The short, quick answer is “no”. As I set out to write this post I tried to find something good to say about Limbaugh because I think there’s something good in everyone.

I just started this post so I’m still looking…give me a little time.

The major problem with people on the extreme ideological edge, right or left, is that their monologues are sloppy and ignorant, and it has to be that way because if they cared about the truth, they couldn’t say what they do. With Limbaugh we not only have that sloppiness and ignorance, we also have fabrication.  Limbaugh’s monologues (notice that word “monologues”) are largely unchallenged. Limbaugh states his fabrications knowing that once said, they won’t go away (especially today) even when others prove them wrong. Its said, its out there, it won’t go away.

Something good…still thinking on that one.

We live in a democracy and democracies are built on debate, and then reaching a consensus.  But Limbaugh has little use for debates, he doesn’t want them. He wants to spew his venom and he does, and he can’t be called to point during his airings. He knows that and when he is called to task, well, he’ll fabricate something else to explain his earlier fabrication.

Still thinking…

Al Franken (White House Correspondents’ Dinner, April 23, 1994) said “Most of us here in the media are what I consider infotainers….Rush Limbaugh is what I call a disinfotainer. He entertains by spreading disinformation.” Look at the date, its 19 years ago. Prior to that date and up to today, Limbaugh has been spreading disinformation and people have been listening. I believe that Limbaugh’s type of rhetoric is actually bad for a democracy because it’s a rhetoric built on disinformation that his listeners accept as gospel. I rely on facts and truths (as do most of us), while Limbaugh hopes, and counts on, the fact we won’t look into what he says or question the accuracy of his statements. His listeners accept all things Limbaugh, ignore the facts and truth and move through life with their blinders on hating things/people he tells them to hate.

Still thinking…but its getting harder to find something good.

When I hear of things Limbaugh says I think “If Limbaugh says its good, it must be bad. When Limbaugh thinks its bad, it must be good.” Then I research his “view/statement” and find that, as usual, Limbaugh is wrong and what I thought is right. When he says, “I’m not making this up, folks”, I know I’m going to get more fertilizer.

So, let’s review some of Limbaugh’s quotes to see how well he’s done, maybe I’ll find something good here.

LIMBAUGH: Praising Strom Thurmond for calling a gay soldier “not normal”: “He’s not encumbered by being politically correct…. If you want to know what America used to be–and a lot of people wish it still were–then you listen to Strom Thurmond.” (TV show, 9/1/93)

REALITY: In the America that “used to be,” Strom Thurmond was one of the country’s strongest voices for racism, running for president in 1948 on the slogan, “Segregation Forever”.

[Ed: Thurmond also fought civil rights efforts during the 1950s and 1960s, even though he had a bi-racial child, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, from a relationship with a 16-year old black girl employed as a servant in his parent’s home. But I guess Limbaugh thinks that an America full of bigots and hypocrites is what our country used to be. Well, Limbaugh, one more entry in your ‘Stupid Remark’ column.]

LIMBAUGH: “Now I got something for you that’s true–1972, Tufts University, Boston. This is 24 years ago–or 22 years ago. Three year study of 5000 co-eds, and they used a benchmark of a bra size of 34C. They found that the–now wait. It’s true. The larger the bra-size, the smaller the IQ.” (TV show, 5/13/94)

REALITY: Dr. Burton Hallowell, president of Tufts in the ’60s and ’70s, had “absolutely no recollection” of such a study, according to Tufts’ communications office. “I surely would have remembered that!” he exclaimed. Limbaugh’s staff was unable to produce any such study. A search of the Nexis database–while revealing no evidence of a Tufts study–did produce a number of women theorizing that the presence of large breasts caused a lowering of IQ in some males.

Still trying to find something good to say about Limbaugh and I apologize for the delay. While I’m still thinking, a couple more newer quotes from Limbaugh to see if he’s changed.

“We’ve arrived at a point where the President of the United States is going to lead a war on traditional marriage.” –Rush Limbaugh, on President Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage. Limbaugh’s first, second, third, and fourth wives could not be reached for comment. (May 9, 2012)

“What does it say about the college co-ed [Sandra] Fluke who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex — what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.” -Rush Limbaugh, referring to a Georgetown Law School student who was denied the right to speak at a congressional hearing on contraception, in which she planned to discuss a friend of hers who needed contraception to prevent the growth of cysts, February 29, 2012.

Colonel Sam Flagg, the Army Intelligence officer on M*A*S*H said “Nobody can get the truth out of me because even I don’t know what it is. I keep myself in a constant state of utter confusion.” Did Limbaugh write that line?

Limbaugh hasn’t changed, but I’m still looking for something good to write (and I’m getting a headache from that effort).

What does this all mean for Limbaugh? I’m not making this up folks…Conor Friedersdorf wrote that “simply quoting Rush Limbaugh verbatim is the easiest way to discredit him, and the best way to force his apologists to confront the ugly reality of his indefensible program.” The end result…according to a MediaMatters for America report “Millions Lost: Rush Limbaugh Continues To Be Bad For Business”, Limbaugh is, well, in their words “bad for business” and they “are far from over”. Advertisers “look at Limbaugh’s long record of vitriol, they see the damage to businesses it can unpredictably create sometimes, they recognize that he continues to engage in similar conduct and they rightfully conclude that the risk just isn’t worth it.”

There are a lot of Republicans who are advertisers and own/run the businesses that would buy advertising time on Limbaugh’s radio program and they not only don’t, but they are also dropping his program. So Limbaugh is losing the support of Republicans. Soon it will be the Republican Party who drops Limbaugh when they realize how bad for business he is.  

Me, I’ll never listen to him. We live in a democracy and democracies are built on debate, and then reaching a consensus. There is no debate with Limbaugh, with him its just not only no, but Hell no! We don’t need that, our country doesn’t need that!!! I’ll finish this with one more Limbaugh quote—

RUSH: If we’ve gotten to the point, in my mind, where we have to take time and tell adults in this country, “No, the Republicans don’t want your son to starve” — if we actually have to take time and say that, and then whether or not they believe it is an open question — then what’s there to be proud of?  If hundreds of thousands, or millions, whatever, adults actually believe that there are people who want their kids to starve in this country, then not only is that shameful, it’s just downright embarrassing.

Maybe he should have checked with the North Carolina Republican-controlled legislature and the Republican Governor McCrory who just passed and signed into law a bill limiting unemployment benefits to 26 weeks. During times when Republican policies have been responsible for our financial crash (2008 crash) and the outsourcing of tens of thousands of jobs (to China and beyond) making jobs very hard to come by, then, ‘Yes’, Limbaugh, I’d say that the Republicans want our children to starve, and “it’s just downright embarrassing”!

Sorry, I couldn’t find anything good to write about Limbaugh…I’m still working on that, and, No, Limbaugh doesn’t matter.