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June 24, 2008 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:11
June 24, 2008, Tuesday, Hour #3
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Time Text
Yes, yeah.
Hang on a minute.
I'm reordering some things here in the Obama stack.
There we go.
All right.
Looks like we're up to number six of the audio soundbites.
Greetings and welcome back, Rush Lindbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
Nice to have you here.
Our telephone number is 800-282-2882, and the email address is LRushbo at EIBnet.com.
Programming note here, ladies and gentlemen, on Thursday afternoon, I think it is at 4.20.
Is it Thursday, 420 that we're on this thing, Brian?
I'm sure many of you have heard the names Melanie Morgan and Michelle Malkin.
And they have a website that is called Move America Forward.
They actually have an organization and a movement.
They have a website called moveamericaforward.org, and they've got this giant telethon planned all day Thursday.
The objective of the telethon is to provide the largest care package ever of items of interest to American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And they've asked, Melanie sent me an email a couple weeks ago and asked if it's a Jerry Lewis type telethon they're going to do on their website.
And Melanie asked me if I would participate in this.
And I said, sure.
So we're going to ditto cam it on their website at 4.20 in the afternoon on Thursday.
But they're going to be going, I think, all day long.
I don't know the schedule of events that people are going to be appearing.
But what it really is about is troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to know that the drive-by media does not represent America and that the American people love and support the armed forces, men and women, overseas, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And the objective, as I said, is to send the largest shipment of care packages to U.S. troops in history.
Now, this is cool.
I imagine that this largest care package or the largest care packages could include any number of things that people want to send to troops in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So it's Thursday, June the 26th.
It's a Jerry Lewis-style telethon.
And the time we're going to be on is 20 minutes at 4.20 Eastern Time in the afternoon.
And if you want to find out the whole shebang, I don't know what this is all about, is go to moveamericaforward.org, and you can join this effort as well.
The effort's going to be you.
I mean, frankly, you're the ones that are going to have to come through and make this happen.
With so many people participating in this, they're going to be able to collect a tremendous number of items for the care package with just a few items per person or one item.
So details will be forthcoming.
It's just a couple days from now, and I wanted to mention it to you.
Also, see what else.
Obama stuff.
I want to put the Obama stuff off for just a little while.
Former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annon.
No, I will not resign.
Today called for climate justice, saying that it was polluters who should pay for the effects of climate change and not the poorest and the most vulnerable.
He said funding, it's always about funding.
He said funding should be made available to help disadvantaged communities adapt to the effects of global warming as he urged the international community to focus on adaptation measures.
We must have climate justice, he said.
As an international community, we must recognize that the polluter must pay and not the poor and the vulnerable.
Some two-day conference here of the Global Humanitarian Forum.
Do you realize how many organizations these UN snobs have to separate people from their money?
That is what the UN exists for.
To separate wealthy people from their money, wealthy countries from their money.
Kofi Annan.
Fresh off the oil for food scandal, now wants even more of your money from which he can siphon his own little share.
You know, I see stories like this, and this next story, and by the way, it's from the Associated Press.
Yes, my friends, the Associated Press.
A last remaining drive-by media monopoly.
And the headline strained states to make cuts felt by everyone.
This is another story of widespread gloom, widespread pain.
It is by Andrew Welsh Huggins.
I'm sure a doctorate in drive-by mediaism, working for the Associated Press, which is out to pollute as many innocent Americans' minds as possible.
With a new fiscal year beginning in most states next week, comma, budget cuts are about to bite.
State budget cuts.
Yes, that first sentence is supposed to send us to the corners, cowering in fear and quivering in panic.
Oh no, our states face budget cuts.
Oh no.
That means less money for school children in Florida.
They've already got more than they need and it isn't working.
So what?
It means the end of help with utility bills for poor Rhode Islanders.
Poor Rhode Islanders?
Ever been to Newport?
Ever been to Providence?
And a good chance that tuition will increase at Auburn University in Alabama.
Everything's rising and you have to wonder, when is it going to stop, said Lauren Hayes, an Auburn senior.
She's expecting a tuition hike after state lawmakers reduced higher education funding by $157 million and the university responded by proposing a $660 increase for in-state students.
Overall, the state fiscal picture is gloomy, and the pain from reductions, many of which take effect July 1st, will be widespread.
You want to hear some of these widespread doom and gloom things?
Folks, hear this.
In Florida, basic spending on screwal children will drop by $131 per student, and bonuses for screws that earn top grades from the state will shrink to $85 per student from $100.
A $15 cut.
In California, with the nation's biggest anticipated deficit at $17 billion, Governor Arnold Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed deep cuts in Medi-Cal, the state's health insurance program for poor families and children.
In New Jersey, lawmakers have proposed eliminating free state police patrols for rural communities that lack police departments under the plan.
Those communities would pay a combined $12 million for the service the first time they're being charged a fee.
Really?
The fees don't sit well in Shamong Township, a 46-acre or 46-square-mile municipality with a budget of less than $3 million and several state-owned properties.
The state really is our biggest resident, and now they're going to charge us to police themselves, said Township Administrator Sue Onorado.
The survey also found that 18 states reported their upcoming budgets will be smaller than spending plans for the current year.
Have you ever noticed, folks, in all these stories, we're supposed to start crying.
They're cutting a state budget.
The states can't do it, Let.
$660.
Meanwhile, whenever there are stories about how you have to drop latte from your daily regimen because it's four bucks, there are no tears for you.
When your kids might have to walk longer distances to school in Montgomery County because of the price of diesel, there's only expressed pain for the school district.
No pain for the kids that have to do the additional walking.
No pain for the parents.
We're supposed to feel so bad that the states, could it possibly be that the states are already so bloated with so much money?
If you looked into it, you would not believe the number of things the states spend money on that are totally irrelevant.
And the states that are in big trouble, I wonder which party's been running them for a while, such as California.
And I wonder what the income tax rates are in these states.
I'll bet you they are pretty damn high already.
I do.
I get so frustrated.
We're supposed to feel so sorry when government has to cut back.
It's all our money.
It never was theirs.
If they misappropriate it, if they overspend it and have to cut back, look at what happens.
They make it look like the real suffering will be among the states.
And occasionally a citizen here or a student there.
Okay, so we're going to have to cut back the amount of money in Florida we spend per student $125.
From what?
$12,000 a student, $9,000, whatever it is.
A lot of people are having to cut back a lot more than that because of things out of their control, largely brought on by irresponsible leaders.
You can trace all these problems to politicians in both parties at the federal and state level.
Look at it.
You know, it's axiomatic of human nature.
It's far easier to spend somebody else's money than it is yours, your own, and it's not their money.
And they think they've got an endless supply just by raising your taxes or increasing fees or what have you.
And then we're supposed to cry.
We're supposed to cry a blue river because they're running out of money.
That's right, Mr. Lumbaugh.
Where you live in Florida, it might mean less alligator control.
How would you like to lose a leg to an alligator because the state didn't have the money to come take it away from your property?
Fine, I got a gun and shoot the damn thing, Mr. Liberal.
You can't do that.
It's a violation of the Endangered Species Act.
I'm going to save myself if I have to.
Why am I going to rely on the state anyway?
Some people have to, Mr. Lumbaugh, because they are misfortunate, they're unfortunate, and they just, they don't have as much, and they have to rely on a state.
Well, I know that's true.
It would be wonderful if people could be taught to become more self-reliant, particularly when it comes to their needs.
When the state, I don't care if it's federal, the federal state, locals, I don't care if it's the state, any kind of government, when you start depending on them for your needs, you are a prisoner.
You are a slave, whether you've got slave blood or not.
All right, funny little story.
Last hour, I'm talking about entrepreneurs and candles and so forth, and my never-ending quest to find Gardenia-sented large candle.
So I mentioned one of these places I found during the search, Giant Candle Company, which is appropriately named.
So I I went and looked at their websites.
Very cool website.
It's amazing.
I told you about it.
So I mentioned him and I sent the guy out there.
I noticed, by the way, your website might be overwhelmed for just a minute because I just mentioned your website on the air.
He sends a note back, thanks.
Well, we can handle it.
No problem.
And that kind of motivates me to shut down his website because we shut down websites here.
I mean, temporarily.
Giantcandal.com.
We did shut down the moveamericaforward.org website for mere moments when people went there, but we have not succeeded in shutting down the giantcandle.com website.
I'm not giving marching orders.
I'm just giving you the name of the website.
One of these things about the state budgets, have you noticed, and every time we get one of these sob stories, no, giantcandals.com.
We get these sob stories, the state's running out of money.
Oh, no, it's horrible.
Have you always noticed that when the state is running out of money, the stories always focus on cuts in quote-unquote essential services?
Essential services like the fire department, the police department, alligator control, education, or what those are always the areas we're told about that we're going to have budget cuts, all these essential services.
Have you noted we never ever hear about cuts in the bureaucracy of these states?
We never ever hear the state is never going to cut back itself.
The state's never going to tell the AP, nor the federal government.
By the way, we're having to lay off the thousand people here from the State Department of Education because they won't do that.
What they'll do is, oh my God, we've got to cut the amount of money per student that we're spending.
And this is how they get the public to get all wrapped up.
You're going to take money away from my kid.
You ought to do some investigating, folks, in whatever state you live in.
All this stuff's on websites.
You ought to find out just what the state budgets are every year.
Find out, for example, if your state is trying to raise $5 million for a polar bear exhibit to amplify global warming, for example, while they are cutting essential services to you.
I will bet you a dollar to a donut you can find things that you don't even know your state is spending money on.
And when they come around to having to cut, they never cut themselves.
They never reduce the bureaucracy.
I don't know, Snerdley.
Hang on here.
I'm not going to get questioned here.
I don't know.
Well, then what does it matter?
He's asking me if, what does it, hang on.
Let me find this right.
I cannot believe that you are interrupting the radio show for this.
I cannot believe in the, you couldn't wait until we let the next commercial break.
Here it is.
It is singular.
All right?
With an S not to be confused with singular cell service.
No, it's not plural.
It's singular.
Right.
Good.
Folks, I am terribly sorry about this.
Here's Carmen in San Antonio.
Carbon, are you there, sir?
Hello?
Cameron.
Cameron, are you there, sir?
Yes, sir.
I am.
Thank you.
I appreciate your holding on.
Yeah, you betcha.
Oh, it's been less than two hours.
The reason I'm calling.
There's a price for everything.
Yeah.
I've been listening to you for well over 20 years, okay, way before you went national from when you're still in California.
Wow.
Now, I've never tried to call before, but when I got that your newsletter for June, the picture on the front of that page, the minute I looked at it, I said, I've got to call Rush and tell him he looks fantastic in that hat.
That's the big oil issue, right?
Yes, sir.
Yeah, it looks like J.R. Ewing, does it not?
You look better than he did.
You look like you were born for that hat.
I looked at it.
I said, I'm going to call him up and tell him, don't ever take that hat off.
Well, you know, that's I'm flattered, Cameron.
I always appreciate it when people compliment my appearance, even though it happens regularly.
And I'm flattered that you would take the time.
You would wait less than two hours to make that point.
Yeah, absolutely.
I was taught before, you know what?
I can't stay on the phone that long to just say something dumb.
But when I saw that, I said, I've got to tell him.
I don't care how long I have to wait.
I've got to tell him what I think of that picture.
Thanks much.
So I. By the way, did you used to live in California or something?
No, I was an overdroad truck driver.
And one time coming out of California, dialing around looking for something to listen to, I heard this guy talking.
And I said, who in the heck is this guy?
Here's some guy.
He's saying the things that I've been thinking for 30 years.
And he's putting it into words.
Until I've got to find out who this guy is.
And I've been listening to you religiously ever since.
Well, then you've actually been listening more than 20 years.
Yes, I have.
Wow, well, I'm flattered again.
Thank you so much.
Yes, best or no.
And I'm 80.
Are you still driving the truck?
No, no, I'm 80.
I'm retired and everything.
I'm 80 years old.
And I'll be listening to you probably from the grave.
Well, we do reach the grave.
Yeah.
Well, yes, sir.
I thought, by God, this time I have to call him and tell him this.
I don't care if it takes me three hours on the phone.
I appreciate all that for a picture on the latest Limbaugh letter, Big Oil.
It is good.
A lot of people, I don't mean to take it away, but a lot of people have made reference to it.
I appreciate that.
I was going to ask you if you've had other calls.
Yeah, I have.
Mostly men, too.
Welcome back.
Nice to have you with us, Rush Limbaugh.
Talent on lawn from God.
And as usual, half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.
How many of you have heard that too much sun will kill you?
It will lead to melanoma.
It will lead to all kinds of disasters.
Stay out of the sun.
And when you go into the sun, make sure you slather yourself up with 1,050-degree sunburn protection, whatever it is.
What do you call it?
What do you call it?
Sunscreen, but what are the numbers?
What?
Yeah, but what?
SPF.
Yeah, 1,000 SPF.
We go out there, wear a hat, wear dark clothes, wear everything.
Don't get in the sun.
From the AP, the Associated Press.
The remaining monopoly of the Drive-By Media, the medical writer Lindsey Tanner.
New research linking low vitamin D levels with deaths from heart disease and other causes bolsters mounting evidence about this sunshine vitamin's role in good health.
Patients with the lowest levels, lowest blood levels of vitamin D, were about two times more likely to die from any cause during the next eight years than those.
Geez.
Stop and think of that.
Patients with the lowest blood levels of vitamin D were about two times more likely to die from anything during the next eight years than those with the highest levels.
The link with heart-related deaths was particularly strong in those with low vitamin D levels.
The sunshine's good for you now.
Can you get vitamin D at the grocery stores?
Is it in a multivitamin or is it something?
What?
It's in what?
It's in milk.
Well, who drinks milk anymore?
I didn't know if it's a controlled substance.
I didn't know if you had to call local authorities to see if you could get it.
They're making it sound like it's so unique.
So hard to find.
You don't have enough of it out there.
Audio Soundbite Times, Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska on KTVA Channel 11 last night, responding to Democrats drilling in Anwar.
We want to make sure that we're not just talking about the need to develop, to ramp up development offshore and in ANWAR, but we're asking them now, what's your plan?
If not domestic supply is being tapped into with offshore and with ANWAR, then Congress, what is your plan?
Amen.
Here is a female Republican who is willing to gut it up.
She sent Dingy Harry a letter.
She challenged the Democrats to drill in ANWAR.
What's your plan?
If we're not going to drill offshore, if we're not going to drill in ANWAR, what is your plan for more energy?
And here was Obama in Albuquerque, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
He was at a campaign event.
Here is Obama pretty much responding to Sarah Palin, whether he knew it or not.
We're not going to bring down gas prices easily, quickly.
The only way to do it is to reduce demand over the long term in a serious way.
And so, you know, when John McCain says, well, we're going to drill our way out of the problem or we're going to give a tax cut or suspend the gas tax for 60 days, which would save you 30 cents a day for 90 days for a grand total of $28, you know, then I say, you know, that's a gimmick.
You're not being serious.
I just can't take this man seriously, folks.
I'm sorry.
I listen to him.
I want to laugh.
Here is a guy who thinks you're paying too much for everything except gasoline.
You're paying too much for health care.
You're paying too much for tuition.
You're paying too much for education.
You're paying too much for this, too much for that, but not gasoline.
Whatever amount that the gallon of gasoline might be reduced, that's insignificant.
It's a gimmick.
It's a trick.
And yet these are the people supposedly concerned with the dire economic consequences brought on by the Republicans.
We're not going to bring down gas prices easily, quickly.
We're not?
They're going to try.
The only way to do it is to reduce demand over the long term.
No, it's not.
You can conserve out the wazoo, senator, and you're not going to produce anymore.
This is pathetic.
We cannot afford this guy.
I mean, financially.
Forget all the other ways.
We just cannot afford.
The average American could not afford to pay for a Barack Obama presidency.
It's just, it's no more complicated than that.
Now, another one of the wizards of SMART, Thomas Friedman, New York Times, was on Scarborough's show today.
The co-host Willie Geist interviewed Friedman, said, what's the direction?
I mean, we've heard so much about offshore drilling, all these short-term solutions.
Where should we be headed as a country, wizard of smart?
What's the bottom line on all of this?
It's a policy that, first of all, starts with incentives for what I call radical innovation that's going to give us abundant, cheap, clean, reliable electrons.
For that, you need really the market signals, gasoline tax, carbon tax that will stimulate 100,000 men patent projects in 100,000 garages.
Second thing you need is dramatic improvements in energy efficiency.
That standards for refrigerators and light bulbs and mileage standards so we don't need so many electrons.
And third, you're going to need conservation.
How about going back to driving 55 miles an hour?
You can save millions of gallons just there.
Well, that's it.
The wizard of smart Thomas Friedman wants to roll back our advancement, roll back our lifestyle, and give us abundant, cheap, clean, reliable electrons.
Yeah.
For those of you that you really need the market signals, gas tax, carbon tax, that'll stimulate a 100,000 men patent projects in 100,000 garages.
You know, it's not electrons, not electrons that we need to be working on.
It's neutrinos.
If we could isolate and find neutrinos, put them in the accelerator, and find a way to harness their interaction with protons and neutrons, the neutrino could unlock every secret we have.
Do you hear any research on neutrinos?
The only people using neutrinos are people who are trying to manufacture plutonium on their own.
Yeah, I got to do it deep underground, but neutrinos.
He's talking about electrons.
Electrons are old hat.
Let's start trying to mess around with the atom.
We already figured that out.
Neutrinos, neutrinos are the future.
But beside all that, this is lame.
This is lame lunacy.
Roll it back to 55.
All these people on the left want you to sacrifice your family's future, your growth opportunity, prosperity, and opportunity.
We are a nation in a constant state of decline as they look at it.
By the way, you think these people are going to follow suit on any of this?
You think they are?
I mean, if we go 55, Friedman might have to drive 55, but other than that, you think they're going to go sacrificing like they want you to?
No way.
Montgomery County.
Oh, Montgomery County, Maryland.
This is Sean.
Sean, I'm glad you waited.
Welcome to the program.
Good afternoon, Maha Rushi.
I'm updating a story you just mentioned a few minutes ago.
In Montgomery County, Maryland, where I reside, our school board last night provided emergency powers to our superintendent to increase the walking distance kids will have to walk before they qualify for bus service.
My high school freshman will be one of the first victims from us not drilling here, from us not drilling now, and from our school system not paying less.
I also want to quickly take the opportunity to call on the Ditto Heads to call your show and lead you by nagging you to get out of your comfort zone to lead us to take back our country from the capitalism-destroying media.
Our founders provided us with the watchdog press because they didn't even trust themselves to not amass power from we the people.
And this watchdog press was specifically granted constitutional protection to report to the American people any politician who is working against limited government.
And now, just 230 short years later, because of mass communications as a result Of the invention of television, our entire media is treasonously undermining our democracy by unleashing their unmatched power to brainwash over 80% of our fellow Americans to large government, not limited.
Yeah, but Rush, why aren't you leading?
Why aren't you taking specific steps to lead us to take our country back from this media?
I would, with all due respect here, I think I've done that.
No, Rush.
I mean, why don't you sell the truth about liberalism, being that if the entire mainstream media, whose job it is to give the truth about politicians who are working against the Constitution, which is what you do, if you convinced us that they're not doing what they're supposed to do and therefore the majority of the American people are being brainwashed to vote for those people who are destroying our country, then we would realize that our problem is the media rush and nothing,
not the liberal look at that has been one of the foundational building blocks of this program.
It is why I am hated, literally hated, by the drive-by media.
It is why they run editorial cartoons wishing I were dead instead of Tim Russert.
The leadership role that you advocate has been underway here for 20 years.
Hey, Mike, grab audio soundbite 8, number again, the wizard of smart from the New York Times, the op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman, who is asked by Willie Geist on MSNBC, where, Thomas, all-knowing wizard Thomas, where should we be headed as a country?
What is the bottom line in all this, Thomas?
Please share with us your wisdom.
It's a policy that, first of all, starts with incentives for what I call radical innovation that's going to give us abundant, cheap, clean, reliable electrons.
For that, you need really the market signals, gasoline tax, carbon tax that will stimulate 100,000 men patent projects in 100,000 garages.
Second thing you need is dramatic improvements in energy efficiency.
That's standards for refrigerators and light bulbs and mileage standards so we don't need so many electrons.
And third, you're going to need conservation.
How about going back to driving 55 miles an hour?
You can save millions of gallons just there.
We all heard that together mere moments ago here on the EIB network, and it got me to thinking.
He may be right about one thing, and that is conservation.
Why don't we just establish as a national policy now that we're going to end the hard copy, the actual paper, the dead tree editions of the New York Times and all other large circulation newspapers in America?
Imagine how many electrons, Thomas, we could save.
Imagine how much carbon we could save, not just the trees that we would save.
But how about all of the expense, Thomas, involved in transporting all these newspapers that are obsolete anyway now, thanks to the internet?
If people want to buy a newspaper, let them actually pay $10 to $15 a copy for it so that there will be fewer newspapers printed.
We have to transport newspapers all over the world.
How many trees does it take every day to be chopped down to produce newspapers?
Newspapers, which have become sources of drivel to begin with.
Why, Thomas, all wizard of smart that you are, are there no studies showing how much carbon is expended by the newspaper industry?
Let's examine all these ways that carbon is expended.
We kill trees.
It takes energy to do that.
There aren't any Paul Bunyans out there anymore.
Then we have to regrow trees.
That takes energy.
There's fertilizer involved.
You know what that means, Thomas?
And the best fertilizer around these days is newspapers.
Then we've got transportation costs, Thomas.
After the drivel is printed on the wasted paper and then has to be transported to all these places, newsstands, news sites, homes.
It's flown on airplanes.
Then there are delivery costs.
On and on and on.
The cycle is endless.
Newspapers, a resource-intensive and labor-intensive business.
End them.
Well, he's talking about conservation.
What good are they anymore?
Particularly with the internet.
What literal good are newspapers?
So just get, you just want to reduce the carbon footprint.
Let's just end paper copies, hard copies of the New York Times, the L.A. Times, the Wall Street Journal.
Let's just shut them down.
By the way, it may be happening anyway.
Did you see the story in the New York Times yesterday?
Papers facing worst year for ad revenue?
Did you see this?
For newspapers, the news has swiftly gone from bad to worse.
This year is taking shape as their worst on record, with a double-digit drop in advertising revenue raising serious questions about the survival of some papers and the solvency of their parent companies.
Ad revenue, the primary source of newspaper income, began sliding two years ago.
And as hiring freezes turned to buyouts and then to layoffs, the decline has only accelerated.
One of the problems, of course, is what's happened to the housing market.
Real estate ads are not as numerous as they used to be.
The LA Times, as mentioned in this New York Times story, is a paper particularly hard hit by falling advertising revenues.
By the way, I wish to point out here that our advertising revenues here at the EIB network are not falling, and they have yet to fall in 20 years.
But I wonder why advertising rates at newspapers are falling.
Could it be there's nothing worth in a newspaper looking at these days?
Or maybe there are things worth looking at in a newspaper, but there are too many things that offend people in a newspaper that they don't want to have to read and put up with anymore.
All the liberal bias that's not contained anymore to the editorial page, all over the newspapers.
The idea that nobody's getting the truth from anything in the newspapers, simply a bunch of recycled AP garbage, and agenda-oriented news.
So if ad revenue is down and the paper industry is in deep doo-doo, and we must conserve, as the wizard of smart, Tom Friedman says, let's just get rid of the hard copies of newspapers.
It's very intensive.
Lots of trees could be saved.
Lots of fertilizer could be saved.
Lots of fuel transportation costs could be saved.
And a lot of minds, a lot of human minds could be saved.
I know, Brian.
I know a lot of people have some other ideas here, but what we can do to conserve needed energy using the brilliance of the wizard of smart, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times.
In addition, let's say we're not able to eliminate the hard copy editions of these newspapers.
It's a shame.
But I mean, it's a huge carbon footprint involved here in growing the trees, cutting the trees down, fertilizing the trees, and transporting all the finished products.
Tax it.
Raise taxes on newspapers.
Have a newspaper tax.
Just like they tax us.
Governments tax us to affect our activities.
We want less, fewer newspapers sold.
And if you are going to read a newspaper, you should be the one to pay for the damage that manufacturing that newspaper costs every day.
So put a $2 surcharge tax on every newspaper or more.
I mean, let's hit them the way they hit us.
They're not immune from any of this.
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