Social activists and civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, are planning marches and demonstrations to counter Glenn Beck’s rally » Read More

By Amy Gardner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 25, 2010; 9:40 PM

Full coverage of the 8/28 rallies here.

When Fox News and talk radio host Glenn Beck comes to Washington this weekend to headline a rally intended to “restore honor” to America, he will test the strength - and potentially expose the weaknesses - of a conservative grass-roots movement that remains an unpredictable force in the country’s politics.

Beck, who is both admired and assailed for his faith-based patriotism and his brash criticism of President Obama, plans in part to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. as an American hero. He will speak on the anniversary of the “I Have a Dream” speech, from the spot where King delivered it.

Some “tea party” activists say the event, at which former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is also scheduled to speak, will have a greater impact than last September’s “9/12″ march along Pennsylvania Avenue. Though the attendance figures for that anti-tax rally are disputed, it was the first national gathering to demonstrate the size and influence of the tea party movement.

But with just a few days before the Beck rally, basic questions linger, including how big it will be and whether the event, which Beck says is nonpolitical, will help or hurt Republicans in November. Also unanswered is whether Beck can pull off the connection to King without creating offense - or confrontation with another event the same day led by the Rev. Al Sharpton.

(Photos: Glenn Beck, civil rights leaders spar over MLK anniversary)

Beck said in a recent broadcast that he did not intentionally choose the “I Have a Dream” anniversary for his rally - but that he believes the coincidence is “divine providence.”

“Whites don’t own Abraham Lincoln,” he said. “Blacks don’t own Martin Luther King. Those are American icons, American ideas, and we should just talk about character, and that’s really what this event is about. It’s about honoring character.”

The rally, which is also being billed as a tribute to U.S. troops, will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Video screens and sound towers will be positioned along the reflecting pool and as far east as the Washington Monument.

It will be a weekend of political activity, with tea party organizer FreedomWorks hosting a convention in Washington on Friday, Beck’s and Sharpton’s events Saturday, and a major effort by Democrats to knock on 200,000 doors nationwide Saturday and Sunday.

Beck is expecting as many as 100,000 people and is heavily promoting his event on his TV and radio shows. Sharpton expects a smaller number for an annual commemoration of the “Dream” speech. That event, which focuses on education, will begin at 11 a.m. with speeches at Dunbar High School in Northwest. It will continue with a march to the site of the planned King memorial, at the same end of the Mall as the Lincoln Memorial, placing participants of both events in close proximity.

By JEFFREY S. HOWARD Posted 08/19/2010 06:22 PM ET

Investors Business Daily

In today’s dangerous world, we need a president with experience, leadership and courage. Unfortunately, you have shown us little of those traits.

Your childhood and younger years denied you the opportunity to grow up as an American man, and that is no fault of your own. Unfortunately, your lack of empathy for and experience of a traditional American upbringing has left you out of touch with those of us who grew up learning the traditions and work ethic of our predecessors.

You have never accepted the honor of military service, or held and survived in any sort of entry-level working position. You are bereft of many of the basic building blocks of a true American personality and worldview.

You have never experienced the icy hand of fear caressing your gut during a firefight when your very survival from second to second depends on your luck, wits, fellow troopers and the grace of God. You have never sweated out a payroll when your receivables are late.

You’ve missed the rewarding feeling of flogging a loaded truck all night to deliver a load 500 miles away at 7 a.m. You never shoveled cow manure for less than minimum wage to earn enough for a rattletrap car. You missed out on greasing dump trucks on the night shift, and never had the opportunity to start out cleaning restrooms and sweeping floors in a factory.

Your education was in the law, and you ignored any opportunity to absorb the lessons of history or the theories of economics. You have never experienced the law of the jungle in the private sector.

While you play golf and basketball and surround yourself with “the swells” enjoying concerts in the People’s House, those of us in the general public dine on Spam and Costco burgers. I can’t put my wife on a 747 and send her to Spain so she can be ready to spend 10 days on Martha’s Vineyard when she gets back. She works seven days a week and so do I — spreading four full- and part-time jobs between us to make ends meet.

I watch in pain while my business venture slides into oblivion and my small IRA erodes as your economic policies push the nation into a double-dip recession. This economy is locking up again, and you cannot blame former President Bush. The great construction jobs I created are ending while you pour trillions in borrowed money into the public sector to buy votes. I blame you personally for appointing the ship of fools you have as Cabinet officials and advisers.

Read More at IBD Editorials …

As Ohio Goes . . .

Souring on Obama.

BY Stephen F. Hayes

Holland, Ohio
Photo Credit: Gary Locke

Early in the afternoon of a warm, midsummer Saturday, Norman Roundell sat in a lawn chair in his front yard. He sipped from a coffee mug half-full of Old Milwaukee, with a second unopened can at his feet, next to his pack of Pyramid cigarettes. His wife, Nora, sat 20 feet away on a small deck attached to their modest rambler.

Their topic of discussion: Barack Obama and the economy.

“He can’t do it all in one day,” said Nora. “It’s just like a clock going around—better to worse, worse to better. It’s going to get worse first. No one is hiring .  .  .”

Her husband cut her off.

“At least he’s trying something different!” he bellowed, as if he were disagreeing with her. “He’s doing the best he can! What the hell can he do?” “Shit,” Norman shook his head in exasperation. Then he shouted. “He inherited all that bullshit!”

His wife agreed. “I do believe he inherited it,” she volunteered. “I don’t think he caused any of it.”

Norman, shouted again: “He inherited all that bullshit!”

And there, without the help of highly paid consultants or elaborate focus groups, is the Democrats’ main talking point heading into the 2010 midterm elections.

The following day, senior White House political adviser David Axelrod made much the same argument without the admirable efficiency. “What we don’t want to do is go back to the same policies that created the disaster in the first place. And this is really what the debate is about.”

Obama made the case himself at a town hall in Racine, Wisconsin, on June 30.

Read More from Stephen Hayes’ Article in the Weekly Standard …

Smith for News

The site of the proposed mosque near Ground Zero. Many construction workers are vowing not to work on the controversial project.

Hagen for News

Blaster David Kaiser’s hardhat says what he thinks of the mosque planned for Park Place, near Ground Zero.

• Supporters, opponents debate merits of controversial plan to build mosque near Ground Zero

A growing number of New York construction workers are vowing not to work on the mosque planned near Ground Zero.

“It’s a very touchy thing because they want to do this on sacred ground,” said Dave Kaiser, 38, a blaster who is working to rebuild the World Trade Center site.

“I wouldn’t work there, especially after I found out about what the imam said about U.S. policy being responsible for 9/11,” Kaiser said.

The grass-roots movement is gaining momentum on the Internet. One construction worker created the “Hard Hat Pledge” on his blog and asked others to vow not to work on the project if it stays on Park Place.

“Thousands of people are signing up from all over the country,” said creator Andy Sullivan, a construction worker from Brooklyn. “People who sell glass, steel, lumber, insurance. They are all refusing to do work if they build there.”

“Hopefully, this will be a tool to get them to move it,” he said. “I got a problem with this ostentatious building looming over Ground Zero.”