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Aug. 14, 2014 - Rush Limbaugh Program
36:46
August 14, 2014, Thursday, Hour #1
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Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
As promised, here we are back at it, ladies and gentlemen.
They misquoted, misrepresented, lied about, but nevertheless here each and every day Rush Limbaugh serving humanity simply by showing up.
Our telephone number, if you want to be on the program, 800 282-2882, the email address, L Rushbow at EIBNet.com.
The drive-bys are in a fit of outrage over what happened to two of their kind in Ferguson, Missouri.
They are almost, it seems like they're more outraged over what happened to them than what happened to the young teenager named Brown.
I mean, they're literally fit to be tied, and it's gotten them fully engaged in the story.
And the subject now has to do with the militarization of police forces.
And I have to tell you, folks, it's been somewhat of a uh there's a little bit of Schaden Freud as uh as I scour the internet and read reactions to what's going on in St. Louis and Ferguson from all parts of the American political spectrum.
It is it literally is.
It is it's it's fascinating to hear people say this is exactly what happened in Tehran.
Why, this is exactly what's going on in Gaza.
Why, how can this be?
This is unacceptable.
These are young liberals writing this stuff.
Um of this that would be proof if George W. Bush was president, his name would be in every story here.
Obama's name is not.
In fact, Obama is, I think, yeah, around uh ten minutes or now.
Well, he's always late, but he's due to make some sort of a statement about this.
He's been fully briefed.
Uh the news reports say that he's been awakened and he's been uh reached on the golf course.
And uh at dinner and wherever he happens to be, that his briefers are staying informed and then passing on to him what they've learned.
And he's going to be making some comments about it here in due course.
Little note for our affiliate stations along the line, we will not be jipping it.
What?
Do you think we should?
I mean, I here's well, we're I don't know how long it's gonna go.
Uh, and we're gonna be running tape on it, and we'll be able to replay whatever he says.
I realize that our affiliate St. Louis will take it.
That stands to perfect reason.
But every time we gyp Obama here, you wouldn't believe the email I get from people who do not want to hear it.
They know they're gonna hear it later.
They know and and and they'd rather wait for my comments on it.
Uh now we could play it and I could offer comments live.
We uh we we have done that.
But again, I just it the problem is I don't know how long it's gonna go.
And uh that's that's that's a problem.
We can't we can't blow out uh obscene profit breaks for it.
Because that just screws everybody up, uh, in including the affiliates.
And that's why they're doing this.
He could have done this at 1145.
He could have done this at 1130, could have done this when he got off the golf course this morning, or before he hit the golf course.
I mean, the choice of 1215 is not random, not not accidental.
At any rate, uh the the militarization of police forces, you may not know this, but the Department of Defense actually donates unused equipment, such as armored personnel carriers, uh certain kinds of weapons, ammunition, to local police departments around the country.
I don't know how all of that is done how it's apportioned, but it happens.
And because the Pentagon is donating this equipment, the media is on a high horse now about the Pentagon is involved in Ferguson.
You can actually see that headline.
Pentagon playing role in what happens in Ferguson.
The Pentagon isn't there.
U.S. military isn't there.
But it's the idea that that we've got equipment they don't need.
Maybe it's outdated stuff that they're donating to uh police officers.
Now, what happens and what what is happening and what did happen in Ferguson, Missouri?
Unacceptable, uh, we all agree.
But as usual, what's missing here is a sense of proportion.
How many murders are there every week in Chicago?
And there doesn't seem to be any outrage about it.
Even locally.
There doesn't seem to be any concern about it.
You certainly don't see the media there.
Granted, most of the murders in Chicago are not mixed race circumstances.
Ferguson is.
It's a white cop, an unarmed black teenager.
It's made order in terms of the Daily Soap Opera, the media template for outrage, as Al Sharp just got everything.
But there are a lot of kids being killed in this country.
There are a lot of murders taking place.
Chicago's setting records for this.
And there's not a whole lot of coverage of that.
And I'll tell you, as I read the internet, and I scour it, and as I say, I'm reading as many different sources as I can.
And I'm trying to focus on websites, blogs, and so forth that I know are written by young people who are predominantly, well, they think they're liberal.
They clearly have a uh a self-attitude that makes them think that they are liberal in the in the emotional sense.
It's fascinating.
Literally fascinating to read what they say.
Yeah, it's like Tehran.
It's like Gaza, this is horrible.
Why we this is if we don't stop this now, it's going to come to our town.
If we don't act concerned about it, when is it ever going to stop?
This kind of thing is just not permissible.
What's happening to the journalists and so forth?
And of course, what they're upset about is the excessive use of power by the state.
State in this case is the Ferguson police department.
But they're generally mad about it.
They are scared, frightened by it.
And yet it happens all the time, and they don't notice.
It happens in many contexts where there's not murder, where there isn't even any shooting, and they don't care.
They don't even notice it.
In fact, they may even applaud it.
How about the IRS going after 500 conservative organizations and denying them their civil civil rights and targeting them as criminals just because they were conservative?
Ho hum, yawn, nothing to see here.
No big deal.
Remember how the media said that that was Nixonian and unacceptable.
I don't either.
Media did not say that.
All these incessant attacks from our government on conservatives, all of the scandals that have erupted.
A yawn, a houmer.
But this in Ferguson, and I'm not suggesting it shouldn't.
It's just that why is it alone?
Why is it the only example of the exorbitant display of state power that gets noticed and causes fear and causes concern?
I understand guns are involved.
I understand militarization of a state of local police department, understand optics and all of that, but there are many, many examples of the overreaching power of a state, in case in this case the federal government, which goes unnoticed.
And it would be helpful if it were noticed and if it were reported on.
Now let's go to the audio sound bites because as I say, the drive-bys are on fire over the journalists and their plight in Ferguson.
There are two of them.
They were arrested and then not arrested and released.
One was uh supposedly arrested for trespassing in a McDonald's.
I don't know I I don't know how these journalists reacted to the cops at the moment of contact.
I've always found in any interaction with police, if you're just polite and respect their authority and don't taunt them, you've got a much better chance of if you if you're in a situation where you're not guilty, you haven't done anything, you have a much better chance of extricating yourself than if you challenge them, call them names, insult them, or what have you.
Just the man as manners and politeness.
And realizing they've got the guns and you don't, and they're scared too.
They are scared too.
There are people trying to kill the cops.
They know their targets here.
It's not just a one-way street.
And it's getting scarier and scarier out there for local law enforcement all over this country.
I mean, you've got lawlessness everywhere.
You've got lawlessness at the southern border with massive immigration now.
And the border patrol's not allowed to do its job.
They feel some of the drug cartel gang members crossing the border.
Cops feel scared too in many cases.
Bad cops everywhere, good cops mostly.
It is a montage of uh bunch of reporters talking about the journalists arrested in Ferguson, Missouri.
Two reporters covering the unrest in Ferguson were arrested.
Journalists have been arrested there trying to do their jobs.
Arrested two reporters.
Can you ever take journalists into custody like that for simply doing their jobs?
Two reporters covering the protests were arrested at a McDonald's.
I've never seen anything like this before in this day and age.
And the fact that journalists are being arrested for trying to tell the story.
We're journalists ourselves, so we take a special concern when our colleagues are arrested.
I don't want to be misunderstood here forever.
For as many times as and as often as I complain about the lack of professionalism and the overall horrible job I think mainstream journalists do today.
I do not nevertheless believe that any of this is called for.
And I I don't think this is the way to deal with them in any way, shape, manner, or form.
But one thing is the media loves covering the media, so you're going the this is at the top of the food chain for them today in terms of things they're interested in.
They love talking about themselves, and they love talking about the pressures, and they love talking about the bias they face.
And they love talking about the the the disconnects that that happen here, though, are just amazing.
This is what the talking about a police state.
When who's running things now?
Who's running Ferguson?
Who's running the country?
Who's running all those things now when this police state and all these horrible things are happening?
Who's in charge?
What kind of thinking is allowing this to happen?
Who is it that believes in an all-powerful big government?
Behaving in manners like this.
Let's go back to June 2nd, 2013, CBS slay the nation.
The host was Mob Schaefer, still is, interviewing then New York Times editrix, Jill Abramson.
Bob Schiefer asked her this question.
The attorney general asked the Bureau Chiefs, various news organizations here in Washington to meet with him to discuss his handling of all these leak investigations, Jill.
The New York Times, CBS, some others decided not to attend.
The reason we didn't go is because they told us to be off the record.
Why did you at the New York Times decide not to go?
The Times and our readers are quite concerned about the six active uh criminal leak cases that the Obama administration has pursued.
That's more than all the other administrations combined.
And we are concerned that the process of news gathering is being criminalized.
So the editor of the New York Times Told the host of CBS Face the Nation that she was very worried that the Obama administration was criminalizing news gathering.
That's back on June 2nd, 2013.
And now we fast forward to September 13th and 14th in Ferguson, Missouri.
This morning on CNN's new day, fill-in host John Bernon Berman speaking with the legal analyst, Jeffrey Tubin, about the protest and the police response in Ferguson, Missouri.
One of the words you're hearing is proportionality, which my God is a word we were hearing in Gaza over the last several weeks.
But when you talk about proportionality, legally speaking, is there a clear line?
If you look at the many, many protests that take place in cities like New York and Chicago and Los Angeles, where people protest even at night, and they're not rubber bullets.
They're not tear gas, they're not uh reporters being arrested for sitting in McDonald's.
It can be done well and it can be done badly, and crowd control certainly seems to be done very badly by the Ferguson police.
Well, so we're gonna compare Ferguson to Gaza.
Now look, folks, these people are rightly concerned about journalists being addressed, uh arrested at a McDonald's.
And they go through all of many protests that take place in cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles.
Um, and there aren't reporters being arrested for sitting in a McDonald's.
Now that is considered an outrage.
But my point is there are many other outrages which do not bother these people.
I'm sorry to go back to it, but it fits.
This government's effort to criminalize conservative fundraising via the IRS is no different than this.
It's no different than being arrested in the McDonald's, being accused and of breaking the law and therefore being denied tax exempt status.
We know the emails that have been written, we know the phone calls, we know the back office communications that took place at the IRS, aimed at conservatives and Tea Party people.
We know that this government has attempted to criminalize conservatism.
This government, the American left, has attempted to criminalize in many cases policy, and that's been happening for a while.
That didn't get anybody concerned in the media.
That didn't even raise any eyebrows.
But when it happens to them, oh, it's got to be reported, everybody's got to know it, and everybody better be outraged by it.
Benghazi happens, that's just a Republican scandal.
There's nothing to see there.
The Republicans is making it up.
They're just racist, sexist, bigot, homophobes, all of this stuff is the mischaracterization, the lies, and the attempted effort to attach criminality to basic mainstream conservatism.
Never even never he gets noticed.
A brief time out, we'll be back and continue after this.
I don't think you can deny it, folks.
The drive-by media every day tells us that we are supposed to trust the government with every aspect of our lives.
Every aspect health care, housing, food, you name it, except the cops and accept the military.
When it comes to government with guns, we are not supposed to pay any attention, and we're supposed to be very, very suspicious.
When the government has guns, a e.
police force, you name it, any armed agency of the federal government we're supposed to distrust.
But all the others were supposed to love them and trust them with everything.
Now, AP has a story about these two journalists.
Protest turned violent in St. Louis suburbs, rocked by racial unrest since a white cop officer's police officer shot an unarmed black teenager to death, turned violent again Wednesday night, some people lobbying Molotov cocktails and other objects at police who responded with smoke bombs and tear gas To disperse the crowd.
How did the protests turn violent last night?
Haven't the protesters been looting for several days now?
I mean, isn't looting if smashing in a storefront isn't that violent?
In any case, the uh the latest news media photos make Ferguson look like the Gaza Strip.
They they actually do.
But there's an interesting comment that one of the arrested reporters made, Ryan Riley of the Huffing and Puffington Post, actually said something that if you parse it and re in fact, what he's basically saying is it's unfair that he was released so soon when others aren't, that he has status as a white person and as a journalist.
His status as a white person, a journalist got him released earlier than other people.
And it's not right.
It's almost like he wanted to be held longer.
Obama's late again, practicing the art of disrespect, and he has perfected.
He's never on time.
That's another reason that we can't make plans to gyp these things, not that we would anyway.
This press conference today was uh a hastily arranged event.
Do you know why this press conference is taking place today?
I mean, Ferguson, Missouri's been going on for how long?
When did this happen?
Days ago, right?
And the news out of the White House has been that the president's been briefed about it.
That's all anybody's heard.
Well, yeah, Susan Rice keeping him up to speed.
Valerie Jarrett keeping the president up to speed in a conversation on a 6T yesterday.
Well, there was a backlog on the par three ahead of the gang, ahead time to brief the president on what's been going on.
But he's now going to come out and do a press conference or at least an appearance.
And this is happening because somebody in the White House tweeted out last night something about the party that the Obamas were attending at Vernon Jordan's place with the Clintons.
It was uh it was a tweet or some such thing.
Press released in the White House about the party last night, and it said good time was had by all.
At the party last at the time that Molotov cocktails are being thrown in Ferguson, Missouri.
But from the White House, a tweet went out, good time being had by all.
And then it got repeated on Twitter, and it went wild, Twitter did, at the thought of Obama and company partying down while Ferguson and the rest of the world, mind you, is burning.
And I'm I'm guessing here, if it hadn't been for that backlash in social media, Obama wouldn't be doing this today.
He would continue to release statements saying he's been fully briefed and he's watching the situation and he's very much.
You know people are tweeting out of St. Louis.
I saw it at Jim Hofft's uh blog, Gateway Pundit.
There are people in Ferguson.
African Americans tweeting out things like, you didn't do nothing for us.
And then the F-bomb, you.
At Obama, people are tweeting from Ferguson angry things at Obama.
And this is this is something the drive-bys are not going to find in all of their investigations.
They won't look for it.
It'll never occur to them to look at a largely African American population and find out just who they're mad at, besides this cop and the police department.
If you look at their tweets, it is clear that they expected much better than this.
Starting in 2008, they really had, and a lot of people did.
Really high expectations.
There were a lot of people, the poor, uh, a number of minorities who really bought into this hope and change thing, folks, and really thought a lot of white people voted for Obama, hoping that doing so would shed the shackles of our original sin of slavery, and finally, finally get rid of this notion that this is a racist country.
A lot of people voted for Obama on that basis.
There were A lot of people with a lot of reasons that voted for Obama that had nothing to do with policy.
Instead, they represented other hopes and dreams.
And all of those hopes and dreams were daily fed by a media who told people, whatever you want this man to be, that's who he is.
If he's the smartest and greatest, he is.
If he's a solution to that problem, he is.
If he's the answer to that circumstance, he is.
They were all fed this.
It's kind of tragic, in a way, when you read some of these tweets coming out of St. Louis from the residents, who are look at a little understandably here perplexed.
Let's face it, folks, there are a number of African Americans who thought that the election of the first African American president would mean a stark turnaround from the way they think they have always been treated.
That this guy was going to come in and he's going to fix it, and he was going to make sure that all these years of this kind of stuff happening would never happen again.
And furthermore, he was going to come in and he was going to take names.
And he was gonna he was gonna keep people take names and find out who they are, and he was going to make sure that they were punished.
There were all kinds of these expectations that were rolled into the election of Obama.
One of the reasons poll numbers are plummeting now, I believe.
With every one of these sit situations all across this country that indicate the country's on fire, the world's on fire, the situation, whatever it is, deteriorating.
A lot of people voted for Obama thinking this kind of stuff was over.
That his election specifically meant this wasn't going to happen anymore.
And if it did, if it did, whoever did it was going to be dealt with on the spot.
Whoever did it, whoever continued this kind of stuff was going to be found, and they were going to be dealt with right here and right now.
And that isn't happening.
The president on the golf course.
His third vacation this summer.
And so last night somebody issues a press release from the White House about the party.
A good time was had by all.
It ends up being tweeted, and then amazingly, the White House announces the president's going to have a press conference today.
Now back to this AP story about the arrested reporters in St. Louis.
Actually, Ferguson.
I uh I had to race through this because I want to try to get it in for the bottom of the hour break.
But here's the here's the natural tempoed explanation of this.
One of the arrested journalists is Ryan Riley.
He works for the Huffing and Puffington Post.
He talked to a reporter at MSNBC, and he suggested that he was mistreated by the local authorities.
He admits that.
He was mistreated, he was uh prematurely arrested, he was hustled out of there simply to accused him of trespassing.
But then he said it was just a terrible experience.
The worst part was that that cop slammed my head against a glass purposefully on the way out of McDonald's, and then sarcastically apologized for it.
It was just a terrible experience.
And you know, I recognize that I'm sort of in a place of privilege, both as a journalist and as a white person, quite frankly, in that I was uh that was evidently the key in the decision not to go ahead and hold us.
And that did have there was a big holding room where a bunch of people had been taken, either having been arrested or were going to be.
And a cop walked in and shouted, okay, who's media?
And these two reporters raised their hands, and we are, we are, okay, get out of here.
And they and they got rid of him, but nobody else was allowed to leave.
So this guy, Ryan Riley, went on MSNBC today to share his guilt over the fact that he, as a person of double privilege.
A, He's a white person.
That's privilege number one.
B, he's a journalist.
That's privilege number two.
He was let go early.
That's not fair.
That's just a that's not fair.
It's almost like he was making the case that he was released too quickly.
And he should have been held longer.
And nobody else was released.
It's not fair.
They let me go because I am a person of double privilege.
White guy and journalist.
We have audio sound bites of the reporters.
Up first, Wesley Lowry of the Washington Post.
Also arrested.
He was on CNN with Kate Baldwin.
And the question was, Wesley, why were you arrested?
And what did being arrested tell you besides of the fact that you were arrested?
I asked specifically under what charges am I being held why is it for trust?
So we were trespassing as patrons of a McDonald's, where we both made purchases and have been working for a long period of time.
The police I guess now have jurisdiction over private business.
All of this went down, as you can see the video in less than two minutes.
There were not any protests within two blocks of us.
I would love an explanation from the police department about what the eminent risk to our safety was to be forcibly removed from a McDonald's while we were trying to pack up our bags.
We ended up standing outside the McDonald's for 15 minutes in the handcuffs.
We were in the same location.
So what was this public safety?
So they were in handcuffs, CNN eventually were let out.
And that's not fair.
Because they had double privilege.
White guys Well, I don't know if Wesley Lowry's white, but but but Ryan.
Ryan uh Riley is.
And here is Ryan Riley next.
Uh Kate Baldwin said, Look, is there any regret uh that that that you became the story rather than covering the story, Ryan?
It's really frustrating.
We gathered a lot of good material that I would have loved to get out there yesterday had it not been for the fact that I was uh detained and and whisked away because apparently I didn't hack up my bags speedily enough for um cops who got a little hotheaded here.
And it's just a really amazing detraction, honestly, and it was completely unnecessary situation.
We're trying to do our jobs here, and the attitude that the the officers who we dealt with was just extraordinary.
I'm angry, frankly.
You know, you sort of understand some of the frustration, honestly, that I think that people feel based on the mentality of at least some of the police officers that um are on the street.
The idea that we posed any sort of threat because we weren't quickly enough packing up our bags is just ludicrous.
That's Ryan Matthew, uh Ryan Riley, sorry, of the uh Huffing and Puffington Post.
When the cops give you an order, it's like your drill sergeant giving you an order.
Right now doesn't mean in thirty seconds.
And we've got tense circumstances, heightened awareness on the part of everybody and everything.
And the cops know.
The cops know the journalists are not on their side.
The cops know the journalists are looking to make them look bad.
So there's a talk about trying to keep everything in perspective.
There's that aspect of this as well.
We'll take a brief time out.
We'll come back.
I'm gonna start getting your phone calls in on this when we get back, so don't go away.
To the phones we go, as promised, and this is Joe in St. Louis.
Welcome, sir, and I'm glad you called.
Hi.
Hi, Rush.
I live right there at Chambers in West Florence.
And uh I've been confronted by the police twice.
And if you are polite and do what they tell you to do, you have no problem.
The McDonald's that they're talking about is boarded up and closed.
Those reporters were trespassing.
And if they did what they were told uh they're gonna go.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, well, hold it just a second.
Just a second now.
The audio sound bite I just played.
One of these reporters said, Wesley Lowry, the Washington Post, I asked specifically under what charges am I being held?
Why am I being detained?
He said for trespassing.
So we were trespassing as patrons of a McDonald's, where we both made purchases and have been working for a long time.
So you're telling me the place have boarded up.
The place they shattered the windows there.
The uh and uh the you know, there's businesses all and up down that street.
The glass has been broke out.
They even uh ransacked uh Sands and uh Kmart uh totally stripped their uh electronics department.
I am glad the police are doing what they're doing because they're protecting us people back in the neighborhoods.
We're scared.
All of my neighbors are scared.
Makes sense.
And and it's the police that are protecting us from the rioters.
We're not afraid of the police.
We're play afraid of the rioters.
Wait a minute.
Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute.
You you you have you taken time to understand the rage of the rioters and understand why it is they're doing what they're doing.
I don't care whether they're angry or mad.
They're breaking the law.
And you see the cops as trying to enforce it.
They are enforcing it.
You can't right now you can because of what they've been doing, you can't even drive behind a business.
They will stop you.
And if you just say yes, sir and turn around and go back, you're fine.
Well, you guys is an interesting point.
This is this is an i I l let's talk about human psychology in 2014 for a second, human emotion.
I think one of the things in play here, let's let's say, and I don't mean to insult you with this, that please don't be insulted, but you have to understand, Joe, that anybody can call me here and say anything.
I'm not challenging what you're saying.
I'm just what so when I say let's take what you say as verbatim, I'm I don't mean that as an insult, because I want to make a point off of it.
You I've listened to you for over 20 years, and I know I appreciate your humor.
Okay.
Well, no, I'm not trying to be funny here.
I'm trying to explain something, but in order to make my point, I I'm I I have to tell the audience, let's assume that what Joe says is true.
And I just want you to know when I say let's assume I'm not disbelieving you.
I'm just setting something up here.
So everything you say is true.
The street that you're talking about, the McDonald's, uh the places have been looted, and the cops are enforcing the law, and the cops are protecting private property from further damage, vandalism, looting, what have you.
The cops are protecting neighborhoods.
Okay.
Now, some people, Joe, some people actually believe that because a cop shot an unarmed teenager, that the cops ought to look the other way when there is a reaction to it, because people think that the cops shooting an unarmed teenager is wrong, and therefore there must be a price paid for that.
Some people look at the price.
You gotta understand that the vandalism's gonna happen rush.
You have to understand they're gonna loot.
They're ticked off.
The cops killed an unarmed kid, and so some people expect the cops to look the other way as a means of not ratcheting up tensions even further.
Some people, Joe, I'm telling you, some people, I'm not talking about residents.
I mean people not living in St. Louis, looking at the situation, maybe media would say, maybe the cops for community peace should just kind of look the other way.
One wrong does not justify the city.
Well, I know.
I know.
So here's what happens.
When people who think that the cops should look the other way, just you know, don't don't don't go after any more people.
Just kind of stand aside, let some things happen, let them boil over, let them get it out of the system, let them do some looting, let them do this.
You know, give them a week before you enforce the law.
When the cops then come in and enforce the law, those people that think the way I just described think the cops are being hard, cold, mean SOBs, because they don't understand.
So when you call and support what the cops are doing and say we're scared, they're protecting us, they're trying to keep order and so forth, a lot of people are gonna think you're the weirdo.
Not me.
Just telling you that that America 2014 has some very odd ideas about conflict resolution and uh expectations and how a wrong is dealt with so forth, and many of them think that a show of force enforcing the law is provocative, unnecessary, and mean, given all the circumstances here.
Well, just like Israel, if you don't show force and strength, it only gets worse.
No, I hear you.
I I I that's why I said don't don't I'm not was not challenging the the the accuracy of what you said.
But I think, folks, it's an important point.
Um because these end up being really uh bad attitudes toward cops who are just doing what Joe said here, trying to enforce the law, protect people.
We'll be back.
Don't go away.
Okay, Preston just said we're all part of the American family.
We need to all come together.
Uh and uh what else uh oh we just need to stop.
He said I can't remember.
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