Guest Voz: Dana Milbank - Glenn Beck Motivates Far Right Extremists to Violence

Guest Voz: Dana Milbank
Glenn Beck has a friend in California.
"I would've never started watching Fox News if it wasn't for the fact that Beck was on there," says this friend, Byron Williams. "And it was the things he did, it was the things he exposed, that blew my mind." "I do enjoy Glenn Beck," Williams also says, "and the reason why I enjoy that is because... no other channel will speak about the same things that he's talking about, and if you go and investigate those things you'll find out that they're true."

Unfortunately for Beck, this satisfied viewer currently resides at the Santa Rita Jail near Oakland and stands accused of a freeway shootout with police. Williams pleaded not guilty to four counts of attempted murder of a police officer. But according to court documents, he said he had been on a mission to kill people at the liberal Tides Foundation, which happens to be a favorite Beck target.

In August, I wrote that while it's not fair to blame Beck for violence committted by his fans, he would do well to stop encouraging extremists. Now, Williams has granted a pair of jailhouse interviews, one with the conservative Examiner.com and one to be published soon by the liberal group Media Matters. These recorded exchanges, which I have reviewed, show precisely why Beck is dangerous: because his is the one voice in the mass media that validates conspiracy theories held by the unstable. The Examiner, in an article published this week, exonerated Beck by pointing to Williams's statement that "I know Beck continuously talks about peaceful resolution but I have constantly disagreed. This, however, misses the point. It's not that Beck is directly advocating violence (he might be in Santa Rita himself if he did that) but he's giving voice and legitimacy to the violent fringe.

"Beck is going to deny everything about violent approach, deny everything about conspiracies," Williams told the freelance journalist John Hamilton, who did the interview to be published by Media Matters. "But he'll give you every reason to believe it. He's protecting himself, and you can't blame him for that. So, but I understand what he's doing." Listening to Beck, Williams explained, "you can pick up ideas and you can get on your Internet and just verify it."

One of the ideas from Beck that Williams "verified" involved the liberal billionaire George Soros. Williams said he was inspired by Beck's shows about Soros (described by Beck as a currency manip-ulator of Jewish ancestry who has "disturbing hair in his nose"). Beck accused President Obama of lending $2 billion to Brazil's oil company Petrobras just after Soros upped his stake in the company.

This turned out to be a false Internet rumor that Beck had amplified, but Williams did more research and concluded that Soros and Obama had sabotaged the BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico to cause the oil spill and thereby help Petrobras. This, Williams said, was his main source of anger before the alleged shoot-out. "With the exception of Beck, not once did even Fox report on things like Soros investing a billion dollars in Petrobras, or not once did they mention the fact that Obama sent them $2 billion," he noted. "Beck will not say it was a contracted hit" on the BP well by Obama and Soros, Williams said, "but he'll give you every ounce of evidence you can possibly need to make that assumption yourself."

Williams, as you'd expect, is not an entirely reliable witness. At one point, he complains that Beck "criticizes all the conspiracy theories," but at other points he hails Beck for embracing them. Still, this part rings true: The prisoner told the Examiner that he already knew about Tides before he heard Beck speak about it in June; rather, "to me it was more of a confirmation of what I already knew," he said.

Exactly. Beck, who has encouraged his followers to hear what he is saying "between the sentences" he actually utters, gave legitimacy to Williams's conspiracy theories. "So now they've got Beck labeled as this guy that is trying to incite violence, and what I say is that if the truth incites violence, it means that we've been living too long in the lies," Williams told Hamilton. "You know, when you become unemployed, desperate, you can no longer pay your bills... what do you think is gonna happen? You know, for crying out loud. It's gonna get worse, and more and more people are gonna get desperate."

Particularly if they have an enabler in the mass media.

Ramirez Murder - Kick in the Head Federal Hate Crime Trial Update

Finally, the truth is coming out about the KICK IN THE HEAD MURDER of Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah, PA. The Federal Hate Crime Trial IS ON!!! Eileen Burke, the eye witness of the murder who WAS NOT allowed to testify at the extremely BIASED Shenandoah Trial previously, was FINALLY allowed to testify! Her testimony is REVEALING! Finally, Finally the TRUTH is coming out!!
SCRANTON - The trial of two Shenandoah men charged with federal hate crimes in the beating death of an illegal Mexican immigrant continues today. Donchak, 20, of Shenandoah, and Piekarsky, 18, of Shenandoah Heights, are charged with a federal hate crime, and face possible life sentences, in connection with the July 12, 2008, beating of Ramirez on West Lloyd Street in Shenandoah. Donchak also is charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Crystal Dillman, the mother of Ramirez's children, left the courtroom crying after the playing of the tape of the 911 call made by Elaine Burke, Shenandoah, a retired Philadelphia police officer. "It doesn't look like he is conscious," Burke said on the tape. "It was a fight." Previously, Burke testified that Piekarsky had made a threat to Ariel Garcia, a friend of Ramirez who was crouching next to his motionless form. '"You tell your Mexican friends to get ... out of Shenandoah or you're going to be ... lying next to him'," was what Piekarsky said, Burke testified.

A second person, who was with the Shenandoah-area men testified Thursday that one of the defendants delivered a fatal kick. Brian Scully, of Shenandoah, said he had kicked Ramirez in the shoulder, but that Piekarsky was more accurate. "I regained my balance and I saw Brandon kick him. (Ramirez) started shaking," he testified. Scully, who was tried as a juvenile in Schuylkill County Court, said he has no deal with federal authorities concerning possible charges from the incident.

A youth who was with two Shenandoah-area men testified that one of the pair delivered a fatal kick. "Brandon Piekarsky" kicked Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala, Ben Lawson, Shenandoah, told jurors and Senior U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo as part of his testimony on the fourth day of the trial of Piekarksy and Derrick M. Donchak. He also testified that Donchak later showed him a piece of metal that he said he had been glad to have when fighting with Ramirez. On cross-examination, however, Lawson said he had drunk two 40-ounce beers that evening, was intoxicated and did not remember some parts of that evening.

Donchak, 20, of Shenandoah, and Piekarsky, 18, of Shenandoah Heights, are charged with a federal hate crime, and face possible life sentences, in connection with the July 12, 2008, beating of Ramirez on West Lloyd Street in Shenandoah. Donchak also is charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice. A Mahanoy City police officer testified this morning in federal court that an illegal Mexican immigrant two Shenandoah-area men are charged with beating looked like he would die - which he did two days later. "His head was misshapen, swollen out on his left side," Lt. John Kaczmarczyk, the first witness in the trial of Derrick M. Donchak and Brandon J. Piekarsky, testified of Luis Eduardo Ramirez Zavala. Kaczmarcyzk also testified he took a photograph of a shoe print on Ramirez's chest.

Also testifying were Ann Marie Kovalewski, a Shenandoah Ambulance paramedic, and Elizabeth Schlack, Shenandoah, who call 911 to report the incident. "His whole head was soft. Your fingers would push in," is how Kovalewski described Ramirez's condition as she treated him. As Schlack testified, prosecutors played her 911 call for the jury. "Teenagers fighting and beating each other," is how she described the scene. "There were girls screaming and guys beating each other."

(The Trial Continues and I will continue to provide updates to the results/outcome of the Federal Hate Crime Trial).

Guest Voz - Economist Robert Reich: The Secret Big-Money Takeover of America

As I've long time reported, the Koch brothers funded the creation of the Tea Parties and Glenn Beck's 912 rallies and now, the campaigns of several Republican candidates. They hate President Obama and the Democrats because they are spoiling their plans to DESTROY THE MIDDLE CLASS!!! The Teabaggers may have been fooled by them, but these FAT CAT BIG BUSINESS BULLIES are finally being outed!
Guest Voz - Economist Robert Reich:
Not only is income and wealth in America more concentrated in fewer hands than it's been in 80 years, but those hands are buying our democracy as never before -- and they're doing it behind closed doors. Hundreds of millions of secret dollars are pouring into congressional and state races in this election cycle. The Koch brothers (whose personal fortunes grew by $5 billion last year) appear to be behind some of it, Karl Rove has rounded up other multimillionaires to fund right-wing candidates, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is funneling corporate dollars from around the world into congressional races, and Rupert Murdoch is evidently spending heavily.

No one knows for sure where this flood of money is coming from because it's all secret. But you can safely assume its purpose is not to help America's stranded middle class, working class, and poor. It's to pad the nests of the rich, stop all reform, and deregulate big corporations and Wall Street -- already more powerful than since the late 19th century when the lackeys of robber barons literally deposited sacks of cash on the desks of friendly legislators. Credit the Supreme Court's grotesque decision in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission, which opened the floodgates. (Even though 8 of 9 members of the Court also held disclosure laws constitutional, the decision invited the creation of shadowy "nonprofits" that don't have to reveal anything.) According to FEC data, only 32 percent of groups paying for election ads are disclosing the names of their donors. By comparison, in the 2006 midterm, 97 percent disclosed; in 2008, almost half disclosed.

Last week, when the Senate considered a bill to force such disclosure, every single Republican voted against it -- thereby revealing the GOP's true colors, and presumed benefactors. (To understand how far the GOP has come, nearly ten years ago campaign disclosure was supported by 48 of 54 Republican senators.)
Maybe the Disclose Bill can get passed in lame-duck session. Maybe the IRS will make sure Karl Rove's and other supposed nonprofits aren't sham political units. Maybe pigs will learn to fly. In the meantime we face an election that marks an even sharper turn toward plutocratic capitalism than before -- a government by and for the rich and big corporations -- and away from democratic capitalism.

As income and wealth has moved to the top, so has political power. That's why, for example, it's been impossible to close the absurd tax loophole that allows hedge-fund and private-equity managers to treat much of their income as capital gains, subject to a 15 percent tax (even though they're earning tens or hundreds of millions a year, and the top 15 hedge-fund managers earned an average of $1 billion last year). Why it proved impossible to fund expanded health care by limiting the tax deductions of the very rich. Why it's so difficult even to extend George Bush's tax cuts for the bottom 98 percent of Americans without also extending them for the top 2 percent - even though the top won't spend the money and create jobs, but will blow a $36 billion hole in the federal budget next year. The good news is average Americans are beginning to understand that when the rich secretly flood our democracy with money, the rest of us drown. Wall Street executives and top CEOs get bailed out while under-water homeowners and jobless workers sink.

A Quinnipiac poll earlier this year found overwhelming support for a millionaire tax. But what the public wants means nothing if our democracy is secretly corrupted by big money. Right now we're headed for a perfect storm: An unprecedented concentration of income and wealth at the top, a record amount of secret money flooding our democracy, and a public in the aftershock of the Great Recession becoming increasingly angry and cynical about government. The three are obviously related.

We must act. We need a movement to take back our democracy. (If tea partiers were true to their principles, they'd join it.) As Martin Luther King once said, the greatest tragedy is "not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

What can you do?
1. Read Justice Steven's dissent in the Citizens United case, so you're fully informed about the majority's pernicious illogic.
2. Use every opportunity to speak out against this decision, and embarrass and condemn the right-wing Justices who supported it.
3. In this and subsequent elections, back candidates for congress and president who vow to put Justices on the Court who will reverse it.
4. Demand that the IRS enforce the law and pull the plug on Karl Rove and other sham nonprofits.
5. If you have a Republican senator, insist that he or she support the Disclose Act. If they won't, campaign against them.
6. Support public financing of elections.
7. Join an organization like Common Cause, that's committed to doing all this and getting big money out of politics. (Personal note: I'm so outraged at what's happening that I just became chairman of Common Cause.)
8. Send this post to your friends (including any tea partiers you may know).

Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.

Republicans Refuse to Name their Billionaire Foreign Backers! SHAME!

TP reports: Pressure has been mounting on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce since a ThinkProgress investigation published Tuesday revealed that the right-wing business group may be using donations from foreign corporations to bankroll its general account — the same account that is being used to launch an unprecedented $75 million attack ad campaign against progressive candidates. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) and others have called for an FEC investigation into the Chamber, and numerous media outlets have pressed the group for answers. Meanwhile, the Chamber continues to stonewall. Today, while stumping for Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), President Obama referenced the investigation, warning that “groups that receive foreign money” are a “threat to our democracy”:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Just this week, we learned that one of the largest groups paying for these ad regularly takes in money from foreign corporations. So groups that receive foreign money are spending huge sums to influence American elections. And they won’t tell you where the money for the ads come from.

During his January State of the Union address, Obama warned that the Supreme Court’s recent Citizens United decision “will open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our election.” And in his weekly address in September, Obama warned again, “Foreign-controlled corporations seeking to influence our democracy are able to spend freely in order to swing an election toward a candidate they prefer.” His prediction, widely mocked by conservatives, has unfortunately proven prescient.

So this isn’t just a threat to Democrats. All Republicans should be concerned. Independents should be concerned. This is a threat to our democracy. The American people deserve to know who’s trying to influence their elections. And if we just stand by and allow the special interests to silence anybody who’s got the guts to stand up to them, our country’s going to be a very different place.

It Came to Me Today! Remembering the American Dream!

I have been very contemplative today. I have a routine, you know.

Generally, I have a host of family/work activities that begin my day. Then, at the end of my usual day, I visit my wonderful, lovely blog...my blog that keeps me involved, studious, knowledgable and a humanitarian. My blog that consumes me as I read the days events, think about my posts, and wonder about my viewers' responses. Then I review the comments, compare the comments vs the spam; decide where I will or will not respond, then decide if I will comment - what when and how.

Today is different. I've been very contemplative. I started my day out the same. But then, after family/work, I started thinking about me. Where am I in life right now? How do my blog, my viewer comments and I fit in to the big picture.

Why is today different? This weekend, I spent time with grandchildren. One of my grandson's birthday was yesterday. He is so handsome, nice, and has such a wonderful future ahead of him. He is a talented football player at 9. He is captain of his team. His mom and his Dad (my handsome and wonderful son) are so caring and supportive of both their sons.

I also had a long talk with my youngest son. He is a delight. He is 25 years old. He is in the prime of his life, yet he often takes time to sit and talk with his mom. Today, we talked about life in general. We talked about discipline vs non discipline. We talked about being a teenager. We talked about the temptations of life. We talked about people we know, who did not have discipline in their young lives. Now today, some in their 30's, others in their 40's, others in their 50's, are struggling, struggling so much in life right now.

I am so amazed by both of my sons and my grandsons. They have so much life ahead of them to experience, yet their eyes are so wide open, so young, so naive, so open to a myraid of possibilities. And I am sitting back, listening to the news shows, the internet, the wearies and woes of the outside world, wondering what "sign" will take our country, our world, to the next stage of all of our lives.

I look into the eyes of my handsome, muscle bound, brilliant sons and grandsons and I see the world ahead of them, captured in their palms, awaiting their presence to decide where our world will turn next.

And I look into my own eyes, bifocals in place, looking, wondering, investigating the medicare plans of the future. Hoping I have enough time to set in place a stable and reliable life for my future generations. Then I realize, they will not need my pittance nor advice. They have the world in their palms, the rainbows ahead and the possibilities of the unimaginary at their doorsteps. The world is waiting them..their hard work and future thoughts and dreams, just as happened when my Dad passed the baton on to me and my brothers and sisters.

We live in such a beautiful country. The American Dream for all. Sometimes we forget the reality of it all. I remembered it today!
God Bless America!
God Bless Our President Obama!
God Bless Us All!!

200,000 True Patriots Marched Peacefully In Support of an Improved Economy and in Support of Our President!

A Peaceful Crowd of people estimated at 200,000 rallied near the Lincoln Memorial in the U.S. capital today. These peaceful marchers energized their Loyal American base a month before pivotal congressional elections. This crowd was over twice as large as the Hate-Filled Anti President Obama rally last month led by far right zealot Glenn Beck and funded by the Big Business Tea Party supporters, the Koch Brothers.

The rally, held under sunny skies, was titled "One Nation Working Together." Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO labor organization, urged the crowd to "promise that you'll make your voices heard, for good jobs and justice and education today and on Election Day." Republicans are trying to regain control of Congress from President Barack Obama's Democrats in the November 2 congressional elections.

Unlike the Koch Brothers funded rally, this True Patriot rally was sponsored by every day Americans, including union workers, civil rights groups and liberal Humanitarians who have been struggling to get their messages heard during an election campaign in which media coverage has focused on Tea Party anger against our President and his policies.

Denise Gray-Felder, a spokeswoman for the organizers of the rally, estimated that 175,000 to 200,000 people attended. Roxanne Bunnell, a 29-year-old student from Washington, D.C. who attended the rally, said she hoped it would get progressive voters riled up. Some right wing opinion polls have indicated an election
"enthusiasm gap," with Republican voters expressing hate and anger in casting their votes versus the more peaceful and Presidential supporting Democratic voters.

Many of those at the rally were derisive toward the Koch Brothers sponsored conservative Tea Party movement that has helped energize Republicans ahead of the mid-term elections.

One sign in the crowd read, "Axis of Ignorance = Tea Party, Republicans, and Fox News," referring to the cable TV news channel that showcases many prominent conservatives. "I feel the liberal progressive voice of America has not been heard," said Michelle Ridley. Ridley said she came out to show support for healthcare reform and President Obama. Rally participants said they support the Democrats and the Obama administration.

American InHumanity! U.S Infected Guatemalans with STDs During the Same Period They Infected African Americans in Tuskegee Alabama

American InHumanity!! Did "majority" Americans, in the last century, believe their lives were more valuable than the lives of minorities or those in other countries?

It recently came to light that a U.S. research study conducted from 1946-1948 intentionally infected thousands of people from Guatemala with sexually transmitted diseases. Wellesley College researcher Susan Reverby found the archived but unpublished notes from the project. The scientific research study, called the U.S. Public Health Service Sexually Transmitted Disease Inoculation Study of 1946-1948, aimed to gauge the effectiveness of penicillin to treat syphilis, gonorrhea and chancres. Penicillin was a relatively new drug at the time.

The tests were carried out on female commercial sex workers, prisoners in the national penitentiary, patients in the national mental hospital and SOLDIERS. According to the study, more than 1,600 people were infected: 696 with syphilis, 772 with gonorrhea and 142 with chancres.

A similar study was conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, on nearly 400 poor African-American men with syphilis whose disease was allowed to progress without treatment. The subjects were not told they were ill with the disease.

The Guatemala study was done under the direction of U.S. Public Health Service physician John C. Cutler, who later ran the Tuskegee experiment, said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Institutes for Health. Collins told reporters that the Guatemala study represented "a dark chapter in the history of medicine."

U.S. officials said Friday that ethical safeguards would prevent such abuses from occurring today. "The study is a sad reminder that adequate human subject safeguards did not exist a half-century ago," the U.S. statement said. "Today, the regulations that govern U.S.-funded human medical research prohibit these kinds of appalling violations."

A statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called the action "reprehensible." "We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices," the joint statement said. "The conduct exhibited during the study does not represent the values of the United States, or our commitment to human dignity and great respect for the people of Guatemala."

President Barack Obama called his Guatemalan counterpart Friday "offering profound apologies and asking pardon for the deeds of the 1940s," President Alvaro Colom told CNN en Espanol in a telephone interview from Guatemala City. Clinton and Sebelius said the United States is launching an investigation and also convening a group of international experts to review and report on the most effective methods to make sure all human medical research worldwide meets rigorous ethical standards.

"As we move forward to better understand this appalling event, we reaffirm the importance of our relationship with Guatemala, and our respect for the Guatemalan people, as well as our commitment to the highest standards of ethics in medical research," the U.S. statement said.
Reference:
CNN: US apologizes for infecting Guatemalans with STDs in the 1940s