You remember last week, for me, I kind of lost it once I had heard that Louisiana had put in this demand for $250 billion in aid, right before Hurricane Rita was supposed to destroy Houston. That was its original track. And, you know, this country has just been generous as it could be. There were a billion dollars or more in private donations. The government via the taxpayers already allocated over $62 billion, and here came Mary Landrieu and the rest of the Louisiana delegation demanding $250 billion. Well, there are a bunch of people editorializing about that today, agreeing with me. Once again, on the cutting edge here, my friends, you are, if you listen to this program on a regular basis. And exactly what I predicted is happening. I said, “You know, it’s one thing for people to be generous and charitable, but when the people who are receiving that charity then start demanding more, then it starts to rub you the wrong way, and then you start getting very trepidations about being generous.” Because if generosity marks you, if generosity sets you up as a mark then you hold back. So here comes all this generosity, and rather than a thank-you, they come up with all these new demands, and the demands are still out there.
Now, keep something in mind, folks. As New Orleans is making these demands and Louisiana is making these demands, $250 billion, there are areas in my state of Florida ravaged by four hurricanes in 2004 who haven’t seen a dime of rebuilding money yet. Some of them haven’t been rebuilt at all. Punta Gorda hasn’t been rebuilt at all. That was the little town on the west coast of the state that was destroyed by one of the hurricanes. I think it was Charley. This hurricane that was supposed to go to Tampa then took a right-hand turn earlier than forecast then hit this little town where the people there weren’t prepared for it as well as they should be. I mean, that’s another story. But the fact is, even over a year now or about a year, all of this magical aid that we’re promising to New Orleans and Louisiana, not very much of it has been seen in Florida, and Floridians are starting to notice this now. It took a little while, but Florida newspapers are now starting to say, “Hey, wait just a second, $250 billion, okay, fine, well and good, but we’ve still got people up in Vero Beach who still don’t have roofs on their houses yet because the aid to rebuild them, the insurance, whatever, hasn’t come through and yet everybody is bending over backwards and stopping whatever we’re doing to make sure Louisiana gets help.” I predicted this. I told you that after this charity was taken for granted and followed up by demands then the whole attitude about this was going to change, and it is starting to now. I know, Mr. Snerdley, the media never even covered the extensive damage up in Port St. Lucie. There’s still tarps on roofs up there by the handful, which is, you know, on the east coast of the state. It’s about an hour from here, if you drive up here, 45 minutes to an hour up I-95. And people are starting to notice this. And I’ll tell you what else people are starting to notice, “Wait a minute, what about all this spending here? Does there seem to be any end to this?”
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RUSH: By the way, folks, I was right about two other things. In The Hill newspaper today, Patrick Leahy, fit to be tied, angry at Dingy Harry for going out on the Senate floor and saying he was going to oppose John Roberts without telling Leahy he was going to do that. Leahy then announced that he was going to vote for Roberts to be chief justice. There is friction in the Democratic Party over this. I told people this is what it was. “Oh, no, no, no, Rush, this is all part of strategy, it’s all a part of their strategy.” You people have got to get over the idea that these guys never make a mistake and they know exactly what they’re doing and they’re running rings around us. They are dysfunctional themselves, particularly over these court nominations. The other thing, yesterday there was a story about Cindy Sheehan. (Singing.) “Everyone knows it’s Cindy.” From the Associated Press. It was by Jennifer Kerr, and the story cleared before yesterday’s program. And the line yesterday, I don’t have it in front of me, but I couldn’t believe it. I said they’re going to have to change this lead or this Jennifer Kerr babe is going to get canned, remember that? And I think the story that she had yesterday opened with: “Cindy Sheehan, the California woman who used her son to start an anti-war movement.” I said, “Whoa, I’ve never seen this, used her son?” They got it right at AP. I said, “They’re going to have to change this lead.” They changed the lead. At 4:27 yesterday afternoon, and here’s what the lead became. “Cindy Sheehan, the California woman who became a leader of the anti-war movement following her son’s death in Iraq, was arrested Monday along with–” They changed the lead.
In fact, this story, the first story ran during yesterday’s show. It was after Cindy was arrested. And that opening line did say, “Cindy Sheehan, the California woman who used the death of her son to da-da-da-da-da-da.” They changed it, folks, in less than two hours. They changed the lead in the story. Well, I’m sure the reporter is still there, but she’s probably working on probation now, you know, one more screwed up lead like that and they’ll have to send her over to al-Jazeera. Oh, how about that? This conviction yesterday, al-Jazeera reporter is an actual member of Al-Qaeda. Oh, yeah. Did you hear about that? You didn’t hear about that? Yes, an al-Jazeera reporter, was in Spain, convicted of being an Al-Qaeda member. The media watchdog groups in Spain are mad because you don’t do this to a journalist. “So what, a journalist is a journalist, journalist can be a commie, journalist can be Al-Qaeda, it doesn’t matter, it won’t affect the way they do their work.” Oh, folks, what a day here. Do you people realize by listening to this program how ahead of the game you are? I hope if you have been a doubting Thomas on that you’ve come around because we truly are on the cutting edge here.
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