Maher to Stewart & Colbert: restore sanity by siding with the sane and resonable

Posted on November 7, 2010 by UTMB

“With all due respect to my friends, Jon and Stephen, it seems to me that if you truly wanted to come down on the side of restoring sanity and reason, you’d side with the sane and the reasonable, and not try to pretend that the insanity is equally distributed in both parties. Keith Olbermann is right when he says he’s not the equivalent of Glenn Beck: one reports facts, the other one is very close to playing with his poop.

And the big mistake of modern media has been this notion of balance for balance’s sake: that the left is just as violent and cruel as the right; that unions are just as powerful as corporations; that reverse racism is just as damaging as racism. There’s a difference between a mad man, and a madman.”

– Bill Maher

kateoplis | Brooklyn Mutt

UPDATE (Video):

Election Day coffee in the bunker

Posted on November 2, 2010 by UTMB

Michael Moore’s Twitter

“And if you point out that their arguments don’t add up, they fly into a rage. Try to explain that when debtors spend less, the economy will be depressed unless somebody else spends more, and they call you a socialist. Try to explain why mortgage relief is better for America than foreclosing on homes that must be sold at a huge loss, and they start ranting like Mr. Santelli.” – [Paul Krugman via Bob Cesca]

Jon Stewart’s [and Stephen Colbert's] “Rally for Sanity” has smashed the record for number of trips taken on DC’s subway system on a Saturday. [RawStory via NBCNews]

On Yucca Mountain: “I’m all in favor of rewarding Nevadans for their Sharron Angle votes. If we have to tolerate her toxic waste on the national scene, you get our radioactive waste in your back yard. Seems like a fair trade.” [John Cole]

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who heads up the National Republican Senatorial Committee, conceded this morning that the GOP will not win a majority in the Senate. [TPM]

RNC Chairman Michael Steele told Candy Crowly the GOP is “not going to compromise on raising the debt ceiling” — something that will almost certainly lead to a government shutdown and economic catastrophe. [ThinkProgress]

Election Day message from Balloon Juice: If you’re really still thinking about not voting today, watch this video, check out what the fuck Obama has done so far, and vote. If you don’t know where to vote, find your fucking polling place.

Yesterday:

Reasons to vote (and to vote for Democrats)

“If you don’t vote because you’re trying to teach politicians a lesson, you’re tragically misguided”

Video: Hilarious – Ellen DeGeneres Show writer Amy Rhodes goes on assignment to Universal Studios haunted house.

IMAGE: Size Of The Stewart/Colbert Rally Vs. Glenn Beck Rally

Is Obama anti-business?

(…or if you DON’T vote)

UPDATED: How many attended Rally4Sanity?

Posted on October 30, 2010 by UTMB

TPM:

“MTV’s spokesperson told the Washington City Paper’s Mike Madden that 250,000 people came out to see Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert take the stage Saturday, while Viacom (the parent company of MTV and Comedy Central, home to Stewart’s and Colbert’s show) told the New York Times’ Brian Stelter that “well over 200,000” were in attendance.”

CTV:

“In an impassioned 15-minute speech, Stewart told a crowd estimated to number at least 250,000, that their presence has restored his sanity.”

LGF:

Based on aerial photos taken by AirPhotosLive.com, the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear attracted approximately 215,000 people, more than twice as many as Glenn Beck’s 9/12 religious right rally.

An estimated 215,000 people attended a rally organized by Comedy Central talk show hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Saturday in Washington, according to a crowd estimate commissioned by CBS News.

The company AirPhotosLive.com based the attendance at the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” on aerial pictures it took over the rally, which took place on the Mall in Washington. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 10 percent.

CBS News also commissioned AirPhotosLive.com to do a crowd estimate of Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally in August. That rally was estimated to have attracted 87,000 people. Amid criticism from conservatives that the estimate was low, CBS News detailed the methodology behind it here.

The crowd at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” on the Mall in Washington. (Credit: AirPhotosLive.Com)

Video: Jon Stewart’s excellent closing remarks today

Posted on October 30, 2010 by UTMB

Jon Stewart’s excellent closing remarks at the Rally for Sanity today:

“If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.”

“What exactly was this?” Mr. Stewart asks.

Posted on October 30, 2010 by UTMB

via Soup:

“What exactly was this?” Mr. Stewart asks. “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.”

“Not being able to be able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers, or real bigots and Juan Williams or 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.”

“The press is our immune system,” Mr. Stewart says. “If it overreacts to everything, we actually get sicker. And perhaps eczema. And yet, with that being said, I feel good. Strangely, calmly good.”

In the news media, Mr. Stewart says, we hear of the fragility of our country, how we’re on the brink of catastrophe, how it’s a shame we can’t work together. “The truth is,” he says, “we do.”

Mr. Stewart invokes the metaphor of a traffic merger at the Lincoln Tunnel, “You go, then I’ll go.” “Sure, at some point there will be a selfish jerk who zips up the shoulder and cuts in at the last minute. But that individual is rare and he is scorned, and he is not hired as an analyst.”