President (To Win Colorado) See Full Big Line

(D) Kamala Harris

(R) Donald Trump

80%↑

20%

CO-01 (Denver) See Full Big Line

(D) Diana DeGette*

(R) V. Archuleta

98%

2%

CO-02 (Boulder-ish) See Full Big Line

(D) Joe Neguse*

(R) Marshall Dawson

95%

5%

CO-03 (West & Southern CO) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Hurd

(D) Adam Frisch

52%↑

48%

CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado) See Full Big Line

(R) Lauren Boebert

(D) Trisha Calvarese

90%

10%

CO-05 (Colorado Springs) See Full Big Line

(R) Jeff Crank

(D) River Gassen

80%

20%

CO-06 (Aurora) See Full Big Line

(D) Jason Crow*

(R) John Fabbricatore

90%

10%

CO-07 (Jefferson County) See Full Big Line

(D) B. Pettersen

(R) Sergei Matveyuk

90%

10%

CO-08 (Northern Colo.) See Full Big Line

(D) Yadira Caraveo

(R) Gabe Evans

52%↑

48%↓

State Senate Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

80%

20%

State House Majority See Full Big Line

DEMOCRATS

REPUBLICANS

95%

5%

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
February 04, 2011 04:47 PM UTC

Open Line Friday!

  • 43 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

CALLER: And I just think about the Egyptian people, 30 years under Mubarak is the equivalent of us being 30 years under Jimmy Carter. That is a lot of frustration.

RUSH: Well, now, that is an interesting way to put it, or 30 years under Obama.

CALLER: Oh. (laughing)

–From The Rush Limbaugh Show, yesterday

Tweet
Share

Comments

43 thoughts on “Open Line Friday!”

  1. There has been a lot of discussion about what U.S. policy should be in regards to Egypt. It’s really very clear. Do not turn our backs on our own history.

    From one of the leaders of our revolution.

    The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.    T. Jefferson

  2. from Al Jazeera (the first site I now hit every morning):

    Chants urging Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, to leave office are reverberating across Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

    Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered at the square, the focal point of protests in Egypt, for what they have termed the “Day of Departure” for the man who has been the country’s leader for the last 30 years.

    After the last 2 days of fights, having this many people still showing up is a gigantic message to the regime.

    I’m also hopeful because the fights have mostly been throwing rocks, using bats, and fist fights. It’s violent, but the number of deaths are very low. Even the secret police seem to be held back from the use of guns.

  3. CALLER: The Egyptian people have been there for more than 5000 years …why can’t they figure it out?

    RUSH: Well, now, I’m not falling for that…  yadablada etc.

    Where is Egypt?

    CALLER: The mid-East?

    RUSH: Yes. But what continent?

    CALLER: Africa.

    RUSH: That’s all I’m saying. And I’m not saying it.

      1. http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/ho…

        CALLER:  Here’s my question: Our country is very young and very new, and we’re expected to do a lot of things throughout the world.

        RUSH:  That’s right.

        CALLER:  Yet I’m looking at Egypt, and I see that they have had some sort of organized government for 5,000 years.  Wouldn’t you think they’d get it straight now?

        RUSH: (chuckles)

        CALLER: It’s perplexing.

        RUSH:  Boy, you don’t know it, but in the hands of a much less qualified host, you have just laid a perfect trap for a less qualified host to just stumble into and end his career.

        CALLER: (giggling)

        RUSH: I, as a highly trained broadcast specialist with seasoning and experience, recognize the trap.  You may not even be aware of the trap that you’ve set here.

        CALLER:  I didn’t.  I’m just a person here living in Clarksville.

        RUSH:  You’re just a person.  Okay. They’ve been around 5000 years; we’ve been around 250. Can’t they get it right?

        CALLER:  Yeah.  That is my question.

        RUSH:  All right, well, who are “they”?

        CALLER:  Anyone in Egypt who has the ability to —

        RUSH:  Right.  Well, who are the Egyptians?

        CALLER:  The Egyptian people?

        RUSH:  Yeah?

        CALLER:  The people who live there.

        RUSH:  Where is Egypt?

        CALLER:  It’s a country.

        RUSH:  Where?

        CALLER:  (coughs) Excuse me.

        RUSH:  Where is Egypt?

        CALLER:  In the Middle East.

        RUSH:  Technically it’s part of Middle East, but actually it’s on a continent.  What continent is it on?

        CALLER:  It’s on the African continent.

        RUSH:  Okay.  Now, the less experienced host would end his career right here and there.  I know not to go there, in answering your question.

        1. When someone starts talking about the politics of Egypt, the first thing Rush Limbaugh thinks about is how much he hates black people? And he thinks he’s very clever for somehow concealing this fact from a caller in Clarksville?

          How fucked up.

          1. Surely not. He specifically called out the continent. People don’t get it wrong, continents get it wrong.

            Less well known as Rush but in a similar vein: http://bit.ly/dZVlzf

            Jay Sekulow, American Center for Law & Justice, 2/3/11, on an anti-Chris Matthews rant. Matthews compared the Muslim Brotherhood and the Tea Party, thereby demonstrating (if I have it right) that the Left endorses Shariah law over the Constitution. It was a little hard to track.

  4. …..Gay USNA grad wanted his ashes interred at the Academy’s Columbarium upon his death. His husband went thru the normal military bureaucracy and found them (after a bit of start) to be professional, courteous and respectful off all involved:

    Gay Marine’s husband surprised at respect shown by Naval Academy

    John Fliszar had a heart attack in 2006 and was rushed to Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

    “When I was in the emergency room with him, he asked me to promise him, if he died, to make sure his ashes were interred in the Naval Academy,” said Mark Ketterson. “He loved that place. He very much wanted to be there.”

    Fliszar, a Marine aviator who served two tours in Vietnam, survived that heart attack. But last July the Albany Park resident suffered another one that killed him at age 61.

    Hoping to fulfill Fliszar’s wishes, Ketterson contacted the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and told them that Fliszar, Class of ’71, had wanted to have his ashes interred at the USNA’s Columbarium, a serene white marble waterside crypt next to the school’s cemetery.

    The memorial coordinator asked about his relationship to the deceased. Ketterson said that John Fliszar was his husband.

    “They were always polite, but there was this moment of hesitation,” Ketterson recalled. “They said they’re going to need something in writing from a blood relative. They asked, ‘Are you listed on the death certificate?’ ‘Do you have a marriage license?’ ”

    He was and they did, the couple having been married in Des Moines when gay marriage became legal in Iowa two years ago.

    Ketterson sent a copy of the marriage license. That changed everything.

    “I was respected,” he said. “From that moment on, I was next of kin. They were amazing.”

    http://www.suntimes.com/news/s…

    Bonus awesomeness:

    “The USNA alumni association sent Ketterson a letter expressing condolence for the loss of his husband.”

    No doubt that Annapolis is the 2nd-most beautiful of the Service Academies, and the Columbarium is one of the most serene locations to be interred:

    http://www.usna.edu/cemetery/c…

    But Barron X, are you reading this? Military society has moved away from it’s past, and now regards ALL of it members and veterans with the dignity and respect they earned thru serving their country.

    2. .

      Dan, Dan, Dan.  

      The military cannot move away from its traditions, its past.  There must be continuity with the past, or the military, like any tradition-bound institution, will fall apart.

      You and I both know of the long and storied tradition of homosexuality within the US Army.  Ostensibly, the core method of instilling discipline in Basic Combat Training in the early 1970’s was the threat of Drill Sergeants committing sexual assault on Trainees if they failed to follow instructions.  

      Of course, back then the reason that was considered an effective motivational tool was that it was considered extremely demeaning to be on the receiving end of such an assault.  

      Think back to the phrases and idioms and pearls of wisdom your own DI’s used to shape your development into a combat-ready soldier.  

      .

      Is it just me, or is there a quantum difference between interring cremains, on the one hand, and spending 45 days straight on an FOB in combat, no privacy, 39 roommates, on the other ?

      ps: the Navy is not the Army, and definitely not the Marine Corps.

      .

      1. ps: the Navy is not the Army, and definitely not the Marine Corps.

        The Veteran in question was a Marine aviator…

        But you’re also re-hashing crap that’s been buried and dead for a while. Lt Dan Choi was in infantry officer deployed multiple times, and the issue of him having “teh gayz” never once affected combat operations.

        (Was he dismissed because he was a no-account officer? Maybe….)

        It was an issue that would’ve divided the military in the 70’s and 80s. It could’ve been settle in the 90’s BUT it’s not an issue that will affect the military now. American Society has changed, and the people who serve in the military now reflect those changes.  

      2. Barron, Barron, Barron.

        You’re leaving out half of the equation in your charming anecdote from the 1970s. It sounds like your drill instructors were more than happy to explore their own curiosity under cover of instilling discipline, and that the Army was OK with that. That’s a brave admission on your part.

        1. Drill SGTs have a tough job. They need to cut thru the clutter that is the average 17-18 mind, and get those same teenagers to hang on their every word like their lives depend on it.

          Which they do.

          Part of that equation used to be using these incredibly sexual-threatening terms and insults to immediately put those basic trainees on the defensive and make the Drill SGTs the focus of their hostilities. Since most kids going thru Basic have never been insulted on such a primal, sexual level before, it’s incredibly effective.

          Even if Drill SGTs were allowed to use the same tirade of profanity they used on me, I doubt that it would be as effective today. Most of that foul language that was taboo before is commonly used today. And even some of the more crude sexual threats would probably either not register or elicit a smirk or laugh…which would have it’s own hazards.

          1. Do you suppose ’50s-era drill sergeants instilled discipline by shouting, “And I’m going to send an Airmail letter to your high school girlfriend and offer to LET HER WEAR MY LETTER JACKET!”

            It sounded like Barron was admitting that the Army is fine with tops (and insinuating the Navy took another position). But your point is salient — things change, even in hide-bound institutions.

            1. .

              don’t know what “tops” means in this context.  So my response to that part is “?”

              Dan and I are brothers in green.  Part of Army DNA/ lore is dismissing Seamen/ Sailors as something less than fully masculine, for a variety of self-validating reasons.  But we hesitate to apply that same prejudice against the Navy’s Mens’ Department, the USMC, who might suffer from too much testosterone, if such a thing is possible.  Rather, when comparing ourselves favorably to Jarheads, we focus tend to on the considerable intellectual superiority of the typical soldier.  

              .

              1. tend to on the considerable intellectual superiority of the typical soldier”???

                Speaking in monosylables tends to also lead to very short, concise conversations, huh?

              2. not to hijack what you and Dan are talking about but how did the meeting go with Lamborn? Or if you are putting up a diary, I’d like to read what you thought about it.

                1. on the Lamborn appearance here, in a couple of long entries at the end of the comments.

                  And, hey, I’m really not trying to insert myself between the “brothers in green,” multiple comments to the contrary.

  5. SEIU fights against repeal of Obamacare, after thousands of its members are granted waivers.

    SEIU’s outspoken defense of the law has prompted charges of hypocrisy from Republicans, given that some of the union’s chapters have sought waivers exempting them from a key provision of the law requiring the phaseout of health plans with low caps on annual benefits.

      1. Did you know that Viacom will pull their copyrighted materials from YouTube withing ten minutes of it being posted?

        Tried it last night right after it aired!

  8. Huh – who would’ve thought that us dumb crippled vets would use teh interwbez and the telephone to get her to change her mind on her clueless plans to cut the VA:

    From the Disabled American Veterans facebook page:

    Disabled American Veterans

    Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has dropped her Veterans cuts scheme. After the Disabled American Veterans and other groups sharply criticized a scheme to cut $4.5 billion from veterans health care and disability compensation, Rep. Bachmann removed the controversial proposal from her list of proposed budget cuts. Click the link for more information.

    http://bachmann.house.gov/News…

    Ahh…NOW you’re the one who will “honor America’s Military and vets” because you’ve seen they can swamp your office with letters, email and phone calls.

    Or was she concerned that us crippled vts might start showing up armed at some of her political appearances?

  10. via digby, this exchange between Mike Stark and El Rushbo about Reagan’s legacy. The whole exchange is illuminating (audio and transcript at link), but here’s a taste:

    STARK: They’re a fantastic website. But why are you dodging the question? I want to know why a tax-raising, amnesty-giving, cut-and-running, negotiating-with-terrorists guy is a hero to the conservative movement.

    RUSH: Well, because you understand Reagan in a way that is flawed. You –

    Your call is actually kinda interesting because you represent the impossibility of “bridging the gap.” Somebody like you just has to be defeated. There’s no crossing the aisle and finding common ground with you. You’re free to be who you are, don’t misunderstand. I’m not trying to insulting. I’m just saying, you are unreachable. You don’t want to be reached. …

    2. Yes, Rush – there’s a gap between your rhetoric and the reality that Reagan matches what you call tax-raising, amnesty-giving, cut-and-running, and negotiating-with-terrorists when it suits you.

      (I was going to be mean and say there’s an impossibility of bridging the gap between Rush’s neural synapses, but that’s obviously not true – something is keeping his jaws flapping…)

Leave a Comment

Recent Comments


Posts about

Donald Trump
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Lauren Boebert
SEE MORE

Posts about

Rep. Yadira Caraveo
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado House
SEE MORE

Posts about

Colorado Senate
SEE MORE

79 readers online now

Newsletter

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay in the loop with regular updates!