Air America talk show host Randi Rhodes apologized yesterday for a “bad taste” comedy bit in implied that the speaker wanted to shoot President Bush. Every time one of these incidents occurs people get all worked up about the supposed “chilling effect on free speech” caused by the Secret Service investigating. There are few absolutes in life, but one is that if you talk about killing the President you’re bound to get a call of visit from the Secret Service. The vigilance of the Secret Service has nothing to do with politics – they investigate these cases aggressively regardless of who is President. The effect is supposed to be chilling, in part to prevent the next idiot from starting down the same path. Thousands of previous lessons in not talking about killing Presidents must have been lost on the Bush=Hitler network…
AIR AMERICA SHOOTS OFF AN APOLOGY – [NYP]
The senior editorial board member of the Minnesota Daily got all worked up last week about the Secret Service investigating threats on the President, saying that it was censorship. I blogged about it, and the ensuing flow of letters to the editor resulted in the Daily finally instituting some sort of fact-checking on their opinion columns.
What is it about liberals that they don’t understand that threatening the President’s life is a federal crime, whether you do it through art, a radio commercial, or interpretive dance?
Joser: the “but other people do it” line of defense will get you zero from a judge. And most law enforcement.
It doesn’t matter what “other people” do when an individual’s behavior is noticably in violation of the law. That part is considered during sentencing.
The “Bush-Hitler network”????
Seems to my read that Air (“Error”) America is just making their predicament far worse than it already is.
Let’s start calling them “Satan’s Little Gas Pit”.
No? Why not?
The Left never ceases to confirm their assholishness time and time and time again. Go ahead, Satan’s Gas Pit, make our day.
Creeps is what they’re called in most neighborhoods. Creeps.
Obviously, some people confuse ‘art’ and “expression” with irresponsibility.
You write, you publish, you print, you imprint: you’re responsible.
Means, you are accountable for the print you leave, the mark you make.
Joser: so, now you have SPECIAL POWERS of omnivision and all knowledge about everyone?
You KNOW what everyone else everywhere has seen, sees, hears, knows and does/has not?
How can you even presume to know what anyone else has seen or not seen, because, a lot of us heard the “skit” and/or read transcripts of the bit afterward.
Obviously, the deflates your level of outrage. Or should. Not saying it will, that part’s up to you.
FYI The audio is up at http://www.bareknucklepolitics.com
Just so you know what the skit was
From the Washington Post
“A spoiled child [Bush] is telling us our Social Security isn’t safe anymore, so he’s gonna fix it for us. Well, here’s your answer, you ungrateful whelp: [sound of three shotgun blasts].
“The AAARP — the American Association of Armed Retired People [sound of rifle being cocked]. Just try it, you little bastard.”
The president is having an open disucssions of public policy, asking for ideas and input from the other side, looking at all ideas and issues, and Error America answsers with gunshots and threats.
Is that all the Left(out) has to offer?
Joser,
“A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn’t safe anymore, so he’s gonna fix it for us. Well, here’s your answer, you ungrateful whelp: [sound of three shotgun blasts].
“The AAARP — the American Association of Armed Retired People [sound of rifle being cocked]. Just try it, you little bastard.”
You’d have to be a MORON not to think that they were suggesting it.
The lefties must be suffering from a new kind of Bi-polar as their brains shift from one rationalization to another.
If somone from the right ran a skit about the president accomanied by shotgun blasts — they’d be fired and rightfully so.
None of us would be stupid enough to stand up and say that it was all in fun.
What you and others like you aren’t getting, Joser, is that this is the reason why the Dem’s lost both houses and the presidency so quickly.
Americans are not as stupid as you guys think (at least the voting populace) and certainly not as nuts.
I’d say that Rhodes should be fired, but she is such a perfect example of the wacky cluelessness that goes on in the minds of those seeking to shape the future of the Democratic party that she is our best hope of gauranteeing that they never succeed in pushing their wacky agenda.
Keep it up Randi, too bad so few people are listening, though.
Seems Randi just can’t stop talking about SHOOTING
Randi is trying to turn this into some sort of publicity stunt. She is hoping that everyone will react with outrage, that the Secret Service will investigate, and that the media will continue talking about it in some wild attempt to generate interest in her awful radio show.
And I agree with mesablue, Joser is a moron if he can actually believe that wasn’t intended for Bush.
So tell us oh great Joser of the superior mind, who else would you say is the spoiled child in the skit? Enlighten us.
Wow, the hypocrisy and thin skin is stunning. As Joser points out, calling for violence against any one left-wing enough to still believe in the Constitution is somehow OKAY. Coulter would have approved of the Oklahoma City bombing, if applied to the NYT staff. (For that matter, Coulter publicly stated that nuclear genocide in the MILLIONS, in the case of N Korea, would be “fun.” Can you name one Nazi who said that publicly about Jews???)
So where’s the outrage?
I just think rightwingers are surprised to learn that liberals get passionate about taking our country back. Join us, unless you are FOR destroying the country through record deficits, record pork-barrel spending, lack of accountability, record secrecy in govt, tacit approval of torture, lying under oath about torture (Gonzalez), weakening the US role in the world, ruining military morale and enlistment, corruption at an unprecedented level…
Uh, dude? Remember Ray Appleton, talk-show host on KMJ in California’s San Joaquin Valley? Promoted bumper stickers in the mid-1990s that said, “Lee Harvey Oswald: Where are you now that we really need you?” (See the L.A. Times, 4/28/95)
He still has a job and is still waiting for the first call from the Secret Service.
Just sayin’.
How many people here remember after the Oklahoma City bombing how the media tried to blame it on the culture of hate, fueled by invective and aired over talk radio? They really poured it on, trying to insinuate that Rush Limbaugh was personnally responsible.
Yet know here are many of the same people, spewing forth hatred about the right. They are creating a culture of hate on their side of the aisle and pretending that it’s all for art, or open discussion. Bullshit. They should be held to account.
-S- says, “Means, you are accountable for the print you leave, the mark you make.”
Accountability has been gone for a long time. Just the lies about Terry Schiavo’s husband, or the judge involved, would keep you busy for months. The lies told about Iraq by the current administration, when so many lives were at stake, and have since been lost???
NOW you want accountability about an obscure radio skit, for which an apology has been issued???
Dodgeman,
Consider this difference:
In the Oklahoma City bombing (which the MSM constantly told as the story of a LONER!!!), actual people were killed.
In the radio skit, no one was killed.
See the difference?
In the case of a bombing of a federal building, a culture was revealed in which the perceived oppression by the federal govt was a pattern to be opposed by violence. And violence was openly promoted, by people with guns, prior to and after the bombing. Remember the phrase, “jackbooted federal employees” bandied about in the rightwing media circles?
See the difference?
Ever check the rhetoric on Free Republic? Why don’t you stop by and mention that Clinton may be on some currency, and check the response.
Just heard Randi Rhodes remind us that back in the 90’s, G Gordon Liddy explained in detail how to shoot an ATF agent to kill, even if he/she is wearing Kevlar.
That’s a real culture of hate plus violence.
There is NOTHING on the left that is comparable. A radio skit???
Jeez.
You have to love the intelligent, thoughtful commentary of the person of incredible wit that called the left a bunch of creeps.
wow.
you told us.
turbino – so your point is that we should wait until some lefties actually shoot the president before complaining about the left-sided culture of hate?
What I meant to imply is that the left is starting to build (actually started quite some time ago) the same culture of hate that they accuse the right of daily. So, really, do we need to wait until an assassination attempt to point this out?
“There are few absolutes in life, but one is that if you talk about killing the President you’re bound to get a call of visit from the Secret Service. The vigilance of the Secret Service has nothing to do with politics – they investigate these cases aggressively regardless of who is President.”
This, perhaps, suggests we have an out of control facist Secret Service.
“The Left never ceases to…”
“Joser: so, now you have SPECIAL POWERS of omnivision and all knowledge about everyone?
You KNOW what everyone else everywhere has seen, sees, hears, knows and does/has not?”
Interesting that you try and make a point against generalization and yet you did it just a few posts earlier.
I think it’s so hilarious that the right is still trying to make an issue of this incident.
THE FOLLOWING IS INTENDED AS AN EXAMPLE ONLY, AND IS IN NO WAY AVOCACY OR A THREAT OF VIOLENCE AGAINST ANY PERSON. POLITICAL VIOLENCE OF THE SORT DISCUSSED BELOW IS UNACCEPTABLE IN A CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC.
Then I suppose, HalfSigma, that you would have no problem with a thread on some (hypothetical) blog or a skit on some (hypothetical) radio show advocating the murder of Secret Service protectees William Jefferson Clinton and Hillary Clinton? You would consider the the investigation of such things and prosecution of same to be the work of a fascist Secret Service?
And then you would weep and moan and claim that the Bush Administration and everyone who has ever spoken in a civil manner to a conservative or a Republican is responsible for the death of one or both of those individuals if they were, in fact, killed.
Heh! Beat you by just a few hours, Kevin!
(poor man’s trackback – Kevin – sumthin’s up with your trackbacks):
Ponytailed Conservative Scoops WizBang!
tubino,
Geez,
Just heard Randi Rhodes remind us that back in the 90’s, G Gordon Liddy explained in detail how to shoot an ATF agent to kill, even if he/she is wearing Kevlar.
Randi Rhodes talking about G Gordon? That’s all she’s got? That is about the most rediculous thing I have ever heard. Good for you, you win the award for least amount of ability to argue a point without looking completely stupid. Congrats.
I’ll spell it out for you numb nuts (that’s the name of the award, btw, where should I ship it?), while it may be dumb for Gordon to joke about shooting ATF agents, it’s a little different from advocating shooting a sitting president.
One is ILLEGAL and the other is NOT.
Everyone knows this from about second grade on.
All of the other comparisons do not hold water because they are just NOT THE SAME.
sara v: “told (you)”?
I believe it’s called written words. You accomplish those by typing on keyboards. But, go ahead and keep yelling into your mouse if that works for you.
If reading the opinions of others create such resentment in your own mind, please do yourself a favor and don’t read anymore.
Amazing just how upset these trolls can be.
I’m just amazed at the gas here. Bad gas. Satan’s Gas Bags all here on Wizbang, upset because the Secret Service does a good job, upset because they want “(their) country back,” upset that…argh, it’s just too gaseous to even try to respond to.
I think it’s depressing, actually. Smelly.
tubino: try TUMs, maybe Pepto Bismol.
Just the lies about Terry Schiavo’s husband, or the judge involved, would keep you busy for months.
The woman is dead, Tubino. Why are you still obsessed with her?
would it be considered a threat to the president to advocate killing all republicans? how about killing all texans? or maybe, more accurately, all new england blue-bloods? or all yale cheerleaders? or all failed oilmen? fake cowboys? clumsy mountain bikers? choke-on-pretzel victims? clueless promoters of having 3 jobs and getting little sleep?
things that make ya go hmmm. . .
Joser, you still haven’t mentioned who you think the spoiled child in this skit could be other than Bush?
dave, how clever of you. I bet you read that post and just started patting yourself on the back.
I think the whole point of the skit was intended to tie in the new Florida gun law (the Rhodes show was airing from Florida) with the large number of retirees there. So, anytime a Floridian sees a perceived threat, the law now says it’s OK to shoot, therefore if the AARP sees someone trying to steal their retirement check, the law says they don’t have to flee, but can now “stand their ground”. Pretty lame comedy, pretty tenuous political connection, but hardly a threat, and certainly not a call for violence. I really don’t think the Secret Service would waste their time, and that people who claim they are investigating this are sucucmbing to wishful thinking.
*pat pat pat*
death to all fanatics!
April, I’ve been a guest on Randi Rhodes’ show when she was a local host in Florida. And the simple fact is that Randi Rhodes is a liar besides being braindead.
Also, April, I noticed that you have a hard time spelling honorable correctly. I can understand that since being honorable is a trait not often attributed to Leftie Moonbats.
April,
Name one incident in which a conservative commentator or talk show host advocated violence against a Dem president or a judge. And pointing to the bad behavior of others doesn’t excuse bad behavior.
As far as Ann Coulter, she’s been fired by National Review, USA Today, etc. for saying things that don’t rise to the offensiveness of the things said on a typical day on Air America.
And besides, Randi Rhodes is an ugly hag. I’ll take Laura Ingraham, Monica Crowley and Barbera Simpson — GOP babes all — over Ms. Rhodes anyday.
“Name one incident in which a conservative commentator or talk show host advocated violence against a Dem president or a judge. And pointing to the bad behavior of others doesn’t excuse bad behavior.”
Granted, I’m n ot April, but I’ll venture an answer. First I have to wonder why you’re asking for an example and then end by eseentially saying it’s irrelevant, but I’ll give you one anyway. It seems you must already know about Mann Coulter and her Clinton comment about impeaching or assasinating him. How exactly is that example not WORSE than the almost vague skit? Also, how does being a guest once on Randi’s show make you an expert on her and what type of person she is?
Granted, I’m not Jim, but I’ll venture an answer (why Jim might have more insight if he’s been a guest).
I’ve listened to Randi’s show. I have heard her speak many many many things that are not factually so. I mean, verifiable stuff, that simply was not true. Does this mean Randi has lied? Not by itself, no. She may just be very ignorant. She may actually think she has facts. In which case, she’s dumb, but not a liar.
If Jim has been a guest on her show, he probably was involved with prepping her on the subject before going on air. This is common in talk radio. Perhaps, Jim has first hand knowledge of Randi taking a known fact, after it had been explained to her, and intentionally turning it into a lie. She loses the “ignorant” excuse at that point.
Me, I side with the “ignorant” argument. Any nationally syndicated talk show host who admits, in her own words, that things air on her show without her prior approval, is clearly one of the biggest fools in history.
dave.
You should be more careful about what you advocate because one’s fanatic is another one’s special date. By your standard, I’m guessing you suggest that everyone perceived as excessive now be shot…not sushc a disparate area there for most Americans, you might want to rethink your premise.
In fact, you should be more careful about what you advocate altogether because it sure seems to me that you are continuing with that one big theme that the Secret Service should really pay a visit to you about.
The “almost vague skit”???
I’ve listened to that skit three times just to make sure I was hearing what I thought I was hearing. Anybody who thought it was “almost vague” must be a little vague themselves–between the ears. Or else you’ve taken a page from the “Joseph Goebbels Handbook for Propagandizing (paraphrasing): “If you repeat the same lie loud enough and often enough, pretty soon people will begin to think it’s true.”
T…not like Reynolds as a Democrat was a high-toned secret.
So, yes, I was correct: he was a Democrat, last time I checked. I realize that 2003 or thereabouts he migrated into “Libertarian” as Party but I don’t see any difference, given the liberal disorders that seem shared by both those parties. Reynolds isn’t a conservative, hardly a Republican, so, seems that labelling Libertarian was a safe side step to maintain acceptability. For whatever — I can’t presume to know these details — what I wrote earlier, that he as a Democrat, was the effect last time I read his political and ‘value’ statements. I don’t see that anything’s changed much since that.
But I still don’t see how you can migrate into “you’re an idiot”. Pretty raw stuff. Not impressive.
The AirAmerica skit is lame compared to the vicious bile on Democraticunderground.com. Those punks wish death on their political opponents on a daily basis, up to and including the President.
-s-, “death to all fanatics” is an expression of self-negating irony.
thanks for playing.
Ponytailed Conservative, nice of you to speculate further on Jim’s behalf, let’s get some examples of Randi’s apparent “lies”. Randi exaggerates sometimes, I’ll definitely give you that, as does Mike Malloy. Exaggeration is part of that talk show style which has been popularized by the right. Malloy and Rhodes do it with a fair amount of frequency, but no more than Limbaugh or O’Reilly. Randi’s stuff is mostly sourced VERY well, so she at least starts with a source. I’m not defending this show style, I’m mostly saying if it’s not lying for the others, it’s not for them either. Now, is anyone going to respond to the Coulter parallel?
“Anybody who thought it was “almost vague” must be a little vague themselves–between the ears.”
Well there we go off into the personal insults. Typical. It’s ALMOST vague because it only implies things. It implies Bush and it implies shooting (not even necessarily killing). Sorry that’s too much for you to get.
“The AirAmerica skit is lame compared to the vicious bile on Democraticunderground.com.”
DU is definitely more vicious! They’d probably proudly flaunt that as would any of the more extreme Righty sites. It’s not simply a trait of the Left, it’s on the Right too.
Randi Rhodes is the liberal version of Sean Hannity. Empty headed vitriol.
Sorry, folks. At this point anyone that actually believes in “left” and “right” is just…well…stupid.
Sorry.
Do you like being led along by the nose?
Do you like being played like chumps?
If so, KEEP STUPIDITY ALIVE!