by Glenn Beck
See also: Charlie Savage, “White House Revises Post-Disaster Protocol,” Boston Globe, June 2, 2007, http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/06/02/white_house_revises_post_ disaster_protocol/
Presidential Decision Directive 67: Enduring Constitutional Government and Continuity of Government Operation, October 21, 1998, http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/pdd/pdd-67.htm
See also: Francie Grace, “’Shadow Government’ News to Congress,” CBSNews.com, March 2, 2002, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/03/01/attack/main502530.shtml
Constitution Free Zone: Ellen Nakashima, “Citizens’ U.S. Border Crossings Tracked: Data from Checkpoints to Be Kept for 15 Years,” Washington Post, August 20, 2008, http://www.washington post.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/19/AR2008081902811.html
See also: Ellen Nakashima, “Expanded Powers to Search Travelers at Border Detailed,” Washington Post, September 23, 2008, http:// www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/22/AR2008092202843.html
See also: Fact Sheet on U.S. “Constitution Free Zone,” The American Civil Liberties Union, http://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/fact-sheet-us-constitution-free-zone
Free Speech Zone: Marcella Bombardier, “Boycott Is Planned in Free-Speech Zone,” Boston Globe, July 25, 2004, http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/07/25/ boycott_is_planned_in_free_speech_zone/
In Chapter 12 the meeting at the bar is disrupted by someone referred to as a newer member of the organization. This, of course, is inspired by those who have publicly stated their goal to infiltrate the Tea Party, the 9/12 Project and other like-minded organizations and stage violent acts or hate speech. According to one anti-Tea Party group, their mission is to “act on behalf of the Tea Party in ways which exaggerate their least appealing qualities.”
One other important note on this scene: While Noah initially thinks that the instigators were New York City policemen, he is quickly proven wrong. If there is one thing that virtually every group fighting for our rights and freedoms agrees on, it’s that those entrusted with the public safety, from local cops to federal agents, are on the side of the good guys.
Agents provocateurs inside Tea Party events: Valerie Bauman, “Foes of tea party movement to infiltrate rallies,” The Associated Press, April 10, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/12/AR2010041203358.html
See also: Brian Montopoli, “Tea Party Foes Target Movement ‘Morons,’” CBSNews.com, April 13, 2010, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20002377-503544.html
These next two statistics are related in a pretty amazing way: While Congress’s approval rating continues to be abysmal, historically more than 90 percent of incumbents are still reelected. People always want to know how they can help change the course of America. This is it! While the answers are undoubtedly more complicated than they used to be, the easiest solution is still the best: Turn your back on those who’ve turned their backs on you by voting them out. Actions speak louder than words, and right now our actions are showing that we tacitly approve of the lies and corruption.
Congress’s Approval Rating: Gallup.com, http://www.gallup.com/poll/127343/Congress-Job-Approval-Rating-Improves-Low .aspx
Congressional reelection rates: “Reelection Rates Over the Years,” http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/reelect.php
In Chapter 14 Noah and Molly have a conversation in the limousine. Several things cited during this talk are factual, or based on real events.
U.S. Senator out west about to be involved in an ethics scandal: Eric Lichtblau and Eric Lipton, “Senator’s Aid After Affair Raises Flags Over Ethics,” The New York Times, October 1, 2009, http:// www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/us/politics/02ensign.html
The Rev. Al Sharpton (fried chicken and waffles) at Amy Ruth’s: Amy Ruth’s Menu, http://www.amyruthsharlem.com/dinnermenu/waffles/wafflemenu01.html
Edward Bernays served as one of the inspirations for Arthur Gardner. Several sources below reference Bernays, but if you really want to understand the reach and power of public relations (and why Joseph Goebbels found Bernays to be so instructive) then be sure to read Bernays’ own book Propaganda, which includes this assertion right on the cover:
“As civilization has become more complex, and as the need for invisible government has been increasingly demonstrated, the technical means have been invented and developed by which opinion may be regimented. Democracy is administered by the intelligent minority who know how to regiment and guide the masses.”
Edward Bernays, Woodrow Wilson and United Fruit: Larry Tye, The father of spin: Edward L. Bernays & The Birth of Public Relations (New York, NY: Crown Publishers, 1998), http://books.google.com/books?id=Dk0SPKpYCsQC
If you’re interested in reading more about a real-life example of a modern force in public relations, take a look at John Rendon. His company is a leader in “perception management” and, according to Rolling Stone, “fills a need that few people even know exists.”
PR push behind the Iraq War/Rendon Group: James Bam-ford, “The Man Who Sold the War,” Rolling Stone, November 17, 2005, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/8798997/the_man_who_sold_the_war
Guatemalan Coup: Central Intelligence Agency Freedom of Information Act document archive, http://www.foia.cia.gov/guatemala.asp
80 million gun owners: Wayne LaPierre, “Sotomayor’s Bias,” CBSNews.com, July 15, 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/15/opinion/main5162054.shtml
Bernays’ book: Edward Bernays, Propaganda, (New York, NY: Ig Publishing, 1928), http://books.google.com/books?id=JlcPgPt17KcC
Bernays’ book on Goebbels’ shelf: Larry Tye, “The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays & The Birth of PR,” PR Watch, Second Quarter 1999, Volume 6, No. 2, http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1999Q2/bernays.html
In Chapter 15: This may not exactly be the most critical fact in the book, but Eliot Spitzer’s father really is a real estate mogul, and at one time Spitzer really could have run into Noah and Molly in that elevator car on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Eliot Spitzer lives in his father’s building: Douglas Feiden, “Empire of the Son. How Dad’s Real Estate Fortune Pays Spitzer Benefits,” NY Daily News, October 29, 2006, http://www.ny dailynews.com/archives/news/2006/10/29/2006-10-29_empire_of_the_son_how_dad_s.html
In Chapter 17: Tom Clancy’s book Debt of Honor included a sequence where a plane loaded with fuel is hijacked and flown into the U.S. Capitol. Some conspiracy theorists might say that this means Clancy was involved in planning 9/11, but the rest of us realize that this shows just how outside-of-the-box thriller writers think. Clancy himself has talked about meeting with an Air Force officer during the writing of that book and asking the officer about the planes-as-weapons scenario he was spinning. The officer replied, “Mr. Clancy, if we had a plan to deal with this, it would be secret, I wouldn’t be able to talk to you about it. But to the best of my knowledge we’ve never looked at this possibility before.”
Clancy writes about crashing planes into buildings: Steve Bradshaw, “A Warning from Hollywood,” BBC, March 24, 2002, http:// news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/audio_video/programmes/panorama/transcripts/transcript_24_03_02.txt
In Chapter 18: Rudyard Kipling was fifty-three when he wrote the poem I excerpted in the book. As Noah explains, Kipling had lost his son in World War I and his daughter prior to that, and he was in a dark place in his life. The “Copybook Headings” he refers to are the headings from the handwriting-practice notebooks that used to be distributed. In these, a famous quotation or commonsense adage would be printed at the top and the student would practice their penmanship by rewriting that sentence over and over, all the way down the page. This would accomplish two things: handwriting practice (obviously), and a subtler reinforcement of practical knowledge and life lessons from history. As Noah says, the entire poem is well worth a read.
Rudyard Kipling’s poem: Rudyard Kipling, “The Gods of the Copybook Headings,” See the full text here: http://www.kipl
ing.org.uk/poems_copybook.htm
Kipling’s biography: Harry Ricketts, Rudyard Kipling: A Life (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001), http://books.google.com/books?id=x4sTAiRqhKMC
In Chapter 19, we see the term “COINTELPRO” included in the agenda that Noah and Molly discover. This term seems to have now been adopted by conspiracy theorists, but before you write it off it’s worth looking at what this real government program was originally intended to accomplish.
COINTELPRO: Ed Gordon, “COINTELPRO and the History of Domestic Spying,” National Public Radio, January 18, 2006, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5161811
See also: Michelle Goldberg, “Outlawing Dissent: Spying on Peace Meetings, Cracking Down on Protesters, Keeping Secret Files on Innocent People—How Bush’s War on Terror Has Become a War on Freedom,” Salon.com, February 11, 2004, http://www.salon .com/news/feature/2004/02/11/cointelpro/print.html
See also: David Horowitz, “COINTELPRO’s Overdue Return: The New FBI Will Be Able to Investigate Americans Who Pose a Threat to National Security—and That’s a Good Thing,” Salon.com, June 4, 2002, http://dir.salon.com/story/news/col/horo/2002/06/04/cointelpro/index.html
More from Chapter 19:
Casus Belli: Daniel Schorr, “In Search of a Casus Belli,” Christian Science Monitor, August 9, 2002, http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0809/p11s02-cods.html
The Overton Window: Nathan J. Russell, “An Introduction to the Overton Window of Different Possibilities,” The Mackinac Center, January 4, 2006, http://www.mackinac.org/7504
Airline security reacting to failed threats: Alan Gathright, “No Small Feat, Tightening Up Shoe Inspections,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 12, 2003, http://www.seattlepi.com/national/130541_shoes12.html
If you want to understand what programs like “cap and trade” are really all about (money) then start doing some homework on the intersection of corporations, politicians, and special interests. The links below on Enron, the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and Fannie Mae are a great place to start:
Carbon trading and Enron: Lawrence Solomon, “Enron’s Other Secret,” Financial Post, May 30, 2009, http://network.national post.com/np/blogs/fpcomment/archive/2009/05/29/lawrence-solomon-enron-s-other-secret.aspx
See also a video of Rep. Scalise (R-LA) questioning Al Gore along these lines: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpEcPFSEIwQ
U.N. Agenda 21: See the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs publication: http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/index.shtml
The Chicago Climate Exchange: “The $10 Trillion Climate Fraud,” Investor’s Business Daily, April 28, 2010, http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=531731
See also: Ed Barnes, “Obama Years Ago Helped Fund Carbon Program He Is Now Pushing Through Congress,” FoxNews.com, March 25, 2009, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/25/ obama-years-ago-helped-fund-carbon-program-pushing -congress/
See also: Barbara Hollingsworth, “Barbara Hollingsworth: Fannie Mae Owns Patent on Residential ‘Cap and Trade’ Exchange,” The Washington Examiner, April 20, 2010, http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Fannie-Mae-owns -patent-on-residential-_cap-and-trade_-exchange-91532109 .html
In Chapter 20 we get a chance to hear Molly begin to state her case, and she focuses on the economy. If you were still doubting that both political parties are driving us toward the same place at different speeds, the first statistic she cites is pretty eye-opening:
National debt has doubled since 2000: Mark Knoller, “National Debt Up $2 Trillion on Obama’s Watch,” CBSNews.com, March 16, 2010, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20000576503544.html
Bailout money going overseas: Eamon Javers, “AIG Ships Billions in Bailout Abroad,” Politico, March 15, 2009, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20039.html
See also: Sharyl Attkisson, “Following Bailout Money to Tax Havens,” CBSNews.com, February 23, 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/23/eveningnews/main4822689.shtml
In Chapter 21: Ragnar Benson, whose books we hear about here, is the pen name of a survivalist author who has written some pretty edgy books over the years. (The story goes that the pseudonym Ragnar Benson was originally borrowed from the name of a construction company outside Chicago.) Benson’s book Mantrapping (which is actually available on Amazon.com) opens with the line: “Without question, man can be the most difficult animal on earth to trap …” But, as Molly tells Noah, “he’s mellowed out since then” and his more recent books deal with survival and self-sufficiency techniques.
Ragnar Benson: Mary Roach, “The Survivalist’s Guide to Do-it-Yourself Medicine,” December 17, 1999, http://www.salon.com/health/col/roac/1999/12/17/survivalists
See also: Paladin Press’s list of books by Benson: http://www.paladin-press.com/category/Ragnar_Benson
More from Chapter 21:
“Cherish, therefore, the spirit …”: Thomas Jefferson, Merrill D. Peterson, The Political Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson Foundation, 1996), http://books.google.com/books?id=MlhB2iCTq60C
Washington, wooden dentures and the cherry tree: “Facts and Falsehoods about George Washington,” http://www.mountvernon.org/visit/plan/index.cfm/pid/808/
“These are the times that try men’s souls.” Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, http://books.google.com/books?id=vDq6AAAAIAAJ
Many in Washington want us to start looking at regulation as a good thing, but here’s an example of what can happen when government gets to regulate existing law. Sure, the Second Amendment says that you are allowed to own a gun, but it doesn’t say that it has to be easy! In New York City they’ve taken that to the extreme by crafting an application process that can take well over six months and cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.
Obtaining a gun permit in New York City: NYPD Handgun Licensing Information, http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/permits/handgun_licensing_information.shtml
See also: NYPD Licensing FAQ, http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/permits/gun_licensing_faq.shtml
See also: A first-person account of the licensing process: Glenn Beck, Arguing with Idiots (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2009): 49.
See also: An internet account of the licensing process: http://angrynyer.com/?p=422
The militia was every citizen: Jonathan Elliott, The Debates in the Several State Conventions of the Adoption of the Federal Constitution 425 (2nd ed., J. B. Lippincott 1836).
See also: James Madison, “The Federalist Number 46,” in The Federalist Papers, eds. George W. Carey and James McClellan (Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Fund, 2001): 244.
“We have it in our power to begin the world over again”: Thomas Paine, Common Sense, http://books.google.com/books?id=e0oqAAAAYAAJ
Jonathan Mayhew “No taxation without representation”: Raja Mishra and LeMont Calloway, “Vandals Tear a Bible in Half, Ransack Old West Church,” Boston Globe, August 12, 2006, http:// www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/08/12/vandals_tear_a_bible_in_half_ransack_old_west_church/
In Chapter 22:
Nuclear materials flown from Minot to Barksdale Air Force Base: Michael Hoffman, “Commander Disciplined for Nuclear Mistake,” Military Times, September 5, 2007, http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2007-09-05-b-52_N.htm
In Chapter 23:
For entertainment purposes only we present the Orange-box hacker tool: http://www.artofhacking.com/files/ob-faq.htm
In Chapter 27 we reference John O’Neill, the former FBI antiterrorism expert who had been sounding alarm bells on al Qaeda. O’Neill began his new job at the World Trade Center in New York City on August 23, 2001.
John O’Neill and al Qaeda: “The Man Who Knew,” Frontline, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/
In Chapter 31:
“A Republic, if you can keep it”: Michael Richards, A Republic If You Can Keep It: The Foundation of the American Presidency (Westport, CT: Greenport Press, 1987), http://books.google.com/ books?id=ItOARcaN54sC
“Turkish girl, 16, buried al
ive for talking to boys”: Robert Tait, “Turkish Girl, 16, Buried Alive for ‘Talking to Boys,’” The Guardian, February 4, 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/04/girl-buried-alive-turkey
“… the useless eaters on the savage side of the bell curve”: This quote is modeled after many of the real life arguments in favor of eugenics, in all of its many faces and forms.
George Bernard Shaw: “I think it would be a good thing to make everybody come before a properly appointed board just as he might come before the income tax commissioner… . Just put them there and say ‘sir,’ or madam, ‘now will you be kind enough to justify your existence. If you can’t justify your existence, if you’re not pulling your weight in the social group, if you’re not producing what you consume, or perhaps a little more, then clearly we cannot use the big organization of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us and it can’t be of very much use to yourself.’”
—From Shaw’s speech as shown in Glenn Beck’s
“The Revolutionary Holocaust: Live Free or Die,”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583732,00.html
Theodore Roosevelt: “Society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind… . Some day we will realize that the prime duty, the inescapable duty, of the good citizen of the right type is to leave his or her blood behind him in the world; and that we have no business to permit the perpetuation of citizens of the wrong type.”
—From a letter to Charles Benedict Davenport on January 3, 1913
Margaret Sanger: “The mating of the moron with a person of sound stock may … gradually disseminate this trait far and wide until it undermines the vigor and efficiency of an entire nation and an entire race. This is no idle fancy. We must take it into account if we wish to escape the fate that has befallen so many civilizations in the past.”
—From Sanger’s book “The Pivot of Civilization,” page 176
In Chapter 34: