Sandra Fluke Responds to Latest Attack by Limbaugh Over Student Loans

"Contraception isn't enough -- some people want their education paid for by other people too," says Rush Limbaugh, whose bizarre obsession with the sex life of law school student Sandra Fluke made him a global laughingstock earlier this year.

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell invited Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke to respond to Rush Limbaugh's latest attack on her, this time for daring send out a tweet on the fact that interest rates are going to to up on student loans if Congress fails to act shortly. Fluke was gracious as usual and discussed how ridiculous it was to accuse her of some kind of "coordinated" attack with the Obama administration.

As she noted, if she wants to know what the President is doing, she finds out like most of the rest of us and uses Google. Fluke pointed out that the changes were not doing to directly affect her, but they would greatly impact incoming students and fellow students she interacts with daily, who really cannot afford the rate hikes, which might make the cost of going to college prohibitive for those just on the edge of being able to afford it right now.

Sandra Fluke Responds to Latest Attack by Limbaugh Over Student Loans (Thanks, Jason!)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Brainspore

…says the guy who flunked out of a public college.
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones
  
  Yes, but years later he got a Masters Degree in Life Experience Studies from one of those universities advertised in the back of in-flight magazines.
  
  And he graduated Magna Cum Fucktard!
Alexander Janssen

Looks like someone should’ve paid for this guy’s education.
- Brainspore
  
  His parents (and the State of Missouri) tried, they really did. Unfortunately Rush proved unusually impervious to education.
TooGoodToCheck

On one hand, Rush is obviously being a dick, and I don’t know why he is following Sandra Fluke’s tweets.

On the other hand, if you look at this from an Attention Economy point of view, Rush is kind of doing the world a favor by bringing the spotlight again to such a charming eloquent advocate of reasonable public policy.
http://twitter.com/ethicalcannibal Ethical Cannibal

Why does Limbaugh still even have a show. I can’t even understand why anyone would consider him relevant.
- VicqRuiz
  
  That’s very reminiscent of the (probably apocryphal) quote attributed to movie critic Pauline Kael:
  
  “I don’t know how Richard Nixon could have won. I don’t know anybody who voted for him.”
- townandgownie
  
  Because we (all who are reasonable and thoughtful – liberal or conservative) forget that there is a huge audience out there who thinks exactly like him and feel vindicated for their hateful, cynical and prejudiced world view. He gives them reinforcement and validation.
  
  And it’s doubly shameful that moderate and liberal conservatives don’t call out Rushy for the blowhard that he is. They’d rather say nothing because they think that anything anti-Liberal is good for them regardless of the source.
  - VicqRuiz
    
    ”moderate and liberal conservatives”
    
    Can you name a few??
- http://goodsharer.com/ Aloisius
  
  The same reason people paid attention to Howard Stern. He’s a shock jock.
  - http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher
    
    It’s worth noting, though, that, unlike Howard Stern, Limbaugh has admitted–on his own show, no less–to promoting people he didn’t think deserved to be in office solely because of the [R] after their name. When Democrats took control of Congress in 2006 Limbaugh claimed he felt “liberated”, saying, “I no longer am going to have to carry the water for people who I don’t think deserve having their water carried.”
    
    I could say that Limbaugh was admitting here that he valued party above principles, but then he’d have to actually have principles for that to be true.
- chgoliz
  
  Half of the country does.
  
  Never let down your guard. Half of the country believes THIS is reality.
mack

Sandra “Fluck”?
EH

Why is Rush given this legitimacy? She should just call him a pill-popping sex-tourist and get on her way, for crying out loud. “Because he’s insane. What other response is there?”
- http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke
  
  It’s amusing that Rush is basically giving Sandra Fluke all this legitimacy. If she starts becoming the ‘go-to’ girl on women’s issues because of Limbaugh’s insults, it would be the sole thing to justify Rush Limbaugh’s existence. I wish her a long and lucrative career!
Shinkuhadoken

Oh, Rush. How could Fluke be an Obama conspiracy? You pretty much hoisted yourself on your own petard on that one. But hey, early retirement is right around the corner. Good luck with those doctor bills!
- Guest
  
  Maybe Rush works for Obama? That would make as much sense as anythig the Big Fat Idiot has ever said.
silkox

Then there’s the part about how the tweet was about student loans, which involve students paying for their own education.
- Guest
  
  I know, how DARE we use the government to incentivise positive change?
ferrjerr

with the right wing nutjobs you have to remember that it’s not about FACTS..it’s about hyperbole. Keep repeating a lie often enough and it’ll be taken as fact.
- http://twitter.com/GideonTJones Gideon Jones
  
  This. Not at all convinced the guy above was a troll. I’ve seen similar comments all over right wing sites today, seems like there’s a lot of agreement among them that Obama is plotting to give away their hard earned money to slacker unemployed liberal college elitists.
  - mccrum
    
    Fantastic! In that case I’m going to stop working and open up my job to one of those hard working, uneducated masses! That’ll jump start the economy.
- EH
  
  On all sides of mainstream politics, I agree that it’s not (so much) about facts, but I don’t agree that it’s about hyperbole. What good is hyperbole for hyperbole’s sake? It’s about turning a limited set of facts into a feeling.
  - jimh
    
    Basically, spin.
    For instance, what’s about to happen involves an interest rate relief (subsidy) that is set to expire if no action is taken. Kind of like the Bush tax-cuts-for-the-1% will expire at the end of the year unless they are extended.
    
    D’s want to extend the relief for student loan rates, R’s want to let it expire unless something they don’t like gets cut to pay for it. (Just guessing, but I’d bet on some social service that benefits the very poor and/or their children.)
    
    Michael Steel, spokesman for John Boehner, spins it like this, in a textbook blame-shifting tactic: “The rising cost of tuition is a serious problem for students and their families, so it’s unfortunate that Washington Democrats put in place a law that would double student loan rates”. Basically he’s blaming D’s for enacting a relief package that would expire… And dancing nicely around the fact that his party is basically opposed to extending the relief.
Guest

@workingdude – For the same reason we have to pay for an army we’d pretty much all like to see stop being the top budget item* year after year.

* – mostly off budget actually, and that method of accounting should change, too.
- mccrum
  
  Is this because you don’t feel The Homeland is worth protecting from Them?
  - Guest
    
    I think the homeland is worth protecting from the DoD. Yes.
Dave Lloyd

Some people want education to be paid for by all of us so we all benefit from a country full of well educated people who are not saddled with a heavy debt. We’re trying to grow into an advanced civilisation – we can’t do that if most of us are ignorant.
- grimc
  
  Unfortunately, half of us have below average intelligence.*
  
  *Apologies to George Carlin
  - TooGoodToCheck
    
    technically, half are below the median. average is a different beast.
    - Fnordius
      
      Now you’re just being a mean commenter.
    - twianto
      
      Technically, the term ‘average’ includes mean.
    - modusoperandi00
      
      What about the mode? Oh, won’t anyone thing of the mode?!
- 4d3fect
  
  This. Unfortunately the unwashed masses are of the opinion they’re not ignorant.
  - Guest
    
    Many are the smartest person they know
- robuluz
  
  You guys don’t need education, you’ve got guns!
http://twitter.com/golvio golvio

There’s something very surreal about this whole thing. It’s like an XBox live troll who sends obscene messages to girls, except his name and address are displayed in his username.
http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

I wish we were like 30 years in the future, so the remote possibility would exist that a black van would pull up in front of Limbaugh’s house as he was leaving for ‘work’, four beefy guys bundle him in the back and inject him with a sedative, and he’s packed up and shipped off to banishment on the dark side of the Moon.

Maybe someone could start a Kickstarter fund for something like that…?
- http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke
  
  The Moon Nazis are there! He should fit right in!
- VicqRuiz
  
  It must be tough living in a (somewhat) free country when your fantasies involve controlling the behavior of others, what??
  - http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
    
    Pffff…
    
    Reaching, much?
ChrisLeBeouf

Is Limbaugh’s audience not large enough that we need to have him on MSNBC? Seriously, why does this network insist on copying the Fox News formula of outrage baiting? They don’t do it as well as Fox does if its to get ratings, and its embarrassing for anyone who is politically sympathetic with them.
- Tyler Riddle
  
  Because the Fox News spread sheet has a bigger number in the lower right corner than the MSNBC spreadsheet, until MSNBC added in the “Follow in Rupert Murdoch’s foot steps” row on their future revenue predictions.
http://twitter.com/qazwart David Weintraub

Rush is right. If the government pays for everyone’s education, where is the hired help going to come from?

Those Bentleys don’t polish themselves you know.
- takurospirit
  
  Actually if we ever somehow did manage to educate nearly 100% of the population, we’d just have Bentley polishers with doctorates at some point. But I’m all for educating everyone. Even the less than average with useful skills and basic knowledge.
Brainspore

Oh just drop the act, Rush… we know it’s you.
unclemike

Reading comprehension not your bag, workingdude? The article in question is about the interest rate on student loans. Nobody is being forced to pay for anybody else’s student loan.
Gtmac

Don’t feed the troll.
Guest

it’s all about the people with bad character who are jealous about what he’s worked for, and everyone else has had handed to them.

In other words, it’s all about workingdude’s antisocialism.
unclemike

Define “most.” The default rate for student loans is only about 8%.
Felton / Moderator

Yes, but that’s a fact. See ferrjerr’s comment below.
Antinous / Moderator

Yes. That.
Mark_Frauenfelder

workingdude: Millions of patriotic Americans are proud to pitch in to help their fellow citizens learn punctuation and how to capitalize sentences so they can get good jobs. It’s better than ending up with a country full of greedy sub-literates.
PNWchemist

I really wish i could read the removed comments.

Could you just make it so you have to click to see them?

I know someone said something stupid but i don’t know what it is and i want to know :(

Or make them appear again in 24 hours, since there is a reason you removed them in the first place.
mack

Fully agree! Whatever happened to disemvowelment?

Killing comments kills the commons and just invites trolls to grow more creative, spawn more bogus accounts and try harder.

Disemvowelment did a great job of taking the piss without being, um, censorship. Which is what you’re doing right now.
Antinous / Moderator

Since you can edit your own comments, it wouldn’t be much of a fix.