All Episodes
Previous Next
Oct. 29, 2010 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:35
October 29, 2010, Friday, Hour #3
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know.
I'm just looking at the soundbites.
Number six and in order.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's Open Line Friday.
Final hour of the fastest three hours in media.
I am your host, the beloved Bulwark.
Rush Limbaugh.
I have not changed in 23 years.
800-282-2882.
Email address, El Rushbo at EIBnet.com.
Now let's talk a little bit about these mysterious packages on board the cargo aircraft being found all over the world en route to the United States.
No matter how you look at it, folks, there are two things here.
These package stories, either done by the terrorists, so far they haven't found a bomb.
I mean, they've cleared a lot of airplanes.
They found nothing untoward here.
They found no explosives.
So either these package stories are being done by the terrorists as a dry run or as just an exercise to let us know they can.
Or this is being hyped by our government.
The timing is, well, you can't ignore the timing.
If this is the terrorists doing this for whatever reason, dry run or to show us they can, then who are they trying to help?
I mean, this is being done the weekend before the election.
Who would al-Qaeda be trying to help here?
Clearly, they're imposing themselves on our election.
If it's the government hyping it, then it is clear the administration thinks this will help them.
Right?
One way or another, this is being hyped real big.
All of the cable nets have gone wall to wall with us.
Somebody is trying to say something here.
And somebody is trying to affect the outcome of something.
The question is, who's trying to help who?
If the terrorists are doing this, who are they?
They're trying to stop the Republican progress or guarantee it.
If it's the administration, then they think that this ultimately would help them.
Now, is it a coincidence?
The Democrats have always said that cargo was a weak spot, that our ports and things like this were the weak spot.
And that was the reason they wanted to kill the Dubai ports deal.
Because this, the cargo is a weak spot.
Yet, the thing they've always claimed is being shown to be true, how does this help them?
The only way it can be shown to help them is if you get a press conference of Obama saying, we caught it, we stopped it, we're vigilant, we care.
I'm not a Muslim.
I wouldn't allow this.
Whatever he says, we'll just have to wait and see to see how the regime handles this.
Fortunately, folks, we don't have to worry about the Obama regime using fear of terrorism to help him in the elections like the Bush team did, right?
I mean, that was always, every time we got an increased threat level near an election, The charge always was, it's not true.
This is just Bush trying to help himself the election.
Okay, we don't have to worry about that with this bunch, right?
They're clean and pure as the wind-driven snow.
I would never politicize something like this.
Right.
So you don't you don't need to have a bomb to commit terrorism.
That's what all this shows.
Closing down and disrupting so much air travel without a bomb.
This is terrorism, in a sense.
They got everybody terrorized.
Everybody's scared now.
What's going on out here?
We're talking about it.
Everybody's wondering about it.
So clearly, somebody's sending a message for some outcome.
Somebody's trying to affect something.
The something has to be the election.
How so?
We'll have to wait and see.
Supreme Court in Alaska yesterday, maybe it was a couple days ago, days around together, said that it's okay to have a cheat sheet for written candidates.
Normally in an election, if you're not on the ballot as a primary winner and therefore a qualified candidate for office, you're out of luck.
You can have a write-in campaign, but it's up to people to remember that you're running and legitimately write your name in.
The Supreme Court of Alaska ruled that there can be a published cheat sheet of write-in candidates' names.
Timed perfectly here for Lisa Murkowski and her write-in candidate.
Now, I know these polls in Alaska show that she's neck and neck with Joe Miller.
But still, everybody supporting Murkowski still has to go in there and write her name in.
It's not on the ballot.
It may be on the cheat sheet, but it's not on the ballot.
Whether they have a punch card or it's an electronic machine or whatever, her name is not there to be checked off or to punched in.
They're going to have to write it in.
How do you write Murkowski without a cheat sheet?
I mean, how do you spell it without a cheat sheet?
Anyway, arguing against the need for this is her dad was a senator for how many terms?
Frank Murkowski.
I mean, the Murkowski name is like the Ewing name in Dallas, the Ewing name in Texas.
I know it's fictitious, but Murkowski is not a strange name.
But I still, these polls that show her neck and neck with Joe Miller, still next Tuesday, people are going to have to write her name in.
Well, anyway, the upshot of this is now, since the Supreme Court said that there can be a cheat sheet, guess what's happened?
The Alaska State Supreme Court judge ruled yesterday, polling places must provide interested voters with a list of write-in candidates.
That ruling has inspired at least 100 Alaskans to file as written in candidates yesterday, reported the Anchorage Daily News, ensuring that voters will have a long list of names to look at on Election Day.
So what's happened here is that an effort by the Murkowski campaign to gum up the works has backfired because now not only is her name on the cheat sheet, so are 100 other names.
Now this was a, this is hilarious.
It's a coordinated effort.
This is the Tea Party people in Alaska.
Okay, is this how you want to play the game?
We'll play.
We'll put 100 people on your cheat sheet.
A Lisa M. Lackey, Laura L. Lizbeth, rascal, are among the write-in candidates whose paperwork was approved by the state.
Election officials have not made clear whether abbreviated or misspelled forms of Senator Murkowski's name would count as votes for her.
There have been coordinated efforts out there to, hey, okay, since there can be a cheat sheet, go register.
Take that, Ms. Murkowski.
Take that establishment.
Take that Republican establishment.
You'll play the game fine.
You want a cheat sheet?
We'll make sure there's a hundred names on it for people to choose from.
Audio Sound by Time, Fareed Zakaria.
Last night, CNN's John King USA King said, Do you see anything in this campaign cycle from either party that suggests they're ready to sit down and have adult conversations?
Now, stop and think of this question.
John King, CNN, talking to Fareed Zakaria, CNN.
He has a show there.
Here are these two media guys hamming it up with each other.
Tell me, tell me, Freed, our old buddy, old pal, tell me, Freed, fellow establishment intellectual, you see anything in this campaign cycle from either party would suggest they're ready to sit down and have adult conversations like you and I do.
30 years ago, you became a powerful congressman or senator by doing a big deal that involved passing legislation and bringing the two parties together.
Today, you become a major figure in Congress by doing exactly the opposite.
If you were to try and do some of the things I'm describing, the next day, if you're a Republican, Rush Limbaugh will denounce you.
You will have a primary challenge.
Your fundraising will dry up.
And so the dynamics of American politics now pull you away from the center.
The center is, of course, where the majority of the country is and where the solutions are.
Yeah, right.
Right.
Yeah.
How the hell can you still support Obama then?
He's no more in the center.
Adolf Hitler was in the center or Mao Zedong was in the center.
Your precious center.
And of course, blame it on me.
If some Republican wants to do something meaningful, Rush Limbaugh will denounce.
And the effort will be brought to a screeching halt.
That's why I say I doing my part to save this country each and every day.
And the little children like Fareed Zakaria who want to live in this precious land of the center, where the smartest people in the room supposedly operate.
We're all the great things.
Show me, Fareed, great legislation written by moderates in American history.
Show me the book in the library, great moderates in American history.
Show me where Ronald Reagan moved to the center in dealing with the Soviets and in cutting taxes.
Tell me who moved when Reagan was president of the Democrats owned the House and the Senate.
Who moved where in order to get Reagan's tax cuts?
Democrats moved to the right.
They didn't both move to the center.
Big, big misnomer.
Let's see.
This one, I mean, we find audio sound like number seven.
Somehow I'm, ah, it continued.
I'm sorry, it was a different show.
Same guest.
CNN's newsroom, the co-anchor Ali Velshi spoke with Fareed Zakaria GPS host Fareed Zakaria about an article that Fareed Zakaria wrote about Fareed Zakaria's opinion on taxes and Fareed Zakaria's opinion on the economy.
Oli Velshi said to Fareed Zakaria, it's a good thing you're not running for anything because in this article you actually propose a new tax.
You dub it the American Innovation Tax.
It would be a way of getting you to what you're talking about, investment in the things that will make America competitive.
And that involves many things.
It means that we can educate and put people through universities and science and technology and engineering and math.
But why a tax?
What would that do, Fareed Zakaria?
We have no national sales tax in this country.
We're the only country in the advanced world that doesn't have one.
If we put one in at 5%, which would be the lowest in the advanced world, that would still generate tens and tens of billions of dollars.
You need to find revenue sources if you need to do this.
Spoken like a true statist.
Spoken like a true big government statist.
Fareed Zakaria wants to do for America what Fareed Zakaria did for Newsweek.
Fareed Zakaria wants to do what Fareed Zakaria is doing to CNN.
Would somebody tell me how in the world you get innovation if you tax it?
Somebody explained that to me, Fareed Zakaria, GPS, smartest guy in the room.
We spend more money on education than any other country in the world.
Where's the result?
So we're behind the world.
See, we're immoral and unjust.
We don't have a national sales tax.
We have no national sales tax in this country.
We're the only country in the advanced world that doesn't have one.
If we put one in, say, 5%, the lowest in the advanced world, on top of these oppressive income taxes, on top of oppressive property taxes, on top of existing sales taxes.
Somehow, another 5% tax is going to equal booms in science and technology and innovation.
If this were the case, why we'd be leading the world in everything.
And at one time we did.
At one time we actually did.
But not because of philosophies and policies put forth by Fareed Zakaria, GPS.
Spoken like a true statist.
Damn it.
We're the only industrialized country that doesn't have a VAT.
Back after this.
Fareed Zakaria, GPS.
The only advanced nation in the world.
We don't have a national sales tax.
We have sales taxes in this country, Fareed.
Lots of them.
Sales taxes in the States.
We have user fees.
We have service fees.
We have several levels of income taxes.
We got personal income taxes.
We have capital gains taxes.
We have business taxes.
We have dividends taxes.
We have death taxes.
Sewer taxes.
Water taxes.
Energy taxes.
Property taxes.
We have taxes on our animals, our dogs and cats.
We have taxes on our cars.
We have taxes on our license plates.
We have taxes on the annual stickers on the license plates.
We have licensing fees.
We have taxes on the fire department and the police department.
We got taxes everywhere.
We got taxes on our speech.
But Fareed Zakaria thinks that the VAT tax will be the only way to pay for Obamacare.
Every other country with socialized medicine had to resort to a VAT tax.
That's what this is all about.
And of course, every Country of socialized medicine is far, far advanced beyond us.
We are the least advanced nation in the advanced world of nations.
And we won't be advanced until we have a VAT tax.
Till we're sophisticated enough to slap ourselves with another 5% tax.
A national sales tax.
So I think it's fascinating.
If you strip it all away here, you listen to Fareed Zakaria.
You listen to this Weigel guy at Salon.
You listen to John Kerry.
You listen to, well, we got Kaz, this daily Kaz kook here.
Listen to Marcos Moluitsis Zunaga, whatever.
He was on WABC, our station in New York, with David Goodman.
I guess he's got a book, American Taliban.
That's me.
That's us.
Goodman says, in your book, you go after some of the right-wing talk hosts.
Are you really comparing people like Rush and Hannity and Mark Levin to the Taliban?
You're looking at tactics.
You're looking at a way they approach their hatred towards gays, their hostility towards women's equality, and so on.
So, you know, again, I'm not saying Rush Limbaugh is out there hacking off people's heads, but rhetorically, he is very much pursuing the same agenda, same goals.
Hatred towards gays, hostility towards women's equality.
Right.
All of that preposterous.
But nevertheless, nevertheless, so you got this guy, you got Fareed Zakaria, you got John Kerry, you got Gloria Borgi.
I mean, they all have already identified me as the problem.
When Republicans win, I'm going to be the one that stops them from selling out.
Damn it.
The Limbaugh problem.
All of a sudden, the Limbaugh problem surfaces again.
All of a sudden, this irrelevant entertainer will become the gum in the works.
All of a sudden, I will be the one to oppose Fareed Zakaria said it.
Somebody in the Republican Party will come along and propose a tax increase, and then Rush Limbaugh will denounce him.
So thank you, Mr. Zakaria, because Mr. Zakaria is essentially saying that I am going to be the person that keeps the Republican Party from selling out.
I am going to be the guy that makes sure the Republican Party stays true.
I'm going to be the guy to make sure it doesn't go off the rails.
Now, in their view, I'm destroying the Republican Party.
Now, who's going to win the elections Tuesday?
And who do I support?
And who's being destroyed?
And yet, and this is simply a recycle of the old playbook.
Is Rush Limbaugh good for America?
Is Rush Limbaugh good for democracy?
If I am destroying the GOP, we need more destroying.
There's no question about it.
If I'm the guy, if I'm the guy stopping progress, we need more stopping progress.
If I'm the guy causing all of this trouble for Obama, we need more trouble for Obama.
And we still have a half hour a go.
More troublemaking on cap.
Trick-or-treat at the White House candy manufactured like magic.
doesn't happen.
What?
Washington, D.C. entity has taken the initiative of publishing their own list of spending cuts in our federal government.
It's the Heritage Foundation.
When our newly elected representatives take their place on Capitol Hill in January, budget cuts are going to get a lot of attention.
Now, you're going to see the list, and you will notice that these are common sense, conservative solutions to reducing the size of our government, and they have to happen.
And you'll notice, once again, Heritage is ahead of the curve in anticipating what's next in the national discussion.
Look online today, askheritage.org, and see the list of suggested federal cuts front and center.
Same website that hundreds of thousands of Americans have logged on to to become a member in good standing of the Heritage Foundation.
Over 700,000 members now.
You know, when I first heard of the Heritage Foundation, you couldn't become a member.
I mean, well, you could.
You had to be a major donor.
And having access to what the Heritage Foundation did was hard.
I mean, they worked hard, but their work was being produced for presidents, senators, and so forth.
They really weren't aiming at the public.
It was a very, to attend any kind of a Heritage Foundation event was to hear a great speech.
I know I gave a couple.
You were not allowed.
I mean, it's not allowed.
It's just membership in this place didn't exist.
Now it does.
And it's fabulous.
And it starts as low as $25 a month.
It's a charitable donation to keep them going.
Access to some of the greatest conservative thinkers inside the Beltway.
AskHeritage.org.
Membership finally opened to everybody.
And it is money well spent.
Joshua in Birmingham, Alabama.
Great to have you open line Friday.
Hello.
Megan Dodoz from A Cracker in Alabama.
Well, thank you.
A couple of weeks ago, there was talk going around that the American dream was dead, that it had died.
I just wanted to call you and let you know it's very much still alive and people like me and that I was strongly influenced and inspired by a story you told must have been 10 years ago.
I think it was when you were driving back from the Richard Petty driving experience.
You had gone out and done that and you were sitting in a parking lot and there were shopping carts and you observed person after person walk up to the shopping carts, try and grab the first one and give up at like the first try.
And you got you observed this as long as you could and then you got out of your limo, walked over, dislodged the jammed shopping carts, only to get go back and get back in your limo.
Kind of to express, and when you were telling a story on the radio, it was to express that people give up too easily, that we've been trained to have this mentality of we deserve things and things should be handed to us.
And you, somebody who was sitting in limo in a position that you didn't have to go shopping, you didn't have to go do this, but it frustrated you to see the apathy of people and you went out of your way just to dislodge the cart to prove that it could be done without that much effort.
And I'm only 26 and I was inspired by that.
And as a result, without very much education, With two business partners, we've taken just us three and in a few years and in the worst economy in 100 years, we've built a company that is taking care of us and our families and all of our employees.
What do you do?
Make shopping carts?
No.
One of my business partners is an architect and we have a design build firm.
We design projects and then we go and build every part of it as well.
Okay.
Down to the cabinets.
That is incredible.
You're far more educated in a classical sense, a real sense, than you would have people believe.
You couldn't do what you do if you weren't.
Sure.
But I know what you mean.
I'm trying to remember the details of this.
I remember I had gone to, I was in Vegas and had gone to the Richard Petty driving where you could actually get in a NAS car and drive it around the tank, the tracks.
They had governors.
You couldn't go over 130 miles an hour, but you could, but you put on the suit, you did the whole experience.
And some driving back to the hotel, we were in a limo.
That's exactly right.
We did stop at a grocery store, and I didn't need anything there.
I just wanted to understood I didn't need anything there, but somebody else did.
And there was a whole bottle of shopping carts outside for customers to get.
And everybody that went up there, a couple of them were jammed, and they gave up trying to dislodge that shopping cart.
And it stunned me.
And I watched a bunch of people do this and give up.
I said, this is what's so hard about this?
I didn't understand it.
So I made a move to get out of the car.
People said, don't get out of the car.
We're here in a shopping.
You're in a grocery store.
I said, I've got to go find out what's so hard about this.
So I went up there and I dislodged the, it was one stuck shopping cart that was enabling a whole row of them not to be used.
And people were not exuding much effort whatsoever to dislodge this one shopping cart.
I'm shocked that you remember that.
That's 10 years ago, maybe longer.
And you say you're 26 now or 27?
Yes, sir.
So I'm a rush baby in the truest sense.
I remember when our whole family ran to the bookstore to get the first hot off-the-pressed copies of the way things should be.
So from back in the day, I've been listening my whole life.
And I haven't been indoctrinated by you.
I've been encouraged by you because things haven't been easy in this hard economy.
Things have been tough.
We have had to lay off people, but we've also hired them back.
We've also grown our company.
And what has required the three partners, me and my two business partners, is to sometimes work 120 hours a week.
And it's so that we can get our company in a position where we can't have employees again and we can begin to take care of the people who work for us and take care of our families.
Now, I just, I completely, I violently reject the Obama philosophy.
I don't need to be on my parents' health insurance until I'm 26 because I've been paying for my own health insurance since I was 21.
I'm frustrated by my own generation.
And I remember telling this to a teacher of mine in high school, and he said, people said the same thing about my went through the Vietnam War and we grew and life has a good way of kicking you in the face and you get back up and you recover and the sooner you do that the better.
And I just was encouraged.
I just want to let you know, let your listeners know, I was encouraged by that story, the story of somebody who didn't need to go above and beyond to demonstrate around them that you don't have to give up the first time something's difficult.
Well, your memory is incredible.
Shopping carts, shopping carts have been big on this show.
I mean, shopping carts have had a played a major role in a lot of ways in this program.
Used the shopping cart phenomenon to teach a whole bunch of lessons on this program.
And you're sitting, you've made my day here.
I'm sitting here thinking back.
I had totally forgotten this.
I had totally forgotten that whole story.
And now you call here and you remember that.
And that story about me getting out of the car to dislodge shopping cart, not understanding what was so hard that other people were giving up on this.
It's just a stuck cart.
That inspired you to start your own business.
That's just incredible.
I need to bring this thing full circle.
I wanted to share the story to counteract this talk that the American Dream is dead.
The American Dream is dead.
It's not dead.
It's just been misinterpreted.
The American Dream is not come to America and we'll give you everything your heart desires.
The American dream is come to America where you're free, where there's a free market.
If you want to cut down trees, cut down trees.
If you want to build houses, then build houses.
But come here and work your kiddo off.
And eventually, you will be in a better position.
And more importantly, you will have the opportunity to put your children.
Exactly right.
The problem in America now is that you tell this story to the wrong people, and the reaction that you'll get is, well, easy for you to say that you don't need to be on your parents' health insurance till you're age 26.
You just don't know how hard it is for people.
You don't know.
And the rich, you're part of the problem because you're taking care of yourself and you don't care about anybody else.
And that's why you don't need to worry about being on your, but you don't understand how tough it is for people.
That's the reaction you would get.
You would not get, well, in some places, other places like this audience, you get a lot of respect, but a lot of places, you get a lot of resentment for that.
Well, I mean, I would counteract with the fact that my dad told me when I was 17, he said, look, if you want to go to college, I can't help you a bit.
And so I worked as a lobsterman for three years, and then I went and I tried it for it myself.
It's too expensive to pay for it yourself.
And I was smart enough to know I didn't want to borrow $100,000 for an education that probably wouldn't pay off for me.
And so I ended up dropping out to join my business partners in what we've done here in Birmingham.
And the result has been I have this mountain of debt, but I was able to just work really, really hard, learn as I go, and oftentimes lose money to keep my clients happy.
And so it's not about just this life of ease in here in America.
You have opportunity and freedom to pursue your dreams and eventually...
And that's what people are fighting to preserve.
Exactly.
That's exactly what this election is about, is fighting to preserve that same opportunity, the freedom to pursue opportunity that you've just described, because people fear it's being taken away.
People fear it's being eroded.
And they're right.
One of the purposes of the Democrat Party and this regime is to dispirit people from doing what you've done.
To tell them it's not possible anymore.
That it's the wrong way to go about things.
You need to invest more in your government.
Your government can be fair with people and redistribute wealth more fairly than you going out taking care of yourself.
Well, I mean, my response to that is I figuratively give him, I just keep working hard.
And even if taxes go up and I pay 50%, I'm still going to do what I do.
If he taxes me more, I'm still going to do it because I love it.
It is my dream.
That's my point.
It's the American dream, and I'm living that.
I'm living proof.
Now, I still am only 26.
We may go through some harder times, but the beauty of this country is that in the ashes of defeat, if I do, if something does go wrong, try something else.
Let me tell you something else.
You only 26, and you may encounter some tough times ahead.
I mean, you're intelligent thinking.
But you will never be homeless because you now know how to dislodge stuck shopping carts.
You're ahead of the game.
Look, I appreciate the call.
You made all of our day here.
You really did.
Thank you, sir.
You bet.
Have a great weekend.
We'll be back and continue after this.
Oh, you found it.
Oh, cool.
By the way, folks, this says it all here.
This little headline I have here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers, time.com.
Many Democrats expected to retire, including Pelosi, if they lose the house.
If you needed any other reason to show up, here it is.
Many Democrats expected to retire, including Pelosi, if they lose the house.
From the Rush subscriber, website subscriber email.
Dear Rush, lots and lots of buzz here in Cleveland.
I quit my job nine months ago.
I am the guy running against Dennis Kucinich.
I have been running 24-7 since I quit my job nine months ago.
We are four points behind and closing.
Kucinich is going down.
Cheers, Peter Corrigan.
The guy running against Kucinich is a Rush baby.
A subscriber at Rush 24-7.
I am reminded that we put together a parody after my Las Vegas shopping cart story.
And here it is.
And here it is.
According to a leading authority, when presented with a problem, 95% of Americans sit on their hands while only 5% do something about it.
I thought we'd get a couple of things on the way to the party.
Yeah, grab a shopping cart.
Oh, it's stuck.
I guess we'll just have to carry everything.
Let me try.
There.
Don't be part of the problem.
Be part of the solution.
Boy, I'm thirsty.
You want a soda?
Yeah, sure.
Oh, it didn't take my dollar.
Well, that's okay.
I can wait.
Try it again, like this.
There you go.
If you have a friend that gives up too soon, you know what to do.
You know, I haven't seen Bob, and I. All right.
It didn't start.
Maybe we should call mother.
Hey, you give up too easy.
Give her another try.
Why don't we listen to Rush on the way?
Who's Rush?
A guy you really got to get to know.
Listen to Rush on the EIB network.
10 years ago.
And I'm so focused on the next day, I forgot all about that story.
And I'm getting droves of emails now from people who say they remember it, and they still go to grocery stores.
And they encounter a stuck shopping cart, and they don't give up.
It's become a game now to unstick a stuck shopping cart.
Interesting.
And from Washington Whisperer's U.S. News and World Report, headline, Doug Shoan Poll.
Most want Obama fired in 2012.
More people say Bush was a better president than Imam Obama.
Be right back.
Don't go away.
Somebody on the other side of the glass here wants to know if that was the last time, 10 years ago, that I touched a shopping cart.
It could be.
Oh, that's right.
That's right.
I've been to Publix in the last 10 years.
I do remember, and the cashier couldn't believe I was in there.
And that was in the last 10 years.
But I may not have used a shopping cart.
Might have gone to that, you know, the express lane 10 items or less just to get out of there.
See you Monday, folks.
▲
Export Selection