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April 1, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:34
April 1, 2009, Wednesday, Hour #3
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The views expressed by the host on this program, now documented to be almost always right, 99% of the time, I am Rush Limbaugh with talent on loan from God.
Great to have you here, folks.
Our telephone number, if you want to join us, is 800-282-2882, the email address lrushbo at eibnet.com.
So it is true, as I suspected and as I reported earlier today, the Obama administration plans on playing a key role in naming members to the board of directors at General Motors.
Government sway over firms it AIDS is topic of debate.
In fact, you know, this campaign that General Motors and Chrysler are running, where they say that they will pay your car payment if you lose your job up to a million.
Did you hear about that, Rachel?
General Motors and Chrysler will pay your car payment up to $700 a month for a year, nine months to a year, if you lose your job.
But who's paying it?
They don't have any money.
They got our money in a bailout, Rachel.
You and everybody else will be making people's car payments after you pay for their mortgage.
This is what it's like, ladies and gentlemen, to see your country disappear before your very eyes.
This new plan, by the way, to pay your car payment.
Guess whose idea it was?
No, Snerdley, the governments.
For example, yesterday GM announced a new total confidence program that offers a warranty, $500 a month of car payment for buyers who lose their jobs.
The government's aware of this, completely supports it, said Mark Lenieve, the head of GM's U.S. Field Marketing.
Well, okay, Hyundai's been doing it for two months.
Hyundai is from where?
South Korea?
Yeah.
Okay, so we're stealing ideas from the South Koreans.
Whatever.
Point is the government is fully aware and is fully behind this proposal.
In case you're just joining us, ladies and gentlemen, we have learned from the UK Telegraph the gift President Obama and his lovely and gracious wife, Michelle, gave to Queen Elizabeth today an iPod.
Gave her an iPod.
This is a woman in her 70s.
Gave her an iPod.
It has a video screen of a couple and a half inches.
She already has an iPod.
The iPod that we gave her has on it video of her trip to the United States in 2007.
I was talking to Snerdley in the top of the hour break.
What would we have given Queen Elizabeth?
Thinking we've got to have a lot of photo archives here that we have taken, our country has taken of her.
You know, during the Blitz in World War II, she did not flee the city.
She stayed there.
She stayed in harm's way.
There have to be, we have to have some pictures of her do it.
But Rush, but Rush, she has all her official photographers taking them.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
And okay, if that doesn't work, in keeping with the order of the day, where President Obama apologized for creating the financial mess in the world, he did.
We played the soundbite.
He blamed our lack of proper regulation for leading the world into this financial crisis.
Then what he could have done is written an official apology for the United States rebelling against Great Britain in the 1700s and handed her that.
If we're going to apologize, let's go all the way.
Let's apologize for being free.
Let's apologize to being America.
Let's apologize for rebelling.
Other exciting news stories.
Now, this is not Port St. Lucie, but it could be.
This is not Riolinda, but it could be.
This is reported in the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
A 9-11, I'll tell you, it seems to be spreading here.
The other day, some guy shot up a McDonald's.
He went into McDonald's and he wanted lunch, and they were still serving the breakfast menu.
And the people at McDonald's said, sorry, you've got to come back.
We're still serving them.
He shot them up.
He shot the place up.
At least he didn't call 911 to complain.
He just took it out on him right there.
A 911 dispatcher in Kissimmee, Florida, had to tell a woman how to unlock her car someday.
She was in the car.
A woman called Kissimmee Police to say she was locked inside her car at the Walgreens on John Young Parkway near Point Siena.
My car will not start.
I'm locked inside my car, the unidentified woman said.
Nothing electrical works.
It's getting very hot in here.
I'm not feeling well.
The dispatcher asked the woman if she was able to manually pull the lock up on the door.
The woman said she would try.
She tried.
And she said, yes, I got the door open.
This is akin to being in your car, calling 911 and saying, I can't open the car door.
And the dispatcher said, have you tried the handle?
Woman was probably sitting in there using her unlock lock button that she uses outside the car to get in the thing.
Nothing was happening, or at least if it was, she didn't know it.
The car was not started.
She could not get out of her car inside it.
This is Florida.
Undoubtedly, an Obama voter.
6,000 rare dolphins have been found in South Asia.
A huge population of rare dolphins threatened by climate change and fishing nets have been discovered in South Asia.
Researchers at the Wildlife Conservation Society estimate that nearly 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins, marine mammals that are related to orcas or killer whales, were found living in freshwater regions in Bangladesh.
Been hardly any marine mammal research done in this area up to this point.
They said this discovery gives us great hope that there is a future for Irrawaddy dolphins.
Now, if there's 6,000 of them in one place, how the hell can you call that rare?
And then how in the world can you say we didn't know that they were there?
They've been discovered in South Asia.
We thought they were threatened.
Big study here from the AP.
Big earners less apt to smoke than the poor.
The poor are much more likely to smoke than the rich, according to a Gallup Healthways study.
The survey, more than 76,000 people, 75,000 people, excuse me, found a close correlation between income and smoking rates consistent in every category except the lowest bracket, which is populated by many students.
Income groups and the percentage in which people said they smoke, I'm not going to go through it all here, but it is true.
$120,000 a year or more, 13% say they smoke.
Same thing from $90,000 to $119,000 a year.
From $5,999 a year or less in earnings, income, 30% smoke.
Now that has to be food stamps, right?
$6,000 a year to $11,999 a year, 34% smoke.
$12,000 a year to 23,999, 30% smoke.
And then it starts going down from there.
So one might conclude that it would be to our advantage to keep wages very, very high so that people would quit smoking, correct?
But that, my friends, would be the incorrect way of analyzing the data.
April 1st today sees a massive increase in tobacco, cigars, pipes, cigarettes.
In certain parts of the country, with the increased federal tax, a pack of cigarettes tax, just the tax on a pack, goes up over a buck.
And yet it's the poor who are the greatest smokers, the largest number of smokers.
These people, do you realize, are funding health care programs for children?
The people who buy tobacco and these taxes, they're for the S-CHIP program.
They are for health care programs for children.
These people deserve a medal.
They deserve a ceremony at the White House.
These are people making the ultimate sacrifice.
They are giving their lives for the children.
Yes, it's a slow death.
And in some cases, it's a death that is painful and enduring and puts a lot of strain on the healthcare system.
But before that happens, these people are paying through the nose to pay taxes to support children's health care programs.
They are giving their lives.
These are some of the most valuable, courageous citizens in our country.
And look at how they are disdained and look at how they are treated.
With the tax on tobacco on cigarettes, what it is now, for those of you who don't smoke, the next time you see a smoker and you want to say, stop, this is bothering me, don't criticize them.
Give them a kiss.
Shake their hand.
Thank them for all they are doing for health care for children, for the overall tax revenue in this country.
One of the most overlooked minorities in this country.
And plus, they are poor.
They need our assistance.
We need even more welfare transfer payments to these people so they can continue to buy tobacco products and pay these high taxes so that we can continue to fund our health care programs for the children.
But how many of you can say you look at a smoker with respect?
How many of you can say that when you see a smoker, all you think of is contempt?
How many of you genuinely hate these people?
How many of you, when you see somebody smoking near you, want to call the police?
I urge you, Please adopt a far more compassionate attitude.
Please allow your heart to swell.
Not enlarge, because that could be medically dangerous.
Please allow your heart to swell to include the love and compassion for these people who are paying among the highest taxes in the nation for the sake of the children.
Embrace them.
In fact, perhaps you might want to go in and buy a pack as a gift the next time you see a smoker and say, thank you.
I respect you and I love you.
Thank you for what you're doing for America.
Think about it.
America's real anchor man, the doctor of democracy and America's truth detector, serving humanity simply by being here.
800-282-2882, if you want to be on the phones, we go to Fairfax, Virginia.
This is Andrew.
And welcome, sir.
Nice to have you with us.
Hey, Rush.
It's good to be on the show.
Thank you.
I'm a new listener.
I go to George Mason University and I'm in a journalism class and was assigned to a chapter on you and a book.
It's called Mightier Than the Sword by Roger Streitmatter.
And I feel like you are portrayed in an unfair light.
Everything I've learned about you has put you in a negative light, and I want...
What is this, a textbook?
Yes, sir.
There's a chapter of the textbook on me.
Rush Limbaugh, and it's called Leading the Republican Revolution.
And this chapter does capture your success and details your, you know, your extremely successful career.
And I'm new to your show and researching you, and I've been truly captivated by everything that you've done.
But everything that I read on the internet and hear from people, especially in a college where the atmosphere tends to be more liberal, always seems to be negative.
So I figured I won't get words from you that you would say to a journalism class.
First off, I want to make sure I understand.
You're not refuting the textbook.
You want to refute what you have read about me on the Internet that doesn't jibe with what you know?
Well, the textbook, I'm saying although it does, you know, it details your success, everything...
But it still slams me.
The textbook still slams me.
It still slams.
Yeah, basically.
Can you give me just a couple of examples?
You don't have to go into detail because I need some guidance here on what to refute.
Can you give me some examples how it slams me?
I could guess, but I want to hear from you.
There's a section in the chapter called Reign of Error saying how you refuse to admit that you're wrong and your facts are constantly wrong.
All right.
Now, The Reign of Error was a report put together.
Now, listen to me now.
Yeah.
The Reign of Error was a report put together, Snorterly, the 93, 94, by a liberal media watchdog group called, this is Oxymoronic, by the way, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
And what they purported to do was there's 24, 25 items, I believe, in it, in which they accuse me of either lying or making things up.
They released this to the Associated Press.
The Associated Press ran with it all over the country.
We replied with our refutation of every item, and they refused to print it.
There's a similar group now called Media Matters for America, which listens to all 15 hours of this program and will pull two sentences of a 10-second point or a monologue, take it totally out of context.
Purpose of the Reign of Error report, Media Matters, and so forth, is to purposely misstate what I have said to ruin my credibility with people who have not listened, so as to create the illusion that I am something that I'm not among people who, so they will not listen.
The last thing these people want me doing is actually listening to me as you did.
What you read about me actually made you want to listen, and you heard enough that it doesn't kind of jibe with what you've read that you wanted to talk to me about it.
Am I correct?
Yes, sir.
Okay.
And I wanted you to, I think everyone, you know, everyone in the class, well, I'm not going to speak for everyone in the class, but I think most people will probably think of you in a negative light.
And before I even begin my presentation, they're going to say, oh, God, this is the wrestling ball chapter, you know.
So I want to have something positive.
Well, you can start out by saying that you actually called my program.
Yes.
That you spoke to me, that I kept you on the program for whatever number of minutes it's going to end up being here, like nine minutes.
That you were able to tell me whatever you wanted, and that I calmly and coolly listened to you and answered every question that you had.
You want to know basically what you can say to people.
This is a very, very important question, Andrew.
And by the way, I'm going to hold you through the break, which is coming up here in a couple of minutes because I want to spend a little bit more detailed time with you.
But this is a very, very important question.
There's no wrong answer to it.
It's going to help me determine what I say to you.
I detected that you are a little intimidated standing up in front of the class to do your assignment, present your assignment on me because you think that most in the class have already made up their minds about me, even though I guarantee you, and this is a point you must make to them, they've never listened.
And you must issue them the challenge to listen.
They're in a journalism school, and they're about curiosity, and they're about finding truth.
And they cannot possibly understand truth if they haven't listened themselves.
That's the first thing you tell them.
And you did.
But are you alarmed?
Are you a little bit worried about what they might think of you by what you have to say?
Well, I'm going to stand by my own, you know, stick by my guns.
I was raised in a Republican family, and I was going to grow up conservative topics.
Don't be afraid of what people, particularly who are uninformed, think of you.
You are going to be standing before the class more armed with factual information than any of them have.
You will have been the reporter.
You have gone out and you've gotten the story, and you're going to report to them.
Don't worry what they think of you.
You can't control their thoughts anyway.
You can't, you have no control of what they're going to say, so it should not intimidate you into factually reporting what you have learned.
So I got to take this break.
We call it an EIB obscene profit timeout just to irritate people like your fellow students.
While everybody else is losing money, we're earning it.
So you sit tight, and we'll come back, and I'll explain this in greater detail.
Okay, we're back.
I was waiting for the printer there.
We rejoin Andrew in Fairfax, Virginia, who is a journalism student at George Mason University.
There's a textbook that his class has been assigned with a highly critical chapter of me after acknowledging career accomplishments and success.
And Andrew has a presentation on this chapter before his class.
How much time do you have, by the way, to get this done, Andrew?
Well, I'm put together my presentation, but I don't present for another two weeks.
Okay.
Very good.
I want to repeat what first thing that I want you to tell them is that they're in a journalism class and you are quite unique in one way.
And that is most of the existing journalists in America today, the vast, vast majority, well over 90% who report on me never call me.
Never ask for my reaction to what they are going to report about me.
They take it from what I told you, Media Matters or other left-wing watchdog groups.
Their purpose is not to get it right.
Their purpose is to discredit.
And it's not just me.
It's any prominent conservative because I feel they don't think they can win a substantive argument.
So the way they attack is to try to discredit people who threaten them in the arena of ideas.
I clearly represent a threat.
You've done something as a student that most practicing journalists today do not do.
You have called me.
You have asked for my reaction to this.
You ought to get an A for that alone.
I'm serious.
Now, here's another thing.
The essence of your chapter on me, I'm guessing, based on the reign of error that you mentioned, is that I lie or I purposely get things wrong or I make things up or I just say things that I know are wrong to advance my cause.
Am I pretty close there?
Well, for that particular section, yes, but they slam you in other ways as well.
Well, we'll get to those in a minute.
But as far as the factual aspects of my presentation on this program or wherever I speak, as far as whether I make it up or lie about it or whatever, the greatest source for information on my show, the greatest source for proof of what I actually say every day is my website, www.rushlimbaud.com.
On my website, there is a complete and total transcript available for every word I utter.
There are links to the news items or stories or reports that I have used to make the statements that I make.
Why would I lie all the time when I provide the proof right there for everybody to see?
Critics never mention this.
The journalists never go to my website.
They rely on others who take out of context what I say.
The other thing I want you to tell these students is that I am a soulmate of theirs.
You and your students, because of your age and your future and where you are in life, you're very focused on yourselves as individuals.
And I am the greatest asset individuals in this country have.
I believe that the smallest minority in the world is the individual.
And I believe if you do not respect individual rights, you do not really respect minority rights.
The individual is unique.
No two people are alike.
I resist the tug of popular sentiment.
Please quote me.
I resist the tug of popular sentiment to basically conform with movements and ideas that are not based on thought, but rather are based on raw emotion.
I have nothing but a fervent desire for everyone in your class to succeed, to be the absolute best they can be based on how willing they are to work hard, use their passion and the ambition and God-given talent that they have been given.
I have no desire for anyone to be held back.
I do not see people as men, women, black, white, red, green, orange.
I see Americans.
I see human beings.
I see human beings who unfortunately are co-opted into a conformist way of thinking that is in itself erroneous, such as all the reporting about me and all the opinions of me have been formed by people who do not listen.
So part and parcel of what you must do after you have repeated what I have just told you.
Are you recording this?
Yes, sir.
You are.
This will also be available at my website.
Every word I've said to you.
So if somebody wants to say you're lying about what I say, it's right there on my website.
We'll have the transcript up.
And we're going to put this, Andrew, on the free side so that every one of your students can see it.
At some point.
And you can see it tonight, too.
Are you, by the way, are you a member of my website?
Are you a subscriber?
No, sir, I'm not.
Well, you're going to be after this phone call.
You're going to be.
And that'll let you access everything.
And you should do it.
The essential stack of stuff, the archives, the backup.
My website is an encyclopedia of virtually every important thing that's happened in this country since I have been on the air and they're proof for the things that I have said.
It's a gold mine for you.
You must, when you make this presentation, say that one of the problems that you found going through this chapter in the textbook is that it doesn't jibe with what you know as a listener to this program.
You don't recognize the Rush Limbaugh in that chapter based on two things, what you know by listening and now what you've learned by discussing this with me.
Now, is that enough?
You can move on to some of the other things that are said that have nothing to do with accuracy and honesty and all that.
Yeah, if you want me to.
Sure.
What else they say?
Well, every section seems to throw in your, I guess, they don't say racism, but your comments towards women and homosexuals and racial minorities.
Okay, so what do they say?
Don't be afraid.
I'm not.
And it's about me you're going to be repeating.
So don't be afraid.
What do they say?
They mention, I quote, many Limbaugh critics believe their nemesis dipped to his lowest point in 1989 with caller abortions.
The offensive gimmick reinforced Limbaugh's anti-abortion.
Okay, okay, okay.
Now, I'm going to walk you through this because that's classic.
In the first place, Limbaugh's critics believe, are they identified?
No, they are.
No.
But they are given credence, are they not?
The critics automatically, this is a journalism, by the way, trick and its standard operating procedure.
They could report on the fact in the New York Times tomorrow that a cure for cancer has been found, and they would find critics to disagree with it or find problems with it, Andrew.
It's part and parcel of the formula you people are taught.
There's no good news.
There's only news and somebody who has an opposing view.
Now, caller abortions.
I happen to be, you're recording this, right?
Yes.
I happen to be pro-life.
Been pro-life all my life.
I believe in God.
I believe that all human beings have a yearning spirit to be free, that we are in doubt.
I believe the founding documents.
I believe that our existence is owing to a creator who created us with unalienable rights, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness.
Founding document, Declaration of Independence mentions these rights.
They don't come from people.
They come from God.
Life.
Somebody has to stand up for it.
Somebody has to defend it.
Now, anybody can go on the radio and say, I'm pro-life, and those pro-abortionists are wrong.
Big whoop.
What I've always strived to do, Andrew, is illustrate my opinion.
I have a phrase illustrating absurdity by being absurd.
So the caller abortion was, and I will admit it, it irritated a lot of people.
It caused a lot of, and the reason why, Andrew, is because it made people confront the reality of their belief.
Do you know what the caller abortion was?
It was, I guess, a soundbite with a vacuum sucking sound followed by a blood-curling scream.
Yes, it was.
But that, see, and that's in the textbook?
Yes.
Yes.
And that's all that's in the textbook about it?
Yes.
Yeah.
See, that's it.
Well, it says whenever you want to end a call, that you use the caller abortion.
A classic example of how what I do was distorted.
That was actually a brilliant illustration of my belief about this.
This took about 30 minutes to do, to set up, which also made it great radio, gave us a lot of time spent listening on the ratings.
But basically, I wanted to illustrate this, and I looked at my telephone, and I asked a question, when does a call become a call?
Does the call become a call when you dial?
Does the call become a call when you connect?
Does the call become a call when I answer the moment of conception?
You call me, your line connects with my receptacle, bam, I answer the phone.
Is that when the call begins?
So I called the phone company, Andrew, and I asked them, when does a call begin?
And they said, what are you talking about?
And I said, well, does a call begin when you start charging for it, when that call has life, when you start billing for a call, does it happen at the moment the person's dialed it?
Does it happen while it's ringing?
Does it happen with a busy signal, which means there's call control on it?
Does it happen when somebody answers?
And they said, well, a call begins when it's answered.
Or a call takes two people.
I said, thank you.
So that was to illustrate when does life begin?
See, I believe it can only begin at conception.
When else can it begin?
So I wanted to illustrate using the phone, okay, a phone call.
Then I got a bunch of people pretending to be scientists and so forth on the phone to discuss this in great detail.
But I said, until I decide to answer, that call is nothing but a blinking light.
That call has no life.
That call has no meaning.
That call has nothing to until I answer it.
And then what happens when I answer that call and I don't want it?
What if I've made a mistake answering that call?
What if it's a bad call?
What if it's somebody who's not going to enhance the radio pro?
What do I do?
I didn't want the call.
I took the call.
I made a mistake.
I went out there and I conceptualized the phone call and now I'm stuck with a call I don't want.
Well, I do what we do in the pro-choice movement.
I simply abort it and pretend that the call never happened.
So I turn on the suction device and I suck the call right out of the phone.
That to me was brilliant, Andrew.
I hope you're recording this and I hope you read this.
Because everything that's done here, Andrew, whether it be done with humor or seriousness or with a satire or a parody, everything that's done here is designed to make a point.
Nothing is done here frivolously.
I don't do anything just to make people mad because that's going to happen anyway when you tell anybody what you think.
By definition, people are going to not.
Why do you think Tiger Woods doesn't tell you what his politics are?
Because he wants to sell all of his endorsed equipment to everybody, not just Republicans or Democrats.
But that's not my business.
My business is to tell people what I honestly believe.
I love America.
For racism and sexism and so forth, yeah, I came up with the term feminazi to describe the 12 women to whom the most important thing in the world is every abortion possible taking place.
And the reason people get mad at that is because it's dead on accurate.
As for racism, this is a constant average everyday charge the left makes against conservatives trying to fulfill the stereotype that we're racist, sexists, bigots, and homophobes.
But the truth about that is, and you can tell your class this: I look at the majority of the black population in this country and I cry because I see that they have been conditioned to believe that the Democrat Party and large government programs are going to raise them from the life of bondage they believe that they're in.
And after 50 years of voting Democrat, after 50 years of complaining about the circumstances they're in, after receiving all these benefits, Democrats have passed out.
AFDC, they're still complaining.
Their lives have been stolen from them.
The federal government has become the father.
The father has become absent.
Single mothers raising kids in neighborhoods and schools that you would not send yours to.
Democrat Party refuses to close them and insists that those people still go to those schools while still voting Democrat.
I think it's a shame.
I think the federal government, the Democrat Party, has destroyed the black family.
I love Americans.
I love human beings.
I want the best for them.
I want what's happened to me to be experienced by every damn person out there.
And the people standing in the way are my enemy.
And that would have to be liberals in the Democrat Party.
Now, hang on.
I'm going to give you information to be a subscriber to the website.
I'm way long here, so the next segment's going to be short, folks.
And I warn you in advance.
Don't go away.
All right, Andrew, one more point that I want to make for you to include in your presentation to your students on the caller abortions.
Your textbook says that critics say I reached a low point with the caller abortion.
Let me ask you a simple question: If a fetus is not a human life, why would a caller abortion offend anybody?
If a fetus, a human fetus, is simply an unviable tissue mass, there could be nothing conceivably upsetting about it.
But the truth is, it is a baby.
And the pro-abort, political pro-abort groups, the now gang and other feminist groups, they know it's a baby.
And thus they hate me for exposing their mindset.
But if a fetus isn't a human being, why would a caller abortion upset anybody?
And finally, Andrew, this.
I understand caller abortions are offensive.
But then why is President Obama to be praised for his anti-wife positions?
Do you realize President Obama, three times as an Illinois state senator, voted for legislation that would allow doctors to kill a baby successfully born during an abortion?
Now, what's really controversial, Andrew?
A bit, a vacuum cleaner with callers being sucked off a phone, or an Illinois state senator who's now president voting three times to allow doctors to kill a baby after it's born because the mother wanted an abortion.
Ask your students to consider that.
Okay, quick correction here because I didn't know it.
The White House is now acknowledging state legislatures cannot wrest control of stimulus money if a governor does not want it.
The White House is admitting the stimulus bill is wrong in that, so the governors can decide not to take some of the stimulus money.
Nothing can be done about it.
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