"It's a very cool moment," Boyles said on the air. "It'll rock 'n' roll when this happens. ... Maybe other radio talk-show hosts will do the same and see what their audiences do."
Well, too many radio haters to count have gone on the birther kick. They do it to tweak the racists in their audience and to pretend they are independent of the views and desires of their corporate bosses. Here's what a one member of Boyles' key demographic did with his birther feelings:
Huff was stopped by Tennessee officers in April 2010 and told them he was bringing guns into the state from Dallas, Ga., to support efforts to arrest Monroe County officials who refused to indict Obama.
Huff was a part of a Georgia militia and the `birther' movement that disputes Obama's U.S. citizenship.
Officers testified Huff was carrying a loaded Colt .45 in a holster on his hip plus an assault rifle and 200 or 300 rounds of ammunition in a tool box in his truck. They said he also had a document he claimed was a "citizens' arrest warrant" for officials, saying they were domestic enemies and had been charged with treason.
Peter Boyles doesn't give a shit about our democracy. He would profess to loving the Constitution. But abuse of the First Amendment doesn't constitute love; it constitutes a desire to inflame ratings by any means necessary to enhance Clear Channel profits - a good amount of which go to Boyles. His abuse of our airwaves and the first amendment comes at our expense and his profit.
Talk radio is, basically, an entertainment medium, and it was proven Wednesday night on the stage of, appropriately enough, the Comedy Works in conservative Greenwood Village, where Denver's top talk-show hosts squared off in hyped "battle."
You'd expect to get plenty of meaninglessness from a two-hour event featuring 10 yappers skilled at yapping plus two moderators.
I mean, what were they thinking? How could a panel of 10 normal people converse intelligently in such a setting much less 10 talk-radio hosts?
And sure enough, it was pretty stupid-and yet enjoyable, to an extent.
Some Hawaii lawmakers see a way out of the state budget hole by capitalizing on doubts about President Obama's birth certificate. Meanwhile, efforts to convince the so-called "birthers" that Obama's Hawaii birth is authentically documented have ended up backfiring in some recent cases.
Yet to this day, birthers still want to see for themselves whether Obama is a natural born citizen, a constitutional standard of eligibility for the office. Questions still flood the governors office and the Health Department, and lawmakers say it's time to make some money off of that while, they say, proving his Hawaii birth to each and every inquiry.
"If the people are so concerned about Barack Obama and if he was actually born in Hawaii, born in the United States, let them pay a fee of 100 bucks," said Rep. John Mizuno, one of the Democratic co-sponsors of the measure. "We can certainly use the money, and we don't need to hear their complaining anymore."
I hope they pass this bill. Then Peter Boyles can either put up or shut up about something someone of his intelligence, and his less intelligent listeners, should have accepted years ago.
KHOW's Glenn Beck has now been found to have said the following about his (and his followers') political opposition (h/t Great Orange Satan):
Tea parties believe in small government. We believe in returning to the principles of our Founding Fathers. We respect them. We revere them. Shoot me in the head before I stop talking about the Founders. Shoot me in the head if you try to change our government.
I will stand against you and so will millions of others. We believe in something. You in the media and most in Washington don't. The radicals that you and Washington have co-opted and brought in wearing sheep's clothing - change the pose. You will get the ends.
You've been using them? They believe in communism. They believe and have called for a revolution. You're going to have to shoot them in the head. But warning, they may shoot you.
No, I will not differentiate between mediums since these guys write books, go on TV talk shows, where they are benign and mellow and plug their other TV and radio outlets where they can be themselves. It's all one big sewer-stream flowing into our political discourse.
All of these people, who have surely claimed they are responsible citizens, while Democrats and Liberals and Progressives are not, have some responsibility for putting Glenn Beck on the air and encouraging his abuse of The First Amendment and his veiled threats on the lives of our Representatives.
(Updated with Jon Caldara's fascinating and predictable input, a few more links to the Right's eliminationist rhetoric and a Golden Oldie from Boyles. - Z)
Both sides might do "it". That's the talking point. Mini-Limbaughs like Lou Pate on KOA dutifully started the process Saturday night. (Where do they find these infinite, cheap clones of Limbaugh, and do they all get a time slot on KOA?) Anyway, Lou says Democrats will blame Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and 1,000 others for this avoidable tragedy. But Lou won't take responsibility for a word of it, even his own.
The "it", as we all know in this discussion, is two very different things: two different sets of rhetoric, different tactics with differences in scope and tone and intent. Our "side" does it here:
Their side does it in this chilling list of political and media right-wingers fantasizing about blood in the streets and a locked-and-loaded citizenry. Jon Caldara was saying last night that the rhetoric doesn't matter. I tend to agree with Krugman:
Where's that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let's not make a false pretense of balance: it's coming, overwhelmingly, from the right. It's hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to be "armed and dangerous" without being ostracized; but Representative Michele Bachmann, who did just that, is a rising star in the G.O.P.
If Krugman is wrong and Caldara is right, then I fully expect Jon-boy stop talking about taxes and privatizing everything....because it doesn't matter.
So we await the list of National and Local Major Media and Political Figures on the Liberal side who do the same as the Conservatives who claim they do.
