In which Rush hypes the protest of the St. Louis SEIU
By Greg Lewis

Rush began the final hour of the week with a message for those in his audience who are afraid the argument is being lost, and are upset that town hall meetings are no longer being reported on for their content. Rush said they need to realize the fevered emotional pitch about this, and how people are fed up, and that every action Obama and his “union thugs” take is just firing people up even more.

Rush went on to read extensively from a press release from the St. Louis Tea Party calling for a protest of the local SEIU office in response to what happened at last night's town hall event for Rep. Carnahan. Rush went on to say that this is “Obama's army,” argued that there was no violence prior to union thugs showing up at events, and gave out the address to SEIU's St. Louis offices.

Then Rush said that Obama is “giddy” that only 240,000 more Americans lost their jobs and stated that the “full” unemployment number counting those who have given up looking for work is actually 16 percent. Then Rush aired an audio clip of Obama today stating that these numbers could mean that the worst “may be” behind us. Rush asked his audience if they felt “saved.”

After the break, Rush mockingly declared that Obama has “rescued us from catastrophe,” and non-mockingly called Obama a catastrophe. Then he was back to arguing that, based on the U6 numbers, unemployment didn't actually “dip.” Rush said that Obama mentioned they still expect unemployment to still hit 10 percent this year. Rush quipped that they know it's probably “already there now” and that they're just “cooking the books.”

“Open Line Friday” rolled on with a caller who told Rush the health care bill is “generational genocide” and that people who are fighting it are heroes. Rush said that doctors are now showing up at town halls, and when that starts happening en masse, it will start “compounding” all of this. The next caller said that Americans are opposing health care out of “self defense,” and echoed Rush in saying it was like Nazism, just like the movie Logan's Run. Rush responded, saying that he was reading Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood blog about late night comedy shows “starting to turn” on Obama, and made a passing reference to the recent passing of Walter “Klondike.”

After another break, Rush gave a plug for the “brilliant” Heritage Foundation and took another caller, who told Rush her theory that the government has a “vested interest” in letting seniors die because that would result in a huge windfall in the death tax. Rush disagreed, saying that we're all going to die anyway. Rather, Rush thought their plan was more “nefarious” than that, and suggested that “having senior citizens die earlier than normal by denying them life saving healthcare coverage also will allow them to reform Social Security.” Elaborating on his new conspiracy, Rush added: “I mean, you don't pay the people that are dead. Sometimes you do pay survivors under some versions of the program.” And then it was more fearmongering on government making your health care decisions for you:

LIMBAUGH: But even before you get to that, it's none of Barack Obama's business who lives and who dies in this country, and it's none of Nancy Pelosi's business, and it's none of Henry Waxman's business, it's none of Barney Frank's business, it's none of Harry Reid's business who lives and dies. They want to make it their business by being the ones paying for it. They want to make it their business by being the ones who are charged with the responsibility of controlling costs.

Then Rush argued that if you were in Sen. Ted Kennedy's position -- 76 years old with a terminal brain tumor -- then you wouldn't be covered for treatment under government-run health care. Rush continued his broken record mantra: it's none of their business what happens to you, none of their business to decide who gets to live and die. We're talking about “authoritarian imperialists,” he added.

The next caller expressed his concern over which was worse: being out of a job, or being retired and elderly. Either way, the caller explained, you're in a bad spot with the system they want to put in. Rush said it is about more than that, which is why Rush thinks “it's important that the elderly people, seasoned citizens understand what's going on.” He added: “If you all get fully informed here as to what these people have planned for you, there's no way you should put up with it. It's none of their business what kind of healthcare you get and when and under what circumstance. It's just not Barack Obama's business.”

One more break, and Rush was back, reading that Floyd Norris at The New York Times noted that, “For the first time since the Depression, the American economy has added virtually no jobs in the private sector over a 10-year period.” Rush called this “drivel” that was put out there to prop up the catastrophe of President Obama, even though the economy boomed during the Bush years, despite the “mild” recession that Rush blamed on Clinton and 9-11. So let us get this straight -- Rush, who earlier today said Obama was “whining” like a spoiled child because he inherited a recession from President Bush, is now brushing off the 2001 recession as something Bush inherited from Clinton. To be clear, both the 2001 recession and the current recession started while Bush was in office, but Democrats are to blame for both in Rush's mind. You can only find hypocrisy like this on The Rush Limbaugh Show.

Rounding out “Open Line Friday,” Rush took one more caller who discussed the different experiences she encountered at the town hall of a Republican representative and that of a Democrat representative. The caller also said that the problems with insurance was caused by Ted Kennedy's HMO legislation. Rush agreed with the caller on this point, and closed out the week by describing what “we” have learned today:

LIMBAUGH: What did we learn today? We have learned that there is a building, percolating, effervescing boiling-over passion and emotion for liberty and freedom. People do not want a bunch of inexperienced little mini-socialist statists running around controlling their lives. We have learned that the bloom is largely off the Obama rose. And we have also discovered, ladies and gentlemen, that [...] the bottom line is, we may be in the minority, but we're not anywhere near powerless.

Well on that note, we'd like to briefly note what we here at the Limbaugh Wire have learned today. We've learned that Rush has seemingly convinced his entire audience that every health care reform falsehood he has advanced on his show in recent weeks is true. The evidence of that is the fact that nearly every caller on his program today echoed to Rush their fear that health care will result in old people being killed.

And that concludes this week's Limbaugh coverage. We'd like to make a quick programming note before we go. Next week, the Limbaugh Wire will see some changes in format. We're really excited about what lay ahead for us, and we hope you are, too. As always, our recommendation for cozy summer weekend reading is the near-encyclopedic Limbaugh Wire archives.

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

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: I think something more nefarious, Pat, is having senior citizens die earlier than normal by denying them life-saving health care coverage also will allow them to reform Social Security.

CALLER: That's true.

LIMBAUGH: By not paying -- I mean, you don't pay the people that are dead. Sometimes you do pay survivors under some versions of the program. But even before you get to that, it's none of Barack Obama's business who lives and who dies in this country, and it's none of Nancy Pelosi's business, and it's none of Henry Waxman's business, it's none of Barney Frank's business, it's none of Harry Reid's business who lives and dies. They want to make it their business by being the ones paying for it. They want to make it their business by being the ones who are charged with the responsibility of controlling costs. They want to make as much of your life their business as possible. It's not just the elderly they're focused on; they're going to fund abortions as well as part of the health care plan.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I want to get off the notion that this is about health care. If it works, if it gets you riled up when you find out that your end of life, this government's going to throw you out to pasture. If that works to keep you fired up, that's good. But this is about so much more than that. This is why I think it's important that elderly people, seasoned citizens understand what's going on. These have been traditional Democrat voters. And if you all get fully informed here as to what these people have planned for you, there's no way you should put up with it. It's none of their business what kind of health care you get and when and under what circumstance. It's just not Barack Obama's business.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: What did we learn today? We have learned that there is a building, percolating, effervescing boiling-over passion and emotion for liberty and freedom. People do not want a bunch of inexperienced little mini-socialist statists running around controlling their lives. We have learned that the bloom is largely off the Obama rose. And we have also discovered, ladies and gentlemen, that -- well, Snerdley wants you to say Rush rules, but the bottom line is, we may be in the minority, but we're not anywhere near powerless.

Enemies list

LIMBAUGH: I read a piece on Andrew Breitbart's bighollywood.com website the other day. Guy who used to be a writer for a late night comedy show, been monitoring the comedy shows, some of these late-night comedy shows are starting to turn on Obama -- Jon Stewart, you know. And he thought it was important that Jon Stewart is turning -- or starting to, because Jon Stewart -- in the 18-to-24 demographic, 18-34, is the most respected TV newsman. It's a comedy show. They asked the question, sometime after Walter Klondike passed away, and the -- so they -- a lot of people are going to be affected by this, and it's going to be much, much harder just to be a propagandist for Obama when it affects you personally as well.