You're tuned to the nation's leading radio talk show, a program that meets and surpasses all audience expectations on a daily basis.
That's no mean feat.
I am America's anchorman, your highly trained broadcast specialist, Rush Limbaugh behind the golden EIB microphone.
Telephone number, if you want to be on the program, is 800-282-2882.
The email address is rush at EIBnet.com.
All right, a little programming note, ladies and gentlemen.
I will not be here tomorrow.
I have a just scheduled list a half hour ago, schedule a day off tomorrow.
I called, I have called.
The sun will come up tomorrow.
Yes, some will come up, but I will not be here.
I've just made an appointment with a therapist to go deal with my newfound pessimism on the future of America.
He says it's going to take at least six hours.
I've been listening to you today.
Snurdley's not buying us.
No, I have a schedule day off tomorrow.
And who's a guest host tomorrow?
Is it oh, that's right.
That's right.
Paul W. Smith.
Paul W. Smith from our great affiliate in Detroit, WJR.
Paul W. Smith, will be here.
And we'll be back on Wednesday to get it revved back up all over again.
Well, this is really encouraging news.
Just when it looked like the political climate couldn't get worse for President Bush and the Republicans, more storms have gathered.
This month's abrupt rise in gas prices, fueling new worries about the party's prospects in the fall elections, which have been roiled by controversy over GOP policies on immigration, the federal budget, and Iraq.
Republicans worry that because their party is dominant in Washington, they will bear the blame for high gasoline prices.
And so the Republicans are determined to take a straight, take-charge pose, even if there is little they can do to provide short-term relief for motorists.
So on Friday of last week, senior GOP congressional aides met with White House advisors to strategierize House Speaker Denny Haster, House Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist are going to send a letter to President Bush today demanding an investigation of possible price gouging by big oil.
Appearing yesterday on the late edition on CNN, Senator Arlen Specter even suggested that Congress consider a tax on oil companies' profits.
So these Republicans, they're not going to let grass grow under their feet.
They're going to get to the bottom of this.
They're going to lead the effort to bring big oil up there and find out just who it is and where the gouging is taking place.
So be confident, folks.
Be comfortable and breathe easy.
The Republican leadership in Congress is on the case, and they will make sure that big oil comes up and has some explaining to do.
Even though there's not a whole lot to be done, I mean, big oil doesn't set the price of the barrel price of oil, ladies and gentlemen.
In fact, I got an email from an expert in this on, I guess it'd be Friday or Saturday, a subscriber email.
Dear Rush, you were dead right today.
None of the major oil companies have any influence over the price of a barrel of oil.
The world market for oil is a commodity market.
It is nearly perfect competition.
There are over 1,000 companies applying oil to the market or supplying oil to the market.
Some, like Aramco and Sitgo, are owned in whole or in part by governments.
On the demand side, there are 7 billion consumers.
In both cases, demand and supply, no one is large enough.
No one is large enough in the marketplace to significantly impact the price of oil in the market as a whole.
India and China have doubled their demand for oil in the past 10 years.
This has substantially increased demand.
Unless Congress is willing to declare war on India and China and use nuclear weapons to bomb them back to the Stone Age, demand will not decrease anytime soon.
Nigeria normally produces 3% of the world's oil supply.
They're totally closed down by terrorist rebels.
The oil rigs destroyed by the hurricanes, about 100 plus of them, have not yet been replaced.
All 25 refineries on the Gulf Coast were shut down by the hurricanes.
Only two of them are back to full production.
We have not built a new refinery since 72.
Supply is way down.
Unless Congress permits drilling in the Gulf Coast, drilling in Alaska permits more refineries to be built, supply will not increase anytime soon.
When demand goes up, the price increases.
When supply decreases, the price goes up.
No one can stop this.
It doesn't matter, folks.
It doesn't matter because Haster and Frist are on the case.
And they're going to be holding here.
They're going to send a letter to Bush.
And they're going to find out exactly who's gouging and how and why.
And they're going to see to it that you know they care.
But Russia, they're going to stop it.
They can't, but they're going to see to it that they know that you care.
Now, along the same lines, our old buddy here, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, hinted today that Iran was considering withdrawing from the Worldwide Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
And he said he didn't think the UN Security Council would impose sanctions on him.
Those who speak about sanctions would be damaged more than Iran, he told a news conference.
But no particular event will happen, so don't worry about it.
He also renewed criticism of Israel, calling it a fake regime that cannot continue to exist.
Israel has long identified Iran as its biggest threat, and these concerns have grown.
And repeated calls by Ahmadinejad has continued his calls for Israel's destruction.
Some 60 years has passed since the end of World War II.
Why should the people of Germany and Palestine pay now for a war in which the current generation was not involved?
Okay, now it's interesting.
If you analyze Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, it's interesting here.
The guy keeps up his credibility with the Islamo-fascists by denouncing Israel, by denouncing the United States, while lining his pockets and the pockets of every oil producer in the world.
I'm sure he means what he says about Israel, but every time he threatens Israel's annihilation, he adds another five bucks to the price of a barrel of oil.
This guy, if you want to know why the oil price is going up, take a look at what old Mahmoud's doing.
Guy bashes Israel, the markets go nuts.
This guy starts pouting, I'm going to bury you or I'm going to knock you.
If you attack us, we'll destroy you.
The next thing you know, the barrel price of oil is up three or four bucks, and the market analysts.
Yes, because of the feared conflict, the coming conflict between the United States and Iran, which is threatening the future oil supplies, blah, So Mahmoud's getting his oil price up.
You think Russia wants to shut him up?
Hell no.
Russia loves the price of oil going up.
Everybody produces oil loves the price going up.
You think the Saudis are going to shut him up?
Hell no.
No way.
The Democrats, too, they love this guy.
The price is going up.
It's going to put him back in office.
Democrats may hate the sinner, but they love the sin.
Let's admit it, folks.
High gasoline prices are the Democrats' ticket to ride here.
I mean, poor old Cindy Sheehan, she's not needed anymore.
Step aside, babe.
Make room for President Ahmadinejad.
If you want to know who is price gouging, if you want to know why gas prices are high, it isn't big oil and it isn't a bunch of powerful Jewish people calling the shots.
It's the anti-Semite nut job running Iran.
This guy, every time he threatens, you market, every time he threatens to attack Israel, bam, price goes up.
And what's, you know, Iran has quite a lot of oil out there.
So he's profiting from it.
The Saudis are profiting from it.
The Russians are profiting from it.
Everybody that grows oil, per se, everybody that has it is making up.
And the Democrats love it too because that's resulting in higher gasoline prices.
You're going to blame Bush for it.
And the Democrats win the House and Senate in November.
Back in just a second.
Amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic, first and second-hand premium cigar smoke.
Rush Limbaugh and the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
All right, this is interesting.
This is from livescience.com, and I found this over the weekend.
Top 10 Ways to Destroy the Earth.
Now, the reason for this is that last Saturday was Earth Day.
And do you know April 22nd was chosen as Earth Day for a specific reason?
You know what April 22nd is?
It's the birth date of Vladimir Lenin.
I kid you not.
Earth Day occurs on April 22nd, which is Lenin's birthday.
And everybody, what was that?
It was at dinner Saturday or somewhere talking to somebody.
It was Sunday.
I forget where, but we were talking about Earth Day.
And I said, this is nothing more than a new home for displaced, lost, wandering, aimless communists out there since the Soviet Union went south.
If you listen to these people, we're destroying the planet, right?
And they've been saying this for at least the last 26 years and maybe 30.
So a man by the name of Sam Hughes has written a piece, The Top 10 Ways to Destroy the Earth.
Destroying the Earth, he says, is harder than you may have been led to believe.
You've seen the action movies where the bad guy threatens to destroy the Earth.
You've heard people on the news claiming the next nuclear war or cutting down rainforests or persisting in releasing hideous quantities of pollution into the atmosphere threatens to end the world, but they're fools.
The Earth was built to last.
It is a, who knows how many gazillions of years old ball of iron.
It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you've had hot dinners.
And lo, it still orbits merrily.
So my first piece of advice to you, dear would-be Earth destroyer, is do not think this will be easy.
By any means necessary.
This is the mission statement by people who want to destroy the Earth.
By any means necessary to render the Earth into a form in which it may no longer be considered a planet.
Such forms include, but are most definitely not limited to, two or more planets, any number of smaller asteroids, a quantum singularity, a dust cloud.
To make the list of the top 10 ways to destroy Earth, a method must actually work.
That is, according to current scientific understanding, it must be possible for the Earth to actually be destroyed by this method, however improbable or impractical it may be.
Methods are ranked in order of feasibility, with the least likely listed first and the most likely being number 10.
Now, here is the current Earth destruction status.
The number of times the Earth has been destroyed, zero.
The number of plans currently in progress with the final aim of bringing about the Earth's destruction, zero.
The number of scientific experiments currently underway with the potential to bring about the Earth's destruction.
Zero.
Minimum amount of time until the Earth is destroyed by natural means, discounting total existence failure, 25 years.
And that's like the first estimates of the Earth being destroyed by global warming or whatever, 25 years.
Minimum amount of time until the Earth is destroyed by artificial means, 50 years.
This is not a guide for those whose aim is merely to wipe out humanity.
I can in no way guarantee the complete extinction of the human race via any of these methods, real or imaginary.
If total human genocide is your ultimate goal, you're reading the wrong document.
There are far more efficient ways of doing that than destroying the planet, many of which are available and feasible right now.
Nor is this a guide for those wanting to annihilate everything from single-cell life upwards, render Earth uninhabitable, or simply conquer it.
These are trivial goals in comparison.
Number one.
And I mean, each one of these things has a long paragraph, but the number one best of the, well, these are in descending order.
So the top 10.
Number one reason ways to destroy the Earth, hurl it into the Sun.
You will need Earth-moving equipment.
Method, hurl the Earth into the Sun.
Sending Earth on a collision course with the Sun is not as easy as one might think.
Even though you don't actually have to literally hit the Sun, you just have to send the Earth near enough to the Sun within the roach limit, and tidal forces will tear it apart.
It's surprisingly easy to end up with Earth in a loopy elliptical orbit, which merely roasts it for four months in every eight.
Be careful because planning can avoid this.
If you're going to aim your Earth to the Sun, make sure you hit it, or you're going to be most uncomfortable.
Number two, eaten by von Neumann machines.
You will need a single von Neumann machine.
A von Neumann machine is any device capable of creating an exact copy of itself, given nothing but the necessary raw materials.
Create one of these that subsists almost entirely on iron, magnesium, aluminum, and silicon, the major elements found in Earth's mantle and core.
Doesn't matter how big it is, as long as it can reproduce itself exactly in any period of time.
You release it into the ground under the Earth's crust, allow it to fend for itself.
Watch and wait as it creates a second von Neumann machine, then they create two more, then they create four more.
As the population of von Neumann machines doubles repeatedly, the planet Earth will, terrifyingly soon, be entirely eaten up and turn into a swarm of potentially sextillions of von Neumann machines.
Number three, pulverized by impact with blunt instrument.
You will need a big heavy rock, something with a bit of a swing to it.
Maybe Mars would work.
Essentially, anything can be destroyed if you hit it hard enough, anything.
The concept is simple.
You find a really, really big asteroid or a planet, you accelerate it up to some dazzling speed and smash it into Earth, preferably head-on, but whatever you can manage.
The result, an absolutely spectacular collision, resulting hopefully in the Earth and most likely our cue ball too being pulverized out of existence.
Number four, meticulously and systematically deconstructed.
You will need a powerful mass driver or ideally lots of them ready to access to roughly, and there's some stupid math formula here.
Basically, what we're going to do here is dig up the Earth a big chunk at a time, and we're going to boost the whole lot of it into orbit, all six sextillion tons of it.
A mass driver is a sort of oversized electromagnetic railgun, which once proposed as a way of getting mined materials back from the moon to Earth.
Basically, you just load this thing into the driver, you fire it upwards in roughly the right direction.
We'd use a particularly powerful model big enough to hit escape velocity of 11 kilometers per second, even after atmospheric considerations, and launch it all into the sun or randomly take place.
It'd be boomerang back to us and wipe us out.
Number five, sucked into a giant black hole.
You will need a black hole.
Extremely powerful rocket engines and optionally a large rocky planetary body.
The nearest black hole to our planet is 1,600 light years from Earth in the direction of Sagittarius.
Method, after locating your black hole, you need to get it and the Earth together.
This is likely going to be the most time-consuming part of your plan.
There are two methods, moving Earth or moving the black hole.
Though for best results, you'd most likely move both at once.
It's very difficult, but definitely possible.
Earth's final resting place will be part of the mass of the black hole.
Number six, ways to destroy the Earth.
Destroyed by vacuum energy detonation.
You will need a light bulb.
This is a fun one.
Contemporary scientific theories tell us that what we may see as a vacuum is only vacuum on average and actually thriving with vast amounts of particles and antiparticles constantly appearing and then annihilating each other.
It also suggests the volume of space enclosed by a light bulb contains enough vacuum energy to boil every ocean in the world.
Therefore, vacuum energy could prove to be the most abundant energy source of any kind.
Anyway, it goes on to describe how you use a light bulb to destroy the Earth.
Number 10, blown up by matter-antimatter reaction.
You will need 2,500,000,000 tons of antimeter or antimatter.
That's the most explosive substance possible.
In fact, in one of the precursors to the Da Vinci Code, some secretive sect in Switzerland had developed a machine to create it.
They're going to blow up the Vatican with it.
Number eight, sucked into a microscopic black hole.
Number nine, gobbled up by strangelets.
Hijack control of the relativistic heavy ion collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.
Use the RHIC to create and maintain a stable strangelet.
Do you get the point here?
Number 10, total existence failure.
You will need nothing.
No method.
Simply sit back and twiddle your thumbs as completely by chance, all 200 gazillion, gazillion, gazillion, gazillion atoms making up the planet Earth suddenly, simultaneously, spontaneously cease to exist.
The odds against this actually ever occurring are considerably greater than a Google Plex to one.
Failing this, some kind of arcane, probably manipulation device, may be employed.
In other words, there's no way to destroy the planet, folks.
It just can't be done.
You'd need to find a way to smash Mars into the Earth or smash us into Mars.
That'd need a lot of rockets.
You'd have to attach various parts of the planet, a lot of propellant, propel us through space, all those gazillions of miles.
Make sure we miss the moon on the way, because that's not big enough to destroy us if it hit us.
So feel free in driving your SUVs or whatever you're driving now with a gas price at five bucks a gallon.
Soon will be.
Make book on that.
And don't worry about your air conditioners, whatever.
You're not destroying the planet, and you can't.
We can't.
We don't have the ability, the vanity of humanity thinking we can destroy the planet by advancing the technology aspects of our lifestyle is just pure rock gut.
And that would be the golden EIB microphone.
Many requests to post the web link for the top 10 ways to destroy the Earth.
We will do that at rushlimbaugh.com later this afternoon.
Hey, try this headline from the Associated Press.
Rising gas prices hurt poor Americans most.
No.
For most Americans, today's rising gasoline prices are an annoyance, not a serious financial hardship.
And then there are people like Kenneth and Edith Taylor of Baltimore who already struggle to make their monthly social security checks of less than $1,700 last by cooking casseroles and soups at home instead of eating out, and they forego new clothes for as long as possible.
Now, with neighborhood pump prices averaging $2.85 a gallon, the Taylors say that they simply can't afford the 80-mile round trip to visit their daughter more than once a month.
There and back is $10 worth of gasoline, said 84-year-old Kenneth, who used to make the trip in his Buick the Sabre at least every other week.
The Taylor family's increasing frugality may be a drop of the bucket for the world's most voracious energy-consuming nation, but it is not inconsequential.
It could be the start of a broader trend.
That is, what's the broader trend?
Rising gas prices hurt poor Americans the most.
Melissa in Dallas, nice to have you on the program.
Welcome to the EIB Network.
Hi, Rush.
Great to talk with you.
Just one quick comment.
You made a statement a couple months ago about a lot of your audience is women, and we kind of look to talk radio for our intellectual fix, and that's true.
I had a great career, but now I have two young boys, and I want to be home to take care of them and make them into wonderful U.S. and productive citizens.
But I did want to comment about the gasoline issue going on right now.
I think Congress, they passed in the early 90s certain legislation that put restrictions on gasolines or how it had to be formulated and stuff because of the pressure they were feeling from the environmentalists.
But they don't talk about this, what they actually did to do this, and also the heavy taxes that are part of the gasoline prices as well.
And I think that's an issue we need to talk about.
And that's just something I wanted to bring up.
And I want to know what I can do.
I mean, I'm a smart woman.
I have a lot of friends like myself that were great career women.
We're all now taking care of our kids.
I mean, that's more important than having some fabulous career.
We can always do that.
But there's a lot of us that could just be motivated and activated.
Let me tell you something, Melissa.
It's an interesting question.
You say you want Congress to investigate themselves.
That will happen after the earth is destroyed.
That's the one thing Congress will not investigate itself other than a trumped-up ethics committee examination.
But you're absolutely right.
Congress placed all these restrictions on formulations of gasoline for different geographical areas of the country.
After Hurricane Katrina, they suspended them, and gasoline was distributed just fine, got everywhere it was needed, kept the price down.
In fact, they could do it again if the price gets so high that it becomes oppressive to the people of the country.
Taxes, they could rebate taxes, cancel them for a while.
They won't do it.
Congress passed the laws that dealt with FEMA and Katrina and the levies, but after Hurricane Katrina, they acted like bystanders and spectators.
Well, what happened, Donald?
Well, we got to have hearings.
We got to find out how the Bush administration screwed this up.
We've got to find out how the Corps of Engineers screwed this up.
We've got to find out how X screwed it up.
They have no accountability whatsoever.
Their role and their efforts here that lead to higher prices on anything.
They're never going to examine that.
In fact, they won't.
The idea that they should do without less never occurs to them.
It's even if somebody proposes a tax cut, well, how are we going to pay for this?
From whom are we going to get the money?
We're cutting taxes.
I'm blue in the face talking about this.
Chris, Sel Call, North Carolina.
Welcome to the program.
Hi, Rush.
This is Chris.
Longtime listener.
I'm a truck driver.
I leave out every Sunday.
And if you ask any truck driver, the roads are packed.
The highway is packed with drivers.
$3 a gallon.
I'm surprised it's that low.
All filled with out-of-state drivers all weekend.
We've become an economy of not staying home.
Interesting.
It's a consuming issue, not a price issue.
And I mean, the second point is, when did a price of what it costs to manufacture something determine the final price on it?
When did the price of what it costs to manufacture something determine the final price on it?
What do you mean?
Like if a gallon of gas costs the gas company a dollar to manufacture, who's to say they are supposed to sell it for a dollar?
They sell it for whatever people are willing to pay.
And if they're willing to pay $10 a gallon, I say jack it up.
Well, now you're not being very sensitive here to the people of the country.
You're not supposed to tell people how this works.
You're supposed to commiserate with them and tell them how much you feel their pain and have somebody screwing them left and right.
And you got this all wrong.
You need empathy like I have.
I have.
Now, Chris, you laughing out there?
Yeah, you're funny.
I appreciate you listening to me.
You put on a good show, and I'll be back listening.
I appreciate it.
Chris, thank you.
Thanks so much.
You know, he's got a point.
I was on the roads this weekend, and they are.
What, Mr. Snurdy?
Are you inferring from what he said that people don't really care about the high price because they're still out there driving?
It is an interesting question.
At what price will behavior be affected?
At what price will people start driving less?
At what price will people say in mass now?
I'm talking about in mass.
I've had it.
I'm cutting back.
What is that price?
I forgot about that.
Yes, folks, once again, I had to be brought back into reality by Mr. Snurdley.
I had forgotten.
And Chris, I'm surprised you didn't think of this yourself.
People have to drive to their second jobs because they can't get by in Americon 1.
And that's why the Democrats are going to win House and Senate in November.
Scott in Peabody, Massachusetts.
Welcome to the program.
Yeah, hi.
Hey.
Yeah, I just heard your comment about somebody saying that the poor are the ones that are most affected by the high gas prices.
I totally disagree.
I'm a middle-class person.
I own my own business.
I deliver bread for a living, and I don't control my cost that I sell.
You still there?
Well, no, it didn't say that.
It doesn't say you're not hurt.
It says rising gas prices hurt poor Americans the most.
It doesn't, because number one, I'm forced to drive every day.
I don't have a choice.
If I want to make a living, I've got to get in my truck and drive every day.
How many jobs are you driving, Scott?
Well, I have two jobs.
See, that's exactly right.
So how does that say they're going to be hurt more?
Well, because they have less income.
It's a math equation for the media.
I mean, we're talking about people that have Social Security, $3,400 a month.
Well, these poor people that called up, they can't go see their daughter but once a month.
I'm sorry, you're breaking my heart.
You know, I got to get up and drive every day to go to work to try and make an income to feed my family.
Right, and no matter what the gas price is, no matter what the gas price is, you have to make those trips to those two jobs.
Right.
And I have to pay it regardless of the price.
And I don't get to pass that price on anybody because I don't set the prices.
I'm an independent.
I'm the middle guy.
So I'm the one that's hurt.
I'm the one that's this is the best.
Now, wait a minute.
Wait a second now.
You've got to be able to pass some of that price because some of that you're driving for expense, right?
You're driving for business.
Well, yeah, that's true.
Yeah.
But what I'm saying is that when gas goes up from where it was last year and it's a buck more a gallon now, I don't get to charge higher prices for what I'm selling.
My prices of the bread are a set price.
So it just costs me more to do the same job every time the prices go up.
Okay.
Well, this is good testimony then because what this means is that higher gasoline prices are not just hurting the poor the most.
They're hurting contractors, too.
Yes.
And where we can't pass on the price.
You know, the big company, they pass the price on to the consumer.
They raise the price of their goods or whatever.
The trucking companies, they just pass the price on to the consumer.
I don't get to pass the price on anybody.
I just, it comes right out of my profit, comes right on my ability to buy groceries and all that stuff.
That's why I'm working a second job.
I'm working a second job to pay for the gas to run the business that I own.
So I don't see how I feel bad for the people that aren't working.
Yeah, well, what do you think needs to be done about this?
Well, I think the reason we're paying higher prices is because we have cowards for politicians.
And they've allowed the environmentalists to set the agenda.
They've been forced by fear into not drilling for more oil, not going to Anwar.
You know, we've been forced into this position because we have men that are in Congress that are cowards.
You know, they're more worried about what people think and say about them than they aren't doing the right thing.
You are very shrewd.
You have just.
No, sir.
You have just nailed it.
But don't discount this either.
Now, some of you might have thought I was joking.
When Ahmadinejad goes out there and threatens Israel, take a look at what happens in the commodities markets when it comes to oil.
Price goes up.
Every time he starts rattling the sabers of annihilating Israel or attacking the United States, the commodities markets go, hey, hey, hey, hey, babe.
Might have an interruption of supply of oil if the U.S. and Iran go to war.
Hey, hey, hey, babe.
Bam!
Price goes up.
Saudis love it.
The Iranians love it.
The Russians love it.
Anybody who produces oil loves it.
Hugo Chavez loves it.
And the Democrats love it as well.
Iran's economy is in trouble, too, because they've had all this military buildup and spending.
They need a high oil price.
And old Mahmoud is getting it on the commodities market and a number of other places.
Thanks for the call out there, Scott.
We'll be right back, folks.
Oh, Canada, Hillary Clinton news.
Now, this is a flip-flop, is it not?
Responding to polls showing the strong majority of Americans support building a wall across the U.S.-Mexican border, Hillary Clinton announced Saturday she backs a border wall that would include both physical barriers and a smart fence.
Physical structure, obviously important, Mrs. Clinton told the New York Daily News.
A wall in certain areas would be appropriate.
The news said she also supported deploying a high-tech smart fence that could spot people approaching from 200 to 300 yards.
She said the deployment of surveillance drones and infrared cameras should be considered as well.
So Hillary says she wants a wall now, and she wants a fence to keep illegals out.
Somebody needs to tell her that a wall and an electric fence would have kept Jesus out if he had tried to cross the border.
Because remember, didn't she say that Jesus wouldn't build walls?
You can't treat these poor people from other countries unchristian-like manner.
Jesus wouldn't do this.
But now she's flip-flopped.
Somebody needs to tell her that her idea would keep Jesus out.
Now, there's nothing on her website on this.
Her statement comes this weekend, right when the Democrats are getting rocked with the Mary McCarthy scandal.
Most interesting.
Hillary Clinton comes out for a border wall.
Howard Dean's out there going to put on a uniform, patrol the border himself.
Oh, we have Ports news, ladies and gentlemen.
Cargo industry.
This is not good.
And it does not.
Well, I'm not going to play the theme because I don't have enough time here, but cargo industry officials are worried that a federal ID system aimed at boosting security could cost many port workers their jobs, something that would bottle up the flow of goods destined for virtually every U.S. community.
Details of this program, more than three years in the making, are still being worked out.
But according to industry officials who've discussed it with the Transportation Security Administration and a Coast Guard, illegal immigrants and people convicted of certain crimes might be barred from the positions they now hold at the ports.
At ports, that could mean thousands of people will be out of jobs, including dock workers and truck drivers.
And this doesn't even have anything to do with the Dubai ports deal.
Dubai's out of it.
Of course, there are concerns, said Chuck Carroll, executive director of the National Association of Waterfront Employers, a trade group for terminal operators.
You'd have the same number of boxes, but fewer people to move them, and that could mean major congestion.
The proposal would bar anyone who is on a terror watch list, who entered the country illegally, or who has certain criminal convictions.
Among the disqualifying crimes to work at the ports would be offenses related to espionage, terrorism, explosives, or a transportation security incident.
In some cases, workers could be excluded for assault with intent to murder, kidnapping, rape, drug offenses, extortion, robbery, and fraud.
It's unclear right now, get this, it's unclear exactly how many workers currently at the ports fall into these categories.
Though it is generally acknowledged that illegal immigrants and felons work at the ports, I don't even know how many you want me to go through the list again.
What a list.
If you're on a terror watch list, if you enter the country illegally or if you have certain criminal convictions like intent to murder, kidnapping, rape, extortion, robbery, fraud, drug offenses, and they don't know how many people currently fit that bill who are working at the ports.
Bob in Washington, D.C., welcome to the EIB Network.
Hello.
Hi, Rush.
Great to talk to you.
Thank you, sir.
Longtime listener, first time caller.
Thank you.
I just wanted to go back and revisit the Mary McCarthy issue for a minute and point out the absurdity of the idea that John Kerry was pushing that information is classified to hide the truth from the American people.
Information is classified to keep sensitive information from getting into the hands of our enemies.
The bad guys, that's right.
Exactly.
And, you know, furthermore, I didn't, you know, the idea that when something is classified, that the president is the only one who knows the information, that's absurd as well.
Excellent point.
But, you know, that's the way the Democrats always want government perceived when they're not running it, that it's run by a bunch of people keeping secrets and the American people, like spying on them or what have you.
But it's an excellent point.
And I think they're just trying to capitalize on these approval numbers.
I think they see Bush at 33, 36, 39%, whatever it is.
And they're just going to throw the kitchen sink at him, thinking the American people will fall for it when probably most of it is about gasoline prices.
And they're throwing that at him, too.
One final story, just the headline here.
Lethal injection of those on death row, lethal injection may cause agony.
Execution by lethal injection may cause excruciating pain, according to Human Rights Watch.
North Carolina man was executed by lethal injection on Friday by officials who, following a judge's order, used a brainwave monitor to ensure that he did not suffer undue pain while being executed.
Why do we even mess with this anymore?
With what we learned during the Shivo case, we could execute death row inmates with euphoria.
And we would save the money that we spend on lethal injection and food.
We wouldn't feed them.
There'd be no last meal because that would destroy the euphoria.
We just let them starve to death, and it'll be a blissful, happy ending for those on death row.
Simple solution to me, which is Noistaki Manana.
Future official language of our country, I am not here tomorrow.