Sunday, September 12, 2010

Side Show Slam


True confession: I have found further evidence that I am easily distracted from serious matters by loud, fast, shiny irrelevancies. And I do so hate that admission, since it eye-rolls in the face of my self-image--the serious, duty-bound, research-loving, non-fiction reading, television abhorring me. (I blame Slutticia, my alter ego, who sneaks Amy Winehouse's "Amy, Amy, Amy" onto my iPod between my "On Point" podcasts from NPR.) Specifically, I refer to the Glenn Beck/Sarah Palin ado-about-nothing in Anchorage last night. I get it. I was hooked by the hoochy-koochy show at the fair. I bought the snake oil. I'm a dupe for diversion. I got the side show mixed up with the big tent.  For the last time.

Hat tip to Octopus, who warned that we should follow the serious money, the Kochs and Murdoch, if we want to know what's hauling the conservative voting pool toward the ranting right.

So dazzled and distracted was I that I actually went looking this morning for the big announcement Beck promised from the Anchorage...um, performance. I can't call it a rally and it wasn't a political fundraiser, although Beck announced that his speaking fee, an undisclosed amount, would be donated to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. That's the same organization that lent its name to the Beck/Palin rally on the Mall and that insisted the speakers stick to non-political topics, according to Time Mag.

 Remember that the fundraising efforts for the August 28th rally (which restored an honor that hadn't gone missing except at Fox News) went first to support what Mother Jones calls, "Beck's tribute to himself." Only the remainder, after all costs were paid, went to SOWF. Disingenuous of Beck and Palin.  Because, of course, all of us are clueless about their politics, so we don't assume that they might represent any particular political viewpoint, right children? Anyone? Anyone?


Time Mag thinks there's genius in Beck's plan to link his appearances to SOWF, a non-profit that pays the college tuitions of the children of special operations personnel who died in training or battle after 9/11. Beck would find the job too important to be left up to the US government. But the G.I. bill was expanded by The Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship, which pays in-state tuition for the children of ALL military personnel killed in the line of duty after 9/11, regardless of age or marital status; Public Law 111-32, sponsored by Democratic Congressman John Boccieri of the 16th District of Ohio.

 Beck's announcements in his gatherings would lead his audience to believe that it is by his efforts and his alone that the children of the deceased special ops veterans receive an education, when, in fact, the SOWF organization only supplements the amended G.I. Bill, only for children of deceased special operatives, and only expands it to private colleges...not an unworthy goal, but not critical in a country with outstanding state university systems. Time Mag may think it genius on Beck's part, but I call it disingenuous...again.

So what was Anchorage all about? Nothing...if we still care, and even if we don't.

The Alaska Dispatch reported that Beck didn't seem aware that he was insulting the state when he complained about how long it took to get there and essentially said that he and his wife had thought of vacationing in Alaska, but chose Idaho instead. He made a crude reference to Palin, saying she had just come back from caribou hunting and still had blood under her fingernails. And he said it all made him feel "like a girl again."

Read that last line one more time. Yep, I think going after that, as the Dispatch did, would produce some copy at least as interesting as the stuff I read on Mr. Obama's wedding ring. In fact, I'll let the Dispatch write about Glenn and Glenda a bit:
He was at turns bombastic, self-effacing, philosophical, funny, historical and even tearful as he prowled the stage lamenting the collectives that rule American politics today, stressing the value of the individual and suggesting, without ever actually saying so, that those in the attendance form a new collective. Stand together, he said; take strength from each other; and take back America.
The mostly white crowd loved it. Not that Beck's message wouldn't have had something for any race or nationality. There were, as is often the case with Beck, so many messages scattered through the presentation that there was something for anyone.
He said to find God, but then he stressed it could be any God, even a mountain top. He attacked the bureaucracy, something with which almost [every] American has had a run-in at some point, although he referred to them as the "administrators.''
He said everyone should read their history, though his livelihood is dependent on people watching an electronic box instead of reading. He said he'd already made enough money to be set for life, but that he was carrying forward his message for the good of the country.
It was very good theater. Those leaving had all kinds of reactions to the message, although they seemed mainly to have gotten the theme that they should find the Christian God and fight to shrink government.
Beck's last pitch was to call on them to join his 40 Days/40 Nights campaign of self-awareness, which includes the search for God, after which "our politicians will be replaced." The new ones, he suggested, wouldn't fight so much, which would probably be a first in American's cantankerous political history.
Would that mean that they wouldn't fight each other so much? Those darn democrats just insist on governing when they have the majority and the presidency.  Or does that mean they wouldn't fight other countries so much? Oh, brother; let's don't even go there. And the 40 days and 40 nights? No shame to his name.


So, with their special genius, Beck and Palin managed to co-opt a second significant calendar date--August 28th, the anniversary of Dr. King's death and 9/11/10, the ninth anniversary of the death of America's sense of security and 2,976 innocents--and turn it into another paean to...well, if they are to be believed and it ain't about the politics, it must be just another performance of the Glenn and Sarah Show. Not the main event, after all.

13 comments:

  1. We know what is Beck's God and Palen's too. MONEY!!!
    So let's give them all the Gold they can carry and make a deal for them to go away. The next time some asshole suggest we just ignore the nuts because people will see right through them and they will then go away...
    I'm going to kick that person so hard in the balls or Vajayjay that they will see God for themselves. Democrats, let's pretend bad things don't exist and see where that gets you.

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  2. I wonder if this scam is based on this concept: Congressional Charities Pulling In Corporate Cash.

    Apparently, the scheme is another way to take corporate cash in exchange for influence pending while avoiding finance disclosure requirements. The way it works: Senators and House Representatives operate charities under their own names that provide a high profile community benefit. Corporations contribute to these charities with the understanding that the donors get something in return. Since these charities are not campaigns or PACs, the scam enables those in Congress to circumvent rules imposed in 2007 to curb the influence of special interests.

    Here is the money quote from the article:

    It provides another benefit, too: helping the congressman run something akin to a permanent political campaign.”

    In the case of Beck and Palin, the idea is to find and exploit any charity willing to go along and play their PR game. In other words, a satanic parody of genuine charity.

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  3. Honestly...do you think they will run for 2012 together? I have a sneaky feeling they smell the money and power!

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  4. Very nice overview of the low-profile event by the self-effacing Mr Beck.

    * terrorist fist bump *

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  5. Octo,
    I did some research on SOWF and couldn't find much. Is there a search engine that helps? SourceWatch doesn't turn them up in its database, but that doesn't mean much.

    Teeluck,
    I started writing a piece last week on the possibility of a tea party that completes the process to become a real political party, speculating that they would put Beck and Palin on their ticket. Still could happen, I suppose. It would be my fondest dream, for it would mean a split in the Republican ranks that can't be healed by 2012.

    And I've come to doubt they'd run. They have even more money and power as celebrity spokesmodels. I was thinking they might declare themselves a church, which would be fun, too.

    Nameless,
    I'm hopelessly out of the cool loop. My grandson and I made up our own fist bump: the basic rapper shake, a straightforward fist-bump, a gesture that means blowing things up, and a simulated slap to one's own cheek. My grandson thinks it's "really tool."

    What the hell does a terrorist fist bump look like?

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  6. Nance...

    Lets make some big bucks....lets take the picture of Beck with angels and have it painted on black velvet...

    Then we can set up a stand at every rally he has and sell the little gems!

    I smell millions....

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  7. Hi Nance,
    Up to my eyeballs this morning, I did not research the charity but I went back to the Mother Jones article because I recalled this:

    Cathie Levine, vice president for media relations at ABC News explained, "We get hundreds of these solicitations from charities every year and try as much as possible to fulfill them as long as they are meet our standards including that the proceeds go to charity." A few days later, she reported back that, "We sought assurance that the auction money would go directly to charity and while we were told the rally costs were covered and that funds raised from our specific item would go to Special Operations Warrior Foundation, it didn't sufficiently meet our standards ...

    A few impressions: A very small charity with only a handful of personnel, and not meeting ABC's standards tells us something. Perhaps the simplest explanation: Beck/Palin needed the cover of a charity as much as the charity needed the notoriety of Beck/Palin. Probably a hash made of very small potatoes; nevertheless, it is the principle of preening and primping oneself under the cover of charity that is transparent and offensive.

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  8. TAO,
    Glad you liked the image; as it happens, it's taken from Mormon literature with a little Paint.net work from me. And I'm more than willing to earn a little money these days! Can we just do t-shirts?

    Octo,
    Thanks for your info. It all smelled fishy to me, too...um, no offense. Someone once asked me if I was interested in running for a small local office and I decided I lack the core sociopathy. That said, can we declare ourselves a non-profit so we can make the most out of those t-shirts?

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  9. Nance, once upon a time, I was appointed chairman of a county park commission because I was successful in squeezing $5.5 million from W's Oh Brudder Jeb for an environmental land acquisition. After 6 months on the job, I started getting threatening phone calls at home and found broken beer bottles in my driveway.

    The same types of people who now fume over big nanny government wanted a nanny park to babysit their unruly brats ... instead of a natural refuge area.

    What I learned from this: If one lacks the core sociopathy for the job, the job will eventually turn you into a hardcore sociopath.

    So I quit in disgust.

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  10. Am I the only that noticed or thinks Beck is a knock off of Bishop Fulton Sheen?


    Not that I have a problem with that. I pilfered a couple of my own catch phrases from the old Batman TV show.


    That is kind of twisted that a Morman is imitating a catholic bishop. Amd making big bucks while the Catholic Church is going broke paying off victims if pedophile priests.

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  11. That darling young actor Josh Hartnett was in a movie entitled 40 Days and 40 Nights back in 2002. It was a romantic comedy in which the Hartnett character vowed to stay celibate for the 40 days of Lent but it just wasn't an easy thing to do. Do you think that Glenn Beck plans to be celibate for 40 days and nights while he's searching for God and self-awareness?

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  12. Celi-bate

    It's only a couple of syllables from another kind of bating and I suggest there's a lot of that going on at Chez Beck.

    Beck reminds me more of Father Coughlin who was equally as popular in the '30s in stirring up the usual elements.

    There's always somebody.

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