I'm Super - Thanks For Asking

[barracuda]

Yes and it would be handy dandy for you if there were any Holocaust deniers or Christ killer vocalists here at RI. But as it happens there are only folk justifiably outraged at the murderous expansionist psychopathic Israeli State.

If only there had never been racists working overtime to actively promote their views here on the forum my vigilance in this regard would certainly be less heightened. Sadly, they have been legion. You've been here long enough to know that, I assume. If it never occured to you that this was the situation, let me take this opportunity to inform you that it has been.

I know there are those who consider my outlook and approach to the issue somewhat overdone. I'm glad it comes off that way, as opposed to less than enough. I can live with the former.

I'm not sure that "handy dandy" is exactly the adjective I'd choose in any case. Every encounter with the thing you propose might be handy dandy is actually painful and embarrassing for me.

Of course you would prefer to talk about issues that do not point toward the sickness within the psyches that support this murderous regime. It’s always the other people that are sick, like those folk who are liked by deniers and Christ-killer vocalists, those are the sick people.

To be perfectly frank, my antipathy towards the Israeli state has actually lessened a bit since I began reading here, for while I still detest its apartheid nature, prison camp mentality, deadly military, and the many horrors and injustices it has visited upon the Palestinians, I've come to the conclusion that Israel is in most aspects little different from my own country. And while I revile the hateful actions of my own country, and spend no little time wondering how to change that, I also have a love of my country and especially my larger neighborhood that comes from the comfort of familiarity, and from being born of this place. It's a fondness which seemingly cannot be dispelled by the either crimes of my government, awareness of the colonialist history of the annexation of the property I live on, or the ignorance of many of the people here, an ignorance which at times appears both inexhaustible and growing. It's hard to explain: if I were of perfect conscience maybe I should give my home to an indigenous family and go live in a place where no one has suffered as a result of the actions of the U.S. state. If I am a lesser person for not doing so, so be it.

I can't see much justification in anyone really complaining about my smallish forays against words that I perceive to be anti-semitic, though. If my grumblings about the matter are annoying to you, take solace that it is merely the annoyance of the persistent gnat. There are literally hundreds, maybe thousands of threads in General Discussion highlighting in detail the various crimes and suspected machinations of the Israelis, so it's not as if I've in some way curtailed the group expression of vehement anti-fascism with regard to the state of Israel. I have not and have never meant to, or really would want to. If you find I don't talk about it much, perhaps its because many of my words on the subject usually seem to me to be already well taken by the posters for whom Israel rests among their central concerns.

If ‘those’ people like you then you must be sick. That’s the ticket, racists listen to Gilad therefore anti-racists must ignore him. This either/or thinge sure is awesome.

I have read a variety of Mr. Atzmon's writings which I have no problem with. Alice had posted his "Primacy of the Ear" essay here once before, and that thread wasn't locked or censured for "sickness". On the contrary, her reposting of it was met with enthusiasm. It's possible to contain both love and hate within a single person, you know, to contain greatly admirable qualities right alongside defects of the soul. More than possible, I guess - it's entirely human.

[seemslikeadream]

Marsha Marsha Marsha


Can I please have one thread that does not mention that one group that gets ALL the anti - denial to themselves around here? I want the right to my own anti without inserting the one that gets all the attention




take it fuckin somewhere else before this thread gets locked.....REMEMBER THE VOLCANO!

[norton ash]

^^^ Well put, Cuda.

[bks]

barracuda wrote:

To be perfectly frank, my antipathy towards the Israeli state has actually lessened a bit since I began reading here, for while I still detest its apartheid nature, prison camp mentality, deadly military, and the many horrors and injustices it has visited upon the Palestinians, I've come to the conclusion that Israel is in most aspects little different from my own country. And while I revile the hateful actions of my own country, and spend no little time wondering how to change that, I also have a love of my country and especially my larger neighborhood that comes from the comfort of familiarity, and from being born of this place. It's a fondness which seemingly cannot be dispelled by the either crimes of my government, awareness of the colonialist history of the annexation of the property I live on, or the ignorance of many of the people here, an ignorance which at times appears both inexhaustible and growing. It's hard to explain: if I were of perfect conscience maybe I should give my home to an indigenous family and go live in a place where no one has suffered as a result of the actions of the U.S. state. If I am a lesser person for not doing so, so be it.

I think you've explained it rather well: you have a dual (or at least a non-unitary) consciousness, as do many thinking people who are "aware" of the terrible things referenced. The ways we know those things, and the ways we know the people and social comforts of our larger neighborhood are [for most of us] really, really different ways of knowing, though, as I suspect you (ahem) know.

[seemslikeadream]

Just what does a gal have to do around here to get her very own player hater thread?

[seemslikeadream]

Caught On Tape: Limbaugh's Seventy Sexist Smears

[Sounder]

That was an excellent response cuda, thank you very much.

[seemslikeadream]

Ok now can we all get back to hating women now? After all March IS Women's History Month

The He-Man Woman Haters Club
Posted: 02/29/2012 9:20 pm
During a month when the abortion and contraception debate peaked -- again -- you would've thought the Sunday political shows would feature a larger than usual roster of female panelists, strategists and experts.

Not a chance.

There were a total of four female guests during the entire month of February. This bears repeating. Out of 56 guests on the Sunday shows, only four were women. Four.

This statistic probably reminds you of Republican Rep. Darrell Issa's contraception hearing two weeks ago in which his panel of witnesses was composed entirely of men who were summoned to discuss health care for, you know, women. In fact, on the following Sunday's edition of Meet the Press, the all-male Issa hearing was discussed at length by David Gregory, Paul Ryan and Chris Van Hollen, who we can assume are each biologically male. Smart booking choices.

Sadly, the men's locker room on Sunday morning is a virtual bridal shower when compared to the increasingly aggressive He-Man Woman Hater's Club known as the Republican Party.

We begin with the voice of the party, Rush Limbaugh. The "Spanky" of the club.

Yes, I get it. We shouldn't pay attention to Limbaugh because he's a clown. He's nothing more than an over-drugged over-paid disc jockey who's performing a loud-mouthed Morton Downey, Jr. routine for the much coveted paleoconservative "market segment," as David Frum called it. All of this is true, but we can't ignore the fact that he controls the radio with more than 15 million weekly listeners. So whenever he says something awful on our public air, it has a significant impact. For example:

"Why is contraception so important that it must be paid for by somebody else?" he demanded to know. He asked why contraceptives are "a must-have" in comparison to toothpaste, hotel rooms or a car. "Why are so many people afraid of birth?"
I wonder if it was the use of toothpaste to prevent pregnancies or if it was his alleged inability to achieve an erection that prevented him from having children during any of his three marriages. Speaking of which, I wonder if his health insurance plan paid for the Viagra he was allegedly trying to smuggle into the Dominican Republic several years ago. While we're here, I wonder why he needed ED drugs in the Dominican Republic in the first place without any female partners with him on the trip. And if he was indeed planning to have anonymous sex (just guessing) in the Dominican Republic, I wonder whether he considered contraception to be "so important" during that potentially dangerous activity.

OK, I'm grossing myself out now. Moving on.

Over the last two days, Limbaugh reminded us in no uncertain terms of his legendary hatred of women. Since his show began in the late 1980s, he's profited from attacking women and women's issues practically every day. The term "Feminazis" only skims the surface of Limbaugh's misogyny. Lately, he's highlighted his professional class and morality by teasing and mocking the Obama girls. And here's what he said this week about NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, who dared to express her support for the president's contraception law:

"She was talking, Danica Patrick was talking about Obama's contraception ruling. She was not speaking in general though it applies generally... She said, "I leave it up to the government to make good decisions for America." ... What do you expect from a woman driver?"
That's not all. Last week, Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke spoke to an informal gathering of congressional Democrats about the Jesuit college's refusal to cover birth control as part of its health insurance plan. Fluke told lawmakers that contraception can cost a law student up to $3,000 and a classmate recently lost an ovary because she couldn't afford the contraception drug that would've prevented the recurrence of ovarian cysts. (How many "potential lives" were lost when that ovary, and its lifetime supply of unfertilized eggs, was removed?)

Here's what Limbaugh had to say about Fluke's testimony.

"What does it say about the college coed Susan [sic] Fluke, who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex? What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps."
The most popular radio talker in the world just called an ordinary citizen a slut and a prostitute in front of 15 million people. 15 million Americans tune in specifically to hear him say horrendous things like that. Many of those listeners fancy themselves to be "dittoheads," meaning they blindly "ditto" everything that comes out of his increasingly slurred yapper.

And that's not even the worst part of this reinvigorated conservative war against women.

In state legislatures from North Carolina to Pennsylvania, Republicans are pushing laws that force the usage of transvaginal ultrasound probes to be inserted into the bodies of women who are in need of an abortion. It's a form of state-mandated rape and it's being mandated by the so-called "small government party."

And while Virginia and Alabama Republicans backed away from the transvaginal transducer, North Carolina already has a law on the books, and Pennsylvania is getting ready to pass its version of the transvaginal law. All of these states, irrespective of whether they keep or jettison the transducer, will continue to sanction the use of ultrasounds on women as means of intimidating them against having the procedure. Remember during the health care reform debate when Republicans blew a gasket over Medicare paying for end-of-life counseling? They said it was somehow shoving government into a private matter between doctors and patients even though it simply made this voluntary discussion affordable. But now they're doing exactly that -- shoving government into a private medical decision in the most literal sense imaginable.

Your modern Republican Party has decided that a one percent increase in taxes for multi-millionaires is an impeachment-worthy high crime, but the state-mandated insertion of an electronic device into the vaginas of women who are ostensibly struggling with the most difficult moments of their adult lives is a perfectly acceptable exercising of government power. (By the way, these are the people to whom Ron Paul -- the self-proclaimed guardian of liberty -- would hand the reins of, well, everything.)

Well before these new laws were introduced, including the personhood laws dictating that life begins at conception and therefore outlawing many forms of birth control, hundreds of women across the country were convicted and sent to prison because they had miscarriages. More than 300 women in South Carolina. 40 women in Alabama. Illinois prosecuted a woman for manslaughter after she gave birth to a stillborn baby. As of June, 38 states had passed "fetal homicide" laws. The consequences? Pregnant women who are suffering from drug addiction or mental illnesses are afraid to seek prenatal medical attention for fear of being arrested. It's increasingly evident that being pregnant and in distress is almost as bad as being an illegal immigrant in America.

If Republicans were really interested in making it easier for women to carry pregnancies to term, they would pass laws to make the process safer and more affordable. Instead, they're criminalizing it. We can only assume they're not truly interested in fetuses or zygotes or babies who, by every other piece of Republican legislation, are on their own once they're born. They're simply interested in dominating and oppressing women because they believe women are genetically incapable of making difficult and otherwise very private life choices. Listen to Limbaugh's rants -- unburdened by the demands of politically correct language -- and the truth emerges. Women are sluts and prostitutes. They hate their own biology. They're dingbats who can't drive. The words of the de facto leader of the Republican Party, preaching to millions of dittohead acolytes.

Again, why else are they passing these barbaric anti-woman laws and not laws that make pregnancy -- laws that make womanhood -- easier? We can only draw the conclusion that the Republican Party hates women.

[Nordic]

This galls me in ways I cannot explain.

Mainly, perhaps, because everyone in my family hails from Missouri (except me who was, by chance, born in Germany):

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culture ... house.html

Rush Limbaugh sculpture is planned for Missouri statehouse

Rush Limbaugh sculpture is planned for Missouri statehouse

March 6, 2012 | 11:56 am

When Thomas Hart Benton's murals depicting Missouri state history for the Capitol building in Jefferson City were unveiled in 1937, deep in the dark days of the Great Depression, a clamor arose over the artist's inclusion of corrupt Kansas City political boss Tom Pendergast. Within a few years, Pendergast would be locked away in Leavenworth -- something about failure to pay taxes on bribes received -- but Benton was adamant in defending his mural's depiction.

Facts were facts, truth was beauty. Everything in the mural had happened in Missouri history, Benton insisted, and if he had been hired to paint a mural for Illinois he would have included Al Capone.

Pretty much the same defense is now coming from Missouri Republican Steve Tilley, speaker of the House, who recently chose conservative radio shock-jock Rush Limbaugh to be immortalized in a bronze sculpture inside the state Capitol. Limbaugh is currently bleeding advertisers in the wake of a three-day diatribe demeaning a law student as a "slut" and a "prostitute" for her position on women's healthcare. The broadcaster lives in Palm Beach, Fla., but was born in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

“It’s not the 'Hall of Universally Loved Missourians,’” Tilley told the Kansas City Star in defense of his decision, now the subject of a petition drive to halt the move. “It’s the Hall of Famous Missourians.”

Famous has apparently become a synonym for infamous in the Show-Me State. Celebrity culture drives the discourse.

These days bronze is largely reserved for decorative stair railings, baby shoes and artistic irony. Local Missouri sculptor E. Spencer Schubert has been hired to render Limbaugh's official likeness, a quaint task whose role as a prime artistic function pretty much petered out with the rise of mass media a century ago. It's his third state house commission. Schubert also sculpted busts of John "Buck" O'Neil, the first African American coach in major league baseball, and Dred Scott, the African American slave whose unsuccessful lawsuit for his freedom in 1857 was upheld in the notorious Supreme Court decision that helped spark the Civil War.

Dred Scott is famous. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who delivered the court's vile majority opinion, is infamous. In 1865, as the Civil War's mountain of bodies was being counted, Congress rejected a proposal to commission a bust of the recently deceased jurist, as they had for the four U.S. chief justices who preceded him. In a 1992 dissent to a court decision, Justice Antonin Scalia waxed poetic about Emanuel Leutze's brooding portrait-painting of Taney, long displayed at Harvard Law School.

What was the case that inspired Scalia's fond aesthetic reminiscence? Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, upholding a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. That decision began the 20-year drive among some conservatives to defund Planned Parenthood -- a storm that reached gale force last month when the Susan G. Komen Foundation was persuaded, temporarily, to pull the plug on its long-standing financial support for the women's health agency.

Funny how these things go around. The Komen fiasco was a backdrop for the widely mocked recent congressional hearing on women's healthcare convened by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), which included no testimony from women. [Update: In a second afternoon panel, two women appeared as witnesses.] Sandra Fluke, the law student whose integrity was brutally savaged on the air by Limbaugh, was denied an opportunity to speak, but Democrats invited her testimony at a subsequent hearing.

A preposterous Limbaugh sculpture for Missouri's statehouse is rather like Michigan deciding to officially honor Father Charles Coughlin, the anti-Semitic 1930s radio broadcaster who also thrived on scapegoating commentary that exploited the fears and resentments of an economically fraught era. The difference: In 2012 Americans universally deplore anti-Semitism, while misogyny stands poised for official consecration in bronze.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns- ... 2330.story

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - A plan to place a bust in the Missouri Capitol to honor Rush Limbaugh, the conservative broadcaster embroiled in controversy over his calling a university student a "slut" on the air, has drawn protests from state Democrats who are trying to block the effort.

The bust, proposed by Republican state House Speaker Steve Tilley, would sit in the Capitol rotunda alongside those of other prominent Missouri natives such as writer Mark Twain and former president Harry Truman.

Some 47 Missouri Democratic leaders, in a letter delivered to Tilley on Tuesday, said Limbaugh should not be honored and that the action would be "inappropriate and offensive," a spokesman for Tilley confirmed.

"Honoring Mr. Limbaugh in the wake of this incident would be seen as a tacit endorsement of his misogynistic attitudes," read the letter, circulated by House Minority Leader Mike Talboy.

Missouri Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, who Limbaugh once called "a commie babe liberal," said she opposed honoring him.

"I draw the line," at putting Limbaugh's bust in the Capitol, McCaskill told MSNBC on Monday.

About 1,300 people have signed an online petition protesting against a Limbaugh bust, said Sean Soendker Nicholson, executive director of the liberal group Progress Missouri, which launched the petition drive.

Since Limbaugh's controversial statements about Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke last week, some advertisers have dropped his radio talk show and at least two radio stations have said they will no longer air it.

Limbaugh has apologized for the "slut" remark, saying he had gone too far in his attack on Fluke.

Speaker Tilley made the decision to honor Limbaugh about three months ago. The bust will not be unveiled until May.

The hall where the bust would be displayed in the state Capitol rotunda in Jefferson City, Missouri, includes a ring of busts that also include baseball great Stan Musial, ragtime composer Scott Joplin, Native American guide Sacajawea and writer Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Yeah. Mark Twain, Scott Joplin, Sacajawea ...... and RUSH LIMBAUGH.

[NeonLX]

I'm generally opposed to vandalism, but a bust of the pig-man on display on public property would cause me to seriously re-evaluate my position...

[seemslikeadream]

Rush Limbaugh and the Right-Wing Nervous Breakdown
For a Republican Party already suffering from a yawning gender gap, Limbaugh's hijacking of the news cycle last week must have been unwelcome news.
March 7, 2012 |

It turns out that even in cases of emergency, the GOP Noise Machine has no off switch.

Republicans learned that painful lesson as the Rush Limbaugh "slut" fiasco made headlines for days on end. With the Voice of the Republican Party engulfed in one of the most damaging (and self-inflicted) controversies of his career, and with parts of the GOP Noise Machine scrambling to actually defend Limbaugh, as well as to echo his misogynist taunts, it's been the larger conservative movement that has been absorbing the worst blows.

For a Republican Party already suffering from a yawning gender gap, Limbaugh's hijacking of the news cycle last week must have been unwelcome news. But this is what happens when Republicans sponsor an irresponsible media Noise Machine that's designed to offend and attack and is designed to dehumanize its political enemies. This is what happens when the wheels fall off in spectacular fashion, like Limbaugh spending three days smearing, by name, a Georgetown University Law School student as greedy nymphomaniac having so much sex "it's amazing she can still walk."

It's no secret Republican leaders live in fear of Limbaugh and over the years have found it almost impossible to publicly criticize even his most outlandish and hateful statements. Those few who did stop forward were often forced to then quickly reversed course and apologize to Limbaugh. Just like Republicans have had to bow down to kingmakers at Fox News and embrace their lowest common denominator programming.

The truth is the conservative movement in America has become a media-based one, delegating an absurd amount of influence to bloggers, cable channels and talk show hosts. In turn, that movement suffered a collective collapse last week. Incapable of self-reflection, player after player, including those at Fox News, rushed forward to condemn the law student and/or to insist the AM talker had done nothing wrong by, A) insulting the young woman, B) mocking her parents C) demanding she post videos of herself having sex online, and D) suggesting she was using condoms when she was in elementary school.

Large portions of the right-wing media complex saw nothing wrong with that kind of behavior; saw nothing wrong with the 53 bullying smears Limbaugh unloaded on the student in front of his national radio audience. Not only did they defend Limbaugh, they lashed out at anyone who suggested the titan talker lacked common sense. And then they stomped on Sandra Fluke's reputation some more.

A sample of the swill:

-Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin denounced Fluke as a "femme-agogu tool."

-The right-wing site Jawa Report illustrated a post about Fluke with a picture of a tattoo that reads "Semen Demon."

-Pam Geller wrote that Fluke is "banging it five times a day" and that "calling this whore a slut was a softball."

-Accuracy in Media's Don Irvine called her a "skank."

-Former CPAC Blogger of The Year, Ace of Spades, called Fluke a "shiftless rent-a-cooch from East Whoreville."

-Michelle Malkin guest blogger Doug Ross used "Got Slut?" in a headline and suggested Fluke suffered from "nymphomania."

-Dana Loesch complained the controversy surrounding Limbaugh's three-day "slut" campaign represented a "manufactured" story. (This, before Limbaugh responded to the "manufactured" story by issuing a rare public statement.)

This is nuts. (What word would you choose?) A law student testifies about contraception and within days conservative commentators are sprinting towards their microphones and keyboards in order to find ways to call her a slutty, semen demon?

That's what a nervous breakdown looks like and that's what has been broadcast across AM talk radio, Fox News and the Internet since last Wednesday.

Some conservative voices did acknowledge the errors of Limbaugh's ways and condemned Republicans for cozying up to him.Wall Street Journalist Peggy Noonan called his performance "crude, rude, even piggish." And on ABC's This Week, George Will coined Sunday's best phrase when he pointed out Republicans leaders "want to bomb Iran, but they're afraid of Rush Limbaugh."

A Washington Post editorial suggested that, "For the good of U.S. political culture -- or at least its own political self-interest -- the GOP must distance itself from Mr. Limbaugh." But few members tried, even timidly, to do the right thing.

Ron Paul dismissed Limbaugh's misogynist taunts as being a "little crude," Rep. John Boenher gently chastised the talk show host for using "inappropriate" language, and Mitt Romney said simply that Limbaugh's brutal name-calling didn't include "the language I'd use."

The Republican Party years ago made a Faustian bargain with the right-wing Noise Machine. And now it's paying the price.

Blogger Tod Kelly made this observation in the wake of Limbaugh's "slut" debacle:

The people behind the people in the GOP aren't idiots. They know perfectly well that this whole battle on contraception is going to kill them in a few months; they certainly know that the Right's most visible pundits lamely and uncomfortably trying to rally around Limbaugh is especially bad news for them.

Republicans know this "slut" controversy has been a disaster for them politically, yet they were powerless to do anything about it. Powerless to stop it.

That's because Republicans can't turn off the Noise Machine, even when it's in the throes of a nervous breakdown.

Limbaugh Gets Fitting New Sponsors: Websites That Arrange Adulterous Relationships & Match Sugar Daddies With Younger Women
Submitted by mark karlin on Thu, 03/08/2012 - 12:49pm. EditorBlog
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Yesterday BuzzFlash at Truthout posted a commentary on Rush Limbaugh's misogynist rants, but journalist Amanda Marcotte gets to the heart of his sleazy hypocrisy.

In a caustic article in Slate, Marcotte points out the sordid irony that Limbaugh is getting two new website sponsors that are fitting replacements for some of the fleeing reputable advertisers:

Companies like Ashley Madison, a website for adulterers and wannabe adulterers, and Seeking Arrangements, a website for men who hire younger "girlfriends" or at least like to imagine they could, have signaled that they want a piece of Limbaugh's audience....

Which is why jerk-oriented businesses like Ashley Madison and Seeking Arrangements want a piece of the action. When they see the homing signal of the all-American narcissistic jackass, they know that they are in the prime hunting ground for separating a fool from his money with baseless promises of magical sexual encounters with women who know better than to open their mouths for expressing opinions, and who know better than to bore you with stupid lady nonsense like contraception.

Considering that, as BuzzFlash noted yesterday, Limbaugh's fourth wife is more than 25 years his junior and a beautiful blonde, the sugar daddy site may finally be just the right fit as a sponsor. As for his audience, Marcotte finds Ashley Madison's making bucks off arranging adulterous encounters appropriate for Limbaugh's male following in that "some companies tacitly acknowledge that central defining characteristics of their customers is that they're jerks."

Media matters broke down Limbaugh's relentless sexist smears (70) against Sandra Fluke into an insightful video compilation that reveals a seething contempt for women and a bundle full of falsehoods. (For example, Limbaugh's main financial "complaint" is that the public is going to pay for free contraceptive coverage, but it is private insurance companies that would cover it. And most insurance companies want to prevent accidental births, because it is more expensive to cover another family member than to pay for contraception.)

With more than a reported 50 sponsors fleeing the Limbaugh show, Rush has finally gotten the sponsors that reflect his venomous hypocritical values - and the desire of his male followers to treat women as sex objects.

Has Anyone Seen the FCC? How Rush Limbaugh Broke the Law and Got Away With It.
Posted: 03/ 8/2012 10:32 am

When Rush Limbaugh called Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke a slut and a prostitute because she believes women should have access to affordable birth control, he crossed a line that also happens to be law. The following was lifted directly from the Federal Communication Commission's website:

It's Against the Law
It is a violation of federal law to air obscene programming at any time. It is also a violation of federal law to air indecent programming or profane language during certain hours. Congress has given the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the responsibility for administratively enforcing these laws. The FCC may revoke a station license, impose a monetary forfeiture or issue a warning if a station airs obscene, indecent or profane material.

If Mr. Limbaugh had used the N-word rather than a gender slur directed at Ms. Fluke, no doubt he would have been taken from the air by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), his distributor, Premiere Radio Networks, and every station across the nation who carries his acrid spittle. Instead, he gets even more free publicity by objectifying and degrading Ms. Fluke and fellow female Americans everywhere. The time for the FCC to act swiftly was last week when it happened, but better late than a deregulated never.
The tenants of the FCC require that stations operate in the "interest, convenience and necessity" of the American public. Radio waves are public airwaves, and on-air talent and radio stations are licensed access by the government to use our airwaves. But thanks in large part to the deregulation of the FCC under President Reagan, the FCC has about as much power as a square of one-ply toilet paper in a manure storm. Sadly, whatever authority the FCC does have it rarely chooses to use in any meaningful way against conservative haters disguised as political pundits. Shock jock Howard Stern was fined a record-setting $2.5 million for his on-air indecencies, yet it's unclear if Rush Limbaugh has been fined ever. (Media experts believe the obvious disparity is a result of the power of conservative members of Congress who think he moves their agendas forward, along with those who are simply too afraid of ticking him off.)

What Mr. Limbaugh said to millions of listeners on air (including little boys and girls who get to add a whole new batch of adult words to their vocabularies like "blow job" from his daily broadcasts) was not only a complete nose-thumbing breach of his FCC-licensed responsibility, but a gender-based hate crime. If an on-air radio personality uses the public airwaves to defame any segment of our nation's population as Rush did, he/she should be ripped from the public's air. Using the public airwaves is a privilege that comes with responsibilities to our fellow Americans. It should not be used as a playground for the Rush Limbaughs of our nation to hate, rant and spew all the while attempting to hide under the guise of freedom of speech.

Millions of Americans and a majority of legislators seem to be confused about where and when the right to free speech applies. Mr. Limbaugh has the right to say whatever he wants in his home, on the street, or on his way to the pharmacy to get one of his many prescriptions filled, provided it is not a crime. He cannot yell "Fire!" in a crowded movie theater, and shelves his unlimited freedom of speech once on public air.

Back in the days before national radio syndication, individual stations lived in fear that they would lose their licenses to operate if an on-air personality did not stay within the navigational beacons set down by the FCC. Today, a syndicated personality such as Mr. Limbaugh spews his venom through hundreds of stations across the nation at once, making the FCC's job a bit more complicated.

What can the FCC to do? It has the power to revoke Mr. Limbaugh's license. It should take his license, and allow him to reapply after a year or so if ever. Further, all radio stations who aired his venom should be censured and fined by the FCC, along with his distributor, Premiere Radio Networks. This will let stations and distributors know that such acts of hate will not be tolerated.

If the FCC, Premiere Radio Networks and stations who broadcast The Rush Limbaugh Show are led by cowardice and don't take action, there are still actions that can be taken. Consumers can boycott advertisers of all Premiere Radio Network programs (you can find a list of programs on their web site). Marketing executives in media buying can stop placing advertising within the Premiere Radio Networks programming portfolio until it removes Mr. Limbaugh from the air. Advertisers who have left The Rush Limbaugh Show should stay gone.

As American citizens, we own the airwaves. It's high time we stop allowing those who spew hate to do it at our expense, and on our American-owned air.

Radio Experts: Limbaugh May Have Triggered Long-Term Ad Exodus
March 06, 2012 2:44 pm ET by Joe Strupp

Rush Limbaugh's misogynistic comments about a Georgetown law student are affecting advertisers more than the usual controversial broadcast statements and may spark a long-term problem for the conservative host, according to journalists who cover radio and advertising.

Veteran radio observers credit the quick exodus of advertisers in recent days to the severity of Limbaugh's sexist rant and the ability of social media to force companies to comment on the controversy. These experts also tell Media Matters many major advertisers generally avoid commentators like Limbaugh, shrinking the pool of possible replacements.

Jim Cooper, executive editor of Adweek, said that Limbaugh's comments were "so offensive" that he could have impaired his ability to attract advertisers in the long term. "He could have a problem with brands being associated with his show. They don't want to have any sort of rub off, to be associated with anyone seen as so bold or obnoxious or cruel to that woman, it is pretty off the charts."

Cooper also acknowledged that it was surprising for ads to continue being pulled even after Limbaugh's two attempts to address the controversy since Saturday.

"It seems a little bit more extreme because what he said was so extreme," Cooper said of the advertiser reaction. "I don't think most brands, unless they have a political bias, are going to want to be part of this. It is so offensive to a massive part of his audience. No brand is going to want to be saying, 'sure we are behind his comments.'"

Limbaugh has drawn attention in the past week for his vicious and repeated attacks on Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student who recently testified before congressional Democrats about the problems caused when young women lack access to contraception.

The popular conservative radio host unleashed a barrage of critical comments at Fluke last week, calling her a "slut" and a "prostitute," and demanding: "If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it, and I'll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch."

As of Tuesday afternoon, at least 29 advertisers had said they would exclude, suspend, or pull their business from Limbaugh's radio show, which is syndicated by Premiere Radio, a division of Clear Channel Communications.

The advertising exodus began Friday with several companies including Quicken Loans withdrawing business, followed by major Limbaugh advertiser Carbonite on Saturday and more than a dozen pulling the plug Monday. Those include the likes of Allstate, Sears, and AOL.

Limbaugh offered a much-criticized "apology" statement online Saturday and apologized again on his program Monday. But the radio host continued to bleed advertisers throughout the day on Tuesday in the face of an Internet campaign waged largely through social media.

"It is surprising that he is losing [so many advertisers] because of all the listeners he has," said Frank Saxe, managing editor of Inside Radio, which covers the industry. "It is interesting that even after the apologies the advertisers are leaving. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a few more leaving."

Saxe's publication is also owned by Clear Channel Communications.

Saxe later added, "It is a little surprising seeing some of the advertisers leave given they knew who Rush is. You would think they would support him more. The kind of blowback advertisers are getting through social media, it is a lot easier for people to come back at the advertisers."

Cooper agreed that the social media pressure likely sped things up, and prevented the firestorm from dying down: "It's really high profile. Not only are the ratings so huge, but this story has blown up on social media, it is all over Twitter and these brands are not stupid, they are monitoring that space, too. If this story had happened 10 years ago, it would not have had the gasoline of social media to push it. The story will not go away."

Katy Bachman, former radio reporter for MediaWeek and past editor of Radio Business Report, said the controversy might affect Limbaugh "for a while."

"Advertisers are very sensitive to where their ads are placed," Bachman said. "This might set him back for a while, the pressure should be put on Premiere and Clear Channel because they are the syndicators and the ones selling the advertising."

Asked why the ads started being pulled so soon and so quickly, Bachman replied, "They don't want their ads or their products associated with a show like this."

Several observers pointed to the initial weekend apology as a sign of the early pressure mounting on Limbaugh, noting he rarely takes such actions outside of the on-air program.

"I have never seen a statement issued that fast, Premiere issued it on a Saturday," said Tom Taylor, news editor of Radio-Info.com, a radio industry news site. "Rush doesn't issue a lot of apologies, and to have it happen on Saturday afternoon tells you it is a bit of an unusual thing. This is something to watch, it changes all the time."

Robert Unmacht, a 35-year radio industry consultant who also writes for Radio-Info.com, also found the apology timing notable.

"It is [unusual] and his apology has been incredibly weak," Unmacht said. "This came under the Premiere Network name, Rush rarely does anything under that release. I have to think that means they have been hit really hard with advertising and it has the look that a publicist wrote it. It didn't feel genuine, it came from a group that doesn't usually speak for Rush."

Limbaugh may have difficulty finding new advertisers to fill the slots of the companies who no longer wish to be associated with him. Several radio industry journalists told us that Limbaugh is among several controversial broadcasters who are already generally avoided by most high-end advertisers.

"There are a lot of 'no-buys' in radio; 'don't put my ad in anything controversial.' There is a lot of that," said Saxe. "I think a guy like Rush, if you are listening to his show, he is not getting some of the mainstream advertisers."

Added Bachman: "Most big blue chip advertisers don't advertise on Limbaugh, they tend to avoid anything that is controversial. You will not see the Johnson and Johnsons or the Proctor & Gambles associated with a strong political viewpoint."

Taylor agreed. "A lot of advertisers just don't want to be around controversial content. There are many times when advertisers put instruction in an ad buy not to buy anything controversial and you never hear about it," he said.

[AlicetheKurious]

Hi barracuda, I decided to respond to your (earlier) post on the Gilad Atzmon thread, rather than derail this one again.

[barracuda]

Why am I not looking forward to that?

[Nordic]

This is all scripted, planned, and deliberate.

The questions are ... why this, and why now?

This wasn't some spontaneous outburst. They're doing it on purpose knowing exactly what the outcome would be.

Everybody is responding exactly as they knew they would.

But do we know why? No, not yet, but that's the thing we need to find out. Because its the only important thing about all this trolling nonsense.

And they could give a shit about the advertisers. Rush is The Propaganda Minister of the United States. He controls the discourse. That is his powern and that is the key to who is behind him. The fact that they can get advertisers to actually PAY THEM to put this propaganda on the air is just gravy, a gift from suckers.

They would put it on the air anyway, even with zero sponsors and even with no income from it whatsoever.

[NeonLX]

Nordic, that's exactly what I was thinking (scripted & deliberate). I purposely have NOT been paying any attention to it, even when it comes up among my coworkers, some of whom are dittoheads themselves. I'm just shrugging it off because I know it's being catapulted at us for whatever reason. Glad to see someone else posting something in agreement with how I've been thinking about it.

I frequently doubt my powers of perception these days.