For the first few days since the scandal broke, I wasn't inclined to post about it for one simple reason. Herr Lardbaugh has pulled these kinds of stunts before, and after initial firestorms has consistently gotten away with them.
This time, it looks like he may not. Or might he? As of the latest count, five sponsors have withdrawn sponsorship, and two others have "suspended" ads on Herr Lardbaugh's radio show. The Christian Science Monitor identifies them:
Departing sponsors include LegalZoom, ProFlowers, Citrix, Sleep Number beds, and Carbonite. Others, including AOL and Tax Resolution Services, have “suspended” their advertising on the show. Sears, AutoZone and Allstate have all said they do not sponsor Mr. Limbaugh’s show and advertisements for the companies that appeared on the program were placed there by mistake.
The Monitor has a succinct passage about the controversy, just in case you the reader don't have the particulars:
Limbaugh got the controversy started last Wednesday when he impugned Georgetown University’s Sandra Fluke on the air, calling her a “slut” and a “prostitute” after she appeared before a congressional committee arguing that her school’s health coverage should include birth control. Limbaugh later in the week insisted that the public should have access to video of her sexual encounters in exchange for the alleged funding of her birth control.
The comments struck many as extraordinarily crass, even for Limbaugh, who frequently makes derisive ad hominem attacks against those he disagrees with. A boycott movement quickly took root, spreading across online communities on sites like Reddit and Facebook, and the strong reaction against Limbaugh inspired seven sponsors to pull ads.
Some in the business think that Clear Channel will quickly pick up new advertisers as long as Herr Lardbaugh remains a bankable media figure. But this time seems a bit more serious than past incidents. Herr Lardbaugh said at first that he was only trying to be funny, and he's apologized to Ms. Fluke twice. But his apologies don't seem to be having any effect, as the controversy rages on days later.
It's not that ad hominem attacks are so shocking and awful. I'm doing that to Herr Lardbaugh right now, by making fun of his name and his usual girth.
But what Herr Lardbaugh did this time was quite unfunny, and went well beyond the boundaries of reasonable attempts at politically partisan humor. I've gotten in trouble in the past doing things as crass as making fun of genocide victims, but even I wouldn't subject a person as loathsome as Herr Lardbaugh to these kinds of attacks.
This time, it looks like he may not get away with it. His show will probably continue, but it's looking a lot like the description in the speech that Walter Matthau's character gives to Andy Griffith's "Lonesome Rhodes" near the end of the 1957 movie A Face in the Crowd. It's never going to be quite the same.
It's happened to a few other media figures before. Dr. Laura Schlessinger was riding high for years, until she finally said a few things that were just too stupid. And, how much of a career has Don Imus had in recent years?
It's true that Herr Lardbaugh's listening audience far eclipses those of either the I-Man or Dr. Laura. But he's human, and he's been skating by through shit storms like this for many years. This time, he may finally be taken down.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Showing posts with label Rush Limbaugh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rush Limbaugh. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Thursday, October 13, 2011
I'll Sign The Papers, Just Please Don't Make Me Listen To Rush Limbaugh
By Manifesto Joe
In 2002, as I was about to undergo cataract surgery, I had the misfortune of being in a room in which the surgical nurses were playing Rush Limbaugh's radio show. I was hearing Rush while I briefly underwent sedation, and when I woke up, Rush was still on. That made me think, just for a moment, that I had died and my soul had entered a place of eternal damnation.
Perhaps I should have sued for malpractice, but unfortunately I think I waited until the time after the statute of limitations had passed.
Now, I understand that a Harris County woman who was briefly in custody of the Houston police in 2010 is suing because she was forced to listen to Lardbaugh while she was in the squad car. She claims that Lardbaugh was making derogatory remarks about black people (not a big stretch, that one) and that the police officer was laughing at them (not a big stretch, either).
Following is a link to the story, courtesy of Yahoo! News.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/woman-froced-listen-rush-limbaugh-files-lawsuit-too-154424839.html
(Sorry this isn't in the usual link form, but Blogger isn't letting me do this the usual way.)
Police torture?
They might consider using this method at Guantanamo Bay. It might work even better than waterboarding.
According to the story:
Bridgett Nicholson Boyd filed a lawsuit against the city of Houston for being forced to listen to Limbaugh's radio show. In 2010, Boyd was ticketed for driving on the shoulder of a road (even though she said her car was breaking down). The police officer also arrested her and drove her to the local jail. During the ride, Boyd said, she was forced to listen to Limbaugh make "derogatory comments about black people" (which the officer was laughing at). Though the charges against Boyd were immediately dropped, she's now claiming defamation, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. On his radio show, Limbaugh weighed in on the case. "We don't make derogatory comments about black people," he said. "We make derogatory comments about liberals."
Boyd was apparently a completely innocent person, but even if she were a convicted felon, might this not constitute cruel and unusual punishment?
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
In 2002, as I was about to undergo cataract surgery, I had the misfortune of being in a room in which the surgical nurses were playing Rush Limbaugh's radio show. I was hearing Rush while I briefly underwent sedation, and when I woke up, Rush was still on. That made me think, just for a moment, that I had died and my soul had entered a place of eternal damnation.
Perhaps I should have sued for malpractice, but unfortunately I think I waited until the time after the statute of limitations had passed.
Now, I understand that a Harris County woman who was briefly in custody of the Houston police in 2010 is suing because she was forced to listen to Lardbaugh while she was in the squad car. She claims that Lardbaugh was making derogatory remarks about black people (not a big stretch, that one) and that the police officer was laughing at them (not a big stretch, either).
Following is a link to the story, courtesy of Yahoo! News.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/woman-froced-listen-rush-limbaugh-files-lawsuit-too-154424839.html
(Sorry this isn't in the usual link form, but Blogger isn't letting me do this the usual way.)
Police torture?
They might consider using this method at Guantanamo Bay. It might work even better than waterboarding.
According to the story:
Bridgett Nicholson Boyd filed a lawsuit against the city of Houston for being forced to listen to Limbaugh's radio show. In 2010, Boyd was ticketed for driving on the shoulder of a road (even though she said her car was breaking down). The police officer also arrested her and drove her to the local jail. During the ride, Boyd said, she was forced to listen to Limbaugh make "derogatory comments about black people" (which the officer was laughing at). Though the charges against Boyd were immediately dropped, she's now claiming defamation, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. On his radio show, Limbaugh weighed in on the case. "We don't make derogatory comments about black people," he said. "We make derogatory comments about liberals."
Boyd was apparently a completely innocent person, but even if she were a convicted felon, might this not constitute cruel and unusual punishment?
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Right-Wing Reign Of Error: How Kooks Like Bachmann Keep Getting It Wrong
By Manifesto Joe
Sometimes it happens because they're stupid -- and sometimes it happens because they're convinced that everybody else is stupid. Either way, the right wing in America can't be trusted for any kind of facts or history, recent or distant. Their inaccuracies are countless, but a few more recent ones stand out.
Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity
Boobs usually come in pairs, and on the right wing it's no exception. Herr Lardbaugh and Herr Hannity told their listeners earlier this month that President Obama inherited a U.S. unemployment rate of 5.6% and 5.7% (Hannity gave the lower figure.)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the accepted authority on this subject, put the U.S. unemployment rate at 7.8% in January 2009, the month that Obama took office. So, who's lying?
It turns out that the AVERAGE jobless rate for 2008 was 5.8% -- all 12 months combined into an average. Even if Herr Lardbaugh and Herr Hannity were using that figure, they STILL got it wrong. (The easiest job in the world has got to be that of Herr Lardbaugh's fact-checker.)
Here's a link to New York magazine's story on the subject.
Bachmann's unbelievable string of gaffes
In the previous case, I think we've got a couple of smart asses who are putting bogus numbers over on the rubes. In the case of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., I fear that we've got the proto-rube. This person is under serious consideration to be the Republican nominee for president of the U.S. Yet, she's shockingly stupid, too much so to even be respected as a member of the U.S. House.
First, she kicks off her presidential campaign in Waterloo, Iowa, which she mistakenly calls the birthplace of John Wayne. It was actually a residence of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
More recently, she wished Elvis a happy birthday on the 34th anniversary of his death.
And, on a right-wing radio talk show Thursday, Bachmann said that Americans are fearful of the rise of the Soviet Union. Here's a link to a story on that interview.
Bachmann is, of course, no newcomer to the reign of right-wing error. Here's a link to my earlier post about the congresswoman blaming something she called the "Hoot-Smalley Tariff" on FDR. (It was actually the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, passed in 1930 and signed by President Herbert Hoover.)
I understand that Bachmann is blaming all her recent gaffes on her strenuous speaking schedule. But, that's one good reason to have a rather long and grueling campaign trail for the presidency -- at the very least, it gives the public a chance to vet the contenders and see what they perform like under pressure.
But what worries me is that Americans had plenty of time to size up both Ronald "Mr. Magoo" Reagan and George W. "Il Doofus" Bush. The standards have clearly been lowered enough that Bachmann may get a complete pass on all this, and more to come.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Sometimes it happens because they're stupid -- and sometimes it happens because they're convinced that everybody else is stupid. Either way, the right wing in America can't be trusted for any kind of facts or history, recent or distant. Their inaccuracies are countless, but a few more recent ones stand out.
Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity
Boobs usually come in pairs, and on the right wing it's no exception. Herr Lardbaugh and Herr Hannity told their listeners earlier this month that President Obama inherited a U.S. unemployment rate of 5.6% and 5.7% (Hannity gave the lower figure.)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the accepted authority on this subject, put the U.S. unemployment rate at 7.8% in January 2009, the month that Obama took office. So, who's lying?
It turns out that the AVERAGE jobless rate for 2008 was 5.8% -- all 12 months combined into an average. Even if Herr Lardbaugh and Herr Hannity were using that figure, they STILL got it wrong. (The easiest job in the world has got to be that of Herr Lardbaugh's fact-checker.)
Here's a link to New York magazine's story on the subject.
Bachmann's unbelievable string of gaffes
In the previous case, I think we've got a couple of smart asses who are putting bogus numbers over on the rubes. In the case of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., I fear that we've got the proto-rube. This person is under serious consideration to be the Republican nominee for president of the U.S. Yet, she's shockingly stupid, too much so to even be respected as a member of the U.S. House.
First, she kicks off her presidential campaign in Waterloo, Iowa, which she mistakenly calls the birthplace of John Wayne. It was actually a residence of serial killer John Wayne Gacy.
More recently, she wished Elvis a happy birthday on the 34th anniversary of his death.
And, on a right-wing radio talk show Thursday, Bachmann said that Americans are fearful of the rise of the Soviet Union. Here's a link to a story on that interview.
Bachmann is, of course, no newcomer to the reign of right-wing error. Here's a link to my earlier post about the congresswoman blaming something she called the "Hoot-Smalley Tariff" on FDR. (It was actually the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, passed in 1930 and signed by President Herbert Hoover.)
I understand that Bachmann is blaming all her recent gaffes on her strenuous speaking schedule. But, that's one good reason to have a rather long and grueling campaign trail for the presidency -- at the very least, it gives the public a chance to vet the contenders and see what they perform like under pressure.
But what worries me is that Americans had plenty of time to size up both Ronald "Mr. Magoo" Reagan and George W. "Il Doofus" Bush. The standards have clearly been lowered enough that Bachmann may get a complete pass on all this, and more to come.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
More Among Ample Evidence That Lardbaugh Is A Fool: Speaking Gibberish Chinese
By Manifesto Joe
It's hard to understand how this ridiculous tub of lard can still command an audience of millions, yet Herr Lardbaugh can and does. His latest faux pas was speaking infantile Chinese on the air while the Chinese president was in the country, saying stuff like "ching, chong, chang."
Asian-American legislators called on him to apologize, but Herr Lardbaugh is having none of it. Comic license is his defense, even if his comedy wouldn't even play well to most junior-high audiences.
I can't say I'm a fan of the authoritarian Chinese government, but a guy in Herr Lardbaugh's position in life should show a bit more class than this. Of course, he has no clue thereof.
Here's the link to a post from ThinkProgress. Not only did Lardbaugh decline to apologize, one of his listeners sent several racist death threats to the office of an Asian-American legislator this week.
If it hadn't been clear that Herr Lardbaugh is a political bottom-feeder, playing to the prejudices of the pond scum of the reich-wing, it should be obvious now.
Plus, he stopped being funny decades ago. The act is silly and ancient. You don't do stupid better than anybody else does, Rush. Your remaining audience is trailer trash.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
It's hard to understand how this ridiculous tub of lard can still command an audience of millions, yet Herr Lardbaugh can and does. His latest faux pas was speaking infantile Chinese on the air while the Chinese president was in the country, saying stuff like "ching, chong, chang."
Asian-American legislators called on him to apologize, but Herr Lardbaugh is having none of it. Comic license is his defense, even if his comedy wouldn't even play well to most junior-high audiences.
I can't say I'm a fan of the authoritarian Chinese government, but a guy in Herr Lardbaugh's position in life should show a bit more class than this. Of course, he has no clue thereof.
Here's the link to a post from ThinkProgress. Not only did Lardbaugh decline to apologize, one of his listeners sent several racist death threats to the office of an Asian-American legislator this week.
If it hadn't been clear that Herr Lardbaugh is a political bottom-feeder, playing to the prejudices of the pond scum of the reich-wing, it should be obvious now.
Plus, he stopped being funny decades ago. The act is silly and ancient. You don't do stupid better than anybody else does, Rush. Your remaining audience is trailer trash.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Friday, January 15, 2010
With Haiti Remarks, Herr Scumbaugh Is Clearly Without Shame
By Manifesto Joe
Lots of other people are having a go at this septic bag of pig diarrhea, so I'll take my turn, too.
Just when you figure that Herr Rush Scumbaugh, court jester for the Fourth Reich, has reached the limits of his audacity, he comes up with something worse. This time it was an "observation" right after one of the worst natural disasters of modern times, the earthquake in Haiti.
Here's what Herr Scumbaugh said, according to usnews.com:
This will play right into Obama's hands. He's humanitarian, compassionate. They'll use this to burnish their, shall we say, "credibility" with the black community--in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. It's made-to-order for them. That's why he couldn't wait to get out there, could not wait to get out there.
Lard-ass also went on to discourage people from giving to the Red Cross for disaster relief. His reason was that with foreign aid, Americans have already donated to Haiti -- "it's called the U.S. income tax."
This comes as thousands of Haitians are still trapped in rubble, and thousands more are desperate and probably dying.
If this boorish flippancy doesn't at last demolish any last vestige of credibility that this bellowing tub of guts has even among lard-line -- oh, I meant hard-line right-wingers -- then there's nothing that can. Those who continue to listen to and absorb this excrement can only be described as part of a not-very-crypto neo-Nazi movement in America.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Lots of other people are having a go at this septic bag of pig diarrhea, so I'll take my turn, too.
Just when you figure that Herr Rush Scumbaugh, court jester for the Fourth Reich, has reached the limits of his audacity, he comes up with something worse. This time it was an "observation" right after one of the worst natural disasters of modern times, the earthquake in Haiti.
Here's what Herr Scumbaugh said, according to usnews.com:
This will play right into Obama's hands. He's humanitarian, compassionate. They'll use this to burnish their, shall we say, "credibility" with the black community--in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. It's made-to-order for them. That's why he couldn't wait to get out there, could not wait to get out there.
Lard-ass also went on to discourage people from giving to the Red Cross for disaster relief. His reason was that with foreign aid, Americans have already donated to Haiti -- "it's called the U.S. income tax."
This comes as thousands of Haitians are still trapped in rubble, and thousands more are desperate and probably dying.
If this boorish flippancy doesn't at last demolish any last vestige of credibility that this bellowing tub of guts has even among lard-line -- oh, I meant hard-line right-wingers -- then there's nothing that can. Those who continue to listen to and absorb this excrement can only be described as part of a not-very-crypto neo-Nazi movement in America.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Rush Limbaugh, Obama, Ad Hominem, Ad Nauseum
By Manifesto Joe
One of the things that's remarkable about right-wingers is their chutzpah. Herr Rush Limbaugh, postmodern court jester for the Third Reich, may be the biggest, or at least the fattest, example.
Lardbaugh's latest outrage was his tirade last week against President Barack Obama. Huffington Post reported that:
During a rant in which he Limbaugh accused senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett of unfairly pressuring the Chamber of Commerce, the controversial radio host slammed Obama as "this little boy, this little man-child president whose primary job, if you will, in life has been leisure. This guy is more practiced at leisure than anything else."
You can view the video here.
Let's see, now. A "man-child president whose primary job ... has been leisure."
Perusing Wikipedia's biography of Lardbaugh, one notices things such as these:
Education
Limbaugh graduated from Cape Central High School, in 1969. His father and mother wanted him to attend college, so he enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University. He dropped out after two semesters and one summer; according to his mother, "he flunked everything", even a modern ballroom dancing class.[1] As she told a reporter in 1992, "He just didn't seem interested in anything except radio."[4]
It appears that Herr Lardbaugh's mouth, clearly hyperactive in more ways than one, has been his ticket to getting through life. He was no student then, and regarding his accuracy, the easiest job on the planet today would be a gig as his fact-checker.
Here's more from Wiki:
Draft status
Limbaugh's birthdate was ranked as 152 in the Vietnam War draft lottery. No one was drafted above 125. He was classified as "1-Y" (later reclassified "4-F") due to either a football knee injury or a diagnosis of Pilonidal disease.[1][5]
He came from a well-to-do family, lousy with lawyers. More from Wiki:
Limbaugh was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the son of Mildred Carolyn "Millie" (née Armstrong), originally from Searcy, Arkansas, and Rush Hudson Limbaugh, Jr. His father was a lawyer and a World War II fighter pilot who served in the China-Burma-India theater. The name "Rush" was chosen for his grandfather to honor the maiden name of family member Edna Rush.[1] His family has many lawyers, including his grandfather, father and brother David. His uncle, Stephen N. Limbaugh, Sr. is a Ronald Reagan-appointed federal judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and his cousin, Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr., is currently a judge in the same court, appointed by George W. Bush. Rush Limbaugh, Sr., Limbaugh's grandfather, was a Missouri prosecutor, judge, special commissioner and served on Missouri's state House of Representatives from 1930 to 1932.[2] Limbaugh's grandfather was a longtime president of the Missouri Historical Society. Rush, Sr., died at age 104, and was still a practicing attorney at the time of his death. The Federal Courthouse in Cape Girardeau is named for Limbaugh's grandfather.
Let's see some more. He's been married, and divorced, three times. You wonder what's wrong when a guy as rich as he was born, and as filthy rich as he got later, just can't stay married. Does it have anything to do with the fact that he's a world-class misogynist asshole? Or maybe with his apparent need for 100-mg. Viagra pills?
More still: His weight problem has been obvious for decades. He's been addicted to illegal drugs (oxycodone and hydrocodone).
His racism has been on display regularly throughout his radio career. More from Wiki:
On March 19, 2007 Limbaugh referred to a Los Angeles Times editorial by David Ehrenstein which claimed that Barack Obama was filling the role of the "magic negro", and that this explained his appeal to voters.[39] Limbaugh then later played a song by Paul Shanklin, "Barack the Magic Negro," sung to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon".[40]
Here's Limbaugh on NFL star Donovan McNabb:
Sorry to say this, I don't think he has been that good from the get-go. I think what we've had here is a little social concern in NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well, black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve ...
[On "free trade"] If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid people, let the unskilled jobs, let the kind of jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do, let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.
Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?
There's plenty more along those lines. I'd say it calls into question his qualification to assess Barack Obama accurately in any way.
His misogyny is, of course, richly documented. Let's not leave out his homophobia:
The difference between Los Angeles and yogurt is that yogurt comes with less fruit.
And, let's not leave out his brazen hypocrisy:
I'm appalled at people who simply want to look at all this abhorrent behavior and say, "Hey, you know, we can't control it anymore. People are going to do drugs anyway. Let's legalize it." It's a dumb idea. It's a rotten idea, and those who are for it are purely, 100 percent selfish.
When you strip it all away, Jerry Garcia destroyed his life on drugs. And yet he's being honored, like some godlike figure. Our priorities are out of whack, folks.
There's nothing good about drug use. We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods, which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up.
Finally, there's the matter of ego. The Pigman has depicted Obama as having a titanic one. Can he be serious? To wit, Lardbaugh's descriptions of himself:
Half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.
Talent on loan from GOD.
When I think of Herr Lardbaugh, somehow another, very different metaphysical region comes to mind. Well, that's enough of this for now. Barack Obama, self-made sort of guy with a JD from Harvard Law, physically fit fellow, author, law professor, married only once and still married with two kids, etc., etc. ... he seems to have accomplished quite a bit for a man of such abundant leisure.
Contrast him with a fat, thrice-divorced, draft-dodging, ex-drug-addicted college dropout who is all opinions and no background, all prejudice and no facts, who has made a fortune with his mouth. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
One of the things that's remarkable about right-wingers is their chutzpah. Herr Rush Limbaugh, postmodern court jester for the Third Reich, may be the biggest, or at least the fattest, example.
Lardbaugh's latest outrage was his tirade last week against President Barack Obama. Huffington Post reported that:
During a rant in which he Limbaugh accused senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett of unfairly pressuring the Chamber of Commerce, the controversial radio host slammed Obama as "this little boy, this little man-child president whose primary job, if you will, in life has been leisure. This guy is more practiced at leisure than anything else."
You can view the video here.
Let's see, now. A "man-child president whose primary job ... has been leisure."
Perusing Wikipedia's biography of Lardbaugh, one notices things such as these:
Education
Limbaugh graduated from Cape Central High School, in 1969. His father and mother wanted him to attend college, so he enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University. He dropped out after two semesters and one summer; according to his mother, "he flunked everything", even a modern ballroom dancing class.[1] As she told a reporter in 1992, "He just didn't seem interested in anything except radio."[4]
It appears that Herr Lardbaugh's mouth, clearly hyperactive in more ways than one, has been his ticket to getting through life. He was no student then, and regarding his accuracy, the easiest job on the planet today would be a gig as his fact-checker.
Here's more from Wiki:
Draft status
Limbaugh's birthdate was ranked as 152 in the Vietnam War draft lottery. No one was drafted above 125. He was classified as "1-Y" (later reclassified "4-F") due to either a football knee injury or a diagnosis of Pilonidal disease.[1][5]
He came from a well-to-do family, lousy with lawyers. More from Wiki:
Limbaugh was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the son of Mildred Carolyn "Millie" (née Armstrong), originally from Searcy, Arkansas, and Rush Hudson Limbaugh, Jr. His father was a lawyer and a World War II fighter pilot who served in the China-Burma-India theater. The name "Rush" was chosen for his grandfather to honor the maiden name of family member Edna Rush.[1] His family has many lawyers, including his grandfather, father and brother David. His uncle, Stephen N. Limbaugh, Sr. is a Ronald Reagan-appointed federal judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and his cousin, Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr., is currently a judge in the same court, appointed by George W. Bush. Rush Limbaugh, Sr., Limbaugh's grandfather, was a Missouri prosecutor, judge, special commissioner and served on Missouri's state House of Representatives from 1930 to 1932.[2] Limbaugh's grandfather was a longtime president of the Missouri Historical Society. Rush, Sr., died at age 104, and was still a practicing attorney at the time of his death. The Federal Courthouse in Cape Girardeau is named for Limbaugh's grandfather.
Let's see some more. He's been married, and divorced, three times. You wonder what's wrong when a guy as rich as he was born, and as filthy rich as he got later, just can't stay married. Does it have anything to do with the fact that he's a world-class misogynist asshole? Or maybe with his apparent need for 100-mg. Viagra pills?
More still: His weight problem has been obvious for decades. He's been addicted to illegal drugs (oxycodone and hydrocodone).
His racism has been on display regularly throughout his radio career. More from Wiki:
On March 19, 2007 Limbaugh referred to a Los Angeles Times editorial by David Ehrenstein which claimed that Barack Obama was filling the role of the "magic negro", and that this explained his appeal to voters.[39] Limbaugh then later played a song by Paul Shanklin, "Barack the Magic Negro," sung to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon".[40]
Here's Limbaugh on NFL star Donovan McNabb:
Sorry to say this, I don't think he has been that good from the get-go. I think what we've had here is a little social concern in NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well, black coaches and black quarterbacks doing well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve ...
[On "free trade"] If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid people, let the unskilled jobs, let the kind of jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do, let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work.
Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?
There's plenty more along those lines. I'd say it calls into question his qualification to assess Barack Obama accurately in any way.
His misogyny is, of course, richly documented. Let's not leave out his homophobia:
The difference between Los Angeles and yogurt is that yogurt comes with less fruit.
And, let's not leave out his brazen hypocrisy:
I'm appalled at people who simply want to look at all this abhorrent behavior and say, "Hey, you know, we can't control it anymore. People are going to do drugs anyway. Let's legalize it." It's a dumb idea. It's a rotten idea, and those who are for it are purely, 100 percent selfish.
When you strip it all away, Jerry Garcia destroyed his life on drugs. And yet he's being honored, like some godlike figure. Our priorities are out of whack, folks.
There's nothing good about drug use. We know it. It destroys individuals. It destroys families. Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods, which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up.
Finally, there's the matter of ego. The Pigman has depicted Obama as having a titanic one. Can he be serious? To wit, Lardbaugh's descriptions of himself:
Half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.
Talent on loan from GOD.
When I think of Herr Lardbaugh, somehow another, very different metaphysical region comes to mind. Well, that's enough of this for now. Barack Obama, self-made sort of guy with a JD from Harvard Law, physically fit fellow, author, law professor, married only once and still married with two kids, etc., etc. ... he seems to have accomplished quite a bit for a man of such abundant leisure.
Contrast him with a fat, thrice-divorced, draft-dodging, ex-drug-addicted college dropout who is all opinions and no background, all prejudice and no facts, who has made a fortune with his mouth. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
No Ideological Bailout For Right-Wingers
By Manifesto Joe
Hi there, buckeroos. Been away for a while, tendin' to family business.
I have nonetheless been perusing recent doings in the mass media -- my job inevitably brings me into contact with that grotesque modern animal -- and I offer a few comments.
The one they call Michelle Bernard would be a fool.
Michelle is a glamorous-looking Jamaican-American lawyer who somewhat improbably became a right-winger, and then, somewhat more probably, a "conservative" TV political analyst for MSNBC. She flashes a dazzling mechanical smile at the camera the moment she's through with some inane comment. Her looks are enough for her to get by on, most of the time.
Last week, during the postmortem on President Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress, one couldn't help but see this person's sheltered, naive foolishness.
During an MSNBC discussion about the role of government in economic matters, Bernard talked about Hurricane Katrina, and its aftermath, as an example of why Americans shouldn't trust government or its proposed solutions. The implication, of course, was that Obama's new proactive role for government is wrongheaded.
That she would even bring up such an example is breathtaking in its stupidity. Let's consider all this:
-- How would the residents of New Orleans have effectively employed an ideology of "self-reliance," other than to just leave the city as the storm approached?
-- Then, unless they were financially independent, they would have to rely on relief services somewhere, from some source, in order to dress, eat and sleep. Where are these things coming from? FEMA? They couldn't rely very much on the agency under Bush, underfunded and led by Republican political hacks. Private sources? A lot of wonderful people pitched in, but the aid wasn't nearly enough for all the victims. There are still a lot of displaced people living in substandard trailers, wondering if they can ever go home.
-- As for those who stayed: What kind of self-reliance would have helped those people, other than to climb up onto the roofs of houses? And after that, who was going to rescue them? Private Blackwater contractors?
-- When the New Orleans levies failed, this was a preventable failure of government. Ask the Army Corps of Engineers about that one. It's no secret that government often fails us. It's in the hands of humans. But I've noticed that when it's in the hands of anti-government Republicans, it tends to fail more often. Could it be that this is because they underfund it, staff it with political hacks, and then predict its failure as a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy?
I've been through four hurricanes, and I can remember when FEMA was an agency that would be on site quickly and with effective help. That was when it was adequately funded, and staffed with professionals, not GOP fundraisers and functionaries.
I think your Michelle Bernard would be a fool, and just one more example of how any right-wing bozo (or bozette) who looks "right," and says the "right" things, can be elevated to the status of national political pundit.
The one they call Rush Limbaugh, once again, would be a fool.
This obese life-support system for a mouth has positioned himself as one of Obama's leading critics, and as a staunch defender of predatory capitalism as American patriotism.
How in the world does this man think the current crisis came about? It was the logical result of policies he's been bombastically pushing for decades -- low (or no) taxes on the wealthy and big corporations, little or no regulatory oversight of financial institutions, prosecution of elective wars without regard for where the financing would come from, sitting around and belching platitudes about the free market while millions of jobs were being exported. ... He was never worried about the deficit for 28 years. And now he is?
Defense Secretary Robert Gates tells Sunday morning talking heads that Obama is more "analytical" than Bush.
Is this a polite way of saying that Bush is stoooooopid?
It's all very unscientific.
(For those unfamiliar, there are allusions here to The King and I.)
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
Hi there, buckeroos. Been away for a while, tendin' to family business.
I have nonetheless been perusing recent doings in the mass media -- my job inevitably brings me into contact with that grotesque modern animal -- and I offer a few comments.
The one they call Michelle Bernard would be a fool.
Michelle is a glamorous-looking Jamaican-American lawyer who somewhat improbably became a right-winger, and then, somewhat more probably, a "conservative" TV political analyst for MSNBC. She flashes a dazzling mechanical smile at the camera the moment she's through with some inane comment. Her looks are enough for her to get by on, most of the time.
Last week, during the postmortem on President Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress, one couldn't help but see this person's sheltered, naive foolishness.
During an MSNBC discussion about the role of government in economic matters, Bernard talked about Hurricane Katrina, and its aftermath, as an example of why Americans shouldn't trust government or its proposed solutions. The implication, of course, was that Obama's new proactive role for government is wrongheaded.
That she would even bring up such an example is breathtaking in its stupidity. Let's consider all this:
-- How would the residents of New Orleans have effectively employed an ideology of "self-reliance," other than to just leave the city as the storm approached?
-- Then, unless they were financially independent, they would have to rely on relief services somewhere, from some source, in order to dress, eat and sleep. Where are these things coming from? FEMA? They couldn't rely very much on the agency under Bush, underfunded and led by Republican political hacks. Private sources? A lot of wonderful people pitched in, but the aid wasn't nearly enough for all the victims. There are still a lot of displaced people living in substandard trailers, wondering if they can ever go home.
-- As for those who stayed: What kind of self-reliance would have helped those people, other than to climb up onto the roofs of houses? And after that, who was going to rescue them? Private Blackwater contractors?
-- When the New Orleans levies failed, this was a preventable failure of government. Ask the Army Corps of Engineers about that one. It's no secret that government often fails us. It's in the hands of humans. But I've noticed that when it's in the hands of anti-government Republicans, it tends to fail more often. Could it be that this is because they underfund it, staff it with political hacks, and then predict its failure as a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy?
I've been through four hurricanes, and I can remember when FEMA was an agency that would be on site quickly and with effective help. That was when it was adequately funded, and staffed with professionals, not GOP fundraisers and functionaries.
I think your Michelle Bernard would be a fool, and just one more example of how any right-wing bozo (or bozette) who looks "right," and says the "right" things, can be elevated to the status of national political pundit.
The one they call Rush Limbaugh, once again, would be a fool.
This obese life-support system for a mouth has positioned himself as one of Obama's leading critics, and as a staunch defender of predatory capitalism as American patriotism.
How in the world does this man think the current crisis came about? It was the logical result of policies he's been bombastically pushing for decades -- low (or no) taxes on the wealthy and big corporations, little or no regulatory oversight of financial institutions, prosecution of elective wars without regard for where the financing would come from, sitting around and belching platitudes about the free market while millions of jobs were being exported. ... He was never worried about the deficit for 28 years. And now he is?
Defense Secretary Robert Gates tells Sunday morning talking heads that Obama is more "analytical" than Bush.
Is this a polite way of saying that Bush is stoooooopid?
It's all very unscientific.
(For those unfamiliar, there are allusions here to The King and I.)
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
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