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Aug. 19, 2005 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:14
August 19, 2005, Friday, Hour #3
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So I get this note.
I get this email, dear Rush.
In the last year or so since uh Fahrenheit 911 came out, Lipscomb, Lila Lipscomb has been doing essentially the same anti-war protesting appearances as Cindy Sheehan has, but it's been mostly only in Michigan.
You can find many Detroit newspaper articles about that, but she's now made it big, not because of CNN or more, but because you just mentioned her.
It's my friend Debbie Schlossel sends me the note.
I wrote her back and said, Debbie, I can't win.
I'm either supposed to talk about X, and then when I do talk about X, I get grief for elevating people to a stature they don't deserve greetings, folks.
Friday, let's go.
Let's keep it rolling.
Uh yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep.
Yahoo.
Nice to have you.
The final hour of this week's excursion into broadcast excellence underway.
This the fastest week in media.
I am America's anchor man in my seat.
Having taken my seat, America's truth detector and America's Doctor of Democracy.
I ja I also, I just got an email from uh from a guy.
Pull it up here.
And uh let's see, yeah.
Okay, this is uh a rush 24-7 subscriber named Ed White.
Now listen to this.
He said, Rush, last night on uh baseball tonight on ESPN, Peter Gammons said that 292,000 Cleveland residents have lost their jobs since the Bush administration took office.
John, did you watch the show last night?
Brian Brian's a big ESPN guy's favorite network.
John Cruck could not believe he made the comment.
I don't know why not.
Peter Gammon's a big huge Boston liberal, but I I I thought I thought ESPN wasn't political.
I I I I've been under this impression for how many uh let's see, how the almost two years now that the ESPN was not not not political.
And so their baseball tonight guru talks about 292,000 jobs.
This must be a reason why attendance is down in Cleveland or why the team's not winning.
Well, I wonder what it is.
Is Bush's fault?
Also that uh things uh are not good at uh at Jacobs Field.
Thanks, Ed, for the uh for the heads up.
I appreciate that.
All right, here's a telephone number if you want to be on the program.
800-282-2882, the email address rush at eIBNet.com.
Here's what's coming up in this hour.
Jamie Gorellick also worked as the chief counsel at the Department of Defense, folks.
She is everywhere.
This wall happened to be built to prevent intelligence data from being shared with law enforcement.
Two stories, the Washington Times and David Ignatius in the Washington Post.
Democrats fail to gain traction from Bush Slip.
And Ignatius uh column is what Democrats should be saying.
Where are the Democrats amid this GOP disarray?
Frankly, they are nowhere.
The Democrats not gaining any ground it is in any wonder why.
What do they stand for?
They're nothing but a bunch of protesting malcontent children.
But we'll get to all that.
Also, it was Clinton's lawyers who fretted over bin Laden's comfort were he to be captured.
All of that and more straight ahead.
But first, as I mentioned when I opened the program today, folks, a tragic war loss uh happened yesterday, sad loss.
A loss far from the battlefield, by the way.
Far, far, far from the battlefield, a heartbreaking loss, and this loss not to a single family, but rather a loss to the mainstream media, a serious and sad loss.
Cindy Sheehan split the seam.
She went home.
What is the press to do?
Can they do reruns of Sheehan interviews?
Can they go find a substitute among the Sheehan crowd?
What can they do?
And it's not pretty, folks.
In fact, I haven't seen a whole lot of video out of Crawford, Texas today, since the field marshal, the general has left.
But uh here I'm asking all these questions with a sense of humor and absurdity about it.
Lo and behold, even when I making jokes, I am accurately predicting the future.
The CNN American Morning Show went out and I had to find a replacement for Cindy Sheehan.
When you're on a roll here like this, uh just like the National Guard story, and just like the Bill Burkett story, and just like the Jersey girls, you're on a roll here, you gotta keep it rolling.
So they went back and uh they decided to pluck from relative obscurity a person that appeared in Michael Moore's propaganda's documentary Fahrenheit 911, an Iraq peace mom by the name of Lila Lipscomb.
Miles O'Brien interviewed Lila Lipscomb today, whose son was killed in Iraq.
Just so you know, here is a clip of Lila Lipscomb from Fahrenheit 911.
Al-Qaeda didn't make a decision to send my son to Iraq.
Ignorance that we deal with with everyday people, because they don't know.
People think they know, but you don't know.
I thought I knew, but I didn't know.
I need my son.
It's tougher than I thought it was gonna be to be here.
Yeah, uh Al Qaeda did not make a decision to send her son to uh Iraq.
I I think her son made the decision.
Wouldn't that be true?
I don't want to, I don't want to be wrong about this.
Somebody help me out.
Wouldn't it have been her son?
I mean, bin Laden didn't order her son there, and Bush certainly didn't.
I mean, Bush didn't order her son to go.
Um, so that's that's from uh let's Lila Lipscomb, who we're now going to uh and I'm I'm really doing this to try to help the mainstream press, because my friend Debbie Schlossel is right.
Simple exposure on CNN is not enough uh to make this woman a household name around the country.
But on this program, Lila Lipscomb has a chance to become the replacement field general for Cindy Sheehan, and we want to help you people in Crawford.
Uh feel sorry for you.
The field generals gone.
Your cause is is defective anyway, but I know how much you have of your own identities wrapped up into this and to show you our compassion uh and our and our uh our sympathy.
We hope that you can come up with a suitable replacement until the field marshal Cindy Sheehan can return in glory to the battlefield uh and in the ditch uh at Crawford, Texas.
So we'll see if if maybe we can help uh CNN here elevate Lila Lipscomb here to be the replacement field marshal.
After playing this dramatic moment from Fahrenheit 911, uh Miles O'Brien said to her, what is it like?
I've been chasing the truth for two years and four months, and I've since become the grandmother of all of this.
And the and the change that that you speak of is I still believe that my son was killed for untruths.
But I've had to just admit what has happened has happened.
And I still have 1,860-something families that are feeling exactly what I feel.
And just to say, my heart and my prayers are so with Cindy and her sister Didi right now in being with their mother, and I do just wish them well.
Well, you know, it's it's heartfelt, and it's uh obviously very sincere, except it's wrong.
Um she does not speak, nor did uh General Sheehan uh for 1,860-something families, because they are not feeling exactly the way uh Lila Lipscomb is uh is uh feeling.
Uh this is the next question uh she received Cindy Cindy's been advocating that uh that she see this is all about keeping Cindy Sheehan alive, and this is all about finding a replacement.
So Cindy Cindy's been advocating that that she'd like to meet with the president, but I think she'd been pushing for pulling the troops out completely.
Would you disagree with that?
How are we going to do that?
And every single day the uh troops and everybody over there is building military bases.
So how do we work on bringing our troops home when we're actually over there building places for them to live forever?
So we need to find out why and what's really going on.
Why are we making a stance for them to stay?
But yet we're hearing that we're supposed to be having exit strategies.
So I think what's really important here is that we need families represented in the exit strategies.
We need to have families present in all the aspects of it.
God help us.
Thank you, Jersey girls.
The Jersey girls wanted to come up with a new strategies for making sure 9-11 never happened, and you know what the big strategy was?
We needed to put these warning systems like you have in your car that uh when you're about to fly into a building, uh the warning system will divert the airplane.
This is Kristen Breitweiser actually made this statement on the Today Show.
He said we have this in cars.
No, we don't.
What we have in cars are these these irritating little beeps when you're getting too close to another car when you are parallel parking.
But if you don't stop, you'll keep going.
The the little beeps are not going to stop your car.
And there's nothing in the world that is going to c stop a terrorist from flying an airplane into any target he chooses, no matter what technology is aboard the uh aboard the aircraft.
So uh here here you have it.
Um by the way, the idea that you cannot build bases in Iraq and have an exit strategy at the same time, I guess is a subtlety that is missed by these people.
And sadly, Lila Lipscomb here in her grief and sadness and sorrow uh is exhibiting an ignorance of what is at stake, which I think is a profound ignorance that is something that is common to all of the people uh on the battlefield, in the battlefield, in the ditch, uh down at uh Crawford, Texas.
But we've done our part here, folks, to help the media find a replacement for uh Lila Lipscomb.
Uh uh sorry, Cindy Sheehan, uh Lila Lipscomb is the first candidate.
Sure, there'll be others as the weekend uh unfolds, either that or its reruns back after this.
Stay with us.
Oh, one of my all-time favorite songs, folks, definitely the top fifty.
Brothers Johnson.
Uh title of the tune is Stomp.
To the phones open line Friday, as you know, Cleveland and uh Dave, welcome.
The city, of course, according to Peter Gammon's destroyed by the Bush administration.
Hello, sir.
Yes, hi, Rush.
How are you doing?
I couldn't be better, actually.
Um me either.
I'm a big fan, first time caller, and this is a great honor.
Thank you, sir.
Uh you know, Peter Gamons may be right.
I don't know what the exact numbers are, but did he happen to mention how many of those people actually went out and found other jobs?
Uh well, no.
I don't I don't know.
I didn't see it.
I just have an email from somebody who saw it.
I'll I'll bet you it's probably a good majority of those people are, you know, working somewhere else now.
So I mean, he's making the tri he's trying to make it sound like Cleveland is destitute and everybody's losing jobs.
You know, look, if we're gonna talk about if if if if they want to bring politics into CNN, which I would frankly I would uh be appalled.
I I thought there was a strict prohibition on politics uh and sports at uh at ESPN.
But if you want to talk about how many jobs have been lost in Cleveland in the uh during the Bush administration, we're gonna talk about how many new residents Florida has during the Bush administration, or how many new residents Texas has, or how many, and I'm not talking about illegal immigrants.
One of the problems is that the whole rust belt in the Northeast has especially clear it's a liberal town.
You've got un ungodly high taxes in that town, and and the the governor there hasn't done his best on taxes.
I think it was a Republican governor, but same thing in the Northeast, Long Island, people are fleeing the Northeast.
I keep 800 people a day are moving to Florida.
In ten to fifteen years, Florida's gonna have more electoral boats than New York State.
And this is you know, nobody talks about this, but this huge demographic migration that's going on is gonna have more a profound effect on the Democratic Party.
You know, all these Eastern and uh Northeastern states that are blue states have all these large electoral vote counts, they're losing population, and the people leaving are not Democrats.
They're people that that uh just that don't want to put up with it anymore.
The high taxes and the crowded conditions, and they're moving to uh to uh much cheaper and uh nicer places to live.
And that's as much as uh effect of what's going on in Cleveland as uh as as as anything else.
You want to sit there and start complaining and moaning and whining about the number of jobs lost in Cleveland during the Bush administration.
How about some economic figures about how great the economy's doing now?
Um I mean, it it it's a disconnect.
It's it's just it's a pure disconnect.
And I'm no doubt your point either, that a bunch of people are have also found jobs in Texas, uh or rather in Cleveland.
Uh I mean gotta keep working, and we know that unemployment's at five percent, and it's going down even as we speak.
Here's Brian in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
You're next in open line Friday.
Hello.
Hi, Rush.
This is an honor to speak to you.
But uh with everything that's going on that we're hearing about Cindy, I just had to add my two cents of what I feel.
Being a father of a four-year-old, uh, What I fear is what Cindy is talking about right now is removing the troops.
Do you realize that in ten, fifteen years, my four-year-old will have to face the exact same thing that her son has faced.
And maybe I'm a little bit selfish, but I don't want that to happen.
You mean you want to win this and be done with it now, is what you're saying.
And we must continue to fight this war.
And we cannot allow that to be a chance.
Well, but you have to understand.
No, no, wait, this is this is why I feel sorry for these people.
Really, I uh you you look at these poor people.
You can tell they're lost souls.
These are people who've never mattered to anything in their lives.
They don't matter to them.
I mean, they just they're insignificant, they know it, and they're desperately seeking relevance.
They want they want meaningfulness in their lives, and that this is the kind of thing that gives it to them.
And what's unfortunate about it is that there's no meaning in this other than the attention the media bestows on it.
It's the media creating a false impression that these people matter, that they count, that they uh finally have some purpose in their lives.
They don't you can you can see looking at them and listening to them.
It's really it's uh it's it's a sad.
If you have genuine compassion, you have to feel sorry for this people.
The way they're just being used in political football by the by the left and by the uh by the media.
I mean, it's just it's it's sad to see.
But the your your your point, they don't victory is not in their vocabulary.
I mean, you they're not oriented toward winning anything.
That's something positive.
These people are oriented toward losing.
These are defeatists.
These are people who've already lost.
These are these are these are people that don't have any any they have no conception of victory.
Victory to them is obscene.
Victory to them is ignoble.
Victory to them is unjust.
Particularly if it's the United States winning, and particularly if it's the United States military winning.
We don't deserve to win.
We're we're a rotten nation.
We're murderers.
We're spreading nuclear detonation and destruction all over the world.
It's it's horrible.
We don't deserve to win.
This is where you're missing their point, Brian.
They're not interested in victory.
They want defeat.
They want misery so that they all feel comfortable with other people who were in misery.
That's how they're going to be made to be happy.
The only way these people will be happy is if they're right, and what would he what would it take for them to be right?
We'd have to lose.
We'd have to lose, and Bush would have to be impeached, or worse, killed.
You read some of their websites.
Uh it's you know, they're they're not they're not on the same page as you are, pal.
Victory?
What's that?
Victory is something Bush does by stealing votes and doctoring voting machines in Ohio.
Victory is something that is stolen from these people.
Victory is not something that happens.
That's not legitimate.
Victory is cheating.
There's no such thing as victory.
It's not in their words.
Victory to them would be destroying some institution or some series of people or uh uh you know, some effort the country's making.
That that's victory to them.
They're not you they're not on the same page.
I mean, you're not even in the same ballpark uh with uh with these people.
Travis in uh Carl Springs, Florida.
I'm glad you called.
You're next.
Hello.
Hey, Ditto Russ.
Hello?
Hello.
Hello, ho, hi.
Thanks very much.
Appreciate it.
Sorry about that.
Listen, listen, I'm a 23-year-old college student, I'm a poly science major down here at uh Broward Community College, card-carrying Republican.
Uh despite what the uh liberal media would have you have you believe, I volunteered for the National Guard by choice at the age of 17.
Uh two years later went to active duty for Stewart, Georgia, Rock of the Mar and Third Infantry.
Uh that was by choice too, and I'm re- re-enlisting again in March by choice.
Uh when I re enlist in March, I'm gonna re-enlist in the country of Iraq.
I'm leaving next week.
And uh this whole thing with Cindy Sheehan has just got me I'm I'm steaming hot.
I'm fuming.
Uh my liberal Cuban wife, I told her if she used my SGL, I had to do what Cindy Sheehan is doing, I would come back from the grave and haunt her.
Yeah, I'm just so uh upset about what's going on.
For example, I was on, you know, I know you're in Palm Beach, you understand how Broward is.
Sample and University Road.
There was a Moms for Peace protest.
I was going down to the uh Office Depot Center to uh say a conference.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We're all over the place here.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I saw it.
It was about dusk, and they're out there with candles, and I you know what I did?
I turned on the Clint Black song, Iraq and I roll, and I spanned it.
I jammed it as I drove by, giving them the universal signal f signal for hello.
And uh my wife, my liberal wife, was just sitting in the car laughing because she knows how I am.
I just Okay, well, see, that's that I think you know, I understand the anger, especially the things that you volunteered to do and the causes you believe in, but you have to ask yourself, are they worth the anger?
When they make you mad, are they maybe winning?
You know, laughing at them.
And and they're worth pity.
They're not gonna affect anything.
They're all they're only harming themselves here, really.
And and I think that would be a better mindset for you to have where they're concerned.
And let's go back to the uh audio sound bites here, uh, ladies and gentlemen.
President McCain uh was on TV last night in um in Washington, WJLA DC News.
Uh this is after he uh Vice President Graham uh and uh Senators uh Clinton and Collins uh return from Alaska.
I guess they're on their tour, I don't know if they're back or not.
Uh but uh anyway, they they they had a little press conference uh uh uh confirming that uh climate change is underway and that human beings are responsible for it.
And uh John McCain, President McCain had uh this to say just a little bit of a bite here, but it's enough to get a point.
Climate change is taking place and uh human activities play a very large role uh in the significant changes that we are seeing throughout the globe.
One of the uh significant uh changes that President McClain uh President President McCain noted was that uh snow is melting in the summertime uh in uh in Alaska.
Uh and of course, uh we human beings cause summertime uh because of the disproportionate balance of the population on certain parts of the planet causes to wobble there on the uh on the axis, and this this is causing uh summer.
We've also made the sun very mad.
There's increased sunspot activity up there.
Something we're doing is angered Mr. Sun, and he's blowing up up there.
Uh but then after hearing about this, comes this story in of all places the New York Times.
Uh a new report by the Environmental Protection Agency says that ozone levels are falling in nineteen eastern states where bad air is common in the summer.
The reduction reflects what agency officials describe as a significant decline in emissions of nitrogen oxides, uh, whose reaction with sunlight, uh uh other weather conditions and volatile organic chemicals can make the air hard to breathe in the warmer months.
It's how you creates uh, you know, uh surface level ozone.
Uh notice the sun is necessary for the creation of uh ozone surface or otherwise.
The report says that last year nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants and large uh sources of combash combustion owned by rich Republicans in the nineteen states, including New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut were thirty percent below two thousand three levels, fifty percent below those of two thousand.
The result says the report was a four-year reduction in ozone of about ten percent.
Jeffrey Holmstead, who was stepping down on Friday as the agency's assistant administrator for air and radiation, said that this is a very significant reduction of ozone concentration, and that it offers reassurance that we are working on it uh the effective uh the what we're working on is the effective way to go.
He was referring to a cap and trade approach to emission reduction, which is favored by the Bush administration rather than the Clinton administration's absolute cap, which remains favored by environmentalist wackos.
The uh the cap and trade work more efficiently since plant owners, rich Republicans, without enough money to make all the necessary improvements at once had incentive to install controls on the biggest emission sources uh first.
At the same time, Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, snivelled at the progress.
We haven't found the own zone problem.
This summer is air pollution shows how much further we have to do.
I don't believe this.
We haven't found the own problem.
We haven't found anything.
So but the ice ice is melting up there uh in in the summertime while the snow is melting in Alaska.
Uh in but but uh were we not, uh ladies and gentlemen.
President McCain is uh on the case.
Uh Ron Fournier, you know we love Ron Fournier here at the uh EIB Network AP uh reporter extraordinaire, but um it m it m must be on vacation here.
I don't understand I don't quite understand the tone of the story.
The tone is frankly surprising to me.
Uh it's about the Sheehan uh uh uh war uh down there on the battlefield in Crawford, Texas.
Listen to some of this.
What began is one mother's vigil on a country road in Texas two weeks ago has grown into a nationwide protest, putting a grieving human face to the miseries of war and the misgivings about President Bush strategies in Iraq.
It's still not clear whether Cindy Sheehan's effort was the start of a lasting anti-war movement or a fleeting summertime story fueled by media savvy liberal interest groups.
Oh, how did it get how did how did this get past the editors at the AP?
Even speculating that this thing is phony.
Even daring to print that.
Next thing you know, we're gonna read in this story that Cindy Sheehan has a PR agency and a PR person to help manage this spontaneous event.
No matter what happens, it says later in Fournier's story, it can't be denied that Sheehan thrust herself and her cause into the spotlight at near record speed.
No, she didn't, Ron, you did.
Cindy Sheehan didn't thrust herself anywhere, but back to LA to her mother's bedside.
You in the media thrust her into the spotlight at near record speed, Ron.
So, you know, it it it's some there's some contradictions in the story.
Uh for example, this sheehan has not gotten her meeting with the president in Texas.
Bush's supporters note that he met with her in 2004, and that she had nice things to say about him at the time.
That's half the story.
Indeed, after the 2004 meeting, Sheehan was quoted as calling Bush sympathetic and sincere, a man of faith.
But she also sharply stated she wasn't happy with the way the war had been handled and accused Bush of changing his rationale.
Way to go, Ron.
Ron, you saved yourself there.
First half of that almost made it look like that you were reporting the accurate part of this story.
Yeah, they go in there and cover it up.
Great job.
Uh I think that's why the story passed the muster of the editors.
But this it was looking risky for Ron Fournier.
I was wondering if we were going to see his name again after this story ran uh Mr. Snerdley.
Uh a lot of weird things going on out there, folks.
Uh, from San Francisco, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday the Ninth Circus, the U.S. Ninth Circus Court of Appeals, ruled yesterday that the U.S. and this is not going to make you nags happy, ruled yesterday that the U.S. Armed Forces medical benefits should cover abortion costs only when a mother's life is at risk.
A decision that the judges acknowledged was callous and unfeeling.
But for some reason, this particular panel of three judges didn't think that it had the power to change the law that it disagrees with, which is what they usually do.
The ruling by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circus came in the case of a Navy sailor's wife whose fetus had a fatal birth detect defect.
She had an abortion five months into her pregnancy, but coverage for the procedure was denied.
She filed a lawsuit, claiming an armed forces health plan owed her $3,000 for the procedure.
The government argued that refusing to cover such services furthers the government's interest in protecting human life in general and promoting respect for life.
In Thursday's three-to-nothing ruling, judges said that they were not judging the wisdom, fairness, or logic of congressional legislation.
They just said they had to abide by the law.
Lawmakers served a legitimate government purpose by denying such benefits because of an interest in potential life.
Judge Richard Tallman wrote for the San Francisco-based court.
Now, this is a rare misfire from the Ninth Circus.
I don't quite know how to.
I mean, there's two things here.
Number one, they ruled against a woman who had an abortion having it paid for by you and me.
And then they further want to say the government has a right to protect life.
Now I wonder, Dawn, you were out in San Francisco when I was over in your did you put something in the water?
Uh I don't understand it.
You don't get these kinds of rulings from the Ninth Circus, folks.
Well, happy to take it, but I mean you just it just doesn't happen.
We'll be back in just a second.
Stay with us.
Here's uh Jennifer in Kingston, Tennessee.
Hi, Jennifer.
I'm glad you call.
Welcome to the program.
Hi, Rush.
I hope you can hear me over these dogs.
I am a hear you easily.
Hey, shut up.
That sounded good, didn't it?
Uh, I'm a Democrat.
Lifelong Democrat.
Yes.
And I can't take it anymore.
I've listened to you for the past year, and I think I'm turning.
Into a Republican.
You think you're turning, you're turning into a representation and it's make you cry?
No.
I mean, considering I've always voted Democrat.
I voted for Reagan.
That was personal president I voted for.
Well, okay, who'd you vote for in 2004?
Well, guess.
Well, I guess Kerry?
Yeah.
Who'd you vote for in 2000?
Gore?
Yeah.
So what's causing you to change your allegiances here, Jennifer?
Well, I think it may be you.
I've listened to you to the for the past year.
That's why I'm hated, folks.
You make a lot of sense.
That's why I'm hated, is because I'm effective.
Well, that's very nice of you to I I appreciate that very much.
What what can you uh I mean, I'm not looking for Pats on the back because I can do that myself.
Yeah, you can do it.
Oh, anyway.
Well, uh, but I'm just curious.
What what what what uh is there is there one central thing you can focus on that said was the tipping point since it's a popular phrase.
What was the tipping point on this program that might have caused you to finally go on the other side?
Well, I think you're pointing out that the Democrats don't have a stance.
They don't, and they're snapping constantly.
It makes them look terrible.
And I don't want to be for the for the life of me.
I can't figure out what these people are for.
I don't know.
I don't mean the kooks.
I'm talking about the people in Washington from Howard Dean on down.
I do not hear them uh articulate an agenda, and I know why.
They don't dare.
That's why they're having these behind closed door meetings.
Oh, but in fact, folks, speaking Debbie, or Jennifer, I'm sorry, thank you for the you reminded me I've got something here in the stack.
God love you.
Jennifer, are you are you a subscriber to my website?
No, sir.
Well, you have a computer?
Yes.
You use it, you know how to use it?
Yeah, I know how to use it.
Just bear it.
I know how to use it.
Well, you're you're you're you're well, that probably makes sense too.
You're lucky, you're you're a lucky day.
I want you to hang on because it'll make you a complimentary one-year member of Rush 24-7.
And we'll throw in a couple of uh uh club gitmo items as well.
So don't don't hang up because we'll get the information necessary to get this activated.
This is a story from uh uh Brent Bozell's new website, uh his blog Newsbusters exposing and combating or comparing liberal media bias.
Uh I'm saying this combating liberal media bias, and it's uh it's a story managing the news for Hillary's sake.
It's an it's a story about Los Angeles Times written by Rod Brownstein.
And it goes like this one hot and humid weekend this past July.
America's leading Democrats, including some of the early favorites for the 2008 presidential nomination, Hillary, Evan Bye, Tom Vilsack, Mark Warner, gathered in Columbus, Ohio at a conference hosted by the Centrist Democrat Leadership Council.
The uh the press had a hard time controlling its glee when Senator Clinton was announced as the point person to lead the DLC's new political offensive code name American Dream Initiative to define the party's agenda for 2006 and 2008.
Ron Brownstein wrote about it this way.
He said the appointment solidified the ID of Clinton, once considered a champion of the party's left with the centrist movement that helped propel her husband to the White House in 1992.
It also continued her effort, which is accelerated in recent months to present herself as a moderate on issues such as national security, immigration, and abortion.
What did the story miss?
What did the story not report?
The agenda itself.
Here is the DLC's agenda of the American Dream Initiative.
Listen to this.
Increase the size of the U.S. military by 100,000 personnel.
Assure the services can recruit on college campuses.
Alter the tax code to provide a $3,000 year tax credit, college tax credit.
A universal home mortgage deduction for people who don't itemize their taxes, an expanded family tax credit for people with children and a universal pension that replaces 16 existing IRA-style accounts.
Cutting oil imports by 25% by 2025.
And converting government vehicles to the use of hybrid engines by 2010.
Reducing congressional and non-defense federal government staff by 10%.
Cutting government consultants by 150,000, slashing excessive highway spending 50%.
This is what they're calling a moderate agenda.
With a few exceptions, this is a conservative agenda.
Enacting tax cuts that encourage investment and setting up a corporate subsidy reform commission that cuts $30 billion in business subsidies in a year for the next decade.
Lowering health care costs by investing in technology and research to find cures for disease such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Uh adopting uniform rating system for entertainment media that market products to children, cracking down on government corruption by forbidding members of Congress and administration officials from becoming lobbyists when they leave office.
This is the DLC's agenda.
Now the DLC doesn't speak for the Democrat Party.
Howard Dean does.
This is not the agenda of Ted Kennedy or of Patrick Leahy or of Chuck Schumer or of Harry Reid or of Nancy Pelosi or Barbara Boxer and these others.
This is the DLC.
Al From and the boys and Hillary and these presidential candidates showed up.
Interesting, the LA Times does not talk about that agenda.
They just talk about her move as solidifying her role now as a centrist.
In the Washington Times today.
Democrats hope they'd be scoring political points in this year's election cycle, but they're not.
Things are not turning out as they hope.
The Democrats are beset by internal division over the lack of an agenda, carping from liberals who say party leaders are not aggressive enough in challenging Bush on John Roberts at all, at all, at all.
John Zogby is the source for this.
Polling data.
Democrats aren't scoring points in terms of landing any significant punches on Bush or in terms of saying anything meaningful to the American people.
In a slap at his party, Stanley Greenberg, Democrat polster, said earlier this month, his survey shows that one of the biggest doubts about Democrats is they don't stand for anything.
Moving on to the Washington Post, David Ignatius, what Democrats should be saying.
This ought to be the Democrats' moment.
Bush administration caught up in increasingly unpopular war, plan to revamp Social Security fading away on and on and on.
So where are the Democrats amid this GOP disarray?
Frankly, they are nowhere.
Because they lack coherent plans for how to govern the country.
The Democrats have become captive of the most shrill extreme voices in the party who seem motivated these days mainly by visceral dislike of George W. Bush.
Sorry, folks, but loathing is not a strategy, especially when much of the country finds the object of your loathing a likable guy.
The Democrats' problem is partly a lack of strong leadership.
Its main spokesman, Joe Biden, foreign policy.
How to put this politely seems more impressed with the force of his own intellect than an objective evaluation would warrant.
Listening to Biden, you sense how hungry he is to be president, but you have little idea what he would do other than talk and talk and talk.
Today's Democrats have trouble expressing the most basic theme of American politics.
We the people.
What was my brilliant highly acclaimed monologue all about?
The people who make this country work.
And what did I say about the American left?
They focus everything on government, they impugn, they besmirch, and they put down the people who make this country work because they have no faith in the people because they have no faith in themselves.
Democrats, I don't care what victories you think you people are experiencing out there, you are languishing, you are fading, you are in the quicksand struggling to get out, and you're only sinking deeper.
What a way to end program.
Yes.
Back in a second.
Patrick in Upper Marlborough, Maryland wants to know why Bill Parcells is relying on all these geezers to win with the Dallas Cowboys instead of drafting young guys to replace them.
Uh I have no clue, Patrick, my wild guest would be who wants the trouble with these young punks.
And number two, the old guy is the only ones that'll listen to him.
Uh or three, he is still a giant at heart sabotaging the cowboys for years down the road.
Four, he wants to be George Allen.
Who knows?
We'll find out soon if it's not gonna work.
See you on Monday, folks.
Hope you have a great weekend.
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