Scenes from a Glenn Beck Festival

WingnutsAugust 2010 • Views: 5,214

The Glenn Beck Hope Restoration Minstrel Show banned attendees from carrying signs, knowing from past Tea Party experience that a public relations disaster always ensues when the loons get creative with a piece of cardboard and a set of colored magic markers. And they were trying to appear non-political and super-ultra-tolerant on the anniversary of MLK’s “Dream” speech, so the signs had to go. (Also banned: guns, toy guns, and explosives.)

But a courageous few souls managed to resist this brazen censorship and smuggled signs past the Beck Gestapo. That’s how strongly they believed in their messages.

(Credit: Philip Cloutier.)

Here’s someone who isn’t buying Glenn Beck’s praise for Martin Luther King, Jr.

We also had a few neo-Confederate types who don’t seem to be the usual audience for an event invoking the name of Martin Luther King.

(Credit: Philip Cloutier.)

And here’s a counter-protester with a funny sign, and an anecdote from photographer Eric P.

“Go Back to Puerto Rico”

This guy was standing with a small group as the people exited the Smithsonian metro station to go to the rallies. One Glenn Beck rally-goer approached him and said “I’m not a racist, but you should go back to Puerto Rico”.

Naturally, having been born & raised in Puerto Rico, I found that comment’s ignorance both amusing and sad at the same time.

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58 comments

Kragar Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:42:49pm

“People, how are we supposed to keep the message in code when you morons keep showing up with signs letting the cat out of the bag?”

Jeff In Ohio Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:43:53pm

“Glenn Beck Restoration Minstrel Show”

Perfect .

Kragar Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:46:01pm

Palin’s meme for the day, Change is bad.

While broadcaster Glenn Beck’s rally isn’t billed as a political event, Palin says voters must reject calls to “fundamentally transform America.” Instead, she says “we must restore America.”

To what exactly?

Virginia Plain Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:47:16pm

To the image inside her head. Which technically would actually be a transformation.

b_sharp Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:48:19pm

re: #4 Virginia Plain

To the image inside her head. Which technically would actually be a transformation.

Nothing to something.

elbruce Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:49:03pm

Honestly, I think that the current withdrawal from Iraq restores America’s honor more than anything Beck or Palin could say or do.

Spare O'Lake Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:49:04pm

“I’m Brown and a US Citizen”, “Beck Fuels Terror” and “Glenn Beck Is A Bigot” are not funny signs, are they?
What the heck is the yellow-gree line, a bus route?

Killgore Trout Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:49:18pm

I wonder how many confederate supporters showed up to MLK’s original speech.
Image: dsc0206i.jpg

[Link: www.flickr.com…]
Let’s not leave out this guy: [Link: www.flickr.com…]

Kragar Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:49:25pm

Palins rambling;

Youtube Video

elbruce Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:50:16pm

This guy was standing with a small group as the people exited the Smithsonian metro station to go to the rallies. One Glenn Beck rally-goer approached him and said “I’m not a racist, but you should go back to Puerto Rico”.

To which I say: “Go back to Tulsa!!!”

Four More Tears Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:50:16pm

re: #3 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)

Palin’s meme for the day, Change is bad.

To what exactly?

Something it never really was in the first place.

Killgore Trout Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:50:55pm

The audio on this is unfortunately very bad…..
Glenn Beck “Restoring Honor” rally meets protesters

Youtube Video

The lady in blue is freaking out about not bowing to communism.

Gus Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:52:26pm

re: #3 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)

Palin’s meme for the day, Change is bad.

To what exactly?

Something from a 1950s movie. Maybe “Father Knows Best.”

It’s Unicorn talk of course.

Gus Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:53:03pm

An atavistic utopia. One that will never exist and based on something that never existed

Jeff In Ohio Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:54:58pm

re: #7 Spare O’Lake

“I’m Brown and a US Citizen”, “Beck Fuels Terror” and “Glenn Beck Is A Bigot” are not funny signs, are they?
What the heck is the yellow-gree line, a bus route?

[Link: www.huffingtonpost.com…]

THe Yellow and Green line server predominately black areas of DC.

windsagio Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:55:06pm

re: #14 Gus 802

Its one of the stranger kinks in the human psyche. We always want to idolize/idealize the past, no matter how lame it actually was.

(cue: This country/blog/world has gone to hell!)

MandyManners Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:55:36pm

“I’m not a racist, but you should go back to Puerto Rico”.

Doesn’t that moron realize that Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States? That’s similar to telling people to go back to Ohio or New York.

windsagio Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:55:58pm

re: #17 MandyManners

It is full of brown people tho’.

And socialists!

Jeff In Ohio Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:56:24pm

re: #17 MandyManners

“I’m not a racist, but you should go back to Puerto Rico”.

Doesn’t that moron realize that Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States? That’s similar to telling people to go back to Ohio or New York.

Hey now.

elbruce Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:56:37pm

re: #7 Spare O’Lake

“I’m Brown and a US Citizen”, “Beck Fuels Terror” and “Glenn Beck Is A Bigot” are not funny signs, are they?
What the heck is the yellow-gree line, a bus route?

It’s a couple of D.C. Metro subway lines. This guy was giving advice to rally attendees to avoid certain areas of D.C. since they might come into contact with black people and offend them by being prejudiced dicks:

DC’s population includes refugees from every country, as the families of embassy staffs of third world countries tend to stay in DC whenever a revolution in their homeland means that anyone in their family would be in danger if they went back. Most taxi drivers and many waiters/waitresses (especially in local coffee shops like the Bread and Chocolate chain) are immigrants, frequently from east Africa or Arab countries. As a rule, African immigrants do not like for you to assume they are African Americans and especially do not like for you to guess they are from a neighboring country (e.g. Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia) with whom they may have political or military tensions. It’s rare to meet anyone who gets really offended, but you can still be aware of the issue.
Many parts of DC are safe beyond the areas I will list here, but why chance it if you don’t know where you are?

I mean, it’s not like a Becker would be able to resist yapping on about the national origin of an African-American trying to hand them a latte, so it’s just better if they try to avoid them altogether. Good advice, IMO.

Gus Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:58:14pm

re: #16 windsagio

Its one of the stranger kinks in the human psyche. We always want to idolize/idealize the past, no matter how lame it actually was.

(cue: This country/blog/world has gone to hell!)

Hulu has this interesting documentary available right now called the Salesman. It followed a group of books salesmen selling bible around the country. In it you get to peer into the lives of people and how things were for many families back in 1969. I was a mere child back then but viewing this now it almost seems as though I’m looking into an archaic civilization from 100 years ago.

windsagio Sat, Aug 28, 2010 3:58:52pm

re: #21 Gus 802

I’ll watch that at work tonight >> Sounds amazing!

b_sharp Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:00:47pm

CFL game on.
BBL

Gus Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:03:33pm

Ha, this one’s good.

[Link: www.flickr.com…]

Gus Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:04:02pm

Typical nut.

[Link: www.flickr.com…]

elbruce Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:06:35pm

Zombie movie review time… There’s this great one I saw recently called Fido with Billy Connolly. What really impressed me about it is the notion of 50’s society as a bunch of people with severe PTSD trying desperately to pretend that the world is a perfect sanitized place and that everything will be just fine if you insist that it is. Which is a really interesting perspective on what the “greatest generation” were trying to do with their manicured media representation of the 50’s. Everytime I hear that song “pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile” it reminds me of that attitude: an entire society of people collectively engaging in incredibly psychologically unhealthy denialism.

Gus Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:07:56pm

Oathkeeper

[Link: www.flickr.com…]

Gus Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:08:28pm

La Rouche

[Link: www.flickr.com…]

windsagio Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:09:20pm

re: #25 Gus 802

how do you gut the military AND have a dictatorship? Whose going to keep the well-armed citizenry down?

Killgore Trout Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:09:49pm

re: #25 Gus 802

Typical nut.

[Link: www.flickr.com…]

I lived in the DC area for 8-9 years. Never once saw a cowboy hat.

sagehen Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:09:59pm

re:

Gus Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:10:06pm

re: #29 windsagio

how do you gut the military AND have a dictatorship? Whose going to keep the well-armed citizenry down?

First you have to drink a case of Coors beer. /

Killgore Trout Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:10:10pm

re: #27 Gus 802

Oathkeeper

[Link: www.flickr.com…]

Good eye.

elbruce Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:10:35pm

re: #30 Killgore Trout

I lived in the DC area for 8-9 years. Never once saw a cowboy hat.

“Go back to Lubbock!”

MandyManners Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:10:40pm

re: #31 sagehen

You don’t say.

Skeetghazi Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:10:57pm

[Link: www.flickr.com…]

What is this money the kid is holding?

abolitionist Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:11:45pm

re: #29 windsagio

how do you gut the military AND have a dictatorship? Whose going to keep the well-armed citizenry down?

Mao (and Adolf) exploited youth organizations.

Gus Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:12:01pm

re: #36 Stanley Sea

[Link: www.flickr.com…]

What is this money the kid is holding?

You can see it better here.

[Link: www.flickr.com…]

Andrew X Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:12:20pm

Sorry guys, but I was there, and there were about a bazillion signs. I won’t comment on any effort to keep signs away for the reasons you say, I will only say that there was no evidence that that was taking place, and would have been a hopeless effort, anyway.

I saw two confederate flag T-shirts, no flags, I have no doubt they were there, but we all well versed on the use of photos to spin a story. I saw more outright communist iconography in DC, and far more violent imagery directed at Bush and Cheney, at any number of anti-war demos in DC five and seven years ago. (I go to most such rallies, regardless of what they are about.) Talk about a literal minstrel show…. there was an astonishing lack of giant puppets at today’s rally. That’s what a minstrel show IS.

By all means, cherry pick away. We all know the drill.

windsagio Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:12:53pm

re: #37 abolitionist

I don’t think the Young Republicans would help >>

ok offfor a bit!

Jeff In Ohio Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:13:20pm

re: #37 abolitionist

Mao (and Adolf) exploited youth organizations.

And gutted the military?

Cineaste Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:13:27pm

I love that they have to explicitly ban explosives.

Says a lot about what they think of their own audience.

I thought they were afraid of Muslims because they all carry explosives?

QED:

They should protest themselves. After all, wasn’t Timothy McVeigh a white, christian ‘libertarian’ seeking to take the country back from a tyrannical government?

Or should we not paint them all with the brush of a few crazed extremists?

oh wait…

windsagio Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:13:38pm

re: #39 Andrew X

“Its the other guys clearly that are the problem, don’t look over here!”

Gus Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:13:55pm

re: #39 Andrew X

Sorry guys, but I was there, and there were about a bazillion signs. I won’t comment on any effort to keep signs away for the reasons you say, I will only say that there was no evidence that that was taking place, and would have been a hopeless effort, anyway.

I saw two confederate flag T-shirts, no flags, I have no doubt they were there, but we all well versed on the use of photos to spin a story. I saw more outright communist iconography in DC, and far more violent imagery directed at Bush and Cheney, at any number of anti-war demos in DC five and seven years ago. (I go to most such rallies, regardless of what they are about.) Talk about a literal minstrel show… there was an astonishing lack of giant puppets at today’s rally. That’s what a minstrel show IS.

By all means, cherry pick away. We all know the drill.

That’s not true. There was on very giant puppet.

Glenn Beck

Gus Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:14:11pm

re: #44 Gus 802

That’s not true. There was one very giant puppet.

Glenn Beck

Obdicut Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:14:38pm

re: #39 Andrew X

Talk about a literal minstrel show… there was an astonishing lack of giant puppets at today’s rally. That’s what a minstrel show IS.

Que?

Jeff In Ohio Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:16:05pm

re: #39 Andrew X

Minstrel shows are about puppets?

abolitionist Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:17:02pm

re: #41 Jeff In Ohio

And gutted the military?

Aldof, definitely not; don’t know if Mao did. Both certainly used youth as an extended domestic spy network, and for directing intimidation.

RadicalModerate Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:17:21pm

In today’s “really, I didn’t think it would have been seen as racist” story….

Grocer Pulls Confederate Flag Cake -
Winn-Dixie Spokesman Calls Cake ‘An Error In Judgment’

Jeff In Ohio Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:17:45pm

re: #48 abolitionist

Aldof, definitely not; don’t know if Mao did. Both certainly used youth as an extended domestic spy network, and for directing intimidation.

Sure. They were also both short.

Cineaste Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:17:49pm

re: #39 Andrew X

Talk about a literal minstrel show… there was an astonishing lack of giant puppets at today’s rally. That’s what a minstrel show IS.

Um, no, a minstrel show is a distinctly racist event where blacks were performing outsized stereotypes of unintelligent and subservient caricatures of what whites believed blacks were or should be. Or, in later years, they were performed by whites in black face.

windsagio Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:18:03pm

Since there’s a new thread now, I can drop this in and not feel guilty:
Speaking of ‘what have we come to’, roguelike serial killer game.

Freaky!

elbruce Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:31:19pm

re: #39 Andrew X

I saw more outright communist iconography in DC…

The problem with claims of firsthand accounts is as follows. I’ve attended 100% of every left-leaning rally in D.C. and saw exactly zero examples of communist iconography. There. I’ve presented exactly as much evidence for my claim as you have of yours, and am no more or less capable of proving my claim, so we’re even.

Cato the Elder Sat, Aug 28, 2010 4:44:15pm

re: #39 Andrew X

Srr gs, bt ws thr, nd thr wr bt bzlln sgns. wn’t cmmnt n n ffrt t kp sgns w fr th rsns s, wll nl s tht thr ws n vdnc tht tht ws tkng plc, nd wld hv bn hplss ffrt, nw.

sw tw cnfdrt flg T-shrts, n flgs, hv n dbt th wr thr, bt w ll wll vrsd n th s f phts t spn str. sw mr trght cmmnst cngrph n DC, nd fr mr vlnt mgr drctd t Bsh nd Chn, t n nmbr f nt-wr dms n DC fv nd svn yrs g. (g t mst sch rlls, rgrdlss f wht th r bt.) Tlk bt ltrl mnstrl shw… thr ws n stnshng lck f gnt pppts t td’s rll. Tht’s wht mnstrl shw S.

B ll mns, chrr pck w. W ll knw th drll.

Choad.

122 Year Old Obama Sat, Aug 28, 2010 5:14:37pm

re: #39 Andrew X

Oh hey, class of 2004 as well.

HappyWarrior Sat, Aug 28, 2010 6:00:13pm

Haha I love the Yellow and Green lines sign reference. Utterly brilliant.

fizzlogic Sat, Aug 28, 2010 6:35:03pm

Hey, I think I bought a dime bag from some Yippee’s back in the 70s on that same spot under the Washington Monument where that MLK hater is standing.

ClaudeMonet Sun, Aug 29, 2010 1:05:01am

re: #17 MandyManners

“I’m not a racist, but you should go back to Puerto Rico”.

Doesn’t that moron realize that Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States? That’s similar to telling people to go back to Ohio or New York.

I live in Ohio and was born in New York. The problem is that while many people tell me where to go, it’s rarely to either of those two states.

Spy Mode Auto

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