http://mediamatters.org/items/200910190030

By Adam Shah

Obama plans to cede U.S. sovereignty

Rush began the show by going down the headlines of the Drudge Report, reading reports highlighted by the site about British Prime Minister Gordon Brown talking about climate change and President Obama announcing a new medical marijuana policy.

Rush talked about a cold front that was passing through Florida. He then attacked British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for saying of climate change negotiations that are to conclude in December, "we have 50 days" to deal with climate change. Rush then said: "We're going to need to be stoned to live through the next three-and-a-half years." He then played a new satire of Obama's announcing a "don't ask, don't smell" policy.

Moving on from things currently on Drudge's front page, Rush said that Democrats are going to raise taxes on everybody, asserting that "They'll probably be a VAT tax." Rush then returned to his long-running theory that Obama is destroying the U.S. economy on purpose and noted Sen. Judd Gregg's statement that the U.S. was on the road to becoming a "banana republic." Rush noted that he had been saying this for months, Since "banana republic" was mentioned, Rush then segued into Venezuela President Hugo Chavez taking over a Hilton and discussed Chavez complaining that golf was an elitist sport, asking whether Chavez knows that his "idol," Obama, likes golf:

LIMBAUGH: Hugo Chavez just -- he seized a Hilton hotel down there because -- in Venezuela -- because too many people were having too much fun at it, the Hilton people weren't cooperating with him, so he just appropriated it. And now he's getting ready to appropriate two high-end golf clubs and golf courses because the game is played by a bunch of lazy elites, it sends a wrong signal to the workers of the world. Does he not know that his idol, Barack Obama, plays golf as often as he can?

Rush then discussed an article about Obama administration official Larry Summers reportedly telling financial-sector industry executives that "they were beneficiaries of an unprecedented government bailout and should brace for a regulatory overhaul, according to one participant." Rush characterized Summers' quote as saying "Rush characterized Summers' quote as saying, "shut up, lay back and enjoy being screwed."

Rush read extensively from a Democracy Corps post finding that, according to conservative focus groups: "First and foremost, these conservative Republican voters believe Obama is deliberately and ruthlessly advancing a 'secret agenda' to bankrupt our country and dramatically expand government control over all aspects of our daily lives." Rush said that this article showed that his hope that Obama fails is "non-political." Rush was also very excited by the finding that "we allowed for extended open-ended discussion on Obama (including visuals of him speaking) among voters -- older, non-college, white, and conservative -- who were most race-conscious and score highest on scales measuring racial prejudice. Race was barely raised, certainly not what was bothering them about President Obama." He suggested that James Carville and Stanley Greenberg, founders of Democracy Corps, could have "saved their money" and just listened to Limbaugh's show to learn what conservatives and independents think of Obama.

Rush returned from break and asked if Carville and Greenberg's poll research found that "racism is behind" opposition to conservatism. He concluded that "It's not the color of his skin, it's the color of his policies":

LIMBAUGH: It's not the color of Obama's skin that attracts, opposes or causes us any trouble whatsoever. It's not the color of his skin, it's the color of his policies. In other words, it's not his blackness, it is his redness that we oppose. Deficits and other -- you'll find red everywhere in the Obama agenda and the results of his policies. You'll find red ink, you'll find red policies. It is not his blackness, it is his redness that we oppose.

Rush then came back to his failed NFL bid, touting Bo Snerdley's rant about the fallout from Rush's attempt to buy the St. Louis Rams. Switching gears, Rush then returned to the cold snap in the United States in order to attack global warming again. He claimed that "It isn't going to be long before Obama is going to have to start paying ... for heating bills" for people in the Northeast while "pushing a global warming bill."

After another break, Rush teased more about global warming and then talked about Louis Farrakhan appearing at a reunion for the Million Man March and saying that it was no accident that prostate cancer was more prevalent in the black community. Rush then segued into Rush's prediction that if Obama was elected, racism "is only going to get worse." He then played clips of Farrakhan from the Million Man March.

Rush then returned, as promised, to global warming. He said, if Brown is right, "we're screwed" because we're not going to get anything done. He then read an article saying that we have five years to reverse global warming, and he quoted Ted Danson saying that we have ten years left. Rush said "we're confused" about how much time we have. Brown, of course, was talking about the deadline countries have set for a climate change agreement, not the time before climate change becomes irreversible. Rush then aired a clip from British Lord Monckton saying that a climate change agreement will lead to world government. Rush said that he has said that the communists all became radical environmentalists and then read Lord Monckton saying much the same thing. He also played a clip of Monckton attacking Obama for being willing to sign a treaty that would have the effect of ceding sovereignty to world government. Monckton's comments have been making the rounds in the conservative media.

Continuing on the subject of global warming, Rush played the clips from Gordon Brown that he had been teasing. Rush complained "more and more people are talking at each other" not with each other. He bemoaned the divisiveness and then immediately went on to claim that "the socialists are on the march." When Brown talked about the negative effects of climate change on people's lifespan in poor country, Rush asked incredulously: "I want to see the death certificates." Rush said the real problem in poor countries was that there was not enough capitalism or democracy. He then suggested that Obama's and Brown's plan is to "destroy prosperity."

Rush then returned to his argument that the administration is trying to bring down the insurance companies and U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He called Obama's Saturday address "dangerous" and "demagogic," saying: "My friends, it was I think one of the most demagogic, dangerous addresses that I've ever heard a president make. I mean it was the ugliest presidential message I've ever heard. I've got the text of it here. It is just stunning, this attack on the insurance industry. And you'll note this is the technique of -- every time they try to pass some new kind of legislation or a new law, there always has to be a villain, always must be a demon."

Rush then took a caller who was offended by Greenberg and Carville's survey of conservatives. Rush again said that the real takeaway was that race is not the reason conservatives are opposing Obama.

Death panels are coming to South Florida

Rush closed out the hour by saying there are "death panels in South Florida" because hospitals in South Florida are reserving beds for H1N1 flu victims.

LIMBAUGH: By the way, South Florida hospitals have decided to beat President Obama to the punch where the swine flu, the H1N1 virus, is concerned. South Florida hospitals have said if you're in the advanced stages of cancer, multiple sclerosis, you won't be given a hospital bed, they must save room for victims of the H1N1 virus. Yeah, yeah, I got it here. Death panels in South Florida have been empaneled, regardless.

Rush uses Churchill quote to counsel businesses not to appease Obama

Beginning Hour 2, Rush said that the state-controlled media fell for the hoax that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was supporting climate change legislation, comparing it to the quotes circulating about him regarding race. He then wove this into a conspiracy theory, saying the state-controlled media and the Obama administration are "blood brothers." He then directed the insurance companies and the chamber of commerce not to cave. Reuters reported the hoax as fact, and the Reuters article was posted on the New York Times and Washington Post websites so Rush got to attack the Times and Post for this. Rush said that businesses leaving the Chamber of Commerce are caving to Obama to try to protect themselves on climate change. Rush compared businesses working with Obama to "appeasers" and read a quote from Winston Churchill attacking appeasement to try to buck them up.

Rush then circled back to attacking Obama's radio address on Saturday criticizing insurance companies' problematic study of health reform proposals, calling it "ugly" and "thuggish." Rush said not to believe the government numbers because all government programs come in over-budget. He said it was "un-American" to target industry. Rush said that he'd love to see when Obama "peels off his smiling face" and his Chicago face comes out:

LIMBAUGH: At the end of his day, when President Obama's in the privacy of his bedroom, when he peels off his mask, the smiling face mask, I'd love to see his real face. I'd love to see his Chicago community organizer face, his Alinsky face. His Machiavellian face.

Rush continued to rant about the "demagogic" Obama attack on insurance company and complained that Obama sent his buddies after Rush to sink his NFL bid before segueing into foreign policy. He asked that we attack insurance companies in Afghanistan and Iran, not in the U.S. "We're letting lugheads like John Kerry and Joe Biden" determine what will happen in Afghanistan," he complained.

After a break, Rush read extensively from a Denver Post article reporting that Colorado insurance companies are criticizing the health care reform proposals. He then returned to the story from South Florida, reading a Sun-Sentinel article that hospital beds are being reserved for H1N1 sufferers. Again, Rush said these were "death panels." Rush did not note that the policy comes from state officials, and Florida has had a Republican governor and legislature for years.

After yet another break, Rush played audio from The O'Reilly Factor episode in which guest host Juan Williams echoed Rush's theories that politics was involved in the NFL bid debacle and brought on Rush friend Rev. Ken Hutcherson to attack those who criticized Rush. Rush thanked Williams for his comments.

A caller then attacked Gordon Brown for his climate change comments, asking if Brown was throwing a hail-Mary to get reelected. Rush said, no, this wasn't to get reelected, but to get picked up by the European Union. Rush then called Brown a "socialist" and then said that only he was smart enough to see what was going on. Most people would think he was talking to his own voters, but he was actually talking to his "fellow socialists."

Another caller then asked how Obama could legalize marijuana since you can't smoke anywhere. Rush noted that marijuana has not been found to be a carcinogen. The caller then said she was confused about the talk about Obama and race. "Obama could be just white," she said, because the mother decides the color of the child. Rush then said that the caller was actually saying that "color doesn't matter to us." That was the last we heard from that caller.

Rush then went back to the Sun Sentinel article, saying that people say there are no death panels in the health care reform bills, but what could you call what's going on in Florida, if not death panels? Rush noted that state officials were involved in the Florida issues, but still did not discuss the fact that Republicans control Florida politics. Rush then noted articles saying that there may be a temporary shortage of H1N1 flu vaccines and used the report to attack HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for advocating that people get vaccinated, returning to a theme that got him in trouble before

Rush mocks possibility of children dying from H1N1 virus

One more commercial break, and then Rush promised to give an "object lesson" in how the left operate. He said, during the Iraq war, the left "reveled" in the body count in order to get us out of Afghanistan. Now we have the left obsessed with the body count over swine flu. Rush also said that for the animal rights activists, we'll also run a body count of kids who die from swine flu.

LIMBAUGH: Take you back to the Iraq war -- do you remember the daily, weekly obsession with the body count? The body count was one of many elements in the project to turn the American people against the war. They reveled every time a new denominator -- "A hundred deaths. Five hundred battlefield deaths! One thousand battlefield deaths! Fifteen hundred!" And they trumpeted this, and they made it sound like it was the first time ever in a war that any soldier had died. And it was not worth it. It was horrible. "We had to get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan."

Rush then mocked the concern over children dying from the H1N1 virus, speaking of the possibility of children dying and then pretending to cry:

LIMBAUGH: So, and I got this story in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel story and a AP story about Kathleen Sebelius and the vaccines, the body count is in there. The number of children [fake crying] who've died because of H1N1. And what makes it really odd is that it's not children who die from the flu. Oh, this must be really bad. It's seasoned citizens who normally perish in the flu, but now our future! So it's just the new battle, it's a new battlefield, but the same thing. Battlefield deaths, the new swine flu body count. All because the priority is health care.

Rush then read from Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals and said that people are attacking the insurance companies just like Alinsky advised. Alinsky is of course, one of Rush's favorite bogeymen (along with Ayers, Wright, and ACORN).

Closing out the hour, Rush read from a Washington Post article saying that "CBO's numbers are just guesses," saying that he had already explained this.

Rush attacks unions, gay rights groups, Latino groups, Ayers, "feminazis," Harvard

Rush began the third hour by discussing a Politico article saying that teachers unions are upset with Obama. Rush asked how could anyone actually write that Obama is moving toward the center. He noted that gay rights groups are also complaining as well as immigration groups. He called liberal groups "stupid" for not realizing that Obama has to do health care first because he staked his presidency on it. And that all this will happen through health care reform. He said that Don't Ask Don't Tell will be wiped away by saying it's a health care problem. He also said that health care was all about giving "illegal aliens" access to the U.S. Treasury.

Rush said, as long as we don't get rid of the unions, we won't have better education. Rush then brought up Bill Ayers, saying, ask him what he thinks about education. He then added, if you want to clean up schools, get rid of the unions. He then criticized unions in manufacturing too, saying that there are no examples of union shops making a better product for less money, or even a better product for more money. Rush said that he didn't think rank-and-file union members in his audience were the problem. The problem is what is done with union dues. Whenever there's an economic problem, there's a union in the mix, Rush opined. (Rush here was actually echoing comments by New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin and MSNBC's Morning Joe regulars.)

Rush read from a New York Daily News article, saying that it showed that "feminazis" (a favorite term of Rush's) were upset with Obama over the lack of federal money for abortion. Rush noted that the article didn't say "feminazis," it talked about pro-choice activists. Rush said he inserted the term as a timesaver.

Rush then read from an article discussing how Harvard University bet incorrectly on whether interest rates would rise. He asks where all the people were educated who caused the economic meltdown. Rush said the problem was all caused by Harvard graduates, although he acknowledges that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is actually from Yale.

Another break, and Rush noted it had been a while since he took a call. The caller he took asked whether, if hospitals were overwhelmed with the flu, swine flu, or Asian flu, would you treat the seven-year-old or the terminally-ill cancer patient? Rush said the caller didn't understand the point. Obama is saying we're not rationing care, but the Sun Sentinel article showed that government officials are already deciding who should be treated. He said the story is there to frighten people and said this had "never happened in America" before. Never has a state agency told hospitals to choose even before the reality hits.

The caller persisted, asking if "their preparing for this" is a problem, adding that the media apparatus Rush is a part of is the one spreading the story that government officials are preparing. Rush said "I'm the problem" like he was the problem for spreading the false quotes about him? Rush said, yes, old people should die, just like Robert Reich said.

Rush took another caller, who said that she heard the Wall Street Journal's John Fund saying the cap and trade bill won't pass this year, but the Supreme Court said that the Obama administration could regulate carbon anyway. Rush said Fund is right, but the treaty negotiations in Copenhagen would cause the United States to be "under the auspices of a UN agency." The caller asked what we should do. Rush advocated more tea parties and more townhalls,

Rush to CNN's Costello: "[G]o sit on a fire hydrant"

Another commercial, and Rush boasted that CNN has a reporter assigned to him: Carol Costello. Rush reported that Costello talked to a psychiatrist to discuss anger on the air. The psychiatrist said that Rush "operated like the bully."

LIMBAUGH: Folks, you probably didn't hear this 'cause it's on CNN, it's hilarious now. They, you know, they've got a reporter who stalks me. Carol Costello, she's actually the beat reporter assigned to me, if I call her a stalker. She did today start a series of reports today, "Anger on the air." [gasping] "Talk radio made our country viciously partisan." So they went out and they found a psychiatrist to analyze the situation. And the answer is that I bully you.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: It's just hilarious. You know, I [laughing] it's 20 million, Carol. [laughing] You know what? Carol, you need to go sit on a fire hydrant and improve your day.

Rush then bragged that New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was attacking him. Rush took a caller who voted for Nader in 2000 who said he was mad at Obama. The caller was mad that Obama was giving too much money to insurance companies. Rush, like most in the media, appeared not to have heard that many progressives prefer single-payer rather than adding lots of people to the rolls of private insurance companies. The caller cited a Politico article, but Rush (who as the caller noted had earlier quoted from Politico) said that you can't trust such media outlets. Rush said, "trust me," the public option will be in there. Rush also theorized that Obama will "own the drug companies," like the car companies, and regardless of whether he owns or just controls those companies, he "is going to punish them." He said that Obama has all these private industries "in his crosshairs."

Rush noted that the previous caller said that Rush was polite, but local radio hosts were not polite to him. Rush said that since CNN designated him the "king" of talk radio, he would look at what is happening in his realm because people should be polite to callers. Rush then returned to what another caller said about the H1N1 flu: The United States should be looking at expanding health care, not contracting it.

Another caller called Rush ignorant, pointing out that Obama embraced Sen. Joe Lieberman even though he tried to "screw" the Democrats and progressives. The caller said the stimulus was 1/3 tax cuts. The caller said Obama is not embracing the left, he is reaching out to the center. Rush said it took him a while to figure out what the caller was talking about. The caller replied that with the mandate Obama had, he should have changed the country 180 degrees, but he's only done it a couple of degrees. Rush was incredulous that the caller could say Obama "is Bush."

Rush closed out the show by citing a Connecticut NBC station's report that the White House picked out Sonia Sotomayor's clothes. Returning to his "wise Latina" misinformation, he said Sotomayor was "not wise enough" to pick out her clothes in a way that would please Obama.

Zachary Aronow and Zachary Pleat contributed to this edition of the Limbaugh Wire.

Highlights

Outrageous statements

LIMBAUGH: Hugo Chavez just -- he seized a Hilton hotel down there because -- in Venezuela -- because too many people were having too much fun at it, the Hilton people weren't cooperating with him, so he just appropriated it. And now he's getting ready to appropriate two high-end golf clubs and golf courses because the game is played by a bunch of lazy elites, it sends a wrong signal to the workers of the world. Does he not know that his idol, Barack Obama, plays golf as often as he can?

[,..]

LIMBAUGH: It's not the color of Obama's skin that attracts, opposes or causes us any trouble whatsoever. It's not the color of his skin, it's the color of his policies. In other words, it's not his blackness, it is his redness that we oppose. Deficits and other -- you'll find red everywhere in the Obama agenda and the results of his policies. You'll find red ink, you'll find red policies. It is not his blackness, it is his redness that we oppose.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Did any of you hear -- any of you happen to hear Obama's radio address, Internet address on Saturday? My friends, it was, I think, one of the most demagogic, dangerous addresses that I've ever heard a president make. I mean, it was -- it was the ugliest presidential message I've ever heard. I've got the text of it here. It is just stunning, this attack on the insurance industry. And you'll note this is the technique of -- every time they try to pass some new kind of legislation or a new law, there always has to be a villain, there always must be a demon. And the demon always is a large corporate entity that you deal with. It's either big oil or big pharmaceutical -- now it's big insurance -- and they're screwing you. And they are ripping you off. And until the brave leaders of the world led by Obama come together to protect you from these predators, the world will not be safe nor will you be, when in fact the predators are on the march and they are in most of the governments around the world today and they are running them. It is Barack Obama who is a predator when it comes to the U.S. economy, the private sector.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Take you back to the Iraq war -- do you remember the daily, weekly obsession with the body count? The body count was one of many elements in the project to turn the American people against the war. They reveled every time a new denominator -- "A hundred deaths. Five hundred battlefield deaths! One thousand battlefield deaths! Fifteen hundred!" And they trumpeted this, and they made it sound like it was the first time ever in a war that any soldier had died. And it was not worth it. It was horrible. "We had to get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan."

Well, the tactic has been revised, and it's the swine flu. The swine flu and the news about it is the new body count news for Obama and the media. No need to agitate anymore to get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan since Obama has that in the works. The new priority is health care; the new body count is H1N1 victims. And for the animal-rights crowd, now we're gonna start counting the number of pigs who get the disease and die. And then we're going to threaten the pig industry, we're going to frighten people into not buying pork, so Obama's going to go out and attack that industry indirectly. This is how this works.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: So, and I got this story in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel story and a AP story about Kathleen Sebelius and the vaccines, the body count is in there. The number of children [fake crying] who've died because of H1N1. And what makes it really odd is that it's not children who die from the flu. Oh, this must be really bad. It's seasoned citizens who normally perish in the flu, but now, our future! So it's just the new battle, it's a new battlefield, but the same thing. Battlefield deaths, the new swine flu body count. All because the priority is health care.

Ladies' man

LIMBAUGH: Folks, you probably didn't hear this 'cause it's on CNN, it's hilarious now. They, you know, they've got a reporter who stalks me. Carol Costello, she's actually the beat reporter assigned to me, if I call her a stalker. She did today start a series of reports today, "Anger on the air." [gasping] "Talk radio made our country viciously partisan." So they went out and they found a psychiatrist to analyze the situation. And the answer is that I bully you.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: It's just hilarious. You know, I [laughing] it's 20 million, Carol. [laughing] You know what? Carol, you need to go sit on a fire hydrant and improve your day.

America's Truth Rejector

LIMBAUGH: By the way, South Florida hospitals have decided to beat President Obama to the punch where the swine flu, the H1N1 virus, is concerned. South Florida hospitals have said if you're in the advanced stages of cancer, multiple sclerosis, you won't be given a hospital bed, they must save room for victims of the H1N1 virus. Yeah, yeah, I got it here. Death panels in South Florida have been empaneled, regardless.