Month: September 2009

Leader of Anti-Govt. Group Funding Glenn Beck’s 9/12 March Is a Christ-Denying Atheist

Jon Ponder

NARLO Video: The Coming Civil War, apparently written and narrated by Ron Ewart, NARLO’s president. (Partial transcript below.)

art-teabagger-march NARLO, the National Organization of Rural Landowners, a Bronze sponsor of the Tea Baggers’ “9/12” march on Washington today, is, among other things, the producer of a not-ready-for-cable-access propaganda video titled, “The Coming Civil War.”

In the video, which was apparently written and narrated by Ron Ewart, the president of NARLO — a genuine Birther, Deather and Tenther — viewers are asked a series of questions so misleading and contrived that they would be laughable if there weren’t so many hapless fools out there who accept this nonsense as fact. Just try to count the false statements and flawed assumptions in this brief sampling:

How do you like paying for education, health care, housing and safety-net benefits for illegal aliens that are streaming into America by the millions? …

How do you like your tax dollars being used in foreign aid, that is given to dictators, despots and other cretins who use our money for their own enrichment and trickle only a few of our dollars to their “subjects?” …

How do you like government telling you what to eat, what to wear, where to live, where to work, what to drive, or being forced to not drive at all and paying for government mega-projects that always come with huge cost overruns, where they have to go back to the taxpayer for more money to finish the project?…

How do you like your federal government sticking their fingers into local public schools and mandating, with federal law, socialism, radical environmentalism, multi-culturalism and the one-world-order being taught to your children in those schools?

So here’s a question that is actually based reality: How do you think the 9/12 Tea Baggers descending on Washington today — these red-meat American Christian patriots — would like it if they knew that one of the march’s sponsoring organizations is headed by an avowed atheist?

Writing for the site ethicalatheist.com, NARLO’s Ron Ewart published an article in which he voices his disbelief in religion — saying about Jesus Christ: “[Only] one person has supposedly returned from Heaven and the evidence for such an extraordinary event is only hearsay and very old.” Elsewhere, Ewart writes, “I admit I am either an agnostic or an atheist.”

The 9/12 march is the brainchild, so to speak, of Glenn Beck, the racist talk-show host, who also happens to be a Mormon. Given Beck’s religion — which Mike Huckabee, the ordained Southern Baptist preacher called satanic — it would probably be interesting to fundamentalist Tea Baggers that Beck chose NARLO, an atheistic organization, as a sponsor for the march.

Of course, we’ll never know whether Tea Baggers like this or not, because they have been trained to only receive information from right-wing propaganda outlets like Fox and hate radio — and you can bet Fox and the hate-talkers will never utter a peep about the 9/12 sponsor’s godlessness.

We first heard about NARLO on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show, when Maddow pointed out that in Ewart’s propaganda video, “The Coming Civil War,” he calls for a violent overthrow of the United States.

Here’s what he says at the end of propaganda piece:

Although we are being civil now, our civilty is straining at the leash. After civility and calls for redress of grievances that aren’t answered comes massive protests and the potential break-down of civil order.

After massive protests will come the secession of states. After the secession of states will come the pitchforks. And after the pitchforks will come the guns. After the guns will come civil war or outright revolution.

We have been warned.

Transcript of “The Coming Civil War”

[…]

Flashback Sept. 2005: Glenn Beck Can’t Decide Who He Hates More – Victims of 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina

Jon Ponder

Transcript:

BECK: Let me be real honest with you. I don’t think anybody on talk radio — I don’t think anybody in their right mind is going to say this out loud — but I wonder if I’m the only one that feels this way. Yesterday, when I saw the ATM cards being handed out, the $2,000 ATM cards, and they were being handed out at the Astrodome. And they actually had to close the Astrodome and seal it off for a while because there was a near-riot trying to get to these ATM cards. My first thought was, it’s not like they’re going to run out of the $2,000 ATM cards. You can wait! You know, stand in line. Maybe it’s because I’m the kind of guy, when I go to a buffet, I either have to be first in line, or I’m the very last. Because I know there’s going to be extra food, and I just won’t stand in the line. I’ll wait until all the suckers go get their food, and then I’ll go get mine. Or if I’m really hungry, I hate to admit this — and really, I don’t even have to be really hungry. If I’m really being a pig, I will kind of, like, hang out around the buffet table before the line is — you know, chat with people right around the table: “Oh, they just opened the line! Let’s go!” And then you’re first in line.

When you are rioting for these tickets, or these ATM cards, the second thing that came to mind was — and this is horrible to say, and I wonder if I’m alone in this — you know it took me about a year to start hating the 9-11 victims’ families? Took me about a year. And I had such compassion for them, and I really wanted to help them, and I was behind, you know, “Let’s give them money, let’s get this started.” All of this stuff. And I really didn’t — of the 3,000 victims’ families, I don’t hate all of them. Probably about 10 of them. And 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. And, again, it’s only about 10.

But the second thought I had when I saw these people and they had to shut down the Astrodome and lock it down, I thought: I didn’t think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims. These guys — you know it’s really sad. We’re not hearing anything about Mississippi. We’re not hearing anything about Alabama. We’re hearing about the victims in New Orleans. This is a 90,000-square-mile disaster site, New Orleans is 181 square miles. A hundred and — 0.2 percent of the disaster area is New Orleans! And that’s all we’re hearing about, are the people in New Orleans. Those are the only ones we’re seeing on television are the scumbags — and again, it’s not all the people in New Orleans. Most of the people in New Orleans got out! It’s just a small percentage of those who were left in New Orleans, or who decided to stay in New Orleans, and they’re getting all the attention. It’s exactly like the 9-11 victims’ families. There’s about 10 of them that are spoiling it for everybody.

Beck Seeking to Quash ‘Parody’ Web Site

Buck Banks

Lawyers for Glenn Beck, who is a Mormon and a wingnut TV blatherer, are seeking to shut down the Web site glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com on grounds the site is defamatory and libelous. This from the guy who characterized President Obama as a racist.

Be that as it may, Ars Technica has an insightful article into the controversy over the site and the origins of the allegation that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990. Not that we are making that allegation here, we’re just asking why Beck has had no comment on the allegation. Reporter Nate Anderson traced the origin of the allegation:

The controversy started a week ago in the Fark forums, where someone picked up on an old Gilbert Gottfried roast of the “comedian” (scare quotes fully intended) Bob Saget. During the roast, Gottfried repeatedly said (watch the video) that Saget had “not raped and killed a girl in 1990.” The Fark forums took the joke about the power of insinuation and applied it to right-wing talk show host Glenn “Obama is a racist” Beck.

One of the Fark readers then took the forum meme to the next level, registering a domain name and launching a web site in order to make a point about talking head TV demagoguery. “Why won’t Glenn Beck deny these allegations?” asks the site. “We’re not accusing Glenn Beck of raping and murdering a young girl in 1990—in fact, we think he didn’t! But we can’t help but wonder, since he has failed to deny these horrible allegations. Why won’t he deny that he raped and killed a young girl in 1990?” At the very bottom of the page was a small text disclaimer saying that the site was satirical.

I spoke to the anonymous owner of the site, who tells Ars that launching it “just felt right”—it flipped the “birther” non-falsifiable conspiracy theories about Obama’s birth and citizenship around and applied the same tactics to one of the biggest talking heads (no pun intended?) on cable news. It’s just “using Beck’s tactics against him” and is a small way of “directing all this frustration” with Beck and others into action.

Hey, I’m all for flipping the birther movement on its pea-brained head, but unfortunately for the anonymous owner of the site, Glenn Beck is a powerful, wealthy person who unfortunately probably has the law on his side in this instance.

Anderson notes in the article that Beck currently is seeking trademark protection for his name:

Beck’s name is in the process of being trademarked in the US. While most of the “goods and services” associated with the name are obvious ones like DVDs and books containing Beck’s special brand of commentary, the mark is also reserved for use on “cups, ice buckets, mugs, non-metal piggy banks, ceramic and porcelain holiday ornaments.” The thought of such an ornament hanging on a Christmas tree …

Happy Xmas!

Olbermann on Rep. Wilson: ‘This Government Cannot Endure Permanently Half-Smart And Half-Stupid’

Jon Ponder

Once again, Keith Olbermann speaks for the 80 percent of Americans who are able to think for themselves — this time about the growing threat presented by the 20 percent who can’t, and who have been brainwashed by Republicans and other agents of corporatism.

Here’s the money shot:

OLBERMANN: This nation can survive a president being disrespected by some nickel-dime congressman from Beaufort; the shame falls onto the shouter and not the one shouted at.

But this nation cannot survive the continued acceptance, the continued endorsement, the continued encouragement, the continued institutionalization… of stupidity I think if Mr. Lincoln were alive he might re-cast his most famous imagery in the light of the truest of our present crises:

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half smart, and half… stupid.

Complete Transcript:

And finally, as promised, a Special Comment about the shout of “You Lie” during the presidential address to the joint session of Congress last night on the matter of health care reform.

The 43rd president of the United States lied the nation into the war, lied 4,343 of his fellow citizens to death in that war, lied about upholding the constitution, and lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction.

He lied about how he reacted to Al-Qaeda before 9/11 and he lied about how he reacted to Al-Qaeda after 9/11.

He lied about getting Bin Laden, and he lied about not getting Bin Laden.

He lied about nation-building in Iraq, lied about the appearance of new buildings **in** the nation **of** Iraq, and lied about embassy buildings in nations like Iraq.

He lied about trailers with mobile weapons labs in them, and he lied about trailers with Cuban prostitutes in them.

He and his administration lied — by the counting of one non-profit group — 532 times about links between Al-Qaeda and Iraq. Only 28 of those were by that President, but he made up for that by lying 231 times about W-M-D.

And yet not once did an elected Democratic official shout out during one of George W. Bush’s speeches and call him a “liar.”

Even when the president was George W. Bush, even when he was assailed from sidelines like mine, even when the lies came down so thick the nation needed a hat… he was still the President and if he didn’t earn any respect, the office he held demanded respect.

More over, that President and his Congressional tools like Congressman Addison Graves “Joe” Wilson of South Carolina insisted not just unquestioned respect for the office; they wanted unanimous lock-step compliance with the man.

And when the blasphemy of mere respectful criticism somehow came anyway — say by, or built on that by, the real Joe Wilson — lord help he who might have made the slightest factual error in that criticism.

Congressman Wilson and his masters and the flying monkeys of right-wing media would pursue the erroneous critic to the ends of their careers, firing hot accusations of moral or intellectual confusion and incompetence at the unbelievers.

And that is the line Congressman Wilson crossed last night when he shouted “you lie” at this President of the United States.

Not the respect line.

The stupid line.

Hey, Mr. Wilson!

“This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill,” you hurriedly said last night as a nation caved in on you, and your own party’s leadership coerced you into saying something. “While I disagree with the President’s statements, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility.”

For the lack of civility, Congressman?

Is that what you think this is about?

Of course your comments were inappropriate and regrettable — you are a Republican trying to de-legitimize the elected president of the United States — that’s all you do, and that’s all you’ve got.

Of course you let your emotions get the best of you. At a figure of $435,296 in campaign donations from the Health Sector, of course your emotions would take over when your gravy train was threatened.

It isn’t about “inappropriate and regrettable,” Sir!

Your comments were inappropriate and regrettable and…. **wrong**!

You got up in front of the world, embarrassed your district, embarrassed your state, embarrassed your party, embarrassed your nation, shouted at the President like he was a referee at a ballgame and you were a drunk in the stands, and you were wrong.

House Bill 3200 specifically says, Sir, in language made precise and binding — in section 246 — under the heading, quote:

“NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS”

Look, Congressman!

All capital letters!

For the benefit of the factually-challenged!

“Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”

You got it wrong!

There is no ambiguity, Sir. There is no disagreement!

The bill says those here illegally will not be covered; yet whether through stupidity or a willful attempt to mislead the gullible, you decided to spend whatever credibility remained to you, on a position in which you are utterly, inarguably, and — in a manner obvious to newborns and the more sophisticated of farm animals — wrong!

You apologize for your lack of civility?

When are you going to apologize for your lack of… being right?

Wrong-Way Wilson.

Whatever it is, it’s congenital.

Wrong-Way Wilson just wrote an op-ed, on August 27th for the Columbia, South Carolina newspaper “The State,” about the non-existent death panels that he and Mrs. Palin saw in their dreams — or something:

“Those who have stood up and shown up to have their voices heard have already made a difference in this debate.”

Perhaps henceforth Mr. Wilson should soft-pedal the “have their voices heard” part.

“…citizens have discovered and brought to light numerous aspects of the health care overhaul (H.R. 3200) that are deeply troubling. These include the end of life counseling program, which has been correctly highlighted by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a program which could lead to seniors being encouraged to seek less care in order to protect the government’s bottom line.”

Perhaps henceforth Mr. Wilson should soft-pedal the Palin Paranoia, since **he** caught enough of it that last night, he made himself look like an uninformed eight-year old screaming at an adult.

“Americans… want and deserve this honest debate.”

Perhaps henceforth Mr. Wilson should remember that the word “honest” is as important as the word “debate.”

The latter without the former is better known as Political Tourette’s Syndrome.

The evidence that Wrong-Way Wilson and reality are strangers goes back much further than last night.

When Congressman Rob Filner said the U-S had helped Saddam Hussein’s chemical and biological weapons, Wilson went nuts.

Worse, he accused Filner of a quote “hatred of America,” and insisted “you shouldn’t say that” and “you should retract it” and “you know it is not true.”

It was true.

It had been confirmed by the Commerce Department… in 1994.

Wrong-Way Wilson was… wrong.

A year later, when it was asserted that Senator Strom Thurmond from Wrong-Way’s home state had fathered a daughter with a black woman, Mr. Wilson called the assertion a quote “smear on the image” of Senator Thurmond.

This was after Senator Thurmond’s family had acknowledged not just paternity, but the fact that the Senator had maintained a secret relationship with his daughter, and provided her money, for decades.

**After** this was admitted, Congressman Wilson considered references to it a “smear” and said Thurmond’s daughter should have kept it to herself.

Coincidence, of course, Wrong-Way, that it would be **you** who would consider the confirmed, acknowledged bi-racial child of Strom Thurmond as a “smear”…

And then it would again be you who — in the middle of a festival of blind racial rage dressed up as a health care debate — would shout out, “you lie” at a bi-racial President of the United States as he addressed Congress.

And just a coincidence that you’re a member of a radicalized, insurrection-glorifying group, accused of harboring white supremacists, called “Sons Of Confederate Veterans.”

—

Back to **this** incident. You have swallowed some of the Kool-Aid you mix up for those damn fools who believe you, Congressman.

You sounded as pathetic as one of those poor souls, stampeded by corporate funding from the insurance and health care industries, who shout out nonsense at those demonstrations of willful stupidity that have been mislabeled “Town Halls”… these places where a citizen’s life is reduced to acting out that ridiculous maxim, if you’re going to be wrong, be wrong at the top of your voice.

But Congressman — you’re not supposed to be a Town Hall panicker, you’re not supposed to be a Rube defending the efficacy of the Snake Oil, you are a Congressman — and still you were wrong at the top of your voice!

Town Halls, Death Panels, Oligarhys, a multi-racial president who is accused of hating half his own ancestry, neuroses about communist artwork, the idea that fascism and socialism aren’t mutually exclusive, grass-roots protests bought and paid for by lobbyists and corporations, scared seniors terrified enough to turn to insurance companies for protection against reformers who want to increase their coverage and cut their rates, Birchers, Birthers, Deathers, the voices in Michele Bachmann’s head, the Republican rebuttal to the President of the United States given by a guy who thought he could become “Lord Boustany” by paying a couple of English con men…

And now to top off this pile of stupidity: Congressman Wrong-Way Wilson, who — when a President publicly, and ostentatiously, gave credit for part of his health care reform proposal to the very Republican he swamped in the election last year — Wrong-Way Wilson… followed that bi-partisan gesture, by shouting “you lie” as soon as he heard the truth.

It is… this week, evident… that the greatest threat to the nation… is not terrorism… nor the economy… nor H1/N1… nor even bad health care.

It is rank, willful stupidity.

When did we come to extol stupidity ahead of information, and rely on voo-doo, superstition, and prejudice ahead of education?

How many Republicans believe in Death Panels… and Brownies and Elves?

When did we start to listen to — to elect — the impregnably dense?
I was almost too fearful of using the word “impregnably” because of the prospect that Governor Palin would go after me the way she went after Letterman.

—

The time has come to rise up and take this country back, to again make it safe… for people who actually completed the seventh grade.
The crime of Wrong-Way Wilson was not reflected in his emotions, nor his disagreement, nor his inappropriate conduct, nor in his incivility. It was in his prideful wrong-ness.

There are many vague portions of this bill, but section 246 says it plain: “NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS.”

I defend Congressman Wilson’s right to incivility. A little incivility six years ago might have stopped the Iraq war. He can shout anything he wants, at anybody he wants, in any circumstances he wants.

Providing that he is willing to suffer the consequences of his actions, I am willing to suffer him.

This nation can survive a president being disrespected by some nickel-dime congressman from Beaufort; the shame falls onto the shouter and not the one shouted at.

But this nation cannot survive the continued acceptance, the continued endorsement, the continued encouragement, the continued institutionalization… of stupidity I think if Mr. Lincoln were alive he might re-cast his most famous imagery in the light of the truest of our present crises:

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half smart, and half… stupid.

Section 246 is written expressly: there will be no health care funding for those who are here illegally; that there will be no mechanism created to establish such funding.

I fear Section 247 will have to be rewritten expressly: so that there will be a mechanism created to establish… Stupid Panels.

Because Joe Wilson is Your Pre-Existing Condition

Trish

joewilson-preexisting
I don’t know how long Rep. Joe Wilson (R-Teabagland) will be the butt of our jokes, so get Joe Wilson Is Your Preexisting Condition.com while it’s hot.

Among our favorites:

  • Joe Wilson yells Free Bird at concerts
  • Joe Wilson doesn’t respect the constitution of your United States
  • Joe Wilson woke up your baby after you just got it to sleep
  • Joe Wilson yells while adults are talking
  • Joe Wilson thinks you’re too stupid to actually read the bill

There are many more. See for yourself.

Taped Comments More NSFW Than ‘Spanking’ Forced GOP ‘Family Values’ Pol to Step Down

Jon Ponder

Mike Duvall
Mike Duvall
Just when it appeared that the fortunes of the California Republican Party had scraped bottom — a decline in GOP voter registrations has reduced it to third in the state behind Democrats and independents, and last November Republicans actually lost a few seats in the legislature, even though Prop 8, a nationally publicized anti-gay initiative, won — now Mike Duvall, a married assemblyman from Orange County who was rated by a morals-policing organization with a 100 percent voting record on “family values” issues, has been caught on a live microphone bragging about the sex he’s been having with two women, at least one of whom was allegedly an energy company lobbyist with business before the Utilities & Commerce committee on which Duvall served as vice chairman.

Duvall resigned his seat within hours after the controversy was reported on cable news nationwide.

But while the corporate media has referenced Duvall’s claim that he spanked one of his mistresses, Duvall’s comments were much more vivid and are definitely not safe for work:

“She wears little eye-patch underwear. So, the other day she came here with her underwear, Thursday. And so, we had made love Wednesday — a lot! And so she’ll, she’s all, ‘I am going up and down the stairs, and you’re dripping out of me!’ So messy! … So, I am getting into spanking her. Yeah, I like it. I like spanking her. She goes, ‘I know you like spanking me.’ I said, ‘Yeah! Because you’re such a bad girl!’ …

And so her birthday was Monday. I was 54 on June 14, so for a month, she was 19 years younger than me. I said, ‘Now, you’re getting old. I am going to have to trade you in.’ And she goes, ‘[I’m] 36.’ She is 18 years younger than me. And so I keep? teasing her, and she goes, ‘I know you French men. You divide your age by two and add seven, and if you’re older than that, you dump us.'”

But he can’t quite remember his other girlfriend’s name:

“Oh, yeah, Sher, Shar, Shar,” Duvall said. “Oh, she is hot! I talked to her yesterday. She goes, ‘So are we finished?’ I go, ‘No, we’re not finished.’ I go, ‘You know about the other one [Barsuglia], but she doesn’t know about you!’”

(Note to Duvall’s wife, Cher-Shar and other possible mistresses: he engages in unprotected sex.)

The O.C. Weekly did a little research and discovered that Heidi DeJong Barsuglia, a lobbyist for Sempra Energy, turned 36 years old on Monday, July 6:

In April — two months after Duvall became vice chairman of the Utilities & Commerce committee — privately owned California utility giant Sempra Energy hired Barsuglia as one of its top lobbyists, according to Secretary of State records.

Barsuglia, who has a law degree and once worked as a speechwriter for Governor Pete Wilson, had previously worked at the California Retailers Association (CRA). During 25 months of work at CRA, she reported that she incurred no reportable lobbying expenses. She joined Sempra after the departure of another lobbyist: David Hayes, who was named deputy director of the Interior Department by President Barack Obama.

The San Diego-based utility conglomerate isn’t shy about lobbying lawmakers for favorable treatment. This session, they gave Duvall $1,500 in campaign contributions. In May, the assemblyman officially adopted the company’s negative view on Assembly Bill 64, which proposes increasing the percentage of electricity the utilities must procure from environmentally sensitive sources.

So exactly how big a hypocrite is Mike Duvall?

In 2008, Duvall blasted efforts to condone gay marriage. Legislatively, he has proposed bills to aid the insurance industry and government contractors feeding off the state’s massive transportation kitty. He has offered a law to alter the First Amendment rights of Americans by banning anti-war activists from putting the names of fallen soldiers on T-shirts with messages such as “Bush lied” on the front and “They died” on the back; he observed that the dead soldiers fought to protect freedom, and “opportunists” should not be allowed to “exploit” the sacrifices with political messages opposing war.

As noted, he has received a 100 percent rating for his “family values” voting record from the Capitol Resource Institute, an anti-gay lobbying group based in Sacramento.

Duvall lives in the northern Orange County exurb Yorba Linda, where he served on the city council and as mayor. In December, Duvall created a stir back home during a visit to the city council when a live microphone caught him saying, “I don’t know what to tell you, but I sure got all kinds of fucking phone calls about it.”

Finally — at the risk of channeling our inner “Wayne’s World” — can’t help pointing out in the context of this story that the current mayor of Duvall’s hometown is named Mark Schwing.