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May 22, 2009 |
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Story #1: Would You Buy a Hybrid to Get a Parking Space?
RUSH: Hey, Dawn are you going to go out and buy a hybrid just so you can park close by the Doubletree Hotel that's only ten miles from your house? Dawn told us yesterday she knows a hotel ten miles from where she lives that they have reserved spaces for handicapped people and people who drive hybrids. Ha! Would you buy a hybrid just to be able to park? People who buy hybrids, I would think, want to get exercise and run around, crunch on granola bars and that kind of thing. Why do you have to give people who drive a hybrid a close space? I mean, aren't those the people that don't want to use their cars anyway? You know, park as far away as possible and take the hoof express.
 Story #2: Obama Blows Off Sobbing Children for Steelers Event
RUSH: Yesterday in Washington, after President Obama went out and made that Castro-like speech that never ended defending his position on closing Guantanamo Bay and turning terrorists loose or whatever he's going to do with them, he went back to the White House and had a party, so to speak, a greeting ceremony for the world champion Pittsburgh Steelers. The Pittsburgh Steelers were invited to the White House after their last Super Bowl win by George W. Bush. Obama invited them to show up yesterday since they're this year's Super Bowl winners and things were a little different this time around. The Steelers players, the last time they were there, showed up in the very appropriate coat and tie, most of them did. This year they were told not to wear coat and ties, that there was a surprise waiting for them. So they all showed up in slacks and golf shirts and when they got there Obama put them to work stuffing boxes of goodies to be sent to troops overseas, which is fine and dandy.
The Steelers were there for about four hours. Obama was presented with an official Steelers jersey, home jersey with the number 44 on it. It's just a tough picture to look at because I'm, as you know, a Steelers fan. It was bad enough a year ago during the campaign when they gave Obama a Steelers jersey with the number 1 on it, so he's got two of them now given to him by the team. But I happened to note something. See, I am a student of the NFL. They did not give him locker room jerseys. They might be exact jerseys, I mean the same material, the same price, but you Steelers fans, I'm sure you know if you've gone out and bought the real thing, says NFL equipment on it, on field, and the label down in the lower left, you'll notice when you look at the sleeves it's not like the jerseys the Steelers wear on the field. The locker room jerseys in almost every case in the National Football League are different than what they sell retail. It's the same material, it's the same design, you would never notice it unless you were a pure student. And I've noticed that they are not locker room jerseys that Obama got.
I can't explain to you why. I mean, I could, I could try, but it has to do with the sleeves and the stripes and how the sleeves are sewn on. They're sewn on differently in the locker room jersey, the game day jersey, than the ones that you buy retail. Just trust me on this. I know it. It's irrelevant to anything. I'm just showing off with how much I know. But there was an added story about the Steelers showing up yesterday that NBC -- I can't believe that NBC reported this: "Thursday was supposed to be the highlight of the year for more than 100 kindergarteners from Stafford County, Va. They got up early and took a chartered bus to the White House for a school field trip. But when they arrived, all the 5-year-olds got was a lesson in disappointment. The buses from Conway Elementary arrived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue a little later than planned, and they were locked out."
Obama told the kindergarteners to go home. Five-year-old Cameron Stine said, "'We were going to the White House, but we couldn't get in so I felt sad.' Parents say they were just 10 minutes late for their scheduled tour. School officials say White House staff said they needed to get ready for the president's event with the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers, so they couldn't come in. So a long-planned field trip from a suburban Washington school broomed by the Obama White House. What about the children? Can you imagine the effect of this on these children for the rest of their lives, is nobody thinking about this? These kids, how long they had been looking forward to it, they were going to go to the White House. They were going to get a tour. They were maybe going to meet President Obama, an historic figure, and they show up and they're only ten minutes late, and the mean guards at the gate won't let 'em in because the Steelers are in there putting gift packages together to send to military troops overseas. I think they should've let the kids in and helped the Steelers. What a double whammy for Obama, let those kids in, they get the meet the Steelers, the parents get to meet Steelers, get to help 'em out putting care packages together for the troops. But no. The buses were sent away with the little children in tears. My friends, the long-term effects of this might incalculable.
Story #3: AP Panic: College Students Stressed and Depressed
RUSH: Before giving the details of this story, let me ask all of you who have graduated from college -- now, I cannot say that. I have not. But I can include myself as a high school graduate in this. How many of you, when you graduated college, were optimistic? How many of you thought finally I'm getting out there, this is my chance. You probably attended your commencement where the commencement speaker told you that you were the future; that you had to go out there and continue the traditions. Yeah, you might have been scared and it might have been challenging finding a job and so forth, first time on your own, theoretically. But I mean I want you to really think about how much -- I mean, I couldn't wait 'til I got out of school. To me that was freedom. I couldn't wait to get out on my own. There was an America out there; there was my place in it out there; there was my opportunity waiting out there. That opportunity had knocked and knocked and knocked and I was going to open the door.
My fortune, whatever it was to be, was out there, I couldn't wait to get out there. The last thing I was when I got out of school was depressed. I wanted to throw a party because I got out, and most of the people I knew my age when they got outta college looked at it the same way. Some of them couldn't face it so they went to grad school. Some didn't know what they wanted to do so they went to grad school and became teacher assistants. But they still were excited about having done it. Now contrast, no doubt, the way you felt getting out of school with this story from the Associated Press today, which is why I worry about the longtime effects of those five-year-olds that got thrown away from the White House yesterday because the Steelers.
"Stress over grades. Financial worries. Trouble sleeping. Feeling hopeless. So much for those carefree college days. The vast majority of college students are feeling stressed these days, and significant numbers are at risk of depression, according to an Associated Press-mtvU poll. Eighty-five percent of the students reported feeling stress in their daily lives in recent months, with worries about grades, school work, money and relationships the big culprits." Wow. Did you worry about grades when you were in college? Did you worry about grades? Did you worry about getting your schoolwork done? Yeah, I did, too. I hated it. Did you worry about the money you were going to make first time on your own, did you worry about that? And did you have problems with relationships? Hello, universal. This happens to virtually everybody. And yet in the AP, why, this is ground breaking, this is unique. Eighty-five percent of the students stress, worry about grades, schoolwork, money, and relationships.
"At the same time, 42 percent said they had felt down, depressed or hopeless several days during the past two weeks, and 13 percent showed signs of being at risk for at least mild depression, based on the students' answers to a series of questions that medical practitioners use to diagnose depressive illness. These students complained of trouble sleeping, having little energy or feeling down or hopeless -- and most hadn't gotten professional help. Eleven percent had had thoughts that they'd be better off dead or about hurting themselves. Mental health disorders like depression typically begin relatively early in life, doctors say, and college is a natural time for symptoms to emerge." I simply am asking you to go back and remember your own college graduation, and does any of this sound familiar? You wanted to kill yourself? You wanted to hurt yourself? You were despondent to the point of needing to go to a psychiatrist? Yeah, I mean, there were some people, but there always have been. But stress over grades. "College Students Stressed, Depressed, Poll Says."
Forty-two percent are down, depressed or hopeless, in the time of hope and change, in the time of hope and change, in the time of hope and change, 42% have zero hope. The only change is they're in worse shape than they were before they went into college. What explains this? What is it that explains this? What happened to the traditional attitude when getting out of college: there's a world out there; there's my place in it, and I can't wait to get started. I can't wait to get away from my own home. I want to make my own life. I can't wait to get out there and have my own responsibility. I can't wait to get away from people telling me what I can and can't do. Where is all this coming from? Where is this fright and fear coming from? I, ladies and gentlemen, have at least part of the answer. I would say that the people in this poll, these college students in this poll, have more than likely been to their share of self-esteem classes; there have been self-esteem curricula; they have been told how wonderful they are; they have been told how special they are; they have been told that nothing is their fault; that something happens, it's either George Bush's fault or somebody else's fault.
They've had conflict resolution classes. Whenever they have a disagreement or argument with somebody, they know how to deal with it, conflict resolution. They have been trained according to the experts to have nothing but joy and bliss as the attitudes they take into the real world after graduating from these institutions of higher learning, but they're coming out of there mental cases. They're coming out of there with linguini for spines. It is precisely because of all this self-esteem rotgut, the focus on how you feel, not on what you're learning, not on what you're accomplishing, not on what you're learning about how to think. No, this about how you feel each and every day, and I'm going to tell you, most people who are encouraged to do nothing but be self absorbed in how they feel are going to conclude they feel rotten most of the time. So more liberalism designed with good intentions to produce healthy and vibrant, nonviolent, walking little robots is instead producing head cases graduating from college with a shocking 13 to 14% who have considered killing themselves or harming themselves, and the story asks, how can this be? And, of course, it's the tumultuous last eight years, the war in Iraq, the war on terror, unsettled economic circumstances.
But then we have Obama, hope and change. This was supposed to change everybody who had attitudes of pessimism like this into optimistic unifiers. Why, we were going to have utopia out there. So how's that hope and change working for these college graduates? Doesn't seem to me hope and change is working. And so, what lifetime scars have been imprinted on the impressionable skulls full of mush of the five-year-old kindergarteners turned away from the White House yesterday on their field trip, even though it was scheduled, because they were ten minutes late, they were not allowed in 'cause the Steelers were there. Obama said to the five-year-olds, (raspberry) you and your parents, too. They go back and they're in tears, they don't understand it, it was a field trip planned weeks ago. The scars of this will be permanent. They're five years old. My guess is they're going to be told that the president's George W. Bush.
Story #4: Harold Witkov: It's Time to Legalize Counterfeiting
RUSH: Would you relax in there? I was in my favorite part in So Very Hard to Go by Tower of Power and I just had to listen to it. All right. No, I have not meant to tease you. It is: "Time to Legalize Counterfeiting," by Harold Whikov, with this opinion piece at the AmericanThinker.com today. "Many Americans today believe certain illegal vices in our society should be decriminalized, taxed, and regulated. The most popular of these vices include marijuana smoking, prostitution, and all forms of gambling. The proponents for decriminalization believe that the new tax revenues produced would help support schools, healthcare, and the impoverished, ease the pain of taxpayers, and reduce the deficit. They also believe that transgressions such as these will take place no matter, but, if properly regulated, would be safer for society in general. It would be a win, win situation.
"Unfortunately, when it comes to lowering taxes and helping the downtrodden, the best-laid government plans seem to fall short of expectations. However, there is one vice, one small illegal indiscretion, that, if decriminalized would solve all our problems. The United States needs to legalize the victimless crime known as counterfeiting. Once legalized, counterfeiting would be for everyone. This could be accomplished by making Federal Reserve Note paper (complete with silk threads, watermarks, etc.) available to the public. With the correct paper, most computers with the right software would have no trouble replicating U.S. currency.
"If a household did not have a computer, special over-the-counter counterfeit kits could be made available, with instructions in both English and Spanish. Once in place, universal counterfeiting would prove to be the ultimate stimulus package for the economy. Employees would always have enough money and never have to go on strike. Citizens would have no trouble paying their mortgages and never face foreclosure. Everyone would gladly pay his or her taxes and there would be no need to have an IRS. Free market consumerism would return with a flourish. People would purchase whatever they wanted and stores would only have to worry about having enough merchandise on hand. Stores could charge the consumer whatever they wanted and the consumer could still afford.
"Every shopping day would be like the day after Thanksgiving and the day before Christmas. Once legalized, counterfeiting would still have to be regulated. Parity and fairness would dictate that families earning over $250,000 would only be allowed to print $1, $2, $5 and $10 denominations. Families with combined incomes of less than $250,000 could print $20 and $50 bills. The unemployed could print $100 bills, and ACORN workers and UAW members would be entitled to counterfeit a new denomination, something even larger than the $100 bill (with President Obama on the front). Universal counterfeiting could be the entitlement program that ends all other entitlement programs and sets us free. It is time to stand up and tell our legislators we want universal counterfeiting. If they protest, 'You cannot just print money,' then promptly respond in kind, 'Why not? It works for you.'"
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Story #5: Report: Lohan to Marry Girlfriend, Convert to Judiaism
 RUSH: This story here that I have amuses me. Maybe it will only amuse me. It may amuse you in a way it doesn't amuse me, but let's see. By the way, this is from the India Express newspaper. Lindsay Lohan -- wait, I'm not getting into the pop culture here. When I see Lindsay Lohan's name on a web page I skip it. But this caught my attention. You'll see why here in mere moments. "'Lindsay Lohan to Marry Samantha Ronson and Convert to Judaism.' -- If reports are to be believed, Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan is planning to get married to on/off girlfriend Samantha Ronson.
Lohan and Ronson had parted ways after a hotel bust up in March, however, sources claim that the couple is back together and Lohan has even proposed. The Mean Girls star is also said to be considering converting to Judaism to marry her lesbian lover. According to the National Enquirer, wedding talk angered Ronson's Jewish family - so Catholic Lohan has offered to convert. 'Lindsay says Sam's promised she'll persuade her family to accept this, and they won't wait to see if California changes their gay marriage legislation, but will travel to one of the states where it is legal to say their I do's.'"
All right, now, what struck me about this, Dawn, you're a normal red-blooded heterosexual standard religious middle American woman, what are the details of this story that stick out to you the most? There's no wrong answer here. It's not a trick question. It's not politically correct for you to give an answer. Okay, Snerdley, you want to take a stab at it? Okay, here's what gets me about it. Run through this again. Lindsay Lohan has a lesbian lover, Samantha Ronson, has proposed, going to get married. Fine, nobody has a problem with that, zip, zero, nada. Oh, yeah, cool, let's do it! Let's find a state where it's legal. The thorn in this is that Lohan's a Catholic? And they want a religious ceremony? Well, I don't even know if that's the case. The thorn in this whole story for the parents is, "Oh, sure, my daughter's going to marry a woman, yeah, let's have a party! Wait, she's Catholic. Nah uh, I ain't going for that." You mean you couldn't find a nice Jewish girl? We will not keep a sharp eye on this story. The details that follow are totally uninteresting to me. I just wanted to give you the low-down on this.
Story #6: Chavez, Obama Compete in Nationalizing Industries
RUSH: Hugo Chavez, dictator, Venezuela, has announced the nationalization of "several iron and steel companies to pave way for a large 'socialist' state-run enterprise," without giving details on the venture. Chavez said, "There is nothing to discuss. We've been on this for a long time." I'm keeping a tally over who can outdo who, Obama or Chavez, in nationalizing industries, and by my tally Chavez is ahead 35 to six. I know he's been in office longer so he has a little bit of an advantage but he's nationalized the oil companies and he's nationalized some television stations, all the radio stations, and now he's nationalized steel. Chavez has a good start, there's no question, but so far Obama, in just a little over a hundred days, the auto industry, the banks, the mortgage industry, and health care is next. I mean that's pretty big. Dollar for dollar you gotta say Obama is ahead here. I mean, once he nationalizes one-seventh of the US economy Chavez is pounding sand in this little contest. And of course Obama's not through because Obama himself may bailout minority broadcasters which will give him ownership in the broadcast business, and what else are they looking at? Insurance, too. Well, they haven't nationalized the whole insurance industry, but I mean there's a couple other things Obama is looking at here and they're slipping my mind. Nationalized.
But yeah, you're right, dollar for dollar Obama is way ahead of Chavez because we're a much wealthier country. Well, I don't know, Snerdley. When you nationalize your oil companies -- oh, that's what it is. Obama's going to nationalize energy. He's gonna put the coal business out of business, gonna put the oil business over there somewhere, probably let Chavez have that, and so, yeah, it is nip and tuck out there. On the computer I've got a little spreadsheet where I keep track of which dictator is nationalizing more industries, Barack Obama or Hugo Chavez. It looks like just the number of industries that Chavez is way ahead. He's been there a long time, too. But dollar for dollar it's close, you know, Obama because he's nationalizing wealthier industries and taking them over. So it's nip and tuck. See, it all depends on how you measure this stuff. Do you want to own a whole lot of little things or do you want to own a few giant things? And Obama has chosen the latter.
Now, he will eventually, I think, own California. I wouldn't believe these stories coming out of the White House. The White House said we can't bail out California 'cause then every state is going to want to be bailed out. And of course there's nothing wrong with that from Obama's standpoint. If we're already $11 trillion in debt and we're printing money with no cause of concern for anything -- and the reason I think he's going to bail out California is because it's all union workers out there, government union workers, other union workers. Did you see the movie Men in Black, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones? The first one. Remember at the end of the show, the giant cockroach is out there in Flushing Meadow, and it's climbing up one of those towers which is its secret spaceship, this giant cockroach, this giant bug, to get back to the mother ship up there to own earth. And one of the tricks that Will Smith uses is to start squashing little cockroaches on the ground which upsets the big bug, the big cockroach, stops the trek up to the spaceship, comes back down and swallows Will Smith because Will Smith wants to be swallowed because he's got a vaporizer gun that he's going to blow up from inside the cockroach.
But imagine Obama as the big cockroach and union workers as the little cockroach, and he looks at union workers getting stomped on by CEOs and everywhere else, and of course the union government, union workers of California getting stomped on. He's the big cockroach and he's going to make sure these little cockroaches don't get stomped and don't get avenged and that's why he's going to nationalize California.
Story #7: Maureen Dowd is Unhappy Enough, Don't Pile On
RUSH: I just checked the e-mail during the break and I got, "How come you haven't discussed Maureen Dowd's plagiarism?" Did you hear about this? Apparently in a column last Sunday she included a paragraph that was 99% word-for-word from a blogger. I don't know what the paragraph was. The blogger was Josh Marshall. The reason I didn't talk about it, her excuse was that somebody had told her that, she was in conversation, and she thought it sounded good and she included it. And people began to doubt it because it was word-for-word what Josh Marshall wrote. I can't tell you how many times that has happened to me. You know, I get thousands of e-mails, and over the course of my sterling broadcast -- I'll tell you the last time it happened. I don't even remember the event, but somebody sent me an e-mail reacting to a story I had just done, and I thought, wow, that's funny. So I shared it but I didn't credit the e-mailer.
Next thing I know I get this e-mail from Lucianne Goldberg who said, "If you're going to steal things from my website, could you at least give me credit?" So I wrote her back, I said, "I hadn't been to your website today. Somebody sent me this in an e-mail. Somebody else lifted it." And the person said, "Why are you lifting from somebody else's website?" "I didn't, it's my creation, I didn't do anything." So I've had that happen to me. So Maureen Dowd's excuse, I've had it happen to me. Now, the difference is that she said she reprinted what somebody told her word-for-word. That's different than having the words already in your computer where you have to cut and paste. So I didn't bring it up 'cause Maureen's unhappy enough, folks, without piling on here. Everybody else is piling on her. I don't know, it just didn't strike me.
Story #8: Obama's Preventive Detention for American Citizens?
RUSH: There's a story here in the Washington Post: "Obama Endorses Indefinite Detention Without Trial for Some." We talked about this yesterday and how it appeared he's out there ripping Bush. He starts his speech yesterday, and he says, "I don't want to litigate the last eight years," and then the next Castro-like 55 minutes were nothing but ripping Bush and the last eight years. Now, you and I couldn't get away with that hypocrisy. I couldn't, for example, come to you and say at the top of the program, "Folks, I don't want to talk about Obama today," and then spend the whole show on Obama. I'd get called on it. But he doesn't get called on it. One of the things he said yesterday while not litigating the last eight years was that after ripping the last eight years and whole thing about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay he then reserved the right for himself to hold prisoners in detention without charge and without trial. And I made mention that this was a little hypocritical. I can't tell you how many e-mails I got from subscribers to my website who said they were stunned that I had missed it. Let me read you one as an example. I have it right here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers.
"The preventive detention, Rush, is not for members of radical Islam. It's for military vets the Obama administration considers to be a threat. Think the preventive detention is for American citizens. It goes hand in hand with Homeland Security Janet Napolitano's documents on groups to watch in this country." Now, they have withdrawn those documents, by the way. They've officially withdrawn that whole document saying that military people, right-wingers -- but I was struck. I mean it was hundreds, and it was not just military people. There were some people who wrote and said he's leaving the option open for himself to be able to detain citizens without charge. And I got to thinking, years ago, getting letters like this, e-mails like this, "Oh, my gosh, my audience, these people are writing me these letters, they're kooks." Some of them may be writing these notes, but there are too many of these, people are looking at this guy that way. I've told you, there are people who are scared to death about the future of the economy, their kids' futures, all of this spending, the federal government power grabs. So I find it interesting that there are people out there who think that we have a president who might actually reserve for himself the right to detain people without charge and without trial who are American citizens in the context of giving a speech that everybody assumed he was talking about terrorists, international, Islamic terrorists who are threatening the United States.
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