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June 12, 2007 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:23
June 12, 2007, Tuesday, Hour #2
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Time Text
And greetings to you music lovers, thrill seekers, conversationalists all across the fruited plane.
Time for broadcast excellence, second of three hours today.
Great to have you with us.
The telephone number, 800-282-2882, and the email address is rush at eibnet.com.
All right, we got an update here on the magic car, the hybrid.
The car that liberals go out and buy and makes them think they're making a difference, a positive difference, protecting the environment, not polluting the planet, not causing global warming out there.
This story, it's been around for a while.
I saw it on a website today.
We did a little blurb in it in a limbo letter in our January issue about this smelt plant up there, the nickel plant that's been totally destroyed by the getting of the nickel and the route that the nickel takes in order to become a battery.
And the upshot of the story is that a Toyota Prius, a hybrid, whatever, it costs three times as much for one-third of the driving time than a Hummer.
By the time you factor production costs and actual shipping costs and materials to assemble the whole thing, and then the driving time and the lifespan of the car, the Prius, these hybrids, they do more environmental damage overall than a Hummer.
Well, one of the places this story appeared was, what is this?
The Daily Mail in the United Kingdom.
And we found this little letter last day updated on 9.34 a.m. 9th May 2007.
It's come to our attention that a story originally published in the Mail on Sunday has apparently been misinterpreted by some of our readers.
In order to prevent further misinterpretation, we've removed the article from our website.
The following letter was published in the Mail on Sunday, May 13th, 2007.
Your article about the INCO nickel factory in Sudbury, Canada wrongly implied that poisonous fumes from the factory had left the area looking like a lunar landscape because so many plants and trees had died.
And it does that NASA's using it to test moon rovers.
Mars rovers and so forth.
You also sought to blame Toyota because the nickel is used among countless other purposes for making the Prius hybrid car batteries.
In fact, any damage occurred more than 30 years ago, long before the Prius was made.
Since then, INCO has reduced sulfur dioxide emissions by more than 90%, has helped to plant more than 11 million trees.
Oh, good carbon offsets.
The company has won praise from the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Environmental Groups.
Sudbury has won several conservation awards as a center for ecotourism.
So just want to get all sides out there, ladies and gentlemen.
You've got this story here.
It's all over the LA Times.
A lot of people are talking about it.
Approval of Congress, the lowest in a decade.
Los Angeles Times Bloomberg poll.
Just 27% of Americans now approve of the way Congress is doing its job, down from 36% in January when Democrats assumed control of the House and Senate.
Now, listen to the opening paragraph of the LA Times story.
Fueled by disappointment at the change of pace, the pace of change, since Democrats assumed the majority on Capitol Hill, public approval of Congress has fallen to its lowest.
That's absolute bunk.
People aren't upset with Congress because it's not doing anything.
That's when people love Congress.
Most people.
They're upset because of what they're trying to do and then some of the things that are happening.
But the point of this is this.
And Thomas Lifson makes this, it's a great, the great point here at theAmericanThinker.com.
Congress ought to just get on with the people's business and stop spending time on resources, resources on trivial issues to besmirch the Bush administration, stop favoring terrorists, stop engaging in tactical measures meant to defeat the administration and end the hypocrisy and cynicism.
This lowest in a decade measure is occurring during a Democrat Congress.
Reed Pelosi are running that show, and that's the lowest congressional ratings in 10 years.
And all they're doing is beating up on Bush every day, trying to get Alberto Gonzalez canned.
The Senate had a meaningless resolution yesterday, a lack of confidence, and the Republicans beat it back.
They are, you can say, do nothing whatever, but the key here is, look at this is a great opportunity for the Republicans because the Democrats came in promising all these wonderful ethical reforms, none of which are happening.
In fact, Boehner, the Republican leader in the House, says he's going to go to war over earmarks because the way the Democrats are doing earmarks in the House now, David Obie is the author of this.
And we were told, by the way, that back in November, one of the reasons Republicans lost is because some of their voters were upset with all these earmarks.
Pork.
And so what Boehner is doing, what David Obie is doing, they're slipping the earmarks in after the spending bills have been agreed to and signed so that nobody knows they're there until it's too late to do anything about it.
They're basically doing it under the cover of darkness in bright sunshine.
And, you know, Boehner is prepared to go to war over this.
But this is a great opportunity for somebody to show some leadership for a change.
On the Republican side, somewhere in Congress, there are a lot of things out there that the American people do want their government to do.
And those things are not being done.
And one of them is get this immigration bill right.
Get this thing fixed.
And by the way, there's movement on that that's a positive sign.
And you might say that this is a sign that the democracy works.
Rich Lowry just posted at the corner that Saxby Chambliss and Senator Isaacson were at the press conference announcing the Senate grand compromise, but now they're singing a different tune.
Here's their press release.
U.S. Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isaacson, both Republicans from Georgia, today sent a letter to President Bush urging him to send an emergency supplemental spending bill to Congress to fund border security.
Chambliss and Isaacson believe emergency supplemental funds to secure the border will go a long way towards restoring the confidence of the American people in the federal government's commitment to border security.
And I've got the text of the letter here, and here's an interesting passage.
As we travel around Georgia and continue to hear from our constituents, the message from a majority of Georgians is they have no trust that the U.S. government will enforce the laws contained in this new legislation and secure the border first.
You know, there's a silver lining in this cloud, too.
In addition to the bill being temporarily dead, the silver lining here is that millions and millions of Americans are seeing that big government can't get anything done and that big government does not respond to the American people.
Now, what Lowry means here that there may be a sign that democracy works here is Saxby Chambliss was, he was, I mean, after this thing was announced in secret and they came out and started selling it, he was on the trail.
One of the loudest salesmen, one of the loudest spokesmen for this now defunct bill, he's done a 180.
And he's heard what his constituents have to say.
In this situation, most of the people involved in this bill who are for it know exactly what the people of this country think and don't care.
It's like Dianne Feinstein said yesterday or Sunday, whenever she said it, I've never received more racist and hate-fiddled phone messages and emails in my 15-career, 15-year career in the Senate.
And we all know what that's about.
That's to discredit the critics so the next time they bring the bill up, the people being criticized can throw it off and laugh it off because that's just coming from a bunch of kooks.
So you have a great illustration here of big government is not responsive.
Big government doesn't exist to serve the people.
Big government exists to serve itself.
Big government exists to grow larger and larger.
Big government exists to spend money and tax whoever they can and need to in order to get the money to spend.
And what they can't tax, they'll go out and borrow.
And so there's a lot of opportunities here for people to see the inefficiency of bureaucracies, the obstinacy of elitist politicians.
Now we're starting to see some turnarounds from some of the participants here.
And it's a laugher too because Dingy Harry can only get 38 of his 51 Democrats to vote for this bill.
That's one of the reasons that he pulled it.
And he said yesterday, and by the way, President Bush is up there having lunch with these guys now.
Oh, where is it?
Where is it?
Jeff Sessions has come out.
I'll have to, yes, GOP Senator Bush, back off on ailing immigration bill.
As President Bush prepares to make a rare visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to push his ailing immigration plan, Jeff Sessions from Alabama saying the president should back off and help us write a better bill.
Now, during that lunch that's going on now, the president is hoping to get 15 Republican supporters to change their minds on the bill.
But Jeff Sessions made it clear today he's not going to be swayed.
Frankly, I think the president's wrong to push this piece of legislation so hard after we demonstrated the flaws that are in it.
He needs to back off.
Now, this is big because this is a senator telling the leader of his party who happens to be the president, Mr. President, you don't have anything we need anymore.
Lame duck, whatever you want to call it, there's no reason for us to jump in line behind you.
And besides, we don't believe in this thing anyway.
So back off and come back and do this and get it fixed.
And Saxby Chambliss and his guy, Johnny Isaacson, have the right idea.
You know, get border security and move on it fast.
And they might have some fortune, some good luck in turning around some public opinion on this if it actually were to happen.
Rich Lowry has a great piece in the National Review Online about, you know, how long it took us to build the Empire State Building, 431 days.
The Hoover Dam got built in the Great Depression in a very short period of time.
It cost a lot of money.
And we're being told we can't build a fence.
We can't build a fence with the Hoover Dam.
I'll go through the details here after the break about what was involved in building the Hoover Dam and what a monumental undertaking that was.
Wow, with Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge happened in the 30s as well.
Now we can't build a fence.
And it's frightening that we've lost this dynamism and we've lost the will to do these things that we can't.
Oh, we can't do that.
We have to do fences.
And these things can be done.
We're the United States of America.
Anyway, Dingy Harry, now blaming the president, told Bush the only hope for the bill is if he can come up and deliver more than 20 Republican senators to break the filibuster and pass the measure.
Dingy Harry said he's maxed out at 38 votes that they delivered on a test vote last week.
He's 22 votes short of breaking the filibuster.
Dingy Harry said, simply put, we need many more than seven Republicans to vote for cloture and final passage of the bill.
Now, my question is, Denji Harry, you're the guy that runs the Senate.
The problem is, if you can't get all 51 of your guys in lockstep on this, why is it the Republicans?
Well, we want to buy a partisan bill and the president's bill and all that.
So he's dumping on the president to get the votes, and the president's up there trying to accept the challenge.
Brief timeout here, 800-282-2882, the number.
If you want to call, we'll be back after this.
You got to hear these next two soundbites, folks.
They are of Dan Blather, formerly of the CBS Evening News.
Yesterday, he was on MSNBC with Joe Scarborough, who was working in the morning.
And Scarborough said there was this terrible miscalculation by Roma Hartman, the producer over at CBS Evening News, and a couple CBS News execs that they were going to soften up the news, and that way they could expand their viewership, get more women in there.
Do you think that's one of the problems Katie Couric's had coming in that maybe they tried to rebrand the evening news in a way that Americans just don't want to accept?
Well, I totally agree with you, Joe, that I want to make very clear that I have nothing against Katie Couric at all.
She's a very nice person, and I have a lot of friends at CBS News.
However, it was clear at the time, and I think it's become even clearer, that the mistake was to try to bring the Today Show ethos to the evening news and to dumb it down, tart it up in hopes of attracting a younger audience.
Yeah, this is a clever technique, folks.
I myself have used this technique.
I love Katie Kerr.
Oh, I love CBN.
We've got friends at CBS News, a lot of respect for what goes on over there.
And then you slam them.
Tarting up the news.
Dumbing it down and tarting up the news, the Today Show ethos.
Now, when I saw this last night, I was talking about this.
That's sexism.
And Dan Blather is, this is pure sexist.
Dumb it down and tart it up.
So we went back today.
Here's a montage of Dan Rather on the air on election night, November 2000.
This is a montage of Dan Rather's coverage, and let's listen to dumbing it down and tarting it up.
Bush had a long lead.
His lead has evaporated and melted faster than ice cream in a microwave.
Close only counts with hand grenades and horseshoes.
Neither NASA nor the Russian Cosmodrome can track them.
Governor Bush would probably be as mad as a reindone rooster.
Bad data in, bad data out.
The hour of decision may be drawing near, and don't bet the trailer money on it yet.
Well, the word goofy comes to mind.
Too early to say he has the whip hand.
The good book says the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.
But as a reporter, you have to say, that's the way to bet it.
One night, they counted those absentee ballots until the cows literally had gone to sleep.
It's been a ding-dong battle back and forth.
His chances are slim, and if he doesn't carry Florida, Slim will have left town.
This thing is as tight as the rusted lug nuts on a 55 Ford.
Now, this is election night coverage.
Dan Rather talking about the closeness of the race, and they call Florida to pull it back, and he was making excuses for all of that.
Now, Les Moonvus, the chief executive at CBS, has shot back at Rather, saying that those remarks that Rather made about Katie Couric being dumbing it down and tarting it up were sexist.
Now, this is interesting because I thought only Republicans could be sexists.
And don't forget coming up with a story, Kim Gandhi of the NAGS, the National Association of Gals, blaming me for this epidemic of spousal abuse out there.
Frankly, I don't know how that's possible, but remember, she's a woman and she's a nag.
And so logic has to.
Well, didn't you see the report yesterday?
One in six women are beaten up by their husbands.
Don't why it's telling you what was out there.
Of course, I don't believe it.
But she's got a column.
I don't know.
The column might have been what spawned the news story.
You know the way these libs hang together and hang tough.
Used to blame the Super Bowl for it.
Remember that?
That's when women got beat up, but that was only once a year.
We can tolerate that.
It's a joke.
I told you, I didn't get to bed before 2:30, folks.
My five nephews and nieces are in town, aged 14 to 3.
And it was 11:30, 11:45 last night.
And they came in and they said, Oh, sure, let's go do that.
I'll fire up the popcorn machine, fed them coconut oil, pop popcorn.
But because of the vagaries of my media room, I couldn't go to bed until they were finished because that's a certain way to turn it off.
No, they're on vacation.
What do you mean, kids be in bed by 11:30?
They're on vacation.
Besides, I'm not there.
No, no, no, no.
They were having a great time.
I love the fact they're having a great time.
Watch that, that, that, that Commi Lib penguin movie, that cartoon movie, Happy Feet.
Yeah.
Anyway, Rich Lowry, listen to this.
In five years, we built the Hoover Dam from 31 to 36.
The Colorado River was diverted with tunnels blasted into the black canyon walls.
Town was built to house a small army of workers laboring in the desert.
Three and a quarter million cubic yards of concrete were poured into a dam reaching 726 and a half feet high, two years ahead of schedule.
It's hard to look back at this monumental effort without feeling envious.
The dam was completed on the backs of desperate men during the Depression.
But from this remove, it looks like an apotheosis of the can-do spirit.
Who believes we could do something similar today?
That political bickering, government bungling, OSHA regulations, lawsuits, environmental objections wouldn't make such a project all but impossible.
In the 1930s, the Empire State Building was built in 410 days.
More than five years after 9-11, the World Trade Center site still features a gaping hole.
Now we get to the Senate's grand compromise on immigration and how we can't build a fence and we can't do this and we can't listen to the people and we can't get it right.
And I'm going to tell you, you look at past achievements when the government actually did good things.
As I say, the opportunity exists here for the American public finally to have their fill of big government and understand that it is not the answer to their wives.
Back in just a second.
So I checked the email here during the break.
And I'm going to thank those of you who asked me this question because it enabled me to focus my answer.
Rush, we don't quite understand why this immigration bill failing and all this is going to make people think that government, big government's inefficient and doesn't accomplish anything.
It's because of this, folks.
The reason the immigration bill failed is that none of us believe what they're telling us about it.
We know it's not going to work because it hasn't worked with the current legislation that we've got because it's not being enforced.
And so they're insulting our intelligence.
And this is something that, you know, the elites and the political class have constantly done.
They've talked down and they've been a bit arrogant and they conclude that the people just don't have enough experience, education, or knowledge to understand the intricacies of their jobs.
But we just don't believe what we're being told about this.
We don't believe what the president's saying about it.
We know it's amnesty.
They say it's not.
They're telling us we don't understand it.
We've read it.
We've had people have read it.
They're telling us that the Z visa is not what we think it is.
It is.
The Z visa means you are legal after your 24-hour background check.
By the way, speaking of a 24-hour background check, do you know that there are people all over the country who made summer plans traveling internationally, who went through all the right procedures to get their passports, and they still don't have them?
Because the government that says it's going to protect the borders and make sure that they're going to find out in 24 hours every one of these Z visa holders, whether legal or not, do a background check.
I have a friend who works at a congressional office, well, a representative office in North Carolina.
And these people have done everything they were supposed to do.
They've applied 10 to 12 weeks before their trip for their passport and gone out and they've purchased the various elements of the trip that are non-refundable, can't get the money back.
And now they can't take the trip because the federal government can't get them their passports in 12 weeks.
And they live here.
They're in the white pages.
They have Social Security numbers.
They pay their taxes.
There are any number of records the U.S. government has.
10 to 12 weeks, they haven't got their passports.
And this is happening all over the country.
And so when people can't get their government to get them a passport in three months, at the same time, that government said, oh, at 24 hours, yeah, we're going to find out who all these people are.
We're going to make sure they're qualified for the Z Visa.
People just, they're not buying it, folks.
It's just that simple.
It really is no more complicated.
The simple characteristic of this, or the fact that it's simple to understand, is a great boon.
And people don't believe Ted Kennedy, and they don't believe McCain.
And I'm watching that Republican debate, and McCain's up there going on and on about the bill.
And I can just see it's sinking.
He's sinking because nobody in the audience is buying it.
Do you realize what a great opportunity this is?
Nobody was believing it.
And they finally had to admit, well, not the bill I would have written, but if somebody has a better idea, speak up.
Somebody did.
Somebody said, enforce the clause that we've got in the books now.
Secure the border.
But they don't do that.
And so, and by the way, concommit with the fact that we don't believe them, we also then begin to seriously consider: are they trying to sneak something through here?
This is so obviously wrong what they're trying to get us to believe.
What's their real motivation?
People aren't even believing their real motivation.
Real motivation is: well, these are the downtrodden, the poor, the tired, the hungry, the thirsty, and they're just seeking a better life and they want to come to the United States, the lone outpost of freedom and economic prosperity and all.
And we've got to bring these people out of the shadows.
They're not out of shadows.
They're doing interviews on television.
And they're complaining that the bill hasn't been signed.
They're complaining that the bill hasn't passed.
So we hear, oh, we love these people.
We're going to bring them out of the shadows.
So that's not what's going on here.
These politicians are looking for votes, looking for new voters.
The Democrats are looking to expand the welfare state.
The Republicans are getting snooker in the whole thing.
And people know this.
They instinctively and expressly understand it.
And then we get to be treated to other examples, they say, what the bill's all about.
But people understand, wait a minute, you're telling us the future of our country is a never-ending flow of low-education, undereducated, low-skilled labor?
That's the future of our country?
And then you pile on top of that by telling the people who understand, all of us, we're not being told the truth about it.
We don't believe them when they tell us.
Then they call us names.
Nativists, racists.
If there's something here that is, it's 180 degrees out of phase.
And this is a tipping point.
Has the potential to be a tipping point because this is reaction from the American people crosses all these party and ideological divides.
Even moderates are upset about this, and they don't get upset about anything because they don't have opinions on anything.
But the Democrats, they got Democrats upset, some liberals are upset, obviously Republicans and conservatives all across the board.
And the government, their senators, their Congress, whatever, Congressman saying things to them they know are not true.
And so that's why I say it's an opportunity here for people to finally see the truth about big government, the inefficiency, of course, the desire to control.
That's what this is.
Big government exists for the acquisition of power.
And you use the power to control.
Listen to this.
This is from London.
A leaked email message has led to speculation that the British government plans to promote vegetarianism as part of a broader strategy to fight climate change.
In a message sent earlier this year to a vegetarian lobbying group, I told you these, even the vegetarians are a bunch of activists.
You've got militant vegetarians.
You do.
And they're out there trying to force what you to eat.
Like I said yesterday, liberals, you want the biggest difference between liberals and conservatives.
Liberals want to control your life.
Conservatives don't.
They want to live their own.
You live your own.
You stay within the bounds of the law, propriety, morality.
No problem.
You want to go buy a Prius?
Gu bu buy a Prius, but don't tell me I have to buy one.
You want to be a vegetarian?
Go be a vegetarian, but don't tell me I have to be one.
Don't try to force your wacko ways on us.
And that's what liberals do.
And you're going to respond to the vegetarian lobby in the UK, and they are.
The Environment Agency is responding to the vegetarian lobby.
And the Environment Agency is a statutory body set up under a 1995 law.
It said it was considering ways to deal with global warming, one of which was to encourage people to eat less meat.
So here you have vegetarian activists who are doing everything they can to force the British government to force everybody else to eat the way they think they ought to eat.
And they attach this so-called political connection to it, save the planet.
Global warming.
The agency said it was unlikely most people would swear off meat entirely and that the issue would have to be introduced gently for fear of alienating the public.
Really?
Introduce it gently, stealthfully do it, stealthfully do it, introduce so they don't notice it until it's too late, fool the people.
Don't want to alienate the public, then don't do it.
If you know it would alienate the public, don't do it.
These people in Great Britain are elected too.
The official who authored the email message also wrote that the potential benefits to the climate of a vegetarian diet could be very significant.
Such a diet is one that shuns all meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy products, which leaves chocolate and wine.
I'm sorry, you can't.
Wait a minute.
You eat fried cheese.
Well, that's the vegan diet.
And are you vegan?
You're not.
Yeah, yeah, right, right, right.
Okay.
In recent years, vegetarian groups around the world have increasingly turned to the issue of climate change to promote their cause.
Well, I'm sorry, the cause is not vegetarianism.
The cause is liberalism.
The cause is huge government.
The cause is controlling your life.
And it's the same thing with every other supposed issue, whether it's the environment, whether it's global warming, whether it's animal rights, whether it's feminism, it's liberalism.
And it is designed to control you.
And they do it by making you feel that you're sinning against a religion.
Go out and eat beef while you're destroying rainforests and all that sort of stuff.
And of course, you don't want to do that.
You want to make a difference.
So you start eating this vegan stuff.
And you look sick after not too long a time.
Yes, in recent years, vegetarian groups around the world have increased.
Nothing against vegetarians.
See, this is my point.
I don't care what you eat.
Just stay out of my life.
Don't tell me I have to eat it.
And if you were a vegetarian activist, if you were a militant vegetarian, hell, these people tried to get a Burger King out in Berkeley to serve these soyburgers.
Hey, if you don't like Burger King, don't go there, but don't make them sell stuff that that's not what they're in business to do.
City Council passed a resolution.
It's about control, folks.
It's not about the climate.
It's not about women's rights.
It's not about any of it.
It's about control.
Big government, a bunch of people that refuse to hang around anybody who doesn't live life the exact way they do because they're the superiorist elitists who think they have all the answers.
So, oh, yeah, growing livestock and so forth produces large amounts of carbon dioxide, which is not a pollutant.
And methane, these are greenhouse gases, blamed for global warming.
Not definitely proved to cause it, just blamed.
So another angle of global warming, another method to control all aspects of our lives, and that's what this immigration bill is.
And the immigration bill, see, I wish everybody could react to liberalism the way they're reacting to this immigration bill.
You know they're lying to you.
You know they're not telling you the truth.
You know you can't trust what they're saying on this.
Well, please, pray tell ladies and have the same reaction when you hear Al Gore narrate his idiotic lying through his teeth movie, or when you hear any other liberal activist talking about Abu Grab or the U.S. military or whatever.
Do you realize?
We have these gore soundbites.
We've linked to them on rushlinbaugh.com.
Without exception, if you wait long enough, everything a liberal tells you will be wrong.
Without exception.
If you just wait patiently for the truth to reveal itself.
I've got to take a brief time out.
Be back and continue after this.
A story from Reuters and the authorette here, Ellen Wolfhorst.
Inundated with politics long before the 2008 presidential election, U.S. voters are in danger of suffering wearying bouts of the uniquely American affliction of campaign fatigue in coming months.
Experts say voters who follow the news closely are most at risk of the conditions striking this year.
Folks, I've got to be scared again, campaign fatigue.
You know, all this is, it's a cover for the fact that the Democrats are looking bad.
You know, there's big news.
Forget this poll.
I've got it in the stack here.
Hillary Clinton cleans the clock of every Democrat contender, but loses to every Republican, well, the top-tier Republicans.
He loses even to McCain.
And it's not good news for the Democrats.
This is all about campaign fatigue.
This is, I'm trying to protect the Democrats.
I got the cure for this.
Turn off the television and just listen to me.
And you will not get campaign fatigue.
You'll be more informed and you'll be more entertained and you'll have a better outlook on life if you just turn off the TV.
Dean in Dallas, I'm glad you called, sir.
Thanks for waiting and welcome to the program.
Yeah, Rush.
I can't believe they're up to it again.
You know, Kyle and McCain, I call them the Amnesty Brothers.
You know, after getting a clear message last week, they're trying to do it again, you know, with backdoor deals with the Democrats.
Yeah.
President Bush.
I believe they think there's a lull here in the anti-amnesty pressure, so they're trying to sneak up.
They are wasting our time.
They're wasting their time and they're wasting our time trying to revive this.
Because as I just said, nobody believes what they're saying about this.
They've lost their credibility.
Nobody even believes the motives that they assign to themselves for caring about this.
Nobody believes a thing about this that government officials are saying.
But I told you on Monday they're going to revive it.
They're going to try.
The president's up there having lunch today trying to get Republicans to change their mind and vote for this thing.
Well, let's build a wall first, then figure out what to do with the 28 million illegals later.
It's that simple.
I've been trying to say that, but they don't see that they're not interested in that.
That's what the people that want this want a steady flow of illegal immigrants so that they can be utilized for low-wage labor.
And they can be controlled because they're uneducated and they'll end up needing social services.
They'll become dependent.
And this is the desire of big government to get bigger and bigger and bigger.
And, you know, people instinctively know this.
This is not hard for people to figure out, which is why there's so much opposition to it.
Michael in Fresno, thank you for waiting, sir.
You're next on the EIB network.
Rush, this is January 12th, maybe from 1952.
Hey, I take exceptions here.
Prius owners and hybrid owners are not always liberal.
I'm a conservative.
I just bought a Honda Civic hybrid, and then I listened to your talk about Ontario.
Now I'm kind of regretting my decision.
But anyway, we bought it for selfish reasons.
We bought it for save some money, and it was cheaper than a Hummer.
We would have loved to have a Hummer or another large vehicle.
Our old car was 98 holes and loved that car, but it died finally, and we had to buy several cars.
They build that into those cars.
They die every now and then, so you've got to buy a new one.
Yeah, and a friend of mine, co-worker here, has a Prius.
He's put 180,000 miles on it, and now he's bought his second one.
He loves it, but he's a conservative also.
And he does it just to save money.
He drives an hour every day to and from work.
And so that's why we do it.
Well, that's fine.
That's fine.
My point was that the people who are buying these cars for environmental reasons are the liberals.
And they're out there thinking they're saving the planet and so forth.
When if the total costs of producing the car, and this is what the people who buy the magic car are concerned about.
They think they're saving the planet.
And they're not.
The environmental destruction caused in the manufacture of the car, the battery for the car, all these things, it ends up costing over.
Prius has an estimated life of 100,000 miles, or some of them do better than that.
The Hummer, 300,000 miles.
And the Prius costs an average of $3.95 a mile to drive versus the Hummer, $195 or something, when you factor in all of the costs that go into manufacturing it, the labor, the raw materials, the shipping.
And you don't care about that because you're just looking at net cost.
Net cost, the car you think is cheaper than what other, the Hummer that you could buy, and the gasoline mileage is better than the Hummer.
So your immediate net costs are much less.
So that's fine.
My bottom line here with this, I don't care if you like it, go buy it.
That's what the free market's all about.
It's when you're a lib out there trying to tell me I have to be in one because I'm destroying the planet.
Screw you, frankly.
Not you, but I mean, screw the libs.
It's good to know that some conservatives are buying these things.
I was surprised to learn that.
Just found out Dingy Harry is going to go to the floor of the Senate at 2.15 and ask for a moment of silence for the 3,500 soldier deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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