"Beckstock" turns out to a be a bizarre combination of religious revival, hostile corporate takeover of civil rights, and massive mental breakdown over having a black man in the White House.

Here is a portion of Sarah Palin's extremely defensive speech at this gathering of wingnuts.



(Here is a short transcript from the above video that I found especially bizarre.)

It is so humbling to get to be here today......patriots. You who are motivated, and engaged, and concerned. Knowing...to...never...retreat.

I must assume....(pause for smattering of applause), I must assume that you to knowing that, no we must not fundamentally transform America as some would want.  We must restore America and restore her honor!

Now I have been asked to speak today, not as a politician (Yeah right!), no something more, something MUCH more, I have been asked to speak as the mother of a SOLDIER! And I am proud of that distinction!

You know say what you want to say about me, but I raised a combat vet and you can't take that away from me!

Proud of that distinction but it is not one that I had imagined because...no woman gives birth thinking that she will hand over her child to her country, but that is what mothers have done from ancient days. (I guess military service beat prison for vandalism in ancient tiimes as well. Who knew?)

Even though Glenn Beck swore that this rally would NOT be political it will come as no surprise at all that he was completely full of shit.

Beck had appealed to those attending not to bring signs with them. But Mike Cash, a 56-year-old Atlanta businessman, found a way around that. Over his polo shirt, he wore a T-shirt that read "Treat Obama like a used tea bag, toss him out now!"

"I wouldn't have missed it (the rally) for anything," said Cash, who drove up with his family. "We are here kind of protesting about our government, too. I'm a businessman and I'm worried about taxes going up."

Many in the crowd watched the proceedings on large television screens. On the edges of the Mall, vendors sold "Don't Tread on Me" flags, popular with tea party activists. Other activists distributed fliers urging voters "dump Obama." The pamphlet included a picture of the president with a Hitler-style mustache.

The Washington Post also noticed the hypocrisy, as well as the poorly veiled message sent by having Sarah Palin give her speech in front of the disenchanted Teabaggers:

Beck's gathering was a non-political rally with strong political overtones, as the choice of Sarah Palin as the featured speaker testified. If Boehner and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) embody the party's establishment leadership, Palin is now the de facto leader of the non-establishment wing, and she is wreaking havoc within her party.

Palin's speech Saturday was heavy on patriotism and tributes to military heroes, but it contained one clear dig at the president when she said that what the country needs is restoring, not transforming. But her presence in the capital was more than a challenge to the Democrats; it also was a reminder to her party's congressional leadership that she and her grass-roots followers will be watching them closely and holding them to account.

One of the things that struck me about this gathering was how many African Americans appeared on stage, singing gospel songs and providing religious messages, and how very, very few of them were present in the audience that came to listen.  It felt very much like Glenn Beck had quickly made sure to get as many black faces for the cameras as he could, knowing full well that the majority of the people attending would be middle aged white Americans who were there, not to see the black faces on stage, but rather in opposition to the black face that peered out at them from behind the Presidential podium.

On the one hand they made so many references to Martin Luther King Jr, that you would have thought it was a gathering of the NAACP, but then on the other would quickly bemoan the horrible state of the country now that Martin Luther King Jr's greatest hope had been achieved.  It was almost as if the entire gathering were schizophrenic by its very nature.

Glenn Beck promised some amazing revelation were to occur during this rally, but the only revelation I observed was how easily duped a certain segment of this country's population are by patriotic music, ostentatious imagery, and blatant hypocrisy. Of course if they were not so easily manipulated they would not be watchers of Fox News now would they?