Be Honest; Glenn Beck Creeps You Out Too

Back about five years ago, the local talk radion station replaced Imus with Glenn Beck. I gave it a shot for a week or so and went to sports talk radio then Laura Ingraham and never listened to the guy again.

I'm not sure what it is about the dude, he just isn't funny, espouses views that I find extreme, drivels on about insignificant topics and is a horrid example of what I think of as a Conservative. I don't want people like him representing what I think is a new and emerging wing of the conservative movement where we take a hard line on terror, militant Islam, illegal immigration and big government. We tend to take a more centrist line on issues that are more cultural like gay marriage, abortion and the "war on drugs".

He attacked ER-linker and one of those I reference and link to to often--Charles Johnson of LGF. Video at Charles' site if you want to see it. Beck disparages Johnson in the same smug manner that turned me off and continues to keep me from tuning in to his FoxNews show.

Granted, I've been a bit turned off by Charles of late due to his battles against Creationist's, I view it along the same lines I view the abortion debate; people are fixed in their mindset and no amount of bickering or "facts" will change their view. But Charles has been vigilant in exposing hate--whether it be white supremacism, Islamo-fascism or anti-Semitism. Beck on the other hand is one who will do anything to gain another fifteen minutes of fame...we are about three years past the time he should have been relegated to the dustbin of inane radio hosts right alongside Garofalo, Cuomo and Donahue. Why Fox gave him a show is beyond me and the fact that he draws ratings is disturbing. I'm guessing the rest of the lineup helps that considerably.

Anyway, for a national talk show host to go after a blogger who has gone decidedly centrist is beneath contempt and to be honest, is disconcerting. We are facing real issues like piracy inspired by al-Qaeda, a wretched economy and two wars. The fact that Glenn Beck felt it of importance to attack Charles Johnson shows me that he's not only one who is just not serious about pressing issues but is highly vindictive and a classic narcissist as well.

The Continuing Jihad Against Rush Limbaugh

The nightmare first month and a half of the Obama administration is over and we've seen an omen of things yet to come. Reckless spending on a scale never seen before? Check. Alienating our valued allies Poland the Czechs and Britain? Check. Breaking lies on troops withdrawal from Iraq, closing Gitmo and rendition? Check. Attacking a radio talk show host who is a private citizen with the full force of the US government? Check.

Now I expected BHO to spend incessantly, make one foreign policy faux pas after another and back away from any inane pledges he made with regard to Iraq and the greater war on terror but I never thought I'd see the day that a sitting president neck-deep in scandal and by his own admission "overwhelmed" go on such as un-presidential attack against a man who is just exercising his 1st Amendment right to free speech. yes, Clinton did attack Rush after the Oklahoma City bombing but not to the extent we're seeing now with coordinated broadsides hitting the USS Rushbo daily. All to distract the populace from the horrid start Nobama is experiencing.

Even the Dems are not able to control their criticism.

More on this at Red State.

Rush Derangement Syndrome

The political left in this country is well-organized and is better than conservatives at staying on point as a generally cohesive unit. While conservatives have an annoying tendency to sell out core beliefs in the spirit of compromise, liberals home in on an adversarial person or position and focus all their energy in denigrating or demeaning that person or position. The latest target is Rush Limbaugh and this may indeed be a battle they thought they wanted but soon find out they really didn't.

When you have the president's Chief of Staff mentioning him, you know this is a concerted effort to drive a stake through his heart once and for all. They are demonizing him like we've not seen anyone demonized since...well, Sarah Palin or Joe the Plumber. That's the play book move for enemies of the left: marginalize them and hammer them repeatedly until they scream for submission or are forced out. It takes a strong man or one who doesn't give a damn anymore, like Blago, to survive the onslaught. Fortunately for us on the right, Rush is that man. Unfortunately for us on the right, we have a party full of politcal hacks who seek nothing more than to get an invite to the White House and a nice pat on the back from The First Black President (TM). We saw it with Specter and we saw it with new RNC head Michael Steele and Rep. Cantor. Instead of ripping him, they should be defending him for having the balls to say it like it is.

Limbaugh has been a thorn in their collective sides for decades and they seem to sense that this is their time to be gine with him. They're ramping up the Fairness Doctrine, issuing veiled threats to radio stations and pummeling him on a nightly basis on the networks, CNN and MSNBC. But in doing so, they may see a major backfire because what Rush says is not what they portray him as saying. He speaks to the average American unlike any conservative since Reagan and is unflinching in his ideals. He was among the first to call out President Bush when he offered up Harriet Miers, went astray on amnesty and joined with Ted Kennedy in signing the largest entitlement we've seen in a generation. That is why people listen in huge numbers.

Liberals have never listened to Rush save edited snippets here and there. He'll never win them over anyway. Yet, there will be people who here what Rush has to say on one of the many attack pieces on CNN and give him a shot. Once people listen, they generally stick with the show because the guy is the best political commentator this nation has. He doesn't take himself seriously and speaks like a regular guy you'd meet anywhere but with greater conviction. That, in a nutshell, explains why he's so well liked and why liberal talk radio has never prospered because libs in general have no principles and zero conviction.

Do Liberals Have Any Sense of Humor?

Short answer: no, unless it's when something bad happens to conservatives.

We see this again today with Rush Limbaugh of all people. Rush read that his rating are lower with women and decided to have a "summit" featuring only woman callers. He was clearly mocking the farce that Obama called a summit on Monday.

Rush was doing the entire thing tongue-in-cheek but inane libs took him seriously once again.

These people who don't ever listen to Limbaugh have no idea that he's always light and humorous and expects his audiencew to be intelligent enough to get it. Most do.

TP had issue with this particular utterance from yesterday:

One thing about the Female Summit: sorry, no transsexuals. We’re not going to have anybody who’s had an addadictomy, and we’re not going to have anybody who’s had a chopadickoffamy. We’re going to have women from birth.

Bill Press and the "Fairness Doctrine"

Bill Press is unlistenable and always has been. He made his name as the irritating liberal on CNN and MSNBC broadcasts and now bemoans that liberals just can't cut it when actual profit is required:

If you're looking for a break from those conservative voices that dominate talk radio, take time out today to listen to local station OBAMA 1260 AM. You'll hear the progressive voices of Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz, Lionel -- or, during morning drive, my own "Bill Press Show" -- providing welcome relief from the constant Obama-bashing by Rush Limbaugh and others. Unfortunately, today's the last day you'll be able to do so.

OBAMA 1260? Sounds like it was very non-partisan. I'll tune into Rush on REAGAN 990 tomorrow.

Anyway, he continues:

The commercial use of public airwaves is supposed to reflect the diversity of the local community, but that's not how it works in Washington. On the AM dial, WMAL (630) features wall-to-wall conservative talk. So do stations WTNT (570) and WHFS (1580). For the past two years, OBAMA 1260 -- even with a weak signal that cannot be heard in downtown Washington -- was the exception. No longer. Starting tomorrow, our nation's capital, where Democrats control the House, the Senate and the White House, and where Democrats outnumber Republicans 10 to one, will have no progressive voices on the air.

Hey Bill, here's a newsflash: liberals make no money (and steal from kids when they try), which is the entire point of producing and airing a program. Yes, the government allows the commercial use of airwaves but only because they have to regulate the signal, not the content. Someone like Press will never understand that.

To mollify critics, Red Zebra has said it will add Ed Schultz to its conservative lineup on 570 AM. This means Shultz will be outgunned in this market by at least 15 conservative talkers: Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Chris Plante, Michael Smerconish, Michael Savage, Andy Parks, Fred Grandy, Bill Bennett, Monica Crowley, Bill O'Reilly, Dennis Miller and Lars Larsen. No matter how good Schultz is, that's not a fair contest -- nor a fair use of the public airwaves.

If Schultz is so good, he should be able to find an audience regardless of who else is airing. If liberals need to listen to talk they want, they'll find him. It's a red herring as libs don't listen to Hannity or Crowley or any of the others anyway.

Unfortunately, what's happening in Washington reflects what has happened in one city after another across the country. In Miami, Clear Channel recently dumped progressive talk for sports: Clear Channel stations made the same move in San Diego and Cincinnati. Sacramento abandoned progressive talk for gospel music. In fact, according to a study released by the Center for American Progress and Free Press, there are nine hours of conservative talk for every one hour of progressive talk.

They dumped liberal talk for gospel? That's gotta hurt, Bill. Especially considering gospel gets about a 0.00007% of any given audience. That's about ten times what liberal talk gets I guess.

Why? Station owners complain they can't get good ratings or make any money with progressive talk, but that's nonsense. In Minnesota, independent owner Janet Robert has operated KTNF (950 AM) profitably for five years. In Madison, Wis., WXXM, 92.1 FM, just scored its highest ratings ever. And KPOJ in Portland, Ore., soared with progressive talk from No. 23 in market ratings to No. 1. Nationwide, progressive talkers Randi Rhodes, Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller have proven that, given a level playing field, they can more than hold their own in ratings -- and make money for their stations.

Wow, they get killer ratings in overwhelmingly liberal markets that rank about fiftieth in population. Way to make your point, Bill.

BTW, KTNF is 18th out of 20 stations in Minneapolis with a whopping 1.1 share. How are they making money exactly? As for KPOJ, they are fourth and--shocka--they are a Clear Channel station who liberals rail against. I for one am totally convinced...or not.

Companies are given a license to operate public airwaves -- free! -- in order to make a profit, yes, but also, according to the terms of their FCC license, "to operate in the public interest and to afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views of issues of public importance." Stations are not operating in the public interest when they offer only conservative talk.

Again, the only goal is to make a profit. NPR doesn't need to make a profit so they can air all liberal radio all the time. Just like the BBC, tax dollars pay for it. If NPR or PBS were forced turn a profit, they too would be all conservative because that's what people want to hear.

Press is bitter because no one wants to hear what he has to say. So, he advocates making radio less free and more restrictive. This is what we have to face y'all and it's not going to stop at radio. Pretty soon it will affect TV, the Internet including this blog and every other news source.

Michael Smerconish Got Played

You may recall that Philly talk show host and moderate Republican Michael Smerconish gained some fleeting pub when he endorsed Obama for president. Smerconish's rationale was that Obama was serious about getting Osama bin-Laden and that was enough to turn the non-conservative Smerconish against McCain and drive him right into the Obama camp because, well, Obama said he would make that a major part of his administration.

Michael Smerconish now has the honor of being among the first people punked by Obama before he even takes office.

It's interesting that a man who has been active in politics for decades was seduced by a few smooth words by a smooth politician and gave up his self esteem for a few those few words and the promise of a blurb in several blogs for one day (and reportedly a new contract).

Congrats Mike, I once listened to you daily but ceased the day you whored yourself out. Enjoy waiting for Obama to act on the sole reason you supported him, although you asserted differently, and non-convincingly on the HuffPo. You can wait with the Daily Kos crowd and all the others who were fooled by a few inane words.

And for the record, I never had an issue with Smerconish inviting Obama on the show, as a talk show host he would have been idiotic not to. My problem is that Smerconish is a Bush Republican--in other words; a liberal Republican and he grew farther to the left of the party to fit into the MSNBC paradigm, He sold out himself.

BTW, why don't you call Obama's people Mike, see if they'll allow another interview. I doubt it now that you've served his purpose.

Environmental Republican on Sirius Satellite Radio

I've been asked to appear on Sirius Radio's Blog Bunker program tomorrow at around 5:00 PM.

The show is good, especially if you enjoy blogs and the people on the channel don't buy into political labeling. It's a free form atmosphere that is a mix between a couple people sitting at a bar having beers and moves at the pace of the blogosphere.

The show is on Channel 110 and I would suspect we'll talk Palin heavily among the other political issues surrounding the GOP convention and overall campaign. Tune into Sirius Indie Talk channel tomorrow to hear me discuss the events of the day.

As they say, I have a face for radio and that's where I'll be tomorrow.