Eeek! My blog has been taken over by Batchelorites!

Every Pundita post I ever wrote on John Batchelor's radio show has come back to haunt me, as Batchelorites descend looking to glean information on Our Hero's leave-taking. My poor little 100-limit site meter log is overwhelmed.

I will not sugar coat this; for now the terrorist-sponsoring states and their goons won a skirmish with John's ejection from his nationally syndicated radio show at ABC Radio.

And while John is off the air we're really going to appreciate how much work his research and his regular reporting sources saved us. There's nothing for it but to roll up our sleeves and descend on the milblogs and Google's search engine.

So this is a good time to thank John Batchelor, his staff, and the guest regulars on his show at ABC for all their years of service since September 12, 2001. I wish them smooth sailing in Batchelor's next broadcast venture.

Remember to check periodically at Batchelor's website for news on the show's next broadcast site. (The website and the John Batchelor Show belong to John, not Commodus - er, ABC.) and you can email John at the address shown at the website under "Contact us" in the menu column.

In the meantime we can keep up with important global news by making daily visits to The Intelligence Summit news page and following the links.

For readers who have never listened to the John Batchelor show and wonder what the fuss is all about, you can read the Wikipedia article, which features quotes from one of Pundita's posts.

For a less objective but more personal look at Batchelor you can read The New York Times February 2006 article.

For readers in a hurry, here are the Pundita passages on the show that Wiki quotes:

Batchelor's show represents post-partisan, intelligence-based news analysis and reporting. He and his sources unpack background to major news events over days, months, and even years so that the listener develops an in-depth, coherent view of a particular region or issue.

First American news program to treat the United States as a superpower nation. First American news program to look at international news from a uniquely American perspective. First news program to integrate daily news coverage with 21st century issues--energy, space exploration, etc.

. . . Analysis of US politics and European/other world region politics--Middle East, China, India, Former Soviet Union, African countries, etc. Reports regularly on State Department, White House, Congress, US intelligence agencies. Nightly in-depth reporting on war on terror. US history discussions, strong on US war history. Cultural trends. Discussions about new books on literary/historical figures.

Of course all Batchelorites know that the above doesn't do full justice to the show. We who consume news 24/7 depend on Batchelor's discussions with authors of books on the arts; science; and higher mathematics, which save us from grunting in monosyllables at dinner parties.