Glenn Beck Finally Gets Around To Denouncing Bruce Springsteen

Glenn Beck Finally Gets Around To Denouncing Bruce Springsteen
Jason Linkins
Huffington Post
03-12-10

You wouldn't think this was possible, but Glenn Beck had apparently never actually sat down and listened to Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA," never heard the lyrics, never formed a familiarity with the song's storied history in American politics, until this week, I guess? Anyway, now that he's heard that the song isn't some glorious tongue-bath to American exceptionalism, he's denouncing it on the radio. Per Lindsay Beyerstein:

Twenty-six years after the release of Bruce Springsteen's hit song, "Born in The USA," conservative talk show host/performance artist Glenn Beck finally got around to listening to the lyrics.


Beck was shocked, shocked to discover that for all these years he'd been rocking out to a song about a bitter down-and-out Vietnam vet who has been kicked to the curb by the aforementioned USA.

Via Spencer Ackerman, here's what Beck had to say about it:

BECK: You get filled with patriotic pride, and then you find out that Bruce Springsteen's 'Born In The U.S.A.' is anti-American. 'Born down in a dead man's town/ the first kick I took is when I hit the ground/ you end up like a dog that's been beat too much/ so you spend half your life just covering up...' [He reads the entire lyrics in an incredulous tone of voice; manages to mispronounce 'Khe Sanh'] Hmm. Yeah! [crosstalk] ... It's time for us to wake up out of our dream state. Out of the propaganda... This is the thing that people who come from the Soviet bloc or Cuba, they're all saying, 'How do you guys not hear this? How are you not seeing this?' Well, because we don't ever expect it.

All of this gives me the opportunity to bring up one thing that's always puzzled me about Beck: his love of the band Muse. Beck follows Muse on Twitter, and he took the stage at CPAC to the tune of their recent hit, "Uprising." Here's the video, you can hear the song pretty clearly:

Don't get me wrong, Muse is awesome. But what's weird about Beck's embrace of Muse is that their lead singer, Matthew Bellamy, is a 9/11 "Truther."

From Spin, Magazine: August, 2009:

...On 9/11: "There is evidence that suggests the powers that be knew of the attacks beforehand and let them happen. There's a video on YouTube called Loose Change that explains it."

I hate to take Bellamy's "curiosity as evidence of belief," but he's been talking up 9/11 as an "inside job" for a long time.

Music is just music. But Beck very recently torched Texas gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina for espousing these same "Truther" beliefs, so it's sort of funny to see him making allowances for Muse, while assailing The Boss for being un-American for that time he thought we should take better care of our veterans.

Republican says U.S. might have contributed to collapse of World Trade Center buildings

Maybe this is what Debra Medina was talking about? Bizarre announcement of WTC 7 collapse while the building was still standing. How did they know it was going to collapse? I remember on September 11, 2001 hearing a reporter say that they were getting people away from building 7 because there was a "bomb" in it and it was going to collapse.

Texas Republican Debra Medina clearly states that the U.S. had nothing to do with the planning and execution of the airplane collisions with the World Trade Center in September 2001. "There is no doubt in my mind that Muslim terrorists flew planes into those buildings on 9/11. I have not seen any evidence nor have I ever believed that our government was involved or directed those individuals in any way." Medina suspects, however, that the dramatic collapse of the buildings, a phenomenon never before seen in a skyscraper fire, might have been designed by someone with foreknowledge of the attacks. Motive? To inflame public opinion to support a war against Iraq.

Texas gov. candidate questions any US role in 9/11
By APRIL CASTRO
02.11.10
Associated Press
...Debra Medina on the Glenn Beck Show that there were "some very good arguments" that the U.S. was involved in bringing down the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001..."I don't have all of the evidence there, Glenn," Medina said. "I think some very good questions have been raised. In that regard there's some very good arguments and I think the American people have not seen all the evidence there."...


See also: http://learningboosters.blogspot.com/2009/06/california-high-school-physics-teacher.html

At last the 9/11 Commission can get a look at the evidence in the World Trade Center attack

See all posts on WTC collapse.

For some unknown reason, President George Bush ordered the steel from the World Trade Center buildings that collapsed on September 11, 2001 to be immediately sent to China for recycling. Obviously, the evidence of the collapse couldn't be studied at that time, but we can all go look at it now that it's been turned into a ship.


USS New York comes to life; ship born of 7.5 tons of World Trade Center steel
BY Stephanie Gaskell
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
November 7th 2009

The USS New York is seen during its commissioning on November 7, 2009 at Piers 86 and 88 in New York City.
Loccisano/Getty

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stands with sailors and Marines at the commissioning of the USS New York.


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The New York came to life Saturday, becoming the Navy's newest warship - and a proud symbol of fortitude.

The $1 billion amphibious transport dock carries 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center in her bow stem.

"The New York will be a visible testament to our resilience," said Navy Secretary Ray Mabus as the first watch was set and hundreds of sailors and Marines ran onto the decks of the ship, a tradition signaling the official commissioning of the vessel.

Cmdr. Curt Jones, a native New Yorker, took command during an emotional ceremony at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum attended by more than 6,000 people, including Secretary of State Clinton, Gov. Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg.

"There is a lot of emotion that is associated with this ship for all of us," Jones said. "The steel that is in the bow of the ship, that motivates us literally every day in what we do."

The ship, which has a crew of about 360 sailors, will be docked at Pier 88 until Thursday, when it heads to its home port at Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia.

"This ship has been the product of a lot of hard work," Paterson said. "It is not just named the New York - it IS New York."

Clinton said the New York will help the nation heal, more than eight years after the World Trade Center attack.

"In that steel, burned but unbroken, lives the spirit we saw on 9-11," she said. "Sometimes our pain can lead us to purpose."

Mike Petters is the president of Northrop Grumman, which built the ship in Avondale, La.

"We needed this ship," Petters said. "New York needed this ship. And America needed this ship."

For Carl Scheetz, a firefighter with Rescue 1 in Hell's Kitchen, the ship is a reminder of the city's strength.

"To me it's a show of resiliency to the whole tragedy that happened," he said. "The crew members are great. I met a Marine and went to say 'Thank you' to him. He said, 'No, sir, thank you very much.' "We have a lot in common," Scheetz said.