Last Night Sean Hannity devoted the entire hour of his Fox News program to the documentary “Generation Zero.” This morning Fox Nation featured it on their web site as a “Must-See” film.
Generation Zero recently made its public debut at the Tea Baggers Ball in Nashville and was subsequently screened at CPAC, where it was introduced by the terminally choleric Andrew Breitbart. The film was produced by David Bossie of Citizens United, the plaintiff in the recently decided Supreme Court case that granted corporations unprecedented financial participation in federal elections. It was directed by Stephen Bannon who, in another life, produced the Sean Penn directed “The Indian Runner.” Don’t tell Bill O’Reilly, who is boycotting Penn’s films.
I haven’t seen this film (it’s not actually been released yet), but its pedigree and cheer leaders reveal something of its intended mission. The web site says the film is not about the failure of capitalism, but it goes on to say that it will “change everything you thought you knew about Wall Street and Washington.” That assertion makes it difficult to separate the movie’s message from the tenets of capitalism. From reviews and discussion of the film, it seems the basic premise is that the current economic meltdown we find ourselves struggling through was caused by the selfishness and egocentrism of the children of Woodstock. This is a peculiar and illogical theory.
It’s a peculiar theory in that it presumes to blame the “Baby Boom” generation for today’s economic catastrophe. But in doing so, the film is really blaming the poor parenting skills of the “Greatest Generation” who, in their zeal to shield their kids from the pain of depression and war, acceded to their every material want and raised them to be shallow and self-indulgent. That’s a pretty harsh condemnation of the generation that survived decades of trauma in the first half of the last century. The filmmakers are essentially charging the generation that fought its way through the economic disasters of the 1930’s and the worldwide conflagrations of the 1940’s with raising their children to be so socially decadent as to lead the nation into near economic collapse. Do the filmmakers really believe that these parents passed no lessons on to their kids about the hardships they endured?
It’s an illogical theory in that it attempts to create linkage between the hippies of the 1960’s and the financial barons of the 1990’s. So much of the rhetoric of right-wing history revisionists relies on castigating the youth movement of the 1960’s. They are portrayed as drug-addled degenerates and dropouts who contributed nothing of value to society. Their preoccupation with trivialities like civil rights, peace, and free love, permanently labeled them as subversive and anti-social. Since when did their reputation get rehabilitated to the point that they are now seen as captains of industry and finance with the blood of our capitalistic empire on their hands? Surely many former hippies went on to successful careers, but I would venture to say that not one of them became the CEO of AIG or Merrill Lynch.
The Baby Boomers that took the helm of big business were the ones that kept their hair short and listened to Pat Boone in the 60’s. They were the hall monitors and the narcs at their prep schools. They were born to wealth and privilege. It was they, who were already inbred with self-indulgence and egotism, who held the reins of power in the 2000’s. It certainly was not a bunch of idealistic, public school, counter-culture, former flower children who somehow grew up to be greedy sociopaths.
It wasn’t a cabal of aging hippies who invented credit default swaps. It was a cooperative of Wall Street pirates and their Washington patrons. It wasn’t the result of permissive parenting, but of submissive regulators and legislators. While Generation Zero dwells way too much on an unrealistic Leave It To Beaver version of the 1950’s, it actually does approach this part of the problem as well. The movie does not neglect the culpability of an entrenched financial class that has no historical memory whatsoever.
Ironically, that’s exactly what Michael Moore presented in “Capitalism: A Love Story.” Moore’s film was an indictment of the coziness between Wall Street and Washington. And it assailed the notion that solutions had to be afforded to the tottering financial institutions, rather than to the suffering citizens who were the victims. So some of the themes in Generation Zero that are now being heralded by the rightist media were previously explored by Moore. But while there are clear parallels between Moore’s Capitalism and Bannon’s Zero, it is unlikely that either side will acknowledge it. The chasm is far too wide to cross. Even on Hannity’s show there was an exchange that came close to recognizing this ideological affinity, but it was ultimately ignored as they broke away to a commercial.
Sean Hannity: Is it the political system that is more corrupt? Because I believe Capitalism works. Capitalism is the answer. David Bossie, Producer: Clearly Capital Hill is corrupt. Capital Hill is the problem, not Wall Street here. Stephen Bannon, Director: I think it an inextricably linked network between Capital Hill and Wall Street. […] You’ve had the American taxpayer, the average, middle-class American, paying taxes to bailout these big firms, and there’s been no change in behavior, no change in structure no change in regulation.
It’s interesting to see Bossie quickly suck up to Hannity and absolve Wall Street of any liability. It’s even more interesting to see Bannon contradict both of them and spread the blame evenly across the econo-political spectrum. But most interesting would be if all the people that go to see Generation Zero would pick up a copy of Capitalism: A Love Story as well. They may realize that Michael Moore is not the demon he’s made out to be by the right. And conversely, Moore might take a look at Generation Zero. If it isn’t stuffed with right-wing polemics and denunciations of 60’s “radicals,” perhaps he could promote it alongside his own movie.
If both of these films tell the same story of overarching corporate greed and government complicity, it would make a compelling double bill.
The most frightening thing to a Fox Nationalist must be the countenance of a Clinton. They are still trembling at the very thought of the Big Dog. That’s why they were spooked by rumors that Clinton was plotting some dastardly assault on their beloved Tea Partiers. They featured a headline story lamenting their perilous fate.
That’s right. Bill Clinton is plotting a Tea Party attack. The headline linked to a story on Andrew Breitbart’s hilarious parody of a news web site, BigGovernment.com. But they are deadly serious when they accuse the former president of concocting fiendish schemes aimed at the teatotaling Crusaders:
“Big Government has learned that Clintonistas are plotting a ‘push/pull’ strategy. They plan to identify 7-8 national figures active in the tea party movement and engage in deep opposition research on them. If possible, they will identify one or two they can perhaps ‘turn’, either with money or threats, to create a mole in the movement. The others will be subjected to a full-on smear campaign.”
Imagine that. The Tea Crusaders may be subject to a ghastly attempt to oppose their racist, corporate-funded, circus masquerading as a grassroots movement. The Fox Nationalists and BigGovernees must have gotten the impression somewhere that political activities were never supposed to be criticized or countered.
Even more appalling, Breitbart’s deep opposition research has turned up evidence that Clintonistas might engage in deep opposition research. How dare they? Never mind that Breitbart doesn’t bother to disclose the source of his “evidence.” He doesn’t even cite the ubiquitous “anonymous” source who seems to see everything in Washington. He merely says that he’s “learned” of these aborning plots. And to make matters worse, he’s “learned” that Clinton ally James Carville will be heading up the mission.
Breitbart’s pseudonymous stooge further exclaims his surprise that Clinton would go to bat for Obama. He implies that the President’s animosity toward the Clinton clan ought to have prevented that. Much in the way that it prevented Obama from naming Hillary Clinton his Secretary of State.
Oops…Scratch that. In fact, scratch the whole thing. The fact that Fox Nation is getting its scoops from Breitbart should have been the signal to stop paying attention.
The Conservative Political Action Conference will open tomorrow in Washington, D.C. and it promises to be totally off the hook. For those unable to attend, you might like to hear a bit about what you’ll be missing. Fox News provided this account of the festivities that, this year, will be making a special appeal to young conservatives.
“In a bid to make conservative chic, organizers of the annual meet-up of Republican Party faithful and right-wing firebrands are taking pains this year to gear their summit toward students and the under-30 crowd. Added to the menu are a slew of new media workshops and an entertainment lineup befitting a college campus.”
So what constitutes “chic” to these rightist party planners?
“The XPAC Lounge – a room one organizer dubbed the ‘hub of fun.’ That’s where the video games and the junk food will be.”
Well, if the video games and junk food will be there, then so will every young Tea Bagger in America. XPAC (Xtreme Politically Active Conservatives) is a CPAC spinoff created to appeal to America’s youth, whom Glenn Beck regards as useful idiots. That view is apparently shared by XPAC as demonstrated by their obvious contempt for young people. There is a presumption from this crowd that all kids care about is Wii, Xbox and Guitar Hero and, of course, Pizza, Cheetohs, and beer. They certainly aren’t interested in mundane pursuits like economics, foreign affairs, health care, education, etc. XPAC actually promotes their sideshow (which costs $20.00 on top of the conference registration) as…
“…a place to hang while the older crowd attends the high-priced nightly dinners.”
So it’s the kiddie table. And what about that “entertainment lineup befitting a college campus?” Did they snag Cage the Elephant or Dane Clark? Nope. Try Ann Coulter, Michael Steele and the Young Cons, a couple of white, Christians in business suits trying to rap. And then there was this enticing news from CPAC spokesman Ian Walters:
“I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody of Joe the Plumber stature came in three times a day to come in and rally the kids.”
Seriously? Stature? All the kids I know would be having fits if they thought they might be within arms reach of Joey the P. He’s so dreamy. And add to this roster of stars ACORN-busting hooker and Fox News porn star, Hannah Giles. She and her pimp, James O’Keefe, will be receiving the “1st Annual XPAC Award for Impact.” But O’Keefe first has to get his parole officer’s permission in order to attend, as he was arrested in a senator’s office recently on potential felony charges. Now that’s impact. Giles will be introducing the pair’s mentor, Andrew Breitbart for the morning keynote disinformation.
Organizers are anxious to attract more young conservatives who, they say, are are “proving more adept at using new media.” They say that the conference agenda reflects that “fact” because it includes workshops and sessions on blogging and using Twitter. The obvious question is, if they are already more adept, then why do they need these workshops?
In addition to the must-see lineup above, you won’t want to miss Tom Tancredo, fresh from the Tea Baggers convention where he proposed reinstating literacy tests for voting and other racist Jim Crow-era atrocities. Gary Kreep will be on hand for the Birther contingent. Kreep was the lead council for Birther activist, “Rev.” Wiley Drake, who was also notable for his encouragement of prayers for the death of President Obama. Kreep is also the proprietor of the DefendGlenn web site that was a response to the wildly successful advertiser boycott of Beck’s show on Fox. And speaking of Beck, he will be giving the closing keynote speech on Saturday night to tie together all of the racism, birtherism, secessionism, militarism, and assorted propaganda that was dispensed throughout the conference. That’ll be the time to really get your paranoia on.
Prospective Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum, will all be attending. The only one missing is Sarah Palin, who declined to attend in favor of the Tea Bagging in Nashville. Although why she could not do both is a mystery. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the Tea Baggers paid her a hundred grand and the CPACers offered her zilch. Appearing under those circumstances is just not the American way.
You really have to wonder how a someone like Andrew Breitbart is held with any sort of respect. Having graduated from the Matt Drudge Institute for Debasing Journalism, Breitbart went on to launch a collection of web sites that he likes to think are “Big.” This week the Daily Beast placed him at #11 on a list of The Right’s Top 25 Journalists. But just to be certain we are seeing the real Breitbart, I went to his Twitter stream so that I could form an opinion of him based on his own words…er…tweets.
What I found has made me question whether Breitbart is suffering from a severe form of Emotional Deprivation Disorder. EDD is a syndrome which results from a lack of authentic affirmation and emotional strengthening in one’s life. A person may have been criticized, ignored, neglected, abused, or emotionally rejected by primary caregivers early in life, resulting in that individual’s stunted emotional growth. Either that, or Breitbart is actually a nine year old miscreant punking the blogosphere. Here a few excerpts from Breitbart’s Twitter stream just in the past 24 hours:
Fuck James Cameron, filth.
Are you a moron?
Who the hell did i compare to hitler, idiot. i compare you to bronson pinchot.
Pol pot is another example of left’s silence on & responsibility for totalitarian tyrants. dunce.
Whata diggety dumbbell.
What a eunuch.
You drive-by loser.
What a dope
Is this the behavior of a mature adult? Is this childish petulance something you would expect from someone who wants to be taken seriously as a journalist? Both his indecency and his obsessive prolificity on Twitter may be explained in part by his Twitter bio:
Bio: If you don’t like the occasional vulgarity, or expletive, my Twitter feed may not be to your standards. I have to cover the sickening freaks at Media Matters.
Oh. It’s Media Matters that impels him to be an obnoxious, foulmouthed, boor. Media Matters should know better than to publish Breitbart’s own words and embarrass him by doing so. Breitbart is completely justified in replacing reasoned arguments with elementary schoolyard taunts because there is clearly no other way to respond to having your public statements documented and exhibited for everyone to see.
The treatment for EDD is to provide the sufferer with a steady stream of affirmation. That’s not something for which I would rush to volunteer. One thing that is abundantly clear is that Breitbart has a screw loose. And now that I have documented his infantile rants I should probably be prepared for some blowback. So in a preemptive move to counter whatever Breitbart might spew my way, I would just like to say…
Posted by Mark NC on February 11, 2010 at 4:43 pm.
NOComments :
Tunku Varadarajan, national affairs correspondent for The Daily Beast, has compiled a list of what he and 50 academics, politicians, and journalists, consider to be the top 25 right-wing journalists in America. The most enlightening thing we learn from this list has nothing to do with the ranking of wingnuts in the media. What is truly fascinating is how it reveals their definition of a journalist. Here are the top 10:
Paul Gigot, Editorial Page Editor, The Wall Street Journal
Glenn Beck, Fox News
Rush Limbaugh, Radio Talk Show Host
Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal
Bill O’Reilly, Fox News
Michelle Malkin, Fox News/Blogger
David Brooks, The New York Times
Sean Hannity, Fox News
James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal
Matt Drudge, The Drudge Report
To be fair, placing Paul Gigot at the top of the list recognizes a veteran newsman who spent decades with ink-stained fingers pursuing his vocation as a reporter and editor. While devotedly right-wing in his current role as an editorialist and commentator, he also has the resume of a bona fide journalist. And that makes him the ONLY journalist on the list.
It is nearly hysterical that the 50 unnamed participants in this project elevated Glenn Beck to second place; and Rush Limbaugh to third; and Bill O’Reilly to fifth; and … well you get the idea. What’s more, Varadarajan obviously has a soft spot in his heart for his former employer, Rupert Murdoch. Seven of the top 10 are also Murdoch minions employed by either Fox News or the Wall Street Journal. I wonder if some of the few real journalists at those shops are upset that they were ignored in favor of Sean Hannity and Peggy Noonan?
It is rather telling that an assembly of conservative academics, politicians, and journalists, couldn’t actually come up with names of other conservatives who are actually journalists. One of their selections, Limbaugh, has already responded to the list by declaring that he shouldn’t be on it. At least he is honest enough in this circumstance to admit that what he does is not journalism.
Some of the notable non-journalists on the remainder of the list include raging propagandist Andrew Breitbart (11), serial interrupter Neil Cavuto (14), Coulter clone Laura Ingraham (21), and Marc Morano, a virulent Climate Crisis denier and science skeptic.
Overall, judging from this coterie of cranks, I’m surprised that James O’Keefe and Jeff Gannon weren’t given honorable mentions. Perhaps the panel should be consulted again and made aware of some of these glaring omissions. Remember, Joe the Plumber served as a war correspondent for Pajamas Media. How dare they insult these fine conservatives by failing to honor their contributions to the rightist media.
Icantstandit-Icantstandit-Icantstandit. Sarah’s almost here. OMG!
Tonight’s the night that the Queen Tea Bagger, Sarah Palin, addresses the hive. News reports have indicated a high level of anticipation with some Baggers saying that they only came to see Palin and didn’t care about Tea. I’m a little skeptical because the convention’s web site still says there are tickets available. Maybe they just don’t know how to update their site.
Perhaps the anticipation is really for the potential Queen fight. The Queen of the Birthers, Orly Taitz, showed up in Nashville today and word has it that the media fled in mortal fear of being smothered by her. Those brave enough to stick around are hoping to get a front row seat as the rival Queens battle for camera angles.
This morning featured a stem-winding oratory by Drudge-spawn, Andrew Breitbart. His rabid rant, complete with frothing and spittle, was a non-stop harangue directed at the press – who were dutifully covering the whole thing from the back of the room. Breitbart delivered one contrived applause line after another, and the audience did their part like the good Pavlovians they are.
Outside the convention hall there were demonstrators who alleged that the convention organizers had hijacked the Tea Party movement for their own greedy purposes. It’s not likely they will be well received by the “establishment” Baggers. Especially after saying this:
“We don’t need Sarah Palin to be the face of our movement.”
Uh oh. Sacrilege never goes down easy. Even conservative icon David Frum is less than enamored with the Baggers. he penned a column today titled “Tea Party’s Fifteen Minutes Are Up, based on his visit to the ball.
Andrew Breitbart is introducing Palin. So far he has lauded her for being the first to talk about “death panels” and for referring to community organizers as thugs. Really? This is what she should be hailed for? Lies and insults?
Sarah opened with the courageous twofer that she is “proud to be an American” and a birthday wish for Ronald Reagan. Then she segued to a joke about Obama’s TelePrompter [insert rimshot here] that she read from her notecards.
Don’t wear yourselves out people. Chris Wallace has Sarah for the full hour tomorrow on Fox News Sunday.
In a report that is jam-packed with falsehoods, Fox News casts sinister aspersions on the motives of the U.S. Attorney who brought the case against pimp/journalist James O’Keefe for his alleged felonious activities in the office of Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu.
The first paragraph of the article, titled “U.S. Attorney Steps Down From O’Keefe Case,” has nothing whatsoever to do with the story as headlined. Instead, it appears to be no more than an attempt to set up an allegation that the U.S. Attorney’s office deliberately filed false charges against O’Keefe and his accomplices.
“James O’Keefe, accused of trying to tamper with the phones of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, was ‘framed’ by the media and the U.S. attorney’s office, Andrew Breitbart, publisher of BigGovernment.com, told Fox News Monday.”
The second paragraph of the article eventually gets around to the point of the story, but only after asserting a series of additional falsehoods dispensed by ultra-conservative propagandist, Andrew Breitbart.
“The same day the man who first published James O’Keefe’s explosive videos exposing wrongdoing at community organizer ACORN came to his defense Monday, claiming the conservative filmmaker ‘sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney’ while the prosecutor made his case to the media, the U.S. attorney involved stepped down.”
Let’s just set aside the fact that no wrongdoing on the part of ACORN has ever been proven; and that there is no evidence that O’Keefe was denied or delayed access to an attorney, or even an allegation of that by O’Keefe; and that the prosecutor did not make a case to the media while O’Keefe was being held. The first reports in the press didn’t come out until after he was released. Now we can deal with the real issue.
In this article, ostensibly about U.S. Attorney Jim Letten recusing himself from the O’Keefe case, Fox News went to great lengths to juxtapose that news with allegations of wrongdoing from Breitbart. Those allegations were featured in the lede and repeated in the following paragraph that explicitly tied Breitbart’s charges to the recusal. The Fox News version of events was that Letten stepped down the same day Breitbart issued his defense of O’Keefe. The clear implication being that those two events had something to do with one another. Fox News is plainly and irresponsibly insinuating that Letton stepped aside because of some impropriety.
The same implied correlation occurred in the very next paragraph wherein the charge that O’Keefe was framed was repeated, followed by Fox News again connecting that to Letten’s recusal by saying that it took place “hours later.” For the record, the New Orleans Times-Picayune (in an act of actual journalism) has confirmed that Letten asked to be recused a week ago, long before the smear by Breitbart and Fox. The remainder of the article was a virtually uninterrupted platform for Breitbart’s wholly unsupported defense of O’Keefe. Breitbart was quoted extensively making allegations for which he had no foundation.
“James O’Keefe sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney, while the U.S. attorney leaked the information about his arrest, helping the media frame it as ‘Watergate Junior.'”
“The panty bomber on Christmas was given — you know, this guy’s from Al Qaeda, and he’s not even an American citizen, and he’s given access to an attorney right away. I believe that this was a concerted effort, this is just my opinion, to allow for the media to frame the issue to put James O’Keefe in a very bad position.”
“It [O’Keefe’s arrest] is tied to the Justice Department. And we’ve been very aggressive in asking Eric Holder to investigate what’s seen on these ACORN tapes and he’s ignored it.”
Fox News made no attempt to verify any of these remarks, nor did they attempt to interview anyone who might have rebutted them. They let them stand unchallenged as if they were settled facts. However, they did reprint O’Keefe’s prior statement in defense of himself. A statement that had already been demonstrated to be untrue.
“The sole intent of our investigation was to determine whether or not Sen. Landrieu was purposely trying to avoid constituents who were calling to register their views to her as their senator.”
Of course, were that the case, why did he leave Landrieu’s office and try to gain access to the telephone wiring closet at another location? Fox News didn’t ask that question. Sean Hannity didn’t get an answer to that either in his exclusive fluffing interview with O’Keefe yesterday. In fact the whole interview was staged to permit O’Keefe to declare his innocence while refusing to answer substantive queries.
So who is U.S. Attorney Jim Letten whom Breitbart has accused of framing O’Keefe; of manipulating the press; of participating in a DOJ revenge plot against Breitbart?
Letten was a George W. Bush appointee who has served as U.S. Attorney since April of 2001. He is well known for his successful prosecution of former Democratic Louisiana Governor, Edwin Edwards. He has bipartisan support as a federal prosecutor with both Landrieu (a Democrat) and Sen. David Vitter (a Republican) backing his reappointment to the post by the Obama administration. In fact, Vitter was so determined to see Letten reappointed that he held up the nominations of other prosecutors until he had an assurance from Attorney General Holder that Letten would remain on the job.
Is that the profile of a man that would engage in the mischief that Breitbart alleges? Is that someone whom Fox News ought to be insinuating recused himself from a case due to some malfeasance?
To make matters worse, Fox News exploits the confidential nature of recusals to bolster their innuendos about Letten. While they tie the recusal to Breitbart’s attacks, they never entertain the notion that Letten stepped aside for legitimate reasons. For instance, he may know one of the suspects, or his family, personally. One of O’Keefe’s accomplices, Robert Flanagan, is the son of Letten’s fellow Louisiana federal prosecutor, William Flanagan.
This illustrates the lengths to which Breitbart, and his patron Fox News, will go to defame anyone they deem to be obstructing their mission to dispense disinformation and to contribute to the ignorance of their audience. The article from Fox News is so transparently biased as to be bordering on libel. It is without question knowingly malicious and false. And it is a product of Fox’s “news” division, not the primetime TV opinion mongers upon whom Fox usually likes to blame their deliberately deficient reporting.
For Fox, there is no escaping the reality that this is inexcusably unprofessional and prejudicial. And sadly, it is business as usual at Fox.
If you thought that Glenn Beck was a fount of surreal conspiracy theories that make Charles Manson look like the Dalai Lama, well, you’re right. But that’s another story. These days the virus infecting Beck is spreading rapidly throughout his community of wing nuts. There are raving rightists railing about fearsome fantasies everywhere you turn.
Senator Jim DeMint, who famously called health care Obama’s Waterloo, now has not only backed away from that statement, but he believes that the media misrepresented it. Even worse, he told a reporter that…
“…the version played over and over on cable news networks was slowed down ‘so it would sound more sinister.’“
I think DeMint saying that stopping Obama on health care “will be his Waterloo. It will break him,” is pretty sinister at any speed.
Then we have radio talker Roger Hedgecock penning a column for WorldNetDaily that could serve as the basis for a sequel to “The Sixth Sense.” Hedgecock’s version would have a kid who sees fatalities from faulty automobiles, except in a surprise ending Barack Obama is a terrorist plotting against a foreign manufacturer.
“But is government ‘greed’ a factor here? As a co-owner of Toyota rivals GM and Chrysler, is the Obama administration and its jihad against Toyota ‘consumer protection’ or revenge against a successful, non-union, red state based rival?
Never mind that Toyota acknowledged and apologized for the problem and the recall. If you look hard enough (and you’re not entirely sane) you can see the government ghosts slandering Toyota on behalf of GM.
And you can’t have an article about paranoia without Andrew Breitbart. The Godfather of pimps is now afraid that the Attorney General and his justice thugs held James O’Keefe incommunicado and leaked information to damage his reputation (as if that were possible). Furthermore, Breitbart believes that the DOJ is out to get him because…
“Well, it’s tied to the Justice Department. And we’ve been very aggressive in asking Eric Holder to investigate what’s seen on the ACORN tapes, and he’s ignored it.”
I can hear it now. O’Keefe was picked up in New Orleans and the call went out to the AG’s office with the White House and the CIA on conference. The whole national security apparatus was fired up as they concocted a scenario to take down a fake investigative journalist and his propaganda baron mentor.
Finally, the master, Beck himself, steps up to spin another of his horror filled tales of doom. In this episode Beck is convinced that some dastardly secret purpose is embedded in the dark recesses of health care or energy reform or education or even college football. The topic doesn’t really matter, Beck will find the evil in it. And it will be something about which he has warned you before:
“I told you for months: Do not allow anything to pass from this congress or this administration. Because they are building something. I don’t know what they’re building but they are putting pieces of whatever it is they are building in all of these bills and we don’t know it.”
I wonder how he knows that they are doing this if he doesn’t know it. And I wonder what he’s afraid of if he doesn’t know what it is. But just to be on the safe side he insists that nothing be passed for another three years, maybe seven. And this isn’t the first time that Beck raised fears of some ambiguous construction project. It’s a good thing we have Beck to cast out the demons of the world, people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom Beck believes is planning some monstrous assault on humanity in the next couple of weeks. We can depend on Beck to stand strong as a righteous defender of virtue:
“[L]iberalism and Marxism would have crushed all human dignity in their power-seeking and money-grubbing claws. Nothing would have remained of human and spiritual principles.”
My apology. That last quote was actually Ahmadinejad. Sometimes it’s hard to tell these prophets of paranoia apart.
James O’Keefe, the ersatz “pimp” famous for pestering ACORN, has published an amusing defense of his most recent criminal adventure. The statement was fittingly posted on Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment web site, as Breitbart is O’Keefe’s mentor and protector, despite having disavowed himself of any connection to little Jimmy’s felonious conduct.
O’Keefe begins his defense by stating that…
“The government has now confirmed what has always been clear: No one tried to wiretap or bug Senator Landrieu’s office. Nor did we try to cut or shut down her phone lines. Reports to this effect over the past 48 hours are inaccurate and false.”
However, nowhere is there any statement from the government that says any such thing. In fact, the only government statement is the release from the FBI that says O’Keefe and company…
“…were charged in a criminal complaint with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony.”
O’Keefe’s goes on to make an assertion that is patently false.
“As an investigative journalist, my goal is to expose corruption and lack of concern for citizens by government and other institutions, as I did last year when our investigations revealed the massive corruption and fraud perpetrated by ACORN.”
First of all, O’Keefe’s characterization of himself as a journalist is an insult to journalists. He brazenly violates the code of ethics as enumerated by the Society of Professional Journalists. Secondly, his goal has never been to expose corruption, but to harass liberals, as he freely admits:
“If you use their rules against them, you can really just tease them and mock them and really destroy them.”
And finally, he revealed no corruption or fraud, massive or otherwise, on the part of ACORN. Subsequent to the release of his videos there have been two independent investigations that concluded that there was no unlawful activity on the part ACORN and there have never been any findings of guilt or even charges brought. Well, except for the charges brought against O’Keefe for unlawful videotaping.
Then we come to O’Keefe’s ludicrous and illogical self-defense.
“In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working.”
That assertion is false on its face. By his own admission to the FBI, he and his associates did much more than ask if the phones were working. They “manipulated the telephone system” in the Senator’s office. They sought access to the main wiring facility at another location and went to that location where they tried unsuccessfully to get in. O’Keefe’s attempt to diminish this by portraying it as an innocent effort to question the Senator’s staff is just plain dishonest. If, as he says, his “sole intent” was to ascertain whether the Senator “was purposely trying to avoid constituents,” then why did he need to go off-site to the wiring facility?
My favorite part of this whitewash was O’Keefe’s reconsideration of this idiotic escapade.
“On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building.”
“On reflection?” I suppose a night in the slammer presents an ideal opportunity to reflect on one’s imbecility. And the prospect of ten years in prison and a quarter million dollar fine might inspire some serious self-appraisal as well. But I suspect that most of his time in lockup O’Keefe spent concocting these lame excuses. Apparently he needed more time behind bars to come up with something that didn’t blow copious chunks, because the single night was obviously not long enough.
The rest of O’Keefe’s anti-apologia was an extended whine about how the mainstream media is so mean to him. On that note – Be sure to catch James O’Keefe Monday on “Hannity” – Only on Fox News.. That’s right, The nation’s #1 cable news network (is that mainstream enough for you?), Fox News and Sean Hannity somehow scored this exclusive interview. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. Much like the fact that Fox Nation officially exonerated O’Keefe. It was just a “stunt” according to the Fox Nationalists. Nevertheless, it is still a felony. Good luck with that stunt defense, Jim.
The upcoming Tea Party National Conference has been reeling from reports of infighting amongst the rival Tea Bagger groups. Much of the controversy concerns the convention’s steep ($549.00) entry fee and allegations of financial improprieties on the part of the organizers. The convention has already lost a number of sponsors.
Well now their problems are multiplying as two of their featured speakers have canceled on them. Reps. Marsha Blackburn and Michele Bachmann have advised the Tea Party Nation, who are organizing the event, that they will be unable to attend. According to a press release from the Tea Party Nationalists, the cancellation was precipitated by congressional ethics rules:
“Due to a review of the for profit status of the event, the [ethics] committee could not authorize them to speak as the use of any proceeds from the event had not yet been established.”
That explanation is suspicious at best. First of all, the assertion that the Ethics Committee “could not authorize” the appearance doesn’t jibe with the committee’s function. It sounds more like the representatives are laying off blame on the committee to evade their own responsibility for ducking out of a shady booking. Secondly, a GOP aide cited last week’s Supreme Court decision in Citizen’s United vs. FEC as the reason for ditching the affair. That’s patently absurd. If anything, the decision broadened the ability to associate with groups that contribute to campaigns, but in truth, the decision didn’t even address groups like the Tea Party Nation. So it appears the their actual reasons for canceling are likely different than their official ones.
With the departure of Blackburn and Bachmann, Sarah Palin is the convention’s only star attraction (unless you count the editor of WorldNetDaily or Judge Roy “Ten Commandments” Moore). And her participation is perhaps tenuous as well. Some Tea Party activists are unhappy with her role in the dubious affair and are calling on her quit (the one thing she’s good at). There is a very real fear that Palin will speak before a sparsely populated house. In fact, the Tea Party Nation web site currently has this announcement posted in all caps:
THE FIRST NATIONAL TEA PARTY CONVENTION IS SOLD OUT BUT TICKETS TO THE BANQUET WITH GOV. PALIN ARE STILL AVAILABLE!!!!!
Apparently Palin isn’t the draw that her public relations agency would have us believe. Faced with the embarrassing prospect of a low turnout, combined with the pressure from fellow Tea Baggers to withdraw, Palin may come down with a bad cold next week. That would leave the organizers in a bit of bind. And since Palin was forced to promise that her reported $100,000.00 speaking fee would not benefit her personally, forgoing it wouldn’t hurt her and wouldn’t dissuade her from walking away.
Assuming the gig goes off as planned, Andrew Breitbart is scheduled to introducing Palin. The timing couldn’t be better for planting the Godfather of pimp and possible felon, James O’Keefe, on the stage with the Queen Tea Bagger. Breitbart has also been approached as a replacement for Blackburn.
All in all, this seems like an event that is not to be missed – that is if you can’t get tickets to the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. Hey, maybe they could get Larry the Cable Guy to fill in for Palin.
Palin Responds: Greta Van Susteren asked Palin if she still intends to speak at the Tea Party Conference.
“Oh, you betcha I’m going to be there. I’m going to speak there because there are people traveling from many miles away to hear what that tea party movement is all about and what that message is that should be received by our politicians in Washington. I’m honored to get to be there.”
The Conservative Political Action Conference will open tomorrow in Washington, D.C. and it promises to be totally 
ACORN-busting hooker and Fox News porn star, Hannah Giles. She and her pimp, James O’Keefe, will be receiving the “1st Annual XPAC Award for Impact.” But O’Keefe first has to get his 
James O’Keefe, the ersatz “pimp” famous for pestering ACORN, has published an amusing defense of his most recent