Rush Limbaugh launched his phenomenally successful radio broadcast into national syndication on August 1, 1988, with 56 radio stations. Nineteen years later it is heard on nearly 600 stations by approximately 20 million people each week and is the highest rated national radio talk show in America.
Known as the media pundit who reshaped the political landscape with his entertaining and informative brand of conservatism, Mr. Limbaugh is also widely credited with resuscitating AM radio by many industry experts.
In addition to his radio program, broadcast weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. ET, Mr. Limbaugh hosts “The Rush Limbaugh Morning Update,” a 90-second commentary which debuted in March 1992 and airs Monday through Friday. “The Rush Limbaugh Show” and “The Rush Limbaugh Morning Update” are produced and distributed by Premiere Radio Networks.
With his diverse media background, Mr. Limbaugh is also the author of “The Limbaugh Letter,” the most widely read political newsletter in the country, as well as two best-selling books, The Way Things Ought to Be and See, I Told You So, which have sold more than 8.9 million copies. The sales of See, I Told You So set an American publishing record.
In 2000, Mr. Limbaugh tackled the Internet, expanding his media dominance with the launch of RushLimbaugh.com. Employing cutting edge technology, it is one of the most popular radio broadcasting websites. It offers subscribers the opportunity to experience his show via video and audio Podcasting and live streaming audio.
Mr. Limbaugh has been profiled on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” ABC’s “20/20,” and in numerous publications including US News and World Report, National Review, Time Magazine and USA Weekend. Other guest television appearances include “Nightline” with Ted Koppel, “Crossfire,” “Good Morning America,” “CBS This Morning,” “The Today Show,” “The Phil Donahue Show,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Tonight Show,” “This Week,” with David Brinkley, and “Meet the Press” with Tim Russert.
Recognized for his achievements, Mr. Limbaugh received the Marconi Award for Syndicated Radio Personality of the Year given by the National Association of Broadcasters in 1992, 1995, 2000 and 2005. In 1993, he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame and in 1998, into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
Born Rush Hudson Limbaugh III in Jan. 1951 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to a family with generations of attorneys, he chose to explore his passion for broadcasting at age 16 by working on-air as a disc jockey for a radio station in his hometown. After four years, he left for Pittsburgh to work at the former ABC owned and operated KQV. He later moved to Kansas City where he eventually tired of disc jockey life and left broadcasting for business. He joined the Kansas City Royals as director of group sales in Feb. 1979 and later served as director of sales and special events.
By 1983, Mr. Limbaugh got the broadcasting bug back and re-entered radio as a political commentator for KMBZ in Kansas City. A year later, he was the host of a daytime talk show on KFBK in Sacramento, Calif., where he nearly tripled the program’s ratings in four years. From there, he went to New York in 1988 where his record-breaking national show was born.
Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts over the past several days. Today, I am leaving Queen's Hospital in Honolulu, feeling strong and rested. I offer my deepest thanks to the staff and administration there, who provided excellent care and supervision.
I'm going to take several days of rest over this weekend and the early part of next week, and will be back on the radio with you sometime next week, taking the advice of so many of you to rest and fully recover.
I wish each and every one of you a Happy New Year in 2010!
*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.
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Rush's Daily Updates
Friday 03-19-2010 10:36am ET
Every weekday Rush gives you an extra bonus. His daily "Rush Limbaugh Updates" air around 7:20am each day on 920 WHJJ. In case you missed it, you can now hear it here! Click the files below to hear from the man with "Talent on Loan from God."
March 19th-Click Here Rush on Jimmy Carter and Howard Baker
March 18th-Click Here Feds catching criminals on Facebook
March 10th- Click Here The issue that has Democrats panicking
March 9th- Click Here Democrats recent ethical lapses...
March 8th- Click Here blessings for death sentences
March 5th- Click Here College Degrees=Higher Salaries?
March 4th- Click Here President Obama, the "Man-Child"
March 3rd- Click Here Kentucky Republican Senator Jim Bunning Exposes a Democrat Lie
March 2nd- Click Here Remember, this is what liberals do...
March 1st-Click Here Liberals in denial of economic realities
Jan 22nd-Click Here Democrats will pay dearly in November..find out why!
Jan 21st- Click Here Republicans...doomed to wander the wildreness?
Jan 20th- Click Here 1 year anniversary of the Obama Administration
Jan 19th- Click Here Mass Democrats try to regain momentum before the election
Jan. 18th-Click Here Public Colleges to Fund the Wealthy
Pelosi Wants to Thin the Herd, Urges Dems to Make Suicide Vote
Tuesday 03-02-2010 8:17am ET
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Do they have the votes for health care in the House? James Carville on Good Morning America today was asked that very question.
CARVILLE: No. (laughing) I'm glad to hear that [Pelosi]'s confident and you never know, I -- I -- guess she knows more about where her votes are than everybody else but the math is pretty daunting. I think -- I don't think it's impossible but it's going to be difficult. If the bill loses, it will prove Senator DeMint right. It will, I think, by and large be a lot of the president's Waterloo.
RUSH: Well, it's going to be somebody's Waterloo. If it doesn't pass, maybe it's somebody's Waterloo. If it does pass, it's going to be Waterloo for a whole bunch of Democrats -- and Nancy Pelosi is urging them to lose. Folks, I predicted this. I have been warning the Blue Dogs of this for I don't know how many months. I have been saying Pelosi wants to thin her herd in the House. I told you last week: "Imagine you want something so bad, like Sauron in the Lord of the Rings. You want it so bad, it just consumes you. You will do anything, including lose everything you've worked for in order to get it," and Pelosi in effect came out and made me right again, because she's urging Democrats to show "courage." Her definition of "courage" is to vote for this thing knowing nobody wants it, and lose big time. She said, "It took courage to vote for Social Security and Medicare." Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. The real courage is in opposing this. The real courage is in opposing Democrat leaders from the president on down. The real courage -- and imagine this -- is standing with the American people in our representative republic and not force dog food down their throats when they don't even want the can opener.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Back to James Carville now and Pelosi's health care bill. Stephanopoulos said, "James, the other Catch-22 here is that a lot of Democrats who are going to have to take this tough vote may be doomed anyway this year because the political winds are so heavy for them."
CARVILLE: If it goes down, it's going to be a simple statement: The Democrats can't govern. They came in with a majority promising health care and they came away with nothing. How can you trust them to do anything else? And I have to tell you: As a Democrat, that message frightens me -- and to some extent it will probably be true, and we're going to have to acknowledge that. We're going to see how effective our leaders are. We're going to see how effective the White House can be in pushing this through. But, I mean, it's crunch time out there.
RUSH: Yeah, it's crunch time. We gotta find some way to get the American people to want to eat the dog food on this. Now, is Carville not off-script here? I thought all this was the Republicans' fault and Bush's. I thought nothing getting done on health care was all Republicans' fault? I mean, that's what Obama's been saying and Pelosi's been saying. The media's been saying it. And I'm still struck here that "if we didn't get this done our leaders are going to be looked at and it'll be said they can't get anything done." (sigh) What is it? They are willingly committing suicide here. Here's Pelosi. This is Sunday morning on State of the Union on CNN. Candy Crowley is the host. "Why didn't you, at the very beginning, say, 'Come on in here, Congressman Boehner. Come on in here, Congressman Pence. Let's sit down. Where do we start on the health bill?' Not to kind of present a package and then say, 'Well, amend it if you want.' Why didn't you invite the Republicans?"
PELOSI: They had had plenty of opportunity, uh, to make their voices heard, and if they wanted to truly have it... Bipartisanship is a two-way street. But let me say this. The bill can be bipartisan even though the votes might not be bipartisan, because they have made their imprint on this.
RUSH: Okay. So you got Juan Williams saying that Rahm Emanuel has failed to get the American people to eat the dog food. They don't want to eat the dog food. Carville is saying that if health care goes down the tubes it's going to be a total disaster for the Democrat Party. Then you have Pelosi saying that "the bill can be bipartisan even though the votes might not be bipartisan." Are we actually on the air or am I dreaming? We're here. This is live. The tsunami stuff actually happened? Okay. Well, there's Pelosi: "The bill can be bipartisan even though the votes might not be bipartisan. They've had plenty of opportunity to make their voices heard," which they have not. Everything they want to do has been rejected. Then this is the biggie, ladies and gentlemen. This is Elizabeth Vargas on This Week. She was a fill-in host yesterday. "What do you say to your members when it does come to the House to vote on this, who are in real fear of losing their seats in November if they support you now?"
PELOSI: The American people need it. Why are we here? We're not here just on self-perpetuate our service in Congress. We're here to do the job for the American people, to get them results that gives them not only health security but economic security because the health issue is an economic issue for -- for America's families.
RUSH: They don't want it, and Pelosi says, "They'll like it once they've seen the details." They've seen the details! We've seen the details, and nobody wants it. So she's basically telling her troops: "Walk off the cliff! Fall on your swords! The American people need it! We're here to do the job for the American people." Let's just be honest on this one. The American people do not need nor do they want you to do this, Madam Speaker, which is why you have to advise your members to plan on being unemployed to get this passed. I mean, we're dealing with... Well, this is not idiocy, it's not stupidity, it's something far, far worse. She's asking every one of these people in the House that vote for this, or the vast majority of them, to basically say good-bye to their careers, just make it their Waterloo, put to music.
(playing of Waterloo spoof song)
RUSH: That is "white comedian" Paul Shanklin, the vocal portrayal there, Barack Obama and Waterloo.
END TRANSCRIPT
Why Harry Reid's "Negro Dialect" Comment is Devastatingly Racist
Tuesday 01-12-2010 9:57am ET
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Let's go back to the audio sound bites. The same March 4th, 2007, at a breakfast before his big speech, this the same place where Hillary said, "I ain't no ways tired," when she was affecting a black dialect before a black audience. This is democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama.
OBAMA: This is the site of my conception. I am the fruits of your labor. I am the offspring of the movement. So when people ask me whether I've been to Selma before, I tell 'em I'm coming home.
RUSH: When people ask me whether I've been to Selma befo', I tell 'em I'm coming home. He continued.
OBAMA: My grandfather was a cook to the British in Kenya, grew up in a small village, and all his life that's all he was, was a cook and a houseboy and that's what they called him even when he was 60 years old, they called him a houseboy. Wouldn't call him by his last name. Sound familiar? So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don't tell me I'm not coming home when I come to Selma, Alabama. I'm here because somebody marched for our freedom. I'm here because ya'll sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants.
RUSH: And he has been to Selma befo', and he said so. In honor of Harry Reid, we don't do dedications on this program much, but we're going to do one now. This following tune is dedicated to the Senate majority leader, Dingy Harry Reid.
(playing of "Barack the 'Magic Negro'") White comedian Paul Shanklin and the "Barack the 'Magic Negro'" as portrayed vocally by the Reverend Al Sharpton as dedicated to the Senate majority leader Dingy Harry Reid. I want to go back, March of 2008 and share with you again a monologue I did on this program on March the 14th, and this was the opening monologue, and I think this probably had a role in Obama's famous and earth-moving race speech which was four or five days later. The reason I want to go back and repeat this is that it ties right into Harry Reid's no-Negro-dialect comment. Now, the headline, as we headlined it at RushLimbaugh.com: "Barack Obama and Pastor Wright: Far More Than Guilt by Association. -- This pastor was the central force in this church, and that's why Obama chose it. It's why the pastor married them. It's why he baptized their kids. There is a story on the American Thinker blog today by C. Edmund Wright, who is not related to Pastor Wright, by the way. His theory is simply that the choice of this church by Obama was calculated so that Obama could establish his black street cred with certain elements of the American population," because Obama was too clean and articulate, he was too white to win in Chicago 'til Jeremiah Wright gave him black street cred.
Now, Harry Reid likes that he doesn't have a Negro dialect, but the voters in Chicago did not like that 20 years ago. "In other words, he embraced Jeremiah Wright and the church's agenda to 'get his black street cred to escape his "white half."' Now, he's trying to divert attention away from his black street cred. And a little sober reminder here... he is doing this so he can occupy the Oval Office." This is exactly what Harry Reid said. This is exactly what he meant. Now, these are the words of C. Edmund Wright, American Thinker. "We are talking about the leading candidate for the Democrat nomination for president of the United States. Now, this is Mr. C. Edmund Wright's theory, that Obama did this to establish street cred. This was 20 years ago, and did this to mitigate his white half. They chose this church because of the charismatic pastor's beliefs. ... It would be reasonable to conclude that this pastor is one of the reasons that Michelle "My Belle" Obama harbors the views that she does. She's an angry woman running around out there. The pastor doesn't just pop off here and there, folks, like the nutty uncle in the attic that Obama is trying to portray him as. This was his usual way of talking. We have a little bit more from him today. We have some extended segments when we come back from the commercial break."
The point is this is Obama from March 18th of 2008. The point is that C. Edmund Wright's theory about why Obama chose Wright and Wright's church is the exact same thing that Harry Reid said, which I really think if people stopped to think about this and consider it even further, that what Harry Reid said is really devastatingly racist, because if he's saying, which he is, that only light-skinned blacks who don't sound black can be elected, that's more than just awkward, as the NAALCP says, that's much more -- (interruption) they're laughing in there, but that's how to translate what Harry Reid said. He's light-skinned and doesn't sound black. That's why I said I want to know what a black dialect is to Harry Reid, I want him to tell me who has one.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: We're going to start in Omaha with Sarah. Nice to have you here. Hello.
CALLER: Good. Good day to you, Rush. I'm glad you're feeling great.
RUSH: Thank you very much.
CALLER: You sound great. Hey, with regard to the Reid comments: He is racist. It is a racist comment. But, you know, surely Americans... You know, Americans are intelligent people. They know that these people, whether it be Obama, whether it be Pelosi, whether it be Harry Reid, whether it be Hillary, that they all are going to be exactly what they need to to get into office and to get whatever they want. I mean, if you look in the Webster dictionary, "Dialect: A variety of language confine to a certain region." Well, when they go and try and get their votes in one region they're going to sound like that region and then they're going to go to another. But most importantly, Rush, in my opinion this is just another Rahm Emanuel crisis idea for the second full week in 2010. I don't know what he's going to come up for the next week or the next week or the next week.
RUSH: Wait a minute. You're saying that the release of the book is a Rahm Emanuel idea to distract everybody from health care?
CALLER: I think that the timing is. I think the timing is, and this being pulled out is a diversion because it's going to lead us into immigration reform, which is their next big catch that they want.
RUSH: Well, let me tell you something. It has not diverted me. It has not distracted me. I have interwoven health care news, unemployment news, stimulus failure news with all of this stuff today. Now, these books. Books have publication dates that are set way, way in advance. We give these guys credit for being manipulative conspirators and so forth (and they clearly are) but that's not the real story here. I don't think this is something that's being used to divert everybody. I think the real story here, folks (aside from the content of Bill Clinton saying what he said and Harry Reid saying what he said) is that a bunch of liberal journalists knew this all during the campaign and they sat on it. These are reporters. These are journalists from TIME Magazine, ABC. Halperin's worked at a number of places. They had all of this. This happens every year. All these journalists write books to catalog campaigns.
Now, in the case of the stuff in this book about Sarah Palin, they didn't sit on that. There's nothing new in the book about Sarah Palin. But we didn't know Harry Reid said all this, and Harry Reid said, "I thought it was a private conversation off the record." Well, that doesn't matter. He still said it and these guys knew it, and Bill Clinton, too. They sat on this during the campaign. Can you imagine if they had reported this at the time? Well, they saved it, obviously, for their book, which means what? They were seeking financial reward. They held this information for a multiple number of reasons. They knew the book would sell big because it has dynamite stuff. I think one of the authors of the book is saying, "I had no idea that this Harry Reid comment would be such a big deal." You didn't? You didn't think that a comment like that by Harry Reid would be such a big deal and the Clinton comment and all the other things? I'll tell you the stuff in this...
We haven't touch on it yet. The stuff in this book on John and Elizabeth Edwards is just devastating, and I don't doubt a word of it. I mean, they are two people the exact opposite of the image that was projected and portrayed of them and by them and for them. They're not the compassionate, soft-spoken couple. You know, Elizabeth Edwards, they had a PAC, a political action committee, and some of the underlings had screwed up and had not succeeded in purchasing Elizabeth and John's health insurance from the PAC. And she flipped out when she heard that. She said (paraphrased), "If this is not done tomorrow, everybody's health insurance in this PAC is getting canceled. I'm going to cancel it! If you won't take care of John and me, we're getting rid of everybody. We're canceling everybody's health insurance."
It's a true of most Democrats. These aren't the sweet, compassionate, caring and so on. These are vicious, mean people in many, many ways. Ideologically, personally, they are arrogant, condescending. They hold average people in contempt or look at them with contempt. So the big story here is all the stuff that these people sit on. There was another thing. In the 2004 election, I forget who did the book but there was a book about the Kerry campaign and it had similar things in it that had it come out during the campaign, had they come out during the campaign it might have changed the way things went, even though Bush ended up winning. The real indictment here is that journalists on the prowl, on the campaign trail here all of this things and hold them, and they hold back on it. Except the Palin and McCain stuff. I don't think there's anything new in this book about Palin that I haven't heard before -- the stuff that's true, the stuff that isn't true -- and there's a lot in this book about Palin that isn't true.
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