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Oct. 13, 2006 - Rush Limbaugh Program
32:59
October 13, 2006, Friday, Hour #2
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A man, a living legend, and a way of life.
Rush Limbaugh, serving humanity simply by showing up the EIB Network Friday.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's Open Line Friday.
And greetings to you thrill seekers and music lovers all across the fruited plane.
Time for more broadcast excellence on Open Line Friday, hosted by me, Rush Limbaugh, the director of the Limbaugh Institute and founder, by the way, of the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
Now, you know how Open Line Friday works.
We go to the phones.
Show is all yours.
Monday through Thursday, we only talk about things I care about on Friday.
I throw that rule out.
I take one of the greatest career risks anybody in major media has ever taken.
Turning over the all-important content portion of the program to you, rank amateurs.
But it's always a thrill and a delight.
Here is the telephone number, 800-282-2882.
And the email address is rush at EIBNet.com.
Chip Davis, an apology, Mannheim Steamroller.
Chip sent us a box at 20.
Well, it's a three-disc set.
It's a CD, and it's a DVD, and there's an EFX disc.
And I thought, well, I won't be able to hear any of this because I thought it was original compositions.
I had not turned it over and looked at the playlists, actually, of these discs.
But it's all music I know.
So I can't listen to music that I've never heard before.
It's just a function of the way cochlear implants work.
Very, very briefly.
Let me explain to you how this works just so you don't have any questions so you understand it.
The human ear, each ear has in the inner ear 40,000, 45,000, what are called hair cells, the different lengths and widths.
And they vibrate when they detect sound, which is all the time.
And they send, they start the whole message to the audio nerve and then the brave and the brain and so forth.
And the audioimmune attack that I suffered, the mine are dead.
And so putting cochlear implant in in the left ear removed all of those dead hair cells and replaced them with eight man-made electrodes.
So eight electrodes suffice for what 40,000, I have no frequency response, and no cochlear implant user does.
I'm not a complainer because it's in speech, it's fine, one-on-one circumstances.
And in music that I've heard before, my memory supplies the melody and I can enjoy it as much as I ever did.
It doesn't sound sounds bad.
It's not even, I wouldn't even know how to describe it to you in terms of something that you hear.
But nevertheless, if I've heard the tune before, and if it's in my memory bank, then I can enjoy it.
So I'm looking on the back of this and says, well, it's all stuff that I've heard, like the Adams Family theme song, the Psycho theme song, the Dark Shadows theme song, the Outer Limits theme song, the Monster Mash, one of my all-time favorite tunes, by the way, by Bobby Boris Pickett, the Doctor Who theme song, X-Files, Black Magic Woman, and the Munsters theme song, and the DVD video of four of those.
So I told Brian, I said, throw the CD in there and let's listen to, you ready to go on this?
Want to listen to the Monster Mash Chip Davis Mannheim Steamroller special Halloween music?
Thank you.
Halloween music three-disc set, Monster Mash.
It's originally done by Bobby Boris Pickett, one of the greatest rock groups of all time, the Crypt Kicker 5.
Anyway, Chip, I'm sorry when I said I wouldn't be able to listen to this because I just didn't look at the list.
I thought it was original compositions without looking at it, but there it is.
All right.
I have not seen this anywhere other than, of course, I found it.
Mark Warner, as you know, the moderate Democrat.
Potentially viable presidential nominee, 2008.
Yesterday pulled out of the race.
And in fact, there are a lot of stories in Drive-By Media outlets today, full of tears.
Washington Post Democrats work to fill anyological electoral void.
Warner's exit exposes Democrats is made up of nothing but libs.
Oh, no, we've got no credible centrists left is the theme of this story.
People say, what did Birch buy?
What about Birchman?
Buy?
Or is it even Birch?
Is it Birch?
That was his dad.
What's his Evan by?
And then, let's see.
Los Angeles Times 2000 race, 2008 race just got hazier for Democrats.
This is a column by Maura Reynolds, or a piece by Maura Reynolds in the L.A. Times.
Warner had stature because he was this centrist.
Oh, no.
Well, why did he get out?
We speculated yesterday, ladies and gentlemen.
And I wasn't trying to be funny.
I realize a lot of people in this audience find me uproariously hilarious on occasion.
I wasn't trying to be funny.
I said, there's got to be something that the Clintons have on the guy to keep him out of the race.
So, lo and behold, I'm working last night and I stumble across the Radar Online website.
And look at the headline: Mark Warner's Clinton problem.
Now, this is a gossip page, I must stress.
Radar Online is a gossip page.
Mark Warner's Clinton problems.
Whoa, did I hit a home run yesterday or what?
Is Mark Warner trying to skirt a bimbo eruption?
Is the focal point of the story?
The former Virginia governor has decided not to run for president in 2008, saying he doesn't want to spend precious moments away from his wife and three daughters.
This is the right time for me to have a life for a little while, said Warner, considered to be the only Democrat with any chance of taking on Hillary Clinton.
But the man the New York Times declared in March to be the anti-Hillary might actually have a lot in common with her husband.
D.C. insiders are speculating that his surprise pullout may have been sparked by concerns.
You know, every time you read Democrats, you're reading pullout.
Hear this, that pull out of Iraq, pull out of North Korea, pull out of wherever.
These people ever finish anything that they get into?
DC insiders are speculating that his surprise pullout may have been sparked by concerns that alleged past sexual indiscretions could derail his campaign, especially in the midst of the Mark Foley feeding frenzy.
I can't believe no one's mentioned his philandering.
A former political aide tells radar, adding that she herself was subjected to Warner's advances in the late 90s and heard stories about him and many interns.
This can't be isolated, she said.
I have to believe this stuff is all over, a former D.C. consultant tells Radar.
All right.
You're not buying this, Snerdly?
Snerdly is not buying it because I once said that bimbo eruptions are actually a resume enhancement for Democrats.
We have the proof.
Resume enhancements do help these guys.
I mean, these bimbo eruption resume enhancements, no question help these guys.
But anyway, that's a gossip page.
That's radar online.
I just find it, I'm just telling you folks, I know these people like every square inch of my glorious naked body.
Let's just assume for a moment that it's true.
Let's just assume that the radar story is true.
Who do you think was threatening to release this stuff?
Or who do you think actually facilitated the release of this stuff?
So it shows up in this gossip column.
It is Open Lion Friday, and I am Rush Limbaugh.
I checked the email here during the break.
What do you mean?
How can you get away with saying that philandering by Democrats is a resume enhancement?
What do you mean, how can I get away with saying it?
It's not how can I?
I did get away with saying it.
I said it, and I'm still here, so I got away with it.
But what is it to get away with anyway?
Are you telling me that philandering hurt Clinton in terms of his reputation with Democrats?
It's a resume enhancement.
You remember during the soccer mom phenomenon, ladies and gentlemen?
Oh, I will never forget the soccer mom phenomenon.
Time magazine created the soccer mom, went out in St. Louis, I think it was, found some woman that would be a suitable likeness for a soccer mom, put her on the cover.
And you know what the soccer moms were?
Soccer moms were these moms that just did it all.
They got up at five in the morning, fixed breakfast, did the laundry, took the kids to school, kissed hubby goodbye on his way to work and hoped that he didn't come home.
After school, after cleaning house all day, pick up the kids, take them to soccer practice, take them home, feed them, and then watch TV with them or whatever and so forth.
I mean, these were the women that we were told just loved Bill Clinton, that he would be a better dad to their kids than their own worthless husbands were.
That's how they were portrayed.
And then, of course, we have this sycophant guy in the Washington Post once.
Clinton's out there Catalina Island off the coast of San Diego and writing about how Clinton's staying at some hotel out there, walking around the grounds, crackling the power, crackling in his jeans.
And then you got Nina Burley who said, I will personally give the president oral sex if he, just to thank him for keeping abortion legal.
You telling me that Democrats don't consider philandering to be a resume enhancement?
That's why we don't believe this story about Mark Warner getting out for that reason.
But Rush, what about the pain, suffering to his family and children?
That's been shown that Democrats can handle that with a plum.
Just all you got to do to fix that, you know, you just grab your wife, you take her to some Caribbean island, you go down there on the beach, both of you dressed in swimsuits, and you start dancing.
Whether there's music or not, doesn't matter.
You take an appropriate photographer along, get the picture published in a major newspaper, just one, and then you have a reporter ask about the violation of privacy or have the Clinton spokesman complain about violation of privacy, the Warner spokesman complain about it, and that gets the picture all over the country.
Candidate and his wife are shown lovingly embraced dancing to no music on the beach.
I mean, Democrats have this down pat, folks.
And then, yeah, this is a way actually getting your wife into politics because in order for her to get payback for putting up with all this, she gets her own Senate seat, even if she has to move to New York for it.
And then, Warner, after all that, will go out and get a dog by the name of Buddy.
I mean, you might not want to name it Buddy, but go out and get a dog.
This is all in the handbook.
I mean, JFK, you people actually want to insist out there that philandering is not a resume enhancement for Democrats?
Come on, folks.
We've been at this too long for you people to be acting stunned and shocked when you hear the truth.
You want to hear something funny?
This is from the Brownsville, Texas Herald.
Reports of an elephant crossing the river or people trying to smuggle an elephant across the river were rampant Tuesday while an elaborate political stunt was taking shape near the mouth of the Rio Grande.
It was a while later that the stunt, which was a photo shoot, was abruptly met by federal agents.
The elephant never made landfall in New Mexico, but I'll tell you something: he could have made 15 laps back and forth, but no one showed up.
Said Raj Peter Bakhta, former star on the NBC show The Apprentice, a Republican candidate for the 13th District U.S. House of Representatives seat in eastern Pennsylvania.
Three elephants, two African and an Asian, were taken out to a ranch near Boca Chica Beach to perform, the 31-year-old Bokhta said.
He was in Brownsville to raise money with friends, decided to get a first-hand look at border security while he was there.
In Brownsville, he said he witnessed a half-dozen men swim under one of the international bridges with complete immunity, which in turn prompted him to take the immigration issue to the next level.
He decided to see if he could get an elephant accompanied by a six-piece mariachi band across the river.
An elephant with a mariachi band.
According to his website, he is in excuse me, my friends.
I'm desperately trying to regain composure here.
According to his website, he is in favor of sensible immigration reform, supports a border fence, local law enforcement assistance, blah, To my surprise, the band played on, the elephants splashed away, and nobody showed up to stop them.
I'm astounded.
The elephants came from shrine circuses, said James Plunkett, who produces the circus.
They arrived in Brownsville on Monday, were scheduled to be on their way to Maybank on Tuesday afternoon.
They were at the Rio Grande for less than an hour.
They were hired for a photo shoot and entered the Boca Chica Beach area without any notice of the Border Patrol.
They had to be sprayed for ticks later.
My gosh, what a great trick.
And this guy's a Republican running for a seat in the House of Representatives, 13th District, Eastern Pennsylvania.
Raj Peter Bakhta got there's a picture here with the Brownsville Herald story that shows two and a half of the elephants.
Back here in just a second.
Yes, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
It's open line Friday.
One story, and then we'll get to your phone calls.
This is from Chicago to Reuters story.
Renewed speculation that the New York Times company could be a takeover candidate fueled heavy buying of its bullish options as traders hope to profit from a share rally, analysts said.
The New York Times Company, which also owns the Boston Globe and more than a dozen local newspapers, has been cited periodically as a potential acquisition target.
Renewed talk of a possible takeover of the Times has sparked interest in its stock and its options.
Who would be interested in buying the New York Times?
Either got to be Dubai or Al Jazeera.
I know that Al Jazeera is looking to expand, and why not buy something you don't have to change?
Neil in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Welcome to the EIB Network.
Hello.
Hey, Rush, how are you doing?
Fine, sir.
Good.
Hey, I had a quick question for you.
I recently overheard a conversation between some people where one of them described themselves as a social liberal and a fiscal conservative.
And I've heard this multiple times, and it doesn't really seem to jive or make much sense.
So I was interested in your analysis of the statement.
Well, for this to be truly educational, I want you to tell me why it doesn't make much sense to you.
I'll be glad to explain all this and clean up at the end, but I want to hear from you why it doesn't make sense.
Well, obviously, with a liberal, you're looking to spend a lot of money on social programs.
You've got government health care, you know, taking from the rich, given to the poor, so to speak.
And to be a fiscal conservative kind of seems to be a little bit different than that.
Right.
You are spot on.
You're exactly right.
But here's the way to explain it.
A person, nine out of ten times, who tells you that they are a social liberal and a fiscal conservative simply is trying to tell you that they're pro-choice and don't want to use the words.
They're just for abortion.
or they're not pro-life, and they're trying to make you—a lot of these people are also moderates who just have an inability to nail themselves down and be honest with other people about the things they believe.
So they want you to believe that they're open-minded and not closed-minded.
And they see a lot of gray and nuance.
And they like a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
And they have studied and they've taken what they think are the best of both ideologies and combined them.
And so they say they're socially liberal and fiscally conservative.
But it really just boils down to 9 out of 10 times.
They're pro-choicers.
Interesting.
I guess I didn't really even think of that.
Because, I mean, most of them, you went far deeper into detail than they ever do in explaining.
You ask them.
You ever ask them when they tell you they're a social liberal and a fiscal conservative?
You ever ask them what they mean by that?
You know, no, I didn't.
This last time, I wasn't a part of the conversation, and so I just avoided it altogether.
Well, the next time it comes up and you hear it, ask them.
And by the way, don't do it.
Don't do it in an accusatory or confrontational way.
Do it.
You know, I'm fascinated.
What do you mean?
As though you really want to learn, because they will be happy to tell you if they think that they're teaching you something.
And that way you can learn what they really mean.
And then when you find out, when you listen to what they say, as I say, nine out of ten times, it's going to be gobbledygooky gook.
It's going to be, what they'll explain it to you as is merely feel good.
They're going to try to say things that make themselves feel good, smart, and erudite about their positions.
It's basically somebody that says that's a gutless wonder.
I mean, let's just be honest about it.
They're moderate.
I guess there's nothing left to be said.
That's usually the case when I speak.
Thanks.
Thanks for the call out there, Neil.
Here is Mac in Orlando, Florida.
Welcome, sir, to the program.
Rush, what an honor to talk to you.
It's been 16 years that I've been listening and first time I've ever called in.
Thank you.
I'm glad you got through.
Yeah.
What I wanted to talk about today was something very interesting that went across the internet this morning.
I see that Air America filed for Chapter 11.
Is that right?
I thought it's an interesting contrast between a media program that has been propped up by all types of liberal donors, finally hitting the wall.
And I think it's testimony also to something that you said frequently, and that is that liberals have to hide their agenda.
If they come right out and say, here's what we're about, it doesn't sell in the marketplace of ideas.
Well, in this case, that's not what was going on here.
I mean, I because they were very honest about what they believed on the air, and it was firmly rejected.
That's the point.
Well, oh, oh, oh, I thought you were saying they were hiding who they are.
No, no, I'm saying that liberals who, in order to get what they want, they have to hide what they are.
And when they come right out and let them go on the table.
Yeah, but that's true.
I mean, that's an accurate and very shrewd observation on your part.
But, you know, folks, this was never this whole Air America thing.
I saw them filing bankruptcy today.
I'll bet you they don't make it through the election.
And if they do, they'll close doors right after it.
The only reason that bunch even went on the air is to affect elections.
There isn't the slightest semblance of any business plan or model or understanding in that whole operation.
It has been destined to fail from the moment it was conceived.
This is one liberal conception that should have been aborted, that wasn't, and it's going to amount now to being stillborn because it never really got life.
It's just, it's been a clear illustration.
The most amazing thing about it to me has been to watch people who are in the broadcasting business grant it legitimacy and status when they've, when it never earned any.
I mean, I was looking at the reports.
$4 million in assets?
I have that much in my checking account.
These people, $4 million in assets, they've got liabilities of over $20 million.
And did they ever sell any advertising?
All they did was get it.
They ran this as a 527 organization.
They ran it as a political organization.
They had the slightest clue what they were doing.
And in the process, I'm just kidding about the $4 million in the checking.
Folks, that is that is just embarrassing.
That's like somebody who I don't know how to analogize that.
How pathetic that is.
Liability has got to be more than $20 million to boot.
But, I mean, the bottom line is that it really illustrates that liberals have – I mean, why did they do this?
They were doing it to counter conservative talk radio.
Me, they didn't have the, they still don't.
I don't care where you go in whatever liberal circle or Democrat Party circle, they don't understand why this works.
I have people saying, well, you know, they didn't work because they're just not funny.
It has nothing to do with it.
They didn't work because they're always angry.
They're always bashing Bush.
This has nothing to do with it.
Broadcasting is a talent, is a skill.
It takes training.
It takes experience.
You don't bring a bunch of idiots who've never done it before, put them on the radio, and expect to be reaching 20 million people just because you're liberal.
But their arrogance and their condescension, just like they're not examining their own failures as a party and as a movement, they do not study those who succeed and try to figure out how it's done.
You know why they think that the Republicans won the House in 94 and why Bush won the president's 2000?
Because all we did was criticize Clinton for eight years.
They're doing what they think is a carbon copy of what we did in their bashing of Bush.
They're just wandering aimless in the desert out there, folks.
But this bunch was never a bunch of broadcasters.
And sadly, a bunch of broadcasters tried to prop them up and lost their shirts.
Everybody involved with them lost their shirts.
But, you know, look at all the help they had, all the publicity, all of the interviews, all of the.
Air America starting in six months.
Air America starting in five months.
They had all the New York Times, Washington, but CNN practically became Air America on TV before they were even on the air.
And so that sort of gives the lie to what really makes success is buzz and spin and PR and promotion.
Didn't matter, did it?
There are substantive reasons for this to go long beyond, way beyond, well, they weren't funny or they were too serious or what.
They're just not good.
Nobody over there has the slightest understanding about what this is.
I was surprised they lasted this long, to be quite honest with you, folks.
Okay, back to the phones we go at 800-282-2882-Jane in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Nice to have you with us.
Oh, Rush.
I've loved and listened to you for 18 years.
And HR told me to call on Friday.
I have a question.
Why haven't you considered putting the limbo letter on a CD?
I'm visually impaired.
Thank God your deafness was correctable.
Mine isn't.
I can't read.
And I'm so frustrated because you cut all my favorite people on the limbo letter.
Now, I'm willing to even pay for the subscription, but I get the national review from the Library of Congress for the Blind and Physics Handcuff.
I don't know how you go about that, but please put it on a CD or audio tape so I can listen to it.
Who do you want to read it?
Me!
No, but I listen to it.
I hear it.
Who do you want to record it?
Oh, that's up to you.
I don't know how you go about that.
Haven't you got a recording company?
You know, how many?
I'm over 60 or 80.
No, no, of course we have the necessary broadcast equipment to do this.
I'm just saying because I'm just asking, who do you want to hear read it when you're listening to it?
They have many readers who record those audio tapes.
Well, if you want to record it, fine.
But I don't know how you go about that.
But you know how many people over 60 don't have a, what do you call it, a computer?
I absolutely wouldn't even want one.
I can't even operate.
And there's a lot of older people who vote who are visually impressed.
That sounds very, very true.
Could you do that for me?
You already got access to all these fancy whatever computers, cell phones, internet, iPods, whatever.
Well, Don't put down the iPod.
I mean, the iPod would come in handy for you.
It would be.
No, no, no, no.
I need a disc to put on.
I have three recorders, one in the bedroom, and I absolutely would be lost because I can't read anymore.
And I have been reading since I was eight years old.
I thought I would die when I got this AMA, what do you call it, AMD, red eye.
It's not correctable.
Thank God your ears are still working.
Well, I'll tell you what, you know, this is as far as this is the first request.
Really?
Yes, that we've had for this.
Now, normally the requests we get for the limbo letter to increase the size of the type.
No, I know that's not even good enough for me.
I'm looking at it.
Well, I understand that.
No, no, I understand that.
I've got that.
Yeah.
Look at.
Look into it.
Well, I'll do more than look.
Yeah, I'll look into it.
I don't want to say I'll look into it.
We will examine this.
It's actually not a bad idea.
And if that's something that you need and want, we'll bat it around at our next editor's meeting and see if it could be done in a profit mode.
What, Snerdley?
What do you of course?
We've got to find a way to do that.
Sterling is giving me grief now for wanting to profit off the visually impaired.
That's not, don't take it that way, Jane.
That's.
We'll look into it.
We'll do this at the next editor's meeting and mention this.
I'm glad you brought it up.
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
This is what Open Line Friday is all about.
Up next is Carl in Chicago.
Carl, you're next on the EIB network.
Hello.
Rush, a great pleasure to speak with you this afternoon.
Thank you.
One thing that I've always thought about so far as Air America Radio is it was completely and utterly unnecessary, regardless of how good or bad the content was.
It was unnecessary.
When you are inundated every day on the airways with NPR, ABC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, what was one more media, one more piece of that puzzle going to provide that already wasn't being provided?
Well, you're looking at this rationally and logically, and you're not looking at it from the liberal mindset.
True, very true.
The liberal mindset is that, yeah, they've got the media, all those things, and they do know it.
They will sit there and deny all day that the media outlets you mentioned are on their side, but they know it.
Sure, they do.
But there was this problem.
They no longer had the monopoly.
This guy, Limbaugh and Talk Radio, came along.
And believe me, the Clintons have talk radio on the brain.
Tom Dashell had talk radio on the brain.
They really believe that talk radio is what beats them when they lose elections, is what embarrasses them when they are embarrassed publicly.
And they said, well, we're not there.
So we've got to get, you've got to get, we've got to get it to talk radio.
And they thought just by entering it that they would dominate and be big and huge.
And that's why I say they had no clue and no concept.
I mean, if they want to lie to themselves about how my program was created, when they know what they think about it and what they say about it is a lie, if they're not even willing to be honest with themselves about how this works successfully, then they never ever had a chance.
It was arrogance and the people they selected to be on there.
I mean, it was just, it was laughable.
It was just, it was one of the most obvious buffoonery steps I have seen taken in broadcasting.
And I couldn't believe the respected broadcasters that got on board and supported it.
It never had a chance.
It was doomed to fail from the get-go institutionally.
In the article I read today, they declined to note who the creditor was where the negotiations fell through.
They declined to name the creditor.
I was curious about that.
Why would a creditor not want to be named or why would they not name that creditor?
Well, you know, look at this, these are liberals.
Now, they ran this as a 527.
Who in the?
I have never had a donor to this program.
We don't do business with donors.
They had people donating money as if you donate to a political organization or 527.
Now, if they'd called themselves a 527, those donors would be out of money.
But since they didn't do it as a 527, they ran it as a 527, pretended to be a business.
These donors now may get some of their money back.
This has been a scam and a sham and ill-conceived from the get-go.
It is just classic typical liberalism, and that's why probably this person doesn't want to be known.
Back in just a second, stay with it.
Fastest three hours in media.
Two of them are gone, but we have one more jam-packed broadcast excellence hour to come right after this.
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