When one asks why Rush Limbaugh has so strongly attacked the nomination by President Obama of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the obvious rejoinder is another question:  "Why wouldn't he?"

Give Limbaugh credit of sort for knowing his own audience.  He is not seeking to ultimately build a Republican Party base.  Rush looks out for himself first, last, and always and that means appealing to the vicious and faithful following whose support has made him a multimillionaire.

Pound minorities!  This is what the mean-spirited Limbaugh base wants and so he will faithfully comply.

How many of us have known far right Republicans?  I have and have heard many in their ranks slam minorities and engage in hateful bigotry, especially after a few drinks or after talking to you long enough to where their prejudices jump to the fore.

The Republicans began as a third party rooted into anti-slavery that ran its first presidential candidate in 1856 with General John C. Fremont of California.

The election of James Buchanan and a resultant do nothing posture in the wake of national calamity resulting in America's most costly conflict in human terms, the Civil War, brought the fledgling Republican Party a golden opportunity to gain power in 1860.

A little known former  congressman and lawyer from Springfield, Illinois named Abraham Lincoln gained national stature by coming within an eyelash of defeating one of the nation's powerful and best known senators, Stephen A. Douglas.  

The historic series of debates between the two candidates held throughout Illinois established the platform on which Lincoln's presidential candidacy would hinge.

After Barry Goldwater lost the 1964 election to incumbent President Lyndon Johnson in one of history's great landslides a decision that would have far reaching implications was promptly made and implemented.

The 1964 battleground had been contested on ideological grounds that Johnson, a seasoned and skillful politician, used to his advantage.  The incumbent used Goldwater's strong right wing ideological base against him.  

Johnson seized the moment by appealing to the group that determines presidential elections, what historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. termed the "vital center" and made his challenger and supporters look like a third party and a disorganized one at that.  

The linkage was made easier after Goldwater in his acceptance speech used the phrase "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice" while the Arizona senator's chief primary opponent, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, repeatedly referred to his conservative opponent, even at the party's national convention in San Francisco, as "outside the mainstream of American political thought."

Rush Limbaugh in his megalomania, with the Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele issuing a quick apology after being blasted on the air by the loquacious talk show host, feels so energized that he has challenged President Obama to a debate on his program.

After his long, episodic rants against Bill Clinton continued while George W. Bush was running up record world debt and taking America to war on an unproven charge, Limbaugh now accuses Democrats of "ganging up on him" and has issued a type of "High Noon" declaration to Barack Obama.  

David Brock and members of his group FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) have repeatedly accused Limbaugh of distortions and even published a book on the subject.  There has been an outstanding challenge to Limbaugh to debate one of their representatives with a mutually accepted moderator and venue, giving him a chance to respond to charges.  To date there has been no interest shown by Limbaugh.

What Limbaugh loves, in the manner of Bill O'Reilly, is having the controls in his hands so he can promptly cut individuals off or refute them after they are off the air.  

So Rush Limbaugh is now patting himself on the back for thwarting none other than President Obama.  He declares that Obama tried to "marginalize me" and failed in the effort.

The same Rush Limbaugh that earlier said that he would either have anyone taking drugs in any amount executed or banished from America with no opportunity to return, then was compelled to admit to being an addicted Oxycontin user, has been declaring victory over a turf war in which he proclaims triumph over the president.

The incident Limbaugh refers to was a reference made by Obama to House Republicans at a time when he was seeking bipartisan support for his stimulus package legislation.  Obama made a reference to the mistake of having the Republican Party tied to Limbaugh.

Pat Buchanan seized on proclaimed opportunity before Limbaugh.  The same Buchanan who confidently asserted that Sarah Palin had "wiped the floor up with Joe Biden" in the only vice-presidential candidate's debate last fall, an assertion the vast majority of Americans rejected, stated that by mentioning Limbaugh as he had to House Republicans that he had made a serious tactical error that strengthened Limbaugh.

"Change it or lose it" is the operative phrase regarding planet earth.  If dramatic changes are not made to combat the severe impact on global warming international authority is in broad agreement that the response will be calamitous.

Bob Herbert of the New York Times in a luminously scathing critique of the Bush years on appropriately the last day of 2008, the final year of Bush's shameful custodianship, that it is not enough to let him pass quietly from the Washington scene.  Herbert stated that loud demonstrations outside the White House replete with bullhorns would be appropriate.

Bush and Cheney have marched in unfailing lockstep with the most reactionary elements of a ruthless corporate establishment bolstered by an unrelenting New World Order and full speed profits ahead and damn the consequences entities such as Halliburton, the Carlyle Group and Kissinger and Associates.

Not only has war been perpetrated on a tissue of lies predicated on non-existent weapons of mass destruction; not only has torture been meted out with crass and destructive indifference at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, replete with waterboarding; the savagery of a global profit motive bereft of conscience has challenged survival of the planet.

When Rush Limbaugh left his job as a nurse he switched to radio broadcasting in Sacramento.  It has been reported that a discovery he made prompted him to develop an approach that has served him ever since as a key to riches.

Limbaugh observed that when he turned into a sour curmudgeon spouting hate for the approval of the perpetually disgusted his ratings soared.  The rest is history as he achieved a radio standing in which he reportedly plays to an audience of 30 million listeners per week as delighted sponsors reward him with contracts involving millions of dollars.

Limbaugh's on the air blitzkriegs, while offensive to those of sensibility and sensitivity, provide a measure of comfort to those who delight in being uncomfortable.  

His non-stop gutter sniping at anyone to the political left of his listening audience, which might well be anyone other than his 30 million faithful along with those so busy watching Fox News that they lack sufficient opportunity to pay him sufficient due, is a two step approach.

Republicans are supposed to be the party of "law & order" and "family values."  Yet throngs of them are flooding the polls to vote for Hillary Clinton, whom they believe to be the Democratic party's weakest presidential candidate.  Rush Limbaugh and other right wing pundits are actively encouraging republicans to crossvote for Sen. Clinton not just to disrupt and prolong the Democratic primary race, but also because if Clinton wins the nomination, she will engage and energize their base in the general election.

Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" encourages willful violations of the law, and he as well as his followers should be called on this fraudulent undermining of our democracy.  Voting is a privilege and a right for which Americans have fought and died in order to obtain.  Operation Chaos isn't funny or clever.  It's illegal and traitorous; and should be treated as such.

Indiana election law IC 3-10-1-6  Eligible voters
Sec. 6. A voter may vote at a primary election:
(1) if the voter, at the last general election, voted for a majority of the regular nominees of the political party holding the primary election; or
(2) if the voter did not vote at the last general election, but intends to vote at the next general election for a majority of the regular nominees of the political party holding the primary election; as long as the voter was registered as a voter at the last general election or has registered since then.

Rush, your reign of gutter radio commentary has embedded you into the public consciousness as one of the ultimate slime wallowers in our nation's history.

You show no sign of letting up.  In fact, perhaps an air of desperation has finally reached you as the taste for your style of "political analysis" is receding.

To say that you embrace hypocrisy is letting you off far too gently.  Yours is the mammoth category of hypocrisy that would have to be carried to the realm of infinity and beyond.

Remember Rush, you were the one who took the stern and unrelenting view that anyone caught consuming drugs under any circumstances should sustain one of two punishments: 1) execution; 2) be dismissed from America without ever receiving a future opportunity to return.

Oh how the Senate Republican leadership squirmed once again the other day.  The individual causing the squirming was none other than King Rush Limbaugh, the head of the realm of blatant hypocrisy which they serve as loyal members of a kingdom operating on duplicity and bombast.

When MoveOn.org in an ad against the Iraq War dared to use a play on words regarding General David Petraeus and used the term "betray us" the Republicans mobilized.  They promptly secured passage of a condemnatory resolution.  "This is an attack on the brave men and women of our armed forces!" was the loud lament.

It turned out that the very term that Republicans found so objectionable came from none other than the right's patron saint of the radio airwaves, blustery Rush Limbaugh.  This, however, was only the beginning as far as Limbaugh's participation in the continuing drama was concerned.

Limbaugh lashed out at members of the armed forces who had actually served in Iraq, some of whom were decorated with distinguished service citations.  Limbaugh, a noted Chicken Hawk who opted out of service in Vietnam with the same disqualifying "handicap" his father had when he served in World War Two, went to work and called these individuals who were exercising their rights of free speech "phony soldiers."

The Progressive Democrat Newsletter grew out of the frustration of the 2004 election. Having organized protests against the Republican Convention, I found I had a core of activists who were looking to me for support after Bush "won" re-"election". My carefully thought out suggestions as to where we could go from that defeat led to this more-or-less weekly newsletter.

This week I discuss a very personal conflict with Homeland Security, which involved first bad news, then, on appeal, excellent news. Sometimes our court system works! I also cover the response our troops have for Rush Limbaugh, responses to Bush's opposition to healthcare for American children, and I discuss the situation in Burma. I also am finally getting back to some more local stuff including local events in NYC, a brilliant plan for winning in Colorado, and some local Virginia and New Jersey stuff. If you go to any of these articles, please click on some advertisements because that helps me keep doing this!

Rush Limbaugh as a vessel of hate is a reliable barometer of where the Republican right that preaches about Christian virtue and compassionate conservatism really stands.  Limbaugh seemingly cannot go long without making tasteless comments laced with venom, a pattern as habitual as a duck taking to water.

Limbaugh's latest disgrace is his verbal attack on Michael J. Fox for having the sheer audacity to make a commercial favoring a Democrat running for political office, as the popular actor did when he endorsed Claire McCaskill for the Senate in Missouri.  

In observing that Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's Disease, was noticeably shaking during the commercial message in which he lauded McCaskill for her support of stem cell research, correlating it with efforts to combat diseases such as the one from which he suffers, Limbaugh made one of his sickest comments yet. Considering his extensive track record that encompasses significant ground.

Limbaugh made the observation that Fox in the ad for McCaskill appeared not to have taken his medication.  Later in the week, after being subjected to strong criticism for his tasteless observation, Limbaugh made a conditional apology.  "If I was really wrong then I apologize," Limbaugh responded.

Rush Limbaugh addressing assembled reporters outside his studio


Washington, DC (Rotters) - Right-wing radio pundit Rush Limbaugh held a televised news conference this morning in which he repeatedly refused to apologize for his refuted claims that Michael J. Fox was exaggerating  symptoms of his Parkinson's disease for political gain.  Limbaugh also addressed concerns, which had appeared overnight on the Internet in which medical experts reviewing screen captures of his purported imitation of Fox on his radio show questioned whether Limbaugh himself might be suffering some complex motor tics that can be associated with particular medications.

George W. Bush during a busy week following the Karl Rove strategy of dominating television land in an election cycle announced his latest spiritual quest.  He insisted that this new awakening is burgeoning and that a campaign is under way to achieve a triumph on behalf of the forces of good and defeat evil in the process.

While Bush lines up as self-proclaimed leader of the forces for good some mixed messages have been observed on the international scene.  They were not in evidence in the mainstream media during a week when Katie Couric made her well-publicized CBS anchor review and interviewed drug-addicted Rush Limbaugh.

Meanwhile, in the real world, away from the submissive Limbaugh Dittoheads and Fox Zombies, it was reported that the UN nuclear watchdog protested to the U.S. government over a report on Iran's nuclear program, which counted as major news and was duly reported by Britain's BBC.  

In a letter signed by Vilmos Cserveny, a senior director at the International Atomic Energy Agency that was sent to Peter Hoekstra, chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, the charge was leveled that a congressional report contained serious distortions of the IAEA's own findings on Iran's nuclear activity.  

Next week, CBS plans to air a documentary about some of the events on 9/11/2001.  The documentary is controversial, even though it was shown before.  What makes it controversial is not revisiting the raw horror of that day,  it's that people -- some of them recorded live in the midst of these events -- curse.  After all, you have to remember 2/1/2004 changed everything.  Daring to let a four letter word through the nation's television speakers could cost CBS more than half a million dollars per offending syllable.

The Republicans, who so often poke the left as pushing a "nanny state," have made radical increases in fines for "indecency" part of their pretense at family values.  But as usual with the current crew in Washington, they've missed the target.  Not only have they failed to stop the real obscenity that threatens our country, the radical right has become the largest source for filth and indecency.  They've turned the Republican Party into the biggest pornographer in the world.