Limbaugh Update

From RushLimbaugh.com:

Rush was admitted to a Honolulu hospital today and is resting comfortably after suffering chest pains. Rush appreciates your prayers and well wishes. He will keep you updated via RushLimbaugh.com and on Thursday's radio program.

Mr. Limbaugh probably had a heart attack and now faces a period of recovery and rehabilitation.

Which means that he is going to have to do a bunch of that exercise that he hates so much.

Oh well, into each life a little rain must fall.

Get well soon Rush, we wouldn't want to give the Obots the pleasure of reading about your funeral.

Rush Limbaugh taken to hospital

HONOLULU (AP) - A Honolulu television station is reporting that conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been taken to a hospital with chest pains.

KITV reported Wednesday that paramedics responded to a call at 2:41 p.m. from the Kahala Hotel and Resort where Limbaugh is vacationing.

The station, citing unnamed sources, said paramedics treated Limbaugh and took him to The Queen's Medical Center in serious condition.

Queen's spokeswoman N. Makana Shook says the hospital is unable to comment on the report.

Television station KHON quoted unidentified sources saying Limbaugh was taken from the hotel in an ambulance.

Limbaugh was seen golfing at Waialae Country Club earlier this week. The country club is next to the Kahala Hotel and Resort.

As of 10:56 PM on Wed. this is all anyone knows.

To any readers who believe in the power of prayer I ask you to say one for Mr. Limbaugh's quick recovery.

An open letter to Rush Limbaugh

Pretend for a moment that you have no emotional attachment to the game of football. Look at a professional football team as just another business that might want to locate a factory in your city.

Do you think that it is fair that a billionaire team owner and his millionaire players should receive government funds (tax money taken not only from "the rich" but from middle and working class citizens) to build the facilities in which to conduct their business?

If it is morally wrong for the government to take the money of one private citizen and give it to another private citizen for that citizen to pay his or his families health care costs (and make no mistake it is morally wrong for the government to do that) then in what universe does it become right to take taxpayer's money and use it to build or upgrade a sports stadium in order to attract or keep a major league franchise?

After all the success you have had as a champion of conservative ideas do you really what to throw away every last trace of your moral authority by becoming a corporate welfare queen?

Because as a team owner that is exactly what you would be, just another bloated parasite sucking on the government tit.

If you became a team owner you could never again condemn misappropriation of taxpayer funds without labeling yourself as a rank hypocrite.

The NFL can't even claim that professional football couldn't survive without government subsidies because we have witnessed in recent years the explosive growth of NASCAR whose facilities are all financed entirely with private money.

The argument made by governments looking to justify taking taxpayer money and and using it as corporate welfare to lure a sports franchise to their city is that a team is a big boost to the local economy.

A number of economic impact studies which were not paid for by governments looking to justify spending public money on a sports team have shown that the true effect on a cities economy from a sports franchise is at best minimal and at worst slightly harmful.

Until the NFL and the NBA and Major League Baseball all reform their business practices so that they are no longer detestable parasites using government force to partially finance their operations no conservative ought to have anything whatsoever to do with them.

A dream denied

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh has been dropped from a group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams. Limbaugh was to be a limited partner in a bid led by St. Louis Blues chairman Dave Checketts, but Checketts said in a statement Wednesday that Limbaugh's participation had complicated the effort. The group will move forward without him.

Checketts said he will have no further comment on the bid process. Limbaugh did not immediately respond to an e-mail sent late Wednesday seeking comment on Checketts' decision.

Limbaugh said on his radio show earlier Wednesday that he had been inundated with e-mails from listeners who supported him in the bid.

"This is not about the NFL, it's not about the St. Louis Rams, it's not about me," Limbaugh said. "This is about the ongoing effort by the left in this country, wherever you find them, in the media, the Democrat Party, or wherever, to destroy conservatism, to prevent the mainstreaming of anyone who is prominent as a conservative.

"Therefore, this is about the future of the United States of America and what kind of country we're going to have."

Limbaugh's bid ran into opposition from within the image-conscious NFL on Tuesday when Colts owner Jim Irsay said he would vote against the radio personality. Commissioner Roger Goodell said the commentator's "divisive" comments would not be tolerated from any NFL insider.

The league tries to avoid getting snared in controversial issues outside sports, which has caused Limbaugh trouble in the past. In 2003, he was forced to resign from ESPN's Sunday night football broadcast after saying of Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb: "I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well."

The Rams had no comment, reissuing a statement from Oct. 5 in which owner Chip Rosenbloom said a review of the team's ownership was under way and the club will make an announcement when it's over.

Checketts, the chairman of SCP Worldwide, announced that Limbaugh had been dumped toward the end of a news release.

"It has become clear that his involvement in our group has become a complication and a distraction to our intentions; endangering our bid to keep the team in St. Louis," Checketts said. "As such, we have decided to move forward without him and hope it will eventually lead us to a successful conclusion."

The move was hailed by the Rev. Al Sharpton, one of the most vocal critics of Limbaugh's bid.

"It is a moral victory for all Americans—especially the players that have been unfairly castigated by Rush Limbaugh," Sharpton said in a statement. "This decision will also uphold the unifying standards of major sports."

Sharpton added in a telephone interview that major sports leagues shouldn't welcome owners who are "divisive and incendiary."

Every major pro sports franchise has dealings with its community, he said. "It's unfair for taxpayers to be underwriting people who denigrate them," he said.

Checketts said Limbaugh would have not had any say in the direction of the franchise "or in any decisions regarding personnel or operations."

Before getting dropped, Limbaugh said he had no intention of backing out.

"I'm not even thinking of caving," he said. "I am not a caver. Pioneers take the arrows. We are pioneers. It's a sad thing that our country, over 200 years old now, needs pioneers all over again, but we do."

First of all, Al Sharpton. For my thoughts on that miserable ball of slime go here.

That a lying, hate-filled sack of feces like Sharpton - a man who is covered in innocent blood - is taken seriously enough to be consulted on absolutely any issue whatsoever is something that we should all be deeply ashamed of.

Now on to Rush Limbaugh and the NFL.

I am sorry that Rush is going to be denied his life-long dream of being an owner (if only of a very small share) of a professional football team. It is outrageous that members of the US legislature would rise on the floor of the house to denounce a private citizen and attempt to interfere with his lawful business activities.

It is even more outrageous that members of the mainstream media would attack any person with fabricated quotes in order to create the false impression that he is a racist. That there was absolutely no effort made to fact check any of the supposed Limbaugh quotes demonstrates that there was no desire to find the truth because it might get in the way of their hatchet job.

This tells us all we need to know about why "old media' is dying.

However I can't feel all that sorry for Rush. After all he is still fabulously wealthy. His radio program is still number 1 in the entire nation and he still has millions of devoted fans.

If not being able to own a tiny percentage of a football team is the worst price he has to pay he is a lucky man indeed.

After listening to him on the radio today talking about how much he loved the NFL and how he put the league and the players "on a pedestal" I have to wonder if he has since had an epiphany.

I mean he obviously learned nothing from the ESPN incident so is he awake now?

Does he now truly understand that the league that he has wasted so many hours of his life worshiping wants no part of him?

Like it or not the NFL is effectively run by left-liberals and a man like Rush Limbaugh shouldn't be willing to piss in its face if its nose was on fire.

I would say that I'll never watch football again, but I don't watch football now. My take on the NFL is that if they want me to watch they need to give the players swords.

Now that would be a show!

Operation Chaos

The Poison Preacher Scandal (or Pastorgate if you prefer) has so badly damaged B. Hussein Obama's standing with the voters, both in and out of the Democrat party, that he now stands virtually no chance of winning the general election against John McCain. Of course the election is months away and anything can happen. All it will take is for McCain to be caught on camera losing his temper and punching and kicking a cub scout while screaming the "F" word at the top of his lungs (something which could happen given McCain's insanity) to turn things around for the Democrats.

But as things stand now Obama is the Democrat party's weakest candidate.

So we must ask ourselves why Rush Limbaugh, who avows that he wants the Democrats to lose in November, is pushing his "Operation Chaos" whose stated goal is to get Hillary Clinton the nomination. Why, in other words, is Rush attempting to get the Democrat party's strongest candidate the nomination?

The better Hillary does in each of the upcoming primaries the greater her appeal to the Superdelegates will be. As Obama continues to sink in the polls even those Democrats who voted for him are starting to hope that the Superdelegates will step up and correct their mistake.

Every Republican vote Limbaugh generates for Hillary puts her one step closer to the White House. If she wins the general election I submit that we should call the withdrawal from Iraq (if that really happens, which I doubt) the Limbaugh Retreat. The lapsing of the Bush tax cuts should be called the Limbaugh Tax Increase. The socialized health care plan which Hillary will attempt to enact should be called LimbaughCare.

And so on down the line.

I do know that around 22% of the people who are currently supporting Obama say that they will not vote for Hillary, but how many of those people will actually carry through with that threat? I don't think too many of them will. As they see Obama's numbers shrink and see him consistently lose to McCain in the head to head polls I think most of them will be glad to slime her way into the nomination.

Just think about how many conservatives are willing to sacrifice their honor and integrity by supporting McCain just because they want to win. Do we really think that Democrats will have greater strength of character than Republicans?

Rush shows character under fire

From The Washington Post:

It may be the best sideshow in presidential politics: the nation's top radio talker trying to take down the Republican front-runner in today's Super Tuesday showdown.

Rush Limbaugh has been relentless in his criticism of John McCain, prompting suggestions that he may have to soften his stance if the Arizona senator wins the nomination and faces off against Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. But if that happens, Limbaugh said in an interview over the weekend, he would rather see the Democrats win the White House.

"If I believe the country will suffer with either Hillary, Obama or McCain, I would just as soon the Democrats take the hit . . . rather than a Republican causing the debacle," he said. "And I would prefer not to have conservative Republicans in the Congress paralyzed by having to support, out of party loyalty, a Republican president who is not conservative."

When it comes to the McCain mutiny, Limbaugh has plenty of company on the right side of the dial. Laura Ingraham endorsed Mitt Romney last week, saying, "There is no way in hell I could pull the lever for John McCain." Sean Hannity, who also endorsed the former Massachusetts governor, regularly rips McCain. Hugh Hewitt is urging the audience for his syndicated radio show to fight for Romney against what he calls a media-generated "McCain resurrection." But with a program heard on 600 stations, including Washington's WMAL, Limbaugh is the loudest and brashest voice inveighing against the man he derides as "Saint John of Arizona."

Limbaugh dismissed the notion that a McCain victory would be a "personal setback" for him. "My success is not defined by who wins elections," he said. "Elected officials come and go. I am here for as long as I wish to stay. . . .

I have listened to Rush Limbaugh for a long time, from just after the first Gulf War to be exact, and have usually enjoyed his show. But I always used to cringe when he would claim to be a conservative first and a Republican second. I figured that when push came to shove he would always be able to rationalize a way to support any Republican candidate no matter how bad he might be.

Then white supremacist and former Klansman David Duke ran for governor of Louisiana, as a Republican, and Rush used his show to urge Louisiana Republicans to vote for Duke's corrupt Democrat opponant because it was better to have a bad Democrat in office than to damage the Republican party by having Republican voters show support for a creature like Duke.

I gave Rush points for that, but even then I wondered what he would have done if it had been a presidential race.

We now know the answer. When the choice is between a liberal Democrat and a Republican who is so bad that were he to win he would do critical, perhaps fatal, harm to the Republican party Rush will step up and do the right thing by urging the defeat of the unacceptable Republican.

My respect for him has grown by about 10000%.

Elmer Gantry wants to talk to Rush

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — The best-talking Republican politician in America has a message for the best-talking conservative voice in the country: Let's talk to one another.

Mike Huckabee, taking questions from reporters after a town hall meeting here, responded to the torrent of criticism that Rush Limbaugh unleashed during his broadcast yesterday by turning the other cheek — and then heaping on the praise.

"I love Rush Limbaugh; I've always loved his show," Huckabee assured. "I think he’s been great for the conservative movement."

The former Arkansas governor conceded that he hadn't sought Limbaugh out to set the record straight — but that he would like to.

"I don’t have his number," Huckabee explained. "If you have it, Jonathan, why don’t you give it to me. I’d love to talk to him."

"Maybe put it on the Web that if he’ll call me, I’d love to visit with him."

OK Elmer, Rush's number is 800-282-2882. Go ahead and give him a call. They even move liberals to the head of the line so you won't have to wait too long to get on the air.

Summing up Reid's failed smear

J.R. Dunn, writing for American Thinker, puts the whole Rush Limbaugh/Harry Reid smear letter business into perspective:

One point being overlooked in the excitement surrounding Rush Limbaugh's thrashing of the Democrats is what might be termed the Imus factor.

In the weeks since Imus was brought down over his remarks concerning the Rutgers women's basketball team, it has become evident that the incident was something of a test run for a new media-oriented weapon system. The case had its peculiarities. Coarse and uncalled-for as Imus's comment may have been, it was innocuous compared to much that's been heard from shock-jocks over the years, including Imus himself. Then there was the matter of the left calling artillery on one of its own positions. Though by no means a dependable liberal voice, whenever he could be pinned down to something serious, Imus stuck with the left.

But the point is, it worked. The media firestorm forced a stunned and bewildered Imus into premature retirement. (Though that may not have been the final word, as see Bob Kerrey's attempt at rehabilitation over the weekend.)

But with the "phoney soldiers" case, we learned who the real target was. The left thought they'd found an unbeatable rightie-killer, something they could fire from ambush without any fear of a blowback. The attack on Limbaugh followed the Imus script in detail: a blizzard of fake outrage over a single comment taken out of context and misrepresented as to actual meaning. So vile was Limbaugh's remark, we were told, that no defense was possible.

They were trying to pull an Imus on Rush Limbaugh. But, despite the efforts of Harry Reid and his forty solons, it didn't work. Clear Channel didn't fold the way MSNBC and CBS did. Thanks to Limbaugh's steadiness and quick wit, the attempt did blow back. The brilliant auction play not only defanged the attack but turned it against the perpetrators, making Reid and his posse look like forty-one schmoes despite everything the media could do to slant the story. (It accomplished very little for Harry back home either, if recent reports are any indication.)

Harry Reid probably is not going to be sending out such self-righteous, ham-handed letters anytime soon. Nor is the media or anyone else going to pull an Imus on any other new media figures. Limbaugh has not only embarrassed the Dems and restored his own reputation, he's also deprived the left of the Imus weapon, something that might have served them well over the next year or two.

Not a bad week's work.

And that is all that needs to be said about that.

Sorry Tommy

Thomas Lifson writes in Real Clear Politics:

Rush Limbaugh's political jiu-jitsu masterstroke comes to a climax at 1 PM, EDT today, when the ebay auction for the letter sent by 41 Senate Democrats to the CEO of his syndicator Clear Channel ends. With four hours left, the bid has already toppped two million dollars, with the purchase price to be donated to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, benefitting the education of children of deceased Marines and federal law enforcement personnel. Because Rush Limbaugh has offered to match the purchase price, the total donation will possibly exceed four million dollars.

The Mainstream Media have so far virtually blacked out the story, but when the auction is over and a highly impressive sum is paid, will they continue to ignore it? After all, the auction of a grilled cheese sandwich claimed to display the image of the Virgin Mary fetched only $28,000 and received widespread publicity in the US and overseas. Someone paying a million bucks or more for a contemporary letter is pretty big news, even without the charity angle. And this is no food product bearing a resemblance to sacred art, this is a historic document signed by 80% of the majority caucus of what is commonly alleged to be the world's greatest deliberative body.

Rush Limbaugh has outsmarted the Democratic Leadership of the Senate and cornered the media. If the media do not cover the auction results, they will look ridiculous. The letter is easy enough to explain that it will inevitably be discussed at water coolers, sports events, churches, parties, and other get-togethers. But if the media do cover it, they must include some explanation for the high price, and that will make Reid and the Democrats look silly or worse.

No such luck. As you can see from the ABC story I linked to below the MSM's storyline is going to be that Rush Limbaugh did call servicemen who oppose the war "phoney soldiers" and that the auction was his attempt to distract people from that fact.

The only thing that surprises me is that Harry Reid isn't out there claiming that the big donation to the Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Fund was Rush's way of apologizing to the troops for insulting them.

Of course the Left knows that they've been punked. SondraK had this to say on her blog, Knowledge is Power:

The left is in their desperate last throes and from the crescendo of insanity since they “took control” of congress it’s clear that they have lost complete control of themselves.

Think about it.... everyone knows what it’s like to be livid, red with anger and spitting nails. Think about when you’ve felt like that. You couldn’t think straight, your head starts pounding and it takes a lot of effort to handle it like the rational folks we are. The left is in perpetual misery. No human mind can sustain that emotion for very long periods of time.

And they have no boundaries.

I briefly bopped about the usual liberal hotspots to get a vibe of what’s going on in their little world and it hit me.

They’re like mental suicide bombers.

She then posted this screen capture from the comments to her post:

ABC continues the smear

ABC News has a story up on their website about Rush Limbaugh's auction of the Harry Reid smear letter (it brought in $2,100,100.00 for the Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation, an amount which Rush will match).

Go read the story and note that it continues to perpetuate the lie that Rush called soldiers who oppose the war "phony soldiers". As everybody who doesn't suffer from the peculiar form of mental retardation knows as left-liberalism knows by now Rush was talking about those people who either pretended to be in the military, but weren't or who pretended to have been in Iraq, but weren't or who were in Iraq and told lies about things that never happened.

Specific examples of each of these types of phony soldier are not difficult to find.

Update on the Limbaugh Smear Letter

The current bid on the Limbaugh Smear Letter on eBay is $2,100,100.00 with three hours to go.

If you want to get your bid in you need to hurry!

Update on the Limbaugh Smear Letter

The bidding is up to $851,000.00 for the Harry Reid Smear letter on eBay.

What Rush has done here has to be one of the most brilliant things in history. The Left tried to smear him as being anti-military and he has turned it around on them and make them look like the morons they are.

Go Rush!

UPDATE:

Check out what the moonbats are saying about Rush's auction!

Limbaugh letter update

Bidding on eBay for the Rush Limbaugh smear letter has now reached $56,000.00 and is still climbing.

Bid for historic "Limbaugh Letter" now at $45,000.00

From the eBay auction page:

When "Dingy Harry" Reid and the U.S. Senate turned away from the business of the nation to instead smear a private citizen, forty-one of them sent a letter demanding the "repudiation" of their inaccurate interpretation of Rush Limbaugh's comments about Jesse Al-Zaid (a.k.a. Jesse MacBeth) and other "phony soldiers" who falsify their service. This letter was delivered to Mark Mays of Clear Channel Communications, Rush Limbaugh's syndication partner, and widely quoted in the Drive-By Media.

Up for auction is the original letter signed by 41 Democrat senators. This historic document may well represent the first time in the history of America that this large a group of U.S. senators attempted to demonize a private citizen by lying about his views. As such, it is a priceless memento of the folly of Harry Reid and his 40 senatorial co-signers. BID NOW!

The entire proceeds of this auction.. the entire high bid... will be donated to The Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation, a registered charity which provides financial assistance to the children of fallen Marines and federal law enforcement officers. Rush Limbaugh serves on the Board of this organization and has been active on its behalf. All costs of this auction will be paid by the seller... every dollar of your winning bid will go to this charity, which has to date distributed over $29 million.

Rush has also called upon each of the 41 moonbat Senators who signed the letter, who obviously want us to think that they care about the troops, to match the winning bid and donate that amount to The Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation as well.

I wonder how many will.

Stand With Rush

One failure after another, Washington Democrats have built a record of legislative failure; one disappointment after another, Washington Democrats have failed to deliver results to the people who got them there.

This must be why, just nine months into their tenure, the Democrat-led Congress hit an 11% approval rating – that is the lowest in recorded history. Facing their record of failure, Washington Democrats decided to try and distract – and so they took a man’s words out of context, then they went on the attack.

It is at moments like these when we need to band together as conservatives and fight back. That is exactly what the Red State community and so many other conservatives around the country have been doing.

This issue is bigger than you or me, it is bigger than Rush Limbaugh. With the recent liberal effort to resurrect the "fairness doctrine," we have to recognize that free speech -- conservative free speech is under direct attack. These are issues that speak directly to the core of the modern conservative movement – are we going to allow ourselves to be pushed around by liberal extremists, or are we going to fight back?

I want to send Washington Democrats a message that their attempts to distract aren’t working – I stand with Rush Limbaugh against liberal attacks.

Rep. Eric Cantor
EricCantor.com

Go here to sign the petition.

Phony Patriots

Christopher G Adamo has a good summary and analysis of the phony "Phony Soldier" contraversy up on The American Thinker:

Smarting from the public relations disaster of the Betray us ad, a Soros-funded group, Media Matters, ginned up a fake scandal to demonstrate to those who rely on the mainstream media for their news, that "both sides do it."

Congressional and Senate Democrats, along with the entire liberal political cabal, have been in a staged uproar ever since last week when Limbaugh made reference to Jesse McBeth and Scott Thomas Beauchamp who, adorning themselves with fraudulent credentials as members in good standing of the United States military, have been caught in blatant fraud, as they seek to make a case against the war.Rush Limbaugh's attackers have intentionally mischaracterized his criticism of such individuals as an assault the U.S. armed forces, asserting that he derided any troops who oppose the war as "phony soldiers."

In truth, he did no such thing, and his accusers know it. But why should they hesitate to lie about his words when they have gotten so much political mileage in the past few years by lying about virtually every other aspect of the terror war, the Republican Party, the military, and conservatism in general?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-NV) reached a nauseating level of sanctimony in his effort to both prove that Democrats "care about the troops" (at least those who fabricate excuses for America's surrender) while attacking Limbaugh and talk radio. Look to Democrats to invoke this latest manufactured firestorm as damming proof of the need to resurrect the "Fairness Doctrine."

But Reid tipped his hand by asserting that Republicans ought to get on the bandwagon of imaginary outrage. Any time liberals begin plugging the bipartisan thing they are really looking for cover and validation from cowardly GOP members.

Reid knows full well that he is lying, and that his principled opposition knows that he is lying. He considers his target audience, Middle America, stupid and gullible. Here Reid hopes to make his case stick, at least among those dependent on the likes of CNN, NBC, or the New York Times for its news.

Conversely, the shamelessness and brazenness of Reid's lies stand as proof that he and his political supporters understand and accept such fraud as an inherent and viable component of the liberal-Democrat playbook.

Of course it is hardly a news flash that the fake anguish expressed by Democrats over this contrived controversy is merely a continuation of the full-throated lies being proliferated by the Moveon.org/Democrat Party/Old media spin machine. The facts of this situation are as available as they are inarguable. They are also inconvenient to the left. So to keep their own story going, Democrat mouthpieces will simply continue to ignore them.

When the truth is revealed, as it eventually will be, no liberal retractions or apologies will be forthcoming. The liberal political apparatus will simply move on to its next target to be smeared, knowing full well that it will never be held accountable for this, or any other deception.

In truth, Limbaugh was very specific as to which "phony soldiers" he was referring. For Jesse McBeth, the moniker clearly fits. He was drubbed out of the military during boot camp (after only forty four days to be precise), but then went on to claim he had been a member of the Special Forces and under such false credentials delivered a plethora of fabricated stories, deriding the military and the mission. He was prominent in the media for a time.

Likewise Beauchamp, who did in fact serve overseas, but whose fabricated fables of abuse and atrocity have been thoroughly refuted by the rest of his outfit.

Limbaugh never even went so far as to include among the phonies Senator and former presidential wannabe John Kerry (D.-MA), whose entire "tour of duty" in Vietnam exceeded McBeth's enlistment by only two and a half months. And that brief Southeast Asian visit netted him three Purple Hearts under highly dubious circumstances.

Of course if Kerry's version of the affair is correct, he could permanently put the matter to rest while completely discrediting his critics simply by releasing his military records, which, to date, he steadfastly refuses to do.

Against this murky backdrop, Democrats on Capitol Hill find an occasion in which they can wave their flags and laud their commitment to God, Country, and the troops, or at least those troops who concoct stories which discredit the terror war and the President's strategy to win it. Such people certainly deserve and receive the unbridled adoration and support of the Democrats.

But perhaps the most telling aspect of this latest offensive is the liberal characterization of Limbaugh, on several occasions just this past week, as "unpatriotic." This is quite an accusation coming from people who insist that the most heinous crime any conservative can commit is to "question the patriotism" of America's leftists as they deride the troops, while crediting America's enemies with every rightness of motive and strategy.

Here's the thing about patriotism. If you constantly have to run arond telling everyone how patriotic you are then you are almost certainly not a true patriot.

Here is the deffinition of "true patriot": A true patriot is someone who loves his country exactly the way it is. That doesn't mean that he thinks his country is perfect, nothing made by man is or ever will be, but he loves his country warts and all.

The phony patriot doesn't love his country exactly the way it is. He may claim to love his country, but what he really loves is a picture, which exists only in his head, of what the country could become if only he, or people exactly like him, were in charge. In other words he really loves himself, not his nation.

The Clinton Machine unmasks itself

I haven't posted anything about the "Limbaugh controversy" because, frankly, it didn't seem to be the slightest bit newsworthy. After all this is far from the first time that something Rush has said has been taken completely out of context, or completely falsified, and used to condemn him.

I was actually listening when Rush described the shameful exploits of Jesse MacBeth who claimed to have been an Army Ranger who served in Iraq and to have witnessed and participated in numerous atrocities against Iraqi civilians.

In fact MacBeth washed out of boot camp after just 44 days. He was never even in Iraq and has been sentenced to jail time for falsifying a Department of Veterans Affairs claim and his Army Discharge record. MacBeth is not the only "phony soldier" to have made grandiose claims about their wartime service which proved to be false or exaggerated (think John Kerry). In fact several have been prosecuted under the Stolen Valor Act.

Rush's point was that the kind of servicemen which the Left truly loves and holds up as heroes are the sort who either didn't serve at all, like MacBeth, or those who seriously misrepresent their service, like Kerry, in order to spread lies about and smear those who really serve their country in combat.

Of course his words were taken out of context by a Clinton front-group called Media Matters who are attempting to sell the idea that Rush said that every member of the military who disagrees with the war is a "phony soldier".

As I said, not newsworthy. A prominent and effective conservative says something which wounds the left and they respond with the only tool which is available to them, the big lie.

The only thing which really surprised me was the flimsy nature of the smear. After all it is only necessary to listen to the actual recording of what Rush actually said to understand that the Media Maters/Clinton Machine/Democrat Party story is a complete fabrication. However the reason for this desperate attempt to get the public's attention onto Limbaugh occurred to me today.

The truth is that the MoveOn.org "General Betray Us" ad had damaged the image of the Democrat Party badly. The Democrat Party needs to get the public's attention shifted off of their genuine lack of patriotism and onto some other target.

Of course elected Democrats could have just stood up and denounced the MoveOn.org ad. It would have been the right thing to do and it would have played well with the average American. However they could not afford to do so because the moonbat left has become the Democrat Party's base and main source of funding. If any elected Democrat had stood up and insulted the lunatic fringe they would have painted a giant bullseye on their backs and invited the same treatment which Joe Lieberman (almost the only honorable man in the Democrat Party - until they drove him out) received.

So the only desperate play they could make was to attempt to find another target for the public's outrage. Well it isn't going to work. Too many people listen to Limbaugh and too many people know what kind of people really make up the modern Democrat Party for it to work. All the moonbats have done is direct a few hundred thousand more people to Limbaugh's show and website and make themselves look like the jackasses which they are.

Every day the Democrats keep this story alive is just another day in which they make themselves look smaller.

If the amnesty backstab wasn't enough to make you sick to your stomach

There's Rush Limbaugh gushing like a little schoolgirl over the fact that Bill Clinton came over to his table twice in a restaurant. Here is a transcript if you want to read it.

This comes just a day or so after Rush gave Tony Snow a platform to spew the administrations lies about how good the "immigration reform" (read amnesty) legislation that congress is working on is.

And you'll all remember how he let Arnold walk all over him a couple of months ago when he called in to the show.

Rush, we know that you don't have the stones to go head-to-head with someone without a dump button under your fingertip but at least you could avoid rubbing our noses in it.

Credit where credit is due

As someone who has expressed dissatisfaction with mainstream conservative commentators for giving short shrift to the Second Amendment in the past I also intend to give credit where credit is due. Rush Limbaugh used most of his three hours today to discuss the Virginia Tech shootings and came out swinging for the Second Amendment. Here is part of what he said:

RUSH: Last week, the First Amendment was under assault. This week, the Second Amendment is under assault. The media templates have been set in stone. They started last night, yesterday afternoon even, in regards to this massacre at Virginia Tech, before anything was known, before any of the facts were known. It was one of the reasons I didn't talk much about this yesterday, because it was all breaking at the time, and had I echoed what I was seeing in the Drive-By Media yesterday, I would have been wrong in part. So as I mentioned yesterday I was sitting around and just waiting to gather all the information here. It has been utterly predictable and it has been utterly fascinating at the same time, to watch the Drive-By Media coverage of this massacre. Some people are calling it a "tragedy." I'm even having a problem with calling it a tragedy. A tragedy is a tornado or a hurricane running you down. This is an act of pure evil. This is an act of pure evil on the part of one person that has nothing to do with "American society." It has nothing to do with anybody else who was not involved, and yet the media template is etched in stone here. We have found out that the killer had chains and a lock to keep his victims from escaping.

He had two pistols, one of which he bought back in March or April. He had a vest filled with ammunition, and somehow some kind of gun control law was going to stop him from killing these people. That, frankly, is absurd, and I urge all of you to resist the groupthink that has been part of this. I don't care what network you watch, that has been the template: the Second Amendment and gun control, here. "We need more gun control. If we would have had gun control, why, this wouldn't have happened! Virginia is the headquarters of the NRA." This is going to bring this all back. The bottom line here is that every event -- regardless how bad, how large, or how small -- is covered through the politics prism now. Everything is being looked at here through the prism of politics rather than looking at this for what it is. The shooter bought his first gun, a 9mm handgun, on March 13th, and his second weapon, a .22 caliber handgun within the last week. This is according to ABC News and their source here is law enforcement officials. None of this argues at all for the concept that gun control would have prevented any of this.

This was not a spur of the moment crime. It was not something done in a flash instant. There was preparation here. This guy was going to get a gun. He was able to buy it, but he was going to get a gun regardless. He had it in his mind to do this. So last week the First Amendment's under attack; this week is now the Second Amendment, and it is terrible how an event like this can be so contorted to meet a political end. But that is the primary reason for all of the coverage: to meet a political end. There are several news templates in newsrooms. The Duke lacrosse case is a representative of a great template. The Imus situation is another template, and so is this. They've just released some details of the note that the gunman left behind, and in the note -- isn't this classic? -- he rails against "rich kids and the debauchery of American society." Now, who cares what this guy thinks other than a bunch of psychologists and psychiatrists who might want to examine this for the textbooks? This is the kind of thing that does not happen in this country every day. This is extraordinary, which is why the reaction that we're all having to it is as it is.

This doesn't happen every day in this country. This is not what America is. This event does not provide a microcosm of the evils and horrors of American society. So you have this kid that went nuts here for whatever reason, in a suicide note, railing against "rich kids and the debauchery of society," and wait 'til the Drive-Bys pick up on that and start extrapolating that into the other templates that exist in their newsrooms as to what's wrong with American society. I don't know what his grievance was against "rich kids." I have no clue and we won't know until the details of this note are spelled out. The Drive-Bys are all talking about the "healing" that we all must go through now, and that this is a tragedy. As I say, you can say it's a tragedy, and I may be splitting hairs here, but, as I say, a tragedy is when a tornado runs through town and flattens a building and 30 people die. This is pure evil on parade, or insanity. It's self-contained within the mind and the body of the shooter. It was a sick, evil act, very much like that of a suicide bomber. It was an evil, driven nut who had a couple of guns, and we have to face that head on and deal with that, not hide under our covers in fear and blame and guilt and start asking, "What's wrong with America?"

Rush on Hillary's chances

In a discussion on his radio show about the Imus affair Rush Limbaugh gives his take on the matter and makes a prediction about Hillary Clinton:

This is Stalinist, folks. This is an attack on certain kinds of information that is protected by a template which says, "All conservative information is misinformation. It is reported by liars and racists," and that's the foundation under which they all proceed, and they're all in on it. That is what is happening. It's a general rule, they would love to do this. But we're gearing up for this election, and if you don't think that in the Drive-By Media and the Democrat Party, if you don't think 2008 is all about the Clintons getting back in the White House, you've got another thing coming. I'm going to tell you as we sit here today, there is an 80% chance that Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States, if you look at the way things are falling out right now. They're trying to take out Rudy Giuliani. Guess what? Rudy's a "draft dodger" now. Did you see the story over the weekend? Well, Clinton was a draft dodger so they got Rudy. Rudy's a draft dodger. Whatever was said about Clinton, they're going after it. Rudy is a draft dodger. Rudy is a philanderer.

Whatever it is, they're doing everything they can to take Rudy out. Everybody says, "Well, what about Obama? What about Obama?" Folks. I know there are stories out there how the Clintons are worried about Obama and not just on this fundraising stuff, but his "godlike status to the godless" and so forth. If you're the Clinton machine, and your single competitor is somebody with less than two years experience in these foxholes, do you really think they are worried about Barack Obama? If you have fallen for the notion that the Clinton machine is sort of upside down and discombobulated and doesn't quite know what's going on here, you are falling for more myths from the media, which is designed to make it look like she has real competition so that she can overcome obstacles rather than be this candidate of inevitability -- which she is. So she's trying to make it look like she's got a serious challenge and she's up to it, and she can handle it. But I'm telling you, I know the Clinton machine. If you think they are seriously worried about somebody with as little experience as Obama has in these kinds of things, then you're falling for it.

You're being sucked in for all this. There is an 80% chance this woman is going to be next president, as things sit here today. In politics, everything can change, and it can change on a moment's notice. But all of these attacks and all of this budding attempt -- and it's not new; it's just intensifying now -- to discredit conservative information as misinformation reported by liars and racists, is about destroying the credibility of anybody who has anything in opposition, to save the Clintons and their quest to be re-ensconced in the White House. It's what all this is about. It's also about making sure that if Mrs. Clinton wins and so forth, that there won't be an alternative media. Hello, Fairness Doctrine. Hello, all of these things to just squelch it. They don't want to hear it. They want to go back to their monopoly days. That's what this is all about. So when you keep talking about this in the context of Imus, it's so much more about things having nothing to do with Imus than you would possibly believe. In fact, don't get distracted when you think about this by putting it in the context of Imus. If it was about Imus, it would be over, wouldn't it? And it's not, is it?

I think he is right about the way that the Clinton team views Obama, however I do not think that her chances are that good.