Rally to Restore Sanity/Keep Fear Alive 10-30

[bueno bob]

http://www.rallytorestoresanity.com/

http://www.keepfearalive.com/

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jon-stewart-hold-rally-restore-sanity-stephen-colbert/story?id=11663399&page=1

Leave it to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to know what Americans need two days before Election Day: comic relief.

The Comedy Central hosts announced plans Thursday night to hold dueling rallies in Washington Oct. 30, events that are already garnering much buzz on the blogosphere.

Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" -- what the TV personality called "a clarion call for rationality" -- is an obvious counter to Glenn Beck's conservative "Restoring Honor" rally last month.

"We will gather on the National Mall in Washington D.C. -- A million moderate march where we take to the streets to send a message to our leaders and our national media that says we are here," Stewart quipped Thursday on "The Daily Show."

The website calls on people "who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn't be the only ones that get heard; and who believe that the only time it's appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on someone is when that person is actually Hitler. Or Charlie Chaplin in certain roles."

Colbert, a mock conservative who often starts partisan fights with Stewart, kicked it up another notch, announcing on "The Colbert Nation" that he will simultaneously hold a "March to Keep Fear Alive," "to fight Jon Stewart's creeping reasonableness and to restore truthiness."

"It is on," the satirical TV host declared Thursday. "Now is not the time to take it down a notch. Now is the time for all good men to freak out for freedom."

Stewart was already planning to tape shows in the nation's capital from Oct. 25-28, in anticipation of the midterm elections.

The rallies have already attracted a large following. On the official "Rally to Restore Sanity" page, 22,553 people said they were attending, as of this morning. The "March to Keep Fear Alive" page had 9,484 RSVPs.

Hoping to bulk up support for his march, Colbert again called on his fans to join him, tweeting: "Be there or be scared! Actually be there AND be scared!"

Stewart and Colbert have filed a single application, but have no permit for the events scheduled to take place Oct. 30, National Park Service spokesman Bill Line said.

The permit is for 25,000 people on the Washington Monument, not the National Mall, as Stewart said Thursday night.

Stewart's popularity surged in the Bush administration as he took on the Republican administration for the wars in Iraq and its foreign policy. Most recently, the former stand-up comedian has taken on critics of the proposed Islamic center in New York, and Fox News for its coverage.

In an online, unscientific poll conducted by Time magazine in 2009, Stewart ranked as the most trusted newscaster, beating out all the three network nightly news anchors.

Colbert, a mock conservative pundit who in part channels Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, himself has been nominated for multiple Emmy awards since his show's debut in 2005.

The former "Daily Show" "correspondent" has taken on many U.S. leaders. He came under fire in 2006 for underhandedly mocking George W. Bush, in the president's presence, at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner.

ABC News' Jenny Schlesinger contributed to this report.

****

Nothing but WIN!

[Unchainme]

Finally a rally for the rest of us!

This should be fucking awesome, I hope that Lewis Black is a part of the festivities.

[Unchainme]

http://www.colbertrally.com/

[FORD]

I watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report regularly, and consider myself a fan of both, but I'm not sure this is a great idea. For one thing, it kinda pissed me off to see Jon's series of clips that he used to introduce his announcement, which seemed to put Congressman Alan Grayson on the same level with Glenn BecKKK. Sorry, Jon. That's just bullshit. Congressman Grayson is not "insanity", he's one of the few sane people in Congress. We need about 400 more like him there (and another 100 in the Senate). BecKKK, by his own recent admission, is only about promoting Glenn BecKKK. He's a dry drunk Mormon piece of shit who puts Vicks VapoRub under his eyes so he can cry on demand. No equivalency between him and Grayson at all.

Also, the timing is bad. October 30 is the last weekend before the election, and politically minded people will probably be involved in local events. Or Halloween parties. It might have been a better idea if these guys had instead brought their presence to the rally already scheduled for October 2, 2010

[bueno bob]

Admittedly, I could have used a better date. I'm more than willing to fly to DC to be a part of it (or was), but unfortunately I'm caddying for my wife that weekend. There's a cancer awareness frisbee golf tournament taking place the same day in Jefferson, and she's playing in my moms name, so...kinda takes priority right there.

In any regards, I'm totally on board with this spiritually. I hope like hell there's a HUGE, HUGE turnout. Politics could use a big dose of sanity.

My only real gripe was that Colbert titled his gathering "Keep Fear Alive"...I would have appreciated calling it "Restoring Truthiness", it sounds less...I don't know, "Douchy Republican", I guess.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

caddying for disc golf?

[bueno bob]

caddying for disc golf?

Hell yeah! I did it at her last tournament too, the Chick Flicks open, it's a lot of fun and there's a LOT of people who show up for these. Free food, free beer, all girl tournaments...tell me it's a bad thing...

:D

[PETE'S BROTHER]

Hell yeah! I did it at her last tournament too, the Chick Flicks open, it's a lot of fun and there's a LOT of people who show up for these. Free food, free beer, all girl tournaments...tell me it's a bad thing...

:D

sounds perfect, free beer:baaa: when and where?:biggrin:

[bueno bob]

They're a lot of fun to go to. At the last one, Next Adventure (a local sporting goods place in Portland) sponsored and threw us out a bunch of free t shirts and stuff. We camped overnight, smoked a bit, so on and so forth. Lots of good fun. All of the tournaments are sponsored by the PDGA, my wife's actually a pretty good competitor at it...with a little more practice, I think she could eventually go pro. As it is now, she competes in the recreational user bracket but she pretty much trounces all the competition there from what I've seen.

This next one, the Hope Open, is a big one for me; by paying an extra $25 for the registration, you can sponsor one of the goals on the course in somebody's name, and she's doing my mother - whoever gets a goal in will get an opportunity to read a few sentences about her and her life. I'm very proud of my wife and think it's a very awesome thing she's doing, and I'm glad that I'll be able to be a part of it. The tough part is deciding what few sentences I can write that will sum up my Mom's life sufficiently. Or whether or not I want to hand that off to my Dad, you know.

Still it promises to be a cool time - just wish these rallys would have taken place a bit earlier...or later! Definitely bummed that we can't be there.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

very cool, i used to throw quite a bit when i lived in wisconsin, but haven't really played much the last 10 years in the desert.

[Dr. Love]

http://www.rallytorestoresanity.com/
http://www.keepfearalive.com/

Anyone going? I'm considering going for the lulz, and to see the sights around. A little mini-vacation wouldn't be amiss.

[knuckleboner]

it's only a couple hours drive, so i'm sure BBB's considering.

[FORD]

He probably went to the BecKKKapalosers rally. :biggrin:

[Dr. Love]

I watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report regularly, and consider myself a fan of both, but I'm not sure this is a great idea. For one thing, it kinda pissed me off to see Jon's series of clips that he used to introduce his announcement, which seemed to put Congressman Alan Grayson on the same level with Glenn BecKKK. Sorry, Jon. That's just bullshit. Congressman Grayson is not "insanity", he's one of the few sane people in Congress. We need about 400 more like him there (and another 100 in the Senate). BecKKK, by his own recent admission, is only about promoting Glenn BecKKK. He's a dry drunk Mormon piece of shit who puts Vicks VapoRub under his eyes so he can cry on demand. No equivalency between him and Grayson at all.

Also, the timing is bad. October 30 is the last weekend before the election, and politically minded people will probably be involved in local events. Or Halloween parties. It might have been a better idea if these guys had instead brought their presence to the rally already scheduled for October 2, 2010

That's funny, I could just as easily do without them both. :) And they already explained why on the date -- they are filming in DC on 10/28, thought about 10/29 but figured they might be a little hung over, 10/31 was halloween, so they picked 10/30.

[BigBadBrian]

Congressman Grayson is not "insanity", he's one of the few sane people in Congress.

:lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

Let's hope that Grayson "dies quickly," to use a phrase from his own rants.

[BigBadBrian]

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wPhxD04MYoI?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wPhxD04MYoI?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

Grayson is an idiot of the highest order.

[FORD]

Right.... just think of where this country could be if we had 434 more "idiots" like him in the house. And 100 such "idiots" in the Senate.....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbISRwE2lfw

[hambon4lif]

Comedy saves America: the Stewart and Colbert rallies

For many years, a wonderful seminary colleague of mine taught a class called "Humor as Healing and Grace." Humor is a theological subject because it can be a way of healing divisions and cultivating the grace of self-awareness. This theology is now best represented in America by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. These Emmy award-winning comedians on the Comedy Central channel have each announced rallies on the National Mall on October 30. Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" is a parody of Glenn Beck's August "Restoring Honor" rally. Stephen Colbert's "March to Keep Fear Alive" is a send up of conservative fear-mongering. These rallies will do more to heal the divisions between among Americans these days than perhaps any more obviously "religious" events could possibly do.

The United States of America isn't united any more; it's being torn apart by media-driven extremism; the two extremes in American politics and religion today paint each other not only as wrong, but as evil and in the grip of demonic forces. The future of our democratic experiment is literally at risk in this increasing extremism. Democracy is the art of compromise; it requires that Americans who hold different views be able to develop enough empathy for each other so that bi-partisanship can actually occur, and the country move forward. If we cannot cut each other any slack at all, democracy cannot function. The Stewart rally advertising says, "We're looking for the people who think shouting is annoying, counterproductive, and terrible for your throat; who feel that the loudest voices shouldn't be the only ones that get heard; and who believe that the only time it's appropriate to draw a Hitler mustache on someone is when that person is actually Hitler. Or Charlie Chaplin in certain roles." In other words, 'tone it down' so we can hear ourselves think.

Comedy is a way to see the contradictions and foibles of the human condition and make it bearable. Comedy isn't trivial. Comedy comes from the contradictions, even the pain of human existence. Comedy is, in fact born in pain and tragedy. It is never recorded that Jesus laughed, though the Gospels do say that he cried. Chris Rock, the brilliant comedian, commented in an interview in the Chicago Tribune in October of 2009 about how he gets his comedy, like so many comedians do, from observing life and feeling its pain. "I hit my rough patches," he says. "Friend of mine, Rich Jeni, shot himself in the head...If somebody asks me, 'Was he depressed?" He was a comedian!" He goes on, "A comedian is like half a psychic. Very aware. It is very, very aware to be a comedian. You kind of gotta notice everything...Stuff doesn't get by you...You just notice too much." The result of all this knowledge is comedy, and it's also pain. "It's so much easier to not know in life...You just end up knowing too much about people."
Knowing each other, and laughing together about how ridiculous it really is to live in these times, are practical ways we can get out of extremism and into empathy. Being able to laugh together is rooted in the human capacity for self-transcendence. We human beings are not only defined by our capacities for destruction and creativity. We also laugh. We are capable at making fun of ourselves, and of our own puffed up, self-importance, even the kind that is leading to tragic consequences. Making fun of our own human temptation to overreach is a way to promote self-consciousness and self-transcendence. It's a way to remind ourselves we are not gods, we're really just human beings and human beings getting tripped up by our own pretensions to grandeur.

This is the underlying theme of Stephen Colbert's show, and his "March to Keep Fear Alive." The show, called "The Colbert Report," was designed to ridicule personality-driven political pundit news, especially those on Fox News such as The O'Reilly Factor. The key comedic theme of the show is that the anchorman (Colbert) is a poorly informed, right wing apologist who is very fond of his own views. Colbert is perhaps best known for his popularizing (and redefining) the term "truthiness," which the Merriam-Webster dictionary featured as its 2006 Word of the Year. As used by Colbert, the term is meant to lampoon claims of truth without regard to evidence, logic, critical thinking or even facts. By using this re-defined term, Colbert effectively lampooned the appeal to the "gut feeling" of contemporary poltical and social discourse. He particularly applied it to the decision of President Bush to invade Iraq in 2003.
The ad for the "March to Keep Fear Alive" punctures the religious pretensions of a Beck-type rally, inviting you to march with "The Rev. Sir Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, D.F.A....to Restore Truthiness." The Colbert march lampoons uncritical nationalism and its use to foster fear and keep people from actually thinking about solving America's problems. "America, the Greatest Country God ever gave Man, was built on three bedrock principles: Freedom. Liberty. And Fear -- that someone might take our Freedom and Liberty. But now, there are dark, optimistic forces trying to take away our Fear -- forces with salt and pepper hair and way more Emmys than they need. They want to replace our Fear with reason. But never forget -- "Reason" is just one letter away from "Treason." Coincidence? Reasonable people would say it is, but America can't afford to take that chance."
So do consider joining these innovative Americans on October 30th on the National Mall and laugh. Couldn't hurt.

[sadaist]

Leave it to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to know what Americans need two days before Election Day


Ah, leave it to 2 uber libs to tell us what we need.

[GAR]

Finally a rally for the rest of us...

.. on public assistance?

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Ah, leave it to 2 uber libs to tell us what we need.

Ya know, if you really look at what Stewart does (Colbert's show is basically an act, but brilliantly done), he breaks down whatever is the hot button issue of the day into terms that the normal, everyday, non-political person can understand.... It's still a comedy show, and I'd love to see it someday uncensored, but it's certainly not fictitious....

Most importantly IMO, they do a great job in calling bullshit on these people that are hypocritical, pulling out old video that contradicts what they've said....

I DVR both of them everyday, right next to my two episodes of the West Wing.... :D

[Nickdfresh]

.. on public assistance?

You're not invited....

[BigBadBrian]

Ya know, if you really look at what Stewart does (Colbert's show is basically an act, but brilliantly done), he breaks down whatever is the hot button issue of the day into terms that the normal, everyday, non-political person can understand.... It's still a comedy show, and I'd love to see it someday uncensored, but it's certainly not fictitious....

I'm not surprised most of the libs here get their talking points from Stewart and Colbert.

:gulp:

[ELVIS]

And The West Wing...

[FORD]

I'm not surprised most of the libs here get their talking points from Stewart and Colbert.

:gulp:

Not me. I get mine from Hartmann and Malloy. :biggrin:

[Nitro Express]

I think as the fiscal situation continues to melt down for the average working American they won't have time to watch such fools on television. A friend of mine who has a master's degree in biology is now working as a finish carpenter because he lost his corporate job. You have college educated people with no insurance working up to three crappy jobs just to support their family. Don't even get me started on the ones coming out of college now with huge amounts of unsecured govt. student loan debt. All this stupid entertainment shit doesn't fly in such situations.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

I'm not surprised most of the libs here get their talking points from Stewart and Colbert.

:gulp:

Outside of strictly his comedy skits, you can't say Stewart is merely making shit up, it's simply untrue...

[jhale667]

I'm not surprised most of the libs here get their talking points from Stewart and Colbert.




Yeah, "true Americans" take their cues from Hannity and Limbaugh, duh!

[Nickdfresh]

I'm not surprised most of the libs here get their talking points from Stewart and Colbert.

:gulp:

Actually, they're making fun of the very idea of talking points for dummycons like you...

[ELVIS]

Is that right ??

[Dr. Love]

I'm not surprised most of the libs here get their talking points from Stewart and Colbert.

:gulp:

http://blog.wfmu.org/photos/uncategorized/2007/11/27/kaneapplausebw_480_360.gif

[hambon4lif]

:lmao::beers8:

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/k1T75jBYeCs?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/k1T75jBYeCs?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>