My Ordeal with Jon Stewart and His ‘Cone of Silence’ Event
Interacting with Comedy Central over the upcoming Jon Stewart Rally to Restore Sanity, or the March to Keep Fear Alive, or the This Is Not a Political Rally rally is much like trying to communicate with North Korea’s Kim Jong II.
I have been conducting a long-distance email relationship with Steve Albani, Comedy Central’s vice president for corporate communications. I am trying to get press credentials to cover the event for PJTV. Here are my unedited email conversations with Mr. Albani:
Me: Hope all is going well with your planning for the D.C. rallies. Could you please give us any updated information concerning pre-rally press conferences and avails for next week? Will there be press avails prior to or after Jon Stewart’s interview with the president?
Albani: Jon will not be doing any press prior to the October 30 rallies.
Me: I also understand Jon will be broadcasting his show from D.C. next week. What rules will you have governing outside broadcast camera access, sprays and shooting for Jon’s show here?
Albani: we are not allowing crews inside the studio during the week of tapings in Washington
Me: We will be bringing correspondent Alfonzo Rachel to cover the rally. Could you please have one of your staff add him to your list of participating press?
Albani: did she apply for a credential on our online application site? If not, a credential is TBD, since the deadline to apply was yesterday.
Just a note that Alfonzo is a he, which Albani might have noted from where I referred to Alfonzo with the masculine “him.”
I emailed Albani today, and received this auto-reply:
If this is about the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear,” I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Otherwise, you just might have to wait until Monday.
“Thank you — we hope you enjoyed your visit to the Department of Motor Vehicles!”
Actually, I am not feeling sorry for myself, as I realize I am in the same stupefied boat as the rest of the media in this town and elsewhere in this nation — trying to make sense of the Stewart event. The Washington Post’s total insider, Paul Farhi, noted on Monday of this week that Comedy Central was as tight-lipped as Charlie Sheen’s publicist:
With less than a week to go, it’s still not exactly clear how Stewart will be using this new platform. No guests or musical acts have been announced, Stewart has done only a couple media interviews, and he’s offered few details about the rally.
Here, the New York Times Bill Carter and Brian Stelter describe Mr. Stewart’s open, transparent, and freewheeling public event for change and reasonableness:
Mr. Stewart declined interview requests and has offered little description of what is planned. He also has apparently lowered a cone of silence over members of his staff and executives at Comedy Central, which will broadcast the rally live.
Even Judy McGrath, the chief executive at MTV Networks, the parent company of Comedy Central, also has not divulged many details. “Whatever you think it’s going to be, it’s probably not going to be that,” she said last week.
Ayers won’t be there; So, I’d advise my loved ones to stay clear, knowing Ayers’ criminal history.
He may be a’Jihadi’ now.
Did anybody tackle you and stomp on your neck? You should have at least showed up and tried to rush past the security personnel guarding the stage holding something that looked like it might be a press credential. You’re too civil.
If you try, be sure to have somebody with a flip cam recording the event.
BTW, look for loose blunts on the ground after the crowd breaks up.
Interacting with Comedy Central over the upcoming Jon Stewart Rally to Restore Sanity, or the March to Keep Fear Alive, or the This Is Not a Political Rally rally is much like trying to communicate with North Korea’s late leader Kim Il Jung.
The late leader of North Korea is Kim Il Sung, who died in 1994. The current leader is his son, Kim Jung Il. I think you’ve gotten the two mixed up….
“The late leader of North Korea is Kim Il Sung, who died in 1994. The current leader is his son, Kim Jung Il. I think you’ve gotten the two mixed up….”
The two were already mixed up.
What’s your point Mr Reardon? It seems that since you could not fault the premise you find fault with one of the few throwaway lines in the entire story. Well done, sir.
This all goes to show how low the USA has sunk into the muck an mire
Because a person of good character had a rally for the good of our nation, we get a schmuck,Stewart, who thinks he’s funny, mocking us. Plus, the first/last black president of the u.s., made a fool of himself on the show.
Abi,
I’m sorry but I have to disagree with you. I’m a captial “C” Conservative and have been for a long (long) time. We WILL have a Black President again one day, just as we will have a Madam President one day. There are many great Conservative Leaders arising because of this debacle with Comrade President Obama and they are of all colors, races, male & female.
What I’m hoping and praying we never have is another Socialist/Leftist/Communist President. Not on my watch.
“Even Judy McGrath, the chief executive at MTV Networks, the parent company of Comedy Central, also has not divulged many details. “Whatever you think it’s going to be, it’s probably not going to be that,” she said last week.”
I think Jon Stewart will be a complete dick and will insult everyone who’s the slightest bit unpleased with the current administration.
Judy?
When does this cross the line and become an illegal campaign donation by Comedy Central/Viacom to the Dems? Stewart used the terms ‘us’ and ‘them’ when referring to Democrats and Republicans during his interview with Obama, and everyone knows what side of the universe he stands on. But interviewing a sitting president is far different than holding a rally.
Exactly. I don’t think anyone speaking at Beck’s rally ever mentioned “Obama” or “Democrat” or “Republican.” Any guesses as to the over/under on those words for Stewart’s rally?
Also, I thought liberals were against corporations spending TV money prior to an election. Isn’t that what the Citizens United case was all about?
Funny article. Well, funny in the way you meant it…and the ending was suuuweeet! PGTV, you guys are the best!
Funny thing; I’m seeing a lot of familiar names, here at PJM News, of bloggers I used to see at ‘Politico’ years ago.
The Obama dinghy IS sinking.
I don’t mean to be flippant (well… not too much anyway) but who gives a fig. This may turn out to be the biggest non-event ever.
It’s the Obama Legacy!
the obama legacy?
I guess you mean apart from financial reforms and health care … right?
No, no; those aren’t the accomplishments that will determine Obama’s legacy, they are what will establish his infamy.
So, like liberal politicans voting for bills and having no idea what’s in them, Stewart’s liberal audience is attending a rally and having no idea what it’s about or who will be there.
How apropos.
I gotta say, I’m finding the evident frustration of wingnuts not able to spin and attack this thing seriously entertaining.
It’s not a news event. It’s not a grass-roots campaign. It’s staged comedy. That’s the whole point – stewart/colbert are showing that they can do a staged comedy event better than glenn beck can. And you can’t stop them from doing it!
I guess you’ll all find out what’s on the menu in about 14 hours, 45 minutes
I’m looking forward to having a seriously good laugh. Beck et al are pompous gits who deserve to have some wind taken out of their sales. The MLK event was every bit as carefully contrived as stewart’s (I’m sure colbert will turn up too). That’s WHY they’re taking the mickey. Every aspect of beck’s show is being parodied. That’s all it has to do. At least the comedy show is honest about it.
Line up those crowd-estimating consultants, I reckon it’s going to be a big fight. We might even get a picture of what 1/2 a million people on the mall REALLY looks like
Oh – and when o’reilly interviews a guest, does he allow any other media in?
Matthew- Did you see the Beck rally? If so, please explain to me, how holding a rally that honors our troops and this great country can be parodied? Libs are so funny, they constantly mock everything about the US, then get all apoplectic when anybody questions their patriotism.
“please explain to me, how holding a rally that honors our troops and this great country can be parodied?”
He could have done that from home. Instead he deliberately staged held a high-profile right-wing political rally on the anniversary and location of a black civil rights event. It was an arrogant an pompous decision designed to draw attention to himself and his cause. So he chucked in a bit of dot-point talk about troops and patriotism, but that’s just scripted. It was all about power for beck and the tea-partiers, and nothing at all about honoring america.
“Libs are so funny, they constantly mock everything about the US, then get all apoplectic when anybody questions their patriotism.”
And wingnuts think that only they get to decide what “patriotism” looks like.
Matthew, your wishful thinking is your reality. You are one delusional dimwit.
You don’t have a clue about Stewart’s rally, anymore than you comprehended Beck’s rally.
You will accomplish as much if you mutter and mumble to yourself. You’re clueless.
“Matthew, your wishful thinking is your reality. You are one delusional dimwit.”
Oh – well, now you put it that way I’m convinced. I must be wrong. I wish somebody had told me that before. I’m going to go and give all of my money to glenn beck’s mate’s gold business right away.
“You will accomplish as much if you mutter and mumble to yourself. You’re clueless.”
That TOO? Holey moley. How have I made it this far?
I’ve really learned a lot from this chat. You’re better at this than I am. Do you have a newsletter I can subscribe to?
It is a political rally for people who get their “news” from the daily show. It is a sad sign when people make their decisions about the future of the county based on entertainment.
The Daily Show and the Colbert Report and SNL are all that some people can digest, news-wise. They also get their political opinions from various musical (sic) groups. One should not confuse them with facts. Politics, economics, history and math are for nerds, not for the erudite intellectuals on the left who understand instinctively the nuances of all issues. Or so they say . . .
You, Matthew, seem to be the one taking Stewart seriously. I used to watch him years back, but his pomposity turned me way off. It appears to moi that you are taking Stewart and Comedy Central way seriously. Why don’t you get back on Nov. 3 when your socialist buddies are voted out of office and sniveling on the street? and you might check into discount tickets to Pyongyang while you are at it.
“You, Matthew, seem to be the one taking Stewart seriously.”
Actually, I think he’s just entertaining. He’s funny. You might disagree, but hey – you’re free to do that. My point here is that this whole event is COMEDY. It’ll be entertaining. That’s the point, and it’s all it has to be. If, along the way, they happen to get a crowd twice the size of beck’s, then that will just make it funnier. But it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t – it just has to be entertaining.
“It appears to moi that you are taking Stewart and Comedy Central way seriously.”
Whatever makes you feel better.
“Why don’t you get back on Nov. 3 when your socialist buddies are voted out of office and sniveling on the street?”
You do realise that there are only so many races on, right? Here’s my prediction – obama stays in the white house (don’t laugh – there really are nutjobs claiming otherwise), dems keep the senate and lose their majority in the house. But … that’s kind of normal around this time.
“and you might check into discount tickets to Pyongyang while you are at it.”
You’re going to have to explain that one to me. I have no idea why you think I’d want to do that.
You just might, if you are after a good laugh. The way they do marches there is Comedy Supreme.
Mathew: “. . .that’s kind of normal around this time.”
What is not normal is the soul-crushing FDR-style sweep that is predicted. But I understand the left’s need to minimize and rationalize. It’s what you do when reality’s pin pops illusion’s bubble.
“What is not normal is the soul-crushing FDR-style sweep that is predicted.”
That’s a prediction. And we know what yogi berra said about predictions. Let’s see what actually happens.
“But I understand the left’s need to minimize and rationalize. It’s what you do when reality’s pin pops illusion’s bubble.”
Ok. But remember that you said that.
“Here’s my prediction – obama stays in the white house (don’t laugh – there really are nutjobs claiming otherwise), dems keep the senate and lose their majority in the house. But … that’s kind of normal around this time.”
And … I was right.
Turn down the screeching and think about it – this IS a normal mid-term swing, and it happened during the worst recession in recent US history. It’s not enough of a change to “roll back” anything, and it gives the president cover from the more extreme elements on his own side who want the US to go it alone on a carbon tax and pull out of afghanistan.
Here’s my next prediction. At the next election, the situation won’t change – but the dems will take back some seats in both houses, and obama will stay on in the white house.
Oh – and the tea party will gradually morph into the evangelical christian wing of the republican party.
Sounds to me like this “rally” is going to be a huge disappointment to the liberal world. Can you spell B O M B ?
C-SPAN lists the event on their schedule 12n-3p, so their coverage may remain available in their archives. Will Comedy Central (Viacom) try to interfere with C-SPAN, refuse them feeds, etc.?
Geee…sorry these guys putting on a big event on the National Mall are too busy to talk to someone who’ll only trash them anyways.
WAHHHHHH!!!! Lirbuls R Mean!
and well said Matthew. No predictions, but I imagine you will all be pretty pissed with how poorly Republicans actually do on Tuesday. Not that the unbalanced mainstream media will report it accurately. They we’re wrong on Bush, wrong on the war, and have been wrong on the tea party – all while failing to cover progressive counter movements.
David D- Just to be clear, please list all the networks and newspapers that you feel are:
1) tilted towards the right
2) tilted left
3) balanced
Clearly it sounds like you think the MSM is unbalanced right.
Have no fear, Matthew. I suspect that the conservative sites will gleefully post plenty of crowd pictures and estimates. Don’t forget to pick up your trash. Liberals are really bad about that.
I doubt that will be an issue. Like the beck rally, this isn’t a spontaneous grass-roots event. Somebody’s planning it and paying the bills (the difference being that these guys aren’t pretending otherwise). There is no chance they’ll leave rubbish lying around. I expect that people will try to claim otherwise with carefully-framed photos, but there is no chance that the likes of stewart or colbert will let anyone use something as easily-fixed as that to smear them.
And yes, I am expecting to see lots of photos of the crowd. Where I see them will depend on how big they are. If they’re really small, I’ll see them on beck and o’reilly. If they’re really big, I expect I’ll have to look elsewhere
After all, they ARE the ones who started this “size” thing.
Oh Matthew! It’s just going to be sooo much fun and such entertainment when that stupid grin is wiped off of yours and Jonny’s smug mugs. Enjoy it while it lasts … dude!
I really love your smiley faces. How can I start adding those to my posts? It makes me feel so happy.
Komedy Central, a network of lighthearted comrades bringing you the “Rally to enforce Czanity” in the Motherland.
This is sounding as “funny” as Colbert’s appearance before Congress. The mock benediction by Don Novello (Father Guido Sarducci)sounds especially galling.
The hundred people left in America who don’t despise hip ironic liberals will join us after this debacle.
I hope John Stewart Mellencamp performs.
Hmmmm! I noticed a long time ago that this sort of thing in a theater production signals an oncoming trainwreck. Not just fail but 3p1c Fail! And from what I saw of political rallies little things like using government transport and having Oprah desperately beg her fangirls to show up at her own expense hardly show a massive display of confidence. Stephan Colbert’s absence in light of this, as desribed by Richard Pollock, would hardly strike me as a good sign were this event something I would want to see succeed. Almost as if Mr. Colbert sees a debacle in the making and wants as little of the blame as possible.
So the real question might be, will this event be something favorable press coverage can try to salvage or will this be the sort of thing that even liberals can’t pretend was any good? Perhaps we should start a betting pool on which way it will go? ^_~
Stewart and Colbert are journalists in the same sense that Jeffrey Dahmer was a Chef.
Dahmer didn’t do takeout. These guys do.
who are these “stewart” and “colbert” persons, are they supposed to be important somehow, if they are why have i never heard of them before now?
Does anyone else get the feeling that this may have turned into a huge cluster-fark that was not actually intended?
I mean that in the sense that Stewart and Colbert started out with a kind of silly meta-joke that has suddenly blossomed into a misbegotten, last chance, no-hope-is-left to resurrect some sort of hope and change before the elections.
What will they do if ANSWER, Code Pink, PETA, SEIU and the anarchists from the anti-World Bank and G8 protests show up with their usual antics?
This could be very bad. If I was Viacom, I would be hoping for a low turn-out.
Ag80, I heard “Code Pink” WAS attending, as well as Obama’s “brown shirts” the Organize for America people. We were going to go, hey, a free comedy show and guys, Colbert’s going to be there (said with sarcasm).
But with agitators like Code Pink, I don’t think I could enjoy it, not like August 28′s awesome event.
Beck’s was a FAMILY event, this is, “less than family friendly.”
“Like the beck rally, this isn’t a spontaneous grass-roots event. Somebody’s planning it and paying the bills “
Lie. No one was paid to attend Glen Beck’s event(which you stupidly say he “could have done from home”). What is it about you people that forces you to be scumbag liars? Isn’t there anything good in the crap pile of beliefs you carry around to which you could refer? Are lies really all you people have?
Well said – Matt’s so full of crap it’s oozing out his eyeballs.
Do either of you have any facts, or argument to add to the debate?
Who the heck got paid to attend the stewart/colbert event?
Ag80, I agree. I think this started out as a joke which got out of hand. The usual liberal hangers-on at these events (Communist, Socialist, Code Pink, etc) are going to show up. Comendy Central has belatedly realized this, hence the attempt to ban filming at a public event on the National Mall. (Beck did not prohibit filming.)
I just read a short account of people on a plane from Minneapolis, all heading to the rally. One couple were MY age (60′s) and were going because they had “missed Woodstock.” I cannot begin to tell you how silly and sad I felt when reading that.
The mock benediction gives us a clue to this thing. They will probably also have mocking wounded warrior portrayals. It’s “comedy,” though, so we shouldn’t be insulted.
It would be really good if there was a large rainstorm in DC today.
Lots of confusion on the right (surprise, surprise) about what this rally is all about. For one thing, while right wingers tend to label anyone not a nutcase rightie as leftist, the situation with Stewart is a bit more complex. While he and his show does indeed mocks Republicans and Fox News in particular for their often if not usual excessive right wing, divorced-from-reality, idiocy, that’s just considered fish in a barrel stuff (nobody in the know takes Fox or the right wing mediasphere in general, including the likes of The Weekly Standard and Wall Street Journal’s non-finance news & opinion, seriously.) Instead Stewart usually reserves his more serious frustrations and barely contained anger with the mainstream media and with people in general whom he feels should know better and therefore be more accountable and responsible. He’s been particularly hard on CNN and it’s not a coincidence that Stewart’s most famous media-mocking targeted not Fox, but CNN: first with the Crossfire episode, and then later with (my personal favorite) the “CNN leaves it there.”
The overall point is that if you have: on one side right wing media that is unabashed about its bias and its going to lunatic extremes to BFD anything for political purpose, as demonstrated with this whole New Black Panthers thingy; while on the other side you have the supposedly more journalistic media unable or unwilling to be that much more investigative, more researched and hence more authoritative as news sources you can actually trust; then what is the average person who would like to be accurately informed at least about the big issues to do? It’s tedious and difficult to be your own news researcher these days give how much air time on local, national and cable news shows are complete wastes of time, and how now Googling more and more frequently only brings up page after page of rubbish sites, including infected ones, no matter how careful you are with your search terms, whether you are looking for information on a particularly complex news item, or even just looking for a good deal on something.
The net result of all this is a lot of anger, confusion, and distrust among the general population, and a susceptibility to rumors, however absurd-seeming, which is historically a very bad thing, and which I do believe is at the heart to the Stewart-Colbert rally.
Translation – Sounds like BitChie is a bit pissed off about your something… Check out the mirror BitChie. It can be very revealing. “Observant Folks” avoid Persons Galore’s mirror.
“With Your Something ” – by A. BC Tok Tok
Lots of confusion
(surprise, surprise)
rally thing,
nutcase leftist, the Stewart
with your something
Republicans and Fox News
The Weekly Standard
Wall Street Journal
Stewart frustrations
barely contained
anger hard on
it’s not a coincidence
Stewart’s
(my personal favorite)
lunatic New Black Panthers
with your something
while researched
average person
complete wastes of time
rubbish infected ones,
no matter how careful you are
with your something.
anger, confusion, distrust
Stewart-Colbert rally.
with your something
October 31, 2010 – 12:01 am
Goldstein is inside your head.
‘(nobody in the know…’
‘No true scotsman’ bleats the local rep for the progressive sheep cot.
This particular yawping makes little to no sense whatever, much less any lucid one concerning the rally. It isn’t even internally consistent. At least when you’re on a BDS rant you stick to that one theme – even though it never has any relationship to the article.
You’re losing it.
“For one thing, while right wingers tend to label anyone not a nutcase rightie as leftist” while the … er … those who you don’t agree with are called “extreme right winger/nutcase rightie” when often they are as middle of the road as the white line.
Nice try, BC. Does that stand for Before Comedy or Before Consciousness, by the way?
You are so deep. I am such a simple rightwing nut case I can’t follow your complex posting. Please try to add smiley faces.
BC,
So basically you’re arguing that this “rally” is nothing more than the desperate publicity stunt of a failed entertainer who is on the way down? o_O
Perhaps you are right to do so! ^o^
One thing to keep in in though. The very fact that you needed to use a phrase such as “which I do believe is at the heart to the Stewart-Colbert rally.” is an interesting indication that you yourself are confused as to what their “rally” is really all about so perhaps you should be a bit slower to presume “confusion” on the part of the interpretations that others may place upon this particular production.
Suffice to say, BC, you have your head so far up your ass that you don’t have a freaking clue as to what is going on out here in the real world.
BC = BULL CRAP. You forgot to mention you’re love / obsession with medicare and the “First African American President”. Might be losing your dementia?
BC , Heaven is one voice, all leftist, all powerful, no comprise, no divergence, everything controlled, no horror at the existence of free speech, “our most important freedom”, as it used to be called. And you, as a little cop, enforcing the codes of mindless liberalism and force.
C’mon BC, you would love it.
What I would like to see a little bit more often is to agree that a real problem is a real problem, followed up with a joint effort to hammer out a solution to the problem.
What I would like to see a little bit less is to ignore real problems to instead blow up minor/non-problems as much a possible to make the opposition look bad.
Also, if some malicious, idiotic and completely baseless rumor is rampaging through the Internet, I would prefer that someone says that it’s only a some malicious, idiotic and completely baseless rumor is rampaging through the Internet, as opposed to the media just asking people what they think about the rumor and asking if it’s true, or some politician just saying he/she is not condoning the rumor, but….
BC, no, what you would like to see is yourself wearing that funny armband with the zig zag thing and you goose stepping around the block.
Dolt! Your premise seems to be that only the federal government can solve problems, assuming you understand what you post. Joint effort, yeah, like the health care monstrosity, rumors, yep, like the filth about Sarah Palin, insanity, try Allan Grayson, for starters. You are amazing in what you can overlook.
Grow up little fella, try believing in the tooth fairy, not in a politics based only on power and control, or in a president who spent 20 years in a racist “church” and lied about it.
In the meantime, put the armband on and go for a walk. Feed your inner self.
Restrictions ? Gee, do we have someone who can stand up and make bug eyes, rubber faces, wave his arms, and shriek at this ? The lames who watch Stewart think this is comedy or satire, surely we can find a drunk to do a Stewart imitation.
Other then that, it’s just the usual & almost boring, leftist 180 degree turn on their, brace yourself, principles.
Maybe Stewart will mock himself, why not, it would be honest and right now who deserves it more.
Go Leftism and free speech, “our most important freedom”. Enough to make you puke.
It just hit me, I know what kind of television comedy / reality show that could become #1, let’s have Jon Stewert interview Barry Barak Hussen Soetoro Obama, Karzai, Karza’s brother, and the Taliban while their picking the poppys in the fields for the heroin that they ship to America. What do ya think people? Since Jon and Comedy Central have proven that nothing is sacred for satire and that they will even give in to the threat by a group of radical muslims (like the press likes to call them) or just “the un-named” (like Barry “the Anointed One” likes to call them) or toilet paper (like Americans over the ages of twelve like to call them), it could be a hit. Hollyweird would go wild. One additional thought, to make it hit #1 internationally over the globe, let’s have the United Nations thrown in to be interviewed. Well, come to think of it, maybe that’s not such a good idea, if the U.N. is involved, they will steal everything and then say the the US took it.
A country fighting multiple foreign wars against terrorists, suffering depression era unemployment, with a $13.4 Trillion National Debt and with 1 out of 7 living in poverty, naturally (under a Congress controlled by Democrats), invites Comedy Central’s, Stephen Colbert to testify on immigration reform.
Stephen Colbert performing as comedian Stephen Colbert in front of a Congressional Sub-Committee, while under oath, is a mark of shame and embarrassment. Mocking the system inside the very governmental institution that is suppose to represent our country’s shared ideals of freedom, liberty and justice is inexcusable. Those who lead congress – have they forgotten about their honor and Constitutional oaths?
Millions have given the ultimate sacrifice in fighting for the liberties enshrined within our founding documents. And in present time, well over 2 million of our fellow citizens voluntarily serve within our Armed Forces, ready to defend our Nation and Constitution.
What took place in Congress on that day today is an outrage, a moral outrage and one that is a disgusting display of contempt encouraged by both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Obama administration. The democratic leadership that allowed this travesty to take place today are nothing short of cowards and should be immediately reprimanded and relieved from leadership. Are these strong words? You bet they are. And when the November mid-terms come, we will see just how disgusted the American electorate has become with Speaker Pelosi and her congress.
Does anyone remember the commercial that had a kid a someones front door playing a tuba and the announcer said something about the world’s worst tuba player, well he grew and was just performing on CSPAN with some really crappy band (yes he is still as awful now as back then!
They just left the stage, I’m glad cause it was awful and looks like it is gonna get worse before the days is over!
Let the would-be Woodstockers have their pathetic moment. It’s hard to Question Authority when you ARE the authority. Their kids are all home listening to Limbaugh and laughing at the geezers.
The rally web site was telling people to upload pictures of the signs they planned to bring, so the organizers could tell them if their signs are “sane or not”. Ironic how the “Restore Sanity” organizers assume their followers are not especially sane.
Also quite convenient for it to be just before Halloween, so the appearance of the usual lefty kooks can be assumed to be on their way to a party.
What I want to know is: will Richard don a “friendly” tshirt to protect himself like he did at the rally organized by the SEIU and friends?
I turned the rally on as background noise a while ago. So far, I’ve heard an Islamic cleric (or a comic dressed as an Islamic cleric) who wonders why Jews and Muslims can’t get along since they don’t eat the same foods. Then Sam Waterston read a poem he presumably wrote about fear after which Yusuf Islam, who apparently is permitted back in the country, invited everyone to climb aboard the Peace Train and started a lame battle of the bands with Ozzie Osborn. Now the Ojays are inviting everyone aboard the Love Train. Without on overhead shot, I can’t really tell how many people are there.
Wyndham Lewis said it best long ago.
“When you cant think, you can always laugh”.
What a wonderfully wacky world the fine representatives of the liberal Left do live in. Gathering just from their responses on this thread, they suffer so many amusing delusions that it is difficult to address them all without taking way too much of my time.
First of all, get over the idea that you are a brave soldier of the faith shouting “Truth to Power” at the establishment. YOU ARE THE ESTABLISHMENT, and have been so for at least the last 40 years, and all the more so since about 2006. And, please, don’t confuse the role of the establishment with the majority opinion of your fellow citizens; they are not one and the same.
The media that so frighten you – Glenn Beck and Fox News in general, Rush Limbaugh, conservative internet sites – they all add up to about 5% of the media that bombard our citizens relentlessly with their message for us all to accept our place in their clever dystopia. Our every question of their veracity and authority is suppressed in vituperative tones by their minions in fora across the web as though such questions were thoughtcrimes in Oceana. Good grief people, you are deeply confused.
Can you not understand that the Tea Party really is a spontaneous movement of ordinarily complacent citizens who have finally been pushed into expressing their disgust with the bubble-wrapped liberal Left elites’ ignorance and self-interested disdain for the whole American project? Hint: that is not the same as clueless college students looking for a good party, aging hippie/yuppie granola-munchers searching for a “be-in”, professional protesters, Left-wing revolutionaries, union bussed drones doing as they’re told and paid to do by shop stewards, and young urban hipsters arriving for a concert and comedy event which they hope will mock those overly serious and pathetic squares who only exist to pay the bills of this country? Yes, there is quite a difference, and you will discover this, if you are willing to grasp it, in a week or so.
The primary crime of political conservatives in the eyes of many on the Left seems to be that they take things too seriously – things like the whole idea of the country at its founding, the Constitution, the fact that we can’t continuously and magically spend more than we have, the fact that the consensus of “experts” is not necessarily the truth about anything nor necessarily even a better than disastrous idea, the now hidebound concept that we must be afraid to say the obvious for fear of the axe of political correctness, the loss of so many of our rights to be free of intrusion by an over-arching government. Yes, the Left believes that Conservatives must cast off this inconvenient seriousness of purpose and join their party, accept their fantasy of less being more and more being free. Well, they aren’t buying it. They really are speaking truth to your power. Get over it.
So, go have a good time with Stewart, take a few tokes and laugh your heart out. Meanwhile, I’ve got to figure out how to make my next mortgage payment.
If my above comment appears to be posted twice, please accept my apology. I hit the submit button a second time when it first appeared that my comments didn’t actually post, and i thought that my session had timed-out or some such other error.
The very idea that Jon Stewart is funny is evidence of our long
cultural decline. He is not funny. He is the high school class
clown who is no longer 17 but 45 years old. The same adolescent
snickering, the same sarcasm that goes nowhere. The same
spoiled little Jewish boy whose mother told him how very, very clever and smart he was before bringing him out to perform for the adults at some Upper
West Side cocktail party, or was it Upper West Los Angeles? Does it matter?
Anyway Jon is still perfoming and showing off for the adult world a world he can barely understand. Sometimes Jonny notices that more and more of the
adults arent smiling anymore..but it doesnt matter. A desperate histrionic
he can manufacture the self affirming approval he craves out of
thin air. Of course the laugh track, editing room, and shills in the
audience holding up applause signs always help.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
That Stewart/Colbert so called “Rally” [has to be] thee lamest (he, he. he), thee hokiest (hoo, ha, ha, ha) thee worst oganized (hoot, hoot) and thee most boring rally that has ever been held in Washington, D.C., or anywhere else.
Only the retarded, the truly retarded would have hung around to watch it. Dummies and losers who don’t have a life and who are too dumb to get bored. I never saw any event that was more juvenile or more boring. Everybody in the audience had a “Duh”, deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression on his or her face.
The only funny aspect of that event was that the incredibly stupid dummies at CNN were trying to hype it, like trying to inflate a balloon full of holes that just hung there limply.
he he he he he BWAHA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA he he he eeeeeeeeee he he he
I’m incredulous that Stewart and Colbert have a show. It has to be a show strictly for dummies.
Well, the rally’s over (can you hear the implied “thank God”?). My general impressions are that for people who are supposed to be so hip, it was incredibly lame, and for people who I know can be funny, it was incredibly not. I’m not sure Stewart can pull off the Big Event. He might want to consider sticking to his smallish studio and 22 minute bites. Was anything accomplished today? I have no idea.
There are already some great pictures of the show, I mean “rally”, coming out. Nothing says “sanity” quite like “Team Fear” signs, Hitler pictures, and people dressed as giant celery stalks.
Ok. So the comments posted here before the event were about how it’d be a flop, and packed with nasties and there’d be litter everywhere.
The comments AFTER the event are how you didn’t think it was funny at all.
It’s definitely some sort of derangement syndrome. But it seems to be mutating.
Oh, and early indications are that the crowd was much bigger than beck’s, so I’m assuming we won’t be hearing any reporting about that on “we report, you decide”
Tough luck, guys. It went off without a hitch, and a heck of a lot of people turned up and had some fun. What a drag.
“It’s definitely some sort of derangement syndrome.”
“Oh, and early indications are that the crowd was much bigger than beck’s”
The irony is thick.
“a heck of a lot of people turned up and had some fun. What a drag.”
On the one had you seem to be hot for comparing it with Beck’s rally. If that was the intent, they came up short in both attendance and content and weren’t close to meeting the hype or expectations. Which is understandable. One rally was for people concerned about what they see as a political class that is no longer beholden to the electorate. And there are a lot of them. The other rally was for people who believe a couple of comedians hold the key to understanding the collapse of the charade they bought into back in 2008. There are not all that many who think that way.
On the other, you want to lower the bar for expectations by also saying it was just a lot of people who showed up to have some fun. I’m glad they had fun. But that was not the expectation the left has been pushing from the start.
“The irony is thick.”
It usually is.
“On the one had you seem to be hot for comparing it with Beck’s rally.”
That is unavoidable, ultimately.
“If that was the intent, they came up short in both attendance and content”
I dare say you’re wrong about that.
“and weren’t close to meeting the hype or expectations.”
Not from the photos I’ve seen. I think they did pretty well.
“One rally was for people concerned about what they see as a political class that is no longer beholden to the electorate.”
Actually, from what I saw (remotely, I admit) it looked like rally for people who think prayer should be returned to classrooms. The tea party waffles quite vaguely about less government and lower spending (except for military, border security, law enforcement, naturally) but they’re very specific about the other half of the agenda, which appeared to me (from beck’s song and dance) to be overtly religious. In three years (and you can write this down and give me a score for accuracy) the tea party will have morphed into an evangelical christian movement, after the genuine conservatives have become disillusioned and walked away. Wait and see.
“The other rally was for people who believe a couple of comedians hold the key to understanding the collapse of the charade they bought into back in 2008.”
Actually, it was a rally for people who thought comedy (not anger and bile) was the best way to deal with a very small and loud minority who’ve been able to hijack political discussion in their country. And it was cast in a way that took direct aim at one of the worst offenders.
“There are not all that many who think that way.”
Quite a few seemed to be there on the day.
“On the other, you want to lower the bar for expectations by also saying it was just a lot of people who showed up to have some fun.”
And it certainly looks like they did that. Check out the signs – some of them really are clever. And they seem to be overwhelmingly correctly spelled. I haven’t seen any photos of angry people yet.
“I’m glad they had fun. But that was not the expectation the left has been pushing from the start.”
Which was? Specifically?
Me thinks that Matthew doth protest too much in a lame defense of his lame hero.
Me thinks that he is drowning. Throw him a line before he goes under a 3rd time.
Hate! Hate! Hate!
Oh, guys, I’ve got an angle for you. Early reports indicate that the crowd was “overwhelmingly white”. At least according to bloggers. Lets see what the photos say.
LOL, Matthew says, “Sputter, sputter, sputter”.
Our resident loony here, Matthew, ain’t too bright. But there was a flicker of awareness even in his tiny brain that Stewart’s so-called “rally” was such a flop that it was an embarrassment even to Matthew, who is now trying to save face on Stewart’s behalf. This is too funny. Matthew isn’t a ditz. Naw. LMAO
Erm. Flop? Check the pictures again.
You know, just sticking your fingers in your ears and repeating something over and over really loudly doesn’t make it true
I saw it, pukesville, “why can’t we all get along” vomit. Meaning, yes, work with Obama. Stewart certainly does not mean give and take as normal people understand it.
The crowd goes for crap like this, and in their lobotomized state, automatically think[?] that together means what ever LibFascists want.
Mother Government must be fed.
John Stewart’s audience yesterday was so juvenile and retarded that reading of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes would have been more effective …, and appropriate, too.
Stewart and Colbert, in one swoop punctured the mythology of Fox, Tea Baggers, Palin, and the profit-driven faux patriotism they represent.
Aw poor baby, you’re going to be so depressed when Republicans regain control of Congress.
Gee! I thought he was supposed to be funny.