Restoring Honor?

I’m not sure if I should laugh at the way Glenn Beck distorts the facts to support his fear driven narrative, or cry because of the people he is misleading with his lack of formally educated spoon fed pabulum, made up of misinterpreted out of context bible verses and quotes from people he disagrees with, served up with a dash of vitriol.

With (false) humility Beck said he wouldn't give his speech on the steps where Dr. Martin Luther King changed history. While standing on those very steps the thought came to him, "Who do you think you are?" So Beck is not going to give his speech from those steps. "No," says Beck, "I'll be two steps down, right where I belong."

"You're going to see the Spirit of God unleashed, unlike you have probably ever seen it before, at least at a public function." Glenn Beck proclaimed talking about his Restoring Honor Rally this weekend. I can't help but wonder if he is referring to Genesis 19:24, or 2Kings 19:35, or maybe Revelation 16:21.

Beck says, "This rally is about the things Martin Luther King stood for.” Dr. King was a social and economic justice Christian and this is clearly evidenced in his most famous speech.

Beck, on a recent radio program said, “I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can.” Beck’s rhetoric is not just in opposition to Dr. King’s teachings it is in opposition to the teaching and beliefs of Beck’s own Mormon Church. Christianity on the whole is agreed on this, that God is a God of justice, personal, social, and economic.

The Restoring Honor Rally is not going to be political according to Beck, but Sarah Palin is headlining. You might know her, she is the former Governor of Alaska who quit her job mid-term, amidst ethics violation charges which were later proved, to “help all America” by traveling around the country shouting, “Don’t retreat, RELOAD” about everything from political legislation to elections and most recently in support of Dr. Laura Schlessinger racist n-word rant. Racist hate-speak and the support for such using violent imagery might be permissible however, it is unacceptable and does nothing to restore honor, rather quite the opposite.

The more I think about it there seems to be a theme here, sort of a bait and switch only the idea is not to get the listener to trade up as much as it is to get the listener to believe the exact opposite of what is promised. Beck claims this rally is about the things that Dr. King stood for, and clearly it isn’t. He says it isn’t political but invites Sarah Palin, Michele "come armed and dangerous" Bachmann, Dick Army and more. Beck even claims the Holy Spirit is going to speak through him and proclaims the Spirit of God will be unleashed unlike we’ve ever seen it before. Surely Beck isn't talking about Genesis 11:7 because I've heard them all speak before and they're pretty 'wee wee'd' up already.

I wish I could be in Washington this weekend. Laughter is good medicine and I have been feeling a little out of sorts lately. The event is not being televised however, it can be viewed on the internet with your paid subscription to an extreme Beck channel via his website. With the subscription rate one would hope to avoid the Goldline infomercials. That being said, I will not be receiving any healing this weekend, at least not from the Spirit of God through Glenn Beck, just two steps down from where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. changed history.

Speaking the Truth and Wanting an Answer

Being slightly paranoid I struggle with putting my thoughts out in the open which is why I am not as consistent as I might be with this blog. That being said, this is therapeutic and I will be writing more often beginning August of this year. I am reminded of the Cyril Conway quote I posted last November, "Better to write for yourself and have no public than to write for the public and have no self."

Sean Hannity says there is no racist rhetoric, no racist signs at any tea party meetings/rallies. He is either partially blind or outright lying. The NAACP calls on tea party leaders to lead, and openly denounce the racist signs and speeches and until yesterday all they have done is issue denials. Maybe this is why Mark Williams felt emboldened and with all the subtlety of an elephant post some of the most racist writing I have read since reading some Klan propaganda. Mark Skoda, one of the founders of the National Tea Party Federation, called for rebuke and removal of Mark Williams and over the weekend, the federation held a conference call and decided to boot both Williams and Tea Party Express from the “TEA Party movement”. Not that this really means anything because while there is the TEA Party Express (“coloreds signed a letter to President Lincoln asking for the repeal of the Emancipation Proclamation because they know their place”), the TEA Party Nation (who want to reinstate literacy tests for voting), the TEA Party Patriots, the Tea Party (of Florida which is an actual registered political party) and the National TEA Party Federation (too much racism to add between parentheses) none are affiliated with the others. They are not cohesive, unified or organized to the point that anyone has any authority to rebuke, remove or ‘boot’ anyone. This is news; Civil rights and civility in discourse matters. Truth and clarity matter.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appeared on local radio in Mobile, AL to assure listeners of the Obama Administration's concern over the gulf oil spill. She assured the listeners that she had been in close contact with Gov. Barbour. Haley Barbour is governor of Mississippi. Ooops, Secretary Napolitano misspoke but this isn’t news.

Speaking about the developing Manhattan Mosque former half-governor Sarah Palin tweets “Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate” and as tempted as I am to discuss the qualifying adjective “peaceful” this isn’t news either.

Leftwing sites and blogs that give the former half-governor more than a satirical faragraf are not contributing to the education of it’s readers any more than people who post talking points, platitudes and pithy one liners via social media. As read recently on Facebook, “The 10 most dangerous words in English are, “Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”” ... Um ... yeah, thanks for the contribution.

Back to some news that we can use.

Tax cuts don’t pay for themselves. The ‘born-again’ so-called deficit hawks seem to have forgotten this economic fact. The Sr. Bush called this Voodoo economics. After years of surplus Jr. cut taxes for the wealthiest among us. This coupled with Medicare pt. B, two misguided wars and a huge Wall Street bailout led to an enormous deficit and the largest recession since the Great Depression. When the Republicans were in power they spent money without consideration of future generations. Now that there is a Democrat in the White House they have seen the light and wont even vote to extend unemployment benefits unless it is paid for. Now personally I don’t have a problem with that argument except for the clear hypocrisy. Republican leaders say the people on unemployment just need to go get a job, never mind the fact that there is only one job for every five of the unemployed. Republican leaders also say people on unemployment are lazy and won’t look for work as long as they receive a check from the government for doing nothing never mind the fact that they worked, paid into this insurance and must look for work to qualify for benefits. The fact remains that these people who through no fault of their own are unemployed would wind up costing more if ignored.

The plain and simple of it is this:

· Republican leaders want us to believe that the Bush tax cuts which added to the deficit twice before if extended wouldn’t now.

· Republican leaders want us to believe that the $33 billion cost of reauthorizing unemployment benefits cannot be added to the deficit but a reauthorization of the tax cuts, which will cost $678 billion, is o.k.

· Republican leaders want us to believe they want to decrease the deficit but won’t say what programs they would cut to do so.

· Republican leaders think that we will be satisfied by telling us, “We are going to balance the budget,” and “We need to make sure that as we look at all that we are spending in Washington D.C.,” and “We need to live within our means,” and “We need to go back to the exact same agenda” (that got us into the mess that we are currently in)

Republican leaders must think we are stupid.

We refuse to accept as an answer some form of the question reiterated. We are going to balance the budget by balancing the budget is not an answer. Because I said so is not an answer. We are not children and we will not put you in office simply because you say you can do a better job.

I applaud David Gregory for his valiant attempts to get our leaders to answer the questions we all have.