This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the FDA regulating CO2 and the EPA's “silly ban” on Zicam
By Greg Lewis

Well, it's lunch time, and Rush kicked off the second hour reminiscing about the smell of hot dogs and cigars from when he went to St. Louis Cardinals games as a child. Rush had a good reason to talk about this, though -- apparently, advocacy group The Cancer Project is installing a billboard in St. Louis warning about the “dietary disaster” of stadium hot dogs, just as the city prepares to host the All-Star Game. Rush complained about how stories like this were pushed out by press releases from these types of organizations, and they did not represent actual reporting.

Unsurprisingly, Rush used this as an opportunity to rant about the nanny state micromanaging everybody's lives. He quoted from a “Founding Father” who said that the tyranny of a brutal dictator is not as bad as the tyranny of a “bunch of nannies” -- or something like that. The theory, Rush explained, is that the dictator will take some time off to leave you alone.

As Rush moved on to another story, we want to point out how he oddly mangled some of the federal government's bureaucratic alphabet soup:

LIMBAUGH: There's a story in the stack today -- the FDA has an advisory group. Now the FDA -- by the way, I need to warn you all of something. Even if Congress doesn't pass cap and trade, FDA has the authority to implement it. Because the Supreme Court rendered a decision, which said carbon dioxide is a pollutant and gave the government the right to regulate it.

So even if cap and trade doesn't become law as it's written, elements of it can be implemented by fiat from the EPA. So, an advisory -- the EPA has -- you've got to start looking at the EPA, folks, as politicized as the Justice Department or anything else in this administration. I mean, this silly ban on Zicam for example?

So, the FDA -- wait, the EPA -- can regulate carbon dioxide emissions. And the EPA -- wait, the FDA -- put a “silly ban” on Zicam. Got it.

Anyway, Rush really wanted to talk about the FDA advisory panel that has advised a ban on Percocet and Vicodin. Rush wasn't denying that the drug, acetaminophen, can't destroy the liver. But Dr. Limbaugh, MD, explained that “everything” gets metabolized by the liver. This is just another attempt by the government to try to micromanage our lives under the premise that none of us needs to die. Rush again brought up all the “czars,” like the new “fine print czar” in the Obama administration, who aren't accountable to the Senate. Except, as we explained in the last hour, the “fine print czar” will actually be accountable to the Senate -- that's why Obama “asked Congress” to create the agency. Pesky facts.

After the break, Rush figured out which “Founding Father” he paraphrased earlier -- C.S. Lewis. He went on to read the quote as written, which was indeed about tyranny and stuff.

Then Rush got back to his Iraq rant, which he had closed the show with yesterday. He played some more audio from Obama's speech addressing the U.S. pullout from Iraqi cities. Rush was still “offended” by this:

LIMBAUGH: This is Barack Obama who led from the United States Senate his party into doing everything he could to ensure the defeat of the U.S. military. This man did not believe what General Petraeus was going to say about how the surge was working. Petraeus came up and they accused him of lying about the success of it, being in league with President Bush to lie to the Senate and the American people and the House about this. They said there was no way we could win.

Rush also objected to Obama saying that those who “tried to pull Iraq into the abyss of disunion and civil war” were on the “wrong side of history.” Rush said this is absurd, given that Obama was one of the people who said that Iraq was in a civil war. It should go without saying, but we're going to say it anyway: describing Iraq as being in a civil war and denouncing those who “tried to pull Iraq into the abyss of disunion and civil war” are two wildly different things and are in no way inconsistent. We could see some tension if, say, Obama denounced those who “tried to pull Iraq into the abyss of disunion and civil war” after he had bombed a mosque in Fallujah, but thankfully he never did that.

Anyway, Rush welcomed us back from the break with a couple of articles. He read from a Bloomberg story reporting that India would reject any greenhouse gas emissions cuts under a new climate treaty. Rush said India and China are taking this position because they want economic growth, not economic paralysis. Rush also read from a Wall Street Journal article about Germany's Angela Merkel's plan to cut taxes. This led Rush to bloviate for several minutes about his glorious “bipartisan” stimulus plan from a few months back, which also involved tax cuts. Rush actually upped the ante a bit, calling for a three-year tax holiday for businesses, but then he acknowledged that would be a bit extreme. Rush then claimed that Obama doesn't want the private sector to recover, he wants the government to recover so he can take credit.

Then Rush took a caller who's blood was boiling because of the “insanity” of cap and trade and alternative energy. This led Rush to pull up a May 13 article about British Petroleum's CEO explaining why they were cutting funding for alternative energy. Rush put a lot of weight in a big oil CEO saying “we can't do this,” and then complained about the “environmentalist wackos” who were accusing the CEO of greenwashing. Rush said you see the wackos complaining that BP didn't even try, but you don't see them investing billions, do you?

After another break, Rush wanted to further illustrate how “silly” alternative energy really is. He did this by reading an article stating that chickens could power hydrogen cars. We guess if it sounds silly, then it must mean alternative energy is silly. Rush exclaimed that it was “clucking brilliant” to use chicken litter for energy.

Then Rush played his rendition of Andy William's “Born Free” -- like he did yesterday -- before reading a UK Telegraph article about a polar bear expert being “barred” from a conference on polar bears because of his views on global warming. Rush says this was just like the “suppressed” report from the EPA “scientist” on the hoax of global warming. Well, it seems this one isn't going away, so let's remind everyone: The “scientist” in question is actually an “economist,” his report was unsolicited and compiled in haste, and actual climate scientists say the report is scientifically unsound.

Simon Maloy, Zachary Pleat, and Hannah Kieschnick contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights from Hour 2

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: This is Barack Obama who led from the United States Senate his party into doing everything he could to ensure the defeat of the U.S. military. This man did not believe what General Petraeus was going to say about how the surge was working. Petraeus came up and they accused him of lying about the success of it, being in league with President Bush to lie to the Senate and the American people and the House about this. They said there was no way we could win.

Easy as ABC

LIMBAUGH: There's a story in the stack today -- the FDA has an advisory group. Now the FDA -- by the way, I need to warn you all of something. Even if Congress doesn't pass cap and trade, FDA has the authority to implement it. Because the Supreme Court rendered a decision, which said carbon dioxide is a pollutant and gave the government the right to regulate it.

So even if cap and trade doesn't become law as it's written, elements of it can be implemented by fiat from the EPA. So, an advisory -- the EPA has -- you've got to start looking at the EPA, folks, as politicized as the Justice Department or anything else in this administration. I mean, this silly ban on Zicam for example?