WhackyNation’s second craziest crazy, Mark Gardner has been obsessing over the MoveOn ad. He’s been demanding that Darcy Burner denounce an ad by a group that didn’t endorse her. So when it turned out that Rush Limbaugh said something much worse than what MoveOn wrote (although in fairness to Limbaugh, he was probably high on time release pain killers when he said it). Anyway, thehim wrote a quick joke post on the subject asking if Dave Reichert would condemn Rush. Not understanding irony, Gardner wrote this:
Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays basically told Harry Reid to “kiss it” with a dismissive letter to the feeble Senate Majority Leader Tuesday night.
He thinks it’s a free speech issue, but the letter Reid wrote didn’t say Limbaugh should be fired. I’m not sure that the letter was the proper role of the Majority Leader, but I am quite certain it shouldn’t be only one side of a political debate attacked by Congress.
…as a broadcaster and leader of this company, I will always defend the right of our employees and contracted talent to voice their opinions under the protections provided by the First Amendment.
Not about the First Amendment.
Read that: “kiss it, you weasal.”
weasal? Did Harry change his name to Al when I wasn’t looking?
So that is what the Democrats get for trying to smear Rush Limbaugh.
A letter back from Rush’s boss saying how they like the First Amendment, but that doesn’t deal with the substance of Reid’s letter? I’m not sure what’s so bad about that?
At controversy is the Democrats using an article published by their propaganda website, Media Matters, which quoted Rush for saying American soldiers who oppose the Iraqi War were “phoney soldiers.” Of course, he did not say that. He was taken out of context, as he explains here.
phoney? I know Rush Limbaugh is a multi-millionaire talk show host, and I’m just some asshole on the intertubes but a few things: first if you’re only referring to one person, don’t use the plural, or people won’t believe you when you back track. And if you don’t want to be accused of attacking vets, it might be a good idea not to compare wounded vets to suicide bombers! Also, the only place to get a good transcript is Media Matters not the highly edited one from Rush’s defense of himself.
But leftist twerps everywhere have jumped on the lame, Democrat spin machine in order to smear Limbaugh.
That’s thehim. He’s moving, so this leftist twerp will have to make the point that by Mark Gardner’s logic Mark Gardner is objectively for calling soldiers who disagree with him phony (or phoney). Also, presumably Dave Reichert and every other Republican who refuses to condemn Limbaugh. Why do they hate the troops?
Sorry, twerps, including you, Reid. It ain’t working.
Yeah Reid. You sent a letter to Rush Limbaugh’s boss, and he only responded to your letter, allowing the controversy continue in a way that makes the point that Republicans hate the troops. It ain’t working. Twerps. Blarg.
Carl,
This has reached a level of absurdity I can’t even fathom any more.
I went back and listened to the Rush clip again. The context is unquestionable. Rush thinks either:
a) All the soldiers who have spoken up against this war are all lying about their service
or
b) All the soldiers who have spoken up against this war are serving, but want America to lose
There’s no ambiguity there. The saddest thing is that half of the wingnutosphere is yelling about how he was taken out of context while the other half is saying that we heard him correctly and he’s right.
The reality about all of this goofiness is that since most Americans are strongly against this war and think that Rush is a loony toon, it wouldn’t have even made a difference if he actually had been taken out of context. No one would believe him.
First, we get the unpatriotic Mr. Limbaugh thrown from Armed Services Radio (where he appears courtesy of then-Rep. Bob Dornan, just prior to the latter being unceremoniously fired by his own friends and neighbors). Then, we start demanding why patriotic, educated, and progressive Seattle should have to listen to the unpatriotic, ignorant, and drug-addled mind of some reactionary who hates our troops. (Bonus points for having Rep. Jim McDermott, a Naval veteran, lead the charge!) Let’s roll!
You fuckers are idiots! I can’t stand Rush Limbaugh, but he was talking about one guy, some toad named “MacBeth,” who didn’t make it through Army basic training, much less go to Iraq and get wounded.
(I believe we should just blow-off this Iraqi adventure ’cause it ain’t any of our business to be in the middle of some religious struggle.)
Today (Oct. 3) on Thom Hartmann’s show, he made a comment that could have been easily taken out of context. He actually said “America for Americans” during on part of an interview. What are you fucking morons gonna do when some right-wing nut-job starts spewing that out-of-context quote all over the place?
You asswipes are no better than Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage, for that matter!
You fuckers are idiots! I can’t stand Rush Limbaugh, but he was talking about one guy,
No, he wasn’t. Listen to the unedited clip. Read the unedited transcript.
You fuckers are idiots! I can’t stand Rush Limbaugh, but he was talking about one guy, some toad named “MacBeth,” who didn’t make it through Army basic training, much less go to Iraq and get wounded.
Um, no. You can listen to the clip right here:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200709270010
The context is unquestionable. If he was talking about one guy, then how come he used the plural “phony soldiers, rather than the singular? Are you completely fucking retarded?
Paddy,
I don’t think the solution is to get him taken off of Armed Forces Radio. Give the Armed Forces more choices, I say. If they want to listen to a drug addled idiot call their colleagues in arms phony, well OK, but they should have other choices.
Politically,
Media Matters provides the entire transcript of the call, so tell me where the context is missing:
LIMBAUGH: Another Mike, this one in Olympia, Washington. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER 2: Hi Rush, thanks for taking my call.
LIMBAUGH: You bet.
CALLER 2: I have a retort to Mike in Chicago, because I am a serving American military, in the Army. I’ve been serving for 14 years, very proudly.
LIMBAUGH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER 2: And, you know, I’m one of the few that joined the Army to serve my country, I’m proud to say, not for the money or anything like that. What I would like to retort to is that, if we pull — what these people don’t understand is if we pull out of Iraq right now, which is about impossible because of all the stuff that’s over there, it’d take us at least a year to pull everything back out of Iraq, then Iraq itself would collapse, and we’d have to go right back over there within a year or so. And –
LIMBAUGH: There’s a lot more than that that they don’t understand. They can’t even — if — the next guy that calls here, I’m gonna ask him: Why should we pull — what is the imperative for pulling out? What’s in it for the United States to pull out? They can’t — I don’t think they have an answer for that other than, “Well, we just gotta bring the troops home.”
CALLER 2: Yeah, and, you know what –
LIMBAUGH: “Save the — keep the troops safe” or whatever. I — it’s not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.
CALLER 2: No, it’s not, and what’s really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.
LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers.
CALLER 2: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they’re willing to sacrifice for their country.
LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined –
CALLER 2: A lot of them — the new kids, yeah.
LIMBAUGH: Well, you know where you’re going these days, the last four years, if you signed up. The odds are you’re going there or Afghanistan or somewhere.
CALLER 2: Exactly, sir.
I heard what Rush said on the radio. I know what I heard. I saw little Harry speak like a spoiled little kid from the podium on my nickle. I didn’t believe what I saw and heard. I still don’t believe we are under the current effect of this dysfunctional congress that would allow this to happen. Tell me I am wrong. What’s next?
“I don’t think the solution is to get him taken off of Armed Forces Radio. Give the Armed Forces more choices, I say. If they want to listen to a drug addled idiot call their colleagues in arms phony, well OK, but they should have other choices.”
I agree that Armed Forces Radio should provide our serving citizens with more choices. But Rush was added after Congressional pressure — from such reality-challenged persons as Bob Dornan, for chrissakes — because the Pentagon’s own surveys indicated no demand for Limbaugh from the service’s listeners. Rush is getting wingnut welfare FROM US, from our taxes, so he can call any soldier who disagrees with him “phony”. Throwing his 4-F butt-boil off of Armed Forces Radio is not censorship, it’s getting fired for violating the values of his employer.
Tell me I am wrong.
You are wrong.
I like how Lush’s home station admits that they won’t run the VoteVets’ ad because they’re afraid the Dittoheads will encounter facts they don’t want to hear:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/04/votevets-censored/
About all you need to know about Lush and his listeners, isn’t it?
I heard what Rush said on the radio. I know what I heard. I saw little Harry speak like a spoiled little kid from the podium on my nickle. I didn’t believe what I saw and heard. I still don’t believe we are under the current effect of this dysfunctional congress that would allow this to happen. Tell me I am wrong. What’s next?
What’s next? I think what’s next is that Fox News is going to tell you the sky is orange and you’re going to nod in agreement as you drool on yourself.