RUSH: Yes, yes, of course we are going to review Live Earth, but not for a whole lot of time, folks, because it was a bomb. It was an absolute disaster. I think the whole Live Earth thing ended up being a joke. It didn’t move anyone. They had a whole bunch of sixties relics showing up. These bands that were there — I told you this — there was no A-listers on the whole bill. What was hilarious is in Johannesburg, they explained the low turnout for global warming was because of the cold! Cold weather and snow the week before kept people away from Johannesburg. Now, how laughable can you get? That’s the kind of thing that they’re saying. Gore is just snake bit on this kind of stuff. We’ll have some comments from some of the ‘artists,’ like Cameron Diaz urging people to take showers together. I’d take a shower with her, but not for global warming, and that would be it. I’m outta there. In New Jersey, over the Meadowlands, there was a plane carrying a banner that said, ‘Don’t believe Al Gore.’ (laughs) People are not buying this, for some reason. It’s probably the power of me, the man running America, who made this a singular crusade.
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RUSH: An interesting move that John Dingell is going to make. The New York Times had the story on Saturday. ‘Counting on Failure, Energy Chairman Floats Carbon Tax — A powerful House Democrat said on Friday that he planned to propose a steep new ‘carbon tax’ that would raise the cost of burning oil, gas and coal, in a move that could shake up the political debate on global warming. The proposal came from Representative John D. Dingell of Michigan, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and it runs directly counter to the view of most Democrats that any tax on energy would be a politically disastrous approach to slowing global warming.’ That’s not what they’re afraid of! They don’t want to propose any massive new tax increases right now before the election. Raising taxes is specifically what global warming is all about. That’s how you and I are to be punished for the ‘sins’ that we have committed in causing climate change and planetary destruction.
Now, Mr. Dingell ‘suggested that his goal was to show that Americans are not willing to face the real cost of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. His message appeared to be that Democratic leaders were setting unrealistic legislative goals. ‘I sincerely doubt that the American people will be willing to pay what this is really going to cost them,’ said Mr. Dingell, whose committee will be drafting a broad bill on climate change this fall. ‘I will be introducing in the next little bit a carbon tax bill, just to sort of see how people think about this,’ he continued. ‘When you see the criticism I get, I think you’ll see the answer to your question.’ The idea behind a carbon tax is to provide an incentive to reduce the use of fossil fuels like oil and coal, which are loaded with carbon, and increase the use of cleaner, renewable fuels like solar power, wind and…’ None of those are going to matter. This is all bogus. There’s a little something going on behind the scenes here that the New York Times doesn’t reference, but I, with my superior, highly trained broadcast specialist memory will remind you that Nancy Pelosi created a special global warming committee and left Dingell off of it, and Dingell was a little miffed about that. (paraphrasing Pelosi) ‘We already have enough committees that deal with this. We have my committee to deal with this. We don’t need a new one.’
Pelosi did it for show, and maybe to sort of ace Dingell out. So there’s a bunch of little things going on with this, but he’s going to propose a massive carbon tax that nobody will support for the express purpose of proving that it won’t work. I don’t care what the New York Times says about Democrats don’t think taxes are the way to deal with global warming (laughing), that’s just irresponsible. That’s journalistic malpractice. Of course they do. They can’t wait to sunset the tax cuts that Bush inaugurated, and they can’t wait to raise taxes — which actually letting his tax cut sunset and die is the equivalent of a tax increase, if they’re not made permanent, and they want to even raise the capital gains rate from 15 to 20, maybe even 25%. The Times nevertheless says here that ‘most Democrats are staunchly opposed,’ to Dingell’s idea, ‘saying that a [carbon] tax would raise the costs of travel, commuting and heating and cooling homes, and that it would be wildly unpopular at a time when voters are already angry about high energy costs. Republicans, they said, would seize on any such proposal as proof that Democrats were bent on raising taxes and increasing the size of government,’ which they are. It’s in their DNA. That’s not even arguable. It’s undeniable.
Raise taxes? That’s what they live to do — and not to raise revenue, but to control you, to control as much of your life as possible. But, look, here we’ve got this big global warming move going on out there, which I really do think is dying a slow death. I think it may actually be blowing up. The numbers for NBC Saturday night, primetime, they had three hours of coverage of Live Earth, were dismal, but it’s so preliminary, let me use my highly trained broadcast specialist skills because I understand ratings numbers. Let me… All right. This is the Hollywood Reporter: an estimated 2.7 million viewers for Live Earth on NBC Saturday night. Folks, that translates to a rating here of a 1.8 rating four share. Fox won the night with a 3.60. These numbers are so low, I don’t know if these are total audience or numbers in the demographic. But either way, it’s horrendous. The demographics, 25-54, that’s the demographic they’re shooting for — well, maybe 18-54, 18-34. But regardless whether it’s total audience or in the demo, it’s pathetic. They came in third place. A rock concert, Saturday night, save the earth and all that! So global warming, I think we’ve helped beat it back. We’re not going to stop, either, but I don’t want to wear you out on it so we’re not going to be talking about it all the time.
But this line here that ‘a carbon tax would raises the cost of travel and commuting’? Isn’t that what all these wacko environmentalists have been demanding? They want high fuel prices. They should be happy the gas price is going back up. They should be happy to support a carbon tax. Because they think we need to be driving less we need to be commuting less. We all need to be riding around in these stupid, inadequate light rail systems, ugly little beasts, pointless little beasts; that we ought to be doing all this conservation. We ought to be building windmills and putting solar panels on the roof. Isn’t that what they want us to do? Now all of a sudden Dingell is going to raise the tax and we’ll get it done, and Democrats are running for the hills on this? I guarantee you this: if global warming had taken hold and it was something the American people were steadfastly in support of, then this would be something everybody would not be afraid of. But the fact that the Democrats realize a tax increase right now, a called-for tax increase — especially on energy — would not be politically opportune… See, this is the kind of stuff where I guarantee you somebody is going to take Dingell back behind the cloakroom door and go, Whack! Whack!
‘John, John, John, this is the kind of stuff we do two months after we win the White House. We don’t do this a year and a half before the election. We do this when we win the White House, John. What are you doing?’
‘Well, you took my committee away from me.’
It’s fun to watch some of this. The point is the Democrats are not in all this steadfast unity at all. Now, let’s say that the Republicans were in the House. Let’s say that — take your pick — any Republican committee chairman of the same committee, proposed the same thing, carbon tax increase just to show the American people are unwilling to do what it takes. The headlines would not be ‘Counting on Failure, Energy Chairman Floats Carbon Tax.’ The headline of the New York Times would something along the lines of, ‘Carbon Tax Proposed Would Devastate the Elderly, Especially in the Northeast.’ Women and minorities would be hardest hit. Nobody would be able to get to work. No matter where they live it would be horrible news. This piece simply analyzes whether the timing is right (laughing), when it’s the Democrats proposing it.
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Scott Rasmussen of Rasmussen Reports: ‘The Live Earth concert promoted by former vice president Algore received lots of media coverage and hype, but most Americans tuned out. Just 22% said that they followed news reports about the concert somewhat or very closely; 75% didn’t follow coverage of the event.’ Folks, this is bigger than you know, worldwide rock concerts. You know, rock concerts in troubling political times are maggots for every anti-establishment cause that the kooks that believe in these things hold, and they didn’t try to take over and make it an anti-war message, and it just fizzled. It bombed. NBC had barely 2.7 million viewers on Saturday night. That’s in the neighborhood of Fox News on cable! It was a total stiff. ‘By way of comparison, 80%, eight in ten voters routinely said that they were following news coverage of the Senate debate over immigration; 54% said they followed news coverage of the president’s decision to commute Scooter Libby’s sentence.’ Seventy-five percent did not follow coverage of Live Earth, and I’m not surprised, because we didn’t spend much time on it here, and some of the morning shows — Good Morning America and the Today show — did the obligatory stuff with Gore on, but it just didn’t captivate people.
As I mentioned earlier, the lowest attendance I think was in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the low attendance there was blamed on cold! The concert organizer said, ‘Extremely cold weather kept people away from the concert.’ Extremely cold weather keeping the people away from a global warming concert! Now, the global warming people, they’re going to be changing this. They’re going to get rid of ‘global warming,’ if they can. They’re going to make it ‘climate change,’ because if they say ‘climate change,’ then they’ll be able to say that any (which they already do) extreme weather — hot, cold, dry, whatever it is — is because of ‘climate change,’ global warming. Then there’s a great quote from Georgie Simpson from Ipswich in eastern England, who was at the Wembley Stadium Live Earth. ”I’m not even sure who Gore is,’ said Georgie Simpson, 35. ‘I saw Gore on TV,’ said Sue Bourner, 38, a health service manager from Hampshire, ‘But, frankly, I think it’s the pretty cheeky of Americans to come over here to Britain and lecture us. They are the worst polluters.” So the people are going to Wembley, and they get mad at Gore for coming over and preaching to the Brits about global warming! (laughing) Here’s Gore, introducing the concert’s kickoff in Sydney, Australia.
ALGORE: Hello, Sydney!
AUDIENCE: (silence)
ALGORE: I’m excited to join you live to kick off Live Earth. You are the very first of two billion people who are coming together today on all seven continents to help solve the climate crisis — and, of course, we’re all here to launch a multiyear campaign of action. I hope you will take the first step by signing Live Earth’s seven-point pledge.
RUSH: Whoa! The Live Earth seven point pledge! I wonder, what is that?
ALGORE: ‘I pledge to demand that my country join an international treaty within the next two years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide, in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth. I pledge to take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution and offsetting the rest to become carbon neutral. I pledge to fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without safely trapping and storing the CO2. I pledge to work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency —
RUSH: Stop the tape! Remember, now… You gotta remember who the audience is. Gore’s out there on stage, and you have a bunch of long-haired, maggot-infested, dope-smoking, FM-types out there just wanting to rock on, and here’s this dull, dry, old guy trying to look young in a black T-shirt and blue jeans, going through this seven-point pledge!
ALGORE: — of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation. I pledge to fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal. I pledge to plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests, and I pledge to buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the Twenty-First Century.
RUSH: (laughing) this is indescribable. This is just hilarious. By the way, a little weather update here from Jakarta, Indonesia: ‘Poisonous fumes from an Indonesian volcano killed six school children who were camping on the mountain and sickened several others, a doctor said yesterday. The incident happened Saturday, close to one of the two craters on the Salak volcano which lies just south of the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. Families of the victims refused permission to perform autopsies.’ We need to ban this. Volcanic fumes kill six children in Indonesia! That’s immediate death. We need to ban this volcanic Fumes. They Kill — and then you just heard Gore say that they need to sign this treaty that ‘cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide, in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth.’ I have a column here, and it’s an opinion from Kampala in Africa. The website is AllAfrica.com, and this is an editorial piece by Kofi Bentil, and it’s in a newspaper called The Monitor: ‘It’s Live Earth Versus Africa.’ I’m not going to read the whole thing, but some of this is classic.
‘Few people in Africa will get to see Al Gore and his troupe of rock-star ecologists strutting their stuff during the series of Live Earth concerts this weekend — because most have neither television nor electricity. That’s just as well, because they would be aghast at LiveEarth’s bizarre message. In Africa, we have much more serious things to worry about than climate change. Indeed, if they achieve their objective the concerts will have done harm to the people of Africa. Britain’s former Secretary of State for the Environment, David Miliband, recently said that the rest of the world cannot aspire to the UK’s standard of living because: ‘If the world were to have the same living standards as we have in the UK, then we’d need three planets to support us.’ Presumably Mr Miliband would disagree with Indira Ghandi, who famously said, ‘poverty is the greatest polluter.’ Miliband was replaced by Hilary Benn, who as Minister for International Development ran the Department for International Development (DfID). One might have thought that [that department] would have supported economic development as a means of escaping from poverty and pollution.
‘But in its Rough Guide to a Better World it advocates ‘Development by Dung’ and claims that ‘As poor countries develop, it is essential that they do not follow the same failed patterns of energy use.’ So it’s dung not diesel for Africa — while India and China soar ahead because they are too big, and nuclear-armed, to stop. Even if we accept that global warming may have a significant effect on our climate, limiting the use of fossil fuels in Africa would be counterproductive. Respiratory infections are the leading cause of childhood deaths on my continent, mainly from inhaling the smoke produced by burning wood and dung in our quaint mud huts. Why do we burn these ‘renewable’ but very dirty fuels? Not because we have some desire to save the Earth. No, sir. It is because we don’t have access to natural gas or electricity. The second leading cause of childhood deaths is not malaria or AIDS, it is diarrhoea [sic], caused by drinking dirty water. Why is our water dirty? Mainly because we lack cheap, efficient means of pumping and cleaning it. That requires fossil fuels — either directly or to produce electricity,’ and the world doesn’t want Africa to have any of that. ‘An underlying cause of many health problems in Africa is malnutrition. This is a consequence both of inefficient farming and poor food distribution. To rectify this situation will mean using cheap and relatively clean fuels, such as gasoline and diesel,’ but if Live Earth were ever to succeed, we would never be able to do that. We would have to continue burning dung and wood! It’s a great piece.
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