Saturday, May 28, 2011

Teaching Pigs to Sing

In the Los Angeles area, there is a talk radio station, KABC 790 AM. It used to be a cool, interesting, and entertaining station, but for too long now, it has become a sewer of propaganda for the Extreme Right for up to 13 hours a day with a local show hosted by Larry Elder, two national sydicated shows hosted by Sean Hannity and Mark Levin, and an evening program hosted by John Phillips.

On a daily basis, they show nothing but utter contempt for the Democratic Party, Pres. Obama in particular, and will resort to lifting quotes out of context, misrepresntation, distortion, rumors, disinformation and outright lies to do so.

As a service to mankind, I do some counter-insurgency on KABC's Facebook page, presenting some facts they don't want their listeners to know about, and to harpoon the inflated egos of the aforementioned show hosts.

Some try to debate me.

I win.

They just can't admit it.

Here's a recent sampling:
(My original post is a comment on the quality of the Rpublican candidates who've recently announce their intention to run for President, the following exchange is cobbled together from that and other postings related to it. I have left out the insulting personal attacks Mr. Lehman hurled at me.)

Jon McKenzie: So, this is the best that the GOP has to offer as presidential candidates? The Republicans could save the country a lot of time, money and grief by forfeiting the 2012 election right now.

Chris Lehman: Ya, but we need to get that evil Obama out.

Jon McKenzie: Evil? Why is he evil? You don't actually BELIEVE all those Heritage Foundation talking points, do you? Have Elder, Hannity and Levin completely brainwashed you, Chris? Evil? What evidence do you have of this? I mean other than that you obviously hate him because he's a Democrat. I feel so sad and sorry for you.

Chris Lehman: LOL, I feel sorry for you that you think our problems are just about republicans and dems. : )

Jon McKenzie: So, what do you see as being "evil"? Is he a Bad Guy for ordering the death of Osama Bin Laden? All I know for certain is that you have no reason to call Presdient Obama evil. Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow.

Chris Lehman: If I explained it to you, would it change your mind? I already know it would not. I know you're in the tank. You've got decades of a mindset to be reversed. That's why no one usually even replies to you. It's fun poking back at you, though. : )

Jon McKenzie: Try. I'm more open minded than you think, but you seem to be too closed minded to see it. If you don't change my mind, you may change someone else's. Also, you may get your jollies insulting me, but I don't want to poke back at you. I am poking at the four phonies KABC has chosen to inflict on their ever dwindling radio audience for up to 13 hours a day. Don't believe me? Look at their Arbitron ratings. I am trying to save KABC and return it to it's former glory as a bastion of smart, entertaining talk programming with room for both Conservative AND Liberal points of view. Points of view that go beyond just both sides calling each other "evil". Got a problem with that?

Chris Lehman: People who intentionally deceive (lie) are "evil".
People who take from some and give to others (steal) are "evil".
People who want to take away my, and other's, freedoms are "evil".
People who betray their friends (allies) are "evil".
He falls into all those categories.
: )

Jon McKenzie: How are you any less free? What lies has he spoken? Who has he betrayed? "Stealing" to give to others as opposed to what? Stealing jobs and savings to line their own pockets, the way the corporations have because of Bush's policies?

Chris Lehman: http://obamalies.net/list-of-lies

Have at it...

Jon McKenzie: All I see is a list of parsing and nitpicking. If verbal flubs count as lies, George W. Bush is the greatest liar of all time.

Chris Lehman: LOL, I wondered how quickly you would point to someone else, as if that made it all ok. The subject is Obama, and that's a pretty long list of "verbal flubs" in just 2+ years. LOL

Jon McKenzie: Not compared to George W. Bush. So, does that make HIM "evil", too? The subject is not Obama, it is your misguided perception that he is evil, something which you have yet to prove in any rational way. Just admit that it is your OPINION, because that's all it is, and that's something to which you are entitled. You can also hate him if you want to, for all I care. But there is no logical way you or anyone else can call President Obama "evil". Irrationally, sure. You can say grass is purple and the sky is made of chocolate. You must have an awfully low standard of what you consider to be "evil".

Chris Lehman: e·vil
[ee-vuhl]
- adjective 1. wicked 2. harmful 3. unfortunate

Perfect description...

Jon McKenzie: Keep going, bury yourself deeper in rhetoric.

(There are some jumps in the debate because Mr. Lehman got particularly nasty with his personal attacks. He did kind-of apologize, and removed some posts, some of which contained elements of this debate.)

Jon McKenzie: ....what has any of this crap to do with your inability to admit that your statement of "evil Obama" is strictly a matter of opinion and not fact? .... The US is in an economic recovery, and it is gaining more jobs than it is losing. We'd be doing better faster if the Republicans would pitch in to help instead of sitting on the sidelines, voting no on everything, and rooting for Pres. Obama to fail. I know you won't agree with me because that's your default setting. You think you're right and that I'm wrong. What ev. I know what I know.

Chris Lehman: Unemployment steady at 9.0%.

Jon McKenzie: Better than losing 750,000 jobs a month under the previous administration. Re-read my previous comment. ALL of it.

Chris Lehman: Not better, unemployment was not at 9.0, then.

Jon McKenzie: Yeah, but that's HOW it got that bad.... Duh.

Chris Lehman: Not better for the 9% unemployed.

Jon McKenzie: Then tell your Republican buddies to stop spinning their wheels with their Muslim witch-hunts and efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and Public Radio. If they have a plan to stimulate job growth, let's have it. Oh, wait, they do, it's called Tax Cuts For The Wealthy and Corporate Welfare. Reagan tried that, George W. Bush tried that. And look at the mess they made of things "Not better for the 9% unemployed." Oh. Lord, Chris! That the best you can do for a retort? OF COURSE, IT'S NOT BETTER FOR THE 9% UNEMPLOYED! IF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION HADN'T TANKED THE BLOODY ECONOMY, WE WOULDN'T HAVE A 9% UNEMPLOYMENT RATE! Jeez....

Chris Lehman Are you pro-Capitalism?

Jon McKenzie: Does a bear crap in the woods? Of course, I am. But if you feed me that line about "we have to keep taxes low and allow companies to have tax loopholes so they won't leave the country, and if we let them keep more money, MAYBE they'll create jobs for Americans, at least we hope they will", I got news for you. We've had that for the last decade, under the Bush administration and beyond because these tax rates were DESIGNED TO SUNSET AFTER TEN YEARS AS THEY KNEW THEY WOULD HAVE A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON THE DEFICIT. The tax cuts did nothing FOR the economy! Just as they didn't under Reagan. The "trickle down" theory does not work. Corporations have had this sweetheart tax cut for a decade in addition to loopholes, and guess what! They left the US anyway! Or outsourced jobs to other countries! Here's the thing, Chris. The US govt. is NOT a business. It is not designed to turn a profit, neither should it be run into massive deficit. The US is a Capitalist nation, but the govt. is not a capitalist entity. It is meant to promote the gereal welfare and provide for the common defense. In order to do this, we as citizens fund the operation of that govt. with our taxes. Which is why the whole argument of the Right about solving our deficit by spending cuts alone is specious. It's like our own personal budgets. We can cut our expenses and tighten our belts as much as possible, but unless we have incomes, we will run out of money. On top of that, the United States of America has a bigger problem than the friggin' deficit, and that is the stranglehold that the international and foreign corporations and banks have on our economy and the influence their lobbyists have on too many members of Congress and Senate on BOTH sides of the aisle. I won't play Pollyanna and say that ALL Democrats are on the side of the Good Guys. I do think we have more Good Guys than the Republicans, but no way are we all saints. But these corporations and banks don't have America's best interests at heart. They just want to suck as much money as they can out of us, give little or nothing back in taxes, and essentially starve us, the citizens of the US, into desperation until we become willing to work for third world crap wages. Ponder this quote from Thomas Jefferson, one of our Founding Fathers, one of the framers of our Constitution, the author of our Declaration of Independence: "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." Chew on that.

Chris Lehman: Steady at %9. If it was really his top priority, it would be lower, but.... it is not. The question is, why is it not?

Jon McKenzie: Chris, you are being willfully obstinate. Just like the Republicans in Congress and the Senate. They and you have made up your minds that Pres. Obama is bad and eveything he does or will ever do is wrong. Even if it means flip-flopping their positions, like Newt Gingrich who at first said we should go into Libya, and when Obama ordered action against Libya, Gingrich then said we should not get involved. Why? Because if Obama does it, the Right has to be against it. Obama has tried from the start to reach bi-partisan agreements in this administration, and uniformly the Republicans have said NO to everything he does. He even gave the Republicans a two-year extension of those tax cuts. Why hasn't THAT reduced the 9% you keep harping about? Because the Republicans want it that way. They, and you, are out to make Obama look bad, even if you have to throw reality out the window and ruin the American economy to do so. You guys love your party more than you love OUR nation. Suppose Obama pulled an FDR and started up a present day version of the WPA, then you'd bitch about that! Why are we at 9%? Because the Bush administration screwed everything up so badly, we may never recover, no matter who is in the White House. Why are YOU so anxious to give the govt. back to the party who put us in this mess in the first place?

Jon McKenzie: Wait, let me answer for you: "Yeah, but 9%! Why'zat, huh? Why'zat? Wa-wa. Ha-ha. Neener-neener-neener!"

1 comment:

  1. I do believe I've heard a real voice of reason. Oh wait, let' not confuse things with reason.

    ReplyDelete