was ``disgusting and reprehensible'' and his apology ``is better than being stubborn and holding a bigoted view.''

``If in fact he genuinely felt remorse, then I think that took a lot of courage,'' Dovan said. ``If he did it in order to appeal to a certain segment of the voting public, it could be a shallow apology.''

McCain press officer Dan Schnur said, ``Anybody who's familiar with John McCain's life story and his experience as a prisoner of war would never question his sincerity or honesty when he talks about such a difficult period in his life.''

Thuan Nguyen, president of San Jose's Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce, said of the apology: ``It's the right way to handle the situation. We understand his anger, but the word choice is not appropriate. It's a smart decision for him, since he's coming to California, one of the most diverse states in the union.''

Callers to the San Jose radio show were divided, Nguyen said.

``Some people said they understand why he used that word but other people said it was not appropriate. A lot of people called and were sort of emotional. Myself, I think he can use a different word if he hates the people who tortured him. It's not appropriate for somebody at his level. He's a role model,'' Nguyen said.

Asked about McCain's comment Wednesday, Gov. Gray Davis -- also a veteran of the Vietnam War -- criticized the senator but said he could relate to the former prisoner of war.

``I don't sanction or condone the comment,'' Davis said. ``I would not have used it. On the other hand, those who criticize should mentally put themselves in his place for 5 1/2 years, being beaten regularly, in a cell about 5 1/2 feet wide.''

Davis said McCain needed to let go of the hardship and anger. ``You have to get beyond it,'' Davis said. ``We've gotten beyond Pearl Harbor's unprovoked attack. We've gotten beyond Germany after two world wars.''

McCain's main opponent, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, was also asked about McCain's use of the slur at a press conference in Los Angeles. Apparently unaware of McCain's apology, Bush said, ``He's obviously offended people's senses, and he's going to have to explain why he used it.''

The term is a slur against many people from Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and southern Europe. U.S. Marines used it derisively against Haitians, and later applied it to Filipinos and Central Americans. U.S. soldiers also used it in the Korean War and in the Vietnam War.


Response to Sen. Mc Cain's Gook Remark

Feb. 23, 2000 San Francisco Examiner op-ed page

By William Wong

Dear Sen. McCain:

I am a gook, even though I was not one of your North Vietnamese captors who tortured you and other American prisoners of war more than 30 years ago.

I am a gook, even though I was not a Viet Cong sympathizer who helped the North Vietnamese Army battle Americans and South Vietnamese soldiers.

I am a gook, even though I was not allied with the South Vietnamese military who fought alongside American GI's in that unfortunate war in which you and other Navy pilots were shot down.

I am a gook, even though I did not join the North Koreans and Chinese soldiers in fighting South Koreans and Americans a half a century ago.

I am a gook, even though I did not march with Mao Zedong or take up arms with Chiang Kai-Shek during the Chinese civil war in the 1930s and 1940s.

I am a gook, even though I was nowhere near the Japanese Imperial military that cut a violent swath through East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands in the 1940s.

I am a gook, even though I did not do battle alongside Filipino soldiers when the Japanese military invaded the island nation that had been an American colony for the first half of the 20th century.

I am a gook, even though I wasn't among the brave Filipinos who fought valiantly for their independence after they thought the United States would grant them freedom after the Spanish- American War in 1898.

I am a gook, even though I was not around when European imperial powers carved up a weakened China in the mid-19th century.

I am a gook, even though I was not among the desperate men fleeing the Pearl River delta region of southeastern China for the lure of gold in California in the late 1840s and early 1850s.

I am a gook, even though I did not suffer from the virulent bigotry of white Californians who beat and killed Chinese men for working the gold fields, building the transcontinental railroads, toiling in the farm lands and in low-level city jobs like laundries and vegetable peddling and explosives handling during the last half of the 19th century.

I am a gook, even though I was not personally excluded from legal entry into the United States because of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which was passed by a hateful U.S. Congress, goaded on by hateful white union leaders, politicians, and editors.

I am a gook, even though I did not have to pay extra taxes on my business or bribe politicians and policemen for the right to earn a living from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.

I am a gook, even though I was not Vincent Chin, who was beaten to death in 1982 with a baseball bat by a couple of white Detroit autoworkers who mistook him for being Japanese at a time when the American auto industry scapegoated the Japanese automakers.

I am a gook, even though I was not among the young school children killed or wounded by Patrick Edward Purdy in the 1989 Stockton school yard massacre.

I am a gook, even though I was not Jim Ming Hai Loo who was killed in 1989 by two white North Carolina brothers who thought he and his friends were Vietnamese.

I am a gook, even though I was born in Oakland, California; lost my primary language (a Chinese dialect) because I knew I needed English to survive in this often intolerant society; and was unable to fully communicate with my immigrant parents before they died after devoting their adult lives to rearing seven children to be productive citizens of the United States.

William Wong is an independent journalist and Examiner columnist.

johngr
01-31-2008, 02:00 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3Jr9YtQ0Vg

raystone
01-31-2008, 02:12 PM
didn't see this in OP, Drudge has picked up the story

Live Free or Die
01-31-2008, 02:25 PM
According to the article in the OP, McCain uttered the "gook" slur on Feb 17th, 2000. On March 1, 2000 (if this date is correct) he was stumping at a large rally in Little Saigon? May as well have addressed THAT crowd as "My gooks..." :mad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kLyV-UUd08 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kLyV-UUd08)

noztnac
01-31-2008, 02:29 PM
Don't tell us. Post that quote on bank machines. People will get the message.

If every bank machine across the country doesn't have a flyer that says 100 More Years in Iraq Vote McCain every day between now and Super Tuesday we really aren't doing the very basic things needed to win. Ron Paul is taking the high ground and I applaud him but we need to be realistic about what needs to be done.

We need to become the media.

Convert
02-01-2008, 10:13 AM
I agree.

And all those people aren't fit to be president.

You can't hold hate for groups of people and be a good president in a country that embraces liberty for all.

I agree with you. My dad, H and sis vote, but they aren't fit to be president (nor do they want to be president). My dad makes RP look like a young man too. ;)