The Blue State

REAL soldier takes issue with Limbaugh

VoteVets.org takes exception with Limbaugh.  This is a REAL soldier, whether Limbaugh wants to believe it or not.

BRIAN MCGOUGH: Until you have the guts to call me a phony soldier to my face, stop telling lies about my service.

Something tells me that won't happen.

MN-Sen: Coleman runs from his base

Fighting to be reelected in 2008, with celebrity Democratic candidate Al Franken breathing down his neck, Senator Norm Coleman is pulling out all the stops to make Minnesota voters forget that there is an 'R' next to his name.  On Sunday, he criticized conservative radio personality Rush Limbaugh for calling US soldiers that come back and oppose the war "lazy":

“Limbaugh’s suggestion that those who have served their country andexpress their opinions are ‘phony soldiers’ is wrong. There needs to bea level of civility and honest debate in this country about issues asimportant as this. Labeling an active duty General a traitor, orcalling a soldier a phony for having a different opinion does not riseto the level of discourse we hold ourselves to in this country.”

If Norm Coleman wants to raise the issue of civility, maybe he should explain why he accused John Murtha of "undermining the morale of our troops" just because Murtha had the audacity to take a stand against Bush's war policy -- a policy that Coleman now all of a sudden opposes.

That, right there, is the definition of political calculation.

V.P. Has a Case of Foot in Mouth

Vice President Cheney appeared on Limbaugh's radio show and repeated hisallegation that al-Qaeda was operating in Iraq "before we ever launched thewar, uner the direction of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi"

"This is al-Qaeda operating in Iraq," Cheney told Limbaugh'slisteners about Zarqawi, who he said had "led the charge for Iraq."Cheney cited the alleged history to illustrate his argument that withdrawingU.S. forces from Iraq would "play right into the hands of al-Qaeda."

The only problem for the VP is he said this on the same day that the Pentagon's reportdiscounted al-Qaeda ties to Iraq.

TheWashington Post reported:

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman CarlM. Levin (D-Mich.), who requested the report's declassification, said in awritten statement that the complete text demonstrates more fully why theinspector general concluded that a key Pentagon office -- run bythen-Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith -- had inappropriately writtenintelligence assessments before the March 2003 invasion alleging connectionsbetween al-Qaeda and Iraq that the U.S. intelligence consensus disputed.

EitherCheney doesn't realize this information is available to the public, he is lyingor he doesn't read the news. It really is amazing how the misinformation fromthe administration is still alive and well. 

Limbaugh: I gave you a Republican president

Yesterday, after being accused by a caller of not doing enough for the conservative movement, Rush Limbaugh shot back.  "What more do you want?" he asked?  He then went on to claim that he was responsible for the Republicans' rise to power:

In 1988, this country was a conservative wasteland. Our president was leaving. We had CNN. We had ABC, NBC, CBS. We had the New York Times ,the Washington Post, the news magazines, and that was it. Here I came,storming onto the scene! Look what's happened since. I gave you aRepublican Congress in 1994 for the first time in 40 years. What wereyou doing before I came along? I gave you a Republican Senate. I gaveyou a Republican president in 2000 and again in 2004.

Whatmore do you want? Obviously what I have given you is not enough. I havespawned an entire conservative cable news network. I have spawned anentire new media from blogs to talk shows. There are people who havefailed in television and radio and stand-up comedy who are now goinginto radio. Everybody from Whoopi Goldberg to you name it, thinks theyhave to go into radio in order to have impact and make a difference –and why is that? It is because of me.

Conservatives got mad at Al Gore when he simply joked that he invented the internet.  Only here, Limbaugh is actually serious about this.

Rush Limbaugh: Media doesn't like Grossman because he is white

This had to have been about the most laughable quote of the week:

“The media, the sports media, has got social concerns that they arefirst and foremost interested in, and they’re dumping on this guy — RexGrossman — for one reason, folks, and that’s because he is a whitequarterback.”

This quote comes just two years after Limbaugh was fired from ESPN for saying that the media liked Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb mainly because he is black.  This year, even though McNabb had an injury plagued season, he finished with the fourth best passer rating in the NFL.

I do not want to get too much into discussing the X's and O's of football on this blog.  The last thing I want to do is bore you all to death.  But it is pretty obvious to just about any NFL fan, including Bears fans, that Rex Grossman is a terrible quarterback.  He throws the ball into triple coverage.  Instead of looking off the safeties, Grossman stares at the receiver he wants to throw to the entire time, allowing the defense to adjust before he releases the ball.  If I were drafting a team, I would take just about any other starting quarterback in the NFL over Rex Grossman.  The reason why people think he is a bad quarterback has nothing to do with the fact that he is white.  However, I am sure Limbaugh wishes it were the case so that he could add another item to his liberal media conspiracy theory.

An example of the Senate Republican agenda

Senator Kit Bond (R-MI) is trying to appease base conservatives with his latest legislation, and hopefully bring in some much-needed cash in the run-up to his 2010 reelection campaign.  Bond is introducing legislation that would rename a Missouri courthouse after Rush Limbaugh's father:

A bill to designate the United States courthouse located at 555Independence Street, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, as the "Rush HudsonLimbaugh, Sr. United States Courthouse".

When you put Rush Limbaugh and our judicial branch together, that is an oxymoron.

Speaking of Limbaugh, the conservative radio host, on the Friday edition of his radio show he accused Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) of "trying to lynch..an African-American woman..right before Martin Luther King Day, hitting below the ovaries.."  Limbaugh was referring to the verbal confrontation Boxer had with Condoleezza Rice over the Iraq war.

Read what Boxer said, and be the judge for yourself:

Now, the issue is who pays the price. Who pays the price? I’m not goingto pay a personal price. My kids are too old and my grandchild is tooyoung. You’re not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it,with immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military andtheir families.

Limbaugh crowd's latest laughable Iraq excuse

As of late, the Rush Limbaugh radio show has turned into a forum where guests get to invent creative excuses that justify the White House's position that Iraq is not in the midst of a civil war.  The latest one: Baghdad isn't any worse than Washington DC.  Guest-host Roger Hedgecock tries to explain.

This is from Media Matters:

HEDGECOCK: They're calling it.In other words, it's like Floridafor [Democratic presidentialcandidate Al] Gore. This is -- you know, this is -- they'recalling the election. It's now a civil war.Boy, I'm glad we've clarified that. Let's see. Did they call Bosnia andKosovo a civil war? Huh?

Did they -- did they callwhat's going on -- and by the way, the murder rate -- whatever you hear,whenever you hear a story about Baghdad about blowing up, about -- you know,today two car bombs went off in the entire country. The murder rate in Baghdad, the people being killed in Baghdad, is lowerthan the murder rate of Washington, D.C. Is Washington, D.C., in acivil war? NBC has not called it, so I dare not say.

And yes, this is worthy of being posted on this web site.  The Rush Limbaugh show is listened to by tens of millions of Americans each week.  Think about the significance.  If Rush Limbaugh came out and said we should withdraw from Iraq, Bush's base would collapse and we would be out of there.  The fact that Limbaugh's audience is being subjected to denial after denial about Iraq is only helping in the effort to prolong this war.

MO-Sen: As if Michael J. Fox enjoys his condition

Conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh is now shrouded in controversy after questioning whether former actor-turned stem cell research activist Michael J. Fox was faking his Parkinson's condition in a television ad for Democrat Claire McCaskill:

LIMBAUGH: "In this commercial, he is exaggerating the effects of the disease.  He is moving all around and shaking -- and it's purely an act.  This is the only time I have ever seen Michael J. Fox portray any of the symptoms of the disease he has."

Actually, Michael J. Fox has portrayed these symptoms all the time, especially over the last two years.  Watch this video of Fox unveiling his foundation for Parkinson's Research:

Or how about this one where Fox slams Bush for vetoing stem cell research:

So what is the deal here?  Rush Limbaugh actually wants his listeners to believe that there was some kind of covert effort by Michael J. Fox and the Democrats to get him to "act" as if his condition was more advanced than in reality.

I have even heard some conclude that Fox purposely went off his medication before the ad was filmed.  On a personal note, my great uncle, who passed away in 2002, had to put up with this horrible disease on a daily basis.  I saw as a witness that when he sometimes forgot to take his medication that reduced the shaking, he was in terrible pain.  It was saddening to watch.  No rational individual would want to harm himself or herself like this.

To hear a right-wing hack like Limbaugh make an assertion like this about a disease that he has no knowledge about shows how desperate he is to attack Claire McCaskill.

Limbaugh misleads on obesity numbers

For the umpteenth time since he became a shock-show host, Rush Limbaugh is blaming liberals for something that most people would consider to be only slightly related to politics.  Yesterday, during his nationally syndicated radio show, while discussing a recent study on the growing obesity problem in America, Limbaugh suggested that liberals were partly to blame for the national epidemic.

Media Matters has the transcript:

LIMBAUGH: I think you might then say that the obesity crisis could be the fault of government, liberal government.Food stamps, all those -- you know, I'm gonnatell you people a story. I -- just, well, the government, you could say, is killing these peoplebecause we know obesity kills, and the government's killing the poor. The Bushadministration is killing the poor with too much food.

What Limbaugh chose not to mention was the fact that the study ranked each state.  The locations where obesity numbers were the worst are red states.  In Mississippi, the fattest city, 29% of all adults are obese.  This is obviously not a laughing matter.  The point is that Rush Limbaugh would never blame Republican politicians or registered Republican voters for anything -- so this was completely expected.

Rush Limbaugh arrested for illegal Viagra posession

Now this one is as embarrassing as they get.  CBS 4 News in Miami has the low-down on Rush:

Limbaugh was returning on a flight from the Dominican Republic whencustoms officials found a Viagra prescription that did not bear hisname. Instead, the bottle of pills had the names of two doctors on itaccording to the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office.

U.S. Customs andBorder Protection agents examined the 55-year-old's luggage after hisprivate plane landed at the airport from the Dominican Republic. Thematter was then turned over to the Sheriff's Office. Investigatorsseized the drugs - used to treat erectile dysfunction - from Limbaugh.

Limbaughwas detained for about three hours and was let go after cooperatingwith officials. He could be facing a second-degree misdemeanorviolation if the State Attorney's office presses charges.

Limbaughentered a plea deal back in April in a previous case where his chargeof fraud to conceal information to obtain prescriptions was droppedunder the condition he continue undergoing treatment for addiction.

Limbaughhad admitted to being addicted to pain killers on his radio program andhad entered a rehabilitation program prior to that arrest.

The Associated Press has more on Limbaugh's Viagra arrest.

Limbaugh faced other legal action a few years ago when he was arrested and nearly charged for obtaining unprescribed painkillers and concealing them from police.  He got the painkillers from his house servant.  So when you think about it, Rush should have sympathy for other people that suffer from pain, considering that he is a victim.  Actually, the sympathy is not there.  Back in April of this year, Limbaugh verbally assaulted those who use marijuana in order to deal with severe pain:

"the FDA says there's no-- zilch, zero, nada -- shred of medicinal value to the evil weed marijuana. This is going to be a setback to the long-haired, maggot-infested, dope-smoking crowd."

Now that Limbaugh has been charged again with using unprescribed medication, this time Viagra, one only can wonder what else the conservative radio talk-show host has in his cupboard.
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Other blogs writing about this issue: The Agonist, Odds n' Ends, Liberaltopia, Connecticut Blog, Gun Toting Liberal, MLM Liberal, Leland Milton, News Hounds, Barf Bar Woof Woof.