After spending most of this year denigrating ACORN and the general notion of community organizers, Glenn Beck is now forming his own FAKE-ORN (FAKE Organization of Right-wing Nuts). The big announcement that Beck has been teasing all week is apparently an effort to corral his disciples into an electoral movement that will endure for a hundred years. Does that mean we will have to have him around for that long? {{{shudder}}}

“Mr. Beck is styling himself as a political organizer. He says he will promote voter registration drives and sponsor a series of conventions across the country featuring conservative speakers, all leading up to a rally in Washington in August to coincide with the release of his book on conservative proposals for the country.”

The nature of Beck’s new enterprise is precisely what community organizers have always done and Beck has long disparaged: bring people together, educate them, and promote their participation in civic affairs. It will be interesting to see what sort of voter registration plans he has in store. Will he seek to serve disenfranchised communities that have been ignored by the political class? Or will he venture into the suburbs to sign up as many Joe the Plumbers as he can find?

Beck told a local Florida Fox affiliate that his conventions will be educational gatherings where he will teach “ethics, history, finance, community organizing and everything American’s need to know about how the government works.” These classes will be something on the order of Hannibal Lechter’s courses on vegetarian cuisine. We can rest assured that anyone graduating from Beck’s seminars will be less informed, or more ill-informed, than when they went in. As for the event in August, it is planned for August 28, 2010, which is the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. That’s an interesting bit of scheduling for a guy who called the nation’s first African-America president a “racist,” with a “deep-seated hatred for white people.”

What do you suppose triggered this fundamental transformation in Beck’s thinking? Why is he suddenly an avid community organizer? I wonder if it has anything to do with the whole affair coinciding with the release of his next book. Beck’s utter lack of expertise in the areas enumerated will prove useful for the building of his army of imbeciles, and will surely achieve his goal of selling more books and expanding the congregation of his TV church.

The run-up to this announcement was repeatedly plugged on his program last week. It was sold as a game-changer for him and his show:

“This show is changing next year. We are moving forward. Cause I’m tired of it. We are going to unveil a plan this Friday…uh…this Saturday in Florida. I am going to be at The Villages in Florida. I’m gonna bring it to you on television if you can’t be there. But I wanted to be able to look people in the eye. I want to see your commitment back. Coming this January, my whole approach changes on this program. There is a problem here, America. And I’m gonna have the…I don’t care what people say about me. Personal responsibility is dead in this country. It is time that we get the little paddles – poof – and bring the body back.”

As it turns out, Beck’s concept of personal responsibility is just another campaign to get conservatives to the polls. The appalling thing about this is that Beck is using his platform on Fox to conduct this campaign. It is not particularly surprising with respect to the role Fox has long played in the media. If anyone doubted Anita Dunn’s assertion that Fox is a wing of the Republican Party, this should allay those doubts once and for all. But the brazen openness with which Fox is now asserting itself as a partisan enterprise should disturb every American and certainly every journalist.

This is not the only example of Fox’s bias. Sean Hannity has a long record of promoting Republican politics. As has Fox contributor and fill-in host, Laura Ingraham. Fox is even the television home to two potential Republican presidential candidates: Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee. Beck’s web site for his 9/12 project is hosted by Foxnews.com. And the Fox Nation is an unabashed Democrat bashing web venue.

The relationship between Fox and the Republican Party is iron clad. There is no way they can plausibly deny it any longer. The participation of Fox presenters in clearly partisan activities cannot be ignored. Undoubtedly, Fox will broadcast Beck’s rally in August next year. The rally is characterized by Beck as…

“…the unveiling of The Plan and the birthday of a new national movement to restore our great country.”

The Plan is the title of the book he will be releasing in conjunction with the rally. In the book he will outline his “100 year plan” to bring the country back from the brink of…whatever it is Beck imagines we’re on the brink of. The fact that Beck is embarking on a 100 year plan says something about his Messianic ambitions. Perhaps the August rally is his attempt to gather the flock for the boarding of the Ark.

Late summer of 2010 promises to be a season of protest. In addition to the August rally for The Plan, Beck is still promoting his second annual 9/12 Project rally that next year will take place on 9/11. The thought of Beck exploiting that day with an event that is known for hostile protests of a decidedly political nature is flat out disgusting. That, along with his August rally date really makes you wonder what this guy is thinking (a futile exercise in the best of circumstances).

Finally, there is a possibility that this isn’t partisan at all with regard to Republicans and Democrats. Beck may be aiming for third party status and an assault on the Washington establishment. In that event he might actually be doing the Democrats a favor, because very few of them would migrate to his camp. Consequently, he would peel off disaffected Republicans and clear a path for more Democratic victories. However, it is possible that his voters, having no actual third party candidates for whom to vote, would either have to console themselves with Republicans or stay home. But if he succeeds in registering enough people who ultimately vote with the GOP, that could sway some contests. So in the end it is still a operation that could favorably impact one party over another.

With evidence like that, and all of the other overtly biased behavior of Fox News, it would be fair to wonder when the Federal Elections Commission might get involved. It seems that they would have an interest in a network that is so shamelessly contributing to a political cause via its expensive airtime and commentary. If they are going to be giving away such valuable assets, some regulatory agency ought to be paying attention.