[quote]Rush Limbaugh will say anything to attack anyone who challenges George Bush and his policies. This time, his target is Michael J. Fox. Meds are something Rush does have a little experience with.
Emailer Doug: Rush Limbaugh today accused Michael J. Fox, actor and Parkinson’s Disease victim, of deliberately going off of his meds to appear on camera with exaggerated symptoms of his disease for dramatic effect. Fox appeared in a recent Clair McHaskill (D-MO) Senate campaign ad, touting the need for stem cell research. Limbaugh even goes so far as to accuse Fox of faking his symptoms all together.[/quote]
And now for the rest of the story…props to that other guy who says that…
[quote]Democrats Exploit Michael J. Fox’s Illness
October 23, 2006
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
Now, people are telling me that they have seen Michael J. Fox in interviews and he does appear the same way in the interviews as he does in this commercial for Claire McCaskill. All right, then I stand corrected. I’ve seen him on Boston Legal. I’ve seen him on a number of stand-up appearances. I know he’s got it; it’s pitiable that he has the disease. It is a debilitating disease, and I understand that fully. Just stick with me on this.
All I’m saying is I’ve never seen him the way he appears in this commercial for Claire McCaskill. So I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing his behavior on this commercial as an act, especially since people are telling me they have seen him this way on other interviews and in other television appearances.
Michael J. Fox is allowing his illness to be exploited and in the process is shilling for a Democrat politician. In the process of doing that, creating an impression like John Edwards tried to do that is not reality. Michael J. Fox is using his illness as a way to mislead voters into thinking that their vote for a single United States Senator has a direct impact on stem cell research in Missouri. It doesn’t, and it won’t. So Mr. Fox is using his illness as another tactic to try to secure the election of a Democrat senator by implying that with her election, that we’ll be on the road to stem cell research her opponent opposes and people who suffer from Parkinson’s disease as he does will have a cure. It’s a negative ad, and negative ads work, and people criticize them all the time as I am doing to this one, but when you see it, there’s something wrong about it in the get-go. It’s the exploitation of someone’s illness. I wonder if this would become a trend and all kinds of illness were being exploited how people would end up reacting to it and feeling about it. So if this was not an act, then I apologize. I’ve not seen this type of appearance by Michael J. Fox before and that’s why it struck me the way it did. But despite all that, I mean it’s pitiable and it’s very sad anybody has this disease, because it is debilitating in ways that people that don’t have it don’t even understand. But to exploit it like this in misrepresenting the political agenda of a particular candidate, there’s nothing admirable about that.
=====BREAK TRANSCRIPT
I must share this. I have gotten a plethora of e-mails from people saying Michael J. Fox has admitted in interviews that he goes off his medication for Parkinson’s disease when he appears before Congress or other groups as a means of illustrating the ravages of the disease. So lest there be any misunderstanding, we talked about a half hour ago of the commercial that’s running for Claire McCaskill featuring Michael J. Fox on what appears to be when he’s off his meds. I have never seen him this way and I stated when I was commenting to you about it that he was either off his medication or acting.
Let me just stress once again in what I said in closing this out, that I think this is exploitative in a way that’s unbecoming either Claire McCaskill or Michael J. Fox, because in this commercial for Claire McCaskill he’s using his illness in a way to mislead voters that there’s a cure for Parkinson’s disease if only Claire McCaskill gets elected, if only Jim Talent is defeated. And of course it’s all about stem cell research, which is a huge ballot initiative in Missouri anyway
So let there be no misunderstanding about this. I stand corrected, did not know and had never seen Michael J. Fox in the way I saw him in this commercial for Claire McCaskill. But people have and have seen him say in interviews that he doesn’t take his medications when he wants to make an impression to show people just how horrible the disease is. And it’s true of all Parkinson’s patients. At some point the medication will not work, and the condition will become permanent, and there’s nothing pleasant about it. It’s one of the most frustrating diseases one can have. Pope had it. It’s not pleasant in any way, shape, manner, or form, nor did I mean to implicate that one could easily act it out for the purposes of a commercial.read the transcript yourself Rush Limbaugh.com[/quote]
Ita all about politics folks…politics and actors…anyone who bases their political decisions on what an actor or a musician says doesn’t deserve the vote, IMO.
For the life of me I can’t understand how the likes of Limbaugh, and in Australia, Alan Jones survive. Surely their offences sit very uncomfortably with their boofheaded fan base?
Limbaugh was done for drugs and Jones for wanking in front of a copper in an London underground toilet when he was coach of the Australian rugby squad.
Um, Reagan was an actor. And Schwarzenegger. :p[/quote]By their works they shall be known.
And I do not recal either of them campaign shilling for someone else prior to their being elected. Maybe Arnie did, I lived there during the time prior to and during his election, I know he “sort of” avoided political identification prior to the Grey Davis California debacle. Maria may have been active owing to her family.
So really, your comment about these 2 is not applicable.
So the guy is not supposed to speak out in favor of a candidate on an issue he feels is important, because it won’t make a difference anyway, and if he does, he shouldn’t be sick when he does it. oooooookkkkaaaaaayyyyyyyyy i get it now
Michael J. Fox has been an advocate for stem-cell research for years now. I think there’s no doubt that his convictions on this issue are genuine. So is it much of a mystery that he might come out to confront those who, on hypocritical grounds, play politics with the health of Americans to placate their “fundamentalist” base?
In the GOP mindset, persons suffering from diseases that might be helped by stem-cell research are supposed to shut up and stay home … unless they can convincingly mimic the appearance of a “normal” person. In this view, democracy and free speech are only intended for those who have evidenced their moral superiority through a lack of God-inflicted illnesses.
Luckily Ronald Reagan is dead already, or Rush would be accusing him of showing the truth of Alzheimers for sympathy votes.
Possible adverse drug reactions from Levadopa, the most commonly prescribed medicine for Parkinson’s disease include:
include:
* Nausea, which is often helped by taking the drug with food, although protein interferes with drug absorption.
* Gastrointestinal bleeding.
* Disturbed respiration. This is not always harmful, and can actually benefit patients with upper airway obstruction.
* Hair loss.
* Confusion.
* Extreme emotional states, particularly anxiety, but also excessive libido.
* Vivid dreams and/or fragmented sleep.
* Visual and possibly auditory hallucinations.
* Effects on learning. There is some evidence that it improves working memory, while impairing other complex functions.
* Sleepiness and sleep attacks.
* a condition similar to amphetamine psychosis.
Although there are a number of adverse effects associated with levodopa, particularly psychiatric ones, it has fewer than other anti-Parkinson’s drugs, including anticholinergics, selegiline, amantadine, and dopamine agonists.
Seems to me that we need a cure for Parkinson’s. Living with these side effects is no life!
Thanks for that link, Fox. Printed it off and will have a read later. At first glance, I think I’m going to have to struggle to raise any sympathy for the man and his demons.
Can you learn to use the word “some” as in “Some GOPers”. I am conservative. I support abortion as a choice. I am all for stem cell research.
And I am all for people not inciting ignorance online too.
How do you always seem to ignore that fact that the GOP/conservative people you discuss things with rarely ever fit your neat little stereotypes?
On topic, If Rush actually said that MJF was faking, someone needs to tell him to stfu. As for TC’s comment about actors pushing agendas, I couldn’t agree more. They should stfu and voters should READ more.
While I’m wishing though, I’d like a beach house next to a sweet coal reef with daily visits by whale sharks.
Sorry to hijack Limbaugh, but here’s a classic. The link is to a Triple J treasure trove of Alan Jones out takes.
[quote]The Closet Recordings of Alan Jones
At last the definitive collection of Alan Jones blooper tapes. These insights in Alan’s workplace behaviour are taken from his time working at Sydney radio station 2UE in the 1990s. They were leaked to us by an anonymous source.
They show a side of Alan you don’t normally see in public life. He swears. He chucks tantrums. He reviews films. He complains about dust in the studios.
These recordings have been edited, and are sometimes a bit crackly and a bit tinny, (maybe there is too much dust in those studios) but if you click below you’ll be able to hear what Alan’s like in real life. [/quote]
[quote=“jdsmith”]As for TC’s comment about actors pushing agendas, I couldn’t agree more. They should stfu and voters should READ more.
While I’m wishing though, I’d like a beach house next to a sweet coal reef with daily visits by whale sharks.[/quote]
actors push agendas, stfu - uh, why? Advocacy via celebrity vs. advocacy via financial support: what’s the difference? The celebrity may have scant or poor reasons to support a cause; the wealthy may have self-interested motives. Is the first inherently more corrosive of good governance?
Voters should read more: yeah. About what? Advocacy, I suppose, might encourage people to investigate an issue that would otherwise escape them.
Whale sharks? Whale Sharks??? And you think actors are off their rockers?
[quote=“jdsmith”] As for TC’s comment about actors pushing agendas, I couldn’t agree more. They should stfu and voters should READ more.
.[/quote]
barring some reason far more weighty than “being an actor,” i can’t see why you would tell any citizen of a democracy to shut up. i can think of far more convincing arguments in Limbaugh’s case.
Um, sorry JD, but how many times have I heard some on your side generalize ad nauseum about Liberals? Let’s see, we all eat granola and doritos, are atheists, have pussy-ass foreign policy and support commumist economic principles, among other things, right?
How many times have I had to remind some of your posters that…
A) every Democratic president except Carter was a hard-ass vis-a-vis the USSR
B) the American economy was booming under every Democratic president (again except Carter – funny how conservative posters keep bringing him up)
C) Christianity was a major force behind liberal political agendas such as labor rights, anti-child labor, women’s rights etc. and many great liberal politicians such as William Jennings-Bryan were also great Christian orators.
D) While I wouldn’t know a good wine from dishwater, I don’t eat granola (doritos are ok sometimes, but the ones in Taiwan suck), wear tye-dyes or have a Che shirt.
As for yourself, I’m totally speculating here but it sounds to me that you have bought into the GOP’s attempts to pass itself off as Libertarian to middle-class non-evangelicals by paraphrasing lots of Ayn Rand in its rhetoric.
However, after how long under GOP control of the legislative and executive branches, I think that disguise can no longer wash with anyone who looks critically at what’s been going on in our country. We don’t see ‘states’ rights’, we don’t see the government getting out of the way of the individual, we don’t see conservative fiscal policies – we see an invasive, highly-corrupt and fiscally out of control BIG GOVERNMENT of the kind that must have Rand rolling in her grave on a daily basis.
Vay, please find a post where I said something to the effect that “ALL liberals were such and such.”
Change the world one person at a time and start with yourself, I always say.
And as for actors pumping candidates: it doesn’t work for me. There are far more “normal” citizens out there who have their minds around an issue and should be heard…but no, because they didn’t play a rapevictim/mother/vigilante they don’t get airtime. They have to be read.
I agree with half of this statement, the latter half. Telling a victim of Parkinson’s he should shut the fuck up for trying to promote research into a cure for his condition seems a little unfair.
Going off topic here but why is it that the vast majority of actors/musicians favor the Democrats?
