Behold! The Stupidity!

Douchebag of the Week: Rush Limbaugh

When choosing the weekly douchebag, I try to make it a point to avoid the normal douchebags, otherwise it would be way too easy. I stay away from the Three Stooges: Rush, Glenn and Sean, because if I paid attention to even one tenth of the horseshit that comes out of their mouths I would never have the need to pick anyone else. But I couldn't bypass this week's little nugget of wisdom from the leader of the Republican party; or should I say, dingleberry of wisdom?

Referring to an incident in which a white student was beaten by black students on a bus, Limbaugh said: “I think the guy’s wrong. I think not only it was racism, it was justifiable racism. I mean, that’s the lesson we’re being taught here today. Kid shouldn’t have been on the bus anyway. We need segregated buses — it was invading space and stuff. This is Obama’s America.”

This comment was made after local police said the attack was probably not racially motivated. But that didn't stop Limbaugh from pushing the meme. For anyone who still believes that racism isn't alive and well in America because we elected a black President, just think of this statement and the 20 million listeners who sit through this incredibly vile crap for three hours a day.

But he doesn't stop there. Why stop when you're on a roll? To top it off, Limbaugh decides to compare racism to homosexuality.

“If homosexuality being inborn is what makes it acceptable, why does racism being inborn not make racism acceptable?” the talk show host asked. “I’m sorry — I mean, this is the way my mind works. But apparently now we don’t choose racism, we just are racists. We are born that way. We don’t choose it. So shouldn’t it be acceptable, excuse — this is according to the way the left thinks about things.”

Just because your Oxycontin riddled mind works that way doesn't make it true, Rush. We are not inherently racist. We are taught to hate. We are taught to fear the "other." We are taught that the "other" is lesser.

The left doesn't assume that opposition to Obama automatically labels one a racist. When the perpetrators of racism decide to leave their Obama as witch doctor signs at home, when they decide to stop viewing him as a non-citizen and therefore an illegitimate Commander in Chief because of his "otherness," when they start arguing the policy points they disagree with instead of calling him a "lyin' African," then maybe we won't assume those making the racist statements are racist.

But so long as they take your lead, Rush, so long as they agree with segregation, so long as they accept your infantile premise in equating homosexuality and inherent racism, they will continue to circle the drain into GOP irrelevance.

Rush "We Need Segregated Buses" Limbaugh: Douchebag of the Week.

But It's Not About Racism (The Jimmy Carter Edition) - UPDATED

This past Tuesday, former President Jimmy Carter, an old white Southern man who would probably know racism when he sees it, commented that the Joe "YOU LIE!" Wilson outburst, as well as the teabagger 9/12 demonstrations, was based in part on racial politics.

"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American," Carter told NBC News. "I live in the South, and I've seen the South come a long way, and I've seen the rest of the country that shares the South's attitude toward minority groups at that time, particularly African-Americans."

"That racism inclination still exists, and I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of belief among many white people -- not just in the South but around the country -- that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It's an abominable circumstance, and it grieves me and concerns me very deeply," Carter said.

No sooner had he made that comment, the attack dogs were on the cable chatter stations to debate whether Carter was right in his assessment. Matt Lauer interviewed Michael Eric Dyson and Frank Luntz (Frank FUCKING Luntz!) as if there were equal sides to this debate. Conspicuously absent from the piece was any video or images of the racists signs being carried at the 9/12 protests. Dyson was also on Morning Joke™ where MENSA member Maria "Why Isn't 45 Year Old Anthony Weiner On Medicare If It's So Good?" Bartiromo tried to dismiss racism on the grounds that President Obama once enjoyed a 70% approval rating. Dyson astutely breaks down the arguments, but of course on the Morning Joke™ set, it falls of deaf ears.

The whole point of these most recent morning interviews was to discredit Carter's valuation, just as they attacked him for his Palestine book. They try refuting Carter's argument with no facts or images to bolster their non-racial argument from the teabaggers in DC. They discredit him and thereby try to show that race has little or nothing to do with the 9/12 marchers in Washington on Saturday who were soooo angry at the government "spending its tax dollars" that they showed up bearing signs with Obama dressed as a witch doctor with a bone through his nose, or telling him to go back to Kenya and take his "arrogent" wife with him (Arrogant... perhaps they meant "uppity"?) or calling him a "Muslim Marxist" as though no freedom of religion existed in this country, let alone probably not knowing the definition of Marxism. To them it's just another thing to repeat that they heard from "their hero, Glenn Beck."

Anyone who refuses to believe that race is not only an issue, but the main issue for the upswell in opposition is purposely ignoring what is plainly visible; the deep seated feeling that they really are racist but can't admit it. Where were these protesters when former President Bush bailed out financial institutions with $700 billion? President Obama continues the Bush policy and all of a sudden it's socialism? But you bring a sign like this to your protest?



I'd like to know how many 9/12 teabaggers "protesting the government spending" are A) Democrats and B) voted for Obama? I have more respect for David Duke than some I do for some of these teabaggers or Glenn Beck. At least Duke admits to being a racist and is proud of it.

UPDATE (9/17/09, 6:45am): Keith Olbermann takes on the race issue and backs it up with examples.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Oops...

Glenn Beck's 9/12 loonies hate Communism...



...but loooooove the artwork.



TEABAG FAIL!

Smell It? The Stench of Crazy In The Air

I am sticking to my self imposed blackout of all things Glenn Beck and 9-12 Project today as I value my health, but I couldn't help but click on a 50 second AP video, and this sign just made me chuckle.



If you can't make it out, it reads:

OBAMA
WE HAVE WAKEN (sic) UP
TO YOUR EVIL PLANS
TO DESTROY OUR
COUNTRY. TAKE YOUR
RACIST UN-AMERICAN
ACORN GROUPS AND
ARROGENT (sic) WIFE
BACK TO YOUR OWN
COUNTRY AND STRIP
THEIR RIGHTS AWAY!

Well, looks like they surely have "waken" up.

Two things:

1 - I don't know about you, but if I happen to make up a sign for public display, I'd think about spellchecking it and making sure the words I use actually exist in the English language first.

2 - I was under the impression that Glenn Beck's 9-12 Project was intended to make people feel the way they did the day after September 11th, "when even French newspapers proclaimed: 'We’re all Americans' — we were united." It was all about unity. Looking at some of these pictures, looks like Beck missed the mark by a little bit.

The 1031 Project

I lost my shit when I caught this awesome Glenn Beck smackdown by Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central.

Glenn Beck: The New Freak Show

Have you ever gone to a freak show? You pay your two bucks, the barker punches your stamp, and you get to walk around this smelly, dimly lit makeshift tent that will be gone is a few days and look at the "oddities." The freaks of society under one roof so you can get your gawk on.

Freak shows have been around forever. The Elephant Man, Chang & Eng the Siamese Twins, Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy, and now we have the newest freak on the Fox block: Glenn Beck, the Cowardly Crying Doomsdayer.

Watch this clip and witness the horror. This freak of nature! GLENN BECK! The Cowardly, Crying Doomsdayer!




Now maybe I shouldn't have, but when I saw this freak I didn't gasp or cover my face in fear. I laughed. How sad is that? Am I the only one who laughed? I doubt it. I laughed because of the contradiction of his message. Beck goes on his new show at Fox and calls one of his segments the "War Room," creating a fictional hellish future as his viewers watch, mouth agape, for the purpose of stirring them into a Doomsday panic. He blames "your leaders and the special interests and the media," while at the same time promoting this "You Are Not Alone" special claiming that if "you pull away the curtain, there isn't anybody there. It's just a few people pushing the buttons." The same people that are pushing the buttons for Glenn Beck's show, perhaps?

Beck has started The 912 Project. I took a quick gander at the website and here was the first line I read: "The 9-12 Project is designed to bring us all back to the place we were on September 12, 2001." Because nothing says we should live in fear like the day after 9/11. I stopped reading before sacrificing any more brain cells.

This Nostra-dumb-ass is creating worst case scenarios on his show and freaking people out while simultaneously trying to get though his crying jag special by telling his audience they need to take back the world, remember "we surround them - you are not alone"... but don't forget to be afraid!

To be fair, Beck's explanation is that he is obviously trying to capture the feeling of the nation's citizens coming together as one after 9/11 (when Bush's approval ratings were through the roof). I would venture to say that he is recreating the feeling of fear on 9/12 due to his doomsday rhetoric and not this feeling of solidarity, but that's just me.

You should read his 9 Principles here. As far as his 12 Values, all you have to do is look at some of the commenters to see how quickly those values evaporate when dealing with someone who doesn't espouse their views.

While I believe Beck's current ratings are tantamount to staring at a freakish car accident with limbs and heads laying in the street, and that it's a hideous sight that you can't look away from, I also think that you wind up getting desensitized to the crazy and it'll get old quickly. After all, there's something weird going on when people on your own network are making fun of you, as shown by this Shepard Smith video.

So while Beck is the new and strange little oddity in the freak show that's drawing a crowd, soon it'll die down and people will say, "Oh, look. Beck's crying... again. Let's go take a look at the lady born with no arms that eats with her feet!" You've seen one self-immolation, you've seen 'em all.

ADDING... For added fun, take a look at Stephen Colbert's parody, The Doom Bunker.