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May 24, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:48
May 24, 2013, Friday, Hour #3
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Greetings, folks, and welcome back.
As promised, here we are, ready to go, revved up and ready, Rush Limbaugh and the final hour of our busy broadcast on Friday.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
Open line Friday, where you get to choose whatever it is you want to talk about on the pro.
All you have to do is be honest with us about what you want to talk about.
You do not have to do what that schlub from North Carolina did.
You don't have to lie.
If you want to call here and claim that you think the Fox News audience is the least informed, then go ahead.
There's no stopping you.
You do not have to make it up or lie.
Telephone number is 800 282-2882, the email address.com.
It's a thrill and a delight to have you with us.
Ladies and gentlemen, remember open line Friday is when we go to the I don't have to care about it.
Monday through Thursday, it is specifically callers have to be concerned with that which I care about.
Because I don't want to sound bored or be bored.
But on Friday, I throw that all out, and I take the great career risk of being bored.
It's a chance to find out what is on your mind.
So go for it.
800 282-2882, if you want to be on the program.
Now, let's see.
Fairly Dickinson University.
I did a little research.
North Carolina caller claimed he wanted to tell me that he disagreed with me when I said that Obama was speaking yesterday, basically claiming the war on terror was over.
He said, No, that's not what Obama was.
Instead, what he wanted to do, what he was trying to do was say, I'll make you know what I'll do in an ultimate act of fairness.
I will make the guy's point for him.
He didn't have the guts to get right to it.
But I'll make this poor guy's point for him.
He started out, it took him 30 sentences to say this.
You talked about polls that show only 25 or 26% of people care about these scandals.
It took him literally 10, 12 senses to say that, maybe more.
And then what he was going to do was say, well, if only 25 or 26% care about it, and then you look at what Fairley Dickinson University says about the Fox audience being the least knowledgeable and the least informed, then it makes sense that the Fox audience doesn't care about the scandals.
And it was his way of saying it's no big deal for Obama.
He's not in any trouble, which by the way, I wouldn't have disagreed with had he said that.
I don't think Obama's in any trouble on any of this.
I'm I'm I'm totally going the opposite way of the conventional wisdom.
I don't think, I mean, he looks bad, but it isn't gonna matter.
Obama's not in any trouble.
Obama's not going anywhere.
Obama's not gonna be embarrassed.
Obama's going to get away with positioning himself as having had nothing to do with any of this.
He's gotten away with it for five years.
What's what what's gonna change?
That's what if I probably shouldn't say this, but I'll be uh aside from from the let me put it the Obama angle in all this is the least interesting angle to me in all these stories.
The IRS story and the Benghazi story and the the bugging of journalists.
I am really interested in those stories.
But not for the potential impact of Obama.
I think, as I'm now blue in the face saying, those are ideal examples to instruct and demonstrate what happens without a control big government.
And it's liberals that do these kinds of things.
Obama just happens to be the most radical liberal that we've elected president, but it isn't gonna affect him.
He's not gonna pay any price for this.
He could end up being embarrassed with people.
I mean, intelligent, right-thinking people are laughing at him when he claims he didn't know anything about this.
But in terms of it having any impact, I mean it isn't going to at all.
However, they are very serious things.
I mean, the Republican vote was suppressed.
The Obama re-election deserves an asterisk next to it.
And something does need to be done about this.
And the people at the IRS level who did this deserve to be canned and thrown out of there with no severance.
That probably isn't going to happen either, because it would have to be done by Obama.
And by the way, firing federal workers is one of the most difficult things to do anyway, because of their unions and uh and all that.
But this is they're all theories to Benghazi, four Americans died.
And the regime is trying to cover it up and make it sure that whatever is learned about it that it doesn't attach itself to Obama, which has been what he's tried to do for five years and what he's succeeded in doing.
All these stories interest me, but the Obama angle is the least interesting of any of them to me.
Plain and simple.
Now the pollster, I just want to close the loop on this.
The pollster from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
and Admitted that his study that showed the Fox News audience is the least educated or the least informed media audience around.
That study, the guy that did the study admitted that his study didn't actually identify people who got their news only from one source.
So they used multi nominal logistic regression, quote unquote, to create representations of such people who were then compared to a hypothetical construct of someone who had no recent news experience.
In other words, they made it up.
In other words, the pollster at Fairley Dickinson University made it up.
It was total what uh speculation and then hypothetical construction.
And uh then they manufactured and projected what they thought it all meant to arrive at their conclusion that the Fox News audience is the least informed.
The questions in the in the poll that produced that result are dumb and and ambiguous.
It was a judgment call whether somebody got the question wrong or not.
It was just silly.
I remember the poll.
It was it would they this the questions were idiotic and almost structured in such a way you could not answer them correctly, no matter where you said that you got your news.
Now, folks, you know that I read tech blogs.
I have mentioned this many, many times.
My hobby, my avocational interest, and it was fascinating once again to read the tech blogs.
They are populated by young liberal journalist-oriented people who believe that Barack Obama hung the moon, who believe that the Democrat Party is the only party has any compassion for anybody.
The downtrodden, the gay, the unhappy, the thirsty, the hungry, you name it.
They just they believe all the cliches, and they think they're the smartest people in the world.
They're very young and uh very impressed with themselves.
So I thought it would be fascinating to gauge their reaction to Tim Cook's appearance before the Senate Committee on Apple and the allegation that they were hiding and not paying their fair share of taxes.
And I have been rewarded.
One of these blogs, which is run by, and I don't want to name any names, because frankly, I don't want to make myself a target of these people.
I just I just want to be able to read them without any attachment here.
So I'm not gonna name any names.
But it's a pretty well-known blog among this circle of people, was so astounded by what he saw that he actually published a newspaper account from a conservative paper about what Happened to uh Tim Cook.
And the conclusion that these guys have come to is that this was a shakedown.
And by the way, they're right.
The whole the whole point of the Apple appearance before that Senate committee that could be summed up this way.
How dare you guys get so big and not include us?
And it really is.
It's as obvious as the day is, and it's it's it's in it in its own way, folks.
It's indicative of what's wrong in Washington.
The whole purpose of that hearing was to send a message to Apple.
You guys had better get a larger lobbying presence in this town.
You guys had better start spending money here.
You're making money hand over fist.
We did this with Microsoft.
You saw what we did with Microsoft.
We even sued them on antitrust.
This was a warning.
You guys better open an office here, and you better expand whatever operations you do have here, and you better start spreading the money around.
And you might say, what good is it going to do Senator Levin if Apple starts spreading money around Washington?
They can't pay him any money.
They can hire members of his staff.
They can open a lobbying office, they can open some kind of a uh congressional relations office, and they can hire staff members from these senators and Congress, and believe me that happens.
That's how they curry favor.
That's how it's done.
One of the ways it's done.
And maybe someday Senator X decides not to run for re-election.
And instead wants to make his money legitimately.
So he goes and joins a lobbying firm.
But it's exactly what it was about with Microsoft.
That antitrust suit was basically about look at you, Gates.
You know, you think you're bigger than we are, you're not.
If you don't spend some, if you don't spread some of that money around here.
Now these guys can't write checks to senators.
They can't write checks to members of the House, but they can hire their friends.
They can hire their lawyer buddies, their lobbyist buddies, they can hire members of their staff, they can do any number of things to spread that money around.
And that's what the message was.
And it was funny to read some of these tech blogs, understand it, that's what happened.
And it was great to see that these guys saw their favored Democrat buddies engaged in a shakedown.
And there's a piece here by uh uh Timothy Carney that ran at the Examiner, DC Examiner.
Senators are angry that tech giant Apple isn't paying its fair share.
This story was linked to by a bunch of these tech blogs who have no idea that Tim Carney and the examiner is essentially a conservative publication.
I don't think they know.
I I they may know, and I could be dead wrong about that.
The grilling of Apple is best understood as a shakedown by politicians upset with Apple for not playing the Washington game that yields contributions, power, and personal wealth for Congressmen and their aides.
Apple doesn't have a political action committee to fund incumbents' re-elections.
Apple doesn't hire many congressional staff or any former congressmen as lobbyists.
Apple mostly minds its own business.
How does that help the political class?
It doesn't.
Apple had not broken a single law.
Apple had not even violated the spirit of the law, and yet they're up there being persecuted.
No, they were up there being shaken down.
They know it.
Everybody else knows it.
You watch.
Keep a sharp eye.
Apple will have an increased presence in Washington in the form of a pack or something of the sort, as a result of that hearing.
It's folks, it's a it's it's it's like a protection raggot in the neighborhood.
And I was just, I was kind of excited to see all these young tech bloggers who most of the time, day after day, when you read them right about Obama and the governments, how wonderful and blissful and cool and compassionate they all are, and they see this happening.
It was kind of a wake up call for now.
I don't expect it to last, but it was it was interesting for at least a day.
One other thing, and I may be way off based on this, except I know Snerdley is going to agree with me on this in advance.
I know he will.
Snerdley thinks I don't toot my own horn enough.
I ran across a story, tech blog, by the way, on um Sunday.
And I've had it here in the stack.
Not near the top, not prominent, but for use if circumstances warranted.
Netflix found at a particular point in their existence that their subscriber base just ballooned practically overnight.
And the story on this is in the it's a it's a blog called All Things D, which is a Wall Street Journal-owned tech blog.
And it's this it's an interview with Vince Gilligan, who is the creator of the TV show Breaking Bad.
I don't think you'd be sitting here interviewing me if it weren't for Netflix in its third season, Breaking Bad got this amazing boost of energy and general public awareness because of Netflix.
Before binge watching, somebody who identified him or herself as a fan of a show probably only saw 25% of the episodes.
So the producer of and the creator of Breaking Bad, nice guy, Vince Gillen Gilligan thinks that somehow Netflix boosted his show.
I'll give you a little history.
I was out in Southern California, and about and it by the way, it happened in the second or third season, which is key.
Second or third, I forget what second or third season of of Breaking Bad.
So I'm out.
No.
It was during a spring fling.
Everybody was in my house.
It was it was in March or April, two or three years ago.
Joel Cerno and his wife Colleen were there, and he asked me if I'd seen the show Breaking Bad.
I said, No, I never heard of it.
It's the best show on TV.
You've got to watch it.
I said, what's it about?
It's about a high school professor, chemistry teacher gets cancer, and decides to start creating Crystal Meth to make money for his family.
That doesn't sound all that hot to me.
I'm not you watch it.
You what so I went watched it, and the I uh told Joe, I said the first couple episodes, I don't know what uh what in the world is everybody think this is so great about this show.
I really tough.
He said, stick with it.
So I did.
And after binge watching season one, I remember coming here and going on and on and on about how great this show was.
And they're all nodding their heads in there on the other side of the glass.
They remember this now.
And I, of course, innocently sitting here just wondering if perhaps you people, and not Netflix, well, maybe via Netflix, if you people are the reason that breaking bad took off in his second or third season.
Because that's when I heard about it after having been told about it by Joel Cerno.
By the way, Joel Cerno created 24.
If he thinks a TV show's great, then the odds are it is.
And now I can't stop watching Breaking Bad, by the way.
I became hooked on it and never miss it.
Final five or six episodes this summer, in fact.
We'll be back.
Don't go away.
Okay, quickly with the phones.
It's a Chris in Brooklyn.
Welcome, sir.
You're on Open Line Friday.
Hi.
Hey Russ, how are you doing?
A little bit, but uh I lost my brother on 9-11.
He was killed in the World Trade Center.
He went in to go to work one day and then Muslim terrorists slammed two planes in the building, and uh we lost him forever.
He just became a father.
And the token phrase, you know, that was added to that day was never forget.
I I I guess some people don't realize never forget means forever, Because uh over the past twelve years it's been a struggle to try and uh get past it all when I have reminder of it every day, and uh let alone my government uh seems to forget.
Let me ask you a question.
Chris Chris, let me ask you a question.
Yeah.
Ever since that incident.
Every time we've had an act of terrorism since then, the media in this country, or administrations in this country or foreign countries.
Now, now that's not Islam, that's not Islamists, it's not military.
Don't start judging.
How does that make you feel when you hear that?
Boy, I tell you, it's been a struggle.
What you deal with.
But when you when you put it in context and never forget, never forget, never forget.
Oh, I have nothing to say here.
That's not terrorism, that's not it it it it's it's got to be maddening for people like you to hear something like that.
It can be, and it's been a struggle.
But you know, I uh you know, my my father uh my my brother had just become a father.
Hang on just a second.
Gotta take a break.
Don't don't go away.
Okay, we go back to the phones now.
This is uh this Chris in Brooklyn.
I didn't mean to interrupt you, but the broadcast clock gave me no choice.
You were standing.
No, please continue.
Oh, as I was saying, you know, i i it's infuriating.
Um you know, every time you see these on on the news, uh I mean, Benghazi I I I couldn't believe when I when I heard uh, you know, uh Ambassador Rice talking about some movie.
Uh I mean, when probably most of the Muslim countries uh overseas don't even have computers and and uh or uh access.
Uh I I just couldn't believe it, let alone uh I didn't see why uh Hillary Clinton wasn't out speaking uh and now uh after seeing her then um in front of Congress.
Uh i i it's just infuriating.
And you gotta you gotta sometimes you know sit back and and and take a deep breath because I do have my nephew, my my brother's son to to raise and and and you don't want to you don't want to get so infuriated you're gonna you know start a riot, but um I I I just can't believe every time I turn around I see uh uh uh a president uh uh making excuses uh for these Muslim terrorists which he just doesn't want to acknowledge from back in Cairo,
you know, after 9-11 is when I really got interested, I guess, in politics and having to be in a no because I thought I had to have to know what was going on.
I think the downfall of probably the mainstream media with the loss of Tim Russell, I think he was fantastic.
I think he was one of the best uh I I had ever uh witnessed.
But um uh I'm unfortunately I guess ill informed because I watch Fox a lot.
Although um I I tried to give uh a lot of other um stations a chance, but I I just didn't get any information, let alone any information.
No, you're looking you won't get any.
There's a cover-up going on.
That's the whole point.
In w what what is really fascinating about Benghazi is they are saying that they're gonna be talking to a lot of people and uh forcing questions on a lot of people, but in no story can you find any reference to Hillary Clinton.
Hillary Clinton is being totally shielded by this because she at least they want her to think like they wanted her to think in 08 that she's the next Democrat Party nominee.
It's finally going to be her turn, and so they're they're circling the wagons and and doing everything they can to uh to protect her.
But they're also trying to to to just eliminate from public consciousness that Benghazi was anything other than a you know an ad hoc protest.
Uh pure and simple.
The the people at this administration know exactly what they're doing.
They know that they've got a very sympathetic and complicit media, and they know that they have a lazy media, and they they've got a media that does not want to find Obama responsible for any of this.
And so they won't.
So people like you, I I I have some friends who lost sons and other family members in 9-11.
And they're still not they're never going to forget it or be over it.
I don't even know if that's the right way to put it.
But they're frustrated every day.
Just the thing that happened in uh in England with with the as Christian Manpoor referred to this the ones here or twos of here, these little knockoff terrorists as Joe Biden calls them.
And mayor of of of London comes out.
Don't anyone make the mistake of assuming that this is Islam.
This is not Muslim.
This is not Muslim terrorism.
And then we hear that British troops are told not to wear their uniforms off base.
It's too dangerous.
The uniform is too provocative.
there's nothing to be afraid of here.
There's nothing really going on.
He's just lone wolf operators not tied to anything.
And it has a lot of people bamboozled.
They don't understand why the one entity that's supposed to be attuned and protect and defend everybody doesn't see or claims not to see the um the real threat.
So I feel for you.
Um everybody does.
I'm I'm glad you call, Chris.
Thanks so much.
The Republicans have a pretty good idea.
If they follow through on it, this is actually not a bad idea.
It is a story from the Washington examiner.
Claims of political targeting by the IRS are flooding into the House Ways and Means Committee, bolstered by evidence that includes secretly recorded conversations with IRS officials.
It turns out that some of these Tea Party groups actually recorded meetings they had.
And the Republicans and the House committee are urging them to send these materials in.
Ways and Means has created a website inviting Americans who believe they were targeted to share their stories.
And among the information being forwarded to committee investigators are surreptitious recordings of interviews with the IRS.
The uh recordings and other evidence are coming from conservatives who believe they were subjected to tax audits because of their political activism or from members of conservative groups who believe their organization's requests for tax exempt status was subjected to extra scrutiny.
So normally this is the kind of trick the Democrats pull, you know, the endless parade of victims in front of the cameras.
Now that hasn't happened yet, but at least they're collecting, they're asking Americans who believe they've been wronged if they have any recordings to send the stuff in, link it up to their website at the House Ways and Means Committee.
So American ingenuity isn't dead.
Some of this stuff ever pops up uh and is seen.
See, that that could cause something like this to break wide open, even more so.
When people can actually see how it happened, as opposed to just hearing about it.
Which is bad enough.
But there's always more power in actually seeing it.
Debbie in McLean, Virginia, you're next on Open Line Friday.
Thanks for waiting.
Great to have you here.
Hi, Russ.
It's great to talk to you as a rush baby who grew up to be a rush babe.
Um I'm uh just wanted to ask you if you had ever considered as part of your low information voter outreach, if you would consider releasing your previous books in ebook form so more people can read them.
Because I know myself I had to hunt and hunt for these out of print books so I could read it because I grew up with you, and uh, you know, since I was nine years old listening, and I wanted to uh wonder if you would consider uh that as an outreach, because um I have uh my coworker who's like ten years younger than me.
She just graduated college, it's her first job, and I introduced her to you and to Mark Levine and Chris Plan in our area and stuff, and and she just loves it.
She's tearing through the Mark Levin books, and I just was can wondered if you would uh really re-release your books so people could hear what your struggle and how you came to be who you are, how you rose to your uh to your grand heights uh in your own words and not have to hear it filtered through some liberal, you know, hater.
I I really hadn't thought of it.
Um that's that's just a function of I never look back.
Uh those books are uh been there, done that thing to me.
And and I'm always looking to tomorrow.
I really hadn't I uh I'm ashamed to admit this.
It's a great idea.
I hadn't thought of it.
Well, I mean I was just thinking in an autobiographical sense, because you know, you tell you talk about your how you started in uh California and and how you came to New York.
And I I know when I was reading it, I thought that was a very interesting and and even that you kind of Oh it is, it's entirely compelling.
There's not an American story like it.
Well it just you know, like you you always say, you know, we we never you know, you know, want to read the books on how to fail.
We want to read the books on how to succeed, and you know, people I keep hearing people call you and asking for advice on their careers and things like that, and that would be uh, you know, lay you know me I mean no path is the same, obviously, but you know, your story is I I think as you say a very compelling one and you've inspired me and my You know what?
It's not just that I've people like you, I hear from people who have somehow recently read one of those two books and say the same thing.
You know, this is still applicable to today, and it is because it's uh the my my books were basically about philosophy.
They're timeless.
They were just tied to the era in which they came out, the Clinton years, but but uh it it they work just as well now.
But your your undeniable truths are in there and that would be the the list to go through, right?
So Yeah, I I you have a point.
I've never thought of that.
I just I literally I look at those two books as been there done that.
You know, people say, Why don't you write another book?
I've done that.
Um everybody else is writing books left and right.
Well, in the interest of not writing a new book, you could just you know be recycling like uh Diane Sawyer would like.
And that's right.
Recycling.
You know, I am there were also audio versions of both books.
Yes that uh could be released as audio versions or as podcasts.
Mm-hmm.
Well, I think that's a good idea.
Individual chapters is podcasts.
My sister and I, when we get an ebook, we we also g sometimes, you know, in addition, if we really like the author, like with Mark Levin, we will also get the the audio version too to read along with it so we can I obviously he doesn't do the whole thing, but you know, it's nice to hear his get hit their voice in your head, you know.
Right.
Well, I I appreciate the idea.
Appreciate the suggesti I must tell you nobody else than I recall.
It may have happened, but I don't remember it.
You you're the first person to uh to suggest it.
And it certainly is an intriguing idea.
I appreciate the thought.
Debbie, thank you very much.
Um we're coming up on twenty-fifth anniversary of the show.
Not gonna make a big deal about that.
We did already on the twentieth.
But uh, you know, anniversary editions.
Oh no, please, no.
We did that already five years ago.
We made a big deal out of it.
Um I'm only gonna have one twenty-five anniversary.
What's different?
Uh, why didn't we do one on the twenty-fourth?
I mean, what's the big deal of a tw?
Um twenty-four is a big deal to us, just as big as twenty-five, and we didn't do one on the twenty-fourth anniversary.
You know, given the way things are going, we ought to do one every year.
Surviving all the crap.
We'll be back.
Don't go.
It's open line Friday and rush limbo.
By the way, we're not gonna be here on Monday.
We're doing best of show, right?
On Monday.
We don't have a guest host.
Yeah, uh best of.
Have we chosen which show that we're gonna replay on Monday?
Do we know which one it is?
Okay.
All right, you're not gonna tell me.
So we just you know what?
We just play any meeting mine and won't grab one, because they're all best of it's the one.
Well is the college student asking about what was right in the paper.
Oh, the college student wanted to write about me in the paper.
Yeah.
I forgot that show.
Uh that's good.
Uh Chris in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Welcome to the EIB network.
Hi.
Well, hello.
Uh Mr. Limbaugh, true American.
I've listened to you for two years and I've never been more educated in my life, and I have never caught you in a misnomer.
And you have taught me more about international politics.
Um and our Constitution than I ever knew.
And in fact, my son went into the Air Force because of you.
So Well, thank you very much.
But that isn't why I called.
I'm gonna end it on light note.
I am going I am a nurse.
I had to retire early because of uh football injury.
Ha ha.
Wait, wait, wait.
You're ending this on a light note by talking about a football injury?
Yes, but it's actually a nursing injury.
And I am I've just had it in my craw.
I am tired of the the few NFL players that are suing for their concussions because I was on the floor one night just being a nurse, helping people, giving meds to a schizophrenic patient, a very strong man, and he just belted me in the mouth and knocked me out, my head fell on the concrete floor.
I had to go to the ER, I had a loose tooth, I had a bloody lip.
I like these light moments, folks.
I they look forward to them.
So you had a concussion?
Well, yeah, that would be a TBI.
Sure it would be.
I went out, you know, um, and I went to the ER.
All they did was put some ice on it, sent me back up to the floor, worked my full shift, this and that and this and that.
Right.
And so you're watching these NFL players who've suffered concussions now suing and wanting to be paid for it and then being told that they weren't not made aware of the dangers when they were playing the game, and you think, what the hell?
That's right.
We have never been trained as nurses to take hits.
We did not have pads, we did not have helmets, we didn't have anything.
And the other thing is, two years later two months later, I developed severe, severe pain in my arm and lost use of it, and I developed vertigo and wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
How did how do you end up with pain in your arm?
Because I got a whiplash, they think, when he and uh from the concussion.
One schizophrenic did all this to you?
Oh gosh, he was a strong man.
Was it Bill Clinton?
Because you said they said put some ice on it or something.
Yeah.
I'll tell you, but here's my point.
My point is I now have it morphed in from dizziness for six uh years and I still worked, and it's now morphed into severe chronic headaches that I've had for fifteen years, and I'm disabled, and I was making six bucks an hour, and my lawyer friend says, Oh, there's n there's no proof.
And I was going to the doctors all the time saying what's wrong with Okay, so what do you want?
I just wanna say these guys that are getting millions of dollars for their concussions when they know what they're in for um a bunch of babies.
All right.
You have no sympathy for 'em whatsoever.
No, not when I'm making six bucks an hour and they don't care about me, you know.
And that's what I wanted to say, because it's been in my craw.
What do you mean they don't care about you?
Every October they wear pink socks and Well, what it is is they're making millions of dollars and they're just in it for the money.
I was in it because I cared about people and I cared about my profession.
I hear you.
You know, well, look, I'm I'm I'm I hate that uh all that happened to you.
I uh I really do.
That's but people like you that you you you still went to work, you did what you had to do, and um you hung in there.
You're very strong woman.
I'm glad you called.
Thanks very much, Chris.
I appreciate your nice works too.
We'll be right back.
Don't go away.
Hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend, folks.
We will uh be back here on Tuesday.
We'll not be here on Monday.
We have a best of show, and you can be guaranteed it'll be good.
They all are.
Have a great weekend.
Thanks so much for being with us today.
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