Glenn Beck and the 'Birthers,' equally unhinged (Barf Alert)

Chicago Tribune ^ | July 29, 2009

[Zakeet]

Syndicated talk show host Glenn Beck is clearly a nut, who may be better at using the Rush Limbaugh playbook than the master himself. Take a look at this VIDEO during which Beck calls President Obama a racist but uses nothing to back it up.

To say that Obama, a man reared by his white mother and her white family in predominately white or multi-ethnic environs, is a racist, and not give proof of that--- boggles the mind...

But the problem here may not be Beck’s assertion, but the fact that he’s a part of the same angry fringe knot as the "Birthers," who steadfastly deny that Obama was born in this country. They have been causing such a rancid stink lately that the House of Representatives on Tuesday included in a resolution celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hawaii’s statehood, a statement of the obvious: “The 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, was born in Hawaii.”

There’s nothing Obama can do that would appease any of these people.

[Snip]

So it's not that the Becks and Birthers of the country don’t have an opportunity to see things fairly or in a more nuanced way. It’s that they choose to keep the blinders on. Or maybe, at least in Beck's case, it's less about the blinders and more about simply making a buck.

So, are discussions about race better served by ignoring folk like Beck and the Birthers or exposing them?

You tell me.

[cripplecreek]

I find it very interesting that the democrats become so unhinged when someone calls them racist. The weapon that they’ve used is no longer effective against the right but seems to cause them fear.

[alecqss]

Well, today I've read in ABC News ( http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=8195564&page=1) that Professor Gates claims to be Half-Irish. Then article says: "he found he was descended from an Irish immigrant and a slave girl".

Last slave girl to sleep with an Irish immigrant must have done in 1860. Assuming 9 months... Gates must be born in 1861 latest, which makes him 148 years old. His birth certificate must be even more amazing, than Obama's.

Something is unhinged indeed.

[Tribune7]

To say that Obama, a man reared by his white mother

He let his mother die without health insurance. Maybe if she was black he would have bought some for her.

[PreciousLiberty]

0bama has made blatantly racist statements for all to see, just as has S0t0may0r. She, in fact, is a La Raza board member, which as far as I know wasn’t even addressed by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Beck was simply speaking the obvious truth, a dangerous pursuit these days...

[PowerPro]

The Occidental College record thing has been debunked.

[Unam Sanctam]

Proof that Obama is a racist:

1. Rev. Wright
2. He called his own grandmother a “typical white person”.

[Rappini]

I made up my mind about Obama being Racist and all I had to do was look at how his friends were, and GB gets me through the week.

[Maverick68]

These same morons will claim Clarence Thomas is a sellout/Uncle Tom, yet can’t conceive that barry obama is a racist?

[Wonder Warthog]

"The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fullbright Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify, for the scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship."

Wheeee. Talk about your "cleft stick". Only two possibilities here, either Obama WAS a foreign citizen (and thus not eligible to be President), or he was guilty of felonious fraud (and thus probably ALSO not eligible to be President).

[Genoa]

Just keep up the personal attacks on Beck, Dobbs, etc., liberal media. It will SO make them stop. /s

[garyb]

Unfortunately, the group American for Freedom of Information” does not exist. They say so:

http://amfoi.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/welcome-to-the-americans-for-freedom-of-information/

[madinmadtown]

What about HIS credibility?????? The fact that Obama does not release his records undermines his own credibility. We are to take his word for things when he campaigned as more of a centrist, but rules as a leftist. Why should people take him on word value alone???

[AmericanVictory]

What effect do you think it has on the discussion of the issue?

[drubyfive]

As an amateur genealogist, I thought his PBS program was fascinating.

[the invisib1e hand]

the birthers have a solid argument. it's been so obfuscated and besmirched by the great storm of media distortion (and no small amount of true zanies in tin foil rabidly yapping on) that they've nearly been marginalized.

FWIW, I think the point is robust. A real American President would answer the question the moment it arose -- if he loved and honored his country. Team Obama's approach of ignore-then-slander is...unfortunate for them, I think, and it further tramples of the dignity of the legacy of our great Founders -- the America of the Constitution -- for the very president to conduct himself with such willful disregard for it.

[exit82]

This is rich especially coming out of Chicago.

BTW, what ever happened to Rod Blago? Patirck Fitzgerald has been very quiet. The Trib had a role in that whole drama as well.

[Genoa]

I think this is the probable problem. BHO’s birth certificate is probably an amended certificate (adoption) that names Lolo Soetoro as the father. BHO probably became an Indonesian citizen and probably never naturalized later as an American citizen. Moreover, during his young adult years he probably claimed Indonesian citizenship, probably applied for foreign student aid, and probably traveled on an Indonesian passport. Not only is he probably unqualified to be POTUS, he is probably an undocumented alien.

[offduty]

Beck calls President Obama a racist but uses nothing to back it up.

Chicago Tribune calls Glenn Beck a nut but uses nothing to back it up.

[Don Corleone]

the "Birthers," who steadfastly deny that Obama was born in this country.

Not the claim at all. The claim is that he is not a "Natural Born Citizen" as required by that obsolete and useless living document called the Constitution of the Untied States of America. IMHO He's not!

[Ann Archy]

Hey Tribune readers....pull out YOUR Birth Certificate and see if it looks ANYTHING like Bammy’s COLB!