Limbaugh lies:

Oct 22 broadcast (R L website, BoomanTribune): (excerpts, emp add)

Guys are trying to keep flames from coming underneath the door in their garages and so forth. And the people that were noticeably absent were the environmentalist wackos. Where were Greenpeace, Sierra Club and where were their bucket brigades, where do these people show up in time of disaster like this?

These fires are an annual thing. This one is considered to be a little worse because of where it's hitting. It's hitting Malibu, which is an upper-crust, elitist enclave.

But, you know, Brentwood, where O.J. Simpson lived, that's not far from Malibu. It's not just a hop, skip, and trip, but it's not far from Malibu. It's close enough that people in Brentwood could have helped out if they wanted to. I'll tell you why I mention this, is that while fires were raging out there in Malibu, Hillary Clinton was celebrating in Brentwood at the home of Meathead, Rob Reiner, on Saturday night, who was singing songs to her. It was a preliminary birthday party.

Limbaugh goes on to disparage Clinton and "the Hollywood elite" for ignoring or not caring about the fires.

Saturday was October 20.

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UPDATE/CORRECTION: Other press reports have the Clinton/Reiner event taking place on Sunday, October 21. Thus, the critique below is mistaken. Uggabugga regrets the error. Limbaugh did state the event was on Saturday, and that was what this post responded to. Highlighted screenshot:

The second part of the argument (further below) that people were told to stay away from affected areas, remains valid.

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California wildfires of October 2007 (Wikipedia):

The California wildfires of October 2007 are a series of wildfires that began burning across Southern California on October 20 ...

Various data tables are presented for each affected county.

• First fires in San Diego County: October 21
• First fires in Orange County: October 21
• First fires in San Bernadino County: Oct 22
• First fires in Santa Barbara: Oct 21
• First fires in Riverside County: October 21

All fires in Los Angeles & Ventura Counties:

Buckweed October 21 at 12:55 p.m.
Canyon (Malibu) October 21 at 4:50 a.m.
Magic October 22 at 2:17 p.m.
Meadowridge October 23 at 12:30 p.m.
Ranch (Castaic / Piru) October 20 at 9:42 p.m.
October October 22 at 10:40 p.m.

On Saturday, October 20, the day Limbaugh was saying folks in Brentwood couldn't give a damn about the Malibu fire, there was no fire in Malibu. The only fire that started that day - in all of Southern California - was near Magic Mountain (amusement park) that is north of Los Angeles, along Interstate 5, in the direction of Bakersfield.

Also, regarding Limbaugh's complaint that nobody came out to help

"... one thing stood out to me, especially in Malibu, when you watch the wall-to-wall coverage, you see firemen, you see homeowners, you see landlords, you see business owners all struggling to save their homes and their businesses, and when the fire department wasn't able to help, they used garden hoses to fight the flames."

is that people were told to stay away from the area. Anybody coming in, to look or to help, would have made it much harder for the fire departments to do their job. If anything, the emphasis was to have residents get the hell out. (A garden hose may show fighting spirit, but it's practically worthless under the circumstances this week and puts the person using it at risk - which might result in using rescue resources better applied elsewhere.)

It's not breaking news that Limbaugh spouts total nonsense, but someone has to document it, thus this post. People outside of the area could well be unfamiliar with the timeline and buy Limbaugh's barely-credible scenario, but those of us who live in Los Angeles are very aware of how the events unfolded and what people were told to do (or not do). We're not fooled.


posted by Quiddity at 10/24/2007 08:44:00 PM