Irving Kristol in 1973: "Senator McGovern is very sincere when he says that he will try to cut the military budget by 30%. And this is to drive a knife in the heart of Israel… Jews don’t like big military budgets. But it is now an interest of the Jews to have a large and powerful military establishment in the United States… American Jews who care about the survival of the state of Israel have to say, no, we don’t want to cut the military budget, it is important to keep that military budget big, so that we can defend Israel." And do you see the relevance to this discussion?

Now it's "Are you an innie or an outie?"

Now I'm really confused. I'm definitely an "outie" when it comes to the political power structure, but my belly button says otherwise.

New motto: "Time to turn the power structure inside-out."

DCLaw1 was way ahead of us with his blog title: "Inside-out the Beltway".

Quite a bit of food for thought, but I think you are over-emphasizing the non-partisan nature.

You mention that tax and healthcare issues are among the several issues that this "movement" addresses. Right now, these issues seem to be the primary issues, and the Beck-crowds assembling are very anti taxes and very much on the conservative side of the spectrum. It is basically, despite many of the non-partisan issues that are driving it, a right-wing movement. It makes sense that the Republican Party is trying to engage it.

Opportunist? Schizoid? Delusional? Some combination of Art Bell and McCarthy on a bender?

It's difficult to take much/any of what he says seriously because something that makes sense is either quickly contradicted, or followed by something that sounds nutty.

To be fair, from what I recall, the complaints about Bush's deficits mostly revolved around where the money was going (Iraq) and the lie of Republican economic minimalism, especially compared to the Clinton administration. I don't recall the critics on the Left being anti-deficit in general.

I know, it's a side point at best.

the "elites" as Glen says, milk the anti insider sentiment, in order to motivate the mad as hell crowd to vote for the next batch of Clinton or Bush, re-treads. They have the bait and switch down to a fine art.

I'd suggest a completely different example is last year's AN moneybomb effort, which had contributions coming from all over the spectrum. Just as with these recent protest events, there are some very strange composites that form up these days that simply don't conform to typical left/right binary thinking.

Thatnks for the very useful thinking here GG, should be read multiple times.

but I'm glad winsmith approves of Glenn even if Glenn is gallingly consistent in applying the same accountability and logic to government, politicians, and media, as well as foreign allies and enemies.

Perhaps winsmith should take a moment to consider what's preventing him from suffering from doublethink when it comes to his most favored topic.

It is patently obvious that the Democratic takeover of Congress in 2006, and Obama's election in 2008, has only marginally produced any of the political benefits that Democratic and progressive voters expected.

This is an utterly ridiculous statement grounded in shallow false equivalency thinking.

The democratic "takeover" in 2006 consisted of a 50/50 + Joe Lieberman Senate, with Dubya in the midst of flaunting every law and ignoring every bill he didn't like with a signing statement.

To scream that the Democratic Party didn't do enough between 2006-2008 is to be totally disingenuous to the realities of our government.

Now, after 2008, we have a solid majority and the changes already, in eight months, have been significant. Everything from appointing credible heads to each government agency to shifting the language away from "war on terror" jingoism to Obama's historic speech in Egypt reaching out to the Muslim world, to "small" things like extending unemployment insurance, raising the minimum wage, investing in "Cash for Clunkers," increasing auto mileage minimums, etc.

If we don't have a public option in healthcare in the next four months, I'd be shocked.

What will you bitch about then? How the Democratic Party is "just like Bush" because

You and your Nader voter mentality can kiss my glowing, shiny, peach colored ass. If we didn't have this sort of psuedo-intellectual "liberal" nonsense maligning Al Gore as a "corporate whore" in 2000, the world wouldn't be suffering as badly as it is right now.

Obama has been a revelation as President, taking on daily savagery in the right wing media, in the 9/11 teabagging nonsense, and still going about his job.

Next up? Israel-Palestine, reforming Wall Street, immigration reform and climate change. All while trying to pass a healthcare bill and get us the hell out of Iraq.

Rather than bitching about Obama, you should show some critical context. No human being should be under this sort of pressure and these sorts of expectations, all while a right wing industry lies in daily wait to trash and mock his every move.

Glenn Greenwald needs to pay more attention to the agenda of Rupert Murdoch, who is Glenn Beck's employer and enabler, than to the agenda of Beck, who is a mere tool. Murdoch will continue to promote Beck for as long as Beck continues to promote three major themes in all the confused noise: 1. pro-Israel militancy 2. anti-Muslim militancy 3. attacks on Barack Obama and the Democratic Party. The script couldn't be more obvious. If Beck deviates from the essentials of that script, he will lose his soapbox. If Beck continues to promote those themes, he's golden.

I hope united opposition to problems that are increasingly perceived in common across the political spectrum will be enough to bring about the political re-alignment that is so desperately needed right now.

The Ron Paul movement (http://www.campaignforliberty.org) should not be associated with the nutcase Glenn Beck. GOP "leadership" and the usual partisan hacks have latched onto Dr. Paul's methods but not (yet) his message.

They see in retrospect that the fact of Dr. Paul raising $4 million in a single day without any help from the GOP establishment might mean something important, and they are trying to glom onto that true grassroots momentum and parasitically co-opt it. But we activists who supported the message and not just the brand name will not let that happen.

Thanks for the article.