This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by Obama's "profound conceit and arrogance"
By Simon Maloy

All you Limbaugh devotees out there are in for an extra-special treat today, as El Rushbo's website says right now that the man himself will appear on Neil Cavuto's Fox News "business" show this afternoon, most likely to congratulate each other for their increasingly shrill anti-tax rants aimed at New York Gov. David Paterson.

As for The Rush Limbaugh Show proper, Rush got things started today by chuckling that Fidel Castro "wants Obama to succeed," referring to the Congressional Black Caucus delegation that recently met with Castro in Cuba. From there, he made a seamless segue into attacking Obama's European tour, disputing the claim that "everybody" is making that "it's great to have such a humble guy leading the country." Rush said, "It takes profound arrogance to go around the world, apologize for your country, to say that your country is lacking, but only now is your country worth anything because you happen to be president." According to Rush: "That's profound conceit and arrogance, which is part and parcel of Barack Obama."

Then it was on to the pirate hijacking of an American ship off the east coast of Africa. Rush found it interesting that the pirates made this attack on American shipping interests after Obama, according to Rush, went around the world "apologizing" for America. So, we were a bit incredulous that a group of pirates, after closely following the media reports of Obama's European trip, decided that it was finally time to strike against the United States because they thought Obama was so weak. So we checked what the experts were saying: "Karin von Hippel, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who worked in Somalia in the late 1990s for the United Nations and European Union, tells USA Today's David Jackson that it is unlikely the hijackers were targeting the United States. 'I think they just go for what they can get,' she says. 'The risks are not that high, actually, and the rewards are very high.' "

In case you missed it on the website, Rush himself announced that he will be on Cavuto this afternoon, and -- as we predicted -- he made it pretty clear that he'll be talking about David Paterson. Then he offered his thoughts on fair usage rules and "the news" as it pertains to newspapers, explaining that he doesn't know how anyone can charge for "the news." It's just news! You see news when you see a car go by or a crime at the mall or whatever. How, asks Rush, can you charge for that?

Before the break, Rush offered some boilerplate attacks on global warming and reports that the Obama administration "is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air." According to Rush, the world is not warming... it's cooling! It's just the latest liberal trick, a hoax designed to make you feel guilty that you are destroying the planet, and out of your guilt, you'll allow central planners and authoritarians to tell you how to live.

After the break, Rush flogged an unsourced Haaretz article reporting that "the Obama administration is readying for a possible confrontation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu." Rush was outraged that with pirates hijacking ships and North Korea launching missiles, the Obama administration considers Israel a "problem." Then it was time for the latest hilarious Kim Jong-Il parody in which the North Korean dictator explains how disappointed he is in Obama's lackluster progress towards "socialism."

On the other side of the commercial break, Rush attacked Obama and Treasury Secretary Geithner for spreading the "tentacles" of the federal government "even further," referring to a Wall Street Journal report that life insurance companies will now be eligible for TARP funds. Then it was back to the Congressional Black Caucus' trip to Cuba. Rush claimed that "liberal black politicians" can "relate" to Castro because "he stands up to oppression," and they envy his "total dictatorial power." After playing audio of Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA) saying that Castro asked them how he could help, Rush responded: "He wants Obama to succeed. Fidel Castro, noted communist dictator of Cuba, went on record with the CBC saying he wants Obama to succeed. Well, who doesn't? The Islamists want Obama to succeed. Who doesn't want him to succeed?"

Rush rounded out the hour by claiming that "the real star" of the CBC delegation was Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), who Rush called a "blithering idiot," "nuts," and "a fervent nut."

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: So, Barack Obama -- we'll get back to Fidel Castro wanting Obama to succeed in a moment. So, Barack Obama goes on his world tour, apologizes for America. Everybody says, "Wow! You know, it's great to have such a humble guy leading the country." Humble? It takes profound arrogance to go around the world, apologize for your country, to say that your country is lacking, but only now is your country worth anything because you happen to be president. That's not humility. That's profound conceit and arrogance, which is part and parcel of Barack Obama.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: He wants Obama to succeed. Fidel Castro, noted communist dictator of Cuba, went on record with the CBC saying he wants Obama to succeed. Well, who doesn't? The Islamists want Obama to succeed. Who doesn't want him to succeed?

Enemies list

Called Rep. Barbara Lee a "blithering idiot," "nuts," and "a fervent nut."

Clips from this hour:

Declaring global warming a "hoax," Limbaugh claims the "world is not warming, it is cooling"

Limbaugh: "Liberal black politicians" envy Castro because he has "dictatorial power"

Discussing Obama comment that Islam has helped shape "my own country," Limbaugh says "you want to see, is he talking about Kenya or the United States?"

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by Obama and Kim Jong Il's shared propaganda strategy
By Simon Maloy

Rush came back for the second hour talking about his general disdain for physical exercise, and claimed his suspicions were confirmed by a Live Science article with the headline: "Exercise Good Even After Heart Failure." Rush explained that he knew what the article was getting at -- if your heart fails, you go to the hospital and get it fixed, and then exercise is supposed to help afterward. But the way the headline reads, according to Rush, is that if your heart stops, go jogging. (By the way, heart failure is not the same as cardiac arrest.) Rush went on to say his newest diet had reaped dividends, and that he plans to exceed his weight loss goal so that he can have a grand old time putting that extra weight back on.

Rush then returned briefly to the CBC's Cuba trip, saying that Rep. Laura Richardson's (D-CA) comments had reminded him of news reports from last year on the foreclosure of Richardson's house in Sacramento. Rush said this explains her affection for Castro -- there is no private property in Cuba, which means no one can foreclose on your house.

After a quick break, Rush took a call from a man who followed Cuba "very closely" and just recently learned that Cuba imports 84 percent of its food because the country is so poor. Rush said there's another reason they import food -- so they can export it right out again, as they have no other way of producing income. This led to an extended discussion of the Cuban embargo, with Rush ambivalent as to whether it should be lifted. Another caller said she traveled to Cuba on a religious visa, and Rush said the reason people travel to Cuba is so that they can offer their reactions to their trip.

After the break, Rush had a comparison for us: Kim Jong Il is knowingly lying when he tells his people that North Korea now has a satellite in orbit, and Obama is knowingly lying to his people when he says that stimulus spending is doing anything but "stimulating government." According to Rush: "The banking crisis is far from over despite all the stimulus." This is a fine response to an argument no one ever made -- that the government stimulus package would fix the financial crisis in less than two months. Anyway, these, according to Rush, are equivalent examples of "totalitarian" propaganda: "So, you've got propaganda in North Korea, you got propaganda coming out of Washington, D.C. -- the propaganda spread by media in both places."

Rush then took a call from an English teacher who thanked Rush for saying a couple of weeks ago that the smallest minority in the world is the "individual," because she has now incorporated that concept into her lesson plans. In response, Rush pointed to the latest Newsweek cover announcing "The Decline and Fall of Christian America." According to Rush, you can't listen to or read a speech by George Washington without seeing him reference God over and over and over, but ever since Washington, there has been an effort to disabuse people of the notion that America has a religious founding. This, says Limbaugh, "dovetails" with what's happening in schools today -- a "massive effort" to get people to think not as individuals but as part of a group, which is a bad thing (but remember, go to your local Tea Party on tax day!).

Anyway, the caller then announced that she had a "beef" with Limbaugh! We were excited, and so was Rush. Her "beef" had to do with Limbaugh's unhinged ranting a couple of weeks ago about Obama's advocacy of smart meters, which Rush claimed were an attempt by the government to worm its way into your house to tell you how and when to use your thermostat -- "tyranny, pure unadulterated tyranny." Now, we explained what smart meters are, and they're not part of an insidious government conspiracy, but apparently this woman's husband had come to believe they were and that had discouraged him from buying a flat-screen television. Rush responds: "I simply listened to what Obama said. He talked about it in a White House meeting with one of these groups that he then sent off into work groups. He said: 'And we're working on new thermostats that will report your electronic usage and will let you know when you are over your limit.' I said, what? Now a lot of people are saying that talking about this is just -- that this is conspiracy kooks that believe in this. Obama said it!"

No, actually, he didn't say it -- those are the words Rush put in his mouth. What Obama actually said -- the exact words that set Rush off initially a couple of weeks ago -- were: "We could set up systems so that everybody in each house have their own smart meters that will tell you when to turn off the lights, when the peak hours are, can help you sell back energy that you've generated in your home through a solar panel or through other mechanisms." That's it. No talk of "limits," no talk of government "monitoring," nothing of the sort. Anyway, Rush chastised the caller for thinking exactly as the Obama administration wants her to, and that the next thing is that she'll be afraid to call into Rush's show because a government agent might be monitoring her. And where would she get such an idea? Perhaps from Rush Limbaugh (falsely) claiming that the government has announced its intention to monitor her.

Anyway, Rush closed out the hour with some more bashing "climate engineering," claiming that the worst thing that could happen to liberals is that their solutions for global warming actually work, because that would deprive them of so many issues, politically.

Highlights from Hour 2

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: I have a little comparison for you that I want to make. I want you to think about this. Last week, the North Koreans -- the Norks as they're affectionately known -- the Norks, led by Kim Jong Il, launched a missile. It went over Japan and landed ostensibly on-target in the Pacific Ocean, which is a huge target to miss.

Kim Jong Il arranged celebrations and big, massive displays of pride by ostensible Nork citizens over this great achievement. Because what he's claiming is they now have a satellite in orbit. The Norks have a satellite. They don't have a satellite. There's no satellite up there, but the Norks have put out this, and they got the people out there cheering, "Oh, wow, [unintelligible] national pride here. We Norks, we've put up our first satellite. We're really coming along."

This is pure propaganda now. At the same time, Kim Jong Il knows that there's no satellite up there. He's lying to his people. He's lying to his population. He's lying to the world about successfully launching a satellite.

Now we come to the United States of America, where the government of Barack Obama has stimulated the economy with not jut an $800 billion stimulus package, a $700 billion TARP payment -- I don't know how many trillions have now been used to stimulate the economy. And the government is telling everybody that this is great stuff, and it's going to have great effect. It's going to be great.

It's all propaganda. And Obama knows full well that his stimulus package is not going to stimulate anything but government. It's not going to stimulate jobs. It isn't going to stimulate private sector jobs. It's not going to stimulate economic growth. After all of this stimulus, we're still being told 10 percent unemployment to the -- 10 percent unemployment? The banking crisis is far from over despite all the stimulus.

So, you've got propaganda in North Korea, you got propaganda coming out of Washington, D.C. -- the propaganda spread by media in both places.

America's Truth Rejector

Falsely claimed Obama spoke of smart meters setting energy usage "limits":

CALLER: Before you switch to another caller, I do have a beef with you, though. Can I bring up my beef?

LIMBAUGH: You have a beef with me.

CALLER: Yes.

LIMBAUGH: By all means. It's beef week, so, fire away.

CALLER: You were talking about the electrical meters that were going to be installed that were going to monitor electrical use?

LIMBAUGH: Yes, the thermostats. Yes.

CALLER: Well, my husband heard that and is not too happy. We were looking at getting either a big-screen TV or a Select Comfort bed. And he is trying to put me off of spending that and putting money into the economy, because he thinks Obama's going to be looking at our electrical meters and complaining about how much energy we're spending.

LIMBAUGH: You know, you don't know --

CALLER: And do you think that --

LIMBAUGH: Let me tell you something. This is -- I'm glad you brought this up, because I simply listened to what Obama said. He talked about it in a White House meeting with one of these groups that he then sent off into work groups. He said: "And we're working on new thermostats that will report your electronic usage and will let you know when you are over your limit." I said, what?

Now a lot of people are saying that talking about this is just -- that this is conspiracy kooks that believe in this. Obama said it! And it's not -- and the first time he said it, it was not the first time he's talked about it. He's mentioned it in some of his writings and so forth.

This is -- this is why -- all -- to discredit something in this country, all you have to do is, "Ah, that's a conspiracy theory," because conspiracy theories are only believed by kooks. And nobody wants to be a kook. So you don't want to be considered a kook, just like you don't want to be falsely accused of being a racist or you shut up about it. But Obama said it. And Google is working on it. In some states, they've already got them.

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by ACORN's elite infiltration units
By Simon Maloy

Well, we've come to the final hour, and Rush got it going by offering an update to the pirate hijacking off the African coast: "We have a news update for you on this, ladies and gentlemen. The ship's captain is still being held by the pirates. The crew apparently not under such tight control, but the ship's captain is still being held captive by the Somali pirates, which is OK. In fact, that's even cool. The ship's captain's a CEO. He's the leader. He's the boss. He deserves to be held captive by the pirates." Get it? The captain is a CEO and everyone hates CEOs because the Obama administration wants them to. What struck us as noteworthy is that Rush is using a hostage situation involving an American citizen to make jokes.

From there, it was on to Chrysler and an AP article reporting that "[j]ust a week after the White House scolded Chrysler LLC for relying too much on gas guzzlers, the company is heading to a marquee auto show Wednesday to unveil a new SUV." Rush pointed to a quote from a Chrysler spokesman: "Customers have told us they want this vehicle and that it's the right size," and was giddy that Chrysler was listening to customers instead of the administration, noting that the article characterized Chrysler's Jeep Grand Cherokee as "profitable." We'll use this opportunity to point out what we pointed out the last time Chrysler and SUVs came up on Limbaugh -- the administration's viability assessment of Chrysler pointed out that Chrysler's SUVs were profitable, but those profits disappear when gas prices rise.

Rush came back from the break promoting the Tax Day Tea Parties and asserting that there was "word" that ACORN is going to mobilize its elite infiltration units to sabotage the Tea Parties by causing violence in front of TV cameras, thereby making the Tea Partiers look violent and out of control. Now, there's absolutely no evidence that ACORN has some grand conspiracy to undermine the Tea Parties, and no one can adequately explain why the organization would have any interest in doing so, other than that it's the conservative boogeyman of the momen-... er, last eight months. But if we may get a little conspiratorial here, our opinion of this ACORN infiltration malarkey is that it simply provides a ready-made excuse for Limbaugh and Michelle Malkin if any of the Tea Parties do get a little out of hand. They blame everything else on ACORN, why not this?

After talking with another caller about the Cuban embargo, Rush took a quick break and came back talking up the Tea Parties once again. According to Rush, these are pure grassroots events, and no one can claim credit for the idea, except maybe CNBC's Rick Santelli. Rush is very excited about the Tea Parties, but won't attend any of them, in spite of all the invitations, because he's "too famous."

Rush then set his sights on a story that he mentioned briefly at the very end of yesterday's show -- a BBC article on a study that found that "[s]isters spread happiness while brothers breed distress." According to Rush, this "stupid study" is "just the latest blatant attempt to feminize men and boys." Rush said we can't have "feminized" men and boys because "[y]ou need men to fight wars, to be cops. You need men to carry hysterical women out of burning buildings -- just a joke, folks! It's more stereotypical humor."

Anyway, after an extended plug for one of his sponsors, Rush took one more call, this one from a man expressing his opinion that if global warming activists really cared about the environment, they'd tell Obama to ban all forms of racing -- car racing, boat racing, etc. Rush said that America is "all about progress" and that the "global warming people, from Obama on down" want to correct the country's "sins" by rolling back that progress.

There you have it -- another episode of The Rush Limbaugh Show boiled down to its essence and filtered of all impurities. If you still haven't had enough, we remind you that he'll be phoning into Your World with Neil Cavuto this afternoon. We'll be watching, and we'll be back tomorrow to add yet another chapter to Media Matters' ongoing and epic coverage of Rush Limbaugh.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: It's time for a news update, ladies and gentlemen. And this is about the Maersk Sealand. This -- to my eyes, it's a giant freighter -- pretty big cargo ship. It's the ship that's been hijacked by Somali pirates.

Now, we were told, right as the program began, that the ship's crew had regained control of the ship from the Somali pirates, while the Obama administration was in discussions about how to handle this.

We have a news update for you on this, ladies and gentlemen.

The ship's captain is still being held by the pirates. The crew apparently not under such tight control, but the ship's captain is still being held captive by the Somali pirates, which is OK. In fact, that's even cool. The ship's captain's a CEO. He's the leader. He's the boss. He deserves to be held captive by the pirates. The great unwashed, the crew members, are free. And that's the way it out to be. But that captain, it's good that he is still captive of the pirates, because he is a CEO.

Ladies' man

LIMBAUGH: You need men to fight wars, to be cops. You need men to carry hysterical women out of burning buildings -- just a joke, folks! It's more stereotypical humor. Just me being me, trying to get in a few laughs here. I think, well, men who don't -- who just -- who are not obsessed with discussing their feelings, they're always going to get grief for it.

Clips from this hour:

Limbaugh "You need men to carry hysterical women out of burning buildings -- just a joke, folks! It's more stereotypical humor"

Discussing his theories about smart meters, the government, and Google, Limbaugh denies that he's a kook engaging in "conspiracy theories"