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Sept. 10, 2013 - Rush Limbaugh Program
35:57
September 10, 2013, Tuesday, Hour #1
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Time Text
Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24 7 Podcast.
It is it's surreal.
We are we are a worldwide joke and everybody knows it but us.
You know what's happened on this Syria thing?
Have you have you kept up with this?
This is It's a Saturday night live skit.
I will try to make this understandable.
That's what we do here, my friends, make the complex understandable.
I I this is not easy to say, but I'm telling you, in the eyes of the world, this country has to be a laughing stock.
It has to be a joke.
And most of the people of this country don't even know it.
They're absorbed with Miley Cyrus or what have you anyway.
Anyway, folks, greetings, great to have you.
Rush Limbaugh, these sighs are not sighs of boredom.
They are sighs of just disbelief and maybe a little bit of frustration.
So basically, phone number, by the way, 800 282-2882, if you want to be on the program.
So basically, John Kerry, in typical John Kerry fashion, misspeaks.
He commits a major gaffe.
He attempted to walk the gaff back.
He attempted to take it back.
He attempted to recall the gaff.
The Russians, Vladimir Putin, and Basher Assad leapt on the gaff and took it.
And a John Kerry gaff has become the official policy of the United States in Syria.
With Obama and the media now claiming credit for a brilliant strategy.
This is the Limbaugh theorem on display.
We have an absolute joke of a Secretary of State making an incompetent comment that is so bad for us that the Russians and Assad glom onto it and accept and say they accept it.
Kerry tries to walk it back.
They say, no, no, no, we're going with this.
Obama then says, we'll can take this.
And then he quotes Reagan, says, all we gotta do here is trust and verify that the Syrians actually abide by agreement with this gaff.
The media, in the meanwhile, mobilized at full speed to make it look like this whole thing was a strategic initiative orchestrated by Obama and brilliantly executed after being flawlessly executed after being brilliantly conceived.
And what we have here essentially is Carrie saying something stupid and realizing it and trying to walk it back.
Now let me see if I can give you the details, and I've got stories here that are time stamped.
I timestamped them for me.
If you think I'm the only one thinking this, I mean in the media, the politico has a piece today, the United States of Weakness.
But it's not what you think.
It's not Obama's problem.
The reason we are weak is because the media is so fractured.
The American people can no longer sit down at 6.30 every night and watch one of three networks and find out what happened that day.
That's why so many people are watching Miley Cyrus or Bachelor Bachelorette or Dancing with the Stars or Miley Cyrus again or whatever, and they don't know what's happening.
And they lament that not even a presidential speech now can permeate the rest of the media noise so that even a brilliant president like Obama has a tough time reaching all the people.
And then they find a way somehow, I kid you not to blame Bush for that.
It really is surreal.
Now, folks, I don't mean to beat this to death, but but I've I've I'm gonna try to explain this, and as I say, I have I've included timestamps here on these articles that I put together just as much for myself as to be able to relate to you to show the timeline.
It's a great example of Limbaugh theorem because it shows how the media help Obama get away with the most outrageous claims.
The latest Syria development began with what was an obvious gaff from John Kerry, which he immediately tried to walk back.
And then he even called the Russians to tell them it was a gaff.
And then the State Department issued several statements confirming that it was a gaff.
But lo and behold, Vladimir Putin has jumped on the gaff and he's taken Kerry's offer.
And now the White House and the media minions that promote them have realized that this could provide a way out for Obama without ever having to strike Syria.
So now it's not a gaffe.
Now it becomes brilliantly conceived, flawlessly executed state craft by Obama and Kerry.
And everything Kerry and the State Department said about it being a gaffe and trying to walk it back or recall it is immediately forgotten.
And furthermore, we are now told by Obama and his media minions that this option is something Obama has been discussing with Putin for some time, apparently in secret.
Keep in mind that Kerry said it was a gaff.
He was scared to death when the Syrians and the Russians accepted it.
Byron York, you know, we follow Byron here occasionally.
Yes, I'll get to the gaff here in just a second.
That is fundamental.
But I won't explain something first.
Byron York at the D.C. examiner claims that this policy proposal, the Kerry gaff, was actually proposed as a quasi joke by the comedian Albert Brooks on Twitter.
And he finds the Twitter post of Albert Brooks, and it is almost verbatim what Kerry said.
And the Reuters story, let's just start here in order.
This is 7.22 a.m. yesterday.
Secretary of State John Kerry was making a rhetorical comment when he said on Monday that Syria's president Basher Assad would not hand over his country's chemical weapons.
Kerry told a news briefing on Monday that Assad could avoid a military strike by turning over all of his chemical weapons within a week to the international community, but added that Assad was not about to do that.
State Department spokeswoman said Senator Kerry was making a rhetorical argument about the impossibility and the unlikelyhood of Assad turning over chemical weapons he has denied that he used.
Albert Brooks, according, I kid you not, according to Byron York, made a joke on Twitter or Facebook, where I don't know where it was, to run together, but apparently it was why don't we just tell Assad to give up his chemical weapons?
Let the let the international community or the Russians hold them.
And so Kerry ran with it, claiming that it was just a rhetorical comment.
It was not serious, and of course, Putin glommed right onto it.
That's a great idea.
Assad will give up his chemical weapons and will control them.
And when that happened, when Kerry's rhetorical gaff, he was stream of consciousness thought is what they and the State Department were trying to say that it was.
When the Russians accepted it, there was panic.
Because Kerry just had diarrhea of the mouth.
He was just thinking out loud.
He was trying to sound smart.
It was typical John Kerry trying to sound like a smart guy, trying to sound like a European.
You know, he imitates Europeans all the time.
He'd love to be one.
He told a news briefing on Monday that Assad could avoid a military strike by turning over all of his chemical weapons within a week.
He was just talking like you might sit around with some friends and talk about what a friend of yours might do to avoid problems at workers.
Well, they can do this, they could do, is speculating.
Secretaries of state don't do this except in insecure ones who are just obsessed with everybody knowing how smart they are.
And it was so bad.
Again, folks, yesterday morning, just a little over 22 hours ago, probably 26 hours ago now.
After Kerry suggested, you know, Assad could avoid all this if he just turned over all those chemical weapons.
International community, United Nations, Russia, let them handle them.
Take them out of Assad's hands.
Yeah, that'd be the right thing to do.
And the State Department said Senator Kerry was making a rhetorical argument about the impossibility and the unlikelihood of Assad turning over chemical weapons he's denied using.
State Department then said his point was that this brutal dictator with a history of playing fast and loose with the facts cannot be trusted to turn over chemical weapons.
And yet, that's exactly what they've agreed to do.
Folks, I can't keep a straight face.
But so now this has become, in the media, a brilliant Obama strategy that he was in secret discussing with Putin long ago.
So, But again, I can't emphasize enough.
Kerry just kind of threw it out there as a stream of consciousness thought.
The State Department was so scared Kerry was they tried to walk it.
No, no, he just did this a rhetorical exercise.
He's just speaking.
He didn't mean anything.
He knows this isn't gonna happen, and yet here it's happened.
This is the Keystone Cops.
This is this is a bunch of rumbling bumbling.
I don't know how to describe it.
That's just one story.
Then here at 4.15 yesterday afternoon.
Also from Reuters headline, Kerry tells Russia his Syria comments were not meant as a proposal.
Now keep in mind that what Kerry said is now the official policy.
It is the policy of this government.
All day yesterday, Kerry and the State Department are trying to walk it back because it was a gaff.
So Reuters headline, 722 yesterday morning, Kerry speaking rhetorically over Syria turning in weapons.
And then same app, same day yesterday afternoon, Kerry tells Russia his serious comments were not meant as a proposal.
And here's the lead to the story.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Russian foreign minister Levrov that his comments about Syria averting a military strike by turning over its chemical weapons within a week were rhetorical, not meant to be a proposal.
Senior U.S. officials said on Monday.
Kerry also voiced serious skepticism when Lavrov offered to explore the idea, saying the U.S. would take a look at any serious proposal, but this could not be a reason to slow the White House efforts to secure congressional authorization to use force against Syria.
From AP.
626 last night, two hours after the Reuters story.
Obama, Putin talked about securing Syria chemical weapons.
Turns out this was the plan all along, at least what the media wants us to believe.
This is journalistic malpractice.
This is embarrassing.
It is transparent as it can be.
President Obama says that he spoke with Russian President Putin about a potential plan for Syria to turn over its chemical weapons to international control.
Syria has welcomed an idea floated Monday for it to hand over chemical weapons for destruction to avoid a U.S. military strike.
The public proposal from Russia followed what seemed to be an offhand remark by Secretary St. It wasn't offhand at all.
It turns out it was a typically brilliant nuanced strategy.
That's what they want us all to believe.
It's unreal, folks.
Here's the Albert Brooks observation.
On Friday night, Brooks sent out a Syria joke.
Russia and the U.S. could unite for one week.
This is a tweet.
Russia and the U.S. could unite for one week, go into Syria, remove the chemicals, and let them continue fighting.
And that's what's happened.
That was Brooks on Friday night.
That's the first known published remark of this strategy, a joke from a comedian.
So a comedian has set U.S. foreign policy.
And by the way, by the way, folks, the fighting can continue.
Assad, having agreed to this, has resumed bombing with conventional weapons, the rebels in Damascus suburbs.
Which is apparently fine.
He does it as long as you kill people with standard ordinary everyday bombs and cherry bombs and firecrackers and dynamite, that's cool.
You use chemical weapons, you're gonna really tick off John Kerry and Barack Obama, and and so they're gonna really move in there and do something.
So the attack, whatever this all was started by, and everybody in our in our government thinking that Assad's a bad guy's taking out his own people, he's he's these blessed rebels.
And he had to be stopped because he's using uh weapons of mass destruction, chemical weapons.
And so Albert Brooks proposes a joke, and by the way, he said, let the fighting continue to take the chemical weapons away and let them continue fighting.
And may the best band win.
And that is our policy.
And the media is trying to make it look like that's what it was all along.
Let's go to the audio sound bites.
We'll start here at number one.
This is this is folks, they're so excited.
Carrie carries...
Thank you.
Well, it is stupidity.
And I'll tell you what's stupid about it is Obama even said he quotes Reagan, trust but verify.
The Russians are involved here.
The Russians in Assad are promising to get rid of chemical weapons.
And that's it.
We accept it.
Of course we do.
Of course we do, because the media's on Obama's side that can make it look like Obama's.
A force of nature.
And Obama's very present, scared the out of Assad and Putin.
And I saw it in Putin ran in there and they grabbed those chemical weapons and they got them out of Syria all because they're so afraid of Obama, and that's the way this is being portrayed.
Here's a media montage.
Listen and soak it all in.
What a turn of events today.
This proposal from John Kerry.
Things have changed in the past few hours, it seems.
The Russians, perhaps seeking a way out of the crisis, jumped on it.
The John Kerry goof this morning, which may have actually been a goof that saves the president.
An offhand remark, a goof, a goof, a mess up.
I've never seen a day like this.
This is a great development.
We could potentially avert a military action.
Something worked.
If he can get some sort of breakthrough here with Syria, they don't have to strike.
A god comes down from the machine and just fixes everything.
Deus ex machina.
The gaff that saves the world.
Diplomatic national security win for the U.S., right?
The president would have to deserve a lot of credit.
A fantastic end result for the president.
If this works, it is genius.
Folks, I don't know how much longer I can do this.
I I don't know how much longer I can subject myself to this every day, Stay Sane.
I really, really don't.
I mean, folks, do you realize what's happened is somebody has finally taken John Kerry seriously at one of the most inopportune times for the United States.
I I it it just illustrates all of this.
Always has been about nothing but Obama.
It's not about the rebels.
It's not about saving lives, it's not about compassion, it's not about this.
You get these dreaded chemical weapons, the weapons of mass destruction, Obama in the heat of a presidential campaign, draws a red line, says not while I'm here, and nobody listened to him.
And nobody paid him any mind because he doesn't scare anybody.
U.S. is demonstrably now either by reality or simply because of who runs it.
We're too weak to do anything about anything around the world.
We're not going to, and everybody Knows it.
And the first chance, the first chance Obama had to slither out of a commitment to use force, he took it.
A John Kerry mistake.
A John Kerry gaff.
And they just, I mean, like white on rice.
They attach themselves to this.
And now the media's in the process, even though acknowledging that Kerry committed a gaffer, talking about how genius it was.
You know, even when Kerry is stupid, he's a genius.
That's even when we liberals make goofs, we are genius.
We are so smart.
And then it was learned that Obama, smarter than everybody.
He'd been talking about this with Putin behind the scenes for weeks, and nobody knew.
We're being asked, I believe.
But here's something interesting.
The rebels in Syria are opposed to this.
I have it right here.
My formerly nicotine stayed in fingers, Syrian opposition.
That would be the rebels.
Syrian rebels against new Kerry plan to avoid strike.
Says right here, Syrian political opposition dead set against the regime, the Obama policy to pursue a new diplomatic negotiation with Russia in an effort to avoid a military strike in Syria.
Now, wait a minute, though.
I thought we were aligned with the rebels.
I thought that we were trying to protect the rebels.
And now the rebels are getting the excrement kicked out of them because Assad's gone back to using standard conventional weapons, which apparently is okay.
There's no problem with that.
But Obama didn't say not to use those.
So I guess our alliance with the rebels is out the window too.
Poof.
Up in smoke, as it were.
Hi, welcome back, folks.
It's uh Rush Limbaugh and the fastest week in media.
Here we are already in Tuesday.
And today it seems like it's already Monday.
Now I have a question.
We all know, now those of you in this audience know, that there's some question as to who actually has been using the chemical weapons in Syria.
There's credible evidence, and in fact, there's more today here in the stack of stuff and the and the audio sound bites.
There's more evidence today that the rebels were using the chemical weapons.
This is not to say that Assad doesn't have any, but he may not be the only one possessing them.
But Assad has claimed all along that he never fired them.
Or he never used them.
That has been his position.
So Kerry comes along, thinking out loud, says, well, you know what we can do, Syria give those weapons to Russia and uh get them out of the country and uh let the fighting continue and uh get the weapons at least out of the country and and and immediately realize how stupid it was.
I mean to bring Russia into this.
Give chemical weapons for Russian supervision and to trust them that the weapons are being taken out of Syria.
Anyway, State Department started walking it back.
Now, just a rhetorical exercise.
Senator Kerry really didn't mean it was a goof.
Media called it a goof.
But Assad and Putin said, we accept it.
We want it.
They raised their hands, we'll accept it, we accept it.
So Assad, who claims he didn't even use them, has given them up.
The rebels, who others with credibility are saying also use them are not giving them up.
So let's say, I mean, they got a week for this to happen here.
Let's say this is all about making Obama look good, folks.
You have to understand this.
It's not about anything else.
And the way this has transpired proves it.
And the way the media is covering it proves it.
It's all about it's it's about yanking Obama out of a mess.
A huge one.
And now his his address to the nation tonight can be totally different from what it was.
I mean, he was going to go out and try to prepare everybody for a strike.
And then Kerry, this is kind of like Biden, you know, letting letting it out there that uh that the regime supports gay marriage right before the Democrat convention, Obama had to go out because up to that point Obama was not supporting gay marriage.
And Biden went out there and did it and led Obama into it, may have been by design.
Who knows?
This wasn't.
This was a Kerry gaff.
But let's say Assad does give up his camp.
I don't think that's gonna happen.
See, this is the bottom line is Assad's not going to give anything up.
But the Russians are gonna say, yes, he did, we've got him.
And the international community has them.
And whatever the version of Hans Blix is these days will say, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They gave up their chemical weapons.
Then what happens when somebody uses them again?
Assad?
I don't have them.
I I gave them away.
I mean, it must be these rebels using them.
Oh, my lord.
Sorry.
Oh my aching head.
Another story is from Reuters.
Syria accepted a Russian proposal.
This is today.
This is at 9.30 this morning, but time stamping everything because it's crucial.
Syria accepted a Russian proposal today to give up chemical weapons and win a reprieve from U.S. strikes.
While it's warplanes bombed rebel positions in Damascus for the first time since the West threatened military action.
So Obama I'm sorry to laugh at this.
There's nothing.
Nothing.
I mean, it's not funny for the people living through this.
So Assad.
Oh yeah, I'll gladly give up my chemical.
I'm not even firing them off anyway.
I'm not using them.
You can have them for a week, whatever.
Putin will be glad to take them off my hands.
We'll get them back by Christmas.
What the hell?
No big deal.
So everybody assumes that chemical weapons are going to leave Syria.
While the chemical weapons are on the way out, Assad resumes attacking the rebels, who supposedly side we're on.
So the rebels are getting the excrement kicked out of them again in the Damascus suburbs.
Assad has launched them attacks, and nobody cares.
All that matters is Obama said no chemical weapons and there are no chemical weapons.
See.
See how good he is, see what a messiah he is, see how powerful he is, see how brilliant he is, see how respected he is, see how tough he is, see how strong he is.
That's what all this is about.
Meanwhile, the people whose side we claim to be on are getting killed.
In renewed action.
And Assad is doing it with impunity.
Because he gave up his chemical weapons, if he did.
And again, he claimed all along he never used them.
So if they do show up, if they're used again at some point in the future, he's got an out.
Don't look at me.
I gave them to Putin.
UN's got control of mine.
I don't have any of those things here.
I got rid of them.
You know, Obama scared the hell out of me.
I get rid of them.
Here's uh here's Kerry.
You gotta hear this.
This this is this morning.
He's testifying.
House Armed Services Committee on proposed military strikes in Syria over chemical weapons use.
Carrie is proud of his gaff.
Now, again, uh folks, let me give you the timestamp.
Just sorry to be repetitive here.
Yesterday morning at 7.20, Kerry speaking rhetorically over Syria turning in weapons.
State Department.
State Department ran out, as soon as Kerry made this gaffe.
The State Department ran out and said it was a gaff, that he didn't mean it.
He was just making a rhetorical argument about the impossibility and the unlikelyhood of Assad turning over chemical weapons.
He never thought Assad would do it.
That's why he said.
And Assad picked up on it with Putin, and so now they've got a gaff on their hands.
And then at 4.15 yesterday afternoon, Kerry tells Russia his Syria comments were not meant as a proposal.
So Kerry makes a gaff.
He tried to walk it back.
He then called the Russians and told them it was a gaffe.
He didn't mean it.
He said it's not a serious proposal.
Then the State Department issued several statements confirming it was a gaffe and not serious, and they didn't mean it.
Then Putin's jumped on it, and now it has become genius.
And here's Kerry testifying this morning.
Make no mistake, make no mistake about why this idea has any potential legs at all.
And why it is that the Russians have reached out to the Syrians and why the Syrians have initially suggested they might be interested.
That's the credible threat of force that has been on the table for these last weeks that has for the first time brought this regime to even acknowledge that they have a chemical weapons arsenal.
It is only because of the threat of force that we are discussing today, and that threat is more compelling if Congress stands with the commander-in-chief.
So here's Kerry, an anti-war American, if there ever was one, who does not like the use of force, and who, when any other president has threatened the use of force, Kerry has been critical of them as being a bully and threatening to impose the United States policies on the lesser nations of the world.
He has been critical forever of the threatened use of force.
Now here he is giving the threatened use of force all the credit for Assad basically turning into a coward and caving and giving up.
Admitting for the first time that he had chemical weapons.
Did he really?
You realize there isn't going to be anything backing this up.
We're going to accept the word of Assad and Putin that this removal of chemical weapons from Syria has occurred.
And these liberals, they believe their own mumbo jumbo.
Their arrogance and their conceit leads them to think that everybody believes what they say and is scared of them.
So now it was the Obama implied threat of force.
Well, just what kind of threat was it?
Let's go back.
Obama said it isn't going to be much.
Maybe take a half hour.
We never threatened major military action.
We did just the opposite.
Kerry kept calling, telling it incredibly small.
We didn't threaten anything.
We kept trying to tell the world.
I remember making the point yesterday, that's what liberals do.
Oh no, we're not like Bush.
We're not going to be irresponsible.
Spokeskid Jay Carney.
We're not going to be irresponsible.
We're not going to be like Bush.
We're not going to go in there just shock and awe.
We're not going to go in there and just start leveling country.
We're no, no, no, no.
It started talking about how small.
And yet today they want to tell us that Assad's quaking in his boots.
Scared to death over the threatened use of force.
Sad thing is this is not good either.
Sad thing is that everybody involved here is probably laughing themselves silly, like we all are.
Listen to this.
Listen to this from the New York Times today.
President Obama woke up Monday facing a congressional defeat that many in both parties believe could hobble his presidency.
By the end of the day Monday, he found himself in the odd position of relying on his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, of all people to bail him out.
The surprise Russian proposal to defuse the American confrontation with Syria made a tenuous situation even more volatile for a president struggling to convince a deeply skeptical public of the need for the U.S. to respond militarily in Yet another Middle Eastern country.
In effect, Mr. Obama now caught between trying to work out a deal with Putin or trying to win over Republicans in the House who have made it their mission to block his agenda.
So this the New York Times is claiming it was a Putin idea because Putin accepted Kerry's gaffe that that the way the New York Times is basically saying Kerry makes a gaffe, Putin accepts it, so it becomes Putin's policy.
If if that's the case, folks, shouldn't it be Vladimir Putin addressing us tonight on TV instead of Obama?
Well, no, Snowden's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Did you know that?
Not Putin.
Snowden, I'm not kidding.
Edward Snowden been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
I kid you not.
I have it right here in the stack of stuff.
I've got so much today.
Folks, you don't want to go anywhere.
Why isn't Putin addressing us on TV?
It's Putin's policy to say today.
New York Times says it right here.
Obama was going to address us today to tell us to get ready for a cruise missile or two going into Syria.
But now it isn't gonna happen.
It ain't gonna happen because well, New York Times is crediting Putin.
That's not gonna sit well.
Uh chemical weapons can be taken out of Syria, and there's no need.
So Obama's speech tonight can be on how tough and great he is shouldn't it be Vladimir Putin?
It's his policy.
Vladimir Putin ought to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Pride.
Vladimir Putin ought to be addressing the American people tonight on TV.
Not Obama.
Hey, you gotta hear this.
You remember last week Obama went out.
I didn't draw that red line.
Uh-uh.
Uh uh credibility, and not a line.
The world did that.
Republicans, Congress did that.
Let's go back and listen.
This is uh last Wednesday in Stockholm, Sweden.
We did ratchet up, President.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I'm sorry, I've got red play 22 first.
I didn't set a red line.
The world set a red line.
The world set a red line when governments representing 98% of the world's population said the use of chemical weapons are abort and passed a treaty forbidding their use even when countries are engaged in war.
Congress set a red line when it ratified that treaty.
Okay, that's last Wednesday.
That's Obama.
I didn't set a red line.
The world said a red memo.
The Congress said a red line.
I didn't do it.
Kerry didn't get the memo.
This afternoon in Washington, in the same House Armed Services Committee hearing, Kerry, among other things, said.
We did ratchet up.
President Obama when he had conclusive evidence that the line that he'd drawn had been crossed, he decided that was sufficient then to send a message, and he dictated that we would assist the opposition.
Right.
Now, do you realize so Obama last week didn't say it once or twice?
He said four times he didn't draw the red line.
Today Kerry said Obama, when he had conclusive evidence a line that he'd drawn had been crossed.
He decided that was sufficient than to send a message and he dictated we would assist the opposition.
Well, the opposition is on its own.
The op the rebels are being bombed as smithereens today by Basher Assad with conventional weapons.
They haven't gotten anything from us.
We're not offering any assistance to the rebels at all.
They're getting creamed.
They're getting blown to bits with conventional bombs and warfare and weapons and so forth.
And then those are the people whose side we were on.
I just in the New York Times in this story is blaming the Republicans for forcing Obama to turn to Putin, whom he doesn't try.
I kid you not, if you read that time story far enough, they're blaming the Republicans in Congress for not supporting Obama on the use of force that forced Obama to turn to Putin.
And this is how this works.
Everything is the Republicans' fault.
And that is, my friends, the limbaugh theorem on display.
Yes, my friends, there is other news.
There's uh there's there's more news of the disintegration of Obamacare.
There is also news of the Republican congressional leadership really not wanting to stop it.
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