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April 9, 2009 |
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Story #1: Poll: Only 53% Think Capitalism Better Than Socialism
RUSH: Rasmussen Reports: Only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism. Did you see this today? It is chilling. Only 53% of American adults believe that capitalism is better than socialism. The latest Rasmussen Reports national survey, a telephone survey, found that 20% disagree and say socialism is better. Twenty-seven percent are not sure which is better. Adults under 30 essentially evenly divided, 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% don't know. Good Lord, 30% don't know? That's as bad as only 53% thinking capitalism's better than socialism. Thirty-somethings are a bit more supportive of capitalism, 49 for, 26 against. Adults over 40 strongly favor capitalism, just under 13% of those older Americans believe socialism is better.
You know why Obama is loved? Obama doesn't believe in capitalism, either. I'll tell you why Obama is loved. The world loves Obama because they hate the people he represents. The world hates capitalism, the world hates this country, the Somali pirates, whoever they are, they resent us, they hate us, and he makes it sound like he does, too. Not hate, but he makes it sound like yes, that's why my country's imperfect, and we're gonna cut us down to size, we're gonna put some people in jail and we're going to make sure they don't earn too much money, we're going to go along with all this. See, Obama is on these world tours not to promote his country or us, not to represent US interests, he is out there promoting himself. As I said yesterday, he's traveling around as the world's leader, not ours. Now, 53% say capitalism better than socialism, can somebody name for me -- honestly, now -- name the last Republican candidate to actually articulate the advantages of capitalism. It's easy. Reagan. How long ago was that? Twenty years ago. Even President Bush said that we have to abandon the free market to save it. That doesn't exactly make the case for capitalism.
We haven't had a Republican president make the case for capitalism since Reagan. It's one of the reasons programs like this and Mark Levin's great book are going through the roof, 'cause capitalists do not have an elected leader. Nobody in the Republican Party's willing to stand up for it. The so-called conservative intelligentsia that wants us to become more like Democrats, be more moderate and understand we need a bigger government, they're not talking about capitalism. When they say the era of Reagan is over, I mean, if the era of Reagan is over, then capitalism is over and tax cuts are over, individual liberty, yeah, we can't be guided by any of those things. So it's understandable that people under thirty are not being caught capitalism. They're being taught the opposite, being told that capitalism sucks, it's unfair, that it's mean-spirited, it leads to people being homeless and poor. It's why it's 53%.
Story #2: White House Calls Attention to Obama's Bow to Saudi
 RUSH: The White House. I'm trying to figure out why in the world they are reviving the whole controversy over whether or not the president bowed down to the King of Saudi Arabia at the G20. This was not even in Saudi Arabia. The Obama administration said (paraphrased), "No, no, no. The king, he's a runt, and Obama is a lot taller than the king. Obama was being respectful, leaning down and grabbed his hand with both hands and so forth." Some people are saying, "No, he dropped an eye contact. A contact fell out and he was searching for the contact." They're showing it in slow motion, like an instant replay that you would see in an NFL game, and there's no question that he bows. We saw it! It was submissive. No president does this. It was disgraceful. It was a mistake, and now the White House said it didn't happen. They're calling attention to this.
There's something weird about this. This is something you just ignore, let whoever wants to -- and in fact there are a lot of conservatives who are criticizing other conservatives for harping on the bow. I happen to not be one of those that paid a whole lot of attention to it. I, frankly, think harping on the bow is to miss the point of what happened over there. What happened over there is, we gave away too much of our sovereignty. We gave away economic sovereignty. We agreed on the world... Sarkozy got what he wanted. There'll be a world monitor for executive salaries, regulatory, world regulatory agency over financial dealings in this country. Whether he bowed down to the king...? There's something very weird. You don't...
You wouldn't think that the press office or the message people behind Obama would want to highlight this. Just let it die away. You know, let it be one of these things that's forever discussed with no real answer. Now they've denied it, and this is causing everybody to replay the video over and over again, which -- and they've got multiple angles of it. When you look at it, I mean, it's far more than Obama just leaning down to look at a shorter man in the eye. I can't figure out why they're bringing it up, unless they're using this to get the media focused on something else, or get focused on it while something else is going down. And it could well be that I, as I usually am, am right, that they're using this as a means of getting people focused on this (which is basically meaningless, other than a faux pas symbolically) while the real damage and disaster of that summit goes unreported. That is the only thing I can think.
Story #3: Idiocy Rewarded: Brown University Kills Columbus Day
RUSH: They're going to get rid of Columbus Day at Brown University. It's gone. They're still going to celebrate it; they're just not going to call it that. They're going to call it Fall Weekend. "'Fall Weekend' will be taking the place of the holiday formerly known as 'Columbus Day' at Brown University this fall. The faculty of the Ivy League university voted at a meeting Tuesday to establish a new academic and administrative holiday in October called 'Fall Weekend' that coincides with Columbus Day, but that doesn't bear the name of the explorer. Hundreds of Brown students had asked the Providence, R.I. school to stop observing Columbus Day, saying Christopher Columbus's violent treatment of Native Americans he encountered was inconsistent with Brown's values. 'I'm very pleased,' Reiko Koyama, a sophomore who led the effort, told the student newspaper, the Brown Daily Herald. 'It's been a long time coming.'
"The change will take effect this fall. Although the students had asked the school to take another day off instead, Brown will remain closed on Columbus Day, in part to avoid inconveniencing staff whose children might have the holiday off, the Daily Herald reported. Many other colleges are open on Columbus Day but give students short breaks later in the semester. Last month a Brown Daily Herald poll found two-thirds of the [spoiled, rotten little skulls full of mush with brains that represent the arid expanse of the Sahara Desert] supported changing the holiday's name to Fall Weekend," because Columbus, (impersonating skull full of mush) "That's right, Mr. Limbaugh, you don't want to admit it, but the multiculturists have been right all along. This is because Columbus brought syphilis; Columbus brought racism, sexism, homophobia, environmental destruction." I know it's funny, but it's sad to realize this level of idiocy is being rewarded. Next they're going to come along and get rid of Halloween. The administration is going to buckle, "All right, all right, we'll just call it old folks day. It's what happens when they all smile at an old folks' home. We're just not going to call it Halloween anymore."
Story #4: ACORN to Organize Counter-Tea Party Protests
RUSH: For those of you going to the tea parties on tax day, you've heard about the efforts, the rumored efforts of ACORN and other community organizer efforts to infiltrate, trying to be and appear as one of you but then cause problems, create violence, great shows for the Drive-By Media cameras so that the tea party protests can be portrayed as a bunch of fringe kook violent wackos. In addition to that -- this is from ThePolitico.com -- in addition to that, various ACORN groups, like America United for Change, are going to "hold dozens of events outside local post offices in at least 30 states to highlight President Obama's plan to help restore fairness to the tax code." In fact, ACORN, on the same day you're out there at the tea parties, ACORN and other groups, unions and so forth, are going to be calling for tax increases in 30 states. One of the taxes that they're going to zero in on is what they call the outrageous loophole that allows offshore corporate tax havens, as called for within the president's budget. Hey, don't worry about those. They're going away. The world regulator from the G20 is going to see to it that that takes place.
Story #5: Boston Globe to Eliminate Lifetime Job Guarantees
RUSH: We've talked about the Boston Globe. The Boston Globe is owned by the New York Times, losing $85 million. New York Times says we're going to shut it down unless we get $20 million in concessions from the unions. "Boston Globe employees reacted with a mix of resignation and anger Wednesday on learning of the pay and benefit cuts and the lost job security that The New York Times Company wants them to accept as the price of keeping the money-losing Globe in business. Members of the Boston Newspaper Guild, hearing the company's proposals for the first time, said they accepted the need for cuts, but were shocked at how much the company was asking. And they said the company had refused to provide details of The Globe's finances. Leaders of the guild, which represents more than 700 employees and is the largest labor group at The Globe, first heard the proposals Tuesday and called a membership meeting Wednesday night. 'The company's demands are outrageous,' said Daniel Totten, the union's president. 'We're willing to consider some concessions but not the draconian amount they put forth.' ... The guild is one of 13 unions being asked to make concessions. The other 12 unions are being asked for givebacks that would account for the other $10 million," of the $20 million that the Times says the Globe has to give back.
The New York Times Company also demanded -- now, get this. The New York Times Company demanded "greater freedom in future layoffs. Management," at the New York Times Company running the Boston Globe, "wants the power to dismiss employees without regard to seniority." They want the power to "abolish the lifetime job guarantees held by 430 Globe employees, including about 170 in the guild, since the early 1990s. Employees learned last Friday that the company had given the unions an ultimatum: agree to the concessions or the company will either sell the paper or shut it down." And, of course, the unions, "It's outrageous! They want to get rid of my lifetime job guarantee? How dare they?" Lifetime job guarantee. Now, aside from the sheer ridiculousness of the whole concept of a lifetime job guarantee -- now, wait. I better stop myself. I keep having to remind myself we live in a different country. And I realize when I say something like that, a lot of people, "What do you mean it's ridiculous about a lifetime job guarantee, Rush? That's only fair! It's only fair, as much as the CEOs give themselves and their retirement. We ought to have a life job guarantee. What do you mean, it's ridiculous?"
I'm sorry, you're right. I forget that most people understand how markets work and output, productivity, and the relationship of that to what you earn, I keep forgetting that people don't understand that anymore. I keep forgetting only 53% of the American people believe in capitalism, and most of them are over 40. I'm sure that a lifetime job guarantee, to some people, that's what a company's in business for. (interruption) What do you mean nobody expects a lifetime job anymore? These people do. They think that they are guaranteed a lifetime job. Don't tell me that nobody expects a lifetime job anymore. Those days have been over. Did you ever expect a lifetime job? When did people in this country, Snerdley, ever expect a lifetime job? Fifties? When was that? Hm-hm. In the fifties? So you went to work for Acme Corporation, you started out in the mail room, and after 40 years, you got up to maybe vice president with a company car, and then you retired with a gold watch, and people had that expectation. Well, maybe it's just because I've been in the broadcast business, in the talent, performance business, I have never in my life assumed that a job is guaranteed for life. Snerdley is saying most people don't think a job is -- well, maybe they don't, but they must think it should be.
I'm telling you, I sit here and I laugh at these people upset that their lifetime job guarantee is gone. I'm sure that that sounds insensitive to millions of Americans who think that a lifetime job guarantee is just part and parcel of what you're entitled to as an American. I think the only lifetime job guarantee that exists in this country is if you're with the government, excluding elective government. I mean that's not guaranteed. You can stack the deck with the power of your incumbency to see to it, but if you get hired, it's a job for life, one that you know you're never going to be laid off. Your whole bureaucracy could belly up and they'll still pay you. If you have the sleigh ride concession at Jellystone Park, government shuts down, you still get paid, and they'll still give you the Thanksgiving turkey, the Christmas turkey.
Story #6: Not New: California Considers Big Screen TV Ban
RUSH: Drudge has got this headline up there. I had the Masters leaderboard up there, let's see... "California Considers Ban on Big-Screen TVs." This is not new. "California Considers Ban on Big-Screen TVs" is a story that's been around a long time. It started out with plasmas. Plasmas use way too much power. I don't know. I can't get into the story because everybody's trying and the server's shut down, but if it's gone beyond plasmas now, then it's new, but this is not new.
Story #7: Economists Predict Jobless Recovery in September
RUSH: Also: "Economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey expect the recession to end in September, though most say it won't be until the second half of 2010 that the economy recovers enough to bring down unemployment." So the recession is going to end sometime in September, but it will be a year after that before employment starts ticking up, this according to experts from the Wall Street Journal.
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