THE BULLET-RIDDEN CHIMP IN THE CARTOON WAS NANCY PELOSI. THANKS, I FEEL MUCH BETTER KNOWING THAT.

Or so said Rush Limbaugh today:

RUSH: Yeah, let me describe, for those who haven't heard it, or seen it.... you got two cops shooting a chimpanzee, right? That's Sean Delonas in the New York Post cartoon yesterday. Here is what one cop says to the cop who shot the chimpanzee: "They'll have to find somebody else to write the next stimulus bill." Now, what Elizabeth's point is, is that Obama didn't write it. Nancy Pelosi did. But if you watch the mainstream media, you don't know that.

... Obama didn't write the stimulus bill. He delegated it. I don't know that he's even read it. I don't know how many people have read it front-to-back. But if anything is being lampooned here, it's Nancy Pelosi. She's the one who wrote the thing, and then Harry Reid got hold of it and stuck his train in there, Disneyland to Las Vegas. So even as we speak Al Sharpton is leading a protest outside the building housing the New York Post in New York....

Yesterday, with some reservations, I said the cartoon probably wasn't intended to be racist. I've been thinking the point was something along the lines of "This bill is so screwy, it's like a monkey wrote it." But Limbaugh says no. Limbaugh says the point is that cops had to put two bullet holes in Nancy Pelosi. Oh, that would be much less offensive than cops shooting Obama, right?

(And notice that Limbaugh also gets in the GOP propaganda charge that Harry Reid "stuck his train in there" -- yuk yuk -- a reference to the story that there's an appropriation in the stimulus bill specifically aimed at building a high-speed train between Disneyland and Las Vegas, which is an apparently unkillable lie.)

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Also on today's Limbaugh show (hat tip Steve Benen), Limbaugh compared Democrats to murderers, rapists, and "this Muslim guy" who "offed his wife's head". From the transcript (headlined "Don't Ask Why They Hate America, Just Stop Them from Destroying It"):

RUSH: ... At this point, the only thing is: They. Must. Be. Stopped.

CALLER: I agree, and what can you do, Rush?

RUSH: Within the confines of our Constitution and the political arena of ideas, they must be stopped. I don't care why they see this country the way they see it. I don't care why a murderer does it. I don't care why a rapist does it. I don't care why this Muslim guy off-ed his wife's head. The NOW gang is out there saying (paraphrased), "Nah, that's not domestic violence. That's just..." What did they call it? "It's a cultural thing, an 'honor killing.' This woman was going to divorce him, and that's against the law. That's his diversity." You know, I don't care. I don't care why anymore. If I figure it out I'll be glad to tell you because it's interesting to know, but it doesn't matter in terms of defeating them.

Damn decent of him to throw in that "Within the confines of our Constitution and the political arena of ideas" bit -- otherwise it might seem as if he's saying that, since Democrats are as bad as the most vicious murderers and rapists, we deserve, y'know, death. Sure hope his listeners pay attention to the fine print.

And, as is typical with Limbaugh, another bloviation means another lie. This is all these people do -- birds fly, fish swim, Republicans lie. They lie every day, and their principal activity is lying. I'm referring to the swipe Limbaugh takes at NOW. This is what NOW actually said:

"This was apparently a terroristic version of honor killing, a murder rooted in cultural notions about women's subordination to men," said Marcia Pappas, New York State president of the National Organization for Women.

More, from New York State NOW's press release:

... NOW New York State is horrified that Erie County DA, Frank A. Seditall, has referred to this ghastly crime as "the worst form of domestic violence possible." The ridiculous juxtaposition of "domestic" and "beheading" in the same journalistic breath points up the inherent weakness of the whole "domestic violence" lexicon.

What is "domestic" about this violence? NOW NYS President Marcia Pappas says "it is high time we stop regarding assaults and murders as a lover's quarrels gone bad. We further demand of lawmakers that punishments fit crimes. We of NOW decry the selective enforcement of assault laws and call for judicial enforcement of our mandatory arrest policy, even when the axe-wielder is known by his victim."

And why is this horrendous story not all over the news? Is a Muslim woman's life not worth a five-minute report? This was, apparently, a terroristic version of "honor killing," a murder rooted in cultural notions about women's subordination to men. Are we now so respectful of the Muslim's religion that we soft-peddle atrocities committed in it's name? Millions of women in this country are maimed and killed by their husbands or partners. Had this awful murder been perpetrated by a African American, a Latino, a Jew, or a Catholic, the story would be flooding the airwaves. What is this deafening silence? ...

This, you'd think, is exactly what Limbaugh would want NOW to say. NOW says it -- and Limbaugh turns the statement inside out until it's the opposite of what it really is. And millions of your fellow citizens believe every word he says.

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UPDATE: The Huffington Post's Sam Stein on Limbaugh's rapist/murderer/beheader anthology:

Coming off of a tone-deaf cartoon that compared the author of the stimulus bill with a crazed, shot-dead chimpanzee, it seemed likely that, for the time being, provocative political metaphors would be put on hold. But on his radio show Thursday, Rush Limbaugh pushed the envelope once more....

"It seemed likely that, for the time being, provocative political metaphors would be put on hold"? Really? All the evidence in the few weeks of the Obama presidency, and the fall campaign, and, well, the last the entire Limbaugh/Murdoch/GOP crazy base era suggests that right-wing hysteria only increases over time -- it doesn't go in the other direction. Especially recently.