Mr. Humble n' Pious: My big rally was a historic event like the end of slavery
The mark of the truly fanatical propagandist is their fervent insistence on hyperinflating the value and importance and size of everything they're connected with -- even when they can be factually proven wrong. Like Glenn Beck yesterday, continuing to hype his incredibly boring rally Saturday in D.C. beyond whatever marginal entertainment value it might have had.
Beck continues to insist -- in the buildup to comparing garbage after his rally with the garbage left after Obama's inauguration -- that 500,000 people showed up on the Mall Saturday. But the folks at CBS News who counted only 87,000 have released their hard data so you can look at it for yourself.
I thought this in particular was interesting:
In a blog post, Doig, writing from Portugal, noted that he estimated the crowd at Mr. Obama's inauguration at roughly 800,000 - a number critics assailed as too low.
"Crowd counting, particularly of political events, always is controversial," he wrote. "The organizers of the event inevitably hype their crowd estimate -- often grossly -- to demonstrate the popularity of their cause, and opponents inevitably underestimate to fit their own agenda. Because of the wild pre-inauguration predictions of how many would attend in person -- up to 5 million! -- my reality-based estimate was ignored by many left-wing commentators and embraced by those on the right."
He added: "The frothing underscores the problem with hyped predictions of crowd size. Organizers and supporters are forced to insist loudly that the actual crowd met or exceeded their expectations, for fear that the realistic estimate will be painted as a disappointment. The time-honored way to dismiss scientific estimates that don't reflect the pre-event hype is to claim political bias on the part of those doing the estimate. I am amused to see that those who embraced my Obama inauguration estimate as soberly realistic are now attacking the Beck rally estimate, produced using exactly the same methods, as deliberately biased."
So the reality is that there were about ten times the number of people at Obama's inauguration that were at Beckapalooza -- which may have something to do with why the garbage count was higher.
At any rate, as if hyperinflating the numbers of his rally wasn't enough, Beck a little later described its significance:
Beck: This is the third Great American Awakening. There have been two. One started by George Whitfield, and it led to the American Revolution. The second one happened in the 1840s and '50s, and it started with people of faith, of all faiths, and it led to the freeing of the slaves. This one is going to restore our Constitution. It's going to restore individual responsibility. It's going to restore faith, hope, and charity.
This much hubris is going to produce quite the spectacular comedown.
Beck had big rally? Good for him I guess.
Hmmmm - still not interested.
:)
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
Or the grand unveiling of the new John Deere tractor
Now with extra shakes...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
insulted......More hypocrisy and self aggrandizing from those graniose and pious baggers!
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2...
Besides thrying to get an actual number, the problem is that not everyone at the rally shares the views of the speaker.
I've marched in demos here in Seattle, and I've seen some people march with us maybe a block then leave because "their lunch hour is almost over." A lot of other people are just checking it out of curiosity. If you take the number of people who march from the beginning to the end out of ideological sympathy, the number is probably considerably lower that if you tried to count ALL the marchers who participated at any time.
87,000 people at the Beck rally sounds about right, with the understanding that a few thousand were probably just tourists checking things out.
"really big" Cheetos convention.
New and improved, now with Extra Lard...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
If you noticed the size of those obese Walmart Shopper's asses. They are whopper delicious to your average Re-puke-licans. No wonder they could'nt find bin Ladin - he doesn't work at a Dairy Queen.
Is a bazillion more or less than a gazillion?
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
but it requires Arabic numerology and we are in the sacred month of September 11 already. If only you asked yesterday.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
11 is arabic numbering and is most unbecoming in this holiest of months.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
IX/nay. thanks.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
This was historic.
Never before in our nation's history has a chubby, blubbering white Catholic turned Mormon reformed addict morning drive jock said so little to so many by jumbotron.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Suicide will be his only option. If we're lucky...he'll pull a Howard Beale for our entertainment.
"Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?" - General Jack D. Ripper
... I dunno, it could be extremely messy. And the FOX janitorial staff is already overworked and underpaid as it is.
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
Since Beck apparently had a permit for 300,000 people and he's claiming 500,000 people showed up for the event, is he not subject to a hefty fine? That or he's lying through his teeth, I can't decide...
"I could give a flying crap about the political process.... We're an entertainment company."
- Glenn Beck - Forbes interview; April 26, 2010
unvaccinated.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
is a socialist Marxist communist tool of the Muslim devil!
"I could give a flying crap about the political process.... We're an entertainment company."
- Glenn Beck - Forbes interview; April 26, 2010
Who is that in your new avatar and what happened to Capt. Carrot? I liked the carrot.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
A cinematic classic. I wished I'd thought of that first.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Somebody said something about weeding the garden and it got me to thinking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcPQ9gww_qc
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
the last scene. It's worth watching. Peter Sellers played Chauncy Gardner. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bow1ZJTV4L4
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Given the photos and grid overlays, it would seem relatively easy--but time consuming--to simply count the people manually. It's hard to argue with that method.
Personally, looking at the photos the same way I look at overhead images of, say U of Michigan's football stadium...the size of the crowd seems roughly similar. Wrap the crowd north of the pool around the bottom half of the stadium, the south crowd around the top, and there's still the end zones wide open. Thing is...in those stadiums they're packed in like sardines. This crowd was there for a picnic, lots of personal space.
... it's more dog-whistle bullshit with Beck positioning himself and his tinfoil-hat brigade as the oppressed masses poised for a just, God-endorsed revolution.
Can we just skip the replay of the McCarthy Era and go on to the bit where Glenn Beck (and the rest of his ilk, including Limbaugh and Palin) just implode in a festival of drunken self-immolation?
but that's too much to ask. And it'd mean the end of GBK.
Given the videos I've seen of this event, it looks like most of the attendees probably were counted as two people (or are "doublewide" as I like to call it...) thereby making the actual total closer to 45,000...
"I could give a flying crap about the political process.... We're an entertainment company."
- Glenn Beck - Forbes interview; April 26, 2010
http://rfdamerica.com/content/glenn-beck-anti...
I swear you could barely tell the difference between that and the rally.
Let’s talk the rally numbers for a second.
The National Mall stretching from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument is only .7 miles long (3,700 feet) by 300 feet wide. That gives a total surface area of 1,100,000 square feet. The open gathering area just to the south of the reflecting pool is approximately the same size. So let’s call the total surface area that was possibly covered by the Beck crowd last weekend 600 feet by 3,700 feet or a total of 2,200,000 square feet. Now, we need to subtract the total surface area of the reflecting pool itself. The pool is 2090 X 220 (including the 30’ walkways that were kept clear by the police on each side), which gives a total surface area of 460,000 square feet. Subtracting the surface area of the reflecting pool from the total surface area gives a total possible crowd area of 1,740,000 square feet.
In order to reach Michele Bachman’s estimate of 1.6 million people, it would require each and every person to squeeze into a roughly 12 inch by 12 inch area from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial all the way to the Washington monument with absolutely no space in between people to maneuver or move. Not possible in a physical universe, unless somehow Beck's prediction of a "miracle" happened, and a significant majority of the crowd were somehow magically “Raptured” while we weren’t looking.
Palin’s 1 million person estimate adjusts the footprint of each individual to 18 by 14 inches with no space allotted for crowd movement. Again, not physically possible – see above.
In order to reach Glenn Beck’s estimate of 300,000-600,000, every single person in the crowd - from stage to the Washington Monument - would have to fit within only 2.5 to 5 square feet per person. That would mean standing shoulder to shoulder with your nose either touching - or at most 8 inches behind - the head of the person in front of you, all the way from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument, again with no paths allotted for people to maneuver or move. Looking at the pictures from the rally, this was clearly not even near the case.
Now, let’s get practical.
An extremely dense “standing room only” crowd requires approximately 9 square feet per person (3 feet by 3 feet – giving 20-24 inches to the back of the person in front of you and standing 4-6 inches from your neighbor’s shoulder on each side). Medium crowd density would be 16 square feet per person (4 feet by 4 feet) and a “sitting and blanket” crowd density would allow at minimum 25 square feet (5 by 5 feet) per person.
Looking at the pictures, I would place a reasonable estimate that 15% of the overall area of the Beck crowd was “extremely dense”, 25% was medium density, and 40% was sitting density, with 20% of the total area allotted for open and navigable paths through the crowd in all areas. This means that there would be approximately 30,000 people in the “extremely dense” crowd area, 27,000 in the “medium density” crowd and 28,000 in the “sitting density” area.
That provides a total crowd count somewhere in the neighborhood of 85,000. Well in line with the CBS estimate of between 82-91,000. Not 1.6 million, not 1 million, not six hundred thousand, not three hundred thousand. More like one hundred thousand at best.
Once again, logic and reason overcome hype and hysteria.
I hate to say it, but getting to go home after Beck's rally must have felt a lot like Emancipation. :)
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
So this is what passes as a news story these days? What Beckkk said? What some habitual liar said. We are still having a conversation about horseshit numbers the morons are throwing out there to their lemming followers?
Can't we talk about something that actually matters......you know like maybe a category 3 hurricane bearing down on the east coast for example.
who will be "replacing" U.S. military troops in Iraq....
"Mission Accomplished Part Deux"...wha??
More smoke and mirrors?
No thanks. We already have that.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
One started by George Whitfield, and it led to the American Revolution. The second one happened in the 1840s and '50s, and it started with people of faith, of all faiths, and it led to the freeing of the slaves.
Ummmm....whut? As in WTF? Obviously, this idiot graduated from Beck University.
He started the Great Awakening in Britain, but the Revolution was more in line with Freemason tenets.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I'm glad Beckerhead was quoted here, for to listen to his undiluted drivel for more than five seconds at a time dangerously elevates my blood pressure. This quote is most telling:
So let's be clear: Glenn Beck is one of those who literally accredits George Whitfield with the American Revolution. Oh my.
Whitefield's influence on the attitudes of colonial Americans is undeniable, and in my opinion, undeniably sick. Indeed, even Ben Franklin recognized how amazingly and eloquently Whitefield was able to deliver his weird brand of Calvinism to crowds of thousands, a recognition that forced Franklin the Deist to come to the conclusion that people of the colonies would probably react more happily if prayers were allowed before the commencement of public ceremonies, such as Congressional meetings. And because Whitefield's weird version of his religion was "democratizing," in the sense that he preached a kind of individual relationship with god as opposed to merely absorbing whatever the town preacher said, there were probably a lot more colonials willing to go along with the idea that the colonies should democratize their government than there might have been without his influence.
But Beck, in his delusions of grandeur, appears to conflate the participation of religious people in the American Revolution and the principles of the American Revolution. The two are simply not one and the same, and the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are products not of Whitefield's religious revival, but of the Enlightenment-based thinking of those who wrote them.
For me, it is particularly enlightening to see Beck reference Whitefield this way. It's another insight into the sick mind of those currently claiming to champion the rights of real Americans. It is easy to see why these fools think that America is an established Christian Nation. Just follow the logic from "Whitfield democratized religion -- to -- then those new 'religious democrats' formed a new kind of country, where we had no more king, just god."
This is the mindset we're up against, and it's about damn time we stop making concessions to it. We must make it fundamentally okay again in society to get out and say, "This is a nation of religious people, not an officially religious nation! It is okay to be a progressive who believes that the federal government can be a force for good, that church and state must remain separate, and be a white, church-going, small-town, rural American." Otherwise, this Beckian mindset will keep a lot of progressives in the closet in their respective communities in "real America."
(By they way, it's also amusing that Beck gives the credit for the American Revolution to a guy whose name is literally WHITE FIELD. Especially since he was standing among a large field of white people when he said it.)
Everyone is equally entitled to the pursuit of happiness. Wasn't that once self evident?
Thought for a second you said becky cornflaked the issues...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Beck did perform one miracle that day: He transformed 87,000 loafs into wallets he could fish.
I would posit that there is little discernable difference between eighty-seven thousand racist, bitter, angry and highly misinformed white people and six hundred thousand racist, bitter, angry and highly misinformed white people.
Technically speaking, both are equally dangerous.
...In related business news, Mega-retailer WalMart reported that for unknown reasons, their sales receipts tanked last Saturday, dropping to less than 10% of their usual volume....
http://kunstler.com/blog/2010/08/one-lump-or-...
He calls out Beck's rally for what it was.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLgh9h2ePYw&NR=1
David Neiwert:
Well, I certainly hope so, but I fear you might underestimate the resiliency of the minds of the faithful. The failure of prophesies either to come true or live up to the grandeur of the hype somehow rarely converts believers into non-believers.
These morons are out for a Theocratic Republic in the name of the American Constitution. They are sure that god is on their side, and Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, et. al. are literally preaching to them. I'm not sure there will be all that spectacular of a comedown. Those who believe in them are going to believe in them virtually no matter what.
Everyone is equally entitled to the pursuit of happiness. Wasn't that once self evident?
. . . they're so gullible, they don't even see it.
Contrary to the assertions of many on the Left, Beck's not crazy and he's not stupid. While he's no rocket scientist, he understands, like any accomplished con man, that you only have to be smarter than your mark in order to bleed him.
In this case, Beck's marks are the low information voters who watch his television show and listen to his radio program, and who buy his books and coffee mugs. For the most part, they're older, working class whites who lives in small towns in suburban and rural areas. They profess Christianity while ignoring its teachings, and they harp incessantly about the Bible and the Constitution, although they are generally unfamiliar with the specifics of both. They were poor students in high school, although they're sometimes able to get two years of community college under their belt
Outside of reading People magazine, their interaction with blacks and homosexuals is virtually non-existent. Their interaction with hispanics tends to be limited to poor immigrants, undocumented or otherwise, who work in construction and packing. They don't have passports, don't speak a foreign language and have never travelled outside the country. They vacation in Biloxi and have no understanding of micro or macroeconomic theory beyond their personal consumer transactions.
They watch a lot of television and listen to the radio, primarily because both are cheap. They don't make much money and pay less than their "fair" share of taxes, although they don't quite get the connection between taxes, Medicare, social secuity and subsidies. The buy foreign-manufactured goods, yet complain about foreignors owning America. They mistakenly believe that the estate tax applies to them.
They're easily duped and highly intolerant, and they don't understand why requiring prayer in public school violates the Constitution. They're bigots but believe themselves to be victims, and are uncomfortable with difference.
They demand respect but don't understand what it looks like, a function, at least in part, of the fact that they're routinely disrespected by those who supposedly advocate on their behalf, including Beck. They don't read Fortune magazine, so they're unaware that Beck has admitted his show is shtick, and that he's only in it for the money, facts they'll never hear on Fox. They believe that Beck "tells it like is," even though he's pretty open about his willingness to fleece them dollar by dollar by giving voice to their bigotry and insecurities.
I'd make one change to that, many went to a state school or small third or fourth tier college, passed as C students but didn't really learn anything, and haven't cracked a real book or taken a challenging college class since.
I live in a very conservative area and my experience is that you do describe a notable percentage but far from all of them. Many are well educated and are quite capable in a number of situations.
That they are low information voters is pretty uniform. By in large that is a choice. They all feel like they are very well informed. Of course all that information they have is from inside the bubble. If it doesn't fit what comes from the bubble then it is not just wrong but evil.
For being such "independents" they are by in large quite clanish and usually quite similar in thought on almost everything. Far more so than the Progressives. You don't have to meet to many modern Conservatives to know pretty much the whole story. The radio and fox news is a meeting place for them. A church that preaches the word.
That goes to Davids point. It amazes me that if it comes from one of their approved places they will believe anything. Anything!
There is no hope I can see that these people will have a revelation. Even if they did they would just interpret it however Glen or Sarah told them to.
I've noticed an increasing sensitiveness to pointing out their hate. Deny, deny, deny.
It's not so much what they say as the broad sweep of it.
They are suspicious(nicest word I could come up with) of Blacks, Mexicans, Socialists, Muslims, Gays, Union members, Arabs, Progressives,poor people, the list goes on. Anyone who challenges them is an evil that must be destroyed. Suspicion with that broad a scope qualifies as hate to me. Obviously not to them. I think the word is xenophobia.
The scariest part to me is the ones they are not suspicious of are the ones that deserve it. Big money. Don't say anything bad about that because they are the icons of glorious Capitalism and so mighty and great that they obviously deserve protection and support.
video of Simon and Garfunkel in Central Park in 1981. That was a half million people. Compare and contrast to Beck's crowd. Perhaps the collective IQ of the crowd added to 500,000, but that may be a stretch, too.
I've seen some stuff, man. And some thangs...
Maybe the 500,000 count was the number teeth the crowd had.
CaliforniaMike blogs at All Voices and at his own blogs, http://www.mikerappaport.net/onevoice and at http://oneminutewithmike.blogspot.com.
That would be an average of about six teeth per person...
I've seen some stuff, man. And some thangs...
That would be an average of about six teeth per person...
???? Too many per person?
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Is it time to invest in the makers of Kool Aid?
I see a Jim Jones reincarnation on the way.
If you need funds to pay for essentials, you have a revenue problem
If you need funds to pay for frivolity, you have a spending problem
Is no one going to mention the miracle that happened at his shindig Saturday? A flock of geese flew over the reflection pond. Beck said he couldn't arrange a military fly-over so the lord sent the geese in their stead.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
... I am beginning to think that maybe the events related in the bible may be a bit over exaggerated. Maybe the whole turning the water into wine, was just Jesus picking up the bar tab for once. Which could be considered a "miracle" among his buddies given Jesus cheap nature...
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://ww...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Too bad the geese didn't perform an excrement bombing run on Beck's podium....it would have been sweet!
Democratic Party progressive, Vietnam veteran and proud Union member for 41 years
Beck and reality have decided to part ways indefinitely. I hope it was an amicable agreement at least...
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
Reality wanted to see other people. Beck wanted to see other realities.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
I think if Beck was capable of seeing other realities we'd all be a lot better off.
....finding as many ways as possible to put himself in a sentence alongside the POTUS. This idiot really thinks he has earned some sort of seat at the table and every time he compares himself to Obama in any way, he asserting that notion.
So Beck managed a flash mob. So? 80k idiots with lighter wallets; that is all that came out of it.
I'm just superstitious enough to hedge my bets.
i thought you said we were still slaves mr. beck and slavery was still rampant?
"...any form of central government planning usually leads to serfdom, or servitude, slavery. It extinguishes freedom." -- becky
"Progressive policies are keeping these people in slavery. Slavery to government, welfare, affirmative action, regulation, control." -- becky
"It is the nanny state. They're going to tell us what we can eat. They can tell us what our temperature needs to be in our homes. They can tell us what kind of car to drive. They can tell businesses how to run their business. It's slavery. It is slavery." -- becky
oh, you mean real slavery, not televangelist metaphorical slavery... maybe use air quotes to differentiate?
Beck claimed to have held Washington's inaugural address in his hands. The National Archives said that he is full of shit. Of ocurse his adoring fans probably think that he wrote it.
they probably think that the National Archives is now a part of the liberal plot.
I guess it's still not related in any way to MLK, is it?
The Blaze as in Flaming. Flaming Idiot? Or did he out himself? Why does the song "they call him the streak" keep ringing in my head when this rodeo clown comes on the screen?
So I was really wondering about was that back during the Primaries they were mocking Obama when he said that they "cling to their bibles and their guns". Well, isn't this the crowd that they are courting themselves? The bible thumping right wing gun toting patriots? This is their crowd, the ones they bilked out of all that money yesterday. How bg was the take yesterday? Does anyone know? How much went to Beckerhead and how muh went to SOWF and how much went to "the cause"?
When Beck and his sponsors suck all the life savings out of this crowd will they "see the error of their ways" and come after our advertising money?
Not so long ago you guys were ripping on Beck for his ratings dip, now that's gone and you're on this kick. Sounds like C & L is the ones obsessing over the numbers. BTW:
CABLE NEWS RACE
MON. AUG 30, 2010
VIEWERS
FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,977,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,645,000
FOXNEWS BECK 2,600,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,097,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 1,858,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 1,856,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,078,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,027,000
MSNBC SHULTZ 699,000
CNN SANCHEZ 676,000
CNN KING 620,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 620,000
CNNHN GRACE 586,000
CNN COOPER 581,000
All that shows me is Americans aren't as interested in news as they are in stoking their hatred. NIce. Thanks for the proof.
In other news, Beck wants them to tithe. He must be setting up a church to go with his new blog. Just think, FOXNEWS BECK 2,600,000 (and more) tithing.
far left loon >.<
Yuppers, you guys watch lots of tv don't you?
http://a.imageshack.us/img641/6263/beckmoses2...
Megalomania is what Beck suffers from.
The fact that people flock to listen to this guy, and watch his show with new and improved Beckboard Technology, makes me think this nation has been invaded by pod people from the planet Bagtard.
Tis sad the Democrats are going to get stomped because they were too worried about kissing GOP ass when they could have made progressives more committed to supporting them by standing firm for progressive legislation.
will only happen when right-wingers realize that Beck, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter, and Bachmann have been lying through their teeth to them.
The third Great Awakening? More like the second Dark Ages.
Good ol' creepy-whisper Beck is trying to convince us he is not being paid by Rupert Murdoch to promote his vile agenda.
Then he tries to pull the old Mormon crap to "tithe your church". Take my word, none of that money goes to doing charitable works. I used to give to my local Catholic church, but since the death of Pope John Paul and the election of Benedict and his inaction over the scandals within the "faith", I've stopped giving completely. It's all a shell game.
Democratic Party progressive, Vietnam veteran and proud Union member for 41 years
Quoting Moses... leader of a fanatical, genocidal war mob.
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