Day: 8/27/2009

Glenn Beck Is (Still) A Dirtbag

Posted by on August 27, 2009 at 8:55 pm. 7 Comments :

This is day four of Glenn Beck’s special, “The New Republic.” In today’s sermon, Pastor Beck sought to inspire his flock with tales of his own decrepitude. He started with a reminder of his past as an alcoholic:

“After I sobered up I admitted that I was a dirtbag, man, I was DIRTBAG!

I have tried my hardest to not be a dirtbag anymore.”

He’s going to have to try harder, because the latest raving installment of his Acute Paranoia Revue is a downhill skid into utter dementia. The premise is that President Obama is recruiting a force of civilian troops that Beck speculates will be aimed at his parishioners, Sarah Palin, Tea Baggers, and most frighteningly, himself. However, A quick glance at the non-partisan Factcheck.org tells us that the “civilian national security force” Obama referenced is not the dark conspiracy imagined by Beck. In fact, Beck appears to have deliberately misrepresented Obama’s remarks on the subject. In the following quote from Obama, note the highlighted snippet in the middle, which is the only part that Beck cited:

“We will enlist our veterans to find jobs and support for other vets, and to be there for our military families. And we’re going to grow our Foreign Service, open consulates that have been shuttered and double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011 to renew our diplomacy. We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set.

“We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded. We need to use technology to connect people to service. We’ll expand USA Freedom Corps to create online networks where American can browse opportunities to volunteer.”

Obviously Obama was not talking about a military force. He was talking about AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, the USA Freedom Corps (a Bush initiative), and the Foreign Service. Just as obviously, Beck knew the complete quote but chose to play only the bit of it that he could frame as scary. This could not be more dishonest if Beck just declared that Obama was the Queen of England. And this was not an incidental segment, Beck devoted the whole hour to this fabrication even though he knew it was a lie.

At one point Beck asks why no one in the administration is answering his questions. It’s probably the same reason that they wouldn’t answer questions posed by Charles Manson or Fred Phelps. Paranoid schizophrenics are not entitled to have presidents respond to their delusional queries.

Is it any wonder that more and more major American corporations want nothing to do with this nutcase? Today, Color of Change announced ten more companies pulling out of Beck’s show. Here is a the complete list. And for a good laugh, check out the list of advertisers remaining with Beck.

Fox News is pretending that the boycott has no had effect on their business. They’ve said that any advertisers that pulled out of Beck’s show just shifted their ads to other programs on Fox. Even if that’s so, it doesn’t erase the fact that the telemarketing ventures that now make up Beck’s ad clientele are certainly not paying the same rates that Procter & Gamble or GEICO did. And the best evidence that the boycott has drawn blood is Beck himself. He is too cowardly to directly address the matter, but today he made a thinly disguised reference to “powers” that are trying to “drum him out.” And, dagnabbit, he’s not backing down…

“I will use American ingenuity and my ingenuity and I will will pull myself up. And I will find another way to get this message out on a platform that will be a thousand times more powerful. Because of my faith, I know how this story ends. The truth shall set you free. America, you prepare to witness mighty and powerful miracles in your lifetime.”

What I’d like to know is, what is this platform, to which he refers, that is a thousand times more powerful than what he’s currently using? And if he can use it to get his message out, why isn’t he doing so now? And just what is he alluding to when he talks about the “mighty and powerful miracles” we’re about to witness? If I didn’t know better, I’d think he is prophesying the Apocalypse. Nah…He’s no messianic cult leader. Is he?

The Pentagon Approved Press Corps

Posted by on August 27, 2009 at 11:27 am. 1 Comments :

Stars and Stripes is reporting a disturbing initiative emanating from the Pentagon’s communications office:

“As more journalists seek permission to accompany U.S. forces engaged in escalating military operations in Afghanistan, many of them could be screened by a controversial Washington-based public relations firm contracted by the Pentagon to determine whether their past coverage has portrayed the U.S. military in a positive light.”

This is another example of the government attempting to color the coverage of military affairs in favorable terms. It is nothing short of propaganda, which is illegal when conducted by government agencies and aimed at the American public:

“No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other Act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by the Congress.” [Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-447, div. G, title II, 624, 118 Stat. 2809, 3278 (Dec. 8, 2004). (The language of the prohibition has remained virtually unchanged since 1951.)]

What makes this story something of a surprise is that this isn’t the Bush Defense Department implementing this policy – it’s the Obama administration. And to add further to the offense, the contractor hired by the Pentagon to perform these screenings is The Rendon Group, a PR firm that was used by the Bush administration to justify the phony war in Iraq by producing false reports that asserted the presence of weapons of mass destruction. Rendon was also responsible for the Iraqi National Congress, a front group formed to oust Saddam Hussein. Ahmed Chalabi, a criminal, liar, and, not surprisingly a favorite of American neo-cons, was installed as the head of the INC.

There is no justification for the sort of manipulative practices revealed by Stars and Stripes. The press should not permit themselves to be controlled by government and/or military bureaucrats. And there is no excuse for the current White House to affiliate itself in any way with the disreputable likes of the Rendon Group. If this President expects to be taken seriously as a reformer, and an advocate of transparency and honest governance, this relationship with Rendon must be discontinued immediately.

Update 8/30/09: Good news. The Pentagon has canceled the Rendon contract. That was fast.