“Redeem the Dream: The State of the Quality of Life in the 21st Century” — billed as “a candid discussion in context of the dream of Dr. King” — is being held at the Family Research Council headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, the day before the dedication ceremony of King’s memorial. According to the Frederick Douglass Foundation, a D.C.-based black conservative public policy group, the event is being sponsored by national anti-abortion rights groups Priests for Life, Students for Life of America, the Network of Politically Active Christians, Protecting Black Life, National Black Pro-Life Union, King for America and “crisis pregnancy center” (CPC) networks Care Net and Heartbeat International.

Scheduled speakers include Alveda King — King’s niece, who founded King for America — who is a pastoral associate for Priests for Life and has recently been advocating for the “personhood” movement. Other speakers include Bishop Harry Jackson and Derek McCoy, the director of FRC affiliate Maryland Family Alliance and a member of board of directors of the anti-abortion rights media group Life Always, which has was responsible for controversial billboards across the country comparing abortion to black genocide.

In addition, the event will offer clips from anti-abortion rights films including MAAFA 21 and Bloodmoney.

From the release:

Fox News and Mercury Radio Arts, Glenn Beck’s production company, are proud to announce that they will work together to develop and produce a variety of television projects for air on the Fox News Channel as well as content for other platforms including Fox News’ digital properties. Glenn intends to transition off of his daily program, the third highest rated in all of cable news, later this year.

Roger Ailes, Chairman and CEO of Fox News said, “Glenn Beck is a powerful communicator, a creative entrepreneur and a true success by anybody’s standards. I look forward to continuing to work with him. ”??Glenn Beck said: “I truly believe that America owes a lot to Roger Ailes and Fox News. I cannot repay Roger for the lessons I’ve learned and will continue to learn from him and I look forward to starting this new phase of our partnership.”

Beck’s dropping ratings still wow. His show pulled in roughly 3 million viewers per day at its height and dropped to a still breathtaking 2 million in January. Beck’s signature emotive style tied to trademark right-wing conspiracy speculation and a popularizer’s loose hand at history had grown even more pronounced in recent weeks, giving media fact checkers more material than usual to work through.

Beck struggled for days to persuade with a sweeping theory about how the populist democratic uprisings in the Middle East would end in a caliphate-communist world takeover.

This week, against the backdrop of the battle over collective bargaining in Wisconsin, he used the occasion of the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr to try to pull the historic figure away from the cause of labor.

King was killed in Memphis where he had come to rally support for sanitary public works employees represented by the local chapter of the national municipal employees union. The workers had been on strike for two weeks and sought higher wages and better treatment from management. King had long tied the cause of racial justice to the cause of labor rights.

“Negroes are almost entirely a working people…. Our needs are identical with labor’s needs: decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old-age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community,” he said in a 1961 speech to the AFL CIO.

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Hat tip for a second time this morning to Weigel and to the Crooks and Liars.

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I mean, Dr. King having been a conservative, southern, with a small ‘s,’ southern Baptist pastor in the 50’s and 60’s, whose view from a biblical standpoint on the question of homosexual behavior would’ve been unquestionable that he would have opposed it. And yet homosexual activists today use the legacy of Dr. King and the civil rights movement to suggest that someone’s sexual behavior, two men engaging in sex with each other, is somehow comparable to the color of skin, which someone happens to be born.

First of all, the notion that MLK’s anti-gay views would be “unquestionable” because he was a Christian pastor is absurd on its face. There are lots and lots of Christian churches and leaders who favor full equality for gays and lesbians — no matter what Leviticus says about the matter.

Second, I imagine that Coretta Scott King, MLK’s widow, had a far better idea what Martin’s views were on the subject. It wasn’t really much of a public issue in his day so he had little reason to address it publicly, but his widow has said that he was in favor of equality, writing in 1994:

For too long, our nation has tolerated the insidious form of discrimination against this group of Americans, who have worked as hard as any other group, paid their taxes like everyone else, and yet have been denied equal protection under the law…I believe that freedom and justice cannot be parceled out in pieces to suit political convenience. My husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” On another occasion he said, “I have worked too long and hard against segregated public accommodations to end up segregating my moral concern. Justice is indivisible.” Like Martin, I don’t believe you can stand for freedom for one group of people and deny it to others.

Calling Martin Luther King a “conservative” Southern Baptist minister is rather absurd. King was an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam war and an equally outspoken advocate in favor of the poor and downtrodden, in addition to being perhaps our greatest civil rights leader ever. To hear him invoked by the right today in support of their views can only make one cringe.

Glenn Beck addresses the crowd from the Lincoln Memorial. Attendees filled the space on the steps behind the stage, and the crowd reached back to the Washington Monument.

Beck gestures toward a flag on stage while speaking. Event organizers had asked attendees to refrain from bringing political signs, a guideline that was generally followed. But flags and flag paraphernalia were widespread throughout the crowd.

Former Republican vice presidential candidate and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin addresses the rally crowd. Fitting the nonpolitical goal of the event, Palin spoke as the mother of a veteran.

At the beginning of the rally, Beck brought out a diverse group of religious leaders. A preacher (far right) led the opening invocation for rally, here joined by two Native Americans and a rabbi. The language of the invocation was strictly Christian.

Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, addresses the crowd at the Restoring Honor rally. The event took place on the 47th anniversary of MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech. Many criticized Beck for holding his rally on that date. King, an anti-abortion activist, spoke at the rally to defend the timing of Beck's event.

St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols accepted a "Purple Heart" award at the Restoring Honor rally. Beck decided to restyle the medals for noteworthy civilians. Pujols received the charity award for his off-the-field efforts. Accepting the award, he said, "Twelve years ago, I made the best decision of my life, and that was following Jesus Christ."

During Glenn Beck's main speech, supporters sitting close to the arches of the Lincoln Memorial held aloft a flag.

Tea Party protests have become known for eye-catching signs and individuals wearing unique costumes. At Saturday's event there were few signs in the crowd, and only a few individuals decided to come in colonial garb.

A group of Restoring Honor attendees show their home state pride.

The crowd watching Beck's event stretched all the way out toward the Washington Monument.

People sit on the steps of the World War II Memorial, watching the event across from the pool.

More attendees gathered at the World War II Memorial. There were screens and loudspeakers set up along the Mall so all could see and hear.

People bow their heads and raise their hands to the sky as a preacher gives the opening invocation.

Attendees put their hands over their hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Immediately after the conclusion of the Restoring Honor rally, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) hosted a Tea Party town hall meeting on the other side of the Washington Monument. She brought other members of the Tea Party caucus and Tea Party activists on stage to speak at the hour-long event. Around 1,000 people showed up for the post-rally town hall.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) spoke at Bachmann's town hall event. Gohmert gained increased national attention earlier this month when he appeared on CNN to defend his statements on "terror babies."

Rev. Al Sharpton organized a counter-march to honor the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous speech. The march went to the future site of a MLK statue. The parade marched past the Washington Monument shortly after Bachmann's town hall ended.

A man stops in the middle of the street to wave a "Justice" flag during the MLK march.

Groups march down 15th St. NW, near the Washington Monument, to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech.

David Koch addresses the crowd during the Defending the American Dream conference held in Washington on Friday. Along with his brother Charles, Koch is one of the primary funders of Americans for Prosperity, an organization that has been instrumental in organizing the Tea Party movement.

The ballroom crowd during dinner at the Defending the American Dream convention.

Washington Post columnist George Will accepts AFP's highest award from Koch during the Tribute to Ronald Reagan dinner.

Though Koch spoke briefly at the event, it was AFP President Tim Phillips who served as the face of the organization during the day's proceedings. He addressed the full ballroom multiple times during the day, and took part in breakout panels.

A "November is Coming" Smart Car sat outside the hotel where the AFP conference took place. November is Coming is AFP's campaign operation, coordinating money and political organizing in favor of "free-market" candidates for the upcoming midterm elections.

(All photo credits: Patrick Caldwell/The American Independent)

U.S. Capitol Police arrested 10 people this afternoon after the Capitol Hill Tea Party crowd stormed Congressional office buildings.

Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, public information office for the Capitol Police, told TPMDC the arrests happened in the Cannon House building as tea partiers attempted to protest Speaker Nancy Pelosi about health care.

They were charged with unlawful entry (entering a Congressional office and refusing to leave when told to do so) and/or disorderly conduct (yelling in the hallway outside an office) at Room 235 in the Cannon House Office Building.

Room 235 is Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office for district business, not where she conducts her duties as Speaker. That’s handled at an office in the Capitol building.

Also of note, Tea Partiers apparently view themselves as the vanguard of a modern civil rights movement.

[P]rotesters in the crowd watching the arrests were furious. They shouted “Let them go!” and one man yelled at the police that “Martin Luther King” was being dishonored and shouted “Letter from Birmingham Jail!”

I guess Nancy Pelosi would be Bull Connor in this analogy.

This is, in Republican circles, fairly uncontroversial stuff. Liberals don’t take it very seriously — the racist Southern wing of the party started seriously jumping ship in 1964, after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, and “the party of Barack Obama used to be racist” is not that compelling a message to black voters. But Zak, who is not shy about handing over a business card and talking about his qualifications, managed to convince the RNC that he was the man to make this case on the party’s Website.

Another Zak email, illustrative of the “Democrats are the real racists” line:

ASU Media Relations Director Sharon Keeler says, unlike other universities, the processes for selecting commencement speakers and honorary degree recipients are independent. She says that honorary degrees are given “for an achievement of eminence” and that Obama was not considered for an honorary degree because his body of achievements, at this time, does not fit within that criteria.

I don’t think it really needs to be said, as Teo writes, that getting elected president of the United States — and the first African-American president, at that — seems like quite a substantial achievement.

Really, ASU? Is this really your best P.R. move?

After all, as the Phoenix-area’s East Valley Tribune editorialized:

Barry Goldwater received his honorary degree in May 1961, three years before his Republican nomination for president and only eight years into his three decades as a U.S. senator. Sandra Day O’Connor was similarly recognized just three years in her 25 years on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Do you forget that in 2005, you were Playboy’s No. 1 party school in the country? Granted, you’ve dropped to No. 17 in 2008, according to the Princeton Review — but does that mean you are now above giving an honorary degree to the president?

And I don’t know if you remember, but Arizona had a bit of an image problem just two decades ago, for refusing to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday. After that whole kerfuffle, is this the message The Grand Canyon State wishes to send to the rest of the country — that Obama’s election is an achievement unworthy of recognition?

Update: Sam Stein does some digging and finds that Obama might be a better candidate for an honorary degree if he donated $50 million to ASU.

2nd Update: Stein has more. An ASU official suggests the university might give Obama an honorary degree after he leaves office.

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King Jr.’s birth certificate remains a family secret, but State Department records indicate that it was filed on April 12, 1934, in the name “Martin Luther King, Jr.” This indicates that King Jr.’s name was recorded officially when he was five years and three months old.

O. M. G. The implications are staggering. Not only can we not prove that King was born in 1929, we cannot prove that King was ever born at all. If only the brave Warriors of the Birth Certificate were around to hound King in the 1950s and 1960s, instead of the sad sacks at the FBI.