Beck witch hunt for socialists, communists, Marxists moves on to SEIU's Stern
Continuing his pattern, Glenn Beck suggested during the November 3 edition of his radio program that SEIU's Andy Stern is a communist, socialist, and Marxist because he said in an interview that "workers of the world unite, it's not just a slogan anymore. It's the way we're going to have to do our work." However, when asked in a separate interview why he uses the slogan, Stern replied that it's "good news" that "communism's dead"; further, numerous conservatives, including Newt Gingrich and John McCain, have approvingly cited quotes or tactics from communist and socialist dictators -- yet those conservatives have seemed to escape Beck's witch hunt.
Beck: "That is communist, Marxist, propaganda ... we don't want to become a socialist nation"
Beck suggests SEIU's Stern is a communist, socialist, Marxist. On his November 3 radio program, Beck played a clip of SEIU president Andy Stern stating on the June 15, 2007, edition of PBS' Bill Moyers Journal that SEIU has "offices now in Australia and in Switzerland and London, in South America and Africa. We've been working with unions around the world. And what we're working towards is building a global organization. Because comp-- you know, workers of the world unite, it's not just a slogan anymore. It's the way we're going to have to do our work." Based on Stern's quotation of "workers of the world unite," Beck suggested that Stern is a communist, Marxist and socialist.
From the November 3 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program:
BECK: Now listen to Andy Stern. This is the most frequent visitor to the White House, the most frequent -- the guy who helped design cap-and-trade. The guy who is helping design immigration policy, the guy who is helping design the stimulus package, and the guy who, most importantly, is designing the mother of all beasts, the health care. Listen to what he is saying in this interview.
STERN [audio clip]: And we are beginning -- we have offices now in Australia and Switzerland and London, in South America and Africa. We've been working with unions around the world. And what we're working towards is building a global organization. Because comp-- you know, workers of the world unite, it's not just a slogan anymore. It's the way we're going to have to do our work.
BECK: Do you understand this? Workers of the world unite. That is communist, Marxist propaganda. Communist -- they for years -- workers of the world unite. This is SEIU, the Services Employees Union International. Got it? Or whatever it is. International union. Service Employees International Union. OK? They're going international -- workers of the world unite. But there's more. The most frequent visitor to the White House, and the guy Barack Obama says he turns to -- not Mao, that's another one of his advisers -- most often, if he needs to know what to do, he turns to SEIU. Here it is.
STERN [audio clip]: We're trying to use the power of persuasion. And if that doesn't work, we're going to use the persuasion of power. Because there are governments and there are opportunities to change laws that affect these companies. I'm not naïve. We're ready to strike.
BECK: He's not naive. He's ready to strike.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE [audio clip]: It started last summer with the so called big box ordinance.
BECK: Listen to this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE [audio clip]: Labor wanted it; business didn't.
STERN [audio clip]: We took names. We watched how they voted. We know where they live.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE [audio clip]: In October Andy Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union --
BECK: We took names.
STERN [audio clip]: There are opportunities in America to share better in the wealth, to rebalance the power, and unions and government are part of the solution.
BECK: To rebalance the power and to share the wealth. Workers of the world unite; we can help you share the wealth, if you combine government and unions. Well, what the hell are we doing?
STEVE "STU" BURGUIERE (executive producer): Can I have one request real quick for you to say again that he's the most -- the person who's visited the White House the most?
PAT GRAY (co-host): Twenty-two times.
BURGUIERE: Twenty-two times.
BECK: Twenty-two times.
GRAY: Except we'll probably hear, it's not that Andy Stern. Uh, that's a different Andy Stern.
BECK: No, we've -- we've checked.
BURGUIERE: Is it possible he's going on tours -- he just really likes the history.
BECK: He is -- he is -- he has weekly meetings with the president. Weekly meetings.
GRAY: He almost lives there. In fact, it was described that way. He practically lives in the White House.
BECK: He has unfettered access to the Oval Office. Now you tell me, America, what is it going to take? What is it going to take? You know, yesterday I drew, if you saw on the TV show, I drew a picture of a building and all of us just jumping off of this building, because the building is so tall you just don't feel the consequences. Well, we're facing the pavement here, gang. Prepare for impact. And we have people now, and where are your damn representatives in Washington standing up and saying "Hold it, we don't want to become a socialist nation"?
Stern while discussing use of "workers of the world unite" slogan: "the good news is communism's dead"
Stern: "the good news is communism's dead." During the May 14, 2006, edition of CBS's 60 Minutes, reporter Lesley Stahl said to Stern: "You like to say, 'Workers of the world unite,' which sounds, it is Karl Marx. But that's your, that's your kind of slogan now." Stern replied: "Well, the good news is communism's dead, but the truth is, the phrase means a lot because all of a sudden workers in London and workers in the United States are working for the same employer and the same owners."
Numerous conservatives have approvingly cited Mao's and other communists' tactics, rhetoric
As Media Matters for America has documented, numerous conservatives, including Newt Gingrich and John McCain, have approvingly cited the quotes and tactics from communist and socialist dictators, and stated that they had used those tactics in their political work, or have otherwise highlighted their philosophies.
Beck frequently targets progressives and Democrats as communist, Maoist, socialist lovers
Beck cropped Dunn quote to falsely claim she said Mao was "the man she turns to most." Continuing Fox News' witch hunt against members of the Obama administration, both Beck and Special Report misleadingly cropped White House communicators director Anita Dunn's remarks at a high school graduation ceremony to falsely claim that she was, in Beck's words, "proclaiming Mao [Zedong] as ... the man that she turns to most." In fact, Dunn actually said that Mao and Mother Teresa were "the two people that I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point, which is, you're going to make choices."
Beck falsely claimed Dunn "worships" "her hero" Mao Zedong. Throughout most of his October 15 Fox News program, Beck falsely claimed that Dunn "worships" and "idolizes" "her hero" Mao Zedong. In fact, in the video that Beck aired as evidence to support his claims, Dunn offered no endorsement of Mao's ideology or atrocities -- rather, she commented that Mao and Mother Teresa were two of her "favorite political philosophers," and based on short quotes from them, she offered the advice that "you don't have to follow other people's choices and paths" or "let external definition define how good you are internally."
Beck smears net neutrality as a Marxist plot to take over the Internet. Beck argued that the Obama administration's support for net neutrality amounted to a Marxist takeover of the Internet that would stifle innovation, when in fact net neutrality -- which was the law of the land from the creation of the Internet until 2005, and which ensured that Internet service providers were not able to control content -- has been cited by numerous Internet pioneers as the guiding principle in Internet development and innovation. Moreover, in smearing supporters of net neutrality, Beck esentially included groups such as the Gun Owners of America, the Christian Coalition, and Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell's Parents Television Council in what he described as a plot "design[ed]" by "Marxists."
Beck attacks "manufacturing czar" Bloom for citing Mao. Beck seized on "manufacturing czar" Ron Bloom's February 2008 statement that he agrees "with Mao that political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun."
Beck: Obama so clearly" a socialist, "He's surrounded himself with Marxists his whole life." On the March 9 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, Beck claimed that Obama "is so clearly" a socialist because "[h]e's surrounded himself with Marxists his whole life."
Explain how socialism is Christian-motivated again? I don't recall Christianity saying we should take things from people against their will. Christianity is about voluntary cooperation, giving, and unconditionally loving your neighbor, not coercion and forceful taking (as are most religions more or less).
On his show yesterday he said that "It is time to build an Ark."
Beck is just a rodeo clown.....right?
Beck is just a rodeo clown.....right?
Becky is similar to professional wrestling, it's all for show, and only the audience is fooled into thinking it's real.
Hmmm.....oh my
Yes, Tbone, of course there were active foreign spys in our government at the time, just like there are and always will be. But Mccarthy did not help expose any of them; his accusations were based on fantasy and led nowhere except the violation of individual rights. And just because there were secret communists in the government at the time, doesn't mean that the specific charges mccarthy leveled weren't baseless and/or libelous, or that these individuals were guilty of treason. Holding unpopular opionions is protected by the constitution, I'm afraid.
The Republican's strong penchant for rewriting history and creating their own reality has me awfully glad they aren't in power anymore. It seems they can convince themselves of almost anything.
Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?
There was a wee little problem with that though. Fred Fisher had already been OUTED as a former member of The Lawyers Guild by guess who....Joe Welch. In a New York Times article dated April 16, 1954:
This was the Mundt committee covering their posteriors because of Army officials names linked to Monmouth and deliberate withholding of names in the Peress case.
So we see the revisionist history is on the lefts and your part fomenting lies and misinformation of this era.
Maybe your next link will include the whole affair in its full context. Have you a sense of decency, sir?
Here's the relevent part of the exchange:
That there were communists working in the government does not = Mccarthy's authoritian witch-hunts were justified. It's a pretty simple distinction, but then again it seems the number one feature of right-wing thinking these days is the inability to make distinctions.
The fact remains that Mccarthy's tactics were dangerous and vile.
Welch had been hectoring McCarthy and his staffers during this six month long hearing with long stem winding sermons and grandstanding fit for an actor (he later capitalized on his fame and got bit parts as a lawyer and judge in Hollywood), so McCarthy tired of this and raised the issue of Fisher. As McCarthy stated " he (Welch) had little standing to lecure others about proper methods of Red-hunting"...
This is what brought on your quotes. So let's review. Who exactly was doing "witch hunts" here? Seems like after six months McCarthy finally was fed up enough to bring this to light (although Welch had shined the light on it six months earlier).
Fortunately, McCarthy was vindicated by the McClellan panel who wrote a scathing critique of the Army lawyers (Welch) performance. They noted the lack of candor in withholding the Inspector Generals report, the foot dragging and deliberate withholding of names of several officials involved in managing the Peress affair including the two most important, John Adams and General Zwicker. The McClellan panel went on rebuke Welch further stating-
So we find Welch to be a liar and withheld evidence. That is a crime in a court of law, but lucky for him it was just a Senate committee hearing, even though I'm sure he took an oath.
You were speaking of tactics?
That's not what "the left" has been pushing, it's what Eisenhower pushed (You are aware of how much your hero Mccarthy hated him, right?), Truman pushed, Nixon pushed, his former friend's pushed and not to mention almost every respected historian pushed. You're paddling upstream against reality. And that is a raging torrent.
No doubt, I don't know as much of the specific history of time as you do, but nub of the matter is, did Mccarthy ever actually discover real wrong-doing in his endless witch-hunts? Did he ever provide substantive evidence that the people he accused of being Soviet spies were Soviet spies? You've yet to show that his investigations were anything besides pointless witch-hunting.
Furthermore, do you think his assertion that FDR and Truman were guilty of "twenty years of treason" was a reasonable and sober assessment? And lastly, are we in agreement that many innocent people were accused by Mccarthy of disloyalty? Do you have a problem with this?
Mccarthy and Beck have this in common; they require the same amount of evidence to accuse someone of disloyalty; none.
Ike not only disliked McCarthy, I think it's fair to say he hated him. It wasn't just Ike, it was people very close to him also. Again why? Just because Joe was muckraking reds in the government?
As you alluded to it was the Marshall Plan speech given in the well of the Senate on June 14, 1951. It is in book form out there but I'm sure you can find it on the internets. Ike and Marshall had served in the military together for many years. Band of Brothers, so an attack on Marshall was an attack on Ike. That partly explains the rift.
The second part is more political. FDR had promoted both men over the heads of other Generals (I'm not qualified to say better men or for that matter more experienced) mainly because both men shared the global vision FDR had espoused in his time in office. The inertia brought Truman into this also.
Ike was between a rock and a hard place. He was the candidate of the party that was pledged to undo the New Deal but he was by and large a product of that. The republican party at the time (much like today) had two wings. Ike and McCarthy were across the divide in the party.
McCarthy believed we (Marshall) had given into Stalin's pressure and opened up a two-front war by the Normandy invasion and not hitting the "soft underbelly" through Italy and meeting the Russians in the Balkans as Churchill has espoused. He was critical of the US pulling up short in Europe and letting the Russians take Berlin and Prague. He was critical of FDR's secret Yalta deal that gave the Soviets Manchurian ports and railways, basically inviting them to take the province.
This brings us back to the reason McCarthy was doing this in the first place...Red China. While factual on many things, mainly what I highlighted, I will agree that McCarthy lost his case when he started to question Marshall's motives, him being a beloved and decorated General from the greatest war. W.F. Buckley has a good book McCarthy and his Enemies that sheds more light on this speech and episode.
McCarthy is not my hero. I admire his drive in many ways and that is the virtue that was his demise. He is a man much misaligned especially by the left in this country. I had long wondered as a kid who grew up in the height of the Cold War why we dumped on a staunch anti-communist like McCarthy. The school books glossed over the "Red Scare" but gave no context to the time.
Funny thing is after the Venona Papers were released I had a renewed interest in this topic. Another funny thing that happened is when I started peeling the onion back I found many things McCarthy was accused of turned out to be true.
You seem to have a fair grasp of the subject (better than any I've debated on this forum), so why don't you do the research and compare what you've learned to what actually happened. You asked me about names. There are many. We'll start with three...
Alger Hiss. Edward U. Condon. Solomon Adler. These should get us started.
BTW...thanks for keeping it civil. This forum used to be a haven for this kind of discourse but has devolved into the sniping (guilty as charged) on most threads. I've found that some of these "dead" threads are a great portal to debate. Keep up the good work!
That should read ... I found many of the things McCarthy was accused of turned out to NOT be true...
Which ones? All...some?
I can tell you that most stood on the shoulders of his severest critics. After all, why defend a man after he was censured and then shortly after dead and gone?
You post a respected historian and I'll show you where said historian is just piling on or omitting facts. Those facts are pesky things...even sixty years after the fact!
Yep, it seems this new thumbs up/down system is encouraging people (myself included) to leave passing witty remarks which will be read and thumbed by many people. Nothing like a few thumbs up to pump you up for the day.
Can't say I can ever agree on Mccarthy. If the man had redeeming attributes, I've yet to be made aware of them. I will say that you convinced me that he may actually have believed in his own rantings, something which I couldn't fathom before.
Either way, the truth is the truth, regardless of what we say; argument never hurt anyone.
McCarthy had his demons, most notably his contentious rancor within the Senate among his colleagues. That, in my opinion, was the one thing that hastened his fall from grace. Also it is fair game, but a lot of what I see just doesn't hold up to facts. Case in point, Fred Fisher. I think you even stated his career was ruined. That wasn't the case at all. He was taken off the Monmouth case. He still worked at the same law firm in Boston that Welch was a member of.
I guess the case can be made that his name was sullied, but if he was worried about his name being linked as a communist it was a tad late for that.
Anyhow I shouldn't belabor the point. I think you get where I'm coming from. Let's do this again some time! :)
I'm pretty sure Beckians watch only so they can use "socialism" in a drinking game.
It gets them hammered faster than using "You're a great American" on a Sean Hannity radio show.
Glenn Beck and a dish of pudding...mmmmm
BTW.. is the Beck/Pudding a comparison of their relative IQ's?
I grew up in a GM town where I saw a lot of guys with boats in their garages and two big cars in their driveway take their kids off to the cottage every weekend in the summer and all they did was work at GM probably doing the same simple job on the line every day. I heard the stories of guys showing up to work drunk or playing the system for overtime pay. If you ever told the workers that they didn't deserve to make the money they did, you'd have to bolt your door and wait for the "torch and pitchfork" bunch to go home. But the truth is they didn't deserve the money.
On the other hand, look at WalMart workers. They don't have a union. Do they deserve better than what they get? Sure, they do. But they can't get it without a union.
Unions need fixing as much as the rest of the economy needs fixing.
Who can count on them to act reasonable? How often, when given the chance to do the right thing, do they do it?
As I said, unions need fixing as much as the rest of the economy does.
So, since 1/20/09 Stern has had weekly meetings and Stern has been at the White House 22 times . .
Doesn't add up, does it Becky?
The White House website indicates that the list applies for the time period of January 20, 2009 to July 31, 2009.
Does that add up for you now?
That isn't to say that there aren't also outright Marxists among some in the administration; they are just in the minority. Can any of you explain the difference between small s socialism(European-style socialism if you prefer) and modern liberalism as it is defined in this country? I see no difference other than that the European politicians can afford to be more honest about the nature of their ideology. The word socialism (not communism) isn't an unpopular term on the Continent like it is here.
I would also disagree with some on the right who act as if American socialism just appeared overnight with this current adminsitration. We have had many elements of socialism interjected into our economy for many decades and many Republicans have expanded on these programs. Witness Mr. Bush's Prescription drug entitlement tack-on to Medicare for proof of that. We actually have a blend of fascist economics, capitalism, and socialism. It's been with us for many decades and it's headed into overdrive with this current administration.
personell at fox belong to. Way to attack your own staff Becky.