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April 11, 2007 - Rush Limbaugh Program
31:23
April 11, 2007, Wednesday, Hour #3
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Hi.
How are you?
Great to be with you, ladies and gentlemen.
It's always a thrill and a delight, an honor, even, and a privilege to be here with you each day, and well, most days to be able to discuss the salient and important it's us that shape and determine our future.
I, of course, Rush Limbaugh, highly trained broadcast specialist, veteran of 40 years service in this great industry.
Serving humanity simply by showing up.
Our telephone number is 800-282-2882, the email address rush at EIBNet.com.
Ladies and gentlemen, when we get new sponsors on this program, we always um introduce them to you in the program content portion rather than during uh commercial breaks.
We'd like to introduce uh new sponsor, uh debuting today on the EIB network, the Justice Brothers.
Let's see what they do with that.
You know, there's a there's a drive-by scandal happening out there.
Not many people uh making big whoopy over this uh in the drive-by media, but Katie Courick apparently has the uh these these essays, uh Katie Couric's notebook, uh, and I I guess these are on the website.
These I don't think she I don't think these are part of the uh CBS evening news with Katie Couricks.
I haven't watched it since last September.
Good point, neither's anybody else.
Anyway.
Anyway, she did what with the way these things happen is that she's got she got a bunch of writers and they they have meetings, and if it won't be a good topic, and the writers write these things forward, and she goes on and I I I guess I don't even know what they I don't know if if she recorded their video on her website or if they're just if are they video or are they just well, yeah, because we got the audio.
Yeah, yeah, they are video.
Right there it is.
Well, it turns out that this uh this Katie Couric notebook, this essay on libraries was practically 100% plagiarized from a writer at the Wall Street Journal.
So CBS has fired the producer that did this, but they're not naming him.
This uh is the Katie Couric Notebook on libraries, and notice she doesn't write these.
Notice how this starts.
Hi, everyone.
I still remember when I got my first library card browsing through the stacks for my favorite books.
For kids today, the library is more removed from their lives.
It's a last ditch place to go if they need to find something out.
Of course, if Google doesn't turn it up first.
Sure, children still like libraries, but books are not the draw.
A recent study found kids use them more for DVDs, story hours, and computers than for checking out books.
Many kids skip the library altogether and head straight to the store.
Sales of children's books rose 60% from 2002 to 2005.
It's an encouraging sign that kids value reading, but many tech-savvy kids never experience the joy of using the library shelves as a place to discover new worlds.
And many students get to college clueless about the Dewey Decimal system.
Your local library is still worth checking out.
And by the way, so are the books.
That's a page for my notebook.
I'm Katie Curick, CBS News.
Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yahoo.
I still remember what I got my first library card.
I went to the library with such a She didn't write it.
Producer did totally plagiarize it.
They've gotten rid of the guy.
Apparently, these are videos and they run on local CBS affiliates.
They don't run uh on the network per se, and they don't run on the um what?
We did.
No, no, no, no.
We never do that.
Hang on just a second, folks.
They're talking to me here in the IFB.
Just I didn't see the memo on this.
I d no, no, no, no, no.
We've never done this before.
Apparently the sales staff promised the Justice Brothers two hits in program content.
I'm sorry.
Everybody's a winner with the Justice Brothers.
It's a hot chocolate.
A little bit.
A little bit.
HR just said at least CBS is improving.
They didn't forge Katie Couric's essay.
Good one.
They At least they didn't forge it.
No, they just plagiarized it.
Moving up in the world.
CBS News, the Tiffany Network.
All right, speaking of the Justice Brothers, there's an interesting story here in the uh in the Boston Globe by Rick Klein and Joseph Williams.
Obama's silence on Imus alarms some blacks.
Candidate faces first test on handling issues of race.
With the Reverend Sharpton leading calls on Monday for the PERP to be fired over racially insensitive remarks.
Senator Barry Obama's presidential campaign avoided the controversy throughout the day.
Not until Monday night, five days later.
Did Obama weigh in saying in a statement the comments of the PERP were divisive, hurtful, and offensive to Americans of all backgrounds.
Obama didn't address whether he thought the PERP should be taken off the air.
The episode is the first test of how Obama, who is of mixed race background, don't forget it's a drive-by's the LA Times that has run two or three stories on question of whether or not Barack is black enough.
And then they went out there.
And uh, you know, everybody went down to Selma for the anniversary of that march.
And Obama made the case that even though he wasn't in Selma, he was.
His heart was there and he can lead the movement.
He's down for the struggle, so to speak.
But now people are wondering if he's down for the struggle.
Uh, because he didn't get he didn't jump on this.
He spoke five days after the incident.
Well, of course, the same thing can be said for the drive-by's.
Where the hell were they on the day this happened or the day after the drive-bys and these perpetual guests in a perp show?
They didn't say anything until all hell broke loose a number of days later.
Melissa Harris Lacewell, a professor of politics and African American studies at Princeton, said that Obama missed an opportunity to prove himself to blacks and to white liberals, who would have wanted Obama to take the lead in denouncing the PERP.
Melissa Harris Lacewell said this was so easy, and his unwillingness to touch it.
Tells me this is going to be his third rail, and race never goes away in politics.
Black people want to love Barack.
They're doing everything they can to love Barack.
We want to believe that Barack is better than this, but they will turn on him.
They're actually judging him on this.
Barack is better than this.
He shouldn't have let five days go by.
Obama's promise to take up the mantle of past civil rights activists and is showing in the polls have not assuage the concerns of some black leaders, including Sharpton, that Obama isn't sufficiently committed to the causes.
He's not down for the struggle.
With uh Mrs. Bill Clinton also earning significant black support and her husband, the first black president, still widely popular among black voters.
Those qualms among prominent blacks could have electoral consequences for Obama.
Sharpton has repeatedly said Obama didn't learn the lessons of the civil rights movement, including the value of bold stands and dramatic action.
He's not down for the struggle.
I agree with him that we're part of the Joshua generation, but Joshua came for the ranks of Moses to continue to struggle and not to abandon the struggle, Sharpton told the Washington Times last month.
being a part of the Joshua generation is based on your work and not your age.
He's not down for the struggle.
Uh, Reverend Jackson has lined up behind Obama two weeks ago.
Sharpton has pointedly refused to endorse Obama.
Harris uh uh Lacewell uh said that it's just not that she's the Princeton professors.
It's just unfortunate that Obama's willingness to cede the spotlight to Sharpton on this issue could leave such veteran activists more confused than ever.
Obama being hit on this now.
Quick time out, ladies and gentlemen.
Be back and continue after this on the EIB network.
By the way, what do you bet?
What do you bet that Katie Couric's next book is called It Takes a Village?
And what do you bet that she goes on the IMA show to hawk it?
Greetings, my friends, and welcome back.
Rush Limbaugh here serving humanity, the EIB network, and to Jacksonville, Florida.
This is Alex.
Welcome, sir.
Nice to have you with us.
Oh, Rush, thanks, man.
Uh mega good on seeing you, man.
I'm like I told you, uh, screen caller, man.
I'm one of your Republicans here in Jacksonville, Florida.
Well, I'm glad to have you out there.
You're you're on a cell phone, it's a little bit difficult for me to hear you, but plug away.
Uh yes, I was just telling uh the back mouth support behind that just as commercial.
So I mean, I I I think I might have to use them one day if I haven't run into some problems where people think they're uh uh uh they're trying to sing me or anything like that.
I might have a signal board on them.
Do you think the Justice Brothers commercial is an effective commercial then?
Yes, yes, I think it's going to help you by the who want to use them there, Rush.
That's why you advertise on this program to get results.
That's right.
You know what?
Like you say, you're the consistency of a man if the many people listen to you, Rush.
I started listening to you by two years ago with a with a challenge from a friend.
And I tell you, when I started listening, I started realizing, man, I've been this way for a long time.
I've just been listening and going by, you know, other means and other ways.
Other people been, you know, somewhat trying to, you know, persuade me.
You know, not really getting into the facts, but the more I listen to you, Rush, the more I start getting to the facts.
And I tell you, man, you you are you're fooled for the brain, man.
I tell you, you information is great.
Well, I appreciate that.
I uh that you're very nice to say that, and I thank you very much, Alex.
All right, no problem.
Thank you for letting him.
Thank you for the noontime information, and as a trucker, I'm gonna keep on trucking for you, Russian for Republican issue.
You're you're where you're trucking, are you in your truck now?
I'm in my truck now, heading back in Jacksonville, just passing through our Daytona Beach.
All right.
All right, ten-four good buddy.
All right, Russ, be safe out there.
All right, I tell you what, uh as a as a as a special bonus, uh uh to Alex in Jacksonville.
We're gonna play the Justice Brothers again, because uh he said he might need them someday.
It's effective commercial, and we'll we'll back that up uh with uh just just for Alex.
We do dedications here now and then.
Alex in a truck on the way to Jacksonville.
We've got uh Reverend Sharpton singing respect uh after uh after the Justice Brothers commercial.
Here it is for the third time.
Have you noticed he never finishes a song?
He starts protesting.
He starts...
Starts protesting in the middle of the lyric line and the chorus this keeps singing.
And we're back.
Let's uh we squeeze another call in here before we have to go to the break.
It's Frank in New Orleans, and you're up, sir.
Welcome.
Hello, Rush.
This is Frank.
Yeah, hi, Frank.
Welcome.
Uh nice to have you with us.
Thank you, Rush.
Uh well, like uh a little while ago, you brought up fuel prices, and I was wondering uh, do you think that between 10 and 20 billion dollars a month is profit enough?
I I think it's obscene.
And I think the first candidate that answers some sort of thing.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Whose profit are we talking about here?
The oil companies.
Oh, give me a bit.
Exxon and Oh, come on.
You can't make it a month.
I this is this distresses me.
Because you well uh I'm trying to be polite.
You're ignorant about what you think you know about oil profits.
You have no clue how much they lose over the course of any number of years.
You have no clue how much they plow back into research and development.
You have no you try to go to the gas pump without the oil companies and see where you end up.
You have the government do it for you.
Inform me.
These people are penalized.
These people pay more in taxes than you can possibly imagine.
So do we, as we use their products.
The government is is reaping obscene profits from the sale of oil products, uh, including gasoline.
Oil profits are not excessive.
You're falling prey to a bunch of reporting from the drive-by media that wants you to hate them just because they're there.
A man, a living legend, a way of life.
Learn it, love it, and live it.
Rushland boy with talent on lawn from God.
Hey, Mike, grab uh bytes 16 and 17.
We're still waiting uh for the press conference down in uh Durham, North Carolina to start.
Uh we're not gonna jip it because it won't take long to learn what's happened.
You think we should?
No.
The press conference?
I know our we sent our microphones down there, but well, I'm not gonna land I'm not gonna stay with this long enough for questions.
I mean, once we get the news, it's the news.
We're not gonna make one of these things that stand around okay.
The we are dropping all charges, and 45 minutes later they're still asking questions about it.
I mean, we know that's gonna happen.
I'm not gonna get sucked into that.
Whatever the news.
All right, we'll think about jipping it.
Stand by and know I got a microphone down there.
We uh purchased podium space, but regardless, before we get to it, there's things that are always late.
Um last night on Fox News, the big story, John Gibson interviewed via phone Monty Johnson, who is uh uh uh proud Republican and an Edwards neighbor, uh neighbor of John and Elizabeth Edwards.
And of course, John Edwards' wife Elizabeth said he's a gun-toting Republican.
I don't want my kids getting in any near him.
His property is like a slum.
Uh he is look, I've I'm just you know, my property taxes have gone up twice in value here.
A half they've doubled because they built this big house across the down the road from me.
It's raised everybody's property value, and I can't afford to live here anymore.
And I I I've got to move out and so forth.
So Gibson said, Monty, she says she's scared of you because you pulled a gun on some guys who came on your property.
What's the story with this?
I don't have any idea what she's talking about.
She hasn't been here long enough that she doesn't know me.
She's never been on my property, she's never spoke with me.
Occasionally they'll send somebody over to find out what I'm doing, but that's the extent of it.
I don't have any idea what she's talking about.
Gibson said, Well, she also evidently complains that your property is kind of ramshackle and it's a mess, while hers is all neat and tidy.
Well, therefore, you know, I don't have millions of dollars.
I just have to fix a little as I can.
But I think I have a beautiful place.
I have have it maxed out as far as landscaping and shrubbing, and I work on it continuously every day long.
There you have it.
That's Monty Johnson of just a salt of the earth guy, apparently.
A proud Republican, probably a ditto head.
We'd roll the dice here and say he's a ditto head.
And uh being attacked here by Elizabeth Edwards is a gun-toning maniac that frightens her kids.
And uh John Edwards was asked about this at a press conference.
Well, you you go, okay, let's let's get ready to jip the press conference down in uh in Durham, North Carolina.
Uh let me give you a countdown here of three, two, all right.
Go ahead and jip it.
Caroline in the rain, but welcome anyway.
Well, that's a nice way to begin.
On January the 13th of this year, I accepted the request of the Durham County District Attorney to take over three Durham cases.
At the time, I promised a fresh and thorough review of the facts and a decision on the best way to proceed.
I also said that we would have our eyes wide open to the evidence, but that we would have blinders on to all other distractions.
We have done all of these things.
During the past twelve weeks, our lawyers and investigators have reviewed the remaining allegations of sexual assault and kidnapping that resulted from a party on March 13th, 2006, in Durham, North Carolina.
We've carefully reviewed the evidence collected by the Durham County Prosecutor's Office and the Durham Police Department.
We've also conducted our own interviews and evidence gathering.
Our attorneys and SBI agents have interviewed numerous people who were at the party, DNA and other experts, the Durham County District Attorney.
Pretty thirsty, Durham police officers, Defense attorneys, and the accusing witness on several occasions.
We have reviewed statements given over the year, photographs, records, and other evidence.
The result of our review and investigation shows clearly that there is insufficient evidence to proceed on any of the charges.
Today, we are filing notices of dismissal for all charges against Reed Seligman, Colin Fennerty, and David Evans.
The result is that these cases are over, and no more criminal proceedings will occur.
We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rus to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations.
Based on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges.
Wow, now that's...
And we approach this case with the understanding that rape and sexual assault victims often have some inconsistencies in their account of a traumatic event.
Thank you.
However, in this case, the inconsistencies were so significant and so contrary to the evidence that we have no credible evidence that an attack occurred in that house on that night.
This is big.
Now the prosecuting witness in this case responded to our questions and offered information.
She did want to move forward with the prosecution.
However, the contradictions in her many versions of what occurred and the conflicts between what she said occurred and other evidence like photographs and phone records could not be rectified.
Our investigation shows that the eyewitness identification procedures were faulty and unreliable.
No DNA confirms the accuser's story.
No other witness confirms her story.
Other evidence contradicts her story.
She contradicts herself.
Next week, we'll be providing a written summary of the important factual findings and some of the specific contradictions that have led us to the conclusion that no attack occurred.
Now, in this case, with the weight of the state behind him, the Durham District Attorney pushed forward unchecked.
There were many points in this case where caution would have served justice better than bravado.
And in the rush to condemn a community and a state lost the ability to see clearly.
Regardless of the reasons that this case was pushed forward, you don't hear so much was wrong.
This does not happen much.
Today, we need to learn from this and keep it from happening again to anybody.
Now, we have good district attorneys in North Carolina who are both tough and fair.
And we need these forceful independent prosecutors to put criminals away and protect the public.
But we also need checks and balances to protect the innocent.
This case shows the enormous consequences of overreaching by a prosecutor.
What has been learned here is that the internal checks on a criminal charge, sworn statements, reasonable grounds, proper suspect photo lineups, accurate And fair discovery all are critically important.
Therefore, I propose a law that the North Carolina Supreme Court have the authority to remove a case from a prosecutor in limited circumstances.
Whoa!
Whoa!
This would give the toll courts a new tool to deal with a prosecutor who needs to step away from a case where justice demands.
I want to thank everyone in the North Carolina Department of Justice.
I want to thank the investigators, our SBI agents, and especially attorneys Jim Coman and Mary Winstead for their hard work in this matter.
Do we get an apology for these?
Next week we will be distributing a fact summary sheet, and you will have that then.
But I'll go ahead and take some of your questions now.
You want to consider what you just said about the DA and about the accuser, what would you say to the three men who were charged?
Well, I'm telling them what I tell everyone in North Carolina.
We have looked at the charges.
We have looked at the law, and we have cleared them of all of these charges.
And it is important to note that the Durham County District Attorney is now facing ethics charges with the North Carolina Bar Association.
Do you feel like do you feel the need to apologize in any way?
I mean, in terms of what happened to your Well, you know, I think a lot of people owe a lot of apologies to uh to other people.
Uh I think that those people ought to consider doing that.
Yes.
Now here.
Okay.
Yes.
What do you think District Attorney Mike Kniphon was thinking now that you've reviewed all this all the evidence done these interviews?
What do you how do you think he came to the conclusion he came to the fact that the question is?
Well, I'm I'm concerned, although our our investigation did not concentrate on this, but I saw the statements, and now we've done the investigation.
I'm concerned that statements were made publicly about things that turned out not to be true.
That's a concern, and right now I think it's appropriate that the North Carolina Bar Association is looking at these ethics terms.
Okay, we've we've we've got to uh we've got to bump out of this, but this there were some things said uh by the Attorney General here.
By the way, the press conference was in Raleigh and not Durham, but the uh thing some of the things he said here were profound that you do not hear from law enforcement.
He just didn't say they were dropping charges.
He said they were innocent.
He didn't even use the term not guilty.
He said they were innocent.
He didn't just say there was insufficient evidence, and we can't move forward.
He proclaimed them innocent.
He then ripped Nyphong.
Uh in a in a in a didn't mention his name, but he he made it clear that this was an abomination of a case that should have never gone forward, proposed a law saying that North Carolina Supreme Court can in certain circumstances take a case away from a prosecuting attorney.
You this is unheard of.
This is simply unheard of.
You're talking about uh prosecutors that that have have limitless kind of power uh once once a case gets started and so forth, and uh the people were asking during this what can be done, and it uh turns out here that nothing was done other than uh the news quickly leaked out of the you know the flawed elements of this investigation, and Knife Wong had to recuse himself, and that brought in the investigatory bodies from the Attorney General's office.
And then and I wondered about if they're going to apologize, and uh maybe for you know civil liability down the road, and I could actually do that, but uh he clearly said the Attorney General that that uh the people need to be doing some apologizing, and he clearly is referring to knife wong and the accuser,
uh, if you ask me, and maybe even the media, and maybe even these eighty-eight professors at Duke that signed that letter suggesting these were reprobate kids and it needed to be kicked out, apologize to the whole Duke Lacrosse team, apologize to the coach who Got fired.
There are a there are a boatload of apologies that are required here.
And he was suggesting that this happens.
And I'm struck by one thing before I go to the break.
I remember this this Rutgers press conference yesterday, where one of the uh basketball team members, one of the students, said that uh she might probably be scarred for life by by the words that were used on that on that radio show.
And I'm just wondering how scarred for life these three Duke Lacrosse players will be for the rest of their lives by false allegations.
Like this.
I just I just wonder if they will be or will they not.
It's an interesting, just to, you know, because I always say words are words.
Yeah, they mean things, but words are words, but actions and deeds, that's substance.
Quick timeout.
Back in just a second with much more on the EIB network.
I have never seen a press conference like this.
I have never in my life seen a law enforcement figure say this about another law enforcement figure.
I've just everybody is has the experience of uh of uh these groups, whatever they are, that law enforcement, whatever.
They they hang together, they protect their own.
Um, and uh, even in a situation like this, they they try to save one of this.
They knife long has been thrown overboard.
He is thrown under the bus.
The attorney general of North Carolina referred twice, at least when we were listening to the procedure here before the ethics uh committee, the uh North Carolina Bar.
I uh just this is this profound.
You just don't hear things like this.
And of course, this could be a case.
We're all speculating here.
We're wondering during the break if this is an opportunity for the Justice Brothers, a new sponsor here at the EIB network to uh get into gear.
And we we uh conclude here that this may be one of the first ethical dilemmas faced by the Justice Brothers, but I assume since they are sponsors that they will let us know first uh of any future plans they have in regard to this outcome today.
Cora in uh in Durham, North Carolina.
Welcome to the EIB network.
Hey Rush, how are you doing?
I'm never better.
Thanks for the call.
So I just wanted to say congratulations for um coming and last fall saying that the truth in this case was gonna come out slowly.
And that's exactly what happened.
You compared it to um what happened with um Clinton, and I have told everybody this for six months.
This is gonna it's gonna end.
Uh Rush said it, and it's happened, so congratulations.
Were you confident it was going to end this way?
Uh yes, absolutely I was.
I I live in Durham and um uh have been very disgusted by what I've seen happen here.
Why do you think it happened?
I mean, you're you're a you're a Durham resident.
What do you think was going on here?
Uh well, I I do think that the campaign had a lot to do with that.
Um the there's a a a large African American population in the city.
Um Yeah, but uh no, well, we know all that, but I let me focus the question because of time.
Here you had a DA who obviously knew everything he was doing was trumped up, and yet he thought there was no way he couldn't get away with this.
I really and truly think he never thought it was going to be this big.
I don't think he thought the national media was going to get involved with this.
And I think he thought this was going to be a small town southern, slip it under the rug.
These boys are gonna go to jail.
Um that's how it looked to me.
And when and when it exploded, he kind of got his hand caught in the cookie jar and it backfired on him.
Interesting thought.
I I mean it it's possible.
I don't know how how somebody who runs for elective office could be that naive about the elements of this case uh and the fact that those elements would take this far beyond the city limits of Durham.
Anyway, I'm glad you called Cora.
Well, you got a you got a pep in your voice, a lot of spunk, a lot of energy there.
It's infectious.
It's great to talk to you.
Be back and close it out after this.
All right, folks, have to uh have to hit the trail.
I gotta do a little audio blurb for a family guy TV show coming up, playing myself, and then um wing my way northward to New York, a Northern Command got a big cigar dinner Thursday night in New York.
So on the air there tomorrow, and see you then.
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