This was the text of an SMS sent from Ali Akbar to Stacy McCain upon Ali’s arrival at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas.
The Hyper-Activist Duo are on the way to Searchlight, Nevada, where they intend, one supposes, to feel a tiny tremor of remorse, somewhere around the left ankle, for the seeds of doom they and the Tea Party Express are planting for the career of the Senate Majority Leader.
*sniff*
Eve of the Showdown in Searchlight
LAS VEGAS — Just got back from Searchlight, where I reconnoitered the town and the rally site, about two miles north of Harry Reid’s hometown. A quick video report:
One reason I wanted to make the trip Friday was to scope out the route. When Ali arrives at 7 a.m. Saturday, we’ll have to drive like hell to get there before the road becomes completely jammed, so I needed to know where I’m going.
Driving down from Vegas late Friday afternoon, I missed the turn-off for U.S. 95 at Railroad Pass and ended up driving past Boulder City on U.S. 93 all the way to Hoover Dam before I realized I was on the wrong road. So it was already dark by the time I pulled into Searchlight and stopped in at the Nugget Casino and Restaurant, a local landmark.
It’s called a “casino,” but don’t get any illusions of glamour. It’s basically a bar and restaurant with a room full of slot machines on one side. There was a game of blackjack, but no roulette, craps, etc., and of course no big flashy showroom.
There was a guy in the Nugget working on a laptop and I figured he must be a reporter. Correct. He was a freelancer from San Diego on assignment for NBC News online. We talked a while, and I asked him where the rally was. He told me I’d driven past the site on my way into town, so I hopped back in the red Chevy and went north again until I finally found the place.
Friday, I’d talked by phone with Bob Engstrom, a pilot and freelance journalist who usually covers aviation issues for Human Events. He lives down the road in Arizona and got the assignment as their man on the scene for the big Tea Party rally.
Bob arrived at the rally site Thursday, camping out in the back of his truck, and he toured me around the place. His estimate was that 1,500 people were already on the site. Organizers expect about 6,000 by noon Saturday, although there are some who think as many as 10,000 may show up.
Although it was warm during the day, it got cold and windy when the sun went down. Several of the volunteers were gathered around a fire, talking and warming themselves.
One of the hundreds of RVs on the site, decorated with flags and signs.
Posing on the stage where Sarah Palin and others will speak Saturday. The site itself is extremely primitive — just a big dirt lot. Being from the East, where we have trees and grass and stuff, it’s weird to see the arid landscape of the West.
Another local landmark — Terrible’s Casino, slightly more upscale than the Nugget. Terrible’s actually has what you’d call decor, but other than that, it’s still just a slots parlor/bar and also a convenience store with a McDonald’s. I’m not sure, but this might be the only McDonald’s located at a casino. “Here, kids, have a Happy Meal, while Daddy feeds next month’s rent money into a slot machine.”
Some Say That Sufficient Falsehood Can Enable Truth
by Smitty
Here is a ~2 minute summary of the major low-lights in ObamaCare. Brief and bitter, like a mugging:
Next Stop: Searchlight
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Just a quick note before I make the run to Searchlight with Steve Foley to check out the scene before tomorrow’s big Tea Party rally. (See today’s front-page story in the Las Vegas Sun.)
I’m now blogging from the headquarters of Liberty First PAC, otherwise known as Eric Odom’s kitchen. Today I went out to the headquarters of both the Sue Lowden and Danny Tarkanian GOP Senate campaigns.
Lowden’s HQ on the south side of town near Highway 215.
Tarkanian HQ off Durango Drive.
Eric Odom and Steve Foley in the nerve center of Tea Party grassroots political organizing, otherwise known as Eric’s kitchen.
All right. Off to Searchlight . . .
PREVIOUSLY:
Do Dudes Even Worry About Blogger Gender?
by Smitty
Dr. Helen picks up Susannah Breslin’s question. Villainous Company also posted on the topic.
Given that we’re all looking at a browser, the gender of the author seems tangential at best. Either the post triggers thought, or it does not. WTF chromosomes? And does the typical male blogger ever consider this question? Can a scurrilous knave like TrogloPundit even comprehend it?
Update: Villainous Company heaves a *sigh* my way. 😉
Charles Krauthammer Is Wrong About The Main Argument Against ObamaCare
by Smitty
From Fox News All Stars, via the Corner
The main argument against this Obamacare is it’s going to destroy our economy. All the numbers in it are phony. It’s going to create a huge amount of debt.
That may be the proximal cause, Mr. Krauthammer. The main argument is that We The People never gave DC the leave to interfere with us. Progressivism, that overflowing river of crypto-Marxism, has sought to route its way around the Constitutional blocks meant to contain the Federal effluent. Quite successfully this last century, in fact. The flood of debt in which we drown is directly related to the inability to shore up those blocks in a pre-Information Age.
Now, as the POTUS hauls his legislative colostomy-bag-of-tricks around the country on his Time For Talking Over You Is Now tour, the bean counters can begin to do the work they should have before. And yes, a huge amount of debt will be created. The POTUS is either naïve or diabolical, which question is more simply left unresolved.
The main argument against the sheer idiocy of this is that, even if they can find sharks who will support the letter of all this nonsense, the simple truth is that the spirit of responsible government has been thoroughly raped by all this. And precious little, if anything, is discussed about actually fixing the situation. The time is here, and the time is now, to join the struggle against Federal over-reach. The next opportunity will be after the end of the Soviet-style collapse.
Reason #7,126 Why Alyssa Milano
Should Be Following Me on Twitter
Just in case you were wondering:
LAS VEGAS – Now Tweeting completely naked in Room 249 at the Orleans Hotel. About to get in the shower. Checkout time in 1 hr, 17 minutes.
All I need is just one re-Tweet, Alyssa.
Now it’s nearly checkout time, which means I’m fully dressed — including the fedora I borrowed from Da Tech Guy — and ready to take that big red Chevy rental car on the road to do some campaign coverage before heading out to Searchlight to see the Tea Party site.
PREVIOUSLY:
Hmmm. Why Did Jeri Thompson Endorse Sue Lowden Today?
LAS VEGAS — Just settling in for an hour or two of reporting before I head out to Searchlight this afternoon (it’s 9:30 a.m. out here) and I saw this column by Jeri Thompson in The American Spectator:
In the Senate race to defeat Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid, we have several candidates who want the opportunity to challenge and defeat him. Each candidate has different skills and a particular constituency. But to defeat a sitting Senate Majority Leader will take someone with the “total package” — an experienced leader, who has run the political and public gauntlet, who can raise money on a national level and who can clearly communicate their principles. For Nevada, that person is Sue Lowden. . . .
While there are other Republican candidates in this race, I am convinced Sue is the only conservative Republican with the toughness and experience to go toe-to-toe with former boxer Harry Reid. Harry seems to be acknowledging that, because Sue is the only Republican who Reid is regularly attacking. . . .
And something weird at the end:
On the issue of life, the past week has made it clear to us what it means to be a “pro-life” Democrat. Sue has made it clear she knows where she stands and how she will legislate. She will be pro-life.
Weird, I say, because . . . well, is there a pro-choice Republican in this primary? Not that I know of. So why does Jeri feel the need to assert Lowden’s pro-life bona fides?
Maybe my initial impressions of this Nevada primary are screwy, but I thought Danny Tarkanian was the grassroots populist “outsider” candidate and Sue Lowden was the GOP Establishment candidate. So why is Jeri Thompson backing Lowden and making these pro-life rumbles? Then I checked Tark’s site and found this:
I believe life begins at conception and that we have a responsibility as human beings to protect that life if at all possible. That is why I oppose abortion, except where the mother’s life is threatened. I also oppose federal funding for abortions.
Ah, now I see. This could be trouble for Tarkanian. But wait a minute, what’s this story in the Las Vegas Sun?
In the Republican primary race for U.S. Senate, Danny Tarkanian has hit fellow candidate Sue Lowden — a casino owner worth an estimated $50 million and former chairwoman of the state Republican Party — with the socialist label.
In a recent automated telephone message, Tarkanian tells listeners his “latest message for freedom” — accusing Lowden of supporting the Wall Street bailout, which led to taxpayer money propping up the auto and insurance industries. “That’s not freedom. Let’s call it what it is: socialism,” Tarkanian says.
Oooooh. This is getting good . . .
UPDATE 1:35 p.m. ET: Just got off the phone with Lisa Graas, talking about contested GOP primaries this year. Couple of items at Memeorandum:
No plans to go to Utah on this trip, but I’ll be in Arizona on Sunday and Monday. Meanwhile, I’ve got plans for some serious shoe-leather reporting this afternoon. Just keep hitting the tip-jar, folks.