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Jan. 9, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
33:33
January 9, 2009, Friday, Hour #3
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Time Text
The views expressed by the host on this program make more sense than anything anybody else out there happens to be saying.
Period.
It's Friday.
That means...
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida, it's Open Line Friday!
And I promise we'll get to your phone calls early in this hour.
Telephone number 800-282-2882.
And the email address lrushbow at EIBNet.com.
Ladies and gentlemen, as I survey the landscape out there during this period of utter economic despair,
the midst of a recession that President-select Obama promises will get even worse, unless there is something suspiciously absent from the rhetoric of Democrats that is usually at the top of the list during bad economic times.
Correct me if I am wrong, ladies and gentlemen, but I do not recall hearing in the past two months one word about increasing the minimum wage.
And if we're in really bad economic times, wouldn't they be calling for raising the minimum wage?
Another thing I've not heard, all of these unemployment figures, all these newly unemployed people, how much of that, and I know some of it is due to that, is the increase in the minimum wage.
How many people have been laid off because we did increase the minimum wage?
From Reuters, Americans may reduce the amount they spend on food in response to a sour economy, but some experts fear they may gain weight anyway.
The specter of recession pounds, quote unquote, is a concern weighing on health professionals who point to numerous studies linking obesity and unhealthy eating habits to low incomes.
They fear that as people cut food spending, they'll cut back on healthy but relatively expensive items like fresh fish, fresh fruit, vegetables.
What, what?
Uh, now I got a question, but I don't know if I have the courage to ask it.
Vegetables are expensive?
I didn't think they were.
Now, if you go, of course, or organic, what a scam.
What an absolute scam.
Don't even get me started.
Don't even get me.
I opened one of my refrigerators the other day to grab a bottle of water, and I saw four cartons of different kinds of milk, and it was all organic.
And I said, my gosh, my own house is being taken over by these nuts.
Don't get me started on organic.
If you go buy frozen vegetables, that could be somewhat expensive.
And if you go out and buy frozen vegetables with melted cheese on it, with a boil in a bag, green giant or whatever.
But vegetables are not expensive, right?
Whole grains.
Expensive?
Cost is cost is going.
Well, the cost on everything's gone up, snurderly.
Don't give it to me in that regard.
Cost of everything's gone up.
Except gasoline.
Gasoline has gone down.
So the answer, here's a quote from the story.
Answer lies in affordable but nutrient-rich foods like ground beef, beans, milk, nuts, cheese, carrots, potatoes, canned tomatoes, soups, and rice.
That is a diet for a new depression, the Great Depression diet.
I'm not kidding.
This is a Reuters story.
It's out of Dallas.
Ground beef, beans, milk, nuts, cheese, carrot.
I'm reminded of the beans scene in Blazing Saddles when I look at this menu.
You know what the beans scene in Blazing Saddles was.
Sorry, I can't explain it in a family show kind of way.
Just imagine, Snerdley, it's at the end of a long trail drive, and all these dirty cowhens are sitting around the fire, and the chef is ladling out nothing but beans.
And the cowhands are a great Mel Brooks scene.
And that's what this depression diet sounds like it would cause to me.
Ladies and gentlemen, this next story indicates it's bad news to me.
I'm serious.
It's surrender.
You know me.
I am one of the biggest fans of big oil.
I admire what they do.
I resent that they are a target of the American left.
I resent that they are accused falsely of price-fixing, gouging, and all of these things.
It infuriates me.
And I've noticed the price of oil has come down, and so has the price of gasoline.
And so, therefore, there's no talk about any conspiracy now, is there?
And we don't hear the people who are being hurt by falling prices whining and moaning, do we?
We only hear the whining and moaning when the price of oil and gasoline goes up.
But the price of gasoline was at four bucks.
It's now a buck and a half, depending on where you live, $1.60.
And nobody's complaining.
There are people who are suffering because of this.
Hugo Chavez.
Oh, by the way, Hugo Chavez, somebody must have talked to him because he's reinitiated the free home heating oil plan for Joe Kennedy in Massachusetts.
They pulled it out of there, and we sort of had some fun with this.
Because, I mean, how bad is it?
How bad must your charity be when Hugo Chavez pulls away supply, your charity's out of business.
When a South American dictator pulls his oil out of your program, your charity goes to bed.
Anyway, he's reinitiated it.
So I have a great appreciation of people of big oil.
But now the chief executive of ExxonMobil, a man by the name of Rex Tillerson, has called on Congress to enact a tax on carbon emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, to fight global warming.
In a speech in Washington, Rex Tillerson.
And I know the reason I love these big oil CEOs is they have perfect names for big oil CEOs.
Rex Tillerson.
It is a great name.
I loved his predecessor.
Big guy.
La Jowley.
I wish I could remember his name.
This is the guy that got the $489 million golden parachute that everybody hated.
But Drudge had a picture of this guy just laughing.
It was just over that headline, $489 million parachute while the price of gasoline was rising, by the way.
Just infuriated him.
I can't remember this guy's name, and he had a great CEO name too for big oil.
So, Rex Tillerson said that a carbon tax, a greenhouse gas emissions tax, was a, quote, more direct, more transparent, more effective approach to curtailing greenhouse gases than other plans popular in Congress and with the incoming Obama administration.
I know what's going on here, but this still represents surrender.
With Rex Tillerson, the Exxon CEO, endorsing a carbon tax, the bus that I spoke about yesterday is going to go over to a cliff, and I don't want to be on the bus may have already gone over the cliff.
Because this capitulation by Rex Tillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobil, would indicate, does indicate to me that our public servants have the keys to the house and that we are living in the servants' quarters.
This should be interpreted by shareholders and Exxon's board of directors as a resignation letter.
Here's why there are problems with Rex Tillerson's endorsement of a carbon tax.
Man-made global warming is a hoax.
I got a note today from our official climatologist, Dr. Royce Spencer.
He sent me something from his blog.
The place in Siberia where it always gets coldest has hit minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit twice last month.
It had only done that one time in the last 25 years.
Arctic sea ice, same amount, same thickness as in 1979.
Snow in Chicago again.
There is an Arctic air mass that caused temperatures of minus 50 in Alaska that is going to descend over the Midwest and the East next week.
That will make the high temperature in New York perhaps minus five.
And we are in the midst of global warming.
Oh, oh, and there's another thing.
I forgot to mention this.
How many of you saw the movie, the global warming movie?
Day after tomorrow.
The day after tomorrow had as its, you remember, all of a sudden, out of the blue, temperatures went from 75 degrees to minus 150 degrees in an instant.
Everything was just killed in an instant.
The theory behind that happening was that scientists have told us that the conveyor belt of the Gulf Stream had ceased.
Now, what it is, Europe, London, England, their temperatures year-round are pretty moderate because there is a conveyor belt of ocean current from the Gulf Stream down here in South Florida that goes all the way across the Atlantic in a southwest and northeast track.
And what it does, it causes very cold water to sink and be replaced with warm water from the Gulf Stream.
And this warm water creates certain atmospheric conditions with winds and so forth that keep Europe, Western Europe, Europe, England, pretty moderate in temperature.
Now, scientists have told us the conveyor belt stopped about two years ago, or maybe even longer.
And that premise, that conveyor belt, if you will, that's how you envision the flow, the circulation of water, the currents, as a conveyor belt from South Florida all the way, even further than that, all the way up to England.
And it stopped, and that's what caused this massive overnight sudden freeze.
Well, guess what?
Scientists have discovered that last month the conveyor belt started up.
And now they're thinking they have to re-examine 25 years of models in science because the conveyor belt has started again.
And the reason they're surprised by this is because London has had unseasonably cold weather because the conveyor belt had stopped, but now it's kicked up again.
And nobody did anything to jumpstart it.
So now I think, well, maybe this conveyor belt's cyclical.
Like every other scientist in this field of global warming, it's a hoax.
They study it within the confines of their own lifetimes.
And they try to draw from the beginning of time historical data within the context of an average human life, which is impossible.
But they have a political agenda behind global warming, and it is more government, more spending, less freedom, higher taxes, so forth and so on.
So global warming is a hoax, yet here comes Rex Tillerson endorsing a carbon tax.
The earth, as I have just explained, is cooling.
It has been cooling since 1997.
It has not warmed.
Carbon taxes will further drive the economy into the abyss because where do you think they'll put the carbon tax first on gasoline?
Remember, Obama was not unhappy with a $4 a gallon price.
He was just unhappy with how quickly it got there.
Imagine $4 a gallon in this economy on top of everything else with a carbon tax.
Now, here's why.
Rex Tillerson, I think, is thrown in a towel because he's looking around the world and he sees that leftists have taken over institutions.
And what he sees is that a carbon tax on you is far less damaging to him than a cap-and-trade program that Obama wants is on him.
A cap-and-trade program on businesses, meaning emissions will be governed and arbitrarily set by government.
And if you exceed those emissions, you have to pay a fine or you have to trade with a company that's not getting close to what it's allowed to emit.
And so, but all of this under the false premise of reducing emissions that cause man-made global warming, which is a hoax.
Cap-and-trade programs are miserable failures wherever they have been tried.
They are hoaxes that benefit the likes of the designers, Al Gore and others.
So Rex Tillerson, as a CEO, is doing due diligence here, and for his shareholders, is making the right call.
He has concluded that governments around the world are going to raise taxes on somebody on something having to do with energy, and he's absolutely right.
And he says that the lesser of two evils is a carbon tax on carbon dioxide emissions rather than cap and trade.
But it still, to me, represents a surrender.
Why won't somebody stand up, especially now with abundant evidence, and point fingers at all these people and say, you're lying to us?
It is a pure agenda-oriented hoax.
We're not going for it.
We're not going to raise taxes.
We're not going to.
Well, Obama and Harry Reid this week both have said global warming is real.
We must do something about it.
And they couldn't care less whether it's real or not.
All they care about is the opportunity it presents to raise taxes.
So it's a surrender out there, ladies and gentlemen.
However, I want you to know that here at the EIB network, there is and will not ever be surrender.
Oh, yeah, that previous Exxon CEO that I love was Lee Raymond.
Drudge had the best picture of this guy.
I think he was on Capitol.
He just laughing big time.
His mouth was wide open, very jowly guy.
His jowls over the knot on his tie.
And his big, long, narrow face, but he's a huge guy laughing over the headline of his $489 million golden parachute while the price of gas was going up.
I just thought it was great.
Okay, back to the phones.
I promised we get the phones early.
And in Temple, California, we say hi to Trent.
Great to have you here on the EIB network, sir.
Hello.
Good afternoon, Rush.
This is Temple, Georgia.
Oh, it's again, it's this cheap call screen program, and I wasn't looking.
I didn't have my glasses on the GA looked like the CA.
Okay.
I apologize for that.
I know it's an embarrassment to have a Georgian pretend to live in California.
That's right.
It's okay today.
It's Friday.
Say, look, you said you were conflicted about Obama.
My wife and I have had a running debate about Obama.
We're conflicted about one thing.
We agree that he is a turtle on a fence post, that he was put there by handlers, but my wife thinks that sooner or later he's going to revolt against his handlers.
I'm not so sure because I think he never expected to win the nomination.
He never expected to beat Hillary in the first place.
I genuinely don't think he knows what he's going to do.
I think that's why he's behaving the way he is.
You're not hearing anything coherent.
You're still not hearing any details simply because he never expected to be here in the first place.
I have spoken to some who share your point of view on this.
And of course, I have spoken to others who've tried to persuade me of the turtle on a fence post analogy to this.
Because obviously, if you see a turtle on a fence post, how the hell did it get there?
Well, somebody had to put it there.
And the people are asking, how did Obama get here?
Somebody put him here.
I've speculated on that myself.
I think it's possible that early on he didn't expect to win this year.
Yes.
I thought he bought it like everybody else bought into the notion that this was Hillary's coronation.
But I think as time wore on, I think he wanted it so bad he could taste it.
I think he was going, he was, there's, he had every expectation of winning this thing.
And then when the Ohio and Texas primaries were over and he had to go down to the wire, don't kid yourself.
He fully wanted and fully expected to win this thing after Iowa, if not before.
And I see, but the conflict for me is: is he really in over his head?
Or is all of this right now just a show to try to avoid being pegged as anything?
Because Obama has been a show throughout the campaign.
His election is a triumph of symbolism over substance.
It's not what he said, it's how he said it.
Regardless, this country's going left faster than you've ever seen it go, whether he knows what he's doing or not.
There are enough people in power and enough places going to take it there, and he may well be the conductor on the train.
So get ready in any event.
And we're back, Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network.
It is great to have you with us.
That's a good question.
I do not know.
I thought it should have happened.
Snirdly just asked me when the Mac version of Carbonite is coming out of this software.
It's the online backups.
I made a mistake, by the way.
Last time I talked about it, I called it offline.
It's off-site.
It's online backup of your hard drive or as much of your hard drive as I want.
Now, the Consumer Electronics Show is either still going on or just ended.
And I was under the impression they were going to release the Mac version around the time of the CES, which is in Las Vegas.
If they haven't, it's going to be soon.
Carbonite's an off online backup system.
Do you know that carbonite is safer than an external hard drive?
The external hard drive is like 32 million times safer than an external hard disk is outside your main computer.
Whether you have a laptop or a desktop, your hard drive is going to bomb out on you.
It happens to everybody, particularly PC owners.
And you will not enjoy it when it happens to you.
Because most people using their computers these days have more and more important things on them.
Important documents, important pictures, and so forth.
And once they're gone, they're irretrievable.
And in some cases, a hard drive will crash to the point that it cannot be revived.
You don't even need to take the risk because carbonite.com allows automatic in the background.
After you set it up the first time, you'll never ever see it happening.
And I guarantee you the day will come where you will thank me for suggesting that you try this.
Carbonite.com.
Try it free for 15 days.
Try it free for 15 days.
Go to carbonite.com, use the offer code Rush, and you'll get two free months with your annual prescription.
Now, that is a deal.
Offer code Rush two free months out of the first 12.
And you are going to thank me.
Some point down the road, you will thank me.
Obama, I'm still conflicted because I remember saying during the campaign, I think the guy's a sponge.
I don't think he has an original thought.
I think he soaked up what all of the professors that he's had have told him.
He's soaked up what Reverend Wright's told him.
He soaked up what Bill Ayers told him.
And that's why he stutters around without a teleprompter.
On the prompter, man, it's full speed ahead.
But even these press conferences, they keep asking about specifics.
I don't think anybody's put the specifics of the plan for the economy and this stimulus in his head yet.
And so this conflict is royal.
The conflict is he's brilliant.
He's smart.
He's articulate.
He's well spoken, but not without a prompter.
So it remains conflict.
But look, even with the conflict, we're headed left here, folks.
Lickety split.
And he's too big to fail, whether he's a fraud or not.
They're not going to let the first black president fail.
It ain't going to happen.
Too historical here.
Who's next?
Jack in Bristol, Tennessee.
I'm glad you called, sir.
Great to have you on the EIB network.
Rush, thank you for having me on.
First of all, I'd like to thank you for your optimistic outlook on everything.
Thank you.
My family, you're welcome.
My family's been making blue jeans in America for 96 years, and every day it's tough.
But if I can turn on the radio and hear what you have to say about anything, I know I'm going to make it.
It's up to me.
My employees are safe, and we're going to do it.
Bottom line.
It's up to me.
And thank you for that.
Well, you're more than welcome.
But as a businessman in the blue jean business, you know that.
You don't need to hear it from me.
Well, I know that.
But you know what?
It's just reassuring.
And let me tell you another good point about what's going on with me right now.
I hired somebody.
I have a new employee started today.
Really?
And you're not in the healthcare sector.
You're not in the education sector.
You're not in the government sector.
Yet you hired somebody?
I hired somebody today.
We started her out.
She came in this morning.
I stopped by to make sure.
I'm on my way to see some friends this weekend.
And I stopped by to make sure she showed up for work.
She did.
And I said, welcome.
See?
See, what did he do?
Folks, what did he?
He made sure she showed up.
90% of it is showing up.
Absolutely, sir.
That's exactly it.
The second 10% is knowing that you're doing it for your customer.
That's the other part.
How long did you interview her?
Actually, she just walked in.
She said she had some experience.
She was really desperate looking for a job.
I had somebody who I needed to move to a different position because of she started getting harder.
And then I said, why don't you come and join us?
When was the first time you saw her?
Yesterday.
You saw her yesterday?
You hired her today.
Yes, sir.
Amazing.
And if she doesn't work out, I'm going to find a place for her.
And if that doesn't work out, well, then we'll just have to figure something out.
But I'm not giving up on my fellow man like you haven't given up on your fellow man.
She must have really bowled you over.
Oh, she didn't bowl me over nothing.
I just needed somebody to come in and help us.
But you know what?
If you give somebody a chance, they'll give it back to you.
And that's one of the lessons that you teach people out there.
Well, I don't know if you know what I'm saying.
She came knocking on your door, right?
She came looking for you to find her.
No, sir.
She just heard that we make jeans and she had sewn out in California previously and stopped by and said ask if we were hiring.
And to tell you the truth, Rush, I wasn't.
But you know what?
She needed a job.
I'm there for my fellow man, and my fellow man has given it back to me.
And you know what?
That's just what it's all about, sir.
This gets even more amazing every time you utter a sentence.
You didn't even have an opening.
No, sir, I didn't.
But she impressed you to the point that you thought she could do some good work for you.
I knew she could.
I knew she could.
And she needed a chance.
Well, that must give me a chance.
That must mean that your business is doing pretty well because if you weren't looking for somebody, it means you didn't need anybody.
And yet you hired this woman.
I hired this one because I know I'm going to make it this coming 2009.
I knew it in 2008.
I know it in 2009.
I'm not giving up.
Now, that doesn't mean I'm not going to make a mistake, and I'll correct my behavior from that.
But you know what?
I'm going to make it.
All right, I have to ask.
Yes, sir.
You haven't gotten any portion of the bailout, have you?
No, and I'm still waiting for my snacks.
Like an infra-commercial problem.
More snacks.
All right.
Well, congratulations.
I'm glad you brought it.
This is a great story.
Ask for what you want.
You never know what's going to happen.
Do you know how simple it is to ask for what you want?
Most people don't because they think they're being selfish or they're afraid of giving themselves away.
Most people like to keep themselves close to the vest and not have their desires known.
They think it makes them weaker or vulnerable.
But you would be amazed, other than in marriage, what can happen when you ask for what you want?
It's just, try it.
Let people know what you want.
You'll be stunned.
Because other than they will never know otherwise.
Here is Matt in Allentown.
Great to have you on the EIB network, sir.
Hello.
Hello, Rush.
It's a pleasure.
I'm just calling to say that I totally agreed with what you said earlier about to Amanda about the Republican Party needs to change.
And I think an Obama presidency might give us that opportunity where a McCain one might have actually heard us.
Yeah, that was an operative theory, as espoused by many, including me, on this program.
But, you know, we ended up endorsing McCain or supporting because we just could not afford Obama.
Well, I voted for McCain.
And so did I.
But, you know, it is what it is now.
And I hope you're right.
I know the party is going to have to change.
If this party, if the Republican Party wants to win elections, it's going to have to become conservative again.
Oh, amen.
And I, so far, and it's still very early.
I don't see any sign of it.
Remember, were you here?
Did you hear me report my secret bit of information from somebody who attended the Republican Senate retreat?
Yes.
Yes.
Whereas they were told all these, it was demoralizing for them.
Don't, don't, you know, be extreme, whatever that means.
Be moderate, don't be critical, and remember the needs of Northeastern Republicans in the Senate.
There aren't any Republicans from the Northeast in the House, and that's what's got them all scared.
That's fine.
Northeastern Republicans are liberals.
Can I give you some names?
Michael Bloomberg.
Who?
Mayor of New York.
Oh, yeah.
Michael Bloomberg, Susan Collins, Olympia Snow.
More often than not, it's certainly not conservative.
So when you have that as your agenda, you're playing defense.
These people are playing defense.
And the name of the game is offense.
Quick timeout.
Coming right back after this.
All right.
There's been some confusion here over the last caller thinks maybe it's a good thing that Obama won because then he'll get the blame for the economy and the Republicans are conservative.
And I've been having this out with Snerdley all day, who thinks it ain't going to be long before the American people wake up and realize those who voted for Obama have made a big mistake.
Another bit of thought-provoking from me, Mr. Snerdley, to try to convince you that you are wrong.
Which president, Hoover or Roosevelt, is blamed and tied to the Great Depression?
Hoover, right.
For how many years did Hoover preside over the Great Depression?
One year.
How many years did FDR preside over the Great Depression?
Seven or eight years.
The media is never, ever, Snerdley, going to blame whatever happens in the next four years in this economy on Obama.
And they're not going to blame it on Barney Frank or Chris Donner.
They're going to blame it on George W. Bush, George Bush, Herbert Hoover too.
Learn it, love it, live it.
Surprised.
The media back then is no different than the media now.
Find a Republican, stick the blame to him.
Know the Republican won't be able to defect it, deflect it, and you get a historical forever lie.
Ladies and gentlemen, there has been movement in the case of Roland Burris.
Earlier today, it was looking bleak for Burris.
Dingy Harry had left himself an out on Monday saying that they had to certify this guy's nomination and his appointment in the state of Illinois.
They had to get that done because the Senate, well, one day the Senate was total charged, and Darren Gingey Harry punted because they want to get this thing off the radar.
They want to punt it down the road because they don't like being called racists.
And it's an interruption into the immaculate inauguration of Obama.
And so today, when the Illinois House voted to impeach Blagojevich, it appeared to many that Burris's road to the top had slowed considerably.
That was earlier today where it was looking bleak for Roland Burris.
However, ladies and gentlemen, the Illinois Supreme Court, in throwing a screwball back at Dingy Harry and the United States Senate, the Illinois Supreme Court says there is nothing in state law that requires Jesse White, the Secretary of State, to sign the appointment.
The Supreme Court said that nothing else needs to be done to make Burris's appointment valid.
Yeah, I really hope that really hope Burris is using Zycam.
He's moving on up real fast.
He's changing environments real fast.
He's moving on up.
Can you just see Henry Waxman using Zycam?
Oh, would I love a picture of Henry Waxman using Zycam?
Extra large swab, yeah, you need a lot of...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Henry Waxman using Zycam cold.
That stuff.
You wonder if it would work on Waxman.
Because those are huge Nazi.
What you do, you take the cotton, the swab, and you swab just the inside of your nostrils, and then you reload and do it in the other nostalgia.
You hold your nostalgia or 5-6s like that or so.
But I wonder if the average Zycam cotton swab has enough medication to treat Henry Waxman.
Regardless, I'd love to see him try this stuff.
Folks, thanks very much.
Now, don't forget the new season of 24, Sunday and Monday night.
It is worth it.
Also, a lot of people want to know, why didn't you ask Jack from Tennessee the name of his blue jean company?
You know, it's a good question.
It just slipped my mind, but I found out the name of his blue jean company is L C King.
And they make Pointer brand overalls.
They make overalls.
So it's LC King, and there's a website, www.pointerbrand.com.
See you on Monday, folks.
What are you laughing at?
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