Glenn Beck Mocks Fire Victims, Reaches New Depths of Awfulness

I’ve probably written and rewritten this opening paragraph about Glenn Beck and his morning zoo sycophantic sidekick Pat Gray four or five times with various sequences of compound obscenities and ad hominem insults. But I’m opting for more restraint at this point, even though neither of these jackals deserves it. Especially so, considering their latest hand-in-hand plunge into all new depths of awfulness.

By now, you’ve probably heard the news about Gene Cranick and his family, and how the South Fulton, Tennessee fire department stood by and allowed the Cranick house to burn to the ground, destroying everything and killing the family’s dogs and cats. All because the Cranicks failed to pay a $75 fee. While a raging brush fire neared his home, Cranick begged the fire chief to stop the fire before it engulfed his house. He even offered to immediately pay the $75 fee, but the chief refused and the house burned to the ground.

As a survivor of two house fires (technically, one was a gas explosion) my heart goes out to the Cranicks and the nightmare they’re enduring today. But my own experiences are incidental — you don’t have to have survived a pair of house fires to recognize the unapologetic callousness of Beck and his squishy Quatto-from-Total-Recall parasitic twin Pat Gray.

Here’s what happened.

Yesterday on his radio show, Beck and Gray not only defended the fire department’s refusal to save the Cranick’s house, but they also accused Cranick of “sponging” off his neighbors — all the while mocking and ridiculing Cranick’s rural accent. Courtesy of ThinkProgress, here’s the clip:

And the takeaway quote from Beck:

If you don’t pay the 75 dollars then that hurts the fire department. They can’t use those resources, and you’d be sponging off your neighbor’s resources.

That’s right. A matter of days after losing everything they owned, including their home, their pets, family photographs — everything — and all because of a delinquent $75 fee, Gene Cranick and his family were excoriated, scolded and teased by multimillionaire celebrity televangelist Glenn Beck in front of a radio audience estimated at upwards of 10 million listeners.

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Health Care Reform: Right-Wing Terrorism Stoked By Conservative Leaders

During the Bush years, members of the far-right would often suggest that liberals were “with the terrorists” if we merely opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq, or if we opposed the policies of the Republican leadership at the time. In fact, any negative criticism of the president whatsoever was considered unpatriotic “while troops were in harm’s way.” That was the line we heard almost daily throughout the previous decade: don’t undermine the commander-in-chief while troops were deployed in battle. Just don’t. Or Sean Hannity will crush you with his mighty hairline!

But in general, there was this idea among Republicans that liberals were somehow emboldening the terrorists anytime we suggested that it might be a bad idea to eavesdrop on American telecommunications, or that it might be a bad idea to torture detainees, or that it might be a bad idea to invade Iran after having already invaded Iraq and Afghanistan to varying degrees of failure. Either we were with the administration, or we were with the terrorists.

We can debate at another time whether or not anyone is currently “emboldening” Islamic terrorists or putting the troops in jeopardy by constantly accusing their commander-in-chief of hating America, of hating white people, of hating freedom or of hating you personally.

The more important discussion during this groundbreaking week in American history is whether or not legitimate Republican and conservative leaders are instigating and inciting violence against the president, against Democrats, against liberals and, in some cases, against children.

And they are.

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Those Cartoonish Republicans

I have an important message for Michele Bachmann, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the most visible Republicans on the national stage: Keep going! You’re doing great! If this was video, you would see me standing an applauding. Maybe holding up a lighter for an encore.

The Republican Party is shriveling faster than Rush Limbaugh on a flight home from the Dominican Republic.

While I believe America only benefits from a robust two-party system, the Republicans aren’t really filling their seats at the table. The insufferable centrist Democrats, for better or worse, are covering the power void in an unofficial interim capacity and it wouldn’t shock me if there was eventually a replacement party built up around the conservative Democrats and some of the center-right moderate Republicans.

Another theory for another time.

But it’s clear that there will either be a clean break in the current party dynamic, or the more moderate, reasonable faction of the Republican Party will begin to seriously assert itself against the wingnuts who are, simply put, cartoonish stereotypes of themselves.

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David Swanson’s Daybreak Is Chart-Topping Inspiration

Linda Milazzo
Huffingtonpost.com

It’s a great day in America when heralds of hate, specifically Glenn Beck and Michelle Malkin, are booted from their Amazon best seller slots on day one of the publication of progressive leader David Swanson’s breakthrough tome, Daybreak, now at Number One on Amazon’s non-fiction best seller list. From this terrific response to Swanson’s new book arises my sincere hope that Daybreak attracts a good many of Beck and Malkin’s readers, so they, too, will have the opportunity to absorb the depth of information and dedication to solutions that David Swanson offers.

Those who regularly read the writings of David Swanson, posted daily across the internet on influential websites, are uniquely informed by his cognizance of the Constitution and wisely instructed on the laws of proper governance. They are similarly impressed by his solutions — yes, solutions — to the issues he elucidates. He’s an endless source of information and a catalyst for strategic clear-minded citizen action and government action to correct the wrongs he sees. Swanson is consistently less about the problem and more about the solution.

Daybreak, Swanson’s long-awaited political tome, delves deeply into his political and strategic expertise. It’s a delectable and teachable feast. No wonder it booted Glenn Beck from his first place position. Insightful trumps spiteful any day, just as reflective trumps invective. Swanson motivates through explanation and clarification. He’s a teacher, not a screecher. A journey through Daybreak is an educational awakening, and an alert to the misdeeds of those we’ve elected. It’s a clarification of why these deeds are wrong, why they must be challenged, and how they can be changed. It’s an invitation to “we the citizens” to right them once and for all, and an informative guide to get it done.

More…

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The Far Right’s Ridiculous Attacks On President Obama

Without a doubt, many of the attacks from the far-right against President Obama have amounted to nothing more than the political equivalent of speaking in tongues. The attacks are only marginally more coherent than Steve Carell’s Brick Tamland character from Anchorman shouting “LOUD NOISES!” for the sake of shouting something. Anything.

The most ridiculous of the loud noises are the ones that entirely ignore the legacy of the previous president. Specifically, the very same people making the loudest noises about President Obama have also spent the last eight years spastically applauding President Bush’s worst trespasses every step of the way. The far-right’s staggering disregard for the significant flaws of the former Republican president confounds logic when measured against their ridiculous attacks on the current president.

ATTACK: President Obama took a vacation to Hawaii.
REALITY: President Bush set a record for presidential vacations during two wars and a major hurricane.

ATTACK: President Obama’s budget could double the national debt.
REALITY: President Bush’s spending actually did.

ATTACK: President Obama is “shredding the Constitution.”
REALITY: You mean there’s a Constitution left to be shredded?

ATTACK: President Obama chuckled while talking about bailing out the auto industry.
REALITY: President Bush routinely smirked and grinned while talking about the significantly more serious issues of war and military casualties.

ATTACK: President Obama is incompetent.
REALITY: Do I even need to do the list?

ATTACK: President Obama is presiding over a one-party fascist government.
REALITY: This is not a joke.

So. Loud noises!

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The Tea Baggers And Their Tea Party

Throughout history, there have been more than a few unfortunate and ill-conceived branding and marketing ideas to have been thrust into public view. I’m not just talking about minor infractions like the recent Cocaine energy drink or that children’s candy with the hard plastic “prizes” suitable for choking buried inside. I’m talking about serious failures. Probably the most famous example of an epic fail product was the diet pill known simply as “Ayds,” circa 1982. The slogan: “Why take diet pills when you can enjoy Ayds?” I’m not making that up.

In the past several years, this caliber of epic fail has also appeared at various political protests. There’s the infamous mullet-headed pro-war demonstrator holding a sign reading: “GET A BRAIN! MORANS.” And just a couple of weeks ago, there was this display of fail by a protester from the far-right blog Free Republic:

As the sign demonstrates, the funniest and most contradictory aspect of the recent far-right revolution is, hands down, the tea bag thing. But it’s not just about the double entendre aspect of “tea bagging.” A lot of it has to do with the idea that far-right conservatives are emulating the Boston Tea Party.

Let’s recap. It began with the on-air rant from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange by the Coward Rick Santelli — “coward” because he’s apparently too afraid to go on The Daily Show and, instead, Jim Cramer went on and took a beating for something that Santelli basically started. Nevertheless, according to one of the official tea bag websites, Santelli is credited as the patron saint of the movement.

And unless I’m mistaken, the basic idea of the tea bag revolution is to protest against government bailouts and in favor of tax cuts for the wealthiest five percent of Americans. Ultimately, the tea baggers (can I call them that?) appear to be against allowing the Bush’s tax cuts to expire. Strangely, they also appear to be against President Obama signing into law the largest middle class tax cut in history. They’re also against helping middle and working class “losers” keep their homes. (By the way, your neighbor’s mortgage is your problem. Just watch your property values plummet as soon as there’s just one foreclosure on your block.)

This series of Obama policies, they say, portends tyranny in America. Of course none of the policies of the Bush administration were considered tyrannical by many of the current tea bag leaders. You know the list of Bush trespasses. The illegal searches and seizures, the illegal electronic eavesdropping and torturing. The suspension of habeas corpus, the record deficits, the doubling of the national debt and so on. None of that was tyrannical. But allowing the tax cuts for the wealthiest five percent to expire is absolutely the vanguard of totalitarianism.

So the organizers of the movement have picked up on Santelli’s tea party reference and are rebelling against higher taxes for the rich and corporations by purchasing thousands of tea bags and dumping them into various waterways.

To sum up: higher ’90s-era tax rates for the wealthy and corporations? Tyrannical. Tax cuts for the middle class? Also tyrannical. Therefore, emulate the Boston Tea Party as a means of underscoring these positions.

Here’s the problem.

The Boston Tea Party was ultimately precipitated by a massive corporate tax cut.

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The Wingnut Revolution Is Upon Us

After nearly three decades of Reaganomics in which the wealthiest two percent of Americans have grown exponentially wealthier while middle class wages have remained stagnant, a growing faction of super rich Americans is seriously pissed off — and their Wingnut Revolution is upon us.

Sure, the interests and influence of the wealthiest two percent make them more responsible than most for the free market policies that created this current economic crisis. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned about those responsible for this recession, it’s that the concept of accountability is about as foreign as their live-in au pairs. Instead, they’re blaming this on Barney Frank and a legion of “losers” (read that: working class minorities) even though Ben Bernanke himself has debunked this myth.

But accountability (a “reckoning” as President Obama called it) is underway in the form of the president’s housing proposal, his healthcare plan and, naturally, the recovery act. At the end of the day, ninety-five percent of Americans will benefit from what amounts to the largest tax cut in American history, along with increased access to affordable healthcare and millions of new jobs.

Though, alas, the super rich will have to pay slightly more in taxes.

Yeah, that’s a shame.

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The Far-Right: In A Total Berserker Meltdown (With The Help Of Rush Limbaugh)

The historical record of far-right ridiculousness has been well-documented here and throughout the blogosphere.

Who can forget Michelle Malkin’s inspired cheerleader skit? Or when Rush Limbaugh mocked a guy’s Parkinson’s Disease tremors. What about John Boehner’s public sobbing jags? Pat Robertson insisting he could leg-press 2,000 pounds. Sarah Palin’s turkey geeker photo op. George W. Bush telling us that Iraq is a “peeance freeance.” Remember when Bill O’Reilly shouted down the son of a 9/11 victim? Already, we’re talking about a mélange of weirdness and upside-down logic suitable for the ages, and that’s all prior to January 20, 2009.

But I don’t think we ever anticipated that the presidency of Barack Obama would, among other things, send the far-right into a freakazoid display of shockingly deranged conniptions and outright crazy talk — their manic hyperdrive engines, fueled by Rush Limbaugh’s gesticulating arm flab, blasting them out of their political Mos Eisley cantina scene and expelling them a thousand parsecs beyond the zero barrier of insanity.

Too much?

Just to be clear, I’m not talking about the lies or distortions or their utter lack of credibility (zero cred) on broad-ranging issues like, you know, foreign policy and the economy. What we have here is the equivalent level of chaos as, say, the first group therapy scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In other words: a total berserker meltdown.

Seriously, have you ever seen the Republicans more twisted and kerfuffled than they are today? Movie metaphors aside, I’ve been hard pressed to find greater examples of insanity from the far-right than have been exhibited in the past week alone. Here we have a Republican Party that’s been discredited and bloodied, and yet in the face of an enormously popular president who is confounding conventional wisdom while building a working consensus among American voters, the Republicans appear to be reflexively coughing up the most intellectually violent chunks of hooey on record.

They’re screaming about fear-mongering, even though we had eight years of this.

They’re screaming about fiscal responsibility, even though we had eight years of this.

They’re screaming about free speech, even though we had eight years of this and this and this.

They’re honest to God screaming about fascism, even though we had eight years of this and this and this.

Yes, the Republicans have claimed to have “found their voice.” If this is true, then their “voice” sounds exactly like Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge and Michelle Malkin, depending on the day.

So what are these voices saying exactly?

For starters, Rush Limbaugh — the de facto leader of the Republican Party — said on his show Tuesday that the entire economic meltdown was actually precipitated by a conspiracy between George Soros and a cabal of billionaire liberals who deliberately sought to sabotage the world economy in order to get Barack Obama elected.

He, of course, has no real evidence for this, other than what the shadow people told him while he was tweaking his TV remotes.

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15 Worst People In America- 2008

15 Most Loathsome People of 2008

By Allan Uthman and Ian Murphy, Buffalo Beast. Posted January 31, 2009.

Limbaugh, Palin, Warren, and more. They’re the worst people in America, and unfortunately they dominated last year’s headlines.

The Buffalo Beast has released its 50 Most Loathsome People in America list for 2008. We here at AlterNet rounded up 15 people from their list that we thought most deserved the insulting honor. Read through our top picks from their list, go check out the Beast’s full list, and then drop some of the folks you think are the most loathsome people in America in the comments below. Happy hunting.

15. Michele Bachmann

Charges: Exemplifies the simmering, all-American fascism lurking behind the forced smiles of uptight church ladies throughout “real America.” Echoing Sarah Palin’s alarming hints about “helping” the media do its job, Bachmann’s casual call for a “penetrating” press investigation into “anti-Americanism” in congress was so fucking dumb it made Chris Matthews seem smart. Once it occurred to the Oral Roberts University graduate that calling for witchhunts against Democrats might be a tad extreme for election season, she decided to just pretend she didn’t say it, and then she blamed Chris Matthews. Then she just blamed words. Then she denied it again. Then she won. Way to go, Minnesota’s 6th.

Exhibit A: BACHMANN: Actually, that’s not what I said at all. COLMES: Well, I’m just — I’m reading your exact quote. BACHMANN: Actually that’s not I said. It’s an urban legend that was created. That isn’t what I said at all. COLMES: We have — it’s on tape.

Sentence: Assigned to conduct her own “expose” on anti-American views, in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

14. Bernie Madoff

Charges: Normally, the idea of a bunch of billionaires getting robbed blind for believing in a free lunch would amuse the hell out of us, but Bernie Madoff stole a lot of money from charity endowments, and is responsible for two suicides so far. Here’s a tip, Bernie: If you’re running the biggest scam since the Catholic church, handling billions of dollars, and all it takes to get busted is that some of your marks ask for their money back, you really should take some of that money and set up an escape plan. Still, he gets some credit for making Mort Zuckerman look like a jackass. The real villains here are Christopher Cox and the SEC, who investigated Madoff eight times, the last time specifically on suspicion of  running a Ponzi scheme, each time “finding” no wrongdoing, which begs the all-too-familiar question of the last eight years: Satanically corrupt or grossly incompetent? Either way, Madoff was finally brought to justice… by his kids.

Exhibit A: “In today’s regulatory environment, it’s virtually impossible to violate rules … but it’s impossible for a violation to go undetected, certainly not for a considerable period of time.”

Sentence: Sold into slavery.

13. Mark Penn

Charges: The most overpriced gravedigger in the world. As Clinton’s Chief Strategist, this too-creepy-for-TV pollster steered what was initially considered a cinch presidential campaign with all the talent of Joseph Hazelwood at the helm of the Exxon Valdez. His laziness was explained by his strategy: Inevitability. Penn’s cheap, backfiring smears of Obama as a coke-snorting Islamic radical teenager, coupled with pathetic whining about the mean old press, gave Clinton’s campaign an odor as repugnant as his own playground-flasher looks. Like most reptiles, Penn was slow to adjust to environmental changes, racking up millions in direct mail fees while Obama plundered the internet, which Penn predicted wouldn’t have any impact in 2008. His very employment signaled a total abdication on the corruption/lobbying issue. But it gets worse: Mark Penn didn’t understand basic electoral arithmetic, announcing to colleagues that Hillary would win easily by gaining California’s 370 delegates, assuming, wrongly, a winner-take all vote tally. Despite the revelation of his woeful lack of elementary knowledge, Penn did not adjust his big-state strategy, ignoring the caucus states that Obama rode to victory, and to the end, seemed utterly baffled that a candidate could win without “any of the significant states.”

MORE HERE

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Obama Intends To Keep Fitzgerald

Malkin: Democrats Will ‘Turn On A Dime’ Against Patrick Fitzgerald

Think Progress- By Ali Frick at 2:28 pm

This morning on Fox and Friends, right-wing pundit Michelle Malkin took up the conservative mantra of linking President-elect Obama to disgraced governor Rod Blagojevich (D-IL). (In fact, Obama may have “indirectly contributed to the downfall” of Blagojevich.) Malkin and host Brian Kilmeade also insisted that Democrats, in seeking to defend the governor, would turn on U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and attempt to discredit his investigation:

KILMEADE: You know, one thing I think Patrick Fitzgerald is bulletproof. Because if Democrats are going to say he’s this non-partisan, A-plus investigator when he’s going after Scooter Libby, how could they turn around and say he has an agenda when he’s going after the Chicago governor and wherever those links lie?

MALKIN: That’s a really good point, Brian. Of course, they will try to do it.

BRIAN: Sure.

MALKIN: They turn on a dime on their former heroes and they will in this case.

Watch it:

Yesterday, Illinois state Republican chairman Andy McKenna, talking to Politico, similarly insinuated that Fitzgerald’s job was in danger. “Some have wondered if Barack Obama would keep Fitzgerald,” he said.

Malkin and McKenna are fear-mongering for no purpose, however. Obama has already made it clear he intends to keep Fitzgerald at his post. His transition team yesterday pointed reporters to a statement Obama had made in June: “I still think he’s doing a good job. Yes,” Obama said. “I think he has been aggressive in putting the city on notice and the state on notice that he takes issues of public corruption seriously.”

MORE HERE

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