Why Is Glenn Beck Going Blind?

By MARC McDONALD

Why is Fox News hatemonger Glenn Beck going blind?

First, before we address this question, I'd like to relate a short story.

Years ago, I worked as a reporter for a small Texas newspapers. I was assigned the crime beat. So my daily routine always started at the local police station. When I arrived each morning, a police department secretary would hand me the most recent crime incident sheet. I'd look over the recent local crimes for anything of interest.

One crime I saw occasionally listed was something called a "terroristic threat." This is a misdemeanor crime that occurs when someone makes a threat that causes another person to be in fear of bodily harm, among other things.

It's a crime and people are charged with it every day. People are found guilty of this crime daily and go to jail for it.

The reason I mention this is that I recall an incident a while back in which Beck casually and matter-of-factly talked about killing Michael Moore.

On May 17, 2005, Beck said the following on his radio show:

"I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it."

Beck never faced any sort of charges for making this threat.

In fact, since Beck made that quote, his career has gone from strength to strength. For example, in 2008, he made over $23 million. His audience and influence continues to soar. This, despite the fact that he continues to spew out crazy, violent rhetoric like his 2005 quote about killing Moore.

Like many other right-wing crazies, Beck can pretty much get away with saying anything and face zero repercussions. Beck can call the predominately African-American victims of Hurricane Katrina "scumbags" and get away with it. He can call the mother of a fallen soldier, Cindy Sheehan, a "slut" and get away with it. He can chillingly talk about killing Moore and get away with it.

Anyway, getting back to my original question, why is Beck going blind?

Frankly, I don't care. He's a sick, evil man and he deserves whatever is coming to him.

But maybe it's karma. What goes around, comes around.

Some people claim that certain activities can lead to one becoming blind. I've never been one to put much stock in this idea. But I do know one thing: nobody masturbates more on the public airwaves than Beck does.

In fact, when you look up the word "masturbate" in the dictionary, you ought to see a picture of Beck, with his incoherent blackboard ramblings. And what is today's "Restoring Honor" rally in D.C. other than a big circle jerk of Beck and his deluded, brainwashed followers?

If GOP Takes Congress, Impeachment Will Be On The Table

By MARC McDONALD

If the GOP captures the House and Senate in November, you can be assured that President Obama will eventually face impeachment. If anyone thinks impeachment is implausible, consider this: today's GOP is far more rabid, extreme and unhinged than anything President Clinton faced in the 1990s.


Today's Republicans increasingly take their marching orders from Hate Radio, Fox News and deranged Tea Baggers. In fact, today's Republicans increasingly are deranged Tea Baggers.

If the GOP takes control in November, then it'll only be a matter of time before the crazies demand a special prosecutor to launch a witch hunt against Obama. And once that happens, impeachment proceedings won't be long in coming, fueled by increasingly shrill cries from the Drudge/Fox/Rush Right-Wing propaganda machine.

A partisan witch hunt against Obama is not mere idle speculation. Consider this: Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California is already chomping at the bit to go after President Obama.

If the Republicans captures the House, Issa will become chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He'll have power to subpoena White House officials to appear before the committee under oath.

Issa has made it clear that he plans to vigorously pursue investigations against the White House. And no doubt, other Republicans will do the same. In fact, it's likely the GOP will appoint a special prosecutor with an unlimited budget and subpoena power to go after Obama as vigorously as Ken Starr pursued Bill Clinton.

It doesn't really matter if such a partisan witch hunt actually uncovers any real wrongdoing by Obama. That's not the point, anyway. The point is to harass the White House and bury it under an avalanche of subpoenas, creating distractions, and making it difficult for Obama to govern.

Progressives Underestimate Palin's 2012 Prospects At Their Peril

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By MARC McDONALD

It's easy to laugh at Sarah Palin. Then again, it was easy to laugh at Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush: two lightweights who wound up occupying the White House for a total of 16 years. I believe progressives underestimate Palin at their peril.

As Keith Olbermann has pointed out a number of times, Palin is an idiot. The video above proves it.

However, progressives shouldn't casually dismiss Palin---or her prospects to be elected president in 2012.

Personally, I believe Palin will indeed run in 2012. And if we Democrats don't take Palin seriously as a candidate, we deserve to lose the election.

After all, Palin has a rabidly loyal following that is enjoying growing momentum. She is a genuine political phenomenon. And most importantly, she has a formidable fund-raising machine in place.

If you doubt the loyalty of Palin's base, consider this: Palin's 2009 book, Going Rogue: An American Life sold nearly 3 million copies. It is one of the best-selling political memoirs in U.S. history.

It's clear that Palin is a political and intellectual mediocrity. However, it doesn't necessarily follow that Palin has no chance at winning the presidency.

After all, the American people elected Bush/Cheney twice. (Well, not really, but enough people voted for Bush/Cheney to where the GOP could steal the vote).

If you doubt Palin could win in 2012, consider this: in 2008, nearly 60 million Americans cast their vote for Palin to be a heartbeat away from the White House.

If the U.S. economy is still in the toilet in 2012 (and I believe it likely will be), then the nation will be in an angry mood, come election time. The horrendous poison-pill economy that Obama inherited from Bush could well simply be unfixable, no matter what action Obama takes between now and then.

If 2012 still sees America mired in an economic rut, then the Tea Party and Palin will be well-positioned to take advantage of the crisis.

Anyone who doubts Palin's prospects for success in 2012 is simply blind to the reality of American political history (and the dumbing-down of U.S. culture) since 1980.

The Pentagon's Hypocrisy On Iraqi Civilian Deaths

By MARC McDONALD

At long last, the U.S. is preparing to heed the wishes of the rest of the world (not to mention the Iraqi people) and begin the process of winding down the disastrous occupation of Iraq. In order to save face from this whole fiasco, U.S. leaders and the Pentagon have decided to declare the war a "success."

But there's only one problem for the Pentagon. Violent deaths in Iraqi are sharply up. In fact, 535 civilians were killed by bomb blasts or other attacks last month, an increase of 50 percent from the previous month, according to Iraqi government figures.

This inconvenient fact has posed a problem for the Pentagon.

So what's the solution? The Pentagon has bizarrely begun disputing the Iraqi government figures as unreliable.

This is truly surreal, not to mention hypocritical.

After all, throughout this whole 7-year fiasco of a war, the Pentagon has never cared about the stats of Iraqi civilian deaths. The Pentagon's stock, glib answer to the whole question of Iraqi civilian deaths has always been the same: "We don't do body counts."

Now, the "We-don't-do-body-counts" people are attacking the Iraqi government's own official civilian death statistics. The whole thing stinks of hypocrisy--the same sort of hypocrisy that has defined this war from the beginning.

I can't imagine why the Pentagon would think that the Iraqi government was exaggerating the death count. Or, for that matter, why the Pentagon would think it has more accurate statistics than the Iraqi government.

The fact is, the Pentagon has never cared about how many Iraqi civilians have died in this war. And when you don't care, you don't do body counts. (For the record, over 1.3 million Iraqi men, women and children have died in this war).

On countless occasions since 2003, the Pentagon brass have proven themselves to be liars, over and over. They lied about Jessica Lynch. They lied when they stage-managed the phony photo-op that showed the toppling of Saddam's statue. They lied when they initially claimed that they hadn't used horrific, flesh-melting white phosphorus chemical weapons in Fallujah.

In reality, the Pentagon's only real role is to secure Iraq's oil for the multi-national oil corporations that ultimately will be the only beneficiaries of this war. Clearly, the wishes of the Iraqi people don't enter the picture.

The Day Dick Cheney Told the Truth About Iraq

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By MARC McDONALD

Any sane, rational, clear-thinking adult knows that Dick Cheney is a war criminal and a liar. But just as a stopped clock can tell the correct time twice a day, there was one occasion where Doctor Evil actually told the truth about Iraq.

In a 1994 interview, Cheney defended George H.W. Bush's decision not to topple Saddam. Interestingly enough, Cheney actually makes some sense in this interview. He even uses the word "quagmire."

Just like Donald Rumsfeld wishes the 1983 video of him shaking hands with Saddam would just vanish, I'm sure Cheney wishes that this video never existed. Because today, the 2010 Cheney (who still strongly defends the Iraq War) is a totally different person from the 1994 Cheney (who correctly predicted that invading Iraq would be a fiasco).