RUSH: Let’s get some phone calls in here. People have been patiently waiting, and I appreciate it.
We’ll go to Houston and start with Emily. Thank you, Emily. Hi, and how are you?
CALLER: Fine. How are you, Rush?
RUSH: Very well, thanks.
RUSH: Mega dittos.
RUSH: Thanks very much.
CALLER: Listen, while I was holding for you I took my husband to the airport to catch a plane out of the country to work since he lost his job here, as a petroleum engineer no less. Doesn’t that make you ill?
RUSH: There’s a lot of things making me ill today, and that’s not helping.
CALLER: That’s right. But I have two comments I want to make and then I want to tell you my new thing for the acronym. First of all it’s my belief that this CIA situation taking the interrogations and the investigations from the CIA and putting them with the FBI has to do with Obama’s major dislike for the Bushes and the fact that George H. W. used to be in charge of that facility. And the other comment that I wanted to make is that I find it amazing that we worry about waterboarding a guy 183 times when he was planning on killing his freaking self in the first place.
RUSH: We didn’t waterboard anybody 183 times. We used the waterboard three times.
RUSH: Didn’t they claim that 183 or something?
CALLER: Yeah, just like they claimed 500,000 civilians in Iraq died too. There’s a bunch of lies about this stuff. We used the waterboard three times, we used it on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed once, and it worked in 45 seconds.
CALLER: We feel sorry for the guy yet he was planning on killing himself on the plane if he’d gotten on?
RUSH: Yeah, well, that’s what’s unbelievable about this. We’re worried about these guys’ psyche; somehow we’re violating American ideals. It’s all ridiculous.
RUSH: Julio, Miami, nice to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Thank you, Rush. Thank you for taking my call.
RUSH: Yes, sir.
CALLER: I just wanted to talk to you about the interrogations issue that you’ve been dealing with today. I was a Marine reserve and after 2002 I got activated and I was one of the first Marines that got to Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo. And I can tell you from my own experience serving there for seven months during interrogations of those guys that it was a joke. It was basically eight to five p.m. and whenever these guys wanted to pray, which they get to pray five times a day, they would call time-out and you would have to stop the interrogation and give them an opportunity to pray. All this issue about interrogations and all that other stuff, it’s BS. I mean we’ve been bending over backwards since the time that those first 300 got to Camp X-Ray to basically give them everything that they wanted, even the guards, the JPF 160 guards that were guarding these guards were sleeping in tents right next to Camp X-Ray from the beginning. The living conditions for those guards were worse than for the detainees. And unfortunately a lot of the brass, a lot of the colonels and generals that were there, they were protecting their own careers and their careers basically instead of doing the right thing for the country and they know what’s going on but they keep their mouth shut because for many reasons, among one of them is basically protecting their own careers instead of doing the right thing for the country.
RUSH: How long were you down at Club Gitmo Camp X-Ray?
CALLER: I was there from March of 2002 to October, I was there six months. I was a Marine Reservist and I got activated for three years.
RUSH: Did you see any torture take place?
CALLER: There was no torture, Rush. I mean these guys would basically come in and they would say in the middle of the interrogation, right before they were getting ready to give you Osama Bin Laden, obviously I’m being sarcastic here, they would go, ‘Time-out, I need to pray,’ and you would have to stop the interrogation and give them an opportunity to pray. It was a joke. We can’t win a war against terrorism if we’re bending over backwards with the enemy the way we’re doing it during the interrogations. The other thing that we do is they would basically say to you, you would tell them, ‘Hey listen, you’re going to be here the rest of your life,’ and their argument is Insha’Allah, which in Arabic means, that’s God’s will. That’s all they think about, is God’s will for me to be there.
RUSH: That’s why these people view dying and the cause as a route to martyrdom and so forth. All right, the details of the torture or nontorture of the interrogation techniques, right now that’s irrelevant. Now, I’m not saying, Julio, that what you said wasn’t valuable, but that’s not what this is about. This is not about coming up with smarter ways to interrogate. That’s not what’s going on here. This is banana republic type stuff. This is going after your predecessors. This is about weakening our intelligence gathering operation in general. It’s about distracting people from Obama’s failures on the domestic front. It is an attempt to rally his base to the thing they care most about and that is the US being portrayed as the world’s villain. Right now the details of whatever happened with interrogations, they’re not even relevant to what the purpose here is.
Here’s Ken in Ada, Michigan, you’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, great to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: We love you here in Michigan.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: We’re know as the Wolverine State but I think we should be called the propaganda state the way things have been going here. Granholm wants a high speed rail system here now. I heard on break when I was on hold, I guess we’re going to go from one desolate anemic town to another on high speed rail now.
RUSH: Who’s going to ride it?
CALLER: I don’t know.
RUSH: And where they going to go? If they build a high speed rail system where they going to go when they get on it and what are they going to pay for the ticket with? The last I looked unemployment in Michigan is around 19%, they going to take them to job centers? Where they going to go?
CALLER: We’re all going to be building green batteries or something. I don’t know. But the point of my call, Rush, is I own a small business here in Michigan, and we do —
RUSH: Every business in Michigan is small these days.
CALLER: Yeah. We’re feeling it, believe me. But anyway, before I get a job I need to test and do some sampling and everything before we do the job. And I don’t understand why the American people don’t insist on, if Obamacare is going to be so great, why don’t we test sample market it somewhere, preferably maybe on the left coast or something.
RUSH: Wait a second. Wait a second. The American people are standing up in greater numbers every day in opposition to this. They’ve seen it tested. It’s called Medicare. They’ve seen it tested. It’s called the VA. They have seen it tested. It’s called the DMV. They have seen it tested. It’s called Social Security. They have seen it tested. It’s called Medicare Part B. They have seen it tested. It’s called the war on poverty. They have seen it tested. It’s called the Great Society. They have seen it tested and they see it’s failing. The American people are rising up in opposition to this. If the polls were showing 75% approval for Obama’s plan, the town hall meetings were not happening the way they are, but the American people are on board here in ever greater numbers. I mean, Obama’s totally off the track here. It’s not over, don’t misunderstand. But I’m telling you this is not where they thought they would be. They thought they were going to have a health care bill that had passed the House and Senate by the recess. And that soon after when they got back they’d go to conference and they’d be signing this thing in September. And it isn’t gonna happen.
Here’s Eric in Naperville, Illinois, you’re next on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hi.
CALLER: Hey, Rush, how you doing? Mega dittos.
RUSH: Thank you very much, sir.
CALLER: All right, I’ll get right to it. Last night I was watching moderate Bill O’Reilly, and this guy was out interviewing the vacationing hoi polloi in Martha’s Vineyard, and one of King John Obama’s couples was very happy about the proposed health care bill, and this is what they said. They said — as they were holding their ankles, by the way — ‘It’s about time we joined the rest of the civilized industrial nations in providing health care.’ Rush, what’s wrong with that comment?
RUSH: It’s about time we join the rest of the industrialized nations in providing health care?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: You’re asking what’s wrong with that comment?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Well, I don’t know the way you’re thinking but we’ve got the best health care in the world already.
CALLER: Absolutely.
RUSH: And everybody who needs it gets it one way or another. They may not all have insurance, but anybody who needs health care in this country gets it.
CALLER: Exactly. At a decent price, too, I would say, not what they’re taxed in like Sweden or England.
RUSH: All I know is I don’t see anybody leaving this country to go anywhere else for major, life-saving surgery or other things. I do see some Arab sheiks getting doctors from here to fly over to them. But I don’t see a whole lot of people fleeing this country to go get health care. In fact, I see just the opposite.
Jim in Alexandria, Virginia. Hello, sir. It’s great to have you with us.
CALLER: How are you, Rush?
RUSH: I’m fine and dandy, sir, except for my angst and disconcertedness.
CALLER: Well, I wanted to talk about that. I’m feeling actually quite positive. I’m not feeling angst-ridden at all. Because I’m starting to think that with the Democratic Party — whether it’s the media or the legislative or the union arm of the Democratic Party — is starting to wake up. If you read some of the articles, they’re starting to wake up to the absolute disaster that Obama portends to them, you know, before them. I’m just wondering how long it is, because the party’s ascendance is the only thing, is the main imperative. I’m starting to wonder how long it’s going to be before they throw this guy over the side, and when they do, what form is that throwing him over the side going to take?
RUSH: Well, see, that’s the thing. I mean, parties don’t throw their presidents away. The only party that’s thrown their president away in our lifetime is the Republicans throwing Nixon overboard. Let me stipulate something here. I’m like you. I’m optimistic about the American people rising up and that was largely what the first part of hour is all about. What I’m disconcerted about this is, you know, I’m an American. I love this country. I believe in American exceptionalism and I do not like thinking and saying the things I believe and am saying about the president of the United States. I just don’t like it. It bothers me to know we’ve got somebody in office who doesn’t like this country or doesn’t understand what is American exceptionalism; is running around apologizing, finding fault, wants to fix all the things he thinks are wrong with this country that are not wrong with it. He wants to structurally change it. That… (heavy sigh)
CALLER: This was always the plan of the Democratic Party.
RUSH: Yes.
CALLER: This was always their mission was to do this. Well, now, as you said: The mask is off. Now Americans are beginning to see, if they haven’t seen already, what the true objective of the Democratic Party is. I don’t think that portends anything but disaster for the party as a whole. Well, that’s crucial.
RUSH: Yeah. I myself have offered the possibility that Barack Obama may be destroying the Democrat Party. We don’t know now. We’ll have to wait a while to see. I think it’s entirely possible. As far as health care is concerned, it’s going to come down to these Blue Dogs when they vote on it; 2010 is going to be an important reelection year. It’s just… I know sometimes you have to go through these cathartic things. And, look, my — my pessimism is not about the country, and my pessimism is not about the American people waking up and seeing it for what it is. I’m not even pessimistic. You don’t understand. Maybe I’m not able to articulate but my first hour today, everybody said what a great hour it was. It was painful to have to say these things! I mean, it was painful.
CALLER: Somebody has to say them, Rush, and the fact is, I think you’ve seen it in the vocalizations of the people in the town halls. The people are realizing that what you said in the first hour is true, and it’s frightening to all of them. These people didn’t leave their jobs and leave their homes and show up at those town halls just to visit. They’re there because they understand how important it is that they be there and be heard, and suddenly they’ve realized that there are millions of other people out there that want to be heard, too.
RUSH: I understand. All that’s good, but, see, I don’t forget who we’re dealing with here. We’re dealing with a guy who likes this. We’re dealing with an authoritarian who likes this chaos. Now, I know there are people doing polls out there today and asking: Can the Obama presidency be saved? This is a guy who took over the automobile companies unconstitutionally. The Constitution does not stand in this guy’s way. This is… (interruption) Do I think the American…? (interruption) No, I don’t. In fact… Snerdley just asked me: ‘Do you think the American Idol crowd is paying attention?’ I’ve got two stories today about the young population that were big, big voters and supporters of Obama. They don’t care about the health care debate. It doesn’t affect ’em. They’re immortal. They’re not thinking about getting sick. They’re not thinking about dying. They’re not even involved. They’re not even out trying to get him to help pass it.
They just don’t care. It’s something that doesn’t relate to them, which is true of every person in the twenties and so forth. So I don’t know that the American Idol crowd is up to speed on this yet. American Idol is not on the air, so it’s possible that the American Idol crowd is doing something else. But what would they be doing when American Idol is not on? We got a lot of people have checked out. But look there are enough of them who are engaged and checked in that they’ve put a stop on this agenda. Don’t misunderstand me: All this is positive. You asked the question, ‘Are the Democrats going to abandon this guy and throw him overboard?’ Do you realize we’re not even eight months into this guy’s presidency here, folks? This guy has still got three years and four months to go. That’s a hell of a long time. Anything can happen in politics. It’s not time to get giddy yet. I will tell you when it’s time to get giddy, and it’s not time. It’s time to feel optimistic and to realize that what you’re doing is working. But it’s not time to quit.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Sharon in green town, Pennsylvania, hi you’re on the Rush Limbaugh program. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Mega dittos from a first-time caller.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I hope I have a day-brightener for you. My husband and I attended a town hall meeting last night. It was held near Scranton. Representative Chris Carney, a Blue Dog Democrat, held the meeting. And I’d say there were about 300 of us there. The group was four-to-one, I would say, against the public option. The only evidence we saw there of any kind of outside organization was Health Care for America Now. They had a tent outside. They were distributing these huge stickers that you could slap onto your shirt that advertise their organization.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: It was very orderly. Nobody was, you know —
RUSH: Did anybody get beat up by any union thugs?
CALLER: No, they did not. I was all set to confront one if there was one there and dare him to beat up a —
RUSH: All right, did you enjoy it? Did you have a good time?
CALLER: Yes, I did. And I got to speak.
RUSH: Did your Blue Dog Democrat get it, do you think?
CALLER: Yes. Because afterwards he told the Scranton newspaper that he would not demand a public — he doesn’t demand a public option, he would settle for preexisting conditions and transportability, stuff like that being covered by the private companies.
RUSH: Well, that’s interesting. But more important than that is I think it’s great that you went, and I think it’s fabulous you wanted to call here and tell us about it. People are involving themselves in affairs of politics more than ever before here, particularly on our side, and it’s having an effect. It’s having an impact. And I urge you to keep it up. It’s tough to maintain an emotional fevered pitch like this, but it’s working. And it’s more important than ever ’cause Obama and his gang are doubling down on all of these things, folks. They are still trying to ram this down our throats one way or the other.