Glenn Beck, President of Cracker Nation!

Fox commentator Glenn Beck has been bloviating for what seems like forever about his precious "9.12 project". Now, in fairness, the 9.12 project website has a disclaimer distancing itself from "the Glenn Beck Program, Glenn Beck, or any radio station, Cable TV Network, etc. ". A little farther down the page you will find a small shrine called the Glenn Beck Feed, however. For those who have better things to do than listen to the lies and innuendo that these neocon nit-wits spew, the stated goal of this gaggle's website is to be "a place for you and other like-minded Americans looking for direction in taking back the control of our country." Some of them marched in Washington, DC over the weekend. I noticed some disturbing trends...

First was the size of the crowd. I've heard claims of upwards of 500,000 by Beck and the Fox bozos. Judging by the authenticated pictures I've seen, that number is off by an order of magnitude (Lop off a zero for you non-math geeks).

Second was the obvious level of hatred in the crowd. I don't think Ive ever seen a group of people more riled by fear and outright ignorance. Even at the height of the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I didn't see people espousing violence against any American, even (or especially!) Muslim-Americans. I'm willing to bet the Secret Service will be putting in a lot of overtime just based on some of the signs I saw on the news.

Third, and scariest of all, was the make-up of the crowd. I have yet to see a picture, ANY picture, of a single person of color attending this hoe-down. No black, brown, yellow or red faces whatsoever. Just an unbroken stream of white, most of them looking to be in need of a bit of health care. One person (and hats off to them) even went so far as to dub this the "Great White Waddle". I'm old enough (barely) to remember (from TV) the racial struggles in this country in the 1960's. The last time I saw a crowd this white being this angry at a black man there were hoods involved.

All of this got my brain running on its' hamster wheel. These people don't want government-run health care but are unwilling to give up their Veteran's and Medicare benefits, think that they have "lost control of 'their' country" just because America elected a black President and think that social justice equals socialism. I think it is high time for these crackers to form their own country. Let's call it "Cracker Nation", a nation built on fear, ignorance, hatred and deceit.

Think about it... a place where all these people that are afraid of people that are different from them can go and be out of our hair. Fixed Noise can be their Ministry of Dis-information, Lou Dobbs for Immigration Minister and of course: Glenn Beck, President of Cracker Nation!

All kidding aside, this wave of scared white people scares me more than almost anything that came out of the Bush administration. Frightened people in large groups worry me, and when people like Beck, Dobbs, O'Reilly and Limbaugh use those fears to agitate scared people it amounts to nothing more than incitement to riot, pure and simple. Wait a minute... plying on fears and ancient hatreds... those tactics sound familiar... THAT'S IT!!! The same tactics Osama binLaden used to incite the 9/11 attacks!

And so we have come full circle. Amazing, isn't it. I think Sinclair Lewis said it best. "When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” Two excellent reasons to be wary of excessive patriotism and religion, don't you think? And if you don't think, why are you reading this?