Limbaugh on torture of Iraqis: U.S. guards were "having a good time," "blo

[radfringe]

Limbaugh on torture of Iraqis: U.S. guards were "having a good time," "blow some steam off"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200405050003

Hours before President George W. Bush announced plans to address the Arab world to condemn the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison, Rush Limbaugh justified the U.S. guards' mistreatment of the Iraqis, stating that they were just "having a good time," and that their actions served as an "emotional release."

As reported by Wonkette.com, Limbaugh's comments can be found on his website. From the May 4 Rush Limbaugh Show, titled "It's Not About Us; This Is War!":

CALLER: It was like a college fraternity prank that stacked up naked men --

LIMBAUGH: Exactly. Exactly my point! This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?

===========

Hey Rush!

When the next American is hung and burned from a bridge, or captured and tortured or when another terror attack hits us -- will you say that this is "just blowing off steam" - that it's an Iraqi fraternity prank?

You wailed over the Jessica Lynch tale of torture and abuse. You beat your chest over the bodies burned and hung from a bridge... yet torturing Iraqi prisoners is just a prank and "blowing off steam"?

To dismiss this as a fraternity prank shows just how much worse YOU and your brand of conservatives are than Saddam.

[Q]

1. Rush considers himself part of the Master Race...

...and it's the duty of everyone else to grovel at their feet. Sound familiar?

[anarchy1999]

2. Too much Oxcycontin............ too many drugs, way too out of hand!!

More phone calls and faxes and action needed. Only when we start to make our voices be heard will we begin to make any difference..

What an outrage! Limbaugh is another embarrassment to us all that like to call ourselves "Americans". Freedom is just another word........

[Piperay]

3. Neo-cons excuse the whole thing as fun or letting off steam

but doesn't it ever occur to them that the complete stupidity of that kind of barbarism is going to cause many more American deaths over there and right it in America?!? If for no other reason like common decency or morality they should condemn it for the STUPIDITY of it!

[Flubadubya]

4. Didn't Hannity say the same thing?

Called it a "frat prank"?

[Maccagirl]

9. "Frat prank" has been their talking point

since this story broke. I want to win my bet about how long it takes for them (the AM hatejocks) to say "it's Clinton's fault." Any takers-or is that a sucker bet? BTW, isn't it a gotcha moment when Limbaugh mentioned "Skull & Bones"-since * was/is a member of that august fraternity?

[tcfrogs]

17. It was sarcasm

Rush was simply being sarcastic. I heard it in context. EVERY right-wing & left-wing voice I've heard is disgusted by our soldiers' actions.

[LondonAmerican]

5. Rush is a moral moron

[eleonora]

6. I suppose

raping somebody with a broomstick is his idea of fun.

[fujiyama]

12. Of all the people

that deserves to be sodomized with a broomstick, it's gotta be Rush.

[radfringe]

7. another question for Rush

if this was just blowing off steam, a big joke, frat prank -- then why is bush* in damage control mode?

how do you feel about bush* condemning the abuse of Iraqi prisoners? is he sincere -- or is this just more political bush*t to shore up his campaign... then again maybe bush is just having a good laugh...after all his whole administration is one big freaking joke

[opihimoimoi]

8. The man is impaired/no other explanation

Are we a Nation of Impaired Fools? It seems that way as Rush is not alone. 15 to 23% of people support this notion of torture is OK.

We need to find ways to prevent permement brain damage in infants. It finally caught up to us.

[RoyGBiv]

10. Frat Stunt

I've witnessed a number of so-called fraternity pranks in my day that should have resulted in criminal charges being filed. And, in fact, several of them did.

A fraternity prank that is criminal is still criminal.

Bastards.

[ClintonTyree]

11. My only hope..............

is that Rush is brought to justice over his drug charges and then subjected to the same "frat pranks" in prison. Squeel like a piggy Rush, squeel like a piggy. I wonder how he'd feel about these harmless "Frat pranks" then?

[TreasonousBastard]

13. Like I said in the other thread on this...

even the dittoheads aren't going to buy it.

It's a wingnut talking point that it wasn't such a bad thing-- but it was a bad thing, and everyone knows it.

[w13rd0]

14. There have been several reported and documented deaths...

...what the hell?!?! May Rush suffer the same or worse. What an insufferable pig. In Rwanda, they recently convicted a radio show host who incited hatred and murder in the people of that nation. When the hell do we get to put Rush on trial in the Hague?

[doni_georgia]

15. Justifying war crimes? Rush has REALLY overstepped the bounds now

But the thing is, for all of Bush's public "disgust" over the matter, you know he feels the same way. The disgust was in the fact that the pictures got released! The fact that Rush said "No worse than a Skull and Bones initiation" was his way of saying, "the Presidents feels the same way." This is the way these people think. If average normal Americans were to hear this, this could really hurt the repugs big time. A whole lot of people who vote for Bush simply watch their local news occasionally, maybe read the headlines of the news paper when in the grocery store line. They are uninformed. They get their information from TV ads (and they believe them) and watered down local news. I know, I work with a whole lot of these people.

Several of the teachers in my school were decrying the media "picking on Bush" the other day. I asked, "How, pray tell, was the media picking on Bush?" One responded, "Well, the news last night made a big deal out of Bush appearing with Cheney before the 9/11 commission. Why can't he bring his VP if he wants to?" Later that day, I mentioned the draft to the school nurse. I was telling her about the targeted special skills draft. She laughed, "Who told you that? That's not going to happen! That's just people picking on Bush." I sent her the links to several news stories. She replied back, "I'm not going to read liberal hate rags."

I asked a couple of these Bush supporters yesterday what they thought about the torture of prisoners in Iraq. One replied, "The only reason the media released those horrible pictures was to get people not to vote for Bush. He's disgusted. He is punishing those few people responsible - it was only a handful of bad people you know!" These are the people who need to hear Rush's words. They need to know that people who are "on their side" think that this was a frat prank, blowing off steam, having fun! They need to hear it. Now, if I tell them, they will say I made it up. That's the problem. They need to HEAR it from the horse's mouth. But like I said, these folks can't be bothered to actually search for the truth themselves. They will believe a chain email that has been proven as urban legend (one of these women has sent me the deodorant/breast cancer email 5 times this year - I always reply with link to Snopes - does she check - heck no), but they will not believe the truth when you slap them in the face with it.

I have to listen to these idiots all day (there are only 5 democrats in my school that I know of). Bush isn't dumb; it's discriminated against for being southern. Bush didn't lie to Congress and the American people about WMD; either those weapons will eventually turn up, or one of Bush's advisors lied to him and should be punished. Bush wasn't neglectful of terrorism risks prior to 9/11, Clinton had left the US in a mess - it's all his fault. I actually asked one, "Why do you hate Clinton so much?" She replied, "Well, because of him I had to explain to my 12 year old daughter what a blow job was." "Because of Clinton? Do the republicans who were going after him and WROTE the sordid report have no responsibility in this?" I replied. She replied, "See there you liberals go again, blaming the messenger!" Ugh!

[izzie]

16. Clinton did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-------

[HFishbine]

18. I'd like to spray an emotional release across Rush's face

Sorry, I know that's piggish, but damn these Reich-wingers and their moral relativism.