Thousands of immature, prickish, and generally assholish remarks happen every day in the blogosphere, and I am proud that half of them happen here either on the front page or in the comments section. But this is just taking it to the next level:
“I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.”
And what makes it even more awesome, is that he said it during the middle of a rant in which he believes we need to come together( listen to the audio clip).
Maybe we can all get together and kick Glenn Beck’s ass?
Incertus (Brian)
I’m in.
Peter Johnson
I see, so a conservative host making a joke about California is evil, a left-wing host joking about killing the president and vice-president is funny
John Cole
You had to reach pretty deep for that one, DougJ.
KCinDC
If Bush and Cheney were actually on death row, I’d find it inappropriate for Franken to joke about it. On second thought, I might make an exception for Bush, since as governor he thought it was fine to joke about putting Karla Faye Tucker to death.
Paul D
Peter Johnson
Uh, Mr Johnson? You realize that you killed your own argument by providing the entirety of Franken’s comments right?
To wit:
“I think, by the way, that we should never ever, ever, ever execute a sitting President.”
Also, why is Al Franken “left-wing” while Beck is merely “conservative”? Is Beck not “right-wing”?
wingnuts to iraq
Why isn’t Peter Johnson in Iraq?
demkat620
Can we waterboard him first?
srv
John, it was you yourself who declared the new site policy of wanton insensitivity months ago.
You should be celebrating the nut roasting.
The Other Steve
Actually that is pretty funny. LOL!
The Other Steve
Don’t fall for this Glenn Beck trap. He’s now apparently saying inflammatory stupid shit so as to improve his abysmal ratings.
He’s the least watched show on cable. Don’t help him by watching him fling poop.
Psycheout
I’ll bet that Beck was taken out of context by those smear merchants at Media Matters. But that snippet you quoted was pretty disturbing.
I think it’s unfortunate for all of us when people are burned out of their homes. Jokes about forest fires aren’t particularly funny.
Zifnab
Someone get Mike Huckabee and he’ll get Chuck Norris. But not on a Wednesday.
RSA
Reading the transcript, I have to think, “Is there a thought process generating that nonsense?” A longer excerpt:
Summary: We all love America. Some people hate America. (They’re losing their houses to a fire–too bad and ha-ha.) Democrats don’t hate America. People who pose as Democrats hate America. You [ed: whoever that is] don’t come into the center [ed. wherever that is]. You stand up [ed: but not in the center].
WTF?
Tax Analyst
Hey, John said he was proud of it. That sounds celebratory enough to my tender sensitivities.
Oh, and yes, I’m in favor of a large contingent of Balloon Juice reader’s/commenter’s going over to whatever slime-hole that dick-head Glen Beck happens inhabit and kicking his annoying ass half-way to Malibu.
Dennis-SGMM
It’s the myth of equivalence, fostered so assiduously by the media. It doesn’t matter how depraved or hateful the remarks of someone on the right they are not to be condemned because someone, somewhere on the left once said something mean about Bush.
Talk about moral relativism.
The Other Steve
Oops my mistake. Just checked, and it’s official.
Tucker Carlson is the least watched show on cable. Hardball is 2nd, and Glenn Beck comes in at third.
jnfr
I think San Diego is generally pretty conservative.
Bombadil
Ya want context? I gotcher context right here.
Courtesy of the Smear Merchants. Gotta love ’em.
jnfr
Map of the fires. 265,000 people evacuated. At least some of them have to be conservatives, but I still can’t bring myself to wish them ill. I do hope this doesn’t scare them all into moving to Colorado, though.
ninerdave
Actually ToS looking at the numbers, Hardball pulls most of their audience at 5pm. One could also make the argument that he’s pulling a 761 rating, since I’m assuming the 7pm views are watching it for the first time.
I’m sort of a ratings geek.
wasabi gasp
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
It’s you’re homeless now and all your shit is burnt.
Ted
That was a good one. Freaked Tucker Carlson out.
George W. Bush: so sadistic, even Tucker Carlson was taken aback.
jrg
Glenn Beck should be in a mental institution. I wonder what CNN will do if there is an uproar.
If some middle-eastern psycho said: âI think there is a handful of people who hate Islam. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.â, the right-wingers would be in a dung-hurling tizzy.
How does this idiot even have a job, and what is up with this conservative âaffirmative actionâ for newscasters? For every reporter, you have to find a gibbering, drunken prima-donna to interpret the news? As if enough people are not dumb enough to get shit wrong on their own?
WTF kind of value does this mongoloid add?
srv
Maybe Glenn was talking about Pepperdine?
Zifnab
Proving that even the American Viewer has a level of tastelessness he won’t actively indulge in.
Honestly, I think its more because the target demographic for Carlson and Beck are the same guys who continually refer to CNN as the Communist News Network.
When will network execs learn. The well has offically been poisoned. Why would wingnuters drink your Manic Albino or 30-year-old-with-a-bow-tie Kool Aid, when they can drink the sweet necter of Falafel Man Bill and nipple the delicate ambrosia that hangs off of Sean Hannity’s plastic chin?
Tsulagi
Would it really be worth the bother?
The few times Iâve watched and listened to that guy on the teevee for more than a minute heâs been an incoherent retard. Who seems to think that if he can act prissy mad enough and sling enough spittle heâs earned the right to wear his Jack Bauer decoder ring. Sort of a smarter Bush.
tBone
Thanks for the indelible mental image. I’m sending you my therapy bills, asshole.
Ted
The cable news outlets are afraid of being called ‘biased’ by right-wingers. Right-wingers are all for letting the free market run itself, except in the media.
gypsy howell
âI think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.â
Ha. I always thought all those republican assholes in San Diego hated America. And now Glenn Beck comes right out and says it. Go figure.
Dug Jay
I’ve never heard this guy, but I’m not sure that I understand what was so wrong in what he said; he said it was unfortunate that some of them were losing their homes to the fires, after all. His remarks seem to to be far less hateful and intemperate than a typical post by Jane Hamsher or one of the Kos kids. I guess the real difference is that they are good fun-loving loony liberals, whereas Beck must be a winger.
Peter Johnson
I guess I’d also have to hear Glenn’s comments in context before I judged in any case. But it all sounds pretty tame compared to the hate you see from the Michael Moore crowd.
chopper
yes, the liberals are always far worse.
Dreggas
Fuck that I want them inducted as (in)voluntary smoke jumpers. He’s a stupid POS.
râŹnato
shorter Peter Johnson:
“Ward Churchill! Bill Clinton! Al Franken!”
jeebus. Well, at least he’s good for comic relief.
râŹnato
you know Peter, you’d gain some measure of credibility here if you would just say, “yeah, that was a pretty shitty thing for Beck to say.”
Dixie
When Beck on TV was having a hissy fit about Gore rather Irene Sendler winning the Nobel, I was stuck in front of CNN with my wingnut uncle. He LOVES Beck, but he was sitting in the laz-e-boy silent and glum during the video they’d produced while I pointed out the idiot-like jocularity in the announcer’s voice, the non sequiturs, the cherry picking of events, the flippin’ MUSIC they chose.
“You think this segment is meant to honor her, Uncle Jim?”
and
“This man is not behaving as a journalist. He’s a smarmy entertainer. Do you think he believes there a sucker born every minute, Uncle Jim?”
I spoke to him on the phone just last night. When I asked, “Remember Irene Sendler, Uncle Jim?” he didn’t have a clue.
I don’t want to do the research to find out if he’s a typical Beck fan.
(Disclaimer: Uncle Jim was the best uncle of my childhood, and I love him in a sometimes frustrated way.)
Mike S
If Glenn Beck makes a sound and no one is watching, why does anyone comment on it?
Of course what makes it even worse is that while no one watches it he still remains on the air.
Davebo
Ya think? 64% of all San Diego County offices, both partisan and non-partisan are held by Republicans.
And to top it off, the county head of the GOP was recently named the state’s GOP chairman.
jrg
Because it would be glib and unbalanced to have a discussion about global warming that did not involve an expose critical of Al Goreâs transportation methods.
The only philosophical requirement for a “conservative” commentator is “I hate liberals”. That’s it. When there is a problem, they blame it on the liberals, and move on.
People like Beck don’t add any “balance” to news coverage, they’re schmucks running attack pieces. I mean, really, what on earth do these forest fires have to do with Beck’s Jingoistic delusions?
This is the kind of stuff I’m talking about. Conservatives need liberals to hate in order to define their very existence.
Bullshit, Peter Johnson. Link if you have Michael Moore labeling the victims of a natural disaster as traitors, Liar.
Mike S
I wonder who he pissed off.
Peter Johnson
It was a shitty thing for Beck to say. I don’t see the point in kicking people when their houses are burning down.
Happy now?
There’s the difference — a liberal would never do what I just did. A liberal would just keep on kicking, personal tragedy or no. Look how they piled on Tony Snow when he had cancer.
Mike S
This is usually a good indication of whether you should be pissed about a comment here.
maroge
Hey, Peter, please link to the “liberals” who kicked Tony Snow had cancer?
Redleg
What will it take to get CNN to finally fire that stupid shit-heel?
jake
For shame John. The second half of his comment:
makes it clear the man is a raving addict (PCP? Meth? MD 20/20?) and needs help.
When we kick his ass, we’ll aim him towards a good rehab facility.
Redleg
Peter Johnson,
Who piled on Tony Snow? Name one liberal TV show host who made light of Snow’s cancer? Tick, tock.
Mike S
He has said that he is a recovering alchololic.
Teak111
Well Well Well, sitting in SD watching shit burn and who shows up on TV, the Fox station, but Duncan Hunter explaining how he personally is going to get the military to use it resources to fight the fires, what a great guy. Actually, what and asshole and what an asshole the local Fox is for giving this blow hard any time at all. We here in San Diego need information, when to evacuate, where to help, and areas affected in case friends or colleagues need a place to stay. Yet, here is GOP candidate Hunter blowharding on the Fox affiliate how HE is getting the military to help out, cutting red tape from the “previous admin.” Proof positive of JCs angle that the GOP will do anything at anytime to shill for itself. Shame on your Duncan Hunter for hyping mil connections when people here SD need help. I really hate these people.
Psycheout
Well said, Pete. Notice the hushed silence.
Psycheout
That was a typo. I meant “enjoy the silence.”
Ted
Tony Snow still has cancer, idiot. And what liberal with a megaphone as big (such as it is) as Glenn Beck’s ever mocked the man for having cancer?
We can play this game forever; find a liberal/conservative somewhere who said something horrible about someone. About the only distinction you can validly make is how big a platform they have to say it, and whether or not they were allowed to keep that platform after they did say it. Glenn Beck will not be fired for what he said. John McCain will not have any problems because he said Chelsea Clinton is “so ugly, because her father is Janet Reno.”
Want to keep playing this tit-for-tat?
The Other Steve
That doesn’t mean they don’t hate America.
daniel rotter
I won’t deny that there were liberals out there who made horrible comments regarding Tony Snow’s cancer; however, none of those people have nationally broadcast television and radio shows.
As for the equivalence of Glenn Beck’s nonsense to Al Franken, the humor behind the latter’s joke was that there was the extreme unlikelhoodi that Libby, Rove, and President Bush would face the death penalty in the Plame case. Letterman’s audience got that and that’s why they laughed at Franken’s comments.
The Other Steve
Peter Dick Johnson is a good friend of mine.
I wish you’d all stop yelling at him. He is arguing in good faith, afterall.
daniel rotter
In my last post, it should read “unlikelihood,” not “unlikelhoodi.” Sorry, it’s been a long day.
D-Chance.
OK, so do we now need a fainting couch for the left-wingers, too? It’s not like the right hasn’t been openly praying for “the Big One” to cut loose along the San Andreas Fault and allow the whole state to slide into the Pacific for the last 25+ years… why get the vapors now?
Psycheout
Liberals are dum.
lorri
Maybe someone should share this quote with all the Republicans from Scripps Ranch who are spending the night in Qualcomm Stadium.
Bob In Pacifica
I would watch that 70 year-old nun on channel 573 before I’d watch Glenn Beck.
Peter Johnson
I’m glad someone here hasn’t drunk the Kos Kool-Aid.
Ted
You’re being retarded. No one can deny someone somewhere at some point has said something horrible about Tony Snow for having cancer. The point (which you dutifully avoided by ending your quote where you did) is how big a platform do they have to say it, and what happens to them when they do?
Show me one case of a liberal with a national prime-time cable TV show on a news network that has said anything against Tony Snow for having cancer.
You can’t because there is no such example. If you want to play this game, we can always break out the thousands of juicy Ann Coulter quotes. You know, the genocidal, eliminationist kind, among many other categories. All brought to you by the top-rated cable news network.
demimondian
Ah, yeah. Um, -DougJ- Peter, why don’t you go find those alleged liberals saying all those hurtful things about Tony Snow? Let’s look at those terrible things, OK?
mere mortal
John, you have badly misunderstood what Glenn is talking about here.
Just as godless homosexuals are responsible for 9/11, and the victims of New Orleans are responsible for the deluge on account of the sins of their city, anyone who loses their home to wildfires in California must be responsible for the destruction.
Think of it as the value of Puritan self-reliance, but inverted.
If you can’t make your own way in the world in spite of life’s random disasters, you must somehow be at fault.
Psycheout
Cancer trumps forest fires. Game, set and match.
PaulW
Isn’t Glenn Beck’s show still losing ratings? Has he bottomed out yet? Do you think CNN would be better off training cameras onto a room full of puppies to get higher ratings during his hour(s) of stupidity?
Johnny Wendell
Tony Snow was ridiculed for having cancer? Or there was joy expressed at this diagnosis/relapse?
I’ve never seen this anywhere.
Could someone direct me to this?
Johnny Wendell
This is the nastiest Tony Snow commentary I could find:
http://tvnewslies.org/blog/?p=589
And even at that, there was no schaudenfraude expressed by the author, an author whose reach is consdierably less than Glenn Beck’s.
I think what we have here is another hardcore worshipper that will go to any lengths to create an equivalent to the atrocities perpetrated on a daily basis by the waterboys and girls of Die Partei Republikkkansiche.
Fruitbat
Psycheout, I’m guessing the incendiary definition of “set” and “match” weren’t on your mind when you wrote this. I’d hate to accuse you of encouraging people to commit arson.
On the other hand, it would be a method of illogical argumentation you’d be familiar with.
tBone
Petey is either a gifted spoof with a nice understated style, or a hack spoof who just regurgitates boilerplate wingnut spew. I can’t decide. I think stuff like this shows promise, though:
Off Colfax
QED
jake
Yes. SA2SQ Vol. XXI
Still yes.
There is some amusement to be gained from watching these wankers. Their shtick is set on “Insult Libruls” but they shot their wad long ago. There’s only so many times you can say the IslaHomoDemoNcRATS want to let Al Quaida gang-bang Uncle Sam while ObL drinks wine from a snowflake baby’s skull before the ratings start to slip. Is it any surprise Beck sounds like he’s afflicted with of some bizarre aphasia, Rush Limbaugh sounds a bigger ass than usual and Ann Coulter is talking about “perfecting” the Jews?
2008 is going to be a banner year for broadcast idiocy.
Peter Johnson
What bothers me here is that you’re holding up Glenn Beck as an example of a typical conservative. He’s an idiot who happens to have right-wing views.
And explain this one to me. How can you claim he has a “huge megaphone” and then turn around and say “no one watches his show”? Which is it?
Peter Johnson
Cos it can’t be both.
craigie
He has a big megaphone (a cable news show) that nobody watches. What’s so hard about that?
OniHanzo
But… but… he’s loud… and has shit ratings. Two concepts. At the same time.
In…con… ciev… able!
*head explodes*
Ted
I see. You can just write him off as not part of the rightwing movement if his statements are inconvenient. How courageous of you. Beck has been a nationally syndicated rightwing radio and now TV host for many, many years. I guess the only ‘typical conservatives’, despite how they might describe themselves as ‘conservative’, and have a national TV audience, and spend every day railing against ‘libruls’, are ones who Peter Johnson has confirmed haven’t previously said anything egregiously awful.
SPIIDERWEBâą
Just wondering. Is assholish a word?
laneman
when intratube is a word, assholish must be one.
laneman
ok, at trying to be one
Soliton
Peter Johnson,
Perhaps you can explain why “an idiot who happens to have right-wing views” managed to land a lucrative gig at a major media outlet?
Obviously said major media outlet was expecting to make money on said idiot.
Why would said major media outlet hire such an idiot with expectations of booking ratings with his idiocy?
Could it be that said major media outlet thinks the audience for said idiot are also idiots who will be attracted by idiocy?
chopper
this coming from the sort that points to anyone with left-wing views as an example of a typical liberal.
i’m also still waiting to see all the widely-exposed liberal commenters who ragged on tony snow’s cancer.
Pug
iâm also still waiting to see all the widely-exposed liberal commenters who ragged on tony snowâs cancer.
It was probably one of the comments, among thousands, on Daily Kos. You know how that works.
I’m kind of puzzled about all these people that hate America or are anti-American. If you are an American, can you be anti-American? Somehow it doesn’t make sense.
If my wife, my mother and father, my brother, my sons and daughter and all my relatives and friends are Americans, how is it that I can be anti-American? I don’t get it.
These guys like O’Reilly and Beck are clowns. They don’t even make any sense. What they are really saying is if you don’t agree with them you hate America. It’s really nothing more than jingoism from a bunch of simpletons.
cleek
me too. i can’t think of any who did, and i’m sure the wingnuts would’ve made an unforgettable screeching sound if someone had.
Bombadil
He is.
He is.
Bombadil
Peter (and Psycheout as well) started out as pretty good spoofs, but whoever is behind them is getting lazy.
I’m blanking here — what was the name of the spoof site that some of the Balloon-Juice denizens put up some months back?
Mr. M'Choakumchild
Don’t get me started. I could rant for hours on the subject, but my brain contains a rudimentary editing function, unlike the Glenn Becks of the Right.
Bombadil
I checked Psycheout’s site and have decided/seriously hope it has to be a spoof (hence my question above about the previous spoof site). But they’re doing something right as they’re referenced at ThinkProgress. I’d give them a couple spoof points for that.
Bombadil
Which does include its namesake. Unlike the leftie equivalent we all so fondly remember.
Peter Johnson
When have I ever said anything like that? Did I say Al Franken was a “typical liberal”? What is it with you and putting words in my mouth? I didn’t say that Malkin was “gorgeous” either.
I see, you can’t win your actual argument so you just pretend your opponent said something he didn’t really say. Nice trick.
Zifnab
Of course, one could argue that Beck’s abysmal ratings suggest the typical CNN conservative isn’t really interested in what Beck has to say.
Notice how CNN isn’t really making much money off of Beck. Conservatives aren’t lining up in his defense – like they would in the case of Rush or Bill’O. Sure, Peter’s condemnation is about as half-assed and lukewarm as one could ask for, with the obligatory “liberals are worse!” thrown in for good measure. But the nicest thing he’s said about the man is “I’d have to hear the whole thing in context”. No one is wearing Limbaugh-esque “God’s Gift to Radio” Glenn Beck T-shirts or attending “I love the USA” Hannity-style jerk-off fest concerts. Dobson doesn’t regularly appear on Beck’s show. He doesn’t score weekly interviews with the Vice President. For whatever reason, Beck has not distinguished himself as part of the cool Cons. Pete’s right. He’s not a posterchild of the wingnut’o’sphere.
Of course, Pete seems to believe “liberals are worse” so I’ll give a counter example of how a news commentator is supposed to act. Take John Stewart. Suave, intelligent, and amicable while still critical of his interview-ies. Here we have the liberal face of the news media – more so than Katy Couric and Matt Lauer will ever be – and he brings Tony Snow and Lynn Cheney on his show, handling them with a gentle disposition that Beck could only dream of. He tackles Tony’s Snow Jobs and even gets Lynn to open up about her gay daughter, and never once does he receive flak for being offensive or obnoxious or jingoistic. You’d never hear Stewart taking the type of heat that Beck inspires, and – perhaps not coincidentally – Stewart’s ratings blow the CNN crowd out of the water typically scoring upwards of a million viewers, while everyone but Faux is left in the dust. During election season, even Bill’O has to watch his back.
I submit John Stewart as the polar opposite of Glenn Beck. An intelligent, affiable, liberal with high ratings and wide bi-partisan popular appeal. If you can find me a conservative with more pinache than John Stewart, who has a show in cable news, I’ll eat my shirt.
PK
Kick Glenn Beck’s Ass? I don’t think so.
A baseball bat to the head is in order here!
râŹnato
I suppose, but of course you couldn’t just leave it at that could you? You had to throw in, ‘yeah but liberals do it too!’ Even though they don’t – though I suppose that somewhere you could find a random commenter on a liberal blog who wrote something intemperate.
Cable news network host saying something awful and hateful != Random nobody commenter on a blog writing something awful and hateful.
But still, yes I give you some measure of credit Peter.
râŹnato
redundant.
râŹnato
It would sound something like this:
“Ward Churchill! Ward Churchill! Scree, scree!”
râŹnato
Interestingly, my ex-father thinks this way. Which is one of the many, many reasons why he’s my ex-father.
And yes, he’s a wingnut.
Peter Johnson
Big Daily show fan here. I don’t consider Jon Stewart to be a liberal. Obviously, he doesn’t like Bush. That doesn’t make him a liberal. If that made him a liberal, the country would be two-thirds liberal.
I’ve heard Stewart describe his own politics as fiscally conservative, socially liberal.
Bob In Pacifica
You know, even though it’s Cali, there are more right-wing reactionary Republicans who own the big houses in Malibu than there are Barbra Streisands. Owners of construction companies who use illegals to avoid union wages, etc. So Glenn Beck’s intemperate remarks are actually against the Republican base: propertied rich people. That shows you how much of a dumb idiot Glenn Beck is.
râŹnato
*shrug* That would describe me as well, and I’d call myself a liberal.
This may be hard for you to take Peter, so sit down before you read the next sentence:
If you pay attention to what Jon Stewart says and the questions he asks during his interviews, it becomes fairly obvious he’s a liberal. I mean, he’s a New York Jew, do you really think he’s a Republican?
It’s OK, Peter – we won’t breathe a word of this to your right-wing friends. You’re safe here.
chopper
man, you sure are an odd duck, Willie Doodle.
Zifnab
Yeah, him and Hillary Clinton.
You can’t have it both ways, buddy. Words mean things. I know you like John Stewart and I know you don’t like “liberals”, but that doesn’t make Stewart by definition not a liberal, any more than O’Reilly waxing on about being fair and balanced makes him not conservative.
Regardless, I’ve stated my criteria. Stewart = smart, popular, and liberal. Beck = GOoPer cable flunkie. If you can find me a fair-minded and intelligent conservative to replace the Glenn Beck stereo-type, I’d love to hear it. So far, however, no names have been forthcoming.
Bombadil
We used to have David Brudnoy on the radio here in Boston, and he matched your criteria. Sadly, he died in December, 2004, and no one, locally or nationally, has filled that particular void.
Gus
As Atrios often points out, no one watches Glenn Beck’s shitty show.
Pb
ninerdave,
Yeah, and remember, Countdown re-airs at midnight, but the ratings on TVNewser cut off right before then; pfft.
Tim F.
I sincerely hope that Dug Jay is a spoof, because nobody could better illustrate the pathetic rhetorical weakness of rightwing diehards that John mocks on a daily basis. Dean McLoughlin might have once said, “When you donât have it on the law, pound the facts. When you donât have it on the facts, pound the law. When you’re a rightwinger in the age of Bush, pound the table.”
BIRDZILLA
And all those fools who opposed proper managment of the land in favor of listening to the eco-wackos are watching their homes go up in flames SCREW THE SIERRA CLUB
Bombadil
Because proper management of the land in California would have prevented the massive high pressure zone over Idaho, thereby cutting off the high winds circulating in over the desert into the canyons, which lowers the relative humidity to single-digit levels and dries out the underbrush to a nice tinder-like consistency.
Damn liberal high-pressure systems. And the drought is all Bill Clinton’s fault, because he got a blow job.
Jake
Yeah! He’s a Fiscoberal!
Poor Peter, his will is strong, but his chops are weak.
râŹnato
bark beetles all belong to the Dhimmicrat party, duh!
Billy K
FIX’D for accuracy!
jcricket
I think by half John is using Huckabee’s definition of mostest.
The Other Steve
Well if they’d listened to the more extreme environmental groups, they wouldn’t have their homes burning up, because they wouldn’t have built homes there.
Bombadil
And the terrorists would have won.
Tax Analyst
Brian
Why is it “extreme” to believe that building homes in areas that have repeatedly burned for thousands of years, thus exposing yourself-as well as thousands of fire fighters and emergency personnel is a very bad idea?
Bombadil
Why do insurance companies even write policies for these houses?
Notafuckingmoronfaketroll
Can someone please ban the fake troll Psycheout? It’s no longer funny…
The Populist
I live in California and I DO NOT resemble that remark!
Seriously, what is wrong with these nutjobs? I have rightie friends losing everything to these fires. I also have many independent friends fearing they are next as the fires come closer to their homes.
Why are these people so hypocritical? Last I checked Americans were supposed to care about each other, politics be damned. They love to think that anybody to the left of them wants to see them lose everything. Funny, I don’t know anybody who believes this. They get so worked up over their “enemies” that they take the hate to ever increasing new levels of depraved commentary.
And btw – I am in agreement that I do not understand why people live in such areas to begin with. But it’s the American dream, right?
Bombadil
Katrina changed everything.
The Populist
Bombadil,
Yep, sadly you are correct. I’d have no problem pulling a guy out of a fire. Would I do it if I knew it was Rush or Beck or Malkin, even Coulter? Sure…at the end of the day these idiots will NOT take my humanity.
The irony would be they’d go on the air and continue making things up about their enemies. Ce la vie, I guess.
As for Beck, this just occurred to me…he said that about people losing their homes because he assumes that all of areas burning are folks who work in or around the entertainment biz. If that’s true, it just shows how dumb these idiots are.
The Populist
Hey Peter “Spoof” Johnson,
It is funny because it’s true. Treason is punishable by execution.
The Populist
Billy K,
The M.O. of the right is if you disagree with any of their people, you must be liberal.
VidaLoca
Because the homeowners are willing, and more than able, to pay the inflated premiums on the policies in return for the access to the mountains, the view, and so on? The owners pass the risk to the insurance companies, the companies pass the risk to the insurance pools; it’s all a game of musical chairs until the moment the music stops. Then the piper is paid.
In a couple of years, rebuilding starts. Lather, rinse, repeat. As long as there’s money to be made.
Right.
Joe
So…has everyone decided which side they’re on when this country gets split apart? Everyday I see signs that this is coming.
Pb
You must be new here.
Abe Froman
I’m all for Stewart and Colbert in 08! Or would that be Colbert and Stewart. Either way. I’m cool
Ron
That’s Colbert and Colbert. Why do you hate America?
Bombadil
Oh, but those were the good old days. I got banned a couple times myself, mostly for calling John on some egregious hackery that he himself has since renounced. We have a kinder, gentler host now, or at least one with thicker skin.
I’m hoping that Psycheout will work a bit harder in his/her/their spoofery. It’s not as easy as it looks, I’ve learned, and our friend is either new at this, or woefully out of practice. The potential is there, though, and once past the rookie phase we have have a worthy colleague for DougJ (or a worthy addition to DougJ’s repertoire, whichever).
The Populist
Joe – if that happens, I could see secession across the board. What side am I on? The ideals behind the constitution and folks who believe in true liberty and tolerance.
If that were to get me hurt or worse…so be it.
Dreggas
I live about 10 miles from the Santiago fire. It had burned 15000 acres and threatens 2000 homes (not my area fortunately).
Right now there are over 500000 people living in shelters in San Diego because they have been evacuated. They were reporting that all of the fires in San Diego have practically merged and there is a distinct possibility that that “FIRE” could burn to the ocean and may just take San Diego with it.
For some fucktard to go spouting off like Beck did is just as bad as other fucktards going off on those caught by Katrina…oh wait it was the same fucktards.
So fuck you assholes. I doubt there’s anyone affected by these fires that hates america so you can go take a long walk off a short pier, asshats.
Tony J
Because, uh, because liberal environazis like, y’know, whoever, are all about the trees. They love ’em, hug ’em and, and, y’know, all that hippy “we love Nature and hate Progress” crap. And it’s the trees that are the problem here. If the trees hadn’t decided to burst into unprovoked flame then California wouldn’t be having this problem, would it?
It’s all the fault of the trees, so, by definition, anyone that likes trees must be some kind of traitor. And last time I looked, treason was considered a bit ‘extreme’.
I hope that answers your question.
Now. Back to Glenn Beck and his hard-hitting piece on why Hurricane Katrina may have had startling ties to a shadowy jihadist group based… in Syria.
Pb
Oh, sure, blame the victim, just like with Valerie Plame. “That tree was asking for it, why else would its bark be so dry and flammable?” Sickening.
And remember, Hurricane Katrina formed near Cuba–a known terrorist breeding ground, moonbat. Surely Glenn Beck has uncovered the secret weather machine Castro got from the Russians!
Zifnab
No one is cededing from anyone. Not so long as a civil war would interfere with American Idol or downloading porn. The handful of people who give shits enough about anything to actually split the country are far outnumbered by the hordes of people who will pummel their dumb asses back into the ground for getting uppity.
What we could get to look forward to is a creeping fascist state where all our cops get turned into storm trooper and the Gulf Coast starts looking like East Germany. But even then, so long as the trains run on time, you won’t see a popular revolt in the United States in your lifetime. If there is food on the table and gas in the gas tank, people just won’t care.
Tax Analyst
Hmmmm…Rush or Beck or Malkin or..Coulter? I don’t think I’d actually pull them out of a fire, but I WOULD probably be able to see my way clear to pissing on them to put it out…as long as I had to go anyway (shit, who am I kidding? It seems I’m at the stage where I ALWAYS have to go).
Bombadil
Keith Olbermann gave Beck the “bronze” in last night’s “Worst Person in the World” segment. He quoted Beck, then said,
cain
Bet hollywood never thought about making a disaster movie about that. What was it we had before? Ice age, hurricane, volcanoes and so forth. Nobody thought about a firestorm though.
My heart goes out to those who lost their homes. The whole shelter in a sports stadium sounds eerily like a repeat of New Orleans. Hope the govt does a better job this time.
cain
Peter Johnson
Never mind that I just said that I don’t consider Jon Stewart a liberal even though he doesn’t like George W. Bush. But, please, carry on. Don’t let the facts stop you.
tBone
Sorry, moonbat, but facts are facts. Those trees didn’t signal properly. Anyway, it was just a light peppering of flame around the trunk, roots, and branches. Happens all the time.
I’m pretty sure that Jon Stewart considers Jon Stewart a liberal, though.
Peter ve
âI think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.â
That would be the people who elected Darrell Issa and Duncan Hunter to Congress. The two largest fires (Witch Creek and Harris) are mostly in their districts.
Why do Issa and Hunter hate America?
The Populist
Peter ve,
You are correct, but I can guarantee those people will get guvmint help if needed. We can’t have the “base” angry can we?
The Populist
Never mind that I just said that I donât consider Jon Stewart a liberal even though he doesnât like George W. Bush. But, please, carry on. Donât let the facts stop you.
Never mind that you took my post and made it all about you, but go ahead I don’t stop free speech.
I wasn’t talking about you and if you believe what you just typed then you are the minority of the party.
I only deal in facts, unlike your heroes Rush and Hannity.
Off Colfax
Done. Done. Done. And overdone.
Not to mention Dante’s Peak, Volcano!, The Day After Tomorrow, Earthquake… Hollywood not only loves to create disaster (Showgirls in a box set?), but make the disaster happen in L.A. itself.
Next?
Goseph Gerbils
Why is nobody taking the Arborofascist threat to America seriously?
AnonE.Mouse
As to liberals piling on the cancer afflicted Tony Snow,I have a feeling Peter Johnson(did your parents naming you that make it inevitable you’d be a dick?)means Snow should have been given a pass for being the asshole who lied and prevaricated to the press and public just because he had cancer while doing his song-and-dance.Nobody mocked Snow for having cancer.
The Populist
Cancer does not excuse one for the bad things they may have done.
Jess
I looked at the map jnfr so thoughtfully linked to (thanks–I was looking for something like that; I used to live in that area and still have many friends there), and most of those areas are heavily Republican. And no, of course I don’t think they deserve it, even if I think the policies they embrace ARE anti-American IMHO. But I really hope Beck’s comments were heard by all the hard-core conservatives whose homes are lost or threatened. They’re going to be even less forgiving than we are. The right is going to be hoist on the petard of their own ignorance once again.
faux facsimile
Uhh Zifnab, the trains will never run on time in the US. Given Amtrak’s current state, there may not be any trains before too long. And whatever our leaders may want, gas ain’t going to stay cheap.
Fascism requires a certain minimum level of competence. What we’re looking at is 3rd world democracy.
Cain
Agreed. These guys can’t do anything write. They couldn’t plan themselves out of a wet paper bag. If they bomb Iran they’ll fuck it up to the extent that they might even be a WWIII. Assholes.
cain
TenguPhule
Corrected.
We’re heading for dog eat dog at the rate things keep falling.
Once the money and law enforcement go, that’s gonna be it.
râŹnato
and yet some people continue to insist that 9/11 was an inside job by the Bush neo-cons.
râŹnato
Dreggas, if you’re still reading the comments:
has the fire burned into Irvine Ranch? You know, that area past the Christmas tree farm where you can park by a gate and hike into,um, I think it’s Santiago Canyon on an old paved road? There’s a few homes back in there, I hope those folks are OK.
What about Silverado Canyon?
I used to hike a lot back there and I dearly hope those people are OK and that the fire did not burn back in there. It’s one of the last undeveloped areas of Orange County.