Hour 3: Rush claims new Markey/Waxman climate change legislation will "finish this country off"

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the incontrovertible, imaginary evidence against climate change
By Simon Maloy

Rush kicked off the final hour by drawing a line in the sand, telling his listeners that they have to drive "these people" out of office and they have to start now, because "this is getting absurd." "This," according to Rush, was a new piece of climate change legislation drafted by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA), which Rush said will "finish this country off." It's an "Al Gore wish list." Rush then asked his listeners to imagine: what if some "incontrovertible evidence" materialized that demonstrated that global warming is not happening? What would Waxman and Markey and others like them in Washington do? We enjoyed this mental exercise, largely because it reinforced the notion that the "incontrovertible evidence" against "global warming" exists only in the minds of Limbaugh and his acolytes.

Rush then expanded all this talk of automobiles into one of his favorite topics -- Barack Obama's all-out assault on the freedom and individuality of the American public. The American automobile is one of the greatest illustrations of human freedom, says Rush, and that's why it "irritates" Obama & Co. They want everyone to take mass transit and recharge their electric cars and "sacrifice." To illustrate this point, Rush quoted a little Ayn Rand: "The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters and intends to be the master." According to Rush: "That is President Obama."

From there, Rush launched into an extended monologue about "the smallest minority" in the world -- the individual. Rush wants everyone to be an individual and act in self interest, because that's his definition of the "common good." According to Limbaugh, when you buy a car that you don't want because you think you're saving the world, you're hurting the country because you're sacrificing your individuality, and the Obama administration likes that because they "eagerly and excitedly" want people to relinquish their individuality for the benefit of the common good that they define.

Then Rush took a quick call between commercial breaks, this one from a 17-year-old Republican who asked Rush to comment on his theory that Obama was replacing Wall Street CEOs with Democratic cronies as part of a scheme to win re-election. This observation was right in Rush's wheelhouse, though he gently corrected the young man, saying that the CEOs are already Democrats.

Rush came back from the break with yet another parody for us, this one a send-up of Elvis' "In the Ghetto," rechristened "In a Yugo." Two parodies in one show! And it's not even our birthday. After the parody, Rush excitedly read from this Los Angeles Times article, "Hybrid car sales go from 60 to 0 at breakneck speed." Rush loved it -- "Nobody's buying them!" "Nobody wants them!" But that doesn't matter, according to Rush, because of Obama's new conspiracy to jack up gas prices and force hybrids on everyone. Just so we're clear: The market shows decreased demand for Priuses, and Rush takes this as a sign that America hates hybrid cars. The market shows decreased demand for Hummers, and Rush is convinced that Americans would still buy Hummers if they hadn't been duped into hating them by a president that wasn't even in power when the sales figures began to plummet. We're not sure to whom that's more insulting -- free-market economics, Obama, or the American people.

Anyway, another caller, this one explaining how Toyota loses money on hybrids but makes it up on SUVs. Rush again repeated the Obama-gas price conspiracy, and claimed: "Politics is why you can't get a car you really, really like or why they don't make as many as you really, really like because they're being forced to keep the Gestapo off their back. They're forced to manufacture cars that people aren't buying to keep the Gestapo off their back."

Rush closed out the program by once again intoning that if Americans really wanted fuel-efficient cars there would be a market for them, but they aren't selling, and by promising his listeners that his monologue on individuality, Ayn Rand, "slaves and masters," and Obama will appear on his website.

That does it for today's Limbaugh Challenge. We're certainly not wiser, braver, or more intellectual for having undergone it -- in fact, perhaps less so on all counts. But we'll be back tomorrow regardless. To tide you over until then, we recommend you take a look Media Matters' comprehensive and obsessive coverage of all things Limbaugh.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: I'll give you couple of quotes from Ayn Rand on this. "It only stands to reason that where there is sacrifice, there is someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there is service, there is somebody being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters and intends to be the master." That is President Obama. "Where there is sacrifice, there is someone collecting the sacrificial offerings." What does it mean? President Obama says that we all need to sacrifice for whatever reason, this reason or that reason. What it means is we need to pay more. We need to have less affluent lives. We need to dial down our prosperity. And we need to give the money to him, not a charity. He is going to eliminate, for all intents and purposes, the tax deductibility. It's going to be 28 cents for every dollar of charitable donations. He wants to be the distributor of the charitable donations. He wants to be the distributor of the good -- of the goods because he wants the glory.

"Fascism" watch

LIMBAUGH: Politics killed the auto industry. Politics is why you can't get a car you really, really like or why they don't make as many as you really, really like because they're being forced to keep the Gestapo off their back. They're forced to manufacture cars that people aren't buying to keep the Gestapo off their back.