It is all about 'Country First', after all.

Actually Beck's on to something here.
I propose that all of the blue states get 'kicked out' and make a new country, leaving the f*cking red state bat shit crazy wackos to fend for themselves with a tiny revenue base. The shit the far right GOP proposes should be put into practice somewhere on this planet just to show how awful it is. And Limbaugh should be made their king. Beck could be a regional governor.

Glenn Beck, like RushBo & Bill Orally, is a true patriot & it is unkind of you to criticize him!

From the unabridged dictionary of rethugnican-speak:

Patriot - any American who hates brown people.

True Patriot - a white male who knows that a proper substitute for serving in the U.S. military is to put a Chinese made sticker on his car that says 'Support our troops'.

Beck's intitled to his opinion, no matter how looney it may seem. I think we have to at least allow that, after all, we didn't kick over David Duke or Lincoln Rockwell's soap boxes.

Anyway, he's partially right, the California Legislature has, almost traditionally, at least as far back as Reagan's Governorship in the seventies, spent more than they take in. Ronnie vetoed seven of eight budgets put before him.

They made their own bed, now they need to lie in it and quit whining. We here in New Jersey, well, unfortunately, that applies to us too.

Democrats in state government and bankruptcy seem to have a distinct linkage.

That crowd in the Five Fold Puzzle (Washington) need a sign for their door, "Please Check Sanity with the coat attendent. Sanity left lying around may be stolen or misplaced.

Joseph:

California's problem isn't the legislature per se, it's the proposition system. I believe something like 60% of the general revenue is spent on proposition driven matters and CANNOT be altered by the legislature. So in times like these, the legislature is struggling to make up budget shortfalls with both hands tied behind its back. And Proposition 13--property tax rates can only go up 1.5% a year max or when the property is sold is seriously depriving the states and schools of money. So while the legislature here deserves some blame, it really lies largely with the California proposition system and its voters.

Beck needs to be reminded that taxpayers in blue states like California are supporting red states. We regularly contribute more money to the treasury than we get back, the opposite of many red states. The U.S. would be in worse financial state without us.

As to spending more than we take in, thank goodness the federal government doesn't do that. We might end up with a $10 trillion deficit if they did.

He also read an e-mail from one of his nutjob audience that said we should print all of the money of the stimulus with pink ink as if entities who will receive stimulus money will get in cash delivered by an armored truck.

Holy Crap!!! I tried to find the transcript, but a Google search for Fox News gets a malicious site warning! Holy Crap!!

Rail against Beck if you will. I'm more saddened by the idea likely 2/3 of the population is just as ignorant, bigoted, xenophobic, misogynistic, homophobic and demented as he is, with most possessed of less education and intellect than Glenn. What are the odds the ultimate Super-Glenn, Rush Limbaugh, would have actually made the last prez election a closer battle, probably gaining 50+ more electoral votes than McCain? I'd take even money on that bet. Americans sure luvs themselves some hateful gasbags.

So California doesn't want to drill offshore so Beck wants to give away the coastline to a new country? Basically, little Glennie is saying "I didn't want to play with your toy anyway cause you're a meanie!!!!!"

Sorry - it's every site on the whole intertubes that's malicious.

Last time I checked, California's governor for the last 6 years was a Republican who many national Republicans support (Beck may or may not, I don't know), and who enjoyed something more than moderate success in Hollywood in his earlier career. And said governor has one hell of a lot more to do with driving California into bankruptcy than illegal immigration.

However, anything that makes blood shoot out of Glenn Beck's eyes is A-OK in my book. I don't watch his show, but maybe I'll have to start. That blood-shooting eye thing sounds kind of cool.

Mr. Herbert's comment that California has made its own bed is correct. He is wrong, however, in blaming "Democrats in state government" for the mess. Our dysfunctional state budgeting process is the product of our indiscriminate use of ballot initiatives in the 70's and 80's to write anti-tax (but not anti-spend) attitudes into the state constitution. I don't know anything about New Jersy state politics, but I'm willing to bet that budget problems there have a very different provenance and pathology.

And for the record, Glen Beck is an unhinged, ignorant fool.

but a Google search for Fox News gets a malicious site warning! Holy Crap!!

I've been getting that with everything I try to google this morning. All of the url's start with "interstitial". Are you getting the same thing?I'm finding that if I copy the url starting with the www, the links are fine, but if I just click on the title, I get that "you're whatever may be destroyed" warning. And I thought it was because I peeked at a Weekly Standard link from Greg Sargent's site.

"should be Regional Governor" - Believe the proper term is "Gauleiter".

Hasn't California suffered enough - First, Joe Pyne, then Morton Downey, Sr, Wally George and, now, Glenn Beck - But, as Joe P would have said to a caller, "Hey, Glenn, go gargle with razors blades". Right wing radio, at it's "best".

Beck went past the edge of insanity a long time ago.

What palinoscopy said. I'm fine with letting the reddest states form Jesusland. We'll all be happier.

Hmm, he wants to get rid of the breeding ground for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan? Maybe he only wants to get rid of the "real" California and turn Orange County in to a State. A bancrupt state, but a state nonetheless.

Jerk

Further proof that art doesn't always follow life. In drama, the "hero" is supposed to have an opponent who is the equal of the hero to the opposite.

If California is opposed by Glenn Beck, that's not only disappointing but highly embarassing.

Sort of like the right wing tenthwits who come around yapping at my heels. You o9nly notice them when you kick them for getting too close.

Wonder how that kind of talk is impacting Fox stations in CA, and other NewsCorp venues.
Wonder if some CA advertisers are thinking of "resting" their use of a venue that so despises them.
Wonder if the Digger notices a drop in revenue.
Wonder if Beck has updated his resume tape.

Hey Glenn, you old asshole you, I wish that the south had been allowed to leave and fall into the dustbin of history.

But really the problem is Glenn Beck's attitudes, and not his saying throwing CA out of the Union - I think that's just a rhetorical device that many people use, a pretense of literalism to make a heated point (there's likely a name for doing that but I don't recall.) We can make the case he's an idiot, no need to confuse or give him a "they can't take a put-on" opening by pretending he meant it literally.

Actually, Joseph, California's problem is a governor who is an idiot - proof that electing amateurs to office is stupidity personified. The guy is your typical "Hollywood hero": all show and no go. If he had any real guts, he would take on his party over their refusal to be part of the community and modify taxes. The last time we were in a similar fix, Republican governor Pete Wilson was willing to take on the legislature and get things fixed. The problem in California is (as it is everywhere) the right wing whackjobs (like you) who refuse to recognize that reality exists.

Instead, Arnold cuts the support for the old, the young, and the poor, while making sure that those yacht owners in Newport Beach can keep their tax break.

Well, he's a radical troll, along with a herd of radical trolls that say these kinds of things. It's how these people are. So what does everyone in the blogosphere do? They fixate on this garbage and waste bandwidth on their lunacy when we could use all the information we can get regarding the weighty problems facing the country and the world.
Don't feed these trolls. You just get bigger trolls.

We have farms, dairy, and our own oil here in California, not to mention two of the country's largest ports.

Oh, please don't throw us in that briar patch, Mr. Beck. Hope you like paying $10 for a pint of strawberries.

Well said, Mnemo.

Anyone note the total amount the "red states" cost/how much they pay vs the "blue states" cost/how much they pay?

Jesusland descend into a Somalia West. We can let them keep NASCAR.

Seriously, who gives a shit WHAT Glenn Beck thinks? That whole network needs to be ignored. I wouldn't watch it if it weren't for "House" and "Animation Domination" on Sundays.

I live in California. California would be better off on it's own. Don't tempt us. We might take Washington and Oregon with us.

It is indeed pretty offensive but the state of the California political system (especially those ridiculous initiatives) is also pretty offensive.

At what point does advocating seccession become an act of sedition?

These conservatives have a hard time coming to terms with their policy failures.

Maybe Beck will start ranting and raving about all the rest of the traitor states that voted for a democrat for president. That'll sure help ratings.

oh please, Br'er Beck! don't throw us into that briar patch!

*snork*

A lot of people remember that energy companies based in Texas and financial companies based in New York pretty much Stole California's surplus between 2000 and 2002. To the tune of several billion dollars in the energy fraud of Enron, Duke and friends. (When the state of California subpoenaed Enron's files, Enron sent them empty used pizza boxes, while W's FCC said "nothing to see here" and refused to hear California's claims.)

A big part of how they got away with it was ginning up anti-Californian fervor in the rest of the country. Remember how energy Nimby-ism suddenly became the worst crime in the land?

For a state that is an engine of national productivity (defense, agriculture, bio-research, media, high-technology) as well as 3 massive population centers, it seems like a no-brainer that California would be a net energy importer.

I suspect that people underestimate the effect of this outright theft of California's surplus on the economic doldrums that effected the entire nation through the early 00's. Not to mention the profits of the energy and financial companies.

Like Anne Coulter and Lush Bimbo, Beck is an entertainer who survives because others pay attention to his hysterical, narcissistic rants. By writing serious responses on Salon it only inflates their egos more. Let them have their delusional world view.

IGNORE, IGNORE, IGNORE.

As a Californian whose skin crawls every time I'm forced to travel to any part of the US other than the West Coast or Hawaii, all I can say is: Please kick California out . . . the sooner the better.

Well, as a Californian I can tell you of two choices available. Remove California or come up with $40 billion in a federal grant.

Those who call for the elimination of entire states from the Union usually fall just outside that mainstream.
==========

That's who Fox hires. They actively go looking for this type of radical right-wing foam-at-the-mouth demagogue, and when they find one they hire him.

Did he really call for another Civil War? Or since secession was explicitly declared to be unconstitutional, is he just all hot to tear up the Constitution, but not actually looking forward to another try at killing more Americans than any other war has done?

These fine points probably make some sort of a difference in the Fox hiring process, and in case I ever want to sell out every principle I ever had -- and a whole lot of my fellow citizens along with 'em -- in exchange for a Beck-like fortune, it'd probably be helpful to know just how much destruction Fox likes their stars to be pimping.

California has the seventh-largest economy in the world. There are any number of us here who would be more than glad to become an independent nation - if only to end the siphoning-off of our federal tax dollars to support the Red States that Beck admires so much.
If California was independent I can guarantee three things:
1)The US would be after us to buy some of their debt.
2)We'd never go to war against a third-world country that hadn't attacked us.
3)Glenn Beck would have to geb for an entrance visa.

I hadn't heard about his remark on the fires before. That is bizarre, because those fires were in rock-ribbed Republican territory in north San Diego County. That was Duke Cunningham's district burning! (God's punishment???)

Yes it was the Dukester's district. And Hunter's. And Bilbray's.

I suspect that people underestimate the effect of this outright theft of California's surplus on the economic doldrums that effected the entire nation through the early 00's. Not to mention the profits of the energy and financial companies.

People outside the state (and even some inside it) don't realize that the recall drive against Gray Davis was primarily driven by certain interests who wanted to stop Davis' lawsuit against the energy companies to get the money back. Davis was suing for $9 billion -- Schwarzenegger settled for $1 billion.

Davis' recall also shows the danger of allowing temporary tax cuts. The rallying cry for a lot of people was that the car registration tax was going to go up because of the 2000 recession. It had been a temporary cut in the first place, but people flipped out.

Gee, Beck, we don't like YOU either. That makes it mutual.

Don't come here and we won't watch you show, OK?

"There's a political mainstream in this country, and those who call for the elimination of entire states from the Union usually fall just outside that mainstream".

I don't know about that. My mom has voted democratic since FDR was in office, and has long mused it might have been a mistake to have prevented the south from seceding. She's only been half kidding, too.

Im always curious about "liberal" Hollywood label. Perhaps I'm wrong but the only Hollywoodians that I can think of who have held political office were all card-carrying Republicans.

And Cal Gal, given his ratings, I suspect most of us don't like Beck.

Beck's in a ratings dive since his move to Fox. Expect a whole legion of stupid, weird, and bizarre rants a result.

Please Beck, don't hold back, tell us what you REALLY think!

I think he is on to something.

Now that Bush is back in Texas along with Gonzales, Armey, Gramm, maybe Cheney, and many others - maybe this would be a good time to give Texas back to Mexico.

I've never seen or heard Beck in action (don't have the faintest idea of what he looks like), but if he's as bad as everyone, not just the progressive blogs, says, why bother giving him any ink? I forget who it was that said, "I don't care what they say about me as long as they mention me." or words to that effect. I suspect this Beck person may be playing the same game. It isn't that he's insincere about what he says, but rather he doesn't take it seriously. It's all a schtick, and when people pay attention to him, that's his reward. David Duke kind of disappeared when no one talked about him. This skinny blond, what's her name, is no longer in the news and no great loss. The same thing can happen to Beck. Just don't pay any attention.

Nonheroicvet: "maybe this would be a good time to give Texas back to Mexico."

Do you really think that they would take us? They have enough problems with the narcos and other organized crime. They don't need Gov. Goodhair, Delay, and the rest of that crowd. Probably they would take the Valley because they voted for Obama, but the Bible belt bubbas wouldn't really feel at home (Lots of Catholics in Mexico) and would probably move north to Oklahoma and Alaska.

If California leaves the union, I'm moving back there! I'll be a proud citizen of the nation of California.