By Greg Lewis

Fill-in Steyn: “every single jihadist anywhere on the planet now knows that if he gets captured in the United States he's going to be O.J.-ed”

Mark Steyn was back today filling in for the last time before Limbaugh returns tomorrow. In the meantime, Steyn began the program with discussion of full body scanners and new TSA regulations, and made a series of Joan Rivers quips after reading that Rivers recently had some trouble getting through airport security. Then Steyn discussed Sally Quinn's op-ed in today's Washington Post; Steyn criticized Quinn for devoting more attention in her column to the third White House “gate crasher” than the “panty bomber.”

From there, Steyn proceeded to call Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan a “buffoon” for his recent comments that there wasn't “smoking gun” intelligence on Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and that he was being offered a “plea deal.” Steyn commented that putting Abdulmutallab into our criminal justice system “makes America less safe.” Steyn also explained that Obama's priority regarding the war on terror is to close the detention center at Guantánamo, and in the meantime, Obama is taking us back to a 1990s “reactive criminal law enforcement” view of the war on terror. Steyn added:

STEYN: There's a real problem here, because what you're trying to defeat here is the ideology. And the ideology has a certain appeal to a lot of young men throughout the Muslim world. And the one advantage you have on that is that they may not know what they're getting in for if they get caught by the United States. Thanks to everything that's happened now, since the left began waging war on Guantanamo, and the detainees held at Guantanamo, everybody now knows, any jihadist now knows that he doesn't have anything to worry about when he gets captured by the Americans.

Torture is mainly psychological. It's not what they're doing to you; it's what you think they're going to be doing to you. And every single jihadist anywhere on the planet now knows that if he gets captured in the United States, he's going to be O.J.-ed. He's going to be provided with a lawyer and maybe one of those law firms who do pro bono work for terrorists all over New York, the big-shot lawyers who haven't yet been given jobs in the Department of Justice. Maybe he'll land one of those too, and he'll have his own dream team. This is a disgrace, and it makes us less safe.

After a commercial time-out, Steyn continued to argue that Obama's priority when it comes to dealing with terrorists is to make sure they're not in Guantánamo. He then falsely claimed that “70 or so” released Guantánamo detainees “are suspected or known to have returned to terrorist activity since their release.” [emphasis added]

Then Steyn took a caller who thought that Obama's “concern” about the Christmas Day bomber is “phony.” The caller got into a conversation with Steyn about how the only thing the government can do to effectively deal with airline security is profiling. Steyn agreed, adding that “we all know” what the heart of the issue is, but the US government refuses to talk about it.

Next, Steyn read from a Daily Voice post expressing concern that there could be “Muslim-only” lines at airport security. Steyn's response was that with the exception of the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, suicide bombing is a “100 percent Islamic activity.” Steyn said that the U.S. was making itself into the laughing stock of the world for going “down this road” of putting “incompetent” officials on television and erecting a vast security apparatus that doesn't actually make us safer.

Steyn criticizes Obama's “Islamo-schmoozing”; blames that for increase of terrorist attacks against the U.S.

The second hour of Steyn filling in for Limbaugh began with our guest host reading from Byron York's column criticizing a recent post by Think Progress blogger Matt Yglesias. Steyn joined in on the criticism of Yglesias, who labeled the failed Christmas terrorist attack “a pretty unserious plot.” Steyn said the “stupidity” of Yglesias' post was “twofold.” First, Steyn explained that Yglesias failed to take into account the “hugely symbolic” value that the attack would have had, charging that Yglesias “misunderstands” the importance of symbols.

Next, Steyn added that the blog post in question was “objectively disgusting” because Steyn said it argued that only a small percentage of Americans would have been killed from the attack if it happened. Steyn rebutted that if you were one of the people on the plane, it wouldn't have seemed “tiny” or “peripheral” to you.

Steyn concluded his criticism of Yglesias saying that there's something wrong when a guy saying that the symbolic targets of American prestige and power and hundreds of people being kills is “no big deal.” Steyn added that the failed attack weakened the president in the days afterwards because it “illuminated” a “central truth” about him -- like when Obama “bowed” to the Saudi king.

Steyn also said that Obama's “Islamo-schmoozing” (i.e., his Cairo speech) has had the effect of increasing terrorist attacks against the United States, and then rambled on for several minutes about the Fort Hood shooting and how the “central reality” of the underwear bomber “is at odds with the official Obama fantasy.”

Then Steyn responded to a nonsensical caller who was trying to argue something about “elected elites” and Sally Quinn by arguing that the failed Christmas attack was a “sophisticated operation.”

Finally moving on to another topic, Steyn read from today's David Brooks column about the impact of the tea party movement. Later, Steyn said that Democrats were trying to prevent Republicans from delaying the health care bill by going with private negotiations instead of a “traditional” conference committee, thereby turning “open parliamentary debate into a sham.”

Profiling supporter Steyn: “we have to resist these outrageous intrusions on liberty and stand up to them”

Closing out the hour, Steyn seemed concerned that new TSA policies could result in “outrageous intrusions on liberty” and that we should “resist” them, citing the case of a conservative blogger who claims he was handcuffed by airport security for refusing to tell them how much money he made:

STEYN: They handcuffed a guy for refusing to tell a border guard from the United States how much money he made. That is -- I wouldn't answer that question. If I landed in JFK or if I landed at LAX, and the guy asked me how much money I earned -- and that's between me and the IRS. It is -- we have to resist these outrageous intrusions on liberty and stand up to them.

This has nothing to do with national security; this is an incompetent bureaucracy that just takes delight in bullying people who are no security threat whatsoever for the sake of it, and it should be resisted every time it happens. It's a disgrace.

You know what else is often considered an “outrageous intrusion on liberty”? Racial profiling -- a policy Steyn has long been an advocate of. Or is he arguing that as long as an intrusion of liberty has something “to do with national security,” then it's OK?

Steyn: “September 11 happened, in part, because everybody followed the nanny state”

The third and final hour of Steyn began with him still talking about the latest TSA controversy and how “empowering a vast bureaucracy” is an encroachment of liberty. From there, Steyn somehow started talking about what he thought allowed 9-11 to occur:

STEYN: You know, September 11th happened, in part, because everybody followed the nanny state. Everybody got on those planes, and those guys on the first three planes, those guys pulled their stuff, and people just sat there like sheep and followed the 1972 hijack procedures because they thought the 1972 hijack procedures would keep them safe.

Steyn went on some more about big government encroaching on the rights of people and how government services being “pushed” on people make them “junkies” of the nanny state. After a caller commented that, as a Republican, he doesn't hear enough from his side about health care costs, Steyn responded:

STEYN: The thing with big government, it's not just a price tag. You know, big government would be wrong if Bill Gates wrote a check to cover it at the end of every month. It's wrong because it's an encroachment on you as an individual. So when you talk about the costs of American health care -- at the moment, there is no cost of American health care. It's 300 million people, to one degree or another, making 300 million individual decisions on what they wish to spend on health care. That's not the way it is in Canada. In Canada, health care is a line item in the budget, and no Canadian is free to go to a hospital or a doctor surgery and increase that line item in the budget by $200 by reaching into his pocket and writing a check for it.

As long as Steyn continues to advocate for a “free market” approach to health care, we'll continue to point out that it's a really bad idea.

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

Highlights

Outrageous comments

STEYN: There's a real problem here, because what you're trying to defeat here is the ideology. And the ideology has a certain appeal to a lot of young men throughout the Muslim world. And the one advantage you have on that is that they may not know what they're getting in for if they get caught by the United States. Thanks to everything that's happened now, since the left began waging war on Guantanamo, and the detainees held at Guantanamo, everybody now knows, any jihadist now knows that he doesn't have anything to worry about when he gets captured by the Americans. Torture is mainly psychological. It's not what they're doing to you; it's what you think they're going to be doing to you. And every single jihadist anywhere on the planet now knows that if he gets captured in the United States, he's going to be O.J.-ed. He's going to be provided with a lawyer and maybe one of those law firms who do pro bono work for terrorists all over New York, the big-shot lawyers who haven't yet been given jobs in the Department of Justice. Maybe he'll land one of those too, and he'll have his own dream team. This is a disgrace, and it makes us less safe.

[...]

STEYN: I'm just seeing this -- this actually stunned me. Michael Yon, who is a terrific blogger who's been embedded with the troops out in Iraq and Afghanistan, does great military blogging from out in the field in these combat areas -- he was arrested at the airport in Seattle for refusing to say how much money he made. He was handcuffed. They handcuffed a guy for refusing to tell a border guard from the United States how much money he made. That is -- I wouldn't answer that question. If I landed in JFK or if I landed at LAX, and the guy asked me how much money I earned -- and that's between me and the IRS. It is -- we have to resist these outrageous intrusions on liberty and stand up to them. This has nothing to do with national security; this is an incompetent bureaucracy that just takes delight in bullying people who are no security threat whatsoever for the sake of it, and it should be resisted every time it happens. It's a disgrace.

[...]

STEYN: You know, September 11th happened, in part, because everybody followed the nanny state. Everybody got on those planes, and those guys on the first three planes, those guys pulled their stuff, and people just sat there like sheep and followed the 1972 hijack procedures because they thought the 1972 hijack procedures would keep them safe.

[...]

STEYN: The thing with big government, it's not just a price tag. You know, big government would be wrong if Bill Gates wrote a check to cover it at the end of every month. It's wrong because it's an encroachment on you as an individual. So when you talk about the costs of American health care -- at the moment, there is no cost of American health care. It's 300 million people, to one degree or another, making 300 million individual decisions on what they wish to spend on health care. That's not the way it is in Canada. In Canada, health care is a line item in the budget, and no Canadian is free to go to a hospital or a doctor surgery and increase that line item in the budget by $200 by reaching into his pocket and writing a check for it.

So you're right, the costs -- the costs are important. But what we need to understand is that the costs at the moment, there is no cost. There is no figure on American health care because 300 million people make 300 million individual decisions about it, because they're a free people. In Canada, it's a line item in the budget, decided by some civil service bureaucrat in an office somewhere. And that's the difference.

America's substitute Truth Rejector

STEYN: One aspect of this hasn't changed, which is that for President Obama, his main focus in the war as he sees it is closing Gitmo and returning all these people anyway. He doesn't care where they as long as they're not in Gitmo. So most of them are going to places where they're not going to be within the control of the United States or any controlling authority, as Al Gore would have said. For example, if you return Gitmo inmates to Yemen, even if they put them in prison, and a lot of the time they don't, the guys bust out of the prison. Actually, they don't really bust out; a couple of guys just kinda walked out of the prison 'cause, oddly enough, the Yemeni criminal justice system is not that effective at holding prisoners. But at least a dozen former Gitmo inmates have rejoined Al Qaeda in Yemen, and another 70 or so are suspected or known to have returned to terrorist activity since their release.