Posted on 02/23/2006 6:28:31 AM PST by RushCrush
RUSH: Jerry in Long Beach, I'm glad you waited, sir, welcome to the program.
CALLER: Uh, Rush, I'm a proud member of the longshoremen's union.
RUSH: Yes, sir.
CALLER: I don't appreciate you attacking our union, try to make this part of this debate. Are you telling us that Republicans don't care about our jobs? Are you telling us that Republicans want to break our union?
RUSH: No.
CALLER: Is that what this deal was about?
RUSH: No! No.
CALLER: Or is this about -- Or is this about President --
RUSH: There you go again! There you go stereotyping! There you go stereotyping.
CALLER: Is he afraid he's not going to get his commission?
RUSH: I'm telling you that from everything I know, nothing's going to change. I have said this for the past two days.
CALLER: So why are you attacking my union?
RUSH: I'm not "attacking your union"! I'm simply pointing out who your union donates to and explaining why Schumer and Hillary and these other Democrats are speaking out in opposition to the deal. While they're telling us it's about national security, it's not, they're telling it because they're trying to loyal to you. You're the ones that --
CALLER: What you're not saying is that this is a violation of the Trading with Enemies Act. You couple this with the violation of the Espionage Act, a violation of the Foreign Intelligence --
RUSH: It's none of that.
CALLER: -- Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, you've got this president committing three felonies, sir!
RUSH: It's none of that!
CALLER: He's a criminal.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: And what you're doing is criminal -- and don't you attack my union!
RUSH: I didn't attack your union, but I'm about to start --
CALLER: Well, let's get it on, buddy.
(Excerpt) Read more at rushlimbaugh.com ...
Unions, like all other forms of organized criminal gangs, should be illegal.
There's nothing like good old rational debate on an issue. I wonder when we are going to see it on this one...
PS- did anyone ever notice who the most rabid, vicious speakers were at recent International ANSWER (communist) rallies? None other than the bigwigs of the ILA!
I heard that call and I think Rush deserved it. Did or did he not say that one of the reasons the Dems were coming out against it was to help the Unions (and then, I believe, he made a joke about the Unions). The guy was pretty harsh, but he was mad. It made for some great talk radio!!! I like it better when people get mad at Rush than say DITTO, DITTO, DITTO! It's funny, I've spoken to Rush three times, and twice it was because I disagreed with him.
Hilarious! Jumped-up little union thug must have forgotten what century it was!
Since I cannot access that -- and I missed the end of that call -- how did the guy threaten Rush?
I heard this yesterday and I did not feel the man threatened Rush...but if Rush felt that way I cannot argue the point.
However, the caller was a moron and a jerk, one angry liberal.
Rush is right about the Long Shoreman Unions - Did you ever look at their sight and the AFL-CIO?? - It has plenty of Anti-Bush and Pro-Kerry rhetoric on it!
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"Unions, like all other forms of organized criminal gangs, should be illegal."
That's so well thought out. I'm glad to see there is no knee jerk involved. Now you can go back to your crayolas.
What some people will do for a base wage of $95,000 a year.
Thanks for the poing.
The transit union here in NYC proved that last December. Even though it is illegal for them to strike, they did so anyway making everyones life a living hell for 3 days. And what did it accomplish? Absolutely nothing. The union accepted a deal and then they voted it down after going back to work.
Agreed.
CALLER: Well, let's get it on, buddy.
RUSH: -- because you are so dead wrong about this. You Democrats, all it takes, give you one little shred of rope, and you've got a noose around your neck inside of 30 seconds! This is not trading with the enemies. Your union was not "attacked." Your union is not going to be put out of business. Where did you go to the idea that Bush wants the deal to go through to put the longshoreman out of business is beyond me. That's paranoia. That's stereotypical. You are profiling. You are profiling Republicans -- and you're doing all with that absolutely zero knowledge. Trading with the Enemy Act! Three felonies!
You wish. (sigh)
If these are felonies, give me one.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
If you missed the previous -- well, the last call in the previous hour, a man identifying himself as a proud member of the longshoremen union in Long Beach, a man named Jerry, called and said, don't you threaten my union, or don't you criticize my union. Well, what he was referring to is that I continue to dig deep on the port deal, and I have learned that much of the opposition to the port deal -- from the likes of Senator Schumer and Senator Clinton, Senator Lautenberg, Senator Menendez, Senator Boxer and others -- may not be what it seems. They're hiding, I think, under the cloak of being concerned about national security, but when you look at it what really is happening here is that they are all huge recipients of large contributions from the longshoremen's union, which, I mean, that's not a surprise to anybody. Organized labor supports the Democratic Party en rote. They just don't even think about it. It's a reflex action -- and it's a little hypocrite because we already have all kinds of business deals and arrangements with the United Arab Emirates and the Clinton administration way back when sold them 60 F-16s.
We've allowed them to own property in this country and so forth. But when the longshoremen union member threatened me, it jogged my fertile memory, ladies and gentlemen. I recalled in recent years -- I thought it was two or three years ago, turns out it was, well, a little over three, 2002 -- there was a strike by the Long Beach longshoreman over the modernization of procedures cataloging and inventorying cargo that was on ships and was off-loaded. You'll remember this. It was the bar code scanning controversy. They wanted to put bar code scanning on all of the incoming cargo to help find out where it is, rather than send off a bunch of human beings to try to find it.
"Let's find out exactly where it is; let's computerize it," and the longshoremen fought this. This is nothing new. Unions have been fighting advanced technology since there has been advanced technology. I mean, they're afraid it will affect their jobs -- and they went on strike right around Christmastime in this year in order to make their case, and they had ships that couldn't get into port because the ships that were in port wouldn't be off-loaded, and those ships couldn't be reloaded and sent back out. You had a fleet of cargo ships out in the Pacific waiting to get in, and it got so bad that people were demanding that President Bush get involved. This was Christmas, after all.
The longshoremen -- let me read to you, this is from a little website here, Slate.com -- and it's titled, "Short Port Report," and I'll just read you an excerpt: "...and organized workers have resisted new technology since the 1800s," and that's exactly what the longshoremen are doing now. "The port operators want to start using bar code scanners to speed cargo through terminals. More likely than not those operators will want to engage outside contractors to run the new scanners, and those contractors will employ nonunion labor. It's easy to sympathize with workers whose jobs are displaced technology. EZ Pass has meant the elimination of many decent paying jobs for toll booth clerks," and, of course, we used to have a buggy whip industry and a buggy industry. But with the car, out went the buggy and the buggy whip industry. "Union members in question here get paid more like accountants than day laborers. According to Pacific Maritime Association, the average annual salaries at the ports for longshore workers is $82,895 a year for class A workers, $118,444 for clerks, and $157,352 a year for foremen."
LOL!!
You pro-union?
What happened to the rest? I`m not a member.
That graphic is too much!!! Hahahhahahhahahah
Q: What's black and tan and looks good on a Teamster?
A: A Doberman.
I heard that guy yesterday and here's what I would have said, "Well screw you and screw your union. I don't give a crap about it or you and I don't have to."
"You pro-union?"
No. I'm pro reason.
IMHO "let's get it on" is like "bring 'em on" --swagger. If Rush is calling this a threat, it's hyperbole at best, and slander at worst.
mmmmmkay....care to elaborate?
bttt
"Well, let's get it on, buddy." is the threat?
They were already involved in verbal sparring and it was said in that context.
This is the reason the Dems are against it. They've been blocking all efforts to increase port security since 9/11. They've opposed racial profiling at airports targeting Arabs. And they had no problem with this company running port operations for us in the middle east for the last 15 years.
The Dems see this as an opportunity to bash President Bush, but they need to step in and try to shore up the union's position with the new employer.
For full disclosure purposes, I'm against the new company coming in.
Excellent.
Awww man, I have to be a member to read the whole thing? darn.
I heard it was more like $120K, with unbelievable benefits for life for the entire family. Maybe I should apply to unload cocaine. It's for the children.
Tony Snow is on his radio show right now freaking out about how stupid conservatives are being about being so willing to throw the UAE over the side. Tommy Franks is talking to him and wants you chumps to know that the UAE vowed to donate 100 million dollars to help us with Katrina. And some of you want to spit in their faces. Wise up!!!
"Let's get is on"
Maybe it is a local reference. I wouldn't think so. But that is when you call someone out to step outside.
Once a thug, always a thug. *~*
"Unions, like all other forms of organized criminal gangs, should be illegal."
Excellent analogy. Let's roll-out the RICO Act and start prosecuting them.
bttt
Absolutely EVERY union dock worker can quote these Acts and does not need them given to him in the form of Oh, say, a talking points memo.
< /sarcasm >
Let's see if there is some sort of trend in his words.....Bush guilty....Bush is lying....Bush is going to profit....Bush has committed criminal acts.
Nope can't think of ANYWHERE these accusations have been made before by ANYONE about ANYTHING> < /sarcasm >
This piece published, by the way, Wednesday, October 2002. "The six-figure clerks who chart the inflow and outflow of the trucks in the containers frequently by hand say they'll be happy to use these new gizmos, but only if the bar code jobs are unionized," and that's what the fight was over," and I am sure that that's what the concern is here. You say, "What's this God to do with the UAE port deal, Rush? Stick to the issues!" I'm getting there, folks, stick with me. Realize I never get lost in this program. I never lose my train of thought. I never forget what I'm going to say. I always stay on track.
There is no doubt that the concern in these six ports is -- that longshoremen have --0 is exactly over the same thing. We have, I shared with you a story today from the New York Sun about how the United Arab Emirates port company is modernizing and streamlining all of its ports around the world. I told you that the number two -- I say number one port operator -- in the world is owned out of Hong Kong, and they don't want to buy the six ports in question here because they don't want to deal with the union regulations. I doubt that anything is going to change, and I've been saying that all week. But I can understand their fear that things might change, and so that's why they're donating heavily all these years to protect their jobs. That's what the union people do.
So we're faced with the age-old problem of how do we modernize and advance technologically without putting a whole bunch of people out of work. And so there has to be obviously thought attached to all of this. What always happens, I mean I hate to tell you something, but during the NAFTA debate, you know, all we heard about was the Singer sewing machine plant up in New Hampshire, you know, and how people would be put out of jobs. But, you know, economics is what it is -- and the global market is what it is. It can't go back with a wall around the country and pretend that this global economy, interlinked economic dependence is not happening.
You can't turn back the hands of time on things like this. I actually think this. I was telling my staff here during the break, "What I fully expect to happen is if the UAE deal does go through, after all of this tsunami and all the bad PR, the UAE people are going to bend over backwards to show they have no intention of causing anybody here any harm, and they'll probably hire more longshoremen and they'll say, 'Just sit on the dock. You're on permanent break, and we're going to pay you whatever you get paid for it. We're going to increase the number of longshoremen,' and they'll do this for a while just as a PR issue." I know some of you are saying, "What's the difference between a permanent break and a regular job?" Don't make that joke, folks.
Unions exist to coerce employers into paying more that their members' labor is worth in a fair and open market.
Unions gain leverage in both ways they admit (fraudulent sick-outs, abandoning jobs they agreed to do, etc.) and in ways they do not admit to, but which are well-known (veiled threats of sabotage, violence, intimidation of replacement hires, etc.).
If any other vendors ganged up on consumers this way they would be looking at civil lawsuits and jailtime.
I'm glad to see there is no knee jerk involved.
You're talking to the wrong person. I have long and hardwon firsthand experience of union criminality.
Pro-unionism is a knee-jerk ideology. It is reinforced by emotionalist garbage like "Norma Rae", cheesy fake folk songs children are taught to learn and sing, constant positive reinforcement of unionism in the press and on TV, etc.
It takes brains and courage to break with this socialist conditioning.
Now you can go back to your crayolas.
You may be confused. I'm not a lazy union GM worker doodling in the job bank center and getting paid 95% of a salary. I'm a self-made man, not a parasite. I learned to read and write using a pen - no union meathead I.
I hope Rush has good security ... including his car etc.
The guy was irrational.
These printed words do not tell the whole store. This guy had real anger in his voice. A violent anger.
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