As much as I disagree with the hosts on Fox News, I have never called for any of them to be fired. I defended Don Imus when he got in trouble with his incendiary comments. That's because I believe a talk show host should have wide berth, even to offend. They are the conversation starters and at the heart of our political discourse.

Of course, as a talk show host I'm very biased on this issue, but I think it helps the national conversation to hear everyone out. That's even if what they're saying is outrageous or not even remotely true. Let there be a battlefield of ideas and I think the truth will win out in the long run (though it loses many battles in the short run).

Now that you know how strongly I feel about that -- I think Glenn Beck should be fired. He has told a lie so grotesque that it goes beyond the pale of even dirty politics. Just when I thought he couldn't shock my conscience anymore, he has done it. Let me explain.

George Soros survived the Holocaust. He is Jewish and when the Nazis caught up with his family his father saved his life by bribing an agricultural official to pretend Soros was his Christian godson. At one point, that man took the fourteen year old Soros to survey and appraise the property that had been confiscated from another Jewish family. Obviously Soros did not have a choice in the matter. Soros eventually survived the Holocaust.

To most this would be an amazing and harrowing story of survival during the Holocaust. To Beck it was an opportunity to paint Soros as an anti-Semite and smear him with one of the worst lies I have ever heard.

First Beck started by horribly warping this story on his Fox News show. He said of Soros:

[When he was] 14 years old, he had to help the government confiscate the land of his fellow Jewish friends and neighbors.

That's not what happened at all as you can see from above. He didn't help confiscate people's land. He didn't actively participate in betraying his Jewish neighbors or friends. The implications are horrible. But what Beck did next is much worse. He twisted the story further until he came out with this inexcusable lie on his radio show:

[H]ere's a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps.

That lie takes my breath away. That is a lie that cannot be told.

The ADL has now condemned Beck's statements as "horrific."

Michelle Goldberg has aterrific article in The Daily Beast explaining how Beck's two part series on Fox News Channel about George Soros was classic anti-Semitism. He even named the series "Puppet Master." Nazi propaganda used to call Jews the "wire pullers."

The Nazis would say in their propaganda pieces that Jews secretly controlled everything and brought down whatever governments they didn't like. Beck's two part series on Soros talked about how he was the secret force behind the progressive agenda and surreptitiously brought down governments he didn't like (Communist governments by the way, but apparently he doesn't get credit for that). And Beck concludes by saying that we might be next. Soros might destroy our country. This is anti-Semitism 101.

One man has already tried to assassinate people who worked for the Tides Foundation because Beck accused them of being tied to George Soros. That man was caught in a shoot-out with cops before he could kill the people who worked there. Beck undeterred by what he is spurring people to do, has put his foot on the gas pedeal to try to stoke the fires more.

Fox News has told and spread many lies, ranging from the absurd (President Obama is going to spend $200 million a day in his trip to India) to the politically devastating (they invited John Kerry's accusers on-air to smear his Vietnam service repeatedly during the 2004 election). I know that's what they do. But even I didn't know it went this far. If Beck doesn't get fired over this, what else can he say? I literally cannot think of anything more outrageous.

They call themselves a "News Channel." Is this the kind of "news" people want to participate in?

This is the kind of thing people should resign in protest over. This is the kind of thing that guests shouldn't go on the channel over. This is the kind of thing that people shouldn't want their names associated with.

If Fox doesn't fire Beck over this, well then you know exactly where they stand. It certainly isn't as a news channel.

As much as I disagree with the hosts on Fox News, I have never called for any of them to be fired. I defended Don Imus when he got in trouble with his incendiary comments. That's because I believe a talk show host should have wide berth, even to offend. They are the conversation starters and at the heart of our political discourse.

Of course, as a talk show host I'm very biased on this issue, but I think it helps the national conversation to hear everyone out. That's even if what they're saying is outrageous or not even remotely true. Let there be a battlefield of ideas and I think the truth will win out in the long run (though it loses many battles in the short run).

Now that you know how strongly I feel about that -- I think Glenn Beck should be fired. He has told a lie so grotesque that it goes beyond the pale of even dirty politics. Just when I thought he couldn't shock my conscience anymore, he has done it. Let me explain.

George Soros survived the Holocaust. He is Jewish and when the Nazis caught up with his family his father saved his life by bribing an agricultural official to pretend Soros was his Christian godson. At one point, that man took the fourteen year old Soros to survey and appraise the property that had been confiscated from another Jewish family. Obviously Soros did not have a choice in the matter. Soros eventually survived the Holocaust.

To most this would be an amazing and harrowing story of survival during the Holocaust. To Beck it was an opportunity to paint Soros as an anti-Semite and smear him with one of the worst lies I have ever heard.

First Beck started by horribly warping this story on his Fox News show. He said of Soros:

[When he was] 14 years old, he had to help the government confiscate the land of his fellow Jewish friends and neighbors.

That's not what happened at all as you can see from above. He didn't help confiscate people's land. He didn't actively participate in betraying his Jewish neighbors or friends. The implications are horrible. But what Beck did next is much worse. He twisted the story further until he came out with this inexcusable lie on his radio show:

[H]ere's a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps.

That lie takes my breath away. That is a lie that cannot be told.

The ADL has now condemned Beck's statements as "horrific."

Michelle Goldberg has aterrific article in The Daily Beast explaining how Beck's two part series on Fox News Channel about George Soros was classic anti-Semitism. He even named the series "Puppet Master." Nazi propaganda used to call Jews the "wire pullers."

The Nazis would say in their propaganda pieces that Jews secretly controlled everything and brought down whatever governments they didn't like. Beck's two part series on Soros talked about how he was the secret force behind the progressive agenda and surreptitiously brought down governments he didn't like (Communist governments by the way, but apparently he doesn't get credit for that). And Beck concludes by saying that we might be next. Soros might destroy our country. This is anti-Semitism 101.

One man has already tried to assassinate people who worked for the Tides Foundation because Beck accused them of being tied to George Soros. That man was caught in a shoot-out with cops before he could kill the people who worked there. Beck undeterred by what he is spurring people to do, has put his foot on the gas pedeal to try to stoke the fires more.

Fox News has told and spread many lies, ranging from the absurd (President Obama is going to spend $200 million a day in his trip to India) to the politically devastating (they invited John Kerry's accusers on-air to smear his Vietnam service repeatedly during the 2004 election). I know that's what they do. But even I didn't know it went this far. If Beck doesn't get fired over this, what else can he say? I literally cannot think of anything more outrageous.

They call themselves a "News Channel." Is this the kind of "news" people want to participate in?

This is the kind of thing people should resign in protest over. This is the kind of thing that guests shouldn't go on the channel over. This is the kind of thing that people shouldn't want their names associated with.

If Fox doesn't fire Beck over this, well then you know exactly where they stand. It certainly isn't as a news channel.

"To-morrow and to-morrow, and to-morrow..."

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" is the beginning of the third sentence of one of the most famous soliloquies in Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. It is the response of the protagonist, Macbeth, to the news of his wife's death. The speech can be divided into two parts, with the line "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" marking the beginning of the second part. The full soliloquy reads:

"She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing." -- Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)

There's more...

My GOD, am I sick and tired of the rights favorite guilt-by-association target, SOROS' name (nothing against Mr. Soros). They toss his name around, this election season, more that ever to attack the left.

I realize the average age in the GOP is over the age for onset of SENILE DEMENTIA, but come on.
And they always magically, in their hazed logic, FORGET that Mr. McCain has a LONG history of association with George.

The names WorldNetDaily or Jerome R. Corsi sound familiar?

"John McCain funded by Soros since 2001." (1)
"George Soros brains behind McCain-Feingold" (2)

And NO, I'm NOT one of these 'guilt-by-association' conspiracy NUTS, NOR do I think there is a thing wrong with George Soros, I just feel it is time to SHUT THEM UP!

There's more...

Doug Noland, a financial expert at Asia Times gets exactly what is most irritating -- most irritatingly frustratingly wasteful -- about watching the banker bailout unfold, in the bolded text below:

Over the years, we've been pretty cognizant of the extreme nature of excesses; the extent of system vulnerability; and the expensive bill that would come due with the arrival of the bust. But I want to be especially clear on one thing: I am shocked and incredibly alarmed that all these measures became necessary at such an early stage of financial and economic adjustment. After all, the Dow remains above 11,000 and gross domestic product expanded 3.3% last quarter.

And this gets right to the heart of the matter - where the analytical rubber meets the road. A massive inflation of government obligations; a major government intrusion into all matters financial and economic; and an unprecedented circumvention of free market forces has been unleashed - but to what end?

I believe it is a grave predicament that such a rampage of radical policymaking has been unleashed in order to maintain inflated asset markets and to sustain a bubble economy. Normally, such desperate measures would be employed only after a crash and in the midst of a major economic downturn - not in efforts specifically to forestall the unwind. Not only will such measures not work, I believe they will only exacerbate today's already extreme global monetary disorder. They will definitely worsen the inevitable financial and economic dislocation.

It's frustrating first that the thrust of policy right now is to resist the implosion of the housing market bubble, when HOUSING REMAINS VASTLY OVERPRICED by historical standards. Even more frustrating to watch and wasteful is the effort to resist the implosion of the VASTLY OVERVALUED U.S. stock market bubble, which sits on a mountain of still now VASTLY OVERVALUED debt-based assets. It's just dumb to fight the inevitable drop of housing and stocks to something at least somewhat in line with historical levels. Aggressive 'market/price stabilization' measures should wait till the plummet reaches what should be a floor.

Importantly, Noland goes on directly to blast the monetarists' (who now call themselves the 'mainstream economists') revisionist misunderstanding of what caused and could've prevented the Great Depression. This historical fight exposes the root of the wrong understanding that is motivating our economic leaders' impending incredibly wasteful financial 'rescue' splurge:

I have over the past several years repeatedly taken issue with the revisionist view that had the Fed recapitalized the banking system after the '29 stock market crash the Great Depression would have been avoided. Some have suggested that $4 billion from the Fed back then would have replenished lost banking system capital and stemmed economic collapse. But I believe passionately that this is deeply flawed and dangerous analysis.

An injection of a relatively small $4 billion would have mattered little. What might have worked - albeit only temporarily - would have been the creation of many tens of billions of dollars of new credit required to arrest asset and debt market deflation and refuel the bubble economy. Importantly, however, at that point only continuous and massive credit injections would have kept the system from commencing its inevitable lurch into a downward financial and economic spiral.

It's interesting that George Soros shares many of Noland's views and has also written in resistance to the dangerous monetarist mythology about what caused and could've cured the Great Depression, but more on him down below. . . .

There's more...