Good morning, everyone! 
Today is the first day of the Conservative Political Action Conference, and I’m on my way out the door. Click on the image to visit the CPAC bloggers blog and read about all the action. We’ll be live-blogging the events, commenting on various speakers and posting pictures. Check for updates to this post throughout the day.
I’d like to interview a few speakers, including Herman Cain, David Horowitz and Ann Coulter. If you want to hear from/about a particular speaker or have questions you want me to ask, leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do. Ciao!
10:41 a.m.: I feel like a stepchild! I’m on a borrowed computer on “Bloggers Row,” and there aren’t enough outlets. My laptop is dead for the time being. Keep checking in for updates!
12:07 p.m.: I’m finally blogging. My laptop is fired up. I’m sitting across from Matt Margolis of Blogs for Bush and Adam Doverspike from RedState.org. The people are great, but the surroundings, not so great. I thought we’d have a cool set-up with a nice table and water and food. Not so! But we have wireless, so I guess I should stop complaining.
I’m sitting next to Pat Hynes of Ankle Biting Pundits, formerly of Crush Kerry. On the other side is “token liberal” Chris Nolan.
Kevin at Wizbang is really a whiz. He was setting up everybody’s equipment, now he’s finally blogging. Great guy.
What’s happened so far? Let’s see. I attended the Swift Boat vets breakfast (very early) and got to meet John O’Neill. Another vet, Bill Franke, had everyone laughing when he described how silly John Kerry’s homemade war movies were. There’s Kerry in fatigues at a place like China Beach, no action and little chance of injury. Anyway, he’s in fatigues and his face is covered with mud. He’s holding a video camera in front of himself walking through the jungle. O’Neill reminded everyone that they were in boats, not walking through the jungle. And Kerry’s holding his rifle incorrectly. But journalists don’t know that.
Matt Margolis has posted a recording of the breakfast. Check it out.
Ask Ann, if Rove was behind Dean becoming head of the DNC?
Love your site.
Comment by Rooster — 02.17.05 @ 7:23 am
Better yet, ask Ann out for me.
Comment by DoubleU — 02.17.05 @ 8:00 am
Ask everyone there to pray for the Democrats. A major political party is in danger of sinking into mean-spirited irrelevancy.
Comment by Evon Bachaus — 02.17.05 @ 8:23 am
Ask Ann if she’s read DbD!
Yeah, self-centered, I know…
Comment by chris muir — 02.17.05 @ 9:19 am
Chris,
Whatever it takes to get syndicated, my man.
I’ve written to local papers in Philly and south Jersey, but no responses. Given the management of the Philly papers (2 papers, 1 publisher), I’m not holding my breath.
Comment by SCSIwuzzy — 02.17.05 @ 10:14 am
Hey SCSI, you might be on to something here. If a raving black moonbat could have his Boondocks syndicated, why not DbD for equal time/space as a counterweight? Hmmm, maybe we ought to blog swarm this issue?
Comment by Andy — 02.17.05 @ 10:26 am
For reasons known only to herself, Chris Nolan is incognito at the Conservative Political Action Committee… and she seems to be impressed with what she sees. Not that she likes it, of course:But they’re very nice and well-mannered. They’re also
Trackback by What Attitude Problem? — 02.17.05 @ 11:44 am
Let’s see some pix of all of you blogging at CPAC!
Comment by Myopic Zeal — 02.17.05 @ 12:25 pm
Chris Nolan on Being in the Belly of the Beast at CPAC
Chris Nolan, the token liberal at CPAC (sitting next to LaShawn), has this to say about the attendees.
But they’re very nice and well-mannered. They’re also very young. If you’re thinking conservatives are a bunch of old coots longing for the day…
Trackback by Myopic Zeal — 02.17.05 @ 12:30 pm
CPAC 2005: Rove and Roaming Around
Karl Rove finished speaking not too long ago. La Shawn Barber and I tried to get in to see him speak, but it wa packed, and from where we were we couldn’t see much… I’m hoping some people will become…
Trackback by GOP Bloggers — 02.17.05 @ 1:18 pm
Okay, please take this with love as I mean no harm…
It had to be hysterical to see a bunch of people trying to have a conference with laptops blazing and everyone trying to talk while typing!
Comment by Mark La Roi — 02.17.05 @ 3:09 pm
Mark, you don’t know the half of it. It’s very distracting blogging while people are stopping by bloggers row and asking, “What is a blog?”
LOL!
Comment by La Shawn — 02.17.05 @ 3:12 pm
Andy,
You hit the nail on the head. The editors and publishers of so many news papers agree McGruder’s opinions and politics, and even when they don’t, (many of his strips get editied or pulled) they’re afraid of being labeled as racist or not sophisticated by their peers.
Worse, how many papers still carry Ted Rall? At least McGruder can draw…
Comment by SCSIwuzzy — 02.17.05 @ 3:32 pm
La Shawn,
Why do you insist on continuing to smear John Kerry? It’s not very Christian of you. You talk the talk, but you don’t walk the walk. I have always been amazed at people Like hannity and coulter, who claim to be Christian and act in a manner that flys in the face of the teachings of Christ. Would Jesus talk this way about anybody? Would he profit from hate speak about someone he doesn’t agree with? Why would you glorify these people?
I’m just curious because I can’t for the life of me figure out how to justify this behaviour in any context of the Bible. Help me out here, give me some indication of how this is Okay.
Comment by Tim O'Connor — 02.18.05 @ 1:13 am
No less a conservative icon than the Opinion Journal — from the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page — published the true story that debunks the lies of “Swift Boat Veterans for [ahem] Truth.” Republican Jim Rassmann tells the story of John Kerry’s daring rescue.
So, La Shawn, I hope you are having a great conference, but remember John McCain’s warning about the deplorable Swift Boat liars.
Comment by Anomalocaris — 02.18.05 @ 3:42 am
In my previous post, the second and third paragraphs were supposed to be indented, but unfortunately the
Comment by Anomalocaris — 02.18.05 @ 3:45 am
La Shawn,
The most important question from CPAC–did you get to Ana Marie Cox of Wonkette? Is she as vulgarly fabulous as she is on her site?
Comment by Mike M. — 02.18.05 @ 10:14 am
Mike M, why would La Shawn want to be seen in the same picture as a prostitute and partisan hack? If it were me, I’d be afraid that the skank and cooties might be infectious.
Remember Gannon? Wonskanke is self-admittedly just the other side of the same coin, IF rumors about Gannon are true. And if not true, she’s still is on that side of the coin.
Comment by Andy — 02.19.05 @ 12:25 pm
Andy,
Wonkette is a prostitute? I seriously didn’t know this. Unlike Gannon, I haven’t seen nude pictures of Ana Marie Cox. Please do provide them. Or, provide a receipt of the services in which you partook to be able to make the claim she is a prostitute.
Partisan or not–her commentary can be quite funny.
Comment by Mike M. — 02.19.05 @ 10:47 pm
Mike M. You’re right, I confused her with Washingtonienne. Nevertheless, they’re both skanky girls gone wild. I’ll give you one quote from Wonskanke, “We totally support the whole “embrace the scandal and magnify it” approach. You still go, girl“. Their parents must be proud.
I repeat, why would any self-respecting girl want to hang out with them, unless it was to witness to them about their lost condition.
Do they both need our Christian love & prayers? Of course.
Do we give celebrity-like adoration or pay some kind of homage? Of course not.
Skanky is as skanky does.
Comment by Andy — 02.20.05 @ 1:24 am
Andy,
I’ve got a stripper friend and I find it’s best in our friendship not to be so disgustingly judgmental. Perhaps that how Wonkette was with the Washintonienne. Hate the sinner love the sin sort of thing.
Comment by Mike M. — 02.20.05 @ 8:00 am
Hmm, Puppy Blender lover to hang out with them… I wonder what that says
Comment by SCSIwuzzy — 02.20.05 @ 8:27 am
Mike, M.
It has been my experience that those who supply, enable or partake of the oldest profession are eventually consumed by it and spat out like a heap of snow covered dung.
No matter how anyone spins it, it is exploitative, oppresive & demeaning. Without exception, the glamourization of sex is a slippery slope. And yes, even gossiping and pandering to bedroom fantasies and adventures is a sin in egual measures.
Pro 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
I too have had stripper friends. A neighboring catholic friend, in particular, came to me one night wanting to go for a motorcycle ride. As it turned out, she had the “bright” idea to commit suicide by “falling” off the back of my bike in a burst of acceleration.
She didn’t want to blow her brains out with a gun or slit her wrists. She figured if she fell on her back, death would be painless and she would remain pretty for her funeral. Warped eh?
I talked some sense into her by pointing out that her solution would only cause more problems for those left behind. 1) Jesus loved her and wanted to heal her, 2) The Bible views suicide as the last act of sin, 3)More than likely, she wouldn’t die, but end up cripped/vegitative for life, 4) Her 4 yr old son would grow up wondering why he was abandonned by her, and 5) I’d hang in Texas for manslaughter, suicide note or not.
She was a 3.5 GPA cheerleader that got pregnant (so much for safe sex) going into her Senior year, dropped out, and divorced within a couple of years. Working at MickeyDees & Del Taco wasn’t cutting it, especially when the ex wasn’t making much, thus child support was chump change.
A “friend” talked her into stripping for the big bucks. Needless to say after a few months of being objectified, she got depressed and wound up on my bike wanting to end it all.
I prayed with her and talked her into going back to her family’s church for spiritual and outreach help. When that didn’t work, I encouraged her to seek out a spiritual woman in her Aunt’s Baptist church who could be her mentor. After talking to her Aunt, she opened her home so that my friend could save money, get her GED and go to college. That was all fine and dandy for about a year. But the lure of easy money drew her back to stripping, then she started escorting business men on trips.
By that time, she was avoiding me and we lost touch. Years later, I heard thru a friend of a friend that supposedly she OD’d on Crank.
So on several levels, I find it unfair that, all too often, for women to get ahead financially, they have to sell their bodies. But rather than looking to God and his Word for solutions, secularist insist on throwing out our God-given operator’s manual and going with ad hoc and elitist feel-good blueprints.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not insensitive or intolerant to sinners. Love the sinner, hate the sin. Jesus’ example was to commune with sinners and offer spiritual (not sexual) healing thru redemption. However, if rejected or scorned by the sick, we’re to shake the dust of f our shoes and move on.
The thrust of my point is that I seriously doubt that La Shawn would go ga-ga over hob-nobbing with the likes of Wonkette. To celebrit-ize Wonkette would be to trivialize the sin of gossip and fornication.
Comment by Andy — 02.20.05 @ 4:07 pm