MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/14/04

THE RUSH LIMBAUGH SHOW 05/14/04

RUSH: All right. Warning, folks. I just want to say, this program may challenge and test my sanity today because we’re going to be talking about John Kerry a little bit more today than we have been. Time to get back to that.

Greetings, my friends, and welcome. The fastest week in media has delivered us to Friday.

ANNOUNCER: Live, from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida via New York City, it’s Open Line Friday!

RUSH: All right. Now I know that you all in the audience have great expectations of this program and those expectations are almost always exceeded. Yeah. It’s Open Line Friday and I also have high expectations of you, who are going to call today. Open Line Friday. You can slip the surly bonds of Monday through Thursday and go to the outer reaches of topic areas that we haven’t covered, or if you think we need to cover them when we haven’t – whatever. A question, comment – feel free. The telephone number is 800-282-2882. The e-mail address is [email protected].

A couple personal notes here, just to start – actually, three – and this is just a program note and advisory. I will not be here on Monday. I will be in St. Louis. I appear annually in the Joe Buck Children’s Hospital Golf Tournament. I was only able to schedule this a couple weeks ago because of – I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make it. I am going to be able to make it. So we have – we got – who’ve we got? On Monday? Roger Hedgecock will be here on Monday.

Now, also, ladies and gentlemen, (sigh) there is a – I got an e-mail last night from Kate O’Beirne, who is the Washington editor for National Review and Kate sent me a column that she wrote for today’s online National Review Web site, National Review online, and when I read this and I was brought to a screeching halt. I was literally stunned by it. It’s one of the – well, one of the nicest bits of writing ever about me, other than some of your fan mail.

And I – if I could’ve – and I wrote her back, I said, if I could include teardrops in e- mail, I would do it, but I can’t. And we have linked to her piece. I don’t want to describe it. That would – I couldn’t do it justice. You just have to read it, if you have time, or an inclination. It’s at rushlimbaugh.com right now. We’ve linked it right at the top of the home page, or you can go to the National Review online Website directly and get it there.

If you go to the rushlimbaugh.com Website, we’ve also posted a couple pieces of video. Last night, Scarborough Country and this morning, the Today show. Both shows focused on my newspaper ads, which ran in the Palm Beach Post, the Pennysaver, and in the South Florida Sun Sentinel yesterday. Hellzapoppin’ still, over this, and the – what was –

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It was sort of funny last night on Scarborough, had Joe Tacopina, who’s a defense lawyer. Apparently, is no big fan of mine, but understands this case and he – I guess he would understand. He’s a defense lawyer. He understands this case as well as I do, which is saying something, and the guest, his – the person to balance the program, of course, was an Assistant State Attorney from somewhere over in Tampa and her name was Pam Bondi.

So Scarborough sets it up. It was a – segment started just a little bit after 10:30 last night. (laughter) It was a great segment. Scarborough always does a good job on that show and so he goes to Joe Tacopina first and Tacopina says what he has to say and it’s time to go to Pam Bondi and she got her first sentence out and the satellite died. (laughter) It’s one of these things you pray for. Her satellite bumped out and just totally dropped and they were unable to get it back. Imagine that – the whole segment. And Tacopina said to Scarborough, “I told you I’d shut her up!’ (laughter)

And so Tacopina got the whole segment and Joe tried to play devil’s advocate a couple times, but it seems to be the way it is with libs in broadcasting. They seem to show up on the air, radio or TV, and then nobody hears them. Either their paychecks bounce, or they’re not getting health coverage, or their satellite pay – payment isn’t made and they go off into the ether. I mean, when it comes to broadcasting other than in the mainstream news media, it’s getting harder and harder for the Liberals to be heard and seen out there. So I – just – that video’s posted.

Roy Black today got very – he was interviewed by Matt Lauer and got a little heated today. Roy did – passionate, let me put it that way. Both videos are posted at rushlimbaugh.com. If you didn’t see them live, they’re there for you. If you want to go look at it.

Well, only one thing I wish to comment on. The Associated Press – now, well, just hang on, Mr. Snerdley. Will you just (laughter). We need to get a Dittocam on him. The hell with the Dittocam on me. (laughter) I mean, are you muttering obscenities in there, or what? In front of Dawn? Yes! You are. Just – just wait a – of course it was a hatchet job of a story. What do you think it’s going to be? That’s only a testament to the effectiveness of the ad. Because you people have to learn how to judge the reaction exhibits. If – if – if the media goes berserk, it means they’re reacting to something that’s effective. I’m not supposed to get my point of view in the Palm Beach Post and I did! And so since I’m not supposed to get my point of view in that paper, they’re mad.

Well, let me just tell you a quick little story. The AP reporter who – all right – office is in the Palm Beach Post building. And so she’s on the phone yesterday and my represent – while I’m on the air. So I got a representative talking to her, and we send her transcripts of the May 4th program to illustrate how I was taken out of

2 MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/14/04 context in the column on Sunday that this ad was really the result of. And so she writes her piece, and none of the things – I mean, I was finding transcript during the program yesterday. None of the transcript evidence that I sent her ended up in her piece – her name is Jill Barton – none of it, which was the whole point of the ad.

Well – but, at any rate – she went and she talked to the editor of the Palm Beach Pennysaver, a guy named Sears, and Sears said, well, you know, he can get his point of view any time that he wants in this paper, if he returns our calls and talk to our reporters. He never talks to us and dah-dah-dah-dah-dah-dah. So that story runs and I looked and said, wait a minute? We talk to these people all the time. We talk to them all the time. We spend more time with them than any other publication because they’re here, in the backyard.

So we called her back and said, he’s wrong about that. We’ve had an editorial board meeting with the Palm Beach Post. We’ve had meetings with the news reporters. We have – we’ve – we’ve sent transcripts, we’ve – statements and respond to every request we get from the Palm Beach Post. And so the AP reporter – and we said, go over to the newsroom and ask them. Walk over to the newsroom and ask the reporters there if they are shut out when they want information from us.

So she walked over there, found out that what the editor said at first was incorrect. So he did a little bit of a re-write, and the re-write said, quoted the editor as saying, Limbaugh’s never personally responded. (laughter) Now, wait – it gets even better.

Then the editor goes on and says, “I don’t understand why Limbaugh’s afraid of opinions.” And (sigh). We’re not afraid of opinions. It’s just I was responding. It’s the only way I can respond is to buy space in your stupid paper. And when you’re going to tell your readers (laughter) that my opinion on the Iraq prison issue cements the fact that I ought to go to jail, I’m going to respond to it. So I did.

Anyway, let me just say this to Mr. Sears and all these others who are running with this AP story that is unchecked and not all that balanced – oh, and the local Palm Beach Post reporterette opens her story by saying, “Rush Limbaugh’s Rage Returned.” Those ads represent my rage. (laughter)

But Mr. Sears, let me just tell you something. I’ll address you personally, here. You’re right. I have not spoken to you, or your editors, or your reporters personally. Nor have I spoken to the Washington Times personally. Nor have I spoken to CNN personally. Nor have I spoken to msnbc personally. Nor have I spoken to The American Spectator personally. Nor have I spoken to the Tampa Tribune personally. I haven’t spoken to any media – period – on any of this because I can’t.

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Now, despite the fact that I haven’t talked to any of them, they have all examined the procedures being employed by the State Attorney’s office in Palm Beach County, and they have found suspicious behavior, and they have concluded there may, in fact, be a political component and maybe a witch hunt here and I haven’t talked to them at all, just like I haven’t talked to you.

Furthermore, my lawyer and representatives have spent more time talking to the Palm Beach Post editorial board and the Palm Beach Post writers and reporters than we have spent talking to any media outlet in this country. And yet, this editor allows himself to be quoted, and it gets passed on as though we are freezing them out and we’re not talking to them at all.

It’s the exact opposite.

So I just wanted to pass this on to you, ladies and gentlemen, just to square this up because I have the opportunity to. Most people, when they get skewered and lambasted and treated unfairly by the media don’t have a chance to reply, but I do and I wanted to take that opportunity that I have now and I thank you for your indulgence in this.

I thank Kate O’Beirne from the bottom of my heart. I don’t know how to thank her any more. I really hope you go read this. It is – and every journalist ought to read this, too. Every reporter that’s reporting on this whole prison matter ought to read Kate O’Beirne’s piece today at National Review Online.

Take a quick time out. We’ll be back and resume with all the rest of today’s Open Line Friday program.

Mr. Snerdley, would you smile? Please smile in there. You know, get over it. I mean, it’s takes – we’ll – this is kind – you know, it’s been going like this for 16 years. This – I know it. It irritates you. You got to learn to recognize victory when it’s happening. You got to learn to – that’s what – we all need to learn that. We need to – we’re in the middle of victory in Iraq. We just don’t know it because the people don’t want to see it. The Media doesn’t want to report it. We’re in the middle of victory in Iraq.

We’re almost in the middle of victory in Najaf, folks. The people in Najaf want those holy clowns thrown out of there. We’re – read William Safire in The New York Times today. We are close to victory in Najaf. While all this other stuff’s going on, we’re winning. Our uniformed personnel, our military is winning over there while their critics and their enemies in this country focus on trying to dispirit them. And I’m winning here. You know, we’re all Americans and those of us who want to win, are.

Now, let me just – sit tight, there. We’ll take a break and come back and resume with all the rest of the – wait until you hear Judge Napolitano on FOX News last –

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he puts all this in Palm Beach involving me in perspective with two sound bites. I’ll let – just so you – I need Snerdley in a good mood, here, folks, so I’m going to play the Napolitano bits, sound bites, when we come back after the break. Then we’ll get on with dealing with John Kerry, OK?

Deal. Sit tight. Be right back. Don’t go away.

(station break)

RUSH: It’s Open Line Friday. Rush Limbaugh, meeting and surpassing all audience expectations. The telephone number is 800-282-2882.

All right, first, I want you to hear what happened to Pam Bondi last night, the Assistant State Attorney who was going to take up the case, you know, the side against me, in this case on the Scarborough Country Show on MSNBC. Scarborough’s talking to her, introducing her, and says, “Doesn’t Limbaugh have a right to this type of thing – go on the offensive against this prosecutor, Pam, because it doesn’t appear, does it not, he’s running a very politically motivated prosecution of Rush Limbaugh?”

BONDI: Sir, I don’t know how in the world it can be considered politically motivated. Rush Limbaugh – (feed dies)

SCARBOROUGH: OK, Joe? All right, Joe (multiple conversations; inaudible) – why don’t you – and you –

TACOPINA: I knew I would shut her up.

SCARBOROUGH: You, you did. You won this debate.

RUSH: That’s the last we saw, or heard, of Pam Bondi. (laughter) She’s on this show a lot. I mean, it just one of those quirky, quirky accidents, but they weren’t able to get the bird back for the rest of the segment.

In fact, now, we’ve got a still shot of the bars going up when they lost her feed that we might put on the Website, just to acknowledge that she was there.

Now, I want you to listen to this, Mr. Snerdley. We’re going to go back to this audio sound bite number eight. Last night, this was FOX News Channel, a big story with John Gibson, who said, in talk to their legal analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano.

Gibson says, you know, Rush Limbaugh always has something to say (laughter). Now, he’s running a full-page newspaper ad in Florida. Claims a local prosecutor is out to get him for political reasons. FOX News Senior Judicial Analyst, Judge

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Andrew Napolitano, will tell us what this has to do with the actual case against Limbaugh. So what is it?

NAPOLITANO: In Florida, the prosecutors are properly elected. They join political parties and they run political campaigns. So the guy that’s after Rush Limbaugh is a Democrat – an avid Democrat that participated in Al Gore’s campaign and was involved in the recount –

RUSH: There you go.

NAPOLITANO: – and Rush is being targeted with a crime that nobody else has been prosecuted for, John. It’s a very unusual crime. It’s called, doctor shopping. Essentially, they’re saying to him, you failed to tell Dr. Number Two that you were also being treated by Dr. Number One and you accepted prescriptions from both of them. The Supreme Court says about that, it’s none of your business, Mr. Prosecutor, the communication between a patient and a physician.

RUSH: So (laughter), about this doctor shop – I got to shut up, but I could end this with one answer, here. Anyway, but I can’t. You have to trust me on this.

Here’s one more. Gibson says, well, the courts are about to rule on that, aren’t they?

NAPOLITANO: Here’s what he did – he sent his investigators to seize from drug stores and hospitals and doctors all of Rush’s medical records. You don’t do that in America. You send a notice to the defendant, saying, we’re going to ask for your records. If you don’t want to surrender them, we’ll let a court decide. And that court is now deciding whether the prosecutor did the right thing – he didn’t – and whether he can use Rush’s medical records against him. He oughtn’t to be able to.

GIBSON: Boy, that stinks.

RUSH: There you have it. That’s FOX News. That’s – don’t you feel better, Mr. Snerdley? Feel a little bit better? This is the case. You – this perspective has yet to show up in the Palm Beach Post, is the point – since October. It is not there – in their editorial page, in their columnists. It’s not there, and that’s the reason we ran the ad – pure and simple. Get that side of it in the newspaper. I had to buy my way in.

All right, now to the John Kerry stack of stuff. As I promised, “A growing majority of voters are unhappy with the way things are going in Iraq, but that is not helping John Kerry, who trails, or is statistically tied with President Bush in most surveys. Maurice Carroll, Director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute said, ‘President Bush and his team are going down in their approval ratings, but Senator Kerry’s going nowhere [laughter].’ A recent Quinnipiac survey showed

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that Bush is leading Kerry by 43% to 40%, 6% going to Nader. Bush has lost three points in the three-way match-up, but those three points did not go to Kerry.”

Oh. Oh. Oh. Isn’t the – isn’t – were we supposed to hear from Frank Luntz today, HR? Yeah. We’re supposed to hear from Frank – Frank – well, yeah. You people been asking me about this. I bought a question in a Frank Luntz poll that he’s been taking this week. And I asked Frank to go out there in just a poll of Democrats, a normal, every day, every week – whatever – poll that he normally would do, I asked him to throw a question in there, and he agreed to do it.

And the question is, if the Democrat primaries are held today, for whom would you vote? And it lists all the Democrat candidates that ran plus one other option called, other. And then get me the results. And he said, OK. I’ll do it.

Now, to make it right, I got to put in a question before it and a question after it. You just can’t throw a single question in it. I said, then, fine. You’re the scientist on this stuff. Go ahead and do it, but make sure that question’s in there. And we heard yesterday that he would have the results today and be happy to come on and explain, but we haven’t heard from him. So, I’m sure we will. If not today, sometime early next week. But, I mean, he was working on it, folks, and he’s out there actively doing this poll.

All these polls are showing Bush, you know, either holding steady or losing ground. A couple polls actually showed Bush gaining. An Investors’ Business Daily poll shows him gaining, but what a line. Kerry’s going nowhere. And Kerry’s ramping up his criticism of Iraq, trying to go somewhere and this is backfiring. He had the most incredibly dumb thing say in Arkansas, yesterday. We have it on tape. Stand by for that.

(station break)

RUSH: I am Rush Limbaugh, documented to be almost always right, 98.5% of the time. Loving hearing myself say what I say because I love it when I’m right. 800-28- 2882 is the phone number.

We just got a hold of the Frank Luntz polling firm, results will be here momentarily we were told. So sit tight, hang in there and be tough.

Let me finish up with the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll. It was 2,016 registered voters last week, found that 67% think that the Bush administration’s post-war planning for Iraq was not so good or poor, that’s a combination of those two, equaling 67%. But the poll also found that voters believe by 48% to 37% that Bush would do a better job than Kerry in bringing the situation in Iraq to a successful conclusion. So the poll analyst says, Americans think the Bush team fouled up the occupation of Iraq but they still trust the President to do a better job than Kerry in wrapping things up.

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John Kerry has to be hating life folks. Just – no matter what they do over there, he can’t move anywhere. He can’t get noticed, can’t get seen. Bush can make all kinds of mistakes, apparent mistakes. Kerry can’t capitalize even though he’s trying very hard to.

Los Angeles Times headline, “In Arkansas, Kerry Finds Key Word to be Clinton.” And not only did he use the word Clinton, he started acting like Clinton. He showed up late for something he was supposed to be at. “There was a question about whether John Kerry has any qualms about invoking Bill Clinton in his quest for the White House. They were resolved this week after his visit to the former President’s home state. The presumptive assumed Democrat nominee ostensibly stopped in Little Rock as part of a four day effort to promote his health care plan but it seemed more like a pilgrimage.” I knew this was going to happen! Because I know what’s happening.

“Kerry’s phone rang not long ago, shortly before Clinton announced the date that his memoirs would be published June 30th. Kerry picks up the phone, ‘Hello I’m John Kerry.’ ‘Hey John how are you pal, great to hear from you. Let me tell you what’s coming down the pike for you, bud. My book. My book. June 30th. It’s going to suck all the oxygen out of your campaign. But John, that is a blessing for you pal because the more oxygen you get, the sinker and lower you go. You look blue. You need me pal. Now what you need to do, go to Arkansas. Start talking about me, John. I’m the one in this party everybody loves. I’m the one who everybody wish could have gone back. You evoke my name and I’ll make sure I invoke your name when my book comes out. And that’s the best you can hope for John because you can’t do this on your own. You’re going to need me. And you’re going to need me long after this over. I am Don Clintinatoli (sic.). You know what happened to Bob Torso and Andrew Cuomo, I just want to remind you.”

So out of the blue, John Kerry heads on down to Arkansas. And let me – grab sound bite number four. This is – actually let’s play number three first. Maybe we should play – let’s play three. Kerry – three and four in that order. Kerry was in Hannity and Colmes last night. Alan Combs got a solo shot at Kerry. And Colmes says, “What do you think when you see that tape that they keep playing where you said I was for the $87 billion before I voted against it?”

KERRY: I think it’s Republican games of an administration that can’t run on it’s own record. This is unprecedented in American history that a sitting President, an incumbent, has spent $70 million in destructive, negative, misleading, distorting advertising to try to undue the candidacy of a person in another party not yet even nominated. Unprecedented Alan. Instead of offering America a positive vision, they decide just to attack John Kerry.

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RUSH: John let me remind you of something. There wasn’t anybody giving you even a chance to live before you got the nomination, so all this talk about you getting all these attack ads, it’s called defining you John, because you can’t define yourself because there’s nothing there.

So the Bush administration is telling people who you are. They’re telling people how you voted and they use your own words. It’s not at attack ad. Don’t you love these Liberals? It’s an attack ad when you criticize him. It’s an attack ad when you accurately identify them. It’s an attack ad when you tell be honestly what they do. Bush has a vision. Bush has the trust of the American people. That’s why he has the personal approval numbers that he has.

All right, so you heard that. Here’s Kerry yesterday on the campaign trail in Arkansas. Get this.

KERRY: When Bill Clinton left office not one young American in uniform was dying in a war anywhere in this world.

RUSH: Oh, my friends. Where do we start with this? In the first place, does this not sound suspiciously like, (as Clinton) “no attack every fed a hungry child. When I left office there wasn’t one young American in uniform dying in a war anywhere in this world. Of course when I left office, the only people dying were men and women in uniform (laughter) because I wasn’t defending them. Men and women in uniform are being attacked all over this world and I didn’t do much about it.

“So yeah, Kerry can go out and say that. He can say that not one young American in uniform was dying in a war anywhere in this world, but that’s not true. Because there are Americans dying everywhere, under my watch. I just didn’t do a thing to defend them. And 9/11 came along and I regretted it didn’t happen when I was President because that could have given me a chance to be great. But instead it happened on Bush’s watch, so Bush gets a chance to be great. And well, I didn’t tell John when I told him to say this, because I’ve set a trap for him because I can’t stand anybody looking smarter than I do. I want him to look stupider than I am, so I tell Kerry to say that he says it, but of course, he leaves out 9/11. (laughter) Of course he had to respond to 9/11 and that’s a war going on and kids die in wars and everybody dies in wars except me. So. “

This is unbelievable. When Bill Clinton – this is what is has come to for John Kerry. He is doing what Gore wouldn’t do. Gore wouldn’t bring up Clinton’s name. Kerry has to make a pilgrimage to Arkansas. Has to mention Clinton’s name. When he went to Arkansas he arrived late for the rally. He tried to imitate Clinton’s drawl, and he went to another barbecue joint folks. During his Arkansas visit a local TV reporter told the candidate that co-workers had been taking bets about whether he would arrive at the tarmac rally late, in typical Clinton fashion, Kerry said whatever President Clinton did, it worked for him, so Kerry’s rally in fact, started 30 minutes late.

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So Don Clintononli (sic.) maneuvers or worms his way back into the campaign. (laughter) I’ll tell you, it’s amazing.

And from Hanover, New Hampshire, this is the The Boston Globe, headline “Pragmatism Drives New Hampshire Naderites to Kerry. College hippies can’t stand Kerry but they’re going to vote for him,” it says in this story.

“In their cloth sandals, their Birkenstocks, worn jeans and support fair trade sweatshirts, 15 members of the Dartmouth Greens gathered Monday night for their weekly discussion of social justice and politics. The conversation veered from the economic abuse of sweatshop laborers to the physical abuse of Iraqi prisoners and whether a protest action of papering the campus with photos of abused Iraqis with the caption ‘Is this the occupation you wanted?’ would exploit the victims further.

“While none of the 15 particularly like Kerry, they call him wavering, craggy, passable and tree-stumpy, the anti-war group nevertheless has almost unanimously decided to forsake Ralph Nader, a man they see as an idol, to help Kerry win New Hampshire which is a key battleground state. So pragmatism is going to drive some Naderites over the Kerry, but they’re not excited about him. And that’s the same story that you will hear throughout the land when it comes to Democrat voters talking about this man.

Oh yeah – big story about 15 people. It was The Boston Globe. Fifteen – 15 – long haired, maggot infested, dope smoking, FM types. Worried about sweatshop practices. Fifteen of them make a big story. The fact they’re going to vote for Kerry. Fifteen of these people. They’re going to vote for Kerry qualifies as big news in the Boston Globe.

Kerry has to be hating life these days. For this kind of thing to make the – and if he’s happy about this, that’s – if his campaign is going wow look at this story we got in the Globe today, fifteen of these ruffians are going to vote for us! We’ve got 15 people away from Nader! This is progress! You mean 15%? No! Fifteen people. Oh. OK. Good John. Keep it up boy. We’re watching. Back in just a second. Stay with us.

(station break)

RUSH: All right, folks. I have the – I have the results of my poll question and there are three questions here that I requested. Frank Luntz of the Luntz Research Companies in Alexandria, Virginia, did this. This was a survey, a normal survey that you would normally do, just included three questions I asked for. Actually one question I asked for and two others, one on either side of the question to not isolate it. Five hundred Democrats and independents who lean more to the Democrats.

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Question one, even though the Democrat nomination has now been determined, if you had the chance and could vote again for the candidate to run against George W. Bush in the fall for whom would you vote? What would you think in a normal – in a normal cycle where the Democrats have chosen the nominee and they’re off and running on the race to the White House. What do you think the normal response to this question would be? What? What?

OK. So what do you think? 70%, 80% of the people – OK we’ve got a nominee, let’s stick with him. Right. OK. Question, even though the Democrat nomination for President has now been determined, if you had the chance and could vote again for the candidate to run against George W. Bush in the fall, for whom would you vote? 40% John Kerry.

This is not good folks. This is – he has done a little better here than I thought he would do but this is not good. Here are the remaining in order: 40% John Kerry – 21% Don’t know, 10% John Edwards, 8% Howard Dean, 4% Wesley Clark, 3% Al Sharpton, 3% Lieberman, 2% Kucinich, 2% Gephardt, 1% Bob Graham, 5% somebody else, and 3% refused.

Now you know what this – this looks exactly like what the turnout was toward the end of – or what the results were towards the end of their primaries after Kerry had it locked up. This is not a ringing endorsement of their nominee. It means that people haven’t changed their mind about their preference and it means they’re really not lined up behind Kerry at all. The reason I set this up if – OK, in a normal circumstance, your party chooses a nominee, your nominee is off and running. In the middle of the campaign now, the middle of the general election campaign, and here comes this question – hey, who would you vote for it you had to do it over again? Normally, the nominee gets it. Especially in a Democrat poll. 40% John Kerry.

Question number two – we will post these results at RushLimbaugh.com later this afternoon. If you could vote again for the candidate to run against George W. Bush in the fall and your only two choices were John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, for whom would you vote? 47% Hillary Clinton, 44% John Kerry. 3% Neither. 5% don't know. 1% refused. And is your overall opinion of John Kerry better or worse today than it was two months ago? 34% better, 13% worse, 40% the same, 11% don’t know, and 1% refused.

What do you mean, you say, damn. What do you mean by that Mr. Snerdley? Does it – it just does not sound like there’s a ringing endorsement for their nominee out there and – now we need Lutz to actually scientifically analyze this because we are just laymen here looking at these results. My guess is that 34% is a pretty good number, who think he’s doing better than he was two months ago. Given what the news is. But 40%, nah. The same. The big number is 40, and it ain’t good. That it just is the same. And the same is not good.

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So 47% of Democrats would vote – would choose Hillary Clinton to be the nominee today and – by the way that was the only choice they were getting. Not Howard Dean versus Clark – or Kerry – and not anybody else. It was Hillary versus – Frank wanted this question in there. I’ll admit it was Frank’s question, he wanted it in there. And he said Frank you’ve got to put it second because I don’t want my question to be distorted here. Because if you put Hillary, I don’t want Hillary in the list of possibles in the first one either, because I want it just those guys that Kerry ran against. So that’s what he did.

But here in the second tell tale question, if you could vote again for the candidate to run against George W. Bush in the fall, and your only two choices were Kerry and Hillary, for whom would you vote? 47% Hillary, 44% John Kerry. So there you have it folks. A little EIB participation in an official scientific poll out there. Now to the phones. John in Gibbsboro, New Jersey. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hi.

JOHN: Rush, mega dittos to you. I’ve been listening to you for a couple years and this is the best show on television or radio.

RUSH: Thank you.

JOHN: But I’m really confused. Now, I don’t understand some of the policies of the Bush administration, although I’ve voted Republican since I was 18 and I’m 47 years old right now. I’m a small business owner. I have two sons that are of draft age. And I don’t understand why we are not focusing on oil conservation and oil – changing the way that we use oil in the United States.

75% of all the world’s oil reserves are under these people’s feet in the Middle East, and that’s where they’re deriving all their wealth from. That’s where they’re deriving all the support for Al-Qaeda, for any of these terroristic groups. And I don’t understand why the Bush administration doesn't target that specifically just like Kennedy did to get us to the moon to compete against the Soviets. I’ll hang up now and just listen to what you and your callers say, and again, thanks very much for all your information and for supporting our country.

RUSH: Thank you John. I appreciate the opportunity to address this question. The – I think this administration has made repeated attempts to go in the direction of ridding our dependence – ridding us of our dependence on foreign oil. One of the first things they tried was drilling in ANWAR. Not a while lot of oil although more than people think. But not nearly enough to replace. But look what happened. You had a mobilization in this country, the environmental-wacko Left and the Democratic party to stop it.

If you go anywhere – we have a lot of oil in this country and we can’t get to it anywhere because the environmentalists will not let us drill new wells. We’re having enough time building new refineries because of environmental restrictions. John Kerry led the filibuster in the Senate opposing drilling for oil in ANWAR.

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This administration has made – taking a first step, put their toe in the water to find out what was going to happen. The President, I think in a second term will speed up and heat up on this. But it certainly needs to be done.

There’s all kinds of oil elsewhere around the world, but the environmental Left is a worldwide opposition group and they are oriented around the hatred of capitalism and oil is the fuel of capitalism. Oil fuels the engine of capitalism. They’re opposed to it. They do so on the grounds that it’s dirty and it pollutes and it kills and it maims and it harms fish, other animals, and this sort of thing. It’s just the opposite if done correctly and properly, everyone can coexist on the planet and do so well. But they are totally, totally opposed.

We can’t drill off the coast of Florida now. We can’t even have oil derricks out in the Gulf anybody can see. We can’t drill off the coast of California. Can’t drill in Alaska. And other countries are faced with the same opposition around the world. Conservation is one of the biggest myths under the sun. Conservation will not save enough gasoline or oil to accommodate the economic growth that we and the rest of the world are going to undertake.

Conservation is not a bad thing but conservation as a means of sustaining us is not suitable. There’s not enough conservation. It isn’t going to happen. We are a growing economy, there is plenty of oil out there. We need to go get it. And that is the only way we’re going to be able to sustain here. Back in just a second. Stay with us.

(station break)

RUSH: First hour is in the can folks. Sit tight. Lot of you on the phones. We’ll get to you because it’s Open Line Friday. We’ll be right back and resume. It won’t be long.

RUSH: Hi. How are you? Is it – is it – is it Brian’s birthday today? Sunday. Does he know you've got the cake in there? I guess he does now. Was his – well, I got him a Lego set to go with the Tinker Toys, but don't tell him that. I want to see his face when he opens it. He's going to be so excited.

Greetings, my friends. Welcome back. Rush Limbaugh here. This is the Excellence in Broadcasting Network where I am the happiest and the most optimistic, and about the most worn-out figure in American media today. It’s Friday, let’s go.

ANNOUNCER: Live from the Southern Command in sunny south Florida via New York City, it’s Open Line Friday.

RUSH: Yip yip yip yip yip yahoo, it’s time to go, folks. You know, Open Line Friday, you can – you can call and ask me anything, about alternative sources of oil or

13 MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/14/04 energy. And I will tell you what I've always told you about that. You can ask me about attack ads. You can ask me what I think of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ draft. You can – whatever. You can bring – it doesn't matter. That's what Open Line Friday’s all about. If you have had an overall curiosity about something, and you want to know what it is, you want to know the answer, this is your day. You want to go e-mail, you go [email protected] as the alternative way of getting through.

Moving on to other items in our stack of stuff. And those of you on – on hold – yeah, well, you getting those kinds of calls? Are you getting people that want to ask me about that? All right. Because I can't imagine anybody’d have any questions about that, other than mainstream journ – he asked me, “Would you take calls about your Skull and Bones comment?”

Of course. Here's what I did. Those comments were made on the – on the fourth of May when the first two or three pictures came out. I went and got the transcript of that show yesterday, and I sent it to all these people who – oh, not that many. I mean sent it to enough people who’ve been raising hell about it. Tim Russert even asked for a tran – I sent him one. Because he's – you know, Larry King, a bunch of people have been trying to get Russert to dump on me about that Skull and Bones comment. He wouldn't do it because he didn't believe it. But he hadn't heard it, so he just – he – he, you know, finessed it.

So I sent it to him. It’s – it’s all – it’s – it’s all trumped up, but if anybody wants to ask about, I'd be glad to. I proudly, happily stand by the comments as they were made at the time. And I'm stunned that the media did not pick up on the nuance since they're all – they're big nuance people. I mean, that's why they support Kerry. He's a man of nuance, right? He's too smart for the rube.

Anyway. The – sev – several Senators said yesterday that the war on terror needs to replace news about the Iraqi prison abuse scandal and calls for Rumsfeld’s resignation, especially now that intelligence agencies have confirmed that it was Al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab Zarqawi who was involved in the decapitation of Nicholas Berg. Zell Miller said, “Those who are wringing their hands and shouting so loudly for heads to roll over the abuse seem to have conveniently overlooked the fact that somebody’s head has rolled. Why is it that there's more indignation over a photo of a prisoner with underwear on his head than over the video of a young American with no head at all?”

Amen. You know, and this – this is the kind of comment that der – that – that inspires hatred aimed at me from mainstream journalists. But once again, we’re on the cutting edge here. We’re the first to put this in perspective, even on May 4th when this whole thing hit, the first to put it in perspective, because we didn't wring our hands and want to defeat the US military over this.

There are people – we talked about this late yesterday – there are people in this country who actually – well, let’s just put it this way. As I said yesterday, they

14 MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/14/04 may not be on the side of the terrorists in Iraq, but their actions wouldn't be any different if they were. And those are Democrats and Liberals in this country who are anti-US military and anti-victory. They may not be pro-Al-Qaeda. They may not be wanting Al-Qaeda or terrorists to win, but if they did, their actions would not be any different than they are now.

And you can interpret that to mean, well, they – either they're smart or they're naïve. And I will – I’ll want to give them a benefit of the doubt and I'm going to say, even though I'm not sure this is totally accurate, I'll say they're naïve. They may actually believe that if we lay down our arms that the side opposing us’ll do the same and we can all live happily ever after. There are some Liberals who believe that. There are some Liberals who believe we provoke all this just by being who we are, just by having our military might, and just by being willing to project our power. And so they think that if we just cease and desist that the other side’ll not consider us a threat nor an enemy anymore, and they’ll cease and desist.

Now, those of us with brain and a contextual understanding of history know that that's dangerous, risky, and absurd. But – so it – it – no, this – I'm not – I don't think I'm going out of the way. John Pedorich (sp?) wrote a column in The New York Post today saying the same thing. And I've said this long before anybody else did. That's why pioneers take the arrows. You know, I’ll go out and say it. I’ll take the arrows, and then those who agree with me will come in a couple or three days later and get on the bandwagon and not take any arrows. That's what happens here.

You know, have you noticed all the people who are talking about, “This just looked like a fraternity prank.” Well, I took the arrows for that, now everybody who wanted to say it at the first but didn't is getting in on the action. That's fine. I'm not complaining. I'm honored. Honored to be a pioneer, honored to be taking the arrows.

Senator Arlen Specter said, “As bad as the Iraq prison abuse cases have been, Berg’s execution should be a reminder the war on terror continues and must be given full intention or attention.” He said, “We need to lose the intensity and to feel for 9/11 as time passes.” We tend to, “and I think the beheading of Nick Berg is a very stark reminder.” You know, it’s the same thing in the Senate. James Inhofe led the way, Lenhoff – or Inhofe took the arrows, Inhofe spelled out the truth of what was happening at this abuse committee hearing. And now he gave cover to all those who agreed with him to come later and jump on his bandwagon.

And this is not to disparage Zel Miller. I like all these guys saying this. But Inhofe was the first, and Inhofe took the heat for it. But then after that, since he took the heat and it was already out there, others who agree come along, even Arlen Specter getting on this bandwagon. There are a number of senators now getting on the bandwagon. I’ll tell you why. Because it has become apparent that The New York Times and the leading institutions of the mainstream press were doing everything

15 MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/14/04 they could to keep the Nick Berg execution and murder second and third tier news, while these prison photos remained top tier news because the prison photos are a way to damage our war effort and damage Bush, and perhaps lead the way to his defeat at the polls in November, which is what this whole prison abuse thing is all about for these people wringing their hands and acting like this is the worst thing they’ve ever seen.

The worst thing that happened to them was when Nick Berg was assassinated, the way he was. There's no way you can see that video, or hear it described, or hear the audio from that video, and at all keep the perspective of the prison photo crowd, and that – and that perspective they would wish. Because the prison photo abuses, bad as it is and offensive as it is, pales in comparison to what happened to Nick Berg.

And guess what else? As long as – look it, folks, I'm worn out. When I'm – when I'm worn out, I'm – I'm – I'm less – what's the word here? Guarded. And I'm just going to say, who was the first? Because I'm – this is one of these days because if I don't say it, nobody else will. So forgive me if you think this is bragging. I don't think it’s bragging because it isn't bragging if you can do it.

Who was the first to nationally, publicly, loudly proclaim after viewing these pictures, “Oh, wee, looks like a whole lot of sex going on here.” Who was the first to say, “Man, this is stuff you would see on American computer screens at porn sites. This is – this is the kind of stuff that you would see – ” I mean, we have some homoeroticism going on.

Now have you noticed how many stories there are about just how much about sex this was? I mean, we've now got stories of Americans having mattresses on a floor, encircled by candles. Little romantic gang bangs going on out there in front of the Iraqi prisoners. You hear about this, Dawn? And as – as news leaks out – and who was the word – who was one of the first to use the word, “Looks like some perversion going on here.” I would love to be able to claim the line that George Neumayr used. I can't claim it because George Neumayer used it first in The American Spectator. Neumayer said, “If these prison photos had been taken by Robert Maplethorpe, the very Senators condemning them would have funded the exhibit at The National Endowment for the Arts.”

And while all of this is taking place, the very people – the very people who have defended the sexual revolution and have championed the so-called sexual revolution, who defended any kind of sexual perversion in the Oval Office when it was going on there when Bill Clinton was the – those same people are now the ones who are raising holy hell themselves about how sick this is, and how disgusting this is, and how perverted this is. And that is why I've said when the rooster comes home, and when the whole truth comes out about this of what was going on over there, the people on the Left who condemned all of this, shall we say enlightened, as they called it perverted sexual activity, are going to have to explain

16 MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/14/04 to many of their constituents why they’ve changed their minds on these particular kinds of acts and these particular types of lifestyles.

So while all this is going on, the Democrats are claiming this is a chain of command thing. And they've been trying to get this linked all the way to Bush. “This is happening because of Bush’s example. This is happening because Bush doesn't care. This has happened because Bush doesn't use any disci – this is because it comes from the top.”

I would believe that if Bill Clinton were still in office. If Bill Clinton were still in office, I could accept the notion that this might come from the top. And in fact, depending on the age of these soldiers over there, they may in fact be – how many stories have we had lately? Oral sex is a great way to stop teen pregnancy. That oral sex is a great way to have safe – safe sex. Just had one this week. Who popularized oral sex for the nation? And who was defended day in and day out and royally for doing so? Bill Clinton. And who defended him? The Democrats who now find all kinds of atrocities in these photos coming out of Abu Ghraib prison.

I don't know, Mr. Snerdley. Mr. Snerdley’s wondering, “Hey, since we don't know what's going – what if – what if – what if all these videos are being taken because a, you know, third-rate production porn movie was being made over there?” Well, that's how they are – I mean, I'm not a veteran of porn by any stretch. I’m not, but let’s face it, average pornography does not look like “Gone With The Wind.” Right?

So that's – you never know if they might – might have been pornographers get in the military, get over there as MPs, and start making movies and stuff for the hell of it. Or profit of what have you. I mean, anything’s possible at this point. Anything’s possible. Don't know if we’re going to find the truth of it to that extent, but I just find it interesting nevertheless that the people who are acting so outraged, were so offended, so – are the very people who champion this stuff, or at least defend it in this country.

And as I said yesterday, folks, let’s not forget something. While all of this hand- wringing is going on, and while all of this outrage is taking place, the porn industry in California is happily announcing they're back in business after dealing with the latest HIV scare. And – and the – and – and the state of California’s happy about it because of the tax revenues.

Well, OK, I’ll go back even years and years further to when I was a pioneer in a nither (sic.) – another era, back in the early days of women in combat and women in the same positions as men in the military. I said, you can't keep sex out of it, folks. Once you put them together in these circumstances, be it a battleship or wherever you're going – the sex is going to have a – is going to be a factor. It’s going to be – it’s – and all the femi-Nazis began calling me about it. “You think

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women are just a bunch of sluts? You think that women, when they get together with men, that's all they want to do? You don't think they’ll have any discipline?”

No, I'm not saying that women are sluts and I'm not saying that men are sluts. And I'm not saying anybody doesn't have any discipline. I'm saying these are 18-to-21- year-old people with raging hormones, and nobody’s watching, and you're throwing them together. Voila! We have the Abu Ghraib prison photos. We’ll be back in just a second. Rush Limbaugh, your pioneer on the EIB Network. Stay with us.

(station break)

RUSH: And here we are having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have. Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network. All right, let’s go to the phones. People have been waiting patiently. Joe in Montclair, New Jersey, you're next, sir. Great to have you with us.

JOE: How you doing, Rush? A great honor to talk to you.

RUSH: Thank you.

JOE: In reference to John Kerry’s speech, I'm just – I'm thinking that Mogadishu –

RUSH: Hang – hang on just – let – let me – let’s – it’s been a while since I played this little bite. It’s only – what is it – nine seconds. Let’s play this, then you comment so people will know what you're talking about, OK?

JOE: Sure enough.

RUSH: Here we go.

KERRY: When Bill Clinton left office, not one young American in uniform was dying in a war anywhere in this world.

RUSH: And you wanted to say about that – what, Joe?

JOE: I would like to remind them of Mogadishu and the pictures that came out of there and the servicemen that died there. I think he's – he has a – a habit of forgetting things.

RUSH: Well, see, you got to parse these words. You got to parse, because when Clinton left office, Mogadishu was over. We’d already lost it. Mogadishu happened in the first year Clinton was in office. And then you – probably Kerry would say, (as Kerry) “I said that when Clinton left office, not one young American was dying in a war. So don't tell me about the USS Cole. And don't tell me about the Khobar

18 MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/14/04

Towers. And don't tell me about the African Embassy. And don't tell me about the first World Trade Center because we weren't at war.”

And he'd be absolutely right, and that's another reason why we can't afford to have these people back in power because we were under assault for 10 years and they didn't do diddly squat about it. When Democrats ran the show, you can take this one of two ways. You can say, “OK, Senator Kerry, you're – you're exactly right. We weren't at war and we should have been, but we didn't have people in office who had the guts to take us to war because they were afraid of their approval numbers and their re-election chances. So Americans kept dying in uniform around the world, and we didn't do anything but launch a bunch of missiles at aspirin factories, in essence. And we launched some missiles at a skyscraper – well, a building in Baghdad on a Saturday night, killing a custodian.”

You can also respond to Kerry by saying that no American citizen, including women and children, were killed by the Bush administration in Waco. You could say that Janet Reno was praised for taking responsibility when she admitted what she did at Waco, and you can compare that to what happened to Rumsfeld when he took responsibility for Abu Ghraib. Janet Reno was praised, “Oh, we’re so happy to have here. We’re so lucky to have her.” Rumsfeld has to go.

You could say that Kerry is lying. What does he call those brave men who did die Somalia, as Joe mentioned here, while wearing our nation’s uniform? Kerry would say they don't count because we weren't at war. We have to parse his words. And in truth the – the ab – the – the absurd – well, of course. Of course. The absurdity of this cannot be overstated. More men died in uniform under Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War than at any time in our history. Hundreds of thousands of Americans in uniformed died at World War I and World War II under two Democrat presidents. Were those wars not justified?

I mean, we could go on and on here. But the level of stupidity and ignorance by Kerry’s comment is mind-boggling. By the way, Senator Kerry, maybe next time you'll vote for the money to insure that our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have the body armor they need so they won't die. Think about that.

(station break)

RUSH: As usual, my friends, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, Rush Limbaugh on the EIB. Is something wrong in there? I get worried when you leave the erector set, start coming in here and start paying attention to meters. I’m talking to the broadcast engineer down here, Brian.

All right, it wasn’t a good day for the media yesterday. It wasn't a good week for the media. “A US newspaper has been forced to apologize for admitting that photographs that it published apparently showing US soldiers raping Iraqi women could be fake. The Boston Globe said that it had been wrong to pub” – you know

19 MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/14/04 what one of my – I wish these chronicling me would get this line out there. You know – two favorite lines. I loved my line yesterday about the fact that Ted Kennedy said he didn’t need to see these new round of pictures because all he needed to do was have Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi act them out for him.

Just joking, hah, hah, hah. The reason it works is because it’s somewhat believable. And then – but this one. I love this one. Remember when the first pictures came out and everybody was wringing their hands, “Oh, no, how did we get these bad apples in there as prison guards?” I said, well, wait a sec. Got to keep this in perspective. The New York Times had Jason Blair, The Washington Post had Janet Cooke. We’ve had plagiarists all over the – USA Today has two editors are gone and a reporter’s gone. I mean, just because we have all of these plagiarists and frauds in mainstream journalism, doesn’t sour the whole industry, does it?

So how can a few renegade prison guards sour the whole military? In fact, I’ll bet you we’ve had more plagiarists in mainstream journalism over the years than are in trouble in terms of the prison guards at Abu Ghraib. And here we’re – now we’ve got The Boston Globe so eager, so eager to get in on this. They publish fake photos. “The Globe said it had been wrong to publish the photographs which appeared alongside a story about alleged abuses, because they were overly graphic and the purported abuse portrayed had not been authenticated.

“The editor, Martin Baron, said, “There was a lapse in judgment and procedures and we apologize for it.” Ah-hah, it’s got to go higher than this guy. The editor is not the top of the line. Who owns this paper? Well, The New York Times does. This goes all the way up to Pinch Sulzberger. Pinch Sulzberger set the tone for these fake photos being published in The Boston Globe. It is time for hearings, and we can’t it do at Congress because there’s freedom of the press.

But if you news people care about your industry, you will convene an august commission at Editor and Publisher Magazine or whatever and you will bring Pinch and his editor, Bill Keller, up there and this guy from The Boston Globe and demand to know how this could have happened. “The Boston Globe case appears to be much more clear-cut, unlike The Mirror, the U.K. Mirror, which also published fake photos.

“Rival media in the US heaped criticism on The Boston Globe’s decision to publish the pictures, which appeared during a press conference called by Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner to publicize the abuse allegations that even Mr. Turner admitted were unproven. Since then, the paper has admitted the pictures may have been shot in Hungary, and they come from a porno Website.” Noooo kidding. So these fake photos that ended up in The Boston Globe came from a Hungarian porno site, eh?

20 MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/14/04

“The ombudsman in The Boston Globe” – do you know what the ombudsman is at a newspaper? I mean, I know you know what you think it is. The ombudsman – this is the – this is the representative of the paper that interacts with you, the peasants, who read the paper, and when you have a complaint or some question about the way the paper’s practicing journalism, you write the ombudsman. The ombudsman then has a column once a week where he explains what the paper does to some of the more interesting letters. It’s nothing more than a shield. The ombudsman there is to take the arrows and to fool you into thinking the paper cares what you think about what they’re doing.

And when it really gets bad, like when fake photos of rape blamed on US servicemen are published, then the ombudsman will get a whole column outside his regular weekly column which is on Saturday, which is a paper nobody reads. And so the ombudsman has a column in The Boston Globe today. The name is Christine Chinlund. “It is an understatement to say that the Globe erred when it ran a photo that if you look closely showed images of men dressed as soldiers having sex with unidentified women. It’s also an understatement to say the paper regrets their error, as was evident in the apology published yesterday as an Editor’s Note.”

Yeah. How about an editorial apology? Who saw the Editor’s Note. “There’s no excuse for what happened, but, for the many readers who asked how the Globe could publish a photo that included sexually explicit and unauthenticated images, there is an explanation, and it is we thought we could successfully blame it on the President and the Administration so that we could help John Kerry get elected in November.” It doesn’t say that. But that’s what they mean.

“First the context.” Let’s get back to he ombudsman piece here. “First the context. On Tuesday, Boston City Councilor Chuck” – I’m not going to go through all this. In fact, they do get to my allegation here later on. “The photo quickly became the subject of talk shows and Websites. It was held up as evidence of the Globe’s anti- Americanism, it’s desire to bring down Bush or to discredit the troops.” The ombudsman writes, “I think that criticism is off the mark.” Well, that’s a denial. That’s (laughter). That’s a denial. “I think that criticism is off the mark.” (laughter)

This is to make you think the ombudsman is serious, and studious, and considering actively your charge that they may be anti-Bush, anti-American, and pro-Kerry. “I think that’s off the mark.” And you’re supposed to go, “Oh, OK, well thank you for considering my charge. I’m now going to move on and have some Scotch.”

“I think that criticism is off the mark,” wrote the ombudsman, “yet the error could not have come at a worse time. Emotions about Iraq were running high, even before the beheading of Nicholas Berg. But the Berg story shared the May 12 paper with the inappropriate photo” – fake photo. Not “inappropriate,” fake. “– only made things worse. Some readers called the firing of various Globe editors – called for the firing of various Globe editors. The editor said, ‘We’re not firing

21 MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/14/04

anybody. What will happen is, conversations with staffers about following proper procedure.’”

But fire Rumsfeld. Get rid of Rumsfeld because it goes to the top. But you readers of The Boston Globe, shut up. And just – just consider yourself lucky that we gave our ombudsman an additional column today to address your haughty concerns. How dare you accuse us of anti-Americanism, anti-Bushism, and pro-Kerryism. We think that’s of the mark.

Who’s next on the – Christie in Fort Lauderdale, welcome to the EIB Network. Nice to have you with us.

CHRISTIE: Hi, yes, Rush. I am calling to offer my sincere apologies. I called last week about on Tuesday, right after you had agreed with the previous caller about it being compared to –

RUSH: Skull and Bones.

CHRISTIE: – a college prank.

RUSH: Yeah, the college hazing, the fraternity initiation.

CHRISTIE: Right. So I have to say, I am so sorry because my co-worker, right after we heard that it was on the Internet, the photo - the video of the –

RUSH: Nick Berg?

CHRISTIE: – Berg being decapitated. I could – I sat in front of her desk, and as she clicks it on, I started to watch it up until the point where, you know, I just –

RUSH: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

CHRISTIE: And instead I watched her expression, because I knew in my spirit I wouldn’t be able to take it. I watched her expression as the blood left her face and she grabbed her stomach and started to cry. I thought, I was just in such shock and such – you know – disgust, and she described it verbatim what was happening. And then I felt such guilt after I knew I had talked to you and told you I agreed with you almost 100% of the time, and now I’m – I have to say I agree with you 100%.

The things that have gone on, and from what we’ve seen in the prison, the Abu prison, there’s been no comparison. And for the media to just be continuously showing the naked prisoners instead of showing at least the still of Berg sitting in front of those terrorists, it’s just appalling, and I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.

22 MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA RUSH LIMBAUGH WORKING TRANSCRIPT 05/14/04

RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. It – understandable. The Berg video is – you know, it – hearing it, if you just listen to it, that’s all you have to do. It doesn’t take long, but if you listen to it, it’s – it’s every bit as chilling. Well, not every – it’s close. You can imagine, because you know what’s happening when you hear it, so you’re able to – you’re able to create a mental image if you don’t watch it while you hear it. But it does put things in perspective, which is all I ever ask for.

And I – back on that day, May 4th was last – was Tuesday, a week ago Tuesday, and that’s when the first series of photos came out. They had three or four of them, and they all were the – they were just – the pyramid, the – Lynndie England with the cigarette dangling from her mouth pretending she had a gun, and naked Iraqis standing there. And we had this – the black robe and hood with the wires and so forth. And pretty – you know, two hours and 59 minutes of my program, we talked about how surprised and shocked we were, Americans would engage in this kind of behavior, how bad it was.

A caller calls in, it looks like college initiation, I say yes, Skull and Bones. That gets reported. All the context and all of the criticism of the people was left out.

But what the point was made on that first day, was a point that I’ll – that I’ve continued to make and I’ll make again now. That is, yeah, it was bad, but we fix it, and we move on and we don’t hamper ourselves, we don’t tie our hands behind our back, oh, because of guilt over this. We don’t say that those who engaged in this at that prison represent all of us or all our military. We keep it where it was. We keep it on the people who did it. We deal with them. We fix the problem, and we move on because we’ve got a war to win, and we cannot bother hampering all of the people in uniform over there whose lives remain on the line.

And that’s exactly what we’ve done. We’ve taken these photos, and we try to tar and feather every American, all the way up to the President, tar and feather Rumsfeld, tar and feather everybody in the military and – from the same people who say they support the troops, give them one opportunity to dump on the troops, and they will take it.

All of this that I just said to you was said last Tuesday along with the Skull and Bones comment. And all of that was left out. So I appreciate your call, Christie. Thanks very much.

We’ll be back and resume right after this.

(station break)

RUSH: The home of Ted Kennedy and the DNC. If there’s anyplace I should be, it’s right here. Rush Limbaugh on Boston’s WRKO, the talk station.

(music)

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RUSH: Having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, Rush Limbaugh from firmly ensconced behind the golden EIB microphone. We come to you today from the prestigious Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.

The New York Post has a story on the Abu Ghraib jail, the prison, and here’s their headline: “Sick Romps at Porny Prison.” “Iraq’s feared Abu Ghraib jail was one big sex romp, sometimes by candlelight with an audience watching,” US troops said yesterday. “Sex and alcohol were commonplace.” Adult beverages. “Soldiers frequently set up candlelit rooms for voyeuristic sex shows,” said a soldier who served at the notorious prison. Dave Bischell, National Guardsman with the 870th Military Police Unit, got home from Iraq said, “There were lots of affairs. There was all kinds of adultery and alcoholism, all kinds of crap going on.” Hmm.

“There was a bed found in one of the abandoned buildings. There was a mattress on the ground. They had chairs all circled around it and candles all over the place, adding that the chairs were obviously for an audience. Some in the audience could possibly have had cameras. The soldier said the X-rated liaisons at the prison were made easier by its maze-like layout and that other troops frequently turned a blind eye to what their pals were up to. Terry Stowe, an MP from California, said “Yeah, one of the female soldiers supposedly had sex in a gang bang. From time to tome things like this would happen.”

“From time to time things like this would happen.” News of the shocking sexcapades in the controversial lock-up came as a friend of disgraced reservist Lynndie England lashed out at her defense yesterday, saying tapes of her having sex in the prison were personal to her and the boyfriend with whom she is in love.

Well, you know, you laugh, but we do have some privacy violations here when it comes to courts-martial. That – that’s why there’re not showing any more of these pictures. You know that’s the reason. It’s not because these guys are so offended by them, these Senators. It’s because – it’s because there – there is a – you can’t – you can’t prejudge guilt. “And the pictures might offer somebody the opportunity to do that. Congress members who viewed the shocking new pictures of abuse in the jail, said that England appeared in a sicko video having sex in front of prisoners at the prison and that she was snapped in graphic sex acts with other US soldiers.

“But one family friend insisted the racy reservist had sex only with her boyfriend, Charles Grainer, one of six others from the 372nd Military Police Company facing charges for the abuse, and that the pair are madly in love.” All right. What is this, seven people? We had more plagiarists than that in journalism that have – and guess what? The Editor of the – of the UK Daily Mirror, Pierce Morgan, has just resigned. Sky News is reporting this. Sky News is the – Great Britain’s version of Fox. And – so – so you know – we – we – we’ve lost another scalp in mainstream media. Pierce Morgan, editor of The Daily Mirror out over publishing fake photos.

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These fake photos were said to be British troops engaging in this – in these sordid practices.

So basically seven people here, if that’s how it ends up. Of course the conspirious – conspiracy theorists – ahh, there’re more than seven. Bush and Rumsfeld were there. They were there. Powell was even there. Ahh, they all had to be there. But these people are being made to take the fall for Halliburton. You just never know.

The – I think – no – I think – no, I don’t think Halliburton sponsored the sex romps, I think Halliburton will distribute the porn video. But you just know that – that – that Halliburton’s involved. Well, they got to recoup some of the money they’re losing because they can’t charge what they want to for gasoline because of the low prices coming out of Kuwait.

A quick time out. We’ll be back in just a second. Stay –

RUSH: You are tuned to the most listened to radio talk show in America – in history. This is the Rush Limbaugh program. Here we combine two separate distinct approaches into one package not found anywhere else in the media. Serious discussion of issues and irreverent humor with credibility on both sides.

ANNOUNCER: Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida via New York City, it’s Open Line Friday.

RUSH: And the final hour is upon us. This again, Open Line Friday, bring up whatever you want, folks. You got a question, or a comment? It doesn’t have to be about the news of the day. And if you think things have not been discussed on this program that need to be, or if you have a question about something, something you think you ought to understand and you want to understand it, this is the time to go for it. You have a simple question or comment about whatever, make tracks. Telephone number 800-282-2882, and the e-mail address is [email protected].

I, in fact, ladies and gentlemen, myself, am going to sort of wonder off of the issue-of-the day reservation. I mean, we’ve done the prison photos, we’ve done Kerry, we’ve done – and we will continue to, if you want to talk about it. But I got so many things that have added up here – mounted up in the stack that would qualify as light-hearted, or not right down the middle in terms of all these hot blood issues that have everybody worked up.

I found a story yesterday – a Reuters story that just – it boggles my mind. It – it literally boggles my mind on practically every level. Let me give you the headline.

“World Bank Corruption May Top $100 billion.” Now – I – how long has this been – ? Do you know what – the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, these are all institutions funded primarily with your tax dollars to give American money

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away to dictators, thugs, third-world countries, ostensibly, in some cases, to go for the poor. And now this place is an absolute mess.

And it’s my contention that is always has been. My contention, anytime you put this big a pile of money in front of a bunch of people, it’s going to get corrupt, it’s going to get stolen, it’s going to end up in places it was never intended to.

You’ve got the UN Oil for Food Program – and I’m going to tell you what, I’ve about had it up to here with all these calls from people who are responsible for not watching over the IMF or the World Bank. No oversight, or the UN Oil for Food Program, wanting to run Donald Rumsfeld out of public life. The greatest Secretary of Defense we’ve ever had, or one of the greatest. George Bush out of the White House.

Listen to this – listen to this story. “’Corrupt use of World Bank Funds may exceed $100 billion. And while the institution has moved to combat the problem, more must be done,’ said the chairmen of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday. Senator Richard Luger, an Indiana Republican charged that, “in it’s starkest terms, corruption has cost the lives of uncounted individuals contending with poverty and disease.”

At the very least that’s what’s happened here. “He commended, however” – “he commended the President of the World Bank for bringing greater attention to the issue, but said, ‘corruption remains a serious problem.’” Well the – the president of the World Bank is a Washington elitist insider named James Wolfensohn. This guy is as insider powerful, left-wing as you can get. He totally escapes any responsibility. He runs this show. He’s been running the World Bank for I don’t know how long. And he, in this story of $100 billion worth of corruption, is being commended for telling us about it.

Now, I don’t want to come off here as one of these always suspicious of government institution type kooks. Because – I mean, they exist out there, you know who they are and all, but this, in light of everything else going on, this guy gets a pass. We’re even – I mean, we’re making a show of it, but there’s some at least pretense to get to the bottom of the Oil for Food Program. This guy’s being commended. This Wolfensohn guy’s being commended – because he throws good parties, he has a nice place out in Vale or Aspen or Colorado somewhere.

Got to hear people talk about this guy’s house. “Do you know that there’s not one right angle in it” – I’ve heard this from I don’t know how many people who just salivate over this James Wolfensohn guy. I’ll be out in Eagle, Colorado playing golf, and, “oh, yeah, you’ve got to see Wolfensohn’s place, not one right angle. Every piece of wood chopped down from the forest.” “Really? Is that right? Not one right angle, amazing.” “Yeah, it’s a manufacturing marvel.”

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And there’s a bunch of people want to get invited over there – apparently throws good parties. I think Wolfensohn – he might have had something to do with the Kennedy Center at one time in Washington. Don’t quote me on that, but – just think PBS times 50,000. Be commended? He’s – he’s been there long enough to have had, maybe, a role in this. This is just – this boggles the mind. A $100 billion.

They’re treating this like fraud in the Medicare program. “Well, there’s some waste out there, but we can’t find it. A $100 billion, Rush, come on” – get real, do you know how much money the World Bank deals with? “Rush, this is no more than what you would pay for a shirt. Don’t so – go so crazy about – 100 billion is a 100 billion,” yeah.

I don’t care where you are, $100 billion is a lot of money. There’s not one of us that wouldn’t take it. And for this to be glossed over – this whole story is surreal. This story is, giving everything else going on, this is surreal.

“Luger opened a hearing on corruption at the multilateral development banks, the first public examination on an ongoing Senate investigation. He cited experts who calculated that between $26 billion and a $130 billion of the money lent to the World Bank for development projects has been misused since 1946.

“In 2003, the Bank distributed $18.5 billion to developing countries.” This ends up as dead-set giveaways. There’s some – there’s some silly notion that these are loans, but of course, we loan money to people who have no money in the first place, and not going to get any money since they’re being given money. And to think they’re going to give back the money we’re giving them in the first place – what idiots! Some of us are. Not me.

But, I mean, we’re loaning? You imagine loaning Idi Amin Dada some money when he ran Uganda. You think we’re going to get it back? Do you think it’s going to go to his starving dead people?

“Jeffery Winters, an associate professor at Northwestern University, said his research suggested corruption wasted about $100 billion of World Bank funds, and when other multi-lateral development banks are included, the total rises to about $200 billion.” Multi-lateral development banks?

“Damian Milverton, a bank spokesmen, later disputed the $100 billion estimate, insisting it has no basis in fact. ‘We completely reject that figure offered by one of the panelist as an estimate of funding from the World Bank that might have been misused.’ Winters testified” – this is the spokesmen again – not Winters, Winters is associate professor at Northwestern – “he testified the World Bank’s anti- corruption was having minimal effects, and the bank – so they’re in charge of their own corruption? They’re in charge of fixing their own corruption?

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All right. You know, I want to retire. This is where I want to go. I want to go where I can build a house with no right angles, have people rave over it. Fresh wood from the forest right behind the house will go into building it. I want to be able to throw fabulous parties with all the right people, be praised, and get my hands on this money the World Bank, and when there’s corruption be praised reporting it up. What a gig! Back in just – I am serious under-appreciated.

(station break)

RUSH: It’s Open Line Friday, Rush Limbaugh, the happiest, and the most optimistic figure in American media today. Even when I’ve worn out.

A little – little – little program note, just to remind you, I’m not going to be here on Monday. I’m going to go try to play golf. Joe Burt – Joe Buck’s annual charity tournament in St. Louis, it’s one – for Children’s Hospital. Chris Collingsworth is going to be there as he was last year. Nice as he could be to me last year, but that was before the McNabb comment. He made all those idiotic comments on FOX telecasts about how stupid I was. So I can’t wait to run into him and ask him who was writing his scripts.

Oh, folks, have you – have you been watching television? The biggest John Kerry rally I have ever seen. It’s in Havana. It’s being led by Fidel Castro. There must be 100,000 people walking along the road there in Havana, along the shoreline. It is a huge rally. It is – it’s – I haven’t seen this kind of a display for a Democratic candidate since Elian Gonzales. Well, yeah, it has to be a Kerry rally, he says it’s an anti-American rally, it’s Castro leading an anti-American rally and everything there – everybody was there but Kerry. Huge, huge folks.

At any rate. You remember back in, I forget, I guess it’s ’93 or ’94, I forget which, but Bill Clinton flying into St. Louis on Air Force One, and was doing an interview with their morning show and called them up, and starting complaining about me, that there’s no truth detector, that I have three hours everyday to say what I want to say and nobody responds to it. The President of the United States complaining about it.

Well, KMOX in St. Louis, which is our official broadcast affiliate there, asked me, “So you’re going to be in St. Louis, how about doing an interview at 10 ‘til eight on Monday. I said, “Well, can’t do it. Because I’m not going to be there yet. I’m going to be on my way there. I’m not touching down until about 9:00. This thing doesn’t start until 10:30, so – that’s when – that’s when the match for the t-off time is. So I’m going to be touching down about 10:00.

We got the idea, how about if I call you from EIB One at 10 ‘til eight, and we will recreate the Bill Clinton phone call from Air Force One? So that’s (laughter) – that’s what we’re going to do. Oh, I don’t know what they’re going to ask me, so I

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don’t know if I’m going to complain about anything. I may not be complaining about anything.

I’m sure they want to talk to me about Buck’s tournament. And – I always get, “why are you coming? (laughter) Why are you doing this?” (laughter) As though it’s odd that I would be associated with a charity in some people’s mind. But nevertheless, no I don’t – I don’t know what I’m going to complain about. I – I’m – I don’t complain. I am not a whiner. I’m surprised you’d ask me about that. I might do my Clinton impersonation. So that’s – that’s on tap on Monday in St. Louis.

In fact, we’ll try to get – we can do this, we’ll get an mp3 that will put on the website on Monday. We’ll have this interview. We hope to get some photos out of this golf tournament, too, for the Website as well. So I just wanted you to be aware of that.

Patrick in Nashville, Tennessee. Hi, sir, welcome to the EIB network.

PATRICK: Hi, Rush, it’s good to talk to you.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

PATRICK: I’m a – I’m a supporter of President Bush, but I just want to say that I think the events of the past week, mainly the execution of Nick Berg, I hope that they don’t – it doesn’t prove to be a turning point in this election in favor of John Kerry. Ah, but just – it’s just – I’m becoming – although I’m a Bush supporter, my support is starting to erode.

RUSH: Why would your support for Bush start to erode because of what happened to Nick Berg?

PATRICK: What I explained to your screener was, one thing I don’t understand is this guy Zarqawi, who they say has committed the murder himself.

RUSH: Yes.

PATRICK: He has a – he has a $10 million bounty on head.

RUSH: Yes.

PATRICK: He’s the most wanted terrorist in Iraq. Now the administration tells us we can’t find every single one so quickly, because Iraq’s the size of California, and there are 25 million people. Yet, we can put a civilian over there, an American like Nick Berg, and some how Zarqawi can manage to find him and have him brought to him just like that. So it makes me wonder who’s run – really running the country, and how many – I just think the President –

RUSH: Wait a minute, wait a minute. Hold it. Hold it – who’s running what country?

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PATRICK: Iraq. It’s – I mean, I don’t – how can an American civilian be over there and just like that Zarqawi can have this guy sought out and brought to him when there’s a $10 million on Zarqawi’s head?

RUSH: We don’t know that Zarqawi sought the guy out and found him. We – we’re – in fact what we’re learning about this mudding the waters and deepening the mystery. And I’m a little reluctant to start talking about all of this because of the family grief.

And I know a lot of people out there are willing to – are getting very impatient with Nick Berg’s father. I know people, one particular person, who said the first day – I’m just going to tell you this. The first – this women said to me, there’s something strange about this man, meaning the father of Nick Berg. On the day this happened his reaction, something didn’t sit right with her. That it was too posed, that picture where he’ crying. And it started – it started soon, and I just – I kind of said, “well, interesting thing you think that,” backed off, didn’t take it anywhere.

But as time has gone on, this guy, we’ve learned the father’s a big anti-war activist, has been for a long time, and is now, in some people’s minds, Nick Berg’s father is attempting to exploit his own son’s death for his personal political viewpoint. That’s what some people think.

You know, I – I’m still am of the impression – I can’t imagine – I don’t care what kind of family this is. I don’t – I don’t – without even knowing any details to me, it is still too soon to start dumping on people. I just can’t relate to the kind of grief that these people must be going through.

And I – I’m going to, you know, hold back here because the last thing I would expect of myself is to be totally rational 100% of the time in the midst of the aftermath of something like this. So, I don’t – I – I’m still not comfortable in dumping, if that’s the term, on Mr. Berg, but even though some people already are.

But I’ve got to tell you something, Patrick, and I’m just going to be very honest here. My intelligence guided by experience. When people call here and say, “I’m a supporter of George Bush,” I immediately start thinking seminar caller. Because we, on this program, myself and our audience, we’ll know who somebody is a supporter of Bush or not, just by virtue of what they say.

And so you may not be a seminar, you may be, but – you – I guess your point is that Iraq is basically lawless if people like Zarqawi run – run – run the town, or run – rule the roost or so forth, and that this is going to end up hurting Bush. I want to go back to our previous caller a half hour ago who said we’ve got expectations here that are way above normal. People are too in – everything happens in 30 or 60 minutes here in this countries in television. Solutions to problems happen fast. There has been a total loss of historical perspective.

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Read William Safire in the New York Times today. I mentioned this early in the program, but you might want to go do that, Patrick, because he says, “while nobody’s looking, we’re about to win Najaf because this – these holy roller clowns in that town – do you know that – the press says every Iraq city is a holy town of this or that. The holy town of Musharraff, the holy town of Omar Sheriff, the holy town of this – the holy town of Najaf. They’re all holy towns. But the – the – the mullah that runs this place, the townsfolk want him gone and we are seeing – we’re very quietly wining.

That’s why my point at the beginning of the program, our troops are winning. We are making profound progress in this country, and you cannot – you cannot think that we’re not just because a terrorist does what a terrorist does and has been doing for years. Arabs have been beheading each other since the 12th Century. And now they are starting to behead us. But I disagree with your contention. I don’t think that it means that Bush is – not this act alone.

(station break)

RUSH: That’s what we do. We think here, ladies and gentlemen, as well as recognize our feelings. But we think. We make the complex understandable. Rush Limbaugh, and Open Line Friday to Tallahassee, Florida. This is James. Welcome, sir. Nice to have you on the program.

JAMES: Well, good afternoon. And NASCAR (inaudible; garbled). I’m going to get right to the point of the question. Why did you pick that Pretenders song to be your opening song on all your – at the top of the hour?

RUSH: I’ll be glad and tell you that, but I’m – I’m inclined to ask, do you not like it?

JAMES: I love the song. Every time I hear on the rock ‘n roll stations up here, I’m like, “is that going to be Rush Limbaugh?” But no, it’s just the song going there.

RUSH: OK. I’m glad you like it. Here’s – this is – this is how this happened. I arrived in Sacramento, California in 1984, what turned out to be my big break. Although I didn’t know it at the time. In my mind it was my last chance. If it didn’t work I was going to – who knows what. And when I got out there – all of my years in radio before I’d never had a theme song. That’s what they did in the 40’s and 50’s. You know, Al Hurt music leading into the hour. I’ve never – I didn’t – never heard of a theme song.

But this place, KMPK demanded a theme song. What do you – what do you – ? What, I’ve got nothing against Al Hurt, you know, Whip Cream or whatever the – I love Al Hurt, but this – I’d just never heard of theme songs. And I was a DJ. They didn’t have theme songs. You came out at the top of the hour with a hit. You

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didn’t play theme songs, and they’re demanding theme songs, and I didn’t – and it was just a format requirement.

So I could not have cared less what it was, because to me a theme song was just something to get out of the way and get on with the program. So they picked one for me and it was a lead in to “Who Will It Be Now.” No. It was some Men At Work song. “I come from a land down under, to-do-do to-do-do.” Whatever it was, there was no – no lyrics in it, but played it for a – and I – after a while I said, “This just doesn’t make any sense. I am a Conservative and this kind of music is beneath me.” So I said I was going to get something classical. Because that’s what the audience will expect. So I went out there and I got – I played a little Water Music by Handel as the theme song.

And reaction to that from the audience was – was interesting. Some of them thought that it was good, that is was representative of a good Conservative – back then, 1984, Conservative was thought to be, ah, William, ah, F. Buckley and Firing Line. That’s what Conservative was. So that’s what I thought I should duplicate.

And then after a while I said, “You know what? This is just too staid. This is – because I’m coming out of this with a lot of energy and Water Music by Handel.” And I – I was driving around one day, and – I had the radio on, some FM station, and I heard “My City Was Gone.” I had never heard it before. And I love driving, pulsating bass lines. Just love them.

And I heard that – and then when I had heard the lyrics – and I knew who the Pretenders where, Chrissie Hyndes – I mean, I have a long history with Chrissie. And – and I listened to the lyrics of the song and it was an anti-developer song. If you listen to “My City Is Gone,” it was basically Chrissie Hyndes, who left to go to England to play Rock ‘n Roll, came back home, and they had gotten rid of her farm and put a shopping mall there. She was all upset that they turned great Ohio farm land into capitalist enterprising malls.

And so she writes this song just ripping about how her town was gone, Cuyahoga Falls and this sort of stuff. And so this is for me. I’m going to really tweak Conservatives. So I’m going to play this driving, pulsating bass beat instead of Water Music by Handel. And then if anybody ever goes and buys this song and finds out it’s an anti-developer song, meaning pro-liberal, it would really just confuse them.

So it was a little tweaking, a little fun, because I primarily liked – I liked the music. And then we’ve had running battles with the – with Chrissie – well, not Chrissie. Chrissie doesn’t care. But there was a time when her publishing company was going to deny us the use of the song because they don’t like me. But Chrissie was on an FM station in St. – in New York, WPLJ, and they asked her about it during a conference, and she said, “Oh, no I don’t care. My parents love Rush Limbaugh. I

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could – I can’t stand him but my parents like them.” And this was right in the middle of the argument.

And so we sent a tape of Chrissie to her publishing company saying, “hey, she doesn’t care.” They were telling us that she didn’t want me to use it. So, now we’ve got worldwide, forever, infinite rights to it thanks to Chrissie herself. So that’s – that’s how it came about. And now it’s just – it’s just – you know, I like it. I sometimes just sit down and listen to the whole song.

Chrissie is a unique talent. She is a – she’s a unique sultry voice. Because I use to – it’s on the profit system in there with the – yeah, we got the – you have – can you get it off the profit system, Mike? Do you have our playlist there? Yeah, he’s – he got it. Have you not heard “My City is Gone?” You – you haven’t listened to the lyrics? Oh, you have got to listen to the lyrics, if you can understand them. You got to understand now, this is a – this is sultry rock ‘n roll with Chrissie Hyndes and the Pretenders.

You shouldn’t have any trouble with this. Let me know – you’re still looking. Well, it’s – all you have to do is go to the profit center and just enter M and you’ll get all the songs that are M. And then put Y for MY, and you’ll get My, and there aren’t too many songs with My. It is just a computer search here. Maybe they don’t have it in their profit system up there. Let me – go ahead and take another phone call while they’re looking for it. That is the answer, James. Ken in Allen Park, Michigan. Welcome to the program.

KEN: Rush, what do you think of a separate Kurdistan?

RUSH: You mean portioning Iraq?

KEN: Right. I was thinking, everything seems to be going well there. Everything’s under control. And I was just – you know, if we could, you know, start there as a smaller democracy. Plus –

RUSH: Well, that’s – you know, it’s – it really – the Kurds – the problem with that is Turkey. Turkey does not want a separate Kurdistan. Turkey is a huge ally. And Turkey is scared of these people. Turkey is – it’s not these people. Turkey just – the Kurds are a very powerful group of people. They’re unified, and they are peace-loving people. And they’ve suffered their own abuses at the hands of Saddam Hussein.

KEN: The Baathists. Yeah.

RUSH: Pardon me?

KEN: Yeah, the Baathists were the one who where gassing them, right? Saddam’s regime.

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RUSH: Yeah, the Baathists. Saddam’s Baathists are the one – are the ones that gassed them. You know, he’s – the Kurds are the ones they used chemical weapons on. That’s when you hear – it said, he used chemical weapons on his own people. It was – it was the Kurds.

That’s a – it’s – it’s a – that’s a tough diplomatic issue, not – not so much because of Iraq, although there are a lot of complications there, but because it involves Turkey. See the – the – I think, now I am going to have to double-check this. I think the Kurds actually consider themselves to be entitled to part of Turkey, do they not? The – they’re going – I know they’ll forgo it right now. I mean, but – but – but the Turks are not going to believe that. I mean, the Turks are not going to believe that the Kurds – it – it’s – you know, I’m reminded of Rodney King. You know? Why can’t we all get along? (laughter)

It – it just – it really is – it comes down to being amazing. When you really stop, why are there people who want to live the way the way they do in the world? And why are there people who put up with the way they have to live? It – it – and most of them don’t have any choice. They’re living under dictator thugs. And – and this kind of thing. It’s just – it’s – it’s – look it. Have you seen? You know, North Korea finally sent – allowed some pictures out after the big train wreck.

North Korea’s one of the most backward, archaic, dinosauric (sic.) civilizations on the planet. And they’re a very closed society. This little pot-bellied dictator over there, Kim Jong-Il runs this place with just – iron fist doesn’t even begin describe it.

But they sent some pictures out because they’re incapable of – of repairing this train track, of this route there. They’re incapable of repairing any of the damage. They don’t have an economy – they don’t – the pictures of Koreans, North Koreans trying to clean up the mess, they’re using tools from the 12th Century. They don’t have hammers. They’re using wooden picks, ox carts, or some kind of beasts carrying carts. It was – it’s the most amazing thing.

And – and – you – I know this instinctively, and I know that a lot of the world, maybe not the 12th Century, but a lot of the world stuck two or 300 years ago, and these clowns in the Middle East want to go back to the 12th Century.

And you look at the – this is why I have such an appreciation for this country, and why I just can’t get over how so many people take it for granted. Maybe because they’re born in this country, they’ve never known anything else. But the prosperity, and the – the ease of life here. I mean, just the psychical of life, getting around, getting up, sleeping, having shelter.

All these basics, which we think are entitlements and we – we – we seek to build even nicer accommodations for ourselves. Around the world, there are people who are

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still living under straw, if they’re lucky to have that. And that is why I get so perplexed when I hear these anti-American types in our own country. People born in this country that hate it. And don’t like it. And consider us the evil of the modern world.

And it may be they’re perverted, and they look at people that live in the 12th, 14th century or thereabouts, and think it’s our fault, because we’ve stolen all of the resources that these people would have on their own if it were not for us and our selfishness, and I think they do think that. But they’re perverted.

They’re perverted – there is a way to spread this to the rest of the world, but you got to get rid of these tyrannical, dictatorial communist governments, and you have to bring free enterprise markets to these – to these countries, where people can, as individuals, pursue excellence without restrictions and without shackles. And so many people in this world are shackled and imprisoned in their own cities, towns, countries and homes. And we don’t even – you know, we just take what we have here for granted.

And then, what – what makes me even more in awe is when given the prosperity in this country that we have, given all of the – the niceties, the pleasantries, the pleasures, the thrill-seeking opportunities, all of the things here that represent the greatest quality of life on earth, there are still people in this country who will leave it and go die for it. And it is – it is just – I’m – I’m in awe of it every time I think of it.

That is why when I see these prison pictures from Abu Ghraib, I cringe at the idea that there are actually Americans who want to cast all members of the military in the same shadow as those guards in the prison that committed all these atrocities. It offends me and it makes me mad, because there are people that are trying to tear down the greatness of this country.

And part of the greatness of this country is that there are people who volunteer to go endure hardships that you and I will never know, risk their lives so that all the rest of us can sit here in bliss, and just pursue our lives, either aware of what is going on in the rest of the world, or not, doesn’t matter. And they are 18-to-24-years old, or in some cases older. It is just mind-boggling to me.

And I – it is all brought back home again when I some of these pictures out of North Korea. You wouldn’t believe them – I – I – I just saw them on television. It was just, maybe a week ago. And I’m just sitting there. I mean, I knew it instinctively. I know it’s a backward, communist country, but they have – there’s no hope. The people in that country cannot possibly have hope.

The things they hope for you would be insulted if you were told you had to face them everyday. The things they hope for are things that you’ve never had to undergo, endure, or experience. That’s what they hope for. And – and – and that there are

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people in this country who will – will volunteer to go to places like that for those people. And there – right now it’s Iraq and Afghanistan. It leaves me in awe.

And that’s why I respect and love them so much. That’s why I cannot stand when a bunch of charlatan bigots in the Senate, or the House, or anywhere else in this country try to cast them all in a negative light because of a few of them. It – it’s almost intolerable to me.

We found the song. We’ll play it – a little bit of just, so that you will get a flavor of it when we come back. Stay with us. Do not go away.

(station break)

RUSH: All right, we’ll play enough of the Pretenders, My City Was Gone. Mr. Snerdley has made a – a personal love-line request for this. Who do you want to dedicate it to, Mr. Snerdley? Jennifer – just a second, I want to grab this call. Jennifer in Shreveport, Louisiana. Hi, welcome to open line Friday.

JENIFER: I can’t believe I got through. This is great. This is exciting. I wanted to thank you. Well, I can thank you for many things, but I wanted to thank you for something you talked about around, I guess it was around Christmas, and that was about the – I’m a little nervous – the 30-somethings who still lived at home.

RUSH: Yeah.

JENIFER: Yeah. I had an opportunity – I was thinking about making the break myself. I mean, I’d gone away to school, and made some bad financial choices, worked away in another state. And I came back and lived with mom and dad for a good while. But what you had to say about that gave me the nudge to push me over the line, and I struck out and now I rent my own home.

RUSH: Where you – where you living at home in your 30’s?

JENIFER: Yeah, I will be 34 on Sunday.

RUSH: How long had you been living at home?

JENIFER: Well, actually I got – I got back – I graduated from Harding, by they way. I know you have some connections to some people there. I got back in the summer of ’95 and that’s how long. So quite a while.

RUSH: So you really – nine years you where living at home, or eight years you where living at home.

JENIFER: Yeah, yeah.

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RUSH: So this program provided the impetus for you to move out. What was it?

JENIFER: It really – it really did encourage me, because I thought, you know what, I’ve got to do this. And there’s some other circumstances that made it a good move anyway, made it really a perfect move, but –

RUSH: Yeah, because now you can take a guy home.

JENIFER: Yeah. Right! (laughter) But, actually I do a lot of church stuff over there. And – it just – it’s allowing me to do a lot of the things that I didn’t have the freedom to do. I mean, my parents were all really close, so it wasn’t an unamicable move or anything, but it was – it was the right thing to do. And I work extra jobs, you know, but I figured, man, if I’m working these extra jobs, I need to be my own woman about this.

RUSH: Well, congratulations, I’m happy to hear this. I – you know – you – it doesn’t sound like you where shamed. It sounds like you were inspired.

JENIFER: Oh, yeah, yeah. I really was.

RUSH: Well, congratulations. I think you are going to be happier. And I think you’re going to end up being more productive, and I think you are going to be more prosperous.

JENIFER: Well, I appreciate it. Now, it was great. And the guys are the ones that really need to pay attention to that. (laughter) But that was a sexist comment –

RUSH: See, now – now – now, that’s exactly it. Because now you’re on your own, and when you meet some guy, and he want to, “hey, let’s go back to my place.” You don’t want it to be his parent’s house. Right?

JENIFER: That’s right.

RUSH: That’s exactly – OK, look, I’ve got to run here, Jennifer. Thanks ever so much, I appreciate it. A special love-line request for Mr. Snerdley. I still don’t know to whom he wishes to dedicate this, but this is – we don’t have time to play whole thing, but you get a taste of “My City Was Gone” here, Chrissie Hyndes and the Pretenders. Now the intro here does not go as long as it does on the program, because we have edited – edited it to get about 45 more seconds than it normally goes. This is going to start here in a second singing. And here it is, coming up.

PRETENDERS: I went back to Ohio. But my city was gone. And there was no train station. There was no downtown.

RUSH: See anti-developer already.

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PRETENDERS: South Howard had disappeared. All my favorite places. My city had been pulled down. Reduced to parking spaces. A, oh, way to go, Ohio.

Oh, I went back to Ohio. But my family was gone.

RUSH: Buried under the parking places.

PRETENDERS: I stood on the back porch. There was nobody home.

(station break)

RUSH: The audience is telling me my mike was on during the first couple commercials in that break because they could hear me singing “My City Was Gone.” See you on Tuesday, my friends. Have a great weekend. Thanks, Brian.

END OF SHOW

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