This is getting sweeter by the day. Limbaugh has now lost 50 advertisers and counting. Here’s how it looked on Thursday in the largest media market, specifically – WABC 770 AM in New York City.

• A total of 86 ads aired during WABC’s broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show today.
• 77 of those ads were public service announcements donated free of charge by the Ad Council.
• Of the nine paid spots that ran, seven were from companies that have said they have taken steps to ensure their ads no longer air during the program.

That means that on Thursday’s three hour show, only 2 sponsors paid for advertising with the intent of sponsoring Limbaugh. How does the buffoon spin that one? And most wonderful was the 5 minutes and 33 seconds of dead air during the broadcast.

There were four separate instances during this afternoon’s broadcast on WABC 770 AM in New York City where the network fell silent. During the lead in to the show, two and a half minutes of silence was broken up by a single, solitary ad before Limbaugh hit the air. Then, towards the end of the first hour of Limbaugh’s three hour program, a public service announcement was followed by an additional minute of silence before Limbaugh returned. Another minute of dead air came in hour two, and a fifth minute in hour three followed that. A spokesperson for WABC wouldn’t say whether the silence was caused due to a technical glitch or Limbaugh’s fleeing sponsors.

Yeah, that’s it…a technical glitch.

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Crazy lady, Pamela Geller, defends Limbaugh.

A 30-year-old poses as a 23-year-old, chooses a Catholic University to attend at $65,000 per year, and cannot afford ALL the birth control pills she needs… so she wants the US taxpayers to pay for her rampant sexual activity. By all accounts she is banging it five times a day. She sounds more like a prostitute to me. She must have an gyno bill to choke a horse (pun intended). Calling this whore a slut was a softball.

Obama calls her and tells Sandra Slut Fluke that her parents should be so proud of her.
He’s a pimp.

Sick. Ms. Fluke is “banging it five times a day”? I wonder how Geller was privy to that information. I also wonder if Geller has any understanding of how birth control pills work.

The sad truth is that Geller is just another sad component of a right-wing noise machine far removed from reality and completely devoid of intellect, honesty and decency. When not referring to coeds as whores and presidents as pimps, Geller fills up her time spreading hate and fear about Muslims to a small legion of devoted psychopaths. Really. Read the comment section of her post. To call these people twisted is to not do justice to their demented minds.

As I’ve noted in the past, there is no chance of rational debate with these people. They truly live in a bubble where they’re free to ignore the truth and create their own set of ‘facts’ to support whatever story they’ve chosen to believe that day.

Welcome to Wingnuttia, the land of the truly ignorant.

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Echoing the message behind this illustration, George Will hammers Republican leadership over the Limbaugh/Fluke affair.

Mr. Boehner comes out and says, Rush’s language was inappropriate. Using a salad fork for your entree, that’s inappropriate. Not this stuff. I mean, and Rick Santorum says well, what he says was absurd, but an entertainer is allowed to be absurd. No. It is the responsibility of conservatives to police the right in its excesses, just as the liberals unfailingly fail to police the excesses in their own side. And it was depressing, because what it indicates is that the Republican leaders are afraid of Rush Limbaugh. They want to bomb Iran, but they’re afraid of Rush Limbaugh.

Have you noticed how conservatives insist on bringing up the lame ‘both sides do it’ argument anytime they find themselves forced to reprimand Republicans. It’s the old ‘yes my kid acted improperly but your kid is just as bad as mine so shut up already‘ attack/defend strategy. Lame.

Who on the left remotely resembles Limbaugh (and Savage and Levin, for that matter) in spreading misinformation and lies in the ugliest of ways?

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Not surprising…

Fox News devoted just a single segment to the escalating controversy surrounding Rush Limbaugh’s vicious attacks on Sanda Fluke, the Georgetown Law student whom Republicans wouldn’t let testify during a hearing on birth control, largely ignoring the controversy.

The only mention over the past two days, according a search of a media monitoring service, was to cover White House spokesperson Jay Carney’s comments on the controversy. Host Megyn Kelly did not play any audio from Limbaugh. Meanwhile, Fox mentioned a phony bomb threat at Limbaugh’s home (it turned out to be a piece of art from a fan) three separate times this morning, without mentioning Fluke.

Another example of “control the media, you control the mind.” I doubt many Fox News viewers will ever get to read this Washington Post editorial:

Like other “shock jocks,” Mr. Limbaugh has committed verbal excesses in the past. But in its wanton vulgarity and cruelty, this episode stands out. Mr. Limbaugh’s audience, and those in politics who seek his favor as a means of reaching that audience, need to take special note.

[...]

What we are saying is that Mr. Limbaugh has abused his unique position within the conservative media to smear and vilify a citizen engaged in the exercise of her First Amendment rights, and in the process he debased a national political discourse that needs no further debasing. This is not the way a decent citizen behaves, much less a citizen who wields significant de facto power in a major political party. While Republican leaders owe no apology for Mr. Limbaugh’s comments, they do have a responsibility to repudiate them — and him.

Republicans are too intimidated by Limbaugh’s power to ever repudiate anything the “entertainer” says or does. John Boehner made some lame statement about Limbaugh’s words being “inappropriate” but was quick to add that it was no worse than Democrats raising money off the issue. No one plays the game of false equivalency better than Republicans.

Meanwhile, as the Fox sheeple bleat on in oblivious bliss and ignorance, the informed masses have brought pressure to bear on Limbaugh’s sponsors. To date, five have dropped advertising on his radio show. Updates on the situation here.

UPDATE

The apology.

For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke.

I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit? In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone’s bedroom nor do I think it is a topic that should reach a Presidential level.

My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.

Limbaugh claims he “did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke“? What a pile of crap. Of course Limbaugh meant for his vile and vicious attacks to be personal. This is what he does. He had three days to hone his viciousness, so you know there was nothing spontaneous about the attacks. He meant to call Sandra Fluke a slut because he knew it would generate buzz and when one’s in the shock jock business, it’s all about buzz because buzz is money.

What Limbaugh did not see coming this time was the push back from a public that has had enough of his offensive shtick. Their online petitions left Limbaugh with five less corporate sponsors to bankroll his daily radio hate-fest with more sponsors considering dropping his show.

Limbaugh “sincerely sorry” for having called Fluke a slut?  Laughable. Sociopaths of his type are incapable of feeling regret for anything they do or say. His sorrow stems from the money he was about to lose and nothing else.

In a more perfect world than the one we live in, Limbaugh’s sponsors never return. Let’s hope it turns out that way.

UPDATE 2 (March 4)

A sixth sponsor, Carbonite, drops Limbaugh. Extra noteworthy about this announcement is that it was done after Limbaugh issued his phony apology.

No one with daughters the age of Sandra Fluke, and I have two, could possibly abide the insult and abuse heaped upon this courageous and well-intentioned young lady. Mr. Limbaugh, with his highly personal attacks on Miss Fluke, overstepped any reasonable bounds of decency. Even though Mr. Limbaugh has now issued an apology, we have nonetheless decided to withdraw our advertising from his show. We hope that our action, along with the other advertisers who have already withdrawn their ads, will ultimately contribute to a more civilized public discourse.

This makes me want to sign up with Carbonite. I could use a good backup program for my data. No doubt, Carbonite’s decision is a calculated PR move but it was the right move. Also, Carbonite’s move might pressure other sponsors to act in a similar fashion.

Update 3 (March 4)

Why is the DOD by way of American Forces Network (AFN) a Limbaugh sponsor? Join the protest and make your voice heard here to have AFN reconsider their sponsorship of a misogynist hater.

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I disliked the politics of Andrew Breitbart and more so the underhanded methods he utilized in expounding on those views. That said, 43 is an awfully young age for anyone’s son, dad, spouse or friend to die. I’ll just leave it at posting what I thought was an appropriate tweet and one which probably would have made Breitbart smile.

UPDATE

This David Frum piece on Breitbart’s death is as honest as anything I’ve read all day.

And this is where it becomes difficult to honor the Roman injunction to speak no ill of the dead. It’s difficult for me to assess Breitbart’s impact upon American media and American politics as anything other than poisonous. When one of the leading media figures of the day achieves his success by his giddy disdain for truth and fairness—when one of our leading political figures offers to his admirers a politics inflamed by rage and devoid of ideas—how to withhold a profoundly negative judgment on his life and career?

Especially when that career was so representative of his times?

We live in a time of political and media demagoguery unparalleled since the 19th century. Many of our most important public figures have gained their influence and power by inciting and exploiting the ugliest of passions—by manipulating fears and prejudices—by serving up falsehoods as reported truth. In time these figures will one by one die. What are we to say of this cohort, this group, this generation? That their mothers loved them? That their families are bereaved? That their fans admired them and their employees treated generously by them? Public figures are inescapably judged by their public actions. When those public actions are poisonous, the obituary cannot be pleasant reading.

Excellent.

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The GOP establishment has gone into serious panic mode with the very real possibility that Newt Gingrich might end up as their candidate.  Three weeks before the opening caucuses, a bevy of recent polls indicate that Gingrich’s surge is solidifying.  In Iowa, he leads Romney 22% to 17% in one poll  (a second poll has Gingrich with a 10 point lead).  In Florida, Gingrich is leading Romney by 15 percentage points (44/29) while in South Carolina, the Newt’s lead is even bigger – 19 points (42/23).

Republicans in the know understand that an Obama/Gingrich match-up almost guarantees an Obama second term.  A sampling of conservative thought…

Michael Gerson:

Gingrich has a history of making serious charges that turn out to be self-indictments — witness his recent attack on congressional advocates for Freddie Mac, despite having been one of its well-paid consultants. Gingrich’s language is often intemperate. He is seized by temporary enthusiasms. He combines absolute certainty in any given moment with continual reinvention over time.

These traits are suited to a provocateur, an author, a commentator, a consultant. They are not the normal makings of a chief executive.

Everyone deserves forgiveness for the failures of their past. But the grant of absolution does not require the suspension of critical judgment. Gingrich’s problem is not the weakness of a moment, it is the pattern of lifetime.

George Will:

Gingrich, however, embodies the vanity and rapacity that make modern Washington repulsive. And there is his anti-conservative confidence that he has a comprehensive explanation of, and plan to perfect, everything.

My favorite line from the piece is use of a Churchill quote where Will advises Gingrich to “stop being a bull who carries his own china shop around with him.“  Good one.

Peggy Noonan:

“He is a human hand grenade who walks around with his hand on the pin, saying, ‘Watch this!’”.

Then there’s hate-mongering asshole Michael Savage (I’m not sure if I’m aware of a person more repulsive than this low-life, bottom-feeding pile of scum) who has offered Gingrich $1 million if he drops out of the race.  Savage’s criticism of Newt include (the caps are his, not mine)…

• HE MADE ADS WITH NANCY PELOSI PROMOTING THE FALSE THEORY OF GLOBAL WARMING.

• HE’S IN FAVOR OF AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS.
• HE’S TAKEN HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FROM FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC, TWO OF THE MOST CORRUPT FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS IN HISTORY.
• HE’S CHEATED ON TWO WIVES AND LEFT BOTH OF THEM WHILE THEY WERE BOTH SERIOUSLY ILL, WHICH WILL DESTROY HIS CHANCES AMONG FEMALE VOTERS.
• HE CALLED THE REPUBLICAN PLAN TO REFORM MEDICARE “RIGHT WING SOCIAL ENGINEERING.”
• IN A PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE AGAINST OBAMA, REGARDLESS OF HOW WELL HE DOES, ON TELEVISION, HE WILL COME OFF BADLY COMPARED TO OBAMA AND LOOK LIKE NOTHING MORE THAN WHAT HE IS: A FAT, OLD, WHITE MAN.

Right.  One can’t have as president a fat, old white serial adulterer who promotes “false” scientific theories, shows compassion and understanding toward illegal immigrants, makes millions as a Washington lobbyist while, in a rare moment of honesty, is willing to criticize the Ryan budget plan.  I’d love for Gingrich to take the $1 million for the simple pleasure of knowing that Savage screwed himself out of a million dollars.

Have I mentioned how much I despise Michael Savage?

In any case, the problem so many conservatives have with Gingrich has to do with his electability due to the number of skeletons graveyard in his closet as this Ron Paul attack ad so perfectly shows.

It’s unfortunate for Republicans (and fortunate for Dems) that the teabagger mindset blocks recognition of real talent within their own party.

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Erick Erickson’s open love letter to Herman Cain.

Herman,

I owe you a good bit of my present career in radio. You leaving opened the door for me.

I still believe you can win the Republican nomination.

I still believe you can beat Barack Obama.

I still believe you can be one of the most inspiring Presidents since Ronald Reagan.

The Herman Cain I know would not and could not do what you are accused of. And I know it is incredibly unfair to ask you, in effect, to prove a negative. How the hell does one prove one did not do something?

…

Sweet, if not totally embarrassing.  If the above wasn’t posted on Erickson’s website, I’d swear it was written by a 10-year old girl who set aside her Barbie dolls long enough to pen a love note to her Teen Magazine idol.  I wonder if Erick sleeps with a picture of Herman under his pillow.

Erickson believes Cain can be the “most inspiring President since Ronald Reagan”?  Really?  Did he not watch the debate last night?  What part of that performance would Erickson call inspiring?

And that last line where Erickson expresses disbelief that the great and wonderful Herman Cain could possibly harass and assault women, is terribly pathetic.  It brings to mind the story of Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of eight Chicago White Sox players found guilty of throwing the 1919 World Series.  Legend has it that as Shoeless Joe walked out of the Black Sox trial one day, a young boy ran up to him on the steps of the courthouse.  Clutching Jackson’s coat sleeve, the boy looked up at his hero and cried out, “Say it ain’t so, Joe.”

Totally understandable that a young boy would choose to believe that his heroes could do no wrong.  They also believe in Santa Claus and Tooth Fairies.  The problem with Erickson here is that he’s 36 years old and a political pundit for CNN.  What’s his excuse for crying out, “Say it ain’t so, Herman!”

Grow up, Erick.

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I would think that an endorsement from America’s number one Islamophobic, hate-mongering, twisted and overall evil person can’t be a positive thing.

Pamela Geller unloads on Rick Perry and endorses Herman Cain.

The latest eruption in the Cain campaign sabotage is the bombshell that Rick Perry was the one who leaked the anonymous sexual harassment charges against Herman Cain.

Perry is a snake. Watch him. He is creepy. And his drunken, freak show speech this past weekend belonged in a Roger Corman film.

I questioned his very bad judgment when I exposed his entire Islamic curriculum, dawah and proselytizing, to Texas school children. But this? Perry is a really bad guy. Only a lowlife (or a Democrat — Perry was Al Gore’s campaign manager) would eliminate a better man with innuendo and gossip. Men like Perry do not win on merit.

I endorse Herman Cain. What he doesn’t know, we’ll teach him.

Do you get the feeling that Geller is not a Perry supporter?  Here’s the reason why.  Simply knowing someone who knows someone who knows a Muslim is enough to get you on Geller’s hate list.  In any case, a Geller endorsement for Cain is a bit strange.  Just a few months back, she had this to say about Cain after he backtracked and apologized for his hard stance on hiring Muslims.

…the only thing Herman Cain had going for him as a candidate was his apparent courage in facing the real enemy within and without. In issuing this apology, he thought he saved his candidacy; in fact, he killed it.

The fact that Geller can ignore her dislike for Herman Cain and now endorse him in the way she has says much about the state of affairs in the Republican primary.  Basically, everyone in the GOP wishes there was an electable candidate whose last name was not Romney – a man who cannot get his approval rating within the party above the 25% mark.  Unfortunately for them, there isn’t.  In today’s GOP, a sane mind and non-wingnut conservatism gets you a Huntsman-like 2% approval rating.

What all this points to is how truly screwed up the Republican party finds itself…not that they have any awareness of the state their party is in.  Between the teabaggers and religious nuts, the Gellers and Bachmanns, the Becks and Palins, the Boehners and Cantors, the Kochs and Norquists and, of course, the haters of anything gay, Islamic or Hispanic, the GOP is on a downward spiral of historic proportions.  And the only thread keeping it all together is a common hatred for the current President and an even greater hatred for anything resembling liberalism.

The only question is who crashes first, the GOP or the country they supposedly love.

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Here’s a little comic relief from all of that debt ceiling nonsense.

Via MediaMatters:

Following McDonald’s decision to offer “more nutritionally-balanced” Happy Meals and First Lady Michelle Obama’s praise of its move, the right-wing media jumped to attack McDonald’s for supposedly bending to the will of the “fat police” and making Happy Meals “less happy.”

What? That can’t be right, can it? Has Obama Derangement Syndrome so invaded the minds of conservatives that they can view a healthier Happy Meal as a clear sign of Obama’s socialistic takeover of the lives of Americans? Apparently so.

McDonald’s decision to reduce the portion of fries and add apple slices to their Happy Meals has Fox News, Michelle Malkin and other right-wing nutjobs screaming bloody murder. Here’s a sampling from The Blaze:

A child could once feel excitement over hearing a parent utter those beautiful words: “honey, we’re going to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal.” But those carefree days are over and that sense of childhood wonderment and abandon is about to be seriously curbed by a new McDonald’s policy that cuts an order of fries in half, throws apple slices, raisins and pineapple chunks around as if they were ketchup, and just generally makes Happy Meals “healthier,” and, less happy. And even though the apples are reportedly not well-received by customers, guess what? McDonald’s is forcing the fruit in its Happy Meals anyway. Whether you want it or not.

And what’s more, politics, perhaps even the White House itself, could be to blame.

[...]

So after all the years of satisfied customers “lovin’ it,” it is political pressure, including First Lady Michelle Obama’s war on childhood obesity, that reportedly forced McDonald’s hands.

[...]

McDonald’s: another casualty in the Nanny State’s war on personal choice, or is the fast food giant bringing this on themselves? Will the new, and perhaps not improved, McDonald’s menu affect your decision to patronize the long-time burger institution?

Blithering idiocy. In fact, the Happy Meal makeover was a clear business decision on the part of McDonald’s. From the LA Times:

The business strategy for McDonald’s is to make parents feel less guilty about feeding fast food to their children, so they’ll become more frequent customers.

“People tell us they want to feel good about visiting us regularly, about the food options that we serve, and want to visit us even more often,” [President of McDonald's USA, Jan Fields]

Department of Health numbers indicate that 1/3 of children and 2/3 of adults are either overweight or obese but those stats  don’t stop wingnuts like Michelle Malkin from foaming at the mouth over McDonald’s decision (“They [Michelle Obama] won’t rest until the Happy Meal has undergone the total Berkeley makeover“). Malkin has asked her readers to send in their photoshopped Unhappy Meals images.

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Every day, right-wing paranoia and insanity gets a bit more pronounced…and a bit more scary.

(Note: I entered Malkin’s Unhappy Meal Photoshop contest by sending in the illustration included at the top of this post. I’ll let you know if I get a response.)

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This one was easy to predict.

The hate-filled and quite unintelligent Pam Geller:

“The teleprompter is speaking *yawn* The teleprompter is taking credit for the killing. Every other word is I.”

and…

“Gd bless our troops. Obama can puff himself and shamelessly strut like peacock, but hats off to the US military that has been relentless, dogged and brave for ten years in their mission to kill that devout bastard.”

The equally deranged Michelle Malkin:

“Leftists are swarming Twitter to chastise any conservatives who dare give any credit to President Bush for his resolve and role in leading the post-9/11 counterrorism/national security response to the worst attack on American soil.”

“Meanwhile, Democrat hacks are burning the midnight oil making this All About Obama.”

Laura Ingraham:

Jason Mattera:

And here was a headline on the Drudge Report.

If this stuff wasn’t so sick it would be funny. Here was an opportunity for Americans to find common ground. The man responsible for the death of three thousand innocent people on 9/11 was no longer. And one can be sure that on that fateful day in 2001, no one was looking at the dead and counting Democrats and Republicans.  They were simply Americans killed at the hands of a lunatic. What a sad state of affairs that Americans find themselves so divided that every event instantly becomes so politically charged.  The cause of that division is an easy one to call – a conservative media that has become so unhinged that it has lost all sense of honesty and journalistic integrity. As for the sheeple who give heed to these people, they really don’t know any better.

I don’t know how you stop the haters from hating. Maybe you just can’t.  Americans will just have to wait another 40 or so years until demographic forces make the Republican party an irrelevant and obsolete entity.

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