Live-blogging the "Sanity and/or Fear" rally

In my live-blog of the Glenn Beck rally, I noted that the yellow "don't tread on me" flag had become the nofficial icon of the Tea Party movement.  

Back in late August I blogged the massive Glenn Beck rally of Tea Party supporters.   Today, Americans who perceive characters like Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck as more of a problem than a solution participated in a rally of their own.    By the tens of thousands they gathered on the Mall in Washington D.C. on Saturday, heeding a call by Viacom-owned Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to "Restore Sanity and/or Fear."   Jotman was there.

On the peculiar obsession of the right

An Englishman watches the British government announce its plan to cut half a million jobs.

Perhaps Margaret Thatcher's best remembered House of Commons quip concerned her perception of the difference between the left and the right.  The exchange took place towards the end of her career in 1990.  She said that whereas Labour argues over how to divide-up the economic pie, Conservatives want to bake a bigger pie.  Thatcher's point was that enlarging the pie requires policies conductive to economic growth. 

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over

Looking ahead to the aftermath of the November elections in the US, Bob Beckel, described as a "liberal Democratic strategist," dishes up some advice for Obama:

There live: Oct. 2 rally on the Mall in Washington DC

These women from NJ are not keen about a Republican plan to extend tax cuts for the very rich.

On Saturday, various unions, churches, minority, environmental and gay rights groups staged a massive rally in Washington D.C..  The sponsors of the rally, called "One Nation Working Together," had billed it as the largest coming together of different groups ever on the Mall.

Jotman was there, plotting to compare the atmosphere of this event to the large Tea Party rally he had witnessed firsthand at the same location less than a month ago.