Rush was wrong on this one. The question that should have been asked was, “How could the American people elect someone like Barrack Obama to the highest office in the land?” Elections have consequences. People deserve the government they get. It’s been said so many times, in so many ways; always by smug, modern Americans talking about other countries. What possessed ordinary Americans to throw it all in the trash can for a system of governance that’s only brought pain and suffering every place it’s been tried?

Now the whole world is laughing themselves silly at us. Try Gerald Warner of Telegraph.co.uk writing in response to Kim Jong-il’s missile launches last week: “School's out! Suddenly it is playtime for all the naughtier elements in the more "reclusive" parts of the world who enjoy kicking Uncle Sam's butt but didn't much relish tangling with Dick Cheney and (what was that other guy's name?). This time Comrade Kim is really throwing his toys out of the playpen. He has even unilaterally revoked the 1953 armistice between the Korean War belligerents, which means, in case anybody is interested, that North and South Korea are once more at war.”

Warner, in his blog entitled, “Barack Obama: all the bad guys are giving President Pantywaist the finger” concludes by saying, “President Pantywaist's enemies are taking his measure and they are liking what they see. Perhaps, in some Machiavellian way, Obama thinks the appointment to the Supreme Court of a Latina woman of apparent bias, who seems unlikely to find favor with white male Americans, will either appease or frighten his foes. Come back, Dick Cheney, all is forgiven.”

Try Pravda: In a piece entitled, “American capitalism gone with a whimper” Stanislav Mishin launches with, “It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.”

He then continues lethally on point, beginning with the failure of (in his words) the “dumbed down (populace) through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics”.

He continues, “Then (the peoples’) faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses…”

He closes thus, “The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Weimar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.”

It’s an interesting read. I'm no fan of the Russians, but they certainly seem to have our number. I wish some of our own news media would begin taking the blinders off for a closer look at where we’re headed as a nation.

Mr. Mishin leaves no stone unturned. He singles out Senator Barney Frank, (again, in his words) "a social pervert basking in his and his Marxist enlightenment” as having led in the effort to first destroy, then nationalize the banking system.

It’s beginning to look like Limbaugh might soon have some competition from oversees.

I just came across this quarter-century-old but still pertinent quote from John Lukacs--whose autobiography, Confiessions of an Original Sinner, I recommend highly--in John Larison's Eunomia, where the antics of such as Limbaugh and Levin are being discussed:

"Even though intellectuals of the American conservative movement were often more generous and less narrow-minded than were liberal intellectuals, they seldom hesitated to ally themselves with, and to seek the support of, some of the most uncouth and slovenly minded people and politicians. That was just the trouble. As Jonathan Swift said, certain people 'have just enough religion to hate but not enough to love.' Many American conservatives, alas, gave ample evidence that they were just conservative enough to hate liberals but not enough to love liberty."

Provided the internet remains free and uncensored, future generations might well hit upon The John Batchelor Show blog to find out what happened to America. Here, they will marvel at seemingly articulate and, for the most part, well-read and educated individuals discussing the placement of tiffin ware on the kitchen table while the nation as a whole is careening into the abyss.

Kenneth, it's not about loving liberty or hating liberals - or even loving enough (anything). It's not about liberals and conservatives. It’s about saving ourselves from the practical consequences of this administration's mindlessly aggressive and irresponsible behavior. Both, liberals and conservatives will suffer equally in the fallout.

Had it only come as another attack like the ones on Pearl Harbor or on the World Trade Center, all of us would have instantly known what's at stake. As it came by stealth, wrapped in false promises with a pretty bow and irresistible skin, most of us still are clueless. We’re not stupid, but remain willfully delusional.

We’re the investor who has dutifully sacrificed a part of his or her income to some company-sponsored or private investment plan every blessed pay period in the hope of being able to retire in relative comfort. Our government itself encouraged us to do this, providing tax incentives for us to maintain our discipline. Now, we find our nest egg has all but disappeared. 'Dollar cost averaging' was to be a fail safe strategy with which we would achieve our retirement goals. It all sounded reasonable enough – even logical – as long as the U.S. remains the U.S. We’re not some third world nation, after all; where some Svengali thug can suddenly come along and nationalize banks and industries; nullify and re-write contracts at will; stuff the courts with reparations radicals (what have I forgotten?)

But this is precisely what happened. I remember seeing a great flick called ‘Runaway Train’. We’re on that train. While we were tucked into our gently swaying bunks, the train lost its brakes. Now we’re all hungry and expecting our breakfast. Except, the train is out of control and traveling too fast. It’s all we can do just to keep the orange juice from spilling. I remember, in the movie, all those on board tried hard to save themselves. We, on the other hand, seem quite content to “…Go Gentle into That Good Night."

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Speaking of Obama/Sotomayor/Rush/Powell/Ridge, THIS* is dedicated to JB:

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* http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/may_posterity_forget_you_were.html

.... why do we listen to... fence-sitting bureaucrats like Tom Ridge? Why do we give the advice of "big tent" moderates any credence?

... Colin Powell's treachery was very Obama-esque, with high-minded rhetoric and no tangible explanation for the citizens that at one time respected him. Always a political general, he is adept at seeing where the political wind blows, and his loyalties seem to be correspondingly shallow. The Valerie Plame fiasco is proof of that. Powell and his subordinate Richard Armitage let a good man hang out to dry, knowing full well it was Armitage who was responsible. Whether they remained silent from cowardice or had a more malign purpose, the result was the same. Powell is like Obama, in that he sounds somber and wise, but when his words are examined without the timbre of his voice and his "style," they fall flat, all rhetorical flourish without substance.

... When Colin Powell came out in support of Barack Obama, he effectively renounced Republicanism. Powell spat in the face of all conservative Americans and all his dissembling on Sunday gab fests does not change that fact. Obama is unmistakably and unabashedly socialist in his policies; he is the embodiment of the radical left and his policies are a disaster for our nation. Powell knows there will be no forgiveness. So when he criticizes "right wing" conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh, he is merely appeasing his new masters and weakening the party he has already betrayed.

It's not just Limbaugh. When any conservative figure is perceived as pivotal to the success of the Republican Party, the Socialists go gunning for them, they use every stratagem and deceit they can, they concoct and exaggerate, they ridicule and they lie. Sarah Palin, Ted Stevens, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, Tom Delay, Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh are all examples. The smears, slander and character assassination are a tactic they are not shy about using. The press is their ally, repeating every absurd and fallacious talking point, stacking panels with Socialist apologists and shouting down conservative perspectives. Inevitably, they find a Republican quisling, like Powell, to parrot their words, to reinforce them in the minds of the voter, giving them validity, and undermining the values they pretend they support.

It is fashionable in elite Republican circles to turn up your nose when Limbaugh is mentioned, he is so embarrassingly proletarian, so annoyingly common, and he has no Ivy League pedigree. He is "divisive," he is "offensive," he is "polarizing;" in short; he is a hell of a lot more effective than the gang in charge that let the opposition define the issues and the debate. Their arrogance fits nicely into the Socialist plan, they just pepper in accusations of racism, drug addiction, and misogyny and presto, you have a national smear campaign. Love him or hate him, Limbaugh is doing something. He is clear and consistent, and despite the criticisms of those who have never listened to him, he articulates what many millions believe and current events reinforce. He is the thin strand of principle holding us together in a leadership vacuum.

All the ever-so-reasonable sounding reprimands, admonishing us to be less "partisan" and to "reach out rather than criticize" and to "tone down the rhetoric" have an underlying purpose, to weaken a party already crippled by a deficit of self-confidence. It is an old [Saul] Alinsky trick to place conservative perspectives in a negative moral context and hammer away; eventually, the opposition will grow disillusioned, its animating energy diminished. It works. Our tremulous elites are endlessly distracted by focus groups and straw polls, talk show pundits and the ravings of corrupt legislators that couldn't tell the truth to save their souls. These country club conservatives are convinced that standing on conservative principles will be a failure.

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>stuff the courts with reparations radicals (what have I forgotten?)

A great many things, I fear, among them that it was this man who first picked reparationist and supporter of affirmative action Sonia Sotomayor for the federal bench, in between launches of cruise missiles at the birthplace of human civilization.

>To dilute our argument by blaming past presidents (who may be out walking the dog) is counterproductive.

Spoken like a true eristic.