This is almost sad. Via The Guardian:
For America’s beleaguered liberals, Monday’s New York Times reports what sounds like a dream come true: Fox News is considering parting company with Glenn Beck, the rococo conspiracy theorist who inspires those on the swivel-eyed right and infuriates anyone to their left.
Wait a minute…Beck infuriates the left?!? While it may be true that some years ago Glenn Beck was a low-level chronic irritant who, on occasion, rose to the level of infuriating—like when he claimed with a straight fact that “Barack Obama has a deep-seated hatred of white people”—well…not so much lately. Seriously…has Glenn gotten under your skin lately? Or just made you snicker when you saw something about him on Comedy Central? These days Glenn Beck has taken on new importance as a crazy-rich vein of blogger’s gold.
Remember in late 2008 how many comedians lamented the departure of George W. Bush with no President McCain in the stars? Comedians saw a McCain/Palin administration as a mother lode of comic, freaking, gold, perhaps as rich as Bush/Cheney. Obama/Biden? Eh…not so much. A comic order of magnitude separates Biden shooting off his mouth from Dick Cheney shooting his friend in the face….
In the same way, all of us dirty hippie, commie-pinko, gun-fearin’, Bill Ayres-palling, tax-loving, abortion-eating, leftist bloggers now are alarmed by the demise of the wackiest clown in FAUX News’ impressive line-up of wacky clowns. You see, even on the slowest of news days, even on days when the pressures of blogging induced cognitive constipation, even when the day’s news was so terrible it killed the joy of writing, we could always look up the crazy things Glenn Beck did or said that day for a little blogging fodder with comic relief.
Alas, the comics’ fears in 2008 never materialized. The election of a black man with a funny sounding name catalyzed a modest-sized assemblage of right-wingers to jump off the deep end into a cesspool of insanity that keeps comedians well stocked with material.
So maybe my fears are unfounded; Glenn Beck will not abandon us left wing Bloggers. He’s wealthy. He’s driven. He has a deep-seated hatred of not being loved by white people. I think we can anticipate bigger and crazier crazy.
I would have to agree, because with conspiracy artists, they don’t let facts get in the way of their message. And if Fox drops his show, then he can lampoon the media in general of trying to shut when up.
“when the day’s news was so terrible it killed the joy of writing, we could always look up the crazy things Glenn Beck did or said that day for a little blogging fodder with comic relief.”
This is a go-to slacker proceedure for lefty bloggers and sites. The constant appearance of the c%#t from Wasilla is the same tired thing.
You’re to blame for their 15 minutes turning into 15 years. It’s all your fault. Think of the children… I implore you.
Bwahhh Haa Haaaaa!!!
Us Dirty Fucking Hippies(tm) claim another conservative scalp. Silencing the opposition one turd at a time!!!!
(…if only.)
Heh.
I’m thinking that Roger Ailes has been meeting with the financial interests and leadership which controls the Republican Party, and decided that Beck is more trouble than he’s worth.
The whole Tea Party thing was envisioned as an idea to (a) resurrect the shattered morale of the Republican Party, (b) re-brand the Republicans – the former GOP brand was so tarnished it was an embarrasement for candidates, and (c) to harness the deep-seated anger among the white middle-America that they were being sold out by the Wall Street money managers, bankers, and the politicians they have on their payroll.
But it’s been a difficult balancing act. On the one hand, keeping candidates like Palin and O’Donnell out front raises money and courts enthusiasm from the Tea Party, but it has the down side that it takes money away from the “serious candidates” and in O’Donnel’s case, lost Republicans a Senate seat.
Media personalities like Hannity, Limbaugh, O’Reilly, and Beck make other Republicans look rather reasonable in comparision, but then their rants can send them off on binges which can be outright embarrassing. I’m wondering if Fox News is actually seeing some drop-off of viewership based on the amount of publicity about it’s roles as the Republican propoganda arm, rather than as a “fair and balanced” news source.
I won’t miss him. As entertaining as he can be to mock, too many people take him too seriously. He’s like Alex Jones but with a bigger audience, and getting him off the airwaves would be Rupert Murdoch’s greatest (and only?) service to our country.
Beck’s never gotten under my skin, that the rest of the media lets him spin lies and rarely takes him or Fox to task for it gets under my skin.
Darryl says: “He’s wealthy. He’s driven. He has a deep-seated hatred of not being loved by white people. I think we can anticipate bigger and crazier crazy.”
Why is Darryl conflating Soros with Beck?
Watching Glennn Beck is like watching the Charlie Sheen interviews: 1. a waste of time, 2. painful, to see an insane, melted-down person not getting the help they need, 3. Depressing, to think that times are so desperate that somewhere someone is taking it all seriously.
So, no, he isn’t someone who rises to loving to hate.
@8: George Soros wants to be liked by white people? Huh?
re 8: could there be a more egregious right wing dumbass (besides Puddybud) who spews in these threads?
How many rich “white people” gave a portion of their portfolios to George Soros to hedge over the years?
Even if they lost money it was all part of the game to hedge their bets against the future.
But if they made money – nothing but love! And judging by Soros’ net worth – a lot of it.
People laughed at young Hitler, too, but that doesn’t make him comical.
@3 Conservatives should be silent because they have nothing to say. But if they won’t be silent because they don’t know any better, the public should stop listening to them because they have nothing to say.
If Faux drops Beck, it won’t be due to some ethical or ideological epiphany in Faux’s executive sweet; it’ll be the result of an organized consumer boycott of Beck’s sponsors.
These are depressing times. It almost feels like this is the End Times, with labor unions and the middle class on the ropes, and corporate power triumphant.
But wait … corporations are nothing without customers, and WE HAVE THE POWER to destroy them — simply by refusing to be their customers.
As the website below proclaims, “Corporations have no defense against organized, targeted boycotts. They can’t make you buy their products.”
Want to get in on the organized, targeted boycott action? Go to this website:
http://buyingfreeze.org/
And if you’d like to help the folks who are embarrassing non-taxpaying rich corporations by picketing their corporate offices, go to this website:
http://www.usuncut.org/
We may be witnessing the death throes of organized labor, but we are still here; and the internet is a potentially more powerful tool for organizing a populist revolt against corporate power’s stranglehold on Americans’ lives than unions ever were. So let’s make use of it.
@11 Why even bother to reply to such a troll? He’s his own best propagandist. Anyone who reads #8 will see through it — if he doesn’t die laughing.
New Wisconsin Poll Devastating For Walker
The latest Wisconsin opinion poll, released today by Wisconsin Policy Research Institute,* shows a dramatic flip-flop of public sentiment in that state as voters are turning against Gov. Walker, who now has a negative approval rating — 43% approve vs. 53% disapprove — with a sky-high 45% of Wisconsin residents “strongly disapproving” of Walker’s performance in office.
Meanwhile, President Obama’s approval ratings in Wisconsin are up 10 points since November, now at 53% approve vs. 42% disapprove. And 59% of Wisconsinites have a favorable opinion of public unions.
As Michael Moore said, Walker has “awakened a sleeping giant.”
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com.....-wisconsin
* According to Wikipedia, Wisconsin Policy Research Institute “is a non-profit conservative think tank advocating free market economics in the state of Wisconsin.”
Other News: Sen. John Ensign (Rep – NV) is announcing that he won’t be running for re-election in 2012. He was considered vulnerable, since the news broke that he had an affair with a staffer’s wife, and tried to cover it up by promising a lobbying job to the husband, as well as having his parents pay the couple in excess of 90K in “damages”.
Without Glen Beck, folks will actually have to write comedy instead of just showing Glen Beck clips. This is going to be MUCH harder. I’ll miss the radiantly stupid magnificence that is Glen Beck.
16 – Wisconsinites will recall that lunatic bastard come next January if they have any sense and judging by the simple fact that he was elected – they might not any sense or enough of it anyway.
But of course first they have to recall some idiot Republicans in the State Senate there to block the right wing lunacy – send a few spare coppers to Wisdems.org for the recall effort if you can spare it.
Hopefully the Evergreen Freedom Foundation will continue to fund and bring
GlennClown Beck toimportant community eventsEFF circus shows. Mooselini LOVES the clown.Also too, the Jews are part of the Islamist conspiracy. …somehow. see the magic chalk board.
@17
I always thought that ‘parents paying off the paramour/spouse’ thingy was really weird.
Then I read somewhere the the good Senator Ensign is the idiot son of some rich conservative businessman/crook and then it all made sense.
What a pathetic political culture we have in thsi country.
@21 The political culture in ALL countries is pathetic. We need to stop thinking we’re somehow different because we’re a democracy.*
* Maybe we’re still a democracy on paper, but in reality our democracy has been co-opted by corporate power answering to no one. Which makes us resemble the former USSR.
Now that I think about it, who could have predicted the Republican Party would turn America into a Soviet clone?
@23
I don’t think we’re becoming a Soviet clone, rather, we’re converging with China into a freedom-less state with glitzy consumer baubles, run by a corrupt and amoral elite.
Totalitarian Klepto-Capitalism
Take Charlie Sheen, bleach his hair nearly white, shove a hose up his ass and inflate him with laughing gas, and the result is Glenn Beck.
Beck’s ratings are down 39%. In my estimation, he went too far with the schoolteacher schtick. It’s an authority figure most of his audience ultimately do not like — especially the History/Civics persona. As I recall, most of the dummies found history ‘boring’ and hard to remember — and, as we all know: stupid people are always conservative.
k
# 27: If I recall, Beck never completed more than one class of college. He claims to have been “self educated” in history and politics by reading books in libraries.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with educating yourself from books in the library. But it’s a mistake to think that is the equivilent of a college education. In a good college, the professor makes you read books which say things with which you may not agree, requires you to discuss and defend your opinions with references to exact passages of the reading materials, and gives you a context in which to view the book.
Beck lacks all of this, he only reads things which he already agrees with, and allows nobody to test him on his thesis.
Headless: stupid people are always conservative.
LIAR!! You’re banned, liar! buh-bye!
LIAR! LIAR! LIAR! LIAR!
In a fair and just world, Glenn Beck would get buggered by a cell of Islamic terrorists and he would realize that he liked it.
Actually ArtFart, you’re close. Sheen was fired today from his sitcom. My guess is that Faux will hire him to replace Glenn Feckless. The new show will be called “One-half A Man”.
@ 19 YLB
I’ve already sent 3 donations to the Wisconsin Recall (hey, I figure they need early money to be printing the petitions) plus a few donations to the WisDems14 (figure it looks good as those ActBlue funds keep creeping up fast).
Maybe they can’t use the funds for hotel/food costs right now, but it’s money just waiting for reelection campaigns when they’re not even campaigning at the moment! Piling up, non-Koch type stigma, has to look scary to the Reps up for recall.
On the Ed Show tonight, they spoke with a guy heading up the recall effort on WI Rep. Sen Alberta Darling (10:42min, link below). She’s the Co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, staunchly in Walker’s corner, really needs to go. Rachel Maddow reported tonight that they had already gotten 25% of the signatures needed to recall Darling – ALREADY! They just started this recall!
Ed Show
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21.....9#41898399
As far as Beck goes, it’s not been funny watching a man spiraling endlessly into insanity. I’ve been boycotting his advertisers for months.
But I do agree that they’re realizing he is a blight that’s just making Republicans look like buffoons and that’s why they’re putting him out to pasture. Good riddance!
Actually Beck has a deep-seated desire for the truth and was just proven right about the White House’s double-counting mumbo-jumbo on ObamaCare/Medicare savings of $500 BILLION.
Obama says we are taking $500Billion out of Medicare to fund ObamaCare…yet his own Budget shows he is NOT taking anything out of Medicare.
Sebellius just cracked under intense questioning. She admitted they were using the same $500 BILLION twice! Finally!!
Obama will never be believed again.
Read about it–
http://nation.foxnews.com/obam.....ere-cooked
and watch the video of the questioning directly. It’s hysterical when she finaly admits BOTH were credited.
Accounting 101
Beck did several shows on this.
Beck was right.
The truth is out
Everybody knows that Glenn has been held back by the liberal media executives at Fox. They’re probably parting ways with him to get into Canada to spew their poop there too.
@34: No, he has a deep-seated hatred of educated people, educators, and anyone who cares about facts and truth. He’s the national version of the Texas Curriculum Commission that decided not to teach about Thomas Jefferson or the Civil Rights movement.
xar-
good thing that excludes you and the other fucked in the head progtards on this blog, huh?
Yeah right!
http://politifact.com/personalities/glenn-beck/
I don’t see all that much concern for the truth in that record.
A word of advice – your lead in there is not likely to inspire confidence in your critical thinking skills.
And your evidence for this $500 Billion malfeasance is not just Fox, but Fox pushing the rantings of John Shimkus, the RAVING LOON who pontificates against global warming because it just cannot be true because in the bible god promised not to flood the earth again?!
You really will need to do better than that, bozo.
@37: Huh? Are you implying that I’m uneducated? I can’t speak for everyone else, but I have two graduate degrees. I may have many faults, but being uneducated is not one of them.
@37: Huh? Are you implying that I’m uneducated? I can’t speak for everyone else, but I have two graduate degrees. I may have many faults, but being uneducated is not one of them. I know RR has a law degree as well.
*Doh. Sorry for the double post.
# 41, 42: I strongly suspect that if we were to compare the advanced education credentials of the commentators on this blog, it would be rather embarrasing to the wingnut trolls here.
But, of course, at that point they would start arguing that education doesn’t mean much, anyway…
The right wing has never allowed consistency, let alone facts, get in the way of their desired talking points.
@44: They’d start with the elitist BS, which we know is BS because they’ve been resorting to calling teachers and firefighters elitists.
Fucking Koch suckers.
A future without Obama would be much better! Oh by the way:
Gross Eliminates Government Debt From Pimco’s Flagship Total Return Fund
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/.....ports.html
No one want the Ponzi Debt the Democraps are wracking up!
A happy day in the HA.org comment threads will be the (LD)IOT touting the presidency of Sara Palin or New Gringrich. Roll the tapes of Mittens Romney making a total ass of himself in the primaries of 2007/2008 if the fatuous signer of Romneycare pretends to the throne.
The comments threads would be a poorer place indeed without the LD(IOT) touting yet another sinking ship. Dino Lossi anyone?
Looking forward to it.
@14
although I belive that boycott is the only power left to the individual, do not be so sure of it’s power, have a look at what the ultra right wing propose in the Israeli parliment.
Israeli citizens proposing or agreeing with boycotts could go to goal and/or be fined under this law, and companies who lose money can demand reperation from those who boycott them.
But then again , this is just the view from a small country ( Ireland) where the people are being made pay the bills of capitolism red in tooth and claw ….until the banks want someone to pay the bills, welfare for banksters