Glenn Beck Is Cerifiable

Glenn Beck is certifiable, of that I am certain. He now claims that the youth of today are being hijacked.

http://www.newscorpse.com/ncWP/?p=1559

Beck: Lenin had a phrase for people like these. They were called “useful idiots.” I think a lot of our twenty-somethings are becoming useful idiots. One of those useful idiots seems to be Meghan McCain. She is John McCain’s like totally awesome like daughter.

You see, Beck thinks that Progressives and Obama are attempting to turn children against their parents for the purpose of undermining the foundation of our society. Well, isn't it just like Glenn Beck to dream up this kind of rubbish. He must really be hurting for ratings. But then those who mindlessly follow this cretin are lapping it up.

Who was it that said, "Conservatives aren't all stupid people, but most stupind people are conservatives?" I would like to shake his hand.

EXPLOITING TRAGEDY - NOTHING SACRED TO THE GOP

I'm about as fond of Michele Bachmann as I am of slimy okra and Sarah Palin, but today she and the rest of her cohorts might just have placed themselves at the very top of my all-time scumbags list.

While the issue of Health Care Reform was gaining a little momentum with a couple of key endorsements, a Bachmann led Tea-Party event was grabbing headlines in the country's Capitol. Joining her on the stage were other noted Republicans such as Minority Leader John Boehner (OH), Minority Whip Eric Cantor (VA), Roy Blunt (MO), Jeb Hensarling (TX), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA), Michele Bachmann (MN) Virginia Foxx (NC), Ginny Brown-Waite (FL), Jean Schmidt (OH), Sue Myrick (NC), and many more.

As these notables rubbed elbows with about 2,000 wingnuts the signs and flags were waving. Including this one:

From the Daily Kos.

Our elected officials...our governmental elite...sponsoring and rallying at such an event.

As if it isn't bad enough that Glenn Beck and FOX News sees fit to exploit the tragic events of September 11th to boost their own ratings we now have those straight from the halls of government participating with those who have no morality or integrity in the streets of Washington, D.C. and not one objection from any of them.

Keep Your Eye On The Prize

AWESOME! That's exactly what I thought when I got the news that our President, Barack Obama, had been awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. What a statement and a testament to a man who has only held the office of Presidency for ten short months! It's a proud moment, indeed, for the United States of America who had lost so much stature in world affairs over the last several years.

Then...my jaw dropped, my eyes teared, and my heart sank as pundits and the right-wing began wagging their necrotic tongues. Their effusive dialogue can only be said to belie their continuous postulations of patriotism and love of this country.

While, I guess, the reaction should have been predictable, my optimistic and hopeful nature evidently blurred any prescience I might have had at my disposal. My moment of pride was soon defiled by the vitriol unleashed by loathsome pseudo-patriots of the right-wing.

Understanding that much of the current rancor among right-wingers and Republicans is lodged in the bowels of abject racism it should have come as no surprise when Erick Erickson of Red State retorted "I did not realize the Nobel Peace Prize had an Affirmative Action quota, but that is the only thing I can think of for this news."

It was surprising, however, in that he should make such an overtly racist statement and be so blatantly ignorant as to the nature of the prize which has recognized individuals of every race and nationality worldwide. Through such an acerbic statement Erickson not only cheapened the coveted prize but himself as well.

Additionally, the reaction by Rush Limbaugh was one that should have been easily predicted as the voracious and disgruntled Republican has been spewing his hate-filled, right wingnuttery for months now. This morning was no different as he said, "The Nobel gang just suicide bombed themselves," and "Something has happened here that we all agree with the Taliban and Iran about and that is he doesn't deserve the award."

The equally distasteful and repugnant Glenn Beck commented, "Obama doesn't deserve the prize but the Tea Party protestors do." Now, just what have the tea-baggers accomplished for world peace, I ask you?

With that, things got worse. Many suggest that he should not accept the prize while others question his "achievements," therefore whether or not he is deserving of such an honor. Still others belittle the prize itself.

In fairness, there are many who reside on the democratic and progressive side of the fence who believe that the awarding of the coveted prize to Obama came to quickly. Some question the timing and the validity of presenting him with such an award.

One can only imagine what the rest of the world is thinking. Last week, when the U.S. lost the bid for the 2016 Olympics, media personalities and people on the streets reveled in that loss. Today, as it was announced that President Obama would be the recipient of one of the greatest world-wide honors, the act was met with derision and denouncement.

From the Huffington Post we are told...

In its statement, the Committee said he had "created a new climate in international politics. ... Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future." It continued, "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population." That is, in other words, a true commitment to democracy.

You see, the Nobel Peace Prize isn't always about honoring a lifetime of achievement. Recipients aren't always determined upon criteria that requires concrete accomplishments or measurable outcomes. Sometimes it's awarded for the setting of a tone, the promise of change, or leadership and role-modeling.

Those who are hemorraghing and squealing like stuck pigs seem to lack the ability to think either in the abstract or deal with the reality that apparently the rest of the world prefers diplomacy, values, and character to a cowboy hat, boots, and a big belt buckle. The rest of the world would prefer leaders who are committed to solutions and peace to those with the "you're either with us or against us" mentality.

This isn't about who has the biggest and the baddest bombs or who can shock and awe the rest of the world into submission. It's about who has the ability and the acumen to recognize that we are all sharing this planet and that we must learn how to do so together and to lead us in the direction of peace rather than bullying people into submission.

As Robert Creamer so aptly noted...

" The Nobel Committee gave the prize to Barack Obama because he gave the world hope that its most powerful, wealthy nation would once again provide humankind with inspiration and leadership that can be trusted and admired.
Since his election, President Obama has launched a worldwide campaign to eliminate all nuclear weapons - recognizing that controlling the proliferation of nuclear weapons is a practical impossibility unless we work to eliminate them from the globe. He has rededicated America to cope with the massive threat of climate change. He has reset our relationship with the Muslim world. He has rededicated America to the world's international institutions. And, he has begun to use all of the tools available to our country - including diplomacy - to create a more just and peaceful planet.

All of this is just the beginning of a long journey. But at least we have once again begun that journey down the right road. In and of itself that has made America safer, restored our respect in the world, and has begun to build a foundation for peace in the world over the long term.
Americans may not fully appreciate how completely they changed our relations to the rest of the world when they voted to elect Barack Obama last November. The rest of the world does. We should consider Barack Obama's Nobel peace prize as a giant gesture of gratitude.

I see it that way.

COLD SHOT COMING ATCHA

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009 COLD SHOT @ 7:00 EST

ON TAP:

^ WHY YOU CAN'T "TAKE AMERICA BACK" - (The myths of the right and their propaganda)

^ OBAMA'S ADDRESS TO OUR CHILDREN - INDOCRINATION OR EDUCATION?

^ THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON - (Right-wingnuts descend on the Nation's Capitol)

^ THE DERRANGED RIGHT AND WHY THEY JUST CAN'T GET OVER IT

^ NEWS & VIEWS

---

PHONE LINES WILL OPEN AT APPROXIMATELY 8:00 EST

NUMBER TO CALL: :(347) 857-3972

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Whose To Blame?

David Neiwert has an uncanny ability to cut through all of rhetoric and get to the heart of the problem. This article from Crooks and Liars exemplifes that ability. Please visit the link and see the videos backing up Neiwert's premise.

"TO CROOKS AND LIARS

Wednesday June 10, 2009 06:30 pm
Glenn Beck and his fellow wingnuts proclaim Holocaust Museum shooter not a right-winger
By David Neiwert

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Glenn Beck and his fellow wingnuts -- the ones who have been whipping up hysteria among their right-wing populist followers since Obama's election and before -- essentially announced they have no intention of reflecting on their roles in today's horrifying shooting at the Holocaust Museum in D.C.

They did this by doing what they always do whenever these situations arise: First call it all an "isolated incident" committed by a "lone nutcase" who just happens to be acting out beliefs emanating from their own quadrant. Then, when that fails, blame it on the Left.

Beck offered the following rationale on his Fox News show tonight:

Beck: What they're missing is: The pot in America is boiling. And this is just yet another warning to all Americans of things to come.

Actually, Beck has this exactly right. But frankly, it's boiling because of people like Glenn Beck, ranting hysterically every night about impending apocalypses of various forms -- looming "liberal fascism," the "economic meltdown," the "New World Order," violence spilling over the Mexican border, even FEMA concentration camps.

As I tried to explain in the case of the shooting of Dr. George Tiller, when you spread far-right conspiracy theories through mainstream channels the way Beck does with such abandon, it not only validates their beliefs, it rather hyper-validates them: It tells these people -- who see the Becks and O'Reillys as part of the "liberal media" -- that things are even worse than they thought, and it often spurs them into action.

But Beck, naturally, has no intention of observing this reality. He's running as hard in the other direction as he possibly can:

Beck: This guy is a lone gunman nutjob. ... You're going to see a lot of nutjobs coming out of the woodwork now. There are two very important things that are happening here. First one: It's what I talked about two years ago, um, when I talked about the "Perfect Storm" -- I said that there is a storm formulating. And it is the economy, it is political correctness, it's corruption in Washington, it's militant Islam. It's all of these things.

I said when it comes onshore, there's going to be a "go go go" mentality. And that's what this is. There is a mentality in our enemies. Our country is now vulnerable. Those people who would like to destroy us -- our enemies like, uh, Al Qaeda. There are also enemies like white supremacists or 9/11 Truthers who would also like to destroy the country. They'll work with anybody they can.

... We are under attack in almost every shape and form in America. We need to look out for enemies foreign and domestic.

Second: There is gonna be a witchhunt, I believe, in this country, and quite possibly all around the world. For two groups. First group: Jews. It happens every time.

Second group: I think, Conservatives.

... Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security reports about right-wing extremists. You remember that came out a few weeks ago? Left-wing bloggers and some in the media have blamed conservative hosts like me or Bill O'Reilly for just stirring the pot! I'm not stirring the pot. I'm pointing out the pot is boiling and there is trouble in America. Since when -- have you ever heard of 'don't blame the messenger'?

Only when the messenger isn't also one of the people causing the phenomenon they're describing. Then it becomes celebration. And it's obvious that Beck has positively relished seeing the "boiling point" go higher and higher. Indeed, he's been doing his best to apply a white-hot flame to the pot.

Beck: This is not the work of right-wing conservatives. This is the work of someone today who is racist, crazy, or most likely, both. Common sense tells you that there are very hateful people on the Right and the Left.

Yes, but it seems that only one the Right do they do things like shoot up police officers who come to arrest them, or walk into Jewish centers of various kinds and start shooting (remember Buford Furrow?).

And there is little doubt that James W. Von Brunn was a right-winger -- a far right-winger:

Von Brunn has a long history of associations with prominent neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers. In the 1980s or early 1990s, von Brunn was employed by Noontide Press, a part of the Holocaust denying Institute of Historical Review, which was then run by Willis Carto, one of America’s most prominent anti-Semites.

Von Brunn is the author of the 1999 book, “Kill the Best Gentiles,” a racist and anti-Semitic tome that argues that whites are seeing “today on the world stage a tragedy of enormous proportions: the calculated destruction of the White Race and the incomparable culture it represents. Europe, former fortress of the West, is now over-run by hordes of non-Whites and mongrels.” A raging anti-Semite, von Brunn blames “The Jews” for the destruction of the West. The book is dedicated to prominent neo-Nazis and racists including Revilo Oliver and Wilmot Robertson.

In 2003, AP reported that von Brunn had painted a portrait of Rear Adm. John Crommelin, a raging anti-Semite who was a close associate of neo-Nazi William Pierce, whose book The Turner Diaries inspired Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

He's also a "birther." But the truly telltale aspect of his record: In 1981, he was arrested for attempting a "citizen's arrest" of Alan Greenspan at the Federal Reserve Building in D.C. and was sentenced to a prison term for it. Von Brunn claimed "sovereign citizenship" at the time, which almost certainly means he was an adherent of the white-supremacist/far-right movement called Posse Comitatus, and was acting on those beliefs.

More to the point, this is precisely the same belief system that today fuels the cottage industry in conspiracy theories -- promulgated by the likes of Ron Paul and Alex Jones -- that the Fed is part of a massive conspiracy of "international [read: Jewish] bankers" to enslave Americans and destroy the country. It's been around quite awhile, but lately it's been gaining the patina of being regurgitated for mainstream consumption on right-wing media. And in particular, on Glenn Beck's programs.

Here, for example, is the time Beck devoted an entire segment to promoting this conspiratorial view of the Fed.



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And then there was the more recent hour-long segment (promoted by Neil Cavuto on Fox as well) devoted to the latest permutation in these Patriot-movement conspiracy theories -- the "Civilest War" hour promoting "state sovereignty":


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As I said at the time:

Now, it's one thing to point out the radical origins of these "constitutional theories." But it's also important to understand where they want to take us -- to a radically decentralized form of government that was first suggested in the 1970s by the far-right Posse Comitatus movement.

They essentially argue for a constitutional originalism that would not only end the federal income tax, destroy all civil-rights laws, and demolish the Fed, but would also re-legalize slavery, strip women of the right to vote, and remove the principle of equal protection under the law.

Beck's not alone in trying to recast Von Brunn as just a "lone nutcase" inspired more by the left than the right. So is Michelle Malkin, who tries out the right's usual plaintive line, well-rehearsed for these situations: "[S]hooter wasn't 'left' or 'right,' just plain loony."

Um, no, actually, when you look at his record, he was indeed "Right." With a capital "R."

Malkin's main evidence that he has "left wing" associations? The fact that he's also a Troofer.

This is, of course, rich. Now, it should be noted first that there are certain zones of extremist wingnuttery that attract True Believers from both the Left and the Right. All of them are fundamentally conspiracist in their worldview. So you'll find anti-Semitic crap floating around hippie barter fairs of a nature similar to what you might find at a militia gun show. Conspiracy theorists like the Troofers attract people from both the Left and the Right.

The wingnuts have been trying frantically to make the public forget about the lethal existence of right-wing extremists ever since that Homeland Security bulletin came out -- largely because they want to cover up the fact that the distance between themselves and the real nutcases has become so short indeed.

But the violent extremists never let us forget. Sooner or later, they act on their beliefs. And that's when we start to see just how short that distance has become -- regardless of their attempts to claim the opposite.