Rush Limbaugh on "Segregated Buses"; Mark Potok & the Southern Poverty Law Center

The left is trying to manufacture a new bogus controversy over Rush Limbaugh's "racism." Once again they have taken his remarks out of context and presented them as if Rush meant them literally. This time it was because Rush sarcastically remarked that maybe we should bring back segregated buses so white kids wouldn't insult black thugs by their very existence.

Today leftist blogs are having a feeding frenzy over the non-fact that Rush Limbaugh has "called for segregated buses."  The usual suspects have weighed in, including Crazy Chucky at Little Green Goofballs and Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Libel Center. (I notice that Chucky's remarks indicate that he is feeling the heat from the conservative boycott of his site.)

One good thing that has come out of this latest leftwing slime attack is that Rush has taken off the gloves and described Mark Potok for the phony scam artist and libelous liar that he is.

Here is Rush's transcript and rebuttal of the smear.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: During the break Mr. Snerdley showed me a website that a friend of his had alerted him to. Apparently it has taken hold out there that when discussing Obama's America as it relates to the school bus incident -- where was that? That was in Belleville, right? Belleville, Illinois -- playing off the Newsweek story of, you know, all white kids are born racists. I did a whole routine here on, "Well, maybe we need to segregate the buses and so forth," in a joking fashion. And this guy at the Southern Poverty Law Center, this Mark Plotkin... Is that his name? What...? Mark Potok. Mark Potok says that I want to segregate buses! We're going to get to what he said and what I said but I want to preface it or precede it with Howard Dean last night on MSNBC. He was asked if he shares Pelosi's concerns over the wave of violence we all know is just waiting to break out.

DEAN:  There's a lot of money to be made in passing out hate of the kind that Rush Limbaugh is just doing.  Rush Limbaugh, look, he's always an entertainer, but he's way over the line.  And this is a long -- there's a long, unfortunate American tradition of this, going back to Father Coughlin and people before that. Just in... They appeal to the very worst in people.  They appeal to the -- to, uhh, the side of all of us that is about anger and fear and hatred, and they empower it, and it is an evil thing to do, and it's very, very bad for the country. But for a long time these people have put themselves and their wallets way ahead of America.  They pretend to be patriots, but they're not patriotic at all.

RUSH: There you have it. (laughing) Dr. Howard Dean, the former leader of the Democrat National Committee. See, they're setting this up. They've been desiring to write this story for 18 or 19 years now. They do it. Even when it's not true, they write it. "Limbaugh! Limbaugh inspires violence, angry white men." Yeah, to oppose health care, not only is it racist now, it's unpatriotic to oppose socialized medicine. (laughing) These people are kooks. They're nuts. Now let's go to this Potok kook. This guy is a genuine, off-the-wall lunatic. He's at the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was on Hardboiled last night with Chris Matthews. And this guy Potok is an embarrassment of a human being. He's claiming that I actually want segregation on buses. (laughing) Matthews said, "What is it in the atmosphere allows a person to feel comfortable showing up at a political event carrying a gun? Maybe two guns, letting people know they're armed? What is it in the atmosphere that let's a person bring a sign that compares the president to an animal or to a Nazi?" Chris, Pelosi got the Nazi thing going, dude! "What is it that makes them feel comfortable doing that kind of crap in public, Mark? I wonder if it isn't the atmosphere of language that's being used today. Your thoughts, sir, Mark Potok?"

POTOK: Yesterday Rush Limbaugh was on the air talking about an incident in which black kids attacked a white kid on a school bus, an incident the police said was not racially motivated and saying that what we need are segregated buses -- that this is the only way, I suppose, that white people can be protected from black people. I think when we have characters like Limbaugh saying that on the air to millions of Americans, many of whom actually revere the man, you know, it's not surprising that people feel that, uh, you know, the race wars around the corner and that, uh, we're allowed to say these kinds of things.

RUSH: It's incredible. (laughing) This whole race tumult is being orchestrated and run out of the White House straight out of Rahm Emanuel and Axelrod's office. They are promoting it; they are encouraging it. Isn't it amazing? You have black kids who beat up a white kid on a school bus. That's not racism. You have half the country criticizing a socialist health care plan, and that is racism. Okay, so you there heard this despicable embarrassment of a human being, Mark Potok, from the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project. Now, here's the comment I made in context, in response to a caller, obviously not a call for segregation.

BEGIN RUSH ARCHIVE CLIP
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Hey, I just was commenting on the Belleville incident with the kids on the bus. You're right. They did report that last night as being racially motivated, but I just heard the news before your show started and the police chief over -- I think he was a police chief, some law enforcement -- there said that after further investigation of it would be not racially motivated. He said he should have been more professional before he commented on it and investigated it more before he decided and stated that it was racially motivated.

RUSH: Well, did he say why, in Obama's America, that incident with the white kid getting beat up on the black school bus was not racially motivated?

CALLER: I didn't hear him comment about that. No, sir.

RUSH: Because we've seen the videotape. Have you seen the videotape?

CALLER: Oh, yeah, sure.

RUSH: We can't hear what's being said.

CALLER: No.

RUSH: So we don't know what obvious taunts this lone white student was dishing out to the whole bus.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: We don't know what obvious taunts.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: Worse than the obvious verbal taunts, we all know the racism that was in the kid's mind. I mean Newsweek magazine says he was born a racist. So you know the white kid is sitting there thinking N-word and all kinds of things being surrounded by these black students. They knew that. They knew that and so they just descended on the kid and beat him up. We've seen the videotape. What did the police chief investigate?

CALLER: He did not comment on anything other than he said more investigations shows that it was not racially motivated.

RUSH: I think the guy is wrong. I think not only was it racism, it's justifiable racism.

CALLER: True.

RUSH: I mean, that's the lesson that we're being taught here today. Kid shouldn't have been on the bus anyway.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: We need segregated buses. It was invading of space and so forth. This is Obama's America.

END RUSH ARCHIVE CLIP

RUSH: So I'm doing a total parodic rant. I mean, the sarcasm is dripping -- And this bottom feeder at the Southern Poverty Law Center, Mark Potok, is putting it out there that I made a call for segregated buses.