Is That All There Is?

Comedian Rush Limbaugh – who is, it seems these days, the virtual leader of the increasingly deranged Republican Party – did the Democrats a huge favour the other day with his offensive remarks directed at “college co-ed” (i.e., third-year law student) Susan Fluke.

Whether deliberate or not, Limbaugh’s deeply misogynistic tirade analogizing the issue as being akin to prostitution, calling Ms. Fluke a “slut” and then derisively suggesting that taxpayers be recompensed with pornographic videos of her sexual activities, effectively steered the surreal “debate” about state-mandated provision of contraceptive medications by private employers directly off a cliff.

It’s supposed the Republicans had initially wanted the discussion (if one can call it that) to be about “religious freedom” – an arguably legitimate issue of perpetual controversy near and dear to the heart of the party’s social conservative base – but then a number of truly bizarre proposals by various Republican-controlled state legislatures (demanding the insertion of invasive trans-vaginal ultrasound probes prior to abortion, for example), together with perplexing comments on the subject made by various sex-obsessed, theocratic right-wingnuts quickly revealed the true nature of their objection to the rulemaking healthcare proposals of the Obama administration…

Some liberal pundits and politicians have deemed the Republicans’ efforts in this regard as a “War on Women” – an expression that is certainly overstated, but perhaps not by much. If one looks at the legislative priorities of the Republicans since their resurgence in 2010, when not blindly demanding that taxes and regulations be cut as a magic elixir for economic growth, their primary focus appears to be almost madly fixated on controlling, limiting, and repealing the hard-fought reproductive rights of women. Why is that?

As an outside observer on the American political scene, it’s truly amazing that these kind of irrelevant (some might even say, completely bogus) distractions are the stuff and substance of current political debate given there are so many other imperative things that need to be addressed which are all vastly more meaningful and significant to the lives of ordinary people.

Brietbart Dead of “Natural Causes”

El Rushbo pays tribute to Andrew (‘Stop Raping People!”) Brietbart, the muckraking right-wing activist and provocative web entrepreneur who abruptly died today at the age of 43.

Of course, Libmbaugh’s somber eulogy turns out to be really nothing more than a convenient vehicle to attack supposedly hate-filled “leftists” (based on his nut-picking of heartless comments made on Twitter) and to trash the so-called liberal media; in this case, quibbling over the AP’s entirely accurate description of Brietbart’s career

Meanwhile, on right-wing websites, conspiracy theories abound… The one favoured by most appears to imply that Brietbart’s vague threat to expose the “hidden agenda” of President Obama prior to the upcoming election and his “mysterious” death cannot possibly be coincidental.

Right-Wingers Aren’t Funny: Part XLVII

Here’s another utterly dismal attempt at comedy by right-wing partisans, this time from the ultra-conservative folks at Pajamasmedia with a fake newscast presumably intended to resemble The Onion. Minus anything amusing, witty, or delightful.

Why can’t these right-wing clods simply accept the demonstrably obvious fact that their sense of humour is severely impaired for whatever reason, thereby preventing them from being in the least bit funny? Don’t believe me? Well, here’s a little flashback featuring two of the right-wing’s foremost “comedians” on the short-lived Fox News version of The Daily Show a few years back:

If you were able to endure that without viscerally cringing then you too may be suffering from the same crippling humour-impairment affliction that seems endemic amongst right-wing tools and should perhaps seek professional help.

An Anal Cyst Says, What…?

Rush Limbaugh demonstrates, yet again, what an utterly loathsome, hypocritical, morally vacant douchebag he is. No wonder he has such a compelling appeal to countless millions of right-wing “dittoheads”…

By the way, MSNBC did very well hiring former Republican campaign strategist Steve Schmidt as an analyst, don’t you think? His trenchant observations and dry remarks are always a delight.

Ken Finkleman

A very entertaining interview with Jian Ghomeshi on QTV.

Talk about serendipity… Not only have I been watching DVDs of The Newsroom lately, but in this conversation, Finkleman touches on a subject that was discussed in the previous thread’s comments; namely, the “comedic” nature of Rush Limbaugh. Go figure.

Bark & Tofu

Comedian Rush Limbaugh attacks Michelle Obama and her kids for having been spotted recently at a restaurant in Vale, Colorado eating… ribs!!! I mean, really… could the despicable liberal hypocrisy of the First Lady get any more egregious than that?

Of course this is a completely ridiculous argument that’s stuffed with patent falsehoods, but it’s a classic example of how things get totally “dumbed down” and grotesquely distorted in the evil funhouse mirror of American political rhetoric.

The sad part is that MILLIONS of Rush’s listeners will seriously take away the idea from this absurd narrative that relentlessly controlling “liberals” are “demanding and requiring that everyone eat cardboard and tofu” while they themselves hypocritically chow down on sumptuous, calorie-rich meals at luxurious eateries in exotic winter vacation get-aways…

Keep in mind that this is just 3 minutes of a show lasting several hours that’s broadcast to millions of listeners across the land, five days a week. Is it any wonder that so many “conservatives” might eventually wind up thinking that something as innocent as the earnest promotion of moderate food consumption and “healthy eating options” is basically equivalent to Arbeit Macht Frei?

No Labels

I’m not quite sure what to make of this new “grassroots” political movement taking shape south of the border, but as a something of moderate centrist by nature, did find a certain amount of affinity with its non-partisan objectives.

What struck me as amusing, and perhaps an unintentional legitimization of its core premise, was the vicious reaction from both the most vocal left and right poles of spectrum immediately following its launch.

On a recent “Worst Persons” segment, Keith Olbermann described the group as “ludicrous” and then went on to embellish that by denouncing the organizers as “a bunch of fraudulent, conservative democrats pretending to be moderates and a bunch of fraudulent Republicans pretending to be independents.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the hyperpartisan battlefield, there was comedian Rush Limbaugh blasting the group as nothing more than a bunch of unemployed liberal hacks reacting to the insurgent mandate of the mid-term elections, as you can see here:

In a later broadcast, Rush went on to dismiss No Labels as “elitist snobs” and furthermore claimed for good measure that the group was “racist” in nature, by virtue of an obscure ruling from a court in South Carolina that determined not having party designations on the ballot would somehow disadvantage black voters…

And so it goes in the land where, as Jim Hightower famously said, “There’s nothing in the middle of the road but a yellow line and dead armadillos.”

Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat…

[insert pejorative of choice here]

As bizarre and reprehensible as Pat Robertson’s remarks about a spurious “pact with the Devil” being the root cause for Haiti’s latest misfortune, at least the senile old kook urged his viewers to contribute to the CBN’s Disaster Relief Fund to help the suffering victims of the earthquake (which makes no logical sense if they’re supposedly in league with the Devil, but that’s another matter…)

In contrast, Rush Limbaugh followed up his cynically racist remarks about the disaster “playing right into the hands” of the Obama administration that, according to Rush, would use Haiti to get closer to the “light-skinned and dark-skinned black [communities] in this country,” by yesterday urging people not to donate to Haiti relief effort because that country is run by “dictators and communists” and declaring that Americans have already helped Haiti more than enough in the form income taxes.

On last night’s Daily Show, Jon Stewart quipped that he’d figured out the reason for Rush’s recent heart problem — “You don’t have one!”

“Meals on Wheels” Update: You really have to wonder at what point Rush’s legion of dittoheads might possibly become a wee bit embarrassed by the despicable things this hateful clown says every day.

Rush Checks Out

Following the “mysterious” chest pains experienced earlier this week that resulted in him being rushed to hospital, upon his release from Queens Medical Center comedian Rush Limbaugh held a “press conference” (in which virtually no questions were asked).

Rush announced that he had “been treated to the best healthcare the world has to offer” and, based on his extensive survey of the treatment received by one multi-millionaire celebrity, he concluded that: “I don’t think there’s one thing wrong with the American healthcare system.”

“A Lesson in Capitalism”

Comedian Rush Limbaugh thinks that selling test grades, as recently proposed by some parents in North Carolina to raise money for their school district, was “a bold innovative approach” with “visionary promise” for the education system.

That the parents’ previous fundraising effort had failed miserably was also “lesson in capitalism” — when the legitimate sale of goods fails, turn to venal corruption instead and re-brand it as “innovation”…