Posted on 04/13/2009 4:53:51 PM PDT by GOP_Lady
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In Praise of President Obama’s Cool Hand, Bravery and Brilliance
April 13, 2009
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I want to single out today, Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online for being the first that I saw to have the proper reaction to the rescue of Captain Phillips from the merchant marine organizers, and that was to congratulate President Obama for a job well done. And I think we all must agree, folks, that when Obama does something right, we gotta go out there and we’ve got to acknowledge it. We gotta say he did a great job, and we’ve gotta be open-minded to the fact that Obama’s going to do some good things, and so Jonah Goldberg leading the way here in showing us how this is done. There have been others to jump on this bandwagon. I would like to not only jump on the bandwagon of praising President Obama for a brilliant rescue, not only a plan but its execution, I don’t think the Navy had that much to do with it. Were Obama not in the White House, who knows, this might still be going on, we might have had some unfortunate American deaths. But we are blessed with President Obama and his administration, their cool hand. In fact, let’s go back to this program last Friday. This is what I predicted on this program.
RUSH ARCHIVE: This is eventually going to get solved one way or the other. The standoff between the United States and the merchant marine organizers from Somalia will get solved. I want to predict to you the headline. Well, maybe not the headline, but the first words in the story will be something like this: “Thanks to the cool hand of President Obama,” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
RUSH: So actually, folks, I was first. I predicted congratulations for President Obama because I, as an American, was confident this was going to get settled, it was going to be resolved one way or the other, and regardless how, President Obama was going to be given credit for it, and so Jonah Goldberg was the first that I saw at National Review Online, but there have been others who have jumped on the bandwagon, but I was first ‘cause I predicted on Friday that this would happen and that President Obama would be seen as the great rescuer. In fact, ladies and gentlemen, George Stephanopoulos was told by a senior administration official, as was USA Today, that this would make a great movie. This would make a fabulous movie. Which, of course, when an Obama administration official tells Stephanopoulos on ABC, who is this Obama administration official leaking all this? Deep Parrot, maybe? They tell the Drive-Bys, the way this is going to get played, “Oh, yeah, this is going to be a great movie.” Well, you know, Hollywood’s going to pick up on this and make a great movie.
I have a preliminary idea here on the movie that will be made by Hollywood that will immortalize this brilliant episode in American foreign policy led by President Obama. We don’t have a working title of this movie. I’m been thinking about President Obama turns on Somali counterparts. The merchant marine organizers, the Somali version of ACORN, and yet President Obama rose to the occasion and saw to it that the Somali merchant marine organizers would not get away with the same tactics that domestic American organizers get away with. Do you realize the Somali pirates — one way to look at this, the Somali pirates tried to hold us up for $2 million ransom for the captain, Mr. Phillips. The Beltway pirates are looking for $10 trillion from the United States and her people, and even if we pony up the $10 trillion ransom demanded by the Beltway pirates, they still wouldn’t release us. We would still be held captive. So the Somali pirates, the merchant marine organizers, I know three of them are dead, but that’s a small price to pay for advancing the notion that the Obama administration is quick and decisive and cool and can handle foreign policy emergencies (snapping fingers) like that.
So who would play President Obama in this movie? Only one actor comes to mind at the top of my head, and that would be Will Smith. I thought about maybe Danny Glover. I thought about Morgan Freeman, a little bit too old. Will Smith would be ideal to portray Obama. Who would portray the leader of the Navy SEALs that got the orders from Obama’s sharpshooter czar to take out the merchant marine organizers? Well, again, Will Smith as Barack Obama portraying the SEAL leader that shot the three Somali pirates. By the way, the captain is the one who made this possible. The captain jumped overboard, thereby exposing his naked targets, the four Somali merchant marine organizers. So you have President Obama portrayed by Will Smith, the SEAL leader in this movie that Hollywood will make will also be portrayed by Will Smith as Obama. The captain, Mr. Phillips also portrayed by Will Smith, as President Obama, for jumping over and risking his own life so that President Obama could get the credit for ordering his rescue czar after consulting with the sharpshooter czar to take out the three merchant marine organizers and then capturing the one remaining and bringing him to trial as a criminal.
The pirates, somebody has to play the pirates. We’re going to put more than four on this ship in our Hollywood movie because, ladies and gentlemen, this was dramatic. This could only be done by someone with the resolve and the cool hand of President Obama. So we’re going to put five or six, maybe seven pirates on this lifeboat. The pirates will be portrayed by Sarah Palin, Eric Cantor, Mitt Romney, Bobby Jindal, me, and Mike Pence. We will portray the Somali pirates. We will also have been found, those of us who are portraying the pirates, after President Obama, acting as the SEAL leader portrayed by Will Smith finally boards lifeboat where the captain, President Obama, has jumped off the boat so that the sharp shooters czar could give orders to the naval sea leader, President Obama, to fire the shots, the bounty on board the pirate lifeboat will be discovered to be none other than tea, good old-fashioned tea, ladies and gentlemen. And President Obama with the foresight, recognizing as the SEAL leader after boarding the lifeboat, realizes they’re carrying a cargo load of tea instructs everybody not to toss it overboard because there are cameras there.
So the tea confiscated, as are pirates played by me, Sarah Palin, Eric Cantor, Mitt Romney, Bobby Jindal, and Mike Pence. So there you have it. That’s just the start of our movie. Again, we’re working on a working title for this. But we’re going to have to cast the rescue czar. I think maybe the rescue czar could be Harry Reid, and the sharpshooter czar, Nancy Pelosi. Not the sharpshooter. The rescue czar is the one who ordered President Obama to do the rescue. The sharpshooter czar is the one that’s Pelosi, who ordered the Navy SEAL leader, which would be President Obama, Will Smith portraying President Obama, to actually start firing the shots once they realized that a peaceful solution to this was not at hand. Then of course you have Deep Parrot as opposed to Deep Throat, Deep Parrot in the White House leaking all of this to the Drive-By Media so that reports of this successful, once in a lifetime, only Obama could have done it, for which he deserves our congratulations rescue, would produce reports like this last night on CNN with Bill Schneider.
SCHNEIDER: He handled it very well. This president has faced his first test, and I think from now on he is likely to be treated with a lot of respect in the world. The president was involved at every stage along the way. This was the first test for President Obama. The question has been hanging over his administration ever since he took office: “Is he tough enough for the job?” You heard that a lot from people around the world, from foreign leaders and diplomats. I kept hearing that question, “When has he really been tested?” Americans have always thought he was a tough guy, he’s cool under pressure, and he faced down two of the most formidable political operations in America, namely the Clinton machine and the Republican political machine. But that’s not enough for the diplomatic community. Now I think he’s met this first test quite well and he will derive great respect from it.
RUSH: This is the magic of Deep Parrot, the leaker in the White House. This could be anyone from Rahm Emanuel to David Axelrod leaking this administration effort to the stenographers in the Drive-By Media, producing reports such as that. Notice my prediction last Friday. He will be portrayed as cool and calm — and right there it was from Bill Schneider at CNN. Also reports like this have been produced. This morning on the Today Show, the news anchor, Amy Robach, was talking to NBC stenographer Chuck Todd about the rescue, and she asked him this question: “As you heard earlier, President Obama gave the Navy the go-ahead to take that necessary action.” Absolutely. And for this, folks, we must, I mean, when he does the right thing, we’ve gotta congratulate him, and we’ve gotta acknowledge him, we’ve gotta pick our spots here. So President Obama gave the Navy the go-ahead to take the necessary action. “Chuck, this was an unexpected challenge for the president.”
TODD: You know, it was, Amy, and the White House is very pleased because this wasn’t just a success for the Navy. The one thing this does highlight on a negative side for the administration is the fact that Somalia, which was a country that caused President Clinton his first negative story in the foreign policy world is still sitting there as a problem, problem state, which is where these pirates came from.
RUSH: Uhhh, wait a second here. Negative side for the administration is the fact that Somalia, which was a country that caused Clinton — what? Somalia was a country that caused Clinton his first negative story? Where were the negative stories? It took a book, Black Hawk Down. Where were the negative stories? What is Chuck Todd talking about here? I don’t remember the negative stories in the Drive-By Media about Clinton’s actions in Somalia. But anyway, it doesn’t matter, ladies and gentlemen, because the White House is very pleased here. It wasn’t just a success for the Navy. I had a friend of mine who is in Hawaii text messaging me last night, wanting to know — this person has the greatest respect for the SEALs, and said, “Boy, what a great, great rescue by the —” I said no, no, no, no. You’re missing the point. This is President Obama. President Obama did this. We must be honest with ourselves and give credit where it’s due. We just can’t be constant critics, as Jonah Goldberg has pointed out in National Review today, we must, when we see brilliance in action, decisiveness, the SEALs? Come on. Paid staff. SEALs couldn’t have done diddly-squat were it not for the decisive, cool under pressure, first test passed President Obama.
Look, the captain dove overboard, exposing the merchant marine organizers. Great heroics? No. Not whatsoever, folks. The heroics came from the White House. Look at it this way. Captain “Sully” Sullenberger, who landed safely in the Hudson River, great hero, right? Everybody agreed, what a hero, what a great guy. The captain, he will be portrayed as a hero, there’s no question. But this time, President Obama was the copilot, in a sense. There’s even more. What a great day for America, folks, all because of the decisive action of President Obama. It happened on his watch. We gotta give him credit. The White House is dishing it out, telling us how it went down. We’d be fools to deny this. We need to buy our tickets for the movie in advance. When’s the last time you have heard the Drive-By Media or anybody on the American left actually praise the US military? Here’s Harry Smith on CBS this morning.
SMITH: A lot of people around the world got good news yesterday when we found out captain Richard Phillips was safe and on board the USS Bainbridge. We’ll have a lot more on that in just a couple of seconds.
CHEN: Yeah, Sunday was a good day for the good guys.
RUSH: Oh, yeah, good day for the good guys. We haven’t had good guys in eight years, but the US military, oh, man, we love ‘em now. This is absolutely fabulous and wonderful. It’s kind of like Ron Silver before he became a conservative. Remember at the weeklong festivities prior to Bill Clinton’s inauguration they were practicing flybys with US military jets and Ron Silver got mad, “What the hell are those jets doing here at our inauguration?” Somebody jabbed him and said, “Ron, those are our jets now.” Well, as Harry Smith and Julie Chen point out, those are our Navy SEALs now. It’s a great day, folks. Thank you, President Obama, for a brilliant act of decisiveness and military leadership. We are grateful.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I realize there are some who are still obstinate and stubborn here, unwilling to openly admit what happened — and that is that this crisis was solved brilliantly, single-handedly by the Obama administration. Well, by Obama, not even the administration. He had help from the rescue czar and the sharpshooter czar — and I’m told, by the way, that the sharpshooter czar was told by Obama he could go ahead and pick his ammunition and pick his weapons. So President Obama had pure confidence in the sharpshooter czar, in this case portrayed in the movie by Nancy Pelosi. Now, even though it is ridiculous here to try to cast this in any other light, other than the heroic actions of our brave new president, President Obama, there are still naysayers. And it’s very sad to me to see this.
We need to come together as a nation. For example, the crew of the Maersk, the crew of the ship is actually saying — in a most unappreciative manner, I must add — they’re saying that the SEALs didn’t arrive soon enough, that they were under attack for over a week, and they were hoping and praying the SEALs and the Navy would show up sooner, but they didn’t show up for over a week. The crew on the Maersk, with audacity unparalleled, is now claiming that... They’re trying to throw cold water here on the rescue event. I frankly am wondering: Should we, in this era of economic crisis...? Look at all of the money and look at the manpower that this brilliant rescue cost. Should the company, should Maersk have to pay for the costs of this rescue.
Because, you know, we’ve got an economic revival going. We’ve got an economic revival to start. We have an infrastructure to build! We have people that don’t have jobs and they’re losing jobs left and right, 600,000 jobs a month. We’ve got debt piling upon debt, piling upon debt. And I think it would be a patriotic thing to do for the crew — for the company, Maersk — to pay for this rescue. Either that or the Obama administration should take over the company, and then get new routes so that the ships in the fleet do not face threats anymore from the Somali merchant marine organizers — and then, more problems for the Obama administration, in a rogue piece from the Associated Press. I’m stunned that this one got printed. I’m saddened at the Associated Press over this. A brilliant rescue that the world is coming together to support, including all Americans, and then we get this drivel from the Associated Press.
“The killing of three [merchant marine organizers] from Somalia sparked concern for other hostages and fear that the stakes have been raised for future hijackings.” So, yes, this is the same operative theory that the left and the Drive-Bys used in Iraq, that by actually going to Iraq, we created more terrorists, that we created more hatred for the United States. And here’s AP, in the midst of this brilliant action by our young and brave president, suggesting that taking action to save the life of the captain, is now gonna create more pirates, more merchant marine organizers. It’s going to increase anger against the United States. “Sunday’s rescue of Captain Richard Phillips followed a shoot-out at sea on Friday by French Navy commandos...” See? They can’t even give our own guys credit. AP can’t even give our own guys! It was the “French Navy commandos who stormed the pirate sailboat, killed a couple pirates, and freed four French hostages.” This is a disgrace the way AP is handling this.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s more from the AP story, ladies and gentlemen, which is throwing cold water on the brilliant heroics of President Obama. By the way, this story from AP is from Malaysia. It’s not written here in the United States, which means that the Deep Parrot, the leaker in the White House, was not able to get to all branches of the Drive-By Media. “The US rescue operation ‘might be dangerous (for) the remaining hostages,” and there are other hostages. This is from Vilma de Guzman, the wife of Filipino seafarer Ruel de Guzman, who has been held by the pirates since November 10th. She worried that “the pirates might vent their anger” on him and his compatriots. “So far, Somali pirates have never harmed captive foreign crews except for a Taiwanese crew member who was killed under unclear circumstances. In fact, many former hostages say they were treated well and given sumptuous food.”
So the AP is trying to create the impression that there was no need for this drastic action, that we coulda just boarded the boat. We could have waterboarded the pirates! We coulda done any number of things to find out the truth and so forth. But shoot ‘em dead? Now we just created more problems ‘cause the pirates are going to go recruit more pirates, and the pirates that are recruited and the pirates that are still there are going to be angry as they can be. We’ve just made ‘em madder. That’s the take of the Associated Press, no matter what this brilliant, brave president does, it just seems there are elements of the American population and media establishment that will never be happy, will never be satisfied, will never be able to recognize the brilliance of this young man in less than his first hundred days in office. Here is President Obama himself on the merchant marine organizer crisis this afternoon at the Department of Transportation.
OBAMA: I want to take a moment to say how pleased I am about the rescue of Captain Phillips and his safe return to the US (applause) this weekend. Uh, his safety has been our principal concern — concern, uh, and in this came as a welcome relief to his family and — and his crew. I had a chance to talk to his wife yesterday, and as she put it, uh, she couldn’t imagine, uh, a better Easter, uh, than seeing his, uh — his safe return. And I am very proud of the efforts of the US military and many other departments and agencies that worked tirelessly to resolve this situation. Uh, I share our nation’s admiration for Captain Phillips’, uh, courage and leadership and selfless concern for his crew.
RUSH: You hear that? See, this is great humility on the part our young president. He knows these people had nothing to do with it. This is all his operation. This was all his leadership. This is all him giving the order after the result of a week of careful and cool, calm deliberation on this. But he’s willing to share the credit with others. We gotta give Obama credit when he is deserved credit. He had a warning, though, for other pirates.
OBAMA: I want to be very clear, uh, that we are resolved to halt the rise of privacy (sic), uh, in that region. And to achieve that goal, we’re going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks. We have to continue to be prepared to confront them when they arise, and we have to ensure that those who commit acts of piracy are held accountable for their crimes.
RUSH: Well, who can argue with that? “Hold ‘em accountable.” Now, see, if they’re caught in the battlefield in Iraq or Afghanistan, it’s a different matter. We’re not going to hold ‘em accountable. We’re going to release them and so forth because that was an unjust war. But here we’ve got these pirates, these merchant marine organizers, we’re going to hold ‘em accountable even if we have to shoot ‘em! Now, I want you to play this again, ‘cause I think he misspoke here in a humorous way. This is the first sentence, replay it.
OBAMA: I want to be very clear, uh, that we are resolved to halt the rise of privacy —
RUSH: Yeah, stop the tape. “Privacy.” We’re going to “halt the rise of privacy.” He had a minor — you know, he had — he had a brain blip, folks, or was it a faux pas? “I want to be very clear, uh, that we are resolved to halt the rise of privacy in that region, and to achieve the goal that we’re going to have to continue to work with our partners to prevent future attacks.” The fact is, we didn’t work with partners on this. President Obama did it all...by...himself. To the phones. People want to weigh in on this. We’ll go to Timberlake, North Carolina and start there. This is John. Great to have you on the program, sir.
CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush.
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: Longtime listener since the very, very first day you went on the air, and a past advertiser when my wife had a business as well.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: I told your call screener, when the show started I thought that the approach that you were taking — although I’d have to agree, especially in the last segment — is an opportunity to say that Barack Obama did the right thing in letting the people who knew how to do this, not him — and that may be what you’re trying to come up with, and I’m missing it. But I don’t think that he, by saying he didn’t do anything, that it’s going to convince anybody, even though the Drive-Bys are saying that he might be causing a problem.
RUSH: (sigh)
CALLER: He might very well be causing a problem, but didn’t all the Democrat presidents cause a problem by their inaction over time?
RUSH: That’s exactly my point.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: Here we have a Democrat who didn’t wait. Here we had a Democrat did the right thing. He coolly and calmly studied this and then ordered action to be taken. I’m sure the SEALs could have moved in sooner. I’m sure the SEALs could have done what they did. But they had to wait for the order from their leader, their commander-in-chief and he gave that order. I don’t know how you could possibly disagree with me on this.
CALLER: I’m not disagreeing with you. I said in the beginning, I may have missed the direction you were going, and then in last segment I agreed with you totally. But I thought —
RUSH: Good Lord.
CALLER: — that the —
RUSH: Good Lord.
CALLER: Huh?
RUSH: Nothing, nothing, nothing. I didn’t mean to interrupt.
CALLER: No. I — I — I — I agree with you what you’re saying and —
RUSH: Uh-huh.
CALLER: — I think that by giving him an op — or a continued jab — in fact, may make it just, uh, the lightest thing that he did was say, “Yeah, he really didn’t know much about it to begin with, and he gave...”
RUSH: I didn’t say that!
CALLER: No, I know that, I know. I said I disagreed in the beginning and as it went further and further —
RUSH: What was...?
CALLER: — while on hold —
RUSH: (whispers) Damn it.
CALLER: — I guess I —
RUSH: What was at the beginning that you disagreed with?
CALLER: Well, I — I suspect I missed the point of giving him credit for any of it. (laughing) So I don’t know.
RUSH: You didn’t miss it. You heard it. But you wanted to take issue with me with how much credit he should get. That’s the point all right, John. I appreciate it. John, I’m glad you called. How do you pronounce this? I never... What it is? Saugus? Saugus. Saugus, Massachusetts. David, welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: (chuckles) Yes, Rush. Today’s Boston Globe, the headline: “Navy Kills Three Pirates to Save US Captain.” I just thought it was terrible. I mean, if the Navy saved the US captain, I don’t think it has to say that it kills people, three pirates. It just seems, you know, to me it seems —
RUSH: You gotta understand the Boston Globe has been threatened to be shut down by the New York Times —
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: — unless they all make salary concessions of course, up to $20 million — maybe it’s billion. I guess it’s 20 million, whatever the number is.
CALLER: Whatever the number is.
RUSH: The Boston Globe is trying to do something here to save itself, and you can’t blame ‘em if they want to go a little extreme. By the way, what’s stream by saying the Navy shot three community organizers? The only thing wrong with that is they leave Obama out of the headline.
CALLER: It just says “kills three pirates.” The Navy took a stand and did something. It didn’t kill those people had the choice.
RUSH: Are the pirates dead?
CALLER: We believe them to be.
RUSH: If they’re dead, they were killed.
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Because they didn’t jump overboard.
CALLER: Well, we don’t know that for sure, either.
RUSH: Well, President Obama reported that they’re dead and that under his order this all happened. See, people still can’t come to grips with this. Mike, San Antonio, Texas, you’re next with Rush Limbaugh. Hello.
CALLER: Mega retired Air Force dittos, Rush.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Hey, I’m just wondering. How long do you think it will be before some Democratic subcommittee holds these three SEALs up to explain their actions?
RUSH: Well...
CALLER: I mean, if waterboarding a terrorist is so terrible, wouldn’t executing a pirate be even worse?
RUSH: No, there’s less torture in killing, because it happens instantly and there’s hardly any pain. So as far as the Obama administration is concerned, killing them is an act of kindness, because there’s no torture involved. Now, one thing you say is that this is going to make people angrier. You know, in Mogadishu, US congressman Donald Payne — who is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus — is on some kind of fact-finding tour, and today it was reported that land-based Somali pirates launched mortar fire at his location. He was unhurt. This sort of puzzled me. I don’t know why community organizers in Somalia would fire on a fellow community organizer from the United States like Congressman Payne. For all they know they could like the guy, if they just had a sit-down with him.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, as you all know, on Sunday, the US military ended the pirate hostage crisis very much alone on the brilliant orders of command and execution by President Obama, and yet on Saturday, on the White House’s YouTube channel, President Obama gave his weekly address. Here’s a portion of what he said.
OBAMA: This idea that we’re all bound up, as Martin Luther King once said, in a single garment of destiny is a lesson of all the world’s great religions. And it never has been more important for us to reaffirm that lesson than it is today.
RUSH: Yeah.
OBAMA: At a time when we face tests and trials unlike any that we’ve seen in our time.
RUSH: Oh, yeah, unlike anything.
OBAMA: These are challenges that no single nation, no matter how powerful, can confront alone.
RUSH: Except you.
OBAMA: Our best chance to solve these unprecedented problems —
RUSH: Right.
OBAMA: — comes from acting in concert with other nations.
RUSH: Right.
OBAMA: It’s only by working together that we will finally defeat twenty-first century security threats, like Al-Qaeda.
RUSH: And yet when push came to shove, when the pedal hit the metal, when the rubber hit the road, to hell with the UN, to hell with the French, to hell with working with anybody else, President Obama single-handedly solved the piracy situation over there in the horn of Africa. What are we to make of this, that the Saturday speech meant nothing, it was just PR because when it comes down to nut-cracking time, you do it yourself, as President Obama did. And he deserves praise. Jonah Goldberg at National Review was first to point out, he does the right thing, we gotta say so. Let’s go back. Let’s go back last Thursday, CNN, Anderson Cooper’s 360, Anderson Cooper speaking with former Clinton White House advisor David “Rodham” Gergen. Cooper said, “Pressure like this, extraordinary on our young president, but we got word the president’s also talking about tackling immigration this year. We’ve asked this before, but it seems more important now than ever. Is our young president trying to do too much?”
GERGEN: I don’t think he’s trying to do too much on the international front. I question whether they need to get him up in the middle of the night to tell him things when, you know, we knew the Iranian — I mean the North Korean test was coming, for example. I don’t think you have to get him up for pirates or something like that. I think those things can be handled in the morning. And the pirate question, Anderson, using Hillary Clinton out front and not Barack Obama —
COOPER: He didn’t want to — He didn’t want to take questions on it.
GERGEN: Yeah, I thought that was very smart. He doesn’t want to get in the middle of this. It’s messy, you know, the — the — a man’s life is at stake and it’s extremely important how we handle that. But he doesn’t want to micromanage that situation. That’s what he’s got a government for.
RUSH: Showing you that David “Rodham” Gergen still doesn’t get it, even though he’s on the White House leak list, because Obama did single-handedly deal with this. We’ve learned this from the Drive-By Media since yesterday afternoon, and “Rodham” Gergen said he shouldn’t get his hands dirty with this, didn’t want to get involved with this, didn’t approach the level of presidential importance. Hillary Clinton can be out in front of this. I haven’t heard where the secretary of state was on this. Thank God for President Obama not listening to David “Rodham” Gergen. To Westchester, New York, this is Deborah. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi. I just wanted to let you know this is a call of encouragement to not be discouraged, that most of us out here do understand sarcasm. We do understand what you’re saying.
RUSH: What do you mean, don’t be discouraged? Who’s discouraged?
CALLER: Well, sometimes people don’t get what you’re doing. For example, the very nice gentleman that called before that has been listening to you from day one who doesn’t seem to quite get what you’re doing.
RUSH: I think he was just confused. I was able to straighten him out toward the end of the call.
CALLER: You think so?
RUSH: Well, I gave it my best, which is all anybody can ask for in our self-esteem society.
CALLER: Sometimes that’s when you say —
RUSH: Well, you praise the effort, not the result. And I gave it everything I had.
CALLER: All right, but most of us understand, you know, what’s going on.
RUSH: Wink-wink. I appreciate it.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: If you saw my e-mail, you would not be comforted. (laughing) Deborah, thanks for the call, I appreciate it very much. Let me tell you what bothers me about this, since I have been open in my praise, since I have agreed with Jonah Goldberg that we need to bite the bullet, praise President Obama when he does the right thing. What really bothers me with the way this brilliant rescue, performed by the Navy SEALs, really bothers me the way this is being reported. I love that captain. I love the Navy SEALs. I love the US military. This is a spectacular success, and the timing on Easter Sunday could not have been better. It was a great day yesterday. This was an event that everybody was very proud of. That being said, I have a low-grade depression that underlies all this, as I expose myself to this puking reporting by the Drive-By Media. Politico, New York Times, Washington Post have chosen the headline: Obama Saves Day, giving Obama all the credit for this. I know why Obama’s being tied to this as if he is the lead and the man who made it all happen and not the heroes who were directly involved.
This result, this wonderful result, folks, is going to result in raising Obama’s approval ratings. That’s what all of this is about. It will result in a series of stories about bravery and military success, with Obama as the key player. These approval numbers that will result from this reporting will be used as proof, or as Lanny Davis would say, poof, that Americans are totally on board for Obama’s liberty depleting domestic power grabs. While we’re all celebrating the end of the day for these Somali pirates, we still have to deal with the Beltway pirates who are looking to take $10 trillion from us over the next few generations. That’s going to be done with high approval ratings generated by this kind of puking reporting. Of course lets socialize medicine. Look at Obama’s approval numbers. Of course we’ll have card check and cap and trade down the road. Look at Obama’s approval. You haven’t seen his approval ratings? The American people want everything they can get from this guy.
I don’t care, they can report that Obama took out all three criminals on his own, they can say whatever they want, but this incredible demonstration of bravery and skill by the military is going to be used to advance a domestic agenda, including the gutting of the military. While all the military gets praised to heaven here, guess what’s happening in Washington? The military budget is being cut. These heroes are being and will be used to advance a domestic agenda of hard leftism. Returning Captain Phillips’ liberty will be used to take away portions of ours.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: To the phones. This is Patrick in Lima, Ohio. Thank you for waiting, sir. Great to have you here.
CALLER: Well, I was just wanting to make a comment —
RUSH: Patrick could you speak up there? I can hardly hear you.
CALLER: Okay. I said I just wanted to make a comment. You’ve been praising Obama with your sarcastic — saying he made this big decision to give the orders — all he did was basically give an order to shoot if the situation concluded where —
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait a second. Sarcasm, saying he made this big decision to give the orders to shoot, all he did was give an order to shoot. That’s what I said, and ABC News reported at the top of the hour, Obama gave the order to shoot.
CALLER: That’s the only thing he did, though. You’re making it sound like, oh, between the media and everybody else, it was his major job, the Navy did their job, everybody did their little job, even the captain that was captured did his job. He allowed the shooters to be able to shoot the victim, call ‘em victims since they were pirates, that way — I mean he can’t be too interactive, I mean that’s why there is a military. I mean yeah, it’s not their job to police the waters and everything else, but these ships don’t carry guns or ammos, and if they start putting them on, then they have to be inspected at every port in which they go. All we’re doing, we’re not like the other countries paying out ransom money to terrorists. You can call ‘em pirates, you can call ‘em terrorists —
RUSH: Exactly right. I don’t understand what your beef with me is. This was President Obama’s show. And the Drive-By Media is saying so. He gave the order to shoot. Can you tell me at what point did George Bush order any snipers to fire in Iraq or Afghanistan?
CALLER: They ordered them into Afghanistan —
RUSH: Of course he ordered them in there, but I want to know, when did George Bush call up Petraeus and say, have Private First Class Schultz fire. When did that happen? We’ve got an active commander-in-chief like we’ve never had before. He’s giving the shooting orders. I mean, not even Lyndon Johnson ordered specific people to fire. Obama has done it. You know, Johnson and McNamara might have ordered some bombing raids, but they didn’t call the pilot and say, “Drop ‘em now.” You just said it, he ordered the SEALs to shoot.
RUSH: If the man was in danger, not until he was in danger. They were trying to resolve it peacefully. The pirates were wanting their money —
RUSH: That’s what you say.
CALLER: The US does not give money up —
RUSH: That’s what —
CALLER: — to terrorists or pirates, whichever.
RUSH: That’s what you say, but the Drive-By Media is reporting — it was in the ABC News at top of the hour — Obama gave the order to shoot. He did not issue an order said, “Shoot when it’s okay.” He gave the order to shoot. That’s what they’re saying. We’ve got an active, involved commander-in-chief. He’s gonna get a medal for this. He’s going to have to award himself a medal for bravery and courage, maybe the Purple Heart. I want to be there at the White House when he presents himself with the Purple Heart. I want to see him present it to himself then turn around and have himself — may have the teleprompter put it on him. That would be a way to solve the problem. Patrick, thanks. Matt in Chicago, you’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hi —
RUSH: Hi.
CALLER: — Rush. Yeah. I just wanted to say that I thought the story about the guy from Ohio that wanted to be a pirate because it was a great business model —
RUSH: Yeah, now it’s blown to smithereens.
CALLER: — was not funny, though. I mean it’s like a stupid story and I think you’re upset because it worked out, mainly.
RUSH: Upset?
CALLER: The piracy thing.
RUSH: I’m not upset about anything.
CALLER: No, I think that you’re just rattled because it worked out.
RUSH: Oh, you’re so predictable.
CALLER: Nothing that the president does is going to make you happy, whether it’s good or not.
RUSH: How can you say this to me?
CALLER: If it’s bad —
RUSH: How can you say —
CALLER: If it didn’t work you would just be peeing yourself with joy.
RUSH: “If” is for children. I don’t deal with things that happened or didn’t happen.
CALLER: Well, what did happen turned out to be a good thing, and you’re upset about it.
RUSH: I’m not upset about it.
CALLER: Yes, you are.
RUSH: I was second out of the box telling people when he does the right thing we gotta — just like Jonah Goldberg said.
CALLER: And you are out of your mind. And I only check back —
RUSH: You are just —
CALLER: — just to make sure that you are still as crazy as I think you are.
RUSH: You know what?
CALLER: And you are, and you prove it every time I listen to you.
RUSH: You are a member of the incorrigible left. You’re the one that can’t be happy. You ought to be celebrating. You ought to be calling all the liberal blogs and saying, “Limbaugh gets it.” Instead you think I’m crazy. I’m praising President Obama and I’m outta my mind. And you think I’m sitting here all depressed and down in the dumps and so forth. People like you want to hear what you want to hear, based upon your prejudices and your judgment of things before they’ve ever happened. This just goes to show, no matter what you say, you cannot please the left. Out of my mind for praising the president. Stop and think of the power and the impact of that. Matt, thanks much. Roger in Conroe, Texas, you’re next on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hello. How are you today, Rush?
RUSH: Very well, sir. By the way, I think the guy that sent me the story from Ohio, he had a great pirate business model based on what a US naval commander said, and now Obama’s destroyed his great business trying to revive the US economy, I feel for the guy. He had a great business model that was acknowledged by a great leader of the United States, and now the United States has destroyed the business model, destroying the private sector once again. It’s a sad thing, I’m not laughing about it, what’s up, Roger?
CALLER: Well, my point is, while all these other countries have negotiated with the pirates, President Obama takes a strong, decisive presidential action, and it works, but whenever that happens, they’re going to draw anger from somebody. The first of which is pirates. And now they’re threatening to handle the hostages in the future harshly, perhaps kill them. I’m just wondering how we bring on all this anger on ourselves, how media and administration is going to handle it if they make good on those threats.
RUSH: Yeah, I addressed that in the first half hour. The AP has run a very disloyal story to President Obama on this, that the pirates are angry now, threatening death. They hadn’t killed anybody. They were just holding out for ransom. It’s going to recruit more pirates, too, AP in this very disloyal story said that this is simply going to recruit more pirates to the cause and that Obama’s actually shot himself in the foot here. But this AP report came from Malaysia, not Washington, so they didn’t get the steno report.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Greg in Chicago, you’re next. Great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Great Midwest trucker dittos, Maha Rushie. One point that I don’t think you’ve talked about yet concerning this military action ordered by President Obama —
RUSH: And planned.
CALLER: — is that now all those people that complained that he’s just another Jimmy Carter, now they can all say, “See, he acted.”
RUSH: So did Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter acted. The helicopters ended up in a dust storm, but Jimmy Carter acted. Jimmy Carter sent a rescue mission over there for the American hostages. What is meant by the Jimmy Carter comparison is economic malaise, which is coming.
CALLER: Oh, I understand that.
RUSH: You can’t spend all this money and go into this kind of debt with this amount of unemployment. You can’t have the federal government taking over this amount of the private sector and have a genuine economic recovery as envisioned by Obama. That’s what people mean when they compare Obama to Jimmy Carter.
CALLER: Oh, I understand that fully. But I guarantee somewhere down the line, the Drive-Bys, somebody will bring this point up, ignoring what you just mentioned about the whole Jimmy Carter fiasco of the eighties.
RUSH: I don’t expect the Drive-Bys to bring up Jimmy Carter. I expect Jimmy Carter maybe to chime in and say he approves of the efforts, that he lauds President Obama’s military strategic thinking and command of naval operations and because Jimmy Carter, of course, worked with Hyman Rickover. He worked on a nuclear sub. Jimmy Carter was in the Navy. I fully expect that praise to be forthcoming. Look, Jimmy Carter’s arguably the worst president in all of our lifetimes, times two, and he wins a Nobel prize! He wins a Nobel prize for criticizing George W. Bush. Look, Jimmy Carter is as much a victim of the self-esteem movement as any 20-year-old kid is today. The Democrat Party’s been telling him for the last ten years how wonderful and great he is, and he and his wife have believed it, and so did the Nobel committee, so he gets a prize here. But he’s still Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter is Jimmy Carter and there hasn’t been any change. The only thing he’s not doing that he used to do is pound nails in houses that are now starting to fall down for Habitat for Humanity. Jim in Cleveland, you’re next on the EIB Network, sir. Hi.
CALLER: Thanks, Rush. It’s a real honor. I was kind of amazed Friday and Saturday that we never heard a single word out of Obama about the situation, and then it resolved itself favorably, and all of a sudden he’s all over the place. And I was kind of curious, if it had turned out badly, who do you think he’d have thrown under the bus?
RUSH: Had it turned out badly, well, again, here’s another “if” and if is for children. Roger Whittaker sang that song back in the seventies. It was like the follow-up to his big hit the name of which has escaped me right now (singing) “You are beautiful…” but I don’t think that we contemplate failure for President Obama, do we? He asked what the Drive-Bys would say if the operation hadn’t worked, and I don’t think failure is in the lexicon or in the dictionaries. Even if the operation had been botched, I’ll play your “if” game even though I’m constitutionally not predisposed to it, but if the operation had failed, there is no question the blame would have fallen either on the ship’s captain or on the military for disobeying Obama’s brilliant orders and strategy.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: This is Katherine. Great to have on you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, I am so in love with your big juicy brain, and I love when you’re right.
RUSH: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
CALLER: You’ve been talking about how the media has been giving Obama credit for the seizure of these pirates.
RUSH: Eh, eh, not the seizure, the murder.
CALLER: Right. On Sunday, Jim Miklaszewski from NBC News was at the Pentagon briefing, and his very first question was, “So, sir, am I to understand that Obama was on the phone giving the order to shoot?” And the admiral said, “No. That was given the day before.” So you’ve always said that the media who gives people their fame can take it away. Do you think that this might be the beginning in a shift? Because I was shocked by his question.
RUSH: No. I don’t think this is the beginning of the end. It really is not a fundamental difference because giving the order to shoot handles everything. When the order was given incidental has not been widely reported. You happened to be smart enough and wise enough to catch it, but if anything, what this proves is the Navy needs to get spanked for not acting sooner. If Obama gave the order on Saturday to shoot and they didn’t shoot ‘til Sunday then maybe somebody on board that ship needs to be reprimanded. That’s the way to look at this.
CALLER: But why would he ask that question? It seems to be like he was diminishing Obama’s role.
RUSH: No, just the exact opposite. He asked the question hoping for a yes.
CALLER: And didn’t get it.
RUSH: He got it.
CALLER: Well, the guy said no, the admiral said no.
RUSH: No, the admiral said yes; it’s just that he gave the order, but he didn’t specify when. But he still gave the order.
CALLER: He said he gave the order the night before.
RUSH: Right, gave the order the night before, which, over there, is daytime.
CALLER: Correct.
RUSH: Might have given the order within hours of it happening. You gotta understand how to look at this. See, you’re looking at this question and answer hopefully, hoping that you see the Drive-By Media trying to maybe poke some holes in Obama. That will never happen.
CALLER: I’m trying to them gain some of their journalistic integrity back.
RUSH: The question was designed, the orgasm, the euphoria would have happened if the admiral had said, “Yes, we fired when ordered.” But, no, the admiral said we got the order to fire yesterday, and we found time, we found the right opportunity to do it today. I haven’t seen that replayed, have you?
CALLER: No, I have not.
RUSH: Oh, why do you think?
CALLER: Well, just the reasons you said.
RUSH: Exactly right.
CALLER: But I still thought it was very telling of Jim Miklaszewski to ask the question to begin with.
RUSH: No, Jim Miklaszewski was hopeful. Somebody at NBC ought to get fired for not editing that out. Or was it live?
CALLER: It was a live press conference Sunday afternoon.
RUSH: I was watching the Masters so I didn’t see it live. Well, they’re still on delay. They coulda had a technical difficulty slide go up to prevent that from going out. But I mean, look, if the admiral said the order was given Saturday and the Navy didn’t pull the trigger ‘til Sunday then there’s insubordination somewhere and it certainly is not from the White House. Our great president single-handedly pulled this off from planning stage to execution. Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online. It takes guts to do what Jonah did, to say when Obama does great things, we can’t be spiteful, we can’t wish for Obama to fail, we can’t be disappointed when he does something right. That’s going to get us nowhere. When he does something right he’s to be congratulated. And I’m raising my hand, offering my congratulations.
By the way, I have been paying some attention to what these pirates, the merchant marine organizers, have been saying. You know, these people are mad, they’re mad that three of them have met with Davy Jones now. And when I listen to these pirates, these Somali merchant marine organizers, you know, these pirates they used to know they were bad people. Have you ever watched Pirates of the Caribbean with Johnny Depp? I mean these are mean, rotten people, like Bluebeard, Redbeard, Blackbeard, Captain Hook. These were terrorists, these were bad, bad guys. They didn’t care what they smelled like, looked like. They took their bounty and they ran around and they terrorized. When the pirate ship was pulling into port the women and children fled. Now, these pirates are kind of disappointing me. The Somali merchant marine organizers actually sound like they’re entitled, their feelings are hurt, they think they’re entitled to these ransoms that are being paid. I get the impression listening to them they expect to be told, “Good job, pirate, good job.” They’re acting offended as hell here that our captain was rescued by our president and they didn’t get their ransom, as though they’re entitled.
These people have an entitlement mentality. I coulda sworn they were originally Americans who maybe fled, maybe they were illegal immigrants or something, they got here, entitlement mentality, didn’t like it, fled the scene because Republicans drove them out of the country in the last election, so they fled over to Somalia and they started pirating things. ‘Cause they have the attitude of entitlement, just like a lot of American citizens do. Call them what they want to call themselves, we’ve got Somali pirates, we’ve got the Beltway pirates. Beltway pirates are led by Pelosi and Reid. Two million? That’s chump change. The Beltway pirates are demanding a $10 trillion ransom, not just from us, but from our kids and our grandkids and their grandkids, a $10 trillion ransom. Now, the Somali pirates have an attitude of entitlement that is no different than Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid’s, or Barney Frank’s. They think they’re entitled to the money. It’s not theirs. It’s an amazing comparison, if you ask me, and something we should ponder.
END TRANSCRIPT
Maybe Barry should put on some cammo for a photo-op with a banner in back of him that says “MEARSK-ALABAMA: Mission Accomplished”.
A Note to New EIB Listeners
April 13, 2009
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I had a number of people e-mail today during the course of the first hour of the program, ladies and gentlemen, expressing anger and dissatisfaction with the callers on today’s program, claiming the callers have not been up to the usual caliber and so forth. Others are writing to express their confusion over the program today. Let me just give you a sample. I address all this, by the way, to those of you who are new to the program. Here’s just an example. This is just one sample. “Dear Rush, I’m a fairly new listener, and I’m confused. I thought I understood your message about Obama getting all the credit for each step of the rescue...” In fact, there’s one aspect of the rescue that the Obama administration has not been properly credited for — and it’s big one — and I want to be the first to bestow upon our brave new president the credit for this operation, because if this hadn’t happened, none of the rest of the operation could have.
Remember when the ship’s captain offered to trade himself as a hostage to the pirates, if all the other crew would be released? And that happened. So what has not been properly bestowed upon our brave new president is when he gave that order to the captain to trade himself to the pirates, the merchant marine organizers, so that the rest of the crew could be released. I mean, that’s a fundamental aspect of the story. It’s not just that Obama personally ordered the shooting to start and gave the order to fire. But had President Obama not given the order to the captain to offer himself in exchange for all the other crew members that were hostages, then we would not have been able to have the operation that we had on Sunday. The operation on Sunday required only one hostage. Obama knew this a week ago.
Everybody is complaining that Obama took a week to figure this out. No, no, no, no! What’s happening here is somebody in the White House has not gotten the story out to the stenographers in the Drive-By Media. Because had Obama not given the captain, Mr. Phillips, the order to trade himself for all the rest of the hostages, then it would have been impossible for the Navy “snippers” to commit “snipper fire” on Obama’s orders. There could only be one guy there, and he had to get himself out of the way. So it’s a brilliant, brilliant thing here that President Obama pulled off, and that’s one aspect here that hasn’t been reported. Back to the confused e-mail...
Dear Rush,
I’m a fairly new listener and confused. I thought I understood your message about Obama getting all the credit for each step of the rescue but then those two callers yelled at you. It seemed to me they didn’t get your point, but you didn’t set them straight. You didn’t explain the sarcasm. Now I’m not sure if I understand as well as I thought.
Signed, June
RUSH: I don’t want to mention her last name because she’s confused and I don’t know where she lives. She didn’t say so. To all of you new listeners, hang in there. What’s happening here on this program is sort of common. I mean, you can’t listen to just a half hour or an hour or two hours or even a day and have it all figured out, unless you have not been poisoned by our popular culture and its media. Now, June here is wiser than she knows, but she doesn’t know how wise she is at all, because June says, “I thought I understood, but then those callers started yelling at you.” That’s exactly right, June, and who were those callers? If you’re just joining us, we started out by agreeing with Jonah Goldberg at National Review Online that when President Obama does great things, we have to acknowledge it. We can’t sit here and act unhappy and upset that President Obama excelled at something.
We can’t do that, so here we have — and we know that he’s totally responsible for all that happened here. He gave the order to the SEALs to shoot. That was on ABC at the top of the hour. He planned the rescue strategy, the timing and so forth. But who is it that’s calling here? Who is it calling and yelling at me about this? Why, it’s none other than Obama supporters! None other than people who voted for Obama. A couple of them have come from Chicago, but these people calling and yelling at me and insulting me and telling me that I’ve lost my mind, these are people that voted for Obama. And they are calling essentially to tell me that I’m wrong. These Obama supporters and voters are calling to tell me, essentially, that he doesn’t deserve the credit. They’re disagreeing with me. Their hatred for me is such that even when I praise President Obama, they have to call and call me names and tell me I’ve lost my mind or whatever.
So what you’re hearing here today is — and I don’t know of any other radio show where this would happen, where Obama’s supporters would call a host praising President Obama and tell the host he’s nuts. It’s a monumental achievement here today, if you understand the context, the rubric under which this program operates. So if you’re confused, if you’re disappointed in the quality of the callers today, keep in mind one thing. We’re all professionals here. We’re highly trained professionals. What you hear is what we want you to hear. What happens here is not by accident. What happens here is not beyond our control. I’m a benevolent dictator. What you hear on this program is precisely what we want you to hear. There are no mistakes that have been made today. We have not made any errors. (interruption) I am not revealing secrets. I’m telling people how the program operates.
What is Open Line Friday about? You know, I tell people, “Monday through Thursday we only take the calls I want to take.” What day is it? Monday! I’ve even had some people call and say, “This sounds like Open Line Friday.” Well, okay. (laughing) You’re starting to get it, but don’t think that... You know, we’re not just a ragtag operation here like a lot of other media programs are that whatever happens, happens. This program is among the most tightly screened programs in all of major media — call screened — and always has been. For you to think that somehow I am being bamboozled or we are being fooled by the people that call, you are not giving us the proper credit as professionals. We’re all professionals here, and we know what we’re doing.
Every program is a brilliantly conceived and flawlessly executed strategy. I understand that some of you new listeners are going to be confused. That’s the idea. If this program were simple, if it were on the surface, then you would never be confused. You might say, “But, Rush, you’re a communicator. You’re a highly trained specialist. You’re in the business of communication. Why do you not want people to understand what you’re doing?” Oh, I do. I just realize that there are far more powerful ways to make a point than to say something in five or six seconds. It’s about inspiring your own brains to get into gear, to start thinking about things. Even some of my closest friends have said it — which is what tells me that this program — not only all of the libs who have called here to essentially criticize their president. A bunch of libs, angry at me have called here to say, “Obama doesn’t deserve all this credit,” that I’m out of my mind.
There’s no other program that could make that happen. Even some of my closest friends have called to say, “Good Lord, what’s wrong with Snerdley today?” So I’m compelled to say, “Nothing. He’s following orders flawlessly, perfectly.” And, June, your confusion has been experienced by virtually all the other 20 or 22 million people who listen to this program. Well, not all of them. Some of them were never confused, but a lot of people have been, but not for long. Just as I said before the previous hour ended: Hang in. Hang in, because it all makes sense at some point to everybody. When that point happens — when that moment in time comes where it all makes sense, where all the lights go off — you then understand how fortunate you are to have me as your host and this program as your chosen one.
END TRANSCRIPT
Good for Rush!!!
Why Would Anyone Stay in NYC?
April 13, 2009
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: In recent days on this program, we talked about the tax increases scheduled for New York, the millionaires tax that will hit single people at $200,000 a year, married couples at $300,000 a year. We have learned that Governor Paterson has said if he had known that these tax increases would drive me out of New York as a place to do business, he would have raised taxes even sooner. They have said in New York that, “Look, New Jersey did this, and nobody left New Jersey.” New Jersey? They’re holding out New Jersey as a paragon of economic virtue, they’re a copying New Jersey? The fact is people are leaving New Jersey. The Wall Street Journal on Saturday ran a great editorial about New York being the tax capital of the year. And the question in New York is not, to me, why would I leave, why would I cease doing business in New York, the real question is why the hell would anybody stay there, particularly those in the 200 to three-hundred-thousand-dollar a year range, the new millionaire tax is going to hit ‘em. And it’s not just the state. If they live in the city, it’s gonna be even worse.
But this is the thing that always gets to me. These liberals are always saying, “We’ve done it before and it was fine, last time we did this it worked out.” But it never does. Nothing of liberalism ever works. Here are some quotes from the Wall Street Journal piece: Mr. Silver says of the coming tax increases, we’ve done this before, there hasn’t been a catastrophe. Really? New York is a catastrophe! New Jersey is a catastrophe! According to the Census Bureau, I said last week, you know, Mr. Paterson told Neil Cavuto when he asked me questions about this on his TV show, I said, “Look, the exodus has already begun, Neil, people are leaving Long Island in droves over property taxes alone. Housing prices have plummeted, but their real estate taxes haven’t, their real estate taxes have been high, you add ‘em all up and it’s just difficult for people to get ahead there. They’re leaving. They’re going to places like Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, going out to places like Arizona. “According to Census Bureau data, over the past decade 1.97 million New Yorkers left the state.” That’s the biggest exodus of any state.
“New York City has lost more than 75,000 jobs since last August, and many industrial areas upstate are as rundown as Detroit. The American Legislative Exchange Council recently said New York had the worst economic outlook of all 50 states, including Michigan. And that analysis was done before these $4 billion in new taxes.” So the Wall Street Journal asks, “How does Mr. Silver define ‘catastrophe’?” And one thing that’s going unmentioned in all of this with this so-called temporary income tax increase, the state of New York, that will lift the top state tax rate to 8.97%, but the city, New York City income tax rate, you know what it’s going to go up to with this? 12.62%. And as a former resident of the city I can tell you city taxes are perhaps more onerous than are state — 12.62% will be the New York City income tax rate coupled with the state tax rate of 8.9%. So add nine and 12.5%, makes it 21.5% percent on top of federal, if you live in the city of New York, because in New York City capital gains and dividends are taxed as ordinary income. So thus New York will impose the nation’s highest taxes on investment income. At the same time, Wall Street is in jeopardy of losing its status as the world’s financial capital, and the Obama administration is planning on imposing salary caps on everybody that lives on Wall Street, works on Wall Street in a populist move.
END TRANSCRIPT
Love the poster!
Heard the whole show today while driving. Rush did a good job.
It looks like Romney, Palin, Jindal, Cantor.
I'm not sure of the last person.
LLS
Based on some of the calls I heard, I think Rush’s demographic is starting to skew more toward Rio Linda.....
Obama to Attack Somalia for Oil
April 13, 2009
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: “Defense officials said that the United States military —” I’m sorry. Let me rewrite this. Who wrote this? Fox News. They’re slipping up. “Defense officials said the U.S. military is considering attacks on Somali pirate bases on land and aid for the people there to help stop the hijacking of ships off Africa’s coast, Bloomberg.com reported.” This is not Fox, I’m sorry, Bloomberg got it wrong. President Obama’s “plan would include helping Somalia create their own coast guard and train security forces.” That sounds like nation building. The Coast Guard? Oh, I’m sorry. President Obama is going to use the military to attack Somali pirate bases on land and then provide aid for the people in Somalia to help stop the hijacking. The president’s plan would include helping Somalia create their own Coast Guard and trained security forces.
Now, that sounds strangely similar to exactly what President Bush had in mind in Iraq, does it not? Help me out if I am wrong on this. The second in command on the Maersk Alabama said yesterday said, look, this is not solved. We’ve got big problems out there, and these pirates are roaming the oceans, and they’re hijacking everything. He said the world’s gotta come together. And President Obama, with another brilliant plan, I mean this is something nobody would have ever thought of. We’re gonna bomb their land bases, and then we’re going to train their Coast Guard, so we’re going to create a Coast Guard so that Somalis can have a Coast Guard off their own coast to prevent their own pirates from getting out into the open sea. “Officials said the plan would be submitted to the Obama administration...” this is another piece of BS. Here again Bloomberg is trying to portray our brave president as totally detached from this.
To say that the military’s come up with a plan that they’re going to present to the president — that’s not how it works here. This is Obama’s plan. He’s presented it to the military. Here’s our brave new president. He does great things. So we’re going to tell the Somalis, “It’s up to you to stop your own pirates. We’re going to give you you’re own Coast Guard, going to train a Coast Guard, and you stop it.” It sounds like exactly what the game plan was in Iraq. But I don’t know how we’re going to feed the people of Somalia again. We fed ‘em back in the nineties, and now we got starving Americans. Have you seen the stories of all the homeless people? Have you seen the stories of all the starving Americans? And we’re going to feed the Somalis again, for the second time in 15 years? Don’t be fooled, folks. Do not be fooled. We’re going to Somalia for the oil. We’re heading in there to do whatever we can to deplete that country of its natural resources as punishment for their sending pirates out there. The only thing not explained in this story is what President Obama’s exit strategy will be from Somalia. But we’ll just have to wait as that unfolds.
END TRANSCRIPT
Not talking about your posting this here... but on cnn reporting Rush endorsed husseins actions. They just will never get Rush!
LLS
Obama Uses Rescue Operation to Further His Domestic Agenda
April 13, 2009
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Just as I predicted mere moments ago, closing out the previous segment: What did I say? I’ll remind you. I said that the success of the operation led by and performed by President Obama to rescue the ship’s captain will be used to drive up poll numbers which will then be used to further Obama’s domestic agenda. While freeing the captain and giving him liberty, even more of ours will erode. Here is President Obama speaking at the Department of Transportation today, another portion of what he said.
OBAMA: As we work to ensure America’s safety out on the seas, I want to discuss what we’re doing to restore economic security here at home, to revitalize our nation’s infrastructure and create good jobs across America.
RUSH: See?
OBAMA: It has been nearly three months since I first took office.
RUSH: Yeah, I know.
OBAMA: I think it’s fair to say that we’ve been a little busy.
RUSH: Yeah.
OBAMA: Faced with an extraordinary economic crisis —
RUSH: Hm-hm.
OBAMA: responded with extraordinary action —
RUSH: Teleprompter did.
OBAMA: — action that’s both unprecedented in scale and unprecedented in its speed. Today I think it’s safe to say that this plan is beginning to work.
RUSH: See, we’ve ensured our safety on the seas, and now we’re going to restore economic security here at home as well. I know these people like every square inch of my glorious naked body, folks. I just do. He went on to say after this, he detailed all the infrastructure projects in the stimulus bill. The states have been getting bids from construction companies and others, and all the bids miraculously are coming in at 30% below what any of the states expected. Some cases, the bids to repair and fix the infrastructure are coming in at 50% under what was expected. Now, the key is what was expected.
The key to being able to say the bids are coming in 30%, 40%, 50% lower, the key to that is being able to say whatever the expectation was. You can elevate the expectation to wherever you need it to be, to be able to say that the bids are coming in 30% lower. Competition happens to drive down costs. Now, I wonder if there’s any competition here for these bids, or if this is just a smoke screen. I’m sure there’s competition for the bids. There are federal dollars rolling around out there, and people want the business in a down economy, and so they’re competing for the money. But Obama, of course, is claiming that this is all happening because of his brilliant leadership, and who are we to disagree?
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Second in Command of Maersk Alabama Has Message for Obama
April 13, 2009
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RUSH: I got an e-mail folks. Get this, from a gentleman in Ohio who’s really bummed out by the rescue of the captain of the Maersk Alabama. You’ll recall that on this program last week, we had a couple of audio sound bites from the commander of the USS Cole, it had a hole blown in it when it was docked at a port in Yemen. The commander of the USS Cole praised the Somali merchant marine organizers as having a brilliant business model. His point was that they’re not terrorists, they’re criminals. They’ve got a great, great business model, that they go out there and they hijack ships, and they demand a ransom, and they’ve been getting the ransom, and it was praised as a brilliant business model. I got an e-mail from Ohio, from this guy, he’s very upset about this now because he was prepared to go into the pirate business. He had heard what a great business it is; he had heard a US naval commander praising the business model. So he had gone out and he had invested in pirate uniforms.
He even tried to get hold of Johnny Depp for some advice, and he was gonna go get some dinghies and just park ‘em out there in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of the southeast United States, just going to start hijacking ships and demanding ransom ‘cause it was a great business model. But now that President Obama has bravely interceded here and thrown the business model for a loop — and he’s outta work. And he was really inspired by this comment this week that the pirates are running a great business model, he’s gonna start his own pirate operation out of Ohio. But it’s all down the drain, so to speak, because of the operation. So another entrepreneur cut short by the Obama administration, ladies and gentlemen. We do have sound bites here from the second in command, Chief Mate Shane Murphy of the Maersk Alabama. He was at Mombasa port in East Kenya, and he said this about America and the Somali merchant marine organizers.
MURPHY: We’d like to implore President Obama to use all of his resources and increase the commitment to ending the Somali pirate scourge. Right now there are ships still being taken, right now, as we’re standing here. And at sea, it’s a global community. It doesn’t come down to nations. There’s a whole world out there at sea that we live together, we look out for each other.
RUSH: Well, second mate here, the second in command not happy with just one pirate vessel being dealt with. He is imploring President Obama to use all of his resources to increase the commitment to ending the pirate scourge, which a naval officer last week claimed was a good business model. Here’s more from Shane Murphy.
MURPHY: America has to be at the forefront of this. It’s time for us to step in and put an end to this crisis. It’s a crisis. Wake up. This crew was lucky to be out with every one of us alive. We’re not going to be that lucky again. And just for the record, we never had to fight to take our ship back. We never surrendered our ship. We fought to save the captured shipmates that were still aboard. But we never gave up. That’s all.
RUSH: Shane Murphy, second in command of the Maersk Alabama. Now, tell me, does he doesn’t sound euphoric. He doesn’t sound all that happy about what has happened here. His attitude about this does not jibe with the way the Drive-By Media has been reporting this, that it was a brilliant rescue, that only Obama could have done it, that only Obama could have ordered it. That only Obama could have strategized this. And yet here is Mr. Murphy suggesting that there’s still a crisis out there. But President Obama, go back to sound bite 19.
OBAMA: As we work to ensure America’s safety out on the seas, I want to discuss what we’re doing to restore economic security —
RUSH: Stop the tape. That’s all we need to hear. Safety on the seas, it’s being restored, it’s being secured. But the second in command here on the ship Maersk Alabama, no, no, no, there’s still a crisis out there. It’s a good thing that he’s not in the US military or he could be brought up on charges of treason, he’s dissing our brilliant and brave commander-in-chief.
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