Via Kevin Drum and Ezra Klein, I see that yesterday Rush Limbaugh questioned the timing of the oil spill off the Louisiana coast. His own rush transcript is titled “Regime SWAT Teams Sent to Gulf.” That would be the Obama regime, naturally. He seems to be alleging that Obama sent SWAT teams to blow up the oil rig in order to stop drilling and gain power to issue environmentalist policies.
Reading the excerpts, I presumed Rush was engaged in some bizarre parody. Illustrating absurdity by being absurd and all that. But it sure doesn’t seem that way. I’m going to excerpt much more than usual, just to provide context.
CALLER: And I haven’t heard anything about this but we know what happened in the ClimateGate situation, and we know about the faulty research and the faulty data, et cetera, and I’m sure that something like this has been done but it’s a thought. Is it possible that somebody on the other side might have thought in their minds for the greater good to maybe not have done some maintenance on the oil lines, to maybe have what they thought might have been a controlled oil leak that got outta hand to try and shut off or shun the thought of having any more offshore oil drilling?
RUSH: Well…
CALLER: And all of a sudden we have this huge leak. The whole thing now shifts to we shouldn’t be drilling offshore because of this leak.
RUSH: Charlie Crist already led the way there on suggesting we shouldn’t be doing any more drilling. By the way, Charlie Crist sometime today, is going to announce that he’s going to go for the Senate seat in Florida as an independent.
RUSH: Well…
CALLER: And all of a sudden we have this huge leak. The whole thing now shifts to we shouldn’t be drilling offshore because of this leak.
RUSH: Charlie Crist already led the way there on suggesting we shouldn’t be doing any more drilling. By the way, Charlie Crist sometime today, is going to announce that he’s going to go for the Senate seat in Florida as an independent.
Okay, this is all rather weird and conspiratorial but nothing to write home about. Then we get this:
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, I didn’t hear this myself, but I have been informed that President Obama is sending SWAT teams to the Gulf oil rigs. SWAT teams? I’m waiting on audio sound bite confirmation of this, but why in the world would you send SWAT teams to Gulf oil rigs? Oh, I know! Obama probably thinks the tea party blew up the rig. That’s what it is. (laughing) Yes. Of course the tea party did it! (laughing) Seriously, you know, this rig… We had this call from a guy out there who said nobody’s talking about whether this was an act of sabotage because I guess they can’t prove it, but they’re going to send SWAT teams down there? He was going to send a SWAT team to the rig that blew up or are you going to send a SWAT team to other rigs? What’s going on here? Remember, this rig blew April 21st, which is one day prior to “Erf” Day.
I have a story here from Reuters, September 24th, 2008 (shuffling paper) right here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers: “Nobel Peace Prize winner and environmental crusader Al Gore urged young people on Wednesday to engage in civil disobedience to stop the construction of coal plants without the ability to store carbon.” So you got the guru here urging civil disobedience, you got the regime sending SWAT teams down there to all the rigs in the Gulf. They’re sending SWAT teams to all the rigs in the Gulf! Whoa ho-ho-ho. So obviously Obama thinks the tea partiers are expert scuba divers as well or maybe they have their own fleet of underwater submarines that can go deep enough to go undetected, set explosives, and hightail it back to the protests in Ohio, or wherever they (laughing) happen to be.
So 15 years of no global warming. “That’s just anecdotal! It doesn’t disapprove anything! It doesn’t disapprove that there’s a man-made threat going on.” But one oil spill — one oil spill which might have been intentional — is enough to prove that offshore oil drilling is unsafe and should never be done. This is the logic we’re forced to live with. There hasn’t been any warming in 15 years, that doesn’t mean anything. Those e-mails were hoaxed! The readings at the climate unit in East Anglia, they were all made up. “Doesn’t matter. What matters is who leaked those e-mails. What the e-mails said doesn’t matter.” But those guys made it all up, and they wouldn’t produce the data that led to their conclusions. They say they lost it. “Doesn’t matter. Doesn’t matter at all!” But it hasn’t warmed in 15 years. “It doesn’t matter.” But I just saw a story you guys say you’re looking for the “lost” heat. “Doesn’t matter.” One oil rig blows up, and it proves we can’t dig, drill, find more oil.
RUSH: Now, here’s the regime kicking into action here on the Gulf oil well or the rig explosion, President Obama mere moments ago in the Rose Garden before presenting the teacher of the year award.
OBAMA: I do want to speak briefly to the American people about the recent BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Earlier today DHS Secretary Napolitano announced that this incident is of national significance and the Department of Interior has announced that they will be sending SWAT teams to the Gulf to inspect all platforms and rigs and I have ordered the secretaries of interior and Homeland Security as well as administrator Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency to visit the site on Friday to ensure that BP and the entire US government is doing everything possible not just to respond to this incident but also to determine its cause.
RUSH: Wow. All right, so SWAT teams, we’re sending big sis down there, Janet Napolitano, to look at all the valves and stuff, make sure they’re properly greased. He-he-he-he. Ahem. And Lisa Jackson is doing the same thing. So obviously the regime is open to the idea that this is not an accident. The regime is open to the possibility that this could well have been on purpose. Don’t forget, the original Earth Day, 40 years ago, was inspired by the river in Cleveland catching fire. Forty years later, the day before Earth Day this year, the Gulf is on fire. Coincidence? Jury’s still out. The regime is on the case, soon to tell us what happened.
This is some addled stuff. But it gets better. Apparently on return from break:
RUSH: I want to get back to the timing of the blowing up, the explosion out there in the Gulf of Mexico of this oil rig. Since they’re sending SWAT teams down there now this changes the whole perspective of this. Now, lest we forget, ladies and gentlemen, the carbon tax bill, cap and trade that was scheduled to be announced on Earth Day. I remember that. And then it was postponed for a couple of days later after Earth Day, and then of course immigration has now moved in front of it. But this bill, the cap-and-trade bill, was strongly criticized by hardcore environmentalist wackos because it supposedly allowed more offshore drilling and nuclear plants, nuclear plant investment. So, since they’re sending SWAT teams down there, folks, since they’re sending SWAT teams to inspect the other rigs, what better way to head off more oil drilling, nuclear plants, than by blowing up a rig? I’m just noting the timing here.
Is there any explanation here other than that Rush is delusional?
