godiswaddle- the reason the gop party continues is quite simple.  According to a study quoted by Gore Vidaal, 85% to 90% of the American ruling class are Gops.  They have the money, they own the media and they can buy political management. and they can fund the movement in the last few decades that enormously increased claas iequality and the power of the ‘deathwish Christians’ as wadosy calls them.

But for now they have switched their money, media and management to Obama, since Bush and the Gops have been so badly discredited.  But they’ll be back, as soon as they can convince the American people that Obama is a ineffective radical who bangs his secretary or whatever they can dig up. In which case they will stop Obama and the Dems giving tax money to the banks and resume the Gops doing it.  The rhetoric will change but policy will remain the same.

I have never seen such over-the-top partisanship in politics like we have today.  There is no doubt that an element of the GOP would rather see the USA go down the drain than Obama elected to a second term.

The unthinkable is coming to pass…..“the Chorea Sancti Viti” by the inimitable Limbaugh man is making Newt Gingrich look like a “sensible” politician.

Will wonders never cease as Krusty de Clown would venture!!!!

M.B.S.S., March 8 at 12:29 am #

in a very real sense i am rooting for obama.  i am rooting for him to conjunct his rhetoric and actions.  and then i would like him to enact a peaceful international policy, guard civil liberties, and approach economics from a more populist approach.  that would be for me an obama victory, inasmuch as you can declare winners or losers.  there seems to be many possible more outcomes.
***************************************************

Hey, This is Truthdig—where we all shoot from the hip and screw the collateral damage!

You spoke of a split in the Dems and described yourself as a “progressive” rather than a “real Politik” type.  You picked a side and I’m on the Real Politik side.

But if this is your worst beef with me you’re still a tenderfoot!

Ask cyrena!  BTW, Cy, thanks for that post—you and I disagree on so much it’s rare to find us TOTALLY agreeing. I don’t expect Obama to not make mistakes.  I expect him to recognize them and correct them.

In my 55 plus years of political awareness (I remember Truman’s election, vaguely), i have never seen any reason for the continuation of the Republican Party, whose mantra always was and always shall be:  Screw the workers.

By Inherit The Wind, March 7 at 11:45 pm

“See, if Obama succeeds, it means simply and blatantly, that you are wrong.  It also means that the neo-cons were not only wrong under Bush, their new negativity is STILL wrong.

Since we were on the road to total catastrophic collapse if the Bush and Republican plans continued, we were buggered anyway.

Anybody who thinks recovery is simple or easy is an idiot.  FDR was winging it every which way to try to fix things.  Ronald Reagan had control of the economy for nearly 3 years before the unemployement levels were where they are today.  Obama has been in office 6 weeks.  February’s disastrous unemployment figures were already DECIDED before he took power—Unemployment is a trailing edge indicator, not a leading edge…”
~*~
Great post Inherit, I’ve saved it.

I’m not even sure who it was addressed to, (though I can take a guess) and I’m not going to even check before I post this, because it applies to all of the whiners about what Obama is or isn’t doing.
It’s totally ludicrous to say that he hasn’t done ‘anything’, or even that he has ‘continued Bush policies’ (FT’s favorite template) when the fact of the matter is that he has done a tremendous amout of stuff that required his signature as the President, but that he was obviously long prepared to do before January 20th. And MOST of these have been to OVERTURN Cheney Era policies.

So it is one thing to say that you don’t agree with what he’s done since he’s been in office, but that’s a whole different issue than claiming that he hasn’t done anything, or that he is continuing bush policies, because that is a blatant falsehood.
So the whiners obviously aren’t paying attention to any of what Obama has done, specifically in terms of their civil liberties…like restoring the Freedom of Information Act, which he did on day one, and has since made a literal plethora of previously witheld secret documents available, with many more to come…as quickly as the new Justice Department can pump it out.

Yet even while they complain, the work is being done. It reminds me of when I was nearly running (in high heels) to push an old woman to her flight in a wheelchair, because no other transportation was available, and I didn’t want her to miss her flight. We’re running along what would eventually be a little over a mile of airport concourse, and she starts whining about when are we gonna get there, BECAUSE…because ‘she was tired of riding in that thing.’!!  If we’d been anywhere near an open space, (window, door, platform) she would have been a goner. As it was, I was still tempted to leave her ass sitting right there in the middle of the concourse in that wheelchair. I figured if she was ‘tired of riding in that thing’, I could certainly accommodate her, and it wasn’t like I didn’t have other things to accomplish, for a larger percentage of those who might actually appreciate it, or even have a clue to the concept that I was actually performing in THEIR SERVICE!!

The Obama-bashing whiners on this site remind me of that woman. I did end up running her the rest of the way to her gate, and even got them to wait on us, knowing that if we missed that flight, I really might toss her right off the end of the jet bridge.
Anyway, I’m sure Obama will forge on, depite all of the tugs from all of the other crabs in the barrel, who consciously or otherwise, would like for him to fail.

When you read through these comments, keep in mind the very wise warning from the late Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Consider what and who he may have been speaking of.
Just a thought exercise.

M.B.S.S. & Inherit—Seems like conflating “purity progressives” and “real politik dems” into something like “real politik progressives” might be a better description of you both as there doesn’t seem to be a lot of difference between what you are both hoping for from Obama’s efforts in this country and the world. Or what I’m hoping for, for that matter. M.B.S.S., your idea of these online discussions as salons is the ideal but doesn’t happen as much as it should because people come in already polarized and try to shoot each other’s positions down instead of exploring them. However, it seems to be happening on this thread. It’s something to shoot for anyway. You and Inherit and particularly good at it.

ITW:  c’mon now.  you know its silly to lump me in with those arguing in bad faith from the right.  im trying to hold obamas feet to the fire, as he requested. also, i simply disagree with him about militaristic, economic, and civil liberty issues.

in a very real sense i am rooting for obama.  i am rooting for him to conjunct his rhetoric and actions.  and then i would like him to enact a peaceful international policy, guard civil liberties, and approach economics from a more populist approach.  that would be for me an obama victory, inasmuch as you can declare winners or losers.  there seems to be many possible more outcomes.

ITW:  as cyrena notes, political desriptors can very slippery fish and sometimes not very helpful.  but i will use them to describe what i see as the eventual ruptures in D and R parties.  the R’s are surely imploding as we speak, but i see the divisions between the D’s as more pressing.  i believe their split will occur first.  it seems as if the gulf between “purity progessives” as myself and “real politik dems” as yourself are unbridgable.  the R’s will split sooner or later with the young libertarians who want the neoliberal economics, but have no use for the social conservative believers.  i know people have been warning of this for time immemorial, but it seems like its now or never for it to actually occur.
*************************************************

So let it.  The proof of the pudding is in how it tastes, not the discussion about how it should taste.

If Obama gets us on the road to recovery, repairs much of our foreign relations, and moves the M/E toward peace between Israel and Palestine, between the factions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and restores relations with Iran, your faction is simply going to be, well, buggered.  As icing on the cake, so will your equally pipe-dreaming pals, the neo-cons.

See, if Obama succeeds, it means simply and blatantly, that you are wrong.  It also means that the neo-cons were not only wrong under Bush, their new negativity is STILL wrong.

Since we were on the road to total catastrophic collapse if the Bush and Republican plans continued, we were buggered anyway.

Anybody who thinks recovery is simple or easy is an idiot.  FDR was winging it every which way to try to fix things.  Ronald Reagan had control of the economy for nearly 3 years before the unemployement levels were where they are today.  Obama has been in office 6 weeks.  February’s disastrous unemployment figures were already DECIDED before he took power—Unemployment is a trailing edge indicator, not a leading edge.

Everybody’s got an easy simple answer.  Nationalize the banks (if your “progressive”). Freeze all government spending (the latest GOP idiocy).

If Obama’s right, you can leave and form your own party.  I think lots of more reasonable and more TRUE Conservatives are looking at the Democratic party as the only SANE place left to go—unless they form a new one.

See, Rush Limbaugh is playing the role Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton played in the Democratic Party, only both of them are a little smarter.

Repugs ‘Do Nothing ’ ideology is Exactly what got US intothis Clusterf*ck to begin with. No Wall Street Regualtions, Nor restrictions. No Corp Oversight or accountablity.No stop gaps between the Private sector and Political Policy. Seems the Repugs adage is to spend more time sleeping or vacationing (like W) than doing anything a government body was meant to do. they ahve handed over Al ltheir responsiblities to Private, for Profit, contractors- from healthcare to assure a health work force to National security. Appears the Repugs are the ‘Slackers’ willing to pawn off their job on any two bit crook who greases their palms.I call that Derelection of Duty, and when you are a Public Servant charged with, “Protecting and defending” the constitution and the citizens of this country form all enemies foreign and domestic that’s, ah, treason.When Rush and his treasonous followers say they want ‘Obama to fail’..what indicators do you think they will have to rely on to determine he has failed, Unemployment rates, Home foreclosures, the total collapse of the dollar..Gee Ya think that might effect US citizens? so there is no splitting hairs on that wish -  Rush and his Red Coat followers are hoping the United States of America is destroyed. They have been Working to create a Feudlsitic Caste system in this country- the exact socio- economic Political system Our Founders waged a Revoltuinary War to Free US of. Monarchies and Dictators love to do Nothing and live off the blood sweat and tears of those who actually generate the economy (national wealth) below.
Repugs Economic Recovery Plan is Called “Let them Eat Cake”

So why does everyone care so much about what a big fat lier says? Maybe because his populace attacks are gaining some traction in the polls?

anarcissie:  are there any classical conservatives anymore?  in an interview chomsky was labeled an anarcho-syndicalist by the reporter, but he preferred to refer to himself as a classical conservative

ITW:  as cyrena notes, political desriptors can very slippery fish and sometimes not very helpful.  but i will use them to describe what i see as the eventual ruptures in D and R parties.  the R’s are surely imploding as we speak, but i see the divisions between the D’s as more pressing.  i believe their split will occur first.  it seems as if the gulf between “purity progessives” as myself and “real politik dems” as yourself are unbridgable.  the R’s will split sooner or later with the young libertarians who want the neoliberal economics, but have no use for the social conservative believers.  i know people have been warning of this for time immemorial, but it seems like its now or never for it to actually occur.

sepharad:  you raise an interesting question.  my thinking is that these online conversations we are having is a renaissance of the salons of the past where thoughtful persons congregate and exchange ideas.  the founders could recieve some consolation in that fact, despite our myriad other problems.  it seems to me that this messy world is simply the only way for humans and our ideas, to evolve.  just as we should “beware geeks bearing formulas,” we need to be suspect of any ideas which have not been tested for some emprical evidence.  in a way we are all just guessing, throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks.  we have no idea what works, only what doesnt work.  its a long process of elimination.  history is a useful referrence point, but the conditions are always changing and unique.  i dont think there can be the “creative” without the “destruction.”  the economists are right in that respect.  as a society we are just babies, touching the stove and getting burned.  but that is how you learn.  that being said, i do believe that we should use some sort of lens such as humanism.  we can try new things within a framework which we can come to some sort of consensus is a good one.

I admit I have listened very little to Rush Limbaugh over the years.  What I do remember clearly is that early in his rise to ‘popularity’ he got a television show.  I think it lasted for two shows.  A woman stood up in the audience and challenged him to debate his ‘ideas’.  He stammered and stuttered and practically crawled off the stage—-and that was the end of the show.  That is when it became clear to me that this was the typical craven bully.  For more than 10 years since, he has sat in his creepy little cave or spoke in front of a bunch of ‘right wingnuts’.

A few years ago Al Franken wrote a book called “Rush Limbaugh is A Big Fat Idiot”.

That playground insult was incredibly precise, and, as we see today, still precise.  He IS a big, fat IDIOT!  He’s doing exactly the job the WH wants him to do—keep in the news, become “The Decider” of the Republican party, and further alienate all Americans save his 5 million ditto-heads. 

DeLay’s “Perpetual Majority” has devolved into this: A loudmouth radio commentator who makes Westbrook Pegler look like a philosophical sage has the GOP kow-towing to him the way they kow-towed to “The Junior Senator from Wisconsi”, Joe McCarthy until he self-destructed.

And the Democrats couldn’t be happier—every time the fire dies down they throw more fuel on it.  And the dumb, desperate Re-thugs keep falling into their trap.  It’s hard to find ANYONE these days who admits to being a dedicated Republican and thinks the GOP is on the right track.

And Rush is such a big fat idiot that he keeps helping the Dems do it!

By cyrena,

BruSays

“Only where Corporate Media controls what news we see could an idiot like Limbaugh rise above the level of a mushroom. I know this sounds conspiratorial but really, it’s at the root in the creation of a clueless and uninformed electorate.”

~~~

Ain’t it the truth. The creation of a clueless and uninformed electorate was always the plan of course, and could never have been accomplished without The Ministry of Propaganda, AKA - Corporate Media.

~~~

Points well Taken. In fact, I think we can all agree if any single part of society demonstrated over the past eight years they didn’t give a damn about our country, our values, are security and our future, it would have to be mainstreammedia!

But I do not believe that mainstreammedia was an active participant in the planning and execution of the ministry of propoganda. They are far to clueless! For them it’s always and only been about money. The days of an honest investigative journalist digging deep into anything are gone forever. At least on the majority of our TV “news” networks. Now it’s about ego and makeup. Hairdues and fashion. Perks and kick-backs. And, as is all to often the case when a mediocre entertainer is propelled into fame, after a while they really believe their hype. Open mouth, read telle-prompter, look pretty, be great!

News has been reduced to a form of intertainment. That it is crummy intertainment speaks to the ease with which small minds can be entertained. And no one knows that better than the corporate dudes who pay for the endless advertising of junk we don’t want and don’t need. Oh, except the folks on the left who have had the good sense to grab onto the obvious disfunctional family of repubs, and run with it!

If curent repub leaders weren’t so pathetic, they would be side slapping funny! The disfunctional leading the disfunctioning into a bright new day of ultimate disfunction! It’s just got to be tough trying to lead, let alone look and sound like a leader, when you have no car and driver, no roadmap, and no clear memory of where you’ve been, where you’re going ... or even why!

The new word coming out of the “right” side ... FREEZE ... about sums up their condition. Preserved in an ice-chest for future generations trying to understand what crazy is. Course even the best ice-chest can fail. (Could that be what I smell?)

So it shouldn’t be too long before we see them pickled for posterity, instead.

Unfortunately we’ve been driven to hate our fellow man as opposed to caring for each others exsistance.Those who think in this country are so busy trying to survive they have no time to research candidates and rely on the media for their opinions.Those who need reassurance like Rush(gets it from his audience)are all too easily influenced to jump on the bandwagon and fit in with those they try so hard to impress,who couldn’t give two shits about them as long as they vote the way they want.Competition within our Capitolocracy is driving the American spirit to hate not include,Aren’t you loving it?!Democracy,where?!!! Equality,yea right!I say they ALL need to go,and take their corporate funding with them!

Bud—You got a problem with the South? What are James Carville, Martin Luther King, Flannery O’Conner, William Faulkner etc etc, chopped liver? Actually, it it might have been better if the South had WON the Civil War—better stii, if half-way through the carnage Lincoln and Davis declared a draw. Why? Ever since the South lost, the rest of the country has been in denial about its own racist bases and beliefs.

The war was one of economic evolution. Slavery was just fine with the north as long as their major moneymaking project was mercantile, involving the whiskey-rum-slave trade. That all changed when the industrial revolution made manufacturing the north’s bread and butter. Technology had also begun phasing out slavery in most of the South, particularly in cotton harvest, though no one had yet figured out how to harvest rice more economically than by hand. There were several million free blacks in the South when hostilities began. The northern abolitionists were of course anti-slavery and that was their purpose for the war, but there was also a southern abolitionist movement.

The North went to war war to make sure the Massachusetts cotton mills got the cotton instead of English mills, to be combed and woven by young women who lived in company dorms, worked for wages that barely kept them alive and died young with lint in their lungs. It was also a war for the banks and Huntington’s Southern Pacific Railroad because it left the field clear to impose radical solutions on the Native Americans and go whole-hog with Manifests Destiny, coast to coast. Northern workingmen resented the draft they could not buy themselves out of as could the better-off, and in 1864 in New York City lynched hundreds of black workingmen on whom they blamed the war and resented the competition for jobs. Lincoln only issued the Emancipation Proclamation to keep the French and English from entering the war on the side of the South. He also met with a delegation of African Americans and told them that while he deplored slavery, they could not expect to live and work side by side with white Americans and said the government was prepared to relocate them to Liberia (which a prescient Congress had purchased decades early for that purpose). This was consistent with his many articles in Horace Greeley’s New York newspaper.

To me, the best result of the Civil War (and its 500,000 dead soldiers) was that it liberated those still in slavery probably 8-10 years sooner than would have happened as ag tech grew. Even one more year as a slave would be horrifying to the man or woman enduring it.

The two worst consequences: 1) It enabled war heros like George Armstrong Custer and William Tecumseh Sherman to go West with plenty of experienced fighters and completely eradicate the lives and cultures of the Native Americans west of the Mississippi. (Yet some people still are surprised to learn nearly all the Cherokee—except for one breakaway clan—fought fiercely on the side of the Confederacy, and a Cherokee chief, Stand Watie, was the last Confederate general to surrender, several months after Lee surrendered at Appomattox.) Defeating the evil South gave such an aura of righteousness to the Union Army that most people never questioned the annihilation of an entire people’s way of life.

2) By officially ending slavery, the Union had effectively ended for another 100 years the conversation about racial equality, Northerners allowed themselves to feel virtuous instead of examining their own inner beliefs, and Southerneres felt so embittered and put-upon that for decades they vented their hatred on the only people who were about as ground down as they were economically and still vulnerable. This country could long ago have come to terms with racism and done away with it, had the north not been so righteous in victory, so smug in soul.

It’s not surprising that the KKK re-emerged in the ‘30s in a state well north of the Mason-Dixon line.

If there are still any sane people left in the GOP they need to form a new party, like the “Progressive Republican” party and call themselves “The Legacy of Lincoln” and build this new party on the more reasonable and rational concepts of Conservatism.

America needs a two party system, not one party rule because one party rule is never benign. America needs BOTH parties to fundamentally be sane, with differing views.  And they both need to REFUSE to tolerate the whack jobs like Limbaugh, either tossing them out or simply marginalizing them.

Right now the GOP is being ruled by the whack jobs—the Limbaugh/Coultergeist/Imhof/Kyl/Palin imbeciles who live in the fantasy land of neo-cons.

There’s no way this should be one of the major parties in a great nation.  And, unless the sane GOPers can bring it under control, they need to build a NEW party to replace it, as the Republicans built a new party to replace the Whigs in the 1850’s.  It’s only been 150 years—time for at least ONE new party!

ON MEDIA MATTERS:

“. . . Limbaugh on health care legislation: “Before it’s all over, it’ll be called the Ted Kennedy memorial health care bill”

http://mediamatters.org/countyfair/200903060016

Steele is a sacrificial lamb. As was Bobby Jindal.

The true leaders of the Republican party are not about to commit political suicide by trying to stand up to a Democratic President with a 65% approval rating and a large majority in the house and senate. Sure, McConnell, Romney, Huckabee and others will posture a bit on certain issues, but they are not about to throw themselves under the Dem bus.

The tactic for now is to keep the hardcore base hating Obama and all things liberal while they continue to try to pin the recession on him. By the end of this year we will see the real right-wing leadership emerge. By then, if the economy is still floundering, they will have solid rhetoric with which to draw disgruntled voters from the center.

Does Rush have a ring Michael Steele can kneel and kiss? Or will that doughy fat ass of Limbaugh’s do? Poor Mr. Steele, forced to apologize publicly to the Racist, Mysogynistic, Homophobic, Oxycontin-Loving, Intellectual Coward.

And for what? Telling the truth? Grow a sack, Michael Steele, or go back home and STFU.

Cyrena,

I first want to say this is not a dig at you but just a comment to your truthful statement:
“Ain’t it the truth. The creation of a clueless and uninformed electorate was always the plan of course, and could never have been accomplished without The Ministry of Propaganda, AKA - Corporate Media.”

How else would our president have been elected if it wasn’t for the MSM?  Just goes to show you how people who can’t and don’t think for themselves become slaves to others wishes.

Rush is so stupid he got his drugs from the housekeeper then snitched her off to save his ass. Any smart Junkie with $100 Million owns his own drug store and a couple of doctors for that matter. I wonder what the “Rush” was that got him his nickname??? A Total Low Life !!

In olden times and according to Hollywood every Royal court had one or more jesters.

Based on what those clowns wore as entertainers their income in can be considered pittance when compared to the kind of income the present Republican Party tv jester that smokes cuban cigars in addition to drug addicted medication and supposedly at present vying with “Bobby”, Joe the Plumber, moose skinning Sara to be the “voice” of the Conservatives that make part of the 300 million Americans determinedly forces one to conclude by stating:

  NOT ONLY IS AMERICA GREAT OR WHAT. BUT IT IS ALSO IN GREAT DANGER WHEN CLOWNS LIKE RUSH LIMBAUGH MAKE BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE MORE THAN ABLE TO SPEAK ON BEHALF OF ONE OF ITS TWO MAIN POLITICAL PARTIES.

Re Bud
So what do you think Rep Wamp’s [R-TN] bottom line is with his socialism accusations? He seems really fanatical about it. Good grief! Today, it’s healthcare, but tomorrow it might be the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Surely, Wamp doesn’t think the TVA was a privilege and demand that Obama take it back? It would be terrible for the South if he did. Seems to me it was one of President Roosevelt’s most awesome projects and it was obviously needed:

“Many believed privately owned power companies were charging too much for power, did not employ fair operating practices and were subject to abuse by their owners (utility holding companies), at the expense of consumers.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Valley_Authority

“During his presidential campaign, Roosevelt claimed that private utilities had “selfish purposes” and said, “Never shall the federal government part with its sovereignty or with its control of its power resources while I’m president of the United States.”

By forming utility holding companies, the private sector controlled 94 percent of generation by 1921, essentially unregulated. (This gave rise to Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 [PUHCA]“
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Valley_Authority

I love the part about never rising above the level of a mushroom. smile
************************************************
Me too! After all, mushrooms mature in the dark in a pile of $#1t.

At one time, the Left Wing of the Republican party was dominant and had lots of folks like Nelson Rockefeller, and only Arlen Specter is left of that group because they were pushed out by the Nixons and the Goldwaters.

Then the Left Wing of the GOP was the Nixons and the Goldwaters, but the Nixons were pushed out (most of Nixon’s policies today would be moderate Democrat).

Then the last remains of the Goldwaters were pushed out when Jerry Ford and Christine Whitman were pushed out, and the William F. Buckleys were the Left Wing of the GOP.

Then the Buckleys were pushed out and now the arch-conservatives became the Left Wing.

Now, with the ascendency of this fat, evil clown Limbaugh as the heart of the party, the last True Conservatives are being driven out.

What’s left? A bunch of ignorant, moronic, reactionary nuts who CALL themselves “conservative” but the TRUE conservatives have more common ground with Teddy Kennedy than with this rotten crop of Limbaugh ditto-heads.

And the polls show it.  Now well over 80% of Americans hold the GOP, not the current folks, responsible for all the messes we are in.

I’m surprised there aren’t enough of the shoved-outs out there to form a party a LOT bigger than the GOP and supplant it, as the GOP supplanted the Whigs long, long ago.  The Progressives in 1912 nearly supplanted the GOP, and put Teddy Roosevelt back in the WH.  Despite being a Dem, I think he would have been FAR better than Wilson, a demogogic, old-style Southern racist.

Re Bud

Yes, the Washington Monthly has a MSNBC clip of Republican Wamp of TN on their site, and Wamp was really ranting:

“Health care is a privilege,”

“It’s not necessarily a right.”

Interesting perspective, Wamp has. But as I posted earlier on TruthDig, when you reflect on the definition of privilege, it pretty much sums up the Republican position on healthcare. My dictionary says:

1. an advantage, right, or benefit that is not available to everyone.

2. the rights and advantages enjoyed by a relatively small group of people usually as a result of wealth or social status.

3. a special treat or honor

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/

BruSays

“Only where Corporate Media controls what news we see could an idiot like Limbaugh rise above the level of a mushroom. I know this sounds conspiratorial but really, it’s at the root in the creation of a clueless and uninformed electorate.”

~~~

Ain’t it the truth. The creation of a clueless and uninformed electorate was always the plan of course, and could never have been accomplished without The Ministry of Propaganda, AKA - Corporate Media.

I love the part about never rising above the level of a mushroom.

mrp,

I never really equated weight with Rush’s behavior until he did that bouncy-bouncy thing last week. That was so telling.

There are a whole variety of reasons why people are overweight. But the one common denominator when digging deep into the subject of chronic obesity is INSECURITY. Add to that Mr. Limbaugh’s call for someone to explain why women don’t like him, and his need to shape the debate, and it seems obvious to me he is an extremely insecure man. Now that would be something that might cause some to extend a bit of sympathy. But not in Rush’s case. He is not looking for sympathy. Or understanding, or even companionship. He simply needs attention. The more the better. Something else not uncommon in the insecure man. But the attention absolutely must be at arms length! No touchy feely, not even hugs or pats, thank you very much. Just BIG him [the bigger the better] lording it over any and all he might see as getting to close to the INNER him.

And that is exactly why he is overweight. He needs the personal comfort of girth to quite the screaming fear inside. The classic example of a small ego seeking shelter in a large body. He very clearly demonstrated that when he did his bouncy, bouncy thing.

Like the proud soon to be mama, who strokes her stomach to sooth the huge discomfort inside. He had to stroke “feel” his great weight. Only when the mama strokes her stomach it’s normal. When the chronically obese wants to feel their weight, as in bounce it, bounce it, it’s to re-enforce that feeling of security. Yes, it’s still there hiding a very insecure person behind it.

For most of the population that daily fights the battle of the bulge, myself included, it’s a real fight. No strokes, no deep psychological meaning. Just bad habits, bad diet, not enough exercise or an
honest to goodness genetic or physical reason. Sorry if I offended you. Not at all sorry if I offended Rush, which should he have happened to read that, wouldn’t have been offended at all. He knows where his armor is.

The one really disturbing thing about all of this is that so many otherwise intelligent, busy, productive and engaged people are spending any time at all discussing the man! We really should be more concerned about his audience!

Re Brusays,

But Limbaugh was invited to speak at this Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.  Why did they invite him and applaud?  The Republicans must as you describe -  “love him because his extreme positions, his absurd accusations, his name-calling, his race-bating, his ignorance of facts, his bald-face lies.”  It can’t be just the corporate media that loves him.

I always like to take a stab at Corporate Media because, for the most part (and even on Truthdig), the bulk of the blogging is about what Corporate Media chooses to put on the air.

That Rush Limbaugh is even mentioned, even considered as a possible “spokesperson” for ANY political ideology - Republican, Conservative, Right-Wing, What-Have-You - speaks volumes about the way Corporate Media loves to entertain, rather than inform.

This man is a friggn’ radio talk show host. His sponsors love him because his extreme positions, his absurd accusations, his name-calling, his race-bating, his ignorance of facts, his bald-face lies bring in listeners and pump up the ratings - NOT because he’s a valid, respected, or credible representative of any ideology.

Folks, it’s all about entertainment:
More entertaining? = More Listeners
More Listeners = Bigger Market Share
Bigger Market Share = Higher Advertising Revenues
Higher Ad Revenues = Higher Corporate Profits

Only where Corporate Media controls what news we see could an idiot like Limbaugh rise above the level of a mushroom. I know this sounds conspiratorial but really, it’s at the root in the creation of a clueless and uninformed electorate.

The new focus on Limbaugh by the corp media is both interesting and pathetic. It is interesting because Rush is not as popular or important as he, or the media think he is. While his syndicated show is listened to by an estimated 10 million people a day, when you consider that is less than 3% of the US population, and his listeners tend to be america’s “ground fruit”, we must ask why is the media paying him any regard? The answer is where we get to the pathetic part. It is because of america’s penchant for needing an enemy that our media has created the monster that is Limbaugh. He is like a fat racist, sexist tree that falls in the forest. If the MSM wasn’t there to report it, would he make a sound? Or would he just bounce?

What Rush and other neo-con wacko’s fail to realize is that all the while they rail against the conservative establishment, they further split an already vivisectioned republican party. And while the repug civil war takes place, the dimmos, now without an organized opposition, will not be pushed to do anything except a minimum. They are already making excuses and limiting expectations concerning jobs programs and healthcare reform. But they will remian happy as clams as long as it appears that the repug party is splitting into it’s three base groups, neo-cons bent on world domination, blue collar religious nutjobs that want to return to the good ol days of 1680, and big businessmen, who use both the other factions as a means to an end, all the while using their financial and political connections to dominate world politics. If the repugs are not careful they could find themselves as three different political party’s come the 2010 election cycle. It could be the end of the old GOP, and the begining of a new group of political fringe partys ranging from WHIG’s to nazi’s.

Maybe these times could be a harbinger of things to come for the dimmo’s as well. When the next four years are gone and we still do not have a single payer healthcare system, still have not re-regulated our financial industry, and are still blowing shit up in the middle east, maybe liberals will form their own party. Then we would have a true multi-party system, and the prospect for real lasting change.

By mrp, March 5 at 6:21 pm

“As far as all the rhetoric about right, left, liberal, conservative….I doubt anyone really knows what any of that truly means. Most of these so called political division have been so blended the terms mean absolutely nothing to most of us.
Maybe people should stop trying to categorize everyone and just focus on the statements, the facts, the outcomes of the political policies that are created. Stop yelling LIBERAL everytime someone wants to change something and stop screaming people are on the extreme left or right just because you don’t agree. STOP categorizing and start focusing on the actual problems facing this country. In other words stop the name calling it means nothing anymore.”

~~**~~

mrp,
I couldn’t have made a stronger plea, and it hasn’t been for lack of trying.

In fact, the directional and/or geographical descriptors (right, left, center) drive me crazy and it always has. Same thing goes for liberal, moderate, conservative, even though there was a time when those terms may have had some sort of common understanding. It’s like I’m allegedly a ‘liberal’, (actually I am I suppose, in the true meaning of the political term) but in terms of some really basic fundamentals, (like the concept of the ‘rule of law’ and the Constitution as the source of it) I would be considered ‘conservative’ under the political understanding of the thing.

However, that understanding and ‘sorting out’ of the meanings of all of these ‘categories’ is based on a NON-partisan worldview or comprehension, and that not what we generally witness from most of the posters here. It’s very sad, but that’s just an indication of how contentious the divisions have become.  We the People have been dumbed-down over the past 4 decades or so, and we had this very disruptive ‘division’, AT LEAST since the coup of RADICAL gang, that has left us even more divided on ‘emotional’ and PARTISAN divides.

Along the way, the population has institutionalized these terms without ever understanding what they ‘meant’ in the proper context, and just became ‘names’ or as you say ‘categories’ to call or assign the ‘other’. I could probably assign a long list of causes and effects in respect to this, but I won’t bore you, because the stuff does become overwhelming. And, that’s part of the problem. I think we’re overwhelmed. In fact, I’m sure of it.

However, we DO have this last shot to save ourselves, if we could just strip the rhetoric from the public discourse and look at the real meat of the situation. IE, the reality of our situation.
Crises Equals Opportunity (to get it right – as it ‘correct’).

If the Republicans actually were a conservative party, in the classical sense, then distrust of new ideas and innovation would be a sensible position for them to take.  The classical conservative sees a community as an organic whole whose form derives from history and practice, rather than from ideology.  No set of ideas is as complex as even a single human being, much less a large set of them, and the conservative regards tinkering with the social order as a risky procedure likely to produce many unintended and undesirable consequences.

However, the Republican Party generally, and its recent leaders including Limbaugh in particular, are not conservatives.  If there is a conservative party, is the Democratic Party.  It is hard to describe what the Republican Party has become.  Certainly it is rightist, but imperialist military adventures, domestic repression, edgy financial experimentation, and pandering to religious fanaticism can’t by any means be called conservatism.  Maybe it is entertainment, and Limbaugh is the right person to lead it.

As someone already mentioned Rush is nothing but a talk-show host. His opinion counts as much as mine and yours and no more. I have never figured out why people give him so much air time. But frankly commenting on his weight has nothing to do with this discussion and just lessened any credibility the writer may have dredged up in their post.

As far as all the rhetoric about right, left, liberal, conservative….I doubt anyone really knows what any of that truly means. Most of these so called political division have been so blended the terms mean absolutely nothing to most of us.

Maybe people should stop trying to categorize everyone and just focus on the statements, the facts, the outcomes of the political policies that are created. Stop yelling LIBERAL everytime someone wants to change something and stop screaming people are on the extreme left or right just because you don’t agree. STOP categorizing and start focusing on the actual problems facing this country. In other words stop the name calling it means nothing anymore.

If you don’t like what you see coming out of the House and Senate then get on your phone and start calling your local representatives. Remind them who voted them in and who can vote them back out. And don’t just call to whine. Have concrete suggestions for solutions to the problem as you see it today. Most of these blogs have turned into whine fests and name calling with little or no pertinent information shared. If you want change to happen, then make it happen. Get off your butt, go out and contact your representatives and make your point heard.

CONASON QUOTE: “Here was the harbinger of an ideology in decline, exhibiting pathological aversion to intellectual activity and unfettered debate, an aversion that is always the surest evidence of political decay.”

Great description, Joe Conason. What a strange group the Republicans have become - Limbaugh groupies. Yuck!  Of course, the other thing about the Republicans is they simply don’t practice what they preach:

They claim to be religious, but hire lawyers to find ways to torture prisoners.

They wear American flag lapel pins to demonstrate their patriotism, but undermine the U.S. Constitution at every given opportunity.

They don’t want to spend a dime to educate America’s children, but will pay Halliburton $45.00 for a 6 pack of colas without a second thought.

They don’t want to invest money in healthcare for people, but will invest money in private health care corporations so they can make a quick profit.

They campaign for the rights of unborn children, but fight environmental laws to clean up the air so living children can breathe.

They don’t want to spend taxpayer money to feed the poor, but will spend money for lavish political events at the taxpayer’s expense.

Rush and the conservatives (republican or not) would do us all a favor if they would drop the “socialist” stuff, because no one cares about that except the right wing loonies and corporate crooks.

They CAN do us a favor by insisting on fiscal responsibility, government restraint on spending, strict accountability and transparency, secure borders and e-verify which we are NOT getting from Obama, and didn’t get from Bush or Clinton. THIS is what resonates. I think most people would be willing to SWITCH parties if they thought the repubs could or wanted to accomplish this.

Whenever I hear Rush and others go off on the communist stuff, I can literally hear people turning off, and I say to myself, “what a missed opportunity”. Rush could do us all a service if he would stick to the above. He’s probably the one repub that could really stick it to the crooks. But the harping on ideology and pathetic little political war games will keep him marginalized, just like Begala and Carville are because of their tactics that worked so horribly for Hillary. We are all over that and looking for the real stuff whether from right or left.

First, lets examine Rush. The man is a radio call-in show host. Period. The fact that he has a substance abuse problem and a huge girth surrounding his little bitty ego [layers of fat designed to make the very small and irrelevant look larger than life] does not make him a good radio call-in show host.

The mark of good is the ability to allow each and every opinion to be heard on it’s own merits. Just as thoughtful comment will generate more thoughtful comment, most dummies will quickly settle any question of “smarts” with their own pronouncements.  For the Rush and the Rush fans, the sound of their own echo is all they need to hear.

Now there’s a clue!

Fresh ideas is a misnomer. There hasn’t been a fresh idea from the right for more than a century! And I’m not sure there was even back then!

Since way before the final crash of the early twentieth century, those responsible were busy trying to re-craft history. When the crash came, they continued on trying to re-write reality. Following recovery and even during recovery, they fought stubbornly against any success. And following success they began a decades long fight to make everything that worked unworkable. All the while looking for ways to take for themselves whatever they could grab.

The real problem with the so-called conservatives is they have no clue what conservative is! Just as they have no clue what liberal is! Simple minds, unable to understand ideas, adopt words. And words have value only to the degree they have meaning. So those on the right have devoted lifetimes to forcing irrelevant meaning into simple words. In other words, they can’t come with fresh ideas, because they have never been able to come with fresh ideas, because they don’t understand the concept of idea!

They are driven by just one reality and that can be summed up in a single word. Control. Really mean aggressive people may by force, or deception acquire control of a machine, but if they don’t know how to run that machine, they’ll just end up driving it into a ditch!

And that about sums up the Republican Party!

Along come the dems and get busy trying to get that machine out of the ditch. Meanwhile the repubs are too busy quarrelling about who gets to drive the next machine into the ditch, to understand the thing IS IN THE DITCH!

They can’t even understand the ditch!

Of course ideas no longer matter to republicans! How can they when they don’t understand the meaning of the word idea? Of course ideas are dangerous! Anything that can not be understood is dangerous to the simple mind!

Fresh ideas from the republicans? That’s like expecting the sun and the moon to stop, turn around and go the other way. It just aint gonna happen!

Sometimes “old” ideas are the most prescient.  Consider this observation from Karl Marx, who predicted the current crisis.

With respect to financial expansion and crisis, Karl Marx wrote in volume three of Capital that the whole “sphere of production may be saturated with capital,” with the result that profits increasingly enter into the sphere of speculation.

“If . . . new accumulation,” he wrote, “meets with difficulties in its employment, through a lack of spheres for investment, i.e., due to a surplus in the branches of production and an over-supply of loan capital, this plethora of loanable money-capital merely shows the limitations of capitalist production. The subsequent credit swindle proves that no real obstacle stands in the way of the employment of this surplus-capital. However, an obstacle is indeed immanent in its laws of expansion, i.e., in the limits in which capital can realise itself as capital.”

The “credit swindle,” arising with the turn to money capital as the basis of the amassing of wealth, inevitably precedes a bust. “Business always appears excessively sound right on the eve of a crash.”