Talent (no longer) On Loan from God

Rush Limbaugh, the son of Missouri who galvanized millions of American conservatives with his popular radio show and stoked the ire of his opponents with his self described “talent on loan from God,” died Wednesday. He was 70 years old.

Mr. Limbaugh’s radio program burst onto the national scene in the early 1990s, sharpening the rise of conservative talk radio with a bombastic style that bashed liberals, Democratic presidents, feminism and the media. His three-hour weekday show is heard on some 600 radio stations across the country, including KMOX in St. Louis. More than 14 million people listen at least once a week.

Limbaugh announced in February 2020 that he had advanced lung cancer, but continued to host his show while being treated until his last broadcast Feb. 2. His wife Kathryn Limbaugh announced his death on the radio program Wednesday.

Using his sizable platform, Limbaugh advanced conservative ideas, though he often peddled conspiracy theories and generated controversy for hateful commentary on gender and race like his comment in 2013 saying, “If any race of people should not have guilt about slavery, it’s Caucasians.”

In his later years, Limbaugh also became a prominent political ally of former President Donald Trump, who told the Fox News Channel on Wednesday that he spoke to Limbaugh four days before his death.

“His fight was very, very courageous, he was very, very sick,” Trump said. “In theory, he could have been gone four months ago, really. He was fighting until the very end, he was a fighter.”

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/obituaries/rush-limbaugh-dies-at-age-70/article_1f322cca-fe87-5a1e-821e-83584b86d9a2.html

The contribution Rush made to talk radio should be undeniable. However you felt about the controversial radio host, most people will honor and respect him for his stance on free speech and our inalienable right to hear what he (and others) were willing to say to us on our long drives to and from work and even, for a few years, on a MSM station during lunch.

The short clip below is a fairly balanced tribute to a unique piece of Missouri folklore.  I will be interested to see if Cape Girardeau finally acknowledges him with a tribute on the river wall.

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Botclan

31 years ago this week I first heard Rush. 31 years of the BEST political ENTERTAINMENT EVER. My lunch will never be the same.
Rest in Peace Mr. Limbaugh.

Botclan

31 Years ago this week I first heard Rush. 31 Years of the BEST POLITICAL ENTERTAINMENT EVER.
Lunch will never be the same.
Rest in Peace Mr. Limbaugh.

Ouirphuqd
Ouirphuqd

He is on the flood wall mural in CG, Mo. An additional tribute would be nice.

👻
👻

I will look for him next trip.

Botclan

31 Years ago this week I first heard Rush.
31 Years of the BEST POLITICAL ENTERTAINMENT EVER!!!
Lunch will never be the same.

Rest in Peace Mr. Limbaugh

Bilco

Strange…..when I heard of his death.I felt like I lost a friend.Even though I never met him. He had a profound impact on who I am ideologically. The one major impact I always take away from what he taught me was. How to understand the liberal mind,and How predictive they are. Life is a constant learning experience,and like so many here at TBP. He enriched my mind,and kept my eyes wide open. He will be missed.

CCRider
CCRider

I remember getting the call from my father telling me of this new voice on talk radio that was a conservative-an actual conservative! The media, until then was crammed with big government liberal weenies. Now we had someone who would champion the Bill of Rights and American goodness. I tuned in only to hear Rush telling his people that he would do their thinking for them. He actually said they were to just listen to his take on political issues and not to bother thinking for themselves. That was it for me. I had made the transition from Wm F Buckley to Von Mises and was in the thrall of Rothbard. I had no time for this drivel.

Over time I would get Rush’s messages and they had the ring of truth but there was a deception I sensed. He was rhapsodic when talking of Reagan. He was “Rinaldous Maxamis” or something silly like that. This, for a President who grew government spending by 30%, all on debt, of course. It would cause Dick Chaney to later exclaim “Reagan taught us deficits don’t matter.” No, you Dick, it doesn’t matter politically, only morally. Later I would hear a snippet of Old Man Bush, unaware the mic was hot call Rush “Our Boy”. Indeed he was backing every Bush assault on freedom with gusto, not passing up the chance to dis Ron Paul in the process.

Rush talked a good game but in reality, was part of the problem. He backed every slaughter of innocents overseas and decried government spending only when the Dummos did it. Did he ever have an opinion on the Patriot Act or the NDAA? If so I never heard it. He knew how our rights were being destroyed then shamelessly backed people like Trump that had no-zero- intention of actually doing something about it. He was the Repo gatekeeper. I certainly won’t celebrate his passing, death levels us all. But screw all the sickening accolades; Rush Limbaugh was a sell-out.

Stucky

“Did he ever have an opinion on the Patriot Act or the NDAA”

Wow.

He talked about both of them …. OFTEN.

Will include examples of both in a moment.

GAZ
GAZ

You have to eat a LOT of Oxycontin to destroy your hearing.

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👻

I managed to drop a clip when editing.

GAZ
GAZ

Glen Beck…former shock-jock, dry drunk, self promoter, sold out to being a Mormon to atone for his past sins.
Fake religion to go with his fake intelligence…how’s BLAZE doing Glen?

Stucky

“how’s BLAZE doing Glen?”

Surprisingly, remarkably well. Fourth highest rank conservative web site …. and an astounding Alexa rank of 566.

I simply don’t understand what his appeal is.
.
.

http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/runbenrun/mailings/705/attachments/original/Top_100_Conservative_Websites_by_Global_Alexa_Rating.pdf?1408379140

GAZ
GAZ

https://www.thedailybeast.com/glenn-becks-media-empire-implodes-again
Yes this was several years ago but the trend is down for this media delivery and Glen’s clownish theories and self delusions tied in with his Mormon prophecy bullshit.

Stucky

He DOES have clownish theories, and he IS loaded with self delusions, and Mormonism IS a bunch of bullshit.

Yet, his net worth is estimated at about $250 million.

I don’t think he gives a Flying Mormon Fuck about what a poor dweeb like me thinks of him.

Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

I remember listening to him back when the 1st Gulf War kicked off. He was repetitive and had a huge blind spot where it came to the Bushes, but he remained remarkably on message for a very long time. He was a great example of how to stand up to the cancel culture long before it coalesced into the monster it has become and he maintained his sense of humor through it all, so props to him for that.

I prefer to think that he went Galt.

Harrington Richardson: Sans Remorse
Harrington Richardson: Sans Remorse

Speaking of standing up to cancel culture. There was some huge boycott organized supposedly protesting Limbaugh and demanding advertisers drop sponsorship of his show. He actually had the boycott investigated and discovered it was a handful of academic shitheads, literally a half dozen or less running bots that generated hundreds of thousands of e-mails to advertisers.

👻
👻

By the way…DITTO

Stucky

MEGA dittos.

Stucky

Rush L. on the NDAA

=======

Defense Authorization Act is total authoritarianism

The thing Obama signed on New Year’s Eve, the new Defense Authorization Act. I don’t know if people don’t know what’s in this or if other things take precedence. Folks, you know what this thing does? It allows the United States military to detain anybody for no reason! They don’t even have to charge you. I mean, this is specified. This is not the Patriot Act. This is way beyond. This is total authoritarianism. This is the kind of stuff that exists in Third World banana republics. The government can detain anybody! All they have to do… They actually don’t have to do anything. They just have to say they suspect you of terrorism. They don’t have to prove it. They don’t have to have any evidence. They can charge you. They can put you away in a jail. You are not allowed a lawyer. You are not allowed habeas corpus. Obama even issued a signing statement with it in which he said: “Don’t worry, I’m not going to do this.” Well, he can, as can anybody in the military, as can any future president.

Source: Rush Limbaugh Show, “Power to Detain US Citizens” , Jan 3, 2012

.
https://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Rush_Limbaugh_Homeland_Security.htm

ordo ab chao
ordo ab chao

That exact NDAA took me to the county commission to address the issue in early Feb of 2012 (and NO, I did not think the end of the world was 2012).

The local news media inaccurately made light of my concerns and of governmental intentions, but after an email to the editor, he allowed “as many columns necessary…” to correct the report (it was one half a page).

Do I possess the intellectual ability to defend my theological position in my own words?: Borderline

Do I possess the mechanical tools/means necessary?: Absolutely Not.

Do I possess the ability to copy/paste and say “This is my position on Revelation”?: Easily

And, since ‘god’ is in the title of this article:

“If we are correct that the book of Revelation is mostly a prophecy about the future, then very soon, Satan will be active on earth as never before. As that day grows near, we expect that these zones of strangeness will become increasingly active. There is a debate concerning the timing of Satan’s final purging from Heaven. Because the chapter refers to Jesus’ birth and death (Revelation 12:5–6), many have argued that Satan was thrown down by the atonement of the cross. That view is supported by Jesus’ statement just prior: “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). Jesus also said, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Considered in isolation, a case can be made that the cross fulfilled Revelation 12:6. However, there are serious problems with that position.

A good case can be made that Satan falls three times in Scripture. First, Satan fell through vanity sometime before the incident in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1–14). Ezekiel 28 looks back to the garden when the “anointed Cherub” fell from grace. C. S. Lewis famously wrote, “It was through pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”[i] Although he had fallen, Satan was not barred from Heaven or Earth after his prideful defection.

Second, after the seventy disciples returned celebrating their discovery that “the devils [demons] are subject to us,” Jesus witnessed Satan “as lightning fall from heaven,” and He later said the devil was about to be “cast out” as He prepared for the cross and resurrection (Luke 10:18; John 12:31). These passages are the basis of the view that the Revelation 12 expulsion is a past event.

Third, as a result of the angelic war, Satan will be cast down to the Earth for a brief period of intensified suffering on Earth, during which Hell literally breaks loose, the Antichrist declares himself to be god, and the world is overrun by demons, Nephilim, elementals mistaken to be extraterrestrials, and transgenic monstrosities from the abyss. We believe a study of the circumstances leads to the conclusion that these three falls are distinct events—two are historical and the final one is future.

TOP SECRET SERIES—PART FIVE: Prophetic Significance Of “Portals”
February 14, 2021 by SkyWatch Editor

If we are correct that the book of Revelation is mostly a prophecy about the future, then very soon, Satan will be active on earth as never before. As that day grows near, we expect that these zones of strangeness will become increasingly active. There is a debate concerning the timing of Satan’s final purging from Heaven. Because the chapter refers to Jesus’ birth and death (Revelation 12:5–6), many have argued that Satan was thrown down by the atonement of the cross. That view is supported by Jesus’ statement just prior: “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). Jesus also said, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Considered in isolation, a case can be made that the cross fulfilled Revelation 12:6. However, there are serious problems with that position.

A good case can be made that Satan falls three times in Scripture. First, Satan fell through vanity sometime before the incident in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1–14). Ezekiel 28 looks back to the garden when the “anointed Cherub” fell from grace. C. S. Lewis famously wrote, “It was through pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”[i] Although he had fallen, Satan was not barred from Heaven or Earth after his prideful defection.

Second, after the seventy disciples returned celebrating their discovery that “the devils [demons] are subject to us,” Jesus witnessed Satan “as lightning fall from heaven,” and He later said the devil was about to be “cast out” as He prepared for the cross and resurrection (Luke 10:18; John 12:31). These passages are the basis of the view that the Revelation 12 expulsion is a past event.

Third, as a result of the angelic war, Satan will be cast down to the Earth for a brief period of intensified suffering on Earth, during which Hell literally breaks loose, the Antichrist declares himself to be god, and the world is overrun by demons, Nephilim, elementals mistaken to be extraterrestrials, and transgenic monstrosities from the abyss. We believe a study of the circumstances leads to the conclusion that these three falls are distinct events—two are historical and the final one is future.

In Revelation, Satan is cast down as the result of Michael’s army’s triumph over their fallen adversaries, not the positional checkmate accomplished by the cross that “spoiled principalities and powers” (Colossians 2:15). On display is the “already but not yet” paradigm characteristic of New Testament theology. At the cross, the victory was secured in that sin was atoned for, but, in the sense of a geopolitical theocracy, the spoils of that victory have not yet been assumed in the “rod of iron” manner promised at Jesus’ return (Revelation 19:15). Of course, scores of messianic prophecies in the Hebrew Bible declare the resulting golden age of world peace (Isaiah 11:6, 62:25). However, that era will not occur until Satan is cast down and chained as predicted.
The Hebrew term satan means “adversary,” implying a prosecutorial role like the accuser in Revelation 12:10. How can he still be “your adversary the devil” (1 Peter 5:8), if he was cast from his accusing role two thousand years ago? The amillennialist should consider Satan’s active deceit of many nations in light of the millennium’s inaugural proclamation that “he should deceive the nations no more” (Revelation 20:3b). Finally, the fact that Jesus stands as our intercessor (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25) implies an ongoing prosecution by the adversary. The cumulative weight of these passages leads to the conclusion that Satan’s final expulsion from Heaven has not occurred.

John received the vision of the Great Red Dragon’s expulsion many decades after Jesus’ death on the cross, miraculous resurrection, and glorious ascension as a promise of Christ’s return to judge evil and redeem the earth. Any claim to a historical fulfillment of Satan’s angelic war expulsion (like the cross) must satisfy the conditions of the divine hymn sung in response:

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.”

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. (Revelation 12:10–12)

The hymn is proclaiming the impending return of Christ in power. The time is said to be short because, after a brief period no greater than three and one-half years, the Messiah will chain the devil in the pit for one thousand years (Revelation 20:3). The hymn’s celebrated events have not yet been fully accomplished, as New Testament scholar Robert Thomas pointed out:

To refer it to the present era would mean that the accusing work of Satan is over, according to the next line of the hymn. This can hardly be. The removal of Satan from heaven is in conjunction with the victory of Michael in heaven, not with the cross of Christ.[ii]

Many passages support the ongoing tempter/accuser role (Job 1:9–12; Matthew 4:1–11; Mark 1:12–13; Luke 4:1–13, 22:31; 2 Corinthians 2:11; and 1 John 5:19). Consequently, one is hard pressed to remain consistent while contending that Satan’s expulsion in Revelation 12 is a past event. Of course, that implies the time is at hand when Satan and all the immortals aligned with him will be cast down upon the earth (Revelation 12:9). If so, then some of the people now holding this book will see the immortals on the earth for the battle of Armageddon.

Finally, a prophecy in the second chapter of the book of Joel with parallels in Amos 7 and Revelation 9 implies an end-times invasion of immortals and hybrids. While some expositors claim Joel was describing an army of locusts with phrases like “[They are] a great people and a strong” and “they shall run like mighty men [gibborim, a term associated with the Nephilim],” it is hard to accept these verses as talking about grasshoppers. We think this describes a demonic invasion that could possibly include Nephilim.

[They are] a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it…and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run….

They shall run like mighty men [gibbowr, gibborim]; they shall climb the wall like men of war.…

They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them.…

And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?” (Joel 2:2–11)

Joel 2 is paralleled by a vision given to Amos of a similar locust army invasion. The LXX translation by Brenton renders, “Thus has the Lord God shewed me; and, behold, a swarm of locusts coming from the east; and, behold, one caterpillar, king Gog” (Amos 7:1).The thing that makes this use of Gog distinct is that it is not a variant translation from the Masoretic text, because the Masoretic uses no name at all. Missler draws significance from juxtaposing “locusts have no king” (Proverbs 30:27) against the “locusts” in Amos who do have a king, arguing that it implies Amos must not be talking about insects, but rather about immortals.

The locusts in Revelation 9 have a king, Apollyon or Abaddon, but Proverbs 30:27 says that locusts have no king. So these locusts in Amos and Revelation are not natural locusts; they are demon locusts. If that’s the case, then the Gog in Amos, who is the king of the locusts, is a demon king.[iii] The locust imagery also matches Revelation: “And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men” (Revelation 9:7). Taken at face value, these entities cannot be immaterial spirits. Scholars, those who take end-time prophecy seriously, invariably conclude that these end-time hordes of immortals manifest in mongrelized bodies. Arnold Fruchtenbaum also notes their hybrid nature:

The description of these “locust-scorpions” given in verses 7–10 clearly shows that they are something other than literal scorpions or locusts. Their origin being the Abyss further shows that they are demons. It is not unusual for demons and other angelic beings to have animal-like features.[iv]

The acclaimed Christian apologist and religion scholar Walter Martin believed that the UFO phenomenon could play a role in this end-time incursion.[v] He offered that UFOs might be instrumental in Jesus’ description of the events prior to His return: “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken” (Luke 21:26, emphasis added). “Things which are coming on the earth” implies that they themselves are not of the earth; rather, they are, by definition, extraterrestrial. In reference to the portal opening at the fifth trumpet judgment, the first woe, in the book of Revelation, Martin offered this novel hypothesis:

In addition to what is coming upon the earth, the book of Revelation speaks of the bottomless pit being opened (9:2). A bottomless pit does not have to be one that is down—it could very well be one that is up, since in space there is neither up nor down, but out from the earth. This could reveal that what comes upon earth is from space, and not from under the earth. The symbolic language may easily refer to the manifestations of the powers of darkness near the consummation of the age. It is biblically predicted that Antichrist will reveal himself with signs and lying wonders so that if it were possible, he would deceive the elect. (2 Thessalonians 2:9; Matthew 24:24)[vi]

We believe all of these immortals and hybrid monsters play key roles in the horror of the Great Tribulation and Battle of Armageddon. This finds support in the Qumran War Scroll (1QM) reveals it is Satan and his powers that are behind the final battle:

For this shall be a time of distress for Israel, [and of the summons] to war against all the nations. There shall be eternal deliverance for the company of God, but destruction for all the nations of wickedness. All those [who are ready] for battle shall march out and shall pitch their camp before the king of the Kittim and before all the host of Satan gathered about him for the Day [of Revenge] by the Sword of God.[vii]

The Qumran War Scroll corroborates the idea that the Battle of Armageddon is not merely a human war but a battle fought by humans and immortals. These immortals will manifest on the Earth at the conclusion of war in Heaven, and the locust armies will amass at opening of the portal to the abyss (Revelation 9:2). Finally, a prophecy from Enoch frames this as a last-days angelic struggle on par with the one in Revelation chapter 12:

Last struggle of heathen Powers against Israel

5 And in those days the angels shall return

And hurl themselves to the east upon the Parthians and Medes: They shall stir up the kings, so that a spirit of unrest shall come upon them,

And they shall rouse them from their thrones,

That they may break forth as lions from their lairs,

And as hungry wolves among their flocks.

6 And they shall go up and tread under foot the land of His elect ones,

[And the land of His elect ones shall be before them a threshing-floor and a highway]:

7 But the city of my righteous shall be a hindrance to their horses.

And they shall begin to fight among themselves,

And their right hand shall be strong against themselves,

And a man shall not know his brother,

Nor a son his father or his mother,

Till there be no number of the corpses through their slaughter,

And their punishment be not in vain.

8 In those days Sheol shall open its jaws,

And they shall be swallowed up therein,

And their destruction shall be at an end;

Sheol shall devour the sinners in the presence of the elect.

annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <—-====

CCRider
CCRider

I think this actually proves my point. He was a good talker but look at who he supported. Did Bush, Romney, or McCain vote against the NDAA? Patriot Act? He relied on the threat of SCOTUS picks to cajole voters to vote for Repo candidates. So look at the present state of what’s left of our rights and tell me what was the real effect of his advice. The ONE candidate who was certain to trash the NDAA and Patriot Act-Ron Paul-only met with his derision.

I do have a bias, Stuck: I despise the Bush’s. I grew up in Connecticut and knew 1st hand that they come from Yankee stock that worships power and loot above everything. They have sold this country out for a century and Rush kissed all their asses raw.

Stucky

The thing I liked most about Rush is the same thing I liked about Trump ….. he drove Libtards bat shit crazy!

That there is worth the price of admission.

CCRider
CCRider

He certainly was loved by the right people and hated by the right people.

Stucky

Rush L. on the Patriot Act

=======

RUSH: Let’s go to the phones. It’s Open Line Friday on Thursday. Jennifer in Indianapolis. I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the program.

CALLER: Hi, Rush, thanks for taking my call.
RUSH: Anytime.

CALLER: I had a question. The president, I saw on the news, is in Columbus — I assume that’s Ohio — trying to get support for beefing up the Patriot Act, and I’m a conservative but when I complain about the Patriot Act people say I’m a liberal. I just wondered what you thought about that because I just read Judge Napolitano’s book, Constitutional Chaos, which points out a lot of unconstitutional parts of the Patriot Act.

RUSH: Yeah, some things about it concern me, I must be honest: The ability to go out and storm into somebody’s house without a warrant, for something that they want.

CALLER: Or, the thing that gets me is the definition of an enemy combatant. I mean, that’s so vague that any of us, depending on who’s in power, could be an enemy combatant.

RUSH: This is a toughie because I think one of the things, Jennifer, that’s driving the Patriot Act — look what we just found out in Lodi, California.

CALLER: Right.

RUSH: “Stuck in Lodi,” Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1968, I think — but you never know — apparently we’ve got open borders. We’ve got people in this country all over the place that could be part of cells. After 9/11 happened, you have to understand, leadership and law enforcement after 9/11, they really got reamed for doing a horrible job of preventing it when in many people’s minds it was preventable. At least if the dots had been connected we would have known more before it than we did after it — and I think there’s a reaction here among people that we’re not going to let this happen again no matter what. It’s a tough call. What is the “loose definition of an enemy combatant”? Do you have it handy?

CALLER: No, but I just remember in particular Section E which says that any person can be interned for their own protection.

RUSH: Mmm-hmm.

CALLER: And to me that’s like, you know, round ’em up, round ’em up and
put them in some kind of internment camp.

RUSH: Let me ask you this. Do you have a fear or a suspicion that at some point your government will use the features of the Patriot Act to round up people that have nothing to do with any suspicion whatsoever of terrorism?

CALLER: It’s my feeling that if they can generate enough public hostility towards a group, i.e., smokers, redheads, anybody, that they can get enough public sympathy to round people up. I truly believe that.

RUSH: I know a lot of people have your fear; a lot of people share your concern about it.

CALLER: Do you think that it’s not being talked about enough, though, in conservative circles and maybe intellectually analyzed?

RUSH: No, hardly. It’s all over the place. If you go to the right conservative places you’ll find there’s a huge argument about this among conservatives, particularly the conservative elites and the conservative intellectuals. There’s always an argument among our people over who’s the smartest person in the room and they’re always trying to outsmart each other with the fanciest smartest most obscure argument. The fact is these arguments are taking place within the conservative movement I think quite a lot. You have to look, though, at the success rate. Look it, has there been another attack on this country from within since the Patriot Act was authorized?

CALLER: No, there hasn’t.

RUSH: There has not been.

CALLER: But there is evidence that that act has been used to do things that weren’t related to terror, you know, that they’ve been used in other cases, those powers have been used.

RUSH: Well, yeah, you know, let me tell you something. There’s hypocrisy on both sides of this because I’m going to tell you something. You have plenty of liberals out there who are all for the cops raiding their political enemies, they’re all for the cops doing whatever they have to do to get whatever goods they want on their political enemies. And yet the Patriot Act comes, oh, you can’t do it, it’s an invasion of privacy. And yet in some cases they don’t care about other people’s privacy. Privacy is irrelevant to them depending on what the target is.

So both sides of this, I wouldn’t suggest that there’s one side to this that’s pure and one side that’s not. At any rate, it’s a tough call for a lot of people. But you really can’t argue with the success rate and I, frankly, in this country don’t know too many people, I don’t know of anybody who’s been rounded up that is not under genuine suspicion about whom there is not a sufficient body of evidence to justify that suspicion. I don’t know of a rampant number of innocent people that have been rounded up under whatever auspices under the Patriot Act.

RUSH: All right, let’s go to the Patriot Act news. “President Bush on Thursday credited the Patriot Act with helping to convict more than 200 terrorists and dismissed accusations that the law has violated civil liberties. Bush described scary scenarios that he said were thwarted by law enforcement and intelligence officers working together with powers granted by the law he signed six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.” Let’s go the audio sound bites. He was in Columbus, Ohio, gave a speech. We have sound bites. Here’s #1.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Since September 11th, federal terrorism investigations have resulted in charges against more than 400 suspects, and more than half those charged have been convicted. Federal, state, and local law enforcement have used the Patriot Act to break up terror cells in New York and Oregon and Virginia and in Florida. We’ve prosecuted terrorist operatives and supporters in California, in Texas, and New Jersey, and Illinois, and North Carolina, and Ohio. These efforts have not always made the headlines but they’ve made communities safer. The Patriot Act has accomplished exactly what it was designed to do.

RUSH: His audience, by the way, was a bunch of policeman, law enforcement sitting behind him and, by the way, it was very diverse. There were some people of color. There were some women. There were some women of color. There were even some white Christians sitting behind the president as he made his speech. By the way, did you hear what John Kerry said about Howard Dean? You probably haven’t heard this. He said, (doing impression) “I approved Dean before I disapproved him.” So everybody is getting in on the Howard Dean angle.

I also asked in the last hour, asked Jennifer from Indianapolis who was the caller who brought this up, I said, “Jennifer, do you know of anybody who has been rounded up that has absolutely nothing to do with terrorism, somebody who had been unfairly, illegally rounded up by the Patriot Act?” And she said, “No, I can’t think of any, but it’s always a possibility.”

I got an e-mail note from a guy, “What are you talking about? You ever heard of the Japanese being interned after World War II?” That wasn’t the Patriot Act. That was a Democrat that did that, FDR, without the Patriot Act. There was no Patriot Act when the Japanese were rounded up, and they were innocent. But don’t lay that on Bush or the Patriot Act. For crying out loud, the Patriot Act has only been in existence for, what, four years. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother going to the e-mail. Here’s our next sound bite from President Bush’s remarks.

PRESIDENT BUSH: At the end of this year, 16 critical provisions of the Patriot Act are scheduled to expire. Some people call these sunset provisions. It’s a good name, because letting those provisions expire would leave law enforcement in the dark. All 16 provisions are practical, important, and they are constitutional. Congress needs to renew them all, and this time Congress needs to make the provisions permanent.

RUSH: Yeah. Needs to make them permanent. One more. President says, the threat will not expire at the end of the year, and neither should the Patriot Act.

PRESIDENT BUSH: The House and Senate are moving forward with the process to renew the Patriot Act. My message to Congress is clear: That terrorist threats against us will not expire at the end of the year, and neither should the protections of the Patriot Act.

RUSH: Okay, so being the good journalists they are, CNN went out and got some people who opposed the president on this to talk to today. One of them was Senator Russ Feingold, half of the disastrous. You talk about taking away constitutional rights, how about campaign finance reform? How about McCain-Feingold, how about the First Amendment, Congress shall make no law abridging the blah, blah, blah, blah, rights to free speech, da-da-da-da-da. Campaign finance reform clearly says certain people can’t say what by virtue of this method at this time. Political speech has been abridged by the campaign finance reform law known as McCain-Feingold. Here’s Feingold on CNN upset about the Patriot Act. The question, as we were speaking, you have a different opinion about what these 16 provisions of the Patriot Act should do?

RUSS FEINGOLD: The president was talking about the very important fight against terrorism, and about the provisions of the Patriot Act that we all agree on. For example: getting the wall down between the CIA and the FBI but, frankly, it was just deceptive. What the president was doing was talking about provisions that nobody objects to such as the provisions that allow a sneak-and-peek search of your house that can be indefinite in time without any limitations. So the president basically was doing a bait-and-switch.

RUSH: So the next question, “Well, I pointed out that you are the only senator back in 2001 that voted against this. Sounds like you definitely stand by that vote. It’s been at least here in the US a relatively safe three and a half years since then. Do you think that you gained company or are you still a lone voice there in the Senate?”

RUSS FEINGOLD: Not only am I not alone, I think we may even have a majority in the House in some of these provisions. The president is moving in the wrong direction. He apparently doesn’t understand the need to balance our rights with the need to fight terrorism. We need to do both, not just have law enforcement be able to do whatever they want without a judge reviewing what’s going on. That’s absolutely essential to our system of government and to our freedoms.

RUSH: That’s an interesting reference there because I think that is the one thing that has a lot of people sort of scratching their heads. Why do you have to take the judge out of the equation? If you need a warrant to go search somebody’s house, you think they’re a suspected terrorist, go to the judge and get it. But to be able to allow law enforcement in without a judge, a lot of people are very nervous about that, and understandably so. And there’s something else, folks, and I remember saying this after 9/11 happened, and before the Patriot Act was even conceived. And, by the way, it’s a theory and a strategy that is articulated and has been for much longer than I’ve even been alive, and we talk about it in so many subjects, so many different ways, and we have over the course of this program, and it’s very simple. Any time you start trading liberty for security, you’re sunk.

This is a fine line. You know the ramifications of this, or at least the other applications. We look at people all over the world who say they’d rather live as slaves and be safe than take the risks — and we always condemn people for giving up their liberty in the name of security and safety. There is a fine line to walk, there’s no question about this, and it does have some people concerned.

END TRANSCRIPT

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Tough Debate Over the Patriot Act

Jason Mull
Jason Mull

He “broke on through to the other side.”

no one
no one

Al Gore called him a Great American for his unwavering support of NAFTA.

Apple
Apple

Never could stand him

Fatman from Oz
Fatman from Oz

Quickly, Nancy maybe third time lucky. Trump said “fight until the end”. Impeach.

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