Rush Limbaugh's "drift" on August 22, 2005: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (and a confession)

[Faryn Balyncd]

Here the "drift" of what Rush Limbaugh, who Ronald Reagan described as "the Number One voice for conservatism in our Country", had to say on August 22, 2005 to his 13 million listeners:

"How many of you could take a week or two off or whatever and hang around a ditch?
I mean, where do these people work? First question I always ask: What do they do for a living? Where do they get their money? Donations, folks, donations. They're glad handlers, they're glorified beggars, they're down there raising money during all of this. At one point I saw today Sheehan's website is getting 25 grand a day. Now you got a bunch of caterers down there and Joan Baez is down there and Joan Baez is down there strumming out the tunes, but the Washington politicians are not joining them down there, and this is upsetting....

"The Texans are very patient people, but the real Texans are not the people in that ditch down there. REAL TEXANS ARE PUTTING ON THEIR CAMOUFLAGE GEAR AND GETTING READY TO GO OUT THERE AND GO HUNTING, you know, hunting season is coming up. AT SOME POINT REAL TEXANS ARE GOING TO GET FED UP WITH WHAT'S GOING ON DOWN THERE AND IT'S GOING TO GET REAL FUN TO WATCH, IF YOU GET MY DRIFT, ...a-hem..."


- - - Rush Limbaugh, August 22, 2005, discussing the Camp Casey antiwar demonstrations in the roads & ditches outside Crawford, Texas

I had the questionable "privilege" to listen to this live broadcast on August 22, 2005, as I was driving home from the ditches of Camp Casey outside of Crawford, Texas, where I had gone to show my solidarity with Cindy Sheehan.

Like Cindy Sheehan, I had encouraged and supported my own son's decision to volunteer for combat service in Iraq.




Unlike Cindy Sheehan, I did not have to bear, as she did, the grief of family tragedy.

And unlike Cindy Sheehan, I had to face the personal guilt that, in 2000, I had actually once voted for the candidate who told Al Gore in the 10/3/2000 debate "If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world and nation building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road, and I'm going to prevent that....I don't want to be the world's policeman, I want to be the world's peacemaker."

This is difficult to state, because it raises the risk of alienating many dear friends here at Democratic Underground.

But the truth was that I was, in August, 2005, still a registered Republican....And though I was a Republican that had actively campaigned for John Kerry in 2004, this could not change the guilt I bore.

I had come to see that not only was there no longer room for me in the Republican Party, but to realize that my values had more in common with those of the anti-corporate, anti-war, pro-civil liberties progressives - - - the so-called left wing of the Democratic Party than it did with DLC "centrists".

It had not been an instantaneous epiphany, but it was clear that my values lay with those in the "ditches" outside Crawford, with those who Limbaugh, "the Number One voice for conservatism in our Country" was now encouraging his followers to "get my drift".








:kick:




:kick:










We have for some time been seeing the results of a propaganda machine of a perverse movement:

- - - that would like to categorize statements such as "We Need Somebody To Put Rat Poisoning In Justice Stevens' Creme Brulee"... as "humor",

- - - that denies causal responsibility for the Knoxville Unitarian Church murders (by a gunman inspired by the books of Hannity, O'Reilly, and Savage, and who stated his belief that "all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets," and that since "he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he would then target those that had voted them in to office."







Right wing demagogues will, as before, for a time soften their rhetoric after such events:

On the very day (August 22, 2005) that Limbaugh "joked" about "real Texans" putting on their camouflage to hunt down those protesting Bush's illegal war, Pat Robertson caused a backlash with his call for the assassination of Hugo Chavez. Perhaps that represented a momentary peak in the candor curve of right wing hatred. And perhaps lawyers, marketing consultants, or both, put the word out to the demagogues to lay low for a while.

By the next day, August 23, 2005, not only was Rush Limbaugh's comments (about "real Texans" putting on the camouflage and hunting down Cindy Sheehan) no longer on his website, but by August 24 Limbaugh had changed his position, now simply labeling Sheehan "unpatriotic", but with the "right to speak her mind." ("Maybe it's time somebody says, Yeah! Yeah, we are questioning your patriotism, but don't get me wrong. You have the right to speak your mind." Rush Limbaugh, August 24, 2005)....





Maybe it's time to challenge the patriotism and morals of the right wing demagogues who incite murder, and deny responsibility for the fruits of their hatred.





:kick:



:kick:

Technical note:

When I arrived home after that broadcast August 22, 2005, I thought it would be relevant to look at a transcript of the actual exact words I had heard Limbaugh say. I was unable to access a complete transcript. It was, however, possible to reconstruct the 2 paragraphs above by doing multiple Google searches for language Limbaugh used in his rant. I had hoped that by clicking on "Cache" I would be able to access the entire broadcast. However, that led to a page that indicated it was apparently behind a subscription wall, or for unknown other reason unavailable, conceivably being deleted. How the Google robot could report a short quote from the broadcast, and yet not display it when "catch" was clicked is unclear to me. However, by doing repeated Google Advanced Searches (restricted to the www.rushlimbaugh.com website) and including a portion of the quote revealed by prior Google searches, I was able to obtain Google search results which contained larger fragments of the rant. (Limbaugh's rant was apparently initially posted at www.rushlimbaugh.com under the title of "Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan.")





Here is a log of the multiple Google search results done 8-23-05 from which the above portion of the 8-22-05 rant can be reconstructed:




Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
How many of you could take a week or two off or whatever and hang around a ditch?
... but the real Texans are not the people in that ditch down there. ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages


Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
How many of you could take a week or two off or whatever and hang around a ditch?
I mean, where do these people work? First question I always ask: What do ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages


Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
I mean, where do these people work? First question I always ask: What do they do
for a living? Where do they get their money? Donations, folks, donations. ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages


Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
Donations, folks, donations. They're glad handlers, they're glorified beggars,
they're down there raising money during all of this. ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages


Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
They have all failed to unseat Bush. They have all failed to force Bush to get
... glorified beggars, they're down there raising money during all of this. ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages


Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
They're glad handlers, they're glorified beggars, they're down there raising
money during all of this. At one point I saw today Sheehan's website is getting ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages


Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
At one point I saw today Sheehan's website is getting 25 grand a day. Now you
got a bunch of caterers down there and Joan Baez is down there strumming out ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages


Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
Now you got a bunch of caterers down there and Joan Baez is down there strumming
out the tunes, but the Washington politicians are not joining them down ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages


Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
... down there and Joan Baez is down there strumming out the tunes, but the
Washington politicians are not joining them down there, and this is upsetting. ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages



Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
The Texans are very patient people, but the real Texans are not the people in
... there and it's going to get real fun to watch, if you get my drift, a-hem. ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages



Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
The Texans are very patient people, but the real Texans are not the people in
that ditch down there. Real Texans are putting on their camouflage gear and ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages



Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
Real Texans are putting on their camouflage gear and getting ready to go out
there and go hunting, you know, hunting season is coming up. ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages



Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
Real Texans are putting on their camouflage gear and getting ready to go out
there and go hunting, you know, hunting season is coming up. ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages



Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
... ready to go out there and go hunting, you know, hunting season is coming up.
At some point real Texans are going to get fed up with what's going on down ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages



Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
At some point real Texans are going to get fed up with what's going on down there
and it's going to get real fun to watch, if you get my drift, a-hem. ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages



Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
At some point real Texans are going to get fed up with what's going on down there
and it's going to get real fun to watch, if you get my drift, a-hem. ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages




Truth Detector: Why Elected Democrats Want No Part of Sheehan
... ready to go out there and go hunting, you know, hunting season is coming up.
... and it's going to get real fun to watch, if you get my drift, a-hem. ...
www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/ site_082205/content/truth_detector.guest.html - 47k - Aug 22, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. At least we have it in writing!

[DCKit]

2. Once they (try to) scrub those sites, he'll be raging on us libruls again.

The willfully ignorant believe that they can delete Internet content... forever.

Magical thinking, at it's finest.

[Kurovski]

3. K&R.

Thank you.