Thousands rally around Beck to support America turning back to God - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Baraka_Guru · 08-28-2010, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Beck, Palin Stress God, Country as Tea Party Activists Rally in Washington

By John McCormick and Lisa Lerer - Aug 28, 2010

Fox News commentator Glenn Beck and Tea Party heroine Sarah Palin exhorted tens of thousands of fans and activists gathered on the National Mall in Washington to embrace the nation’s tradition of religion as part of their decision-making and daily life.

“Something beyond imagination is happening,” Beck said. “America today begins to turn back to God.”

Palin, 46, told the crowd to look at monuments around them on the National Mall for inspiration and urged them to act with the courage of presidents and leaders before them.

“You have the same steel spine and moral courage as Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King,” she said. “It is in you. It will sustain you, as it sustained them. So with pride in the red, white and blue, with gratitude to our men and women in uniform, let’s stand together, let’s stand with honor, let’s restore America.”

Palin and Beck are both stars of the Tea Party movement, a loose-knit coalition of voters seeking limits on government spending, taxes and debt. The “Restoring Honor” rally where they appeared was billed as a celebration of the military, patriotism and American heritage.

Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate and now a contributor to News Corp.’s Fox News, said she was appearing as the mother of a soldier, not a politician. “Say what you want about me, but I raised a combat vet and you can’t take that away from me,” the former Alaska governor said, referring to her son who served a yearlong deployment in Iraq.

Martin Luther King

Beck, 46, has insisted the assembly -- with a stage at the Lincoln Memorial where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech exactly 47 years earlier -- isn’t a political rally.

A video clip of King’s speech was played before an appearance on the stage by Alveda King, the slain civil rights leader’s niece.

The size of the crowd promises to be topic of debate. Before the event began, organizers estimated it would be somewhere between “tens of thousands” and 300,000. While there is no official source for such estimates on the National Mall, Beck told the audience that the accounting from his vantage point showed more than 500,000 people.

The gathering began assembling before dawn as people carrying lawn chairs and water arrived. Attendees, many wearing patriotic outfits or T-shirts from local Tea Party groups, were discouraged from bringing signs and no current officeholders were allowed to speak.

Political Activity

Even so, there has been plenty of political activity around the rally.

Activists gathered at a warm-up event yesterday organized by FreedomWorks, an advocacy group affiliated with the Tea Party, where they listened to candidates and picked up campaign signs supporting Tea Party-backed candidates.

“What happens this year will make what happened in 1994 look like a Sunday picnic,” Mike Lee, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Utah, told yesterday’s gathering in a reference to Republicans gaining control of the House in that year’s election.

Republican Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota said yesterday that members of Congress would hold an outdoor meeting after the rally.

“My, my, my, the U.S. Senate won’t know what hit them,” she said at yesterday’s rally. “Can you imagine not only conservatives, but constitutional conservatives?”

Bused to Rally

Americans for Prosperity, a Tea Party group, held its political action convention in Washington over the weekend and bused people to the rally.

The head of the House Democratic campaign committee, Maryland Representative Chris Van Hollen, challenged the claim by rally organizers that the event is nonpartisan.

“It’s a blatant political effort,” he told reporters yesterday at a Washington press conference. “You’ve seen Glenn Beck and a lot of the talk show hosts on Fox News out there talking about this election.”

Beck has said it is a coincidence that his event is taking place on the anniversary of King’s speech.

Last year he said on Fox that President Barack Obama is a “racist” with a “deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.” Beck later told CBS’s Katie Couric in an interview that he was “sorry the way it was phrased.”

The rally took place at about the same time as another in Washington organized by the Reverend Al Sharpton and other African-American and civil rights leaders commemorating King’s speech and focusing on education equality.

Beck Mocked

At the Sharpton rally, Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s non-voting member of the House, mocked Beck.

“You can’t blame Glenn Beck for his March-on-Washington envy,” she said. “Too bad he doesn’t have a message to match the place.”

Beck, Palin and allies are bolstered by skirmishes their candidates have won in a war against the political establishment. One is playing out in Palin’s home state, where Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski trails a Tea Party rival in a protracted Republican primary vote count.

Murkowski, 53, who followed her father into office, is 1,668 votes behind political newcomer Joe Miller, 43, a Gulf War Army veteran endorsed by Palin and Tea Party activists. Thousands of absentee votes are to be counted starting Aug. 31 to determine the winner of the Aug. 24 primary.

“This is about we the people,” said Coral Haven, a 62- year-old from Crescent City, Florida, at the rally. “There’s no leader and the politicians don’t know what to do about it because they can’t identify a leader.”

John Rivard, 72, of Houston, Texas, said he was proud that the Tea Party movement is about many and has no single leader. “It’s of the people, and no one is pushing us,” he said.

Beck, Palin Stress God, Country as Tea Party Activists Rally in Washington - Bloomberg

YouTube - Beck: America Is Turning "Back to God"

Is this the day that Beck followers (many Tea Partiers?) push forward into the political sphere with their intentions fully bared?

What do you make of this? Is it all show, or is it a milestone in the Tea Party movement?

I'm not sure of the overall message. Do these people want to tear down the separation of church and state, or are they speaking merely of everyday American life?

Is there a religious longing simmering beneath the surface of American politics and society?

I'm not sure I get what Beck is doing here. Can anyone help me? All I can see is two "champions" of the Tea Party movement, Beck and Palin, doing some PR work.

And what do you make of Beck holding the rally today specifically? Coincidence? Intentional?

ASU2003 · 08-28-2010, 11:19 AM

The Daily Show is exactly how news stations across the country should be reporting on this. Only satire and good investigative journalism can adequately cover what Beck is trying to do.

August 26, 2010 - Michael Bloomberg - The Daily Show With Jon Stewart - Full Episode Video | Comedy Central

I thought the Democrats had shown that America gave a mandate to the government that social conservatism and religious extremist policies wasn't the correct way to go. Then the conservatives dusted off the fiscal conservative message, but Beck is trying to get 'God' back into the GOP again...

I wonder why Jon Stewart doesn't hold a rally in DC and see how many thousands of people would come out for that. Where are the liberal groups now that they actually have the majority?

Willravel · 08-28-2010, 12:09 PM

Astroturf.

Pearl Trade · 08-28-2010, 12:12 PM

I like Glenn Beck. I think he's entertaining but also has some alright ideas. Combining church and state is not one of them.

Nothing is a coincidence. He made it happen on this date for a reason. I don't think there's anything wrong with making it on this date, I like a little extreme competition.

Glenn Beck vs Al Sharpton, who will go too far and cross that line?

Seaver · 08-28-2010, 02:39 PM

Should help his ratings. Won't accomplish anything.

No Tea Party candidate is expected to win, and some like Nevada are even more unpopular with Republicans than Democrats.

Tully Mars · 08-28-2010, 03:25 PM

I wish someone from either side would get up and start shouting real solutions to our problems instead of slogans and talking points.

I watched some of today's rallies and all I heard was empty talking points. And yes I watched some of Becks and some of Sharpton's. Wasn't impressed by either. Personally I don't care much about whatever Rev. Al's mouthing about and I think Beck's a lunatic. Palin's always good for a laugh- "I raised a combat troop!" Really you gave birth to someone who joined the service! Wow! How big of pedestal would you like? I can't wait for the new season of SNL.

Walt · 08-28-2010, 07:31 PM

I certainly appreciate the service that Mr. Beck is providing with his "Restoring Honor Rally". Hell, I wasn't even aware that America's military personnel and vets had lost their honor.

ottopilot · 08-28-2010, 08:01 PM

While Palin is a Tea Party supporter, Beck does not endorse or align himself with them. Many in attendance were probably fromTea Party groups, but the rally was not a Tea Party event. It's interesting how this has been framed in advance as one.

I was a little put off by the religious theme, but felt the messages were consistently positive, stayed true to the theme -Faith, Honor and Charity. By the end of the rally, they had raised $5.5 million for the Special Operations Warrior Fund. The goal was $600k. An enormous amount of good was done today regardless of your opinion of Beck.

Willravel · 08-28-2010, 08:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ottopilot

While Palin is a Tea Party supporter, Beck does not endorse or align himself with them.

That's true, it's not like he's been the headline speaker at a Tea Party rally, regularly defends them, or has become their de facto leader

dc_dux · 08-28-2010, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ottopilot

... By the end of the rally, they had raised $5.5 million for the Special Operations Warrior Fund. The goal was $600k. An enormous amount of good was done today regardless of your opinion of Beck.

Lets not get carried away on who benefits from the donations quite yet.

Small print on the "Restoring Honor" donation page:

Quote:

All contributions made to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation will first be applied to the cost of the Restoring Honor Rally...

Restoring Honor - 8.28.10

I wonder if that includes paying Palin's going rate of at least $100k or paying Beck himself?

To-date, the SOWF charitable pay-out rate is far lower than most charities....something along the lines of 20% of all donations received last year.

But it was a well attended event.... a sea of middle aged and white.....but at least this time they didnt have to use a fake pic to inflate the numbers.

---------- Post added at 12:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:49 AM ----------

Quote:

It's not clear how much money the foundation might receive. A footnote on the rally's Web page explains that donations will go first toward the cost of the event. Anything left over will then be kept by the foundation.

A representative of the Special Operations Warrior Foundation referred all media inquiries to Jason Raffel, Beck's New York-based publicist. Raffel, in turn, referred inquiries back to the foundation.

washingtonpost.com

It appears both parties are passing the buck (so to speak) on how much will actually benefit the SOWF.

Baraka_Guru · 08-28-2010, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tully Mars

I wish someone from either side would get up and start shouting real solutions to our problems instead of slogans and talking points.

An interesting point, Tully.

I also came across this entry about Beck and his modus operandi (with parallels to the Tea Party movement) in the Moral Landscapes blog on the Psychology Today website. And it has some good advice to boot. "Tantrum morality"---I like it. Well, as a concept...not in practice.....

Quote:

Tantrum Morality: TEA Party and Glenn Beck
Blind and dumb, Bunker Morality leads us astray
Published on April 20, 2010

Ever watch a child have a tantrum? I don't mean the kind when a child is so distressed they need adult help to calm down. I mean the appearance of a "little Nero" who wants control at any cost. You know, the yelling and screaming, the endless demands and attempts at manipulation.

Hmm, this all sounds so familiar....right, I am talking about Glenn Beck ...and leaders in the TEA party...but I'm also talking about you and me.

Tantrum morality (a type of Bunker Security) is about raging against anything that you consider a threat to your power and privilege. So the TEA partiers, sponsored by the wealthy and promoted by Fox News, who earn more than average Americans, are concerned for their own well being, not necessarily that of anyone else. For example, they are more likely to think that the Obama administration favors the poor and blacks over others. You can see they want to continue tilting the social table towards the wealthy (see David Cay Johnston's books).

When you are raised and immersed in a culture that promotes insecurity (as our culture does), you are likely to be attracted to the rhetoric of blaming (discounted) others for any problem you have. Hence, Glenn Beck's success. The Bunker Security world view is that you have to be aggressive to keep a sense of control. Witness the tragic bullying of Phoebe Prince (which became vicious morality).

Glen Beck's Tantrum Morality is highly destructive because he appears on a news network and the naïve viewer thinks he is only telling them what is true (after all, it is on TV and on a news channel). Find someone convenient to blame for your troubles and have at it. People who look or act differently are especially attractive (e.g., Obama, immigrants).

So when you are mad for not getting your way, you point to the "difference" in your opponent (race, sex, origin) or their area of vulnerability. You pull out the zinger that you know will strike at the heart. "I always knew you were weak." "My mother warned me about you people." You throw emotional Molotov cocktails to try to get your way.

Tantrum Morality is centered on one's own emotions and perspective.Fueled by panic and rage, a person can't consider alternative perspectives. These emotions overcome neocortical thinking and positive emotions.

Tantrum Morality is reckless. It has little sense of the future or consequences.

Tantrum Morality is harmful to cooperation and community because it cuts off dialogue. It is difficult to have a dialogue when one side keeps yelling and shouting insults.

Tantrum Morality is not grounded in reality but reactive to fantasy (Obama as foreigner, Obama as Nazi, Obama as socialist).

Tantrum Morality is truthy. You go with your feelings or intuitions, regardless of whether they are true or where they came from (and if they come from Glenn Beck, beware!)

It's harmful to the self (the tantrumer) because it gives the illusion of doing "something constructive" when it is only destructive.

Ultimately, Tantrum Morality is blind and dumb. It does not see how the individual's actions are connected to everyone else. It cannot move beyond its own narrow perspective which is partially fantasy. It cannot access capacities for thoughtful, rational thinking because the activated reptilian brain is in charge.

Any way you slice it, Tantrum Morality is harmful.

There are at least two ways to deal with Tantrum Morality in others-- you can approach or avoid.

Approach: Stay calm and rational in the broad sense (logic based in real-world context, aware of interconnections). Try not to be patronizing. Try to evoke in them softer emotions like sadness or gratitude. These are right brain, open-hearted emotions that seem to not coexist with the hard-hearted emotions of hate and rage.

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout greets a man she recognizes in a mob that is threatening her father, Atticus Finch. Her attempt at connection breaks the trance of the mob feverish with Bunker Security. The mob then disperses.

Avoid: Don't give the crazy tantrum attention (woops, media!). Be firm and do not give in. Move away if things get too hot.

If the tantrumer gets his or her way, it does long-term damage because the lesson learned is that screaming pays off. You have to nip bullying in the bud, just like you have to nip domestic abuse in the bud. Once a bully/abuser/tantrumer gets his or her way, it is much more difficult to prevent the same thing in the future. They have tasted power and want to keep it.

Remember, we all can be little Neros. We can all fall into Tantrum Morality. When I get obsessed about My Way (or the highway) and try to jam it down people's throats, I am having a morality tantrum (turning into vicious morality over the long term).

How to get out of your own Moral Tantrum:

Pause. Breathe. Step back and look at yourself (often this is triggered when someone questions what you are doing). Pay attention to where you are and what is around you (right brain). Be self-reflective: Why am I trying to coerce? What am I afraid of? Is there a better way to persuade? How can I stay in a respectful relationship with this person?

The road to virtue is filled with regression. But we can do better. Let's stop encouraging moral tantrums in ourselves and others and aim for grown up morality.

Tantrum Morality: TEA Party and Glenn Beck | Psychology Today

Pearl Trade · 08-28-2010, 09:17 PM

Good article, Baraka. My parents and grandparents are proud "Glenn Beck, the only Mr. Truth" believers. That article explains them dead on.

Logic and reason absolutely destroy people using the "tantrum morality" argument. They don't know what hit 'em.

ottopilot · 08-29-2010, 06:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru

An interesting point, Tully.

I also came across this entry about Beck and his modus operandi (with parallels to the Tea Party movement) in the Moral Landscapes blog on the Psychology Today website. And it has some good advice to boot. "Tantrum morality"---I like it. Well, as a concept...not in practice.....

Tantrum Morality: TEA Party and Glenn Beck | Psychology Today

Psychology Today. Hmm... sounds official. No doubt lab-coats and clipboards were involved. No chance of bias here.

On what does the author base her tantrum analogy... Beck's delivery style? The Tea Party's proclivity for self-reliance and living in the suburbs? They all may seem a bit obnoxious, but that's not really an exclusive trait.

It sounds more like the author just doesn't like Beck or the Tea Party. And with years of unimpeachable clinical academia, she resorts to shoveling a steaming pile of pseudo-psychological propaganda. The article reads like a partisan editorial opinion void of anything resembling a clinical assessment.

While I'm off-put by Beck's increasing evangelical tone, this article is just another drive-by crafted for appeal to another highly malleable herd. As the idiom goes ..."Birds of a feather flock together". More fashionable bits of baseless hatred to feed the sheeples.

Isn't this really more about perpetuating hatred as political fashion? It's like a Daily Show bit all dressed up in an intellectual pose. Laid out for quick-recall when engaging in lively correct-speech banter. Convenient and authoritative-sounding that comes in handy in a pinch... like on "The View".

We should take comfort knowing fresh talking points will be provided without ever having to substantiate for accuracy. The hive will never suspect when repeated often.

ring · 08-29-2010, 06:49 AM

Great article, Baraka.

The following entertainment piece does contain some interesting facts:

Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin's unholy alliance - Joan Walsh - Salon.com

roachboy · 08-29-2010, 08:34 AM

right. wandering while snippy through the jurassic park of backwater reactionary ideology that is the populist right today is some act of intellectual heroism? standing up to the corrosion of conformity?
because of course that's what the jurassic park ideological commodity tells you it is. and you, heroic individual behaving in an individually heroic manner the way heroes do as individuals, you do as you're told.

who's running the show?

Quote:

The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party
By FRANK RICH

ANOTHER weekend, another grass-roots demonstration starring Real Americans who are mad as hell and want to take back their country from you-know-who. Last Sunday the site was Lower Manhattan, where they jeered the “ground zero mosque.” This weekend, the scene shifted to Washington, where the avatars of oppressed white Tea Party America, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, were slated to “reclaim the civil rights movement” (Beck’s words) on the same spot where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had his dream exactly 47 years earlier.

Vive la révolution!

There’s just one element missing from these snapshots of America’s ostensibly spontaneous and leaderless populist uprising: the sugar daddies who are bankrolling it, and have been doing so since well before the “death panel” warm-up acts of last summer. Three heavy hitters rule. You’ve heard of one of them, Rupert Murdoch. The other two, the brothers David and Charles Koch, are even richer, with a combined wealth exceeded only by that of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett among Americans. But even those carrying the Kochs’ banner may not know who these brothers are.

Their self-interested and at times radical agendas, like Murdoch’s, go well beyond, and sometimes counter to, the interests of those who serve as spear carriers in the political pageants hawked on Fox News. The country will be in for quite a ride should these potentates gain power, and given the recession-battered electorate’s unchecked anger and the Obama White House’s unfocused political strategy, they might.

All three tycoons are the latest incarnation of what the historian Kim Phillips-Fein labeled “Invisible Hands” in her prescient 2009 book of that title: those corporate players who have financed the far right ever since the du Pont brothers spawned the American Liberty League in 1934 to bring down F.D.R. You can draw a straight line from the Liberty League’s crusade against the New Deal “socialism” of Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission and child labor laws to the John Birch Society-Barry Goldwater assault on J.F.K. and Medicare to the Koch-Murdoch-backed juggernaut against our “socialist” president.

Only the fat cats change — not their methods and not their pet bugaboos (taxes, corporate regulation, organized labor, and government “handouts” to the poor, unemployed, ill and elderly). Even the sources of their fortunes remain fairly constant. Koch Industries began with oil in the 1930s and now also spews an array of industrial products, from Dixie cups to Lycra, not unlike DuPont’s portfolio of paint and plastics. Sometimes the biological DNA persists as well. The Koch brothers’ father, Fred, was among the select group chosen to serve on the Birch Society’s top governing body. In a recorded 1963 speech that survives in a University of Michigan archive, he can be heard warning of “a takeover” of America in which Communists would “infiltrate the highest offices of government in the U.S. until the president is a Communist, unknown to the rest of us.” That rant could be delivered as is at any Tea Party rally today.

Last week the Kochs were shoved unwillingly into the spotlight by the most comprehensive journalistic portrait of them yet, written by Jane Mayer of The New Yorker. Her article caused a stir among those in Manhattan’s liberal elite who didn’t know that David Koch, widely celebrated for his cultural philanthropy, is not merely another rich conservative Republican but the founder of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which, as Mayer writes with some understatement, “has worked closely with the Tea Party since the movement’s inception.” To New Yorkers who associate the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center with the New York City Ballet, it’s startling to learn that the Texas branch of that foundation’s political arm, known simply as Americans for Prosperity, gave its Blogger of the Year Award to an activist who had called President Obama “cokehead in chief.”

The other major sponsor of the Tea Party movement is Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks, which, like Americans for Prosperity, is promoting events in Washington this weekend. Under its original name, Citizens for a Sound Economy, FreedomWorks received $12 million of its own from Koch family foundations. Using tax records, Mayer found that Koch-controlled foundations gave out $196 million from 1998 to 2008, much of it to conservative causes and institutions. That figure doesn’t include $50 million in Koch Industries lobbying and $4.8 million in campaign contributions by its political action committee, putting it first among energy company peers like Exxon Mobil and Chevron. Since tax law permits anonymous personal donations to nonprofit political groups, these figures may understate the case. The Kochs surely match the in-kind donations the Tea Party receives in free promotion 24/7 from Murdoch’s Fox News, where both Beck and Palin are on the payroll.

The New Yorker article stirred up the right, too. Some of Mayer’s blogging detractors unwittingly upheld the premise of her article (titled “Covert Operations”) by conceding that they have been Koch grantees. None of them found any factual errors in her 10,000 words. Many of them tried to change the subject to George Soros, the billionaire backer of liberal causes. But Soros is a publicity hound who is transparent about where he shovels his money. And like many liberals — selflessly or foolishly, depending on your point of view — he supports causes that are unrelated to his business interests and that, if anything, raise his taxes.

This is hardly true of the Kochs. When David Koch ran to the right of Reagan as vice president on the 1980 Libertarian ticket (it polled 1 percent), his campaign called for the abolition not just of Social Security, federal regulatory agencies and welfare but also of the F.B.I., the C.I.A., and public schools — in other words, any government enterprise that would either inhibit his business profits or increase his taxes. He hasn’t changed. As Mayer details, Koch-supported lobbyists, foundations and political operatives are at the center of climate-science denial — a cause that forestalls threats to Koch Industries’ vast fossil fuel business. While Koch foundations donate to cancer hospitals like Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York, Koch Industries has been lobbying to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from classifying another product important to its bottom line, formaldehyde, as a “known carcinogen” in humans (which it is).

Tea Partiers may share the Kochs’ detestation of taxes, big government and Obama. But there’s a difference between mainstream conservatism and a fringe agenda that tilts completely toward big business, whether on Wall Street or in the Gulf of Mexico, while dismantling fundamental government safety nets designed to protect the unemployed, public health, workplace safety and the subsistence of the elderly.

Yet inexorably the Koch agenda is morphing into the G.O.P. agenda, as articulated by current Republican members of Congress, including the putative next speaker of the House, John Boehner, and Tea Party Senate candidates like Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, and the new kid on the block, Alaska’s anti-Medicaid, anti-unemployment insurance Palin protégé, Joe Miller. Their program opposes a federal deficit, but has no objection to running up trillions in red ink in tax cuts to corporations and the superrich; apologizes to corporate malefactors like BP and derides money put in escrow for oil spill victims as a “slush fund”; opposes the extension of unemployment benefits; and calls for a freeze on federal regulations in an era when abuses in the oil, financial, mining, pharmaceutical and even egg industries (among others) have been outrageous.

The Koch brothers must be laughing all the way to the bank knowing that working Americans are aiding and abetting their selfish interests. And surely Murdoch is snickering at those protesting the “ground zero mosque.” Last week on “Fox and Friends,” the Bush administration flacks Dan Senor and Dana Perino attacked a supposedly terrorism-tainted Saudi prince whose foundation might contribute to the Islamic center. But as “The Daily Show” keeps pointing out, these Fox bloviators never acknowledge that the evil prince they’re bashing, Walid bin Talal, is not only the biggest non-Murdoch shareholder in Fox News’s parent company (he owns 7 percent of News Corporation) and the recipient of Murdoch mammoth investments in Saudi Arabia but also the subject of lionization elsewhere on Fox.

No less a Murdoch factotum than Neil Cavuto slobbered over bin Talal in a Fox Business Channel interview as recently as January, with nary a question about his supposed terrorist ties. Instead, bin Talal praised Obama’s stance on terrorism and even endorsed the Democrats’ goal of universal health insurance. Do any of the Fox-watching protestors at the “ground zero mosque” know that Fox’s profits are flowing to a Obama-sympathizing Saudi billionaire in bed with Murdoch? As Jon Stewart summed it up, the protestors who want “to cut off funding to the ‘terror mosque’ ” are aiding that funding by watching Fox and enhancing bin Talal’s News Corp. holdings.

When wolves of Murdoch’s ingenuity and the Kochs’ stealth have been at the door of our democracy in the past, Democrats have fought back fiercely. Franklin Roosevelt’s triumphant 1936 re-election campaign pummeled the Liberty League as a Republican ally eager to “squeeze the worker dry in his old age and cast him like an orange rind into the refuse pail.” When John Kennedy’s patriotism was assailed by Birchers calling for impeachment, he gave a major speech denouncing their “crusades of suspicion.”

And Obama? So far, sadly, this question answers itself.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/op....html?_r=1&hpw

Plan9 · 08-29-2010, 09:03 AM

NPR did an interesting (albeit similar) on piece on the Koch brothers:

HERE

Tully Mars · 08-29-2010, 09:11 AM

Yes RB I read that article this morning but had read a few weeks ago who was actually funding the "grass roots" movement. It's pretty surreal how blind people can be in a herd.

And Ring that's a good piece I had not seen before. Thanks.

Baraka_Guru · 08-29-2010, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ottopilot

Psychology Today. Hmm... sounds official. No doubt lab-coats and clipboards were involved. No chance of bias here.

On what does the author base her tantrum analogy... Beck's delivery style? The Tea Party's proclivity for self-reliance and living in the suburbs? They all may seem a bit obnoxious, but that's not really an exclusive trait.

So are you saying you don't believe in psychology?

Quote:

It sounds more like the author just doesn't like Beck or the Tea Party. And with years of unimpeachable clinical academia, she resorts to shoveling a steaming pile of pseudo-psychological propaganda. The article reads like a partisan editorial opinion void of anything resembling a clinical assessment.

Or maybe it reads like a blog post? Oh, right.... it is a blog post. Regardless, it does sound like you don't believe in psychology.

Quote:

While I'm off-put by Beck's increasing evangelical tone, this article is just another drive-by crafted for appeal to another highly malleable herd. As the idiom goes ..."Birds of a feather flock together". More fashionable bits of baseless hatred to feed the sheeples.

I'd ask you to critique the post, but, you know, this is a forum, not necessarily a place where much of anything above drive-bys occurs.

Quote:

Isn't this really more about perpetuating hatred as political fashion? It's like a Daily Show bit all dressed up in an intellectual pose. Laid out for quick-recall when engaging in lively correct-speech banter. Convenient and authoritative-sounding that comes in handy in a pinch... like on "The View".

The Daily Show is satire. Beck does delve into satire, but from what I've seen he's not very good at it. The thing about satire, is when people take it at face value...it's a failure.

Quote:

We should take comfort knowing fresh talking points will be provided without ever having to substantiate for accuracy. The hive will never suspect when repeated often.

Nice shot in the dark, otto. Maybe you should practice what you preach.

mixedmedia · 08-29-2010, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roachboy

right. wandering while snippy through the jurassic park of backwater reactionary ideology that is the populist right today is some act of intellectual heroism? standing up to the corrosion of conformity?
because of course that's what the jurassic park ideological commodity tells you it is. and you, heroic individual behaving in an individually heroic manner the way heroes do as individuals, you do as you're told.

who's running the show?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/op....html?_r=1&hpw

good god.
gotta love Frank Rich.

ring · 08-29-2010, 02:11 PM

My inner imperfect zen moments are fractiously perfect zen.
'Smite' works as a mantra.

Hektore · 08-29-2010, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru

I'm not sure of the overall message. Do these people want to tear down the separation of church and state, or are they speaking merely of everyday American life?

Is there a religious longing simmering beneath the surface of American politics and society?

My current understanding is that these folks believe that the 'separation of church and state' does not currently exist, nor has it ever. It's a lie that they're trying to destroy. America has always been a theocracy, but lost its footing somewhere along the way, and they would like to make it that way again.

Baraka_Guru · 08-29-2010, 05:47 PM

Ah, the whole, "America is a Christian nation...."

Pearl Trade · 08-29-2010, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hektore

My current understanding is that these folks believe that the 'separation of church and state' does not currently exist, nor has it ever. It's a lie that they're trying to destroy. America has always been a theocracy, but lost its footing somewhere along the way, and they would like to make it that way again.

Glenn Beck has said on his program that he doesn't want it to be a full-fledged theocracy where the government interferes and makes religious choices, but a government that relies on strong Christian values. I'm just telling you what Beck claims, I think it's a load of shit.

Quote:

Ah, the whole, "America is a Christian nation...."

It bothers me that Glenn Beck claims to be a Christian, as being a Mormon doesn't make him a Christian.

Hektore · 08-29-2010, 07:03 PM

I know he has said that, but what he's convinced me of is that he believes being Christian is essential to being a good citizen and that being a good Christian citizen means voting for Christian politicians who vote based on their religiously inspired morality.

He wants American not to be an explicit theocracy but an implicit one where, without it having to be written into the rules, Christianity informs every process of government through the beliefs of the governing and governed. What the difference between the two is, I'm not really sure - other than that one is apparently called a theocracy while the other isn't.

Willravel · 08-29-2010, 08:53 PM

I'm not sure whether Mormonism counts as Christianity or not. I'm not sure it matters.

FoolThemAll · 08-29-2010, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru

So are you saying you don't believe in psychology?

So are you saying you kick puppies for fun? It does sound like you enjoy animal cruelty.

Willravel · 08-29-2010, 11:28 PM

I don't care for anti-intellectualism. I could explain why it's bad, but the people I'm explaining it to never seem to care.

roachboy · 08-30-2010, 06:53 AM

the idiocy continues.

Quote:

After Washington rally, Glenn Beck assails Obama's religion

By Felicia Sonmez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 30, 2010; 8:46 AM

Conservative commentator Glenn Beck voiced sharper criticism of President Obama's religious beliefs on Sunday than he and other speakers offered from the podium of the rally Beck organized at the Lincoln Memorial a day earlier.

During an interview on "Fox News Sunday," which was filmed after Saturday's rally, Beck claimed that Obama "is a guy who understands the world through liberation theology, which is oppressor-and-victim."

"People aren't recognizing his version of Christianity," Beck added.

Beck's attacks represent a continuing attempt to characterize Obama as a radical, an approach that has prompted anxiety among some Republicans, who worry that Beck's rhetoric could backfire. The White House has all but ignored his accusations, but some Democrats have pointed to the Fox News host to portray Republicans as extreme and out of touch.

Beck made the remarks in answer to a question about his previous accusation that Obama was a "racist" who has "a deep-seated hatred for white people." He contended that that statement "was not accurate" and that he had "miscast" Obama's religious beliefs as racism.

Obama told NBC's Brian Williams on Sunday that he hadn't watched the Lincoln Memorial event but that he supported the right of Beck and his supporters to rally.

Obama said that given the country's economic and national security woes, "it's not surprising that somebody like a Mr. Beck is able to stir up a certain portion of the country."

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., the onetime pastor of Obama's former church in Chicago, is an adherent of black liberation theology, which centers on the struggles of African Americans and the importance of empowering the oppressed. Obama severed ties with Wright during the presidential campaign after some of the minister's inflammatory language drew controversy.

Beck, on his Fox News show last Tuesday, said that liberation theology is at the core of Obama's "belief structure."

"You see, it's all about victims and victimhood; oppressors and the oppressed; reparations, not repentance; collectivism, not individual salvation. I don't know what that is, other than it's not Muslim, it's not Christian. It's a perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ as most Christians know it," Beck said.

Earlier this month, a Pew Research Center survey revealed widespread confusion over Obama's religion. A plurality of the poll's respondents, 43 percent, said they did not know which religion Obama practices. The White House responded in a statement after the poll's release, reiterating that Obama "is a committed Christian."

Obama, asked on NBC about polls showing confusion over his religion, pointed to "a network of misinformation that in a new media era can get churned out there constantly."

(See video of Obama discussing his faith in NBC interview.)

In the wake of Saturday's rally, Democrats have gone on the offensive against Republicans by claiming that the event was evidence that the GOP has been overtaken by extreme elements in the party. Republicans have taken a more muted approach to the event, with some avoiding any mention of it altogether.

On CBS's "Face the Nation," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said that the rally made clear that "there is a raging battle going on within the Republican Party for the heart and soul of the Republican Party."

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, head of the Republican Governors Association, responded that the rally was a reaction to the Obama administration and congressional Democrats, who he said "have taken the biggest lurch to the left in policy in American history."

Estimates on the size of the rally have varied widely. According to one commissioned by CBS News, 87,000 people attended the event. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R), who also spoke at the event, told a reporter afterward that she thought more than 100,000 people had attended.

Beck said that the crowd was between 300,000 and 650,000, and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), speaking at her own event after the rally, said that no fewer than 1 million people had been in attendance.

Also in Sunday's interview, Beck dispelled rumors that he might be considering a run for president in 2012, with Palin as his running mate.

"Not a chance. I don't know what Sarah is doing. I hope to be on vacation," Beck said, adding: "I don't think that I would be electable."

washingtonpost.com

unbelievable.

Baraka_Guru · 08-30-2010, 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FoolThemAll

So are you saying you kick puppies for fun? It does sound like you enjoy animal cruelty.

You could ask for a clarification, you could attempt your own, or you could confuse the issue. Why did you make the choice you did?

---------- Post added at 11:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:33 AM ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by roachboy

unbelievable.

What? Using morality as leverage to gain influence? That's not so unbelievable. Or were you being sarcastic?

roachboy · 08-30-2010, 07:40 AM

what i was particular amused/appalled by in this latest beckian moment was the ill-treatment meted out to liberation theology. it is such a cartoon. a roundabout form of redbaiting, nothing more.

Tully Mars · 08-30-2010, 08:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roachboy

the idiocy continues.

washingtonpost.com

unbelievable.

Honestly at this point I can't believe you can't believe it.

mixedmedia · 08-30-2010, 08:43 AM

Rev. Jeremiah Wright was right.

roachboy · 08-30-2010, 09:02 AM

it's like we're watching a mirror image of the 30s classic "freaks" happening---you know, the famous scene.

YouTube - Gooble Gobble One of Us We Accept Her

except upside down---not one of us. not one of us.
because that's all beck is saying, really.

FoolThemAll · 08-30-2010, 09:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru

You could ask for a clarification, you could attempt your own, or you could confuse the issue. Why did you make the choice you did?

Why did I ask you to clarify something that was nowhere to be found in your post?

Guess.

Baraka_Guru · 08-30-2010, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FoolThemAll

Why did I ask you to clarify something that was nowhere to be found in your post?

Guess.

I'm not sure I understand the rules of the game you're playing.

I think I'll sit this round out.

Eddie38 · 08-30-2010, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tully Mars

I wish someone from either side would get up and start shouting real solutions to our problems instead of slogans and talking points.

I think the point is, the people are the solution. And more important, a united people are the solution. I think the bottom line for most people who attend this sort of rally is that the government has become far, far too immense and powerful. In a "free" nation, the people must be free to live their lives without over-whelming interference from the government. In fact, that's the main reason this country was founded; to remove the people from the over-bearing control of the government.

So look at what we have now. We an immense government that steals our income/tax dollars and gives it to banks. We have a government that wages war with nations that never attacked us. We have a government that has established a growing welfare sector of dependents, while moving towards bringing all the citizens of this country under its umbrella of control.

Willravel · 08-30-2010, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mixedmedia

Rev. Jeremiah Wright was right.

Also, Rev. Jeremiah Wright was Wright.

FuglyStick · 08-30-2010, 10:30 AM

If he was Wong, we'd have another level of racism to contend with.

Eddie38 · 08-30-2010, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pearl Trade

Glenn Beck vs Al Sharpton, who will go too far and cross that line?

Beck definitely makes me queasy, but at least he's intelligent. Sharpton just makes me flat out sick. I mean, anyone with half a brain can see right through his pitiful agenda. The only thing he cares about is keeping welfare intact for his constituency. So of course he doesn't want anyone threatening the very government that offers his supporters unlimited handouts.

Baraka_Guru · 08-30-2010, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eddie38

I think the point is, the people are the solution. And more important, a united people are the solution. I think the bottom line for most people who attend this sort of rally is that the government has become far, far too immense and powerful. In a "free" nation, the people must be free to live their lives without over-whelming interference from the government. In fact, that's the main reason this country was founded; to remove the people from the over-bearing control of the government.

So look at what we have now. We an immense government that steals our income/tax dollars and gives it to banks. We have a government that wages war with nations that never attacked us. We have a government that has established a growing welfare sector of dependents, while moving towards bringing all the citizens of this country under its umbrella of control.

But I thought this wasn't what the dealio was about. It was about restoring honour, about faith, hope, and charity. Isn't charity about helping those in need? And considering the revolving-door structure of the majority of welfare, I don't see dependency being a problem. But how do you give those in need hope if they fall through the cracks of a capitalist society? How do you expect them to have faith if the system fails them?

The kernel at the core of Beck's purpose here is probably decent....but his agenda, his message, and his delivery, and now his follow-up, are at the very least questionable. What's he on about?

If it's not political, then what is it?

08-28-2010, 12:12 PM	#4 (permalink)
Pearl Trade Addict Location: Houston, Texas	I like Glenn Beck. I think he's entertaining but also has some alright ideas. Combining church and state is not one of them. Nothing is a coincidence. He made it happen on this date for a reason. I don't think there's anything wrong with making it on this date, I like a little extreme competition. Glenn Beck vs Al Sharpton, who will go too far and cross that line? __________________ Our revenge will be the laughter of our children. Give me convenience or give me death!

08-28-2010, 02:39 PM	#5 (permalink)
Seaver Junkie Location: Fort Worth, TX	Should help his ratings. Won't accomplish anything. No Tea Party candidate is expected to win, and some like Nevada are even more unpopular with Republicans than Democrats. __________________ "Smite the rocks with the rod of knowledge, and fountains of unstinted wealth will gush forth." - Ashbel Smith as he laid the first cornerstone of the University of Texas

08-28-2010, 03:25 PM	#6 (permalink)
Tully Mars Living in a Warmer Insanity Super Moderator Location: Yucatan, Mexico	I wish someone from either side would get up and start shouting real solutions to our problems instead of slogans and talking points. I watched some of today's rallies and all I heard was empty talking points. And yes I watched some of Becks and some of Sharpton's. Wasn't impressed by either. Personally I don't care much about whatever Rev. Al's mouthing about and I think Beck's a lunatic. Palin's always good for a laugh- "I raised a combat troop!" Really you gave birth to someone who joined the service! Wow! How big of pedestal would you like? I can't wait for the new season of SNL. __________________ I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

08-28-2010, 07:31 PM	#7 (permalink)
Walt I'm calmer than you are, dude Location: North Carolina	I certainly appreciate the service that Mr. Beck is providing with his "Restoring Honor Rally". Hell, I wasn't even aware that America's military personnel and vets had lost their honor. __________________ Calmer than you are...

08-28-2010, 08:01 PM	#8 (permalink)
ottopilot let me be clear Location: Waddy Peytona	While Palin is a Tea Party supporter, Beck does not endorse or align himself with them. Many in attendance were probably fromTea Party groups, but the rally was not a Tea Party event. It's interesting how this has been framed in advance as one. I was a little put off by the religious theme, but felt the messages were consistently positive, stayed true to the theme -Faith, Honor and Charity. By the end of the rally, they had raised $5.5 million for the Special Operations Warrior Fund. The goal was $600k. An enormous amount of good was done today regardless of your opinion of Beck. __________________ "It rubs the lotion on Buffy, Jodi and Mr. French's skin" - Uncle Bill from Buffalo

08-28-2010, 11:19 AM	#2 (permalink)
ASU2003 immoral minority Location: Back in Ohio	The Daily Show is exactly how news stations across the country should be reporting on this. Only satire and good investigative journalism can adequately cover what Beck is trying to do. August 26, 2010 - Michael Bloomberg - The Daily Show With Jon Stewart - Full Episode Video \| Comedy Central I thought the Democrats had shown that America gave a mandate to the government that social conservatism and religious extremist policies wasn't the correct way to go. Then the conservatives dusted off the fiscal conservative message, but Beck is trying to get 'God' back into the GOP again... I wonder why Jon Stewart doesn't hold a rally in DC and see how many thousands of people would come out for that. Where are the liberal groups now that they actually have the majority?

08-28-2010, 12:09 PM	#3 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	Astroturf.

08-28-2010, 09:17 PM	#12 (permalink)
Pearl Trade Addict Location: Houston, Texas	Good article, Baraka. My parents and grandparents are proud "Glenn Beck, the only Mr. Truth" believers. That article explains them dead on. Logic and reason absolutely destroy people using the "tantrum morality" argument. They don't know what hit 'em. __________________ Our revenge will be the laughter of our children. Give me convenience or give me death!

08-29-2010, 06:49 AM	#14 (permalink)
ring ░ Location: ❤	Great article, Baraka. The following entertainment piece does contain some interesting facts: Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin's unholy alliance - Joan Walsh - Salon.com

08-29-2010, 09:03 AM	#16 (permalink)
Plan9 I Confess a Shiver	NPR did an interesting (albeit similar) on piece on the Koch brothers: HERE __________________ *Whatever you can carry.* "You should not drink... and bake."

08-29-2010, 09:11 AM	#17 (permalink)
Tully Mars Living in a Warmer Insanity Super Moderator Location: Yucatan, Mexico	Yes RB I read that article this morning but had read a few weeks ago who was actually funding the "grass roots" movement. It's pretty surreal how blind people can be in a herd. And Ring that's a good piece I had not seen before. Thanks. __________________ I used to drink to drown my sorrows, but the damned things have learned how to swim- Frida Kahlo Vice President Starkizzer Fan Club

08-29-2010, 02:11 PM	#20 (permalink)
ring ░ Location: ❤	My inner imperfect zen moments are fractiously perfect zen. 'Smite' works as a mantra.

08-29-2010, 05:47 PM	#22 (permalink)
Baraka_Guru warrior bodhisattva Super Moderator Location: East-central Canada	Ah, the whole, "America is a Christian nation...." __________________ Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing? —Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön Humankind cannot bear very much reality. —From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

08-29-2010, 07:03 PM	#24 (permalink)
Hektore Junkie Location: Greater Harrisburg Area	I know he has said that, but what he's convinced me of is that he believes being Christian is essential to being a good citizen and that being a good Christian citizen means voting for Christian politicians who vote based on their religiously inspired morality. He wants American not to be an explicit theocracy but an implicit one where, without it having to be written into the rules, Christianity informs every process of government through the beliefs of the governing and governed. What the difference between the two is, I'm not really sure - other than that one is apparently called a theocracy while the other isn't. __________________ The advantage law is the best law in rugby, because it lets you ignore all the others for the good of the game.

08-29-2010, 08:53 PM	#25 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	I'm not sure whether Mormonism counts as Christianity or not. I'm not sure it matters.

08-29-2010, 11:28 PM	#27 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	I don't care for anti-intellectualism. I could explain why it's bad, but the people I'm explaining it to never seem to care.

08-30-2010, 07:40 AM	#30 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	what i was particular amused/appalled by in this latest beckian moment was the ill-treatment meted out to liberation theology. it is such a cartoon. a roundabout form of redbaiting, nothing more. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite

08-30-2010, 08:43 AM	#32 (permalink)
mixedmedia has all her shots. Location: Florida	Rev. Jeremiah Wright was right. __________________ Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

08-30-2010, 10:30 AM	#38 (permalink)
FuglyStick WHEEEE! Whee! Whee! WHEEEE! Location: Southern Illinois	If he was Wong, we'd have another level of racism to contend with. __________________ AZIZ! LIGHT!