Rush's real-estate woes, Google learns lessons about selling smartphones and a former World Series hero revealed as a druggie

- For the low, low price of $12.95 million, the Manhattan bachelor pad of a certain pompous, arrogant, conservative radio talking head can be yours. As long as the stench of bigoted right-wing conservatism run amok doesn’t bother you, that is. See, Rush Limbaugh is having a tough time selling his Fifth Avenue penthouse. He initially listed the property in March for an asking price of $13.95 million, but thus far has been unable to find a buyer for the 10-room condo at 1049 Fifth Ave. The spacious condo has been in Rush’s extremist, closed-minded hands since 1994, when he purchased it under the name of R H Trust, according to city property documents. I don’t know what the purchase price was then, but I have to assume it was much lower and that Rush’s massive ego has convinced him that the mere fact that he lived there for a decade and a half tripled or quadrupled the value. If you have an interest in it, here are the details: 5,000 square feet, with two of its terraces overlooking Central Park and its famous reservoir, a double living room, a wood-paneled library, a total of four terraces, enormous baths and a maid's room. Luxury broker Corcoran Group is listing the property, but not making any photos of the condo available. According to public records, the city values the property at $1.56 million and says property would rent for more than $26,000 per month. Although some of the décor is a bit out of date and over the top, this does raise the question of why Limbaugh is selling. After all, he’s still doing his show and not planning on quitting any time soon (unfortunately). As it turns out, he’s making good on a threat to sell his property after New York governor David Paterson proposed a so-called "millionaire's tax" on residents who make more than $500,000 a year. Because of that, you can now snatch up this real estate bargain for a reduced price and take ownership of its gold leaf moldings, mahogany floors, upholstered walls and marble foyer. On the upside, you don’t have to worry about the place being torn up by wild parties or anything other than the foul smell of Rush’s putrid, ill-advised verbal vomit that spews out every time he opens his mouth……….

- Finally, Congress doing something that everyone (outside of the banking industry) can get behind! As the issue of how to best regulate the blood-sucking jerks who run the banking industry is debated in Congress, one issue that has come to the forefront is cutting ATM fees. Last week, a trio of Democratic senators led by Iowa's Tom Harkin proposed putting a limit on automated teller machine fees - 50 cents. Right now, greedy banks can charge consumers whatever they want for using their machine. Sen. Harkin and his compatriots believe that those affected by these exorbitant fees are often those who can least afford it - lower- and middle-income Americans. The potential change is much-needed in light of the fact that last year, consumers were assessed $3.54, on average, every time they used an ATM that isn't controlled by their own bank. It thus saddens me to learn that most pundits believe that the Harkin proposal is a long shot. There may simply be too many amendments competing for the attention of lawmakers to make the final draft of the financial regulatory reform bill for this one to make the cut. Never mind that it would easily be among the most relevant, needed and impactful; this is Congress, dammit! Bills and laws that need to happen and which would benefit millions of people aren’t a priority. It’s worth noting that some so-called experts are pontificating about whether the cap on ATM fees would truly benefit consumers. Some claim that the amendment would result in a reduction in the number of ATMs. As of the end of 2009, there were roughly 425,000 cash-dispensing machines across the country, according to industry figures. Stunningly, nearly half of those machines were controlled by independent operators like Cardtronics and Louisville, Ky.-based firm Payment Alliance. Cutting fees would sting those companies and they might then elect to operate only in locations that generated a lot of foot traffic, where a greater volume of transactions would offset the decline in fees. Other ATM operators - like community lenders and credit unions - might also reconsider whether it's worth having so many ATMs for their customers. Now, would the average consumer have a problem with any of those supposed drawbacks if it meant saving $3 every time they used an ATM? I’m going with no…………

- I completely did not see this one coming. As far as I knew, the original "Law & Order" would go on indefinitely and end only when series creator Dick Wolf passed away. As it turns out, NBC isn’t all that pumped about the possibility of the show becoming the longest-running television drama ever. After days of rumors about the show’s future swirling, is has been revealed that NBC is pulling the plug on the show after 20 seasons. After saying that it was "not able to comment right now" on rumors of the show’s demise. The show’s ratings have seen better days, with the most recent new episode attracting 6.17 million viewers and a 1.7 rating in the adults 18-to-49 demographic. Word was that NBC wanted Wolf to consider scaling back the 21st season to as few as 6 to 10 episodes, which is actually a pretty ridiculous and insulting demand. Either cancel the show or bring it back for at least 13 episodes, but not a six-episode season. That’s not even a season, really. The network also reportedly asked Wolf to cut the budget, which may have been an even tougher task. Despite the demise of the original incarnation of the show, "Law & Order SVU" as well as "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" are still hanging on, and NBC is considering another spinoff of the iconic show slated for the fall, this time set in Los Angeles. Still, it’s a jarring reminder that any show can be axed at any time, no matter how long its run or iconic its status in the world of television………..

- I’m not sure why 1975 Boston Red Sox World Series hero Bernie Carbo is a topic on anyone’s radar at this point, but I will say that dude is providing some colorful anecdotes about the drug-riddled world of baseball circa 1975. After admitting last month that he was given “vitamins” by Cincinnati Reds trainers in the ’70s that turned out to be speed and revealing that he was peaking on all sorts of illegal drugs and stimulants when he hit his legendary World Series home run, Carbo expounded on those tales for a recent ESPN Outside The Lines interview and added a surprising new revelation to the mix. “I was addicted to the point where I couldn’t play without the drugs. Nobody did as many drugs as I did. I was taking mescaline. I was taking cocaine. Crystal meth. Smoking dope and taking pills and drinking. I felt that even though I hit this home run and I reached a place in my life that I dreamed about, it didn’t bring me any happiness.” Those revelations might lose some of their impact in this era of everyone who is anyone in the game being either accused of or testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs, but we are talking about crystal meth, coke, speed, amphetamines and pot. Bearing all of that in mind and knowing what had to be coursing through Carbo’s system during those days, it’s not all that surprising to hear dude claim that he tried to have Keith Hernandez’s “arms broken” a decade after his World Series heroics. On Sept. 6, 1985, Hernandez testified under oath in a Pittsburgh courtroom that Carbo had first introduced him to cocaine. So how did coke addict Bernie Carbo respond to being ratted out? Let’s allow him to explain. “I knew some people, and I had $2,000, and I asked them to break his arms. He said, ‘We’ll do it in two or three years if you want it done, but we’re not going to do it today, Bernie. If we went and broke his legs today, or broke his arms, you don’t think they would understand that you are the one that had it done?’” End of freaking quote. Wowsers. That’s how you know your drug use has gone over the top: when you are trying to hire a hitman to break a current MLB player’s arms because he fingers you as being his drug connection. So on second thought, talk as much and as often as you want, B. Carbo. Trust me, the world is a better place for it…………

- I like those who can admit the absolute failures in their lives. Fox refuses to do so with the musical traversty that is American Karaoke and the Cleveland Cavaliers appear unwilling to do so with the Mike Brown head-coaching experiment, but at least Google can own its failure when it comes to selling its Nexus One smartphone with Web-only sales. As sales totals for the phone in online marketplaces continue to disappoint, the web giant has announced that the Nexus One will soon be sold in real-life stores. "[A]s with every innovation, some parts worked better than others," Andy Rubin, Google's vice president of engineering, said on the company's official blog. "While the global adoption of [Google's] Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the Web store has not." I have to assume that this isn’t what Google had in mind when it unveiled the Nexus Once back in January with all of the requisite hoopla, pomp and circumstance. Perhaps one sticking point for consumers has been the fact that the Nexus One offers the choice of "locked" service with T-Mobile or, for a higher price, the freedom to pick a different mobile provider. That aspect of the phone changed recently when Verizon was added as a mobile provider for the Nexus One. The upside for Google is that its phone has received mostly positive reviews from the tech world and the public at large, with some calling it "the best Android phone" and saying it "greatly enhances the Google Android family.” Those sentiments haven’t been enough to push the Nexus One past other smartphone competitors. In the same time frame it took the Droid and iPhone to hit one million in sales, the Nexus One managed to move just 135,000 units. Again, the price tag of $180 with a T-Mobile contract and $530 unlocked undoubtedly played a part in those figures. Going forward, Google will seek to change course by combining Web store sales with sales at regular mobile phone outlets. Once the transition is made and a sufficient number of stores offer the Nexus One in physical locations, Google will stop selling the Nexus One online, converting the Web store into a showcase for other companies' Android-operated phones like the HTC Droid Incredible. Keep in mind also that Google has consistently said the Nexus One, its first hardware venture, would be the first in a line of phones. Will the sluggish initial sales cause any change in those plans? Probably not, but it should be a valuable lesson learned if nothing else………