RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Media Rush Limbaugh, pill popper

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October 3, 2003


THE NATION
Limbaugh Drug Addiction Alleged
Influential radio host is under investigation for buying thousands of pain pills, a tabloid reports. He says he is unaware of an inquiry.

By John-Thor Dahlburg, Times Staff Writer


MIAMI — One day after conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh resigned as an ESPN football analyst over controversial on-air comments, a weekly tabloid on Thursday reported that the national radio talk host was under investigation for allegedly buying addictive pain pills by the thousands on the black market.

In a statement released by Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates the popular "Rush Limbaugh Show," Limbaugh said he had no knowledge of the probe cited by the National Enquirer.

"I am unaware of any investigation by any authority involving me," Limbaugh, one of the best-known figures on America's airwaves, said. "No government representative has contacted me directly or indirectly. If my assistance is required, I will, of course, cooperate fully."

In this week's cover story, the Enquirer said that Limbaugh — a resident of the exclusive seaside community of Palm Beach, Fla. — had been battling narcotics addiction and was under investigation by the Palm Beach County state attorney's office for alleged involvement in a "drug ring." A prosecutor's spokesman reached by the Los Angeles Times refused comment.

"The office won't confirm or deny any active investigation or case we may have under review," spokesman Mike Edmondson said.

The New York Daily News said Thursday that it had independently confirmed the probe involving Limbaugh and reported that he had been turned in by his former housekeeper, who said she kept him supplied with pills for four years.

Wilma Cline reportedly told authorities that Limbaugh was hooked on the powerful prescription drugs OxyContin, Lorcet and hydrocodone; he had gone through detox twice, she said.

"There were times when I was worried," Cline was quoted as telling the Enquirer. "All these pills are powerful enough to kill an elephant, never mind a man."

Contacted by the Times, a Miami lawyer representing Cline and her husband said neither would have further comment.

"My clients stand behind the Enquirer story," attorney Ed Shohat said.

According to Cline's published account, she began illegally supplying pills to Limbaugh in 1998, nine months after going to work in his waterfront mansion. Initially, she said, the pills were painkillers prescribed for her husband, who had been hurt in a fall.

"To my astonishment, he [Limbaugh] said: "Can you spare a couple of them?" the Enquirer quoted Cline as saying.

When her husband's doctor stopped renewing the prescription, Cline told the tabloid, Limbaugh became furious. "He said: 'I don't care how or what you do, but you'd better get me some more." Cline said she found a new supplier.

At one point, Limbaugh reportedly told Cline he was going to New York for detox and wouldn't need any more pills. But a month later, according to the housekeeper, he said his left ear was hurting and asked for hydrocodone and OxyContin.

Limbaugh at the time suffered from a disease that eventually left him deaf; the condition was corrected two years ago when he had an electronic device surgically implanted in his skull.

Cline said Limbaugh told her that if word ever got out about his dependence on painkillers, "he would be ruined." She claimed in her published account that a lawyer for the radio star gave her a payoff — $80,000 Limbaugh owed her after she left her job in July 2001, plus another $120,000 — and asked her to destroy a computer that contained e-mails requesting new drug deliveries. Soon afterward, she and her husband retained Shohat and contacted prosecutors.

Late Wednesday, Limbaugh resigned from ESPN following a critical comment he made about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. Limbaugh had said McNabb was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed. The remark, made during ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown" show, touched off a firestorm of criticism.

On Thursday, Limbaugh, whose radio show is syndicated in more than 650 markets nationwide, said he resigned to protect employees of the sports network from any damage resulting from the controversy.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-rush3oct03,1,3637064.story?coll=la-news-a_section

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Originally posted by Kristogar Velo:
I think the "Amazing!" thing about this is that it was the National Enquirer that broke this story...

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Originally posted by the G-man:
Based on the dates this is alleged to have happened, even if this is accurate, the incidents occurred during a time that Limbaugh was said to be suffering through what was apparently an excruciatingly painful medical condition that caused him to lose his hearing and ultimately required surgery. Hardly a time when he was in his "right" (no pun intended) mind.

Taking joy in, or mocking, someone with such a painful condition is hardly liberal "tolerance" or "compassion"

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In 2001, hearing researchers reported that Vicodin and chemically similar painkillers were causing rapid hearing loss, even deafness, in some patients misusing the drug.

The same year, Limbaugh announced he had suffered a sudden and profound hearing loss.

Limbaugh says though that his ear condition was was caused by a rare ailment known as autoimmune inner ear disease.

I don't think I ever said I was taking joy in this, rather I said that perhaps conservatives will rethink their draconian stance on the drug issue as being exclusively a criminal issue. And judging from your compassion and understanding for Limbaugh, perhaps I was correct. :)

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Drug Policy Alliance Says Rush Limbaugh Should Not Face Criminal Prosecution For Alleged OxyContin Offenses]
Drug Misuse Should be Addressed in Doctor’s Office, Not Prison Cell

Alliance Calls on Limbaugh to Oppose Incarceration for Thousands

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With his heartland pieties and scorn for “feminazis” and “commie-symps” like “West Wing” president Martin Sheen (“Martin Sheenski” to Limbaugh), he is the darling of Red State, Fly-Over America.

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Al Franken (author of “Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot”) hit the airwaves to relish Limbaugh’s greatest hits of hypocrisy and his sneers at celebrity dopers like baseball player Darryl Strawberry and rocker Kurt Cobain, and virtually every newspaper dredged up this 1995 quote from Rush: “Too many whites are getting away with drug use. The answer is to ... find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them, and send them up the river.”

‘I Am Addicted to Prescription
Pain Medication’
True Confessions: Limbaugh built an army of admirers with his hard-right rants. But off-air, he was a lonely man who may have broken the law to feed his addiction. The real Rush

By Evan Thomas
NEWSWEEK

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Originally posted by whomod:
the criminal justice system doesn't make the distinction between a dealer and an addict. Both do the time

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Originally posted by DuplicateMan:
Rush on drug use: "I take full responsibilty for my actions"

Clinton on drug use: "I did not inhale"

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Bush had maintained that he should not feel compelled to respond to rumors or personal questions that harbor no relevance to his fitness for office.

In one 24-hour news cycle, however, Bush put himself on the slippery slope of slickly crafted answers. First he allowed that he had not used cocaine in seven years, then 15 years, then 25 years. This is no way to quell rumors. Now any specific drug-use allegation of the last 25 years will become fair game as a test of the Texas governor's veracity.

Yes, this selective proclamation of sanctity has a familiar ring. It is reminiscent of Bill Clinton's evasive responses when asked in the 1992 campaign whether he ever tried marijuana. First he denied breaking any U.S. drug laws, then he claimed he tried it in England, but did not inhale.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/08/21/ED20308.DTL

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POLITEX: BUSH HAS FIRST-TIMER MOTHER, 27, IN JAIL FOR TRACE AMOUNTS OF COCAINE.

Many Texans who believe Bush used coke before his 28th birthday must consider him an opportunistic hypocrite because he purposely proposed tightening up the drug laws for first-timers in order to win votes when he ran against Governor Ann Richards in 1994. That same year, with the state prisons overflowing, " Richards signed a new penal code whose provisions included automatic probation for first-time offenders caught with a recreational quantity of drugs," writes Michael Daly in Sunday's New York Daily News. Bush was at the time campaigning to get Richards' job, but both he and Richards declined to discuss if they ever used drugs. Bush "produced a survey of Harris County prosecutors that derided the law as "Penal Code Lite."...'Those on the front lines of criminal justice agree with me in describing the new penal code as a joke,' Bush said. 'This survey should give the governor a much needed reality check.' A news report noted that Bush 'told supporters that he thinks individuals must be held accountable for personal behavior.' He did his best to make everyone forget that Richards had doubled the time violent offenders served in prison and was leading the nation in executions. He continued to hammer her for being lite on crime right up to election day. As the new governor, Bush signed a new new penal code that ended automatic probation for first-time offenders," adds Daly.

Last Tuesday a "27-year-old mother of two... appeared as a first-time offender in the 230th District Court of Harris County. The woman had been in a car with two other people in Houston when the police rolled up and announced they were illegally parked. The police would later maintain that the woman made a 'furtive movement.' 'You touch your nose, it's a furtive movement,' says her attorney, Bob Scott. The police would contend that they only searched the car and its contents for their 'own protection.' A handbag in the backseat proved to contain a glass pipe. The pipe had no visible traces of drugs, and a New York cop would have just thrown it away. These Texas cops were determined to make it their business if she had taken cocaine. They submitted the suspect item to the lab....Yee hah! The lab reported that the pipe contained cocaine 'residue.'...The woman knew without asking that pleading none of your business was not an option. She took the eight months to be served in the prison system whose ultimate boss was busy seeking the Republican nomination for president"

"As the woman began her Texas-size sentence for residue, Bush was making some decidedly furtive motions about his own possible cocaine use." Daly reminds us that Bush's "refusal to address the issue directly made him seem too much like our current President. He also sounded like somebody of a social class where you can make your indiscretions without worrying about being rousted and searched on some pretext like illegal parking." As you know, Bush eventually implied and his spinners said that he hasn't used hard drugs between age 28 and the present. He said the purpose of telling that to reporters was to indicate that he could get a clearance for a top-level job in the Clinton White House. We've since learned that Bush's statement was not correct, since the present White House form requests the applicant to fess up to any drug use since his 18th birthday. Getting back to the woman, Bush at 28 "was one year older than the woman currently in jail for residue. She will finish learning from her mistake by next spring, and by then Bush might have discovered that all his campaign millions cannot make up for his failure to give one straight answer." 8/22/99


http://www.bushwatch.com/bushcoke.htm

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Compassionate conservatism at it's finest.

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Originally posted by the G-man:
Based on the dates this is alleged to have happened, even if this is accurate, the incidents occurred during a time that Limbaugh was said to be suffering through what was apparently an excruciatingly painful medical condition that caused him to lose his hearing and ultimately required surgery. Hardly a time when he was in his "right" (no pun intended) mind.

Taking joy in, or mocking, someone with such a painful condition is hardly liberal "tolerance" or "compassion"

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October 14, 2003


Patt Morrison:
Recent Conservative Outcry Reeks of Liberal Leanings

OK, let's get started. My friends, here is a tale you won't believe, but I'm not making this up.

You've all probably heard of this man — rich guy, famous guy, important friends, smart man, everything going for him. He made it big on the airwaves, making fun of people he doesn't like. Once, on TV, he says, "Did you know there's a White House dog?" and puts up a picture of Chelsea Clinton, 13 years old. A funny guy.

Now this man, who told millions of listeners eight years ago that "too many whites are getting away with drug use," that it's time to "convict them and send them up the river" — folks, I am quoting right there — this man now admits he is addicted to something they call hillbilly heroin, OxyContin. I think that's worth passing on.

All right — quick break.

Actually, the break will last about 30 days. That's how long radio host Rush Limbaugh says he'll be in rehab to break his addiction to pain pills. Or, if things go badly for Limbaugh in what he says is an official investigation, the break might go on for years, depending on prosecutors and Florida's sentencing guidelines.

Limbaugh's radio colleagues and myriad fans are pleading for tolerance and patience, asking people to please withhold their judgment until all the facts are in.

Why start now, guys?

The old saying is that a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged.

The new saying — because I just made it up — is that a liberal is a conservative who's been indicted. Iran-Contra leading man Oliver North — patriot, conservative, talk-show host — invoked that pinko 5th Amendment in that radical Bill of Rights, and when his felony conviction was overturned on what GOP Sen. John Warner called a "technicality," some incensed Republicans called Warner a traitor for saying so.

On the same 1995 show when Limbaugh demanded that more white people go to prison for drug use, he said this about crime: " this country appears to be tolerant, forgive and forget You go out and commit the worst murder in the world and you just say you're sorry We're becoming too tolerant, folks."

You know how it goes, Mr. Limbaugh: One man's tolerance is another man's justice.

If worse comes to worst, I wonder which Limbaugh would find more intolerable: doing hard time, or getting leniency and a suspended sentence from one of those liberal judges he's railed about?


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The Limbaugh news was the perfect coda to a California governor's election that was short on news but long on entertainment.

Limbaugh demurs that he's a showman, a talk-show host, not a journalist.

That's true. He's never put in the reporter's shoe-leather of Journalism 101, covering a fire, interviewing zoning commissioners, reporting on a trial, never had to write an obituary or follow the tedious paper trail of a fraud. "Entertainer" is good cover for hyperbole and error — even "mendacity," as former Michigan Republican Gov. William Milliken once characterized the Limbaugh set.

The entertainers declare that what they do isn't news at all. Yet the ranks of people who say they get their "news" from entertainment shows is on the rise, which is like trying to get your daily protein requirement by eating a hundred peanut butter cookies.

Arnold Schwarzenegger knew this when he booked himself not on hard-news interviews, but on the sets of congenial chat-shows (Larry King), of comedy (Jay Leno), of friends (Oprah Winfrey).

Why did Schwarzenegger get a solo, and not the other 134 candidates?

Partly because broadcast's fairness doctrine, instituted in 1949 to make sure reasonable opposing views get aired, was abandoned in 1987 — just before Limbaugh inaugurated the Age of Rant Radio.

Congress has tried to restore the doctrine, but Limbaugh fans, among others, swamped Congress with protests. (I'm puzzled: If the broadcast media are so liberal, wouldn't the fairness doctrine be a good thing, because it would force them to air the other side?)

And candidate Schwarzenegger was free to appear on Howard Stern's louche radio show because the FCC declared Stern's to be a "bona fide news interview program," and thus not obligated to invite the other 134 candidates to be interviewed about news issues, like their policies on lap-dancing.

The L.A. Times wrote dozens of critical stories about Gray Davis' pathological fund-raising, his cronyism with contributors and pay-for-play politics. I pointed out that the most dangerous real estate in California was between Gray Davis and a campaign contribution.

But The Times wrote about Schwarzenegger's vulgar gropings, prompting the candidate to confess to treating women badly, and oh my, suddenly talk radio rushed to defend this poor, world-famous millionaire from the wicked, wicked press.

A colleague at a children's birthday party in Woodland Hills on Sunday found himself defending The Times' story. One woman cut him short with a wave of the hand: "It's not that I don't believe the allegations. I'm sure they're true. And he's probably done worse. I just don't care."

Voters don't have to care. But they are obliged as voters to know, which is why this paper wrote about Davis' money-mongering, too, and why it joined the conservative American Spectator magazine in breaking the Bill Clinton "Troopergate" sex story, and on and on. (Just where do you think the comics get the raw material for their Davis and Clinton and Schwarzenegger jokes? They pay their four bits and buy a newspaper, that's where.)

Limbaugh and his radio empire will survive his confession. Schwarzenegger did. William Bennett, author of "The Book of Virtues" and "The Death of Outrage," the man who gambled reported millions compulsively, 'fessed up and is still on the rubber-rooster circuit. Lawrence Kudlow, who was Ronald Reagan's chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget, acknowledged in the 1990s that he was a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, and he's got a show on CNBC. Just about the only difference between their vices and Bill Clinton's seems to be that it's not whether you do it, but that you confess to it.

If Howard Stern's show really is news, then perhaps I've got to reassess my career priorities. Maybe I'll give up this gig and do something big, something that matters, something that really influences the hearts and minds of millions upon millions of Americans.

I think I'll draw a comic strip.

click me.

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Now, a Real Drug Challenge

Millions of "dittoheads" around the country will be in withdrawal this week, with their drug of choice — conservative talk show king Rush Limbaugh — gone from the airwaves for a 30-day stint in drug rehab. Limbaugh's announcement that he is seeking treatment for an addiction to pain medication followed claims by a former housekeeper that she spent years supplying him with black-market prescription narcotics. Lots of narcotics — more than 30,000 hydrocodone, Lorcet and OxyContin tablets.

Limbaugh has not publicly responded to her allegations, but his admission of addiction last week unleashed snickers among liberals and contortions among conservatives, who were desperate to distinguish their hero's problem from the moral failings of those celebrity addicts that Limbaugh took glee in castigating. Internet muckraker Matt Drudge even offered this silver lining: "Imagine how good he did on the air on the medication. If we can get him off [drugs], it'll be a real challenge to the liberals in this country."

Forget about the challenge to liberals. Breaking the stranglehold of addiction will be challenge enough for Limbaugh. He's already been through two recovery programs and relapsed. Even the most intense residential programs offer only a 50% chance of recovery for prescription-drug addicts. And unlike many of those abusers, Limbaugh probably won't have to manage his recovery from jail. Although the allegations against him constitute a felony in his home state of Florida, officials rarely prosecute users except as leverage to bring in their dealers. Still, given the publicity in a state so tough that the governor let his own addict-daughter go to jail, it could be hard to justify giving Limbaugh a pass.

In fact, Limbaugh might insist on a little prison time, if he buys his own rhetoric. People who violate the law by using drugs ought to be sent "up the river," no matter their race or social class, Limbaugh has said. But is up the river the place for him? So far, there's been no public push for that.

When Limbaugh emerges from treatment this time around, perhaps he'll understand that he was no different from the addict on the street scrounging for his next fix. Maybe he can contribute something better than macho bluster to the debate over treatment of drug offenders — a group that includes those offering medical marijuana to cancer patients and rich, white radio hosts trying to score pills in the parking lot of Denny's.

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Admissions to Treatment Programs Jump Since Approval of 2000 Ballot Measure

UCLA study tracks drug offenders who received help, rather than jail time, after voters passed Proposition 36.

By Don Thompson, Associated Press Writer


SACRAMENTO — Admissions to treatment programs in five major California counties have climbed sharply since voters decided three years ago that first-time nonviolent drug offenders should not go to prison, according to a tracking study that was to be released today.

Drug programs are having difficulty treating offenders with multiple or severe problems, the UCLA study found.

The five-year study, now in its first year, was published in the journal Evaluation Review. It does not draw conclusions about the success of treatment programs in preventing future crime or drug abuse.

The goal of the study, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is to identify how best to treat offenders who would have been sent to prison or jail had voters not approved Proposition 36 in November 2000.

The initiative took effect in July 2001.

Since then, admissions to drug treatment programs jumped 27% in Kern County, 21% in Riverside County, 17% in Sacramento County and 16% in San Diego County.

The only county without an increase was San Francisco, which had an extensive diversion program and prosecution policy before the statewide initiative.

Most of the abusers went to outpatient programs.

Counties had less success in treating patients with severe addictions, whose abuse was complicated by mental illness or disability, or who were homeless, according to the study by researchers at UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute.

Still, counties' progress in implementing the voter mandate, and the creative strategies they are using, are "encouraging," the study's lead author, Yih-Ing Hser, said in a prepared statement.

Hser is an investigator with the Institute's Integrated Substance Abuse Programs.

The study found that those diverted from the criminal justice system into treatment programs tended to be male first-time offenders with full-time jobs. Most used methamphetamine and marijuana, while heroin users and injection-drug users were less likely to participate in treatment programs.

The study found significant variation in how counties are complying with the voter mandate.

San Francisco requires no urine tests. At the other extreme, Sacramento County has random urine testing both by treatment programs and its probation department. The other three counties leave it up to treatment programs to do testing.

The counties also vary on providing methadone treatment for patients.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-drug14oct14235630,1,3096373.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california

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The fall of a moralist is always a great American spectacle. The Elmer Gantry story—the righteous preacher who turns out to be a letch and a boozer—has a special resonance in a nation that postures as morally superior but enjoys sin. Nothing entertains (or instructs in the essentials of human nature) like hypocrisy on a grand scale. When Bill Bennett, best-selling author of “The Book of Virtues,” was outed as a compulsive gambler, and evangelist Jim Bakker was caught embezzling from his Praise the Lord empire, the lamentations of the true believers were drowned out by the snickers of the knowing.

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Tens of thousands of you have written the Maha Rushie to show your support, and his gratitude to each of you is profound. You have offered your best wishes and your prayers. Many of you have asked what you can do. And there is a way you can help. While Rush is away, stay tuned to your local affiliate radio station, listen, and participate as always.



http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/today.guest.html

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Originally uttered by Limbaugh

Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream.
--Rush Limbaugh

Enraging liberals is simply one of the more enjoyable side effects of my wisdom
--Rush Limbaugh

On NAFTA: "If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid
people--I'm serious, let the unskilled jobs, let the kinds of jobs
that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do--let stupid and
unskilled Mexicans do that work." (Radio show quoted in FRQ, Fall/93)

Speculating on why a Mexican national won the New York marathon: "An
immigration agent chased him for the last 10 miles." (USA Weekend,
1/26/92)

This is asinine! A Caesar Chavez Day in California? Wasn't he
convicted of a crime?" (Quoted in FRQ, Winter/94)

"Kurt Cobain was, ladies and gentleman, I just--he was a worthless
shred of human debris..." (TV show, 4/11/94)

"Why is it that whenever a corporation fires workers it is never
speculated that the workers might have deserved it?" (Ought to Be,
p.275)

"When a gay person turns his back on you, it is anything but an insult
; it's an invitation." (Quoted in FRQ, Summer/94)

One of my fabulous routines concerns a San Francisco men’s club which lost its battle to exclude women from membership. The courts ruled that they had to admit women on the basis that businesswomen were being unfairly denied opportunities to do business. This is specious. How much business did women think they were going to get as a result of forcing their way in?
Anyway, after one year, the female members demanded their own exercise room. They were probably tired of being ogled by a bunch of slobbering men while they pumped iron in leotards and spandex. The men offered to install the first three exercise machines in the women’s new workout room. The ladies were thrilled. When they arrived on that first exciting day they found, to their stunned amazement, a washing machine, an ironing board, and a vacuum cleaner. Heh, heh, heh.

Let me leave you with a thought that honestly summarizes my sentiments: I love the women’s movement. especially when I am walking behind it.

Source: The Way Things Ought To Be, p.142-45 Jul 2, 1992

"As a young broadcaster in the 1970s, Limbaugh once told a black caller:

"Take that bone out of your nose and call me back."

A decade ago, after becoming nationally syndicated, he mused on the air:

"Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?"

In 1992, on his now-defunct TV show, Limbaugh expressed his ire when Spike Lee urged that black schoolchildren get off from school to see his film Malcolm X:

"Spike, if you're going to do that, let's complete the education experience. You should tell them that they should loot the theater, and then blow it up on their way out."

In a similar vein, here is Limbaugh's mocking take on the NAACP, a group with a ninety-year commitment to nonviolence:

"The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies."

On the idea that blacks need to be heard:

"They are 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?"

"When you strip it all away," Rush had said of the Grateful Dead guitarist, "Jerry Garcia destroyed his life on drugs. And yet he's being honored, like some godlike figure. Our priorities are out of whack, folks."
RUSH LIMBAUGH

It's beyond me how anybody can look at these protesters and call them anything other than what they are: anti-American, anti-capitalist, pro Marxists and communists." - Rush Limbaugh

Our armed forces shouldn’t be over there - they’re good at killing people and blowing things up, not peace-keeping."
--Rush Limbaugh on Clinton’s deployment of troops to Bosnia.


The most beautiful thing about a tree is what you do with it after you cut it down.

Compassion is no substitute for justice.

There's a simple way to solve the crime problem: obey the law; punish those who do not.


If you commit a crime, you are guilty.

"the media has been very desirous of a black quarterback to do well".

" "the sports media, being liberals just like liberal media is elsewhere, have a desire that black quarterbacks excel and do very well so that their claims that blacks are being denied opportunity can be validated."

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RUSH TO REVENGE? NO, THANKS
Let's hope Limbaugh emerges from this experience more tolerant of the
weaknesses of others

October 14, 2003 -- Free Rush Limbaugh!

Sorry to betray such a low level of lust for revenge, but as a
card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union, I am duty-bound to
defend the rights of even those I loathe. Not that Limbaugh, the
talk-show bully, has been charged with a crime or sentenced to jail time.
However, as an admitted addict who allegedly purchased drugs illegally,
his freedom, were he an ordinary guy on the street, would be very much in
jeopardy. In Florida, where Limbaugh allegedly committed his felony,
the crime of purchasing large amounts of powerful narcotics without a
prescription can get you a five-year sentence if prosecutors are so
inclined. That is, if they are in a mood to be the tough anti-drug warriors
that the Limbaughs of this world have long applauded.

Credit Limbaugh for riling up the public and politicians to imprison
many addicts whose behavior was no worse than what he has admitted to. As
he once told his radio audience: "If people are violating the law by
doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and
they ought to be sent up."

Limbaugh was an equal-opportunity drug warrior who, in response to the
charge that drug laws singled out African Americans, said in an
interview in 1995: "Too many whites are getting away with drug use The answer
is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict
them and send them up the river too."

Three years later, he is alleged to have begun his own white man's
odyssey into a life of addiction and crime.

Let me be on record as being strongly opposed to sending Limbaugh up
the river, even though that is the penalty he wished to inflict on
others. Just chalk me up as one of those bleeding-heart liberals who believe
that drug addiction should be treated as a medical rather than a
criminal matter.

If convicted and imprisoned, Limbaugh could come back a hardened
criminal, most likely having learned only how to get away with convenience
store stickups to support his habit. Although in prison he might also be
educated by fellow inmates to drop the OxyContin that he allegedly was
hooked on for heroin, which has a similar high but may be less damaging
to the body. We don't know why he didn't turn to pot for relief, but I
suspect that prescription drug abuse is just more acceptable in
right-wing circles.

But those are his choices, and I support his right as an adult to pick
his own poison. I don't endorse the tough-love hard line that because
Limbaugh has failed in his two previous attempts to end his addiction by
voluntarily checking into a medical program, he shouldn't be given a
third chance. He should get as many more as he needs. As one who has had
bouts of addiction with truly dangerous drugs -- good red wines and
only the most aged of Scotch -- I don't want them throwing me into jail
just because I fall off the wagon.

Although Limbaugh is obviously a hypocrite, that is no reason to
compound the madness of our drug problem by punishing him in what seems to
have been a victimless crime -- unless he pressured his
housekeeper/supplier into the Florida narco-underworld, which would make him far more
culpable. But we liberals believe in innocent until proved guilty.

Limbaugh's experience is the best argument against the demonization of
all junkies -- this one throughout his addiction held a big job and
presumably paid a lot in taxes. The considerable harm he inflicts daily on
the larger society can hardly be blamed on his addiction. The drugs may
have even tempered his verbal brutishness. In any case, there is no
evidence that the drugs caused him to daily savage others -- he was
equally offensive before and during his drug abuse. To put it another way,
his drug use, if it has caused pain to others, is the least of his
crimes.

But why be mean about it and wallow in the suffering of another?

Let's hope that Limbaugh emerges from this experience more tolerant of
the weaknesses of others. Perhaps he could then prevail upon his buddy,
Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, to end his vicious crackdown on cancer and
AIDS patients attempting to use marijuana to manage their pain without
running afoul of the law.

Copyright © 2003 Robert Scheer

http://www.robertscheer.com

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I'm thinking of sending Sean Hannity a few hookers to his hotel room next time he's in town on a book tour.



"Drug use destroys societies. Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. And the laws are good because we know what happens to people in societies and neighborhoods which become consumed by them. And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up." - Rush Limbaugh

http://democraticunderground.com/top10/index.html

Sorry. it's just been that kind of day where I succumb to weakness and decide to rail and delight in mean spiritdness in response to the mean-spirited laid low. A few vodkas will do that to me. Luckily i only drink once in a blue moon. I'm sure it's no less harsh than AM radio this afternoon though.

Well, i guess i'm stuck here as every time I try to exit this thread I'm given an "internal service error" message. Boy! The messages are going to start piling up here!!

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Justices Give Doctors Right to Discuss Pot

By David G. Savage and Eric Bailey, Times Staff Writers

The high court's action means physicians in nine Western states may recommend marijuana, but U.S. officials insist they'll prosecute users.

WASHINGTON — Doctors in California and other Western states may recommend the use of marijuana to their patients without fear that they will be investigated or punished by federal authorities.

In a victory for the advocates of medical marijuana, the Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the Bush administration's appeal of a ruling that held doctors have a free-speech right to advise their sick patients of the benefits of marijuana.......

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-marijuana15oct15000431,1,6303047.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage

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Originally posted by the G-man:

But, at least it gives him a chance to post a picture of the Grinch, which--to whomod at least--is some sort of devasting rejoinder that is supposed to make us all see the light and renounce our republican ways.

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(in mock Limbaugh tone) Look, the Clinton liberals and feminazis won’t tell you, but here’s the problem with this big talk-show host who turns out to be a prescription-drug junkie. You have a guy who finally stops spinning and fesses up for his actions. Fine. He says he won’t play the victim. Good. He’s off to rehab. God bless. But what he and his apologists want you to forget is that he broke the law—yes, the L-A-W. Some of us around here still have respect for it. FOLKS, THIS GUY didn’t just use drugs, he put another person in harm’s way to feed his own habit. He repeatedly sent his maid out into a parking lot to score for him. Thousands of pills. Talk about cowardly. The housekeeper was being set up by her big celebrity boss to take the fall if they got busted. Now, that’s the problem with these famous people who develop the wrong ’60s values. The little person—the kind of average American who listens to this program—takes the risks, while the celebrity gets the slobbering praise for overcoming his “problems.” That’s the world these liberals have brought you. Unforgivable.

Conservatives have the nerve to blast the liberals for playing too rough, the better to rally the faithful. The big guy himself could help the dialogue if he returns to the airwaves after rehab with a more tolerant and less vitriolic message. But then he wouldn’t be Rush Limbaugh anymore.

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For two years, we’ve foolishly heeded then-White House spokesman Ari Fleischer’s McCarthyite warning that liberals needed to “watch what they say and watch what they do” because our loyal, patriotic opposition was un-American. Yes, we kept our mouths shut while the right-wing took sole possession of God, the flag, national security and family values


Conason reminds us that liberalism is actually Americanism: “If your workplace is safe, if your children go to school rather than being forced into labor, if you are paid a living wage, including overtime...if your food is not poisoned and your water drinkable...if our rivers are getting cleaner and our air isn’t black with pollution...if people of all races can share the same public facilities, if couples fall in love and marry regardless of race, you can thank liberals. What defined conservatism, and conservatives, was their opposition to every one of these advances.”

(from Joe Conason’s “Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How it Distorts the Truth,” )

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a new kind of liberal: smart, well educated, articulate … but mostly angry – the kind that is doing far more harm to liberalism in America than Rush Limbaugh could ever do.

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But, in any event, keep posting Whomod. You singlehandedly do more damage to the lie of the "thoughtful, tolerant, compassionate liberal" than a thousand issues of National Review.

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Conservatives, basically, are about smaller government and lower taxes and individual responsibility. Liberals, on the other hand, are supposed to be about the free exchange of ideas, without the name-calling. Liberals are supposed to be the good ones, the smart ones, the sophisticated ones and mostly the better ones. I know this, of course, because my liberal friends keeping telling me how good and smart and sophisticated and better they are.

Once liberals were like John Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. They were upbeat and enthusiastic – and mainstream. These days they’re more like Eric Alterman and Michael Moore and Al Franken. They’re closed-minded and nasty - and fringe.


Too often we talk right past each other in our culture, and no one has clean hands on this one – not liberals or conservatives. Incivility is a two-way street. Still it seems to me that liberals – the very people who take such pride in seeing themselves as compassionate and open-minded – have, in a sad kind of way, become precisely what they have long accused conservatives of being: mean-spirited and closed-minded.


The fact is that liberals, more than anything else, need to remember how to be liberal (!! :lol: !!) - and not let the angry fringe hijack a philosophy that once, a long time ago, was something to be proud of.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/10/15/124248.shtml

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In other words, they'd like us to go back and play nice and let Rush and his ilk have their way with our pansy pinko pacifist asses. As with the right wing criticism of Clark being a closet Repub, i want to commend them for putting their partisan interests aside and looking out in the best interest of the left and the Democratic party. As for his "angry fringe" hijacking a philosophy. Wouldn't that adequetely describe the Republican party at the moment?

No thank you. Brace yourselves. People are finally starting to wake up and taking an active part in your self-declared 'culture war'.

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"The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies." - Rush Limbaugh

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In defense of "Bush haters".

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16981

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Rush Limbaugh Statement on Prescription Pain Medication Stories

October 10, 2003




You know I have always tried to be honest with you and open about my life. So I need to tell you today that part of what you have heard and read is correct. I am addicted to prescription pain medication. I first started taking prescription painkillers some years ago when my doctor prescribed them to treat post surgical pain following spinal surgery. Unfortunately the surgery was unsuccessful, and I continued to have severe pain in my lower back and also in my neck due to herniated discs. (Zod note: Zod has seen people with severe backpain, the things they do to relieve such pain are terrible sometimes and goes against their usual behavior or ethics)

I am still experiencing that pain. Rather than opt for additional surgery for these conditions, I chose to treat the pain with prescribed medication. This medication turned out to be highly addictive. Over the past several years I have tried to break my dependence on pain pills and, in fact, twice checked myself into medical facilities in an attempt to do so. I have recently agreed with my physician about the next steps. Immediately following this broadcast, I am checking myself into a treatment center for the next 30 days to once and for all break the hold this highly addictive medication has on me.

The show will continue during this time, of course, with an array of guest hosts you have come to know and respect. I am not making any excuses. You know, over the years athletes and celebrities have emerged from treatment centers to great fanfare and praise for conquering great demons. They are said to be great role models and examples for others. Well, I am no role model. I refuse to let anyone think I am doing something great here, when there are people you never hear about, who face long odds and never resort to such escapes.

They are the role models. I am no victim and do not portray myself as such. I take full responsibility for my problem. (ZOD NOTE: Zod believes Rush implies if found guilty he will do jail time) At the present time the authorities are conducting an investigation, and I have been asked to limit my public comments until this investigation is complete. So, I will only say that the stories you have read and heard contain inaccuracies and distortions, which I will clear up when I am free to speak about them. (ZOD NOTE: Inocent until proven guilty, sound familar?) I deeply appreciate all of your support over this last tumultuous week. It has sustained me. I ask now for your prayers. I look forward to resuming our excursion into broadcast excellence together.

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DRUDGE: MEDIA BUSINESS BUILT ON HYPOCRISY
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2003
MSNBC's BUCHANAN & PRESS

DRUDGE: You see it. You've been running on the network today the ditto cam -- what they call it, the feed of the man himself as he delivered the remarks today. Not only those remarks, which came at the end of his broadcast, I might add. He was able to do a full week of broadcasting under this intense media microscope this week.

We don't know if Limbaugh is on these drugs, he's now saying he's going in. He said it was prescription drugs, we don't know if a doctor's been giving it to him, these days. I just want to note for this audience while "The Enquirer" did a heck of a job reporting this: their trail did go cold a year ago or a little bit more than a year ago!

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WITH HALF HIS BRAIN TIED BEHIND HIS BACK
Wed Oct 15, 5:40 PM ET Add Op/Ed - Ann Coulter to My Yahoo!

By Ann Coulter

So liberals have finally found a drug addict they don't like. And unlike the Lackawanna Six -- those high-spirited young lads innocently seeking adventure in an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan (news - web sites) -- liberals could find no excuses for Rush Limbaugh.

After years of the mainstream media assuring us that Rush was a has-been, a nobody, yesterday's news -- the Rush painkiller story was front-page news last week. (Would anyone care if Howell Raines committed murder?) The airwaves and print media were on red alert with Rush's admission that, after an unsuccessful spinal operation a few years ago, he became addicted to powerful prescription painkillers.


Rush Limbaugh's misfortune is apparently a bigger story than his nearly $300 million radio contract signed two years ago. That was the biggest radio contract in broadcasting history. Yet there are only 12 documents on LexisNexis that reported it. The New York Times didn't take notice of Rush's $300 million radio contract, but a few weeks later, put Bill Clinton (news - web sites)'s comparatively measly $10 million book contract on its front page. Meanwhile, in the past week alone, LexisNexis has accumulated more than 50 documents with the words "Rush Limbaugh and hypocrisy." That should make up for the 12 documents on his $300 million radio contract.

The reason any conservative's failing is always major news is that it allows liberals to engage in their very favorite taunt: Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy is the only sin that really inflames them. Inasmuch as liberals have no morals, they can sit back and criticize other people for failing to meet the standards that liberals simply renounce. It's an intriguing strategy. By openly admitting to being philanderers, draft dodgers, liars, weasels and cowards, liberals avoid ever being hypocrites.

At least Rush wasn't walking into church carrying a 10-pound Bible before rushing back to the Oval Office for sodomy with Monica Lewinsky. He wasn't enforcing absurd sexual harassment guidelines while dropping his pants in front of a half-dozen subordinates. (Evidently, Clinton wasn't a hypocrite because no one was supposed to take seriously the notion that he respected women or believed in God.)

Rush has hardly been the anti-drug crusader liberals suggest. Indeed, Rush hasn't had much to say about drugs at all since that spinal operation. (ZOD NOTE: Zod's been a fan for 2 years and don't recall him making any comments about drug abuse) The Rush Limbaugh quote that has been endlessly recited in the last week to prove Rush's rank "hypocrisy" is this, made eight years ago: "Drug use, some might say, is destroying this country. And we have laws against selling drugs, pushing drugs, using drugs, importing drugs. ... And so if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up."

What precisely are liberals proposing that Rush should have said to avoid their indignant squeals of "hypocrisy"? Announce his support for the wide and legal availability of a prescription painkiller that may have caused him to go deaf and nearly ruined his career and wrecked his life? I believe that would have been both evil and hypocritical.

Or is it simply that Rush should not have become addicted to painkillers in the first place? Well, no, I suppose not. You've caught us: Rush has a flaw. And yet, the wily hypocrite does not support flaws!

When a conservative can be the biggest thing in talk radio, earning $30 million a year and attracting 20 million devoted listeners every week -- all while addicted to drugs -- I'll admit liberals have reason to believe that conservatives are some sort of super-race, incorruptible by original sin. But the only perfect man hasn't walked the Earth for 2,000 years. In liberals' worldview, any conservative who is not Jesus Christ is ipso facto a "hypocrite" for not publicly embracing dissolute behavior the way liberals do.

In fact, Rush's behavior was not all that dissolute. There is a fundamental difference between taking any drug -- legal, illegal, prescription, protected by the 21st Amendment or banned by Michael Bloomberg -- for kicks and taking a painkiller for pain.

There is a difference morally and a difference legally. While slamming Rush, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz recently told Wolf Blitzer, "Generally, people who illegally buy prescription drugs are not prosecuted, whereas people who illegally buy cocaine and heroin are prosecuted." What would the point be? Just say no to back surgery?

I haven't checked with any Harvard Law professors, but I'm pretty sure that, generally, adulterous drunks who drive off bridges and kill girls are prosecuted. Ah, but Teddy Kennedy supports adultery and public drunkenness -- so at least you can't call him a hypocrite! That must provide great consolation to Mary Jo Kopechne's parents.

I have a rule about not feeling sorry for people worth $300 million, but I'm feeling sentimental. Evan Thomas wrote a cover story on Rush for Newsweek this week that was so vicious it read like conservative satire. Thomas called Rush a "schlub," "socially ill at ease," an Elmer Gantry, an actor whose "act has won over, or fooled, a lot of people." He compared Rush to the phony TV evangelist Jim Bakker and recommended that Rush start to "make a virtue out of honesty." (Liberals can lie under oath in legal proceedings and it's a "personal matter." Conservatives must scream their every failing from the rooftops or they are "liars.")

As is standard procedure for profiles of conservatives, Newsweek gathered quotes on Rush from liberals, ex-wives and dumped dates. Covering himself, Thomas ruefully remarked that "it's hard to find many people who really know him." Well, there was me, Evan! But I guess Newsweek didn't have room for the quotes I promptly sent back to the Newsweek researchers. I could have even corrected Newsweek's absurd account of how Rush met his current wife. (It's kind of cute, too: She was a fan who began arguing with him about something he said on air.)

Thomas also made the astute observation that "Rush Limbaugh has always had far more followers than friends." Needless to say, this floored those of us who were shocked to discover that Rush does not have 20 million friends.

So the guy I really feel sorry for is Evan Thomas. How would little Evan fare in any competitive media? Any followers? Any fans? Any readers at all? And he's not even addicted to painkillers! This week, Rush proved his motto: He really can beat liberals with half his brain tied behind his back.

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Oh and picture for validation and so whomod will bother to read because he only reads picture books apparently.



:lol:

KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!!

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On NAFTA: "If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid
people--I'm serious, let the unskilled jobs, let the kinds of jobs
that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do--let stupid and
unskilled Mexicans do that work." (Radio show quoted in FRQ, Fall/93)

Speculating on why a Mexican national won the New York marathon: "An
immigration agent chased him for the last 10 miles." (USA Weekend,
1/26/92)

This is asinine! A Caesar Chavez Day in California? Wasn't he
convicted of a crime?" (Quoted in FRQ, Winter/94)

"As a young broadcaster in the 1970s, Limbaugh once told a black caller:

"Take that bone out of your nose and call me back."

A decade ago, after becoming nationally syndicated, he mused on the air:

"Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?"

In 1992, on his now-defunct TV show, Limbaugh expressed his ire when Spike Lee urged that black schoolchildren get off from school to see his film Malcolm X:

"Spike, if you're going to do that, let's complete the education experience. You should tell them that they should loot the theater, and then blow it up on their way out."

In a similar vein, here is Limbaugh's mocking take on the NAACP, a group with a ninety-year commitment to nonviolence:

"The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies."

On the idea that blacks need to be heard:

"They are 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?"

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So the you've have become the very enemy you hate? Zod admits it, you have an advantage, but is happy to see you are squandering it by not doing what you say liberalism is all about.

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I think I covered this subject above. No more playing "fair" while your hatchet men go to work "entertaining" America to it's own detriment.

By the way, yes, I think I've listened to at least 2 complete shows and snippets of a few more while commuting and trying to catch traffic updates.

This week unfortunately I was unable to catch Rush as he's busy detoxing.

I did however catch his replacements on KFI who attested that public transportation should be dismantled as only illegal immigrants use it. When he was corrected by his less shrill co-host, he replied OK, some legal immigrants use it too. Then he suggested the buses catch the I5 and drive nonstop to Tijuana thus deporting all the unsuspecting commuters."heh heh" THAT is conservative AM radio.

I don't discuss politics with my wife. She actually voted even more conservatively then I did (which considering I voted for McClintock is saying something). I usually have all my radio presets to AM talk radio as I like to listen to it for 'studying the enemy' purpouses. Right now the supermarkets are on strike. The longer the strike lasts the more it impacts her as she works in production for the supermarkets and with the strike continuing, her warehouse won't empty. Despite all these facts, she listened to hannity which I had on her radio. She came back last night and casually commented that Republicans are EVIL! I simply smiled.

Any damage Republicans are receiving, they are undoubetdly doing to themselves.

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Oh and picture for validation and so whomod will bother to read because he only reads picture books apparently.

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For someone who likes to ridicule my intelligence (or lack therof), how many times are you going to keep asking a question I already answered in some detail?

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TERENCE SMITH: Sean Hannity is second only to Limbaugh as a talk radio host. His weekly audience is more than 10 million people. He's on nearly 400 stations, and is syndicated by ABC Radio. Hannity is a great admirer of Limbaugh.

But he says there's also another big reason for talk radio's right wing bent.

SEAN HANNITY: Most of the major newspapers in this country slant solidly to the left. I'd argue the three major news organizations -- ABC, NBC, and CBS -- slant solidly to the left. You have two cable channels that slant solidly to the left. I think it's fairly obvious.

Talk radio's rise is in part to the mainstream media being solidly to the left.

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Jimmie Walker

The bums' Rush — and mine

Rush Limbaugh, hired by ESPN to help ratings and spice up its Sunday Morning NFL Show, was, for all practical purposes, fired for stating the facts. He dared to say what others whispered: The reason Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was not getting scrutinized for bad play as much as he deserved, was because the NFL has a policy of wanting Black coaches and quarterbacks to be successful at all and any cost.

What Limbaugh did was to expose yet another form of Affirmative Action — this time, in sports!

The truth, sad as it might be, is it's a League policy that when a coaching position opens, a team must interview a Black candidate. If they don't, they will be made to suffer.

Consider:

When the Dallas Cowboys made it clear the coach they wanted was Bill Parcells, who is Caucasian, they were forced to interview a Black candidate. No Black would interview for the job because they saw the handwriting on the wall.

In contrast, when the Cincinnati Bengals had an opening and wanted to fill it with Marvin Lewis, who is Black, they were allowed to do so without being required to go through the motions of seeking out a qualified White guy.

In another case, involving Steve Mariucci and the Detroit Lions, after the coach was let go by the San Francisco 49ers, the Motor City team knew they wanted to hire him. Which they did immediately — and then got sacked by the NFL with a fine of two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars because they by-passed a Black candidate.

Now, if that's not Affirmative Action, I don't know what is. If these examples do not prove Limbaugh's point, I don't know what does.

There were no "racial overtones" in what Rush said on-air. He was just reporting the facts — as troubling as they may be.

And how convenient for Limbaugh's critics to forget his saying that he hopes Black quarterbacks do well.

Here are a couple more stories that those attacking Rush would like you not to know about the role of racial politics and double standards in professional sports.

Kordell Stewart is a Black quarterback formerly with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and now with the Chicago Bears. After a few sub-par seasons the Steelers suggested that Stewart switch to either running back or wide receiver. Mr. Stewart refused. Fearing the team would be perceived as racist, the Steelers said nothing and did nothing.

Stewart was eventually beaten out for the job by a White quarterback.

Yet, Eric Crouch, a white quarterback from the University of Nebraska and a Heisman Trophy winner, was drafted into the NFL. His team asked him to be a wide receiver or defensive back. He said, "No" — and never played in the NFL, "opting" instead to retire at twenty-two.

Like the odor of a dead skunk, Affirmative Action has floated its way into the NFL. The Left has a double standard. When someone on the Left says something about race, they're standing up for "the people."


But if someone on the Right dares to opine about race, he's a racist.

Of course Rush's comments had nothing to do with race and everything to do with the NFL's obscene policy. And what happened to the Right of Free Speech? Rush isn't entitled to it? But of course, the libs are. They've called Rush everything from a racist, an idiot, an imbecile, and vile. And don't forget the book titled, "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot." Imagine if someone wrote a book titled, "Al Roker is a Big Fat Idiot."

Rush Limbaugh surprised his radio audience on Friday by announcing he was checking himself into a drug rehab facility. Rush has to be taken to task for a certain amount of hypocrisy because if he were Howard Stern or Al Franken, he would've been all over them. That, however, is but a single demerit in an otherwise stellar career.

I've got one thing to say: Long Live El Rush-Bo!

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Originally posted by Dave the Wonder Boy:
I hardly see how a guy suffering from unsuccessful back surgery using pain-killers is a "druggie".
A guy in extreme pain becoming addicted to pain-killers... gee, that's so decadent and unusual.

He did't start using them just to get a high, for the sheer pleasure of it. He was in pain.


I had a neighbor who was dying for six years of prostate cancer, who in his last two years was addicted to morphine. A real estate agent, who continued to work and support his family, and took the strongest pain-killers available, so he could function.
I suppose you think he was a "druggie" too.

Likewise, Rush Limbaugh used them so he could function. He didn't rob liquor stores to support his habit, or mug people or kill anyone or beat his wife. He had a painful disability, and he did it so he could function. Not for a cheap high, but so he could function.

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