One Nation Working Together Till Election Day And Beyond

Posted by on October 3, 2010 at 3:47 pm. 16 Comments :

One NationWith the massive One Nation rally in DC over, the post-game analyses have been flying furiously around the media and Webosphere. It was clearly a successful event that served to energize progressive activists and demonstrate that the left is not cowering under the national basement.

However, most of the press is making the mistake of comparing One Nation to Glenn Beck’s Acute Paranoia Holy Rollover Revue. This is typical of the horse race mindset of the media that is incapable of putting information in context and making relevant evaluations.

Let me make this crystal clear: The purpose of One Nation was NOT to draw more people than BeckFest. That would have been a shallow and unproductive goal. The purpose was to motivate the activists and organizers who attended, as well as those who watched from afar, so that they would be more effective and engaged in these crucial final weeks before the midterm elections. It was also intended to demonstrate the commitment of progressives to maintaining the course of the past couple of election cycles and to show the media that not everyone out there is a Tea Bagger. There were several reasons why attendance was never meant to be the yardstick by which this event would be measured.

First of all, One Nation did not have the benefit of the highest rated cable “news” network (Fox News) pumping out promotions for the event day in and day out for six months. They didn’t even have the second highest rated cable news network (MSNBC). Only Ed Schultz made much of an effort to promote One Nation. And while he is a popular radio and TV talk show host, recent surveys show that 70% of the country have never heard of him. It would be absurd to suggest that he would have the same impact on marketing that Glenn Beck, Inc. would have (despite what Ed says about himself).

Secondly, the demographics of the audiences are not remotely similar. Beck’s audience is a much older and more affluent crowd. In fact, he has one of the oldest skewing programs in all of cable news, including a high percentage of retirees. That’s partially how he manages to produce such high ratings in the middle of the day when normal people are at work. His viewers as a group are far better able to afford a trip to the nation’s capitol. They also are more likely to have the spare time available for outings like these. The folks attending One Nation are more likely to be working people who cannot just take time off from their jobs and their families, and sink scarce funds into traveling.

Fox News GOP Tea PartyThirdly, the incentive to attend a rally often hinges on the celebrity star power of the event. While the speakers at One Nation were all fine people who are dedicated to positive change, there was no one with the fan base of Glenn Beck. His devotees regard him as a prophet whom they must follow with unquestioning allegiance. Plus he had help from the Queen Tea, Sarah Palin, who has her own bevy of believers. Can anyone honestly say that 8/28 would have drawn more than a handful of garden-clubbers in a Dodge Caravan if someone like Newt Gingrich was the headliner? For evidence of this look no further than the second annual 9/12 rally a couple of weeks ago that featured teen idols Dick Armey and Andrew Breitbart. They drew a crowd that barely exceed a triple-a ballgame, and far fewer than One Nation.

On a side note, Beck’s fabled popularity may have peaked. A report from New Jersey yesterday reveals that his appearance at the first of his “Restoring America” gigs was filled to only 10% of capacity. Perhaps the $50.00 tickets (or $125.00 for “VIP privileges”) suppressed demand enough to allow 90% of the seats to go unfilled.

The above notwithstanding, One Nation can be considered a roaring success if it achieves its goal of invigorating the electorate, recruiting volunteers, and turning out voters. The right has become fully invested in an outcome that requires them to take majority control of the House and Senate. If they do not, they can only be regarded as failures. That is their projection, not mine. It’s all they’ve talked about for weeks. Now they must be prepared to be judged by the standard they set.

The past few weeks have seen momentum shifting in the election nationwide. The right may be played out. The left are just getting warmed up. In order to close the deal we need to insure extraordinary turnout. So get involved and make the demagogues on the right eat substantial portions of crow. Organizations like MoveOn and Democracy for America are presently recruiting people for their GOTV projects. Call them, or a local Democratic campaign office, and be a part of something positive.

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Donald Duck Meets Glenn Beck UPDATE: Mickey Mouse Too

Posted by on October 3, 2010 at 9:33 am. 5 Comments :

Who knew that Disney was so far ahead of their time. This cartoon captures perfectly the manner in which Glenn Beck and his ilk employ lies and fear to indoctrinate their congregation of the feeble-minded. Plus, it is F@%KING HILARIOUS. Enjoy it before the Copyright Cops take it down.

And a shout out to its creator, Jonathan McIntosh at Rebellious Pixels.

The Mad BeckUpdate: This video is getting a lot of attention, as it deserves. There were about 6,000 views when I posted it, and now it is over 200,000 (I’m sure I’m responsible for most of that). People clearly enjoy satirizing Beck. There is plenty of material there to work with. I have been down that road myself (see Malice in Wonderland)

I think it’s interesting that it has been featured at both the Huffington Post and Fox Nation.

The Fox Nationalists are aghast that Beck is being parodied. Some are vowing to boycott Disney. Seriously, they think that Disney produced this. That’s the level of their intelligence. Others think the ending is an incitement to violence, particularly an incitement to harm Beck. Someone needs to tell them that radios are inanimate objects. And, oh yes, that cartoons are not the same as real life.

At HuffPo there is a more generally sane reaction. They have an appreciation for the quality of the work and, of course, the good humor. I’m just glad to see this getting some exposure.

Plus…..Beck responds. On his radio show Beck made a point of weaving his conspiratorial delusions around this video and its creator. He spun a tale that entwined the federal government, the National Endowment for the Arts, and even the White House. Of course, without a hint of evidence. His paranoia knows no bounds.

“It is some of the best, well made propaganda I have ever seen.” […]

“If I’m not mistaken, some of these remix videos – it’s very interesting – I believe get federal funding. I believe it was…one these things that he’s involved in was one of the first to receive federal funding. We’re looking into the funding of this gentleman and the incredible propaganda against me, like you’ve never seen. using Disney and Disney cartoons.”

Listen to the whole thing yourself. His tone of voice is ripe with disgust, and his inflection on words like “social justice” and “Chicago” fill them with foreboding. And now Mickey Mouse joins in the fray:

The “incredible propaganda” against Beck is a wonder to behold. But no more wondrous than the propaganda he spews everyday on his own. Watch your back, Jonathan. Beck is “looking into” you.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.


Washington Post: Glenn Beck Isn’t Saying…

Posted by on October 2, 2010 at 1:48 pm. 6 Comments :

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank has a cute article posted today that illustrates how Glenn Beck gets a point across by pretending he isn’t making any such point. He simply says that he isn’t saying it:

“I’m not saying that Obama has an enemies list, but I wouldn’t put it past him, either.”

“I’m not saying that we have a bunch of mullahs or some star chamber running the country.”

“I’m not saying that we’re like Russia. I’m not saying Obama is going to kill anybody.”

“I’m not saying being poor in America is sweet.”

“I’m not saying to shoot anybody.”

“I am not saying that Barack Obama is a fascist. I’m not saying the Democrats are fascists.”

And who could forget…

“I’m not saying that he doesn’t like white people. I’m saying he has a problem. He has a — this guy is, I believe, a racist.”

Detect a pattern? Well, just for the record, I’m not saying that Glenn Beck raped an murdered a young girl in 1990.


Did CNN Fire Rick Sanchez? Or Was It You Know Who?

Posted by on October 2, 2010 at 2:19 am. 15 Comments :

Memo to CNN news hacks: Don’t fuck with Jon Stewart.

I’m not saying there is any connection, but the last time a CNN anchor went toe-to-toe with Stewart he also found himself out of job. Today Tucker Carlson is an Internet peddler of borrowed stories and Rupert Murdoch’s fluffer on Fox News.

When Rick Sanchez agreed to be interviewed today to plug his new book he probably had not planned to end his career, it was just one of those things that happens. We’ve all been through it. He just got caught up in the excitement of spewing anti-Semitic stereotypes and thought he could one-up Mel Gibson. Here is what he said:

“Everybody that runs CNN is a lot like [Jon] Stewart. And a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart. And to imply that somehow they – the people in this country who are Jewish – are an oppressed minority? Yeah.”

So Sanchez thinks that Jews are not victims of discrimination, and they are in control of the media. And he feels perfectly at ease expressing that opinion aloud. That is certainly justification for terminating a network anchor, but I am somewhat skeptical that that’s how it happened.

Generally it takes some period of time for a gaffe like this to build up a head of steam and accumulate some outrage from offended parties. But Sanchez got the boot before most of America even knew he had screwed up. What’s more, CNN has a new chief, Ken Jautz, who is not known for being controversy-averse. Jautz was the man who hired Glenn Beck at Headline News. With all the crap that Beck has said, we are now supposed to believe that Jautz was suddenly shocked by Sanchez’s remarks? Beck said that he hated the 9/11 victims’ families while he was working for Jautz. Then there was the time that Beck asked Keith Ellison, a Muslim member of Congress, to “prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.” Yet Jautz didn’t rush to call security and have Beck removed from the studio.

Beck has continued his reign of error at Fox News, famously saying that President Obama was “a racist with a deep-seated hatred for white people.” Yet Fox keeps him on the payroll, as they do Liz Trotta who joked that Obama should be “knocked off” along with Osama. Fox contributor Michael Scheuer opined that the only hope for America was for Bin Laden to hit us again with a WMD. And Ralph Peters, another Fox contributor, advocated military strikes on the media.

There doesn’t seem to be an outer limit of acceptable behavior for Fox. Which makes it a great place to work for bigots and psychopaths who won’t have to worry about saying something totally insane. On the other hand, MSNBC has David Shuster on an indefinite suspension for having done a screen test for CNN. And they canceled Don Imus for making racially insensitive comments about a women’s basketball team (he now works for, that’s right … Fox). CBS fired Jimmy the Greek. ESPN canned Rush Limbaugh. And now CNN shows Sanchez the door. Fox may not have a crossable line, but every other network seems to.

Still, I have to wonder what precipitated Sanchez’s departure. Could it really have been a revulsion of his clearly offensive remarks? Or did he walk out indignantly after being reprimanded? Perhaps Jautz wanted the schedule cleared for some new programming he is developing. Who knows? It just seems like there is more to this than has been made public. We may not know the answers for a while, or until Sanchez tweets. But just for old times sake, here are a couple of occasions where Sanchez did some work for which he could actually be proud:

~~~

This will actually be a good opportunity to find out what kind of programmer Jautz intends to be. Will he fill Sanchez’s slot with his next Beck-like discovery? Will he shoot for more tabloid sensationalism? Or will he develop a show that has journalistic ethics and standards and returns CNN to its original mission of producing honest news?

For the record, I had a suggestion for a new CNN program when Campbell Brown left the network: Replace Campbell Brown With The Daily Show. The idea still works. A man can dream, can’t he?


Halloween 2010: Threat Out The Vote: Glenn Beck Shows His Bloody Hand

Posted by on October 1, 2010 at 5:28 pm. 7 Comments :

With just one month left before the midterm elections of 2010, politicos of all stripes are about to gear up for the most important part of any campaign: Get Out The Vote (GOTV). After all the backyard barbecues, the bus tours, the thirty second ads, the hand kissing and baby shaking, it comes time to ensure that your supporters actually make the trek from porch to polling place.

Different candidates employ different methods of doing this. Some recruit phone-bankers to call every supporter and remind them of the need to cast their ballot. Some send mailers. Some spend less time motivating their own supporters than they do demoralizing those of their opponent. And some just try to scare the shit out of you with gruesome tales of the end of days and Satan’s imminent domination of your immortal soul.

The latter is the approach favored by notorious fear monger, Glenn Beck. It seems appropriate that election day is just two days after Halloween because Beck wants to make sure that you are as frightened as deer in a headlight factory. He has turned “Get Out The Vote” into “Threat Out The Vote,” and if you aren’t trembling by the end of his show your veins are pumping ice water. This is a call to arms on the part of Fox News who is initiating perhaps the biggest and most partisan voter drive ever attempted by a media organization. The following is from Beck’s TV program on 9/30/2010:

BECK: This is their shot. They have been waiting and building since the 1960’s. Well, if you’ve just been agitating and everything, you’re not good at ruling, and we’ve seen that right? We’re on to them. We know who they are. This is a nightmare. But they’re about to go back to agitating, because once they lose control of the House they have to. That’s what they’re good at.

It is important to know that the “they” to whom Beck is referring is the President, the Democratic members of congress, and their progressive allies in unions, churches, and advocacy groups, particularly those involved with the One Nation Working Together rally on October 2nd. He spent much of his program prior to this segment disparaging them and the tens of thousands of Americans who are expected to show up on the mall tomorrow in Washington.

Beck believes that these folks have been agitating for fifty years to reduce America to some sort of third world Marxist ghetto. Since Obama, and likely the majority of the other agitators, aren’t even fifty years old, Beck must view this as an inter-generational plot by subversives who have been shut out of power until only recently and have no experience governing. Not surprisingly, Beck’s facts fail to align with reality. For the past fifty years Democrats have had control of the House for all but 12 of them. And they even held the White House for 40% of that time. Nevertheless, Beck is on to us. He knows who we are. And he is predicting that we will erupt in some nightmarish fashion when we lose control of the House this November, as he predicts. So his prescription is…

BECK: You must overwhelm them in numbers. Get out and vote this November. Get someone else to vote. I don’t care how they vote, just get them to vote. Get off your couch. Get your neighbors off your couch. Be pro-active. You just make sure – are you registered to vote yet? Register to vote. Make sure people in your neighborhood are registered to vote. Get them out in droves and then stand peacefully arm in arm because I fear the trouble is just about to begin, and it will only get worse.

Who does this clown think he’s kidding? He spends hours and hours, day after day, castigating liberals as evil, as cancers that must be “cut out,” and now he pretends not to care how you vote? Let’s be clear, Glenn Beck cares very much how you vote. He just knows that if he gets his audience to the polls they will vote exactly as he has trained them to. So he is free to make ludicrous and disingenuous assertions that he just wants everyone to vote, without putting anything at risk. And then he can reassert what he regards as the real risk:

BECK: The “Sting” I believe happens maybe after January. If I’m right there’s not gonna be a lot of people in Washington that will offer peaceful leadership and the streets will not be peaceful. They will start protesting and agitating again. The peaceful leadership role will fall, unfortunately I believe, on your shoulders. Be ready to accept that challenge.

Beck is fond of forecasting future calamities. Last year at this time he warned that the stock market was going to collapse “sometime after Christmas” (it’s up over 12% since that prediction). In this case it involves some imagined conflagration that will erupt early next year after Democrats lose congressional power and take to the streets to wage war.

And therein lies the heart of Beck’s voter participation crusade. He is not seeking to motivate citizens to fulfill their civic duty and elect the candidates that best represent their views. He is terrifying them with monstrous bedtime stories about how they will be become tragic victims of evildoers who thirst only for blood. He is adamant that you turn out “in droves” and vote as if your life, nay your soul, depends upon it. Do you want to go to Hell?

And how does he want you to vote? Well, he says he doesn’t care. Were that true he would be conceding that it’s fine with him if you vote for the Satanic forces he feverishly opposes. That would be insane and obviously isn’t true. He very desperately wants you to vote, and to vote for Republicans only. He has stated clearly that he wants the Democrats to lose control of congress. He and his viewers know that there is only one other party that can achieve that end. This should finally put to rest his dishonest portrayal of himself as non-partisan. He is fanatically pro-GOP and the next time you hear him deny it you’ll know that he is lying, a skill he has mastered.

I’m not sure I’ve ever before seen this massive and undisguised amount of partisan pressure to coerce voters to the polls emanating from a major “news” network. Fox News is placing itself firmly in the electoral battle and they have decided that getting out the vote is a first tier priority that deserves Beck’s unique and unnerving attention.

With a month to go it is imperative that Democrats match this Fox News effort and mobilize their voters with at least as much enthusiasm. We don’t have network to assign to the task so we must use more traditional tools. If you have never been part of phone bank, consider volunteering for one now. If you have never walked precincts, call your local Democratic party office and sign up. Organizations like MoveOn and Democracy for America are presently recruiting people for their GOTV projects.

Do it NOW! Because that ogre under your bed will get you if you don’t. (OK, I’m not quite as good at the fear mongering as Beck, but you should still do it).


Glenn Beck Admits He Disgusts Himself. He’s Not Alone

Posted by on September 30, 2010 at 4:15 pm. 3 Comments :

In a new profile of Glenn Beck for the New York Times, Beck summarizes how most of America feels about him:

“You get to a place where you disgust yourself…Where you realize what a weak, pathetic and despicable person you have become.”

It’s about time. The article, by Mark Leibovich, is an in-depth examination of the Fox News prophet of paranoia. It covers a fair bit of ground personally as well some highlights (and lowlights) of his professional career. As for the causes of Beck’s self-hatred, there is sufficient justification for it in his past behavior:

“He was in therapy with ‘Dr. Jack Daniels.’ He smoked marijuana every day for about 15 years. He fired an underling for bringing him the wrong pen. And, according to a Salon.com report, he once called the wife of a radio rival to ridicule her – on the air – about her recent miscarriage.”

Now it’s bad enough that he was an abuser of drugs and alcohol, and a world class jerk who didn’t care about anyone but himself, but those things occurred during a difficult time in his life and prior to his having entered rehab and finding God. So let’s give him the benefit of a doubt and take a look at how sobriety and religion changed him and how he mellowed to merely…

“…joking about poisoning the speaker of the house or talking about choking the life out of a filmmaker or fantasizing about beating a congressman ‘to death with a shovel’ (as Beck did for Nancy Pelosi, Michael Moore and Charles Rangel, respectively).”

I think I liked him better when he was tokin’ doobies. At least none of his delusions invoked bloody murders. Also since his “recovery” he has embarked on a non-stop campaign to convince his followers that President Obama and a phalanx of progressives are amassing to destroy America, revoke all freedom, confiscate every penny you earn, defile your daughters, rebuke your Lord, and otherwise end civilization as we know it. Then, after making the case for how these heathens are plotting to unleash a millennium of evil, he softly interjects that their Satanic onslaught should not be met with violence. But nevertheless, you must not allow them to get away with it. And thank God for the Second Amendment.

Mixed signals? Not really. Beck knows very well that his disciples will take up arms to defend themselves against the Hellish regime of slavery that he prophesies. Who wouldn’t if they really believed that was imminent?

Glenn Beck

The ramifications of Beck’s rhetoric stretch ominously into Apocalyptic territory. His rants run the gamut from political extremism to fanatical, pseudo-evangelistic cultism. More often than not he makes no sense at all, but that hardly matters. His audience can read between the lines, as he once begged them to do:

“[I]f you hear me stop saying these things, it’s because I can no longer say them to you. But hear them between the sentences. Hear them, please. I will be screaming them to you.”

It’s that sort of madness that has many wondering if Beck is doing more harm than good (including Beck who wrote that very question in an email to Sarah Palin). It isn’t just liberals who are wondering this. According to the article in the Times Beck’s raving is causing some consternation amongst many conservatives and even his colleagues at Fox:

“Several Fox News journalists have complained that Beck’s antics are embarrassing Fox, that his inflammatory rhetoric makes it difficult for the network to present itself as a legitimate news outlet. Fearful that Beck was becoming the perceived face of Fox News, some network insiders leaked their dissatisfaction in March to The Washington Post’s media critic, Howard Kurtz, a highly unusual breach at a place where complaints of internal strains rarely go public.”

This is nothing new. In recent months former Foxies have been all too willing speak up. Jane Hall, an associate professor in the School of Communication at American University, and a Fox News contributor, quit Fox in part because of Beck. Eric Burns, the former anchor of Fox News Watch told the press that he is grateful that he no longer has to “face the ethical problem of sharing an employer with Glenn Beck.” And it isn’t just jealous on-air competitors. The Times went on to reveal that Beck’s bosses are also having second thoughts:

“The cross-promotion can be a sore spot at Fox News, particularly for its president, Roger Ailes, who has complained about Beck’s hawking his non-Fox ventures too much on his Fox show.” […]

[Ailes has] been vocal around the network about how Beck does not fully appreciate the degree to which Fox News has made him the sensation he has become in recent months. In the days following Beck’s Lincoln Memorial rally, which by Beck’s estimate drew a half-million people, Ailes told associates that if Beck were still at Headline News, there would have been 30 people on the Mall.”

While Ailes is a potentially dangerous enemy, he has enemies of his own. Members of Rupert Murdoch’s family, who will inherit his media empire, have not been shy about their distaste for the programming style of Ailes. Murdoch’s son-in-law publicly said that he was ashamed and sickened by Ailes.

In all likelihood, Beck probably feels that he can afford to weather these storms. He sees himself as a messenger from God with a congregation of devotees who will support him and, if necessary, avenge him. Fox would be treading on thin ice if they contemplated canceling his show. This is one of those situations where Beck would have to be caught with either a dead girl or a live boy before he could be cast off. In this case we can add any connection to the sort of acts of domestic terrorism that his outrage inspires.

So even though Beck disgusts you, and me, and his fellow hosts, and his bosses, and even himself, he is going to have to slip up pretty bad to lose his perch.

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Tea Party Coloring Book Causes White Crayon Shortage

Posted by on September 30, 2010 at 12:37 pm. 3 Comments :

A new coloring book has hit the shelves that is based on the Tea Party and openly advocates for the principles espoused by the right-wing movement. The publishers say that sales are brisk. But this has resulted in an unforeseen problem that could dampen demand for the book.

There is now a worldwide shortage of white crayons. In order to properly fill in the Tea Partiers portrayed in the book, kids have exhausted the current supply of white drawing implements. America’s children are eager to represent the movement accurately, and this has caused a run on many toy stores. Parents have begun advertising on Craigslist and other sites in a frantic search to satisfy the desires of their kids.

Some parents, in a fit of desperation, are trying to to persuade the young artists to use other colors. “That’s why they call them ‘colored people,'” one anxious mother vainly tried to explain to her crestfallen son.

In addition to the marketplace chaos, the coloring book’s content has political connotations. I wonder what Sean Hannity would have to say about this. He, and many other Fox News shoutcasters, have railed against President Obama for what they called “indoctrination” of children whenever the administration spoke to students or distributed learning materials to schools. And it didn’t have to be a government entity to stir up the Foxies wrath. Private companies and non-profit groups received the same treatment and were likened to Nazis poisoning the minds of our youth. Yet this book has not generated the same criticism despite its explicit advocacy of partisan opinion, as seen in this excerpt from the book:

“When taxes are too high, the high tax takes away jobs and freedom. In 1773 we had a Tea Party and this led to freedom from high taxes. Today we are having another Tea Party and this will lead to freedom from high taxes again!”

The reaction to this book from Fox News isn’t nearly as hostile as their response to anything similar from the White House or those who published more liberal fare. In fact, Fox provided valuable airtime to promote the book and its publisher, which should serve to boost sales. The selective outrage exhibited by Fox and other conservatives demonstrates that indoctrination is not regarded as threatening if it is coming from the right.

Revised and corrected cover of the The Tea Party Coloring Book:


Glenn Beck Quivers In Fear Of One Nation Working Together

Posted by on September 29, 2010 at 3:56 pm. 10 Comments :

Last week Glenn Beck offered his best wishes the organizers of the One Nation Working Together rally. He supported their right to assemble and hoped that they would have a successful event. He expressed the same sentiment toward the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert rallies. At the time it was clear that he was only trying to get on record as appearing to be unconcerned with them. Obviously he doesn’t really want them to succeed.

This week his true feeling have come to the surface. He has spent the past couple of days, both on radio and TV, bashing the One Nation rally as a collection of traitorous degenerates with ties to Stalin or Satan or something:

“All of these groups, and the President of the United States, want nothing short of fundamental transformation of America. It is not about cleaning up corruption. It is only a beginning. A beginning of a radical, revolutionary Marxist land.

“Do not allow them to get away with the lies. Do not allow them to say that we are just one nation working together. We’re just trying to put America back to work and put America back together. These people, a lot of them, have fought their entire life to destroy America.”

So now Beck demands that his disciples not allow these deceivers to get away with their plot. It makes me wonder why he previously was so supportive of it. Is he perhaps in on it and these new comments are just a ruse to draw suspicion away from himself? He has associated the President with the rally as well, although there has been no White House involvement of any kind.

Beck has been yammering about some of the groups listed amongst those who have endorsed the One Nation rally. While, by far, the most populous factions are connected to unions and civil rights advocates, the list does include far-left organizations like the Communist Party USA. But there needs to be a distinction made here that is critical to understanding these relationships. The groups in the list have endorsed the rally. The rally is not endorsing the groups in the list. If Beck wants to disparage the rally because a few groups he considers to be evil have endorsed it, then he should condemn his own “Restoring Honor” rally last month because it was endorsed Birchers and racist, white nationalists like Stormfront.

It’s hard to understand how anyone can take Beck’s criticisms seriously. In the middle of his communists-are-everywhere rant he went to the absurd extreme of displaying an old communist tract with the phrase “Yes we can,” on the cover. To Beck that was irrefutable evidence that Obama, who used the same phrase during his campaign, is himself a communist. That will come as disturbing news to Bob the Builder:

The real purpose of Beck’s attack on One Nation is to try to preemptively discredit the event before it occurs. I think he underestimated the potential success of the event at first, but now he is beginning to worry that it might just surpass his Fundamentalist Revival Meeting in attendance and make him appear weaker and impotent by comparison. So now it has become imperative for him to take steps to suppress turnout and to build an argument to dismiss it after the fact.

You don’t flip from being patronizingly supportive to asserting a partnership with Lucifer overnight without some sort of catalyst. The catalyst here is that Beck is afraid. He fears the One Nation rally will eclipse his Holy Rollover Acute Paranoia Revue and find him facing the thing he fears most of all: irrelevance.


Fox News Pimp James O’Keefe Tries To Deep Throat CNN

Posted by on September 29, 2010 at 11:42 am. 3 Comments :

James O'KeefeFox News porn star and convicted impostor James O’Keefe has managed to land himself in the news again in another embarrassing exploit that is becoming routine for this loser.

CNN is reporting that O’Keefe attempted to ensnare a CNN reporter in a juvenile and salacious prank aboard his boat that was designed to embarrass the reporter and the network:

“A conservative activist known for making undercover videos plotted to embarrass a CNN correspondent by recording a meeting on hidden cameras aboard a floating ‘palace of pleasure’ and making sexually suggestive comments, e-mails and a planning document show.

James O’Keefe, best known for hitting the community organizing group ACORN with an undercover video sting, hoped to get CNN Investigative Correspondent Abbie Boudreau onto a boat filled with sexually explicit props and then record the session, those documents show. “

The first place O’Keefe went wrong was in thinking that any rendezvous with him would constitute a “palace of pleasure.” More like a “rathole of wretch.” O’Keefe’s scheme was so misguided and revolting that his own accomplice blew the whistle and alerted Boudreau to the plot. Additionally, emails and other documents were obtained that revealed how lame and desperate O’Keefe is trying to come up with a sequel to his ACORN escapade. Those documents include detailed plans that described setting up their love boat with a condom jar, dildos, pornography, fuzzy handcuffs, and a mirror on the ceiling. O’Keefe’s plan called for him to make an introductory speech for the video that went like this:

“My name is James, I work in video activism and journalism. I’ve been approached by CNN for an interview where I know what their angle is: they want to portray me and my friends as crazies, as non-journalists, as unprofessional and likely as homophobes, racists or bigots of some sort…”

“Instead, I’ve decided to have a little fun. Instead of giving her a serious interview, I’m going to punk CNN. Abbie has been trying to seduce me to use me, in order to spin a lie about me. So, I’m going to seduce her, on camera, to use her for a video. This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she’ll get seduced on camera and you’ll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath.”

“Please sit back and enjoy the show.”

Gee. I wonder why anyone would want to portray O’Keefe and his friends as crazies and non-journalists. All the great investigative reporters in the past have sought to seduce their colleagues who were working on stories about them. Edward R. Murrow would never go anywhere without a jar of condoms, and Bob Woodward’s dildo collection was legendary. He would never have won over Deep Throat without it. The planning document also contained a projection of how they thought the dialogue would go between O’Keefe and Boudreau:

AB: Is this a gag?
JO: Abbie, I’m not really into S&M, so I don’t have any toys like that…
AB: No, is this a joke, are you kidding?
JO: Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you were talking about S&M, what do you mean is this a gag?
AB: You can’t be serious, I’m married.
JO: Abbie, there’s never going to be a right time for you and I. There’s only right now. We have to make the most of the time we’re given, and we’re being given right now.
AB: Are you serious?
JO: I’ve never met a woman like you, one who had the drive, ambition, and the same creative power, the same creative juice. We’re the same person Abbie, We’re meant to be together. I’m serious because my heart is serious.
AB: James, this is not professional.

Boudreau wrote in her response to this scam that it was so juvenile she suspected that the real scam was the revealing of the fake scam. That shows good sense on her part. For anyone else that might have been the case (and maybe still is). After all, in his own dialogue he has Boudreau behaving professionally and rejecting his advances. Here is Boudreau’s video account of the meeting:

O’Keefe really is this juvenile. It fits his persona that is obsessively preoccupied with sex (i.e. his pimp and hooker routine). And speaking of persona, here is how his document described the one O’Keefe planned to assume: “James should have a more sleazy persona than normal.” That’s a tall order, but one I’m sure O’Keefe is up to. And he even has a contingency in the event his plot is discovered that includes this advice:

“…point out the hypocrisy in CNN using the inherent sexuality of these women to sell viewers and for ratings, passing up more esteemed and respectable journalists who aren’t bubble-headed bleach blondes…”

I assume he means more esteemed and respectable journalists like Gretchen Carlson, Martha MacCallum, Megyn Kelly, and Courtney Friel. Compare those brainiacs to Candy Crowley or Susan Candiotti or Christiane Amanpour (who recently moved over to ABC).

Remember, O’Keefe is best known for his prank on ACORN wherein he reportedly dressed up as a pimp and accompanied his hooker (Hannah Giles) to ACORN offices to elicit some sort of embarrassing video. As it turns out, he never wore the pimp outfit as he claimed. That was part of his elaborate and misleading editing of the video done after the fact. ACORN was later absolved of any wrongdoing and were shown to have acted appropriately in reporting O’Keefe to the police.

He went on from there to his now famous affair in the office of Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. That mission got him a conviction for pretending to be a telephone repairman and seeking access to the Senator’s phone system.

After that, O’Keefe enlisted himself in a census scam wherein he tried to assert some sort of impropriety on the part of the census takers. That scheme was so devoid of content or authenticity that Breitbart wouldn’t even carry it.

It is important to note that O’Keefe is not some fringe player on the right who is dismissed by more sober and thoughtful conservatives. He was featured on Fox News numerous times and was named the Power Player of the Week by Chris Wallace, anchor of Fox News Sunday. He is supported and published by Andrew Breitbart, one of the right’s most popular media mavens. He won the Impact Award at the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year.

The conservative establish embraces their young soldier, they are proud of him. And why shouldn’t they be? He represents all of the same values of corruption and deception that has been part of the right’s platform for decades. He is their puppy and they will honor and protect him. What do you think the odds are of Fox News covering this story?

[Update, 9/30/10] As expected, there was no reporting on this story by Fox News. Not a single report about their rising star whom they featured so prominently a few months ago. Also, Andrew Breitbart not only failed to post a story about his protege’s pleasure palace, he denied in a tweet that he was even associated with him. Never mind the fact that O’Keefe posted a story on BigGovernment just one week ago.


Obama: Fox News Is Ultimately Destructive To Country’s Long-term Growth

Posted by on September 28, 2010 at 11:48 am. 22 Comments :

President Obama has not been shy in the past expressing his views of Fox News. It is always encouraging to hear him or his spokespersons articulate clear-eyed perspectives of the network that has made it their mission to destroy his administration and elevate hostility to unprecedented levels. Even before he was elected he knew:

Obama: I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls. If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn’t vote for me, right? Because the way I’m portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?

In a new interview in Rolling Stone Magazine, President Obama has once again stated the obvious as regards Fox news:

Rolling Stone: What do you think of Fox News? Do you think it’s a good institution for America and for democracy?

Obama: [Laughs] Look, as president, I swore to uphold the Constitution, and part of that Constitution is a free press. We’ve got a tradition in this country of a press that oftentimes is opinionated. The golden age of an objective press was a pretty narrow span of time in our history. Before that, you had folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints. I think Fox is part of that tradition — it is part of the tradition that has a very clear, undeniable point of view. It’s a point of view that I disagree with. It’s a point of view that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world. But as an economic enterprise, it’s been wildly successful. And I suspect that if you ask Mr. Murdoch what his number-one concern is, it’s that Fox is very successful.

That’s still somewhat more forgiving than I would have been. Fox is not guilty of merely expressing “a point of view.” They shamelessly traffic in lies and personal insults. They have called him a racist, a socialist, and by virtue of their false assertions of him being a Muslim, they imply that he is either a terrorist, or a terrorist sympathizer.

These are the sort of allegations that used to be the exclusive domain of lunatic fringe groups. But Fox has promoted them to the mainstream. They have made it possible for establishment politicians and pundits to parrot the most preposterous rhetoric. And they have provided a platform on television, radio, print, and the Internet, to peddle their invective.

So while Obama continues to be more conciliatory than perhaps he should be, at least he recognizes the basic truth that the Fox model of news can only be harmful to the country in the long-term. I would suggest that it is also harmful in the short-term, and any term in between.