I dunno how to feel about this. On the one hand, it's Rush in jail! (And there was much rejoicing) But why the fuck should that prick get to benefit from the revolving door of justice he so loudly rails against! Damnit, he's some drug-wacko, he has no place on American streets. Lock him up!
(Hint: That, however garishly painted, was actually IRONY. Just saving me the flaming of a lifetime. Thank you.)
Posted by M. Freeman at April 28, 2006 03:56 PMPoor Rush suffered the humility of having to go thru his sofa cusions for the 3 grand bail.
Sure they will drop the charges after 18 months, but then, just WHERE does this man go to get his reputation and dignity back?
Posted by TIKI AL at April 28, 2006 03:58 PMWell, as someone posted on my blog, maybe we didn't see Rove indicted today, but this isn't a bad second prize!
Posted by Christopher at April 28, 2006 04:13 PMIf he abides by his part of the settlement agreement the charges will be dismissed. He will not be convicted of anything.
Posted by j swift at April 28, 2006 04:31 PMThe Case of Lush Rimjob is proof that our nation has been corrupted. Justice has become a commodity like most everything else in America, with those who can afford to pay the cost suffering no penalty for their crimes. I expect to see the world's reaction over the next few days as being "We told you so!"
Posted by pessimist at April 28, 2006 04:32 PMThis was nothing, but if you want to see more than that, great for you.
Posted by jj at April 28, 2006 04:43 PMjust WHERE does this man go to get his reputation and dignity back?
Can't lose what you never had.
So Rush gets the standard "white boy" first-time offender option.
Probably take him about .5 days to start railing again about minorities and drug abuse and how they should all be locked up and the authorities should throw away the key. "If you're white, it's all right." (And if you're a 'Thug, your crime doesn't count!)
Posted by corduroy joe at April 28, 2006 05:32 PMSteve - you should start a 'mugshots' page with delay and ox. But you gotta post the front/side views their license plate numbers.
Posted by Jim Faith at April 28, 2006 05:44 PMRush should constantly be reminded of his comment that not enough white people go to jail for drug charges!
What a loser!
Posted by Ga6thDem at April 28, 2006 06:36 PM"just WHERE does this man go to get his reputation and dignity back?
Can't lose what you never had."
And the people who hold him in high esteem will not be fazed by this...like the good little cult of personality idolaters that they are.
Actually I believe it's costing him $30,540.00 + attorney's fees to settle this. He's getting off 'cheap' (as opposed to actual time in prison) because he has money - no doubt. I suspect from his standpoint, the $30K he'll pay the state is probably cheaper then what he'd pay his lawyer and in the end he ends up 'not guilty' and behind him in about 18 months...
Posted by OutsideTheEchoChamber at April 28, 2006 09:12 PMI see Drudge has a big "Not Guilty!" headline screaming at the top of his page.
Gee, kind of gives you the impression that Rush was completely exonerated of any wrondoing.
So, that's their story, and their sticking to it.
Posted by Zack at April 29, 2006 03:43 AMAnother joke in the world of crime. Oh, and any bets on Ken Lay walking?
Posted by Judith at April 29, 2006 06:25 AMSo did Jeb get to the new prosecutor? After winning all the way to the FLA Supreme Court, this is all they do to the idiot? 30 grand didn't even cover expenses.
My tea leaves tell me Ken will be Bruno's future bitch.
Which club Judith? And please don't tell me you were the dishwasher! Lake Geneva was my source for water skiing partners.
Posted by TIKI AL at April 29, 2006 09:49 AMCongrats to Rush, and may he have many more years as the most popular talk show host on radio!
....hey Lefties: how is that whole Air America thing working out?
Posted by Bagley at April 29, 2006 05:49 PMWell, well, well. Rush is arrested. And everyone is enjoying it. Break out the champagne, shall we?
However, before you stampede toward my collection of vintage Bollinger (which lamentably only exists in my imagination - there but for an accident of birth go I) let's sit and ponder for a moment shall we?
Recently, I've needed painkillers. And badly. If any of you here have ever had a kidney stone, especially one that decided to break up and leave jagged bits of rock in your ureter as mine did (followed by the nice experience of peeing asteroids and hoping that none of them scratch my tubes even more), then you'll know what pain is. That was the first time in my entire life that I needed intravenous morphine. I can tell you right now that producing urine samples that resemble Merlot in appearance, coupled with the passage of a jagged rock down some very delicate and narrow pipework, is NOT something you want to experience in a hurry. Want to know what it feels like? I'll tell you. Imagine you have a live rat in your peritoneal cavity, equipped with rd-hot Borazon-tipped incisors gnawing his way out of you, while peeing molten lava in his wake. If that makes you wince, good.
Now here in the UK, I'm fortunate. I ring for an ambulance, and I'm taken to hospital and treated. Without worrying if my credit card will stand a huge hit for healthcare. I'll leave state funded medicine and its virtues aside for a moment. So, when the doctors saw that I was absolutely purple with agony, they decided that yes, something needed to be done, and fast. When the spell in hospital was over, I was handed a nice prescription and given a letter to take to my family doctor in case I needed repeat prescriptions afterwards. A similar procedure applied when I was recovering from my tonsil operation six years ago (and believe me, that's another experience you don't want to queue up for in a hurry unless you need it - which, in my case, having had thirty-two doses of septic tonsillitis in the seven years before the op, I did). After the joy of emerging from theatre to discover that my throat felt as though someone had poured molten tungsten into it (check its melting point and discover why I chose that analogy) I was given another long term prescription just in case I needed it.
So, having had some less than happy medical experiences of my own, I'm less tempted to jump on the schadenfreude bandwagon here, even if the guy in question is a complete jerk.
Now let's do some sums. According to the news reports, this guy received 2,000 painkiller tablets in a six month period. Let's pick a random six month slot, say, April to September. That's 183 days if you add the days up. 2,000 tblets divided by 183 days is a little under 11 tablets per day, assuming of course all of them are consumed in this time frame. If, as is more likely, the consumption figure is 8 tablets per day (which here in the UK is the going rate for some cancer patients with particularly nasty tumours to manage), then this gives us 8 x 183 = 1,464 tablets consumed in that six months, and a buffer of 536 tablets providing a 67 day buffer to the next prescription. Again, not unreasonable figures to someone like myself who has both some personal experience in this field, and knowledge of people around me with some fairly unpleasant conditions that none of you reading this ever want to be struck down by.
Now, if this guy has a diagnosed medical condition requiring long term painkiller management, and acquires the painkillers via the prescription process, I fail to see what the hell he's been arrested for in the first place, and second, consider it a tad unseemly to gloat over this guy's fate, jerk or not.
Just a thought for you all to consider before toasting his demise.
What he was busted for, David Edwards, was doctor shopping. What this means in American is that he would go to several doctors to get simultaneous prescriptions. While your scenario suggests what he would get from any one prescription, why would he need to have several unless he was not just using them, but abusing them? As I recall, he had thousands of these pills in his possession when first arrested.
Posted by pessimist at April 30, 2006 07:24 AMIn this case, everyone's going to feel like a winner - Rush, the Palm Beach County prosecutor's office, and the left.
Steve's got his finger on it - Roy Black may be the biggest winner, when he adds up the billable hours from this plus the enhancement of his reputation.
But keep in mind, Rush is a talk show host - an entertainer. Skewering him just adds to the publicity, and for talk show hosts there's no such thing as bad publicity (unless, as Brendan Behan wrote, it's your obituary).
Posted by Buddy at April 30, 2006 12:37 PMActually the only losers in this case are the American people... you know how on TV you always hear "That's privileged Dr. - Patient information and I can't divulge that." well that statement has been found FALSE in FLA, if the police want to ask your Dr. what you are taking - your Dr. is going to tell them. It doesn't hurt Rush; his case as we see is going away quietly - but it'll come back to bite someone - maybe you.
Posted by OutsideTheEchoChamber at April 30, 2006 09:47 PM