New Tea Party Express Bus Trip Already Out Of Gas

Posted by on August 28, 2011 at 12:57 pm. 8 Comments :

The big kick off celebration for the Tea Party Express’s latest bus trip began with something of a whimper. The event was held in Napa, California amidst the wineries and grape fields.

Last year the Tea Party Express bus tour was launched by Sarah Palin. This year the best they could come up with was losing Nevada senatorial candidate, Sharron Angle. Palin has a good excuse though. She is busy not riding on her own “One America” bus tour, which she quit six days in.

Tea Party Express had heavily promoted this trip, even promising Baggers that “This is your opportunity to hear special guests speakers, including presidential candidates.” Unfortunately, not a single candidate bothered to show up.

The bus trip will continue across the country with plans to end September 12, in Tampa Bay, Florida, in conjunction with a GOP presidential debate sponsored by CNN and Tea Party Express.

When CNN originally announced that they were partnering with Tea party Express, it was an embarrassing association that never should have been entered into. Tea Party Express is a corrupt enterprise that was created by Republican publicist and fundraiser, Sal Russo. Most of the money raised by the group was funneled right back into Russo’s company for publicity and management fees.

What’s more, since the association was announced, the Tea Party has bled support. It now sports favorable ratings of only 20%. It is viewed less favorably than atheists and Muslims.

CNN sullied its already teetering reputation by embracing Tea Party Express. That decision was the work of Ken Jautz, who was promoted to run CNN after his tenure at Headline News. Jautz will forever be remembered as the man who brought Glenn Beck to Television.

And now that the boneheaded decision to clasp hands with TPE has proven to be a fiasco, it is not too late to break ranks. There is simply no excuse for a news enterprise to partner with a phony scam outfit that purports to represent a movement that is widely reviled.

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Fox Nation’s (Non) Coverage Of Hurricane Irene

Posted by on August 27, 2011 at 10:53 am. 5 Comments :

It’s midday Saturday, August 27, 2011, and Hurricane Irene has already come ashore in North Carolina. Fox Nation presently has this featured at the top of their page:

Fox Nation Hurricane Irene

What’s interesting about that is that there isn’t one single update to follow on the web site. Not one story about Hurricane Irene today.

The Fox Nationalists do have a couple of stories from yesterday that are tangentially about the hurricane, but are more political than anything else. Both promote the typically cold-hearted perspective of Republican leaders. Here are the headlines:

Eric Cantor: Hurricane Relief Spending Means Cuts Need to Happen Elsewhere.

Ron Paul: No FEMA Response Necessary.

And that’s it. No updates. No alerts. No precautionary announcements. No guidance to assistance providers. Nothing but affirmation of the Randian philosophy that you’re on your own, pal – good luck.


Small Government – Small Hearts: The GOP Response To Hurricane Irene

Posted by on August 27, 2011 at 8:46 am. 8 Comments :

There is a storm advancing on the east coast of the United States of historic proportions. Hurricane Irene has resulted in the first ever mandatory evacuation of New York City due to a natural disaster. It is expected to cause billions of dollars of damage from North Carolina to Maine, but the human toll will not be known until the storm has passed. And the response by Republican leaders typically expresses their disdain for the unfortunates who not are a part of their elitist, country club caste.

Small Government

The GOP has long had an obsession with dismantling government. Grover Norquist famously stated that he wanted to “reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” More recently, Eric Cantor, the Republican Leader of the House, said that he would only support federal disaster aid if the expense was offset by cuts elsewhere in the budget. In effect, he is holding emergency relief hostage to partisan deficit reduction.

Right-wing icon Ron Paul goes even further. In an interview with NBC News he essentially advocated repealing a century of progress in critical response to national tragedies saying, literally, that “We should be like 1900.”

Paul cited as an example the response to a devastating hurricane in Galveston, TX, in 1900. It is still the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, taking the lives of between 10,000 and 12,000 people. Paul proudly boasted that the community did not require federal aid to rebuild the city. That, however, is patently false. Galveston did request and receive federal aid, without which it could not have rebuilt. Glenn Beck also falsely cited Galveston in an attempt to argue that the federal government’s role in disaster relief was unnecessary.

The modern Republican Party is making a predictable progression from George Bush’s phony “compassionate conservatism” to the heartlessness of the Tea Pity Party. At this foreboding time, when American lives and property are at risk, we should take care to remember the results of the anti-federalist policies that produced the cataclysm of Katrina and resolve to never allow that to happen again.


Fox News Racism Exposed In Perry/Obama Photos

Posted by on August 25, 2011 at 12:57 pm. 27 Comments :

The unvarnished racism of Fox News continues to reveal itself – over and over and over again.

The latest example of their repulsive hate messaging is an article purporting to show contrasting photos (below) of President Obama and Texas Governor Rick Perry in their youth. It’s actually generous to call it an article. To be accurate, it is just a link to a photo that some wingnuts are distributing on Twitter. The photo juxtaposes an image of Perry in military garb with an image of Obama that packs a more ethnic punch.

This deliberate attempt to insult the President is wrong on many levels. First, Perry’s photo may indeed be of him at or around the age of 22, but Obama’s photo is obviously much younger. [Note: I have confirmed that Obama was 18/19 when the pictures were taken by a student photographer, Lisa Jackson in 1980]. Second, while Perry did serve in the Air Force, he avoided combat duty despite the fact that his service began in 1972 and the Vietnam war was still raging until 1975.

The Fox Nationalists might just as well have featured a very different pair of photos that more realistically conveyed the contrasts between Perry and Obama. After all, Obama was an honors student who was the editor of the Harvard Law Review and graduated Magna Cum Laude. Perry, on the other hand, was a yell leader at Texas A&M and barely graduated with a 2.2 grade-point average and almost exclusively Cs and Ds on his transcripts.

Fox Nation Perry Obama

It is painfully clear what Fox is trying to convey to their gullible and bigoted audience. This sort of open prejudice and hate mongering needs to be exposed and disseminated widely so that Fox does not get away with such revolting behavior. And every day that the rest of the media continues to treat Fox as if it were a legitimate news enterprise is another day of shame for the press.

And on the lighter side, the brainiacs at Fox can’t even count:

Fox Can't Count

Notice that the article refers to Gawker and 7 other web sites that are dead or dying. However there are eight additional web sites represented by the logos. In fact, there are nine if you include the one in the bottom right corner. So Fox is admitting that they are dead or dying. And why not when they can’t even count to ten.


Glenn Beck Breaks All Of His Own Commandments

Posted by on August 25, 2011 at 8:52 am. 7 Comments :

Pope Glenn BeckGlenn Beck’s Traveling Acute Paranoia Revue concluded today in Israel. For the record, there was no pillar of fire; no gates of Heaven and/or Hell opening; no turning point for the world. He declared that his rally would usher in an era of miracles. He promised us these things and more. Here is a taste of the colorful rhetoric he employed to promote this boondoggle:

  • When I first had this idea, what I saw in my head was a global shockwave. It will ripple across the earth.
  • Possibly for the first time in man’s history, God will remember and make note of what we do there.
  • This is a life-changing, life-altering event.
  • This will be a pinnacle moment in your life. It will define you. In the end it will define you.
  • I want you to know, the very gates of Hell are going to open up against us.
  • It will be expensive to get there. It might be dangerous.
  • Will my event hurt foreign policy of the U.S.? I damn well hope so now.
  • If Israel falls the western way of life falls. That’s not hyperbole.
  • This may be it for our generation or for all mankind.
  • I will stand, I will speak, and in the end, if it be His will, I will die right alongside my brother.

So far as I can tell the world is pretty much the same as before Beck’s Restoring Egomania affair. There wasn’t even a flock of geese flying overhead (which Beck asserted was proof of divine intervention at last year’s Restoring Honor event in Washington, D.C.).

However, there is a new holy relic for Beck’s disciples to worship. Today Beck revealed his Declaration of Rights & Responsibilities as a sort of addendum to the Constitution. Unfortunately, he has already violated every one of them.

  1. Because I have the right to choose, I recognize that I am accountable to God and have the responsibility to keep the 10 commandments in my own life.
    .
    Actually, all Christians break this one because the first commandment requires the acknowledgment of the single God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Simply worshiping Jesus is a violation of this.
  2. Because I have the right to worship as I choose, I have the responsibility to honor the right of others to worship as they see fit.
    .
    Beck, along with most other Fox News/Tea Party conservatives vehemently oppose the construction of a mosque because it was a couple of blocks away from the site of the World Trade Center.
  3. Because I have freedom of speech, I have the responsibility to defend the speech of others, even if I strongly disagree with what they’re saying.
    .
    Beck engages in the defense of the free speech of those with whom he disagrees by demonizing them as Nazis, cancers, etc. On one famous occasion he shouted down a woman who had called his radio program screaming “Get off my phone you little pinhead!”
  4. Because I have the right to pursue happiness, I have the responsibility to show humility and express gratitude for all the blessings I enjoy and the rights I’ve been given.
    .
    Humility? Seriously? The man who says that his silly rallies will alter the course of the planet? The man who says that God has chosen him to save the human race? The man spends half his time on the air praising himself and his imaginary prescience? Very humble indeed.
  5. Because I have the right to honest and good government I will seek out honest and just representatives when possible. If I cannot find one then I accept the responsibility to take that place.
    .
    Beck has repeatedly lamented the absence of honest representatives, especially in his home of the past several years, New York, yet he has never accepted the responsibility to run for office.
  6. Because I have the God given right to liberty, I have the personal responsibility to have the courage to defend others to be secure in their persons, lives and property.
    .
    Some of the people whose liberty Beck does not have the courage to defend include gays and lesbians, undocumented immigrants, and union members.
  7. Because I have the right to equal justice, I will stand for those who are wrongly accused or unjustly blamed.
    .
    Yet Beck unjustly blames others incessantly. He falsely calls Van Jones a convicted felon. He falsely calls George Soros a Nazi collaborator. He blames the President, whom he calls a racist, for turning America into a socialist dictatorship.
  8. Because I have the right to knowledge, I will be accountable for myself and my children’s education…to live our lives in such a way that insures the continuation of truth.
    .
    Beck’s version of truth is a bastardization of the word. His lies occur with such frequency it’s hard to keep up.Plus, he bashes education every chance he gets. He regards it mostly as elitist or indoctrination.
  9. Because I have the right to pursue my dreams and keep the fruits of my labor, I have the responsibility to feed, protect and shelter my family, the less fortunate, the fatherless, the old and infirm.
    .
    Beck’s idea of protecting the less fortunate is to cut taxes for the wealthy and vital, life-saving services for poor. And what does he have against the motherless?
  10. Because I have a right to the truth, I will not bear false witness nor will not stand idly by as others do.
    .
    (See #7). Apparently Beck has no responsibility to refrain from repeating himself.

It would be understandable if Beck had broken one or two of these commandments. No one is perfect. But he has violated every single one of them on numerous occasions. Perhaps he is offering himself as a model of what not to do as a public service.

It is also interesting that Beck and his Tea Party followers, who have beatified the Founders and sanctified the Constitution as a divinely inspired document, are still so insistent on changing it or tacking on silly appendages that they don’t honor themselves.

This Just In: Media coverage of Beck’s planet-altering event was nearly non-existent. Beck is now whining about on his radio show:

“BBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, I don’t believe Fox was there. But everybody else under the sun was there. Everyone was there. Yet no one reported on what I said. It’s fascinating to me because they put the world on notice.”

Media Matters reports further that, not only did Fox News fail to report on the event, but it was also absent from FoxNews.com and the Fox Nation web site. Beck is now being ignored by even his most ardent (former) supporters. And perhaps the reason no one reported what he said is that he didn’t say anything worthy of reporting. It was just another load of evangelical snake oil and self aggrandizement. And, of course, an advertisement for his new Internet venture.


Debt Wish XI: The GOP/Tea Party Plan To Tax The Poor

Posted by on August 24, 2011 at 10:45 am. 1 Comments :

America’s Republican/Tea Party contingent, who are defined by their dogmatic devotion to lower taxes as a panacea for everything, have finally found a sector of society that they can comfortably saddle with a higher tax burden: The Poor.

That’s right. These anti-tax zealots have concluded that fairness cannot be achieved in the country’s tax code as long as there are disadvantaged freeloaders who are allegedly not paying into the system. While they fight tooth and nail to protect wealthy individuals and corporations from contributing even modest amounts to the nation’s recovery, the rightist brigade is marching lock-step in favor of soaking the poor in order to heal the malaise on Wall Street and the misery of long-suffering bankers. Their battle cry goes something like this: “Half of the Country Doesn’t Pay Any Taxes At All.” Fox News has been pushing that theme for quite a while. For the past two years they headlined it on Fox Nation right at tax time.

Fox News Tax Payers

This movement is not some scruffy assemblage of disorganized trust-funders seeking to upgrade their yachts. It is a coordinated campaign that has pulled together high profile proponents from politics and the press. Here is a sampling of the breadth and unity of the movement and the message:

  • Rick Perry (R-TX): We’re dismayed at the injustice that nearly half of all Americans don’t even pay any income tax.
  • Michele Bachmann (R-MN): A system in which 47% of Americans don’t pay any tax is ruinous for a democracy.
  • Sarah Palin (R-AK): The problem is more than 40% pay no income taxes at all.
  • Orrin Hatch (R-UT): 51 percent don’t pay anything.
  • Jim DeMint (R-SC): Over half of Americans pay no federal income tax.
  • Mitch McConnell (R-KY): In fact, about half of Americans don’t pay any income taxes at all.
  • John Boehner (R-OH): Fifty-one percent — that is, a majority of American households — paid no income tax in 2009. Zero. Zip. Nada.
  • Eric Cantor (R-MD): We also have a situation in this country where you’re nearing 50 percent of people who don’t even pay income taxes.
  • Alan West (R-FL): Currently we have some 40-45% of Americans who are not paying any taxes.

We’re not through yet.

  • Donald Trump (R-HisOwnEgo): You do have a problem because half of the people don’t pay any tax.
  • Bill O’Reilly (Fox News): 50 percent of Americans don’t pay any federal income tax now.
  • Stuart Varney (Fox News): About half the people who work in America, half the households, actually, pay any federal income tax at all.
  • Dave Briggs (Fox News): [A]lmost half of this country pays no income tax whatsoever.
  • Gretchen Carlson (Fox News): But what does that mean when you factor in that 50 percent of the nation doesn’t even pay federal income tax? Is that fair?
  • [Idiot Award Winner] Steve Doocy (Fox News): With 47% of Americans not paying taxes – 47% – should those who don’t pay be allowed to vote?
  • Sean Hannity (Fox News): 50 percent of Americans no longer pay taxes.
  • Neil Cavuto (Fox News): I’ve discovered nearly half of this country’s households don’t pay any taxes at all.

Oh yes, there’s more.

  • Dave Ramsey (Fox News): This idea that 42% of Americans don’t pay anything…that’s just morally wrong.
  • Brian Kilmeade (Fox News): Fifty-one percent of the country isn’t paying any taxes at all.
  • Eric Bolling (Fox News): 43 percent of households don’t pay any federal tax.
  • Glenn Beck (Right-Wing Radio): There was like 48 percent say they pay their right amount of taxes and 49 percent don’t pay any tax.
  • Rush Limbaugh (Right-Wing Radio): Meanwhile, 45% of Americans pay nothing.
  • Gary Bauer (Right-Wing Evangelist): But the reality is that nearly half of Americans don’t pay any income tax.
  • Rick Warren (Right-Wing Evangelist): HALF of America pays NO taxes. Zero.
  • Ted Nugent (Right-Wing Douchebag): This, of course, will not apply to those 50 percent of Americans who pay no income taxes.

Is there anyone who could seriously argue that this is not a coordinated effort aimed at demonizing low-income and working class citizens? The conformity and ubiquity of the identical messaging from such a broad spectrum of players is audacious and disturbing. And what’s worse, it is deliberately misleading and/or false.

First of all, claims that half the population pay no taxes at all are factually wrong. (See the chart at the left from the Wall Street Journal). There are about 46% who do not pay federal income taxes, but most of them do pay many other taxes including Social Security, state and local, sales, property, gas, etc. Secondly, it should come as no surprise that those with little or no tax liability have little or no income. The majority of this group is comprised of senior citizens, students, the disabled, and the unemployed. Those are the folks that the right wants to tap for new revenue rather than the rich who they have taken to calling “job creators” despite the fact that they haven’t created any jobs since they got the Bush tax cuts a decade ago.

To put this into perspective, federal income taxes account for just 20% of all taxes. When you include all the other sources of tax revenue, people making $20,000 a year pay approximately the same effective tax rate as people making $500,000, give or take 5 percent. However, those earning a half-million have seen their rate decline almost 50% since 1980, while the rate for the 20K earners barely budged.

What’s more, corporate taxes as a percentage of federal revenue dropped from 27.3% in 1955, to 8.9% in 2010. During that same time period individual income/payrolls as a percentage of federal revenue skyrocketed from 58% to 81.5%. Thus the burden of paying for our government shifted broadly from corporations to ordinary people (notwithstanding the Supreme Court ruling that corporations are people). These facts prove that the whole faux controversy over the tax liability of low income Americans is, in technical terms, a crazy zombie lie.

Also worthy of note is that one of the main reasons that many Americans owe no federal income tax is due to the earned-income tax credit that was introduced by Republican President Gerald Ford and expanded by Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. And now the GOP is threatening to impose a tax hike on working people by opposing the extension of President Obama’s Payroll Tax reduction. This relief was passed as a temporary measure and is set to expire at the end of this year. Obama has proposed extending it for another year, but House Republicans are balking, saying that “not all tax relief is created equal” (Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX), and that tax reductions, “no matter how well-intended,” will push the deficit higher (Rep. David Camp, R-MI). Camp is a member of the deficit reduction seeking Super Committee. A spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), says the legislator “has never believed that this type of temporary tax relief is the best way to grow the economy.”

Really? Is this the same Eric Cantor who fought so fiercely for the temporary tax relief produced by Bush’s tax cuts for the rich? Cantor, and the rest of the Tea-publicans, are putting their deficit cutting necks on the line to raise the 120 billion dollars that would be restored to the treasury by letting the Payroll tax relief expire, but they will take the fight to Hell and back before considering the recovery of 800 billion dollars from the expiration of Bush’s gift to taxpayers earning more $250,000 a year. Apparently Republicans are opposed to temporary tax relief when it benefits the middle and working classes, but they are wildly in favor of it when it benefits the wealthy.

How can the GOP get away with portraying themselves as tax-cutters while advancing an agenda that would increase taxes for most Americans who happen not to be rich? How can the Tea Party assert through their acronym that they have been “Taxed Enough Already” when they view seniors, and other low-income Americans as not taxed enough? And when will the media expose this brazen hypocrisy?

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Fox News: Earthquake In D.C. Obama’s Fault

Posted by on August 23, 2011 at 2:11 pm. 4 Comments :

Fox News Obama Earthquake

The massive 5.9 earthquake that struck Washington, D.C. and caused panic throughout much of the east coast is causing rumblings across the political landscape as well.

Republicans have stepped forward to criticize President Obama for not having an effective anti-earthquake policy.

Michele Bachmann: In my administration I can promise you that, in addition to $2.00 gas, there will be no earthquakes.

Rick Perry: As I have said before, there are some problems that Washington cannot solve. That’s why I am calling for a day of prayer to bitch at God for causing these earthquakes.

Mitt Romney: If an earthquake destroyed my home in New Hampshire, I could easily relocate to California or Colorado or any of my other luxury residences. That’s why we have to run the government like a business and build several Washingtons around the country.

Herman Cain: When I ran Godfather’s Pizza I learned to be prepared for everything. After all, science knows that this ObamaQuake was caused by lunar cycles that stretch the earth’s crust like the tides. Now we have to watch out for Sue Nawmee.

Ron Paul: Audit the Federal Reserve and abolish all regulations and we wouldn’t have any problem with an earthquake every now and then.

Sarah Palin: In these troubling times the good patriotic citizens of our rich heartland know that America’s greatness relies on having real leaders who love their country and do not pal around with tyrannical tectonic plates.

Glenn Beck: Thank God I’m in Israel today. The far-left, and their cohorts in the Muslim Brotherhood, have infiltrated the political class in the Capital and the time has come for them to receive the vengeance of the Lord. And if you want to see this all happen live, be sure to sign up for GBTV right away.

In other news:

  • Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s compound was overrun by rebels who, with help from the United States, have succeeded in toppling his four decades of dictatorship.
  • The stock market rose over 300 points despite the earthquake that rattled the east coast.
  • Hurricane Irene is hurtling toward Florida.
  • Millions of Americans are still unemployed or under-employed.
  • Casey Anthony did something or other.

Yet the media had several hours of blanket coverage of an earthquake that caused no injuries and did no significant damage. Stay tuned for more coverage – of Casey Anthony.


Glenn Beck Losing A Million Dollars On Israeli Rally

Posted by on August 22, 2011 at 3:11 am. 7 Comments :

Glenn Beck’s plan to hold a rally in Israel with the theme of “Restoring Courage” was never a particularly good idea. His history of anti-Semitism and Islamaphobia made him an unpopular figure to both sides in the tense regional conflict.

Glenn Beck

Now Beck is whining that his motives have been called into question and that the event may end up costing him a bundle.

The American broadcaster especially objected to the charge that he was doing the events for his own financial gain. He revealed that he was losing “about a million dollars” on the rallies, which he called “wildly expensive,” and said he was open to donations to fray the costs.

As is the case with anything Beck says, there is no way of knowing whether or not it is true. However, it is certainly false to suggest that if the event is actually in the red that that is evidence that he wasn’t in it for the money to begin with. It may still have been a nakedly profit seeking venture that just failed to make a profit. It was previously reported that the event sold out some 1,700 seats. If Beck can’t turn a profit with a sell out, it must have been dreadfully mismanaged.

As the event nears, Beck has attracted more critical attention from both Israelis and Muslims whom he has offended. A boycott has been called to discourage members of the Knesset from participating in the rally. Sen Joe Lieberman backed out of his commitment to attend, as did representatives Eric Cantor and Joe Walsh who were advised that they could not make the trip as official congressional business. But Jon Voight showed up so…..

Last week Beck took to his radio pulpit to lament that his new Internet venture, GBTV, may be “running out of time,” in an appeal for listeners to become subscribers. Today he traveled thousands of miles to beg for donations to help “fray the costs” of this boondoggle. It seems that since Beck lost his Fox News platform he has been reduced to pleading for alms in the fashion of traveling salvation show evangelists. But is that really such a steep fall for a former radio shock-jock whose partner was a chimpanzee?

Help Beck Lose More Money: Here is a list of Beck’s radio affiliates. Find the one nearest you and let them know that you refuse to listen to the station or patronize their advertisers until Beck is off the air.


Herman Cain: Under ObamaCare I’d Be Dead

Posted by on August 19, 2011 at 4:35 pm. 13 Comments :

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is a lucky man. Five years ago he was diagnosed with stage IV cancer in his liver and colon. Today he reports that he is cancer-free. Speaking on this subject, Cain asserted that his luck was due to the fact that he didn’t have to rely on ObamaCare for treatment. Fox Nation reported these remarks that were broadcast on CNN:

“If ObamaCare had been fully implemented when I caught cancer, I’d be dead, and here’s why. I was able to go to the doctors that I wanted to go to – as fast as they could do the tests. I didn’t have to wait six months like you do in other countries in order to get a Cat Scan. And sometimes people die before they get the Cat Scan because the cancer in my body was spreading so fast. But because I was able to get the treatment as soon as I could, and to get the quality care that I did, that’s what has me alive today. You ought to be able to make those choices if you get a serious illness, not some bureaucrat in Washington, D.C.”

From his statement it is apparent that the real reason he was lucky was that he is a wealthy businessman and broadcaster. That’s the reason he was able to go to the doctors that he wanted. That’s the reason he was able to expedite his care. A middle class patient would have had to rely on the generosity of their insurance company and hope the insurer didn’t cancel their policy as a result of filing a claim. Even worse, a poor patient would have to depend on the minimum public services they could wrangle from insufficient and overburdened pre-ObamaCare government programs.

Cain is glad to be alive due to his ability to pay for any medical attention he requires. But he doesn’t care at all about people who aren’t multimillionaires like himself. His insinuation that ObamaCare would have required him to wait for treatment is a flat-out lie. There is nothing in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that would prohibit him from visiting the doctor of his choice. But it does give a choice to the rest of us who otherwise might be unable to visit a doctor at all.

Furthermore, his slap at government bureaucrats ignores the problem of insurance company bureaucrats. Frankly, I’d prefer to put my life in the hands of a government health care administrator who would base his decision on what is necessary and proper, as opposed to a corporate accountant whose decision is driven by profit.

Herman Cain would not be dead if ObamaCare had been implemented when he “caught” cancer. He would still have been rich and free to see the doctor of his choice. Ironically, while Cain had that luxury, it appears that his doctor may not have been one that he freely chose. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported a couple of months ago that…

“When Mr. Cain found out that the doctor who operated on his cancerous colon was a Muslim, he was bothered by it, he admitted, because ‘based upon the little knowledge that I have of the Muslim religion, you know, they have an objective to convert all infidels or kill them.'”

So even with all his riches he still risked being murdered by a terrorist surgical oncologist. What a world. This is the same man who boasted that he would not appoint Muslims to his Cabinet. I guess the best you can say about Cain’s raging bigotry is that at least he admits that he has “little knowledge.” And isn’t that what Republicans want in a candidate?


Israelis Worried That Glenn Beck’s Rally Will Incite Violence

Posted by on August 18, 2011 at 9:12 pm. 5 Comments :

Glenn Beck Stay HomeNext week Glenn Beck will take his hate crusade to Israel, a nation that does not want him there and fears that his presence can only inflame tensions and create division. Beck is a proud enemy of peace with Palestine and rejects negotiated settlements with people he regards as heathens. As the date for Beck’s hatefest nears, more Israelis are speaking out against him:

“There are enough racists in Israel without importing them from the US,” Hadash MK Muhammad Barakei said. […] “There is a danger that the event will lead to people being harmed, and the police should have prevented it,” Barakei added.

MK Ahmed Tibi (UAL-Ta’al) called Beck “a bizarre, conservative, neo-fascist comedian who is motivated by a hatred of Islam.”

The danger that Beck may set off violence in Israel is not anecdotal. He has certainly set off violence in the United States. And the threat of violence was even acknowledged by Beck’s own security team when they advised him to change the original location of the rally due to security concerns. Ironic, isn’t it, that Beck should have to move his “Restoring Courage” rally because he’s afraid of violence.

Since then Beck has continued spewing rhetoric that can only incite more anger. The Christian Science Monitor reports that last week Beck insulted hundreds of thousands of Israelis who were protesting the lack of affordable housing. He implied that they were radical leftists and communists. In fact, polls show 87% of the population agreed with the protesters. This strident disrespect for the people of the nation he is visiting is not being well received. A well known conservative Israeli published an editorial criticizing both Beck and the local rightists who support him:

“[N]ow that Beck has spoken before the Knesset and is given the green light in the staging of his ‘Courage’ rally, he believes he has earned the right to pontificate about all matters Israeli. Specifically, he has called the current ‘tent city’ protests in Tel Aviv and other locations the doing of ‘communists,’ calling into question the financing of these protests and suggesting a sinister connection between the protesters in Israel and world socialism, framing the whole matter in the context of the sort of anarchists who protest G-8 meetings, and squeezing the square peg of what should be an internal Israeli matter into the round hole of his us-and-them, liberal-versus-conservative worldview. Whether he is right or not, let him go on back to where he came from and stick to things he might actually know a thing or two about, and let Jews and Israelis handle Jewish and Israeli matters.”

Finally, Beck’s event may not be getting much traction. Reports from the region suggest that he is being forced to take measures to prevent the whole affair from being a monumental embarrassment. Also from the CSMonitor:

“There are signs that Beck is struggling to promote his event. Writing on the left-leaning 972 blog, Mya Guarnieri notes an online ad seeking foreign citizens to act as ambassadors to ‘stand with Israel’ at the Aug. 24 event. She responded to an e-mail on the ad asking if participants would be paid for acting as ambassadors, and writes that a senior aide to Likud lawmaker Danny Danon responded, ‘depends where you are from.’ Mr. Danon is a Beck fan.”

Glenn Beck Messiah

Beck speaks so often of the risks he undertakes to spread his vile message that it would not be surprising to learn that he is hoping for trouble, and even encouraging it. He has literally alerted his audience to the prospect that he could be assassinated and enlisted them in an effort to make sure he is avenged. He has accused the Obama administration of plotting to kill him, and George Soros as well. His obsession with imagined assassins is pure Messianic delusion. He has had this to say about his Israeli Escapade:

“Will my event hurt foreign policy of the U.S.? I damn well hope so now.”
“If Israel falls the western way of life falls. That’s not hyperbole.”
“This may be it for our generation or for all mankind.”
“I will stand, I will speak, and in the end, if it be His will, I will die right alongside my brother.”

Let’s just hope that he doesn’t try to carry out his demented prophecy in a manner that harms the innocent.