This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the mythical African Canadian
By Simon Maloy

What a very special afternoon of Limbaugh we had yesterday. As you might recall, and as Greg so assiduously chronicled, Rush went off on another of his trademark rants about the left and their insidious plans to make it impossible for you to eat junk food. These rants are part and parcel of Rush's overall message that “they” -- liberals, Democrats, the media, Google, whomever -- are engaged in a years-long coordinated effort to control every aspect of your lives, and we've grown quite accustomed to them. But there was one part of yesterday's pro-junk food rant that stuck out: “And after that, they're going to go after Oreos. Might have to put that off 'til Obama's out of office, but they'll eventually go after Oreos.” Ah yes, “Oreo,” a term that can be considered quite insulting, a fact Rush himself is keenly aware of: “Does the name Michael Steele ring a bell? Michael Steele is a lieutenant governor of Maryland, not far from Pennsylvania. ... I don't know if you know about this, but he wants to run for the Senate, and the NAACP and the white liberal plantation owners of this country are out trying to destroy Michael Steele. They're throwing Oreo cookies at the guy when he goes out and makes a speech, and they're claiming he's 'black on the outside, white on the inside.' ” Seems to us that if Rush wants to deny that he's "fanning the flames" on racial issues, he should avoid using racially loaded terminology he has decried in the past.

Rush got things going with a Drudge special, saying that it looks like President Obama is going to have to invite a black female police officer over for champagne with Henry Louis Gates Jr. and police Sgt. James Crowley. CNN's Don Lemon interviewed a black woman police officer from Cambridge who voted for Obama and now says “never again,” said Rush, but he immediately lost focus and moved on to the consumer confidence index, which he said “plummeted” last month. The economy is in the toilet, said Rush, and somebody needs to tell them this at CNN, where they're saying that the recession is over. Anyway, Rush then got back to Don Lemon's interview with the black female police officer from Cambridge, airing sound bites of her saying that she knows Officer Crowley, that there's been a tremendous rush to judgment, that it's unfortunate what Obama said, and that she will not vote for him again. Rush said, again, that she's going to be invited to the White House for champagne, not beer, and maybe even made a “tsarina.”

We all talk about how smart Obama is, said Rush, but this meeting at the White House between Gates and Crowley is dumb. It's just going to add another two days to the story. Politically, this is dumb, he repeated. Rush then noted that Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) weighed in on the Gates issue, and aired audio of Frank saying he hasn't followed it very closely, but the right to yell at authority figures is a right that should be protected. Rush was incredulous that Frank thinks it's OK to yell at people in authority, and went on to air audio of Frank “yelling” at an authority figure, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), on the House floor.

After the break, Rush said there are days when he feels like a schizophrenic, and this is one of them, he said, because he has two or three stories from whacko environmental blogs, one of which says people should stop doing everything and let the government take over. By the way, Rush said, once again losing focus, did you know that China has three power plants that emit more carbon than all of Great Britain? Anyway, Rush said that what causes the schizophrenia is that he also has stories on how people need to start spending and consuming. Should we save the planet, or should we spend and consume? All of this schizophrenia is courtesy of the state-controlled media, said Rush, which is confusing people day after day. No wonder consumer confidence is low. During the Bush administration, said Rush, the media tried to manufacture a low consumer confidence rating, but that didn't work. And now we actually have a low consumer confidence rating because the economy stinks, and the media are doing everything they can to say the economy is coming back.

There's also schizophrenia on health care reform -- people are divided on the plans going through Congress, but most of them agree that it will raise costs and not help coverage. Let's put this in context, said Rush -- Obama has been on TV everyday trying to sell this monstrosity, and it hasn't worked. We know Obama is lying to us about this, and the more people learn about these health care plans the less they like them, so it's relevant to ask the question: Since state-controlled media have completely fallen down on the job regarding this, how are the people learning the truth? Through Rush and talk radio.

Rush then read from a CNN Money article reporting: “As a growing number of Americans default on their mortgages, the Obama administration is set to meet Tuesday with industry executives to discuss their efforts so far to help people save their homes.” So now we're just going to give people money in the form of grants to cover their mortgages, said Rush. That's what this story implies. Rush said he doesn't want anyone to lose their home or their job or whatever, but the answer to people losing their homes is not to give them money, it's to create jobs, and anybody who is economically literate in any way will tell you that grants for mortgages is the exact wrong thing to do. It's only going to delay the reckoning.

Another break and Rush came back to announce: “There's this French infobabe coming in here today to do a profile of me from the -- there's a magazine in France that's called -- it's the Time magazine of France is how I was explained to me. It's called Le Point.” Our French is a little rusty, and we don't quite know how “infobabe” translates, but we do hope it makes it into the final copy. Anyway, Rush said that the country is going to borrow $200 billion this week, if we can find someone to buy it. That's going to bring the total of what we've borrowed this year to $1.15 trillion. And if the debt isn't bad enough, guess who's going to pay the interest: you. One of the biggest problems with this much government debt, said Rush, is that it takes that much money out of the free market. That's money small businesses can't borrow. This is how Obama is depleting the capital of the private sector, said Rush. This is by design. Well, if that's true, then we guess Rush can lump in George W. Bush in this sinister plot, as he added $4 trillion to the national debt, more than any president before him.

Rush continued, saying that we've had so much focus on the soldiers who died in Iraq, but we get no coverage of the debt. People ask Rush if the liberals know what they're doing. Of course they do, said Rush, they just don't care. But they need a villain, said Rush, and there aren't any Republican villains. The latest demon with regard to health care is obesity. We get stories about how doctors don't like to treat fat people. Rush doesn't think that anyone but Rush would have the nerve to ask this question: The cost of obesity is $147 billion per year; how much does HIV/AIDS cost us?

After mockingly chastising himself for asking this question (we're not entirely sure why he thinks it's so controversial), Rush asked if we've ever heard of an African Canadian, or a Native Canadian, or a Hispanic Canadian. Actually, yes, we have heard of Afro-Canadians and Native Canadians, who prefer to call themselves the First Nations. But Rush immediately corrected us; no, of course we haven't heard of these groups, because Canadians apparently don't group themselves like Americans do. And now we've got all these groups -- smokers and the obese -- who are being demonized for the purposes of health care reform. Rush wondered what percentage of medical costs are by people over 70. If we're going to demonize anyone, said Rush, how about the people who actually drive the health care costs? The elderly. The Heritage Foundation says that the elderly are increasingly against health care reform, and if we can get senior citizens on board, said Rush, then there's a real chance we can stop this thing.

But the inspiration for this rambling and disjointed rant, said Rush, was a Politico article reporting: “With their health care plans in a holding pattern -- and no George W. Bush to kick around anymore -- Democrats are casting about for somebody to blame.” Then Rush read from the Heritage blog post on senior citizens and health care. Rush said he hopes to hell, although he's not expecting, that this Heritage post is brought to light at Obama's senior citizens town hall today.

One more break and Rush was back recalling that, yesterday, Bill Moyers said that Rush creates riots in the public mind, Robert Gibbs said he's fanning the flames of racism, and the running criticism of Rush is that he's a lying hypocrite. So Rush wanted to go through four “lies” he has told and wanted us to pick a favorite. Well, long story short, it was actually a trick -- they weren't lies! Rush always tells the truth.

Let's go back to 2004, said Rush, when Obama was on the radio talking about passing legislation and bemoaning the fact that the Patriot Act was rushed through Congress without any real deliberation. That's five years ago, said Rush, and Obama was complaining about the legislation being pushed through Congress. What's he doing now? We need a new stimulus immediately, health care immediately, etc. Rush then aired audio from last week's White House press conference, during which Obama said he is rushed on health care because he gets letters from people every day who've lost their health coverage and need help. Over in Congress, said Rush, the letters are 15-1 in opposition to his plan.

Greg Lewis and Zachary Pleat contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 1

Homme à femmes

LIMBAUGH: There's this French infobabe coming in here today to do a profile of me from the -- there's a magazine in France that's called -- it's the Time magazine of France is how I was explained to me. It's called Le Point.