For once we actually want to talk about teleprompters
By Simon Maloy

Judging by the obscene amount of media interest in President Obama's teleprompter usage at last night's press conference, we figured we'd get this in right at the beginning. As any devoted reader of the Limbaugh Wire -- if there is such a thing -- can tell you, Rush has spent a great deal of time mocking Obama for an alleged teleprompter mishap involving the Irish prime minister, in which, according to Rush, the hapless Obama read from his own speech and thanked himself. Well, it seems that the UK Telegraph -- part of the British media that Rush so frequently recommends to his listeners -- has debunked that particular story, reprinting the pool report from the event that stated that Obama, in thanking himself, was gently ribbing the Irish PM, who actually had read the wrong speech off the teleprompter. It was "a good-natured and well-received joke at the Irish premier's expense," a fact confirmed by the reporter who wrote the pool report.

Anyway, Rush kicked off the show trashing Obama's presser as "boring," "professorial," and claimed that fewer Americans are watching. Rush also slammed NBC News' Chuck Todd's question to Obama about "sacrifice," calling it "silly" and "stupid," and claimed that the "sacrifice that the American people are making is this man's presidency." Rush also said that Obama's promised tax cut for 95 percent of Americans is "off the table now. Gone. Off the table." Actually, as Obama said last night, it's already in place, courtesy of the stimulus package: "When it comes to the middle-class tax cut, we already had that in the recovery. We know that that's going to be in place for at least the next two years. We had identified a specific way to pay for it. If Congress has better ideas in terms of how to pay for it, then we're happy to listen."

Moving on from Chuck Todd, Rush set his sights on Ebony, attacking the magazine's reporter for asking Obama last night about reports that one in 50 children in America is homeless. Rush was incredulous: "This bogus statistic that 1 out of 50 American children are homeless -- and what are you going to do about -- I want to see the facts on that." A quick Google search would have enlightened Rush -- the National Center on Family Homelessness released a study this month finding that "[o]ne in 50 children is homeless in the United States every year." But, to quote Rush: "Would somebody tell me the last time you saw a kid sleeping under a bridge? I want to hear from somebody who's seen it, because that's the way the question was framed out there."

From there, Rush moved to the European Parliament, saying that Republicans in Washington could "take a lesson" in "bravery" from European Parliament member Daniel Hannan, who lit into British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in a speech yesterday, calling him, among other things, the "devalued prime minister of a devalued government."

Coming back from the break, Rush quoted from AEI's Arthur Brooks' Wall Street Journal op-ed in claiming that conservatives are more generous with charity than liberals. From this, Rush concluded that Obama's proposal to limit deductions for charitable donations is "just another hit at American conservatives."

Another break and Rush was back, attacking Chuck Todd some more for the "sacrifice" question, professing his admiration for Federal Express, and ranting about reports that FedEx will put off purchasing new cargo planes if the Employee Free Choice Act passes. EFCA is a "threat," according to Rush, because more companies will do what FedEx is doing if it passes, and the Obama administration supports it because they view FedEx and "every other American business" as "evil."

Closing out the hour, Rush took a call from a woman claiming to have received new tax tables that indicate her taxes, her employees' taxes, and everyone in America's taxes are going up. Rush said that her employees will blame her for their smaller paychecks "because she's rich," and that even if she showed them the new tax tables, they would "blame Bush." It was at this point that Rush decided he better ask her what her employees' political beliefs are (instead of just assuming they're liberals). The woman professed not to know, but she did know that both her employees are gay. Rush's laughing response? "All right, then, what you need to do -- you need to tell them that this is the result of Barney Frank."

Highlights from Hour 1

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: I love the drive-bys last night after the press conference: "Ooh, he really connected on the sacrifice." He did not. He did not. "Well, American people are trying to come up with ways to put their kids through college and so forth." The sacrifice the American people are making is this man's presidency. We are all making sacrifices here.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: What are these employees? Do you know what their political inclinations happen to be?

CALLER: Do I?

LIMBAUGH: Yeah. Are they Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, communist, Marxist? What are they?

CALLER: Power and money.

LIMBAUGH: No, your employees.

CALLER: My employees?

LIMBAUGH: Your employees. Yeah. What are they? Liberal, conservative, Marxist, socialist, communist?

CALLER: You know, I don't know. They're both gay.

LIMBAUGH: You can't make -- you can't assign an ideological --

CALLER: -- to that. You're right.

LIMBAUGH: Yeah, can't. I mean, you can't do that.

CALLER: But -- but they're good kids.

LIMBAUGH: But I mean, you're doing the Lord's work.

CALLER: They're really good kids. They're hard-working kids.

LIMBAUGH: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I'm sure they're great employees.

CALLER: They are great employees.

LIMBAUGH: All right, then, what you need to do -- you need to tell them that this is the result of Barney Frank.

CALLER: [laughter] OK.

LIMBAUGH: Do it. I mean, Barney Frank, Chuck Rangel -- it's all Pelosi. It's all coming from the Democrat Ways and Means Committee. It's the Democrats doing this, so, you know, Barney Frank.

Enemies list

NBC News' Chuck Todd, for his "silly" and "stupid" question about sacrifice at the presidential press conference.

America's Truth Rejector

Wrongly claimed Obama's middle-class tax cut is "off the table":

LIMBAUGH: Sacrifice? What more do the -- what more does this government expect of the American people? Well, I'll tell you: higher taxes. That 95-percent tax cut for 95 percent -- off the table now. Gone. Off the table. In fact, Obama is looking for new ways to raise taxes. You people in the 95 percent, it was always going to be the case. You were never going to get a tax cut, but now it's official.

War on the poor

LIMBAUGH: This bogus statistic that 1 out of 50 American children are homeless -- and what are you going to do about -- I want to see the facts on that. Just like when we have the 2 to 3 million people homeless during the late '80s and early '90s -- Mitch Snyder and his bogus homeless numbers. I mean, that was obviously huge.

A bogus discussion about homeless children just after Obama got animated about cutting charitable deductions. He got happy. So, he's happy. He can't wait to cut the charitable deduction. He gets a question about 1 in 50 kids being homeless? If that were true, why would somebody want to cut charitable donations?

I think a caring person would want to triple the deduction in order to reduce the bogus number of 1 in 50 children who are homeless and living under bridges. Would somebody tell me the last time you saw a kid sleeping under a bridge? I want to hear from somebody who's seen it, because that's the way the question was framed out there.

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the aggrieved tyranny of the "statists"
By Simon Maloy

It's the top of the second hour, which means, as promised, it's time for Mark Levin, author of the brand new Liberty and Tyranny. Rush kicked off the interview by asking Levin to explain why there are people in this country who hate it and want to destroy it. Levin says these people do exist, and that they hate -- HATE -- the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They're not "liberals," according to Levin, but "statists." And, of course, President Obama is one of them. Conservatives, on the other hand, love the Declaration, the Constitution, etc. He may have even thrown the Articles of Confederation in there, too, we're not sure.

Anyway, Rush asked if it was safe to say that these "statists," because they hate the Constitution, hate freedom and morality. Levin says that they hate God, because all our rights come from God, not man or government. As a consequence, according to Levin, the "statists" Obama and Pelosi "sound like they're God. I mean, they think they're God." Recall that he's saying this to a man who regularly characterizes his "talent" as being "on loan from God," and who, at his CPAC speech, joked that God "thinks he's Rush Limbaugh" and mixed up the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Rush then wondered if the "statist" voters are "salvageable." Levin called them "malcontents" who never "take responsibility" -- they're always "aggrieved."

Back from the break, Rush reminisced, saying that we had Reagan in the 1980s and the Republican Revolution in 1994, and asked Levin of conservatism: "Why do we have to keep re-teaching this? Why is it that people who read this stuff 30 years ago, 40 years ago, vote for it 20 years ago, can be so easily turned against it?" According to Levin, it's the "tyranny" -- presumably the "tyranny" of the "statist" Democrats, who use "brute force and emotion and propaganda" to keep conservatism down. You'll recall that just before the break, Levin was chastising "statists" for never taking "responsibility" and always being "aggrieved."

One more break and one more segment with Levin, which Rush kicked off by relating his book to something that's happening today -- Obama and the liberals "confusing" liberty with "greediness." From there we had a few minutes of lionizing the free market that the "statist" liberal Democrats allegedly hate. Levin made sure to remind Obama that his suits, cars, helicopters, and so forth are the products of "capitalism." Rush threw the "teleprompter" into the mix, as is his wont. At the end of the interview, Levin offered a message to conservatives, telling them to be confident in conservative principles and to teach them to their kids whenever possible, and to do the same for their neighbors and friends. According to Levin, educated and confident conservatives are "more powerful than ACORN can ever be." We're not sure, what with all those billions of dollars ACORN gets from the government...

After the next break, Rush aired a few clips of Gov. Jindal speaking at the NRCC last night about wanting Obama to fail. Rush couldn't have been prouder of the governor, saying that Jindal was articulating what he'd been saying all along -- that they want Obama to fail and America to succeed. Not to belabor this point, but we still can't figure out how wishing for a prolonged recession qualifies as wanting the country to succeed.

Just before the hour closed out, Rush asked if we could all dispense with the notion the media is promoting that Obama worked without a teleprompter last night... He didn't cite any specific media outlet that was promoting that notion -- probably because most of them were obsessing over how Obama used a different kind of teleprompter than he had previously used.

Rush also took a caller whose husband works for AIG. According to Rush: "You've got the president of the United States lined up against your family. That's what you have to realize."

Highlights from Hour 2

Outrageous comments

LEVIN: The only thing that makes life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness unalienable is the belief in a creator, not the belief in man or some government. Man and government can't, in the end, confer these rights or legitimately deny them. This is a huge difference we have with the statists, whether they're modern statists or past statists. They believe rights are something to be rationed. If you agree with them, they give you rights. If you don't agree with them, they take rights away.

They believe that they're all-powerful. We don't. We believe they're Earthly. This is a huge difference between us and the statists. When you watch Obama doing his press conferences or Pelosi, these people sound like they're God. I mean, they think they're God. "We're going to do this."

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I happened to just coincidentally run across Barry Goldwater's book, A Conscious of a Conservative.

LEVIN: Yeah.

LIMBAUGH: I read it -- parts of it -- and of course everything in it, I went, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, I know, I know, I know." And then I recall that we had Ronald Reagan for two terms, landslide majorities, and then I recall that we elected the House of Representatives Republican control in 1994, largely on a conservative contract with America.

Here's Goldwater's book. Here's your book. Here's all of these real-life experiences with Reagan. Why do we have to keep re-teaching this? Why is it that people who read this stuff 30 years ago, 40 years ago, vote for it 20 years ago, can be so easily turned against it?

LEVIN: Because tyranny is persistent. Tyranny has existed since the beginning of man. Liberty takes people to be resolute. It takes some thinking. It takes some proper education and understanding and it takes confidence. Tyranny takes brute force and emotion and propaganda, and so, it is we who have to be resolute.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: The country has been led by a tyrannical mob. The country has been worked into a frothing frenzy by a tyrannical mob, and they don't care what the bonuses are about. All they know is that the bonuses are their money and that this money is going to people who botched and destroyed the company. That's what the Obama administration --

CALLER: That's not exactly - that's not exactly true.

LIMBAUGH: I know it's totally untrue, but this is what the administration is putting out. You've got the president of the United States lined up against your family. That's what you have to realize. The president of the United States has seen to it that busloads of protestors -- if they find out where your husband and you live -- will show up on a bus tour to protest you.

This hour of the Limbaugh Wire brought to you by the teleprompter only Rush can see
By Simon Maloy

Top of the final hour, and Rush was still on the line with the woman from Hour 2, whose husband works for AIG. She professed her anger at the media regarding their AIG coverage, but Rush said she should redirect that anger at Obama. Rush claimed it was not "presidential" for Obama to "denounce" AIG in order to create a mob, and cautioned the caller that "the president of the United States wants you feeling threatened. He wants the American people hating you and your company and your husband's company. He wants the chaos." Why, according to Rush? "[T]his is his life. What do you think a community organizer does?"

Then it was time for another caller, a woman whose husband works on Wall Street. She went a little long explaining how foreign companies are siphoning American workers from bailed-out Wall Street firms and how no one is taking into account the costs of living in the tri-state area. Rush had to take a quick break, but he came back in fine form, explaining to the woman that she is not allowed to complain about maintaining her standard of living because no one will understand how hard she has to work to keep her kids out of the New York public schools. Rush then wanted people to know how expensive it is to work in various parts of the country -- for example: "I need to point out to people that $500,000 a year is not enough for your average Chicago black family to get by on. The Obamas couldn't do it. When the Obamas lived in Chicago, when Barack got elected to the state senate, I mean, that's chump change money he gets paid. That's why he needed help from Tony Rezko to buy his house."

The conclusion to all this was that Obama and his supporters "want families like yours to suffer."

Another break and Rush was back with some more news from across the pond, reading from a Daily Mail article on how "[a]nti-capitalists today claimed responsibility for vandalising the home of disgraced former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Sir Fred Goodwin." Rush said he wouldn't be surprised if the group was affiliated with ACORN. Of course they are, Rush. They're using their billions of dollars in government money to establish overseas branches.

Another caller, this one pointing out to Rush that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is using Limbaugh in fundraising emails. Rush wasn't surprised -- he actually seemed to enjoy being the focus of "Dingy Harry's" fundraising. ("Dingy Harry" is Rush's usual moniker for Reid.) Then it was time for yet another plug for the Heritage Foundation, this time reading on air from this post on their Foundry blog about the "surprising facts" of American health care.

Back from the final break, Rush accused Secretary of State Clinton of "America bashing," citing a Reuters article from today that quoted Clinton saying of the drug violence in Mexico: "Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade." How does this constitute "America bashing"? We're not sure, unless Rush believes either that a) no Americans use illegal drugs, b) Americans do use illegal drugs, but none that come from Mexico, or c) Americans obtain their illegal drugs from Mexico free of charge. It should be noted that Rush's beloved Heritage Foundation published a paper last year praising the Merida Initiative, a Bush administration program conducted in conjunction with the Mexican government to curb drug-related violence, part of which involved the United States "promis[ing] to reduce demand for illegal drugs and to combat trafficking in weapons and bulk cash."

To close out the show, Rush finally got around to what we'd been wanting to talk about all day -- teleprompters. He once again claimed that the media (no one specifically, just "the media") were saying that Obama didn't use a teleprompter last night. But Rush knew better, it was just a bigger teleprompter. We'll patiently wait for Rush to cite a source -- any source -- claiming that Obama did not use a teleprompter last night. In the meantime, we'll point out that the media have done little today except freak out over Obama's shift in teleprompter habits -- the much-maligned Chuck Todd even had to talk Joe Scarborough down this morning after interminable teleprompter analysis.

That's it for today's Limbaugh Wire. We're going to go grab a copy of Mark Levin's book so we can get a better handle on how much John Adams and Alexis de Tocqueville hate Obama and his "statist" cronies. While we're doing that, you all should peruse Media Matters' ongoing and unflinching coverage of America's anchorman, Rush Limbaugh.

Highlights from Hour 3

Outrageous comments

LIMBAUGH: The president of the United States could have shut down these protests. The president of the United States could have stood up and said, "Wait, we don't need to have this kind of behavior toward these AIG people." He wants it. He -- the president of the United States wants you feeling threatened. He wants the American people hating you and your company and your husband's company. He wants the chaos. He wants the people of this country to think that the private sector is all AIG.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: It is not presidential for the president of the United States to stand up and to denounce a single company like this for the express purpose of creating mob behavior and a mob mentality. And this is what -- this is his life.

What do you think a community organizer does? A community organizer for ACORN or anybody else goes to the downtrodden in any community and says, "You are here and you are where you are because they have given you the shaft. They have taken what is rightfully yours. They are the people we need to protest and punish to get back what is rightfully yours." He's just taking it now beyond the stages of Chicago to the stages of America.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I need to point out to people that $500,000 a year is not enough for your average Chicago black family to get by on. The Obamas couldn't do it. When the Obamas lived in Chicago, when Barack got elected to the state senate, I mean, that's chump change money he gets paid.

That's why he needed help from Tony Rezko to buy his house. It is why he needed to get hold of a hospital to create a job that paid over $330,000 a year for his wife, Michelle, and since she's left that job, they've not replaced it. It was a job created with money that was guaranteed to the Obama family in the form of a salary for Michelle Obama, simply because her husband was in the Illinois state senate.

That's why they had to write the two books that earned them two and a half million, 'cause not even your average black family can get by on half a million a year in Chicago.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: In these class envy times, your story only serves to throw more gasoline on the class envy fire. People want families like yours to suffer. They want you to understand how hard life is for them and that's why they support Obama, because they think that Obama is going to get your mind right.

Obama is going to take away from you all these things, and you're going to have to find out what it's like to send your kid to a rotten school, and you're going to have to find out what it's like to have your husband never be home, and you're going to have to find out what it's like for the rest of them. And that's what Obama is going to -- he's going to equalize things. He's going to level the playing field.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Also, more America bashing from the Clinton -- I'm sorry -- Obama administration. As you know, Mrs. Clinton -- what -- is she in Mexico or is she on the way? Whatever. Mrs. Clinton today -- a Reuters story: "U.S. to blame for much of Mexico violence." I feel very strong, she said, that we have a co-responsibility, and part of what we're trying to do is not only acknowledge that, but work with the Mexicans to create a very best possible response.

The Secretary of state is paving the way for a flurry of high-level visits involving Eric Holder and the Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The Reuters story says U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that an insatiable appetite in the U.S. for illegal drugs was to blame for much of the violence plaguing Mexico.

So here we have the secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton, once bashing the United States of America. Also, you know, if I'm the teleprompter in the White House, I got to be roaring, rip-roaring mad. I have to be fit to be tied because without the teleprompter, this administration doesn't have anything.

Echo chamber

Read from Heritage blog post, 10 Surprising Facts about American Health Care