Rightie talker Mark Belling devoted the entire first hour of his show to what was even for Belling a rough, relentless attack on Congressman Gwen Moore for scheduling a health care forum Tuesday afternoon at North Division High School - - which is a well-known public building landmark in her district, the 4th.
And her high school alma mater...
Regardless, Belling said:
People would be "intimidated" at attending at a central city location.
People who attended at the site would fear "being shot in the head."
Suggested that if he sent his producer, Paul, to cover the event he'd be spotted as "the white guy" attending.
When a caller on the line offered a first-person account of the event, Belling said he was afraid of putting the caller on the air because if the caller were identified calling the Belling show "they might kill him."
When another called to say that the audience was mostly white - - blowing up Belling's rant - - he switched gears, suggested they were all probably east side lefties and teachers, and later mused that it would be funny if all the lefties who showed up were robbed.
Belling aimed a special string of insults at TMJ4 television reporter Shelley Walcott, whom he accused of being openly pro-Obama, like all the other reporters at TMJ4.
It wasn't clear if Walcott, who is an African-American woman, was to cover the Moore event, but Belling said twice that if Walcott were there she would be waving pom-poms.
At times, he added his own screechy female falsetto voice.
And he left us hanging a bit when twice Belling said he was censoring himself because he had something really mean in mind to say about Walcott, but thought better of it.
Remember: WISN and the corporate parent Clear Channel choose to put this on the air, buying the program from Belling and unleashing this vitriol into greater Milwaukee.
I think this is really telling. We should mount a big protest and expose this racist. Get him off the air.
ReplyDeleteCan't help but notice, too -- sad but true -- how The New York Times helped put the focus on race with its terrible front page story about the Obama response to the question about the arrest of Prof. Gates.
Does anybody remember that President Obama is biracrial? Shows just how absurd these comparisons to Hitler (speaking of racist) really are, too, doesn't it? And all because Obama was daring to support a Medicare-like public option.
Anybody else getting to the point where you are turning off all TV and radio?
Belling is a sack of crap. I'd like to put that more politely, but I just can't.
ReplyDeleteI do think the left is definitely afraid of the genteral public outrage at this health care overhaul. There is certainly reasons why the time and place this was scheduled. The left has their organized protesters...... they don't know how to deal with the general public speaking out. Who is coming there with pre-designed signs and T-SHIRTS!!!!! not the people that have been speaking out against this farce...
ReplyDeletenow I normally don't comment on things and obviously this is a left blog.... so I doubt my comments will be posted. That's just how the left handles things..... and that is why people are getting down right done with it.
Don't quite understand why you progressives listen to Belling or care what he has to say.
ReplyDeleteIt just like with abortions, if you are against them - then don't have one.
To the second-to-the-last Anon:
ReplyDeleteI post 99%+ comments I get. A handful of bigoted or libelous comments didn't make it.
People getting organized to get to and influence public meetings is fine and both sides do it. What is happening at these health care forums is hooliganism, though I think some is spontaneous, with angry people showing up and ventilating.
I also think fear-mongering on talk radio about socialism and 'loss of America' is a contributing factor.
Also:
Belling was attacking the left for organizing a counter-response. It was less important to the hour than his ragging on the media for alleged bias and on Moore for scheduling her meeting at North Division.
James - this is "second-to-last-anon".
ReplyDeleteFirst off I do want to compliment you on your posting of comments as you have put thru everyone I have posted in the last couple of weeks or so since I found your blog.
Of course all of mine have been civil, so there has been no legitimate reason for you not to.
As far as the "hooliganism" goes, there might be some of that - but a lot of the shouting and uncivil behavior is due to the level of frustration. Many people have completely lost the faith and trust of our elected officials. Most feel they are being outright lied to.
Btw - "shouting down" is a technique perfected by and up till now used exclusively by the left.
And the fact that part of the criticism of the opposition is that it is "organized", like that is something evil . . .
Coming from the left, that is just laughable.
I remember being in a van doing GOTV for Kerry with Belling had his "wet back" moment.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see what becomes of this.
To Anon:
ReplyDeleteIf you read this blog, you will see that I do not muzzling anyone, whether Michael Savage in England or anti-highway critics by WisDOT.
It's stupid, offensive and counter-productive - - which the muzzlers don't understand.
And I think people of the left and right do it: I remember the people who stormed the ballot-counting in FL during the 2000 recount.
So whether it's formal muzzling, or people yelling over others - - I don't like it.
The Palinites are modern Jacobins, an unorganized rabble whipped up by blog and radio demagogues. The real threat to our Republic are theses tin-horn demagogues, like Limbaugh and Palin, who feed of power of the whirlwind they set loose. They gamble that the whirlwind will lift them to fame, fortune and power, but when the heads role, the blood is in the street, the Republic shattered; they slink off into oblivion.
ReplyDeleteThis terrible pollital rift has it origins in white flight and the white middle-class suburban American mythos. The brainwashed masses of aging cold warriors, who are locked in a 1950's vision of the 21st century. It is a terror rooted in the paranoid and delusional traditions of the John Birch Society.
In true Orwellian fashion, the demagogues distort a genuine effort to better the human condition; whispering of communist, socialist, and fascist intent behind honest reform. So pernicious is this demagogic whisper campaign as to vilify any and all concern about building a sustainable society into an insidious plot to destroy the Republic.
Like Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar under the Roman Republic, men and women of blind ambition seek to harness the mob so as to inject a kind of anarchy into our Republic. The real threat to our Liberty and our Republic is not the President or our Congress, it is the disruptive anarchy being unleashed by these right wing flag-waving demagogues like Palin and Limbaugh who falsely claim allegiance to (little 'r') republican principals, while undermining the foundations of (little 'r') republican governance.