Rush and the Golden fleece

Is Rush Limbaugh turning socialist?

He’s rich, so he’d have to find a business protected and regulated by the state.

Maybe he could become part of a cabal setting salary caps in financial institutions and deciding who gets to be part of the club? Well, the opportunities have pretty much played out in that one. And surely that cabal couldn’t decide who should buy a company like, say, Merrill Lynch? (Bad example: for all we know that’s what actually happened.)

Let’s see… a business where “where cooperation rather than competition is valued.” An anti-trust exemption would be nice, but health insurance is too risky these days.

Bingo! The National Football League, and as a bonus it’s still allowed to practice slavery.

I’m not saying Limbaugh is racist, in fact I thought late-night host Craig Ferguson was spot-on when Larry King asked about suggestions that he was. "Is he?" Ferguson responded. "I’ve never met the man." (He did say, and I agree, that Limbaugh has horrible taste in shirts.)

Let’s cull some quotes

ESPN says that, according to transcripts posted on his Web site, in 2007 Limbaugh said: "The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it."

Maybe that's just a sour grape aftertaste from when ESPN booted him off of Sunday Night Football for dissing Donovan McNabb: "I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well."

And he was not repentant, they say: "All this has become the tempest that it is because I must have been right about something," Limbaugh said. "If I wasn't right, there wouldn't be this cacophony of outrage that has sprung up in the sports writer community."

Oh that Rush. But ESPN has a sweetheart deal (that anti-trust exemption dontcha' know) with the NFL, so it’s probably just business.

Which is the problem for the owners, too. I doubt that they care a whit about his views; he’s just too loud in expressing them. Many probably agree with him regularly. "Fat-cat Republicans who vote socialist," as Art Modell once put it.

But the product, the brand, is the important thing. "Divisive comments are not what the N.F.L. is all about," sniffed Commissioner Roger Goodell. Who needs the sermons from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton?

“Professional scum”

Fine words, and hey, the folks he’s talking about deserve them.

Failing big-city newspapers and other news organizations are desperately cutting staff, and idiots who reference made-up quotes from Wikipedia should be the first to go. Still, I’d hardly consider a handful of dimbulbs to be ‘The Mainstream Media', but my distaste for hyperbole means I’ll probably never have a radio show or enough money to buy a piece of the St. Louis Rams*.

Which neatly brings us to the real subject: Limbaugh’s constant self-promotion. He needs a weekly outrage, daily would be even better. After all, he has a minority position in one of six groups that are having preliminary discussions with the Rosenbloom family. In spite of that, he’s gotten a ton of publicity.

* Not that I particularly care about the NFL, its roving franchises, overpriced tickets and overpaid players. (I’ve also found it increasingly hard to pretend interest in games that are played at three or four in the morning here.) The Rams came to St. Louis from Los Angeles when the Cardinals moved to Arizona. Limbaugh comes from Missouri and says he was saddened by the move.

Just for symmetry , Jim Irsay, whose daddy bought the LA Rams to trade for the Baltimore Colts so he could move them to Indianapolis, is front-and-center opposing Limbaugh.

Defending Sarah Palin

I'm over my obsession with the Presidential election, but the media just won't let it go. It took Sarah Palin to make me care.

Go figure. On a personal level, her voice came out at a pitch that jangled my blackboard-scratch aural pain center. How much did I dislike her as a candidate? Let me count the ways.

That's all irrelevant; she's got my sympathy. It's not surprising that the worst of the post-election attacks came out on FOX news. Sleazy comments about her thinking Africa was a country* and not knowing the countries in the NAFTA treaty. Anonymous attacks.

That's my problem with FOX: not the political views, but the tabloidy rumors and innuendo it deals in to sell them. I've read conservative commentators for years, even added a cable company mainly to watch Rush Limbaugh at happy hour. That was years ago, before he took himself seriously and, scarily, others began taking him seriously.

It sells. They know that, and so do their competitors. Though they pretend to loathe that proud part of American journalism, they'll pick it up in a heartbeat if they're losing market share.

Who's your Uncle? Sam or Tom

For a moment, Shepherd Smith seemed to be auditioning for a job at another network with his "Joe The Plumber" interview on a Death to Israel remark. I guess not, it's the soundbite, stupid. He followed by highlighting Ralph Nader's loony remark about Barack Obama being an Uncle Tom. Ralph says he's just asking the question. Right, and why should we take you seriously? Did you ask yourself that question, Shepherd?

Mo' maps

The link to the graphic above was emailed by my brother. Yes, I'm tired of this stuff, but it caught me again. What if we map votes with a cartogram weighting population into the election results? From Mark Newman, he's got the same stuff by county and with other interesting manipulations.

* As a group, Americans are abysmally ignorant of geography. There have been dozens of studies proving this obvious fact. Just to pick a group, I'd like to see how many of the 435 U.S. Congressmen could pick out a country in an unlabeled map. How would they do identifying the majority of states? Finding Saipan or the Northern Marianas?