NELSON: "My vote cannot be bought and I cannot be threatened," he said.

"If I had been threatened, I would have gone public with it.

"My vote is not for sale. Period."

Proving that they will leave no stone unturned in their efforts to undermine health reform, some blogs opposing reform are now trafficking an absurd rumor that Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base is being threatened over Senator Ben Nelson's vote on the Senate reform bill.

To be perfectly clear: these rumors are completely baseless and false.

BECK: We don't know what this ultimate utopia will be, but as we approach Christmas this year, the climate cult, to me, is looking more and more like Scrooge. I believe it was Scrooge -- you know, before the change and the Tiny Tim, "I'd like more please" -- I think it was before all of that, when Charles Dickens wrote the words for Scrooge, "Well, if we all are going to die anyway, perhaps we had better do it and decrease the surplus population." I, for one, don't believe there's a surplus population. How about you?

BECK: And, wait wait wait. And I also said why don't you just abolish Medicare, because it's so wildly corrupt and out of control. It's so inefficient, it is so bad and there's $47 billion in suspected wrong payments, okay, in Medicare. So what are they saying - now remember, what we're going to do - the compromise is we're going to expand Medicare. That way there won't be a public option, we'll just - which doesn't make any sense - we're going to expand Medicare.

BECK: "Before I started turning you on to Goldline, I wanted to look them in the eye. This is a top notch organization that's been in business since 1960."

Like other news organizations, Fox News prohibits its on-air personalities from making paid product endorsements. But it makes an exception for its commentators who are also radio hosts, who are allowed to perform live reads, says Joel Cheatwood, senior vice president for development.

But the exemption is meant only to apply to live reads, not to the kind of broader spokesmanship Beck provides Goldline. In particular, Beck's ubiquity on the Goldline website is not in keeping with Fox's rules. A Fox spokeswoman said the network's legal department is taking up the matter with Beck's agent, George Hiltzik.

While it performed better in the south and in rural, more conservative areas, his ability to draw viewers in major US markets was a bust.

"The theater's almost empty," a representative at Regal Cinemas in Manhattan told Raw Story moments before it began.

The viewing in Lynnwood, WA - the closest one to Beck's Mount Vernon hometown - sold out several hours before the show began. But ten miles south, only 70 out of 415 seats had been snagged in Seattle, a better turnout than other cities.

I speak out now because it is the time of year when one is supposed to count blessings. I have several. Among them is that I do not have to face the ethical problem of sharing an employer with Glenn Beck.

Actually, Beck is a problem of taste as well as ethics. He laughs and cries; he pouts and giggles; he makes funny faces and grins like a cartoon character; he makes earnest faces yet insists he is a clown; he cavorts like a victim of St. Vitus's Dance. His means of communicating are, in other words, so wide-ranging as to suggest derangement as much as versatility.

I ask myself what I would have done if I worked at Fox now. Would I have quit, as the estimable Jane Hall did? Once a panelist on my program, Hall departed for other reasons as well, but Beck was a particular source of embarrassment to her, even though they never shared a studio, perhaps never even met.

I think...I think the answer to my question does not do me proud. I think, more concerned about income than principle, I would have continued to work at Fox, but spent my spare time searching avidly for other employment. I think I would not have been as admirable as Jane Hall.

BECK: And the bogus claim of putting people back to work? Please. We have lost 4 million jobs since this man took office. I'm not saying that it's his fault; I'm just saying let's deal with reality. That's why they're creating the make-believe "saved or created" category. I'm expecting to see flying reindeer soon.

If you or someone you know hasn't been affected by joblessness yet, it will soon become apparent that the jobs are not being saved or created -- I mean, unless they're in one of the other 57 states.