Backbone Radio

Identity crisis

Slated on Backbone Radio, May 31 Listen every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver... 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs... and streaming live at 710knus.com.

Tough times, deadly enemies, and political upheavals can force a nation to search its soul. America is going through that right now. Who are we as a country, anyway? What do we stand for? What's worth fighting over and what's not? These questions echo through the identity politics of Obama's Supreme Court nomination, the assault on limited government by liberals in Colorado and Washington alike, the hypnotic mantra of change that currently substitutes for common sense. Again this Sunday, Backbone Radio steps up with guests and analysis that engage your common sense instead of insulting it. Please join us.

** I'll talk with Gary Marx of the Judicial Confirmation Network about Judge Sotomayor and Ron Robinson of Young America's Foundation about the roots of modern conservatism.

** Prof. Paul Rahe of Hillsdale College will brief us on his important new book, "Soft Despotism, America's Drift," which keynoted my interview with Michael Barone earlier this month.

** David Harsanyi, Denver Post columnist, and Dick Wadhams, Colorado Republican Chairman, will size up how vulnerable the local Democrats are for 2010, after years of misgovernment in Ritterville.

The left hopes to exploit a free people's identity crisis with power grabs that leave us less free and more dependent. The right says not on your life. Those are the stakes in 2009, no exaggeration -- and neutrality is not an option.

Yours for clear thinking, JOHN ANDREWS

Wishes won't win wars

Slated on Backbone Radio, May 24 Listen every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver... 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs... and streaming live at 710knus.com.

Facts are stubborn things, said John Adams. Obama's dovish campaign rhetoric and Pelosi's scapegoating of the CIA have been overtaken by cold reality. Dick Cheney's fearless patriotism provides a spinal transplant for skittish fellow Republicans. Jihadist bloodlust is highlighted by the Muslim plot to dynamite a New York synagogue. Iran now has Israel in missile range. Wishful thinking and pretty words won't quite do it for protecting America in a dangerous world, our new president is having to recognize after 120 days on the job. Welcome to the Long War, Mr. Obama. (Though it seems you're still AWOL as far as Guantanamo is concerned.)

** On Backbone Radio this Sunday I'll review this complex and sobering picture with Michael Tanji, editor of "Threats in the Age of Obama," and Tom Trento, producer of the new documentary, "The Third Jihad."

** William Simon Jr., the businessman who ran against Gov. Gray Davis in 2002 (a year ahead of his recall and replacement by Schwarzenegger in 2003), will update us on the fiscal horror in California after this week's taxpayer revolt.

** Plus Lee Strobel, investigative reporter turned Christian apologist, on why he's moving to Colorado, and Joseph C. Phillips, our man in Hollywood, on Colin Powell vs. the conservatives.

Yours for the Big Stick, JOHN ANDREWS

Rise of the soft despots

Slated on Backbone Radio, May 17 Listen every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver... 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs... and streaming live at 710knus.com.

In return for some of our liberty, writes Michael Barone in a powerful column this week, Obama's band of "would-be soft despots are offering Americans money and the promise of security against economic distress." That's a chilling prospect, and Barone is not one to sensationalize. Nor did the warning about soft despotism originate with him. It's a vulnerability Tocqueville foresaw long ago. Michael Barone is my guest on Backbone Radio this Sunday.

** Plus an Obama report card from Ed Feulner of the Heritage Foundation and a primer on our country's Judeo-Christian beginnings from author William Federer.

** Plus a tribute to the Greatest Generation from the pages of "The Old Man and the Harley," a newly published family memoir by Coloradan John Newkirk..

America without apologies, our theme on the air these past five years, is more relevant than ever as PC liberalism keeps spreading. I'm fired up about it after a week in Washington with CCU students, capped by an all-day seminar in the freedom shrine that is our US Capitol. Don't miss this Sunday's show.

Yours for self-government, JOHN ANDREWS

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