In a pathetic attempt to bolster their embarrassingly weak numbers, Air America is suggesting that the President of the United States should be assassinated. They play it off as a humor skit. They think it’s funny. And, sadly, a lot of their listeners do to (thankfully, they don’t have many listeners).
Matt Drudge is reporting that the Secret Service is reviewing the skit that aired on Air America radio Monday evening — a skit featuring an apparent gunshot warning to President Bush.
The announcer: “A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn’t safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for us. Well, here’s your answer, you ungrateful whelp: [audio sound of 4 gunshots being fired.] Just try it, you little bastard. [audio of gun being cocked].”
The skit aired during The Randi Rhodes Show.
Michelle Malkin notes that this is not the first time that Randi Rhodes has alluded to assassinating the President:
Randi Rhodes has used this rhetoric before. From May 2004:
Comparing Bush and his family to the Corleones of “Godfather” fame, Air America host Randi Rhodes reportedly unleashed this zinger during her Monday night broadcast: “Like Fredo, somebody ought to take him out fishing and phuw. ” Rhodes then imitated the sound of a gunshot.
In “Godfather II,” Fredo Corleone is executed by brother Michael at the end of the film.
“Even joking about shooting the president is a crime, let alone doing it on national radio… we are taking this very seriously,” a government source explained.
The Left and it’s slew of Anti-AmericanCastroLovingUnionists (ACLU) lawyers will jump up-and-down proclaiming “freedom of speech” about this. To which I use my freedom of speech to say, “Fuck you”.
It’s sad, really, how unhinged with hatred the Left has become.
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UPDATE: Americain comments at LGF:
If a gun is fired on Randi’s show and no one is listening, does it make a sound?
Hah.
And the left wonders why Bush won the election?
I think the left knows that the ‘rally round the President’ effect had an infinite amount more impact than a little known DJ…
(Though I have a special place in my heart for ‘I voted for it before I voted against it’- the nine words that lost the Presidency)
On another topic- bad news, anyone?
Robbie: Thanks for cleaning up the link.
Maybe you need a little html faq for those of us who are don’t know their “s from their s
I like the feature on Scoop that allows links like: [text http//:link.com] or bold w/ *text* or italics with _text_. Very handy for the html impaired.
To address the post (and to hog up all of the replies) I will say that I think the skit was in bad taste but pretty clearly an (unfunny) parody. I do not condone threats to federal officials (note to self: no references to John Cornyn or Tom DeLay- stay focused…)
But the irony is that despite the fact that the skit never mentioned the name of President Bush the Secret Service was able to determine the target by the descriptions: “A spoiled child” and an “ungrateful whelp”. Whose side is the Secret Service on?!?
What the Left hasn’t quite figured out is what makes humor. There must be a little truth in all humor, that’s what makes people relate, understand and then laugh.
The Left thinks that hate is humor. they think hate is a policy. They think hate is a way a being. I am seeing a pattern here.
Making fun of Ted Kennedy stumbling drunk or references to swimming is funny. There is nothing but truth there. Making fun of GWB having English as his second language is funny. Hell, he makes fun of himself. Calling him stupid for having a Southern accent is just plain ignorant.
To knowingly do a skit promoting or referencing the death of someone is sick. Air America is the biggest joke going. My A/V department at my high school had a better product.
God Bless free speech & Air America. Every day they are on the air and promote the rubbish they call radio, is another 1000 votes for Republican candidates. Maybe 100 as so few people actually do listen.
Not like the feel good humor of wishing for a terrorist to kill everyone who works at the New York Times.
Are there some idiotic, hateful people on the right? No doubt. Is Ann Coulter one of them? Yeah, she spits out some vile rhetoric that turns my stomach.
But you would have to spend an entire year of quote gathering to find as much or as vile of comments as you could easily gather in 30 minutes on a single Democratic Underground thread. To wit, this thread on conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham’s bout with breast cancer: “I hope she goes into remission and fucking chokes to death.”
To put it another way, “THEY DID IT FIRST!” is an argument best left back in pre-school.
Well, that’s been my point quite often here. American politics needs to let the fringe wackos be and try to determine what we agree on.
For every DU moonbat there is a Freeper wingnut- we could easily spend every day talking about some outrage committed by these people. But if we assume there will always be outrageous people and ignore them- the right and left might find there is some common ground and try to solve the problems we agree exist.
Preston: I think you can assume intelligent people know the difference between the moonbats and the wingnuts and the people who have a single minded ambition to change America with their money and that’s people like George Soros. He is a very dangerous man and he has plowed millions of dollars of money into MoveonOrg, etc. And, he promotes people like Michael Moore, etc. Sadly, the Democrat party has aligned themselves with MoveonOrg. They are not the Democrat party my dad was proud of as a union worker. The Democrat party has abandoned the people that made them great in favor of far-left philosphy. You wonder why there is a far-right? Because they see what is happening..what is threatening our society. I am not 100% in the camp of the far right but I can tell you for sure I am glad they are watchdogs.
Have you been to http://www.moveon.org ? Currently, their front page features a memorial for an advocate of Iraqi civilians who was recently killed, an appeal to save Social Security, and a petition against Sinclair Broadcasting which runs very conservative op-ed pieces on their news programs with no balancing opinion. I don’t think these are outrageous opinions regardless of what the right says.
Moveon’s signature causes were against the impeachment of President Clinton and against the war in Iraq- two causes that the majority of Americans now agree with MoveOn on. I can’t think of any far right initiatives that share that kind of support with the American mainstream.
George Soros is famous for promoting democracy throughout the world. I’m curious how this cause becomes undesirable when promoted in our own country. It’s cliche by now to say we would ridicule a Latin American country if they had a political system that allowed the man with fewer votes to win an election. Or if whole classes of people were barred from voting because they had gone to prison- even though the incarceration was selectively enforced. Or if the voting machines were owned by political supporters of one party and not open to investigation by individual poll workers. These are the types of causes Soros promotes.
As far as the far right being watchdogs for democracy? I don’t get it- you’ll have to name some important causes. All I can think of is that the religious right wants to forbid gays to marry the people they love and wants to force the rest of us to pay attention to their religion regardless of our own beliefs. The nationalist right wants end 50 years of bi-partisan precedent and abandon the UN. They don’t seem to care much for the rights of the accused if they are Muslim. I’m aware that terrorism has brought new challenges to our legal system but I don’t think that indefinite detention without contact with lawyers or family is really helping secure our nation.
So we have two sides that the great middle doesn’t relate to. Why? Because we have a gerrymandered Congress where winnning a seat has become a lifetime employment plan. As a result they fear their primaries more than the general elections and become progressively more extreme in their views. That’s the kind of cause I support- the type that evens the playing field regardless of ideology.
Most of my family are conservative (some live in Kansas by the way.) I don’t hate these people. But I do believe that they are a. dangerously misinformed about current events and b. voting on issues that have ridiculously little to do with their own lives. Despite that, I feel like there is an ‘American consensus’ that can be achieved that reflects our values- as long as we don’t waste our time fighting over the people on the fringes screaming at those who want to get something done.
Preston: I don’t have time to respone point counter point this morning nor do I know how to link everything I want to link, but I’ll figure it out and get back to you later but you cannot deny there is a shift in this country and that shift is anti-Christian and Christian-values bashing. You are smart enough I don’t have to list every single thing that is happening from schools forbidding even saying “Merry Christmas” to wearing red and green being attacked in public settings. You know what is happening. And, you know it is done in the venue of separation of church and state, but be honest, you also know it a recent phenomenon. And you betcha I’m on the alert and I know damn well it is coming from those in this world who want to CHANGE society in these United States from what it has been for hundreds of years.
I’ll be back to you later. I am a bit angry and a bit saddened that somebody as smart as you would be so blind to what is happening.
Yeah, I guess I don’t see it that way- no one has ever been forbidden from going to any church in this country- to proclaim religious prosecution is quite a bit extreme. Stories of some overzealous teacher that didn’t want to offend the Muslim, Jewish, and atheist kids (not an unworthy goal) get blown up to be the ‘attack on Christmas’. If there is an attack on Christmas I would look more to it’s commercialization.
I prefer for religion to stay out of the public sphere- for the benefit of both institutions. Just look to countries with state religions and see how resentment against government turns into antipathy to religion. I’m certain that a large part of the reason our country has such a strong religious following now is that it has not been tainted by an association with politics. It will be interesting to see how that develops if politicians continue to crassly parade the cross around for their political ambitions. I can’t help but see how people will think less of religion after witnessing this.
Preston: There’s no way we can ever agree on this subject. I can cite you hundreds of examples of the attack on Christianity in this country but you wouldn’t buy it. What’s happened in our Congress is undeniably the same thing we’re talking about here. Maybe the whole damn government will have to shut down…I was hoping for some compromise but I no longer think it’s possible. We can’t agree any more than they can agree. I say let em fililbuster the judges till they lose their voices. Let em stall every Bush initiative out of hatred for Bush’s beliefs without even offering an alternative for the next 3 years. Then we’ll see what happens in 2008.
In fact, the Democrats do have an agenda- unfortunately, the heavy-handed rule of the Republican majority means that it is more likely to embarrass the Repubicans than actually become law. (Protecting Social Security is not done out of ‘hatred’.)
“Congressional Democrats unveiled a legislative agenda Monday, topped by a proposal to reduce the number of abortions through higher spending on family planning… The Democratic agenda calls for expanded veterans’ benefits, fiscal discipline to reduce the federal deficit, cheaper gasoline and tightening corporate tax laws…. The Democratic-backed bills would guarantee overtime pay for workers, increase the minimum wage, help pay tuition for college students and require spending measures and tax cuts be paid for with either increased revenue or program cuts elsewhere.”
(I wasn’t able to link to the DNC but here is a story on it.) http://p102.news.scd.yahoo.com/s/krwashbureau/20050425/ts_krwashbureau/_bc_democrats_wa
I don’t know what to say about religion- I was able to go to church every week throughout my childhood- I attended Christmas service 3 months ago. I don’t see how the opinions of anyone else, Bill Frist, in particular, would change that.
I live in a state where 40% of the people are Catholic, 30% are Protestant, but the many other religions are making up a growing portion of the mix. These religions are obviously not receiving any sort of endorsement from government yet they are seeming to thrive.
One thing that I agree with Fundamentalists of the past was their rejection of pop culture- they felt it didn’t fit their values so they ignored it and created an alternative culture. (I do the same, in large part.) Unfortunately, new trends in Fundamentalism seem to be pushing to tell the general public what they can see (including pastied busoms during the Super Bowl halftime show) rather than focusing on themselves.