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March 4, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:33
March 4, 2011, Friday, Hour #2
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Greetings, welcome back, Rushland Boss, serving humanity, executing assigned host duties flawlessly on Friday.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida, it's open live Friday.
And once again, here's the number.
You want to call and appear on the program, 800-282-2882 email address.
El Rushbo at EIBnet.com.
I have a question for you, and a real question.
It is not often that I admit what I'm going to admit.
It's only because it doesn't require me to admit it.
There's very little that I will admittedly not know.
So when there is something that I don't know, it is somewhat of a red flag moment, somewhat unique.
Maybe someone in this audience will have the answer to the question.
How does the Department of Labor decide that people have given up looking for work?
And how do they know how many people that number is?
This is important to know since it's how they decide to drop people out of the workforce and make the workforce smaller.
Now, maybe somebody out there knows the answer to this.
I have seen it suggested that it used to be if you were out of work for more than two years, you were considered to have given up looking for work.
I've also heard it said that when your unemployment benefits expire, that they then consider you to have dropped out of the workforce.
But we're now paying unemployment benefits 99 weeks.
And I really don't know how this number is calculated.
And that can't be the yardstick anyway, if it ever was, because even how do you know once the last month of unemployment benefits have been used, how do you know the person is still not looking for work?
Is it just something that they figure?
They just assume it.
That after all of the unemployment benefits have been spent, if they've been paid, granted, what have you, they then just take those people out of the workforce?
In the past, jobless reports from the AP, for instance, they have often tacked on this paragraph at the end.
The unemployment rate fell as more people out of work gave up on their job searches and left the labor force.
People who are no longer looking for work aren't counted as unemployed.
Now, that's a very handy technique, but how do they know what the number is?
In other words, we have U3.
The U3 unemployment number is today 8.9%.
The U6 number is around 16 to 17%.
And it consists of those people who are out of work and who have given up looking.
But how do they know?
How does the Department of Labor decide people have given up looking for work?
It can't be person-to-person interviews.
No, snurdley, I did not find out the answer to my question yesterday.
Well, if somebody sent me the answer, I didn't see it, but I didn't have a lot of time to scour email last night, so I don't know if I got the answer.
The question yesterday was, and it's silly, But it goes back to the days I had to do my own laundry.
It goes back to the days when my mother did my way and played little league baseball, got grass stains.
My mother could never get the grass stains out of there.
And yet every day the St. Louis Cardinals uniforms were spick and span clean after blood, dirt, mud, gunk, who knows what, tobacco juice?
Look brand new.
It's all rooted around how come there's stuff that some people can get to clean their clothes that you can't find anywhere, that you can't find anywhere.
So I simply wanted to know, how do these football teams on Sunday look like they're wearing brand spanking new uniforms?
And I did get one guy said they are rushed.
These are NFL teams.
These are sports.
They new uniforms every week.
No, they're not.
I know this.
When I worked for the Kansas City Royals, players got two home jerseys and two road jerseys.
That's it.
And they would patch the pants.
They would actually sew patches into the pants.
You can't see it.
You might be able to now on HD if you get a close enough shot.
But no, they're not brand new every game, particularly in baseball.
But even in football, they're not.
So, no, I didn't get an answer to it.
It's a silly question anyway, but it's rooted in the fact I like to be able to get things that are not widely available.
Like, I don't know, I just got a big thrill out of being able to get coconut oil when nobody can.
Now it's available, but you can get coconut oil at Walmart now, and I probably am one of the reasons why.
There probably wasn't a demand for it.
But I'm one of these weirdo guys.
Popcorn in the movie theater is better than anywhere else.
And no matter what I did, I was never able to make it taste that way at home.
So I wanted to find out what was different about it.
Most people couldn't care less.
I, El Rushbo, did care.
I went out and I found out what it was.
It was coconut oil.
And it took me a number of years because most everybody I would ask had no clue what I was even talking about.
That's how I think it has to do with, dare I say this, I am profoundly curious about those things that interest me.
Now, the things I don't care about, I couldn't care less about in real terms.
But those things that interest me, I have an insatiable curiosity.
And I'm interested in a lot of things.
And I also have a thirst and quest for knowledge overall.
I'm kind of like the Kennedys, you know, who prided themselves on getting Cuban cigars after they implemented the embargo.
Well, it's a well-known fact among cigar aficionados that JFK sent his aides out to pick up as many Cuban cigars as possible in the thousands when he decided he was going to embargo products from Cuba so that he would have some before the embargo went into effect.
Well, snurdly, if I had the power to do that, I'd do it too.
I most certainly would.
Like the iPad 2.
The iPad 2 has got this new feature called video mirroring.
Video mirror with 1080p output.
Video mirroring allows you to connect an AV adapter to a new port that's only available in the iPad 2.
And virtually everything on your screw, whatever's on your iPad screen, you can watch on a television set, regardless how big or how small on a projector or what have you.
It's not wireless.
It's wired.
Though I have already instructed my AV guys to start drilling under my floors to drill up, to make it possible to connect the wires to be able to do this.
Because I can't wait to be sitting in front of my 16-foot HD screen in my media room and looking at what's on my iPad.
I'll be able to play 720p movie at 1020 out.
So a little bit of upconvert, if I want to go that way, if I want to do it.
Or whatever.
A web page or pictures that I've taken, put them up there.
As I'm using the iPad, this is different from AirPlay, which comes from iTunes.
This is actually out from the iPad.
And the iPad comes out on March 11th.
Well, that's when they start taking orders for it or selling it.
Now, you know me.
I'm angling behind the scenes.
How can I get one on March 10th?
I mean, after all, I'm a powerful, influential media.
So I must have 15 people out there trying to get their hands on an iPad.
That's just like I wanted to know what made movie popcorn taste the way it did.
I'm just trying to get hold of these things.
And it's like this, the unemployment number.
How do they know?
You know, we can sit here and accept the fact, okay, people have stopped looking for work.
How do they know?
It's the government.
I want to know how they know.
I've never seen that explained.
Maybe some of you in the audience know how the number is arrived at.
Is it a wild guess?
Is it an estimate?
And the reason I want to know this right now is because remember that magic number of 8%, no president except FDR has ever been re-elected with the unemployment number over 8%.
That's why 8%'s magic.
Here, let's go to the audio sound device.
I'll show you what I'm talking about.
That 8% being magic.
The drive-by is all excited.
They're orgasmic over this now.
Audio sound by three.
First, a montage here of state-run media glee over this jobs report today.
This is CNN breaking news.
The February jobs report.
We have very good news.
Finally, the unemployment rate fell to 8.9%.
Wow.
Music to the ears, isn't it?
So unemployment rate dropped.
A good thing, two months in a row.
Jobs numbers are out and they bring some good news.
It's good to break that barrier of 9%.
Unequivocally, a good report.
This is an excellent, excellent report.
Great, great news on the jobs from a strong jobs report.
The February number shows the job market is really at a turning point.
8.9% to political number.
That's very good for President Obama.
Yeah, that's all that matters.
It's a good number for President Obama.
Did you hear that at the beginning?
I was Allie Vittelshi at CNN.
This is CNN breaking news.
Unemployment, 8.9%.
Yeah, let's have a party.
Dow Jones Industrial Average down 159.
Why?
I explained that in the first hour.
This is such great news.
How come people with skin in the game are getting out of the market today?
I'll repeat it very quickly.
More employment means more demand on energy and gasoline, higher gas prices, not good.
And a higher interest rates or rising interest rates, not good when interest rates for lending institutions have been around zero.
So it's a significant change.
That's why this is not inspiring.
It's a lot of confidence.
Now, here's Rick Santelli on CNBC Squawkbox today during a discussion about the unemployment rate.
Got a question here from one of their reporters.
This seems pretty much in line with what the expectations are for the Federal Reserve here, right, Rick?
In terms of the unemployment rate, our panel's a lot smarter about all the algorithms and the calculations than I am.
But with the baseline shifts and the revisions, you know, I think U6 is good news.
But the ebbing and flowing, I just can't be as happy breaking the 9% as I would have been if this had occurred before last month with all the changes to these numbers.
I've lost my GPS.
I think the unemployment rate's a very disingenuous piece of information.
No conspiracy.
It's just the way they do it.
Now, what he's talking about here, he would rather see this 8.9% a few months ago.
That's before they started just arbitrarily reducing the number of jobs available.
That's what he's talking about.
And we had the story yesterday from IBD.
Job openings are down 30%.
Job openings, meaning available jobs, down 30%.
Well, if we're going to take the total job universe number, reduce it by 30%, of course it's going to appear that more people are working, particularly if you add 192,000 jobs.
So he, you know, he's covered himself here.
No conspiracy, no conspiracy.
That's just the way that, well, there is one.
If you ask me, if you're in a strict definition of conspiracy, people have gotten together and conspired here to have some good news reported.
Fine and dandy.
But central to it is the number of people who have stopped looking for work.
Maybe they do it following Oprah's ratings.
Oprah's ratings go down, fewer people looking for work.
I don't know.
There's got to be an answer.
If Oprah's ratings have gone up, then there are more people who have given up looking for work.
If Oprah's ratings have gone down, then there are more people who are looking for work.
Meaning Oprah's show is less interesting to people.
I've got to find something to do during the day and watch Oprah, which means maybe go out, find a job.
Open Line Friday, back to the phones we go to Syrick Hughes, Indiana.
Chris, welcome.
Nice to have you on the EIB network.
Hi, Rush.
You probably could have gotten those grass stains out with peroxide, and white vinegar takes out underarm or perspiration stains for future references.
All right, thank you very much.
Yes, I'm calling because I'm a 30-year trade unionist.
I've called you before, but I was at the end of the program and we got cut off.
Especially, well, I'm calling because I just get a little upset about your references to unionists.
They're so degrading, for loss of a better word.
I think you likened us to the Muslim Brotherhood.
I found that one to be a little distasteful.
I mean, I was in a union for 30 years.
I served as a steward, president, executive board member, job classification member, safety committee person.
And unions mirror our own democracy with constitution and bylaws that go.
We have executive branch of our union.
My particular union was an international union.
It's also in Canada.
And quite frankly, a majority of the vets coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq are first in line for apprenticeship programs through the IBEW.
Our union is a wonderful organization.
I didn't pay much in union dues.
I educated myself, and I worked my job for 30 years until they took it to Mexico.
I'm curious as to what conservatives like yourself believe that our economy will be when Wall Street moguls can pull down millions and no one rides them over the amount of money they make as if they were to earn it.
But school teachers who make $60,000 a year is absolutely ridiculous.
I mean, I can remember the CEO from Home Depot.
He still got all his benefits when they took him out, even though Home Depot had abysmal stock ratings.
You know, it was just unbelievable.
And yet he still walked away with a golden parachute, you know.
And I recall the media talking about these gentlemen from Wall Street and how they had a contract with them.
It just stymies me that the first part of the working agreement, any working agreement, discusses management's rights.
And management's rights are pretty profound.
And if you've ever arbitrated anything, you would know that it's quite difficult to go up against management's rights.
And what unions do is they level the playing ground, the playing field.
They allow workers to have a voice within.
But I've known many, many unions, my own, in fact, tell me that a grievance wasn't viable.
It couldn't be arbitrated.
You couldn't win it based on the facts.
And you never hear that kind of stuff in the media.
You know, they make unions sound like every member of a union is a mobster.
It's galling to listen to that.
Does OxyClean also get blood out of uniforms?
Have you ever used OxyClean?
OxyClean is a, I think it's a dried form of hydrogen peroxide.
Okay.
I'll try that too.
It's a hydrogen bubble.
Well, I've tried that and it hasn't worked.
Anyway, it's really gotten me bugged.
Hydrogen peroxide.
OxyClean is supposed to be that, but you can use hydrogen.
No offense to Billy Mays here.
And I don't know if he was a union performer or not.
But anyway, well, okay, I'll try OxyClean, too.
Hydrogen peroxide directly on, but you don't have anything, any kind of, you don't have any discussion with me about my union bent?
Oh, no, I'd be happy.
I'll be happy to.
Here's the you want to know where I'm coming from.
When I look at the country today, any business that is in huge trouble, when there is any kind of cultural problem going on in the workplace, I find a union.
There's a union present.
Oh, that's an irrational generalization, and you know that.
Well, no, I don't know that it's an irrational generalization.
I have an intrinsic problem here with, you know, you're talking about how unions are democratized within and so forth and so on.
That's fine.
Here, hang on through the break, and I'll explain this to you.
And we are back with Chris from Syracuse, Indiana, a self-described unionista.
Happy to hear you have you on the program here again, Chris.
Now, let me first say that you sound like you're in the private sector, that your union was so great that your company closed and moved to Mexico.
My company would have closed and moved to Mexico anyway at the time.
And keep in mind, I did it for 30 years.
But at the time, my government was giving many manufacturing facilities tax abatements to move not just jobs to Mexico, but to China also.
I believe that started in the Reagan administration.
And as a labor historian, I also, like I said, I've been doing this for 30 years.
Let me just ask you some basic questions then because we could spend all day on this.
And the context for the recent discussions of unions has been state public sector unions.
And it is those people that are defacing the monuments and so forth in Wisconsin that I might have compared to Muslim Brotherhood.
I don't know if I made the comparison, but I'm not.
If I did, I did.
If I didn't, I didn't know.
Point is that these public sector unions are, if they're, if every well, any union.
If they're so great, why doesn't everybody demand one at their workplace?
Because when there was, I know this.
Why it's?
You talked about how democratic they are.
Why do you require everybody to send their dues to one location to get shipped off to the Democrat Party?
A union shop requires you to be a member to work.
What's democratic about that?
Because you're collectively bargaining for everyone.
When you collectively bargain, I can't say, listen, I don't want to give you any contractual rights because you didn't pay your union dues.
That's not the way it works.
Rush, if Wall Street was regulated like unions are regulated in this country, we wouldn't have had the debacle.
That's how well regulated unions are by the federal government.
I know every look at every problem in this country today can be traced to liberalism.
Unions are socialist in their structure.
They are socialist in their politics.
They are socialist in their practice.
Uh, state governments up until recent elections have been run by liberal Democrat government and in Wisconsin we got a mess.
In Wisconsin.
We never hear about the previous Democrat governor, Jim Doyle.
We never hear about the mess that he's left for poor old Rick Walker to have to clear up here, uh it's it's, this is this, is this, is unsustainable.
What's going on?
You have public sector union workers earning twice what the people paying them are earning.
Uh, and it it's it's uh, it's destructive and their avowed purpose is not being met.
These, these teachers, say it's all about the children.
It's not.
We got a statement from the Retiring NET National Education Association saying our effectiveness has nothing to do with what we do for the kids, has nothing to do with anything but our power.
They said Wall Street being unregulated for crying out loud, Wall Street this, this whole business with the subprime mortgage business.
I'm going to try to put this to bed once and for all.
I had somebody argue with me about this yesterday and it must mean that we've hit pay dirt here, because there is an ongoing effort here to try to convince people that what we're saying about it is incorrect.
The bottom line is, Wall Street was made under the force of threat by Janet Reno and the Clint Administration to make loans to people who couldn't pay them back.
That led us to where we are.
Fannie Mae, Freddie MAC and those people on Wall Street were forced and threatened by government with investigations and who knows what else.
So they had to make these worthless loans.
They're capitalists.
They had to find some way to make value out of, out of something that had no value.
So ergo, a vicious cycle began to try to create value where none existed, and that's these.
People have fiduciary responsibility to themselves, their stockholders, Shareholders and all the rest.
I look at the union situation, the public sector union situation in this country, and all I see is destruction.
All I see is lack of productivity.
All I see is a me, me, me mentality, a demand, demand, demand mentality, an unwillingness to share in any sacrifice, an unwillingness to acknowledge any role in the problems that we face today.
We don't have the money to pay these people.
We don't have the money to pay them what they're earning.
You know, collective bargaining collective is fine and dandy what it is.
If you don't like what you make as a teacher, leave and go to the private sector and try to improve yourself.
I've made the point about collective bargaining.
It's all well and good if you know what you're getting into, but by definition, you are treated no differently.
How well you do your job is irrelevant.
You can do it twice as good as the person next to you.
You ain't going to matter.
You could be twice as poor in your job performance.
It isn't going to matter.
You're going to get what the contract says.
You cease being an individual.
And as such, your desires as an individual human being have to be subordinated and placed on hold to that of the whole.
It sounds like socialism to me.
It sounds like you just end up as an employee number, which believe me, I think is what this regime would like.
I mean, Obama would love for me to be media employee number 2534 at G Schedule 4B and have that be as much known about me as possible and anybody else.
Faceless, personality-less, just a bunch of cogs in a wheel with the people running the show getting the spoils.
Except the big difference is they're not producing anything.
The people you rail against in the private sector, you talk about Home Depot and all you, they made something.
They produced something.
They engaged in the growth of gross domestic product.
They did something other than just engineer a transfer of wealth, a redistribution of wealth.
And that's what unions are doing, particularly these public sector unions, about whom we are having the discussion lately.
Name for me.
I mean, where a public sector union is involved, name for me something run well.
Where is there a U.S. company unionized that's doing well?
Where is it?
Where is there a state government that's showing a profit or breaking even?
You can't.
Union regulated?
The SEIU, Service Employees International Union, regulated?
They go out and beat up people at tea party protests.
The regulated organized crime union links, Jimmy Hoffa, you ever heard of him?
Regulations that unions have?
I like to see them in Wisconsin.
What regulations are there?
Teamsters regulated?
Look, you're 30 years in the union.
You're a historian.
You obviously love it.
And that's fine and dandy to each his own.
But don't tell us it's something that it's not.
And don't blame the private sector or public for your plight.
You know, we're all responsible for what happens to us.
Some people are willing to accept it.
Some people want to slough it off onto somebody else or a different group of people.
Who's next?
Jay in Hayward, Wisconsin.
Great to have you on the program, sir.
Hello.
Hi, Rush.
Mucky Capital of the World dittos.
I have a sit-rep or situation report from Wisconsin.
Apparently, the teachers' unions are contacting the school boards and graciously offering to extend their contracts for two years as long as they can remain the same.
So I think the writing is somewhat on the wall now.
I don't understand.
Teachers' unions contacting school boards and graciously offering to extend their contracts for two years as long as they could remain the so how does this relate to what's happening now?
Oh, I think that they're saying they're writing on the law.
I mean, it eventually has to come to a conclusion here.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Okay, so they're trying to lock in the deals they have now.
Yeah, because they're trying to lock in the deals before things eventually will change.
Oh, I see what you mean.
But that's just going to be temporary.
Everybody's going to get caught up in the chat.
But who are they negotiating these extended contracts with?
Well, they negotiate with the school districts or the boards, individual boards, the school boards.
Okay.
Where's the governor in this equation?
Well, they give them the privilege for collective bargaining and things.
But the word is on the street that they're trying to lengthen the contracts as they exist.
Figuring that they're going to lose, probably lose this battle.
Okay, well, that makes sense.
I'm having.
I'm going to have to look into this because there's a piece of the equation that doesn't fit if this is actually happening.
Yeah, that's what I was driving up to Hayward.
That's the word on the radio.
Everybody was calling in about that.
But I have a question for you, Rudge.
Yeah, what's that?
What do Ted Williams and Gypsy Rose Lee have in common?
What does Gypsy Rose Lee have in common with who?
Ted Williams, the baseball player.
I have no idea.
Well, they both enjoy musky fishing.
And so up here in Hayward, we're the muskie capital of the world.
So if you're looking for a new sport, get tired of golf, come on musky fishing.
It's a great sport.
I appreciate that.
I had no idea that Gypsy Rose Lee fished.
We'll be back.
Don't go away.
Welcome back, Open Line Friday.
Rushman Ball to Michael in Ocean County, New Jersey.
Welcome to the EIB Network.
Hello.
Hello.
Can I try and answer maybe your question on that?
How do they know the number of unemployed?
Yeah.
How do they know the number of people who've given up looking?
Okay, I was thinking about it when you said, how about your social security number?
Once you're not paying taxes, okay, and your social security number is not being used for the social security tax that you pay into Social Security.
As long as that's not showing up on their computers, you're completely out of the system.
That makes any sense?
Well, it still doesn't say whether you're looking for a job or not.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, my next point was: did you happen to catch that press conference yesterday?
No, it happened at the same time the program was going on, and it was up here and I was reading parts of it on closed captioning.
The first press conference I think I've ever seen because you had the first, I think it was an AP reporter, asked the president about Qaddafi in Libya and a no-fly zone where he instate it.
Then his second question was the football strike, possible strike.
Well, the president skips over first.
Oh, yeah, we made mention of that.
He took the football.
It was in the last hour near the end of the program.
He took the football question first.
And then you had the Mexican reporter more or less ask the president how come he doesn't do like the Mexican president does and veto like the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.
And then Barack Obama kind of looked a little strange at the guy and had to go on and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.
Did he appear uncomfortable defending the country?
I think you had to look at his face when the guy asked the question.
It was almost like, oh, you know, like, oh my God.
Obama's probably sitting there saying, you mean the Mexican president could just veto an amendment?
Cool.
Why can't I do that?
It was the strangest question I think I've ever seen in one of these press conferences.
It almost looked like the guy was trying to set the president up to like, oh, yeah, you know, maybe, you know, we should veto something.
It just seemed very weird yesterday.
It was.
Yesterday was a totally weird day in any number of ways.
But the president didn't want to go near the no-fly zone.
He didn't.
In fact, yesterday we had the story out of Libya that people on the ground requesting the no-fly zone were begging for Bush 41 with this big long story.
And if you go halfway through the story, the protesters on the ground in Libya are asking for Bush to do something because Obama wouldn't.
Obama went on to say he would do everything he could to restrict gun purchases in this country.
He did say that to the Mexican reporter.
In the meantime, folks, there's a, I've got this story for, it's down in the stack today.
Apparently, the U.S. government had a policy to willingly allow AK-47s and other guns to flow into Mexico unobstructed.
ICE agents, border agents were told, one of them has gone public now, one of them's blowing the whistle because he didn't understand the policy and doesn't understand it.
And he's put his neck out there, stuck his neck on the line, put his head on the line, stuck his neck out by going public with the policy.
They were to look the other way.
Guns were to be allowed into Mexico.
These guns ended up in the hands of drug cartels and others and have been used to kill Americans.
American guns allowed to go into Mexico.
And we keep hearing about guns coming into Mexico, but one of the reasons they're coming in is because they're leaving this country first.
And this guy went on, I said, I have to understand the policy.
Why are we doing this?
And he was told the reason we're doing it is so we can track the movement.
We want to see where these guns actually end up and what route they take to get here.
And the guy is saying, well, fine and dandy, but why are we providing the guns in the first place?
They're being used against Americans.
Dead ICE agent, for example.
I'll find that story here at the top of the hour break and I'll get the exact info and the details when we commence in the next hour.
Washington Post, among the findings of a sweeping federal government survey of American sexual behavior is one that may surprise those bewailing a permissive and Euro-soaked popular culture.
More than 25% of people interviewed in their late teens and early 20s had never had sex.
The latest round of the quaintly named National Survey of Family Growth found that among 15 to 24-year-olds, 29% of women, 27% of males reported no sexual contact with another person ever, up from 22% of both sexes when the survey was last conducted in 2002.
So 25% of Americans between 15 to 24 are practicing abstinence.
The latest survey, seventh and latest survey, first done in 73 provides this.
Many, many young people have been very receptive to the message of delaying sexual activity.
There's no doubt about it.
He added nearly 40% reduction in teen pregnancy since the 1990s, which experts attribute to both increased condom use and increased abstinence represents extraordinary progress on a social issue that many once considered intractable.
So that's 25% of the kids are practicing abstinence.
Or there's a lot of sex in the woods that nobody's seeing or talking about.
Who knows?
But it's still an interesting number.
Bad news for NASA.
A rocket carrying an Earth observation satellite is in the Pacific Ocean rather than in orbit.
The Taurus XL rocket carrying the Glory satellite lifted off around 2.10 this morning, Pacific time, from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
It was supposed to measure global warming.
Supposed to measure particles up there and how they affected global warming.
This is the second such crash, the second failure of a NASA satellite to make orbit to measure global warming stuff.
Now, I have a theory about this.
I have a theory.
Well, they can now continue the lie without having direct controvertible evidence that they are spreading a lie.
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