Dear Friends: This is a preliminary report, as I have just returned from Corona’s Tom’s Farms, where the John and Ken Show No-on-1A Tax Revolt rally was held from 4-7 pm today. I had helped host, as well as spoke at, the San Diego Spanish Landing No-on-1A tax revolt rally earlier this day. Here are some of my notes.
There were approximately 800 demonstrators at the San Diego event, and up to 15,000 at the Corona rally. Both events were very up-beat, and focused on defeating the suite of propositions on the California Special Election ballot. Below, I have a compendium of some of the day’s memorable moments, for me at least.
My favorite moment was meeting Ararcelia, a naturalized American citizen who originally hails from Cuba. Obviously not a big fan of Cuba’s political or healthcare systems, she was coming to the party to fight for free market liberties. “I have seen the likes of Obama before,” Aracelia said. “You cannot fool me twice — all of his rhetoric seems very familiar to me”.
I actually met Aracelia in the parking lot, because I started using her car’s mirror to put on lipstick before my first press interview, surprising her and me! It was great to meet her.
My favorite sign of the say was Ed Wagner’s, because I still love the movie, Conan the Barbarian, from which his sign quote comes. This was in the days when Arnold was worthy of the title, as opposed to being “Conan the Tool”.
Ed is an investment manager. His assessment is “California is a financial disaster. We are likely to have a crash. Obama is a disaster. He has piling up enormous debt.”
President Obama recently said he was finally aware there we people “waving tea bags around”. I have to say, I must have missed that, as I have seen very few around at these rallies — probably because they were all sent to the white house. The lovely lady, Debbie, was sporting two of the few I saw.
I ended the day by making a new friend, Rodney. Despite a broken leg, he made it all the way from the San Diego Tea Party earlier in the day to stand in the 95 degree heat of Corona for the rally. He had some awesome points about entitlements, unions and the financial drain the state welfare system is. I am hoping he stays in touch to guest host in the Shrine!
Michelle Malkin is on top with the blogging! Lew Rockwell as an outstanding read, “California’s Day of Reckoning: May 19th“. The money quote: California’s crisis will escalate on May 20. It will be clear to everyone that there is a tax revolt in progress. Californians have this wonderful advantage: they must approve every tax hike. The state constitution mandates this. This means that they can veto the spending plans of state politicians. This threatens the unions.
I will be back tomorrow with more details!
UPDATES: InstantRiverside.com says the traffic jam was over 1 mile long. John and Ken’s Live Blog of the show can be found HERE. A video of the Corona event is below.
I was at the Corona Rally, the traffic was backed up for about 5 miles, all the way back to the 91 fwy.
[...] posts about this topic around the ‘net 2-in-1 SoCal Tax Revolt Success – on to May 19th! « Temple of Mut Sunday, May 17, 2009: Daily Handpicked Headlines :: Daily Uprising :: Join the Conservative [...]