Month: January 2011

Glenn Beck’s Top Ten Reasons To Kill Your Congressman

Posted by on January 12, 2011 at 7:20 pm. 17 Comments :

Glenn BeckYesterday Glenn Beck introduced a petition that he described as a challenge to America. In truth it was nothing more than a self-serving stunt that enumerated a bunch of repetitive calls to denounce violence. This sets Beck apart from the millions of people in America whom he seems to think are clamoring for more of it.

Today Beck spent almost the whole hour whining that only 14 members of congress signed his silly petition. That’s a pretty dismal showing of support. Considering that congress now has 289 Republicans (House and Senate), Beck only managed to snare about 5% of his ideological allies. He was obviously devastated at having been snubbed so brutally. He heaped scorn on those who rebuffed him, blaming them for playing politics. He went on ad nauseum about not being able to understand how anyone could refuse to sign the farce that he regarded as so well-intentioned.

Other than Beck, no one should be surprised that his petition was so universally dismissed. It would be like McDonalds circulating a petition denouncing junk food. Beck is perhaps America’s foremost purveyor of violence-soaked hate speech and has no intention of changing. His history of incendiary language is rich with examples that are indefensibly bloodthirsty. And despite his denial, this sort of rhetoric can motivate the weak, the gullible, and the paranoid. So without further ado I present Glenn Beck’s justifications for political assassination.

Glenn Beck’s Top Ten Reasons To Kill Your Congressman

  • January 19, 2010: The progressive movement is sucking the blood out of each of the parties. This is their opportunity to finally win and progressives will, admittedly, do anything to win. They’ll lie, cheat, steal. Do you really think you can pull them off your neck with a ballot box? You must drive a steak through the heart of this movement. … [Obama]’s not a Democrat. He is a progressive.
  • June 10, 2010: Shoot me in the head if you try to change our government. I will stand against you and so will millions of others. We believe in something. You in the media and most in Washington don’t. […] They believe in communism. They believe and have called for a revolution. You’re going to have to shoot them in the head. But warning, they may shoot you.
  • November 13, 2009: Barack Obama and Congress are selling you a bill of goods. It is only when you take down the mask of sunshine and lollipops that you will see the real thing – the real image. Destruction. These bills are creating the path to America’s destruction.
  • July 23, 2010: They’ve already taken over health care. Is there any greater control than that of deciding the fate of someone’s life?
  • July 23, 2010: The financial regulation that the president signed into law yesterday is an unprecedented assault on our economy, our ability to do business and, quite honestly, the republic as we know it.
  • October 30, 2009: When you pull back the curtain, you will see that free speech is being eradicated for controlled speech: Control over the media; control over the Internet; control over you.
  • March 8, 2010: There is an effort to indoctrinate [our kids]. … Even President Obama, in his own Web site, targeting our children. … Get the kids out of this indoctrination or our republic will be lost.
  • April 24, 2007: I have been telling you for months now that illegal immigration is creating a new civil war in this country.
  • September 2, 2009: I’m going to show you the beginning of something that should scare the living daylights out of you. It is propaganda in America. The National Endowment for the Arts is now holding conference calls.
  • December 14, 2009: The climate cult wants more than just your recycling bin. … what they want is total submission.

Glenn Beck has assembled a pretty comprehensive list of things that will doom the republic. They include health care, religion, financial regulation, education reform, Network Neutrality, immigration, art, global warming, cap and trade, the census, cash for clunkers, and even food safety. Did I leave anything out? Yes I did. How about…

People that don’t attend his rallies?: There are people now who are saying: I don’t know if I am going on 8/28. I don’t know if I’ll go to another Tea Party. Well, if you’re done, then the republic truly is done. If you’re done, they will take your liberty as well.

And how about…

Sarah Palin? Sarah, as you know, peace is always the answer. I know you are feeling the same heat, if not much more on this. I want you to know you have my support. But please look into protection for your family. An attempt on you could bring the republic down.

As it turns out, our republic must be pretty weak. Almost anything can bring it down according to Beck. I wouldn’t sneeze too hard if I were you. But one risk that Beck stubbornly refuses to acknowledge is that inflaming people’s fears about the end of the world that they know and cherish could drive certain individuals to take extreme measures in what they regard as the protection of their family and country. If you believed that our government were actually behaving in the manner described by Beck, that it was deliberately steering toward slavery, tyranny, and ruin, you might consider it your duty to take out a congressman or two in the name of patriotism. Beck fails to acknowledge this even though it has already happened on a number of occasions; even though he has been warned; even though he caters to advertisers whose products are dependent on such fears; even though his boss Roger Ailes told him to “shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually.” And that may be where Beck gets tripped up.

There has been a lot of debate lately about rhetoric and imagery. I think some of it has concentrated too much on trivialities. I don’t think Beck or Palin are responsible for the shooting last Saturday. I don’t think that maps with crosshairs are going to motivate anyone to commit murder, although they may seem horribly inappropriate after a tragic event like the one in Tucson. However, repeatedly using irresponsible language that dehumanizes rivals and casts them as mortal enemies and foes of goodness and Godliness is tempting fate. It is fomenting a hatred and/or fear of government and fellow citizens. That can turn an ideological opponent into an imminent threat. That is what Beck does every day and it has to stop.

If our republic is to survive (now I’m doing it) we need to be able to have partisan divisions that don’t devolve into civil malignancies. All people in public life need to reflect on this in pursuit of their political goals. And if Beck won’t stop out of a sense of moral decency, then it is up to those who have such morality to counter his repugnancy and work to evict him from the public platform that he does not deserve.

Glenn Beck’s Challenge To America: Play Nice

Posted by on January 10, 2011 at 5:03 pm. 2 Comments :

Glenn Beck: Armed and DangerousOn his Monday Fox News program, Glenn Beck complained that he had not seen any leaders emerge in the wake of the Tucson Slaughter who would stand up and say “Stop it!” He must not have been looking very hard because dozens of Democrats and progressives in the media did just that, even as their counterparts on the right dismissed them.

Now, after taking 48 hours to make any statement at all, Beck thrusts himself into the role of leader with this challenge:

I challenge all Americans, left or right, regardless if you’re a politician, pundit, painter, priest, parishioner, poet or porn star to agree with all of the following.

  • I denounce violence, regardless of ideological motivation.
    Does that include fantasizing about choking the life out of Michael Moore or beating Rep. Charles Rangel to death with a shovel?
  • I denounce anyone, from the Left, the Right or middle, who believes physical violence is the answer to whatever they feel is wrong with our country.
    Does that include your guest Michael Scheuer who said that the only hope for America was for Bin Laden to attack again?
  • I denounce those who wish to tear down our system and rebuild it in their own image, whatever that image may be.
    Does that include yourself who has said that “progressivism is a cancer in America, and it’s eating our Constitution” and that America needs to be “re-founded?”
  • I denounce those from the Left, the Right or middle, who call for riots and violence as an opportunity to bring down and reconstruct our system.
    Does that include Rush Limbaugh who said “Screw the world – Riot in Denver” in an attempt to sow unrest at the Democratic Convention?
  • I denounce violent threats and calls for the destruction of our system – regardless of their underlying ideology – whether they come from the Hutaree Militia or Frances Fox Piven.
    Does that include Sharron Angle who advocated “2nd Amendment remedies” and Joyce Kaufman who said that “if ballots don’t work, bullets will?”
  • I hold those responsible for the violence, responsible for the violence. I denounce those who attempt to blame political opponents for the acts of madmen.
    Does that include yourself who even today blamed political opponents for politicizing Tucson simply because they called for toning down the rhetoric?
  • I denounce those from the Left, the Right or middle that sees violence as a viable alternative to our long established system of change made within the constraints of our constitutional Republic.
    Does that include accepting an administration that campaigned (and won) on a platform of “fundamental change” within the constraints of our constitutional Republic?

If Glenn Beck will acknowledge that he and his rightist cohorts bear significant responsibility for the hostile environment in our nation, then his challenge is reasonable, even if it is obvious and represents the common sense approach that has always been advocated by the majority of Americans. I’m not sure where Beck gets the idea that the issuing of this challenge is either unique or demonstrative of leadership. It is more akin to a kindergarten decree to play nice.

If Beck is serious he will acknowledge that threats are not merely direct assertions of imminent harm. They are also implicit in language that dehumanizes rivals and casts them repeatedly as mortal enemies of goodness and Godliness. If he is serious he will apologize for (and stop) his campaign of vilifying his political opponents like Van Jones, George Soros, Cass Sunstein, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama, and the long list of others he hates with such ferocity. He will cease to trivialize violence as he did just last month when he joked that an attempted murderer must have been a liberal because “The guy is a really bad shot.”

Today, in an interview with music impresario Russell Simmons, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes said…

“I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually. You don’t have to do it with bombast. I hope the other side does that.”

Color me skeptical. I find it hard to believe that someone with Ailes’ record of bombast has suddenly become a disciple of Gandhi. This is the man who recently called the executives at NPR Nazis. This is the man who said of the infamous Willie Horton ad that…

“The only question is whether we depict Willie Horton with a knife in his hand or without it.”

Time will tell if Beck and his colleagues on the right are genuinely seeking to restore civility to public discourse, or are engaging in the rank hypocrisy that has come to define conservative politics. For the sake of people who may become future victims of political violence, I have to retain some hope. But I’m not holding my breath.

Glenn Beck Finally Comments On The Tucson Slaughter

Posted by on January 10, 2011 at 12:46 pm. 7 Comments :

It took 48 hours, but Glenn Beck, arguably the worst offender at being offensive, has finally commented on the slaughter in Tucson that killed or injured 19 people including a federal judge, a nine year old girl, and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Glenn Beck: Armed and DangerousFor the most part his message was a compulsory expression of condolences and a call for non-violence. This from someone whose daily sermons of apocalyptic terror have already inspired murderous acts by unstable individuals. It is notable that he only spoke to actual acts of violence and made no mention of the hostile rhetoric from which they can spring. That is if you don’t count his defense of right-wing media by characterizing criticism of the vilification in civic discourse as politicizing the tragedy. What’s more, his web page with this message featured a rotating gallery of images that includes the one to the left wherein he brandishes a firearm. Now, that’s perfectly legal, of course, but perhaps a bit insensitive considering recent events and the very subject of the page on which it appears. Even Palin felt compelled to remove her “Hit List” from her web site.

[Note] Beck has since removed the image of him brandishing a gun. That is a tacit admission that it was inappropriate, but I don’t expect that he will make an explicit admission, nor apologize.

Also included in his message was a bizarre defense of Sarah Palin that also served as an advertisement for his security provider. He introduced his remarks as being excerpted from his letter to Palin.

“Sarah, as you know, peace is always the answer. I know you are feeling the same heat, if not much more on this. I want you to know you have my support. But please look into protection for your family. An attempt on you could bring the republic down. Please call Gavin De Becker in Los Angeles. He is the guy that protects me. They are, bar none, the best.”

According to Beck it is Sarah Palin who is feeling the heat. She is the victim of Saturday’s massacre, poor thing. And if Glenn Beck thinks that an attempt on Palin could bring down the republic, his opinion of the republic is that it is pretty damn weak. Of course an attempt on Palin, or anyone, would be horrible, but our nation was strong enough to withstand a civil war; strong enough to lose four sitting presidents to assassination and numerous attempts on others; strong enough to endure the loss of 3,000 people on 9/11. It is stupid to suggest that an attempt on a former half-term governor/reality TV star would bring us down when those other events did not.

Beck should refrain from glorifying his elitist class of politicos as the foundations that keep our nation from crumbling to the ground and instead speak to the need for civil discourse in our country. We ought to be able to regard our political adversaries as people with whom we disagree, not mortal enemies. It does not help to call the President a racist or a fascist. It does not help to vilify people like Cass Sunstein as the “most dangerous man in America” or George Soros as a “puppet master” bent on destroying our economy and our nation. It does not help to fantasize about choking the life out of Michael Moore or beating Rep. Charles Rangel to death with a shovel. Nor does it help to announce that he is starting a revolution against those he vilifies as progressives, but who are really his fellow Americans. If he really believes in peace and love, he should practice it – for God’s sake.

As an aside, I was fully prepared with a knee-jerk condemnation of the product placement Beck included in his suck-up to Palin. However, Gavin de Becker & Associates, Beck’s security firm, has an article on their site titled: Media Fear Tactics. It is actually a pretty useful and entertaining commentary on the sensationalism of television news. Ironically, it describes pretty accurately the way Fox News presents their tabloid alternative to journalism. The article was clearly meant as a cautionary guide to shoddy reporting, but the Fox editors seem to have adopted as a style guide.

Hostile Intent: Right-Wing Media Doth Protest Too Much

Posted by on January 9, 2011 at 7:39 pm. 3 Comments :

Rarely have I seen such a desperate attempt to evade reality as has occurred since the shooting rampage in Tuscon. It would seem to be a fairly non-controversial notion that when a politician is targeted for assassination, the language that contributes to hostile discord ought to be carefully considered and avoided. The last thing anyone should want is another Jared Loughner. However, just raising that issue has caused politicians and pundits on the right to stiffen their backs and go on offense. They are taking such talk very personally. Could it be because they are harboring a latent guilt?

While the left has been responding to an horrific act of violence with calls to tone down the rhetoric, many on the right have assumed an attack posture. Keith Olbermann delivered a commentary yesterday wherein he included himself amongst those who have crossed the line. He apologized. There has been scarce reciprocation on the right. In fact, they have dug in their heels to assert that they will continue as if nothing has happened. Sarah Palin’s camp even contends that their notorious “Hit List” didn’t represent a gunsight’s crosshairs, but those on map. That might have been a little more plausible if Palin herself hadn’t referred to it as a bullseye.

So it should come as no surprise that Fox News would employ their propaganda web site, Fox Nation, to muddy the waters and absolve the right of any wrongdoing while tarnishing the left for observing the obvious. The Fox Nation presently has eleven articles that place the left in a bad light and/or polish the right’s reputation. Methinks they doth protest too much.

The Headlines:

  • Durbin Using Tragic Shooting to Silence Conservative Speech
  • A Colossal Failure of Journalism: Jared Loughner is crazy
  • Tucson Shooter and the Violent Rhetoric in the “Communist Manifesto”
  • AZ Dem Blames “Afghan Vet” for Shooting
  • DESPICABLE: NYT’s Krugman Blames Republicans For Giffords Shooting
  • NOW Blames Shooting on ‘Extreme’ Conservatives Opposing ‘Progressive Solutions’
  • PATHETIC: James Clyburn Blames Sharon Angle for Giffords Shooting
  • Tuscon Sheriff Politicizes Press Conference, Blames Talk Radio
  • Journalists Urged Caution After Ft. Hood, Now Race to Blame Palin After Arizona Shootings
  • Kurtz: Don’t Drag Palin Into this Horrific Mess
  • Dems Urge Obama to Pin Shooting on Tea Partiers

And it doesn’t stop there. On Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment, Jim Hoft, one of the most ignorant writers on a web site heralded for its ignorance, makes the ludicrous claim that “Democrats Plotted to Blame Tea Party for Slaughter.” Hoft’s justification for this “breaking” news flash was this paragraph from an article on Politico:

“One veteran Democratic operative, who blames overheated rhetoric for the shooting, said President Barack Obama should carefully but forcefully do what his predecessor did. ‘They need to deftly pin this on the tea partiers.'”

Did I mention that Hoft was ignorant? He is inferring from a single, anonymous source that a “plot” was in progress. And his inference is based on an opinion, not a plan. The source is suggesting what he thinks Obama ought to do, not what Obama, or any other Democrat, is actually doing. So there is no plot, just one guy with an opinion. And if this “operative” actually had access to the White House, or any group that could carry out this alleged plot, he would have given this advice to the President instead of a reporter from Politico.

What Hoft left out was the part where Politico reported this analysis from a senior Republican senator:

“There is a need for some reflection here – what is too far now?” said the senator. “What was too far when Oklahoma City happened is accepted now. There’s been a desensitizing. These town halls and cable TV and talk radio, everybody’s trying to outdo each other.”

The vast majority of tea party activists, this senator said, ought not be impugned.

“They’re talking about things most mainstream Americans are talking about, like spending and debt,” the Republican said, before adding that politicians of all stripes need to emphasize in the coming days that “tone matters.”

“And the Republican Party in particular needs to reinforce that,” the senator said.

I wonder why Hoft didn’t accuse this GOP senator of engaging in a plot to tone down the rhetoric as advised by most of the left. However, he did make the flat assertion that Loughner was “hardly a tea partier.” Apparently Hoft was unfamiliar with Loughner’s anti-government views, his opposition to immigrants and immigration reform, his advocacy of guns, and his opposition to the “2nd Constitution,” a rightist theme that regards the 14th Amendment’s securing of equality and birthright citizenship as unconstitutional. These are all views consistent with the Tea Party.

The truth is that the right is the only side that could plausibly be characterized as plotting anything. Hoft’s own column for Breitbart is evidence of that. And did the Fox Nationalists really need eleven articles to push their narrative? Then there is Judson Phillips, founder of the Tea Party Nation, who explicitly urged his followers blame liberals for the attack on Rep. Giffords. He wrote to his followers that…

“The hard left is going to try and silence the Tea Party movement by blaming us for this. […] The left is coming and will hit us hard on this. We need to push back harder with the simple truth. The shooter was a liberal lunatic. Emphasis on both words.”

The right is on a mission to wash their hands of any accountability for violence that is all too predictable. It would be much easier if they were to take the position of the GOP senator above who understands that this is the time to be thoughtful about what we say and the impact it may have on the mentally wobbly. Unfortunately, that is not the path the right is headed down.

It has been over 32 hours since the shooting in Tuscon and Glenn Beck, arguably the worst offender at being offensive, has not made a single public statement. There is nothing on his web site – no tweets – not even an expression of condolences. And you can rest assured that he will return to the air Monday with a delusional conspiracy theory for what he thinks happened in that Safeway parking lot. I can hear it now…..

Beck: Over the weekend there was a horrible crime committed against a United States Congresswoman. She is still clinging to life, but a judge, a young girl, and several others were killed.

Now, if you were watching the liberal media you may have come away thinking that this was the work of a conservative or a Tea Party member. I can assure you that nothing could be further from the truth.

Here’s the truth. Here’s what only I have been able to uncover through dogged research. Here’s what the media is afraid to tell you. Rep. Giffords was killed in order to silence me and other conservative broadcasters. That’s right. This was a liberal plot to create an environment where people would be calling for harsh rhetoric to be stopped.

Top down, bottom up, and inside out. The progressives are thinking all the time about how to stifle our message, and they know that by making a martyr of Rep. Giffords they can demand that we shut our mouths and crawl off into a corner. They can accuse us of inciting people to violence. And they think that will cause us to keep quiet about their plans to destroy America and demolish our moral culture. That’s why they sent their mole, Loughner, to the supermarket on Saturday. Some of my voices…I mean sources…are telling me that Loughner was seen with Van Jones and Cass Sunstein going over plans to take over the media.

But we aren’t going to let that happen, are we? We will remain strong because we know that only by eliminating our enemies can we live in peace.

Now, remember, I don’t want anyone to engage in violence. Even though the progressives are determined to see your future, and that of your children, blown apart and ruined for all eternity, you must not react violently. That’s what they want you to do. So even though they are going to put an end to the American Dream and cause our society and our economy to break down so badly that we will be praying for death rather than live in the socialist hell they want to create, do not become violent. Got it. Just get ready to suffer and prepare your kids for suffering like they have never known. Watching the whole world sink into depression and slavery is certainly no reason to resort to violence, is it? Well, is it? If you believe, like I do, that America is exceptional and worth preserving, then you know what to do.

And by the way, be sure to pick up a copy of my new book, “Reading Between the Lies.”

You read it here first.

[Update] Beck lived up to my speculation. On his Monday Fox News program he said:

“The solution, in this case, is to silence the opposition […] shut down the right […] How do you shut them down? You say it’s hate speech.”

As I suspected, Beck exploited the massacre to whine about the tragedy as a conspiracy to silence him and his rightist comrades.

[Update II] The right is now openly defending hate speech. Jack Shafer, editor at large of Slate.com, posted an article titled: In Defense of Inflamed Rhetoric
The awesome stupidity of the calls to tamp down political speech in the wake of the Giffords shooting.

Shafer’s article is really a demonstration of his own awesome stupidity. He argues that there haven’t been enough episodes of violence to justify the criticism of incendiary language. He is ignoring the numerous examples – from Dr. Tiller to Byron Williams to the Holocaust Museum to the Marine recruiting station to the gas line tampering at a congressman’s home. How many examples does Shafer need before he becomes concerned? But the real stupidity in his column is this passage:

“Any call to cool “inflammatory” speech is a call to police all speech, and I can’t think of anybody in government, politics, business, or the press that I would trust with that power.”

Nobody – repeat NOBODY – has suggested that inflammatory speech be criminalized. This is an invention of Shafer’s twitchy imagination. The matter is in the hands of the speakers, politicians and pundits, to be responsible and/or accountable. Free speech is not a shield from criticism of what is said. It extends to the critics as well. And when Shafer says that “violent imagery is a good thing” he illustrates just how idiotic and counterproductive right-wing hate mongers (like himself) can be.

[Acclaim for News Corpse] Keith Olbermann tweeted: “Deft and accurate summary of Right Wing Media in full-fledged panic and utter denial.” Thanks Keith.

Gabrielle Giffords: A Victim Of Violent Fox News/Tea Party Rhetoric?

Posted by on January 8, 2011 at 6:27 pm. 14 Comments :

There was a shooting today in Tuscon, Arizona that has taken several lives and has left a United States Congresswoman struggling to survive. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), is out of surgery and is clinging to life. Sadly, Judge John Roll and several others who have not been identified (including a ten year old girl) have already been pronounced dead.

Tea CrusadesWhile there are some disturbing components to this story (itemized below) it is way to soon to attribute motives in this particular case. However, it is not too soon to reiterate the predictable danger that results from irresponsible and violent language that has become far too common in recent years. Fox News has been at the forefront of this trend, permitting their top personalities to engage in dialogue that is overtly hostile, as well as promoting the most vile elements of the Tea Party.

Bill O’Reilly’s labeling of Dr. George Tiller as “Tiller the baby killer” may have played a part in Tiller’s murder. Glenn Beck’s relentless condemnation of George Soros and the Tides Foundation was cited as inspiration by a man who was apprehended after a police shootout while he was on his way to kill Tides and ACLU personnel. Sean Hannity refers to his audience as “Tim McVeigh wannabes” to thunderous applause. Liz Trotta joked about “knocking off” President Obama.

But the risk is not limited to direct threats as those listed above. The tone of many Fox News hosts and analysts is just as dangerous. They cavalierly describe their political adversaries as radicals, communists or fascists who are deliberately destroying America and blaspheming God. What do they expect people to do upon being terrorized by that sort of delusional peril?

I want to emphasize that the facts to follow are not necessarily connected to the gunman in today’s news. But they are notable nevertheless for how they illustrate potential risks due to the sort of anti-social behavior that is encouraged on Fox News.

Rep. Giffords was targeted by the Tea Party and their AstroTurf benefactors Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks.

Glenn Beck attacked Giffords with his co-host calling her a moron for her support of renewable energy in the military.

At a recent event held by Giffords in Arizona, police were called after an attendee dropped a gun.

Giffords’ office was vandalized just hours after she voted for the health care reform package.

Giffords’ opponent, GOP/Tea Party candidate Jesse Kelly, held an event where supporters were encouraged to “Get on Target for Victory in November Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly.”

Also killed was Federal Judge John Roll, who had received numerous death threats after ruling to allow a case involving illegal immigrants to go forward.

Giffords was one of the politicians to whom Keith Olbermann made contributions, leading to his three day suspension from MSNBC.

Sarah Palin (“Don’t Retreat – Reload”) put Giffords on her Hit List.

Joyce Kaufman, talk show host and aide to Rep. Allen West told a Tea Party rally: “If ballots don’t work, bullets will.”

GOP/Tea Party Senate candidate Sharron Angle said: “If this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies.”

And perhaps most poignantly, Rep. Giffords father, Spencer Giffords, 75, wept when asked if his daughter had any enemies. “Yeah,” he told The New York Post. “The whole Tea Party.”

I repeat, these may have no connection to today’s shooting. But they are indicative of a problem in the media that must be addressed. There have been plenty of other acts of violence whose connection to this sort of rhetoric is well documented. And there have been credible warnings about just this type of tragic event.

To be clear, I am not calling for any kind of censorship. I am calling for responsibility on the part of the press, and absent that, accountability. The people who deliberately use incendiary language to fire up their followers cannot get off scot-free when the predictable consequences occur. It could not be said better than how Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik put it in a press conference addressing the shooting this afternoon:

“When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous,” the sheriff said. “And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”

Bill O’Reilly Gives Platform To Bin Laden Supporting Crackpot

Posted by on January 8, 2011 at 10:17 am. 1 Comments :

Last night’s episode of the O’Reilly Factor featured a debate between Bill O’Reilly and Michael Scheuer, a former CIA agent whom O’Reilly described as knowing more about Osama Bin Laden than anyone the planet. Scheuer took the position that celebrities like George Clooney and Angelina Jolie are helping Bin Laden by bringing attention to the travesties being committed in the Sudan.

Scheuer never really explained how either celebrity involvement, or that of the United States, actually aided Bin Laden. In fact, his argument mostly pointed out that the actions on behalf of the persecuted Christians in the region would only annoy and frustrate Bin Laden. Perhaps Scheuer believes that antagonizing Bin Laden is helpful to him in some way.

Further more, Scheuer had a tough time staying on the subject. He repeatedly conflated celebrity efforts to publicize the atrocities and human suffering with official U.S. government activities, even going so far as to imply that if the Hollywood stars had any success in efforts to establish a safe haven for refugees in a new southern nation, that the U.S. would be obligated to defend it from Islamic adversaries. I’m pretty sure the State Department doesn’t have any treaty obligations with the Screen Actor’s Guild.

Scheuer also inexplicably diverted the discussion to abortion when asked by O’Reilly about whether the world should “stand on the sidelines when hundreds of thousands of people are murdered and raped?” Scheuer’s response:

“We absolutely stand on the sidelines, Bill. We live in a country where 50 million unborn Americans have been killed since 1973 with the support of Mr. Clooney and the rest of the Hollywood community and somehow we’re supposed to now risk our becoming involved in a place in the world where most Americans are not even familiar with the geography, including me.”

By raising abortion in this context, Scheuer reveals himself to be just another twisted right-wing extremist, obsessed with a psycho-biblical agenda. What does abortion have to do with the near genocidal civil war taking place in Sudan? And Scheuer’s phony compassion for the unborn is exposed by his stance that it is acceptable to stand on the sidelines when already born people are being slaughtered because of their religion. And, finally, if Scheuer’s criteria for involvement in foreign affairs is that the American people be “familiar with the geography” then how could he have been such an ardent backer of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where many more tens of thousands of people died despite the general lack of geographical knowledge on the part of U.S. citizens?

For the record, Scheuer himself expressed a sort of perverse support for Bin Laden when he appeared on Glenn Beck’s program and said that…

“…the only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States. […] Again, only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently, and with as much violence as necessary.”

Scheuer was openly rooting for another terrorist attack as a means to motivating Americans to protest terrorist attacks. Glenn Beck, by the way, concurred with that strategy. For his part, O’Reilly disagreed with Scheuer’s disjointed lunacy with respect to the celebrity involvement. But it is still difficult to give O’Reilly any credit for moderating the discussion because it’s O’Reilly’s fault that this jerkwad was on the air to begin with.

What’s more, O’Reilly was overtly hypocritical in his tepid support for Clooney and Jolie when he so frequently takes positions against artists expressing their views in public. He is a major proponent of the “Shut and Sing” idiocy that asserts that artists should be prohibited from contributing to a civic dialog in which all other citizens are permitted to engage. And specifically with regard to these two stars, O’Reilly has falsely accused Clooney of diverting funds from charity telethons away from the intended recipients, and he baselessly alleged that Jolie, in her role as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, coordinated her trips to coincide with her movie openings.

Scheuer’s notion that Clooney et al were in any way supporting Bin Laden or Al Qaeda is 180 degrees backwards. It is Scheuer’s position that would most benefit Bin Laden by permitting the Islamic terrorists in Sudan to commit atrocities with impunity. Scheuer is actually arguing that Bin Laden’s allies in the region should be given a free hand to torture and murder innocent people in a quest to dominate a country that Bin Laden has used to launch his terror campaigns.

Why Fox News continues to give this demented sociopath a platform for his treasonous views is beyond comprehension. His extremism is so far removed from decency (or reality) that the only foreseeable result of helping to promote him is to incite additional lunacy from the already ill-informed and gullible Fox audience. O’Reilly’s disagreement notwithstanding, he also praised Scheuer and validated him as an expert whose opinion is worthy of consideration. In effect, O’Reilly gave permission to his viewers to adopt Scheuer’s dangerous ideas, and in that manner they are both helping Bin Laden.

Breaking News: Kindergarten Kongress Recites Konstitution

Posted by on January 6, 2011 at 4:21 pm. 7 Comments :

Just so that you understand what Fox News considers to be important business on the GOP’s first day running the House of Representatives, Fox Nation has posted seven (count ’em seven) stories on the Republican project to read the Constitution aloud.


Never mind that this is an empty ritual that has no bearing on any legislation, it is a costly (estimated $1 million) waste of time when the nation is in desperate need of solutions to some serious problems. This charade does not create a single job, or make the nation more secure, or provide health care to anyone, or reduce the national debt, or protect the environment, or bring an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But rather than focus on those issues, the Fox Nationalists (and the Republicans in congress) are fixated on a phony exercise designed to pander to Tea Party extremists who don’t understand the Constitution anyway. And the GOP version of the document that will be read is one from which they have excised passages that they find embarrassing, like the references to slaves who were to be counted as three-fifths of a person.

This is a childish endeavor that has been sanitized for an infantile audience. That makes it perfect for Fox News viewers who are the target audience for it anyway. It has no other purpose. It is strictly a PR stunt designed to create a false image. Knowledgeable people won’t watch thirty seconds of this. And the ignorant crowd it’s aimed at won’t a learn a thing.

Nevertheless, the abundance of stories about this nonsense populating Fox Nation demonstrate that they cannot be taken seriously as a news enterprise. Americans want their government to be working on matters that are important to their lives. And they want the media to report on those matters and provide useful information. So on this first legislative day of the new year, neither of those objectives were met. In fact, they were treated with disrespect and condescension. Welcome to the Republican’s House.

Glenn Beck’s New Year Off To A Rousing Flop

Posted by on January 4, 2011 at 1:50 pm. 3 Comments :

Glenn Beck's Happy New Fears DayFirst the good news: Glenn Beck dropped by New York’s WOR radio station over poor ratings. The largest commercial market in the country is ditching Glenn Beck. That’s gotta hurt. Especially since Beck’s Philadelphia affiliate previously announced that they were dumping him as well. Is this the beginning of a trend?

Now the bad news: Glenn Beck has returned from his holiday … er … Christmas vacation and is launching his 2011 campaign for a “fundamental transformation of this country.” In the opening words of his radio program he declares that…

“It is a new year. It is a new attitude. Get out of the way. You are either part of the problem or you’re part of the solution. America is at a crossroads.”

Something about that message sounds oddly familiar. What could it be? I wonder if Google might stir my memory. {Googling} OH MY GOD! Look at what I found:

“What we’re saying today is that you’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem.” ~ Eldridge Cleaver

Glenn Beck is now quoting Eldridge Cleaver, the Minister of Information for the radical 1960’s Black Panther Party. And since Beck believes that any time someone quotes a historical figure they are implicitly endorsing everything that person stood for (see Beck’s assault on Anita Dunn for having quoted Mao), Beck must be embracing the revolutionary socialist agenda that Cleaver was pursuing when he uttered the words above.

This isn’t the only sign that Beck’s philosophy may have turned a frightening corner. His New Year’s message went on to say…

“After spending years, personally and collectively, thousands of man-hours in research, reflection, and prayer, my team and I have come to realize that a fundamental transformation of this country is required. […] we are being told on every level from our classrooms to our newsrooms that America is not good and she was never great. That is a lie. It is a lie that has diseased this body so thoroughly that we cannot as a nation survive much longer.”

Throughout most of 2010, Beck drilled into the heads of his disciples that fundamental transformation was an evil undertaking of President Obama and his cadre of czars. He insisted that a fundamental transformation of America was not necessary because the country was fundamentally perfect, it just needed some tweaking by divinely inspired pundits/prophets like himself. But now he admits that the nation is so far gone that it cannot survive.

[Aside to Glenn: Where are all these classrooms and newsrooms that are telling us that America is not good and was never great? There must be thousands of them if they are capable of threatening the survival of the nation.]

Having embraced Cleaver and accepted the doctrine of fundamental transformation, Beck challenges his listeners to examine for themselves what course to take for the bleak journey that faces them ahead. He asks, “Do we return to the ideas of the past,” and then asserts his own response, “I will no longer look to others for leadership or answers.”

Is Beck abandoning his heroes of faith (Sam Adams), hope (George Washington), and charity (Ben Franklin)? They are clearly icons of the past that Beck now seems to want to cast aside. And they are leaders whom he apparently has no further interest in following. It is now officially all about Beck. He is his only source of inspiration, and he surely hopes that you will be as committed to his divinity as he is himself.

It’s difficult to predict what a person like Beck will do. He began 2010 by saying that “A week from today this program is going to change, (1/4/10).” And he ended the year the same way asserting that “This show is going to change next year, (11/12/10).” Despite the frequent proclamations, his program has remained stiflingly stagnant. His core objective of smearing the President and seeding wild conspiracy theories about liberals and other “progressive vermin” is as tenacious a constant as ever. He also promised at his August “Restoring Honor” rally that it is time to “concentrate on the good.” That didn’t last long (see Beck’s three-day smear of George Soros).

So where will Beck go in 2011? Who knows. It is no more possible to predict Beck’s future than it is to predict the course of a popped balloon. Perhaps his zealous desire for change is the result of his radio network chipping away. Perhaps it’s due to his dwindling ratings or his crumbling advertiser support. Or perhaps it’s just that God has spoken to him again and set his footing on yet another new path (God is so indecisive). Whatever the reason, we can only hope that we won’t have listen to Beck’s tortured explanation for why his program will change again in 2012. But we will be there to watch him become ever more unhinged.


Fox Nation Turns Up The Crazy For 2011

Posted by on January 3, 2011 at 5:18 pm. 2 Comments :

As the new year gets underway, the folks at Fox Nation returned to work to provide more of the brainless idiot bait for which they have become so well known.


Numerous articles popped up today that illustrate what the Fox Nationalists define as news. For instance, they posted an article with this headline:

One of the Most Corrupt Presidents in Modern Times.
The headline refers to a comment made by uber-rightist congressman, Darrell Issa who will shortly be chairing a festival of investigations aimed at the White House. But the headline doesn’t contain any attribution. So it appears to be Fox’s assessment of President Obama, or just a generalized insult for the benefit of the FoxPods. But in any case, there is nothing to back up the outrageous claim. They probably just thought it would look good on their home page.

Then there is this crucial bit of breaking news:

‘Nostradamus’ of Middle East Predicts Unprecedented Crisis for Obama in 2011.
First of all, predicting that a president is going to encounter a crisis is about as bold as predicting that Sarah Palin will say something mind-numbingly dumb in 2011 (which I am now going on record as predicting). But what makes this even more of a head-scratcher is the notion that anybody cares what this alleged seer has to say. Is the Fox Factory of lies so overextended that they need to import nonsense like this?

Don’t answer that last question – at least until you see the next headline:

If the Truth Got Out About Obama There Would Be a Civil War.
Once again there is no attribution for this assertion. But when you click on the link you are presented with a YouTube audio clip of wingnut Steve Malzberg’s radio show with his guest Jeff Kuhner of the “Moonie” Washington Times. After giggling like schoolgirls over their agreement that Obama hates Jesus, the pair launched into an extended rant about the President holding office illegally because of his foreign birth. That’s right, the “truth” that Fox Nation thinks will immerse America into a civil war, should it get out, is that Obama is a secret Kenyan.

And finally, after jumping feet first into Birtherism, the Fox Nationalists demonstrate their cognitive retardation by posting this headline:

Why Do Democrats Keep Talking About the Birth Certificate?
Do they mean “Democrats” like Malzberg and Kuhner? For the record, the only time Democrats talk about Obama’s birth certificate is to respond to, or make fun of, right-wingers who still believe that Obama is a Manchurian president sent here to turn America into a Muslim theocracy. And Fox continues to prove that they are at the center of that lunatic theory.

Fox Nation is entering the new year with a firm commitment to the brand of disinformation that they have labored so hard to perfect. They adhere to a narrow bias against all things Democratic or liberal, and in favor of all things corporate and power sustaining. And apparently, as demonstrated by this rash of asinine articles hitting the web in the opening days of the year, they aren’t even going to try to hide their prejudice and deceit.

Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy year.

The So-Called Liberal New York Times Profiles Alan Grayson

Posted by on January 2, 2011 at 11:36 pm. 7 Comments :

Alan GraysonThe fact that there still lingers a perception that the media leans to the left is a testament to the hard working propagandists of the right. The Sunday New York Times has provided us with yet another demonstration that this perception is fatally flawed.

In a profile of outgoing Representative Alan Grayson of Florida, Times correspondent Michael Barbaro described his commitment to traditional Democratic themes. Then, noting that Grayson was critical of his fellow Democrats for not “acting Democratic enough,” Barbaro belittled that view saying…

“It is not exactly a widespread sentiment among the electorate.”

Where did Barbaro get that idea? Who knows. He doesn’t say. And unfortunately for him, it isn’t true. Recent polls show that the Democrats’ position on issues like allowing the Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire, are favored by a majority of Americans. The same poll shows that most Americans favor keeping the Democratic health care bill or expanding it. The Republicans were recently shamed into voting for the Democratic proposal for aid to the 9/11 First Responders. Majorities agreed that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy should have been repealed, allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

Grayson’s point that many Democrats may have lost in the election last November because they did not sufficiently support the agenda that voters expected of them was exactly right. The result of that failure was that many Democratic voters stayed home on election day. As Grayson said…

“If you want people to support you, then you have to support them. You have to think long about what you did for people who voted for you, made phone calls for you, who went door to door for you.”

Therein lies the mistake that Barbaro, and most of the rest of the press, have made in their analysis of the mid-terms. There was no message from the people to move to the center. Barbaro does not, and can not, support his contention that this is “a moment when centrism seems to be the party’s antidote to a redrawn political landscape.” The problem for Democrats was not that the people didn’t support their agenda. It was that they themselves didn’t support it, so the people bailed out.

There is still a great deal of talk about the “success” of Tea Party candidates, even though most of their most prominent members lost. Recall senate candidates Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Linda McMahon, Carli Fiorina, Ken Buck, and Christine O’Donnell. All losers. Only two Democratic incumbent senators were defeated. The rest of the Republican gains were for open seats, some of which were held by retiring Republicans.

Poll after poll shows that the Tea Party is a trumped up charade whose views are wildly out of touch with the mainstream of America. Yet the media continues to pretend that they matter. Even worse, they prop them up to deliberately and falsely inflate their significance. How else can you explain CNN partnering with the discredited Tea Party Express for a GOP primary debate?

As for Grayson, he will be missed in the Congress. But hopefully he will find his own place in the media. He would make a great radio/TV host. And in that role he could provide some balance to the heavily over-weighted conservative presence of extreme right-wingers like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, etc.

It is long past time to abandon the falsehood that the media is liberal. When CNN and the New York Times, two of the right’s favorite “liberal” targets, engage in overtly right-wing politics; when Fox News boasts of their dominance in the cable news marketplace; when the vast majority of news outlets are controlled by a handful of giant multinational corporations; the pretense of liberalism in the media should finally be put to rest.