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April 28, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:28
April 28, 2009, Tuesday, Hour #3
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What do you mean laughing too much about it?
I don't believe this.
This is insolence.
This is insubordination.
I have just been ripped to shreds.
I've just been told what for, complete with pointing finger, that none of this is funny, that the Air Force One flyby of the Statue of Liberty, the auto workers unions owning the automobile.
I have been warning that this was going to happen.
There are nothing we can do to stop it out there.
I'm sorry, Robert Gibbs is hilarious.
Obama, not knowing that anybody else until we all saw on TV that the plane was flying under the Statue of Liberty.
I mean, it's it's it's the way the drive-byers are going, this is, it's, it is a joke.
It's a badge.
It's a sitcom.
It is a sitcom.
But Dawn, what are we supposed to do about it?
I mean, General Motors is caving.
General Motors has bent over and grabbed the ankles.
Chrysler's bent over, grabbed the ankles.
What are we supposed to do here?
Everybody's scared of Obama.
Everybody's scared of the government.
Everybody's asking, Rush, what if, okay, you can't understand what they didn't have to take the plane up there, could have photoshopped it.
What do you think is going on?
I don't know what they're doing.
I have no idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if what they were doing was collecting footage, B-roll for the next Obama for President campaign.
He may be paying for it out of the campaign.
If they do, legally, he would have to pay for it under the campaign funds.
We're crying out loud.
That's just a phone call to George Soros.
That's no big deal.
They have the money for it.
I guarantee you that something like that is what they were doing.
They're up there.
It's for Obama.
And, you know, maybe they're surveying the Statue of Liberty from Air Force One, replacing that statue with one of Obama in 2013.
Who knows?
I don't know, folks.
I'm just telling you, none of it computes.
None of the official explanations compute.
So we've got the bondholders at General Motors who put up $27 billion are going to get 10% of the company.
Don Obama and his soldiers, the United Auto Workers, put up $10 million of bonds.
they're going to get 39 percent of the of the company and well it's i'm sure it was an offer they can't refuse I mean, it was an offer nobody could refuse.
But I predicted this.
Grab soundbite number two.
Grab it again.
I predicted this back on December 22nd.
Let me know when you got soundbite number two ready to go.
Soundbite number two.
Here it is.
Don't worry.
The automobile industry is not going to go kaput because the United Auto Workers will not be allowed to go kaput.
Well, God knows that.
What's going to happen is the UAW is going to end up owning it.
After the government invests and nationalizes the auto industry, the Obama administration, out of a sense of compassion, will transfer ownership free of charges, transfer the deed to the United Auto Workers.
Yeah.
The caller was laughing when I said it.
Everybody was laughing when I said it.
Now here it is reality.
Admit it, you laughed when I said it.
Oh, come on, Rush.
There you go.
You're going off the deep end again.
I predicted December 22nd.
Didn't happen exactly like that, but the bottom line is when I heard Obama say, well, I didn't hear him say it, but I know you can read what he says between the lines, translate what he says.
He's going to return the nation's wealth to its quote-unquote rightful owners.
And in Obama's worldview, union workers have been screwed left and right by CEO, by management, by everybody else.
And it's about time auto companies would not have been auto companies without the auto workers to put them on the boards of directors.
Look at this.
Washington Post, GM, to forge ahead without key brands, Automaker to shed Pontiac, Hummer, Saturn, and the Saab lines.
S-A-A-B.
For those of you in Rio Linda, might think they were crying.
It's the name of a car.
Yesterday, General Motors traded imagination for reality, saying it'll dump Pontiac along with Hummer, Saturn, and Saab, and placed its future in the hands of Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC.
It's a pretty sad day, said Jack Neerad, executive editorial director at the Kelly Blue Book, a leading provider of information on new and used vehicles.
His first Pontiac was a 1968 Firebird, one of the most beloved.
My first car was a Pontiac.
I wanted to get a GTO, 1969, but I couldn't afford it.
I had to get a Le Mans, Le Mans, same body, a little bit different grill, not as snazzy an interior, and certainly not as big an engine.
GTO was awesome.
Beach Boys sang about it.
Little GTU.
They have a Beach Boys sang about all kinds of cars, car crashes, death, flames, crashes of it.
They still, they sang about GTO.
So I had a head of Le Mans.
I did have the money to order a Walnut shift knob.
It was a four-speed.
That was the one liberty I took.
No, the car that I was told needed a new disgruntificator was a Pontiac Bonneville.
My first car was a Pontiac.
My second car was a Buick.
Third car was a Pontiac.
Now there aren't any Pontiacs anymore.
How does this read?
Yesterday, GM traded imagination for reality and pared itself back.
You know, wouldn't it be great if our government demanded the same of itself, trading imagination for reality, pair back what isn't working?
This is, I mean, we're laughing at it because I just, I'm just seeing a bunch of Tony Sopranos as car salesmen now.
I'm seeing every car come off the assembly line with a welded-in Obama bumper sticker, maybe even an Obama hood ornament.
I'm laughing here at union leaders deciding what union workers are going to make, what the wage is going to make.
I can't wait to see that contract negotiation.
I can't wait to see the United Autoworkers negotiate with the United Auto Workers.
And I can't wait for the UAW to threaten to go on strike, telling the UAW if it doesn't meet its demands, that the UAW is going to go on strike.
I can't wait to see this.
Yeah, Hood Ornament Obama Interiors by Michelle.
Powertrain designed by Steve Ratner.
These cars are going to be designed by the Sierra Club, folks.
And Greenpeace.
You know, if you want a General Motors car, while it's still General Motors, right now is the time to do it.
Honest to goodness.
So when they're holding on to Cadillac, they're holding on to Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC.
And they got to, I happen to know this.
General Motors has got a new sales plan for Cadillac and for Chevrolet.
Still the Hummer, too.
They've got to get rid of the inventory.
So they're backing for five years the power trainer, five years, 100,000 miles, whichever comes first.
A full year of OnStar is standard on every Cadillac model.
And OnStar is amazing.
In fact, it's got a nav system that beats most other navigation systems.
If where you want to go, like if you're headed to Port St. Lucie and where you want to go in Port St. Lucie is not in the navigation system, all you have to do is call the OnStar operator and they'll give you turn-by-turn directions because they know.
And the number, if you're in an emergency, if you're in your car unlocked, if you go into McDonald's and you get all upset in there because they're out of McNuggets and you didn't shut the car off, the keys are in it.
You go back out, you're still mad because you got no McNuggets.
Oh, my God, how do I get in a car?
Just call OnStar and they'll unlock the car for you.
Well, they may not direct you to where they do have McNuggets if the McDonald's you're at doesn't have them.
But OnStar can do a lot.
And also, this, if you lose your job, they'll make the car payment up to $500 a month up to nine months.
And it's such a shame because Cadillac is a we've driven a lot of them.
What's the crossover?
What's the XRX or something?
Just a great car.
So General Motors still moving automobiles out there, doing what they can, and they are making deals.
And if you want a General Motors car, now might be the time to look into it.
I have a press release from the Centers for Disease Control.
Now, the press release is January 7, 2003.
Now, admittedly, this is six years ago, but it's the most recent I could find.
Using new and improved statistical models, the Center for Disease Control estimate or estimate that an average of 36,000 people die from flu-related complications every year in the U.S.
In addition, about 11,000 people die per year from respiratory virus, RSV, a virus that causes upper and lower respiratory tract infections, primarily in young children, crumb crunchers, and older adults.
So in a normal year, the reason I looked this up because I was asking about this yesterday.
In a normal year, 36,000 people die in this country of the flu.
Now, this pig flu apparently doesn't just hit the elderly.
In Mexico, it's targeting people between 20 and 40.
Those are the ones who've been hit.
But we're not looking anywhere near numbers of 36,000 a year yet, and yet we're dead.
It's over.
And it's so bad, closing the borders wouldn't make any sense.
There's nothing we can do.
Now, something's going on in Mexico because they've closed the schools and they've closed all the restaurants.
Now, something's going on down there with this.
And people have been asking me, well, hey, Rush, how come, how come it's so bad in Mexico and not as bad here?
One thing, folks, Mexico has socialized medicine.
We don't yet.
But here's some interesting numbers.
Two weeks after the first known swine flu death, Mexico still hasn't given any medication to the families of the dead.
Mexico has not determined where the outbreak began or how it spread.
In fact, some Mexican government official is saying it started here in the United States.
Just out.
And just dampened.
Let's see.
What's his name?
Mexican Health Secretary Jose Ángel Cordoba says it's risky to blame Mexico for this outbreak because it probably started in the United States.
Great.
Started here, but Mexico's experiencing a majority of the illnesses and deaths.
Despite an annual budget of more than $5 billion, Mexico's health secretary said yesterday his agency hasn't had the resources to visit the families of the dead.
Now, the families of the dead are the ones that are going to be most prone to being infected and spread it.
And Mexico hadn't even given them any medication whatsoever.
Elias Camacha, 31-year-old truck driver with fever, cough, and body aches, was ordered out of a government ambulance Sunday because paramedics complained they might get the disease.
You wonder why it's worse in Mexico.
They're treating people who have it like lepers.
Jose Isaac Cepeda said that two hospitals refused to treat his fever, his diarrhea, and his joint pains.
The first turned him away because he wasn't registered in the public health system.
The second, he said, didn't let him in because they said they're too busy.
So, I mean, one of the explanations for why it's bad in Mexico and not as bad here or elsewhere is a difference in the health care systems of the two countries.
We'll be right back.
Don't go away.
Hi, great to have you back.
Rush Limbaugh with talent on lawn from God behind the Golden EIB microphone.
Here is John in Marshalltown, Iowa.
Nice to have you on the EIB network, sir.
Hello.
Hello, Rush.
What a thrill to talk to you.
Thanks for taking my call.
You bet, sir, anytime.
Snerdley tells me that I missed your thoughts about Arlen Specter in the first hour, and I beg your forgiveness for that.
But that's what I was calling about to find out what you thought about that.
Very, very briefly, I'll go through the reasons for the switch.
Number one, there's polling data that shows him losing to his primary challenger, Pat Toomey.
Number one job of a politician is to get reelected.
He doesn't think he can get re-elected.
He's not going to say that.
What he's saying is the Republican Party has gone too far right since the Reagan Big Tent 80s.
It's not true.
The party has veered away from the right.
Just six weeks ago, Arlen Specter said to the Hill newspaper in Washington that he would never leave the Republican Party, that we need a two-party system, need checks and balances.
We're too close to a one-party system, and we need Republicans in the Northeast.
Six weeks later, he leaves the party.
This is all about the fact he is not going to have an easy time winning re-election or even the primary in 2010, and he wants to win re-election.
It's no great loss for the conservative movement, really not to the Republican Party.
He was pretty much liberal.
He wasn't a moderate Republican.
He was a liberal Republican most of the time.
And I think probably the last straw with him is something that he was really hoping for, and it didn't happen.
You know, he was the senator that killed card check in the Senate because he came out against it, this ability to be able to organize union shops with open ballots anywhere the union wants to try it.
And I thought he really wanted accolades for that and big cheers and celebrity.
He didn't get that because you don't get a medal for doing the right thing.
So he put it all together and he figured out he wasn't going to win, going to have a tough time winning the Republican primary.
His speech today is making his comments right now, but his statement laid it all out.
The Republicans are just too freaky, right-wingish.
He hasn't been on the same page with them in a long, long time, blah, Very good.
Don't you think that it'd be good if he'd just take the rest of the rhinos with him as well?
Well, it did say Dick McCain with him, Dick McCain's daughter with him, Megan and some others.
This is ultimately good.
I mean, this is winnowing out the people that end up misdefining or preventing the party from having a singular identity.
I never hear about the Democrat Party big tent.
It's only the Republicans that need to welcome people in who are not Republicans.
It's only the Republicans who have to go out and win elections by being moderate or by attracting Democrat voters by offering Democrat philosophy.
It's only the Republicans have to do that.
We never hear about the Democrat Party and its need to be a big tent.
You know, and to let some religious people in there and let some pro-life people in there.
We never hear about that.
This is smokescreen.
Also, you need to know, as you watch the media today, John, that the media template is, well, how can a Republican Party claim it's a national party?
I mean, they can't even have a moderate Republican like Arlen Specter want to stay in the party.
How can the party be a national party?
But he's not a moderate Republican.
He's a liberal, period, Republican sometimes, but he was a liberal.
Bruce in Fort Wayne, Indiana, you're next on the EIB network, sir.
Hello.
A pleasure.
What is Specter's legacy?
What is the post-mortem of Specter as a Republican?
Because I'm not going to be able to get away from.
What do we need?
Legacy for a senator?
Okay, what's Ted Kennedy's legacy?
Exactly.
Bigger government, boozing over a bridge, being an incompetent, and all the fat and pork that went with it.
Well, that's your legacy, but it's like these first hundred days.
Depending on who you ask, best president ever, or an utter disaster.
All depends on your perspective.
I don't caught up Specter's legacy as a Republican.
I mean, the things I remember good about Specter, he really, really tore into the people who were trying to destroy Clarence Thomas.
He really tore into the Anita Hill crowd.
He was made to feel uncomfortable about it after it happened, but he was huge helping get Clarence Thomas voted on to the U.S. Supreme Court, getting the approval out of the Senate, and there's some other things like that.
But I don't, this whole legacy business is something I don't think about because I always look forward, not back.
We'll be back in a minute.
I mentioned earlier in the program that the Gallup poll has a far different take on President Obama's popularity than the other polls, particularly the one out today, CBS New York Times.
According to Gallup's April survey, Americans have a lower approval of Mr. Obama at this point than all but one president since Gallup began tracking this in 1969.
The only new president less popular was Bill Clinton, who got off to a bad start, tried to force the don't ask, don't tell policy on the military.
Plus, there was the Janet Waco raid in Reno that killed 86 people at the Branch Davidian complex.
Obama's current approval rating of 56% is only one point higher than the 55% approval that Clinton had during those crises.
And they have a chart here, and as it shows, five presidents rated higher than Obama after 100 days in office.
Rinalda's Magnus topped the charts in April of 81 with 67% approval.
After Reagan, in order of popularity, were Jimmy Carter at 63% in 77, George W. Bush, 62% in 2001, Nixon 61% in 1969, and George H.W. Bush with 58% in 1989.
As they say here in the Washington Times, it's no surprise that the drive-bys are not anxious to point out that their darling is less popular than George W. Bush.
But given the Gallup numbers, their hurrahs could be more subdued.
USA Today's front page touted the April poll results as positive with a headline, Public Thinks Highly of Obama.
The current cover of Newsweek ponders the secret of Obama's success.
A comparison with previous presidents is useful because they're usually popular during their first few months in office, and most presidents have been more popular than Obama.
Now, this is Gallup, and Gallup is a respected polling outfit, but they're being totally ignored because all these other outfits have their own polling units too, so poll units do not quote other poll units.
And when I, you know, I read this story and it just illustrates the gap in what is news, what's fact, what you can believe in, what's real.
There's a huge gap.
I mean, we have total perception and PR.
We have total propaganda from the White House through the drive-by media presenting a picture of Obama.
These first 100 days have been a disaster.
The political solutions that have been offered to fix the banks, the financial system, and the automobile industry.
I defy anybody to tell me they've worked for America.
They're working great for Obama, who wants to nationalize everything and put his buddies in charge of all these institutions.
But you tell me how it makes any sense for the public sector to take over private sector companies, populate them with people who have no idea how to run or make or market or sell a car that people want to drive.
How does this make any sense?
Well, if you look at a car company as having that purpose, then it won't make any sense.
But if you look at a car company as an opportunity to cement political control and power, if you look at an industry as that, then this is a great move for Obama.
You know, we talk about askheritage.org on this program, askheritage.org.
I can't believe the unique things that are there that are factual that I don't find anywhere else.
I mean, askheritage.org, it's 25 bucks to be a member.
I'm a member.
You can pay more.
They're a think tank.
But dig into the details that they provide to all members of their organization.
You are just amazed.
The only website that rivals theirs is mine in terms of archival data, our essential stack of stuff and all the things, the archival data of past programs on this program.
They've got their own observation, for example, on the first 100 days.
I guarantee you, it's a treatment you won't find anywhere else.
They are holding Obama accountable.
Campaign promises.
He said he's going to roll back earmarks.
He said he was going to cut spending.
He was going to go through the budget line by line and eliminate all these wasteful things.
And yesterday, we had a story that $20 billion for food stamps is out there, and they know that $400 million of it is going to be stolen, but they're leaving it in.
They're just going to budget $400 million of it as fraud while Obama's out saying he's going to eliminate this kind of thing.
He's doing no such thing.
AskHeritage.org is really good.
Ask him a question.
If you have something you need to know, just go there and ask him a question.
Put it in.
It's an amazing thing.
Back to the phones.
Edwin Atlanta, you're next.
Great to have you on the EIB network, sir.
Hi.
Hey, hey, Rush, good afternoon.
Hey, just what hit me watching the newsreels for the flight over New York yesterday with the backup.
I want to call it backup Air Force One.
I realize the true definition of Air Force One.
But just the current administration, it seems like they'll do anything that they want because they are the administration versus the previous administration, which to me over eight years they always came across as public servants.
And so it's almost like we are from the higher, so we're going to do whatever we want to do.
And the idea that the executive branch has no clue of what's going on with their backup jet, from my limited experience, is very far from the truth.
I mean, they knew exactly what was going on.
It's just outrageous they would put those people in a situation like that in New York.
So that's all I wanted to say.
Well, there's any number of ways to explain that.
Arrogance.
They don't care.
They didn't think it'd be a problem.
They had security concerns that were greater, that outweighed letting the people of New York know what was going to happen.
But you're right.
I've been saying this the whole program.
They're dumping on the guy called ERA that runs the White House military office.
White House military office.
The White House military office is very high member of the White House staff.
And Obama's out there saying, we found out about it to the same time you did.
We didn't know what our staff was doing.
We didn't know.
It's just unbelievable.
But this, folks get used to it because this is a minor incident.
You wait till all these stimulus plans wreck things, start falling apart.
Obama didn't know this would happen.
Obama didn't know that people would do that.
Obama didn't know.
That's what we're going to be up against for quite a while.
Patrick and Joplin, Missouri.
Great to have you here on the EIB network, sir.
Hello.
Afternoon, Professor.
How are you?
Fine, sir.
Thank you.
Just wanted to share with you.
I spent some time in the Air Force and shot some of those different types of unit-type photos where the planes will fly over some monumental area that the unit wants to show respect.
The crew signs the poster.
Thunderbirds do it.
Blue Angels do it.
All the VC aircraft do it, which is what the Air Force once called the VC aircraft.
They could be shooting a new skyline of New York for a giveaway type thing without the Twin Towers back there.
I mean, they hadn't done that yet.
To whom would they give away pictures of Air Force One flying over you mean the kind of pictures that'd be aboard the airplane the president would sign for guests on the airplane?
Not so much the president as it would be the detachment coming in.
Like when the Blue Angels come in or the Thunderbirds come in or even an Air Force One, you basically just hand the keys of the base over to them because they have their staff, their security, the whole nine yards that take care of things.
They will usually leave that with the tower or the base commander or the people who helped them the most saying, you know, say across the top, it'll say, many thanks for the visit of Detachment 1, Unit 42, whatever it is.
All the crew signs the bottom part of it.
So it's more for the Air Force crew than it is for the president to use in most cases.
Okay, well, I'm still having trouble understanding.
Okay, these guys on Air Force One all sign the pictures of the airplane near the Statue of Liberty.
Who did they give it to?
The visiting, the hosting base.
In other words, did they come into one of the Air Force bases in Texas?
Okay, so if they take the president to the U.S. Air Force Base someplace in Nebraska, they get off the plane, they handle people at that base the picture of Air Force One at the Statue of Liberty autographed and signed by the members of the Air Force One crew.
Yeah, Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, the Golden Gate Bridge.
You get a lot of them that they use.
They're monumental.
And even overseas, too, people who aren't used to handling backup aircraft, so just a thank you from the air crew saying thank you for putting up for us and putting it.
All right, fine and end.
Then I want to know when was the last time this was done?
We know this hasn't been done since September 11th, 2001.
Not in New York, it hasn't.
It'd be interesting to find out when the last time Air Force One was taken up for publicity photo ops and where it happened.
But we know that this has not happened in New York.
And we also, we have to assume out there, Patrick, that they already have a bunch of stock photos of this 747, these two, one of them, flying by the Statue of Liberty.
So why new ones?
There's something about this that it's probably a simple explanation, but these denials and these acts of shock and surprise, you know, raise red flags.
Well, we're just doing a photo op.
Well, no, we couldn't tell anybody.
We didn't want to give terrorists on the ground an opportunity to target Air Force One.
So, yeah, necessary collateral.
We had to have people running for their lives in buildings, streets in New York.
Yeah, but we're sorry, it won't happen again.
The one thing, if they were taking this thing up, if this was nothing more than the Obama, well, the Democrat National Committee, which is Obama now, if they were up there collecting footage for a future campaign, television commercials in a future campaign, we will never see it now.
Because they will not, well, maybe in four years, even the people that care won't be able to do anything about it.
But I just, I don't, if that's, if that was the reason, we'll never see it now.
They will not compound the problem because that then would let us know that it was for Obama.
Even the Obamas out there say he had no idea, which is also not possible.
There's one thing, this Obama guy is a stand-up guy, isn't he?
He really stands behind people.
They threw this guy, Caldera, on the sword.
They're throwing whoever at the FAA overboard.
I mean, really, he stands up for his people, doesn't he?
Really a stand-up guy.
Back in just a second.
Stay with us.
This, this is hilarious.
Americans United for Change, which is a union thug group, has just put out a press release.
And here's the headline of the press release from Americans United for Change.
Spectre decision, the ultimate rejection of the limbaugh-led party of no.
Specter decision, the ultimate rejection of limbaugh-led party of no.
I love it.
We have a couple specter soundbites.
Here he admits he wasn't going to let a Republican primary electorate determine his political future.
In the course of the last several months since the stimulus vote, I have traveled the state, surveyed the sentiments of the Republican Party in Pennsylvania, done public opinion polls, observed other public opinion polls, and have found that the prospects for winning a Republican primary are bleak.
I am not prepared to have my 29-year record in the United States Senate decided by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate.
Not prepared to have that record decided by that jury, the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate.
Oh, folks, I mean this, this.
He has just firebombed the Republican primary electorate in Pennsylvania.
He's not going to have his magnificent 29-year record judged and decided by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate.
But then he said this in another portion of his remarks.
I note that some of the news stories since my statement was released this morning are taking a look at the 60th vote.
And I will not be an automatic 60th vote.
And I would illustrate that by my position on employees' choice, also known as card check.
I think it is a bad deal, and I'm opposed to it and would not vote to invoke cloture.
All right, now let's remember this because today we have the statement from Americans United for Change, a bunch of union people.
Specter decision, the ultimate rejection of Limbaugh-led party of no.
Yet Specter's just told Americans United for Change on your card check.
Card check's their big deal.
However, however, President Obama has announced, isn't it amazing how quickly these things happen?
President Obama has announced he's going to campaign for Specter.
And it was only six weeks ago that Senator Specter said he would never leave the Republican Party.
So April 28th, 2009, Senator Specter says, I'm not an automatic 60th vote.
No we're against card check.
Don't like it.
Doesn't mean we'll have to wait and see after the campaigning, what President Obama does for Senator Specter and so forth.
But we do know that six weeks ago he said never ever changing parties.
Today he says, I'm not going to vote.
I'll change my mind on card check.
Change your mind once.
It's easier to do it again and again and again.
You know what?
Keep an eye on something, folks.
All of the moderate Republicans in the Senate, they're starting to cry about this, about Spectre.
They're starting to actually screaming.
This means they are worried about their own fate.
Republican Party apparently made no effort to keep Specter.
And we keep hearing moderates are on the rise.
Ha!
Ha!
Doesn't work that way, folks.
All right.
See you tomorrow.
Look forward to it.
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