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Stewart And Colbert Rebuke The Media At Rally: 'If We Amplify Everything, We Hear Nothing'
Jon Stewart said at Saturday's rally that he didn't really care how it gets received by pundits and cable news - he's just happy so many people showed up.
"I know there are boundaries for a comedian pundit talky guy," he said in his closing remarks, "and I'm sure I'll find out tomorrow how I violated them." But really, he said, "I'm really happy you guys are here. Even if we're not sure why."
So that was the theme from the Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear on the National Mall: There really is no theme, and critics should stop trying to figure one out. "I understand you guys have -- it's all about who's winning and who's losing, but we have TV shows," Stewart told reporters at a press conference later.
Though Stewart has been criticized for organizing a rally that supposedly does everything from selling out to veering into politician territory, there wasn't much said about politics during the three-hour rally. Stewart only pulled out his cutting criticism when he was talking about the media.
Or, as Stewart put it, it "doesn't matter what we say or hear today. All that matters is what's reported on what we say or do today."
The rally itself featured a parade of guest stars and musicians, skits and gimmicks that made it feel like the combination of a variety show, music festival, and performance art piece with some comedy and feel-good kumbaya moments thrown in. The Roots kicked things off, Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow, and Jeff Tweedy and Mavis Staples were also among the performers.
Though no official estimates have yet been made of crowd turnout, the Mythbusters duo who followed The Roots estimated that there were 150,000 people there. And Mike Madden, Managing Editor of the Washington City Paper tweeted that an MTV Networks (Comedy Central's parent company) flak said it was about 250,000. Stewart himself was more generous in his opening remarks, saying "we have over 10 million people."
And unfortunately for some, the audio systems weren't equipped for that kind of turnout, and many toward the back couldn't hear. At one point a loud chant of "louder" began, but apparently the problem was not sufficiently fixed, and some people ended up leaving.
In his opening, Stewart also added that there was a good "demographic sampling" within the crowd, which is a good thing because "if you have too many white people at a rally, your cause is racist."
Here's his full opening speech:
Then Stewart brought out Father Guido Sarducci, a Saturday Night Live character played by Don Novello, who gave the opening benediction. Sarducci asked God to give a sign when he named the religion that is the correct one. He also wondered why Jews and Muslims don't get along more. "They don't eat pork, you don't eat pork -- let's build on that," he said.
Colbert, meanwhile, contributed his own brand of fear-mongering to the rally. Though the crowd is calm now, he said after emerging from his underground "Fear Bunker," "soon they'll be a mindless panicked mob once I release the bees."
Here's Colbert's entrance:
Colbert also brought out actor Sam Waterston to read a poem written by Colbert about all of the bad things that can happen to you: "Did you hear that? No? You're probably going deaf./ It's your kids back home cooking up some crystal meth."
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Sanity Restored: Photos From The Stewart/Colbert Rally]
But things weren't all tranquil -- one skit in the rally featured a sing-off between Yusef Islam (a.k.a. Cat Stevens), who represented "sanity" and sang "Peace Train," and Ozzy Osbourne, who represented "fear" and sang "Crazy Train." Islam's appearance has caused backlash from at least one right-winger, as Brian Beutler reports, since he "was accused in 1989 of sympathizing with Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie."
But Islam's appearance had a purpose: After he and Ozzy left the stage, The O'Jays came on to play "Love Train," which both Stewart and Colbert agreed was an acceptable train.
Stewart and Colbert also handed out several medals -- Stewart's for "reasonableness" and Colbert's for fear, with a picture of a "naked man running with scissors." Colbert's first fear award went to all of the news organizations who banned their employees from attending the rally, like the New York Times, ABC News, and of course, NPR. But since they weren't there to accept the award, he instead gave it to a 7-year old girl, who Colbert said had more guts than the media.
Stewart gave one of his medals to Velma Hart, who he said was reasonable when telling President Obama at a town hall that she is "exhausted of defending" him. Another went to Jacob Isom, a skateboarder who foiled a would-be Koran burner by snatching it from him and saying, "dude, you have no Koran." Colbert countered by snatching his medal and saying, "dude, you have no award."
But from where I was sitting in the press box, things got a little awkward during the last hour when Stewart and Colbert slammed the media for pretty much everything. Two clip reels showed cable news hosts fear-mongering and resorting to hysterical warnings during their shows. Colbert, obviously, agreed with the fear side of things, especially when it comes to Muslims. But Jon told Stephen that generalizing about Muslims is unfair -- and he brought out Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to prove his point that there are non-scary Muslims.
"You may have a point about humans," Colbert said, "but what about robots?"
So Jon brought out R2D2 as an example of a non-scary robot (though he may have spoken too soon: "R2 ran over my foot," Jon said).
But, Jon said, though cable news histrionics are "pretty dispiriting," he has a secret weapon -- his remote control. "I can simply turn the television off or change the channel." Cue Colbert's reel of cable news hosts reporting on the level of E. Coli bacteria and fecal matter in most remote controls. "Your remote control has poop on it," Colbert taunted.
In his closing remarks, Jon became more earnest. He said that he wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for coming, even though it's certain he'll be criticized for it tomorrow: "I can't control what people think this was. I can only tell you my intentions. This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith or people of activism or to look down our noses at the heartland or passionate argument or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear. They are and we do."
"But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies," Stewart continued. "But unfortunately one of our main tools in delineating the two broke. The country's 24-hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems, but it's existence makes solving them that much harder."
'If we amplify everything, we hear nothing," he said, adding: "Not being able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers or real bigots and Juan Williams and Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people but to the racists themselves who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate."
"We hear every damn day about how fragile our country is," Stewart said, and "how it's a shame that we can't work together to get things done. But the truth is we do. We work together to get things done every damn day! The only place we don't is here or on cable TV."
The full text of his closing remarks can be found here.
The show closed with Tony Bennett singing "America, The Beautiful," and then all of the guests coming out to back up Mavis Staples on "I'll Take You There."
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Reader Photos From The Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Fear ]
At a press conference after the rally, Stewart similarly didn't pull any punches with the press. "Our currency is not this town's currency, we're not running for anything," he said.
"The boundaries we set for ourselves are based on the boundaries of human decency," Stewart said later, not "by some preordained category of people who are allowed to speak seriously."
Colbert said he was pleased with the result: "This was a really nice validation of what we were thinking."
51 Comments so far
Show Allmy wife says TurdBusters UNITE!!
Trick or treat!!!!!
We've been tricked.... while this elephantine
pile of EXCREMENT left by GEORGE W is now
being blamed on OBAMA, the media TREAT we get
will be to pave the way for GUTTING public
education, privatizing SOCIAL SECURITY, further
tax cuts for the wealthiest.
Rather than being thanked for plunging W's
massive turd down the universal toilet, the
CORRUPT media predicts RIGHT WING REVIVAL to
further the corporate agenda rubberstamped by
the "fruit of the poison tree" supreme court
Pretty soon the only job left in america
will be at a right wing stinktank producing
corporate propaganda
Well said. It's really quite an old behavior pattern here in the USA. The common people are now being given the same Halloween 'choice' the Native Americans were given by our founding f__kers:
trick or treaties!
And you know how those treaties worked out.
Or, as Stewart put it, it "doesn't matter what we say or hear today."
Pretty much sums it up. So much for 'restoring sanity.' Of course you knew that before you started the ludicrous publicity stunt and exercise in distraction.
Oh look! A butterfly!
Restoring sanity would involve a radical national dialogue on how totally insane these wars are and how the elites in this country are egomaniacal sociopaths who are leading this country into moral and financial ruin. And if that is too loud for Stewart, he can kiss my a$$!
I wish I had a transporter system like on Star Trek and I could beam Stewart and his family into Af-Pak or Gaza or Iraq. Does this man have any idea how many people have died and been maimed? I would like to ask Stewart why he isnt mad as hell that the elites who own this country are destroying lives here and abroad in myriad ways for profit and for ego? Is it not insane to Not be outraged? How have we gotten here as a country that we can be complacent about what has happened in all of the above-mentioned places? That to me is insane.
"Hey Jon! If you watched your kids and wife blown into bloody pieces of meat by an americam missle, do you think you might have a hard time making a joke of the situation? Do you think you might hang your head in shame for claiming that Code Pink - and by implication, Cindy Sheehan, who is also a loud anti-war critic - is equivalent to teabaggers?
"No Jon, what you really want when you plead for the volume to be turned down is to not have to hear the screams of the victimes of American elite violence and exploitation. Well Jon, I am of the opposite persuasion: I want to turn up those screams so damn loud that YOU cannot sleep at night!
Kitaj, Spot on! Every American should be required to see the bloody remains of families blown to pieces after a drone attack. That's what your taxes are paying for.
thank you! well said!
the SCOTUS has been politicized by appointees of a prez who stole two elections and they're hell-bent on turning corps into super-citizens and privatizing everything.
I AM MAD. I WANT TO SCREAM! But no one (well, nearly no one) will listen and it's just getting worse. I want out of here.
"no gods, no masters" --m. sanger
We live in a Democracy, the people you speak of got voted in. The only reason you can post this remark is because our country still lets us post remarks. Things could be much worse, and he didn't plead to have to have volume turned down on real problems, on real fears. If you had attended or even watched it you would know that. He wants the fear media turned down, he wants stories like death sandals and fecal remotes removed in place of real news. Like what you speak of, but you you seem to angry to even realize when someone was trying to help your causes. This rally was in no way political and was not meant to be. It was a rally to push past all the crap that is shoved down our throats everyday on tv and the radio. He is one of the loudest voices against the war, and among the first to speak out against it. He also has spoken out against the support we give Isreal and how many problems it has caused. You know not what you speak of.
You take his remark out of context. The whole remark is meant to say that the only thing that will matter is what is reported on, the perception not the reality. He in no way meant what you have attached to it.
This is what it looks like when TV takes its show on the road. Hannah Montana, Barney, the Wiggles; all have done it to great success.
Where better to begin a political pundit's roadshow than in Washington?
The fact that these guys are self-aware and satirical doesn't make this any less of a drama, a scripted variety show with musical guests. Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon could have done this 30 years ago.
The fact that many of us look to Comedy Central for our real news is actually more scary than funny. Colbert and Stewart are ACTORS. I wouldn't be surprised if Glen Beck has a SAG card as well.
Beck? in a Union? hahahahahaha
The court jester always had a role in telling the emperor he had no clothes didn't he?
I watched the rally and liked it. I thought the musicians were all great. I was impressed at the size of the crowd, although we don't have a realistic number yet -- somewhere between 150 thousand and 300 thousand, so I'll go with 250 thousand. But I agree with Michael Tomasky at the Guardian that the comedy didn't come off as well as it could have:
"What Stewart and Stephen Colbert and their writers put together was a television special, which is unsurprising, because television is what they do. But a television show is a different thing from a rally; pacing is different, timing is different, many things are different. So a lot of it didn't seem to translate.
"Television, their shows in particular, depend heavily on the audience as participant. And that's not hard to do when the audience is 800 people or whatever it is. It's fairly intimate, and the audience gets its cues immediately and responds accordingly. An audience of 150,000 is another matter. Sound from a stage takes time to move through an audience that large, and it throws timing off. I sensed lots of awkward little pauses."
Nevertheless, I did appreciate the huge, massive reminder that not all Americans are as stupid and hysterical as their politicians and their network news celebrities and their groupies -- which is mostly what Canadians get to see of Americans on a daily basis.
I'm with you, I liked it and I think it was a really good idea. This morning watch the political bobble head morning news shows, and when the regressives started their fear mongering they looked even more stupid to me than they did before Stewarts speech yesterday. (And I am so cynical and jaded that I really did not think that was possible!)
You are the exception.
The typical fox audience wouldn't watch Colbert or Stewart so they won't be seeing anything different.
Morticia,
I think you'll like this. It's quite revealing of who Stewart really is:
Click on 'latest video'
http://www.corbettreport.com/
" Colbert's first fear award went to all of the news organizations who banned their employees from attending the rally, like the New York Times, ABC News, and of course, NPR. But since they weren't there to accept the award, he instead gave it to a 7-year old girl, who Colbert said had more guts than the media."
The Main STream Media has forgoten the First amendment,
The amendment prohibits the making of any law "respecting an establishment of religion", impeding the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances.
So, employees of major news organizations were banned from atteneding the rally.
This is a really good joke if not true, and a really really good joke if true.
GOD BLESS AMERICA !!! Glen Becks insane rally for religous fear mongering of end times was advertised by the free press.
WWJD,,, I will tell you what he is not going to do, and that is come back down here so we can kill him for our sins again.
Excellent point. We call it America still, but this aint the same country created by Jefferson Washington Adams Franklin and Madison (to name a few).
I think Carlin said it best when he said "It’s called the American Dream cause you have to be asleep to believe it . . .”
Reminds me of the whole concept of began under Bu**sh** of"Free Speech Zones" at political rallies. A policy that apparently continues in our age of Hope and Change®™ We Can Believe In™®
–SS
The rally is a farce. These morons are not protesting the wars (which Stewart, judging by his guests, supports) or the corporate corruption or anything that matters. They are protesting Glenn Beck...
Listen to the speeches these Pagliaccis make. They are not even funny! Their farce is so pathetic one doesn't even feel like getting drunk after it. Just stare into space and contemplate the future. American discourse has fallen so low it doesn't even instill clinical depression any more. This garbage is too annoying to take lying down.
Which was the point of Glenn Beck. The guy hit on the right tone - hysteria. We need some hysteria. The time for screwing around has passed. The world is collapsing. America is heading the way the USSR went under Gorby. People need to get up and scream. Beck gives them this. The problem is that he is a corporate whore and he is channeling the popular fury in the wrong direction.
So on the other side we have Stewart, who addresses the people who understand the vacuity of Beck's arguments. But instead of pouring gasoline on these people's anger, Stewart pours tepid water - or is it urine?
Between the two of them, Beck and Stewart have quartered the population, bled it, deceived it. The two rallies are the collective letting out of steam, or should I say gas, of the American people. A people too cowardly, too used to following orders, too dumb to organize a rally of its own.
You know how Americans like to make fun of the military prowess of the French, conveniently forgetting that the French dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, before America even had sovereignty? Who's laughing now? The French, even if they fail in their protests, have shown the world what they are made of.
So have the Americans. "Chi! Le! Chi! Le! Chi! Le! Release the bees!"
Did you guys play Fallout 3? There you can walk along the ruined, mutant-infested remains of the Mall. That's where we are going. America is sliding down so fast its pants are burning.
That's where we are going. Read the alternative media and you'll see many of the truly sane have given up and left. Joe Bageant and Fred Reed are down in Mexico, along with Governor Ventura. Max Keiser is in Paris. Gerald Celente is staying, but will bolt if the situation demands it. Ames and Taibbi, as usual a leap in front of the pack, ran away 15 years ago and are now back, watching this insane spectacle in horror. Alex Jones is making a stand, and succeeding, and people make fun of him. Nader, one of the few true heroes America has, continues his fight, but he is so shut out one rarely sees videos of his speeches on youTube.
That's what's happening. To hell with Jon Stewart and his ironic sidekick, unfunny hired clowns the both of them.
So organize your own damn rally.
Everything you said needed to be said times 1000.
and yet, this comedic hack brought tens upon tens of thousands of people together on the national mall for a live t.v. event. His message wasn't to be mad as hell and scream like little children. It was to be mad as hell and...organize. Find something to come together on and...organize. It doesn't mater what that "something" is even as long as people...organize. None of those you mentioned has EVER done what Stewart just did and he didn't even have a real message.
I think that's what his message really was. That SOMEONE out there has a message and the balls to get it out to people and THAT person needs to start screaming louder than the cable news guys and Jon Stewart himself to bring people together and...organize...against this farcical corporatized government.
Bring America Back !!!!
**This reminds me greatly of the 'Seinfield Show'
where the cast proudly proclaimed it was always
a show about "Nothing" !!
***The Rally about Nothing is a better title since
neither Colbert nor Stewart have a firm grasp on
reality or sanity.
***Since the Global state we are in is War,
a restoration would mean Peace==in which case
nobody in that town==DC===has any concept of
what Peace is---and John Lennon is gone.
***Maybe even better would've been the Rally to
Stop The Insanity but theres already a book by
that title about obesity.
I have a firm grip on sanity, but I'm not sure about you.Happy Halloween.
Well said ardent. I couldn't agree more. Shame more on the supposed "left," and the other lesser-evilists, don't see these truths. I say again, well said.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross."
Colbert and Stewart? Why not Madonna and Britney Spears, while we are at it?
We can hold "sanity" rallies every week. It will not make any difference until we revolt against the formal structures of power.
This rally ignores the root of our problem. The tea party and hate mongers on Fox such as Glenn Beck, however repugnant, are the manifestation of the crisis, not its cause. The forces assaulting the remnants of American democracy will not be cowed or discredited with rallies, such as the one in Washington on Saturday. We will blunt these rising anti-democratic forces only when we organize outside conventional systems of power.
It means dismantling the permanent war economy and the corporate state. It means an end to foreclosures and bank repossessions. It means a functional health care system for all Americans. It means taking care of our poor and unemployed. And it means a system of government that is freed from corporate interests.
The March To Nowhere by Chris Hedges (paraphrased)
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/march_to_nowhere_20101005/
it was what it was.
i was entertained and less disheartened.
it was good to see stewart and colbert out draw the beckman...in this day and my age, the teeniest bit of non-horrifying news is....cool with me.
i loved the musical train wars...was good to hear the artist formerly known as 'cat stevens' again...and i liked the humor.
my favorite moment was jon steward reminding us how we work together and cooperate every day, pointing out how traffic proceeds thru a tunnel:
"first you go, then i go."
yes, yes...i am going back to the campfire to sing 'kumbaya'.
Zu, you voiced better than I could what I thought was wrong with this whole perversion. Thank you.
If you feel so kumbaya about this blood-thirsty empire, why don't you sign up for military service? Or is it: 'first you go, then I go' while you sit around the campfire singing kumbaya?
Seems like a thinly disguised Obama rally to me.
Like the Prez, obsessed with civil debate, passionate about nothing.
Like Obama and Rahm, the rally heaps scorn on the activist and anti-war Left.
Reminds me a lot of the kind of cultural events sponsored by the CIA in the fifties and sixties, and documented in Francis Ford Stoner's Cold War America. Irving Kristol, neo-con Bill's father, was an important Company funded promoter of cultural and artistic events that were non-political (and so not Red) in nature. The CIA'a favorite art was Abstract Expressionism. Devoid of political context, it was also well funded by Rockefellers.
Anyway, the ruling elite knows too well that they will not be defeated by an apolitical public. I think Stewart knows this too.
The people have never made any major advances against the capitalist class without an impassioned political movement.
I think Stewart is okay with that.
I take exception with the idea that Abstract Expressionism is devoid of political context. I think some (i.e. DeKooning & Rothko) outsmarted the CIA.
Though the people that comment on Common Dreams are generally more adept at political discourse than on other sites, this thread is pretty distressing.
Stewart and Colbert are both very intelligent men. Their point was not to push any specific cause or to make any specific argument. Their point was to demonstrate the message they were speaking, that yes, even in this hyper-partisan political climate, people are still able to cooperate and contribute. A prudent question to ask is, "What is it(s) for(m)?" This was not an anti-war rally. This was not a pro-Obama rally. It was a reaction against the seemingly widespread case of insanity that this country is suffering. They did not set out to change the world, or to destroy any established power structures, or to create peace, or to eradicate hunger. They set out to tell Glenn Beck and those like him that they do not have a monopoly on patriotism, that they don't have the authority to define the idea of the American citizen, that there are those of us that exist that eschew their brand of fearful and divisive politics. Yes, Stewart and Colbert are entertainers, but they're also concerned citizens, and this alone gives them the authority to speak.
Many of you that commented on this seem to have no sense of nuance. To say that Democrats or centrists are the same as teabaggers is ridiculous. To say that Stewart is pro-war is insane. One doesn't need to be a socialist or a communist to care about other people. One can be a Democrat and still maintain a firm resolve against the heinous forces of international capitalism. Many of you incorrectly identify outrage as passion. You're just as blind as the teabaggers, and I'd imagine just as scared. You missed the point completely.
You've got a point. It's just that we wish for a George Carlin or a Bill Hicks. How many articles has CD posted on this silliness?
You point out that these are very intelligent men and concerned citizens. But they aren't using that intelligence and concern and insightful humor to make much of a political statement other than to settle down. They're talking about politicians, not politics. Not really the point we'd like our comedians to be making. We'd like some bite.
Instead of making up statistics and simply claiming "bull," why don't you prove me wrong? I stated my case and backed it up. In refuting me, the burden of proof is on you.
Fair enough, but neither Jon Stewart nor Steven Colbert are George Carlin or Bill Hicks. If you expect them to analyze the world in a way similar to either of the latter, you're setting yourself up to be disappointed. And thinking about it a little more, I'd say that the rally wasn't intended to make a political statement. It was, I think, intended to make a moral statement. I'd say that there were two main themes, and they were that there is a large opposition to the loony rhetoric that seems to have us by the neck, and that to let fear have dominion over our thoughts will ultimately destroy any opportunity to mine goodness from a world of madness...It must have worked. We're disagreeing (although not drastically, I think) in civil and friendly terms :)
What I didn't like about Stewart and Colbert's message is that they said the problem in politics are appeals to emotion.
They couldn't be more wrong. ( and I say this after being a huge colbert fan for ages, that man has great wit )
Appeals to emotion are a great political tool, the best tool.
And anyone who doesn't feel emotion about all the suffering of the world is insane. So emotion is not the problem.
The problem as I see it is that Beck et al are liars that use nothing except emotional appeal. There are no supporting facts, none at all, and the whole world view they are pushing is a total fiction. All they have is the force of emotion.
I agree we need a Bill Hicks, but even in his lifetime, which suffered far less from the Media Control Machine that now pumps out all that we get a chance to see and hear (at least on any sort of large scale) Bill Hicks if I recall only made it on TV once, on David Letterman. And the second time he was scheduled to appear, it was edited out before airing. David Letterman DID later apologize to Bill's mom on his show for the editing, and finally aired the clip, but not till after Bill had gone on to the next bodhisattva gig.
Stewart has a show that airs new, timely episodes 4x a week, probably 40-45 weeks a year.
I agree that I wish he would go further, I doubt he would be around much longer if he did.
He treads a fine line - Unless he is going to be replaced by someone inevitably worse, he can't go too much further.
He gets crap on here for making fun of Code Pink. However, he is one of the few people who reports on such things AT ALL, and he generally will give a synopsis of their reasons for the protest in an accurate manner. What other "Mainstream" outlet does that?
He would not be allowed to have a show if he came out against Zionism or questioned the official 9-11 conspiracy.
As anyone who goes to a large event should realize, it's not what is coming from the stage so much as people meeting people and networking and literature distribution etc in the audience.
I have yet to hear much about that, and this would have been a prime opportunity for such a thing.
The One Nation rally put on by a political group seems to have drawn fewer people, and aside from Mr Belafonte's speech, didn't put an antiwar voice on stage either.
Having Yusaf Islam (Cat Stevens) do "Peace Train" (Even if Ozzy apparently drove another train into a collision) is probably the most widely broadcast call for peace in the US MSM in the past 5 years at least. And sung by a well known white Muslim. Consider that for just a moment...
I haven't seen too many pictures or videos of the crowd yet. Inviting people to show in costume seemed like a Debordian/Dischordian dream in potential...
Coddle that innocence tightly to your breast darling, and keep on reading the comments here.
Prove wrong a single thing that I said.
I couldn't agree more with you. I attended the rally and there was not one political word spoken, these people are blindly lashing out at anything they can, because just like the right wingers they hate so much everything and everybody is wrong except them.
Beware.
Another distraction device.
Focus on the issues, rationally.
Do not be distracted.
The rally was a distraction. Stewart is a hypocrite, a liar, a prevaricator and an expert propagandist gate keeper.
Watch members of his staff in action. These ARE NOT low brow gophers. One of them is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and has written speeches for President Obama. WTF? How does a member of a comedian's staff rate like this? ZIONIST ELITE.
cLICK ON 'LATEST VIDEO'
http://www.corbettreport.com/
The comments on the "rally" demonstrate vividly, "every rose has its thorns". Stewart and Colbert proved the power of the "Citizen".
Each of us in our own way have a responsibility to tell the truth as we see it, "whenever and wherever we can". I believe Stewart and Colbert met the challenge. The outcome of tomorrow's election and the ensuing 24 months will challenge us in ways we have yet to imagine.
One of the few bright moments in public discourse, I have witnessed in some time. In a jaded, cynical and hysterical world driven by negatives, there is nothing wrong or weak about a little "kumbaya", in fact the reality is just the opposite.
I think most people went to the rally to support stewart and colbert because they are huge fans.
It does go to show that the power of celebrity in the u.s. is more powerful than any real 'cause', because i have been to most rallies for ending the war/occupation in DC and NY during the past eight years - beginning with the initial invasion of Afghanistan. And with the exception of nyc *before* the invasion of Iraq - and perhaps the Republican convention demonstrations in nyc - I haven't seen crowds come close to the numbers i saw on clips of this particular rally.
It was sad for me to see Father Sarducci needing to be so noncontroversial, that he wasn't even funny. I don't think he wrote his own material here. At least it sure didn't sound like it or feel like it.
Compare this celebrity-driven, TV-personality take-over of our 'freedom to assemble' and protest to the massive protests and strikes in France. Behold the US in its sick decline and the circus-like spectacle of phony protest and you will quickly realize that we have NOTHING here to brag about.
Then why don't you move to your French Utopia? You know, the one that's deporting specific ethnic groups because of their ethnicity, the one that legally banned certain forms of religious expression, the one that's mired in nationalism and xenophobia?
Then why don't you move to your French Utopia? You know, the one that's deporting specific ethnic groups because of their ethnicity, the one that legally banned certain forms of religious expression, the one that's mired in nationalism and xenophobia?
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
"Colbert's first fear award went to all of the news organizations who banned their employees from attending the rally, like the New York Times, ABC News, and of course, NPR. But since they weren't there to accept the award, he instead gave it to a 7-year old girl, who Colbert said had more guts than the media."
Then, AFTER the rally: "The boundaries we set for ourselves are based on the boundaries of human decency," Stewart said later, not "by some preordained category of people who are allowed to speak seriously."
Disgustingly little and far too late for this country. Both these bozos have been living the high life in the upper-middle-class for years and from their perch they just don't get that empires don't last forever and that this country may very well fall apart. It's happened before. It was called the Civil War. This time the fault lines are more geographically distributed, which means the country may Balkanize rather than have a more restorable North/South split.
Stewart and Colbert, at best, two clowns, and at worst, two Obama apologists.
Much ado about very little and another distraction from the very dire predicament this nation finds itself in.
Yeah, they should really get the ball rolling and post things on internet message boards.