HILLBILLY HEROIN LOVE RUSH BAND in REHAB
Courtney Love Charged for Rush Limbaugh's Crime

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.

This Just In:NO BID Iraq Contract Extended for Halliburton
HALLIBURTON will continue to increase it's 1.59 Billion windfall without competition.

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.

Generous new tax break for Bechtel/Halliburton?
Joint Committee on Taxation, says bill provides $142 billion in corporate tax relief.
The bill would repeal the existing tax break, which is valued at about $55 billion over the next 10 years, and add new tax breaks totaling about $142 billion over the same period. This is a miserable failure on the part of lawmakers

FACING GROWING RIDICULE MISSION ACCOMPLISHED MIS-LEADER IS A LIAR
The "Mission Accomplished" banner hanging as backdrop from the superstructure of the USS LINCOLN was put up by the crew members. But this is what our "honest straight-shooting Commander in Chief Captain Codpiece had to say today:

"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..."
"Now we find out the White House has just confirmed, we just got this handed to us...Senior Navy officials now confirm the sign was in fact produced by the White House." Bill Press ----Mission Accomplished is a miserable failure

"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."

IDENTITY THEIF ENGAGED IN RIGHT WING DIRTY TRICKERY
Rightwing blogger THEFT to keep Americans from knowing WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
The original BAGHDAD BURNING blog written by a female Iraqi programmer created quite a buzz on the Internet. Numerous well read bloggers linked to Baghdad Burning and posted stories based on what was written by the civillian Iraqi. (LINKS)

Baghdad Burning gave an accurate insider account of WHAT REALLY HAPPENED every day in IRAQ - a picture that was dramatically different than that touted by the administration.

It has now been revealed that an identity theif riversbendblog.blogspot.com has stolen the name of riverbendblog.blogspot.com, and is sharing the title "Baghdad Burning". In an attempt to defeat the impact of the celebrated IRAQI blogger.

Baghdad Burning had become well known for exposing huge cost differences between American Corporate interests in IRAQ and local Iraqis who had the ability to do certain jobs for much less. Posts like this one exposed the high costs charged by HALLIBURTON over what Iraqi's would be willing to take to do the same job. BAGHDAD BURNING was burning holes in Corporate Americas plan to get away clean with fleecing the American taxpayer

Enter a fellow that goes by the handle "solerito" who also created a previous fake Baghdad website "Baghdad Blogging". Solerito stole the BAGHDAD BURNING name and diverted many interested searchers from finding the original BAGHDAD BURNING BLOG. This is the new 'Right wing dirty trick' campaign of the new century.

Solerito had become known as a rabid right wing Bush supporter. John Gorenfeld's blog has the details of this sordid story. John's done a great job on this. Also Claude from the Atrios' comments section who noticed the login id solerito in the Extreme Tracking bug. Bending Truth apparently knows the identity theif. This is the kind of subtrefuge we have come to expect from Republicans over the years. It is akin to the masked flag burner pictured below. Some people will stoop to anything to keep the truth from Americans.
ink from the squid: investing in the future


MORE GREATEST HITS AROUND THE WEB
SouthKnoxBubba has a rant worth reading

Shock and Awe is in the League of Liberals

WTF is it Now? is in the League of Liberals

Maybe you should read the Democratic Veteran

The Poison Kitchen is in the League of Liberals - maybe you should check it out and join too.

T-Rex

Please welcome Major Barbara of Arms and the Man to the League of Liberals
Please welcome and continue to be Sick of Bush

Please welcome The Felonious Elephant to the growing League of Liberals. An Elephant never forgets to blogroll

Please welcome member number 30 Speedkill and remember those blogrolls.

Read Rush Limgbaughtomy for the latest on the growing Mutual Fund Scandal

ARE THESE MASKED FLAG BURNERS RIGHT WING AGENTS?
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."

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.

Related Links:
How law enforcement is keeping tabs on the new peace movement.
The FBI's Monkeywrench Alert: Slander by ANSIR?
The FBI-CIA Entrapment Tag Team
History of the FBI- The Vietnam War Era (1960s-1970s)
Ex-Agents: FBI Recruits Violent Informants

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.

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.

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.

Kevin Hayden at Reach Em High Cowboy Noose Network has an excellent post on Censoring the Dead about the ban on pictures of returning coffins from IRAQ.

Barbara at The Mahablog remembers the Berlin Airlift and touches on these same Anti-war movement demonstrations and A.N.S.W.E.R.

Does Clear Channel's Rush Limbaugh Have AIDS?

In his column, "From Bush to Rush: Which Lie Did I Tell?", political analyst Al Martin writes that "people have been commenting on the physical appearance of Rush Limbaugh. Here was a guy who was 100 pounds overweight all his life. Over the last 18 months, he has lost 200 pounds. And commentators are saying he looks just like an AIDS patient The amount of weight he's lost, the sunken in look. He's also mentioned he doesn't have any appetite, can't eat anything anymore and can't keep things down."

This blockbuster column published on Al Martin Raw: Political, Economic and Financial Intelligence (www.almartinraw.com) questions the many lies that Rush has told in his bid to remain as the top mouthpiece for the Bush Cabal in the media. "If he does have AIDS, it's highly unlikely that gay activists would embrace him," Martin continues. "But Clear Channel is definitely easing him out. You can tell that the process has begun because everybody on the right is singing his praises.

Those Nasty Liberals at CBS Have Really Done It This Time
Nancy is not Amused

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.

****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.”

This doesn't sound like your BUSH the Hero of 9/11 movie

COULD IT BE "ANYBODY BUT BUSH" for the REPUBLICANS TOO?
Given the dismal failures of the current resident SouthKnoxBubba thinks "dubya" might not be the strongest Republican candidate for next year's selection:

Republican candidate roundup.

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

Arms And The Man keeps us up to date on Who's Making A Killing On Killing In Iraq
Please welcome Major Barbara of Arms and the Man to the League of Liberals

Sick of Bush is sick of the lies, the soildiers who have died, the mothers who have cried and the money they have pried from everyone but the wealthy corporate well connected Republican interests in America. Please welcome Douglas and continue to be Sick of Bush.

This prodigious pachyderm ponders the crimes of Republican Politicians
Please welcome The Felonious Elephant to the growing League of Liberals.
An Elephant never forgets to blogroll
Smart Solid and Stimulating SPEEDKILL slips into the League of Liberals.
Please welcome member number 30 Speedkill and remember those blogrolls.

HALLIBURTON FOUND LIABLE FOR 70MILLION IN DAMAGES
Oil giant loses in court again - Houston man cheated by Halliburton

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.

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.

Yet another chink in the battered armor of Halliburton. Can't these guys do anything without cheating?

HALLIBURTON CHIEF ISSUES MARCHING ORDERS TO EMPLOYEES.

Employees of HALLIBURTON have been instructed by the CEO to write letters to newspaper editors and Congress in an effort to "restore fairness and accuracy" after revelations that the company was overcharging US Taxpayers by 217million dollars on gas delivery while feasting at the public trough.

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,"

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.

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.

Please welcome the delightful, delicious, and daring different strings to the League of Liberals. and update your blogrolls naturally!
The Fantastic Fabulous F(ph)otographer Futurballa has joined forces with The League of Liberals
Please welcome this past winner of the TTLB New Blog Showcase to the League and update those blogrolls.
Need a quick lift try a shot of caffine - the full strength expresso of a Cup O' Joe
Want to take action to make a better world? ARMACT Action Alerts from The Armchair Activist presents progressive-issue activism opportunities for direct-action types and stay-at-homes.
blunted on reality has a great Ann Coulter Doll Post too.

CHENEY CAUGHT IN YET ANOTHER LIE - 18 to 87 million invested in the Vanguard Group
One of the 10 largest Shareholders in Halliburton - holdings worth 176 million dollars

Visit HELL FOR HALLIBURTON for a complete breakdown on HALLIBURTON FELONIES

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.

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.

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?

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo has two pieces of lowered pie from the "prosperity is just around the far distant almost visible corner squatters" at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Kynn at Shock and Awe has posted an awesome and colorful tribute to The League of Liberals.
Thank you Kynn for you link to our entry in the Ecosystem new blog showcase
Everybody should check it out.

IN THE PENNIES A GALLON DEPARTMENT:

"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

RUSH IN FEMINAZI HELL? a description of the therapy Rush is facing.

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.

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.

Welcome Natalie Davis of All Facts and Opinions To the League of Liberals.
Please Welcome the Dememted Delirious Drivel of Dubya's Daily Diary and Please Welcome the Magnificent Marvelous Magical Madeleine Begun Kane and Please Welcome the Penetrating Pensive and Perceptive Pen-Elayne to the League of Liberals!!!

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.

Check the Democratic Veteran for Rush'N Odds and register your take in the comments.

Welcome Sam from Blunted on Reality and Kynn from Shock and Awe to The League of Liberals
Welcome Natalie Davis of All Facts and Opinions To the League of Liberals.
RUSH OXY ADVERTISMENTS: see The People's Republic of Seabrook

WTF is it NOW? for Maru the crankpot virtue is its own drawback for Rightwing Scolds:
One pops pills. Another gambles. Another lets her mother die alone. Yet these are Bush's virtue-mongers

Ah, to be rich and famous.

Ah, to be rich and famous. (the latest editorial on the Limbo Mumbo Jumbo) Just think: Without those qualities, we'd have no stories about a pill-popping talk-radio host.....

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.