Glenn Beck Faces Down General Tso's Sleeper Cells

On Wednesday, Fox News talk-show host Glenn Beck and one of his guests, Nehru-jacketed, retired Marine colonel William V. Cowan, were chatting about how inadequately Semper Fi Obama's response has been to the pirates off the Somali coast. Suddenly the conversation veered into the (apparently real) news that Russian and Chinese spies have hacked into the U.S. electrical grid--Commies in the wall sockets! Perhaps encouraged by how Beck seemed to appreciate his cheerful, neo-Paranoid Style, Cowan (a Fox military analyst, who FNC calls an "internationally acknowledged expert" in terrorism and military special ops) shared some related intel: "every Chinese restaurant out there across the United States, every one is a sleeper cell."

Oh-kay. Beck--who's been trying to fend off charges that he encouraged alleged cop-killer Richard Poplawski with crazy talk about FEMA concentration camps and Obama coming to take your guns--laughed nervously and cut off the Strangelovian Cowan.

However, questions remain: Does this mean there'll be no Chinese tea at the April 15, anti-tax Tea Parties that Fox has been heavily promoting? (Beck will be "reporting" live from...the Alamo.) What does this episode tell us about the quality of the "experts" Beck invites on his show? Exactly how did a conservative blogger know ahead of time that "the liberal left" will try to "destroy" Beck over Cowan's comment? Hmmm.

Lastly, why does Beck's website include video that helps introduce the former Marine but not a second of footage with the wingnut himself? Hmmm. (And if you have such video, please send!)

UPDATE: This piece has been updated with the colonel's actual name, but we're still looking for the hilarious video.

Comments (60)

1. "Does this mean there'll be no Chinese tea at the April 15, anti-tax Tea Parties that Fox has been heavily promoting?"

   If they don't have bubble tea, I ain't going.

   Posted by gangpapist at 04/09/2009 @ 2:45pm

2. See, chaos, THIS is why Beck is so popular...it's not just the nutters...

   he's a hoot!

   BTW, Ms Savan, you ought to check out that dad from California that was on Hannity telling us that "at my kid's school, due to 'political correctness', they call St. Patrick's Day 'Potato Day'!"....

   as if "Potato Day" was MORE politically correct than St. Patrick's Day.

   Now, if you'll excuse me I have to go over to "P.F. Chang's" to get my orders from my American controller Angela Lansbury!

   Posted by Mask at 04/09/2009 @ 2:47pm

3. As crazy as Glenn Beck seems to be--and it is definitely a case of being "crazy like a fox"--he is successful by building upon the enormous amount of anxiety, dismay, anomie, and anger out there in America, and not just among those folks in "flyover country" regarded as wingnuts by the Establishment. Is it any wonder this is the case when the current administration brazenly and foolishly continues to follow almost exactly the same destructive policies as the previous one regarding the financial crisis and the wars America is fighting? Not since the 1960s at least have American institutions suffered such a devastating loss of confidence. In many ways, institutions such as government, big business, the media, the education system, etc. absolutely do not deserve the trust or respect of the people. Given the arrogance, disconnectedness, and disdain exhibited by most elites, the chasm between them and the rest of the country is only likely to widen. And that gives wily, entertaining opportunists such as Beck their chance to make it big.

   Posted by feinfein at 04/09/2009 @ 2:56pm

4. Posted by feinfein at 04/09/2009 @ 2:56pm

   I think it's more partisan than that, fein.

   This is the first time, barring the 2 years of Clinton and the Dem Congress (1993-1994), that the conservatives have been COMPLETELY on the outs since the late 1970s (Carter, Dem Congress).

   For almost 30 years, they've had SOME power...White House or Congress. Now..none.

   And the mention of the 1970s is intentional. At that same time, we saw the same rise of "Apocalypticism" on the political Right. The "survivalists" movement...as well as the rise of the Christian Right with their "End Times" talk (dating back to Hal Lindsey's "Late Great Planet Earth").

   Beck obviously isn't appealing to many on the Left. He's appealing to a scare minority of white, middle-to-working class, fundey/evangey Christian, staunch conservatives who now foresse the Rapture and (and I believe this) are starting to think that Obama is the Anti-Christ.

   And Glenn is feeding them...BUT...as noted recently, he has started to back away from the more extreme elements. Now telling his audience that "armed insurrection is a disservice to the country" and going after the "FEMA concentration camps" stories.

   I think he's figured out that he pushed it too far and now needs to backpedal to prevent being made SUCH a laughingstock and stereotype (he can't avoid SOME..heheh) that he becomes Morton Downey Jr. for the 2010s.

   But his audience might not let him. They're getting worked up into such a lather over "Obama's tyranny" and "he's going to censor Rush" and "Them Dems are cummmin' fer my guns"...the cracks in the dam may already be leaking.

   Posted by Mask at 04/09/2009 @ 3:04pm

5. Hard to imagine a cowardly apologetic American President bow and scraping before Europeon leaders and speaking like a leftwingnut anti-American not 50yds from where 100,000. American soldiers gave their lifes to free the ingrates of the Europeon continent! But, it did happen and there is video and audio of it! The Obamanation of desolation and Demoncrats are disgraceful at the least!

   Posted by comancheamerican at 04/09/2009 @ 3:04pm

6. Posted by comancheamerican at 04/09/2009 @ 3:04pm

   Got something to offer on the topic at hand, RIO? Or just running with Today's Talking Point?

   Posted by Mask at 04/09/2009 @ 3:06pm

7. Sorry, don't have cable or dish so I only get local and the national Demoncrat talking heads of the big three liberal medias and their leftist brainwasher PBS!

   Posted by comancheamerican at 04/09/2009 @ 3:17pm

8. Posted by comancheamerican at 04/09/2009 @ 3:17pm

   So why did you feel you needed to even comment on a thread about a cable show host???

   Posted by Mask at 04/09/2009 @ 3:20pm

9. "And the mention of the 1970s is intentional. At that same time, we saw the same rise of "Apocalypticism" on the political Right. The "survivalists" movement...as well as the rise of the Christian Right with their "End Times" talk (dating back to Hal Lindsey's "Late Great Planet Earth")."

   Posted by Mask at 04/09/2009 @ 3:04pm

   Interesting, the 70s were also the days of malaise and the dissolution of the rad Left into nihilism, though it all started at Altamont. The SDS splinters and Ayers group goes "bombs away," wifey exults in the murder of Sharon Tate, the SLA, BLA, the gangsterization of the Panthers. Even some of those Christian rightist movements were started by counterculture fall-outs, check the history of CCM and "The Family" cult.

   The radical hatred of middle america that the fundies fear is a real phenomena. I see it on these threads all the time. The demonization of the MACS coupled with the far Lefts historical uses of power, and the apologias for same from folks like this mags own Mr. Cockburn... voila, Beck!

   I too worry about Beck's overstepping, I don't like the premonitions I'm getting of a million mini tribalisms on the near horizon, on the other hand if he keeps Mama on her toes against the bible-snatchers...

   Posted by gangpapist at 04/09/2009 @ 3:41pm

10. "leftist brainwasher PBS!" Posted by Posted by comancheamerican at 04/09/2009 @ 3:17pm |

    I knew it Antique Roadshow as a secret front organization: Collectors of the World Unite!

    Posted by theo51 at 04/09/2009 @ 4:34pm

11. Got something to offer on the topic at hand, RIO? Or just running with Today's Talking Point?

    Posted by Mask at 04/09/2009 @ 3:06pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    "topic at hand" Well Mask, it appears to be as stupid a subject of discourse as one can find currently on the blog! So lets talk about the totally inadequate response of the unengaged leftist totalitarin Obamanation of desolation government you fully support?

    Posted by comancheamerican at 04/09/2009 @ 4:39pm

12. Posted by snowball666 at 04/09/2009 @ 4:21pm

    My ghostie stir-fry is heavy on Tom Joad and Malcolm, hold the Huey and Angela, Bill and Bernardine, add some Hamer, some Moynihan, some Buckley for balance, a sprinkle of Billy Graham, a dash of Audie Murphy, a spritz of Louis Armstrong. Mmm, tastes dangerous.

    Posted by gangpapist at 04/09/2009 @ 4:41pm

13. Posted by snowball666 at 04/09/2009 @ 4:51pm

    "How about Eldridge Cleaver?"

    Entry into my stew requires consent.

    Billy not quite my style either, kind of a christian adrift in the secular funhouse, but I'll keep him out of deference to Ma and Pa Joad.

    Add a twist of "the first hundred names in the phone book."

    Posted by gangpapist at 04/09/2009 @ 5:00pm

14. Beck is a creep.

    Posted by syfriendly at 04/09/2009 @ 5:53pm

15. comancheamerican uses the same 12 words in each post, only in different arrangements. some of the words are: obamanation, demoncrats, leftist, totalitarian, anti-american, traitor, socialist, marxist.

    Posted by darladoon at 04/09/2009 @ 6:14pm

16. Posted by snowball666 at 04/09/2009 @ 09:44am

    Re: your Q on the other thread (kinda slow here anyway).

    I think the virus in the hardware is like the herp, it's forever.

    Just look at the tiny sectarian Left here in America. Even though they are so small that they are completely irrelevant, they have these factious splits over ideological minutiae that no outsider could even make sense of, and become quite hostile towards each other. It's a microcosm of 1917-25, without the violence.

    There is this ingrained momentum towards a level of ideological purity that can never be reached.

    Then take the Ivory Tower rads: even they have their factions (ethnic, feminist, marxist, eco) and somebody is always pushing the envelope with some new radical theory that basically condemn wider and wider swathes of humanity: all sex is rape, sports are inherently evil, roller-skating is racist.

    I think the root of it may be that Marx was more Lutheran than Lutherans, but I'll never have the time to devote myself to the scholarly pursuit of proving that one.

    Posted by gangpapist at 04/09/2009 @ 8:28pm

17. Posted by darladoon at 04/09/2009 @ 6:14pm | Think of him as a poorly written AI script... Posted by snowball666 at 04/09/2009 @ 6:23pm

    He keeps saying that he doesn't have a dish, no TV, I guess he doesn't read the paper either - but he does have a colorful vocabulary. from his descriptions of his environment it's easy to imagine him locked in a small room with artificial lighting... I mean check out that last line!

    "...lets talk about the totally inadequate response of the unengaged leftist totalitarin Obamanation of desolation government.."

    That's good! Fear, hate, bullets and the American way!

    Posted by ficheye at 04/09/2009 @ 9:22pm

18. Posted by snowball666 at 04/09/2009 @ 9:28pm

    Anything to prevent the million mini tribal wars. My peeps are too all over the place to have to "pick a side."

    Posted by gangpapist at 04/09/2009 @ 9:47pm

19. what do you think is the best way to make something positive happen in the Congo, Somalia, etc? How do we get from the chaos to all those nubian brothers buying PS3s and going to K'naan / Mwafrica concerts?

    Posted by snowball666 at 04/09/2009 @ 9:59pm

    Sounds like a cop-out, but I don't think there's much we can do. It has to come from within, like in Afghanistan, like in the ghetto here at home.

    That's not to say we can't do anything. I'd really like to see volunteer, non-government action, like the mobilized rape-prevention teams in Congo I suggested somewhere. I understand people have lives to live, and resources aren't what they were. But I really do wish that a new Lincoln Brigade type of action could come into being.

    And we have to get past the Columbus/Cortez paradigm. Sure, the West did what it did, but we can't corner the market on self-critique, because a big part of the problem in the hell zones is the inability to look in the mirror.

    Posted by gangpapist at 04/09/2009 @ 11:04pm

20. <i>It's like we've all managed to forget that there are people behind the opinions...brains filled with the experiences of whole lifetimes and lessons learned...the hard way, not some cheap 'soundbyte' stand that reaffirms what you think you know, but the stuff that sticks because you CAN'T forget it

    Posted by snowball666 at 04/09/2009 @ 9:59pm</i>

    I like this, especially the "people behind the opinions" part. It can be easy to forget that "liberals" and "conservatives" and "socialists" and "libertarians" are ultimately human beings who've experienced life, love the companionship of other people, etc. I think the humanizing touch is certainly valuable when political discourse starts getting ugly.

    Posted by Thrawn at 04/09/2009 @ 11:55pm

21. Posted by Thrawn at 04/09/2009 @ 11:55pm

    Archived it. Snow is a gift in this shit. Humanity's solutions always become problems.

    Posted by gangpapist at 04/10/2009 @ 12:39am

22. Glenn Beck is a Loony Tune from the word go. I think the man needs serious help or his paranoia will destroy him and this country too. Why anyone in their right mind listens to this man's rantings tell me a whole lot about how low and paranoid the right wing nuts have gotten. Where they have to suck nonsense like he spews out of their thumbs because they are so bored with their failed conservative policies. I think they enjoy inventing bogey men they can be terrified of it keeps them from being bored stiff. The sad part about it there are people who actually believe this ignorance. The guy who lives down the street listens to him all the time. And always has to tell my husband what he has said. The poor guy has become as much of a nut case as Beck has.

    Posted by ganddw42 at 04/10/2009 @ 09:08am

23. The the top 1% underground scratch and sniff date movie party bomb:

    G'lynn Pecker, J'hun Hammity, Rump Limppaw-- meet M'shell Malkin, L'raw Ingrrham, And Colder: the 3 Stooges meet the 3 Gracelessnesses.

    Whether a farce or a fart, by necessity, one need always name the one(s) that dealt it.

    Posted by hsuBfools at 04/10/2009 @ 10:13am

24. "bok choy" is Chines for "microphone."

    ...and I DEFINITELY miss Lenny Bruce. (sigh)

    Posted by Stephen_Carver1 at 04/10/2009 @ 12:13pm

25. Posted by comancheamerican at 04/09/2009 @ 3:04pm

    Hmmm...cowardly? Well, Rio Not-So-Bravo, since you brought up the word "cowardly", I'll ask if it was your own personal cowardice that kept you from volunteering for your boy Bush's war of choice in Iraq, the war for which you were so vociferous a cheerleader. You know, that cowardly chicken hawk sort of thing so popular among so many on the right, from John Wayne and Ronald Reagan through the boomer cowards like Bush, Cheney, Limbaugh, Weiner-Savage, to the post-boomer cowards like Hannity, Coulter...one could go on. You know, since you brought up cowardice.

    Posted by jmusolino at 04/10/2009 @ 1:28pm

26. glen beck is a raving lunatic. at least the vile hannity and oreilly simply yell- this guy is a fucking bipolar train wreck. The clips i saw of his little special were simultaneously chilling and hilarious. They more resembled the rambling prattle of a paranoid wino than those of a popular pundit. Pacing arould ranting about them surrounding him, crying (or whatever that snivelling mess was) frothing at the mouth... the guy is crazier than a shithouse rat.

    Posted by entropy at 04/10/2009 @ 1:43pm

27. the guy is crazier than a shithouse rat.

    Posted by entropy at 04/10/2009 @ 1:43pm

    Thank you for that post. It simultaneously made me laugh, and shake my head. Do you think all his followers take him entirely seriously?

    Posted by FDR43 at 04/10/2009 @ 1:54pm

28. The Boston Tea Party was about unjust taxes.....since 95% of Americans are getting a tax CUT from the Obama plan, a teat party protest doesn't make any sense.

    Ok, next piece of right wing insanity.

    Posted by FDR43 at 04/10/2009 @ 1:57pm

29. a teat party? count me in.

    the Boston tea party was actually about taxes which were rescinded. the Brits wanted to import tea which was taxed less, leaving the Bostonians with warehouses full of tea, which having been taxed higher, was too expensive to sell.

    Posted by emile duBois at 04/10/2009 @ 2:14pm

30. I wiki'd General Tso. After the Taiping Rebellion, Zuo Zongtang... "marched west with his 120,000 strong army, winning many victories against the rebellious Muslims of Northwestern China."

    Mr. Cowan needs to re-think his position. Maybe that sweet, crispy chicken is the antidote to jihad.

    Posted by gangpapist at 04/10/2009 @ 2:21pm

31. The inventor of General Tso's chicken was an anti-communist!

    "The real roots of the recipe lie in the chaotic aftermath of the Chinese civil war, when the leadership of the defeated Nationalist Party fled to the island of Taiwan. They took with them many talented people, including a number of notable chefs, and foremost among them was Peng Chang-kuei. Born in 1919 into a poverty-stricken household in the Hunanese capital, Changsha, Peng was the apprentice to Cao Jingchen, one of the most outstanding cooks of his generation. By the end of World War II, Peng was in charge of Nationalist government banquets, and when the party met its humiliating defeat at the hands of Mao Zedong's Communists in 1949, he fled with them to Taiwan. There, he continued to cater for official functions, inventing many new dishes."

    - from NYT Magazine "Hunan Resources"

    Posted by gangpapist at 04/10/2009 @ 2:45pm

32. A while back I mused on this whacko's butt surgery:

    Oh, to be present when myth is born! What will accounts of this read like thousands of years from now? Why a god may have been created! Beck, now a living Butta, may be remembered by various icons in eons to come e.g., the "Shroud of Beck", used to swaddle his butt during surgery will be the subject of analysis in the future. "Is this really an impression of the "Butt of Beck?" "No!", some will say: "It is a face." But this is logical because he was a Janus of sorts with the face and butt alternately looking forward and back. With Beck, these looked very much alike. The all-seeing eye did exist!

    It would be written that he was a caped crusader with his hospital robe serving as a cape (this evident in many paintings and statuary to be found in great right wing homes and museums for the common man) when he flew in support of right wing causes. A great pink butt would be projected into the sky when his assistance was needed. When he flew by, one could hear, "Is it a plane, a bird? A moon?" Close on that last one, it would turn out to be Buttman. Yes, there was a big "B" on the front of his caped outfit.

    And of course he had an aversion to truthinite. To speak truthfully in his presence would bring him to his knees. The right wing of hospitals would informally be known as the "Beck wing." Beck would be the reason "butter is better". Law schools would conduct classes in "buttressing arguments". And on and on. Oh, to be present at the birth of myth! Oh! Janus of the Right!

    Suppositories he sucks to loosen his tongue are the same things he tucks up his sick, ailing bum. Issue from either end similarly rank, wish him a speedy mend. Conservative crank!

    Posted by JerseyCity at 04/10/2009 @ 3:34pm

33. Lol @ JerseyCity.

    Thanks.

    Posted by FDR43 at 04/10/2009 @ 3:46pm

34. ABOUT THE REPUBLICAN "TEA PARTY" MOVEMENT: IMPLICATIONS

    These are chilling videos. In effect, conservatives--even the Republican Party--is organizing for violence bacause they lost. It is an insurrection (not free speech) against America'slegitimate government and civil society. Democrats never behaved like this when they were not in power. Somehow, conservatives believe they have a devine right to govern forever. America is a country of laws; will it remain so. Before it is too late, we must abort this. These ILL-INFORMED AND MISLED protesters are instigating action against the President and our government. They are inciting people to rise up against the legitimate government of the United States. The Justice Department, law enforcement, true patriots, statesmen and women, must act before it is too late. It is civil war, not a benign protest movement. Different radical right, extreme groups and individuals, white supremacists, racists, neo-nazis and worse are gathering under the banner of this movement. I am truly concerned for this nation--the evil results this so called movement will ultimately produce. Some in such a movement will surely take the laws in their own hands and cause harm. Is it what we want as a democratic nation? We saw a bit of that during the last Presidential campaign--at Palin and McCain rallies. These people are now poised to violently challenge the will of the people as expressed through the ballot box. Is this what America wants? Is this the image America wants to project the world? God help us!

    Posted by drsam8 at 04/10/2009 @ 4:37pm

35. Conservative crank! Posted by JerseyCity at 04/10/2009 @ 3:34pm

    Thank the christian god for a new fleck of humorous sanity here on this blog!

    Did he truly have a buttocks reduction? I couldn't tell, because they usually only show his upper torso on the viewing device.

    I will google like mad until I find some view of the offending buttocks. One must wonder if the 'remnants' were donated to science, a shish-kebab emporium, or just hastily deposited in a landfill for toxic waste.

    I will find the answer!

    Posted by ficheye at 04/10/2009 @ 7:55pm

36. Posted by drsam8 at 04/10/2009 @ 4:37pm

    drsam8=nutcase

    Posted by antisocialist at 04/10/2009 @ 8:57pm

37. Posted by drsam8 at 04/10/2009 @ 4:37pm

    Whoa, nelly! Cons have a right to protest too.

    Are you saying that Dems/Progs don't protest?

    I'm pretty sure they protest MORE.

    Little early to go all Ruby Ridge on their asses isn't it?

    Posted by gangpapist at 04/10/2009 @ 10:10pm

38. PS see the blog post "Occupy Everything Right Now" in todays online edition of "The Nation."

    Posted by gangpapist at 04/10/2009 @ 10:15pm

39. Posted by ficheye at 04/10/2009 @ 7:55pm

    Turns out it was for hemorrhoids. I was hoping it was a reduction too, so he'd have something in common with Janet Jackson.

    Can you imagine the Jackson/Beck Discipline 2010 tour? The endless possibilities for wardrobe malfunction?

    Sigh... what could have been...

    Posted by gangpapist at 04/10/2009 @ 10:23pm

40. More fun with the Beck-heads...

    http://littlegreenfootballs.com /article/33333_At_Glenn_Beck_Tea_Party-_Burn_the_Books! /comments/#ctop

    Woman at time-stamp 1:53 or so actually calling for BOOK BURNINGS to prevent "brainwashing".

    Posted by Mask at 04/10/2009 @ 10:50pm

41. Woman at time-stamp 1:53 or so actually calling for BOOK BURNINGS to prevent "brainwashing". Posted by Mask at 04/10/2009 @ 10:50pm

    Apparently too late in her case, though she may not actually have a functioning brain. I'm always reminded, in cases such as this, of the footage of the moron from the Klan in his satin robes interviewed outside the arena in Memphis, I think, in 1966 before a Beatles concert, when the Bible Belters were burning Beatles records, etc. The idiot firestorm that erupted after John's Christianity comments. Anyway, this doof in his little little pointy hood talked about the Klan being a "terra organization" and stuff might happen - it'd be a surprise. I think Ringo got it right years later when he suggested that a lot of Bible Belt kids dropped off their records, saw them burned, then went and bought new copies of the records.

    Posted by jmusolino at 04/11/2009 @ 01:49am

42. from our "how come" dept.

    why is it that when a dem is caught patronizing a prostie, like former NY governor Spitzer, his political career is over. when a repug is caught in the same "offense", as Vitter did, life goes on as usual?

    we are a fucked up, puritan country.

    Posted by emile duBois at 04/11/2009 @ 3:46pm

43. Yes, this is a continuation of the McCain-Palin ugliness seen in the their campaign.

    Yes, this is a quasi-fascistic movement.

    Yes, Beck is one of the leaders.

    Yes, it is MORE than mere symbolism - remember, the Boston Tea Party was an act (proudly so) of insurrection. THAT is an inherent part of WHY they are reenacting it.

    Yes, there is reason to fear for the rule of law, and for the republic in general.

    Posted by FDR43 at 04/11/2009 @ 5:58pm

44. Now I know why I'm hungry in just few hours after a Chinese restaurant meal. It's a commie conspiracy! And has nothing to do with digestibility nor quantity....

    I have a question, and there's this Chinese Restaurant run by Koreans. Are they a bunch of commies too. Do you spell Korean-Chinese commies with a "K", as in Kommies?

    Posted by squidboy6 at 04/11/2009 @ 6:28pm

45. Posted by FDR43 at 04/11/2009 @ 5:58pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    I think you are giving them more credit than they deserve. when they can come up with half a million on the Mall, then I will take them seriously.

    Posted by emile duBois at 04/11/2009 @ 6:31pm

46. we are a fucked up, puritan country. Posted by emile duBois at 04/11/2009 @ 3:46pm

    I am with you on that one, emile.

    I recently read Christine Wickers 'The Fall of the Evangelical Nation'.

    What was clear from the data she gathered was most evangelicals lie about going to church... some go seldom, if ever. But when asked, or polled, on the subject, they lie and say they go to church all the time. They also falsely inflate their numbers.

    It seems that they want to be in the spiritual 'in' crowd without having to actually do what Jesus says. Most of the church going christians I know have also been married and divorced multiple times, and adultery is one of the biggest repeated sins that they struggle with.

    Posted by ficheye at 04/11/2009 @ 7:26pm

47. Probably shouldn't say 'most of the church going christians'. 'A lot of the god fearing christians' would be more fair and balanced. !

    Posted by ficheye at 04/11/2009 @ 8:39pm

48. I think you are giving them more credit than they deserve.

    Posted by emile duBois at 04/11/2009 @ 6:31pm

    I of course hope you are right. But we should not just dismiss this out of hand either.

    Posted by FDR43 at 04/11/2009 @ 11:13pm

49. Feel free to come on over to a Tea Party because there is plenty to protest in the country, as there has been for a good long while, and the movement isn't limited to the GOP (I'm an independent). Of course I don't agree with all the views of all the people in the Tea Party movement. But I don't like many of the Obama administration's policies, some of the more outrageous "leftist" ones and some of the more outrageous "rightist" ones. Firstly, the fact that Obama is continuing the previous administration's wars--and even escalating the Afghan War; many involved in the Tea Parties have no love for neo-colonialist misadventures (cf. paleo-cons, for example). Also, there is strong reason to suspect Obama may either be cajoled into attacking Iran or stepping aside to allow Israel to do so, either of which would be catastrophic. What of the so-called Patriot Act? Why won't the Dems abolish it now that they control both the Congress and the presidency? So much for liberal belief in civil liberties. Moreover, Obama/Summers/Geithner have continued and greatly expanded Bush/Paulson's unjust, ineffective, and destructive bailouts to Wall Street et al. while ordinary Americans suffer in what increasingly looks like a Great Depression.

    The Tea Party phenomenon coalesced around the insanity of giving hundreds of billions to the very people that have wrecked our economy and pushed the world to the brink. What's illegitimate in protesting a government that is bought and paid for by Wall Street, regardless of which party is in power? Hence more and more Americans are losing faith in the country's major institutions. To paraphrase a profound bumper sticker, If you're not worried, you're not paying attention. Tea Party supporters are paying attention, as well they should.

    Posted by feinfein at 04/12/2009 @ 12:20am

50. On the charges frequently made on the left that Tea Parties promote treason, rebellion, fascism, belief in UFOs and toxic chemtrails and sasquatch and auras, etc.:

    In my admittedly limited perusal of websites about the Tea Parties, I haven't seen anything that could constitute treason or a call to arms against legitimate authority. There is much concern about illegitimate authority, such as an illegal federal declaration of martial law--something many of these people feared Bush would do too, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. Obama doesn't seem interested in stopping the Bush-era Pentagon plan to train large numbers of US Army personnel specifically for use in natural disasters, terrorist attacks, or civil unrest (ut-oh).

    Instead, as one could well guess, the rhetoric of Tea Parties supporters focuses on holding fast to American political ideals and traditions as embodied in the Declaration, the Constitution, and so much else in our shared history as a nation. True, most supporters have no love for Obama, but then how many on the left had any for Bush?

    Why the run on guns and ammo by millions of Americans? First, many fear the Dems will impose harsh restrictions or even begin unconstitutional confiscations (remember the bigoted slip about "clinging to guns and religion"?). Second, many fear the country could well be headed for complete economic collapse and thus the breakdown of law and order; few believe the police or feds would or could protect them in that Hobbesian world. I certainly have my doubts, given that the government is even now pretty ineffective in protecting me. Self-defense is still a fundamental human right, is it not?

    By the way, I do not know this man General Tso, but I hope one day to congratulate him on his chicken dish.

    Posted by feinfein at 04/12/2009 @ 12:53am

51. General Tso must be stopped, he is subverting America by attacking our health care system via contributing to clogged arteries and chronic heart burn. Thank You Glenn Beck for contributing to our current health care reform campaign.

    Posted by Jetfly83 at 04/12/2009 @ 08:40am

52. Posted by ficheye at 04/11/2009 @ 7:26pm | ignore this person | warn this person

    when I was growing up, the parents and grandparents made ME go to church, while they themselves did not bother, except for the holidays. that taught me a lot about religion. and parents.

    full disclosure: I did not burden my son with that Quark

    Posted by emile duBois at 04/12/2009 @ 08:52am

53. Why blame Beck (Limbaugh, O'reilly, etc etc) ?

    If the American people, better known as the American filth wanted to hear the views of Noam Chomsky, then we'd have a dozen Noam Chomsky programs gracing the airwaves.

    Obama could have asked Chomsky to speak at the inauguration. Instead, he gets some religious orangutan to talk nonsense.

    Tasteless.

    Thuggish.

    America.

    What else is new?

    Posted by rykart at 04/12/2009 @ 11:51am

54. Actually, Obama's statement about Americans clinging to guns and religion was one of the few refreshingly honest things he said. Of course, (like his statement about the suffering of Palestinians), it had to be immediately withdrawn. The Nazi climate here doesn't permit such honesty.

    Posted by rykart at 04/12/2009 @ 11:54am

55. I find Glen Becks analysis informative and profitable. Those who disagree with him have their forums to explain why. Generally Limbuagh, O'Reilly and Beck seem to be targets of those who disagree that capitalism is the best engine to create jobs and opportunity for Americans and is the single force that has made America the financial titan in the world that it is. Increasingly, American genius is being diluted by graduates from colleges and universities where they indoctrinate and propagandize rather than teach. Big Brother has never been a friend of the small inventor and entrepreneur. Apparently The Nation Magazine is in that camp composed of presumptively effete intellectual snobs that cannot read the handwriting on the wall.

    Posted by shorewater at 04/12/2009 @ 9:12pm

56. Doesn't rise to the level of a joke.

    Posted by rykart at 04/13/2009 @ 01:07am

57. OMG! Hold it on the extra plum sauce! Does this mean I shouldn't go to the falafel place either? (Not to mention my favorite taco bar.)

    Posted by Freewheelin_Franklin at 04/13/2009 @ 10:05am

58. <i>Posted by emile duBois at 04/12/2009 @ 08:52am </i>

    Fair; he's a very wily Ferengi, after all.

    Posted by Thrawn at 04/13/2009 @ 11:23am

59. <i>Posted by rykart at 04/12/2009 @ 11:54am </i>

    "Nazi climate"?

    This could not possibly be said by anyone who's read anything about actual Nazis.

    Posted by Thrawn at 04/13/2009 @ 4:07pm

60. Somali pirates vs. Private Equity Pirates:

    One can always tell when an issue has reached the height of absurdity, banality, and vacuousness -- when Glenn Beck gets involved.

    To put the pirates to a useful task all we have to do is convince them to keel haul Beck and Rush-flab.

    In all seriousness, the private equity pirates cause five orders of magnitude more harm to the world (and the ‘commonwealth' of our world's human economy) than these Somali pirates ever could.

    If there is to be any ‘rope dancing' from the yard arm it should start with the ruling-elite ‘corporate financial Empire' that controls our country behind the facade of their two-party ‘Vichy' sham of democracy, aided by paid ‘Vichy' radical right wing-nut media, starting with Black-beard Murdoch, Rush-slush, and Beck the peck(er).

    Most people don't seem to realize that the ruling-elite Empire is taking Jay Gould's advice ("I can hire half the working class to kill the other half") -- but now the elitist Empire saves money by just hiring a few peons and morons like Beck and Rush to incite half the impressionable American's to fight the other half, and blame it on the government, which is the only democratic instrument standing in the way of a total corporate take-over.

    Alan MacDonald Sanford, Maine

    Posted by amacd at 04/13/2009 @ 9:45pm