Stack of Stuff Quick Hits Page

Stack of Stuff Quick Hits Page

April 8, 2008

Story #1: Clinton's Petraeus Questioning a Big Snooze

RUSH: By the way, I said that our video machines were rolling on Hillary Clinton's questioning of General Petraeus and that we would have appropriate sound bites. Well, we don't have any appropriate sound bites because there was nothing worth recording and passing on to you with Mrs. Clinton's appearance. She was boring. She just read Petraeus' own quotes back to him and droned on and on and on. There were no fireworks. She was very subdued. Folks, if we could find one highlight, we would give it to you, but there wasn't a highlight. It was Snooze City, which in and of itself is somewhat fascinating. Here's Mrs. Clinton with an opportunity here to shore up her creds as an anti-war person. Remember she got in trouble last time. It was seven months ago Petraeus was here we got that New York Times ad, "General Betray-Us," and it was Hillary who said that we had to have "a willing suspension of disbelief" in order to believe what Petraeus said even before he said anything. That's when the Democrats were all calling him a liar before he had said anything and accused him of having his report written by President Bush.

It's far different this time. I think the message from the Democrats in the Petraeus hearing today is, "Look, pal, you got 'til November, and then when we take over, it's a new ball game." That's the essence of what they're saying.

Story #2: Fabulous Random Thoughts from Thomas Sowell

RUSH: "Random Thoughts" column by Thomas Sowell today. I love Professor Sowell's "Random Thoughts" column. "Some people actually think that televising Congress gives us information. What it really does is give politicians millions of dollars' worth of free advertising while they play charades on camera to fool the rest of us.... Senator John McCain could never convince me to vote for him. Only Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama can cause me to vote for McCain," says Thomas Sowell.

"Most people on the right have no problem understanding people on the left because many, if not most, were on the left themselves when they were younger. But many, if not most, people on the left find it inexplicable how any decent and intelligent person could be on the right.... The same people who have gone ballistic when some prominent figure is found to belong to some all-male social club are full of excuses for why Barack Obama remained a member of a racist and anti-American church for 20 years.... One way to reduce illegal immigration might be to translate some of our far left publications into Spanish and give everyone in Mexico subscriptions. After they read how terrible this country is, many may want to stay away." Ha! Is that not great? "Whenever I see one of Barack Obama's smooth performances, it reminds me of a saying from my old neighborhood in Harlem: 'An eel is like sandpaper compared to you.'" The boy is so slick, he can steal the shortening out of a biscuit without breaking the crust. That's one of my favorites.

Story #3: Liberals Compare Rev. Wright to Martin Luther King

RUSH: I got a piece somewhere in the stack here today. Some liberal somewhere is comparing the Reverend Jeremiah Wright to Dr. Martin Luther King. It's time to paper over that controversy. It's time to make up and make nice with that church and Reverend Wright, but they're not going to be able to. As I said yesterday, you go out to flyover country; you know, you get away from these elite capitals on the East Coast and the Left Coast; you go out to where flyover country people who make the country work live, they haven't forgotten Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and they won't.

Story #4: Rice for VP Leak Has Democrat Fingerprints

RUSH: By the way, yesterday we had the news, and I'm sure you heard it, too, that Condoleezza Rice was actively pursuing the vice presidency with Senator McCain. He didn't know anything about it. Elisabeth Bumiller in the New York Times says, "Is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice campaigning to be John McCain's running mate? If so, Mr. McCain... said on Sunday that he had not noticed. 'I missed those signals,' Mr. McCain told reporters..." (doing McCain impression) "I didn't see 'em! I didn't hear a word. Nobody tells me who's going to be my vice president anyway. I'm going to decide that. It's my decision. I'm going to decide it with honor. I'm going to decide it with vigor. Nobody, nobody tells -- hee hee hee -- me who's going to be my vice president!" Condoleezza Rice says, "I don't know what this is about. I don't want to be anybody's vice president." She's always said that.

Do you know what I smell here? I smell the Obama campaign. I smell the Obama campaign passing a rumor of Condi being the GOP veep to certain Drive-By people to scare the Democrat voters and the superdelegates that if they don't put Obama on the ticket, the Republicans will get to have the first black person on the presidential ticket. That's what I suspect, because I've never heard her say she's interested. In fact, I've heard her say the opposite, that she is not interested in this. But then after I thought about it... Maybe it was the Hillary camp that let it out to scare the superdelegates and primary voters that the Republicans could have the only woman on the ballot this fall. Then I decided that either case is plausible, and then I came to the conclusion that nobody on the Republican side leaked it. It had to have come from someplace on the Democrat side.

Story #5: Parents Vote for Obama to Impress Their Children

RUSH: The New York Times today, story by Jan Hoffman: "Obama's Young Backers are Twisting Their Parents' Arms." Kids! The upshot of this story is that children have been twisting their parents' arms and they just want their parents to vote Obama, and the parents say, "Okay, kid! I'll vote for Obama," because they want to impress their children, as though kids twisting parents' arms is something new. This has been going on for years. "For some waffling primary voters, the relentless push by their children was good enough reason to capitulate. Eager to encourage their offspring's latest enthusiasm, they have been willing to toss up their hands and vote for Mr. Obama, if only to impress their children." So it says in the New York Times.

Story #6: See, I Told You So: Paid Family Leave in New Jersey

RUSH: A giant See, I Told You So coming true. AP: "New Jersey moved Monday to become the third state to require companies to offer six weeks of paid leave to workers wishing to care for a new child or sick relative. The state Senate voted 21-15 to approve the bill that would offer up to six

weeks paid leave. The Assembly approved the Democratic plan last month and Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine said he'll sign it soon." He can't wait to sign it! "Under the plan, which is backed heavily by organized labor and opposed by Republicans and business groups, parents could take paid leave anytime in the first year after a child's birth or adoption. Workers would be allowed to take paid leave to care for a sick relative receiving inpatient care in a medical care facility or under continuing supervision from a health care provider. ... The program would be paid for through a payroll deduction that legislative officials estimate would cost workers $33 per year."

There is no deduction. It is a payroll tax increase. What is this payroll deduction garbage? They are going to deduct it from your payroll. Meaning it's a tax increase. "Workers who take leave would get two-thirds of their salary, up to $524 per week, with an estimated average weekly benefit of $415. Opponents liken the payroll deduction to a tax--" Well, liken it; it is! "--and they fear it will increase if the program doesn't earn enough money to meet its needs." Tell you what, folks, if you tell people, "All right, gang, six weeks unpaid leave, go adopt a baby." Some people will do that just to get six weeks off work paid, then put the baby back up for adoption after the six weeks are over.

Story #7: Democrat Candidates to Hold "Compassion Forum"

RUSH: On Sunday, Hillary and Obama are going to have a -- well, it's not a debate, in Pennsylvania. They're going to have a compassion forum. This is what this is being called, a compassion forum at Messiah College in Pennsylvania. "The sponsors of a "Compassion Forum'' at Messiah College in Pennsylvania on Sunday are quick to say that this is not a debate -- despite the fact that both Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have accepted invitations to attend." CNN's going to handle this. "The cable network announcing today that it will provide live coverage of the 90-minute forum at 8 pm EDT. CNN Election Center anchor Campbell Brown and Newsweek editor Jon Meacham will moderate 'what is being billed as The Compassion Forum, which will take place nine days before the Pennsylvania primary.' The event at the small Christian college outside of Harrisburg was sponsored by Faith in Public Life, and is billed as a setting for 'wide-ranging and probing discussions of policies related to pressing moral issues that are bridging ideological divides now more than ever.'"

I don't know what's gotten into this college. What do they think they're going to hear morality-wise from these two? I'll make you a prediction, that the morality they discuss is what government's role is. That's how they define morality. If the government's involved in it, it's moral. If the government isn't involved in it, it isn't moral and needs the government involved in it. This place is going to be filled with ponytail-type guys, remember that, from the debate back in 1992, the ponytail guy, standing up asking Perot, Clinton, and Bush 41, "Treat us like your children, what are you going to do to take care of us?" George Bush looked at his watch, Perot stumbled on the way to the microphone, Clinton got there first. Nine days before the primary. Hillary needs a new story that's nice, too, by the way, but compassion, just doesn't fit.

Story #8: Did Liberals Solve the So-Called Credit Crisis?

RUSH: Everybody should be looking for opportunities, because there are opportunities galore even in a recession, in this country. Recession in this country would be heaven and nirvana to most people around the rest of the world, including some of our western Democratic allies. Speaking of which, here's a story from the Financial Times from yesterday, "'Experts Start to See Light in Credit Gloom' -- Is the worst over? For the first time since financial turmoil began in August last year, some respected experts are beginning to speculate that the worst of the credit crisis may now be past. Stanley Fischer, governor of the Bank of Israel, says the Bear Stearns rescue might be a 'turning point'. His view is shared by Larry Summers, the former US Treasury secretary, who wrote in the FT last week: 'It is not unreasonable to hope that, in the US at least, the financial crisis will remain in remission.'" Almost like it's a cancer, financial crisis, like it's a tumor. So we zapped it here with the Bear Stearns bailout; now it's in remission. "This turn in sentiment is based on the idea that radical action by US authorities has put a floor under the financial system."

Folks, I don't come here to depress you, but I come here to be honest. And I have to ask you, those of you who are regular listeners to this quality broadcast over the last year or two years, has it not been true that every story we've done on the economy has featured experts surprised? On employment going down, job applications going up, whatever the economic news was, the experts were surprised. Now these experts say we've seen a little light, it might be over, the experts are always wrong. I don't want to depress you. The experts are always wrong. Larry Summers is what? A Democrat. The point of this story is to say Democrat liberal philosophy may have choked off the recession. That's the point of this story.

Story #9: Obama Event Organizer: "Get Me More White People!"

RUSH: Obama event supporters, ladies and gentlemen, very much worried not enough white people are showing up. We have a story coming tomorrow featuring Obama event supporter shouting, "Get me more white people!" Details then.

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