Image by Mugwort via Flickr
by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
April 8, 2014
Ralph carves up Antonin Scalia and “Corporate Welfare King,” Rush Limbaugh, points out how Exxon actually made money on the Exxon/Valdez oil spill; and we discuss whether Germany actually won World War II, and the one position that Ralph took that he now regrets. Continue reading
by Walter Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
November 17, 2009
It wasn’t unusual that Rush Limbaugh went ballistic on his show, Nov. 13. He does that several times a day.
It wasn’t unusual that he mixed a few facts with opinion and outright lies in his three-hour daily show. Fact checking for the man who calls himself “America’s Truth Detector” is as rare as union organizers working for Walmart.
What is unusual is that Rush Limbaugh, whose web site shows a picture of him carrying a large gold-fringed American flag on a six-foot staff, spoke out against the Constitution of the United States.
Because logic and reason avoids his black-clad bouncy body, he may not have even known he was attacking the history of the United States and its Constitution. But on this Friday the 13th, the forces of evil spewed forth from his unfettered microphone mouth.
According to press reports, Rush Limbaugh will be making $38 million a year.
For eight years.
Rush is making this money by being a radio talk show host.
On public property.
That would be – the public airwaves.
Owned by the American people.
For which Rush – and his affiliated companies – pay no rent.
Rush Limbaugh is on welfare.
Corporate welfare.
The public airwaves belong to the American people.
The Federal Communications Commission is supposed to be our trustee.
The people are the landlords.
The radio and TV stations and the corporate giants who own them are the tenants.
Rush’s show is syndicated on over 650 radio stations.
Rush has enormous leverage over these stations.
They pay no rent.
And therefore, he pays no rent.
Here’s the problem:
Since the Radio Act was passed in 1927, the corporate tenants have been more organized and more powerful than the tens of millions of listeners and viewers.
The result?
Rush Limbaugh and his corporation get to use the public’s valuable property for free.
No payment of rent.
Zero.
Nada.
Nothing.
This freeloading on the backs of the American people is called corporate welfare.
Rush Limbaugh is the Kingboy of corporatist radio.
And it’s past time he set a corporatist example for his peers and –
pay rent to the American people for using their property.
It’s past time Rush Limbaugh takes himself off the corporate welfare rolls.
Rush need not wait for the FCC and Congress to do the right thing and order him to pay.
He can lead by example.
And pay voluntary rent – for the hours and hours every month Rush occupies on the hundreds of stations that carry his show every weekday.
And by the way, this fits well within Rush’s so-called conservative philosophy.
Payment of rent for the use of public airwaves owned by the American people is the conservative position.
Real conservatives oppose corporate welfare.
Note the Cato Institute’s position.
Real corporatists feed off the public trough – from the hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate welfare gushing out of Washington, D.C. every year – your tax dollars.
So, Rush, today I ask you – which side are you on?
Freeloading?
Or paying rent for the public property you have been using free for so many years?
Today, I mailed a letter to Rush asking him to get off welfare.
The letter is posted at votenader.org.
Take a look.
And then let Rush know what you think.
You can e-mail Rush at: ElRushbo@eibnet.com
Tell him – hey Rush, I agree with Ralph Nader.
Get off welfare.
Start paying rent.
Onward
Ralph Nader
***
Nader to Limbaugh, Get Off Welfare
Thursday, July 10, 2008 at 12:00:00 AM
News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Chris Driscoll, 202-360-3273, chris@votenader.org
Rush Limbaugh
The Rush Limbaugh Show
2 Penn Plaza
New York, NY 10121
Dear Mr. Limbaugh,
The Associated Press reports your new contract with Premiere Radio Networks will enrich you with at least $38 million a year over the next eight years. You are making this money on the public property of the American people for which you pay no rent.
You, Rush Limbaugh, are on welfare.
As you know, the public airwaves belong to the American people. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is supposed to be our trustee in managing this property. The people are the landlords and the radio and TV stations and affiliated companies are the tenants.
The problem is that since the Radio Act of 1927 these corporate tenants have been massively more powerful in Washington, DC than the tens of millions of listeners and viewers. The result has been no payment of rent by the stations for the value of their license to broadcast. You and your company are using the public’s valuable property for free. This freeloading on the backs of the American people is called corporate welfare.
It is way past due for the super-rich capitalist–Rush Limbaugh from Cape Girardeau, Missouri–to get himself off big time welfare. It is way past due for Rush Limbaugh as the Kingboy of corporatist radio to set a capitalist example for his peers and pay rent to the American people for the very lucrative use of their property.
You need not wait for the broadcast industry-indentured FCC and Congress to do the right thing. You can lead by paying a voluntary rent–determined by a reputable appraisal organization–for the time you use on the hundreds of stations that carry your words each weekday.
Payment of rent for the use of public airwaves owned by the American people is the conservative position. Real conservatives oppose corporate welfare. Real corporatists feed voraciously from hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate welfare gushing out of Washington, DC yearly.
Whose side are you on? Freeloading? Or paying rent for the public property you have been using free for many years?
I look forward to your response.
Sincerely yours,
Ralph Nader
The Nader/Gonzalez Campaign addresses these and other issues Obama and McCain have taken “off the table.” For a full list of “on the table” topics see: VoteNader.org
see
We know that torture is not a part of the Bushco agenda. How do we know this? Because they tell us so, and they wouldn’t lie to the American People would they? Of course not, because Presidents never lie.
And of course, there are a lot of secret papers we can’t see pertaining to this because it is important that just about everything in our government remain secret. I mean, isn’t ignorance suppose to be bliss? Ask any Republican, they’ll tell you. Being kept in the dark, letting Bushco destroy the constitution and our Bill of Rights has been good for them so shouldn’t it be good for everybody.
Keith Olbermann explores more about the secret torture of the United States Government. Although you must be careful, because even asking questions about those secrets, means you are a terrorist.
I know we all want to believe that just like Jack Bauer has shown, if you want to get information out of a prisoner, you simply inflict as much pain on them as possible. Unfortunately in the reality world in which the sane people of America live in, we know that what really happens is that a person being tortured will tell you anything and everything and everything you want to hear. The problem is that the “anything and everything” isn’t worth a damn. Sorry Jack Bauer, but that’s the way it works. Former CIA Case Officer Robert Baer stops by to discuss this with Keith.
You’ve heard it in the MSM. You’ve heard it from the pundits and as always the pundits get it right so you know it must be true. Hilary Clinton is a polarizing figure in politics. Uh…wait a minute. You say there’s a new poll asking actual real life voters what they think? You say it shows something altogether different? Shhhh….some wayward TV pundit might hear you.
First up we have Oddball with Rubik’s Cube Mania, the car of the future and making it’s third appearance is another story about the leg found in the grill. Oh joy.
Then we have Best Persons. Tonight’s lineup include: Lynn K. Dailey, who was arrested for stealing a donut by sticking it in her back pocket. Clive Halford who stole a truck to steal Copper and Nickel. It didn’t quite work out, and an International Conference of utmost importance in South Korea. It has something to do with condoms.
On a darker note, more on Rush Limbaugh and how because of him and others like him, the Republican Party has lost any smidgen of decency it may have had if it ever had any at all. When Republican Congressman use Fatboy’s smear of the troops to garner political donations, I’m thinking we may as well regress two hundred years and start all over again. They somehow continue to fine new ways to sink into the deepest depths of a dark abyss of moral indecency.
NOTE: There is a slight jump between Oddball and Best Person. This was due to a few seconds I had to edit out because of a technical problem. My apologies.
Gold Medalist Marion Jones pleads guilty to lying under oath about steroid use. On the courthouse steps, she offered her public apology. I guess this means she won’t be getting anymore endorsement offers. As for me, I only watch sports with a passing interest these days. Too much drugs, too much money, too much arrogance, too many criminals.
Glenn Beck rounds out worst person in the world tonight.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s the first Friday of the month, the time that we all wait for with eager anticipation. It’s exciting, it’s great, it’s wonderful! It’s the ODDBALL PLAYS OF THE MONTH!
Here we go boys and girls. It’s torture, torture, torture in this first segment of tonights Countdown Show.
Our government denies doing it, said we didn’t do it, then the truth wills out as usual of course and we find out we did even more torture than most people thought we did, that Bush and Fredo lied about it even more. In the first half of this segment John Dean joins Keith to discuss justifying torture in the DEPARTMENT OF JUST US.
Part two of Keith’s opening segment on torture and the Bush administration. Is there anything at all that can be done to stop the outlaw Bush administration? Neal Katval, who was the lead counsel in the case of Hamdam vs. Rumsfeld in which he won an appeal to the Supreme Court, stops by to discuss.
Hell no! I won’t go! Is that an old anti-war protest? Nope. It’s the new motto of Senator Larry Craig who after a judge refused to overturn his conviction, decided he’d hang around for a couple of more years after all. Larry Craig is the gift that keeps on giving. Chris Cillizza from the Washington Post joins Keith.
In this segment, Keith and Rachael show how Rush continues to change the facts so that his listeners won’t be disturbed by what the truth is. To be a Rush listener, you have to believe that everything Rush says is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. In reality, it is generally everything but the truth.
No matter how much evidence you have to the contrary, a Rush Limbaugh dumbohead will ignore all the facts because those facts would interfere with their Limbaugh Radio Utopia type world they live in.
As Keith and Rachael Maddow point out those listeners who tune in to Limbaugh, need the big lie to justify themselves. Don’t ever expect them to want the truth. It is pointless to argue with them, to discuss anything with them, when two words are missing from their vocabulary – facts and reality.
Another example today: Rush invites votevets to buy an ad on his show so that his listeners will think he is being fair. Meanwhile, what he doesn’t tell his listeners but already knows is that his station bosses have already nixed that idea. Therefore, they can go away still believing in the fairness of all things that happen in Fatsoland.
It is the same reason why they will only accept Rush’s edited account of what he said on his program in regards to phony soldiers and Army Staff Sgt. Brian Mcgough. For them, the edited version with a minute and thirty five seconds cut out is the real account, no matter how many times you play what actually went out over the air waves. Then again, I imagine that there are still people who really do believe that Nixon’s Secretary Rosemary Woods really did accidentally erase those tapes.
It is the same principle regarding what Limpbottom has said in regard to phony soldiers and Army Staff Sgt. Brian Mcgough. No matter how many times you confront them with the original complete broadcast, the only truth they will accept is the Limbaugh edited version, which changes the context of what he really said.
And the winner is…the Republican National Committee for its new logo.
In Keith Olbermann’s opening segment the first State Dept. report on the shooting of Iraq civilian by Blackwater employees was written by…..a Blackwater employee. The FBI agents who were supposed to investigate Blackwater were supposed to be protected by none other than…Blackwater. That has been called off. Of course, a Republican says we should just call off the investigation and let Blackwater be on it’s way.
Keith interviews Presidential Candidate John Edwards, who says we should get rid of the private contractors like Blackwater. And the best way to do that is to get our troops out of Iraq.
This segment starts rather abruptly as you will see. This was caused by a commercial that ran long. I hate it when that happens, don’t you? At any rate, this has to do whether the new Attorney General will be more cooperative than the old one. You remember Fredo don’t you? Dana Milbank guests.
Another Republican decides to retire rather than face the music.
Oddball: A stripper entertains in a Florida City Commissioners Chambers. It was for a baby shower.
A parking meter thief? Didn’t that guy ever see Cool Hand Luke?
Included is the Best Person in the World segment.
More on Rush Limbaugh trying to cover up his “phony soldier” comments. He then called a soldier who did the Vote Vets Ad (you can see it on my blog at http://www.clydestuff.blogspot.com) a “Suicide Bomber.” And instead of just owning up to it and admitting to what he said, Rush Limpbutt doctored and edited the tapes from the program to make it appear he didn’t quite say it the way he meant it.
In fact, the soldier that Rush Limbaugh called a phony soldier and suicide bomber, was seriously injured by a real suicide bomber. The fact that there are people in this country out there defending Rush Lardass tells you how far this country has sunk into a state where all politics trump decency. Keith interviews retired Army Staff Sgt. Brian Mcgough. As far as I’m concerned, anybody who supports Rush Lardass has totally lost their moral compass.
And the winner is….Jonah Goldberg! Runners up AT&T and Bill O’Reilly.
OCTOBER 02, 2007 MSNBC DAN ABRAMS
see
Olbermann: Rush & Phoney Soldiers w/Maddow + Blackwater + War Tax + Worst Person (videos)
Keith gives his report on the recent flap over Rush Limbaugh and his comments that anyone who served in Iraq and speaks out against it is a phony soldier and how he tried to back peddle and edit his own comments to his listeners. Rachel Maddow weighs in.
The Blackwater hearings began today with founder Erik Prince saying his firm acted appropriately at all times. Jeremy Scahill weighs in on what Blackwater has really been doing in Iraq.
Lawmakers are introducing legislation that would require the administration to pay for the war through a sur tax instead of passing the debt along to future generations. Howard Fineman weighs in.
And the winner is…Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition. Runner up Bill O’Reilly.
Dandelion Salad 