Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

The willow is too close to the house.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Come on, man.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

In after Baud. Damn.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

You are here: Home / Conservative Woodstock

Conservative Woodstock

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This post is in: 

Does anyone know of a place that is live-blogging this stuff?

Tea Party activists are kicking off a grand national tour this weekend with an event targeting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in his small home town of Searchlight, Nevada — an event that Tea Party Express describes as a “conservative Woodstock.”

Let’s hope they heed Ann Althouse’s words of wisdom (I mean this sincerely):

Tea Partiers need to maintain a strong culture of peaceful friendliness. Please don’t rampage through the city.

Update. Here’s some coverage at GOS.

Reader Interactions

119Comments

  1. 1.

    debit

    People, including me, are commenting at the GOS in this thread. There’s really nothing to live blog yet. Just people standing around, not doing anything.

  2. 2.

    Martin

    I heard it was now Conservative Burning Man. Let’s hope that doesn’t involve hoods and a cross, or frolicking in the desert in your favorite wetsuit.

  5. 5.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    I guess I commented in the wrong thread.

    At TPM they’re calling it “Right Wing Burning Man”.

    So, if Burning Man is something where people go into the desert and lose all of their habitual daily routines and normal ways of being, for Tea Baggers does this mean that they go somewhere and experiment with standing around being well-informed, non-hysterical and polite?

  8. 8.

    mr. whipple

    Does anyone know of a place that is live-blogging this stuff?

    Don’t know about blogging, but I’m sure FUX will have round the clock coverage.

  9. 9.

    Peter J

    I recommend Ang Lee’s movie.

    Also, Fox Searchlight should do a movie about the events in Searchlight. A horror movie.

  10. 10.

    Lev

    Good, because the “X, just for conservatives” formula has never gone wrong before.

    BTW, is the 1/2 Hour News Hour still on? Even the title was trying too hard.

  11. 11.

    JGabriel

    Conservative Woodstock

    Shouldn’t that be: a MockStock?

    Ooh, ooh, wait, I’ve got an even better one — since we’re talking about wingers, maybe we can call it: AmokStock!

    Damn, I slay me sometimes.

    [Pause]

    [Looks around awkwardly at silent glares]

    Fuck, you’re a tough audience.

    .

  12. 12.

    scav

    I really don’t think I can take this amount of cognitive dissonance. I’m going to go wait it out in a nice, safe, sound-proofed, tin-foil lined, padded airlock somewhere. Take good notes.

  15. 15.

    Short Bus Bully

    Okay, I know what hippies do for fun at Woodstock; get high, have sex and play music. Makes sense.

    This is such a terribly loaded question that I wonder if I should even bother asking it: WHAT DO WINGERS DO FOR FUN?

  16. 16.

    Susan Kitchens

    Reading the post at the GOS. the quote that is most full of win is from Dem Party Spokesperson Phoebe Sweet:

    This is the most the Republicans have done for the economy in a long time.

    Too, too, right. Here’s hoping that when they all traipse to Henderson afterwards, they spend lotta money there, too.

    I’ve family in the area, and I canvassed for Obama in Henderson, NV Sept 08 leading up to the election. I got to see the housing market devastation street by street. You wouldn’t believe the number of empty houses, bank owned, papers piled up, etc. So go, Tea-peeps, go! Spend lotta your bucks there. Also, too.

  17. 17.

    Polish the Guillotines

    Gotta come up with a name for this. All the elements are there: teabagging, wood, fear, anger….

    First thoughts:

    Petrified Woodstock
    Whitestock
    Hoodstock
    Poutstock
    Shoutstock

    We can do this, people.

  20. 20.

    Susan Kitchens

    @Polish the Guillotines:

    Searchlight.

    Looking in vain for an honest man.

    What was the name of the guy with the lamp, on the lookout for an honest man?

  29. 29.

    Susan Kitchens

    @Polish the Guillotines:

    Thanks. A cynic, eh? That makes me giggle.

    Well, we can’t go mentioning a name like that in conjunction with a pure, Real American endeavor like the holy rolling empire-driven tea-swillin, meet-me-in-the-parking-lot of the Laughlin casino crap-shootin did I say holy rollin? gatherin you betcha they’re having today. They’ll think the guy with a name like Diogenes was a ferrin soundin’ terrist name or something.

  30. 30.

    Pasquinade

    Palin campaigned for McCain earlier today

    @pourmecoffee: McCain having trouble remembering what he believes anymore. Has to look at Palins hand.

    deuce788: #Palin mentions limited gov…. Must be recalling limiting herself to half term…

    @tllanes: Having #Palin campaign with #McCain a second time is like knocking a second hole in your boat to let the water out.

    #Palin waits, crowd cheers, as man is tossed out. Then she says #McCain suffered in prison overseas so protester has right to speak.

  32. 32.

    Susan Kitchens

    whoa. I’m in moderation. oh. because this is taking place in the great state of Nevada, and they have those houses of gam-bling, a three-syllable word which begins with the letter C, my comment is in moderation.

  37. 37.

    scav

    Lockstock — — only I can’t get it to work right between Lock Stock & Barrel and Lockstep. Oh, and I think I’m amending my first choice to WouldNOT!stock to catch the energy.

  40. 40.

    Pasquinade

    @Peter J

    Also, Fox Searchlight should do a movie about the events in Searchlight. A horror movie.

    A zombie movie, a teabagger Zombieland. Sam Rami could direct a remake of “Army of Darkness”.

  42. 42.

    TR

    Also, Fox Searchlight should do a movie about the events in Searchlight. A horror movie.

    I believe it was already released as “The Hills Have Eyes.”

  43. 43.

    Susan Kitchens

    Hey, while they’re out there, those freedom lovers, do you think this’ll tip the balance in favor of that high speed rail project from mickey mouse central to sin city?

    Cause I’d like to go on that train. The commute from this part of the world (in the greater DIS metropolis) to that part of the world (no I don’t visit for the casinos) to see fambly (but nieces!) gums up them soshulist* asphalt-widening gummint funded department of transportation highways with all those God Gave Us Cars So We Can Spew More Carbon in this Desert Traffic Jam youbetcha cars on interstate 15.

    *spam filter deliberate misspelling

  44. 44.

    ajr22

    I tried to watch a few minutes of Palin’s speech at the John “we are all teabaggers” rally, and I had to turn off the tv after thirty seconds. She just started making teleprompter jokes, and talking about notes on her hand. She is so dumb it has gotten to the point were listening to her speak for 30 seconds makes me want to cry. Her sound bites are so stale already. As Bill Maher said last night “how is all the hopey changey stuff going”…Pretty fucking good thanks for asking.

  46. 46.

    licensed to kill time

    This is what Harry Reid said yesterday about it:

    Late Update: Reid’s campaign sends us this statement, from Reid himself: “Searchlight doesn’t get many tourists so I’m glad they are choosing to bring all their out-of-state money to my hometown. The influx of money will do the town some good. I encourage everyone to drop by the Nugget to say hello to Verlie and grab a 10 cent cup of coffee.”

    Keep those teabagger dimes rollin’ in, and take more of the brown acid!

    ETA – I vote for Laughingstock!

  47. 47.

    patrick II

    Searchlight resident quoted at Kos
    “With only 600 of us to their 10,000, we’ll be seriously outnumbered, but hey, we couldn’t afford to pay the way of everyone in the country who wanted to come to Vegas for the day like they did. ”

    Which makes me wonder — is he right? Is someone paying for this? Who’s renting the buses? Is this on the teabagger’s own dime? If it is, who has this much time and money?
    I’d like to go on a national woodstock tour too– if someone will just pay my way. I’ll start in California and work my way east, and I promise to finish before the Nov elections and to carry a nice hand written sign in John Boener’s home town saying he’s not really that bad a guy for a man who voted for continuing to allow 45,000 people a year to die from lack of health care.

  51. 51.

    MikeTheZ

    @licensed to kill time: I rescind my nomination and continue the motion for Laughingstock.

    I ask if we have enough consensus for a vote to officially dub the TeaBagger gathering Laughingstock.

    (No, I have not watched too much CSPAN lately, thanks for asking).

  54. 54.

    trollhattan

    Why isn’t B.O.B. live-blogging this for us? We know he’s there, wearing a Glenn Beck onesie and waving…what do you suppose B.O.B is waving?

  55. 55.

    Pasquinade

    @shpilk‎ I want to thank everyone at Searchlight cuz the circus didn’t make it here this year.

    @DannyTarkanian* – On our way to Searchlight!Team Tark! [Sorry I couldn’t make it..will catch ya in Carson City~ next month’s fund raiser

    *drafted by the San Antonio Spurs in the 1984 NBA Draft in Round

    @Newstalk 720 KDWN‎ Harry Reid supporters “egg” busses from the Tea Party Express as they travel past the Searchlight Nugget

    @whisper1111: sarah palin is proof that when you put lipstick on a pig, people will come to watch it talk

  56. 56.

    Uloborus

    @Mnemosyne:
    My dad VOTED for Shrub in the first election. Really, honestly bought the ‘compassionate conservative’ line that he was a moderate. In the run-up to the Iraq war would insist to me that Bush was playing a smart rhetorical game to give Saddam no way to wiggle past UN restrictions, but had no actual intention of going to war.

    He is now afflicted with shame and guilt like you would not believe.

  57. 57.

    GregB

    Tea-bag Stock Announcement:

    Please don’t drink from the brown tea-bags.

    Please don’t drink from the brown tea-bags.

  58. 58.

    patrick II

    I misspelled Boehner as Boener above. Sorry, I am not a very good speller and I tend to spell things based on how I pronounce them. And I have been calling him a boener for a while now.

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    @Uloborus:

    Unfortunately, my dad moved to Arizona and fell in with a very bizarre libertarian crowd. He was always a Republican, but he didn’t get really nutty until he started watching Fox News and listening to Rush Limbaugh.

    We had a whole conversation with him and my mom over Christmas where they simultaneously complained about “Obamacare” setting up death panels and talked about the great care that my brother’s dying friend was getting from Medicaid, so clearly there were no problems with our system.

    They keep wondering why I don’t visit or call them on the phone very much.

  62. 62.

    MikeTheZ

    @Uloborus: Reminds me of John’s Post of Infinite Shame the other day. Can’t fix the past, can only learn from it and not repeat the same mistakes.

  66. 66.

    Pasquinade

    Palin will be speaking this afternoon at Searchlight.

    @Marnus3: Sarah Palin is the darling of the enlarged prostate crowd

    @Marnus3: If you lose the audio of the Palin speech, you can simulate the sound by scraping your fingernails across a blackboard

    @Yo_Squirrely‎ Every man over 50 in this traffic heading to Searchlight is thinking, “30 is not a lot of portapotties.”

  67. 67.

    FlipYrWhig

    If the Wall Street wing of the Republican party did one of these gatherings, they could call it MarketStock.

  70. 70.

    Common Sense

    @GregB:

    Please don’t drink from the brown tea-bags.

    Silly Greg — there are no brown teabags, only white.

  74. 74.

    mistersnrub

    Slightly OT:

    A NYTimes profile of Teabaggers

    Choice quote:
    Mr. Grimes, who receives Social Security, has filled the back seat of his Mercury Grand Marquis with the literature of the movement, including Glenn Beck’s “Arguing With Idiots” and Frederic Bastiat’s “The Law,” which denounces public benefits as “false philanthropy.”

    Sigh.

  77. 77.

    JenJen

    Re: my earlier posts in the open thread about today’s McCain-Palin Rally: Video of protester being ejected here.

    Love how Sarah implores the man to “stick around” and then he’s dragged right on outta there. I bet everyone there immediately assumed the guy was a DFH, but my money’s on him being a JD Hayworth supporter. And THEN she lectures him about how McCain was, you know, a POW. Just as the guy is being roughed up for, you know, speaking freely.

    Mavericky!

    There was a second protester later, haven’t found video of that yet.

  78. 78.

    LuciaMia

    So, the only reason they’re gathering at this dusty, tiny town is cause it’s Harry Reid’s hometown? Ahhhh, good plan!

    Now if they wanted to protest at someones hometown, why not Obama’s? Hawaii would be so lovely at this time of year and…oh, wait.

  80. 80.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Pasquinade: Honestly, from those films I’ve seen, I’m not sure if I saw tea baggers on acid that I would know the difference.

    As if “Oh look, they’re acting all paranoid and crazy!” would be some sort of departure.

  81. 81.

    Pasquinade

    FReeper added SATIRE to post heading…guess too many of them failed to notice that it was.

    heh

  82. 82.

    JenJen

    Love that the Kos thread linked to in the OP includes Bill Maher’s “New Rules” segment from last night. It was so funny, my friends and I were howlin’!! Do not miss!

  83. 83.

    Pasquinade

    Tea Partiers’ Showdown in the Nevada Desert

    Tea Partiers from across the West have descended in their Winnebagos and pickups on tiny Searchlight, Nevada, former gold-mining capital of Clark County, and, more importantly, hometown of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. They’re here for the Tea Party Express’ “Showdown in Searchlight,” a conservative mega-rally (Sarah Palin is the featured speaker) in the Mojave that boosters have rebranded the “Conservative Woodstock.” Burning Man might be more like it. The timing is impeccable: One week after the biggest progressive victory in two generations, conservatives are quite literally wandering in the desert.

    Searchlight is about as big as it sounds; Senator Reid is 1/700th of the entire population…

    http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/03/long-days-journey-searchlight

  84. 84.

    HRA

    @Pasquinade:

    I couldn’t handle her screechy voice another second. It was amusing to see Palin squirm while Cindy McCain went on and on about Todd Palin.

    The first protester looked like he was leaving when he was grabbed and dragged out for the cameras.

  85. 85.

    Liberty60

    @cleek:

    laughingstock

    FTW

    By the way, one of the commenters at TPM urges the Tea-hippies-
    “Dudes, don’t eat the brown antacid!”

    Although I wonder if they will all be singing “Free Market! Oh, Free Market!”

  86. 86.

    MikeTheZ

    @JenJen: He posted the last 5 or so minutes (after he started on the “You can’t threaten to not cooperate…”) on HuffPo yesterday. Its priceless. I loved it!

    ZOMBIE NANCY SMASH!

  87. 87.

    JenJen

    If these Teabaggers hate Reid this much, wow, oh boy, they’re really gonna hate a Big New York Jew like Schumer, or a Member of the Chicago Political Machine like Durbin. Do they not get that we’ll just replace Reid? It’s not like they’re winning back the Senate.

    Such good times ahead!! Oh, yay.

    @MikeTheZ: I almost peed my pants when he was going through Tiger’s naughty texts. One of the funniest “New Rules” segments ever! “Thank Will.” ;-)

  88. 88.

    Pasquinade

    @cryptonomicon2 Without enough portapotties in #Searchlight, the #Palin #teabaggers will be watering the cactuses instead of the tree of liberty.

    @whisper1111‎ news from #searchlight: “there’s some bad viagra being passed around..avoid the orange barrelled viagra”

    @mediaite: Bill Maher: John McCain’s Hanoi Prison Time “Better Than Being On Campaign Trail” With Palin …

    @TheStripPodcast: Palin up in updo, makes joke about TelePrompTer but reads speech off paper. The difference?!?!

  90. 90.

    Uloborus

    @mistersnrub:
    I disagree with all suggestions that the Teabaggers are lacking in self-awareness for living on Government largess. I’m sure some are simply ignorant, but there is actually a deeper reasoning. It is completely in line with their central theme of tribalism.

    Tribalism cancels out all of the arguments against social services. The difference is that the Tea Bagger *needs* and *deserves* their government handout, unlike a welfare queen. Of course, the entire system is generically offensive, but by taking part in it, the Tea Bagger is making sure that the money that’s been stolen from him and his honest, hard-working neighbors all his life is coming back to where it belongs. Since these programs are here to stay, it is the Tea Bagger’s *moral duty* to see that they at least end up benefiting the Real Americans who pay for them.

    You see how this goes? If you’re one of the Chosen People, charity is something you’re owed. If you’re one of Them, charity is wasted on you. It’s the twin sibling of ‘I’ve Got Mine, Fuck You’.

  91. 91.

    Polish the Guillotines

    Wow — lots of really great stuff, but I must say, Galtamont is so full of win at every level.

    If it was only up to me, @gbear would be declared the thread winner. I hope the front-pagers make this a tag.

    Brilliant.

  92. 92.

    ME

    Just people standing around, not doing anything.

    This line from the 1st post here contained the entire essence of the Tea Party.

  94. 94.

    Mnemosyne

    @Uloborus:

    I’ve also seen it expressed as, “All of those black and brown people are cheating the system, so why shouldn’t I?”

  95. 95.

    Pasquinade

    lol

    @hmfearny‎ Reid supporters threw eggs at the Teaparty Express bus and @andrewbreitbart

    Yeah, like anyone would actually recognize Breitbart, but cheers for them if they did.

  96. 96.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Uloborus:

    Tribalism cancels out all of the arguments against social services. The difference is that the Tea Bagger needs and deserves their government handout, unlike a welfare queen

    Nailed it. I think the word “earn” helps a lot too: a tea partier might get help from the government, but he earned it, and he’d prefer not to, and accepts it grudgingly, but, like Mnemosyne points out, better him than some mooching parasite. There are Other People out there who get help from the government, and They actually LIKE IT, the sick freaks!

    You can accept help and not like it. You’d better not _demand_ a _handout_ and _wallow_ in it. Distinguishing the one from the other is, as you point out, an exercise in tribalism.

  97. 97.

    Gordon, The Big Express Engine

    @Uloborus: Your comment reminds of those fringe LDS chuches on the Ariz/Utah border towns. They embody the very thing you describe.

  98. 98.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Pasquinade: Or that the eggers would be obvious “Reid” supporters and not “WTF is wrong with you buses full of out-of-state dumbfucks” supporters.

  99. 99.

    Cacti

    I’m sure Searchlight will be happy to have all the “rugged individualists” pump their Social Security checks into the slot machines.

  103. 103.

    Urza

    As CNN plays a clip of the desert exodus, I have a question.

    Why don’t they go to San Francisco for a rally against Pelosi since she had far more to do with winning than Reid?

  104. 104.

    Mnemosyne

    @Urza:

    Because a huge number of teabaggers are snowbirds (see my dad above) so you can get a lot of people to come in from places like Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada. You’re not going to get those same people to spend $200 a night on a hotel room in San Francisco when they can spend $85 a night in Henderson and gamble, too.

  105. 105.

    Libby

    Have to admit I was leaning toward Laughingstock until gbear popped in with Galtamont. It’s just so really full of win. And those Eagles guys can be their Hell’s Angels.

  106. 106.

    JackieBinAZ

    This is such a terribly loaded question that I wonder if I should even bother asking it: WHAT DO WINGERS DO FOR FUN?

    There probably won’t be a lot of black people to spit on but maybe they’ll be able to find a Parkinson’s victim to mock.

  107. 107.

    Urza

    Actually Mnemosyne, while you are of course right, I think the other reason is they wouldn’t dare go to a place where they would be outnumbered and enough people would counter protest to show up on the videos.

  108. 108.

    YellowJournalism

    @JenJen: Best part was seeing the looks on Randi Weingarten’s face. You could tell she wasn’t so comfortable with being around that kind of talk. The Sarah Palin stuff had me nodding gleefully in agreement.

  109. 109.

    machine

    A gathering of angry, vengeful people milling around in Nevada, under the banner of Randall Flagg. All that’s missing is Trash Can Man.

  110. 110.

    phoebes in santa fe

    @Uloborus: You know, a lot of good people voted for Bush in 2000. He did quite the number on voters. However, most of the good people “woke up” by 2004 and didn’t vote for Bush again. I assume that’s your father, too. You tell him for me that voting for Bush in 2000 is nothing to be ashamed of. Voting for Bush in 2004 WOULD BE shameful.

    (For the record, this good Dem didn’t vote for Bush in 2000. But I do know people who did).

  111. 111.

    Midnight Marauder

    @gbear:

    Has anyone called it Galtamont yet? Do I win anything?

    No disrespect, Laughingstock, but this is pretty fucking good.

    Almost as good as the last 53.4 seconds of the Butler-Kansas State game.

  113. 113.

    morzer

    Can ‘t we just called it Moochstock, given that half of the crazies are mooching off the government they denounce?

  114. 114.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    Tea Partiers need to maintain pretend they have a strong culture of peaceful friendliness. Please don’t rampage through the city this time.

    Fix’t.

    @trollhattan:

    His widdle weenie. He put his Glenn Beck one-piece jams on backwards just for the event.

    gbear with Galtamont FTW. Roll up the internets and put them in your back pocket, they is all yours today.

  115. 115.

    Kevin Phillips Bong

    Rampaging through the “city” of Searchlight takes about 45 seconds, slightly longer if you obey the speed limit signs.

  116. 116.

    Mnemosyne

    My suspicion about the kind of people who showed up for the “conservative Woodstock” appears to be correct:

    Leonard Grimes, a 70-year-old retired logger, said the nation is drifting toward socialism, and he’s not convinced Obama is eligible to be president.
    __
    “I’d like him to prove he’s an American citizen,” said Grimes, a registered independent who is originally from Michigan but now lives in Golden Valley, Ariz.

    According to police estimates, there were about 7,000 people there, which is 3,000 short of the projected attendance. Heh.

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