Author Archives: PEB
Just Shoot Em’ in the Head
During a discussion on Fox News about “mirandizing” terrorist suspects, and the treatment of Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners, Glenn Beck, said Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners should be shot in the head.
Beck’s comments on shooting prisoners was a reaction to the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the military leader of the Afghanistan Taliban, and second only to the group’s leader Mullah Omar. Beck said Baradar should be tortured and then shot in the head.
Isn’t this what the Nazis did to POWs and the resistance in countries they invaded and occupied?
Under the Geneva Conventions – of which the United States is a signatory – “Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely”.
Translated, the French term hors de combat means a soldier who is incapable of performing a military function; Baradar was arrested in a slum in the Pakistani city of Karachi. He was not on the battlefield and not engaged in a military function at the time of his capture.
Of course, for Beck – who in spite of what he claims, is not a constitutionalist or patriot — the facts surrounding Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar are irrelevant. He should be tortured and then promptly shot in the head.
Kit Lange’s Prophecies One Year Later
One year ago I was sent the gloom and doom predictions of Kit Lange’s, My Predictions for the New Obama ‘Presidency’.
It’s now been one year since President Obama took the reins, and I thought we could all revisit Ms. Lange’s predictions and see if the Prophetess of Doom was right or not?
As many of you may know, Ms. Lange is reportedly a veteran of the United States Air Force, for which service I would salute her; however as a 20+ year veteran of the United States Army I need to say that not everyone who has served, or who is currently serving, agrees with her particular point of view.
I shall once again attempt to respond to Lange’s prophecies. The point-counterpoint includes Lange’s divinations (in normal text) and my replies (in bold and italicized):
Lange: “Now that America has shown us all that affirmative action even works in politics, I’ve compiled a list of things that you can probably expect to happen. These predictions are 80% gleaned from information all of us have access to, and 15% gut instinct based on many years of research, historical study, and being glued to current affairs. The other 5% is just anger at my countrymen’s stupidity – I admit it.
– “Websites and mass emails offering ‘free grants,’ courtesy of the government and ‘Obama’s wealth redistribution.’
One year later and still haven’t found any evidence that these “mass emails” ever went out. Still no wealth redistributed.
Prophecy score: 0-1
Lange: “Israel will understand this election was the end of any type of assistance, military or otherwise, from the U.S., and will stop holding back their defense at the request of the American administration. Look for a first strike on Iran soon, as well as increased activity by the Israeli military in general. Israel is on her own now, and God help us all because of it.”
One year later and still no massive Israeli unleashing of death upon Iran, or any of her Arab neighbors; in fact Israeli attacks have seen a decrease in the last twelve months. How many times did hostilities erupt during the eight wonderfully enlightened years of Bush/Cheney cowboy diplomacy?
Lange?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Lange?
There were three major military confrontations during the Bush years, and countless missile attacks and air raids.
How many so far during Obama’s Presidency?
Lange?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Lange?
The answer would be zero.
Your claim was an unsubstantiated lie in 2009, and it still is. In an interview with the Israeli daily news paper Haaretz, President Obama has said, “My view is that the United States’ special relationship with Israel obligates us to be helpful to them in the search for credible partners with whom they can make peace, while also supporting Israel in defending itself against enemies sworn to its destruction.”
“Israelis want more than anything to live in peace with their neighbors, but Israel also has real – and very dangerous – enemies,” Obama said.
Prophecy score: 0-2
Lange: “Look for Iranian retaliation–against American targets. That goes doubly for other terrorist organizations. We just elected a man with the full endorsement of every major terrorist group in the world as leader of the free world. It’s the political equivalent of hiring a child molester to babysit your kids while you leave for the weekend. Not only is HE going to have fun with your child, but he’ll probably sit and watch while his friends come over and do it too.”
One year later and no Iranian attack on the United States. No other terrorist groups either.
Prophecy score: 0-3
Lange: “Look for far-left justices appointed to the Supreme Court, effectively tying up the entire government in a trifecta of liberal humanism, the buzzwords of which remain empty platitudes like “hope and change,” and the ultimate goal of which is socialism–and soon, sharia law.”
One year after taking the oath of office, President Obama, has appointed the first Hispanic Woman to the United States Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, not a far-left liberal, but a moderate, almost conservative, pick.
Still waiting for the Socialism and Sharia Law to kick in. haven’t seen any birkas for sale in Walmart yet.
Prophecy score: 0-4
Lange: “Military cases of troops being tried and convicted for killing the enemy in combat will continue to rise–and the conviction/plea – bargain rate will stay at nearly 100%, as the government seeks to use the best men and women this country has to offer as sacrificial lambs on the altar of global appeasement. Those brave and honorable men who currently reside in prison cells across the country, stripped of their rank, their careers, families, and their good name, will not taste free air again for many years. Their sacrifices and their stories will be forgotten by the general public, remembered only by those of us who continue to fight for them.”
Like everything looked at so far I’m still waiting for the rise in military cases against our troops. As I said in last year, under which administration were these “brave and honorable men” accused, arrested, tried and imprisoned? The answer hasn’t changed since then, that would be the administration President George W. Bush.
Four Navy Seals are facing charges for having allegedly abused a prisoner. If they “roughed him up” after he was a prisoner then they should be tried. American military personnel do not abuse prisoners! If he was banged up during his capture then they will be found innocent.
So, in one year, four – count em’ four – military personnel have been brought up on charges for alleged abuses…doesn’t sound like the massive increase you predicted.
Prophecy score: 0-5
Lange: “Look for the slow but steady erosion of rights you have enjoyed for your entire lives–all the while being told it’s “for your own good.”
Still looking for the slow but steady erosion to begin; let’s see, freedoms of free speech are still in place, as evidenced by the “protesting” in town hall meetings, and of course the so-called “spontaneous” Tea Bag events.
Everyone still has their guns.
Religion is still free, just look at The Family on C Street.
Rush and Hannity et al., are still on the air and not in a camp somewhere, that must mean freedom of speech is still in full swing.
Haven’t heard of any federal troops being quartered in anyone’s homes yet; and in spite of the best efforts of the previous administration, federal troops are not going into homes without warrants and seizing property.
That “slow but steady erosion of rights you have enjoyed for your entire lives”, was stopped on January 22nd.
Never in the history of our Republic were you closer to having your civil rights seriously restricted than during the eight years of Bush/Cheney. The passing of the Patriotic Act, Habeas Corpus being ignored – unconstitutionally –by President Bush and his administration, and let us not forget Republican Mitt Romney’s view that it would have been OK to wire tap Islamic houses of worship in the United States?
Prophecy score: 0-6
Lange: “Restrictions on gun ownership,”
Covered up top.
Prophecy score: 0-7
Lange: “…home schooling, encouraged dependence on the ever-growing federal government.”
Prophecy score: 0-8
Lange: “More nanny-state provisions will be put into place to protect the “disadvantaged” and the “poor,” (read: lazy, uneducated, unwilling to better themselves) even while groups like the unborn, the mentally handicapped, elderly, and terminally ill are slowly pushed toward euthanasia. Of course, this will be done with feel-good phrases like “death with dignity,” “not wanting to be a burden,” and “merciful release from suffering,” all of which ignore the basic fact that we are killing people without their consent for the “good of the people.” Before you tell me I’m crazy, let’s just remember that Barack Obama was the ONLY senator in the Illinois state senate to vote against providing medical care for babies who were inconsiderate enough to survive an abortion.”
Well, Sarah Palin is claiming that we’re inches away from “Death Panels”, NOT! Well, actually, I have to take that NOT back. We do have “death panels” in America, and Sarah’s little Trig would be in danger under its jurisdiction. It’s in Texas, and then Governor George W. Bush created it in 1999.
Prophecy score: 0-9
Lange: “Also, look for taxes to go up. Yes, they’ll go up.”
Still looking for my taxes to go up…
As was made abundantly clear in February, but warrants repeating here, for eight years the previous administration of President George W. Bush prosecuted a War on Terror that has cost more than $4,000,000,000.00 (trillion) dollars while cutting tax revenues to the federal government. While the War on Terror was certainly warranted and justified, the fact that our country got mired in Iraq, which has cost $3,000,000,000.00 of the $4 trillion, without raising taxes, has effectually bankrupted our nation. You can’t spend $4 trillion dollars without raising income. And while President Bush was spending $4 trillion, and not raising taxes, he failed to increase funding for our nation’s roads, bridges, railroads, airports, schools, libraries, hospitals, etc. Now the bill has come due. Yes, President Obama will no doubt have to raise taxes, but mostly because the last Administration wanted to have its cake and eat it too.
Prophecy score: 0-10
Lange: “You think the economy is bad now? Just wait. You’ll have the most expensive “free” health care ever. Bread lines aren’t just for Russians anymore.”
How unfortunate that the economic stimulus is working, that the Stock Market has been on the rise and that the Obama health care bill will only raise taxes on the top 2% of our country. It should be mentioned here, who drove our nation’s economy into the dirt? That would be George W. Bush. The same guy who lied us into war, who tortured prisoners and who took the Federal Government to its largest expansion in the history of our country.
Prophecy score: 0-11
Lange: “We have traded experience for color, freedom for slavery – and the irony is that the average American sheeple thinks their vote somehow righted an ancient wrong, somehow ENDED the specter of slavery and ushered in some beautiful era of liberty.”
I’m still just a simple guy who happened to grow up in the south hearing racist comments all of the time, and this is – pure and simple, nothing less than – white supremacists racist commentary.
Lange: “…In reality, we are about to be less free than you ever thought possible.”
Still waiting…
Prophecy score: 0-12
So there you have it sports fans, and political pundits. One year after Kit Lange peered into her cauldron, borrowing the eye of prophecy from her sisters, not one of her dire predictions has come true.
The Best Little (Health Insurance) Cat House in Washington
While 45,000 Americans die each year because they cannot afford health insurance, members of the United States Senate continue to prostitute themselves to the John’s of health insurance companies.
Just who are the “top” ten best little health insurance whores in Washington?
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
How much to get lucky with Chucky? $1,320,000
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Orrin will get you roarin for a mere $1,300,000
Sen. Richard Burr (R-SC)
Take Dick any which way you can for $1,200,000
Sen. John Ensign (R-NV)
Someone with Johnny’s sexually charged history can’t go for less than $1,100,000
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)
Susan will toot your horn for $760,000
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)
“Bend” Nelson for $750,000
Sen, Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Judd will “do it” any way you want for $695,000
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Roberts will “Pat” you up, down, and any other way for $690,000
Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY)
For a fun time with Mike? $580,000.
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.)
A roll in the political hay with Joe will cost you $573,000
No surprise of course that eight of the top ten are Republicans, but Nelson should be ashamed and Lieberman should just go away, as should Senate Majority Leader(?) Reid if he can’t get the Democratically controlled Senate to do the right thing. But, if 45,000 Americans would die without health coverage, no doubt those opposed to helping them would declare, “if they’re going to die, they had better do it and decrease the surplus population”.
Lead or Get Out of the Way
OK, enough already!
President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Reid, lead or get out of the way!
Does Joe Lieberman have pictures of the two you playing golf with Satan?
What does it take for you to strip him of his committee chairmanship? His seniority in the Senate? His membership in the Democratic Caucus ? He needs to be called into an office and told to play ball or lose it all. He is not an advantage to either of you, to the Democratic majority or to his country.
45,000 Americans are dying every year because they can’t afford health care!
Let’s say that again.
45,000 AMERICANS ARE DYING EVERY YEAR BECAUSE THEY CAN’T AFFORD HEALTH CARE!
It’s time to lead.
Lead and take care of business or not only will you lose your political positions, but the blood of each and every American who dies will be on your hands.
Rush Urging a Coup? Sorry Rush No Detaining Today!
On November 25, 2009, GOP spokes mouth Rush Limbaugh expressed his hope that the Cadets at West Point would overthrow the duly elected government of the United States by taking President Obama hostage while he was there on December 1st to deliver his speech to the American people outlining his strategy for ending the war in Afghanistan.
Sorry Rush, the Cadets remained true to their oaths and didn’t start the coup you hoped for.
You see Rush, unlike yourself, Hannity, Beck, O’Reilly, etc, who never served in any of the United State’s armed forces, the Army Cadets of West Point have sworn an oath to protect and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, and you don’t do that by starting a coup. Lucky for you we don’t live in the United States you claim we live in or you’d be in a gulag in North Dakota by now for speaking sedition. Thank God for the First Amendment, eh El Lushbo.
Duty? Honor? Country?
General Stanley A. McChrystal, USA, the current Commander, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A) previously served as Commander, Joint Special Operations Command from 2003 to 2008, where he played an active role in the cover-up of the Pat Tillman friendly fire incident.
Corporal Tillman – Defensive Back for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals – enlisted in the U.S. Army following the terrorist attack on 9-11-01. He was killed by friendly fire while serving as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan in 2004. Within a day of Tillman’s death, McChrystal was notified that Tillman was a victim of fratricide. Shortly thereafter, McChrystal was put in charge of paperwork to award Tillman a posthumous Silver Star for valor.
On April 28, 2004, six days after Tillman’s death, McChrystal approved a final draft of the Silver Star recommendation and submitted it to the acting Secretary of the Army, even though the medal recommendation deliberately omitted any mention of friendly fire, included the phrase “in the line of devastating enemy fire,” and was accompanied by fabricated witness statements.
On April 29, 2004, McChrystal sent an urgent memo warning White House speechwriters not to quote the medal recommendation in any statements they wrote for President Bush because it “might cause public embarrassment if the circumstances of Corporal Tillman’s death become public.” McChrystal was one of eight officers recommended for discipline by a subsequent Pentagon investigation but the Army declined to take action against him.
McChrystal also served as commander of what Newsweek termed “the most secretive force in the U.S. military,” where he maintained a very low profile until June 2006, when his forces were responsible for the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. After McChrystal’s team successfully located Zarqawi and called in the air strike that killed him, McChrystal accompanied his men to the bombed-out hut to personally identify the body.
McChrystal’s Zarqawi unit, Task Force 6-26, became more well-known for its interrogation methods, particularly at Camp Nama, where it was accused of abusing detainees. After the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal became public in April 2004, 34 members of McChrystal’s the task force were disciplined, but he was not.
Having deliberately taken part in falsifying an award, and in knowingly covering up the death of a U.S. soldier, plus having commanded a task force that abused detainees, how can anyone truly trust the man who is in charge of the United State’s war effort in Afghanistan?
Clearly we now live in a time when the words, duty, honor and country are merely that, words. Clearly the much publicized seven Army Values, values such as respect and integrity, in reality, have very little “value” to men such as Gen. McChrystal, even though one point of the Soldier’s Creed of the United State’s Army clearly states, “I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values.”
According to the Army Values, “Integrity” means to “Do what’s right—legally and morally”.
“The American people rightly look to their military leaders not only to be skilled in the technical aspects of the profession of arms, but also to be men of integrity. People of integrity consistently act according to principles—not just what might work at the moment. People of integrity do the right thing not because it’s convenient or because they have no choice. They choose the right thing because their character permits no less.
“Conducting yourself with integrity has three parts: Separating what’s right from what’s wrong; always acting according to what you know to be right, even at personal cost; and saying openly that you’re acting on your understanding of right versus wrong.”
I’m finding it difficult to understand how anyone serving in today’s United State’s Army, much less as a General Officer can reconcile his part in lying and covering up the death of a soldier and the Army’s definition of integrity.
The Army Values define “Respect” that you “Treat people as they should be treated”.
“Army leaders honor everyone’s individual worth by treating all people with dignity and respect.”
“The leader who feels and gives the respect which is due to others cannot fail to inspire in them regard for himself. While he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect toward others, especially his subordinates, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself.
“Respect for the individual forms the basis for the rule of law, the very essence of what makes America. In the Army, respect means recognizing and appreciating the inherent dignity and worth of all people. This value reminds you that your people are your greatest resource.”
Clearly the Army’s definition of “respect” is different for the man who commanded a task force known for abusing detainees.
I’m also finding it difficult to understand what value this General still has to his country. How is his appointment to lead the new surge in Afghanistan of any worth to our country’s efforts there? Clearly he is a man without integrity, without honor and who does not respect others. If he did so, he would have resigned rather than lie to Pat Tillman’s family and to his country.
President Obama was wrong in placing him in command. He should have asked for his resignation, as well as the resignation of any other leaders who have in any way likewise soiled the reputation of the Army or of the United States. There are other men and women in the Army who can command and who still believe in what our country and in what our military stand for.
Beck, Hitler, FOX News and the Holocaust
Glenn Beck seems to be fixated with Nazi Germany. In fact so fixated that he frequently compares President Obama and anyone connected to him to the Third Reich. During a recent edition of his radio show, Beck likened the Obama administration’s treatment of Fox News to Nazi persecution of Jews, telling other media outlets: “When they’re done with Fox, and you decide to speak out on something,” it would be like “the old, ‘first they came for the Jews, and I wasn’t Jewish.’ ” Beck has a long history of invoking the Holocaust, the Nazi Party, and Adolf Hitler to smear the Obama administration, other progressive individuals and organizations, and the media; indeed, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) previously criticized Beck for comparing Al Gore’s efforts to raise awareness of global warming to the Holocaust.
Last summer, discussing Obama’s call for a “civilian national security force” — which was a reference to expanding the foreign service, AmeriCorps, and the Peace Corps — Beck said on the August 27 edition of his Fox News program: “I’m finding this — this is the hardest part to connect to. Because this is … this is what Hitler did with the SS. He had his own people. He had the brownshirts and then the SS. This is what Saddam Hussein… so, I think America would have a really hard time getting their arms around that.”
So, Glenn, let me get this straight, you’re comparing the Peace Corps – foreign service – and AmeriCorps to the SS? Um Glenn? You are aware that AmericCorps – which was created during President Clinton’s administration – doubled in size under President George W. Bush, and that it was his father, President George H. W. Bush, who pushed for national service with his Points of Light foundation? Glenn, this – the SS – was the group responsible for implementing Hitler’s “Final Solution” or the extermination of more than six million Jews. Do you have any clue, any real understanding of what the SS was? If you did, you wouldn’t flippantly compare service organizations to it.
On an earlier broadcast of his radio show, discussing Obama’s position on health care reform, Beck stated: “I am not comparing him to this, but please, read Mein Kampf for this reason. If you read it now, you see that Hitler told you what he was going to do. He told the Germans. It outsold the Bible. Germans read Mein Kampf, but what did they do? They didn’t listen. ‘Oh, he doesn’t mean that.’ ‘Oh, he’s just saying that to appeal to X, Y, Z.’ All of the same lies we’re telling to ourselves. ‘No, that’s crazy. Nobody would actually do that.’ They buried their heads in the sand, and then it became too late. Please, America, take this man for what he says.”
Barrack Obama is the same as Adolf Hitler? If you pay attention to the President’s health care program you can see what Obama is really up to, just like reading Mein Kampf would have told you what Hitler was up to? So, you are comparing the President of the United States to Hitler?
During a discussion of Obama’s statement that he would consider “empathy” in choosing a Supreme Court nominee, Beck drew a parallel to Hitler on his May 26 Fox News show: “Finally — well, he wasn’t the president. He was the chancellor, Hitler, decided that it was the only empathetic thing to do, is to put this child down and put him out of his suffering. It was the beginning of the T4, which led to genocide everywhere. It was the beginning of it. Empathy leads you to very bad decisions many times.”
So, Hitler pushed Aktion 4 – T4 – out of empathy for the 70,000 + people who were murdered under it’s direction? And President Obama saying that he would choose nominees to the Supreme Court using empathy is comparable to the Nazi program of eugenics how? Oh yeah, empathy.
On September 29, conservative news website Newsmax.com reported of its interview with Beck: But his real worry is that many Washington elitists really don’t like our form of government and want to see it abolished.
“I fear a Reichstag moment,” he said, referring to the 1933 burning of Germany’s parliament building in Berlin that the Nazis blamed on communists and Hitler used as an excuse to suspend constitutional liberties and consolidate power.
“God forbid, another 9/11. Something that will turn this machine on, and power will be seized and voices will be silenced.”
Gee, sort of like the Patriot Act? Sort of like the ideas that it was OK to imprison hundreds of people without trial? That it was acceptable to torture prisoners? Sort of like the idea that it would be OK to wire tap houses of worship? You mean that kind of suspension of constitutional liberties? That kind of consolidated power?
On his August 6 radio show, Beck suggested that health care reform would lead to the eugenics programs undertaken in Nazi Germany, saying that “three people in the White House are in love with eugenics” and that reform would kill the elderly and newborns.
Where is any of this written in the health care bill? No one is talking about eugenics. This is more make believe from his very scary imagination. How can you live in this world Glenn?
While discussing the closures of auto dealerships under the bankruptcy deals of GM and Chrysler, Beck said that the “poem that keeps going through my mind” is “First they came for the Jews,” adding, “Gang, at some point they’re going to come for you.” Additionally, while discussing the auto company bailouts on the April 1 edition of his Fox News program, after stating, “I am not saying that Barack Obama is a fascist,” Beck said, “If I’m not mistaken, in the early days of Adolf Hitler, they were very happy to line up for help there as well. I mean, the companies were like, ‘Hey, wait a minute. We can get, you know, we can get out of trouble here. They can help, et cetera, et cetera.’ ”
So, first they came for the chevys and I said nothing because I didn’t drive a chevy?
On May 2, 2007, the ADL issued a press release condemning Beck’s April 30, 2007, statement that “Al Gore’s not going to be rounding up Jews and exterminating them. It is the same tactic, however. The goal is different. The goal is globalization. The goal is global carbon tax. The goal is the United Nations running the world.” Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor, said of the remark, in part: “Glenn Beck’s linkage of Hitler’s plan to round up and exterminate Jews with Al Gore’s efforts to raise awareness of global warming is outrageous, insensitive and deeply offensive.”
The ADL has hit the nail on the head, Herr Beck’s comments – after all beck is a German name – are “outrageous, insensitive and deeply offensive.” Not to mention crazy, lunatic and insane.
President Obama Delayed Troop Deployments to Afghanistan to Win Noble Prize?
After hearing President Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize almost the entire conservative community went apoplectic, but Fox News personalities have reacted to President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize by accusing Obama of — in the words of Fox News contributor Dick Morris — “delaying the decision to commit troops to Afghanistan” in order to “win this prize.” Responding to initial reports that President Obama was awarded the peace prize, Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade said he was “wondering” whether the Nobel charter “has anything to do with the delay of the deployment of 40,000 troops in Afghanistan,” adding, “If you add forces to a war, you can’t win.”
So, a man who was fired as President Clinton’s campaign manager in 1996 for allowing a prostitute to listen in on phone calls with the President of the United States, has accused the current President of delaying a decision on deploying troops to a combat zone so he can win the Nobel Peace Prize? Oh yeah, because FOX News and Sean Hannity get their news and views only from people of the highest character.
During an appearance on the FOX News program Hannity, Morris stated, “I think the reason that Obama was delaying the decision to commit troops to Afghanistan is because he wanted this prize, and he probably knew he was nominated for it, he knew roughly when the decision is being made, and I don’t think he’s going to send troops until after that award is safely in his pocket.”
But wait, FOX News’ doesn’t stop with commentary from former prostitute toe sucking political hacks (aka Dick Morris), responding to initial reports that Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, former Channel One alumni Brian Kilmeade stated on his morning show Fox and Friends, “I’m looking at the charter — and we’re just getting this now — but this guy, Alfred Nobel, stipulated the peace prize should go to the person who will have done the most or the best work of the fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses. I’m wondering, does that have anything to do with the delay of the deployment of 40,000 troops in Afghanistan, because that was his big postulization over the last week or so. ‘Should I put more troops in?’ ” Kilmeade went on to say, “If you add forces to a war, you can’t win.”
Well Brian, your supposition might bear some weight, except for the fact that if your morning show flunkies (aka interns) had truly done their jobs in researching the rules for receiving the Nobel Prize they would have told you that President Obama wouldn’t have known he was nominated as that is against the same rules from which you were quoting. Specifically, “Proposals received for the award of a prize, and investigations and opinions concerning the award of a prize, may not be divulged”.
While I do not find your lack of journalistic skill surprising Brian, I am still finding it hard to understand why FOX News and many other so-called Americans hate the President, and go to such lengths, any lengths, to attempt to make President Obama and his administration look bad. No President, would jeopardize the lives of American service personnel to win the Nobel Peace Prize, especially when he couldn’t even have known he was nominated.
Oh, and while we’re discussing your views on the President’s award, where did you find the word “postulization”? You do realize there is no such word, don’t you? Of course you are used to reporting on sports where made up words like “athleticism” were spawned.
The Glenn Beck Chart
The folks at Media Matters knowing Glenn Beck’s affinity for chalkboard diagrams charting out the frequently illusory “connections” in the growing liberal conspiracy to undermine America is well-documented. In that spirit, Media Matters for America has explored Beck’s links to the extremist, unhinged, and sometimes paranoid people and groups that inhabit the world of right-wing political activism and laid them out in a Beck-style chart, but with two key differences: these connections actually exist, and they were spell-checked.
Legend
1. GLENN BECK → W. CLEON SKOUSEN: As documented by Salon’s Alexander Zaitchik, W. Cleon Skousen, a right-wing activist and conspiracy theorist, is “Beck’s favorite writer and the author of the bible of the 9/12 movement, ‘The 5,000 Year Leap.’ A once-famous anti-communist ‘historian,’ Skousen was too extreme even for the conservative activists of the Goldwater era, but Glenn Beck has now rescued him from the remainder pile of history, and introduced him to a receptive new audience.” Beck frequently touts Skousen’s work on his television and radio programs and wrote a foreword for the 30th anniversary edition of The 5000 Year Leap, which he promotes on his website.
2. GLENN BECK → THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY: Beck interviewed Sam Antonio, a national spokesman for the John Birch Society, on the July 25, 2007, edition of his now-defunct CNN Headline News program. Leading off the interview, Beck said to Antonio: “I have to tell you, when I was growing up, the John Birch Society, I thought they were a bunch of nuts, however, you guys are starting to make more and more sense to me.” Beck was discussing with Antonio the Security and Prosperity Partnership, an economic and security initiative of the United States, Canada, and Mexico that the John Birch Society believes is a vehicle “to stealthily merge the three North American nations.”
3. GLENN BECK → ABC NEWS: In January 2007, ABC News hired Beck to appear as a “regular commentator” on Good Morning America. The announcement was made not long after Beck’s interview with Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim elected to Congress, during which Beck said, “I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, ‘Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.’ ” Beck appeared on Good Morning America several times as a “commentator.”
4. GLENN BECK → SIMON & SCHUSTER: Every one of Beck’s books has been published by Simon & Schuster or one of its imprints. Beck’s latest offering, Arguing with Idiots, was published by Threshold Editions, Simon & Schuster’s conservative imprint.
5. GLENN BECK → NEWS CORP.: In October 2008, Fox News announced that Beck would be joining the network in 2009. The first episode of Glenn Beck aired on Fox News in January 2009.
6. GLENN BECK → HANNAH GILES: Beck was the first to air excerpts from James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles’ undercover videos, in which the two dressed as a pimp and prostitute and attempted to solicit advice from ACORN employees on how to operate their proposed brothel. Giles appeared on the September 10 edition of Beck’s Fox News show to discuss the videos.
7. GLENN BECK → ANDREW BREITBART: Beck has relied heavily upon Matt Drudge protégé Breitbart for the content of his radio and television programs and has praised Breitbart highly, calling him a “great journalist” and his work “instrumental.”
8. GLENN BECK → 9-12 PROJECT: Beck is the founder of the 9-12 Project, the creation of which he tearfully announced on the March 13 edition of his Fox News program.
9. GLENN BECK → MICHELE BACHMANN: On the October 14 edition of his radio program, Beck interviewed Rep. Bachmann and offered to “have a fundraiser” for her after Bachmann claimed that “Speaker Pelosi has made me her number-one congresswoman to defeat next year.” Bachmann herself has called for an investigation to root out the “anti-America” members of Congress.
10. JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY → W. CLEON SKOUSEN: Though he claims to never have been a member, Skousen was a staunch defender of the John Birch Society. He authored a 1963 pamphlet titled “The Communist Attack on the John Birch Society,” in which he alleged that people who criticized the group “usually did so without realizing they were promoting the official Communist Party line.” Salon’s Zaitchick wrote that Skousen “aligned himself” with John Birch Society founder Robert Welch’s accusation that Dwight Eisenhower was a “dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy.”
11. W. CLEON SKOUSEN → 9-12 PROJECT: On the March 13 edition of his Fox News program, which was the official launch of the 9-12 Project, Beck provided his studio audience with a selection of books, one of which was Skousen’s The 5000 Year Leap. Beck lauded the “fantastic” book,” telling the audience that “it is the 29 principles that our founders put together, and how they put this genius country together.”
12. SIMON & SCHUSTER → MARY MATALIN: Matalin, a Republican political consultant and former Bush White House aide, is the chief editor of Threshold Editions, Simon & Schuster’s conservative imprint.
13. SIMON & SCHUSTER → CBS: Simon & Schuster is a division of CBS Corp.
14. ANDREW BREITBART → JAMES O’KEEFE: Breitbart worked closely with O’Keefe in promoting and distributing O’Keefe’s undercover ACORN videos, which were first posted on Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com. Breitbart is also one of many media conservatives who have offered to raise money for O’Keefe and Giles’ legal defense fund after the two were sued by ACORN.
15. HANNAH GILES → JAMES O’KEEFE: Giles and O’Keefe collaborated on a series of undercover videos shot in ACORN offices in which they would pose as a prostitute and pimp, respectively, and solicit ACORN employees for advice on how to run a brothel. O’Keefe later claimed that he and Giles were not rebuffed at any of the ACORN offices they visited — a claim that was later undermined by ACORN officials who produced a police report showing that ACORN had contacted police about O’Keefe’s visit to their Philadelphia office.
16. HANNAH GILES → YOUNG AMERICA’S FOUNDATION: Giles is an alumnus of the Young America’s Foundation’s National Journalism Center.
17. GLENN BECK → CBS: Beck was interviewed by Katie Couric for the September 22 broadcast of the CBS Evening News. Couric disclosed during the program that Simon & Schuster, the publisher of Beck’s Arguing with Idiots, is owned by CBS.
18. JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY → JOHN McMANUS: McManus is the long-serving president of the John Birch Society. A June 25 New York Times article on the John Birch Society reported that former members of the group had released “recorded snippets of Mr. McManus lecturing to Catholic groups that Judaism became a dead and deadly religion after the establishment of the Catholic Church.”
19. MICHELE BACHMANN → 9-12 PROTESTS: On September 12, Bachmann spoke at a “tea party” rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, during which she attacked President Obama’s health care proposals. Bachmann has been supportive of the tea party movement in general, videotaping a message of support to the Minnesota Tea Party Patriots, telling them, “Sign me up for your tea party, patriots.”
20. 9-12 PROJECT → 9-12 PROTESTS: The connection between the 9-12 Project and the 9-12 protests — in particular the “March on Washington” — should be obvious. As CNN’s Howard Kurtz put it, the protest was “something that Glenn Beck practically conceived, promoted.” The 9-12 Project website worked closely with other groups in organizing the march, and Beck was chief among the Fox News personalities hyping the event.
21. YOUNG AMERICA’S FOUNDATION → 9-12 PROTESTS: YAF was a “bronze co-sponsor” of the 9-12 “March on Washington.” YAF receives funding from the Castle Rock Foundation, the F.M. Kirby Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.
22. JAMES O’KEEFE → LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE: O’Keefe reportedly received funding from the Leadership Institute while in college and worked for the group after he graduated.
23. COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE → 9-12 PROTESTS: Hosted a “BureauCrash Happy Hour” as part of the 9-12 March on Washington. CEI has extensive links to corporate interests and once reportedly claimed Exxon Mobil Corp. as a “major donor” due to the group’s position that the burning of fossil fuels does not contribute to climate change. CEI also receives funding from the Earhart Foundation, the John M. Olin Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and the Sarah Scaife Foundation.
24. TEA PARTY EXPRESS → 9-12 PROTESTS: The March on Washington was the final stop on the Tea Party Express tour of America. One of the Tea Party Express organizers told CNN that a racist sign depicting Obama as a witch doctor “says to me that a lot of people in this country are angry about the direction that the administration and Congress are taking us.”
25. OUR COUNTRY DESERVES BETTER PAC → 9-12 PROTESTS: Our Country Deserves Better was a “gold” co-sponsor of the March on Washington. The group ran an advertisement comparing Obama to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and is the home to birther Mark Williams, who promoted the tea parties on Fox News.
26. FREEDOMWORKS → 9-12 PROTESTS: Led by Dick Armey, FreedomWorks aggressively promoted the first round of tax day tea parties, was the national sponsor of the 9-12 March on Washington, and disseminated wildly inflated estimates of the crowd size at the march.
27. AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY → 9-12 PROTESTS: Americans for Prosperity are major tea party promoters and brought its “Patients First bus” to the 9-12 March on Washington. AFP representatives frequently appear on Beck’s radio and television programs.
28. LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE → 9-12 PROTESTS: The Leadership Institute was a “bronze” co-sponsor of the 9-12 March on Washington and put on several “grassroots activism” seminars as part of the 9-12 March agenda. The Leadership Institute receives funding from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the F.M. Kirby Foundation, and the Castle Rock Foundation.
29. TEA PARTY EXPRESS → OUR COUNTRY DESERVES BETTER PAC: The Tea Party Express “tour delegation” featured two members of Our Country Deserves Better, one of whom is birther Mark Williams.
30. FREEDOMWORKS → AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY: AFP is a splinter group of Citizens for a Sound Economy, which was later renamed FreedomWorks.
31. GLENN BECK → LOU DOBBS: During his time with CNN Headline News, Beck interviewed Dobbs several times on immigration-related issues. During a 2007 interview on the immigration reform legislation before Congress, Beck introduced Dobbs by saying: “[T]here’s no more leading authority on this congressional debacle and just how badly it’s hurting our country than Lou Dobbs.” For his part, Dobbs has enthusiastically embraced Beck’s reporting style and news sensibility and has praised his former colleague for having “the guts to stand up.”
The Liberty Tree 