Saturday, October 30, 2010

Restoring Sanity, but Where?

According to the WaPo's coverage of Stewart's 'Restoring Sanity' rally:
The "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" is billed as a correction to what Stewart, Colbert and their fans consider the extremism and dishonesty that have infected the American political system, especially the self-righteousness and fear-mongering they see in the right-leaning Beck and his employer, Fox News. The rally is scheduled to include musical interludes by such reliable openers as the Roots and professional rally balladeer Sheryl Crow. The event also will be emphatically covered by ratings and Web-traffic hungry mainstream media -- including The Washington Post -- that Stewart and Colbert vigorously mock.
So there's your only-mentioned target of insanity. The big question is will they pick on Olbermann (Olberdouche), Maddow (Madcow), Matthews (Tingles), and Schultz (Sgt Schultz). Surely they are also visions of insanity in America circa 2010. Oh, and this.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH A LITTLE INSANITY? 10/30/10

This week's musical selection, dedicated to Jon Stewart and insanity in general..at least in music.



How many other rock bands could yodel?

MORE 10/30/10

Seems HuffPo bused in 10,000 non-partisans, according to HuffPo. Personal anecdote--heard a CBS radio news report around 3 pm local time that mentioned the crowd being mainly liberal, and of course they used a soundbite of someone saying the right has become too radical. As predicted this was nothing more than a moderate democratic rally timed to GOTV on Tuesday.

I kept waiting for them to lampoon the fear of Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney, Halliburton, or Social Security reform, or Global Warming, but didn't see it. The bigger question is whether this very large crowd will make Tuesday's results a lot closer. Gut instinct says the races will be closer than the media narrative.

MORE, FOR SOME REASON 10/30/10

Funny how it's OK for these folks to express fear:
GORDON PETERSON: Nina, columnist Paul Krugman says if the election goes as expected, his advice is be afraid, be very afraid. Should we take his advice?

NINA TOTENBERG, NPR: I am already afraid, very afraid. I mean, it’s not like governance has been going great. I think we’ll, I don't know whether I should be afraid, but there will be gridlock.
But that's not the kind of fear Stewart and Colbert were lampooning--that's the fear they were actually projecting by holding the rally. They really are afraid to lose one-party Democratic rule.

The same stuff was said in 1995 when Gingrich and crew rolled in to the House but the result was a stiff-arm of Clinton, more fiscally responsible government, and a decent economy up until 2000. Some of these folks need to stop fearmongering over the fearmongering.

2 comments:

LA Sunset said...

She's afraid of what? That there will be no more ramming through gargantuan pieces of highly unpopular legislation that no one voting on them has even bothered to read?

That's pretty damned scary, if you are asking me.

A.C. McCloud said...

Exactly. Just today it was reported that the health reform will mandate birth control supplies. They are scared. Notice Obama's eyes--they are getting wilder and wilder with every speech, yet it's Sarah Palin who we must fear.

Reason TV's report on the event was classic. It's always funny to see a person dressed as a bunny saying they are there to 'restore sanity'.

I agree with the need to tone down the rhetoric to some degree, but that wasn't the point of the rally. It was to call Fox and Beck insane, in a 'nice way'.