Say Anything Blog

I’ll give Heitkamp kudos for having Fr. Schumacher from Mandan on as a guest host on this past Monday, but he himself is a pretty cheesy radio host.  I called in a few weeks ago to counteract all the people falling all over Conrad and defending Conradwide, he hung up on me when I quoted the Wall St Journal asking Conrad if he goes to August Busch IV if he needs a beer.  Hennen needs to get his radio station up and running quickly to counteract the buffoonery from Heitkamp as we go into this election.

KFGO has to put someone on

Mariachi music might attract a larger audience!

For any voter trying to choose between the two candidates for commander in chief, there is no better test than this: When American strategy in a critical theater was up for grabs, John McCain proposed a highly unpopular and risky path, which he accurately predicted could lead to success. Barack Obama proposed a popular and politically safe route that would have led to an unnecessary and debilitating American defeat at the hands of al Qaeda.

Frederick W. Kagan

Heitkamp, much like his predecessor Ed Schultz who only got his start on a national show (if you can call the few markets he’s in “national") by taking big-money gifts from high-power Democrats, is little more than a mouthpiece.

There’s no analysis there.  Just spin and dumbed-down rhetoric.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Rob,

That’s quite the story.  Is this factual?  If so, when is it coming out in the news and where’s the sources?  I’m the furthest from a democrat as they come but I’m here to say I hope what you are saying is true because if it’s not this type of blog or whatever we want to call it is going to make us (the republicans) look very silly.

-Tim

The story is real, and is now on the Forum’s website:

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=207637

I think SENATOR Heitkamp has some ‘splainin to do.  Since he aired a private conversation (which Clear Channel admits) then shouldn’t whatever legislative committee that oversees their ethics launch an investigation?  How must his constituients feel, knowing that something they say to him could end up on the air statewide?  Not to mention that he doctored the tape, too (which CC also does not deny). 

Heitkamp has been throwing a lot of stones at WSI, and maybe...just maybe...one of them bounced back and hit him where it hurts.

Tim, the colored words in the posts are links.  If you click those links you see the sources of the stories.

This is, in fact, a true story.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Rob,

I did click on them.  I respect what you and Steve Cates stand for but all I saw was a little blurb from some small scale news clip and nothing about the editing other than “according to reports”.

I mean, today, everyone gets to play the context game and if Joel is guilty of doing that, is it fair to label it “edited the voicemails” as if he was selling secrets to the Russians?  In reality, he probably just took things out of context.  Ask Rush Limbaugh how many times it happens to him.  Do you see him making a fit over it?  No, he uses it as a discredit machine in the future and laughs about it in the present.

All I’m getting at is I don’t think it’s going to help to make this some sort of conspiracy outside the fact the media might be hush about it.  I guess the reason I say this why not just put it in the back corner and use it to exploit something else.  Or in certain cases, as defense when someone on our side slips up and spins something foolishly.  All that needs to be said if they start slamming our side with something is, “hold on their Joel or Ed, see what Joel did back in 2006-2007?”

I look at it this way.  Joel took a voice message from his phone and stepped over the line pouring it over the airwaves.  It’s obvious the democrats wanted to pin the WSI mess on Hoeven in the worst way and evidently they tried everything they possibly could.  I say we stick it in our back pocket and let it be as it may be outside maybe a little pokes to the ribs to exploit the fact they were out to try and pin WSI on wrongful people.

Does anyone know what the voicemails said?  Or how Joel “edited” them?  I’m definitely curious to see, or I guess, listen to what he did with the message(s).

Oh and on a final thought, yes, I do agree with another poster that this probably makes people a little leery of talking with Joel behind closed doors.  I mean, they might now want something said in a public forum and could be worried what ole KFGO or Joel plans to do with it!

-Tim

Sorry Tim, didn’t mean to come off as sarcastic in that first comment.  Sometimes we do get people here who literally don’t understand the concept of a link.

As for Heitkamp editing the voicemails, as I said in the post that’s according to reports from Steve Cates and Sandy Blunt himself.  Now you can choose to believe those guys or not, but I thought the inclusion of that information was appropriate.  Especially given that I trust Cates, and that I wouldn’t put such a thing past Heitkamp.  It’s not a conspiracy. Cates/Blunt are making the accusation, I’m noting the accusation.

As for putting this in “our” back pocket, I don’t play that game.  The truth is the truth, and there’s no reason not to beat Heitkamp up on this like he deserves.  And if someone on the right does this and the left goes after him/her, well I’ll probably be going after that person too.

And also pointing out what Heitkamp did.

WSI is pretty much all the North Dakota Democrats have going into this election.  The Schneiders, most notably Jasper Schneider (frequent sit-in for Heitkamp), would like to see WSI turned back into their personal cash cow.  Back in the 1990’s their lawfirm was making hundreds of thousands of dollars from WSI for representing injured workers.

They’d like to go back to that.  And Heitkamp, also from a legal industry family, feels the same way.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Here is your proof the conversation was doctored by the Honorable Sen. Heitkamp. Blunt states in the AP article below “the comments were cut down and aired several times without his permission.”

FCC issues fine for KFGO broadcast


The Associated Press - Wednesday, July 09, 2008

FARGO, N.D.

The former owner of KGFO radio in Fargo has been fined for broadcasting a voicemail message left by former workers comp director Sandy Blunt.

The Federal Communications Commission fined Capstar $12,000 for airing the recording from Blunt to talk show host Joel Heitkamp. Blunt said the comments were cut down and aired several times without his permission.
Blunt says he’s pleased with the ruling. He says it shows that stations cannot put private information on the air.

Clear Channel Communications is the parent company of Capstar. Officials with Clear Channel and KFGO were not immediately available for comment.

So, basically, Heitkamp cherry-picked what Blunt said.

What an honest, upstanding guy that Heitkamp is.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Rob,

Just got done listening to your call.  As a person on the same team as you I would like to take it to the democrats but I have to be honest in that I don’t think this is one of those times.

Even though I trust Cates I have some suspicions about Blunt.  I mean, there’s a lot of stuff floating around and Blunt would rather stay hidden from it instead of taking it on in a public arena.  So I have to wonder at times what’s really going on.

Whether Joel should have aired that voicemail or not is questionable (I’d like to hear it actually) but I’m doubting he edited it in some “professional” way to make a different message.  Did he do the ole trick-a-roo with word spins and context clips, I wouldn’t put that past him or anyone.  Hell, I do it at times and I’d be willing to call anyone a liar straight to their face that trys to tell me they haven’t done it before themselves.

Of course, there is a limit to what is considered too far and without knowing the whole story it gets difficult to dig the truth up without putting a target on one’s own back.

Anywho, no problem with the link comment.  I know exactly what you are talking about being a manager of a large website.  I was only chirping in because I didn’t really like the feel of this and I’m hoping it kind of fades off.  We have other legitemate tools to combat the left.

As always, keep up the good work.

-Tim

I actually think this is a pretty legitimate reason to hammer Heitkamp, at least.  The level of dishonesty from the Democrats about WSI in general deserves some recognition.

Like on Jim Long, for instance?  Has Heitkamp even once mentioned that Long was fired from his job for flinandering with/showing favoritism to an underling?  I have the documentation from several WSI employees who signed statements to that effect, but it’s never been reported in the state media.

Is this issue a huge one?  No.  But Heitkamp deserves to have his hide tanned about it.

And, for the record, I’ve never been a huge Sandy Blunt fan.  But the charges against him in Bismarck are trumped up.  He was a bad director, not a criminal.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Who knows what is true and what is not, but to call Blunt a suspicious deviant because he is not talking publicly is a bit of a stretch for me. Let’s see, he is being criminally charged for crimes of which he is innocent. How would you handle this if you were in his shoes as a stranger in a strange land? Do you think his attorney has told him not to talk publicly? Me personally, I say yes he has. You have a rouge state’s attorney who is taking crumbs and trying to serve a seven course meal for 100,0000 guests from those crumbs. Anything the man says will surely show up as being used against him. What this shows is that the unrelenting smear campaign against innocent people has worked and we are buying into to lies as facts. This is really dangerous. Let’s all hope that the state’s attorney is exposed before they choose to do the same to any of us. This issue is bigger than Blunt, it is about individual liberties and how one or two people with power can do as they wish to anyone they so choose ... this is what should really scare us all.
Hey Rob, did you ever meet Blunt? Have you ever spoken to him? Have you ever seen what he inherited and what he achieved even while at the same time being ripped by the left wing, the media, auditors, investigators, attorney’s, legislators, some board members, etc.? I did/do know him and the job is/was not as easy as you say. It is easy to comment upon that which you do not know. I for one will stand up for him and point out he and WSI did good things and made big changes. Just because fraud was altered per audit recommendations and touched close to home does not make his a bad manager. Maybe you should meet him one day and spend some time with him like Steve Cates has before you claim his incompetence so widely. You are better than Heitkamp and low brow shots like that.