Rush Limbaugh Sinks to a New Low

Just today, Rush Limbaugh's blog has sunk to a new low!  In this blog, he insinuates (without saying it in so many words, of course) that the forecasts of the tropical storm, Isaac, were manipulated by the National Hurricane Center (NHC, a part of the National Weather Service - NWS) to cause problems for the Republican nominating convention about to take place in Tampa, FL.  He keeps insisting that he's not claiming it was a conspiracy - so often does he make this denial, it begins to appear that he "doth protest too much!"  Nudge-nudge.  Wink-wink.

What is fascinating about this is that on the whole, the NWS is a predominantly conservative bunch of folks.  The very notion that they would deliberately mislead the public in order to cause problems to the Republicans is so preposterous that it doesn't deserve any serious attention!  Except ... if no one with any real credibility as a hurricane forecaster steps up and challenges these ludicrous implications, the default assumption is that the NHC meteorologists can't challenge them!

What follows is entirely my personal opinion ...

Rush Limbaugh is an ignorant political hack.  He knows nothing about meteorology, about science, about critical thinking.  The only thing he does, besides oxycontin and hydrocodone, is write inflammatory bullshit that has little or no substance to it.  He has delusions of being a pundit, but he's built his empire by playing up to the conservative masses, spouting ideas they want to hear in various public media.  He feeds the conservative paranoia, maintaining their fear of external threats so they don't dwell on how they are voting against their own self-interests.  In the process, he's become wealthy and even gotten awards (!!).  But he keeps making really stupid statements - after doing so recently, he was forced out of his TV show after one gaffe in early 2012 that caused all his advertisers to flee, which in turn resulted in his firing.

Of course, his rabid, slack-jawed supporters hang on his every word and excuse every bit of nonsense and vituperative junk he utters.  In fact, his most rabid supporters are the very folks toward whom Rush seeks to aim his invective and innuendos.   This is the lowest common denominator amongst the conservative crowd, who see communist conspiracies everywhere, as well as cheer Rush when he makes unprovoked attacks on black Americans, gays, atheists, and women.

This time, Rush has insulted an organization of folks who daily do their best to provide us with useful weather information.  He's implied they've conspired with our President to cause harm to the Republican cause.  If there had been even a hint of that whispered in the halls of the NWS, there would have been a storm, all right:  a storm of angry protest from NWS employees at the very idea of such a conspiracy.  It's one thing for Rush to aim his popguns at politicians - no one really likes politicians anymore.  But it's quite a different thing for Rush to impugn the integrity of the staff of the NHC.  No one knows better than the NWS forecasters that it's a major challenge to get the forecasts as accurate as possible.  Rush wants to sweep all that integrity, all that science, all that hard work into the trash, because he sees a conspiracy against the conservatives!

It makes me wonder what Rush's supporters within the NWS think about him, now - are they making excuses for his attack on their integrity?  Or are they rethinking that support in light of this insult aimed at them?

Rush doesn't know anything about how computer model forecasts can shift.  Can he honestly say he's been tracking those computer model forecasts since 1997?  Does he even have a clue about the volatility of computer model forecasts?  Of course not!  Rush Limbaugh is an overinflated, narcissistic, pathetic poltroon!  Anyone who would listen to this miserable pretender to punditry deserves precisely what they get ... a pile of crap.