Conservative icon Rush Limbaugh weds for fourth time

Singer Elton John received a $1 million fee to perform in front of 400 guests celebrating radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh's fourth wedding Saturday night, People Magazine reports.

Limbaugh, 59, wed Kathryn Rogers, 33, at the Breakers hotel in Palm Beach, Florida.

Limbaugh is an outspoken opponent of gay marriage while John is openly gay and in a civil partnership with male partner David Furnish.

Celebrity guests at the wedding reportedly included former Bush adviser Karl Rove, baseball slugger George Brett, former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and golfer Tom Watson.

According to People, the couple met six years ago, while Rogers was running a charity golf tournament and Limbaugh was in the process of divorcing for the third time.

The Palm Beach Post reported that as many as 50 private security guards were hired for the wedding.

Web site Gawker.com hired a plane to fly over the wedding site towing a banner that read "Rush: Congrats on your 4th marriage. XO, Gawker." The saying on the banner was chosen from suggestions made by readers. Rejected suggestions included "This time he really means it," "Wishing you months of bliss," and "Congrats on #4 from those of us who can't have 1."

The magazine reports that the newlyweds took Limbaugh's private Gulfstream jet to a honeymoon in Mexico and Africa, among other locations.

From Gawker: The 15 Runners-Up messages:


SAME TIME NEXT YEAR?

FELIZ MATRIMONIO!

GET 20% OFF YOUR NEXT MARRIAGE + FREE SHRIMP

CONGRATS RUSH! LOVE IS THE BEST Rx THERE IS

THIS TIME HE REALLY MEANS IT

MAY ALLAH BLESS YOUR MARRIAGE

WHERE'S THE MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE?

CONGRATS ON THE ADOPTION, ER WEDDING! -GAWKER

OXYCONGRATULATIONS

WISHING YOU MONTHS OF BLISS

CONGRATS ON #4 FROM THOSE OF US WHO CAN'T HAVE 1

MAY THIS BE THE 4TH HAPPIEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE

PRESCRIBING YOU MANY HAPPY YEARS TOGETHER

KIDS EAT FREE AT RUSH'S WEDDING BELOW

LEFTIST GAY GOSSIPS SAY MAZEL TOV!

President Obama thinks we should take comfort because "I want what's best for the country"

Washington Examiner:

In his new interview with CBS, President Obama refers to the "troublesome" talk and "vitriol" of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. "Keep in mind that there have been periods in American history where this kind of vitriol comes out," Obama says. "It happens often when you've got an economy that is making people more anxious, and people are feeling like there is a lot of change that needs to take place. But that's not the vast majority of Americans. I think the vast majority of Americans know that we're trying hard, that I want what's best for the country."

On what basis would anyone conclude that President Obama "want(s) what is best for the country?"

In general, political leaders don't spend a lot of time pondering what is "best." The best is an abstraction. No one knows how to determine what is best on a broad scale. If we have to find what's best, we split the issue into small parts that are measurable.

We do, however, have a substitute for best, one that works well enough over the long term to have lasted. We ask, what do most Americans want?

On the question of handing the American medical system over to the government the question was asked and answered many times. What a majority or plurality said repeatedly was that they did not want Obmacare to be enacted.

What was Obama's response? He ignored alternative reforms, such as creation of a nationwide market for health insurance, a surefire way to increase competition and reduce prices. He ignored alternative proposals for dealing with the uninsured and for tort reform. Then he used borrowed money to bribe members of Congress to vote for Obamacare. Had he not done that, Obamacare may have been defeated.

From all appearances, Obama had one objective in mind above all others; he wanted a sweeping reform that would become a monument to his conspicuous compassion and governing skill.

To borrow a phrase from Rush Limbaugh, Obama has "governed against the wishes of the American people."

In recent weeks, Obama also has indicated that he will revive efforts in Congress to enact constraints on fossil fuels. This despite the well known facts that the science that fueled global warming alarmism has been thoroughly discredited and carbon trading markets are sending signals that the game is over.

If a cap and trade system were enacted, U.S. exporters would lose customers in foreign markets because of price disadvantages.

How do diminishing exports, and further losses of manufacturing jobs, provide evidence that Obama wants "what's best for the country."

My guess is that Obama believes he still enjoys the blind faith and trust that many Americans extended during the campaign, when, without anything in his record that a normal person would consider an accomplishment, he presented himself for the highest office.

That would comport with what I believe is his most salient characteristic - his narcissism. Narcissists select the evidence they choose to believe. If CBS's poll shows that only 44 percent support Obama now,  that might affect Obama's behavior if he actually believes it to be true.

If he chooses not to believe it's true, he might dismiss it as casually as he dismisses all those polls that show a plurality or majority of Americans think he is on the wrong course.

Is NFL Players Association using Rush Limbaugh to gain edge in contract talks?

We suspect Mr. Limbaugh during his broadcast yesterday put his finger exactly on what is going on here. He said that NFL Players Association head DeMaurice Smith was using Mr. Limbaugh's controversial status as leverage against the league owners in the union's difficult negotiations over a collective-bargaining agreement.

Earlier this year, the NFLPA's Mr. Smith and several player reps visited our offices and made clear their determination to win the negotiation with the league's owners. Fair enough. The group made a strong and businesslike case for their position. Mr. Smith was wrong, though, to send an email to the league's players earlier in the week, urging them to speak out on the Limbaugh bid, arguing that football "rejects discrimination and hatred."

After this, opposition to Mr. Limbaugh emerged from Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay and, most disappointing of all, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Mr. Goodell implied in a statement that Mr. Limbaugh's off-the-cuff comment in 2003 about quarterback Donovan McNabb (that the media wanted a black quarterback to do well) violated the league's "high standard."

We suspect Mr. Limbaugh would be happy to withdraw the 2003 remark, but to elevate it to racism, hatred and disqualification from doing business with the saintly NFL beggars belief. On the evidence, the NFL is the most forgiving league in sports. New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, just for starters, must be thankful Mr. Goodell's "high standard" doesn't mean a lifetime ban from the NFL.

What happened here, and is happening elsewhere in American life, is that Mr. Limbaugh's outspoken political conservatism is being deemed sufficient reason to ostracize him from polite society. By contrast, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, who fires off his own brand of high-velocity, left-wing political commentary but lacks Mr. Limbaugh's sense of humor, appears weekly as co-host of NBC's "Football Night in America." We haven't heard anyone on the right say Mr. Olbermann's nightly ad-hominem rants should disqualify him from hanging around the NFL. Al Franken made it all the way to the U.S. Senate on a river of political vitriol.

Who smeared Rush Limbaugh?

As I am sure you are aware, the fake Limbaugh quotes have been traced to the Rush Limbaugh Wikiquote page, dating from July of 2005 (see the following link to see when the quotes were added). The Jack Huberman book that most people source for these quotes did not come out until the following year.

The quotes were added by a user with the IP address of 69.64.213.146. This address has been used mostly to make changes to the article about Rush, but also Karl Rove, Sean Hannity, Rush, James Dobson and Sara Palin from 2005 until earlier this year.

While others have noted this in various forums, no one seems to have made the connection that this IP address is used as a gateway by the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP (see here, for example) that all users from that IP address come from the pbwt.com domain.)

Given the likelihood that Limbaugh will sue over this, I find it interesting that the source of these bogus quotes is probably a lawyer...

Trapd

After successful hit on Limbaugh, some "regrets"

From BigGovernment.com

6. CNN’s Rick Sanchez on Bogus Limbaugh Quote: ‘we didn't confirm quote. our bad.’

7. Huffpo Retracts Falsely Attributed Limbaugh Quotes

8. Kansas City Star Defends Sportswriter’s Use of Phony Limbaugh Quotes

Rep. Diane Watson, D-CA, rips. Rush Limbaugh, lauds Fidel Castro and Cuba's health care system