President Obama’s Special Adviser for Green Jobs Van Jones resigned last weekend after being attacked for a few weeks by Fox “News” commenter Glenn Beck.
Beck started his tirades after ColorofChange.org, a pressure group Jones co-founded that “exists to strengthen Black America’s political voice,” launched a campaign to encourage advertising sponsors to drop his show, after Beck said on 28 July that President Obama has “a deep-seeded hatred for white people … This guy is, I believe, a racist.” The campaign has had an impact: 46 advertisers have left.
The fallout? Ryan Grim on HuffPo quotes Mark Kleiman for a comparison with faint praise: “If you want to say batsh*t-crazy stuff and still be treated as a respectable participant in the national debate, you’d better be a Republican.”
To the barricades, progressives, against appeasement for McCarthyite extremists like Beck, or a prudent decision by the administration in the case of a man who signed a 9/11 “truther” petition, called Republicans “assholes,” and, apparently according to Kleiman, says “batsh*t-crazy stuff.”
david says
is to call someone an asshole in a setting where you can’t be penalized for it. đŸ˜‰
bob-neer says
Apparently.
neilsagan says
Cheney told Leahy to go fuck himself.
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p>Can we conclude calling Republicans “assholes” for ramming bills through when Bush was president was not the reason Van Jones was fired, and move on to the other charges levied by Glenn Beck and the right wing Wurlitzer?
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p>By the way, “Becuase they’re assholes” was an answer to a question posed to him. The audience clapped.
weare-mann says
Official history is funny that way. It does not like to be questioned. Especially by someone in government. Get along by believing in the official JFK and MLK assassination stories, Iraq and Iran nuclear threat stories. And on and on…
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p>Would your government lie to you?
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p>”If you do not wish to be lied to, do not ask questions. If there were no questions, there would be no lies.”
~~B. Traven
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p>
howland-lew-natick says
…on his taxes as the others? That’s acceptable.
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p>“The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has. Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don’t know when it’s through if you are a crook or a martyr. –Will Rogers
neilsagan says
Van Jones “signed” the petition before the 9/11 commission produce a report. He and other signers said the organizers of the petition, which sought their signatures, both misrepresented and changed the content after they gave consent.
christopher says
I’ve probably signed a petition or two on the fly which maybe I shouldn’t have. Besides, this is an advisor without a Senate advice/consent requirement, right? As such he should only be vetted to determine that he’s not a national security risk. Otherwise if the President trusts him and values his counsel that’s really all that matters.
kirth says
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p>* Alleged by Stan Freberg
neilsagan says
Stop Glenn Beck’s race baiting – Fox’s Glenn Beck recently said President Obama is “a racist” and has a “deep-seated hatred for white people.” Beck is on a campaign to convince the American public that President Obama’s agenda is about serving the needs of Black communities at White people’s expense. It’s repulsive, divisive and shouldn’t be on the air.
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p>Join us in calling on Beck’s advertisers to stop sponsoring his show.
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p>http://www.ColorOfChange.org petition
neilsagan says
Media Matters reports, here are Glenn Beck’s September 8 sponsors, in the order they appeared:
* Rosland Capital
* Hydrolyze
* The Foundation for a Better Life
* Carbonite
* Citrix (GoToMeeting)
* Topdot Mortgage
* News Corp. (The Wall Street Journal)
* Lear Capital
* Clarity Media Group (The Weekly Standard)
* National Geographic Society (National Geographic Channel)
* IRSTaxAgreements.com
* Independent Women Forum
* Zero Technologies (ZeroWater)
* Loan modification help line 1-888-336-5967
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p>If you drop them an email, tell them to move their advertising off Glenn Beck and why. For updates on the effort, check the seminal at FDL:
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p>Eleven more advertisers ditch Glenn Beck By: James Rucker
kirth says
The ones I wrote to dumped Beck. Here’s Neil’s list with email or other contact info when I could find it:
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p>Rosland Capital: contact@roslandcapital.com
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p>Hydrolyze: None found
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p>The Foundation for a Better Life:
http://www.values.com/about-us…
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p>Carbonite: david.friend@carbonite.com
334 Boylston St – 3rd floor
Boston, MA 02116
617-587-1100
Toll Free: 877-665-4466
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p>Citrix (GoToMeeting):
http://www.citrixonline.com/co…
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p>Topdot Mortgage:
http://www.topdot.com/ContactU…
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p>News Corp WSJ (probably a waste of time):
robert.christie@dowjones.com
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p>Lear Capital:
Lear Capital, Inc
1990 S. Bundy Dr., Ste 600
Los Angeles, CA 90025
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p>Clarity Media Group (The Weekly Standard) (and another waste of time):
info@claritymediagroup.com
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p>IRSTaxAgreements.com: None found
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p>Independent Women’s Forum: a right-wing group. No email, but you cam find their twitter/facebook/etc. contacts on the home page, if you really want.
http://www.iwf.org/
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p>Zero Technologies:
customerservice@zerowater.com
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p>Loan modification help line 1-888-336-5967:
Seems to be a realtor group. There are three of them on this page:
http://thephoenixagents.com/co…
mcrd says
His crazy statements alone were enough to disaqualify him. Attempting to get a convicted first degree murderer off of death row is icing on the cake. Being as self described communist and glorifying seditious conduct is another eye opener.
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p>You cannot defend the indefensible. As for Glenn Beck. He may be a loon—but please enlighten which of his statements are inaccurate or patently false.
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p>Harken back to the 60’s and 70’s. The Republican grass roots are finally learning the lessons of the 60’s and 70’s radicals (AKA as leftists and Progressives):Scorched Earth a la William Tecumseh Sherman.
neilsagan says
Glenn Beck throws the words Marxist and NAZI around a lot.
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p>I don’t think it would take 10 minutes on YouTube to find Glenn Beck telling an outrageous lie, slander or liabling whomever he is targeting that day.
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p>”The Republican grass roots are finally learning the lessons of the 60’s and 70’s radicals (AKA as leftists and Progressives):Scorched Earth a la William Tecumseh Sherman.”
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p>Republicans have been taking down Democratic presidents since the 90’s using whatever pejoratives work; lying about a blow job; palls around with domestic terrorist unaccountable czras; black man has a scary black man as a preacher. It’s all fear and smear. You can’t see it, can you?
neilsagan says
The Afrikaner Party Draws First Blood: Van Jones, Barack Obama and the Audacity of Capitulation
by Tim Wise, September 7, 2009, 6:08 am
bluestateblues says
…from David Sirota: “Glenn Beck Counts For More At the Obama White House” Than the Progressive Movement.
lasthorseman says
In my worldview this has all the relevance of professional wrestling. Politics driven by commercial media falls into Hegelian Dialectic which today is undeniable. Media is pounding irrelevant talking points into “the public debate” leading sheeple to their own demise.
renting-in-mass says
Glenn Beck is one scary dude. He’s half sociopath and half paranoid schizophrenic. I hadn’t watched any video of him until recently. Yikes. How have people not noticed that he’s crazy?
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p>I’m not an expert on Van Jones, but I watched his keynote speech at the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly last year (not an organization prone to inviting crazy, radical extremists). He seemed like a smart, charismatic guy with some great ideas and the ability to sell them. Glenn Beck’s insane charts linking him to Obama’s secret communist cabal didn’t convince me otherwise.
somervilletom says
As fictional Prime Minister Francis Urquhart was fond of saying “Perhaps its time to throw around a bit of stick.”
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p>I’d like to point out that Carbonite is a local company, conveniently located on Boylston Street downtown. Glenn Beck is not the first right-wing asshole sponsored by Carbonite, nor will he be the last. As I recall, he’s been a sponsor of our local WRKO rightwing assholes for a very long time.
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p>He’s already on record, in his own words, about the question:
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p>Funny how Mr. Friend doesn’t include “truth from lies”, “commentators from bigots”, or similarly fine distinctions.
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p>Perhaps its time for us to help Mr. Friend (CEO) better understand that his financial support for rightwing thugs like Mr. Beck is becoming a burden for his company, employees, and most importantly, his investors.
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p>Am I calling for some sort of action against Carbonite? Again to quote the infamous FU … “You might think that, but I could not possibly comment.”
huh says
While it’s true that no one is forced to listen to Glenn Beck, it’s also true that Mr. Beck’s actions and words directly negatively affect me and no one is forcing Carbonite (not Mr. Friend) to sponsor him. Are right wing radio listeners really the target audience for online backup?
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p>BTW, everyone I know that’s tried the Carbonite product has had nothing but problems. Boycotting them may be moot.
syphax says
I used it for a couple years without problems, but have since switched to DropBox, which offers syncing of files between computers as well as off-site backup. Founded by MIT nerds. Highly recommended: http://getdropbox.com/
stomv says
I use it all the dang time. Only hard part is getting others to sign on… but once they’re on it’s so much easier to do collaboration.
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p>Ok, not as great as svn from the command line, but a close second.
syphax says
It’s all github these days.
syphax says
stomv says
but git isn’t enough of an improvement over svn in the way I’m using svn to warrant switching mid-project. I suspect that there are many projects in similar situations.
shiltone says
How about parsing “bat-sh|t crazy” from “not bat-sht crazy”; most advertisers can wrap their heads around that.
jconway says
How is this relevant? Shouldn’t we be using the time and energy to boycott Beck to instead get our legislators to enact universal healthcare? If you fight him his power will only grow, the key to disarming a bigot is to stop listening and paying attention.
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p>Also frankly anyone who signed a ‘truther’ petition is about as smart and informed as someone who signed a ‘birther’ petition. Seriously guys Obama is a natural born citizen AND Bush didn’t start 9/11. I don’t know if I’d want the green jobs czar who held a viewpoint so clearly stupid and irrational.
david says
In this instance, I don’t think that’s true. I think going after Beck’s advertisers is an excellent strategy. Beck is an entertainer first, who believes that he has zeroed in on a stage persona that makes a lot of money for himself and his network. If that can be shown not to be true, he’s in big trouble.
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p>Also, I’ve seen Van Jones in action, and he’s very impressive. I have no idea why he signed the truther petition; obviously that was a bad idea. But the guy is no slouch.
jconway says
I have seen Rev. Wright in action, brilliant public speaker and he has done great things out here in the South Side to fight inner city poverty, keep black families together, and curb gang violence. That said he has some incredibly stupid and irrational viewpoints that disqualify him from advising a President, I would argue Mr. Jones fits a similar capacity. Let him go back to doing what he was doing.
david says
solely on his having signed that one petition? If so, quite a leap. I’m not aware of any other “stupid and irrational viewpoints” credibly attributed to him — the “assholes” comment, in context, was quite funny and also accurate.
somervilletom says
I’m not sure I’m that disturbed by Mr. Jones signing the 2004 petition. I’d like to understand what, if anything, he did after signing it. A great many people had similar questions at that time, and it isn’t surprising to me that such petitions were circulated and widely signed. The distinction I draw between this and “Birther” movement is that (1) the “Truther” movement, by and large, all but disappeared once the questions were answered, and (2) public officials — especially Democrats — never encouraged Truther suspicions. I see nothing particularly wrong with asking questions, getting answers, and moving on. That sounds, to my reading, like what Mr. Jones did.
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p>Meanwhile, I heard nothing “stupid and irrational” in Rev. Wright’s impassioned sermons. Challenging to the mythology of the white ruling classes, perhaps. Isn’t that what preachers are supposed to do?
jconway says
He believes that white people generate the AIDS virus to hurt black people, he is also one of the most anti-semetic speakers the University allowed on campus who believes that blacks are the original Jews and that the whites living in Israel, many of whom are survivors or are descended from survivors of the Holocaust are ‘Nazis and war criminals for supporting apartheid against the real black Jews of Palestine” etc. Much of what he believes about Jews seems to be appropriated from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
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p>Also I completely disagree that the truther movement had any legitimacy. You have to be either blindly partisan or just plain stupid to think that the President, especially one as incompetent at managing the country, directing national security, and keeping state secrets as Bush could have possibly been the mastermind behind 9/11. The truthers think that Israel, the CIA, the Illuminati, or some other conspiracy/cabal blew up the towers and not Al Qaeda. The more rational truthers simply think Bush deliberately ignored terror warnings to allow a pretext for war. That is insane and it is just as insane as the birthers.
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p>Your right about one thing BrooklineTom, the GOP does sanction the birthers and give credence to their lunacy/idiocy. It is clear by firing Van Jones that President Obama, thankfully, does not give similar sanction to lunatics on our side of the spectrum.
somervilletom says
Sorry, but there is nothing in the petition that says anything about “masterminding”, Illuminati, Israel, CIA, or all that stuff. While I agree that the Truther’s went crazy in the years after this petition, none of this was present in the petition that Mr. Jones signed.
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p>Do you have clips of full sermons (or similar pieces) to support your allegations about Rev. Wright? You repeat right-wing talking points against Rev. Wright — can you offer clips to show that any of them have substance? I’m reminded of the similar flood of allegations from the SwiftBoat camp, none of them substantiated.
neilsagan says
I’ve been doing both, working to get HCR and trying to help Beck lose advertisers.
neilsagan says
Who cares? Just about everybody posting on this thread.
kirth says
Glenn Beck Didn’t Rape And Murder Anyone… But He Doesn’t Want Websites Discussing It