CON GAMES: The Smallest Man In Aspen

January 8th, 2010 at 04:20pm Michael Conniff 2

I decided over five years ago I was going to leave Andrew Kole alone, mainly because I thought he was harmless, small-minded, and insignificant. Unfortunately, though small-minded and insignificant, he is not harmless: the time has come to say that virtually everyone in Aspen agrees that Andrew Kole is an annoyance, a pest, and (much worse) a back-stabber. The number of people who can’t stand him could win him an Aspen election twice over.

Totally by coincidence, twice in the past week two people came up to me in Parallel 15 and started to rant about him, with both whistling the same old tune: he acts nice to your face and then he stabs you in the back and then he acts like he can’t understand why you don’t like him.

I will add a third example to this mix. Andrew Kole went up to one of my most important advertisers on my “Con Games” show (KNFO 106.1 FM) not long ago and asked: “Why are you advertising on that show? Nobody listens to ‘Con Games’ in Aspen.”

“That’s funny,” said my advertiser. “Tons of people in town say they heard me on the show.”

You get the picture: Andrew Kole, for whatever perverted reason, tries to hurt people, and he just enough of a pain in the ass to do it. I’ve ignored him successfully for years but this week, in a letter to the editor, he went after me:

“Secrets of Aspen and The Con Man. It’s a TV show — a bad TV show. The fact Michael Conniff expounded on it with the ‘best audience in talk radio,’ and nobody called in, says something. By the way, I’m curious, Michael, ‘what makes your audience the best in talk radio?’ Did they take some sort of ‘best’ test? Or, is it just because they tune in?”

(1) People did call in to talk about “The Secrets of Aspen,” so that’s a flat-out lie.

(2) Andrew Kole is (was) a member of “the best audience in talk radio” and he’s called in over a dozen times.

(3) If he doesn’t like the show, how come he not only listens to it but regularly beseeches me to put him on the show for every possible reason, including (ludicrously) as a sports expert.

(4) The only time he was on the show as a guest was when he ran for Aspen City Council and I could not avoid it. He got creamed because nobody likes him.

I would mention something that I’ve said to Andrew’s face: he’s got no backbone. Not once, when I stick my neck out an issue has he ever gotten my back. Not once. He is like a barky dog that bites but then runs at the first sign of trouble. I’m amazed that anyone in Aspen ever does business with him. And his love affair with Marilyn Marks and Elizabeth Milias is beyond revolting. There’s a threesome for you.

One other thing about that “best audience in talk radio” claim. I take my show and my audience very seriously, and I realized early on that “Con Games” listeners are a precious resource to me and to each other in every way. Sure: some people go on and on or lose their focus, but very few days go by without a true gem.

There was the caller who came on the show after saying he had been waterboarded. Wow!

And just this week, the most recent example, Thomas from Snowmass Village called in to say he had landed at the Detroit airport moments before the bomber had tried to set off his bomb. Double wow!

One final word to Mr. Kole: if you have problems with “Con Games” why have you tried and tried again to get on the show, and why have you kept calling all these years?

Oh, that’s right: I forgot: you always say one thing to a person’s face and then stab them in the back. The best audience in talk radio is too good for that kind of deceit.

Entry Filed under: Aspen, People, Pitkin County

5 Comments Add your own

1. ckraiser | January 8th, 2010 at 7:25 pm

I whole heartedly agree that Andrew Cole is annoying, however, he is but a fraction of an annoyance that you are Mr. Conniff
2. Post Staff | January 14th, 2010 at 12:59 pm

(Editor's Note: Andrew Kole responds)

Dear Editor:

It seems Michael Conniff wants to pick a fight with me.

Based on the angry tone of his letter to the editor, you'd think I slept with his wife. Let me say, “I did not, never, sleep with that woman.”

His letter originally appeared as a blog on Aspen Post, but now has reached the local newspapers.

The reason for his letter was my tongue-in-cheek letter a few days ago in which I talked about the “Secrets of Aspen” and the Con Man, and said, “It's a TV show — a bad TV show. The fact Conniff expounded on it with the ‘best audience in talk radio,' and nobody called in, says something. By the way, I'm curious, Michael, ‘What makes your audience the best in talk radio?' Did they take some sort of ‘best' test? Or, is it just because they tune in?” That was it, in its entirety.

This seems to have set him off to the degree he felt that “I went after him,” and he needed to respond with the truth, according to Michael.

What inspired me to respond were a few specific things I have referenced in quotes at the beginning of each of the following points:

1. I did say, “Nobody called in to talk about ‘Secrets of Aspen.'” I was wrong. Since I left my house at 8:30, I missed the calls. I'm sure they were abundant, and stimulating.

2. Conniff says, “I sought out one of his advertisers” to discredit him. Not true, but why let the facts get in the way of a little talk show outrage. I did run into one advertiser who promotes Aspen's energy rebate program, and asked him why KNFO instead of KAJX, which seemed like a better fit since the rebate program is for Aspen homeowners. The advertiser told me how much he had to pay, a nominal amount, so it made sense to me.

3. Conniff says, “Totally by coincidence, twice in the past week two people came up to me ‘to rant about Andrew Kole.'” I will admit nobody in the last week, month, or year has come up to me to even talk about Conniff.

4. Conniff says, “Virtually everyone in Aspen agrees Kole is an annoyance…” and basically nobody likes him. A half-truth. I can be annoying, but I can name more than a dozen people who like me: Roger Marolt, Karen Nye, Cliff Weiss, Elizabeth Milias, Mimi Lenk, Pete Louras, Mick Ireland (a maybe — not a definite), Pam Cunningham, Derek Johnson, Gram Slaton, Terri Butler, Boogie, David Cook, Adam Frisch, the girls at Victoria's, and the former cast of the TV show, “Eight Is Enough,” to name just a few.

Finally, in an effort to come down to the level of “mean” in Michael's letter, let me say, “I might be annoying, but at least I'm not boring.”

Andrew Kole

Aspen
3. Frosty Wooldridge | January 15th, 2010 at 3:48 pm

CONGRESS CUTTING AMERICANS’ FINANCIAL THROATS: IMMIGRATION AND OUTSOURCING JOBS

By Frosty Wooldridge

Look across the American unemployment landscape to see 15 to 20 million Americans without jobs, without hope and without a way out. Witness 35 million Americans subsisting on food stamps. Millions of U.S. teenagers cannot ‘buy’ a job. Watch accelerating home foreclosures for millions of Americans.

Then watch what the U.S. Congress continues: outsourcing of millions of jobs, insourcing of millions of jobs and offshoring of manufacturing jobs. On top of that, as we outsource millions of jobs to Asia, we import 100,000 immigrants legally every 30 days, month in and month out, year in and year out. Congress engages hundreds of thousands of H-1B and H-2B visas for foreign labor annually with no let up in sight!

Does any of that make sense to any American with an ounce of common sense?

In a column by economist Mike Folkerth, more intelligent than any you will read from Time or Newsweek Magazine, he wrote, “But, the Chinese Can Make it Cheaper; Well Duh!” You will find him at www.kingofsimple.com. I spoke with him and obtained permission to interview:

“There are certain blatant issues that seem so apparent that we often think that everyone must be fully aware of their dastardly consequences,” said Folkerth. “But on the other hand, I consider that perhaps, Alfred North Whitehead was correct when he said, “It takes an unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.”

“Our trade deficit for November was once more on the increase, a hefty 10% increase at that. In plain English, this means that we are buying considerably more of the items that we use in our daily lives from foreign nations, than foreign nations buy from us. We crossed that line of imbalance in 1970 and our government has been working on the problem every since. Hey, these things take time.

How about Americans making products for America?

“On that subject, I was just listening to a financial expert say that American exports need to pick up,” said Folkerth. “America needs to make more of what the world wants to buy.”

“I know that my solution is ridiculous, but how about this; why not have America make more of what Americans buy every day? Wow, what a breakthrough in international trade balance and I did it with 3rd grade math.

“Think about what I just said. We have purposely shipped our critical core industry to China, Japan, India, South Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and a hundred other places that I’m not sure I can spell, in order that these foreign nations can then send it back for the unemployed Americans to purchase. Am I missing something here?

“And now the financial experts say that we need to increase our exports so that we can pay for our imports? “HELLO, earth to Americans, all we have to do is export to ourselves.” As in, out of the American factory and on to the American shelves. It’s an ancient tradition that was used to build America. It’s called a full circle economy.

“Isn’t it amazing what propaganda and indoctrination can do? News media to the average American citizen, “We live in a global economy you know?” American citizen to news media, “Uhhhhhh…okay.” American citizen to the next person that they meet, “We live in a global economy you know?” Next person responding, “Uhhhhhh…sure, I knew that.”

“All of this leads up to the complex burning question of, why? Why do we import more than we export when we have 27,000,000 unemployed/under employed Americans that want to go to work? Why not make these goods ourselves? I’m told that such activity creates jobs. I’ll do some research on that rumor and get back with you. Okay, I’m done and it works.

“Why would the greatest industrialized nation in the world allow their population to stagger to their unemployed knees while having a communist foreign nation provide us with our basic manufactured goods?”

The big question remains “Why?”

“Why import products from half way around the world that we have historically produced for ourselves when millions of our fellow Americans are unemployed?” said Folkerth. “Why allow such institutions as The-China-Connection-Wal-Mart to exist when America is on the brink of collapse?

“So am I an isolationist? I’d say yes, and proud of it; charity and employment start at home. I’m also a realist and I can do the revealing math in my sleep.

“There is no such thing as the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy. There is no such thing as a service and information economy. There is no requirement to globalize and this is NOT a global economy outside the devious minds of government and big business.

“Through effective propaganda, we’ve been led to believe that Americans are bad people who charge too much for their labor. That’s right; the unions are at fault, not the high paid management that agreed to the union contacts.

“We’ve been conditioned to believe that we can’t make the products that we use daily, because the Communist Chinese can make them cheaper! Well duh, why do we think the Communist Chinese live in abject poverty? You don’t suppose there is a connection do you?

“If it takes higher cost goods to support our way of life, so be it. Pay more, get higher quality, and buy less. The alternative is to sink to the level of those who are currently taking our jobs and our way of life; at the behest of our government and big business leaders I might add.

“The immediate solution to unemployment is simple; we need to revert back to supporting ourselves and our local communities rather than supporting multi-national corporations whose total goal is profit at any cost. That cost was Middle America.

“But then, that’s not what we are doing at all; instead, we also import 1.2 MILLION foreign workers annually to compete with the unemployed Americans. Truth is far stranger than fiction.”

After talking with Folkerth, my burning question remains this: why do we suffer a $700 billion trade deficit annually, with 15 to 20 million unemployed Americans while and 35 million Americans on food stamps? Why do our Congress critters think cheap Chinese products remain a ‘good thing’ with so many of our citizens unable to buy them because they do not enjoy jobs?

Mark Twain said, “Suppose you were an idiot; and suppose you were a member of Congress…ah, but I repeat myself.”

##
Frosty Wooldridge has bicycled across six continents – from the Arctic to the South Pole – as well as six times across the USA, coast to coast and border to border. In 2005, he bicycled from the Arctic Circle, Norway to Athens, Greece. He presents “The Coming Population Crisis in America: and what you can do about it” to civic clubs, church groups, high schools and colleges. He works to bring about sensible world population balance at www.frostywooldridge.com He is the author of: America on the Brink: The Next Added 100 Million Americans. Copies available: 1 888 280 7715
4. Mike McGarry | January 18th, 2010 at 4:00 am

"Quite frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."--Rhett Butler, Gone With the Wind

Michael Conniff: “Andrew Kole is a stupid idiot.”

Andrew Kole: “Michael Conniff is the stupidest stupid idiot in the whole wide world.”

Michael: “None of the other kids like stupid Andrew Kole, because he's so stupid and junk and stuff.”

Andrew: “I have like zillions more friends than Michael Conniff, who is a big fat stupid, and I can prove it.”

Michael: “I have the best talk-show audience in radio, and they all like me and think Andrew Kole is stupid, and a bunch of stuff like that.”

Andrew: “My mom's gunna tell Michael Conniff's mom he always says stupid stuff all the time and what a stupid idiot he is plus he's gunna be in trouble.”

Michael: “My dad was in the army and he beat up lots of Germans and stuff in some war and he can also beat up Mr. Kole (Stupid's Dad) any ol' day he wants, and he's also stupid and everybody hates him, also.”

Andrew: “Michael Conniff's brain is as big as a teenie-weenie speck, which is why he's more stupid then even someone stupid enough to live on Mars or in outer space or in the ground.”
5. Michael Conniff | January 18th, 2010 at 3:55 pm

Mr. McGarry:

That must have been your father beating up the Germans.

Best, Con Man!