Rambling about Rush, Roseanne, radio, and riots

Quite often, while doing other things in the real world, I tend to ponder ideas for new entries for this blog. Something may have happened that caught my attention, or some new controversy arose. Perhaps yet another right-wing media blowhard erupted. Or perhaps there's some mock outrage simmering in the blogosphere.

Now, many of these ideas don't really come to fruition. Scattered about on my computer are many half-finished entries and a few jotted notes and news items. I often find that things that supposedly offend some people, such as the whole Rev. Jeremiah Wright non-scandal and ridiculous ways of proving fake patriotism, don't really phase me. I guess I'm too distracted by paying $4 a gallon for the same gas that I got for half that price only a few years ago. Do I really give a shit about who's wearing a 'made in China' flag pin and who isn't?

But this is a media blog, nonetheless, and the majority of what I write about centers around that. As I've often said in the past, I choose not to write about every little thing some pundit or self-appointed town crier screams into a microphone. I would have little time for anything else if that were the case, and there are many blogs that do it better than I could hope to. I do, however, make exceptions.

A few weeks ago, I followed the whole Randi Rhodes controversy, because I sensed that it would blow up into something. It did. And the most recent idea I had for an entry came about while driving last weekend. A few days earlier, Rush Limbaugh was basking in the glow of his so-called "Operation Chaos," wherer he encouraged his lemmings listeners to disrupt the presidential primary process through various misdeeds. He gives himself way too much credit, since I highly doubt "Operation Chaos" is really having as much of an effect as he or others might think (Hillary Clinton is doing a better job of it herself). There's really no way to prove it. Nonetheless, his latest decree, last Wednesday following the Pennsylvania Primary, was a call-to-arms directed at his listeners:

...The dream end... I mean, if people say what's your exit strategery (sic), the dream end of this is that this keeps up to the convention and that we have a replay of Chicago 1968, with burning cars, protests, fires, literal riots, and all of that. That's the objective here.

(Here's the Keith Olbermann report on it, via YouTube.)

Okay, typical asshole comment from Limbaugh. He's got a million of these, though this one actually condones the destruction of a major American city. Well, these guys do tend to be concerned about terrorism. They just don't realize that typically, they're the ones doing the terrorizing.

The comments were deplorable, and in very bad taste. Wishing for violent riots is pretty appalling. And aren't these guys supposed to be fighting terrorism? Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) even called on Clear Channel (which owns Limbaugh's Denver affiliate KOA) to reprimand Limbaugh. Some of his listeners even turned on him. Some even called for his arrest.

So, as typical in conservojerk circles, the usual gang of idiots had to figure out a way of playing tit-for-tat. They wound up appointing some loser with no life the task of listening to Air America, in the hopes that they could find some ammo to fight back with. They needed a finger-pointing "AH HA!" moment. The best they could come up with was an afternoon fill-in host, Roseanne Barr:

But you know what, I think I am old and I’m okay with being a baby boomer being older and everything like that. 'Cause I think one really good thing about it, we were just talking about it, is that I am over the BS. And I just want to identify solutions and then get 'em done. And I want to ah you know the people who are listening, I want to remind them or encourage them or wake them up to say you know what, you have so much more power then you think you have.

I mean I think somebody’s profiting by keeping us all divided and making us feel like oh my God we don’t even know what to believe what we’re reading what’s true. But you know, we have a lot of power and there is a Democratic Convention in Denver in just a short time and we should a bunch of us go there and repeat the Democratic Convention from Chicago. Like, let’s just cause a bunch of trouble. Let's wrest back our government from what, six or seven you know guys like McCain and Romney and Bush from the top. Let’s just go take it. It’s ours. Nobody gives it to you, you just go take it. Let’s meet in Denver and let’s do it...

...And then let’s get on a bus, whatever let’s meet up in Denver. I mean seriously, I’m willing to do it. I’ll even put some of my own money into it because I’m like committed. I see how it easy it is for ah the woman in particularly of my generation to go take it all. Take it all, it’s ours anyway.

As is typical, the mock outrage oozed from every pore of the wingnut blogosphere. Even Fatboy, who never had a sense of irony, and certainly no shame, got in on the act. Yet, as is typically the case, this anger and hostility seemed very phony. Ripping apart an inexperienced guest host? Oh please!

Well okay, she didn't call for burning cars and rioting. Her most blatant call for action was to "go take it." Which is in stark contrast to the hostile fatwa issued by an ivory tower shock jock who only leaves his house to golf with his elitist buddies, go whore-hopping to the Dominican Republic or score drugs. Hey, at least Barr offered to go to Denver herself. Limbaugh doesn't give a shit what happens to the world just so long as his money's safe and nobody walks across his lawn.

And that was the basis of the idea I initially had. Since Limbaugh was calling for a massive assault on Denver, I thought it would be cool to bring the party to his house. I call it "Operation Hog Roast." We'd descend on Palm Beach, FL, set up tents in his front yard, leave beer cans all over, piss in his bushes, fornicate in the flower beds, score pills behind the local Denny's and go four-wheeling on his favorite golf course. The kicker would be very appropriate - we'd cap it off a massive pig roast! At a fat pig's house! Now, that sounds pretty cool, huh? Of course, seeing as he's more shut off from the world in his mansion fortress than Howard Hughes ever was, he probably wouldn't even notice all the chaos on his front lawn. Still, sounds like a heck of a party!

So, back to the Roseanne thing. As Air America fans know, she's one of a long string of 'celebrity' hosts filling in while the network figures out how to replace Randi Rhodes. And since only about three stations of note actually carry the show, it's a safe bet that few people are actually listening to her. Plus, Roseanne's off the air at the end of this week. Can't say the same for Limbaugh, who's 500 or so affiliates will still carry him for the foreseeable future.

Keep in mind that the protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago were originally supposed to be peaceful. A bunch of hippies, live bands, plenty of pot and some good vibes capping a three month time span that had just witnessed the violent assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. The hippies and cops initially got along well, with a few minor altercations. Then the Yippies and a few other rabble-rousers descended on the city. Adding to that crowded, filthy conditions, similar to what ended the whole Haight-Ashbury thing a year earlier, and the mayhem commenced. Of course, Limbaugh and his frustrated wingnut acolytes are living in a fantasy world, where they see Democrats and liberals as dirty hippies, so it fits in well with their delusional wet dreams. If only it were that simple.

So, after raising so many points and asking so many questions, I offer a solution. If Limbaugh wants to burn Denver to the ground in August, instead of delegating his followers to go out and do his dirty work, he needs to get off his fat ass and out of his mansion and lead the charge himself. To order others to do the lawbreaking that he's not willing to do himself is a cowardly chickenshit move. He should know that he can't rely on his goons to get it done. Porta-johns typically outnumber protesters at right-wing rallies!

At least Abbie Hoffman and his gang got out on the streets of Chicago themselves and got down to business. Hell, even Roseanne, at one time one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, offered to go to Denver. Moral of the story: If you want to get it done, don't be passive - do it your own damn self!