Commentary and analysis on American politics, culture, and national identity, U.S. foreign policy and international relations, and the state of education
- from a neoconservative perspective! - Keeping an eye on the communist-left so you don't have to!
This is the only YouTube I could find, so apologies about the idiotic "tearful rant" title. Thank God for him, Glenn Beck shows his emotion on his sleeve, and it's not an act. He makes the case that we as Americans have fallen down on the job in constructing new towers to replace the World Trade Centerm, and thus on that score the terrorists have won:
Beck has emerged as the cable TV's Rush Limbaugh. He's now the focus of a giant demonization campaign on the left. And the reason is because few can combine performance art, emotional sincerity, and devastating political commentary as well. And he's dangerous. First Van Jones defeated. Then Yosi Sergant at the NEA. The socialist-left rightly fears who's next. The radical infilitration and ties of corruption go to the highest levels of the White House, so it's no wonder why the long knives are out.
A diametrical response to Beck is here, in James Poniewozik's, "Don't Tell Me What 9/12 Means, Glenn Beck." (Via Memeorandum.) Poniewozik alleged that Beck, since March, has been using September 11 as his own "personal political platform." But that attack on Beck is entirely ridiculous. Poniewozik's attack is just as partisan, since he's not also taking issue with leftists currently exploiting the tragedy for political gain. Just Thursday night Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell argued that Americans should get on board ObamaCare because September 11 is "similarly facing down our country" and it's a time to be "supporting our president regardless of ideology." The Obama administration's 9/11 commemorations, where key White House officials fanned out around the country to push the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, are just a partisan, yet diabolically ahistorical in their efforts to flush the genuine meaning of 9/11 down the memory hole. We know that this administration has long been at work to desecrate the memeory of the fallen. And when President Obama yesterday declared September 11 a "tragedy," he did a "gross disservice to both the victims of 9/11 and those who have sacrificed everything in the effort to make sure a similar “tragedy” doesn’t happen again."
So thank you Glenn Beck. Bring on the rants - good, decent freedom-loving Americans love 'em. We'll pull together once more, and we won't forget that terrorists and rogue regimes around the world are intent on America's destruction. And we vow, "Never Again"!
The threat came when a man called the FreedomWorks main line and told the organization's female receptionist: "I put a bomb in your building, bitch."
The FreedomWorks staffer who spoke with ABC News said that the organization has received multiple threats but that for some reason, the DC Metro police thought that this one was credible enough to evacuate the building.
I admit, Rachel Maddow is infuriating. She basically spouts off netroots lies as fact and assumes she's got some kind of wisdom from on high. It's always pretty pathetic, but it's especially bad to hear her attack Glenn Beck's 9-12 Project with a load of distortions and untruths. Maddow claims 9-12 tea parties are politically exploiting September 11, 2001. The events, of course, are commemorations of freedom and protests against Democratic Party tryanny; but the left hates lliberty, so Maddow excoriates concerned citizens for standing up for American values. Of course, if you check Glenn Beck's page, the principles he champions are things like honesty, charity, hard work, and personal responsiblity - that is, the cultural attributes that have made Americans the most productive people in the world. Here's Maddow's really low attack from last night. It's almost comical in its desperation:
Especially pay attention to the Maddow's question to Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell at 4:20 minutes: "What's the connection between disrupting the president during his speech about healthcare and the day after 9/11?" Professor Lacewell's response is typically despicable, that the healthcare crisis, like September 11, is "similarly facing down our country," and it's a time to be "supporting our president regardless of ideology."
This makes me sick, frankly. The comparison essentially says that high healthcare costs, lack of insurance, inefficiencies in delivery - which is exactly what President Obama decried Wednesday night - are on a comparable level to the horrific terror that brought down the Twin Towers and the Pentagon 8 years ago.
Again, if you want to know why I really dislike leftists, this is it. Talk about exploiting tragedy!
Check out Bill O'Reilly and Karl Rove's discussion of President Obama's healthcare address:
Also, The Swampreports that GOP Rep. John Shimkus walked out on the speech. The dude bailed with just a couple of minutes left. It's disrespectful, sure. But given the general consensus on how brutally partisan was Obama's speech, I don't blame the guy. Decorum's not what it's all cracked up to be when you're supposed to be showing deference to a habitualliar.
What we learned in the last month is that people who have been energetically organizing, filling town halls and high-school gymnasiums, and staging protests for most of their lives are more than a little dismayed to find out that the other side can do it, too. There will always be a risk of unrest at any political protest, left or right, and that risk increases with the emotion and energy surrounding the debate. And it will always be important to call for civility in heated debates, and to treat public forums and our right to speak in them with the respect they deserve.
Joe The Plumber (Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher) has confirmed with organizers of the Tea Party Express that he will speak at Tuesday's Tea Party Express rally in Brighton, Michigan.
Organizers of the Tea Party Express bus tour arriving in Washington later this week planned their route to go though Democratic congressional districts they consider vulnerable.
"What we did was take a map of the United States and then we went head and pin pointed the members of congress that merited our attention and then we looked at those that might be politically vulnerable," said Joe Wierzbicki, a strategist with the conservative PAC Our Country Deserves Better, who are organizing the cross country Tea Party Express tour.
Topping the group's target list in the Senate is current Democrat, and former moderate Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. The Tea Party Express makes four stops in Pennsylvania later this week.
"Arlen Specter has always been a top priority for us, because as long as you had a prominent Republican who was providing the Democrats the means to push through this massive expansion of government, that certainly made him a top priority," says Wierzbicki.
Other Democratic senators on the groups list include Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Connecticut's Chris Dodd. The tour made five stops in Nevada, and plans three stops in Connecticut.
On the House side, first-term Michigan Democrats Mark Schauer and Gary Peters are on the group's target list. The tour plans four Michigan stops.
"We decided to do this tour across the country, mobilize the people in these communities, so that subsequent to this tour we can then go back and start prioritizing these targets for the express purpose of running ads and grassroots campaigns to defeat these members of Congress," said Wierzbicki.
The Our Country Deserves Better PAC says the Tea Party Express is not a partisan group.
When the "tea party" movement kicked off in April to protest record federal spending bills, trillion-dollar deficits and higher tax burdens, its members were fiercely independent and opposed any suggestion that they bond with a larger umbrella group, preferring to work within their local communities.
But that go-it-alone approach is changing as a result of the war over health care, and the Tea Party Express tour is leading the way.
The Tea Party Express - a caravan of buses, speakers and entertainers who have been holding protest rallies in cities and towns across the country - is heading to Washington, where on Saturday, up to 50,000 demonstrators are expected to march on the Capitol in a full-scale political offensive to persuade lawmakers to reject the health care overhaul bills that are pending in the House and Senate.
"What we are seeing across the country is not only increasingly larger crowds but a greater determination to hold members of Congress to their opposition to the health care plan. They are angry and feel they've been ignored, and they don't like what Congress has done," Joe Wierzbicki, national coordinator of the Tea Party Express, said in a telephone interview as his 45-foot bus cruised through Texas last week on a 17-day, 34-rally tour that will end in Washington on Saturday.
A large force of conservative and libertarian organizations is helping sponsor the event, including Tea Party Patriots, ResistNet, the National Taxpayers Union, Young Americans for Liberty, the Ayn Rand Center, Heartland Institute, Free Republic, Institute for Liberty, the Tea Party Express, FreedomWorks officials said. FreedomWorks, headquartered in Washington and chaired by former Rep. Dick Armey mobilizes volunteers for conservative causes.
"The politicians in Washington who think this movement is 'astroturf' had better think again. This is the grass roots coming alive," said Dennis E. Whitfield, executive vice president of the American Conservative Union. "This is beginning to take root across the country. This is for real."
Breaking news from New Lenox/Joliet… the sheriff’s office is reporting to us that the crowd estimate for the rally here is 10,000+ and they are shutting down a portion of Interstate 80 for traffic control do to the massive influx of people.
This is Gina Loudon at the first video. She's with the St. Louis Tea Party, talking about the "Whole Foods Buycott," which the local conservatives have mounted in response to the left's idiotic Whole Foods boycott. The second video below is from Dana Loesch, "Entire Whole Foods “Buycott” Footage ..."
The Tucson area Tea Party Coalition held a meeting at Rincon High School in Tucson this weekend. Over 1,000 people showed up at the event ... including one violent counter-protester.
The pro-Obama thug disrupted the meeting screaming-- marched to the front of the room holding a sign ------ And, then SLAMMED AN ATTENDEE IN THE FACE with his elbow!
The News Tribune’s reporting of Rep. Adam Smith’s town hall meeting (8-27) was disturbing. A man carried a sign of President Obama with a Hitler-type mustache. The News Tribune reported that “bystanders ultimately brought the man to the ground, crumpled his sign and discarded it.”
I assume that organized leftists assaulted the man, while the “violent” conservatives stood by quietly objecting to the leftist violence.
Where is the media’s outrage at the leftists’ violence? The people who assaulted the sign-carrying man should be arrested. Certainly, the leftist mob demonstrated Hitler-like tactics.
The newspaper pictured a huge man shouting and pointing aggressively at a smaller man surrounded by elderly people. The aggressor was pro-health care. Was he planted by the left (as the Nazis did) to ?
I am an elderly lady who plans to attend Norm Dicks’ town hall meeting. Should I be afraid that I will be thrown to the ground as the sign carrier was by what appear to be hired thugs?
Hundreds of people turned out for a series of weekend events as the Tea Party Express cruised across northern Nevada.
The caravan of tour buses, RVs, cargo trucks and SUVs kicked off a cross-country tour Friday in Sacramento, California, and plans on holding events in 33 cities en route to Washington, D.C. for what organizers hope will be a big rally on September 12.
The tour is being funded by Our Country Deserves Better, a conservative political action committee.
The tea party movement gained momentum this year; several parties were held across the country this summer to protest President Barack Obama and the Democrats' economic stimulus plans, among other things.
On July 4, nearly 2,000 advocates, toting signs and chanting slogans, rallied outside Congress. Activists said the TEA Party Day — an acronym for "Taxed Enough Already" — was in response to runaway government spending. But now, the focus is on health care reform, an issue that has brought about demand for bigger, more encompassing debate throughout the country and in Congress.
At an event Saturday in Winnemucca, Nevada, Carolyn Rowe came to the tea party in a T-shirt depicting Obama as the joker from "Batman." In place of the familiar "Hope" logo of Obama's campaign was the word "Joke."
She says she is concerned about the number of so-called "czars" in the Obama administration and she fears losing her choice of doctor if health care reform passes.
"I believe he's trouncing the Constitution and taking control of our country in a direction we don't want," says Rowe, from beneath a wide brimmed straw hat. "I think he has a hidden agenda, and I think he doesn't tell the truth and that in itself bothers me."
Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), the revolutionary group formed by self-described "communist" and "rowdy black nationalist" Van Jones, held a vigil in Oakland, California, "mourning the victims of U.S. imperialism around the world" on the night after Sept. 11, 2001.
The reason this is important is because Van Jones is now President Obama's green jobs czar. He does not appear to have distanced himself from his past communist activities and is now part of the Obama administration's push to turn Sept. 11 into a National Day of Service focused on the promotion of the radical environmentalist agenda.
Vadum cites passages from Jones' revolutionary pamphlet, Reclaiming Revolution. For example, Jones' group "blamed the U.S. for 9/11":
That night, STORM and the other movement leaders expressed sadness and anger at the deaths of innocent working class people. We were angry, first and foremost, with the U.S. government, whose worldwide aggression had engendered such hate across the globe that working class people were not safe at home. We honored those who had lost their lives in the attack -- and those who would surely lose their lives in subsequent U.S. attacks overseas.
Check out the Glenn Beck video above. Michelle Malkin indicates the significance of Van Jones' background as a Leninist revolutionary, and Beck reads key passages from the pamphlet.
I visited one of his organizations in Oakland, California, the Ella Baker Center, and discovered a photograph of Communist Angela Davis on the first floor. Ella Baker worked with Communists such as Anne Braden. This fact is noted on the official Baker bio distributed by the organization named in her honor. They are proud of this fact, although they claim that "she had mixed feelings about communism" and only embraced socialism "as a more humane alternative to capitalism."
Jones shows up on a list of "veteran activists" attending a conference in the summer of 1998 at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the same place where Bill Ayers is now a professor. The purpose was to plot the "Black Liberation Agenda for the 21st Century" under the auspices of the Black Radical Congress. Angela Davis participated and the Communist Party USA helped organize the event.
One of Jones' sons is named Cabral, in honor of Amilcar Cabral, the African Marxist who spoke to Castro's Tricontinental Congress in 1966 and concluded with these words: "Our wish is that every national liberation movement represented here may be able to repeat in its own country, arms in hand, in unison with its people, the already legendary cry of Cuba: Patria O Muerte, Venceremos! Death to the Forces of Imperialism! Free, Prosperous and Happy Country for Each of our Peoples! Venceremos!"
Kincaid notes that Jones has undertaken "an extreme makeover" to mask his credentials as a hardline revolutionary agitator.
He still considers himself a revolutionary, just a more effective one, who has realized that the progressive left's insistence on remaining a counterculture destroys its potential as a political movement ...
So, what to do? Join the far-left Obama administration as an environmental minister.
Barack Obama has seen fit to actually appoint a Communist to a position of importance in the White House ....
The man in question is named Van Jones, and President Obama appointed him as a czar in charge of developing “green energy policy.” His exact title is Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. His responsibility is to coordinate the stimulus spending to assure that a hefty portion of it goes to projects that promote green energy. What in Jones’ recent background should raise questions about his worthiness for the appointment? What was the expertise that made him qualified for the position? He was founder of in September 2007 of “Green For All,” a non-governmental organization “dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty … advocating for local, state and federal commitment to job creation, job training, and entrepreneurial opportunities in the emerging green economy – especially for people from disadvantaged communities.” He also attended Yale Law School, thus following a career path similar to that of President Obama. And like the President, he recently said he considers himself a “community organizer.”
As David Horowitz has pointed out, from 1992 until 2002, Jones was a member of a radical communist group that was dedicated to “organizing a revolutionary movement in America.” Arrested during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, and briefly sent to jail, Jones met, he said “communists and anarchists,” and decided “ ‘This is what I need to be part of.’” He said that he spent “the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary.”
The group he joined was Storm, a Bay Area Marxist-Maoist collective staffed by members of radical nonprofit groups, who worked with another body Jones had founded, The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, that sought to provide alternative to prison for African-Americans convicted of crimes. Storm made its position clear in its published manifesto, Reclaiming Revolution:Standing Together to Form a Revolutionary Movement. The group defined itself as a “revolutionary cadre organization,” that understood that “revolutionary Marxist politics would be central to the development of a successful liberation movement in this country.” Its commitment was to “Marxist-Leninist politics,” which posed a problem- since its shrewd leaders knew that “most young activists…were hostile to revolutionary Marxism.”
That meant subterfuge: acknowledging that they could not appear as “an explicitly Marxist organization.” The answer was two tiers of members-a leadership of Marxists and a membership that had to support its unity program that was not “explicitly Marxist.” The group had ties to the South African Communist Party, the breakoff group from the American CP, the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, and it honored leaders like Amilcar Cabral, the late Marxist revolutionary of Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands, who lauded Lenin “as the greatest champion of the national liberation of the peoples.” In 2006, Van Jones named his newborn son “Cabral” in the Marxist leader’s honor.
This isn't surprising to conservatives who have long argued against Barack Obama's hardline radical background and associations.
El Marco's got a great new report on the Ed Perlmutter town hall event yesterday at Denver's North High School:
I arrived early at North High School for Friday’s, Organizing for America rally in Denver. OFA community organizers were hard at work:
Here, hand-manufactured signs on sticks are mixed with a ream or two of signs without sticks. Approximately 50 signs. In boxes are printed signs with UPS One Day Air receipts on them. From D.C.? Maybe:
I went to the adjacent street, West 32nd Street, and here is what I saw.
Some media showed up after a while and zeroed in on the guy with the Ted Kennedy sign. The reporterette at center showed no interest in interviewing the man on the right or others.
I checked back at this same area about 20 minutes later to find that the Astroturf Brigades had arrived in force and were beginning to be a nuisance.
This proud DenverCrat was eager to pose for my camera ... Much to my chagrin, he began to berate anyone who made eye contact with him. He spoke, er, bellowed eloquently enough. He sounded like Ted Kennedy on the campaign trail. He marshaled many of the main democrat talking points quite admirably:
These green shirts [below] blocked the north entrance to the high school parking lot. All who wanted to enter to hear Representative Perlmutter had to go approximately 1/4 of a mile to the west entrance. They said everyone had to sign in for security reasons. Following is an email from a severely disabled Denver Prager Listener Group member:
“I was at that rally and was parked inside the fence because I had arrived very early. I walked outside the west side of the fence to meet friends and then re-entered when they called and said they were on the other side of the parking lot. The “green shirts” came toward me with their clip boards and wanted to know where I was going. I told them I was going to my car and they reluctantly let me pass. When I got to the other end of the lot, several “green shirts” approached me and asked where I was going. I told them and they also reluctantly let me go past. When I met my friends I told them what had happened and that I was really afraid of those people because they came across so aggressively. One of my friends found a couple of police officers and he told them I was afraid these people wouldn’t let me back in to get my car. The officers talked to the “green shirts” and they were quite irate that I felt the least bit intimidated by them!! Well, a couple of hours later the Obama Bus arrived and a little while after that I needed to leave. One of my friends offered to walk me to my car. When we got to the gate the “green shirts” had tied yellow “CAUTION” tape (it looks like police tape!!) across the entire gate opening and it took a couple of minutes for my friend to convince them that I was just going to my car and he was walking with me.
It is so deplorably dishonest for these “astroturf” bullies with their professionally printed signs and buttons to forcibly extract signatures from people and then for Perlmutter (my Congressman also!!) to knowingly use those signatures ~ I believe that in any other arena this would be fraud!!!”
The woman who wrote this lives in constant extreme pain and is not a threat to anyone.
I headed over to the west entrance to see what was going on. I passed a group of grassroots supporters of Obama on the way. Others in the group had signs which were foul and offensive. Disgusting, really. So I have spared you the necessary after-viewing shower by not showing their photos.
A young mind is a terrible thing to waste.
A commotion in the parking lot caught my eye. A green shirt aggressively berates two dissenters in the parking lot:
They are ejected by two male organizers in red shirts. While still on school property, the two ladies decided to hold their ground, resisting excessive trampling of their rights as law abiding Americans. This is a standoff. Who would have thought a scene like this could occur in America?
The red shirts stay to monitor the situation(above background left). At no time did I see these ladies argue or fuss. They appeared only calm and insistent on their rights:
Meanwhile, the Astroturfers who were sent to confront the legitimate dissenters on W 32nd St, are now among the crowd waiting to cheer Perlmutter:
And here’s the bus ...
Perlmutter ranted about fighting and fighting and human rights and the Constitution:
Organizers positioned this banner to block the view from the two camera stands. Should have sent a taller green shirt. Alas, the best laid plans of mice and men ...
Representative Ed Perlmutter (D – CO District 7) actually had the gall to stand on stage at pro-Obama care and public option rally and make the charge that our current health care system is unconstitutional. Huh? That perked up my ears, did I hear him say what I thought I heard?
He continued on, asking the audience, with their ocean of pre-printed Health Care Now signs, if they’d heard of the 14th Amendment. Hmmm, I wasn’t sure where he was going with this but surely he wasn’t going to go THERE.
Yep, according to Ed Perlmutter, the 14th Amendment gives equal protection and people denied care and coverage don’t have equal access to health care so the existing system must be unconstitutional. I’m not sure if he was also going to expand that to include housing, food, and clothing.
On that note, this guy down the street got a bigger loan for a BMW so I should also get one since the Constitution guarantees equal protection.
About a thousand people rallied in Manhattan on Saturday in support of federal health care reform legislation.
The event near Times Square began shortly after the funeral for U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, and took-on the feel of a tribute to the liberal leader.
One person carried a sign that said, "TeddyCare for all."
U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney told the crowd the bill will lower health care costs for almost everyone. The New York Democrat also invoked Kennedy, saying the senator understood the need for change.
Opponents say the legislation will cost too much and diminish the quality of care.
And check out the video above from WABC-TV New York. It's unbelievable sometimes how totally Astroturfed these events are. Almost no one attending the rally has made their own signs. That's the Dems for you: Shameless exploitation and staged rallies to generate media support. No wonder they're calling it "TeddyCare."
There was no doubting who the enemy was at Friday's "Tea Party Patriots" rally at the Capitol.
"Government is the problem!" the crowd chanted. "No more government!"
The event, the second "tea party" held at the Capitol this year, was billed as a "first-time coalition of thousands to protest government over-regulation."
Valley farmers -- some brought their tractors -- repeated their long-running call against delta pumping restrictions that they say are robbing them of water.
Diesel truck drivers, revving their engines, circled the Capitol, protesting new clean-air regulations that owners say will cost them millions of dollars to replace older trucks. And a Valley congressman went on the attack against the environmentalists he said were to blame for it all.
I am on the Tea Party Express now headed to Reno ... Today is the first day of a historic journey of taking our message to Washington.
I have lots to share and will update in more detail after our next stop in Reno. I have taken lots of pictures and videos to share with you all. We have just crossed the Nevada state line and don't have very good internet service, so I will upload pics later this evening. Be sure to check back!
Right now, all I can say is I am blessed to be part of such a historic event. Thank you for all of your support and well wishes! Wow! Wow! Wow!
This whole administration is as radical and far left as any that the country has ever had. What they're trying to do here to communications is simply stifle dissenting voices. They're trying to wipe out any opposition...And the things that he is talking about doing -- and I watched your show for the first half hour today -- and the things he is talking about doing to shut down radio are simply un-American ... It is a dangerous time. It is the most dangerous time in my life for freedom and liberty in this country.
I remember my very first job after recieving my Bachelor's degree. My (future) wife and I had just moved to Santa Barbara, and I had a couple of months before my graduate program was going to start. Looking for a job, I answered the CalPIRG ad announcing "careers in political consulting" in the local paper. Invited for an interview, I put on my blue blazer and a button-down shirt and cruised over to the office - which ended up being a ramshackle apartment in Isla Vista. (I was greeted by a bunch of college kids in Birkenstocks.) Being new to town, I didn't know that IV's reputation gained a boost after the local Bank of America branch was burned down during the 1970 riots. The actual job for CalPIRG was to go door to door, in the middle of a deep recession, and beg homeowners for money for some unexplainable environmental impact fund. I walked off the job that night. I don't think I even collected a check.
Anyway, all of that's a preface for Steven Crowder masterful exspose of CalPIRG "grassroots" recruiting at Pajamas Media. The guy's a genius! "Undercover with Liberals! (RIP Crowder)":
We’ve heard the term “Astroturf” thrown around so flippantly lately, I felt somebody needed to put it to the test. Why should Liberals be exempt from having the “special interests” card thrown at them? My hunch tells me that they appease those folks more than anybody. Well, strap on the hidden camera ...It’s time to find out!
