Conservative Talk Radio Wants Cochran To Lose

Sean Hannity would rather lose a Republican Senate seat than have Thad Cochran get re-elected. Conservative talk radio continues its self-destructive tendencies.

“If I was in Mississippi I would not and could not in good conscience vote for Thad Cochran after the way this campaign was run,” he said. “And I know many of you are gonna say, ‘but Hannity, that means we put the seat at risk for a Democrat.’”

“Well what is Thad Cochran?” he asked. “He ran as a Democrat. He ran as somebody who hates the Tea Party. He ran as somebody who hates conservatives.”

Hannity went on to claim that the Cochran campaign used "despicable" tactics in courting black Democratic voters. What Hannity conveniently forgets to tell his audience is that it was an open primary. Cochran could not go to the Right of tea party darling Chris McDaniel. Cochran is not the bleeding heat liberal Hannity described in his radio segment. Cochran needed to expand his voting base. Cochran campaigned in black neighborhoods and bought ads in black newspapers. Cochran's goal was to make black people scared of Chris McDaniel. Mission Accomplished.

A side effect of the McDaniel loss is that the tea party crowd is really pissed off. These people are professional sore losers. Rush Limbaugh called black Democratic voters "Uncle Toms For Thad." Limbaugh loves to use offensive racist code words. What is funny is Limbaugh admits that Cochran has never done anything for black voters in Mississippi. News flash to Rush: black people of Mississippi are aware of that. Black voters viewed the primary as the best chance to keep Chris McDaniel out of the Senate.

In his anger, Glenn Beck told the truth about Cochran's previous lack of interest in his black constituents.

BECK: I have a question for every black Democrat in Mississippi: What the hell has this 90-year-old fart -- a white Republican, the same white Republican that for years the Democrats have been telling you are nothing but old racists -- you tell me exactly what Thad Cochran did for you.

For the curious: here are some civil rights votes by Cochran.

Voted YES on ending special funding for minority & women-owned business.

Voted NO on setting aside 10% of highway funds for minorities & women.

Voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation.

Rated 0% by the ACLU, indicating an anti-civil rights voting record.

Cochran may have not even seen a black voter until the last two week. McDaniel is still scarier to black voters. McDaniel retweeted a post by a white supremacist. McDaniel gave a speech to the Sons of Confederate Veteran. The group is a Neo-Confederate and pro-secessionist movement. These crazy people want to split from the United States. This isn't a mystery why black voters turned out for Cochran.

Quote of the Day: Rush Limbaugh Edition

"This is the president citing the pope, his new best friend, because the pope is ripping America, the pope ripping capitalism,” the radio host explained. “And Obama’s having an orgasm. Jeremiah Wright is beside himself. Jeremiah Wright thought he was Obama’s preacher, now pope somehow has co-opted Obama."

Rush Limbaugh

Charles Johnson made a great comment about Limbaugh's latest rant.

If I never hear Rush Limbaugh talk about anyone (let alone President Obama) having an orgasm again, it will be too soon.

Amen to that.

I wrote yesterday that wages in Florida and America aren't keeping up with productivity. Limbaugh rants that income inequality doesn't exist.

“And I tell you the way he means that, ‘We’ve got too many rich people, we need more people who are poor and lower middle class, that’s the only way we can have equality and fairness.’ This is just — people have got to be cringing that they ever voted for this guy.”

The problem isn't that America has too many rich people. A Congressional Budget Office study found that income inequality has greatly increased.

The top 1 percent have seen a +281 increase in after tax income. The bottom fifth has experienced only a +16 increase. So much for trickle down economics lifting all ships. Considering Limbaugh's history with viagra, he should stick to talking about orgasms and leave economics to others.

Cumulus Media Dropping Limbaugh and Hannity

Politico reports that Cumulus Media is planning to drop Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity from their stations by the end of the year. According to Politico, the reason is that Cumulus wants Limbaugh and Hannity to take a pay cut.

Cumulus declined to comment for this story: "Cumulus is not in a position to comment about negotiations with talent under contract, no matter what the rumor of the day might be," a spokesperson told POLITICO.

But in recent weeks, Cumulus has been quietly reaching out to radio talent agents and political insiders about new local and regional station hosts to fill some of the airtime that will be left vacant by Limbaugh and Hannity, industry sources said. Cumulus is also expected to move some of its existing talent -- which includes Mike Huckabee, Mark Levin, and Michael Savage -- into one of the slots.

The way radio ratings is being calculated is changing. Advertisers now realize that there isn't a big market for AM talk radio. The Daily Beast broke down the numbers and it isn't pretty.

A look at radio’s PPM ratings for the largest talk radio market in the nation bears this out. An apples-to-apples comparison of ratings between November ’09 and November ’10 in the New York area shows that Rush Limbaugh’s ratings on WABC declined from 5.4 to 5.0—despite the crescendo of a GOP election year landslide. Likewise, year-end to year-end comparisons of the crucial 24 to 55 demographic show that Rush declined from 3.7 to 2.6—while his packaged follow-up acts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin narrowly declined and flat-lined, respectively. And Hannity was dropped from his Philadelphia radio station along with Beck last month after being dropped from his syndicator in Salt Lake City (!) last year before finding a new home in the area.

I say good riddance.

Quote of the Day

“She committed an act of journalistic terror or malpractice last night. If there were any journalist standards, what she did last night would have been the equivalent of blowing up her career like a suicide bomber. But there aren’t any journalist standards anymore. And she’s going to be praised and celebrated, probably even get a raise, give her another half hour on that show she hosts.”

Rush Limbaugh, on Candy Crowley moderating the debate.

Limbaugh accuses Crowley of being an irresponsible media figure. Yet, he has no problem comparing Crowley to a suicide bomber. Limbaugh's hypocrisy knows no bounds.

Quote of the Day

"I think the problem is the Republican leaders, Mitt Romney and the other candidates, don't have the courage to say what they say in quiet, which, they think Rush Limbaugh is a buffoon. They think he is like a clown coming out of a small car at a circus. It's great that he is entertaining and all that. But nobody takes him seriously."

Mathhew Dowd, former Bush-Cheney political strategist, on why Republicans are afraid to criticize Limbaugh. The radio show host has hurt Republicans with his "slut" comment directed at feminist activist Sandra Fluke.

Dowd also added that it is a "myth" that Limbaugh's radio audience is big. For a long time, radio ratings were made select listeners writing down what they listened to every 15 minutes for 3 months in diaries. Most people surf the radio. Even more people do not listen to the radio.

The diaries produced Limbaugh and NPR havibng huge radio ratings. The reason was people would fill in the entire 3 months of the diary with big name radio shows. People usually filled in the diaries right before they were turned in. New ratings methods with monitoring the radio signals of selected listers have shown a hugs drop in Limbaugh's listenership. The short answer is 20 million Americans do not listen to Limbaugh talk for 20 days of the month. Do you know anyone that listens to Limbaugh 60 hours of the month?

George Will sums up how tough his party truly is.

"They want to bomb Iran, but they're afraid of Rush Limbaugh."

Joel Award: Rush Limbaugh

It is time to give out the Joel Award. The award goes to any celebrity, pundit, blogger or politician that purposely contradicts himself or herself.

Rush Limbaugh apparently has become a supporter of sexually open marriages.

LIMBAUGH: I got a great note from a friend of mine. "So Newt wanted an open marriage. BFD. At least he asked his wife for permission instead of cheating on her. That's the mark of character, in my book. Newt's the victim. We all are. Ours is the horniest generation."

Actually, Newt Gingrich did cheat on his previous wife. Gingrich ended end marrying his mistress Callista. That hardly qualifies Newt as a victim.

Rush is paid to be a Reopublican spokesman. In the past Limbaugh has publicly trashed feminists and gays. Limbaugh made his career out of mocking Bill Clinton's sexual affairs. However, if it is a Republican, Limbaugh suddenly becomes a fan of the swinger lifestyle. Limbaugh earns himself a Joel Award for this hysterical piece of hypocrisy.

Marco Rubio: Deficit Peacock

Apparently, Marco Rubio thinks that Social Security is in a deficit. Rubio is not even aware that Social Security is a surplus. Rubio appeared on Rush Limbaugh's show and uttered economic nonsense.

SENATOR RUBIO: Sure. He can stop it right now by basically saying, "You know what, we need to do something to grow our economy. Let's pass tax reform. Let's pass regulatory reform." He can stop this by also starting to implement some of the spending measures we think are necessary. He can also stop it by basically prioritizing spending on certain things if it comes to that. But let me tell you one thing, Rush, that no one said yet or maybe they have, the fact that payments on Social Security and Medicare may stop is a stinging indictment and a wake-up call. What Americans should realize, "Hold on a second, my Social Security check and my Medicare benefits are borrowed? The money that you're using to pay for my Social Security are borrowed? I thought I paid into a trust fund. I thought I worked my whole life to pay into some system and now you're paying my money back and you're claiming that the money is being borrowed?" That's what they're basically conceding when they're saying this.

Rubio continues spreading misinformation about Social Security.

RUSH: Yeah. You know, that's exactly right. We always thought Social Security was in a lockbox.

SENATOR RUBIO: Well, maybe a Chinese lockbox because that's what we're borrowing the money from. The point is if that comes to pass or he's threatening to do that, then the wake-up call and the message to Americans is, hey, your Social Security benefits, your Medicare benefits, what we're paying soldiers in the field, all these things that are being cut off, this is borrowed money. This is not money we have or money we saved for you. This is money we are borrowing from your children and your grandchildren, and we have no way of paying it back, and that alone should send a chill up the spine of millions of Americans.

Social Security is solvent until 2037. Payroll taxes for SSI are taken out and used to fund other parts of the federal government. The government can repay that money back to Social Security. As for conservatives who lament that Social Security is merely IOUs? What do conservatives think Treasury bonds are? The Social Security doesn't keep money inside a giant bank vault.

Defense bonds helped fund American military operations during WWII. Americans got repayment and the interest from the bonds. Social Security is a trust fund that has been repaying retirees since FDR. Taxes were increased and the retirement age was raised in 1983 to make the trust fund for solvent. The fact remains that Social Security is not part of the national debt or deficit. Rubio is wrong.

Rubio claims that President Barack Obama wanted the debt ceiling crisis to go down to the wire.

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Florida Minimum Wage Up 6 Cents

Conservative pundits, such as Rush Limbaugh, talk about how the Left wants to "redistribute wealth" from the hard-working rich to the lazy poor. These same conservative pundits often go on to say that if you give the poor something they will now work. Because we all know how fun being poor is.

Get ready for conservatives to cry over the latest redistribution of wealth. Florida's minimum wage has been raised six cents.

Florida's minimum wage is rising from $7.25 to $7.31 per hour effective today, while tipped workers will see minimum pay rise from $4.23 to $4.29 an hour.

The uptick is the aftermath of a successful lawsuit challenging the way the state calculates minimum wage changes.

The suit filed by the National Employment Law Project and Florida Legal Services said the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation (AWI) had used an erroneous formula in calculating annual adjustments in the minimum wage, instead of using the method required by the Florida Constitution, which reflects a cost-of-living increase.

The thing about wages going up for the poor is that it helps stimulate the economy. The poor have to spend their money to buy groceries and pay bills.

"This will result in over $28 million more earned and spent in the local economy this year," said Jose Rodriguez, a lawyer with Florida Legal Services.

Limbaugh and other conservative pundits would have you believe that the poor would retire to their mansions if they get Medicare or a wage increase. The truth is these people are ignorant and want to protect tax cuts for the rich.

Conservative Pundit Union Members

What does Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity have in common? They are all members of the American Federation Television and Radio Artists union. The AFTRA is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO.

A representative from Beck's camp denied the claim, but a source within AFTRA confirmed to AlterNet Friday that O'Reilly, Limbaugh and Hannity were indeed union members.

O'Reilly confirmed on-air that he is a member of the AFTRA. Limbaugh and Hannity have been mum on their union status.

In the same segment where O'Reilly blamed government financial woes on union benefits, he not only said he was an AFTRA member, but that his membership had benefited him in the past. "On a personal note, I'm a member of a union, AFTRA, and when I was working at 'Inside Edition' some years ago, the King World company tried to renege on pension benefits," said O'Reilly. "AFTRA took them to court and the case was settled. If the shop had been non-union, we might have been stiffed."

Sadly, O'Reilly only likes unions when it benefits gis personal self-interest.

Conservatives Trying to Out Crazy Each Other

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Lawrence O'Donnell details how Republicans politicians and pundits are trying to out crazy each other in order to get attention.

Conservative Reaction to Sheriff Dupnik 'Soul Searching' Speech

Pima County Sheriff Sheriff Clarence Dupnik took conservative talk radio and television hosts to task for their violent rhetoric. Conservative pundits could either have an intelligent conversation or make unfounded attacks on Dupnik. Guess what choice they made.

"My guess is the Sheriff wouldn't mind if the shooter is acquitted."

Rush Limbaugh

"I accuse the Sheriff of assigning blame for political purposes."

Neal Boortz

Limbaugh and Boortz are all heart.

Dancing Rush Limbaugh

Newsbusters is actually boasting that Rush Limbaugh won a dance contest. Limbaugh looks like demons are being exorcised out of his body. What I want to know his how a man who made a career out of comparing feminists to Nazis got to be a judge at the Miss America pageant. Limbaugh can't hide his loading of feminists.

“Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream.”

Considering that Limbaugh couldn't make it on television and his main format his talk radio, he really shouldn't be judging the appearance of others.

The comment is mean-spirited and smacks of sexism. This is the same Rush Limbaugh who mocked for having Parkinson's disease.



If I thought like Limbaugh, I would accuse him of faking Parkinson's disease during his dance off.

Rush Limbaugh Stays Classy

On a day Americans paticipate in the Democratic process, Rush Limbaugh finds a way to make people want to puke.

"If you hate your country, if you blame your country... you vote Democrat."

What if we hate talk radio and the fearmongering that comes along with people so loathsome they are willing to say anything to make a buck? How should we vote then, Rush?

I am not going to tell you how to vote or accuse you of hating your country because you vote for a candidate or party I disagree with. Today is the day we practice our right as citizens to be a part of the democratic process. The fearmongering of Limbaugh is someone so insecure in own own beliefs that he thinks people can't make informed decisions on their government representatives. Those are the people that are best ignored today. Go vote and have a great day.

Rush Limbaugh Accuses Obama of Being a Demon

Many on the Right have been demonizing President Barack Obama. Rush Limbaugh and World Net Daily actually accuses Obama of being a demon.

"These pictures, they look demonic. And I don't say this lightly," Limbaugh said as he opened his program.

"There are a couple pictures, and the eyes, I'm not saying anything here, but just look," he remarked about the president who has been campaigning for the re-election of fellow Democrats.

"It is strange that these pictures would be released ... it's very, very, very strange."

Limbaugh's not suggesting anything. Except when he suggests that Obama is the Anti-Christ.

LIMBAUGH: An American President has never had facial expressions like this. At least we've never seen photos of an American President with facial expressions like this. I mean, I feel like I'm watching The Omen: 666 and all that... weird, weird stuff.

Obama is not the only person to take an unflattering photo. Limbaugh has an unflattering photo of himself floating around the internet. It's called a mug shot.

Rush Limbaugh & Terry Jones Were Classmates

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Rush Limbaugh and Terry Jones were classmates at Cape Central High School in Missouri. Both graduated from the Class of 1969. A former classmate remembers being on a Babe Ruth league baseball team with Limbaugh and Jones.

Van Riehl noted, "I think this guy was on my Babe Ruth team, The Mets. Interestingly enough so was Rush Limbaugh."

I bet the next going class reunion is going to be very strange.

Quote of the Day

"Joe Barton apologized to BP executives on behalf of himself, the American people, for the shakedown. … The United States government may as well be a branch of organized crime the way that it is being conducted and the way it’s doing business, and the way it’s looking out for itself and no one else. … Organized crime. It’s the closest thing I can think to analogize what’s happening here. And even these guys that are being shaken down, they’re paying protection money, and it isn’t enough. It isn’t enough."

Rush Limbaugh

Rush's listeners must be so happy their hero is standing up for the little guy.

Compassionate Conservatism: Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh's daily hate rant was aimed at poor people who have difficulty feeding their children. Rush's solution is these people should dumper dive to feed their children.

You know, one of the benefits of school being out, in addition to your kids losing weight because they're starving to death out there because there's no school meal being provided, one of the benefits of school being out, college campi being vacant this time of year, is that our audience levels go up. I think, you know what we're going to do here, we're going to start a feature on this program: "Where to find food." For young demographics, where to find food. Now that school is out, where to find food. We can have a daily feature on this. And this will take us all the way through the summer. Where to find food. And, of course, the first will be: "Try your house." It's a thing called the refrigerator. You probably already know about it. Try looking there. There are also things in what's called the kitchen of your house called cupboards. And in those cupboards, most likely you're going to find Ding-Dongs, Twinkies, Lays ridgy potato chips, all kinds of dips and maybe a can of corn that you don't want, but it will be there. If that doesn't work, try a Happy Meal at McDonald's. You know where McDonald's is. There's the Dollar Menu at McDonald's and if they don't have Chicken McNuggets, dial 911 and ask for Obama.

There's another place if none of these options work to find food; there's always the neighborhood dumpster. Now, you might find competition with homeless people there, but there are videos that have been produced to show you how to healthfully dine and how to dumpster dive and survive until school kicks back up in August. Can you imagine the benefit we would provide people?

Worldhunger.org has disturbing numbers on child hunger.

--36.3 million people--including 13 million children--live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger. This represents more than one in ten 0households in the United States (11.2 percent). This is an increase of 1.4 million, from 34.9, million in 2002.

--3.5 percent of U.S. households experience hunger. Some people in these households frequently skip meals or eat too little, sometimes going without food for a whole day. 9.6 million people, including 3 million children, live in these homes.

--7.7 percent of U.S. households are at risk of hunger. Members of these households have lower quality diets or must resort to seeking emergency food because they cannot always afford the food they need. 26.6 million people, including 10.3 million children, live in these homes.

If Rush had his way, there would be no government assistance for the 13 million hungry children in America. Rush would just tell these kids to dumpster dive. Rush may not be aware nor care, but not feeding children would make America responsible for a form of child abuse.

Rush is not a political pundit or an entertainer as he sometimes claims to be. I certainly never have seen Rush sing, dance, act or show any signs artistic merit. Rush is one of the voices that filled in the void when AM radio was dying in the 80s. Rush Limbaugh is a paid professional douchebag.

Rush can go on-air and not have to deal with any consequences of his words. I seriously doubt Limbaugh would have the courage to tell parents, at a food stamp office, to let their children eat out of dumpsters. Rush would be afraid an angry father would kick his ass. Rush's job is to attract the same audience that watches reality television, professional wrestling and Faces of Death movies. Sadly, too many people take Rush's freakshow seriously.

WTF! Elton John to Play Limbaugh's Wedding

Some stories are so weird that I am left speechless. Gawker reports Elton John will perform at Rush Limbaugh's wedding. Am I the only one that finds it strange that the openly gay John would perform at Limbaugh's wedding. Limbaugh is known for his daily homophobic rants.

LIMBAUGH: When a gay person turns his back on you, it is anything but an insult; it's an invitation.

Does Limbaugh know this tidbit of information from personal experience? I can't imagine any man, woman or inanimate object wanting to have sex with the man.

John must be making some serious money to be playing Limbaugh's wedding. I betting the wedding song will be the played-to-death Candle In the Wind.

Quote of the Day

"Limbaugh can go play with himself."

White House response to Rush Limbaugh's proposal that the talk radio host and President Obama play a round of golf.

Rush Limbaugh's Latest Conspiracy Theory

Rush Limbaugh floats the conspiracy theory that environmentalists engaged in a terrorist attack to cause the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Limbaugh's proof is that the Cuyahoga River fire inspired Earth Day. What conspiracy theorist have in their favor is they don't need facts to make their argument. It was actually an oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara that inspired Sen. Gaylord Nelson to start a national teach-in on environmental issues. The movement grew into grassroots movement that is now Earth Day.

"Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level," said Nelson. "We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself."

Conspiracy theorists don't need facts. I argued with someone who claimed the government attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon. I asked him if he could prove his theory. "Disprove it," the guy shouted to me. That sums up the thought process of Limbaugh and his listeners.