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March 25, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:36
March 25, 2011, Friday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24 7 Podcast.
Have you checked out what's happening in Middle East?
More protests are scheduled for Bahrain and Yemen today.
Basher Assad shooting citizens in Syria has all the makings of a mother of no fly zones shaping up.
It seems like if we are to be consistent.
How are you?
It's Friday.
Let's go.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
Some have called it open line stupid.
Some have called it open line bomb out.
We call it exciting.
Because it generally is one of these forest dump things, open line Friday.
You never do really know what you're gonna get.
Because on Friday, we have very little supervision of the callers, the inmates run the asylum.
Whatever you want to talk about is fair game.
Monday through Thursday, and this for those of you new to the program, Monday through Thursday, on those rare occasions that we take phone calls, the callers have to care about what I think.
Well, I have to I have to be interested in what they want to talk about.
If they if I'm not, then we don't take the call.
It's that simple.
Because I'm the star, and if I am bored, I will sound boring and that's not good.
But on Friday, throw all that out.
Take a giant career risk.
And if uh if some people want to call and ask questions or make comments uh about things that I have no interest in, we do.
Take the call.
Telephone number 80082282, email address.com.
I'm wondering if President Obama had time last night to watch the sweet 16 basketball games, the NCAA tourney.
His brackets have been blown up here.
Uh and I wonder if it's just me.
You watching, Brian, are you watching the NCAAs?
You did?
You really you watched the games.
It's Billy Donovan and he's a coach there.
Yeah, yeah, Billy Donovan's a coach of the fly.
I think, yeah.
Anyway, uh who's playing tonight?
Oh, the Florida State Seminoles.
They're in the tournament.
Well, is it is it j's it just me?
Uh or is anybody else curious if Obama had time to watch Duke lose last night.
After all, uh Obama had Duke going to the Final Four.
Uh Obama's brackets have just blown to smithereens.
I'd like to know.
I'd like to know Obama's analysis of the kinetic sports action that's taking place here.
He's just so damn good at this.
He's so damn good at it.
Obama spoke for almost 10 minutes with ESPN on his picks before he went on vacation.
But we're not even going to get a five-minute speech from Obama on why we are sending our finest into harm's way in Libya.
We're not gonna get that speech.
We didn't get a preparation speech.
We're not getting an update speech.
Think about it.
The president of the United States devotes more time to explaining his NCAA basketball brackets to the country than he has, explaining his reasons for bombing Libya.
It's amazing.
What did you say, certainly?
Did you say something?
You did too.
I heard something that you were.
Uh let's go back to Egypt here for just a second.
Remember the um the rioters in the streets.
We had uh an immediate uprising in this country on the conservative intelligence side, as well as on the left, that what we were witnessing was a democracy.
A democracy uprising.
Hallelujah.
Hosanna and a democracy movement.
And then we had this crapper clapper guy, the uh security guy for Obama saying, eh, Muslim Brotherhood, and actually a bunch of good guys.
I mean, they don't even know who they are.
This is like a bowling league.
Um no big deal.
From from the New York Times today, in post-revolutionary Egypt, where hope and confusion collide in the daily struggle to build a new nation, religion has emerged as a powerful political force following an uprising that was based on secular ideals.
The Muslim Brotherhood.
The Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group once banned by Egypt is at the forefront, transformed into a tacit partner with the military government that many fear will thwart fundamental changes.
It's also clear that the young, educated secular activists who initially propelled the non-ideological revolution are no longer the driving political force, at least not at the moment.
The hell you say.
All of a sudden now it's not a democracy movement.
It is a Muslim Brotherhood takeover.
How in the world did this happen?
Obama told us that Egypt was how real democracy works.
Obama told us that that's exactly what we were watching.
This is how democracy works.
Folks, everything that you and I, and let's face it, you and I are the smartest people in the room.
We knew.
We knew to be cautious.
We knew not to accept the conventional wisdom.
We knew that the idea, the prospect of this being a Democrat uprising was tenuous.
And look what's happened.
The Muslim Brotherhood is in association with the military in Egypt.
No, the Google guy's not running any, not running everything, nor is Mohammed Al Baradai, who got stoned or egged or whatever happened to him the other day.
Exactly what we were told wouldn't happen.
What everybody feared would happen has happened.
As the best organized and most extensive opposition movement in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood was expected to have an edge in the contest for influence.
What surprises many is its link to a military that vilified it.
Surprises who?
You know, this is an amazingly typical example of the New York Times at work.
The same paper, the same paper that swore up and down the Muslim Brotherhood, nothing to fear, now gives us the news that the Muslim Brotherhood is the real force in Egypt.
That they made a deal with the military early on in the uprising.
And as Gomer Pyle used to say, surprise, surprise, they are Islamists.
The New York Times says so.
Now we all knew that, but the New York Times now admits it.
Wonder if the Times is hoping for a Pulitzer.
So they're reporting on this.
There is evidence the Brotherhood struck some kind of a deal with the military early on, said Elijah Zarwan, Senior Analyst International Crisis Group.
It makes sense if you...
If you're the military, you want stability.
You want people off the street.
Their Brotherhood is one address where you can go to get 100,000 people off the street.
Really?
Really?
Folks.
This is profound.
We were lied to.
We were well, they tried to lie to us.
They tried to mislead us.
Obama tried to use this uprising as an extension of his re-election campaign.
He tried to get out in front of this mob and own the mob.
He makes speeches, clearly associating this uprising with the demand for change that accompanied his campaign in 2008.
The fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is a bunch of Islamists.
The fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is now in charge with the military in Egypt is not news to anybody except the reporters for the New York Times.
Listen to this.
There's a battle consuming Egypt about the direction of its revolution.
The military council that's now running the country is sending contradictory signals.
On Wednesday, the council endorsed a plan to outlaw demonstrations and sit-ins.
Well, what a democratic uprising this turned out to be.
After they pull it off, no more demonstrations, no more sit-ins.
Then a few hours later, the public prosecutor announced that the former interior minister and other security officials would be charged in the killings of hundreds during the protests.
I'm sorry, folks.
I don't see the distinction here.
This sounds like your average run-of-the-mill dictatorship to me.
I don't see any change.
You see any change here, Dawn?
Egyptians are searching for signs of clarity.
Hoping to discern the direction of a state led by a secretive military council brought to power by a revolution based on demands for democracy, rule of law, and an end to corruption.
Well, that's what everybody told us was happening.
That's what everybody told us this was, but it turns out it wasn't.
Yeah, nice people were running this.
Friends of ours are running it.
People we can invest in.
We knew it.
We knew it.
Even people on our side talked about this being a democratic uprising, this democracy for we had to support it.
We had to get rid of Mubarak, and now the Muslim Brotherhood, and that's the efforts that they underwent, undertook to uh tell us the Muslim Brotherhood was no big deal.
Uh it's just, it's just all so predictable.
I wonder if now I wanted to send Nick Robertson from CNN back over there trying to find Mustafa and Ahmed.
I'm here with Mustafa.
Mustave, what is your message for President Obama?
His effort to find you jobs and work.
I don't care about Obama.
Obama didn't care about us.
Okay, well, let's go find Ogman.
Ogmed, what is your message for President Obama?
Wonderful things to say about your prospects for work and employment here in the New Egypt.
Uh he didn't do anything for us.
He's been all over the board.
Well, as you can clearly see, said Nick Robertson.
The crowd here is totally supportive of President Obama and their support for his efforts.
What a joke.
You know, women, women protesters, we have learned were tested for virginity.
The military was testing female protests.
Yes, I've got it in the stack here, Don.
How do you think they were testing him for virginity?
What is the test, Dawn?
You know as well as I do what the test for virginity is.
The uh well, it depends on what the objective is.
The test could defeat the purpose test.
Well, no, the test would reveal.
The test would reveal.
What you're saying is a test and reveal and destroy.
Right.
Well, that accomplishes the same thing.
Kill two birds with one stone.
Point of the matter is that they were doing this.
They were testing for virginity.
among female protesters in Tahrir Square, which was actually a circle.
The Egyptian military, after Mubarak, rounded up Tahrir Square protesters...
Tested the women for virginity and took naked pictures of them.
This according to Amnesty International.
The Google guy is going to be given the JFK Profile in Courage Award from Caroline Kennedy.
That's the same award they gave John Murpha.
These are sick people.
Remember, Obama says this is how democracy works.
And that, of course, now puts what's going on in Libya in a little bit different light, does it not?
And the news that we have heard that the rebels are being advised and supported by Al Qaeda.
Mrs. Clinton.
Mrs. Clinton.
Mrs. Clinton, Secretary of State had the press corps waiting a long time yesterday afternoon for a new announcement on Libya.
Wolf Blitzer waited and waited and waited, and I don't think that it happened while his shift was taking.
Poor Mrs. Clinton, they've dumped all of this on her.
They have.
I mean, it looks like she's getting a 3 a.m. phone call every night.
Open line Friday Rush Limboy, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
I love being here with you all every day.
Really, it's a delight.
It's an opportunity.
Remember regarding Egypt, the uh I guess I can call them the geniuses on our side.
Our conservative intelligentsia.
The conservative intellectual media elite.
They promised us we'd have to worry about the Muslim Brotherhood.
You know why?
Because the Egyptian military was going to control them.
Yeah, don't worry about the Muslim Brotherhood.
This is a ragtag bunch of guys.
I mean, even when Clapper went out and made his incoherent statements, even some on our side said, well, we know what he means.
I mean, he didn't say it well, but we know what he means.
They're a ragtag bunch.
They're not really ideolog ideological, and then the military runs everything in Egypt.
They'll be able to control the Muslim Brotherhood.
Right, this is the same Egyptian military that the Muslim Brotherhood just cut this deal with that the New York Times writes about today to get the quick elections that are going to bring the Muslim Brotherhood to power.
They are going to end up replacing Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood is going to run Egypt, and they'll have the military as their police force.
There's a piece today.
Peter Beinart, uh his history, I think the New Republic.
Guest on Sunday morning television shows.
He now writes for the Daily Beast.
He's got a piece here.
And he's a leftist.
America doesn't matter anymore.
As Europe takes the lead on the Libyan intervention, it's a powerful signal of America's weakening global influence.
Peter Beinart on Obama's Jeffersonian turn and the end of an empire.
I haven't had a chance to read the whole thing.
It just came in during the commercial break.
I got some of it highlighted here.
I don't know yet whether Mr. Binart's happy about this, whether he's unhappy about it, or whether he's ambivalent and just reporting it.
But either way, Obama now could take a turn in public and say mission accomplished.
He's got it.
America doesn't matter anymore.
A powerful signal of America's weakened, weakening global influence.
And then to compare this to Thomas Jefferson as the end of an empire, I'll have to scrub through this during the next commercial break to figure out exactly what the take on this is.
Okay.
In the meantime, uh audio sound bites, we start here with Mrs. Clinton.
Last night at the State Department, a portion of her remarks.
I want to give you an update on the international community's efforts to implement UN Security Council resolutions 1970 and 1973 and protect the civilians of Libya.
We have agreed, along with our NATO allies, to transition command and control for the no-fly zone over Libya to NATO.
All 28 allies have also now authorized military authorities to develop an operations plan for NATO to take on the broader civilian protection mission under Resolution 1973.
Mrs. Clinton last night in Washington announcing, okay, okay, we're out of this.
NATO taking over the no-fly zone.
Now, NATO interestingly said, well, we're not totally this it's still a ball of confusion.
The bottom line is it's still a mass of confusion, and this was for public consumption.
She didn't take any questions.
She made the press wait longer than Liz Taylor did.
You know, Liz Taylor showed up 15 minutes late for her own funeral.
By design, that's what Hollywood stars do.
The hearse drove up 15 minutes late by design.
And Hillary made the press wait longer than Liz Taylor's guest.
Now here's Anders Fogg Rasmussen, the head of NATO accepting this responsibility.
NATO has now decided to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya.
We are taking action as part of the broad international effort to protect the civilians against the attacks by the Gaddafi regime.
We will cooperate closely with our partners in the region and we welcome their contributions.
All NATO allies are committed to fulfill their commitments under the UN resolution and that's why we have decided to assume responsibility for the no-fly zone.
Primary qualification for the NATO Secretary General is a foreign accent.
So that he doesn't sound Americans.
They create the illusion that NATO is not America.
That guy fills the bill.
You just heard the sound by Mrs. Clinton announcing that NATO will take over kinetic military activities, the no-fly zone.
By the way, does uh anybody anybody really remember why NATO was formed?
Brian, there's no wrong answer.
Do you know why NATO was formed?
Dawn, do you know why NATO was formed?
Snerdley might, but he's busy screening calls.
You know why NATO was formed?
All right, all right, all right, all right.
You've just a lot of people don't.
A lot of people don't, and a lot of people who do might ask, well, why does it still exist based on its original charter?
Here's exactly this ain't nowhere near what NATO's supposed to do.
NATO was a mutual.
This is for those of you who uh didn't pay attention back then or are too young to know.
NATO was a North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
But I think they they ought to rename it the North Africa Terrorism Alliance or some such thing, because it's it has the w the way it's being used here is irrelevant to it uh irrelevant to its charter.
North Atlantic uh uh treaty organization, now the North Africa Terrorism Alliance is what this appears to be.
NATO was formed as a mutual security pact between Europe and America against the Soviet Union.
Um it was to guarantee that if any of the NATO member nations were attacked, all the other countries would come to their defense.
And it was a big deal to get into NATO, and as the Soviet Union broke up, the satellite nations which gained their independence wanted to be admitted to NATO.
There were arguments about whether they should be admitted to NATO, because some of them were not able to defend themselves, much less help the alliance uh defend any other nation, but they still wanted in under the umbrella.
It was a it was a uh well, a bone of contention, depending on which nation that it was after the breakup of the Soviet Union.
It was well, yes, it meant that NATO has always been us, but we've always appointed a James Bond villain type sounding guy to run it so that it doesn't sound like an American organization.
Show you again uh grab soundbite number two.
This the current NATO guy, Anders Rasmussen.
Just play a couple sentences here.
Tell by two.
This is a typical uh this guy could be running Spectre.
Uh he could be running uh Thrush, uh any any any bond villain organization.
NATO has now decided to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya.
Kill Bond.
All right, so there you have Anders Fog Rasmussen.
So the NATO guy had to always have a foreign accent, just like the UN guy can never be an American.
So it was to guarantee again that any of the member nations, if they were attacked, other countries would come to their defense.
So the question is, what is any of that have to do with Libya?
Libya has not attacked a NATO signatory.
Libya is not part of NATO.
NATO, if they should should be putting more effort into helping us in Afghanistan instead of worrying about Libya.
We were attacked by the Taliban in Afghanistan 9-11.
But it looks like NATO has become the United Nations Redakop, so to speak.
So here we have what has become the North Africa Terrorism Alliance, and Obama has shoved everything off to them.
Mrs. Clinton, you just heard make the announcement.
Wolf Blitzer, waiting for that, was breathless again on CNN.
He waits.
And he waits.
They had the camera there on the door in the State Department.
The microphone, the podium, the door right behind it.
The graphics said Mrs. Clinton to speak at any moment.
Wolf Blitzer at CNN, tongue on the floor, panting away.
Hoping Mrs. Clinton would come from behind the door to make her pronouncement during his program.
We have put together a montage, a wolf promoting Secretary of State Clinton.
Standing by for a statement from the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will make a statement a little bit more than an hour from now.
Of course, we're waiting to hear from the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
We're told the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will speak from the State Department.
The Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is getting ready to make a statement.
We're standing by for a statement.
We're waiting for a statement.
The Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is supposed to speak at the State Department.
We'll be standing by to hear from the NATO Secretary General, as well as the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
We expect also to be hearing from the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
She's supposed to make a statement in the next hour.
That's it for me.
Thanks very much for watching.
I'm Wolf Blitzer.
And sorry we weren't able to bring you Mrs. Clinton's statement.
She came out after Wolf finished.
The excitement.
I'll never forget.
Sometime back in the 90s, Bush might have been president.
It could have been Clinton, I forget, which doesn't matter.
It's a town hall at some university.
And at the time it was Bernard Shaw.
So it had to be early 90s.
Bernard Shaw was the lead anchor at night for CNN.
And somehow the crowd was growing impatient.
It was a CNN-sponsored town hall, so their journalists, reporters, and what have you were going to be intimately involved on the stage and in the audience.
And something caused the crowd became unruly.
The thing was starting not on time.
Crowd was going impatient.
And they tried to calm the crowd by doing interviews with him.
And the and I forget what the crowd was demanding, but I'll never forget Bernard Shaw.
Just wait for the officials.
Wait for the officials.
The officials will have all the answers for you.
Just wait for the officials.
And I remember having it stunning realization, but I knew it.
You know things, but it just drove the point home.
This guy idolized the officials.
I mean, what they were the last word.
Whatever they said was it.
A government official had to be Clinton.
A government official never lied.
They never misled.
They were the final authority.
They were gods.
I mean, it was it was wait for the offici it was the way the uh frightened citizens looked at the Soviet Union.
And I just, every time I I hear waiting for Hillary Clinton, waiting for Hillary Clinton, and uh we're waiting for Hillary, Hillary Clinton in mere moments here on CNN, and coming up next Hillary Clinton with the.
I thought, what must your life be like when the greatest single anticipation you have is a door opening and Mrs. Hillary Clinton walking out.
Anyway, just the relationship that these people all have with each other and how they make them bigger than life, and they're just the problem.
They are just the problem.
Now I've read this Daily Beast business.
Peter Beinart, America doesn't matter anymore.
By the way, just to give you more details on who he is, senior political writer for the Daily Beast, associate professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
He uh first rose to national acclaim, being an editor at national uh uh uh new republic.
He's had a couple of books, and of course you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
And he's uh of course he's a he's a leftist.
America doesn't matter anymore is the title of his piece.
As Europe takes the lead on the Libyan intervention, it's a powerful signal of America's weakening global influence.
Peter Beinart on Obama's Jeffersonian turn and the end of an empire.
And they're happy about this.
Even calling it Jeffersonian.
In the summer of 1995, when the Clinton administration, after more than two years of deference, forced the Europeans into a humanitarian war against the Serbs, then Lieutenant General Wesley Clark exalted the big dog bark today.
Back then the big dog wasn't fighting any other wars.
It was unchallenged in East Asia.
Its economy was beginning to boom, its fiscal problems were melting away, and even then Americans only supported the Bosnia war and its kid brother Kosovo on the condition that no Americans died.
Today, by contrast, America's fiscal condition is terrifying.
The Pentagon is fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, trying to stay out of one with Iran and keeping one eye on a rising China.
I don't know what it took to convince an obviously reluctant Robert Gates to permit American involvement in the Libyan no-fly zone, but it's a reasonable bet that Obama had not been able to promise that it would be a mostly European affair.
If Obama hadn't been able to make that promise, Gates would now be a military analyst on Fox News, meaning Gates wanted to do it.
Obama didn't want to do it, Gates would have been canned so forth and so on.
Once again, here's somebody saying it's Gates' ideas, not Obama's.
The American public's appetite for humanitarian war has always been meager, and now the American government's capacity for waging it is meager too.
Whether we'll be able to do all this, whether they've all had the capacity and stomach for what it would take to push Qaddafi from power, that's another question, but it's not surprising that Obama is giving them a chance to try, meaning the Europeans.
Obama is what you might call a roundabout Jeffersonian.
Jeffersonians believe that preserving America's economic and political solvency requires reigning in American Empire.
Mr. Beinart, do you actually believe that's what this is about?
You actually believe that Obama's reluctance to get involved here is to save our economy.
Where did these people live?
Intellectually, where do they live?
Come up with this idea that Obama's reluctance here.
Obama's reluctance is to save our economy.
It's an economy that he has under assault.
Obama's boys read this.
America doesn't matter anymore.
The end of an empire, that's victory for them.
They're happy.
Thomas Jefferson fought the Barbary Wars.
Thomas Jefferson Jefferson was the first American president to recognize the dangers posed by militant Islam for crying out loud.
And to call Obama Jeffersonian on the basis that he realizes we can't do all this foreign policy stuff because we don't have the money.
They are...
Why don't we have the money?
Who is it that's bankrupted us?
Or has played a large role in it.
So Obama's trying to do it on the sly to reduce the costs of American foreign policy without reigning in our ambition.
Will it work?
Beats me, but it's an illusion to believe we could have done this the old way.
One of the crucial questions of our age is whether America's liberal ideals can flourish Despite the decline of American power, Libya will be the one of the places that we find out.
America doesn't matter anymore.
We can't do this.
We had to pass this off to Libya.
We can't afford it.
Obama knows it.
We don't have the power we used to have.
Our economy has uh has just bankrupted us and so forth.
I I swear these people, smartest people in the room.
Anyway, I gotta take a break here.
I'm a little long, my friends.
We'll get to your calls because it is open line Friday coming up right after this.
The Barbary Wars.
Thomas Jefferson, the Barbary Wars were fought because Jefferson would not go along with the European powers and just pay tribute to the pirates in Tripoli.
I mean, for Bynart to sit here and compare this to Jeffersonianism, I I guess I guess somewhere we're gonna find that Thomas Jefferson wanted to tax the mileage of your horse and buggy.
And then somewhere we're gonna find that Thomas Jefferson had this amazing plan called Jefferson care that was gonna provide health care and health insurance for every American.
You haven't heard about Jefferson care?
Oh, look it up.
Google Jefferson care.
And then find out all the tax increases.
Thomas Jefferson came up with, particularly the mileage in your horse and buggy.
Oh, yeah, it's all there.
And then you'll read about the Barbary Wars were fought because Jefferson would not go along.
The European powers just wanted to pay tribute.
Pay the pirates in Tripoli, Libya.
Just pay them, keep them off our back.
Jefferson said no way.
Millions for defense, not one cent for tribute was the slogan of the day in Jefferson's day.
And we have to sit here and read a piece.
America's over.
America's finished.
The decline of the United States of America.
America doesn't matter anymore.
Thomas Jefferson was the first U.S. president to call for a standing army.
You want to compare that to Obama?
Mr. Binart is a former senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Policy or Foreign Relations or some such thing.
And he doesn't know the basic facts about Jefferson's foreign policy.
And you think Obama cares about whether we can afford anything?
If he cared about whether we could afford anything, we wouldn't have Obama care.
I mean, this is silly.
Yeah, we've handed it off to NATO.
America is the decline.
America can't handle it anymore.
America doesn't matter anymore.
Obama realizes, yeah, just like Thomas Jefferson, yeah, you've got to shore up your own economy before you go out there in the world.
The idea that Obama cares about what something costs.
...
What do you mean I'm not supposed to blow the cover on it?
What nice sounding words.
America doesn't matter anymore.
What what?
America doesn't matter anymore sounds grand.
Powerful signal of America's weakening global influence.
Sounds grand, it sounds right.
Well, if I'm blowing the cover on it, I'm happy to blow the cover on it.
Bottom line is Barack Obama wants us to be second fiddle in the world.
Barack Obama happy to play second fiddle.
Thomas Jefferson sent the Marines to Tripoli.
That's how the Marine Corps him was born.
Jefferson did it.
While he was also doing Jefferson care.
And Jefferson tax increases on horse and buggy mileage.
Now, Peter Beinart, I remember this.
Now Peter Barnard's uh uh last book argued the only way for America to distinguish itself from the predatory imperial powers of the past is to acknowledge our own capacity for evil.
Which sounds just like Obama.
That's what he's saying.
We must admit our own capacity for evil.
And that's why U.S. negotiators with GICOM say, yeah, well, we know you know we have our own problems oppressing people here.
Remember all that in the first year of the Obama regime.
Open line Friday's supposed to be fun, darn it.
This is not the way this is supposed to happen.
And I meant to.
I I I meant to um get a phone call in in the first hour, but this stuff Jefferson and Obama is Jefferson.
First he was Lincoln, then he was the last Kennedy brother.
Oh!
Speaking of which I had seen the controversial Kennedys.
Mr. Cerno sent me the DVDs.
It is awesome.
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