I KNOW - enough Limbaugh already - YET! We have an obligation.

[Mira]

There ought to be a LAW, a PIED PIPER, or an unarmed American POSSE to stop Limbaugh.

When he played "Barak the Magic Negro" we winced and complained.

He just smiled and the blubber bounced.
His outrage objective was met, his followers were entertained, their perceptions and prejudices were validated and
his show went on to make him more millions.
We retreated and forgodaboutit.

This week, I understand, he is playing a facsimile of the song "I shot the Sheriff" as the sound background to his rantings, and this in the week of the aftermath of Tucson's massacre.

While we are finally having a national awareness of how incendiary words can matter, we are also being fed a dismissal of responsibility for the inciters saying the "unhinged" and the "mentally ill", the ones for whom there is little public money to get help, are supposed to be self-responsible in their madness.

This dismissal will very probably take hold, put the rest of us back in the place of trying to survive/ get a job/ struggle on in our daily lives.

After all, aren't we the impressionable, malleable American middle class, AKA the hordes of the working poor?
Our needs for food, shelter and clothing must be met before we can aspire to more, with this understandable pre-occupation being subliminally exploited by people like Limbaugh?

It will be shown, I believe, that the words and the background music of the publicly prominent insane are continued to be allowed on the airways. It will be pretended, again, that they do not have impact on the hidden masses of the untreated insane in our population. And the latter may again do the bidding of the former.

Now Limbaugh is vilifying Clarence Dupnik, the plain spoken and clear eyed Sheriff, and plays "I shot the Sheriff" analogies in the background.
If we are the land of the free, then it follows we are free to find a legal way to get rid of this slug in our midst;
complaining and wailing about him is not enough.

I think a march in Washington would not be too small an action. I think our President could at the very least remove him from the Armed Forces Radio network as a disturber of the soldiers' sanity.
If Bush can find a lawyer to make torture legal, (YEAH, RIGHT)
then Obama can find a lawyer, or BE that lawyer, to make a case to remove Limbaugh's lying rants and incitement to violence from our soldiers ears at least.

Can we march?

Not with guns - with the justified outrage of the majority.

It would be a holy and patriotic thing to do.

Rant over.
Can we talk?

[slackmaster]

1. The solution to the Limbaugh question is simplicity itself

Stop listening to him.

[Mira]

2. I never do. 15 years ago already, (well -however many years, could be more)

if in a store at the mall they would blare him I got the manager and complained.
Then left the store..
Same in doctor's offices. I would poll the others in the room, if no one said they were listening (Fox of course) I would ask to have it turned off.
Is somebody claimed they were, I would ask for another room to wait in and would tell them I would not allow my ears to be contaminated with manufactured news.
I have, once, waited in a large broom type closet.

No- I do not agree with you about that it is simple.

Also, that's not what my post is about, but thanks for responding.

[slackmaster]

6. If you don't listen to him, please explain how you know exactly what he has said.

TIA

[Mira]

13. The threads on DU. That's where I read about it.

Are they to be believed, if they collectively report the same thing? Yes.
Are they credible, if they report things that are utterly in line with previous behavior? Yes.

Also: I did not say I knew exactly. I think I said something akin to: "similar to the "I shot the Sheriff" song", because that is what was reported, and that makes sense to me.
It's enough to convey the message, and enough to give him deny ability in this climate where nobody can figure out a way to stop him.

Too bad that's all you got out of what I said, it's like digging for some way to find fault with me personally.
Plenty of faults :) but listening to scum bag is not one of them.

[tularetom]

3. Problem is he's not exactly like the tree falling in the woods

that doesn't make a sound because nobody hears it. That fucker is everywhere and even though my personal response to the fat bastard is the same as yours, it's impossible to get away from him. Even progressive radio talkers are constantly referring to him, even if it's just to get outraged over some of the idiotic crap he comes out with.

And you know there are millions of brain dead idiots sitting by their radios drooling over his every utterance like it was chiseled in stone.

I'm perfectly willing to stop listening to him (actually did so years ago) but that won't solve the Limbaugh question for anyone besides me.

[Mira]

4. Yes

That's why there needs to be a way found to at least get the soldiers free of his masturbatory gurgling and our leaders encouraged to take care of that.
It would be a cheap way to foster better mental health.

I agree that the constant references to him are pervasive. I liked it when they called him the leader of the Republican Party, because that was too hair brained to stand could and helped us.

I don't know what the answer is. Maybe no movement to show our collective outrage is possible.
But his "huge" presence as you describe is my opinion a perversion of the phrase "The land of the Free".

[slackmaster]

7. It sounds like you are suggesting censorship as a solution

Is that wrong?

[Mira]

11. I don't know. I think an incitement of the populace needs to be against some

sort of law.
I know that a friend in a Western European civilized nation told me yesterday nothing like that would stay on the air there for a single day.
I don't know if they would call it censorship, but they can to it. I have lived there, and never heard anything like it on the radio or TV

Isn't it, really, a form of vulgarity?

Back to start.
I don't know.

[slackmaster]

12. If incitement results in actual damages, then someone has standing to sue in a court of law

That's how disputes are handled in our system.

[Mira]

14. Good.

Then Ms Palin and her cross hairs ought to be in jail right now over some very dead bodies in the district of Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

[slackmaster]

16. It's a whole lot easier to win a judgment in a civil suit than to get a criminal conviction

I know, "Do both."

[Cid_B]

15. Sigh...

My natural instinct here is to rail into you but I'm going to try not to.

1) The reason Rush is on AFN is because data and polling show that he is the most popular radio show and Soldiers like to listen to him. Leave it alone or enlist so you can take the survey with the rest of us.

2) Yes that would be censorship. I know it gives you a warm fuzzy to imagine some govt entity kicking Rush and the like out of the media for saying naughty thing but that's only because you agree with that version. What happens with that precedent? What happens when a new administration comes in and decides everything you like falls into the "naughty" category.

[Mira]

18. You are reasonable and reasoned.

I appreciate you being kind in your reigning in natural instincts about my lack of understanding.

This seems to not be the day to find a way to get Limbaugh reigned in, though it would seem that if he were off the air because he misrepresents truth then the soldiers would not find his name to check in a survey question.

Thanks for your response.
You make good sense.

(BTW - if Rush were saying "naughty things" as I understand that phrase, I don't think he would be very problematic to the fabric of this country)

[tabasco]

22. Link to the data and polling?

Standing by.

[tabasco]

29. Still waiting for that data and polling.

Thanks.

[dixiegrrrrl]

25. " Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

THAT statement, by Rep. Welch, to Joe McCarthy was the beginning of the end.
That statement went down in history.
McCarthy's reply did not.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/welch-mccarthy.html

Theoretically, our right to free speech gives Limbaugh air play.

Others have the right to object to his speech, and those objections are also protected by free speech.

Eventually, people like Limbaugh end up like Beck..they play out their string, go too far, and become yesterday's news.
This often happens because enough people call hate speech for what it is, and complain to the sponsors of the station.

reality is , somebody is making money and political points off the doofus puppets.

There is a line. Palin is close to it, Beck has jumped the shark,Rush will too, soon.
That's the way it works.

[Bandit]

27. An even better solution would be to just stick our heads into a hole in the ground.

Would solve even biiger problems don't you think?

[slackmaster]

32. If that's what you really think you should do, then by all means do so

Please post a link to the YouTube video.

[pacalo]

28. The "ignore him & he'll go away" adage doesn't solve the problem.

This blubbering idiot's rants are feeding hatred to very disturbed people out there.

Mira's right -- something has to be done.

[slackmaster]

33. Nothing "has to be done" about speech you don't like until the speaker violates the law

Or causes actual damage and gets sued in civil court by someone who has standing to do so by virtue of being harmed.

[JohnnyLib2]

5. Does a Congressional committee oversee the Armed Forces Network?

We need a focal point to pressure for change.

[Mira]

8. That would be a good start. I will ask my Congress Critter Virginia Foxx. NOW, getting series,

I will look into that in another way.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

9. 5 corporations own the media. Thats 5 people deciding what/who we hear

Its the MEDIA that is the problem, the consolidation from 50 corporations down to 5
plus the end of the fairness doctrine.

When 90% of talk radio is right wing the public is easily brainwashed.

[slackmaster]

10. You don't have to listen to any of them

You have other options.

[Overseas]

34. No. I just have to suffer the consequences of those who do listen

to the thousands of hours of hate speech on conservative radio and TV.

And Glenn Beck talking about America being washed in rivers of blood and such.

[pintobean]

17. I found the audio

A reply in the other thread said it was a parody and the words 'I'm not a sheriff'.

I Googled it and this was the first result:
http://dailyrushbo.com/2011/01/14/rush-limbaugh-im-not-a-sheriff-sherrif-dupnik-song-parody/

[Mira]

20. Wow - thanks pintobean. I would have been wise to find this myself,

and might have written the post a bit differently. I felt slimy in the wasteland of the website, it did not open right away, and while I poked around I saw what it's like.
PHOOEY.
Gross.
Like Limbaugh.

Just how anyone can take this seriously is beyond me.
This BTW is my second serious try to find a collective way to get him off the air, the other was about 2 or so years ago.
First one flopped, too.

[madamesilverspurs]

19. Back in the early 1990s

my folks came for a visit. I let Dad know that there were two house rules: (1) There's only one bathroom, so no reading material is allowed, and (2) No television or radio can be tuned to Rush Limbaugh. Dad thought I was kidding until I snatched the magazine out of his hands as he was heading down the hall. Then he brought in his portable radio thinking that would get him around "the rule", which it didn't; I returned the batteries and suggested that he take his radio and sit in the car and listen to whatever he wanted. When he started to get angry about it I handed him a map to the nearest motel, and told him he needed to decide what was most important. He was grumpy for a couple of days, but he got over it in time to enjoy the rest of the week.

When I went to visit them he pointedly turned up the volume whenever Rush was on. In return, I left a magazine in his bathroom; it had an article about the group that tracked Rush's programs and fact-checked his assertions, leaving him with a grade of F in truth-telling.

Dad lived to the ripe old age of 92, adamant to the end that Limbaugh is always right and that George Bush was a great president. When he wasn't watching Fox or listening to Rush he was lamenting that his family didn't want to spend much time with him.

We tried, Dad. We really did.


-

[JohnnyLib2]

21. Wonderful family story!

He passed along the "determined" gene, but thankfully not the political slant!
:hi:

[dixiegrrrrl]

23. You made me LOL.

Nice story, well told.

[Mira]

24. What a poignant story - especially the part that your Dad felt "abandoned" by you.

I had a tenant once, rented a room in my house.
He was an avid Limbaugh fan. Limbaugh is the ONLY place he tuned into the world, such as when there were Presidential debates or when it was election day, the TV in his room was never set to those events. He would just listen to Rush and have him read the paper for him, and tell him the results later or the next day.

He had no friends, and in his case, I don't think he noticed it.
In the years he lived here nobody ever came to see him. A cell phone for business emergencies, no books, no computer. Just TV and John Wayne movies.
We never had a conversation that lasted more than 2 sentences each back and forth, and
they were always about the weather.

I use always and never with forethought.

Dullest, most un-tuned in or turned on individual I have ever had to be around, gifted with a total lack of curiosity.
The day he moved out I said a prayer of thanks first, and swung from the chandelier next.

(not to say anything about your Dad, my friend, but just telling a similar story of isolation of those that let Rush do their thinking for them)

[Shagbark Hickory]

26. The best thing to do is tune out and dont support his advertisers.

Marching etc, just give him more publicity, which he does not need or deserve.

[SaveAmerica]

30. Beck also, his rants are repeated more often by the right more often I think

[OneGrassRoot]

31. I want to understand, and address, what draws people to listen to him and his ilk.

I believe all the anger hides what is truly fear.

At the core of it all, they are terrified. I'm surrounded by Limbaugh/Palin/Beck/AllThingsFoxNews fans and am trying to understand what they're so afraid of.

Limbaugh & Company tap into and manipulate their fear, and it's disguised as anger.

I'm trying to invite discussion about their fear, but it's very hard when people refuse to be honest with themselves, let alone others.

I loathe Limbaugh, and I recognize that's because I fear the effect he has on so many. I've witnessed the effect for years. Formerly rational people, who simply have a different political ideology, become irrational after listening to that spew day after day.