RUSH: Richard in Whidbey Island, Washington, you’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Good morning, Rush. Mega dittos to you. I was born in Cape Girardeau and was raised in Scott City. I’m a 20-year naval veteran. I wanted to bring up the issue about the lighting that you mentioned yesterday about you turned on your lights and all that. I’m an amateur astronomer, and also a conservative. I think that the conservatives need to be aware that we need to, you know, watch our lighting, and we waste a lot of energy, and to me it’s not a global warming issue. It’s an issue about becoming less dependent on foreign oil and those sources of energy, and I really think that we should do a better job at looking into those types of — and conservatives getting more on board with that —
RUSH: Let me tell you something.
CALLER: — alternative energy sources —
RUSH: Richard?
CALLER: — just so that we can free ourselves of foreign oil and interests.
RUSH: Richard? Are you still there, Richard?
CALLER: Yes. Yes.
RUSH: Let me tell you something. I might shock you and I might surprise you. With about 80% of what you said, maybe 90% of what you said, I totally agree with you. I am ssssss —
CALLER: Yeah, but the thing of it is, I think the liberals and the Democrats have kind of hijacked that idea —
RUSH: — sssssick and tired —
CALLER: — we don’t hear as much —
RUSH: — of the Democrats in this country not letting us drill for our own oil. The ChiComs are drilling with the Cubans in the Gulf of Mexico right now. The Mexicans are discovering fields all over the place. We can’t find oil in your own country because the environmentalist wackos won’t let us go get it. I am sorry, but my lights and your lights and everybody else’s lights are nothing! We are a growing economy. There is no reason we have to go back to the Dark Ages. There is no reason whatsoever. I’m all for saving and not wasting for just extravagant purposes. But at the same time, it’s my house, it is my property, and if I’m willing to pay for it, then screw everybody else! As long as the energy is available, and I’m willing to pay for it, screw it! I’m going to do it and I’m not going to feel guilty about it. I don’t have all the lights on all the time. I only turned them on because I got preached to during a football pregame show by a bunch of knuckleheaded sports liberals who have had their show turned into a whole green exposé advancing a political agenda in the middle of a football pregame show, that I had no business watching anyway because I’m smart enough to know better. But I was still watching it. So here they are. You gotta understand this out there, Richard. These guys are urging every one of us to turn off our lights. They’re showing us a satellite picture of the earth at night with all the lights on. Then they get the blimp flying over Philadelphia. There are two stadiums fully lit up, neither of them being used.
The Philadelphia skyline is lit up like crazy. Why? Because TV needs the nighttime pictures because the blimp pays a lot of advertising! You can’t put a blimp up there at night. Then these clowns on the pregame show go by candlelight. But did you notice at the halftime show they had candlelight in the studio, but that big red Toyota sign was blaring? The sponsor got his electricity on NBC! My point to you, Richard, is that my lights and everybody else’s lights have nothing to do with foreign dependence. What it has to do with is we have liberals in this country who will not allow this country to find its own energy resources. Oil is king right now, and it’s going to be for a long time. We go pie-in-the-sky about alternative sources all we want, and we could start working on them, but we gotta realize they’re not going to be able to provide the power for this country to grow for years.
We have to continue to grow. We are not a country that wants to regress. I don’t want to go back to streets covered in horse manure because they ban the car, and I am not going to. I am not going to go out and grab a bunch of leaves that have fallen from my palm trees and take them inside when I have to use the bathroom. I am going to use toilet paper! I’m going to try to be as hygienically correct as I can. If I need my lights on because I like looking at them or because I need to use them, then by golly by gosh they are going to be on! The Saudis be damned because the Saudis are not our problem. The Democrats are our problem! You should be calling them and not me, if you’re worried about too much dependence on foreign oil, for crying out loud. How many times do I have to say this?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I have an even better way to save energy. Stop complaining to me about my lights. Let’s just turn off MSNBC. Just turn off CNN. (interruption) What do you mean it won’t do anything, because there aren’t that many people watching it in the first place? Well, I’m talking about the electricity they use just putting that drivel on the air. Just turn CNN off! I’m not talking about on your TV, I’m talking about turn off the business so damned concerned about power usage. What is the efficiency of all the electricity and power these networks use to reach these minuscule audiences they’ve got?