As the Occupy Wall Street protests turn one month old today, progressives are making the rounds to call on those in government to listen to their demands. On tonight’s Ed Show, Van Jones, who has experienced somewhat of a resurgence with this movement, argued that the movement was growing in political significance, citing Rep. Eric Cantor‘s recent comments on income inequality were proof “the ice is cracking all around the Republican Party.”

Glenn Beck has been warning about something he calls the “coming insurrection” for several years now, and finally he has seen its face appear concretely in the form of Occupy Wall Street. He visited The O’Reilly Factor last night to explain how Occupy Wall Street is a part of a larger “Marxist revolution that is global in nature” intended to “collapse the system.”

Former White House “green jobs czar” turned Glenn Beck frienemy Van Jones has recently reemerged calling for the left to take notes from the populist uprisings America saw with the Tea Party movement, so it was no surprise that he expressed approval of the Occupy Wall Street movement this morning on Up with Chris Hayes. What was somewhat surprising, however, was his insistence in viewing the protests through a prism of failure on the left, and not on the right, with the way the nation was being governed.

In a speech this morning, former White House environmental adviser Van Jones called on progressives at the Take Back The American Dream conference to act more like the Tea Party. ”We have been on a one-sided offensive in this country where the worst people in America with the worst ideas have dominated the discussion,” he said of the surge in Tea Party in recent years. “And I’m not mad at them. I’m not mad at the Tea Party. I’m not made at them for being so loud. I’m mad at us for being so quiet.”

The Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference kicks off this week in Washington, DC. The influence of the event is probably at its highest, with President Obama set to speak at the closing dinner and thousands scheduled to be in attendance throughout the weekend. But the same can not be said for the influence of the Congressional Black Caucus itself (CBC). Why isn’t the CBC the liberal equivalent of the Tea Party? Here’s how the Tea Party became so influential and the three reasons why the CBC isn’t yet capable of doing the same thing.

As the budget talks continue in Congress, Democrats and Republicans resume negotiations on whether increasing taxes or cutting spending (or what combination of both) would work best. But progress is slow, and on The Last Word yesterday, Van Jones blamed “a very small number of extremists” on the right who refuse to raise taxes, even when Ronald Reagan would.

Van Jones appeared with Ed Schultz last night and reiterated his challenge to Glenn Beck to have a debate. Schultz was shocked that Beck didn’t jump on the offer, but Jones wasn’t surprised that “entertainer” Beck laughed it off and would rather focus on distractions than have a substantive debate.

Former “green jobs” czar Van Jones sent Fox News a six-page cease and desist letter claiming that Jones has been called, among other things, a Communist, a 9/11 truther, and other “sensational and inflammatory charges” across Fox News’ programs.

A Fox News spokesperson confirmed that “we’ve received the letter and it’s under review.”

This weekend, Van Jones, the bald-headed Lex Luthor to Glenn Beck’s slightly less steel-y Superman, offered up an excoriating critique of Fox News as well a challenge to Beck to debate him on one of his last shows, a debate which we can only assume would turn into some kind of competitive Martin Luther King, Jr. quote-off. This morning, on his radio show, Beck responded to the challenge, claiming the speech was a clear sign that Jones and his like were becoming deranged and that the “mask of the left” was coming off.

Glenn Beck‘s final days at Fox News are quickly fading and one person who surprisingly wants to make one last splash on Beck’s show is none other than longtime Beck nemesis, Van Jones. Jones, speaking at the Netroots Nation conference, said “I’ve had all I can stand FOX TV and I can’t stand no more.” However Jones also admitted that he is open to an epic debate with Beck, that is of course, if Beck is willing to accept the challenge.

Former Special Advisor to President Obama for Green Jobs, Van Jones, is always outspoken and is now trying to stir the pot again when it comes to discussing Republican Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget plan. Speaking yesterday at an event for for Yes! Magazine, Jones seriously suggested Ryan’s budget proposal is more threatening to America than Al Qaeda and therefore represents a “cheap patriotism.”

Donald Trump returned to the airwaves this morning with his rhetoric about President Obama‘s job performance remarkably toned down. Trump gave Obama high marks for his handling of Osama bin Laden and said about Obama, “he’s riding high, he’s doing well and I thought he did a good job on 60 Minutes.” Trump instead turned his focus to Pakistan and to the online company Groupon.

Wow. Well, here’s a new theory as to why Glenn Beck is leaving Fox News. Here we thought Beck’s move further towards Internet news with The Blaze was just a canny admission of where the industry is heading. However, today, Beck made comments that seemed to imply that he just doesn’t think he can reach a young audience on his current network.

Today on Glenn Beck, Beck said the same things (the “Insurrection” is coming, his viewers need to prepare for dark times). He blamed the same groups (unions, Communists, Socialists, Islamists). He showed clips from the same people (Frances Fox Piven, Van Jones). And then, in the end, he tied it all in to the same arch-villain (George Soros). After that, he asked his audience, “It really is getting boring, isn’t it?” Well, now that you mention it…

The fallout from the short-lived editorial relationship between The Huffington Post and Andrew Breitbart continues as CNN’s Howard Kurtz has now stepped into the conflict. On today’s Reliable Sources, Kurtz criticized Breitbart and agreed with the decision to remove him from the front page of The Huffington Post. Now Breitbart returns the favor with some criticism of Kurtz’s report.

Looks like the golden era of bipartisanship at the Huffington Post has ended, no more than two weeks after it started. The publication turned many heads after agreeing to publish a post by conservative rabble-rouser Andrew Breitbart on the recent NPR/James O’Keefe kerfuffle, initially standing by the editorial decision. In light of Breitbart’s recent comments on Van Jones, however, HuffPo spokesman Mario Ruiz announced today they would no longer promote him.

Van Jones is back! The former White House Green Jobs Czar who will forever be remembered as Glenn Beck‘s first arch-nemesis has organized a massive, national pro-union rally in solidarity with the protesters in Wisconsin, and Beck, of course, has an elaborate, hammer-and-sickle-laden chalkboard for that. Bill O’Reilly last night to explain why Jones’ American Dream (and Woodrow Wilson‘s) is a menace to capitalism, and how this “impromptu” protest has been years in the making.

Glenn Beck has been having a field day lately, what with the protests in the Middle East, the full-blown revolution in Egypt, and the union revolts here at home in Wisconsin. Today was no different, as he called out the “dope-smoking hippies” taking over Madison. But among the most dangerous calls, he warned, were those for “democracy.” Fortunately for Beck, it’s more complicated than it sounds upon first listen.

As Glenn Beck‘s latest campaign against Google goes to show, he has little trust in large entities, whether they be government-run or private. After dedicating some time this week to asserting that Google’s involvement in the Egyptian revolts gives them a dangerous bias that seeps into the order of search results on their site, Beck took his campaign, as he always does, to an intrigued Bill O’Reilly last night.

On Sunday, I reported that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor refused to reject Birther “crazy talk” on Meet the Press. At Monday’s White house briefing, I asked Press Secretary Robert Gibbs if he thought that Republican leaders had a duty to put the kibosh on Birther talk, and whether the President would do the same were the positions reversed. Gibbs responded that “rational people” don’t question the President’s citizenship, and pointed to Obama’s own record regarding his opponent’s status.

With Gov. Neil Abercrombie‘s (D-HI) now-open-ended resurrection of the Birther issue, expect to see more of the embarrassing scene that played out on Sunday morning’s Meet the Press: Republican leaders trying to distance themselves from the conspiracy theorists, without alienating them. Rep. Eric Cantor danced around host David Gregory‘s challenge to reject Birthers like an amateur snake-charmer with a bladder full of Mountain Dew. Deliberately or not, Abercrombie just might be some kind of political genius.

CUNY sociology professor Frances Fox Piven has found herself in the midst of a political crossfire for a work she published 45 years ago. Piven, along with husband Richard Cloward published a work in the 1960s that now forms the crux of the attacks on the Obama administration from The Glenn Beck Program, and now Piven is speaking out against Glenn Beck and Fox News for death threats she has received via email since becoming a major character in Beck’s narrative.

Judge Andrew Napolitano has taken his firebrand libertarian show, Freedom Watch, to the big leagues, anchoring the most expensive real estate on the Fox Business Network– and it took less than a month of free market values and government distrust for Keith Olbermann to be calling for his dismissal. The issue? Napolitano really doesn’t trust the government, whether it comes to taxes, social programs, or, uh, who was really behind 9/11.

Topping the internet’s most popular news aggregators today is the no-strings-attached offer by grassroots, web-based organization ColorOfChange.org to provide anyone who wants one a “Turn Off FOX” sticker, free of charge (yes, even shipping).

While following up on the various charity auctions being run to fund Glenn Beck‘s August 28 “Restoring Honor” rally (and then the  Special Operations Warrior Foundation), I came across some items that are the very definition of “strange bedfellows.” Fans can bid for a dinner with Andrew Breitbart, or copies of Beck tome Arguing with Idiots, signed by Beck and 2008 campaign relic William Ayers, or Beck and his fellow Mediaite fan Van Jones.