Harlem Shooting & Advertisers Pull Ad's on Glenn Beck

[Warph]

While having my morning (Peets) coffee looking over stories in the New York Times on line (on the basis that it is a good thing to know your enemy), I came across a story that absolutely warmed the cockles of my heart.  I understand why not everyone would feel as I do, but this is truly a tale about morality.

NYTimes.com:
They strode into the restaurant supply store in Harlem shortly after 3 p.m. on Thursday, four young men intent on robbery, one with a Glock 9-millimeter pistol, the police said. The place may have looked like an easy mark, a high-cash business with an owner in his 70s, known as a gentle, soft-spoken man.
But Charles Augusto Jr., the 72-year-old proprietor of the Kaplan Brothers Blue Flame Corporation, at 523 West 125th Street, near Amsterdam Avenue, had been robbed several times before, despite the fact that his shop is around the corner from the 26th Precinct station house on West 126th Street.
There were no customers in the store, only Mr. Augusto and two employees, a man and a woman. The police said the invaders announced a holdup, approached the two employees and tried to place plastic handcuffs on them. The male employee, a 35-year-old known in the community as J. B., struggled with the gunman, who then hit him on the head with the pistol.

Yeah, that's right, another robbery in New York... go figure, right?  Four punks, who felt as if this Mr. Augusto  Jr. should just hand over his hard- earned money to them, were in for a hell of a shock:

NYTimes.com:
Watching it happen, Mr. Augusto, whom neighborhood friends call Gus, rose from a chair 20 to 30 feet away and took out a loaded Winchester 12-gauge pump-action shotgun with a pistol-grip handle. The police said he bought it after a robbery 20 years ago.
Mr. Augusto, who has never been in trouble with the law, fired three blasts in rapid succession, the police said, although Vernon McKenzie, working at an Internet company next door, heard only two booms, loud enough to send him rushing to a window, where he heard someone shout: "You're dead! You're dead!"
The first shot took down the gunman at the front. He died almost immediately, according to the police, who said he was 29 and had been arrested for gun possession in Queens last year and was the nephew of a police officer.
Mr. Augusto's other two blasts hit all three accomplices, who stumbled out the door, bleeding.

Oooh.... that's a big error on the part of the robbers and they got what they deserved.... I know that this has to be traumatic for this older man, because it would be traumatic to shoot anyone, even if they had it coming.

There was no way that Mr. Augusto could have known if these robbers would leave them alive after the robbery, and he did exactly the right thing, since, as I have pointed out before, the Police are a reactive force, generally brought in after the fact.  They solve crimes, but in reality, rarely prevent them, although they surely would love to.  The reaction of the relatives of these robbers was striking, to say the least:

NYTimes.com
Outside the emergency room entrance of the hospital, at 113th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, relatives and friends of the dead and wounded men screamed and wailed in anguish as word of what had happened spread.
"No! No!" a woman cried. "They said he just died!"
Another crying woman, surrounded by family members, heard one of her relatives had been shot trying to rob a store.
"Oh my God!" she wailed. "Why would they want to rob a store?" She started to scream: "Damn! Why? Why would he go to a family store? He got money!" She slumped against the wall and began to pray.
Later, a man ran into the emergency room and came out screaming, "Oh, God!" He held his head in his hands and sat at the curb, apparently devastated. A youth about 16, crying and pacing at the emergency room entrance, slammed his fist into a yellow pole.

Where were these people in providing a moral compass to guide these young mens' behavior?  It clearly wasn't an economic thing, judging from the comments of the relatives, so why?  The only answer I can come up with is weak morals.  A person cannot be led by the nose if he or she has the moral clarity to resist.  These young men did not, and now two are dead, and two are in the hospital, and the short story line is, "That's Justice."
Unfortunately, this occurred in New York, so Mr. Augusto does not get off with a medal, but with a citation:

NYTimes.com:
Paul J. Browne, chief spokesman for the Police Department, said that Mr. Augusto had not been arrested or charged. He was being treated like a witness and was still being questioned early Friday at the station house. It was unclear if the shotgun was registered, but Mr. Browne said, "There is a lower threshold for owning a shotgun in the city, a permit as opposed to a license."
A law enforcement official said that the district attorney was considering a possible misdemeanor weapons charge against Mr. Augusto, indicating that he did not have a permit for the shotgun.

No good deed goes unpunished, as they say, especially in New York.  This man not only thwarted a robbery (a crime in itself), but possibly saved not only his own life, but those of his employees.  For that, he should be given a medal.

There need to be more Mr. Augustos.

I also ran across this on Glenn Beck.  It seems hypocrisy continues to loom large as far as Liberals go.  This time self-proclaimed communist Van Jone's (Obama's Green Czar) little group Color of Change has been able to get advertisers to take their ads from Glenn Beck's show, after Glenn Beck called Obama a racist.

During the campaign, after touting himself as "the first post- racial" candidate, he raised the specter of racism, simply by referring to conservative attacks as saying, "Well, you know they will say that I don't look like those presidents on the dollar bill.."  That's right, hardly anyone I know wears a powdered wig anymore.  Why did he bring that up?  Simply to insert the thought of racism into the debate, so then he could accuse conservatives of racism.  That's rather racist by deflection, but Obama thinks he is clever....  yeah, he's a legend in his own mind.

So Glenn was right, if indiscreet, but since Czar Jones, as all far-lefties wish they were, is an avowed communist agitator, his response (with Obama's blessing, I'm sure) is to demand companies remove advertising from the show.

NYTimes.com:
The companies that have moved their ads elsewhere in recent days included ConAgra, Geico, Procter & Gamble and the insurance company Progressive. In a statement that echoed the comments of other companies, ConAgra said on Thursday that "we are firmly committed to diversity, and we would like to prevent the potential perception that advertising during this program was an endorsement of the viewpoints shared."
The campaign against Mr. Beck is rooted in an advocacy group's objection to the commentator's remarks on July 28. Given the number of advertisers that have pledged to remove their spots, it appears to have been unusually successful.

Yeah, right... considering the progressive nature of the CEOs of these organizations, it is a wonder that they advertised  with this program in the first place.  This will not hurt this program, indeed, this might just push this program into must-see territory for anyone who might see this Obama administration as harmful.

NYTimes.com:
"We have TV today that's very polarizing and controversial," said Donny Deutsch, the advertising executive and occasional host on CNBC and MSNBC, a rival to Fox News.
Last month, Mr. Deutsch listed some of the "Glenn Beck" advertisers and told MSNBC viewers that people who objected to Mr. Beck's remark should write to the chief executives of the companies. In an interview, he said corporate decisions about where to allot ad dollars were the "ultimate check and balance."

How nice of Deutsch.... considering the only people who watch MSNBC are those without the power to change the channel.... you know, people in hospital lobbies, convicts, and those patients in mental institutions, where, as I understand it, MSNBC really rocks.

NYTimes.com:
Other companies also said their spots had been scheduled during "Glenn Beck" by mistake. Ads for Procter & Gamble and S.C. Johnson appeared on a weekend repeat of Mr. Beck's program by mistake, Fox acknowledged. Progressive said that its advertising order had specified "no Glenn Beck," but Fox said it had bought a block of time with the channel that included Mr. Beck.
Past efforts to put pressure on cable news advertisers have met more resistance. In the spring, when the liberal group ThinkProgress protested Bill O'Reilly of Fox News by contacting corporate sponsors, most wrote back by blandly thanking them for taking the time to write. One Ford Motor employee even suggested they abandon the petition tactic, writing, "the silly form letters are just annoying and easy to delete."

Considering that George Soros is with Progressive insurance, and Warren Buffet is a major investor in Johnson & Johnson, there is really no surprise here.  Neither is GEICO, whose acronym stands for Government Employee Insurance Company.... go figure.

The really funny part of this is the far-left sees no hypocrisy in the ways they portrayed Bush for eight years, comparing him to Hitler, the Joker, and other distasteful images, but when you call Obama what he is.... well that's just wrong.  Bush said that these people mocking him had the right to do so.... Obama, through his little minions, Czar Jones,  Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod and new Czar Mark Lloyd, newly appointed Chief Diversity Officer of the FCC, tries to blacklist a media program.  What a difference in civil liberties we have here.

I am truly sorry that Obama has such a negative and insecure image of himself ... one that he tried so hard to banish, by hanging out with the marxists, the militant blacks and others who would not make fun of his bi-racial heritage.  I am sorry that it shames him, but I would ask one question here, which side of his heritage embarrasses him the most?

[Varmit]

Excellent posts Warph!!!  And you're right, Mr. Augusto should be given a medal.

As far as the Glenn Beck post, well, we need more people like Beck.

[Warph]

The advertisers dropping their ads from Beck's show, include the nation's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, ConAgra, GEICO, Lawyers.com, Men's Wearhouse, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, RadioShack, Roche, SC Johnson, Sanofi-Aventis, Sargento, State Farm Insurance, Allergan, Ally Bank, Best Buy, Broadview Security, CVS, Re-Bath and Travelocity.

Rest of story: http://chattahbox.com/entertainment/2009/08/18/advertisers-to-glenn-beck-stop-spewing-hate/

[Varmit]

In my opinion I think that it is a stupid move on their part.  I don't know about his t.v. ratings but he does have the 3rd most listened to radio program.  Thats a lot of people those advertisers are overlooking.

[srkruzich]

It's their business money, I guess they can do what they want with it.

Pretty foolish to lose those that listen to beck as customers because they wish to connect their business with a political ideology.  Business is business and the only political ideology i recognize is the green party, those with washington, lincoln, jackson and franklin on them!!!