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March 18, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:54
March 18, 2011, Friday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
All right.
Yesterday, they told me they should call a program Open Line Stupid.
Somebody said, why don't you just do Monologue Wednesday to go along with Open Line Friday?
This is Open Line Friday.
Remember, folks, great minds come together to meet and discuss things.
But you never know, it could be Open Line Friday.
Open Line Stupid, Open Line Bomb.
We never know.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida, it's Open Line Friday.
We hope for the best at all times.
Great to have you with us.
Telephone numbers 800-282-2882.
The email address, El Rushbo at EIBNet.com.
The latest word out of Libya is that Muamm Qaddafi declared an immediate ceasefire.
Once somebody threatened to do something, a no-fly zone or what have you.
Gaddafi declared an immediate ceasefire, but Libyan forces are still attacking the rebels.
In fact, current attacks are the biggest so far, according to the rebels.
They're so bad that even Secretary of State Clinton says that it's not quite clear Gaddafi is keeping his word.
I'm not making that up.
Qaddafi claims a ceasefire, then launches bigger attacks than ever on the rebels.
And Mrs. Clinton says it's not clear that Gaddafi is keeping his word.
Now, not that that's really a shock.
If you can't trust Muamar Gaddafi, who can you trust?
If ever a guy had an honest face, where do you maybe the forces just didn't get the memo?
What, the rebel forces just didn't get the memo?
Our Qaddafi force.
Well, the point, you know, we laugh about this, and Mrs. Clinton's over there.
The full face of this thing, by the way, she's acting as president.
I have to tell you on this, but she is.
She's taking questions.
She's acting as, and even who is it?
Jamie Rubin, who was, you know, Mr. Christiana Manpur, says that she tired woman.
She is a tired woman.
And he gives us reasons why.
All that's coming up in an audio soundbite here in just a moment.
But I mean, folks, it really, as we told you yesterday, the rebels, who are they?
I mean, let's look at it.
Suppose the rebels are the Muslim Brotherhood.
It is a fascinating thing.
Whose side do you choose here?
It's not altogether clear.
Do we sit around and want to openly help establish Middle Eastern regimes that are hostile to us?
No, we don't, but obviously we don't, but are we in the process of doing that?
Only time will tell.
Al-Arabiya, quoting medical sources, says 25 people are dead in a bombardment of the Libyan city of Misrata after Qaddafi forces ignored the ceasefire.
It's clear that he had faked them.
A doctor in Libya's Misrata says government forces are still shelling the city.
25 people killed.
Gaddafi's forces bombing the city with artillery shells and tanks.
25 people dead at the hospital, including several little girls, the doctor said by satellite phone.
And then an update: Gaddafi forces shell West Libya's Misrata, 25 dead.
It just continues to pour in.
And Mrs. Clinton says not at all clear if the Libyan ceasefire announcement is being matched by actions on the ground.
What a way to...
Now, she's obviously learned diplomatic speak.
Not at all clear if Libya's ceasefire announcement being matched by actions on the ground.
At any rate, by the way, I don't know if you've noticed it or not, folks.
This is the kind of thing you might not notice is why I'm here.
I do notice these kinds of things.
More and more associated press stories are unbylined.
Have you noticed it, Sterdley?
Have you wondered why?
Well, no, no, it's not.
It's not.
Gosh, I love you, Sterdley.
He thinks that everything that happens is because of me, one way or the other, that my influence is so complete.
No, what's happening here?
AP's reporters are withholding their bylines to show their displeasure in an ongoing labor dispute between the AP and its union staffers.
There's a union argument going on.
The union has been fighting AP management for months, and we haven't heard one word about it in the watchdog media.
It's really great to have a free press, but there is a union dispute going on.
Also, ladies and gentlemen, a Wisconsin judge has issued a temporary restraining order blocking the state's new collective bargaining law from taking effect.
Dane County Judge Marianne Sumi issued the order today to temporarily block the law as the district attorney Ismail Ozan, a Democrat, had requested.
Ozan file a lawsuit contending that a legislative committee that broke a stalemate that had kept the law in limbo for me for weeks met without the 24-hour notice required by Wisconsin's open meetings law.
The Republican-controlled legislature, as you know, passed the measure.
Walker signed it last week.
A spokesman for Scott Fitzgerald, who was the majority leader, declined to comment, citing the legal fight.
Messages left for comment when Walker spokesman were not immediately returned.
Now, Mary Ann Sumi is a liberal Democrat, according to left-wing Wisconsin blogs.
Not surprising.
None of this is surprising.
Temporary restraining order blocking the state's new and contentious AP says it's contentious collective bargaining law from taking effect.
Well, there is a course of action that Governor Walker could take here.
And in so doing, ladies and gentlemen, he would be following in the footsteps of President Obama, and that is simply just ignore the judge's ruling.
I wonder what would happen if he did.
If Governor Walker just ignored the ruling, Obama is ignoring a federal judge's ruling that the entire Obama care is unconstitutional.
He's just ignoring it.
He's ignoring the drilling moratorium, the lifting of the moratorium.
He's ignoring that.
But I'm going to have to dig deeper on this.
It's a state legislative issue, but how do you block legislation?
How do you get a judge to issue a temporary injunction against legislation?
Isn't that a violation of separation of powers, even within the state?
These are just obvious.
Of course, the left doesn't care about any of these things when it's issues such as theirs at stake.
Speaking of oil and moratoriums, the U.S. Interior Department said yesterday that it has given final approval for Petrobras, the Mexican oil company, to use the first ever deep water floating production storage facility in the Gulf of Mexico.
The facility will be used when the company begins oil and natural gas production at its Chinook Cascade project in the near future, departments at Petrobras based in Brazil, of course.
So a Brazilian company that is already profiting from Obama's illegal drilling moratorium.
We can't drill here, but they are drilling in the Gulf, and they have found a huge deposit of oil.
A Brazilian company is going to profit some more from their work in the Gulf.
Petrobras has enjoyed a very cozy relationship with Obama because Soros is a big investor of Petrobras and supporter of Obama.
U.S. is reported to be backing loans to Petrobras for more offshore drilling.
Remember that story?
We're backing something like $10 billion in loans for Brazil to continue to drill.
This is why, folks, this is why the questions are raised.
If he hates oil, and if it's not the energy of the future, why is he helping Brazil and other nations, Mexico and the Chinese, why is he helping them, lending them money and not stopping them on any environmental regulation?
Why is he not stopping any of these other countries from drilling and stopping us?
This question is what's leading to the answers that people come up with.
And maybe he's got chip on his shoulder about this country.
What could possibly be the reason for bending over backwards or forwards or whatever to let every other nation in our region go get as much oil as they can and put moratoriums on domestic companies and domestic production?
Now, this is storage for oil.
Obama has allowed storage to use the first ever deep water floating production storage facility.
This guy doesn't like offshore platforms, but this is the first of its kind, a deep water floating production storage facility.
Obama has said, fine, Petrobras, go ahead and do it.
If there's no risk to the environment if they leak, this is what the regime is saying.
Apparently, Brazilian-drilled oil is good for the environment, I guess.
Unlike oil drilled by companies the U.S. might profit from, I guess Brazilian oil is fine.
It doesn't hurt if it leaks.
It's all very curious.
And as I say, it's what leads people to question the motives and the intentions of this president.
Now, back to the Middle East for just a second, because when I offered my theorem here that could it be the rebels in Libya are in fact the Muslim Brotherhood, we know that they probably are supported by al-Qaeda.
The Iranians are involved in supporting rebels in other parts of the Middle East.
Let's say, and my friend Andy McCarthy has raised this point, let's say that these rebels do represent the Muslim Brotherhood or Iran or Al-Qaeda, and they are engaged in trying to get rid of Gaddafi.
Are we doing their dirty work?
Now, this is something that has to be considered.
We had a very long, drawn-out discussion yesterday about U.S. national interests, why it takes incredibly deep, intelligent, responsible people to make these kinds of judgments.
We can topple the regime in Libya if we want to, but what would follow Qaddafi?
If it's the Muslim Brotherhood, then make no mistake, we are advancing Sharia law.
We are helping the advance of Sharia law.
We are empowering Iran.
We are handing an oil-rich country over to a theologically driven crime syndicate.
If, if, if all these other circumstances exist, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, place is on fire.
Terrorists are building one hell of a stronghold in the Middle East.
And what are we playing the role of enabler, wittingly or unwittingly?
Very serious questions.
Now, if we control, see, this is where it comes down to what we talked about yesterday.
I hope you were with us about the decency, the dominance, the preeminence, the moral standing of the United States.
If we control who takes over post-Qadhafi Libya, and if they are friendly to our values, then fine, we're all in.
But if the outcome is beyond our control, if we're just engaging in this because we have a regime which sees any rebel as an oppressed minority, and if we have a regime that sees any minority as justified existing or overcoming tyranny or what have you, simply because they're minorities, and don't discount that,
we have a lot of people in place here.
You could have a minority of the worst scum on earth, and you got people to be sympathetic to them simply because they're a minority and they think minorities are given excrement sandwiches every day, and it's about time that the majority doing all this to them paid a price.
There are people who live in this regime, leftists who have that as an operating principle.
Minorities traditionally treated like dung.
Must elevate them, whatever they are and whoever they are.
Now, if we can't control the outcome of what happens, then we might be fighting or at least maneuvering here to secure a platform for an enemy that is perpetually at war with Western civilization and funded by vast natural resources like oil.
How many of you in the Egypt thing automatically bought the notion that that crowd in the street was made up of oppressed poor people who just want to be free, just like you, and they had been oppressed and they'd had the jack-booted thugs sit on them and repress them all of these years, and they're just decent, fine, ordinary people, and they're freedom fighters.
That was an image that was created and presented.
What if they're not?
What if it is the Muslim Brotherhood?
What if it is a bunch of people trying to overthrow so-called peaceful to the United States regimes and establish this so-called caliphate?
I don't know.
It's tricky.
It's really tricky.
And when you have people in a regime like ours that just knee-jerk react in support of any minority simply because they're a minority, that can be scary.
By the way, folks, with this UN resolution on the no-fly zone, the U.S. now owns the Libyan crisis, not the United Nations.
We own it.
Whatever happens from here on out is ours.
And if things go from bad to worse, it'll be us who is blamed, not the United Nations, not the French, not the Brits, probably not even Obama, actually, but the Hawks in the U.S., the people who have been demanding, if something goes wrong, this has been the way this has been manipulated.
I don't know, where's Code Pink?
You know, they were all over Egypt.
I haven't seen them in Libya.
Now, one of the things about Petrobras that you have to, I didn't make this clear because it's a little bit confusing.
The regime, the Obama administration has given permission to Petrobras to have a floating underwater storage facility in the Gulf of Mexico that'll hold 80,000 barrels of oil and 16 million cubic feet of gas.
A floating underwater storage facility.
No worries about leakage, no problem.
We have to shut down our Gulf drilling because of a fire on board a rig.
But we okay a floating underwater storage facility.
Well, since it's a Brazilian company which has gotten heavy investments from George Soros, apparently there are no possible risks to the environment here.
It just seems like all the obstacles that this administration seeks to place in people's way happen to be in the way of the United States.
And again, Wisconsin judge has issued a temporary restraining order blocking Wisconsin's new and contentious, AP says, collective bargaining law, from taking effect.
And I'm still curious.
I need to, when I get some time here, figure out how that can happen.
My first gut reaction, wait a minute, where's the separation of powers?
How can a judge a temporary injunction on the legislation, even within a state?
Has to be a separation of powers doctrine in the state of Wisconsin.
So we'll check it out.
Not surprising they would try it.
Have it granted is another thing.
Be right back, folks.
Here's the story out of Wisconsin from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Dane County Circuit Judge Mary Ann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order today barring the publication of this new law that would sharply curtail collective bargaining for public employees.
Sumi's order will prevent the Secretary of State Douglas Follett from publishing the law until she can rule on the merits of the case.
Ismail Ozani is seeking to block the law because he says these says the legislative committee violated the state's open meetings law.
Sumi and Ozan will likely, or said Ozan was likely to succeed on the merits.
The judge said that the challenge likely to succeed on the merits seems to me the public policy behind effective enforcement of the open meeting law is so strong that it does outweigh the interest, at least at this time, which may exist in favor of sustaining the validity of the law, said the judge.
The judge's finding, at least for now, is a setback to Governor Walker and a victory for the opponents who've spent weeks in the Capitol to protest the bill.
Remember, we had the audio yesterday's teachers leading students in an anti-walker chant.
Hey, hey, ho, ho, Scott Walker's got to go.
Can we get rid of the myth once and for all that school teachers anymore are these just your average ordinary, as Obama wants to say, next-door neighbors who are just doing everything they can to further the educational experience of your children?
That's not who they are.
They are left-wing activists, active members of unions who are oriented first by a political agenda, second by their own well-being, and your kids come last.
Can we just get that out in the open?
And it's been apparent since this whole thing started.
Now taking these little students and turning them into pawns to advance the teacher and the union agenda.
And it's all about, you know, I know I'm going to get in trouble for this, but it's all about people who know full well that they're getting a deal their states can't afford.
Being paid for by people who aren't earning half as much as what they are paying these public sector employees.
So what we saw the protests in this state, we've seen them in Greece.
We're going to see it in Ohio and Indiana.
And it's a moment of truth.
It's a moment of truth in defining what kind of country we're going to be going forward.
Are we finally going to put the foot down and say there's going to have to be some reason and sensible action behavior here on how public sector employees are paid?
Or is the country going to exist?
Are the taxpayers of this country going to have as their first responsibility the lifestyle support of public sector union members?
Is that the primary reason for the existence of taxpayers?
Could these people who are making what they're making as a result of state and federal taxes, could they earn that money in the private sector on their own?
Do they have the skills?
Do they have the talent?
Could they?
Do they have the ability to even do what they're doing now reasonably well?
You see them leading these teacher students in these protests.
Let's throw out the window here this Norman Rockwell version of Miss Carter in the second grade with the little students bringing in the apple.
Hi, Miss Carter.
Hi, Miss Carter.
I'm ready for my math testing.
It's not what's going on.
The whole educational system's been co-opted by people who have found an easy way to a good living.
And they realize it and they don't want to give it up without a fight.
It's always about the money, particularly from people on the left who claim they're motivated by everything but money.
They're motivated by good intentions, by their big hearts.
They're inspired and motivated by their desire for good works.
It's always about the money and as easy a money as they can get.
Yeah, let's form a nonprofit.
Let's form a little charity here.
We'll start asking people to donate to our cause and we'll siphon some of it off and call it salary and that'll be our living.
And we'll convince people we're oriented toward good works and a good cause.
I would like, I know this is probably not possible.
I would like somehow to have a calculation on how many people in this country actually work for a living rather than siphon for a living.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the number of people actually working for a living is decreasing.
And the number of people who siphon for a living is rising because it's considered easy money.
And along the way, you automatically get to call yourself an expert.
Yeah, all you got to do is start a foundation.
All you got to do is start a 501c3 or whatever.
Start asking for donations for the purpose of your cause.
You only have to give away 10% every year of what you donate.
The rest you can take, salaries, expenses, or what have you.
You know how some of the charities, you've seen the numbers on the net that actually ends up going to the so-called cause.
Which is why, by the way, all the charities we associate with on this program are basically pass-throughs.
9,500% dollars go to where you intend the donation to go.
So a county judge can tell the Wisconsin legislature how to do their business.
Is that right?
This is how democracy works.
A county judge in Wisconsin can tell the Wisconsin legislature how to do its job.
The Milwaukee Urinal Sentinel article points out that the complaint is the Senate violated its rules.
The Wisconsin Senate can do whatever the hell it wants to do.
Look at the U.S. Congress.
They change their rules all the time.
What is this open meetings law violation?
And you get this liberal judge saying, yep, I think there's a problem.
I think I might have to vacate the law.
Fine, either ignore it, or now that the Democrats and the Senate are back in town, let's just revote it.
Why not just do that?
Why not just revote it?
The Democrats are back, or will they flee again?
Try to create the same set of circumstances.
I don't know, folks, this stuff, it's bothered me for the longest time.
This whole notion of living off of others under the guise that you're helping them.
Under the doubly offensive guise that they couldn't get along without you if you weren't paying them to help you.
Meanwhile, everybody is aware that their state and local taxes, not to mention federal, are going through the roof, property taxes and what have you.
And look what happens.
It's never enough, is it?
The teachers will walk off the job and then they'll use the kids as pawns, the students, as pawns.
So everybody's being recalled in Wisconsin.
We've got a recall effort going against the governor and some Republicans.
We have very quiet proceedings going on, but there's an effort here on the part of Wisconsinites or Wisconsin's to recall these Democrats who fled.
Let's recall this judge.
If that's how we're going to do it, let's just recall this activist judge, this county judge telling the Wisconsin legislature how to do its business.
Open line Friday, El Rushbo fired up serving humanity.
This Judge Sumi, spelled S-U-M-I, the same Wisconsin judge back in February, in the middle of a statewide debate regarding labor unions collective bargaining.
This is the judge that refused the Madison School District's request to send the teachers back to work.
They went on strike.
The Madison School District said, Judge, would you send these teachers back to work so that the youths of Wisconsin could go through the motions of at least attempting to learn things here to be taught?
The district asked this judge to impose a temporary restraining order to bar teachers from participating in further work stoppages.
It referred to the teachers' protests in the Capitol as a strike, which are illegal under state law.
The judge, Judge Zumi, the county judge, refused to categorize the work stoppage as a strike and said the district could not prove irreparable harm had been caused by the teachers walking out.
Oh, okay, so they're not necessary then.
No irreparable harm to the students, to the pupils, the precious children.
No irreparable harm, but the teachers not showing up and doing their jobs.
Fine.
I guess the judge says that means they're not needed.
It's sort of like we're going to lay off half the newsroom.
Only non-essential people will be let go.
Oh, so half your newsroom you don't need.
Wonder how that makes the plagiarists who get laid off feel.
Judge Sumi is a district county judge.
We looked it up.
She's got a very long history of judicial activism.
And the complaint here again is that the Senate violated its own rules, open meeting rules.
So they don't even need the Democrats to vote.
Just give 24-hour notice and vote again.
They don't need the Democrats, but the Democrats are back.
Let them in there if they want.
Just give 24-hours notice.
You know, my memory of this is that there was open access for this.
Access for additional people in meeting was denied when they filled up.
There wasn't any more room for them.
Where was this judge when those 14 Democrats were violating the rules of the Wisconsin Senate by hiding out another state?
Wonder what would have happened if somebody would have brought an action before her.
She no doubt would have found in favor of the senators who had fled.
And we're at the DMZ, the demilitarized zone between Wisconsin and Illinois.
All right, Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
We start with Joe on the phones today.
Open line Friday.
Great to have you here, sir.
Hello.
Okay, Rosh, I love you.
It's a dream come true to talk to you.
And I mean, I just wanted to tell you, though, that's why this hurts, because I love you like a brother, and I've been listening to you since I was 18 years old.
But you got to stop with the broad side attacks against teachers, because there's a lot of good that happens, even in the public schools, and there's a lot of talented people working in them, and I'm one of them.
And the fact that I'm, you know, where I am at the salary scale, I would never apologize for.
I believe if I was working in private business, if I worked as hard as I do, I would probably make a lot more.
So, I mean, I just want you to know, Rush, I love you like a brother, but there's a lot of good teachers out here, and a lot of us are conservative.
Then, where are you?
How come we never hear from you conservative teachers when the school systems are being torn apart, when they're being ripped apart, when these bad apples are running the show and getting away with it?
How come I only hear you when you call a program?
But I never see you on television.
I never see you taking issue with the way the bad apples are.
You're acting like I'm the one giving you guys a bad name when I'm not.
I'm just reporting what I see.
Oh, no, but I mean, in general, Rush, there's a lot of good education that goes on in Wisconsin public schools and in the Stevens Point district itself.
I mean, we have a lot of good achievement.
So, I mean, don't act as if it's like the American education is falling apart or anything like that.
That's a lot of hype.
I mean, there's a lot of good happening.
But, you know, I think the reason you don't see or hear from conservative teachers, I know, because you can't really be out there that much.
I mean, you can't imagine how hard it is to be a conservative teacher in this atmosphere.
Yeah, I can, because I know how hard it is to be a conservative media guy.
I know hard it is to be a conservative anywhere in this country.
I know how, particularly in, I'm working a business like you do that's dominated by people who don't like me.
Yeah, that's true.
But believe me, Rush, on the issue of pay, I really believe, yeah, if I worked in the corporate world for 20 years as hard as I've worked, I really don't think I have to apologize for the salary I make.
What is going on in the private sector?
I'm not afraid of that.
Wait a second, it's the second time you mentioned that.
So that must be something I said that either offended you, irritated you, or bothered you.
Well, it's an argument oft repeated in this whole debate about teacher salaries and stuff like that.
And would they be commensurate if they worked in the private sector or would they be talented enough?
I mean, for those of us there are teachers who work in the public schools who wouldn't be talented enough to go out into the private sector and make the kind of money they make.
I will.
That's not my question.
My question is, how long see, this is what I can't relate to.
I can't relate to somebody who makes $100,000 a year paying me $200,000.
I can't relate to that.
Oh, yeah, and again, I couldn't do it.
I couldn't take it.
My guilt would not allow it.
I'm willing to take a cut for now, Rush.
But honestly, I have high expectations.
And if the public sector didn't pay me enough, I would go and seek other places to make better money.
I just, it's pretty simple that way.
But we also have to be on guard, Rush.
This kind of atmosphere we're in is going to almost guarantee liberal domination of education for a long time.
Yeah.
But if you guys aren't going to speak up about it, and if you can't, who can't?
Don't you have tenure?
I mean, can you can you be fired?
You know, I don't even know what that circumstance is anymore.
I'm a I'm 18 years in.
So, I mean, I have tenure, but I mean, I don't know the circumstances under which I can be let go.
You do.
I don't worry about it, frankly, because if it's going to happen, then there's a lot of other things I can go do.
But, I mean, I'm hoping that this opens up a door to conservatives having a bigger voice in education, Rush.
But I'm fearing that it's going to produce an even more reactionary left that gets even more political and dilutes the curriculum with a lot of political substance.
Wait a minute now.
Wait a second now.
If we operate on that basis, all of us conservatives should just shut up.
If all of us conservatives believe that speaking up against liberalism is just going to produce even more reactionary liberalism, that gets even more political.
What is the point of being conservative and believing in it?
In my case, how many times have I said here, I'm talking about bad apples, about liberals, about union bosses?
If you can make more money in the private sector, then do it.
You know what?
What is the problem?
You say you're willing to take a cut, and that's the problem.
It's not about what you're willing to take from the taxpayers.
It's what the taxpayers are able to pay.
Somehow I have not been able to make myself clear on that.
It's not about what you will accept, conservative or liberal or what, wherever.
It's about what can be afforded to be paid.
And we are way beyond what can be afforded, which is the problem.
All right, now this is fascinating.
I've had a chance to do some quick, I call it research here for all intents and purposes during the break here.
And the contrast between this judge in Wisconsin and the federal judge with Obamacare and the way these two things are being handled is interesting as it can be.
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