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May 14, 2008 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:30
May 14, 2008, Wednesday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 247 podcast.
What did you just say to me, HR?
What did you just say?
That's what I thought you said.
He said he went out and bought a pack of menthol cigarettes.
Trying to change the statistics.
So that the government doesn't appear racist on that.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, hang in there, be tough.
We'll splain this as the program unfolds.
Greetings, my friends, and welcome.
It's Rush Limbaugh already the middle of the week.
We are here on the Excellence in Broadcasting Network from the prestigious Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
A thrill and a delight to have you with us today.
If you want to be on the program, email address Lrushbow, EIB net.com.
Hillary Rodham Clinton wins by 40%.
Over 40%.
Hillary wins West Virginia.
And the drive-bys continue to keep asking when she's getting out.
When the issue is Obama and the fact that his train has gone off the tracks.
His train is off the tracks.
He can't even compete in some of these states.
And we're not talking about bright red states here.
These are competitive states in the general election, and he cannot compete in them.
Here's an example from the Huffington Post today.
Thomas Thomas B. Edsall used to work in the Washington Post.
Why doesn't she concede?
Why doesn't she get out?
Why doesn't she give up?
And he chronicles all the drive-bys from like the Kansas City Star throughout the internet, trying to agonize here.
Why won't she quit?
Hey, Thomas and the rest of you in the drive-by media.
We understand and know Hillary Clinton better than you do, and you have been her champions for how many years now?
Up until last year, when you bailed on her to support Obama, the black guy.
Bottom line is this.
She's not doing this for you guys.
She's not doing this to try to make you people in the media happy, and she's not doing this for the Democrat Party.
She is obsessed because this is the only reason she's hung around for the last 26 years.
This is it.
Camille Padia has it right.
She's not going anywhere.
Especially after a win like this last night.
Forty percent.
And she's supposed to get out.
I know she's 20.
She's gonna win Kentucky, too.
She's 20 points down in Oregon, but she might uh who knows, she might write that off.
I don't care who they were, Sturdley.
I don't care if they're older white voters and uneducated.
The Democrats know this.
They know two things.
And they're not, and they're gonna try to ignore both of them.
The last Democrat who was elected president, who won a majority of the white vote was who?
Tell me.
Who was the last Democrat president?
No, it's not Jimmy Carter.
It was Lyndon Johnson.
Lyndon Johnson in 1964 was the last Democrat president to win a majority of the white vote.
No Democrat since 1960, or ever however, let's put it this way.
However, West Virginia goes in a general election is who wins the presidency since 1960.
Now, even after Hillary's shocking, stunning defeat list.
It wasn't so shocking.
Even after all of this, more superdelegates moved over to Obama today.
It's just it's fascinating here to watch the drive-bys.
You know, they've they succeeded in picking our candidate.
They succeeded in picking McCain, and they're just they're just frustrated as they can be.
They want Hillary to get out, and they're mad that Obama can't close the deal, and Bill Clinton's even singing about it these days, folks.
Went into the recording studio because he wasn't on stage last night.
Did you notice that?
He heard what we had to say about that, so he went to the studio instead.
White comedian Paul Shanklin, everything she does is tragic.
Of course, that's a takeoff on everything she does is magic by the police.
Well known eco-phony sting and his doubly eco-phony wife, Trudy Styler.
Bill Clinton in the recording studio.
I have been waiting for this.
And I am prepared for this.
I just got an email, just one, uh, from a um actually not a subscriber.
This is in the general email account at L Rushbow at EIBNet.com.
It's from a woman called Sandy Bowes, uh, B-O-E-S-E.
I guess that's how you pronounce it.
Dear Rush.
Since Operation Chaos, the GOP has lost three congressional seats.
I'm a conservative.
I have nothing.
I have no candidate for president.
I have no national party unit.
And no rush, who's consumed with Operation Chaos.
Enough is enough.
Sandy Bose or Bosey.
Been waiting for this, been waiting for somebody to try to blame me for the Republican Party's inability to win in a district that George Bush carried by 20 points in 2004, talking about Northern Mississippi.
Ladies and gentlemen, go ahead and attack me.
Don't attack the moderates in the party.
Don't attack the Republican establishment.
Don't attack the country club types who are in the process of destroying the Republican party.
No, no, no, no, no.
Go right ahead and attack me.
Operation Chaos has nothing to do with voting against conservative candidates.
Nothing.
And this thing down in Mississippi is special election.
Regardless of party, conservatives could have voted for the Republican down there, doesn't matter.
In all of these cases, well, two of the three of these cases, in two of the three of these House Republican congressional losses, they have been beaten by conservative Democrats.
Big time conservative, social conservative Democrats.
The Republican Party is ceding conservatism in the South to the Democrat Party.
You know, this is...
Yesterday was a very frustrating day, as you know.
In fact, when I left here yesterday, I said the first thing I have to do when I get back to the golden EIB microphone tomorrow is apologize for what I thought was a subpar performance on my part on the behalf of yesterday's program.
Because ladies and gentlemen, I was I I can't tell you after hearing this McCain's speech, we played sound bites of it.
I was a combination of angry, not quite depressed.
I don't get depressed, but I was just fit to be tied, and I was distracted.
And I feel like I was not polite with the number of the callers, I was having trouble hearing them yesterday, but nevertheless.
Felt like I had to come in here and apologize because normally we're very ebullient here, and we are of good cheer.
Optimism.
We try to enjoy life here at the EIB network and spread that.
And yesterday I was not enjoying what's going on here.
Well, today I'm going to expand on that, especially now, since some apparently think I, the leading conservative commentator voice in the country, am responsible for Republican Party losses in supposedly safe congressional districts.
One was Denny Hasterts outside Chicago.
Another was last night in Mississippi.
Do you realize if the Democrat Party, I just want to put a thought in your head here before we go to the break.
If the Democrat Party were not so controlled by a bunch of radical leftists, do you realize the wide open shot they have at taking over the Republican Party?
Nancy Pelosi, say what you want about her, but she knows what she wants.
She wants a bigger majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives.
She doesn't care who those Democrats are.
She just wants party ID to enable herself to solidify her leadership and expand her majority.
So if she has to run conservative Democrats in Tennessee, in North Carolina, in Mississippi, who are more conservative than Republican incumbents, if she has to do that and win, she will do it.
And that's exactly what's happening.
Because the Republican Party, which is sold out to the pseudo-conservatives of the New York Times and the DC New York media establishment, who think that Rockefeller Republicanism and country club Republicanism is the future of the party.
Ms. Pelosi says, okay, they're going to give that up.
They're going to give up Reagan.
Fine, we'll go take over.
If she wanted to, she could take over the whole Republican Party this way.
But she's too far left and her party is too far left.
But if they really wanted a huge supermajority, it's waiting for them.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party is doing everything it can.
It's just everything in the world that it can try to be 25, 30%, 40% liberal or independent for some God knows who can explain it reason.
A brief timeout.
Before we come back, let me put this thought in your head.
The Democrats are fighting to defeat us.
We, at the highest levels of our party, appear to be fighting to join them.
I'm not ready to come back.
I'm still listening to the music I want to listen to.
Greetings and welcome back.
I'm here, ladies and gentlemen.
El Rushbo.
The all-nowing, all caring, all sensing, all feeling, all concerned.
Maha Rashi from Mark Ambinder's blog at the Atlantic.com.
A fairly remarkable statement from the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Representative Tom Cole about last night's special election in Mississippi.
He's warning his incumbents and challengers change or die.
He said we're disappointed in tonight's election results.
Though the National Republican Congressional Committee, the RNC and Mississippi Republicans made a major effort to retain this seat.
We came up short.
They did.
You know who went in our campaign for our guy, Greg Davis?
They sent Cheney in there.
They sent Trent Lott in there.
Uh Haley Barber, very popular governor, they sent him in there.
Now the Democrats.
The Democrats did what the Democrats always do.
They tried to portray Greg Davis as having ties to the KKK after Davis and his campaign tried to use Jeremiah Wright.
But we know the Democrats are going to call Mississippi Republicans KKK members.
It's about damn time somebody came up with an answer to that.
At any rate.
Mr. Cole continued.
Tonight's election highlights two significant challenges Republicans must overcome this November.
First, Republicans must be prepared to campaign against Democrat challengers who are running as conservatives even as they try to join a liberal Democrat majority.
Yeah, just explains that.
Though the Democrats' task will be more difficult in a November election, the fact is they've pulled off two special victories with this strategy, and it should be a concern to all Republicans.
Gee, they're just now getting it.
What took them so long?
Did you see what happened at 2000?
Folks, I am mad today.
Did you see what happened in 2006?
Did you see all the conservative Democrats?
Pelosi ran in the South then and skunked your incumbents.
With what?
Not McCainism.
These Democrats were not running as McCain.
They were running as Reagan conservatives, and that's how they won in Reagan conservative districts.
The Republican Party couldn't bring itself to do that.
Oh, of course it couldn't.
I'll tell you why in just a second.
We're just getting started here, folks.
Second, the political environment is such that voters remain pessimistic about the direction of the country and the Republican Party in general.
Therefore, Republicans must undertake bold efforts to define a forward-looking agenda that offers the kind of positive changes voters are looking for.
Well, Tom, I agree with you, but if you do that, you're going to have to split from your presidential nominee.
Because that's not what he's doing.
Senator McCain is not on that line.
He's not on that train track.
Positive change, voters are looking for.
This is something we can do in cooperation with our presidential nominee.
Hey, Tom, let me ask you a question.
I say this with all due respect.
When's the National Republican Congressional Candidate going to come out and endorse Democrats' version of man-made global warming?
When are you Republicans going to run for a re-election in the House the same way McCain's running for the White House?
If you're going to be able to coordinate what you have to do here with the presidential nominee, you might be better off switching parties and just be trying to become more likable than the other Democrats.
Mr. Cole says I encourage all Republican candidates, whether incumbents or challengers to take stock of their campaigns and position themselves for challenging campaigns this fall by building the financial resources and grassroots networks that offer them the opportunity and ability to communicate, energize, and turn out the voters.
This election.
I feel sorry for Mr. Cole.
I know he wants to do the right thing, and I know he knows what the right thing is.
But his hands are tied, just like Denny Hasterts were, and just like a lot of other Republicans' hands have been tied.
When there's no top-down conservative leadership, all you have is Republican leadership.
There's no top-down conservative leadership.
You can't really go against the top leadership and be accused of being a heretic.
So their hands are tied.
See, Congressman Cole, the party, Republican Party is only as good as its leaders.
Its leaders lack the agenda you know it needs.
It lacks the agenda that the Democrats in the South are using against you.
Can somebody, can anybody at the Republican National Committee in the McCain campaign or anywhere else, can somebody tell me what the consistent agenda is of the Republican Party?
No.
The head of the party lacks a philosophy.
Can anybody tell me what Senator McCain's overall philosophy is?
Anybody know?
I mean, I'm open to hearing it if you know what it is.
800-282-2882.
Is there a is there an appealing presence?
Is there is there a media personality presence?
Is there an excitement when a Republican shows up on television?
I can think of a couple.
No names here.
If we want to be honest about this, and that's what it's gonna take, my fringe.
It's gonna take amnesty.
And here you go.
We have to say that for eight years, the Republican Party was taken for granted.
There was no effort made to build its conservative brand.
We've spoken about this, an absence of conservative leadership, didn't come from the White House, did not come from Congress either.
And those responsible, at least in large part for the current circumstances, are still running the show.
They're still dumping on Ronald Reagan.
They're still dumping on conservatives.
Still trying to appeal to the wrong voters in the special interest.
Michael Gerson, who's now at the Washington Post, a couple other places a columnist was the chief speech writer first term for President Bush, wrote some of the finest, most soaring speeches the president's ever given.
He's out there just lambasting conservatives today for not having big enough hearts, not doing enough to help people with AIDS, not doing enough to help people who are suffering.
We are spending $3.1 trillion this year, and we're going broke.
You know, it's one thing for Liberal Democrats to accuse us of being heartless.
It's another thing for people who are in the in the in the position here of doing tremendous damage to the Republican Party to accuse us of being heartless.
We are taxed and we pay it.
We are asked to charitably to donate charitably and we do it.
We do our best to take care of those who cannot help themselves.
We draw the line at people who can take care of themselves.
We don't want them to become wards of the state.
And so the Republican Party is now out there appealing to the wrong voters, appealing to special interests.
And that's just one thing.
On the other side of this, the Republican Party's attacking its own base in the process.
And then wondering why.
They're losing safe seat special elections in Mississippi and Illinois.
A personal departure for why, for a moment of you.
Forgive me, why is it that everybody who wants or needs something from me waits until 1205 every day to let me know about it?
Folks, it's memo time.
I'm going to send a blast memo to everybody in my email account.
No emails from 1230 or 12 o'clock to 1230.
Calming down here and getting back to the program at hand.
Little uh some details about the uh situation in Mississippi that both both parties uh carpet bombed ads for each of these guys that are both a Democrat and a Republican.
The Democrat was billed, this guy's name is Childers or Childers.
I've still not heard his name pronounced, so I don't know how it's pronounced, I'm not trying to be disrespectful.
Uh it was billed as a pro-life pro-gun Baptist who never raised taxes.
Well, guess what?
Guess who used to own all that?
The Republicans.
The Republicans, except this guy, Childers, has never been in an office that would allow him to raise taxes.
So we don't know what he's gonna do.
I could have easily have answered this guy.
Anyway.
Yeah, we're gonna get to the Democrats here in just a second, folks.
Don't sweat it, and we get to the Democrats, you're gonna like it.
Just sit tight.
John McCain's in Basker, because we're talking here what's happening to the Republican Party.
I am stunned it has taken these people three special elections starting late last year to figure out what the hell's going on here.
Senator McCain's embrace of a radical environmental agenda is a perfect example of all that I have been discussing with you today about how the Republican Party is abandoning conservatism, abandoning those things and those people that made it victorious.
Radical environmentalism, global warming, call it whatever you want, is an agenda born of the 1960s socialism that spread from Europe to the U.S. It rejects completely the notion of limited constitutional government.
The plan advocated by Obama, the plan advocated by Mrs. Clinton, the plan advocated by Al Gore, the plan sadly advocated by our nominee, tramples on individual rights, tramples on capitalism,
tramples on states rights, and it promotes the whole notion that government is the solution and the only solution to everything, and it promotes the idea that we are guilty, that we are guilty precisely because of our prosperity.
Have you noticed?
On your own, other than the times I have told you, have you noticed that the only people in the world who seem to get blamed for global warming are Americans?
The Chicoms don't get blamed.
The British European Union, they don't get blamed because they're already driving around bubble cars.
They're already paying whatever six bucks, seven bucks per liter or gallon of gasoline.
No, it's only Americans.
Have you noticed this?
It's only Americans that are blamed for this.
And now it doesn't matter who we vote for for president, whoever the next president is is going to agree with that premise.
Militant.
Militant environ environmentalism is based on the long-heard left wing complaint that we, Americans, consume far too much of the world's resources, given our population.
And that we need to restrict and restrain the creation of wealth, our own wealth, and our living standards, to more share the world's resources more equitably with the rest of the world.
That's what's behind this.
So when Senator McCain says that he'll work diplomatically to ensure that the UN, other countries and so forth are all working together to address the global problem of man-made climate change, he is saying to us, quote, I am surrendering the American economy.
I'm surrendering the American economy and decision-making process to forces outside the U.S. who have never had our nation's best interest at heart because we have to repair our image and we have to get along, and I have to show everybody that I understand we've got a big problem, we've got to fix it.
Yesterday I speculated, I wondered aloud, how can it be that somebody who's been in the U.S. Senate for whatever number of years, the House before that, now running for president, knows 10% of what I know about something.
How can this be?
I expressed in, and not just McCain, Obama too, who doesn't know diddly squat about anything.
He thinks they speak Arabic in Afghanistan.
He said that yesterday in Cape Girardo.
He thinks they're 57 states.
This guy is a laughing stock if his last name's quail.
Regardless, Mrs. Clinton shouldn't know diddly squat either.
And frankly, as an American citizen, it bothers me.
That as an average common, ordinary, everyday American citizen, I know more about a lot of things than these people who have access to information I can't get access to.
Classified all the fact that we all know more than they do is a frightening thing.
I look at the exit polls out of West Virginia.
And I look at the college educated vote.
And I want to propose right now we change the term college educator to college brainwashed.
College brainwashed is a more accurate description of college educated.
For all I know, maybe there are 57 states.
Obama's the only one that's been told.
Maybe it's classified.
Hell I don't know.
At any rate, I've decided, my friends, it's not for me to know or say whether McCain understands or comprehends the extent of his surrender to these forces that seek to conquer our status without firing a bullet.
It's not for me to know.
I don't care.
The fact is these consequences are what they are.
Now, McCain went out there in Oregon and he delivered a bang bang environmental speech, as far as the left is concerned.
If I, if I had been Nancy Pelosi, if I had been Obama, if I had been Hillary Clinton, if I were Al Gore, I would be doing backflips.
If I were the drive-by media, I'd go, oh boy, this is Christmas in May.
But they're still not satisfied.
The environmentalist wackos, the Democrats, Al Gore still not satisfied with McCain's proposals.
McCain's proposals are so far reaching, they are frightening, but this is a typical tactic of the left.
Constantly demand more, constantly voice dissatisfaction, change the political dynamic so that even the most radical proposal is characterized as just a beginning, and it doesn't go far enough.
Or it's just a first step, or it's otherwise incomplete.
The new voices of fascism and Stalinism are to be found in the environmentalist wacko left.
There is no Republican, nominee or otherwise, who should embrace them or any of what they are preaching.
Not in a sane political world.
The lesson of these Republican House losses in heavily Republican areas, safe districts is not that the American people are now socialists, or that they want more and more government programs, or do they want to surrender their liberty to bureaucrats, domestic or foreign?
No, my friends, the lesson in these Republican losses, is that conservatives are fed up with the Republican Party and are fed up with the direction the Republican Party has taken.
They have no real option in this election.
So they are not voting.
Or in some cases, they may be protest voting against the Republican Party, regardless of the candidate.
And who do we have to thank for this?
The list is too long for me to go through here.
But you can guess who the usual suspects are.
All of the moderates, all of the mavericks, all of the independents, so called, who've decided that their own political careers are more important than building a party in a movement that advances the principles that are critical to the well being of this nation.
Another word I'm tired of hearing is maverick.
Independent when describing a Republican.
So from now on, when you hear the word maverick Republican or independent Republican, I want you to think of one word selfish.
Because that is who and that is what these people are.
They are pandering to the elements in our society who wish the Republican Party and the Conservative movement ill.
They are pandering to people in the media and the Democrat Party who have not given up their task of politically decimating the Republican Party.
They are joining them, whether by accident or by design.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why we conservatives are in a very difficult state right now.
We can't vote for socialists.
We can't go out there and vote for socialists like Obama or Clinton.
But Hills Bells, the Republican Party's nominated a candidate who spent decades pandering to these very people in these very elements, and is still doing it as our nominee.
Spent decades undermining our party.
McCain Feingold, Amnesty, McCain Kennedy.
And this is the movement he now claims to be part of, and whose support he seeks.
Let me add a final point.
McCain and his advisors and his plants, his sycophants, in the New York, Boston, Washington, conservative so-called media axis in the New York Times.
See the loss, folks, and this is profound.
If you've heard nothing I've said, and I know that's not possible, you've heard everything I said, and you're marveling at it, and you should be.
I am myself.
These moderate Republicans, and McCain and his advisors, they're looking at these three losses, these so-called safe Republican seats that have been lost.
And you know what they see?
They don't see a trouble, a problem.
They see an opportunity.
This, my friends, is so important you've got to understand this.
It's not that I don't think you're capable of it.
I just want to say it, I may repeat it a couple of times to get it through.
From McCain on down through his sycophants of the New York Times, and wherever you find these moderates and these independents in a Republican Party.
They don't look at what happened to Mississippi last night as a problem.
They don't look at what happened in Denny Haster's district as a problem.
They see the loss of these three seats as evidence that their big government conservatism is the only way to win elections.
That if the Republicans had run somebody like McCain, if the Republicans candidate down there had been pro-global warming as the Democrats wanted.
And for a compassionate, active government that grows larger, then they would have won.
That is the way they're going to take this.
That's the way they're going to spend this at the RNC on down.
They see the destruction and the mayhem they've unleashed within the Republican Party as justification for more of the same.
They blame conservatism, where conservatism has been abandoned.
There isn't any conservatism in the Republican Party except in a couple of instant individual cases.
They're still out blaming conservatism for these losses, and they're going to look at these losses and say, see, conservatism is not the way to go.
Despite the fact that the winners outdid Republicans in espousing conservatism.
So So they're going to blame Reaganism for Reaganism has been abandoned.
We've lost a lot of ground, lost a lot of ground after a uh after a decade.
Non-conservative activism, trying things their way.
They have learned nothing from it.
They're too vain, they're too delusional to see that their way will destroy what's left of the Republican party brand.
A brief timeout.
Back after this.
And we're back.
Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
Ha ha.
Ho ho hee he.
Anyway.
The media take on what happened in Mississippi last night.
Jonathan Martin, our old buddy at the Politico.com.
Republicans have now failed twice this month to win by using Obama against Democrat congressional candidates in a deep South.
In both the Baton Rouge area seat ten days ago and tonight in order, last night, Northern Mississippi.
Republican candidates aired ads tying their conservative Democrat opponents to Obama.
And uh Reverend Wright.
And of course, now the meaning says it doesn't work.
You guys, you Republicans think that you can defeat Obama or Democrats by tying them to Obama.
Jonathan would all do respect.
It has nothing to do with why the Republicans lost last night.
In fact, you know what I'd like to know?
I haven't seen any exit polls.
I'd like to know how many Republicans crossed over and voted for the more conservative Democrat.
Acted like McCain joining the Democrat Party.
I wonder how many Republican mavericks there were in Mississippi.
That's a good thing, Gasplimbo's.
Hey, I'm the only one allowed to do that.
You hatch stayed a party.
But I know what I'm doing, and you don't.
So I can go, I can go join the Democrats, whatever I want, but you can't.
I'm the only Maverick.
No, we're all Mavericks now.
Okay, let's see.
Do we have time?
No.
Oh, you gotta hear this.
I want to change the mood just a little bit, and then I'll get back to being mad.
Today on Jeopardy during the college championship.
A question and answer about me.
Let's try famous college drops for 400.
Answer there.
This conservative radio talk show host dropped out of Southeast Missouri State after flunking ballroom dancing.
Vera.
Who's Rush Limbaugh?
Yes.
Yes.
I know everybody thinks, wow, these college kids are really smart.
You know what's wrong with this question?
I did flunk out a bull.
I flunk speech twice, but I went back and I got I got I went back and did enough outlines.
But when I when I learned that a mandatory PE course was ballroom dance taught by a drill sergeant in wax, this didn't go.
And when Mother found out I wasn't going, she took away my car.
I'm 20 years old, 19.
She drove me up to college.
I mean, it was it was humiliating.
I didn't go.
The question's correct, and the answer's correct here.
But you didn't need to add conservative talk show host dropped out of Southeast Missouri State.
Who is the conservative radio talk show host?
Everybody's gonna know what the answer is.
You don't have to say any details.
Anyway, delight in the one of the things that happened yesterday, folks, was I had a uh I had an opportunity to tell you about Allen Brothers Stakes and the opening of barbecue season, and I was in such a foul mood yesterday.
I botched a commercial, and I never botched the commercials.
And I did not give the client what the client paid for.
I mean, I was stewing about this all night.
I was up till 2.30 this morning worrying about how rotten yesterday's show was.
So I want to make good this Allen Brothers commercial because I left out one thing.
I told you about the rush pack.
You know about the rush pack, but now there's something called the Rush Moore pack.
You get eight free steak burgers, an EIB apron in the Rush Moore pack, in addition to the steaks, the sampler stakes.
Once you taste it, I want to warn you once you taste this, you're never gonna go back.
I serve it every time I entertain.
Hot dogs hamburger steaks, it doesn't matter.
People salivate for invitations to my dinner parties because they know I'm gonna be serving Allen Brothers.
You go to ABstakes.com, see what I'm talking about, or call them up 800-260-0111.
AB Stakes.com.
There.
That was better.
Famous college dropout Rush Limbois.
Having included our first excursion, hours excursion into broadcast excellence, a brief timeout.
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