Here comes Glenn Beck
I apologize for the light posting this week. It has been an extremely busy time for me.
We raised more than $20,000 for Pastor Doug, thanks in large part to our smash dinner at McPhee’s last Sunday night. What a great time we had.
And I’ve been busy in the fight to return Annie the dog to Chuck Hoage.
But we’ve had some great radio segments this week — everything from a visit from Lois Capps to Jeanne Dugger taking on the Muslim-haters to Jim Stegall arguing for a ban on texting while driving. Check out the podcasts for any segment you may have missed.
Anyway, right now we’re busy cleaning house, getting ready to welcome Glenn Beck to KVEC starting next Wednesday. Beck takes over for Clark Howard who seemed to struggle with our midday audience. I’m not a particular fan of Mr. Beck’s, but he delivers an audience and he will give us plenty of fodder for my show to discuss. So, welcome!
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The Dave Congalton Show 
Great, another reason not to listen to local radio. Another self-serving right-wing blowhard. What an utter waste of air time.
Clark Howard may not be the most dynamic radio show out there, but at least he was truthful and corrected himself when he was in error.
“I’m not a particular fan of Mr. Beck’s, but he delivers an audience and he will give us plenty of fodder for my show to discuss.”
Have you noticed that the public responds to conserative “right-wing” talk shows and liberal/progressive shows don’t? Rush Limbaugh has an unprecidented audience that only continues to grow. Hannity, Beck, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Monica Crowley, Dennis Miller, et al, all have audiences that dwarf Rhandi Rhodes or Ed Schultz or any other remenants of Air America. If right-wingers were so wrong or so racist or whatever they wouldn’t survive. The marketplace works when given a chance.
Dave, you yourself favor the “Fairness” Doctrine and yet your station continues to align yourselves with the same right-wingers whose free speech rights you wish to suppress? How can you say “welcome” to Glenn Beck when you want to limit by half the amount of time Rush, Beck, Hannity, et al can spend on KVEC in the name of “equal time”? That just seems disengenuous to me.
Is that how it works for you, Rich? The speaker with the larger audience has the more legitimate position? The righties are much better at radio theater, I’ll give them that. They make a great spectacle of themselves. It compels even those who don’t agree with them to tune in. I tune in to Rush, Hannity, and Beck every so often just to hear how flawed their arguments are – I am amazed by how much speculation and mind reading they offer and how few facts are given to support their half-baked conclusions. You must keep in mind that their audiences do not consist entirely of listeners who agree with them. There is a large portion of their audience who tunes in for the same reason I do.
My observation is that conservative talk sells and liberal talk doesn’t. Right or wrong facts, good or bad for America, none of that has nothing to do with anything I said. I honestly don’t care about the content of any of these shows. Most of the time it is just background noise.
Rich, good to see you commenting and attempting to “write for comprehension.” The fact that you’re responding to Dave Congalton’s comment proves the point. Thank you for making the effort.
When you mention audience size, you might throw in a fact: 12+ Arbitron ratings for the time period and survey dates. Readers better comprehend what you say when there are provable facts to back it up.
The broadcast survival of “right-wingers” is a matter of ownership perogative; ratings do not always trump an owner’s belief in the marketability of their programming. You can verify this by asking the KPRL owner how they survive without big, county-wide, ratings.
Next, you attempt to tackle the Fairness Doctrine as if you know what it actually is and anything of its history. The goal of it was to provide a balance of viewpoints to the public…not just one type of viewpoint.
I’m speaking from 25+ years experience as a radio broadcaster who actually had the task of interviewing selected members of the community. The goal: develop a “community ascertainment survey” and use the results to develop programming to meet the demonstrated need for it, as shown in the survey.
As far as the Fairness Doctrine is concerned, you could consider Dave’s four-hour, daily show as the local opinion balance to Rush’s three hours and/or (soon) Beck’s time. But face it, Rich, four local hours with a variety of callers is no match for six hours of high-wattage, right-wing ideology and daily talking points.
To think otherwise seems disingenuous to me.
Rich — I don’t know what else you would have me do. I accept the decision to put beck on KVEC, I understand the programming strategy. He’s a big hit in Santa Maria. I don’t know how he’ll play in San Luis Obispo. We’ll see. I’ve announced his show on my blog and will make comments today on the radio.
I don’t support the Fairness Doctrine to punish conservatives. I do it to be fair to both sides.
Dave, you did a show about 3 years ago where you said (words to this affect) that there was too much domination of the airwaves with conservative voices. This was one reason you supported Air America and the fairness doctrine. I find it ironic that your radio station is opting to widen that gap with MORE conservative talk radio as opposed to liberal talk radio. That decision was because, whatever the reason, conservative talk radio generates audiences and therefore, advertiser dollars.
Rich, you’d enjoy talking with a local radio sales person and get the real “facts” of what goes on and not chalk it up to “whatever the reason.” Advertiser dollars many times are generated because the sponsor likes the program content, not because there’s any audience ratings. The size of an audience is not always the critical factor.
Once again if you are a Conservative and disagree you’re called a hater or a racist, but, if you are a Liberal who disagrees you are insightful and caring. If a Conservative talk radio show has high ratings and the Liberal talk show doesn’t they have to do whatever they can to get you off the air. Fairness has nothing to do with it. I can’t imagine what Liberals would do if they had high ratings and the majority of the time on the air and the Conservative’s were yelling unfair. It just like children trying to take away toys from each other. Grow up and learn that the reason most of us love this country is because of it’s diversity and ability to disagree. Just disagree without all the hate and yes I mean Liberals just look at their blogs and they are the most hateful group of people I never want to know.
Rich: I don’t think that most people on the right fully understand the Fairness Doctrine, and I am a little surprised about that coming from you. No where in the Fairness Doctrine was there a requirement that equal time = minute for minute accessibility. When a personality or station broadcast an opinion, there was an opportunity for someone to respond to that opinion, but they were not allowed to take up as much air time as they wished; they did their response and that was it, period. You are usually smarter about your research, so please look up what the Fairness Doctrine actually dealt with before you spout off here again and look more uninformed than you usually do.
Thank you for the backhanded compliment, Bob. You are right that it is not about minute for minute equality of time. You yourself on Dave’s show said it was in “the publc good” to have greater diversity of opinion on the airwaves. How does adding Glenn Beck to the KVEC line up add to the diversity of thought and discussion on the airwaves? That opinion response you referred to only applied to personal attacks on the airwaves requiring “equal time” for the attacked individual to respond. I am just amused by the continued right leaning tilt of radion, including KVEC in the Age of Obama. Looks like Obama’s “hope and change” aren’t selling, even in fairly liberal SLO.
I won’t even dignify the latest liberal template, that of hate-baiting to preempt constructive dialogue on border protection, defeating Islamic terrorism and protecting traditional marriage and family, I’ll just ask a question: Why is it that the domination of conservative talk radio just keeps growing, while attempts at liberal talk fail as often and spectacularly as Marxist economies?
Well I’m not sure what “template” you are talking about (must be some sort of conservative fantasy), but I will attempt to answer your question, even if your qualifier is completely wrong; the so-called domination of conservative talk radio actually has less to do with content than it does with promotion. What I mean by that is that in order to be a “successful” conservative talk radio host, it appears that you don’t need to worry so much about facts, history, accuracy or even being able to string a coherent sentence together most of the time. If you have a bombastic voice, so much the better, and if you have any sort of title (Dr., like a Ph.D..) you don’t even have to speak on the subject of which you studied to get your higher degree; like I said, content doesn’t seem to be that important, so long as you “don’t rock the conservative mantra boat”. As for promotion, look at who owns the media companies that produce and support the conservative media, look at how networked they are and understand that if you fit the parameters of what they want to put on the air, you will get a chance, because the conservative mantra of talk show “personalities” is all about promoting the agenda of big business, Republican world views (that is a duplication since the Republican Party is the legislative tool of big business) Christian dogma and persecution of any other religion (except the Jewish faith since they have such high regard for Israel) and of course, the demonization of anyone who “looks foreign” or “looks Muslim” or isn’t the “right” kind of Christian or or or …. As for liberal talk radio, it is not “failing”; Air America failed, IMO, due to trying to do too much at once; it was not just a single program or even just a few programs, they tried to start up an entire new network and the primary reason was because they were underfunded. Fox News, the cable channel started by Rupert under the corporation NewsCorp, lost $100,000,000. every year for the first five years it was in operation; no one came forth with anywhere near even one tenth of that amount when Air America started up. As for those liberal talk radio hosts that have gone on since Air America folded, a few of them have done quite well. Ed Shultz was never part of Air America, Thom Hartmann only joined Air America after Al Franken left, the Thom himself left before Air America went out. Randi Rhodes is now being distributed by one of the companies that distributes a lot of the conservative shows, and she is doing pretty well. Mike Malloy was fired from Air America before they went belly up and to this day he will mention sometimes that they still owe him money. One of the reasons why there are so few liberal talk show hosts is that they have to be better; they have to work with real, verifiable facts, they have to present their programs with better cohesion, and they have to fight the stereo typing that they are all some sort of nonsense like “America haters” or some other b.s. thrown out there by the likes of people like you. Do me a favor sometime if you have the nerve; listen to Thom Hartmann for ten minutes (he is on from 9 am to noon, Monday through Friday, listen to Randi Rhodes for ten minutes (she is on from noon to 3 pm) and if you are really brave, try to listen to Mike Malloy (a little more difficult, he is on from from 6 pm to 9 pm, delayed broadcast here from 8 pm to 11 pm, locally on a station that preempts for Dodger baseball games) – if you can do that, listen to each of them for 10 minutes each, you tell me how it is that they supposedly “hate” America; one of Randi’s sayings is: “Love America when it does the right thing, and right it when it does the wrong thing” Does that really sound like “hate” to you?
Heard the end of your show today and just wanted to add my comment that I also will be turning off KVEC during the Beck show. I’m tried of hearing the fact free anger from these guys. Hope the station decides to continue with the consumer guy or get a moderate talk show. We have so much to get fixed in this country we just don’t need the nonsense from the Faux Noise crew.
I listened to Mark Malloy before way back in 2001. That man is a mental midget when it comes to being a talk show host. He did NOT deal with the facts when he slandered Bush every minute he was on the air. He said assinine things like George W. Bush wanted to poison Americans because his EPA was changing, however infanticimally it was, the exceptable levels of chemicals, may have been arsenic, was allowed in the water. Rhandi Rhodes HATED Bush with a passion that Rush, Hannity, Beck and Levin COMBINED could not match. Thom Hartmann, to be honest, is so unmemoriable I can’t tell you anything about the man even though I have listened to him from time to time. Ed Schultz is all about “getting the righties” and he props up these really weak straw men arguments as he tries to associate ANYONE that even thinks a tad right of center as an extremist. I understand why he does it; its fodder to rile the blood of the five people that listen to him.
The problem with left wing radio is that when Bush was in power, they were dripping with venom, rage, hatred and lies about anything Bush or Republican. Now that obama is in power, they are ALL apologists for Obama. Obama can do no wrong nor will he be held to account for ANYTHING Obama has done. Michelle is ENTITLED to take a vacation anywhere she wants, even to the world’s most expensive resort IN SPAIN while Obama’s policies have resulted in more debt, more unemployment, more home forclosures, more economic and political chaos than in any time in the last 40 years. ALL of conservative radio came out against Hariett Myers; none of liberal radio or the media in general questioned the fact that Elana Kagan is utterly lacking the qualifications or credentials to be a SCOTUS justice. The other problem with liberal radio is that it sounds no different than what the NYT prints or MSNBC televises.
Liberal radio is dull and devoid of reality… just like the rest of the liberal media.
Rich: You obviously haven’t listened to any of those hosts you mentioned lately; Mike Malloy (not Mark) has recently really put a lot of effort into toning down his rhetoric, but to be truthful I haven’t listened to him for a month or so since the station that carries him preempts for Dodger baseball. As for Thom Hartmann and Randi Rhodes, neither of them are “apologists” for President Obama, as both of them repeatedly call for him to take action on a variety of issues. They both do however point out how much of the venom directed towards him by the right usually isn’t policy orientated but seems to be directed at questioning his patriotism, or his eligibility for office since some don’t believe that he was born in Hawaii, or they question his Christianity, fearful that he is some sort of “secret Muslim”. Ed Shultz is doing so poorly that he has his own show on MSMBC cable television, so he must not be doing very well at all. Yeah, the right doesn’t use hate at all, especially on talk radio. NOT.
Thom Hartmann is a VERY good talk radio host. He’s got brains, common sense, and integrity.
Let’s look at the numbers: KVEC and KPRL, which both have a majority of conservative talk shows, were tied in the Arbitron ratings for the Spring 2010 rating period at 3.7. The interesting thing is that KVEC fell from a 4.2 and KPRL rose from a 3.5 over the fall 09 ratings. This drop, in my opinion, coinsides pretty closely to the dropping of the Sean Hannity show from the lineup.
KNYS, the Air America affliate in SLO has an anemic 1.7 rating, up from a corpse-like 1.0.
Again, conservative talk radio gets ratings; liberal talk radio withers and dies.
That is why KVEC selected Glenn Beck over Hartmann, Malloy, Rhodes or any other liberal talk show host.
The downward trend for KVEC and the fact that conservatism sells in talk radio is why KVEC and Dave are welcoming Glenn Beck to the lineup.
Rich: Air America died a pretty quick death and is no more, period. The station that carries the liberal talk shows in our area is an independent station that carries different progressive talk radio programs, like Stephanie Miller (syndicated by Dial-Global Media), Thom Hartmann (on broadcast radio, both Sirius and XM satellite radio, simulcast on Direct TV and Dish Network), Randi Rhodes (syndicated by Premier Networks, who also distributes Rush, Hannity, and Glen Beck, among others), Bill Benica, Karel and Mike Malloy (self produced and syndicated, also on Sirius and XM). My point is that without strong support, no program will do very well. Let’s see how well Randi Rhodes does now that she is syndicated by Premier, since that seems to be such a huge company to be with.
Boy, I sure feel bad for the KVEC advertising staff. They have to go around our community and try to sell this krap, knowing it’s krap, but having to explain why someone should buy advertising time and support this. Any ad rep with a brain or morals would be going insane or be depressed.
What local advertiser would want to advertise with Glen Beck? Only a desperate one or one as lunatic fringe as Glen Beck.
KVEC program directors have are gutless and have no courage or creativity to have to step this low. For that revolving door noon to 3 pm radio slot they simply program whatever national radio personality is “hot” and then ride with that, trying to convince advertisers that lots of people will listen. And after a year or two, after the ad contracts are signed and paid up, when it becomes apparent to local advertisers they wasted their money, KVEC programmers bring in the next “hot” radio personality and work the scam once more.
Any local business owner who would advertise with Limbaugh, Beck, Jerry Doyle or any of these other narcissistic hate mongers, we must assume, either wants to exploit the type of gullible people who would eat up this stuff, or simply sympathizes with the hate mongers.
That puts the nail in the coffin as far as KVEC goes.
Tell people that the reasons for their sorry lot in life are Gays, brown skinned people from all over the world, liberals, and anything else they can focus on while telling them that the only way to make it in life is to make the rich even more rich. That these people continue to do things against what is best for them economically and socially cracks me up.
Argumentum ad populum. Numbers don’t mean anything.
The reason Beck, Limbaugh and their ilk are popular is not because they necessarily make any sense, but because they play on people’s emotions and irrational fears. The common theme with the likes of Beck is fueling the flames of hatred and suspicion. There is usually nothing constructive. It is always along these lines: get rid of these people, ban this, stop that, attack this country, kill those people, this person is —— (gay, Muslim, Black, take your pick), this person is not like us, these people do not belong here, arrest that one, torture this one, cut social benefits, mess with the poor (but don’t dare tax corporations).
Their focus is usually on why certain segments of people do not deserve the basic rights, protections, and freedoms that they like for themselves.
There is much criticism of sensationalist media that is gaining momentum. The Park 51 community center debacle is a perfect example, where the likes of Brigitte Gabriel, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Irshad Manji, Pam Geller, Daniel Pipes, Debbie Schlussel, Robert Spencer (to name a few), are cashing in on the hype to continue making a name for themselves while fanning the flames of hate. The Park 51 issue has exposed those people for who they really are, white supremacist racists who real target is President Obama just because his dad was a Muslim. They hate Obama because of what he is, not because of what he doing and not doing. The community center controversy is an ominous extension of that hatred. It may partly be related to the coming elections, but it goes much farther than that and the roots of the problem are deeply embedded in the psyche of those ignorant racists. Some do not know any better, but some know exactly what they are doing and they are trying to annihilate the identity of certain segments of the American population.
Maybe Beck’s program will provide more fodder for Hometown radio, but hopefully the Congalton Show will kick it up a couple of notches higher in the decency department. It is disgusting the mouths that these people have and the crassness with which they address their fellow human being. I know people like to listen to that stuff sometimes because it scratches some deep seated angry itch, but sadly, that scratch tends to target the wrong people, as well as increase the hatred and separation.
Adolph Hitler also became very popular through heavy use of radio broadcasting and by playing on people’s emotions and using certain segments of society as scapegoats. It’s a tried and true formula for gaining power in a repressed, overly-materialistic society. The psychological profiles of Hitler and Beck are remarkably similar. These are not well-balanced leaders, but their megalomania generates a certain kind of charisma that appeals to insecure, fearful people who are deaf to the cries of their own repressed souls and have lost faith in their own creative spark.
Well, your grammatical ineptitude ironically makes you an honest person. Your accidental use of a double-negative (“none of that has nothing to do with anything I said”) makes your post a more truthful statement because, you originally posted, “If right-wingers were so wrong or so racist or whatever they wouldn’t survive.”
Just keeping you honest. Back-pedal too much and you’ll trip on something – most likely, your own words.
By the way, who specifically at KVEC or Eldorado Broadcasting is responsible for contracting the Beck show? And is it possible, as rumors suggest, that right wing propaganda organizations pay off/bribe programmers to sign up Beck’s program? Or were the KVEC folks too lame to get in on that gravy train?
What kind of person could really feel good about himself/herself being responsible for giving Beck more air time? First Limbaugh, then Beck. What a legacy! Try explaining THAT to St. Peter! Good luck!
Any comments about Glenn Beck should be directed to our general manager Ron Roy.
ronroy@edbroadcasters.com
Thanks, Dave.
But I say, If Mr. Roy has something to say about this, I think it would be great if he responded right here, in public.
Welcome Glenn Beck. Although the financial show was sometimes entertaining, it was a little boring. Glenn is what the masses want, and what they will get. Remember that radio is a business, and they will put on what brings them a larger listening audience. Conservative talk radio is in demand, even in SLO liberal county.
The “masses” in Germany in the 1930s wanted Adolph Hitler as their leader. “Masses” of people eat McDonald’s hamburgers. What the “masses” choose is not always the best—often far from it.
Advertisers have dropped Glenn Beck in droves. Expansion of his show has been bank-rolled by fascist business interests.
Most radio station program directors are soulless, lazy, cynical, uncreative whores.
Glenn Beck is a deranged nincompoop clown. Think of all the great people in this world, people who are wise, articulate and entertaining. World leaders, scientists, philosophers, humanitarians, artists—people who have actually DONE something wonderful and worthwhile in our world, things that advance humanity’s evolution. But the radio industry gives us Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly and Michael Savage instead. Do you see something amiss here?
Most radio programmers consider radio listeners to be a mass of mindless sheep.
Putting Glenn Beck on KVEC was a lame move and does not bode well for the station and suggests an element of desperation and intellectual, moral and creative bankruptcy among the decision makers there or at the corporate headquarters.
Check the station’s email address: @E D Broadcasters. Considering that “E D” is a common medical euphemism for “Erectile Dysfunction”, at least we can say that whoever chose that name got something right.
Leave it to the liberals in the room to be the first break out the Nazi references while trying to claim the moral high ground.
Apparently, liberals have no idea what the masses want as shown by the non-existant ratings of liberal talk radio.
Even if liberals did know what the masses wanted, they would just ignore them as they did with the opposition to the abominial ObamaCare, the mosque flap, SB1070 in Arizona and prop 8.
And cali-whatshisface is even so crass as to make a penis reference here while claiming to talk about moral and creative bankruptcy. It is liberalism and those that preach it that are morally and creatively bankrupt. And classless, utterly classless. No one should have to guess why conservatives will win big in this state and across the nation when this is what liberals think is “high minded” debate.
” No one should have to guess why conservatives will win big in this state and across the nation …. ” Rich, are you serious? I didn’t think you did drugs ……. Oh right, its just the kool-aid that’s talking there. Dave had a guest on recently (Jeff Bliss from the Hover Institution) who was lamenting that the election results in Massachusetts with Scott Brown winning Edward Kennedy’s seat and the election of Sam Blakeslee were both indicators of how the country was “going conservative”, and I had to call in to correct him; Scott Brown did run a very good campaign and worked very hard doing so, but the main reason he won is because the Democratic nominee Martha Coakely ran a piss poor campaign were she took the first two weeks after winning the primary and went on vacation! The race was hers to lose and that is exactly what she did. I also pointed out how this county will usually vote for a Republican for state wide office even if it goes Democratic for national office, which it has done for probably at least the last twenty or thirty years. My point here is that if the conservatives want to use those two races as their indicator of how the upcoming elections are going to go, you may be in for a very rude awakening come November 3rd.
This is proof that you are certainly off your meds, Bob. Scott Brown won a) because he campaigned against President Obama, b) vowed to vote against ObamaCare and c) Martha Coakley was a terrible candidate endorsed by Obama. This was still Ted Kennedy’s seat. If the nation in general and Massachusetts specifically was still center-left then Alvin Green should have been able to win running away. Fact is that the nation is back to being center-right thanks largely to the overreach and near dictatorship that the Obama Administration has imposed on America with the glowing approval of the Democrat Congress. All of the polling on the 2010 midterm done by Celinda Lake and Stan Greenberg indicates that there will be a sea change in who runs the House and Senate in 2011. Lake and Greenberg, Democratic Party loyalists (how’s that work for you, goodhelp?) have warned Democrats NOT to campaign on ObamaCare lowering costs or cutting the deficit. Those two points have been proven to be outright LIES by this Congress and this president. Instead they are to talk about ObamaCare in terms of going back in and fixing the law. Businesses are being driven out of business with the compliance costs of ObamaCare alone. With the financial debacle bill and ObamaCare, this Democrat controlled congress and this administration has personally done more to kill jobs and hurt US competativeness than anything Bush every might have done or considered doing. Jobs and the persistently high unemployment numbers is what is driving this election more than any other issue. You complained about the cooked books of the Bush unemployment numbers. What about the cooked books of the artifically LOW Obama unemployment numbers? The true unemployment rate is nearly 13% and rising. You want to bring up the four month old Brown victory and the quirky nature of that special election as evidence or even proof that the GOP won’t win big in November? You must be stuck in May because across the US, GOP candidates are out polling Democrat candidates. If they election were held today, Obama LOSES to McCain. Obama/Reid/Pelosi are not welcome at campaign stops and when they do show up, as with Coakley and the governor races in Virginia and New Jersey, the democrat candidate loses. Democrats in the House are running as fast as they can from Pelosi and Reid may very well lose to Angle in November, no matter how dumb you may think she is.
This election is shaping up to make 1994 look tame by comparison. I will tell you this: after the mandate Obama claimed in 2008 with only a 5% win over McCain, if the House and Senate fall to Republicans this year, the GOP will have the mandate to rollback the sweeping changes of Obama with ObamaCare and Financial reforms and to stop his efforts to grant amnesty to illegals and on Cap-n-Tax.
So go see your doctor, Bob, and get back on whatever it is that you are supposed to be taking. You may want to get the 120 day supply because November 2nd looks to be a VERY bad night for you.
Rich, Rich, Rich: If you want to cling to the notion that Scott Brown was such a great candidate and won on his running against President Obama, fine, go ahead and believe what you want; you did acknowledge that Martha Coakley was a terrible candidate which was my assertion as to why she lost. It is supremely funny how I questioned Jeff Bliss on Dave’s show about the election results being used as an indicator of how the elections are supposed to go, and then you attempt to turn that around on me in a very well executed Akido type move; NO, I am not the one claiming that the election results in Mass. for Senate are an indicator of what is going to happen in November. You do surprise me sometimes Rich in how apparently dense you are in the way you cling to the conservative mantra; for instance, your mention of Alvin Green. Alvin Green was “elected” as the Democratic nominee via an open primary where it is highly likely that Republican voters crossed over to elect Alvin Green so that Jim DeMint would have a much easier time for re-election than if he had to run against Vic Rawls who had a very good chance of beating DeMint, and there were some very “unusual” voting machine malfunctions as well. Rich, keep clinging to your hopes of a 1994 type result; any gains by Republicans will be given the comparison for sure, but a sea-change in having a Republican majority in the house just doesn’t seem highly likely to me. Wishful thinking? Maybe, but we will see.
South Carolina’s open primaries cut both ways. Their open primary is what elevated John McCain to legimate front-runer status when he was clearly the weakest of the three or four major candidates. Same holds true for New Hampshire where ACORN was busing people in from all over to vote in the Repulican primary.
And it is not me that is clinging to a 1994 repeat: it is what DEMOCRAT pollsters are saying. You are in denial if you think that the Dems are going to have both houses after this election. But denial is what your side does best.
Rich, why do you object to a “Nazi reference”, especially when it is accurate? Shouldn’t we patriotic Americans be vigilant so that our nation does not allow the horrors of Nazi-style bigotry to gain a greater foothold in our society? (I can imagine YOU might object to this, of course.)
Your objections to the construction of an Islamic community center in New York is further evidence of your racial and religious bigotry, a bigotry that has no legitimate place in America, a nation founded along principles aimed at supporting religious tolerance and freedom of worship. I continually find in YOUR statements of religious bigotry strong echoes of Naziism.
As for radio programs, I don’t put hope in either “conservative” or “liberal” radio shows to be our nation’s salvation. Being talked at by radio talk show hosts is not the way we patriots help our community.
Finally, consider reading some of your recent postings and observe how you continually make sweeping, broad-brush critical statements in which you stereo-type entire segments of the American population that you choose to try to demonize and marginalize.
You throw this word “liberal” around as if it were a political party to which people sign up. One does not need to be a “liberal” to object to Nazi-style bigotry and fascism.
Of course I am in complete agreement that we patriotic Americans should never allow the horrors of Nazi-style bigotry gaining a foothold in our society. That is why I object strenuously to this president and his cronies scapegoating Republicans, big business, health insurance providers, health providers, capitalism in general, chrysler and GM bondholders, anyone who doesn’t wholeheartedly support building the Ground Zero Mosque, “bitter clingers” to guns and religion, cops “acting stupidly”, etc etc etc. The Nazis scapegoated Jews, slavs, homosexuals, gypsies, the mentally ill and the infirmed elderly as the reasons why Germany suffered at the hands of the French, British, Russians and Americans during WWI and why Germany was in the depression. Scapegoating is scapegoating. Your premise assumes that only opponents of the GZM are conducting nazi-style bigotry. Your are wrong if that is the case. The left in America is just as quick to use nazi-style bigotry as anyone.
Racism has always existed in the United States. The difference now is that racists feel safer coming out of their caves. Classless, uneducated, clueless “phobes” of every sort are making a name for themselves. The latest are targeting our finest and bravest. Veteral Defenders of America is the latest in this campaign to eradicate Muslims (and other undesirables) under the guise of security. Their founder, Major General Paul Vallely, has a few tips to help those who are looking for a cause after they return from Iraq. He, along with the racist Lebanese, turned Zionist, grass eating bimbo, Brigitte Gabriel, the founder of ACT (American Congress for Truth, or lies maybe), are waiting to bedazzle you with their tips on how to snitch on your next door neighbor and how to use those skills you learned in the military against your fellow countrymen and women.
As Vallely put it:
“Our domestic borders have been silently invaded with people who intend to harm us. There are thousands of terrorists and terror cells within the United States borders who have one goal as their agenda – the destruction of America as we know it. This simply cannot take place.Most of us have families. I have children, grandchildren and extended family who all need protection. You, as a veteran, have training, skills and experience that uniquely enable you to respond to our government’s message that encourages family and community preparedness, citizen awareness and service to our families and our communities. We’re asking all able-bodied veterans to join Veteran Defenders in an alliance to ensure our freedoms. REMEMBER, we ALL can contribute some of our skilled training, in some small way. Over 18 million strong, we are a valuable and frequently overlooked resource to our nation.”
His partner in crime, Gabriel, chimes in:
“I am thrilled beyond words to be partnering with my good friend, Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely, in this joint venture between ACT! for America and the Veteran Defenders of America. We want to reach out specifically to you, our veterans, to give you the opportunity to join with other veterans in an organized, volunteer force in helping to promote the defense of our great nation. You veterans are my heroes. You have paid a great price to protect the “land of the free and home of the brave,” making it possible for an immigrant like me to escape Islamist persecution and find freedom and opportunity in the United States.”
Long live Glenn Beck and his ilk and say goodbye to the Constitution.
Life in Paso Robles must be interesting, and for Rich, perhaps devoid of any other political/social viewpoint but his own. Does that about sum it up, Rich?
Must be an easy, unchallenged life to be surrounded by like minds. Wonder if all of your immediate family walk in lock-step with you. Could be a miracle if they do, but what they hey, it could happen.
Most people use labels (“brands”) to distinguish one product from another and learn what’s inside. That’s about things on a store shelf.
When it’s about people, isn’t “labeling” another matter? Don’t you get to know a person by what they say and what they do? And noting the trends in those activities over time? Inconsistencies? Half-truths? Distortions? Etc?
Can you express your beliefs without using the “L” word label? Here’s a challenge: make any comment you like without using the word “liberal(s)” in a perjorative sense. Could you try that for once?
In turn, I promise to leave out any reference to “right-wingers” or “neo-cons” in my remarks. Yes, I’ll even avoid “conservative.” Believe it or not, the results could be more entertaining than you might think!
Another topic: predicting the outcome of the forthcoming off-year elections. There are lots of polls, lots of methods behind them and lots opinions.
One of the most dispassionate, well-reasoned, transparent and mathmatically balanced observer of polling data is Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com. He runs simulations up to 100,000 times to verify the outcome range of possibilities.
All the number crunching he does offers a cold, hard look and an explanation of how the Democratic Party has arrived at this point, expecting to lose x number of congressional seats. Might interesting commentary.
Fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com
My predictions:
In general, voters aren’t any more happy with Republicans than Democrats. Although the Republicans may pick up a few seats, there will be NO Republican “sweep” of the House or Senate in 2010.
2012 looks even brighter for the Democrats. Republican presidential hopefuls will come out of the wood work and voters will, across the board, find them remarkably weak, and, in comparison, highlighting the strengths of Barrack Obama.
Only tragedy will prevent Obama from winning re-election—or his own choice not to run again —and under no circumstance, other than a hostile take over of the nation (from within), will a Republican be elected to President.
There WILL be some striking, as yet unknown, events that may radically alter political priorities, but again, voters will not voluntarily elect a Republican president and will likely not do so this decade and beyond unless the Republican Party radically reforms and much of the present (criminal) leadership driving the party (mostly behind the scenes) are ousted.
We are more likely to have a third party president than a Republican. Mark my words.
It’s interesting how Obama manages to come out sittin’ pretty when the stakes are high.
In the unlikely chance that the Republicans take control of the House and Senate this November, that practically assures Obama’s re-election in 2012. By then it will be apparent to more people than ever that Republican policies only make things worse for the majority of Americans.
There is no way on Earth, outside of an illegal take over, that Americans will stand for having Republicans simultaneously in charge of the Senate, House and White House. It ain’t gonna happen.
The chance of voters electing a Republican President in 2012 is miniscule.
Don’t be surprised if Michelle Obama remains an astoundingly popular and powerful leader far into the future. The biggest question is whether her focus will be more political or more spiritual. Either way, her star will continue to rise.
Go Obama(s)!
Agreed and then some! Although President Obama could possibly do more* to satisfy the Democratic “base,” he’s done quite well with the crap sandwich handed to him in the deep ditch dug by the previous administration.
What is difficult to understand, is how nearly half the country (by some estimates) want the recovery efforts of this administration to fail. Almost half of Americans seem to be working against the rest of us who want to succeed.
We want to build small business, create jobs and rebuild the middle class. It surely requires us to stop spending our fortune on a pointless “war” in Afghanistan. Or in any Otherstan. (Declare victory and get out!)
If the situation were reversed, would we hear the word “traitors” bandied about by the right?
* Obama’s accomplishments.
and What remains for Obama to get done.
Well, it looks KVEC’s Glenn Beck experiment has been a complete failure for the station—morally and financially. And its a shame to see the degree that it has harmed the listenership of the Dave Congalton show, a show that is infinitely more worthwhile and valuable to our community than ANY of the extremist hate-radio shows KVEC continually infects our community with.
Wow, no one has anything to say about Beck and KVEC. That’s not a good sign for the Program Director, who rubber stamped this mindless, desperate programming strategy.
Do you think we could ever have a program director at a local radio station that actually demonstrates an iota of creativity or spunk and develops programming? Otherwise, what’s a Program Director even paid to do? As it is now, his job is not much more complicated than picking courses from a Chines menu once a year.
God, how I’d hate it if my legacy was to be the person who brought Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity to KVEC. And poor Congalton, he get lumped in with those malicious fools.
Don’t the citizens of San Luis Obispo County deserve more and better from your local community owned airwaves?
There’s so much more that could be done to make radio worth while. Too bad its mostly run by people who the most shallow values and ethics, who worship the almighty dollar and sell our community out each and every day they broadcast crap like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. what a frickin waste of precious air time. Think if the wisest people in the world. Why aren’t they on the air? Instead we get flippin Glenn Beck and a trip to the junior high school bathroom each day.