Drug Rush?

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bonoman

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It goes from bad to worse for Rush. Poor thing...:wink:



Talk-radio titan Rush Limbaugh is being investigated for allegedly buying thousands of addictive painkillers from a black-market drug ring.
The moralizing motormouth was turned in by his former housekeeper - who says she was Limbaugh's pill supplier for four years.
Wilma Cline, 42, says Limbaugh was hooked on the potent prescription drugs OxyContin, Lorcet and hydrocodone - and went through detox twice.
"There were times when I worried," Cline told the National Enquirer, which broke the story in an edition being published today. "All these pills are enough to kill an elephant - never mind a man."
Cline could not be reached for further comment yesterday, but her lawyer, Ed Shohat of Miami, said his client "stands behind the story."

The Daily News independently confirmed that Limbaugh is under investigation.

His lawyers, Jerry Fox and Dan Zachary, refused to comment on the accusations and said any "medical information" about him was private and not newsworthy.

They said Limbaugh - who has a top-rated syndicated radio show but resigned early today from a weekly ESPN football segment amid criticism of racial comments about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb - was traveling and had no comment.

The Palm Beach County state attorney's office, which is running the probe, said it could not confirm or deny the allegations.

Scoring in parking lot

Cline told the Enquirer she went to prosecutors with information about Limbaugh and others after four years of drug deals that included clandestine handoffs in a Denny's parking lot.

She said she wore a wire during her last two deliveries to the conservative commentator and gave the tapes to authorities.

She also gave the Enquirer a ledger documenting how many pills she claimed to have bought for him - 4,350 in one 47-day period - and E-mails she claimed Limbaugh sent her.

In one missive, Limbaugh pushed Cline to get more "little blues" - code for OxyContin, the powerful narcotic nicknamed hillbilly heroin, she said.

"You know how this stuff works ... the more you get used to, the more it takes," the May 2002 E-mail reads. "But I will try and cut down to help out."

The account Cline gave the Enquirer is that she became Limbaugh's drug connection in 1998, nine months after taking a housekeeping job at his Palm Beach mansion.

It started after her husband, David, hurt himself in a fall, and Limbaugh asked how he was.

"He asked me casually, 'Is he getting any pain medication?' I said, 'Yes - he's had surgery, and the doctor gave him hydro-codone 750,'" Cline said. "To my astonishment, he said, 'Can you spare a couple of them?'"

Husband's pills

Cline said she gave Limbaugh 10 pills the next day and agreed to give him 30 of her husband's pills each month. When the doctor stopped renewing the prescription in early 1999, Limbaugh allegedly went ballistic.

"His tone was nasty and bullying. He said, 'I don't care how or what you do, but you'd better - better! - get me some more,'" Cline said.

The housekeeper said she found a new supplier and arranged to hide Limbaugh's stashes under his mattress so his wife, Marta, wouldn't find them.

After several months, Limbaugh told her he was going to New York for detox and didn't need any more pills, Cline said.

But a month later, he said his left ear was hurting and asked her for hydrocodone, followed by an order for OxyContin.

Limbaugh, 52, suffered from autoimmune ear disease, a condition that left him deaf and had to be corrected with cochlear implant surgery two years ago.

Cline said she continued to make deliveries to Limbaugh even after she quit as his housekeeper in July 2001 - but he became increasingly paranoid, even patting her down for recording devices, she said.

In June 2002, Limbaugh told her he was going to New York for detox a second time.

After he returned, "I went to talk to him, and he cried a little bit," she said. "He told me that if it ever got out, he would be ruined."

She claimed that a lawyer for Limbaugh gave her a payoff - $80,000 he owed her, plus another $120,000 - and asked her to destroy the computer that contained the E-mail records.

Soon after, Cline and her husband retained Shohat and contacted prosecutors.

Feeling no pain

The drugs Rush Limbaugh is accused of abusing are legal only with a doctor's prescription. All are habit-forming.

- Hydrocodone

Anti-cough agent and painkiller similar to morphine. Side effects include anxiety, poor mental performance, emotional dependence, drowsiness, mood changes, difficulty breathing and itchiness.

- Lorcet

Brand name for the combination of Tylenol and hydrocodone, prescribed for moderate to severe pain. Side effects include dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, decreased appetite, dizziness, tiredness, muscle twitches, sweating and itching.

- OxyContin

Potent time-release medication for relief of moderate to severe pain, known as hillbilly heroin because of black-market popularity in some rural areas. Side effects include drowsiness, dizziness, sweating, muscle twitches and decreased sex drive. A large dose can be fatal. Originally published on October 2, 2003




Innocent till proven guilty but Rush once said that all drugs sellers, pushers, users should all be sent up the river! People who live in glass houses shouldnt throw stones!
 
Personally I don't like seeing stories about "celebrities" private lives all over the frontpages of the newspapers, but I hope if this story is true it will encourage him to rethink some of his harsh comments about people who use drugs. Assuming the story is accurate, I hope he manages to overcome his addiction.
 
I can't stand the guy, but wouldn't wish a drug addiction on anyone. Hope that if it's true, he gets help and gets over it.
 
This man has been spewing hate and bigotry for at least 2 decades now and I really wish I could accurately quote some of the venom he directed towards Hillary Clinton and "women like her". I watched him some years ago before he got banished to the 4am time slot on tv. He was so dangerous with his words and I remember reading that some threats made aganist the administration at the time were directly attributed to his ability to incite people to do harm aganist the Clintons. I watched him simply because I didn't want to misjudge anyone I had not actually watched or listened too. I didn't misjudge him. He hates women as well as minorities. He has obviously been doing drugs for sometime, as well. You don't just start out taking the amount of drugs he's reported to have purchased. This is not to say I believe anything the enquirer has to report, but It explaines alot about his rantings. Even though I don't wish anything on him, he's brought all this on himself and he can't talk his way out of it. Or maybe he can since the right lawyer can probably get him out of this. Purchasing the drugs doesn't have the same penalties as selling them.
 
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najeena said:
Drug addiction can affect anyone, he know that now. It's too bad that he couldn't stop himself from being a hypocrite as well.

Innocent until proven guilty? In this country?


sue4u2 said:
This man has been spewing hate and bigotry for at least 2 decades now and I really wish I could accurately quote some of the venom he directed towards Hillary Clinton and "women like her". I watched him some years ago before he got banished to the 4am time slot on tv. He was so dangerous with his words and I remember reading that some threats made aganist the administration at the time were directly attributed to his ability to incite people to do harm aganist the Clintons.

A claim the Admistration itself made, but no one ever substantiated it.


I watched him simply because I didn't want to misjudge anyone I had not actually watched or listened too. I didn't misjudge him. He hates women as well as minorities.

Explain, then, his admiration for Margaret Thatcher (a woman), Clarence Thomas (a black), and Condi Rice (a black woman).

Clarence Thomas also performed Rush's wedding ceremony, and one of Rush's substitute hosts is the economist Walter E. Williams, a man who also happens to be black.

Is it not possible that his dislike of Hillary Clinton and Jesse Jackson have more to do with their politics than with their sex or race?

He has obviously been doing drugs for sometime, as well.

No, it's not obvious, as he is quite astute and cogent in his radio show, a show that airs live five days a week, three hours a day. The performance is often "televised" in an Internet broadcast, and the performance typically involves a half-dozen extemporaneous monologues.

What would make it obvious? Is conservatism so irrational that drug use is the only explanation for people to adhere to it?

For you to say it's "obvious"... seriously, are you on drugs?

You don't just start out taking the amount of drugs he's reported to have purchased. This is not to say I believe anything the enquirer has to report, but It explaines alot about his rantings.

You don't believe it, but "he has obviously been doing drugs for sometime, as well."

Memory loss may be a sign of an addiction problem, and recognizing you have a problem is the first step on the road to recovery.

If it weren't for my horse...
 
Originally posted by Lewis Black
Innocent until proven guilty? In this country?
I don't believe he has been arrested and locked up or fined.
(unlike hundreds of people this admin. has treated guilty with all rights negated, that Rush supports)
If you are talking about the 'Court of Public opinion, well Rush has all but declared himself the Chief Justice and Supreme Being of that court. He has no problem condemning in that Court.




Explain, then, his admiration for Margaret Thatcher (a woman), Clarence Thomas (a black), and Condi Rice (a black woman).

Clarence Thomas also performed Rush's wedding ceremony, and one of Rush's substitute hosts is the economist Walter E. Williams, a man who also happens to be black.
This is the weakest of arguments, when you resort to this it is pretty much is a concession of the merits of the argument.
Slave owners had great affection for some of their slaves and even fathered children with them, some even remembered slaves in their wills, therefore they are not racists.

Ted Bundy loved his mother and bought her flowers and she was a woman. How can you say Bundy hated women?

Bill Clinton met with 100 single female alone and never did anything inappropriate. How can you say he is a philanderer? I think you get the point.
No, it's not obvious, as he is quite astute and cogent in his radio show, a show that airs live five days a week, three hours a day. The performance is often "televised" in an Internet broadcast, and the performance typically involves a half-dozen extemporaneous monologues.

I had thought about doing a thread "Compassion for Rush" I do have compassion for him. When he was struck deaf I did feel sorry for him, as a person. I wish ill to no person. If the stories are correct his hearing loss is a result of extreme abuse of heavy-duty pain drugs. I remember listening to him talk about his hearing loss. He said they did not know why it happened. If the information is right, he knew. If he lied, I still have compassion for him and hopes he gets his life straighten out.
 
deep, in addition to the blacks and women that he supports, Rush's beliefs are also inconsistent with racism and sexism, as he doesn't believe that anyone should be judged by skin color or sex.

If any mainstream political position today is racist, it is support for affirmative action, which insists that people be judged by skin color and implies that blacks aren't capable of earning anything on their own. Rush opposes affirmative action.

Rush's friends and his beliefs discredit the claim that he's a bigot. What more could be required?

The only possibly legitimate complaint is some of Rush's humor. But if we're going to be consistent in calling Rush a bigot for that, then a pretty great number of stand-up comics of all races and both sexes must also be bigots.

In comparison to what you'll here on Comedy Central, Rush -- particularly in the last few years -- is as harmless as a kitten.

If it weren't for my horse...
 
You must obviously listen to a different Rush than I have.
He is constantly spewing hate on the air. He has demeaned women for years as well as minorities. A few exceptions don't make the rule. The people you listed even support his bigotry.
 
With all due respect, Lewis, I just base my opinion on nothing more than what I heard come from his mouth on his show those years ago. I can't explain any "admiration's" he claim's for the people you mentioned, because I haven't listened to anything he's had to say in the last 5 or so year's. I really try to distance myself from negative and hate. This type of "talk" doesn't influence me or help enlighten me so I "leave it behind", if you will. This includes like minded people I have known personally. I don't subscribe to the notion of "if you can't beat them join them" I just don't believe he's changed from the hate mongering I heard coming from him in the past. If so, I stand corrected. But, I don't think so.
 
I've been listening -- rather frequently -- since 1988, so if you're arguing from experience, my experience trumps yours.

(I have seen the argument that the fact I'm an actual listener somehow disqualifies my opinion -- as if the only people who could judge what this guy says are those who don't actually examine it in any great detail. I think that argument's insane.)

I'm moving away from my point, so I'll move back. Other than humor that is tame compared to Comedy Central, I'm quite sure I don't know of anything that Rush has said that even the most the sensitive soul would consider hateful after a moment's rational thought.

Can you give me an example of what you're talking about? And, in doing so, keep this in mind:

Ridiculing an extremist feminist organization (an organization that merits ridicule) is not equivalent to demeaning women. Ridiculing a radical civil rights group (a group whose support of differentiating between the races is galling) is not equivalent to demeaning blacks.

If such things were equivalent, then ridiculing the KKK is racist because it demeans white people, and that's obviously absurd.

Rush has consistently ridiculed the NOW and the NAACP, calling the former the NAGs (the National Association of Gals) and the latter the NAALCP (the National Association for the Advancement of Liberal Colored People). But ridiculing these organizations is not equivalent to demean the groups whose interests they claim to represent.

Can you point to some specific statement in which Rush actually demeans women in general or some race in general?

If you say you don't remember, fine, but I question someone who's confident that a guy's a bigot when he can't remember what the supposed bigot actually said. (To use two examples from the sporting world, many people still remember the gist of what Jimmy the Greek and Rocker said.) And the Internet's an awfully big place. If Rush actually has said or written something that demean all women or all members of a specific race, surely some of his many enemies would have documented it. Find that documentation.

Otherwise, I'm just going to assume that you're offended that someone would dare question the canon of political correctness -- and to do so in a national forum and to do so with such confidence. You only think such an act is sexist, racist, etc.

If it weren't for my horse...
 
I wouldn't wish drug addiction on my worst enemy. I ran into it when I worked in a hospital, and it was one of the reasons I quit. Even reading the damn charts in the medical records office (I had almost no patient contact) was too much. I have never liked Rush, but I hope he can beat this.
 
Lewis Black said:
Ridiculing an extremist feminist organization (an organization that merits ridicule) is not equivalent to demeaning women. Ridiculing a radical civil rights group (a group whose support of differentiating between the races is galling) is not equivalent to demeaning blacks.

If such things were equivalent, then ridiculing the KKK is racist because it demeans white people, and that's obviously absurd.

Please...give an example of such an "extremist feminist organization" and a "radical civil rights group" that deserves equivalence to the Ku Klux Klan, an obvious hate group.

Melon
 
This is the comparison I'm making:

The KKK focuses on a single demographic: whites.

The NAACP focuses on a single demographic: blacks.

The NOW focuses on a single demographic: women.

Impugning the KKK isn't racist even though it focuses on a single race. Likewise, impugning the NAACP isn't racist per se, nor is impugning the NOW sexist per se.

The KKK certainly deserves to be impugned. We can certainly debate whether the NAACP and the NOW deserve to be impugned -- and whether either merits criticism to the same degree the Klan does. But, either way, Rush criticizing the NAACP and the NOW is not immediate proof that he's a racist or a sexist, nor are such criticisms examples of him maligning blacks or women.

Scarletwine said, "He has demeaned women for years as well as minorities. "

For the life of me, I can't think of what Rush has said that would be evidence of such a claim -- much less anything said repeatedly "for years."

The closest thing is impugning the NOW and the NAACP. I'm simply saying that impugning the NOW and the NAACP is not equivalent to "demeaning women and minorities."

This sort of observation should be obvious.

If it weren't for my horse...
 
Your suggestion was that if criticising the NAACP makes one a racist, then criticising the KKK must also make one a racist. However those two organisations aren't comparable: whether you agree or disagree with the NAACP, nobody would claim it's a hate group like the KKK which has instigated decades of violence and bigotry.
 
And I really hope you weren't suggesting that NOW and NAACP deserve the same level of criticism as the KKK. We all know what the KKK stand for, we all know the sort of vile bigotry they believe in. Even if you dislike, for instance, the NAACP's views on affirmative action, you can't equate them with a group which has advocated such horrendous violence against Black people.
 
The KKK was behind twenty-plus African-American church bombings in my home town, Birmingham, Alabama, between WWII and the most infamous of church bombings, Sixteenth Street Baptist in September of 1963. They were also involved in the murder of a Catholic priest on the grounds of the local cathedral, St. Paul's, back in the '20's. When I was a catechumen, on the way to becoming a Catholic 15 years ago, I was shown the scene of the crime. This is what the KKK was and is all about, hatred, violence, bigotry..........it's not accurate to compare the NAACP and NOW to the KKK.
 
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Lewis Black said:
This is the comparison I'm making:

The KKK focuses on a single demographic: whites.

The NAACP focuses on a single demographic: blacks.

The NOW focuses on a single demographic: women.




There is a HUGE difference in an organization established to fight for equal rights for groups of people who were at one time denied the most basic civil rights (women and blacks) and one whose sole purpose is to rid the earth of all races they feel are inferior (non-white Christians). The NAACP and NOW use activism and boycots to get their points across...the KKK uses violence, hatred and at times murder.
 
Somehow....Mr. Black has lost me on that last point as well.
 
Lewis Black said:
I've been listening -- rather frequently -- since 1988, so if you're arguing from experience, my experience trumps yours.

Can you give me an example of what you're talking about? And, in doing so, keep this in mind:

If it weren't for my horse...

You're experience does "trump" mine I'm sure. Although I fail to see how it's possible to know when or how long I tuned into his show. Anyway, I can't tell you when - exactly - it was that I had heard enough of what he had to say and quit listening. and it's doesn't matter what I give as an example, you will try to refute or dispute it. then want more examples. Therefore I'm not inclined to argue about it. You will not change my opinion of him nor am I trying to change yours. His opinions/statements just don't mean enough to me to do any research on specifics.
 
Let's ignore what I said about the KKK for a moment and focus on the NAACP and the NOW:

Does criticizing the NAACP make you a racist?

Does criticizing the NOW make you a sexist?

No, and no.

Yet, in terms of comments the demean women and minorities, the closest Rush Limbaugh has ever come -- as far as I can remember -- is criticizing those two organizations.

Can someone point to an actual damning comment or two?

It's easy to find what John Rocker said that was so offensive. What about Rush? I really want to know what he's specifically said that's so damnably offensive.


Returning to the comparison to the KKK, of course the Klan is more violent and hate-filled than the NAACP. That's why I didn't suggest they were comparable in terms of violence or hate.

What I said was that they're comparable in that they focus on one demographic. That's undeniable if you look at what the acronyms "NAACP" and "NOW" stand for.

It's not sexist to impugn an organization devoted to one particular sex, regardless of which sex that is.

It's not racist to impugn an organization devoted to one particular race, regardless of what race that is.


Bono's American Wife, I grant that the NAACP was founded with the goal of achieving equality among the races. With its now constant support of quotas, it seems to have a new goal.


If it weren't for my horse...
 
An old article from June 7, 2000 that seemingly is relevant right now...

Limbaugh: A Color Man Who Has A Problem With Color?
by Jeff Cohen and Steve Rendall

Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh may be returning to television. He recently auditioned for a job as color commentator on ABC's "Monday Night Football." The tryout followed weeks of self-promotion by the self-styled "truth detector" to the millions who listen daily to his syndicated radio show on some 600 stations.

Limbaugh's audition is stirring controversy. Sports columnist Thomas Boswell quipped that if Limbaugh joins "Monday Night Football" then baseball's game of the week broadcasters might "team up with John Rocker."

Veteran sports writer Michael Wilbon, who is black, indicated a boycott might result: "If Rush Limbaugh is put in that booth, I will NOT listen to the broadcast," he wrote in a Washington Post chat session. "His views on people like me are well documented and I would find it insulting and hypocritical to watch him?There are tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands who feel the same way I do."

If ABC hires Limbaugh, it's not clear a boycott will materialize. What is clear is that his expressed views on racial matters -- from the spiteful to the sophomoric -- would make him an odd color commentator. Indeed, CBS Sports dismissed Jimmy the Greek Snyder for ignorant racial remarks, less derisive than some of Limbaugh's.

As a young broadcaster in the 1970s, Limbaugh once told a black caller: "Take that bone out of your nose and call me back." A decade ago, after becoming nationally syndicated, he mused on the air: "Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?"

In 1992, on his now-defunct TV show, Limbaugh expressed his ire when Spike Lee urged that black schoolchildren get off from school to see his film Malcolm X: "Spike, if you're going to do that, let's complete the education experience. You should tell them that they should loot the theater, and then blow it up on their way out."

In a similar vein, here is Limbaugh's mocking take on the NAACP, a group with a ninety-year commitment to nonviolence: "The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies."

When Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL) was in the U.S. Senate, the first black woman ever elected to that body, Limbaugh would play the "Movin' On Up" theme song from TV's "Jeffersons" when he mentioned her. Limbaugh sometimes still uses mock dialect -- substituting "ax" for "ask"-- when discussing black leaders.

Such quotes and antics -- many compiled by Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) for our 1995 book -- offer a whiff of Limbaugh's racial sensibility. So does his claim that racism in America "is fueled primarily by the rantings and ravings" of people like Jesse Jackson. Or his ugly reference two years ago to the father of Madonna's first child, a Latino, as "a gang-member type guy" -- an individual with no gang background.

In 1994, Limbaugh mocked St. Louis for building a rail line to East St. Louis "where nobody goes." East St. Louis is home to roughly 40,000 residents -- 98 percent of whom are African-Americans. One of its 40,000 "nobodies" is star NFL linebacker Bryan Cox.

Once, in response to a caller arguing that black people need to be heard, Limbaugh responded: "They are 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?" That's not an unusual response for a talk radio host playing to an audience of "angry white males." It may not play so well among National Football League players, 70 percent of whom are African American.

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.

ABC has the right to hire Limbaugh, even at the risk of alienating members of its audience. ("Monday Night Football" is the second-most watched TV show in black households). Thrust into the world of pro football where Limbaugh himself would be something of a racial minority, is it possible that he'd rise above his history of racial bigotry and insensitivity? Not likely.

When all is said and done, the athletes are the key players on "Monday Night Football." It would be great to know how they'd feel about a color man who seems to have trouble with people of color.

Melon
 
i did ignore your kkk comparision, btw

Once, in response to a caller arguing that black people need to be heard, Limbaugh responded: "They are 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?"



"Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?"

lewis,


please give me your defense / explanation of these remarks?
 
The one thing I hate about quotes....they are isolated from the context of the conversation.
 
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