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May 4, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:13
May 4, 2012, Friday, Hour #2
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The views expressed by the host on this program make more sense than anything anybody else out there happens to be saying It's just the way it is.
I Guess the views expressed by the host of this program are the result of a daily relentless, unstoppable pursuit of the truth live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's Open Line Friday.
Open Line Friday where callers choose what we talk about when we go to the phones.
In fact I've been thinking of expanding this on a trial basis and that is letting callers determine what's talked about even when they're not on the phones.
For example Snerdley, people could call you on Thursday say, by the way, tomorrow I'd like to hear Rush talk about X and then you give me that list of stuff on Friday morning and we see what happens.
Could be fun.
In fact we could do that now if you don't.
Sometimes people call but don't want to go on the air.
There's something you'd like to hear me talk about that you haven't heard.
Call Snerdley and tell him 800-282-2882.
And if you want to bring it up yourself and you want to stay on the phone, that you can do that too.
But I know a lot of people it's intimidating going on a talk show, especially uh, with me.
It shouldn't be, but it is telephone number if you want to be here, 800 282 2882.
The email address, Lrushbow at eibnet.com I.
I have these charts, the labor force participation rate chart and the uh persons not in the labor force chart.
Charts are easy to understand, but I don't know that I have enough hands to hold this thing up to the camera steadily while describing to you what you're seeing that I can't see.
I've printed two copies of each chart so that I could be looking at what i'm showing you, but then i'd have to be really dexterous to be able to hold it steady in my left hand while not looking at my left hand instead of looking at the desk to see what i'm telling you.
But then i'd have to sit in here and zoom, because this is a non-union shop.
I mean, there's no union guy here with the uh with the zoom button on the ditto cam.
Probably shouldn't have said that, but it happens to be the truth.
Well no, I didn't.
I can't, I can't have another person in here doing that, because the staff doesn't want to be seen on the ditto cam and there's no way they could avoid being seen on the ditto cam.
Plus, I don't trust any of them to hold their hands steady.
They too, get nervous in my presence.
So i'm still figuring out a uh, a way to a way to do this without a switcher, and we don't have a video Switcher here, so I can't load these charts as files, and then I don't have anything to put up.
I can't, all I can transmit on the Ditto Cam feed is the cam itself.
There's no other piece of equipment linked to that feed, like well, something I could display pictures with.
I could probably scan it into iTunes, I could probably play it out of my computer.
We'll have to work and maybe do it that way, but certainly not today.
Anyway, from thescotsman.com, lights could go out across the UK by 2030.
Warren's power supply report: The risk of the UK being hit by power blackouts by 2030 has arisen as the economic crisis hampers efforts to upgrade the electricity infrastructure.
What do you mean, upgrade the electricity infrastructure?
Who's doing that?
A hard-hitting report into global energy requirements said that more needs to be done to secure the UK's electricity supply.
This story introduces a new term: fuel poverty.
We have food insecurity and fuel poverty.
The prospect of households experiencing frequent power cuts as a result of demand for electricity outstripping supply in less than 20 years' time was raised in the study conducted by energy experts at Price Waterhouse Cooper's.
The report, based on the views of 72 executives in power companies across the world, revealed that half of those surveyed saw a medium to high probability that the number of customers in fuel poverty will increase significantly over the next 20 years, particularly in Europe.
Fuel poverty.
By the way, ladies and gentlemen, we have some Elizabeth Warren news, and we are going to go back to the Grooveyard of Forgotten Favorites and pick out a tune from the Grooveyard of Forgotten Favorites as our Elizabeth Warren update theme picture share as an Indian squaw on Horse.
My father merit up your chair of key.
My mother's people were ashamed of me.
The Indians said that I was quite by law.
The white man always called me Indian score.
Half-free!
That's all I ever heard.
Half-breed!
1.32nd breed, actually.
Quick, Sturdly, what year?
Half-breed, share.
What year?
We never said on Windows.
73, not 67, 73.
Number one song here at Share and Half Breed, not to be confused with Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves, which was of the same genre.
And that's our Elizabeth Warren update theme.
Cher did have high cheekbones.
And that was the number one song in this country in 1973.
Now serving as our Elizabeth Warren update theme.
And let's get to it.
By the way, I heard from a friend of mine in Boston.
I think Sterdley, you asked me yesterday, the day before when she announced that she's 132nd Indian Cherokee.
You said, are they laughing at her up there?
I said, I don't know.
I mean, it's Boston.
I mean, it's affirmative action reigns supreme.
It's Harvard.
I have a friend in Boston who says they are laughing at her.
And his note to me, and I don't think this is going to happen, but his note said to me, she's going to be gone in a week.
They'll get her off the ballot in a week.
She's turning into a full-fledged.
I mean, genealogy companies are having to cover for her.
And now Harvard being brought into this.
Did they know that she was a Cherokee 132nd or not?
And if they did, why did they go along with it?
But from what I'm told, she is a laughingstock.
But that's just one anecdotal story.
I haven't seen it anywhere else.
And it's hard to believe.
But that's what I was told.
So yesterday in Boston on WBZ TV News, Eyeball News, the candidate Elizabeth Warren had this to say about Senator Scott Brown, whose seat she seeks.
Scott Brown has been named by Forbes magazine as one of Wall Street's favorite senators.
That's not an award I'm likely to get.
Every time Scott Brown protects the millionaires and the billionaires, that's more that has to get picked up by America's working families.
Yesterday in Boston of Bunker Hill Community College, Scott Brown delivered a speech on bipartisanship entitled Americans First.
A few people told me, you know, it wouldn't probably be a good idea, Scott, to go down to the White House and be seen with the president signing those bills.
And I'm like, you know, why?
It was a shared accomplishment that we all did, that we all had a part in to actually make a difference and move our country forward.
Scott Brown moving to the center here.
Scott Brown moving to the center.
Look, and it's Boston.
I had a lot of people disappointed to hear him speak this way, but she's imploding.
I mean, politically, it's a smart move.
She's imploding.
He's moving to the center.
He knows the electorate is there.
Remember what got him elected?
That's not on the ballot this time.
Remember what it was that got him elected?
There was one thing.
He was going to be the vote that would prevent the Democrats in the Senate from passing it, Obamacare.
That's, I mean, you can go talk about a bunch of other issues.
That was it.
That was why he, and it was remarkable because it was Boston.
It's a Ted Kennedy seat.
It's Massachusetts.
You figured if any place in this country is blue enough to go along with Obamacare, it would be there.
And that was all the evidence a lot of people needed to know just how opposed the whole country was to Obamacare.
Well, now that's not on the ballot.
And now he's got to deal with those voters on other issues.
So his opponent imploding with high cheekbones, and that all Indians have, she says.
She won 32nd Cherokee squaw.
And well, here, if you grab soundbite number three, number five.
If people didn't hear this, think I'm making this up.
Here, this is Elizabeth Warren Wednesday in Braintree, Massachusetts.
My Aunt B has walked by that picture at least a thousand times, remarked that her father, my papa, had high cheekbones like all of the Indians do, because that's how she saw it.
And she said, and your mother got those same great cheekbones.
And I didn't.
She thought this was the bad deal she had gotten in life.
Well, so high cheekbones, like all the Indians do.
There's a great liberal, Elizabeth Warren, engaging in obvious bigotry.
All Indians have high cheekbones.
And then somebody in her family, her life was destroyed the moment it was discovered.
She didn't have high cheekbones.
Once it was discovered, she had no high cheekbones.
It was it for her.
He had no chance.
So, anyway, Scott Brown moving to the center here in the face of her implosion.
Okay, your calls are next on Open Line Friday when we get back.
Back to the phones on Open Line Friday.
Who's next?
Let's see.
It's Sam in Rochester, New York.
Hi, Sam.
Great to have you with us.
Hello, sir.
Yeah, thanks, Rush.
Listen, I know President Bush, too, when he left office, said he would not campaign.
He would not get involved in politics anymore.
Even though there are pockets in the country where he's still very popular and he could have helped House candidates on the Republican side, Senate candidates, he chose not to do so.
And the thing is that he brought the party down by his refusal to defend himself.
Let me see if I can get to the question I think you're going to ask.
The country is hanging by a thread.
George W. Bush, clearly, in your mind and your way of thinking, doesn't want the country to go the direction Obama's taking it.
So why doesn't he speak up?
As former president, with the influence he would have, why doesn't he speak up?
Why doesn't he join?
Why didn't he speak out against what Obama's doing?
Is that pretty close to your question?
Yeah, but the only time he spoke out, remember Rush a couple of years ago when his book came out?
He made the rounds.
He was on every program on the Fox News Network promoting his book.
And while he was promoting his book, instead of criticizing Democrats, he attacked, he viciously attacked the Tea Party crowd because they were against, according to him, immigration.
When the fact is we were not against immigration.
We were against illegal immigration.
Wait a second.
Did he because I don't remember that?
Did he criticize Tea Party by name?
I don't think he used by name, but by implication he did.
Well, look, all I can tell you is what I was told when Bush was president.
Because people asked the same question when he was president.
Why don't you defend yourself?
Why don't you attack these people in the same stage and arena they're attacking you?
And his answer always was, I have too much respect for this office.
I am not going to politicize the office of the presidency.
I am not going to respond in like fashion.
I'm not going to take the office of the presidency to the gutter where my critics are I'm going to stay above it.
I would assume that I would get much the same answer that I'm getting that I got then.
I don't think he was attacking.
He didn't attack the Tea Party during the book tour.
He didn't.
He wanted the Tea Party to buy the book.
He wanted everybody to buy the book.
Thank God that Cheney was the only one in the party who defended the president and the president's policies.
Remember, Cheney, I mean, Cheney was virtually on his deathbed, and he went all over the house.
Look, I share.
Look at, I don't know what to tell you.
I'm not Bush, and I don't have a pipeline to him in this way.
But I know what you're thinking.
You got Bill Clinton out there during the 2000 campaign, the 2004 campaign.
You got Bill Clinton in Europe in Abu Dhabi in Dubai ripping this country and its president to shreds, violating every tenant, every custom, every bit of decorum.
You had Al Gore doing the same thing.
You're wondering, why is it just Cheney?
Where are the Bushes?
Where's 41?
Where's 43?
Clearly, they don't want the country to go the direction Obama's taking it.
Are they just going to sit by and be quiet, let it happen?
I wish I had an answer for you.
But they are not.
I can just tell you that neither one, Bush 41 nor 43, want to have anywhere near a reputation like Bill Clinton has.
But I can understand the yearning that people have.
Bush was president.
He's got a record.
He's got his tax cuts are being smirched all over the place.
He's got 59 months of job creation in a row.
Where is he out defending and speaking?
I hear you.
But as has been the case for 23 plus years, I still do not have an answer that will satisfy you when you ask me why don't the Republicans do X?
I have got, where's Rumsfeld?
Where's Condi Rice?
Where I don't know.
I wish I could tell you.
Well, yeah, but I'm doing it.
No, no, Snerdley.
Snerdley's theory is that President Bush and the former members of his team don't have to do anything because I am.
That's not why they're not doing it.
It's a question I know that many of you have.
Because you look at Clinton running around trashing whoever, Bush in 2004, and trashing McCain in 2008.
You're wondering, well, why didn't Bush return a favor?
Why didn't he get out there and trash these Democrats?
I mean, it's the country that's at stake here.
Don't have an answer for you.
Wish I did.
All I could do was hazard a guess, as I just did.
Anyway, I appreciate the call.
We'll be back.
Don't go away.
From zerohedge.com.
More numbers on the unemployment picture.
This is the text from the article at Zero Hedge, which accompanies these charts that I'm talking about here.
People not in the labor force soar by 522,000.
Labor force participation rate the lowest since 1981.
By the way, I should add, ladies and gentlemen, CNN says that Reagan, let me put it this way.
CNN's got Obama's back.
Why Obama can't match the Reagan recovery?
That's the story at CNN.
Why Obama can't match the Reagan recovery?
And CNN goes through the recent unemployment numbers that admits that they're disappointing.
Heck, what's his name?
Ted Turner was on Piers Morgan last night, the guy who sat in or replaced Larry King.
And Ted Turner said, yeah, you know, Romney wouldn't be bad.
Romney wouldn't be a bad president.
If you're losing Ted Turner, things cannot be good for you.
That would be Obama.
So anyway, CNN, why Obama cannot match the Reagan recovery?
And they go through the recent numbers and they admit that the employment numbers are disappointing.
So Obama won't be able to run as the new Reagan like he had been trying to do.
But then CNN says, well, things were different in 1984.
CNN says that Reagan had it easy because inflation was high and the national debt wasn't as bad.
So it was easy to just cut taxes.
Now, some might say this journalistic malpractice.
It's something else.
It's just plain economic ignorance.
It's economic ignorance combined with an unshakable bias.
Reagan had it easy because inflation was high and the national debt wasn't as bad.
Who did that?
Who gave us high inflation?
That was Jimmy Carter.
And high inflation was eating away at everything everybody owned.
And here's CNN trying to make it out to be a positive in terms of an economic recovery.
Yeah, inflation was high and the national debt wasn't.
Well, why is the national debt so bad now?
Barack Obama has added more to the national debt than all previous presidents' deficits, annual deficits combined.
Barack Obama, let's put this in this perspective, three and a half years, has created more national debt than all the previous presidents combined.
So, yeah, Reagan didn't have as high a national debt, and Obama wouldn't either if he hadn't been such an irresponsible spender.
And if he would have had some responsible tax policies and some responsible spending policies.
So it was easy to just cut tax.
Oh, is cutting taxes the way out of this now?
Is that what CNN's saying?
It was just easy to slash taxes.
Gee, if it were only easy to cut taxes, Obama could do that, and then he could replicate Reagan.
Is that what CNN says?
They clearly don't intend to say that because CNN in the handbook is, we hate tax cuts.
You probably can't get hired at CNN until you answer properly the question, we hate tax cuts, especially for the rich.
Everybody that used to work at CNN and now works someplace like Stuart Varney or Lou Dobbs believe in tax cuts, and they're not there anymore.
Well, yes, I'm being a little facetious, but there's always truth in good comedy.
The fact of the matter is, CNN is so discombobulated, they don't know what they're saying.
They're saying, gosh, it'd be great if Obama could really do what Reagan did.
But wait a minute.
Up until now, CNN has tried to say that what Reagan did was pointless, worthless, useless, didn't matter.
Now, all of a sudden, what Reagan did, oh, it'd be so great if we could emulate it.
But sadly, Obama can't emulate it.
No, Obama can't match the Reagan recovery.
I thought there wasn't a Reagan recovery.
I thought the Reagan recovery was lies and false and made-up stuff.
They are so discombob, they don't know what they're, they're validating the Reagan recovery at CNN.
Whoever did this is not long for that network.
Because they're basically saying, oh, if Obama could only do the Reagan recovery, but he can't because look, inflation's not nearly high enough, and the national debt's too high.
And because of that, our guy Obama can't cut taxes.
Can't cut taxes?
Since when does a drive-by media outlet believe cutting taxes equals economic growth?
The drive-by media have been arguing against that for I don't know how long.
For those of us in the media, I'm much closer to it than some of you are.
I'm telling you, this is big in the, not because of the consumer impact, because CNN's audience is not bright enough to understand what's happening.
But you are, and that's why I'm spending time telling you.
But this represents a total implosion at CNN.
This just means everything they believe gone out the window.
This tells me the people inside CNN finally figure out how bad it is for them as well as the country.
Because now this jobs number report comes out, and CNN has to admit it's disappointing.
They can't even focus on 8.2 to 8.1% sing its praises because they see 115,000 jobs created.
They see all the stats.
They know how bad it is.
So now they have to long for a recovery.
And which recovery do they cite?
Reagan?
They hate Reagan.
CNN, since the 1980s, has been doing everything it can to discredit Reagan at every opportunity.
Now, all of a sudden, what a shame.
Obama can't do what Reagan did.
Oh, no.
He can't cut taxes as easily.
Well, since when has CNN been in favor of that?
Inflation was up to 18% under Jimmy Carter.
So Reagan had it easy.
Inflation was high.
National debt wasn't as bad.
Easy to cut taxes.
So 522,000 people fall out of the labor force.
The labor force participation rate is the lowest it's been since 1981.
And as they say, it's zero hedge here.
It's just getting sad now.
I mean, the pretense is over.
This might even do Obama in.
The fact that the only network out there that's even trying to puff this up is AP.
In April, the number of people not in the labor force rose by 522,000 to basically 88 million.
88.5 million.
88.5 million people not working.
The highest on record.
While the unemployment rate drops, nobody, let's put it, fewer and fewer people are buying this.
Who's next?
As we stick with the phones, Michelle in Union City, Tennessee.
Thanks for calling.
You're on Open Line Friday.
Hi.
Hi.
Well, since Obama has taken office, I've had to take a pay cut in order to keep my job.
And my employer, who is a small business owner, has already told us that they are going to have to dissolve the business.
So I'm going to be unemployed.
The unemployment rate's going to go higher.
And another small business is gone.
And do you know what else I saw today that kind of buttresses what's happening to you?
The number of, Snarterly, what was the time period or the period of time this stat was, the number of startups?
Was it the first quarter, this month?
When was it?
This reporting period?
Oh, 2010 to the present.
The smallest number of startups in, gosh, I don't know how long.
Oh, in history.
The smallest number of business startups in our history in the period 2010 to the present.
That means that the 88.5 million people aren't working who are eating are choosing to take whatever food they can get from the government rather than starting a business.
And the reasons are twofold.
A, the economy.
Don't go away, Michelle.
The climate.
What's happening out there besides your passion?
If you have a passion, what's happening besides your passion to make you think, can you get a loan?
Do you want a loan?
Do you think you're going to have enough business to pay the loan back if you take one out?
Are there enough people working in order for you to have customers?
What are the taxes going to be if Obama's re-elected and health care is fully implemented?
I guarantee you, Michelle, this is what your guy, your small business owner, has already decided that he can't see a way.
What kind of business is it or what line of work is his business in?
It's private home care for the elderly.
He does not take Medicare insurance.
It's private insurance only.
So the wealthy employ me.
The wealthy employee.
The ones that's happening to make him want to shutter the business.
Taxes are going up.
The regulations are coming down.
They've had to dip into their personal savings because business has slowed so much that they're having to dip into their personal savings to cover the overhead of the business.
They had to do that in 2010.
And they don't want to have to do that anymore, right?
Right.
And I cannot blame them.
I have a wonderful employer.
I couldn't ask for better.
And now they're going away.
So you're understanding.
He's decided: okay, look, I want to keep a little bit of what I've earned here for myself and my family and the rest of my life rather than spend it all on the business that's going nowhere.
That's basically what he's decided, right?
Yes, yes.
Yes, absolutely.
I can't blame them at all.
I totally understand.
I do.
And, you know, I just, I beg Florida and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Michigan, please, we need your help.
Let's get him out of office before he completely destroys us totally.
Well, you're speaking of that.
You remind me what's going on in Indiana when you're asking people of these various states to come through.
By the way, there is a website that has the domain name startup.com and just announced they're shutting down.
Startup.com is just announced they're shutting down.
If that's not a headline for Obamaomics, anyway, there's a Tea Party candidate opposing Dick Luger in the Republican primary for the Senate seat in Indiana.
The election is Tuesday.
The Tea Party candidate is named Murdoch, and he's 10 points up.
And he has been outspent by Luger by 10 to 1, millions.
He has been outspent by millions.
I have to take a break.
I want to give you some details of this and tell you really what's happening here with the Tea Party.
Because the media has been lulled into a sense of false security.
They think the Tea Party's gone away because they view the Tea Party as a protest movement and there aren't any Tea Party protests anymore.
So since they don't see a Tea Party protest anywhere, they think the Tea Party's gone away.
Well, the Tea Party has moved on now from a protest movement.
And they are now a full-fledged political movement in every state working to get their candidates elected.
And they are succeeding in the classic Civics 101 basis with ideas.
I'll explain when we come back.
Don't go away.
Census Bureau data published on the Wednesday of this week.
The startup rate fell to an all-time low of 7.87%, down from 8.1% in 2009.
So Sterdley was right.
Staff member told me something is actually correct that I don't have to explain that I was wrong in imparting.
The startup rate at an all-time low.
Now the Tea Party.
As I said, the media thinks it's gone away.
You might think it's gone away because you don't see any Tea Party protests.
The Tea Party has moved on.
It's no longer a protest movement.
That was during 2009 and particularly 2010.
And that led to the midterm elections.
They have since become more sophisticated in terms of organization.
There are 47 different Tea Party groups, essentially.
There is not a single leader, charismatic or otherwise.
There are various organizations that attempt to offer assistance, advice, help with unification in various places.
One of our new sponsors does that, Freedom Works.
It's one of the things that they do.
But the Tea Party is now grassroots.
I oftentimes talk about Civics 101 when you're in junior high and you're learning about government.
When you're learning at junior high level about government, you generally think that the people that win elections win elections because they have the best ideas on the best candidates.
And their ideas and the candidates appeal to a majority of people, and that's how you win.
As you grow older, you find out that's got nothing to do with it in many cases.
It's who has the most money, who can run the most negative ads.
And when you find out what it's really all about, you tune out.
I don't want to be part of it.
It doesn't matter.
I'm an ideas person.
It seems not to matter.
Tea Party is reviving.
Civics 101.
The Tea Party is bottom-up.
The Tea Party is everything you thought politics was when you were first learning about it.
That is probably the best way I could explain it to you.
If that is something you yearn for, where ideas are predominant and the people who hold them is a factor, the Tea Party may be for you.
Freedom Works, this is not a commercial.
I'm just Freedom Works.
Maybe FreedomWorks.com is the website.
You might want to look into it.
Indiana, Richard Murdoch, is a Tea Party candidate.
He is going up against the Republican establishment and the Republican establishments trying to destroy him.
Being outspent 10 to 1.
We're talking millions of dollars against a Jurassic Park entrenched incumbent, Dick Luger, been there forever.
And his reputation when it comes to foreign policy is beyond reproach, it said.
And yet, the latest poll published in the Indianapolis Star, the polling unit is Howie DePaw, Howie slash DePaw.
Murdoch's up 10 with four days to go.
That's going to be tough to overcome for Luger.
For example, the poll today shows the same thing.
And people have been watching this race very closely.
This is akin to taking out Robert Bennett in Utah.
What might happen here?
The Tea Party hadn't gone anywhere, folks.
They're only getting better and bigger.
It's gotten so dire for Dick Luger in Indiana, he is asking for Democrats and Independents to cross party lines and save him next week against Dick Murdoch.
And he also said a couple other things.
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