Professional Idiot Glenn Beck Equates Veterans with Communists

– Glenn Beck calls veterans “communists” for accepting gifts on Veterans Day, echoing the political view of the American Enterprise Institute and Dr. Sally Satel who have made slashing veterans’ benefits, with a particular animus towards Vietnam War veterans, a top-rate priority –

 

Professional Idiot Glenn Beck Equates Veterans with Communists

By  Bill Bradley in Vanity Fair

Yesterday, an Iraq veteran named Denise called in to The Glenn Beck Program to complain about the fun she had on Veterans Day. Denise, who returned from Iraq two years ago, walked with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America (I.A.V.A.) in last Thursday’s parade in New York City and then attended a soiree at The Providence, in Midtown Manhattan, where she encountered “a spread like you wouldn’t believe.”

Personally, I think all our veterans deserve this treatment (in addition to the free Bloomin’ Onion and pint they’re offered at Outback Steakhouse). But Denise found herself questioning I.A.V.A.’s motives. “Where did they get the money for all this? It was unbelievable how they treated us that day,” she said. So she took to the Internet, where she claims she found out that the I.A.V.A.—America’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization for veterans of the wars of the past decade—is supported by George Soros and MoveOn.org. “George Soros has his hand in the military,” Denise told Beck, who was only too happy for the opportunity to take a few whacks at one of his favorite punching bags.

“What [liberal donors such as Soros are] doing is, they’re creating the misery, and they’re coming out and organizing all these people—under the guise of labor unions or something as innocuous sounding as, you know, Iraqi [sic] and Afghanistan Veterans Foundation [sic]—but it is Soros and Communist and radical money and they are tying and duping people in as much as they can,” Beck said, referring to an organization whose activities include lobbying for veterans policy on Capitol Hill, giving away N.F.L. and concert tickets to veterans, and working to improve mental health.

I called up I.A.V.A.’s executive director and founder, Paul Rieckhoff—who served as a first lieutenant in Iraq from 2003-2004—to see if the supporters of I.A.V.A. are really as Communist as Glenn Beck says they are. “The I.A.V.A. receives no money from MoveOn.org,” he told me. “We’re happy to take MoveOn’s money if they’ll send it, and we’re happy to take Fox News’s money if they’ll send it, too. Veterans affairs shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It’s all about Americans uniting behind our veterans.” As for the “spread like you wouldn’t believe” after the parade? Rieckhoff explained that it had been sponsored by Microsoft and Health Net.

Glenn, after you issue the I.A.V.A. an apology, do your homework. Your first lesson? This video from when Paul was a guest on your show.