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There is a split among conservatives between those who think the NSA's collection of data about every phone call in America is an important counterterrorism tool, and those who think President Obama is, as usual, trampling on the constitution and the flag and the Founding Fathers. But Rush Limbaugh takes it one step further. He says Obama is leading a coup d'etat. And this time it's for real.

On Friday, Limbaugh added up the evidence -- the IRS targeting of conservatives, plus Fast and Furious and Obamacare, and now the NSA. "The evidence of the totalitarian nature or the authoritarian nature of this administration is on display undeniably every day," he said. What does it add up to? "Herbert Meyer," -- a blogger at American Thinker -- "asserted that essentially what's taking place in the United States right now is a coup, not a violent coup, and not a [militaristic] coup, but nevertheless a takeover of a government, and it's being done by the Obama administration." Limbaugh emphatically agrees:

He referred to it as a coup. I don't know if he used the word "peaceful," but clearly there's a coup d'etat going. You know it and I know it. This is what animates us. This is why the Tea Party exists. This country was founded on certain concepts, principles, beliefs -- and they're under assault. Chief among them under assault is the right to privacy, and that's what all this is about. So in the midst of this coup d'etat... I happen to like that formulation.

You know how we know Limbaugh likes that formulation? Because he's said Obama has been leading a coup so many times.