Blows to hell everything (positive) I ever said about Pisces males! Maybe he was 6 weeks premature and was supposed to be born in that interesting April 20-23 period...

I must concur that he has been a boon to the far left. Many of us are bone lazy and his rhetoric is sure-fire fund/labor raising material. I would estimate fully 1/3 of the positive, lefty response I've seen in areas I volunteer, was motivated by listening to his broadcast or even a quote from it.

Lars, you're not conservative, you're not moral, and you're our best fund raiser. Hope you stay on the air for the next 50 years!

I too must confess to radio trolling for lunatics and I would say it is a tie between Lars and Victoria Taft at KPAM.

Two words: empty vessel

Before KPOJ, I'd listen to Larson because his was the sole local news talk show in the market. It would frustrate me when I was unable to make it through the first segment without him losing me with half-truths, straw men and supposition. But I still think he's good to have in the state providing a voice to conservatives. We need a good debate on issues and he is pretty much the only thing conservatives have going for them.

The smug, ugly and ill-informed diatribe caused me to change the station in a fit of irritation. But I'd tire of music after awhile and switch back, hoping that a new host would take over the microphone and the airwaves would unmuck. Nope.

I remember the same annoying experience with "McArthur Park" on the AM radio in my car--you go away and come back, go away and come back, and the damned thing is still going on.

Lars Larson: The Richard Harris of talk radio?

The mind boggles.

bn

Even for those of us who lean conservative, Lars does not speak for all Republicans.

If he's the impetus for conservatism, then I'd be happy to switch parties any day. He's also the prime example of why the party is where it's at in Oregon: too conservative, too idealistic, and no good ideas.

If Republicans stay with the same old song and dance, democrats will stay in power for many, many years.

Sucks to be an (R) right now. And not because the D's are in control, but because the party has lost direction and vision.

You can take the boy out of Tillamook, but you can't take Tillamook out of the boy.

Yup, keep the check writers reacting to Lars, lest they notice Gates and Salazar doing their dead level best to kill what little hope most had and make sure that there is no change.

Anyone that continues to give Obama a chance, given what they are doing as we speak, is allowing themselves to be defrauded. He has made better choices, but they aren't doing anything. It's funny how those things take time, but more Bushism can proceed directly!

We are still torturing prisoners, renditioning them to third parties, attacking allies, targeting civilians, killing any mammal that doesn't fit human expansion plans, suborning war crimes in the middle east, and is mollycoddling the energy industry. He has chosen to continue these policies. They are important enough to some of us that whatever else he accomplishes cannot redeem his moral failings. This is the Democratic Party's "hope and change" in the 21st century. 6 weeks into office and you either have to delude yourself, swallow the usual crap and be used, or conclude that the two party system must be destroyed. Oh, right, we have a timetable to leave Iraq. Same timetable Bush proposed in '06.

Well played!

His faithful co-workers just gave him a new 9mm handgun for his birthday.

I'd headline that one "Arming The Hand That Feeds Me."

But seriously, folks...

Posted by: lestatdelc | Mar 6, 2009 1:07:01 PM

Care to enlighten us as to what Secretaries Gates and Salazar are dong that is in contradiction to what the President campaigned on in defense policy or issues within the purview of the Dept. of Interior?

Not indulging what looks to be largely off-topic, but, you're joking, right? Surely things aren't so bad that they are off the radar. You mean, "I don't see how what they're doing is a contradiction", right? You can't mean, "I'm not aware that they've been doing anything controversial".

Barry Goldwater was a conservative people like me could admire, as was Wm. F. Buckley. My Dad admired Robt. Taft, the "Mr. Conservative" of his day.

"But I still think he's good to have in the state providing a voice to conservatives. We need a good debate on issues and he is pretty much the only thing conservatives have going for them."

If Lars is the only voice of Oregon conservatism, perhaps it is time for the sort of soul searching Democrats did after Mondale lost.

Goldwater, Buckley et al could get their points across without "chainsaw" sarcasm. Rush and Lars need that level of sarcasm to disguise their lack of ideas--being positive takes more mental energy than being negative, at least for some people.

Not only that, but is a 50 year old really going to impress young voters?

Lars ratings are off by about half of what they were at his peak. I got chewed out here on Blue O last year for postulating that Lars is no longer relevant. Larson like many right wing talkers including Limbaugh are losing listeners. They are really only preaching to the choir of committed wing nuts.

I hope old Lars doesn't shoot himself in the butt with his new gun!

Posted by: Pedro | Mar 6, 2009 1:47:23 PM

Lars ratings are off by about half of what they were at his peak. I got chewed out here on Blue O last year for postulating that Lars is no longer relevant.

Because it's the source of 1/2 the posts, per this bit of critical journalism!

Salazar throwing the wolves to the conservatives, is far too relevant and doesn't reflect the current Democratic Party marketing mantras. "The continuing threat"- pay attention to it- posed by right wing radio, is. At least this post is honest. What do you mean "no longer relevant". It's very important to us!

Lars represents conservatives the exact same way Blue Oregon represents liberals(progressives WTF you call yourself this month). You each speak for a sliver of the population. You rant and rave about each other in most times meaningless tirades. You had better check which direction the wind is blowing before you try and spit in Lars face.

Carla: How many "regular" commentors are here? Maybe 100. All I know is that I see the same names posting comments in almost every story. To me, that is hardly a "voice" for the majority of the left.

I didn't say all tirades were meaningless, just most of them. I will admit, that comment wasn't fair, it's not my place to judge the value of someone's tirade.

I reason I spend so much time here is that there is no where else to go. I have given up on the "right" and I can only hope to lessen some of the more far-left ideas that are here.

In simple terms, I could never be an R but I am not real comfortable with your version of D.....yet.

I believe the way the wind is blowing is pragmatism over ideology, and civil discussion over people who yell and use sarcasm. Anyone have evidence to the contrary?

One example to prove my point--a recent David Brooks column. He'd written a column the Obama White House folks didn't like. He had a conversation with some senior White House officials. This is part of his conclusion:

"Plus, I’m still convinced the administration is trying to do too much too fast and that the hasty planning and execution of these complex policies will lead to untold problems down the road.

Nonetheless, the White House made a case that was sophisticated and fact-based. These people know how to lead a discussion and set a tone of friendly cooperation."

I don't believe that Rush or Lars has a civil bone in their bodies. They are neither sophisticated, fact based, good discussion leaders nor people who are capable of friendly cooperation.

This is not about party. Several Republican legislators are civil and willing to discuss solutions rather than just preaching ideology. Which attack ads won elections in 2008? Not Novick in the primary or all sorts of attack ads in the general election.

I campaigned for Tom McCall and voted for President Ford, both common sense men with good manners. I refuse to accept the idea that in our lifetimes we will never see such civil Republicans again. And if anyone in the 97303 zip code doesn't like my attitude, they'd better hope no candidate they back is someone that folks in the rest of Marion County can vote on. I will not vote for someone who shows the sarcasm of Lrs & Rush--period, end of discussion.

I don't believe that Rush or Lars has a civil bone in their bodies.

Is Harrison Ford a former POTUS? Is Tom Cruise a Nazi? Is Sean Penn a gay SF Pol?

No? Oh that's right, it was just a character they played to make money and entertain us. So why is it you think Rush/Lars et al are the persona's they portray on the talking box. Don't you think that if liberal talk radio was the power that right radio is (and right as low as left is now) that those windbags would be the champions of YOUR cause. They get paid to be what they are....entertainers. Hell, if someone wanted to pay me $20M/yr to read that tripe, sign me up.

I met Lars at an event a while back and he seemed to be a very nice man. Not at all the character he plays on radio.

Just to add clarity to mp's comments, here is a clip of Lars "acting":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2N9Bjzgj9g

Carla, not everyone is enlightened enough to worship government and high taxes. And these people, like Lars, need to be identified, and especially have their guns taken. This is another reason I am behind Ted Kulongoski's mileage tax - let's GPS these creeps!

Thank you, Karl

I used to listen to Lars, and occasionally call in, but haven't for a couple of years.

Here are a few things I've observed:

Most days, within 5 minutes of listening I've heard things that just don't sound right. About half the time I've just known it's wrong, and the other half it's taken me about 5 minutes of research to confirm that he's way off base.

He'll let leftie callers go on if they don't have a clue what they're talking about, but if they have a firm grasp of the issue he'll interrupt repeatedly. Then, when they interrupt his interruption, he'll say something about "having a conversation", and eventually kill the call.

For all of his talk about being "for the little guy", he's generally not rude to people with enough clout that they're doing Lars a favor by appearing on the show. William Shatner talked about global warming and Lars didn't say boo about it.

Station management is completely uninterested in dealing with Lars proclivity to making things up.

If Lars were really a hot shot, he'd be on during drive time. He's not, and I believe he never has been.

I really don't have much opportunity to listen to him these days, but several years ago he just got boring. His style severely inhibits real debate, and it's just become bad radio.

I don't always agree with Ed Schultz, but I've always liked him because he's able to engage people with different viewpoints (though I don't have much opportunity to listen to him these days, either).

The argument that Lars and Rush are "just playing characters" doesn't cut it.

They both have appeared before conservative groups, and clearly their activism extends beyond the time they're on the air.

I don't know about Rush, but Lars gets himself on news shows, and presents himself as a conservative. I suppose it's possible that his lying extends to lying about his own basic viewpoint, but that wouldn't put him in a better light.

fbear

What's the difference between Lars on the news "promoting" his character and Tom Cruise on Letterman promoting his movie.

mp,

Lars isn't promoting his character. If he were promoting his character, he'd say something like "come listen to me play this character on my radio show." No, he's acting his "character" whenever he's in public.

Actors may endorse political causes, but they don't do it under the guise of a character they play. Are you saying that Lars is just playing a character when he sends out political endorsements? That's absurd.

WEll obviously most here don't "get" conservatives and never will. So the caricatures you invent have to suffice. So be it.

But there is no difference between left wing radio and right wing radio. I listen to most of them and Thom Hartman can be just uncivil as you cast Lars as being.

As for all the rest of them? There's plenty of ammo for both our sides to toss out as the "act" or wrong on many issues.

You can't stand Lars because he doesn't buy your progressive ideology and critiques it every day. Ok.

Richard,

I grew up with conservatives. I get them just fine.

Thom Hartmann can get snippy at times, but I've never heard him bully someone from the outset. And he's not a compulsive liar like Lars.

Just one example with Lars. He has claimed that the "best" study on second-hand smoke exonerates it for causing disease.

The funny thing is, that study was actually cited in a court decision, against the tobacco companies, as an example of tobacco companies paying for studies that minimize the risk.

fbear,

I guess the compulsive liar is in the ears of the listener.

I've listened to Hartman many times and heard him state nearly insane lies. More often than not he interpretes and restates what he says Conservatives mean. And he gets into the minds and reveals motives and plots of all kinds. More silly than lying at times.

I read and listen to libs talk about conservatives all the time.

Funny how I don't know ANY conservatives in the progressive's caricature. They aren't out there.

And here you have Lars completely wrong.

Shocking.

What an interesting concept. You were once exposed to an idea and it so irritated you, you ran out to become a liberal activist. Translated, you were once exposed to rational thought and it so pained you that you ran out to spread ignorance. Reminds me of the reception that Copernicus received from the church.

I've listened to Hartman many times ---sometimes very interesting esp. the Friday Brunch With Bernie hour with Sen. Sanders.

Sometimes he annoys me as much as Rush or Lars, esp. when I catch him in a lie or misconstruing something. So I check it out and usually find he took something out of context. Which is why I prefer Ed Schultz to any of the blindingly vocal partisans. More actual information from interviews across the spectrum on that show.

Listen, I "get" the original conservatives --Robt. Taft who was my Dad's hero even though my Dad outlived Taft by about 20 years, Barry Goldwater, Wm. F. Buckley, etc. Intelligent men with good manners.

What I have no use for are the Max Rafferty types--Rush and Lars fall into that category.

Look him up--Rafferty defeated a Republican incumbent US Senator by using sarcasm and attacks. He was an elected official at the time, and people who didn't like what he'd done in that job didn't vote for him. There was a joke about him then "should we send him to the US Senate to get him out of California, or vote against him to keep him in California and contain the damage?".

If you ever wondered "how on earth did Alan Cranston ever get elected to the US Senate?", that's your answer. The people who decided they didn't want to give Max Rafferty 6 years in the US Senate voted for Cranston.

And I don't remember people back then saying anyone who voted for Cranston didn't "get" conservatives. Perhaps that is because Goldwater and Buckley were in their heyday, and the difference between their genuine conservatism and the right wing blather of those like Rafferty was obvious.

We live in a new era, where "not left, not right, but forward" is the slogan of a new generation of activists who began getting elected to office in recent years. Argue all you want about Lars, how does that win the votes of young people?

LT - WFB and Rush were great friends. To think they are different is very telling of your "thinking."

People need to educate themselves if they think R's are anti-science or whatever the code word is for trying to debate lurch leftward.

Remember Pelosi is hanging her "life" philosophy hat on a 6th century scientist as opposed to science or her Church who supports the science, Obama is hanging his "economic recovery" hat on a the concept of a 1931 Keysian multiplier that perverts Keynes' philosophy, and the history of the progressive movement has an ominous philosophy on using science to reach it's ends.

The progressive version of "science" scares me as it has generations before me for good reason.

The mother of all progressive blunders is global warming and most conservatives along with Lars and Rush get it. So while most of you bellow about liars on right wing radio you're pushing the biggest lie in history.

Similarily on many other policies Lars and Rush are out in front of the truth while the left lingers in their story telling mode.

I listen to Ed Schults and he's a good ol boy for a lefty, but he's takes some severe turns from the truth and civility as well.

He ended a segment just this week with and angry, "You bastard conservatives".

Hartman has frequent moments of stark lunacy, Mike Malloy is as vile as anything on the air, and RFK jr's Ring of Fire is extremity at new levesl every week.

So let not your liberal hearts be troubled by Lars and Rush. You have your own champions of the progressive version of truth every where. ,

Hartman has frequent moments of stark lunacy

Really? Care to provide one specific instance?

Because I can google Rush or Lars and post about 150 audio and video clips of "stark lunacy" but for some reason the google must be broken on Tom.

Let's not forget another local KXL host, Rob Kremer. His reaction to proposed anti-bullying legislation:

"Why don't we just issue all the boys pink panties in kindergarten and make them wear them for 12 years?"

I kid you not!

And to think this guy is involved with schools. Scary thought!

fbear,

The idiocy of that bill deserves any lampooning by anyone. Naturally you avoided Kremer's point. Your ludicrous stretch to some worry about Kremer and schools is such BS.

The Bill is as dumb as the 24/7 school zone bill.

Scott, Hartman has few segments where does not sway into lunacy. You miss it of course. A recent one was his lecture on how Republicans and their corporatist masters are responsible for the illegal alien invasion and continued problem. Funny how 100% of Democrat members of Congress are in favor of blanket amnesty yet Thom doesn't get what that means.

Actually, Kremer hasn't said what his problem is with the bill, other than having to put pink panties on little boys.

And you've also not addressed any issues in the bill. Tell us all what the problems are with it.

Back to the topic of Lars, one of my favorite responses of his, after I asked him for his sources for something that seemed fishy (and he always says, or at least used to, that he's happy to provide his sources), was "I'm not going to do your research for you."

The trouble is, he doesn't seem to do any research for himself, either. Richard seems to have the same problem.

Am I the only one to notice that virtually none of these right-wing radio bloviators are veterans?

SgtMac, That's not quite true. Lars fought bravely in the War on Christmas.

Bill,

Actually, he chickened out. He cut and ran from his threat to carry a cross into Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Yeah, but he talked a tough game and that's the important part. This war fought on the far-off battlefields of Pioneer Square, will one day be glorified in movies and books, and Lars will be right there serving his book tour of duty. The GOP may have trashed the Constitution, ran an 8-year dictatorship, and sent our young soldiers to fight an unnecessary war for all the wrong reasons, but by God, when the dust settled, Santa Claus was still safe, and Lars played a big role in that.

Who can forget their famous battle cry: Don't nail him to the cross until you see the whites of their eyes!

Funny how 100% of Democrat members of Congress are in favor of blanket amnesty yet Thom doesn't get what that means.

That is a false statement.

A recent one was his lecture on how Republicans and their corporatist masters are responsible for the illegal alien invasion and continued problem.

I asked for a specific statement - not your interpretation of an alleged Hartmann segment. But for the sake of argument, let's say your interpretation is correct (a stretch, but work with me on this) how many owners, executives, or managers that are members and/or contributors to the RNC that have knowingly employed undocumented workers have been arrested or charged in a court of law? Would that be none or zero? Can you reconcile Gordon Smith's voting record with his well documented use of illegal aleins for decades?

Posted by: mp97303 | Mar 6, 2009 3:57:32 PM

... Is Tom Cruise a Nazi? ...

Actually, yes. Richard-less wonder doesn't warrant a response.

I prefer Schultz to Hartmann, mainly because Schultz is a little less wonkish than Thom. Enjoyed the conversation TH had a week or so ago with Tony Blankley. There are plenty of conservatives who can speak cogently on conservatism, Schultz has Richard Vigouri on regularly, I just wish these folks would get more air time instead of the parade of bomb throwers. The corner the bombthrowers have painted themselves into is that if they aren't throwing bombs, their listeners don't hear them. It's kind of sad.

All of the boys at Tillamook High School wore pink panties and they seemed to turn out fine.

Ask Lars!

Sid, I was wondering where the nickname "Lace Lingerie Lars" came from. Thanks for clearing that up!

Well Carla,

There is always Mike Maloy and Michael Savage

At least Lars shows it's not an Irish-American disease. Savage, Maloy, Hannity, O'Reilly, Grace, Cooper... And supposedly Rush's sensibilities are 100% his mother's humor, Millie Armstrong, Scots-Irish.

"Ya can tell an Irishman, but ya canna tell 'im mooch".

I was unable to get that data for Lars, though I did get enough to show that he is a liar. Larson long claimed his mother was killed by a drunk driver, but the record shows the car his mother was driving was hit by a sober woman who ran a stop sign in foggy Klamath Falls, similar to what Laura Bush did when she killed a man in Texas. But she's saved, hence justified.

Well, how seriously am I supposed to take this? OK. Lars Larson said, publicly, that he would take his shiny new 9mm and blow his daughter's brains out if she ever tried marijuana. Just to let us know it wasn't a joke, he added, "and she knows I mean it". But let's just think about what good fun he is for us. If Portland was progressive, he'd be rotting in a hole, instead of celebrating a birthday.