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* I mean, let's face it, we didn't have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back; I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.'' |
* I mean, let's face it, we didn't have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back; I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.'' |
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** As quoted in ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=AwJs8HTT1pwC&pg=PA232&lpg=PA232&dq=%22we+miss+you+james+godspeed%22&source=web&ots=QA_wElIGlC&sig=tRw-0VppWsZ73zfJOE_SI-Kx7pY#PPA232,M1 101 People who are REALLY Screwing Up America]'' (2006) by [[w:Jack Huberman|Jack Huberman]] |
** As quoted in ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=AwJs8HTT1pwC&pg=PA232&lpg=PA232&dq=%22we+miss+you+james+godspeed%22&source=web&ots=QA_wElIGlC&sig=tRw-0VppWsZ73zfJOE_SI-Kx7pY#PPA232,M1 101 People who are REALLY Screwing Up America]'' (2006) by [[w:Jack Huberman|Jack Huberman]] |
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** Note: |
** Note: An editor has not been able to find a second reference for this quote. Please see Talk page for discussion. |
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*You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray [''the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King'']. We miss you, James. Godspeed. |
*You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray [''the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King'']. We miss you, James. Godspeed. |
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** As quoted in ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=AwJs8HTT1pwC&pg=PA232&lpg=PA232&dq=%22we+miss+you+james+godspeed%22&source=web&ots=QA_wElIGlC&sig=tRw-0VppWsZ73zfJOE_SI-Kx7pY#PPA232,M1 101 People who are REALLY Screwing Up America]'' (2006) by [[w:Jack Huberman|Jack Huberman]] |
** As quoted in ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=AwJs8HTT1pwC&pg=PA232&lpg=PA232&dq=%22we+miss+you+james+godspeed%22&source=web&ots=QA_wElIGlC&sig=tRw-0VppWsZ73zfJOE_SI-Kx7pY#PPA232,M1 101 People who are REALLY Screwing Up America]'' (2006) by [[w:Jack Huberman|Jack Huberman]] |
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** Note: |
** Note: An editor has not been able to find a second reference for this quote. Please see Talk page for discussion. |
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* Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the [[w:Bloods|Bloods]] and the [[w:Crips|Crips]] without any weapons. There, I said it. |
* Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the [[w:Bloods|Bloods]] and the [[w:Crips|Crips]] without any weapons. There, I said it. |
Revision as of 22:49, 15 April 2008
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III (born 12 January 1951) is an American radio talk show host and conservative political commentator.
The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. |
Sourced
- Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.
- Response to a black caller he was having a hard time understanding in the 1970s when he worked under the name "Jeff Christie" on a top-40 music program in Pittsburgh, as quoted in Newsday (8 October 1990) where he expresses some remorse at having said it; also in The Way Things Aren't : Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Error (1995) by Steve Rendall, Jim Naureckas, and Jeff Cohen [ISBN 156584260X] , "Limbaugh : A Color Man Who Has A Problem With Color?" by Jeff Cohen and Steve Rendall in FAIR and The Los Angeles Times (6 July 2000), and "Bone Voyage" at Snopes.com (4 September 2007)
- The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.
- As quoted in Flush Rush Quarterly (January 1993) and in "Limbaugh : A Color Man Who Has A Problem With Color?" by Jeff Cohen and Steve Rendall in FAIR and The Los Angeles Times (6 July 2000), and in "Off Sides" by Michael Tomasky in The American Prospect (16 July 2003)
- They're 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?
- Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?
- The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.
- As quoted in "Dittohead Blues" in the LA Weekly (9 October 2003)
- I mean, let's face it, we didn't have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back; I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.
- As quoted in 101 People who are REALLY Screwing Up America (2006) by Jack Huberman
- Note: An editor has not been able to find a second reference for this quote. Please see Talk page for discussion.
- You know who deserves a posthumous Medal of Honor? James Earl Ray [the confessed assassin of Martin Luther King]. We miss you, James. Godspeed.
- As quoted in 101 People who are REALLY Screwing Up America (2006) by Jack Huberman
- Note: An editor has not been able to find a second reference for this quote. Please see Talk page for discussion.
- Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.
- As quoted in "Hey Rush, when it comes to sports ... shhh!" by Mike Freeman at CBS SportsLine (27 January 2007)
- Quotes in this section should be provided with air dates, and preferably links to transcripts or published sources.
- Too many whites are getting away with drug use...Too many whites are getting away with drug sales...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.
- (5 October 1995); also quoted in The Palm Beach Post (7 December 2003)
- I am, for all practical purposes, deaf.
- (8 October 2001)
- Sorry to say this, I don't think he's been that good from the get-go. I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well.
- On Donovan McNabb (28 September 2003)
- Liberal sportswriters have pushed the notion that it's unfair that there haven't been more black quarterbacks, and I agree with that. I have simply said that their desire for McNabb to do well has caused them to rate him a little higher than perhaps he actually is.
- (1 October 2003)
- My comment was actually a comment aimed at the media, not even at McNabb. It's not by any stretch of the imagination a putdown. It doesn't say McNabb is bad.
- (1 October 2003)
- I'm not the one that's even introduced race in this, if you want to know the truth. You can go back. You can read Philadelphia sports media last year, the year before, and you can see that guys have been writing about the great things that Donovan McNabb's success means in a racial context.
- (1 October 2003)
- I was comparing McNabb's reputation on the field to his reputation in the media. The media has portrayed Donovan McNabb as a great quarterback, and they have credited him almost exclusively with the Eagles' success, and I've always thought that there were more components to the Eagles' success than just the quarterback.
- (1 October 2003)
- My point Sunday on ESPN was that the defense of the Eagles, I think, deserves a lot of the credit for this team's success. It's a sports opinion, for crying out loud — and I think it's an accurate one.
- (1 October 2003)
- You know I have always tried to be honest with you and open about my life, so I need to tell you that part of what you have heard and read is correct. I am addicted to prescription pain medication.
- (10 Oct 2003)l also quoted in The Palm Beach Post (15 February 2004)
- I'm going to tell you, what's good for al-Qaeda is good for the Democratic Party in this country today. That's how you boil this down. And it doesn't have to be al-Qaeda. What's good for terrorists is good for John Kerry. All you got to do is check the way they react.
- (15 March 2004)
- They celebrate privately this attack in Spain.
- On Democrats (16 March 2004)
- And then what if — there are all kinds of little Communist regimes in — what if Fidel Castro shows up and says I endorse Kerry? The Black Caucus would like that, but Kerry wouldn't.
- (19 March 2004)
- Kerry is cheap. Most gigolos are. I mean — I think it — I think it goes with the, with the definition.
- (7 April 2004)
- Can you imagine some poor welfare recipient in Arizona doesn't know what's up, doesn't know why the check's not as big, doesn't know why the food stamps don't stick to whatever he tries to mail?
- On Welfare (8 April 2004)
- We're not sexists, we're chauvinists — we're male chauvinist pigs, and we're happy to be because we think that's what men were destined to be. We think that's what women want.
- (15 April 2004)
- As I said yesterday, truce is an old Arabic word. Goes way, way back in Islamic-Arabic culture, and it means, "We will get you later."
- (16 April 2004)
- This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation, and we're going to ruin people's lives over it, and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people. You ever Madonna, or Britney Spears do on stage. Maybe I'm — yeah, and get an NEA grant for something like this.
- On the Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse Scandal (3 May 2004)
- I heard that Gorbachev digs America. I'd be diggin' America too if I were raised a Commie and my only escape was vodka!
- (14 June 2004)
- I love hugging myself; I love human contact.
- (29 June 2004)
- He gets out of a coffin every day to go to work.
- On Senator John Kerry (7 July 2004)
- With Bill Clinton in the hospital, that makes Al Gore acting former president.
- (7 September 2004)
- Embrace your inner wacko, Senator Kerry.
- (13 September 2004)
- Meanwhile, New York's not doing anything about it. Four years later and it's still nothing but a hole in the ground. Four years!
- On rebuilding of the World Trade Center (21 June 2005)
- I mean, why didn't these morons leave New Orleans before the hurricane? I'll tell you why: because they wanted to rape and loot! That's just the way some people are! And if they're black — if the rapists and looters are black — it's not George Bush's fault! We've had these problems ever since the Emancipation Proclamation. Once the whites leave town, all you've got is overwhelming lawlessness. That's not racism, Mr. Snerdley; it's a proven, demonstrable fact. Have you even seen a ghetto in Greenwich, Connecticut? I rest my case.
- Reputedly on (12 September 2005); the earliest mention yet found of this statement is one at a blog called Hear Me Roar on (27 September 2005); no major media or published sources have been found.
- I'm just watching Sen. "Dick Turban," ah, Dick Turban is doing his — from Illinois — he of Club G'itmo fame. Ha! I wish Roberts would have shown up in the Club G'itmo T-shirt today. Maybe, maybe a Club G'itmo java coffee cup, just for Dick Turban. Ah, but anyway, Dick Turban.
- On Dick Durbin (12 September 2005), as quoted in "Limbaugh referred to Sen. Durbin as 'Dick Turban' at Media Matters (14 September 2005)
- It's one thing to have a sizable minority like the Democrats stand in your way, but it is just unacceptable when a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of Republicans in Congress also rear up in opposition and join the liberal Democrats to derail an agenda. At some point that has to be faced. It has to be faced because these RINOs, these moderates, are undermining our agenda on taxes; they are undermining our agenda on spending; they are undermining our agenda on oil drilling, and they are undermining the war on terror — and I'll give you some names. You want some names? Here they are: Olympia Snowe, John McCain, George Voinovich, Mike Castle, Christopher Shays, and about 30 to 35 others.
- (11 November 2005)
- I don't care if they're Republican liberals or Democrat liberals, they're still liberals. They're not "moderates." Don't hit me with that. There's no such thing as a moderate. A moderate is just a liberal disguise, and they are doing everything they can to derail the conservative agenda, and they've been frustrated, they haven't been able to do anything about it because conservatism has been so strong. This propaganda attack on the president has weakened him.
- (11 November 2005)
- I can do better running commentary of what Jimmy Carter says than of him actually saying it.
- (7 February 2006)
- They oughtta change Black History Month to Black Progress Month and start measuring it.
- (27 February 2006)
- She's got about as much respect as an iguana swimming around in your bathtub.
- On Nancy Pelosi (26 April 2006)
- Liberal talk radio is nothing more than a pimple on the rear end of a pig.
- (19 May 2006)
- I'm just telling you that the — the — the orgy and the orgasm that has been taking place in the media since Friday and with the Democrats is — it's all coordinated, and it's all — it's all oriented toward the election. There's no concern about the kid — no concern about the children.
- Referring to the Mark Foley scandal (2 October 2006); as quoted in "Limbaugh: Democrats 'set Foley up ... it's all coordinated'" at Media Matters (2 October 2006)
- In their hearts and minds and their crotches, they don't have any problem with what Foley did. They've defended it over the — over the years.
- On Democrat reaction to the Mark Foley scandal (2 October 2006); as quoted in "Limbaugh: Democrats 'set Foley up ... it's all coordinated'" at Media Matters (2 October 2006)
- He is exaggerating the effects of the disease. He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act... This is really shameless of Michael J Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting.
- About Fox's Parkinson's Disease, referring to his appearance in Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill's political ad (23 October 2006), as quoted in "Limbaugh on Michael J. Fox ad for MO Dem: 'Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting'" at at Media Matters (23 October 2006)
- The media, the sports media, has got social concerns that they are first and foremost interested in, and they're dumping on this guy — Rex Grossman — for one reason, folks, and that's because he is a white quarterback ...They, they just want this guy not to do well 'cause he's a white quarterback ... But the guy's been targeted for destruction.
- (5 February 2007)
- I want to say something for the record here, folks, on April the 12th: We conservatives are the ones standing for free speech. We conservatives are the ones standing for diversity of thought and honest communication because we are not afraid of the free flow of ideas.
- On Don Imus being fired (12 April 2007)
- Here is a Morning Update that we did recently, talking about fake soldiers. This is a story of who the left props up as heroes. They have their celebrities and one of them was Army Ranger Jesse MacBeth. Now, he was a "corporal." I say in quotes. Twenty-three years old. What made Jesse MacBeth a hero to the anti-war crowd wasn't his Purple Heart; it wasn't his being affiliated with post-traumatic stress disorder from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. No. What made Jesse MacBeth, Army Ranger, a hero to the left was his courage, in their view, off the battlefield, without regard to consequences. He told the world the abuses he had witnessed in Iraq, American soldiers killing unarmed civilians, hundreds of men, women, even children. In one gruesome account, translated into Arabic and spread widely across the Internet, Army Ranger Jesse MacBeth describes the horrors this way: "We would burn their bodies. We would hang their bodies from the rafters in the mosque." Now, recently, Jesse MacBeth, poster boy for the anti-war left, had his day in court. And you know what? He was sentenced to five months in jail and three years probation for falsifying a Department of Veterans Affairs claim and his Army discharge record. He was in the Army. Jesse MacBeth was in the Army, folks, briefly. Forty-four days before he washed out of boot camp. Jesse MacBeth isn't an Army Ranger, never was. He isn't a corporal, never was. He never won the Purple Heart, and he was never in combat to witness the horrors he claimed to have seen. You probably haven't even heard about this. And, if you have, you haven't heard much about it. This doesn't fit the narrative and the template in the Drive-By Media and the Democrat Party as to who is a genuine war hero. Don't look for any retractions, by the way. Not from the anti-war left, the anti-military Drive-By Media, or the Arabic websites that spread Jesse MacBeth's lies about our troops, because the truth for the left is fiction that serves their purpose. They have to lie about such atrocities because they can't find any that fit the template of the way they see the US military. In other words, for the American anti-war left, the greatest inconvenience they face is the truth.
- (26 September 2007)
- Limbaugh: What is the imperative for pulling out? What's in it for the United States to pull out? They, I don't think they have an answer for that other than, "Well, we gotta bring the troops home."
Guest: Yeah, and, you know what...
Limbaugh: Save the, keep the troops safe, or whatever. I, it's not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.
Guest: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and stuff.
Limbaugh: The phony soldiers.
Guest: The phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their country.
Limbaugh: They joined to be in Iraq.- (26 September 2007)
- Again, this is a willful and missing of the context of this program. We have discussed many of these phony soldiers over the course of the past few months. We discuss them constantly. MacBeth was just the latest. I have a press release here from the United States attorney's office, the Western District, State of Washington, September 21st of this year. Headline: "Northwest Crackdown on Fake Veterans in Operation Stolen Valor — Phony vets scam more than 1.4 million and damage image of honorable veterans.
- (2 October 2007)
- The Jesse MacBeth story was done early morning on Tuesday, September 25th on our 600-plus radio stations around the country as a Morning Update, we call it. The video podcast of that update went out Monday afternoon to our subscribers at RushLimbaugh.com. The Jesse MacBeth story and all the other stories, Scott whatever his name was from the New Republic, and there are any number of them — had been told on this show for weeks and months prior to this phone call on Wednesday where you lift the term "phony soldiers" and try to create a smear out of it.
- (2 October 2007)
- There is a man identified as Brian McGough. I'm not sure how he pronounces it. I haven't watched the ad. He discusses his service in Iraq, the wounds he suffered there. He says to me in this ad, "Until you have the guts to call me a phony soldier to my face, stop telling lies about my service." You know, this is such a blatant use of a valiant combat veteran — lying to him about what I said, then strapping those lies to his belt, sending him out via the media and a TV ad to walk into as many people as he can walk into. This man will always be a hero to this country with everyone. Whoever pumped him full of these lies about what I said and embarrassed him with this is betraying him. They're betraying this soldier. Unless he actually believes what he's saying, in which case it's just so unfortunate and sad, when the truth of what I said is right out there to be learned.
- On a VoteVets.org ad in response to Limbaugh's use of the phrase "phony soldiers" (2 October 2007)
- Again, I want to apologize today to all of you in the United States military, active duty and retired for this smear. I am not apologizing for myself. I'm apologizing for MediaMatters.org, for Hillary Clinton, for Harry Reid. I'm apologizing for all of these groups who are undertaking efforts to demoralize you. They will not apologize to you for their actions, nor will they apologize to me, but I want to apologize to you on their behalf for this storm having been created out of thin air, out of a total lie. It breaks my heart. But I know you're tough enough to deal with it, much tougher than they are, and you deal with it honestly, up front, and facing bullets — real results. The rest of us are just facing words. You all are the real heroes. Your work is being besmirched and impugned — and several in this country are seeking the defeat of you and your mission. We will not let it happen.
- (2 October 2007)
- All these things that the Democrats have said over the years about quotas and affirmative action and discrimination and all that... if they really meant it, Hillary Clinton would stand aside and say, 'Senator Obama, it is your turn.'
- (14 January 2008)
- It's so simple: I am a conservative who puts the country first, not a political party or a particular nominee.
- (22 January 2008)
- In a capitalist economy such as ours, markets correct. Remember that word: 'correct'. Businesses, out of necessity, correct their mistakes. Can I give you an example of something that does not correct its mistakes very often, if ever? Bureaucracies.
- (22 January 2008)
- If you're Ted Kennedy and you call Bill Clinton to say, 'Look, you have to dial this down, this is not dignified', Clinton could come back and say, 'Hey, at least Monica is still alive.'
- (24 January 2008)
What Are You Proud of America?
- Full transcript online [Members only (28 March 2008)]
- I want to continue this discussion about oil and alternative fuel sources and so forth and the whole notion of a free market, and entrepreneurism, and zero-sum games. Way too many of you, because of the effort to demonize oil — not just because of the mistaken notion that our purchases of oil are funding terrorism. That's ridiculous. Terrorists are not using oil revenues to be funded. Even that aside, oil has been successfully demonized in this country to the point that otherwise intelligent, educated people think we can just get rid of it tomorrow. They're operating under the assumption that there is an alternative energy already out there, "We just refuse to use it," because Big Oil and Big Lobbyists and Big Republicans are keeping us from this alternative energy. Let me tell you. Look at me, folks. Look at me. The only alternative energy that we have right now or for the next 20 or 30 years, is the energy we refuse to drill for in ANWR: oil. The only alternative energy we have for the next 20 or 30 years is oil in the Gulf of Mexico that we refuse to drill for but the ChiComs and the Cubans are drilling for it in the Gulf, and the Mexicans are. We did lay claim to a huge field up in the Arctic Circle recently.
But the liberal Democrats will not let our country pursue this alternative energy. They will not let us drill for it; they will not let us refine it. They will not allow it to happen. Above and beyond that, this zero-sum game aspect, the idea that we can just get rid of oil tomorrow or next year or five years from now, and replace it with something that's just as productive, efficient, and economical is absurd. It is just intellectually absurd. So is the notion that oil is evil. So is the notion that it has been so demonized. Oil is not evil. Oil is our friend. It is one of our best friends. It is one of our most valuable friends.
- Now, this is an illustration. I just asked you: What in this country are you proud of, versus 30, 40 years ago what we were proud of? We were proud of all of this. We were puffed up with pride about all of this! We were proud of our achievements. We were proud of our accomplishments. We were appreciative of our freedom. But now look at what they've made us hate. Look at what they've made us detest. Look at the absolute BS that they have more and more educated people believing — that, oil is just a conspiracy, that there is a replacement. "There's alternative fuels out there, but they don't want to release 'em because Big Oil and big Republicans and Halliburton, Cheney, Bush. They're all in a conspiracy to keep it from threatening their own investments in oil." Is it not shocking, ladies and gentlemen, to realize just how few educated Americans understand how the world works? More than that, isn't it scary to understand how few educated Americans understand how their own country works?
- I maintain to you, if you have any agreement with things that I have exaggerated here — if you do hate the automobile industry, if you hate Wall Street, if you hate the banks, if you hate the financial industry, if you hate the airline industry, if you hate the pharmaceutical industry, if you hate retail — if you have resentments for all these industries, and think that your only protection is government — then you really, really need to grab yourself by the wrist as hard as you can and ask yourself, "What the hell happened to you and who made you feel this way?" The one area of the media that people respect and like in conjunction with American liberals and socialists has made you feel this way. You hate oil? Is it rational? What the hell, folks? "That's right, Mr. Limbaugh! It's five dollars in California, four dollars elsewhere, three dollars other places. It's not right. Somebody's gouging us." Wait a minute! I thought you guys were all hoping for high prices down the road so it would lead to conservation? You can't make liberals happy no matter what they get. Even if it's what they want, it's never enough. There's a political party, and its allies who feed off of your paranoia, feed off of your hatred for all things great in America.
- They feed off of your rage that they have made you believe, things like: "You are getting shafted by everybody else, and only government can protect you and make these wrongs right." You need to get hold of yourselves, take a look around your great country, and ask yourself why you're no longer proud of it when you used to be. 'Cause there's no reason for anybody not to be proud of this country. You all live here. You all are seeking your best performance, opportunity, because you know your country provides it. Yet some of you — not you people. I know you people are not of this mindset. But so many Americans seem to be, and so they're trying to do something positive while feeling absolutely enraged all the time. Hatred for America is real. You've seen it. You've heard it. You've read it. It's out there, and it's in larger numbers than you know. And the people who hate this country are the genuine mind-numbed robots. They have been talked into it with years and years and years of propaganda. Just ask yourself, when you have a free moment — maybe bring it up at dinner if you have a family still eats together now and then. Ask them, "What are you proud of in America?" Don't lead 'em anywhere. Just say, "What are proud of, when you think about America. What are you proud of?" and then deal with what you get. It will be interesting.
Alternative Fuels and Freedom
- The United States is not a zero-sum game. Meaning when somebody gets hired, it does not mean somebody gets fired. Meaning when somebody earns an additional five dollars, somebody has lost an additional five dollars. It doesn't mean that it's either oil or else. The whole concept of the United States, the capitalist system, is the free market — and the free market is fueled by freedom! Freedom leads to ingenuity, invention, entrepreneurism, and what is the pursuit? The pursuit is profit. The profit derives from success. Now, there's some charlatans in our free market. The people in carbon offset businesses are sharks. They are pure frauds! They are convincing people to pay them X-amount of dollars for whatever, to plant trees, to soak up the additional carbon footprint of what is "allowed." Allowed by who? Who says that there is a maximum carbon footprint? There is no such law, there is no such standard, because we have freedom!
If you want to have a 30,000-square-foot house and a big-ass swimming pool and a bunch of outdoor lights and you can afford it and you pay for it, and there are people that provide it. End of story. You are not guilty! You are not guilty. No, you are not. Just because somebody else doesn't have a 30,000-square-foot house, doesn't have a big-ass swimming pool and outdoor lights, doesn't mean they're innocent and you are guilty. As this relates to alternative fuels, oil is the most plentiful energy source we have. It's the most efficient. But while oil is being used, and while it is being exploited, the United States taxpayer, ladies and gentlemen, already spends billions of dollars on alternative energy research — and you can bet that the private sector is investing in it, too, and do you know why? Because we are a growing country and everybody needs energy! We're not going to stay the United States if we start reducing energy usage. Conservation is not the answer. So because a free market's percolating and gurgling and burbling out there, somewhere in this mix will come the magical alternative fuel source. It may not be for a hundred years, it may not be for 50, but it will happen, and it will happen all by itself ... if we stay free.
- Oil is not the enemy. We can peacefully co-exist with oil while looking for the miracle alternative fuel source that everybody wants, but we're going to have to do that while using oil. Oil is not the enemy, folks. It's our buddy.
Catch phrases
- These are signature comments which have been repeated in various shows (but citations of the earliest incidents of them would be welcomed).
- A glittering jewel of colossal ignorance.
- A harmless, lovable little fuzz ball.
- All-knowing, all-caring, all-sensing, all-feeling, Maha-Rushie
- At the cutting-edge of societal evolution
- Behind the golden EIB microphone
- ... Drive-by Media ...
- ... for all you people in Rio Linda ...
- ... having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
- I am a highly-trained broadcast specialist
- ... in my formerly nicotine stained fingers.
- Talent on loan from God.
- ... with half my brain tied behind my back — just to make it fair.
Unsourced
- ... amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke.
- Compassion is no substitute for justice.
- Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society.
- He is Howard Dean without the charisma.
- On John Kerry
- I know these people like I know every square inch of my glorious naked body.
- On Democrats
- Variant: I know Democrats like every square inch of my glorious naked body.
- If Thomas Jefferson thought taxation without representation was bad, he should see how it is with representation.
- I'm doing what I was born to do. That's host. You're doing what you were born to do. That's listen. Together, we make a heck of a team.
- Just another dead doper. And a dirt bag.
- On Jerry Garcia on the occasion of his death; a caller actually first said "just another dead doper" Limbaugh then repeated it.
- Kurt Cobain died of a drug-induced suicide, I just — he was a worthless shred of human debris.
- Liberal Democrats are inexorably opposed to tax cuts, because tax cuts give people more power, and take away from the role of government.
- Make a freight train take a dirt road.
- On the physical appearance of Joycelyn Elders
- No nation ever taxed itself into prosperity.
- OK, folks, I think I got enough information here to tell you about the contents of this fax that I got. Brace yourselves. This fax contains information that I have just been told will appear in a newsletter to Morgan Stanley sales personnel this afternoon ... What it is is a bit of news which says ... there's a Washington consulting firm that has scheduled the release of a report that will appear, it will be published, that claims that Vince Foster was murdered in an apartment owned by Hillary Clinton, and the body was then taken to Fort Marcy Park.
- Sexual harrasment at this work station will not be reported. However, it will be graded!
- You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case the government fails to follow the first one.
Quotes about Limbaugh
- Compared to some talk radio hosts, racism is not central to Rush Limbaugh's shtick. But there has been a pattern of commentary indicating his willingness to exploit prejudice against blacks to further his on-air arguments.
- Jeff Cohen and Steve Rendall in "Limbaugh : A Color Man Who Has A Problem With Color?" in FAIR and The Los Angeles Times (6 July 2000)
- I did issue a statement saying that I thought it was inappropriate, and perhaps Mr. Limbaugh didn't mean it, but he should not have said it.
- John McCain, on the "phony soldiers" remark, as quoted in "Republicans Stand with Rush; Democrats Continue to Distort" (4 October 2007)
- Rush Limbaugh makes more serious points while clowning around than a whole page full of New York Times columnists make while being solemn and pompous.
- Thomas Sowell [1] (27 October 2000)
- My initial reaction is disgust. How someone can sit in that chair and say that I am a car bomber or — excuse me, a suicide bomber — is disgusting. I have seen the after-effects of a suicide bomb. I have friends that were hurt by suicide bombs. It makes me mad down to a place where I can"t even think to describe. It's just repugnant.
- Purple heart recipient Sgt. Brian McGough's response to a Limbaugh metaphor saying that someone was "strapping those lies to his belt", on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, MSNBC (3 October 2007)
- Who’s off his meds and is exaggerating the effects of his illness? Comedian Rush Limbaugh, that’s who!
- Keith Olbermann while naming Limbaugh "Worst Person in the World" on Countdown with Keith Olbermann referencing how Limbaugh said that of Michael J. Fox. Oct. 26, 2006
- Most of us here in the media are what I call infotainers...Rush Limbaugh is what I call a disinfotainer. He entertains by spreading disinformation.
- Rush has so much contempt for his listeners. He has contempt for you. Because day after day after day after day, he pulls stuff out of his butt that isn't true, and...he's not held accountable for it. No, you don't hold him accountable for it. For you it's just, "Ok...that was wrong, but......Why does he (Rush Limbaugh) say something like that? He either knows it isn't true, or-he can't possibly know that it's true?...There is certainly no certainty there on his part of "I'm going to tell the truth now.
- Al Franken, after he played his friend Mark Luther a clip of Rush Limbaugh telling his listeners that John Kerry's acceptance speech never mentions The War on Terror. The Al Franken Show, (3 August 2004)
- You know, if you played a drinking game where you did a shot every time Rush Limbaugh attacked someone for being elite, you'd almost be as wasted as Rush Limbaugh.
- Bill Maher, talking about right-wing attacks on elites on Real Time with Bill Maher (13 April 2007)
- Yes, I have heard them for myself. I have read the transcripts. I have heard the audio. I was asked if I would be interested in doing an ad. I told them I would be as long as I agreed with the language of the ad. I read the language of the ad and agreed with it. It's something that I stand by and stick by. I do believe it and I can think for myself. And for Rush Limbaugh to say that an American soldier like me can't think for myself because I speak out against the Iraq war is preposterous.... A lot of veterans and troops don't believe in the war. What he is really saying is that a growing, large number of veterans can't think for themselves.
- Sgt. Brian McGough's response to Limbaugh's implication that he was lied to about Limbaugh's "phony soldiers" comment before doing an ad for VoteVets.org, on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, MSNBC (3 October 2007)
- Given Mr. Limbaugh’s history of support for our soldiers, it would be unfair for me to assume his statements were intended to personally indict combat soldiers simply because they didn’t share his own views on the war in Iraq.
- Mark P. Mays, President of Clear Channel Communications, in "Limbaugh Broadcaster Comes to Radio Host's Defense" FoxNews.com (3 October 2007)
- Everyone knows that Rush Limbaugh and I don't agree on everything in life, and maybe that is kind of an understatement ... I strongly believe when we can put our differences aside, even Harry Reid and Rush Limbaugh, we should do that and try to accomplish good things for the American people.
- Airing anti-Rush Limbaugh commercials during the Rush Limbaugh show would only conflict with the listeners who have chosen to listen to Rush Limbaugh.
- A WJNO spokesman, explaining why the Palm Beach station will not honor Limbaugh's promise to air a VoteVets.org ad during his radio show in his town of residence [2]
- We have no intention of prosecuting Rush Limbaugh because lying through your teeth and being stupid isn't a crime.
- Leo Jennings, a spokesperson for the office of the Ohio Attorney General, after Limbaugh urged Ohio Republicans to reregister as Democrats to disrupt the Democratic primary, which would be a felony if done with fraudulent intent; reported in "Limbaugh safe from voter-fraud charges", The Columbus Dispatch, March 28, 2008
External links