Tag Archives: Lincoln

Internet Petitions Stephen Colbert To Hold ‘Restoring Truthiness’ Rally At Lincoln Memorial

A grassroots campaign has begun to get Stephen Colbert to hold a rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to counter Glenn Beck's recent “Restoring Honor” event. The would-be rally has been dubbed “Restoring Truthiness” and was inspired by a recent post on Reddit, where a young woman wondered if the only way to point out the absurdity of the Tea Party's rally would be if Colbert mirrored it with his own “Colbert Nation.” Now with its own website and Facebook group with over 8,000 members, the call for Colbert to hold a rally is spreading through the Internet like wildfire. Aside from being a satire of Beck's rally, the petition claims the rally is necessary because, “Recently our nation has suffered a truthiness drain.” The website gives a history of the newly founded movement, with links to news stories and a poster for the rally, which proposes the date “10/10/10.” The website also states: “Restoring Truthiness is a true grassroots movement propelled by YOU, the citizens of the internetz. Our goal is simple: Petition Stephen Colbert to hold a Restoring Truthiness Rally for the American people.” Given Colbert's love for his “Nation” and ability to satirize the Right so effectively, this almost seems like something Colbert would have thought of himself. While he is on vacation at the moment, it will be interesting to see if he addresses the petition when he returns to host “The Colbert Report” next week. Those interested in furthering the movement have been asked to join the Facebook group, spread the word, or email support@colbertrally.com for more information. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/03/restoring-truthiness-colbert-rally-beck… added by: pjacobs51

Dean: ‘Lost Souls’ Follow ‘Racist Hate-Monger’ Beck

Howard Dean pulled off the rare twin-trashing this morning, dumping on both Glenn Beck and the people who respond to his message.  He began by calling Beck crazy , saying he has “a few things the matter with him up here, up in the head there.” Later, he compounded the calumny, calling Beck a “racist” and a “hate-monger.”  So who were the hundreds of thousands of people who attended the rally and the millions more who watch and listen to Beck?  Why, according to Dean, they’re “lost souls.” New York Times columnist Charles Blow had set the vitriolic tone during the show’s first hour, accusing Beck of “hiding behind a cross” and participating in a “rhetorical assassination” of Pres. Obama. HOWARD DEAN: You know, I think, it was kind of a Tea Party type of event. You know, 300,000 people is a lot of people to have on the Washington Mall, but in terms of who, how many people vote, it’s not a very big crowd.  I don’t know what, I think that Glenn Beck has got a few things the matter with him, up here, up in the head there.  So I just don’t know what to make of it.  I mean, it’s a lot of people. JOE SCARBOROUGH: So, I didn’t know. He’s a doctor.  You’re a psychiatrist. And later . . . DEAN: What I see is, these folks are kind of, and I don’t mean this in a mean kind of way, but they’re a little like lost souls in the sense that they really do, they’re at sea, the country’s changed a lot, they don’t, they’re in the middle of a horrible economic downturn which has probably affected a lot of them personally. So they follow this guy who is like Father Coughlin from the 1930s.  He’s a racist, he’s a hate-monger. And here was Blow earlier . . . WILLIE GEIST: You had a column Saturday about Mr. Beck’s rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of the I Have A Dream speech.  You said it incensed you, you called Beck the anti-King.  Just lay out your criticism of Glenn Beck. CHARLES BLOW: Well Beck is an incredibly divisive figure, and no amount of him wrapping himself in the flag and hiding behind a cross is going to scrub his history of the things he has said and done.  And he is part of what I see as a rhetorical assassination of a good man. Wonder when Charles ripped the Dissent is Patriotic sticker off his bumper?

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Dean: ‘Lost Souls’ Follow ‘Racist Hate-Monger’ Beck

Glenn Beck Rally Attracts Only 87,000

An estimated 87,000 people attended a rally organized by talk-radio host and Fox News commentator Glenn Beck Saturday in Washington, according to a crowd estimate commissioned by CBS News. The company AirPhotosLive.com based the attendance on aerial pictures it took over the rally, which stretched from in front of the Lincoln Memorial along the Reflecting Pool to the Washington Monument. Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke at the rally. Beck, who predicted that at least 100,000 people would show up, opened his comments with a joke: “I have just gotten word from the media that there is over 1,000 people here today.” AirPhotosLive.com gave its estimate a margin of error of 9,000, meaning between 78,000 and 96,000 people attended the rally. The photos used to make the estimate were taken at noon Saturday, which is when the company estimated was the rally's high point. Rally organizers had a permit for crowd of 300,000. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have A Dream” Speech was delivered to over 200,000 people. added by: Future_America

Howard Kurtz Smacks Down Bill Press for Comparing Glenn Beck to Al Qaeda

Howard Kurtz on Sunday smacked down liberal talk radio host Bill Press for saying the Park Service allowing Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” event at the Lincoln Memorial was like “granting al Qaeda permission to hold a rally on September 11th at Ground Zero.” Towards the end of the opening segment of CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” Kurtz surprisingly brought up last Friday’s disgraceful editing job by ABC’s “Good Morning America” that Beck himself said was like something Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels would have done. When finished with this admonishment, Kurtz went right after Press who was seated directly in front of him (transcript follows with commentary, video pending):  HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: All right. I want to talk about that, but first I want to play this clip that we didn’t have earlier. This is the “Good Morning America” piece that Beck specifically criticized. Let’s take a quick look at it. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BECK: Blacks don’t own Martin Luther King. (END VIDEO CLIP) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Glenn Beck is no Martin Luther King. (END VIDEO CLIP) KURTZ: Here’s what Beck actually said: “Whites don’t own the founding fathers. Whites don’t own Abraham Lincoln. Blacks don’t own Martin Luther King.” Was that deceptively edited? JANE HALL, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY’S SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION: Well, I think that it should have had the context. I mean, you cannot accuse one side of not including context and not including the context — KURTZ: Somebody makes a statement involving both races — HALL: If somebody says two things, you’ve got to say two things. KURTZ: — and you just show one, I think that was deceptive. I applaud Kurtz for bringing this up. However, maybe he could have put a finer point on this issue if he reminded his guests and viewers of the recent furor involving the editing of former USDA official Shirley Sherrod’s NAACP speech. After all, what ABC and Shipman did Friday was actually far more reprehensible as it was intentionally done and aired on national television. By contrast, Andrew Breitbart wasn’t the person who did the editing of the Sherrod video which was posted at a website reaching far fewer viewers than “Good Morning America.” But Kurtz wasn’t finished, for he next set his sights on Press for what the liberal talker  said and wrote  in June:   KURTZ: You, Bill Press, said that for the Park Service to allow this rally was like “granting al Qaeda permission to hold a rally on September 11th at Ground Zero,” Isn’t that way over the top? BILL PRESS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I think the rally was a stick in the eye to any — KURTZ: I don’t know. But answer my question. You wrote a book about toxic talk. PRESS: No, I said it and I’ll stand by it because — KURTZ: You’re invoking a terrorist analogy for a talk show host. Why is that not over the top? PRESS: No, what I’m comparing are sacred places. We have very few of them in this country. To me, the Lincoln Memorial I think for all Americans is one of our sacred places. Again, it should not be politicized, in my opinion, at Ground Zero. KURTZ: I’m talking about your language, your language in bringing al Qaeda into it. Why is that appropriate? PRESS: I think it is just as outrageous to have the people who offended — I mean, who carried those attacks out at Ground Zero on 9/11, to give them that sacred site, to give a political huckster the Lincoln Memorial, yes. (CROSSTALK) HALL: I think it points to the dilemma, because the left hasn’t known how to respond. And so now we are getting more response from the people. MATT LEWIS, BLOGGER: But this is the toxicity of politics in our nation, where good folks like Bill, who are liberal, believe the conservatives, their political adversaries, not enemies, are worse than terrorists. KURTZ: I’ve got to go, but let me ask you before we — PRESS: That is not true, by the way. KURTZ: All right. Denial registered. Nice job, Howie. We on the right would love to see you tear into hypocritical liberals far more often.

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Howard Kurtz Smacks Down Bill Press for Comparing Glenn Beck to Al Qaeda

Will Media Notice How Clean Beck Rally Participants Left National Mall?

There was a huge “Restoring Honor” rally at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Saturday, but you couldn’t tell hours later given how clean the National Mall was:  Compare that to how this area looked after Inauguration Day on January 20, 2009: The Left in our nation is always depicted by media sycophants as concerned with the environment. By contrast, these same people always paint a picture of the Right being exclusively focused on profits with total disregard for nature and ecology. What do these two videos say about this “conventional wisdom,” and will Obama-loving media members in the post-rally coverage of this event point out to readers and viewers just how clean our National Mall was left by these awful, greedy, right-wing extremists?

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Will Media Notice How Clean Beck Rally Participants Left National Mall?

Glenn Beck Rally Attracts Estimated 87,000

An estimated 87,000 people attended a rally organized by talk-radio host and Fox News commentator Glenn Beck Saturday in Washington, according to a crowd estimate commissioned by CBS News. The company AirPhotosLive.com based the attendance on aerial pictures it took over the rally, which stretched from in front of the Lincoln Memorial along the Reflecting Pool to the Washington Monument. Beck and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke at the rally. Beck, who predicted that at least 100,000 people would show up, opened his comments with a joke: “I have just gotten word from the media that there is over 1,000 people here today.” AirPhotosLive.com gave its estimate a margin of error of 9,000, meaning between 78,000 and 96,000 people attended the rally. The photos used to make the estimate were taken at noon Saturday, which is when the company estimated was the rally's high point. Rally organizers had a permit for crowd of 300,000. Crowd estimates used to be provided by the National Park Service, but the agency stopped counting crowds in 1997 after being accused of underestimating the size of the Million Man March in 1995. added by: TimALoftis

To Al Gore: I’m planning a march in DC

Today marks the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's, “I Have A Dream Speech.” But that isn't really what concerns those gathering in Washington Dc today. What concerns them is that they are for the most part angry white people looking to even the score for what they see as being stuck with a black president. That is my view based on my observations and their own words as the crux of this so called rally put together by Fox and their poster child for dramatics, Glenn Beck. If you have any sort of knowledge of him, you will know that he is clearly an entertainer out to make money from his antics. And yet, Conservatives (and I use that word loosely because today's Conservatives are nothing like the real Conservatives of old) in droves flock to hear him toting their rifles and tea bag laden straw hats in an attempt to regain something they never had in the first place: honor. A group of people who supported stolen elections, illegal wars, wiretapping, torture, and the slow and steady degradation of the very constitution they claim to hold so very dear to their hearts… all while secretly fuming at those who they think have gotten all the breaks over them since the Civil Rights Act was passed. So they will show up in DC today to use our military (you know, the military they support so much as they watch them being sent to a war for oil while yelling Drill Baby Drill) with the secret corporate backing they got to spread their subtle message at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial where MLK jr. stood all those years ago to truly speak of justice, peace, and equality. Imagine that then we got him, now we get Sarah Palin daring to stand on those steps after just supporting the N word being shouted on Dr. Laura's radio rant trying to make us believe she has a connection at all to the Civil Rights Movement. We truly have gone through the looking glass. Now, I find their rally to be stomach turning and a clear slap in the face to the many Americans who suffered the inhumanities that come with standing up for what you believe in. And yet, this is America, a country where even one who makes your blood boil and your stomach turn has the right to spout their hatred and false concern, which is what makes it such a great country. So I got to thinking; if Glenn Beck and his brigade of Grisly Mamas with a Grudge can invade Washington DC with their foolery, why can't I as a citizen get a permit and march up the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial to talk about something that truly is urgent: the continued sustainability of our planet and our species. That is truly the stuff of what a moral movement is about. And actually, he is no more important than I or any other citizen. This is America, right? So it's all settled. I am going to apply for a permit for a climate march up Pennsylvania Avenue to the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial to announce the start of the Climate Changers Movement. And the time will be spent actually disseminating information to inform and educate people about the dangers of climate change noting the real science that backs it up and not what you hear from weathermen on Sean Hannity's decrepid TV show, and what we and our Congress must do to provide a future for our children and ourselves. And I'm sure these same Conservatives would show up to that one, right? I mean after all, it is about social equality, peace, and supporting our military, because clean energy gets us off the oil that kills them in the Middle Eastern sands. Right?… uh huh. Al Gore mentioned just a couple of weeks ago that this is the movement we need, and I agree wholeheartedly. However, it seems that people are either afraid to really move on this or aren't being heard, and we don't have time to lose. So then we will have to fight fire with fire. We then need to get permit after permit after permit and continue to march, and speak, and show, and warn, and repeat, repeat, repeat the message just like they do. And I”m serious about this and am ready to take it on. So Mr. Gore if you read this, I'm here! I will write more after I know more about the planning for this, because as a citizen of this country and of the world and seeing where it is heading I can no longer abide the airwaves being taken over by inconsiderate, hypocritical, apathetic, selfish people whose only concern is their own lives over the whole. And that is all we have been getting 24/7 on our airwaves and on the Internet. It is time to change the station and for the serious people to be heard. We must move this country forward to seeing what every other country sees: that the climate crisis is a clear and present danger and threat to our health, our safety, our democracy, and our very lives and has no political, social, economic, or sexual preference. The environment is what makes our lives liveable and without it, those who stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial today who have also trashed the fact that humans actually have an impact on their planet will see their words come back to them in ways they couldn't have imagined. So they need to be educated and what better way to do so than by exercising my right as well to freedom of speech, assembly, and expression, and for a cause that I would be willing to sacrifice for. It sure will beat the caricature dramatics we have seen of late that have distracted from these very important issues we must discuss to secure a clean safe future for our children. added by: JanforGore

Glenn Beck compares ABC report to Nazi propaganda

Glenn Beck apparently doesn't buy into the adage that all press is good press. On Friday, the conservative host described a “Good Morning America” segment on the Lincoln Memorial rally he's holding Saturday — on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” address at the same site — as a “hatchet job” and compared it to Nazi propaganda. ABC's Claire Shipman is one of many journalists who have reported on the criticism of Beck holding his “Restoring Honor” rally on the anniversary of the King speech. Beck says the timing is coincidental. Civil rights leaders and activists including the Rev. Al Sharpton will hold a countermarch and demonstration in Washington on the same day. Beck, along with his radio cohorts, took issue with a few parts of Shipman's report, including her saying that it “wasn't so long ago” that Beck called President Obama “a racist” on Fox News. (Beck made the inflammatory comment in late July 2009. Beck also later apologized for the comment.) Beck, who has criticized the rally backlash, was also bothered by ABC quoting him as saying that “blacks don't own Martin Luther King.” Beck says ABC edited the quote selectively, failing to mention he also said that “whites don't own Abraham Lincoln” and that both men are “American icons.” “That's what Goebbels did,” Beck said, referring to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister. “The truth didn't matter.” (A transcript of Beck's criticism is on his website.) Beck, like other cable news and talk radio hosts, gets paid millions while making over-the-top statements. But Beck is more likely than most to reach immediately for a Nazi comparison when trying to prove a point. The Washington Post noted in July that Beck often refers to the Third Reich on his Fox News show, counting 202 times since Obama's inauguration that Beck had referred to Nazis or Nazism and 147 references to Hitler. And he mentioned Goebbels 24 times during that period. Beck says that his rally, which will feature Sarah Palin and raise funds for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, is nonpolitical. The Restoring Honor website describes the event as a chance to pay tribute to service personnel and individuals who “embody our nation's founding principles of integrity, truth and honor.” added by: onemalefla

Stewart RIPS Glenn Beck’s Civil Rights Rally: ‘I Have A Scheme’ (VIDEO)

“The Daily Show” has a knack for going on vacation when important things happen, so it's nice to see Jon Stewart proactively “report” on Glenn Beck's Aug. 28 civil rights rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In a segment dubbed “I Have A Scheme,” Stewart picked apart Beck's plan to “restore honor” to the republic on the same day and in the same place as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did exactly 47 years ago. Beck claims not to have realized the coincidence when planning his “Beckapalooza” and Stewart honestly believed him. “Wow, so Glenn Beck didn't realize that was an important day in African-American history?” he asked. “I find that… Totally plausible. I find that totally plausible.” While Beck will not be standing in the same EXACT spot as Dr. King did on that historic day (he'll be standing two flights down) Stewart did take issue with Beck's plan to “reclaim the civil rights movement.” Beck argued that white people can't praise or support the mission of Dr. King without criticism. “Who acts like white people can't praise Martin Luther King?” Stewart said in disbelief. “Or is it that they don't want people who called Barack Obama, the first black president, a racist to praise Martin Luther King?” added by: TimALoftis

Glenn Beck Is NOT Martin Luther King Jr.

Aug. 28 is an important day in American history. On that day, 47 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech at the Lincoln Memorial. His message gave voice to the voiceless and his vision promoted a just, equal, diverse and compassionate country. This Aug. 28, a very different sort of voice will ring out across those famous steps. Beck is not Martin Luther King Jr., and Brave New Foundation has launched a site for people to speak up and stand with Dr. King's vision, and to share what his vision means to you today. This Aug. 28, Beck and Sarah Palin's presence at the Lincoln Memorial reminds us of how much work still needs to be done. The racist, raging and hate-filled tenor of Beck, Palin and the Tea Party movement is in direct contrast to the noble vision spoken by Dr. King. Their outrageous attempts to divide America and to turn us against each other could not stand in starker contrast to King's vision of a shared humanity. The Reverend King once declared that, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” But we will not be silent on this matter. We will not let Beck and Palin hijack history and continue in their attempts to further harm and disrupt our collective future. During the Civil Rights Movement, the SNCC Freedom Singers adapted an old Labor protest song — “Which Side Are You On?” Forty-seven years ago, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous I Have A Dream speech, he asked the country which side of history they would be on. This Aug. 28, we're reminded that the question still needs to be answered. added by: TimALoftis