When Wingnuts call in to Air America Radio...

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

...I can usually peg them within a few to several seconds of their call.

Their voice inflection usually betrays thinly veiled anger. You can picture the caller's mouth drawn into a tight lipped, straight line. That's usually the giveaway for me, before they've said much of anything.

Doesn't take 'em long to bust out with their line ("you'd be happier if Saddam was still in power, wouldn't you" etc.)

Most of the one's I've heard have a southern accent, whether they say they're calling from Detroit or Mobile. Not a region bashing thing, just an observation. Makes me wonder if Rove or Scaife have a little "call factory" in Texas or GA somewhere, the same place where the clone emails are written and sent out.

It'd be interesting to keep a log of the caller ID on these callers.

[havocmom]

1. Can't cost too much to rent a boiler room

Products that won't sell can afford them ;)

[unpossibles]

2. the thing I notice is how predictable they are

They will mention one or more of the following in mere seconds:

Socialism
Clinton
Freedom

and often end up trying to scream about it.

The other thing I notice is they always lump us together... ;)

[tk2kewl]

6. and we are so happy to have them...

they make themselves out as idiots and help get the point across :D

[joefree1]

3. Sock puppets

I've noticed the same set of usernames on many political forums expressing their outrage that we liberals would dare speak out against the chimpster. Probably some bitter dude sitting in the dark somewhere posting his/her frustrations at the world. Question is do they think of their multiple sock puppets as real people and their only true friends and patriots?

[napi21]

4. Don't know if Scaife is behind it or not, but I've heard many times

that the Pubs have a set group of people designated to call cspan's WJ every morning. I'm sure they've expanded it to calling LW radio shows too!

I enjoy hearing the different hosts smack them down, and how each host deals with them differently.

Too bad the RW hosts aren't as talented! They won't let any opposition calls on the air!

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[I Have A Dream]

11. I hope that you're being sarcastic. n/t

[madinmaryland]

19. Huh?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

7. I think I've actually heard Hannity let some "opposition" callers on

in the past. Haven't listened in on him forever. What I recall is that he doesn't actually do very well responding to those callers. In other words I don't think his show screens as completely as Rush.

Some of the shows (I'm thinking Rush?) sometimes let prescreened idiotic opposition callers on who can't formulate a sentence much less an argument. I often wonder whether some of these are plants.

[bullwinkle428]

18. I've listened to bits & pieces of Hannity's show enough times

to know how he deals with these opposing points of view - he starts to talk louder and louder in an effort to shout them down, and eventually, when the caller tries to speak up louder to get their point across, he tells his producer to cut them off! It's the same procedure every time, and it's why I haven't wasted 2 minutes listening to that show for over a year now...

[SpiralHawk]

8. A Republican propaganda 'Call Factory" Hmmm?

The Repubs seems to have a propaganda "letters to the editor" Factory, so why not use the phone as well.

It figures. That's what you get the BushCo Culture of Corruption.

[marbuc]

9. I'm sure they do

and you can distinguish these callers when they rattle off a series of unconnected talking points, with no real defense. Randi has had two such callers in the last couple of days, and I'm convinced they were generated from "call factories," or at the very least, Republican volunteers with a script in hand.

[longship]

10. Hahahaha... Detroit

...whether they say they're calling from Detroit...

The Motor City is my home town. Believe me, there are no wing nuts in Detroit, the most liberal city in the country.

[unpossibles]

12. I have to say

I went to a vintage scooter rally (Vespas, lambrettas, etc.) in Detroit this past summer and that everyone was super friendly and cool to us.

I had a blast and loved your city, except for some of the crater-sized potholes. Motown rocks.

[longship]

13. Crater-sized potholes.

That's what happens when a city loses over 1,000,000 people in two decades. That's well over 50% of the previous population. I lived in Detroit (yes, *in* the city) for thirty-some years. It was a beautiful place. Now, it is a hollow shell. In the 1980's when Detroit was at its lowest ebb there was a saying, Will the last person out of Detroit please turn off the lights as they leave. Think about it, a city of almost 2 million people loses a million population in a short period of time.

[Love Bug]

14. Well, people were told to "hit 8-Mile" if they didn't like it there

Guess they did.

I grew up in Detroit -- went to Henry Ford High on the west side. Detroit was a great city but never the same after the '67 riots.

[longship]

15. Aha! Hi Love Bug from a Cooley High grad.

I remember summer of 1967, the Nat'l Guard driving past my house with machine guns loaded. They'd smile at you and wave as they'd drive by. The sky was filled with smoke; the inner city in flames. Mayor Jerry Cavanaugh did a wonderful job of pulling the city back together.

Then, the motor companies ignored every market indicator and continued to build fall-apart gas guzzlers while only Japan saw the future. That's how a city commits suicide.

[txaslftist]

16. Hicks talk like hicks.

Whether they're in Texas or Minnesota. I heard more Y'alls living in Wisconsin than I do living in Lubbock.

I heard the n word more often, too. 'Course, Lubbock ain't Mobile.

[Danger Duck]

17. You have to be nuts

to call into a talk radio program. It takes so long to get through, and they make you sit on hold, and all that time, you're just getting angrier. I've tried it in my younger and more formative years, but Ididn't have the patience. So these right nutjobs that are ettign through, they are the true believers or gainfully employed by the true believers. Real wack jobs.,

[skypilot]

20. The ones I usually peg are...

...the ones who are just a little too polite at the beginning of the call. I can tell that they are trying to sound like the "rational" conservative about to confront the "irrational", "hate-filled", "Bush-bashing" liberal. There's a subtle "tell" in their politeness that gives them away.

[derby378]

21. "Jim in Dallas" (a couple of days ago)

He was the one badgering Randi and insisting she wanted Saddam back in power. In a magnanimous gesture of patience, she gave Jim a chance to explain his position. But he couldn't. He came across as being dumber than a box of hammers.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

25. I was thinking of him... sounded quietly, politely, angry in his first few

words. It should be a drinking game. Whoever pegs the wingnut correctly first, the other guy drinks. If you pull the trigger incorrectly, you must drink twice.

As far as that guy goes, he either heard that talking point ("you want Saddam back in power") on Rush, or was told it by his handlers, and couldn't get past the talking point.

[stop the bleeding]

22. Yeh, I live in the red state of Florida and there a lot - repeat

a lot of Bush stickers and dumb asses down here.

:(

[Skidmore]

23. I liked it when Malloy (subbing for Springer) took one to

task and explained to him why he wasn't really a conservative after all. Guy gave and hung up.

[B Calm]

24. Oh man, Malloy gave that guy two black eyes in two seconds flat.

The guy made the comment that he was making fun of him, but Malloy set him straight on that too..