February, 2009:

Let me begin by saying “I know this is a dangerous post”. The danger is mitigated by the fact that there are no readers of the Trifling Blog at present. Should someone inadvertently arrive at this blog, read this posting and think that I am poking fun, I am not. Should you wonder about my political affiliation, I am squarely behind the POTUS, his ideology and his personae. If you are just wondering if using these soundbytes on a blog shows a lot of hubris, the answer is probably “yes”.

It all started with a little websurfing (Cyberspaziergang): This is where I originally found the source material: http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/phlog/archive/2009/02/05/barack-obama-is-tired-of-this.aspx

Begin actual blog entry…

It’s like being on a treasure hunt, a few moments ago I ran across some soundbytes of the POTUS reading from his own book describing a character from his past in most ethnocentric terms.  It came as no surprise of course that the man would be capable of ethnocentric speech; but the acquisition of these soundbytes is in-and-of itself an interesting evolutionary moment in the history of our Country. Perhaps this is the first sign of our own Berlin wall falling down. The wall I refer to is the wall of prejudice wrapped in political correctness that seems to define the screwed up litigious age we live in.

The first thing I did was to pull them all into Audacity one at a time (yes, I am ignoring the obvious pun there) and started manipulating the files. I would shorten one, extract key words, play with pitch and timbre, all the while thinking of what mischief I might play armed with these tiny little Obama bullets. The thoughts began to whirl in my mind, and visions of cell-phone-tones danced in my head.

Then a wave of new consciousness swept over me, it was interesting. I picked up the soundbytes that were laying in a pile on my desktop (computer) and pulled them to the trash.  Before I erased them I put an archive in one of my production folders just for posterity.

Something inside me didn’t want to let go of that particular voice of the president. A part of me wanted to hear him go all Samuel Jackson on Congress. A part of me wants to hear him jump six kinds of bad on some recalcitrant legislator being obstinate for the sake of politics and not conviction.

I’m gonna keep these files handy and use them like the “That Was Easy” button that a friend brought me from Staples. Every time there’s a gorilla or two in my livingroom, I will simply hit play on the soundfile and hear MyPresident speak some down-home.

I’m curious to see if the POTUS,  by the power of his goodwill, will succeed in changing the very face of American prejudice and erase longstanding folkways. More interesting still will be to watch these delicate towers come crumbling down.

In case you don’t happen upon these in your own cyberspaziergang, here are the MP3′s for your collection.

The Management

[audio:OBAMA BLAM.mp3]BLAM.mp3
[audio:OBAMA COMPLICATED.mp3]COMPLICATED.mp3
[audio:OBAMA FRIES.mp3]FRIES.mp3
[audio:OBAMA IGNORANT.mp3]IGNORANT.mp3
[audio:OBAMA NUMBER.mp3]NUMBER.mp3
[audio:OBAMA THAT GUY.mp3]THAT GUY.MP3

It’s amazing to me, but Rush is in the news.

I used to be a Rush fan. Not a true ditto-head, but a minor fan. My fan-hood was based on three things. First was my love of satire (I assumed he was a radio personality and a showman, not a spokesperson for conservative thought)  second was the fact that the radio station that came in the clearest in my garage carried his show.  And lastly, he liked a good Cohiba.

Now, as someone who has spent most of his adult life not really giving a good (Non gender identified creator)damn about politics; my attraction to Rush was a source of amusement to my family. Even my kids when they got to their teenage years, would come out to the garage when I was working on the car, and hear Rush on the radio and query: “Dad, why do you listen to that guy, doesn’t he piss you off”. No, in fact I found him quite amusing.

Ah, and here is the rub. This is all Rush Limbaugh should be taken for…amusement. You have to ask yourself about the man’s credentials. You have to seriously ask if he can, or should be taken seriously. A reasonable person would possibly perform a couple of perfunctory searches before deifying a radio personality like Rush, or even considering taking something he said seriously. Start with say a Wiki search on his CV. This is in fact what you get:

Education

Limbaugh graduated from Cape Central High School, in 1969. His father and mother wanted him to attend college, so he enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University. He dropped out after two semesters and one summer; according to his mother, “he flunked everything”, even a modern ballroom dancing class.^[4] As she told a reporter in 1992, “He just didn’t seem interested in anything except radio.”^[7]

The next step might be to wander over to Google images to see what you might find. A picture is, after all worth a thousand words. So here:

Or even better yet, here:

I think you get the point. Rush isn’t to be taken seriously. My position is that most of the politicians on Capital Hill shouldn’t be taken seriously either. I hope, as we usher in a new administration my attitude toward politicians changes. Where Rush is concerned? Only listen if you really like satire, and if it’s the only station the radio in the garage pulls in. Sheeeesh.