Independent View

I am not a person given to being depressed, scared out of my wits or enraged. I am, I believe, a reasonably logical thinker; however, when confronted day after day, after day, after day by illogical thinking coming from the highest levels of government that threatens the basic rights, liberties and welfare of every American, I am deeply saddened and alarmed.

As Brent Bozell points out in the following video and documentary, the vicious character assassination of Rush Limbaugh clearly shows that no tactic, including broadcasting outright lies, is beyond the audacity of supporters of this government when their objective is to ridicule and marginalize anyone who speaks out to oppose their policies. What is important to me is not who the target of the attack was, but rather the tactics used and the fact that it had its effect in derailing their target's legitimate objective of bidding to purchase a business franchise. If this can be done to a person of major media stature, what could be done to Joe & Jane Public when they speak up? Who would be there to dig out the truth and make it known?

Some may remember and others may have read about the smear campaigns used against liberals (and some who weren't liberals) by the far right during the McCarthy era. Accusations of "Communist" or "fellow traveler" were recklessly thrown about without, in many cases, a shred of evidence or grain of truth, ruining reputations and careers. It was very, very wrong and so is what the other side, the left is doing now.

The important thing, I think, is that we do not allow ourselves to be intimidated or silenced. ~~~ S. Lane

Bozell Grassroots Message: Attacks on Rush Are Attacks on All Conservatives

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/video.aspx?v=Gd6UuzVrnz

The Chronology of The Lie Excerpts from MRC's Special Report "A Rush To Ruin" On October 7, the demonization began with St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports writer Bryan Burwell, whose column demonized the entire country, as he claimed these words were Limbaugh’s: “I mean, let's face it, we didn't have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: 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.” Burwell then added: “I know how those words play out in Idiot America. They are embraced as gospel.” But NFL players wouldn’t tolerate them, he said. No one asked them to tolerate them, and no one in the media seemed to ask Burwell to actually verify them with an airdate or an audio clip. When the Post-Dispatch backed away from the claim, Burwell was completely unashamed of his recklessness: “So what are we left with? Well, essentially, I think we just threw a deck chair off the Titanic. There is still a huge pile of polarizing, bigoted debris stacked up on the deck of the good ship Limbaugh that he can’t deny or even remotely distance himself from.” The Post-Dispatch found the quote came from a book by liberal author Jack Huberman called 101 People Who Are Really Screwing America (a concept and title ripped off from author and former CBS News correspondent Bernard Goldberg, whose original was 101 People Who Are Really Screwing Up America). Huberman has also written the books Bushit and The Bush-Hater Handbook, edited the book The Quotable Atheist, and has titled his weblog “Well to the Left of Attila the Hun.” But he was an agreeable source for the liberal media. The national onslaught began on Monday, October 12, when MSNBC welcomed Dave Zirin of the radical magazine The Nation to spread the quote that Limbaugh believed “slavery had its merits.” Zirin, who was described only as a “sportswriter,” charged that players “don’t want an owner who has said slavery was a good thing because it made the streets safer.” Anchor Contessa Brewer accepted the claim as true, wondering about Limbaugh’s bid: “Is there anything the NFL commissioner, or anybody else for that matter, can do to stop it?” Zirin added that NFL players “don’t want to see a swine owning a Ram.” He closed the interview by deriding the radio host as someone who has an “open, publicly-stated contempt for people with dark skin.” MSNBC didn’t ask him why Limbaugh has often used black professor Walter Williams as a substitute host on his radio show. Later that day, MSNBC’s David Shuster repeated a version of the fabricated quote. “An NFL spokesman says the Rams have not agreed to sell to anyone and that there are other bidders. Meantime, the Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Farrior says Limbaugh should be denied the privilege of owning an NFL franchise for comments like ‘slavery had its merits.’” The on-screen graphic ran the fake quote “Slavery Had Its Merits” and the source was “Cited by James Farrior, Pittsburgh Steelers.” CNN anchor Rick Sanchez joined in on Monday afternoon: “Limbaugh's perceived racist diatribes are too many to name. Here’s a sample. He once declared that ‘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.’” The on-screen graphic offered this incredibly vague footnote “Rush Limbaugh On The Radio.” On Tuesday afternoon, Sanchez returned to the subject, not to retract the quote or offer any evidence of its authenticity, but merely to note that they had run the quote the day before and read Rush Limbaugh’s denial that he ever uttered the quote. Sanchez dismissed the idea of accuracy as germane, as long as black liberals remained offended: “Obviously, that does not take away the fact that there are other quotes which have been attributed to Rush Limbaugh, which many people in the African-American community and many other minority communities do find offensive.” MSNBC merely repeated the phony quote on Tuesday. Anchor Tamron Hall said NFL players “cite Limbaugh’s litany of racially charged remarks over the years and those include, quote, him saying this, ‘Slavery has its merits.’ That is a quote.” Hall then had the audacity to claim that “David [Shuster] and I are very careful about this, because you do not know a person’s heart. You cannot speak for a person’s motivation. But you can use their words in defining their character.” Hall’s guest, Karen Hunter, compounded the fake quotes: “He even said that Dr. Martin Luther King, his killer, James Earl Ray should have a medal given to him, a medal of honor given to him. He says, ‘We miss you, James.‘” The absurd charge that Limbaugh praised the convicted killer of Martin Luther King also emerged from Jack Huberman’s 101 People book. On June 4, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow also used the fake quote: “When you get called racist by the guy who says the assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. should get the Medal of Honor, consider yourself honored. Also, nauseated.”