Again, I apologize for poaching in David Brock and his Media Matters' territory. He and his folks at Matters listen to Rush so others don't have to. Understandable. However I waded a bit into the swamp the last few days as I'm a believer in keeping your friends close and your enemies closer.
Rush is a good bellweather at what the latest GOP line of smear will be anyway. One thing he was whining about yesterday was how long Jon Edward's jury was taking. What could they possibly be talking about for 9 days? Of course Rush thought that the guilt was so obvious that it should be decided in 9 minutes. Indeed much like the logic of when he attacked Sandra Fluke he speculated that they must be so titillated by the details of the trial they couldn't stop talking about it. With Ms. Fluke, of course he thought that she wanted birth control because she is an over the top nymphomaniac who engages in Sexual Olympics all day and never has time for class.
This is because he doesn't know the difference between the rule of law and a partisan witch hunt. Fortunately the jury did and Mr. Edwards' persecution is over. Ok, true his conduct on his personal life was not admirable-but what does this have to do with public much less a federal court? Turns out absolutely nothing.
Yesterday besides the schadenfreude over Edwards-now with Edwards off the hook-the egg has delightfully splattered all over Mr. Limbaugh's own face-a practical joke ends up getting the would be jokester. You know you hang a bucket so when someone opens the door it falls on their head and then you forget and open the door yourself. So now it's become my schadenfreude at Limbaugh's expense.
He was also going on and on over Bloomberg's proposed banning of soft drinks beyond a certain size. Rush kept intoning, "It's the little things." Yeah it's always the little things with Rush anyway, for such a big guy he sure loves the small but especially the trivial.
He was then counting his chickens before they were hatched about Wisconsin-at this point the only way Walker loses Rush thinks is if the GOP gets complacent. Mind you even if Walker hangs on by the skin of his teeth how is this such a victory? The fact that he was even recalled speaks badly for his position-it takes hundreds of thousands of signatures to open a recall. The GOP lost two state senators in last Fall's recall and Kasich's anti union bill was itself recalled in Ohio.
Suddenly Rush went off on a new tangent. He starts talking about abortion. He prefaces these comments by saying he knows many don't let to get into this that they think it's a private matter. This is his way of admitting even many in his audience don't feel like an abortion argument.
But he starts talking about how Obama is opposed to a ban on "sex-selection abortion." Now what is this about? Rush then mentions the C word-China and it's one child policy. He says that in China people often try to abort female children as they can only have on child and want a boy.
Then he suggests that even in America "don't you think most people would prefer a boy?"
He then wonders how Obama can oppose such a bill. For good measure he suggests that gay people are having second thoughts about abortion as they realize that many people will abort them if given the chance.
So what's this all about? Again Rush is a good bellweather about what the latest GOP slur is about. What this comes down to is that the GOP introduced a bill to ban "sex selection abortions."
The bill failed yesterday but Rush's little monologue about it was classic. He manages solely by logical leaps-lots of jumps to conclusion-to suggest that the President himself hates women and wants to allow or even facilitate massive genocide against female children. This is what the analogy with China amounts to.
You have to appreciate the artistic ability in all this. The very existence of the bill itself infers that there are a large number of people who have abortions due to not being happy with the sex of the child. From this Limbaugh assumes that most people would rather have a son like in China. Then by extension-that is by further jumping to conclusion-it's inferred that if you don't support the bill you must therefore be happy about abortions for sex selection reasons-and via Limbaugh's previous jump to conclusion-you must be supportive of little girls being aborted.
He can then go on to proclaim that "this is the real war against women!" Talk about stinking thinking?
"Republicans opened a new front in their battle against abortion Thursday, by calling a House vote on legislation to ban abortions conducted for the purposes of sex selection."
"But the bill, which would punish doctors who perform sex-selection abortions, failed to pass the House because GOP leaders brought it to a vote under fast-track procedures requiring a two thirds majority. The bill drew a 246-168 majority, but fell short of two thirds."
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/05/31/sex-selection-is-new-front-in-abortion-battle/?KEYWORDS=sex+selection+abortion+bill+fails
"House leaders could bring the bill back for a vote under standard procedures requiring only a simple majority, but have not committed to do so. In any event, the bill is not likely to pass the Democratic controlled Senate, so critics viewed the vote as a political ploy to appease anti-abortion activists who are especially important to the GOP in an election year."
“This is an important issue to the American people,’’ said House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio). “This type of sex selection … most Americans find pretty repulsive. And our members feel strongly about it. That’s why it’s being brought to the floor. ”
Speaker that's not what Americans find repulsive about this episode but rather the rank opportunism and demagoguery.
However because this above link was in the Wall Street Journal's journalistic pages rather than its editorial section the writers do point out that:
"The practice of performing abortions for sex-selection purposes is common in countries like China and India where there is a traditional priority given to bearing sons. Abortion foes say they believe the practice is evident in the U.S. as well."
Of course these abortion foes don't have a shred of proof that this is happening.
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