LAT fact-checks Limbaugh, hits him for peddling ’shameless’ lies.
LAT fact-checks Limbaugh, hits him for peddling ’shameless’ lies.
The Los Angeles Times’ media journalist James Rainey take a look at how right-wing pundits Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are dealing with Barack Obama’s victory. “[W]hen he is demonizing Barack Obama, fabricating Obama policies, blaming Obama for single-handedly causing the recession and the stock market crash,” Rainey writes of Limbaugh, “he doesn’t pretend to be fair.” The LAT then offers this fact-check:
In a time when the nation calls out for cool leadership and rational discussion, Limbaugh stirs the caldron, a tendency he proved in a particularly grotesque way last week when he accused Obama’s party of plotting a government takeover of 401(k) retirement plans.
“They’re going to take your 401(k), put it in the Social Security trust fund, whatever the hell that is,” Limbaugh woofed. “Trust fund, my rear end.”
A slight problem with Limbaugh’s report: Obama and the Democrats have proposed no such thing.
The proposal, in fact, emanated from a single economist, one of many experts testifying to a congressional committee.
Rainey concludes, “To broadcast such a report — so drained of context as to constitute a lie — would be a shameless act at any time. But Limbaugh needlessly stirred the fears of the millions he holds in his thrall — making the 401(k) thievery sound like nearly a done deal. Shameless.”
Sort Comments By: Top Rated | Date
96 Responses to “LAT fact-checks Limbaugh, hits him for peddling ’shameless’ lies.”
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
I'm ambivalent about this sort of activity.
On the one hand, it's good that responsible members of the media are willing to flat-out call Limbaugh the liar that he is.
On the other hand, it might be better for him to be treated as the nonentity that he deserves to be.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:03 amFranken sees boost in nail-biter election
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (CNN) — In a move that could be seen as a benefit to Democrat Al Franken, a Minnesota judge Saturday denied a request from incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's campaign to block certain uncounted absentee ballots from being counted in a race separated by–at latest tally–just over 200 votes in Coleman's favor.
LINK
Just love the predictable smell of GOP desperation and flat out corrupt activities in the morning.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:04 amRalph, understand your sentiment but completely disagree. He's not a "non-entity." Millions of misinformed people listen to him every day. He needs to be dealt with, and the Los Angeles Times is doing the necessary thing. Rush is going to be a thorn in Obama's side, and those of us who hate him can't just say he's a non-entity and ignore him. We have to fight back and keep the progress going.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:08 amThat idea sounds more like a right wing dream to me. Take everyone's 401k and make it the basis for personal accounts at social security.
In any case, the government doesn't really have the power to "take" everyone's 401-k. Those are just bank and brokerage accounts which have a special tax status. You might as well say the government is going to steal everybody's checking account while you're at it.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:12 amIt's good ammo when talking to people who have listened to rush......You can use "most respectible media outlets are calling what rush says to be untrue" and that carries some weight when there are enough of them.....
I think it's never a bad idea to call a liar like rush out into the open......light is his enemy.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:14 amHank, as I was typing out my comment, I recognized exactly what you're saying. I changed "the nonentity he is" to "the nonentity he deserves to be" but you're right, it still undersells his toxic influence.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:14 amRush Limbaugh is trying to carry on the Conservative Movement tradition of destroying Social Security, along with everything else FDR did.
I'll make a deal with you, Rush. You can have all the prescription drugs you want, in any quantity you want, if you'll agree to go off the air and stay off the air for good.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:15 amSounds like a job for Rahmbo...
I think Obama will have to continue to do what he did in the campaign when he debunked the lies from the right - expect that it will now come from his staff rather than him.
The Cons are not going to stop because they cannot stand to be losers. We all know by now that they can't win running on the issues, so they have to resort to these ridiculous fear tactics. And as long as 20% of the population believes them, it will be a ridiculous problem for the rest of us.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:15 amLimbaugh (and his brother), Hannity, Savage, and O'Reilly are evidence that we need to put more money into Education in this country. Studies have shown that their listeners are among the least informed of all citizens.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:17 amAs much as it disgusts me I'm now listening to these idiots just to hear them squirm and dissimulate. Its important to know what these slime are saying so they can be forcefully discredited whenever their talking points rear their ugly head. At least we know that their hate filled propaganda was defeated head on this go round.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:20 amHank Says: We have to fight back and keep the progress going.
Anyone who thinks the fight is over just because we won on Tuesday underestimates the sheer capacity of Republican desperation. They will not stop until we are a third world nation ruled by a theocracy that is waging World War 27 and 28 simultaneously.
We must treat them like a deadly virus at all times, because they truly are.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:21 amThe lard ass, drug addled, gas bag, whores around with teeaged prostitutes in the Dominican Republic will continue to act out as long as the media networks pay for his slime and as long as we have morons who hate enough to listen to his bs.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:21 amSooooo...where was this on-the-spot fact checking 6 years ago on Limbaugh and his fellow idioti? 5 years ago? 4 years ago? Last year?
I guess it's becoming fashionable to bust liars for, y'know, lying. The LAT doesn't want to be on the wrong side 'o history either, along with 'come-to-Jesus' converts like bachmann and lieberman.
Dilettantes all...
November 9th, 2008 at 11:23 amfletc3her Says: In any case, the government doesn’t really have the power to “take” everyone’s 401-k
I can't count the number of Republicans I've had to tell that in a Democracy, the government is us, that the government's money is actually our tax dollars, and that the world's most powerful military is socialized.
If we could just educate these people, I think Conservatism would drop significantly. Just look at how Obama educating folks during the election did to combat the ignorance that goes hand-in-hand with Conservative ideology.
Turns out, the more educated a country, the more liberal they are.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:24 amLimbaugh, Hannity and other right wing nut bags are continuously harping about the Fairness Doctrine that they are afraid that the Dems. are going install.
It's actually the Republicans who should muzzle the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity who are 'leading' them down the primrose path of minority permanence.
¶ AIO
November 9th, 2008 at 11:26 amfound, via C&L, blog roundup:
Palin Attacks Provoked Assassination Plots on Obamas
Unnamed Secret Service field officers have revealed to the press that Sarah Palin's attacks on President-Elect Obama provoked numerous white supremecist assassination plots against him:
[...]
http://www.juancole.com/2008/11/palin-attacks-provoked-assassination.html
... imagine that...
November 9th, 2008 at 11:26 am“They’re going to take your 401(k), put it in the Social Security trust fund, whatever the hell that is,” Limbaugh woofed. “Trust fund, my rear end.”
Sounds like a good plan.
As well as raising the cap to $250,000 on contributions. Rush would have to pay over twice what he does now into the system.
Then you'll really hear him squeal.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:27 amLimpballs has made a successful career out of miscasting the truth and fanning the fires of prejudice and ignorance that still smolder in our country. It remains to be seen just how "relevant" he will be in today's political reality. My sense, however, is that he will continue to feed off that thing that has fueled the right-wing fanatics and persuadable republicans for decades. Fear -- that is, fear of change; fear of people who aren't like them; fear of losing what they have; fear of not getting what they want.
The chief advantage that Limpballs has is the short memory of his brain-dead ditto-heads. His past predictions of doom and gloom have not occurred but it really doesn't matter. He just moves on to new predictions and draws untrue cause-effect relationships to explain the failures of idiots like GDumbya. He is nothing more than a dishonest, pathetic, bigotted, shallow, mean, insulting, drug-addict, ignorant, bombastic, water-carrying, unimportant rant-jockey.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:27 amalphainfinityomega Says:
Limbaugh, Hannity and other right wing nut bags are continuously harping about the Fairness Doctrine that they are afraid that the Dems. are going install.
They know they can't compete, without complete control of the mike.
Bill Maher would dust Limbaugh, and have the audience peeing their pants with laughter.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:30 amIf there was any justice in the world, Limbaugh would be found dead of a heart attack with an underage teenage black male prostitute...
Just saying
November 9th, 2008 at 11:31 amsomething i heard several times this morning, on MTP, FTN, just now on george s. - they're all so worried about OBAMA ending their tax cuts, 'surely he'll have to put that off, with the economy so bad'... or some such...
rahm did a decent job of telling them the priority was the working and middle class tax cut...
whiney-azz-t!tty-cry-babies upset about losing more wealth that they don't need... sickening...
November 9th, 2008 at 11:31 amKrazny Says:
If there was any justice in the world, Limbaugh would be found dead of a heart attack with an underage teenage black male prostitute…
A mixed Elvis/Cass Elliot: Found on the can, choked on a cheeseburger.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:34 amoh, and a huge THANK YOU to
The Los Angeles Times’ media journalist
James Rainey
finally, the fourth estate is coming out of hiding?
November 9th, 2008 at 11:34 am“Fat Bastard” should be taxed up the gazoo until he’s one of the poor. Then he might start getting the idea… (He might also consider the prospect of finding honest work…in a uranium mine at minimum wage.)
BTW -- Has anyone ever done serious research into the Limbaugh Family’s connections if any to the Nazi German American Bund in the 1930s?
====
November 9th, 2008 at 11:34 am"Shameless lies" are the stock in trade of reichwing radio, have been for nearly 20 years. Longer, if you count the spiritual father, Joe McCarthy.
Someone up thread called them "toxic" and that's exactly it. Their America would imprison or shoot 3/4 of the american public and most of the rest of the world and they'd STILL be looking for scapegoats.
We're several days into the Second Revolution, and these are the monarchists....
November 9th, 2008 at 11:36 amWho is Rush Limbaugh and why the hell should I care? I get me world view from SamJoe the plumber's gopher...
November 9th, 2008 at 11:36 amNow THAT is some courageous reporting... Spit.
This just in! Rush Limbaugh if full of it and lies without shame!
Who knew? Thank you LAT for being so on top of it.
Just imagine if he had been doing this his entire career?
November 9th, 2008 at 11:37 amReich-wingers are hoping and praying that Obama fails.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:38 ambarfly @ #19 says:
When you get right down to it they're a pathetic bunch of namby-pambies.
====
November 9th, 2008 at 11:38 ambarfly,
Just for the record, Cass Eliot died of a heart attack, not from choking on a sandwich. That rumor started because the coroner was asked to speculate on the cause of death before any autopsy was started, and he said (seeing the half-eaten sandwich near her bed), "I don't know, she probably choked on a ham sandwich." She didn't. Just thought you should know. Peace.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:41 amI think Cass Elliot actually died while laying on her back in bed eating a HAM sandwich.
I could be wrong, though.
¶ AIO
November 9th, 2008 at 11:42 amno ditto heads?
rush is losing his
base too.
:)
November 9th, 2008 at 11:42 amI just read at Huffington Post that Obamaplans to overturn about 200 of Bush's executive orders immedeiately. They range on all sorts of issues that the Republicans deny - from Global Warming to Stem Cell Research.
Perhaps this sudden reversal of so many orders of Conservative ideology will cause Rush to finally implode? We can only hope...
November 9th, 2008 at 11:44 am“I don’t know, she probably choked on a ham sandwich.” She didn’t.
Comment by WAS
Thanks Wayne; I hadn't seen your post when I posted.
¶ AIO
November 9th, 2008 at 11:45 amDr. Hussein Matt Says: Reich-wingers are hoping and praying that Obama fails.
Good thing that that doesn't work. :)
It would be nice if hoping and paraying is all they do. But I'm not holding my breath. Because when he doesn't fail, I really worry about what they will do next. They aren't mentally stable folks.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:46 amCaption: [Thought bubble] 'Ooooo Monica, dear seeet Monica, she was kinda hot, I would hi... [diddles cigar]
November 9th, 2008 at 11:48 am....."cause Rush to finally implode? We can only hope…"
Comment by unbelievable
KABOOOOM LOL
¶ AIO
November 9th, 2008 at 11:49 amThey’re going to take your 401(k), put it in the Social Security trust fund
Does anyone know which economist proposed this in Congressional testimony?
November 9th, 2008 at 11:52 amI've said it before, I'll say it again; Limbaugh knows that he is lying, Hannity actually believes his own sh¡t.
¶ AIO
November 9th, 2008 at 11:52 amGood lord, Dr. Matt...
I think I got some "stoopid" on me after visiting that Freeper link you posted.
That site truly is the Olympics of Christian Right Phucktardery.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:53 amGitmo for Limpballs.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:53 amWayne A. Schneider Says:
barfly,
Just for the record,
Now that that has been sorted out, and drained of any possible humorous content...
I was attempting to create an image, not strictly adhere to the precepts of debate.
Geeze...
November 9th, 2008 at 11:54 amsomeone ought to point out to lardass a)smoking a big cigar is not compensation for having a small package and b) it was his ship of fools who proposed getting rid of social security and letting people invest in the stock market. If that master plan came to fruition, right now there’d be a lot of starving elderly begging on the streets.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:58 amFEARandSMEAR.com Says: That site truly is the Olympics of Christian Right Phucktardery.
I expect it to get even worse as they see Sarah "exorcise me from the witches" Palin, and Bobby "ID" Jindal as the future of their party...
I'm glad Obama has listed Education, especially Science Education, as one of his priorities. We desperately need it.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:59 ambarfly,
Don't worry. If Rush Limbaugh chokes on a sandwich, I'll still laugh. :)
November 9th, 2008 at 12:04 pmmethinks it's dr. matt's plan to make us "freetarded" by posting those links. lord knows nothing can be finer than reading the hypocritical posts of all those good warriors of christ over there.
November 9th, 2008 at 12:05 pmonce upon a time
ditto head trolls would
flock to a rush post like
flies to guano.
*
those days are past.
^
November 9th, 2008 at 12:08 pmFact-checking Rush Limbaugh is like searching for a brand new car at the junkyard. Youll only find useless junk cars but what did you expect to find? A brand new car? Limbaugh telling the truth?
November 9th, 2008 at 12:08 pmDr Matt Hussein,
Those people (at the site to which you linked) are seriously in need of psychological counseling. It appears that they actually believe everything they've been taught about who and what God is. Strangely enough, they seem to operate under the illusion that God is only concerned with American politics, and that He has nothing to do with all the other countries' dictators and mass murderers He must have helped put into power. If Socialism was so bad, then why would He have let them institute it in Europe? Their logic falls apart upon closer scrutiny, but then, scrutinizing your beliefs is not something the Religious Right feels they need to do.
And here's another one they can't answer: Is Rush Limbaugh, with his constant penchant for lying, distorting the truth, misinforming, and generally being wrong about everything, doing the work of God or the work of Satan?
November 9th, 2008 at 12:09 pmRush is proof there is no God. Why else has he not been struck down with lightning?
November 9th, 2008 at 12:09 pmjb Says:
Rush is proof there is no God. Why else has he not been struck down with lightning?
Well, He did give Rush erectile dysfunction, didn't He?
/snark off
November 9th, 2008 at 12:11 pmHit him where it hurts.
November 9th, 2008 at 12:20 pmEverybody got the right to speak their mind
So don't shoot me for saying mine
Everybody talking about racial equality
'Cos everybody's equal in the good Lord's eyes
But if I told you that God was black
What would you think of that
I bet you wouldn't believe it
-"Black Messiah", The Kinks, 1978
November 9th, 2008 at 12:28 pmFree speech is one thing but being paid millions of dollars to spew hate and lies over the public airwaves to incite more hate and division among the American people should be against the law and Rush Pimpledick should be flogged in public for his despicable brand of entertainment.
November 9th, 2008 at 12:28 pmRush Sings I'm A Nazi
Download Rush Limbaugh Hater MP3
http://soubory.com/en/download_mp3/Rush-Limbaugh-Hater/Rush-Sings-I-m-A-Nazi-186623/
Announcer: Ladies and gentleman... Rush Limbaugh!
They say that I'm sleaze, An elitist, if you please
Everybody disagrees with my rap (with his rap)
I'm horrendous, I'm appalling, My ratings now are falling
'Cause I'm so full of bull, so full of crap (full of crap)
With condescending cries, Making money selling lies,
You might say everybody hates my guts (hates his guts)
I'm offensive, I'm a bigot, I'm a fraud - Can you dig it?
I'm a sexist, racist, homophobic, fat, pathetic putz
I'm a nazi (he's a nazi), That's right, I really am,
November 9th, 2008 at 12:36 pm'Cause I'm a nazi (he's a nazi), That's right, you're being scammed
I'm a nazi (he's a nazi). I don't care about the middle class
'Cause I'm a fat conservative butthead, With the face of a horse's ass
(He's a fat conservative butthead) Hey!, (With the face of a horse's ass)....................................
Blimp-O deserves a 50-yard Crotch-punt.
Just get me in range, and I'll do it...
November 9th, 2008 at 12:40 pmOn one hand, it's pretty clear the LA Times should have been pointing this out years ago, but on the other hand, perhaps it's a good sign that they're starting to feel brave enough to peek out from under the bed and criticize Rush. Baby steps are all we can expect from a neutered press.
November 9th, 2008 at 12:48 pmNice work, Mr Rainey.
One question -- just a teeny one -- why did you wait so long?
November 9th, 2008 at 12:50 pmI see a new YouTube video on the horizon...
A remake of the Tom Petty classic, "Freetarded"
??? "I'm free..." ???
November 9th, 2008 at 12:52 pmI know that there is no way Obama would propose anything like that and agree that it really wouldn't be legal. But, I bet there are a lot of people out there who wished their 401k plan was invested in Social Security instead of the stock market!
I put my 401k money in a boring CD paying 4.5% interest. It's not much of a rate of return, but I still have every penny I put into the account and that's worth much more than a higher rate of return.
November 9th, 2008 at 12:57 pmgummitch Says:
On one hand, it’s pretty clear the LA Times should have been pointing this out years ago, but on the other hand, perhaps it’s a good sign that they’re starting to feel brave enough to peek out from under the bed and criticize Rush. Baby steps are all we can expect from a neutered press.
I think we are going to start seeing more and more of this from the MSM. Even though they are all conservative, they are also business people and they are seeing their return on investment drop dramatically. Part of it is because of the Internet. If they want to stay alive and stay relevant, they are going to have to stop being right wing water carriers and get on the new bandwagon. If they don't, I predict the total demise of print newspapers and possibly televised news.
I am firmly convinced that Obama would not be President Elect Obama if it was not for the Internet. The right wing controlled MSM could not control the message on the Internet. And that is partly why we won.
November 9th, 2008 at 1:01 pmPeople like Rush Limbaugh get support from underground secret societies and cults. Most people hate him and are disgusted by him but there is a base of individuals that in secrecy support hatred, greed and racism. That's why grotesque individuals like Drug Rush Limbaugh get to voice all the hatred that lies in their filthy brains. In secrecy they walk among us and they support and listen to what comes out of Drug Rush Limbaugh's filthy mouth.
November 9th, 2008 at 1:02 pmAnn Coulter is another one who's in the business of shame and hate.
This man is a portrait of self-hatred. On some deep level he must come to work everyday and look at the gold microphone and realize this is what I am, a joke, a waste of a life, an underachieving flunky who couldn't get into law school, who couldn't even get a college degree. Instead he gobbles oxycontin and rails against the people to whom he feels inferior. He is a fraud for whom free speech and the open market place of ideas are no excuse. He is not an entertainer. He is not some balancing antithesis. He is a spiritual cancer.
November 9th, 2008 at 1:03 pmRush Limbaugh and Ed Schultz......2 loudmouth blowhards who both espouse lies and half-truths for their respective Right and Left audiences, both on the radio at the same time.
November 9th, 2008 at 1:05 pmLittle Brain, shouldn't you be at a Star Trek convention, raping small animals, or playing a freeway? Get busy, pumpkin.
November 9th, 2008 at 1:16 pmDr. Foot-In-Mouth with another lame statement. You say the same thing every time to every one more intelligent than yourself..."Why don't you play in the freeway". You are a bore.
BTW, I am more of an Outer Limits and Twilight Zone fan than Star Trek.
November 9th, 2008 at 1:29 pmLimbaugh caught peddling shameless lies!?
Good thing it is the first time he's ever done it... isn't it? Isn't it?
November 9th, 2008 at 1:44 pmA guy named Joseph Lyles does a daily podcast called 'Limbaugh Lie of the Day'. He's awesome and takes apart limbaugh all the time. You can find him on iTunes.
November 9th, 2008 at 2:08 pmLimbaugh's audience will increase, now that a moderate to large percentage of Americans are not happy with Obama.
It is not Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Schultz, Kuby, and O'Reilly that I will be depending on watching and checking Obama, but Real Progressives, Gays, Libertarians, Greens, and Independents.
November 9th, 2008 at 2:22 pmIs there a "Gay" party now?
November 9th, 2008 at 3:06 pmHmmmmm
huh, did you just miss nov. 4th?
November 9th, 2008 at 3:33 pmOh now lat is fact checking limpballs, what took them so long?
Concerning most of the lies he tells, all one needs is a dictionary to do the basic fact checking.
He's a racist and it seems the US believe so. This tub of lard should be laughed out of existence.
November 9th, 2008 at 5:26 pmWell, I certainly never listen to Limbaugh always playing the 'negativity, demonization and blame' game...predicating on peoples bias for his millions.
November 9th, 2008 at 5:34 pmI wonder how much Rush Limbaugh has in his 401k, and how much he's lost in the last year.
Times are tough for him.
Even with Rush's new 8-year, 425 million dollar contract, he's barely earning $70 thousand dollars an hour.
Do you have any idea how tough it must be for Rush Limbaugh to scrape by on a meager million dollar weekly paycheck? And that's before taxes!
November 9th, 2008 at 6:06 pmI have been trying to talk about this issue for some time, and have been watching how America progresses or not in regards to this issue. What Rush does is ultimately bad for America, bad for discourse, bad for thinking, bad for democracy. His style of toxic dialogue is all about wrecking this country. It is no longer enough to say democracy requires dissent or disagreement or both sides as this side, this side Limbaugh, Coulter, Hannity, Savage et al...all work for and push is simply toxic to the body politic of America. Clearly they work for the masters, the owners and quite frankly the cowards. We must not stop talking about this and we must teach Americans how to tell the difference between truth and opinion the way we must distinguish socialism and totalitarianism.
Rush Limbaugh is an anti-American parasite technically.
November 9th, 2008 at 6:09 pmJohn Kerry,
November 9th, 2008 at 6:21 pmHow about some shrimp poblano peeper corn chowder? Are you a sissy?
John Kerry Says:
You libs have a SLIGHT problem which is that YOU are wrong! What Rush said is 100% true and you lying bastards know it.
Get your facts straight before you write this bunch of lies.
Looks like Carl Cameron is back on the sauce.
November 9th, 2008 at 7:48 pmJK, you are really silly now. We won and your side lost big freakin time, in a fair race. HAHAHAHA Y'all couldn't begin to cheat with all eyes on yall.
Get counseling for your personality issues.
November 9th, 2008 at 7:50 pmWell then again, you are entertaining in a sadist sort of way.
#39, Answer:
Mr. Rainey of the LA times identified, Teresa Ghilarducci, Ph.D., of the New School for Social Research as advocating putting 401(k)s into Social Security.
November 9th, 2008 at 7:58 pmMia Kulper
He won't last long. Before we know it he will be spinning Latino tunes.
His type are gone with the wind.
November 9th, 2008 at 8:05 pmRush Limaugh's Rear End -- Now that is a terrifying thought!!!
November 9th, 2008 at 9:59 pmUnfortunately, this is just a fraction of the endless lies and distortions Limbaugh spews on a daily basis. He is truly a sad and pathetic person, but he also has millions of misguided listeners and is paid hundreds of millions of dollars, which gives him enormous power.
He will retain this power until he leaves this earth. The only way we can even attempt to muzzle him is to immediately react and respond to his mendacity.
And, obviously, that goes "DITTO" for Hannity, O'Reilly, Coulter, Ingraham, Beck, Savage, et al.
November 9th, 2008 at 10:06 pmWhile we help the US and the world to be a better place under President Obama's administration, their type will be useless.
Their overt racism will be marked with a big fat boycott. They will lose ad money faster than a speeding bullet and their ditto audiences will be insignificant.
They don't get it. The US just caught up with the rest of the world. It's a different world.
I'm still amazingly happy and proud for the US.
Their nastiness, lies, racism, immaturity etc, isn't a proud trait to have any longer. It doesn't work.
Repugs are embarrassing.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:34 pm"In any case, the government doesn’t really have the power to 'take' everyone’s 401-k. Those are just bank and brokerage accounts which have a special tax status. You might as well say the government is going to steal everybody’s checking account while you’re at it." (fletc3her, comment 3 above).
Stealing everybody's checking accounts is exactly what former Sen. Phil Gramm set in motion in the late 1990s when he inserted a provision in a massive appropriations bill that tore down the Depression-era law that kept banks and investment firms separate, with "investment banks" being the result.
Thus, gamblers running investment firms this decade could use funds in a bank's checking accounts as "collateral" for their shaky/get-rich-quick investment gambles...with the recent mortgage/Wall Street/home-lending meltdown being the result.
401(k) and IRA retirement plans, pushed by and enacted into law by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, were the first Republican "privatization schemes" involving retirement, as the culture of corruption and greed Republicans sought to whittle away at Depression-era fixed pension plans.
We have all now seen what happens when retirement funds are tied to the performance of the stock market:
Senior citizens losing tens of thousands of dollars of their 401(k) retirement. Banks holding IRA's on shaky financial ground, requiring a taxpayer-funded, let-future-generations-pay bailout. And Fortune 500 companies deciding to not honor their "fixed pensions plans" because of their stock being devalued to almost junk bond status.
And the driven-insane-by-greed Republicans want to complete the destruction of the middle-class, unions and "fixed pension plans" by privatizing Social Security, turning it into another Wall Street gamble...with no assurances that future retirees will not experience what present retirees are enduring, with their retirement "nest eggs" evaporating right before their eyes.
Heckuva job, Republicans. Now go find some other country to ruin. Go find some other senior citizens to destroy. Oh right, look what their incipient insanity has done to Iraq. Why haven't many Republicans been consigned to a padded cell somewhere by now? Not only have they endangered the twilight years of our nation's hard-working senior citizens, but they've endangered the collective economic future of their own children. Crazy is as crazy does.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:53 pm“They’re going to take your 401(k), put it in the Social Security trust fund, whatever the hell that is,” Limbaugh woofed. “Trust fund, my rear end.”
Last time I checked most 401s were becoming more worthless than Social Security.
November 10th, 2008 at 7:15 amWho care what the druggie has to say? He will continue this BS until people start boycotting products that are advertized on Clear Channel stations. Whenn they see the loss of revenue this clown will be history
November 10th, 2008 at 1:41 pmTurn him off. Make him irrelevant. I yrge you to stop quoting these rightwing moderators and thereby hal;ve their readership: I only EVER read this crap when I visit progressive sites.
I would be very happy if you all would just drop this "we need to know what they're saying" line since the campaign is over. They are powerless.
They are trying to hold their "pundit' credentials and fire up their 'rump' but that's no reason we need to give credence to these 'entertainers' posing as American political geniuses.
Shut them down. IGNORE THEM.
November 10th, 2008 at 3:11 pmJohn Kerry Says:
YOU have a bigger problem. You are a liar and a deluded fool.
November 11th, 2008 at 3:15 amDwH Says:
We ignored the Oxymoron Limbaugh for the first decade or so he was spewing his hatefilled idiocy. How did THAT work out for us?
November 11th, 2008 at 5:04 amLimbaugh is a cancer on this nation.
November 11th, 2008 at 3:59 pmI have filed a formal complaint with the FCC against him for his 'operation CHAOS', where he openly advocated skewing Democratic Primary election results, using public airwaves to accomplish that end...
All the criminals in this country missed out on the easy bucks and it's legal too. All you have to do is throw together some right wing talking points - they don't have to be true - and start ranting about those liberals and just like that wing nut station will pick you up and you've got it made.
And you too can sit your fat ass in a chair all day and make millions while ranting to your brain dead audience about how you're going to shut down all the government programs and make America a better place. Of course you won't have to worry about money because you've got your millions, unlike your faithful audience.
November 11th, 2008 at 5:19 pmThe fat junkie wouldn't know truth if it belted him in the face..Did I mention that Fats is a misogynist and enjoys poisoning kittens? It's a Limbaugh fact.
November 14th, 2008 at 4:51 pm@#4 (fletc3her): They don't yet have the power to confiscate our 401(k)'s. But until a few years ago, eminent domain was limited to public projects until the Supreme(ly dumb) Court ruled against the Constitution and extended eminent domain to include seizure of private property for private projects. Once the government gets a notion into its head, watch out: there go our freedoms.
@12 (kasinca): pot calling the kettle black, that. After your poisonous invectives, you call his audience "morons who hate" - priceless. Long live liberal hate - it's better than conservative hate. Whatever.
@#18 (tom): ditto the above. You did a good job being pathetic, bigotted, shallow, mean, insulting, and bombastic yourself just then.
@#14 (unbelievable): You missed the statistic that also correlates being undereducated with being liberal. So, being under- or over-educated tends to make one a whining lefty. High school and college undergrads tend to lean right. Perhaps it's because the overeducated can't bear to leave their lefitst universities and so pursue advanced degrees, and the undereducated don't know any better than to vote for the hand that feeds them. Clearly, then, it's not how "educated" a person is, but how indoctrinated.
@#19 (barfly): Conservatives can't compete without total control of the mike? Oh, yeah, let's hear it again for the underwhelming success of Air America. Yawn.
@#36 (unbelievable): wow. talk about mentally unstable...
@#85 (Game Of Life): "The US just caught up with the rest of the world" - riiiight. Europe has elected all those minority leaders.
@all: These posts are (generally) quite sad. I've not seen such collective ignorance and hatred since the Nazi's antisemitic propaganda films. Sure, you all crow about "tolerance" and "diversity" - until someone disagrees with you, then it's all about "shut them down".
You don't truly believe in free speech until you defend that right for someone with whom you disagree.
So - prove me wrong by respectfully welcoming a differing opinion, or flame me for that opinion and prove me right. Your call. Meanwhile, I'll be getting the fire hose.
November 14th, 2008 at 7:33 pmLimbaugh need urgent frontal lobotomy.
November 15th, 2008 at 9:42 pmThe fu*king dudes a doper.. how in the world can anyone listen to him let alone believe what he say's. The brainless are his followers. People that are not smart enough to read, only listen. So long as someone is preaching hate, you have followers, no matter which side.. but really? a fu*king doper
November 18th, 2008 at 7:57 pmI have listen to Rush in the past and caught him lying so many times that I quit listening. The problem is that my brother-in-law and I have a relationship that was friendly in the past but he now listens to Rush. He has come up with some crazy ideas since listening. Rush is being a wedge in the family. It is like my b-i-l is a zombie and keeps returning to the program. It's like Rush is giving him a daily anger fix. The bad part is he is an intelligent person but is in bad company.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:46 pm