House Ethics Committee says members not allowed to attend Beck rally
The House Ethics Committee has barred members of the US House from attending Glenn Beck's Restoring Courage rally in Jerusalem on Wednesday saying that it is a 'political event.'Glenn Beck let loose on Speaker John Boehner on Thursday after he was informed that the House Ethics Committee barred members of Congress from attending the radio host’s upcoming Restoring Courage rally in Israel.Let's go to the videotape.
“Speaker Boehner, you should be ashamed of yourself. The Republican Party should be ashamed of themselves. They don’t have to attend my event. Let them come to our biggest ally and only friend we still have in the Middle East in their hour of need,” Beck said after Rep. Joe Walsh (R.-Ill) told him the news on his show.
Walsh said he was told that Beck’s Aug. 24 rally in Jerusalem “had the appearance of a political event” and therefore Congress members “were rejected” from attending the rally, which is framed by Beck’s website as “an opportunity to demonstrate to the world that Israel does not stand alone.”
Several politicians had signaled support for the event, according to liberal media watchdog Media Matters, though earlier Thursday Beck did not provide information to POLITICO on which, if any, would attend.
I don't understand this and I'm a lawyer. Why is Obama traveling around the US at taxpayer expense to raise money for his re-election okay, but letting a group of Representatives come to Israel on a fact-finding mission is not? And the Representatives were going to pay out of their own pockets! I think that's absurd.
Labels: Glenn Beck, Joe Walsh, John Boehner, Restoring Courage rally in Jerusalem
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:52 PM
7 Comments:
The Republican Party should be ashamed of themselves. They don’t have to attend my event. Let them come to our biggest ally and only friend we still have in the Middle East in their hour of need,”
Insiduous liar, this Glen Beck,
He has the audacity to name this rally a "courage rally", yet cowers at the thought of 40,000 Muslims on the Temple Mount. Where is his courage? It's just a ruse.
Where is Shy Guy when you need him?
Say it like it is Shy Guy!!!
Aren't members of Congress, by definition, politicians? Isn't any event they attend a political event? What does that mean that members of Congress can not attend a political event? So they can not campaign for themselves or for others? Or is it only that they can not attend a political event outside the US? I do not understand this.
Chayma,
So glad I finally wrote on a topic you'd feel comfortable coming out and commenting on. Not a word from you on yesterday's terror attacks north of Eilat, although I assume you approve of murdering Israeli civilians.
I was afraid you'd disappeared.
Just want to make sure all my readers know who and what you really are by pointing that out.
i believe there are rules regaring us pols attening political rallies on foreign soil...even if the person organizing the event is an american
and im sure chayma will be participating in one of the many protests to be held against israel today...damn those jews for fighting back
Carl, no, I was awaiting, in the Talmud, Devarim 31
but letting a group of Representatives come to Israel on a fact-finding mission is not?
Funder For Travel To Glenn Beck’s Jerusalem Rally Criticized For Speaking To Anti-Semitic Groups
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/08/19/299557/funder-for-travel-to-glenn-becks-jerusalem-rally-tied-to-anti-semitic-group/
By Eli Clifton on Aug 19, 2011
But political and religious leaders from “around the world” will be enjoying U.S. taxpayer subsidized — through non-taxable charitable contributions — travel to the rally. The travel will be paid for by WallBuilders, an organization founded by David Barton, a pseudo-historian and frequent Glenn Beck guest. Barton has a history of anti-gay and anti-Muslim rhetoric, has spoken at events sponsored by anti-Semitic organizations, and promotes a revisionist history of the U.S. claiming that the “Church-state separation is a liberal myth.”
Beck’s partnership with WallBuilders is listed on the rally’s front page by clicking the “Donate” button which takes visitors to WallBuilders website. The site accepts contributions to the “Restoring Courage — Israel”:
If you want to help and show your solidarity with Israel, you can participate by helping to underwrite the cost of the Restoring Courage event in Jerusalem. All of the funds will go directly towards the production and expenses of the events associated with the Restoring Courage Tour in Israel.
Or donors can contibute to the “Leader & Clergy Scholarship Fund — Israel”:
If you would like to help sponsor these leaders so that they can attend the event and thus help send a powerful message to Israel’s enemies in the world, you can make a contribution for their travel and accommodations.
But David Barton’s record of intolerance and historical revisionism should offer some insights into who is funding Beck’s Jerusalem rally and which individuals have Beck’s ear. Back in 1994, the Anti-Defamation League had harsh words for Barton’s decision to appear at events hosted by the Christian Identity movement, a group the ADL said:
Asserts that Jews are ‘the synagogue of Satan’; that Blacks and other people of color are subhuman; and that northern European whites and their American descendants are the ‘chosen people’ of scriptural prophesy.
Barton denied knowing anything about the Christian Identity movement before his decision to speak at the group’s events
But also, Barton’s “scholarship” — although referred to as “Professor Barton” at Glenn Beck University, Barton holds no advanced degrees — hinges on characterizing the founding fathers as evangelical Christians. The ADL also criticized Barton’s work:
[Barton's] ostensible scholarship functions in fact as an assault on scholarship: in the manner of other recent phony revisionisms, the history it supports is little more than a compendium of anecdotes divorced from their original context, linked harum-scarum and laced with factual errors and distorted innuendo. Barton’s “scholarship,” like that of Holocaust denial and Atlantic slave trade conspiracy-mongering is rigged to arrive at predetermined conclusions, not history.
While Barton’s long association with Glenn Beck is well established, Beck’s decision to let a widely discredited “historian” with a history of speaking at events hosted by the anti-Semitic far-right is an interesting choice of fundraising allies for his rally in Jerusalem.
"Why is Obama traveling around the US at taxpayer expense to raise money for his re-election okay,"
He isn't, and it's not. You may be a lawyer, but you're obviously not a campaign-finance specialist.
Also. The Ethics Committee did not prohibit travel to or attendance at the Beck rally, it only prohibited an arm of AIPAC from giving free travel to Members of Congress to attend.
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