Acquire Currency, Disregard Poltroons

Will Bunch pegs Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin as what they are:  old-fashioned snake oil salesmen in the age of Twitterati who aren't above cashing in on 9/11.

The spiritual guru of the 9-12 Project will be marking the anniversay of 9-11 along with his new best friend Sarah Palin with a high-priced (and as far as the actual program goes, somewhat mysterious) event at the Dena'ina Center in Anchorage, Alaska. The potential event has been rumored and discussed under the radar for days, possibly even as the launch of a Palin 2012 presidential bid.

But apparently, in the immortal words of Steve Martin in "The Jerk," it's yet another "profit deal" for the two leading high-def hucksters of the right wing. According to the Ticketmaster page, tickets for this solemn 9-11 commemoration run from a low of $73 to a top price of $130, and that's not all. There's also $225 for a special meet-and-greet with Beck (and possibly with Palin), so that die-hard (and not economically struggling) Beck fans can wish him a happy 9-11 in person.

If there's a contradiction or some sort of irony in cashing in over 9-11, that seems to have eluded the hosts. Palin wrote this week on her Facebook page: "We can count on Glenn to make the night interesting and inspiring, and I can think of no better way to commemorate 9/11 than to gather with patriots who will 'never forget.' "

Visa and MasterCard accepted.

Truth be told, outrageous as Beck's latest scheme is, it's almost hard to work up the outrage at this point because to those of us who aren't drinking the David Barton-fueled Kool-Aid, this is simply who Beck is: One of the most shameless businesspeople in America, who happens to be in the business of entertainment and warping some minds politically in the process. Beck has millions of fans -- and to him they are all walking ATM machines. He thinks nothing of selling the people who admire him overpriced gold coins or surivial seed banks and "Food Insurance" kits, none of which they need, and almost every Beck event not named "Restoring Honor" is designed around maximizing ticket prices.

That's why Glenn Beck made $32 million last year and Sarah Palin made $12 million in a matter of months.

The only difference is that this time it's 9/11.

And Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are open for business 365 days a year.

From Moose Lady's book tour, speaking engagements, reality TV series and FOX appearances to Glenn Beck's rallies, radio show, TV show and appearances all over, these two are the Oberon and Titania of the Wingnut Popularity Court.  Bunch isn't telling us anything new about these two.  They've been cashing in again and again on making Obama hate a full time cottage industry worth millions to them personally and even more to their corporate sponsors and the GOP.

Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are nothing more than a slickly manufactured product mass-produced for consumption by the disaffected Right, and baby, the market has never been better for these two clowns.  Nothing should be more cynically obvious to the wingers than being manipulated into coughing up Ticketmaster prices to see these two on 9/11...but of course missing the patently obvious is a requirement of being a wingnut.

I'd say that they all deserve each other and they can simply nip off and commiserate in hell, except for the fact that as a result these jokers have a disproportionate effect on our representative democracy process with the goal of preventing said process from working for anyone but themselves.

That's a problem for all of us.  Kudos to Will Bunch however for speaking the truth here.

Really, Alaskans?  You have so many better things to spend money on.