News Roundup for 3/5/12

His common sense approach to issues has cost him nine advertisers so far

-Bonus HotD-
"Rush's 53 Smears Against Sandra Fluke."

In his half-hearted not-really-an-apology to Georgetown University student Sandra Fluke, Rush Limbaugh wrote, "For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke."

The problem here is that this "instance" was three separate shows over a three day period and that Rush personally attacked her -- i.e., said things about her personally -- at least 53 different times during that period.

I hope no one takes this the wrong way, because I don't mean this to be a personal attack, but Rush Limbaugh is a steaming bowl of crap. I mean that in only the nicest way, of course, and am only illustrating the absurd with absurdity. Mr. Limbaugh is not, after all, a literal steaming bowl of crap. It's merely a metaphor. He's as helpful and useful to a functioning society as a steaming bowl of crap and I just want highlight this undeniable fact.

At this point, Limbaugh's bleeding advertisers at an alarming rate, having just lost his 9th today.

Try not to take it personally, Rush. (DailyKos)


-I don't see how that's going to help-



After all, talking to Republicans is what got them so far gone in the first place. (McClatchy)


-Bonus HotD-
"Romney: 'In my administration, coal will not be a four-letter word.'"

I guess he plans to spell it wrong or something... (ThinkProgress)

Limbaugh's 'Slut' Comments Bring Out the Most Self-Destructive Tendencies of the GOP Base

Right now, the GOP is in a bit of a tailspin. The base seems to be at the stick and they're determined to point the nose straight at the ground. They'll show that stupid planet -- they'll crash this thing right into it and then we'll see who's boss!

A quick spin through the rightwing blogosphere shows a widespread political tone-deafness beyond any I think I've ever seen before. Rush Limbaugh's "slut" comments and subsequent non-apology have thrown them into a complete frenzy of boneheadedness and mindless rage. It's really something to see. They're riding this political loser all the way to the pavement.

I don't want to get too psychoanalytical -- mostly because I'm not qualified -- but you really have to wonder if the recent death of Andrew Breitbart figures into all this. Breitbart was popular on the right, they have no one to blame for his death, and all that emotion has to go somewhere. So it's pointed at innocent bystanders; Sandra Fluke and the people who agree with her. Breitbart's dead, Limbaugh's "under attack"... It's not hard to see the fear and rage that's always there finally boiling over as a result. If you read the comment threads to some of the wingnut blog entries, you'd think it was 9/11 all over again.

Of course, an out-of-control base has been the GOP's problem for a while now. Polling shows that a drawn-out primary season hurting the party. And it's hurting the party because of all the pandering to the base. The debate has been driven far, far to the right of the average voter, making the candidates' stated "Republican values" almost alien to most people. And then this past week. Wow, this past week.

Republicans had already stumbled twice with women voters -- first by backing the Komen Foundation over Planned Parenthood, then by opposing the contraceptive coverage rule. Combine this with the backwards-looking -- but high-profile -- puritanism of Rick Santorum and you've got a party that's really starting to look very anti-woman.

And then Limbaugh doubles down and makes it not only explicitly anti-woman, but anti-contraception. Conservative blogs wondered aloud if contraception was such a good idea and took Limbaugh's position that women who enjoy sex while avoiding pregnancy are automatically sluts. It was the reactionary tendency of the right gone haywire; liberals have sex and use contraception (just like everyone else), so liberals were wrong. Lost was "religious liberty" argument, which was hardly any better. The banner of "contraception=sluts!" was proudly being carried forward -- and still is.


[Village Voice:]

"Rush Calls Some Slut a Slut and Everyone Gets Sand in Their Collective V@g!n@," said The Alternative Conservative, who apparently found "vagina" offensive but "slut" OK.

"Please don't call Sandra Fluke a slut," said Ace of Spades. "Respect her for what she is, a shiftless rent-a-cooch from East Whoreville."

"Let's face it, I'm sure most people, including Liberals/progressives, thought 'my goodness, how much sex does she have a day? Does she ever study?'" fantasized William Teach.

Things were a little different at the classier rightblogs. At National Review, for example, Daniel Foster called Limbaugh's comments "ungentlemanly' before explaining why Limbaugh was perfectly within his rights to call the slut a slut. Class will tell!


These are the people at least one GOP candidate will have to pander to -- Mitt Romney. Ron Paul will never get the nomination and when Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum speak these people's language, they aren't actually pandering. They're right at home.

Which means these awful, repellent, vile individuals are piloting this thing -- as I said -- straight to the dirt. And they're throwing the parachutes out the window as they go. They're bound and determined to drive this thing not only into the ground, but under it.

Because they've somehow become convinced that a big fireball will prove those damned liberals wrong.

-Wisco

Are Republicans Finally Done Apologizing to Limbaugh?

You have to wonder why Rush Limbaugh holds such an exulted position in the Republican pantheon. Not only did Republicans put him in their top three "least favorite" news personalities in a recent Harris Poll, but he's frequently more trouble than he's worth. Yes, he's the top-rated talk radio host in America. Yes, his audience is nearly entirely Republican. And yes, that audience are proudly "dittoheads" who do whatever Limbaugh tells them to. But all of that means jack. No one listens to talk radio. The local classic rock station probably has a bigger audience than Limbaugh in any given market. In any sane world, he would be nobody. The vast, vast majority of Americans -- and even of Republicans -- don't hang on Rush's every word. In fact, that majority doesn't listen to him at all. Color me perplexed.

Maybe it's Limbaugh's position as a corporate mouthpiece that frightens the GOP. It's not who he speaks to that's important, but who he speaks for. His market share isn't really the result of popularity, it's the result of Clear Channel's desire to get Limbaugh's voice heard. If Rush were left to live or die on ratings, he would've been cancelled long, long ago (as his ratings-dependent TV show was) and talk radio in general would be a dead medium. He's like Glenn Beck before Fox News finally tired of him -- a revenue hole, but useful as a propaganda tool.

Which is why it's hard to get extremely excited by this news:


[Politico:]

One of the advertisers on Rush Limbaugh’s popular conservative radio show Friday announced that it is pulling its ads in the wake of the host’s controversial “slut” comments this week.

“We don’t condone negative comments directed toward any group. In response, we are currently pulling our ads from Rush with Rush Limbaugh,” the company Sleep Train Mattress Centers announced on its Twitter account early Friday.

An examination of @theSleepTrain’s latest tweets shows that the company began tweeting at some of its followers starting around midnight, telling multiple Twitter users, “Thank you for your concern. We are currently pulling all of our ads with Rush Limbaugh.”

Don't get me wrong; I applaud Sleep Train's move and I think every decent person should. But I just don't think it's going to make any difference. Limbaugh's show, with all it's worship of capitalism and the "job creators," isn't about generating advertising revenue and bringing in a profit. It's a lobbying firm that specializes in astroturfing. The ad revenue is simply gravy. While it's not likely that Limbaugh would ever have no advertisers at all, it's not hard to imagine the show continuing without any. Sleep Train's smart to pull the ads and disassociate themselves from Limbaugh's stinking pit of hatred and lies -- and more advertisers should -- but it's not really going to hurt him much. Sorry.

This, on the other hand, is a different story entirely:


[Politico:]

Speaker John Boehner on Friday denounced radio host Rush Limbaugh’s “slut” remarks aimed at Georgetown University student Sandra Fluke, but the Ohio Republican also jabbed at Democrats who have been fundraising off the fracas.

“The speaker obviously believes the use of those words was inappropriate, as is trying to raise money off the situation,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in an e-mail Friday morning.

[...]

On his radio show this week, Limbaugh used “slut” and “prostitute” to refer to Fluke and equated her advocating for contraception access to demanding to be “paid to have sex.” House Democrats sent a letter to Boehner Thursday asking House Republican leaders to condemn the remarks.


Yeah, Boehner couldn't resist taking a purely gratuitous shot at Democrats, but this is an interesting development. Remember when Republicans couldn't stop apologizing to Limbaugh? Things have really changed.

Maybe they're finally coming to realize that Rush really is nobody and that, as I've already said, he's more trouble than he's worth. It would be hard to think of a more positive -- but realistic -- development for the GOP than for them to stop caring what talk radio shriekers think.

-Wisco

News Roundup for 3/1/12

Something conservatives have apparently never seen

-Headline of the Day-
"Contraception: That’s Not How It Works, Guys."

Or a shorter headline might be "conservatives are morons."

See, it all started when some random street lunatic wrote a column for CNSNews titled, "Sex-Crazed Co-Eds Going Broke Buying Birth Control, Student Tells Pelosi Hearing Touting Freebie Mandate." Good on CNS for employing the mentally challenged.

However, other rightwing dopes couldn't (or more likely refused to) see the glaring problem with the piece -- birth control pills are a course of treatment. In other words, it doesn't matter how much sex you have, you'll always take the same schedule of pills. That's why the container/dispenser thing is a freakin' calendar.

But never mind the facts. According to Ed Kilgore, recent and fucking awful comments by Rush Limbaugh and others show "this idea that young women are having so much sex they are going broke and want taxpayers to bail them out seems to be solidifying into an actual, real-life meme (which is a bit astounding given what year it is)."

That's right, conservative blowhards are so intent on winning this contraception fight thing (that they just lost, by the way), that they're perfectly willing to come across as brainless idiots.

And I think I'm seeing how this works now; some conservative writes something fuckwitted, all the liberal blogs laugh at it, and the wingnut bloggers and talk show hosts crawl out of the woodwork to defend it. It doesn't make any difference how insane it is, liberals are wrong -- automatically. So if they say you don't use more BC if you have a lot of sex, then that's just nutty and you should laugh at the crazy libtards.

Still, Kilgore takes a shot at straightening this all out: "So, to all the people making this argument: Hi! Here’s a quick primer. This debate is mostly about the pill, not condoms. It’s not that every time a woman has sex she has to take a pill (though something like that also exists for emergency situations, and I’m aware that this enrages you). Rather, women get a prescription for these things called birth-control pills that are generally taken every day. So it’s a fixed prescription cost, and like many such costs, if insurance doesn’t cover it it can get out of hand really quickly because our medical system is an octopus riding a donkey riding a skateboard into a sadness quarry. But there is no proportional relationship between the amount of sex a woman has and the number of standard birth-control pills she consumes. Why, there are even women who aren’t sexually active who take the pill for medical reasons. Whoa!"

Nice try, but I don't think it's sinking in. (Political Animal)


-Cartoon Time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, Uncle Mark's here to explain the issues in the election this year! Yay!


Click for animation

Uncle Mark depresses me sometimes... (MarkFiore.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"Andrew Breitbart Drops Dead."

Wish I'd thought of that headline. (Wonkette)

News Roundup for 2/29/12

Rick Santorum

-Headline of the Day-
"Does Rick Santorum Have a Problem With the Ladies?"

I know it's hard to believe, because he's got all the moves of a white Smoove B, but Rick Santorum may not be connecting with the fairer sex. And by "may not be," I mean "isn't."

You'd think they'd like all that stuff about how they should stay at home and have emotions and have babies and never have birth control or college educations, but they don't. It's a puzzler. According to the report, "A Michigan exit poll showed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney garnered support from 43 percent of women voters compared to 38 percent for Santorum. With Romney notching such a narrow victory there, the margin among women is enough to be the difference. A poll taken a week before the Arizona contest showed women picking Romney over Santorum by a 2-to-1 margin."

Rick's plan so far is to talk about his wife and his mom a lot -- I guess to prove that there are women out their who can stomach love him. If that doesn't work, expect campaign ads with soft music and candlelight. "C'mon over here and let me talk some sweet, sweet capital gains tax cuts, bay-bee. Boom chaka wow-wow..." (US News)


-Speaking of Rick-


Click for full strip

Santorum 2012; because a dumber America is possible. (GoComics.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"Wall Street Bonus Drop Means Trading Aspen for Discount Cereal."

In which the Wall Street one-percenters complain they don't have enough money. "Paid a lower bonus, [Andrew Schiff, director of marketing for broker-dealer Euro Pacific Capital Inc.] said the $350,000 he earns, enough to put him in the country’s top 1 percent by income, doesn’t cover his family’s private-school tuition, a Kent, Connecticut, summer rental and the upgrade they would like from their 1,200-square- foot Brooklyn duplex," the report tells us. Sounds awful.

But this is the fun part:


“People who don’t have money don’t understand the stress,” said Alan Dlugash, a partner at accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron LLP in New York who specializes in financial planning for the wealthy. “Could you imagine what it’s like to say I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out? How do you do that?”


Maybe you can cut back on Lear jet polish? Then again, I probably don't understand the stress of having money.(Bloomberg)


-The Rare Bonus Bonus HotD-
"The Five Best Quotes in Bloomberg’s Outrageous Banker Bonuses Story."

In case you just want the good parts. (Gawker)