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Rush Limbaugh Attacks Tim Wise, August 17, 2009red_smile
xfean 14 Reviews 4326 reads
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Rush Limbaugh Attacks Tim Wise, August 17, 2009


August 18, 2009, filed under Enemy Attacks; 2 Comments.

Tags: deceptive data, indigenous persons, Obama, Rush Limbaugh, slavery, Tea Party, white denial,

white racial resentment

Rush Limbaugh attacks Tim Wise, August 17, 2009. Check it out! And then read Tim’s reply.


Fact-Checking and Correcting Rush Limbaugh (Or, Reflections on the Easiest Thing I’ll Do All Day)
Posted on August 18, 2009
Today is a glorious day indeed. First, our youngest daughter began kindergarten this morning, amidst great excitement and enthusiasm, and was walked to her classroom by her big sister (in 2nd grade), who felt especially “adult” for getting to do that, I’m sure.

And secondly, because yesterday afternoon, Rush Limbaugh attacked me on air. The afterglow, as they say, is still with me.

Limbaugh, apparently peeved at my comments on CNN the night before — where I had discussed the role of racism in much of the hostility being witnessed in the town hall meetings — couldn’t help himself. Among other things, he called me a liar and a dunderhead, who wasn’t qualified to write a book. The first of these is funny, coming from him, and the last of these is too, considering that his book was ghost-written. Now, as for “dunderhead?” Well, I had to look that one up. It apparently means: “A nonsense word often used by OxyContin addicts to describe their political adversaries.” Who knew?
Anyway, his diatribe was really quite telling.

First, he was angered by my referencing him, and claiming that he had recently said that the President hates white people.

“This is the kind of lying that passes for reporting and wise commentary on the left. I never said Obama hates white people,” bellowed Rush in reply.

So, wanting to be accurate, I went back and checked. I want to be precise, after all. Turns out, Rush is half right. He didn’t say those words, that way. Glenn Beck did of course, a few weeks ago, but not Rush. What Limbaugh did say, however, and the statement to which I had been referring, was this, from May 29:

“How do you get promoted in the Barack Obama administration? By hating white people…make white people the new oppressed minority…and they’re (the Republican Party) going right along with it ‘cuz they’re shutting up, moving to the back of the bus. They’re saying “I can’t use that drinking fountain, OK! I can’t use that restroom, OK!”

Now, let’s process that shall we? First, the point I had been making on CNN — that radio talk show hosts have been deliberately playing on white racial resentments and anxieties in their attacks on Obama — is made even more convincingly by the actual quote, than by the version I had offered. If anything, saying that whites are going to be the new oppressed minority, and that Republicans are literally going to suffer the indignities of segregation, is even more over the top than a silly off-the-cuff broadside about the President hating white people.

Secondly, the first part of the actual quote — which is the part I had been thinking of — actually does suggest that Obama hates white people. After all, if the President only hires people who do (you know, like that notorious white-basher, Tim Geithner), then what is Rush saying about the President? That he hires anti-white bigots just so he can argue with them and convince them of the errors of their ways? Or are we to assume that Obama himself must harbor the same hatreds? Honestly, to weasel out of the implications of his comment here, would be like arguing, “I never said that priest was a pederast. But you know what? If you want to be his friend, you’d best have some hot tips on where to pick up children.”

Rush then denied calling Obama Hitler: an argument he felt compelled to make due to my mention of people in the town halls who have indeed portrayed Obama as Hitler, as in, on their signs. And again, in his denial he is engaging in a half-truth. No one has ever said he, or anyone else, literally called Obama by the name, Hitler. The point is, he, and others, have been regularly seeking to compare Obama to Hitler and the Nazis. And so, on August 6, we have the following from Rush:

“Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate. His Cabinet only met once. One day. That was it. Hitler said he didn’t need to meet with his Cabinet; he represented the will of the people. He was called the messiah. He said the people spoke through him.”

And this:

“It is Obama who is manufacturing right from the White House, sending out his brownshirts to head up opposition to genuine American citizens who want no part of what Barack Obama stands for.”

And this:

“Obama’s got a health care logo that’s right out of Adolf Hitler’s playbook.”

And this:

“Oh, another similarity. Obama is asking citizens to rat each other out like Hitler did.”

Again, to deny the implications of what Rush is saying here would be like arguing: “I’m not saying you’re Jeffrey Dahmer. I’m just saying that, like Dahmer, you like to eat people and keep their body parts in the freezer. That’s all I’m saying.”

Finally, Rush had the verbal equivalent of an exploding aneurysm at my closing point from the show, wherein I noted that to claim you want to take the country back to “the way the founders envisioned it” is inherently disturbing, because, after all, they envisioned a white supremacist state.



Related Link: Rush Limbaugh Attacks Tim Wise, August 17, 2009

johngaltnh1313 reads

... in which he sets up straw men and knocks them down in order to appear smarter than he really is.

I guess idiots and certain academicians (but I repeat myself) find him impressive.

The rest of us know him for the dumbass that he is.

You know, he has never held a real job in his entire life. He went from Tulane straight into an org headed by one of his professors then into being a "community activist" and finally into basically getting paid to spew the same endless circular logic.

No wonder he believes in "white privilege." The dumbass has basically collected money *just for existing* his entire sorry fucking life.

Maybe he should have grown up where I did, and under the conditions I did, and he'd know his "whiteness" and "privilege" crap just to be that -- crap.

But then, if he ever acknowledged the truth of that, he'd have to get a real job. Probably too much like work for his sorry ass.

Other than that I have no strong feelings about him.

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willywonka4u1277 reads

I rather like much of what Tim Wise has to say, but John is certainly right that "white privilege" isn't exactly what it's cracked up to be. I've known a few whites who lived in conditions that I thought wouldn't be possible in a first world nation. Things get put in a real clear perspective when someone asks you to help them go dumpster diving for their next meal.

I think the American people have been sold a false bill of goods. We don't really have a race war in this country. We used to, but the remains of that is fading fast. The race war has been quite a convenient thing to promote, since it gives cover to a larger and more focused class war. And nobody is off limits in a class war.

-- Modified on 12/6/2010 9:47:16 AM

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mattradd1137 reads

As they say: "Knowledge is power." And, the upper-class do not want the middle and lower classes to have the same level of knowledge as they or their children. And, this is true also of the saying involving giving a man a fish vs. teaching him to fish. The rich and upper-class are not going to teach the middle and lower-class the same skills they have for themselves.

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willywonka4u845 reads

That is the sole reason for conservatives pushing "charter schools". It's to destroy public education, so that only the well-to-do can afford to send their kids to school. This is also why they hate public school teachers so damn much. They want to hold a monopoly on knowledge, so they can use it to redistribute wealth to themselves.

You can teach a man to build a fire, and he'll be warm for a night. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

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johngaltnh1069 reads

Now it is true that I paid gobs to send my offspring to a private school out in the middle of nowhere.

But there was nothing in the curriculum of that school that couldn't also be taught in a public school given the initiative of teachers.

There was no "top secret" information there. Kids learned to take initiative, teach themselves, expand the curriculum according to their own interests, resolve conflicts without adult intervention and all that kind of jazz.

They were NOT taught how to make derivatives and stock swindles or how to tread upon the downtrodden.

But they WERE given a comprehensive education in music and other arts, public performance and speaking, math, reading, writing, science, etc.

But all the materials they used are publicly available. There is no top secret store for educational materials that only the schools that teach upper-class kids can obtain.

Public schools suck for the same reason just about everything else public sucks: because it is always oriented to the lowest common denominator.

In public schools they put all the emphasis and funding on the kids that will never cure cancer or pilot a spaceship; but instead will be lucky just to be able to make change. And they do that at the expense of neglecting the brightest (who aren't always the offspring of the richest parents) children.

While pay for public teachers is quite excellent compared to other jobs with comparable levels of educational rigor and job security is relatively high; the standards for being a teacher are quite low.

For example, in Massachusetts -- not exactly home of the Tea Party Movement -- they only require their new teachers (people with 4-year college degrees) to read on a TENTH GRADE level. That's right -- teachers who are supposed to be able to teach the 12th grade are only required to be able to read and write at a 10th grade level.

I'm sorry, but when you set standards for teachers in the basement like that, you aren't exactly aiming for the stars.

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mattradd783 reads

You can see it just by looking at the schools; their school plants, team uniforms, where teachers would prefer to teach, their computer and science labs., their drama, and music departments, etc. And, the whole process starts in pre-school. Parents, with money, stronglycompeting to get their kids in the best pre-schools, which in turn gets them into the best private elementary schools, and on and on it goes, up through college and grad. And, the bottom line in this system of education is not just what you are taught, but with whom the student and his/her parents are associating with. That's what creates the opportunities the other students in the public educations system never see.

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jerseyflyer1279 reads

For instance, Ted Turner never graduated from high school....quit early on, no diploma. he appears to have done quite well for himself.

Conversely, on the other end of the spectrum, my father, in the 1960's and 1970's,, was the lead engineer/supervisor for all things mechanical at Paramount Studios. One of his workers was an individual that had a PhD in Theology/Philosophy from Yale. Even with the best education, connections, and opportunities possible, he had no ambition or desire to be anything other than an auto mechanic. I have no problem with that, but seems his parents wasted a lot of money.

Btw, my Dad never graduated high school either. He quit in the 10th grade. No GED, but he was one of the smartest men I've ever known. He was a whiz at math.

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mattradd1316 reads

I was talking about a very strong dynamic that occurs when it comes to how education is a tool to give advantage to those who have more money and hence political muscle. After all, I believe it was the Supreme Courts decision that by restricting a persons (and this can include a company or union) right to spend as much money as they wish in the political process, you are restricting their rights to free speech. However, that means these people or groups have much more free speech than the average person.

My Dad had dyslexia, and never knew it until he was in his fifties. He did much better that anyone who educated him, his family, or his friends imagined he could do. I was told not the waste my money on going to college, because I wouldn't be able to cut the mustered. Then, after I enlisted in the Navy, I found out that I scored 10 points higher than I needed to in order to qualify for Annapolis or any officer training schools.

I am now very successful in my career, according to my fields standards, but those who are my colleagues, who came from more affluent families than my own, have had better educations and have a significantly greater material wealth than myself. They are not working harder than myself, nor more successful professionally. One of my friends and colleagues once told me, "you can only make so much working. Where you make your money is through investing." Many people have had little or no money to invest in anything but their own education and career advancement. I'm still paying on education loans.

I'm not resentful, but realistic. What I've learned, I've taught to my children. Study hard, work hard, and save all you can, because, though money can't buy you happiness, it does talk.

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jerseyflyer2057 reads

The point is that money, connections, and advantages, be they either social of financial, do not always guarantee a successful outcome. Ambition, desire, focus, and goals usually do, regardless of the family's position in society.

Btw, if it matters to hear from me, sounds like your head is on straight.

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mattradd1149 reads

You're right! We can't tell our kids and grandkids anything other than nothing succeeds like success, and teach them how to become as successful as possible. But also, teaching them how to find happiness in their daily lives.

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willywonka4u1199 reads

"Kids learned to take initiative, teach themselves, expand the curriculum according to their own interests, resolve conflicts without adult intervention and all that kind of jazz."

Sounds to me your offspring were taught in a manner that wasn't rote and used standard memorization. For instance, in a history class you could ask "Who was President during the Mexican-American War?" Well, that's a nice little tidbit to know (it was Polk if anyone's wondering), but that information might as well be useless. You could instead ask, "Why was the Mexican-American War faught?" Well, for a student to be able to answer that, he'd have to learn something.

When school textbooks are dedicated to turning children into hero worshippers, then they're going to be pretty dumb. And the down side of hero worship, is that by definition, you can't think critically about your heroes.

"In public schools they put all the emphasis and funding on the kids that will never cure cancer or pilot a spaceship; but instead will be lucky just to be able to make change. And they do that at the expense of neglecting the brightest (who aren't always the offspring of the richest parents) children."

Not in Virginia they don't. There are advanced classes available for students. Although, I gotta tell ya, those "advanced" students were pretty dumb. They all were pretty good at scoring well on a standardized test, but enlightened they were not. At least that was my personal experience.

"While pay for public teachers is quite excellent compared to other jobs with comparable levels of educational rigor and job security is relatively high; the standards for being a teacher are quite low."

But pay in comparison to other countries, is pretty horrible. I haven't looked at any stats on this in some years, but my understanding is that in Japan teachers are paid twice as much as they are here in the states. Standards are low because better quality teachers wouldn't accept the income offered.

Related Link: Teacher payscales

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johngaltnh1714 reads

"When school textbooks are dedicated to turning children into hero worshippers, then they're going to be pretty dumb. And the down side of hero worship, is that by definition, you can't think critically about your heroes."

Who selects their textbooks in public schools? Me? Nope. Professional educator bureaucrats pick them. They suck. But they COULD choose others. And certainly if they want to know about the Polk, they could even go to Project Guttenberg and get a public domain text about the matter that was written proximately to the actual event of his presidency.

Corporations, capitalists and all that jazz have zilch control over curriculum. But teachers and professional educators DO.

The fact that they choose CRAP when decent texts are available is only attributable to their own values, etc.

"Not in Virginia they don't. There are advanced classes available for students. Although, I gotta tell ya, those "advanced" students were pretty dumb. They all were pretty good at scoring well on a standardized test, but enlightened they were not. At least that was my personal experience. "

I attended public school in Virginia and was in their gifted programs starting in 5th grade. The visits to Yorktown, Jamestown Williamsburg and the Science Museum were cool; but nothing from which perfectly normal students could not have benefited.

But, you see, I was truly gifted. That is, in 5th grade I was at college level in every subject. There was literally nothing more the public schools could do for me but get out of the way and they had zero infrastructure for dealing with that. The only way they accommodated me was because my father threw a shit-fit all the way through calling Senators and all kinds of stuff. And their accommodation even then was to let me go to college and use the college credits as a substitute for the high school ones.

Stuff like AP English and Honors classes are nice and are perfectly reasonable for above average students. But there is still, to this day, comparatively little investment in the truly gifted.

"But pay in comparison to other countries, is pretty horrible. I haven't looked at any stats on this in some years, but my understanding is that in Japan teachers are paid twice as much as they are here in the states. Standards are low because better quality teachers wouldn't accept the income offered."

But are the teachers here as good as in Japan, on average?

Looking at Massachusetts, where 30% of the people who graduate with a degree in education can't pass even a 10th grade reading and writing proficiency exam; I'd have to say not.

The fact that we label them "teachers" and they have a piece of paper doesn't mean that these people who are often little better educated than the kids they are allegedly teaching are worth even what they are currently paid.


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willywonka4u1533 reads

"Who selects their textbooks in public schools? Me? Nope. Professional educator bureaucrats pick them. They suck. But they COULD choose others."

They could, but the offerings are rather limited, are they not? I mean, if Texas gets to filter out what is going to be excluded, and included, then that doesn't leave many bureaucrats with many choices. The other downside is that the people picking these books aren't educators themselves, but rather are just trying to accommodate the public. Basically, turning chicken salad into chicken shit.  

"Corporations, capitalists and all that jazz have zilch control over curriculum. But teachers and professional educators DO."

Well, corporations and capitalists are the ones producing the textbooks, are they not? How is this any different than producing a lousy product for the market?

"But, you see, I was truly gifted. That is, in 5th grade I was at college level in every subject. There was literally nothing more the public schools could do for me but get out of the way and they had zero infrastructure for dealing with that."

I dunno if they had it in your day, but I believe Northern VA has a kinda of gifted public/private high school called Thomas Jefferson. Very few of the kids ever got a chance to go, and it was only for the truely gifted. So in my home state, there are options.

But I certainly think you're right that far more resources have been allocated towards kids with problems verses gifted kids.

Part of the problem as I see it is that everyone has unequal talent, as well as utilizing  different methods for learning. There are serious drawbacks to a one-size-fits-all method of teaching diverse children.

"But are the teachers here as good as in Japan, on average?

Looking at Massachusetts, where 30% of the people who graduate with a degree in education can't pass even a 10th grade reading and writing proficiency exam; I'd have to say not."

I'm inclined to agree. But I think when we start to pinch pennies here and there in regards to people's incomes, you have a disporportional decline in motivating a worker to do a particularly good job. A lot of workers make enough money not to look for a new job, but not enough to quit. I think that likely applies here.

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johngaltnh985 reads

Well, with teacher's unions and stuff being the way they are, I seriously doubt if we were to double the average teacher salary around here (78k) we'd suddenly end up with better qualified teachers. In fact, I know we wouldn't because their union coddles the most incompetent.

I had heard of that high school in northern VA. Unfortunately, I was *poor* and lived in Appalachia at the end of dirt roads; and hence that high school was a trip of literally a few hundred miles. I only saw it on a trip I made with my own high school's debate team where, of course, my partner and I kicked their ass. (*grin*)

People think of VA as the region full of people surrounding the population centers and as a suburb of DC when there is a huge expanse of "forgotten VA" where people live in tarpaper shacks.

-- Modified on 12/7/2010 5:02:06 AM

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willywonka4u1163 reads

...that once a worker has given up on doing a particularly good job, it's near impossible to motivate them to improve.

But if you offered new hires 78k then I think it would attract the best talent.

You're quite right about the forgotten VA. It's not hard to spot driving down I-81. The scenery is ungodly beautiful, but the poverty of the region should not exist in a first world country.

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xfean1660 reads

racism is a monopoly


its about money,power land,resources etc.


color,religion and other stuff is just to help sort people by clubs/groups.




Related Link: the concept of whiteness is a trick

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johngaltnh1585 reads

Okay -- let's look at China. It is monolithically completely lacking in "white" people. YET -- many of its people must eat food grown in a fertilizer of raw human waste. Yes?

So who the hell is responsible for that, xfean? ME? Not on your life.

Let's look at Zimbabwe where people of African ancestry officially hold all political power and quite often can kill people of European ancestry with essential impunity. Before people of European ancestry abandoned it, there was a food surplus. Now there is wide-spread starvation.

Is that starvation caused by evil white people, xfean? Or is it caused by that dumbass communist Mugabe who essentially endorsed killing people and then taking their stuff only to discover that killing the goose that lays the golden egg is stupid?

Let's look at Haiti. Once France gave Haiti its independence, they essentiall killed all the people there of European ancestry and have run their own show for a couple of hundred years. There are no white people there to be blamed.

Who is responsible for their circumstances?

Xfean, I will grant you that racism exists. But it is high time for people to take responsibility for themselves and to stop blaming ME, just because of MY genetics, for their troubles. Because blaming ME is racism as well.

It is MY belief that people around the world blaming "whiteness" for their troubles is an IMPEDIMENT to solving those troubles.

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GaGambler1390 reads

"yellow people" will be the ones to blame everything on.

John, how can a guy as smart make such a ridiculous request? Ask Trannyboy to stop being idiotic is like asking him to stop breathing, he is simply incapable of any higher thought than his incessant copying and pasting of other peoples views. The man is a literal moron. I really can't believe that after all this time, you are still trying to have a dialogue with him.

Willy is an asshole,(probably the highest complement I have ever given him. lol) Ben is annoying as shit,but xfean is simply a moron, he simply isn't capable of having a rational discourse. Have you ever seen him post without copying and pasting someone else's thoughts? When he does, it looks like he is posting in crayon.

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xfean2216 reads

THE CHINA SYNDROME:actually YELLOW PEOPLE  OR  INVADING AFRICA AS WE SPEAK.
COLONIZATION OF AFRICA


Silly Money EP02: The China Syndrome P3 of 5

Posted By: GaYGambler
"yellow people" will be the ones to blame everything on.

quote]
Related Link: THE CHINA SYNDROME:actually YELLOW PEOPLE OR INVADING AFRICA AS WE SPEAK/Silly Money EP02: The China Syndrome P3 of 5

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xfean2024 reads

Tim Wise Asks When Are Republican Leaders Going To Stand Up To Extremists


Posted: September 14, 2009 by Sandy Gholston in Uncategorized
Tags: 9/12, all-white, CNN, Crooks and Liars, Don Lemon, fox news, Glenn Beck, protests, racism, Rush Limbaugh, tea bagger, tea party, Tim Wise 3Author and speaker Tim Wise, billed by CNN’s Don Lemon as an anti-racism activist, calls out mainstream Republicans for not standing up to the lunatics (like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh) who have hijacked the party and taken it to the heights of bigotry, intolerance and (in some cases or to some extent at least) racism. These protests that have come up since President Obama stepped into the White House have been intriguing to me and to a lot of other people who wonder where these “patriots” were when George W. Bush was in office and freedoms were taking a hit, wars were being started, deficits were mounting and lives were being lost. Wise, truly a dynamic and well-researched speaker, had an interesting conversation with Lemon about the topic of race as related to several current issues in this country.

Here is what Crooks and Liars had as a transcript from the show:

LEMON: OK. So we are going to continue our discussion now over the health care rallies and the tone of what’s going on in the country. Tim Wise joins us. He’s frequent here on the show. The author of “Between Barack and a Hard Place” and among the most prominent anti- racist activist in the country. Thank you, sir. Always good to see you.

TIM WISE, AUTHOR “BETWEEN Barack AND A HARD PLACE”: You, too.

LEMON: You heard the chairman from Florida say no, it is not race.

WISE: I did.

LEMON: It does a disservice. You heard David Sirota say it is the elephant in the room.

WISE: Right. Well like I said in the show before, it is the background noise of a lot of the opposition, not all of it but a lot of it. You know, when you have someone like Glenn Beck saying as he did about a month ago that the health care debate isn’t really about that. It is just reparations for black people, where you have Rush Limbaugh yesterday on the air saying first that community service is the first step towards fascism, which is bizarre even for him.

And then almost immediately after that saying one of the problems with America is too much multiculturalism. You wouldn’t say that unless you are trying to stoke white racial resentment. And so when you say those things, I want to know when are Republican leaders going to condemn that kind of rhetoric because that is where race is being interjected. It is interjected by us, it’s interested by the leading talk show hosts in this country.

LEMON: I mean, but is it knowingly or is it maybe unwittingly they’re doing it and maybe they don’t realize they are doing it.

WISE: Well, two things, it may be either or but it doesn’t matter. I mean, racism needs to be evaluated based on outcome. If you do something which has a predictable consequence, you have to be accountable for that consequence. So for example, when Glenn Beck lied and said that Van Jones was involved in the Los Angeles riots which was not true. That is a very clear, as David said, dog whistle politic moment.

You’re saying that because you know that the L.A. riots are viewed as this racialized rebellion and it scares white folks to death. So you say that about this man. It isn’t true. Glenn Beck had to know that wasn’t true. That is a way to scare white folks. Where race comes in, it is old fashion but it’s white racial resentment that they are trying to whip up.

LEMON: But you know, it is very – it is smart if you want to get your message out. So listen, as we’ve been saying, it’s the elephant in the room. Let’s talk about this Congressman Wilson thing.

WISE: Yes.

LEMON: One person wrote me on Twitter and said I think (INAUDIBLE) if it is not racism then I don’t know what it is, self-indulgence, selfishness, egotism or all the traits pure lack of thought. And then one person says I’m with Ron Reagan and Bill Maher. If Obama’s skin color was closer to his mom’s, talking about Joe Wilson, he would not have shouted out. And I have to tell you -

WISE: I believe that.

LEMON: I have to tell you, for the first time – last night I was watching “Real Time” with Bill Maher and I was like finally someone is talking about this. Finally is talking about this.

WISE: Right.

LEMON: Do you think that Joe Wilson would have done that to a president who was of another color?

WISE: No, I don’t.

LEMON: He may have done the same thing if it was a woman president.

WISE: I don’t know but I know here is a guy who is an avowed neo confederate who says Strom Thurman and (INAUDIBLE) segregation was his hero. There is some racial stuff going on, I hate to say it, with this congress person and it makes me wonder with that kind of background. It makes me wonder.

LEMON: But isn’t it – what is behind – I think that the thing that we are not getting to is what allows him to be – to feel that is OK to say it.


http://simmerdown3.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/tim-wise-asks-when-are-republican-leaders-going-to-stand-up-to-extremists/

Related Link: Tim Wise Asks When Are Republican Leaders Going To Stand Up To Extremists

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xfean2351 reads

Tim Wise destroys Rush Limbaugh, lists actual racist Rush quotes and lies.
This is definitely one of the best of the recent Tim Wise articles. I'm not gonna paste the whole article, cause it's much longer than this excerpt, but it's a great read. Some highlights, though there are many more excellent refutations inside:


"First, he was angered by my referencing him, and claiming that he had recently said that the President hates white people.

"This is the kind of lying that passes for reporting and wise commentary on the left. I never said Obama hates white people," bellowed Rush in reply.

So, wanting to be accurate, I went back and checked. I want to be precise, after all. Turns out, Rush is half right. He didn't say those words, that way. Glenn Beck did of course, a few weeks ago, but not Rush. What Limbaugh did say, however, and the statement to which I had been referring, was this, from May 29:

"How do you get promoted in the Barack Obama administration? By hating white people...make white people the new oppressed minority...and they're (the Republican Party) going right along with it 'cuz they're shutting up, moving to the back of the bus. They're saying "I can't use that drinking fountain, OK! I can't use that restroom, OK!"

Now, let's process that shall we? First, the point I had been making on CNN--that radio talk show hosts have been deliberately playing on white racial resentments and anxieties in their attacks on Obama--is made even more convincingly by the actual quote, than by the version I had offered. If anything, saying that whites are going to be the new oppressed minority, and that Republicans are literally going to suffer the indignities of segregation, is even more over the top than a silly off-the-cuff broadside about the President hating white people.

Secondly, the first part of the actual quote--which is the part I had been thinking of--actually does suggest that Obama hates white people. After all, if the President only hires people who do (you know, like that notorious white-basher, Tim Geithner), then what is Rush saying about the President? That he hires anti-white bigots just so he can argue with them and convince them of the errors of their ways? Or are we to assume that Obama himself must harbor the same hatreds? Honestly, to weasel out of the implications of his comment here, would be like arguing, "I never said that priest was a pederast. But you know what? If you want to be his friend, you'd best have some hot tips on where to pick up children."

Rush then denied calling Obama Hitler: an argument he felt compelled to make due to my mention of people in the town halls who have indeed portrayed Obama as Hitler, as in, on their signs. And again, in his denial he is engaging in a half-truth. No one has ever said he, or anyone else, literally called Obama by the name, Hitler. The point is, he, and others, have been regularly seeking to compare Obama to Hitler and the Nazis. And so, on August 6, we have the following from Rush:

"Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate. His Cabinet only met once. One day. That was it. Hitler said he didn't need to meet with his Cabinet; he represented the will of the people. He was called the messiah. He said the people spoke through him."

And this:

"It is Obama who is manufacturing right from the White House, sending out his brownshirts to head up opposition to genuine American citizens who want no part of what Barack Obama stands for."

And this:

"Obama's got a health care logo that's right out of Adolf Hitler's playbook."

And this:

"Oh, another similarity. Obama is asking citizens to rat each other out like Hitler did."

Again, to deny the implications of what Rush is saying here would be like arguing: "I'm not saying you're Jeffrey Dahmer. I'm just saying that, like Dahmer, you like to eat people and keep their body parts in the freezer. That's all I'm saying."

Finally, Rush had the verbal equivalent of an exploding aneurysm at my closing point from the show, wherein I noted that to claim you want to take the country back to "the way the founders envisioned it" is inherently disturbing, because, after all, they envisioned a white supremacist state."

Related Link: Tim Wise destroys Rush Limbaugh, lists actual racist Rush quotes and lies.

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