RUSH LIMBAUGH WINS IN SENATE DEBATE OVER ARMED FORCES BROADCASTS

In a victory for the first amendment the Senate today defeated an amendment sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin, (D) Iowa, that would have mandated programs that are aired on Armed Forces broadcasting networks. Harkin's objections stemmed from his dislike of the Rush Limbaugh radio program being aired on armed forces radio. The liberal Senator from Iowa claimed that the five hours of Rush's program caused a lack of balance of political views for our men and women in uniform. In this TWO DAY debate on the Senate floor Harkin exaggerated that Rush was more than two thousand hours of the weekly radio broadcast. Actually only one hour of his daily three hour syndicated program airs on armed forces radio so Harkin was just a tad bit off in his proclamation to the Senate. His amendment would force the armed forces network to mandate certain chosen liberal shows and take Rush off to , "create a balance, " for the troops. Rush has been on armed forces radio since 1994. In that year several shows were presented to the troops to vote for broadcasting on the airways and Rush's show WAS NOT among them. In a huge write in vote our men and women in uniform overwhelmingly voted to have Rush on the air and armed forces radio only allowed the first hour of his broadcast and has ever since. The majority of troops are campaigning to extend the time to cover the entire three hours, but the campaign thus far has been unsuccessful. The remainder of the broadcast day consists of SEVERAL hours of NPR, ( link to armed forces broadcast schedule http://myafn.dodmedia.osd.mil/radio/afn/schedule.asp ), which Harkin referred to as, "fair and balanced, "radio. I guess the liberal Senator has either NEVER listened to the left broadcasting NPR or he is so far left that even NPR sounds balanced to him! Either way the Senate defeated his amendment and Rush will remain on armed forces radio and the first amendment once again stands strong against another liberal attack!

Ken Taylor