RUSH: This is John in Atlanta. Nice to have you, sir, on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. I know you’re sitting there, you’re saying we should not pass judgment against Michael Vick because nothing has been proven, but I ask you, the O.J. Simpson trial, nothing was proven, he was not convicted, therefore my question is, ‘Do you think O.J. Simpson is a murderer, a killer?’
RUSH: Well, a lot of stuff was proven and the jury just said, screw it. A lot of stuff was proven in the O.J. — come on, folks, what are we doing here?
CALLER: No, I understand proven, but he wasn’t convicted.
RUSH: Gee whiz. A lot of stuff was proven in the O.J. case, the jury just said screw you, LA, jury nullification, find out what it’s like. There’s hardly any doubt. There was a trial, there was presentation of evidence. That hasn’t happened in the Vick case.
CALLER: The 18-page indictment. Have you ride the indictment with all the evidence there?
RUSH: I haven’t read all 18 pages.
CALLER: Well, go ahead and read that and then you can go ahead and pass judgment against Michael Vick.
RUSH: I am trying to share with you my experiences. Look, does the Duke lacrosse case mean anything to you?
CALLER: Absolutely. There was no evidence.
RUSH: There was no evidence whatsoever. It was concocted. The point is, you read the 18 page indictment and he’s guilty, done, over with. Law enforcement is never wrong. Law enforcement would never, ever try to convict somebody who didn’t do anything. Did you hear what Emmitt Smith said about this? Emmitt Smith, the Hall of Fame running back, or soon-to-be Hall of Fame running back with the Dallas Cowboys, he said, ‘I know how these guys work. They’re pressuring Vick to get the guys really behind it.’ I know Emmitt Smith; he’s a smart guy. He thinks that the best way the feds can get the people they really want here is to go after the high profile guy. Now, you have to say that’s possible. We know that this is how things actually work; get Vick to cop out; to tell people in law enforcement what was really going on there; make him the target, make him the subject because he’s high profile. Pressure his life, his future, his career, for him to unload the goods. Anything’s possible here is the point. We just don’t know enough yet to start concluding things.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Apparently even though I am a highly trained broadcast specialist, and even though I am a master communicator, apparently some of you are misunderstanding what I’m saying here. I got an e-mail from a friend. ‘I thought you’d be all for yanking Vick from the team. I know nothing’s proven but it doesn’t look like he’ll be anything but guilty.’ I’m not defending what Vick is alleged to have done! I’m not suggesting he shouldn’t be thrown off the team. The Falcons can do what they want. The NFL can do what they want. He’s an employee there. I’m not objecting to that at all. I’m offering analogies, comparisons. Remember, now, I am reacting here to a couple of statements by people in the latest Sports Illustrated that this with the dogs is ‘worse’ for Atlanta than the Chris Benoit thing where he killed his wife and son and then hanged himself, and the Ray Lewis situation where somebody died in a bar after midnight with a knife. Those things are ‘nothing’ compared to this, we have people quoted as saying.
To put this in perspective, I’m going to try something. It’s probably just going to infuriate some of you even more. I read just the other day that somebody was shooting cats, stray cats with a BB gun in Indianapolis. They’ve been charged with a felony. As I said, his NFL career is over if he wants one. He’s shooting cats with a BB gun, because they were bugging him. Meanwhile, the City of Indianapolis euthanized over 7,000 cats last year. ‘But they did it humanely, Rush. They didn’t shoot them.’ I know they did it humanely. Fine. Okay. But we do this all the time. If you sat down to dinner last night, I guarantee you, whatever you ate was probably electrocuted first, be it a chicken or anything else. When I was a kid, one of the first field trips we had was to a slaughterhouse, and I will never forget the pigs being electrocuted behind the head, behind the ears and hoisted up and being slaughtered. ‘We’re doing that for food, Rush! We’re doing that for food. We weren’t doing that for sport.’ Still, we do it in greater numbers than Vick ever did. ‘But these are dogs, Rush. These are pets.’ I understand the psychology. How many Hurricane Katrina victims abandoned their pets while skedaddling out of town, those that could leave and did? What are we to think of those people and their attitudes and hearts? I’m not defending what happened up there. You have to understand. For the Sports Illustrated to have a story with people thinking that that’s far worse than instances where human beings die, I’m sorry. That, I note. I notice. I take note of it. Here’s Anna in Van Buren, Arkansas. It’s nice to have you on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Hey, Rush.
RUSH: Hey.
CALLER: Love you lots. I want to tell you that I really agree with the fact that you view this as a devaluation of human life. It’s a symptom, it absolutely is, but what I wanted to do is kind of set you straight, and I don’t want you perpetrating the myth about pits. I’m a veterinary assistant and have been for many, many years. I’ve owned a pit bull, and do you know, not one pit that I have ever encountered have I ever had a problem with. It depends on their ownership. When we have a pit come into the office, I’m overjoyed. When we have a Chihuahua come in, I want to throw a muzzle on it that minute.
RUSH: Well, those are little ankle-biting yappers. I understand. They look like they’re going to die of a nervous breakdown.
CALLER: The problem is, though, we’ve been bitten by Chihuahuas, by Dachshunds, by Chows. They have the very same temperament as pit bulls which is territorial, aggressive and one-person dogs.
RUSH: I know where you’re headed.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: You’re going to say the pit bull becomes what it becomes because of the owners.
CALLER: Well, all dogs do. All dogs do. Every single one of them. I understand why people are afraid of them. They’re big. They’re powerful — and without being socialized and properly cared for, they are dangerous. Just like Rottweilers or Chows or anything else.
RUSH: Rip you to shreds.
CALLER: Oh, yeah. But if the Chihuahua was the size of a pit bull, my God! We’d be in deep trouble. So what I’m saying is the personality of the dog depends on the owner. Most of the time the pit bulls we have that we know are going to turn out bad are because their owners are usually —
RUSH: All right. I understand what you’re saying. I did sort of indict the breed, there’s no question. They’re as close to a predator as you can get. I’ve just have never seen… Well, Dobermans. I don’t want to spend all day with people calling defending their breeds, their favorite breeds. I know you love your dogs. I love my cat. I’ve had dogs. I understand all this. I’m trying to keep this focused (laughing) and apparently, I’m the only one that thinks this is any big deal. Every call has been arguing with me about this. Here’s ‘Ram’ in Los Angeles. Ram, you’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush, pleasure to be with you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Can I hear me okay?
RUSH: Yeah, I hear you just fine, ‘Ram.’
CALLER: Okay, great. I think the humans have a greater connection to animals because animals don’t have the ability to ponder over consequence. They don’t have a choice. You know, once they’re trained, it’s you. They don’t have the ability to stand back and defend themselves. They can’t take a gun and shoot the human dead. But a human has the ability to choose. They have the ability to figure out what is consequence. What’s your belief on that?
RUSH: What are you saying here, ‘Ram,’ that it’s worse to kill these dogs because they have no defense? There’s no choice?
CALLER: They have no choice.
RUSH: It’s like Chris Benoit’s son could have resisted the pills that his dad gave him and not been strangled, and run out of the house, and Chris Benoit’s wife somehow could have escaped had she wanted to, but the dogs can’t do that?
CALLER: That’s — that’s true. You’re absolutely right, but Chris Benoit also had the choice not to kill his wife and son. He has that choice. He doesn’t have to kill his wife and his child. I think he has that choice.
RUSH: I know, and Michael Vick had the choice not to do what he did to these dogs, but the difference you’re saying is the dogs had no choice in avoiding it but Benoit’s kid and wife might have had a choice in avoiding it but failed.
CALLER: Failed.
RUSH: And so killing the dogs is worse because they sat there and let themselves be killed. They had a choice, is that what you’re saying?
CALLER: They did not have a choice. The animals did not have a choice.
RUSH: Oh, but did you think Benoit’s wife and son had a choice?
CALLER: To get away, yes. I think to get away, if they saw the signs.
RUSH: Why did they sit there and allow themselves to be killed?
CALLER: They probably were under some kind of, as you said, a drug.
RUSH: I’ve read the toxicology. The kid had Xanax, which is ten times as powerful as Valium.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: And the wife had a lot of stuff, too, but they had a choice not to take that stuff.
CALLER: Yeah, well, maybe it was forced down their throats. You never know. He could have drugged them and could have hurt them in some other way, impacted their mental synapses. Thank you.
RUSH: Fascinating. Fascinating. ‘Ram,’ thanks for the phone call. Fascinating.
CALLER: (disconnects)
RUSH: ‘Ram’ just like hung up out there. Bayside, New York, this is Vinny. Vinny, welcome to the program, sir.
CALLER: Maha Rushie, it’s great to be talking to you again.
RUSH: Nice to have you back here, Vinny.
CALLER: Listen, I think conservatives are easily as outraged about this as liberals. That’s number one. Number two, it’s not surprising. This is a visceral reaction from people.
RUSH: Wait a second! Hold on! Who’s turning this into a partisan issue?
CALLER: No, I’m not. You had mentioned something about how liberal Sports Illustrated was and the sports media in general. I agree with that. I’m just stating — as a conservative, and I am an ultraconservative — I am above outraged. I want to see Michael Vick — if he’s guilty — get the full extent of the law applied to him, number one. Number two, I don’t necessarily see this as a devaluation of human life. I think you’re reading too much into this. I think one thing is one thing, and this is another. This recalls that case out in California a few years ago where a man had a highway alter indication with a woman and he took her little…Shih Tzu or whatever it was and threw it into oncoming traffic, and the dog got killed. Do you remember that?
RUSH: No.
CALLER: Well, it caused nationwide outrage. It was on every major news program, and people were just so outraged.
RUSH: I must have been on vacation when that happened, because I don’t remember that a man actually threw a Shih Tzu into the oncoming traffic.
CALLER: Well, I don’t know that the dog was a Shih Tzu.
RUSH: Well, then why did you say it was a Shih Tzu?
CALLER: My whole point —
RUSH: You just wanted to say ‘Shih Tzu’ on the EIB Network.
CALLER: Ah.
RUSH: That’s what it is.
CALLER: Absolutely not, sir. I leave all the good lines to you. I’m here to make the host look good.
RUSH: You have — unwittingly!! (Laughing.)
CALLER: And as far as what the people in Atlanta are saying about this is worse than Benoit incident, that’s just an error of judgment, but that’s what happens when you have a visceral reaction. You say things and that you think about later and you realize, ‘Hey, you know, that was really quite silly of me to say,’ but, look, people associate their pets as human beings, practically. This is not weird to me what we’re saying about this. This was cruel, wonton [sic] evil.
RUSH: I agree it’s cruel! But these people in Atlanta are acting like the degree of cruelty here dwarfs the degree of cruelty in the other circumstances. Okay. Look, Vinny, I have to run here, EIB Obscene Profit Center Time-Out, but I’m glad you called. Thanks so much.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Okay. I was hoping I wasn’t going to have to do this. But it is clear to me, ladies and gentlemen. I think also what’s happening is there are probably many of you out there who understand precisely what I’m saying and that’s why you’re not calling. Those who are up in arms over what I’m saying or don’t agree, those are the ones who are. All right, so let me fire with dead aim right between your eyes. (rubbing hands together) Okay? What if I were to say to you, ‘Those are Michael Vick’s dogs, and that was his property, and whatever he wants to do with them is his choice, is his right.’ Don’t we have politicians telling us that women can do that with their babies in the womb? Where’s the outrage over that? Well, we don’t see it. When you do, though, if you ever see a picture of one of these late-term abortions, then you’ll be as mad. On the one hand, this is all I mean about devaluing life. We can sit there and casually talk about how liberated we are by 1.3 million abortions a year. Eleven pit bulls, we hear about how they die. Pshew! Note the pro-aborts do not want you to know any details about how abortions take place. They don’t want you to see it.
They don’t want you to know it because they know what your reaction will be. Still we know that that takes place. But that comes under the rubric of ‘women’s rights’ and liberation and so forth. In fact, this is one of the most sickening things about the feminazis to me is that they’ve been selling abortion since 1973 as an act of liberation for women. That’s the thing that’s always sickened me about it. But here we have 11 dogs, pit bulls, histoire, and there’s massive outrage. Now, I understand the psychological attachment, but can you see any difference here at all? Do you find anything peculiar about the lack of outrage on the one hand and the total national outrage here over the dog thing on the other? I also got a note. A friend of mine said, ‘The Chris Benoit thing. The reason why this Vick thing is being thought of as worse than the Chris Benoit thing is because Chris Benoit also killed himself. Everybody in that situation died. If he were still alive after murdering his wife and daughter, then there would be profound outrage.’ That may be true. There may be some validity to that. Here’s Gary in Filer, Idaho? Nice to have you, Gary.
CALLER: Thank you for taking my call, sir.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: As you were reading the details of the story it occurred to me that if you left the name out, the details are the same as what Saddam Hussein did. People have compassion on murder, torture, electrocution on Saddam Hussein did to countless victims that were human, but we have to hang Michael Vick for his dog victims.
RUSH: You can play this any number of ways. You could also talk about how outraged people got over torture committed by American troops at Abu Ghraib and the alleged torture at Club Gitmo, where nobody died, but yet there’s outrage. All I’m saying is there’s so many inconsistencies here in the degree of outrage. Hey, you want another dog story? Because I’m going to move on after this. I’m going to move on. I’m going to get outta here and I’m going to head on down to other stuff. I’ll give you another example: ‘New York Cabdrivers Threaten Strike Over GPS Systems.’ Well! ‘A trade body representing more than 8,000 New York taxi drivers threatened to call a strike over the city’s plans to introduce satellite positioning systems in every cab.’ Well, (laughing) there’s some things we don’t need to say here right to understand why these people might be mad. You can rename the program, ‘Track Your Local Muslim,’ or ‘Track Your Local Immigrant. That’s why they’re upset about it. We’ll be doing something.
‘The Underdog Imperative — Win or lose, kids shouldn’t be shielded from competition.’ We’ve talked about that a lot. We’ve got immigration news. There’s all kinds of fireworks occurred in the Senate yesterday, and Lindsey Grahamnesty is now getting shellacked by Ted Kennedy. Ted Kennedy is not happy. But here’s a dog story. ‘A black Labrador that burrowed through smoking debris after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and flooded rubble after Hurricane Katrina in search of survivors has died after developing cancer. Owner Mary Flood had 12-year-old Jake put to sleep Wednesday after a last stroll through the fields and a dip in the creek near their home in Oakley, Utah. Flood said Jake had been in pain, shaking with a 105-degree fever as he lay on the lawn. No one can say whether the dog would have gotten sick if he hadn’t been exposed to the toxic air at the World Trade Center, but cancer in dogs Jake’s age is common.’ He was 12-years-old, but it’s a sad story. See? It’s a horribly sad story. We all just, ‘Ooooh, heroic rescue dog!’ If you want to feel about it, say it’s Bush’s fault.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I’ll tell you, here’s how we’re going to wrap this up, folks. From now on we’re going to change the whole concept of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ to ‘guilty until proven indicted.’ There’s no more ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ There’s ‘guilty until proven indicted.’ By the way: ‘Michael Nifong, the disgraced former prosecutor, acknowledged today that there is no credible evidence that three Duke lacrosse players committed any of the crimes he accused them of more than a year ago. ‘We all need to heal,’ Nifong said, ‘It’s my hope we can start this process today.’ His apology came as a judge began considering whether to told him in criminal contempt of court for his handling of the case.’ I’ll bet this guy was going to write up one hell of an indictment, too. Of course, these local guys differ from the feds, and I understand that.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Shannon in Galesburg, Illinois, welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush. I’m very happy you took my call. I’m beating a dead horse here, but I want to go back to the Michael Vick situation and comment very quickly on what Sports Illustrated is saying.
RUSH: Yes?
CALLER: As sad as it is, I truly do believe that in the long run this is going to end up being worse for the city of Atlanta than what Chris Benoit did, not because what Michael Vick was actually worse. Chris Benoit murdered a child, for the love of God. This is the host heinous thing that anybody can do in my mind. But the fact is Vick has been one of the primary marketing faces of the NFL for the last several years, and the NFL is considerably larger of a popular organization than World Wrestling Entertainment ever could be — and even though what he does in my mind pales in comparison, his media exposure is actually going to end up having more of a negative effect in the city of Atlanta than what Chris Benoit did, and that makes me sick.
RUSH: All right, now, define the negative impact, the manifestations of the negative impact on the city of Atlanta. Are the people going to be jumping off bridges and roads? Are they going to be terribly distressed? Are the Falcons are going to suffer because of this both at the box office, at the gate, and in the standings? What do you mean?
CALLER: I think this kind of an abandonment of the Falcons, guilt by association, and honestly, it would not surprise me if the average citizen of Atlanta ends up spending more time discussing the dog-fighting scandal than the double murder-suicide. It’s just going to have more of a cultural impact.
RUSH: Well, I can understand that, actually. The Falcons are a much bigger entity that where Chris Benoit worked.
CALLER: Yeah, and I don’t think —
RUSH: And Vick was the face of the Falcons.
CALLER: Yes, exactly, and a much larger cultural icon than a professional wrestler could ever hope to become.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And if Benoit had been guilty of a dog-fighting ring instead of the crime that he committed, it probably would have been a blip on the media radar. It probably wouldn’t have gotten any coverage whatsoever — and the fact that it was so much more massive a crime in terms of scale, you know, got it considerable, you know, media attention, even though it was so heinous the fact that the organization he was a part of was much lower on the radar makes this a bigger deal in the media. That is sickening, but I think that more than a devaluation of human life is what’s responsible for it.
RUSH: Well, you may have a point.
CALLER: Well, thank you, Rush. It’s not honor to hear that coming out of your mouth.
RUSH: You may have a point in terms of why the people of Atlanta are so… Well, that’s another thing. That’sne thing that we have to say here: is Sports Illustrated is a bunch of libs from top to bottom. Trust me on this. I know. I know of them. Number two. They go to Atlanta and they go to this so-called hub of where all these sports and political and so forth figures hang out, Manuel’s. I’ve been to Atlanta some. I don’t know about Manuel’s. But in this whole story they found two people to say that this is worse than Ray Lewis, worse than Chris Benoit. Two people! It makes me wonder, ‘Okay, how many people who disagreed with this premise did they leave out of the story?’ So basically they have two people, maybe three in this story speaking for all of Atlanta. It’s sort of like the way the Drive-Bys cover a meeting of the feminazis — you know, the NAGs, the National Association of Gals. Twenty-ine or 30 of them show up, and it’s, ‘The minds of all women were there, and the opinions and emotions of all women were discussed and reflected.’