Why in the world would any respectable company want to associate their product with a sociopathic sack of shit like Glenn Beck? And what ad buyer at which advertising agency would be dumb enough in 2010 to tell their client they should be purchasing advertising on the Glenn Beck show?!?! Whoever sold TurboTax on the idea should be drummed out of the advertising business for good. What fucking idiocy.

Nice work over at the StopBeck blog. Note how fast it was for TurboTax to pull out:

On March 9th, TurboTax advertisements began running on Glenn Beck’s show on the Fox News Channel.  Participants in the StopBeck effort promptly sprang to action.  Less than 24 hours later, TurboTax announced that they would be pulling their advertisements from Glenn Beck’s show.

This brings the total number of advertisers to drop Glenn Beck to 120.  On a related note, the broadcast of Glenn Beck’s show in the U.K. has been running without any advertisers for over a month now.

TurboTax’s statement:

Thanks everyone for your feedback, & for reminding us of what we value. We’ve pulled advertising from the Glenn Beck show.

 
If only American Big Brother was this good… Sorry about the wonky quality, but you’ll most definitely get the point.

 
Thank you Chris Campion!

 
Is Sen. Jim Inhofe jealous of Sarah Palin’s starring role as pied piper to the idiot wing of the Republican party, or is he perhaps trying to position himself as a potential running mate for her in 2012? It’s hard to tell what the silliest Senator from Oklahoma was thinking, or if he’s really capable of much thinking at all. Witness what the witless Republican had waiting for him when he showed up in Copenhagen with his “message” of a Hollywood conspiracy that’s behind global warming:

Sen. Jim Inhofe flew across the Atlantic and ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù on little sleep ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù braved the snow, the cold and the dark to deliver his skeptical message at the international climate conference.

What he found when he got here: a few aides and a single reporter.

?¢‚Ǩ?ìI think he?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s going to be a little disappointed,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù one of his aides remarked.

—snip—

A reporter asked: ?¢‚Ǩ?ìIf there?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s a hoax, then who?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s putting on this hoax, and what?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s the motive??¢‚Ǩ¬ù

?¢‚Ǩ?ìIt started in the United Nations,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù Inhofe said, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìand the ones in the United States who really grab ahold of this is the Hollywood elite.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù One reporter asked Inhofe if he was referring to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Another reporter ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù this one from Der Spiegel ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù told the senator: ?¢‚Ǩ?ìYou?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re ridiculous.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù

Inhofe ignored the jab, fielded a few more questions, then raced to the airport for the nine-hour flight back to Washington. After Inhofe left, some reporters were still a bit confused about what had happened and who he was. ?¢‚Ǩ?ìHis name is Inhofe,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù a German journalist told a Japanese reporter, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìbut I don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t know if it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s one or two f?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù

What a pathetic buffoon. He pwns himself.

Sen. James Inhofe Called “Ridiculous” (Politico)

 
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, a Costco in Salt Lake City took tomatoes off its shelves last week in preparation for Sarah Palin’s “Going Rogue” book-signing appearance at the store. A man was arrested on Dec. 7 at a Palin event at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., for allegedly throwing a tomato at the former Alaska governor, and Costco management was “determined” to avoid a repeat. Helen Rappaport, a Democrat, was happy to browse the nearly empty aisles of the big-box giant while other shoppers clustered around the Palin event area, but she was puzzled as to why she couldn’t seem to find any tomatoes:

No tomatoes? At Costco?

As she was leaving, she noticed a man with a store manager’s name tag and asked him why they had no tomatoes. He informed her the store did have tomatoes, but they were taken off the shelves for a few hours.

It turns out that Palin had been pelted with a tomato at an earlier stop on her book tour and the management at the Costco was determined it wouldn’t happen here.

No word on whether eggs, watermelons, apples or other potentially useful foodstuff projectiles were available during the Palin event.

Cross posting this from Brand X

 
Chase Whitestead and Erick Stroll of New Left Media spoke to Sarah Palin fans at her book signing in Clumbus, Ohio. The object of their line of questioning is simple “Why do you like Sarah Palin?” and “Why do you think she would make a good president?” These are hardly trick questions, but not one of the people assembled there had an answer to either (or at least an answer that makes any sense). This is funny and sad at the same time. These people are so uninformed and gullible, it fucking hurts.

 
Amusing(?) item from this morning’s Media Matters newsletter:

On May 3, 2006, Bill O’Reilly led off his Fox News show with the sentencing of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was tried in civilian court and handed several consecutive life terms for his role in the September 11 terrorist attacks. According to O’Reilly: “The al Qaeda savage promptly thanked them by saying ‘America, you lost. I won.’ But like what most of this degenerate says, he is wrong. Moussaoui is condemned to rot in his cell until he does die and if the Federal penitentiary is run properly, Moussaoui will be denied any and all privileges.” O’Reilly explained that “by not executing Moussaoui, the U.S.A. shows the world we are a nation of laws, a nation that puts power in the hands of regular folks.”

Now fast-forward a few years—the Democrats take control of the White House, and the new president announces he’s bringing Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to New York to face trial before a civilian court. O’Reilly, who praised the civilian trial of Moussaoui, says of the decision to Bush White House adviser Karl Rove: “Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, that is a terrible decision. ... Because you know, I know, and everybody knows it’s going to cost the city of New York between $75 and $100 million. These animals are going to get up there. They’re going to lie. The lawyers are going to turn it into an anti-Bush, anti-CIA, anti-American extravaganza.”

Just think about that one for a moment—O’Reilly, who praised the civilian prosecution of Moussaoui in 2006, is complaining about the White House’s civilian prosecution of Mohammed in 2009, to a person who was part of the White House that decided to prosecute Moussaoui in a civilian court. (emphasis added)

O’Reilly wasn’t the only person to pull the ol’ Moussaoui/Mohammed switcheroo on Fox News. Former New York mayor and 9-11 enthusiast Rudy Giuliani appeared on Neil Cavuto’s show last Friday to attack the Mohammed decision as a “terrible, terrible mistake,” explaining that the terrorist “should be prosecuted in a military tribunal.” Cavuto neglected to point out that in 2006, Giuliani said of the Moussaoui trial: “It does demonstrate that we can give people a fair trial, that we are exactly what we say we are. We are a nation of law.”

Indeed, confusion abounded among conservatives everywhere. Morning Joe namesake Joe Scarborough declared it “unprecedented” to try a terrorism suspect in the U.S. judicial system. To his credit, Scarborough later corrected this false assertion.

No one expects conservatives to support President Obama, particularly on issues of national security. But is a little consistency too much to ask? Well, maybe consistency is too much—how about something less than outright hypocrisy?

BONUS: Bill O?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢Reilly is just not one to talk about rape

 
Who would be stupid enough to think this is funny…? From Huffington Post:

Apparently, the latest thing in ?¢‚Ǩ?ìDebasing The Institutions You Pretend To Hold Dear In Order To Suggest That President Barack Obama Should Be Murdered Without Actually Coming Right Out And Saying So?¢‚Ǩ¬ù goes by a shorter name: Psalm 109:8.

And Psalm 109:8 is just straight up memetastic, appearing on bumper stickers and T-shirts, all of which carry the benign sounding message, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìPray For Obama.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù But, as Gawker?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s John Cook points out, this is just one more in a ?¢‚Ǩ?ìlong line of cheekily coded Obama death threats.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù The verse in question reads: ?¢‚Ǩ?ìMay his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù That leads fairly naturally into the Psalm 109:9, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìMay his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù You know, in case you miss the point.

The Cafe Press vendor also sells dog bowls with the same,er, “zany” slogan…

 
Thanks Patrick!

 
An excerpt from Frank Schaeffer’s soon-to-be released book, Patience with God, gets to the root of why millions are praying for End Times.

Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series of sixteen novels (so far!) represents everything that is most deranged about religion. If I had to choose companions to take my chances with in a lifeboat, and the choice boiled down to picking Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins, or Christopher Hitchens, I’d pick Hitchens in a heartbeat. At least he wouldn’t try to sink our boat so that Jesus would come back sooner. He might even bring along a case of wine.

The Left Behind novels have sold tens of millions of copies while spawning an “End Times” cult, or rather egging it on. Such products as Left Behind wall paper, screen savers, children’s books, and video games have become part of the ubiquitous American background noise. Less innocuous symptoms include people stocking up on assault rifles and ammunition, adopting “Christ-centered” home school curricula, fearing higher education, embracing rumor as fact, and learning to love hatred for the “other,” as exemplified by a revived anti-immigrant racism, the murder of doctors who do abortions, and even a killing in the Holocaust Museum.

No, I am not blaming Jenkins and LaHaye’s product line for murder or racism or any other evil intent or result. What I am saying is that feeding the paranoid delusions of people on the fringe of the fringe contributes to a dangerous climate that may provoke violence in a few individuals. And convincing folks that Armageddon is on the way, and all we can do is wait, pray, and protect our families from the chaos that will be the “prelude” to the “Return of Christ,” is perhaps not the best recipe for political, economic, or personal stability, let alone social cohesion. It may also not be the best philosophy on which to build American foreign policy! The momentum toward what amounts to a whole subculture seceding from the union (in order to await “The End”) is irrevocably prying loose a chunk of the American population from both sanity and their fellow citizens.

Read more: Why Republicans Are in the Grip of an Apocalyptic Rapture Cult Centered on Revenge and Vindication

Thanks Steven Otero!