Listen to Limbaugh for yourself

Here is a story about Mayor Art Ward seeking an apology from Rush Limbaugh for slurring Bristol on his nationally syndicated radio show.

Bristol resident Joel Wulff, a former water commissioner, wrote this open note to Rush Limbaugh today:

Rush, I was disappointed by your comments about my home town, Bristol, CT.  I don't know if you have ever been here or are at all familiar with the place.  Bristol is home to a little over 60,000 people.  It is the home of ESPN which is our largest employer.  Lake Compounce, the nation's oldest amusement park is here as well.  We were a major manufacturing city, but we shared the fate of many locales as technology changed.  We were a major home of clock-makers, but none of them survived.  The so called "Dollar watch" was made here and was well known.  New Departure, the famed maker of ball bearings, was started here and merged into General Motors.  We still have The Barnes Group, symbol "B" on the NYSE and the largest spring maker in the world the last I knew.  The city is a good place to live.  Our parks, school system, museums, etc. attract many people. The sad thing about this incident is that it most likely hurts your reputation much more than it harms us.  We know what we have.  We know that our future is as bright as anyone's.  The folks in Bristol who like you will now question everything you say and stand for.  For the rest, your action will simply verify their already low opinion of you. Be well, jb

Update on Monday at 12:40 p.m.: Don't miss the Free Republic discussion of this topic. It's kind of fun.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Limbaugh botches Bristol "bailout"

I didn't listen to Rush Limbaugh today, but apparently the radio legend bashed Bristol a bit for allegedly receiving billions in federal bailouts.
Of course, anyone who knows Bristol understands that the charge is ludicrous. Bristol doesn't have anything to bail out with billions. Millions maybe, but billions? Never.
What happened is that Limbaugh relied on a badly written news story somewhere that lumped Bristol in with those who got bailouts because its pension fund had invested some money in a program to help kick start the economy back when credit had dried up.
The investment in a tiny way helped get the economy moving again during the worst days of the recession and wound up making a profit.
But it was peanuts in the scheme of things.
T.J. Barnes, the city GOP chair and pension guru, said that Bristol didn't get a single dollar in bailout money.
Barnes said that Limbaugh, who apparently repeated his charge a few times during his three hour show, was simply wrong.
He said he tried to call in to let the guy know, but couldn't get through.
I don't even want to begin trying to explain the financial ins and outs of what the pension fund did. Just know that it made a little money and is still among the nation's best funded plans.
So, Rush, if you're seeing this... you should check the facts. You blew it, big guy.
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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved. Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com