Quote of the Day - Rush In Context Edition

Rush Will Not Be Silenced

I only listen occasionally to Rush Limbaugh, because on the West Coast he's on while I'm at work. And also, he drives me insane with his lies and cruel smears. But that doesn't mean I want him taken off the air. Quite the opposite; I want him out there for as long as possible for the same reason that I want Primary season to keep on going - it makes the Republicans look like a buncha crazy people. This, to me, is the whole reason for free speech.

So this boycott might be a little troubling. Apparently a bunch of national advertisers have jumped ship and refused to sponsor the EIB network. Interestingly the Media Matters link I just cited says "at least 52 advertisers have publicly canceled" their sponsorship, while Thinkprogress.org claims the number is 142. I think the difference is made up by companies who never sponsored the show and are publicly saying they won't start now; American Express falls into that category. Anyway, all these people not sponsoring Rush, that's censorship, right?

Nope. What that is, is free market economics. If the government forbade radio stations from carrying Limbaugh, that's censorship. A company gets to choose how it spends its money. Maybe they'd like to associate with a show that has nice things to say about women instead.


Herb Tarlek, salesman

 And the exodus won't even hurt Rush. Now he has a number of open sponsorship opportunities for companies that maybe couldn't compete before. A small ammo company, a promise ring manufacturing concern, World Net Daily - here are companies that finally have a shot at the Super Bowl of talk Radio. Can they afford the same rates as the corporations did? That's a problem for the EIB network sales team, who probably all wear loud plaid jackets.

If EIB can't command the same rates for ads, Rush can still work out a deal with stations that carry him to take up the slack. If they refuse, he can always get off of commercial radio and start a subscription only internet EIB. The infrastructure is already there. Is that censorship? No. The founding fathers called it free speech for a reason - you can say what you want, but getting people to pay you for it is not our problem.

By the way, that Media Matters link lists the people who DID advertise on today's show. It looks pretty bad for the big fellah. It's mostly promos for other shows (the station runs them without paying Rush) PSAs from the Ad Council (the station runs them without paying Rush) and the US Army. Of course, those guys apparently paid in advance.

A Fun Collection of Corporate Logos

Corporate logos are cool, and it's great to find a bunch of them all in one place.

Attention Chick Voters - Keep Quiet About It

If you happen to be one of the small minority of women who use birth control, I'm not saying don't vote Republican. I'm just saying for God's sake, don't let them know you're doing it.

-Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin denounced Fluke as a "femme-agogu tool."

-The right-wing site Jawa Report illustrated a post about Fluke with a picture of a tattoo that reads "Semen Demon."

-Pam Geller wrote that Fluke is "banging it five times a day" and that "calling this whore a slut was a softball."

-Accuracy in Media's Don Irvine called her a "skank."

-Former CPAC Blogger of The Year, Ace of Spades, called Fluke a "shiftless rent-a-cooch from East Whoreville."

-Michelle Malkin guest blogger Doug Ross used "Got Slut?" in a headline and suggested Fluke suffered from "nymphomania."

-Dana Loesch complained the controversy surrounding Limbaugh's three-day "slut" campaign represented a "manufactured" story. (This, before Limbaugh responded to the "manufactured" story by issuing a rare public statement.)

It's the right wing's position that women should not ever, EVER have sex for fun. It's their job to procreate. In fact if you're trying to have a baby and fail to conceive, you are worthless. What are YOU doing wrong? And while we're at it, stop tempting men by dressing in revealing clothing. Cover everything. Except your eyes.

And let's also keep up the fight against Sharia Law!

Leave Rush Alone!

Rush Limbaugh is very, very sorry that he said mean things last week. As usual, he didn't mean anything he said. How could you people be so sensitive!

But moving on, let's get down to the real point. Rush thinks its unfair that people have to pay for the activities of other people. For example, sexually. Rush is furious that his Viagra is covered by an insurance company, because everybody who buys insurance from that same company is paying for it. Also any drugs he might be taking for Cholesterol, or any medical problem he might develop from obesity. Rush thinks he should take responsibility and slim down, or stop having the insurance he's paying into cover his bills!

Rush is furious that an insurance company will have to cover medical expenses if all the customers aren't completely on board with it.

Furthermore, Rush hates insurance companies being told what to cover and what not to. That's regulation! Say, for example, your grandmother falls and breaks her hip. Sure they could pay out the expense to heal her, but she's old and there's enough wrong with her that something else should go at any time. Why waste that money on her when it could be going to Viagra! (Or something). Rush thinks that insurance companies should get to make a judgement on whether she gets that surgery. Not one guy of course, but a panel of experts. Yeah, some kind of panel to decide who lives or who dies.

What? What's so wrong with that? You liberals are so impractical.

How DARE You Request Civility!

Remember this? The story continues.

Last week, California State Sen. Leland Yee (D) called on right-wing hate radio host Rush Limbaugh to apologize for mocking Chinese President Hu Jintao and the Chinese language by speaking gibberish “ching chong chang” Chinese on his radio program. Yee, who is Chinese-American and chairs the state Senate Select Committee on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs, said Limbaugh owes the Chinese-American community an apology for his “pointless and ugly offense.” Naturally, Limbaugh did not apologize, and instead railed against Yee the following day on his radio, calling him out repeatedly by name.

And here's a fax that Lee got!

Probably just idle death threats; but for God's sake is this an appropriate response to a request for an apology? Dial it back, dude.

Good Luck Rush

Seriously, unironically, I hope Rush gets better.

We Got This Rush Thing All Wrong

It's unfair to the NFL to say they declined to do business with Rush Limbaugh on the grounds that he has said racist things. We don't really know that. Maybe they were squeamish about selling the team to an admitted drug addict. Perhaps they were troubled by his apparent penchant for sex tourism. Maybe they have a policy of not selling things to people they have fired.

To claim they made the deciscion based on Rush's racial comments, well, that's just racist.

Shoulda Seen This Coming, Rush To Judgement Edition

LIMBAUGH: They [Democrats] have to have a villain to advance everything, because they cannot sell their ideas. They had to demonize me with false, fake, made up quotes. To protect their precious little — National Football League as an outpost of racism and liberalism, which is what it is.

Yes.... football has a liberal bias! Why didn't I see it before! And who is in the NFL? Millionaires! Millionaires hate conservatives MONEY HAS A LIBERAL BIAS!

RNC Now Leaderless

Limbaugh: If I could be convinced that Sonia Sotomayor might be the biggest hope
for overturning Roe v. Wade down the line, then I might be persuaded to look at
her nomination in a different light. I’m serious. I’m dead serious. I’m dead
serious. Life, preserving life, to me, is a far more important issue — we can
deal with the racism and the bigotry, that can be canceled out by other justices
and so forth.

That's right, someone talked Rush into backing down on something. Rather than spearhead another losing fight, Rush is triangulating his way out of this battle. I like Think Progress' observation about this:

Apparently in Limbaugh’s view, when judges allow their religious backgrounds to directly influence their rulings in ways conservatives view favorably, it’s blind justice. When judges remark that being a minority can give individuals perspective on the impact of their rulings, it’s racism.

I Told You Rush Is In Charge

Check out this interesting exchange on Hannity & Sean's show, between Hannity and Dick Morris! It concerns the completely outrageous remarks Wanda Sykes made at the WHCD dinner last weekend, about how Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker and other such frivolity.

HANNITY: Now there is a double standard. Now can you imagine if we go through this list here of — what if somebody called Barack Obama, compared him to a terrorist? What if somebody wished him ill? That he wouldn’t do well? [...]

MORRIS: He would be carted off in handcuffs. And they should be. No one should make a joke about the president dying and frankly no one should make a joke about someone in political life like that dying.

Putting aside the curious use of Hannity's use of "what if" someone compared the president to a terrorist (AYERS! AYERS! AYERS!) what's fascinating about this is the comparison of the President to Rush Limbaugh. Why not talk about Keith Olberman or Stephanie Miller? BECAUSE THOSE PEOPLE AREN'T RUNNING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 'Nuff said.

Plus the idea that they're endorsing a state where simply making a joke about our leaders should be enough to engender imprisonment - well, at least that's consistant.

I Believe The Children Are The Future

All right, if Rush isn't the leader of the Republican Party, who is? Not Roger Ailes, as I suggested last week. God knows it isn't Michael Steele - they probably won't even let him be a Republican by the end of the month. I'd like it to be Warner Todd Huston or Madeline's Dad, if only to keep me from having to set new browser favorites. Sadly, no.

Truth is, the party is leaderless these days, as they struggle to redefine themselves after a particularly bad 2 years. They need a voice fast! And I got just the guy.

You may recognize Jonathon Krohn as the 14-year-old wunderkind who set CPAC on fire with his rhetoric, or as the author of DEFINE CONSERVATISM. What's more, the Robinson Agency helpfully reminds us:

Jonathan has been performing on stage since he was eight. Inside Edition's Debora Norville named him “Atlanta’s Most Talented Child” in 2006.

As a veteran actor, Jonathan has had three call-backs for the Broadway part of Michael Banks in Mary Poppins, and has played leading roles in a variety of plays, including Peter Pan, Dear Edwina, Children of Eden, The Secret Garden, as well as parts in The Wizard of Oz, Tom Sawyer, The Jungle Book, and Alice in Wonderland.

So he's got the camera chops that Bobby Jindal apparently lacks. Republicans, this is your guy. Since he's home-schooled, traveling won't be a problem. And if he is caught trying to entice underage kids to have sex, no big deal. He doesn't smoke. He doesn't drink.

Yet.

Best of all, when he inevitably has to apologize to Rush, it'll just be kinda cute.

More Fun With Hate Mail

Re Stephanie Miller's treason remark on Larry King - a couple from NewsBusters:

Liberals are so intolerant

March 5, 2009 - 19:56 ET by mostlymoderate

Liberals are so intolerant of opposing ideas. You will never hear a conservative advocate the killing of anybody unless maybe it is a child-molestor, a rapist or a serial killer. But keep your ears open and you will find that liberals are very angry, violent, irrational people.

Hanged....

March 5, 2009 - 15:33 ET by Scrapiron

Another liberal broad who should be hanged to prevent reproduction and the spread of stupidity.

Rush execution

March 5, 2009 - 12:44 ET by djm159

I agree with Ms. Miller but let's get in line. Let's execute Rush immediately after we execute Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Rahm Emanuel, Hillary Clinton, and first and foremost George Soros. It seems to be, a lowly member of "we the people" that if what the Messiah, B. Hussein Obama, says is true and we are in dire financial straits in this country, why are he and is ilk attacking private citizens and using taxpayer dollars to do it? Let's face it, the voice of the president George Soros, who bought and paid for Barry, is calling the shots. I assert that affirmative action, on the job training is absurd for the president of the Peoples Republic of America and that Obama be recalled. I further assert tht the financial difficulties we are now facing began on 01/22/2006 when control of congress was seized by the left. They will not be able to blame Bush much longer as the stock market slides into oblivian. REMEMBER THE COLE - IMPEACH OBAMA.

...I'm including the next one, from a blog, because the page has a link to the Asian Babe Of The Week. Yummy!

Liberal retard: Execute Rush Limbaugh

It didn't take long for the liberal Democrats to change their tune when it comes to criticizing a sitting President. Just a few short years ago Hillary Clinton screeched to an approving audience that dissent was patriotic and that she and all Americans had every right to question and criticize President George W. Bush and his policies. But of course those sentiments only exist with liberal Democrats until they are in charge. Now dissent isn't patriotic, now it's treasonous. So treasonous that you should be executed for speaking against President Obama.

Man, Generating Hate Mail Takes Forever

I'm listening to the Stephanie Miller show right now (which I have to get over the internet because it's the AM station in LA which I can't receive) and she is having the time of her life reviewing all the hate mail she got as the result of a remark she was careful to insert during her Tuesday appearance on the Larry King show.

You know who is it good for? Rush Limbaugh. He loves this attention.

If I could say something tonight that gets me that kind of attention, like maybe Rush Limbaugh should be executed for treason. How about that?

She spent most of yesterday's show lamenting the lack of attention she had gotten for the remark, which she points out, isn't a call to execute Rush Limbaugh. She's merely posing the question, Fox-style.

Limbaugh: SHOULD HE BE EXECUTED FOR TREASON?

But all day Wednesday, no outrage from the right! She was very disappointed. However, the good people at Newsbusters didn't pick it up until yesterday. It meant the blogosphere had all day yesterday to write Miller's show for her.

Liberal trash like Stephy Miller are getting everything they have ever wanted and it is going to be an EPIC FAIL.

Anybody have this Stepanie Miller’s address? How about the names of her husband and children?I think it is time her personal information was published online.

How someone who earns a living exercising the 1st Amendment Right to Freedom of Speech could advocate treason for another exerciser of that same right is beyond belief. What a hypocrite!

There's more, and I'll try to find 'em during lunch. Maybe by then there'll be more Hitler analogies!

I Demand Recognition!

Won't somebody give me props for not once using the title Rush To Judgement? Come on, people.

A Practical Consideration

It just occurred to me after reading this (and this, about RON PAUL!) that there's a valid practical reason to not take marching orders from Rush Limbaugh: if Republicans ever regain power, there will always be a day's lag time before they take action on anything. The "president" won't be speaking before Rush's opinion is known, right? Otherwise he'd risk wasting valuable press conference time apologizing to Rush. Until that 9-12 broadcast of official talking points you're better off keeping your thoughts to yourself. And after, you're still better off.

And God forbid Rush doesn't cover a topic you need to speak about - you either wait a day, or guess correctly and it's all fine, or you misread Rush and then your career is over.

Look, it's not all downside. Rush is, after all, never wrong. I just hope Jindal and Palin can keep their egos in check.

Clearing Up The Confusion

Man, I'm really surprised that this took as long as it did.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele says he has reached out to Rush Limbaugh to tell him he meant no offense when he referred to the popular conservative radio host as an “entertainer” whose show can be “incendiary.”

“My intent was not to go after Rush – I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh,” Steele said in a telephone interview. “I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. … There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership.”

Well Mr. Steele, good for you for knowing your place. Wouldn't want to see an uppity chairman of the RNC now would we? After all, there can only be one leader of a party, and we wouldn't want it to be John McCain or Michael Steele. We want it to be the guy who doesn't do any, you know, governing. After all, a firm grip on realism is what has kept George W. Bush wildly popular to this day.

I'd be a little creeped out by Rush's behaivor if I were... well, come to think of it, if I were me. I know a lack of humility is part of his schtick; but for God's sake, you either want the reins and you have to behave responsibly, or you don't and you defer to the real leaders of your party. It's rude of me to go for a weight metaphor here, but Rush is going to like a 500-ton anchor on a 100-pound boat, and he's going to pull the Republican party straight down to the bottom of the Saragasso.

Why not Ann Coulter instead? She's just as entertaining and incindiary, and has the added advantage of being a white WOMAN, which is more in line with recent big tent rhetoric. Or hey, let's have Michelle Malkin writing policy. She's a woman and not white! Rush Limbaugh LOOKS like capitalism. Give him a top hat and monacle if you're going to make him your face.

Hey maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the nation is mostly dittoheads. Secret sleeper dittoheads, just waiting to activate when needed. Very clever of so many of them to vote for Obama, to throw people like me off the track. It must have been hard of them, holding back their extreme disgust, but the did it anyway; that's why they're so powerful.