Saturday, November 21, 2009
Glenn Beck Unveils his "I am Fucking Crazy" plan for America and his Book Sales
Glenn Beck's talking up some scary plan for 2010 lately. It's scary because Glenn Beck is talking. And today, Glenn Beck unveiled his 100-year plot to fundamentally change America—and democracy—as we know it. Glenn Beck is fucking insane.
Glenn Beck living vicariously thru Doug Hoffman ... Unconceeds
The Conservative Party candidate who conceded a closely-watched upstate New York House race has formally repudiated that concession in a statement that suggests community-organizing group ACORN stole the election for his Democratic opponent.
Doug Hoffman first suggested he was "unconceding" earlier this week on Glenn Beck's radio show.
[More ... ]
Monday, November 16, 2009
Glenn Beck's Guru: W. Cleon Skousen - Racist, Mormon, Conspiracy Theorist
W. Cleon Skousen is Glenn Beck's favorite author. He wrote 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. [Meet the Man Who Changed Glenn Beck's Life]Beck loves the guilt by association tactic when it comes to his targets, but look at Beck's own self described "guru". Skousen was the epitome of a paranoid racist. Like Beck, he was always on the lookout for red scare communist infiltrating our government. He was also a proponent of the "New World Order" conspiracy theory that Beck also pushes.
Beck has perfected Skousen's conspiracy theory tactics ...
- {Insert Glenn Beck's target here} is a dangerous radical. He/she is involved in some inexplicable government conspiracy to engineer crises of financial and foreign policy. Be afraid, be very afraid. We're doomed ...
Glenn Beck’s Mentor? Meet W. Cleon Skousen, Bestseller
- Skousen’s The 5,000 Year Leap interprets American history “through an unspoken lens of Mormon theology” and is required reading at religious schools such as George Wythe University in Utah.
- The FBI kept a 2,000 page report on Skousen.
- The rest of Skousen’s oeuvre includes pamphlets and books on “the Red Menace, New World Order conspiracy, Christian child rearing, and Mormon end-times prophecy.”
- Per the FBI file: “During the past year or so, Skousen has affiliated himself with the extreme right-wing ‘professional communists’ who are promoting their own anticommunism for obvious financial purposes.”
- Critics charged Beck Skousen with “inventing fantastic ideas and making inferences that go far beyond the bounds of honest commentary.”
- Applying Skousen’s attacks on communism to today, Beck has listed the new enemy as “liberals, special-interest groups, [and] the ACLU,” according to his first book The Real Truth.
- “Over my book or anything else, get The 5,000 Year Leap,” said Beck. “It is the principle.”
- Another book being passed around at 9/12 “seminars” is Skousen’s Making of America, which describes “America’s religious Founders and their happy slaves.”
Newly sold slaves "usually a cheerful lot." "The tendency was to sell families as units, if for no other reason [than] to keep the slaves contented. The gangs in transit were usually a cheerful lot, though the presence of a number of the more vicious type sometimes made it necessary for them all to go in chains. At the other extreme, when the Central of Georgia railroad company in 1858 equipped a Negro sleeping car to assist in the slave trade it set a standard not always maintained in a later generation. When on the block, the slave was as likely to hinder as to help in his sale. Some, out of a vain conceit in bringing a high price, would boast of their physical prowess, in which case an unwary purchaser would likely be cheated. Others would malinger, because of a grudge against owners or traders or in order to bring a low price and be put at less tiring labor. Dealers, also, adopted the tricks of horse traders to make their merchants more attractive -- the greasiest Negro was generally considered the healthiest." [The Making of America, pages 731-732]Related:
Broken marriages "one the blessings of slavery." "Negro weddings were attended by white people who joined in the celebration. If the marriages were of a rather impermanent nature, that fact was frequently considered as 'one of the blessings of slavery.' At church and camp meetings the Negroes, in their own section of the building or tabernacle, enjoyed the experiences immensely. They could shout without restraint, while the masters, in order to preserve their dignity, had to repress their emotions. It made little difference if religion was thrown off soon after the camp meeting dissolved -- backsliding was pleasant, and there was always a chance to get intoxicatingly converted again." [The Making of America, page 734]
Southern slavery better than Northern freedom. "The free Negro had rather more opportunity for economic advancement in the South than in the North. The Southerner was bothered by the race problem but knew how to handle the individual Negro, while the Northerner professed a benign interest in the race so long as its members were as remote as possible. Neither section was willing to grant equal rights in education, suffrage, or legal standing, while many states of all sections had laws prohibiting the immigration of free Negroes. Abraham Lincoln could not have maintained his standing in the Republican party had he not been a staunch supporter of the Illinois exclusion law and a firm opponent of political and social equality. It was most difficult for a Negro to get a job in the North, except at the most loathsome of tasks. Some Negroes, having been freed and sent to any Northern state which would receive them, became so miserable as to solicit a return to slavery." [The Making of America, pages 735-736]
"Negro preachers" warranted surveillance. "The worst offenses of slaves against the white men's code were rebellion and running away. Drunkenness, stealing, hiding out from work, personal filthiness, carelessness of property, fighting, and general brutality had various positions in the scale of misdemeanors. Negro preachers often bred discontent by their unnecessary restraint upon pleasure, and, if itinerants, had to be watched closely for abolitionist or seditious doctrines." [The Making of America, page 734]
Southern life a "nightmare" of fear -- for white people. "The constant fear of slave rebellion made life in the South a nightmare, especially in regions where conspiracies were of frequent occurrence. The extermination of white civilization in Santo Domingo was followed in the nineteenth century by several other bloody outbursts in the West Indies, which never failed to cause ominous forebodings in America. [...]
Slaves hampered efficiency of white labor. "In the management of slave labor the gang system predominated. The great majority of owners, having at the most only one or two families of Negroes, had to work alongside their slaves and set the pace for them. Slavery did not make white labor unrespectable, but merely inefficient. The slave had a deliberateness of motion which no amount of supervision could quicken. If the owner got ahead of the gang they all would shirk behind his back." [The Making of America, page 732]
White schoolchildren would "envy the freedom" of "colored playmates." "Slave food, even if monotonous, was plentiful. Corn bread and bacon were the mainstays, with plenty of fruit and vegetables in season. In hog-killing time, countenances were unusually greasy. Clothing also was on the par with that of the poorer white people and no less adequate in proportion to the climate than that of Northern laborers. If [negro children] ran naked it was generally from choice, and when the white boys had to put on shoes and go away to school they were likely to envy the freedom of their colored playmates. The color line began to appear at about that time." [The Making of America, pages 732-733]
Cruelty rare, slave owners "the worst victims." "Excessive toil occurred only where the masters or overseers were feeble witted as well as brutal. A persistent rumor among abolitionists was that sugar planters followed a policy of working slaves to death in seven years as a matter of economy. The persons spreading such reports were as ignorant of Negro nature as they were of conditions in the sugar mills. Furthermore, they overrated the ability of the masters to know how to kill a slave in the given time instead of leaving him a broken-down burden to the plantation. When they set out to prove the accusation they returned with no evidence, but convinced that the practice existed in some obscure region which they had not succeeded in ferreting out. Harriet Martineau, after watching slaves go through the motions of work without tiring themselves, considered the planters as models of patience and observed that new slave owners from Europe or the North were prone to be the most severe. Numerous observers, of various shades of opinion on slavery, agreed that brutality was no more common in the black belt than among free labor elsewhere, and that the slave owners were the worst victims of the system." [The Making of America, pages 733-734
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Happy Guy Fawkes Day, Glenn Beck
Happy Guy Fawkes Day, Glenn Beck.This is the anniversary of the day that Beck lost me, when he attacked Ron Paul supporters, the very people than have flocked to his 9/12 Movement, by comparing Ron Paul supporters to domestic terrorists. I don't accept Beck's "Ooops, I changed my mind, Ron Paul is great" story. Ratings changed his mind!
Beck also claimed he would never tie his movement to a terrorist attack like the Ron Paul money bomb fund raising effort that took place on Guy Fawkes Day.
It's a tad ironic that Beck did "tie his movement to a terrorist attack" with his 9/12 movement that milks 9/11 to the max.
Today, Bachman's rally in Washington didn't just happen to land on Guy Fawkes Day (Nov 5). So are they domestic terrorists today, Glenn?
Related:
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Glenn Beck Tactic: Link two unrelated events
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Paranoia of Glenn Beck
When I think Glenn can't get any nuttier, he outdoes himself. He seems even more paranoid than usual in Glenn Beck: It Is Time To Build An Ark. Beck sees a conspiracy around every corner these days.
Glenn Beck: It Is Time To Build An Ark
Beck is a seer of a catastrophic future. He believes that all must be destroyed in order to save the righteous. He has previously agreed with the notion that America’s only hope is for Osama Bin Laden to blow us up again. Now it is the flood that will wash us clean. He embodies the mentality of an Apocalyptic cultist who is convinced of his infallibility. And like his cultist predecessors (David Koresh, Jim Jones, etc.), he views himself as a target of the evil that surrounds him and us. While he claims to fear for the country, he fears for nothing more than he does his own safety:
“You ever see those movies where they say, ‘I gave a note to my attorney, and if I’m found dead, open the note.’ I kind of feel like you’re my attorney. If I show up, you know, in Thailand, dead from auto-erotic asphyxiation, don’t believe it.”
“I fear that there will come a time when I cannot say things that I am currently saying. I fear that it will come to television and to radio, and I will stop saying these
things. Understand me clearly. Hear me now. If I ever stop saying these things, you will know why. Because I will have made a choice that I can only say certain things, and I haven’t lost all of the rights. But know that these things are true. And if 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.”
[More]
Glenn Beck: Milking 9/11 ... Again
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Three Tactics Progressives (and Glenn Beck) Use to Discredit Their Opponents.
This is great, Glenn Beck exposing the tactics of progressives in today's edition of The One Thing, Three Tactics Progressives Use to Discredit Their Opponents.
Disparaging any dissent ...
- those involved are "wrong thinking"
- the ideas presented are a "danger"
- or that those opposed are simply in it for "profit."
The other day, we put up one of our "chalkboard trees" about Fox News and the White House attack on free speech. Just as an aside, I listed the three things they were saying about us to try to discredit the network. That's when it hit me: They're the same three things progressives use to discredit their opponents on every issue.Hello, earth to Glenn Beck. This is what you do every single day. Anyone who disagrees with you is wrong thinking, dangerous, and/or in it for profit.
Glenn goes on to add this little nugget which also describes HIM to a tee.
Meanwhile, their goals are always right, their methods safe and healthy and their motivation pure, enlightened and for the betterment of humankind and Mother Earth.Glenn goes on to give us some examples of progressives using these tactics then hits us with the closer.
So, the argument works every time. But now that it's exposed, will it continue to work or will logic now kick in?Oooo, oooo, I want to be smart too Glenn. Thanks for letting me in on these super secret progressive mind f*&ks. I'll be on the look out for them now and I bet I find lots of them.
This is where Glenn gets to the most important issue: Glenn Beck himself. "I, I, I, me, me, me, yada, yada". The remainder of this lesson is devoted to how all of these tactics are used on him.
Well, golly gee, Glenn. Are those my only two options? All or nothing? This is a typical Glenn Beck straw-man. It almost sounds like you're accusing anyone who disagrees with you of "wrong thinking".So, taking all of their arguments, one by one, and adding them all together, I guess it would be safe to assume that according to the inclusive, diverse progressives that I'm just a crazed, poor person-hating, flat-Earth believing, moon-walk denying, deficit-loving, homophobic, xenophobe, who is a homogenous, women-hating, racist, that loathes hard-working, blue-collar Americans.
Oh, did I mention I'm a warmongering, jingoistic fatso? That hates children? And puppies? And spits on trees? And shoots gerbils, just for sport?
And if I don't hate, I'm simply dangerous. A fearsome, mob-inciting, redneck, flesh-eating monstrous, rhetoric spewing, out-of-control religious zealot, bent on blowing something up, maybe even before the end of the show.
For good measure, I'm also in bed with huge multi-national conglomerates and special interest groups — like Goldman Sachs and unions. Wait, it's kind of tough to make that work if you've ever seen a single one of my shows, but let's not let logic get in the way of the White House's hysterical insults.
Now, which is more reasonable: That I'm all of these things or that I'm a person who takes things issue by issue?
Oddly, these are the exact tactics you used last year on Ron Paul before your come to Jesus conversion that corresponded to your move to your new network.
- Wrong thinking ... Beck frequently ridiculed Ron Paul as crazy or nuts. Not only did he portray Dr. Paul as wrong thinking, he distorted Dr. Paul's foreign policy positions into "he's blaming America." Beck agreed that many of the Libertarian websites were "un-American" and allied with "islamo-fascism."
- Where am I wrong? The Ron Paul Revolution is a catchy slogan, but I fear that some of his fringe supporters are taking the word revolution too seriously. - Beck
- Dangerous ... Compared Ron Paul supporters to domestic terrorists. Claimed he would never tie his movement to a terrorist attack like the Ron Paul money bomb fund raising effort that took place on Guy Fawkes Day. It's a tad ironic that Beck did "tie his movement to a terrorist attack" with his 9/12 movement that milks 9/11 to the max.
Of course, Glenn has his own bag of tricks. The When Did You Stop Beating Your Wife style of journalism is the old standby.
Alex Jones: Glenn Beck, Don't be a Benedict Arnold!
Even Alex Jones recognizes that Glenn Beck is a fraud and is by no means a Libertarian.
Edited by Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, September 15, 2009Alex Jones has addressed Glenn Beck in the form of an open letter, appealing to him to “be on the right side of history” by using his growing public platform to tell the truth rather than exploiting it to deceive grass-roots conservatives and libertarians into following a re-birth of the neo-con agenda that Beck has embraced all along.
Glenn Beck,
It is important to preface this letter by highlighting the fact that I do not attack people lightly and have defended you in the past when Van Jones was calling for you to be fired. I fully support your right to free speech.
It cannot be denied that you – Glenn Beck – are an extremely talented radio and television host and you have a magnetism and a proficiency of public speaking that draws people in and maintains their interest. However, being a novice history buff I am also painfully aware of the fact that Benedict Arnold was, like you, a talented individual – he was also a traitor.
History is what matters and being on the right side of history is what’s important when it comes to the legacy we leave on this planet. You don’t want people to look back on you as a Benedict Arnold, as a traitor to America. You don’t want people to look back on you as a media whore, as playing the role of being loyal opposition to sucker legitimate and growing grass roots opposition to the new world order.
Your agenda is to put out a dual message – to discredit and polarize the conservative movement to the benefit of the establishment left and the elite. Your bizarre and clownish antics of fake crying, which you proved were staged when you replicated them on demand for a GQ photo shoot, are doing nothing but reinforcing the stereotype that the conservative right is insane.
Your entire 9/12 project has nothing to do with uniting America and everything to do with reinforcing neo-conservative rhetoric about how we should relinquish our rights and accept the police state because terrorists want to attack us and Saddam Hussein has WMD’s and yellowcake.
As the video below illustrates, despite the fact that you claim to be “a Libertarian at heart,” you have publicly supported programs and legislation that are universally abhorred by the vast majority of libertarians, such as the banker bailout and the USA Patriot Act.
During your Monday September 22 2008 TV broadcast, you expressed your vehement support for the bailout, stating, “The $700 billion dollars that you’re hearing about now is not only I believe necessary, it is also not nearly enough.” However, as soon as Bush left office and Obama picked up the baton and continued the same financial policy, you changed your tune and routinely attacked the bailout as an example of how socialism was taking over America.
The bailout was bad news for America under Bush just as it is under Obama, both were merely performing a transfer of wealth from America to offshore banks and giving the Federal Reserve total dictatorial control over the economy, but you only opposed it when Bush was out of office, proving that your opinions are not wedded to right or wrong, but to which puppet is in the White House.
A host of mainline conservative talking heads opposed the banker bailout, as did the majority of the American people, but you went on television and publicly supported it. This is irreconcilable with you being “a libertarian at heart” as you claim.
In addition, you aggressively attacked Ron Paul and his supporters during the election campaign when it looked like the Texan Congressman might have a real chance of winning the nomination. You implied that Ron Paul supporters were domestic terrorists and should be dealt with by the U.S. Army, but later tried to side with Ron Paul supporters when the infamous and discredited MIAC report echoed your own talking point that people who support Ron Paul were dangerous.
The smear came during a November 2007 show when you were still hosting on CNN. Yourself and ex-Marxist David Horowitz smeared Ron Paul supporters, libertarians and the anti-war left as terrorist sympathizers and inferred that the U.S. military should be used to silence them, parroting a talking point that traces back to a September 2006 White House directive. When asked about the issue, Ron Paul dismissed you as “pretty discourteous” and a “demagogue”.
You Glenn Beck have acted as a cheerleader for the wars of aggression launched since 9/11 and in addition called for Iran to be attacked, claiming that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is preparing a “second holocaust.” Once again, these political opinions stand completely contrary to libertarian principles, which follow the founding fathers’ view that an expansionist aggressive foreign policy is bad for America.
You have attacked Obama for unraveling the Bush war machine to give you left cover, when in fact Obama has done everything in his power to expand Bush’s wars, beefing the campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan while removing a token amount of troops from Iraq and replacing them with an even greater number of contractors.
By attacking Obama for being different to Bush, when in reality he offers not change whatsoever, you keep people locked in the left-right paradigm and ensure that instead of coming to the realization that the whole system is rigged, they will merely vote in another puppet for the new world order in 2012.
Glenn Beck – you are controlled opposition, you are there to co-opt and ensure the Tea Parties are under control and that they never focus on taking on the real power behind the American economy – the Federal Reserve.
Bearing in mind that you almost died not too long ago, wouldn’t you rather come to the end of your life, whether that be in one year or 30 years from now, knowing that you stood up for true liberty and freedom? Isn’t that more valuable than your $50 million dollars a year contract? When I was approached ten years ago and offered large sums of money every year to sell out and become what you are today – the new Rush Limbaugh – while accepting tight controls on what I could and could not discuss – I said no and I thank God every day that I made the right decision.
I appeal to you directly Glenn – think twice about what you are doing, think twice about what you are a part of right now. Try to do what you can to redeem yourself and don’t be a Benedict Arnold, don’t be a traitor that takes legions of good-natured but hoodwinked people down the rat hole with you as America collapses because those who had voices and platforms used them to deceive and distract rather than tell the truth.
Alex Jones
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Is Glenn Beck fulfilling Mormon LDS "White Horse Prophecy?"
Anyone familiar with Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church, knows that he could drop a prophecy on your ass quicker than Glenn Beck can turn on the crocodile tears.One of the more popular prophecies is the "White Horse Prophecy". While lacking in originality, basically Smith says that there will come a day when the constitution of the United States will be in the proverbial crapper and the Mormons will save the day.
You will see the Constitution of the United States almost destroyed," the diary entry quotes Smith as saying. "It will hang like a thread as fine as a silk fiber." Not only will the Mormons save the Constitution, under the prediction, but the prophecy goes further, insinuating that Mormons will control the government. "Power will be given to the White Horse to rebuke the nations afar off, and you obey it, for the laws go forth from Zion," the prophecy says.
This popular prophecy of Smith's is explained in the Encyclopedia of Mormonism:
LDS attachment to the Constitution has been further encouraged by an important oral tradition deriving from a statement attributed to Joseph Smith, according to which the Constitution would "hang by a thread" and be rescued, if at all, only with the help of the Saints. Church President John Taylor seemed to go further when he prophesied, "When the people shall have torn to shreds the Constitution of the United States the Elders of Israel will be found holding it up to the nations of the earth and proclaiming liberty and equal rights to all men" (JD 21:8). To defend the principles of the Constitution under circumstances where the "iniquity," or moral decay, of the people has torn it to shreds might well require wisdom at least equal to that of the men raised up to found it. In particular, it would require great insight into the relationship between freedom and virtue in a political embodiment of moral agency. (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol.1, 1992)
In the running for White Horse savior ...
- Orin Hatch - While Hatch has apparently alluded to the LDS prophecy, his chances of being the white horse are about the same as his chances of getting into the White House.
- Mitt Romney - Romney looks the part and talks the talk. His dad, George Romney, was mentioned as a possible white horse when he considered a run for the presidency in 1968. Both Mitt and his dad stated that they didn't believe in this particular prophecy.
- Glenn Beck - We know he has the ego to assume this title and/or use his imagined powers over the masses to help Romney.
Beck has a lot in common with LDS founder, Smith. Both are not easily analyzed, both use some seriously flawed logic and misrepresentations, and both appears to have a touch of ADD.
His religious thought is not easily encapsulated or analyzed. His teachings came primarily through his revelations, which, like other forms of scripture, are epigrammatic and oracular. He never presented his ideas systematically in clear, logical order; they came in flashes and bursts. Nor did he engage in formal debate. His most powerful thoughts were assertions delivered as if from heaven. Assembling a coherent picture out of many bits and pieces leaves room for misinterpretations and forced logic. Even his loyal followers disagree about the implications of his teaching. Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling, p.xxi.
Disclaimer: I don't judge all Mormons based on Beck. In general, they seem like some of the most hard working and faithful citizens. Just as Beck gives conservatives a bad name, he does a similar disservice to the LDS church.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Why did Glenn Beck lie about Muse?
Glenn Beck admits lying over Muse retraction plea
Fox News presenter says the band didn't contact him asking to stop praising them
Fox News presenter Glenn Beck's declaration that Muse had asked him to stop praising the band was entirely false, it has been revealed.
As previously reported, Beck had praised the band on Twitter and during his radio programme in September, before telling listeners that the band's representatives had been in touch with him asking if he would "retract my endorsement".
[FULL ARTICLE]
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Glenn Beck's Conspiracy Guru: W. Cleon Skousen
How on earth did this crackpot get a national TV show? Watch this amazing eight-minute monologue in which Glenn Beck interprets public art, and ties together the Rockefellers, communism, fascism, corporatism, the United Nations and the Obama White House together in a grand conspiracy. If this were in a movie, you wouldn't believe it. But this is on national TV, on Fox News, every weeknight:
Where's Beck getting this garbage? Listen to this 1976 speech by Beck guru W. Cleon Skousen, in which he cites Mormon prophecy to bolster his rant against the Rockefellers, the communists ...
Oh, yea and Glenn, you 912 logo looks a tad communist too. The clinched red fist is already taken, bud.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Glenn Beck has his very own Rev. Wright: Beck guru Skousen's "story of slavery" suggests slave owners were "worst victims of the system"
Beck guru Skousen's "story of slavery" suggests slave owners were "worst victims of the system"
Fox News' Glenn Beck has heavily promoted the writings of far-right activist W. Cleon Skousen, even making Skousen's book, The 5000 Year Leap, a central part of his 9-12 Project. Skousen is the author of several controversial works, including The Making of America: The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution, which presented as "the story of slavery in America" a passage from a book that attacked abolitionists for delaying emancipation; cast slave owners as "the worst victims of the system"; claimed white schoolchildren "were likely to envy the freedom of their colored playmates"; and claimed that "[s]lavery did not make white labor unrespectable, but merely inefficient," because "the slave had a deliberateness of motion which no amount of supervision could quicken."
Skousen: a fringe conservative embraced by Beck
Salon: "Skousen was not a historian so much as a player in the history of the American far right; less a scholar of the republic than a threat to it." In a September 16 article titled, "Meet the man who changed Glenn Beck's life," Salon's Alexander Zaitchik chronicled Skousen's controversial writings and associations, as well as the central role Skousen's writing plays in Beck's activities. According to Zaitchik, Skousen was "a professional anti-communist" who, according to FBI memos, "affiliated himself with the extreme right-wing 'professional communists' who are promoting their own anticommunism for obvious financial purposes."
Zaitchik also noted Skousen's links to the far-right John Birch Society and its founder, Robert Welch, writing that Skousen "aligned himself with Robert Welch's charge that Dwight Eisenhower was a 'dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy.' " In 1963, Skousen wrote a pamphlet titled, "The Communist Attack on the John Birch Society," in which he argued that those who criticized the group "usually did so without realizing they were promoting the official Communist Party line."
Beck frequently touts Skousen's "divinely inspired" work. Zaitchik documented instances in which Beck "furiously promot[ed]" Skousen's books on his radio program, asking his guests if they had read any of Skousen's writings and exhorting his listeners to purchase The 5000 Year Leap, which Beck sells through his website. Zaitchik also noted that Beck authored a foreword for the 30th anniversary edition of The 5000 Year Leap, in which Beck wrote, "I beg you to read this book filled with words of wisdom which I can only describe as divinely inspired."
Skousen at the center of 9-12 Project. On the March 13 edition of his Fox News program, during which Beck announced the launch of the 9-12 Project, Beck told his studio audience: "Do we have the books? Where are the books? Underneath everybody's seat here in the audience, there are some books here. I've got a couple of books for you that you can start. This one is called The 5,000-Year Leap. It is fantastic. I want you to know I don't make any money on these things. The 5,000-Year Leap -- it is the 29 principles that our founders put together, and how they put this genius country together." Beck added: "You read these and you read them with your friends. And you meet once a week or, you know, a couple of times a month. And you start small, and you just really figure out what you believe in." [Fox News' Glenn Beck, 3/13/09, retrieved via Nexis]
The Making of America featured in 9-12 Project meetings. Several local chapters of the 9-12 Project have conducted seminars to discuss The Making of America. The seminars appear to have been organized in conjunction with the National Center for Constitutional Studies, which, as Zaitchik noted, was founded by Skousen in 1971.
Skousen's The Making of America advances controversial "story of slavery in America"
Skousen: "Slavery is not a racial problem. It is a human problem." In The Making of America, Skousen wrote of slavery:
In the history of the world, nearly every nation has had slaves. The Chinese kept thousands of slaves. Babylon boasted of slaves from a dozen different countries. The dark-skinned Hittites, Phoenicians, and Egyptians had white slaves. The Moors had black slaves. America had black slaves. The Nazis had white slaves. The Soviets still do, with several million white slaves wearing out their starved, near-naked bodies in slave labor camps.
So the emancipation of human beings from slavery is an ongoing struggle. Slavery is not a racial problem. It is a human problem. [The Making of America, page 728]
Skousen's "Story of Slavery" controversial when first published. In The Making of America, Skousen capped his analysis of the 15th Amendment by quoting several pages of historian Fred Albert Shannon's Economic History of the People of the United States (1934), saying that they "tell the story of slavery in America." [The Making of America, page 729] As Zaitchik wrote in his September 16 Salon article, Skousen's use of Shannon's work aroused controversy shortly after the book was first published in the early 1980s:
Toward the end of Reagan's second term, Skousen became the center of a minor controversy when state legislators in California approved the official use of another of his books, the 1982 history text "The Making of America." Besides bursting with factual errors, Skousen's book characterized African-American children as "pickaninnies" and described American slave owners as the "worst victims" of the slavery system. Quoting the historian Fred Albert Shannon, "The Making of America" explained that "[slave] gangs in transit were usually a cheerful lot, though the presence of a number of the more vicious type sometimes made it necessary for them all to go in chains."
Shannon's account of slavery sympathetic to slave owners, hostile to abolitionists, minimized suffering. The following are excerpts from Shannon's account of life in the antebellum South, as presented by Skousen in The Making of America as "the story of slavery in America." In them, Shannon claimed that children of slave owners envied the "freedom" of slave children and that "impermanent" marriages between slaves were a "blessing of slavery." Shannon also dismissed accounts of cruelty toward slaves as rare or unfounded but addressed in great detail the "fear" Southern whites had of slave rebellions against "white civilization."
- Abolitionists at fault for delaying emancipation. "Gradual emancipation by legislative action was talked about in the South for two generations after the Declaration of Independence. A fierce contest, waged over this issue in the legislature of Virginia as late as 1832, was lost by the emancipationists largely because of resentment against the interference of Northern abolitionists and terror over the Nat Turner insurrection of the preceding year.
"Had the result been different the effect upon the border states, where slavery at best was of questionable value, may well be imagined. By too militant action the abolitionists themselves did much to perpetuate slavery in the northern group of the Southern states." [The Making of America, page 730]
- Newly sold slaves "usually a cheerful lot." "The tendency was to sell families as units, if for no other reason [than] to keep the slaves contented. The gangs in transit were usually a cheerful lot, though the presence of a number of the more vicious type sometimes made it necessary for them all to go in chains. At the other extreme, when the Central of Georgia railroad company in 1858 equipped a Negro sleeping car to assist in the slave trade it set a standard not always maintained in a later generation. When on the block, the slave was as likely to hinder as to help in his sale. Some, out of a vain conceit in bringing a high price, would boast of their physical prowess, in which case an unwary purchaser would likely be cheated. Others would malinger, because of a grudge against owners or traders or in order to bring a low price and be put at less tiring labor. Dealers, also, adopted the tricks of horse traders to make their merchants more attractive -- the greasiest Negro was generally considered the healthiest." [The Making of America, pages 731-732]
- Slaves hampered efficiency of white labor. "In the management of slave labor the gang system predominated. The great majority of owners, having at the most only one or two families of Negroes, had to work alongside their slaves and set the pace for them. Slavery did not make white labor unrespectable, but merely inefficient. The slave had a deliberateness of motion which no amount of supervision could quicken. If the owner got ahead of the gang they all would shirk behind his back." [The Making of America, page 732]
- White schoolchildren would "envy the freedom" of "colored playmates." "Slave food, even if monotonous, was plentiful. Corn bread and bacon were the mainstays, with plenty of fruit and vegetables in season. In hog-killing time, countenances were unusually greasy. Clothing also was on the par with that of the poorer white people and no less adequate in proportion to the climate than that of Northern laborers. If [negro children] ran naked it was generally from choice, and when the white boys had to put on shoes and go away to school they were likely to envy the freedom of their colored playmates. The color line began to appear at about that time." [The Making of America, pages 732-733]
- Cruelty rare, slave owners "the worst victims." "Excessive toil occurred only where the masters or overseers were feeble witted as well as brutal. A persistent rumor among abolitionists was that sugar planters followed a policy of working slaves to death in seven years as a matter of economy. The persons spreading such reports were as ignorant of Negro nature as they were of conditions in the sugar mills. Furthermore, they overrated the ability of the masters to know how to kill a slave in the given time instead of leaving him a broken-down burden to the plantation. When they set out to prove the accusation they returned with no evidence, but convinced that the practice existed in some obscure region which they had not succeeded in ferreting out. Harriet Martineau, after watching slaves go through the motions of work without tiring themselves, considered the planters as models of patience and observed that new slave owners from Europe or the North were prone to be the most severe. Numerous observers, of various shades of opinion on slavery, agreed that brutality was no more common in the black belt than among free labor elsewhere, and that the slave owners were the worst victims of the system." [The Making of America, pages 733-734
- Broken marriages "one the blessings of slavery." "Negro weddings were attended by white people who joined in the celebration. If the marriages were of a rather impermanent nature, that fact was frequently considered as 'one of the blessings of slavery.' At church and camp meetings the Negroes, in their own section of the building or tabernacle, enjoyed the experiences immensely. They could shout without restraint, while the masters, in order to preserve their dignity, had to repress their emotions. It made little difference if religion was thrown off soon after the camp meeting dissolved -- backsliding was pleasant, and there was always a chance to get intoxicatingly converted again." [The Making of America, page 734]
- "Negro preachers" warranted surveillance. "The worst offenses of slaves against the white men's code were rebellion and running away. Drunkenness, stealing, hiding out from work, personal filthiness, carelessness of property, fighting, and general brutality had various positions in the scale of misdemeanors. Negro preachers often bred discontent by their unnecessary restraint upon pleasure, and, if itinerants, had to be watched closely for abolitionist or seditious doctrines." [The Making of America, page 734]
- Southern life a "nightmare" of fear -- for white people. "The constant fear of slave rebellion made life in the South a nightmare, especially in regions where conspiracies were of frequent occurrence. The extermination of white civilization in Santo Domingo was followed in the nineteenth century by several other bloody outbursts in the West Indies, which never failed to cause ominous forebodings in America. [...]
"In the nineteenth century, conspiracies headed by George Boxley and Denmark Vessey in South Carolina (1816 and 1822), and the Nat Turner insurrection in Virginia in 1831 were the outstanding examples. Boxley, a Negro with a sort of John Brown intelligence, escaped while six of his followers were executed. The Vessey plot, prematurely revealed, resulted in 130 arrests which culminated in the hangings of 35, deportation fo nearly as many, and imprisonment of 4 white participants. Nat Turner, a mystic type of Baptist preacher, set out to annihilate white civilization, and succeeded to the extent of 10 men, 14 women, and 31 children. He was finally hanged with several of his followers, but the after-effects of the uprising were deplorable." [The Making of America, page 735]
- Southern slavery better than Northern freedom. "The free Negro had rather more opportunity for economic advancement in the South than in the North. The Southerner was bothered by the race problem but knew how to handle the individual Negro, while the Northerner professed a benign interest in the race so long as its members were as remote as possible. Neither section was willing to grant equal rights in education, suffrage, or legal standing, while many states of all sections had laws prohibiting the immigration of free Negroes. Abraham Lincoln could not have maintained his standing in the Republican party had he not been a staunch supporter of the Illinois exclusion law and a firm opponent of political and social equality. It was most difficult for a Negro to get a job in the North, except at the most loathsome of tasks. Some Negroes, having been freed and sent to any Northern state which would receive them, became so miserable as to solicit a return to slavery." [The Making of America, pages 735-736]
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Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Glenn Beck: Praying to Obama
Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and prominent conservative bloggers followed the lead of conservative website Breitbart.tv after the site falsely claimed that an online video showed community organizers from the Gamaliel Foundation "pray[ing]" to President Obama. Breitbart.tv subsequently updated the original post with an editor's note acknowledging that "there is a debate over what is actually being said" and that the crowd may, in fact, be saying "oh God" rather than "Obama"; the Gamaliel Foundation subsequently stated that "at no time have we prayed to President Obama" and that in the video, the organizers "can be heard saying, 'Hear our cry oh God,' 'Deliver us oh God,' etc."
Breitbart.tv claims Gamaliel organizers "Pray TO" Obama, later to walk back claim
Breitbart.tv claims "Community Organizers Pray TO President-Elect Obama." As Media Matters for America noted, on September 29, Breitbart.tv -- published by Matt Drudge protégé Andrew Breitbart -- embedded a video with the headline "Shock Discovery: Community Organizers Pray TO President-Elect Obama." The video included captions such as "Deliver Us Obama" and "Hear Our Cry Obama," suggesting that the crowd was "pray[ing]" to Obama.
Post states organizers are members of Gamaliel Foundation, which "helped sponsor Barack Obama's initial work in Chicago." The Breitbart.tv post stated:
The Gamaliel National Clergy Caucus held "a New Orleans style funeral procession as they deliver a casket symbolizing the death of old ways of providing health care and pray for a new day for health care in America."
The Gamaliel Foundation is the community organizing group that helped sponsor Barack Obama's initial work in Chicago.
Editor's note: "Does the crowd say, 'Hear our cry, Obama' and 'Deliver us Obama?' Or are they saying 'Oh God?' " Breitbart.tv later "updated" the post with "the longer version of the original event" -- a video that did not include the captions -- and added an editor's note acknowledging that "there is a debate over what is actually being said" and that the crowd may, in fact, be saying, "Oh God," rather than "Obama":
Editor's note: We've updated this post with the longer version of the original event. As you'll see in the comments and related links there is a debate over what is actually being said. Does the crowd say, "Hear our cry, Obama" and "Deliver us Obama?" Or are they saying "Oh God?" In the longer version the first two repetitions seem to have a distinct "uh" sound at the end that resonates as "Obama." The later repetitions are a little fuzzier. Did some of the religious leaders present become uneasy? Or was there a mix of what was being said? Read some of the blogger analysis below. What do you think?
Beck jumped on Breitbart story, suggested organizers "just mocking God by faking a prayer to Obama"
Breitbart.tv's Baker: "I think you could only characterize it as a prayer to Obama" During the September 29 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Glenn Beck hosted Breitbart staffer Scott Baker, who stated that the video "[j]ust went up seconds ago" on Breitbart.tv and asserted: "I think you could only characterize it as a prayer to Obama. Not for Obama. They're literally chanting and saying, 'Deliver us, Obama.' 'Hear us, Obama.' "
Beck: "Link to the front-page top story on the front page of GlennBeck.com." Beck then asked executive producer Steve "Stu" Burguiere to tell the show's webmaster, Chris Brady, to post the video "on the front page of GlennBeck.com" and to "make sure that it is also included in our email newsletter."
Beck: [T]hey're mocking God" At one point during the segment, Beck suggested that the participants were "just mocking God by faking a prayer to Obama."
Baker highlights Gamaliel ties to Obama. Baker stated:
Gamaliel is -- here's why Gamaliel is important. They were a community organizing group based in Chicago. They now have a national reach. But when Barack Obama got out of Columbia, right -- so this goes back to some of the earliest days for him -- it was the Gamaliel Foundation that essentially brought him to Chicago. It was -- you know, they interviewed him. They, in fact, on their website, say he was an organizer and trainer for us. They used Woods Fund money to sponsor the subsidiary group that Obama worked on.
Baker later added of the organization that a "very important person there was Celia [sic] Muñoz, who is now in the White House. She's the director of intergovernmental affairs." Beck replied: "So, wait a minute. The lady who used to run this group, that was praying to Obama, is now in the White House?"
Video posted on Beck's blog. At 10:39 a.m. ET, video of the participants was posted on Beck's blog with the text: "Is this group saying a prayer to Barack Obama? Glenn is skeptical. Are they saying 'Obama' or 'Oh God?' Are they praising the president or just mocking religion? Turn up the volume and see what you hear. (Unless you're at work, where you would look a little nuts.)"
Gamaliel Foundation responds: "At no time, however, have we prayed to President Barack Obama." Beck's blog post was later updated with the Gamaliel Foundation's response, in which they stated:
As a faith-based organization, it is customary for Gamaliel Foundation affiliates to begin and end every action with prayer. At no time, however, have we prayed to President Barack Obama. In the form of call and response, those who took part in the UnitedHealthcare action can be heard saying, "Hear our cry oh God," "Deliver us oh God," etc.
It is obvious that those who took the time to distort our sincere action for healthcare reform, by posting their own edited version on the Internet, are against what we believe is a fundamental right. It is also obvious that those who are against healthcare reform will stoop to any level to stop what Dr. Martin Luther King called, one of the greatest forms of inequality.
Beck relies heavily on Breitbart in attacks. In recent weeks, Beck has been credited with precipitating the resignation of White House "green jobs" adviser Van Jones, the reassignment of National Endowment for the Arts communications director Yosi Sergant, and the amplification of an anti-ACORN video produced by a conservative filmmaker. In all three instances, Beck has credited the "instrumental" work of conservative columnist and Web publisher Andrew Breitbart, who has a history of smearing progressives and making inflammatory statements.
[MORE]Tuesday, September 29, 2009
I Come Not To Praise Glenn Beck, But To Bury Him
Glenn Beck, despite what he has accomplished, hurts the right more than he helps.
When originally endeavoring to write an approximately 800-word opinion piece on Glenn Beck, I hadn’t taken into account what a truly difficult task it would be. I’ve no desire to alienate some of my many friends on the right currently embracing Beck. But I do have this terrible habit of usually speaking my mind. Glenn Beck deserves credit for what he is doing to hurt Obama — there is no question about that. But in thinking about the man overall as a media figure today, one allegedly aligned with the right, I also have serious concerns. I tried to do my best to address the topic fairly, and I regret that so complex a topic took me almost 1,800 words.
Given the down feeling across the right after last year’s elections, it’s almost exciting to watch Glenn Beck inject a new vitality into the nation’s political discourse. Nearly every one of Beck’s shows packs the respect, depth, sincerity, and intelligence of a good joke at a funeral parlor into one uproarious hour after another. I don’t know how anyone can keep from snickering … at least a little bit. So, what’s the harm in a good joke?
The harm as I see it is that so many seem to be taking the joke seriously. But can you blame them? No, probably not. The media culture of today has done everything in its power to prevent the right from seeing a serious, effective leadership emerge on the national stage. One need only look back to the recent — in fact, ongoing — mistreatment of Sarah Palin to demonstrate that. A deeply informed and experienced radio host, Mark Levin, has broken out in the radio world with ratings that make Glenn Beck’s real numbers look like the third tier radio host he actually is. Levin also wrote a significant New York Times bestseller, moving well over a million copies by now. But there was no Time cover, no Newsweek splash, no Katie Couric interview for that. Have you ever paused long enough to ask yourself why?
[FULL ARTICLE]
Shocking ... NOT. Glenn Beck Admits To Never Checking Facts
Glenn Beck Admits To Never Checking Facts
So, in reading all of your comments to my ongoing series exposing Glenn Beck for the idiot that he is, many of you have complained that I have failed to take him on line by line on his facts. Well, here’s why. I don’t need to. Glenn Beck doesn’t bother checking his facts, and seems to take great pride in not wanting to be labeled a “journalist.”
Glenn Beck is not about facts, never has been. If he had to stick to the facts, he would have dramatically fewer followers. The reason so many people take his word as gospel is that he plays to the lowest common denominator. People in America are rightly quite angry about the state of the economy, the war, the state of healthcare, and the list could go on for pages. Beck gives them a channel for their anger by telling them the sky is falling and that the President is responsible for all their problems.
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Monday, September 28, 2009
When did Glenn Beck stop beating his wife?
Glenn Beck is a master at the "when did you stop beating your wife" type of "reporting. You throw any old rumor out there, state that you don't know or think it is true, remind everyone that you're just asking questions and throw in "some people say" which lets you say basically anything you want without having to back it up. Add in the kicker that the subject of your rant has yet to deny it, and you too can play Glenn Beck. Give it a try and look for these tactics when you watch for listen to Glenn Beck.
Some people say that Glenn Beck has not stopped beating his wife. I don't know that this is true, I am just raising the question. Some people say that Beck has stopped beating his wife on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays because Mornon tradition forbids it on these days. Glenn Beck has still yet to deny that he has or has not stopped beating his wife.Beck has done this with lots of conspiracy theories in the last year. The FEMA Death Camps are a great example. He did this for a week, then claimed in a short segment that he had "debunked it." This is like Journalism meets the WWE.
Fighting Fire with Fire .... If you follow politics at all the name Glenn Beck more likely than not sends you into a towering rage at this point. He's the latest addition to the Fox News stable and by far the craziest and/or sleaziest. Some highlights include capitalizing on 9/11 after attacking the 9/11 families, openly and bizarrely weeping because "he loves his country so much and he's so scared for it", and literally acting out "Obama pouring gasoline on the average American" for god knows whatever he was riled up about at the moment. His main claim to fame, beside being the biggest scumbag in mainstream media, is his perfecting the "when did you stop beating your wife" style of reporting to an art form. Couched in the phrasing "some people are saying" without ever explicitly embracing the allegations or discussing their legitimacy he has advanced pretty much every insane right wing conspiracy theory for the last year or so into the mainstream. The FEMA death camps, the birther nonsense, Obama's secret army of brown shirts; all these have been slide into legitimate discussion using this formulation. It's an especially weaselly wording that lets him back off any particular allegation when confronted while continuing to advance every insane idea under the sun in the guise of discussion of what other people are talking about. There's been a certain amount of hand wringing over the degrading of discourse in the US and the fact it's almost impossible to disprove a myth or outright lie once it's gotten into people's heads (the more you argue against it the more people who already believe the lie believe it even more). In what is either another step towards the complete destruction of intelligent discussion in American politics or one of the most beautifully poetic rebuttal of stupidity I've ever seen, someone from Fark with the help of the other aggregator sites started the Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990 website. The sites makes it clear that it's a parody site and that it's attacking this kind of slimy insinuation without any evidence that has been creeping up more and more in the Fox News era and has reached it's crescendo recently, making sure to always be presented along the lines of "Some people say Glenn Back has X and he has yet to deny it".
[More]
Horowitz Replies to David Frum concerning Glenn Beck
One of the comments to this article sums up the backlash against Beck nicely:
Horo: “One is a remarkable conservative outburst against the broadcaster Glenn Beck…”
No. What Horowitz doesn’t get is that this isn’t a conservative outburst against Glenn Beck. It’s a *decent citizens* outburst against Glenn Beck.
There is a point where someone’s behavior is so toxic, it’s bad for America, regardless of which party it hurts. There’s a point where good citizens are supposed to stop caring about what the effect of poisonious thinking might be on the polls and start caring about what the poison is doing to the nation.
And the problem with today’s GOP (and of course, with countless Democrats, too) is that too many forgot where that point is, drove right past it, and then forgot that the idea of ‘nation before politics’ ever even existed. And now Beck is trying to destroy any last shred of that memory.
A ringmaster may have emerged to tame the party loons
It has happened.
Former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough has finally done what someone on the conservative right should have done long ago. Scarborough, who now hosts a show on MSNBC, has said publicly that Glenn Beck is bad for the conservative cause because of his wild, unsubstantiated commentaries and his ongoing appeals to manic paranoia.
Scarborough has gotten loud with his attempted marching orders by saying that anyone interested in running for President the next time around should plant their flag on the small hill of rationality that seems virtually impossible for most Republicans to find.
When calling out Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich on the issue, Scarborough also might have called out Michael Steele. He probably felt that would do no good after seeing some of Steele's embarrassing genuflections to similar nonsense. After all, the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee shuffled into place and did an apologetic buck dance in the wake of referring to Rush Limbaugh as an entertainer and being rebuked over the air waves by dittohead commander in chief.
The reason is not that they agree with Beck, or find him no more than the circus clown that he calls himself. It is for a reason that we all have seen far too often in American politics whenever an irresponsible person with incendiary rhetoric arrives and develops a big following, or seems to have developed one.
[More]
Joe Scarborough - Glenn Beck is playing with fire
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Glenn Beck on White Culture
Sunshine Libertarians
More ... Sunshine Libertarians
Sincerity? Glenn Beck Can Fake That
Sincerity? Glenn Beck Can Fake That
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Fox News blatherskite Glenn Beck (who at the time was with CNN) traduced Ron Paul and his supporters as potential domestic terrorists.
He later featured Dr. Paul in several interviews and treated him respectfully, going so far as to compliment him on his principled and prescient economic views — while pointedly condemning his lack of zeal for murdering Muslims. (Beck, at one point, criticized American Muslims for not lining up at recruiting offices for the chance “to shoot bad the Muslims in the head,” warning that their lack of nationalistic zeal might prompt other Americans to “round you up” and put them behind “razor wire.”)
Beck has also passionately and repeatedly endorsed torture as a “counter-terrorist” tactic.
Beck has now emerged as something of a key media cheerleader for that element of the “Tea Party” movement that discovered the evils of government profligacy, executive dictatorship, and economic fascism shortly after noon last January 20th.
A self-identified “Rodeo Clown,” Beck is often seen awash in tears, his face contorted with bravely suppressed emotion as he is rendered verklempt by his love of, and concern for, our country. Or something.
Well, to the surprise of nobody who can exercise even a particle of educated skepticism, the tears of that Rodeo Clown are as bogus as Joe Biden’s hairline.
Gawker describes Beck’s recent photo shoot for GQ magazine with photographer Jill Greenberg, whom Beck condemned last year as a leftist “nut job” who “terrorizes children.” He referred to an earlier shoot in which Greenberg, to make what she considered an artistic point of some sort, gave candy to children and then took it away and photographed their reactions.
Greenberg wanted to capture Beck’s notorious lachrymosity, and the blabbermouth — more than willing to set aside ideological and artistic scruples — eagerly complied. Greenberg gave Beck just a little bit of chemical help in order to get the “money shot.” The results are suitably dramatic, if not Oscar-worthy.
“The crying was my idea, and Glenn was cool with trying it,” according to Greenberg. “We used mentholated balm to make his eyes tear up naturally. From then on it was acting on his part. He had fun with it and was a great sport.”
