Today the Teabag Party Express starts it 2010 World Tour in Searchlight, Nevada, home of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Organizers said they are expecting 10,000 people. It’s a little something I’m calling the Clown Show in the DesertTM
Searchlight’s population, according to teh Googles, is 798. It was 576 after the 2000 census.
Holy freakin’ clown show, Batman! This oughta be fun!
My friend who lives in Las Vegas wrote me yesterday and had this to say:
Tomorrow the Tea Baggers vomit all over Searchlight, Nevada, hometown of Sen. Harry Reid. Poor little Searchlight with their less than 1,000 population! Our little rally in support of Sen. Reid will be approximately two miles away. 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. I’m not foolish enough to think we won’t encounter any of baggers along the two-lane road in and out of Searchlight but we rented all the public venues except for the one they’re using, and we’ve got a commitment from Metro to have “dozens” (hear that? That’s the sound of a decidedly underwelmed sigh of relief) of uniformed officers out there to make sure they don’t venture anywhere they’re not supposed to. Searchlight – one restaurant, one McDonalds, and no public toilets. This should be real interesting.
Did I mention clown show?
But, actually, there will be public toilets. 38 of them according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. That’s um … divide by two…carry the four… one Port-A-Potty for every 263 Teabaggers. Man, I hope they don’t drink too much tea!
Note in my friend’s email that the local Dems rented out all the public venues in Searchlight except the one the Teabaggers are using. I love that. I also love that, in addition to their 600 brave protesting, pro-sanity folks, Reid supporters are setting up a little “hospitality tent” of their own:
Democrats and Reid’s campaign plan to set up a hospitality tent in the parking lot of a Searchlight casino that will serve tea and doughnut holes.
Heh, heh.
So here’s the big event schedule:
9:30 a.m.
Supporters begin to gather at parking lot of Harrah’s Laughlin (in Laughlin, NV, about 40 miles southeast of Searchlight).
10:20 a.m.
Expected departure time of caravan of vehicles from Laughlin to Searchlight. The caravan will be led by the official Tea Party Express buses.
11:50 a.m.
Expected arrival time of Tea Party Express caravan at the Searchlight rally site.
Noon
“Showdown in Searchlight” Tea Party rally. Location: near U.S. 95 and Coyote Mine Road.
3 p.m.
Expected departure time of the Tea Party Express caravan from Searchlight to Henderson (just outside of Las Vegas).
4 p.m.
The prerally at Henderson Pavilion has been organized by Grassroots Nevada in support of the Tea Party Express.
4:45 p.m.
Conservative author and commentator Ann Coulter will speak at the rally to welcome the Tea Party Express to Henderson.
5 p.m.
Expected arrival time of the Tea Party Express caravan at the Henderson Pavilion (final Tea Party rally of the day). Location: 200 S. Green Valley Parkway.
What’s funny is that they’ve got shuttles set up to take people from Henderson out to Searchlight and then back again but the good folks that run the Henderson Pavillion won’t let them park there all day while they go party in the desert.
So, let’s get some quotes here to set the stage for the big event. I’m sure there are going to be tons and tons of awesome pictures and video coming from this. There always is when the Teabagger Clown Show hits the road. But let’s get warmed up while we’re waiting for the eye candy to roll in, shall we?
First we have THIS from Debbie Landis, whose tea party group is holding a candidate forum before the rally
I’m confident we are going to have an orderly group. This is going to be attended by people interested in the future of their state and country, not rabble-rousers.
Seriously? These people?
Oh, yeah, I’m sure they’ll be no rousing of rabble in Searchlight. It’s not like there’s been any evidence of that kind of behavior this week, right?
Here’s a fun one, also, too:
“We’re Republican by registration, but I’d even vote for a communist right now if they would start to change the way we’re running the country,” [Norman] Halfpenny said, adding he thinks Democrats in power are leading the nation toward socialism, a Tea Party lament. “We need to get our Constitution back.”
So wait. You’ll carry signs decrying how our President and the Democrats are Commufascinazi socialists but you’d vote for a Communist right now if it meant “changing the way we’re running the country”? Here’s an idea, Bucko: how about winning an election! Because WE won last time so WE get to run the show. That’s how it works in the good ole US of A.
Democratic Party spokeswoman Phoebe Sweet in Nevada said this about the Clown Show in the DesertTM:
This is the most the Republicans have done for the economy in a long time.
Heh, heh…
Then there’s this from a guy seems to hate all politicians and apparently just showed up to watch the Clown Show:
It’s Woodstock minus the LSD.
Reminds me of that old joke: Q: “What did the Deadhead say when he ran out of pot?” A: “Man, this band sucks!” I guess if you’re into old, white people carrying angry signs and worshiping at the altar of Caribou Barbie it’ll be as cool as Woodstock. But, looking at the schedule, they get about three hours of rally time and Sarah is one of a number of speakers so they’re not going to get a whole lot of face time with her. And given her track record she’ll probably get the bus driver to spin the wheels when they leave so she can cover her devotees in Nevada dust.
This guy has some chutzpah:
I think we should eliminate this Tea Party name for this movement and just call it the American people.
Yeah, ’cause we all feel juuu-uuust like you do, right, dude? Go Cheney yourself.
Here’s Dave Alexander, t-shirt sellin’ dude:
Sarah Palin gave me the courage and the incentive to get off my La-Z-Boy and stop cussing out the politicians on TV and start getting out and do something.
Way to go, Dave! You got off your La-Z-Boy to go cuss out politicians in the desert! Yay!
Ya gotta hand it to these Teabaggers. They might be angry. They might be delusional about how many Teabaggers there really are. They might even be nearly all white. But they are nothing else if not entertaining.
And one more bit of positively hilarious Nevada Teabagger awesomeness:
A Nevada asphalt contractor who is running under the Tea Party of Nevada banner to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been hit with felony theft and bad check charges in Las Vegas.
I leave you with a parting quote from Virginia Shuda of Bullhead City, Arizona:
I think it’s going to be a historical thing.
No, sweetheart. What’s historical is the passage of the most comprehensive reform of our failing health insurance system in the history of the country. THAT is “a historical thing”.
UPDATE: You can watch the “FOX News Live Stream” HERE. You know, if you can stomach it. Also, you can follow the Twitter hashtag #searchlight (they’re so creative, these teabaggers.)
Also, here’s one of the first pictures I have seen. No violent rhetoric here, right?
UPDATE 2: Tweeter iDefendFreedom says:
The road to searchlight is filled with tcot patriots!! yfrog.com/4onscj
But strangely has this picture linked:
Tweeter mytngenes tweets:
Patriots. Beware of Plants in crowd. They’ll try 2 discredit all of you. If someone has racist signs or words, they’re plants!
Fox News dude on the live stream is bitching about how cold it is.
“I have grit in my teeth from the dust. We’re literally like in this dirt patch in the middle of nowhere.”
UPDATE 3: New photo, classy teabaggers, as usual.
Also, thestrippodcast is doing some hilarious tweeting. Like this one:
Ahh we’re on 95 now, only road to Searchlight. Cars moving ok cuz Harry Reid got this road widened. Socialist!
UPDATE 4: Oh, look! A black guy! Someone found a black guy!
I wonder how those 38 poor Port-a-Potties are holding out?
Harry Reid’s off shooting his gun. Clearly not too bothered by the Clown Show in the DesertTM.
Apparently FOX News is reporting that it’s “possible” there are “more than 10,000” attendees.
I’m just sayin’…
P.S. Update and wrap-up of the Big Day HERE.
============
Can I get a Digg?
