No, really, he clocks in here as sort of a mellow fellow who could be your neighbor. A couple of questions fronted in this interview with
of PJTV are:
Can the Tea Party co-exist with the GOP?
Can the GOP survive without the Tea Party?
It seems that there will have to be some reckoning. The Tea Parties lack the savvy and the knowledge of the gory details. The GOP holds the cards there. On the other hand, the GOP of the last several decades has been Progressivism Lite, or in the case of some, no’ so much. OK, that was a mean link.
Back on topic, the simple truth is that DC is running open loop. Even if it wanted to, Congress couldn’t fix itself. The ballot in November is going to be a help, but even massive turnover in the House and Senate may not be enough. I submit that more attention to Randy Barnett and outfits like Friends Of the Article V Convention are good places to begin. Also, we should consider pressuring candidates to support an Article V Convention almost as strongly as repealing ObamaCare. I get the impression that President Bring-it-on wouldn’t admit to even slight concern about an Article V Convention. Truly, if you haven’t got the political power to ratify anything, you haven’t much. Yet, there has to be a building towards that goal, and it has to start somewhere.
So, may fortune smile on Kaloogian, the Tea Party Express, and every American citizen getting involved and communicating with the leadership that purportedly represents them.
Doug from Reno was standing about 50 yards from the stage at Saturday’s “Showdown in Searchlight,” two hours before the official noon start of the rally featuring Sarah Palin. He was part of a huge crowd already gathering for the big first-day event of the Tea Party Express tour, and U.S. Highway 95 was backed up for more than a mile in either direction as thousands more made their way into the dusty lot a couple miles north of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hometown.
He was wearing a National Rifle Association cap and mirrored sunglasses, and had a sticker on his shirt promoting a conservative website, DumpReid.com. Doug held aloft a large hand-lettered sign: “Karl Marx and Mao Were Not Founding Fathers!”
So far as most major media organizations are concerned, he was just another dangerous right-wing crackpot, but most major media organizations never actually talked to Doug or others like him among the thousands of grassroots activists who showed up in Searchlight. With few exceptions, what brought reporters to Saturday’s rally was the opportunity to do what they have been doing in their Tea Party coverage for more than a year: Highlight negative “gotcha” moments to discredit the movement as a dangerous collection of hate-filled, misinformed lunatics, meanwhile asking attendees questions along the lines of, “Who do you consider to be the leader of your movement?” . . .
Please read the whole thing. Actually meeting and talking to people is so much more productive than treating them as superficial stereotypes. It’s also a lot more fun.
I’m now blogging from the Arizona home of Barbara Espinosa, whom I first met in August at the Right Online conference in Pittsburgh. When I first met Barbara, I was surprised to learn she was a blogger (see “Grandma Is an Angry Mob“) and I had no idea that she was such a well-know activist. She’s on a first-name basis with Senate candidate J.D. Hayworth and congressional candidate Vernon Parker, both of whom I’ll be interviewing later today in Phoenix.
It was the tip-jar hitters — contributors to the Shoe Leather Fund — who sent me to that Pittsburgh conference where I first met Barbara, and the tip-jar hitters have since sent me to Kentucky, New York, Florida, Alabama, California, Massachusetts, Alabama, and now to Nevada and Arizona.
Saturday in Vegas, after I got back from Searchlight, I was talking with a reporter from a major news organization who was amazed that this kind of reader-supported journalism is possible. And it’s only possible because of you — the few, the proud, the tip-jar hitters. Thanks for all you do.
BlogProf has the audio of Rep. Dingell comparing ObamaCare to the RMS Titanic. This is so outrageous. The Titanic was a proper ship. If properly crewed, there is no reason she would not be maintained in a state of pristine newness through massive amounts of paint and polish, just like Nancy Pelosi.
Opines the BlogProf:
Every time the man talks, it’s a mixture of moonbattery and unintended truthful moments. During the contentious summer between Democrat lawmakers and constituents, Dingell made some of his most famous gaffes, such as comparing tea party protesters to the KKK
A much better, if less known, nautical metaphor than the Titanic is the Vasa, which launched and scuttled itself after something like a nautical mile underway. More cowbell is not always better cowbell.
For Godwin’s Law reasons, we’ll leave the Graf Zeppelin out of this.
I don’t doubt that the country retains the ability to recover from the current Congress and Administration. There will be considerable pain involved, however.
Regarding the POTUS, we can expect exactly 0 substantial reflection, course alteration, or improvement in the political atmosphere between now and November, emphasis mine:
Whatever the case, the next seven months going into November are going to be about domination and attempted marginalization, not cooperation. He’ll seek to paint the GOP as obstructionist, which, btw, is how the GOP beat Daschle in 2004. I came upon that in looking at opposition to Reid versus Daschle, the only Senate leader to lose his seat since 1952. If the GOP caves, their base will abandon them, resulting in disaster in the fall. At the same time, the people can not afford to stand down, either, as the GOP’s minority status leaves them toothless without our many voices behind them. And no matter what, the months ahead are going to be long, hard and increasingly confrontational politically.
Actually, Dan has it backwards: We The People cannot expect to delegate the preservation of the Republic to the GOP.
We The People have to follow and draw attention to the Tea Party Express, the Andrew Breitbarts, and activities like the Tax Day Tea Party to inform the GOP in Congress that there is still a country worth the struggle against fascism.
He counted on America to be Passive. He Counted Wrong.
Five seconds of pure motivation with Reagan begin at 1:27
BUMPED & UPDATED! SUNDAY MARCH 28: We were linked by Her Blondeness yesterday. Unfortunately, security at the Vegas event was so tight that I didn’t get to say “Hello” to her, although I did get to wave at her personal bodyguard, Floyd — shortly before two Las Vegas police officers pulled me aside and frisked me for weapons.
To explain: There was a “no media” policy at the Vegas event — absolutely no reporters allowed inside, and no audio or video recording permitted. Event organizers had not been told to make an exception for Miss Coulter’s personal friends (I scored an e-mail interview with her last week), and so I was forced to resort to pure gonzo methods. Hiding my press credentials in my pocket and tucking my notebook under my arm inside my coat, I stood in line for general admission and prayed I didn’t get searched at the gate.
Alan Choate from the Las Vegas Review-Journal did the same thing, as did at least one other reporter for a major news organization whose identity I cannot reveal due to the admittedly bizarre ethical obligations of our mutual craft). However, I can reveal that I managed to get close to the stage before Ann’s speech, until one of the event volunteers told me I had to leave the “VIP” area. Drat.
When the speech started, I had my digital micro-recorder going (hidden in my hand, which I kept down by my right side) and moved as close to the stage as I could without infringing the “VIP” zone. Floyd the bodygard was at stage left with a wire in his ear, and I managed to catch his attention by waving. That was just about the time my posture and my erratic movements attracted the attention of two LVPD officers. From their vantage point, it looked from a certain angle as if I might have a gun, and I was escorted to the back of the amphitheater where I was beaten with nightsticks, pepper-sprayed and repeatedly tasered . . .
Just kidding. Although I was scared out of my wits, fearing that I would be ejected and my recorder confiscated, once I flashed my press credentials and the cops learned that the bulge in my coat wasn’t a 9mm in a shoulder holster — that I was merely a journalist, not a dangerously deranged psycho like Dylan Ratigan or Keith Olbermann — they lightened up considerably and apologized for the inconvenience.
As a matter of fact, the police never even saw the digital recorder, which I managed to hide in my pocket before they could frisk me, and the recorder was on throughtout my frightening ordeal, so that the entire incident is now preserved on digital audio. I haven’t uploaded or transcribed the audio yet, but when I do you’ll cleary hear one of the cops ask me, “Is that a digital recorder in your pocket . . . or are you just happy to see Ann Coulter?”
Grassroots Nevada is pleased to present Ann Coulter for our Saturday, March 27th event in Henderson / Las Vegas. . . .
Ms. Coulter will only be here in Henderson at the Grassroots Nevada event prior to the arrival of the Tea Party Express. The event for Las Vegas will be at the Henderson Pavilion; Gates open at 3:15 pm and show begins at 3:45 pm!
Join us for the biggest Tea Party Express national tour to date. Starting March 27, 2010 with a Mega Rally in Searchlight, NV (hometown to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) we will take this message across the nation all the way to the White House in Washington, D.C. on April 15th:
“You, the politicians in Washington, have failed We The People with your bailouts, out-of-control deficit spending, government takeovers of sectors of the economy, Cap & Trade, government-run health care, and higher taxes! If you thought we were just going to quietly go away, or that this tea party movement would be just a passing fad, you were mistaken. We’re taking our country back!”
Here’s the video:
OK, people, here we go. I’ve been planning a trip out West to cover the Senate campaigns against Harry Reid and John McCain, and this chance is too perfect to miss.
This is the kind of journalistic expedition that the Shoe Leather Fund has made possible in the past. It’s 2,341 miles to Searchlight, Nev. — 38 hours if I were to drive it non-stop — but Smitty tells me that flights to Vegas are cheap, so maybe I’ll leave the 2004 KIA Optima at home for this trip. Driving or flying, either way it looks like an extraordinarily gonzo trip.
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive….” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. . . . — Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Word. Sarah Palin speaks! Notice the flags fluttering furiously. It was incredibly windy Saturday. I was backstage and one of my buddies let me get a nice perch at stage left to get photos and video, but the wind was more powerful than the sound system at the rally, which made Palin nearly inaudible on the video.
Palin is mobbed by media after her speech. Notice the boom mike overhead. The only interview she granted was to Griff Jenkins of Fox News. Earlier, I had seen the CNN correspondent at the rally, and tried to talk to him — my usual glad-handing style, “Hey there! How ya doin’?” — but he seemed very sour and hostile. Was it me, or was he just bummed about being stuck on the Tea Party beat?
“Hundreds of people, at least dozens” — gee, I wonder why they would say that? I just got off the phone with Smitty, who told me about that comment. What was my own estimate of the crowd size? Well, Bob Engstrom of Human Events had told me that the organizers had figured they could accommodate about 6,000 in the main area in front of the stage, while law enforcement was concerned that a crowd of 10,000 might completely overwhelm their traffic-control efforts.
The traffic was overwhelming — have you ever tried to get to a big SEC football game? The traffic on U.S. 95 reminded me of trying to get to Legion Field in Birmingham for an Alabama-Tennessee game (back in the day before ‘Bama started playing nearly all its home games at Tuscaloosa).
Victoria Jackson and Joe the Plumber have a chat before going onstage. Notice the Tea Party Express bus in the background. The crowd was sufficiently large that, when the buses arrived, they couldn’t park them where they had planned, because that space directly behind the stage was already full of people.
Read the fine print. Someone felt the need to clarify the terminology . . . NTTAWWT.
Further clarification from Doug Rodrigues of Reno who explained to me that he has a personal grudge against Marxism. Rodrigues is of Portugese/Chinese/Hawaiian ancestry — which is to say 100% American — and one side of his family came from the former Portugese colony of Macau. Shortly after the Communist revolution in China, Rodrigues’ grandfather left Macau for a trip to the Chinese province of Canton to check on the family’s land there. The grandfather was never heard from again and the land . . . well, so much for that, eh? All of which makes it easy to understand why Doug isn’t too keen on socialism and has a serious commitment to liberty. Oh, yeah, and he had a couple more things to say along the lines of enforcing the borders and no hyphens, please.
OK, since our good friends in the MSM have raised the issue of attendance estimates, I’ll post my three best crowd shots and you can click on any of these photos to see it full-size.
From stage left, looking toward the left (west). Notice the teeny-tiny dots on the hills in the distance? Those are people. Also notice the U.S. flag toward the right side . . . .
Also from stage left, facing about 20 or 30 degrees further right (northwest). The U.S. flag at the top left side of this photo is, I believe, the same flag in the right side of first photo. So that could help you get a sense of the area shown between these two photos, and there were thousands more people to the right (north/northeast) of that area, to say nothing of the people who were still out on Highway 95 trying to get through the two-mile-long traffic jam both ways to get into the rally.
This third photo was taken from a hill close to the highway, looking west toward the site, and someone with a technical or mathematical aptitude can click on the photo to see it full size and estimate the area by reference to the size of the trucks, RVs, etc.
Somebody put this sign on the gate to the rally site.
This 1970 Dodge Charger matches the Gadsden Flag perfectly!
As soon as I saw this jacket, I knew I had to get a picture. Semper Fi!
One of these people is a pharmacist I interviewed, and who was extremely critical of ObamaCare.
Another dangerous right-wing extremist!
According to Democrats and their media henchpeople, these are either (a) fake Astroturf stooges, bought and paid for by Corporate America, or (b) vicious ignorant kooks. Or perhaps both.
