| Stack of Stuff Quick Hits Page |
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January 15, 2010 |
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Story #1: Florida: Freeze May Have Destroyed 30% of Crops
RUSH: Oh, by the way, a little weather. North Florida has the longest stretch of cold weather in 100 years. North Florida, the longest stretch of cold weather in 100 years. "National Weather Service Meteorologist Jason Hess said that it’s the length of the cold that is most significant. 'This is the longest stretch ever in 100 years of record keeping,'" in the midst of climate change and global warming.
 Story #2: Most Read at Boston Globe: Hummingbird in Hospital
RUSH: Do you know what the most viewed story was yesterday, the most popular story Boston Globe website? You would probably think that the most popular story, the most e-mailed, the most looked at story in the Boston Globe would be about the race between Coakley and Brown. It wasn't. The number one story all day at the Boston Globe, beating Haiti and the Senate race, was: "Rare Hummingbird Hospitalized in Massachusetts." Not kidding. "A hummingbird rarely seen in Massachusetts and trying to survive a brutal Cape Cod winter has wound up in the hospital." How does that happen? How does a hummingbird end up in a hospital? "The Cape Cod Times reports that the Allen's hummingbird was brought to the Wild Care of Cape Cod animal rehabilitation center in Eastham after being found in the snow with ice crystals on its wings on Sunday." This was the most popular story all day yesterday at the Boston Globe. What does that tell you?
Story #3: DCCC Uses World Trade Center in Anti-Brown Ad
RUSH: This is rich. From ThePolitico.com: "A new ad from the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee for Martha Coakley uses an unlikely symbol of Wall Street greed: the World Trade Center. The image in the attack on Scott Brown for his alleged closeness to Wall Street pictures the Trade Center and the destroyed Marriott Hotel on its western side." They have pulled the ad.
Story #4: Haiti on List of Best Places for the Environment
RUSH: By the way, one little note on Haiti. Haiti is always on the United Nations list as one of the best places for the environment. Back in 2001 -- and it hasn't changed much, I'm sure, 'cause Haiti has not improved. Back in 2001 from a World Wildlife Report, the three worst countries by ecological carbon footprint: UAE, Kuwait, United States. The best three countries, meaning they make the least carbon footprint, the least pollution: Haiti, Somalia, Afghanistan. Afghanistan being the best. In other words, this is what we should aspire to: Abject poverty saves the earth.
Story #5: Barney Frank: Can't Stop Fannie/Freddie Bonuses
RUSH: "Barney Frank Says Multi-Million Dollar Bonuses for Government-Owned Freddie, Fannie 'Too High' -- But Nothing Can Be Done About It." Nothing can be done! Cybercast News Service: "The Obama administration recently approved base salaries of $900,000, plus $3.1 million in deferred payments, and another $2 million in bonuses for the CEOs of the failed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," which have not paid back their TARP money, their bailout money, and they are not being taxed like Wall Street and financial institutions are. "When asked if tax dollars should pay those bonuses or if they should be cancelled, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), told CNSNews.com that the bonuses were 'too high' but 'nothing can be done now.'" The federal government essentially owns Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so why can't Barney Frank and the Democrats control their bonuses? Simple: Because they don't want to.
Story #6: Planned Parenthood Fundraises for Haiti Birth Control
RUSH: Get this. "Following the earthquake in Haiti, millions of people are dealing with death, a lack of food and water, shelter, and basic medical care. Planned Parenthood, sending a good time for a fundraising opportunity, is asking for donations for its local affiliate to promote birth control and condoms." Planned Parenthood is asking for money to help it pass out condoms and birth control to children who are simply looking for a bite to eat and medical care for injuries that they and their families sustained in the earthquake. I wonder, ladies and gentlemen, if Martha Coakley would tell Catholics to not be part of the triage units down in Haiti. And yes, I meant to say it.
Story #7: Federal Workers Flourishing in Obama Recession
RUSH: From USA Today: "The number of federal workers ... making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months -- and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted. Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time -- in pay and hiring -- during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector." "The number of federal workers ... making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% ... during the recession... [T]he average federal worker's pay [is] $71,206" a year.
Story #8: Inflation is Out There and It's Knocking on the Door
RUSH: From the State-Controlled Associated Press -- and I'm wondering if the Drive-Bys would have ignored this. This is from today. We haven't heard much about it. Let's see if we do. This would be leading the news if Bush were president. "Consumer inflation was tame in 2009, with prices rising 2.7 percent. Yet families felt squeezed as their spending power sank in the face of falling wages ..." The numbers: Inflation rises 2.7%, wages dipped 1.6%. That's "the sharpest decline since 1990." Inflation is out there and it's knocking on the door.
Story #9: Dingy Harry: We Have Time for Cap and Tax This Year
RUSH: "Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday said that there is room on the busy Senate calendar to bring up a sweeping energy and climate change bill this spring." This is from TheHill.com. Apparently no off on Mr. Reid's stupid switch. Those are my words, not The Hill's, or maybe this is just part and parcel of his contempt for America's stinking citizenry. "His comments -- in a speech before a geothermal energy group in New York -- come amid speculation that tackling controversial plans to impose limits on greenhouse gases may fall by the wayside." My friends, my memory is telling me here, doesn't drilling for and exploiting geothermal energy trigger earthquakes? There's a major geothermal project in the U.S. in Northern California. It's been shut down, squandering who knows how many millions of US taxpayer dollars because of earthquake problems it was causing. I wonder if anybody brought that up to Mr. Reid when he talked about it in his speech? He said, "We have a lot on our plate. We have to finish reforming health insurance and Wall Street, and also must help bring Americans out of unemployment. But we are not so busy that we can’t find the time to address comprehensive energy and climate legislation." Well, that's just going to put more people out of work.
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Story #10: Find a Workaround: How Wall Street Saved Bonuses
 RUSH: The assault on the American private sector is relentless. It continues. Interesting story from the Associated Press: "How Wall Street Boldly Saved Big Executive Bonuses." You know, there's always a work-around of these things. And does Obama really believe this new tax will do anything other than raise fees to customers? Your ATM fee, look out, it's going to go up. If you bank at one of these 50 big banks that have paid back their TARP money with interest and are now going to get taxed -- by the way, did you hear how mad he was when he spoke about these guys, these banks? Outta control angry. The things that make him angry and the things that don't make him angry are quite telling. Boy, he's got it in for these bankers and he's got it in for the insurance companies, too. He really does. But the way the Republicans ought to frame this tax on the banks is, "Barack Obama just raised your bank fees yesterday. Your checking account charges, your fees, your ATM fees. These banks are going to pass it on." They do. Mark my words.
Here's more: "The fat cats were supposed to get their comeuppance. After Wall Street's most prominent firms -- by their own admission -- helped cause the 2008 financial meltdown and got bailed out by the government, they were supposed to stop handing out million-dollar bonuses to their employees. No one was supposed to get seven- and eight-figure rewards, not after the Great Recession left one in 10 Americans unemployed. Not after President Barack Obama -- who on Thursday called such pay 'obscene' -- had promised to clamp down on lavish bonuses. It turns out little actually changed. Americans will see that starting Friday when JPMorgan Chase & Co. releases its 2009 financial results." They have, and it's a huge profit for JP Morgan Chase, I think $3.3 billion. This is not chump change.
"The other big banks will follow. The messages will be the same: compensation is at near-record levels. The form of the pay is changing. Instead of cash, bonuses will be paid mostly in stock that can't be redeemed for years. But the numbers are still staggering. Together, the six biggest U.S. banks are on pace to pay $150 billion in total compensation for 2009, slightly less than the record $164 billion in 2007 before the financial crisis struck, according to the New York state comptroller's office. How this happened is complicated, like most things involving Wall Street and Washington. It involves a remarkable financial turnaround by the banks, but one that was fueled by the federal bailout. It shows the power of the financial lobby. And it highlights the age-old debate about how much U.S. companies need to pay to retain talented bankers and traders. Scott Talbott of the Financial Services Roundtable says keeping those workers from going to overseas firms is critical. 'The market will find a way to pay these people what they're worth,' says Talbott, who is chief lobbyist for the industry group representing some of the largest financial firms. 'This is not a giant talent pool. There's only a few people who can catch a touchdown in the Super Bowl,'" and that's how he's comparing these people. And it's probably true to a certain extent.
"The best performers and executives stand to earn millions. 'What we've allowed is for the banks to be nursed back to help with various forms of assistance provided by the government, but they haven't been required to change their ways,' said Rep. Brad Miller, a Democrat from North Carolina." Yet. Wait 'til Barney Frank and Chris Dodd get hold of them with their Financial Services Committee, banking committee reform of financial regulations and so forth. But, at any rate, intelligent people will find a way to get paid what they are worth. That's one of the big problems in capitalism is everybody sees the different salaries and compensation people get and they don't know why. It's the age-old argument, how come teachers get paid so little compared to athletes. Because people think teachers are far more valuable than athletes are, and you may be able to make that case, although -- well, I'm not going to go there. But in purely economic terms, supply and demand, achievement, talent, there's no comparison. The amount of revenue generated for the business.
How much money do teachers generate for their school business? How much money do they generate? No, no, no. Serious question. I'm not being derogatory at all. But how many fans does Ben Roethlisberger pull in for the Pittsburgh Steelers? How many fans did George Brett pull in for the Kansas City Royals versus how many fans are going to see the Royals now when there is no George Brett? I mean it's simple. And they get whatever they can get as a percentage of what they are creating, even though they don't own it. But how many people are paying to watch teachers do what they do and how do you associate the money that goes to school systems with teachers and what they're doing? I know that sounds callous to many people and heartless and insensitive, but it's not. It's economics.
Story #11: List of Liberal States on the Brink of Budget Bankruptcy
RUSH: Speaking of economics, Fortune magazine: "More and More States On Budget Brink -- California is hurtling into the budgetary abyss -- and it's not alone. Across the nation, state tax collections in the first three quarters of 2009 posted their steepest decline in at least 46 years, according to a report this month from the public policy research arm of the State University of New York." Now, we've talked about this this week. As they go into deficit and as the money they got from the stimulus gets spent, they're going to have to start laying off workers at the state level and the city level, and it isn't going to be pretty. Here are the states that are in debt and how much. California, $14.4 billion. I actually think that they're up to $19 billion now in debt. Illinois, $12.8 billion. New Jersey, eight billion. New York, $6.8 billion. Florida, $4.7 billion. Let's see. Who runs these states on top of this chart? California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York. Well, you'd have to say Democrats do. You got a Republican governor in California, but hard to know he's a Republican by virtue of his practices.
You got a Republican governor in Florida and a Republican legislator, but in California the assembly and the senate, full Democrat. Illinois, New Jersey, New York, all Democrat. Who runs these states that have the biggest deficits? And there are ways out of this, but everyone seems to just be waiting for it all to collapse like they've given up. There are ways out of this and new taxes are not the answer. Here comes conservatism again in its ascendancy. Cut taxes, spur job growth, revenue will soar. Cut taxes, incentivize investment. Don't punish achievement! Reward it! Would you punish your kid for getting a good grade saying it's not fair you got an A and our neighbor's kid got a C, so you're both going to get B's, would you do that? Would you punish your own kid? Why do we sit by and let successful people get punished because they've succeeded? Reward it! Incentivize it! Then get out of the way for all the jobs created and all the revenue flowing into federal, state, and city coffers because tax revenue will be up. It might be a good time to start working the waste and fraud in Medicare that Obama's always promising to do in order to pay for yet another entitlement. They all seem to be just sitting and waiting for something. Nobody's trying the obvious solutions. It's kind of weird to watch this. It's Twilight Zone-ish. It's like they're thinking Obama's going to come and save 'em with another bailout, stimulus, slush fund, what have you.
Story #12: Minority Unemployment Skyrocketing, Report Says
RUSH: You know, we had a caller a minute ago who said we ought to send the 82nd Airborne in to Haiti. We don't need an open port; we don't need an airport. The 82nd Airborne could parachute into Haiti and they coulda been down there on Wednesday. Well, here's a story from Forbes.com: "What white Americans regard as a recession may feel more like a depression to certain minority groups in the U.S., according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute... 9.7% of American adults were unemployed at the end of 2009." It was ten percent is what they're talking about here. Anyway, "African-Americans and Hispanics saw rates of 15.5% and 12.4%, respectively," and among young people in the black community, it's 25% unemployment. That's where we need to send the 82nd Airborne. I mean, how's that hope and change working for you? Do you realize this? The Congressional Black Caucus is all upset about this. Obama hasn't done enough for the 'hood.
Story #13: Obama Writing Cover Story on Haiti for Newsweek
RUSH: We mentioned earlier that Obama is going to write a cover story on Haiti and the earthquake for Newsweek magazine. He was asked by Jon Meacham, who is the editor. Now, like a lot of publications Newsweek was forced to start its week over when the earthquake hit Haiti. They're owned by the Washington Post. They lost $25 million in the first half of 2009 so they "reinvented" the magazine. (Not that anybody would notice.) Of course, Obama would never, never, never use the Haiti tragedy for political gain. I mean, that would be unthinkable. But he's doing the cover story. The co-ver stor-y? "Newsweek was readying a story about the Google-China problem when the earthquake hit." Well now I wonder why it didn't occur to Newsweek to ask Obama to weigh in on the Google-China problem.
Why did they only ask him to weigh in on the Haiti earthquake? Because clearly he wouldn't politicize this! The only desperate people, stupid people that politicize everything are people like me: Rush Limbaugh. Obama is as clean and pure as the white, wind-driven snow. He would never politicize anything, right? (interruption) I think it will burnish his image. Yes, of course it will burnish his image. You think his picture will be on the cover? Do you think the cover photo of Newsweek will be Obama maybe with a montage of disaster pictures behind him? (interruption) Yeah. What about the US economy? Never mind. Yeah, they're going to put him on the cover. It's a story about Haiti. I'm sure it's going to be about all the wonderful things we've done or are going to do.
Story #14: Hoven Study: Voting Democrat Causes Cancer
RUSH: "Voting Democrat Causes Cancer." This is from Randall Hoven at the AmericanThinker.com. "Voting Democrat is associated with over 150,000 cancer deaths every year, according to the Hoven Institute for Studies Just as Valid as Studies Cited by Democrats. To help visualize the data used in the study, consider the two maps below. In the first, high cancer rates are indicated by red and low ones by blue. In the second map, counties that voted for George W. Bush in 2000 are indicated by red, and those that voted for Al Gore are indicated by blue." Now, I can't show you these but we'll link to this piece at RushLimbaugh.com. Now, the source for the cancer mortality rate is the National Cancer Institute, and the counties that voted for Bush versus Gore is USA Today.
"The above maps appear to be roughly the inverse of each other. That is, locations that voted for Al Gore tended to suffer higher cancer rates. To analyze this phenomenon more rigorously, the Hoven study looked at the cancer mortality rate and the percentage of 2000 presidential votes going to Al Gore for each of the fifty states. The result is shown in the figure below, which also includes the linear regression trend line. The slope of that line is 1.24 cancer deaths per 100,000 person-years for every percentage of vote going to Al Gore." That's a lot of cancer. "The Hoven study concluded that '[v]oting Democrat is associated with cancer mortality.' This is similar to the conclusion of the study 'Health Insurance and Mortality in US Adults,' cited by Democrats in support of their version of health care reform. That latter study concluded that '[u]ninsurance is associated with mortality.'" So Democrat votes are associated with cancer. Yeah. There was that survey.
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