The Big Foist

It's Friday.

It's Random.

So have at it, tuneage.


Incidentally, there have been a couple of good posts recently with some review of Rush Limbaugh and his despicable tirades against Michael J. Fox. (Truly a Carnival of Ugly - have you seen the video showing Limbaugh physically mocking the shaking of the Parkinson's victims? I swear at this point, I wouldn't believe a DNA test showing Limbaugh to be a human. But I digress)

Tristero at Digby's joint has a good initial response, with some analysis (Digby also has some worthwhile posts, so look 'em up also) where he refers to Sam Seder's bit on Countdown (which I happened to catch for once), as follows:

If you watch the segment, be sure to check out Sam Seder's comments, that Limbaugh's real job is to insulate his listeners from reality. He's absolutely right. The only real issue is funding for stem cell research, which the Republican party - consistent with its mistrust of all things scientific, be they biological, physical, ecological, or statistical - opposes. But suddenly the airwaves are all atwitter with chirpy parrots concerned with whether Michael J. Fox was acting. As if that matters one whit.

Jane at FireDogLake, always a benchmark, gives excellent analysis here.

But for me, I think one of the most revealing analyses is by Lance Mannion. Rush is not blathering about Fox, or Parkinson's, or even really stem cell research. He sees a(nother) break in the dike of Rich White Guy Power 'n' Entitlement, and is rushing to put his tiny little finger in it to preserve his own power and privilege.

The base, deep down fear of every one of these overfed, overprivileged examples of the old adage that Shit Floats is that if and when they are no longer the prime power in the country, that those who succeed them will return the favor by treating the Limbaughs with the same derision, resentment, hatred and lack of empathy which is the Rich White Guy stock in trade.

At the end of the post, he quotes a Shakespeare's Sister post, and being all about the meta, I'm just going to go ahead and quote a blogger quoting another blogger:

To say that Limbaugh probably isn’t, in real life, the monster he plays on the radio isn’t a particularly nice thing to say about him, though it may seem so. In reality, it’s rather the opposite. I firmly believe he has the capacity to be a decent person (most people do); that he chooses to shed that decency as soon as a microphone is put in front of him speaks to the depth of his lack of character. It’s one thing to be the kind of person who truly hates the disabled by virtue of ignorance or masked fear or plain, old-fashioned intolerance; it’s quite another to affect that hatred in spite of knowing better to make money from the devotion of people who really do, by inflaming their repugnant beliefs.

Here is a perfect place to deepen this quote by referring to Kurt Vonnegut in Mother Night:

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.”

Nick responded to my last post about this in a thoughtful and revealing way; and in the course, he slightly demurred at my characterization of Rush as a Nazi. Of course, the reference to Nazi in my post was part of a joke that has been floating around for sometime.

But the point is that Limbaugh has been bleating and yammering in this way for quite some time now, and is rewarded well by the Right wing smear machine. In that, he is similar to the protagonist in Vonnegut's book, wherein he has been performing the part so well, for so long, that he no longer has any identity apart from it. And must, in fact, continue to ratchet up the reprehensible statements to continue with his task of propping up the RightWing political machine, even as it shudders under the fatal result of it's own principles of greed and self-interest.

Limbuagh is not a Nazi, per se; he certainly is not a professed member of the Aryan nation or anything like that <Monty Python> “Oh what a giveaway! </Monty Python> But he has certainly adopted the planks of Nationalism, Racial Hatred, Authoritarianism, Corporate Governance, and State Religiosity. He has adopted the position and mentality of Goebbels. Shakespeare said it in a pretty way: ”That which we call a Rose by any other name would smell as sweet.“ In current parlance, ”If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.“



On to the damn music. 18,132 songs, 1277 artists, 1601 'albums'

1. See America from the album ”Mobilize“ by Grant Lee Phillips
2. Lane, Robin & The Chartbusters / When Things Go Wrong from the album ”D.I.Y. Mass. Ave. - The Boston Scene (1975-83)“ by Various Artists
3. Cartoon Wisdom from the album ”Blue Sky“ by The Bottle Rockets
4. Freakshow from the album ”Ska The Third Wave Volume 3“ by The Pietasters
5. The Perfect Cut (Piece Of Meat) from the album ”Helter Stupid“ by Negativland dang. Forgot about Negativland at the pabst last night. Maybe Zelmo went (heh. I crack myself up) Okay, here it is: I didn't go because Zelmo didn't want to go. It's his fault (the Denny Hastert defense).
6. Career Of Evil (Bonus Track - Single Version) from the album ”Secret Treaties“ by Blue Öyster Cult Heh. here's one for Limbaugh! Thank yew! I'll here all week!
7. The Day The Light Went Out from the album ”Archive 1976 - 1992 (Disc 3)“ by Genesis
8. Asia Minor from the album ”Troublizing“ by Ric Ocasek
9. A Horse With No Name - Loud Family from the album ”Star Power“ by Various Artists - Pravda Records This is excellent- not what you'd expect at all. Dig it up if you can.
10. To Sir With Love from the album ”After the Flood: Live from the Grand Forks Prom“ by Soul Asylum

Bonus in honor of Patrick Fitzgerald destroying the first expert witness for the defense in pretrial hearings for the Libby case (contrary to all the armchair attorneys, Armitage's admission did not wash all the guilt away). Get this though - he did it using her own footnotes and reports!

11. I Often Dream of Trains from the album ”Nineteeneighties“ by Grant Lee Phillips covering a good old Robyn Hitchcock song.
12. The Wars End from the album ”...And Out Come The Wolves“ by Rancid oooo. good one.
13. Ivory Coast from the album ”Indestructible“ by Rancid
14. Go Ahead, You're Dying To from the album ”From Ritual To Romance“ by The Loud Family
15. Still It's Own Reward from the album ”The Tape Of Only Linda“ by The Loud Family

Jeez, what's with the Loud Family today? Here's another (hopefully) non- Scott Miller song:

16. Genie from the album ”Marbles (Disc 1)“ by Marillion





Late breaking Un-America Update: NBC and CW Television are refusing to accept advertising (that's the ads for the damn movie, not the movie itself) for Shut Up And Sing, a documentary about the Dixie Chicks and the response to their criticism of the Farter-IN-Chief. Because the movie is ”disparaging of President Bush“.

This is incredible. The level of fear it represents is totally at odds with a country that bills itself as a beacon of freedom. ”Liberal Media“ indeed- still Not Liberal!

Disparaging Bush is not only a right in America (or the America that used to be) at this point, it is the duty of every American. Pointing out the Preznit has no clothes is not the fault of the citizen, but the one who is wearing no clothes.

Damn. Disgusting.


Alright, here's some funny to balance that out:

”President Bush is working hard on the Iraq situation. Today he told the Iraqi people to “get governing.” Then he went on to introduce his new speech writer, Larry the Cable Guy.
---Conan O'Brien
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“The election is three [less than two] weeks away and there are rumors the Republicans are getting ready for an election night disaster, which would be a first---a disaster they were actually prepared for.”
---Bill Maher
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“Senator Joe Lieberman told a reporter he didn't know which would be better, Democratic or Republican control of Congress. Maybe it would be better if he took some time off to think about it. Like 6 years.”
---Will Durst