I will be there tomorrow, bright and early to get a decent spot. One thing does concern me though...many of the people I know who are going are not really that moderate. They are pretty far left. Far enough left that accusations of war crimes against members of the prior administration have been known to leave their lips. One is a member of Code Pink who was formerly detained by police for trying to "arrest" Karl Rove. That's pretty much exactly the sort of nonsense this rally is supposed to oppose, as I understand it. Yet they embrace this rally as being for them. I think the reason is that extremists on the left, in this case, are seriously blind to the fact that they are extremists—they see themselves simply as "correct." Extremists on the right are similarly blinded, but to them this event itself—a call to moderates by a generally leftwing comedian—looks insanely leftwing. (In fact, it looks to them as similarly extremist as the Glen Beck rally looked to left extremists.) On the Glen Beck rally, that was not a call to moderates; it was a call to rightwing partisans of a particular sort, but the rhetoric of the rally was generally reasonable (Martin Luther King Jr's niece was the most "poiltical" and questionable speaker they had, by a long way.) Actually, I'd be curious to see who here is going to the Rally to Restore Sanity, but thought the Glen Beck rally was extremist. That would be interesting because, in my opinion, you are very likely too extreme and exactly the sort who should consider *not* attending on Saturday. In any event, I hope that the Rally to Restore Sanity is as reasonable as the majority of Beck's rally was, and will post here whether I feel it lived up to its promise.
I'm not the biggest fan of Stewart, but Colbert and his faux conservatism always makes me laugh. Stewart gets better guests though. I tried to visit a friend in DC this coming weekend but he was a total dick and made me delay my trip until the 12th of November. ~String
Something to consider is that "sanity" is very subjective when it comes to politics. And being a moderate doesn't make one more "sane". It really just means that they don't lean in one direction or another on every issue.
You don't say? Never in a million years could I possibly imagine that Stewart and Colbert's followers would be Leftists. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
The point of the rally, as I take it, is that it should be possible for my candidate to lose an election *without*: (A) the winner being likened to Hitler; (B) the winner being a Kenyan, communist, secret Muslim who hates America; (C) the winner being a fascist war criminal; or (D) launching or hoping for the launch of criminal investigations against the winner at some point during his term of office. That is where American politics went off the rails. It seems to me that it initially happened during Reagan's term in office, but this sort of insanity vastly increased under Clinton and has held up at a pretty steady level of idiocy since then. The rally is about how most Americans are *not* that way, and yet our politics seem to be controlled by people who *are.* That is the insanity I hope to see cured.
I'm not a leftist either, but I think Stewart can be funny as hell when he's not being uber-partisan.
When It comes to entertainment Republicans get a pass. I love Dennis Miller, Clint East Wood, Mel Gibson, Robert Duvall, Sly Stallone, Arnold, and Dennis Hooper. All staunch Republicans, and I could care less, I won't let my own partisanship stand in the way of my entertainment.
Doesn't change the fact he is, most of his audience is and that this rally was really about getting out the Democrat vote, rejecting the rise of the Tea Party and the Republican Party's resurgence. None of which I would care about if Stewart weren't the darling of the media and consistently mis-labeled as a centrist and some sort of voice of reason. The fact he feigns he is apolitical is also fairly annoying, too...
Heaven and Hell Well, that's certainly one way to look at it: The right wing gets Glenn Beck lying through his teeth, and the left wing gets a comedy show featuring Stewart and Colbert, The Roots and John Legend, the guys from Mythbusters, Yusuf (Islam), Ozzy Osbourne, and the O'Jays. How did Gaiman and Pratchett put it? That Heaven gets the musicians, but Hell has all the choreographers? Hmm ... Heaven: Salieri. Hell: Mozart. Heaven: Cliff Richard. Hell: Ozzy Osbourne. Heaven: Glenn Beck. Hell: Jon Stewart. Seriously, though: Glenn Beck gets three hundred thousand dedicated to taking their country back for the white penises, and Stewart/Colbert get a hundred and fifty thousand looking for a reason to get together on The Mall and have a good time. ______________________ Notes: Maher, Bill. "New Rules". Real Time With Bill Maher, #193. HBO, Los Angeles. October 15, 2010. HBO.com. October 31, 2010. http://www.hbo.com/real-time-with-b...aher/episodes/0/193-episode/article/new-rules YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1V9ySbrTkw
I don't see it as a get out the vote effort and it had nothing to do with rejecting anyone...it wasn't even mentioned that people should vote. The group on my left were conservatives (and Mormons, which I realize now I know almost nothing about). If the point was to rally the vote, it could have been said, "It doesn't matter who you vote for, just get out and vote on Tuesday." It was even less politically charged than Beck's effort, though in large measure that may have been because it was more entertainment than politics. The message was clear enough though that we can disagree without being enemies, and that people who want different solutions to our common problems also love America and life, liberty and happiness. As with Beck's rally, anyone who sees anything threatening about today's rally must be having an emotional, hysterical reaction. If you are a big fan of Glen Beck, though, you may have disliked the fact that Beck's clips made the press montages at least four times, which seemed like more than any other pundit. This was the big message of the rally: One would imagine the Democrats would have been better served if all these people (who were clearly mostly liberals) had been out rallying the vote for Tuesday, rather than hundreds or thousands of miles away in DC, listening to the message that it is okay to compromise and work with those with whom you disagree.
I liked these banners: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself and spiders" "Signs are an impractical medium for civil discourse"
Or in John McCain's case, you can take the best of both sides of corruption. No fans of his will be heard this evening, I think.
But Stewart is a centrist, he spent the last two years pointing out the inadequacy, failures and hypocrisies of the Obama administration with glee.
he is the only one on the list who DOESN'T get a pass. You see, actors act their roles, but comedians write their routine and this idiot went full right wing on Dubya, the stupidest president of all... It is really sad, because I used to like him...
