Speed Gibson

The first time I heard Wendy Wilde, I was amazed, almost in shock at the high pitched blend of arrongance and ignorance I heard, punctuated with frequent totally unjustified personal attacks.

It was more of the same today, starting with this monologue about the shutdown.

Are you as stunned as I am? I just really thought they were going to pull it out at the last minute. I don’t know if you caught a few of the details in the news but they’re saying at the last minute the Republicans started just throwing all these little things up that nobody ever heard of before. You know, just all these things they wanted on the table at the last minute. Just crazy stuff.

So far, the only source for this rumor of the Republicans throwing a bunch of riders and amendments up is Senator Dean Johnson. As Dennis Prager says, "I belong to the Stupid Party" but even our Minnesota Republicans cannot be that stupid. So just who are "they" that are saying this?

You know, ever since the Republicans took control of the Minnesota House, we’ve had this kind of fake crisis. This isn’t a real crisis. These people made this crisis. This is fake crisis. […] If you paid attention, you have to pay attention, you have to do more than just listen to the mass media on this, but if you paid attention, the DFL’ers caved and caved and caved. These people, Pawlenty and his Karl Rove band of followers, they won’t compromise. They simply won’t give in. It’s do it their way or they refuse. And now look at this: 15,700 Minnesotans out of work, laid off. Some of them if they have vacation pay coming will get that, and then they get to go file for unemployment. And that comes out the pot anyway, so this is just plain stupid, profoundly stupid - Ding! Ding! Ding! - profoundly stupid. […] But then again, it was Governor Tim Pawlenty who used those words the first time. What do they say? It’s he who smells it that cuts it? [Laugh] School bus morality! The one who smells it, is probably the one who cut it. [Laughter] I’m not going to go any further than that! This is the Wendy Wilde show on AM 950 Air America Minnesota.

A fake crisis? I agree, only it was a Democrat show from the start. You need to do more than just listen to the mass media on this? Again I agree, but I think she has Air America in mind, not the Northern Alliance.

The Democrats caved? What they have given up to date never really was there in the first place. Your teenager wants his own car, demands a new Mercedes convertible but caves (BMW hardtop) and caves (Dodge Charger) and caves to get a three year old Honda, all that they could afford to begin with. The DFL supposedly wants a $1.3 billion dollar tax increase, but only by minimizing the voting impact, i.e., tax the rich - again.

The Republicans have comprised, far beyond what the base wants, something you'd know, Wendy, if you bothered to do more than just listen to the mass media.

In the second hour of today’s show, I’m really excited. We’re going to be talking with folks who are moving and shaking in central Minnesota. Now, central Minnesota has been really swept up with this right wing mentality. Even liberals I know that own radio stations in central Minnesota are carrying right wing programming! It’s like, knock you on the head, what are you thinking? Arggh! We actually tried to put our signal on in central Minnesota and the right wingers launched a massive letter and telephone campaign, and we lost our station. Not because there were any ratings, they didn’t even wait for the ratings, they just couldn’t handle the phone calls. It is so sad that a few can dominate the conversation like that.

Only a few dominated the conversation? I thought you said it was a massive letter and telephone campaign. Which is it? The truth, of course, is that even liberal radio station owners have to make a profit, something liberal talk radio has yet to do without public assistance, as in NPR and MPR.

Well, there are folks in central Minnesota who are so ticked off that they’re just not going to put up with it anymore. In the second hour of this show we’re going to be talking to some of those folks in central Minnesota who have built hundreds of additional members of Democrats party in central Minnesota. And we’re also in the second hour of today’s show, we’re also going to be talking with the originator of a campaign that you will see around Minnesota. And indeed if you’re hitting the road, you will see this massive anti-war, anti-Bush administration campaign on Interstate Highways across America. And you’re going to meet the originator of this really fabulous idea. He tells us that Minnesota has actually one of the largest contingents of these Interstate Highway protesters in the nation, so we’re going to hearing a little bit more about the campaign, and how it began and how it’s going, coming up in the second hour of this show.

I am so pleased in this hour of the Wendy Wilde show to be bringing you a real life American hero, so you just sit back and relax and get ready to hear the words of wisdom from a real American who stood up to the big guys and said this just isn’t right.

That hero is Colleen Rowley, the famous FBI whistleblower. I'll be publishing at least some of that interview in the next installment.