What on Earth is Rush Limbaugh Talking About?

It wasn't so long ago that conservatives were in high dudgeon over silly, ahistorical comparisons between George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler. Well, now it's Rush Limbaugh's turn to make silly, ahistorical Nazi comparisons. Apparently Limbaugh has determined that the "similarity between Obama's health care logo and the Nazi logo is just overwhelming" and that the administration has "a health care logo that's right out of Adolf Hitler's playbook."  He provides the following evidence, via a blog called "Sweetness and Light":

Good god this is dumb. If use of the caduceus in a logo is inherently fascist, perhaps Limbaugh will protest our National Socialist doctors in the United States Army Medical Corps:

If you manage to trudge through Limbaugh's incoherent rant about Nazi logos and Obama, you'll also be informed that the initial production of the Volkswagen was "right out of the playbook of the environmentalist wackos." Yeah, I don't get it either.

I wrote about Limbaugh here. And reviewed Gotz Aly's book on the Nazi welfare state here.

Comments

[libertymike]

Good grief, Moynihan. The professional envy just oozes. Face it, you are worse than John Dennis and Gerry Callahan. Those of you familiar with WEEI 850 AM know of which I write.

[spur]

One can only hope his sight is going along with his hearing...and Monihyan when has that guy ever made sense?

[shrike]

Right - the Nazi's banned collective bargaining, labor unions, dissent, alternative religions, and everything else associated with liberalism/libertarianism - their one true enemy.

Leave it up to the greasy-headed redneck class of the right to distort reality on a one-sided radio show.

[stopped clock, right again, as]

National Socialist doctors in the United States Army Medical Corps

[hmm]

The Obama administration has some pretty sharp logos. They are definitely better at it than bush was.

[jayjayhawker]

liberitymike....shouldn't you be shilling somewhere to restrict people's freedom? Or is today a slow day?

Limbaugh being a retard doesn't strike me as news.

[brotherben]

The people's car wasn't built to not pollute. It was built in several configurations originally that burned propane, wood and coal, as well as gasoline.

I gotta hand it to Rush Limbaugh, anyone that can make that kinda coin by just makin shit up as they go for a few hours a day? God bless America!

[?]

So this whole day of us all talking shit about Obama hurt someone's feelings. Aw.

[Mike Laursen]

I never listen to Limbaugh, but I just happened to catch this very rant this morning. So, he's gone completely insane.

[Mike Laursen]

Oh, and I happened to catch our local Air America (or whatever they're calling it now) affiliate for a few minutes, too. They had a similar rant going the other way.

There's absolutely no hope for any intelligent political discourse on this one.

[Gilbert Martin]

"Well, now it's Rush Limbaugh's turn to make silly, ahistorical Nazi comparisons. Apparently Limbaugh has determined that the "similarity between Obama's health care logo and the Nazi logo is just overwhelming" and that the administration has "a health care logo that's right out of Adolf Hitler's playbook."

You forgot to mention the part where he referenced Nancy Pelosi's comments about the protestors carrying swastikas.

The Dems are trying to compare the protestors to Nazis and Rush was just throwing it right back at them.

[Joshua Corning]

I want to know what Michael C. Moynihan obsetion with Rush is?

I have not heard his thing about logos but i have heard him talk about health care and CBO reports and white house report "funky" info....pretty much the same stuff you can find here.

I know where Reason and Rush part ways...and they are pretty clear lines on imigration, abortion, drugs, etc.

Why Moynihan needs to find obscure really non-libertarian things to quibble over with Rush is really odd to say the least.

Hey Moynihan why don't you actaully go after Rush for things a libertarian might actaully give a crap about.

[EJM]

...via a blog called "Sweetness and Light"...

Named after the Lush song?

[Invisible Finger]

Moynihan's about as useful as Weigel. Which is to say "not much". I can't stand Limbaugh but when you ignore the context you become more of a loony than Rush.

[libertymike]

jayjayhawker-

You do realize your question is rather inane, don't you?

[jayjayhawker]

libertymike-

You do know that considering your stance on a few issues your handle is ironic?

[libertymike]

Joshua Corning and Invisibile Finger-

Moynihan's ego has problems with media/cultural superstars. Notwithstanding the baseles assertions that "Rush is a retard" and the like, Moynihan knows that he can't match wits with Limbaugh, never mind fame, fortune, influence, etc.

[skr]

I think it has more to do with the obama "O" under the caduceus. To be honest, it does bear a slight accidental and unintentional resemblance. Of course all that was lifted from the Romans, so whatever.
Also, if I remember correctly, Hitler did whip the German environmentalists of the day into a frenzy by blaming environmental degradation on the Jews.

[Episiarch]

People defending Limbaugh amaze me. The guy is a successful entertainer--he makes a lot of dough and has a big audience--but why the hell should we take him any more seriously than Oprah? I mean, WTF?

Plus, both Rush and Oprah are fat, and fat people have nothing valid to say.

[SIV]

why the hell should we take him any more seriously than Oprah? I mean, WTF?

Well Oprah never advances libertarian ideas to a mass audience for one.

[Underzog]

With all the Hitler comparisons the other side throws out; e.g., Bush/Hitler, Bush Chimp Hitler; etc., it's hard for me to get a huffy and puffy over Mr. Monyihan's complaint.

The Alyinskyte tactics the the Left is applying against their enemies can be applied against them too. And they will scream and it will be amusing.

As the Left's hero, Mao Tse Tung, said, "a revolution is not a dinner party."

"There's no need to fear. Underzog is here!"

The Jewish Defense League Marching Song

[brotherben]

Epi, don't be fuckin with Oprah! You take it back right now!

[Underzog]

p.s. I could've said Mao ze Dong, but that new Chinese based spelling is a pain. Beijing instead of Peiping?

I'm of the old fashioned school.

[Jeffersonian]

A much more telling event was Tom Daschle invoking the symbol of Mussolini's Italian Corporate State (and that of imperial Rome), the fasces, during the 2000 DN Convention as a perfect representation of today's Democratic Party. I finally found something he and I both agree on (other than that we both want to run my life).

[brotherben]

(other than that we both want to run my life).

You can consider this stolen. Hell, I used it before I wrote this.

[KyleG]

Fuck Obama. Fuck his healthcare. And fuck Rush Limbaugh. Fuck.

[Euler]

Building a wall on the border, holding people without trial, torture, and drug prohibition are libertarian ideas. Who knew?

[Some Guy]

Did you know that the American flag contains red and white? Two of the same colors that were present in the Nazi German flag? I hope Rush looks into this immediately and demands that Obama explain it.

[Anonymous]

Fuck Obama. Fuck his healthcare. And fuck Rush Limbaugh.

Yes, and if it were only so easy to get rid of certain people by turning the channel. I tried muting some revenooers once, but I guess the remote's batteries were dead.

[John-David]

OT: There's a fun discussion on libertarians going on at DKOS right now.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/6/762821/-Libertarians,-Social-Networking,-and-Todays-Youth

[Neu Mejican]

Is it possible to Godwin this thread?

And if so, did Gilbert Martin already do it?

reductio ad Hitlerum or is that Hilarium?

[libertymike]

Epi-

Frankly, can you honestly say that Moynihan would score any better, from a libertarina perspective, than Rush on the Nolan chart/quiz?

[brotherben]

This is where we're headed folks. We are evolving back into shit flinging, non-thinking, chest beating primates. It seems that our duly elected representatives are enjoying every minute of it. If you have fireworks on the deck, the passengers won't notice that the boat is listing hard to port and is sinking fast.

[Episiarch]

Well Oprah never advances libertarian ideas to a mass audience for one.

What libertarian ideas would those be?

Epi, don't be fuckin with Oprah! You take it back right now!

For you, ben.

[Episiarch]

Frankly, can you honestly say that Moynihan would score any better, from a libertarina perspective, than Rush on the Nolan chart/quiz?

Ha, good one, mike. I knew you had a sense of humor.

[shrike]

Wow, the Ditto-Dildos are out to defend their pill-popping lying-ass Head Shit-kicker!

Never mind that he is plaqueing a huge REDNECK DUMBASS logo on their collective hides.

Limbaugh is a full-time liar - look up his daily quoted "EIB Entertainment" Network - its complete fiction...

Yet there they go - Ditto-Dildos - too stupid to think - too detached for real masculinity.

[John-David]

And shrike's meds have no completely worn off! Started almost reasonable, and now into full-blown insanity. Taste the rainbow, bitches!

[brotherben]

Epi, thanks for the lil bit-0-zen.

[SIV]

Episiarch | August 6, 2009, 7:33pm | #
Well Oprah never advances libertarian ideas to a mass audience for one.

What libertarian ideas would those be?

Free markets,privatization,limited government,no nanny state...
Citing Cato institute papers...
Turning the mike over to actual libertarians like Walter Williams when he is on vacation.

Epi, does Oprah ever talk about anything that might be of interest to women?

[Solanum]

Another full blown shriek meltdown in the works?

*grabs popcorn*

[Chrispy]

To be fair, it's not just the caduceus, it's the combination of the wings over a circle that make them look similar, and when you compare the two images side-by-side, they actually do look almost identical.

But even if there is some crazy Nazi conspiracy going on here, it wouldn't matter. There are plenty of actual, factual reasons to dislike about the democrats' health care plan without resorting this kind of attack.

It's the same problem I had with the birth-certificate conspiracy theorists. Nobody should've voted for Obama because he's a liar, unqualified, and promotes terrible policies. Where he was born is irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

John-David, from that link: "Is it possible that government bureaucracies alone are guilty of imposing on personal liberties, while corporate bureaucracies are not?"

Do they really think that the evil of capital is a force of coercian, and that it is a force of coercian to rival that of government, whose duty it is to coerce people as a matter of law (which is why it must be kept to minimal or nonexistant levels)? Sounds like the Unabomber.

[John-David]

Anon,

You should participate in the discussion. A surprising number of libertarians are making good cases. I'm emn316.

[libertymike]

Epi-

Thank you.

Question: If you are Rush, living in South Florida, an adult entertainment playground, what would you do? Cheetahs, then Diamonds, followed by The Wild Side as appetizers? Perhaps dinner would be at home with Daisy and Dynasty from Miami Companions?

[Rush Limbaugh (as reinacted by]

Look at mine Glorious Naked Body which Ga-wd has given me!

Ditto-Dildos - you must bask in my naked glory! From Ga-wd, did I mention that? Two syllables, you jerkbait listeners! Its Ga-wd to you people!

Now while I am making up lies - like 5 million HUD loans to illegals, and other stoopid shit - you all listen to this message from the sponsers of the imaginary EIB Network!

GEt your boner pills, your gold hawkers, your prostate herbs, your baldness cures -- Right here!!!!

While you swallow this swill - call me and message my glorious naked body - you fucking tripe!

[Episiarch]

If you are Rush, living in South Florida, an adult entertainment playground, what would you do?

Take some oxycontin (courtesy of my doctor), then go get some strippers/hookers, some blow, a hotel room, and a lot of lubricant.

[Underzog]

With the Whitehouse compiling enemies lists of people just for disagreeing with Pres. Hussein's stupid socialized medicine (for the snitches, mail the identities of the pro freedom people to [e-mail]), the Nazi connection may not be that far off even in our reducto ad hitlerium Liberal name calling.

"There's no need to fear. Underzog is here!"

[The Angry Optimist]

anyone wanna take bets that Episiarch did one bump in a crappy titty bar, and the stripper felt him through his pants?

there isn't another explanation for your apparent obsession with some highly-cliched 80s lifestyle, Epi.

[stuartl]

Michael, this is a joke by Limbaugh. He is playing around with Pelosi's silly swastika comments.

[chippy]

"Right - the Nazi's banned collective bargaining, labor unions, dissent, alternative religions, and everything else associated with liberalism/libertarianism - their one true enemy.

Leave it up to the greasy-headed redneck class of the right to distort reality on a one-sided radio show."

Have you ever even read the Nazi Party Platform (here - http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/mmarkowski/H113/AH/platform.html)? What you describe is nothing like the Nazis of history, though I suppose it is a convenient list of detestable things, and everyone knows Nazi just means "bad" right?

[libertymike]

Epi-

Why not just use the penthouse in the EIB building? That way, he'd only have to waddle his ass to the elevator and go up.

[libertymike]

TAO-

That's better than having to viagrify oneself.

[The Angry Optimist]

Viagara (not a user) is awesome, and I would never deride somebody for using it for a problem, any more than I would deride somebody for using Lipitor for their cholesterol.

Making fun of ED sufferers is terribly sex-negative.

[Anonymous]

Well, the Nazis did get rid of collective bargaining and unions, in a way: they subsumed it all into the administration of the socialist state. Of course, complaining about that is like complaining that capitalism was more rampant in the USSR than before the revolution: when people are starving, they tend to try to trade and bribe officials for food. It's that way because the oligarchy and the socialism was functioning in the way they intended it to.

[Pro Libertate]

Oprah? Isn't she the president now?

[cmace]

The army medical core symbol is actually the staff of Hermes, the Greek God of (among other things) thieves.

The staff of Asclepius has only one snake.

[Sean W. Malone]

John, that discussion bored the crap out of me...

I must say though, this was particularly silly:

"Some issues you won't see on these [libertarian] sites [like Reason Magazine] very often- criminal justice, death penalty, drug war, immigrant rights, prisoner's rights, gay rights, racial justice, reproductive freedom, rights of the poor and voting rights. These are all issues that fall directly under the umbrella of personal liberties, any way you slice it. "

Really? Between Lew Rockwell, Mises, CATO and Reason, I basically read about all those topics every day.

[Episiarch]

there isn't another explanation for your apparent obsession with some highly-cliched 80s lifestyle, Epi.

There was no Oxycontin in the 80s, TAO. Jeez, do I have to spell everything out for you? As if cocaine (good cocaine) isn't timeless.

Why not just use the penthouse in the EIB building? That way, he'd only have to waddle his ass to the elevator and go up.

Plausible. Deniability.

Making fun of ED sufferers is terribly sex-negative.

What a whiny little PC bitch.

[The Angry Optimist]

Fuck off and die, "#". how's that for PC?

There was no Oxycontin in the 80s

When I was your age son we had to take oxycodone pills every 3-4 hours.

Fuck off and die, "#". how's that for PC?

Not so PC, but excellent whiny bitch TAO.

[Nipplemancer]

that kos thread was painful. the retarded liberal arts major who started it seemed to know only of libertarianism from a 'friend of a friend through facebook' WTF?
i don't normally visit kos, is it always that bad?

[libertymike]

#-

Sometimes you just don't know whether TAO is serious. If he is in this instance, you have aptly described things.

[John-David]

Nipplermancer,

Yes, pretty much.

Sean W. Malone,

I though I gave that a pretty good rebuttal. I did get at least 6 plusses from my response.

[Episiarch]

When I was your age son we had to take oxycodone pills every 3-4 hours.

Plus if you wanted to take a shitload, you had to do cold water extraction. Technology is a wonderful thing.

i don't normally visit kos, is it always that bad?

Yes.

[libertymike]

TAO-

Please. You can't be serious. No way was I "making fun" of those with erectile dysfunction. I was responding to you making fun of Epi's "early" erectile event.

Besides, I only make fun of do-gooders, statists, statist suck-ups, public employees, rent seekers and those critical of anarcho-free enterprise-individualism.

[The Angry Optimist]

If he is in this instance, you have aptly described things.

Well, fuck you too then.

I didn't know that I had to find humor in everything to avoid being a "whiny PC bitch". Who's whinier: someone who takes a stand on certain things, or someone who gets all offended and goes into attack mode every time someone takes a stand?

Frankly, making issue out of what I said makes you two the "whiny bitches" - so please brush the sand out of your collective vaginas and shut up.

[Episiarch]

CATFIGHT

[iamse7en]

Rush isn't an idiot. He's been around a long time, and he makes the money he does for a reason. His market value speaks more volumes than Moynihan is willing to admit.

He's doing this on purpose. Pelosi is saying the health-care protesters are carrying swastikas, and now Rush is throwing it right back at these idiotic liberals by commenting on the Sweetness & Light post.

There are probably more in common with Obama's philosophy behind controlling his people and Hitler's than we're willing to admit.

[The Angry Optimist]

LM - not that I actually care about this too much, and I am sure your intent was benign, but why did you choose Viagara? Just curious.

[alan]

The Alyinskyte tactics the the Left is applying against their enemies can be applied against them too. And they will scream and it will be amusing.

What is the fucking deal with Alinsky with the NeoConned right? He is at best a footnote in the history of socialism, whereas their man, Trotsky, was once smack dead in the center court of the movement.

[skr]

john-david. Why did you have to post that DailyKos thread? I need a drink. My head hurts.

[alan]

Incidentally, I believe the underlying story of the McCarthy era is how a group of Trotskyites got clueless Republicans to do their dirty work and get back at the Stalinist who had blackballed them during WW2.

A personal theory of mine, I admit, developed after I got a hold of a rare book from James Burnham's oeuvre that seemed intent on propagandizing to do just that.

[Narcissist Hour]

Why repeat/report anything Limbaugh says?
Is this MSNBC?

[alan]

I'd rather have a functioning welfare system than worrying about being mugged by someone destitute

More welfare has lead to more crime, not the other way around. I know you were just trying to get along over there,
John-David, but that lets them off the hook in a major way.

That poster jabuhrer who started that thread is a one person case book study on the Jungian theory of animus. Someone who has built an entire superfluous apparatus of shadow built around a hatred of something he or she doesn't comprehend.

[John-David]

alan,

Correlation does not equal blah blah blah.

I haven't seen a study to prove the effects of welfare on crime one way or the other, so yeah, I threw them a bone. It was an honest bone on my part, though.

[alan]

Okay, I accept you are honest on your terms, and didn't mean to suggest you weren't.

It's been years since I dug into serious welfare policy matters, not to mention criminology, I had to do a big round of both, but what I saw pretty much convinced me that welfare does create a lessening of boundaries towards other people's property due to a sense of entitlement. True that is academic, but considering familiarity with deadbeats in my own extended family, and I highly doubt if I'm off base.

[David]

Quote from Ezekiel J. Emanuel (adviser for the Obama administration on health care reform):

"Services provided to individuals
who are irreversibly prevented from being
or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia."

http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/Where_Civic_Republicanism_and_Deliberative_Democracy_Meet.pdf

Or:

"Treating 65-year-olds differently because of stereotypes or falsehoods would be ageist; treating them differently because they have already had more life-years is not."

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)60137-9/fulltext

I can see some "National Socialist" lineage in that quote.

[alan]

Pretty good job you did over there. The over the top reaction to your comment about New Orleans was priceless. BTW, my dads people are a collection of Isle?os and Mexicans who settled some time ago in New Orleans and the Delta. There was nothing untruthful about what you said, nor offensive.

In fact a few years before the flood, an uncle of mine explained to me how the levies would inevitably give way when the forces pushing them collectively (thus reinforcing) was ever exceeded by water pushing from flooding from the inside.

He was ready for it, and by that, I mean, he made out like a bandit from Federal largese. He spent last Summer in Europe and this Summer he is still vacationing in Alaska.

The worst kind of bandit, btw, former New Orleans cop, former private dick, current professor of criminology at a university in Florida. In my family, the dead beats come in all social classes!

[joshua corning]

Joshua Corning and Invisibile Finger-

Moynihan's ego has problems with media/cultural superstars. Notwithstanding the baseles assertions that "Rush is a retard" and the like, Moynihan knows that he can't match wits with Limbaugh, never mind fame, fortune, influence, etc.

Actually i like Moynihan a lot and Rush a little...and i am pretty sure Moynihan could beat the crap out of Rush in print, while Rush could beat the crap out of Moynihan on radio...two different mediums really and it seems to me odd that Moynihan would go after things that are an artifact of Rush's medium....It's like going after the midgets and porn stars on Stern. Rush has 3 hours to fill everyday and he throws in weird crap like the logo thing tongue in cheek all the time and yes they are very much tongue in cheek.

I would much rather Moynihan actually go after Rush for the things an average libertarian would disagree with then Rush's radio snark and long running inside jokes.

[joshua corning]

stuartl | August 6, 2009, 8:36pm | #
Michael, this is a joke by Limbaugh. He is playing around with Pelosi's silly swastika comments.

Bingo!!!

I think it is time Moynihan puts in a retraction.

[John-David]

If whoever posts at DailyKos as Jay Elias posts here, I'd love to know who he is. That guy is doing better work than I at making libertarian cases in the diary threads.

Honestly, I think it would be a trip if more of u s participated in diary threads at DKos. Some people there are willing to change their views, but even if they aren't it's more fun than circle jerking here and arguing with trolls.

[BruceM]

The health insurance reform protesters (aka paid representativess of the health insurance companies) WERE carrying swastikas. I just saw pictures of it on tv tonight. One had a swastika, one had SS lightning bolts.

And it's not being hypocritical for democrats to call Bush a nazi over warrantless wiretaps, the Patriot Act, denial of habeas corpus, but to complain when republicans call Obama a nazi over healthcare reform. One actually has something to do with the actions of the german national socialist party and the other has absolutely nothing to do with it (concluding that both are "socialist" doesn't cut it, sorry... lots of things are socialist but not "nazi"... and the nazis themselves had about as much to do with socialism as the democratic republic of congo has to do with democracy).

Honestly, I think it would be a trip if more of u s participated in diary threads at DKos.

I'd rather fly to Pakistan and try to convince Muslims that worshipping a pedophile warlord is a bad thing. Either way I'll be ripped to shreds.

and the nazis themselves had about as much to do with socialism as the democratic republic of congo has to do with democracy

Never mind that 800lb state-controlled gorilla on your back.

[Limp Dick of Justice]

Making fun of ED sufferers is terribly sex-negative.

No, it isn't.

I support all worthy sex. If you're an aging pasty chubby suburbanite who can't get it up, that is nature's way of telling you that you don't deserve to have sex any more.

Making fun of ED sufferers is ED-sufferer-negative, not sex-negative.

I for one find ED sufferers quite amusing. It's true, guys - the person behind you in line at the pharmacy is laughing at you on the inside. Why? 'Cause your dick don't work.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Limp Dick,

Try growing up, maybe.

[franz kafka]

fuck bho

[libertymike]

TAO-

It just was an instant thought.

[Douglas Fletcher]

"Beijing instead of Peiping? "

Ni hao ma.

If you go to "Peiping" and ask someone where they live they'll say "Beijing."

The reformed spelling may be a pain but it actually sounds like the Chinese that is spoken now. One thing the commies have done right, somehow.

[Gilbert Martin]

"and the nazis themselves had about as much to do with socialism as the democratic republic of congo has to do with democracy)."

Wrong.

Nazi was an acronym for National SOCIALISM.

[Peter]

As usual with Limbaugh's detractors, you are completely missing the context of his remarks. He was reacting to Nancy Pelosi's insinuation that health care opponents were Nazis.

He was basically making the point that the nazi party was a statist party that believed in govt. control of industry, cradle to grave welfare, vegetarianism and environmentalism.

He wasn't calling Obama a nazi as much as he was sending out a warning about creeping statism.

Libertarians should understand that, right?

[dhex]

what was limbaugh's stance on the patriot act?

i'm going to take a guess and say it was less than a warning about creeping statism. (or in that case, blatant statism.)

and jesus daily kos yeesh. good luck in the shallow end of the poo pool, kids.

[Tony]

Fucking "libertarians" creaming their pants over Rush Limbaugh. Give me a fucking break.

Don't you know a demagogue when you see one? Rush may be laughing all the way to the bank but his idiot followers take this shit seriously.

[Gerry Smith]

Let's face it a lot of Americans find it very, very difficult to work out the difference between "property for use" and "property for power" and Boy do those health care insurance companies have power. Even to the point of determining life over death. Hitler would have been a big fan!

[J Mann]

I haven't heard the Limbaugh bit in context, but:

1) If it was a joke in response to Pelosi playing the Nazi card the other day, then well-played, sir.

2) If it was serious, then it's lame.

Let's take a look at the transcript . . .

Well, he played this clip twice:

"PELOSI: I think they are Astroturf -- you be the judge -- of carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town hall meeting on health care. "

and he took a lot of offense at Pelosi playing the Nazi card. Ultimately, the sense I get is that it's not exactly a joke or a serious comparison of Obama to Nazis -- it's more of an effort to say that the Dems live in a glass house, and if we start calling each other Nazis, it's not any harder to point at the Dems than the Dittoheads.

[R C Dean]

I didn't hear this particular Rush rant, but I think there is a difference between:

(a) Obama is using a Nazi logo!

(b) Obama's minions have accused the patriotic dissenters of using Nazi logos. He's got a lot of nerve. Look at his logo!

[moosey]

i caught the rant and thought Rush was going nuts. then i actually listened to what happened before the rant via podcast. it was obvious he was just throwing back the "they are all Nazis" into Pelosi's face.

i was disappointed that Pelosi's quote was not mentioned in Moynihan's post giving Rush's rant some context.

[R C Dean]

Some issues you won't see on these [libertarian] sites [like Reason Magazine] very often- criminal justice, death penalty, drug war, immigrant rights, prisoner's rights, gay rights, racial justice, reproductive freedom, rights of the poor and voting rights. These are all issues that fall directly under the umbrella of personal liberties, any way you slice it.

I would say those topics account for more than half of Hit & Run's posting, far more than half of the comments.

[Tacos mmm...]

Those crazy Prussians, stamping an eagle on everything.

[Tacos mmm...]

He was basically making the point that the nazi party was a statist party that believed in govt. control of industry, cradle to grave welfare, vegetarianism and environmentalism.

...and also in nationalism, military expansion, supressing labor unions, imprisoning homosexuals...

Nazi doctrines were incompatible with economic liberalism, true, but also with social liberalism. The party drew from both the left and right wings of the political spectrum, allowing demogogues of both affiliations to make smearing comparisons.

[Tony]

J Mann,

Pelosi played the Nazi card? There are pictures of teabaggers carrying swastikas. They are not using them as symbols but rather accusing Obama of being a Nazi. That's what Pelosi was referring to, and Rush was not responding to her playing a Nazi card but rather doubling down on the teabaggers' accusation.

I am a free speech absolutist, but if you believe in free speech then you must also believe that speech has the power to motivate action, and that some speech is not about pragmatic debate but about shutting debate down and calling your opponents evil. That's what this is. Pelosi called no one Nazis. The righties did it, and Rush sanctioned it.

[Y-Not]

Tony | August 7, 2009, 9:22am | #
Fucking "liberals" creaming their pants over Obama. Give me a fucking break.

Don't you know a demagogue when you see one? Obama may be laughing all the way to the bank but his idiot followers take this shit seriously.

[Y-Not]

Limbaugh played the Nazi card? There are pictures of Democrats with swastika tattoo on their arms. Senator Rockefeller went around calling one a great old friend. That's what Limbaugh was referring to, and Pelosi was spitting out her usual moobat prattle.

I am a free speech absolutist, but if you believe in free speech then you must also believe that speech has the power to be rediculed, and that some speech is not about pragmatic debate but just makes the speaker look absolutely stuped. That's what this is. Limbaugh called no one Nazis. The leftist did it directly and in their accusations of thuggery, never mind the actual thuggish actions of their Benito loving Union supporters, and Pelosi sanctioned it.

[moosey]

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/83108/

[Darii]

The comparison between the two logos is tenuous at best. But if Rush is just trying to tweek liberals, he's sure got their attention.