Marginalized Conservative Talker Rush Limbaugh

Back when I was still trying to discuss politics with my baseball friends, they used to always get on me for citing talk radio commentators like Rush Limbaugh; "he's really marginalized, nobody really takes him seriously" they'd say.

Then this happens:

Yesterday, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, complained to Politico about how Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talkers are able to “stand back and throw bricks” instead of offering “real leadership” in the middle of high-profile public policy battles. Gingrey’s brave remarks got him in hot water.

This morning — because of what he called “high volume of phone calls and correspondence” in response to his comments — Gingrey issued a retraction, declaring his loyalty to hate radio. “I see eye-to-eye with Rush Limbaugh,” he said, later adding that he, Sean Hannity, and Newt Gingrich were “the voices of the conservative movement’s conscience.”

Nothing says "marginalized" like having an elected official say bad things about you and then being able to force that official to do a complete 180 like that. Yep, totally marginalized.

This is not America

It is the official position of the United States Senate that Israel's invasion of Gaza and "collateral damage" slaughtering of civilians is justified and good. The House will take up (and is expected to pass) a similar resolution.

Link

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Congress is set to offer staunch and unwavering support for Israel as the Gaza conflict rages, recognizing its "inalienable right" to defend itself from attacks by Hamas.

Democratic and Republican leaders united to introduce a resolution backing Israel in the US Senate and a similar measure will soon be pending in the House of Representatives with both expected to pass by large majorities.

"When we pass this resolution, the United States Senate will strengthen our historic bond with the state of Israel by reaffirming Israel's inalienable right to defend against attacks from Gaza, as well as our support for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process," said Senate Majority leader Harry Reid.

So apparently Israel is the 51st State of the Union. This pretty much closes the discussion on that.

It's OK to torture Arabs who we think might be terrorists.
It's OK to indefinitely imprison people, even American citizens, just on the suspicion (justified or not) that they might be terrorists or support terrorists or are even just sympathetic to terrorists.
It's OK to spy on our own citizens without any oversight, monitoring all their conversations and activities, because they might be terrorists or support terrorists or even just be sympathetic to terrorists.
It's OK to supply high-tech weaponry to nominal allies, when that weaponry is clearly going to be used in such a way that "collateral damage" is unavoidable, because the people on the receiving end are just a bunch of Arabs (who probably are terrorists anyway).

And now we support Israel, unconditionally, in whatever actions they take to "defend themselves" against the mighty Gaza Palestinians. After all, they elected a terrorist group to be their leaders, right? Maybe if we help kill a few thousand, they'll think twice next time.

I hardly know what country I live in anymore.