Carol Browner Out as Obama's Climate Czar

It's been over a year since the IPCC e-mail scandal, and it's been downhill ever since for the socialist climate scaremongers. And what better way to chalk this up than the early resignation of White House Climate Czar Carol Browner? At New York Times, "Director of Policy on Climate Will Leave, Her Goal Unmet":

WASHINGTON — Carol M. Browner, the White House coordinator for energy and climate change policy, will leave the administration shortly, officials confirmed Monday night. Her departure signals at least a temporary slowing of the ambitious environmental goals of President Obama’s first two years in the face of new Republican strength in Congress.

Ms. Browner, a former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, was charged with directing the administration’s effort to enact comprehensive legislation to reduce emissions of climate-altering gases and moving the country away from a dependence on dirty-burning fossil fuels. That effort foundered in Congress last year, and Mr. Obama has acknowledged that no major climate change legislation is likely to pass in the next two years.

No decision has been made on whether she would be replaced or if the position would simply disappear, a White House official said.

“She will stay on as long as necessary to ensure an orderly transition,” a White House official said. “Carol is confident that the mission of her office will remain critical to the president.”

News of her departure was first reported by Politico.

The Politco's piece is here: "Carol Browner to Leave White House."

And continuing with my coverage of Glenn Beck, enjoy the clip above, which skewers Browner's totalitarian climate agenda.

Glenn Beck – Jan 21, 2011

A follow-up to "Full Transcript for Glenn Beck's 'Shoot Them in the Head' Comments."

I was watching Beck's broadcast while working on the post. He's been on Fox two years, and the introduction reminded me of the program in early 2009, just after Obama took power. I nice flashback and update:

Full Transcript for Glenn Beck's 'Shoot Them in the Head' Comments

Part of the initial explanation for the left's jumping the gun (metaphor) on the news of the Tucson shooting is that the Democrat-Socialists have been so thoroughly repudiated at the polls. Daniel Henninger argued at the Wall Street Journal that last November "was no ordinary election. What voters did has the potential to change the content and direction of the U.S. political system, possibly for a generation."

This reality will be the driving fact of life in politics over the next couple of years, and as William Jacobson pointed out --- and Rush Limbaugh reiterated on the air --- we now have a foretaste of the kinds of progressive delegitimation campaigns that will be deployed for Obama's reelection efforts. And recall, a majority of Democrats continue to believe that Sarah Palin was at least partially responsible for the shooting. So it pays to remember that the left is working on a program of lies, disinformation, and propaganda.

The latest example is the next iteration of the left's campaign to destroy Glenn Beck. Patterico decimated Charles Johnson's anti-Beck smears yesterday, "No, Charles Johnson, Glenn Beck Did Not Tell His Viewers to Shoot Anyone in the Head." But the story's still trending at Memeorandum. And even though the full transcript proves that Beck's segment was pure commentary on the left's neo-communism --- and the buyer's remorse of the Democrats' progressive base --- dishonest leftist bloggers continue to allege that right-wing rhetoric is causing outbreaks of violence. But a simple perusal of the transcript reveals perfectly that Beck was warning elected Democrats that the violent progressive proletariat had them in the crosshairs:

I want to warn you now, Democrats, your party is over. And I don't mean — all tea parties and Republicans are going to beat you in November. I mean the Democrats, as we used to know them, the Democrats that were in my family growing up, are over.

I'm going to show you the civil war, the video evidence in the civil war in the Democratic Party that's happening right now. And no one in the media is exposing it. And it is dangerous, what is happening.

The radicals have infected the party. They have been brought in by politicians who don't really care about anything. They just want to win. They've been tolerating the revolutionaries — the Democrats have.

But more importantly, the revolutionaries have been tolerating those politicians. For the moment, the radical fringe of the party is now. Just today, Van Jones was speaking at America's Future Now conference.

He is speaking to a group of progressives. I find this extraordinarily disturbing, because I believe this man is sending a message. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAN JONES, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ADVISER FOR GREEN JOBS: I think that when we look back to the history of the Obama administration and look back at the history of our progressive movement, that this week will mark a historic inflection point when progressives decided to be progressive again in this country. I think something shifted this week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: Yes, it has. It has. This is an ominous statement coming from a revolutionary. Please go to GlennBeck.com and look up "STORM: Reclaiming Revolution." This is his organization. He is in this. From a revolutionary.

I'm sorry but when did the Obama administration not be progressive? Excuse me? They were normal? We have seen progressives. We haven't seen the actual spooky progressives yet. I think you are about to. Something has changed this week. He's right.

But what the politicians don't understand, the ones who have co-opted these revolutionaries and brought them in the process, is they are dangerous. Why? Why? Well, because a lot of them have called for violent revolution in the past and they never distanced themselves from it.

You cannot co-opt and lie to people who believe in something. Why is Ahmadinejad dangerous? Well, because he says he wants to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth, OK? The press and the politicians — "Oh, he's just saying that."

Why do they say that? Because nobody in the press and nobody in Washington actually believes a damn thing, except their own image. That's it. This man is a twelver. Look it up. Do you know what it is? It's a revolutionary so dangerous that the Ayatollah Khomeini banned twelvers.

OK. Here's the Ayatollah Khomeini, who is a revolutionary — he says stay away from these guys. They're spooky. He didn't co-opt them because he understood they believed in the 12th Imam coming back, and the way to bring the 12th Imam back is wash the world in blood.

There are politicians like the Ayatollah Khomeini who will do revolution for power. And then there are people like this who are mad men. I never thought I'd say we better learn something from the Ayatollah Khomeini, but here it is.

The media and the politician have all of this wrong. In every single walk of life — you want to know why TV doesn't reflect you? You want to know why Washington doesn't reflect you? Because they don't understand, from the radical revolutionaries to the Islamic extremists — and yes, DOJ, they do exist — to the Tea Party movements.

Just because you in Washington and you who are so out of touch with life in the media, just because you don't believe in anything doesn't mean nobody else does. We do. You know why you're confused by this show? It's because I believe in something. You don't.

Tea parties believe in small government. We believe in returning to the principles of our Founding Fathers. We respect them. We revere them. Shoot me in the head before I stop talking about the Founders. Shoot me in the head if you try to change our government.

I will stand against you and so will millions of others. We believe in something. You in the media and most in Washington don't. The radicals that you and Washington have co-opted and brought in wearing sheep's clothing — change the pose. You will get the ends.

You've been using them? They believe in communism. They believe and have called for a revolution. You're going to have to shoot them in the head. But warning, they may shoot you.

They are dangerous because they believe. Karl Marx is their George Washington. You will never change their mind. And if they feel you have lied to them — they're revolutionaries. Nancy Pelosi, those are the people you should be worried about.

Here is my advice when you're dealing with people who believe in something that strongly — you take them seriously. You listen to their words and you believe that they will follow up with what they say.

Didn't we learn that lesson from Usama bin Laden? I heard his warning in 1998. I said on the air at the time, listen to him. We didn't listen. We didn't listen to the revolutionaries in Germany, the revolutionaries in Russia or Venezuela or Cuba — no, no, no. They all have one thing in common. They have all called for revolution.

They want to overthrow our entire system of government, and their words say it. Why won't you believe it?

The passage at the video is highlighted in bold italics at the fifth paragraph from the end of the blockquote.

Glenn Beck isn't inciting violence. He's warning, quite powerfully, of the growing and potentially violent unrest that's brewing at among the announced revolutionaries of the progressive base.

'There's nothing at Fox Nation about menthols, drugs, or mothafucka's. Just a headline about gangsta rap...'

That's Repsac3 (banned at American Power, although he continues to harass this blog in the comments), calling me a racist and a liar. Yeah. That's all they got --- again!

And no, despite Repsac3's protests, not to mention Roy Edroso's, the photoshop is not RAAAAACIST. It's hilarious. And yes, I'm paraphrasing Fox Nation, despite Reppy's claim that there's "nothing at Fox Nation ..." Blah. Blah. For example:

Meanwhile, this excerpt has quickly made its way to one of the GOP's terror dungeons, Fox Nation, which posts it under the headline, "President of the United States Loves Gangsta Rap." It makes for a lively discussion in the comments, with what we'd imagine to be constant scrubbing from moderators. Here's "eagletimberwolf," however.

SINCE HE AIN'T IN THE ALOHA STATE ANYMORE, HE HAD TO TRADE IN THE COOL BREEZE, TASTY WAVES, AND FATTY BLUNTS FOR MENTHOL CIGARETTES, A CRACK PIPE AND GANGSTA RAP TO GET THROUGH THE HEAVY DAYS. HOPE HIS GIRLS DON'T TURN INTO RUMP SHAKIN' BACKUP DANCERS...

And personally, I don't care if these commie freaks wanna holla RAAAAACISM!! and LIAR!! It's paraphrased. Funny too. Now blow chunks down your fail commie stinkhole.

'Imaginary Commies' at 'One Nation' Rally

That's right. Because it's all just some crazed right-wing propaganda scam. Just ask Tintin, the blogging asshat at Sadly No!

"Because we do in fact hate commies, at least real commies, not the imaginary commies that community college Assistant Associate Professor Douglas sees lurking behind every potted plant."

Must have been a gazillion potted plants on the Washington Mall last weekend. Because you know, there's just no socialism any more, right?

Image via People's Cube, "Has One Nation Exposed Our Socialist Agenda?"

RELATED: "Leftist and Media Double-Standards on Socialist 'One Nation' Rally Reporting."

Leftist and Media Double-Standards on Socialist 'One Nation' Rally Reporting

It's nothing new, of course, but the media's campaign to downplay the left's communist-dominated "One Nation" protest yesterday needs to be highlighted nevertheless.

The first thing to notice is this photograph on crowd size comparisons from "Restoring Honor" and "One Nation" (via Old Retired Petty Officer).

Crowd estimates have an "outsized" importance when the press and leftist blogs seek to minimize and ridicule the tea parties. But as soon as Democrat-Socialists march on D.C., wild claims of "double" the size of the Glenn Beck rally get wide play. Tom Maguire reports on the widely divergent crowd-size estimates, as well as systematic efforts to withhold on-the-ground reports (MSNBC edited out AP's first-hand report indicating that "Saturday's crowds were less dense and didn't reach as far to the edges as they did during Beck's rally"). And while some lefty blogs continue to pump up bogus "larger" crowd numbers, some have scaled back their claims as the facts have become available. The Political Carnival, which posted two entries yesterday boasting bigger numbers for "One Nation," has now issued a hilarious retraction, asking "Does Size Matter?" Well obviously it did yesterday, but now we have this: "While it is a visual indicator of enthusiasm and support, the size of a crowd isn’t as important as the content, message, and tone of the event."

Even more disturbing are the reports from the major newspapers. Under the guise of "objectivity," the main outlets have played up the "challenge to the tea parties" and the enthusiasm of "liberal" constituencies of the Democrat Party. At the New York Times, for example, the headline reads: "Liberal Groups Rally, Challenging Tea Party." The notion that today's Democrat Party is a "liberal" party is one of the biggest lies the press perpetuates in contemporary political reporting. As so many bloggers have reported, yesterday's event marked a major collaborative effort by the left's neo-communist institutions and the mainstream elements of Democrat organizations. For example, check Marooned in Marin's first-hand report, "'One Nation' (Of Commies, Unions, & Other Leftist Extremists)...Trashing The Mall." And see especially, Looking at the Left, "Democrats, Union Workers, and Communists Rally Together in Washington":

The lines between the Democratic Party, labor unions, socialist and communist organizations, were blurred at the One Nation Working Together rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday. It was organized by One Nation Working Together, which is headed by the cream of the Democratic Party.

National Campaign Manager of One Nation Working Together, Leah Daughtry, was CEO and top organizer of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver Colorado where Barack Obama was nominated to be the parties candidate for president. Many of the top organizers have been Democratic candidates for office, or work for Obama for America.

The page on the National Education Association’s website inviting its members to travel to the rally quotes its president: “NEA is proud to be standing with our brothers and sisters in the labor and social justice movement …”

And some pictures of communist groups from the post:

Across the web, since yesterday morning, bloggers have been posting untold numbers of images of every kind of "progressive" activist group under the sun. The event was a union-astroturfed neo-communist protest-a-palooza.

But readers opening the old dead-tree newspapers this morning weren't getting the full picture. A particularly egregious example is from my own Los Angeles Times, which is still delivered to my driveway each morning (for nostalgia purposes nowadays, more than anything else). Looking at the front page of the paper readers will notice the picture at bottom of flag-waving protesters, with a caption that reads: "IN WASHINGTON: Participants in the 'One Nation' march gather at the Lincoln Memorial." The apple pie imagery continues at Page A10, where we see the second photograph below with the two women holding Barack Obama signs. The caption reads: "ON A MISSION: Thousands, including labor and civil rights activists, gathered for the 'One Nation Working Together' rally." The Times' article is here. Reading the report there is no mention of the deep bench of neo-communist organizations that organized and attended the rally. The discussion is on the event's goal of energizing "liberal" voters for the November elections. Toward the end we hear from some of the "progressives" who were appalled at the tea parties and the people "riding the anti-Obama train." Even more interesting to me is that not only does the Los Angeles Times completely whitewash any signs of the event's neo-communist penetration, but when it comes to discussing the upcoming congressional races, the "extremists" in the tea party movement get front-page treatment. Notice at the picture below, on the left of the newspaper, where we see the article, "Making An Issue of GOP Words." The heading at the Times' website puts it more bluntly: "Democrats Use Oddball Remarks Against GOP Rivals." And here's this from the report:

An odd assortment of issues, including witchcraft and the president's religion, have proved distracting as candidates head into the heated final stretch of the general election campaign.

But it's not merely a case of media nitpicking or YouTube moments. In some cases, the side issues have begun to affect races.

The situation is in large part a result of a Democratic strategy aimed at changing the conversation from voters' frustration with Democratic leaders in Washington to a portrayal of tea party Republicans as extremist. The tactic was one of the few available to Democrats saddled with a national political climate decidedly turned against them and a stubbornly slow economic recovery.

The remainder of the article cherry-picks obscure statements by candidates, some over a decade old, in a clear effort to bolster the desperate last-gasp campaign ploy of Democrat hopefuls. It's all pretty pathetic. But as I've reported at this blog many times, Americans are denied genuine news from today's MFM establishment. The savior of the republic is found in the legions of citizen-journalists who work hard to get the facts out there.

Progressives March on Washington for 'One Nation Working Together' — Thousands Rally in Support of Socialist Agenda — UPDATE!! Crowd Size Estimates!

UPDATE: Below is a photo from AP's Philip Elliott. And just a few minutes ago he tweeted, "That took no time at all. Mall is empty" (a little after 4:30pm EST):

The Political Carnival is reporting on crowd size (with no numbers, oddly): "VIDEO: One Nation rally crowd size announcement," and "PhotOh! One Nation: “Someone tell Beck there are more people here than” at his rally."

Officals no longer provide offical numbers, but by the looks of AP's photo above, as well as those at The Political Carnival, it seems apparent that the crowd density on August 28th, for Glenn Beck's rally, was much higher. And recall the aerial photo below, which should silence all doubters. But folks will see what they want to see. Warner Todd Huston writes on this, in any case: "Lefty Rally at Lincoln Memorial Gets Glad Handed By Old Media, But Event a Bust."

**********

Checking the homepage we find the historic image of the 1963 March on Washington:

The actual numbers of people attending as of 11:00am EST don't bode well for a comparable turnout to the August 28th "Restoring Honor" rally. For example, CNN reports, "Commentator Glenn Beck drew tens of thousands Tea Party activists to the Lincoln Memorial for his revival-style rally August 28." Also at Fox News, "Invoking Tea Party Anger, Thousands Rally in D.C. in Support of Dems' Agenda."

It's so pathetic that press outlets are publishing stories with tea party pictures from earlier events, "C-SPAN Uses Tea Party Rally Crowd Shot for Leftist “One Nation” Rally Article":

CSPAN is airing the leftist “One Socialist Nation” rally today in Washington DC. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a good crowd shot of the turnout… So they used a photo from a Glenn Beck tea party rally.

According to MSNBC: " Thousands gather for 'One Nation' rally in D.C." And here's another pic from Politico, with a report:

Participants said they hoped Saturday’s event would unify a broad array of progressives — union leaders, environmentalists, antiwar protesters, and civil-rights and gay-rights activists — behind a common cause exactly one month before the Nov. 2 election.

“It seems that the Democrats need to get their message out. It seems they don’t do that effectively and you have chaos over here with tea bag people getting all the press,” said Kristen Childress of Charleston, W.Va., who was attending with her partner. “What is the Democratic message? What is it?

And no surprise, since the left's commie-progressives are sponsoring the rally, and American's are rejecting this redistribution and statism in record numbers (bottom two photos via Tania Gail):

See Kyle-Anne Shiver, "The Other America Marches on Washington":

Yes, folks, there are two Americas: the authentic America of community builders and the other America, made up of socialist group-thinkers, moochers, and no-accounts, many of them living off government grants or welfare checks.

The tension between these two Americas has been a constant tug-of-war for nearly a hundred years, since our premier socialist-progressive president, Woodrow Wilson, bore the first rotten fruits of liberal fascism on our shores.

With the election of the first socialist-progressive president in decades, the political tension between the two Americas has reached fever pitch. Independent voters, who were lulled like sheep into the lion's den by Barack Obama's conciliatory, I’ll-make-it-all-better rhetoric, have been expressing buyer's remorse for many long months and now yell "Change it back!" as loudly as they shouted "Yes we can!" less than two short years ago.

Obama lied; hope died. And all over the land, Obama's Intolerable Acts are causing authentic America to rise to her feet in surly indignation. Americans are putting their hope back in God, where it belongs, and vowing to cut big government back down to its constitutionally mandated size.

Authentic Americans -- those patriots with a profound respect for our U.S. Constitution and do-it-yourself ingenuity, the Americans who prefer liberty to nanny-state-provided luxury -- held a march on Washington on August 28. The event drew more than 300,000 people. True to their good citizenship, these authentic Americans honored the sacrifices of our forebears in speech and song and afterward left the whole scene immaculate.

This Saturday, October 2, the other America is set to hold its counter-rally, hoping to inspire their like-minded socialist group-thinkers, moochers, and no-accounts to vote a month from now so that they can continue their mad-dog raiding of the producers' profits and tighten the big-government stranglehold on authentic America.

The other America is calling October 2 the "One Nation Rally." Now, there's a real side-buster. They represent the one nation whose every roof and meal are subsidized by the authentic America. They should have held this demand-o-rama on May 5 in solidarity with their fellow socialist travelers around the world.

Who knows how many people will show up, but every far-left community agitating group is on board and is sure to bus in as many warm bodies as they all can find. Knowing the left's penchant for agitprop, we might expect hundreds of gutter-dwellers dressed up in business attire or lots of white-coated "doctors" or scads of Wiccan witches wearing soccer-mom outfits. Perhaps Barbara Boxer -- who thought authentic Americans looked too "well-dressed" to be anything other than "astroturf" protesters -- will be on hand to coordinate the left’s agitprop costumes for the day.

The national chairman of the Communist Party USA posted an urgent appeal for warm bodies on Obama's Organizing for America website:

Which brings me to the One Nation rally on October 2 in our nation's capital. Here is an opportunity to reestablish, reenergize, and repower the coalition of people's organization that elected the first African American president in our nation's history.

Opportunities of this kind are rare. But when they arise, they have to be seized. No stone should be left unturned to bring people and their organizations to Washington. This event's success will be measured by its size. A huge turnout will change the political atmosphere and send a message to friend and foe.

At least the Communist Party USA is more honest than President Obama. They come right out and tell the people they demand equalizing tyranny with a yes-we-can end to the American dream of liberty and the individual pursuit of happiness. Of course, Barack Obama knew he had to rely on deceiving authentic America to get elected. Now, he needs the CPUSA to get out their rusty hammers and sickles to beat the producers back into line.

See also the communist homepage for "One Nation Working Together for Peace and Justice."

By Any Measure, Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' Rally Was Huge

Dueling crowd estimates for Saturday's huge event in D.C.

From the obviously very perturbed Adam Serwer, "Was the Glenn Beck rally turnout really that impressive?" (Via Memeorandum.)

But contrast to Charlie Martin, "You Can See November From The Washington Monument," Doug Ross, "Glenn Beck's Rally: How Many Were Really There?", and Mike Opelka, "Just How Large Was the Attendance At Beck’s ‘Restoring Honor’ Rally?"

Also, at Doc Zero, "The Honor of a Great People."

No matter the size, actually. It musta been one hella event. Pics courtesy of Midnight Blue, "We Too Shall Overcome – Restoring Honor, Washington DC":

Reason.TV — 'What We Saw at the Glenn Beck Rally in DC'

It's an interesting video. I love the woman at about 2:25 minutes who reacts to the notion of "African-Americans" — "I'm not African. I'm American, black American." My thoughts precisely. She's a registered independent as well. Lots of folks are fed up with two-party politics as usual. In any case, be sure to read Glenn Reynolds' comments on the religious theme of the event. I can comment on that more when I listen to Glenn Beck's speech, but I agree with Glenn that you can't transform the tea party (small-government) movement into a religious one:

Leftists Search Desperately for 'Racists' at Restoring Honor Rally

William Jacobson has been covering this angle, and he notes:

Think Progress tried really, really hard to cover the Restoring Honor rally with photographers and videographers. I don't think it is a stretch to think that Think Progress was hoping beyond hope that it would find a sign or something else that would permit it to portray the rally as racist.

And Robert Stacy McCain has been getting good laughs out of the left's efforts to smear tea partiers as "racist." Turns out Rachel Maddow apparently found evidence of "racism" in one of the event's program guides, which "advised visitors to stick to the touristy parts of town." But it turns out the program guide was written by a Democrat, Bruce Majors, who's been a major contributor to Democratic candidates, including Howard Dean and John Kerry. And checking over at Charles Johnson's Twitter page, these dolts are working overtime to find "racist" posters at the rally and indications of "tea party racism" in Google searches. Google searches? And here's the brilliant analysis: "Here's a scary thought: It's easier to be a racist in America today than it's been in quite some time." Yeah, okay. Desperate much?

And reading AP's major report on the event this morning we find this at the lede:

Conservative commentator Glenn Beck and tea party champion Sarah Palin appealed Saturday to a vast, predominantly white crowd on the National Mall to help restore traditional American values and honor Martin Luther King's message. Civil rights leaders who accused the group of hijacking King's legacy held their own rally and march.

Civil rights leaders? Well, the writers neglected to mention Alveda King, the niece of the slain civil rights leader, until the very last paragraph of the article.

Perhaps the reporters might have spent a bit more time on the ground, talking with actual tea partiers in attendance. It looks like folks are having a little problem with the tiresome "tea party racism" meme. My good friend Skye at Midnight Blue was on the scene, with reports here and here:

The AP article does note that the event signaled a "show of strength" for the movement. And that's exactly what's giving radical leftists fits of apoplexy.

See also, "Martin Luther King would have been Proud of the Restoring Honor rally."

And "Beck, Palin, Faith, Hope, and Charity" (via Memeorandum).

Added: Linked at Instapundit!

Gold! It's Never Too Late to Secure Your Future With ... Gold!

I often see this commerical multiple times a day during the business week. And now here comes NYT with a background report. I guess it's not just G. Gordon Liddy types either, "Uncertainty Restores Glitter to an Old Refuge, Gold":

It is the resurgent passion of the doomsday crowd, a bet that everything will go wrong. No matter what has you worried, they say, the answer is gold.

Inflation, deflation, government borrowing or the plunging euro — you name it — the specter of these concerns has set off a dash to gold, driving the precious metal to new highs and illustrating how fears of economic turmoil have moved from the fringe to the mainstream.

And gold bugs, often dismissed as crackpots who hoard gold bars in the basement, are finally having their day.

“I just think you’re in a world where a lot of chickens are coming home to roost,” said John Hathaway, manager of the Tocqueville Gold fund. “Gold is an escape hatch.”

The most visible new gold enthusiasts range from the Fox News commentator Glenn Beck on the right to the financier George Soros on the left, with even some sober-minded Wall Street types developing a case of gold fever. While their language may differ, they share a fundamental view that the age-old refuge of gold is relevant again, especially as other assets like stocks and national currencies show signs of weakness.

Now, individual investors are following their example around the world. The United States Mint is running short of gold coins, and the South African mint increased Krugerrand production by 50 percent late last month, to its highest level in 25 years, on brisk European demand.

The debt crisis in Europe and the ensuing drop in the value of the euro are the most recent catalysts for gold’s spike last week to $1,254 an ounce, a record before adjusting for inflation, but the deeper concern is that even in the United States, government borrowing is unsustainable and the day of reckoning is at hand. Sales of American Eagle one-ounce gold coins tripled in May from the month before.

If governments print more money to pay off their debts, the logic goes, inflation will destroy the value of the dollar, the euro and other paper currencies — thus enhancing the value of gold. What is more, with tax increases unlikely and with Europe on the brink, the unthinkable — a sovereign debt default or the collapse of the credit system — has suddenly become thinkable.

RTWT.

The piece discusses Goldline, which advertises on Glenn Beck's show. That was too much for Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner, it turns out, "Rep. Anthony Weiner targets Glenn Beck and Goldline International."

Also, "GLENN BECK HITS BACK AT REP. ANTHONY WEINER OVER GOLD SCAM CLAIM."

Kathleen McKinley at CPAC!

Kathleen McKinley, my co-blogger at Right Wing News, is back from CPAC and she has a fabulous report, with tons of great pictures:

Glenn Beck best summed up the feelings of the people at CPAC. He blasted the Republican party. He said the Democrats were the party of "Tax and Spend," while the Republicans were just the party of "Spend," and it's got to stop. He said the Republicans better wake up and get it. He was cheered throughout. He brought his blackboard. He explained that "progressivism" is a disease eating away at our country. In both parties. He told the story of how we got the Statue of Liberty. He spoke of how the Statue of Liberty's feet have chains around them, broken, and she is stepping forward into freedom. He read the part we all know.."Give me your huddled masses," but he read much more and it was...beautiful. In the end this is all about love for our country. It is about loving the idea that our founding father's had of a country of freedom and opportunity for all. In the end, we see our country as diminishing into something we don't recognize. I honestly didn't hear Obama's name much at all. He is only part of a much bigger problem. The problem of seeing the government as the answer, instead of understanding that it is the problem. I hope Republican politicians got it. I hope they got the message. Because understanding it means a big win this year. Understanding it means we take our country back ...

RTWT.

One of the best posts out of CPAC this year! Yo go, Kathy!

Glenn Beck Storms Seattle

From Mediaite, "Glenn Beck Storms Seattle: Meets Hundreds of Protesters, But Thousands of Fans":

Glenn Beck went out West this weekend to receive the key to his hometown, Mount Vernon, Washington and speak at an event in Safeco Field.

So how did it go? Pretty much like all things Beck these days – it went really well for the Fox News host.

The Seattle event saw more than 7,000 people come out to hear Beck speak. There’s video up on YouTube (and some embedded below). Here’s a taste:

What is this government trying to do? They’re trying to take your necessity away. They’ve got a whole lot of invention coming our way, I promise you that. Don’t let anyone take our necessity away, or anybody take that failure away from us, because…failure is what builds you.

As for the non-Beck fans – the Seattle Times put the number at “about 30″. Or, put another way, irrelevant.

See also, "Beck Speaks to 7,000 at Seattle: 'The American People Have Not Surrendered'."

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's straining with its meme, "Protests Turn Ugly Outside Glenn Beck Event in Mount Vernon."

More at Memeorandum.

Census Worker Was Naked, Bound: Leftists Blame Bachmann, Beck, Limbaugh, Malkin, and Palin

At the New York Times, "Witness Says Census Worker Was Naked, Bound" (via Memeorandum). Of course, that's confirmation that Bill Sparkman's death couldn't have been suicide. You know, the right-wingers killed him. From airhead Larisa Alexandrovna:

I ... think it is absolutely fair to ask why someone would target a census worker (and sadly, a single father of two)? I have never heard of a Census worker being murdered before. I am sure it happens and has probably happened even in recent times, but I simply have never read or heard another instance of such a crime. So at the very least we can say it is a rare crime.

And I think that it is also fair to question the role Rep. Michelle Bachmann [sic] (the psychotic, drooling, knuckle-dragger, ill-informed conspiracy theorist, birther and hater masquerading as a member of Congress) jihad against the Census Bureau had something to do with it.

Okay. Right.

And since Charles Johnson's also advocating this meme, it's no doubt ironclad! (Memeorandum link only - trying to observe the LGF embargo.)

How about at Democratic Underground, "Handy Guide to how Republicans and Fox News are Responsible For Census Worker Being Hanged":

We need to absolutely expose Glenn Beck, Michele Bachmann, Michelle Malkin, CNN's Lou Dobbs, Michael Steele, Rush Limbaugh and the legion of others parroting right-wing lies for trumping up this nonsense and getting people to now commit murder in a hideous fashion.

Conservatives getting people to commit murder?

Okay. That's a really credible hypothesis coming from folks who post with murderous Che Guevara avatars. It's kinda like, you know, communists don't have to "get" anyone to murder people - they just go out and cut down their opponents without provocation.

And how about that "Fed" graphic above? Oh, that's from The Brad Blog, "Was the 9/12 Murder Related to Inflammatory Rhetoric of Beck, Bachman, and Fox 'News'? Or to Recent Local Events That Have Rocked the Rural, Poor, Republican County? Or All of the Above?" Geez, all that, and the Photoshop's already enough for an indictment!

But wait! Maybe it wasn't the right wing after all. Even the nihilist Firedoglake is skeptical:

Before we assume that this apparent homicide was a response solely to the attacks Michele Bachmann and others have made on the census, it's worth recalling how Clay County made news earlier this year, when a bunch of local officials were indicted for vote fraud.

Whew! I feel better already. All that Fox viewing is turning me into a murderer!

Related: "Sparkman: Casualty of Methland, USA? Or Victim of Anti-Government Bile?" (via Memorandum). Plus Lindsay "Don't Spell My Name Wrong You Nazi Stormtrooper" Beyerstein's on the case, "Meth and Anti-Government Extremism Not Mutually Exclusive."

Mark Levin on Glenn Beck: 'Mindless', 'Incoherent' (AUDIO)

Not the most attactive YouTube, but it's worth a listen. Mark Levin's actually combining his own attack on John McCain with a condemnation of Glenn Beck's endorsement of "The One" over "The Maverick." Robert Stacy McCain's got a long but interesting analysis, plus more at Memeorandum:

See also, Right Wing Nut House, "IS GLENN BECK 'THE ENEMY'?"

Glenn Beck: 'John McCain Would Have Been Worse than Barack Obama'

Katie Couric's got an interview with Glenn Beck (via Memeorandum).

I've been inspired by Beck all year, as readers might have noticed. I don't, however, consider Beck a "conservative." He's libertarian, and while I've yet to hear Beck speak much on foreign policy this year, I'd be quick to disagree with him if he started to sound like Ron Paul or the idiot "paleocons."

I mention this especially with reference to Peter Wehner's essay, "Glenn Beck: Harmful to the Conservative Movement":

I don’t pretend to be an expert on Beck. In the past I assumed he was a typical figure in the pundit and cable-media world. Only recently have I watched portions of his television program, as well as interviews with him, and heard parts of his radio program. And what I’ve seen should worry the conservative movement ....

I understand that a political movement is a mansion with many rooms; the people who occupy them are involved in intellectual and policy work, in politics, and in polemics. Different people take on different roles. And certainly some of the things Beck has done on his program are fine and appropriate. But the role Glenn Beck is playing is harmful in its totality. My hunch is that he is a comet blazing across the media sky right now—and will soon flame out. Whether he does or not, he isn’t the face or disposition that should represent modern-day conservatism. At a time when we should aim for intellectual depth, for tough-minded and reasoned arguments, for good cheer and calm purpose, rather than erratic behavior, he is not the kind of figure conservatives should embrace or cheer on.

I omitted some of the passages at the center of Wehner's post, so check that for more substance.

Outside of the hot neocons (VDH, the Kagans, Charles Krauthammer), Peter Wehner's probably my favorite online commentator. This particular essay is bothersome, however. He's coming off like David Frum here, and that's about as bad a put-down one can get these days. Folks need to talk Glenn Beck for what he is: an entertainer and a lightning rod for popular discontent, and he's not hurting conservative by mobilizing the small-government lumpen-electorate (they'll turn out for the GOP). Not only that, right now it's all about the tea parties, the town halls, and resisting the socialist abomination that is the Barack Obama White House. Who's been doing a more thorough job in taking on the ACORN-Democratic-Obama complex? I mean, c'mon give it up for Fox News, where Beck is at the forefront of the conservative/libertarian resistance. Yeah, he's a little far-fetched sometimes, but hardly as bad as the Van Jones-ACORN-NEA edifice that's just now tumbling under its own contradictions. Karl Marx, six-feet under at Highgate, has to be rolling over at that one.

(P.S.: As bad as John McCain was for many conservatives during the campaign, I can guarantee you he wouldn't have been near as bad as Obama - and remember, we'd have Sarah Palin in the vice-president's mansion right now!)

(P.S.S.: Edited.)

The Glenn Beck Supremacy

You know, ever since last spring, when Glenn Beck aired his comments about "preparing for anarchy in America," there's been something extraordinarily accurate about his commentaries on the Obama administration. The Van Jones resignation certainly cemented Beck's status as the premier commentator on the contemporary right. Indeed, just last week I argued that "Beck has emerged as cable TV's Rush Limbaugh."

Well, my remarks might have been clairvoyant (or someone's reading my blog!). The Beck-Rush comparison's picking up steam. For example, there's a good buzz today over Time's new piece: "Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America?" And here's a key passage:

Beck is 45, tireless, funny, self-deprecating, a recovering alcoholic, a convert to Mormonism, a libertarian and living with ADHD. He is a gifted storyteller with a knack for stitching seemingly unrelated data points into possible conspiracies — if he believed in conspiracies, which he doesn’t, necessarily; he’s just asking questions. He’s just sayin’. In cheerful days of yore, he was a terrific host of a morning-zoo show on an FM Top 40 station. But these aren’t cheerful times. For conservatives, these are times of economic uncertainty and political weakness, and Beck has emerged as a virtuoso on the strings of their discontent. Rush Limbaugh, with his supreme self-confidence, holding forth with “half my brain tied behind my back just to make it fair,” found his place as the triumphant champion of the Age of Reagan. Macho Sean Hannity captured the cocky vibe of the early Bush years, dunking the feckless liberal Alan Colmes for nightly swirlies on the Fox News Channel. Both men remain media dynamos, but it is Beck — nervous, beset, desperate — who now channels the mood of many on the right. “I’m afraid,” he has said more than once in recent months. “You should be afraid too.”

The piece describes Becks' schtick as a combination of "entertainment and enlightenment." And the article is surprisingly sympathetic, if not fawning. Mostly, though, it's condescending toward conservative-libertarianism. Beck taps into real anxieties. And as these anxieties are dovetailing with truly monumental policy impacts, advocates of Beck's scenarios are excoriated as "fringe elements" and "racists."

What's amazing, and this is why the Time story is significant, is how quickly Beck and others on the right - like Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit (who is cited in the article) - have had a dramatic effect on politics at the highest levels. This stuff is almost like All the President's Men without Deep Throat. If President Obama were in turn to be impeached - not a far-fetched scenario, given the Bill Clinton presidency - commentators will no doubt "pin the blame" on "fear-mongerers" like Beck. Natually, Beck and others will be demonized for their "hatred," while the legacy media gives a pass to the administration's corrupt communist ties. This creates a classic feedback loop. When the press white-washes real scandals and Democratic malfeasance, the Beck-heads become even more feverishly delirious.

Anyway, Beck's only going up right now, and note how Politico's Michael Calderone's picking up on my theme of Beck's new supremacy. See, "Glenn Beck vs. Rush Limbaugh."

More at Memeorandum.

Christopher Knight on 9-12 March on Washington: Stick to Art Reviews

Christopher Knight, at the Los Angeles Times' "Culture Monster" blog, argues that Glenn Beck's 9-12 logo is based on "century-old communist, socialist and other left-wing designs."

I like Knight's work as the Times' chief art critic (see here), but the guy really should stick to reviewing the masters. After his attack on Glenn Beck's 9-12 logo, he concludes with a jab on the crowd-size estimates for Saturday:

Turnout for the 9-12 Project's Saturday march on Washington was a bust; 30,000 protesters signed up in advance (MSNBC reporter David Shuster tweeted that D.C. park police called that figure "generous"). But even if three times that many actually showed up, the number would fall far short of the hundreds of thousands (and even millions) claimed to be planning to attend. Even in that reduced crowd, however, surely someone recognized how odd the right-wing gathering's left-wing logo was.

Maybe Beck will explain. Sort of.

There's lots of good analysis on crowd size from bloggers, and the numbers are way more the 30,000 (or 70,000). For one of the better analyses I've seen, check Transterrestrial Musings, "An Impression of the Protest."

Whoa Nelly! Crowd Estimate Now 2 Million for 9/12 D.C. Protest!

I'm heading out in a few minutes for the 9/12 West protest. A few thousand are expected, but if it's a tiny fraction of what's happening in Washington today, I'll be in tea party heaven!

Pamela Geller has some great coverage of events, "A Failed Presidency .... And Its Only Six Months, Hundreds of Thousands On the Mall." Pics at Instapundit! And Michelle Malkin, "Update: Turnout Estimated at 2 Million."

Check also Nice Deb. And Vodkapundit has lots of pictures, with updates throughout the day (via Memeorandum). And at Newsbusters, "WaPo Presents 9-12 Event as GOP Danger, Full of 'Right-Wing Nutballs' and 'Freaks'."

The White House is trying to blow off the event. But as Jennifer Rubin notes:

The long-term consequences of this and the preceding populist gatherings are hard to predict. We may see a more libertarian Republican party. A huge turnout for 2010 may result. New, real outsiders may enter politics. And, of course, these protests may scare the dickens out of lawmakers. But while everyone is decrying the collapse of civility and the resulting harm to the country, it is worth noting that we are witnessing a grassroots outpouring of support for limited government, the rule of law, fiscal sobriety, and generational responsibility. That must be heartening to conservatives, but more than that, it is a tribute to the vitality of our democracy and the energy of its citizenry. And that is a very good thing indeed.

I'll update from L.A. with photos later tonight!

DC Police: 9/12 Protest Crowd Estimated at 1.2 Million and Growing

The New York Times reports on today's 9-12 events in Washington, with the title, "Thousands Rally in Capital to Protest Big Government." But check Doug Powers, "9/12 March on Washington Live Video Link. As he notes at the post, "Unconfirmed reports are that the DC Police are estimating the crowd at 1.2 million and growing." It turns out, naturally, that crowd size is a political football. See, "Managing Expectations: Crowd Size for D.C. Rally Sparks Fight."

No matter. Check Michelle Malkin's post here, "Celebrating the 9/12 Rallies" (with live-streaming video). Plus, the Wall Street Journal, "Conservatives Gather in Capital." (Via Memeorandum.)

Here's an interesting background clip:

Plus, Pat in Shreveport on White House cluelessness, "What Demonstrations?"