This Is Not Over

Not by a long shot.

NBC may have shitcanned Imus from its MSNBC simulcast, but if anyone thinks that's the end of it, guess again. Because there are still the little matters of people like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Michael Weiner Savage.

LTR notes:

So, should Imus be fired once and for all? Who knows? Often, these scandals disappear after a short time, once another scandal comes around that our alleged media finds something else to pound into the heads of America. But this is just one of many audio nasties blasted out over the airwaves of our great country. There were many more prior to this. For example:

"(Cynthia McKinney) looks like ghetto trash. Get a braider over there ... quick!"

Oh wait, that was Neal Boortz who said that.

Or, "You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray . We miss you, James. Godspeed."

Oops, sorry. That was Rush Limbaugh.

"...Slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back; I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark."

My bad. Limbaugh again.

"Take that bone out of your nose and call me back."

"Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?"

"The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies."

Yep. Limbaugh again.

"You open the door to them (immigrants), and the next thing you know, they are defecating on your country and breeding out of control."

Threw you all a curveball. That was Michael Savage who said that.

"(If) you wanted to reduce crime ... if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down... (aborting all African-American babies) would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do.. but the crime rate would go down"

That was Salem morning guy Bill Bennett.

Oh, and don't get me started on Glen Beck and Ann Coulter. I'm trying to keep this article short.

Imus may be a political non-Euclidian, an equal-opportunity basher, but Limbaugh and Beck and Savage and Coulter are not. And the amount of bile and vitriol spewing out of these people, the wishing people were dead, the advocating of murder, has gone on among the reptilian brains of the right wing for years. Funny how there was no outcry when Rush Limbaugh referred to a then thirteen-year-old Chelsea Clinton as "the family dog." It's one thing to point out the Bush twins drinking themselves into stupors when their peers are off fighting a war, because that's a FACT. Making fun of a thirteen-year-old's looks is just plain cruel, just the way calling a bunch of high-achieving collegiate athletes whores is just plain cruel, just the way saying that an 11-year-old kid who was kidnapped and held captive by a pedophile "liked his circumstances" is just plain cruel -- and crosses any kind of line of decency.

This isn't political discourse, this is whacking a hatchet at people just because you disagree with them. It isn't debating points of view, it's resorting to ad hominem attacks because your side of the fence has decided that this is the way to retain power. And the near-monopoly that the hatemongers who call themselves conservatives have had to spew their bile over the airwaves has contributed to the coarsening of the debate of the future of this country far more than a bunch of hip-hop artists working as cash cows for white guys have.

And don't talk to me about Randi Rhodes. I have my own beef with Randi Rhodes, most of it having to do with her excuses for the ineffectuality of the Democratic Party over the last six years and her propensity to scream at callers who disagree. Randi Rhodes doesn't have an H.R. from Staten Island, the progressive talk radio equivalent of Doris from Rego Park. H.R. is an old guy from Staten Island, a knee-jerk wingnut conservative who called Sam Seder at least once a week, just to argue. The thing is, H.R. is fond of Sam, and I think he respects Sam for standing up for what he believes in, even if H.R. doesn't agree. Randi doesn't have one of those. But I'll give Randi credit for this: She does her homework. She doesn't just pull stuff out of her ass, and the one time she went over the line, she recognized that it was offensive and apologized profusely. And she hasn't done anything like it since -- unlike Imus, unlike Glenn Beck, unlike Rush Limbaugh, unlike Ann Coulter, and the other lizardbrains of the right who spew this kind of thing daily. And those who would crucify Rhodes might recall that when North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms told Bill Clinton if he traveled to North Carolina, he'd better have a bodyguard, the Secret Service didn't investigate Jesse Helms.

Imus may very well have done us all a service with this latest stunt. Because certainly Keith Olbermann gave every indication on Countdown tonight that whether anyone else makes the connection between the Imus fracas and what the lizardbrains of the avowed right say, he's made the connection. And I am telling you Keith Olbermann is not going to let this go quietly. And neither am I.