RUSH: Westchester, New York. This is Steve. Thank you, sir. You’re first. It’s great to have you here.

CALLER: Great to be here, Rush, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for you standing up for the Constitution like you do. I have two quick comments. One tongue-in-cheek and one very serious. The tongue-in-cheek one is I feel that the advertisers that advertise on the Spike TV channel should boycott Spike TV until he apologizes for what he’s done.

RUSH: (laughing.) Well, wait a minute now, Spike has apologized.

CALLER: Oh, did he? I missed that. When did that come about?

RUSH: A couple days ago. He apologized for giving out the wrong address. He didn’t apologize for giving out the address. He apologized for getting it wrong and promised to get it right next time.

CALLER: Yeah, okay.

RUSH: He called the two people and he made peace with ’em.

CALLER: Oh, okay, okay.

RUSH: After he did that Roseanne Barr got ticked off, so she tweeted out their address, since Spike had apologized. I’m not kidding. Roseanne Barr did.

CALLER: Oh, it never ends, does it?

RUSH: No, never does.

CALLER: But on the serious side of things, the American citizen, if Obamacare goes down, the American citizen gets their protection that the Constitution affords them. But, on the other side of the coin, the American taxpayer needs protection from the cost of everything that has occurred with this monstrosity of a bill. Even before it got to the Supreme Court this has to have cost the American taxpayer $200 million. Now, why doesn’t that factor into the federal deficit if it gets voted down? We should be refunded.

RUSH: You’re not serious. You’re just trying to make a point. You don’t expect to be paid back for the cost of this, do you?

CALLER: Well, I would love to see the proponents of these bills be confronted with —

RUSH: That’s not gonna happen. That’s totally unrealistic. In fact, it’s the other end of the spectrum you need to be looking at. The day after the first day of oral arguments, it might have been after the second day, the IRS announced that they were hiring 4,000 new agents to be able to meet the requirements of Obamacare. IRS, 4,000 new agents. Those 4,000 new agents are primarily going to be tracking down people who don’t buy health insurance so that they can be fined. Four thousand new agents.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I am Rush Limbaugh, half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.

Roseanne Barr tweeted the address of George Zimmerman’s parents after Spike Lee apologized for tweeting the address of the old people he thought were in the house where George Zimmerman lived.

Okay, Open Line Friday. We move on to Cindy in Walled Lake, Michigan. Great to have you on the program. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush, how are you?

RUSH: Very well. Thanks very much.

CALLER: Good. I just went grocery shopping and as I was checking out I saw that Trayvon is on the cover of People magazine, and I was furious. What bothered me is that everybody is so focused on this story and there’s so many important things going on —

RUSH: Well, wait a minute now, it’s People magazine. It’s not exactly The Economist.

CALLER: No, I understand that. But if all the people that buy People magazine, if all of these celebrities that are focused on this story would focus their attention on our troops that are in Afghanistan. Where they’re not wanted and they’re now sleeping under the guardian angels program, which is where the troops are sleeping and then have other troops who have to stay awake and stand over them while they’re sleeping so that they’re protected. Where the officers have to turn the desk facing the door so they know who’s walking in their offices. Where 300 advisers have left the country and will not come back until safety precautions are enacted —

RUSH: Cindy, let me share your frustration. I know exactly how you feel, and I know exactly what you’re thinking, too. And, by the way, this picture of Trayvon Martin on the cover of People is three years old —

CALLER: Exactly —

RUSH: — showing a 13- or 14-year-old picture of him. Now, here’s the thing. I experience what you are experiencing. You know I’m a big football fan. I love the National Football League. I know a lot of people there, players, general managers, owners and so forth. I want to make sure what I say this right. It’s a thought that hits me every day. I’ve never tried verbalizing it, so I’m winging it here. But I read the sports media — this is not a criticism of the sports media. I read the sports media, and I listen to and read quotes from athletes and so forth. And I ask myself, “Do these people know what’s going on in the country or do they care about what’s going on in the country?” You’ve got People magazine, there’s Trayvon Martin on the cover, and you’re wondering, we’re losing the country —

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: — and why isn’t everybody on board? Why isn’t everybody on board with this? Why doesn’t everybody understand what’s at stake? I have the same reaction. I know there’s a sports section of the paper, and there’s a sports section here and it’s independent and different, and I’m not suggesting that that change. I just sometimes wonder if, for example, take a popular actor or a popular athlete or football player, and if we ever found out what they think about what’s going on, what kind of chance to influence sports fans would there be in a positive way? Now, athletes are never gonna do this. I’m whistling Dixie here, especially those who are popular and big enough to endorse, because they don’t want to alienate half the audience by expressing —

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: — a political opinion. I understand that. Still, the times to me are so drastic that I look at whatever the group is, be it athletes, sports teams, in your case the pop culture, acting community or whatever entertainment community, and I marvel at what appears to be a total detachment from the rest of life that those people have. And I wonder if they really are. I wonder if they really are detached. All these athletes who are getting all this money, do they care how much of what they’re earning is gonna be taken from them in the form of taxes? I wonder if any of ’em care about it. The detachment from the rest of society throughout the entertainment world, including sports, is something that intrigues me.

CALLER: I think most Americans, unfortunately, or a lot of people, especially in the celebrity world don’t look past their own hand. They put their hand out and where it ends is as far as they look. And they miss it.

RUSH: I know. You’re right, particularly with the pop culture and entertainment. It’s its own world, and, you know, what’s on Entertainment Tonight is, you know, what are the Kardashians doing, you know, gee I’d like to be the Kardashians, all this, it’s frustrating. It’s always been this way, too. There’s nothing new about it. But don’t they buy gasoline? I know they make a lot of money, but don’t they live in the same world that we do? Do they not see the changes forthcoming? Maybe they don’t. In the world of sports there is no health care problem. Team pays for everything. There’s no concern for the costs. I’m not expressing this right. I’m getting close. But I know exactly how you feel. I know your point. Here’s People magazine, Trayvon Martin on the cover, and what does that matter given what’s going on with the US military in Afghanistan and Iraq and our policy? What does that matter — it’s what you’re saying — and do the people read People even know what’s going on? And if they don’t, you’re really bothered by it. I understand totally what you’re saying. It’s frustrating as hell, I know.

CALLER: It is. It is. And it’s a damn shame.

RUSH: Yeah, it is. And this, by the way, is not to say that the Trayvon Martin story is in and of itself irrelevant. It’s highly indicative of where we are culturally. And it stands to reason People magazine would go to town with it. For them it’s a smart business decision. But nevertheless I understand how it affects you. You’re wondering if the people who read that, buy that magazine, are they connected, are they engaged, do they have the slightest idea how they, too, are threatened by the problems facing the country? I know some of you think, “Well, Rush, you say you know ’em. Don’t you talk to ’em about it?” Yeah. And most of them don’t want to talk about it. I can’t name any names. Coaches, players, would be scared to death if their bosses or other players found out what they think about things.

It’s the old thing about fear. Everybody governed by it, dominated by it, fear and intimidation. But what I’m trying to verbalize goes beyond that. I’m actually wondering — let me see if I can put it this way. If Obama and the Democrats succeed ultimately where they’re going, the impact on everybody is going to be such that sports is no longer gonna be an escape. It’s gonna be caught up in everything. It’s gonna be affected by all of this. I’m gonna have to think about this. I may have to actually sit down and peck this out at my computer keyboard to flesh it out of my brain, ’cause right now it’s just a bunch of synapses, neurotic synapses explosions in there, and they’re not coming together in a cogent thought. I’ll work on it for next week, I promise. In the meantime, Cindy, I know exactly what you mean.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: This is Isabella, one of my all-time top ten favorite female names, Isabella. She is from Elgin, Texas. Hi, and welcome to Open Line Friday. Hi.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. I can’t believe I got through and talking to you. I’ve won the lottery. I don’t need to go buy a ticket now. But, Rush, you were talking to that young lady with regard to Trayvon’s picture on the front of People magazine. You were trying to describe what, you know, kind of your sense and her sense of indignation toward, you know, more attention being paid say to Trayvon versus our soldiers. And I’m wondering if what you were looking for was a prioritization, the ability of the American people to prioritarize our soldiers under fire versus, say, you know — granted, a young boy being shot is very important of course. But, you know, we need to prioritize. I mean our Constitution is being shredded. Let’s enumerate what is important in our day-to-day life rather than —

RUSH: Well, that’s close. You know, that’s helpful in helping me explain this.

CALLER: Okay.

RUSH: I don’t read People, so I can’t give you any examples out of that other than the one that was cited. But as I read sports blogs, sports websites, sports stories, I wonder, okay, does this reporter know what’s going on outside this? Does this reporter know that his freedom’s at stake here? I just wonder if they’re detached. His priority, these people are sports reporters, that’s what they talk about, that’s what they write about, and they don’t want to mix politics, and I understand that. I’m wondering what’s in their heads. I’m wondering if they’re in the game. I’m wondering if they know what’s going on or if they’re just totally detached in their little world of sports and have no clue because my point is they could be helpful.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: They would help influence people. If somebody that some kid idolizes, some athlete also knew how to talk about constitutional freedom, also knew how to talk about what’s wrong with health care, it would help.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: It would help defeat this. Now, People, I don’t expect People to do stories on the military unless it’s a story about how the government mistreats ’em.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: People is TIME Magazine. It’s a pop culture celebrity thing, and the Trayvon Martin story is made to order for People. It’s Duke lacrosse. That picture that they put on the cover is three years old. It’s an angelic picture. It’s not who the boy was when he was killed. There’s nothing in the story that justifies the kid being killed that we know so far. I don’t mean that, but I’m not at all surprised that People and the people that work there are not even interested in doing a story on the US military and the trials and tribulations. The only time they’re interested in the military is when one of them goes berserk and shoots himself or a family or when they can take a shot at the military.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: They’re not interested in building it up. But they’ll build up the Kardashians all day long because they sell magazines and, you know, whether you know it or not, there are millions of young women who want to be Kim Kardashian.

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: There are millions of ’em.

CALLER: Rush, will you indulge me, may I make one more brief point?

RUSH: Yeah, sure.

CALLER: Do you remember, your memory is oftentimes better than mine, but do you remember back in 2006 when the stock market started going up and the press got on George Bush, President George Bush at that time that the stock market was going up, but it was a jobless recovery and only the rich were getting along and getting better, and here we have the stock market going up but I haven’t heard any stories along that line. I don’t know if you recall that story.

RUSH: I do, of course, and you’re exactly right. Of course I remember that. I also remember the media back then when the unemployment rate was 4.7 to 5%, trying to tell everybody we were in a recession. I remember, oh, yes. That’s as clear as a bell. Only when Obama or Democrats are in power is the stock market going up a good thing. When Republicans are in office and the stock market goes up, that means that whoever the Republican president, his rich friends are getting rich because he’s doing policies to help ’em get rich while screwing the little guy. When gasoline prices were rising in the Bush years, that was Bush and Cheney’s fault because Cheney used to run Halliburton, that’s oil to these people, and Bush family, oil. So Bush and Cheney were manipulating the oil market for their own personal portfolio benefit, and there was something that had to be done, but now gas prices are going up, and the stories we get are, “There really isn’t anything a president can do.” So you are absolutely right. That 2006 jobless recovery, unemployment was around 4.5% back then, as opposed to what they say it is now, 8.3 they say it is now, something like that? Isabella, thanks for the call.