TDS:
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.
After roe, women are no longer free.
So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.
“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”
“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”
In my day, never was longer.
Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.
When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?
Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.
The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.
Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity
If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.
Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.
The words do not have to be perfect.
A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.
We are aware of all internet traditions.
My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.
Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.
A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires
The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.
fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)
Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.
Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?
Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.
Arclite
You know, John Stewart is a genius. He’s an equal opportunity comedian, but the right provides so much more fodder, that it’s really cathartic for a lefty to watch.
cathyx
No kidding about being a human cold shower. Yuck. I don’t understand how it is possible that he’s been married 4 times. I shudder.
cathyx
Megan Kelly got pregnant by immaculate conception, don’t you know. Her real name is Virgin Mary.
JCT
@cathyx: Money talks. And note how they all bag it after awhile. And never say a word about him. Imagine the size of the payoffs.
Violet
I heard Colbert did a brilliant takedown as well. I haven’t seen them yet–I always end up watching a day later.
@cathyx:
The first one was when he (they) were young, so you can kind of excuse that one. All the others were probably some kind of arrangement. Does he need a beard? His current wife is very attractive. She’s well-connected in the GOP. Maybe she’s the one who needs a husband as a cover for her other activities?
Surreal American
Be sure to call your local GOP officials and candidates regarding Limbaugh. Put them on the spot.
Punchy
I ask again, after seeing all the hateful shit he’s spewed: what exactly does he have to say to go from “losing sponsors” to “getting fired”?
Is he truly unfire-able?
kindness
I’m going to rip off a certain wingnut and proclaim:
It must be very strange to be Jon Stewart. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice (except all of us).
cathyx
@Punchy: And as I said before, he’ll get fired after he’s been caught sleeping with a boy.
Linda Featheringill
That was fun.
I still wonder about a country where the best and most reliable news and news analysis comes from comedians.
dmsilev
Obama just denounced Limbaugh by name in his press conference:
(Link).
Given the tribalism that dominates today’s conservative movement, this will cause conservatives to bolt themselves even more tightly to the sinking SS Limbaugh.
piratedan
@dmsilev: ty Mr. President for throwing another anchor to the good ship Rushitania. That’ll go nicely with the manifest of misogynist anvils already in the holds.
kerFuFFler
I just wish that people discussing this issue would make it clearer that the law students are not asking for a freebie or subsidies. As I understand it, Georgetown does not let the insurance company offer its students policies that include contraceptive coverage. What we have in this country is that large religious institutions (employers and schools) can prevent their workers and students from having access to policies that cover contraceptives regardless of what they are being prescribed for. Insurers and their true customers, the workers and students, should be free to determine whatever coverage policies they choose without bossy religious organizations throwing their weight around.
If I am wrong about this, let me know.
gex
I can almost see, although I can’t manage it, how one could feel a bit of sympathy for Rush. He’s been this vile bully the whole time, and up until now he’s been amply rewarded and encouraged. His followers give him no indication there’s a line that can’t be crossed.
Almost. But of course he doesn’t have to be their jester, he chose to, so fuck him.
Fanshawe
@dmsilev:
I am shocked, shocked, at this unprecedented assault on the first amendment. Is there any form of treason and tyranny (for today anyway) worse than a sitting president expressing views about current events?
Culture of Truth
What you hear:
What wingnuts hear:
Surreal American
@Punchy:
Limbaugh will have to repeat the N-word on-air for 3 hours straight. Then maybe he’ll get “fired.”
Satanicpanic
@Fanshawe: Paging Orwell!
wrb
@Punchy:
Yes.
Rush created the current conservative mind. It is his art work. He owns it.
I used to read a local forum on which both liberals and conservatives participated. If there had been breaking news the conservatives would be silent that morning until Rush had come on and told them their response.
Without him many on the right would just dribble, at least during a lengthy withdrawal .
Anyway Bain owns Clear Channel.
And Rush is now a martyr.
slag
I think “gross” is rarely so accurately applied as it is here to Mr. Limbaugh. It’s the only word I’ve been using to describe him lately. “Extremely loud” has so many applications these days that it seems hardly worth mentioning anymore. But “incredibly gross” should definitely end up on Mr. Limbaugh’s tombstone, assuming something so gross can ever possibly die.
thefncrow
@Violet: I think Colbert’s bit is actually better. Or, at the least, it’s significantly more harsh on Limbaugh.
For example, Colbert explains how Limbaugh doesn’t understand how birth control pills work, but explains that it’s only natural that Rush would think that women would have to take the pill after every instance of intercourse because Rush has never slept with a woman without slipping her a pill first.
Colbert also mentions that Rush clearly knows what he’s talking about when he was calling Fluke a slut, because Limbaugh only apologized to try to appease his advertisers, proving that Rush will do anything with his mouth for cash.
Steeplejack
I watched the actual video snippets of Limbaugh talking on both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Really, really icky.
I confess that I used to listen to Limbaugh for a time in the early ’90s. I was working from home, and my ears would get “tired” of music, so I would put on talk radio for background noise.
My memory is that Limbaugh was much less toxic then, more of a “gadfly” railing against politicians in general. I remember him really stretching out and banging on molehill “scandals” like congressional abuse of franking privileges, some congressional credit union where a huge number of members were overdrawn on their accounts, the heavily subsidized barber shop, etc. And that was mixed in with pimping of his “Rush to Excellence” speaking tour and segments with New Orleans jazz musician Clarence “Frogman” Henry, who was featured on some part of the tour. And there was a lot more humor. He didn’t take himself so seriously.
You could tell then that he was leaning right, maybe even hard right, but–wait for it–no one could have predicted that he would end up where he is now. I think Clinton’s election turned him to the dark side, or, more likely, triggered the GOP-centric psychotic break that was poised to happen. I quit listening when he went full foam-flecked-lips crazy over Travelgate.
ETA: And the Megyn Kelly snippet was jaw-dropping in its
un-self-aware cluelessnesscynical IGMFY-ism.Spaghetti Lee
@dmsilev:
“I don’t know what’s in Rush Limbaugh’s heart,”
Oh, not much. Only a void darker than the darkest night leading to a dimension of unimaginable pain and fear. That and caked-on bacon grease and cigar ashes.
Arclite
@dmsilev:
I’m sure that’s a feature and not a bug. The prez is a pretty canny politician I’ve noticed.
Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity
@Punchy: Oh yeah. Clear Channel has been willing to commit fiscal suicide (look at their numbers, they cannot possibly justify what they’re paying him) to keep him on the air.
MarkJ
@kerFuFFler: You’re not wrong.
MikeJ
@Steeplejack: I liked the early days when he did those Vitajex commercials.
trollhattan
@thefncrow:
Stewart-Colbert made a hell of a one-two punch–with Herr Tub-o-Goo the heavy bag. Thought about taking up smoking afterwards.
Tellingly, it’s the actual clips that do the damage. Most have a vague idea of what Limbaugh does, what his schtick is, but when confronted by video of the lunatic lurching around in his chair in a series of ill-fitting polo shirts spewing bile nobody in their right mind would consider ever saying–they find they must judge him. And judge, they/we are.
Buh-bye, sponsors; buh-bye, clout.
Hungry Joe
When I read Limbaugh’s Sandra Fluke tirades I just shook my head and tsk’d a few times. But when I heard and saw the mash-up video, I gasped: Uncut, purebred hate can really knock you back, even when you think you’re prepared for it.
Obama says he doesn’t know what’s in Limbaugh’s heart. Neither do I, but I’ve got a pretty good idea.
MikeJ
@Steeplejack:
Did she say spermicidal cream was “a food product, essentially.”?
wrb
@trollhattan:
The sequence at the end of the Colbert bit is somethin’
New Yorker
The clip of the total closet-case priest on FOX News was a nice touch.
Culture of Truth
in weird way thought, Rush took himself more seriously, in a sense of policy, back in the early 90s, breaking with the base on NAFTA, for example, which meant both supporting free trade with Mexicans and Bill Clinton.
I think now he’s just tries to be outrageous and funny. I bet he he actually thought the whole “let’s see video of you having sex” thing was clever and funny satire, just like what Jon and Colbert do.
Legalize
Go to your favorite wingnut blog (as always, while sufficiently booze-infused to prevent infection), and observe them doubling, and tripling down on the “slut,” “whore,” “prostitute” language.
Bill Maher’s “dispatches from the bubble” in real time.
Steeplejack
@MikeJ:
Almost. They matched up a clip of her repeating the whole “Why do they expect us to pay for their birth control?” canard with an older clip of her going ballistic because how dare any employer not offer maternity leave?! (Needless to say, she had recently given birth and was gloating over the maternity leave she had gotten on her own excellent insurance.)
Michael D.
I remember someone wrote a book once about how much of a big fat idiot Rush Limbaugh is. At the time, I think many conservatives accused that person of “going over the top.”
How times have changed.
cathyx
@Michael D.: That was Al Franken.
Rosalita
Stewart’s a national treasure
Nemesis
@Punchy:
21st Century America is not based on morals. Its based on commerce. When Jiggles McOxyblob can no longer make money for his masters, then and only then, will he be cut loose.
Jay C
@Michael D.:
Yes, and that author has since gone on to get a real job, besides….
jibeaux
@MikeJ: Well, sure. It says CREAM, don’t it?
Baud
@Surreal American:
Isn’t Rush the one who cam up with that “Magic Negro” meme about Obama? No, he won’t get fired.
28 Percent
The BFI (Big Fat Idiot) managed to go violently anti-Romney on a network owned (ultimately) by Bain Capital. I doubt that Romney has the stones to get rid of him before the election, but after November 6, if Rushbo isn’t showing a healthy bottom line there wouldn’t be anything holding Romney back from kicking his ass to the curb.
J.W. Hamner
I agree with those who think Colbert’s bit was better/more scathing but I like the TDS one too. What’s interesting is to listen to the audience during the Limbaugh clips… there are a couple of people expecting it to be funny who are half laughing but everyone else is dead silent. It really is a different thing to hear the venom and bile as opposed to reading it… that was no example of “poor word choice”… that’s just a despicable misogynist spewing hate.
trollhattan
@Baud:
To a cohort who don’t just believe, they actually practice granting influence based on wealth, it’s hard to imagine him ever being toppled, but he may well lose the very high perch he’s occupied the last decade.
I consider him one vital component in a crumbling party infrastructure.
Surreal American
@28 Percent:
I was under the impression that Romney is no longer active with Bain. Just gets the dividend checks every now and then.
harlana
i’m sure somebody’s already put this up, but just in case:
“We are terminating our relationship with Rush Limbaugh” – Satan
bemused
How many advertisers does Rush have left? They seem to be shoving each other out of the way to save themselves from the inferno.
AA+ Bonds
There will always be someone who will hire Rush Limbaugh for an obscene amount of money
Until, you know, he dies
Culture of Truth
No, it was a movie critic**, but Rush took it and ran with it.
**another liberal who made Rush do it.
Litlebritdifrnt
Been listening to Rush on and off since noon. Most of the ads are local and Newt SuperPac ads. Other than that it is Lear Capital, Chapstick, Allstate, Income at Home and Robert Steinburg Ambulance Chaser.
Josie
OT: I would, along with President Obama, like to mock Ed Henry of Fox News for asking a stunningly stupid question.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/03/obama-mocks-fox-news-reporters-question-about-gas-prices.php?ref=fpnewsfeed
trollhattan
@AA+ Bonds:
He should take up jogging.
dww44
@Culture of Truth: But, the right shouldn’t get a pass by calling Limbaugh an “entertainer” as Russ Douthat did in the NYTIMES. And, he’s not the only one trying that cowardly ploy. I do believe there’s already been a night school or a conference call or two on this out they’ve ginned up for themselves.
Culture of Truth
@dww44: Yes, I was responding to what Steeplejack wrote.
wrb
Rallyin’ Round the Pustule:
Some time ago I joked that the Krispy Kreme party was going to insinuate that Obama’s slenderness was evidence of ghetto appetites.
from the same article:
Napoleon
@dww44
I remember saying something to someone I know who was listening to him 20 years ago about something he said and at that time to defend Rush he played the “entertainer” card. That is not a new ploy but has been one of the rights lines of defense for Rush for decades.
jibeaux
@Litlebritdifrnt: Chapstick? Weird. I like Burt’s bees better anyway. A little more, but how much lip balm does a person buy in a lifetime is how I look at it.
dedc79
Meanwhile, Missouri Republicans are about to honor Rush with his own statue
Satanicpanic
@wrb: So Mrs Manners Bozell is OK with Rush soliciting sex tapes over the radio? Good to know.
Keith
Plaque?
Soonergrunt
O/T but peripheral to the story, Netflix affirms instructions to advertising depart to stop advertising on Limbaugh show.
Poopyman
Rush is just an entertainer? So was Tokyo Rose.
(Is it Godwin if I invoke an Axis ally?)
gocart mozart
@Keith:
bacon grease
Litlebritdifrnt
@jibeaux:
Strangely enough it was the first time I had ever heard the ad but it played in every break that I heard today.
New Yorker
@wrb:
There it is. I was waiting for the whining and crying about Rush being persecuted, and of course, the total misunderstanding of what the term “censorship” means. Limbaugh is not in jail. The government did not send the FBI to shut down his show. If certain businesses want no association with Limbaugh, that’s what we used to call “the free market”.
There is no constitutional right to make millions as a radio host. Believe me, I could rant all day on the radio about the various things that piss me off (like Brent Bozell), but I don’t think anyone wants to hear it, nor should I expect companies to advertise with me if nobody wants to hear it.
jibeaux
@Litlebritdifrnt: That is weird. Rushing to cash in on that coveted conspiracy-theory-loving-dry-lipped male demographic…wait a minute…chapstick doesn’t really have…auto-erotic purposes, does it?
gocart mozart
(Is it Godwin if I invoke an Axis ally?)
No.
How ’bout,
Rush is a cross between Joseph Goebbels and a septic tank.
Elizabelle
Those three Fox women, expensively highlighted and shod, in outrage about paying for other women’s healthcare.
Fox is very boring.
Those are not good people.
Dave
@dmsilev:
I think you might be right. And if the GOP has their usual knee-jerk reaction to whatever President Obama does, then it was nothing short of brilliant.
patroclus
Mitt Romney just introduced his wife as the “‘heavyweight’ champion of my life.” When will these vile and disgusting attacks on women by Republicans cease??!!
gocart mozart
@Elizabelle:
They do whatever they are asked to do so long as the money is right.
jibeaux
@patroclus: That makes no sense.
JPL
@Josie: On Drudge the headline is Cites his own re-election to want to lower gas prices.
Frank
@Elizabelle:
Their selfishness is just remarkable. As Jon Stewart said, we all have to pay for stuff we don’t approve of. I don’t recall Foxnews having a problem when people opposed to the Iraq war had to pay for it.
scav
@patroclus: @jibeaux: Maybe he’s suddenly playing to his strength going for the clueless doofus vote.
Culture of Truth
Michael Kinsley on Limbaugh:
Litlebritdifrnt
And predictably Hannity is now screeching BILL MAHER, FREE SPEECH, evil liberals, give back the million dollars, argle bargle. What a maroon.
Culture of Truth
appealing to voters is a new low, even for Obama!
Maus
@Steeplejack:
No, he was the same douchebag as ever. He only appears better through nostalgia and the Clinton Death Pool crowd Limbaugh would allude to now having their own media contacts.
scav
Who brought electioneering into my politics! da noive.
Culture of Truth
Kinsley:
Rush’s “pursuers all pretend to be horrified”
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Elizabelle:
That would be bad enough, but they are falsely describing as “paying for other women’s healthcare” a situation in which other women are actually not allowed to choose the healthcare for which they themselves are paying. Insurance is either part of one’s compensation or something one pays for, plain and simple. (I know you probably know this – it just drives me nuts that this part of the phony narrative is getting inadequate push-back.)
Schlemizel
@Maus:
Absolutely correct. I remember a time when he used to “abort” callers who disagreed with him to the sound of a vacuum cleaner. This was ‘humor’ before his call screeners got good at denying access to those not sufficiently puckered up.
About this time he was pumping up poppy Bush & denigrating Dukakis
jibeaux
Speaking of heavyweight champions, somehow this election keeps making me think of this…
Poopyman
@jibeaux:
It’s from Mitt Romney’s mouth. I fail to see your point.
demimondian
I particularly love the President’s tribute to Franklin Graham. “I don’t know what’s in Rush Limbaugh’s heart,” indeed, Mr. President!
Oh, snap!
JPL
If Rush had morals, he wouldn’t use the word na.zi when discussing females. He doesn’t have a heart or a brain.
harlana
don’t you just love the Free Market?? :)
harlana
@demimondian: tee-hee
Rick Taylor
@harlana:
Not surprising, he already lost Imus after all.
harlana
i think Rachel hit on something, Fluke is a private citizen, not a public person, politician, celeb, etc. – she has no power or influence in the outside world (at least not yet) – that makes a difference, and she was viciously attacked by the most powerful man in the GOP
Schlemizel
@Rick Taylor:
Yeah, my first thought on that news was ‘if you have lost a douchebag like Imus you have really screwed the pooch’. It will be fun to see how far he can take this.
The GOP is even stupider, they have to know that they are tied to him like an anchor and the longer this plays the longer the contraception cluster flounce goes on the more damage they suffer. Like I said in the whitey tape thread “this is good news for Baraka Obama”
David Koch
Just finished watch the video of the President’s press conference.
Wow.
It was like watching Ted Williams take batting practice.
Jay C
@wrb:
Yeah, Brent Bozell: a real Voice Of Moderation, that one: you can always tell when the ideologues are irretrievably on the wrong side of an issue the more they yawp about “censorship”. And when they have to add puerile taglines like “liberal media” and “radical left” , they might as well send out these releases with big red-letter stamps on them like FAIL and LOSE. C’mon, “radical left-wingers”? Like who, the Yippies?
Culture of Truth
That’s absolutely it. This was his Joe McCarthy moment. He has no shame, no sense of decency at all.
Recall
@Culture of Truth: I remember him calling Chelsea Clinton the White House dog.
Jay in Oregon
@Punchy:
Clear Channel can choose to “fire him” by no longer carrying his program, but IIRC Limbaugh owns “Excellence In Broadcasting” *gag* and is his own boss.
Ed Drone
@Steeplejack:
Which also includes contraceptive coverage (albeit with a co-pay). And that report came from Fox!
Ed
Schlemizel
@Recall:
It was while he was on TV. He did the set up about the dog in the WH & then flashed her picture. Everyone laughed & laughed & laughed and the pustule made a joke about it & flashed the picture again. She was 13 or 14 at the time maybe.
When called on it he blamed a production assistant for putting up the wrong picture & his sheep baa’d right along with him.
harlana
interesting, i found out Fluke’s friend, who she was testifying about, is actually a lesbian – i guess Rush is kicking himself now cuz he could have jumped all over that one and gotten away with it
Tonybrown74
@harlana:
I think it’s a little bit more than that.
He said she was having so much sex she could barely even walk. That’s just a visceral, disgusting imagery.
He said she should post videos of her having sex. That just makes him look like some nasty skeezer pervert.
It really made him look like some nasty pig going after a clean-cut woman.
To me, it comes across as a sexual assault since the imagery he presents is so perverse.
Maus
@Schlemizel:
I’m sure, like plenty of others, they stopped inviting on screened callers and started “creating”/recruiting callers.
Jebediah
@Recall:
Yeah, I’ve never forgotten or forgiven that either. I don’t have children, but I spent some time teaching middle school and so am acutely aware that girls that age have really fragile egos and self-images. That attack on her was completely horrifying, even if you disregard the fact that she was in no way an appropriate target. Her dad? Sure – it comes with the job. I guess for wingnuts kids are only off limits if they are Palins.
Kyle
@Linda Featheringill:
The Soviet Union was that way. We have come to resemble the “Evil Empire” in several ways, mostly thanks to the authoritarians of the right wing.
john f
@dww44: Exactly! When Natalie Maines made a single remark about GW Bush and then later apologized for it did the right-wing say apology accepted let’s move on ,because the Dixie Chicks are just entertainers. Hell no! Clear Channel stations boycotted their music and their country music career began its downward slide.
Also too, the Dixie Chicks were called sluts and whores because of that episode come to think of it.
BruinKid
Stephen Colbert did indeed do a brilliant segment as well. I transcribed it over on DailyKos.
Say, what’s with the formatting? Did something change in the last 2 weeks?
BruinKid
Oh that’s weird, now the formatting looks the same as before. All the comments had been collapsed and on the left hand side when they were expanded.
Recall
@Jebediah: I’m actually about the same age as Chelsea, xo I was just starting to follow politics when i saw that bit.
Jebediah
@Recall:
What a nice introduction to “conservative family values”!
Before this current kerfuffle, the Chelsea incident was my “go-to” with people who were unconvinced about Rush’s total assholeness.
She’s probably not petty or immature enough, but I wouldn’t think any less of her if she took a real good windup and gave him a huge kick in the balls. I don’t mean metaphorically, like writing a harsh op-ed or something. I mean literally.
Chris
I’m surprised neither Stewart or Colbert went with the other pill/insurance dig to get in – Rush caught going to well-known sex tourism destination the Domincan Republic with someone else’s Viagra and a wodge of cash