House Fails to Re-Authorize PATRIOT Act

The Washington Post reports that the House of Representatives fell seven votes short of "extending provisions of the Patriot Act. The bill, which would have reauthorized "key parts of the counter-terrorism surveillance law" that expire at the end of the month, "required a super-majority to pass under special rules reserved for non-controversial measures." Yet, it fell short under that rule, although a majority of House members voted to reauthorize it after 26 Republicans bucked their leadership, "eight of them freshman lawmakers elected in November's midterm elections." The vote tally, largely along party lines with most Democrats voting against it, "was 277 members in favor of extension, and 148 opposed."

WooHoo!

With rise of Egypt, Glenn Beck's popularity falls

by: Joe Sims

February 4 2011

In response to the Egyptian uprising, Glenn Beck is getting crazier and more extreme than ever with predictions of  a worldwide conflagration and implosion.

Beck's apocalyptic and deeply racist vision sees the rise of an Islamic "caliphate" or republic joined by "Marxists" in Europe and Asia. In his own words "When you take the Marxists and combine it with radicals of Islam ... the whole world starts to implode."

Interestingly, Beck's extremism coincides with a big drop in his January ratings - the largest dip for a cable TV show.  Deadline Hollywood writes, "In January, Beck's eponymous talk show posted the steepest ratings declines for any cable news program. Glenn Beck averaged 1.8 million viewers, down 39% vs. January 2010."

For younger viewers, the decline was even deeper. "In 25-54 [category], the drop was even bigger, 48%, to 397,000."

Notwithstanding Beck's  August event on the Washington mall, the TV performer and ideologue's popularity seems to have peeked two years ago in 2009 with 2.8 million viewers.

In recent months however, Beck, who called President Obama a racist,  has took a huge hit: first from civil rights groups, like colorofchange.org who organized a highly successful campaign to get advertisers to boycott his show - some 200 withdrew ads - and secondly from listeners who may have grown weary of his extremes - a factor that may paradoxically cause him to become even more acerbic.

The reason for this the drive for advertising dollars coupled with a decline in popularity of cable news shows. In this regard already two years ago commentator David Frum wrote "conservative talkers are responding to a collapse in advertising revenues. According to Scott Fybush, the proprietor of North East Radio Watch, talk radio has lost 30-40% of its ad revenues."

Frum continued, "In this environment, radio hosts believe that anger is their only path to survival."

Other cable shows have also shown a decline says, deadline.com .  "Also hard hit in January was Fox News' On the Record with Greta (1.5 million, down 36%; 333,000 in 25-54, down 49%). Other cable news channels with big ratings declines include CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 (595,000, down 34%; 174,000 in 25-54, down 43%) and CNN's Parker Spitzer (478,000, down 39% from last year when Campbell Brown was hosting the 8 PM hour; 125,000 in 25-54, down 46%)."

Last week, Jewish leaders took out an ad in Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal sharply criticizing Beck and other Fox News commentators' blasts at George Soros and comparisons of President Obama to Nazis.

Photo: Creative Commons

http://peoplesworld.org/with-rise-of-egypt-glenn-beck-s-popularity-falls/

For what it's worth, this is some of the best news that I have heard in a very long time. And it's not just that ratings for "Blowhard Beck" are in the toilet. There is simply no news outlet that is left to speak for... well, the left. And the fact that CNN programming is suffering right along with the rantings of a bona fide lunatic is evidence, in my mind, that even those who consider themselves "right" are getting fed up with the conservative corporate bile that the corporate owned propaganda machines are pumping out. When the majority of those who have been bred to believe that they are "conservative" are clearly losing interest in the "conservative" (read fascist) message, there is hope that sanity will prevail and isolate and shame those bigotted fear mongers into relative silence that will allow the rest of us to live in relative peace.

~Avelvet

UPDATE!!!! White Supremest Arkansas GOP Member Resigns under preasure

UPDATE!!!!
LITTLE ROCK, AR (AP) - The Arkansas GOP says a county-level party official who refused to cut his ties to a group that calls itself "pro-white" has resigned.

Arkansas Republican Party Chairman Doyle Webb says John Casteel stepped down from his position in Jackson County on Wednesday after he chose not give up his membership to the Council of Conservative Citizens.

Webb told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Casteel said he felt his resignation was in the best interest of the Republican Party.

He added that the GOP appreciates Casteel's service to the party.

Casteel didn't respond to several messages left seeking comment. His e-mail address was listed as the contact for the Arkansas chapter of the council's website until earlier this week.

Arkansas: Jackson County GOP Chair Connected To White Supremacist Organization

31st January 2011

By ARDem
Blue Arkansas | January 31st, 2011

John Casteel, Chairman of the Jackson Co., Arkansas Republican Party

A special thanks goes out to Blue Arkansas writer La Voix for helping investigate this one. In fact, she's the one who first started digging around when she got wind of this story, immediately after finding a racist ad on Craig's List from the Council of Conservative Citizens:

White people have been notified that by the year 2050, European-Americans will be a minority in this country. For some reason, white people are supposed to be content with this prediction. The question is, why is minority status good for white people? For decades, other minorities have "empowered" themselves at white people's expense.

Other minorities have complained of discrimination from white people, and white people responded with integration, affirmative action, and other social programs designed to foster "equality." Have these programs worked? Are minorities satisfied with "equality"?

Think about it.

Minorities created organizations to promote their respective interests. The NAACP is not in the business of equality. The NAACP exists to advance blacks and empower them. La Raza exists to advance and empower latinos… even the ones here illegally. The ADL promotes the interest of Jews, even though Jews have prospered in this country as no where else. Shouldn't people of European background have an organization to protect OUR interests, and, yes, to secure privileges for OUR people?

The time is not far off when European-Americans will need to take collective, organized action on our own behalf… or we will all be minorities of ONE.

The Council of Conservative Citizens has been protecting and advancing the interests of European-Americans for over 20 years. Don't be a minority of one, visit us at our website. www.cofcc.org

(In case that ad gets deleted, we of course have the screen shot saved, see below.)

Well, while we couldn't determine who had posted the ad, we did get to digging around a bit to see just who was working to support the Council here in Arkansas and turned up something interesting. Now, let's not forget, this is the old White Citizen's Council renamed to seem lest threatening, the group that Haley Barbour got in trouble for speaking well of. Thing is, their agenda hasn't changed that much. Their website currently bemoans the fact that the South wasn't allowed to secede and keep its slaves, their statement of principles includes standing against "race mixing", and hell, they even feel the need to claim that George Washington Carver was a fraud in their section called "Black Invention Myths" where they basically try to dismiss the notion that any black person has ever contributed anything to our society, let alone technological advancement. In other words, it is beyond a doubt a white supremacist, racist, group. (That incidentally seems to like Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan, and Ron Paul judging from the links to the side but that's beside the point …yet telling.) Anyway, while we couldn't determine who exactly posted the above mentioned article on the Little Rock Craig's List, we were able to find out this little bit of information.

The email to contact the Council of Conservatives Citizens in Arkansas is that of Jackson County Republican Chairman John Casteel, the same email address listed on the Arkansas GOP website for the Jackson County Republicans.

See:

(You can click on the above screenshots to make them larger.)

So yeah, sad to say, good old fashion racism is still alive in the USofA, and this is just one more bit of proof that it has a home in the Republican Party of Arkansas.

Original post on Craig's List:

http://bluearkansasblog.com/?p=5267

via: Anti-Fascist Encyclopedia