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July 30, 2005 The republican noise machine is at it again. This time they are obfuscating the facts about Karl Rove and Valerie Plame. The loudest voices are the conservative radio talk show hosts who lie with the expertise of the sleaziest con artists, but unlike most con artists their lies are obvious and easily discredited. Unfortunately, there are too many people who actually believe every word these propagandists say. I'm going to use Neil Boortz as an example in this article, but the things he says are no different from what any other conservative talk show host says. I couldn't believe my ears last week when I heard Mr. Boortz say Valerie Plame was not an undercover CIA agent. This is not only a blatant lie, but a stupid one as well. Both the CIA and the Justice Department agree that Valerie Plame was an undercover agent. That is why there is an investigation. There would be no investigation, if she was not. Neil Boortz also lies about history. In support of supply side economics (the supply side theory of economics is rejected as nonsense by 99.9% of economists) Mr. Boortz said every time taxes have been cut, tax revenue has gone up, and he listed the tax cuts under Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush jr. as examples. This is false. When adjusted for inflation tax revenue went down for three straight years under Reagan, and Bush jr. Tax revenue went up for one year and down for several years after the Kennedy tax cut. Tax revenue fluctuates with the natural business cycle and will not increase because of tax cuts. The figures are available for anyone who cares to look, but they are facts that conservatives will not want to see because it will ruin their supply side fantasy. Mr. Boortz recently dismissed one caller who wanted to talk about the decline in army recruitment. Mr. Boortz said, "recruitment is up." It was up for one month, but it's been way way down for over a year. Mr. Boortz should be dismissed for telling another lie. He blames high gasoline prices on environmentalists. He repeated this lie about six straight times one day. Telling a lie six straight times does not make it the truth. How about blaming the oil companies and the oil speculators who through collusion (something Bush jr., an oil company puppet, refuses to allow the FTC to investigate) fix the price to maximize oil prices? Supposedly, not enough oil refineries have been built because of environmentalists, but oil companies do not want more oil refineries. They don't want supplies to increase because this would lower their profits. If they wanted to, they could increase capacity on existing refineries, but they will not do this. They would rather keep supplies low, charge a high price, and pay bribes to congressmen in return for over a billion dollars a year in government subsidies. Why doesn't Mr. Boortz mention this on his show? That oil companies will get $14.5 billion over the next ten years from U.S. tax payers as a result of the republican dominated energy bill that just passed. But he's quick to inspire hatred of poor people who get a temporary welfare check. Mr. Boortz, like other conservative talk show hosts, is a coward. He once walked out on the Phil Donahue show because he was afraid he wasn't going to be treated fairly. This from a man who cuts off callers (without telling his audience), if the caller threatens to get the upper hand in a debate. Mr. Boortz will continue talking ad nauseum and listeners think he's managed to shut the other guy up with his intellect. It is radio talk show hosts like this that motivated me to write my novel, Talk Radio, which is now available. I wrote a what if. What if a conservative radio talk show host was forced to debate an issue without being able to hang up the phone? And I put the character of Buck Bennett, a fictional radio talk show host, in this situation. Anyone interested in politics should go ahead and buy it and enjoy. ------------ 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. www.mark-gelbart.com 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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