My thoughts on Rush Limbaugh

[crimsonblue]

Many people are completely different when they are at their job and when they are at home. A couple years back, I read an article written by a niece of Limbaugh. She is an ardent liberal, and hates his politics, but described Limbaugh as a man that is generous with his time, money, and affections.

Feel free to hate on me for saying this, but there are redeeming qualities for everybody (please don't Godwin's Law me on this). It is quite true that Limbaugh is a veritable motherfucking asshat at work, but is possible that he is an acceptable human being in his personal life.

I've never met Rush Limbaugh, so I could not tell you how he interacts with people on a personal level. Do I like his hatred, bloviating, and constant lambasting of those that disagree with him? No.

Let me be clear: I am not condoning or accepting of his actions, thoughts, or behavior. But, how about we take a moment and step back for a second. You don't fight hatred with hatred. Stop bitching about Rush calling a woman most, if not all, of us have never met nor cared about 2 weeks ago a slut. It's his right to spew hateful speech, just as it is our right to call him a goatfucking pig raper. This is the most important freedom we have. It is from the freedom of expression that all other rights are derived.

Let's move on with our lives and try and make the most out of the opportunity that has been given. We have a legitimate chance to rephrase the discussion on our own terms. Use this window to make meaningful change in Health Care policy. Access to safe, effective forms of birth control is a universal right in civilized society.

[PDJane]

1. I agree with you, but not because I'm particularly generous.

I agree with you, because this is a distraction from the main event.

This is how republicans steal elections in plain sight. "Look over there, at that ugly man!!!" While they manage to steal the vote, rig the primaries, and destroy whatever democracy is left.

[hlthe2b]

32. And this is why women have increasingly lost ground in quest for equal rights.

Because some feel they and their issues are expendable in the interest of some other cause. Even a decade ago, calling a young woman a "slut" and ridiculing her for support of contraception would have been unheard of. Now, we are supposed to just ignore that. Because, apparently, women, their rights, their dignity-- are all expendable.

I have frequently heard young girls snicker and ridicule the concept of "women's lib" and smirk at those older women who try to explain what is happening with the dismantling of abortion rights, anti-discrimination laws, and continuing inequality in pay. Sadly, when they come to realize these 'uncool old" ladies were right, it will be too late. And, like it or not, a gas bag like Limbaugh, who has long been a very influential voice in RW politics wields power to influence opinion and to foster bigotry, misogyny, and even overt hatred of women. And, he DOES.

If we, as progressives, can not be bothered to stand up for a young woman willing to speak truth to power, exactly what DO we stand for?

[exboyfil]

33. How about Maher and calling Palin a c***?

He did give $1M to Obama's SuperPAC. Rush did pile on a semiprivate citizen while Palin is obviously in the public sphere, but that is simply an awful word to call a woman - any woman. Taking his money means you endorse his speech. Many in the left have also been pretty loose with the term bimbo.

[hlthe2b]

34. One could come up with lots of attempts to divert from Limbaugh with other's bad behavior...

if that is your intent. But, it is what it is--an obvious attempt to find something to divert from Limbaugh's outrageous attacks that continued--even escalated for weeks.

[exboyfil]

35. No I am saying too much piling on and

hypocrisy will overplay the hand. I also think that such discussions about women are reprehensible, and I have been angry at any comedy or other media which denigrates individauls (especially women in my case because of my two daughters). If Maher did not give a $1M to the SuperPAC with great publicity, I really would not care what he said. But like the cretin with the aspirin between his legs, you take the whole package. If it was a $100 with no fanfare then the SuperPAC is not accountable, but a $1M means you better police the situation.

[hlthe2b]

38. You can try to paint a moral equivalency between Limbaugh's decades long grotesque attacks on women,

Last edited Sun Mar 4, 2012, 02:29 PM - Edit history (1)

minorities, gays, the poor, and others -- and those who you have been able to identify who have made a recent comment surely worthy of denunciation, but somehow I doubt most who have followed Limbaugh's long sordid career and seen the harm he has wrought, would agree.

[Shankapotomus]

42. I think you are confusing

an already explicitly implied comedic context, such as Bill Maher, with any non explicit comedic context like the Rush Limbaugh show. Rush Limbaugh is not a comedian. His show is not plugged as a comedy show. Bill Maher is a professional comedian and comedy, I beleive, is the sole circumstance where it is permissible to be offensive. Look at Lisa Lampanelli. Because her audience knows they are entering a comedy show, they understand that context in which certain things will be said and to which they will be exposed. In fact, people go to a Lisa Lampanelli show to be offended. She can get away with it because it is understood beforehand she is a comedian and will be saying things in a comedic context. It's understood, as with Bill Maher, comedians say outrageous, crazy stuff they don't really mean from time to time and we laugh. That's what comedy is.

With Rush Limbaugh on the other hand, the pre-implied comedic context is not there. He is not a professional comedian. He has exhibited serious, non comedic tones countless times; far more than he has comedy. There is no reason to expect Rush called her what he called in jest or for comedic effect.


Even if he tries to claim comedy it's not a believable claim if an explicit implication of a comedic context has never been established.

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

2. Freedom of speech means Rush will not get arrested for what he said.

However, it is my freedom of speech to write his advertisers and let them know that they will lose me as a customer.

It's pretty simple, really.

[rustydog]

3. I agree with Norman Goldman, playing nice when these asshats do not follow any rules

where nothing is out of bounds is suicidal. Until these guys stop, we need to attack or respond to their vile spewing with return fire.

This piece of crap felt completely safe and secure in attacking and tarnishing the character of a private citizen simply because Limpballs believes he has the right and ability to do so.
Rush Limpballs is a sick, twisted, woman-hating piece of shit. How do I know, read what this worthless heap of fecal matter spews daily on his radio show.

he is a pile of crap and he needs to be run off the airwaves so that he can become this "wonderful private-life person" you hope he is and never poison the airwaves with his toxic stench one more day.

[calimary]

27. Here's how you an help accomplish that:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002374653

Includes all kinds of intriguing, simple, and effective things you can actually do at the LOCAL RADIO level to fight this bastard and encourage his exit. Suggestions by a former radio insider and they're some of the best ideas I've ever seen. And as a former radio insider myself, I've seen this approach work. He deserves more than denouncements and momentary boycotts. He needs to be yanked off the air.

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. I understand the point you are making. My problem is it shows no responsibility -

it just isn't him spewing his bile for a few laughs or just to have it over on a few people. He has a rabid following of dittoheads who wait breathlessly for his latest pronouncements - and the lies become truth. And THIS - the lack of responsibility, if that is indeed a possible scenario - makes it doubly hateful and repulsive.

[shcrane71]

5. Let's use this time to finally get Rush's hate speech off our public airwaves.

Everyone should be contacting the FCC to have Rush fined for soliciting pornography on the air. http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

During these hard economic times, our country can hardly afford the distracting, character assassinations and theatrics that Rush spews.

[Sparkly]

6. Oh, please.

I don't care if he rescues puppies and volunteers at a soup kitchen.

This one went WAY over the line and insulted ALL women who've ever used birth control. He did a lot more than just express an opinion. He made up a story to try to silence a woman exercising her right to speak.

We have a right to speak -- even an obligation, in my view -- and to let his sponsors know our views. They have a right to pull their ads.

Period.

[Laurian]

7. Really?

I feel a moral obligation to stand up for another who is unfairly maligned, whether I know them personally or not. Sorry, I cannot see any goodness in that man at all.

[ProSense]

8. This

"Stop bitching about Rush calling a woman most, if not all, of us have never met nor cared about 2 weeks ago a slut."

...is completely bizarre and insensitive.

[hlthe2b]

10. It certainly is... Disturbing to say the least.

as though the OP is advocating selling this woman and by extension all women down the river. How depressing.

[salin]

9. *cough* er... because we had never heard of this woman before

we are supposed to just move on? Her planned testimony is about the real human cost to a friend in crisis of access to the medicine (in this case an oral contraceptive) to stem an ovarian cyst issue to prevent or slow cancer. His attack, which has now been picked up by other far right wingers from ORielly (on tv) to bloggers, etc. isn't about anything that she has said or stood for. That is ignored. The fact that a female stood up at all on to the all-male congressional panel about birth control suddenly is contorted into she must be a slut. She wants the public to pay for her promiscuity (though health insurance isn't "public pay ala a tax - but who cares about details) and at its grotesque stretch Rush wants HER to put her sexual encounters on tape and on line if the public has to pay for it (which is ridiculous - as we don't have nationalized health care -the public DOESN'T pay for it). The episode is obscene - and sadly is being picked up and repeated enough by rightwingers that Rush's take on the situation is NOW the reality for MANY listeners.

I find the episode to be grotesque. I find the episode to be exceptionally damaging to public discourse given how there is NO reality or logical basis to the slurs. She wasn't saying "I should have access" she was saying that serious medical conditions that have nothing to do with having sex, can go un treated".... this is about trying to shut down any public discourse by shaming any voice that expresses a different view, regardless how legitimate or not that view might be.

NO I will NOT back off because we hadn't heard of her 2 weeks ago. If you think this attack is just on this woman than you haven't been paying attention to this particular case. The attacks have nothing to do with the argument she had attempted to make. It only mattered that she tried to dissent. GET THAT ? DISSENT from the far right view now means the content of your arguments mean NOTHING. Just the sake of dissent mean you should be singled out among the 200 Million plus americans and called hideous things and asked to do more hideous things.

I think this is a much bigger deal than you suggest, and perhaps than you realize.

[Va Lefty]

11. A little history

"During Reagan's second term a little known disc jockey in Sacramento, California was making a name for himself by reading off the names of gay men who had died from AIDS each week while pushing the applause button and laughing (Character Matters.) The success of taking so much joy in so much innocent suffering made Rush Limbaugh the most popular voice on California radio."

mr. limbaugh is a reprehensible excuse for a human being.

http://rackjite.com/archives/602-Political-Correctness-for-Dummies.html

[BootinUp]

12. The attacks he leveled against this woman were intended to make an example out of her

so that she and others would think twice about challenging these various attacks against women being carried out by conservative legislators. So this is not about hatred it is about rights, its about men in power wanting to make decisions for women and women will just be humiliated if they try to stop it by Rush and his dittoheads and O'Reilly and all the other wingnuts out there.

[Booster]

13. Same story here with Ann Coulter. Everybody who worked on Bill Maher's show loved her and thought

she was the nicest person/guest. It's the money, folks, that makes these say and do things that they wouldn't usually do. Everyone in the Kardashian family has learned this little trick. Now, you just know that some of the rumors started about them, like Khloe not being a real sister of the others, was started by them. I can see them sitting around the dinner table saying "we have to stir up something to keep people interested". It's show business and nothing more.

[2ndAmForComputers]

14. Screw kumbaya. I want him to bleed money until he owes China's GDP.

And I will act towards that purpose.

[Evoman]

15. Fuck that bloated bag of misogynistic, racist, facist shit.

I wish nothing but the worst for him and everyone who agrees with the fucking shit that comes out of his cyst encrusted ass mouth.

[PearliePoo2]

16. What a Crock! nt.

[CrispyQ]

17. I miss unrec.

It's his right to spew hateful speech, just as it is our right to call him a goatfucking pig raper. This is the most important freedom we have. It is from the freedom of expression that all other rights are derived.

Your argument neglects the fact that we don't have near the megaphone Limbaugh does, thanks to a corrupt & compromised media*.


*Let's not discuss the the rot in the rest of our meta|system.

[grantcart]

18. Stop bitching . . .

. . . about Rush calling a woman most, if not all, of us have never met nor cared about 2 weeks ago a slut.


This is the most bizzare warped statement I have ever read at DU.

I have an alternative plan.

Let's double up 'bitching' (a rather unfortunate term given the circumstances) or as I prefer to call it 'providing our informed opinion' as much as possible to drive away advertisers and get him dumped from as many stations as possible.

What will that accomplish? For the first thing it will provide a warning for all of the other sexist, racist gas bags that they should keep their mouths shut.

Your right that Limbaugh is 'generous with his affections' and that is why he has been married 4 times. And yet he continues to serve up moralizing red meat bull shit that raises the political temperature and increases the quotient of hatred in our public discourse.

I will give you the benefit of the doubt and say that this OP didn't come out as you intended it and simply suggest that you self delete it.

[steve2470]

19. I'd delete this

Granted, if we take Rush down, another asshole will take his place but he richly deserves to be taken down.

[ailsagirl]

20. It's CC that should be held accountable

The world, unfortunately, is full of people like him. CC, however, is responsible for promoting and encouraging this brand of vitriol. Who are they and just what is their agenda? If it weren't RL, they'd just get some other nauseating oaf in there. They're the core of the problem, IMO. RL is a hateful, pathetic piece of crap--ugly inside and out. This is a pretty miserable person. May he get everything in life he so richly deserves. And that goes double for the despicable CC.

[white_wolf]

21. He has harmed countless people for the sake of money. He is scum. I don't care...

how nice he in his personal life, his job has harmed far too many people. I don't like him, nor do I have to tolerate him without calling him out. To paraphrase Karl Popper: "The tolerance of intolerance will lead to the death of tolerance."

[ailsagirl]

23. He certainly has

And, appallingly enough, has his targets apologizing to HIM! Why does he get off the hook all the time? Everyone seems so scared of him--why? Why does he never get his comeuppance? I don't get it. He's evil personified.

[Luminous Animal]

22. No fucking way am I going to move on from the fact that a very powerful...

very wealthy man with millions of listeners publicly attacks a private citizen. No fucking way.

That's my freedom of expression.

[2ndAmForComputers]

24. OK. Universal healthcare is bad, we should leave Rush alone... what else?

[KT2000]

25. Good idea!!

We should all sit back and let the republicans refer to women they disagree with those horrible names. Let's do nothing about it and see how bad it gets. Let's see if every woman who testifies before Congress is accused of having sex for money and having them solicited for videos of their sexual experiences.

Sorry - this one turned a corner - and coupled with the anti-woman legislation that is PASSING - it has to stop.

[cynatnite]

26. His supposed "goodness" is negated by the fact that his hate-filled misogyny influences people...

in unacceptable ways.

I will say this as nicely possible in response to your thoughtful and intelligent take.

Fuck that. It's time to get the Limpballs off the air.

[MrScorpio]

28. Even Hitler loved his dog

Yep, we heard it all before

[BootinUp]

29. no recs yet?

[titaniumsalute]

30. 458 reads and zero recs

Pretty much sums it up.

I've always heard that GWB is a decent guy, fun to hang with, etc. But when he was at work he was an evil asshole.

[hlthe2b]

31. crimsonblue, THIS is why we fight: "I am not a slut"

I am Not a Slut
Jessica Scott -

"I am a 35 year old married mother of 2, an Army officer who has deployed and I use birth control to be a good soldier and a responsible parent.

I use birth control to stop having my period so that I can go to the field and not worry about it.

I use birth control while deployed with my husband to keep from getting pregnant and getting sent home and letting down all the men AND women on my team.

I use birth control to keep from having more children than we can afford."

more at link. She's my hero, too

http://www.jessicascott.net/blog/2012/03/i-am-not-a-slut/


I hope that you might read this and rethink what you have suggested. We fight for principles. Even if you think this is not YOUR fight, women are important. Would you have us turn our backs on her too?

[Cerridwen]

36. "I've spent the past 2 days trying to convince my 16 y/o she is not a 'slut'"

THIS is why the shit spewed by him and his ilk matter.

Link to DU thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002381972

Direct link to article at kos:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/04/1070800/-I-ve-spent-the-past-2-days-trying-to-convince-my-16-y-o-she-is-not-a-slut-?via=siderec

[shcrane71]

41. I wish I could say that was unbelievable, but it's not. It's just heartbreaking.

All because a bully has a national microphone. He needs to be off the air. This is absolutely ridiculous. Please contact the FCC and ask that any station carrying Limbaugh's solicitation for pornography, at the very least, be fined:

http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

[L. Coyote]

37. Limbaugh has been married four times and has no children. Divoce #4 coming soon?

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

Limbaugh has been married four times and has no children.[81] He was first married at the age of 26 to Roxy Maxine McNeely, a sales secretary at radio station WHB in Kansas City, Missouri. They were married at the Centenary United Methodist Church in Limbaugh's hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri on September 24, 1977. McNeely filed for divorce in March 1980, citing "incompatibility." They were formally divorced on July 10, 1980.[4]

In 1983, Limbaugh married Michelle Sixta, a college student and usherette at the Kansas City Royals Stadium Club. They were divorced in 1990, and she remarried the following year.[4]

On May 27, 1994, Limbaugh married Marta Fitzgerald, a 35-year-old aerobics instructor whom he met on the online service CompuServe in 1990.[82] They were married at the house of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who officiated.[83] They were separated on June 11, 2004.[84] Limbaugh announced on the air, "Marta has consented to my request for a divorce, and we have mutually agreed to seek an amicable separation." The divorce was finalized in December 2004.[85] In September 2004, Limbaugh became romantically involved with then-TV personality Daryn Kagan, and they broke up in February 2006.[86]

He dated Kathryn Rogers, a party planner from Florida, for three years[87] before he married her on June 5, 2010.[88][89] During the wedding reception after the ceremony, Elton John entertained the wedding guests for a reported $1 million fee; however, Limbaugh himself denied that the $1 million figure was accurate on his September 7, 2010 radio show.[90][91]

Through a holding company, KARHL Holdings (KARHL meaning "Kathryn and Rush Hudson Limbaugh&quot , Limbaugh launched a line of bottled iced tea beverages, entitled "Two if by Tea"

[Morning Dew]

39. Hit and run - OP has apparently moved on with his life...

but can't blame him too much for not revisiting this garbage.

[nolabear]

40. I'm shocked at how badly you miss the point.

Limbaugh's attack was, and has always been, intended to rally a country full of frightened, ignorant and rageful people against specific scapegoats. One of those is women. I don't care if he rescues puppies and supports orphanages, his vitriol causes direct and indirect harm to millions of women and girls, and he cannot be allowed to get away with it.

I think one measure of evil is that it calls to evil, the evil that we all have a capacity for. My desire to see this man suffer isn't something I'm proud of, nor would I act on it, but I would do what I can to get him off the air, because he is causing more suffering than anyone should be allowed to cause.

[treestar]

43. Conservatives often claim that

But no matter how much they do in the personal life, they are doing it for themselves and their own. That's the difference. Just because we didn't know this woman two weeks ago - we're not supposed to care. That's exactly how conservatives are. They do anything for their own, no matter what the cost to those they do not know.

[hlthe2b]

44. For the OP & others desperate to give Limbaugh benefit of the doubt: Rush's 52 Smears Against Fluke

Rush's 52 Smears Against Sandra Fluke

by JohnKWilson

While Rush Limbaugh has offered his fake apology to Sandra Fluke for calling her a slut and a whore, it's important to recall each of the 52 times last week when Rush insulted Fluke. So I've compiled a comprehensive list, each of them linked to Limbaugh's own transcript of what he said. Does one half-hearted apology make up for 52 smears?

<...>

Here are the 52 smears by Rush Limbaugh.

Feb. 29, 2012:

1) “she's having so much sex she can't afford her own birth control pills”
2) “they're having so much sex they can't afford the birth control pills!”
3) “essentially says that she must be paid to have sex, what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.”
4) “Sandra Fluke. So much sex going on, they can't afford birth control pills.”

March 1, 2012:

5) “You'd call 'em a slut, a prostitute”
6) “she's having so much sex”
7) “are having so much sex that they’re going broke”
8) “they want to have sex any time, as many times and as often as they want, with as many partners as they want”
9) “the sexual habits of female law students at Georgetown”
10) “are having so much sex that they’re going broke”
11) “having so much sex that it's hard to make ends meet”
12) “four out of every ten co-eds are having so much sex that it's hard to make ends meet”
13) “Now, what does that make her? She wants us to buy her sex.”
14) “to pay for these co-eds to have sex”
15) “she and her co-ed classmates are having sex nearly three times a day for three years straight, apparently these deadbeat boyfriends or random hookups that these babes are encountering here, having sex with nearly three times a day”
16) “Therefore we are paying her to have sex. Therefore we are paying her for having sex.”
17) “Have you ever heard of not having sex so often?”
18) “Ms. Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal: If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. And I'll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”
19) “we want something in return, Ms. Fluke: And that would be the videos of all this sex posted online so we can see what we are getting for our money.”
20) “'If we're paying for this, it makes these women sluts, prostitutes.' And what else could it be?”
21) “essentially says that she must be paid to have sex. What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right?”
22) “I'm having sex so damn much, I'm going broke.”
23) “She's having so much sex that she's going broke! There's no question about her virtue.”
24) “having so much sex she's going broke at Georgetown Law.”
25) “Here's a woman exercising no self-control. The fact that she wants to have repeated, never-ending, as often as she wants it sex -- given.”
26) “She's having so much sex it's amazing she can still walk, but she made it up there.”
27) “Maybe they're sex addicts.”
28) “to pay for her to have sex all the time.”
29) “she wants the rest of us to pay for her sex.”
30) “She wants all the sex that she wants all the time paid for by the rest of us.”
31) “Here this babe goes before Congress and wants thousands of dollars to pay for her sex.”
32) “a woman who is happily presenting herself as an immoral, baseless, no-purpose-to-her-life woman.”
33) “She wants all the sex in the world, whenever she wants it, all the time.”
34) “If this woman wants to have sex ten times a day for three years, fine and dandy.”
35) “to provide women from Georgetown Law unlimited, no-consequences sex.”
36) “so she can have unlimited, no-consequences sex.”
37) “You want to have all the sex you want all day long, no consequences, no responsibility for your behavior”
38) “The woman wants unlimited, no-responsibility, no-consequences sex, and she wants it with contraceptives paid for by us.”

March 2, 2012:

39) "she's having so much sex, she can't afford her birth control pills anymore.”
40) “she's having so much sex, she can't pay for it -- and we should.”
41) “She's having so much sex, she can't afford it.”
42) “this, frankly hilarious claim that she's having so much sex (and her buddies with her) that she can't afford it.”
43) “And not one person says, 'Well, did you ever think about maybe backing off the amount of sex that you have?'”
44) “Does she have more boyfriends? Ha! They're lined up around the block.”
45) "It was Sandra Fluke who said that she was having so much sex, she can't afford it.”
46) “By her own admission, in her own words, Sandra Fluke is having so much sex that she can't afford it.”
47) “they're having a lot of sex for which they need a lot of contraception.”
48) “Her sex life is active and she's having sex so frequently that she can't afford all the birth control pills that she needs.”
49) “who admits to having so much sex that she can't afford it anymore.”
50) “she's having so much sex, she can't pay for it.”
51) “As frequently as she has sex and to not be pregnant, she's obviously succeeding in contraception.”
52) “Ms. Fluke, asserts her right to free contraceptive, to handle her sex life -- and it's, by her own admission, quite active.”

- more -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/04/1070884/-Rush-s-52-Smears-Against-Sandra-Fluke

Please tell me again why this should be forgiven, overlooked, or just treated as no different from a left-leaning comedian who has made an occasional inapproprate statement about Palin or others. Please DO tell.