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April 16, 2008 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:21
April 16, 2008, Wednesday, Hour #3
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Time Text
Hi, and welcome back, ladies and gentlemen.
You are tuned to the most listened to radio talk show in the United States of America.
It's been that way for many, many moons.
Little Indian lingo there.
And there's no end in sight.
The thrill, a delight, and honor to be with you today, as it is every day.
Telephone number if you'd like to join us, 800 two eight two two eight eight two.
And the email address is El Rushbow at EIB net.com.
I gotta play this for you again.
We did this to open the program today.
The uh welcoming ceremony for Pope Benedict the Sixteenth at the White House Day, the largest welcoming ceremony in White House history.
And it was just breathtaking.
A crystal clear blue sky.
Chris.
Just gorgeous.
The Pope and the President up on the podium.
Speeches.
Welcoming speeches had been made.
And then it was it was time to turn to the US Army chorus.
One of the most moving and touching, powerful, beautiful renditions of the battle hem of the Republic that I have ever heard.
Stop me in my tracks of show prep today.
to watch this.
I wanted you to hear the full version of it.
God in Washington today.
And I shall sing the glory of the coming of the Lord.
He is trampling out the vintage where the grace of wrath was poured.
He hath loosed the faithful mind because he's terrible, Smith's sword.
His truth is marching on the earth.
Glory, glory, alleluia.
His truth is marching on.
Glory, glory, alleluia.
He is marching on.
Glory, glory, alleluia.
He is marching on.
Glory, glory, alleluia.
Glory, glory, alleluia.
This day is marching on.
This day is marching on.
Glory, glory, alleluia.
This world is marching on.
����
���� As he
died to make men holy, let us die to make men free while God is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah.
This truth is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah.
This truth is marching on.
Wow.
Come on.
I got goosebumps listening to it again.
American exceptionalism celebrated in Washington today with the arrival of Pope Benedict.
That's the U.S. Army chorus, the United States Army chorus, with one of the most profoundly gorgeous and beautiful renditions of that song, the battle hymn of the Republic, that I have ever heard.
And I wanted to share that with you again.
It's something I'm sure C-SPAN will be replaying this.
No network would uh would replay this.
Fox carried it live, but I don't think a network's going to repeat this portion of it of it live.
I don't know if it moved them or not.
It's just it's it's nobody talking.
There's no news being made.
Uh except to me.
I think it's huge news.
In a presidential campaign which focuses on the rotten nature of the United States, the rotten nature of certain citizens, on the hopelessness that we all supposedly face.
The fact that America is despised and hated around the world, that our reputation is in tatters, that our economic situation is bleak, that people are being thrown out of their homes every day, that they cannot afford food, they can barely afford gasoline, interest rates are plummeting, which is bad for seasoned citizens who live off the income of their portfolios.
Everything is just rotten to the core.
There's nothing about which to be happy in the United States of America.
This is the theme day in and day out throughout the presidential campaign.
It has been the theme day in and day out of media coverage for the last six years.
It has been the theme of liberal messages to this country via the media and the Democrat Party for as long as I have been alive, albeit a short interruption in that when the Clintons were in the White House, and then of course everything was hooky-dory and rosy.
And amidst all of this pessimism, amidst all of this, the U.S. military can't win in a rock, that we uh we have uh basically surrendered.
Uh, that there is no threat to the United States other than our own hubris and arrogance.
Amidst all of this, Pope Benedict the 16th arrives today, and in his remarks praised the United States of America, blessed America, spoke of its greatness.
Traced to our founding, and our founding fathers, and our nation's acknowledgement that we are what we are and who we are for one reason, and that is God.
Amidst all of this negativism, pessimism, today American exceptionalism was the focus at the White House, long overdue, and punctuated by this dramatic and goosebumps inspiring, chill-inspiring rendition of the battle hymn of the republic by the U.S. Army chorus.
Also, Kathleen Battle sang or led uh a group sing of Happy Birthday to Pope Benedict today.
And that was beautiful.
One of the classiest and one of the one of the nicest renditions of Happy Birthday I've ever heard.
Just a great event.
Didn't last long, but it was powerful.
A quick timeout.
We'll come back and get started with all the rest of the program right after this.
I mentioned uh the uh just the very end of the last hour.
There's a new Zogby poll out that says Americans are feeling slightly more optimistic this month as they come to grips with a struggling economy and an uncertain future.
This, according to Reuters Zogby, and a poll released today.
The Reuters Zogby Index measures the mood of the country.
It rose sharply to 95 and a half, 95.5, up from 87.7 in March is all ten measures of public opinion used in the index climbed.
Now, how can this be, uh, ladies and gentlemen?
Concerns about personal finances, job security, the direction of the country eased at least slightly, and positive ratings climbed for President Bush, the Congress and economic and foreign policy.
Zogby, in analyzing his own poll, uh said the improved marks are mostly a sign of tempered expectations as the public settles in for a rocky ride on the economy.
Okay, fine and dandy.
How does that make any sense?
How does the public mood go up when they lower their expectation?
Okay, well, we're, you know, we're in for a bit of real trouble here in the future.
I'm feeling better.
People are still in a bad mood, Zogby said.
Political institutions still get very bad marks, and people feel that we are clearly in a recession.
They're just digging in for now.
They they've made a mental adjustment.
Well, I don't know.
Most so most Americans feel safe from foreign threats, he says, and more are proud of the United States and the number of Americans confident their children will have a better life jumped from 61% to 65%.
That makes no sense whatsoever.
It makes n it makes no sense with what is happening in the country today.
It unless they yeah, unless this unless you people in this audience were the ones polled, this makes no sense with what we're being told is the truth about the mental state of the uh of the American people.
I mean, I'm take it, I I frankly hope this is accurate.
Uh but here here's now Reuters this the story right after this one.
A majority of small and medium-sized businesses say the U.S. economy's in worse shape than five years ago.
Nearly half expect a recession in the uh next year, according to a survey released on when that's more like it, drive-by's.
That's more like it.
The doom and gloom that you've all been come uh all b all been uh known for, come to know for that's the way to keep up the tradition of destroying people's attitudes.
To the phones we go.
This is Neil in uh Northeast Pennsylvania.
Hello, sir.
Thank you for waiting.
Hi, Megadetto's Rush.
Pleasure to talk to you from uh gun toting fear, God-fearing uh man from small town of Pennsylvania.
Well, we're great to have another one of you Hicks on the program with us.
That's that's correct.
Uh although this this hick is a uh licensed attorney uh in the state, so um I guess my back uh woods attitude has been uh shined a bit.
Well, do you go to church, have a gun?
Absolutely and you're hick.
Absolutely that's okay.
That's all right.
Just uh on your first caller there today, um, the American exceptionalism.
I just uh in 1982 I broke my neck and uh ended up a quadriplegic in a wheelchair, and uh I realized I had to do something with my life.
I've been a Republican and conservative all my life, and uh my parents taught me that there's no such thing as fairness in this world.
So I picked myself up on my bootstraps, went to college, went to law school, graduated, became uh an attorney, and what kind of law do you practice?
A general law.
So you have some courtroom work, you have trial work?
Um no, I don't do trial work.
No, I don't do trial work.
Um I am a I am uh operation chaos agent.
And I've been dying to hear somebody just challenge me on the issue, and that would be a fun case to play.
Um the other thing I wanted to talk to you about was uh this statement that Obama made about a small town people.
If you look at it real close, he he talks about we're afraid, we're anti-trade.
Isn't that counter uh to his stance on trade?
Yeah, he's uh also anti-trade.
Uh he's anti nafta.
Uh but he's pro illegal immigration, and you aren't.
You know, you don't like these people of color uh coming in, uh people don't look like you.
And I said that's when you go to church with your gun.
Well, yeah, right.
I said that to my dad the other day.
Hey, uh, I don't want to take too much of your show, but uh I think I I knew Wait a minute, I can't let no wait no no no no, you're not gonna get away this easy.
Okay, go ahead.
You have a lesson to teach people.
Okay.
It did not escape me.
You ran through it very quickly.
You broke your neck at what age.
I was just just before my eighteenth birthday.
And you have been a quadriplegic since?
Since eighty two, that's correct.
Nineteen eighty-two.
And yet you said you pulled yourself up by your bootstraps, you went to college, you decided you want to become a lawyer, and you've done all that.
Yes, sir.
Now, you made it sound like all you had to do was decide.
That's right.
If I uh if I wanted something, uh I would figure out a way to get it.
Now, there are a lot of people who have uh full ambulatory use of arms and legs of sitting around thinking they can't do anything for a whole host of reasons.
Uh you you g you have to give us a brief story of what you did, how you did it.
Uh uh you had to give I'm sure when this happened to you and you woke up, you said, Oh my god, they I'm depri uh they had to go through some period of disbelief, maybe some depression, but what was it?
I mean, uh you know your parents raised you, you you credited them, but what did you do?
I mean, what what there had to be catalyst at what point did you decide that you were going to do what you wanted to do anyway, and being a quadriplegic wasn't going to stop you, and how did you go about it?
I mean, you can teach people a lot here who think they've got it tough uh and don't know what tough is compared to the circumstances you faced.
Well, um I'm not trying to embarrass you, but that's fine.
That that's fine.
I'm I'm I'm free to talk about anything I want.
Uh I'm a I'm a free citizen of this state.
Um my my like I said, i it goes back to uh to my upbringing.
My parents taught me to be uh self-sufficient.
Um they they taught me that life is not fair.
It's uh only fair to those who who take uh the initiative and do uh the things and take the steps that they wanted.
Right, but at some point you had to take action.
Correct.
Even though you're in a wheelchair.
Yes.
What was the action you took?
Well, uh to be honest with you, I was sitting at the welfare office about uh probably two years after my accident, and I was sitting across from a gray-haired lady, and I was applying for food stamps, and they asked me my income and they went to the lengths of asking me if I received birthday money and a birthday card and so on.
That all had to be included.
And I thought to myself, this is the most oppressive thing I have ever been involved in, and I could not stomach it any longer.
So I took what my parents gave me uh as far as uh foundation, and I picked myself up and I went on.
Unfortunately, I'm not I'm not practicing now because I was involved in another accident.
Um, but I am in the process of picking myself back up and and getting back out there.
Well, but you are a you're a full-fledged accredited member of Operation Chaos.
Absolutely.
And so are many, many members of my family.
I come from a large family rush.
Well, I'm glad you know this is precipitous um uh if that's the right word that you call today, because uh you just happened to coincidentally fit the theme that I've been uh there's been overall theme to this program the past couple days this week, which generally is not the case other than the broad theme of we've got to defeat liberalism, that's the constant theme here.
But um stories like yours, uh man, they're they're inspiring.
Um and uh you see I I suspected you just didn't get out of the hospital and say, okay, gang bang, I'm going up and I'm getting started and I gotta do what I gotta do.
You were at the welfare office.
You were down and out that your parents didn't have enough money to give you to sustain you, and you had to uh and at the the the whole thing repulsed you at some point, he said this isn't for me.
And you turned to yourself and your upbringing and you did what you did.
Uh proud of you.
Congratulations.
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen.
One more piece.
From today's welcoming ceremony for Pope Benedict the Sixteenth at the White House, the arrival ceremony on the on the South Lawn.
Um God was in Washington today.
God's everywhere, but God sh God God showed up uh uh for this country in Washington today.
Kathleen Battle, lyric soprano, she was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, formerly of the Metropolitan Opera, sang the Lord's Prayer.
Our Father, Richard in heaven, how low it be.
Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thank you.
I'm walking so it's we're gonna lead us not into temptation.
But deliver us from evil For thine is the kingdom And the power And the glory For
thine is the kingdom Amen This happened on Government Property Today.
today.
The Lord's Prayer, Catholic battle, also the uh battle hymn of the Republic from the U.S. Army chorus.
I can remember when I was a kid.
This is the kind of thing that happened in Washington.
They would turn it, they'd bring a TV in the classroom or have an assembly, and the kids would watch it just like a space shot.
Because it was such a rare thing.
This is only the second time a Pope has visited the White House.
Six Popes have been to the country, but only two of them have come to the White House.
Pope Benedict the Sixteenth being the second one.
So for 45 minutes, half hour this morning, uh government property.
Uh there was no doubt for anyone to see, no doubt whatsoever.
The roots, the history, the traditions and the founding of this country.
Back to the phones, John in Churchill, Tennessee.
I'm glad you waited, sir.
I appreciate your patience.
Hello.
Hi, Rush.
Uh, Meg Megadiddos from beautiful East Tennessee.
Thank you.
Uh, if I understand Tubin and Cafferty correctly, the solution to the problem in the Rust Belt is anti-growth, liberal economic policies, so we don't create al Qaeda in Alcuna.
Is that the understanding?
Al Qaeda in Altuna, yeah, the but see they claim that it is already the lack of economic growth which is causing Al Qaeda in Altuna to fester and to grow.
Ah, I see.
See, it's it's the fact that you don't have any money and the fact that you are poor and that you're working two jobs if you have a job at all, you gotta work two, and it's just horrible out there.
And so the when that happens in the Middle East, people like you join Al Qaeda and become terrorists.
Can I say one quick thing, Rush?
Yeah.
My belief in Jesus isn't based upon anything bitter any more than uh Obama's belief in black liberation theology is based on anything bitter.
Amen.
Thank you.
Amen.
Glad you called thanks so much.
Uh who is this?
This is is it Wally?
Uh Wally in uh Denville, New Jersey.
Nice to have you, Wally.
Welcome to the EIB network.
Hey, Rush Wally, uh, I talked to you about ten years ago when I was the captain in the army, and uh uh listening to the battle hymn of the republic today kind of struck a chord and uh and the in the caller, not last one, but the one before it broke his neck, I had a similar experience.
But the battle hymn of the republic, listening to that, when I graduated from the Citadel and I was a brand new infantry second lieutenant, that's what my whole uh being was about was to be a man that would set others free, which was in the song.
And I think people in this country have lost sight of what we've done.
We've we've gone into Iraq and Afghanistan and we've set forty million people free, twenty million of which are females that were living horrible lives.
And you know, my whole heart and soul was into that's what American fighting men do, and that's what they're still doing.
And it just makes me sick when I see people think that what we're doing over there is corrupt and horrible and a lie.
What we did was we set people free, and just hearing the song the way it was just inspired me.
Yeah, you're right.
Yeah, some people may not have been able to hear the lyrics, but in the in the lyric line is let us die.
Yep.
Uh to make men free.
And of course, that's that's the United States military.
That's uh we we liberate the oppressed and so forth.
No, I sir, I I um understand totally where you're coming from.
Uh more Americans than you know have been livid for more time than you know over this constant berating of the U.S. military, its mission, its purpose, the attempt to make them out to be murderers and rapists and torturers.
And who's doing this?
Other Americans and the Democrat Party and the American left.
And frankly, it's beyond defensive, it's outrageous.
Uh and and the fact that those people who do this are still have viable careers in politics is also very frustrating.
Makes me sick.
You know, when I think of you know, uh eleven years ago, I too, like one of your other callers, broke my neck when I was a company commander at Fort Hood, Texas, and I was subsequently medically retired from the army.
Uh when I think back, and I think of some of my soldiers who are probably now senior NCOs, some of my officers, my lieutenants who are now majors, these were honorable, honorable good men that I worked with, and and to hear them castigated the way they are sometimes just gives me the makes me want to bomb it some days.
It does, but you know something?
If you talk to them, and I I've I've been to Afghanistan, uh, and I've also met, you know, some some returning troops, uh, both wounded and not.
And I've I've asked them, and some of them get bugged.
I mean, they're they're they're they're upset by news coverage, but most of them say, I couldn't care less.
We've got a mission to do over here, and what anybody thinks of it that's not here is of no consequence to me or us.
We've got a mission, we believe in it, and we want to complete it, and we want to win it.
Um what what's what's admirable about that, the efforts to tear down their morale have not worked.
No, they they won't and won't, because uh a lot of these liberals out there don't understand what's in the military man's mind, man and woman.
I say man, I include them all, I don't want to be uh, you know, but uh they don't really know what's in their mind, but I thank goodness a lot of the times that they're encapsulated on the military basis that they are, because if they were out in society, like I'm in New Jersey of all places, and and you hear some of the wild ideas that some of these people have about the military, about the mission, about so forth.
you know when I heard your other caller, the the one that was injured, you know, when I broke my neck uh and I was medically retired from the army, you know, I had to look at my family, my wife and my daughter and say, you know, how am I going to go on in this world?
What am I going to do?
Well I'm a man.
And a man has to do what a man has to do.
Okay, I lost my job.
I gotta go on and get another job and continue on with the mission.
That's what it's all about.
I think that song, this whole subject that you're talking about today, I think uh well I think a lot of men in America have lost sight of what the what it is to have what's between the legs and they need to rediscover that not only that the there's there's there too many people have lost sight of what it is to be an American period.
Absolutely.
And and and uh have uh so many expectations they're the the not not tied to appreciation.
I think most Americans by the way do have an appreciation, a deep appreciation and are just as uh irritated as you and I are uh when we hear this but it's it's the it's those that make the anti American noise the hate American noise that get all the news coverage.
What's the nature of your disability, Wally?
Well when I broke my neck I'm not a quadriplegic or anything like that, but the Army couldn't cheat me uh for obvious reasons because I broke the first three vertebrae of my neck.
But I move, I walk around uh uh but I was retired unfortunately uh or I'd love to be there with my friends.
Um uh but I worked I work in the pharmaceutical industry now be much hated pharmaceutical Well guy you went from one hated institution to the next well I graduated from the Citadel and that's another hated institution sometimes so all around I'm just a bad man for the liberals anyway good for you.
Well we have you're you you're another one we're our second truly inspiring human being American lesson today in less than a half hour.
I appreciate it Wally thanks much all the best to you and stay in touch we'll be back and continue right after this don't go away.
President Bush as we are speaking and as we discussed yesterday is uh making remarks on climate change, global warming, CO2 emissions, the new policy of the administration.
We're gonna spend a little bit of time on that tomorrow.
I previewed this yesterday so I think I had an idea what was coming on it here in just a minute but I want to get Julie in Jacksonville, Illinois on.
She's been waiting a while and I'm glad you did.
Welcome to the program Julie.
Hi Rush Megadiddos Thank you.
I was heading north um from St. Louis this morning to my home in Jacksonville and I turned the radio on as I always do to listen to you and here was the very end of that beautiful battle hymn of the Republic arrangement.
And it took me back forty years to nineteen sixty seven when I was singing with the American youth band in chorus and we were singing that in Monaco for Princess Grace.
I can still remember what she had on I can remember everything about it.
I was about twenty feet from her and as we ended that piece which you know is so moving she had tears streaming down her face.
Oh yeah I know I I well I can imagine I um I was never part of a choral group but I can imagine singing that song in such a situation or circumstance has got to be more moving than even listening to it.
Absolutely and and realize that in 1967 we weren't exactly loved and we were in France in Paris and people were picketing where we were singing but then we go to Monaco and she was so visibly moved by this whole thing and then recently I sang it in a group with um at the dedication for the Lincoln Museum and again a very moving experience.
It's a wonderful arrangement and it makes you so proud.
Uh amen it really does well that's a great story.
I'm glad I'm glad that you uh held on to share that well thank you.
And thanks for tuning in on no doubt on Camo X in St. Louis and then I listen to you in Spring uh Springfield Illinois most of the time.
Well thanks very much I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Um 1967 I was just that was that was my burgeoning radio career began that very year.
First song I ever played on the radio Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie by uh Jay and the Technicues and that was this uh what is it uh that would have been in September of uh of nineteen sixty seven all right the president I and I know what's happening here, and it's you know, it's it's the it's the title, the cover story, the cover essay of the current issue of the Limbaugh Letter, accepting liberal premises.
Now, the White House, the Bush administration has really done a great job of holding the line on global warming and this whole notion that carbon dioxide is a pollutant.
But it seems that the premise that carbon dioxide's a pollutant and the global warming is happening has been accepted.
The president is, as we speak, announcing and revising his stance on global warming, uh proposing a new target for stopping the growth of greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, saying it's time to look beyond uh 2012.
Now, Roy Spencer, our official climatologist, and he's saying much more than that, but that's that's uh uh one of the the key elements of his speech.
Uh now Spencer wrote a piece in National Review Online before the president's remarks were made, obviously.
And he begins his piece thus.
Today's announcement by President Bush on strategies to limit global warming has yet to come.
But unless he's ready to unveil a new and miraculous source of energy that produces no carbon dioxide, one can only assume that he will simply be adding his voice to the many other lemmings who are calling for a mass migration to the nearest cliff from which we can all jump.
The fact is there is simply nothing we can do, short of shutting down the global economy that will substantially reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Prosperity requires access to abundant affordable energy, thus any mandated limits or taxes meant to slow the use of fossil fuels will limit prosperity as well, period.
The uh current wave of political pandering to public misperceptions, and that's exactly what this is.
The public misperceives, misunderstands this, but because there are so many of them that misunderstand it, politicians are pandering to it for public approval.
And to be liked.
The current wave of political pandering to public misperceptions about where our energy comes from would be funny if it weren't so deadly serious.
There is simply no way to substantially reduce carbon dioxide emissions as long as increasing numbers of people around the world desire to make a better life for themselves and their families.
I think what bugs me about all this is the whole notion that CO2 is a pollutant.
We exhale it.
The idea that CO2 is a there's not enough of it in the atmosphere to make a difference.
But that premise has been accepted.
Very few people are arguing with it.
So when we accept the premise, we do what we always do.
Okay, Libs, we agree with you.
We got a problem here.
CO2, global warming, but we're gonna tweak the fixes here a little bit.
Rather than fighting the premise.
It's frustrating.
Back to the side.
All right, I get it.
I get what the president's doing.
He's accepting the premise because he thinks people will listen to him then, and then he's saying liberal fixes won't fix it.
It's too expensive, you'll lose too much freedom.
We gotta go about it another way.
I want to talk about this tomorrow.
I understand it, but I don't like it.
There has to be a better way.
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