scenes from a tea party

The first four minutes features a couple of conspiratorial cranks rambling on about George Soros, commies and marketing techniques.

It gets worse (starting at the 4:40 mark):

“If you’ve got kids in college, get them the hell out of college, they’re brainwashing them.”

“Burn the books,” yells a woman in the audience, to some applause. She wasn’t joking.
On Wednesday Sean Hannity and Joe the Plumber are coming to Atlanta for another of these “tea parties.” Should be stimulating.

(via Andrew Sullivan)

the conservative sideshow

After learning that President Obama might eventually embrace an immigration-reform legislation along the lines of the proposal touted by George W. Bush and John McCain (in at least one of McCain’s various personas), [Glenn] Beck said, “President Obama, why don’t you just set us on fire?”

And he proceeded to douse a colleague with faux gasoline, just in case anyone was unclear about how to set oneself on fire.

Later he interviewed Texas Gov. Rick Perry. In a rare cogent moment, Beck asked Perry, “Governor, you’re regretting being on this program at this point, are you not, sir?” “Not at all, Glenn Beck. I’m proud to be with you.”

And that, in a nutshell, helps explain what’s gone terribly wrong with conservative Republicans of late. Beck appears to be in desperate need of medication, and the chief executive of one of the nation’s largest states is “proud” to appear on the show, just moments after Beck pretended to set a colleague on fire.