From Rush Limbaugh yesterday

[kaelin42]

The most common phrase that Kerry used in the debate on Friday night was "I have a plan." "I have a plan! I have a plan! I have plan! I have a plan!" But the most common word Kerry used was "but." Everything he said had a "but" in it or a qualifier. "I believe we should have gotten Saddam but..." "I believe in tax cuts, but..." So what I instructed

Comments

Re: how about

[kaelin42]

At what point during all that was Limbaugh wrong? The UN is mostly full of thugs. A good part of the world is not democratic, and the governments of the poorer countries of the world would be well classified as dictators.

Abu Grahib was a media orgy aimed at taking a blow at George Bush for something that pretty obviously wasn't his fault. Plus i don't really see a problem with Abu Grahib. The Iraqis don't seem to feel any compunctions against beheading their prisoners, so any interrogation tequniques we use look mild in comparison. They're lucky that the US adheres to the Geneva convention.

As most quotes attributed to Rush, i'm pretty sure that the sexual harrassment quote was part of some broader point that was intentionally left out.

His point about the minimum wage is valid too. A high minimum wage forces Americans to support obviously unqualified people. Which is another reason companies are going overseas. If you can pay people $2 a year to work for you and have to pay $100,000 to ship it back to the US, it's cheaper than paying all your employees $5 whatever an hour.

Limbaugh never actually stated what the minimum wage was in your quote. He was groping for a figure that he didn't have on hand. Either way, his point is valid.

Re: how about

[qualario]

The UN is not mostly thugs. And calling them thugs is not, as they say, the brightest foreign policy move. If some of the member nations of the United Nations can be characterized as "thuggish," that is no reason to blindly label the rest of them as such. It's gross exaggeration, and therefore wrong.

Abu Ghraib may have been covered ferociously by the media, but does that make it an "orgy?" The term "orgy" connotes that it was undeserved--yet our soldiers were torturing prisoners. They were *torturing fellow human beings.* And your point seems to state that since some Iraqi extremists feel justified killing our people that we should feel perfectly fine torturing and killing theirs. Torture and murder are not right, Kevin, no matter what your opponent does. Most of the prisoners held in Abu Ghraib were being held under false (or no) pretenses, as well, which adds another level of wickedness to what our "brave soldiers" were doing there. It absolutely sickens me that you're willing to defend torture and humiliation. And you say the US adheres to the Geneva Conventions? Sure, we say we do--but in this situation, did we? No. We sunk to the shameful brutality of those whom we denounce--and doing so makes us no better than them.

If you can prove to me that the sexual harrassment quote was taken out of context, do it. In the meantime, I'd hate to have to bring up Limbaugh's affection for the term "feminazi" to refer to feminists. And I give you another quote from Rush: "We're not sexists, we're chauvinists -- we're male chauvinist pigs, and we're happy to be because we think that's what men were destined to be. We think that's what women want." --April 15, 2004

A self-proclaimed chauvinist pig? His words, not mine.

A higher minimum wage allows people who were not given a good enough education--due to failed educational policies like the one proposed by President Bush--a chance to actually raise a family and not live in abject poverty. Do some homework on living wage and get back to me. You grew up in a relatively affluent area, so I don't expect you to know what it's like to scrape by--or not even be able to scrap by--like so many people in this country do. I challenge you, when you get out of college, to get a job making $5.15 per hour and tell me how easily you can support yourself. Companies do go overseas so they can pay some Indonesian child $.10 an hour to make clothing--are they right in doing so? They're right if they're slaves to the almighty dollar, but they're terribly wrong if they have any sort of conscience. And to show how Limbaugh has *continued* to misunderstand the realities of minimum wage, I give you *yet another* of his own quotes: "There aren't families living on the minimum wage anyway; it's a teenage entry level job for 75% of the people earning minimum wage. The people that get the minimum wage are not the people Democrats portray them as being -- heads of households supporting families of four. It's not the case. Let's get real." --April 29, 2004.

According to the Economic Policy Institute's analysis of 2000 US Census Bureau data, only 32% of minimum wage earners are teens aged 16-19, and not the ridiculous 75% figure that Limbaugh threw out. Limbaugh needs to get over himself, and people need to learn to question some of the things he says rather than just lapping them up.