Glenn Beck spoke to a crowd of 7,000 Saturday at Seattle's Safeco baseball field, sponsored by Evergreen Freedom Foundation.
His message was responsibility and opportunity. I didn't write down quotes, but he continually spoke of being responsible for your own actions. Failure leads to new approaches and success. Success comes to those who work harder, think smarter, try new ideas and take risks. Risks! Not from sitting down and being dependent on others and the empathetic government bureaucrats.
Need is the mother of invention. Making it happen - ingenuity and hard work - is the father.
In his own life he faced personal failure, took a new approach, worked hard, then was successful, but he didn't talk about himself. Recently some liberals have tried to expose his old life. They can't expose it, because he talks about it.
EFF also highlighted their pioneering work by Bob Williams, Lynn Harsh and staff in education - misuse of teachers' forced union dues; school performance. Taxes - Look up how your property taxes compare to others'. The Supreme Court of Washington. Misuse ofpublic records by King County and our governor and attorney general.
They honored active military and veterans. A highlight was a monologue by TV and film star James McEachin wearing his Korean War uniform. They also honored two Washington Medal of Honor awardees.
About my photos: Glenn grew up in Mt. Vernon, WA., 60 miles north of Seattle. His grandmother told him when he moved away to tell peope that it always rains here.
Quite frankly though, after his wondrous, hyperbolic tale of a "horrific" emergency room ordeal, I don't know how you folks take him seriously.
Posted by: demo kid on September 27, 2009 09:48 AMQuite frankly though, I don't know how the Far Left folks take him seriously other than the fact we will be the equivalent of a third world country in four years.
Posted by: Tim on September 27, 2009 10:39 AMWhat's wrong with the message to work, to not give up, to take risks, to push yourself for betterment of all?
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on September 27, 2009 10:50 AMDemo kid has had about as much substance to his rants over time as kool aid has posing as spaghetti sauce. Posted by: PC on September 27, 2009 10:50 AM
@3: Hey, there's nothing wrong with any message to work hard, do your best, all of that. But assuming that a social safety net is equivalent to Stalinism discredits Beck (and fools like you) in my mind.
Posted by: demo kid on September 27, 2009 12:05 PMhttp://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepresidentandcabinet/a/presidentialpay.htm
He also has the most liberal voting record while in the Senate. Couple that with his friends like Bill Ayers and you have a perfect example Obama being a Far Leftist.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/voteratings/sen/lib.htm?o1=lib_composite&o2=desc#vr
Please enjoy the afternoon. It is beautiful outside today!!
Posted by: Tim on September 27, 2009 01:16 PM"What's wrong with the message to work, to not give up, to take risks, to push yourself for betterment of all?"
Indeed, what is wrong with such a message?
There's a sucker born every minute.
Posted by: Tim on September 27, 2009 02:23 PM
As far as making money goes, the people on the far left will always hate him for that. They hate capitalism because it rewards ambition and goal-achieving. Those are dirty words with the fringe left. I think they believe we all should make the same amount of money regardless of what we do and how well we do it. They also hate a successful capitalist almost as much as capitalism itself.
Posted by: Politically Incorrect on September 27, 2009 03:18 PMBeck has spent the last 2 months telling America about the Redistributionists, Marxists, and Communists who populate the Obama Administration, and the Democrats, Communists, and ReDistros do not like it.... so they begin the attack.
Doesn't America have a right to have SOMEBODY tell us about these people? HUH?
Posted by: Keb on September 27, 2009 04:36 PMNot all people who find Glenn Beck's commentary offensive and racist are leftists.
Posted by: Blindman on September 27, 2009 05:01 PM
I haven't come across any paper or work authored by Glenn Beck that demonstrates any capacity for original thinking. GB shows no history of military service or farming or construction work. GB IMO does not appear to be a ligit example of his own message, common-sensible as is may be. It's sort-of like listening to Bill Gates talk about computers as if Gary Kildall never existed.
Posted by: donbless on September 27, 2009 06:30 PM
Hopefully, they spent money at local establishments, supporting Seattle's economy in a tough time, and paid plenty taxes toward Seattle's liberal social-welfare programs. I was hoping Seattle would make more money, but we'll take what we can get. (Then again, FreedomWorks conservatively estimated the crowd size at 234 trillion, so maybe we did better.)
MikeBoyScout: nice touch. I wonder how many of those folks would be howling about indoctrination if a liberal said the exact same things?
Demo Kid: congrats for prompting one of the most perfect examples of wingnut projection yet! It's impossible to tell anymore if he even meant it as satire.
I didn't write down quotes...
Wow, even the favorable reviewer admits the speaker said nothing worth bothering to jot down! Tough crowd! (Did he say anything about 'traditional values'? If so, the parents in the audience had better start worrying about their young'uns -- we all know what kind of right-wing guys go around saying that stuff to impressionable youths.)
Posted by: tensor on September 27, 2009 06:55 PMhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/13/MNTH16EUOE.DTL
Posted by: Tim on September 27, 2009 07:13 PMIt's not capitalism that I have a problem with, just the lack of responsibility that capitalism can promote. I don't think, for example, that a company should be able to sell lead paint to consumers and simply get away with it by claiming caveat emptor.
@17: I like Glenn Beck for one main reason: he's the only mainstream media figure who has some really tough questions he'd like to ask the President.
There's a difference between "tough questions" -- questions that call out inconsistencies and lapses in logic with someone's stance -- and "Glenn Beck's tough questions", which hinge on audience members being so dense and dumb that they need issues boiled down to catchphrases.
And I don't think any reasonably intelligent person could think of him as anything but an absurd right-wing buffoon after watching Beck drawing "octomom" and a crack pipe in an orphan's hand in this video.
Posted by: demo kid on September 27, 2009 07:19 PMDumbo, you crack me up... you really do.
With fringe-left, empty suited, anti-American racist bigot supporting organizations like ACORN and moveon, for you to actually say something like THAT?
My God, the stench of hypocrisy you bring with your posts here is hard to describe.
Posted by: hinton on September 27, 2009 08:24 PMCase closed.
Posted by: P on September 27, 2009 08:27 PMSo, he gave examples of his having made incorrect statements, and his having publicly corrected those statements, in a forum with the same audience as the original mistakes? Do tell.
Oh, wait, there was another reason you neglected to take accurate quotations...
Posted by: tensor on September 27, 2009 09:42 PMSo, he gave examples of his having made incorrect statements, and his having publicly corrected those statements, in a forum with the same audience as the original mistakes? Do tell.
Oh, wait, there was another reason you neglected to take accurate quotations...
Posted by: tensor on September 27, 2009 09:42 PM@22: That is REALLY irrelevant. Folks like you are just as bad if not worse than the right-wingnuts.
Posted by: demo kid on September 27, 2009 10:58 PMActually I think you are being generous - true capitalism has nothing to do with responsibility at all - other than to one's own personal welfare - in fact the genuine predatory capitalism most commonly espoused is all about destroying your competitors - whether they be the single mother looking for a job - or the small business man down the street. You can see what happen to all the Mom and Pop Hardware stores when the big box stores came in.
Pretty simple really.
That is the whole point of regulation.
Patrick
Posted by: Patrick on September 27, 2009 11:01 PMBut mom-and-pop versus big box stores, though? Ehhh... in those cases I don't mind being Darwinian and Schumpeterian. It may be brutal, but why exactly is everything local automatically "good"? If these folks can't provide superior price and/or quality, why should local residents implicitly subsidize their inefficient business models by keeping out their competitors?
(So much for the wingnuts that like to think of me as a "far leftist"...)
Posted by: demo kid on September 27, 2009 11:48 PMThe amount of venom thrown at Glenn Beck in anticipation of his recent visit shows yet again that the left just can't accept criticism. They would rather attempt to destroy the man than try to intellectually deal with the idea that someone out there might not agree with their politics.
I mean look at some of the commentary above. To try to discredit Glenn Beck they have to whip out cannards like selling consumers lead paint? (As if anyone out there is promoting the idea that we should roll back regulations. Common sense rules and capitalism are not mutually exclusive.)
Oh dear, he drew a crack pipe into someones hand and made fun of the Octomom!! (As if that kind of thing isn't done on SNL and the John Stewart Show just about every episode.)
The absolute hatred of the guy is so totally on display. It would be funny if it weren't so pathetic.
I'll be the first to say that sometimes Glenn Beck is a little over the top and certainly not my cup to tea, but not sure he at all deserves the kind of manufactured outrage that those one the left shovel his direction. Especially when similar antics done by lefty Michael Moore earn major artistic awards by the same group of idiots.
Listening to the all the tv coverage about Beck's coming, the one thing I heard again and again is about how he dared to call Obama a racist and isn't that just the worst thing. (A few weeks ago, we had Jimmy Carter on tv calling everyone who isn't for the health care scheme a racist, and none of these people blinked.)
Glenn Beck has managed to grow a quite sizable viewership, so the left has to believe that they are all morons. Never mind that these people tend to have jobs, mortgages, retirement plans, etc. which is why they are concerned about Obama's policies and government takeovers. They aren't worth listening to in the minds of the left.
Compare that kind of stance to their stance on Jesse Jackson and his legions at PUSH or Obama and his millions of ACORN followers. In their minds, those are legitimate groups worthy of respect and attention. The fact that the members of these groups tend to truly be less educated should by no means discount their valuable political voices. These are "legitimate Americans with legitimate concerns that we should be be listening to." Never mind all that they ever seem to want is a handout.
(Watch someone on the left call me a racist now because I pointed out that the poor represented by PUSH and ACORN tend to be less educated. Never mind that it's just a fact that the poor do tend to be less educated. Years of government and private studies back that up. But I'll still be a racist for pointing this out.)
Love him or hate him, I think Glenn Beck did a great job of showing who the real haters are in modern day America. Watching the left take swipes at the guy absolutely shows who is really anxious to crush dissent and shut down debate.
Posted by: johnny on September 28, 2009 04:51 AMIndeed. The irrational hatred for Glenn Beck is almost palpable on the left...and yes, it is manufactured. The imbeciles get fed their talking points for the day and like Pavlov's dog, they begin their frothing at the mouth regurgitation of Rahm Emanuel's dictum. Whining about Beck making 18M is just ignorant. He's making what the free market has decided he is worth. I think someones just jealous. Some trade wealth for power, which is what Obama is doing for the time being. It's not an altruism to serve his country and never has been.
Beck is a local guy that came back to receive an award. I wonder how many of these pathetic peoople that are criticizing him are trasplants (like HA's Goldy, Lee, etc) from somewhere else? Demo? Mike BS? Tensor?
Posted by: Rick D on September 28, 2009 06:09 AMHey, I'd have no problem with Obama telling kids to eat their vegetables. Now, passing law and regulations requiring such consumption, I have a serious problem with.
Do you not see the difference?
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on September 28, 2009 07:35 AMYes. You.
I, and other left-leaning folks here, have presented real reasons why people should be very skeptical of Beck's message. Your response? To rant, and dismiss these criticisms without really addressing them.
How is THAT not "crushing dissent" or "stifling debate"? Seems like I'm the one asking the "tough questions", and you're just the ones not answering them. I haven't said ANYTHING about taking him off the air or boycotting him, or even that the REAL concerns of his audience should be ignored.
Sheesh. Sometimes I marvel at how the right can be so self-deluded!
Posted by: demo kid on September 28, 2009 07:44 AMYes. You.
I, and other left-leaning folks here, have presented real reasons why people should be very skeptical of Beck's message. Your response? To rant, and dismiss these criticisms without really addressing them.
How is THAT not "crushing dissent" or "stifling debate"? Seems like I'm the one asking the "tough questions", and you're just the ones not answering them. I haven't said ANYTHING about taking him off the air or boycotting him, or even that the REAL concerns of his audience should be ignored.
Sheesh. Sometimes I marvel at how the right can be so self-deluded!
Posted by: demo kid on September 28, 2009 07:44 AMNo it's not fear. Palin and Beck are baffoons leading the GOP to permanent minority party. It's that simple.
Posted by: Robert on September 28, 2009 09:06 AM"Asking tough questions." Linking to an article on GAWKER and accusing Beck of making a lot of money? Wow. Hard hitting stuff there.
"Equating the social safety net to stalism" - If you've never met anyone that has turned the "safety net" into a hammock you need to get out more. If you don't think that politicians use the "safety net" as a way to do political payoffs, you also need to do a little research.
(Researching Obamas relationship with Bill Ayers and their education project that syphoned government money to radical organizations might be a little too convoluted for you, so start with ACORN.)
You point out that Beck can be a little heavy handed? (The Octo / crack pipe thing) Asked and answered. Beck is a little heavy handed - just like John Stewart, SNL, the afore mentioned oberman and his "worst person in the world" shtick. As I said, he's not my cup of tea either.
Not sure what's hard hitting about any of that.
All I see here is another leftist attempt to discredit a man and a movement based on the strategy of "death by a thousand little cuts." Malign the man, amplify little comments he says to make them look silly, etc.
Now, addressing the big point that Glenn Beck believes that the government is spending too much, doesn't manage well what it does have, abuses authority and is heading toward catastrophe, well those are bigger questions that you don't want to really get into.
Posted by: Johnny on September 28, 2009 09:07 AMI'm making a point, and using evidence to back it up. Try doing it sometime... it actually helps.
The comment about Beck making money was related to a comment someone else was making about how much Obama makes. Given that Beck passes himself off as an everyman as well, it's important to realize that... well... he's not. And when you're making $18 million, and telling folks out of a job that they should support lower taxes for the rich, doesn't that seem suspicious to you?
If you've never met anyone that has turned the "safety net" into a hammock you need to get out more. If you don't think that politicians use the "safety net" as a way to do political payoffs, you also need to do a little research.
Ugh. Did I say that I don't think that BOTH things happen? I've worked for social service agencies before, and I KNOW that there are people out there that try to scam the system, and others that will never leave the social welfare system for one reason or another. Likewise, I don't harbor any illusions that politicians of BOTH parties "pay off" their supporters in different ways. Big business loves the subsidies and contracts provided to them by Democrats as well as Republicans.
However, there are folks that need support at times from the government, and if we consider ourselves to be one nation instead of a whole bunch of individuals that just happen to live next to one another, it's important to deal with those needs fairly. If there are issues of fraud or corruption, then that's fine... deal with those problems. The general principle of giving folks that need help some basic assistance, though, is separate from the need for punishment or revenge. Quite frankly, it seems like conservatives just want to get a sense of smug self-satisfaction out of watching innocent families starve, and having poor folks grovel and beg to them for help to survive. Too bad many of them forget that they at one time relied on the same services (or may even rely on those services now!).
Researching Obamas relationship with Bill Ayers and their education project that syphoned government money to radical organizations might be a little too convoluted for you, so start with ACORN.
Irrelevant to this discussion. We're talking about Beck here. Trotting out the tired right-wing bogeymen is standard for conservatives that can't make their case.
And if you're going to bring up the Annenberg Challenge, you might as well get your facts straight. It was a nonpartisan effort that was mainly criticized by conservatives because it didn't follow their ideological support of school vouchers.
Asked and answered. Beck is a little heavy handed - just like John Stewart, SNL, the afore mentioned oberman and his "worst person in the world" shtick. As I said, he's not my cup of tea either.
Saying that everyone that needs unemployment or food stamps is an addict or has eight kids is not "a little heavy handed", it's downright disturbing. And at least SNL and Jon Stewart are funny. Beck is just a bad actor.
All I see here is another leftist attempt to discredit a man and a movement based on the strategy of "death by a thousand little cuts." Malign the man, amplify little comments he says to make them look silly, etc.
And all I see here is another pathetic rightist attempt at deflection. (And a blatant ignorance about the tactics that conservatives use as well.)
Now, addressing the big point that Glenn Beck believes that the government is spending too much, doesn't manage well what it does have, abuses authority and is heading toward catastrophe, well those are bigger questions that you don't want to really get into.
Hey, you're free to believe whatever you want to believe, even if it is poorly thought out or argued. I really enjoy the fact, though, that conservatives didn't really seem to care about all this stuff until a Democrat was in office. All this smacks of is rank hypocrisy.
Posted by: demo kid on September 28, 2009 12:29 PMUm... yes, we did. Didn't you see what we did to the GOP Congress? Do you care about spending too much? Is there a point at which we spend too much?
I seriously doubt it's conviction of principles, if he can easily modify his stridency for a particular situation.....CNN or FOX.
Some good additional commentary here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spKr46-KPC0
Hey, here's an idea - why don't you join him in demanding more competent leaders?
Posted by: Alphabet Soup on September 28, 2009 09:00 PMObviously you have nothing of substance to left to say. So you do what all good liberals do. You call people names, you did not let me down.
Jimbo
Posted by: Jimbo on September 28, 2009 10:10 PMYou know, I keep watching that Glenn Beck video and scratching my head about what it is that offends Demo Kid so very much there that he thinks it's some sort of huge smoking gun.
Beck's point is that in the past, charity was given by regular people to people who were down on their luck to people. There was an accountability to it. When you depended on the kindness of strangers, family, or the community you knew that part and parcel to that was that you were expected to try to dig yourself out of your mess. (And if you didn't, the charity source could and would dry up.)
Some measure of appreciation and humility was also expected. Humility and appreciation to those that have given of themselves are character builders. Anyone with kids understands that.
Now, the government takes from us and gives to those who are less fortunate. There is no accountability to those that the poor are taking their money from. This has created abuse an a sense of entitlement that does lead to increases in drug abuse and other bad behaviors.
Also, those that "take" have lost sight of the fact that they are taking from others in their community. They see it as "the government" giving them money.
It creates a situation with No accountability. No humility. No responsibility. It leads to abuse and entitlement. Anyone really disagree that's what's happened with the welfare state?
We can argue with the theatrics of it all, but the point Beck is making is valid. It is a valuable contribution to the debate that you're not hearing elsewhere.
Posted by: johnny on September 29, 2009 05:54 AMBeck's a successful conservative. That simply is not allowed in Slavery Party Failed Abortion's world-view. So he will attack, lie, defame, and spew all kinds of bile in the spirit of "love" and "unanimity" as a "progressive".
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on September 29, 2009 10:26 AMIn your first post you stated, "...He's a partisan demagogue who says a lot of things to make conservatives feel good about themselves..."
Have you ever watched or listened to his shows?
He's as fed up with the Republicans as he is with the Democrats. I've seen him hit both sides of the aisle in a non-partisan way when he's seen something he thinks they're doing wrong, and I've also seen him praise members on both sides when he thought that they did something right.
So, where is the demagoguery? (Or should I say "demo-goguery"?)
Posted by: Douglas Aldrich on September 29, 2009 12:13 PMPosted by: Gary on September 29, 2009 01:29 PM