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April 13, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:12
April 13, 2012, Friday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
Hiya, folks, greetings and welcome.
Great to have you, Rush Limbaugh on Friday.
Let's go.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's Open Line Friday.
It's a lot of things today.
Ladies and gentlemen, a tremendous amount going on.
It is our 22nd annual cur-a-thon for leukemia and lymphoma as we continue in our unbridled efforts to cure the blood cancers.
In addition to that, we're going to do our regular Open Line Friday where you get to talk about pretty much whatever you want to talk about.
So let me give you the call-in number for the program first, 800-282-2882.
And the email address, lrushball at EIBnet.com.
Now, I want to give you another number.
And make a note of this on your smartphone or a piece of paper, whatever.
The donation number today that we are using is 1-877-379-8888.
877-379-8888.
Or you can make a donation at rushlimbaugh.com.
That has been a favored way that people have contributed to the curathon in recent years.
So 877-379-8888 or rushlimbaugh.com.
And we're going to be using Twitter today.
We've got a hashtag at Rush Limbaugh or at Limbaugh that we want you to retweet.
It's explanatory there, and it will take our message above and beyond the radio program audience.
We've done this now for 22 years, or this is our 22nd year.
And we don't go wall-to-wall with this.
We do the curathon and we do the radio program all combined into one bundle.
And this Hillary Rosen thing, it just keeps on giving.
The White House has set out what they did.
I mean, this came, and Karl Rove is right.
Carl Rove is right.
This came from Chicago.
This was intended.
They tried to weaponize Hillary Rosen, and they ended up weaponizing Ann Romney.
That's what they've ended up doing.
They've turned her into a weapon that's being used against them.
Can you imagine how Obama must feel now?
He's got to feel just like the North Koreans feel.
They launch a missile, a thing breaks up and this guy falls apart.
Nothing goes the way it's planned.
Obama's got to be commiserating with the North Koreans today.
Everything falling apart.
And we've got great soundbites on this.
A TV reporter in St. Louis, I don't know.
I'm stunned.
A TV reporter in St. Louis actually asked Obama, do you think that it's really wise for you and your family to be taking all these vacations all over the place in separate airplanes when so many people in country are not doing well?
And the guy still has a job today.
From Last Reports, KMOV, TV in St. Louis.
So that's just a minor, very small list of what all's coming up on the program today.
But first, folks, this is the 22nd year of our Leukemia Lymphoma Society Curathon, 22nd consecutive year.
We have not missed one.
It's a one-day event where we take the broadcast to you to help in the fight to cure the blood cancers.
And it's amazing what you have done over these 22 years.
Over $30 million has been raised one day a year and not even all three hours devoted to it.
It literally is amazing.
And as you, you, you people in this audience continue to humble me and surprise me and make me one of the happiest people on earth.
Throughout the years, you have come through time and again, surpassing every year with increased generosity.
You have never failed to come through this great cause.
And it is just one of many reasons why you are the best radio audience in the world.
Your steady support has produced tangible advances against killer diseases.
In fact, in the 21, 22 years that we've been doing this, some of the greatest medical advances have taken place.
And they wouldn't have happened without you.
Wouldn't have happened without your money.
Would not have happened without your donations.
Would not have happened without your great, big, beating hearts.
And this year is no exception.
And during the programs, we always do, I'll be sharing intermittently during the broadcast some of the advances that have taken place since last year.
Now, let's understand what we're up against here.
Imagine you're in a doctor's office and you hear leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, blood cancer.
Those are words that no one wants to hear, especially if it's about one of your children or another loved one.
During the three-hour program today, across this country, 48 people will hear, will be told that they or a child or a loved one has leukemia or lymphoma or myeloma or one of the other blood cancers.
During this next three hours, 48 people, that's over 140,000 people in a year.
In this same three-hour period, 18 people will lose the battle with blood cancer, one every 10 minutes.
That adds up to 53,000 a year.
Now, many of you might say, yeah, you're right, Rush, but for me, my life's been touched by a different cancer.
Not just leukemia or lymphoma.
And that's totally understandable.
But what you'll also learn today is that the advances made possible by the efforts of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society go beyond treating just the blood cancers.
Some of the drugs that have been developed in the research and development to cure these diseases have been found to be effective in treating others as well, and they are happily shared.
Since 2009, I'm sorry, since 2039, anti-cancer drugs have been approved by the FDA.
Half of those were blood cancer drugs, and five of those now treat non-blood cancers, which is an example of how the RD and the discovery ends up crossing the boundaries.
14 of these blood cancer therapies are being tested on solid tumor cancers, not blood cancers.
Some of the therapies that work with the blood cancer is now being tested on solid tumor cancers, including four for breast cancer, which is benefiting.
Breast cancer research is benefiting profoundly.
My point in telling you this is, I know you can't give to every cause, and you can't give to every malady.
But when you do donate to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, participate in our curathon, rest assured that the money that you donate ends up in research and development and discovery that leads to knowledge in treating other cancers.
And it's something 22 years ago nobody could anticipate, nobody could imagine.
Your support goes to successful applications beyond the leukemia field that no one could imagine 22 years ago.
Now, yesterday I made mention of the survival rates.
They keep expanding.
And on the surface, that's fabulous news.
And it's undeniable.
But when I talk about the progress made against blood cancers, the survival rate figures, I think, need to be put in a little personal perspective, a little personal context.
The advancing steps in survival rate give blood cancer patients a real sense of purpose and hope.
If you get diagnosed with a certain kind of blood cancer and they tell you the survival rates three years or five, where it used to be much less than that, that alone is wonderful news.
But it's also very sobering.
It is an exceptionally important period of time that people have been afforded.
It's about having that conversation with your child that they're too young to grasp in the next two years.
Imagine that you are 38, 40 years old.
You're diagnosed with lymphoma or leukemia, and you have a child who's seven or eight years old.
Can't possibly understand it.
You've got a three-year or five-year survivability rate.
You have time, because of the expanding survivability rate, to have important conversations with your child.
It might be too young at the moment you're diagnosed, but in the three years, five years, sometimes up to 10 years.
I've met people who say, all I want is 10 years.
I just please give me 10 years.
That will get my kids through high school.
I can see them graduate and into college.
Just give me 10 years.
People that face these diagnoses do so profoundly, maturely, and soberly.
But this is where the survivability rate really is put into perspective.
A parent diagnosed can instruct a child, for example, in how to face fear.
A lot of people think they know what fear is until they get a diagnosis, such as this, one of the blood cancers, or any other terminal disease.
The child who is diagnosed, The opportunity for conversations that otherwise would never happen at that young age must take place because of the survivability rate.
Changes forever the relationship that parents have with children and vice versa.
The expanding survivability rate, which is a result of your donation, which is a result of all the research and development, helps people conquer fear, overcome fear, deal with the reality of the situation, to tackle it, to not be afraid of failure because there's no other option.
You must fight it.
You must deal with it.
And in the process, you overcome fear of failure.
You've heard people say that have been close to death.
I'm going to live every day, like it's my last.
These people do.
People diagnosed with blood cancers do.
And it is actually an amazing perspective that they end up having and an amazing perspective that they're able to share.
Conversations, like I say, that they'll remember the rest of their lives, that their kids will remember they had for the rest of their lives.
Conversations that would not have happened perhaps at all or much later in life.
In those few years of survival, some very important moments still have a chance to take place.
And these survival rates are increasing, all because of you.
All because of the generosity that you have engaged in over these 21 years.
It's not just the RD.
It's not just the advancement in technology and drugs and so forth, but the human aspect of this that allows families hit with this diagnosis to deal with things that they may have never ever thought they would have to deal with.
Very important moments still have a chance to take place because of the expanding survival rates.
And your donations make possible some critical time, as well as advancing the goal of long-term survival, real long-term survival and cure.
Not just remission, but cure.
And it's slowly getting closer, almost by the day.
Numbers 877-379-8888 or rushlimbaugh.com.
And there will be no other solicitations.
You're not going to be put on a mailing list, and you're not going to be hounded by these people either.
Now, we always have some premiums that we offer with certain levels of donations.
So here we go.
A donation of $75 to $99 gets an official Rush Limbaugh t-shirt.
All this information, by the way, is at rushlimbaugh.com.
It's a white, 100% comfort cotton t-shirt, full-size multicolor Rush Limbaugh 2012 logo on the front.
Only comes in size XL.
Don't complain.
A donation of $100 to $359 entitles the donor to commemorative t-shirt plus an official EIB hat.
It's royal blue, a six-panel hat, reinforced backing, decorated with the official EIB signature, that's mine, and the EIB logo in red and white thread.
And it is adjustable, has a matching Velcro sizing strap.
One size fits all.
Don't complain.
And a donation of $360 or more.
Yeah, we're talking now.
You get an official Rush Limbaugh EIB golf shirt and hat.
It's a waffle-knit golf shirt constructed in 100% polyester.
Features the ultra-cool system control.
It climaculates.
It's accented with a narrow three-button packet, cuffs, square bottom with side vents.
It's royal blue.
The official EIB logo embroidered on white on the left chest, my signature, and the 2012 year embroidered on the left sleeve.
And custom sizing is available.
Small to triple X. Don't complain.
I wouldn't complain.
So we're off to the races.
Now, folks, as always, every year, I never ask people to do something I wouldn't do.
I am not one of these telethon MCs that considers the donation of my time to have some sort of monetary value because it doesn't.
So I always kick it off with my own donation.
And I always mention the number one time, just once.
And I'm going to, well, let me take a break.
I got to get a break in.
I'm way long here.
Here's the number: 877-379-8888 or rushlimbaugh.com, and we will be right back.
We're back.
It's Open Line Friday, Rush Limbaugh, the cutting edge of societal evolution.
Everybody is asking today if Obama's secretary is paying a higher income tax rate than he did.
The Obama effective tax rate, not effective, the tax rate he paid, 20.5%, 20.5% on an income of $78,000 or $789,000.
And so everybody's asking the burning questions.
Is Obama paying a lower income tax rate than his secretary is like Warren Buffett is?
Nobody knows.
But everybody's asking.
Alan Dershowitz says that the charging instrument from Angela Corey is pathetic, that it is beneath the most incompetent lawyer he has ever seen.
That this charging instrument, the affidavit, will not even get past the judge.
And people are wondering if Angela Corey didn't do this on purpose as a way of getting this thing punted.
It's opened a lot of doors to a lot of questions.
Folks, as I said, we're going to cram a lot in here today, as well as our annual effort to cure leukemia.
And again, that number is 877-379-8888, or go online at rushlimbaugh.com.
Now, again, I always kick things off myself because I'm not an emcee that considers there to be any kind of financial value to my so-called time here.
I would be here anyway.
So I always jump-started, never ask people to do things I don't do.
So I am going to decided during the break, I'm going to kick it off with $400,000, which I try to increase it a little every year.
And I think this is an increase over last year.
I didn't look it up, but I think it is.
So we'll start with that, and we'll see how things turn out.
We'll run up to 3 o'clock this afternoon Eastern Time.
We'll take a break and we'll be right back.
You don't want to miss anything today, folks.
None of it.
Welcome back, Rush Limbaugh, Open Line Friday, EIB Network, and our 22nd annual curathon on the blood cancers for leukemia and lymphoma.
I just got a note.
Rush, I just donated $75, and yours makes mine piddly.
No, no, folks, don't look at it that way.
There is nothing that's too small here.
Don't look at it that way.
We got 20 million people plus in this audience.
If everybody just gave a dollar, it would set a record.
There's no amount that's too small.
It all adds up.
It's cumulative.
Don't be embarrassed by, I realize that most of you probably can't afford to give anything.
That's what's always been amazing about this curathon over the years.
We've done this during real genuine economic recessions, and we're in one now.
And every year we're blown away and surprised because every year is always up over the previous.
I think there's been one down year.
It might have been 2011 or 2001.
I'm not sure which, but it was a small amount.
But there's no amount here that's too, don't be bamboozled by these numbers that get the premium and so forth.
That's nothing at all here to be, there's no amount that's too small.
Don't think that it's piddling.
People want to know what Obama said to the St. Louis TV reporter.
Here it is.
Well, let's go to audio soundbite number one.
And it's last night in St. Louis.
KMOV-TV, Eyeball News, the anchor Larry Connors interviewed Obama in a random act of journalism.
You just, this question is not asked.
This question is never asked.
He said the economy is a big issue.
I mean the unemployment, trying to make ends meet, gas prices, food prices going up.
Some of our viewers are complaining.
They get frustrated, even angered when they see the first family jetting around, different vacations and so forth.
Sometimes maybe they think under color estate business, you're out of touch, that you don't really know what they're experiencing right now.
I don't know how many viewers you're talking about that say that.
We do hear from some.
Yeah, well, I hear from all of you.
You hear us about everything.
But the fact of the matter is, I think if you look at my track record, I'm raising a family here.
When we travel, we've got to travel through Secret Service and Air Force One.
That's not my choice.
I think most folks understand how hard I work and how hard this administration is working on behalf of the American people.
Wow, that's not very persuasive.
That's not very convincing.
You know, I really don't like this Air Force One.
Secret Service makes me do that.
Secret Service makes Michelle take her own airplane, like when we're going to Martha's Vineyard on the same day, but four hours apart.
She took her own 757.
I had to wait for the 747.
But the Secret Service makes us do all.
Now, I mean, the American people know how hard I'm working.
They know how hard I'm working.
I mean, if you look at my track record, I'm raising a family here for crying out loud.
I guess that raising a family being president is kind of a tough thing, huh?
Not as luxurious as staying at home and raising five kids and not really knowing what things are all about.
But a question, you just, you don't hear it asked.
Same reporter said, after the oral arguments in the Supreme Court, many were saying that the plan is going to be rejected.
Now, you apparently believed enough that you were compelled to say you were confident the Supreme Court would not overturn what Congress has done.
Critics say that you were using this as a bully pulpit trying to intimidate the justices and that you stepped over.
You believe this?
A local reporter in St. Louis asking these questions.
Here's Obama's answer.
The reason we give them lifetime tenure is they don't get intimidated because they understand that they're immune from those kinds of political considerations.
The point I was making, which is one that I think most legal scholars would agree with, is that although the Supreme Court has the power to overturn congressional laws that violate the Constitution, it would be extraordinary for them to step in and overturn a law dealing with one of the biggest segments of our economy that everybody acknowledges is national in nature under the Commerce Clause.
That hasn't been done since before the New Deal.
That step would be extraordinary, and I don't think they're going to take it.
So he says you can't intimidate them, and then he intimidates them.
You can't intimidate the justices.
They had a lifetime appointment.
You can't intimidate them.
But then he tries to.
And he says they won't overturn something this big.
This is too big.
Biggest segments of our economy, everybody acknowledges, and which most legal scholars would agree.
Most legal scholars do not agree with President Obama on this.
Let's add up his week.
Maybe not just his week.
It's been a bad couple of weeks for Obama.
Yesterday, the coordinated phony war on women backfired, just as the North Korean missile did.
But do you know Joe Biden is still out there talking about the war on women?
He didn't get the memo that the war on women blew up on them yesterday.
He's still out there saying it's happening and it's going to get worse and the Republicans are going to get even meaner.
Biden, by the way, gave 1.5% of his income to charity on his income tax.
Employment statistics show that Obama's war on the economy has hurt women the most.
This is incontrovertible news.
We've had it.
This week, there was an unexpected soft jobs report, unexpected rise in the number of applications for unemployment.
Gas prices are creeping ever closer to a national average of $4 a gallon.
Another report out proving Obamacare adds trillions to the deficit, in addition to being twice as expensive.
His attack on the Supreme Court backfired, according to polling data.
He was caught on a hot mic covering up and selling out the American people and allies to the Russians, promising flexibility on missile defense after the elections.
Tell Vladimir to hang with me.
I have much more flexibility to get rid of our nukes after I win re-election.
The Zimmerman affidavit, Alan Dershowitz says that the charging instrument here is so pathetic that it won't get past the judge.
Now, that depends on whether the judge has a backbone.
More on that as the program unfolds.
Dozens of former high-level NASA astronauts and engineers and scientists have blasted the politicizing of global warming and have denounced the pseudoscience that NASA now peddles.
There's been a revolt inside NASA.
The Buffett rule finally now being called a gimmick by everybody.
Everybody's admitting it's a gimmick.
It's not anywhere near serious.
It's not going to raise any revenue.
It's not going to close the deficit.
It's nothing other than a gimmick.
Jack Welch, former GE CEO, all over TV with Kudlow, basically just ripping Obama as incompetent, a lousy leader, nothing but a trickster.
And then Obama in such bad shape that he had to try to invoke Ronald Reagan as someone who would have supported tax increasing class warfare and all of that.
It has not been a good couple of weeks.
But the real thing that backfired on him was this Hillary Rosen business.
And there's no doubt in my mind that this was part of the strategy.
And that it came from Chicago or it came from the White House that this was something Hillary Rosen was charged with doing.
She works at a DNC.
She's in public relations.
And they showed their hostility and they showed who they really are.
And it just backfired on them big time.
So it's not been A good two-way, but you know, speaking of the war on women, I know this isn't, you know, we like to make points here.
I mean, we like to persuade, we like to convince people.
War on women, aren't half of the aborted babies in the country women, little girl, female, aren't they?
I mean, statistically, that would be the case, wouldn't it be?
War on women.
Anyone?
Brief timeout.
We'll be back.
Don't go away.
I just asked Snerdley, he doesn't know.
Did President Obama call Ann Romney to see if she's okay after this assault by Hillary Rosen?
He didn't.
He didn't.
Oh, he didn't.
Oh, he didn't call her.
Oh.
Okay, he didn't call Hillary.
Did he call Hillary Rosen?
She says that she's hurt people in the White House.
I just was just asking.
It's our curathon, folks.
It's the 22nd annual curathon for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society of America, the Blood Cancers.
And the great part of this effort and why your donations to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society are so important is because blood cancer drugs and treatments and therapies funded by the society are providing hope and survival for other cancers and diseases.
You remember Gleevec?
We've been talking about Gleevec for a number of years now.
We spotlighted its development during one of our curathons.
Glevec's initial focus was on a really tough form of leukemia called CML, chronic myelogenous leukemia.
Five-year survival rates were less than 50% at the time.
A very exciting recent long-term study at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston is now showing a major increase in those numbers.
The study is not under 50%.
A solid 67% of chronic myelogenous leukemia patients on Gleevec have survived not five, but 10 years longer.
Remember in the previous half hour, I spoke at length about the importance of these survival rates.
It's probably the most human element of this is after you get the diagnosis, the first thing you want to know is what are the survivability.
And that the news you get changes your life forever, as does the diagnosis, and how you use those remaining years and how old your kids are.
And if it's one of your kids diagnosed, what do you do in those ensuing years with your kids that otherwise you wouldn't have done?
It totally changes your life.
I don't care how hard some of us might think we have it day to day.
This is something until it happens to you, you can only try to understand it.
You cannot possibly relate to it.
So when you are told that this drug, Gleevec, is expanding survivability rates from under 50% to now over 67%, and not five-year survivability, but 10-year, then you know success.
That's not all Gleevec is doing, though.
It is also approved to treat a rare form of stomach cancer with the acronym GIST, G-I-S-T.
And they had no idea that was going to happen, but it did.
Blood cancer therapies are pioneering treatments for other cancers.
Using blood instead of invasive and risky procedures that aren't feasible for some solid tumors, researchers are able to study primary cancer cells from patients rather than relying on cell lines or animal models.
And this provides a better chance of producing effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
For those of you who have had this happen to you or your family or you've known somebody, you know all of this that I'm talking about.
You've seen it when I mentioned something like effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
You know exactly what that means.
It's just words to people on the outside.
But diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, how do we attack this?
What is the best way to go about it?
What is it going to cost?
All of these things people are faced with.
Perspective on life changes immediately.
And they are immediately filled with gratitude and hope when they learn what the Leukemia Lymphoma Society is able to do because of donations like yours.
For example, there are immunotherapies where immune system cells are genetically modified to attack cancer and leave the healthy cells alone.
That's just one thing.
Finally, Leukemia Lymphoma Society provides a host of services to patients and families too.
Many of the people working there have been touched by these diseases in some way.
In fact, do you know that for the 22 years we've been doing this, it's the same group of people?
The first day that I did this, I met the core group that we work with every year, same people, and they've all been touched by it.
Leukemia Lymphoma Society is one of the most efficient charitable operations going.
Some of the smallest amount of overhead that you could imagine.
Most of these people are volunteers, doing it from their hearts.
They care about it because it's affected them.
And they provide support groups, peer counseling, financial aid, as well as information provided by oncology professionals on the most current disease and clinical trial information.
And believe me, when this happens, you want to know everything.
You want to become an expert in what's happening to you.
You want to be intimately involved in your own treatment.
Lance Armstrong, it's exactly what he did, became an expert in testicular cancer.
When it happened, this is what happens.
And that's what these support people are there to do.
People with certain blood cancers who find it difficult or impossible to afford drug copays or health insurance monthly payments might be eligible for a program Leukemia Lymphoma Society has called the Copay Assistance Program.
Eligibility is subject to available funds, and that's where you come into play again.
It's another reason your support is so badly needed and greatly appreciated too.
I'd say what makes it all worthwhile is the profound progress everybody's making here in expanding the survivability rates, the drug therapies that are taking place, the education that's benefiting other kinds of cancers as well.
Here's the number again.
It's 877-379-8888.
You can also donate at rushlimbaugh.com.
No solicitations.
And there are premiums for certain levels of donations.
Those premiums are also explained at rushlimbaugh.com.
But just know that the people involved here at the end of every curathon, every April that we do this, are always blown away.
There are no expectations going into this each and every year.
Nobody expects that each year will surpass the previous year.
Everybody hopes and everybody prays, but nobody expects.
So when it happens, and even if with one year we fell a little short, the degree of appreciation for those of you in this audience, I wish you knew.
Wish you could see the tears.
I wish you could see the joy on the volunteers' faces here that we deal with.
Maybe we should take some pictures of them and put them up on the website so you know who they are at some point.
877-379-8888 or rushlimbaugh.com.
Open line Friday.
We'll get to your phone calls in the next hour.
Also, the number again for our Leukemia Society curathon, 877-379-8888 or donate at rushlimbaugh.com.
How are you doing this year versus last?
I'm sort of afraid to tell you, folks.
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