Story #1: Seligmann Testimony Nails Nifong

RUSH: I was watching Fox this morning, and they had live coverage of the trial of Mike Nifong in North Carolina. This is the hearing about Nifong being disbarred — it’s over his law license. He’s saying, “Yeah, I made some ethical mistakes,” but he’s just trying to limit the damage here. He’s trying to prevent himself from being disbarred by making some admissions to things here, like saying his comments that he made were improper and so forth. But he’s not the story today as far as I’m concerned. I watched Reade Seligmann, who’s one of the three lacrosse players who was falsely accused and harassed by students at Duke and the 88 professors and all kinds of malcontents in the courtroom when those guys had their court appearance. His testimony… When these guys had their press conference, I was blown away with their composure and their maturity.

Reade Seligmann’s testimony today was heart-wrenching. He broke down. He started crying when he started describing the phone call to his mother to tell her that he had been accused of rape — that he had been picked in a lineup. His mother had a camera on her, and she was crying, too. It was terrible, listening to this story. But even before he broke down and started crying, he was just remarkably composed and mature and truthful and said, “We volunteered DNA first thing out of the box because we knew we didn’t do this, and that’s the fastest way to prove it,” — and of course the DNA results were held back and nobody was informed them until they were leaked. They spent some time in this trial yesterday pointing out that, “Oh, there was no conspiracy here. That’s was an unfortunate mistake that happened.” But there are no coincidences, folks. This was the second time I’ve seen public speaking from these lacrosse players, and they are just profoundly impressive. They have obviously been raised very well, and they’re quality people that just exuded composure and class.

Of course, when you have the truth and passion on your side you can be a pretty good speaker. When you know your subject and when you know what you’re saying is the truth, it gets rid of a lot of the nerves and tension that some people face when they get up to speak publicly. I mean, this thing was heartwarming. At the same time, when Nifong started his testimony, they had a camera cut to the families, and I think one of the other lacrosse players — well, Seligmann and Colin Finnerty. The looks on their faces and their parents’ faces could have killed when Nifong was up speaking. I remember telling Snerdley yesterday, “You know what? I knew this trial was going to start. I think so much time has gone by, so much passion has dissolved here, and legal communities tend to stick together, I’ll bet he gets some kind of slap on the face but not much,” and I have totally changed my thinking on that now after what I saw today, with him admitting impropriety and unethical behavior and mistakes in his statements. Now he knows he could have the entire book thrown at him over this and is trying to limit that. I don’t know how long this is going to go, but if you have a chance to see some of this over the weekend or tonight, you should see Seligmann’s testimony.
Story #2: Clintons Invested in Wal-Mart, Big Oil

RUSH: During the break at the top of the hour, I went back to Snerdley’s office (as I always do, just to make sure to keep his morale up and get his mind right. Open Line Friday is tough for him.) Anyway, he had C-SPAN on, and they cut away to a Clinton speech — and who was Clinton giving a speech to? Yeah, the “Women and Families Consortium,” or some such liberal group. The sound was not up, so I don’t know what Clinton was saying, but I can guess. He’s probably talking to some liberal group that wants as much control over families and women and their, quote, unquote, issues as possible. I’m sure he’s telling them what they all want to hear, about how “We all have to work together, you know? People out there want to destroy you, but you’re doing God’s work. You’re doing the Lord’s work and you’re hanging in for people disadvantaged and so forth, the downtrodden, the hungry, and the thirsty, and you’re doing the right thing, and don’t be talked out of it,” blah, blah, blah. And I’m sitting there saying, “There’s no way this guy and Hillary would live their lives the way they are encouraging these people to tell us to live our lives.” Then I stumbled across this story from the Associated Press.

“Hoping to avoid any possible conflict of interest, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband, the former president, liquidated a blind trust valued at $5 million to $25 million in April after learning that it included such investments as oil and drug companies and military contractors, her presidential campaign confirmed. ‘As a presidential candidate, Senator Clinton was required to make her assets public. As a result, she had to dissolve her blind trust,’ Howard Wolfson, a senior Clinton adviser, said late Thursday. ‘Upon its dissolution, she and the president chose to go above and beyond what was required of them and liquidate their assets in order to avoid even the hint of a conflict of interest.'” Would you like to hear what the investments were, ladies and gentlemen? Here we go: “several pharmaceutical companies,” Big Drug, “including Abbott Labs, Amgen, Genentech, Novartis, Pfizer and Wyeth, with assets in each company ranging from $100,001 to $250,000, The New York Times reported in Friday editions. Other assets included BP Amoco,” Big Oil, “Chevron Corp., ” Big Oil, ” Exxon Mobil Corp.,” Big Oil, ” Raytheon,” Big Defense contracts, “and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.”

So every industry and company that they demonize, they are invested in! (Or they were.) They have liquidated it, and I don’t believe this notion that it was in the blind trust and therefore — well, they had to know what they were invested in. “Blind trust” just means you don’t know how it’s doing, but they knew that this disclosure was coming up, and they were going to have to do this, and I don’t believe for a minute that the dissolution of the investments in these companies was for any highbrow reason of openness and sunshine and all that — it was to avoid charges of hypocrisy. I mean, here they are demonizing every one of these industries. In fact, during the health care attempt back in the early nineties, Mrs. Clinton was doing everything she could to trash these companies. I wondered back then if she was investing in pharmaceutical stocks and then selling short after driving the prices down, and I still don’t know. Who knows what’s been going on with any of that?

Anyway, according to these disclosure forms, their net worth is now approximately $50 million. They came to Washington with nothing. How does this happen? Clinton as president made 200 grand. Hillary as senator makes 60, 70, 80 — I don’t know. Clinton’s been out there doing speeches and they’ve written books and so forth, but we also know they have ties with some really strange people — like this Gupta guy — and they have ties with Dubai. In fact, Clinton was even helping Dubai lobby for the ports deal back when it happened! So this is just typical. These people, I’m telling you: everything they tell you is going to be wrong or is going to end up being in one degree or another a falsehood if you just sit around and wait. I mean, Wal-Mart, of all companies? She was acting embarrassed a while ago that she was on the Wal-Mart board! She was having to cover for that lately: “Well, that was in Arkansas a long time ago. I had to do that. I was in business down there. Wal-Mart was a big concern. But I left that board when I discovered that some practices that company was involved in were things I didn’t approve of.” How are you investing in Wal-Mart stocks, then? With some of their hard-earned cash that they have earned since the Clintons left the White House in January of 2001? There’s only one industry that they have not invested in — and that’s because they own it — and that’s Big Hypocrite.
Story #3: Judge Rules Canadian Can’t Have Girlfriend
RUSH: This is one of these headlines that really conflicts me. It was like that story on the divorce rate declining — that was a conflict for me. So here’s the story, and it’s from Peterborough, Ontario: “A judge has ruled that a 24-year-old Canadian man is not allowed to have a girlfriend for the next three years. The ruling came after Steven Cranley pleaded guilty on Tuesday to several charges stemming from an assault on a former girlfriend. Cranley, who has been diagnosed with a dependent personality disorder, attacked his girlfriend in an argument after their breakup. He tried to prevent her from phoning the police by cutting her phone cord and punched and kicked her. He finally stabbed himself with a butcher knife when police did arrive, puncturing his aorta. Doctors say Cranley has difficulty coping with rejection,” — You think? — “and runs a high risk to re-offend if he becomes involved in another intimate relationship. Justice Rhys Morgan said Cranley ‘cannot form a romantic relationship of an intimate nature with a female person’ for three years.” So no, he can’t casually date. Well, I guess he could casually date, he just “cannot form a romantic relationship of an intimate nature.” (And we know what “intimate” is a code word for.) I suppose he could go gay because it specifies female person here.

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Story #1: Correction: Oscar the Cat Is Not Dead

RUSH: I have to start off with a correction today. We had a story Tuesday about that cat Oscar in Rhode Island, who lives in a nursing home. This cat seemed to have a sense of when residents of the old folks’ home were going to cash it in; the cat would jump on the bed of the patient about to cash it in, and the patient would cash it in. They said, “Well, this is incredible! How does this cat know this?” and a lot of the patients were getting a little upset about Oscar. So there was a story yesterday that the cat had been found dead in the nursing home with a dented bedpan near the body. A very curious member of our audience, Jay Cochensparger, called the nursing home up there to confirm this, because he thought the story might have been a hoax. Not that I was making it up, of course, but he thought it was a hoax, and the lady who answered the phone up there said that Oscar is indeed alive and well.

They heard the story, too, on the program up there and were quite surprised. Apparently this show’s big in there with the staff. So Mr. Cochensparger (I hope I’m pronouncing his name right) wanted me to know that Oscar the cat is still alive. I guess the patients up there don’t care, otherwise this story would be true. So it was a well-written hoax and I should have suspected it. I let my professional guard down; I should have suspected it because there was no identifying link, source, or whatever, but it was written pretty well as a hoax. So, anyway, it was just a cat, no big deal. The cat’s still alive. The story ends well.
Story #2: Farmer from India Solving Population Problem
RUSH: Did you see this story about this guy, where does this guy live? He’s a 90-year-old guy and his[21st] child was just born. He’s a farmer in India. His name is Nanu Ram Jogi, married to his fourth wife, and boasts he doesn’t want to stop — plans to continue producing children until he’s 100. “Women love me,” he says. There’s a picture of the guy here, and the fact that woman love this guy is probably established by the next story. Anyway, I was happy to see this because this guy is making up for my unwillingness in this department. And there is a birthrate replacement problem worldwide — at least my lack of willingness in this area is being compensated for by this guy.
Story #3: Women Attracted to Caveman-Like Faces
RUSH: This next story is from LiveScience.com (they have some great stuff): “Men With ‘Cavemen’ Faces Most Attractive to Women.” This Indian farmer doesn’t exactly look like a caveman, but he’ll never be on the cover of GQ, either. “Guys with bulldog-like faces have been chick magnets throughout human evolutionary history. A recent study of the skulls of human ancestors and modern humans finds that women, and thereby evolution, selected for males with relatively short upper faces.” What’s an upper face? A forehead? “The region between the brow and the upper-lip is scrunched proportionately to the overall size of their heads. Among the men who fit the bill: Will Smith and Brad Pitt.” Now, would any of you assign caveman-like faces to either of those two guys? I guess the next time a woman calls you a Cro-Magnon, it is a compliment, apparently.
Story #4: Gaza Strip Public Employees Paid to Stay Home
RUSH: Story from the Gaza strip: “Gaza’s public employees are getting paid on one condition: Stay home. Such is the irony of life in the Gaza Strip now that Hamas militants are firmly in charge. A rival pro-Western government in the West Bank is delivering salaries to most of Gaza’s civil servants as long as they don’t work.” For those of you in Rio Linda, this is government employees. “The moderate Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas doesn’t want its money propping up Hamas, which violently seized control of Gaza in June. But neither does it want to punish Gaza’s mostly pro-Fatah 90,000 civil servants whose salaries form the backbone of the already badly bruised economy.”

I only mention this story because it portends trouble down the road. When they’re going to raise all these cigarette and tobacco taxes to fund increasing amounts of health care insurance for the little children so high that they basically tax the product out of existence, guess what? There isn’t going to be any tax revenue to pay for all of the health care insurance benefits for the little children (which, by the way, are qualified as children in this program up to age 25). It probably won’t be long — just a matter of time — before state and federal governments do the same thing that’s happening here in Gaza because when everybody stops smoking there won’t be any money to pay all these federal employees to actually work. But we’ll not stop paying them; they just won’t have to go to work because there’s nothing for them to do.
Story #5: ChiComs Sold Used Chopsticks

RUSH: A Beijing factory and used chopsticks are in the news. Some Beijing factorysold used chopsticks. They sold up to 100,000 pairs a day without any form of disinfection, a newspaper said on Wednesday, “in the latest of a string of Chinese food and product safety scares.” Do you believe that? Who recycles chopsticks, for crying out loud? Environmentalists wackos, I guess. I don’t even use them; I never learned how. Seriously, why would anybody recycle a chopstick?
Story #6: First Official Holiday Doom-and-Gloom Story

RUSH: “U.S. retailers…” This is so predictable. The only thing different here is that it’s August. I have for you, ladies and gentlemen, the first official doom-and-gloom story about the holiday season. It’s from Reuters. “U.S. retailers are still sweating through the back-to-school shopping season, but an early chill has already crept into their prospects for the all-important holiday season,” as it does every year in the Drive-By Media. They always present news to us that there is a chill over the retail outlook for the holiday season. They normally don’t do it in August, but they’re doing it today. “Numerous retailers, from Wal-Mart Stores to Target, have warned that the second half of the year will be more difficult than the first as the deteriorating housing market, higher fuel and food costs, and an undulating stock market take a toll on shoppers.” Wait a second, how could that be? I thought the stock market was for people in Wall Street! I thought Main Street didn’t benefit — oh, I take it back. When the market goes up, only the rich do well. When the market goes down, only Main Street suffers. Yup.

“‘There’s caution in the air,’ said Marie Driscoll, retail analyst at Standard & Poor’s. While saying it is too early to predict how holiday sales will unfold, Driscoll said that retailers will need to stock the ‘absolutely right product’ this holiday season or expect to have to resort to cutting prices and matching competitors’ discounts to win dollars from selective shoppers this year.” Have you ever noticed that every year when you people go out and Christmas shop, you search for deals? You don’t do it any other time of the year, apparently, but you’re always out there searching for deals and it’s up to the retailers now to make sure they don’t overstock the wrong items. Well, guess what? That is a concern. It’s part of the business plan 365 days a year, not just during the holidays. What did you say, H.R.? Oh, yes: I do that, too. Not only do I try to buy the wrong stuff during holiday time, I try to find the most expensive. In fact, if somebody is having a sale, I won’t go there, because I want to help the retailers who are charging full boat because I know they’re in trouble.
Story #7: “Experts” Stumped by Low Unemployment
RUSH: Companion story to the doom-and-gloom holiday one: “Fewer people signed up for jobless benefits last week, an encouraging sign that most businesses aren’t resorting to big layoffs amid a housing slump and the painful credit crunch.” Wait a minute. I thought we just heard that the holidays are going to be awful for these exact reasons! Here’s the story: “Deteriorating housing market, higher fuel and food costs, and an undulating stock market take a toll on shoppers,” it is thought. But, “Fewer people signed up for jobless benefits last week, an encouraging sign that most businesses aren’t resorting to big layoffs amid a housing slump and the painful credit crunch.” So what are we to believe? “The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications filed for unemployment insurance dipped by 2,000 to 322,000 for the week ending Aug. 18. It marked the first drop in new claims in roughly a month. The showing was a bit higher than the 320,000 analysts were forecasting.” So once again the analysts, the “experts,” are stumped. Unemployment claims just didn’t come in the way they thought they were going to come in — as usual.
Story #8: Bail Them Out with Whose Money, Mr. Gross?
RUSH: Try this from CNN: “Famed bond fund manager Bill Gross…” Have you ever heard of “famed bond fund manager Bill Gross”? Have you, Brian? I’m in the bond market, and I never heard of the “famed bond fund manager Bill Gross.” Anyway, he said that “the White House should bail out the millions of American homeowners who face the dreaded prospect of foreclosure this year. ‘If we can bail out Chrysler, why can’t we support the American homeowner?’ Gross wrote in his monthly investment outlook on PIMCO’s Web site. With nearly 2 million homeowners at risk of losing their homes this year and with housing prices rapidly receding, Gross said President Bush, not the Federal Reserve, is the best hope for ‘almost homeless homeowners.’ … ‘Write some checks, bail them out, prevent a destructive housing deflation that (Fed Chairman) Ben Bernanke is unable to do. After all W”, you’re “the Decider,” aren’t you?’ Gross wrote.” Okay, famed bond fund manager, Bill Gross, a question. You want George Bush to rescue and bail out these homeowners. May I ask with whose money do you have in mind? I’d really like to know who’s going to bail them out.
Story #9: Aging Boomers Hope to Get It On in Old Age

RUSH: Here’s this story on CNN about the seasoned citizens having more sex than you think. Actually, this story does not relate to me because, I must be honest, I don’t think about seasoned citizens having sex — so I don’t know how they can be having more sex than I think that they’re having because I don’t think about it. In fact, I didn’t think about it until I saw this headline from CNN: “Seniors Having More Sex Than You Think — Many older Americans routinely engage in vaginal intercourse, [Lewinskys] and masturbation, a landmark study into a long-taboo subject reported Wednesday.”

Now — heh, heh — how many of you want to think about this now? “‘From a societal perspective, I would say that old people are young people later in life,’ said Dr. Stacy Tesler Lindau, lead author of the federally funded study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Sexual activity reported among the 3,005 men and women who participated in the survey did decrease with age, particularly among the oldest participants — from 73% among those 57 to 64 years of age to 53% among those 65 to 74 years of age to 26% among those 75 to 85 years of age… Among the survey’s many discoveries was that about half of those 57 to 75 years of age who remained sexually active reported engaging in [Lewinskys]… The figure on masturbation ‘reflects a level of sexual need, even among men at very advanced ages, and speaks to the fact that sexuality is a lifelong proposition,’ said Edward O. Laumann, a study co-author and a sociologist at the University of Chicago.”

Now, what is it do you think that prompted this? These things just don’t just happen. These scientists, these researchers, don’t just pop out of the jack-in-the-box one day and say, “You know, I wonder if old folks out there are getting it on?” I’ll tell you what the reason is why CNN is reporting this stuff — it’s because all of these Baby Boomers are about “me, me, me, me, me,” and wondering what it’s going to be like when they’re that old! They want to know if they can still go out and do the Lewinskys and all these other things so they decided to do a survey to find out what’s ahead of them… so to speak. I guess I could have said “in front of them,” but that would be worse.
Story #10: Walter Williams Column He’ll Discuss Tomorrow

RUSH: Okay, folks: I have the roster here of guest hosts for tomorrow and next week. We have Walter Williams on Friday. He has a great column today, too, and I didn’t get a chance to get to it. Tell Dr. Williams to share the theory in his column with the audience tomorrow.

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Story #1: Santa Told to Slim Down to Set Better Example

RUSH: From the UK: “Santa is being told to [lose weight] before Christmas — because the obese saint is failing to set a ‘good example’ for children. The traditional children’s hero, best known for feasting on mince pies left out on Christmas eve, has always sported a bulging midriff. But shopping centre bosses are giving the well-wisher his marching orders — to the nearest gym — to tackle the increasing problem of obesity. The revelation comes after a medical report earlier this month stated that by 2050 more than 50 per cent of Brits will be obese,” with Santa Claus providing a bad example for the kids. They have a little bit of a point. I always wondered how Santa Claus managed to get down my chimney, being as big as he is, but that just made me think the guy is magic. Apparently, there are ways around being obese. Fiona Campbell-Reilly, spokeswoman at the shopping centre, said: “Santa has been around for years, but society has changed and our Santa needs to reflect this. ‘Bluewater’s Santa Boot Camp is getting Santa in shape and setting a good example to children who idolise him. He will still be the same lovable jolly man, but will be fitter and healthier.'” Hoo-kay.
Story #2: News Heard ‘Round the World: The Oprah Wept

RUSH: Then there’s poor Oprah. Oh, what a tragedy, ladies and gentlemen, sexual abuse at Oprah’s academy in Africa, right? It’s in South Africa, and it should be noted that Oprah wept. If you read the AP story on Oprah, Oprah wept. It’s almost biblical. I can just see little students, the Oprah academy being told that Oprah wept, and they’re bowing their heads in prayer, Oprah wept. Oprah, The Oprah wept. A female, by the way, did the abusing in the Oprah academy. What, Snerdley? Well, it probably was a union employee. I have no clue where Oprah found her. But she said it’s one of the most devastating events in her life. See, other women cry, ladies and gentlemen. Oprah wept. Oprah weeps. Other women just bawl their brains out.
Story #3: Musharraf Pulls a Hugo Chavez in Pakistan
RUSH: Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan is pulling a Hugo Chavez, basically telling the court to go to hell. The liberals watching Musharraf have to be enthused and excited. The Supreme Court had a ruling that said look, “You gotta give up your army leadership post and you gotta have elections,” and he said, “Screw you,” and he fired them. It was that easy to get rid of a Supreme Court, what are the libs worried about? You know that they’re salivating out there over watching this. He did. He pulled a Hugo Chavez, wanting to hold onto power. It is tough to figure out. The United States is worried about this, obviously, because of the instability. They’ve got nukes in Pakistan, and there’s a concern here that Musharraf is just simply trying to arm himself and prepare himself for perhaps a coup led by Al-Qaeda types who are holed up in eastern regions of Pakistan along the Afghanistan border. So this situation does deserve watching.
Story #4: Finnish Complaint Choir Combats American Optimism

RUSH: Along the same lines, nothing but whining and moaning, get this. I am not making this story up. This is out of Chicago, and the slugline for this story is: “The Complaints Choir — From bad dates, to people who chew gum too loudly, to global warming, no complaint is too ridiculous — or too sublime — for the international complaints-choir movement. Now, it’s reached the United States, thanks to a couple from Finland out to combat the persistent American belief that it’s best to think positively and keep complaints to yourself. ‘That’s insane,’ Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, 35, said after the Complaints Choir of Chicago debuted this weekend in a sold-out auditorium at the Museum of Contemporary Art. ‘We say you should sing (complaints) out … acknowledge things aren’t as they should be. It’s therapeutic.’ Kochta-Kalleinen and Tellervo Kalleinen, both of whom are artists, hit on their idea three years ago while pondering the Finnish word ‘valituskuoro,’ which translates into ‘complaints choir’ and refers to people complaining in packs. The Kalleinens have started choirs from Australia to Israel devoted to the notion that it’s healthier to belt gripes out, and, better yet, in four-part harmony.” What they want to attack here is the constant American optimism. I’m serious. They don’t like constant American optimism. “After starting more than 20 such complaint choirs all over the world, this couple from Helsinki say they traveled here to end the tyranny of the positive attitude in America.” So everybody just wants to be miserable. They just want to whine and moan and complain.
Story #5: Bad Parents Confess, Complain, Whine on Website

RUSH: Speaking of the whining of America… “It was, when she looks back on it, a fairly routine disaster. Late one Sunday, after a busy weekend with three kids, working mother Romi Lassally was staring down at a pile of her son’s vomit in her hallway. ‘I left it there. I hoped the dog would eat it,’ she said. But when the dog failed to oblige, Lassally was left cleaning up and with a feeling that she’d sunk to a new maternal low so she did what she often does when mortified — picked up the phone and called a girlfriend. ‘She was amused and disgusted,’ she says. ‘I felt better right away. At that moment I knew I was on to something.’ That ‘something’ was True Mom Confessions,” an actual website, “an online posting board for moms to share their worst mistakes, misdeeds and misgivings. Since starting in April, more than 100,000 women have contributed confessions, from one-line gripes about in-laws, to intimate accounts of diminished sex lives. ‘It turns out we’re all riddled with guilt and ambivalence and regret,’ she says. ‘We’ve bottled this stuff up for too long. Now it’s time to unload.’ Parents are unloading like never before. Whether trading horror stories at birthday parties or penning ‘momoirs,’ more parents are finding comfort in swapping tales of their woes,” whining, and moaning, and complaining.

“Parenting books once dealt primarily in sweet sentiment and motherly resolve. Now they’re filled with tales of supermarket tantrums and strained marriages, each a supposedly more intimate expose of the ugly underbelly of family life. The titles say it all: ‘Mommies Who Drink,’ ‘I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids,'” is the title of one post. “I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids.” Sigh… I’ll tell you, the chickification of everything here is spreading. She was probably a great wife before she got married, too. If you’re going to say that you’re a great mom before you had kids, then you were probably a great wife before you got married. That’s right. “I Was a Great Husband Until I Got Married.” No wonder I’m in a blue funk with all of this ridiculous self-absorption!

You know, if you’ve got a problem out there, I agree, you shouldn’t hold it in, but tell the person to whom you have the problem. If your kid’s puking all over the floor and you don’t want to clean it up, tell the kid to go to the bathroom. Teach the kid to puke in the right place. Well, for crying out loud, these people are just lousy parents. If you’re having a diminished sex life with your husband or your wife, go talk to them about it. To say it’s “therapeutic” to post it on a website for the whole damn world to read about? There’s nothing therapeutic about that. That’s cowardly. Bye-bye, b-i-itch. B-i-itch, whine, whine, whine. I mean, all of this drama! For crying out loud, I’m glad I have not met any of these women. Well, I don’t think I’ve met any of these, Mr. Snerdley. I suppose the odds are that they may have called me, but I don’t think I’ve met them.

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Story #1: McCain’s Habit of Throwing Supporters Under Bus
RUSH: I guess this is in Texas, was in Houston, and a questioner at the town hall meeting took the microphone to level an insult at Mrs. Clinton. “Referring to the introduction of McCain’s wife Cindy, a man in Houston said, ‘Unlike other candidates in the race, if Cindy answers the phone at three in the morning, she won’t be wondering where her husband is.'” So there was raucous laughter, the crowd loved it, gales of laughter, there was applause, there were lots of smiles, including one from Cindy McCain. Senator McCain, however, “according to The Politico.com was forced to dissociate himself from the comments, while the acknowledging that the line was meant in humor, McCain said, ‘Americans want us to have a respectful campaign” and he honors and respects both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama, which also got applause but not nearly so much as the original line.” So Senator McCain chastises yet another voter, supporter — dissociates himself from another supporter — at one of his town hall meetings. So… I’m just not even gonna comment on it myself, not gonna comment on it myself, just throw it out there; let you people ponder it amongst yourselves. See what you think.

Story #2: Drive-Bys Sweat, Fret Three More Primary Months
RUSH: Here’s the headline today from the Rocky Mountain News. This is in Denver. “‘Tuesday’s Results Could Mean Chaos for the Democrat National Committee.’ There was more confusion than closure in Tuesday’s presidential primaries, preserving the prospect of brutal chaos leading right up to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.” Amen, bro, this is exactly what we wanted. The delegate count — what did she pick up, something like 22 delegates or something like that? She didn’t get that much closer, she didn’t narrow the gap, and the odds are still really, really against her winning the nomination. Here’s how it goes. This is how the delegate math — for those of you who are all worried. By the way, you wouldn’t believe the number of sound bites I have coming up from the Drive-By Media commenting on the Limbaugh Effect: How much was it? How big was it? And then, we have some Drive-By people saying here that I am corrupting and perverting democracy, that what I did was ungentlemanly. I’m not kidding you. We’ve got the sound bites coming up. No, I’m not kidding at all. I’ve got the sound bites coming up.

Let me tell you something, folks. You who listen to this program regularly understand one of the guiding principles of this program, and that is to illustrate absurdity by being absurd. If the Democrats and if the media can pick our nominee, then why the hell can’t we pick theirs? If it’s really fine and dandy and wonderful and bipartisan for Democrats and independents to cross over in the early Republican primaries in states where there are not a dominant number of conservative Republicans and essentially nominate Senator McCain, how come that’s all hunky-dory, how come that’s wonderful, how come that’s all sweetness and light, how come that’s democracy in action? But when Republicans, after our nominee is already chosen, decide to enter the Democrat primary and express their wishes on that side of the aisle, how come that’s corrupting democracy? It’s not corrupting, it’s just making them mad, which is another objective that we succeeded in pulling off.

Let me give you the delegate math here to calm some of your fears out there. If Clinton and Obama basically tie in the remaining 12 contests, Obama would need 164 superdelegates to come his way to put him over the magic number of 2,024. Here’s the thing that you have to understand. Because of what happened yesterday, this contest is assured to go another three months to Puerto Rico on June 7th, exactly as we told you in a piece written — I forget who wrote it — in American Spectator on Monday. There is no way that either one of these two candidates is going to wrap up the number of delegates by Puerto Rico, which means we’re going to get Florida and we’re going to get Michigan redo’s. That will happen in June sometime. Well, I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but I would bet that we get Florida and Michigan redo’s. “Well, yeah, because you can’t disenfranchise all those voters. It’s just not right, Mr. Limbaugh, we can’t do it.” Remember what I told you, Snerdley, there are no rules in the Democrat Party; there are only customs and traditions. Don’t frown at me. Stop and think of it.

Do you realize what a brilliant observation that is? There are no rules, and therefore there are no rules to break. There are customs, traditions. And of course one of the great Democrat traditions, one of the great Democrat customs is every vote counts, at least twice, and sometimes three times. It’s a great custom. It’s been that way in Chicago for a long time; been that way in West Virginia for a long time. They tried to make that happen in Cuyahoga County last night. I keep hearing judges are loath to keep polling places open. (laughing) Democrat judges aren’t, certainly not in St. Louis and not in Cleveland.

Story #3: Chicago Press Begs Barry to Come Clean on Rezko
RUSH: The Chicago Sun-Times, by the way, is all over Senator Obama. Jury selection began Monday in the trial of political influence peddler Tony Rezko. This would be the time before a single witness takes the stand for Barack Obama to finally share every detail of his relationship with Rezko. This is an editorial from the Chicago Sun-Times. “Rezko stands accused of funneling state business to companies that lined his pockets and made campaign contributions to Governor Blagojevich. Rezko allegedly directed 10 grand to Obama’s 2004 campaign to the US Senate. The criminal charges against Rezko in no way implicate Obama in any wrongdoing, but they do raise the question of the dealings between the two men. For months, sometimes investigative reporters have had a standing request to meet with Obama face-to-face to get answers to questions such as these: ‘How many fundraisers did Rezko throw for Obama?’ ‘Obama’s donating $150,000 to charity that Rezko brought into the campaign, but how much in all did Rezko raise?’ ‘Did Rezko find jobs for Obama backers in the Blagojevich administration or elsewhere?’ ‘Why did Obama only recently admit after Bloomberg News broke the story that Rezko had toured his south side mansion with him in 2004 before he bought it?’ Dribs and drabs of people’s lives have a most unfortunate way of coming out in trials.” And so the Chicago Sun-Times, “Hey, Barack, to prevent the dribs and drabs, tell us in advance.”

I mention all this only because if you don’t think Clinton, Inc., is going to be keeping a sharp eye on this, I mean, how many Clinton, Inc., jurors will there be? And, of course, Obama could fire back with Norman Hsu stuff if he wanted to; plenty of stuff to fire back at here. Hope it happens, that’s the whole point. “As questioning of potential jurors wrapped up Tuesday in the corruption trial of political fund-raiser Tony Rezko, a new accusation has surfaced that Rezko paid a $1.5 million bribe in an effort to win a $50 million business deal in Iraq. In a court filing, Rezko’s lawyers say that prosecutors accused him in a closed-door meeting of paying the bribe to Aiham Alsammarae, Iraq’s former minister of electricity. Rezko’s defense team called the accusation ‘baseless.’ They accused the prosecution of relying too heavily on the word of Daniel Mahru, a former Rezko business partner who is expected to testify against Rezko.” Drips and drabs, drips and drabs. Here’s Obama, all hot to trot on his anti-Iraq policy, should not have gone there, shouldn’t have had anything to do with what’s going on, bad mistake, Bush should have never gone. The guy, therefore, who enabled Obama to buy his house at below market price is now accused of paying a $1.5 million bribe in an effort to win a $50 million business deal in that very same Iraq that Obama says we have no business being in.

Story #1: Berlusconi: Right-Wing Women More Beautiful

RUSH: From the BBC: “Italian opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi has claimed that right-wing female politicians are better looking than their left-wing counterparts.” Who can argue with this?
Story #2: California Sheep Follow Government Orders

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, over the course of many moons I have chronicled for you how, for example, in California, the state, for years, for whatever reasons — fuel economy, global warming, pollution emissions — urging people left and right to buy smaller cars, more economical cars, cars that get more miles to the gallon. As is the case, in a state as populous as California, you’re going to have enough sheep out there that when the government says do something, they’ll go do it because they think that’s what defines being a good citizen is following orders from the government. And enough of them did over the course of recent months that less gasoline was sold. This coupled with a higher gasoline price and all the other factors contributed to what? Less tax revenue pouring into the public coffers in Sacramento. This alarmed state officials because everything they suggested people were doing in enough numbers, sufficient numbers, as to impact negatively the collection of tax revenues. So what did they do? They figured out ways to raise taxes on gasoline and other things to make up their loss. This is typical government, typical liberal government. They tell you to do these great things to save you money and save the planet at the same time. When they figure out that you saving tax revenue means they don’t get it, then the days of you saving tax revenue are over. So you’ve gone out, you’ve purchased a bunch of junk-heap automobiles that you really didn’t want but because of your desire to be good citizens. You’re driving around a bunch of claptraps, barely able to do 50 miles an hour, but you think that you’re a good citizen, and all of a sudden everything they told you to do harms them.
Story #3: NC: Higher Water Rates… Because You Conserved
RUSH: In Raleigh, North Carolina, recently, they banned garbage disposals. Now, when I moved to New York, you couldn’t have a garbage disposal in the city in any high-rise, you just couldn’t have ’em. No, you couldn’t, as recently as 1988. As recently as 1984, you couldn’t have a garbage disposal. You know why? Because it eliminated jobs for union workers to pick up garbage and trash. You had to put your food in a trash bag, throw it down the chute in the building, ends up outside on the front curb waiting for the trash truck to come pick it up. What a lot of people would do after they got the permit of certificate of occupancy from the local inspector, they would secretly install the Kitchen Aid or whatever garbage disposal. I never did because I didn’t want to flout the law. You can do it in New York now. I still haven’t put one in because I’m not in there enough. I should do it. But they just recently tried to ban them in North Carolina, and for the reason that they were clogging up sewer lines, which was pure bogus. And there was such an outrage they’ve rescinded the ban. That was in Raleigh.

Now, in Charlotte, North Carolina: “It’s official, Charlotte-Mecklenburg water and sewer customers: Your rates will go up because you conserved.” A fifteen percent increase in the water rate has been approved. This is from the Charlotte Observer. “Charlotte City Council approved an unusually steep water and sewer rate hike Monday — double the normal annual increase — to make up for lower water sales in recent months, as the region has stopped lawn watering,” and they’re in a drought. So the officials say, “You can only water once a week, you can’t water at all, you can’t wash your car, you’re supposed to brush your teeth without the water running, you’re supposed to wash your hands without the water running. ” So people have been following the orders, they’re good citizens, and they know there’s a drought. They’ve been told you’ve got 90 days, 90 days if it doesn’t rain and we’re officially out of water, so people have been paying attention, and they’ve been doing it. Now their water rates are going up, because they’re not using any. The vote was seven to three.

Now, just extrapolate this to whatever might come down the pike on global warming. They tell you what to do and how to save money, and when they find out their tax revenue falls, guess what? You’re going to get taxed for less! You’re going to get taxed for using less of anything. Republican councilman John Lassiter said, “We’re in a box, and it distresses me. I feel like there should have been a lot more disclosure to this council prior to 30 days ago.” So where are we? The city of Raleigh and Charlotte, wherever in the state of North Carolina, bans you from watering your lawn, from any new plants, from washing the car, using a garbage disposal, with all these hysterical demands to conserve water. They’re running commercials on television with the governor and a bunch of pretty children asking North Carolinians not to run water while shaving or brushing their teeth. They say you only have enough water in North Carolina to last 90 days. In three months, there will be no water coming out of the taps of North Carolina, they say. So, like the good little sycophants the North Carolina citizens are, they do all that. People are even putting rain barrels out. They’re putting rain barrels out to collect rainwater when it rains because they’re trying to conserve water, to follow what the government says. And then, bammo, the Charlotte city council, coming soon to other North Carolina cities as well I’ll bet you, realizes all that conserving is now causing the local government coffers to lose millions of dollars in revenue, so what do they do? Raise the rates on the water.

There was nothing they could do. Nothing they could do. They were in a box, and these rates more than double the normal annual increase. Does this not sound like I said, ladies and gentlemen, suspiciously like the manmade global warming garbage out there. Record cold, it’s global warming. Record heat, it’s global warming. More hurricanes, global warming. Less hurricanes, global warming. By the same token, less water, and your bill goes up. Use less gasoline in California, and the expense, the cost goes up. And if you come back and use more water, your bill goes up. Use less water, it goes up in price. Use more water, it goes up in price. In both cases, liberal governments are in charge of the charges. “Okay, Rush, okay. Fine and dandy. You tell us about this, but then what?” Stop electing Democrats! Plain and simple.
Story #4: Camille Paglia on Hillary’s Girlie-Men

RUSH: Camille Paglia, in her latest column at Salon.com, answers e-mail. She got an e-mail from a guy named Chris Richard in Agoura Hills, California. He writes to Camille Paglia, “‘I would like to get your feedback on the subject of those who end up in Hillary’s orbit. Can you conceive of a strong, leader-type male ever working under her? An alpha, if you will. And if the answer is no, then why do you think that is? The men you always see under her are to a person passive-aggressive, sadistic, mean, little, petty beta-male pieces of work who would not naturally succeed in a common male-type hierarchy. By that I mean an environment that values straightforward achievement rather than the darker political arts. …” Who are these guys? Camille Paglia’s reply: “You have succinctly expressed one of the most unsettling aspects of Hillary Clinton’s character and modus operandi. There is a strangely static and claustrophobic quality to the fiercely loyal cult she has gathered around her since her first lady years. Postmortem analysts of this presidential campaign will have a field day ferreting out all the cringe-making blunders made by her clique of tired, aging courtiers who couldn’t adjust to changing political realities.”

Ms. Paglia continues: “I agree that the male staff who Hillary attracts are slick, geeky weasels or rancid, asexual cream puffs. … If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say Hillary is reconstituting the toxic hierarchy of her childhood household, with her on top instead of her drill-sergeant father. All those seething beta males … are versions of her sad-sack brothers, who got the short end of the Rodham DNA stick. The compulsive war-room mentality of both Clintons is neurosis writ large. The White House should not be a banging, rocking washer perpetually stuck on spin cycle. Many Democrats, including myself, have come to doubt whether Hillary has any core values or even a stable sense of identity. With her outlandish fibbing and naive self-puffery, her erratic day-to-day changes of tone and message, her glassy, fixed smiles, and her leaden and embarrassingly unpresidential jokes about pop culture, she has started to seem like one of those manic, seductively vampiric patients in trashy old Hollywood hospital flicks like ‘The Snake Pit.’ How anyone could confuse Hillary’s sourly cynical, male-bashing megalomania with authentic feminism is beyond me.” That’s Camille Paglia, Salon.com. It is an interesting question, and it is interesting to note that all of these guys in Hillary’s orb, you know, would be in Revenge of the Nerds 10 — and that’s even being charitable towards them, in terms of being men.
Story #5: New Tax Bracket for Maryland Millionaires

RUSH: Folks, I don’t know what… I’m an optimist and very happy, good cheer, content and all that. But I think I’ve gotta prepare you for what we face, possibly. We’re going to face confiscatory taxation like people can’t comprehend, if either Hillary or Obama get elected president. Two stories. The Baltimore Sun. There is a new tax bracket for Maryland millionaires, specifically millionaires. Not the rich. “…Maryland’s new millionaires’ tax bracket. A little more than 6,000 households statewide qualify for the distinction…” In all of Maryland, there are 6,000 households where people have an income of a million dollars or more. “[M]ore than 40 percent of [these 6,000] reside in Montgomery County. It’s a group that includes a Fortune 500 executive in Potomac, an energy company CEO in Roland Park and wealthy retirees with bayside estates in St. Michaels.” They go on to list people. Even Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens is one who would qualify for this new tax. “With the General Assembly’s passage of the new 6.25 percent top tax rate on incomes above $1 million, and Gov. Martin O’Malley’s signing of the bill yesterday, Maryland has apparently become the first state to create an actual millionaires’ bracket.” That’s a 6.25% tax if your income is a million dollars or more. Now, that’s still pretty low compared to like 14% in California or 12% in New York. This is just the first round. The point is, there’s a millionaire tax now.
Story #6: “Millionaire’s Tax” Could Fund NYC Mass Transit

RUSH: In New York, Mayor Bloomberg is fit to be tied. He had a new tax plan, a “congestion tax,” and you were going to be charged if you drove into the city, if you entered… I forget the details of it because it doesn’t apply to me because I don’t live there. But you were going to get soaked, and the State Assembly told Mayor Bloomberg to go to hell. They’ve come up with a different plan. “Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan may be dead, but Assembly Democrats do have a plan to raise money for mass transit: tax the rich. It’s what Albany calls a ‘millionaire’s tax.’ … Under the plan, people who earn over $1 million in New York state will pay an income tax surcharge of about 3/4 of 1 percent for five years,” meaning in perpetuity because it will never, ever be eliminated. It will only increase. So whatever the top rate is in New York State — and I know what it is…I just don’t pay any attention to it because it makes me sick. The accountant figures it out. So for people over a million dollars it’s going to be an additional three-quarters of 1%. “[I]t would raise over $5 billion for mass transit. Supporters say that of the 75,000 affected taxpayers, about 35,000 don’t live in New York. ‘They could be ballplayers at Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, Madison Square Garden,’ Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told CBS 2 HD. ‘They could be Wall Street people who live in Greenwich, Conn., or Princeton, NJ,'” but who work in the city. So you said, “It’s just the first of many,” Snerdley. You’re absolutely right — and five billion to pay for mass transit? What about all the tax revenue they already raised in New York State and New York City? Well, that’s going to prop up the never-ending and always-growing welfare state that New York has, independent of the federal government’s welfare state.

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Story #1:Michelle Obama Causes Whoopi to Wet Herself

RUSH: Michelle (My Belle) Obama was on The View today, and Whoopi Goldberg wet herself. I am not making this up. Whoopi got so excited, she wet herself. “Rush, what can you possibly mean?” Very simple, ladies and gentlemen. She got so excited she spilled her drink cup all over herself. Now, watching replay highlights, let me check the audio sound bite roster. I’m not sure we have any; I’m not sure I want any. Let’s see what we have here. Doesn’t look like it. I’ll betcha Cookie’s in the process of breaking some down if she said anything interesting.
Story #2:Algore’s Mansion Proves His Solutions Don’t Work

RUSH: You might have seen the news yesterday that Algore’s home is now using 10% more electricity after taking all of these energy-saving steps that he highly touted one year ago. We have, therefore, proof from Algore that we need to drill more oil. We have proof that conservation does not work. Thomas Lifson of the American Thinker points out that the morality play on offer from these environmentalist wackos and their media buddies says that we can’t drill our way to cheaper oil prices, but that conservation and new technologies for alternative energy are the answer. Thus, we should all be “thankful to Al Gore for proving that even in a high-profile demonstration project these ‘solutions’ won’t work. The Tennessee Center for Policy Research reports that Gore’s home in Nashville has increased its energy usage by 10% in the past year.

“This is in the face of proudly-announced (and expensive) energy-saving steps. Stop the ACLU cites the Soros-Funded Think Progress site for information: Gore’s family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology,” and it didn’t work. His usage went up 10%. “Now that Gore has proven his measures are ineffective, it is time to drill offshore, ANWR, mine coal and oil-bearing rock, and build nuclear power plants.” Algore, by the way, is not going to join Obama on the campaign trail. He’s not going to subject himself to questions on global warming. He will not debate.
Story #3: Mississippi River Swells, Drive-Bys Yawn
RUSH:The Mississippi River, it’s really swollen out there. It’s swelling up, threatening all these levees in Illinois and Iowa; and is now down to Quincy, Illinois; and approaching Hannibal, Missouri. We all know where the Mississippi River ends up, don’t we? Where does the Mississippi River end up, Brian? Where does it end up? It ends up in New Orleans. That’s exactly right. A flooded Mississippi River is going to end up in New Orleans, and when it does you’re going to see an entirely different kind of coverage from the Drive-By Media (snickering). When the Mississippi River is just, you know, a day or two away from reaching New Orleans and the delta (gasp!) they’re going to go nuts out there.
Story #4:Jellyfish Profundity: Nature Cannot be Out of Sync

RUSH: Here is a story that illustrates how the Drive-By Media — and who is this? Well, I don’t know who wrote this. Is it Live Science? I don’t know what the website is here. I’m hoping it’s AP, but I don’t recognize the author’s name. It’s the French News Agency. But this is a classic example of a nature story, a global warming story that is designed to instill fear and to promulgate the notion here that: Man, we humans, we are just messing everything up; we are causing so much damage! Headline of the story: “Jellyfish Outbreaks a Sign of Nature Out of Sync — The dramatic proliferation of jellyfish in oceans around the world, driven by overfishing and climate change, is a sure sign of ecosystems out of kilter, warn experts. ‘Jellyfish are an excellent bellwether for the environment,’ explains Jacqueline Goy, of the Oceanographic Institute of Paris. ‘The more jellyfish, the stronger the signal that something has changed.'”

I am about, ladies and gentlemen, to share with you a profundity. “Jellyfish Outbreaks a Sign of Nature Out of Sync.” Ladies and gentlemen, it is impossible — it is physically, geophysically, ontologically, metaphysically, intellectually impossible — for nature to be out of sync. Nature is, by definition, natural. There cannot be anything out of sync in nature. We’re talking about the Mother Nature type. I know. I can hear you shouting at your radios, “You’re wrong, Rush! You’re wrong, you’re wrong.” No, you are, if you’re shouting at me. Human beings can become out of sync, but even then, who’s to say who’s out of sync? Are we not measuring this by our own observations and therefore our only statistical analysis? You see, only by virtue of our perception can nature be said to be “out of sync.” We observe. We see things and say, “Oh, haven’t seen this before,” but we have. I dare say there’s probably nothing happening in the climate or within nature that has not happened before, and therefore how can it be out of sync?

Only by virtue of our perception can nature be said to be out of sync. So we spot a lot more jellyfish out there. “Ooh, ooh, global warming! Global warming! We’re overfishing.” (sigh) Nope. Nope. That’s our perception. “But, Rush! but, Rush! We’re causing it!” No. We’re part of nature, too, folks — and, you see, this is the key. We are not innocent bystanders. We are not irrelevant here. Other existence on this planet is every bit a part of nature as this stupid jellyfish. We in south Florida are having an iguana infestation. The little buggers are just popping up everywhere. They’re eating people’s gardens. I happen to love lizards; I think they’re cute as hell. These things, though, they don’t eat insects. I love the little anoles and the geckos. Their little buddies eat the insects. But these things are running around. They stowaway on ships coming up from the Caribbean. They’re sold as pets, then they get too big and the pet owner says, “I don’t want this damn lizard running around.”

They don’t like to be petted. They don’t like to be picked up and held very much. So people just throw ’em away. Well, they start reproducing out there left and right. Is it nature out of sync? “But, Rush! But, Rush. There’s never been this many iguanas here before.” How do we know? There haven’t been any in our lifetime but in our recorded history, how do we know? But what’s to say them coming here is not natural? Perfect climate for the damn things. It’s perfectly natural for them to exist here, otherwise they couldn’t exist here. I’m not trying to make too big a deal out of this. What I’m saying is, we are not destroyers. We are not predators. We are not the people responsible for destroying the environment or the planet ’cause we can’t. We are part of it.

No more than a beaver destroys a forest by chopping down trees and building a dam. Why don’t we get mad at the beaver? I mean, for crying out loud, this is just so simple, yet it sounds so profound — and it is. Nature by definition is natural. So if there are more jellyfish running around out there tell these Jacques Cousteau types just to be quiet. Folks, I don’t know about you. As a human being, I’m getting fed up being blamed for every damn thing that’s bad in the country, and everything in the world, too, that’s bad. Do you realize we humans are the only ones that destroy things? We’re the only ones that destroy the planet and the climate? Everything else is pristine and lovely and wonderful, but we? We? We’re just debris. We’re human debris, soiling the pristine nature of the planet.

Story #1: Crazy Joe Klein Wants You to Kill Your Air Conditioner

RUSH: Joe Klein, TIME Magazine, latest issue. His piece is entitled, “Kill Your Air Conditioner.” Now, this is a political reporter, Joe Klein. I’ve seen Joe Klein on TV a bunch of times the past two weeks, month, what have you, and I’m reading this piece, and I’m genuinely concerned: What has happened to Joe Klein? Joe Klein used to be a down-the-middle political reporter. He’s always been a Drive-By, oriented toward the left, but he has become increasingly angry, bordering on being out-of-control. He’s not making any effort to hide the activist agenda that he has been responsible for, but this piece is simply deranged. There is no other polite way to describe this. These are his words. “The unnecessary refrigeration of America has become a chronic disease. It seems to have gotten worse over the past few years, with thermostats routinely set at 68 deg. F, and sometimes even 65 deg., in the (far too many) hotel rooms I’ve suffered on the campaign trail.

“‘Americans seem to keep their houses cooler in summer than they do in the winter,’ muses Edward Parson, an environmental expert at the University of Michigan Law School.” Seem to keep their houses cooler in summer than they do in the winter? I don’t know how they could ever prove that assertion. How in the world does anybody know what the temperature in somebody’s house in the summertime is versus what it is in the winter? Secondly, what is an environmentalist wacko doing at the University of Michigan Law School? Anyway, he says, “‘Americans seem to keep their houses cooler in summer than they do in the winter,’ … But it’s hard to know for sure, since there are no comprehensive studies that measure air-conditioning trend lines.” So, Joe, why quote the guy?

What’s happened to Joe Klein? He then says, “I will confess a bias here. I love warm weather, even when it slouches toward humidity. I detest the harsh, slightly metallic quality of the air forced through even the fanciest AC systems. The only air conditioner I own sits, unused, in my car; my home is happily unrefrigerated. But given the energy mess we’re in, I can now gild my personal preference with a patina of high-mindedness: Air-conditioning is bad for the planet, and for national security, and for our balance-of-payments deficit. Unfortunately, it is not as bad as I’d like it to be — in part because not all of our electricity is provided by fossil fuels (although coal does predominate). And also because air-conditioning represents a relatively small slice of our energy use, an estimated 4%.”

So he’s asking for a greater crisis. Joe Klein wants there to be a greater energy climatic crisis than there is, because of air-conditioning. (No, Snerdley, I don’t know what his beliefs in toilet paper are. I don’t know what his beliefs on flushing the toilet are.) Clearly, something’s happened to Joe Klein. He’s either on the meds or he’s off of them. What a thing to get riled up about. What a thing to get upset about. But then when you stop and think, “No, he’s in the left-wing media, and the left-wing media is on a crusade to promote the hoax of manmade global warming.” Folks, if these people were ever to succeed with this… You just need to go back and take a look at the Twenties! You talk about the work output that would cease, the productivity in this country that ratcheted way up once air-conditioning was discovered?
Story #2: Why Obama Says He’s Against the Fairness Doctrine

RUSH: You know, the Fairness Doctrine, this comes up and we talk about this every now and then. Now, Obama, I have to tell you, I’ve got the story in the stack. It’s from a couple of days ago. Obama says, or somebody in his campaign said, “We don’t care about the Fairness Doctrine. We got bigger fish to fry than that. We have no intention of reinstating the Fairness Doctrine.” Obama doesn’t have to say it because Nancy Pelosi has; a number of other Democrats have. But the Fairness Doctrine, they may try, folks, but, look: They’re not going to just be able to succeed with this overnight if they try it. They’re going to have all kinds of opposition and the kind of opposition that they fear most, and that’s going to be from you, the American people.

The American people are not going to put up with it. There’s too high a level, degree of sophistication now, understanding what would happen if the Fairness Doctrine were implemented and reinstated. The broadcast community, yes, it’s regulated by the FCC. But when I started my national radio show in 1988, there were 125 radio stations doing talk. Today, some 20 years later, it’s over 1200. Now, that means that the talk format has withstood all the other downturns, formatically, in radio. You know, certain music formats are having trouble. A lot of formats are having trouble. Talk radio is not. The industry is just not going to sit around and let the Democrats make it worthless without a fight. It’s going to take much more than the snap of a finger or the waving of a magic wand to bring this about. I have no doubt the Democrats want to do it. I have no doubt that Nancy Pelosi wants to try it. They are typical in that way. They don’t want to put up with people that they disagree with. They don’t want to put up with criticism. They don’t want to engage it. They just want to silence it. What do you think political correctness is? Political correctness is nothing more than using intimidating tactics to make people shut up and not say things that liberals don’t want to hear, pure and simple.
Story #3: TIME: Ten Things You Can Like About $4 Gas
RUSH: TIME Magazine, Amanda Ripley: “’10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas’ — The world had long assumed that Americans were just unrepentant energy pigs.” That’s the lead. So the lead has to do with what the world thinks of us, talking about four-dollar gasoline. The world just assumed we’re a bunch of unrepentant energy pigs. “If gas prices went up, well, we kept our Explorers aimed at the horizon, and little changed. We truthfully didn’t have lots of options. Unlike Europeans, we didn’t have jobs we could bike to or convenient public transit. Gasoline prices never stayed high enough long enough to force those kinds of shifts in how we lived. Now here we are. Gas prices are near $4 per gal., as no one needs to tell you, and they are likely to stay that way. Most of us still don’t have the alternatives we need to adapt with grace.” We don’t have the ability, so… “we will adapt by suffering. We will run out of gas on I-80, ease our minivans over to the shoulder and tell the kids everything is O.K. We’ll fall behind on Visa bills to pay for gas so we can buy food made ever more expensive by energy costs. But it’s also true that Americans are finding options where there seemed to be none. They’re ready to change — just waiting for their infrastructure to catch up. They are driving to commuter-rail lines only to find there are no parking spots left. They are running fewer errands and dumping their SUVs. Public-transit use is at a 50-year high. Gas purchases are down 2% to 3%. And all those changes bring secondary, hard-earned benefits.”

Now, here, in the final paragraph, is the real reason for writing this story. “Eric Roston, author of a new book about energy, The Carbon Age, says, ‘You suddenly are reminded how the economy works. Nobody wants high prices for oil. But there’s also no faster mechanism to change behavior.’ The suffering will go on. But the story, like any good tragedy, is not without redemption.” This is TIME Magazine, Amanda Ripley. And so what’s the great thing about gas prices going up? You pigs will change your behavior. You unrepentant energy pigs will change your behavior, and you’ll get on the rotten, unreliable mass transit, if you have any. Otherwise you’ll find a job where you can ride your bicycle to like these brilliant Europeans. But you are an unrepentant energy pig, and it’s about time your behavior changed, and thank God for four-dollar gasoline to do that.

So here we have the arrogance and the elitism and the snobbery of the Drive-By Media and their noted experts in a short little piece, “10 Things You Can Like About $4 Gas,” and it’s all predicated on the fact that you are pig, that you are guilty, that you deserve to suffer, but there is redemption. And so we’re happy for high prices in energy ’cause you are going to change your behavior, ’cause you are destroying the planet, you are greedy, you are this, you are that. Hello global warming. This is a microcosm. The same kind of arrogant, snob effetes want to tell you how to live ’cause you’re too stupid to know how to live right. And when you are too stupid, and don’t live the way they want you to live, then you embarrass them in the eyes of the Europeans. And our elite, effete-snob Drive-By Media leftists and other leftists do not want to be embarrassed in the eyes of the Europeans! So you, you worthless shreds of human debris, we’re going to change your behavior — because you’re too stupid to live in a way that won’t embarrass the elites.

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Story #1: Should the Government Bail Out USA Today?

RUSH: Wow. Did you see this? USA Today, the nation’s newspaper saw their advertising revenue plunge 27% in June. Maybe Congress can bail them out, too. Bailout season.
Story #2: Capitol Hill Democrats Unhappy with Obama

RUSH: Yesterday in Politico.com: “After a brief bout of Obamamania, some Capitol Hill Democrats have begun to complain privately that Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is insular, uncooperative and inattentive to their hopes for a broad Democratic victory in November. ‘They think they know what’s right and everyone else is wrong on everything,’ groused one senior Senate Democratic aide. They’re kind of insufferable at this point,'” talking about the Obama people. This is interesting ’cause the Republicans think the same thing about McCain. The Republicans think McCain is out there just trying to get elected president, doesn’t care what happens to the rest of the party, and now some Democrats on Capitol Hill are saying the same thing about Obama, that he doesn’t care what happens to the rest of the party. I don’t think that’s true in Obama’s case. I think the Democrats just assume that they’re going to win in the biggest landslide in American history. I think they think they’re going to pick up 70 seats in the House. I think they think they’re going to pick up 12 in the Senate. They’re going to win 60-40 in the White House. I don’t think they think they have to do anything for coattails.
Story #3: Denver Gives Homeless Movie Tickets for DNC
RUSH: The homeless are fine as long as they are in somebody else’s neighborhood. But when the Democrats are going to show up for their big-time convention in Denver, they can’t have them anywhere! It was the same thing in New York. They just can’t have those TV images. It’s going to be bad enough with Recreate ’68 out there trying to cause all kinds of hijinks, so they’re going to give the homeless movie tickets in Denver the week of the convention. I’m not making it up.
Story #4: DJs Know: Sexy Voices Don’t Equal Sexy Babes

RUSH: A little story from LiveScience.com: “People with voices deemed sexy and attractive tend to have greater body symmetry upon close inspection…” Who got to do the close inspection?

“‘The sound of a person’s voice reveals a considerable amount of biological information,’ said Susan Hughes, an evolutionary psychologist from Albright College in Reading, Pa. ‘It can reflect the mate value of a person.’ Hughes, whose new study is detailed in the June 2008 edition of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior…” Well, hell, we gotta get on that list! I thought we subscribed to all these things, but I’ve never heard of this. We have to get a subscription. We can get a free one because we are powerful, influential members of the media here. The Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. This new study is detailed in the issue. It “cautions that an attractive voice does not necessarily indicate that this person has an attractive face.” Now, let me jump in here, ladies and gentlemen, with some personal testimony based on years and years of experience guided by intelligence: They did not need to do a survey, a study; they didn’t need to do any close inspection to learn that somebody with an attractive voice has an attractive face.

They didn’t need to do this. Virtually anybody, any male who has been a disc jockey at any radio station at any time since Marconi invented it could tell you this. I’ll just tell you my experiences. When I was a struggling young disc jockey star of the future, while you were playing the hits and playing the tunes, getting ready for the next hit to play; of course, you’ve got a little downtime in there getting on the next commercial set setup and whatever you have to do; and the phones are ringing off the hook, usually, if you’re on a station that has an audience and they’re calling to make requests, maybe calling to enter a contest, “Be the 43rd caller, you can win this little trip down to the sewer,” whatever the station was giving away, and among those people calling were groupies. They were legion. Brian, you know what I’m talking about. As an engineer you probably haven’t dealt with this personally, but you know that they’re out there. Okay, you know that they’re out there, and I’ll tell you.

Some of them, you pick up the phone and talk to ’em, and, man! Those voices that some of them had. Despite what you knew, you say, “This one has to be for real,” and you’d set up a meeting, and you’d get disappointed every damn time until you finally figured out that if they had anything worthwhile to do they wouldn’t be calling you. I developed as a struggling young disc jockey a system for this, ’cause I kept hoping. You know, hope is a strange thing, as Obama knows. I kept hoping that just one of these times… Now, remember, I’m 16, 17, 18, 20, 21. I kept hoping that just one of these times, one of these beautiful voices would match a beautiful face. They never, ever did. Never! So I had a system set up to find out. It takes a while for this to happen, but you suggest getting together, which is what the groupie wants in the first place.

But you don’t jump at it ’cause you don’t want to appear desperate. Because just like if the groupie had anything better to do, she would be calling you; if you had anything better to do, you wouldn’t be running around trying to meet the groupie. It works both ways. I am now mature enough to admit this to you and to myself. So what I would do is I would lie about the kind of car I had, and I would lie about the time that I was going to meet the groupie. So I’d say, “Okay, I’m showing up at X place and I’m driving this. You stand out there and I’ll drive up.” You’d describe yourself on the phone, and always a lie as well; and then you’d drive by a little later than you said you would be there — not much, sometimes a little earlier — in a car that you’ve lied about and you scope it out. And I guarantee you, every damn time I just kept driving. Not one time — not once, Dawn, not once — did I stop.

“Mr. Limbaugh, that sounds so mean and cruel.” I’m sure it does to some of you New Castrati, but the whole point of telling you this story is they just finished who knows how much money this cost, a research survey for a magazine called the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, and the big result is a caution that an attractive voice does not necessarily indicate that the person has an attractive face. Anybody with experience could have told them this, and it would not have been anecdotal. I can’t think… I knew a lot of other guys that were deejays who did the whole thing, and some of them had low standards. They didn’t care what the groupie looked like. They just wanted the feedback and the ego thrill. That was not me. I had much higher standards, but there were never any exceptions to this. Never, ever, ever!
Story #5: Does Anyone Care about the Olympics Anymore?

RUSH: By the way, is anybody excited about the Olympics? I keep seeing these stories… The body of water for the sailing races — it turned into pea soup or something from the algae and so forth, and they got the algae out of there. The Chinese say that they’re going to mess with the weather for the opening ceremonies, if the weather’s not good. They’re putting all kinds of restrictions on banners and so forth. A lot of people would look at it as a great opportunity to work for a network that would send you over there to cover this. That’s the last place I’d want to go, to this kind of crowd, this kind of place. What, Snerdley? The hotels are not at capacity? Well, I wonder why. You know, as my friend, Don Ohlmeyer said, “Until Al-Qaeda gets a team, the Olympics just aren’t going to be what they were.” You know, back when the East German women were men and taking all kinds of steroids, and had mustaches — and the Soviets hockey team was actually a bunch of army guys that were armed with pistols — those were the good old days of the Olympics. This, I don’t know. I just can’t get into it.

Story #6: Catfish Walk Through Florida Neighborhood

RUSH: This story is from Pinellas County, Florida. I’m just going to read this story to you as it is written: “About 30 fish were spotted ‘walking’ through a Florida neighborhood, shocking homeowners who said they’ve never seen anything like it. ‘I was like, “No way there’s fish in the street,”‘ homeowner Dianna Fernandez said. ‘And I kept going further and further and seeing fish everywhere — in driveways. I’ve never seen anything like it.’ The walking catfish were spotted in the road near a Pinellas Park subdivision Tuesday. The fish used their pectoral fins to walk or shuffle around the streets. Video showed the fish moving through the neighborhood. A scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the catfish can travel on land as long as they stay moist. ‘We thought it was a prank at first,’ resident Hannah Cline said. ‘(We thought) that maybe somebody dumped some fish but then we realized that it was coming up from the sewer that we had so much rain last night.’ Experts said the type of fish spotted in the neighborhood likely hit the land because of the large amounts of rain in the area. Homeowners said it is the first time they’ve ever seen fish in their neighborhood.”

There’s a still shot here of a fish walking, slithering around there on a driveway it looks like. I just wanted to get this news to you el quicko, because it won’t be long before this is blamed not on rains, but blamed on global warming. When the Drive-Bys get hold of this story, they will probably omit the fact that these fish can walk anyway, as long as they’re moist, that there is actually a walking catfish, so just be on the lookout, ladies and gentlemen. You heard it here, as you do most things, first.
Story #7: Shazam! A Revolution in the Mortgage Industry

RUSH: From the Associated Press, the remaining Drive-By news organization that is a monopoly, the lone remaining Drive-By news organization that is a monopoly, and they just had a policy changed at AP where they are purposely now inserting the opinion of the reporter in stories ’cause they think that opinion is what makes news and money in the media. “Doug Gylfe still can’t afford to buy a home in Torrance, Calif., despite a 23 percent drop in prices. And Congress isn’t helping.” Yes, AP, and just exactly what is Congress supposed to do? In fact, could we not say, ladies and gentlemen, that the problems that we’re having in the subprime mortgage area are precisely due to Congress being involved and dictating that lenders lend money to people who couldn’t pay it back? In fact, I saw there was a story in the stack yesterday, revolutionary new concept in loaning money. New standards are going to be implemented when making home loans, and one of the things that is going to now be required is that the lenders verify income to make sure that the people borrowing the money can pay it back. What I want to know is — I haven’t borrowed any money in a long time — when did they let that go lax? Years ago?

Are you telling me that you can walk to a bank and say, “I need $1,500 bucks,” and get it without telling anything about your income? Oh, mortgage brokers, Snerdley. Okay. All right. So a revolutionary new concept here in the mortgage broker lending business, and that is going to be that you who borrow money through a mortgage broker are going to have to prove that you can pay it back. Well, shazam! Snerdley, I know it’s discriminatory. It discriminates against people who can’t pay it back. But I guess we’re in so much trouble that we’re going to be now doing government-sanctioned discrimination. We’re going to go back to discriminating and we’re going to require people to prove they can pay it back where some people can’t. If people are going to get loans ’cause they can pay ’em back that means other people who can’t pay ’em back are not going to get loans, that’s government discrimination. Some people have a harder time not verifying it but proving it because they’re in the all-cash business, they’re under the table. Some of them don’t have any income. Some of them don’t have any income and they still want to borrow money for a house and in the past they’ve been able to do that because the government did not want to discriminate against people who didn’t have any money. But now we’ve got a big problem.

We’ve got a big problem. People that borrowed money, couldn’t pay it back, are now being foreclosed on and kicked out of their houses, and that’s discriminatory, that’s unfair. Now we’ve got this big housing mess. So the government is going to fix this by making sure that if you borrow money from a mortgage broker to buy a house, you have to be able to prove you can pay it back. I tell you, this government is heartless, isn’t it? I warned you people about this. They’re just absolutely heartless, coldhearted, cruel SOBs. Can you imagine requiring somebody to prove they can pay the loan back, when everybody knows they’re going to get bailed out if they don’t pay it back anyway. And now this, poor old Doug Gylfe, still can’t afford to buy a house in Torrance, California, despite the fact there’s been a 23% drop in home prices out there. And Congress isn’t helping? Man, oh, man. “That’s the dilemma this week for the nation’s lawmakers and millions of Americans who are priced out of homeownership: Any rescue policy to stem foreclosures could artificially prop up home prices and perpetuate the affordability crisis in many major cities coast to coast.” How many times can they put the word “crisis” in a sentence?

Worrying about this is what got us into this mess. Here we’re in the middle of the mess, we’re trying to fix the mess and here comes the AP with a sob story that essentially says we should repeat the steps that got us into the mess. Congress isn’t helping poor old Doug Gylfe buy his house, and so lawmakers are grappling with that this week to deal with the millions of Americans who are priced out of home ownership. Isn’t that how this all started? We had millions of Americans who were priced out of home ownership. I’m just looking at this and I can’t do anything but laugh. This is sheer, utter irresponsibility and stupidity from the Associated Press. The very thing they are advocating here is what led to the circumstances that we are in now, and so, guess what? Congress creates a problem, they give people money to buy a house, people can’t pay it back, they get foreclosed on, all of a sudden now there’s a crisis ’cause people are getting foreclosed on, and all these mortgage bankers are going belly up because nobody’s paying ’em back, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are out of money.

Guess who’s been involved intimately with Fannie Mae? Does the name Jamie Gorelick ring a bell? This woman is everywhere, and Jamie Gorelick got a 26 million payout when she left the place. Jamie Gorelick got 26 million to leave, one of Clinton’s guys, Franklin Raines, Franklin Raines, he was kicked out after corrupting the place. He left shortly before he was taking it in the shorts, but he got out of there with no penalty whatsoever. What is it with these Clinton people? This is why we don’t get any tell-all books on the Clinton administration because they were all set up in these sweetheart deals — money, money, money, money — I still can’t get over this. Congress is not helping poor old Doug Gylfe, so now we have millions of Americans who are priced out of home ownership, which is how this all started. “Any rescue policy to stem forecloses could artificially prop up home prices and perpetuate the affordability crisis,” yet I’ll guaran-damn-tee you if government did nothing and home prices continue to fall then tomorrow the AP would write a story whining and moaning about the lack of asset value for people who still do own their houses. We just can’t win with these people.

“Lawmakers, however, appear more focused on the negative economic consequences of falling home prices than the benefits. Congress, in a way, is facing a real estate hydra: The declining home prices, rising foreclosures, tighter lending standards, higher interest rates, and industry layoffs. Yet while trying to protect the economy and honest homeowners who are suckered into bad loans, Congress may cut off one of the serpent’s heads only to see two serpent heads grow back.” Exactly right! Liberalism. This is what liberal Democrat activist government always does, it’s a great way to put it. Okay, so we’ve got a problem out there with poverty. Fine, have the Great Society. Bam, we cut off that serpent’s heads and then three more pop up. We destroy the black family, we destroy work incentive, and we destroy productivity among the people we’re trying to help. The Congress didn’t get it right the first time. Trying to protect the economy and honest homeowners who were suckered into bad loans? You know what I think that means? It means that somebody didn’t define A-R-M for them? Now, who in their right mind does not know what an adjustable rate mortgage is? So now we got the predatory lender, we’ve got it all wrapped up in this story, and the headline says it all: “At Housing’s Bottom, Many Will Be Priced Out.” Aw, I am going to start crying. I am going to start crying. People are going to think I’m harsh, people are going to think I’m lacking compassion. At housing’s bottom, many will be priced out. What’s the alternative? How about we have a housing boom? You can write the same headline: “At Housing’s Boom, Many Will Be Priced Out.” Hey, can I give you a little hint, AP? At all times, good or bad, in the housing market, some aren’t going to be able to afford one, damn it!

Story #8: Washington Post Puff Piece on Franklin Raines

RUSH: I was talking about Franklin Raines a moment ago, former Clinton administration official who ended up running Fannie Mae for a while. The Washington Post has a very sympathetic story regarding Mr. Raines, and again I think this falls under the category of why we’ve never had tell-all books on the Clinton administration from members of that administration, because so many of them got wired into big money deals; and it would threaten those big money deals and appointments if they ever did the tell-all books. “In the four years since he stepped down as Fannie Mae’s chief executive under the shadow of a $6.3 billion accounting scandal, Franklin D. Raines has been quietly constructing a new life for himself. He has shaved eight points off his golf handicap, taken a corner office in Steve Case’s DC conglomeration of finance, entertainment and health-care companies and more recently, taken calls from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign seeking his advice on mortgage and housing policy matters.”

I just want to choke here. This is a guy who presided over a fraudulent accounting setup at Fannie Mae to the tune of $6.3 billion, and the Obama people are asking him for advice — and he’s taken eight points off his golf handicap, and he has the office with Steve Case. “And he’s privately smoldered over the events of the past week, when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were portrayed as being on the brink of disaster, prompting steep drops in their stocks and a federal intervention. In his first interview in two years, Raines remained insistent that the mortgage finance giant’s problems are not rooted in the company but stem from a time when the Bush administration and the Fed insisted the government-sponsored enterprise carried no explicit federal backing,” and it goes on and goes on.

The next two paragraphs: “Watching from outside the limelight has been frustrating, said Raines, who has not spoken publicly about Fannie Mae since being charged by federal regulators with manipulating Fannie Mae’s earnings in 2006. Rising from the working-class streets of Seattle to the highest levels of political and corporate life, Raines for more than a decade enjoyed a bully pulpit in Washington, first as head of the White House Office of Management and Budget under President Clinton and then as chief executive of Fannie Mae, where he was the first African American chief executive of a Fortune 500 company.” This is such pap. Fannie Mae, a Fortune 500 company? It’s a government company, a government-run private sector business, which is an oxymoron.

Anyway, I don’t want to get distracted by that. Franklin “Raines settled charges brought by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight by agreeing this spring to pay $2 million and forfeiting $22.7 million in stock and other benefits. And though none of it will come out of his pocket — the payment was covered by insurance — he has not emerged unscathed. He and his wife of more than 25 years, Wendy, are separated. Their house, a 1910 colonial in Northwest Washington, is for sale. An old friend, former Time Warner chairman Richard Parsons, describes [Raines] as being ‘in strong recovery mode.'” Well, boohoo! Here’s a guy forced out, who presided over a $6.3 billion accounting fraud and we’ve got a big sob story about how he is going to lose $2 million and forfeit 22.7 million other dollars, although he won’t have to pay personally because it will be “covered by insurance.” This guy is no Ken Lay. This guy is no Jeff Skilling. Now he’s playing golf, and he’s just trying to recover. He’s watching this from the sidelines. He’s so devastated.
Story #9: Lawsuits Have Taught Us Not to Get Involved

RUSH: Interesting story, Washington Post today: “The Impassive Bystander.” You and I were talking about this the other day, Snerdley, with the woman in the hospital who fell down and nobody gave her any attention. “A woman sits alone on a gray chair in a psychiatric ward in a Brooklyn hospital. When we first see her, we do not know how long she has been sitting there. Suddenly, the woman collapses on her face onto the dirty floor. We watch through a surveillance camera as she lies there, her blue gown above her knees, her legs convulsing. We watch as a guard comes into the room, puts his hand on his hip, looks at the woman, then looks up at the television hanging from the ceiling. Then the guard walks away. We watch as two other patients sit across the room as the woman lies there. We watch them watch her.” The Impassive Bystander. Why? What is happening to us? Wesley Perkins, a professor of sociology at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, in Geneva, NY, says, “The larger question about the culture of indifference has a lot to do with bystander behavior. The bystander phenomenon is generated by the perception that other people are not doing anything about it, therefore I shouldn’t either.”

“Most of us do the right thing only when others are doing the right thing,” it says here. “Real heroes are the ones who break out of the group norm. The predominant cultural impulse is for people to transfer responsibility.” We don’t know how common this is because there haven’t been surveillance cameras all over the place in hospitals showing us these things, at least they haven’t gotten out if they do, but the situation in that Connecticut town where the guy got hit by the car, hit-and-run, was out there on the ground in the middle of the street for a long period of time before a cop showed up and nobody in the street would do anything. Do you think there’s a reason for this? We got all these societal, cultural analysis trying to figure this out. I think, among many other possibilities to explain this, is the fear of lawsuits. I think the lesson is, don’t get involved, because if you get involved, you might get sued. That woman falls over, and you walk up and do something, and she ends up being fine or maybe is a little bit injured because of her fall and because you were there, you might be charged with doing something. I think there’s a big stand-off attitude here simply because there’s no desire to get sued by a tort lawyer, even from a patient in a mental hospital.

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Story #1: Big Media Bailout? TIME Offers Buyouts
RUSH: So now credit card companies want their share of the bailout pie, and Big Auto wants its share. It isn’t going to be long before Big Media asks for a bailout. In fact, TIME Magazine today is asking for volunteers for buyouts. I kid you not. Isn’t that just fabulous? And what happens if nobody volunteers? Which liberal journalist will be first? I thought they were into sacrifice — they’ve been wanting us to sacrifice for the longest time. But anyway, TIME, Inc.’s biggest magazine has put out the call for at least 83 volunteers to quit, to take buyouts, according to memos and staffers at the company. I think TIME should just apply for — hell, the whole newspaper industry should just call Paulson and say, “We want some of the bailout money.” That will really tick me off! It’s bad enough that I’m paying my credit card bills and some people aren’t, and we’re going to bail them out. If they start bailing out the Drive-By Media… That won’t go down.
Story #2: Bosnians Start Obama Fashion Line
RUSH: Bosnians have started a whole new clothing line named after Obama because of his “elegant” sartorial splendor. They make Hugo Boss stuff, apparently, at a factory in Bosnia, and now there’s going to be an Obama fashion line.
Story #3: AP-Obama Poll: Public Will Wait for Tax Cut
RUSH: Get this. The Associated Press-Obama. Hee, hee — I’m sorry. I know this is not really worth laughing at, but I can’t help it. Are you ready? AP poll: “Public Willing To Wait For Obama’s Tax Cuts.” Ha! Isn’t this a convenient poll?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, “People want the tax cuts promised during the presidential campaign, but may be willing to wait while President-elect Obama takes on the larger issue of fixing the economy.” This is absolute bull-bleep! They’re manufacturing news here! They’re just covering for Obama at every turn. He is nothing but an image right now, and when this guy gets in gear — I’ll warn you — it’s not going to be pretty. Look, we already have the Obama recession in full swing, the market down 267 points right now. It really plummeted when Paulson went out there: “By the way, we’re not going to do what we said we’re going to do.” Anyway, continuing with AP, Only 36% say trimming income taxes should be a top priority when the new president takes office, according to a new AP GfK poll. That was less than half the 84% who cited improving the economy as a number one goal.” Do you think the two might go hand in hand?

But that’s not all in this poll, ladies and gentlemen: “Until the weakening economy overtook Iraq as the No.1 problem on the public’s mind nearly a year ago, Obama’s pledge to seta timetable for withdrawing troops from the war was his highest-profile issue. But now the Iraq war has faded as a paramount public concern.” Only half of the people say they want Obama to get us out of there. The other half say, “Hey, go ahead and stay a hundred years, Obama’s president now. We’re cool. We don’t want our tax cuts, and we don’t care about getting out of Iraq. We just want our health care.” That’s the number one thing they want in the poll from AP, they want their health care. Now, the problem with that is, when you look at exit polling data, do you know where health care showed up on people’s minds in terms of how they voted? Something like 5%, 9%. And yet here comes AP — this has to be a bogus poll, nothing purposeful here other than to cover for Obama. The purpose of this is to tell you: forget the tax cut.
Story #4: Creepy, Isn’t It? The World Waits for Barack Obama

RUSH: “The world is waiting for Barack Obama.” That is creepy, that is just creepy. We have seen this before. Here we go. In the New York Times today: “The world is waiting for President-elect Barack Obama, and some of its most prominent leaders are flying into the United States this weekend clamoring to meet with him. But they will have to keep on waiting.” So Obama is not going to the financial confab that President Bush is convening. The world is waiting for Barack Obama. Creepy.
Story #5: Newsweek: Obama Can Fail But Still be Liked
RUSH: From Newsweek: “Obama Won’t Meet Everybody’s Expectations.” Well, whose expectations is Newsweek trying to manage here? The end of the article, here, an interesting quote: “To be sure, America’s friends will be grateful for the change in tone Obama is likely to bring. They’ll be delighted if he closes Guantanamo Bay, as promised. And even if he disappoints allies early on, there will be plenty of time to repair things later in his term. One reason for hope: Kennedy and Clinton went on to become immensely popular around the world.” Now, what’s going on here? These guys at Newsweek are setting the stage for failure. “But there will be plenty of time for Obama to recover,” because he’ll be there for four years. “One reason for hope”… for what? What are we hoping for here, Newsweek? You got the guy failing miserably, but you hope that somehow his reputation can be resuscitated? What the hell is this? Why does this matter to anybody? “Kennedy and Clinton went on to become immensely popular around the world.”

Why are the liberals so insecure that they have to be liked by people who will rob, cheat, and steal ’em blind, who will burn their crops, salt their fields, kill their livestock, poison their wells, kidnap their women, and then slit their throats the first chance they get? This is the kind of approval the Democrats seek. Why? What does it matter what the reprobates of the world think of liberals? What does it matter? So the whole focus here in the Newsweek story is how Obama’s going to screw up, but there will be plenty of time to repair things. Okay.
Story #6: Rahm Emanuel Choice Angers Middle East

RUSH: As I said before the previous hour concluded: don’t doubt me. When Barack Obama named as his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, many on our side immediately began attacking Rahm Emanuel. And. you know, we told some stories here about Emanuel, too, and his partisan nature and so forth, but it was I, ladies and gentlemen, and, as far as I know, I alone, who observed that this was a smart move made by Obama. One of the things that dogs Obama is the notion that he’s got ties to the Middle East. In fact, our friends at Power Line have written today and have uncovered the fact that Obama associates are actually in the Middle East meeting with Hamas people. It is actually happening, even though Obama’s denying it, he rescinded their endorsement before the election, but there are people — according to the Power Line guys, and they’ve got their source. But I said the appointment of Rahm — he’s Jewish, and if there are any Arabs over there who were going to dance in the streets because Obama was elected, if there were any Arabs in the Middle East who were going to be all happy because somebody with Kenyan roots has been elected president of the United States, Rahm Emanuel is going to throw cold water all over that because he’s Jewish and these Arab people, “What, what, our guy named the chief of staff a Jew?” They don’t like Jews in the Arab world.

Lo and behold, from Reuters, the dateline is Beirut: “Barack Obama’s election as U.S. president cheered many Arabs and Iranians driven to anger or despair by George W. Bush’s policies over the past eight years. But Obama’s choice of Rahm Emanuel, a combative, pro-Israeli political operator, as his White House chief of staff splashed cold water on some who hoped the next U.S. leader would be more even-handed and sensitive in grappling with the Middle East. ‘For millions of Arabs who expressed jubilance at the monumental victory of Obama, (Emanuel’s) appointment has put a damper on a short-lived fiesta,’ wrote Jordan-based commentator Osama al-Sharif.” A fiesta? Arabs are talking about a fiesta? Regardless, exactly what I thought would be the reaction, and Obama is smiling today because, remember, now, Obama is a campaign and a man of image. Osama is unhappy with Obama. Osama al-Sharif is unhappy with Barack Hussein Obama because he appointed a Jewish guy as the chief of staff. Cold water splashed on the Arab fiesta. But I’ve never seen an Arab fiesta. I’ve seen fiestas. Well, anyway, I’m not going to nitpick here over language. But the fact is it’s now worked because for all these people running around thinking Obama — he may have still have, I don’t know — but the image is Arabs angry at Obama, so how could they possibly be in league with him, you see.
Story #7: Arnold Schwarzenegger Asks for More Aid

RUSH: “With unemployment rising, state officials warn that Ohio’s fund for paying jobless benefits is dwindling and could be empty by next month.” Next month is what? December — as in Christmas. Governor Ted Strickland says he’s asking Congress for federal aid to replenish the fund. And Arnold Schwarzenegger says he now has a $28 billion deficit in California, and he’s asked the feds for five billion dollars or seven and a half billion dollars.
Story #8: Amnesty Advocates Plan Massive Payback Rally
RUSH: According to the Washington Post, folks, dozens of immigrant advocates gathered in Washington this week. They are demanding that the incoming Obama administration halt immigration raids and offer amnesty to illegals. One advocate said, “We voted in the millions and now we’re going to demand progress in the millions.” To drive the point home they’re planning a massive rally on the Washington mall the day after Obama is sworn in. You see, folks, elections have consequences out there. Now it’s payback time. Democrats have long complained that Republicans are beholden to special interests, such as businesses trying to shield themselves from higher taxes, burdensome regulations, mandates, all that stuff that cripple our ability to compete. Groups seeking to shore up rights once assumed to be constitutionally protected like Second Amendment rights or the right to life itself. But, the Democrat special interests, their immigration advocates who demand the right for millions to break the law and steal citizenship rights.

Another Democrat special interest is the feminazis. They demand the right to destroy life to the level of the human embryo. Labor unions, they demand the right to kill the secret ballot. Teachers unions who demand the right to propagandize with no accountability in failing schools. And, of course, the tort bar, the good old trial lawyers, liberal lawyers and judges who demand the right to trample the US Constitution. In short, Republican special interests are givers who add to our prosperity and quality of life. Liberal special interests are takers, takers of life, takers of liberties, and takers of the pursuit of happiness. These people, they’re not even happy, how can we be happy being around them? Even now they’re not happy. They say they’re running around giddy, but they’re not happy. They’re all worried about all kinds of things.

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Story #1:Reverse Status Symbol: Ripped Off by Madoff

RUSH: I’m not going anywhere. The Madoff thing. I’m staying here. You know, it’s bad out there. This actually has become a status symbol. We were talking about public relations and the rich, and the phoniness with which they operate and so forth. It has now become a status symbol among the rich to say that you got ripped off by Bernie Madoff, because everybody is losing money in the market, everybody is, but it makes you special and unique if you lost money because of Madoff. These people don’t think it makes ’em look stupid. It continues to elevate their status, they think. So there are people actually saying, “No, I won’t be coming down to Palm, maybe a couple weekends this year but, you know, the Madoff thing, we’re not going to be able to be quite as active.” I’ve had people tell me that who heretofore I didn’t know they were involved in the Madoff thing, (laughing) it’s amazing.
Story #2: Seattle Environmentalists Halt Snow Removal

RUSH: Get this. This is just classic. It’s not record snow in Seattle; it’s close to it. They had a big snowstorm on Saturday night, Sunday morning in Seattle and then again Sunday afternoon. It was so bad that the New York Jets, who went out and promptly lost to one of the worst teams in the league, needing to win the game to further their playoff hopes –although that loss did set up a quite-interesting showdown at 4:15 Eastern Time Sunday afternoon as the Dolphins arrive in Giants Stadium to play the Jets. Nevertheless it was like a one o’clock game out in the Left Coast. It’s a game that ended actually a little early, I think at quarter ’til four. Because I’m a student of the game I happen to know that visiting teams try to be packed up, everything, and out the door an hour after the game.

Sometimes they’re not able to do it depending on how long the coach and the players have to spend with the media, but at least the equipment truck is gone. They just pack everything up. It’s a massive project to move an NFL team around but they get it done in about an hour, then they have to head to the airport. You can generally figure… It’s rule of thumb if you care about such things, and I’m a big logistics person so these things interest me. When you gotta move that number of people around and do it efficiently, it’s always fascinating to me how you do it. But an NFL team is generally at the airport, on the plane, and ready to leave two hours after a game. So local time, this would have been six p.m. in Seattle. The Jets’ plane did not lift off until around 11 p.m. local.

They were on the tarmac and the runway four or five hours because of snow, huge, unexpected — well, not unexpected. The forecast had it right, but they were not prepared for this kind of snow in Seattle. They have lots of rain, right, Snerdley? Snerdley used to live there. It was one of the most disappointing, miserable times in his life, he often recounts for us. So the Jets didn’t get back ’til like 6:30 on Monday morning. So I saw this story about the snowfall out there and how it’s backlogged the city. This is from the Seattle Times. Did you know this, Snerdley? “Seattle Refuses to Use Salt.” It’s not just that. They refuse to use salt. The Roads are “‘Snow-Packed by Design.”

It’s not just that they want to save their precious roadways. They’re worried about the salt runoff hitting Puget Sound. Look, fine. It’s an admirable goal — typical liberal bureaucratic idiocy, but admirable. Again, wonderful intentions, lousy results. Listen to this: “The city’s approach [of no salt and snow-packed roads] means crews clear the roads enough for all-wheel and four-wheel-drive vehicles, or those with front-wheel drive cars as long as they are using chains… The icy streets are the result of Seattle’s refusal to use salt…” In other words, folks, the people who run the streets in Seattle in snowstorms want them icy; and the only cars that can pass the roads after Seattle has “cleared” them are the cars liberals are trying to take outta your garage: SUVs, four-wheel drives, front-wheel drive, chains.

You think chains might do more damage to a roadway than salt would? “If we were using salt, you’d see patches of bare road because salt is very effective,” said Wiggins, the Department of Transportation chief of staff out there, Alex Wiggins. “We decided not to utilize salt because it’s not a healthy addition to Puget Sound.” Now, what is this? The only cars that can safely get around in Seattle after such snowstorms are the same cars these same liberals want to take away from everybody. (interruption) Puget Sound is made of saltwater, but it’s a delicate balance. It’s a very delicate balance. You know, man can destroy Puget Sound, Mr. Snerdley, with salt runoff from snow removal, the three or four times a decade they have to do it. These are very sensitive people. I’m surprised you’re questioning their actions.
Story #3:Market Falls as Putin Beats Obama in Drudge Poll
RUSH: When you get to your computer and you go to the Drudge page and you’ll be able to see the online poll between who is the hunkiest authoritarian socialist leader — by the way, Drudge is not presenting it that way. That’s the way I’m characterizing it. You’ve got Putin and the KGB and you got Obama. And right now, the vote is 52,000 plus have voted, it’s 33,000 to 19,000 for Putin.

The stock market is now down 60 points, after I reported the news Obama is losing the beefcake poll on the Drudge Report to Vladimir Putin for hunkiest socialist authoritarian leader. Putin is miles ahead of Obama, stock market down 60 points. Ladies and gentlemen, the purge has begun. And also, after a conversation with Snerdley here at the top of the hour break, I am stunned at his lack of understanding on certain things. Yes, a 60-point collapse in the stock market today after the Drudge Report ran a poll, still running the online poll, on who is the hunkiest authoritarian socialist leader, Putin or Obama. By the way, I mean, folks, both these guys, if you look at these pictures on Drudge, they’ve been body shaved. There was no way either of these pictures are accidental. Well, I mean, look at it.

When you look at the two pictures that Drudge has up there you’ll note that both Putin and Obama have body shaved their chests. They are hairless and looking for the sheen, you know. But what you’ll find is that Putin looks like a fully developed man as you would expect somebody in the KGB to look. Obama looks boyish. He looks beanpole-ish while he does have some definition. I think that’s why Obama’s losing this big time.

Story #4:Purge Begins: Madoff Fund Operator Found Dead

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, the purge has begun. Mere moments ago the body of a Madoff fund operator was found in his New York apartment. The name, de La Villehuchet. De La Villehuchet found dead in his apartment today, a Madoff fund operator. Of course, the active question here is was it murder or was it suicide? And this brings to mind that I miss Tom Lantos, a great immigrant to this country, Hungarian-Jewish, became a member of Congress, very elegant, erudite, refined and dignified. He was from Northern California, and I will never forget during the Craig Livingstone FBI file controversy in the White House that nobody could remember who hired Craig Livingstone. Craig Livingstone had custody of the 500 FBI files of Clinton enemies, but nobody could recall for the longest time who hired him. After a while it became very embarrassing for both the Clinton administration and the Democrat Party in general that Livingstone was out there cutting such a wide public swath. So they had him up to hearings about, oh, three weeks after a famous Navy admiral had committed suicide after it had been learned that he had falsified information to get medals that he had not deserved.

I will never forget Tom Lantos interrogating Craig Livingstone, who looked like he was in shell shock anyway. I mean, he was just obviously some flunky that was given custody of these things, and he was the fall guy. He was always intended to be the fall guy. So they threw him up to the wolves, and Lantos actually said to Craig Livingstone, (doing Lantos impression) “At least Admiral Boorda had the decency to commit suicide,” and Livingstone just looked like, “What the hell is this guy telling me? Boorda was a better guy ’cause at least he committed suicide?” Admiral Boorda committed suicide while Livingstone was continuing to walk free. So now we wonder if de La Villehuchet, the fund operator for the Madoff fund, found dead in his New York apartment today, was suicide or was it foul play? Regardless, ladies and gentlemen, the purge has begun.

I guess it could be safely said that de La Villehuchet simply wasn’t enjoying the new high status of being involved with Bernie Madoff. If you missed the first hour, folks, it is true, the rich that were involved with this guy are now using it as another status symbol in reverse. “Hey, are you going to be down in Palm Beach this season?” “Ah, not so much, you know, the Madoff thing,” implying that they’ve suffered some financial losses. A lot of Madoff people don’t want it known because they might have been involved, but those who had no involvement, they’re proud to now tell people because it was such an exclusive club, so they’re proud to admit their stupidity because everybody is losing in the market, it’s no big deal to lose, but it’s a status symbol to say you lost with Madoff — (laughing) — what a sick bunch.
Story #5:Three Drive-By Stories on Teens and the Economy

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, you remember, not long ago we chronicled the most amazing story. I was totally incredulous. There was a story from AP, and I shoulda known that it was only the beginning, it was not just a standalone story. The story was the dilemma that modern day parents have over how to approach their children during the holiday season in the midst of a recession. The story sought to advise parents on the various ways they could go. The two primary options were to not tell the children of how tough financial times are, just spend like it was last year. Don’t upset the fragile little beasts, they can’t handle it.

Or, confront them and tell them you’re not going to get as much this year, we’re going to cut back our spending.

(crumb-cruncher impression) “Why? Why?”

“Well, because there’s a recession and we just don’t have as much money.”

“Well, get some more.”

“No, it’s not that easy.”

There have been a couple follow-up stories, and today there are three more. From AP-Obama, first one headlined thus: “Teens Learning About the Economy First-Hand — Many say they have lowered their expectations for the holiday season.” It’s from Des Moines, Iowa. “Teenagers have never been known for their restraint, but perhaps these times are different. Tuned in to worries of a deepening recession, many teens say that they’ve been smart shoppers and have lowered their expectations for receiving gifts this holiday season. ‘I plan to spend less this year,’ said Shakara Walker, 18, a senior at Benjamin Banneker High School in Atlanta. ‘Since I’ve gotten older, it’s got to the point now where gifts aren’t everything.'” This kid made it to her senior year in high school and she says, “It’s got to the point.” She’s a senior in high school. At least her expectations have been tempered. Teenagers learning about the economy firsthand. How the hell else would they learn about it? Gee whiz.

Here’s the next story, and this could be any media outlet. This could be your local paper, could be a network. It happens to be AP-Obama, but could be anything. You parents are incompetent and unqualified. You do not know how to talk to your kids about money, and so, from the AP, I’m holding it right here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers: “Five Tips for Talking with Teenagers About Money,” offered by our Drive-By Media parents. “Number one: Understand the difference between needs and wants. Many kids may consider movies and designer jeans needs, but they need to understand that needs are the true essentials — such as food, clothing and shelter. Wants can make life easier, but kids need to learn that they must address and pay for their needs before they can spend money on their wants.”

Now, I must take AP to task here because none of this is relevant, especially if these people voted for Obama because he’s gonna handle it all, he’s going to handle wants and needs. Seriously, is this not shocking? This is what passes for journalism? Hey, parents, we know you’re at wits’ end over how to deal with your kids about money and how scarce it is. Here are five tips. Tell them the difference between what they want and what they need. Can you imagine being such a low-life human being that you have to have the media tell you how to be a parent? If you are a parent and you see this story in your local paper, if you still have one, and you read this and it turns on lightbulbs for you, “Oh, yeah, I never thought of that,” you are sick, you are in bad shape and you need to go look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself why you had kids in the first place. Good grief almighty. Tell you your kids the difference between wants and needs. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

“Number two. Set financial goals and budget accordingly. One of the best ways for young people to learn about managing money is for them to set and achieve a simple financial goal,” like owning their first house of 5,000 square feet at age 21, with zero financing, brought to you by Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Freddie Mae, Fannie Mac, whatever. Set and achieve a simple financial goal? “Younger teens can benefit from opening a savings account and choosing something to save for.” By the way, I want to say something about this, ladies and gentlemen, because point number five here, “Start saving early.” Really? Really? Brian, you just had a little baby not too many months ago. Are you going to advise your little kid to start saving early? You are? You’ve started an account for him? You’ve got a passbook savings account in the local bank? You trust the bank?

You see, ladies and gentlemen, this is dangerous and risky. Two groups of people, let’s call them kids. One group had very strict, responsible parents who made them save as much as they could, and the parents were doing likewise. Another group of kids had parents that were just laissez-faire, go do what you want, and those kids saved nothing and they went out and bought a lot of stuff. Those kids still have their stuff. The other kids who saved have been wiped out. [snip] And the final Associated Press-Obama story on teenagers and money is headlined this way: “Your Teenager’s First Recession: Learning to Cut Back.”
Story #6: Dutch Company Punches Holes in Font to Save Ink
RUSH:Try this for stupidity, a little comedy. This is a story from the Associated Press from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The headline really says it all: “Dutch Company Punches Holes in Font to Save Ink — A Dutch company looking for ways to reduce the environmental costs of printing has developed a new font that it says cuts ink usage by about 15 percent. In essence, the ‘Ecofont’ has little holes in the letters. … [C]ompany co-founder Gerjon Zomer … concedes the font isn’t beautiful, but says it could be adequate for personal use or for internal use at a company.” Holes in your font. Now, for you Obama voters, a font, think of it as typeset; like ABC on a typewriter or keyboard; and they put holes in every letter; an A with holes in it, holes in the B. There are even holes in the O even though the O already has its own hole.

This makes about as much sense as back during the Seventies when I was living in Kansas City. TWA had a huge maintenance center at Kansas City International Airport and they ran a test because jet fuel was skyrocketing, gasoline was skyrocketing. So what they did is they stripped all the paint off of two of their airliners because they figured the paint added weight. You paint an airplane and there’s a lot of weight there, and they flew these unpainted planes — other than the federal markings required for identification, the N number. But they flew these around with no paint on them, just the aluminum, to see if they could calculate any savings on jet fuel.

And, of course, there’s no way to know because no two flights are identical, with winds and such. (sigh) It was silly. And even if they had said, “You know what? We’re saving 1% here. Okay, the next time you fly to LaGuardia and they put you in a 45-minute hold before you land, you’re still burning up all that fuel you otherwise might have saved by having the plane not painted.” It’s the same thing with the stupid idiocy of putting holes in your font, all to save 15% on ink. I told you, folks, these leftists, they are hilarious. If you have the right frame of mind following these people around, you can enjoy yourself frequently.
Story #7:Far Out: Stoners Think Obama May Decriminalize Pot

RUSH: Hey, the stoner community is very happy out there. Esquire magazine with a report saying Obama really might decriminalize marijuana. This comes from sources on the transition team. [snip] Obama really might decriminalize marijuana, Esquire magazine. “The stoner community is clamoring to say it: ‘Yes we cannabis!’ Turns out, with several drug-war veterans close to the president-elect’s ear, insiders think reform could come in Obama’s second term — or sooner.” Apparently there are some transition team people that are telling the press, Esquire, that Obama wants to decriminalize marijuana.

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Story #1: Heritage Finds Climate Change Garbage in Porkulus

RUSH: My friends, my other friends at the Heritage Foundation had found something else in the Porkulus bill. Listen to this. This is from www.Heritage.org: “President Barack Obama’s trillion dollar stimulus plan,” the Porkulus plan, “has morphed into an appropriations bill devoid of debate. The process forgoes any pretense of targeting unemployed people and resources. For instance, the [Porkulus] bill reads ‘Provided further, that not less than $140,000,000 shall be available for climate data modeling.’ This raises the question of how many unemployed climate modelers are out there pounding the pavement. When presented with that question, last Friday, Pat Michaels, former president of the American Association of State Climatologists stated ‘I don’t know one unemployed modeler.’

“Whether or not another $140,000,000 for climate data modeling is a good idea, it is hard to see an immediate, economy-stimulating impact from this item.” I’ll tell you something else that’s going on with this. This establishes that if you’re a climate modeler, you get money from the federal government. This government is the Obama government. They want to propagate this manmade global warming hoax. You take money from them for your climate computer models, when you don’t even need it? What, do I wonder, are your results going to show? Exactly what Obama wants. Where did I find this? Heritage Foundation. AskHeritage.org. It’s all I did.

Go to the website, AskHeritage.org, special reports on the stimulus, the Porkulus, any number of things. Become a member, and you will have an encyclopedia open. I’ve been using the Heritage Foundation. It’s one of the most crucial educational elements throughout the last 20 years of this radio program. I’ve used them the first moment I discovered them, when I learned that they were heavy architects of Reagan administration policy. They’re quality, class people. They’re us. They’re us people. They’re scholars, but they’re not eggheads. They’re scholars and they’re brilliant geniuses but they are not elitists. If you’re just looking for how to understand, explain ideological conservatism as applied to current-day events, that’s a pretty good place to go. That and my website, the Essential Stack of Stuff.
Story #2: Is the Senate Gang of 14 Poised to Strike Again?

RUSH: Okay. Try this. Fox News. The headline: “The Senate’s Gang of 14 may be poised to strike again over the stimulus bill. The Gang of 14 compromise in 2006 displeased many conservatives. Now with Democrats in power, a similar compromise may be brewing for Obama’s [Porkulus] economic bill.” This is all about Ben Nelson, Democrat, Nebraska, “who gathered Republicans and Democrats and the Gang of 14 to avert the nuclear option over judges.” My friends, I don’t want to appear overly confident here. I just want to tell you: Don’t worry about this. They may try for their Gang of 14, but I have a gang of 20 million, and our gang of 20 million will overwhelm their Gang of 14. Of course Democrat Ben Nelson is going to try to get our moderates to repeat their folly, after the House Republican unity of the day before yesterday. So Democrats, you have to ask yourself over and over: Why do they care? They don’t need our votes. They don’t need Republican votes to pass this. Why do they want them? It’s not just the bipartisan thing. I’m being repetitive here, and I don’t want to say the same thing over and over again, but it’s important.
Story #3: How Did World War II End the Great Depression?
RUSH: We had one lingering caller who wanted to know: How did World War II end the Depression? Very simple. It got the economy going. We took unemployment from 23% down to 2%. We had to build airplanes. We had to make bombs. Rosie the Riveter — everybody was working to build material to win the war. The government wasn’t spending money with a stimulus; people were working.

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Story #1:Democrats Kill GOP Bid to Extend DC Vouchers

RUSH: By the way, in the Earmarkulus bill that was signed today, as predicted, the Democrat Party has sold out African-American schoolchildren in Washington, DC. They did sneak a provision into the Earmarkulus spending bill that cleared the Senate which closed down the school choice project in Washington, it’s a special scholarship program. It takes African-American, minority kids, gives their parents vouchers and lets them go to places like Sidwell Friends where the Obama girls go. That program has been killed. The teachers unions win. Inferior public schools win.

Story #2:Hope? 53% Think We’re Entering Depression

RUSH: Rasmussen Reports’ latest poll: 53% of the American people say it is likely we will enter a depression similar to the thirties. Fifty-three percent say it’s likely we will enter a depression, and they want me to believe that Obama’s approval number is at 56%? Fifty-three percent? Do you know what that means? That means President Obama has failed to bring hope to Americans! How can there be any hope when a majority of Americans fear we are going to enter a depression?

Story #3:Stimulus, Part Two is Coming Sooner Than Summer
RUSH: As I predicted weeks ago, there will be a second stimulus package by summertime. The only thing I was wrong about, they’re not waiting ’til summertime. They’re talking about it now. “Congress May Need to Fund Another Stimulus,” Pelosi says.

I have here, I am holding in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers, a summary of news stories backing up the need for Stimulus 2. From the French News Agency from yesterday: “President Barack Obama’s pledge to create or save 3.5 million jobs … will fall short of its target, lawmakers were warned on Tuesday.” From Dow Jones: “Democrats were given a report by economics suggesting the initial recovery package will create or save 2-1/2 million jobs, far short of Obama’s goal of 3-1/2 million.” Now, you have to understand, none of these stories are critical. All of these stories push the notion: Oh, yeah, we need Stimulus 2! ABC News: “President Obama has repeatedly said the $787 billion stimulus plan passed by Congress last month would save or create at least 3.5 million jobs. But today House Democrats heard a sharply downsized prediction: 1 million fewer jobs.” Ooh, we need Stimulus 2!

Story #4:Pelosi Panties in Twist over Denial of Military Aircraft

RUSH: How about Nancy Pelosi getting her panties in a wad over the fact the military doesn’t have GVs ready for her every time she wants to take one? Talk about being tone deaf… Any of you Democrats have any problems whatsoever with the arrogance and the sense of entitlement? Nancy Pelosi gets mad when there isn’t a GV to take her family and friends wherever she wants to go? What, Snerds? I know she’s a speaker of the House, big whoop! How many books did she sell? She sold fewer books than David Frum, and you gotta work hard to sell that few books!

But anyways, do you know what happens when she calls up? She calls the Air Force over at Andrews Air Force Base and orders an airplane. It costs a lot of money to get an airplane off the line, out there serviced, fueled, and ready to go, and it takes people. Then she calls and cancels. That’s money that is being wasted. There’s the sense of entitlement that she gets to fly around on a government airplane whenever she wants, and if it doesn’t happen, why, the speaker is going to be very, very mad! The speaker is going to be very, very mad. So 53% of the American people think we’re headed into a depression like the thirties; Nancy Pelosi’s out there worrying she can’t get a GV to go home on or wherever she wants to go. Would somebody explain to me where is the hope?

Story #5: PB Post Obsessed with Rush Billboard, Stimulus $$$

RUSH: You know, the local paper here, the Palm Beach Post, they’ve got a story here. They’re preoccupied here with two things. They’re preoccupied with the Democrat National Committee’s billboard campaign. The Democrat National Committee has now finalized, they’ve got five potential winners of the slogan that they’re going to put on the billboard in West Palm Beach aimed at me, that they somehow want me to see. And these five slogans, I don’t have them in front of me, but they are weak. I could’ve come up with something better making fun of my own self than they have come up with! It’s just hilarious. The second story that they’re obsessed with: “‘It May Be Months for Stimulus Cash to Spur Florida Road Jobs’ — Thousands of jobless Floridians hope the $1.3 billion in stimulus money coming to Florida–” (gasp!) “–for road projects might help them get out of the unemployment line and back to work. And it will. But just how quickly, nobody knows. The most optimistic guess is mid- to late summer. But that could be unlikely, given the bureaucratic labyrinth–”

If I might be quite honest, it is sad. Do you know how many people are really hurting because of this economy, their arms are extended, their hands are open, and they’re wondering where the stuff Obama promised them, where’s the money, where’s the kitchen, where are the McNuggets? Where is it? Where are the jobs? And the Democrat National Committee is doing a contest on a billboard on me. If you people at DNC haven’t decided yet, can I throw in my own suggestion here? You’re going to have a billboard that’s got my name on it, right? Here’s the slogan. Now, granted it’s more than ten words, they had a ten-word limit. “Your government spent $3 trillion to help you. You got a $13 raise, everybody happy? Shut up.” And that’s just off the top of my head.

Story #6: Banks Have TARP Remorse, Want to Return Money

RUSH: Another story here in the New York Times. The list of demands keeps getting longer. Some banks are just angry as they can be, folks, over all the strings attached to their activities now, and they want to give back this bailout money. Conditions have become so onerous that they want to return the bailout money. They’re not allowed to run their business the way they’ve wanted to in the past. Now, granted, if you’re gonna put your hand out and you’re going to take somebody else’s money, I don’t care whose it is, that person’s going to have some say in how you run your business. But the banks are getting fed up with it. So there’s a potential for more cracks and fissures here.

Story #1:Idiot Perez Hilton: Miss USA Must Be PC

RUSH: I chronicle all this stuff going on in the country and I’m in 100% disbelief. And then we have this stupid thing that happened with the Miss USA pageant, where, guess what? This judge, this blogger, Perez Hilton — and you ought to see some pictures of this guy as he wants to be seen — has been asked, “Why did you penalize Miss California, Carrie Prejean here for telling the truth?” (paraphrasing) “Look it, Miss USA is supposed to be inclusive. I gave her a question. She’s supposed to dance around it.” In other words, you better be politically correct in the entertainment world or the political world today or we are going to penalize you and chop your head off and do whatever we can to ruin you. Political correctness running amok.

Story #2:“The Best Way to Generate Capital is to Earn It”

RUSH: The US banking group, Wells Fargo (my bank, by the way), said today that it earned a record profit of $3.05 billion dollars in the first quarter following its acquisition of Wachovia. The Wells Fargo president and chief executive John Stumpf with the quote of the day: “The best way to generate capital is to earn it.” Now, in the Obama administration, this could be a hate crime, because the Obama administration, the best way to generate capital is to print it and to borrow it and then to give it away or to tax it. But Stumpf says to earn it.

Story #3:Obama Should Sue! Nicotine Gum Causes Cancer
RUSH: From the UK Times, you know what the latest thing to cause cancer is? Nicotine gum. Nicotine lozenges. Obama should sue! These people are trying to save lives, like our interrogators. We need an investigation. This is grounds for prosecution, what the nicotine gum manufacturers are doing.

Story #4:Haughty John Kerry Hints at Newspaper Bailout

RUSH: We told you earlier the New York Times, $34 million on hand in cash, $1.3 billion in debt, and yet the CEO got salary and bonuses of $5.8 million, and Little Pinch got $2.8. Sounds like Wall Street CEOs: company’s going to hell, executives getting high compensation and bonuses. The New York Times is in big trouble. Advertising revenue is down 27% and everywhere you look in the liberal media, newspapers are in bad shape, they’re crumbling, CNN is practically not on the radar with ratings, MSNBC is just drifting away. The three networks’ share of people who watch evening news is down significantly over the last 30 years. News magazines, nobody’s reading them anymore, compared to the numbers that used to. It’s just amazing. And none of them, they don’t hear a word about the fact it might be their content and their arrogance that’s turning people off.

However, there is a savior, a savior lurking in the Senate who wants to save and rescue newspapers, and that would be John Kerry, the haughty John Kerry, who by the way once served in Vietnam. “Troubled by the possible shuttering of his hometown paper, Sen. John Kerry reached out to the Boston Globe on Tuesday, then called for Senate hearings to address the woes of the nation’s print media. ‘To the Boston Globe family,’ Kerry wrote, ‘America’s newspapers are struggling to survive, and while there will be serious consequences in terms of the lives and financial security of the employees involved, including hundreds at the Globe, there will also be serious consequences for our democracy where diversity of opinion and strong debate are paramount.'” He’s not talking bailout yet, but I mean what the hell else would this be? So the primary media organs of the Democrats experiencing trouble, and here comes help from the United States government, particularly John Kerry in the US Senate.

Story #5: Poll: King Obama, Earth Day Numbers Take Hit

RUSH: Well, this is interesting. The Rasmussen Reports is out with its daily presidential tracking poll and, you know, there’s a gap here that is referred to as the presidential approval index that Rasmussen tracks. What they do is they take the strongly approve numbers in their poll and measure them against the strongly disapprove numbers. Now, this gap between strongly approve and strongly disapprove has been as high as 16 points on the approval side, since the king was crowned. But it’s down to plus two now. “Thirty-two percent strongly disapprove of Obama; thirty-four percent strongly approve, which gives the president an approval index rating of plus two. On the generic congressional ballot, it’s all tied, 39% for Democrats, 39% for Republicans.” Additionally in this poll, “most voters continue to believe that the financial and auto bailouts were a bad idea, but the political class agrees. Sixty percent now believe the federal government has too much power and too much money, but the political class is practically just opposite of that.”

Also, it’s Earth Day, “and 72% think individuals can improve the environment by their actions. Just 31% believe most Americans are environmentally aware. Half of America’s workers say their employer does a good job when it comes to recycling. What a bunch of pap. There’s always a bunch of pap in every good news poll. And the Earth Day poll is pap.

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Story #1:BS Alert: Exit Polls Claim Obama Not Factor in NJ, VA

RUSH: So exit polls. CNN: “Obama Not a Big Factor in Virginia.” Fifty-five percent said Obama was not a factor in how they voted. But you go over to ABC’s website. “’09 Exit Polls: Vast Economic Discontent Spells Trouble for Democrats in 2010 — Vast economic discontent marked the mood of Tuesday’s off-year voters, portending potential trouble for incumbents generally and Democrats in particular in 2010. But in Virginia where polls closed at seven p.m. Creigh Deeds’ main problem looks to have been Creigh Deeds.” His main problem is he’s a Democrat! His main problem is he’s a Democrat, and so is President Obama! “Half of Virginia voters, 51%, said they approved of the way Obama is handling his job, and that rose to 57% in New Jersey.”

This is in the exit polls, which, again, I don’t trust and I don’t believe, especially person to person. You’re walking out of the polling place and here comes some pollster and says, “Mmmm, did your vote have anything to do with Obama? What do you think of Obama?” “Oh, love Obama! I’m outta here!” They’re just not going to say it — and AP. “Election ’09 Tests Not Boding Well for Obama — Republican declared winner in Virginia gubernatorial race.” So somebody at AP forgot the whole template, this is not about Obama, and they ran a story saying that it is.

Have you ever noticed, by the way, these exit polls always say exactly what the Democrat Party wants said? Whatever the Democrat Party wants the message to be is what the exit polls are. “It wasn’t about Obama. Oh, no! No, we weren’t even thinking about Obama when we went in. Oh, no.” Whatever the Democrat Party wants the message to be, seems like that’s always what the exit polls tell us.

Story #2:GOP Win Taints Anniversary of Dear Leader’s Election

RUSH: French News Agency. I thought you’d be interested in this: “Republican Victories Taint Obama Anniversary — Republicans won two key state elections, dealing a stinging blow to President Obama and his Democrats 12 months after they swept to power.” You know, I could imagine what they’re thinking in the White House. “Yeah, it’s really despicable! It’s just despicable of the Republicans to taint our Dear Leader’s anniversary this way. We’ve coming up the anniversary of his election and they have to taint it with this off-year stuff?”

It’s not just the French, by the way, saying Obama’s anniversary has been tainted.The UK Telegraph: “Republican wins in the battles for the New Jersey and Virginia governorships have tainted the first anniversary of Obama’s presidential election victory. With almost all votes counted in the two key elections the game of a vacant congressional seat in a strongly Republican district of New York state was scant compensation for the US president.” Geez.

Story #3:State-Run AP Cries As Maine Rejects Gay Marriage
RUSH: From a dejected Associated Press, the headline: “‘Dejection Fills a Main Ballroom After Marriage Vote’ — Cecelia Burnett and Ann Swanson had already set their wedding date. When they joined about 1,000 other gay marriage supporters for an election night party in a Holiday Inn ballroom, they hoped to celebrate the vote that would make it possible. Instead, they went home at midnight, dejected and near tears after a failed bid to make Maine the first state to approve same-sex marriage at the ballot box.” There six or seven states where same-sex marriage is legal but it’s never been passed by a vote of the peoples. It has been inflicted on them by governors, legislatures, Supreme Courts in the various states. But if you read the whole story you’ve got chickification of the news, you have distortion of the issue and a conservative trend all here in one story. I’m not going to read it all to you but it’s just predictable.

Story #4:Pelosi Claims Victory After Single House Seat Pickup

RUSH: “‘From our perspective we won last night,’ Pelosi told reporters during a Wednesday morning photo opportunity. ‘We had one race that we were engaged in, it was in northern New York, it was a race where a Republican has held the seat since the Civil War and we won that seat, so from our standpoint, no, a candidate was victorious who supports health care reform, and his remarks last night said this was a victory for health care reform and other initiatives for the American people. So from our standpoint we picked up votes last night,'” But yet, Nancy, you might have lost all the Blue Dogs. You know, I guarantee you a lot of Democrats are hearing footsteps today because of what happened in Virginia. Particularly Virginia, but New Jersey as well. These Blue Dogs… I heard Karl Rove. People are picking up on this now. Karl Rove last night said, “Pelosi wouldn’t mind the Blue Dogs losing.” Folks, this is a salient, salient point. Pelosi doesn’t like the Blue Dogs being in the caucus ’cause they’re not radical enough for her. They’re not really dependable. She has to work too hard keeping them in line. She would love to get their votes on health care and send them home and be trounced so she doesn’t have to deal with them. Think of it as “thinning the herd.” That’s exactly what she would love to do. So from her standpoint, it was a biiiiig win last night.

Story #5: Creative: California Calls Income Tax Hike a “Loan”

RUSH: Get this. Wall Street Journal: “Desperation grabs for revenue are nothing new in politics, but California is once again leading the way in creative financing. To help close yet another gaping budget deficit, now estimated to be $7 billion this year and reach as high as $20 billion next, Sacramento lawmakers have authorized a 10% increase in the amount of taxes withheld from worker paychecks starting November 1 and through 2010. The extra withholding tax will reduce Californians’ take-home pay by about $1.7 billion for the year. But the lawmakers say this isn’t a tax increase. OK, how about calling it a compulsory interest-free loan from taxpayers to the state?” A 10% increase in withholding! Ha, ha! It’s an income tax increase, and they’re calling it a loan. Sacramento is demanding “loans” from taxpayers. They’re going to destroy the state. They’re going to take $1.7 billion out of an economy that’s already in trouble.

Story #6: Maureen Dowd Writes Snarky Column on El Rushbo

RUSH: Yeah, Maureen Dowd has a column about me today in the New York Times. I don’t know: either Michael Douglas broke up with her again, or they raised taxes on bourbon. That’s the only thing I can think of to explain to me why she’s so snarky to me today.

Story #7:Heritage Gets It: The State of Conservatism is Strong

RUSH: The Heritage Foundation weighs in today on this election: “The State of Conservatism is Strong — Last night, elections were held in several states across the nation, and by most independent observations, the results served as a warning to liberals. Whether it was Republican victories in Virginia, New Jersey or even in typical liberal bastions like Westchester County, New York, the post-analysis was framed on what does this mean on Capitol Hill, and more importantly, what does this mean for the conservative movement. However, last night did not represent a new day for conservatives. On Monday, the same could have been said: the state of conservatism is strong. The state of conservatism can be measured through its popularity, its policies and its people. Most observers would say Election Day 2008 was not a good day for conservatives.

“However, putting election results aside, President Obama campaigned as a centrist. Obama promised to address jobs, the economy, our national security and even hold teachers accountable for our children’s education. Obama promised that most of America would receive a tax cut. He promised to win a ‘necessary’ war in Afghanistan. These are conservative principles,” that Obama promised. “While many Americans knew he would skew left on health care, the environment and diplomacy, they also took him at his word on his conservative window dressing. Matching reality to rhetoric, President Obama has made Jimmy Carter look conservative, promoting job killing policy after job killing policy. He has taken over nine months and counting to make a basic strategic decision on troop levels in Afghanistan, endangering our troops and our mission. This reality versus rhetoric is reminding the nation that conservatism is not merely a talking point but a first principle.” Now, let’s go back to these recent polls that we’ve talked about.

The Pew Center first. “The Pew Research Center released a poll in May 2009 that was conducted in March and April when President Obama was still hugely popular. The poll showed that the overwhelming trend is toward conservatism, and not merely among Republicans. The number of Independents calling themselves conservative was increasing to 33%, up from 26% in 2005,” and independents went big Republican yesterday. “The number of Democrats calling themselves conservative was up to 8%. In this poll 37% described themselves as politically conservative; almost double the number identifying as liberal (19%).” Then the Gallup Poll in June: “Conservatives…a two to one advantage over liberals (40%-20%).”

Now, this is a great point. This is a great point to make here. The poll was not about a person or a party. It was about ideology. “Conservatism wasn’t [in this poll] grounded in any one party or candidate. It was election neutral. In fact it was the only tri-partisan issue or philosophy overwhelming numbers of Americans seemed to agree on.” Conservatism. “The state of conservative popularity is strong.” It can be seen all over the place. Folks, this is why I really love the people at the Heritage Foundation. This is just a post on their blog today called The Morning Bell. And it is exactly what is needed. We had a guy call here named Bob. He said, “Why aren’t these electoral margins any bigger? How come they’re so close other than this Virginia?”

You know, we’re turning this ship around, and it’s just beginning here, and this was a major, major statement. And what Hoffman almost pulled off in New York-23 is big, when everything is looked at. And so here comes the Heritage Foundation, they write this piece on their blog intended to inspire people. Don’t get depressed. Don’t get down in the dumps. It’s hard because, you know, people still do — even though their numbers are down, people still do — watch the media. And the media does not report what over half the country thinks or over what half the country does. So that half of the country never sees or reads or hears itself mentioned or accurately portrayed in what is called the mainstream media. “Conservatives have been offering alternatives throughout.

“Conservatives support a health care plan that eliminates imaginary barriers from true competition by allowing insurance to compete across state lines, by allowing consumers to take their insurance from job to job, by giving them the same tax breaks the federal government gives big corporations. … Conservatives,” writes the Heritage Foundation, “have a destiny. Conservatives can strengthen our economic and national security. Conservatives can offer real solutions to the nation’s challenges, without robbing Peter to pay Paul. Conservatives can continue to learn about the issues that affect their families, their communities, their businesses, and with this knowledge, they can affect real change. The Heritage Foundation has never been stronger, with over a half million members and growing.” It continues to grow. You can join the Heritage Foundation and help them keep up the work that they’re doing. Just go to AskHeritage.org and check it out. It’s well worth your time. Well worth your investment.

Story #1:State-Run Media Can’t Disguise Bad Economic News

RUSH: Now, this is truly amazing. “New requests for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week, the first decline in a month and a hopeful sign after a raft of negative economic reports.” That’s AP. But there’s another AP story that says, regardless of numbers, it feels like a recession. So it’s getting harder and harder and harder for the partisan political operatives disguised as journalists to even carry the water here, so we go down to 473,000 instead of 500,000, and, yeah, yeah, okay, fine, but still we’re in trouble. It’s gotta be depressing to be at AP today.

So here’s their other story: “Regardless of Numbers, it Feels Like a Recession.” The Associated Press finally has to admit what we have known all along. There is no recovery and there never was. They tried to make it exciting: Only 473,000 jobless claims this week, as opposed to 500,000 last week. They tried to make it sound positive, but they’re not even buying their own line of BS at the AP anymore. “Businesses are ordering fewer goods. Home sales are the slowest in decades. Jobs are scarce, and unemployment claims are rising. Perhaps most worrisome, manufacturing activity, which had been one of the economy’s few bright spots, is faltering.” How many people believe that? That manufacturing had been one of the few bright spots? Most people believe that we’ve lost manufacturing; that it’s all gone elsewhere because of NAFTA.

“‘The odds of a double-dip are rising and uncomfortably high,’ said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, referring to the possibility that the nation will tip back into recession. ‘Nothing else can go wrong. There is no cushion left.’ On Wednesday, the government offered the latest dose of grim news about the economic recovery: Companies cut back last month on their investments in equipment and machines. And Americans bought new homes at the weakest pace in nearly half a century. Earlier this week came news that sales of previously occupied homes fell last month to the lowest level in 15 years.” Why buy one when you can just move in? Squatters and so forth, why buy one?

“The economy has grown for a full year now, and many experts believe the recession technically ended in July 2009. But the pace of expansion has slowed significantly in the past six months.” There hasn’t been any expansion. You see, this is another example. They can write this. They can have their slaves report it. The average American knows there is no recovery and there is no expansion. And the American people are not surprised when any of this economic news is released. The only people surprised are the experts. “Economists are predicting the government will announce Friday that the economy grew from April to June even more slowly than previously thought, at an annual rate below 2 percent…” whatever they report is going to be revised down after everybody’s forgotten the original number. “Of course, for most Americans, the numbers are strictly academic.” Well! AP is finally getting to the nub of it.

“For Tim Reardon, a sales executive at a small Massachusetts company that installs kitchen counters and floors, August is shaping up to be the worst month of business in 11 years. His company cut a third of its staff and is placing factory orders a job at a time. ‘You definitely watch the pennies a little closer — everything from advertising to tools,’ he said. ‘This is feeling like another recession.’ For the average household, whether the economy is growing slightly or not at all may not matter much.” This truth from AP. “Two gauges that matter more are the unemployment rate, which is stuck at 9.5 percent, and home values, which are down about 30 percent from their 2006 peak. William Dunkelberg, an economics professor at Temple University’s School of Business and Management and chief economist of the National Federation of Independent Business…” these people have more words in their titles than dollars that they make. “William Dunkelberg, an economics professor at Temple University’s School of Business and Management and chief economist of the National Federation of Independent Business, ‘Who cares if it’s a second recession or a double-dip? Either way, things are not going well.'” He’s right, Dunkelberg’s right, don’t misunderstand. “Housing has never fully recovered from the recession. Builders have been forced to compete with foreclosed properties offered at sharply lower prices.”

So it’s a truth that they at least today can’t ignore; maybe there’s some bad moods and next week they’ll hop back on the positive gravy train. But you can see how economists can be confused. Recovery and recession both start with the letter R. Well, you have to give ’em credit. Housing prices peaked — did you hear that? Housing prices peaked four years ago. Now, what else happened four years ago? Four years ago is about when the Democrats began to talk down the economy so they could win in November of 2006. Four years ago is when the Democrat Party started launching into this assault on an economy where 4.7% was the unemployment number, where economic growth was still happening, and they were hell-bent on creating in people’s minds a depression if they could, not just a recession. And, lo and behold, housing prices peaked at that time.

Story #2:Trapped Chilean Miners Get Advice from NASA

RUSH: Look at this on Fox: “Trapped Miners in Chile to Get Advice from NASA.” I didn’t know that the trapped miners were Muslims! I am continually surprised each and every day on this program.

Story #3:72 Slain Migrant Workers Found on Mexican Border
RUSH: “The discovery of 72 slain Central and South American migrants on a ranch just south of the U.S. border provides a horrific reminder of the brutality of human trafficking in a country dominated by drug cartels.” That would be Mexico. “Migrants running the gauntlet up Mexico to reach the United States have long faced extortion, violence and theft. But reports have grown of mass kidnappings of migrants, who are forced to give the telephone numbers of relatives in the United States or back home who are then required to transfer ransom payments to the abductors. … In an April report, Amnesty International called the plight of tens of thousands of mainly Central American migrants crossing Mexico for the U.S. a major human rights crisis. The report called their journey ‘one of the most dangerous in the world’ and said every year an untold number of migrants disappear without a trace.”

Well, maybe, just maybe the leftists at Amnesty International will call on the US to do more to close its border, and maybe now Amnesty International will express its support for Arizona’s new legislation as well. I’m just kidding. We all know that the leftist group Amnesty International will do nothing to try to address the root of the problem. See, if we close the border the migrant traffic would stop, their kidnappings and killing would stop, if we would close the border. Where’s the outrage? Do the lives of illegal aliens only matter when they finally get into the United States? Is that the only time the Democrats are going to care about them? Illegal immigrants or migrants can be mass murdered before they get here and, ho-hum, no big deal. But when they get here it’s a whole different matter. I don’t know. It’s just another societal breakdown happening left and right, and the outrage misplaced over all of these kinds of incidents.

Story #4:Fox’s Major Garrett Doesn’t Need to be on Television

RUSH: Major Garrett has announced he’s leaving the Fox News Channel. He’s going back to print. He’s gonna work for the National Journal. The National Journal publishes The Hotline, a couple of other things. And everybody in Washington is stunned. He just got the primo chair in the White House briefing room because Fox News just got it. That’s the Helen Thomas chair. He’s leaving. He used to be at AP, Major Garrett did, then he quit that and went to Fox. I think before Fox he was at CNN. Somewhere there, maybe MSNBC, whatever, he ends up at Fox. Now he wants to go to the print publication, and they’re stunned. “I don’t want to be a reporter who goes on cable to talk about anything that I haven’t reported on specifically … If I reported something, written something, and Fox or CNN or MSNBC or BBC deems it important and wants to talk about it, I’m happy to talk about it, but that’s it. I have no interest in being on television simply to be on television.”

Do you know how rare that is? That is abnormally rare. (interruption) Fox did not get Helen’s chair? They just got moved to the front row? Okay, I thought they got Helen’s chair. It’s probably safer for Fox that they didn’t get Helen’s chair. This is rare for somebody to say you don’t want to be on TV just to be on TV. Everybody wants to be on TV just to be on TV. Major Garrett wants to go back to print.

Story #5: US Tax Money Go to Refurbishing Mosques Worldwide

RUSH: It happens to be true that we’re pouring money into mosques worldwide. For example, it was reported in the Washington Times in April that our ambassador to Tanzania participated in a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the refurbishment of a 12th century mosque in Tanzania. The United States taxpayer provided funds to help the project all along, and it was not just that one — they provided financial assistance to save another mosque in Cairo. This mosque was named after a Muslim conqueror who defeated Christians in Egypt. So, yes, this is where our money is going.