Rush Limbaugh Program - January 22, 2009, Thursday, Hour #1

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Jan. 22, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program

37:50

January 22, 2009, Thursday, Hour #1

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	Welcome to today's edition of The Rush 24-7 Podcast.
	I just got the audio soundbite roster from Cookie.
	80% of it is me.
	I mean, 80% of it is about me.
	Yeah, here I am.
	I'm just plugging along, minding my own business.
	Simply amazing.
	We also now have well, it's not official yet, but he's out of committee, so it looks like we're going to have the another historic first in an administration that is an historic first.
	We're soon going to have our first cheat, Secretary of the Treasury, greetings.
	Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.
	Great to have you here on the fastest weekend media.
	I am L. Rushbow, your highly trained broadcast specialist.
	The telephone number, if you want to be on the program today, or any day, actually, is 800 282-2882.
	The email address L Rushbow at EIB net.com.
	Great pomp and circumstance, a lot of fanfare today at the White House.
	As President Obama signed four executive orders, one of them is uh a presidential records executive order, the foyer request.
	Turns out, turns out that my suspicions yesterday were right.
	Details coming up.
	He also signed an executive order shutting Club Gitmo in one year.
	This was not a security decision, by the way.
	There's no way this is a security decision.
	This is the uh the steady deconstruction of the Bush internal security program.
	And if we are attacked again, this moves by uh Obama today, if he actually does close Club Gitmo.
	If he actually does it.
	So I'm still not convinced they're actually going to shut the place down, although he made it sound like it was definite today, and they're going to move these people out, they're going to put them on trial.
	And we're doing this to show the rest of the world that we're being faithful to our ideals.
	Uh, but uh if he closes Gitmo, if he actually does it, if he undergoes uh the changes, if he puts the changes into place, undoing interrogation techniques, and if he brings these Jack Murtha, Jack Murphy said, Go ahead and close the place down and bring the prisoners to my district.
	You people in Western Pennsylvania in Jack Mirtha's district, you need to know that he has offered the welcome mat for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay to be brought into your neighborhoods.
	I doubt that he would extend the same invitation to the Marines who served valiantly in um in Iraq.
	But see, this isn't about Iraq.
	This is about Obama making political rather than security decisions.
	And I I hope, I hope this goes okay.
	I really do, but presidential decisions have consequences.
	None of the potential consequences are being given weight by him or his supporters in the media are gonna have to be held accountable in any future attacks as a result of this.
	In every news story reporting the closing of Guantanamo Bay, the release of prisoners, the interrogation techniques, and so forth, there's not one bit of analysis.
	It's just straight down the line reporting.
	There's not one question about it.
	What does this mean?
	What is our new policy?
	There isn't a new policy.
	These executive orders today are basically the we don't have a clue, executive orders.
	Just doing this, a quick political move on day two or three of this historic Obama presidency.
	The uh the New York Times story on this today, Obama to shut Git Mow and the CIA prisons, the the so-called black sites around the world within one year.
	But the orders, the executive orders, reports the New York Times, would leave unresolved complex questions surrounding the closing of the prison, including whether, where, and how many of the detainees are to be prosecuted.
	They could also allow Mr. Obama to reinstate the CIA's detention and interrogation operations in the future by presidential order, as some have argued would be appropriate if bin Laden or another top-level leader of Al-Qaeda was captured.
	So they want it both ways.
	That's why I say this is a political decision today.
	The announcing of the closing of Club Gitmo.
	Simply a political decision, not security, because they've left open to themselves all the options Bush used if they capture the right people or if there is another attack.
	So the um the the people that the the hardcore left supporters of Obama who have uh probably uh the number of brain cells you'd find in your average amoeba, who have no ability to engage in nuance or depth whatsoever will be totally satisfied by this uh when in fact Obama has left the door open for warrantless searches,
	warrantless wiretap searches, he has left the door open for continued CIA interrogation techniques.
	He's supposedly ending today.
	He has left the door open for keeping Gitmo open, should we capture uh the right people?
	And uh I, you know, this is something not being reported.
	There is no questioning of this, there's no suspicion, there's no analysis of it whatsoever, and just happily reporting what Obama is doing and acting like it's uh just wonderful.
	Uh the the uh thing that I mentioned yesterday about the uh presidential records, former presidents would face limits in their ability to block the release of sensitive records of their time in the White House under an executive order issued by President Barack Obama, the uh former presidents may ask to have certain documents kept private, but they no longer may compel the National Archives to do so.
	Now, theoretically, this means that the Clintons would have to give it all up.
	You know, they use the National Archives, Hillary used the National Archives and Bill as the excuse during the campaign for not releasing listed donors to the library and massage parlor in Little Rock and the Clinton Foundation, but make no mistake.
	The executive order also makes clear that neither former vice presidents nor relatives of former presidents who have died have authority to keep records private.
	Obama's action, his first full day in office, overturned an earlier order issued by George W. Bush that prompted a federal lawsuit.
	Scott Nelson, a public citizen lawyer who led the challenge to Bush's order, said researchers should now find it easier to gain access to records under the new order.
	Yeah, yeah, it's a great signal to send on the president's first day in office.
	This only applies to former presidents.
	Uh, ladies and gentlemen, and he's not a former president.
	Also, the attorney general is deeply involved in this.
	You have to go through the attorney general who is likely to be Eric Mark Rich Holder.
	And in that event, as for the Clinton records at the library and massage parlor, would Eric Holder allow damaging records out as the attorney general.
	So what we have here is uh the the safe door has been opened and unlocked, and uh, whatever anybody wants about Bush from his ten Cheney from their eight years is now free to make a request for it and see how far they can uh they can go.
	Request will be evaluated by the archivist, the White House counsel, and the attorney general.
	Under Obama's order, they can disregard the former president's wishes and allow for the release of the material.
	Uh Tom Blatton, director of the Open Government Advocate National Security Archives, said the order applies to Vice President Cheney's records.
	No, no mention here whether it applies to Al Gore's records at all.
	Cheney has been embroiled in a lawsuit over his records, which of them have to be handed over to the National Archives.
	Anyway, this is uh another political move.
	All of these executive orders are purely political, including Guantanamo Bay and the relocation and the trial of prisoners and terrorists who are being housed down there.
	Nothing to do with the security of the United States, purely, purely political.
	Now, some of you might be saying, but Rush, but Rush, what's wrong with all this openness?
	And we ought to be able to find out what was going on in the uh in the administration.
	All of them.
	Oh, I look at folks.
	I'm all for transparency, as Obama said.
	Paul.
	They've already broken the rules on no lobbyists in his administration.
	Wait till you hear this.
	I mean, this we have our first tax cheat, or soon will be, uh historic first, first tax cheat is uh Treasury Secretary in a historic administration.
	Here's the reason.
	All presidents, you know, there's the Washington, D.C. and our in our government, and it was set up this way, and I realize that some of you listening might be hearing this for the first time given the status of public education in America today, but the three branches of government, the judicial, the executive and the legislative.
	Legislative is Congress, judicial is the courts, and the executive is the president.
	Those three branches are, as they are designed to be, constantly at war with each other over power.
	Uh Congress wants to have as much power as it can get.
	The president wants to have as much power as he can get, and the courts, as you all know, are usurping power like crazy by actually legislating laws from the bench under the guise of judicial decisions on various cases.
	So it is up to the president to protect the institution and the power of the executive for all time.
	Not just his uh administration, but on down the road.
	This is why, you know, Bush closed access.
	He tightened access.
	As soon as he assumed office, he tightened access to the records of past presidents.
	And a lot of people got mad.
	What do you mean?
	We want to find out what went on there with Clinton.
	Bush was saying this is the executive branch, and I'm here to defend it.
	You know, the the the way civics is taught, you know, everybody gets along, it's hunky-dory, it's uh, you know, one big happy family, and it's not the way it is.
	These uh jockeying positions for power happen all the time.
	It's by design.
	This government was designed to plod along and move slowly and be stopped by internacine fights at every court.
	The founders did not trust government.
	They did not trust a big government, they want it roadblocked every chance it got, except in the area of national security and national defense.
	But when it came to writing laws, which are the impositions on individual freedom, they wanted that to be a bottleneck.
	And that's why the House was designed as it is, and the Senate was designed as it is.
	Different links of service, uh far more many members in the House of Representatives, and of course the president sitting up there in the White House on his own.
	Now, he's got a lot of power, but the idea here has all presidents have tried to get as much as they can, and that's standard operating procedure.
	So this move by Obama under the guise of uh openness is another political move that has uh basically a roadmap drawn for John Conyers and others uh who want to uh bring the president and the vice president Bush and Cheney up on war crimes, charges and trials, while Obama makes it look like he's got nothing to do with it.
	So we have a guy who's appearing and wants to uh uh uh be thought of as running a centrist government, but he's opening the doors for all the left-wing hacks uh that got him elected and it exists in the Congress, the Senate, and the House as he can.
	Brief timeout, lots to do today, folks.
	Time will be right back.
	El Rushmo serving humanity, while at the same time having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have.
	So basically what we had today in terms of the FOIA request on presidential records executive orders.
	We basically had an executive order to the media, okay, get in gear, start demanding stuff.
	Our attorney general will let you have whatever you want on the Bush administration and go to town.
	And I'm out of it, you guys can handle it.
	And that was the message today.
	That is, and of course, the same thing to uh fellow Democrats, the radical ones, which is most of them, up on uh Capitol Hill.
	Now, ladies and gentlemen, I myself, during the commercial break, those of you watching on the Ditto Cam may have seen me turned my computer, my Mac Pro.
	I mean, the latest Mac Pro, a 30-inch cinema display.
	I turned right to it and I issued my own executive order to my marketing people at the EIB store.
	Apparently, I have a thriving merchandise business down there, the club getting more T-shirt, cap, and other histories like soap on a rope and uh other things, uh, little gifts and ideas people can have and walk around.
	Obama's executive order today has threatened my thriving merchandise business.
	This is an example of the kind of stimulus that we're gonna get from the new president, putting one of my businesses out of business.
	I have one year, supposedly.
	I have one year left.
	Therefore, I have issued an executive order to my marketing people at the EIB store, a brand new line of club Gitmo merchandise.
	We'll work on the individual designs, but every item, be it the soap on a rope, be it the t-shirts, be it the club Gitmo caps, will have a phrase.
	When America was safe.
	Club Gitmo, when America was safe.
	And we're gonna get this merchandise in the pipeline here.
	We're also, ladies and gentlemen, going to have a new little logo for Club Gitmo.
	We're gonna have a swimming pool, which is water, with a diving board, which allows people to water board at Club Gitmo by diving into the recreation pool via our diving board.
	That will be one of the new logos.
	That executive order has gone out from me to the marketing managers at the EIB store.
	Here is ladies and gentlemen, when America was safe.
	Now I can imagine school teachers all over America are pulling their hair out about now.
	What do you mean when America was safe?
	There goes Limbaugh again.
	Now, well, maybe only in Green Bay.
	You wouldn't believe the audio sound bites I got out of Green Bay today.
	must be...
	It wasn't just Green Bay.
	I mean, it made other networks.
	It made Fox.
	It was all over the place.
	Here I'm just mining my, you know, I'm the last guy to blame for what happened up there.
	I don't have access to the school's PA system.
	I don't have access to the local radio.
	They chose to carry our feed, which I am eternally grateful for.
	I love my affiliates.
	I love every one of the stations that carry this program.
	They have made me who I am.
	I am as loyal to them as I am to anybody else in this whole chain of related links.
	But I didn't choose to dial in that station at that school.
	And by the way, we let everybody know in advance what we were going to do.
	This was not a surprise to our affiliates.
	In fact, let me give you a dirty little secret.
	You know, I I tell you what, you we sit here and we take a lot of grief.
	And of course, the pioneers take the arrows, and I'm used to taking the hits, I'm used to being the focus, and it's fine and dying.
	I know how to deal with it.
	But I just want you people to know.
	And H.R. will back me up on this because he got the phone calls.
	Starting two weeks prior to the election, our affiliates began to call us, asking what our plans were for inauguration day.
	And we uh they wanted us, a lot of them that called said, would you carry it and do the commentary during the speech that you usually do?
	What they pleaded with us to do this.
	Many of our affiliates pleaded for that because there was no other show that does this.
	Uh, and it was gonna be the same thing was gonna be available on thousands of media outlets, but only one media outlet, every EIB station, would have meanzing it at the moment, as it happens, which we are known for here.
	So they asked us for this.
	And they asked us to stick with it for as long as necessary without commercial breaks.
	And we said, okay.
	We will do it.
	So in responding to a request from my business partners, I now am the focus of blame when I had no control whatsoever over what happened up there in Green Bay.
	I don't mean to sound like I'm whining.
	I'm not.
	Because I think this is a teachable moment.
	I think this is a great educational exercise.
	It's another illustration of how the drive-by media loves to take things out of context with me and get them all wrong for the express purpose of trying to discredit and store me because they can't beat me on ideas.
	Oh, speaking of that, if you missed the Hannity show last night, he led off the show with a part one of the interview that we did here on Tuesday morning, about 10 o'clock.
	We have posted it, uh, along with a transcript of it at RushLimbaugh.com If you missed it.
	And we also got it on YouTube.
	That's harder than you think when you're a conservative.
	But we uh got it on YouTube.
	Now here's audio sound bites.
	This is Obama.
	Uh he has to ask Greg Craig, the White House counsel for help here, signing the closing of Gitmo executive order.
	In order to affect the appropriate disposition of individuals currently detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo.
	Uh and promptly to close the detention facility at Guantanamo consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States and the interests of justice.
	I hereby order.
	And we then provide uh the process whereby Guantanamo will be closed no later than one year from now.
	We will be uh is there a separate uh executive order, Greg, with respect to how we're gonna dispose of the detainees?
	Is that uh we will be setting up a process uh whereby this is going to be taking place.
	By the way, we are etching his uh words.
	We're we're chiseling his words uh in marble, since that's how CNN has portrayed the uh articulate pronouncements of President Obama.
	By the way, Greg, what are we doing here?
	Uh separate executive order respect to how we're gonna dispose of the detainees is then we will set up a process.
	We'll set up a process.
	I'm sorry.
	I've also been asked not to be so critical until Obama really messes up.
	I know he just messed up, but I don't think some of the Dingleberries in this country quite understand how he screwed up yet.
	And if I don't tell them they won't know, we're gonna set up a process.
	How would you translate that?
	We're gonna set up a process for dealing with the people that are there now.
	That's that's exactly right.
	We don't have a clue what we're doing.
	This is the we don't have a clue, executive order.
	We don't have a plan.
	We don't have a plan.
	We're gonna we're gonna take care of the plan during the next year.
	Political.
	Hi, welcome back.
	It's Rush Limbaugh.
	This is the Excellence in Broadcasting Network half.
	My brain tied behind my back just to make it fair.
	A teachable moment.
	Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, we had three telephone calls from people.
	And of course, one of them really stood out, the uh woman Marie from uh what something bay.
	Uh who?
	Hillary Bay.
	Yeah, that's right.
	Uh Marie from Discovery Bay, and she was very sympathetic, very emotional, very passionate, and she aroused the concerns of many of you in this audience when she described her situation and her circumstances.
	Small business on the last legs.
	People don't have enough money to spend.
	They want she wants them to open up their pocketbooks and start spending, bring the economy back, give Obama a chance, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
	And I said, very impassioned moment here, but I only I said I only know what to say.
	If you're gonna sit around and wait, you're gonna be waiting.
	There's action to be taken.
	A teachable moment here.
	I have a thriving merchandise business at an at a resort run by the U.S. Navy.
	Guantanamo Bay.
	It's called the Club Gitmo line, and the government has just thrown me a curve.
	The government is getting in my way.
	They're going to close this resort where I have my thriving merchandise business.
	What am I doing?
	Am I whining?
	Did I go to a lawyer?
	Did I try to file a lawsuit?
	No, ladies and gentlemen.
	As the epitome of capitalism, I have quickly adapted my product line to take advantage of the new and different market.
	I ought to be teaching marketing at Harvard.
	Ought to be teaching economics at this middle school in Green Bay.
	We're going to have a brand new Club Gitmo line since they're closing it down there.
	And the tagline on each piece of merchandise will be when America was safe.
	Here's one more audio soundbite from Obama.
	Now, this just this morning at the White House in the Oval Orice.
	And uh Obama here is on the task force that they're gonna use process to create to deal with the detainees that are gonna end up being released from Guantanamo Bay.
	And once again, Greg Craig, the White House counsel has to explain it to Obama in the midst of Obama's announcement here.
	Greg Craig, as you know, sometimes we don't know who he works for.
	Sometimes the American government, sometimes the Cuban government.
	I mean, he did represent the father, that means Castro, of the young Elian Gonzalez, who Janet Reno eventually saw to it, was dispatched back to the slums, the authoritarian tyranny of Cuba.
	Here is Obama announcing what they're going to do with the detainees.
	What we're doing here is to set up a special interagency task force on detainee disposition.
	They are going to provide me with information in terms of how we are able to deal in the disposition of some of the detainees that may be currently in Guantanamo that we cannot transfer to other countries who could pose a serious danger to the United States.
	But we cannot try because of various problems related to evidence in a Article III court.
	So this task force is going to provide us with a series of recommendations on that.
	Is that correct, right?
	Right.
	And DE policy going forward.
	And detaining policy going forward so that we don't find ourselves in these kinds of situations in the future.
	And that we are providing clear guidance to our military in terms of how to do it.
	Unbelievable here.
	What am I supposed to do?
	Am I supposed to marvel at this?
	Am I supposed to sit here and marvel at how this new teamwork is taking place?
	About how the president is incorporating all these.
	It sounds to me like I, you know, folks, it's this is not much evidence to go on, but I'm sure we could find the audio sound bites of me in the past saying, you know, there's a part of me when I said I was conflicted about Obama, I'm not sure what's going on.
	Does he just want to be president with everybody else doing all the work?
	And he gets to just be the figurehead and play the big games.
	I don't recall.
	No, I I'm just saying, I don't recall.
	I'm not saying it hasn't happened.
	But somebody helped me out here.
	Have we ever seen a president announce an executive order and have to turn to his counsel to explain what the hell the executive order is?
	It's his order.
	He's the president.
	It's his executive order.
	But then is it his executive order?
	Is that uh correct, Greg?
	This task force is going to provide us with the series of recommendations.
	Is that correct, Greg?
	And detainee policy going forward.
	And then Obama repeats it.
	And detainee policy going forward so that we don't find ourselves in these kinds of situations in the future.
	Then Craig interrupts without even being asked.
	And there is clear guidance for the military as well.
	And Obama said, and we're providing clear guidance to our military in terms of how to deal with.
	What am I supposed to do?
	They should have just put it on the prompter.
	They absolutely should have just put it on the teleprompter.
	But then the press would report there was a teleprompter.
	It's his executive order.
	And with Greg Craig in there, I mean, remember, Greg Craig also served as Bill Clinton's lead attorney during the impeachment proceedings.
	And then he went off.
	That was after he represented Castro and the father of Elian Gonzalez.
	Oh, this is.
	I, you know, I so want my president to do the right thing and for our country to succeed.
	This is not inspiring confidence.
	Is it?
	Well, what do you mean he hasn't found his voice yet?
	Hadn't found this the most articulate president we have ever elected.
	I know that's what they said about Clinton when he screwed up in the first two years.
	He's still looking for his voice.
	Still searching for this is all right, all right.
	I don't want to make too big a deal out of it.
	I just don't recall a lawyer being in there interrupting and being asked for guidance on what the president's Executive order.
	All I can tell you is, folks, none of this that you heard has a slightest thing to do with the United States security.
	It has to do with Obama politics.
	An amazing story here today in the Politico.
	This is written by John Harris and Jim Vande.
	And they are the founders of the political.
	They used to work at the Washington Post.
	Get this now.
	And these politico, by the way, and I like the politico, and I know who they are.
	They're unabashed about who they are, what they are.
	And I've talked to these guys on the phone, and they're nice guys.
	I've I've gotten along with them fairly well.
	But this is this still, it just kind of blows my mind, and it shouldn't anymore because we knew we we know what journalism has become.
	Here's how the uh the dual byline piece begins.
	We know a lot more about Obama than we did on election day.
	He oh, can I can I interrupt myself for a moment?
	Yes, I can.
	I want to stress something to people, and you know who you are.
	When I say what I'm saying, you will know exactly to whom I'm speaking, and you know who you are.
	Many people are interpreting my programs this week and last to be devoted to the uh shall we say never-ending criticism of Obama.
	You know what I make the mistake of assuming that people are as smart as I am.
	And I make the mistake of assuming that everybody listens to this show every day and thus is able to understand the context of things that I say.
	Most of you do listen every day and do understand the context.
	But in truth, these recent programs which have featured what people think are attacks on Obama are actually attempts to poke fun and to cause people to stop and think about what the media has become.
	This program, in large measure, is a refutation of the daily media template.
	It just so happens that the daily media template is that Obama is a messiah.
	He is infallible and incapable of error.
	He's the best, the brightest, the smartest.
	He has this aura.
	This program doesn't believe any human being walking the planet possesses any of those traits.
	And uh, and as such, we largely are trying to counter the drivel and the bilge of the drive-by media every day.
	I don't care if they're praising Ted Kennedy or if they're out there praising, you know, Caroline, you know, Kennedy.
	I don't care if they're out there praising Obama.
	I don't care if they're out there praising Hillary, they're trying to cover up for Timothy Geitner.
	So the way to listen to this program is is to understand that what we do every day.
	We, I mean, we read the new, we read the media, we watch the media, they set the tone, they set the template for the way daily news in this country is disseminated, and we refute it here.
	And part of refuting it is to bring Obama back down to reality because he's not the way they've been portraying him.
	This is then considered a attack on Obama, which it isn't.
	I mean, his latest, this latest brouhaha over me wanting Obama to fail.
	Everybody involved with this that's misreporting it knows exactly what I said and knows exactly what I mean.
	I want his policies to fail because I don't believe in big government, and he does.
	I don't believe socialism works.
	It never has.
	I do not want national health care.
	I do not want the government absorbing business after business after business.
	That's not what made this country great.
	And if that happens, our greatness is going to end and it will be redefined.
	And I care about the people who come after me by birth.
	I don't I'm I'm I love this country more than anybody would ever understand.
	And so being taken into context, I'm used to that because you know the the the left has to have somebody to criticize now, and Bush is gone.
	You know, so I'm the proud receptacle.
	I'm the proud target.
	I don't want Obama to fail as a human being.
	I want his policies to fail.
	I do not want I'm scared to death over these ex if he means what he did today.
	I am scared.
	I'm I'm I'm putting myself in terrorist camps around the world looking at this.
	United States is going to close its prisons.
	They're going to stop pursuing us.
	What am I doing today if I'm if I'm wearing a turban out there and I'm a member of Al-Qaeda?
	Dangerous times.
	And I just bailing out.
	You know what I heard today driving in?
	You know what I heard?
	I was listening to Fox and the driving in, or That was after I got here.
	And I'm watching Stuart Varney.
	He's on with Tigger Montague and um what's his name?
	Bill Hammer.
	He said three to four trillion to make the banks solvent.
	This has nothing to do with any stimulus package.
	I've not seen this anywhere else.
	Three to four trillion to make the banks solvent.
	And you know how they're gonna do it?
	The plan is to set up a United States bank.
	I thought we already had the Federal Reserve.
	Now we're gonna set up the United States bank.
	I mean, it's not etched in stone yet, nor is it chiseled in marble.
	But this is one of the can you get can you imagine three to four trillion dollars?
	They're told that's how much trouble the banks are in, or is it that that they're really in that much trouble, or is this just a way to shovel some money at these people?
	Whatever it is, it isn't gonna work.
	Bailing out the savings and loans was one thing, but uh notice I didn't ask for a bailout of my club get no business.
	I simply adapted to changes in the market.
	Took the bull by the horns myself and adapted the product line.
	Anyway, I'm a little long here, brief time, but I'll get to the political piece because it's good.
	After this, stay with us.
	You know how I know it never happened.
	You know how I know it never happened that Bush had to turn to Cheney or somebody and have the executive order he was signing explain to him?
	You know how I know that?
	Because if it had happened, we would still be watching video of it today because the whole template on Bush was that he's stupid, that he's a blockhead, that he's an idiot.
	And we would have seen that replay it over and over again.
	We'd had stories.
	Does Bush even run the administration?
	Because they thought Cheney was running it all along anyway.
	So now here's Obama, apparently not fully up to speed on what's happening with his own executive orders.
	He has to turn to Greg Craig, who once was a lawyer for Fidel Castro and Alien Gonzalez dad in Cuba.
	You know, I'm watching that, Sarah, and I watched it today.
	You know what it reminds me.
	Have you had people seen the uh movie Blazing Saddles?
	Some of you youngsters out there may not have seen Blazing Saddles.
	It's one of the funniest movies ever.
	It's by Mel Brooks.
	You should go out there.
	I know some of you tightwise don't buy movies, so go out there and rent rent it.
	Uh Mel Brooks plays the governor in this.
	He plays a bunch of characters.
	One of the characters he plays is Governor Lepetaman, and he's an absolute idiot.
	He's a figurehead.
	All he cares about is the showgirl in the back room and having some time with her after he finishes his so-called official duties.
	Harvey Corman plays Hedley Lamar, the chief of staff who's constantly throwing official papers in front of Governor Lepetaman to sign.
	Governor LePeniman says, Sign here, it's right here, what does it say?
	Signs it, heads back to the show girl.
	Uh and uh in fact, the movie Well, never mind.
	I'm not gonna say more about it.
	But that's what I thought I was watching.
	This is his executive order.
	I still can't get over this.
	Anyway, politico, Jim Vanderhey, John Harris, what we don't know about Obama.
	What we don't know about Obama.
	And here are the things they write that they don't know.
	Does he really think Afghanistan is winnable?
	Do deficits matter?
	How fast is too fast in Iraq?
	What's in the files?
	Do unions wear white hats?
	Can U.S. power save Darfur?
	Now, John and Jim, you know, I love you.
	Why didn't you ask him?
	You are journalists.
	You are reporters.
	Why didn't you ask him during the campaign if he thinks Afghanistan is winnable?
	If deficits meant good Lord, what didn't you ask?
	It reminds me of this.
	I don't know what Barack Obama's worldview is.
	No, I don't know.
	I don't know how he really sees where China is.
	We don't know a lot about Barack Obama and the universe of his thinking about foreign policy.
	I don't really know.
	And do we know anything about the people who are advising them?
	You know, it's an interesting question.
	He is principally known through his autobiography and through very aspirational speeches.
	I don't know what books he's read.
	What do we know about the heroes of Barack Obama?
	There's a lot about him we don't know.
	Tom, you work at NBC News.
	Assign a reporter.
	Or are there no reporters left at NBC?
	Everybody in NBC now just a commentator, an agitator.
	Everybody in NBC just trying to be like me.
	Are there no reporters left?
	So here we have Brokaw and Charlie Rose.
	That's before.
	Let's see, that's October 30th.
	That's even before the election.
	Admitting to one another, they don't know who he is.
	Don't forget the Newsweek guys who called him creepy.
	After the Grant Park acceptance speech, yes, he watches us, watching him.
	He ascends above the stage after the speech and watch it's creepy.
	And now the political founders.
	Questions for Obama.
	They're reporters.
	Why didn't you ask him for the campaign?
	See, they didn't vet on purpose.
	They didn't want to know these things before the election.
	They don't want to know the answers themselves.
	Well, for all the talk about the popularity of the inauguration, more people watched American Idol than watched Obama's inauguration, and millions more watched Ronald Reagan's inauguration.
	Reagan wins a landslide.
	Many more millions watch.
	And yet the era of Reagan is over, and we're told that Obama's inauguration sets all kinds of records.
	None of it true.

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