By Greg Lewis

Rush Limbaugh's theme for his show today was the “dark days for his nation” in “Obama's America,” and announced it was his task to chronicle it all. He started things off by saying the media was “going nuts” over the CBO score of the Senate Finance Committee's health care bill. Rush said it was “bogus” because it's a draft, and started ranting about the taxes in the bill, which he said kick in immediately, even though the reform plans don't kick in until 2013.

But as to be expected from Rush, he used this opportunity to heat up his rhetoric:

LIMBAUGH: The liberals want more. They want a faster government takeover, they want higher taxes, they want coverage for illegal aliens. Folks, if this is not fascism, then what the hell is it? This sure as hell is not democracy. You know, I said this once before, and they went nuts out there in the drive-by media, state-controlled media and their websites. In many ways, this is a bloodless coup. In many ways, this is a non-military coup -- that is, there is no constitutional authority for the exercise of this kind of power over personal health decisions and private property.

You have a single Congress trying to ram through permanent changes to our country by hook and by crook before the public understands the magnitude of this, and of course not a word from the liberal media, the state-controlled media. Instead, they cheer all of it. These are dark days for our nation.

From there, Rush said the drive-by media was “orgasmic” in covering the CBO score, and aired a media montage of discussion of the score Rush then went on again how the score is a “mirage” because it's based on the draft, not the “legislative language.” He also suggested that “somebody got to” the CBO on this.

After explaining that House Minority Leader John Boehner said there were 75 “phantom amendments” in the bill, Rush talked about Bob Dole's support of health care reform. Rush was convinced Dole had no clue, and announced that he was restraining himself in his discussion of Dole, presumably from making distasteful jokes at the former Senator's expense.

More Rush race-baiting over impoverished Detroit stimulus seekers

After the break, Rush talked about a Newsweek feature asking if Russia were better off Red. Then he talked more about the stimulus money being distributed to social services in Detroit. It was more of the same race-baiting he partook in yesterday. Rush read about the long lines to get the applications for the stimulus money and said that this was Obama's America and what happens in socialism. Rush sure seemed to get a lot of joy out of the misery and despair of the homeless and less fortunate among us.

He went on to air a few audio clips of some of the people in line, who described the stimulus funds as “Obama's money.” Rush told us it's “fine to laugh,” and called it “freaking sad.” He went on to say that these are “model citizens” in Obama's America; the people who would be rich today if the achievers didn't steal what they had. Rush said Obama looked at these “dumb, uninformed, shockingly stupid” people as victims, model citizens.

Rush baselessly claims: "[N]o charitable deductions will be allowed before long under Obama, and that's part of the plan; replace charity with government"

Next, Rush read a UK Daily Mail article about a study finding that social benefits wrecked the British work ethic. No kidding, exclaimed Rush after reading from the article. Rush said we were heading in the same direction. Then, he read from a Houston Chronicle article on stimulus money being used to offset a drop in private donations because of the recession. Rush had this to say about the report:

LIMBAUGH: You'd think people would -- by the way, the story goes on to say that charitable contributions are down, which is why they need the stimulus money. Well, do you think that if more people were working, if they had jobs and maybe a reduction in taxes, do you think maybe they would have some disposable income to help the needy? See, this is part of the plan, folks. Your charitable deductions are about to be vamoosed. No charitable deductions will be allowed before long under Obama, and that's part of the plan -- replace charity with government.

But again, I ask something -- I know this is very cold-hearted to say, and I know this is easy for me to say, and I know it's insensitive as hell for me to say, but maybe if people had jobs, they wouldn't need charity. Is this what the stimulus was supposed to be for? You think the average person thought it was for charity, i.e. welfare? Do you think that's what people thought the stimulus bill was?

Rush then had one more thing to say about the situation in Detroit:

LIMBAUGH: You know what Detroit is? Detroit is going through their version of Hurricane Katrina without the levees breaking. Where's FEMA? Less moisture, no levees to break, but Hurricane Katrina has hit Detroit.

Then Rush talked about the big climate change “hubbub” that will soon take place in Copenhagen and the EU president “dumping” on Obama about being embarrassed if he doesn't get the U.S. to ratify the climate change treaty. Then he talked about the Saudis reportedly wanting financial assistance if a climate change cut the world's dependence on oil. Rush said this would be like George Soros asking for aid if one of his currency scams doesn't work -- “literally insane,” he added.

Rush says his H1N1 vaccine defiance was “rooted in liberty and freedom”; goes after MSNBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman

After another break, Rush took on MSNBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman for criticizing Limbaugh for being defiant about getting the H1N1 vaccine on his show yesterday. Rush aired a clip of Snyderman saying that Rush “hijacked” medicine with politics. “This whole swine flu thing is political,” exclaimed Rush. He continued:

LIMBAUGH: People like you and your network are polluting this country with drivel and bilge. People like you are scaring the hell out of people needlessly, each and every day. There are medical experts who will not take the vaccine. But that's not the point. Mine was not a medical point, Dr. Snyderman. Mine was rooted in liberty and freedom.

[...]

Outrageous? Silly? No, I'm just independent-minded, I'm not a conformist, and I do not respond to media-inspired plagues or panics. And besides, Ms. Snyderman, consult your own network. I don't have any power. Nobody listens to me. The Republicans don't listen to me. My audience, they listen, but they don't do what I say. Your network has been reporting this for two weeks now.

Ironically enough, immediately after Rush said that his audience doesn't “do what I say,” he took a caller who informed Rush that neither she nor her child would be getting the H1N1 vaccine (however, she did attribute this to using her own brain, not Rush).

Closing out the hour, Rush took another swipe at Snyderman:

LIMBAUGH: I know what Dr. Snyderman's problem is. I had this in the stack, it's -- I wasn't going to use it because it doesn't fit, but it does now. Taking the pill -- this is the Daily Mail, UK -- taking the birth control pill for the past 40 years has put women off from masculine men. The reason we got a bunch a -- you compare the Kirk Douglases and all those guys from back [unintelligible] and look at the Hollywood stars, a bunch of girly wusses. And it's the pill that makes women like girly men. That's the theory from -- and explains some of their thinking as well, Dr. Snyderman.

Rush continued his rambling about Snyderman as he started off the second hour of his show. What is it if it isn't political? Rush asked about the swine flu. Then Rush moved on to more kids singing to Obama. He first recapped this story so far, playing the sound bites of the New Jersey kids sing-a-long to Obama, and his Shanklin parody sketch featuring German children singing songs under with the implication that Obama is personally indoctrinating children a la 1930s Germany.

Then Rush got to the latest kids singing instance, which occurred recently on CNN. Rush called the students, who were from the private Ron Clark Academy, mind-numbed robots and called the videos troubling.

Then Rush continued his week-long obsession with BBC reporter Katty Kay not getting his jokes. Here's what we wrote about it on Monday:

For the next bit Rush went into, we unfortunately have to explain some of the background. On Friday (we didn't include this in Friday's Limbaugh Wire because, well, we thought it was really stupid), Rush started to riff on the Obama kids-sing-along video, the one where the New Jersey school kids sing a song with the lyrics “Barack Hussein Obama, mmm, mmm, mmm.” Since this gave Rush the opportunity to use Barack Obama's middle name, he started singing the line on his show -- repeatedly and obnoxiously.

So on his show today, Rush aired an audio clip from Morning Joe, featuring BBC News' Katty Kay saying that there was “something insidious” in the way Rush sang Obama's name. HA! Rush gloated, mocking Kay for not getting his genius, satirical escapades.

Anyway, Rush went on to give us a shout-out:

LIMBAUGH: Insidious -- that's right, it was insidious -- and I'm sitting here, there's two different media worlds. I know everything they do, I watch 'em, I read 'em, I listen to 'em, they don't. They read Media Matters or whatever far left-wing nutjob website to find out what happened here, but they don't listen.

Rush also said that Joe Scarborough was “doing his best impression” of a “neutered chickified moderate.” (Katty Kay made her comments on Morning Joe.)

After some more mocking of Katty Kay (calling her “clueless”), and more jokes at the misery of Detroit residents, Rush took a caller who thought that the media was over-hyping how bad the economy really was. The caller thought this could be happening because the media was trying to help Democrats push through more liberal policies. Rush said what is happening to the economy is exactly what Obama wants. Rush said that the media is underselling the economy because they don't want “their guy” Obama to look bad.

Several years after getting fired from ESPN, Rush still can't get his mind off Donavan McNabb

And since the caller was calling from Philadelphia, Rush took the opportunity to talk about Eagles QB Donavan McNabb (with whom Rush has some history with):

LIMBAUGH: Too many people have dumped on McNabb too much. You know, I think it's been really unfair, all these people dumping on McNabb over the years.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Well, my comment was on the media and their treatment of McNabb. McNabb's a fine man. Look, he had his press conference, his Wednesday press conference yesterday, and reporter asked him this: “Rush Limbaugh says he's interested in buying a football team. How do you feel about that? Do you think NFL players will embrace him?”

[begin audio clip]

McNABB: If he's rewarded to buy that, congratulations to him. I won't be in St. Louis no time soon.

REPORTER: You won't play for the Rams?

McNABB: I'll be here.

[end audio clip]

LIMBAUGH: So, McNabb has rejected a potential job offer before one was even made. I guess I know where I stand with McNabb.

Following the next break, Rush was back to bask in the “disappoint[ing]” news from today's 30-year debt auction. Rush said that the ChiComs were sending a message about the Obama administration's spending, which Obama has “no interest” in getting under control. Then Rush took a caller who explained her bad experience after getting a flu shot in 2000 and experiencing an unfortunate side effect. Rush explained that he has never gotten a flu shot, but has had a lot of “busybody friend” tell him to.

Rush got the third hour going by explaining how the media uses polling to “lie” and create news they want to report. He came up with an example of this, “courtesy of” Gateway Pundit, which accused Bloomberg News of putting a positive spin on a Quinnipiac Poll that Quinnipiac qualified as negative for Obama in their report on the poll. Rush probably didn't read past the first few paragraphs of the Bloomberg article, or else he would have seen something that contradicts what he has been claiming for weeks:

The poll found voters support a government-run plan to compete with private insurers 61 percent to 34 percent.

Then Rush read an American Thinker blog post questioning the latest AP/GFK poll finding a jump in Obama's approval ratings. Nate Silver he ain't. Then Rush read a CNN Money piece that was pessimistic about economic recovery. Rush said that nobody else at CNN thinks this way because they're in the tank.

After the break, Rush was back to complaining about Dr. Nancy Snyderman's report on his H1N1 vaccine comments. Rush then aired a sound bite of “infectious disease expert” Dr. Kent Holtorf on Fox News a few weeks ago warning that the H1N1 vaccine might be unsafe and possibly linked to autism. Taking sides, Rush was willing to latch onto anything that contradicted Snyderman and Sebelius:

LIMBAUGH: Oh, what are we to do? What are we to do? Listen to me and Dr. Holtorf, or Dr. Snyderman? What a dilemma. What would you do, Snerdley, in this case? If I heard this right, I'd talk to my doctor too. I'd say, I'd ask my doctor, “I heard an infectious disease expert say that there is a antiseptic preservative that has been linked to autism in this vaccine. Is that true? If my kid has mitochondrial dysfunction, and I give the kid vaccine, could get autism?”

From there, Rush continued to protest Kathleen Sebelius wanting to “make” him get the H1N1 vaccine:

LIMBAUGH: Kathleen Sebelius knows what's good for me. Doctors, scientists donated hours of their lives. I really wanna see the proof of that. I wanna see all these donations of time to come up with the pig flu virus. As I say, the only donations that doctors are going to be making will come after Obama's health care is enacted, 'cause he's not gonna pay 'em. He's going to reduce their payments, he's going to reduce Medicare expenses by -- and which he claims he's not going to do. It's a disaster.

Following another break, Rush took a caller who explained how the health care bill would greatly increase the health care costs for his small business. Rush said that was exactly the plan: to force everybody into the public option, and that Obama was “shepherding” all of this. Rush went back to the Detroit story one more time, and then read a Cleveland Leader article that claimed Ted Kennedy's autobiography left out a chapter about Kennedy's womanizing.

Rush closed out the show with a rambling diatribe inspired by our bombing of the moon. Rush went on for a few minutes about our society's vanity for thinking that improving our standard of living can destroy our climate. Or our massive inferiority complex which causes us to search for intelligent life in the universe.

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

Highlights

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: The liberals want more. They want a faster government takeover, they want higher taxes, they want coverage for illegal aliens. Folks, if this is not fascism, then what the hell is it? This sure as hell is not democracy. You know, I said this once before, and they went nuts out there in the drive-by media, state-controlled media and their websites. In many ways, this is a bloodless coup. In many ways, this is a non-military coup -- that is, there is no constitutional authority for the exercise of this kind of power over personal health decisions and private property. You have a single Congress trying to ram through permanent changes to our country by hook and by crook before the public understands the magnitude of this, and of course not a word from the liberal media, the state-controlled media. Instead, they cheer all of it. These are dark days for our nation.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: People like you and your network are polluting this country with drivel and bilge. People like you are scaring the hell out of people needlessly, each and every day. There are medical experts who will not take the vaccine. But that's not the point. Mine was not a medical point, Dr. Snyderman. Mine was rooted in liberty and freedom.

And I -- Kathleen Sebelius is not a doctor, Snerdley, don't tell me the woman -- oh, and this kid video on CNN, do you know how this thing starts? They do the Sebelius cough into the forearm [cough]. That's how they start this thing. She's not a doctor, and she's telling me I must, when there's no law requiring me to do it? We have seat belt laws. We have helmet laws. But we don't have a pig flu law -- yet.

Outrageous? Silly? No, I'm just independent-minded, I'm not a conformist, and I do not respond to media-inspired plagues or panics. And besides, Ms. Snyderman, consult your own network. I don't have any power. Nobody listens to me. The Republicans don't listen to me. My audience, they listen, but they don't do what I say. Your network has been reporting this for two weeks now.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Oh, what are we to do? What are we to do? Listen to me and Dr. Holtorf, or Dr. Snyderman? What a dilemma. What would you do, Snerdley, in this case? If I heard this right, I'd talk to my doctor too. I'd say, I'd ask my doctor, “I heard an infectious disease expert say that there is a antiseptic preservative that has been linked to autism in this vaccine. Is that true? If my kid has mitochondrial dysfunction, and I give the kid vaccine, could get autism?” And Dr. Snyder -- “This is not a conspiracy, these are doctors and scientists donating hours of their lives, dedicated themselves to try to make people like you well, Mr. Limbaugh. It's a vaccine that works, what silliness.”

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Kathleen Sebelius knows what's good for me. Doctors, scientists donated hours of their lives. I really wanna see the proof of that. I wanna see all these donations of time to come up with the pig flu virus. As I say, the only donations that doctors are going to be making will come after Obama's health care is enacted, 'cause he's not gonna pay 'em. He's going to reduce their payments, he's going to reduce Medicare expenses by -- and which he claims he's not going to do. It's a disaster.

Enemies list

LIMBAUGH: Katty Kay had not heard the Journal's -- the video from the New Jersey school where the kids were singing “Barack Hussein Obama, mmm mmm mmm.” And of course I mimicked it all day Friday when Obama bombed out in Copenhagen at the Olympics. And the NBC people didn't like this -- well, the Chris Matthews people didn't like it, and they played video of me doing the “Barack Hussein Obama, mmm mmm mmm.” And they were just disgusted as they could be -- “How could Limbaugh be so gleeful that Chicago failed, and what is this 'Mmm mmm mmm' business?” And Katty Kay said, “I don't want to hear it again Chris, Limbaugh is --” And I'm stunned here.

Insidious -- that's right, it was insidious -- and I'm sitting here, there's two different media worlds. I know everything they do, I watch 'em, I read 'em, I listen to 'em, they don't. They read Media Matters or whatever far left-wing nutjob website to find out what happened here, but they don't listen.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Too many people have dumped on McNabb too much. You know, I think it's been really unfair, all these people dumping on McNabb over the years. I -- you gotta -- just, just --

CALLER: Well, I think your initial analysis and your take on it a few years back was pretty accurate, and --

LIMBAUGH: Well, my comment was on the media and their treatment of McNabb. McNabb's a fine man. Look, he had his press conference, his Wednesday press conference yesterday, and reporter asked him this: “Rush Limbaugh says he's interested in buying a football team. How do you feel about that? Do you think NFL players will embrace him?”

[begin audio clip]

McNABB: If he's rewarded to buy that, congratulations to him. I won't be in St. Louis no time soon.

REPORTER: You won't play for the Rams?

McNABB: I'll be here.

[end audio clip]

LIMBAUGH: So, McNabb has rejected a potential job offer before one was even made. I guess I know where I stand with McNabb.

Ladies' man

LIMBAUGH: I know what Dr. Snyderman's problem is. I had this in the stack, it's -- I wasn't going to use it because it doesn't fit, but it does now. Taking the pill -- this is the Daily Mail, UK -- taking the birth control pill for the past 40 years has put women off from masculine men. The reason we got a bunch a -- you compare the Kirk Douglases and all those guys from back [unintelligible] and look at the Hollywood stars, a bunch of girly wusses. And it's the pill that makes women like girly men. That's the theory from -- and explains some of their thinking as well, Dr. Snyderman.

War on the poor

LIMBAUGH: Seventeen million dollars in federal stimulus money being pumped into Houston social service agencies to prevent homelessness. Local agencies said today that they've helping more people who are homeless for the first time and more people are on the verge of homelessness with fewer dollars. The stimulus will help fill the gap, agencies say. It's the only thing that's keeping people from homelessness, says Gerald Eckert, the social services manager.

Has anybody ever heard of jobs? Has anybody ever heard of the concept of jobs? You'd think people would -- by the way, the story goes on to say that charitable contributions are down, which is why they need the stimulus money. Well, do you think that if more people were working, if they had jobs and maybe a reduction in taxes, do you think maybe they would have some disposable income to help the needy? See, this is part of the plan, folks. Your charitable deductions are about to be vamoosed. No charitable deductions will be allowed before long under Obama, and that's part of the plan -- replace charity with government.

But again, I ask something -- I know this is very cold-hearted to say, and I know this is easy for me to say, and I know it's insensitive as hell for me to say, but maybe if people had jobs, they wouldn't need charity. Is this what the stimulus was supposed to be for? You think the average person thought it was for charity, i.e. welfare? Do you think that's what people thought the stimulus bill was?

[...]

LIMBAUGH: You know what Detroit is? Detroit is going through their version of Hurricane Katrina without the levees breaking. Where's FEMA? Less moisture, no levees to break, but Hurricane Katrina has hit Detroit.