RUSH: ‘Translation mix-ups led to some confusion at Wednesday’s White House news conference with President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao.’ This story sort of confirms one of the problems I said I had yesterday trying to watch that press conference during breaks here. ‘Obama initially thought his responses were being translated simultaneously into Chinese for Hu. But they were not, and so the Chinese-language translator had to embark on a lengthy translation after Obama’s response to the first question he was asked, about human rights. ‘I apologize, I thought we had simultaneous translation there,’ Obama said after he realized what had happened. ‘So I would have broken up the answer into smaller bites.”
Well, thank you. That’s the same thing I observed. Normally when you watch these things, the translation is either simultaneous or else the foreign language spokesman will speak for a while, pause, the translator will translate it, then resume, then the translator will translate, then resume. What I noticed was it was the first time ever they just kept going, both sides of this. So I’m saying, ‘I have no idea what Hu Jintao is saying.’ I wanted to report to you what he was saying, but there wasn’t any translation so all I could do was tell you what he said, which I did a remarkable job of doing for someone who doesn’t know the language. Back in the old days, Sid Caesar, for those of you old enough to remember, was called a comic genius for impersonating foreign languages that he couldn’t speak. But today the left says that was racism; it was bigotry; it was insulting. And it wasn’t. It was a service. I insulted the ChiComs. I insulted 3,000 years of Chinese history.
There is a state senator in California by the name of Leland Yee, he is from San Francisco, and he claims that I owe the Chinese community an apology for mocking the speech. ‘State Senator Leland Yee, San Francisco, called on conservative radio personality…’ that’s a new one ‘… Rush Limbaugh to apologize to the Chinese community today for mocking Chinese President Hu Jintao’s speech. Limbaugh was complaining today on his show about a Fox News broadcast that omitted translation of Hu’s words, and spent 18 seconds speaking gibberish Chinese. ‘Normally they translate every couple of words, but Hu Jintao was just going chin chong, chin chong cha…’ he said before continuing to mimic the language.’ That’s how they quote me.
‘Yee chairs the state Senate Select Committee on Asian Pacific Islander Affairs and said Limbaugh owes the Chinese community an apology for his ‘pointless and ugly offense.’ ‘His classless act is an insult to over 3,000 years of cultural history, and is a slap in the face to the millions of Chinese Americans who have struggled in this country and to a people who constitute one-quarter of the world’s population,’ Yee said in a statement. ‘His comments…” Comments? Was I saying things I didn’t know I was saying? Did somebody translate me and it ends up being offensive, my comments? ”His comments… are sadly indicative of the bigotry that has often plagued his commentary and lined his pockets.’ Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee attended a state dinner tonight at the White House at which Hu, President Obama and the First Lady were present,’ and the [former] first lady did not wear her Mao jacket, which she normally does.
So I don’t know, folks, those were comments, and they were mocking and insulting, and 3,000 years of Chinese history blown up yesterday in 18 seconds right here on the EIB Network. It’s not just the Chinese. We’ve been translating the little pot-bellied guy in North Korea, what’s his name? Kim Jong-il, we’ve been translating him. We’ve been translating Gorbachev. We’ve been translating all the Soviet leaders who are alive. Maybe they didn’t get the nuance. It’s not hard to translate these people. It’s, ‘We will bury you. We will bury you.’ I mean I coulda done that, but I wanted to go the extra mile as a service to the audience. They weren’t translating it. I was just trying to report to you what was being said. Yee-haw.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, I wonder what Leland Yee and some of the others in the ranking Chinese community in San Francisco thought when Dingy Harry called Hu Jintao a ‘dictator.’ Does anybody know? Does anybody know if anybody in the Democrat Party or the Chinese community was upset at that insult? Dingy Harry called Hu Jintao a dictator. Do you know what that translates to? Dictator!
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, the Washington Post Foreign Service — for those of you that don’t know, the Washington Post Foreign Service reports on what happens in the United States. ‘The BBC television report was airing a clip from Wednesday’s Obama-Hu news conference at the White House, on the touchy topic of human rights.’ It turns out, the bottom line here is that the Chinese public was kept in the dark on Hu Jintao’s human rights admission. The Chinese public was not allowed to see what Hu Jintao said. And yet I — a harmless, lovable little fuzzball, El Rushbo — am accused of all sorts of atrocities.
I have blown up Chinese culture, 3,000 years of it, in 18 seconds. Wait a minute. Let me do my John King at CNN impersonation. ‘We’re really trying. We’re really trying! I apologize for the blown-up rhetoric. We’re trying to better here at the EIB Network. I did not mean ‘blow up’ Chinese culture, 3,000 years of it. We’re really trying here. It was a slip of the tongue. I take it back. How’s that? Is that pretty close to John King at CNN? So the bottom line: The freedom loving Chinese people were not allowed to hear what Hu Jintao said.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now everybody wants me to repeat my Chinese translation of Chairman Hu Jintao at the White House yesterday.
(playing of Japanese spoof)
RUSH: We played the wrong sound bite. That was Sid Caesar, well known comedian on the Drew Carey show, Who’s Line is It Anyway?, from 2007. And the skit was called Foreign Film Dub. Sid Caesar, who was called a comedic genius. Foreign Film Dub and that was imitating the Japanese language, and thus blowing up however many thousands of years of Japanese culture.
Let’s start here in San Francisco. Robert, I’m glad you called. Great to have you on the program.
CALLER: Wow! I can’t believe this. I can’t wait to tell my wife. She’s your biggest fan, next to me, I guess.
RUSH: Tell her I said thanks very much.
CALLER: Yeah, I just wanted to tell you a little bit about Leland Yee. I moved back to San Francisco a couple years ago.
RUSH: From where?
CALLER: Charleston, South Carolina.
RUSH: That’s a big move.
CALLER: That’s a big move, it’s a very big move, but let me tell you something about Leland. His big legislation last year was he wanted to push, and he got it through, that it’s now legal to speak a foreign language in your own business. So it’s just a brilliant piece of legislation —
RUSH: Wait, wait, wait, wait a second, Robert. His biggest legislation last year, he pushed, he got through, it’s now legal to speak a foreign language in your own business?
CALLER: Right. Whatever language, so now if business owners didn’t know before that they could speak their own language in their own business, so we spent about $40 million so that business owners now know it’s legal for them to speak their own language in their own —
RUSH: What am I missing here? Was it illegal to speak their own language in their own business?
CALLER: (laughing) It’s San Francisco, Rush. It’s San Francisco. But wait, there’s another one. Now, this is a classic California thing where they were trying to pass legislation where they would fine you if the air pressure in your tires wasn’t appropriate.
RUSH: Yeah?
CALLER: So every month you would have to go to the gas station and have them check you to see if your air tire pressure was appropriate. Leland Yee was a big pusher for this one.
RUSH: Well, I’m sure that was tied with President Obama’s number one piece of advice on improving gasoline mileage during the gas price crisis, and that was having a tire gauge and making sure your tires were properly inflated.
CALLER: Well, the great thing about —
RUSH: And I’m sure that Senator Yee thought that would be a great tie-in piece of legislation.
CALLER: Oh, it was great because when they actually figured out — he was talking about how it was gonna really save the air quality and decrease pollution, and it was gonna raise tax revenue, and they found out that actually the pollution created was .001% of all the pollution would be fixed because of this air —
RUSH: Wait a minute. They were relating tire pressure to pollution?
CALLER: Yeah. Oh, because if your tire is not exactly filled up enough, you would be using more gas, and it’s all part of the global warming thing here. It’s great.
RUSH: And that’s Senator Leland Yee, and that’s his idea?
CALLER: Exactly right. So I don’t think you have too much to worry about.
RUSH: This guy is really doing a lot for Chinese culture himself. I mean that kind of brilliance is certainly renowned, will be remembered for ages. Well, Robert, I’m glad to have the on-site report. Leland Yee, by the way, is running for mayor of San Francisco. I have just been informed that he’s running for mayor. And I guess now because of Senator Leland Yee, you can speak a foreign language in your business and it’s no longer illegal. (interruption) That’s right. He’s running for mayor, which explains everything. It explains all of this. (laughing) Oh, that’s the laugh that upsets Pat. By the way, I wonder if she’s come out of the tree yet.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Ron in Hastings, New York. Glad you waited, sir. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Actually it’s Hastings, Nebraska.
RUSH: Hastings, Nebraska.
CALLER: Yeah, there you go.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Hey, I’ve been listening since 1989, what a treat, used to listen out of Kansas City, Missouri, couldn’t even hardly hear you —
RUSH: Hang on, Ron, just a second.
CALLER: Yeah.
RUSH: This is a teachable moment. Snerdley had never heard of Nebraska. He’s from New York and he only knows Nebraska if Ben Nelson’s name comes up. Nebraska — N-e-b-r-a-s-k-a. It’s right up there close to Iowa. You know where Iowa is ’cause the Hawkeye Cauci. It’s right there, and it’s not far from Kansas and Missouri.
CALLER: That’s correct.
RUSH: But it’s nowhere near New York. It’s just a little New York bias here on the call screener’s part. It wasn’t my fault. All right. So Hastings, Nebraska.
CALLER: Yeah. Let’s start over.
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: Listen, about the mocking of the Chinese, do you remember Mr. Belushi on Saturday Night Live, he did numerous skits called the samurai or whatever and he had that sword?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: And he cut up everything, destroyed things, intimidated, and threatened everybody. You remember that?
RUSH: That was Japanese though that he was mocking.
CALLER: Yeah, but still, you know, the whole principle, the whole idea.
RUSH: Have you ever seen the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s?
CALLER: I don’t think I have.
RUSH: Then somebody needs to call Mickey Rooney and say, ‘Pal, that movie is very popular. You don’t know how much of Chinese, Japanese culture you destroyed.’ They had Mickey Rooney playing, I forget whether it was a Japanese or Chinese character, complete with the buckteeth and the fake phony accent. I mean it’s one of the greatest movies reputed of all time, Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, any number of people in that movie.
CALLER: Yeah, the hypocrisy is fascinating. It’s just fascinating.
RUSH: It is. It’s a good point, though, about Belushi.
CALLER: Yeah, and he did numerous. It wasn’t one time. He did numerous skits with that, and he threatened to, you know, cut people up and tearing the place up.
RUSH: Yeah. I’m told that’s how he got hired, that the samurai bit was his audition. It was hilarious. He chopped up the set; he chopped up kitchens. It was insane. Anyway, I appreciate it, a good reminder there, Ron.