Copycat crap - heraldblog

Copycat crap

It's bad enough that these guys rely on straw man argumentation and cliché to spread their political message, but can they at least be creative enough to come up with their own words?

Nevada Congressman Jim Gibbons recently told a Lincoln Day Dinner crowd "I say we tell those liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock stocking wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals to go make their movies and their music and whine somewhere else." Turns out the speech was plagiarized:
The speech delivered by U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., during Friday night's Lincoln Day Dinner in Elko was largely plagiarized from a copyrighted speech by Alabama State Auditor Beth Chapman.

Chapman told the Elko Daily Free Press this morning Gibbons had not requested permission to use her speech, which she said she delivered Feb. 2, 2003, at a Stand Up for America rally in Alabama.

She said Gibbons apologized today for using large portions of her speech. "I spoke with him this morning and he has apologized," she said.

Chapman, a Republican, said Gibbons told her he did not realize the speech was copyrighted.

During his speech at Friday night's Lincoln Day Dinner, Gibbons did not mention that the speech had been written and previously delivered by Chapman.

"I don't remember where I got it," Gibbons said this morning. "I had no idea it was copyrighted."
Hey Representative Gibbons, the next time you decide to plagiarize the words of an ideological soulmate, you can avoid embarrassing phone calls by stealing from a dead guy:
Everything we admire on this earth today - science and art, technology and inventions - is only the creative product of a few peoples and originally perhaps of one race. On them depends the existence of this whole culture. If they perish, the beauty of this earth will sink into the grave with them.
But you didn't hear it from me.

10.3.05 16:28

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John / Website (10.3.05 17:17)
There was a Club For Growth ad attacking Howard Dean in the primaries that used the "liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock stocking wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals" line, too. Although, to their credit, I believe they added "latte sipping".