RUSH: Kim Jong-il is now Kim Jong-dead, and the news media is making a business fuss over how the North Korean media and the people on the street have been weeping at the sad news. Of course they wept in the Soviet Union when Stalin died, too. And they’ll weep when Obama dies, and even the prisoners in the gulags wept when Stalin died. Tear gas will do that to you. North Korea is nothing more than one giant Soviet gulag.

Listen to this media montage.

MEADE: Smart and ruthless.

WILLIAMS: Diplomats who dealt with him describe Kim as shrewd and calculating.

SCARBOROUGH: In a demented sort of way, brilliant.

HAAS: Tactically brilliant.

RADCHENKO: A very cunning person and very smart person.

MITCHELL: Was profoundly important around the world. I actually met him when I traveled there with Madeleine Albright.

RUSH: Wow. That was Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington. “I actually met Kim Jong-il.” Wow, “I actually met him when I traveled there with Madeleine Albright.” Meanwhile, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann are stupid. Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann are “dumb” and “stupid,” but Kim Jong-il was “mercurial,” “enigmatic.” That’s how the AP described it. His people are starving. They’re eating dog. They wish they had dog. Yeah, it’s gotten worse, those that are still alive wish they had dog.

Bush was the devil. George W. Bush was stupid, and he was the devil. He was the devil incarnate and Kim Jong-il, now Kim Jong-dead, very cunning, very smart person, profoundly important around the world. “I actually met him when I traveled there with Madeleine Albright.” Speaking of Madeleine Albright, here she is, a montage of her on Kim Jong-il, now Kim Jong-dead, between 2003-2006.

ALBRIGHT: He said that he would really have loved to have been a movie director. He knew a lot about American movies and had suggestions for Oscar nominations and, you know, he also liked American sports, he liked Michael Jordan. It was possible to talk with him. He’s not a nut. I think that’s the main kind of point. I think that it’s important actually not to make fun. He wanted me to e-mail with him. I think the thing that’s interesting, Larry, is I do not believe that he’s crazy. I know a lot of people have said that. I don’t think so.

RUSH: It’s a montage of former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright talking about Kim Jong-il, now Kim Jong-dead. He was a murdering tyrant. His people are among the poorest in the world and he’s spoken of here in reverent terms. The best thing he had going for him, as far as these people are concerned, was he’s not a Republican, he wasn’t a conservative. Hitler and Stalin both loved American movies, too. This guy loved Michael Jordan. Wow, there’s really a lot to recommend him. Bachmann and Perry are stupid. Kim Jong-il, not a nut, it would be a mistake to say that he’s a nut.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The new Kim Jong in Korea, Kim Jong-un. Kim Jong-il is gonna be succeeded by his 20-something-year-old son, actually pronounced like youngin’, Kim Jong-un. (interruption) Un-what? Of course, the only question now is whether or not Obama will try to take credit for Kim Jong-il’s death to try to drive up his poll numbers. Folks, I wouldn’t put it past him. He killed Bin Laden and, before it’s all said and done, it might well be that something like a poisoned cognac, we know that Kim Jong-il liked cognac and cigars, maybe the CIA planted the poison on one of the Cuban cigars Kim Jong-il puffed on and that was all she wrote.

It is said here that the people of North Korea are really taking the news hard, the death of Kim Jong-il, who is now Kim Jong-dead. The people of North Korea are said to have gone on a hunger strike except nobody can tell the difference. They started their hunger strike several years ago, just to show their grief in advance. That’s how loyal they were to Kim Jong-il. They’ve been starving for years in advance of his death, so it could be said that they went on a hunger strike in sadness. Some reporters are saying that with North Korea State-Controlled Media, Kim Jong-il probably never heard a single word of criticism in his entire life. They got the State-Controlled Media. Another thing he has in common with Obama, at least in the media.

Speaking of Obama, as we are here, it’s a shame Kim Jong-il died before Obama ever got a chance to bow down to him or to even apologize to him. It’s the one guy that Obama didn’t get to apologize to or bow down to. How did our State Department ever let that happen? We had to know that Kim Jong-il was soon to be Kim Jong-dead. How did our State Department not finagle a way for Obama to go over there and bow to Kim Jong-il, or at least apologize? Obama did promise — I’m not making this up — Obama did promise that he would meet with Kim Jong-il during one of the 2008 debates. Maybe Kim died holding his breath waiting for that to happen. Hope not.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I have this piece here from the BBC on the death of Kim Jong-dead, and I just want to read this to you. “Millions of North Koreans were ‘engulfed in indescribable sadness,’ the KCNA state news agency said, as people wept openly in Pyongyang.” It’s what every dictator dreams of, by the way. Every dictator dreams of this kind of coverage. The news agency “described one of his sons, Kim Jong-un, as the ‘great successor’ whom North Koreans should unite behind. Pyongyang’s neighbors are on alert amid fears of instability in the poor and isolated nuclear-armed nation.

“Fears were compounded by unconfirmed reports from South Korean news agency Yonhap that the North had test-fired a missile off its eastern coast before the announcement of Kim Jong-il’s death was made. Unnamed government officials in Seoul were quoted as saying they did not believe the launch was linked to the announcement. The South Korean defense ministry has declined to comment. Following news of Mr. Kim’s death, South Korea put its armed forces on high alert. … Mr. Kim’s death was announced in an emotional statement on national television. The announcer, wearing black, struggled to keep back the tears as she said he had died of physical and mental overwork.” He thought too much, and he worked too much.

The state news agency “later reported that he had died of a ‘severe myocardial infarction along with a heart attack.'” The problem with that is that a severe myocardial infarction is a heart attack. So he had two heart attacks, because he was thinking too much, he was he thinking too hard, he was working too hard. Severe myocardial infarction along with a heart attack 8:30 local time Saturday. “He had been on a train at the time, for one of his ‘field guidance’ tours. The state news agency said a funeral would be held in Pyongyang on 28 December and Kim Jong-un would head the funeral committee. A period of national mourning has been declared from 17 to 29 December. Images from inside the secretive state showed people in the streets of Pyongyang weeping at the news of his death.”

Every dictator dreams of this. Every dictator dreams of this kind of stuff, people in the streets weeping, banging on tables at the news of the death of the Dear Leader. I remember how all the US News anchors wore black to report Bush’s defeat of John Kerry in 2004. Remember that? They all wore black on TV that night to report Bush’s defeat of Kerry. You know what, they’re gonna tell us Kim Jong-il was so bighearted he needed two heart attacks to kill him. He had a myocardial infarction and a heart attack. That’s how tough he was. His hearts were so numerous and so big it took two heart attacks to get rid of Kim Jong-il. There was very little income disparity in North Korea. The gap between starving and dead is next to nothing, and that was the extent of the gap in North Korea. So all hail central planning, everybody’s equal. You knew it was bad when Fox News brings out the grim reaper. It’s audio sound bite number five. Fox News brings out the grim reaper to announce the upsetting news.

RIVERA: This is a Fox News alert. Kim Jong-il, the North Korean dictator, is dead. We’re fortunate that my colleague Greg Palkot was in North Korea and was how far away from the dictator?

PALKOT: I’d say about 50 yards last year.

RUSH: Fifty yards away from the dictator last year. Fifty yards away, and that was the news on the Fox News Channel. Meanwhile, George Bush, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachmann are stupid idiots. They can’t speak. Kim Jong-il, mercurial, enigmatic, don’t make fun of him, he wasn’t a nut. North Korea mourns dead leader, son hailed as a great successor. This Kim Jong-un young’un seems like a particularly apt name for the successor. He’s in his late twenties. This article is a Reuters story. They’re heartbroken in this story at Reuters. They point out how many in the North Korean media and people in the street have been weeping at the sad news, banging on tables, terribly unhappy, upset, miserable.

This is the AP. North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, 69, has died. “North Korea’s mercurial and enigmatic longtime leader has died of heart failure.” The communist country’s Dear Leader, reputed to have had a taste for cigars, cognac, and gourmet cuisine was believed to have had diabetes and heart disease. There’s no mention of mass murder by a tyrant. Nothing about mass starving of his own people. Nothing about denying those under his thumb the most basic necessities of life in the twentieth century. Nothing about concentration camps. Nothing about forced abortions. Nothing about racism or that the madman who just assumed room temperature on his way to hell created nukes to sell to other men equally mad. None of this.

In fact, George Bush was so stupid that he called North Korea part of the axis of evil. Remember that? “Mr. Limbaugh, why are you making such a big deal over this?” I’m not making a big deal of the death. I’m making a big deal out of the way it’s being covered. It’s instructive. Yeah, I mean it’s ridiculously funny, but it’s also instructive. This guy is being treated with an amount of respect there is in no way any he deserves. And yet, all these Republican candidates for president stupid, dumb, idiotic, dangerous. It’s important. There’s a classic lack of proportion missing here, sense of proportion missing.