Early history of LIMBOsevic's stopgap strategy and the rebirth of the Kook/Fringe BIRCHERs
Repost from napkinz’s thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024843925 “John Birch Society Promises More Violent Anti-Government Standoffs” [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"] [/FONT]
I was present at the creation of the Wingnut rebirth. After McCARTHY and into the '60s/'70s/80s (half of my life) the wingnut movement was discredited, disreputable, and generally considered to be Kook and Fringe. Wm Fuck BUCKLEY was a sole remnant pretender to some kind of respectability for it. Then LIMBOsevic hit the air and singlehandedly raised it from the dead.
I witnessed with horror when LIMBOsevic took over my local radio talk station, away from the gentle and genteel doctors and psychologists -- Dean EDELL, Joy BROWNE, David VISCOTT. First was the *shock* of the opening music, Grunge or whatever but of the kind usually associated with the Young and the Left. Then he went for weeks spelling his surname to break people in. And from the start the number one strategy was to screen out all the "Fringe" callers, anybody BIRCHer, conspiracists, or others of the obvious, unhidden racism and Naziism.
His laser purpose was to create Respectability and Normality and Mainstream for the wingnuts. Always having a "reasonable" excuse for the vile ad hominem ridicule and savagery. Totally scorched earth, no inch given to the opposition, actually just like the TeaBagger obstructionism today.
But now the BIRCHers are reasserting themselves in the wake of the Gunnutters surge. Rethugs are not Right enough for them. They are itching for bloodshed, it's only a matter of when and where. LIMBOsevic has always been one of them, only differing in his m.o. to keep it all just Wink-Wink. He was just a finger and never really trying to plug the dike.
And in light of the BUNDY scofflaws, it's fitting that he started with the same kind of entitled appropriation of the theme song without paying.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_City_Was_Gone
[FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]"My City Was Gone"[/FONT] is a song by the rock group The Pretenders. The song originally appeared in October 1982 as the B-side to the single release of "Back on the Chain Gang";[1] the two-sided single was the comeback release for the band following the death of founding bandmember James Honeyman-Scott. The song was included on the album Learning to Crawl released in early 1984 and became a radio favorite in the United States. Though not part of the song's title, it is sometimes referred to as [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]"The Ohio Song"[/FONT] for its constant reference to the state. The song's final title was due to the fact there had already been a song called Ohio by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
The song was [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]written by Pretenders leader Chrissie Hynde[/FONT],[2] and reflected her growing interest in [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]environmental and social concerns[/FONT]; the lyrics take the form of an autobiographical lament with the singer returning to her childhood home of Ohio and [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]discovering [/FONT] that [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]rampant development and pollution[/FONT] had destroyed the "pretty countryside" of her youth. The song makes a number of specific references to places in and around Akron, Ohio including South Howard Street (line 5), and the historic center of Akron, which was leveled to make way for an urban plaza with three skyscrapers and two parking decks (line 8).
Use by Rush Limbaugh
The opening bass riff from this song "was something that Tony Butler used to play just as a warm-up," said Steve Churchyard, the engineer for the record.[3] It has been used as the opening theme 'bumper' for Rush Limbaugh's popular American talk radio program [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]since 1984[/FONT] during his days at KFBK in Sacramento, California. Even though he didn't use the lyrics, Limbaugh said in 2011 he [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]chose it because of the irony of a conservative using such an anti-conservative song[/FONT], though he mainly liked its "unmistakable, totally recognizable bass line."[4] In 1999, Rolling Stone magazine reported that, according to Hynde's manager, [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]Limbaugh had neither licensed the song nor asked permission[/FONT] to use it. According to Rolling Stone, EMI took action after Limbaugh told a pair of reporters in 1997 that "it was [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]icing on the cake that it was (written by) an environmentalist, animal rights wacko and was an anti-conservative song. It is anti-development, anti-capitalist and here I am going to take a liberal song and make fun of (liberals) at the same time[/FONT]."[5] EMI issued a cease and desist request that Limbaugh stop using the song, which he did. When [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]Hynde[/FONT] found out during a radio interview, she [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]said her parents loved and listened to Limbaugh and she did not mind its use[/FONT]. A usage payment was agreed upon which [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]she donates to PETA[/FONT].[4][5] She later wrote to the organization saying, "In light of Rush Limbaugh's vocal support of PETA's campaign against the Environmental Protection Agency's foolish plan to test some 3,000 chemicals on animals, I have decided to allow him to keep my song, "My City Was Gone", as his signature tune..."[5]
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heinous summer job in a small furniture factory. The owner was a dick, so my boyfriend started slapping on a "Member of the John Birch Society since 1965" label on the back of each piece of furniture. He was canned.
