By Zachary Pleat

Multimillionare Rush declares Americans “don't have it tough”

Saying he knew that this was coming, Rush shared an AP report that the EPA has completed its endangerment finding on carbon dioxide. He then launched into a tirade about the formation of an “underground government” by the formation of several bureaucracies in the current legislation. Rush then complained that this is all possible due to a Supreme Court ruling in 2007. Repeating the tired and inane outrage that carbon dioxide is what we exhale and has been found to be “poison,” Rush then appeared to embrace frivolous lawsuits by offering a strategy to pursue them:

LIMBAUGH: First sentence: “EPA has concluded greenhouse gases are endangering people's health and must be regulated.” This is all about CO2. So does this mean that workers, employees, can sue their employers if they are made to work around people who are emitting such a dangerous substance as carbon dioxide? And if not, why not? The EPA, a federal agency, has just said this is poison, has just said that it is destroying the climate, has just said that CO2 endangers human health.

Rush then launched into a fact-deprived explanation of how the health care reform “fraud” and the climate change “fraud” are both born of the same ideology. He claimed that the evidence exposing the supposed frauds behind both climate change and the deficit-neutrality of health care reform legislation have been suppressed. Of course, the stolen Climatic Research Unit emails do not expose climate change as a “fraud”, and the Congressional Budget Office found that the health care reform legislation in question is not only deficit-neutral, but reduces deficits. He then launched into a rant comparing “Climategate” and “Obamacare”:

Climategate and Obamacare are the most significant power grabs, tax increases, and losses of freedom and liberty in American history. Climategate and Obamacare require central planners running a command-and-control economy. Climategate and Obamacare require much higher taxes that will cripple the private sector and the domestic United States economy. Climategate and Obamacare severely limit personal freedom and disposable income. Climategate and Obamacare are both job-killers. Climategate and Obamacare are economy killers. Climategate and Obamacare are budget killers. Climategate and Obamacare require, demand everyone's participation. Violating the laws of these two pieces of legislation will result in fines and/or incarceration. Climategate and Obamacare puts the public sector and public servants in total control of the private sector and over every individual American.

Back from his first break, Rush decided to rail against Senate Republicans that are trying to amend the health care legislation to suit their preferences. He then read a piece by Robert Samuelson that discussed how health care is actually taking over the government, rather than the reverse as “President Obama's critics sometimes say.” Rush finished the article by stating, as he often does, that “this is just about control.” Later, Rush felt the need to defend the article use terminology of “rationing” by the “free market” in the article, stating that if something is viewed as a right, then it must be rationed.

Like Fox News, Rush then used the presence of snow at the end of the year (imagine that!) to challenge claims of global warming. Rush then returned to the Robert Samuelson article to spew forth on the “free market” and how great it is for health care, declaring that, relatively, Americans don't “have it tough” anymore, even though 45,000 deaths are reportedly linked to lack of health insurance annually. Unsurprisingly, Rush then returned to his old standby of declaring that “seasoned citizens” will have their care rationed.

Rush: “Oil is about to be outlawed”

Declaring that “I'm not going to talk about it”, Rush spent several minutes discussing the story of Tiger Woods and his apparently several “mistresses,” and said that “the sportswriters” were just waiting for Rush to discuss it so they could tear him apart over it. Interrupting himself with several “I'm not going to talk about” its, Rush then read a Vanity Fair piece on Al Gore's poetry from his new book, Our Choice. Rush again interrupted himself to proclaim that “if it is warming” -- which he doesn't think it is -- it would be good for the planet:

LIMBAUGH: Would somebody explain to me what's wrong with it getting warmer? I don't think it is. I think it's getting colder, and that's disaster. If it's getting warmer we're going to have less energy costs to keep warm, we're going to have longer growing seasons, we're going to have more food. What the hell?

Rush then mentioned that Saudi Arabia wants an investigation into “what had been referred to as the 'climategate' scandal”. Rush pointed out that this only makes sense for the Saudis, since its economy is dependent upon oil exports, and that “oil is about to be outlawed” at the Copenhagen conference. Rush then mentioned that it is being floated that Russia was behind the CRU email hacking because it too exports a lot of oil, and gleefully declared that “the plot continues to thicken.”

Rush then had a college-age caller who happily told Rush that he was a “Rush baby” and launched into an explanation of how he just knows he's being lied to and “propagandized” about global warming in his classes. Rush praised him for this, then lied about his history on this issue, saying that “I have never said the earth isn't warming or cooling, 'cause I think it's always changing. Always. The thing I disagree with is that we're causing either. We don't have the power.”

Soon afterward, Rush read one of the hacked emails showing AP reporter Seth Borenstein asking scientists from the CRU about a skeptic article that was published in a journal, apparently pretending that a reporter asking experts about complex issues is a bad thing. Rush then went back to ranting about health care reform, falsely claiming that the current legislation will increase deficits, drive up insurance premiums, and not “insure the uninsured.”

Next, Rush turned his attention to Obama's Afghanistan policy speech, complaining that the West Point cadets had to sit and wait for the speech to start for three hours and playing a mix of clips of administration and Democratic figures who were purportedly talking about the date for the beginning of withdrawal from Afghanistan. Rush then played a clip of Defense Secretary Robert Gates saying that our country has had no good intelligence on Osama bin Laden's whereabouts for years, and declared it was because they haven't sent anyone with a shovel to Afghanistan to dig his body up yet.

Rush: Carbon emissions limits are designed “to fleece us”

For the top of his third hour, Rush decided to branch out into several new topics, alternatively complaining about water vapor being the strongest greenhouse gas, the number of “bureaucrats” in a school district, and a House legislative proposal to add a tiny 0.25 percent tax on financial transactions, also known as the “Tobin Tax.” To learn more about the feasibility of a “Tobin Tax,” go here. Rush finished off the segment by reading a New York Times Magazine article about the role of media in politics.

Later, Rush had a caller who wondered why so many countries that previously had no interest in participating in a global conference on climate change suddenly wanted to attend the Copenhagen conference and adopt strong targets on emission limits, even though, as he put it, “they can prove” climate change “is a hoax now” with the release of the stolen CRU emails (hint: the emails don't prove that). Rush assured the caller that China and India are “not going to play ball.”

Finally, as hypocritical as ever, Rush suggested that labor unions cut their dues requirements in these tough economic times to help out with unemployment:

LIMBAUGH: I got an idea. You know what would be a nice gesture? I mean, here we are in the midst of recession and I don't care, all this talk about well, you know, we've got 10 percent unemployment, the best unemployment news we've had since 2007. How about this: if union bosses cut union dues in half until we reach full employment again, somewhere between 4 and 5 percent unemployment, wouldn't that be a nice gesture to make? Start it right now, in time for the holidays.

Zachary Aronow and Kate Conway contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: First sentence: “EPA has concluded greenhouse gases are endangering people's health and must be regulated.” This is all about CO2. So does this mean that workers, employees, can sue their employers if they are made to work around people who are emitting such a dangerous substance as carbon dioxide? And if not, why not? The EPA, a federal agency, has just said this is poison, has just said that it is destroying the climate, has just said that CO2 endangers human health.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Climategate was advanced by propaganda and by public perception that men and women of science, dressed up in lab coats, were honest brokers of facts when, in fact, all they were were greedy, grubby leftists on the take. Most of science is funded by grant. Science, government, academia and media have all been corrupted. They are the four corners of deceit.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Climategate and Obamacare are the most significant power grabs, tax increases, and losses of freedom and liberty in American history. Climategate and Obamacare require central planners running a command-and-control economy. Climategate and Obamacare require much higher taxes that will cripple the private sector and the domestic United States economy. Climategate and Obamacare severely limit personal freedom and disposable income. Climategate and Obamacare are both job-killers. Climategate and Obamacare are economy killers. Climategate and Obamacare are budget killers. Climategate and Obamacare require, demand everyone's participation. Violating the laws of these two pieces of legislation will result in fines and/or incarceration. Climategate and Obamacare puts the public sector and public servants in total control of the private sector and over every individual American.

Truth, facts, and public opinion mean nothing to the radical leftists ramming through Climategate and Obamacare. They are one in the same issue. They have the same technique, the same propaganda, the same end objective. They are part and parcel of an un-American and unconstitutional takeover of American lives by radical leftists in the United States government and governments all over the world, and they are all based on lies, they are all based on frauds, they are all based on man-made hoaxes advanced by liars dressed up as people we should trust.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Would somebody explain to me what's wrong with it getting warmer? I don't think it is. I think it's getting colder, and that's disaster. If it's getting warmer we're going to have less energy costs to keep warm, we're going to have longer growing seasons, we're going to have more food. What the hell?

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I mean, this is terrorism. This is jihadism, environmental jihadism that is being perpetrated on the people around the world for a political belief.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: You have to tell me, would China and India have -- they have not changed their opinion on -- they're not going to play ball, they're not going to reduce their emissions, they're not going to reduce their economic growth.

CALLER: Well, that's not what they're saying right now, especially China. They're saying now the --

LIMBAUGH: Well, of course -- Chi-Coms are Chi-Coms. The Russians will probably agree to,o but they never agree to whatever they agree to. They never keep the agreements; they just -- they just do it to get us to sign it. The Chi-Coms are no more going to slow down their carbon emissions than the Russians are.

CALLER: Oh, they can say whatever they want. They'll never do it anyway; they've got nobody watching. So --

LIMBAUGH: No. The -- lookit -- the only -- the only idiots that are going to reduce their carbon emissions are us because the whole design is to fleece us.

America's Truth Rejecter

LIMBAUGH: I have never said the earth isn't warming or cooling 'cause I think it's always changing. Always. The thing I disagree with is that we're causing either. We don't have the power.

Vox populi

LIMBAUGH: I got an idea. You know what would be a nice gesture? I mean, here we are in the midst of recession and I don't care, all this talk about well, you know, we've got 10 percent unemployment, the best unemployment news we've had since 2007. How about this: if union bosses cut union dues in half until we reach full employment again, somewhere between 4 and 5 percent unemployment, wouldn't that be a nice gesture to make? Start it right now, in time for the holidays.