Back to the Old Format

Well I'm back doing the old thing of finding conservative commentators and doing what I can to pick them apart. And for a start I've decided to take on one of the most painful commentators around, Rush Limbaugh.

And what does Rush Limbaugh have for us? Well he commented on why he's not going to slam into governor McGreevy for his personal life. Way to take the high road Rush.

He also commented on the death of Yassar Arafat and the opportunities his death opens up for the Palestinians. Namely none.

Are they [the Palestinians] going to have somebody running the show here who is actually interested in some accommodation and getting along with and side-by-ide peaceful coexistence? I just don't see it. They can have a leader that stands for it and this guy's going to get shot or AIDS or poisoned or whatever, because the militants, you know, are just not going to go for this.

Whoever transcribed this for Rush wasn't at his or her best, but I'm particularly confused by the AIDS reference. Are Palestinian Militants going to sneak into the new leader's compound and inject him with AIDS? Is this a particularly crass and stupid way for Rush to suggest that the Palestinian Militants are gay? The shameful truth is that Rush isn't all that comfortable on the high road.

Of course Rush also takes time to repeat the Limbaugh Doctrine, which is, "The only way to get peace is through victory." I've never understood how this isn't, in part, a call for the elimination of the Palesinian people. How could the Palestinian people be any more defeated and still living? They don't have their own land nor do they have control over their destinies. How much more defeated could they be? And the answer presents itself; they could no longer be living.

But wait a second, Rush might respond, who cares if a bunch of terrorists die? The problem is that the terrorists seem willing to believe that they are representing the will of the Palestinian people and most of the right wing seems willing to take them at their word. I'm pretty sure that, in Rush Limbaugh's eyes, to be Palestinian is to be a terrorist.

Of course that may not be true. There might be plenty of Palestinians who aren't murderous terrorists, but who are just normal people living their own lives as best they can.