Talk Radio

Rush Limbaugh And Glenn Beck Keep On Escalating The Rhetoric: What Can Be Done To Shut Them Up? :(

Ronald 1 Comment

THe two greatest hatemongers on talk radio, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, are further escalating the rhetoric after the tragic events in Tucson, Arizona! 🙁

They are totally abusing the First Amendment, and proving just how despicable and uncaring they are about this great national tragedy! 🙁

The nerve of Limbaugh to say today on his radio program that the Tucson shooter is smiling in his mugshot because he knows that the Democratic Party is supporting him! 🙁

The gall of Glenn Beck to excuse Sarah Palin for her provocative words and deeds, and to use vitriolic language, upping the ante of confrontation and hate speech! 🙁

These talk show hosts are becoming a threat to domestic security and tranquility and national unity in a time of tragedy, and must not be allowed to continue their rampage of hate and division! 🙁

It is essential for all political leaders of the Republican Party to break their ties with these jerks and denounce them, or else the GOP will have lost all credibility that they care at all about what happened in Tucson! 🙁

These two men have stirred such animosity and gained the backing of enough loonies in this society that they are a menace to public safety and must be prevented from continuing to spew their poison, and destroy all civility in this society! 🙁

Can The Ideological Divide In America Be Overcome To Avoid Incitement Of More Violence? Highly Doubtful! :(

Ronald 3 Comments

The attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and the murder and wounding of twenty other victims in Tucson, Arizona, should be a wake up call for the country at large, and the political leaders and media personalities in particular, but don’t bet on it! 🙁

The right wing is trying to deflect blame for the use of incendiary language, and trying to compare it to left wing criticisms that may ridicule and mock the opposition.

But it is the specific use of language of the right that is at issue, not the concept of criticism itself!

There can be a healthy, vigorous debate over ideas without promoting rhetoric that calls for revolution, asking citizens to be armed and dangerous, calling for direct action against a tyrannical government, and putting online a map with cross hairs targeting particular congressional district representatives.

There is absolutely no excuse for the rhetoric employed by Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and others on the right.

To compare it to the rhetoric of Ed Schultz, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC requires a mentality that makes one wonder about the moral virtues of the listeners. These talk show hosts have never called for any of the above concepts that the right wing is infamous for.

The sad truth is that any possibility of change is remote, and tragically, we are on the road to greater bloodshed and violence on others, including the horrible thought of danger to our national leaders in the executive branch! 🙁

How can we tolerate this, and how can we even think of anyone backing any of these characters in public office, or supporting the continuation of talk show hosts who are only concerned about enriching themselves, and don’t give any concern about public safety or what is good for the national interest? 🙁

The answer is if violence escalates, lawsuits will have to be instituted against right wing talk radio hosts as having contributed to and incited the bloodshed, forcing them off the air and impoverishing them, to shut them up!

Again, speech matters, and if one shouts “fire in a crowded theater”, they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, whether they are ordinary citizens, political leaders, or media personalities!

Tax Cuts For the Wealthy: David Stockman Vs. Mike Pence!

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This past weekend, former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman debated the Republican party demand for a continuation of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy with Indiana Congressman Mike Pence, who has been one of the most hard line conservatives insisting on that issue, despite the fact it would add $700 billion to the national debt over ten years, at a time when it is clear that there is dire need to avoid adding to the national debt, which is already over $13 trillion! 🙁

Stockman gave an excellent presentation, and called such a demand for the wealthy to continue to have tax cuts as totally irresponsible and unrealistic in the present economic climate! He made it clear that the Reagan Administration was wrong to allow a tripling of the national debt during the 1980s, and it was recalled that he had resigned early in the administration over the reckless defense spending which caused most of that overwhelming addition to the debt!

Stockman made it clear that the Bush tax cuts in the past decade had been a mistake as well, as it caused a doubling of the national debt, with much of it because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also starting the Medicare prescription plan for senior citizens without taxing to pay for it!

Stockman’s appearance on the interview showed how far the GOP has gone since the 1980s–willingness to be totally reckless in the name of the wealthy, despite the fact that the stratification of American society with the wealthy having such a large portion of the total national wealth, as compared to the middle and lower classes, is the greatest it has ever been!

Pence showed total irresponsibility over the issue of the long range effect of GOP tax policy, and also demonstrated that he has no concern over the effect of budget cuts on domestic needs in the midst of the greatest economic downturn in 80 years!

It again must be recalled that MOST of the national debt increase has been due to Republican Congresses and Republican Presidents, with Jimmy Carter only adding a comparatively small amount to the debt, and Bill Clinton actually balancing the budget in his last years in the White House, and leaving a surplus for George W. Bush, who proceeded to double the national debt, on top of Ronald Reagan tripling the national debt in his time! Reagan added $2 trillion, and George W. Bush $5 trillion to the national debt, meaning seven of the nine trillion added to the debt since Jimmy Carter left office was due to these two Presidents and their administrations alone! 🙁

And the first President Bush added a good portion of the remaining two trillion, leading up to the $10 trillion plus debt when Barack Obama came into office in 2009! This is not what one hears on conservative talk radio and Fox News Channel, however! 🙁 But it is the truth!

So the GOP has a record of total recklessness in the name of the wealthy, while the country flounders economically, and David Stockman was effective in delivering a warning as to the danger of following GOP economic doctrine! 🙁

South Florida Conservative Talk Show Host Joyce Kaufman And Congressman Elect Allen West: Two “Wingnuts” That Will Make News! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

One of the most notable Tea Party Movement favorites who won election to the House of Representatives last week was Allen West, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, who was forced to leave the military after inappropriate treatment of a prisoner In Iraq in 2003, and who has been associated with right wing, pro gun groups!

With large amounts of money, including support from Karl Rove associated groups, West defeated Congressman Ron Klein of Boca Raton, in one of the most confrontational campaigns in the country! 🙁

West is a “wing nut” who will make lots of news with his comments and actions, seen by many as an African American male counterpart of Michele Bachmann, Congresswoman from Minnesota, who is constantly making outrageous statements and calling for extremist actions against the opposition party, and confrontation in foreign policy!

It is bad enough that West will be a “nightmare” in Congress, but he has now appointed right wing “nut job” talk show host Joyce Kaufman, who is a South Florida “wannabe” replica of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity on the local level! 🙁

Kaufman has been an outrageous talk show host on WFTL in Fort Lauderdale, spewing poison, hate, and nastiness, calling for violent actions against illegal immigrants, war against Islam, and ridiculing Democrats in despicable language, such as calling Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Debbie Wasserman Schmutz (dirt in Yiddish)! She has used similar assaulting language against other Democrats, including former Congressman Robert Wexler, and other Democrats on the national scene, and has been totally negative in every way toward President Barack Obama!

She will now gain national attention, which she craves, as the Chief of Staff to Congressman West, and she is sure to be a “lightning rod”, drawing controversy by her statements and actions, instead of being a quiet, behind the scenes figure as Chief of Staff!

It is odd for a political figure to pick a media personality to be the leader of his staff! It is also weird that Kaufman, who constantly promotes states rights and hatred of the federal government, will now be a federal government employee and be paid by taxpayers for her work!

Interesting example of total hypocrisy on her part, and it also brings to mind that she somehow expects to be a “correspondent” for her radio station while working for West, which is seen by people on Capitol Hill as a conflict of interest, and totally inappropriate, and possibly illegal to boot!

But then conservatives like to rail against government, and then feed at the public trough as they pursue their agenda to make this country a land of the elite doing everything they can to make the rich richer, the poor poorer, and the middle class slipping constantly down in the direction of poverty!

The voters of the 22nd Congressional District of Florida will eventually realize the blunder they have made, brought about by large amounts of corporate cash without limit, thanks to the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case in January of this year! 🙁

The Danger Of The Right Wing Attack On Hispanics, Muslims, And African Americans! :(

Ronald 1 Comment

The United States is facing an alarming scenario! The country is being split wide open by right wing assaults on Hispanics, Muslims, and African Americans, and this is a great danger for the future security and safety of the nation! 🙁

The Arizona immigration law, which antagonizes Hispanics; the emotional attacks on the issue of the so called “Ground Zero Mosque” and mosques being built anywhere in the nation, which enrages moderate Muslims; and the Tea Party paranoia about African Americans as expressed in their rallies, and in their guide to Tea Party people attending the Glenn Beck-Sarah Palin rally at the Washington Mall on the anniversary of the Civil Rights March of August 28, 1963, to avoid African American areas of the District of Columbia; –these are all alarm bells ringing in the night! 🙁

These right wing forces in the Republican party and the Tea Party Movement fail to understand that this is not a nation of just white upper class and upper middle class Christians! We are a diverse nation, and rapidly becoming less white and less Christian, whether one likes it or not!

To antagonize, victimize, and scapegoat Hispanics, Muslims, and African Americans is an exercise in futility, and can turn law abiding, moderate citizens of these backgrounds into radicals and extremists to our detriment!

These right wingers are spewing hatred and poison, and if they do not watch their rhetoric and action, could provoke a race war, a civil war in this country–an absolutely terrifying concept! All this does is help promote an image in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, that the United States is a nation of bigotry, racism, discrimination, and prejudice!

It actually helps fuel the terrorism we are trying to prevent and neutralize! If young men and women in this country, of these various backgrounds, feel threatened, they could become the enemy from within and undermine the future of this country!

The American people must not allow themselves to be exploited and divided in this fashion by the right wing propagandists on talk radio, Fox News, and in government, as all this does is embolden these whackos to further incite hate and paranoia! 🙁

The way to overcome this is to have the people in November repudiate the right wing hate mongers in government; and boycott these propagandists on radio and cable, by demanding that corporations stop advertising on these hate shows, or begin a boycott by consumers, as has started with Target Corporation over the promotion of a right wing politician in Minnesota, Tom Emmer, who is spewing hate and division in his race for Governor! 🙁

This is a country for ALL Americans, not just white, upper class Christians who fail to understand that the future is not in their hands! Reality requires that we all learn to live together in peace, and with tolerance for each other, if we are to keep this nation stable, secure and safe for the long term future!

Fox News Channel: Reminiscent Of Strom Thurmond, George Wallace, Lester Maddox, And Jesse Helms! :(

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In the 1960s, we saw the passage of landmark civil rights legislation, designed to end the racial divide and provide equal opportunity in America!

Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, who had run as a segregationist Presidential candidate in 1948 on the States Rights Party, voted against it, and switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party!

Governor George Wallace of Alabama was defiant in the face of civil rights advancements, and exploited the issue of race in his several presidential campaigns, including his third party American Independent Party candidacy in 1968!

In the same era, Lester Maddox, a restaurateur in Georgia, who gave his white patrons little pick axes as a symbol of what would happen if any African American dared to enter his chicken restaurant, was elected Governor, and shamed his state, that such a prejudiced person could be elected to the state’s executive mansion! The state of Georgia finally redeemed itself by electing as his successor a peanut farmer from Plains, Jimmy Carter, who advanced racial progress in his four year term as Governor, before running for and winning the Presidency!

From 1972-2002, North Carolina elected Jesse Helms to the US Senate, after a disgraceful career as a segregationist talk show host on radio! Helms proceeded to use the issue of race constantly against his opponents, including an African American competitor, Harvey Gantt, who had been Mayor of Charlotte, and twice opposed him in the election campaigns of 1990 and 1996! Nothing racist was avoided by Helms, who gave no concern that he was promoting hate and division in the nation with his poisonous prejudice!

All of the above politicians, and many others, utilized the fear of middle class and poor whites that any advancement of African Americans was a threat to them,and that they were being denied opportunity because of black progress!

Well, the reader might say, that is all history, so why relate it now?

The answer is that racism and prejudice is alive and well at FOX NEWS CHANNEL and on talk radio, as they have constantly berated Barack Obama, accusing him and his administration of racism, rather than looking themselves in the eye! 🙁

So now the race baiters are Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage, and many other conservative activists, who have no shame, and yet are no different than their predecessors in Southern politics from Thurmond to Helms! 🙁

Now it is the so called NEWS MEDIA on the right, acting as if they are legitimate, who are the promoters of race hatred! 🙁

And all of these characters have distorted the 101 year history of the NAACP, an organization dedicated to interracial understanding and cooperation, whose name “COLORED PEOPLE”, does not refer to only African Americans, but people of all colors and races who have faced discrimination and prejudice in this country’s history. They are still facing it today, as the conservative activists leave no stone unturned to turn whites against African Americans, who are supposedly not entitled to equality and advancement, and that it is only coming about at the disadvantage and loss of opportunity of whites!

What a terrible lie, and a disgrace, that these forces spew so much hatred and division, and are seen by many people as legitimate! 🙁

They are no better than Thurmond, Wallace, Maddox, or Helms! They should all be ashamed of themselves! 🙁

Glenn Beck’s Attack On Public Education Needs Condemnation!

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Glenn Beck is now attacking public education, as a method used to propagandize American school children into acceptance of the conventional viewpoints promoted by government!

He, therefore, called for the abolition of public education, in favor of home schooling and vouchers for charter schools!

In so doing, he is attacking the basis of how we give the majority of the American people the opportunity to improve their social and economic standing!

Apparently, it is alright if Glenn Beck and other talk show hosts on radio, and Fox News Channel, “propagandize” gullible Americans who listen to and watch their conservative drivel, which includes promotion of racism, sexism, religious extremism, and hatred of immigrants, the poor, gays, and people from other cultures and nations! 🙁

The fact that Beck promotes what is good for the “haves”, and ignores the “have nots”, is apparently perfectly fine! Providing a “level playing field” is somehow radical and extreme in Beck’s crazy mind! 🙁

Glenn Beck is to be called to account for his anti democratic, intolerant rants and raves against public education, and anything else that promotes equal opportunity!

It is time that the American people fully understood how dangerous this man is, and agreed to boycott him and force him off the airwaves as a menace! 🙁

Truth Vs. Conservative Propaganda: Taxes Lowest In 60 Years!

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If one listens to Talk Radio, watches Fox News Channel, or believes Tea Party activists, one would think that our taxes have skyrocketed under President Barack Obama.

The truth is just the opposite: Taxes are the lowest in 60 years, as stated by the Tax Policy Center at the Brookings Institution!

And when one recognizes that taxes were at their highest percentage during the Eisenhower Administration (1953-1961), at a 92 percent rate for the wealthy, it makes one wonder how so many Americans (34 percent according to a recent poll) can believe the propaganda that is out there complaining about the basic responsibility of all Americans to support their government, particularly when all Americans expect their government to provide services!

Does anyone really believe that we can get services from government, as we all do, and somehow, NOT have to pay our fair share of taxes?

Is the country becoming that self centered that it thinks only everyone else should pay taxes, but not oneself? This is the result of thirty years of conservative propaganda, which has only been aimed at making middle class Americans pay taxes, while the wealthy are supposed to be able to avoid their fair share of responsibility to pay taxes.

And remember, the highest level of federal taxes took place under a Republican President, not a Democrat, and this during the so called “conservative” 1950s! 🙂

Conservative Propaganda Against Health Care Reform Leads To Death Threats Against Democrats: Time To Cease And Desist! :(

Ronald 2 Comments

The poisonous atmosphere promoted by talk radio, Fox News Channel, and many Republican spokesmen has now led not just to verbal epithets and spitting and angry telephone and email messages, but also to real death threats that have caused the FBI to arrest a man in Washington State for endangering the life of Senator Patty Murray!

Also, Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz has given information to the FBI about direct threats against her, and she faced Tea Party activists who attempted a disruption of a Town Hall meeting in Broward County.

And the vile, vicious, threatening email against African American Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, one of the heroes of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, also are an alarm bell that the opposition to health care, which has spewed forth propaganda and lies for a year now, MUST cease and desist, as the danger of violence has reached a new stage that demands responsibility by politicians and media!

What will finally convince these right wingers that they are sowing the seeds of bloodshed and violence? 🙁 Will it take the assassination of politicians to silence these characters, who only care about their own enrichment and advancement, and not the good of the nation? 🙁

As has been stated before, enough is enough! Let’s promote what unites us, instead of what divides us! 🙁

Threats Against 36 State Governors: Political Rhetoric Gone Crazy!

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All of the recent, irresponsible political rhetoric over Health Care reform, and the general confrontational language of talk radio and Fox News Channel, has now led to threats against 36 state governors, and the FBI is very concerned!

These governors, holding the most difficult political positions as the Great Recession continues, have been warned by a group called Guardians of the free Republics, that they must resign and leave office in three days, or face action to be removed!

This group, on its website, is alarming in its rhetoric, and while they do not specifically advocate direct violence, it is the perfect match waiting to be lit that could lead to bloodshed and violence, including possible assassinations!

The people behind this, supposedly, are people who seem to believe that they have no responsibility to pay taxes or have a license to drive. In other words, they are “sovereign citizens”, who are basically anarchistic in nature, and are seen as similar to the right wing group arrested last week in Michigan that was advocating violence against police and other law enforcement authorities.

This is just further proof of the danger of right wing extremists, many of them connected to racist organizations and militia groups, to our national security. These are domestic terrorists, as dangerous as Timothy McVeigh was in 1995 when he blew up the Oklahoma City Federal Building, killing 168 and injuring nearly a thousand other citizens.

We are in a delicate time domestically, and it is the responsibility of all commentators, on radio, television, and other media, to act responsibly in what they say and write, so as not to fuel these nuts among us!

Can we be optimistic that this will indeed be the case, that being responsible as a priority over riling up people and enriching themselves, will be practiced by talk radio and Fox News Channel and other reckless media? 🙁 Don’t hold your breath on that one! 🙁