October 29, 2003 at 07:49 Rock star Courtney Love may join radical-right radio host Rush Limbaugh in rehab now that the heat is on, but will he join her in jail? Love has surrendered to Beverly Hills police to face drug possession charges. Love was charged with felony possession of the prescription painkillers hydrocodone and oxycodone. Rush Limbaugh purchased over 30,000 of these same pills over a four-year period, also without a prescription.
It was not immediately clear if she would face jail time if convicted and Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County D.A.'s office, said the singer could be eligible for drug diversion that would spare her going behind bars. Typically in such cases, the accused seeks asylum in rehab, such as Rush Limbaugh has, in lieu of serving prison time.
Some aggravating circumstances in Limbaugh's case are the quantity of drugs and the fact that he coerced his housekeeper into pushing drugs. Rush also bought the silence of his accuser, which would be witness tampering. A lawyer representing him got the housekeeper to destroy the hard drive of her computer, containing incriminating e-mails, which later showed up in the National Enquirer. If true, this would be destruction of evidence.
In light of the prosecution of Love and other high-profile drug abusers, it would be surprising if Limbaugh is not charged with a felony. Ironically, if convicted, the leading Republican Party spokesman would not be able to vote.
October 29, 2003, 12:49 PM EST Citing new damage to Iraq's oil industry from saboteurs, the Bush administration Wednesday delayed its planned replacement of a lucrative no-bid contract. Halliburton, paid $1.59 billion so far, could stay on the job until early next year under the new schedule announced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The new schedule calls for selection of the winning bidders in either December or January, although the Corps said it hoped to award the contracts in December.
"The "Mission Accomplished" sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from staff..."
"Today was another banner day in George Bush's quest to bring honor and integrity to the White House," Lieberman said. "If he wanted to prove he has trouble leveling with the American people, mission accomplished."
My good friend Jack of The Peoples Republic of Seabrook posted this picture with comments about extremists on the Left who are doing damage to Liberals by these anti-American flag burinings and used a comparison referring to Indymedia which Monday had a post about the weekend's protests."The problem here is that Indymedia is to the Wingnut Left what Limbaugh and Coulter are to the Nutcase Right."Related Links:
Jack points out a massive imbalance: A 285 million dollar contract + 20 million dittoheads AND a well used talking head with multi-million dollar best selling books on one side V. a rather obscure website that covers a few overtly theatrical "please look at me" flag burners on the other.
The Right in this country controls the Media, the money, the corporate power structure, all three branches of government and minions of well paid RIGHTWINGNUT extremists on the air and in print. The Left has working people, minorities, a registered majority, the popular vote in the 2000 election and a few idiots who think they have a need to go to ridiculous extremes in a self defeating bid for attention. It is impossible to make the argument that these extremes are in "balance" because they obviously are not.
The disservice the flag burners do to the left is in the limited attention they do receive. Is is over the top to consider that these masked flag burners might be paid agents of the Right? We know that the oil companies funded the anti-nuclear movement. We know the FBI and other agencies infiltrated the anti-war movement before. Are there contemporary Donald Segrettis out there as agents of Ashcroft's FBI or some plumbers unit funded by Cheney and the Neocons? History would lead me to expect that there are such agents.
I don't know much about Indymedia other than what appears on their website today which seems to be pretty straight forward reporting of the DC protest with this Addendum: "Some DC activists have been exchanging notes about today's activities, and made these remarks: "These type of protests might make people wash their hands of the issues." "Do these types of protests inspire anything, and is this related to the way the protest was organized?" "What comes after this?" Which seems to be more "fair and balanced" than anything I have ever heard from Limbo or Annthrax, but I will admit to not being an authority on Indymedia.Anytime a mask wearing flag burner shows up in the news we should ask ourselves who is being served by the act and the coverage. It certainly isn't the interest of American Liberals who love their country and disagree with the current leadership.
The well funded Rightwing is certainly not above using any means to reach their ends and they certainly have more than enough funding and authority to accomplish whatever they want. I'm not trying to throw any stones by pointing out the huge imbalance in this comparison. As a liberal who agrees in part with the sentiment of the anti-war movement I do not wish to grant any "parity" to the extremes in this example. A few flag burning fools will never the equivalent of the well funded highly visible radical extremists on the Right no matter who is paying them.
CBS REAGAN: 'I AM THE ANTI-CHRIST' One shock scene in the final production script for CBS's upcoming telefilm THE REAGANS captures the former president declaring he is the anti-Christ.This doesn't sound like your BUSH the Hero of 9/11 movie
****The Script p. 209 During Iran-Contra Scandal --
REAGANS'S BREAKFAST ROOM -- WHITE HOUSE -- MORNING
Reagan and Nancy sit in front of their breakfast. They can't eat. Can't drink. They're numb.
REAGAN: It's Armageddon... that's what it is. Armageddon. The Leader from the West will be revealed as the anti-Christ, and then God will strike him down. That's me. I am the anti-Christ.
NANCY: No, Ronnie...
REAGAN (overriding): And the Lord will strike down all of civilization, in order to make way for the new order... a new Heaven and a new Earth...
Nancy reaches out, grabs his hand, strongly.
NANCY: Hold on. You've got to hold on, Ronnie.
Reagan's eyes are filling with tears. He can't help it. He's crumbling.
REAGAN: I saved 77 lives in 7 years, Nancy... But I couldn't save those people in Lebanon.
Nancy gets up, puts her arms around him. She rocks him slowly, silently, back and forth.
The video trailer shows clips drawn from the film and portrays President Reagan as an amiable dunce, manipulated by his scheming wife – a man who had little control over his presidency.
The film offers liberal Hollywood’s version of Reagan’s life from his days as an actor, when he met actress Nancy Davis, through his White House years. Among the "revelations" in the new movie:
Reagan was a second-rate actor who never had serious roles: Reagan complaining, “Glenn Ford gets Rita Hayworth and I get the chimp.”
Reagan depicted as not being interested in running for either governor or president and having to be pushed into doing so by his wife.
Richard Nixon telling Reagan to pick William J. Casey as CIA director and Alexander Haig as secretary of state. Upon learning that Reagan planned to nominate Haig, Mrs. Reagan is quoted as saying, “Don’t say I never warned you.”
Nancy Reagan demanding that her husband fire Al Haig: “Al Haig has got to go – get rid of Al Haig or you’ll never end the Cold War.” Reagan resisting and telling his wife, “Get off my goddamn back!”
Patti Reagan telling her mother that she’ll never have children because she is “not going to screw them up like you and Dad screwed me up.”
Nancy Reagan telling her daughter, “You hate everything your father stands for, but when you need his money, you always come back and ask him to rescue you.”
A merry Reagan with his wife, when he learns his son Ron Jr. married, saying, “At least we know he’s not gay.”
Nancy Reagan pleading with her husband to support giving condoms and needles to drug addicts to stop the spread of the AID epidemic.
Gorbachev pleading with a stubborn Reagan at their first summit to “stop this arms race” before it is too late.
A controlling Mrs. Reagan making clear to White House aides: “You don’t call the president to tell him something, you call me.”
A forgetful Reagan who can’t even recognize his national security adviser, Robert McFarlane: “What’s you name?” Reagan asks McFarlane. McFarlane responds, “I’m your national security adviser; perhaps you don’t remember me.”
Reagan blaming Oliver North for the Iran-Contra scandal: “Tell them to ask that lying son of a gun Oliver North.”
Everyone assumes George Bush will be the GOP candidate and is assured of reelection. I'm not so sure. The way things are going, he could be facing some tough challengers for the nomination. Here's a rundown of the potential Republican candidates for the 2004 presidential election:It's a hoot go read it here
Jury Awards $70M Against Halliburton A jury has awarded $70 million to a Houston man who claimed that Halliburton and another oil company cheated him out of the chance to develop an oil field in Kazakhstan in the late 1990s. Scott Van Dyke and his company, Anglo Dutch Tenge, sued the Halliburton and Ramco Oil in 2000. A jury found in favor of Van Dyke's company on Friday.Yet another chink in the battered armor of Halliburton. Can't these guys do anything without cheating?
Van Dyke's attorney John O'Quinn said his client was promised a concession for an oil field near the Caspian Sea when he met the Turkish president. Halliburton contacted him in 1997 and signed a confidentiality agreement not to disclose data that Van Dyke allowed the company to review, O'Quinn said. After opting not to invest, Halliburton located another company with ties to the Kazakhstan government and bought the field out from under Van Dyke, according to the lawsuit.
The president of military contractor Halliburton has asked employees to join a "Defending Our Company" campaign by writing to newspapers and lawmakers to counter criticism of the firm's no-bid contract in Iraq. Dave Lesar said in the Oct. 17 memo that he is offended by "those who are distorting our efforts" to restore Iraq's oil industry and provide other services to the U.S. military there. He cautioned workers to "be positive,"Nothing like a little pressure from the boss and a script to follow to get those employees to express their true feelings. Wonder what the odds on job security are for the authors of less than flattering letters. Heck Dave why don't you hire a few ghost writers to pen I love Halliburton letters and send them to every newspaper in the country? But that idea has been tried last week with the Army - oops too slow. WTF is it NOW has a nice companion story for this entry.
Lesar, who is president, CEO and chairman of the company, said, "Now I'm asking you to help by writing a letter to the editor of your newspaper." He listed "some facts that you can use to help deliver your letter." With a subject line of "Defending Our Company," Lesar also told workers "it would be helpful to write to your representatives in Washington, D.C., asking them to support fairness and accuracy."
Among Lesar's suggestions for the letters to newspapers:
1)"Halliburton makes our troops more comfortable in a difficult environment by bringing shelter, supplies, clean uniforms and mail from home."
2)"Halliburton is proud to offer its global resources at this critical time in the Middle East."
3)"Halliburton has successfully helped to restore needed services in Iraq that will help bring some sense of normalcy for those who have suffered losses."
The e-mail also included suggestions for making the letter effective, telling employees to "write from the heart and use your own words and, where possible, use first-hand stories." "It's OK to show your pride in your work and your co-workers, and to mention your own experience with Halliburton," Lesar said.
Last week Bushist minions called on critics to issue a formal apology to the poor maligned unelected multimillionaire war profiteer (and former business partner of Saddam Hussein). It is ludicrous to assume the fact that Cheney's insured deferred earnings and any profits from 400,000 stock options going to charity clears the Veep from profiting on Halliburton's success. He still will own the stock options at the end of his term and any increase in their value accrues directly to him. But the sad incontrovertible fact is that Halliburton is using a back door to fill its former chief's coffers with millions in blood money pumped directly from the corpses of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians.So it is undeniably true that money for HALLIBURTON is money for CHENEY - as if we did not know that already. When will the Senate IMPEACH this thief?
This profitable arrangement was found hiding in plain sight last week by investigator Maggie Burns of the Progressive Populist. While the media mandarins were gulping soap, Burns committed the increasingly rare act of journalism by checking out Cheney's financial disclosure forms. These show that Cheney has a minimum of $18 million invested in The Vanguard Group, a leading mutual fund. (Given the deliberately vague, vast ranges of the "disclosure" forms, this nest-egg could be as high as $87 million. We mere mortals are not meant to know).
Vanguard, as it happens, is the 10th-largest shareholder in -- oh, you guessed already! -- Halliburton. The fund owns 7.6 million shares in the firm, worth about $176 million. Thus any government contract that swells Halliburton's bottom line does indeed pour war profits straight into Cheney's bulging bank accounts. No amount of soap can wash away that fact. Meanwhile, five of the other top 10 shareholders in Halliburton have big bucks parked with our old friends The Carlyle Group, where George Bush Sr. hangs out his shingle as a pricey corporate shill (and former bin Laden business partner). So Bush family coffers are definitely not forgotten when Halliburton goes to war.
"Halliburton said in response to the Congressional letter last week that it charges $1.59 to a gallon for its gasoline imports, which includes the 2 percent profit margin. In a fax, the Iraqi marketing organization's general manager, Mohammed al-Jibouri, said that gasoline from Turkey costs $347 a metric ton delivered to Baghdad, which he said translates to about 98 cents a gallon."That's 61 cents a gallon more or 31% more from Halliburton and that is on 700 million dollars worth of gas or 217 million dollars ripped off by Halliburton. 217 BILLION IS A BUNCH OF PENNIES
Limbaugh has been on synthetic heroin for years, foaming at the mouth and railing against liberals, a detoxed Limbaugh might be defanged as well. (Makes you wonder what Ann Coulter is on, eh?) That’s not to mention that the treatment center that sources told the New York Post he’s entered is, for him, the belly of the beast.Welcome Natalie Davis of All Facts and Opinions To the League of Liberals.
The rehab facility he’s rumored to have checked into now for 30 days, Sierra Tucson is just outside of Tucson in the Sonora Desert, a setting with a "quiet beauty, inherent strength, and enduring ability to inspire,". For a guy who has railed against "anti-people New Age mystics," the "treatment modalities" at Sierra Tucson are certainly enough to make his hair stand on end. It’s also likely that Limbaugh is being treated alongside the very Hollywood types he has railed against for years.
"Sierra Tucson utilizes many different types of therapeutic modalities to access underlying issues from "psychodynamic role-playing and yoga" to "adventure therapy," "Climbing Wall," "the desert experience" and "equine-assisted therapy" (yes, bonding with horses), Limbaugh may just think he died and went to "feminazi" hell. The website depicts photos of people with a decidedly Berkeley look sitting around on the floor in what seem like consciousness-raising sessions.
"Self-discovery often crystallizes during an experience that requires physical and mental exertion in the face of a potentially fearful activity," the description for the Climbing Wall says. "With its height and verticality, the Climbing Wall serves as an important therapeutic metaphor." Yes, I’m sure some of you would pay to watch Limbaugh scale that wall. But me, I’d like to observe him during "creative expression therapy," which includes "art therapy, journaling, meditation" and "clap outs, historygrams, reading assignments" as well as…"sculpting." These techniques, the website explains, "deepen the journey to self-discovery."
But it’s the horse-bonding that really may change Rush’s life. "The process of working with the horse helps patients access their wounds, identify dysfunctional behaviors in relationships, recognize their effectiveness or ineffectiveness in setting appropriate boundaries, and identify deep-seated issues that may not have been brought to the surface with other therapeutic interventions. "Through the interaction between the horse and the patient, a trained therapist will ask questions based upon what is being revealed through the ‘relationship,’" the description notes. "Through a series of interactions, patients begin to understand destructive patterns of their behavior."
Then there is the Cognitive/Behavioral Therapy (CBT): "The major philosophical assumption of CBT," Sierra Tucson’s website explains, "is that by changing individuals’ thinking, their belief system, and, in turn, their behavior is changed."
Changing Rush Limbaugh’s belief system? Suddenly brainwashing seems refreshing.
Another of the therapies, "experiential therapy," the website notes, "was developed during the early 1970s," a decade that cannot be among Limbaugh’s favorites. "This type of therapy helps individuals experience the issues they are dealing with through acting them out, role-playing, guided imagery, projecting, and the use of props. By physically, emotionally, and mentally expressing one’s self, individuals are assisted in unlocking hidden issues and in working through them." Surely Limbaugh has lots of hidden issues to work through–oh, to be a fly on the wall during that therapy.
Contact me through the comment section for information if you want to join The League of Liberals - A Fearless Force for Truth and Justice in Cyberspace.
More On Rush: There was no mass conspiracy of liberal secret agents shoving pills down his throat. The butler didn't do it -- not to mention the maid. It was his own damn fault. Rush Limbaugh's a bona fide drug addict. Let the "excellence in rehab" begin! Limbaugh's admission of addiction to OxyContin explains it all: the intolerance, the hypocrisy, the outlandish, extreme right-wing views. Just as with those damn hippies a generation before him, it was drugs. Limbaugh went wacko on that hillbilly heroin. Can we get everyone together for a massive chorus of "Tsk, tsk"?
Many of my readers e-mailed to say they were pleased about the karmic justice served on Limbaugh. But, certainly, there were e-mails from the Dittoheads with no one to ditto. All they could do was try, helplessly, to defend their ditto master and ask me where my compassion was. I said it was in the same place it would be if Limbaugh were to comment on his own pitiful self. Limbaugh on Limbaugh would be merciless. He'd have some drug song like "White Rabbit" or "One Toke over the Line" playing in the background, and then he'd gleefully pass judgment with a single phrase: "Moral weakling." And then he'd go to commercials.
One man did offer this telling comment in Limbaugh's defense: "Rush makes more money than you and all his critics put together." That's a "neener-neener" schoolyard-level retort if I ever head one. But it made clear what Limbaugh had fostered all these years in our national discourse. To the Dittoheads, Limbaugh was the messenger of life's ultimate value. To be rich is everything. To not be rich is to be a loser.
On his Web site the other day, after figures were released showing poverty rates up and income levels down in the United States, Limbaugh ran a bit about how the poor weren't so poor after all, because they had air conditioning. If you have A/C, you aren't poor enough. In fact, you're just rich enough to get no sympathy from Limbaugh. That's the nasty beat Limbaugh dances to. He harvests all the heartless thoughts of a nation. He liberated intolerance in Middle America and put a fine point on it for the rich. He made it OK to kick the underdog. Limbaugh was the overdog.
Now, his network will try to keep the Limbaugh franchise alive during his rehab. (What is Limbaugh, after all, but a franchise?) To hold the audience on Monday, it featured guest Ann Coulter's deadly and yet commercial mix of blond intolerance. What a marvelous coincidence that one of the headlines of the day was the beatification of Mother Theresa. Now, there's a saint with values. She's the anti-Limbaugh. But I bet she doesn't get the headlines Maha Rushie got.
This is the world according to Barbara Bush who described Democrats trying to unseat her son in the White House as a "sorry group" of politicians and called her son "that dirty dog". "So far, they are a pretty sorry group if you want to know my opinion," said Mrs. Bush in an interview aired on Monday by NBC's "Today" show.That does not make her a bitch does it?
Her husband also had some harsh words for the Democratic contenders whom he accused of using "vicious rhetoric." "The one who makes the most outrageous charges against the president gets his 20 seconds on the evening news. Hey I did not ride in here on a watermelon cart. I know how it works," said the former president in an obvious racial slur. Bush said his wife treated the president like any other member of the family, recently telling him after a run to get his feet off the table in their bedroom.
Has Rush Limbaugh's admission of an addiction to prescription painkillers and acknowledgment of an investigation surrounding his drug use damaged his appeal? Or will his fans forgive and forget? At Issue wants your opinion.'It'll just help me focus' Recreational use of prescription drugs is widespread and dangerous
Is Limbaugh's drug use hypocritical considering his views? Does his apparent lack of sympathy for people who fall in a number of categories make him a target of ridicule? Or has Limbaugh merely proved he is human and deserving of the same degree of empathy as anyone else with a medical problem?
If, as has been alleged, Limbaugh took prescription drugs without a proper doctor's authorization, is his drug use the same as if he had used cocaine or heroin? Or should misuse of pain medication fall into a different category? Will his alleged drug use bring even more attention to the widespread illegal misuse of Oxycontin, a very powerful pain medication that habitual drug users grind into power and inject with a needle ?
Do you think Limbaugh's experience in a rehab clinic will change his views? He has acknowledged being treated in such clinics before. If Limbaugh is successfully treated for addiction, should he face criminal charges if allegations he illegally misused drugs appear to be probably true?
If you are a Limbaugh fan, has his experience caused you to change your mind about how the system should handle drug addicts? Will you continue to listen to and support Limbaugh, or will the reports of his drug use cause you to turn him off? If you have disliked Limbaugh in the past, are you enjoying watching a man who has expressed animosity toward so many groups of people take legitimate criticism? Or do you think he is unfairly being attacked?
At Issue wants your opinions about Rush Limbaugh's misuse of prescription drugs. Send your replies to At Issue, The Journal Gazette, 600 W. Main St., Fort Wayne, IN., 46802, Box 88, or fax them to 260-461-8648. You can send them by e-mail to letters@jg.net. Please include your name, address, and daytime telephone number.
Rush Limbaugh's recent admission of an addiction to prescription drugs is only one of many examples in which celebrities have abused drugs that were initially meant to help them. This epidemic is not unique to the famous, however: it has existed at Tufts, as well as many other college campuses, for quite some time.Limbaugh Lovers in Denial
I'm not much of a "dittohead," but I do have a soft spot in my heart for Rush Limbaugh. When my father was lying nearly comatose in the intensive care unit the final two weeks of his life, he rallied only once -- to request a radio "so I can listen to my buddy Rush." Those were his last coherent words. Say what you will about Limbaugh, he brought life to the party. His admission now to drug "addiction" caused me to say to a friend, "I feel sorry for him." Why? "Because I feel sorry for anyone who suffers addiction."Kathleen is basically in denial here. Rush has admitted addiction and opiods like Hydrocodone - the active ingredient are well known for producing euphoria. Euphoria is the psychological component of addiction and Rush is undeniably in that category - any Oxycontin abuser is. Yes there is the physical dependence but it is the euphoria that keeps an addict addicted all of their lives.
If, in fact, he is an addict. The verdict is still out despite what the evidence suggests. Also, pain specialists are distressed that all the piling on following Limbaugh's admission of drug use may set pain management back 100 years. First, there's a difference between physical dependence on drugs and addiction. If you use legal medications as prescribed, you're unlikely to become addicted.
Amid national chatter about conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh's addiction to prescription drugs, WBAL radio found itself at the center of an industry storm this week after it pulled his syndicated show from its usual time slot and then flip-flopped on that decision. Some listeners applauded the move, and many balked. WBAL's initial decision to pull the program and use local hosts - the first such move among 600 radio affiliates nationwide - raised alarms in an industry worried about financial fallout, a decline in ratings and the show's survival.and this bit from Fox News: Hypocrisy: The Ultimate Cry for Help?
"Pre-flipflop, losing Baltimore's WBAL would clearly be a negative," said James Marsh, an analyst with SG Cowen in New York. "It just sends a bad signal. You just feel the momentum sliding. You don't want multiple stations dropping the show." One other station followed suit. Citadel Broadcasting's WPRO News Radio 630 in Providence, R.I., said yesterday afternoon that it would temporarily replace the Limbaugh show with another host. By 5 p.m., WPRO had reversed its decision.
California syndicator Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications Inc., said yesterday that it had negotiated intensively with both stations. Premiere said it has heard of no other stations dropping Limbaugh and that it has no intention of losing other affiliates even temporarily.
But even if he is a hypocrite, even if he continued to vilify druggies as he was descending into the same abyss that they so ignobly occupy, one is advised to take into account the words of the French essayist La Rochefoucauld, who said, “Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue.” In other words, the hypocrite is not as duplicitous as he seems; he is, rather, one who bemoans his own shortcomings, albeit in a most indirect manner.
In Limbaugh’s case, by practicing hypocrisy himself, which is to say, by blasting drug addicts either on or off the air while simultaneously swallowing a virtual drug store every few days, he might have been blasting himself. He might have been punishing himself. He might have been trying to save himself. Hypocrisy might have been Rush Limbaugh’s cry for a virtue that, for reasons so far known only to him, he could not attain.
Some conservatives have shed scruples and jettisoned principles to rush to Limbaugh’s defense. The wagons circling around one of our own only serve as targets for legitimate charges of hypocrisy and double-standards. Conservative credibility – already damaged by conservative support for liberal Arnold Schwarzenegger – can only further erode in the unscrupulous defense of admittedly illegal behavior by their premiere talk radio guru (“a great spokesman for conservatives” – Cal Thomas).Lucas Doolin's Deer Camp has been added to the blogroll. Welcome Lucas
Ann Coulter, notorious for her condemnation of liberal compassion and liberal support for rehabilitation programs, was indignant and apoplectic that anyone could see anything wrong with Rush’s behavior. Strikingly, Coulter has a history of stentorian opposition to the legalization of marijuana and its use for medicinal (pain-killing) purposes.
Coulter’s final, strongest defense of Limbaugh was “Look, if my mother committed murder, I wouldn’t want her to go to jail. … I don’t want murder laws applied to my friends.” By Coulter’s logic and using her criteria no one would ever go to jail for anything! (A novel budget balancing concept.)
Conservatism Abandoned by “Conservatives” What a spectacle!
Rule of law, law-and-order, tough-on-drugs conservatives now plead for leniency – no, for pardon – for one of their own. They want to absolve Rush Limbaugh of any responsibility for behavior he himself assumes full responsibility for. The criteria is now identity, not behavior.
In defending Limbaugh – for purely partisan purposes (they even admit their partisanship) – they besmirch and belie the nobility, dignity and courage which their putative hero, Rush Limbaugh, exhibits.
These “conservatives” are no friends of Conservatism.
For his appearance on MPR's "Prairie Home Companion" on Saturday, Al Franken says he's working on a sketch called "Rush Limbaugh at a 12-Step Meeting." For professional satirist Franken, who's in town this week promoting his latest book, life doesn't get much better than it is right now. Every day seems to drop another supernaturally sweet dollop of nectar onto his tongue.Franken jokes and Buzzflash sneers as Limbaugh begins treatment.
First, Bill O'Reilly melted down and demanded that Fox News sue Franken — for something, anything, no matter how absurd. That staggering miscalculation sent sales of Franken's latest book into the stratosphere. Then O'Reilly popped up again last week, fulminating about Franken and the lawsuit like a delusional paranoid on NPR's "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross.
And now Limbaugh, the thrice-married, childless avatar of family values has been outed for an addiction to OxyContin (aka Hillbilly Heroin), among a variety of other drugs, which he purchased by the thousands illegally, thereby pumping God-knows-how-much cash into south Florida's street crime culture. If you made this stuff up, you'd be accused of smoking crack.
This week the part-time comedian and full-time conservative basher Al Franken, in Washington to promote his new book, entertained fans at a local restaurant by imagining Rush Limbaugh undergoing drug rehabilitation. Franken performed "a great impression of Rush Limbaugh in a 12-step program," one admirer told the Washington Post. "He said, 'Rush is having problems with the step where you acknowledge a higher power. He's wondering if you can acknowledge yourself as a higher power.' It was hilarious."Comparing Limbaugh to Chruchill????
A few weeks ago, when The National Enquirer published its expose of Limbaugh's drug use, Franken said that if the allegations were true, "I'm looking forward to the perp walk." "I'll be switching channels to get it from every angle," Franken told the New York Daily News. "My favorite part is when they push their heads to get them down into the car."
As we sifted through this week's mail, our curiosity got the better of us when we spotted a picture of Rush Limbaugh on an envelope of the sort we usually just drop in the trash. "Rush Limbaugh in Los Angeles! Special Invitation," the caption read.Maybe Rush will appear under indictment - we can only hope.
It seems the Claremont Institute will be holding its annual Sir Winston Churchill Dinner next month, where it will honor Limbaugh with its "2003 Statesmanship Award." Yes, friends, we live in a culture where an ostensibly serious think tank could confuse Limbaugh's unabashedly partisan polemics with an above- the-fray pursuit of public welfare.
Senate Democrats want to Vice President Dick Cheney of close to $500,000 in deferred compensation he is scheduled to receive from Halliburton, the energy company he once headed, and to divest himself of over 400,000 stock options he holds in the firm. The group, ed by Sens. Frank Lautenberg (N.J.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Russ Feingold (Wis.) and Joe Biden (Del.), the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, will try to amend the $87 billion reconstruction supplemental bill that is currently before the Senate.
Lautenberg is likely to file the amendment tomorrow. A Lautenberg aide projected that nearly the entire Democratic Caucus, with one or two possible exceptions, will support the effort to force Cheney to relinquish his financial stake in Halliburton. Cheney served as the energy giant’s CEO from 1995 to 2000. On the House side, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, will send a letter to the Bush administration this week alerting it that Halliburton has manipulated the price of exported Iraqi oil, Democratic sources said.
Desperate to feed a growing drug addiction, Rush Limbaugh left a slew of messages on his supplier's answering machine seeking the powerful painkillers he craved.TBogg reminded us that: "In 1994 Rush married Marta Fitzgerald, a woman he met online (which explains so much). Again, we don't hear the pitter pat of little Limbaugh cloven hooves. " This by way of Lilith at A Rational Animal
And The ENQUIRER has obtained copies of those answering machine recordings along with hundreds of e-mails he sent to his former housekeeper Wilma Cline, who's admitted to supplying him with drugs. Shock and Awe updated his time line and it is a vital piece of work
If Bill Clinton were an addict, here's how Rush might spin it This article is too true a parody of Limbaughtomization at work - read this one it's a hoot.
FROM NEWSWEEK
Rush Limbaugh's battle with prescription drugs was so private that even his wife may not have known, it was reported yesterday. Marta Fitzgerald may have been just as shocked as his 15 million fans to hear her hubby's on-air admission: "What's interesting is that he apparently hid the pills from his wife," an unidentified friend told Newsweek magazine.
"What did he tell his wife when he checked into the treatment center, unless these were 24- to 48- hour clinics to clean out your system? There's an awful lot of mystery about it," the friend said. "He's a very private man," said his friend, ex-federal drug czar Bill Bennett. "Rush takes his problems into himself." Sources have told The NYPost that Limbaugh may have checked himself into the upscale Sierra Tucson facility in Tucson, Ariz.
The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.Although I disagree with his characterization of my friend Al (and I do call him Al) Gore; the Septic Tank may be on to something with his open letter to Al Gore
--H.L. Mencken
A drug addict has a psychological craving as well, which returns even when the physical dependence is overcome. The best-known treatment center Hazelden claims that 53 percent of its patients stay clean for a year—in other words almost half its clients relapse within months. Nationwide, 12-step programs do poorly in treating painkiller abuse: relapse rates after a year approach 80 percent. Limbaugh has tried treatment twice before this.There are many reports of Rush's ability to drive a golf ball 250 yards and participate in The Bob Hope Classic and the Pebble Beach Pro/Am despite his claim of abusing the medication because of his herniated disk. This seems to be a pattern leading back to his military deferment for an "Anal Cyst" that supports the notion that the Limbo Mumbo Jumbo will use any excuse to escape responsibility while holding everyone else to a higher standard.
"Until I found out Limbaugh was an addict on Hillbilly Heroin, which means you can call him a junkie, I couldn't understand how he could keep repeating the same lies day after day. Suddenly, we find that it wasn't Rush the right-wing radical talking. That was just a junkie's babble you were hearing." Jimmy Breslin
"The problem with painkillers is they also work on existential pain, the kind that originates in the mind, such as might be experienced by a right-wing radio host who doesn't have Bill Clinton to torture anymore." Newsweek
"No matter how much Limbaugh frets about "the media," he IS the media. He wields more clout, makes more money and has a larger audience than a dozen Michael Moores. "I'll tell you everything you need to know. You never need read a newspaper again. I'll read them for you and tell you what to think." Limbaugh says. This was Bill Bennett squared, Newt Gingrich to the third power. There's nothing better than a hypocrite exposed!" Chicago Sun-Times
"Under new federal sentencing guidelines, possession of the amount of OxyContin that Limbaugh purportedly bought (through his housekeeper) could get him 10 years in a federal penitentiary. Florida laws are far less stringent -- unless prosecutors decide to go after him for related crimes, such as money laundering. In any case, he's in a lot of trouble
Conservatism is by its very nature an elitist philosophy. A thinking conservative would be bothered not in the least by the idea that it's fine for a cultured and civilized citizen to indulge in an activity that might cause chaos when indulged in by his inferiors The Oregonian
In his public radio rants, Chickenhawk-Dope Fiend Rush Limbaugh has shown little tolerance for drug users -- despite recent revelations that Limbaugh himself is addicted to Oxycontin,also called 'Hillbilly Heroin.' Using the canard of "family values" (not unlike his fellow faux-conservative pal, gambling addict and ex-drug czar William 'Bill' Bennett), Limbaugh subscribes to the "Do As I Say Not As I Do" School of Moral Theology. Other apologists like Dennis Prager continue to defend dope fiends -- as long as they profess to be either "Christian" or "conservative." Conspiracy Planet
Exposure of CIA operative Johnny (Mike) Spann's identity as the first American killed in Afghanistan is viewed by surprised intelligence insiders as an effort by Director George Tenet to boost the embattled CIA's prestige.The Cosmic Iguana has another CIA outing for us to consider:
The father of slain CIA officer Johnny "Mike" Spann said Thursday he believes an independent counsel should investigate allegations that someone in the Bush administration exposed a CIA officer's identity -- an act he called treasonous. Spann, the first American killed in Afghanistan, died in a prison uprising. His father, also named Johnny Spann, said he is still angry because he feels his son's identity and hometown were disclosed before his son's family could be adequately protected. see the links at the Cosmic Iguana.UPDATE: The Cosmic Iguana has already updated this story with news that no less than Robert Novak himself took CIA Director Tenent to task over the posthumous "outing" of NOC Johnny 'Mike' Spann
"Rush is a great American," who has championed the conservative movement for decades, Bush reportedly said. "I am confident he can overcome any obstacles he faces right now," the president added.
"You know I have always tried to be honest with you and open about my life. (but I have been a lying untruthful POS instead) So I need to tell you today that part of what you have heard and read is correct. (it is actually much worse than you will hopefully ever know) I am addicted to prescription pain medicationScoobie Davis logged an exclusive interview this AM that possibly provoked this decision by Limbaugh. Good work Scoobie.
Over the past several years I have tried to break my dependence on pain pills and, in fact, twice checked myself into medical facilities in an attempt to do so. Immediately following this broadcast, I am checking myself into a treatment center (to stave off confrontation with legal authorities and escape prosecution and jail that I have said all illegal drug users deserve)
I am not making any excuses. I am no role model. I refuse to let anyone think I am doing something great here, when there are people you never hear about, who face long odds and never resort to such escapes. (and what I am really doing is what my lawyer tells me will get me the best chance of avoiding prosecution)
At the present time, the authorities are conducting an investigation, and I have been asked to limit my public comments until this investigation is complete when I am free to speak about them." (without further fear of incriminating myself and going to jail)
