RUSH: The cruise ship passengers are back. They finally made it back, and they’re all pooped. It’s exactly how I feel at the end of a busy broadcast week, ladies and gentlemen. He-he. Did you hear, these poor people, their towline broke late yesterday afternoon. They were towing that giant Carnival cruise ship and the towline broke so they got the towline fixed. They finally tow the thing back into port, they put these people on buses to take ’em back to New Orleans, and one of the buses broke down. One of the buses broke down on the way over to New Orleans.

I swear, can you imagine how much worse it would have been if we’d had the sequester happen? In fact, I am surprised, ladies and gentlemen, that the Drive-Bys are not reporting how much worse things would have been for those cruise ship passengers if the sequester cuts had kicked in, can you imagine? I mean, it would have been really bad then. Martin Savidge is a reporter for CNN. I wish they would have put Nic Robertson on this story. Nic Robertson is my all-time favorite CNN reporter.

(interruption)

I’m gonna get to that. I can’t do it all here in the first ten minutes, gee whiz.

“Rush, did you know that they talked about your theory on Fox?”

Yeah, yeah, Fox. I got the sound bites coming up, but first I have to tell you about this cruise ship. I wish they’d put Nic Robertson on this. Nic Robertson is the guy during the first Arab Spring at Tahrir Square, which is actually a circle in Cairo. They sent him over there basically to ask the protestors, the rock throwers, the freedom fighters, the revolutionaries, if they were happy that what President Obama wanted was finally happening, and if they had any message for Obama.

(imitating Robertson) “Is there any message for President Obama, who’s very much supportive of what you’re doing. In fact, he thinks that he made it happen and is very much concerned with jobs for the youth and the young people.” They all said, “Obama had nothing to do with any of this. I haven’t seen him here. He’s changing his mind.” They didn’t send Nic Robertson to greet the passengers of the cruise ship. They sent Martin Savidge, who’s a CNN lifer. Martin’s been there a long time. And, you know what?

He looks just like the Ken doll he did 25 years ago. It’s really amazing, he still has that youthful TV anchor 14-inch part in his hair, same hair color, it’s envious. Anyway, they sent Martin Savidge out there and he finds one of the first passengers, who admittedly was pooped, getting off the ship. Rob Kenny is the passenger’s name. And Savidge couldn’t wait, just couldn’t wait to talk to one of these guys, and this is how it went.

SAVIDGE: The isolation factor you described, this is the same sort of thing many people went through in Katrina, New Orleans, those that were left behind. They never heard anything, either. And it’s — your mind begins to race. You wonder if anybody knows of the circumstance you’re in, you think you’re all alone, and of course any rumor becomes solid fact, and it spreads in a very closed environment. So I imagine it’s something very similar.

KENNY: Yeah, but you know, let’s put that in perspective. I mean, Katrina was a major devastation.

SAVIDGE: Sure.

KENNY: We’re on a friggin’ cruise ship, and we’re just out having a good time. So, you know, from that angle — and I get it, because it is an isolation of communication, but two different things, you know, two different things.

RUSH: So Martin Savidge says it’s just like Katrina. Now, why would they want to associate this with Katrina? Why? I’ll tell you why. Because they want to associate this evil profit-making cruise line to George W. Bush, and you’ll hear why when we get to the sound bites, not about the cruise ship, but about my theory explaining Obama. You’re gonna hear some stuff that, well, I’m not gonna prejudge what you’re gonna think of it, but mark my words, CNN had to try to equate this cruise ship experience with Hurricane Katrina because in their minds, Hurricane Katrina was the Republicans’ fault. It was Bush’s fault.

See, they have to politicize everything. Thankfully, this passenger, “Hey, wait a minute, pal, we’re out here on a cruise ship. Yeah, things mighta gone wrong, there mighta been sewage on the walls but, for crying out loud, we’re just out there having a good time.” I mean, this is not like Hurricane Katrina. This is why I wish they had sent Nic Robertson. Nic Robertson would have asked them what they thought of Obama’s efforts to save that ship and to save that cruise and to get it into port, but we’ll never hear that. We will never know because they didn’t send Nic Robertson.

Now, yesterday Snerdley was demanding to know what I would do if I were CEO. And the CEO, I think the company said they’re gonna give everybody on this cruise refunds and then 15% discounts on a future cruise. And I said, “Were it me, I’d give ’em refunds and then I would comp them on a cruise on any ship in my fleet anytime they wanted, say in the next two to three years, and I’d pay for the whole thing.” But that’s just me. I’d go the whole boat, but as I say, that’s just me. Well, of course the State-Controlled Media is trying now to kill the cruise industry. The evil Carnival corporation makes billions. They’re already being talked about as this evil profit center and how the profit is not being properly put back to use in making sure these cruise ships operate safely and so forth. They don’t have to abide by US labor laws. The passengers have no rights. Well, here we have a montage of media people, many of them on CNN talking about the evils of this cruise ship.

ERIN BURNETT: This company is not headquartered in the United States. They don’t have to abide by US labor laws. They don’t have to abide by US minimum wage.

DONNY DEUTSCH: They don’t have to abide by US labor laws. They don’t have to abide by US health rules.

JONATHAN SERRIE: Cruise lines face very little US regulation. Triumph is registered in the Bahamas.

JIM WALKER: Foreign-incorporated companies that are essentially registering their operations overseas to avoid US taxes.

CLARK HOWARD: The contract you enter into when you sign up for a cruise essentially takes away any rights you have.

NATASHA CURRY: If you’re a cruise ship passenger, do you have any rights?

JENNIFER WESTHOVEN: You basically don’t.

ERIN BURNETT: Americans account for about two thirds of the people who cruise around the world. This is an industry that’s $35-plus billion a year.

RUSH: Yeah, but look at what they do. “They register these ships outside the US. They don’t pay any US taxes. The cruise ship passengers have no rights. They’re basically slaves — and if there’s sewage on the walls? Big whoop. We’ll tow you in when we get a chance — and after we get you, the bus that we transport you in will break down, and then for all your trouble we’ll give you a refund and a 15% discount on the next cruise of your choice. What a bunch of rotten SOBs!” That’s the way the news covers it. Then you got the question, “Did you feel like you were in Hurricane Katrina?”

Make no mistake. Make no mistake. The whole point of this was to impugn the entire cruise industry and this particular cruise line as having some linkage to Bush. That’s the Hurricane Katrina business. Now, here. This is in the Mobile, Alabama, at the port where the cruise ship Triumph docked. The CEO, Jerry Cahill, held a press conference. You know, all day long the passengers were complimenting the crew for the great job they did, but once the ship docked the CEO had a press conference to apologize.

CAHILL: We pride ourselves in providing our guests with a great vacation experience, and clearly we failed in this particular case. Now, the most important thing for me at this point in time is to go on board and to apologize to our guests.

RUSH: Oh, no. This did not work. I heard that, and I said, “This isn’t gonna go well.” This sounds good. Maybe it’s what the book would say to do, but this isn’t gonna go well. Well, let’s just go to the audio sound bites. Good Morning America today found a passenger. Veronica Arriaga said this about the apology that the passengers got from the CEO…

ARRIAGA: He can say, “Oh, yeah, we know how you feel.” No, you don’t. You were not there. You did not go many nights wondering what are you gonna eat when you wake up in the morning. What are you supposed to do? You can’t contact your family. You can’t do anything.

RUSH: It doesn’t sound like the apology penetrated much. Here is another passenger, Tammy Hilly being interviewed by George “Stephy” Stephanopoulos who said to the passenger, Tammy Hilly, “We’ve heard Carnival’s apology. They’re gonna give everybody a refund, $500. Is that enough for you, or do you want more?”

HILLY: I want to really guard my heart from feeling greedy or exploiting the situation, but I feel like $500 gives you about a hundred dollars a day — and for our jobs, that doesn’t even cover that, and then you talk about the emotional trauma, and just last night feeling what we went through last night while we’re on land with our families and our insides just trembling. I don’t think it begins to even say what is needed here.

RUSH: Of course not. Of course. It’s not even close to what is needed. In fact, let me get a news story. Wait ’til these people hear about this. Wait a second, now. Wait until the passengers hear about this. The Department of Agriculture secretary, Tom Vilsack, is featured in a radio ad urging Hispanic and women farmers and ranchers who think the USDA discriminated against them to file claims for a piece of $1.3 billion in cash awards and tax relief payments and up to $160 million in farm debt relief set aside as Obama’s part of a “new era of civil rights.”

So somewhere it’s been determined that the agriculture department discriminated against Hispanic and women farmers and Hispanic and women ranchers. All they have to do is think that they were discriminated against, and they can apply for their share of $1.3 billion in reparations. Can we just be honest about what this is? This $1.3 billion pool of money that these people are gonna make claims on, and then another $160 million in farm debt relief that Obama set aside from his stash as part of a “new era of civil rights.”

So wait. Here you have the cruise ship passengers getting 500 bucks, and these discriminated-against Hispanic and women farmers and ranchers get to divvy up $1.3 billion? What are they gonna think is the place to go for prosperity? But this cruise ship business… Let’s continue with the audio sound bites. Let’s go to Obama reading from his own book, the audio book version of The Audacity of Hope. Here he is talking about a sermon by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his Trinity United Church pastor, and the impact it had on him…

OBAMA 2007: “The painting depicts a harpist,” Reverend Wright explained, “a woman who, at first glance, appears to be sitting atop a great mountain. Until you take a closer look and see that the woman is bruised and bloodied, dressed in tattered rags, the harp reduced to a single frayed string. Your eye is then drawn down to the scene below, down to the valley below, where everywhere are the ravages of famine, the drumbeat of war, a world groaning under strife and deprivation. It is this world, a world where cruise ships throw away more food in a day than most residents of Port-au-Prince see in a year, where white folks’ greed runs a world in need, apartheid in one hemisphere, apathy in another hemisphere … That’s the world on which hope sits.” And so it went, a meditation on a fallen world.

RUSH: That’s Obama reading from his own book, and that was the sermon from Reverend Wright that inspired Obama to become a member at the Trinity United Church. “[A] world where cruise ships throw away more food in a day than most residents of Port-au-Prince see in a year, where white folks’ greed runs a world in need,” and here’s the Carnival cruise line and this devastating cruise and vacation. So this all can be tied together. Here is Reverend Wright from his greatest hits…

WRIGHT (screaming): Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people! [snip] Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger! [snip] Bill did us just like he did Monica Lewinsky!

CONGREGATION: (cheers)

WRIGHT: He was riding dirty. [snip] In white America, US of KKKA: black men turning on black men. [snip] I am sick of Negroes who just do not get it. [snip] Not God bless America, God (bleep) America! It’s in the Bible. For killing innocent people, God (bleep) America! [snip] (screaming) And now we are indignant because of stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards!

CONGREGATION: (cheers)

WRIGHT: America’s chickensssss are coming home to roost.

RUSH: “White folks’ greed runs a world in need.” Cruise ships throw away more food, and now they throw away more sewage, than most residents of Port-au-Prince see in a year.