God, what an exhausting week. I've got nothing of any value to say, really, so here's an update on the Maestro.
Glenn Beck's McCarthy-istic ass is going to be in Mount Vernon tomorrow. In true neo-con fashion, the event's closed to the media. Hopefully someone'll sneak a video camera in and document the fiasco. B'ham still hasn't heard anything back from Comedy Central or Jon Stewart's crew, chances are looking grim.
Here's a video of the Maestro totally skewing cap and trade (claiming that cap and trade would cost American households over $1700 per day for some reason), then doing an impression of a southern belle:
Glenn Beck latched on to a discredited argument being promoted by conservatives that the climate bill would increase personal income taxes by 15% and cost every American $1761. (Beck takes the fuzzy math even further and implies that it would cost this amount PER DAY.) The Treasury memos Beck and others use to validate this claim, according to Media Matters. "...Do not address the current House climate change bill but, rather, a proposal that would auction 100 percent of the emissions allowances; the bill under consideration spends revenue created by the program to offset costs to households and businesses."
So last week Bud Norris, mayor of Mount Vernon, Washington (about thirty miles south of Bellingham) made national headlines by offering to present a key to the city to none other than… Glenn Beck.
“Well, Glenn Beck is a person I’ve known for a long time, but I want to recognize him for what he’s achieved in his professional life,” Norris told NPR Seattle affiliate KUOW’s Ross Reynolds in an interview last week. “Starting out here in a fairly rural portion of the state, he’s worked very hard since he was fifteen years old and now he’s a nationally recognized figure in radio and TV broadcasting, as an entertainer, commentator, whatever you’d like to label him as.”
I can think of several choice words that would accurately characterize Beck, but none of them are “entertainer” or “commentator.”
As you might imagine, Norris’ decision hasn’t gone over too well with many Mount Vernon residents. TV station KING 5 in Seattle sent a film crew to Mount Vernon and got some footage of a lively anti-Beck protest orchestrated by the Young Democrats of Skagit Valley. "That success is built off a lot of ridiculous and hateful and divisive language,” the YDSD president told KING 5’s Meg Coyle. “We feel that as a non-partisan position, the mayor should not be endorsing that at all."
How does the mayor respond to charges of partisan endorsement? (Again, I feel I should say I’m not making this up.) He disagrees. You see, his choice to honor Beck isn’t partisan at all, as Beck has never actually declared any party affiliation. Strangely, Mayor Norris wasn’t struck by lightning immediately after giving his explanation.
It should be noted that the decision to award a key to the city rests solely on Norris’ shoulders. The Skagit County Herald reports that there’s nothing Mount Vernon city council members can do to stop the mayor from giving the key to whomever he wants. But as a form of protest, six of the seven council members will not be in attendance for the ceremony.
Pretty damn weird and ridiculous, right? But here’s where it gets awesome: In his excellent politics blog, Bellingham Herald reporter Sam Taylor posted a copy of a letter from Bellingham mayor Dan Pike, addressed to one Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show.” And why would Mayor Pike be sending Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” a letter? Why, to invite him to accept a key to the city of Bellingham, of course!
Here’s a cut and paste of Pike’s letter, directly from Sam’s blog:
September 4, 2009
Jon Stewart c/o The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 733 11th Avenue New York, NY 10019-5051
Dear Mr. Stewart and Daily Show Producers: My name is Dan Pike, and I am the Mayor of Bellingham, Washington. I also went to Lawrence High School, Jon Stewart’s alma mater, a few years ahead of him (Class of 1975), though I never knew him and doubt he ever knew me.
I am writing because I am currently the Mayor of Bellingham, Washington, a community of about 80,000 between Vancouver, BC and Seattle, WA. The next city south of us on I-5, Mount Vernon (pop. 30,000), has just announced they are giving the keys to that city to Glenn Beck, a native son. The news got me to thinking that if they could give Beck a key simply for being born there, perhaps Bellingham could provide a key to Mr. Stewart for the better reasons of providing cogent yet comedic analysis of news events and personalities on a daily basis, as well as being an alumnus of the same high school as Bellingham’s Mayor. I was particularly moved and informed by the Daily Show’s recent analysis of the evolution of Glenn Beck’s feelings about the US healthcare system over the past couple of years.
We are bigger and better than Mount Vernon, and so are interested in a bigger, better star to receive our key. As an added bonus, should Mr. Stewart accept, we would try to track down Stephen, the eagle from the Colbert Report who frequently lives in our county, so Jon could have a personal sighting. If Mr. Colbert would like to receive a key to Bellingham, too, he is also welcome. If Mr. Stewart cannot come to Bellingham to accept, perhaps I could deliver it at some time in the months ahead, when I come to Lawrenceville to visit my mother.
While this is a joke of sorts, intended as a counterpoint to the Beck event in Mount Vernon, the offer is serious.
I may be contacted through my office at (360) 778-8100, on my cell phone at (redacted), or via email at dpike@cob.org.
Thanks for your consideration; keep up the great work! Dan Pike,
Mayor
City of Bellingham, Washington
Suck it, Glenn Beck! Who cares about a piddling key from Mount Vernon, when our boy Stewart’s been offered the key to the City of Subdued Excitement! Bellingham for the win!
No word yet as to whether Stewart will actually take up the offer. The odds… aren’t great that Jon would be willing to travel across the country just to make a fool of someone who does a decent job of that already on a fairly regular basis. But I love the fact that Pike offered, and would actually do it if Stewart agreed. What glorious egg it would be, smeared all over Glenn Beck’s maniacal little face. Cross your fingers, everybody.
Over the past few months I’ve developed a profound respect for Fox News’ Glenn Beck. Lately the stream of consciousness-esque meltdowns on his show have been captivating both in their stunning originality and their complete rejection of reality. Like any fun-loving anarchist, I subscribe to the belief that destruction is also a form of creation. This conviction has led to the realization that Beck himself is actually a performance artist; he’s presenting the viewer with an unflinching glimpse into the hyperbolic tsunami of Right-Wing schizophrenia that is Glenn Beck, in what we can only hope will be five acts.
Act I was the launch of “Project 9/12” and Beck’s sudden thick-voiced mancrying jag that dispersed as suddenly as it appeared. Act II was the racist accusation heard ‘round the world. Act III saw Beck (hereafter refered to as “Maestro”) dousing an intern with water from a gas can and threatening to light him ablaze (and also seemingly sending the intern into hypothermic shock). We are now in Act IV of what will surely be remembered in Humanities textbooks for generations to come as “NeoCon: Deconstructed.” Highlights so far include uncovering the secret far-left “OLIGARHY,” and last night’s revelation that Leftist propaganda cleverly disguised as art has been haphazardly strewn about the Rockefeller Center for decades… and we’ve never even noticed it!
This latest topic is fascinating. The only problem is that if you’re not familiar with actual reality and context of the art mentioned in, around, and not even close to Rockefeller Center, you might not fully grasp the genius of this piece. But before we go into that, let me just be clear on my intent here; I am in no way attempting to correct or criticize the Maestro’s stunning piece. I am absolutely not worthy of such a daunting endeavor. My intent here is merely to provide the reader with a “cheat sheet” of sorts, a brief dash of reality and context meant to enhance the beauty of the Maestro’s madness.
First off, here’s a video of the segment in question:
Maestro has established that Rockefeller (although he's not sure which one) was a capitalist, but that the actual center is full of Pinko-Commie-Fascist “artistic” depictions. He began his in-depth analysis with a look at the main entrance to One Rockefeller Plaza, an intaglio carving called “Industry and Agriculture,” created in 1937 by Carl Paul Jennewein.
According to the Rockefeller Center Web site, the carvings represent “the commercial activities of industry and agriculture, depicting universal activities, not individuals. One figure holds a shovel [not a hammer], symbolizing industry, while the other holds a scythe and gestures to shafts of wheat, representing the harvest, or agriculture. It is a straightforward interpretation of workers and their work, a common Art Deco theme. The figures are strong and idealized, signifying the roots of prosperity in America and promoting its work ethic.”
Next up is “Youth Leading Industry,” a 1936 bas-relief created by renown sculptor Antilio Piccirilli. This isn't all Piccirilli’s know for, either; he and his family carved the statue of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Monument.
Maestro’s pretty dead-on with this one. I will say though that it was actually Piccirilli’s nephew, not his son, that was killed in WWII. But other than that, yeah. This is a relief of a fascist ideal, and most scholars agree that Piccirilli depicted Mussolini holding the reins. But is it Progressive, as Maestro says? ‘Fraid not. Here’s what The Daily Kos’ CatM had to say about it: “Mussolini's fascism was anticommunist and antisocialist. Mussolini described socialism ‘as a doctrine that was already dead.’ It fostered nationalist sentiments, opposed democracy, protected the class system, promoted militarization of a nation, and opposed free press and trade unions. The ‘Third Way’ fascists thought of themselves as combating liberal institutions. Does this sound progressive? Further, it illustrates that you cannot simultaneously be communist and fascist.”
“Swords Into Plowshares,” a gray and gold relief by Lee Lawrie, was third.
According to the Rockefeller Center’s Web site again, this piece is one of three Lawrie made as an “appeal for world peace.” And while Maestro does indeed mention the name “ISAIH,” he moves on before exploring the significance of “ISAIH II IV.” Specifically, the Biblical significance:
Isaiah 2:4 (New International Version)
He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
Also, the statue Maestro compares “Swords and Plowshares” to didn’t show up until almost forty years later. It was a gift to the United Nations, in hopes that the United Nations would indeed ensure that nation would not take up sword against nation ever again.
And for the coup de grace, Maestro rallied against Diego Rivera’s infamous mural, “Man at the Crossroads.”
It’s true that the mural was commissioned by (Nelson) Rockefeller to be in the lobby of 30 Rock. But when it was first created, it didn’t actually have a lot of the stuff Maestro mentioned. No Rockefeller by the STD. No Leon Trotsky, no Karl Marx. Controversy reportedly arose when Rivera added Lenin and the communists into the mural. When Rockefeller saw this, he flipped out and ordered Rivera to change the mural. Rivera refused and Rockefeller had the mural hidden and eventually destroyed. The extras that Maestro referred to didn’t actually show up until Rivera recreated the mural in Mexico City. The picture of the mural that the Maestro is analyzing was never a part of Rockefeller Center, it was a recreation.
So what’s the one common denominator that irrefutably and invisibly links Rockefeller propaganda to the Leftist/Communist/Socialist/Pinko/Free-Love/Eldercide/Nazi/STD-ridden/Indoctrinating Democratic party? Why, Van Jones, of course. Magic.
Act IV is turning out to be absolutely incredible, folks. Beyond my wildest expectations. Keep tuned in to see history in the making. Because once all the sponsors disappear, Act V is inevitably soon to follow. I’m envisioning a fatal hunger strike in the beginning, and Rupert Murdoch commissioning a 200-foot memorial statue of the Maestro copulating with a Holstein cow placed atop Mount Rushmore to wrap things up. It should be glorious.
