remarkable how often those two traits coincide

yes, he has 20 million listeners.
yes, he has two national bestsellers.
yes, he will join the crew of nfl sunday countdown on espn.
yes, he is rush limbaugh.

no, i'm not a republican.
no, i'm not anything near conservative.
no, i'm not a fan of his.
no, i'm not going to stop watching.

but what i will do is tune out whatever he says during his time on air.

wait a minute. strike that. reverse it.

i will listen to every word he says and then scream at the television and talk about what a moron is. how he's ruining the show. i'll lament about espn's decision to hire him. i will go to sleep crying.

i was cool with michael irvin taking over for sterling sharpe. but this?

rush tried to get the monday night football job 3 years ago, but--praise be to allah--lost to dennis miller. and he say's he has been trying for 10+ years to get on espn.

this is what we are supposed to teach our children the value of persistence is? rush limbaugh gets to talk nfl on one of my favorite networks? my kids will learn to give up quite readily.

this is happening? this is not a hoax?

"we want to give fans a voice, and rush is the person who can do it," said mark shapiro, espn's chief of production.

fans a voice? then go out and ask a bunch of fans a question about football and air the most intelligent and/or entertaining responses. would that be that hard to do? does anyone have mark shapiro's number? i'll save him money and actually give the fans a voice. do the football gods care about the media that talks about the wonderful game that the gods themselves have deemed worthy for men to play? if so, i would imagine that they are not conservatives and that they will, i hope, raze this monstrosity.

rush has this to say: "i couldn't be more excited about this, folks."

well, i'm not, folks.

but there is something deeper here. something darker.

rush works for premiere radio networks which is a subsidary of clear channel communications. the same clear channel that has snapped up over 1200 radio stations and over 30 tv stations nationwide. the same clear channel that is responsible for the absolute suck of today's mainstream radio. the same clear channel that was upset by recent congressional action concerning tv ownership rules. the same clear channel that alleged the us senate "decided to ignore the constitution." the same clear channel that is probably going to endorse w in the 2004 election. the same clear channel that now has one of it's most popular radio personalities (one of the other being the despicable dr. laura) on tv in a forum where millions of common americans (read: uneducated and probably blind supporters of whatever fox news tells them) will get to hear his conservative politics!

granted, i'm probably over-reacting. but the minute rush praises w, cheny, or rumsfeld or bashes the left, i will level espn's headquarters in bristol.

i swear to God.

with iraqi weapons of mass destruction.