RUSH: I mean it, Snerdley. I saw it. I saw it. I paid attention during the week. Last week was the fastest slow news week ever in my lifetime. I went up to New York on Saturday afternoon for an afternoon cocktail party, and I ran into a bunch of people and they said, ‘We miss you,’ and I said, ‘I can’t wait to get back to work.’ Greetings, my friends. Great to have you here. Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network, and broadcast excellence coming to you live, as always, from the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. The telephone number, if you want to be on the program, 800-282-2882. The e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com. Zowie, folks, this is just… I mean, all we can do is laugh about this. This is just too good. By the way, Brian, did you get the note that the bottom of the hour spot break is starting at a different time now? Well, thanks for changing it on my clock in here then, buddy. I know what it is, but I expect tomorrow for the clock to be changed in here. All right.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know where to start with all this. Last Sunday I’m reading the Washington Post, and I was telling people at this little party I went to Saturday afternoon, we talk about media bias and we have done it for the 20-plus years that I have been behind the Golden EIB Microphone here, but I have never — and I never thought I would say this — I have never in my life seen mass media so in the tank for an individual or a concept or a proposition as I am seeing the Drive-Bys totally in the tank for Barack Obama. Last Sunday the Washington Post runs a story on this whole outbreak of violence in Gaza between Hamas and Israel. And you know what the focus of the story was? It wasn’t on Hamas is responsible for this again because Hamas has been launching rockets into Israel, never mind they haven’t been hitting targets because Hamas is so unsophisticated they just launch ’em, they hit some targets randomly but they really can’t target these things, sort of like the ChiComs couldn’t get their missiles to stay in orbit ’til Bill Clinton was elected president and had that guy from Loral Space teach ’em how to do it.
So you’ve got people dying. You’ve got innocent kids on the Israeli side in schools and so forth dying. For six months the Israelis do not respond. They’ve got their own internal struggles over there. They’ve got an election coming up on February 10th. Finally they can’t take it anymore and they respond with targeted surgical strikes, and they take out all of these private homes that Hamas is using to launch these missiles in neighborhoods, and, of course, what does the Washington Post say? In the headline, and in the body of the story, the Washington Post is wringing its hands over, ‘Oh, no, what an unfortunate circumstance here for poor old President-select Obama and his peace plans.’ I’m reading this and I’m incredulous. I’m saying to myself, ‘I thought this was supposed to stop with his election. I thought this stuff wasn’t going to be happening anymore.’ Of course that’s ridiculous, but that’s the impression they left everybody prior to the election and Obama himself left that impression with people, the world was going to love everybody, United States included. This story was an abrogation of responsibility.
The big unreported story of 2008, I happen to believe, is the death of the newspaper business. This is something that was reported, but the profundity of it I don’t think has actually been reported on, because the people doing the reporting are not giving it the due it deserves. But it’s major, and this is one of the reasons why. This story was an abject embarrassment to anybody who calls themselves a professional journalist. ‘Oh, no, it’s so horrible, it’s so sad, what’s this going to do to Obama’s plans for peace?’ And that was just the setup for what’s to come for the rest of the week. ‘Obama Inherits Middle East Mess.’ Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, what president has not inherited a Middle East mess? At least Obama inherits his mess after eight years of planning and strategy that has tamed Iraq and that has routed the Taliban out of Afghanistan. George W. Bush inherited his Middle East mess after eight years of neglect by the Clinton administration. We also have been hearing, ‘What will Secretary of State Hillary do?’ and that leads us to Bill Richardson, who threw himself under the bus over a conflict of interest. Now, what Richardson did or is involved in is Romper Room compared to all the conflicts that Mrs. Clinton has, and they just keep adding up. But Richardson takes the high road and throws himself under the bus and the Obama people are saying, ‘He didn’t tell us the truth.’ What do you mean, you got a 63-question questionnaire there.
How did they not vet this? And of course the Drive-Bys are wringing their hands over this, ‘Oh, it’s just an unfortunate distraction.’ Just an unfortunate distraction? Folks, I warned you about all of this before the end of the year. It’s a different ballgame, and if you think expressing outrage over any of this is going to alter public opinion, forget it. This is not the way to deal with all of this. Because the way we’re looking at this right now there is no such thing as a Democrat scandal, there is no such thing as a Democrat who is ethics challenged. It’s not possible, except for Blago. Blago is the only guy that’s got an ethics problem in the Democrat Party. Nobody else does. These are just unfortunate distractions as we head into the inauguration of Barack Obama. And Harry Reid, Dingy Harry, calls Blago, he says, (paraphrasing) ‘Hey, pal, this guy that you’ve nominated to replace Obama, this Burris guy, we don’t want him here, and if we have to we’re going to have the sergeant-at-arms armed at the Senate door to keep him out. We’re not going to have this guy come in. Here’s who I want. First place, I don’t want the three black people that you are thinking about nominating.’ Now, Dingy Harry didn’t say ‘black people,’ but if you look at the people he put the kibosh on they’re all black and they’re all male. The Reverend Jackson’s son, Jesse Jackson Jr., Emil Jones, yeah, and there’s somebody else, some other black elected — and, by the way, all three of these guys have more experience than Obama had when he was elected. And Dingy Harry says, (paraphrasing) ‘I don’t want ’em here, just keep ’em outta here. I want Tammy Duckworth,’ who’s the female that protested the Iraq war, ‘or Lisa Madigan,’ the attorney general.
Now, I have a suggestion for Roland Burris, who Dingy Harry doesn’t want anywhere near the Senate. Congressman Burris or whatever his title is, if Harry Reid will not seat you, go to Denny’s. Denny’s will seat you if Harry Reid will not. And if what you’re out for is to be seated, try Denny’s. The Democrat Party will not seat Roland Burris. The first thing you ought to do is go to the nearest Denny’s and ask for a seat. And Dingy Harry is on Meet the Press yesterday calling Blago a liar for spilling the beans about his phone call to keep the black people out of the United States Senate. (laughing) Obama says he wants to create three million new jobs. Gone is the word ‘save.’ He wants to create three million new jobs, 80% of them in the private sector. Well, how big of him. Three million new jobs, 80% in the private sector, that means 600,000 brand-new government jobs. I got to thinking about this. Where do you go out and pick up 600,000 brand-new government employees? There’s a fast way of doing this, and let’s take a look at what the Democrat mantra is of America. America is made up of regions, and in certain regions — i.e., the South — people are basically hicks and hayseeds, they have no chance for education, they have no chance for economic advancement, America is a woeful place, our best days are behind us, these people in the South and anywhere else that there are hayseeds and the sticks, these people are caught in the same dilemma: What is the fastest way out for such people?
The Democrats, throughout the years, have told us that military service, people from these poor regions, uneducated regions of the country join the military ’cause it’s their only way out, there’s no hope of good jobs where they live, there’s no hope of education, so the military, and let’s also remember this. Obama has talked about increasing troop levels in Afghanistan. Obama has also said that our current fighting force is stretched way beyond where it should be. It’s fatigued, it’s tired, it’s worn out, and there aren’t enough people there. So, what’s the fastest way to get 600,000 federal employees? You bring back the draft. Now, folks, wouldn’t that be juicy? The draft brought to life by the Democrats and Barack Obama. I would love to be in California, particularly San Francisco if and when this happens. The draft is an economic stimulus. It helps the people who live in parts of the country who have no hope, who have no future. This is why they say people join the military anyway, so don’t wait for them to join; conscript ’em. Just get ’em in there, send ’em off to Afghanistan or what have you, and get started on this so-called economic stimulus.
Do you know, folks, this economic stimulus, if there were no economic crisis, this would be called the biggest pork bill — $6 million to make snow in Minnesota is part of this bill, all kinds of crazy things in it. This is all about expanding the scope and the reach of the federal government and the Democrat Party. Also I saw a picture of a poster that’s going around in Jakarta. Now, remember, ladies and gentlemen, the election of Barack Obama was supposed to make the world love us, bring back respect that had been squandered and lost because of eight years of George W. Bush. So I have here a poster, several of these all over town, all over the country, Jakarta, which is in Indonesia for those of you who voted for Obama, and it’s a poster of Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Ehud Olmert from Israel, and a picture of Barack Obama with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. And these three people in Jakarta on the poster are called traitors. A cigarette dangling from his mouth, a most disrespectful photo of our president-select on terrorist posters in Jakarta.
By the way, Jimmy Carter-built houses are crumbling and falling down in northern Florida. The project, of course, called Habitat for Humanity. They used a bunch of bad wood, they put these houses up so quickly that they’re starting to crumble in areas of north Florida. Shoddy construction, they say.
All of the Drive-Bys and analysts talking about the long-term trauma that Israel has subjected Arab children to with these bombings in Gaza. They will be scarred for life because of Israel’s relentless and unjustified attacks. Of course the big argument all week long has been for proportionality and some of the brightest minds, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who is the father of Mika Brzezinski, who was mugged for six bucks in Washington, which is an embarrassment. I mean, muggers have to eat, too, and that is going to lead to more muggings. If you’re going to get mugged, make sure you have at least $50 or a hundred bucks otherwise that mugger is going to have to go out and mug three or four more people, and it’s a dangerous thing and it’s more work for the mugger. At any rate, the proportionality, Israel is way, way out of proportion here, which means what? Israel okay, has to start launching rockets that miss their targets, Israel has to start launching rockets that do not do any damage. I sit and I watch this stuff, and look, I don’t want to offend you by laughing at it. Some of it is very serious, of course, but it isn’t gonna change. The coverage of this stuff is not going to change, folks, and so the idea of forcing some sort of change in the coverage is ridiculous. Making fun of it is the only option that we really have here for the time being. But it’s alternative universe time.
There’s no question who the bad guys are in the case of Hamas, backed by Iran, and yet it fits the liberal media template. Hamas is considered to be the minority, the downtrodden, the poor. So they are incapable of doing wrong. Whatever they’re doing is justified because they are oppressed. Israel is the big, bad wolf, backed by the evil United States. Israel is our ally. They are the only responsible culture in the Middle East, in that region. They’re under assault. It’s amazing, it’s breathtaking to watch the Washington Post report on Obama and not talk about the danger, the death, the damage, all this stuff that’s being done in this latest conflict between Israel and Hamas, every bit of it from the perspective of Obama, ’cause he’s too big to fail. That’s why Bill Richardson, you can go to CNN website, you will no longer find Bill Richardson’s scandal being mentioned. Ran it for one day, took it off. It’s just an unfortunate distraction for Obama. It’s just so sad. It’s not his fault. They throw Richardson under the bus now. So all these things, we’re going to get into great detail as the program unfolds.
Caroline Kennedy, ladies and gentlemen, 205 times on an interview with NY1 she used the word ‘you know.’ This is another thing. Liberalism is a giant myth. Camelot. She’s supposed to go to the Senate because she’s from Camelot. Camelot was what? The best and the brightest. This woman is not the brightest. She’s obviously not the brightest. But it doesn’t matter. All of these myths, liberalism is a series of myths that have been propped up and continue to be promoted. It’s hilarious. At the same time it’s embarrassing to watch this. So we had the president-select and we’ve got our montage of seven minutes, ‘uh,’ ‘ah,’ and, ‘uh,’ and say, ‘uh,’ and we’ve got Caroline Kennedy with ‘you know’ 205 times unrepeated in one interview. We’re going to play these back-to-back. This is the best and brightest. These are the people who are the new communicators. These are the people smarter than George W. Bush. These are the people who when they talk are not going to embarrass us like Bush did.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Look at this story in the New York Times. This is from today. It’s an analysis piece by Scott Shane. The headline of the piece: ‘For Israel,’ comma, ‘Chance to Strike Before an Ally Departs.’ The premise of this story is that Israel attacked because Obama’s support was an open question. Stop and think of this. Now here is the New York Times: ‘For Israel, Chance to Strike Before an Ally Departs.’ That’s George W. Bush. Meaning the Israelis aren’t sure what’s going to happen once Obama gets in there — and, of course, they have every reason to be careful, cautious, suspicious, ’cause Obama was talking out of both sides of his mouth during the campaign. He’s tried to keep Hamas happy. He’s tried to keep militant terrorist groups in the Middle East happy, and he’s tried to keep Israel happy.
He’s said what both groups want to hear. But during this whole raging conflict, he hasn’t said anything. He’s relying on the one-president-at-a-time aspect. But when it comes to the economy, when it comes to the stimulus package, why, he’s saying everything he wants to say whenever he wants to say it! Three million new jobs, 600,000 of them will be federal new jobs, and $750 billion to $1 trillion in spending. This is not going to build up the US economy, and I’ll tell you what, if this doesn’t work inside of a year… Here’s another thing. By the way, I’ve got so much here in the Stack, I’m jumping ahead. I’ve already got two or three stories here in the Stack about how the economy’s just going to magically (snaps fingers) get better this year because Obama is in office.
Experts say that it’s just going to be short-lived. The recession, depression will not be worldwide, and all of this I predicted. In the meantime, here is a poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation: ‘Seventy-seven percent of Americans blame the media for making the economic crisis worse.’ Now, I wouldn’t get my hopes up about this. I don’t doubt the accuracy of the poll, but ‘77% of Americans blame the media for making the economic crisis worse.’ They’re still out there thinking the economic crisis is bad, and if they think the media is making it worse, they haven’t stopped listening to the media because the media has influenced them in a number of other things as well, including last year’s election.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I find it fascinating in its own way. ‘Seventy-seven percent of Americans believe that the US media is making the economic situation worse by projecting fear into people’s minds.’ Now, if 77% of Americans believe that, why don’t they ignore the media, then? If 77% of the American people think the media is fabricating this, exaggerating and making it worse, then why do they still believe what the media is saying? That’s a problem I have with polls like this. The media ought… You know, the person who sent me this said, ‘Are we on to the Drive-Bys finally?’ No! We’re not on to the Drive-Bys. The Drive-Bys are going to be who they are. They may self-destruct. They’re having problems in the print side. They are self-destructing in the newspaper business. But, folks, this Obama administration, I don’t care how bad it gets, it is not going to be reported that way.
It’s going to be reported the exact opposite way. This episode with Bill Richardson? ‘It’s an unfortunate distraction.’ The Gaza-Israeli thing? ‘Awwww, how sad! What about the unfortunate plans and interruptions this makes into Obama’s peace plans!’ It makes no sense; it’s nonsensical. If you listen to what Obama and the media told us during the campaign, this outbreak of violence should not have occurred! There should be worldwide peace. White doves ought to be flying over every country in the world as the peacekeepers. So, you know, whatever people think of the media, it isn’t going to change ’em. That’s why the newspaper business is in the toilet. It’s the big, unreported story. I guess one of the people responsible for the poll said, ‘Although statements by the media are protected by the First Amendment, the survey results demonstrate the public believes that the press bears some responsibility for the lack of confidence in the economy. One would hope the media would act less out of self-interest in these times of national crisis.’ Act less out of self-interest?
The media’s no longer the media. The media is not even about reporting news. The media is now an ideological adjunct of the Democrat Party. You know, ‘Which came first, the chicken or the egg?’ I’ve warned everybody you’re going to have to get used to this because it’s only going to intensify. Every problem that crops up… I have never seen an administration with this many scandals and this much full-fledged embarrassment during its transition. This stuff outta Chicago with Blagojevich and Burris and Harry Reid calling Blago, saying (paraphrased), ‘Don’t send me black people here?’ Can you imagine if the tables were turned and this were Republicans? It’s frustrating. So the only thing that’s going to happen here is, it’s going to take time, but these people are all going to overreach and when the media does not respond accordingly…
There was a story I saw last week, and I don’t remember where. It was a major US media institution and it was on a blog, and one of the reporters was asking his colleagues something. He just felt uncomfortable being of the same mind-set toward people of power, the media is supposed to be, when it involves Obama. He felt guilty when being charged or told to hold Obama’s feet to the fire. He said it just doesn’t seem right now. He was questioning whether or not his role should change. Of course the Drive-Bys are taught in journalism school that their role is to bring people in power down, especially if they’re Republicans or conservatives, because they’re all corrupt. Well, the corruption is clearly all on the Democrat side here, and the Drive-Bys are looking for ways to cover it up, sweep it aside; and even suggest it isn’t important anymore, because there’s no such thing as a ‘corrupt’ Democrat. There’s no such thing as a Democrat who is ‘ethically challenged.’ All of this stuff is just mere unfortunate distraction to the upcoming revolutionary Obama administration.
Bill in, what is this, Palermo, Illinois. It’s great to have you on the show, Bill. It’s nice that you waited. Welcome.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. How you doing?
RUSH: Just fine, sir.
CALLER: Hey, I’d like to make a comment about how you depicted, um… (pause) Uhhhh, Tammy… Uhhh. What is it? Uh, Blagojevich’s Tammy, uh, Duckworth and how he kind of said she was a war — anti-war person, activist? I don’t know if you’re aware that she lost both her legs in a helicopter attack in Iraq as a pilot.
RUSH: I’m totally aware of that, yes.
CALLER: Okay.
RUSH: I’m totally aware that she’s been a Democrat activist and anti-war activist since she got back. I’m totally aware that she lost her legs. I’m totally aware that Blago wants her in the US Senate — or that Harry Reid has asked for her in the US Senate and that she’s got less experience than even Obama had.
CALLER: I’m not even going to argue any of those things.
RUSH: I haven’t disparaged her. How in the world did I disparage her? See, this is what I’m talking about. Harry Reid has disparaged three distinguished black Democrat politicians in Illinois; you’re calling here, saying I disparaged Tammy Duckworth simply by mentioning her as somebody Harry Reid wants and that she’s an anti-war activist, and she was. How does that disparage her?
CALLER: Hey, Rush? I’m a Republican! I’m a soldier! I’m injured. I don’t like it when (garbled).
RUSH: You know something? The fact that you are a Republican is irrelevant to me.
CALLER: It came across…
RUSH: It did not come across any way. There was no disparagement attempt. See, this is the game here, folks. I, El Rushbo — harmless, lovable little fuzzball, I — remain the focus of evil in the United States of America. I mentioned Tammy Duckworth in the same sentence as I mention who else? Oh, yeah, Lisa Madigan, the attorney general. ‘Here’s the sketch and here’s who she is,’ but there was no disparagement. That call, ladies and gentlemen, I apologize. It was just an unfortunate distraction, as we attempt to get back in focus here on the EIB Network. Mark in Chicago, it’s great to have you on the EIB Network, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Hey, Rush. Happy New Year and semper fi dittos from the Windy City.
RUSH: Thanks very much. Were you injured when you were in the military? Let’s get it all out there.
CALLER: No, but for a side note, Rush, my son enlisted in the Marines a couple years ago and he did because he loves this country and wants to serve, and he’s a great kid just like many others of them.
RUSH: God bless you. You bet.
CALLER: Thanks. Many Dittos. Hey, Rush, the reason I’m calling is, when you started talking about Caroline Kennedy, I’m starting to really get pissed off about a lot of different things going on here. And you know, we talk about Caroline Kennedy. We talk about Al Franken. And it’s been building up for a while. You talked about the Blago thing, you talked about everybody else, and what’s really starting to frustrate me is the lack of accountability on the American electorate. We can’t keep blaming Blago. We’ve gotta start blaming the people that are putting these people in office and start holding us to accountability, and that’s what has me frustrated. It hasn’t been talked about a lot. And, Rush, I’ll tell you you’ve told me one thing that I’ve always held to heart.
RUSH: Yes?
CALLER: You’ve said you always have faith, always have faith in the American people.
RUSH: I do.
CALLER: And I’m trying to believe in that, but we keep electing these officials. Help me dissect that.
RUSH: We did not elect Al Franken. He stole the race. They are stealing the race up there blind in front of everybody’s nose. They are counting absentee ballots. The Wall Street Journal has a story on this. They’re counting votes twice, votes that were rejected, all kinds of things. The Democrats are stealing the election up there. Democrats run Illinois and Chicago. Of course they elected Blago and Obama and everybody else. That’s not gonna change. This is why — your call is precisely why — I have been trying to warn people. You want accountability?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: For who? For Obama? For Blagojevich? For who?
CALLER: Rush, I just think we need it for the voters.
RUSH: No, but who’s going to do it?
CALLER: Rush, even if Coleman pulls that thing off, you got 1.4, 1.5 million people voting for Al Franken. That is an absolute joke the way I was raised, and it should be for a lot of people.
RUSH: Democrat partisanship. You don’t understand how angry these people have been for eight years. They felt the election was stolen from them in 2000, and this is why the story on 77% of the American people think the media is exaggerating the economic crisis… I don’t buy that. I don’t buy it because the media has, of course, been exaggerating Republican corruption, has been exaggerating Bush incompetence, has been playing up failure in Iraq. They have been playing up all of these things. They’ve been ignoring all of the incompetence and scandal and corruption on the Democrat side and Democrats won the election. It’s a tough thing. You know, elections have consequences, and we are going to have to deal with them. I think that the Democrats are going to overreach. They’re starting to in great numbers here. We know that their plans don’t work. We know that socialism does not revive economies. But we’re going to have to face the next two years of the Democrats and the media telling us how great the economy is getting. And they’re going to have to delicate balancing act here because on the one hand they’re gonna want people thinking it’s getting better because they’re running the show; on the other hand, they need it to stay sort of in crisis mode to be able to convince the people to do even more expansion of government and more spending, the purpose of which is to entrench and strengthen the Democrat Party for years into the future.