Category: Valley of the Shadow

Obama’s Hollywood Disaster

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ROSSYLYN, Va. — Just as I predicted, President Obama’s Hollywood fundraiser produced a traffic catastrophe in Los Angeles:

While I was in Los Angeles yesterday, I got a call from my friend Joe Fein, who told me he wouldn’t be able to make it to an event featuring Pamela Geller, author of The Post-American Presidency, that he had hoped to attend.
“They’ve shut down Olympic Boulevard!” Joe said in outraged tones, explaining that the major east-west thoroughfare had been closed to allow President Obama’s motorcade to proceed from Los Angeles International Airport to a fundraising dinner with Nancy Pelosi at the home of one of the president’s liberal Hollywood friends.

It turned out that Evan Sayet was right in advising that my trip from the San Fernando Valley down the 405 to LAX would not be delayed by the presidential visit, but pity those Angelenos who were trying to travel east-to-west or vice-versa:

Someone apparently decided that Obama’s $30,000-a-plate dinner at the house of “West Wing” producer John Wells necessitated shutting down most of the major east-west through streets in Los Angeles. . . .
If the President was unable to get to John Wells’ house without causing this level of disruption, then perhaps he should have done his fundraising somewhere else . . .

A reporter for the Los Angeles Times quoted one reader’s comment:

“I was an Obama supporter, but … was stopped by police from crossing Olympic to get home … during my daily dog walk. . . . I’ve lost all belief in his judgment. Can he really think he’s more important than the tens of thousands of people trying to get home to their families?“

Yes He Can!

UPDATE: Joe Fein, who has been trying to get the dysfunctional California GOP to fight for votes in L.A., says Obama’s Mother Of All Traffic Jams has made his job easier.

UPDATE II: Smile and say, “Charles Johnson!”

Professor Donald Douglas has more on last night’s L.A. event with Pamela Geller. I was very impressed with the turnout. Among the 250 or so in attendance was a woman named Rita who, when I asked her last name, became fearful: “Don’t put my last name in there. I’m in the entertainment business. You do that” — i.e., identify yourself as a Republican in Hollywood — “and you’re blacklisted.”

BTW, to explain the Rosslyn dateline on this post: I’m blogging from the offices of The American Spectator, whence I’ve come to spend a few hours because my wife can’t pick me up until this afternoon. Let me suggest that you should subscribe today, because sooner or later I’m going to file another expense report and . . . well, talk about a nightmare!

Thanks to all those who’ve contributed to the Shoe Leather Fund to help keep me traveling during this campaign year. My current plans are to visit Delaware next, before taking a trip down South. And thanks, of course, to Mrs. Other McCain for putting up with my vagabond existence. I should point out that my lovely bride recently got her own Twitter account. She doesn’t Tweet much, although she did suggest she’s looking forward to my homecoming, IYKWIMAITYD.

UPDATE III: Obama’s departure was no less disastrous than his arrival, a Twitter friend informs me:

Obama arrived in rush hour traffic, and he left this morning in it, too. Everyone in my office was late to work this morning.

And in the comments, our California friend Jehuda the Rhetorican says:

It is very likely POTUS saved or created thousands of GOP voters through the traffic jams he unleashed last night. . . . I was in one of them. Not fun.

“Fun”? Whoever said Hope and Change would be fun?

UPDATE IV: Wow, they’re really angry out there:

One man, who did not want to give his name, said it had taken his wife four hours to drive home from Brentwood. Another man trying to walk west on 6th Street to his office shouted at the officers blocking his way and told them he wished he had voted for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Obama’s opponent in the 2008 presidential race.

Heh.

Fear and Loathing in Hollywood

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HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — I’m at a sound stage near Santa Monica Boulevard where Ladd Ehlinger Jr. is directing his latest series of political ads. There is something of an embargo about the exact nature of the production, and I’m on deadline for The American Spectator, so I can’t give you the full story now. However, I thought I’d share a few photos from the past couple of days in La-La Land.

You may not recognize either of these two characters and, as much as I’d like to identify them, I’m afraid you can’t handle the truth.


Actress Michelle Fields with rising young comedian Evan Sayet. Believe it or not, Michelle won her part after reading about Ehlinger’s casting call via my Twitter feed. Now, if only Alyssa Milano would do the same . . .

Andrew Breitbart checks e-mail at his home near Sepulveda Boulevard. I dropped by Chez Breitbart on my way back from Saturday’s blogger lunch in Santa Monica.

Little Miss Atilla, Richard McEnroe of Three Beers Later, me, Mattie Fein, Dan from Gay Patriot and Joe Fein of Valley of the Shadow. Mattie and Joe share the same surname, but are not related. I’m not sure which one of them will soon be blogging as TheOtherFein.com. One thing for sure: Everybody had a Fein time at El Cholo in Santa Monica.

There are those of us who suspect that Dan from Gay Patriot may be a closet hetero, NTTAWWT.

Mattie Fein takes a break from updating her Facebook page to check her Blackberry, but still no messages from Nick Green. I’ve been trying to give Mattie lessons in advanced Twitterology, although neither of us has been re-Tweeted by Alyssa Milano. Yet.

UPDATE: As Jehuda the Rhetorican reports, Ladd just filmed me in my comedy acting debut. I did it gratis, but we’ll probably need arbitration to determine if Da Tech Guy‘s fedora gets union scale

Terry Rathbun: Grassroots Revolution

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Our friend JSF at Valley of the Shadows calls attention to California conservative who needs your support:

If you live in Los Angeles, the term “People’s Republic of Santa Monica,” comes up a lot in conversation. Heck, one of my favorite films, Southland Tales has Justin Timberlake protecting the Santa Monica Pier (and doing a great version of The Killers “All the Things that I’ve done,”).
As a political activist, I don’t just think in theory, but in practicality: How do we win back the People’s Republic of Santa Monica? Simple, raise money and support a great candidate for the 41st Assembly District of California . . .
Let me introduce to you Mr. Terry Rathbun, candidate for the 41st AD.
Here is his biography:
Terry was born and raised in Los Angeles County and currently lives in Encino. In 1990, Terry left to join the U.S. Navy and served on active duty until 1999. During his time in the military, he served in theater in support of Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield. In the year 2000, Terry returned home to Los Angeles where he attended college and currently owns and manages his own IT consulting business. Terry is actively involved in the Kiwanis Club of Northridge and coaches youth baseball.

Military veteran running for a state legislative seat in a district where Democrats don’t think a Republican can compete. But if Terry Rathbun can get a nationwide online fundraising effort — $5, $10, $20 at a time — this could be a shocker.

Read more at Valley of the Shadows.

Los Angeles Republican Party Wins Lawsuit Against Ron Paul Supporters

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Taking over a county-level Republican Party isn’t really that hard. In most places, if you’ve got a core group of five or six smart organizer/activists who really know what they’re doing, you can oust the incumbent party leadership within a year.

Since 2008, supporters of Ron Paul have done this in many counties, and there are a few states where Paul supporters (and their sympathizers) constitute a real threat to the GOP status quo. Paulistas were among the leaders of the Utah coup against Bob Bennett, for example — and good on ’em for that.

However, there are always those who seem to think that the ends justify the means, and in Los Angeles County, California, this resulted in some disgruntled Paulistas forming a “shadow party” and filing suit against the existing county GOP leadership, claiming that the leadership had been unlawfully elected. My friend Joe Fein at Valley of the Shadow had posted about this earlier, and today informed me that the “shadow party” lawsuit had been dismissed, as LA Republican Alex Burrola reports at the Flash Report:

Now, less than two weeks out from the California primary, we hope that all Republicans in Los Angeles County can unite and pull together for victory in November. Jane Barnett and her leadership are committed to welcoming all Republicans – including those who may have been led astray by the blandishments of the shadow RPLAC – into the fold to register voters, raise much-needed funds, and support our party’s nominees in the summer and fall in what promises to be a game-changing and exciting election cycle.
It is truly unfortunate that so much effort of the leadership of the largest county Republican organization in the United States was devoted to responding to the sour grapes behavior of Robert Vaughn’s group. Hopefully, Judge Solner’s unequivocal decision and his awarding of fees and costs to the duly elected party leadership will send the right message to malcontents in other county committees, and encourage them to consider working within the existing framework and engaging in productive conduct to grow the party, not selfish behavior that can only harm our chances at the polls. . . .

Please read the rest of that, which should be required reading for anyone else who thinks they can sue their way to power. More generally, while I am very much a critic of the GOP Establishment, I consider it better to be in a position to exercise some minor influence than to alienate everybody and marginalize myself by being a complete douchebag. Remember Rule 6.

Once more, thanks to Joe at Valley of the Shadow for the tip.

Fear and Fedora in Las Vegas
When In Doubt, Put It All on Red

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You may remember this video of Steve Foley and Eric Odom from my March expedition to Las Vegas:

Foley and Odom were playing the slots at the Orleans Hotel & Casino on West Tropicana. The Orleans is way off the Strip, far from the overpriced glitter that attracts rich tourists, celebrities and other high rollers. If you want to see showgirls, comedians or Cher, go to the Strip. If you want to do some serious gambling, go to the Orleans.

Slot machines aren’t serious gambling. Slot machines are electronic devices for reducing stupid people to poverty. That’s why I was so shocked a few years ago when it was revealed that Bill Bennett was a video-poker addict.

Dude. You’re the former Secretary of Education, a Ph.D. and a Harvard Law graduate, and you can’t figure out that video-poker is a chump’s game? As Steve Sailer pointed out at the time, playing the slots is also a loner’s game:

Playing modern electronic slot machines looks a lot like what I do for a living everyday: tapping away on a computer . . .
The news that Bennett, a man with a doctorate in philosophy, played the slots religiously aroused much derisive comment from my acquaintances, who saw slots as a low-class, strategy-free solitary vice.
A novelist wrote me, “What astonishes me is the stupidity of Bennett’s gambling. I used to be a drunk, but I didn’t get sozzled on cheap gin and moonshine. I drank good Scotch and Carlos Primera brandy. Similarly, I can imagine being addicted to gambling, but not to slot machines. . . .”
Slot machines and video poker, Bennett’s two favorites, are widely seen as old ladies’ games . .
A barber who has been playing poker three nights a week at the card rooms southeast of Los Angeles since he won $45,000 last winter, observed, “The slots are a no-brainer. You don’t have to know anything to play them, so you can’t mess up and be embarrassed.”

Playing the slots is an anti-social activity, a lonely habit like heroin or pornography — and, as Steve Sailer noted, journalism can be kind of a lonely habit, too. Covering the Tea Party Express gave me a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hit Vegas, so why would I want to spend my time sitting around “tapping away on a computer”?

No, I say. If you’re going to lose money, you might as well have some fun while you’re at it. So after I pried Odom and Foley away from the slots, and we were joined by New Media strategist Ali Akbar, I insisted on more sociable entertainment.

Odom just sent me that photo via Twitter. That’s Ali on the other side of the table. And notice those stacks of chips lined up in front of me? I sat down with only $20. As I said at the time:

[W]hen JSF of Valley of the Shadow blog heard I was coming to Vegas, he offered me this excellent advice: “Put it all on red.”
Dude. You’ve got no idea how well that advice paid off.

So clearly a hat-tip is owed, and I notice that JSF — California Republican activist Joe Fein — has some more excellent advice: A blogger-friendly fundraiser to boost the California GOP in 2010.

You should hit Joe’s tip-jar while you’re there. And if you’re ever in Vegas, take Joe’s advice: Put it all on red.

UPDATE: My libertarian friend Tom Knapp notes that he is author of the $3.99 booklet Roulette for the Leisure Gambler.

In his comment below, Tom explains what several of my friends have told me — roulette has the highest house “edge” of any table game — but on the other hand, the mathematical probabilities are easier to understand than poker or blackjack.

Any fool can walk past a row of roulette tables, looking at the electronic boards, and spot one that has, for example, hit black on seven of the last eight spins, with four consecutive even numbers.

The key here is not to say anything to your buddies. Your choice of tables should seem entirely random.

Plunk down $5 on red and $5 on odd, scatter five $1 bets inside (always cover 0/00) and spend the rest of the night being congratulated by your buddies on your amazing luck. 

When your buddies get bored or lose out, they’ll go to the ATM and hit the blackjack pit or craps tables, lose some more and come back, to find you still sitting there with a pile of chips in front of you, laughing and joking without a care in the world.

Vegas schadenfreude, baby! Cue the music:

Fred Thompson Notices The Dots

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by Smitty

Fred Thompson notices that health care policy, Wall Street policy, immigration policy, and energy policy all seem to have substantial events happening kind of close. No mention of Toyota and the auto industry takeover.

Fred falls short of connecting those dots in any way. Paul Krugman and the hapless TrogloPundit (separated at birth?) are already making noises about the oil spill.

Me? Here’s the deal: the Federal government must concern itself with Federal things. Such a notion cuts through the Alinsky Fog nicely.

Update: Valley of the Shadow questions the timing.

Sarah Palin’s Speech In New Orleans

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by Smitty (h/t Gateway Pundit)

Sarah’s speech is a point-for-point flogging of the Administration. The folksy delivery will cause lefty heads near you to ‘splode, to keep the volume low. President Sleeveheart has already publicly whined about her by name on the nuclear topic. If you follow that link, BHO claims the JCS ‘is comfortable’ with his nuclear policies. Sure.

On the topic of criticism of the Lefty agenda, your attention is drawn to The Valley of the Shadow. VotS has an interesting historical sketch of the Democratic non-command of international policy, going back to LBJ. Well worth your time.

Update: Tabitha Hale has a roundup of the New Orleans conference, including Rick Perry video.

A Million Plus Protesters Around The Country On Tax Day?

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by Smitty

From a Freedom Works email:

We expect over ONE MILLION protesters across the country, and I hope you’ll be among them. But if you cannot, there are still plenty of ways for you to help out and make your voice heard for freedom.

It will take a lot of pictures to back up that prediction. Even so, we can expect the liberal media (you can’t spell ‘liberal’ without ‘libel’) to convert the attendance estimate to hexadecimal, and then take the logarithm, so that the final figure fits fingers. But they could well disprove my mockery by breaking with tradition and reporting honestly.
I do wonder if Conor Friedersdorf shall have recovered from the encounter with Valley of the Shadow on Twitter in time to meet some actual Americans. Come chill with the homies, Conor: we’re generally good folk, after all.