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Nov. 28, 2008 - Rush Limbaugh Program
33:45
November 28, 2008, Friday, Hour #2
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Greetings my friends and welcome back Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, from the bunkered and heavily fortified EIB Southern Command from behind a golden EIB microphone.
It is Friday.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
Here's our telephone number, 800-282-2882.
If you want to go the email address route, you can do that.
El Rushbo at EIBnet.com.
Open line Friday.
The day of the week we turn the program over to rank amateurs.
One of the most eagerly anticipated days in all of the big media week.
A courageous act of benevolence by me, benevolent dictator.
Nobody has the right to be heard on this program other than me.
Nobody has the right to speak other than me.
It has to be earned.
But on Friday, we go to the phones.
You can talk about whatever you want.
It's always fun for us.
Again, the telephone number is 800-282-2882.
You may remember, it seems like a long time ago now, maybe a year or more, but maybe even longer than that.
Every day, ladies and gentlemen, there were headlines in the newspapers all over the country about runaway SUVs doing this, driving themselves off of the sixth floor of parking garages, running off of interstate bridges, all kinds of things, running into each other, running over people.
And of course, the point of the headline, runaway SUV, SUV this, SUV this was part of the environmentalist WACO movement.
They were furthering the agenda of the Sierra Club and other environmentalist wackos.
The drive-bys were, but trying to portray the SUV as a deadly invention, a deadly creation on its own.
But we have been in a bit of a lull.
There haven't been such stories for quite a while.
I mean, it does seem like a year until now.
And so here's our official theme in a Yugo, Paul Shanklin.
Runaway SUV in New Zealand.
Wellington, New Zealand.
A runaway SUV knocks a man off his toilet.
A Wellington, New Zealand man got the fright of his life when a runaway SUV crashed into his house and knocked him off the toilet.
The vehicle had been parked with its emergency brake only half on.
It rolled backward down a 32-foot bank into the house Thursday in the southern city of Christchurch, according to the press newspaper.
Police said a building contractor working next door had parked the vehicle at the top of the bank minutes earlier.
He came back to his car.
He found it next door, basically.
The paper said that when the homeowner was asked how the builder might be feeling, the homeowner said, what about me?
I got knocked off the toilet.
I got a hell of a fright.
The man asked not to be named because he's selling the house.
He didn't want the incident to interfere with the sale.
How are you going to hide it, pal?
An SUV crashes into your house and knocks you off the toilet, and somebody's not going to see the evidence of this.
Now, see, we don't buy for a minute that this SUV just had its parking brake half on.
That's not the way these stories are portrayed.
These stories are portrayed as though SUVs have minds of their owns.
Very seldom, even when there are stories involving drivers of SUVs in such incidents, do we ever hear about the driver?
We only hear about the runaway SUV, as though the driver is just a prisoner.
A driver is nothing more actually than a passenger.
In this case, this SUV had a grudge.
He either had a grudge against its owner or he had a grudge against the guy in the house that was on the toilet.
Probably this SUV, well aware of the assaults being made on it and its brothers and sisters by environmentalist wackos, was able to understand that the guy on the toilet was using too much toilet paper.
And the SUVs, they don't want to go extinct.
They don't want to be drummed out of business.
They don't want to end up in a junk lot.
And so any attention they can cause to keep environmental standards high by keeping this poor guy from using too much toilet, this is the way we goaded and made fun of these people.
Police said no charges would be filed in this incident because the incident occurred on private property.
And of course, how do you charge an SUV?
But be patient.
They will come up with a way.
By the way, this next is huge news.
This is really huge news.
The EPA, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen Johnson, has shelved his agency's findings that greenhouse gases are a danger to the public.
This is amazing.
The EPA administrator Stephen Johnson on Thursday told Congress he will initiate a lengthy public comment period about whether such emissions are a risk before responding to a U.S. Supreme Court order.
The move means there is virtually no chance the Bush administration will act to regulate greenhouse gases in response to the High Court's decision in the time left in office.
The decision by the EPA infuriated Democrat lawmakers and attorneys who won the landmark case before the High Court last spring.
Henry Waxman said this is a transparent delaying tactic and a major reversal of EPA's position.
Bush administration's recklessly abandoning its responsibility to address the global warming crisis.
Sierra Club attorney David Bookminder is outrageous.
It is outrageous.
He was one of the lead attorneys on the case.
Now, the spokesman for the EPA, Jonathan Schrader, countered criticism of the decision by saying, look, no matter what is shouted or screamed from the rooftops, this is truly an historic moment.
No administration's taken this step to evaluate this new pollutant.
This is a courageous step.
They just, at the EPA, they just said, screw it.
We're not going to automatically accept the fact that greenhouse gases are a danger to the public.
This affects all kinds of things, from mileage standards to taxes, any number of things.
Can I summarize global warming for you very simply?
We have waxed eloquent on this program for years about global warming.
And it really is about two things.
This whole man-made global warming hoax is about two things.
Number one, it is about empowering government to run more and more of the aspects of private business and the private sector.
It is simply a trick that is designed to get government tentacles into more and more of American business in the private sector is possible.
Number two, the man-made global warming hoax is about turning carbon dioxide because it is everywhere.
We exhale it.
It's about turning carbon dioxide into gold.
For those of you in Rio Lanil, let me explain that.
Have you heard of carbon credits?
Have you heard of buying credits for your carbon footprint?
Your carbon footprint is everything you use electricity-wise in your home, your car, how many vacations you take on an airplane, your exhalations, and all of these things.
And the man-made global warming hoax says that all of those things are pollutants because carbon dioxide is a pollutant.
It is a greenhouse gas.
So, anytime you use any source of power or energy, you are polluting, including when you exhale.
And so, what has to happen?
Well, we have to somehow cancel our carbon footprints.
So, what do we do?
We pay companies to plant trees to make up for all the soak up all of the carbon that we are exhaling and putting into the atmosphere.
It's simply a financial scam.
It is an attempt to turn something that is as plentiful as any other thing on the planet into gold, into quick cash, doing it on the basis of the guilt that they have made people feel for engaging in this ruinous to the climate and the planet behavior.
So, those are the two things.
That's really all this is about: expanding government, giving more control over private sector businesses, and turning carbon dioxide into gold.
Back after this: Hey, I have just a quick question.
It is a little bit of a trick question.
I shouldn't have said that.
I'm just curious what you people think about this.
Everybody has a cell phone, right?
A lot of people have more than one cell phone.
What are your thoughts on early cancellation fees of your contract?
For example, when the iPhone, the first iPhone came out, I got a bunch of them to give away to staff members.
And some of them said, I can't.
I just signed a contract with T-Mobile, or I just signed a contract with Verizon or whatever, and I still got like 18 months.
There's like $175 cancellation fee.
That's okay.
You want to stick with that?
Fine.
I'll give the iPhone to somebody else.
Whoa, wait a minute.
And then they started cursing the early cancellation fee, the contract.
I mean, if you get an iPhone, you got to sign a two-year contract with ATT.
If you get any cell phone, you got to sign some sort of contract.
There was a hearing in Washington, the FCC, the Republican-controlled FCC, the pro-regulation Republican administration, FCC.
And they adopted a position that these early cancellation fees are just not fair.
Early termination fees, ETFs is what they're officially called.
Early termination fees.
They're just not fair.
They're just not right.
They just screw the customer rush.
The customer goes in, buys the phone, and then once, and then after maybe six months, wants to get out.
I can't afford to without this large pay.
But wait, didn't you sign a contract?
Yes, but it's still not fair because they've got me roped into a service I don't want.
Well, no, because all these have a 30-day return policy.
You can use the phone for 30 days if you don't like it.
You get 30 days to take it back, get it, get your money back, and then you're out of the contract.
You go beyond 30 days.
Right.
Right.
And when you sign the contract, right, they may sell you a $300 phone or a $200 phone for $15 or $20 or whatever, because they really want you to sign up for the service.
It's the service they want.
It ain't going to be long before these phones are going to be free or practically free.
But at any rate, consumer activists, consumer activists have been lobbying the FCC on behalf of those of you who think you should not have to honor the contract that you've signed with the cellular provider that you chose.
And so the consumer activist is actually not a consumer activist.
The consumer activist is just another leftist who is using consumers ostensibly for the real purpose of expanding the regulatory power of government.
There were consumer activists at the FCC hearing yesterday.
And of course, they were whining and crying, and they were talking about predatory contractual services required by cellular companies.
And they took advantage of unwitting people, didn't fully tell them what they were signing.
Yes, they do, because everybody knows.
And if they don't, they find out.
If they try to get out of the contract, they do face a cancellation charge.
So one of the things proposed by the so-called consumer activists was that consumers be forced, while buying a phone, to read every page and sign every page of the contract that the cellular service requires one signature on.
This would elongate and expand the whole process of buying a cellular phone.
And people aren't going to want to mess with this and do this.
The point is, there are plenty of options for people who do not want to sign two-year contracts with a cell provider.
Do you know what the options are?
Well, one of the things that you can do is show up and get one of these phones, what do they call track phones or virgin mobile phones at a Walmart or a 7-Eleven or something.
The pay-as-you-go phone, and you throw it away when it's finished.
It's got a number and so forth, but there's no contract with it.
Now, the carriers will offer discounts if you sign up long-term.
Early termination fees are an efficient means of enforcing the deal.
But the point here is that I'm trying to make is the consumer activists who are actually, they make you think they're looking out for you when they're not.
They're just, it's no more than animal rights people are just nothing but leftists trying to eliminate your freedom.
Consumer activists, in large part, are simply doing what they can to get the power of government more involved in every little transaction you make under the premise that every transaction you make with whatever corporation, they're out to screw you.
They're out to defraud you and to fool you and to mistreat you and so forth and so on.
Yet they hide under this banner here of consumer activists.
And so what we end up with is more federal regulation over the simple transaction of buying a cell phone and service.
More federal regulation.
How many of you knew that there were hearings at the FCC on early termination fees?
I doubt that you knew.
And if you bothered to read the New York Times today on page Z75, you might have read about it.
But the story of the New York Times and the New York Times story is as biased as anything else because I know what went on at the meeting.
Here's what they wrote.
The chairman of the FCC, Kevin Martin, laid out a plan on Thursday to regulate the high fees cell phone companies charge consumers for canceling their contracts early.
Mr. Martin's proposal was similar to an industry plan put forward last month.
In comments at a public meeting, Martin said he was skeptical that class action lawsuits would adequately resolve for consumers all the pending issues about these fees.
He joked that his wife, apparently unhappy about the fees, had volunteered to testify at the hearing.
He also criticized the fees himself, saying that in practice, it can leave people locked into a service that they really want to leave.
They signed a contract.
They've got 30 days to determine whether or not they like the service.
If you really want to leave, pay the fee.
You made a deal.
You signed a contract.
But now, see, even people even winning, this is the same thing that's happening in the mortgage lending crisis.
Predatory lenders, predatory cell phone service companies.
Screwing the little guy.
Not telling them what all is in the fine print.
This is not fine print stuff.
Anyway, folks, I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill here, but it's a clear illustration, a great example of how even a Republican administration can sit around and love the notion of more regulation over virtually any kind of transaction that we might have in our daily lives.
Ha!
Welcome back, Rush Limboy here on the cutting edge.
Your guiding light through times of trouble, confusion, murkiness, tumult, chaos, lies, distortion, torture, humiliation, and even the good times.
All right, it's Open Line Friday.
That means back to the Fawns.
It's Gene in Casper, Wyoming.
Nice to have you here.
Hi, Mr. Limbaugh.
It's an honor talking to you.
Thank you.
I did this for all the right reasons, but I looked into windmill power to see if I could save myself money.
I was going to save the earth with this, okay?
And it turns out that these things are expensive.
I called it Burgie, which makes a lot of these windmill things.
And, you know, you've got to buy the windmill, the generator, the tower.
You have to install it.
You have to put the electrical line in.
You have to put in a special two-way electrical meter.
Wait, Hold on just a second.
There might be people confused here.
A windmill needs electricity and power lines for what?
Well, for my home.
I was going to look at this to see if I could do this at my home.
And go on.
Yes, yes, yes.
But you see, most people think that the windmill produces the power, that it doesn't need any electricity attached to it.
You're talking about lines from the windmill to your house?
That's right.
That's right.
I mean, I'm saying, you know, it's not just wait a minute.
But there has to be the windmill just can't is not going to create electricity.
This doesn't work.
There has to be something in the windmill that converts the wind energy to electricity.
What is that?
That's the turbine, right?
That's right.
Right, so the turbine's going to be running.
I'm making a lot of turbine, folks, is what you'll find in a jet engine.
So you're going to be spending how much money generating power to power the windmill.
Well, no, no, no.
The point is that, and I just want to comment on the money.
I got an estimate of $50,000 to put this thing in.
Turnkey.
Okay?
Now, this isn't even getting past the fact that I'd have to go to the county and get a special zoning variant, et cetera, et cetera.
I'm just saying, you know.
Yeah, wait till your neighbors find out you're going to put this thing in.
And then what do you do?
Did you research after you spent all this money?
Did you research?
I didn't spend the money.
Well, I mean, if you would have, after you had spent the money, did you research?
What do you do when there's no wind that day?
Well, that's one of the problems because you can maybe go off the grid two-thirds of the time, which means that maybe after 25 years, you'll get a return on your investment of $50,000.
But that's not the point of all this.
The point of all this environmental wacko stuff is it should, it's going to cost us a lot of money.
We deserve to pay this because we have destroyed the planet or almost.
And so, how much it costs is irrelevant because we're saving the planet with this stuff.
Well, you know, maybe, you know, someone like Barry could do that with his $1.5 million mansion.
He's got $50,000 kicking around.
But, you know, I'm just saying that, you know, for most folks, and, you know, I like to say that, you know, I'm doing better than most.
And so I looked at this thing.
But I'm saying, you know, I'm just throwing out rubbers here.
Personal question.
How big is your house?
About 3,400 square feet?
3,400 square feet.
So that's about.
And the basement.
Counting the basement?
No, no, and the basement.
And the basement.
Oh, let's give you 5,000 square feet.
All right.
All right.
That's about 1,500 square feet more than the hut in which George Hussein Obama lives.
Now, a windmill might work for him, but how many with some sprays?
I mean, sprays.
Because the point of Baki did.
Get some spray on DDT, too.
But how many windmills would it need for your house?
Would one do it?
No, no, no.
I mean, you know, see, but the point is that it's all wind dependent.
You know, it's not just not enough wind, but too much wind.
Because once you go above about 50 miles an hour, you've got to shut the windmill down or it'll just rip apart.
And you can get those kind of winds out in Wyoming.
Easily.
Easily.
I mean, you know, we clock stuff at our house at 70 plus miles an hour.
Well, this is interesting.
I like this.
We have brilliant people in this audience.
Thanks very much out there, Gene, for the call.
Actually, looked into this to find out what it would cost him personally just to put up a windmill in his backyard to power his house.
Don in San Antonio, Texas.
Welcome.
From one sports connoisseur to another, I do have a question for you, Rush.
Ask it: Do you believe the reason that the Senate and as well as the House and the Congress is getting involved with the business of pro-sports is because they use taxpayer money to build stadiums?
Well, I think that might be one of the items of leverage that they use to justify it, as well as some sports have antitrust exemption.
But I think it's simply election year or close to election year grandstanding and the natural tendency of bureaucrats and people in power to want more and more of it.
I just think it's grandstanding.
I think it's, I guess, you're talking about steroid the hearings for baseball, for example.
Yes.
Yes.
Especially that in everything in the avenue that they're using in order to get involved is because taxpayer money is being asked upon by more owners to finance their stadiums in order to get it built.
And that's their way in order to get into the business of pro-sports.
So what would you suggest?
I mean, the genie's out of the bottle.
You can't, these stadiums that have already been built with a percentage of taxpayer money are built.
Which is true.
However, I do believe more of the owners do have to finance a little bit more than what they're asking for at the same time.
You had owners like Hunt, Lamar Hunt, Joe Robbie, folks back in the day, they built their own stadiums.
They didn't sit up here and ask the folks to finance it.
They went up on the ticket prices in order for you to pay for it.
Yeah, I know.
I know the Bob Kraft, Robert Kraft of the Patriots, built his own stadium for the Patriots.
But a lot of these teams do try to blackmail the city.
Hey, we're going to have to relocate if we don't get our new stadium here.
But you know, you'll find that the foundation of this is money.
When you have, let's look at the NFL for just a second.
Yes.
Revenue sharing used to be pretty equally spread across the board from all sources.
But then all of a sudden, exemptions started cropping up, among them luxury suites and the seats that are in front of them.
That revenue was kept by the team and not shared.
Well, some stadiums didn't have those.
Some stadiums had very few of those.
But the newer stadiums had all kinds of those, and that meant that there were teams in the NFL that were getting richer from that kind of revenue than others.
And that put a competitive disadvantage to the other teams at what they thought was a competitive disadvantage.
So they had to go out and get their stadiums, too.
Now, in baseball, much the same thing is happening, although not so much revenue sharing, but for different reasons.
The new stadiums, have you checked the ticket prices for choice seats at the new Yankee Stadium?
Oh, yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
See, this is helping me build a synopsis for a possible paper later on.
So this is just ridiculous and off the chain.
That's the reason why I asked the question.
Well, I think that the main reason that Congress is getting involved is because they can, and they're meddlers, and they want to use threats, antitrust.
They want to be involved in as much as not just sports, but in every aspect of your life they can get themselves involved in.
Now, they do need an entree.
And the entree is, hey, look, taxpayers are building these stadiums.
We represent the taxpayers, blah, blah, blah.
You're right about that.
Okay.
No question.
Now, these ticket prices, I'm going to have to look these up specifically.
But a dugout seat dug out in three rows back at Yankee Stadium.
It seems like I read $2,000 a game.
Yes, that's what I have right now.
That's what I've seen on the internet.
$2,000 a ticket.
That's just bananas.
And the Mets are going to be charging something similar to that.
The New York Giants and the Jets are going to move into a new stadium in a couple years.
And the Giants, who have been really, of all the NFL teams, pretty fan-friendly and loyal to their fan base, are going to charge for the first time personal seat licenses.
Are you writing about personal seat licenses in your synopsis?
No, I didn't.
And I never considered that, really.
Well, you ought to.
Do you know what a personal seat license is?
Educate me, Rush.
You always do.
At one of these new stadiums, you've got an existing fan base of 70,000 season ticket holders for both the Jets and the Giants.
Those 70,000, well, 70,000 people, because some of them own two or three tickets, but every one of those seats that's currently held by a season ticket, you're going to have to pay the team, I think, I don't know what, $35,000 or $40,000 for the right to buy the season ticket.
And this is not unique.
This has happened in many other NFL cities and baseball cities because look at that, somebody's got to pay for the revenue they're paying the players.
And it just, it boils down to the fans are going to pay it one way or the other in many, many ways.
And we'll see what attendance does when these prices kick in.
All right, it's Open Line Friday.
Let's head to the phones to the Tri-Cities, Washington.
This is David.
I'm glad you waited, sir.
Welcome to the program.
Hello, Mr. Limbaugh.
Hi.
This is an honor.
Thank you very much, sir.
My name is David Beatty, and I'm 16 years old.
I want to thank you for the work you do to educate America and reinforce what my parents teach us.
Something I believe needs to be retaught is the value of a strong work ethic.
I want people to know that the American Dream is still alive.
I live in the Northwest where many people sing the songs of socialism.
Kids at school have no idea what it really means to have a socialist society, giving up their freedoms to, quote, spread the wealth.
Try to talk about with people at school, but sometimes actions speak louder than words.
My brothers and I decided we would prove anything that's possible, set a goal, work towards a goal, and accomplish the goal.
So we wrote a book that reflects just how standing for your own convictions and believing in yourself.
You say you're 16.
Yes.
This is amazing.
Very proud of you.
And last year, we had the opportunity to have grace shine on our family.
We had lost our grandfather in the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation, Pete Haas, stepped in, and Pete was like a pillar of silent strength, which we will never forget.
He helped us go out and see our grandfather buried in Arlington.
And these two things tied together because we want to thank them for their help last year.
And we want to try to raise $25,000 for them from proceeds from our book.
And we were wondering how much it costs to advertise on your show.
And I just wanted to talk to you person to person about that.
Well, I have sales representatives standing by.
They're always here.
Should I answer this question honestly?
I'm fine with that.
A little bit scared to hear the numbers there.
Pardon me?
A little bit scared to hear the numbers there, but I'm fine with that.
Yeah, you'll be scared to hear the numbers, I think, safe to say.
But we have ways.
How far along are you on your book?
Oh, we had it published like about a month ago.
How many pages is it?
It's 100 pages.
Is the book now in stores?
Yes, it is.
What is the title of the book?
Pulling Weeds to Picking Stocks.
Pulling Weeds, Picking Stocks.
Is that right?
Is that what it's?
I'm having a hearing problem.
Pulling Weeds to Picking Stocks.
Pulling Weeds, Pulling Weeds to Picking Stocks.
Yes.
Okay.
It's 100 page.
Is it soft cover?
Yes.
Okay.
How much does it cost?
Costs $11.
It just costs $11 to buy it.
Yes.
All right.
And is it available nationally or is it just in your local neighborhood in the Tri-Cities area?
I believe it is nationally available.
It is national.
And who published the book?
State Publishing.
State Publishing.
All right.
You have just received about a $35,000 commercial.
And it didn't cost you anything because your cause is worth the donation of busy broadcast time.
You want to sell this book so that you can donate further to the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation.
Yes, sir.
And you're 16.
You have, you know, I've gotten a lot of calls from people your age over the summer as people are out of school and a lot of you.
And I just want to tell you, please don't change because you are going to become an adult and grow and mature at about the time your participation in changing the direction of the country is going to be crucial.
Yes, sir.
Oh, we have found out your book is also available on Amazon.
Yes.
So people can go to Amazon and pick up their credit.
Well, here's another $10,000 worth of advertising for you.
Pulling weeds to picking stocks.
$11.
My gosh, you can't beat that.
And proceeds, some of the proceeds will go to the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation.
Well, David, you learned a lesson here.
It never hurts to ask for what you want.
Well, thank you very much.
How else will people know?
How else would people know?
Thank you very much For your effort and your work here, and all the best to you, David.
Thanks for calling.
Thank you.
You bet.
Tim in Memphis.
You're next on Openline Friday.
Hello.
Hello, Rush.
I was in the Rush before Rush was cool.
Hey, Rush, I work for an international shipping company.
Obama, I think he said U.S. companies would be looking to Beijing.
Yeah, he did.
He said with.
That's absurd, Rush.
Nobody's looking to Beijing.
All the manufacturing base in China is in inland China, number one.
Number two, the infrastructure.
He said that China's infrastructure was better than the USA's.
This guy really scares me, Rush.
It scares me to death.
That is absurd.
Absolutely absurd.
I know.
I know it is.
Look at, you know, if you like these eye candy little construction projects for the Olympics, if you like people being kicked out of their homes to have these eye candy projects built, if you like no pollution controls whatsoever, if you like constant smog, if you like construction policies with so inept they can't stand a category three earthquake or something where 10,000 people die, China might be the place for you.
This scares me to death.
He's talking about change.
I am scared.
I don't want things to change.
He just does not know what he's talking about.
This is unbelievable that a presidential candidate would make a statement like this.
China's infrastructure is better than the USA.
Has he ever been there?
Did you know that the last time I was in China, I did not go to the outlying areas?
You know why?
Because one of my customers was 75 miles away from Hong Kong, but it takes about three or four hours to get there.
Look, they've got people starving.
They can't feed all of their people.
And as I have mentioned on this program, the biggest challenge that the Chinese Chikom premier has is creating 25 million new jobs a year precisely in these outlying provinces that you're describing.
He's got to keep those people there.
His cities are overrun.
He cannot afford more people coming into the cities.
There isn't work for them.
He can't control them.
If they leave the countryside, they get educated and so forth.
The worst thing could happen to the Chikom leadership.
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