For Eric Massa

Just a little something to make your tickle fights  more fun:

You can thank me later.

-Johanna

Lest He Forget

Obama’s love of Teleprompter  extends even into the elementary schools, lest he forget (his words of course). God forbid he make a tragic mistake in front of the children, you know, like misspelling p-0-t-a-t-o-e, err p-o-t-a-t-o. The media would never let him live it down.

-Johanna

PS: Another great post by Lori Z here.

Yay for the Daily Caller!

So my good friend Mike Slater and I have had several conversations about how much we like HuffPo even though it is radically Leftist. We have also wondered on numerous occasions, why those of us on the right do not have a worthy equivalent. Well, I am totally excited to announce that we FINALLY have our answer. It comes in the form of a website started by Tucker Carlson, called the Daily Caller, and it launched today. Conservatives, we have an awesome site where we can go to find the latest in news, opinions, sports, and entertainment all consolidated in one place. How cool is that? The best part is that Jim Treacher who happens to be one of my favorite bloggers is heading up a blog on the website called the DC Daily Trawler. So go! Check it out. You won’t regret it.

-Johanna

If Harry Reid wrote The Door’s *The End*

Yes, I know this is incredibly cheesy and stuff, but I just couldnt help myself. What’s a gal to do?

This is the end

I can’t win again, the end

I’m losing all my friends, the end

Of all my healthcare plans, the end

Can I just move to Cannes? the end

No one will vote for me, the end

Even though I said sorry, the end

My word’s are too racist-y, the end

I think I need to pee.

This is the end

I can’t win again, the end

I’m losing all  my friend’s, the end

This is the end

-Johanna

Common Sense ch. 1

by Andrea Burke

Common Sense continues to be a book of abstractions in chapter 1. Beck’s (with Joseph Kerry) phrasing could reach anyone who has a beef with the government.

Example: “Most Americans remain convinced that the country is on the wrong track. They know that SOMETHING JUST DOESN’T FEEL RIGHT but they don’t know how to describe it or, more importantly, how to stop it. But just because you may not know exactly what your gut is saying, doesn’t mean what you’re feeling is wrong. It’s not. Something hasn’t been right for a very long time.

“America has been slowly pulled off the course charted for us in Philadelphia more than two centuries ago…but it feels as though the new conductor has just increased the speed at which our misdirected train is traveling.” ( Beck’s emphasis, p. 8-9 Common Sense)

Whatever is in the pit of anyone’s stomach, Beck just confirmed it. No matter what you think is wrong with America, if you think its off track, you’re right. Beck just affirmed millions of Americans to embrace their fears-whatever they may be- and embrace their role as “the current guardians of freedom.”

Fear, after all, is a cornerstone in Beck’s program. Fear of what will happen, where this country is headed, and that we’re departing from the founding fathers ways, who he throws in everywhere he can to back up a point he isn’t actually making.

He even uses (and I mean uses) God to sell his point.

“Our Founding Fathers understood that our rights and liberties are gifts from God. They also understood that WE are an intuitive people. If all that is true, it only makes sense that HE would alert us to our impeding loss.

“And now He is- shame on us for ignoring him for so long.”

Is Glenn Beck claiming to be a prophet from God, warning us of an “impending loss?” Or maybe Beck is saying God is that feeling in your stomach?

2 questions: Who is God to Beck? and what is God warning us of?

Because that’s my biggest problem with the Republican party, the pundits on the right, and this book- It’s the “What if” game x100. Remember Glenn Beck’s War Room or End-of-Days show- I can’t remember what it was called- where he talked about bleak senarios to “prepare” (or scare?) his viewers?

The right seems to operating on an entire system of the guessing game- “If they pass this, fill in your own worst nightmare will happen!”

This is getting long, so I’m going to shut it down.

Chapter 1: part 2, coming later this week.

Common Sense intro

by Andrea Burke

These posts are coming later than I wanted because I took a much-needed break from politics, but I’m back with Beck.

“We” start our journey in 1776, because “we” are in 1776 according to Beck (expect a post on this later) because “the abuses being perpetrated by the government are just as obvious now as they were then” (he doesn’t name any specific ones yet, I’ve only read through Ch. 1)  And Beck is off and running with the “we” and “You” statements. I picture him wearing an electric pink turban waving his hands over a crystal ball…

“I think I know who you are.” he murmurs.

“Youuuuuu sometimes argue with friend about politics…but You also have an open mind and a warm heart.”

“Youuuuuu have credit cards, but you pay them off.”

“You have a flat screen TV”

“You may go to church, but most weeks you don’t want to”

“After September 11, 2001, you thought our country had changed for the better. But the months that followed proved otherwise.” (all of these “YOU” quotes can be found on page 3)

Wow. He knows you! and me! I mean, these large generalizations only fit most Americans!

Kidding aside, I’ve had one serious question about Beck: What is his end game?

Because he’s very suspicious of where America is headed under the new administration, but where are those he’s leading headed?

If he’s comparing now to 1776, is he calling for revolution? And how?

In the note from the author, Beck makes it clear that its not violence “Violence is the easy way out, but its also a sure path to discrediting everything you stand for.”

And if you wonder any of these questions with me, Beck writes in the intro that he’ll lay out his ideas and “several options” in Common Sense. I think he’ll be answering the very questions I posed which is why I’m reading this book in the first place.

I’ll post on Chapters 1 and 2 soon.

Andrea

Truth

I can’t be anything but fair and balanced, maybe Fox News means it as a pun, but I still believe there are 2 sides to every story, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle- not on the left or right.

Take Van Jones. You can see Hanna’s post on Jones for the right side of the story. After he resigned, Arianna Huffington wrote an column called “Thank You Glenn Beck.” The Jones Huffington knew was completely different than the one Beck painted. And I think you can find the most honest portrait by looking at them both.

Beck’s Jones was a compilation of sound bites and warnings about what he’d do, while Huffington is friends with Jones, she calls him “a thoughtful leader” and actually recounts the time she asked him about the 9/11 truther thing.

So much information has been rolling around in my head about Beck, his followers, the administration, the truth, but this morning something connected: Republicans stand for small government- they want their freedom of choice, to live their own lives how they want, to face whatever consequences come with those choices, but when Beck essentially lets loose big brother, no one speaks up about freedom?

When Beck pulls a Minority Report and predicts what someone is capable of through one clip (like Cass Sunstein) then tells his viewers to look up videos of his chosen prey, why aren’t you adverse to that? All he needs are 2 or 3 sound bites, mistakes, videos and he washes his hands before calling an entire life corrupt.

If you recognize a tax on Coke could lead in a direction towards taxing many other “sin” items like Hanna’s choices “cookies, cream, candy bars, and cakes,” Why can’t you recognize where this new form of one sided journalism could lead?

It could be you. They can turn your life into a single sound bite to discuss, criticize, and speculate on without asking you a single question, without interviewing one of your friends or neighbors. They’ll talk to people who only know you through a 45 second clip and dismiss that there’s any other truth.

By this method, I have no doubt that every single living person could be taken down.

If you are worried about our future of freedom, then I don’t see how Coke prices rank higher than the future of honest, unbiased journalism.

Glenn Beck Project: Day 4

Day 4: ummmm….

Wed, Beck kept warning me about today’s show. With this strange grin on his face, he kept saying, “The tide is about to turn” ….

Well, I have to say that I don’t think any tides will/should turn over this video except for the two women employed by Acorn.

Two women who work for an Acorn facility in Baltimore, Maryland were taped by two young people posing as a politician and a prostitute trying to get a house and get help with taxes. The women helped her despite the girl disclosing what her business was.

It was wrong of those women to give the advice they did to the girl. Illegal advice really. They told her not to file and the woman who wasn’t Tanya told her to be proud that she makes money. But I wasn’t shocked. Prostitution is legal in other countries, there are commercials on late night TV to reach women to “talk” to, (like they are not advertising phone sex).  Basically, I’m not fooled into thinking the world is a clean place. It’s not. And I think these women have probably seen way worse than I.

However, it was morally reprehensible when they brushed off the idea of bringing over under-age, illegal immigrants working as prostitutes.The women kept saying, “I don’t hear this.”

Distracting from the story he was telling, Glenn pouted over the lack of coverage, lamenting and scolding the media and other journalists over and over again for not covering this story that broke this morning. That he broke. His question 1 today: “How does the media sleep at night?” But what Glenn doesn’t get- these are minor players. And what he does isn’t journalism.

I’ll tell you why. Two “corrupt” lower level employees do not mean the entire organization is corrupt, but that’s the way Beck sees it. In journalism, you need actual proof. Documents, quotes, corroborating sources from people higher-up than Tanya to publish a story taking down Acorn. but with Beck, if you have 2 bad employees, you’re out!

Acorn released a statement saying that the two undercover “journalists” tried several Acorn facilities before getting what they wanted. Beck didn’t say whether that was true or not.

And despite my annoyance with Beck’s whining, I did come away from the program wanting to research and read more about Acorn, which probably was the goal of the show. You got me there Beck.

“Will the U.S. citizens unite on this story?” -Beck’s last big question today. I don’t know, but I have a feeling there are two unemployed women in Maryland tonight.

Glenn Beck Project: Day 3

Day 3: frustration bordering on anger.

I took a night to simmer down before writing this post on Wednesday’s show.

I’m so tired of Beck’s tone, like he’s always delivering an infuriating secret. If someone with happiness, or even just a normal tone delivered the same “news”, would America be so taken by this guy? Instead since he’s constantly indignant, he whips his viewers up to anger with him, despite the fact that today’s show was pure speculation on the government, Sunstein, politicians, etc…

And he’s constantly pitching his show tomorrow. “The tide’s about to turn.”

I don’t know how anyone does it. The next time you watch him, note your mood after the show, not just once but for a week. Are you angry or frustrated or scared? Because that’s how Beck wants you.

Alright, Cass Sunstein. He’s prob. going to take all the dairy and meat out of your kids school lunches, take away all the guns, eventually stop the availability of meat, and somehow abolish the 2nd amendment. Oh, and he cries over a working chicken. All of this was given as theory presented as fact for what Sunstein might do. It’s hard sometimes to catch the phrase “Likely to” thrown in before these ideas.

Here’s Beck’s proof that Sunstein hates the 2nd amendment. He edited the video, but I found it in full. THis is the only “proof” provided all show. He may have backed his other theories up on earlier shows. If he did, I’d love to see it. Enjoy the music at the beginning.

But what really got me upset was this:

Beck asked yesterday, “Who divided us?” Beck doesn’t want us to be divided. He mentions that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a democrat, independant, republican, he’s just trying to give you the truth.

Minutes later, Beck says Obama has declared 9/11 a national day of service. He looks bewildered, shakes his head, says, “Why a national day of service when the service came on 9/12?”

Who divided us? How about you Mr. Beck? The President declares 9/11 a day of service, and you declare your own day of service ONE DAY LATER. Beck sees 9/12 as a day for democrats and republicans to get together, unite like they did on 9/12 before, but Washington wants you to unite on 9/11- How dare they!

This behavior is ridiculous. To balk at 9/11 just to declare and hope for the exact same thing on 9/12. Don’t get confused here- Beck is a strong divisive force. It doesn’t matter what the Pres or gov says. He’s already made up his mind. “I don’t need to watch the (Health Care) speech. I don’t need to hear about it.”

But no, Beck is NOT the problem, it’s DC!

As Beck says, “Stand up! Come, follow me.”

One last note, since Beck is a Morman, do you think he intentionally invokes Christ’s call, “Come, follow me”? Just a final thought. I’m sorry it’s speculation. Caught it from Beck.

Re: Waaah, Waaah, Waaah

Hanna, I think we all know who the real cry baby is.