Semi-Automatic in Vegas
From the Augustus Tower at Caesar's Palace
At this noon hour on Sunday Michelle Obama is up speaking a few miles away from here in North Las Vegas. Alas, comrades, I failed you. Didn't make it up in time to get there early enough to get a spot.
I was up way too late last night doing my own unscientific polling. I can report that the crowds inside the wold-famous but quite humble Lotus Siam restaurant on Sahara and the clientele at the Fireside Lounge inside the Peppermill, were wall-to-wall pro-Obama.
There was a bit of a summer camp atmosphere in both places as they teeemed with campaign volunteers, loads of them from California. It was sort of a night out on L.A. westside.
I did have an amusing conversation with a trio of young L.A. Obama volunteers who killed a few hours of leisure time by heading over to The Gun Store over on Tropicana. This places rents out guns, including fully automatic machine guns, to fire off in their closed range. The three had come in wearing Obama t-shirts and got SERIOUSLY razzed by the pro-Second Amendment staff behind the counter. "Obama's gonna take our guns away, isn't he? He's gonna quadruple the tax on ammunition?...." Then these jolly folks offered the Obama kids a variety of carboard targets to fire at: a lurching black man in overalls. A terrorist with a suicide belt on.
When I went to the same store in 1993 they had a poster of Hillary Clinton with a hammer and sickle super-imposed over her face. Nice place.
I've been watching CNN this morning, meanwhile, and I can report that they have run plumb out of news on this campaign. It's so silly it's rather hard to watch for more than 5 minutes.
So here's my plan for the day. A little lunch. NO canvassing today. And at 5pm I'll be heading to the Henderson neighborhood... to personally witness a small but significant piece of history. GOP presidential candidate John McCain will be holding one of his last ever national campaign events.
Next stop: a Viagra commercial.
I'll say hello to John for you.
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
The polls are tightening! The polls are tightening!
That’s a lot of what I am hearing today. And so is the hook around John McCain coming from stage right.
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:11 pm
35 years ago, when I was the only long haired white boy in an African American History class at Westchester High in Playa Del Rey, I couldn’t even have begun to imagine what is about to take place tomorrow.
History is about to be made, and I am thrilled as never before about politics.
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:41 pm
Whoa. Heavy ick about the shooting range targets.
I just went over to the little local Dem office to pick up the gear for my “greeter table” at my polling station. What I am actually there for is to contact the posse should anyone be challenged…infrastructure is set up to alert media, a lawyer, get people to sign in as they vote, interact with poll watcher who will alert phone bank to start calling those who havent voted before the polls close.
Its a bloody D day operation.
I mean are supposed to have to have a posse to protect the vote? Is this a Banana Republic…where the US put the Banana in the republic. Jesus. Isn’t anyone outraged or writing op eds about this crap. So much for spreading democracy.
It also occurred to me that these networks should not be disbanded. They will be needed more than ever to actually begin to implement “change”.
Got a very cool Obama sign to put up:
CHANJMAN
NOU BEZWEN
Its Creole. Dig Wyclef
http://politicalmusic.wordpress.com/2008/10/27/wyclef-for-obama-in-creole-chanjman-nou-bezwen/
November 3rd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Big Sigh (of relief and anticipation).
This has been a long time coming. Obama is not going to be any panacea as reg his usefully and fairly reminded us.
But.
I am still very excited. He is, of course, a break from the clown W, but he is likely to be very different from what we’re used to. Obama possess rare traits, ones that few presidents have ever had. His speech on race is sufficient evidence for that claim. He truly does have the ability to be a transformational figure, especially if certain elements of our nation really do intend to put country first.
Sadly the people or events that have sincerely been able to generate inspiration in politics are rare. They include Wellstone’s election to the Senate against all odds. They also include standing next to then Republican Dean Johnson as he broke with his colleagues and gave a speech on the floor of the Senate in support of the Human Rights Act prohibiting discrimination against gays in Minnesota.
Obama’s election may prove to be one of those moments. I don’t think we shold lose sight of the fact that, if Obama wins, this country will have done something absolutely unthinkable in the recent past.
Pick your figure; Teddy or Franklin Roosevelt, JFK, whomever. All of them flawed, but all of them inspirational and transformative. There is a good chance we’re about to elect another such figure.
I’m excited. And inspired.
November 3rd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Viagra ? I think McCain could better serve as the new Tidy Bowl Man, circling the drain, with a cameo by Joe the Plumber.
November 3rd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Obama’s Grandmother died today, making tomorrow even more poignant.
November 3rd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
i wish to be more confident like you
November 3rd, 2008 at 3:30 pm
On Obama’s grandmother:
http://michael-balter.blogspot.com/2008/11/obamas-grandma-rip.html
November 3rd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Without snarky comments….
Obama Nevada Campaign Director Dies At 44
I was sorry to learn about the passing of Obama’s grandmother.
November 3rd, 2008 at 3:45 pm
As there’s not really much more to say, at this point anyway, I will act against my better senses and give Roper some attention he surely doesn’t deserve. Here’s his latest blog post…
“IF the Obamaturd wins this election:
I will not support him
I will never Ever pray for him
I will not refer to him as my President
I will not respect him
No. No way. NOPE to the DOPE!
I will ridicule him. Bash him. Disrespect him. Daunt him. Despise him, openly. I shall castigate him at every opportunity and every misstep he makes. I will ridicule every proposal he makes and note how ignorant he is especially the way he speaks without a teleprompter. I would compare his intelligence to that of a retarded turnip except that I have a high regard for retarded turnips. I shall post the death of all Americans anywhere at any time as a result of his misguided and stupid foreign policy initiatives, and I shall cuss out and call frightful names all of his supporters. Rightard I shall become. Obama Derangement Syndrome I shall acquire and nurture it in the depths of my soul. I shall purchase all kinds of guns and ammo and large capacity magazines for self defense. I shall not take anything from him that he has stolen from others even if he does call it sharing the wealth. I shall treat him and his socialist government EXACTLY as the left has treated the Republic, the Republicans, Conservatives and George W. Bush! I will claim that he stole the election via illegal registrations/votes and illegal donations.
This I shall do!
GM Roper
November 3rd, 2008 at 3:52 pm
http://www.studsterkel.org/
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Hitchens, in a very good column, on the simply disgraceful attacks on Khalidi about which liberals–including Thomas Friedman who knows Khalidi well– have been far too silent
“I put the word moderate in quotation marks above because I dislike employing it in its usual form. Rashid Khalidi’s family is a famous one in Jerusalem, long respected by Arab and Christian and Jew and Druze and Armenian, and holding a celebrated house and position in the city since approximately the time of the Crusades. I have had the honor of being invited to this very house. If Rashid chooses to state that he doesn’t care to be evicted from his ancestral home in order to make way for some settler from Brooklyn who claims to have God on his side, I think he has a perfect right to say so. I would go further and say that if Barack Obama was looking for a Palestinian friend, he could not have chosen any better. But perhaps John McCain has decided that he doesn’t need any Palestinian friends and neither do we. Perhaps he thinks it’s all right to refer to refugees and victims of occupation, who have been promised self-determination and statehood at the podium of the United Nations and the U.S. Congress by George Bush and Condoleezza Rice, as if they were Hitlerites. How shameful. How disgusting. How ignorant.
One could go a step further and say that many Israelis have used the words apartheid and terrorist to describe at least some of their government’s policies. In just the same way, one could note that Khalidi has clearly denounced violence when used by his “own” side, and also—this I remember very well from meeting him in Beirut in the 1970s and ’80s—when employed by regimes like the Syrian. But somehow this evidence and this reflection has become beside the point. McCain saw a chance to deal a cheap and low blow, and he had the ideally ignorant deputy to reinforce him. The slander, after all, might get them through another news cycle and perhaps adhere some defamatory mud to their opponent. Who cares that it made the United States of America look thuggish and ignorant and petty in the eyes of any thinking person in the Middle East? Anyone who does care should be getting ready to vote against this humiliating ticket, a team that so farcically and horribly unites the senescent and the puerile.”
http://www.slate.com/id/2203619/
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Jeeezus Ahmed, the poor bastard’s even crazier than I thought. That’s sad post indeed by Roper, and I can’t stand the guy.
On Hitchens, I appreciate his defense of Khaladi and his tepidly endorsing Obama, but the truth is that if he followed his own advice and instincts, in the light of what he’s been dishing out fervently these past years as a “single issue voter” allied with the most militant neocons, he’d swallow his intellectual pride and pull the lever for McCain-Paliin. This is the crowd he’s been hanging with on the biggest issues and I rather think he’s selling out McCain, who was as eager as The Hitch to invade Iraq and as unflagging in his support for their joint struggle to save The West from “Islamofascism.”
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Perhaps Hitchens does not want to be left out in the political cold after Obama is elected, or perhaps he genuinely regrets some of his positions of the past several years. Either way, he is a useful idiot at this point in time.
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
“useful idiot”….Ouch!
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I’m happy to report that The 700 Club is predicting an Obama win by something like 283 EVs. That’s considerably lower than it will actually be, but kudos to them for taking their heads out of the sand for a day.
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:22 pm
That is just the 700 Club’s way of holding out their hands for more money, thinks me.
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:27 pm
They were also complaining that the Democrats want a filibuster-proof majority. Because then there wouldn’t be any checks and balances. It’s funny that those are two things they care about now.
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:30 pm
The horror. The horror
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Ahmed, what Roper wrote isn’t half as bad as the way you guys, especially reg, have acted over the past eight years.
You claimed that Bush was selected rather than elected, so G.M. merely states that Obama can be elected but not respected.
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:45 pm
GM is preemptively accusing Obama of election fraud. We at least waited for Bush’s people to actually do it. Also, after illegitimately becoming president he failed to prevent the worst terrorist attack on US soil and used it as an excuse to go to war with a sovereign country (while using lies and forged evidence), causing the death of thousands of American and coalition soldiers and many, many more innocent civilians. Wow, we have been waaaayyy out of line these past few years.
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I forgot to mention the trampling of the Constitution and many peoples’ human rights. Not just of life, but also the spying and imprisonment without trial.
November 3rd, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Weather Forecast for election day, but everyone knows that rain doesn’t make a difference in black turnout.
National Weather Service – Probability of Precipitation
Weather.com – On Election Day, Republicans Should Hope for Rain
Weather Underground – Rain hurts Democrats and helps Republicans
Enjoy your rain in southern California tomorrow.
November 3rd, 2008 at 6:53 pm
No sweat, early voting by Black voters is already reaching huge numbers across the country. And California is sealed up for Obama, remember?
November 3rd, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Oh, did I forget to say that ignorant fools like Woody will be irrelevant after tomorrow?
November 3rd, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Watch the Republicans try to drag this out with bullshit ACORN conspiracy theories, all the while providing cover while Bush attacks Iran and Obama enters the White House in a shit storm for which he’s had no time to prepare.
November 3rd, 2008 at 7:45 pm
DEWEY WINS!
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Oh, did I forget to say that ignorant fools like Woody will be irrelevant after tomorrow?
That train left the station long ago.
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:51 pm
“Obama can be elected but not respected.”
Roper won’t be the arbiter of that. Not even a little bit. He does, however, have some control over whether he, himself, is deserving of any respect. And he’s chosen to be deserving of nothing less than contempt. Assuming anyone this side of “Atlas Shagged” will give a shit in 24 hours…
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I happen not to be a fan of Olberman, but even if you are, this is funny:
http://tinyurl.com/5oth3l
November 4th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Irrelevant? So, Obama won’t be the President of all the people but just those with their hands out, huh?
November 4th, 2008 at 8:49 am
It’s true that certain viewpoints will not be adequately represented after today. Racism, stupidity, ignorance, and vapidity will have to search out new voices and representatives, or perhaps the old ones will do just fine. I’m not too worried about it, though.