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Feb. 2, 2005 About a month ago, Ken Hughes, a frequent contributor to this website, wrote an essay condemning democrats such as Nancy Pelosi for pork barrel spending. I responded and sent him an e-mail asking him if pork barrel spending is so bad, than why has it increased since congress became controlled by republicans. He says (and this must be his line and he's sticking to it) that I don't know what I'm talking about, and I don't understand how congress works. It is difficult to defend against blanket statements like this, but it is telling; conservatives are bullies who live in a world of denial. According to The Heritage Foundation (a very biased and conservative pro-republican think tank) pork barrel spending is up by 50% under republicans. In 1995 when republicans took over congress there were 1,439 pork barrel projects. By 2004 there were over 8,000. Mr. Hughes was criticizing Nancy Pelosi for spending ten million on a pork barrel project, but what about republican senator, Charles Crassey, of Iowa who earmarked fifty million for an indoor rainforest? The list of projects is exhaustive, and I'm not going to fill space simply listing all the stupid ones that our tax money is going to pay for. Anyone interested can search sites such as The Heritage Foundation or The Citizens Against Government Waste. That's not the purpose of this column. I'm using Mr. Hughes as an example of the thought processes and bullying tactics of conservatives who deny facts that debunk their ideology. Rush Limbaugh is another good example. The other day he was saying scientists who claim global warming is occurring are "environmentalist whackos," and "liars." How does he know these scientists are lying? When's the last time Rush Limbaugh ever read a scientific paper? Can anyone imagine him ever reading a scientific paper in his life? Ever since Ronald Reagan repealed the Fairness Doctrine in 1988, conservative radio talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and many others have completely monopolized the airways. Their ideology is a front for the fascist corporate criminal take over of the U.S. and the destruction of it's democracy. The definition of fascism is commercial control of government. Talk radio is a kind of commercial totalitarianism over the public interest. The people who are influenced by these ignorant blowhards are a simple, stupid people who want to hear a simple, stupid message. Over the internet I have been debating the people who listen and support these radio ignoramuses for eight years, and I have found that their knowledge of the issues is minimal and when confronted with facts they go into a state of denial. Studies support this. One study showed that people who get most of their news from Fox News Network are....to put it bluntly.....ignorant. I repeatedly challenged Mr. Hughes to answer my question of why pork barrel spending is up under a republican controlled congress. I challenged him to debate me on the issue. He says he doesn't debate; he writes columns. Whenever he responds to one of my columns, he drops a one line (supposedly humorous) insult, but he is above debating. I called him a coward enough times that eventually he threatened to "expose" me in a future column. It's been a month, and I pointed out to him that I was still waiting for him to "expose" me. He made fun of me for using the word--expose--and he was the one who used that word first. I'm still waiting. ------------ About the author Mark Gelbart: My book, Talk Radio, is a black comedy about a radio talk show host who gets kidnapped and psychologically tortured by a loser. It will be published by Publish America within the next year. Email: agelbart@aol.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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