rush limbaugh Archives - Page 2 of 11

Closing Arguments – Why I Continue to Support Barack Obama, Civil Rights

I just saw a commercial from the Crossroads PAC. Basically, the gist of the commercial was that Obama has really done nothing for us, so why would we need another four years? As I mentioned yesterday, Barack Obama prevented a second Great Depression. The fact that the economy was actually in free fall seems to escape the folks at Crossroads. The fact that Republicans proposed little or nothing that would’ve helped get us out of the free fall is not addressed in the commercial. Tax cuts, the Republican knee-jerk answer to almost any question, would not have gotten us out of the depression. Fixing the deficit by decreasing government spending and cuts to GDP would’ve worsened our economic situation. This is exactly what Herbert Hoover did in 1930 and ’31. It doesn’t work to fix the economy.

Sorry, I got off on a tangent. Back to my original thought – Barack Obama has stood up and strongly supported women and women’s rights. Basically, he has said that women should be able to decide what is best for their bodies. Now, I wish I could say something positive about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. I simply can’t. Mitt Romney has been a supporter of women’s choice in the past. That was back when he was a moderate, reasonable Republican. Those days are long gone. Now, Mitt Romney, who is trying to appeal to the tea party, does not believe that a woman should have the right to abortion – under any circumstances.

Do you remember when Sandra Fluke testified in front of Congress (well, not Congress because Republicans held a “health” forum and not one woman spoke, remember? So Ms. Fluke spoke in front of a Democratic House forum)? That was an opportunity for Rush Limbaugh to personally attack her. What did Mitt Romney do? Did he stand up for Sandra Fluke’s right to express herself? Did he stand up to Rush Limbaugh and and other conservatives who called Sandra Fluke a whore? Instead, it was Barack Obama who personally called her and encouraged her to speak out. The president didn’t have to do that, but this type of action is in his character. It is in his makeup.

For some reason, conservatives have acted as if the Lilly Ledbetter bill was no big deal. On the contrary, the Lilly Ledbetter Act is a big deal. The simple concept of equal pay for equal work seems to be foreign to Republicans. They say that they want to stand up for individuality. Not so much. Equal pay for equal work. Simple concept.

For all these reasons and more I voted for Barack Obama. He has stood up for the civil rights of all Americans.

By ecthompsonmd|2012-11-05T08:54:58-04:00November 4th, 2012|Civil Rights, Elections, Party Politics|Comments Off

Ex-Navy Seal Crosses the Line

So, there’s a book coming out tomorrow that is an ex-Navy Seal’s account of exactly what happened when we took out Osama bin Laden. Personally, I will not read this book. I figure that this book will be very similar to the extremely successful, famous and distorted book, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Remember, they published basically a pack of lies about John Kerry. This author, in my opinion, is clearly writing a partisan textbook that is designed not to illuminate what happened, but instead to attack the president. Let me make a few predictions – Rush Limbaugh will hail this book as some sort of thoughtful breakthrough. Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich will try to paint this guy as some hero (for writing this book) and somehow degrade or, better yet, denigrate President Obama’s decision to go with the mission.

I found the following comment to be extremely illuminating:

This guy is a bum for using his uniform for political purposes. I served in a rapid deployment force under President Clinton. We had a dislike for him because democrats are “soft on military” and the “Don’t ask Don’t tell” but we never divided our ranks in front of the American People. You can’t do that. Its an unwritten code that you respect rank and that includes The Commander In Chief, despite what your personal feelings are. The uniform must be greater than partisan politics. The American public can not see soldiers as 1/2 are democrats, 1/2 republican. It would destroy morale and what makes our troops the best in the world.

The guy writing this book, releasing it on 9/11 and keeping the profits, while betraying his chain of command is a scum bag. He is also a confirmed “birther”, so that tells you about his intelligence. Just another attempt to “swiftboat” an opponent over politics. Its a shame because America needs to come together to solve big challenges.

By ecthompsonmd|2012-09-03T21:05:33-04:00September 3rd, 2012|Bin Laden, Party Politics|2 Comments

Life on the Edge

Over the last 20 or 30 years, we’ve been entertained by those who push the envelope. Whether it is comedy or music or political theater, we continue to look for entertainers who push the envelope and go right up to the edge. We have almost reflexively rejected those who have stayed in the mainstream. Comedians like Chris Rock, Bernie Mac and Bill Maher are more toward our liking. Hell, even mainstream folks like Jeff Foxworthy and Jeff Dunham are pushing the edge. Radio talk show hosts who are simply entertaining aren’t enough. They need to be in-your-face. They need to cause you to recoil, every now and then. They need to be Rush Limbaugh. Sure, you can use the same decorum that was acceptable in the United States back in 1970, but you’re not going to see the kind of riches that Rush Limbaugh is enjoying. You have to push the envelope. You have to be Icarus and fly too close to the sun.

Bill Maher has enjoyed a relatively long career specializing in this type of comedic acrobatics. His film on religion was all about pushing the envelope. His HBO television program, Real-Time, is basically about balance between mainstream comedy and pushing the envelope. Comments that he made about Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann have caused many to throw him in the same bucket as Rush Limbaugh. (Limbaugh’s comments on Sandra Fluke are here.) For the past several days, if not weeks, Bill Maher has been in damage control mode. To try to put out the fire, he wrote an op-ed in the New York Times. The point of the op-ed was not to defend his own actions but instead to “gallantly” come to the rescue of Robert De Niro who got in hot water over a mildly racial “joke” that he told a fundraiser. “Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now do you really think our country is ready for a white first lady?”

This joke caused “outrage.” Really? Outrage? I agree with Bill Maher. We have tons of fake outrage in our society. There are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of fringe groups who are looking for just a little bit of leverage so that they can ride a wave of outrage to fame, fortune and riches. In my opinion, the problem isn’t the fake outrage. The problem stems from our desire to see entertainers push the envelope yet again. When they do, though, for some reason we are surprised that they’ve gone “too far.”

My blog has outrage in the title. The purpose of my blog is not to be outraged and upset every single day or at every single issue. Instead, I do believe that there are some things that we should be outraged about and we have yet to figure it out. The fact that we were deceived and went to war in Iraq should cause all of us to really be upset. Thousands died. For what? For reasons that still remain unclear to me, we’ve decided to give up some of our civil liberties so that we can be “safer,” yet we haven’t demanded any sort of measure of our safety. An absence of terrorist attacks cannot be the only end point. What was that stupid color-coded alert system? The fact that we had a huge economic meltdown and have yet to hold Wall Street truly accountable for their fraudulent behavior should cause us to be truly outraged. Then, to compound the confusion and frustration, we have thrown cash at Wall Street and somehow we expect different results? Here’s where our outrage needs to be focused. The fact that Robert DeNiro or Bill Maher or Hank Williams said something stupid just isn’t it. I’m sorry, but it should be obvious that we have bigger problems in this country to focus on. (The anger and frustration directed at Rush Limbaugh was more than justified, in my humble opinion.)

By ecthompsonmd|2012-03-23T06:17:20-04:00March 23rd, 2012|Media|Comments Off