I’m mentioned about 3/4 of the way down, along with the snark-lovely (snovely?) E.M. Zanotti and my new friend and reigning Twitter Queen Melissa Clouthier.

Also mentioned are new pals Eric Telford, Jon Fleischman, Todd Thurman and old pals at ATR.

Not mentioned is Twitter King Stephen Kruiser who has a great blog. And who also does a daily show for RFC Radio. And who has also been appearing on Pajamas Media TV lately.  And who has been invited to appear on FNC’s Red Eye. He was invited the day time conference but mostly hung out after hours and kept us laughing.  (Rising Star Alert!)

It would take half a day to create a complete Who’s Who list of who was there last week.  So I won’t.  But I will say this:

I was encouraged to hear so much talk – in lectures, on panels, in workshops, and after hours – about New Media and blogging and their place in the conservative movement.

My first mantra for the two-days can be summed up as this: 

Conservative organizations need to pony up and budget money for Technology and New Media both internally and as part of their overall communications plan.  We can talk about citizen-activists and grassroots efforts all we want – and volunteerism is powerful – but a lot of the things we need to accomplish cost money because they require significant time + intense labor. 

The Left is already spending millions on online marketing and activism; the Right is still behind.

(Note to my blogger buddies:  I’m going to see if I can get my hands on a few of Alex Castellanos‘ PowerPoint slides from Thursday so I can try to post some blurbs.  If anyone knows him personally, help a girl out.)

Mantra Two: 

Figure out some new messaging some of the time.  There’s a huge demographic of conservatives (ages 18 to 49) who passionately believe in our principles but who do not fit the stereotype.  

They are Middle Americans.  They work and live regular lives.  They budget and pay their bills and save a little.  And expect their government to do the same.  They don’t go to conservative leadership conferences.  They don’t read National Review.  They rarely (if ever) wear a tie.  They own guns and would use them if needed.  They’re pro-military, pro-defense, and pro-kill-the-SOB’s-before-they-kill-us-first.  They live life enthusiastically and at times a little irreverently. They love rock-n-roll or sh*t-kickin’ country music. They hate political correctness.  They love the flag.  They spend time with their kids and then send ‘em to bed so they can watch their DVR’d TV shows, read their news online, and watch South Park.  They laugh at (and make) off color remarks. They listen to RFC Radio.  They are tired of conservatives who are not Conservatives and Republicans who are really Democrats.  They are tired of being mocked and pigeon-holed and they really don’t give a damn about people in Washington D.C.

If you’re a movement person or organization, you should be asking yourself:  “How do I reach these folks?”

I decided to buy a MacBook and iPhone the morning before the night before my 3-day trip to L.A. for the Heritage Resource Bank Conference, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) New Media Workshop, and Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) Blogger Reception & Meet-up. (Great and fun and very worthwhile, all. More about them in another post, along with my after thoughts.)

Right after I made the purchase decision, I decided to unplug my home PC/tower and take it to the Apple store so the nice Apple people could magically transfer all my data to my new MacBook while I was out of town.  Which meant I had access to Gmail and the Internet on my iPhone but was otherwise offline from Thursday morning until now, when I got my MacBook plugged in and configured and my iPhone synched up.  (If I had been thinking ahead, I would have set up an iTunes account when I was still plugged in so I could have downloaded WordPress in advance of my iPhone purchase…but I wasn’t.)

Now that I have all this fabulous mobile/wireless technology, I will never again be separated from my blog, Twitter, Facebook, and other accounts.

Joy!!

A few notes:

Bill’s opening quip – “I smell a rat” – made me roll my eyes.  And his contention that the Tea Parties are “not genuine” and are “funded by big Republican groups” and that the “timing is politically suspicious”…are ill-informed, wrong, and frankly, silly.

The TEA Party movement was and is a grassroots thing.  It started with a few small blogger-groups who organized some small demonstrations awhile back, and then the idea spread like wildfire online (”new media”) and on the “small” airwaves:  via blogs, email forwards, BlogTalkRadio, RFC Radio, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Ning networking sites, message boards, and chat rooms.

The biggest evidence that this is a grassroots effort is the lack of funding and the lack of central control/planning.  Here in Nevada, I’ve seen about a dozen different web pages posting  3 different locations and a dozen different time windows for the TEA (Taxed Enough Already!) Party events.  People got wind of the idea, liked it, and started organizing their own mini-events among their own friends and networks.  When they all show up today, it will be Big – but not because the mythical Vast Right Wing Consiracy and/or Big GOP is behind it.

Here in Las Vegas, there was/is NO BUDGET for our Tea Party event.  A few dozen very committed leader-volunteers and about 800 local volunteer-helpers spread the word about the event/rally.   The only money spent (that I’m aware of) was the $200 plunked down this past Friday by Chuck Muth of Citizen Outreach, for a picnic area at Sunset Park.  Chuck offered to do this when he got wind that we (the organizers and volunteers) were being told that local radio station KXNT – which wanted/wants to cover the event – could not set up a broadcast table, nor could we set up a small podium, mic, and sound/speakers, on or near the sidewalks at the designated protest areas.

Most of the people I know who are attending here have NEVER participated in a protest or a picket line.  General disgust and a wish to be heard has drawn them out.

Whatever the Snarkmeisters wish to say, the Tax Day TEA Parties are a grassroots, post-partisan/non-partisan thing.  People are simply fed up with the endless bailouts, lack of accountability and transparency, ridiculous earmarks, huge deficits, frightening federal budget, and the like.

I cannot bear to watch the religious fervor, the tears and chants and beaming visages, for the promotion of a man or woman to a secular office. We do not live in a monarchy; we do not crown queens and kings in American.

Lest we forget, the President of the United States is the servant of the American people. (Despite what actors like Ashton Kutcher think, we do not serve him.) There is something unseemly, and dare I say, almost un-American, about making such a spectacle about a public servant taking office.

Transition ceremonies should be dignified, graceful, and modest – the exact opposite of all that Inauguration ceremonies have become. For this one, President Bush even declared a state of emergency for the entire city of DC so that taxpayer money could be diverted from the FEMA budget for this spectacle. This disgraceful action by our outgoing President barely raised a shrug from the populace. We no longer question our kings.

Many of our fellow citizens have lost all sense of decorum and perspective about this event. The transition of Presidential power from one man to another does not mark a significant transition in the culture of America. Our worries, fears, and concerns do not abate because there is a different man in the White House. Our dreams, hopes, and happiness do not increase because of who occupies the Oval Office. This change in government does not portend a change in human nature or the hearts of our fellow citizens. America — all that is good and bad about us — remains the same.

Fortunately, the unseemly pageantry of the Inauguration will be over by tomorrow, allowing us to move on to what truly matters in our country. Perhaps then all of us, even those of us in DC, can move beyond the deification of the political to focus once again on what truly matters.

Where is the national media on reporting this?

Hat Tip: Obsidian Wings via John Schwenkler.

Let me be clear that I have no issue with Buckley’s complaints against and dissatisfaction with the Republican party.  In these things I agree with him and am similarly disgruntled.

My criticism was not of the fact that Buckley left National Review; it was the way he left.

And, though his vote is his own, I don’t think it makes sense to show your disgust for the lack of conservatism in the GOP by voting for the candidate/party who has even less of it.

UPDATE:  As for the “shunning” of conservatives like Buckley, I have to agree with what Rich Lowry said just a bit ago, mentioning both Kathleen and Peggy Noonan:

In her Palin-centered column, Peggy says those “whose thoughts lead them to criticism in this area are to be shunned, and accused of the lowest motives,” and then cites Christopher’s resignation from his NR column as an example. Peggy is a busy person, so I suppose she hasn’t had time to notice that Kathleen Parker’s columns ripping Sarah Palin have appeared on NRO. That David Frum has aired his discontent with the Palin pick on NRO. That others of us—Ramesh and even me (between my occasional bouts of rhapsodic gushing!)—have criticized aspects of her performance. And that other writers on NRO have stuck up for Palin and pushed back against the critics. It’s called debate.

Now, I regret how some conservatives immediately question the motives of the critics of Palin, but it’s equally regrettable that Noonan, Parker et al are portraying most conservatives as irrational thugs. It makes you wonder: Who is really being overly emotional and deeply unfair in this intra-mural conservative debate? Which brings us naturally to Kathleen Parker’s column today. Read and judge for yourself. Is this calm, cool deliberation? Or hyperbole worthy of a peeved e-mailer? (By the way, I hate that Kathleen got any abusive e-mails at all; it’s a very unfortunate part of the world of the web. But hate e-mail goes both ways. I wouldn’t want to live for a minute with, say, Kathryn Lopez’s or Jonah Goldberg’s in-box on any given day.)

Finally, on Christopher, I already addressed it here. But he proffered a “sincere offer” of resignation of his column that he had taken up temporarily while Mark Steyn was on hiatus. It struck us as a win-win: Chris would get out of a column we thought he wanted out of; we’d get Mark Steyn, who had recently returned to writing, back on our back page. We never imagined Chris would feel he’d been “fatwa-ed.” In any case, Chris is still on NR’s board, and is welcome to write pieces for us going forward, which I’m hoping he’ll do after everyone, very much including the Noonans and Parkers of the world, takes a deep breath.

And BTW, I posted on what Peggy Noonan said earlier over at Culture11’s LadyBlog.

Didn’t believe it myself until I read this (very biased) Globe piece which confirms that Question 1 is indeed on the ballot, that it would completely abolish the state income tax, and that the last time around (2002) the measure got 45% of the vote.

If approved, the state income tax would be cut from 5.3 to 2.65 percent on Jan. 1, 2009 and then be abolished a year later.

The usual suspects are opposed to the measure, citing concerns about the loss of tax revenue and the subsequent “catastrophic” cuts to “needed” services.  

Taxaholics always warn of the rapid decline of schools, roads, and public safety if voters dare to abolish taxes.  They paint a dire picture of social disintegration:  your kids will suddenly become uneducated boobs; you’ll have to drive a covered wagon to work on a dirt road; and your town will be plundered by Viking marauders.

Or, as supporters of the measure say, Beacon Hill will be forced to find more efficient ways to achieve what really matters and cut unnecessary spending. 

Currently, seven states manage to avoid sliding into total anarchy while imposing no income tax:  Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.  Additionally, New Hampshire and Tennessee limit their state income taxes to dividends and interest income only.

(Hat Tip on Question 1:  My friends at the Americans for Tax Reform blog)

And then there’s this cute/funny tribute by my friend @ PragmaticallyPolitical:  10 Things I Love About Sarah Palin

PS  The graceless statement put out by the Obama camp re: Palin this morning was uncalled for.  McCain went out of his way to congratulate Obama on a historic nomination last night; Obama should have done the same for Palin.  But he didn’t.  And so Mr. Self-Proclaimed Non-Partisan shows us just how little class he really has.  

At 2,900 acres (most of which is a “buffer zone” – less than 1,000 acres will be dedicated to facilities and ranges), the CCSP will be the largest public shooting park in the U.S.  At final build-out, there will be 22 buildings and 100,000 square feet of usable space including meeting rooms, classroom space, and indoor ranges.  By all accounts, it’s going to be a world class facility that will serve the local population while also attracting gun enthusiasts and competitors from all over the Southwest.

Project Update:

Infrastructure (electricity, water, flood channels, grading) is almost done.  The first building pad will be completed by October 1^st, and with six buildings out to bid we should soon be seeing some vertical construction.  The Clark County Board of County Commissioners has approved all the Park ordinances, rules and procedures and has awarded the contract for the design of the Tourism Center.

Notable Note:

Don reminds me that the Park has been a long time coming.  Back in 1984, a local citizens group identified the current parcel on the north end of Decatur Boulevard as the preferred site and began negotiations with BLM to build a public shooting range.  The park will finally open 25 years later and after a lot of red tape and some hard-fought battles.

You can read the full history of the Park here.

With 47% of all Nevada households owning a firearm, I assume the Park will be busy.  I know the Venerable Mr. Crum is looking forward to taking our 13-year old son over there (to practice with the Ruger 22 rifle he got for his birthday last year).