They're debating the Defense Authorization Bill, but Harkin is upset that I dominate so much of Armed Forces Radio Network and that so few "progressives" have a chance to be heard.
DUNG HEAP HARKIN: What they actually get is nothing on the -- on the progressive [liberal] side. But they get a hundred percent [sic--33%] of Rush Limbaugh; 2,460 minutes [sic--300] a week? That's balance? That's fair? That's not balance, that's monopoly. This is called propagandizing our troops. Propagandizing our troops. Yes I said it, and I will say it again: They are propagandizing our troops.
Rush Limbaugh went ballistic (chuckle) on his radio show. "Ooooh, Senator Harkin," he said, "he's now trying to take me off the air. He wants to deny you, the troops, the opportunity to hear me," and he went on and on like that. Well, I had other reporters and press people ask me about it, and I said, "Well, typical of Rush Limbaugh. He doesn't understand what's happening." You know, he wouldn't know the truth if it hit him in the face. So all I gotta do is stand there and say, "What I wanted was balance. What Rush Limbaugh wants is monopoly."
have someone oppose him and get equal time might be the same, in his own little mind -- and I do mean "little" -- it would be the same as taking him off the air. That's the way he probably thinks. But I've never cawed for him [to be] taken off the air.
Here's what Rush Limbaugh had to say about Abu Gehribb. He called it a "fraternity prank."
DUNG HEAP HARKIN: He dubbed the humiliation of inmates a "brilliant maneuver... No different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation at Yale."
He described the images of torture as, again, a quote from Rush Limbaugh, "pictures of homoeroticism that look like standard good old American pornography."
That's Rush Limbaugh, talking to our troops, a hundred percent of the time. He said of the pictures at Abu Gehribb -- and again, this is a quote from Rush Limbaugh. "If you take these pictures and bring them back and have them taken in an American city and put on an American website, they might win a video award from the pornography industry." I ask: Does this represent the views and attitudes of the average American citizen?
Vice President Cheney is fighting the McCain amendment. Well, maybe Vice President Cheney and Rush Limbaugh feel that way but by gosh, I don't think too many other Americans do. That's why we had a 90-9 vote here. And yet, what do our armed forces personnel hear when they tune in the radio? They hear Rush Limbaugh tell them, "Oh, it's a prank, a brilliant maneuver. Good old American pornography." That's what they're hearing.
troops to think? What are they to think? Are they to think, "Well, that's Rush Limbaugh and that's what we hear, so therefore that must represent what the American people back home feel about this that maybe it wasn't so bad after all." That's why we need some opposing views on Armed Forces Radio.
(screaming crowd) For Paul Wellstone, will you stand up and keep fighting for social and economic justice? Say YES!
CROWD: YEEEEES!
For Paul will you stand up and keep fighting for cleaner air and cleaner water, for a cleaner environmental for our children and our future! Say YES!
CROWD: (cheering wildly)
DUNG HEAP HARKIN: For Paul...For Paul will you stand up and keep fighting, for peace and understanding and to stop the exploitation of women and children around the world? Say YES!
CROWD: YEEEEES!
DUNG HEAP HARKIN: For Paul! For Paul, will you stand up, and keep fighting to end discrimination, based on race, gender, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation? Say YES!
CROWD: (Screaming and cheering)
DUNG HEAP HARKIN: For Paul... For Paul, will you stand up and keep fighting for the poor, the homeless, and those left on the roadside of life? Say YES!
CROWD: YEEEEEEEEEES!
DUNG HEAP HARKIN: Now let's all get on that bus together that, green bus, that bus of hope, and let's keep it moving to a better America!
CROWD: (Cheers, whoops)
DUNG HEAP HARKIN: Keep -- keep standing up! Keep fighting! Keep saying YES to justice, to hope! For people, for Paul!
CROWD: (pounding stage)
DUNG HEAP HARKIN: For Paul! Paul! Paul! Paul! Paul! For Paul!
US Senate Debates Rush Limbaugh
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Originally Posted by Rush Limbaugh
