Rush Limbaugh Program - February 27, 2007, Tuesday, Hour #1

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Feb. 27, 2007 - Rush Limbaugh Program

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February 27, 2007, Tuesday, Hour #1

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	Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
	Hey, hey, hey, hey, here we are, back in action.
	As promised.
	Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network, and we are all revved up for three hours of broadcast excellence, ladies and gentlemen, thrilled and delighted to have you with us.
	And thrilled and delighted to be with you at the same time.
	Here's the telephone number if you'd like to join us on the program today, 800-282-2882, and the email address is rush at EIBNet.com.
	Well, we got a fairly decent uh lifestyle stacked today here, folks.
	And we've got we got some pretty good audio sound bites, and of course, we've got big time news out there.
	Vice President Cheney was the target of an assassination attempt at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan.
	Taliban taking credit for this, saying that Cheney was the target.
	You know, it's uh it is mentioned last week that Dick Cheney is my hero.
	He's been on the war path lately, folks.
	And I I um, as I said last week, it it's about time.
	Where's the administration been during all of these attacks?
	This is very refreshing.
	Uh, Cheney's been out there taking on the drive-bys.
	He'd been out there taking on the Democrats, and he hasn't been holding back, and he hasn't been backing down.
	Uh he uh a properly characterized Pelosi's stance uh that is basically pro-Al-Qaeda and uh and owns defeat in the war in Iraq.
	And when the controversy ensued, he didn't hold back.
	He continued to say it.
	And he continued to make it clear for members of the drive-by who wanted to try to obfuscate it and spin it into something that it wasn't.
	So he's been taking on the media, he's traveling the world, he's out there appearing on television shows, and he's completely unapologetic for the war in Iraq.
	And he's traveling around shoring up alliances and uh making sure the Afghans know we're there for the cause, and uh, you know, giving a what for to the Pakistan president uh Musharraf.
	Uh and and it leads to the question where's the administration been the last two years?
	It's good that he's out there, and I'm thrilled that uh this is going on, and it's having an impact.
	There are stories galore in my stacks today about how the Democrats are falling apart in both the House and the Senate.
	They're finding out, it says, in an AP story, that it's far different to actually implement some of the things that they were talking about during the campaign than it was to just say them.
	Uh there are breakdowns within the various cauc eye of the Democrat Party inside the House.
	Uh the Senate can't get going, and Dingy Harry has withdrawn the uh the resolution that they were talking about advancing that would uh rewrite the use of force authorization for Iraq in 2002.
	But I want to call your attention to something uh that I that I was uh alerted to today, didn't find this on my own.
	I must give credit where credit is due.
	Uh it was uh was alerted to this by a friend.
	The Huffington Post, which is a uh a wacko leftist website, uh, which is not really far from some of the truly kooky left-wing websites out there, ran a story on the attempted assassination of Dick Cheney at Bagram Air Force Base in um in Iraq.
	And it was just a straightforward report, just a couple of pictures, short little uh blurb from the wire services.
	It's the comments from people who read the Huffington Post, to which I wish you call your attention.
	Here are just some of them, and we're gonna link to this.
	Dean Gordon, put it up now.
	I want to link to this Huffington Post uh uh uh entry so that you can go read this yourself before they pull it down if they do pull it down.
	Here are comments from Democrats and liberals, and keep in mind, as we always say, these are the people who claim to have the biggest hearts.
	Uh these are the people who claim to have the tolerance.
	These are the people that when anybody on the right says anything that offends them, anything at all.
	They come back and make charges of racism and sexism and bigotry and homophobia.
	Uh and and they they these are the people calling for an end to all the mean-spiritedness and the politics of personal destruction.
	These are the people who are telling us that they are a cut above, that They care.
	That they have more love and compassion for humanity than do conservatives.
	So with that in mind, listen to some of these comments.
	Darth sure does manage to spread a little cheer everywhere he goes, doesn't he?
	So Cheney's personally responsible for the deaths of fourteen innocent people.
	And then he waddles off to lunch.
	What a piece of excrement.
	The next uh the next three are pretty good.
	They missed.
	Too bad.
	We have people posting at the or commenting of the Huffington Post, wishing that Al Qaeda, the Taliban whoever had succeeded in assassinating Dick Cheney.
	Another one, too bad they missed.
	The next comment, you can't kill pure evil.
	Like an exorcism, you have to drive a stake through it.
	The next comment, if uh if at first you don't succeed, dot dot dot dot.
	Next comment, better luck next time, Taliban.
	What a different world we would be living in today if they had succeeded.
	Dr. Evil escapes again, damn.
	Sounds like a BS attempt.
	The VP's inside some sort of compound and they blow up a bomb at the front door.
	Christ, at least lob a few grenades into the compound.
	Presumably to kill Cheney.
	They missed.
	Damn it, I hope they try again before he leaves.
	Not all the comments are this way, but uh uh a good number of them are, and we'll link to this particular post at Huffington Post on Rush Limbaugh.com so you can go right to it and see it yourself.
	This is sick stuff.
	You know, and I was mentioning uh and it's not the first time this kind of um death wish.
	By no means is it the first time that you can find death wishes uh on left wing blogs and websites when it comes to uh either the president or the uh excuse me or the vice president.
	Uh you know, and it it it leads me to once again discuss what we're talking about toward the end of the program yesterday.
	How is it that you explain visceral literal hatred for somebody you don't know?
	I mean, it's one thing to disagree with somebody's policies.
	But this is uh, you know, this this is this is crossing a new line now, actively wishing, and it's not new, by the way.
	Uh we've had books on how to assassinate George W. Bush in the 2004 campaign.
	We had a movie in which President Bush was assassinated leading up to the 2006 election.
	Uh we have had numerous examples of this kind of expressed hatred and a desire for assassination, the killing or the death of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and whoever else.
	And uh these are these are people making these do not know these men personally, have never met them, don't have the slightest idea who they really are.
	This is all based on uh supposedly policy differences, but it can't be based on just that.
	There has to be something uh far deeper involved to make these kinds of people make these kinds of comments.
	And I'm not enough of a uh uh psychoanalyst to be able to delve into it.
	There are others, though, who are and who have.
	Uh it'd be interesting to repeat some of the things they've one of the one of the examples I've read from uh from some is that uh many of these people just have a uh uh an overall God problem.
	They don't believe in God, they don't believe, and therefore they will believe in anything, uh, that they have a uh uh uh f rooted family problems, father problems, problems with their fathers in their I mean, reading all kinds of of comments to try to explain why it is there's such personal hatred,
	and you can't rule out the fact of faith and religion, which is intimidating to people who don't believe in God, any God when when they don't believe in uh in something larger than than exists on earth, uh uh and and uh somebody comes along who is a leader who does, they feel threatened, uh imposed upon, and uh feel like they're under the uh the bright lights of judgment.
	Well, whatever it is, it is sick, and it resides exclusively on the left.
	Uh and yet these people get away with this image of love and tolerance and compassion, humanitarianism, and all of this when they're just a bunch of sickies.
	When you read this, you're gonna want to throw up that they're actually American citizens provoking hoping uh for the uh assassination of the vice president of the United States.
	You know, you go back to the nineties.
	I mean, there was uh on our side of the aisle, there was a tremendous amount of disgust with Bill Clinton over any number of things I don't recall anybody actively wishing, and I don't recall any movies, nor do I recall any books uh devoted to the subject of assassinating Bill Clinton uh or Hillary or the Vice President Al Gore.
	Uh it's it's a it's a new phenomenon, and it's not just related to the Florida 2000 embrolio and the and the and the aftermath.
	There are some sick, sick people out there, and this is all happening, by the way, after they won the election.
	These people are incapable of happiness.
	They are incapable of objectivity, they are incapable of finding the truth anywhere, and they don't want to in any stretch of the imagination.
	The truth will threaten the alternative reality they've created for themselves.
	They don't want to be threatened in that way.
	Uh it's it's uh it's this is why fi I'm still stunned that the Republicans lost the 2006 election.
	Actually, that's not the way to I'm stunned the Democrats won it, but I think the way to explain it is the Republicans did lose it.
	Um they just weren't giving anybody reasons to vote for rehash all that.
	But this is not new.
	It's been going on and on and on, and I've always been under the impression that uh the American people simply are in mass, as a majority, are not the type of people today to embrace this kind of thing or to embrace the kind of people who espouse it or to embrace the uh the people that these siccos would vote for.
	Obviously, I was wrong.
	Uh in a few ways.
	Anyway, we'll continue lots to do on the program today.
	Telephone number 800 282-2882 will be right back, so don't go anywhere.
	The views expressed by the host of this show make more sense than anything anybody else out there happens to be saying.
	Because the views expressed by the host of this program are right.
	I am the conservative rock, unwavering, despite all attempts.
	Roch Limbaugh behind the golden EIB microphone.
	Well, well, well, the Associated Press.
	Ladies and gentlemen, you know it's bad when the Associated Press is honest and candid about the Democrats' position as they struggle to do something with their majorities in Congress.
	Actually, there are two versions of this story.
	The first version was posted yesterday afternoon at 3 38.
	The second was posted at 4 27, about an hour later, and they do differ.
	The uh the latest version uh buries the account of the Democrats flailing.
	Here's the first story.
	Swept into power by voters clamoring for an end to the war in Iraq.
	Democrats have seen their efforts falter under a reality more complicated than they found on the campaign trail.
	Well, the public is fed up with Iraq.
	There's little consensus over what to do.
	Internal party divisions, Republican opposition, and a president who, while weakened, still appears to have the dominant voice on the war.
	Imagine the commander-in-chief, to the consternation of the Democrats and the drive-by media, still has the dominant voice in the war.
	All these factors have left Democrats flailing in search of a way to change the Wall's course.
	Now, if you read the second version of the story, the whole notion of the Democrats flailing has been removed.
	Here's the second version.
	Democrat leaders backed away.
	It's just one hour later.
	Same writer, Julie Hirschfield Davis.
	Democrat or Hirsch, is it Field Hirschfeld Davis?
	Democrat leaders backed away from aggressive plans to limit President Bush's war authority.
	The latest sign of divisions within their ranks over how to proceed.
	Dingy Harry said Monday he wanted to delay votes on a measure that would repeal the 2002 war authorization and narrow the mission in Iraq.
	Senior Democrats who drafted the proposal, Senators Biden and Levin had sought swift action on it as early as this week when the Senate takes up a measure to enact the recommendations of the bipartisan 9-11 Commission.
	A dingy Harry who will huddle with Democrats today, maybe huddling with them now to discuss whether to postpone the Iraq debate, cited pressure from victims families for quick action on the 9-11 bill as the reason.
	So we are to believe that the country is fed up with Iraq.
	The country wants us out.
	The drive-bys are running a poll today in the Washington Post.
	This is 53% of the American people want a timetable to get out.
	The Democrats claim it was their mandate from the 2006 election, that they were elected to get us out of a rock because Bush wasn't listening to the American people.
	And now all of a sudden we are to believe from the Associated Press that Dingy Harry is going to postpone the introduction of the rewrite of the 2002 war authorization because families from the 9-11 experience want quick action on the bill that would adopt some of the recommendations of the 9-11 committee.
	Commission.
	This is bogus B.S. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, it's it's just a it's a CYA.
	Nancy Pelosi's in a CYA.
	The Democrats can't move forward, and it's it's obvious that they did not anticipate this.
	Their arrogance and their condescension thought this is going to sail through like butter through a hot knife.
	Dingy Harry, predicting it would be days, not weeks before the Senate returned to the issue, said Iraq is going to be there.
	It's just a question of when we get back to it.
	Thought it was the priority.
	Thought it was the foremost authority and priority that the Democrats had.
	Why, this is what the American people want.
	We are told the developments on both sides of the Capitol reflected a new level of disarray in Democrat ranks on Iraq, swept into power by voters clamoring for an end to the war.
	Democrats have seen their efforts falter under a reality more complicated than they found on the campaign trail.
	Well, the public's fed up with a rock, there's little consensus over what to do.
	Internal divisions, Republican opposition, and a president still appears to have the dominant voice, have all left the Democrats flailing for a way to change the war's course.
	This is just too good.
	They're laboring on a big misunderstanding, and that is that they were swept into power by voters clamoring for an end to the war.
	They were not swept into power.
	The Republicans were swept out of it.
	And the arrogance of these people is such, the Democrats, that this they do not realize.
	Remember now, I don't know how they're going to pull back from the fact that they own defeat.
	And by the way, the first signs of impatience among Democrat allies are sprouting.
	The public is saying we hired you to get out of a rock.
	Now figure it out, said Tom Matsy, Washington director of MoveOn.org.
	There is a risk that without action frustration boils over into anger.
	Well, what are you going to do?
	Try to assassinate Cheney when he gets home.
	Democrats argue that failed efforts to thwart Bush's war plans will ultimately pay off by ratcheting up pressure for a change.
	So we're ring asked to believe now that their failure will become success.
	That their failure.
	This is ridiculous.
	Their failed efforts will ultimately pay off by ratcheting up pressure for it to by who?
	Other than the left wing kooks.
	The blogs, the Huffington Post types.
	Who's going to mount this kind of pressure?
	Jim Manley, spokesman for Dingy Harry.
	The administration's increasingly isolated.
	They're increasingly at odds with where the American people are.
	We're going to keep on going at it till the administration changes course.
	Keep on, keep on going, but the uh what is this tell you?
	I mean, what's the bottom line here?
	Bottom line is uh th well, there are many bottom lines.
	One of the one of the biggest bottom lines is the American people are not with them on this.
	If they were, they would defund the war.
	Number two, there is not unity in the Democrat caucus.
	There's some Democrats when they got wind of what Mertha's slow bleed plan was and what it entailed, were uh backtracked as fast as they could, wanted no part of it.
	Even some Democrats know that the American people are not going to support securing defeat for the troops by denying them reinforcements, making sure they don't get the latest equipment, this sort of thing, everything in Mertha's plan.
	Uh it uh the American people don't support this.
	That's the bottom Line, and then some Democrats are beginning to rethink this whole business of owning defeat.
	Make no mistake, there's been some impact within selected circles.
	Little areas of a Democrat Party, both in the House and Senate, over the concept that they do own defeat.
	There are some Democrats, a precious few, but enough to gum up the works, who don't want to own defeat.
	And so there's all kinds of roadblocks now in the way.
	Falls short on election promises.
	And this is a story about how most of the promises she made have nowhere near been enacted.
	They've had one five-day work week.
	This work week is going to be three days.
	She's drawing fire for putting Congressman William Jefferson, Democrat Louisiana, who had 90 grand in cold cash in his freezer, on the Homeland Security Committee.
	Basically, the Democrats are flailing.
	They are unable to accomplish what they claim their mandate entitles them to do.
	By the way, a new premium for new subscribers of Rush 24-7 and the limbaughter, the Rush for Peace mug, in honor of my Nobel Peace Prize nomination.
	It is not in the EIB store yet.
	It requires a renewal or a new subscription.
	And I'm already getting complaint emails about this.
	How come I can't just buy one?
	I'm already a subscriber.
	It's called marketing.
	I mean, we this is this is not new to us here at the EIB network.
	We have always used premiums to uh entice new subscribers, and that's what this is.
	They still got the t-shirts that you can go to the EIB store and get without a subscription, uh, that that uh also commemorate my nomination uh for the Nobel Peace Prize.
	And of course the club Gitmo line of licensed merchandise is still thriving.
	Uh so there's a lot of stuff.
	The mug, though, is and the mugs are popular, and I I understand the uh some of the frustration.
	Well, I I I just subscribed last month.
	I uh I just renewed last month.
	Well, that it's just you know, it's just it's just the way things happen.
	I sympathize.
	I I I really sympathize with What do you mean I don't sound too sympathetic?
	I'm trying to be honest.
	I mean I'm not gonna sit here and go, oh, I feel so sorry for you, anything like that.
	I just I want to be honest and explain the policies and the procedures here.
	We're not trying to exclude anyone.
	You know, I shouldn't even mention it.
	I just shouldn't, because all it all that happens is uh is that people want to know why who they've recently renewed have to renew again in order to get the uh in order to get the mug.
	And it's you know, these things happen spontaneously.
	This the the the these are not scheduled.
	Like we didn't have a big meeting the end of last year and said, okay, on a week of uh February twenty sixth, we're gonna do some Nobel Peace Prize mug, because we didn't know at the end of last year that I was to be nominated for that prestigious prize.
	Uh so anyway, but I I wanted to address this because I'm getting a lot of people expressing some upset over this.
	And yes, we're going to get to the Al Gore business with his house and so forth.
	Be patient.
	There's a lot of stuff in the Al Gorstack today and some audio sound bites.
	Drive by going nuts wanting him to run for president.
	Uh the Hillary camp is uh say they're keeping an eye on his weight.
	As long as he stays heavy, they don't think he's gonna run for president.
	He starts losing weight real fast, then they think he's gonna get in the race.
	Because you don't, you don't you don't run for president when you're overweight.
	You just don't do it.
	It's never like Obama has to quit smoking.
	Uh there's a poll out.
	People don't like old guys like McCain, they don't like smokers like Obama, and they don't like Mormons like Romney.
	The Washington Post has this poll.
	So the Hillary camp says they're waiting to they're they're watching Gore's Gerth.
	And if he if he if he sheds some pounds, they're gonna get convinced here that uh that he's gonna enter the presidential sweepstakes.
	Meanwhile, Henry in Brownsville, Texas, we'll start with you, sir.
	Nice to have you on the EIB network.
	First of all, I want to say that commercial you ran earlier with a hoot, and that's another thing.
	And as common ground, I did vote for Bush in O in 2000, but I can't believe that you're surprised that the Dems won in 06.
	I'm surprised that they didn't take sweet things in 04, given the way that the war uh was just such a strategic blunder, it was quite clear by then.
	It's been so poorly tactically executed that it's just amazing to me that uh that it's uh monument to the genius of Carl Rowe that was able to use scare tactics to keep everybody with this don't change a horse in midstream although it's lane you can't believe you can't believe I'm surprised that the Democrats won.
	Yeah in 06 I'm surprised they didn't win in 04.
	It's just that the American public was a little that Carl Rove is a genius.
	I don't care what any his detractors say nowadays that man is a genius.
	Well look I'm not gonna debate um the IQ of Carl Rove because I don't really know what it is.
	But I think you people think you people on the left are a little paranoid at Carl Rove.
	Uh I can remember Carl Rolfe was responsible for all the conspiracies that embarrassed Kerry and got you guys into a little bit of trouble.
	Let me explain to you why I was surprised.
	I'll go through this again.
	The reason I was surprised because people have to vote for Democrats too in elections.
	And I I people were asking me all year, Henry, and the Republicans are going to hold a House and I said I have no doubt they're going to hold the House.
	They said why?
	Because they were scared to death they see the media every day ripping Republicans a new one and I said what in the world are the Democrats doing that's inspirational?
	What are they doing that's motivational?
	What name one thing for me the Democrats are saying it's going to build a movement.
	What what name one thing there's nothing inspirational about the Democrat Party message not then, not now.
	There's nothing motivational.
	There's nothing that is that is causing a massive movement of voters to the Democrat Party because it's filled with rage, irrational rage, irrational hatred uh that that those kinds of things appeal to the base of people that are already there and uh you know sort of like preaching to the choir and throws them the red meat that they need every day to stay fired up, but it doesn't attract new people.
	And it didn't attract new people in the 2006 elections.
	What happened was the Republicans blew it.
	The Republicans uh for a whole host of reasons which I don't want to re you know go go re you know I just don't want to reiterate these because it's it's it it it's it's an old subject but the the bottom line is they gave nobody reason to vote for them.
	They got lazy.
	In fact I have a theory a further theory I think what happens uh in and this is one of the reasons why I'm not saying a whole lot about the presidential cancer I'm just gonna be I'm gonna I'm gonna be right up front with you here.
	I think one of the problems that the demo that the Republicans had in the last election cycle was that they didn't say anything.
	They were relying on people like me and others in the alternative media to state their case and to take on their enemies.
	They're relying on us to beat up the Democrats while they sat around and didn't have the guts to say who they were and what they believed in and what they thought of what the Democrats were going to do.
	They're the ones that get the votes not us.
	And so they they just uh I think they got a little lazy.
	Some of them, not all of them, but some of them did.
	Uh and then they got they got floored by the Foley business.
	They they that that made them scared to death because they're in Washington and that was a that was a big deal.
	If if anything, Henry, it was the uh it was the it was the leak of the Foley scandal that did the Republicans in as much as their will unwillingness to do anything about it and stand up and and be proactive and uh and aggressive.
	Democrats didn't win diddly squat and a proof of it Henry is that they didn't campaign on anything, Henry they didn't have anything.
	All they were doing was running down Bush and running down the war and running down Bush and running down Bush and running down Bush.
	They didn't have any plans they specifically purposely did not mention any plans.
	They did not want to make targets of themselves on the basis of their policies.
	And then after they won the election they're out there claiming a mandate and the mandate's to get us out of Iraq and now they're even chickening out of doing that, Henry.
	You gotta look at your own side here if you want to find where the problems exist.
	Your side owns defeat and the American people don't want any part of it.
	And had your Democrats been campaigning last fall saying the things that they have been saying since they assume power in Washington, they would have lost in a landslide and they knew it.
	Had they been out trying to secure the defeat of the U.S. military had they been promising not to send reinforcements had they been promising not to send new equipment had they been telling people that what they were going to do was try to rewrite the authorization for the use of force that was signed in 2002 that they demanded had they said any of that,
	they would have lost in a landslide because the American people don't want to lose a war anywhere, Henry they don't want to lose even if it has been mismanaged up to now in various aspects war is war and things change and They don't want to lose and they don't want money taken away from U.S. soldiers on the battlefield.
	The American people here do not own defeat.
	They're not invested in it.
	The Democrat Party does, and they didn't have the guts to tell the American people this is what their plan was prior to the election.
	That last election was a you know miss a lot of people misreading the reasons, particularly the Democrats, because all I can if there was a mandate to get out of Iraq, they wouldn't be messing around with all these non-binding resolutions, Henry.
	They would have already put forward a bill to defund the war, and they don't have the guts to do it.
	This is Marsha, Overland Park, Kansas.
	Used to live there, Marsha, in a little shack.
	Uh how are you?
	Welcome to the program.
	Uh, thank you so much for taking my call.
	Um, as a proud mother of an American soldier, I am my blood boils when I hear about this Huffington website and all these other people out there that are always taking aim at at our leaders.
	And in this case, Rush, it sounds to me like they certainly don't care about wanting to take additional aim at our soldiers because with every comment about uh additional bombs and attacks on that military base that they're hoping to get to our vice president, they're hoping that another American soldier is killed as well.
	No, no, no, but wait a wait a minute.
	But Marcia, these people say they support the troops.
	How can you possibly think that?
	Well, with I have another idea for the people that say they support the troops.
	Yeah.
	Um I would like for all the ones that want to spit on them or want to, you know recruiting or just plain m mean and ugly to these wonderful patriots.
	I would like for them to just put a nice big yellow cowardly flag in their yard, because if for God God forbid, if we are ever attacked on our American soil, then our soldiers will know who they need to just walk past as they're protecting us.
	Because they certainly don't think our soldiers are necessary.
	So they certainly don't think they need to be they don't they don't think they need to be protected as well.
	Of course not.
	Not only that, uh the latest attempt with a drive-by media was an AP story to impugn the honor and the intelligence of uh men and women in the armed forces was uh was just a rehash of things they've always tried in the past, that they come from the poorest backgrounds and the poorest places, and since America has so little economic opportunity, they have no choice but then to risk their lives in order to gain an education and perhaps earn a living.
	And they're impugned for that.
	And as I've always said, even let's just say for a moment, hypothetically it's true.
	It's not, let's say it is.
	Why impugn them for that?
	If they're willing to risk their lives in order to have a future, what why is that worthy of criticism?
	Well, the latest assault on members of the military claims the vast majority of them come from small little towns, dust bowl towns with no future, and with no schooling and with no education.
	It is just it's repugnant to me to watch an ongoing recycled effort to impugn the honor and the integrity of the volunteers of the U.S. armed forces.
	And the capper today, of course, is when Vice President Cheney escapes the assassination attempt.
	Democrats at the Huffing Post uh commenting on that news story, express regret that the Taliban missed.
	And they hope the Taliban gets it next time.
	We'll be back.
	Stay with us.
	Little television ratings information here, ladies and gentlemen.
	Sunday night, as you know, was the annual epidemic awards, and they they drew the lion's share of the audience.
	But if you go to cable, from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.
	Uh uh during uh the the bulk of the uh Oscar Awards, the highest rated, the most viewed television show in the 25 to 54 age demographic, which is what everybody really looks at, uh, was a rerun of the half hour news hour on the Fox News channel.
	And it's not even close to anything anybody else had uh the whole night on CNN PMSNBC or headline news.
	Uh not it's it I've got the numbers right here.
	It's not even really close.
	So the night of Oscar, the most watched program on cable news channels was a rerun of the half hour news hour.
	And I mention this only because the second episode of the Half Hour News Hour will air at ten o'clock Sunday night on the Fox News Channel.
	It again features a skit with me as president and Colder as Vice President in the middle of a fireside chat.
	No fire, but that's the format.
	And I actually think that this episode's a little funnier than the uh than the first.
	So just wanted to uh mention this as a means of promoting it back to the phones to Fred in uh Rice Lake, Wisconsin.
	Hello, Fred, welcome to the program.
	Good morning, Rush.
	I'm a long-term listener, and after hundreds of attempts to get through to you, I'm glad that I've gotten more than just a busy signal.
	I have two questions that I'd sure like to hear your answers to.
	Fine.
	Uh many pictures that I've seen of Al Sadr.
	I have yet to see one with him with a halo over his head.
	Why haven't the American forces been permitted to eliminate him and his militia?
	And the other question is what would the situation be in Iraq today had we eliminated.
	Well, see, this is I I uh I can give you my opinion on this, but it's it's it's uh uh just like anybody else's opinion on this.
	I'm uninformed in terms of the political strateger that might exist into not touching Mukey, or maybe there was a strategery at one point to touch him, and we've missed.
	Now, I do know that in the original days when Muki was first uh becoming a star over there in Fallujah, I believe, they were told to leave him alone.
	And in fact, the uh the first uh uh Fred, what's going on out there?
	Uh you're talking to somebody.
	No, there was a uh a vehicle that went by me here.
	I'm sitting in my car with a cell phone.
	Oh, oh, I I thought maybe you were you listening to the radio uh to hear yourself on the thought one never to left.
	So the the first time there was obviously uh, you know, we we we we should have we should have raised Fallujah.
	We didn't do it the first time.
	Uh that strengthened Mookie uh within the eyes of his own people.
	He's now fled the scene in on the uh on the verge of the surge.
	Mookie is reported reportedly reputedly in uh in Iran uh planning strategy, and there's differing views on whether he ran because he's afraid of being killed, or he uh ran away to fight another day and plan new strategy and uh and and so forth.
	I I can't answer why we haven't targeted him if that's the case.
	Um if if we if we had I look I I I can only go back and look at past successful military operations and campaigns.
	All I know is that one of the objectives was to take out the commanders, to take out the leaders, uh take out the generals, uh, as well as take out civilians.
	I mean, you can we would not have won World War II had we not done so.
	Uh in fact, uh uh in reading some of the background uh after I watched Flags of Our Fathers with uh with Clint Eastwood, the uh the story about raising of the flag on Iwo Jima, and then the second movie, Letters of Our Fathers, or letters with the Clint Eastwood from the Japanese perspective, which is its own controversy, by the way.
	But in the process of uh informing myself on this, uh uh I can't remember who said this.
	It was a U.S. military man involved in World War II and Japan.
	So we wiped out more innocent civilians in Japan with 1,300 bombing runs than the two atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
	But the conclusion that you you you draw is we won the war because we were targeting innocent civilians, and this was happening as well in the uh in the European theater.
	Um war has changed.
	The rules have changed, and this this is not part of it.
	As to uh uh what would have happened had we had we taken Muki out uh uh uh could not have been anything other than positive.
	It might, of course, some people say you can't you can't do that, it's just gonna make them angrier.
	Well, it didn't stop us from killing Al Marsawi or as much their names are running together.
	Abu Mousab als Arkali.
	Uh and we were we were very pro maybe we've tried and failed.
	I I uh I don't know if these people hide in places that we don't hit.
	Mosques, uh citizens' homes dressed up as uh innocent women and children, and uh and so forth.
	But I I get the point.
	A lot of people are asking, why haven't we just gone in with hella blazon?
	Uh from the get-go.
	And that's what the surge is intended to rectify, at least in uh parts of Baghdad.
	Quick timeout here, folks, I'll be right back.
	All right, first hour in the can.
	On the way over to the warehouse, where all artifacts for the future Limbaugh Broadcast Museum are housed in secret.
	Second hour right around the corner.
	Can't wait.

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