‘Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear’ draws tens of thousands to National Mall

By Associated Press
Saturday, October 30, 2010 15:41 EST
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UPDATE: With the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear over, attention inevitably turns to the media cat-fight over attendance numbers.

Let’s give first rights to the rally’s organizers. “Thirty or 40 million,” a Comedy Central executive joked. “Six billion,” tweeted Stephen Colbert.

Joking aside, the rally’s organizers seemed to offer the most conservative estimate of the crowd, pegging it at 150,000 people.

But Brian Stelter of the New York Times’ Media Decoder blog tweeted that the National Park Service is unofficially estimating the crowd size at “well over 200,000.” (The Park Service no longer gives official crowd estimates.)

And Canada’s CTV NewsNet reports the crowd at 250,000, but doesn’t cite a source for the number.

AmericaBlog’s John Aravosis doesn’t have a numerical estimate, but his enthusiastic anecdotal description is worth noting:

In my 25 years in DC, I’ve been to a lot of the biggest rallies, save the Million Man March and the Pro-Life rallies. I have never, ever, seen anything this big. It was wall to wall people. You couldn’t even walk across. It took us half an hour to go across maybe 100 feet. I have never seen anything like this. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were half a million people there or more. I’ve seen rallies of a quarter million – they were puny compared to this.

ORIGINAL STORY FOLLOWS BELOW

In the shadow of the Capitol and the election, comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert entertained a huge throng Saturday at a “sanity” rally poking fun at the nation’s ill-tempered politics, its fear-mongers and doomsayers.

“We live now in hard times,” Stewart said after all the shtick. “Not end times.”

View user-submitted photos from the rally, courtesy of Comedy Central.

Part comedy show, part pep talk, the rally drew together tens of thousands stretched across an expanse of the National Mall, a festive congregation of the goofy and the politically disenchanted. People carried signs merrily protesting the existence of protest signs. Some dressed like bananas, wizards, Martians and Uncle Sam.

Stewart, a satirist who makes his living skewering the famous, came to play nice. He decried the “extensive effort it takes to hate” and declared “we can have animus and not be enemies.”

Screens showed a variety of pundits and politicians from the left and right, engaged in divisive rhetoric. Prominently shown: Glenn Beck, whose conservative Restoring Honor rally in Washington in August was part of the motivation for the Stewart and Colbert event, called the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. It appeared to rival Beck’s rally in attendance.

This video was broadcast by Comedy Central on Oct. 30, 2010.

As part of the comedic routine, Stewart and his associates asked some in the audience to identify themselves by category, eliciting answers such as “half-Mexican, half-white,” “American woman single” and “Asian-American from Taiwan.”

RELATED: Impossible to say how many attended rally, but 229,000 ‘RSVP’ on Facebook

“It’s a perfect demographic sampling of the American people,” Stewart cracked to a crowd filled with mostly younger whites. “As you know, if you have too many white people at a rally, your cause is racist. If you have too many people of color, then you must be asking for something — special rights, like eating at restaurants or piggy back rides.”

With critical congressional elections looming Tuesday, Stewart and Colbert refrained from taking political sides on stage, even as many in the crowd wore T-shirts that read “Stewart-Colbert 2012.”

Stewart sang along as Jeff Tweedy sang that America “is the greatest, strongest country in the world. There is no one more American than we.”

Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow also performed, singing if “I can’t change the world to make it better, the least I can do is care.”

The idea was to provide a counterweight to all the shouting and flying insults of these polarized times. But there were political undertones, too, pushing back against conservatives ahead of Tuesday’s election.

Slogans urged people to “relax.” But also: “Righties, don’t stomp on my head,” a reference to a Republican rally in Kentucky at which a liberal activist was pulled to the ground and stepped on. And, “I wouldn’t care if the president was Muslim.”

Shannon Escobar, 31, of Bangor, Pa., came with a group of 400 people on buses chartered in New York. A supporter of President Barack Obama in 2008, she said she’s tired of nasty rhetoric from both sides and disenchanted with lack of progress in Washington.

“I want to see real change — not Obama change,” she said. “We need a clean slate and start over with people really working together.”

A regular viewer of Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” she said she had a dream that he ran for political office, but got “corrupt and dirty.”

“I need him to stay pure,” she said, deadpan.

Stewart is popular with Democrats and independents, a Pew Research Center poll found. Colbert of “The Colbert Report” poses as an ultraconservative, and the stage was stacked with entertainers associated with Democratic causes or Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Even so, Stewart said the day was about toning down anger and partisan division. “Shouting is annoying, counterproductive and terrible for your throat,” he said on his website.

Comedy Central’s park permit anticipated a crowd estimated in advance at 60,000.

Mochila insert follows

Associated Press
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  • http://topsy.com/www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/rally-restore-sanity-andor-fear-draws-antens-thousands-national-mall/?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Tweets that mention ‘Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear’ draws tens of thousands to National Mall | Raw Story — Topsy.com

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by greychampion, 93.7 WBLK: T-Boogie, LoveU, Kate, owen and others. owen said: ‘Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear’ draws tens of thousands to National Mall: In the shadow of the Capitol and t… http://bit.ly/aOfedR [...]

  • Anonymous

    Sounds like this, not Beck’s, rally is the ‘new Woodstock.’

  • http://twitter.com/ariuszme BJ

    ABC News has hired Andrew Breibart for election night coverage! jesus christ!

    meanwhile – help us stop Sharron Angle – she’s INSANE!

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/10/30/nevada.senate.race/index.html?hpt=C2

  • http://www.911Blogger.com/ Orangutan.

    I wish some TRUTH would have infiltrated this call for us all to just get along and be nice to each other. Maybe Justice too would be nice for the crimes that have been committed. Stewart is weak.

  • http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/WFP020403.html WTFsquared

    Jon Stewart’s Executive Producer Arrested for Assaulting 9/11 Activist

    http://redactednews.blogspot.com/2010/10/jon-stewarts-executive-producer.html

  • Anonymous

    It’s Woodstock with deodorant and condoms.

    The message is one of antipolitical passivity in the face of a totalitarian coup d’etat. It’s a message of middle-class smugness, not rocking the boat, not making a fuss, and above all, “I’ve got mine, Jack; if you’re angry, you must be nuts.”

    We paid dearly for Woodstock, and we will pay even more dearly for this.

    The bill arrives on Tuesday.

  • Anonymous

    It is disappointing that many here are falling in line with the infotainment orientation of politics and the ‘news.’ I like Jon Stewart and revile Glenn Beck, but because they both claim to be apolitical there is always going to be something suspect in the numbers they can ‘rally.’ Like Tea Partiers some of these Stewart attendees are saying they are against ‘partisan bickering’ and thus disappointed in Democrats and Obama. Funny, I don’t recall Democrats yelling horrible epithets and hysterically greeting every policy proposal… Still the big sign from this rally being featured on one progressive website is a complaint that DC is “District of Plutocracy.” Because they are so shocked–I tell you, SHOCKED–that politics runs up against business and corporate interests and they had thought the Democrats would be so pure….

    Naive, and sad. Pathetic really. Because the infotainment approach to politics will change absolutely nothing. Only electing people who are brave enough to confront the likes of the interests of BP, Koch Brothers, etc. will we get anywhere. Fine for everyone to yell at Obama for his demanding $20 billion from BP. Do they support him? No, they’re funding the Tea Party. But, nevertheless the infotained public is very sure he is in BP’s pocket…

  • Anonymous

    Dear Teabag community;

    Please consider this.
    You are clearly outnumbered.
    That is all.

  • Anonymous

    No, Breitbart’s not Jesus. He only plays Him on the Internet.

    But hey–just be civil and these people will go away!

  • Winski

    Great message to all the hate-spewing, right-wing hoards… YOU’RE DONE.

  • http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/WFP020403.html WTFsquared

    Obama biggest recipient of BP cash

    http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64420A20100505

    “During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records.”

  • http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/WFP020403.html WTFsquared

    “hate-spewing, right-wing hoards”

    Those pushing the right/left paradigm are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

  • Anonymous

    Fok Snooze says “dozens” in attendance. These photos *must* be ‘Shopped…

  • Anonymous

    Stewart and Colbert are millionaire employees of the corporate behemoth Viacom. Certainly,you didn’t think they were going to lead you to the promise land. Furthermore, I can’t stand his comparison of the left to the right. Peace protesters are not like Teabaggers, Jon. Go home to your mansion and be quiet.

  • Anonymous

    and yet — he did make them pay, didn’t he? Did Bush ever ask a corporate polluter to put up for their delicts? And why are they paying so much to the so-called “Tea Party”?

    How much did the Koch Brothers contribute to Obama? How much did Halliburton contribute to Obama? Why are they so opposed to him?

    What’s is more intriguing to me is why Wall Street hates Obama so much since he saved their *sses. Bush left office with the Dow in the 7000s. Now it’s in the 11000s. Does this put him in Wall Street’s pocket as Huffington and others assume? Or does it help remedy the lost pension values of those 401ks who went almost to nothing and are now coming back?

  • Anonymous

    Fox actually has the arrogance to say there were maybe 60,000!

  • Anonymous

    I agree … the real losers are the Americans caught in the middle, and the real retards are those on the far left and far right who don’t realize it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Gregory-Martin/100000564476826 Gregory Martin

    “I want to see real change, not Obama change…”

    Well, you’re about to get it, half-wit. When the teabaggers start clogging Congress with their bullshit and real work is stymied in lieu of Kenyan birth certificate bedlam, you’ll get more change than you’d hoped for.

  • http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/WFP020403.html WTFsquared

    Pay? Pay whom? The people in the Gulf are suffering from many things, lack of income being one of them, due to the depradations of BP. Oddly, Obama is silent and absent on the issue. Even George Fucking Bush sent shitty trailers after Katrina.

    Wherever the money’s going, a structured payout most likely, it’s not to BP’s victims in the Gulf.

  • http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/WFP020403.html WTFsquared

    Kenyan birth certificate bs aside, Obama’s not eligible and he knows it.

    His father was a Kenyan citizen and a British subject. Obama’s not a natural born citizen. I’m not either due to one parent’s foreign citizenship at the time of my birth. I’ve known that I’m not eligible to be prez for my entire 50+ years on this earth.

    Maybe Obama just forgot.

  • http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/WFP020403.html WTFsquared

    I’m not a loser or a retard. I hope you’re not either.

  • http://www.bradblog.com/?p=8160 The BRAD BLOG : VIDEO: Stewart’s Closing Thoughts on Restoring Sanity…

    [...] RAW STORY's article on the rally here and Greg Mitchell's blow-by-blow live-blog coverage here for many more details. digg_url = [...]

  • Anonymous

    Birther alert!!
    Get a grip, Obama was born in Hawaii. End of story.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_WNCC3MJMASMIG3LZQYI7DM5DEA Shari

    Have any facts to back up your statement re the money not going to BP victims in the gulf or are you utilizing the Faux News practice of throwing $hit against the wall in the hope that it sticks in the minds low information voters?

  • Anonymous

    Birthers are losers.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t think you are either, however, you have to seriously question why our congressman fight each other left vs right, why companies give to both candidates sometimes … the deal is they LIKE the division, they like the country split down the middle …

  • http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/WFP020403.html WTFsquared

    Of course he was born in Hawaii, to an American citizen and a British subject. By definition, that’s not a natural born citizen. I’m not either and I’ve known it my whole life.

  • Anonymous

    Wrong! He’s a natural born citizen.
    Get a frign grip.

  • Anonymous

    I have moved “Already Been Chewed” down on my list of asshole places to watch.

    Remember, the nation is full of low-intelligent sheep that couldn’t figure out how to watch the new digital tv signals on their old tv sets, so the time-table had to be moved. And, if we go back in time, these same nincompoops were burning their fingers on matches and the government that they hate, had to invent “safety” matches for them. And it took about seven years to get book matches to finally get on the same page to put the “striker” material on the bottom of the books, so they also wouldn’t burn their fat-ass fingers. After tuesday, with the SS, schools, regulations, etc. going away, these dumbasses will be removed from the gene pool. Whoopie!

  • http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/WFP020403.html WTFsquared

    “Have any facts to back up your statement re the money not going to BP victims”

    Asking to prove a negative is a losing proposition. Can you prove to me that victims are getting fair and equitable payouts? I can’t find any info on the subject on the White House’s website. If you could, I’d be obliged.

  • http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/WFP020403.html WTFsquared

    There’s never been a natural born citizen born of parents with two different citizenship statuses.

    I know you may “feel” differently, but your feelings are immaterial in the face of law, fact and history.

  • http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/WFP020403.html WTFsquared

    An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations

    Adam Smith, 1776

    “The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order (bankers/stockers), ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it. “

  • Anonymous

    Nope. you’re just as clueless as every birther lunatic.

  • Anonymous

    **I would like to suggest that you change your name to TFS^3
    (TooFuckingStupid cubed).

  • yvonneo

    What about all of the hundreds of millions of dollars being poured into the republican campaign coffers by multinational corporate powers during this election cycle? Why is that not as much of a concern to you as obama receiving $77,051 from BP?

    Why do you birthers/teabaggers not express as much concern about the damage the republicans have done to our nation over the last decade as you do about what the obama administration hasn’t done over the last 20 mos or so?

    And why should anyone listen to you birther/teabaggers complain about corporate funding, when your entire ‘movement’ is predominately funded by corporate billionaires?

  • http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/WFP020403.html WTFsquared

    The phrase “natural born citizen” in the Constitution was taken from Emerich de Vattel’s “The Law of Nations”, 1758.

    You can call me all the names you want, but it still won’t make me deviate from common sense and basic law.

    http://is.gd/gv57a

    “The citizens are the members of the civil society; bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens. As the society cannot exist and perpetuate itself otherwise than by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights. The society is supposed to desire this, in consequence of what it owes to its own preservation; and it is presumed, as matter of course, that each citizen, on entering into society, reserves to his children the right of becoming members of it. The country of the fathers is therefore that of the children; and these become true citizens merely by their tacit consent. We shall soon see whether, on their coming to the years of discretion, they may renounce their right, and what they owe to the society in which they were born. I say, that, in order to be of the country, it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and not his country.”

  • Anonymous

    United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898)

    You are saying a child born on US of two foreign nationals can be a natural born citizen (per the SCotUS case above), but a child born of one foreign national and one US citizen can’t? The Constitution doesn’t define “natural born citizen” at all, and the issue has been long settled in case law. What “law, fact, and history” are you referring to, specifically?

  • http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/WFP020403.html WTFsquared

    NOTE: This comment was “moderated” elsewhere by rawstory. Let’s see if it makes it through here.

    The phrase “natural born citizen” in the Constitution was taken from Emerich de Vattel’s “The Law of Nations”, 1758.

    You can call me all the names you want, but it still won’t make me deviate from common sense and basic law.

    http://is.gd/gv57a

    “The citizens are the members of the civil society; bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens. As the society cannot exist and perpetuate itself otherwise than by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights. The society is supposed to desire this, in consequence of what it owes to its own preservation; and it is presumed, as matter of course, that each citizen, on entering into society, reserves to his children the right of becoming members of it. The country of the fathers is therefore that of the children; and these become true citizens merely by their tacit consent. We shall soon see whether, on their coming to the years of discretion, they may renounce their right, and what they owe to the society in which they were born. I say, that, in order to be of the country, it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and not his country.”

  • http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/WFP020403.html WTFsquared

    As rawstory is now “moderating” my comments, I wonder if it’s even worth a reply.

  • Anonymous

    He’s mistaken. Natural Born Citizen just means YOU WERE BORN IN THE UNITED STATES. You are thinking of something completely different. Your parents could be from MARS and if you were born in the US, you would STILL BE A NATURAL CITIZEN.

    Amerikans need to hit the effing books, ya’ll don’t even know your own Constitution. To all the smart, intellectual, awake Americans, I was not talking about you.

  • Anonymous

    You’re worried about BP? AND NO, HE DID NOT MAKE THEM PAY!!!!!!!!!

    You should be looking into the Banksters, Goldman Sachs. That’s where the real seriousness lies. Pun intended.

  • Anonymous

    You guys are so fucking lazy. You just bicker and whine about what you know and what you don’t know, without any facts or logic. Take 5 minutes and better yourselves.

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/08/eveningnews/main6562037.shtml

    http://www.politicolnews.com/bp-will-not-pay-claims/

    http://gozounlimited.newsvine.com/_news/2010/07/12/4663414-bp-not-paying-claims-and-congress-not-paying-unemployment-15-jobs-for-265297-people

    They are taking their sweet time to kick out claims. Also, if you take the payment, you can not sue BP. The deadline for sending in claims is Nov. 23rd.

  • Anonymous

    I believe payouts have been made under Feinberg and even before. I don’t get this weird logic that ANYTHING any government does is just simply corrupt. Bush trained us to expect that, didn’t he?

    Besides, where’s the Jesse Unruh spirit? “If you can’t take their money, drink their liquor, and date with their women, and then go out on the floor the next day and vote AGAINST them, you have no business in politics.”

  • yvonneo

    So you’re suggesting that the $20 billion fund that obama forced BP to establish in order to make sure that no matter what the Gulf victims would receive compensation is not in fact going to the Gulf victims? Please provide your source.

  • Anonymous

    Stewart’s speech was top-notch.

  • http://www.windstonemusic.com hourglass1

    thanks for clearing that up – i’m only on my first coffee and ‘need to hit the effing books’ had me all ver clempt!

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/5ADH43ZCS3NITAIJKNHHOXH5SY C H

    You really are an idiot. Do you have any idea how many hundreds of people have seen his birth certificate on file and microfilm in Hawaii? And how many millions saw it online when that state posted it for over and year and a half? Do you know how many letters the Gov and AG of that state answered regarding that issue? Finally a few months ago, they said we will not do it anymore. If anyone wants to see it in person, they can come to Hawaii and look.

    Do you really imagine that the press that have gone and seen it in the old newspaper files have not reported seeing the yellowing news announcement? I can find my old birth announcement in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, and have found it. And that birth announcement is older then I like.

    You may not like the President. You may wish he were not President. But at the very least some modicum of reality and common sense, should by now have leaked into your consciousness. Or maybe not. I usually do not go online or in person and refer to someone as an idiot. But in your case it is self evident.

  • Apt604

    Hey . . . check out that 14th Amendment thing . . . I know it was a real kick in the head for conservatives, but it’s the law of the land.

    How is it that some people can insist Obama isn’t a citizen, yet simultaneously be up in arms about “anchor babies”? Either birthright citizenship exists, or it doesn’t.

  • Anonymous

    Watch out if Stewart goes into politics, the man is a natural born orator!

  • http://www.windstonemusic.com hourglass1

    if only that were true … being nice only makes them bolder

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Gregory-Martin/100000564476826 Gregory Martin

    You’re deeply wrong about citizenship, as you’ve been informed. BTW, cool gay-Deadhead profile pic!

  • Anonymous

    Blood of a Jackal!

  • Anonymous

    John Stewart for President !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • http://www.rawstory.com RawStory

    Like i said, Raw story comments have been moderated since May of this year, and we are not moderating ‘your’ comments, or anyone else in particular. The Disqus, automatic filter sent your comments to moderation because it thought they were spam, like i explained in my previous post to you. Rest assured you are not being singled out in any way.

  • beckybelle

    Today was AMAZING!!!! I love Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart! Sheryl Crow, Yusef Islam, The Roots, John Legend, Kid Rock, T.I., Father Guido Sarducci, The O’Jays, the whole thing was so inspiring!! America is still the best country in the world, and we havn’t all drank the tea. Hope springs eternal. Yes we can!! God Bless America!! Don’t forget to VOTE, let your voice be heard!! Just say no to tea!!! :)

  • Anonymous

    One problem birther boy, you’re dead wrong and have no clue what a natural born citizen is.
    How many times are you gonna head bang around with the same tripe?

  • Anonymous

    Go ahead and reply, I could use a few more laughs!

  • Anonymous

    Why do I get the feeling reading this piece from the AP, that is just killing the writer to say anything nice about the rally at all. The clarifiers, the almost compliments, the simply tens of thousands, etc. It was a great, peaceful, funny, serious, entertaining, thoughtful, inventive, friendly rally that exceeded a couple hundred thousand of Americans that love their country and are sick of the nasty posturing for personal gain. Geez, give them their due. The AP had no trouble when Beck held his angry man fest.

  • http://www.worldspinner.us/rally-to-restore-sanity-attendance World Spinner

    'Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear' draws tens of thousands to ……

    Here at World Spinner we are debating the same thing……

  • Anonymous

    whatever the “estimate” on the permit, the actual crowds were far in excess of it. People were climbing trees, filling up the stairways of nearby buildings, the portapotties were no where near enough for everyone, and the crowds stretched on for far beyond the range of where the speakers/screens that had been set up. 60,000 is by far the smallest estimate I have seen on any article about this event, and I think it is wildly off from the actual number that was there.

  • Ma’at

    A comedian get’s more than beck’s 88,000. Utterly hysterical.

  • http://twitter.com/DrivelLady Laurie B.

    Here’s a link to our slideshow. Great crowd of funny, grown-up, well-behaved people!
    http://unsoliciteddrivel.blogspot.com/2010/10/our-stewartcolbert-slide-show-is-up.html

  • Stephen Martin

    OH….COME ON! That was all photo shopped. There is no way this was bigger than Glen Beck’s thingy thing. I guess we’re supposed to be stupid not to figure that out for ourselves.

    Nov. 2nd is just around the corner. That will be the true test. Hopefully this will get more people off their asses to let them have it.

  • Stephen Martin

    ….and I’m talking slap up side the head style.

  • Anonymous

    Ma’at you know how I can tell you are a Ultra liberal? You use fuzzy math.

  • jimbo92107

    “And now, I would like to crowd-surf from here all way to the end of the Reflecting Pool, and then see if I still have my wallet.”

    Lines I wish he’d said…

  • Anonymous

    Let’s just make jokes about the two illegal wars we’re in. Don’t like it? Two words. Predator Drone. Let’s laugh about Wall St. the FED and Central Banks raping the American people. America just dropped to 49th in the world in life expectancy. LOL The MOST expensive in the world for health insurance. Hilarious! .Just keep playing the liberal versus conservative, left versus right, GOP vs. DEMs game. Nothing to see here people you can all go back home now and return to watching The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Dancing With The Stars and ESPN. Everything’s fine now! You may now return to your Slacktivism lifestyle.

    http://www.PatriotsQuestion911.com

  • http://www.americamw.com/rally-to-restore-sanity-andor-fear-draws-tens-of-thousands-to.html ‘Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear’ draws tens of thousands to … « America Most Wanted

    [...] 30 Oct 2010 … It appeared to rival Beck’s rally in attendance. … 1 Tweets that mention ‘Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear’ draws tens of thousands to … read the full article here [...]

  • Anonymous

    WTF’s purpose here is to obfuscate. An article about this rally will attract people who are frustrated with the way things are in our country. As they read comments, a troll like WTF tries to confuse the issues by sowing doubt. He’s hoping to get some probable Democrat voters to stay home. Rational argument with him is irrelevant, because he doesn’t care about truth, just manipulation.

  • http://twitter.com/shivabeach Shiva

    The same company that estimated Beck show at 87,000 estimates this one at 215,000. They are the ones using aerial photography. Blows Beck out of the water. The poor fellow thought this would be a Beck Beatdown and his name wasnt even mentioned

    Not sure but did Beck get spinoffs in over 70 countrys? Sanity wins out of guns bibles and sarah

  • http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

    Good words…and maybe thats all they were…maybe they didn’t change much of anything…but they were still damned good words, and saying something that is neither false nor inflammatory, but instead hopeful and decent…in this day and age is practically worthy of a medal.

  • http://www.wwnewsflash.com/rally-to-restore-sanity#5389520 World Wide News Flash

    'Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear' draws tens of thousands to ……

    I found your entry interesting do I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog :)…

  • Elim

    You’re the idiot. That BC is phony. The real one is being kept under lock and key, and it’s a long form, unlike the one we’ve been shown, which is a certificate of live birth. Those are applied for by the parent(s) and generally sometime after the birth. It is not sent by the hospital with the little footprints on it. It isn’t even necessary to get a COLB, unless the original long form was lost or destroyed. We know where Obama’s long form BC is, but he won’t show it, because it would show that he is not a US citizen.

    http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/07/atlas-exclusive.html

  • Elim

    He may or may not have been born in Hawaii, but even if he was, his father was a British citizen, and his mother had not been back in the States for the required amount of time to confer citizenship upon him through her. Obama is not a citizen.

  • Anonymous

    ———– http://aeoos.com ———

  • Elim

    That’s how it is now, eric. In 1961, that was not the law.

  • Anonymous

    “That BC is phony”… any evidence?
    “The real one is being kept under lock and key”… any evidence?
    “We know where Obama’s long form BC”… any evidence?

    And even if you could prove there was a long form BC, you still won’t prove that the short-form is contradicted by it nor disprove the newspaper announcement of his birth.

    How about some facts and sanity my misguided friend:

    - Obama is the only sitting President in US history to have made his birth certificate public.
    - The short-form of the BC is accepted as legitimate, legal proof of citizenship, regardless of YOUR manic desire to believe otherwise.

    With regards to your link, much of his analysis can be greatly effected by mere variations in scanning/digitising methodology, image compression used, etc. can create all sorts of artifacting on the images and variance between them. You could take a BC, scan it with 2 separate scanners, use different compression algorithms, a bit of rescaling… and you would then have “evidence” that one copy must be fraudulent. But I do not see how this proves there is a long-form version that nobody has seen (it’s a similar logic to the existence of god… though we can’t see it… you insist it must be there!)

    Anyway, I’ve been good enough to check out your link and evidence, although it’s food for thought… it doesn’t prove the existence of another document or discredit the newspaper report, etc.

    Now please return the favor:

    http://ezinearticles.com/?President-Barack-Obamas-Long-Form-Birth-Certificate&id=2708781

    Thank you. :)

  • Anonymous

    It wouldn’t kill you to have a sense of humor.

    The Tea Party can draw a crowd, but sane people can draw a bigger one. That point had to be made.

  • Anonymous

    Oh and Patriots do question 9/11; WHY it happened…. not WHO did it.

  • Anonymous

    When you decide to wake up maybe you can explain this then.

    9/11: Chemical Engineer Mark Basile Found Nanothermite in WTC Dust

    Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frIpyTBAV_Y

  • Anonymous

    Go look at this January 20, 2009 story and photos (satellite) and carefully read the story and review the photos.

    http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10146632-76.html

    U.S. President Barack Obama was sworn in on Tuesday in Washington. But the number of people who braved the frigid D.C. weather to watch the historic event could have been anywhere between 800,000 and 3 million, depending on who you talk to.

    Then look at any of the crowd photos or video. Look at the wave. Which was a brilliant demonstration of the integrity (lack of large gaps) of the crowd.

    800,000 to 3,000,000 for Obama’s swearing in.

    You tell me how many were there yesterday. My guess would start with a low of 800,000 and move upward from there based on the density of the crowds yesterday and Jan 20, 2009

  • Anonymous

    Teabaggers and Glenn Becker’s are concerned about their ‘SIZE’. Progressives/ ‘sanity’ people are concerened about the message. It’s not the size of the crowd, but the power of their ideas. Beck & O’Reilly probably also had size fears when in the locker rooms in high school gym class!

  • Anonymous

    Please, the adults are having a discussion here.

  • Anonymous

    It’s ashamed the shouters and the paranoid nuts do get the most attention. FOX would consider logical, noninflammatory talk as boring and “liberal elitist speak”. Truth does trump, however. It’s just easier to get out in a better economy.

  • Anonymous

    A demonstration that love of television is a more potent force than a righteous cause like ending the “war” in Afghanistan. Then again Regan, the B-list actor and Death Valley Days spokesman was a very popular president for 8 years. America is a 20 mule team always falling for one more ass.

  • Anonymous

    The 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868.

    “14th Amendment
    Amendment XIV
    Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

    As posted above re: United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898)

    “In a 6-2 decision, the Court held that under the Fourteenth Amendment, a child born in the United States of parents of foreign descent who, at the time of the child’s birth are subjects of a foreign power but who have a permanent domicile and residence in the United States and are carrying on business in the United States, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under a foreign power, and are not members of foreign forces in hostile occupation of United States territory, becomes a citizen of the United States at the time of birth.”

    The case law was settled well before 1961.

  • Anonymous

    Check out this 2 hr video from ‘Architects & Engineers For 9/11 Truth’!
    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4617650616903609314#

    It is a very sober, scientific analysis of the 9/11 events, that proves – at least in my mind – that 9/11 was a controlled demolition. One of the high points was the architect who DESIGNED the WTC, saying that it was designed to (easily) withstand the impact of a fully loaded 707 (the biggest plane at the time). And no, a 747 is not that much bigger.

    Maybe we should LISTEN to the people who design buildings. They know, better then anyone else, what it would take to bring them down…

  • Anonymous

    Sanity is an idea whose time has come, and gone.

  • Elim

    As I said, maybe Jon is going to “do it” for them again.

  • Anonymous

    I was there, dipshit. We don’t need to photo-shop the truth. All the pix show exactly what I saw there. We had 3x the number at Beck’s hate-fest. Every message yesterday was about working together, and every message at Beckapalooza was us vs. them.

  • Elim

    Patriots can also question WHO did it. That would explain WHY it happened.

  • Anonymous

    How does a Birther mom know her daughter’s menstruating?

    Her son’s dick tastes funny.

  • Stephen Martin

    RoadScholar: I was being sarcastic. Guess I didn’t do that very well. I was just anticipating how those folks will attempt to “non event” the gathering of thousands. Appreciate your robust enthusiasm.

  • Anonymous

    Hey, jerkoff (squared)… so, are you saying that your anchor baby hero, Michelle Malkin, (who is the biggest screamer against “anchor babies”, needs to be deported?

    For those of you who don’t know, NEITHER of Michelle Malkin’s parents are U.S. Citizens… (they might be now, but certainly NOT when they were both Phillipine Medical Students here in the U.S., and they had a cute little ANCHOR BABY while they were here…)

  • http://wynfinity.org/2010/10/the-brad-blog-video-jon-stewarts-closing-thoughts-at-rally-to-restore-sanity/ The BRAD BLOG : VIDEO: Jon Stewart’s Closing Thoughts at ‘Rally to Restore Sanity’… | wynfinity

    [...] RAW STORY’s article on the rally here and Greg Mitchell’s blow-by-blow live-blog coverage here for more [...]

  • Elim

    Obama can be naturalized or native born. But he can never be a ‘natural born’ citizen, therefore he is ineligible to serve as President. http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/22262

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/35210010/Obama-Is-a-Usurper-Illegal-President-20100802-Issue-Wash-Times-Natl-Wkly-pg-5
    http://fellowshipofminds.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/hawaii-democratic-party-refused-to-certify-obamas-eligibility/
    http://www.kerchner.com/protectourliberty/protectourliberty.htm

    “The real one is being kept under lock and key”… any evidence?

    Have you forgotten, or did you never know?
    hawaii.gov/health/about/pr/2008/08-93.pdf

  • Elim

    Being born on US soil does not make you “natural born” unless both parents are US citizens.

  • Elim

    Why are there so many of you who cannot get this through your thick skulls? Obama IS a citizen. He is.

    He is not a NATURAL BORN.

  • Elim

    I’m no lawyer or student of the constitution, but I think that citizenship can be given by a court of law. However, natural born citizenship cannot be, ever. You either are or you aren’t.

  • Elim

    I was referring to passport restrictions and laws at the time in reference to Stanley Dunham conferring citizenship upon Obama through her citizenship, in case he was actually NOT born in Hawaii. But even if she could have done that, Obama still is not a Natural Born.

  • Anonymous
  • H.P. Loathecraft

    That is where the 16″ loofah comes in.

  • H.P. Loathecraft

    Don’t think so.

    Three sources:
    1. CBS News (AirPhotosLive.com) 215,000
    2. Unofficial Park’s Service estimate “over 200,000″
    3. CTV News estimate “at least 250,000″

    That is one big-ass turnout by any metric and totally crushed the Glenn Beck Goosestep for Jesus rally, but it probably did not approach 1 million.

  • Anonymous

    Why are they so many dumb signs? hmm…
    infiltrating much?!

    Here are legitimate sign slogans for you political time wasters.

    Stop spending trillions on war & use the $ @ home!

    If we invest in America like we invest in war, we wouldnt be in an economic recession.

    $1 Million per Afghanistan soldier and soldiers still dont have proper equipment?

    Stop taking money out my check to fund Cheney Halliburtion.

    Make love not war$ !

    If congress doesnt listen to the people, I want my tax dollars back!

    Im glad you can find humor in the mist of the mass murder of innocent Iraqi/Afghanistan civilians.

    END CORP CORRUPTION/CONTROL OF OUR GOVT !

  • Anonymous

    The entire political establishment is scared shitless of the Teabaggers, but no one seems to fear Progressives and Liberals. It is high time the Progressives and Liberals take a page out of the TeaBagger’s play book; we must become far less polite and turn up the volume. Clearly, we have the numbers to effect real change, but we seem to lack the voice and steely determination to achieve our goals.

  • http://www.rawstory.com RawStory

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  • Anonymous

    I liked the sign “Support separation of head from ass! Many others were good as well but I believe that pretty much sums up the GOP!

  • http://SALON WHITE DRAGON

    Jon gave the right speech. What a pity that today’s politicians couldn’t dream of giving one like that. (Its Ironic that Ted Sorenson died today, he was the verbal soul of JFK and the democrats.)
    That was the time when he helped us to think of ourselves as New Frontiersman. New Frontiersman look for new opportunities and challenges. Patriots look for reasons to class your neighbor as the enemy. See?…they’re different!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    If you become like your enemy, you ARE your enemy.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    Thanks for letting us know you are the new Arbiter-In-Chief.

    I will be sure to check in with you before I think.

  • Anonymous

    Don’t bother posting here. Its nothing but paid trolls in desperation.

    And censorship by ridicule, which is all they know.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    If you are a heterosexual male, there is only one size that matters.

    It needs to be be long enough to get from you to her.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    Fuzzy minds can spot fuzzy math from a mile away.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    “OH….COME ON! That was all photo shopped. There is no way this was bigger than Glen Beck’s thingy ”

    And your proof is…?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    “OH….COME ON! That was all photo shopped. There is no way this was bigger than Glen Beck’s thingy ”

    And your proof is…?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    Okay. Disregard my prior response. I was wrong.

    A commonly used icon is the emoticon “:)” at the end of the post. This identifies it as a snark.

    Sorry again.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    And your proof is…?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    And your proof is…?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    And your proof is…?

    Pundit blogs don’t count. Only recognized hard news sources such as Christian Science Monitor, Reuters, etc.

    Pundit opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    Whattzamatter, out of drugs? Or Alcohol? or Cheetos?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    And your proof is…?

    Opinions don’t count.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    If your mother was an American citizen, then you are an American citizen too.

    Read the Constitution.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    Wrong! Regardless of whether one or neither of your parents were citizens, when you were born, if you were born in the USA you are automatically a U.S. citizen.

    Read the Constitution.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    Wrong. There are many “natural born” Americans holding dual citizenships.

    Please, next time stay awake and pay attention in civics class.

    Or thoroughly research your subject matter before opening your mouth in this enlightened (and educated) forum.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    Facts indicate Obama was born in Hawaii, the 50th state in the union at the time of his birth.

    So why is he not a “natural born citizen”? Facts please.

    My head is no thicker than yours, but judging by your screed it is considerably less ignorant and far more enlightened.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    What you think is your opinion, and you are certainly entitled to it.

    However, it is not provable fact.

    You will have to do better than that if you want to argue here.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    If you have your facts straight, no problem.

    If you make shit up without supporting evidence, big problem.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    Prove it. No amendments from 1961 or onwards modify citizenship statuses.

    A closed mouth gathers no foot.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    Verklempt!

    LMAO!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    “In case he was not born in Hawaii.”

    Proof?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    Great. Obama’s mother was a U.S.citizen and he was born in Hawaii when Hawaii was a U.S. state.

    By this logic Obama is a natural born citizen.

    Case closed.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    And your point is…?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Cleary/685251799 Richard Cleary

    Politely, then prove it or STFU.

    I believe many things, too, but those I can’t prove I keep to myself.

  • Anonymous

    Look, Elim, the first link I checked out, which you gave, slithered back to Pamela Geller’s online waste disposal, and it turned out to be a dud. There is little point in taking you seriously ever again, you dig? It’s as clear as crystal that the Obama-not-a-(natural born, whatever)-citizen nonsense is another hoax from the assembly line in the Breitbart right-wing extremist lie factory.

    The right wing know how to peddle false conspiracies until they become self-sustaining, because they know there are plenty of neo-Nazi contwats out there who will glom onto anything they wish to be true.

  • Anonymous

    Maybe you should since some of these signs displayed no thinking skills.

  • Anonymous

    Mr Richard Cleary my fuzzy mind says for you to stay tuned. When you wake up on Nov 3rd take notice at my fuzzy math and look at the political landscape., you will see many of your boys and gals renting a U-haul to get out of DC

  • Anonymous

    Natural born citizens are classified as one of two ways, but are still natural born

    Jus Soli – Born on U.S. Soil (Or Military base)
    Jus Sanguini – Citizen by blood by birth to U.S. citizen parents

    Naturalization comes from going through the naturalization process. That is usually when a legal permanent resident (Green card) applies for citizenship after a period of time as a legal resident (usually 5 years).

  • Anonymous

    Regardless of parents, if you’re born on US soil, you are “Jus Soli” natural born.

    When you and WTFsquared understand that, maybe you can move on to attacking Obama for his policies and actions – at which point, I can join in on your side!

  • Dirk

    “Tens” of thousands? Anyway John Aravosis is crap, he is convinced that we “fucking saved Haiti” back in the 90s. Weak, weak blogger.

  • Elim

    A certificate of live birth is not a birth certificate. They are not the same thing, and in fact don’t even look similar to each other, no matter which state it came from. I got one for my daughter about 4 months after she was born, just to save the wear and tear on the BC.

  • Elim

    I’m not a neocon, conservative, teabagger, right-winger or extremist. I just don’t buy whatever politician is trotted out in front of us. I guess you do.

    I don’t trust this broad any more than I would Michelle Malkin, but there is no other place that I have found such a thorough analysis of Obama’s colb. Geller is not the one who performed that analysis, though your post makes it sound as though she did.

  • Elim

    “My head is no thicker than yours…”

    Proof?

  • Elim

    I will look at that.

  • Elim

    So, in your opinion, only mainstream media news sources count?

  • Elim

    Yes, I see. You and RoadScholar, please continue.

  • Anonymous

    Hmm, well, I can understand why you would be confused…

    “certificate of live birth is not a birth certificate” 14,800 results
    “certificate of live birth is a birth certificate” 58,100 results

    So to clear this up, let’s see what Hawaii’s law has to say on the issue:

    Birth certificates (Certificates of Live Birth and Certifications of Live Birth) and Certificates of Hawaiian Birth are the primary documents used to determine native Hawaiian qualification.

    The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands accepts both Certificates of Live Birth (original birth certificate) and Certifications of Live Birth because they are official government records documenting an individual’s birth. The Certificate of Live Birth generally has more information which is useful for genealogical purposes as compared to the Certification of Live Birth which is a computer-generated printout that provides specific details of a person’s birth. Although original birth certificates (Certificates of Live Birth) are preferred for their greater detail, the State Department of Health (DOH) no longer issues Certificates of Live Birth. When a request is made for a copy of a birth certificate, the DOH issues a Certification of Live Birth.

    - http://hawaii.gov/dhhl/applicants/appforms/applyhhl

    There!!! – Officially, according to state law – The Certificate of Live Birth IS valid as a birth certificate. What’s more, computer generated printouts are typicallly “certification” rather than “certificate”, further legitimizing the copy of the COLB (a valid BC document in Hawaii) that Obama has produced.

    According to state laws, without abridgement of federal laws, Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States.

    The type of document, it’s validity and the status of Obama-as-natural-born-citizen-of-America are not in question according to all the official laws and rules… the only place it is questioned is in the minds of those who are unaware of the laws and rules and have been manipulated to believe other states laws apply to Hawaii or at the federal level.

    Please, research it for yourself, properly… and stop listening to right-wing pundits, they’re not known for research or integrity either!! ;)

  • Anonymous

    There was a rally about a month earlier in DC (now forgotten) that took a moderately militant (but hardly belligerent) left-wing, labor-centric line and drew an enormous crowd (downplayed and deliberately underestimated of course in all the media, including the “liberal” media).

    I showed up late, but came in on a magnificent speech by Jesse Jackson that should be required reading on every left-wing blog in America.

    Every single “liberal” blogger in America piled on with every single “conservative” blogger in denouncing that rally as impermissible, wrong, ridiculous, never having happened, and NOT To Be Taken Seriously by Kewl Kollegians.

    The paid republican provocateur Steve Kornacki at Salon (who wasn’t there, but lied and said he was) led the charge for the college crowd.

    Now if even half of the wishy-washies who formed the background of this rally got together with the labor and community-organizer types that went to the earlier rally, we would have an unstoppable political force in this country.

    “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” You’ll see civility from the KuKlux bitches of the Republican Party when the lefties get together in a position of power and stop kissing Republican ass. Until then, it’s the boot in your face.

  • Anonymous

    Horseshit. You want all the bad things to go away without disturbing your sleep. As long as you think that, you are part of the problem.

  • Anonymous

    There are more of us than there are of you.

  • Anonymous

    Sorry that you too suffer from fuzzy math. It must be that New Math which is now embedded in Govt. schools. Latest Poll numbers from Yesterday : Conservatives 48%, Independents/ moderates 42%, and coming in a distant 3rd are the Communists, progressives, liberal statists @ 20%. There you go Bucky!

  • Anonymous

    I’ve covered the analysis of the COLB, the legitimacy of the COLB as a valid BC in Hawaii, the qualifications to be a “natural born” citizen, etc.

    Have you got any new material for me to debunk yet?

  • Anonymous
  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_V5XKDORJ6HIVIZ6V5OTK76KTEY Immortal

    The unstoppable force meets the immoveable object–and the brane (no, this is not a misspelling) suddenly begins to rotate. Politics never is just what it is. Politics always is what it WILL be. Every power has learned that lesson one half life too late.

  • Anonymous

    It happened because the disruptive US foreign policy in the Middle East pissed off some people enough that they decided to strike back. I’m sick of these loons and their 9/11 conspiracy theories. Is it possible that the US orchestrated the 9/11 attacks. Sure, but even if that was the case are we going to find out? NO. Stop wasting your and my time.

  • Anonymous

    First of all, no “scientific analysis” is going to “prove” anything. If you had any basic understanding of the scientific method you would know that.

    Of course buildings are designed to withstand certain traumatic events. However, when designing a building, one cannot take into account every variable that will be present in such an event. Also, people who design buildings aren’t necessarily experts at demolition.

  • Anonymous

    It’s not nano-thermite (an experimental explosive currently being developed by the military) but kaolinite.

    http://forums.randi.org/showpost.php?p=4659658&postcount=157

    When you decide to move on, maybe you can not be a nut.

  • Elim

    No.

  • http://discountbathroomsinks.co.uk Mable Drabek

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