You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

DOWNLOADS: 112

PLAYS: 10

(Still the awkward silence and "not in my neighborhood")

In June of 1989, Montreal hosted the 5th annual International Conference on AIDS. A public awareness was painfully slow in coming, as was any medical breakthrough. Stigmas were well in place - it was still by and large considered a "gay disease" - treatment was at the "guinea pig" stage and it was still a struggle to get useful support.

The interesting correlation between this and the current state of Health Care is where the AMA had placed itself in the AIDS question. Crocodile tears of "oh how horrible" and much ersatz hand-wringing, but the true issue came out when a spokesman for the AMA declared "who is going to pay for this?"

And again, the price tag for human life is to be negotiated.

This piece, part of the CBS Radio Newsmark series first aired on June 11, 1989.

Audio and more from Media Matters:

On the August 19 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh said that "it is striking how unqualified [Sen. Barack] Obama is and, and how this whole thing came about with, within the Democrat [sic] Party. I think it really goes back to the fact that nobody had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy." Limbaugh went on to say: "I think this is a classic illustration here where affirmative action has reared its ugly head against them. It's the reverse of it. They've, they've ended up nominating and placing at the top of their ticket somebody who's not qualified, who has not earned it." Limbaugh added: "It's perfect affirmative action. And because of all this guilt and the historic nature of things, nobody had the guts to say, well, wait a minute, do we really want to do this?" Read on...

Yes, someone should have told this young, uppity negro to STFU and know his place in American society. You knew he was a baby killer, right?

Rush is a racist pig, we all know that. We knew long ago that the Republicans weren't going to go down without a fight and that this election cycle was going to yield some of the ugliest politics in modern history -- this is what it looks like. The stench of desperation makes this even more pathetic, as Limbaugh and the party he so diligently carries water for, take their nose dive into the political dustbin.  

Roger Waters lost his pig.

Open thread below...

UPDATE: The pig has come home.