Can Beck GET anymore outrageous

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Jeffrey Joseph

Considering the exceedingly hyperbolic rhetoric that comes out of Glenn Beck’s mouth, from claiming a Jewish social justice worker used “exactly the kind of talk that led to the death camps in Germany” to telling his Christian listeners to leave their churches, he makes it hard for a reasonable person to agree with any of his sentiments. Yet, with all his misguided rhetoric, one plea Beck repeats that actually makes some kind of sense involves demanding that people keep the families out of political fights. Beck would earn more credit for the assertion — if only he were not so obviously hypocritical about it.

Just last week, Beck went on the air and mocked Malia Obama’s level of education in an attempt to criticize President Obama’s response to the BP oil spill. Doing a derogatory impression of Malia, Beck asked his co-host Pat Gray, pretending to be President Obama, “Daddy? Daddy? Daddy, did you plug the hole yet? Daddy?” Beck went on to ask, through his Malia voice, “Why do you hate black people so much?” Beck, who never attained a college degree himself,  reiterated the initial comment with an extra dig at Malia, saying, “‘Did you plug the hole yet, daddy?’ Is that’s their — that’s the level of their education, that they’re coming to — they’re coming to daddy and saying ‘Daddy, did you plug the hole yet?’”

Bringing Obama’s children into the argument so exceeded the boundaries of entertainment that Beck felt the need to apologize for his actions days later. Unfortunately, the apology comes across as disingenuous considering he lies to say, “There is absolutely no excuse or reason to ever, ever, ever, ever even come close to the line of dragging somebody’s family into the debate. I’ve never done it. I’ve never done it until last Friday.”

Not only has Beck dragged families into the debate often, he has specifically introduced the Obama family into the debate for years. Beck went after Obama’s father, saying, “His father abandoned him. Why? So he could go off to a Marxist school in New York. Then his father left the country to go try it out.” At the same time, Beck targeted Obama’s mother, who he believes left Obama “with his grandparents so she c[ould] pursue critical theory, which is Marxist. Both parents leave a boy for Marxism?” In addition, Beck went after Obama’s grandparents, wife, and children for what he perceived to be their political thoughts and inclinations, all despite his rule against involving the families.

Of course Beck willfully invokes the family at his own leisure. Though he claimed to have criticized Malia with the intention of illustrating how Obama used children as a shield, he had done that very thing with Sarah Palin earlier in the week. Journalist Joe McGinniss moved next door to Sarah Palin, incidentally while he worked on an unauthorized biography about her. In response to the move, Palin and Beck manufactured all kinds of outrage, Beck demanding that McGinniss “leave the families alone.” While McGinniss had not yet approached anyone in the Palin family, Beck portrayed him as “a peeping tom” who “is now able to look into Piper’s bedroom,” Piper being Sarah’s nine-year-old daughter. Beck and Palin, who supported Beck’s claims, had no foundation for their insinuations. Rather, they simply used the children as political tools to conveniently vilify the respected author next door.

Those instances pertain to just last week; Beck’s malicious use of the family extends much further back. Years ago, he had embarked on a ratings war with a friend in town, Bruce Kelly. Two days after Kelly’s wife suffered a traumatizing miscarriage, Beck called Bruce’s wife, on the air, to mock how Bruce “apparently can’t do anything right.”

Those are the kinds of classless attacks Beck has stooped to in his career involving families in a bid to increase ratings. He would go so far as to mock a fellow DJ, a friend, for something as tragic as a miscarriage. Yet he still musters faux outrage at the trumped-up violations he believes others make against the sanctity of the family. It makes about as much sense as him telling his audience he is not juxtaposing modern America with Nazi Germany within an hour of doing precisely that. Even if Beck could make a valid point, like how people should avoid targeting the apolitical family around a politician, he so immediately contradicts his own point that hardly anyone would notice.

FOX has quite a few problems to work on, but airing a personality like Beck who so often goes after the family of his political opponents or uses family as a shield against attacks crosses an ethical line. In between contradicting himself, Beck would agree to the reprehensibility of doing so. Hence, viewers should tell FOX it should stick to the facts and to the politicians if it wants to work as a serious news organization — and in the meantime choose to Turn Off FOX.

Please send in tips and success stories to turnofffox@gmail.com, look out for us on Twitter @turnofffox, and join us at BuzzFlash in the Campaign to Turn Off FOX News. And please forward this article to a friend. You can drive the message home by obtaining a Turn Off FOX Bumper Sticker. Just Click Here.
Originally posted at Turn Off FOX.
BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

Let The Sun Shine In......

Glenn Beck Is A Dangerous Fraud...

Bob Cesca

Political Writer, Blogger, and New Media Producer

Posted: April 7, 2010 02:48 PM

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I could not have said it better myself.

So here goes. Beginning with this post, I intend to expose Glenn Beck as a fraud. A dangerous faker who deliberately manipulates his audience by appealing to their basest instincts. As a man who only embraces conservatism and the tea party movement as a means to furthering his significant personal wealth and career as a successful TV goon. My theory is as follows. Glenn Beck is engaged in a carefully orchestrated performance that, if taken to its logical end, can only end up in tragedy -- a tragedy, not in the name of some great political or social or religious cause, as too many of his viewers might believe, but rather in the name of pure careerism and greed. A tragedy in the name of Glenn Beck's personal drive for fame and fortune, not to mention the similar motivations of Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch. Right. I get it. I should probably ignore him. Why should I waste time writing about Glenn Beck again? As hard as it is to believe, most days I intentionally ignore Glenn Beck posts and videos on the blogs. My recurring reaction is generally twofold. One: he's exhausting to watch because just as I'm wrapping my head around one line of googly-eyed horseshit, he belts out another ridiculous, melodramatic or dangerous line, and before I know it, I'm faced with a log-jam of crazy, forcing me to scramble for either an oxygen mask or a stiff drink. And, two: why pay attention to the television equivalent of an escaped mental patient screaming gibberish on the median strip at a busy intersection?

But to underestimate Glenn Beck as just some sort of random extra from Cuckoo's Nest, as I admittedly have done, is a mistake as it barely scratches the surface of what his scam is all about. A schizoid raving street loon tends to command attention purely for the freak show curiosity of passers by, yet the nonsense is rarely taken seriously.

This isn't the case with Glenn Beck. Several million people every day take his word for it. They're suckered into buying the ruse. And it's bad for America.

What his regular viewers haven't grasped yet is that he's putting on a show. He's playing a role. He's tricking his audience. Unlike a left-leaning audience, Beck's audience is mostly composed of white conservative Christians who pride themselves on taking certain things on faith, and who often act against their own financial interests for the sake of patriotic cheerleading. It's an audience that embraces gun ownership and tends to be more reactionary and militaristic. (Incidentally, there's no equivalent to this on the "other side" simply because it's not in the nature of liberals to be, you know, conservative.) But it's hard to blame Beck's audience for being fished in. There's no wink and nod, so he's clearly not attempting some sort of obviously satirical character like Stephen Colbert or even a more bizarre character like Andy Kaufman's Tony Clifton. He performs this role as seamlessly as any decent character actor, but he never tips his hand (we're generally told when an actor is acting). Just an occasional mention of himself as a "rodeo clown." There's no crawl at the end listing "Glenn Beck as 'Glenn Beck.'" It's not a fiction program. Glenn Beck is playing a character with a personality and a style that is laser focused at the souls of an intended audience. It doesn't take many minutes of viewing his television show to see that he's mashing up the most effective and successful aspects of Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones and '60s Bircher author Cleon Skousen, and filtering it all through the performance techniques of a televangelist. Listen to any random monologue by Glenn Beck and then watch some clips of televangelist Jack Van Impe. Both are master manipulators and (crazy aside) riveting speakers. They each nail their audiences with rapid-fire barrages of nonsense presented as dramatic fact -- so twisted and obscured that it begins to seem real and anything that might not seem entirely plausible, just have faith. After all, there are complicated drawings on a blackboard! Oh, and he cries. So he must be serious. (We learned last year that the crying is fake.)

This is all stuff that's been proven to resonate with (and utterly manipulate) certain American audiences who also willingly hand over their cash to obvious flimflam artists claiming to provide salvation. Glenn Beck is just pooling these techniques and applying them to American politics.

Instead of asking for donations, by the way, Beck just markets all varieties of crap-on-a-stick to his people. Beck has released seven books since 2007. Seven books in three years! Add to the mix three DVD releases and 26 compact disc releases. There's his subscription-only "Insider Extreme" website which charges $75 per year. There's a print magazine called "Fusion" (20 issues for $66). There are the obligatory t-shirts, mugs and other forms of cheap swag. All of this is heaped on top of a multimillion dollar Fox News contract and a syndicated radio deal worth $50 million over five years. Capitalism is one thing, but Beck is manipulating his audience to hand over their cash in exchange for swag that can't possibly be worth the price, considering the volume of his output (seven books in three years!). As the saying goes: how hard he prays depends on how much you pay.

One of the reasons why the network news media was generally, in decades past, kept separate from the ratings and profit-motive of entertainment divisions was that to cross these streams, so to speak, would lead to the corruption of the news, forcing it to be driven by what sells, not necessarily by what's true. And, it goes without saying that such a corruption of the news is inherently damaging to democracy.

To that point, Glenn Beck likes to say that he's the new Howard Beale, the tragic and suicidal anchor from the movie Network. He's not. In fact, Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay was a prescient warning about the rise of charlatans like Glenn Beck infiltrating the news media -- regardless of whether or not they're presented as "opinion journalists." Actually, Beck goes far beyond the scope of opinion journalism as well, and has settled in a danger zone where he incites easily-manipulated, often militaristic audiences based on theories and claims that don't hold up to even the most cursory fact-checking, say nothing of empirical reality.

In terms of his impact, Beck isn't Howard Beale at all. He's closer to Lee Atwater. In the riveting, must-see documentary, Boogie Man, about the rise and fall of the infamous Republican political operative, it's revealed that Atwater once considered politics to be nothing more than a game. Professional wrestling. Atwater, we learn, would have been perfectly happy doing what he did for either political party. Republican or Democrat. It didn't matter to him. After all, it was just a game. A show. And he was really good at producing a hell of a show -- no matter how many lives he left in his wake. Yet at the end of his life, Atwater realized that treating politics like a wrestling match was a mistake. In politics, unlike wrestling, the societal damage is real. The lives are real. Bloated and crippled from his cancer treatment, Atwater regretted using the Southern Strategy -- exploiting race as a wedge. He regretted making so many enemies, one of which being Ed Rollins who he had double-crossed during the waning years of the Reagan administration. He regretted the creation of his own reality at the expense of empirical reality. While he was very successful in treating national affairs like a cornball burlesque show and throwing all professional ethics aside in the name of winning, the lesson of Lee Atwater is that such behavior is ultimately destructive. The Glenn Beck Show might seem like the political equivalent of professional wrestling, but it's not even that sincere. At least with wrestling, we're all most aware that wrestling follows a script even though some of the moves require a high caliber of strength and athleticism (and occasionally resulting in real injuries to the performers). The difference between Beck and wrestling is that with Beck the fakery isn't common knowledge and the consequences of what he talks about on his show are very real. This week, Beck attacked the president's deceased mother and grandparents as being Marxists. Which other innocent bystanders will turn up on your commie hit list, Glenn? Who will you attack next with McCarthy-style abandon in the name of bilking your audience, Glenn? And do you honestly expect that your audience will remain passive observers of all of this? And so I intend to expose Beck as the dangerous grifter he really is. He's committing a nationally televised fraud and, given the sorts of people who are the most susceptible to his trickery, it's only a matter of time before Beck's deception takes a tragic turn. Listen to the Bob & Elvis Show Thursdays at 10 a.m. EDT Bob on Twitter Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!

Let The Sun Shine In......

Glenn Beck is an idiot (just one example)

Was it not Dick Cheney who said that Ronald Reagan proved that deficits don't matter?

Quote of the Day

by BooMan
Thu Apr 8th, 2010 at 12:37:42 PM EST

I generally ignore Glenn Beck because I don't want to do even a small part to give him the kind of attention he needs to make $32 million a year, but I just want to look at this onequote:

I don't know if you have seen the debt clock, but the debt is unsustainable. We're about to go out of business.People who are only playing the political games will ask: Where were you when George Bush was spending? It doesn't matter. I'm here now. Where are you now?

And before Dubya Bush, we might have asked where the budget hawks were when Reagan was spending. When Poppy Bush, in an effort at post-Reagan fiscal sanity, broke his 'read-my-lips-no-new-taxes' pledge, the 'budget hawks' threw him out of office.

What the American people need to understand about Republicans is that when they are out of power they are against any federal spending on anything other than weapons and immigration enforcement (better if these two things can be combined). But, when Republicans are in power, they spend freely and run up staggering debts. When the bill comes due and they get replaced by Democrats, they dismiss critics of their profligate spending by saying "It doesn't matter. I'm here now," and go right back to advocating balanced budgets.

In other words, now that they are no longer in control of the federal treasury, they are going back to their roots as an opposition party. But, even if you agree with them about the need to have a balanced budget, there is no reason to believe them when they say they will create one if put back in charge. They won't. And there is a simple reason for that. They will never raise taxes even when the economic times call for tax hikes. In fact, they will reduce taxes to the maximum degree possible. But they won't make corresponding cuts in federal programs. So, the result, every time, is staggering debt.

It pays to look at the conservative ideology as something that developed over decades in the minority in Congress. From the end of World War Two until 1995, the Republicans controlled the House of Representatives for a total of four years (1947-49 and 1953-55). So, modern conservative ideology is built on opposing the federal government's spending priorities (and, really, any spending at all). It's an ideology that takes no account of an actual governing ideology. 

Again, other than spending on weapons and a Great Wall of Mexico, they have no fiscal priorities besides tax cuts (primarily for the wealthiest). The Republicans spent so long not being able to control the purse strings that they lost any interest in arguing over how the money should be spent. They just want to take the money out of the purse. But, hand them the purse, and they'll spend money just as lavishly as the Democrats and then they'll max out the credit cards for good measure.

So, my answer to Glenn Beck is that he should go with his real calling: rodeo clown. It doesn't pay as well, but he'd sleep better at night.

Let The Sun Shine In......

Trumka Warns of the "Forces of Hate" That Smash the Ideal of America

by: RDemocrat Thu Apr 08, 2010 at 20:29:00 PM EDT

It is no secret that in this current environment with so many workers unemployed, underemployed and making less money that anger is rampant among American workers. It is understandable as working America watches the bankers who crashed our economy costing them millions of jobs get bailed out while in every town in America they are still hurting. This on top of the fact that Corporate America has stagnated wages on jobs they have not shipped overseas to virtual slave markets. Yes, anger is justified and rampant in many unemployment lines and workplaces. However, working America must be very careful of how to channel this understandable anger. You see, just like in past days forces of hatred are seeking to divide workers keeping them from forming a united front to really change this country and their own lots in life.

RDemocrat :: Trumka Warns of the "Forces of Hate" That Smash the Ideal of America

With this in mind AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka today spoke to American workers warning them of the forces of hatred that depend on being able to divide them and turn them against one another and their own interests. He spoke of intellectuals speaking out in these times in defense of the working class: It is all about standing up to entrenched economic power and the complacency of the affluent. It's an alliance that depends on intellectuals being critics, and not the servants, of economic privilege. http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/04... He pointed out how the voices of hatred we hear so readily spewing their twisted logic is nothing new, it has been around for a long time and our generation is far from the first to see such a war against working and intellectual America: This is a similar moment. Our politics have been dominated by greed and the forces of money for a generation. Now, amid the wreckage that came from that experiment, we hear the voices of hatred, of racism and homophobia. I think this is an important point to make here at Harvard. The economic elites at JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and the other big Wall Street banks are happy to hire intellectual servants wherever they can find them. But the stronger the alliance between intellectuals and economic elites, the more the forces of hatred-of anti-intellectualism-will grow. He called on intellectuals and working families to be part of the solution, shunning these voices of hatred that would make America in to a clone of Europe in the Dark Ages and band together and fight for an economy that works for all giving working men and women a voice once again in our Republic: If you care about defending our country against the apostles of hate, you need to be part of the fight to rebuild a sustainable, high wage economy built on good jobs-the kind of economy that can only exist when working men and women have a real voice on the job. Go here to read the full text of Trumka's speech: http://www.aflcio.org/mediacen... And right on cue, the Oxymoron decides to spread more hatred and propaganda, by blaming government not Corporate America or the bankers for the problems workers face: Now, as many of you that have followed my musings may be aware, I am an admirer of Richard Trumka. Speeches like this one should show everyone why. The forces of the "robber barons" are still very alive and still seek to rape the American worker. They care little about anything but protecting their own profits and killing the American dream for 98% of us all while turning worker against worker in a never-ending game of "ring around the rosy". With the well-funded enemies of progress for all Americans firing up the weak-minded to oppose their own interests so the greediest and least patriotic among us can continue to rob our country blind only one solution is left for Progressives, working men and women, and intellectuals. We must band together and DEMAND that America is once again the land of the free and the home of the brave instead of the home of a cutthroat, laissez-faire society we escaped in the New World. We have been far too quiet and complacent during the tea-bag era of ignorant misled souls marching against themselves and all of us. We simply must stand together and fight as hard as we are being fought against by the forces of hatred whose sorry asses are covered because they are rich and could care less how many people get sick or die as long as they can hoard the money amongst themselves. The time has come for us all to stand up and stand together and fight for the ideals our country was founded on before we all must watch them be relegated to the history books as the world's beacon of freedom and liberty is smashed to bits in the name of Corporate profits, Greed and hatred. Now is the time for all patriots to come to the aid of our country because our very way of life is threatened with extinction by the same forces of cruel greed that breed ignorance and steal away the liberties our people have long fought to uphold. Either we stand now and fight back, or the ideal that was America will die a slow, painfully tortured death.

Tags: Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO, Rush Limbaugh, Greed, robber-barons, Crashed Economy, Bankers, Corporate America, corporate profits, hatred, Racism, homophobia, propoganda, (All Tags)

Let The Sun Shine In......

If Not Fired, Beck Should Be Excommunicated!

Well, is this it? 

Has Beck finally gone too far. If this isn't too far, I don't know what would be. He could assassinate the Pope and get away with it. 

Murdoch must be a Godless wretch of a man, because this is too much even for "godless liberals" like me and Murdoch nor big Roger seems to be stepping up in this serious matter.

Becks sounds more like the anti-Christ every day. He needs to have all power removed from him, even that of a huge sound system, for his own sake. Can't anyone of the powers-that-be at Fox see that this man is either having a very public breakdown or he is the epitome of evil on the airwaves?
 
Beck's War Against Social Justice

Fox News' radical host Glenn Beck recently told his listeners to "run as fast as you can" if they find their church preaching "social justice," claiming it is a "perversion of the Gospel." "Social justice was the rallying cry," he argued, "on both the communist front and the fascist front. This is not an American idea." Beck even told his listeners to report preachers of social justice to the authorities: "If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish. Go alert your bishop." 

Christian leaders of all denominations -- from progressive Jim Wallis to arch-conservative Southern Baptist theologian Albert Mohler -- have challenged Beck's attack on social justice. Religious scholars of Beck's adopted faith, the Church of Latter-Day Saints, have explained that social justice is essential to Mormonism. Bread for the World is asking Beck to "[q]uit using [his] bully pulpit to spread misinformation and fear." Wallis has initiated a petition at Sojourners, his social justice organization, for people to let Glenn Beck know they are social justice Christians.

In response, Beck has announced that the "hammer is coming" down on Sojourners and Wallis, whom he claims is a "Marxist." Despite Beck's threats, Wallis has repeated his invitation to sit down and have "an open and public discussion on what social justice really means."


WHAT IS 'SOCIAL JUSTICE'?:  

The concept of social justice runs throughout the Old and New Testaments and includes such virtues as "caring the for the poor and speaking about human rights," explains Pastor Michael Hidalgo. Social justice, the Center for Social and Economic Justice defines, "is the virtue which guides us in creating those organized human interactions we call institutions." "The poor have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the nation," writes the Catholic Office for Social Justice. 

Social justice necessarily involves the government and the economy. As Peg Chamberlain, President of the National Council of Churches, explains, "one cannot claim to be following the teachings of Scripture while also saying that Jesus and the prophets cared nothing for economic justice and that a discussion of such principles has no place in the Church." The ideas of economic justice, workers' rights, and redistribution of wealth are "in no way foreign to the biblical text." There are certainly disputes among progressive and conservative religious traditions about the proper application of social justice, particularly between the role of material needs and faith. However, to reject the concept entirely is to reject the church -- not one parish or priest, but all.


ECONOMIC JUSTICE:

Economic justice is central to communities of faith, who warn against economic systems unconstrained by social justice. The global financial meltdown was not just an economic failure, writes Center for American Progress Senior Policy Adviser for Faith and Progressive Policy Sally Steenland, but also a "moral crisis that exposes the fatal flaws of unfettered capitalism and rebukes the worship of free-market forces whose excesses are having brutal consequences for everyday Americans." "What is really broken in our economy," writes Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, "is that it no longer works for all the people." 

Churches and synagogues are on the front lines of providing financial advice to those abused by the mortgage industry. More than 40 different religious denominations and faith traditions are part of PICO, "a national network of faith-based community organizations" working "to increase access to health care, improve public schools, make neighborhoods safer, build affordable housing, redevelop communities and revitalize democracy." President Obama was once a community organizer as part of the Gamaliel Network, a "multi-faith, multi-ethnic, multi-political, multi-cultural" non-partisan group that works for comprehensive immigration reform, health care for all, and economic opportunities for low-income people.
 

FAITH IN PUBLIC LIFE: 

Glenn Beck claims his attacks on social justice are based on his support for the "separation of church and state," even though he is simultaneously promoting David Barton, a radical pseudo-historian who wants to eliminate those walls. Beck does not distinguish the difference between imposing one's religious views on others and acts of civic and public engagement motivated by faith. 

However, millions of Americans working for a more just society without requiring everyone else's allegiance to their own private faith. Instead they recognize the universal messages of healing the sick, caring for creation, and providing refuge to immigrants. Faith in Public Life is a multi-faith group that works for "advancing the common good in the public square," including the Forty Days for Health Reform project. Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good is promoting initiatives like Go Green for Lent, following the Vatican's lead as the world's first carbon-neutral state.

"Now is the time for followers of Christ to help solve the global warming crisis," says the Evangelical Climate Initiative. Galen Carey of the National Association of Evangelicals has called for Congress to "pass meaningful immigration reform this year." Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform are planning a march on Washington on March 21, unwilling to stand by "as our broken immigration system rips families apart, and anger, frustration, and misunderstanding divide our nation."

I would like to take this opportunity to express my heart-felt gratitude to the various communities of faith, who are fighting in the trenches the immorality of corporate America and the injustices they have brought about with their lust for power and unfettered greed.

Thank you all for your work on behalf of social and economic justice.

Let The Sun Shine In......

Church Uses Marquee To Speak Out Against Beck:

 ‘Sorry Mr Beck, Jesus Preached Social Justice’

This week, Christian religious leaders have been criticizing Fox News host Glenn Beck for his controversial remarks that churches that promote social and economic justice are somehow dangerous. “If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish,” said Beck. Progressive Christian group Sojourners has even launched a campaign calling on Christians to speak out against Beck.

What in the fires of hell is Beck's problem and why won't Fox Fire him?

A story posted on CNN today has a photo of a United Church of Christ congregation in Wantagh, NY that took its message right to the community:




Today, ThinkProgress spoke with Wantagh Memorial Congregational Church Pastor Ronald Garner, who explained that he put the sign up yesterday when he decided that he had to do something more public than just e-mailing Beck:

GARNER: Wantagh Memorial Congregational Church is a very progressive church. We’re open and affirming in our denomination, which means we accept into the full life of our church gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. We are a peace church, and so I just felt that it was a sign that should be in front of our building to say that Mr. Beck’s comments about the social justice being a perversion of the gospel was a total distortion of anybody that’s even given a cursory reading to the words of Jesus. [...]
I feel it was an unwarranted attack on Christians, and I felt like something needed to be said.

The pastor said that a priest in the area who liked the sign originally submitted it to CNN. He added that so far, he has received only positive responses to the church’s message.



Let The Sun Shine In......

Chruches That Teach Social Justice....

....are evil, according to Glenny.

by Jeffrey Joseph
It was probably just a matter of time before Glenn Beck starting making accusations that would put him at odds with Christianity as a whole. Based on statements from his radio program and his FOX show, he has willingly endeavored to do just that.
Attempting to incite his audience into mass action, Beck decided to warn his listeners and viewers to beware churches that preach about the need for social justice. He pleaded, "I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words." To ensure that no one misinterpreted Beck's call to action, he followed that immediately by saying, "Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!"

Indeed, Beck, under the guise of a concerned Christian, unconvincingly compared calls for social justice with extremists from both ends of the political spectrum and demanded people leave their churches over the topic. "Communists are on the left, and the Nazis are on the right," said Beck. "But they both subscribe to one philosophy, and they flew one banner... But on each banner, read the words, here in America: 'social justice.' They talked about economic justice, rights of the workers, redistribution of wealth, and surprisingly, democracy."

It should not surprise Beck that social justice, the term coined by Jesuit priest Luigi Taparelli D'Azeglio to promote compassion and humanitarian efforts for fellow individuals, would include calls for stronger democracy. It began as an effort to help others in a practical manner, such as promotion of democracy or clothing the naked and caring for the sick. In fact, social justice has become so ingrained within the Catholic faith that it bears mentioning in the Catholic Catechism. Being raised Catholic, Beck surely understood the gravity of simultaneously conflating the Catholic Church with both Nazism and Communism. Still, he may not have recognized how wide a swathe of Christians his baseless attacks also opposed, including members of the Mormon faith with whom he purports to agree.

Then again, Beck's theological aptitude led him to conclude that God would not support the right to an education. He must see no need for anyone to read the Bible or any of the books Beck so famously shills on his program; the acquired ability to read would, after all, necessitate some form of education. If Beck does not want to promote the ability to read even the book at the core of Christian faith, would that not mean he opposes the faith altogether, as well?

Beck's crusade against humanitarianism, or "social justice" as it sometimes is called, proves how little he cares about others, even his unfortunate viewers and listeners. In his zeal to fear monger about movements of Nazis or Communists, he successfully alienated Christian churches around the world, though he claims to be a Christian himself. Perhaps it also illustrates that Beck has a better understanding of social justice than he lets on. The movement began as a worldly way for Christians to fulfill their spiritual compulsion to help others. Beck simply inverted and corrupted the equation, letting his worldly desire for infamy and money lead him to vilify any spiritual compulsion or actions intended to help anyone but him and his preconceived message.

The time has come to send a message to Beck to quit his misguided attempts at a warped theology -- one that actually takes aim at Christians everywhere -- and choose to Turn Off FOX.

Please send in tips and success stories to turnofffox@gmail.com, look out for us on Twitter @turnofffox, and join us at BuzzFlash in the Campaign to Turn Off FOX News. And please forward this article to a friend. You can drive the message home by obtaining a Turn Off FOX Bumper Sticker. Just Click Here.
Originally posted at Turn Off FOX.

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Let The Sun Shine In......

C.S. Lewis Was Right: It is happening here (Full Article)

And Bill-O says that Beck is "everyman." God, if that's true, here comes (un)civil war II! It's just this kind of rabble-rousing, full of lies and spin, that started the last one. 

These Tea-baggers, birthers and the like are truly scary people mainly because they are scared and aroused by misinformation and out-right disinformation. Does Beck really believe all that he spews? If so, he needs help. if not, he should be fired with prejudice. 

Glenn Beck's Message: It IS Happening Here

David Sirota

Let's pause and give thanks to Glenn Beck. No, seriously - as my newspaper column out today argues, that's what he's due.
We owe this talk-show-host-turned-political-leader gratitude for using his televised keynote address to the Conservative Political Action Conference to so frankly outline what the conservative movement has become - and why it repulses so many Americans.

Coming days after an anti-tax terrorist kamikaze attacked a government facility in Texas, and following Republicans like Sen. Scott Brown and Rep. Steve King expressing sympathy for that terrorist's grievances, Beck's homily stands as the moment's most forthright manifesto on the right's authoritarian objectives.

David Sirota is the author of the best-selling books "Hostile Takeover" and "The Uprising." He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado and blogs at OpenLeft.com. E-mail him at ds@davidsirota.com or follow him on Twitter @davidsirota.

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Let The Sun Shine In......

Glenn Beck: sobbing again

The main problem with Mr. Beck's project is that he may well find himself dragging out a chapter in American history that the GOP would just as soon forget, for numerous reasons.

How shall we count the ways?

Thursday, June 18, 2009

 

Glenn Beck's warped hijacking of "9/12 America"

 

 

We came together. We promised ourselves that we would never forget. On September 12th, and for a short time after that, we really promised ourselves that we would focus on the things that were important -- our family, our friends, the eternal principles that allowed America to become the world's beacon of freedom.

-- Glenn Beck, in announcing "The 9/12 Project" on Fox News Channel, March 13, 2009.
Surely, you remember Sept. 12, 2001, and the days that immediately followed, those rough weeks immediately after the worst terror attack ever on U.S. soil. Don't you? It was a frightening time but also a rare moment of spiritual renewal and a sense of shared national purpose, when all Americans, liberal and conservative, without regard to race, creed or color, came together...to denounce the president of the United States as a socialist and a dictator and even question his citizenship and thus his very legitimacy to serve as commander-in-chief.

What? That's not how you remember those highly charged days right after the 9/11 attacks? Then clearly you are not caught up in the spirit of Glenn Beck's 9/12 Project, which the increasingly highly rated FNC host unveiled with great fanfare in the early days of Barack Obama's presidency, which is apparently when it dawned on Beck for the first time that America's sense of purpose had gone AWOL. Since then, Beck has talked frequently of the project -- which has spawned chapters around the country, driven by Beck's growing influence -- without ever really offering a coherent explantion of what exactly The 9/12 Project is, let alone what it's supposed to accomplish. The site's home page does offer a nod to the real "9/12" period back in 2001:

"The 9/12 Project is designed to bring us all back to the place we were on September 12, 2001. The day after America was attacked we were not obsessed with Red States, Blue States or political parties. We were united as Americans, standing together to protect the values and the principles of the greatest nation ever created."

Hey, so far, so good -- that does indeed sound like that brief and now-distant era when you saw those magnetically attached American flags on every car in every section of town and when both parties sincerely applauded George W. Bush's speech to a joint session of Congress, the time that liberal icon Frank Rich of the New York Times recalled in this poignant column as an "outpouring of affection and unity that swelled against all odds in the wake of Al Qaeda’s act of mass murder."

So how does Beck's project carry on that spirit today, nearly eight years later?

Well, it starts by giving visitors a dose of news headlines -- headlines like this one: "President Obama Gets Booed at AMA Speech." Doesn't that remind you of President Bush's "bullhorn moment" right after 9/11, when the nation rallied behind the president at a tough time? Me neither. The other headlines are in the same vein: "Access to White House Vistor List DENIED. Why?" or a video, "Wondering If We Are a Christian Nation or a Muslim Nation: WATCH THIS."

Other sections of the 9/12 Project are devoted to the voices of the everyday citizens who come there and who, in the words of the project credo, "stand united as Americans," although mainly united in their opposition to Democrats. One user-generated area of the site is simply called "Stand Up and Lead," which visitors do by writing comments like "jburdett", who was reluctant to sign up for the site because "I was afraid they (sic) “government” would remove me from my job in some way, or some brown shirt ACORN folks would single me for a good pushing around." "spec4pat" writes in to say "I'm ashamed that the tyranny we fight is growing on native soil." "acharlie2005" chimes in that "What Osama can not do; Obama and his lap-dogs are doing!" -- if that doesn't capture the spirit of 9/12, I'm not sure what does! Poster "dsame" gets to the point succinctly: "Obama Is Satan I now believe it."

Can it get more insane than this?

Of course, the real passion is saved for a different part of the site called simply "Vent." This is where people make ugly jokes about Nancy Pelosi and where "JoJo54" writes: "It was just reported that ACORN goons were in the NY state capitol building knocking GOP senators and their aides to the floor. IS THIS THE SPARK THAT STARTS IT ALL??????????Are we stepping into a violent phase?" I don't know, but the tone there seems almost hopeful, doesn't it? The "Vent" section is different from "News From You," where readers post items like "Why Obama Wants To Hide Birth Certificate."

Yep, I guess it can!

There's also an entire section of the 9/12 Project web site called "2nd Amendment," since nothing captures the spirit of charity and solidarity of than weeks after the 9/11 attacks than the basic American right to carry around a fully loaded AK-47 around.

I don't know about the events of 9/11 being a huge plank in the platform for supporting military-style automatic weapons, but Bush and Cheney certainly gave me second thoughts about my usual stance about automatic killing machines.

I think you get the general idea -- there is nothing here that would remind you of the real September 2001, when Americans gave pints of blood and millions of dollars for victim relief. And here's the thing: I honestly have no problem with Glenn Beck using his TV- and radio-generated clout to set up a highly politicalized Web site, one where people can criticize the president and leaders of a certain political party. In fact, I'm not sure if I buy into the supposed premise of the site credo that 9/12 was so great because there was a lack of "political parties"; I happen to think political parties and debate are exactly part of what makes America great, even -- and maybe especially on 9/12, when the political parties forgot to debate -- or even read -- the USA Patriot Act.

What's is highly troublesome is this: The way that Beck once again so casually uses the tragedy of 9/11, and the slaughter of nearly 3,000 Americans, as a simple prop, as a tool to gain new followers who will watch Glenn Beck's show and buy Glenn Beck's books and accumulate more of this kind of warped politcal influence for Glenn Beck in 2009. Because Beck wants nothing to do with the actual reality of 9/11 or 9/12; in fact, he is the only major American media figure to admit that he hates the survivors of the 9/11 victims, stating from a radio studio right here in Philadelphia in September 2005 that "when I see a 9-11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, "Oh shut up!" I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining.

And we did our best for them." (I'm proud to say I was the blogger who first exposed this sick diatribe.)

Rather than atone for that outrageous comment, Beck now compounds it by creating an entire project that uses the memory of 9/11 -- and by extension the people who died that day -- as the foundation for a site largely given over to hatred and bogus claims about the current president of the very nation, our nation, that was attacked eight years ago. How pathetic. Beck promised a project that would be dedicated to America's "eternal principles" -- but the only eternal principle that Glenn Beck really holds is "Glenn Beck."

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Let The Sun Shine In......

Does Glenn Beck Have a Family?

If so, why are they not having him committed for his own good and that of everyone else. The man needs help!

Glenn Beck Defends Wanting To Pull Out Fingernails And Peel Skin Off With A Cheese Grater. We kid you not. 5/3


Let The Sun Shine In......

Glenn Beck Praises Texas Secessionists As Patriots:

 They Just Think Texas Does America Best

If they want to, please allow them to secede!

On last night's (4/15/09) On The Record, Greta Van Susteren interviewed Glenn Beck at a tea party protest at The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. Beck who, you may recall burst into tears on national television just thinking about how much he loves his country, nonetheless praised the Texans behind him who cheered raucously when Van Susteren referred to Texas Governor Rick Perry's recent statement that Texas might have to secede. “They just think Texas does America best,” Beck said jovially about the secessionist-supporting crowd. With video.

Standing in front of the Alamo, Beck said, “This is the place – everybody's always heard, you know, 'Draw a line in the sand' – this is where it happened. They drew a line in the sand and said 'Enough is enough.'”

Beck later told Van Susteren, “Texans understand a republic better than anybody else in the country.” Wild cheers erupted behind him.

At that point, Van Susteren brought up Governor Rick Perry's statement earlier in the day, after speaking at that same protest, in which he suggested to reporters that Texas might have to secede. “Governor Perry has some pretty harsh words for the federal government right now,” she said. Another wild cheer broke out at those words.

Beck responded by saying he had talked to the governor and while he didn't know how popular Perry is (another big cheer), “His words rang true to an awful lot of people, not just in Texas, but I think a lot of people all around the country.” Speaking figuratively to the federal government, Beck said, “You need to back off!”

That brought on another burst of loud approval.

“I don't want to be too dramatic,” Van Susteren said, “but it almost seems like Texas is looking to secede from the rest of the nation.” Now there were cheers, applause and banner-waving.”

Beck didn't disagree. He asked the cameras to get a shot of a large banner of the Texas flag with the words,
“Texas Independence” on it. That prompted what were probably the loudest, longest cheers yet.

Bragging about how well he understands Texas (because he lived there for four years), Beck said, “These people love America (more cheers). They just think Texas does America best.”
The crowd erupted into a “USA!” chant.

Categories: Ellen Elaborates, On the Record w/Greta van Susteren, Radical Right
Previous Entry: O'Reilly Says Fox Only Aggressively “Covered” the Tea Party Protest (Like Real Journalists), reported by Ellen
Next Entry: No Surprise: FOX News Breaks Its Promise To Deliver Fair And Balanced Coverage Of Tea Party Protests, reported by Ellen

Let The Sun Shine In......

Glenn Becks Slide Into Insanity

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Good Odds that Rupert Murdoch Will be Responsible for the Next Timothy McVeigh or Assassination Attempt

The Constitution guarantees free speech. It does not guarantee huge megaphones to people who incite hatred and/violence against elected officials, judges or ordinary citizens.

If terrorist events or assassinations occur as a result of their blabbering on our airwaves, these people should be held responsible and, trust me, they will be.

by Mark Karlin (Buzzflash)

Yes, with the civil war talk on the program of the recently acquired FOX News demagogue, Glenn Beck, inflammatory talk by Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh's nativist rants that equate Obama to something akin to an amalgamation of Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler, the right-wing media is stirring up the dangerous angry white male resentment to a dangerous frenzied pitch.

And we all know where that ended up with Timothy McVeigh and the militia movement of the '90s, which was enabled by the right-wing media barons -- such as Rupert Murdoch -- to create a literal armed militia movement against the government of the United States.

Call it treasonous, call it demagoguery, call it treachery: it is what comes down the pike when the wealthy Democratic elites are more content to fund organizations that criticize the apocalyptic, brown-shirted Murdoch media barons rather than buying up media and delivering an alternative message that emphasizes loyalty to the truth, Constitution and democracy.

Sure, we love Media Matters, but they are just a fly on a donkey's butt as far as Rupert Murdoch and the gang are concerned. Media Matters will get an occasional correction of factual errors -- if they pull out all their guns for one, but it's too little a compensation for the energy put into the effort. And the people who take in the corporate media remember the misleading assertion, not the rare convoluted retraction.

The reality is that the only thing that matters in media is owning it. Murdoch knows that and couldn't give a horse's fart for what Media Matters has to say, nor does CBS which just hired a Democratic-hating Republican stalwart as their senior communications executive.

Nor do any of the mainstream corporate media: including radio, television and print. They will just keep on doing what they are doing because they own it and they know what they want: an oligarchy.

The troops for this formidable army of images, mistruths, and emotional manipulation are the angry white males, the guys who have felt displaced by minorities and women and immigrants ever since the Civil Rights and Feminist upheaval began in the '60s.

And these displaced white guys are armed to the teeth, courtesy of the NRA and the senators and representatives who lie down like doormats for the gun lobby in Congress.

And bristling with guns -- including the .50 caliber sniper rifle that is legal in all but California -- they feel enabled and patriotic in rising up against the legitimate Constitutional government of the United States.

As rabid as Hannity and Beck and Limbaugh may seem, their ratings have actually gone up since Obama's election. The white male who has been shafted by the wealthy elite, pick-pocketed and left in humiliation, falls prey yet again to the siren song of the Murdoch/Ailes stable of Goebbels disciples and their cohorts such as Limbaugh and Savage.

This is no exaggeration. Glenn Greenwald discusses it as do the superlative FOX trackers at FOX Newshounds.

And its impact is seen drilling down to discussions on Sean Hannity's website of armed rebellion, military coup, and secession.

Those Obama supporters who think I am being hyperbolic have a short sense of history. This is what we saw in the Clinton administration that led to the domestic terrorist Oklahoma bombing and trumped up impeachment.

And before the right-wing media was as consolidated as it is today, we saw our liberal leaders gunned down one by one in the '60s, resutling in the election of Richard Nixon -- and the beginning of the well-funded corporate mainstream media consolidation owned by people beholden only to the oligarchy, not the American public.

Yes, there are exceptions, but they are few in number, far too few.

And Murdoch may do his own non-apology about his New York Post's thinly veiled racist incitement cartoon of two white police officers shooting a chimp representing -- in full bigoted Murdoch fashion -- Obama.

But when the armed angry white males decide to act because of the Murdoch/Limbaugh et al. incitement to rise up ringing in their ears, the blood will be on the hands of Rupert and his fellow right-wing corporate media barons -- and he won't be sorry for it.

He'll only feel one thing: Mission accomplished.

Let The Sun Shine In......