Hour 3: Limbaugh: Democrats waging "all out assault on capitalism, individualism, and freedom"
This
hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by rugged individualism
by Simon Maloy
Rush kicked off the final hour with some sad news -- he'll be out on Monday for another charity golf outing. In his place will be Mark Steyn, who once described Michelle Obama as "Kim Jong-Il dressed up with a bit of Oprah Winfrey dressing." So he should do just fine ...
Rush then expressed concern that some in his audience might not understand what he meant when he said over and over and over that Obama wants to destroy individualism and capitalism and the country. Rush embarked on an extended monologue about the source of our freedom, and praised rugged individualism -- that spirit that led mankind to discover the New World and fly to the moon. A fine example of this spirit of rugged individualism, according to Rush, is the tremendously successful Rush Limbaugh. After extolling his listeners to believe in themselves, Rush explained that Obama wants "to control and to limit freedom. Because the only way Obama can get the power he wants, and the Democrats can get the power they want, is if you willingly turn it over to them by getting rid of your self-interest, your self-respect and holding your best interests at heart."
Coming back from commercials, Rush took a caller who expressed her offense at Obama's Special Olympics remarks and subsequent apology. Rush agreed, again calling Obama "cold," "angry," and possessed of a "chip on his shoulder."
Back from another advertising time-out, Rush returned to his Obama-Palin comparison from the first hour, contrasting Obama's Special Olympics comments with those of Sarah Palin. Rush's point was to illustrate how "false images" -- that of "suave" Obama and "vulgar" Palin -- can be "created and magnified" by the media.
Then Rush took a call from a woman endeavoring to correct Rush on his comments regarding mark-to-market accounting and Enron from earlier in the week. After a brief conversation, the caller said she did not think Enron was corrupt, and Limbaugh asked her thoughts on AIG. She was happy that the AIG executives got those bonuses, and Rush proclaimed her "my kind of woman" because she has "courage." However, he might have rethought that sentiment shortly thereafter, when the caller offered some interesting theories on the Enron scandal -- specifically that, while former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow stole from Enron, Enron itself did nothing wrong and was a "victim."
One more break and one more Tonight Show sound byte, which, according to Rush, "dovetailed" nicely with his claim that Obama is attacking individualism. He aired audio of Obama saying: "We need young people instead of this smart kid coming out of school instead of wanting to be an investment banker, we need them to decide that they want to be an engineer. They want to be a scientist. They want to be a doctor or a teacher. And if we're rewarding those kind of things that actually contribute to making things and making people's lives better, that's going to put our economy on solid footing." Rush's response? "It's none of his damn business what you want to do with your life!" Rush reiterated his "A" for AIG remarks, adding: "He wants people in that business to be hated. He wants people in that business to be suspects."
Thus concludes another week of The Limbaugh Wire. We're going to spend the weekend curled in the fetal position and gently weeping as our NCAA bracket self-destructs. If you're not doing the same, we highly recommend a thorough reading of Media Matters' ongoing and exhaustive Limbaugh coverage. And check out the rest of the site too. We hear they have some good stuff there.
Highlights from Hour 3
Outrageous comments
LIMBAUGH: Everybody's trying to hold everybody back. It's just human nature, and it's only the belief in yourself that propels you through all of those things and yourself as the individual. I got fired seven times. One time was it probably justified, the other times due to vagaries of the broadcast business. But each time I got fired, the person who fired me said, "You know, you really don't have what it takes to succeed here. If you want to stay in this business, you need go into sales or something else because you just -- you really don't have that much talent." And I'm saying to myself, "How would you know? You've never let me exhibit it. You and your brilliant management have come up with ways that I can only say this here or that there or I can only take that much time -- how do you know what my talent is? And when was the last time you really cared to find out what my talent is?" Without believing in yourself, you're going nowhere, and you won't believe in yourself if somebody beats the individual out of you, if somebody convinces you that you don't deserve to do any better than anyone else because that's not fair. And they are teaching you that in school about your grades, and they're teaching you that about economics -- it's not fair that you have a nicer car than the schlub down the street, it's just not fair. It's humiliating to the people who have less. So they're trying to beat the individual out of you, and the individual in you, the belief in yourself is the only thing you've got to compete against everybody that's trying to hold you back, and they all are. It's the way of the world.
You look at things from afar, you look at pop culture, you look at movie stars, and you think that's a community and they all decided one day -- they all decided that Cameron Diaz is great, and they all got together and they all love Cameron Diaz and they've all made her a big star. That's the image they project because they want you to think it's a giant -- Cameron Diaz is like everybody else. She had to fight for everything she has, and she's -- they're nipping at her heels now as she gets older -- same thing with Julia Roberts. It doesn't change no matter where you are, no matter what kind of glamour. You take a look around you. The genuinely successful people that you see who you want to be did not check their individualism at the door when they started their work. They didn't check their self-interest at the door, and they didn't check their self-respect, and they didn't turn over the belief in themselves to somebody else. That's all I'm talking about, and that's under assault by this administration, which wants to control and limit freedom. Because the only way Obama can get the power he wants, and the Democrats can get the power they want, is if you willingly turn it over to them by getting rid of your self-interest, your self-respect and holding your best interests at heart. Your best interests do not coincide with the government's, especially now.
[...]
LIMBAUGH: This sound byte dovetails with what I was saying all day long about this administration targeting individualism. This administration and the Democrat Party have an all-out assault on capitalism, individualism, and freedom, and this is how it happens. Obama last night on Tthe Tonight Show.
OBAMA [audio clip]: We need young people instead of, you know, this smart kid coming out of school instead of wanting to be an investment banker, we need them to decide that they want to be an engineer. They want to be a scientist. They want to be a doctor or a teacher. And if we're rewarding those kind of things that actually contribute to making things and making people's lives better, that's going to put our economy on solid footing. We won't have this bubble-and-bust economy that we've gotten so caught up in for the last several years.
LIMBAUGH: Now, this is part of his existence. His wife said the same thing in Zanesville, Ohio, back during the campaign. Don't be a lawyer, don't be an investment banker. Stay as a nurse of what have you. So here is the president of the United States on the Tonight Show, which, you know, the audience of that show -- what would you want to guess the average IQ of the audience of the Tonight Show is? Don't be an investment banker. Do not do that. You will destroy America. It's none of his damn business what you want to do with your life. It's none of his business unless he's paying your education, unless he's your father, and even then it's your life and you can do with it what you want. Of all of the occupations, don't be an investment banker. Why? Who's he targeting? He wants everyone in finance to wear a giant red A for AIG. He wants people in that business to be hated. He wants people in that business to be suspects. Instead of, you know, smart kid coming out of school, instead of wanting to be an investment banker, we need them to decide that they want to be an engineer, a scientist, a doctor, a teacher. And if we're rewarding those kind of things, which actually contribute to making things and making people's lives better. You don't think this guy has a bug up his dress? You don't think this guy has got a chip on his shoulder about wealthy people, what he thinks are wealthy -- you don't think this guy has a prejudice?
Can't really argue with this at ALL!
Care to elaborate? This should be interesting...
I can. For example, I believe Cameron Diaz was discovered at a party when she was 16 years old. So much for people trying to hold her back.
It's obvious that Rush has total disdain for education but I find his disdain for people who make things a bit interesting. So is he now against manufacturing jobs too? He doesn't care for people who actually produce things? Wow...
He doesn't even like the concept of "the working man." President Obama obviously knows we have shortages of doctors, nurses, engineers and teachers. But we have no shortage of investment bankers. How dare President Obama point this out!
This is a great item for Media Matters to carry because it aptly points out just how utterly ridiculous Limbaugh really is. Nothing the Obama administration is doing will require Americans to give up their self-respect, their individualism or their belief in themselves.
Yes. The GOP, the party that attempts to punish its members when they don't vote in lockstep, is really the party of individualism.
Rush is to decency what Bush was to taking the law seriously!
Limbaugh is and always will be a joke!
If any one of his listeners actually believe that Rush has their interests in mind... they have bigger issues than they realize!
As for the fantasies called rugged individualism and American exceptionalism... are just what they are... fantasies!
Thom Hartmann talks about this all the time... (in fact... last night, Thom mentioned it last night during the "Great Debate" against Michael Medved in Rolling Meadows, IL ... I was there in person... it was an awesome time!)
That WE are all in this thing called society TOGETHER!
I have a question for those that believe in the mantra of the fantasies I mentioned above...
As it pertains to making money or wealth...
Where do you think that money comes from? Thin air or society?
Does that money appear simply because you bust your butt for 40-50, or 80 hours a week?
Or does that money end up in your hand because a chunk of society decided to buy the stuff you busted your butt making?
Would anyone disagree that money and wealth are only created when society decides it wants what it is you make? Or does it end up in your hand simply because you worked hard?
Could Rusty have picked a less accurate or less appropriate example of "rugged individualism" than mankind's attempt to fly to the moon?
And again, Limbaugh is in backwards world.
The only people who hold back others are the Warpublicans and middle-of-the-road conservatives.
It is 100 percent against the entire *being* of Democrats/Liberals to do anything BUT want everyone to succeed.
But Limbaugh's party is the party of racism, prejudice and "morals" (arbitrarily designed on their own behalf- that don't equate to other peoples "morals".)
When you stop to think of it, and reverse everything Limbaugh says, he's almost dead on 100 percent of the time! He must be stuck in a backwards loop. Some kind of quantum mechanics, alternate dimension hiccup.
I have my doubts about how much you actually know about quantum mechanics or quantum dynamics, but I do know that this place is definitely where I'd look for a new type of hadryon called the "bogon"- one which imparts a left "spin" to other particles and distorts their capacity to uptake, analyze, or relate information correctly .
example- The article goes up Rush's nose for criticizing the President's remark about the special olympics. I guess all a left leaning marxist needs to do is apologize and it never happened. Talk about hypocrisy. If a republican had made a similar remark, with a similar apology before the end of the show, you'd all be eating him for lunch until the next election cycle.
example two- re: the caller saying that Enron was a victim. funny how often we hear that comeback from lefties when ACORN is accused of perpetuating voter registration fraud? Your "emperor" not only has no clothes and you're afraid to tell him, you acutually believe your own crap.
Oh dee, did you see my article earlier of several republican officials arrested on RICO charges for illegally changing votes on diebold machines and showing other republicans how to do it too? Officials who apparently changed official outcomes in the 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 elections for their county? Why waste time parsing words to get the answer you want when we have federal indictments that prove corruption?
Hint: once again, the worst crimes are found on the GOP side of the fence...
All you do is whine that the other side whines?
As long as Bush was President, Hannity was whining that anyone who opposed his policies was Hate bush person. Anyone who broght up the word Bin Laden was reminded that it was Clinton's fault not to have accepted him on a 'silver platter'. No whining that in EIGHT LONG YEARS Bush did diddly. When someone points it out, whine that it was Clinton's fault to reject the supposed silver platter.
I am reasonable but I think Republicans are the masters at making a living/career out of whining. That is all they do.
Oh Miss Dee...
You are a a snide one ain't ya!
First, I'm a father of a special ed child who has been in four different special olympics and upon my hearing about President Obama's slip on Leno... all I could do was figure it was nothing more than that... a slip.
Second, why are you assuming that anyone would be jumping all over any given conservative or rightwinger for doing the same until the next election... I still hear on occasion that it is Bill Clintons fault for 9/11 or that Gore is a cry baby about the 2000 election or that its all Obama's fault for our current economic breakdown since last Nov for being elected.
Third, ACORN?...... ACORN? Still stuck on that non-story? I beg you... I demand that you offer up ANY.... ANY itty bitty tinnie tiny little tidbit of proof that ACORN commited voter registration fraud?
I'd even be willing to send you $20 to your PayPal Acct (If you have one) if you can find one legitimate source that legally proves that ACORN commited any kind of fraud!
I swear... zombies like you are why I love coming to sites like this... you make a claim... I ask for proof... you will have none to show... because ACORN did not commit any fraud! PERIOD!
Learn a new line you neanderthal and stop drinking the KoolAid from years past!
Although the organization prides itself for its registration efforts, it also has a long history of scandal. In the state of Missouri in 1986, 12 ACORN members were convicted of voter fraud. But that case was not an isolated incident in the state. In December 2004, in St. Louis, six volunteers pleaded guilty of dozens of election law violations for filling out registration cards with names of dead people and other bogus information. Authorities launched an earlier investigation after noticing that among the new voters was longtime St. Louis alderman Albert “Red” Villa, who died in 1990. The volunteers worked for “Operation Big Vote” — a branch of ACORN — in St. Louis.
You know where to stick the $20, right...Quisling?
That which you speak of are incidences of individual contractors that attempted voter registration fraud by becoming to lazy to do the job they were being paid to do for one lame reason or another...
Upon handing those fake cards in to ACORN... ACORN, in due diligence, did all it could to verify the legitimacy of the cards...
After which ACORN was mandated by law to hand in all filled in cards... also, it is not ACORNS job to verify completely the legitimacy of a registration card, just their best attempt at doing so. That is the job of the government dept that deals with that... The County Clerks office!
As a result... any fraud committed was NOT committed by ACORN, but by those few that handed in cards (which ACORN paid for via a contract) for which those individual workers knew were not legal or proper.
The only thing that ACORN is guilty of is being naive and too trusting! But under no circumstance is ACORN criminally guilty of any kind of fraud in the cases you mention!
Civilly perhaps (like Burger King being sued for an employee spitting in someones food. BK hired the guy, but the company did not commit the crime, the employee did, so BK can be sued civilly but not charged for any crime.)
The claim: "history of scandal" is what is called... guilt by association! and is nothing more than a case of ACORN being subject to the same weaknesses from its contractors or employees as any other business.
As for the $20 I offered... I only offered it to MissDee... but I have no fear of offering up $20 to the first person that can come up with actual proof that ACORN itself committed registration fraud knowingly! Not it's lazy contractors as per my explaination!
“Ex-ACORN worker: 'I paid the price' for voter registration fraud
SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- Clifton Mitchell helped register nearly 2,000 voters for the community group ACORN. But not one of them actually existed. Clifton Mitchell filled out voter cards using fake birthdays, Social Security numbers and baby-name books. 'I regret it. I paid the price for it,' he said. Mitchell was convicted last year and spent nearly three months in prison. He's one of the few ACORN workers convicted of voter registration fraud. Today, he lives with his wife and two boys, ages 3 and 1, in a small apartment in suburban Seattle, Washington. Mitchell said he scammed the system because, 'I needed money; I had to support my family and I was new to the area. It was the only job I had.' Mitchell said ACORN threatened to close the office if he and his team didn't meet their quota to register 13 to 20 voters a day. So, without consulting their supervisors, he said, they came up with a plan. 'We came up with the idea: Let's make fraudulent cards. I tell my crew, 'I don't care how you get 'em, just get 'em,' Mitchell recalled. They took addresses from homeless shelters, used fake birthdays and Social Security numbers and took names from baby books to create voters out of thin air.”
Reference: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/22/voter.fraud/
Your response: "No, no, no: that guy's a human being who worked for ACORN. I want proof that ACORN, ya know, the BUILDING, actually KNOWINGLY committed voter registration fraud."
Look, you lost this one. Okay? Fact: ACRON exploits desperate people to advance a leftist agenda. Man up and pay Miss Dee and move on. Who knows, you might actually win an argument...someday.
Or are you going to split hairs again...call me a name, perhaps? Or better yet, report me to Media Matters and get me banned, yeah. That would be cool!
Peace Out!
“Ex-ACORN worker: 'I paid the price' for voter registration fraud"
While I do not dispute that there have been a few cases of individuals working for ACORN that have committed voter fraud... this is not a case where ACORN purposely endorsed committing said fraud.
Admittedly... ACORN may have opened a door for fraud to occur, but unless ACORN told this guy to actually fill out those cards instead of doing the legal thing and go door to door... then NO... ACORN did not commit any fraud!
If you remember my example from above about BK... would BK be criminally liable if an employee spit in a customers food or even hurt a customer?
Big Oil knows that dumping toxic waste into the water is a danger to us all... that is fact! They are criminally liable. So unless you can find proof that ACORN, like Big Oil actually made the decision for its people to commit fraud of any kind or actually knew it was occurring but did nothing to stop it...
Then NO... I did not lose the argument!
You claim as fact: "ACRON exploits desperate people to advance a leftist agenda."
By telling its people that in order to keep its doors open or for the managment to keep their jobs that they need to have X amount of registration cards filled out per day or week IS NOT COMMITTING FRAUD! Does it maybe open a door to fraud? Yes... But that is on the people woking in that office being willing to do their job correct or not... not ACORN... unless as I said... ACORN specifically told the people working there to fill out cards with fake names and information!
As for tipping off MMfA to have you banned? For what? Joining me in a heated discussion? I live for these things... why would I want to be rid of you? You are certainly giving to others what I could never give...
"… comitted any kind of fraud"
became
"committed registration fraud knowingly"
became
"specifically told the people"
Come on, which is it?
If this isn't a perfect example of how liberals never let the facts get in the way of their opinions, then show me one better.
Look, I'll give you the $20 and you can send it to MissDee. Okay? And ACORN did not report every incidence of fraud. They make the claim, but admitted they haven't the resources to do the job (investigate fraud). As for the yet proved claim that no one actually voted with a fraudulent registration—so fraudulent registrations are no “big deal”—is like an airline accused of shoddy maintenance barking, “Has a plane crashed? Huh? Show me ONE plane that's crashed.” Again, come on already. Stop beating this dead, “excuse mongering” horse and deal with the truth. Show me a training pamphlet from ACORN where they spell out fraudulent registrations will not be accepted and canvassers can (and do) go to jail PRIOR TO 12/31/2008. ACORN is corrupt (don't get me started on their complicity in the mortgage fiasco) and should not be funded by the tax payer. PERIOD.
Actually, the amount you hear that is zero. The point that is made, which always sails right over MissDeeMinus' head, is that ACORN reported every instance of fraud that was investigated. They did not perpetrate any fraud at all, the people they hired did so to inflate their paychecks, and every time it was discovered and investigated, ACORN was the entity that reported the abuse to the authorities.
So, I would say the "knowledge" you claim of quantum dynamics falls into the same category as all other "knowledge" you claim to possess: unproven, and certainly not demonstrated in this forum.
Oh I think we can all agree the Special Olympics line was unfortunate. In my city, Stephanie Miller's show was criticizing him at 6am for it. So, if we're comparing radio personalities, since they seem to be THE most important news on MMFA now, then you're wrong, Miss Dee - if you imply that no one on the left called him on it.
She will anyways. When your party is repeatedly exposed for corruption, you have two choices to make. One, you can condemn them and demand they be removed from office so your party can move forward, or two, you can protect them, and instead point your fingers at the other side in an effort to deflect your party's corruption. Dee has chosen two, and thinks it's apples to apples to compare Obama's gaffe to Vitter's crime. Like her ENRON example, top officials who committed major crimes and toppled the entire company are somehow equivelant to a couple of pavement pounders from ACORN who are so far down the food chain they have no role in major decisions ACORN makes. But Rush told her to believe it, so like a good little storm trooper, she believes it on a fanatic level.
Carefull RUSH,or youl blow a gasket.
Limbaugh is pathetic in that he has no idea of what "freedom" really means. Unfortunately, those who call themselves economic "conservatives" (there's nothing "conservative" about them) and libertarians passionately believe that any effort by government to empower individuals is really intended as a means to control (and limit) the actions of individuals.
What happens in the real world is a result of both individual actions and systems effects. A denial of systems effects is, quite literally, insane. And it's fatal to any society that adopts such a worldview, which is why our economy is in so much trouble.
What's necessary is for "government to design the system that sets up conditions that allow individuals to prosper."This is necessary because, when the system fails, many individuals fail no matter how effective their individual actions were.
For more on this see Freedom? Liberal vs. Conservative.
This "Limbaugh Logic" is amazing. Because some nut somewhere doesn't want grade schoolers to compete, therefore we have to allow -- give license to -- the worst, most abusive practices of Wall Street? The biggest "assault on capitalism" has been made by unregulated speculators, not government bureaucrats.
Big government did design the system that failed. Hello? Anybody home?
Regarding President Obama's remarks about young people becoming engineer's he was referring to most of the brightest people going into the financial sector because it was so profitable instead of other industries.
I heard a great podcast from the Leonard Lopate show on 3-17. One of the guests was Thomas Geoghegan who also has an article in Harper's (I have not read but would like to). One of the things he talks about is:
Thanks to a 1978 Supreme Court decision that emasculated usury laws and allowed banks, in effect, to charge unlimited interest rates, financial sector profits or anticipated profits began to exceed profits from the manufacturing sector. The promise of higher profits caused investors to move their money from manufacturing to financial products.
Besides that I have been living in Germany for the last several months. I listen to Rush on my Austin, TX streaming radio show. It drives me crazy. I don't know if it is an act but he sounds like he is seething with anger. Maybe he is acting. They say he an entertainer. However, in my small brain I do think Rush is jealous of Barack Obama who is smart, attractive and apparently knows how to be in a relationship with a woman.
Note how Rush now blames the media for creating Obama's "suave" image? As I recall, once upon a time, Karl Rove and the GOP spin machine were trying very hard to create such an image.
They failed to do so. The GOP always criticizes others' success in any endeavor in which they fail.
If you want to talk about quantum dynamics, let's talk about the mechanics of IR abosbtion by CO2 in the atmosphere, shall we?
OK, as soon as you define the non-existent word "abosbtion."
ok, typo corrected. absorption. that was a pretty bad one.. but seriously, i like it when they try to sound smart, and i'll admit i mangled my response to that one, but anytime you try to engage one of these righties in a serious, fact-based discussion about real issues, they glaze over and revert to talking points.
I just wish we could focus on making everyone successful instead of blaming or criticizing people for becoming rich. Knocking people down isn't going to help me become more successful. The AIG bonuses were wrong and there are many people to fault, but in the whole sceme of what is going on, they are not the issue. Why blame the people who received the bonuses and protest in front of their houses? In the movie American History X, there is a great line told to Ed Norton's character...."How has all this anger improved your life?" Instead of the countriy hating the rich and successful and blaming them for our lives, we should focus on our lives and families. We should all strive for the best and in this country there really is no reason why we can't succeed.