Glenn Beck: Bush is Batman!
By SilentPatriot Wednesday Aug 06, 2008 8:45am
Glenn Beck has sure said some stupid crap in his lifetime, but the tortured logic he employs here easily makes this one a Top 5 contender.
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"This seems to be a movie that extols some of the conservative viewpoints that we are dealing with terrorists, that you can trust people to make the right decision, that sometimes you have to do things that you don't want to do, and you have to cross lines that you don't want to cross, if you're going to save - if you're going to save your city, in this case it's Gotham.
"But Batman goes into another country and with a C130, snatches a guy out, then throws him back here into Gotham. So there’s rendition! At one point, the Morgan Freeman character says to Batman, 'Wait a minute, hang on...you’re eavesdropping on everyone in Gotham?' And Batman says, 'Yes, to stop this terrorist.' Morgan Freeman says, 'I can’t be a part of it.' And yet Morgan Freeman does become a part of it, and they find the Joker. One of the ways they find the Joker is through eavesdropping. I mean the parallels here of what’s going on is to me stunning."
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Yes! Batman, like Bush's policies are both a fantasy.
I didn't listen, but it does seem to me there are parallels. I'm not calling Bush Batman, but the point is perhaps that even superheroes give up their ideals (which Batman did) when the stakes are high.
I don't agree, but hey.
Also, The Joker is way cooler than Bin Laden.
The Mccain website has crooksandliars listed as a battleground in the contest of ideas. They are rewarding points to users that disseminate talking points in the blogosphere.
You are mixing reality and fiction, take your meds and don't leave your room
I'd agree that "Bush is Batshit!"
But isn't what Batman did illegal?
...brought to you by the same idiots who thing "24" is real.
Someone needs to rendition Beck so he can tell us just how neato-nifty, keen it actually is.
When will these nutjobs learn to distinguish the difference between reality and fantasy?
ThunderMonkey @ 6:
Exactly, lol.
Since the dear leader's actions are pissed at in the real world, conservatives have to turn to fantasy land for approval.
Maybe we'll get lucky and his ass will explode this time.
I haven't seen the movie, but I have heard Beck a little bit. I would describe him as simple and stupid or to shorten that, he's simply stupid.
Hey Glenn, You halfwit .....
Batman = fictional movie (no harm to real people, just a story on film)
Bush = Real Life person with control of the strongest force. (causes REAL Death and Destruction to humans.
You'll enjoy it more if you relax, I do.
Batman also doesn't compromise his principals. He doesn't kill. Fuck Glen Beck in his motherfucking nose.
Eric Almighty @ 7:
They also buy the "Extra-Large" box of condoms too, then they wake up and make breakfast.
On one of the other websites I visit, someone had started a thread asking the question:
"Why can't Batman just kill whoever he wants?"
one reply simply read
"Honey, stop worrying about this and come back to bed" - Laura Bush
Shan @ 17:
HAH! (thanks for the giggle)
Yeah, but Batman always gets the right guy. I can't say that about the real life versions.
Beck is hater pure and simple. And he doesn't seem very bright. Why does CNN give this asshat a platform from which to spew his twisted logic? I understand the RNC (FNC). But CNN?
That's it!
We should base our foreign policy and terrorism prevention, not on the advice of well educated career professionals (see Aug 6, 2001 "Bin-Laden determined to strike the US" memo), but on comic book characters. Brilliant!
Now let's hear what The Incredible Hulk has to contribute on US-Pakistan relations...
or maybe on what would Superman do in Darfur?
Wolverine's energy policy?
Nikola @ 2:
WHOA! Watch yourself... Batman remained true to his ideals of catching the bad guys (in the movies) at whatever cost: To go outside the normal system of law and justice to protect the innocent. That's what Batman is all about.
Besides Batman is to too fucking cool to be reduced as a parallel to George W. Bush.
This again proves that Beck has no clue to what he's talking about.
George W. Bush is more like the Scarecrow (inducing fear and panic) as a means to get what he wants.
Oh! So he's the man from Nantucket...
**SPOILER**
Please. Batman used the cellphone radar once, gave the only access code to the guy who he knew would not misuse it, and after its one use had it destroyed. He saw what the system had the potential of being, showed it to the creator of the system and then destroyed it, because it was really unnecessary.
How naive can Beck be? Doesn't he realize that scriptwriters take their cues from current political trends? Shouldn't it be a no-brainer that a scriptwriter will use metaphors that are applicable to present-day political and cultural events? What's so mysterious about that?
For God's sakes, Glenn. It's a MOVIE.
I haven't seen the movie, but the graphic novel portrays the "dark knight" as someone who frequently crosses over and does bad things, believing the ends justify the means. Isn't that the whole thing about The Batman? The morally ambiguous vigilante?
I don't think that's something we ought to be looking for in a President. But I'm not a Republican, either.
Maybe Beck is right. This does sound a lot like Bush's conservatism to me. The ends justify the means. Morality is subjective.
Maybe Beck could help us reframe conservativism like Lee Atwater reframed liberalism in the 1980s.
When I saw Batman, I kept thinking the same thing...the parallels were uncanny, and couldn't have been merely coincidence. The makers were obviously trying to make a point with the movie. The big difference is: BATMAN IS NOT SWORN TO UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES!!!!! Throughout the movie, Batman makes many "sometimes you gotta be the bad guy to save the good guys" / "break a few eggs..." kinds of remarks...but IT'S BATMAN!!!! He's a cartoon character. You don't justify foreign/domestic policy on him....he's make believe!!! GUH!!!
Yeah, and they look to Jack Bauer on 24 and say hey, this works! It is fantasy. That said the movie is more a condemnation SPOILERS: 1) Batman had separation of powers, he couldn’t eavesdrop on his own, similar to the idea of going through the FISA court, 2) Batman rendered a criminal for trial, not torture as the US has done, 3) torture throughout the movie does not work, it in fact ends up giving bad intelligence and it is Batman’s belief that the torture worked that causes the most chaos, 4) the citizens of Gotham voted to kill the inmates, but didn’t go through with it because it, in the end, is just wrong to try people without a jury, and that was with a REAL threat of death against them. The movie is about standing up to terrorism but never losing your humanity, because if you do, you lose who you are. And in essence, the bad guys win.
A cartoon is the example of President Bush. Batman turns evil and this is why the United States is in a recession. If Journalist have nothing else to do but compare the President of the United States to a cartoon Batman that says it all. No wonder John Steward wins the news awards every year. China did the right thing and told Bush to kiss their butt in so many words. Russia and Iran are laughing and Iraq is laughing all the way to the bank with US taxpayers money.
I'm not being funny when I ask this: why hasn't someone hurt Beck really, really badly? The guy spews this crap day in and day out...and it just makes me wonder why some nutball hasn't wigged out and done something horrible to the man. Hope springs eternal I guess.
" I mean the parallels here of what’s going on is to me stunning.”
Yes, to a simpleton they would be.
.
.
How is this asshat still on the air?
ThunderMonkey @ 22:
Batman didn't remain true to his ideals. At the end of the flick, they lied about what Dent did. So basically, Joker's Plan C succeded, it was a win for him in any eventuality.
I always thought Bu$h was more like Sonny Drysdale
It's sad that these stupid rightwingers have to relate Bush to fictional Batman to feel better about themselves and their masters. I don't recall Batman being the worse superhero in US history.
Batman did not kill anyone but he took the blame for it
Bush commits war crimes but he blames others
I'm confused what do they have in common?
There are parallels between Bush's policies and "The Dark Knight" (rendition, eavesdropping, "enhanced interrogation"), but conservatives like Beck who draw these analogies miss the exact same thing in the movie that they do in real life:
It either doesn't work or has disastrous results!
It certainly speaks to the delusional depth of their collective fantasy that these guys (a) try to make reality equivalent to a comic book movie, and (b) miss the crux of the issue in both worlds.
There's a great (and lengthy) rumination on this idea over here.
ThunderMonkey @ 6:
Yep. Except, from what I remember, Batman didn't kill innocent people, fabricate a war, lies to the American populace immeasurable times, steal oil, try to destroy the enviornment.... the list is too long. My hands are getting tired.
The point is this: Batman's a GOOD guy! He's also a genius, despite being more than a bit crazy.
Bush is a VILLAIN. In fact, he's the grandson of a Nazi supporter, and third generation war profiteer. He's also a HUGE idiot. Even Ronald Reagan thought he was a moron.
I should also point out that Batman is fictional, while Chimpy is sadly all too real.
So does this mean that Glenn Beck is the Joker?
Personally, Bush is the Joker:
- dippy grin
- bad jokes
- unstable walk
- "Do I look like a guy with a plan?"
- "Some men can't be reasoned with ... they just like to watch the world burn."
And Beck ignores other portions of the film, such as the theme that you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain. There's a split message there, either you literally become the villain because you've sacrificed your own morals and ethics - something Batman won't do, though he comes close ... or you become the villain out of necessity, as Batman does at the end, to preserve the memory of Harvey Dent.
Bush hasn't hesitated to compromise his morals or our laws, and he's not protecting anyone but his corrupt cronies. He's not Batman, not even close.
Other heroes have tested themselves against this paradigm, namely Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, who, while having actually killed terrorists, understands the importance of our system of laws.
Is what Batman did to Lau rendition? Only in the vaguest fashion, and it ignores that Batman promptly turned Lau over to the police. What the U.S. has practiced is the transfer of suspects to foreign countries where they can be tortured. Big difference.
And the cell-phone/sonar system? While Batman describes it as beautiful, he nonetheless anticipates Lucius Fox's response and has it primed to self-destruct. Fox, in essence, becomes the equivalent of the FISA court, a check on Batman's power and a measure of his conscience. Fox's faith in Bruce Wayne/Batman is restored when he enters the password; this also ties into Alfred's warning to, "... know your limits, Master Bruce."
In short, Beck is an idiot who can't even comprehend a film based on a COMIC BOOK. Maybe someone could buy him a copy of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, or Eisner/Miller, where Frank Miller discusses (among other things) storytelling issues like what he did with Batman.
Nikola @ 32:
It's a grey area... it's not like Batman is supposed to be a bastion of truth in the first place (he and Gordon lied about his death too). It was a Joker win, but in the grey area Batman and Gordon were willing to acknowledge that it was some two-faced villain that commited the crimes instead of Gotham's "shining knight".
Now, Batman did let Henri Ducard die in the first film... that is a departure from Bat's ideals.
Zach Miller @ 24:
In the comics Batman employed the same kind tech, but he kept it around a long time, collecting information on everyone including fellow superheroes.
Bob @ 38:
The Riddler perhaps?
flavor409 @ 21:
Wolverine in 2008! "I am the best at what I do."
john j @ 35:
Batman eavesdrops and catches the Joker
Bush eavesdrops and Osama is still missing
Again, I’m confused what do they have in common?
The lesson from the movie is that Batman broke the law, and Vigilant justice is what the fearful paranoid people of Gotham DESERVE. The Real Heroes were Harvey Dent, whom became a broken man after his loss, and Commissioner Gordon who never breaks the law and does what he can to fix the city.
Batman went to far. Christopher Nolan wrote this with todays headlines in mind. Our government Renditions, tortures and wiretaps. Only BIG BUSINESS colludes with Batman.
Troy McClure Says:
I’m not being funny when I ask this: why hasn’t someone hurt Beck really, really badly? The guy spews this crap day in and day out…and it just makes me wonder why some nutball hasn’t wigged out and done something horrible to the man. Hope springs eternal I guess.
Why would someone want to hurt him for comparing Bush to Batman?
You sound like you might be one of the McCain smear merchants sent here to dirty up the dialog.........besides I think most of the people who are crazy enough to do something like that are more likely to be Beck fans willing to lash out at one of his(their) targets than a Beck opponent who are against craziness (that's why we"re anti-Beck)
Maroni: "All this violence ... it's too much."
Gordon: "Maybe you should have thought about that before you let the clown out of the box."
Glenn is so fucking stupid that it hurts
So is it Glenn's bottom line that anything is okay and legal if a fictional character does it?
This guy appears to be a mental midget.
Loks like a new Jack Bauer meme in progress. Better brace yourselves to start hearing this shit from McCain during the debates.
Beck and his kind are soon to be extinct...!
Come 166 days until 1-20-09 and all the Neocon's will be in the unemployment line with the rest of America they put out of work...
Nikola @ 41:
You're giving Beck WAY too much credit... he's more like one of the flunky peons that get maimed or killed by their own bosses.
Leave it to Beck to use an analogy relating to the hell we've been through to a cartoon character.
This guy's nuts.
Glenn Beck isn't stupid. He lives in New Canaan and has got a place in Nantucket. Get the picture? The people who watch his show are stupid.
Nantucket?
What kind of East Coast elitist is this guy anyway?
Bob @ 38:
More like the Jerker
Shan @ 17:
*You mean Condi.
Putting aside that beckles is a delusional lunatic for a brief moment, someone needs to point out that the bat knew what he was doing was questionable. His associate wouldn't use the magic eavesdropping machine and was ready to walk away because of it.
And as soon as he had found the joker the machine was destroyed and had been rigged to be destroyed ahead of time.
So when does dumbya tear up all his executive power grabs and walk away? When do the telecoms lose their immunity? When do the criminals in the white house get brought to justice?
There's a difference beckles won't talk about. In 'batman' criminals get what's coming to them one way or the other.
In boosh-world criminals get paid to commit crimes and people like beckles get paid to lie about it.
Batman...okay...suddenly tire gauges seem like a really, really important topic.
Does anyone remember the 80s movie "Star Chamber?" A movie about the perils of breaking the law to achieve justice. Good flick.
Let's see...
Batman = Intelligent
Bush = Not so much
Batman = Puts his own life on the line
Bush = Puts other people's lives on the line
Batman has actual friends
Bush has people paid to pretend to like him
Batman makes Gotham safer
Bush makes everywhere more dangerous
Yep. The parallels are uncanny.
Most mentally retarded people know they're mentally retarded. Beck doesn't seem to have caught on yet and neither have his employers.
earl @ 33:
Is that a reference to the Beverly Hillbillies?
Birds of a feather....
Beck's droolings over Duhhbya don't surprise me at all.
After all, a human brain can endure only so much chemical bombardment before producing the symptoms both display.
CNN.... Crappier News Network
I haven't seen the movie, but I imagine Batman caught the Joker (or killed him, whatever).
Has Bush caught OSB yet?
So, when does Batman attack Smallsville?
This is something right wingnuts & con-servatives do....
They take something that isn't there and imagine it to be there...
Such as right wingnuts who love Star Wars...and think the 'Empire' is Democratic led Government...
Then I tell them that George Lucas is a progressive/liberal and he wrote the entire series during the Nixon Administration....and then, the expression on their face...oh, it isn't to be missed....classic, like when you first tell a kid that the toothfairy & easter bunny don't exist and only 'fair tax' lemmings & fox noise viewers believe in them...
lets review
Extraction: Going into unfriendly territory to grab a suspect and bring them to the US so they can be properly processed by the legal system. Charged, tried, and possibly convicted + punished.
Rendition: Taking a suspect Out of the country to remove them from the legal system. Done so illegal interregation techniques, torture, punishment, possibly execution, can be performed in secret.
What Batman did was an extraction, not a rendition.
Nikola @ 9:
He's also a fictional character and not charged with protecting and executing the will of the Constitution ; unlike the retarded simian that swore an oath to that effect .........
Beck is an idiot. He doesn't even know what the words he is using even mean. Batman taking a guy from another country and bringing him to Gotham is "EXTRADITION" not "RENDITION." Plus, Dems are not against eavesdropping, only warrantless illegal eavesdropping.
One major difference between Batman and George W. Bush. I never heard Batman say about the Joker, "I don't know where he is. I'm not just that concerned about him." And then Batman invades Iraq which has nothing to do with the Joker.
ldzppln @ 62:
*OBL
Has Bush caught OBL yet?
The parallels are definitely there, and there's nothing wrong with looking to a piece of popular fiction for allegories to real politics. But Beck (as usual — and consistent with the rest of the right wing ignorazzis) is afraid to take the allegory to its conclusion. In the movie, Batman knew full well that what he was doing was wrong. And he VOLUNTARILY paid the price for it. He took responsibility for the things he felt he needed to do by giving up his position of public trust and living, from then on, on the run from the law. The moral of the Dark Knight is that extreme measures have extreme consequences. If you grab authority (torture, rendition) you have to accept accountability along with it. Beck doesn't get that.
If Bush REALLY had to torture someone to save lives, or kidnap someone and bring them back to the USA — again, to save lives — I'd be OK with that IF and ONLY IF he then took responsibility for what had to be done by stepping down and surrendering himself to be tried for his crimes. Chances are, he'd be acquitted. But he'd have acknowledged the rule of law and accepted responsibility for his decisions. Sadly, a cartoon character has more substance than our President.
Nada @ 57:
Bush may very well throw out all the powers he gave himself and congress conceded....
After Nov 4 when Obama is elected.
ThunderMonkey @ 40:
Also, the Batman saga takes, what, two hours? Now, if the movie was eight years long...
Easyrider @ 53:
That is the heart of it. If one tours Yale grad Pat Robertson's compound, his FLEET of jets, or the 28K sq ft house of Fats Limbaugh, the picture gets focused quickly. These are professional con-men, laughing all the way to the bank. Off the record, Limbaugh freely admits a liberal president is worth millions to him.
There will always be parasites feeding off the stupid, see Marjoe Gortners documentary, Fr Coughlin, Herb Philbrick, McCarthy, on and on ad nauseum.
Well, at least they don't have a hard-on for Jack Bauer anymore.
sadly i think beck's on to something although he's got the wrong member of the batman family. bush is much, much, more akin to adam west on family guy...detached from reality, paranoid, narcissistic, and blathering, they're two peas in a pod.
let me guess, he doesn't even give credit to Andrew Klaven who wrote about this exact same idea over a week ago in the Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB121694247343482821.html
he's just doin what they're all doing on the 24 hour/day "news" shows....moving along the latest meme
Zach Miller @ 71:
When you're dealing with fanboys... you're going to get crossover from the movies and the comics. For us there is no difference (except for the X-Men films).
CafeenMan @ 59:
He's a dry (allegedly) drunk, which would imply a penchant for denial.
Glenn Beck isn't the first to make this argument. An author by the name of Andrew Klavan has already made this exact same argument in an op-ed that I'm starting to think inspired Beck, as it was published in the now Republican owned Wall Street Journal.
But the weird thing about this argument is that from the implication in the film that The Joker and Batman compliment each other (The Joker does say to Batman: “What would I do without you? You complete me... To them, you’re just a freak. Like me”, one would have to conclude that Bush and bin Laden have the same relationship.
Another moment that Beck must have missed (maybe he was out getting popcorn) is where Harvey Dent is torturing one of the gunmen at Commissioner Loeb's funeral.
"His name is Schiff, Thomas. A paranoid schizophrenic. Exactly the kind of mind the Joker attracts. What did you think you were going to learn from him?"
And, more importantly, Batman then warns Dent that if anyone had seen what he'd done, it would have undone all his legitimate work and value - putting criminals back on the street.
Batman comes up against this same problem when he tortures Maroni by dropping him off the balcony. Maroni tells him, 'they're wise to you now, you've got rules.' This is the point that Beck missed - everyone keeps telling Batman 'you gotta break the rules, gotta break the rules, gotta break the rules'
And, in the end, Batman doesn't. He triumphs without compromising himself or his morals, and nonetheless gets thought of as the villain.
The GOP and idiots like Beck are playing the bomb-on-the-ferry game - they're giving you the choice of 'fight them there, so we don't have to fight them here' ... the same as, "Hey, if you don't press the detonator, THEY WILL!" And the Democrats haven't found the courage to stand up and do 'what you shoulda did ten minutes ago' and throw the fracking detonator in the drink.
Wow. Glenn Beck is taking his cues from kuro5hin now...
Holy Wingnut!
So when they want to break the law they're either Jack Bauer or Batman or some sort of cowboy. They're not living in the real world.
This is just pathetic. They can point to nothing geo bush has done that is in any benevolent of beneficial to this country, so they choose a cartoon character and compare what bush has done in real life to the role the character played in a work of fiction.
*Whew* I feel much better now. All this time, I did not realize that our foreign policy was based on Batman cartoons.
I always thought it was Mickey Mouse...
Question of the Evening, Will he make "Worst Person" for this on KO's Show tomorrow morning?
Besides, we all know Bruce Wayne is a Democrat. Senator Pat Leahy was at the fundraiser for Harvey Dent.
Where was the spoiler alert? Good thing I saw it on Tuesday! Sheesh!
This Machine Kills Fascists @ 84:
Well , Goofy and fucking Pluto do seem to be running the country.............
I think the point that needs to be made here is not that they're breaking laws doing this good thing. What needs to be pointed out that if this ever can be abused, if it ever IS abused, it should not be done, as the abuse is to me worse than any good that can come out of it's proper use.
The truly sad thing about this is that it completely distorts the Batman character through his 70-odd years and various incarnations. First, Batman is a twentieth-century version of a medieval paladin. He not only would never intentionally kill a criminal, in modern times he even has found Superman's occasional sense of self-righteousness to be irritating as hell. The idea that Batman would EVER say something like "sometimes you have to be the bad guy to catch a bad guy" is so shockingly out of character that if he actually uttered a line like that in the movie, I'll have to assume that the director had no idea what Batman's history in comics actually is. Jesus, the man once fired Robin for disobeying an order. It's not like the man plays loosey-goosey with the constitution and chain-of-command.
Glen.............you idiot!!
Bush won't go down as the worst president ever for his handling of terrorism, it will be the abuse of power and monumental stupidity that will get him there.
Beck has to be the biggest waist of oxygen on the planet!!!
so, is that stupid fuck now another nantucket resident. wonder if he's pals with tweety.
Apparently Glenn doesn't realize that Batman is FANTASY!
Ummm, Glen....There are few times in the REAL world where the hero cuts the wire as the bomb ticks down to 00:01, and there are even fewer terrorists that tie their foes up and use some elaborate mechanical mechinism that just happens to take a sufficient amount of time for the good guy to wiggle free and escape before he falls into the shark tank.
That's the problem with the modern republican movement...they either live in a manufactured version of the past (Reagan-worshipers) or they live in a delusional fantasy (Bush-is-Batman nerds).
If Glennie wants to compare George Bush to some anonymous trust-fund privelaged vigilante, he'd be better off choosing Richard Mellon Scafie than Bruce Wayne.
That's why a lot of us didn't particularly care for the movie.
You're about three weeks late with this suddent "revelation" chum.
Funny how liberal Hollywood puts out sad reactionary trash like this.
Here's my favorite Batperson:
http://www.serialexperience.com/image_gallery/Lewis%20Wilson.jpg (On the right)
http://www.batmanytb.com/serials/batman/21.jpg
Mike G @ 79:
Mmmm....I think the Joker respects Batman....I don't think anyone respects Bush.
waste
beck is batty himself.
liberalMcTireGaugeO'JusticeNmoderation @ 94:
Or Beck.
at least katie holmes didn't stink up the white house in the first term.
Compare and contrast Beck's viewpoint with that of James Howard Kunstler, via the wry but thoroughly enjoyable James Wolcott:
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2008/08/knight-and-daze.html
Where's Obama?
I like right wing Hollywood trash films. Give me Red Dawn over Reds any day.
Easyrider @ 53:
No, I don't get the picture. Beck IS stupid, and he proves it practically every time he opens his angry, bigoted mouth.. Where he lives doesn't mean shit.
Yes, Bush = Batman in that innocent people died while failing to catch the terrorist.
Great analogy you half-wit.
Barleymash @ 69:
But Bush is not owning up. They're actually fighting, claiming that the president is above the law, and that parts of them are not in any branch of the government. Never once did Batman say that what he was doing was right, but that it had to be done.
And besides, Batman didn't accept his punishment either.
liberalMcTireGaugeO'JusticeNmoderation @ 94:
Barney piddled on him.
http://80.249.98.16/mhill/barney/images/barney-gumble.jpg
I remember thinking about our own spying program during that part of the movie and thinking someone worked this into the script because of what we are doing.
The more I think about it now the more I think it was propganda. Make the masses think "this is okay in an emergency" and "we will shut it down and destroy it when we get the bad guy".
Thanks Glenn for making the opposite point of what you intended. I've been Psy-ops'ed, am I'm pissed!
Fuck the Batman!
Jackie @ 29:
Beck is not a Journalist - he is a "Commentator" and since he is making a comment, listen to his rationale. Sometimes he makes a lot of sense. Besides there is such a thing as "freedom of speech".
steve davis @ 89:
I respectfully disagree. In 'The Dark Knight Returns,' Frank Miller recounts the point in history where the heroes were put on trial, and Superman relates Bruce 'in that scary voice of yours' saying, "Of course we're villains. We have to be villains."
Far too many people confuse the 1966 Adam West Batman for the totality of the Batman mythos. Batman has always been obsessed with justice, and it's only his discipline and knowledge that allows him to triumph as one man against many.
Of course, if Beck wants to persist in this 'Bush is Batman' meme, we can always remind him that Batman was a prime target when ol' Freddy Werthimer wrote 'Seduction of the Innocent'.
Bush is no batman....however, Cheney is only a monicle and a bald cat shy of playing the villian in a James Bond flick!
The dog crap on my sneaker is worth more than glenn beck. He contradicts himself constantly when speaking on air == he can't even sustain a coherent argument. Now here, he was "stunned"?? Stunned?? Wow, huge word for such a rich guy, amazing how a movie plot can stunn him. Maybe he's not seen much of the world.
rain @ 105:
Even a broken clock is right 2 times each day.
How's your ass, Glenn?
i found more parallels in star wars....
Leahy’s office hits back against Beck’s Batman analogy.
CNN’s Glenn Beck yesterday said that President Bush’s policies were vindicated by the “conservative values on the war on terror” in “The Dark Knight.” He also said that Bush’s willingness to “die as the worst president ever because of the war on terror” is “exactly the message that Batman carries.” ThinkProgress contacted the office of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) — who appeared in the movie — and received this response from spokesman David Carle:
So many right wing lunatics, so little time.
rain @ 106:
♥♦♣♠☻..Bangkok Bob..☻♥♦♣♠ @ 85:
Only if non-humans are included. Piles of animated excrement don't usually count as "human". Even if the RNC is proof to the contrary.
It's an interesting window into the right-wing mentality...if Batman (who is a goody) spies on a whole city (even if it's illegal), then spying on the population must be okay because the goody did it. Bush was voted in by the right-wingers, so he's a goody. And because a goody spies and perverts the rule of law, then it must be a good thing because a 'goody' did it. See? It all makes sense!
rain @ 105:
Beck is a comedian, as billed in an ad for his recent tour.
Freedom of speech does not mean anyone's point of view is automatically valid, or that I need to 'listen to his rationale.' Crap is crap, and what Beck spewed is crap. End of story.
Jeff @ 108:
As Blowhard.
Well, Dick Cheney is the Penguin. But I don't quite see the connection that Bush is Batman.
PS...does that make Dick Cheney the most powerful Robin ever?
And is Condi batgirl?
There is a repeated observation in the movie that the Joker only exists because Batman exists. Also, Batman recognizes that the real hero is the District Attorney, Harvey Dent, who is a stickler for the law and who sees Batman as an outlaw. As for Bush being Batman... whoa on there Glenn. Bush in tights and a cape? An unsettling image to say the least.
Hugo Hackenbush @ 81:
Glenn Beck is not only stupid but unoriginal. This idea was first spoon fed to the sheep on Murdoch's shiny new propaganda outpost , the WSJ, in a Batman movie review. (where even the Batman sign looks like a 'W' durrrrfff!!').
Ian @ 122:
Does Bush's bat-suit have nipples? Just wondering.
Bottom line:
Even if breaking the law was for the good of the people
Batman got the Joker, Bush hasn't got Osama
Native Texan @ 60:
You betcha. Spoiled whiney Yale frat-boy ...
Lucius Sergius Catilina @ 20:
It's an epidemic, and like an out of control bacteria, the only effective antibiotic is the OFF switch on your remote. Or, in this case, DON'T CLICK ON THE LINK.
My personal code is to avoid all contact with the TOXIC POISON that has lead this country into moral/spiritual bankruptcy.........aka Reichwing Hate Show Hosts, and the ten thousand talking teevee news whores.
Jon Stewart is doing an amazingly funny paradoy on these clowns from cnn, etc., who can't stop congratulating themselves for doing NOTHING but congratulating themselves on what a great job they do.........the random segment starts with the whole DS cast riding around in a Caddy convertible and taking out CNN's mailbox with a baseball bat!!!!
I'm spending less and less time on blogs that draw more attention to these cretins than to the real issues that have demoralized this country.
Hopefully, there will be a bit more substance coming with the debates and the convention(s)?
isnt glenn beck a disturbed individual? why does he have a show to spew his disturbed thoughts?
This is like McCain and the tire gauge thing. An act of desperation.
rain @ 106:
Two things:
#1: There is no rationale there. There's a desperate toady trying to make a criminal into a hero. Won't work here.
#2: "freedom of speech" - that's a nonsequitur. Much like Beck, you're just throwing things out there hoping someone who is ignorant or confused will nod along.
steve davis @ 89:
Well said... However, as it was already pointed out superheroes by their very nature work outside the realm of laws and thus can be persued as criminals. Personally, I wouldn't characterize Bruce as a medieval paladin (that may be more reserved for Clark), but perhaps some ronin protecting the peasants in the countryside from bandits and the wayward nobles alike. Bruce has always walked that fine line of law and lawlessness.
What are we guano do about it?
I think you could argue that Bush=Dent.
It seems to me that those who oppose impeachment do so in part because of the damage they think it would do to the "symbol" of the leader of the free world. People might lose all faith and hope or something if they found out what he really did. So the cover-up of Dent's actions and Batman taking the fall for his death was meant to preserve this ideal of the "White Knight" so all the little people can sleep better.
I think its a dumb argument on film and real life.
Beck is simply parroting an editorial written in the Wall Street Journal. And if you have to look to a Hollywood fantasy to justify your real-world policies, then things are worse than you know. But then Beck is no elitist, you know following laws and stuff like that.
Jeff @ 108:
Cheny isn't quiet that ambitious... he's more like Goldfinger, looting the American treasury.
Robert Murdoch is Blofeld.
Darsan54 @ 134:
They did the same thing with 24 to justify their actions.
john j @ 125:
Oh, I think Bush has him alright. WE don't have him.
Jay Severin Has A small Pen1s @ 5:
Hence, his love of GUANOtanamo Bay
Ron @ 136:
Yeah, you're right Ron. I guess we're going to start having to say..." What would Batman Do?
: )
I'm too lazy to look....but do the reich-wing blogs actually parrot such nonsense?
its_me_ya_krazy @ 112:
Eh...
Star Wars was a rip-off of Flash Gordon.
apeman @ 132:
Good one.
In the book Dr. No, James Bond kills the villain by unloading bat guano on his from a steam shovel.
They changed it in the movie.
mudshark @ 139:
I guess that they traded batman for Jesus, as far as fictional characters go... "What would Jesus do?" always gave them answers that did not match their interests.
Glenn Beck is a douchebag and asswipe. I cannot stand him.
If Bush is Batman...Beck must be The Penguin.
“This seems to be a movie that extols some of the conservative viewpoints that we are dealing with terrorists, that you can trust people to make the right decision, that sometimes you have to do things that you don’t want to do, and you have to cross lines that you don’t want to cross, if you’re going to save - if you’re going to save your city, in this case it’s Gotham."
And that right there is basic textbook vigilantism which, in essence is what all fictitious comic book heroes like Batman really carry out. They operate outside of the law and have no authority to enforce what they perceive as criminal or unjustified. Limbaugh and other Conservatives slap the faces of the Founding Father's every time they open their mouths and make a mockery of the Bill of Rights, the Constitution and other documents that ensure the rights of each American. No matter how they attempt to justify their actions, they are in actuality the real criminals.
Tyler Durden @ 143:
I guess that they traded batman for Jesus, as far as fictional characters go... "What would Jesus do?"
Get hammered then nailed
Which makes him sound like a Kennedy.
As one who loathes Bush with all my heart, while watching Batman I thought, "This is rather obviously supporting the administration's approach."
In the same way that the last Star Wars was working in the opposite direction.
I'm quite surprised anyone who saw the movie would disagree. Did you see the movie, Steve? If not, please do, and then post again on the subject. If so, please see it again, and post again on the subject.
orcas @ 145:
I would say Clayface.
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