Stephen Gordon on Rachel Maddow Show

(BUMPED; UPDATED) Talking Tea Party:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Right now, I’m staying at Gordo’s house in Hartselle, Alabama. Will be speaking today at 5 p.m. in Tuscaloosa at the University Quad, then hot-wheeling over to Hoover for the 6:30 p.m. event at Veteran’s Park.

UPDATE: BTW, where are those “right-wing billionaires” when you need them? Instead of flying in on a private jet, I drove 700 miles to get here. Then, because Gordo had fallen asleep and didn’t hear his phone ringing, I slept in my car for a couple of hours.

To update a little more of what’s gone online while I was offline for 18 hours:

• Patrick Ruffini pushes back against the Left’s “authenticity” meme.
• Michelle Malkin documents the history of the Tea Party movement.
• Michelle also punk-smacks Paul Ryan (tea-bagging my man-crush!)
• Glenn Reynolds tea-bags the Wall Street Journal.
• Right-Wing Extremist Pride!
• Extremist Round-Up.
• Tea Party Round-Up.

Tons of more stuff at Memeorandum, including a few examples of today’s JournoList-approved Meme O’ Th’ Day: “Oh, those silly right-wingers.” Matt Taibbi mocks:

This new Holy Trinity of right-wing basket cases has been pushing all sorts of crazy hallucinations of late. . . . It’s like a Farrelly Brothers version of right-wing political agitation.

Marc Cooper at the L.A. Times:

Go to a hobby store. Buy a scale model of a U.N. One-World-Government Black Helicopter and a tube of glue. Toss the model kit. Sniff the entire tube of glue. You’re all set for the party.

And of course, that sober empiricist Sully:

[T]hey deserve to be dismissed as performance artists in a desperate search for coherence in an age that has left them bewilderingly behind.

Leave your behind out of this, Andrew.

UPDATE: For anyone tempted to discouragement by such elitist snark, let me share a comment I made at Hot Air’s Green Room:

It’s important to understand the insight that someone shared with me last year: “The Ron Paul movement wasn’t about Ron Paul. It was about a movement.”
Could anyone reasonably claim that John McCain represented a movement?
Conservatives need to re-learn the idea of building a movement, instead of sitting around passively waiting for the Next Ronald Reagan to just magically appear.

People tend to get the kind of leadership they deserve. During the Bush years, the conservative grassroots developed a sort of inert passivity, waiting around for GOP HQ to tell them what the important issues were and what the appropriate messages were. This top-down, hierarchical model of organization was somewhat successful, so long as the Democrats were willing to play by the same rules.

What happened, however, was that after the Kerry debacle in 2004 people like Markos Moulitsas told the activist base of the Democratic Party that they should stop sitting around waiting for Bob Shrum to figure out a winning strategy. Instead, they started organizing at the grassroots level and just plain raising hell, and pretty soon the Democrats in Washington said, “Hey, who are those guys?”

Next thing you knew, Hillary, Edwards, Pelosi and everybody else was kowtowing to the grassroots, Joe Lieberman was walking the plank and — lo and behold! — the Democrats took back Congress in 2006, maintained the momentum and won the White House in 2008.

So if you’re a conservative out there in Ohio or Florida or Colorado who’s waiting for RNC HQ to save the GOP, you’re part of the problem. If you want to be part of the solution, you’ve got to become an activist. You’ve got to organize.

Create a movement, and don’t worry about who the leader of the movement is. Be your own leader.

WOLVERINES! HIT THE TIP JAR!

UPDATE 1:30 p.m. CDT: One of Stephen’s friends who is a student at the University of Alabama has invited us to visit him before the Tuscaloosa event. So I’ll soon be on a campus abloom with beautiful ‘Bama belles. A tough job, but somebody’s got to do it . . .

UPDATE 1:50 p.m. CDT: Small world: I sent an e-mail to some old Delta House buddies from Jacksonville (Ala.) State, and got a reply from Robin Nee of Tullahoma, Tenn., whose husband Larry founded the Deltas:

Larry & I are a couple of right wing fools who plan tospeak up for what we believe in today at 4:30 p.m.(CT) South Jackson St. Tullahoma at our local Tea Party.
My sign says: “You can’t fix Stupid, but you can VOTE IT OUT!
Larry’s says: “Way To Go FORD…for not taking the Bailout…too many strings!”

Larry loves him some Fords. You ought to see him at Talladega. No, wait: You ought to see Robin at Talladega.

UPDATE 2 p.m. CDT: “When fascism comes to America, it will look like Tea Party crashers.” Godwin’s Law or fair historical analogy? Disrupting opponent’s meetings was a specialty of Ernst Roehm’s SA Brownshirts. And disruptive tactics aren’t the only thing the contemporary Left of Weimar America has in common with Roehm’s goon squads.

What do academic credentials mean?

by Smitty

The Arizona State University community is expressing anger and embarrassment in response to ASU’s decision not to award President Barack Obama an honorary degree when he gives the commencement speech there next month. An ASU spokesperson now confesses, “we blew it,” and concedes that the university likely would have conferred the honorary degree, but once it became a controversy, ASU administrators were too worried about appearing insincere.

No, no: we all believe your beclowning entirely sincere.

Following Cynthia Yockey’s Advice

by Smitty

How do you not link advice this good?
My brief statement:

There is wisdom in the Constitution.
The moral hazards of the hour,
Require support for restitution,
Of the several States’ power.

Stand fifty strong or collapse we will,
Into a socialized heap.
The ‘Chicago Way’ will bring us ill.
Beyond, the Founding Fathers weep.

And if we’ve ever done a thing,
To deserve the liberty gift,
We will the sign and the voice bring,
Protesting a ridiculous spendthrift.

Too ‘artsy’ though.

Tea Party History Lesson

by Smitty

Michelle Malkin has a short history lesson on the Tea Party movement. Right at 90 days old. Long way to go.

No "Leroy Jenkins" at the Tea Party

by Smitty (h/t Right Wing Video)

This video provides three lessons in What Not to Do:

1. Standing around looking oafish. Be alive, find some humor amidst the politically grim situation.
2. Potty mouth. You could be captured on film, so there is no need for a Quentin Tarentino moment.
3. Running amok. Pursuant to point #2, remember: if you give the opposition any talking points, they will be used against you. We can expect them to substitute artistic license for journalistic integrity anyway. Ensure the slanders are purely creative writing, and have no factual basis.

Mel Brooks on your alternate future

by Smitty

One hopes that everyone is geared up for the big event today.
I’ve got three signs, a camera, and a heart full of hope for the country.
Mel Brooks, on the right, shows what doing nothing will do for your career opportunities:

You can fill in the blank for which plutocrat/aristocrat Harvey Korman represents.
You think this is funny? TARP Dollars Bolster Bottled Urine Industry:

“Detractors claim the president’s in the pocket of big urine. But that’s not true to my knowledge.”

Preach it, Governor Perry

by Smitty (hat tip, Drudge)

You Go, dude.

81R5789 MMS-F

By: Creighton H.C.R. No. 50

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States reads as follows: “The powers not delegated to the
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”;
and
WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of
federal power as being that specifically granted by the
Constitution of the United States and no more; and
WHEREAS, The scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment
means that the federal government was created by the states
specifically to be an agent of the states; and
WHEREAS, Today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated
as agents of the federal government; and
WHEREAS, Many federal laws are directly in violation of the
Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and
WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of
the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union
of States, now have, and have always had, rights the federal
government may not usurp; and
WHEREAS, Section 4, Article IV, of the Constitution says,
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a
Republican Form of Government,” and the Ninth Amendment states that
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not
be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people”;
and
WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has ruled in New
York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that congress may not
simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the
states; and
WHEREAS, A number of proposals from previous administrations
and some now pending from the present administration and from
congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States;
now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas
hereby claim sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise
enumerated and granted to the federal government by the
Constitution of the United States; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That this serve as notice and demand to the federal
government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective
immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these
constitutionally delegated powers; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That all compulsory federal legislation that
directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal
penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation
or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed; and, be it
further
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.

Great place to start, and do not let up the pressure.
Next, we need a stake in the heart of the 16th Amendment.

One blog guessed Stephen Green’s lede.

by Smitty

That was Political Castaway:

Here’s the story, as it is being reported. Bo was sold to a D.C. resident late last year or early this year. Another dog out of the same litter was sold to Ted Kennedy. Bo was returned to the breeder in March and was sent directly to the Kennedy’s dog trainer in Northern Virginia. From there, he is to become the newest White House resident.
Reading between the lines, is it difficult to imagine a typical D.C. power play here? The Kennedys, because they are the Kennedys, saw an opportunity to do a favor for the White House. They arranged for the unnamed third party to “return” his dog to the breeder (itself an unusual occurence short of health concerns for the puppy) so that the Kennedys could become the heroes in locating just the perfect dog for the Obamas.

Given that Vodkapundit’s (subscriber only, what are you waiting for?) PJTV segment is called “Hair of the Dog”, you had to expect a Bo appearance, and it was worth the wait.
But if the Kennedys masterminded the dog placement, could it have been an allusion to that famous non-quotation of Harry Truman: “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog”?

Hot Turtle of Climate Crisis!

By Smitty

“Oh, the science is in,” said Dr. Holdren. “We know absolutely that the Earth sits on four elephants, who, in turn, rest upon a giant turtle. Their respiration, coupled with carbon emissions, causes the planet to heat up.“

I’m not sure if I buy the kelp. I think that it’s really the turtle, and, sadly, it’s turtles all the way down.