Self-infatuated Glenn Beck trolls through ThinkProgress comments section.
Self-infatuated Glenn Beck trolls through ThinkProgress comments section.
Last night on CNN’s Glenn Beck Show, Beck invited guest Brian Sack to discuss the all-important topic of…Glenn Beck. Beck introduced the segment by informing his audience that some of his critics are using the internet “as a way of sharing their loathing of me.” Sack then turned to conspiracy theories about Beck that are on the web, which led him to our comments section where one commenter baselessly suggested that Beck is a CIA operative. During the entire segment, an on-screen chyron read, “Who Loves Glenn?” Watch it:
While ThinkProgress does not condone conspiracy theories about Beck, we’re happy to have him trolling our site and comments section. We’ll continue to feed Beck’s self-infatuation by pointing out his numerous incendiary and inane comments.
Beck Rants Against Polar Bears: ‘They Eat People! For The Love Of Pete, They’re Big, Angry Bears!’
Beck Rants Against Polar Bears: ‘They Eat People! For The Love Of Pete, They’re Big, Angry Bears!’
Last night on his CNN Headline News show, right-wing pundit Glenn Beck hosted global warming skeptic Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK). Beck allowed Inhofe to rant about how — with “all the liberals” running the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works — he was forced to sit through hearings on “that nice white fuzzy polar bear.”
Inhofe argued that the polar bear population isn’t endangered. “[I]f anything, it’s an overpopulation problem,” said Inhofe. Beck then jumped in and claimed that, in fact, the extinction of polar bears may be a good thing:
They eat people! For the love of Pete, they’re big, angry bears. They eat people. Not that I say we go out and kill all of them, but I mean, it doesn’t seem to be a problem here. Senator, I can’t take the — I can’t take the lies anymore.
Watch it:
There is currently an estimated 20,000-25,000 polar bears worldwide who are threatened with “losing their habitat and becoming extinct over the next 50 years” because of global warming and melting sea ice. The U.S. Geological Survey predicts that without action, “11 of the 19 subpopulations will be extinct by the middle of this century, with an additional three subpopulations vanishing shortly thereafter.”
On Wednesday, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne skipped a Senate hearing on listing the polar bear as a threatened species. His agency missed a Jan. 9 deadline to decide on classifying the polar bear, in violation of the Endangered Species Act, according to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA).
Perhaps if little furry bunnies — which do not eat people — were endangered, Beck would want to save them.
Transcript: Read the rest of this entry »
Beck: Wal-Mart Made A ‘Deal With Terrorists’ In Ending Its Lawsuit Against Brain-Damaged Employee
Beck: Wal-Mart Made A ‘Deal With Terrorists’ In Ending Its Lawsuit Against Brain-Damaged Employee
In 2000, then-Wal-Mart employee Debbie Shank was hit by a semi-truck, leaving her seriously brain-damaged and confined to a wheelchair. Wal-Mart covered her medical expenses until she won a settlement from the trucking company that left her $417,000 after legal fees.
Invoking a little-noticed clause in Shank’s contract that kicked in once she won a settlement with the trucking company, Wal-Mart sued the Shank family to recoup the medical expenses it had spent on her care, all $470,000.
In response, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann last week began decrying Wal-Mart’s actions nightly, four times labeling $9-billion corporation one of his “Worst Persons in the World.” Last night, however, Olbermann was able to announce the good news — that Wal Mart yesterday wrote to the Shanks to tell them it would drop its suit:
Occasionally others help us step back and look at a situation in a different way. This is one of those times. … Wal-Mart will not seek any reimbursement for the money already spent on Ms. Shank’s care, and we will work with you to ensure the remaining amounts in the trust can be used for her ongoing care.
Unfortunately, CNN’s Glenn Beck could not attain a similarly enlightened perspective. He condemned Wal-Mart on his radio show today, insisting the corporation had made a “deal with terrorists” and had succumbed to “blackmail”:
Well, what are the principles? The principles are right is right, wrong is wrong. No matter how much I need it, no matter how hard it is for me, no matter how much it sucks, it’s not right. My word is my bond. I made an agreement. I didn’t see it in there. … This is blackmail. And yet Wal-Mart folds. You don’t deal with terrorists? Really? You just did. You just dealt with economic blackmailers. … But then — and I don’t even put it on the family as much as I do on the media. The media, they just — MSNBC, man, they can just make hay with this.
Listen to Beck’s rant:
Earlier in his rant, Beck seems to suggest that the Shanks reneged on Debbie’s contract when it asked Wal-Mart to forgive her medical expenses. However, as legal analyst Jeffery Toobin pointed out on Anderson Cooper 360 last night, the corporation was under no obligation whatsoever to sue the Shanks. It was a discretionary choice:
There is no reason why they should have filed this lawsuit. This was an unnecessary pain inflicted.
Beck: ThinkProgress = ‘liberal hacks.’
On his radio show last week, right-wing pundit Glenn Beck mocked ThinkProgress for noting that he recently asked controversial pastor John Hagee if Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) “might be the Antichrist.” On his CNN Headline News show yesterday, Beck again attacked “liberal hacks who are disguised as journalists” and brought on Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters to go after ThinkProgress. Watch it:
UPDATE: Beck and Sheppard also attacked ThinkProgress’s coverage on Beck’s radio show today.
Transcript: Read the rest of this entry »
Glenn Beck mocks ThinkProgress.
On his radio show today, conservative talker Glenn Beck mocked ThinkProgress for noting the fact that he asked controversial pastor John Hagee this week if Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) “might be the Anti-Christ.” Beck says it was not “a serious question” because he was “laughing all the way through it,” but it was “so very predictable” that he would be criticized for it:
Well, here’s the best part, because what picked this up originally was, I don’t even know, ThinkProgress. It’s a blog. ThinkProgress, yes. Let’s ThinkProgress. Do you know Progressive has “Progress” in it? It must be good. ThinkProgress is the first that picked this up on the blogs. They’re like, Glenn Beck thinks that maybe…
Watch it:
Beck may think he was telling a joke, but we doubt that Obama was “laughing all the way through it.”
Beck: ‘Is Obama the Antichrist?’
Today on his CNN Headline News show, Glenn Beck asked Pastor John Hagee whether Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is the embodiment of evil:
There are people — they say this about Bill Clinton — he might be the Antichrist. Odds that Barack Obama is the Antichrist?
Watch it:
In 2006, Beck also called Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) the anti-Christ, stating, “I think we may have found our Antichrist and our next president.”
(HT: Chris Achorn)
Beck: Deniers conference is like ‘2nd coming of Jesus.’
On his radio show today, conservative talker Glenn Beck compared the Exxon-funded Heartland Institute’s global warming skeptics conference in New York City this week to “the second coming of Jesus.” Claiming that “the press just won’t cover” the conference, Beck declared that “tonight we’re covering it as if it’s the second coming of Jesus.” Listen to it:
Despite Beck’s claims that “the press won’t cover” the conference, Fox News trumpeted it this morning.
Beck: ‘Rick Santorum Is A Winston Churchill’
Beck: ‘Rick Santorum Is A Winston Churchill’
This morning on NPR, host Steve Inskeep asked right-wing pundit Glenn Beck who the “rising star” is in the conservative movement. Beck’s response? Defeated senator Rick Santorum. “I think the guy is a Winston Churchill in many ways,” said Beck. From the exchange:
BECK: You know, there’s really only one guy that I’ve talked to that I really really like. I think the guy is a Winston Churchill in many ways. He blew his Senate campaign because he spoke the truth. His advisers kept saying, “Don’t say this, don’t say this, this is going to hurt you.”
And that’s Rick Santorum out of Pennsylvania. I think this guy really has it. I think he really understands the world we live in right now.
Listen to it:
Santorum would probably like this comparison. Whereas Churchill was actually battling Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in World War II, Santorum likes to pretend he is fighting a similar foe. In 2005, he blasted Democrats blocking President Bush’s judicial nominees and compared them to “Adolf Hitler in 1942“:
Some are suggesting we’re trying to change the law, we’re trying to break the rules. Remarkable. Remarkable hubris.
I mean, imagine. The rule has been in place for 214 years that this is the way we confirm judges. Broken by the other side two years ago, and the audacity of some members to stand up and say, “How dare you break this rule?”
It’s the equivalent of Adolf Hitler in 1942: “I’m in Paris. How dare you invade me? How dare you bomb my city? It’s mine.”
This isn’t the first time that Beck has compared Santorum to Churchill. In 2006, Beck hosted Santorum on his CNN Headline News show. “I’m going to be ripped apart for calling you Churchill,” said Beck. Santorum happily responded, “It’ll be a pleasure.”
Glenn Beck: ‘Nancy Pelosi Will End Up Killing Americans’
Glenn Beck: ‘Nancy Pelosi Will End Up Killing Americans’
On his CNN Headline News show last night, conservative talking head Glenn Beck fumed about the House leadership’s decision to let the Protect America Act (PAA) expire this weekend. This was “an extension requested by the president,” exclaimed Beck.
Beck then jumped on President Bush’s fearmongering bandwagon, claiming that the House leadership — specifically Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — would be responsible for the death of Americans:
BECK: He feels — and I happen to agree with him — that this congressional game-playing by Nancy Pelosi will end up killing Americans.
Watch it:
Like Bush, Beck is overhyping the consequences of the law’s expiration.
In fact, not only will surveillance begun under the law be able to continue, but intelligence officials can initiate new surveillance against suspected terrorists by simply getting a warrant through the FISA court. The warrants can even be obtained after the surveillance has begun.
Intelligence experts, like the Cato Institute’s Timothy Lee, believe the expiration of the Protect America Act doesn’t deserve the vapors the right wing is getting over it:
“There’s no reason to think our nation will be in any more danger in 2008 than it was in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, or 2006,” [said Lee].
Ben Wittes of the Brookings Institution said because existing warrantless surveillance begun under the temporary laws could continue for up to a year, the “sky is not falling at all.”
If Beck really thinks the expiration of the PAA will cause Americans to die, he should bring it up with the president and his allies in Congress who blocked another temporary extension of the law.
Transcript: Read the rest of this entry »