RUSH: John in Carlsbad, California, in the thick of the fire area in Southern California. Hello, John.
CALLER: Hi. Well, at least you’d think that if you watched the mini-Drive-By Media-in-training down here. I’m in Carlsbad, and, of course, we’ve had a voluntary evacuation since yesterday — and, oh, how that city wants to make it mandatory. They want it so badly — and don’t get me wrong. There are people here who are losing their houses out in the fire area, but to be honest with you, if you see where they lived, it’s not a surprise. I mean, these places go up in flames because they’re in an area that’s supposed to burn every so often — and, you know, while I feel for them because they’re losing everything — you really can’t be surprised about it. But I can’t watch television to find out any decent information. If it wasn’t for KOGO, our local affiliate, giving accurate information, you wouldn’t know what was going on. They’re on TV, and before they —
RUSH: What are you saying, John? Let’s cut to the chase here. Are you saying the Drive-Bys, the local Drive-Bys-in-training, are exaggerating this?
CALLER: Oh, ho-ho-ho, yes! That would be an understatement.
RUSH: Well, if they’re exaggerating it, are the national Drive-Bys exaggerating it?
CALLER: Absolutely, because that’s where they’re getting it, and —
RUSH: Well, now, why would you think they would do that, John? We’ve got examples of accurate and truthful reporting during the disaster that was Hurricane Katrina. (clearing throat) A-hem!
CALLER: Ahem.
RUSH: No, I’ve been wondering about this, having not been out there. I know how media works. They love this kind of stuff. The worse they can make it sound, the better. The more crisis-prone, the more disaster-certain it is, the more excited by it they are — and I’ve been e-mailing people in Los Angeles. I’ve been e-mailing friends in Southern California. ‘Are you in trouble from the fires?’
‘No, not really. It’s not anywhere near us.’
In fact, a couple people I e-mailed on Sunday didn’t even know about it ’til they got back home Sunday night, even though the fire has been raging through the weekend. You’re right. A lot of people are losing a lot of property here, but the idea that it may not be quite as bad as it is, is an interesting media study. You know what else is interesting about this, though, John?
CALLER: Mmm? What?
RUSH: Since there hasn’t been any hurricanes this year to speak of, guess what the culprit is? Ha! Ha!
CALLER: Oh, well, yeah, and there you have it.
RUSH: Global warming is responsible for the fires. There always has to be a global warming peg, and they bombed out on the hurricanes, so now this is being blamed on global warming. Do you know the president signed a piece of legislation in 2003 called — what the hell was it? Save the Forests, or something. What is it? — the Healthy Forests Initiative, and there have been something like 59 lawsuits holding up the implementation. You know what the Healthy Forests Initiative would have done, John, or would do?
CALLER: I’m guessing it would have let fires burn.
RUSH: No, it would go in there and clear out the deadwood and the brush and take away the kindling — and these environmental groups, they are to blame for this.
CALLER: Oh, I see.
RUSH: They are the ones that are making these fires — which do happen naturally. You’re right. They happen every year. This is not anything abnormal or unusual. What the Drive-Bys are saying is that ‘the forest fire season…’ You know, now we have a Forest Fire Season, and the Forest Fire Season, they say, has expanded by 78 days. That’s because of global warming. That’s BS. It is purely and precisely because of lawsuits to keep individuals and cities, communities, and so forth, from going in and clearing out the brush, the dead stuff that’s fallen from the trees. It’s on the bottom of the forest floor, and it makes kindling, and there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s a federal crime right now because the bill is being held up in the courts. It’s a crime to go in there and protect your property by clearing this stuff out. If you want to place any kind of blame in a situation like that — and, actually, I don’t. Remember what we’re doing. We’re reacting. We’ve got a bunch of liberal activists again trying to blame a nonexistent, manmade global warming. We may be getting warmer, but whatever disaster happens, they’ve gotta put global warming in it — and so when they come out with a bunch of lies and falsehoods, you have to defend it and mention the truth.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Kelly in Denver, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Thank you, Mr. Limbaugh. Thank you very much.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Honor to talk to you today.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I am very confident in our ability to do just about anything. You said not on to get overconfident but, I’ll tell you what, the Republican Party is more, gosh, we’re stronger than God Almighty himself. I’ll tell you where I’m coming from, I was listening to our ABC affiliate out here in Denver, the start of your second hour, their news program. I believe they had Barbara Boxer talking, and she was calling for help with the fires in Southern California from our National Guard. But said that they couldn’t be expected to do much because, then she paused for a second, and said that all of our equipment —
RUSH: They’re in Iraq.
CALLER: A little quiver in her voice, she says it’s in Iraq. And so this fire is still burning because the Republicans are fighting an illegal war, and we’re more powerful than God himself.
RUSH: You know, they tried that during Hurricane Katrina. They keep recycling the old pages in the playbook. Nothing unique, nothing original, that’s not going to fly. I mean, it’s going to fly with Barbara Boxer’s base, but the people that are out there being affected by these fires are not going to believe that the National Guard would have been able to do much more than is already being done, if they weren’t in Iraq. That’s just sophistry. That’s not even wise, and it’s failed once before. They’re trying to make everything about Iraq. It’s laughable. I’ve just run out of laughing energy today because I really laughed a lot today.