newjerseynewsroom.com

Jersey guys have over 140,000 indicating they will attend on Oct. 30

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The National Park Service has confirmed that Comedy Central television channel has applied for a permit to hold a rally led by satirical hosts Jon Stewart (Lawrence High School in N.J.) and Stephen Colbert (Montclair, N.J. resident) at the Washington Monument.

National Park Service spokesman Bill Line said the Park Service had received an application from Comedy Central, a New York political communications firm and a D.C. events company seeking a single permit for a "special event" on the north half of the Washington Monument grounds for Oct. 30.

According to aolnews.com, since Stewart announced the "Rally to Restore Sanity" event just three days ago on "The Daily Show" more than 100,000 people have gone to the rally's Facebook page and indicated that they will attend. Meanwhile, fellow Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert has heard back from 40,000 fans who say they'll be at the "March to Keep Fear Alive," which will also be held on the Washington Mall on Oct. 30 and will act as a kind of comedic flip-side to Stewart's.

Estimates for the number of people who attended Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" were put at around 100,000 by most news organizations, and even higher by the organizers.

The Washington Post reports that Glenn Beck has released his own statement about the events.

"8/28 was a historic event for a lot of Americans," Beck said. "I hope that Ed Schultz, the AFL-CIO, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and whoever else wants to plan a march in DC have the same great success that we had with Restoring Honor."

According to politicsusa.com, Beck had claimed on his radio show that the Christine O'Donnell witchcraft flap was designed to suppress the vote, and that the Stewart and Colbert rallies are designed to get young people to go vote with the labor unions.

Certainly, an RSVP on Facebook is not the same as an actual appearance in D.C., but it seems that support of the moderation Stewart is trumpeting may be growing. Fans of Stewart's in Seattle will hold their own march that is meant to emulate the principles outlined for the "Rally to Restore Sanity," The Seattle Weekly reports.

A satellite rally that day at Westlake Plaza is in the works.

Using an anonymous Facebook page, someone created the local event yesterday, and as of this writing, 65 people had alreadysigned up to attend. Sign slogans have been suggested like "ALL America is REAL America," "Moderate... to the Extreme," and "BE REASONABLE."

One attendee suggested speakers for the event like Dan Savage and Sherman Alexie.

Information for anyone interested in attending the Stewart and Colbert rallies is available here and here.