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Sept. 14, 2012 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:06
September 14, 2012, Friday, Hour #2
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Fighting through the frustration, fighting through the incredulity, trying to better ram through what appears to be rampant blockheadedness all over the place out there.
I am Ilrushbo, your guiding light on Friday.
Live from the Southern Command in sunny South Florida.
It's open line Friday.
Yes, sir, and a telephone number if you want to be on the program's 800-282-2882.
We've already taken a call today, too.
We actually have.
We have done that.
I think it's been aside from last Friday.
It's been a month since I took a phone call, the first hour of the show.
But I made the promise and I kept it.
So 800-282-2882, if you want to be in a program to email address L Rushbow.
EIBNet.com.
Here we are, folks, meeting and surpassing all of your expectations each and every day.
A top official.
This is from Chatsworth's Chessworth Osborne Jr.'s website, the Daily Caller.
A top official at a liberal super PAC with the goal of getting rid of all Tea Partiers from Congress is telling activists that it's more effective with voters.
It's more effective to label Republicans as racists than to criticize their policies.
According to an audio recording obtained by the Daily Caller, Matthew Mudcat Arnold, the national campaign manager for the liberal credo super PAC told a gathering of supporters in Colorado on September 8th that they have realized, the Democrats have realized that policy doesn't move voters.
Trying to warn people about Romney based on policy isn't gonna work.
Doesn't work.
What they have found, they tried it.
They used Steve King from Iowa.
And this this guy, Mudcat Arnold, said when we said that Steve King is pro-life and believes in cutting social security and voted for the Ryan budget, nobody cared.
But when we said Steve King is a racist, that he believes immigrants ought to be put in electric fences, that's when we move people.
When you talk about the substance of a guy's character, people respond, said Mudcat Arnold.
Believe it or not, that's not something politicians knew.
Give me a break.
You really want us to try to believe here, Mudcat, that politicians don't know about calling Republicans racists and sexists and bigots and homophobes and all that.
So anyway, this is out there.
I I don't know how widespread it is.
But it shouldn't be a surprise to anybody.
But it's it it I guess a good explanation or illustration of why they doubled down on this stuff.
I also find it interesting, and this is accept this guy at his word just for the fun of it.
Um he's just saying out loud what the news media have known for years, but think about this.
Policy, explaining where some conservative is on policy, doesn't change people's minds.
You can't, in fact, you can't get somebody to vote against a Republican if you explain his policies to voters.
Voters are not moved by that, but if you tell voters the guys are racist, then you've won.
That's how you move them.
And the media have been doing this for years.
And it is why, folks, there is so much paralysis in the Republican Party about criticizing Obama.
That explains it in a nutshell.
I mentioned Jay Carney right before the end of the previous hour, saying that what's going on in the Middle East, uh, these protests are not directed at the government, they're not directed at Obama.
They're not directed at U.S. policy.
This is all because of the video.
The morning press briefing, we've got The audio now.
Reporters said, as you know the unrest of the Middle East spreading to other embassies.
The President's critics are saying it's an indictment of his handling of the Arab Spring.
That's not what we're saying.
Anyway, that this is uh given rise to further inflamed sediment among Islamists.
What's what's his response to that, Jay?
I would note that many observers, commentators, foreign policy experts, as well as elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans.
Oh, come on, stop it!
I can.
If I'd have known he's going to say that, I wouldn't have bothered playing it because it just ticks me off.
Here you start out with a list of all of these straw.
Go ahead and re-cue it to the top.
I know I've got to play it.
Many observers, commentators, foreign policy experts, elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans have pointed out that.
Where have they pointed it out?
Where have all of these experts?
These straw men, where have they all agreed that it is the YouTube video?
Everywhere I look, people are trying to denounce that.
It's secondary.
This is much bigger than that.
And here you have the regime not willing to face up to that.
Okay, here's the whole answer again.
I promise to let it all go by.
I would note that many observers, commentators, foreign policy experts, as well as elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans have uh pointed out that the criticism in particular from Governor Romney and his team in what seems to be an attempt to score a political point has been uh both factually wrong and poorly timed.
Now is a time when Americans should be coming together.
And then Jake Tapper, ABC News.
Wouldn't it seem logical that the anniversary of 9-11 would be a time that you would want to have some extra security around diplomats and military posts?
Let's be clear.
This these protests were in reaction to a video that had spread to the region.
At Benghazi.
We certainly don't know.
We don't know otherwise.
Uh you know, we have no uh information to suggest that it was a pre-planned uh.
The unrest we've seen around the region has been in reaction to uh a video that Muslims, many Muslims find offensive.
Nobody's seen it.
Ten people have seen it in June.
A snippet here, a snippet there on YouTube.
These people haven't seen it.
This insults my intelligence.
This is the kind of stuff that uh you just you want these people to get smoked on election day.
Just this this we're so much better than this.
What about Benghazi?
Well, uh certainly uh certainly no information to suggest it was pre-planned.
What do you mean no information to suggest it was pre-planned?
It's all over the place that it was pre-planned.
Reaction to a video.
You know, these are these are children.
They cannot accept responsibility for anything.
You don't, you're never gonna do the right thing.
This is this is not about Obama.
This is about the United States national security, big nation, at-risk, dangerous world.
This is not about these guys.
And they want to turn it into everything about these guys, about his re-election, about his perception, about his image.
Here's uh another, let's see, Dan Lothian, CNN said to Carnegie, well, you mentioned a number of times now that this in response to a video or film.
Would you not agree, Jay, that it's moved beyond that now?
I mean, uh this some are stirring violence by focusing on U.S. policy or targeting the U.S. in general.
It's just no longer just about the film.
The reason why there is unrest uh is because of the film.
This is in response to the film.
Well, we obviously are not uh polling protesters to find out what their motivations are.
And this is not a film that the United States government had anything to do with.
We reject its message and its contents.
We find it both disgusting and reprehensible.
America has a history of religious tolerance and respect for religious beliefs.
And that history goes back to our nation's.
You guys don't.
Try being the Catholic church with you guys in office.
Anyway, uh it's obvious that that little Jay have been sent out there to say it's the movie, it's the movie, it's the movie.
Whatever the question, it's the movie.
Whatever the question, the answer, it's the movie.
Whatever the it's a film.
It's in response to the film.
Whatever the question, that is the answer.
I mentioned earlier that Paul Ryan was doing a really great job, the uh value voters summit in Washington.
And I have three sound bites here that I want you to hear just an example of Ryan's speech today.
It is true.
That President Obama, he had a lot of problems, not of his own making.
But he also came in with one party rule and the chance to do everything of his own choosing.
The Obama economic agenda failed, not because it was stopped, but because it was passed.
That's a key distinction.
Yes, I love it.
Brevity is the soul of wit.
Simplicity.
The Obama agenda failed not because it was stopped, but because it was passed, because it was enacted.
And listen to poor little Barry run around, a Republicans got in his way, we couldn't get together, Republicans, Democrats weren't unified, didn't you get to finish all the things he wanted to do?
We are in this mess because what he wanted, he got.
We are in this mess because what he wanted happened and what he wants to continue happening will continue to happen if he gets reelected.
And it's more of the same.
Here's the next little excerpt.
We know who America is dealing with in these attacks.
They are extremists who operate by violence and intimidation.
And the least equivocation or mixed signal only makes them bolder.
Look across that region today.
And what do we see?
The slaughter of brave dissidents in Syria.
Mobs storming American embassies and consulates.
Iran, four years closer to gaining a nuclear weapon.
Israel, our best ally in the region, treated with indifference, bordering on contempt by the Obama administration.
Exactly right.
And here's Jay Carney out there saying, it's a movie.
No, no, no.
We don't know that was coordinated.
It's not a case of protest directed to the U.S. Is that right?
How come they're screaming death to America?
Death to America.
Why are they burning the American flag?
I don't see them burning video cassettes and DVDs.
Why are they killing American ambassador?
Why are they attacking American interests?
Well, it's not a coordinated attack.
It's always uh just the uh just the movie.
Just the movie.
What could be more factually wrong than saying these protests were not aimed at the United States of America?
What is he?
Think we're idiots?
Listen to this from the UK independence.
This cleared last night.
Senior officials are increasingly convinced, however, the ferocious nature of the Benghazi attacks, that's Libya, for those of you in Rio Linda, in which rocket propelled grenades were used, indicated it was not the result of a spontaneous anger due to the video.
Called Innocence of Muslims, Patrick Kennedy, under Secretary of State Department, said he was convinced the assault was planned due to its extensive nature and the proliferation of weapons.
There were 400 people.
And yet here's the president's spokesperson.
No, it wasn't planned.
So Kearney's contradicting the under-secretary of state.
He's contradicting the UK independent and other sources quoted.
That's the movie.
Clearly.
This guy's been told out there to go out there, and Jay, we don't care how bad it tastes, you tell him it's the movie.
We don't care what you have to swallow, Jay, it's the film.
That's the answer to every question.
So he dutifully little walks out there, and that's his answer.
This would be like blaming the Abu Grab riots on Polaroid.
Or Kodak is exactly what this is.
One more Paul Ryan before we go to the brief timeout and come back with your phone calls.
You say things Like this, and our opponents will quickly accuse you of being, quote, anti-government.
President Obama frames the debate this way.
Because here again, it's the only kind of debate he can win against straw man arguments.
No politician is more skilled as striking heroic poses against imaginary adversaries.
Nobody is better at rebuking non-existent opinions.
Barack Obama does this all the time.
And in this campaign, we are going to call him on it.
The president is given to lectures on all that we owe to government, as if anyone who opposes his reckless expansion of federal power is guilty of ingratitude and rank individualism.
He treats private enterprise as little more than a revenue source for government.
I'll tell you it was a home run all over the place.
There were some really powerful things he said about this.
You have a chance to uh to hear the whole thing.
You should you should take uh that opportunity.
We'll be right back, folks.
Don't go away.
Okay, to the phones we go, and we're gonna go to Philadelphia.
Hi, Terry, open line Friday.
Great to have you.
Welcome.
Hi, Russ.
Um, my comment is about the Middle East catastrophe.
It's amazing to me that the story is about Romney, who is awake, timely response to a ridiculous comment that either came from the embassy or was approved by the administration or ignored by them in the least, and everybody criticizes Romney for saying what should have been said in the first place.
Well, you know what I want to know?
That's a good point.
What I want to know is they're blaming the movie, right?
Yeah, well, why don't they blame YouTube?
Why don't they blame Google?
Google owns YouTube, YouTube made it possible.
When they blame YouTube.
What the hell is this blaming the movie?
They're blaming Romney because they uh they're they're they're they're caught.
It was just a week ago that they had the newsmate news agencies running stories about how foreign policy was not going to be a factor.
Obama had done such a good job of shoring it all up, and Romney's the guy that came out and looked presidential.
Romney's the guy that came out and looked responsible.
We've had how many 9-11 anniversaries without an incident.
We've got this 9-11 anniversary, and don't tell me that this level of activity wasn't on the radar or should have been, that someone at the White House or our administration, our intelligence agencies.
Well, maybe it's because our confidence means and addresses are being published in the New York Times are making Hollywood films, and so they don't want to tell us anymore.
Or maybe it's because Obama's asleep and he doesn't go to his security meetings, but somebody should have had enough notice that this was going on that the Marines should have had enough time to get bullets in their guns, you know?
I think this is awful.
And for them to criticize Romney over this is ridiculous.
Damn right it is.
It also I think shows their fear.
I actually think they're on the run.
I know I'm really I'm a lone voice here.
I e even among uh a circle of close friends, I'm I'm I'm a lone voice.
I and and it takes work, by the way.
I'm not naturally inclined, uh, and I'm not being falsely obvious.
But here's here's what I'm telling myself.
I just refuse to believe.
I I can't yet accept the fact that this country is so stupid that they don't see exactly what you just said.
Everybody I know sees it.
I just can't believe that this country is so stupid that they don't also recognize this.
I believe they do.
I'm related to some of those Marines.
I know what's going on, and I know that the policies that this man has installed, and just talking about a movie is is pathetic.
If they truly believe that, if it's not just simply a divergence, which I think they're trying to have a news divergence, it's not one person.
I'm gonna tell you something else.
I'm gonna tell you something else.
If I didn't know better, this is the best way I can express what I think here.
If I didn't know better, I would say Obama doesn't care about winning or losing.
This business of of not hiding campaign appearances, but broadcasting them, bragging about them.
In the midst of this, Jay-Z, Letterman, Vegas, raising money, sending emails out, bragging about having outraised Romney in the middle of this.
as I said if I didn't know better, I'd say this guy is trying not to win this.
Now I know that's not true.
I'm just telling you.
Terry, you're not alone on an island in recognizing this.
I just have to think everybody does.
Now how it moves them is another thing.
It's open line Friday, Rush Limbaugh having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have breaking news from the Associated Press Tunisia's official news agency.
Two dead, 29 injured U.S. Embassy protest.
There has been, I don't know if I call it assault.
Well, whatever.
There's been a protest at the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia, two dead, 29 injured.
We're not told whether any of the dead or injured are Americans.
Meanwhile, Mooch Hell My Bell Obama went on a Dr. Oz show on Fox, where she Dr. Oz, Dr. Memet Oz.
Do you know who Dr. Memet Odd is?
He's like a lot of people start with being an Oprah.
And he has his own show now, and Muchella's on there.
And in the midst of all this, I think it was taped.
Actually, I think it's taped before the outbreak.
I think it was taped before 9-11.
I'll have to double check that.
But at any rate, Dr. Mement Oz told Muchel Obama.
The single greatest threat to our national security is obesity.
And she agreed.
Now I think this is before this all broke out, but it would not by much, a couple days.
Biggest threat, national security, obesity.
By the way, speaking, gotta be very careful here.
Mike, I want you to keep your finger air on the delete bleep button.
I saw something today.
I saw a little blurb little headline, and then I saw the story later.
Shaquille O'Neill, well-known famous basketball star, addressed Congress today.
Wow, Shaq at Congress.
Didn't say what about.
I thought, wow, that's cool.
Then later I found out what it was about.
You know what Shaq addressed Congress about was?
Binge drinking on campus.
Apparently that's Shaq's cause.
And I have to share with you my first thought.
In the middle of all of what's going on here, is that a subject?
For the United States Congress?
Binge drinking on campus?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
We applaud Shaq for trying to do something about it.
That's not my question.
My question is what if the same thing I says, Congress really need to be having hearings on whether or not Roger Clemens juiced?
Or whether there are other kinds of doping going on in the NFL.
Especially with what's going on right now.
It's a question I've always asked.
Is Congress really need to be hearing testimony from actresses who played farm wives in a movie to tell us how tough it is on the farm these days?
Cybercast News Service is reporting that by the end of August, according to data released yesterday by the Treasury Department, the federal government had already paid out record annual amounts in both Social Security and disability benefits during fiscal 2012, even though there's still a month left in a year.
Social security and disability payments hit annual records with a month remaining.
The government had paid $3.151 billion more in social security benefits in just the first 11 months of this year than it paid in all of last year.
3.15 billion.
In addition, the 591 point four nine two billion in Social Security benefits the government paid out last year.
Wait, these numbers don't work out.
Oh, yes, they do.
Yes, they do.
More.
Three billion more.
$591.492 billion in Social Security benefits.
The government paid out last year was the most the government had ever paid in any fiscal year.
And this year, we have blown past that in 11 months.
And you want to hear something else that $591 billion in Social Security.
I don't, I'm going to have to fabricate the numbers from memory.
A few years ago, there was a calculation done on how much it would cost to give every Social Security recipient an additional $20 a month.
And the number was incomprehensibly high.
It illustrated that this is not, and we all know this, but this is illustration of this is not how you make people rich.
This is not how you make people middle class, even.
This is not how you give people rewarding lives.
I mean, it would it it the the amount of the overall amount of money it took to give every recipient 20 bucks was outrageous.
I I wish I could remember the number.
I can't write off the top of my head.
Anyway, Social Security Disability payments, uh a record eight point seven million Americans are now collecting Social Security Disability Payments, and that's because they've blown through their ninety-nine weeks of unemployment, and they have figured out that the gravy train can keep coming if they go over to uh Social Security disability.
So in August, a record eight point actually eight point eight million Americans collecting SS disability and two million spouses and children of disabled workers collecting benefits.
So we're we're close to ten and a half, ten point six million Americans on top of those getting social security.
In August, still not through here, a record forty five point five million retired workers and their spouses and defend dependents getting social security.
Which combined is another record.
And that is uh there's no end to this.
If Obama's re-elected, there's no end to this.
And this is what can't be sustained.
And any number of other entitlements, there's going to have to be some kind of reform.
Forty-five point five million retired workers, spouses, and dependents get social security out of what's the adult population, two hundred and ten.
And again, all this, we're blowing through this money, setting a record this year in only eleven months of the year.
Here's Susan in Virginia, a location she doesn't wish known.
Great to have you on uh open line Friday.
Hi.
Hi, Russ.
Thanks for taking my call.
You bet.
Um, I used to work in the intelligence business, and I understand what goes into the president's daily briefing and why briefers really need to be there except in an exceptional circumstances.
Um let me set this up.
You're obviously reacting to news items from previous days.
What she's calling about, and by the way, I'm gonna take a break here, Susan, can you hang on to the break?
Sure.
Good.
What she's what she's calling about here is we learned that Obama has not had a an actual intelligence briefing since September the 5th, and that he does not attend half of them overall, but he hasn't had a live brief since September the 5th.
The White House has answered this by saying, well, he doesn't need to be briefed.
Because he reads the Daily Brief every day.
And he is, this the White House said this yesterday.
Barack Obama is the most sophisticated consumer of intelligence this nation has.
And so what we're getting here is Obama doesn't have time.
He's too busy.
There are other priorities, i.e.
re-election, the campaign.
Jay-Z fundraisers, Anna Winter fundraisers, uh what's her what's her face?
Sarah Jessica Parker.
Sarah, eat something, will you?
Um all these other George Clooney.
No, she looks like she needs to eat.
It's it's bones.
Looks bones.
Keep thinking that the knee is going to pop through the s to the skin.
Have compassion here.
Anyway.
What's happening is that Obama is just not taking the time.
He doesn't care.
He's got other priorities, re-election, campaign swings, fundraising.
So the White House is concocted.
Well, he didn't have to attend the briefing.
He reads them all.
And there's no greater consumer of intel in Barack Obama.
He doesn't have to go to these briefings.
Bush did it every day, first thing.
So did Jimmy Carter, actually.
But that's what Zabrin Zbigniev Brzezinski did.
That's because Z Big was coming in with orders from David Rockefeller.
Well, that's what it was what was going on.
Anyway, so what we have here now is Susan who says that she worked in Intel and she's going to make the point.
I don't know what she's going to say.
She's going to make the point that you can't get all the intel simply by reading, particularly during moments of crisis.
She will explain, I'm pretty confident when we get back.
And now back we go to Susan in Virginia.
Now that I've explained to people what you're calling about launch, it's all yours.
Okay.
Uh the president's daily brief is crafted specifically for the president.
It's the highest level intelligence of the most burning issues of that particular day.
Um so he could read it on his own.
However, it does not normally contain a lot of detail.
It's sort of almost like a tweet.
It's very brief and how do you ask questions of a piece of paper?
Good question.
You don't.
You can't.
But any other president other than Obama, apparently, would want the CIA's top analyst there so that they can ask for more information.
I I'm just guessing that if uh warnings about the attacks in Egypt and Libya were in the PDB, the president's daily brief.
Yeah, that's so we I've seen two things about that.
I've seen two stories.
One story said that we didn't get anything, and another one says that we did know four days early.
Right.
It if if we had any warning of it, it would have even if it were a bit vague, it would have been in the PDD because it was a direct threat against U.S. interests overseas.
So what what what that bit would have said in the PDD is probably something along the lines of there's a high risk of violence against US U.S. installations overseas, particularly in the Middle East on and around September 11th.
Now any other president would have said um, well, how do we know this?
And the briefers would have said, Well, we got it from Egyptian intelligence, or we got it from a human source or why are these details not in the brief?
Um because it's meant to be because the president's usually pretty busy, and most high-level consumers of intelligence are just going to skim through it and ask for details on the most pressing item.
I see.
So it's designed for the details to be provided in person.
Yes.
This is an outline, or like you said, a tweet.
It's like a tweet, although now when uh average person, Susan hearing you describe this, would then ask, well, why doesn't Obama want to be personally briefed?
And and then they say, Well, what's the answer to that?
Well, from what I read uh and have heard, he d he doesn't need to.
He's he already knows it all.
He's smarter than everybody else.
So it's not that he doesn't care.
It's that he already knows it.
In his mind, there's nothing anybody can tell him.
Exactly.
Because he already knows it.
Exactly.
Now, from what I've heard, I I was never on a PDB briefing team, but uh it's it's the top level people.
They go in, if there are no questions, then you know they head back to the CIA for the day to continue their work.
Right if there are questions, the analyst who wrote that piece is notified immediately, and they scramble to try to provide more details that perhaps the briefers didn't know.
Um they get tasked with that, it's time sensitive.
The president is your top consumer, and I just imagine what the morale must be like among the analysts at the CIA hearing that this man, this president doesn't even bother to be.
I was gonna ask you.
I was gonna ask you about that.
He misses half of them.
And there's well, I don't know, I'm uh the most sophisticated consumer of intelligence on the planet.
What the hell does that mean anyway?
What is a sophisticated consumer of intelligence?
Barack Obama.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, but it's a good point, though.
The briefers probably sitting over there saying, what are we doing this for?
Yes.
What what if what is the point?
And 41 and 43, both presidents Bush were briefed six days a week, if not seven, if there was something going on, no matter where they were around the world.
And and George Bush, George H. W. Bush was the director of the CIA.
And he didn't think it was below him to have to sit and listen to briefers.
He wanted that.
He needed it.
I can't see this is another I can't imagine being president and not.
This is to me, is among the stuff I will want to know first thing every morning.
Mm-hmm.
And I've also I assume, by the way, I've always trusted that my leaders are up to speed on this stuff because it's not things that we, the general public, can ever know.
So I've always trusted and always had faith that the president and the intelligence team are always doing their best to get the best intelligence and the president's informed and knows what's going on.
There has always been that implied trust.
Well, and even in cases uh I was at the agency for a time during Clinton, and he wasn't quite as interested in intelligence, uh you could say, as either of the Bushes were.
But you still had the feeling that you needed to deliver this intelligence to him.
He would pay attention to it.
You might not agree with how he reacted to it, but he wasn't going to just completely dismiss the knowledge, the the body of knowledge coming out of the well, what we know he did.
Uh by the way, Mr. President, the Sudanese are willing to turn over Osama bin Laden if blah blah blah.
Of course, that might have been a State Department function, but regardless, um you just it apparently arrogance and and cockiness go hand in hand with the the the type people who think they know it all and don't need to have any details explained to them.
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
It's I I'm practically shaking.
I'm so I can imagine.
You're you're not in the field anymore.
No, I'm not.
Not even a private sector.
Do you consult?
Yes, I do.
Yeah, I see.
Okay.
Yep.
Well, I'm glad that you called.
I appreciate your taking the time.
This Susan.
I could be of some help.
Well, I'm uh immeasurable.
Immeasurable.
It's always great to have authority.
This are things we assume.
Um I honestly I I have to say I was not surprised when I found out he only guessed a half of them.
I my opinion of of I know liberals and and uh uh like every square inch of my glorious naked body, and uh nothing, I'm telling you nothing surprises me.
As I learn it about Obama.
Nothing.
It has just been announced, ladies and gentlemen, Mitt Romney is now going to start getting intelligence briefings from the White House.
That was just announced this week.
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