A perceptive question that no one else has thought to ask, at least not to my knowledge. Rush Limbaugh followed that by explaining why such a high-visibility fundraiser for tens of thousands of "unaccompanied alien children" converging on the border won't be held.
Given the scale of the crisis, you'd think that the civic-minded denizens of Hollywood would be in high gear to do something, anything, their usual response to any intractable problem involving children. Oddly enough, there is no such event in the works, even though it is tailor-made to provide an opportunity for earnest celebs to ooze empathy from every pore. (Audio clips after the jump)
Where is the Hollywood telethon for the suffering children crossing the border? We do 'We are the World' for the starving in Ethiopia and Biafra ... Where is the telethon? Where is the massive, leftist outpouring of compassion and fundraising for these hungry, thirsty, ill, sick, victimized through no fault of their own children? It's just like, you said to me yesterday, Rush, you may as well give it up. You're not going to win this. I said, win what?! You're not going to convince people to send the kids back. I said, who, who, why does somebody think that's what I'm doing? Rush, there's nobody under 25 in this country who sees a bunch of poor, sick kids crossing the border who thinks they ought to be sent back. You're never going to -- but I don't think that. I'm, my concern for these kids goes far deeper than, I mean, you could send -- (Senator) Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said, you know, first-class airfare, send 'em back home for much less than the $3.8 billion Obama wants.
But the point was that, Rush, they've already won the issue! Nobody sees this as a problem. It's just some kids that showed up, it's OK, it may be 300,000 or 50,000, it's no different than a poor kid showing up at your back door. You do not send him away. And I think it's part of the trick that's being played.
And here's why such a fundraiser won't be seen anytime soon on a television, computer screen or handheld near you --
But anyway, where is the telethon? Why not, why won't there be a telethon? Why, this is made to order for some rock group like Bono, U2, Sting, Bon Jovi, take your pick. Angelina Jolie -- well, does she sing? Actually, it doesn't matter if she sings, right? She can do whatever she wants and we'll watch, is that ...? ... But where is the telethon? Where is ...? (pause) ... Oh ... see, that's the answer -- you can't tell the story. If you're going to do a telethon, you have to explain why you're doing it, you have to tell the story. When it's 'We are the World' and you're doing a national, worldwide fundraising effort for starving in Biafra, you can blame it on America, you can blame it on some dictator, you can blame it on global warming, you can explain, but you can't tell the story here. You start doing a telethon, you start raising money, you start asking people to donate, and you gotta tell 'em why. And you gotta present the personal history stories of these kids. You've got to go back to their native countries and find out what's so bad there, why they're coming here, how they got here. And that's something nobody wants to shine any light on.
Just the opposite -- the Obama administration has imposed dubious restrictions on media and members of Congress attempting to access facilities where illegals are being held -- and hides between "privacy" concerns to justify this. Limbaugh played a clip of GOP congressman Jim Bridenstine on Fox News describing the byzantine rules imposed by Health and Human Services officials for lawmakers and reporters (audio) --
BRIDENSTINE: The rules are very stringent. Number one, you can't ask questions. Number two, there can be no recording devices. Number three, you can't talk to any of the staff. You can't talk to the children. You can't talk to the medical personnel. And if you have questions you can send an email, you can't take any pictures, but after the tour they will send pictures to you. But there can be no pictures during the tour. This is not what we expect in the United States of America and certainly the media here needs to stand up for itself.
LIMBAUGH: See, normally when it's for the children, they want you to know everything in the world they are doing so that they can benefit from the display of compassion, but in this they're hiding. They're trying to keep everything that is happening with these children from public knowledge. The media's not allowed to talk to 'em, members of Congress are not allowed to talk to 'em, no pictures, no nothing. So it's obviously something very clandestine going on here.
Imagine the outrage from liberals had Bush similarly reined in media after Katrina, Limbaugh suggested. Lots of children affected then too, as I recall.
