Rush Watch: Issue 1

Hey, I can be like Rush!
Rush is found of playing back interviews and soundbites and interjecting his own “opinion”. Opinion is in quotes because the word “opinion” implies there is a previous conscious effort made to arrive at a conclusion. Mostly what he does is try to show how each new “event” provides more evidence for his hate-leaning ideology. Let us examine this recent episode centered around Barack Obama:

Originally aired 3-28-08:
RUSH: Yesterday on CNBC, Maria Bartiromo interviewed Barack Obama. It was scary, economically.

Trey: Was it? Was it really Rush? Was it terrifying? Did it cause you to rush out and look for property in Canada? Did you shake in your little shoes? Why not let your listeners make up their own minds? You have already told your listeners what you want them to take home from this message. Nicely done, but the propaganda patrol is already on Rushcon4 with this statement. “scary”…hmmph. You know what’s scary? Dick Cheney shooting you in the face. That’s scary.

Bartiromo says, "How do you plan to change the tax code when it comes to capital gains? How high will that 15% cap gains rate go?"

OBAMA: I think that we can have a capital gains rate that is higher than 15%. Uh, and if it -- if it -- you know, when I talk to people like Warren Buffett or others and I ask them, "You know, how much of a difference is it going to be if it's 20 or 25%?" they say, "Look, if it's within that range, then it's not going to distort, uh, I think economic decision making."

RUSH: Oh, my God. I'm sorry. Good God Almighty, is right. We are going to get hosed. The markets are going to get hosed. The economy is going to get hosed!

Trey: Explain how, or better yet, shift gears and say something that doesn’t apply. That’s what you’re good at:

Rush: Capital gains is not income! It's simply what people invest in, and if there is a return on it, the 15% cap gains rate is the equivalent of not punishing achievement from people who took a risk.

Trey: That’s what I suspected. No information was forthcoming on the “hosing”.
*sigh* No one said it was income, Rush. Who said that? How is 15% not punishing people? Zero would not be punishing people. Oh, and he conveniently neglects to include the fact of capitals gains loss deductions. Took a risk on what? This is an effort by Rush to link the Listener to the notion that he/she is a hard working American who deserves his/her money while the low down libbies only seek to steal it from them. Nice work. Maybe we should revert to what it was when Reagan was President. 28%. Ooops! Did I say that out loud? Oh, and the Capital Gains tax has been tied to the income tax rate for quite awhile Rush. His statements are simply nonsensical.

Rush: He's gotta ask Warren Buffett. No, he doesn't know. He's a liberal Democrat. He doesn't care here what the effect is going to be.

Trey: Of course he does. He lives in this country and has investments. He has made millions off the stale of his book. What sort of disconnect is that in Rush’s logic? I love the non-sense that neo-cons cry out against the limousine liberals in one breath, but then accuse them of wanting to take the money of the wealthy and give it out on street corners as handouts to the poor. Please.

Rush: Raising the rate to be "fair" and pander to the vast majority of people... Bartiromo is shocked as we are by this, but of course, she's a journalist. She can't really exhibit it. But she can't believe her ears here. Listen to this exchange.

Trey: *Sigh* Who is he “pandering” too by raising capital gains taxes? Economists I guess. I don’t know where Rush thinks the money to pay for Iraq and Bush’s insane spending bills is going to come from. He must operate under the notion that the government can just print money when it needs it. I guess the economy was covered on one of the days he skipped class at Jackrabbit Missouri Junior College to get high and play Bob Marley.
The reporter didn’t act SHOCKED to me. That is some serious spin. I love how he needs to tell the listeners how to feel and re-interpret an event. I guess Rush is a master at reading the subtle nuanced facial quirks of shocked reporters.

BARTIROMO: Let's hypothetically say that the cap gains tax goes from 15% to 25%. You're impacting a lot of people. A hundred million Americans own stocks today so it's not just the rich.

OBAMA: No, no, no, absolutely, and -- and -- and that's why I think that it may be, for example, that you could structure something in which, uh, people of certain incomes were exempted from, uh, this increase and it would stay at 15. The broader principle that I'm interested in is just making sure that we've got a tax code that is fair for all Americans.

RUSH: Folks, this is economic illiteracy. "A tax code that's fair for all Americans"? You're going to exempt some people from paying the cap gains tax? The people he's going to exempt don't pay it now. The people that he's going to exempt do not have investments.

Trey: What? This is outright fabrication and conjecture. The capital gains tax is structured as it is and comes with a lot of exemptions and deductions. How does Rush know who Obama plans to exempt? ESP? I haven’t read the plan yet have you? Economic illiteracy? This is rich, a college drop out junk-head calling a Harvard Law grad illiterate! What does that make “C’s get degrees” Bush-43?
I also love how he leaves all of Obama’s pauses in the transcripts as “uhs” to make him appear dimwitted. Parlor trick shenanigans.

Rush: They don't yet have the money to have investments and so he's going to... It's about "fairness." It's making sure that everybody's taxed... It's making sure "the rich" are taxed. This is just... One more.

Trey: Did you see any point in the above? I didn’t. He didn’t even finish his sentences. That’s because there is nothing of substance there and he disguises what would have been the ramblings of a loon with a pretense of indignation…as if he were too upset to continue. O’Reilly is a master of this. Limbaugh’s using hot button words like “fairness” in a vitriolic fashion to further pin the “dirty lib” label. So he condemns without ever actually saying anything.
People, you have to pay taxes and they aren’t going away. Get used to it and quit crying. If Bush hadn’t spent the government’s money like a mad fool on the war and on the insane Prescription Drug Act, we wouldn’t be in a position to have to raise taxes. If they suddenly did away with all your taxes, prices would go up to compensate. Give me a break. If you hate paying taxes, stay off my roads!

Bartiromo says, "Why raise taxes at all in an economic slowdown? Isn't that going to put further strain on people?"

OBAMA: Well, look, the -- there's no doubt that anything I do that is going to be premised on what the economic situation is when I take office. The thing you can be assured of is that I'm not going to be making these decisions based on ideology.

RUSH: Bull.

Trey: Conjecture and ESP. Black magic. No logical argument, just simple contradiction. That’s easier than making a logical argument.

OBAMA: I'm not a dogmatist.

RUSH: Bull!

Trey: Again. What is this contradiction even based on?

OBAMA: I know that some -- yuh, uh, my opponents to the right would like to paint me as this woolly-eyed, you know, uhhh, liberal or --

RUSH: You are!

Trey: I can do this too. Rush is a Nazi racist homophobe who thinks the Bible is the Constitution. See how easy? Doesn’t make it true…or does it?

OBAMA: -- wild-eyed. (nervous laugh)


BARTIROMO: You're not a liberal?

OBAMA: Uh, the, uh, but -- but -- My attitude is -- is that I -- I believe in the market.

RUSH: You don't!

Trey: He does! Shut up and listen. Or cant you hear because you went deaf from you Oxycontin addiction?

OBAMA: I believe in entrepreneurship.

RUSH: You don't!

Trey: He does. Read about him sometime. He has written a lot on the subject.

OBAMA: I believe in opportunity.

RUSH: You don't!

Trey: He does. Ask any of the inner city Chicagoans he’s helped get back on their feet. Oh, that would require you doing research though wouldn’t it? Its easier just to hate and contradict.

OBAMA: I believe in capitalism.

RUSH: You don't.

Trey: He does.

OBAMA: And I want to do what works, but what I want to make sure of is it works for all America, and not just a small sliver of America.

RUSH: That last comment just cancels out everything he said before it! That's socialism! "Make sure it works for all," and who of course going to do that? Why, our benevolent government and president, Barack Obama! Because we hate all the other instruments and elements and businesses in the free market. We've been conditioned to that. This is scary.

Trey: Doing what’s right for the majority is scary? What world are you from? No wonder you hide in your basement. I’ve got news for you armchair politicians and historians, our economy and culture are based on socialist ideologies co-mingled with free-market capitalism. Audit a course in economics sometime. It’s explained around week 6 of Econ 101 I believe. Rush is nice and comfy is his plush mansion working from home, but some of us use roads from time to time along with other benefits of society like libraries, police, fire departments, hospitals etc. There is no such thing as pure capitalism, so quit using “socialism” as a dirty word. YOU LIVE UNDER SOCIALIST PROGRAMS AND HAVE YOUR ENTIRE LIFE. How the hell do you think your precious wall around America is going to get built? Private contributions? Ah the glorious benefits of public education. Too bad Rush flunked out of Southeast Missouri State after two semesters. I heard that’s a tough school. ;)

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, it is apparent to me, and probably to many of you, that Barack Obama is clueless.

Trey: No, he’s a Columbia and Harvard Law School educated professor. You’re a flunkie junkie. Where TF is Southeast Missouri State? I guess they don’t use big words like Obama uses down “in the holler”.

Rush: I think he's vamping in his answers. I don't think he has the slightest idea about the capital gains tax; I don't think he understands how it works.

Trey: I think he does, but I know you don’t. “Vamping”!

Rush. I don't think he understands the basic elements of the US economy. How can he? He's been listening to Jeremiah Wright for 20 years.

Trey: That’s right, Rev. Wright taught Economics at Columbia. Who knew?

Rush: I don't mean that lightly. You laugh at it all you want,

Trey: You are too scary to laugh at no matter how laughable your statements are, ass-hat.

Rush: but I'm dead serious about it. Jeremiah Wright understands because he's figured out how to get the church to buy him a $1.6 million house with ten million left over to furnish the thing while telling everybody else to avoid middle classness.

Trey: This has to do with Obama how? Oh, lets not get into Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell’s palacial mansions. I don’t hear his congregation complaining. Oh, how did you earn your money again Rush??? Hmmm? Spewing hate, that’s how. That’s the pot calling the kettle black. Since you’re an unapologetic racist, Im sure you use another word though.

Rush: But he vamps, gets a question, says whatever he thinks he has to say, whatever sounds good.

Trey: Because saying things that sound awkward and illogical is an under appreciated and little-used campaign tactic. Hey, he can pronounce “nuclear” too. He vamps! Oh my God!

Rush: Let's go to The View.

Trey: Why not, you didn’t make sense in the last segment, lets have more fun. I don’t watch the view, but I guess Rush must have a crush on Whoopie or he thinks the View is real news...which is probably the case.

Rush: He was on The View today. The Arousal Gap is back. The View gals are just swooning over Obama today, telling him he's sexy like Brad Pitt.

Trey: Jeez, jealous much? Arousal Gap? Ewww…..

Rush: Joy Behar said, "I have to say just one other thing bad before we go to the serious stuff. I understand that you're related to Brad Pitt in some way. How are you related to Brad Pitt?"

OBAMA: I guess we're ninth cousins something removed or something.

BEHAR: Isn't that fascinating stuff?

OBAMA: I think he got the better-looking side of the gene pool --

BEHAR: Not necessarily.

WALTERS: I was saying just before you came on, maybe we shouldn't say this, but we thought you were very sexy looking.

OBAMA: Oh -- (cheers and applause)

RUSH: I told you, the Arousal Gap is back. That was Barbara Walters on The View today. Barbara Walters then said, "Look, if Reverend Wright's still there, would you then have left the church or have said, 'I just can't have anything to do with him?'"

OBAMA: Had the reverend not retired and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying there at the church.

RUSH: For all its flaws. I don't believe any of this. He put the guy on his campaign. He was an advisor to his campaign.

Trey: So without proof your tactic is to just call someone a liar and it makes it true? Yes for all its flaws. Don’t pull out the patriot pin again, you bitch about America more than anyone in history.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck, "The person who you chose time and time again to be your spiritual advisor, when he says and characterizes the USA as you said wrongly, US of KKKA, that the chickens are coming home to roost after 9/11, suggesting that we got what we deserved, you chose him again to marry you, to baptize your children, you named a book after one of his speeches. For 20 years, would you think that somehow suggested it was a lack of judgment in the man? You had no idea, you never heard about these sermons?"

OBAMA: What you've been seeing is a snippet of a man. Imagine if somebody compiled the five stupidest things you'd ever said and put them in a 30-second loop that was played every day for two weeks --

HASSELBECK: But some of these are sold on the DVD at the church.

OBAMA: Well, I understand, but I don't buy -- I don't purchase all the DVDs, and I didn't read all the church bulletins. It's not to excuse it. There were some things, as I said, that I disagreed with him on. But I didn't see some of the things that were said that I would have taken offense to.

Trey: What everyone is completely missing here is that A) Obama is correct. Those are 5 sermons out of over a 1000 he has given do not represent everything about the man and B) People bought those DVDs. So you have a rather large congregation of people that also chose not the leave the church after hearing these sermons. You had better stop to wonder why things like this are being said. Oh, and nothing compares to these lunatics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church
But I don’t hear boo about them. I dont hear anyone talking about Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson claiming the ACLU is responsible for 9/11 or Ted Haggard hiring a gay male prostitute to do crystal meth with, or Orel Roberts bilking his congregation out of millions because he saw an 800 ft Jesus, or Jimmy Swiggart and his prostitute scandal, or the Bakkers bilking their congregation out of millions of dollars, or the children the priests have molested over hundreds of years...should I go on?

RUSH: Wait a minute, he just gave a speech where he said he did, didn't he? This is a carnival barker. You know, this is a carny. This is a guy who will say whatever he thinks the people at the group at the time want to hear, without regard for what he said the day before, the hour before, the week before. Here is what Obama's talking about. How many of you out there have said five things this racist, this hateful, and this stupid?

Trey: Most of you if you are honest with yourself. Ive been in your living rooms filled with white men. Don’t piss on my head and tell me it’s raining. Ive heard some of the most vile and disgusting racist remarks come out of people’s mouths just “hanging out with the guys” and even at family holiday gatherings. Do people mean those things? Some do, some dont. Let he who is without sin..that is what we should remember here.
Does Obama say things that people want to hear? Well, no fucking duh brainiac. He’s running for President. I guess he should tell people that if McCain is elected, the terrorists will set off a nuclear bomb in America. That’s what Cheney said about John Kerry.

WRIGHT: Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people! Hillary ain't never been called a nigger. Bill did us just like he did Monica Lewinsky, he was riding dirty. In white America, US of KKKA, black men turning on black men. I am sick of Negroes who just do not get it. Not God bless America, God (bleep) America, it's in the Bible, for killing innocent people, God (bleep) America. And now we are indignant because of stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards! America's chickens are coming home to roost.

RUSH: Yeah, well, this is five things here we're going to loop and play 'em over and over again, and I didn't buy all the DVDs. He's insulting our intelligence if he thinks these are the only things that this guy has been saying. Elisabeth Hasselbeck said to Barack Obama, "Do you have a relationship with Reverend Wright now?"

Trey: I don’t agree with what he says, but I understand where he is coming from. Oh, and if he said other things you’d be playing them, not alluding to them. Quit making up things to throw into the fire.

OBAMA: I talked to him after this -- this episode. He had come back from a cruise, and, you know, I think he's -- he's saddened by what's happened.

RUSH: Bull!

Trey: Again Rush’s omniscience.

OBAMA: And I told him, look, you know, I -- I feel badly that he has been characterized just in this one way, and people haven't seen this broader aspect of him. But he was my pastor. You know, one of the things that I think people overstate is this notion of mentor or spiritual advisor --

RUSH: You said it!

Trey: That response doesn’t make sense given Obama’s previous statement. Rush tries to paint Obama as contradicting himself when he didn’t. Typical. Not a “lie” but a distortion of the truth.
OBAMA: He was a pastor in the sense that he's somebody where you go to church, you talk to him about my faith in Jesus.

RUSH: Look, Barack, we have it. It's in the record. You are talking to Jeremiah Wright and you said to him, "You and I know, I have to throw you under the bus, bro, at some point. Your sermons are way out there. I'm going to have to. You know this day is coming." They talked about it. This was a strategeric plan. We're screwed. It doesn't matter. None of this matters because we're just screwed.

Trey: Who’s screwed? What? This rant doesn’t even make sense. People, think for yourselves. Relying on ignorant disk-jockeys to tell you what news events “really mean” is a sure fire to repeat something dumb and ignorant in front of an educated audience. Don’t be surprised when people contradict you and take offense. You’re better off looking for spiritual messages hidden inside episodes of Gilligan’s Island. Seriously. You voted twice for Bush, now look what mess we are in. Are you going to listen to ignorant, uneducated drug addicts or will you turn to real news? I hope you think carefully about this.