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Glenn Beck with a Turban Would be Just Another Terrorist in Gitmo as He Daily Commits Treason

Submitted by mark karlin on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 12:30pm.

EditorBlog

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

By Mark Karlin

The other day we ran a photo of Glenn Beck on the front page of BuzzFlash.com with this caption:

The Face of Treason. If Glenn Beck wore a turban and incited violence the way he does, he would be in Gitmo as a terrorist and enemy of the state. Click here to financially support passionate progressive news."

A lot of Americans would consider this a radical, over-the-top statement, but it's not.

Think if anyone who was Arab and vaguely associated with the Taliban or Al-Qaeda were to foment on American television insurrection, rebellion, and treason against the United States government, as Glenn Beck -- and many of his cohorts are doing. Such an Arab would go straight to Gitmo, even as they prepare to close up the torture shop down there.

Beck has engaged in such an unrelenting pernicious fanciful creation of the Obama Administration as the enemy -- just as Al Qaeda does -- that he is guilty of treason. Beck doesn't contest (unless you include the "illegitimate Obama birth" movement) the election of a Democratic administration, he -- in essence -- calls for its overthrow. That's what treason is all about.

But because he's a white guy on the airwaves who has helped bully through the notion that white guys who believe that America belongs to them -- and they've got the guns to make it that way -- he continues to air his anti-American "wink and nod" call for blood in the streets over a phantom enemy (meaning the U.S. government) without repercussions. In fact, he has become a multi-millionaire from spooning out what is essentially terrorist rhetoric.

Beck spawns people like a dangerous nut-job, Bob Basso, who will appear at an Arkansas Tea-bagger event on June 15th, according to Examiner writer, Ron Moore:

Basso says ... that just like the American Revolution thousands will be dead in the streets if Obama is not stopped. He further asserts that America is a “uni-cultural” society and that multi-culturalism will lead to the country’s destruction. He postulates that if Islamic women are allowed to wear "neck scarves" over their face for driver’s license pictures then Klan members can wear their hoods. He apparently believes that by posing as an historical revolutionary figure that his hate speech is more palatable. From the recent murder of a health care provider in Kansas to this week’s killing at the U.S. Holocaust Museum the cries of revolution continue to be treated as marching orders by some leaving us all in peril.

If it walks like a domestic terrorist, talks like a domestic terrorist, and acts like a domestic terrorist, then Glenn Beck and co-horts are enablers of domestic terrorism and a threat to the nation.

And though it is unspeakable to mention, but when you have a FOX and Rush Limbaugh Jihad embedding in the minds of people who are now wired to believe lies as truths, lies presented forcefully on television or the radio, you can bet that there is a Beck-FOX inspired cartel out there planning on assassinating Obama.

We have a fine First Amendment in the United States, but you can't yell fire in a theater if there is none. And you can't promote insurrection and armed conflict -- sometimes with a wink and a nod -- and get away with it. That is, unless you are white and work for a corporation that makes millions of dollars, using the public airwaves, as you promote treason and bloodshed by defining anyone who is not white and Christian as an enemy of the state.

Send Beck, Hannity, O'Reily, Coulter, Limbaugh and the like to Gitmo.

America needs to treat terrorists equally across the board, whether they are on FOX or in Pakistan.

Otherwise, there will be more gunshots -- many more -- as democracy is shot full of holes by the modern assassins of democracy.

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

How Would The Republicans Feel

Submitted by lapdogs on Mon, 06/15/2009 - 10:17am.

about Habeas Corpus if Beck, O'Reilly, Limbaugh and the other Rightwing Whackos got thrown in Getmo for instigating angry crowds in the US? Guess that would be different.

Glen "Traitor" Becl

Submitted by Arguendo on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 10:53pm.

You mention "fire in a theatre" as an unacceptable instance of free speech. Well, aren't the vitriolic rantings of Beck & Co. essentially the same thing? (They're inciting insurrection and murder!) I think the same reasoning should be applied and he and his like should be stopped!!!!!

Beck - Republicans and far right

Submitted by Janejane on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 7:50pm.

When the Republicans and Bush were in power, anything we said, they called us traitors, and that we should leave the country if we don't like it. Well, now the shoe is on the other foot - such hypocrites that they are. As a duly elected President, and winning a majority of votes, must mean that a huge portion of Republicans, Independents, and some far right must have voted for Obama, not just Democrats. According to stats on population, the Republicans had a good percentage of voters on their voting records. As disgruntled Americans, a lot of them voted for Obama. They too wanted change. These "mouths" on TV are just that, they get paid very well and really don't care about the average Joe. Just like O'Reilly, O'Reilly considers himself middle class! WHAT? now he is making millions of dollars a year? I'd like to be in his "middle" class. The big corporations are funding these talk shows because they do not want to loose their outrageously high salaries and bonuses. It all comes down to money. We just need to counterbalance any of these talk shows with our own. Giving balance to media programming is the best, but you wouldn't know it from FOX NEWS (So-called fair and balanced). Personally if we all ignored all these bullys on TV, they would soon loose their ratings and fall to the wayside.

Ignore Hate Talkers Who Ignite the Eliminationsts at Your Peril

Submitted by Mark on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 6:27pm.

"Last night, Dave Neiwert's brilliant new book, The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right arrived. I've already read half of it and man is it a page turner of the first order. More importantly, it is essential reading if you want to understand clearly the danger posed by the likes of Limbaugh and Beck. Dave makes a convincing case that they are not mere buffoons whose eliminationist rhetoric can be downplayed or safely ignored, as it was recently in a disgracefully misleading front-page Times article on Beck. (Nowhere in the article did Brian Stelter or Bill Carter (or their editors) find the space, for example, to mention, as Dave does, that when he was on CNN Headline News, Glenn Beck publicly endorsed the John Birch Society or that Beck has continued to push Birchers in his new job on Fox.)"

-- Posted on Digby's Hullabaloo

Beck

Submitted by Jack Beckett on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 3:15pm.

The reason, I believe, this guy Beck gets a pass is that most reasonable people view him as a self-deluded clown strutting around on the media stage working with very little in terms of knowledge, reason or intellectual capacity in order to get the ear of his audience. Stretching the definition of Treason in order to accommodate these small minded bombast's only strengthens the case for an open society and a thinking public. They're finished and they know it. They're treasonous rhetoric can be viewed as desperation. At our most troubled time, we have a thinking President and tuned-in people, we should all feel good about that.

It’s this sort of writing

Submitted by Barry Schwartz on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 2:51pm.

It’s this sort of writing and speaking that makes it impossible to accuse a person of treason and be taken seriously. Until you can come up with evidence of an actual coup, you are merely libeling the odious Mr. Beck (much as many have libeled the equally odious Rush Limbaugh).

I’ve got news for you, bud: it is not treason in the United States to wish that the United States Government be overthrown; it is not even the sort of ‘ethical’ (but technically legal) treason that was committed by the Felonious Five. The Felonious Five actually staged a coup.

A person can’t easily get taken seriously in this rhetorical climate, and it is difficult to make ourselves appear distinct from the rhetorical blowhards of the right. Thanks a lot.

rhetoric

Submitted by simurgh on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 5:39pm.

Unless you live in a bubble, you must be aware that there are lots and lots of people in this country who are advocating exactly what Beck is talking about. He must be taken seriously, because there are those who indeed take him seriously. They are armed and ready to rid this country of whatever vermon they think are a threat to them. In fact, two of those just committed murder in the name of their cause. Wake up. And don't tell me these were "individuals acting alone" ... they were two of many who simply carried out their sick vendetas. This movement of the far-right is not merely rhetoric; it is embedded in the minds of many and is on the move. This is not a game we are in. If the full scale of the craziness were broadcast by the major media, the average person would freak out. Beck may be a clown, but he has an entire circus behind him.

...It's this sort of writing

Submitted by bogwart on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 3:16pm.

Thank heavens for some common sense. We look in from outside and all we see is a bunch of hysterical children shouting insults at each other, and now the Democrats seem intent on taking over the Republicans' methods lock, stock and barrel. It just looks like a bunch of monkeys jumping up and down hurling handfuls of shit at each other, and is not helpful or constructive. If people believe these reptiles have committed treason, then make efforts to have them indicted. Otherwise, avoid such hyperbole.

treason

Submitted by lyng on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 3:14pm.

Apparently you didn't like the results of the last election, which is how we legally change our government. Attempting to overthrow the government by other means is, by definition, treason. You have the right to criticize the government and protest the government's actions, but you don't have the right to overthrow it and instigate insurrection. Beck's exhortations may be protected speech, but it comes very close to crossing the line and is no different from the extremist Muslims who call for their brethren to attack the U.S. and/or kill Americans.

History Repeats Itself

Submitted by mivince79 on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 2:41pm.

Neither the Nazis nor Mussolini's Fascists were ever a majority of the polity in their respective nations. Neither are the puffed up gasbags of the Neanderthal right.Yet, the movements are similar in some degree. Their rhetoric is, indeed, over the top and anti-democratic. Civil discourse it is not. They talk about Republican principles; yet, they have no principles. They blather on about being Conservatives. And yet, what is it they would conserve: The right of the few to own all of the wealth? The right of corporations to make beggars of the American worker? The right of the President (preferably their President)to wage unrelenting war on the rest of the world in the name of empire? We who care about the republic bequeathed to us by the likes of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Ben Franklin, Tom Paine, had better return the fire. In the contest of ideas, truth will forever govern ignorance.

The Nazis and Fascists were

Submitted by Barry Schwartz on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 2:54pm.

The Nazis and Fascists were an order of magnitude higher than the Republicans. This is easiest to see by noting that the Nazis had a huge private army of World War I veterans, whereas the Republicans have dozens and dozens of bedwetting chickenhawks.

(The rhetoric of the neocon chickenhawks does have some resemblance to that of Imperial Japan, but they are like kiddies playing a game, in comparison to actual Imperial Japan.)

Bedwetters!

Submitted by mivince79 on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 7:42pm.

I loved it! What a great description.

indeed

Submitted by simurgh on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 2:34pm.

Yes, the morons are growing in power and force and this great country called the "United States" may very well fall the way of the dodo ... wonder what the memory of such will be a hundred years from now ... the stupified mentality of Beck and his cult of hate and violence will be the downfall of the US as we know it. Sad. Can anything be done about this hateful, violent, revengeful "party" of miscreants? Probably not - the country is run by big shots (no pun intended) who only want to see $$$$$$$$ in their pockets. The rest of us will be swept aside in their war. Hmmm, i seem to remember something from my childhood about "the meek shall inherit the earth" ... Beck/cult don't seem to be very meek, but then again those who call for all-out overthrow of the government usually aren't meek. Weak perhaps - in intelligence and compassion. Perhaps their flaming red warrior rhetoric will win them a prize; a prize they may not want once they get it. Like monkeys at a poop-fest, they'll be ready to through more at a new "cause". Will they ever learn? Meanwhile, support BuzzFlash and support being a good Human Being.

beck's an uneducated

Submitted by christopherflynn on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 2:12pm.

beck's an uneducated bigot...unfortunately, the audience that listens to him also fit into that category, but are far worse...just because they accept the crap he throws out there, without question(s)...

The spin

Submitted by oneeggcream on Sun, 06/14/2009 - 3:28pm.

The question is, how do we get these dittoheads to wake up and realize that all of this is just WRONG!!! It's not a case of Democrat, Republican, Left or right, liberal or conservative. It's a case of whats true and whats really false!

You don't

Submitted by urthsong on Mon, 06/15/2009 - 3:53am.

Only 21% of Americans now claim to be Republicans. Some of those such as Colin Powell are moderates. But mostly, at this point, they are left with a hard core of their party that is beyond reason, reflecting many with cult mentalities. It's a sad, sad day when Republicans, in order to get elected in their primaries, must appeal to such a minority base. This is why we saw the erratic McCain-Palin campaign trying to hold its hard-core radicals while attempting to appeal to moderate voters. Does the public still own the public airwaves? Does it have legal power over that which is transmitted by cable? Inciting violent overthrow of the government has never been part of free speech in this country. Everything short of inciting to violence is protected as free speech. But not that. If they can fine a network for exposure of a woman's breast, they can certainly rein in the most extreme of this speech. Pat Williams

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