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May 14, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:41
May 14, 2009, Thursday, Hour #3
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Time Text
Hi and welcome back.
Rush Limbaugh.
Great to have you here, folks.
Firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila the Hun chair at the Distinguished Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.
Telephone number 800-282-2882.
The email address lrushbaugh at eibnet.com.
Well, if you have missed these two hours, it's just a shame, but you'll be able to catch them at rushlimbaugh.com.
Later this afternoon, we update the site to reflect the contents of today's programs.
Other items in the news out there.
Studies show, ladies and gentlemen, that gay and transgender inmates, prison inmates, are vulnerable to physical and sexual assault.
You think?
You think so?
Yeah, I'm stunned to hear this news from the AP.
The California State Assembly has passed a bill requiring prison authorities to consider inmates' gender identity when making housing decisions.
Assemblyman Tom Amiano, a San Francisco Democrat, of course, said his bill is needed because studies show that gay and transgender inmates are vulnerable to physical and sexual assaults behind bars.
How many people could this?
Oh, never mind.
Say California.
I was going to say, how many people could this affect?
Okay.
I thought, look, Schwarzenegger's going to sell San Quentin anyway, right?
Didn't he hear that Schwarzenegger wants to sell the prisons?
They're going to have a state fire sale out there.
They're going to sell all these assets because they're out of money.
No, no, Snerdley, program observer is confused.
Gay and transgender does not mean they're housing men with women.
That is not what that means.
I mean, that's like asking me if I, you know, can you believe that we've had actually had the term opposite-sex marriage now prop up in our culture to explain marriage?
Oh, yeah, I'm in an opposite-sex marriage.
Oh!
This is a study in how you lose the lingo.
Automobile dealers fighting against closures.
You may have heard earlier on the program today that the brilliance of Barack Obama is auto-czar.
Now, try this.
We're going to close 3,000 Chrysler dealerships, which means it's going to be really hard to go find a Chrysler.
Then we're going to cut the advertising budget in half, which means fewer people are going to know what kind of cars are available wherever you have to go to get them.
And this is going to save the automobile industry.
And the auto dealers are fighting against closures.
General Motors and Chrysler make plans to eliminate hundreds of auto dealers around the country.
Mike Brayfogel.
Wait just a second here.
You can't say General Motors and Chrysler making plans to eliminate hundreds of dealers.
You have to say either while the United Auto Workers or President Obama are making plans to eliminate hundreds of auto dealers around the country, Mike Brayfogel, general manager of Tempe, Dodge Chrysler Jeep in Tempe, Arizona, considers himself one of the lucky ones.
Mike, Mr. Brayfogel, I guess that means his dealership's not closing, but you're still in trouble because the president of the United States was just out there and did a commencement speech and essentially told the graduate ASU that they shouldn't even want to have a car.
Brayfogel said, this is a terrible thing.
His company runs nine dealerships in Arizona and Chicago.
I'm hearing through friends of friends that some of the smaller dealerships are expecting to get the axe.
I think we'll be fine, so I'm not really worried, but I'm sure there are a lot of dealers around the country that are losing a lot of sleep right now.
Chrysler's bankruptcy proceedings and GM's severe financial problems are sending a shudder of fear through the nation's approximately 20,700 dealers, and some of them are organizing to fight back.
So far, it's unclear how much power they will have to save themselves, especially if GM follows Chrysler into bankruptcy court.
On Thursday, Chrysler today is expected to issue a preliminary list of dealers that it will admit into the new company after it emerges from bankruptcy.
Chrysler's going to issue.
No, Obama or the United Auto Workers will issue the list.
And I'll bet you Obama has been working on which dealerships survive based on campaign donations.
This is how Democrats do this.
GM also due to start notifying dealers this week if they will be allowed to continue to sell its remaining brands, including Buick, Cadillac, and Chevy.
All told, GM and Chrysler could notify roughly 3,300 dealers this week that they will lose their franchises.
And while all this is going on, GM says, hey, guess what?
You know what?
We're going to start importing cars from China.
Yes, sir, Rebob.
Thousands of General Motors workers await word on more plant closures and dealers await word on being shut down.
Reports that the company plans to import cars made by the ChiComs to the U.S. have created a political problem for automakers and Obama.
GM is not confirming or denying the reports, but it could mean trouble because GM is supported by $15.4 billion in U.S. government loans, largely due to Obama and his desire to preserve 90,000 union jobs.
The United Auto Workers is not happy about this.
General Motors, Chrysler II, they've had, it's an ongoing policy that you build and sell a car in the same company, country.
But Chikom labor is much cheaper than Ron Gettelfinger labor.
And so General Motors, I'm sure they're throwing this out to see some exec probably wants to get canned.
So he's throwing this idea out there.
You know, way till Obama's cars are, people hear about this.
And so you're going to import.
Now, the GM makes the cars.
They're not ChiCom cars.
They're General Motor cars.
But they're made in China by ChiCom workers at much cheaper prices than Ron Gettelfinger workers.
And so they said, hey, look, they're not confirming or denying this, but somebody's floated the idea.
I have to, yeah, it would be more efficient.
It would be efficient.
But then we're back to the old sob, we're exporting American manufacturing jobs if we do that.
We've got to look at, you want the companies to stay afloat or you don't.
You have to take your choice.
I want to go in a different direction on this, though.
We had the story yesterday about the Democrat member of Congress from Delaware who was all upset that 1,000 jobs might be lost if GM closed a plant in Delaware.
And I read the story, and this guy said, well, we can't have this.
We can't lose these thousand jobs.
I'm going to get General Motors maybe to transfer some other workers here.
If they're going to close this plant and stop making certain cars here, well, I'm going to make something else so we can't stand to lose 1,000 jobs.
What is this guy?
What do people think the purpose of the company is?
What is the purpose of a corporation?
Don't you think it's a little late now?
I mean, everybody's been bashing General Motors.
Everybody in government, local, national, state, they've been bashing General Motors and Chrysler.
It's been the popular thing to do.
And now, all of a sudden, when they're faced in Delaware with losing 1,000 jobs, oh, we can't lose 1,000 jobs, we've got to keep losing.
When was the last time any of you people were concerned with General Motors selling cars?
You know, the fact of the matter is that General Motors and no other company, the purpose of a company is not to set up shop and pay health care benefits and provide salaries for people in the neighborhood.
That's not the purpose of a company.
Nobody ever formed a company.
Nobody ever started a factory.
I said, you know what?
I'm doing this because I want people here to have a job and I want them to have health benefits.
They had a product that they wanted to sell and they were trying to earn a profit.
Now, too many people on the left now simply look at these companies simply a way to keep Democrat union members employed.
And to hell with what the company does.
And to hell with whether the company succeeds.
It just better not fail.
And if it fails, we're going to lose these Democrat jobs.
These union people will be out of work.
Can't have that.
With no concern whatsoever for the company, no concern for the product it makes.
I mean, the very people who come up with all these regulations on mileage and cafe standards, adding costs, galore to cars.
It's just, now the dealers are in the same situation.
3,300 dealers.
And you'll note, so far, I haven't seen it yet.
It may happen.
But I haven't seen any elected officials worried about dealerships closing.
And there's the average number of employees at a dealership of 50.
So 13,000 dealerships, 150,000 employees.
I haven't seen a state official or a congressman or senator worry about a dealership closing.
What, a factory with 1,000 Rodden Gettel fingers in there?
Can't have that.
The focus of the automobile business has long ago been lost.
And by the way, again, I'm not exonerating GM or Chrysler.
Please don't misunderstand.
But I'm telling you, the people that have set themselves up as the saviors to fix it have less of a clue than the people who were originally in charge when all this downward spiraling began.
Because the last thing, there's nobody in Obama's CarZAR place has the slightest idea how to sell a car, how to design one, what the competitive factors are in the automobile business.
They just look at this as a way to maintain Democrat jobs, pure and simple.
Well, I would go back to what Obama said in that silly, offensive speech he made to the graduates at Arizona State University.
He essentially said, hey, if you get rich, fine, as long as that's not your purpose.
If that's your purpose, if you're seeking money, then you're committing a sin.
If you're seeking money, that's immoral.
But if you do great work for people, if you go to a great company and so forth, and you get rich, that's fine.
Well, Using that logic, the only way General Motors factories can stay open is if somebody is buying the products made in them.
And that's the focus that seems to have been lost once everybody in government got their hands on all these companies.
You've got a list of cans and don'ts.
You can't do that, you can't do this, and don't do this, and don't do that.
You had people like Barack Obama and Steve Ratner approving reorganization plans offered by automobile executives who were forced to drive into town to present their plans rather than fly in because it looked bad.
There's nobody, there's nobody in charge of these companies who cares a whit about the purpose of them or who understands or knows what the purpose is.
They just got to keep the enterprise going because a lot of union Democrat voters work there.
Back to the phones we go, Rush Limboy, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
This is Jane in Dallas.
Great to have you on the program, Jane.
Hi, how are you?
Fine and dandy.
Thank you.
Okay, I was driving home from lunch with my husband, and he said to me, Jane, what do the Democrats want?
They own the car industry.
They don't want us to go to college.
What do they want?
At the end of this, what do they want?
They're going to have all the power.
And what do they want?
What inspired this?
Is it because even though they've got all this, they don't seem happy?
They don't seem happy.
When is enough going to be enough?
Well, I've addressed this on several occasions.
This is why the Republicans can never win by crossing the aisle and meeting them halfway because no matter what you give them, it's never enough.
Well, when they have all our money, when they have everything, are they going to live in a different country?
Are they going to move out of here?
No, what they want is power.
I know this sounds easy to say.
Have you ever, I'm not trying to pry, but the answer to this question is some, it's, I think it's almost required to understand their quest for power.
Have you ever had a genuine addiction to anything?
I don't.
Not really.
Well, I have.
I haven't.
Let me tell you about it.
It makes you entirely unreasonable and irrational.
It is all you care about.
Nothing else matters, no matter how important to you otherwise.
It doesn't matter as much as the addiction.
Feeding it, the fear of not being able to is what animates your existence every day.
These people are addicted to power because they think it is their birthright.
And I'm not just talking about the people in Washington, elected officials.
I'm talking about some of, not all, but some of the rank and file, mad cap, insane liberals that you will find blogging, that you will find emailing, that you will find on the protest march.
Their lives are basically meaningless.
The addiction to power and dominance and control is what drives them.
And the thing about an addiction is, it can never be satisfied.
There is never a day where you say, all right, because you have to feed it every day.
Anything that stands in the way of the addiction requires your attention to overcome, to get around, to somehow take care of.
So you say they have the car companies now, and they've got the House, and they've got the White House, and they've got the Senate, and they've got most of the state houses.
And in California, they've got a Republican who is a liberal.
They're getting gay married.
And they're no happier.
They don't seem like they're satisfied with any of the progress.
They have debauched our culture.
They have made perversion standard operating procedure.
And they're not happy.
And they're miserable.
They still want George Bush in jail.
They want Karl Rove and George and Dick Cheney being frog marched in handcuffs and shackles off to the Husgau.
And if they got that, it wouldn't make them happy because then they would want it to happen to me.
But after they destroy our country, where's their power?
What do addicts do?
They destroy themselves.
They do.
They destroy themselves and they destroy the things that are most important to them.
Did you see the Lord of the Rings movies?
No, I did not.
That's a shame because I can give you a pretty good analogy.
I don't remember the name of it.
The character we never saw desperate to get the rings back, Zorin Sorin, whatever his name was.
No matter, he had an army.
He had an army.
And whatever they would do anything to get those rings back.
We never saw the guy.
He had ult, he had power, fear, everybody scared to death.
The guy was miserable.
Couldn't get the rings back.
Had everything in the world, but couldn't get the rings back.
And everybody put the ring on became addicted to it.
And it ruined their lives, too.
Well, they're doing a good job.
But we're trying to understand irrational people as we come at it from irrationality.
You and I will say, look, they've got more than they asked for.
They've got more than most people could dream of.
And they're still not happy.
Look at Hollywood people.
Look at the successful Hollywood people.
They have wealth and fame, the things that most people that don't have it think they would love to have.
And you watch them run around and they look miserable.
And they're angry when they do public appearances.
And they get mad at the press.
They get mad at the paparazzi.
They throw all kinds of tantrums and so forth.
And they go huddle up with people like Hugo Chavez and Infidel Castro.
And what they're envious of is the power, the total power that Castro has.
It's not to think Castro's a great guy.
He's got total power.
He runs with an iron fist, rules.
Same thing with Chavez.
I mean, there are more explanations to it than this.
This is not just the sole explanation.
But this is why, since they can't be happy, they will never peacefully coexist with their opposition.
They have to be defeated.
I just got an email, and I'm glad I got this email because I need to expand on this.
It is from a woman who says she's almost in tears listening to me in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Her name's Catherine.
Dear Rush, I am so upset because I respect you so much.
I respect your opinion so much.
I just can't believe my job is worthless.
Now, she doesn't describe her job.
What do you think the odds are she works at a nonprofit?
So, Kathy, glad you wrote me.
Gives me an opportunity to expand on this.
And for those of you just joining us, we played in the last hour four soundbites.
Let's go grab the one that's relevant.
And I buried them in the bottom of the stack, Mike.
So help me find them here.
The one that has Obama talking about help a nonprofit or whatever.
Let's see, 15 or whatever.
Let's see.
Yeah, number 16.
Grab audio soundbite number 16.
And you have audio soundbite number 16.
All right, here's audio soundbite number 16.
It's Obama at a commencement address last night at Arizona State University in Tempest.
What are you laughing at, Snerdley?
What?
Yeah, I call them bloodsuckers, but I'll get it.
I've got a lot of email on that too.
Rush, you know that tonight on the media, Limbaugh calls nonprofits bloodsuckers.
Look, if you were hit up as often as I am, nevertheless.
Here, don't get me sidetracked here, because I want to explain this to Kathy of North Carolina because I don't want her in tears and I don't want her misunderstanding my points.
Here's Obama.
He's talking to graduates.
He's basically telling them, forget themselves.
Do not invest in your self-interest.
Don't want a nice car.
Don't want a big house.
Don't want wealth.
You must define your success by what you do for others, which sounds so wonderful.
Well, you see, Kathy, I have a firm belief here.
I believe that self-interest, coupled with the freedoms that are enshrined in our founding documents, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, I think people pursuing self-interest, a mother and father pursuing self-interest, obviously, will do great things for their family.
Self-interest is not selfishness.
And sometimes I don't even think there's something wrong with selfishness.
But I have a big problem with sacrifice.
I have a huge problem with sacrifice because sacrifice, more often than not, is forced on you.
When President Obama raises taxes and says, people need to sacrifice, he's not giving me any choice in the matter.
When you have no choice in it, it ain't sacrifice.
You're being stolen from.
Now, if I choose, on my own, to give something to somebody, maybe I look at it as an investment, not a sacrifice.
When these people on the left talk about sacrifice, they are using a code word that gives them permission to take something from somebody else who otherwise would not give it up to them.
So that's the setup.
Here's Obama.
Listen to the first part of this.
Did you study business?
Why not help a struggling non-for-profit find better, more effective ways to serve folks in need?
You study nursing?
Okay, that's all we need.
He goes on here to say, let's lead a green revolution, teach high-need schools, raise people's hopes, rise to their needs, and so forth.
And it did get me going, and I started thinking about, you know, nonprofits are fine and dandy, but they're bloodsuckers.
And here's what I mean by that.
You have two groups of people.
Basically, you've got two groups of people.
You have the producers, the achievers, and then you got the people that feed off of them.
Well, I'm sorry.
You can sit in there and laugh all you want, Snerdley.
I am not condemning charities.
I am not condemning anybody who wants to earn a living by helping others.
Obama, the context of this is Obama is impugning the producers and the earners.
Obama is impugning those who do the providing.
He did it throughout this speech.
He is castigating them.
He is impugning their motivations.
We cannot all be in a nonprofit because if we all were in nonprofits, we'd all be broke.
By definition, a nonprofit gets funded by walking around and asking somebody to give it something.
A donation, a contribution, and if you give, okay, we'll name this wing of the hospital after you.
Or we'll name that after you.
The people at nonprofits are paid and earn their living as a result of producers and earners donating to it.
There's all kinds of nonprofits.
And then there's another category, too.
There's the not-for-profit.
And that's a whole different ball of wax.
The not-for-profit is a much different thing than a non-profit.
The thing that I don't like just generically about nonprofit is the language.
Because inherent in this whole business of nonprofit is that I'm pure.
And the people that are going for profit are evil.
And all I'm saying is, there's not a nonprofit in the world because we're all born with nothing.
Even those of us or those of you who inherit sizable sums, you're born with nothing.
You still have to grow up to get it.
Somebody, in order to leave it to you, had to get it somewhere.
Now, it may be one of these old tycoons from the 1800s and early 1900s when there was no income tax made enough money to support five generations of freeloading family members.
Believe me, I know them.
You start with a gin and tonics at four in the afternoon, you hit the charity ball at eight o'clock, you hope to get and see if you see your name in the paper on Saturday for showing up at a tuxedo and giving money to charity.
But you haven't earned a dime.
And you look down on the people who have.
What are you shaking your head for, Dawn?
What's amazing?
I'm saying it.
Oh, come on, it's not amazing.
There are people like that.
They're all over the place.
But Kathy, what I'm talking about here is, I am infuriated when I hear the President of the United States tell a group of students who have spent four or five years of their parents' money seeking the American dream, the President of the United States telling them that that's immoral and to go do this or go do that.
Do not put yourself first.
There's nothing wrong with putting yourself first.
When you put yourself first, you are helping others.
You can't help somebody else until you're all right yourself.
If your entire paycheck is spent paying your bills and your rent and your gasoline, you can't give anybody anything else.
You have to be an achiever.
Nonprofits, not-for-profits, charities or what have you.
God love them.
I raise money for charity myself.
I donate to charity myself.
But there wouldn't be any without achievers, without producers.
And the President of the United States is impugning them.
So if he's going to sit there and impugn and target the people who've basically done in their lives what he did, I mean, he's a multi-millionaire.
His wife got a $300,000 a year no-show job when he was elected to the Senate, that hospital job that they didn't fill when she left.
They're now serving $100 beef, per-pound beef at parties at the White House.
Air Force One up on joyrides.
It's okay for them, not for you.
You got to go into service.
And Obama's not the only one saying it.
Michelle, this week, too, some government bureaucracy, she's making a tour of them, talked about how she worked for a big law firm, had a corner office, made six figures.
So empty, she said.
Her life was so empty.
It wasn't until she left that and started working for others.
Yeah, well, with whose money was she working for others?
If you work at a nonprofit, please do not be offended.
I'm just trying to also stand up for the people who make your job possible.
Nothing more than that.
Back after this.
Look, some people work for nonprofits that are supported by the church.
Where does the church get its money?
You think it's a holy bailout that's funding the church?
Get rid of the music.
I'm not in the mood for prints.
When it comes to identity theft, you're either protected by Life Lock or you're not, folks.
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This is sort of like backing up your computer.
We talk about the carbonites.
Totally the same thing.
Except in the case of backing up your hard drive, it's not that it gets stolen.
It just gets lost.
It just gets damaged.
But there are thieves trying to steal your identity.
Life Lock can stop them in their tracks.
Here is John in Addison, New York.
Great to have you on the EIB network.
Hello.
Hey, Rush, Megabiddos from What's Left of Conservative Upstate New York?
Thank you for, well, this is assuming it ever was.
Well, there's a little bit of red left up here, but Rush, I've been listening all day, and I got to tell you, last night I laid down to go to bed and turned on the TV and I was channel surfing and came across Barack Obama speaking to those kids.
When he hit the part about me first and how that's leading to our demise, I just about came out of my skin.
Rush, doesn't me first also mean accountability?
Being responsible for our own actions?
Isn't that the message he should be out here preaching?
Exactly.
The president of the United States ought to be inspiring and motivating people and building up this country, not trashing this country and not depressing graduates that the country they're heading into is some immoral, unjust place.
I want to ask President Obama a question.
Sir, How would you have gotten where you are if you didn't put yourself first?
President Obama, if you behaved the way you advised graduates at Arizona State University, you would have given the presidency to John McCain.
He's more deserving.
He's older.
He served in the war.
You could have done a great thing.
You could have really sacrificed.
Oh, this me first.
Oh, that's horrible to think about yourself.
What's horrible?
He wouldn't have gotten where he is.
He wouldn't stay where he is if he hadn't put himself first.
There's nothing wrong with putting yourself first.
Dave in Washington, D.C. Hello, sir.
Hey, Rush, how are you doing?
Very good, sir.
Thank you.
Crazy Washington, I guess.
I was just listening to Obama talk about how we shouldn't achieve, you know, be, you know, the job that we desire in that corner office, which I think is kind of amusing seeing that he's gotten the greatest job in America, the president, and gets the coolest office there is, the Oval Office.
Yeah, that's what I say.
It says two rules of behavior here for the left and for everybody else.
It's okay for him to do it, but not for everybody else.
Yeah.
I guess we just have to look at his actions and not his words on this one.
Well, but he wants to define achieving in a different way.
Achieving is how little you care for yourself and how much you do for others.
And all I'm telling you is you're never going to be able to do diddly squat for anybody else if you don't do yourself first or take care of yourself first.
You're just not going to be able to.
And the idea that there is a crime in having self-interest, the idea that there is a crime in wanting the best, that your one life, we get one.
It's a shame how many people waste it.
Get caught up in so many mind games that make them go through the day like zombies.
Get so caught up in things that are not important.
Human nature to do that.
But then all of a sudden tell people, don't strive.
That's immoral.
Mildred in Lul, Kentucky, nice to have you on the EIB network.
Hello.
Hi, Rush.
Good to talk to you.
Thank you.
My main question.
What do you think our president will say at the Notre Dame commencement actually?
Well, we have Arizona State and that commencement to go on.
Maybe he'll tell them to be priests.
No, can't tell them that because priests oppose abortion.
Maybe he'll tell them to be nuns.
Nope, he can't tell them to be nuns because nuns oppose abortion.
Maybe he'll probably tell them, I think probably a variation of what he told the students at Arizona State University.
And he'll couch it in terms of you're doing the Lord's work if you do that.
Why couldn't he just have a backbone and say, well, maybe I better not show up.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
That's, you know, that's, that's.
That's like expecting Hilbert Chavez to say, sorry.
I'm giving the oil companies back.
I don't really know how to run them.
Well, give those students a chance that's earned their degree to be in the audience and accept their diploma rather than having to sit at a.
Well, they don't.
Look, if they don't want to go, they don't want to go.
You know, I didn't go to college, so the commencement's no big deal to me.
I went to high school, and I didn't go to that.
Just give me the yearbook, get out of here.
I had no signatures in my yearbook.
I didn't go to the party.
Get me out of here.
And I'm sure if I'd finished college, it would have been the same way.
So, you know, the speaker, it's just delaying the kegger.
You know, it's no big deal.
Well, now they're mad at me in upstate New York.
I'm being called a bleep-bleep blockhead for my insulting comment.
If upstate ever was conservative.
Anyway, tomorrow's Open Line Friday.
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