Tyranny by Any Other Name...

William Grigg nails another one out of the park with his latest essay. He comments on Rush Limbaugh's infantile rant about using the power of the state against the Left once Republicans regain power.

But the Democrats are not the only ones guilty of expanding the size and scope of government. Grigg writes:

Unlike his lemur-browed, synapse-deprived imitator Sean Hannity, Limbaugh is intelligent enough to know that the Democrats inherited a central government that had been gorged on power during the eight years of Bush the Dimmer's reign. The fact that the final consequential act of the Bush Regime was to create an economic dictatorship headed by the Treasury Secretary has not evaded Limbaugh's notice. The creation of a huge apparatus of regimentation, surveillance, and detention under Bush took place with the active support of Limbaugh and his ilk. So he is lying when he imputes sole responsibility for all of this to the Democrats.

But rather than urging that this edifice of tyranny be demolished, Limbaugh counsels his followers to be patient in the expectation that they will soon occupy its commanding heights, from which they can proceed with the extermination of their political enemies. ...

... The Democrats are the party of the welfare/warfare state; the Republicans, on the other hand, are the party of the warfare/welfare state. And both of them are tools of an entrenched Power Elite that is delighted to cultivate the collectivist hatreds from which totalitarianism is sprouting even now.

Worship of the State

Maryland State Senate Bill 371 (PDF) would force all county boards to:

• Require the display of an American flag on the site of each public school building in its county while the school is in session
  
  
• Buy all necessary flags, staffs, and appliances for the flags
  
  
• Adopt rules and regulations for the proper custody, care, and display of the flag
  
  
• PROMINENTLY DISPLAY AN OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IN EACH PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDING IN ITS COUNTY (No emphasis added.)

Soviet-style state worship at its worst.

The Audacity of Hype

Gary North nails it:

Optimism regarding Obama's Administration, as with every new administration, rests on a presupposition: politics trumps economics. This is another way of saying that legalized coercion trumps voluntarism.

Faith in the means of this triumph is lodged in three institutions: the national government, the Federal Reserve System, and foreign central banks. No matter how bad things get economically, voters believe in these three institutions, if they actually have heard of central banking, which few have and fewer remember.

Today, the national government is running at least a $1.2 trillion annual deficit. To this will be added whatever the proposed stimulus law will cost. Estimates run in the range of $400 billion a year for two years. Obama has said that annual deficits in the trillion-dollar range will go on for years. He has not been specific, rather like his date for a pullout from Afghanistan.

The public does not care. Optimism is still widespread. Like a spouse in a second or third marriage, who does not yet know of her partner's snoring, the voters expect smooth sailing through treacherous financial waters.

The Bush Administration established the precedents: a $700 billion bailout (plus $150 billion in Congressional pork), the various bank bailouts, and the nationalization of the mortgage market. Whatever President Obama proposes will be an extension of existing policies. There will be no successful opposition. There will be no turning back.

You Asked for It, You Got It: Government Control Over Everything

Change?

The Threat from Within

Chuck Baldwin nails it:

America's greatest threat comes from a complacent populace who would sit back and do nothing while our own civil magistrates surrender our nation's sovereignty and independence to international interests.

Think about it: 232 years after Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, and after our Founding Fathers pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to defend that document, our nation's leaders from both major parties are in the process of ceding America back to the kind of global empire from which we fought to break free.

If the Media Won't Report Our "Progress" in Iraq, Cal Thomas Will

Cal Thomas is irked that the dreaded, liberal mainstream media isn't reporting all the positive stories coming out of Iraq. In his latest column, he bemoans the fact that while the New York Times did mention (albeit reluctantly) that overall violence in Iraq is down since 2004, it completely ignored the news of the Iraqi government awarding contracts to 41 foreign oil firms.

You see, imperialism does have its perks. Forget for a moment that suicide bombings were non-existent in Iraq before we invaded. Forget that widespread sectarian violence, the imposition of Sharia law in Iraqi communities, and the mass exodus of Christians are also post-invasion occurrences. The real sign of progress is that the puppet regime we installed has kindly agreed to allow us to further meddle in the internal affairs of the nation -- you know, just as we would do if someone were to invade our country, overthrow our government, and maintain a permanent military presence.

Thomas believes the biased reporting on the part of the media will have implications on the upcoming election. He concludes, "Since journalists never acknowledge errors of judgment or wrong predictions and are never held accountable when they err, that job must fall to John McCain." Yes, I'm sure that old war horse will prove to be every bit as much of a conservative savior as George W. Bush.

I will say that Thomas gets it half right: Media coverage of the war in Iraq has been lacking. But the problem isn't that it has been too critical; it's that it hasn't been critical enough.

Meet John McCain's Spiritual Guide

Even if John McCain didn't make a mockery of the Constitution and virtually every other principle of liberty upon which this nation was founded, the fact that he has cozied up to this state-worshiping, warmongering pastor would be enough to convince me not to vote for the guy:

Rod Parsley's state-based theology is every bit as dangerous as Jeremiah Wright's race-based theology.