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Feb. 11, 2011 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:51
February 11, 2011, Friday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
I haven't seen the media this happy since Grant Park, Election Night 2008.
They're practically over, they're not reporting.
The media is cheering.
They wouldn't have minded if there had been a bloody civil war over there out of all this.
And of course, like Vice President Beitney says, They have no skin in the game, meaning if they were wrong about all this, they go back to their safe Western homes.
They leave the chaos to others.
The essence of the definition of drive-by media, the president of our country, who is not resigning and not turning over the country to the military, which is what's happened in Egypt.
It's a military coup.
They're calling it a soft coup.
And our media loves it.
Our media loves the military running Egypt.
Now, President Obama scheduled a speak at 1.30 today.
Our understanding is that that may be delayed just a bit.
White House is racing to build a fake pyramid backdrop.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's Open Line Friday.
Sayor Obama want to claim credit for all of this.
They were so humiliated and embarrassed yesterday.
But folks, all day long during yesterday's program, and I even alluded to this, we didn't know what was going on.
All day long, Mubarak to speak in moments.
Mubarak to step down.
The press was humiliated yesterday.
They were angry.
So was Obama.
And Panetta, I mean, our guys running a Panetta running around talking about, yeah, he's going to leave.
I saw it on CNN.
And we got Clapper.
Muslim Brotherhood?
No problem.
Peace-loving bunch.
They're totally secular group.
Obama goes out there, makes that 1.30 in the afternoon speech yesterday, trying to make this event in Egypt the first step of his 2012 reelection effort, change youth.
And none of it happened, of course.
So everybody, media, Obama, just ticked off like they can't.
You don't mess with our media.
You don't mislead our guys like that.
You don't make our media look like a bunch of slubs.
And so they are, I haven't seen them this happy.
They always rip into me, say, well, Limboy just does what he does for ratings.
How come nobody ever talks about what they do for ratings?
We're led to believe they don't care about ratings.
They face a higher calling.
They talk about anti-Mubaric forces, but they refuse to tell us who these anti-Mubaric forces are.
Who are the anti-Mubaric forces?
Oh, and by the way, ladies and gentlemen, an interesting little story here.
This is from the New York Times.
Iran's authorities have increased pressure on the country's political opposition days before a rally proposed by opposition leaders in support of the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
The Mullahs and Mahmoud Ahmedine Izad are telling the opposition in Iran, you shut up, you don't form, you don't go out there, you don't form these protests.
You better not do what they did in Tunisia.
You better not do what they did in Egypt.
What will Obama say to that opposition?
What will the American regime say to the opposition of Mahmoud Ahmedinizad in Iran?
They want to hold a rally inspired by Egypt and Tunisia.
Will Obama give a speech?
Will he urge them on?
Will he support them?
Will the United States media go from Egypt to Tehran and advocate and agitate for opposition uprising to overthrow the mullahs and Ahmadinezad?
Will there be any consistency?
We know one thing, any uprising in Iran damn well would be democratic.
The uprising in Iran is a democratic uprising.
The people over there are fed up that has been going on since 2000.
Well, actually, prior to 2009, but 2009, the most recent, where we didn't do anything.
So we're going to selectively choose.
We will selectively choose who it is that we support demanding democracy.
Will the regime, will Obama at 1.30 chide Ahmadine Zad and the Mullahs for telling the uprising in Iran to shut up, stand down, and you better not do it?
If Obama can't find a way to make what's bubbling up in Iran useful for his campaign, he'll stop it, thereby prove there's no consistency, there's no symmetry to it.
This is pure cherry pick.
Guardian, UK, U.S. and world wrong-footed by Mubarak as White House tries to keep up.
Now, this is a story published, of course, before Mubarak turned over the country to the military.
And now it's going to be interesting to see what this is the first phase.
The second revolution, what will that be?
Right now, the military, in what the media is calling it a provingly soft coup.
Will the military engage now in a military dictatorship?
Or will they pave the way for some democratically elected replacement for Mubarak?
Before all that happened, the UK Guardian, this is no conservative publication, it's a big liberal rag.
U.S. and world wrong-footed by Mubarak as White House tries to keep up by refusing to leave office.
The Egyptian president has exposed Obama's inability to decisively influence the country.
And they ask, what about the Cairo speech?
And of course, this is true.
You know, what you can say, what happened today happened, and they're conflicting stories.
Robert Gibbs says that we didn't talk to him before this happened today.
By the way, this is Gibbs' last day as the White House press secretary.
He said, we didn't talk to him, but Jake Tapper has a story.
He says, oh, yeah, we were talking to him last night.
So we don't know what the true story is about that.
But from the UK Guardian, Mubarak's response offers further evidence of the United States' slow decline from its status as superpower to a position where it is unable to decisively influence events in Egypt in spite of that country being one of the biggest recipients of U.S. military aid.
That's the UK Guardian.
And they love Obama.
I mean, they're big time.
By the way, Oprah came out.
She made a statement on television.
I don't know if she realizes how she painted Obama as weak and ineffective.
I'll get to that as the program unfolds.
I just realize lots of stuff here to do today, folks.
Try to squeeze it all in here three hours of our open line Friday.
But this UK Guardian piece, the only thing Obama has been successful at is pushing the U.S. slow decline from its status as superpower, which is, from the standpoint of the regime, a success.
Well, don't, low, look at me.
This is the president who's run around and told the world that the U.S. economy will never again be the leader of the free world's economy.
U.S. consumers will not be any longer.
Intelligence agencies look like fools.
The president looks like a fool and all these.
Got, I got a, you know, I've been scribbling notes here in chronological order, some of it now irrelevant, just to share with you as the events unfolded.
But I mean, it's no wonder the news media is so upset about Mubarak misleading the people.
That's the media's job, and he took over.
You know, Mubarak wanted everybody to believe he's leaving last night.
And all these networks, I don't care newspapers, magazines, TV networks, they all were in moments.
In moments, Obama or Mubarak will make a speech and leave.
He didn't.
And in fact, he said last night in his speech, we're not going to be pushed around here.
I believe that's why he hung up.
I think if we had just shut up, he'd have gone.
But we got, there's Obama out there using this as a campaign aid for 2012.
Mubarak's a proud guy.
He's not going to sit there and look, make it look like he's a puppet.
So he goes out and makes his speech.
Hell no, we're not going to be pushed around purposely to humiliate the media and the regime.
So media ticked off, upset Mubarak misleading the people.
After all, that's the media's job, and he did a good job of it, almost as good a job as they do.
Here's a little audio sound bite.
This is, as I say, it's like they're back in Grit, Grant Park in Chicago.
CNN Newsroom is the show.
This morning live in Tahrir Square, which is actually a circle.
Correspondent Arwa Damon reported about Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepping down.
I cannot even begin to describe the atmosphere here.
The crowd has gone absolutely insane, hysterical with enjoyment.
Can't think of God is great.
Can't think we are all Egyptians.
The mission is unthinkable that has been accomplished here.
Demonstrations that began over Facebook and Twitter, taking on a life of their own, brings down one of the best known dictators in the Middle East.
This is such a moment for Asia and you're not just for Egypt for the employer reaching.
Good Lord, take a breath.
That's just an example of the cheerleading, the excitement, the happiness.
They haven't been.
She's happier about this than the Republicans losing the House in 2006.
And they were deliriously happy about that.
I mean, this, to give you an indication, they were all in on this.
We had no skin in the game, but they were the media is totally invested in the outcome of events here.
And I'm just going to say one more thing about this crowd.
All this talk about a Democratic uprising popularized by social network sites, Facebook, and so forth.
I have had time to read all kinds of stuff about this group, this I don't want to call it a mob, the protester bunch.
And folks, they're all leftists.
They're all feminists.
They're avowed socialists, leftists, communists, environmentalists.
I don't believe this is spray.
We got Tunisia, then this thing springs up.
I don't believe that this is just spontaneity.
I think this is classic.
This is a rent-a-mob.
I don't doubt that there are genuine grievances felt by some of the people in this group, but this is not a spontaneous, gee, nobody knew this was coming moment.
These people this is the result of organizing.
This is a, this is classic community organizing in Egypt.
That's why Obama's trying to connect himself to it.
It's Open Line Friday.
We get to the phones.
The content of the program is all yours.
Whatever you want to talk about is fine.
Telephone number is 800-282-2882 and the email address LRushbo at EIBnet.com.
I'll bet you if we looked, I'll bet you if we scanned every audio and video feed we have, we could find some members of the worldwide media.
I might even include some American media people in here shouting, Allahu Akbar.
God is great.
I wouldn't be surprised.
It's embarrassing.
It literally is embarrassing.
And of course, you know, all hell's going to still break loose here.
This is a military coup.
This is not the end.
There's something left to come after this.
But when that happens, the media is going to be long gone.
Back to their homes, their big cars and so forth.
And moving on to the next story that they can totally disrupt, thereby defining drive-by media.
Quick take.
Back after this, my friends, in a moment.
Hi, welcome back.
Rushland Ball, the cutting edge of societal evolution.
By the way, ladies and gentlemen, the president, as you know, is supposed to speak at 1.30.
I haven't decided whether we'll jip it or not.
I hope by 1.30 we're on to other things.
What's happening in the House and the Senate vis-a-vis defunding of health care?
There's some fireworks happening on that issue, and I intend to fully inform you.
But the president did have a message for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
We have that.
Mike, you have that handy.
I know that we, yeah, we have that standing by.
This is in lieu of whether we join the president at 130 or not.
The Muslim Brotherhood purely secular.
Here's this Oprah Winfrey story.
She was on television this morning.
She said that she wants more respect for Obama.
She's upset that Obama's not getting enough respect from people.
She said, I feel everybody has a learning curve, and I feel that the reason why I was willing to step out for Obama was because I believed in his integrity, and I believed in his heart.
I think everybody campaigning ought to try what Obama's doing just once before they start criticizing.
She said the presidency is a position that holds a sense of authority and governance over all of us.
And even if you're not in support of his policies, there needs to be a certain level of respect.
Now, I wonder, I wonder when the Oprah will figure out that she has just succeeded in positioning Obama as weak and failing.
Hey, come on.
Hey, you know it's a tough job.
You try it.
You know, it's got a learning curve.
I mean, I was willing to step out for him because I believe his integrity and I believed in his heart.
She's begging America to respect the man-child who's out of his league.
That's what's going on.
I mean, after all, Obama claimed he was going to lower the seas, heal the sick, create millions of jobs, 90% of them in the private sector.
Hasn't done that.
And there has been a proportionate decline in respect.
So what does the Oprah do?
She pleads for us to respect.
And what does that mean?
Respect the most powerful man in the world.
Hey, look, this is not accidental, Oprah.
We jammed unpopular, unconstitutional laws down our throats.
Jobs, the deficit's a disaster.
Foreign policy is embarrassing.
It's in disarray.
You have to earn respect.
In many parts of the world, we're a laughingstock.
All right, now, if you've been paying any attention, you probably think that these people in Egypt have salted the earth.
I mean, these are the greatest people.
They've been living under the boots of Mubarak and these thugs, and it's a great democratic uprising, and it's about time.
Who are they?
Well, InvestorsDaily.com is a pew poll.
What Egyptians really want, and it's kind of interesting.
Here's some highlights on the pew poll.
49% of Egyptians say that Islam plays only a small role in public affairs under Mubarak.
95% prefer the religion play a large role.
They're unhappy.
Islam is not a prominent enough factor in their politics.
84% favor the death penalty for people who leave the Muslim faith.
These are the people, the group that you see protesting.
82% support stoning adulterers.
77% think that thieves should have their hands cut off.
54% support a law segregating women from men in the workplace.
54% of Egyptians believe suicide bombings that kill civilians can be justified.
Nearly half of Egyptians support the terror group Hamas.
30% of Egyptians have a favorable opinion of Hezbollah.
20% maintain positive views of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
And 82% of Egyptians dislike the United States.
That's the highest unfavorable rating among the 18 Muslim nations that the Pew people have surveyed.
Now, all this I gleaned from an editorial at investors.com, the Investors Business Daily.
They summarized the Pew Paul.
So that's who it is that we are talking about with their democratic uprising.
Now free of the soft military coup.
We are back, Open Line Friday, Rush Limbaugh.
And we will get to your calls, El Quico, soon as Snertly finds any that are...
Look, we need to stipulate something here.
We still, even though I say Open Line Friday, you can talk about whatever you want to talk about, we still are not going to relax our demand for overall cogence and intelligence.
Snerdley tells me that there is a movement out there, people calling in saying, why don't we export republics instead of democracy?
We're not going to.
That doesn't pass the IQ test.
Just because I say I don't have to be interested doesn't mean we're going to turn the program over to people whose IQs can fit in a pencil eraser.
No offense.
That's just the way it is.
Now, this Egypt stuff, I think all of you know the essence of what's happened here.
And you're fully aware why the media is all upset and how they were humiliated and so forth.
Just a little summary of things to keep things in perspective here.
And pointing out there are some great opportunities to illustrate hypocrisy here.
One example, this is a story that ran last night, actually this morning, in the 8 a.m. hour.
It's from the Associated Press.
Losing patience, Obama challenges Egypt's leaders, showing deepening dismay.
President Obama is questioning whether Mubarak's promised transfer of power has any credibility or meaning.
As a defiant, Mubarak stayed in office.
Obama challenged the Egyptian government to explain its path toward democracy to its people and the world.
So Obama was furious.
I mean, these guys were humiliated by Mubarak yesterday.
And Obama goes out and makes that silly, childish, self-centered, narcissistic, immature campaign speech in Michigan, trying to make what's happening in Egypt really an extension of his own campaign of 2008.
So Obama was furious that he got slapped around, the media furious that they got slapped around because their demands haven't been met.
But here's my question: Isn't this the same Barack Obama and the same news media that claimed the United States has interfered with other countries for far too long?
Isn't this the same Barack Obama who said, now that I'm here, the world's going to love us, the world is going to respect us, and we're no longer going to impose our way on people?
No more of this cowboy foreign policy.
I don't know about you, ladies and gentlemen.
I definitely remember Obama all through his campaign.
The left constantly has, throughout my entire life, said, We can't impose our way on the rest of the world.
It's none of our business.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
In fact, most of the time, the left has contests with itself to see who can get us out of various parts of the world.
I'll never forget during the 84 Democrat presidential primary, Gary Hartpence was seeking the Democrat nomination against Walter F. Mondo, and they got into an argument over who could get us out of South Africa first.
And then that elevated into who can get us out of there and who over there.
I'll get us out of there.
I'll take us out.
Now, all of a sudden, we are demanding Obama, his regime, and the media demanding that Hosni Mubarak do what we say.
And haven't these people complained?
Didn't they complain during the 2008 presidential campaign?
We are too arrogant as a country.
We are too arrogant of people.
We practice cowboy diplomacy.
It's none of our business.
We're not going to impose our views on other governments.
But the first time things don't go Obama's way, he becomes angry, petulant, apoplectic.
Without naming Mubarak directly, Obama issued a written statement Thursday night in which he criticized the leader for a lack of clarity and direction.
Boy, you talk about the pot calling the kettle half black.
I cannot believe that.
Getting on Mubarak's case for lacking clarity and direction.
That assessment came after Mubarak surprised those protesting in Egypt streets by saying that he would shift powers to his vice president but remain in charge.
Why was anybody surprised?
We know people were surprised because the media was reporting all day yesterday that Mubarak was gone.
In mere moments, he's going to make a speech.
In mere moments.
In mere moments, Obama or Mubarak will address the people and all of their concerns will be met.
This was the media.
And by the way, it was our media that provided the source information for our CIA director and for our president.
So, and the people on the ground in Egypt.
So listening to the media, the U.S. media, the rest of the media, oh, Mubarak was just be patient.
A couple minutes here, a couple hours, whatever.
He's going to show up.
He's going to speak.
He's going to give you what you want.
He's going to leave.
Might even commit suicide for you.
He's going.
Well, that didn't happen.
And so who are they mad at?
Mubarak.
But Mubarak was never the source authority for the fact that he was leaving.
He had been widely expected to step down on Thursday, even as the CIA chief had suggested was in the office.
Now, this is APA.
Did not include that Panetta said this because he had seen it on CNN.
Why are we paying Leon Panetta?
Why do we have a CIA?
I mean, anybody can turn on CNN and learn what's going on.
Look, I would just as soon use Strat4.com as I would CNN to figure out what's going in American foreign policy.
So anyway, there's that.
They're all upset.
If Egypt, my friends, has made anything clear, and this is not necessarily good, it is that Obama has no idea what's going to happen five minutes from now.
He's flying by the seat of his pants.
You don't go out and make speeches based on information you're getting from television, from the media.
Triumphant, ding-dong, the witch is dead kind of speeches.
And trying to make the events in Egypt an extension of your own campaign from 2008?
The sad reality here, folks, is that events around the world continue to slap Obama upside the head.
He is perpetually caught by surprise.
And that's not good for America.
Who in their right mind would roll out a recovery summer campaign when the facts on our economy were so well known?
Recovery summer.
That was last summer, but two summers ago was recovery summer.
Oh, wait a minute.
Or was it last summer?
Well, whatever it was, it still hasn't happened.
A week ago, Obama led us to believe that this would be Recovery February for Egypt.
Now, what's clear to me is that I think part of Obama's problem is that he's obsessed with settling past grievances at the expense of future progress.
He doesn't seem to care as much about winning the future, this is his slogan, as he does redistributing yesterday's transactions, or as he sees them transgressions.
So it became obvious Obama is now out to settle a score with Mubarak because Mubarak humiliated and embarrassed him.
Has Obama been doing what's necessary and appropriate to have a stable ally in Egypt a year from now?
We don't have any idea.
It doesn't appear so.
Obama's making this all about him.
The Egyptians dissed him, and they're going to find out what that means.
You don't diss Obama like this.
President of the United States, a situation like this goes on television supposed to tell the American people what it means for our interests.
That still hasn't happened.
And I don't think anybody in our regime has the slightest idea what this means.
Certainly not if their source information is CNN and the rest of the media.
You can't win the future with poor judgment, a mountain of debt, an addiction to spending, and an administration staffed with amateurs and radical leftists.
We're not winning the future.
Slogans be damned.
So you have a president, Barack Obama, surrounding himself with people angry about yesterday, angry about last month, angry about 200 years ago, angry about something in this country rather than proud.
Well, after two years, this much we know.
Obama's fixation on what he sees as past injustices has made it impossible to win a 24-hour news cycle, much less the future.
And now it's all about the 24-hour news cycle.
Proclaim victory there, and nothing else matters.
Obama, his presidency, apologizing for America.
His policies are an apology for free markets.
I mean, it just, this is just disastrous, looking at all this.
And the foreign press, the foreign press clearly understands this.
They see it and they report it.
You know, in some parts of the world, in some parts of the world that really depend on us for their defense, military defense, security, whatever, I guarantee you, many parts of the world, they're looking at a presidency unraveling here.
There's no stability.
There is no sense of competence.
From Obamacare to Egypt, from the stimulus bill to the deficit, from the Olympics bid for Chicago to bowing down to foreign leaders, from the trampling on creditors' constitutional rights, Chrysler and so forth, failing to uphold voting rights.
That's the new Black Panthers.
This president has demonstrated his incompetence at every turn.
I mean, we're in the middle.
We're in the middle, watching the destruction of the U.S. economy and the unraveling of our very foundation, right before our very eyes.
Jimmy Carter's second term, indeed.
I mean, look at it this way.
We have Panetta showing total incompetence as CIA director, quoting a, what was it, Twitter feed, a tweet that was totally wrong.
And then that guy Clapper testifying the Muslim Brotherhood is secular.
Obama trying to take credit in personalizing this powder keg situation, using it as an extension of his own campaign.
We've got incompetence, we've got immaturity, inexcusable, amateurish, clumsy Bush League behavior, dare I say, a little twist on the words.
Say what you want about Egypt, but they were an Arab ally in the Middle East.
And I hope we don't lose them.
But folks, it appears to me we could very easily lose Egypt like Jimmy Carter lost Libya and Iran, but the stakes are so much higher now.
You know, one four-year term of utter incompetence in Jimmy Carter.
Okay, fine.
But no, not a second one.
Not compounding on, and certainly not during these times.
Mubarak leaves Cairo as military asserts control.
And this is not part of the Egyptian constitution.
All right, let's go to the phones.
It's always exciting.
You never know.
Sometimes it can bomb royally.
Not always, not even frequently.
What was it?
Three or four weeks ago, maybe longer timefront.
Eight weeks ago, you have not forgotten it.
What have you marked it on your calendar?
Eight weeks ago, Open Line Friday was an utter bomb.
And it was such a bomb.
It was funny.
And this doesn't happen very often, but it did eight weeks ago.
So we start always with a little trepidation.
I, frankly, folks, to share something, I'm very trepidatious because Snerdley, I have watched him screening calls during this entire first hour.
And I swear I saw blood pressure rising.
He was moments away from whipping that telephone headset off his head and throwing it down the ground just like Rex Ryan when the Jets lost to the Steelers and storming out of the room.
I finally said during a brief, what are you getting?
He said, I've got a bunch of people who think we ought to be exporting republics and not democracies.
I said, well, it's one of those, huh?
So we'll see.
But look, I just want to reiterate something here, folks.
Obama, we're not going to impose our will on anybody anymore.
We're not going to do that.
The days of Bush and Cowboy are over.
We're not going to do that except on Israel.
We'll impose everything on it.
We'll tell Israel where they can and can't build houses for crying out loud.
And we will impose our way on the American people.
But we're not going to impose our will anywhere else.
And yet here they are.
I find Obama's respect for protests funny.
He hates the Tea Party.
He hates their rallies.
He accuses them of being all kinds of things.
But the protesters in Egypt, why they are great Muslim Brotherhood secular.
They're not interested in violence.
Obama loves these people in Egypt.
All the while he is in violation of a federal judge.
This man is so concerned about the law in Egypt.
He's got his own health care bill declared unconstitutional.
And he acts like the court has never ruled.
So all this talk about democracy and the rule of law, give me a break.
He's flipping Judge Vinson the bird.
He may claim to love democracy in Egypt.
And he knows what that group is.
He's a community organizer.
He knows exactly what that group is.
That's why he's such a big supporter of that.
He knows that group's just a bunch of agitators.
But to sit around and start talking about, oh, we love democracy and we want to see democracy.
Whenever we see it bubbling up, we're going to support it out there.
Yeah.
Except when the judge says your health care bill is unconstitutional, we're going to ignore that.
He loves democracy in action, except when it's the Tea Party.
Then all of a sudden they become a bunch of tea baggers, as far as he's concerned.
Yeah.
I'm not kidding.
The American Tea Party, they're responsible for shooting people.
They're responsible for all the violence.
Who's responsible for all?
I mean, who's worked this crowd up into a fevered pitch?
I don't know that my program's on the air there.
And if it were, they wouldn't like me much.
Shiva Jackson Lee says that the Republicans are clogging up Congress like a clogged toilet.
We'll have that in the next hour.
Also, what's the status of defunding Obamacare?
It's not as simple.
It seems.
It's not apparently as smooth as you might think.
There's some trouble out there.
I'll do my best to decipher all that's going on.
And we're waiting for the regime here to side with the Democratic protesters in Iran.
Let's see if they have Iran.
Iran.
There are Democratic protesters in Iran.
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