The Hollywood Liberal

Late Late Night FDL: A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts
Quongo and The Showman — A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts, from The Muppet Show, episode 513.

Quongo and The Showman –  A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts, from The Muppet Show, episode 513.

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?

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Bradley Manning Treatment Reveals Continued Government Complicity in Torture
By Marjorie Cohn Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is facing court-martial for allegedly leaking military reports and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, is being held in solitary confinement in Quantico brig in Virginia. Each night, he is forced to strip naked and sleep in a gown made of coarse material.

By Marjorie Cohn

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is facing court-martial for allegedly leaking military reports and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, is being held in solitary confinement in Quantico brig in Virginia. Each night, he is forced to strip naked and sleep in a gown made of coarse material.

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Glenn Beck Lies About NH Court Case To Continue To Vilify Public Schools

Glenn Beck falsely claimed that the New Hampshire Supreme Court prevented “parents” from home schooling their children based on a case that simply resolved a dispute between two divorced parents over the best way to educate their daughter. Beck has previously demonized public schools for “indoctrinat[ing]” children and “beg[ged]” people to home-school their children.

Beck: NH Supreme Court Is Denying Parents The Right To Home-School Children

From the March 24 edition of Premiere Radio Networks’ The Glenn Beck Program:

GLENN BECK: There is a story today out of New Hampshire, and they have the Supreme Court. I don’t have it — shoot, I left it in the other room. The Supreme Court has–of New Hampshire–has just said that a child who was getting home-schooled has to be put into public school because the religious teachings of their parents is limiting their exposure to too much. And so the Supreme Court of the “Live Free or Die” state has said, yeah, the kid’s got to go to public school, against the parents’ wishes. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Glenn Beck Program, 3/24/11]

But The Case Had Nothing To Do With The Right To Home-Schooling

AP: “Divorced Parents Who Couldn’t Agree On How To Educate Their Daughter Have Brought Their Fight To New Hampshire’s Highest Court.” The Associated Press reported:

Divorced parents who couldn’t agree on how to educate their daughter have brought their fight to New Hampshire’s highest court in a case that looks at whether families have a constitutional right to home-school their kids.

Religious freedom groups have trumpeted the cause of Brenda Voydatch of Meredith, who home-schooled her 11-year-old daughter, Amanda, from first through fourth grade.

Voydatch claims her rights were violated when a court ordered that Amanda attend public school, after the girl’s father, Martin Kurowski, said his ex-wife’s strict Christian teachings were socially isolating their child and they could not settle on an alternative to home-schooling.

[…]

Kurowski wanted his daughter exposed to different points of view and more opportunities for social interaction than home school afforded, court documents state.

Voydatch sent her daughter to public school in Meredith for certain classes, such as gym and art, but home-schooled her using education materials from Bob Jones University, a fundamental Christian college in South Carolina.

Family Division Judge Lucinda Sadler ordered in 2009 that Amanda begin attending public school that fall after the parents failed to agree on a private or parochial school. The judge said the ruling did not infringe on the parents’ religious freedom because “both are free to provide religious guidance” to their child. [The Associated Press, 9/29/09]

Beck: Obama Is Indoctrinating High School Students Via Internship Opportunities. From the February 1, 2010, edition of Beck’s Fox News show:

BECK: I just showed you the necessary ingredients for eroding freedom, and one of the keys, long-term, is education. Oh, that’s ridiculous, Glenn, they’re not, they’re — really? Education’s not controlled by the progressive agenda or even by the administration? Really? Well, then tell me a little bit about this. Obama, through Organizing for America, has announced new internships at high schools. They are now recruiting our high school students to, quote, “build on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering students across the country to help us bring about our agenda.” End quote.

[…]

During the first week, in the curriculum — national intern organizer curriculum — suggested readings: Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. That’s on the reading list. In the first week. Now, if you want your kid reading this book, you’re either a progressive, a Marxist, or you don’t know what’s in it. Things like, don’t worry about it, the ends justify the means. Really? Wow, I didn’t learn that from my president. Any other president. This is the second step in the Che indoctrination. First, you get the kids the T-shirt, and then you read them Saul Alinsky in school, recommended by the president. Maybe we should start printing Saul T-shirts right now. What do you say?  [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 2/1/10]

Beck “Beg[s]” Retirees To Home-School Their Grandchildren Because Children Are Being “Indoctrinated.” From the March 24, 2010 edition of Beck’s Fox News show:

BECK: Too many great Americans have retired. And now you’re playing golf or whatever. And you’ve earned it, you have, and you probably planned your whole life to do whatever it is you’re doing now. I beg you, please, come back into service of your country, but in a different way. Our children don’t know what America really is. They are being indoctrinated. And, sometimes they just don’t see the values of family. Please, help your children out by helping your grandchildren. Talk to your family. If you can — I know this is a scary idea. We do it in my house, and it is frightening. But, man, you won’t believe the difference in your children. Please consider home-schooling.  [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 10/20/10]

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Woops, Newt Did It Again: Trying To Defend Libya Flip-Flop, Gingrich Reverses Himself On Air Power

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich went on Fox News last night to “attempt[] to clarify [his] stance on Libya,” as Fox itself put it, but only ran into more trouble. Gingrich has been in hot water since ThinkProgress caught him doing a complete 180 reversal on his stance regarding intervention in Libya — from demanding intervention “this evening” to saying “I would not have intervened.”

Gingrich has since tried multiple times to rectify the two conflicting statements, failing to do so each time. And last night with Greta Van Susteren, the same show where his Libya problems first began, Gingrich only dug himself deeper when he attacked Obama for making a “fundamental mistake” by relying on air power to protect civilians in Libya:

GINGRICH: If they’re serious about protecting civilians, you can’t do that from the air. Gadaffi is going to use light infantry, he’s going to use his secret police. He’s going to be in the cities, he’s going to be inside buildings. Your not going to be able to do that with air power. This is a fundamental mistake. And I think is a typical politician’s over-reliance on air power.

But two weeks ago on the exact same program, Gingrich said “all we have to do” to stop the Qadaffi regime from “slaughtering your own citizens” is use air power:

GINGRICH: All we have to say is that slaughtering your own citizens is unacceptable, and we’re intervening. And we don’t have to send troops, all we have to do is suppress his air force, which we can do in minutes. And then we have to say, publicly, that he is gone, that the military should switch sides now. … The fact there’s no more Libya air power, and the fact that the United States has come out decisively for replacing him, I suspect the military will dump him.

Watch a compilation:

Gingrich tried to explain his incoherent stances by telling Van Susteren that he is merely responding to what Obama does. “I was responding in each case to changes in Obama’s positon,” he said last night. Indeed, no matter what Obama does, Gingrich will be sure to oppose it — even if he supported that exact policy two weeks ago.

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