An "angry old white guy" speaks.

* People say that I don't have diverse view points when I feature my education series, so tonight I want to feature a cut and paste job from an "angry old white guy."

"I keep reading that people like me -- older white guys -- are angry about what is happening to their country. In recent years, their grievances have been voiced by Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck. Then they found an outlet in the Tea Party. Now they are filling the seats at Donald Trump rallies and perhaps propelling him toward what seemed unthinkable, the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump explained his own anger this way in the last Republican debate he took part in:

I'm very angry because our country is being run horribly and I will gladly accept the mantle of anger. Our military is a disaster. Our health care is a horror show. Obamacare, we're going to repeal it and replace it. We have no borders. Our vets are being treated horribly. Illegal immigration is beyond belief. Our country is being run by incompetent people.

Hey, Donald! I'm angry, too. But the sources of my anger are quite different than yours. Let me explain.

I was born in 1954, just a few months after the Supreme Court, in Brown v. Board of Education, dealt the biggest blow to white supremacy since the beginning of the republic, when a bunch of property-owning white men -- to whom the franchise was restricted at the time -- drafted a constitution in which Black slaves were considered three-fifths of a human being.

When I was in grade school, Betty Friedan wrote The Feminist Manifesto, and the pill liberated women to begin the long and still-incomplete march to full participation in the workplace and in political life. A vibrant and courageous civil rights movement brought about the landmark civil rights acts of the mid-1960s, which also saw the establishment of Medicare and the end of racist immigration quotas.
 
When I was in high school, the Environmental Protection Agency was established, and the Stonewall uprising marked the dawn of the modern gay rights movement whose arc, yet unfinished, led to last year's glorious Supreme Court decision making marriage equality the law of the land.
 
When I was in college, the Roe v. Wade decision ended back-alley abortions and affirmed the right of women to control their own bodies and therefore their full personhood.

I'm angry not because all these things happened. I'm angry because they are in jeopardy from the likes of Donald Trump and his fellow Republican presidential candidates. They rail about "political correctness" to justify bigotry and cruelty, when in fact the most vigorous enforcer of political correctness is the far right "base" of the Republican Party and its amen corner in the media. Thanks to them, no candidate may dare buck the NRA's absolutist -- and murderous -- stance against any sensible gun regulation. No candidate may acknowledge the reality of climate change and what is needed to save the planet, or the humanity of immigrants and refugees who deserve a medal for enduring untold hardships to make it to this country -- where they are a vital part of its economy and its very fabric -- not the scorn and abuse that has been heaped upon them.

I'm angry because I'm sick and tired of the lies we have been told. That raiding the Treasury for huge tax cuts for the rich will trickle down to working people, when in fact the gulf between the superrich and everyone else has grown to unsustainable dimensions which threaten the very social compact. That waging a war of choice in Iraq would usher in a democratic resurgence and make us safe, when it has left the Middle East in lethal turmoil, cost the lives of many thousands of young soldiers, maimed many multiples more, and sapped the country's capacity to attend to the urgent needs here at home, like roads and bridges and schools. When my grandson's pre-K teacher tells us that she has to spend hundreds of dollars from her own pocket for school supplies, it makes my blood boil.

I'm angry because the first African American president, elected to do something about the wretched mess he inherited, with a financial system on the brink of collapse and a soaring unemployment rate -- and who has done something about it -- has been opposed and vilified at every turn, from a right-wing which questions his very legitimacy (down to the facts of his biography) and whose most passionate cause is to strip away health security from millions who now have it, thanks to this President, for the first time in their lives.

I'm angry because Black Lives Matter is so necessary, given the epidemic of police murders of Black and Brown people trying to go about their lives. The law, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, may not be able to make a man love me, but it can stop him from killing me. But when it is the law that is killing you, we have come very far from King's hopeful promise.

I understand that many white men -- and women and people of color as well -- who have been left out of this economy, who can't make ends meet, who feel that the American dream is not working for them, are very angry about this, and justifiably so. But I cannot countenance the misdirection of their anger, and the ugly bigotry that has been stoked by opportunistic politicians like Donald Trump. Their anger should be focused on the greedy and lawless and their enablers in politics, not on those who, like themselves, are casualties of a political and economic system that operates for the benefit of a privileged few, not for all of us.

My grandson will grow up in a country in which most people don't look like him, in which people of color and women will be the overwhelming majority. If work hard to restore the momentum toward a just and inclusive society that filled my younger years with optimism and hope about the future, this new majority will take its rightful place in the leadership of our key institutions, from boardrooms to capitols. There will be room for him, too, if we turn this country's priorities around. But he will make his way without benefit of the rigged rules that men of my generation grew up with, where women and minorities were largely excluded from the game. When everyone is included, everyone benefits. That's why I'm channeling my anger into pushing for policies and the candidates who will back them, that make our democracy and our economy work for all people." [Source] 

I am feeling you "angry old white guy".  So I take it that you don't want to "make America great again". You know, in your heart, that it's already great, and that those are just code words for something sinister being played out in the heart of the xenophobe.

But hey, anger sells, and a great salesman has found that out. Now he is selling it to the country, and we have all bought in.

*Pic from rawstory.com

Mean people.

     With the mean and heartless comments by Ted Cruz about Joe Biden ---after the death of his son--- still fresh in my mind, I thought that I might share an article that I recently found with you.

"I grew up and did my early work in politics in Nebraska, and my wife is a farmer's daughter from rural Missouri. I spent about 10 years organizing and door-knocking for campaigns in rural Iowa. So I know a lot about the kind of Bob Dole conservatism that used to be the dominant political culture of those places. Since I became a progressive Democrat, I didn't agree with those conservatives on many things, but I mostly liked and respected them. Wary of the unintended consequences of change, suspicious of big government, fiscally conservative, traditionalist in many ways, they were generally decent folks with much to admire in them, and very worthy political opponents.

To my great sadness, though, I feel like the modern conservative movement (and the Republican Party, which has been completely captured by this movement) has devolved into something quite different. It's not necessarily more conservative (in some ways it is, in other ways not), mostly just a whole lot meaner.

At conservative conferences and Republican gatherings over the last decade, we have seen the crowds turn ugly. Remember the Republican presidential debates four years ago, with audiences cheering for torture and people dying because they had no health insurance, and booing soldiers, decorated for their heroism, because they were gay? Remember the McCain/Palin rallies of 2008 where the audiences were openly racist and called Obama a Muslim terrorist? Here's another example that still chills me: Glenn Beck giving a speech to CPAC a few years back, talking about how there should be no safety net because "in nature, the lions eat the weak." The audience burst into applause and laughter, and these are the same folks preaching Christian values.

It is important to note, though, that there are two different kinds of meanness that animate the modern conservative movement, and they are very different from each other. Two recent videos illustrate that difference.

The first is of the kind mentioned above: that nasty, racist meanness that animates so many conservatives. The woman speaker from the audience is the mother of David Bossie, one of the leading figures in the conservative movement and the head of Citizens United. Listen to her compare immigrants to rats and roaches while the audience goes crazy, cheering her on:

Note that the moderator of the session, famed GOP pollster Frank Luntz, not only doesn't push back but praises her and asks the crowd if they would support her for president. This kind of undiluted racism takes my breath away.

However, there is another kind of meanness that is even more central to modern conservatism. If you are looking for a philosophical forebear to this kind of philosophy, read some Ayn Rand, who proclaimed that selfishness is good and that government help for poor people, or even charity, is bad because it encourages the leeches of society. This kind of meanness is a lot smoother and more sophisticated than the rats-and-roaches kind of meanness, but it is just as nasty. Check out this truly sobering interview by my colleague Lauren Windsor with this senior Cato Institute staffer, George Selgin. He says bank runs are good because they will make the economy stronger and bank customers more savvy :

Now, remember how influential Cato is: It is the Koch brothers' leading think tank, pushing their philosophy, and it advises Republican presidential candidates and members of Congress. At the conference where this interview took place, leading Republican appointees to financial regulatory agencies were the keynote speakers. And their banking policy guy, Selgin, argued that the Federal Reserve, FDIC deposit insurance, and almost any regulation of financial markets should be eliminated. Because that worked out so well during the Great Depression!

Selgin actually thinks that the onus should be on consumers to evaluate the safety of a bank by researching their balance sheets. Given that the nature of banking is to lend out or invest the money that they get from depositors, and given the complexity of modern finance -- the "best CEO on Wall Street" couldn't figure out that the London Whale was going to lose billions overnight for JPMorgan Chase -- this is a pretty incredible philosophy. And at its heart it is meanness in its most distilled form: It doesn't matter if millions of people lose their life savings, their homes, and their jobs in a financial collapse, because, hey, they deserve it if they didn't know better in the first place. And in the meantime, if financial charlatans and speculators become billionaires for setting up these market failures and getting out just before the crash, so be it.

This is not the kind of conservatism I grew up around. This is devil-take-the-hindmost conservatism: Every man for himself, and let the unlucky ones starve if it works out that way. These two kinds of meanness together -- the Ayn Rand kind and the nasty, racist kind -- paint a very ugly picture of modern conservatism." [Source]

I never thought that I would miss the likes of Bob Dole and Jack Kemp on the American political scene, but I do.

What would MLK do?

I was totally exasperated after reading what Glenn Beck and other right wingnuts had to say about the uprising in Baltimore.

"Glenn Beck invoked one of the biggest civil rights leaders of the past half-century to express his disgust with the violence and rioting in Baltimore yesterday. On his TV show today, Beck said, “Shame on Baltimore, shame on America.”

He lamented how yet another American city’s streets “resemble a battlefield” and told viewers, “I hate to say this, but last night, as I was writing before I went to bed, I wrote in my journal ‘Martin Luther King is truly dead.’”

And Beck’s worried that “our country will suffer the same fate” due to a lack of leadership. He used his chalkboard to explain how the local gangs, the Nation of Islam, and the SEIU are filling the leadership void. Beck ripped the mayor of Baltimore and asked what she thinks about those groups “be[ing] your leadership.” [Source]

Just reading Beck's name in the same sentence with that of Dr. King makes me want to puke.

The nerve of him and others like him! 

Thank you Chauncey DeVega for putting your emotions into words.

"Freddie Gray was killed by Baltimore's police. Baltimore's ghetto youthocracy responded with protests and an exhalation of random street violence. The killing of Freddie Gray, an unarmed black man who was a victim of racial profiling and harassment by police, is the proximate cause of Baltimore's "riot".

The deeper and more substantive causes of Baltimore's violent spasm (and Ferguson and other sites as well) are long simmering grievances and righteous anger at an American police establishment that is racist towards black Americans, and a society where its supposed "meritocracy" is broken by the colorline and class inequality.

The United States may have a black man who happens to be President; racial equality, justice, and the radically democratic transformative possibilities that Obama symbolized seven years ago have not been translated into substantive improvements in the life chances for people of color more generally, or the black and brown poor in particular.

There is a ritual that accompanies these moments of protest by black Americans, and the wholly predictable urban unrest that follows the repeated killings of unarmed black people by police.

The high priests of public opinion take to the TV, radio, and Internet and summon the memory of Brother Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to condemn black folks who are "rioting", for the latter are violating the sacred covenant of "non-violence" for which King, as one of America's greatest leaders and martyrs, supposedly died.
The man and woman on the street participates in this act of American civil religion as well. They mutter some basic understanding of Dr. King's dream, spittle accompanying a phrase about the Civil Rights Movement, as they shake their heads in consternation at the violent protests in Baltimore and elsewhere.

The high priests of public opinion on the dais, and those who sit in the pews of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement as civil religion, are engaged in futile acts of conjuring. They are trying to channel a weak and flattened memory of a man, one that has been reduced to selling fast food in January and February, made into an onerous statue at Washington's mall, and reduced to a paragraph that is ripped from a towering speech.

If the legacy of the real Dr. King--his radical politics, vision, and challenging words and deeds for an America sick with white supremacy, class inequality, war mongering, and hatred for the poor--was properly channeled, it would deafen the chattering classes and broad swaths of the American public.

The real Dr. King is akin to the Old Ones or the Elder Gods. They and he are not to be summoned without care, for reasons disingenuous, or to help with a fool's errand.

The impotent summoning of Dr. King in a time of crisis (with its righteous, justifiable, protest and rage against police thuggery, and a cruel State that cares more about protecting property and its out of control racist police, than in justice for black and brown Americans and the poor) is enabled by a flat and weak understanding of the Black Freedom Struggle and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s role in it.

The Civil Rights Movement contained multiple elements with often often conflicting interests and strategies for success. Non-violence was not an empty phrase: it existed and found power in relation to those who wanted a more robust, direct, and if necessary, armed response to white supremacy and anti-black hatred. The Civil Rights Movement was able to use the media in the context of the Cold War, and white elites' anxieties about perception management abroad in an era of Jim and Jane Crow, to win its incremental gains.

Brother Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has been canonized as an American saint. At the time of his assassination and martyrdom, King was one of America's most hated and despised public figures.

In these times of troubles it is easy and intellectually lazy for people to mouth-breath some selection selectively misquoted and misappropriated from the I Have a Dream speech, as opposed to meditating on King's analysis of systemic power and inequality as embodied by his observation that "a riot is the language of the unheard".

King elaborated on the relationship of urban disorder to the struggle for full human rights and dignity for black American in his "The Other America" speech where he stated that:

I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality, and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.

If one persists in channeling Dr. King in these conversations about the urban unrest, "rioting", and exhalations by the ghetto youthocracy (and others) in Baltimore and elsewhere across the United States in response to police thuggery, it should be done with great care.

Black Americans have a special relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. He is "ours". As such, the black community has an obligation to ensure that his memory, legacy, and wisdom are not misappropriated. Unfortunately, the black chattering classes and elites are more often than not agents and enablers of a weakened vision of King's vision as political expediency and neoliberal governmentality pay great lucre to their agents.

Since before the Founding, White America has largely been on the wrong side of history regarding matters of race and justice. Because of this fact, all white Americans should exercise great care when trying to summon Dr. Martin Luther King's memory as a means of subverting, lecturing to, or deflecting the justice claims (and anger) of Black Americans.

Both white conservatives and white liberals should abide by such a rule.

This is especially true for white conservatives in the Age of Obama, a moment when conservatism and racism are fused together by the White Right in the form of a Republican Party that is the United States' leading white supremacist organization.

As such, the Republican Party embraces herrenvolk politics, is working to roll back the gains of the Civil Rights Movement, further criminalize the poor, and has actively worked to undermine Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of a better America.

If our white brothers and sisters are not willing to do the necessary work to understand and grapple with the radical Dr. King, and his role as one of the "founding fathers" of the new America that was made after the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement, then it is best they not summon him." [More]
Don't worry Chauncey, they can never "summon" him.  He might be turning in his grave, but he would never come back for them.

The vaccine choice crusaders, and the dirty hands Senator.

There is a new debate raging in America about whether it's cool to vaccinate children or not. 

I honestly thought that this issue was settled, but apparently there are some folks who think this is an evil plot by the government to control their children. Wingnuts are using words like "oppressive".

Sorry Glenn Beck, people who question vaccinations are not being "persecuted". You have the right to do what you want with your own damn kids, but not when you put other people's children at risk.

Two potential republican candidates for president have already declared that they are not too sure about this vaccination thing. One of them tried to link vaccines to mental illness.

And the other one.....

"New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday parents should have some choice on whether to vaccinate their children, a position he's taken before but one that drew a new level of attention amid a U.S. measles outbreak and his recent moves toward running for president."

Of course, politicians being politicians, he tried to walk it back.

"The political significance of Christie's remarks was amplified by his office a short time later, when it released a statement saying the governor believes "with a disease like measles there is no question kids should be vaccinated."

Yep, this guy is definitely running for president.

You gotta love these conservatives. I mean I understand that they don't like a lot of regulations in their day to day lives, but there are some things in life that should not even be debated.

Take washing your hands, for instance.

"In a week packed with news over concerns for public health, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) described his own history of opposing certain health and hygiene regulations, including those that require employees to wash their hands after using the bathroom.

During a Q&A at the Bipartisan Policy Center on Monday, Tillis related a story from his time in the state legislature in 2010, complaining that the U.S. is "one of the most regulated nations in the history of the planet," video via C-SPAN shows.

“I was having a discussion with someone, and we were at a Starbucks in my district, and we were talking about certain regulations where I felt like ‘maybe you should allow businesses to opt out,'" the senator said.

Tillis said his interlocutor was in disbelief, and asked whether he thought businesses should be allowed to "opt out" of requiring employees to wash their hands after using the restroom.

The senator said he'd be fine with it, so long as businesses made this clear in "advertising" and "employment literature."

“The market will take care of that," he added, to laughter from the audience." [Source]

And this man is a Senator. I sure hope that he won't be shaking the hands of his constituents on his next trip home.

Folks, if you happen to live in North Carolina and you meet the senator one day, you might want to just give him a fist bump.





 

 

The president gets "dark and ugly", and the bread-shoes lady responds.

Before I start this post I want to apologize to the folks at MMTC who are hosting the Broadband Social Justice Summit , for not making it down to Washington, today. I really wanted to make it but sometimes the judicial system doesn't cooperate with our day to day plans.

Hopefully I will make it down tomorrow. I really want to get a shot at roasting my man David Honig.

So anyway, I caught the president's address to the nation last night. Overall I thought it was decent, but I particularly loved the shot he took at the wingnuts  when they tried to throw him shade by way of some snark.

This is from Politicus USA:

“I have no more campaigns to run.” Insert rude Republican clapping. But Republican thuggery is no match for President Obama’s quick wit and brain. He responded off the cuff (not in his prepared remarks), “I know because I won both of them.”

 

Oh, snap.

 

This response brought down the house with happy Democrats cheering and liberals everywhere breathing a sigh of relief that this President was taking Republican rudeness no more, and in fact reminding them just who won two national elections with a mandate.

 

All of this caused Republicans everywhere to commence whinging, how dare Obama not be nice to them! He said he wanted to be bipartisan and then he had the nerve to defend himself against their unstatesmanlike rudeness. (Let us not forget the unprecedented rudeness and disrespect behind the earlier GOP outburst, “You lie!”)" [Source]

 

Of course wingnuts and their friends were not pleased, and they have been whining about it ever since.

 

Glenn Beck took it a step further by letting his racism flag fly. According to Mr. Beck the president showed his "dark and ugly" side last night by getting all....well, black.

 

It works like this: When you, as a black man, do things that displease some folks, you are pretty much acting black. Which, in their world, is not a good thing.

 

One republican congressman actually dug deep in his history to find a black man that he liked. And who, in his book, is the opposite of the very "divisive" president.

 

"He said he’d thought that once Obama was elected president, “that issue” would be “behind us.”
Gohmert expressed a wish that Obama were more like his black high school basketball coach.

“But unlike my favorite coach in high school, who happened to be black, he has been more divisive — when I had a coach that brought us together as a team like never before,” Gohmert said. “I thought this president would do that. He has divided more than united, so that’s been heartbreaking.” [Source]

No Mr. Gohmert, what's been heartbreaking is that folks like you have no clue that we really do live in two Americas. Closing your eyes and pretending that we can all get along because you had a basketball coach (how convenient) who you thought was very non-threatening is not bringing people together.

I also saw one of the five republican responses as well. I think it was meant to be the main one.

It was delivered by some woman named Joni Ernst. I listened to her for five minutes and found myself nodding off. She had that soothing monotone kind of voice that should only be used by customer service people who work for large corporations.

Anyway, she actually said at one point that she had t cover her shoes with bread wrappers (bags) because she only had one pair and didn't want it to get wet.

I call bullshit.

This, to me, is just another republican trying to sound a populist tone. I am not sure when it became cool for republicans to try to tell us how poor they were at one point in their lives, but it's getting old.
I wish they would just go back to being real republicans again.

But back to Ms. Ernst's shoes.

My twitter family was making fun of her, but I actually felt bad for the woman.

"@Kat4Obama @Sophia_Moseley @LesaPamplin @fieldnegro Yup, just grab yourself a stick of butter and a pot of jam, and you're all set.

 

@Sophia_Moseley @LesaPamplin @AFarray @fieldnegro They're loafers. :D

 

See? People buying that imported, seeded bread loaf slide with their free money. @LesaPamplin @Loki4Us @AFarray @fieldnegro

 

21h21 hours ago

@PeskyJski @fieldnegro @LesaPamplin LOL. It is always good to have a good laugh...and bread shoes that will now sell more than Jordans.

 

21h:

I CAN'T TAKE IT!!! #BreadShoes She must have been on the #LittleRascals with Farina! RT @LesaPamplin: @fieldnegro pic.twitter.com/lhEkHY5EHu"

 

You people are co cold.

 

Bread-shoes lady, I got your back. 

  
 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

America the beautiful is dealing with "this diversity thing".

Congrats to the Seattle Seahawks for beating the Denver Broncos and bringing a Super Bowl championship to the people of Seattle. Those wonderful people in the great Northwest deserve a championship.


I reached out to my sister this morning to congratulate her. Sis, I hope you got some sleep.


Anyway, the game wasn't much of a game. The Seahawks beat up on Peyton and the boys like they stole something from them.
The commercials were alright. There was nothing groundbreaking, and it just seemed like a bunch of actors trying to ply their wares and make some money.


Things must be really slow in Hollywood these days.


But the commercial that really had the right wing disturbed was the Coca Cola multi- cultural ad featuring people who were....well, different.


One of the clowns over on FOX gave his reasons why this ad was particularly distasteful.


 "The problem here,” Bolling said, “and it’s not even bad if you have all the different cultures singing a song, showing America is a mix of different cultures, but don’t put it to ‘America the Beautiful.’ You used the wrong song. You ticked off a lot of Coke drinkers, you ticked off a lot of Americans.”


“For whatever you gain in this diversity thing you’re going for, Coke,” he added, “you blew it with a lot of people who are very, very patriotic about that song.”


“I would be very happy if every language in the world was singing ‘America the Beautiful, because that means we have people focused on the best country on earth in history,” Dana Perino responded. For that reason she thought the whole thing was “a little overblown.” [Source]


Hmmm, "this diversity thing". Unfortunately for the right wingnuts in this country, "this diversity thing" is going to cause them to lose national elections for many years to come. My advice to them would be to get used to it.


This, of course, might be kind of hard, because conservatives live in an upside down world where hot is cold and black is really white.


Take our friend Glen Beck, for instance. He actually believes that the Coca Cola ad last night served to divide and not unite people.


" About the last thing that came to mind when I watched an advertisement for the soft drink Coca-Cola on Sunday night featuring a number of performers singing “America the Beautiful” in a variety of different languages was that it was an “in-your-face” attempt to “divide people.”


That was, however, the impression that conservative radio host Glenn Beck, and a handful of other pundits were left with.


On his radio show Monday morning, Beck went on to claim that the subliminal message being promoted by The Coca-Cola Company was one that would result in the dilution of American culture. “And if you don’t like it, if you’re offended by it, then you’re a racist,” he added. “If you do like it, you’re for immigration, you’re for progress.”


“That’s all this is, is to divide people,” he continued." [Source] 


Glen, I have some news for you; if you are offended by that Coca Cola ad you are a racist.


But this is how it's done by racists in America these days: If you question them on their racism you are the racist, and you are the one race baiting a particular issue. It's actually a brilliant way to deflect and to change the subject.


Unfortunately for them there are folks out here like yours truly, who will not change the subject, and who will not turn away when ignorance and racism is staring us in the face.   










  

Best black friends and "baby shakers."

"Not all republicans are racists, but all racists are republicans".

We have all heard that saying before, and lately it seems that republicans are trying their best to make it true.

Take our friend Don Yelton, the former republican party chairman from North Carolina.

Don got himself in some trouble lately for publicly stating what we know many of his ideological mates say privately. Dude was on Comedy Central, but there was nothing funny about his comments.

"Mr. Yelton – who until Thursday was a precinct chairman in North Carolina’s Buncombe County – talked with “Daily Show” correspondent Aasif Mandvi about a new state law that requires photo identification to vote. Civil rights advocates charge that such laws are intended to suppress minority votes.                                                                                                           

                                     

Asked if he was a racist, Yelton paused, then said he’d “been called a bigot before.”

“As a matter of fact, one of my best friends is black,” he added.

Things went downhill from there. Yelton told "The Daily Show” correspondent that he’d had a caricature of President Obama dressed as a witch doctor sitting on a stump, but that the drawing made fun of the president’s “white half, not his black half.” (Mr. Obama’s mother was white, his father black.) He complained that blacks could use the N-word, but not whites. Only he didn’t say “N-word”; he said the word itself.

“You know we can hear you, right?” Mr. Mandvi said in the on-camera interview.
Yelton went on to say that the photo ID law would “kick Democrats in the butt.”
“If [the photo ID law] hurts the whites, so be it. If it hurts a bunch of lazy blacks that want the government to give them everything, so be it,” Yelton said." [Source]

I would love to meet  Don's "black friend". No doubt one of those conservative Negroes.

Anyway, Don is not apologizing for his bigoted statements about black folks.

"In a Friday interview with WWNC’s The Pete Kaliner Show, disgraced North Carolina GOP precinct chair Don Yelton expressed no remorse over his racially-charged remarks on The Daily Show that led to his resignation.

Yelton drew the ire of his own colleagues after referring to “a bunch of lazy blacks” during an interview with Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi. He tendered his resignation as a result of the controversy and the state GOP publicly distanced itself from his remarks.
But is Yelton apologetic?

“No, I don’t take back anything I said,” he told Kaliner on Friday morning. “Would I do it again? Yes, I would.”

Yelton claimed the show “created an illusion that I was just personally had an agenda against the blacks, tried to make it talking about racism rather than the real issue of illegal voting.” He countered that narrative by claiming “I’ve hired blacks before” and that his “best friend is black.”

Unconvinced, Kaliner noted that “I don’t think anything that the show did through their editing made you look any worse than you made yourself look in that interview.”

“Well that’s your opinion,” Yelton dismissed.
“Was it worth it?” Kaliner repeatedly pressed.

“Yeah,” Yelton eventually conceded. “I found the truth. The truth is, [the GOP's] got no guts.” [Source]

He is unapologetic because he knows that his party, behind closed doors, believes that what he said is true.

 

He is calling them "gutless" because they won't own up, publicly.  

  

Finally, our friend Glenn Beck wants you to know that his family is not "white trash".

 

"Something disturbing happened to Glenn Beck's daughter in the hospital, where she'd just given birth to her first child. The disturbing thing? A nurse suggested that Hannah Beck was poor.

 

That's not what she said, exactly, because we use code words when we talk about groups we don't like. Here's Beck's news website, The Blaze, summarizing the story as Beck described it on his radio show on Thursday.

[T]he nurse proceeded to offer this bone-chilling advice to the new parents: "Look, don’t shake the baby or you’re going to end up on the news."

"I'm sorry, do my children look like baby shakers?" Beck demanded. "So my daughter is having her first breastfeeding experience, with, I don’t know, somebody who lost their heart or something. I don’t know. And everybody has a bad day, but you don’t do that job and have a bad day."

 "Oh, but then she has some advice for them. [menacing voice] 'Look. Don't shake the baby, or you're going to end up on the news.'

"I'm sorry. Do my children look like baby shakers? Do my children look like white trash?"

Here, via Glenn Beck's personal site is a photo of this daughter and her husband, indicated with arrows, at their upstate New York wedding last year. Do they look like baby shakers? Like white trash? You be the judge." [Source]

Nope, that would be the guy standing to the right.

Money can buy you a lot of things, but unfortunately for Glenn, class is not one of them

 

Family feud, and two slaves plus two slaves equals....

I am no fan of wrestling, and with all due respect to Hulk Hogan, Andre The Giant, and Eddie Guerrero, I have never been one. But this feud between Glenn Beck and the WWE is getting really interesting.

"The WWE’s Jack Swagger® and Zeb Colter® have hit back hard at Glenn Beck after Beck referred to them as “stupid wrestling people” on his show. In a video posted online Friday, the two men perform a promo as their over-the-top Tea Party-inspired personae, before breaking character to address Beck’s comments directly.

Beck had taken offense to the WWE characters, who he said were out to “demonize” the Tea Party. “Maybe that’s the way WWE people view the Tea Party,” Beck said on his show. “Maybe they love to hate the Tea Party.”
Pulling back to reveal the green-screen artifice of what they do, Wayne Keown (Colter) and Jake Hager (Swagger) explained to Beck that they are merely entertainers, with no larger political agenda.

“We aren’t in the political business, or the immigration business. We are in the entertainment business,” Keown said. He went on to attack Beck directly for failing to give his audience credit when it comes to the general understanding that pro-wrestling is fake. “Many of your followers are WWE fans and they understand the difference between reality and entertainment,” he added. “Are you out of touch with your audience Glenn? Or are you just a ‘stupid political commentator?’”

Keown once again extended the invitation for Beck to appear on Monday Night RAW this coming week, offering him five minutes of unedited air-time to offer a rebuttal. Beck has already rejected the offer once, saying, “Unfortunately I am currently booked doing anything else.” Will Beck’s desire for self-promotion over-take his reluctance to degrade himself by appearing with the “stupid” WWE? We’ll have to wait until Monday to find out."

Folks, this is ironic, since many would argue that Beck's schtick is the political equivalent to the WWE. Maybe this is why he finds what they do so offensive. Too close to home. There is only room for one Ringmaster in the circus.

Finally, the people of New York are outraged at two Manhattan public school teachers who used slavery to teach math. The fact that the teachers were white and that they were teaching mostly white kids had folks even more upset. (Get on your Air R track shoes Field, I feel a racism chase coming.) Tonight there will be no chase, because I have no problem with these teachers using slavery to teach math in the way that they did.

The problem with some folks here in America is that they want to pretend that slavery never existed. And when children are forced to deal with the horrors of slavery in a teachable way they become outraged.

 "School statistics show the student body at the E. 56th St. school is 60% white — higher than the city average — while just 5% of students are African-American.

Parents at the well-off school were shocked by the flap. “I don’t think that’s reflective at all of what the school is about,” said one parent who asked not be named.

Principal Adele Schroeter said she was “appalled” by the incident and ordered sensitivity training for the entire staff.

Youn and Vitucci will face disciplinary action, said schools spokeswoman Connie Pankratz. She would not provide details or say whether the teachers will remain in their classrooms." [Source]

Slavery was shocking; teaching it to children is not. The sensitivity training is being offered to the wrong people; it's the parents of those children and the Principal who should be forced to go to sensitivity training, not the teachers who tried to remind the students about their country's history.









 

Glennangelo

 
"On Tuesday, Glenn Beck focused his unique brand of criticism on the world of classical and modern art. In an effort to criticize political art while emphasizing the freedom of artists to express their beliefs and values, Beck put a President Barack Obama figurine in a jar of urine.

On his Blaze TV program, Beck went through a number of works which he either found offensive for political reasons or simply did not appreciate for aesthetic reasons. While he defended the various artists constitutional rights of expression, he insisted he found many works offensive. He noted that the right of expression is a two way street.

Beck proceeded to take a pallet of oils to the artworks on his wall, adding a pair of thong underwear to one nude subject and jeans and a sweater to another.
Finally, turning Beck turned to political art. In an effort to satirize the famously offensive ‘Piss Christ,’ which featured a crucifix in a jar of urine, Beck made a political statement of his own. To accomplish this, he put a bobblehead doll of President Obama in a mason jar of what he claimed to be urine.

UPDATE: Beck attempted to auction off “Obama In Pee Pee” on eBay, but the online auction service has removed that listing." [Source]

I swear some people will do anything to stay relevant.

Honestly, I can't believe that conservatism has come to this.

Finally, it seems that Mitt's people aren't so upset about the elections, because apparently the people whose votes really mattered to them delivered on Election Day.

"Mitt Romney's former chief strategist Stuart Stevens in an op-ed published on Wednesday touted wealthy, middle-class and white voter support as several of the silver linings to Romney's loss on Nov. 6.

In a Washington Post editorial titled, "Mitt Romney: A good man. The right fight," Stevens wrote:

On Nov. 6, Romney carried the majority of every economic group except those with less than $50,000 a year in household income. That means he carried the majority of middle-class voters. While John McCain lost white voters younger than 30 by 10 points, Romney won those voters by seven points, a 17-point shift.

Romney won over seniors with entitlement reform, raised more money for the GOP than the party itself and championed ideas that connected Americans and made them think, Stevens argued.

"Yes, the Republican Party has problems, but as we go forward, let's remember that any party that captures the majority of the middle class must be doing something right," he wrote." [Source]

You have to feel sorry for guys like Stuart Stevens; the country is changing and they just can't bring themselves to change with it. He really believes that Mitt Romney ran a good campaign even though he lost. I suppose that getting the white middle class votes was a victory in his mind.

Folks, this is the kind of thinking that causes people to put a doll of the president in a bottle of piss to raise money for charity.

*Pic from Mediate.com

Two turkeys!

"Glenn Beck paid a visit to his old stomping grounds on Tuesday night, talking to Bill O’Reilly about the election. Beck recalled his prediction that Mitt Romney would win and offered an explanation of why he ended up being wrong. Part of the problem, he said, is disillusioned voters.

“What happened there that you weren’t anticipating?” O’Reilly asked.

“I anticipated actually people coming out, you know,” Beck replied. “We actually went down in some numbers.”

When O’Reilly noted that the turnout was more than enough for Romney to win, Beck offered his take on the problem. “The parties have gotten to the place to where I don’t think anybody believes either side,” he said. “They just don’t see a difference.” People, even in his own family, Beck added, don’t believe one side will be better for the country than the other.

But that simply isn’t true, he said, noting that the 2012 election was “most stark choice” the country’s had. O’Reilly agreed.

He then asked Beck about the conservatives, including Beck himself, who predicted a Romney victory — noting their surprise when Romney actually lost. Beck said he’d gone to bed feeling confident the night before, telling his wife he couldn’t wait for Romney to win so “we can relax a little bit and our life will settle down.”

Asked if he sees the outcome as “a divine providence situation,” Beck said everything will work out. The pair agreed: It’s all going to work out, but there’s “a lot of pain” coming."

Sorry fellows, like all the other turkeys this time of year, your pain has already come and gone. Now it's time for the rest of us to just enjoy you.

Unfriendly skies for Glenn, and Mitt's Negro council is up and running.

I have always been a US Air man myself, but from here on out I will be flying American Airlines every chance I get. I will tell you why in a minute.

Folks, nothing is more pathetic than watching a white man -especially a privileged one- play the victim role here in America. We have been seeing it a lot after Barack Obama became president of these divided states. It's as if a switch went off when they had to look at someone else who doesn't look like them hold the highest office on earth for once. There is nothing quite like envy and fear to kick in that "color arousal", but I digress, back to American Airlines.

The biggest "woe is me" white man in America, Glenn Beck, is playing the victim card once again. This time he is blaming American Airlines for all of his woes.

 "Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck says he was treated rudely on an American Airlines flight and will never fly on the carrier again.

American apologized and said it's looking into the incident.
Beck said on his radio show Tuesday that a flight attendant on a New York-to-Dallas plane "treated me as a subhuman." Beck said the man "fawned over the other passengers" but "barked" at Beck and slammed a can of soda down in front of him.

Beck implied that the flight attendant singled him out because of his political views. He wondered whether American even wanted conservatives on its planes.
"My family will never choose American Airlines again ... if this is the kind of people that American Airlines likes to hire," Beck said." [Source]

First of all, why is this clown even flying commercial? The guy's franchise is worth damn near a billion dollars and he can't afford his own Gulfstream?
Anyway, I am not sure what Beck expects when he goes out in public. He makes a living being nasty to people and expects the world to turn off a switch when they see him in public? Sorry, not going to happen. And Beck won't let it go, it's been days since the incident and he is still whining about it.

But this is par for the course for Mr. Victim. He complains about everything from people at an outdoor movie to the people of New York. His latest rant about New York is classic.

 "After a weekend in New York City, I remembered why I was so glad to move out of New York City. It started for me on a Friday night, this last Friday at a barbecue restaurant. Now why my daughter who lives in the city thought that coming from Texas we should go have barbecue in New York City is beyond me, but we did. As we walked in, my wife said, oh, my gosh, this is so‑and‑so very famous, you know, barbecue couple that do this barbecue thing, you know, on TV. And I said, “Oh, okay.” She said, “It’s supposed to be really good.” Well, I have to tell you, the look that I was given by those in charge at this restaurant was, how dare you even come in here. It was quite amazing. I said to my wife as we were walking up the stairs, I said, this isn’t going to go well. And she said, no, this was really a mistake. This is a minority‑owned shop. Was that the line that I dared to cross? No? No, it couldn’t be because there were white people in there. So it must be something else besides my character. It’s amazing to me. One would think that ‑‑ you wouldn’t want to shun people that might have diverse opinions. Maybe they could put a second door in or another entrance in for people like me." Read more here. It only gets better.

Whaaaa. What a pathetic loser. Mr. Beck, I am sure that the people of New York are all glad to see you go.
*
Finally, I think that seeing all those "blah" people and other minorities at the dumbocrat's convention got Mitt thinking that maybe he needs some advice on how to deal with you people of color.

To address that problem Mitt went out and did what all good business men do when faced with a problem; he formed an advisory council to address it.

"Mitt Romney's presidential campaign announced Wednesday the formation of a Black Leadership Council.

The group is chaired by Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., and Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll. Its advisory council includes Mia Love, who as mayor of Saratoga Springs is the first black woman to govern a Utah city. Love was one of the stars of the Republican convention last week in Tampa, Fla.
In recent decades, blacks have been the most reliably Democratic group in the country and voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama, the first black to receive the presidential nomination from a major party.

The Romney group's leaders argue this year their candidate is the one who can help blacks." [Source] 

Mitt, I am still waiting for my call. I am not sure that Allen West and Tim Scott are going to help you reach black folks. You don't need the people you selected, you already have the house vote.

But seriously, poor Mitt makes the classic mistake that folks in the majority population always make when dealing with black folks: they think that we vote for skin color and not ideology. Negroes like Scott and West are never going to help Mitt reach blacks folks, and it's because of their political ideology. Both those men could be blacker than Djimon Hounsou after a day in the sun, and they ain't moving the Negro needle one little bit for towards the republican side.

Sorry Mitt, "The House Black Leadership Council might need to be redone. (h/t to my twitter fam, @JamesWSmittIII for this story) 


*Pic of Mr. West from the Hinterlandgazette 

     





 


   

That is not a bible in Mr. Breivik's hand.

Talk about a rush to judgement. Just check out this wingnut site (don't miss the comments section) for all the talk of those evil Moooslims right after the [right]wingnut lived out his Glenn Beckkk fantasies in Norway.

Seems my man had his own little manifesto where he decried multiculturalism and all the race mixing and immigrants who are heading to Western European countries.

"Text in the video rails against the 'Islamization' of Europe and 'cultural Marxists' and asserts that the majority of Europe's population will be Muslim by 2050 'unless we manage to defeat the ruling Multiculturalist Alliance.'
"'elebrate us, the martyrs of the conservative revolution, for we will soon dine in the Kingdom of Heaven,' the video says."

Norway has what, four million people? Here in A-merry-ca we have over three hundred million. Hmmm, what are the chances of another Behring Breivik appearing right here in the land of the [only some are]free? I am guessing that it's pretty good. And you all wonder why I am just as suspicious of Bob as I am of Muhammad.

Finally, I thought that it was only places like Louisiana and Texas that suffered from environmental racism. Boy was I wrong. Apparently just up the road from me in New York there are clear examples of the big R "rearing its ugly head." 

Folks, don't forget to wear your gas masks the next time you are up in Harlem.

I will protect massa's house at all costs!

Another day in A-merry-ca and the hate filled, right wing, jingoistic mobs are in rare form. (Is that a black person I see in the middle of that pic? Yep, it sure looks like it. I swear, you Negroes and this house called A-merry-ca. Don't worry, your black ass will be next. ) They were out over the weekend at Ground Zero to make their feelings known. And, as we get closer to election day here in A-merry-ca, I suspect that we will see more not less of them.

Where is George Bush when you need him? Wasn't it old George after 9/11 calling for tolerance and peace? That seemed like such a long time ago. That was before we got the brown guy with the Muslim sounding name occupying the people's house. I bet W wouldn't recognize his party now. They have party officials saying that the brown guy is a Muslim and party leaders saying that they will take him at his word. Huh? "Take him at his word"? OK, Mitch, I will take you at your word that you aren't a racist prick from Kentucky. See how that works?

"It is a disturbing discussion. The tone is ugly; the charges are vicious. And no Christian, Jew, or other religious person can feel safe if angry mobs -- even if only virtual -- are able to stop the activities of an unpopular faith.

There is no legal barrier to building the mosque and Muslim community center, called Cordoba House, in New York City. If the First Amendment means anything, the government cannot single out a particular religion for constructing a worship facility. The Free Exercise Clause would mean little if politicians could willy-nilly close down mosques -- or churches, synagogues, temples, and other religious sites.

Any attempt to block Cordoba House also would run into the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. Passed by voice vote in the Republican Congress of 2000, the law targets state and local governments attempting to inhibit religious exercise through land use regulation. Senate sponsor Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) explained: "At the core of religious freedom is the ability for assemblies to gather and worship together."

That was well written Mr. Bandow, and it was riddled with facts. But unfortunately we are talking about religion here; something, that along with race, always stirs the passions and brings out the most deep-seated fears in even the most seemingly sane person in A-merry-ca.

If you think I am lying, watch what happens on the anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington D.C., this weekend. Glenn Beck will be there for a political/love the white race rally, (something he has every right to do) and just look in the faces of those people who will be there. Don't worry, if they look familiar it's because you have seen them before.

A new low....well, maybe not so new.

I see Glen Beck had a spring time version of Black History Month ,tonight. He lectured white A-mery-ca on his program about all the contributions black folks made to help our founding fathers start this great nation. Men such as James Armistead, Crispus Attuck, and Prince Whipple. Throw in Frederick Douglas, a couple of clowns masquerading as historians, (one black one white) an audience full of house Negroes, and Beck's black history bona fides were complete.

If only it was that easy. First, Beck has an ulterior motive: Sanitize the suffering of black folks during the early days of our republic by showing that they helped to build A-merry-ca and had an equal stake in it. Second, he was not telling us anything about our history that we didn't already know. (Those of us who actually read) It was a typical Beck public relations scam. Thankfully, most of us who actually have a brain aren't buying it.

Besides, I come to rip Beck with this post not to praise him.

Today on his radio program he reached a new low by mocking the president's daughter. This, after making it a point to call out folks for making fun of Sarah Palin's little rug rats.

I suppose to all of his wingnut supporters and others who are so inclined, it was funny.

But I am not laughing. And you shouldn't be either.

Anyway, since it's now open season on daughters, I guess we can talk about his daughter, Hannah, who tried to sell his drool on E-Bay. Yes, you read that right: she tried to sell his drool on E-Bay. Talk about funny. They could write an entire Saturday Night Live program around that one.

But, as is always the case with folks who wear political blinders; he is being defended by folks on the right. ( I am pretty sure there will be comments after this post from the usual suspects defending him as well.)

"First, the idea that Beck is being hypocritical over his “leave the families alone credo” is ridiculous. He isn’t mocking Malia, he’s mocking the president for using his daughter to score political points. In the interview with Sarah Palin, he plainly stated that everyone should leave their families out of the political debate, and other people should respect that. Well, Obama DID inject his daughter into the political debate, so I’m not seeing the hypocrisy here. If he were actually mocking Malia, maybe, but he’s not. He’s mocking Obama. "

Wow! Wingnut logic: He is not actually mocking Malia; he is mocking her father by mocking her. Okaaaaay......

BREAKING NEWS! Beck has issued a written apology.

"May 28, 2010 – 14:25 ET
In discussing how President Obama uses children to shield himself from criticism, I broke my own rule about leaving kids out of political debates. The children of public figures should be left on the sidelines. It was a stupid mistake and I apologize–and as a dad I should have known better.”

Yes, a dad whose daughter sells his drool on E-Bay no less. Sorry Glenn, judging from the DNA in that drool, I am guessing you couldn't "know better".

"Common Nonsense": Read it after you put down your bible.

Tonight, once again, I have to blog about one of the most dangerous men in A-merry-ca. The other day I was listening to Glenn Beck (don't ask) and he was actually comparing himself and his movement to Martin Luther King. In between breaking down in tears over losing the A-merry-ca he loves and taking calls from crack pots who worship at his feet (or at the sound of his voice), he was ranting on and on about the progressives and how dangerous they are for A-merry-ca. He went on to say the president should watch his back because those evil people are going to take him out. (If you can't hear that dog whistle don't feel bad, you aren't supposed to.)

Then I stumbled on the following blog post thanks to my man Mike over at Crooks & Liars, and I just had to repost it. Why? Because I think it's important for those of you who are asleep at the remote switch to see where your country is going, and for you to meet one of the people who is taking it there. Why do you think people are embolden to do things like this and this? It's because of the Glenn Becks of the world, that's why. And this mid-term if the republicans and their teabagging friends do as well as they are expected to do, we all better watch out.

"In November of 2000, Americans sat on the edge of their seats waiting to find out who would be the next president. Protests were held, counter protests were organized to meet the challenge and everyone had an opinion. The 2000 election remains capable of igniting passionate debate. Some look it as the time that the Supreme Court stole an election for George W. Bush. Some mark it up to Al Gore having the campaign skills and spinal fortitude of a slime mold. There are those who rue Florida’s hanging chads and aging Jewish voters for Buchanan. And not a few still point to those tense days as proof that Ralph Nader is a festering sore on the ass of the Republic.

Any or all of them could be right. But when you read Alexander Zaitchik’s new book, Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance, you’ll turn the last page with the understanding that election 2000 brought something far more sinister than Bush/Cheney down upon America. Worse, you’ll know that it ain’t over yet.
Beck was working in Tampa at the time, unsuccessfully trying to break into conservative talk radio. In fact, he was about to be let go because he was terrible at his job, saved only by Clear Channel’s local monopoly. But when Bush v. Gore came to a head in Florida and Beck was one of the few local voices on the airwaves, Clear Channel saw the opportunity and went national with Beck. That exposure formed the foundation for his current media empire, and the experience turned Beck into the “real conservative” he is today. No more making fun of rednecks: from then on, Beck would fashion himself as one."....And at least Kurtz had the good grace to live with the natives; for all of Beck’s soft-focus talk about the “real America,” the man lives in a mansion in Connecticut and takes a limo to work.

"I’ll let you read the book to find out what kinds of crackpot conspiracies Beck subscribes to and the kind of hard Mormon rightwingism that he’s bringing into mainstream American culture. A god among the natives he may be, but he’s not off the corporate reservation: he’s just packaging the fascism in a way that would make Goebbels proud.
My compulsion to dog-ear every page containing important information, a laugh-out-loud turn of phrase or Zaitchik wielding stinging, sarcastic wit deformed my review copy. The reader never has far to go between examples like, “Weirder still is the fact that Beck has successfully grown a mass following while stumbling through a remedial self-education in U.S. democracy, which reflects the carnival mirrors inside his mind as much as it does the reality he struggles, in futility and desperation, to comprehend,” and “It seemed that the [Tea Party] protesters’ main enemies were Russian history and apostrophes.” They’re all great, but Zaitchik plays them subtly enough that they never detract from his presentation of vital information.

And that’s what makes this book special. A great many writers from the left could have spent 258 pages lobbing insults at Beck. Zaitchik takes the high road, blending straight biography with solid, investigative journalism. Sometime in the future, professors will be assigning Common Nonsense and historians will be referencing it.
Read it. It’s not going to make you feel better, but it will give you a much deeper understanding of America’s current insanity." [Article]

Towards the end of his show Beck was making fun the way he believes that black folks talk by imitating some guy from one of the big unions. He and his co-hosts were yucking it up as they went on and on trashing the guy. They stopped long enough to take a call from some lady named Kathy in Colorado.

"Hi Glenn, I just want you to know that I love your show, and I really appreciate what you are doing for America. I honestly don't know what my husband and I would do without you."

Kathy, just keep praying for me, and pray for our movement. With God on our side we cannot fail. America will be strong again. It has to be for our children's sake."

What's that quote by Wordsworth? :

"We bow our heads before Thee, and we laud, And magnify thy name Almighty God! But man is thy most awful instrument, In working out a pure intent."

Maybe I will go to church tomorrow. If god made me just like he did Glenn Beck, maybe he will hear my prayer as well.