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Late Late Night FDL: For What It’s Worth
From episode 221 of The Muppet Show — For What It’s Worth.
From episode 221 of The Muppet Show — For What It’s Worth.
Grab your popcorn, put your feet up on the coffee table, and try to keep the spitballs off the screen please. This is Late Late Night FireDogLake, where off topic is the topic … so dive in. What’s on your mind?
Wisconsin’s Walker Readies the Pink Slips
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, voicing his frustration with AWOL Democrats, was preparing to send layoff notices to 1,500 state workers as the stalemate over his union-busting budget bill continued. —JCL Reuters: The threat of layoffs increased the stakes in a bitter battle between Wisconsin Republicans and Democrats, a fight being watched around the nation as other states like Ohio and Indiana weigh rolling back public employee union power as part of budget-cutting efforts. Republican Walker told reporters late on Thursday that “extremist elements” among 14 absent senate Democrats had blocked progress in negotiations on his “budget repair bill.” “Just when we think the process is moving forward, we see no action,” Walker said. “We’re frustrated.” Read more
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, voicing his frustration with AWOL Democrats, was preparing to send layoff notices to 1,500 state workers as the stalemate over his union-busting budget bill continued. —JCL
Reuters:
The threat of layoffs increased the stakes in a bitter battle between Wisconsin Republicans and Democrats, a fight being watched around the nation as other states like Ohio and Indiana weigh rolling back public employee union power as part of budget-cutting efforts.
Republican Walker told reporters late on Thursday that “extremist elements” among 14 absent senate Democrats had blocked progress in negotiations on his “budget repair bill.”
“Just when we think the process is moving forward, we see no action,” Walker said. “We’re frustrated.”
Truthdigger of the Week: Glenn Greenwald
This week, we salute fellow journalist Glenn Greenwald for lending his voice to the cause of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the alleged WikiLeaks source whose life may well be on the line if the U.S. Army’s newest and most severe charges play out against him in court.
This week, we salute fellow journalist Glenn Greenwald for lending his voice to the cause of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the alleged WikiLeaks source whose life may well be on the line if the U.S. Army’s newest and most severe charges play out against him in court.
Lawmakers Pushing Back Against Banks’ Foreclosure-Settlement Complaints
WASHINGTON — As bank executives push back against the terms of a foreclosure settlement with fees that may be as high as $20 billion, progressive…
Conservative Faith Coalition Urges Congress To Defend DOMA
By Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner said on Friday (March 4) that he and fellow lawmakers will defend…
Walker Issues Layoff Warning Notices
March 4, 2011 11:39:08 PM MADISON, Wis., March 4 (Reuters) – Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker issued layoff warning notices on Friday to unions representing…
Photo Released Of Gabrielle Giffords On Morning Of Shooting
TO SEE THE PHOTO FROM GIFFORDS’ FACEBOOK PAGE, CLICK HERE. PHOENIX (AP) — A photo taken of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shortly before a shooting rampage…
Beck Turns To The Fringe To Validate His “Crazy Conspiracy Theory”
Glenn Beck reached to the right-wing fringe for validation of his discredited conspiracy theory about the coming Islamo-Communist global takeover: Andrew Roberts, who advocated for mass internment of Iraqis and reportedly spoke at a dinner commemorating “the white supremacist government of Rhodesia”; and David Horowitz, who has a long history of pushing the same discredited conspiracy theories that Beck peddles.
Beck Prompts Andrew Roberts To Dismiss Criticism Of Beck’s “Crazy Conspiracy Theory.” From Beck’s interview with Andrew Roberts:
BECK: Tonight we’re talking about history’s failed revolutions and what they can teach us today. Still with us, Robert Gellately, and Andrew Roberts, and David Horowitz. Andrew, I want to come to you before we go to David. I got a lot of heat here in America for saying that radicals, Islamists, communists, socialists, labor unions from all over the world are working together, even though they don’t agree with each other on everything, to destabilize and start revolutions and that’s what happened in Middle East and it started with Tunisia, and then Egypt, and Libya, and it’s headed all over the Middle East. Do you think that’s a crazy conspiracy theory?
ROBERTS: No. No, I certainly don’t think it’s a crazy conspiracy theory at all. If these organizations want the same thing, then of course, it’s in their interests to work together. They won’t necessarily work together in the same way that you would expect democrats to. They won’t necessarily even have to communicate much with one another. But the fact is that, if they want the same thing they will go out and get it. And we see that again and again in history.
And also the other thing that’s terribly unimportant is numbers – you don’t need large numbers to create a revolution. Sometimes like the Bolsheviks, the very word Bolshevik in Russian means minority. They can always be very small number, small numbers starting these huge and disastrous historical phenomena.
BECK: And doesn’t that work actually to their advantage? Because people dismiss them – they dismiss them –
ROBERTS: That and also they can stay organized. They can have a central series of commands which are unquestionably obeyed in the way that a large mass movement often can’t have. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 3/04/11]
Roberts Offered “An Extraordinary Rationalisation For Killing Women And Children In Cold Blood.” Johann Hari of The Independent profiled Roberts in a 2009 column, writing that he “celebrates the most murderous acts of the British Empire.” Hari wrote that Roberts’ writing “consists of elaborate defences for the crimes of a white man’s empire – and a plea to the US to continue its work”:
How should this empire exercise its power? One useful tactic, Roberts appears to believe, is massacring civilians. The Amritsar massacre is one of the ugliest episodes in the history of the British Raj. In 1919, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer opened fire on 10,000 unarmed men, women, and children who were peacefully protesting, and about 400 died. Dyer was even repudiated by the British government. As Patrick French, an award-winning historian of the period, explains: “The biographies of Dyer show that he was clearly mentally abnormal, and there was no way he should have been in charge of troops.”
Yet Dyer has, at last, found a defender – Andrew Roberts. In his book A History Of The English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900, he says that after Dyer shot down the peaceful crowd, “[i]t was not necessary for another shot to be fired throughout the entire region”. He later comments: “Today’s reactions to Dyer’s deed are of course uniformly damning … but if the Amritsar district, Punjab region or southern India generally had carried on in revolt, many more than 379 people would have lost their lives.”
It is an extraordinary rationalisation for killing women and children in cold blood, and rejected by virtually all other historians. It was only after I exposed this passage that Roberts finally said: “I have never approved of massacring civilians.” [The Independent, 7/31/09]
Roberts Advised Bush To Adopt “Mass Internment” Of Iraqis. Hari also wrote:
But in his writings Roberts is even supportive of politicians who take mass punishment to its most extreme conclusion: concentration camps. His political hero is Lord Salisbury, the British prime minister who, during the Boer War, constructed concentration camps in South Africa that inspired Hermann Goering. Under Salisbury, the British burned Boer civilians out of their homes and farms and drove them into concentration camps, so they could grab control of one of the most strategically important parts of Africa. The result was that about 34,000 people – some 15 per cent of the entire Boer population – died in the camps, mainly of disease and starvation.
Roberts presents a very different picture. He says the British introduced “regime change” in Pretoria out of a concern “for human rights”. Far from being a “war crime”, the concentration camps “were set up for the Boers’ protection”. The mass deaths there were not a result of British policy. No: they were primarily the prisoners’ own fault, because they didn’t know how to take medicine or treat disease, and deliberately spread lice.
The “evidence” he gives for this is the word of a single British doctor who worked in the camps. What would our picture of the German camps look like if we relied on the words of a Nazi-employed doctor? Professor Mike Davis, an academic expert on the British Empire, says: “His arguments about the Boer concentration camps are similar to the arguments of the apologists about the Nazi camps.”
This is not merely a matter of the past. Roberts sees his histories as road maps to the future, advising George W Bush, at a White House dinner to celebrate his histories, to adopt “the whole idea of mass internment”, saying: “I think it is the way the administration of Iraq should go.” Incredibly, he cited Ireland as a model of how internment can work, a claim that provokes incredulity in Irish historians. [The Independent, 7/31/09]
Roberts Spoke At A Meeting Celebrating Apartheid. From a July 31, 2009, article in The Independent:
Roberts, who has a new book out this week, describes himself as “extremely right-wing”. To understand him, you need to look at a small, sinister group of British-based South African and Zimbabwean exiles he has associated with. In 2001, Roberts spoke to a dinner of the Springbok Club, a group that regards itself as the shadow white government of South Africa. Its founder, a former member of the neo-fascist National Front, says: “In a nutshell our policy can be summed up in one sentence: we want our countries back, and believe this can now only come about by the re-establishment of civilised European rule throughout the African continent.”
The club, according to its website, flies the flag of apartheid South Africa at every meeting. The British High Commission has accused the club of spreading “hate literature”.
The dinner was a celebration of the 36th anniversary of the day the white supremacist government of Rhodesia announced a unilateral declaration of independence from Great Britain, because it was pressing the country to enfranchise black people. Surrounded by nostalgists for this racist rule, Roberts, according to the club’s website, “finished his speech by proposing a toast to the Springbok Club, which he said he considered the heir to previous imperial achievements”.
When I first pointed out this connection, Roberts said he gave a “historical speech”, hadn’t realised the Springbok Club was a racist organisation, and didn’t recall anyone saying anything racist. Wasn’t the apartheid flag, and the fact they were there specifically to celebrate the anniversary of a white supremacist declaration, a hint? [The Independent, 7/31/09]
The Economist: Roberts’ Work Is “Larded With Its Author’s Prejudices” And “Errors.” From The Economist:
Mr Roberts limits his range to countries where English is the first language: America, Britain and its former dominions, core countries which he sees as “the last, best hope of Mankind”, the source of the Rights of Man, free markets and the British Empire.
George Bush described this recently as a “great book”. But Mr Roberts’s work is less a history than a giant political pamphlet larded with its author’s prejudices, with sneers at those who do not share them and with errors. [The Economist, 11/02/06]
Horowtiz Says Beck’s Conspiracy Theory Is “The Truest Thing Anybody Has Said About The Crisis In The Middle East.” From the March 4 edition of Glenn Beck:
BECK: David, I know you don’t have – I don’t think Fox doesn’t go to LA, they don’t let it in – LA. So you can’t see these, but I’m holding them up. And one is the International Socialist Organization logo, and the other is the AFL-CIO Stand With Wisconsin logo. They’re identical. Would you guys agree they’re identical? Yeah, they’re identical.
AUDIENCE: Yes.
HOROWITZ: Well of course. The socialist radical left took over the AFL-CIO years ago.
BECK: So when —
HOROWITZ: And I think your statement that the international left including the unions is working in the same direction with the Islamic jihadists and Muslim Brotherhood is the truest thing that anybody has said about the crisis in the Middle East. I wanted to say you hear people saying America has to get on the right side of history. You have to ask yourself, you know, would you have wanted to be on the right side of history in 1917, which led to the slaughter of 40 million people, or in China in 1949, or in Germany in 1933, or in Iran in 1979 when the Ayatollah came to power, or in Cuba in 1959.
Progressives have this idea that history is a forward march, and that just around the corner there is a better world, and a miraculously better world. And that’s why when they get power they kill so many people.
BECK: David —
HOROWITZ: But it’s obviously false. If that were true the 20th century would have been the best century – and actually from the point of view of human rights and the murder of innocents, the 20th century is the worst century in the history of mankind. So be careful before you stabilize – or applaud the destabilization of a whole region —
BECK: OK David, let me —
HOROWITZ: — Such as is happening now. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 3/04/11]
Previously: Horowitz Applauded Beck For “Educat[ing] Americans About The Unholy Alliance Between The Secular Left And The Islamic Jihadists.” From David Horowitz’s NewsReal Blog:
Bill Kristol is entitled to his optimism about democratic revolutions in the Islamic world. Perhaps the elections in Egypt will turn out better than those in Gaza where Hamas now rules a terrorist state; Iraq, which has instituted an Islamic Republic; Lebanon, where Hezbollah now rules a terrorist state; and Afghanistan, which is a kleptocracy wooing the terrorist theocracy in Iran. What he should not be doing as a conservative leader is demonizing Glenn Beck, who has done more to educate Americans about the unholy alliance between the secular left and the Islamic jihadists than anyone else. Kristol needs to apologize to Beck for comparing him — outrageously — to the conspiracist Robert Welch, and should be embarrassed by his own ignorance of the agendas of both American radicals and their jihadist allies. At this point in time, such ignorance is not only inexcusable but dangerous. [NewsReal Blog, 2/08/11]
Horowitz: DiscoverTheNetworks Shows “That There Are Only A Couple Of Degrees Of Separation Between Anybody On The Left And The Terrorists.” In a March 24, 2005, interview about his website DiscoverTheNetworks, Horowitz said:
For 20 years, I dreamed of writing a book about the left, based on the reality I carry around in my head, as somebody who spent decades on the left or studying it. … The Web provides a wonderful format, because you can put up hundreds of tables of contents, indexes and links, and you can even provide visual maps, which will show you the network on one screen. …
What I’ve shown is that there are only a couple of degrees of separation between anybody on the left and the terrorists – and that includes people in the Democratic Party, even those who are anti-terrorist.
For example, the coalition of civil liberties groups that attacked the USA Patriot Act are thoroughly penetrated by pro-terrorist radicals based in organizations like the National Lawyers Guild and the Center for Constitutional Rights. This doesn’t mean that every Democrat or every Republican who opposes the USA Patriot Act is a “useful idiot.” … But it does mean that they need to be more mindful of the arguments they are being presented with and supporting. [The Washington Times, 3/24/05, accessed via Nexis]
Horowitz’s Website Pushed Brazilian Oil Conspiracy. Like Glenn Beck, DiscoverTheNetworks pushed the conspiracy theory that Obama is trying to enrich financier and philanthropist Soros through a Brazilian oil company. The theory is based on the false claim that Obama issued a loan to Brazil’s Petrobras oil company; in reality, the loan was approved by appointees of the Bush administration to the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Kevin Varney, senior vice president and chief of staff of the bank has reportedly said that the decision to approve the loan “did not even rise to the level of presidential awareness.” Furthermore, Soros decreased his stake in Petrobras before the funds for the loan in question were distributed. [Media Matters, 10/11/10]
Horowitz Claimed There Was A Muslim Brotherhood “Infiltat[or]” At CPAC. On February 12, at CPAC, Horowitz attacked conservative activists Suhail Khan and Grover Norquist, claiming that Khan, with Norquist’s aid, “infiltrat[ed]” CPAC, the Bush White House and the conservative movement on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood. [David Horowitz’s CPAC speech, 2/12/11]
Horowitz: “Blacks Are The Human Shields Of The Democratic Party.” Horowitz called Jimmy Carter an “anti-Semite” and said “blacks are the human shields of the Democratic Party.” [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 9/16/09]
Horowitz: Professors “Are Recruting For Radical Parties, Terrorist Supporting Parties, No Question.” Horowitz claimed that university professors are “recruting for radical parties, terrorist supporting parties, no question.” [Fox News, Hannity, 9/03/10]
Beck Asks Andrew Roberts To Validate His “Crazy Conspiracy Theory”
Beck Prompts Andrew Roberts To Dismiss Criticism Of Beck’s “Crazy Conspiracy Theory.” From Beck’s interview with Andrew Roberts:
ROBERTS: No. No, I certainly don’t think it’s a crazy conspiracy theory at all. If these organizations want the same thing, then of course, it’s in their interests to work together. They won’t necessarily work together in the same way that you would expect democrats to. They won’t necessarily even have to communicate much with one another. But the fact is that, if they want the same thing they will go out and get it. And we see that again and again in history.
And also the other thing that’s terribly unimportant is numbers – you don’t need large numbers to create a revolution. Sometimes like the Bolsheviks, the very word Bolshevik in Russian means minority. They can always be very small number, small numbers starting these huge and disastrous historical phenomena.
BECK: And doesn’t that work actually to their advantage? Because people dismiss them – they dismiss them –
ROBERTS: That and also they can stay organized. They can have a central series of commands which are unquestionably obeyed in the way that a large mass movement often can’t have. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 3/04/11]
Roberts “Celebrates The Most Murderous Acts Of The British Empire”
Roberts Offered “An Extraordinary Rationalisation For Killing Women And Children In Cold Blood.” Johann Hari of The Independent profiled Roberts in a 2009 column, writing that he “celebrates the most murderous acts of the British Empire.” Hari wrote that Roberts’ writing “consists of elaborate defences for the crimes of a white man’s empire – and a plea to the US to continue its work”:
How should this empire exercise its power? One useful tactic, Roberts appears to believe, is massacring civilians. The Amritsar massacre is one of the ugliest episodes in the history of the British Raj. In 1919, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer opened fire on 10,000 unarmed men, women, and children who were peacefully protesting, and about 400 died. Dyer was even repudiated by the British government. As Patrick French, an award-winning historian of the period, explains: “The biographies of Dyer show that he was clearly mentally abnormal, and there was no way he should have been in charge of troops.”
Yet Dyer has, at last, found a defender – Andrew Roberts. In his book A History Of The English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900, he says that after Dyer shot down the peaceful crowd, “[i]t was not necessary for another shot to be fired throughout the entire region”. He later comments: “Today’s reactions to Dyer’s deed are of course uniformly damning … but if the Amritsar district, Punjab region or southern India generally had carried on in revolt, many more than 379 people would have lost their lives.”
It is an extraordinary rationalisation for killing women and children in cold blood, and rejected by virtually all other historians. It was only after I exposed this passage that Roberts finally said: “I have never approved of massacring civilians.” [The Independent, 7/31/09]
Roberts Advised Bush To Adopt “Mass Internment” Of Iraqis. Hari also wrote:
But in his writings Roberts is even supportive of politicians who take mass punishment to its most extreme conclusion: concentration camps. His political hero is Lord Salisbury, the British prime minister who, during the Boer War, constructed concentration camps in South Africa that inspired Hermann Goering. Under Salisbury, the British burned Boer civilians out of their homes and farms and drove them into concentration camps, so they could grab control of one of the most strategically important parts of Africa. The result was that about 34,000 people – some 15 per cent of the entire Boer population – died in the camps, mainly of disease and starvation.
Roberts presents a very different picture. He says the British introduced “regime change” in Pretoria out of a concern “for human rights”. Far from being a “war crime”, the concentration camps “were set up for the Boers’ protection”. The mass deaths there were not a result of British policy. No: they were primarily the prisoners’ own fault, because they didn’t know how to take medicine or treat disease, and deliberately spread lice.
The “evidence” he gives for this is the word of a single British doctor who worked in the camps. What would our picture of the German camps look like if we relied on the words of a Nazi-employed doctor? Professor Mike Davis, an academic expert on the British Empire, says: “His arguments about the Boer concentration camps are similar to the arguments of the apologists about the Nazi camps.”
This is not merely a matter of the past. Roberts sees his histories as road maps to the future, advising George W Bush, at a White House dinner to celebrate his histories, to adopt “the whole idea of mass internment”, saying: “I think it is the way the administration of Iraq should go.” Incredibly, he cited Ireland as a model of how internment can work, a claim that provokes incredulity in Irish historians. [The Independent, 7/31/09]
Roberts Spoke At A Meeting Celebrating Apartheid. From a July 31, 2009, article in The Independent:
Roberts, who has a new book out this week, describes himself as “extremely right-wing”. To understand him, you need to look at a small, sinister group of British-based South African and Zimbabwean exiles he has associated with. In 2001, Roberts spoke to a dinner of the Springbok Club, a group that regards itself as the shadow white government of South Africa. Its founder, a former member of the neo-fascist National Front, says: “In a nutshell our policy can be summed up in one sentence: we want our countries back, and believe this can now only come about by the re-establishment of civilised European rule throughout the African continent.”
The club, according to its website, flies the flag of apartheid South Africa at every meeting. The British High Commission has accused the club of spreading “hate literature”.
The dinner was a celebration of the 36th anniversary of the day the white supremacist government of Rhodesia announced a unilateral declaration of independence from Great Britain, because it was pressing the country to enfranchise black people. Surrounded by nostalgists for this racist rule, Roberts, according to the club’s website, “finished his speech by proposing a toast to the Springbok Club, which he said he considered the heir to previous imperial achievements”.
When I first pointed out this connection, Roberts said he gave a “historical speech”, hadn’t realised the Springbok Club was a racist organisation, and didn’t recall anyone saying anything racist. Wasn’t the apartheid flag, and the fact they were there specifically to celebrate the anniversary of a white supremacist declaration, a hint? [The Independent, 7/31/09]
The Economist: Roberts’ Work Is “Larded With Its Author’s Prejudices” And “Errors.” From The Economist:
Mr Roberts limits his range to countries where English is the first language: America, Britain and its former dominions, core countries which he sees as “the last, best hope of Mankind”, the source of the Rights of Man, free markets and the British Empire.
George Bush described this recently as a “great book”. But Mr Roberts’s work is less a history than a giant political pamphlet larded with its author’s prejudices, with sneers at those who do not share them and with errors. [The Economist, 11/02/06]
Beck Asks David Horowitz To Justify His “Crazy Conspiracy Theory”
Horowtiz Says Beck’s Conspiracy Theory Is “The Truest Thing Anybody Has Said About The Crisis In The Middle East.” From the March 4 edition of Glenn Beck:
BECK: David, I know you don’t have – I don’t think Fox doesn’t go to LA, they don’t let it in – LA. So you can’t see these, but I’m holding them up. And one is the International Socialist Organization logo, and the other is the AFL-CIO Stand With Wisconsin logo. They’re identical. Would you guys agree they’re identical? Yeah, they’re identical.
AUDIENCE: Yes.
HOROWITZ: Well of course. The socialist radical left took over the AFL-CIO years ago.
BECK: So when –
HOROWITZ: And I think your statement that the international left including the unions is working in the same direction with the Islamic jihadists and Muslim Brotherhood is the truest thing that anybody has said about the crisis in the Middle East. I wanted to say you hear people saying America has to get on the right side of history. You have to ask yourself, you know, would you have wanted to be on the right side of history in 1917, which led to the slaughter of 40 million people, or in China in 1949, or in Germany in 1933, or in Iran in 1979 when the Ayatollah came to power, or in Cuba in 1959.
Progressives have this idea that history is a forward march, and that just around the corner there is a better world, and a miraculously better world. And that’s why when they get power they kill so many people.
BECK: David –
HOROWITZ: But it’s obviously false. If that were true the 20th century would have been the best century – and actually from the point of view of human rights and the murder of innocents, the 20th century is the worst century in the history of mankind. So be careful before you stabilize – or applaud the destabilization of a whole region –
BECK: OK David, let me –
HOROWITZ: – Such as is happening now. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 3/04/11]
Previously: Horowitz Applauded Beck For “Educat[ing] Americans About The Unholy Alliance Between The Secular Left And The Islamic Jihadists.” From David Horowitz’s NewsReal Blog:
Bill Kristol is entitled to his optimism about democratic revolutions in the Islamic world. Perhaps the elections in Egypt will turn out better than those in Gaza where Hamas now rules a terrorist state; Iraq, which has instituted an Islamic Republic; Lebanon, where Hezbollah now rules a terrorist state; and Afghanistan, which is a kleptocracy wooing the terrorist theocracy in Iran. What he should not be doing as a conservative leader is demonizing Glenn Beck, who has done more to educate Americans about the unholy alliance between the secular left and the Islamic jihadists than anyone else. Kristol needs to apologize to Beck for comparing him — outrageously — to the conspiracist Robert Welch, and should be embarrassed by his own ignorance of the agendas of both American radicals and their jihadist allies. At this point in time, such ignorance is not only inexcusable but dangerous. [NewsReal Blog, 2/08/11]
Horowitz Has Pushed Conspiracy Theories, Fringe Views
Horowitz: DiscoverTheNetworks Shows “That There Are Only A Couple Of Degrees Of Separation Between Anybody On The Left And The Terrorists.” In a March 24, 2005, interview about his website DiscoverTheNetworks, Horowitz said:
For 20 years, I dreamed of writing a book about the left, based on the reality I carry around in my head, as somebody who spent decades on the left or studying it. … The Web provides a wonderful format, because you can put up hundreds of tables of contents, indexes and links, and you can even provide visual maps, which will show you the network on one screen. …
What I’ve shown is that there are only a couple of degrees of separation between anybody on the left and the terrorists – and that includes people in the Democratic Party, even those who are anti-terrorist.
For example, the coalition of civil liberties groups that attacked the USA Patriot Act are thoroughly penetrated by pro-terrorist radicals based in organizations like the National Lawyers Guild and the Center for Constitutional Rights. This doesn’t mean that every Democrat or every Republican who opposes the USA Patriot Act is a “useful idiot.” … But it does mean that they need to be more mindful of the arguments they are being presented with and supporting. [The Washington Times, 3/24/05, accessed via Nexis]
Horowitz’s Website Pushed Brazilian Oil Conspiracy. Like Glenn Beck, DiscoverTheNetworks pushed the conspiracy theory that Obama is trying to enrich financier and philanthropist Soros through a Brazilian oil company. The theory is based on the false claim that Obama issued a loan to Brazil’s Petrobras oil company; in reality, the loan was approved by appointees of the Bush administration to the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Kevin Varney, senior vice president and chief of staff of the bank has reportedly said that the decision to approve the loan “did not even rise to the level of presidential awareness.” Furthermore, Soros decreased his stake in Petrobras before the funds for the loan in question were distributed. [Media Matters, 10/11/10]
Horowitz Claimed There Was A Muslim Brotherhood “Infiltat[or]” At CPAC. On February 12, at CPAC, Horowitz attacked conservative activists Suhail Khan and Grover Norquist, claiming that Khan, with Norquist’s aid, “infiltrat[ed]” CPAC, the Bush White House and the conservative movement on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood. [David Horowitz’s CPAC speech, 2/12/11]
Horowitz: “Blacks Are The Human Shields Of The Democratic Party.” Horowitz called Jimmy Carter an “anti-Semite” and said “blacks are the human shields of the Democratic Party.” [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 9/16/09]
Horowitz: Professors “Are Recruting For Radical Parties, Terrorist Supporting Parties, No Question.” Horowitz claimed that university professors are “recruting for radical parties, terrorist supporting parties, no question.” [Fox News, Hannity, 9/03/10]
Gingrich To Rumsfeld: Plant Army Spies Throughout Government
Newt Gingrich recommended in a 2003 memo to then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that he “both maximize DoD’s influence on debates and to maximize the flow of information to DoD” by establishing “a system of DoD detailees throughout the federal government and where possible as overseas detached personnel for foreign governments.”
Arizona Senate Passes Bill To Let State Nullify Federal Laws
After being shot down earlier this week, the Arizona State Senate revived and successfully passed a bill that would create a mechanism for the state to nullify federal laws.
Gaffney, Jones Fight For Soul Of Anti-Sharia Movement At Rally By White House (VIDEO)
Rev. Terry Jones, the man who rose to national prominence last fall when he announced (but later backed off of) a plan to burn copies of the Koran, was clad in a beat-up black leather jacket when he showed up to a park across the street from the White House a few minutes before noon on Thursday.
Rewarding non-violence in Palestine: Send pizza to the West Bank as well as Wisconsin
Yeah well, talking about injustice in Palestine is always a thankless task. But we still gotta do it because Palestine is still a big thorn in the foot of the Middle East and if the Middle East ain’t happy, then ain’t nobody happy — at least nobody who likes to drive cars. If you want Middle […]
The Wisconsin Uprising Is a Bottom-Up Movement — Should We Hope DC Leaders Don’t Get in the Way?
Labor struggles can’t be won with TV ads, mouse-clicks or press releases.
How Telecoms and Politicians Are Using 911 Emergency Services to Scam Millions of Consumers
Raiding 911 funds is an easy way for politicians to scoop up loose cash, far easier then taxing the rich. And the telecoms are happy to charge outrageous subscription fees.
Public Employee Unions Don’t Get One Penny from Taxpayers and Can’t Require Membership, But the Big Lie That They Do Is Everywhere
Nobody has to belong to a union or support its political activities, but you’d never know that from reading the news.
The Real News on Jobs
Are we making progress on the jobs front? The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 192,000 new jobs in Februrary (220,000 new jobs in the private sector and a drop in government employment), and a drop in the overall unemployment rate…
Why Is Israel Aid Exempt From Cuts?
Once upon a time, Social Security was considered the “third rail” of American politics. The “third rail” is the train track that carries the high-voltage power; touching it means instant death. The “third rail” metaphor has for decades been applied…
Walker?s Budget Slashes Medicaid, While Increasing Funeral Assistance For Destitute Who Die
For weeks, Wisconsin has been the site of an intense battle between a Main Street Movement consisting of middle class Wisconsinites and a radical push by Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) and his allies to strip most of the state’s public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights. One of the lesser-known assaults on working class […]
For weeks, Wisconsin has been the site of an intense battle between a Main Street Movement consisting of middle class Wisconsinites and a radical push by Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) and his allies to strip most of the state’s public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights.
One of the lesser-known assaults on working class people in Walker’s most recent legislative push is his attempt to override federal Medicaid laws to place the state’s subsidized health care system, BadgerCare, under the control of the state’s Health and Human Services office, and then proceed to slash its budget and throw thousands of people off the rolls.
As In These Times’s Lindsay Beyerstein notes, this new provision in the budget is coupled with another policy which seems darkly ironic when seen alongside these Medicaid cuts. The Walker budget “recommends increasing payments to counties to cover the costs of burying Wisconsinites who die destitute” — one of the few major increases in spending to be found in the document. Indeed, on page 248 of the governor’s Health and Human Services budget, Walker recommends an “increase” in “funeral and cemetery aids”:
Yesterday, a “coalition of public-and private-sector unions is holding a jazz funeral for the welfare state in Wisconsin,” complete with a New Orleans-style procession. “If he’s going to let let them die, he’d better beef up the cemeteries,” said protest organizer Jean Ross, a co-president of co-president of National Nurses United, of Walker. “The man has no heart.”
The Fact Checker: Democrats keep misleading on claimed budget ‘cuts’
“The fact is that Democrats stand ready to meet the Republicans halfway on this. That would be fair.” — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), March 3, 2011
Federal grand jury indicts Loughner in Ariz. shootings
A federal grand jury in Arizona has indicted accused Tucson gunman Jared Lee Loughner on 49 counts in the January rampage that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others and left six dead, including a chief federal district judge.
Hacked e-mails show Web is an increasingly useful tool in dirty-tricks campaigns
Although much of K Street spends its time plying the halls of Congress on behalf of well-heeled clients, there is a growing dark side to Washington’s lobbying and public-relations industry: figuring out new ways to undermine and sabotage opponents.
Democratic legislators embracing tactic to gain leverage: Fleeing
Lawmaking can be a frustrating business, especially when you’re outnumbered. But some Democratic state legislators have recently embraced a simple tool to gain leverage: the empty chair.
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You are currently browsing the The Hollywood Liberal weblog archives for the day Saturday, March 5th, 2011.
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Cost Of The Iraq War. $4-6 Billion For a Lie. |
Where's Osama?On Sept. 11th, 2001 George Bush said he would catch bin Laden dead or alive. He never did, we used to run a counter showing how many days it had been, but Obama finally took care of it for him. Just another Bush lie. |
The Hollywood Liberal started in 2004 at the height of the Bush Administration madness in America. We were inspired by the late great Bartcop.com. The very first thing I did when the site started was to get arrested at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York. My arrest at the start of a march from The World Trade Center was later ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge. On New Years Eve 2014 the case was finally settled, with a judge awarding a class action suit that I was part of over $26 Million. I posted daily on the blog up until the end of The Bush error, and the site is now run as a history of the whole fiasco. Feel free to browse the old postings, pictures, & comics (an HL favorite) It reveals the twisted history of the times. Thanks H.L.
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