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April 9, 2009 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:24
April 9, 2009, Thursday, Hour #2
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And greetings, my good friends, and welcome back.
Rush Limbaugh, America's real anchorman, America's truth detector and doctor of democracy, otherwise known as the last man standing.
Telephone number if you want to be on the program 800-282-2882.
The email address lrushbo at eibnet.com to be E-L Rushbo, as in El Kabong, El Rushbo at EIBnet.com.
The White House trying to figure out why in the world they are reviving the whole controversy over whether or not the president bowed down to the king of Saudi Arabia at the G20.
This was not even in Saudi Arabia.
The Obama administration is saying, no, no, no, no, the king's a, he's a runt.
You know, Obama's a lot taller than the king.
Obama was just being respectful and meeting down and grabbing his hand with both hands and so forth.
Some people are saying, no, he dropped the contact.
Contact fell out.
He's searching for the contact.
They're showing it in slow motion, like an instant replay that you would see in an NFL game.
And there's no question that he bows.
We saw it.
It was submissive.
No president does this.
It was disgraceful.
It was a mistake.
You know, the White House says it didn't happen.
They're just calling attention.
There's something weird about this.
This is something you just ignore.
You know, let whoever wants to.
In fact, there are a lot of conservatives who are criticizing other conservatives for harping on the bow.
I happen to be not one of those that paid a whole lot of attention.
I frankly think harping on the bow is to miss the point of what happened over there.
What happened over there?
We gave away too much of our sovereignty.
We gave away economic sovereignty.
We agreed with the world on a world.
Sarkozy got what he wanted, a world monitor for executive salaries and regulatory, world regulatory agency over financial dealings in this country.
He bowed down to the king.
There's something very weird.
You wouldn't think that the press office or the message people behind Obama would want to highlight this.
Just let it die away.
Let it be one of these things that's forever discussed with no real answer.
Now they've denied it, and this is causing everybody to replay the video over and over again.
Which, and they've got multiple angles of it.
And this is, when you look at it, I mean, it's far more than Obama just leaning down to look at a shorter man in the eye.
I can't figure out why they're, unless they're using this to get the media focused on something else or get focused on it while something else is going down.
And it could well be that I, as I usually am, am right, that they're using this as a means of getting people focused on this, which is basically meaningless other than a faux pas symbolically, while the real damage and disaster of that summit goes unreported.
That is the only thing I can think.
I also, I want to go back to this soundbite.
President Obama at Walter Reed National Naval Medical Center speaking to troops.
Before coming home, I stopped to visit with our men and women who are serving bravely in Iraq.
And first and foremost, I wanted to say thank you to them on behalf of a grateful nation.
They've faced extraordinary challenges, and they have performed brilliantly in every mission that's been given to them.
They have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country, and that is a great gift.
Again, President Obama is part of the party, the Democrat Party, that secured, tried to secure the defeat of these people, that portrayed them as racists, thugs, murderers.
John Kerry claiming that they would bash down doors of private homes and terrorize women and children in there.
Jack Murtha believed every report he got about murderers, Marine murderers in Haditha.
Folks, let's not forget here, let's not forget just how outrageously treated the men and women of the U.S. military were by the Democrat Party for the entire duration of the Iraq War, not just the last couple of three years.
It was just a year ago that Obama was chiming in on all this.
In fact, Associated Press, August 14th, 2007.
Presidential hopeful Barack Obama was warned by a friendly voter Monday to avoid public spats with his Democrat rivals.
But remarks he made later could add fuel to the criticism against him.
Asked whether he would move U.S. troops out of Iraq to better fight terrorism elsewhere, he brought up Afghanistan.
He said, we've got to get the job done there, and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air raiding villages and killing civilians.
So here is our president in the campaign, August 2007, saying we've got to do more than kill civilians.
Now, of course, they're great.
These heroes are heroes.
They gave Iraq a great gift because they have magically transformed themselves from rapists, thugs, and murderers to great heroes simply because Barack Obama was elected president and then immaculately inaugurated on the 20th of January.
In light of all this, I want to go back to Obama's Berlin speech, where he addressed the world as a citizen of the world.
And I just, I want you to realize that the pattern, and I frankly show you how badly I misread the public mood or misunderstood the power of cult followers.
I thought after this speech and as wide coverage as it got, because this speech in Berlin ripped this country to shreds in no uncertain ways, there's no way this guy's going to get elected.
We have not gotten to the point.
Have we?
I said, we've not gotten to the point where you go overseas, rip your own country, and get elected president.
I'm wrong.
I can also remember 20 years ago, if Fidel Castro had endorsed you and you were a political candidate or a sitting elected official and Fidel Castro said he wanted to do whatever he could to help you, you were finished.
It was the kiss of death.
Not today.
Fidel Castro can say he wants Obama to succeed.
He can ask the Congressional Black Caucus what he can do to help.
And this is regarded as a sign of progress.
So let's go back in time, shall we, to our archives.
Here's Audio Soundbite 1 of Barack Obama in July 2008, less than a year ago, folks, in Berlin.
I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before.
Although tonight I speak to you not as a candidate for president, but as a citizen.
A proud citizen of the United States and a fellow citizen of the world.
I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city.
It's again illustrating that it was the Democrat Party introducing race throughout the presidential campaign.
I don't look like the Americans who have previously spoken in this great city.
Meaning, I'm not the same old racist thug pigs that have come over here and spoken to you in the past.
Here is the next one.
This is Obama telling the world to look at Berlin as an example of how the world came together as one.
Look at Berlin, where Germans and Americans learned to work together and trust each other less than three years after facing each other on the field of battle.
Look at Berlin, where the bullet holes in the buildings and the somber stones and pillars near the Brandenburg Gate insist that we never forget our common humanity.
People of the world, look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one.
A total misrepresentation of truth.
The world did not come together as one after World War II, even.
World War II gave us East Germany.
Communist East Germany gave us the Soviet bloc, gave us the Soviet Union.
The world coming together had nothing to do with the Berlin Wall falling.
Two countries made that happen.
United States and Great Britain.
But of course, in the modern era, it's Gorbachev that made it happen.
Gorbachev, Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika, Glasnost, brought it about.
World didn't come together.
The world could not become united against communism.
Most of it is communist to socialism.
The world didn't come together to bring down a Berlin Wall.
If anything, the world came together to oppose the Berlin Wall coming down.
But it didn't stop Ronald Reagan.
Here's the next one.
The fall of the Berlin Wall brought new hope, but that very closeness has given rise to new dangers.
Dangers that cannot be contained within the borders of a country or by the distance of an ocean.
Think about it.
The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.
As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.
Cars in Boston, factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.
All the while his half-brother lived in a nine-square-foot hut.
For all we know, still does live in a nine-square-foot hut.
That's probably the fault of automobiles in Florida.
One more before we go to the break.
Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world?
Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law?
Will we welcome immigrants from different lands and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people.
People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment.
This is our time.
No more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world.
Reject torture, stand for the rule of law, ripping the United States of America.
Being critical of his own country at every opportunity.
The one thing that's missing, purposely so, and it's missing because it cannot possibly be there with this bunch, is the notion, the concept of American exceptionalism.
Now, there's no question America is exceptional.
Not because we're any better or different as human beings.
Not because our DNA has some secret code in it that makes us better people.
It's not it.
But there is the concept of American exceptionalism, and this guy hates it.
This guy doesn't like it, doesn't agree with it, thinks the only thing we're exceptional about is being bullies too big.
We're thieves.
We steal the world's resources.
We need to be cut down to size.
There's more to this, but there's a pattern here.
And the reason I wanted to play the Berlin speech is because it's really no different than the speeches he made at the G20.
Rip America.
Blame America.
America has to change.
Yes, it's America's fault, the financial crisis.
The world must come together.
He doesn't look at himself as president.
He's leader of the world.
All of this is about him.
It's not about representing the interests of the United States wherever he goes.
We'll be back.
Stay with us.
One more sound bite from our archives.
President Obama in Berlin on July 4th, 24th, sorry, July 24th, last summer.
People of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment.
This is our time.
I know my country has not perfected itself.
At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people.
We've made our share of mistakes.
And there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.
So there you have it.
And this is the essence of Barack Obama, to go around the world, apologize for America, admit what he thinks are the imperfections, to disown and ignore the entire concept of American exceptionalism.
As somebody with this view of America has been elected president is still something.
I have trouble believing.
I don't know that I've actually gotten over this.
I mean, I'm an adult, and it is what it is, and you have to deal with it.
But I can't.
We've actually elected somebody with this attitude about his own country to be president.
I'm not going to bother analyzing the voters.
You know, they're cult followers.
They don't care what he says.
It's how he says it.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
There's no suitable explanation that's good.
There's no explanation that will excuse this.
Even if you wanted to, Rush, the people were fooled.
That's not good.
Rush, the people are basically ignorant.
That's not good.
Rush, it's the education system.
That's not good.
There's no good explanation.
Rush, he's African American.
It's just, that's not good.
That's not why we elect or promote people.
Whoa, Rush, but he's so smart.
That's not good because he's not.
We got to redefine smart.
Well, Rush, but he's so eloquent.
He's so elegant.
He speaks so listen to what he says.
Sorry, Rush, you're asking too much of people.
They don't listen to what people say.
It is the image that is cast.
Okay.
That's not good.
He was Rush.
He was running against McCain.
That one might work, but I mean, that's that's that's that one's even iffy.
Okay, back to the phones.
This is Sherry, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
Great to have you.
I'm glad you waved it.
Nice to have you on the program.
Thank you, Rush.
The clip that you played at the beginning of the first hour, Obama, that somebody asked him a question about the pirates while he was talking about housing or something like that, had me really confused because what happened to these great multitasking skills that he could deal with more than one thing at a time?
I guess that doesn't happen, does it?
Well, that has to do with the teleprompter.
The teleprompter wasn't there when he was asked the question about the pirates.
And let me find, what is it?
Audio soundbite, the Biden soundbite we just got.
What is the number that bites so that you can look?
Number 34.
Yeah, this is Joey.
Obama may not be multitasking, but Biden is.
This is what the vice president said this afternoon.
I think what you should do is contact Jim Jones in the White House.
This is being worked on round the clock.
So there you have it, Sherry.
Feel better.
Vice President told reporters there that if they want to know anything about the pirates, they call Jim Jones over the White House.
This is being worked on around the clock.
She hung up.
But Obama, you know, multitasking depends on what's on the teleprompter.
I know Obama did give Bush grief because he was unable to do two things or three at one time.
But Obama, is that soundbite one that we have where Obama, it's that five-second soundbite where Obama declines to comment on the pirate situation?
No.
Number 10.
This is the soundbite she's referring to.
Can we get a quick rant saying the pirates?
Are you smalling pirates?
Guys, we're talking about housing right now.
Guys, we're talking about housing right now.
Not the pirates.
Translates, there's nothing on my teleprompter about the pirates right now.
Jim Jones working on that around the clock.
So Biden is the guy that's comforting people on the work being done to deal with the pirate situation.
Again, as I said, I remain perplexed.
The President of the United States said we're not at war with Islam.
And the Somali pirates, everybody has assumed, are Islamics.
They're Muslims.
So maybe they're not if we're not at war with Islam.
So we've been, who would be on those pirate ships?
And maybe it's the Orthodox Jews, maybe Southern Baptists, but it can't be the Muslims.
And we're back, Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, Topeka, Kansas.
Lucas, your turn.
Great to have you here.
Thank you, Rush.
Good to be here.
Megha Dittos from Flyover Country.
Appreciate that.
First, I just have to say I've had a lot of professors in my day.
I'm an attorney now, but I remember my school days.
They aren't far off, but you've easily been the best professor I've ever had.
Well, thank you, sir, very much.
I not only appreciate that, I understand it.
Hey, I called because you were talking about, and you were getting really close to a legal principle there earlier in your first hour of the show talking about this piracy issue.
There's a legal principle called, I hope I'm pronouncing it right, but it's juice cogens.
It's spelled J-U-S-C-O-G-E-N-S, for anybody that wants to look it up out there.
Essentially, it's a moral, universal moral norm that if it's violated, it basically grants anybody in the entire world sort of a universal jurisdiction.
Are you referring to Hostus Humanis Generis, which is enemies of the human race?
Exactly.
Exactly.
And, you know, it's got categories, piracy, slave trade, war crimes, and that kind of thing.
Right.
And this is why they are not considered criminal.
They are considered enemies of the human race.
Exactly.
And for the longest time, there's been sort of a push sort of behind the scenes in the courts to classify terrorism along those lines.
And I think, you know, my fellow listeners out there would probably be pretty surprised to hear that it's still quite a ways away from getting to the point where terrorists are considered enemies of the entire human race, right along with pirates and others.
And it's simply because while the courts seem to be right in line with it, politicians and the top two that come to mind are the Clintons, who have both now successfully referred to both pirates and terrorists as criminals.
Not enemies of the human race, but simple criminals.
And that is, you know, it really gets to me, but I have a friend who is a former special ops Marine who's in law school right now writing a paper with the question, does terrorism violate juice cogens?
And, you know, initially right off the bat, I thought, well, of course, it has to.
Well, it would, except there's still a lot of people on the left who seem to sympathize with the motives and the motivations behind terrorists.
And I think that's our problem.
It is.
The Clinton administration, I mentioned this in the first hour.
I think a lot of Americans, I hate to disagree with you, I think a lot of Americans understand the error in approaching these people as criminals.
That's one of the reasons 9-11 happened is that the Clinton administration didn't deal with them as enemies, enemy combatants, enemies of human race, enemies of America.
They're just criminals.
And you need to be prosecuted criminally.
You need to go out and collect evidence on them, turn the evidence over to grand juries.
Grand jury testimony is secret, so whatever you discover there can't be shared with intelligence agencies.
This is widely known.
Now, as to the, and Mrs. Clinton, again, that's why I brought this all up today.
She did declare in a soundbite that we played, the cackling soundbite with the defense minister of Morocco, that these are criminals at sea.
Criminals on the high sea, they're not criminals.
They are enemies of the human race.
And that's how they've always been treated.
And it's because, you know, people, how come piracy is rebounding?
Piracy is rebounding precisely because of the American left and the European left's lack of intestinal fortitude, gonads, if you will, to categorize these people as they really are and to pursue them on that basis.
We can't torture them when we don't torture.
Whatever we do is called torture.
Everything we did to get answers was called torture.
We can't do that.
We're mean.
We're the bad guys.
We put them up in a hellhole called Guadalajara.
We're the bad guys.
We're setting a bad example for the world.
These people are just from an oppressed minority.
We're too big.
It's totally understandable why these people would hate us.
We're the world's superpower.
We steal the resources of The world to enrich ourselves, blah, The Democrat Party, you know, enemies of America are friends of the Democrat Party.
This was never more evident than during the Bush administration.
Bill Clinton, Al Gore, a number of Democrats that go across the oceans, make speeches condemning American foreign policy, war policy, condemning the Bush administration, criticizing their own country to build themselves up, a bunch among a bunch of limp wrists in the European and world communities.
So I think the Somali pirates and their emergence, and you might want to say re-emergence, is a clear indication that despite all, they do not consider themselves under a severe threat.
Look at what's happened.
In practically every one of these hijackings, they've been paid the ransom.
They've been paid.
Of course they're going to keep it up.
They have been paid.
There have been some accidents.
I mean, sometimes the Saudis airdrop their ransom in a parachute and missed the boat.
And some of the pirates went out there in a little speedboat and it capsized.
Some of the money went overboard with them.
But they're being paid.
Now, a lot of people ask me, Rush, how come these ships aren't armed?
Everybody says, well, just put some machine guns, give some machine guns to the crew.
When you see the pirates showing up, wipe them out.
You maritime captains out there can back me up on this.
But the historical reason why you don't arm the crew on a vessel, a cargo vessel, is to guard against mutiny against the captain and the ship.
Because you know how CEOs are hated today.
And the captain of the ship is a CEO.
And employees resent and they're being told to resent the boss.
So the boss makes you do some things on board if you've got machine guns, ostensibly to gun down the Somali pirates and conduct a mutiny.
So that's one of the reasons that they aren't armed.
Why they have to go out and hire private security that is armed, I'd have to don't know enough.
I'm not informed enough to be able to answer the question, especially when they're going to be traversing waters where they know the piracy is taking place and the pirates are active.
But in any regard, you're right in the sense that the Somali pirates, they're being paid.
Why stop?
They're not being treated as enemies of the human race as they were in the past, 200 years ago when they were wiped out.
They were considered hostus humanis generis, which is enemies of the human race.
In other words, they were alien enemy combatants deemed to have no claim on the rights afforded to criminals by the civilized world.
Clearly, they're not being viewed or treated in that manner any longer.
And as human nature would tell us, if they're going to get paid and if they're going to get away with it, and even if they get caught, they just get a slap on the wrist.
What's the downside to them?
Folks, I swear, I feel like just stopping here and going back home, getting out of bed, and coming back in and starting all over.
Dear Rush, we trust you out here.
Now you tell us you met with Obama when before you said you didn't meet with Obama.
Then you say you really didn't lie.
You sound just like Bill Clinton, parsing words.
Why are you announcing that you met with Obama now?
Because if somebody broke the story, so now you have to admit it to us that you lied.
And not only this, but at the time you developed this huge story, you told us on the air a couple days later that it was funny, and now it turns out to have been completely fabricated.
You made all of this up to cover for an off-the-record meeting with the man you and we want to fail.
I will never see you the same way again.
I am extremely disappointed.
I am very disappointed.
You are no longer trustworthy.
Signed, Doug in Milwaukee.
These are days.
These are days when I think I'm not paid enough.
Let's go back to the first hour of the program.
Let me do this again for those of you who are hearing about this for the first time via Doug in Milwaukee's email in which he claims he's very disappointed, extremely disappointed, no longer trustworthy.
Remember the Tuesday prior to Obama's inauguration, one week prior, I was invited to the White House for lunch with the president in the dining room off the Oval Office.
Went up there and had lunch and then went to the East Room for a Medal of Honor ceremony and flew home.
This is what I told you.
The day prior on Monday, I slipped up and I said, I'll see you tomorrow.
Well, the last words I said on Monday show when I knew I wasn't going to be here because I had the appointment for lunch in the White House.
So the guest host that day, Jason Lewis, informed you at my direction that I had received a late-night phone call, an emergency dispatch to go to Washington the next day.
When I'm flying home from Washington late in the afternoon, news breaks that Obama's dining with 10 or 11 conservative pundits at George Wills' house.
And everybody wants to know if I'm going.
So no, I didn't even know about this.
The story became, was I going to be there?
I essentially hijacked this.
And I said, I didn't meet with Obama.
I had offered to meet with Obama.
He had said that he would talk to anybody and listen to anybody who had alternative ideas.
And I said, I had some.
I said, I'd get there anytime you want to talk, Mr. President-elect.
And I said, we hadn't met.
And I got up today and I realized, ladies and gentlemen, that it was time for me to come clean.
That I did meet with President Obama after I left the White House and before he went to George Wills' house.
And I told him in person, told him in person, I didn't want him to succeed.
I didn't want his policies to work.
I told him in person.
I told him tax cuts would revive this economy.
He could be one of the greatest presidents ever.
He could inspire people using his talents and his oratorical skills as a teleprompter to inspire people.
But the way he was going about it, it wasn't going to work, and I didn't want it to work.
And I said, you don't have enough executive experience to be pulling this off.
He said, that's okay.
I'm going to do it my way.
I won.
I provide a vision.
I never admitted this until today when I heard Vice President Biden had said this two days ago on CNN.
I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office, and he was a great guy.
I enjoyed being with him.
He said to me, he said, well, Joe, he said, I'm a leader.
And I said, Mr. President, turn around and look behind you.
No one's following.
People are beginning to follow the United States again as a consequence of our administration.
Now, the White House, the Bush White House, everybody in it is denying this took place.
Biden made it up.
He was never alone.
In fact, the Bush administration had a policy.
If you got somebody from the Senate, you're going to have somebody from the House in there so that nobody feels upset.
But from Andy Card, the chief of staff, to the press secretaries to Karl Rove, this did not happen.
That Biden didn't go in there and say, turn around and look behind you, Mr. President.
Nobody's following you.
And the president did not say, Joe, I'm a leader.
But he's out there saying it on CNN.
I fully expect the Obama camp to deny today that he met with me.
You know, in the old days, the way I would have done this, I would have done this without even mentioning Biden.
I would have assumed that everybody knew the Biden story and that I was making fun of Biden, that I was illustrating absurdity by being absurd.
Another brilliant radio bit, but I knew, I knew today that if I came out here and said, folks, I lied to you, I did meet with Obama and I told him to his face, I want you to fail.
I want your policies to fail.
You said you got, you listen to alternative ideas, try tax cuts.
You could build this country back.
I said, this isn't going to work, and I don't want it to work.
I knew if I did that, that for three days, the story would be Limbaugh lied, the Obama administration would be denying all, and I would be relying on the fact that everybody would know that I'm just making fun of Biden.
So today, knowing full well that that doesn't work anymore, I decided to even put the Biden thing in it, which kills the effectiveness of the bit by 50%, but I still did it.
And I still get an email from somebody who's disappointed, wants to cancel his damn subscription, cancel it yourself, and says to me, I can't be trusted anymore.
We're going to take a commercial break.
I normally don't take commercial breaks at this time.
I'm going to take a commercial break.
I feel like I'm in the day the earth stood still.
Oh.
Kay, we'll be back.
Sit tight, my friends.
Don't go away.
The EIB network will continue.
If this is live.
All right, we're going to keep plugging away here, and eventually something is going to work.
Oklahoma City.
Kyle, nice to have you on the EIB network, sir.
Hello.
Megan Dittos from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Rush.
Great to have you on the program, Kyle, from Oklahoma.
Thank you very much.
If only Hillary would have warned you there would be days like this.
One thing I wanted to point out here that I think has political implications to really help out Obama.
You know, he's being touted right now as the great peacemaker, but he has to flex his political muscle on the war front.
And right now, he can't take credit for the success in Iraq as he had absolutely nothing to do with any of it.
But if he brings back the so-called war on terror, which I predict he will, in regards to Iran, in regards to the piracy.
No, no, no, no.
The war on terror is gone from the lexicon.
Right.
But we now have, we have madman contingencies.
So this is not even piracy.
This is a high seas contingency.
But that's my whole point.
I think this, but who came up with that?
That was Hillary who brought that about.
If he brings it back, see, Hillary already warned us that there would be days like this.
But if he brings back the war on terror, Obama takes away the credibility from her and gives it back to himself in that process.
And all of a sudden, he's the wartime hero we've been looking for.
He's the superhero in America, and he's the one that we want.
And lastly, and I'll just wrap this up here.
I'll let you respond to that.
But I wanted to make a special invitation to you, sir.
I don't know.
It isn't going to happen.
He said we're not war with Islam.
Right.
And by the way, he is taking credit for the success in Iraq by going to Walter Reed and praising the valor of the troops there.
All in hindsight, right?
I understand.
But what I'm trying to point out is that when he comes back, whenever he goes up and stands in front of the podium, the teleprompter tells him, put on the war on terror, bring it back in full force.
He's the wartime superhero we've been waiting for.
And that's what I predict would come about.
That's because he's falling flat in this big issue of national security.
Nobody trusts the guy.
He intends to.
There is U.S. national security is going to be improved by making us weaker.
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