On the February 22 edition of his radio show, Glenn Beck railed against Reform Judaism by comparing it to “radicalized Islam” and saying that it was more about politics than faith.

Audio and transcript of the relevant portion:

STU BURGUIERE (executive producer): And now remember, this is all fueled by an organization that Soros funds, that has a bunch of progressive rabbis that came out against Glenn and said –

BECK: OK, you have to — hang on just a second. When you talk about rabbis, understand that most — most people who are not Jewish don’t understand that there are the Orthodox rabbis, and then there are the Reformed rabbis. Reformed rabbis are generally political in nature. It’s almost like Islam, radicalized Islam in a way, to where it is just — radicalized Islam is less about religion than it is about politics. When you look at the Reform Judaism, it is more about politics. I’m not saying that they’re the same on –

BURGUIERE: No, obviously not.

BECK: — and they’re going to take it at that, but — stand in line.

BURGUIERE: “Glenn Beck says –”

BECK: It’s not about terror or anything else, it’s about politics, and so it becomes more about politics than it does about faith. Orthodox rabbis — that is about faith. There’s not a single Orthodox rabbi on this list. This is all Reformed rabbis that were — that made this list.

BURGUIERE: Yeah, I don’t know that for a fact. I know that certainly this organization is a progressive political organization. And that’s fine.

To put it another way, Glenn Beck just smeared 35% of American Jews. Media Matters has more here.

Aside from the recklessness involved in calling this President a racist and the blatant race-baiting displayed, Glenn Beck’s assertion does beg one question: What does Glenn Beck think White Culture is?  It’s a question that Glenn Beck has been repeatedly asked over the past year – and one that he has consistently refused to answer.

Well, a look at Glenn Beck’s favorite tweets raises questions related to Glenn Beck’s concern about “white culture.” First, a screenshot of Glenn Beck’s favorite tweets:

This Image Has Not Been Photoshopped

Notably: @MalevoFreedom‘s bio describes the account as “White Nationalist News And Forum.”

Now, to be clear, in order for the tweet to appear in Glenn Beck’s favorites either Glenn Beck or the operator of Glenn’s twitter account would have needed to mark the tweet as a “favorite.”

For a guy that connects anyone he doesn’t like to all kinds of nefarious imagined plots using the flimsiest connections, Glenn Beck favoriting a tweet from a self-described white supremacist group raises questions:

1. What’s the deal with Glenn Beck’s “white culture” obsession?  What does he think it is? And, why does he insist on asserting that it’s under attack?
2. Why is Glenn Beck associating himself with white nationalists and white supremacists?

[h/t @luhgnut]

UPDATE: As of 11:58PM eastern, Glenn Beck deleted all of his favorites (meaning, he deleted after our original post went up):

Uh-oh.

Well, it’s a good thing I already have a screenshot of what Glenn Beck’s favorites looked like, including the “Embrace White Culture” tweet, before he scrubbed it.

Update 2: Oh, and just in case Glenn Beck tries to pull the ‘This must have just popped up on my Favorites’ excuse, here’s what his favorite page looked like on July 8 (and yes, the “White-Power” tweet was there).  So, you might want to try a different angle Glenn.

Update 3: Keith Olbermann mentioned this story on his show tonight (8/4/10).

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After discussing Jim Jones, Glenn Beck turned to Harvey Milk:

At the same time, Harvey Milk, he’s doing all the radical initiatives that he had going for him, which had nothing to do with homosexuality. You can concentrate on that, or that you can look at his communist roots.

[Glenn Beck show, September 22, 2009]

Fueled by hatriot radio, there is embarrassing number of people that still refuse to believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States.  They question Obama’s citizenship regardless of all contrary evidence.  Because segments of his fan base overlap with birthers, Glenn Beck has walked a bit of a tight rope on this issue.

Nevertheless, in January, I thought Glenn Beck settled his position on the birther issue once and for all when he said of the birthers’ claim that it was “the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”  Now, don’t go giving Glenn too much credit for being reasonable.  He went on to suggest that Obama was actually behind the birther conspiracy in order to create an easy political target. Sigh. Despite the Obama conspiracy twist, I was still left with the impression that Glenn Beck at least accepted Obama’s citizenship.

Guess it’s time for me to guess again…

In a nine minute interview with Peter Boyles, Glenn Beck danced around the birther issue.  Beck is clearly uncomfortable talking about this issue.  During the interview, Glenn Beck went so far as to say “I’m not a birther.”  Yet, despite this proclamation, Beck still questions Obama’s citizenship.

At the conclusion of the interview, Boyles asks Glenn Beck if he “disbelieves” Birther’s claims (emphasis added):

Glenn Beck: I don’t know what to believe. I don’t know what to believe.  I know that I have spent my time saying ‘our rights are being taken away.’ This man has Marxists around him since birth.  Where he was born? I don’t know. I think he was born in the United States of America.

Boyles: Did his father…stepfather adopt him and make him an Indonesian?

Beck: I don’t know.

Boyles: Does it matter?

Beck: Do you listen to a word I am saying?

Boyles: Yes, I sure do. I mean, I just wanted to ask you that follow up question: Would that matter, if he became a dual citizen of another country?

Beck: Peter, I don’t think I can say it any clearer: the Constitution matters…[snip]

So, according to this interview: Glenn Beck doesn’t know where Obama was born. Yet, he says he’s not a birther.

Look, Glenn Beck can’t have it both ways.  He says he’s not a birther, yet he still questions Obama’s citizenship. Newsflash: that’s exactly what being a birther is.

We’re just not going to let Glenn Beck get away with this kind of willful deceit.

Thus, within the span of a few minutes, Beck implied that there are no quality medical schools in India; implied that medical care in India is a shoddy imitation of real health care; implied that the entire nation is an undeveloped backwater without even so much as indoor plumbing; and compared the Ganges River, a holy body of water for one of the world’s oldest and largest religions, to a disease.

What does this say about Beck’s respect for the millions of Indian-Americans living in the United States, let alone the Indian people? What does it say about his respect for the faith traditions of others?

For those sponsors that remain, this is the kind of bigotry that they are subsidizing and freely associating their brands with.

Explaining why American healthcare costs so much, Glenn Beck offered his thoughts:

The best I can figure is all that money goes to high-tech hospitals and doctors who studied at Harvard rather than Gajra Raja medical school. Oh sure, yeah, you know, it’s weird. You can buy a Gucci bag on any New York street corner for like four bucks. No different than the 3,000 dollar real thing. They’re identical!

Never mind that Gajra Raja was de-recognized by the Medical College of India. This fact would only get in the way of Glenn Beck’s insult to an entire country’s medical system by reducing it down to a school that it already de-recognized.  Ironically, Glenn Beck cites his “research” as he carried on his bigoted attack, saying:

And also, in our research that it took us, oh about 40 seconds, we figured out that some of that money here in America winds up in the pocket of a skilled doctor that helps off-set the 20 years of schooling that he endured and the loans he took out. And – you’re not going to believe this one, Karlyn – some of that money seems to go to the 1 million SEIU workers in the healthcare industry that make slightly more here than in India. Because, you know, they have an American lifestyle, maybe a couple of cars, great union benefits, and homes with something that we in America like to call flush toilets.

When sponsors hide behind the ‘we don’t like to get involved in politics’ line, I remind them that this isn’t about politics – it’s about decency.  There is absolutely nothing political in Glenn Beck’s suggestion that India is uncivilized.  Nor was there anything political in Glenn Beck’s parting shot at the Hindu religion, where he said (emphasis added):

I don’t want a discounted doctor. I don’t want discounted wages. I don’t want any of this stuff. If I wanted to live in India, I’d live in India. I want not the Indian lifestyle, I want the American lifestyle. I’m sure, no offense to India, I’m sure it’s beautiful and everything. I’ve heard especially this time of year, especially by the - you know that one big river they have there that sounds like a disease? Come on, it does. I mean, if somebody said, ‘I’m sorry, you have a really bad case of Ganges,’ you’d want Cipro.“

I wonder how Glenn Beck would feel about a Mormon holy site (his religion) being compared to a disease.  I imagine he wouldn’t appreciate it, but that certainly doesn’t stop Beck from denigrating other faiths.

Video of Glenn Beck’s bigoted attack: