[Posted earlier and moved to the top, because momentum is building.]

Are Bay Area conservatives willing to emerge from their seclusion?  Bay Area Patriots (“BAP”) certainly hopes so.  On Sunday, March 7, 2010, in Mill Valley, California, BAP is hosting a Conservative Groupa-Palooza that BAP hopes will be the largest gathering to date of that beleaguered species:  the San Francisco Bay Area conservative.   BAP encourages conservative groups and individuals to attend.  You can learn more about it and RSVP (for a pretty nominal fee) here.

I have a few predictions:

1.  The Groupa-Palooza will be surprisingly well attended.

2.  The conservatives in attendance will achieve something approaching euphoria  simply because they can be open about their political views.

3.  There will be fringe, crackpot groups attending, such as Ron Paulians, just to name one of the less savory groups that self-affiliates with the conservative party.  There will also be some Birthers who haven’t yet acknowledged that the birth certificate ship has already sailed.

4.  No matter how small the percentage of fringe groups in attendance, those are the only groups that will get media attention.

It wasn’t a huge turn-out, but it was an imaginative, committed, informed turn-out — and that, in the long run, will matter a great deal.  Check out The City Square for photographs of yesterday’s “Sick-In” in San Francisco protesting PelosiCare.

To protest against the Healthcare Bill, instead of a 60s sit-in, Bay Area Patriots will be having a

“SICK-IN”

We are sick to death of being ignored;

We are sick to death over what the Health Care bill will do to us and our children;

We are sick to death having this govt intrude on our G-d given liberties;

This Health Care Bill sickens us all;

This Health Care Bill is Gonna Kill Us!

When: Sunday, November 15th

Time: 12:00 pm until 4:00 pm

Note: We will be setting up, chatting, meeting one another and selling merchandise from 12:00 until 1:00 when the SICK- IN will officially start. Amplified sound needs to stop by 3:00. We can hang around until 4:00 but without amplified sound.

Place: Adjacent to Justin Herman Plaza, the Embarcadero, San Francisco. Technically, at the South Lawn Music Concourse (between Steuert and the Embarcadero/Mission and Market).

When you face the Ferry Building and are standing at Justin Herman Plaza, it is directly to your right…a rectangular patch of grass! If you Google Justin Herman Plaza, click on satellite image and move the cursor to the right, you can see it clear as day.

You can take the Ferry or BART or drive and park.

What to bring:

· Signs

· BAP shirts if you have them…otherwise red…

· Crutches, slings, walkers, wheelchairs, bandages for around your head…whatever you can bring that is simple and easy to make you look sick…we will do some filming so we can prepare a video called “Killer” to the tune of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video. Be ready to line up and look like a sick ghoul or zombie…masks are discretionary…looking like regular sick folk is just fine.

· We will use quiet time to work: Be prepared to send and write letters to senators, thanking the reps who voted against the bill, and letting the reps who voted for the bill know how we feel about that. We’ll try to have some computers set up so you can BLAST FAX them as well.

· Bring your sense of humor, determination and patriotism.

RSVP: to Sally at sallyzel@comcast.net

Please spread the word…and bring friends…as the weather gets more challenging it will be more difficult to have these outdoor tea parties.

We will be selling T-shirts ($15-$20), tote bags ($5), bumper stickers ($3) and wrist bands ($2). All proceeds help defray the costs associated with the tea parties. Thanks for your support during these very difficult economic and emotional times.

UPDATE:  The above text comes directly from Bay Area Patriots.  This is me, Bookworm, speaking:  We all had a lot of adrenalin going in August.  People all over the country were attending Tea Parties, and it was tremendously exciting to be part of a mass movement.  Now, the days are shorter, the air is colder, and Nancy ignored us completely.  It’s as if the air got sucked out of our protest balloon.  That’s a significant problem because we conservatives and independents, unlike liberals, are not practiced or professional protesters.  We don’t roll out of bed every morning and grab the Marxist signs that live perpetually in the back of our closets.  Instead, we need to be fired up and now  we’re not only not fired up, we’re demoralized.

All of which makes it that much more important for us to dig within ourselves and find the energy to holler out “NO!” to a bill that will bankrupt our economy, insert the government in every area of our lives, destroy our medical system, criminalize us for not purchasing a product and, for those pro-Lifers amongst you, inevitably mean that you bankroll abortions.

As for me, I love the idea of the first resounding NO taking place on Nancy Pelosi’s home turf.  I live with the Pelosis of this world and I understand how they feel about a rally in Wichita — they don’t care, because fly-over country is made up of hicks.  (If you doubt me, just cast your mind back to Obama’s insulting speech about Pennsylvanians, whom he includes within the fly-over country category.)  A rally at home, a massive, charged up, in your face rally at home, shakes the liberal politicians, because it upsets their world view.

One more thing:  Please, please, please, if you show up, keep your signs and your slogans focused tightly on the health care bill.  A reality in our world is a hostile mainstream media, and one “Hitleresque” sign will occupy 100% of the media’s focus.  No one outside of the protesters themselves will see the hundreds of straightforward, or brilliant, or witty signs directed at the insanity that is the Pelosi/Obama health care bill.  I viscerally appreciate that it might feel good for you, personally, to vent your spleen, but it’s a short lived pleasure, with long term negative consequences for a very, very important issue.