Ladies, it’s your country too

Katiebird posted this earlier today but I think it deserves a second run. And here’s why: For too many years, we just took our progress for granted. You can have it all but when it comes right down to biology, it’s exhausting as all get out. So, while the male of the species continued on without missing a beat, many of us took some time off thinking that it was no big deal. When we were ready to get back into it, the world would suddenly be more accomodating. Evolution would have made progress. Surely the world, the public forum, commerce and science, would see that we have brains and can take care of ourselves.

2008 was a rude awakening. It’s not over yet. This battle has just begun. And from time to time, the tree of liberty must be refreshed with the sweat of women.

You want to know why Hillary won’t quit? It’s because she *can’t* quit. We won’t let her. As much as it is a burden to carry the country on her back, she has half the American population as her burden as well. She’s doing it for us. We didn’t ask her to and maybe that wasn’t her intention when she started out. But what she has become is our standard bearer, our running back, advancing the ball down the field as far as she can. And we support her not because she is a woman but because she is the best person for the job and she is a woman.

That’s all we want. We want the world to see us as persons.

Competent, intelligent, inspired, courageous, hard working persons.

And now for the video as suggested by Grace (Updated)

[UPDATE from Katiebird]

I have two things:

First here’s the link to donate to Hillary’s campaign in Pennsylvania. We can specify where we want our money to go. And I’m only waiting for advise: How should I distribute my donation? Choices are, TV Airtime, Online Ads, Radio Airtime and Signs.

Second, PLEASE follow the video to the YouTube site to recommend and comment on Hillary Clinton: Mad As Hell/Bitch. They’ve had a lot of viewers today, but they could sure use some public love from us. Out of over 7,000 viewers, they’ve had only 225 ratings. And many of their comments are negative and abusive.

We can change that for the better!

Who would have thought? Clinton’s not lying.

Andrea Mitchell probably doesn’t care, but it’s clear now that she was completely wrong. Tina Bachtel’s story as related by Hillary these last months is true:

Clinton Told True Tale of Woe, Says Kin
By Anne E. Kornblut (Washington Post)

The aunt of a young pregnant woman who died after a hospital told her she needed to pay $100 up front for care said in an interview on Monday that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been telling the story accurately on the campaign trail — following claims by a different Ohio hospital that it did not turn the patient away.

For weeks, Clinton repeated an anecdote she heard in Ohio on Feb. 28 involving a young woman who lost her baby and later died because she lacked health insurance and did not have $100 to gain access to a nearby hospital.

But over the weekend, Clinton came under fire when officials at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital, after reading about her remarks, demanded that she stop recounting it because the patient, Trina Bechtel, was admitted there and did have insurance.

That part, it turns out, is true. But so is Clinton’s claim that Bechtel did not get care at another hospital that wanted a $100 pre-payment before seeing her, according to the young woman’s aunt, Lisa Casto. “It’s a true story,” said Casto, 53.

(snip)

Casto said she has been stunned by the amount of negative attention her niece’s story generated, and that she was sorry it had hurt the Clinton campaign. She was, and is, she said, a supporter. “Did I vote for Hillary?” she said. “You’d better bet I did.”

It’s especially ironic that while this story was blowing up, Hillary was preparing to unveil her goal to cure breast cancer.  Is there any better proof that she’s a sticker?  Hillary Clinton doesn’t let anything stop her from working on the issues.

Jon Corzine: The Popular Vote Indicates the True Will of the People

My governor, Jon Corzine (D-NJ), he of the speedy car with no seatbelt accident (tsk, tsk, Jon), rephrases his “taken out of context” comments that he made on Squakbox from last week in a piece in the HuffingtonPost today. I’m glad he is clarifying his remarks because I don’t live that far from Drumthwacket and I was going to drive down there (seatbelts fastened) to give him a piece of my mind. In An Issue of Legitimacy and Democracy, Jon argues that MI and FL need revotes and then says:

Clearly, the cumulative delegate totals must be considered. Absolutely, the cumulative popular vote is important. And, a practical analysis of electability and the electoral map must be weighed.

For me, the most important of those factors is the popular vote since Democrats have rightfully and passionately long argued that every vote should be counted. Practically, that popular vote should include participation of the fourth and eighth largest states in the nation. Most Democrats agree that ignoring the voices of Florida and Michigan is a mistake and threatens to impact the outcome of the fall elections.

Like many, I fear that not considering the wishes of millions of Democratic voters in those states will taint the attitude of voters everywhere about our ultimate nominee. Early polling in Florida has already indicated as much…

I believe, as I think most Democrats do, that the popular vote is the most democratic way to select a candidate. In fact, I recently signed legislation in New Jersey that joins the state in a compact to choose a president by direct popular vote.

When we listen to all of the people in our party, we end up choosing the person the entire party can support.

Amen, Jon. Buckle up, buddy.

Update:  RealClearPolitics has another take on the popular vote in No Really, Hillary Has a Decent Shot.

Oo! Oo! I’ve been to Europe! I can be president too!

I really should save some of this for later but some days, there is just soo much material.

Today’s “too good to pass up” is Obama’s assertion that he has more foreign policy experience than either Hillary or McCain because, wait for it, he’s lived in Indonesia, has family in Africa and went to Pakistan two decades ago. Here’s a segment from the Huffingtonpost article titled, Obama: No Need for Foreign Policy Help from VP:

“I think a lot of people assume that might be some sort of military thing to make me look more Commander-in-Chief-like. Ironically, this is an area–foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain.”

“It’s ironic because this is supposedly the place where experience is most needed to be Commander-in-Chief. Experience in Washington is not knowledge of the world. This I know. When Senator Clinton brags ‘I’ve met leaders from eighty countries’–I know what those trips are like! I’ve been on them. You go from the airport to the embassy. There’s a group of children who do native dance. You meet with the CIA station chief and the embassy and they give you a briefing. You go take a tour of a plant that [with] the assistance of USAID has started something. And then–you go.

“You do that in eighty countries–you don’t know those eighty countries. So when I speak about having lived in Indonesia for four years, having family that is impoverished in small villages in Africa–knowing the leaders is not important–what I know is the people. . . .

“I traveled to Pakistan when I was in college–I knew what Sunni and Shia was [sic] before I joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. . . .

“Nobody is entirely prepared for being Commander-in-Chief. The question is when the 3 AM phone call comes do you have somebody who has the judgment, the temperament to ask the right questions, to weigh the costs and benefits of military action, who insists on good intelligence, who is not going to be swayed by the short-term politics. By most criteria, I’ve passed those tests and my two opponents have not.”

Yep, that’s the whole thing. Forget about Hillary visiting 80 countries as first lady. ANYbody can do THAT. Besides, all she was called upon to do was take flowers from little children- in a dangerous area of wartorn Bosnia. Or meet with ladies who lunch in Northern Ireland- to gather information to share with her husband’s negotiation team. Clearly, Obama’s experience, although much more limited is much more profound. There is no comparison. (*I’ll* say)

I think *I* should be president. After all, I’ve been to Europe multiple times on business trips and I can successfully navigate the Paris Metro and RER. I can order my pasta al dente in Tuscany. I’ve been to all of the major museums and know the culture. (What? There’s more than one culture?! )

PLUS, I was also against the Iraq War Resolution from the very beginning. I made many speeches – to my family, who I am sure remember every word. I banged my fist on the dining room table and howled at the chandelier. Did anyone listen to me? Nooo! But, gosh darnit, I was adamant and sincere and I have never backed down on my objections to any newspapers. I’m telling you, my judgment is sound. Not once have I voluntarily listened to a preacher go off on a tangent about how evil Americans are, especially typical white persons. Surely, SURELY, I am qualified to be commander in chief.

(Pakistan, Barack? Jeez, now I’m going to have to spend the whole weekend convincing Pennsylvanians that it was just a vacation)

Curses! Foiled again.

Turkana at TheLeftCoaster sees Markos’ Haka and raises one himself:

Obama bloggers want to scare Clinton supporters and Clinton donors. They want to create an aura of inevitability for Obama such that any Clinton victory will be seen as a theft. This makes Clinton look petty and dishonest, and her supporters, at best, delusional. But facts are stubborn things, and the facts are that such a framing is simply inaccurate. And these same Obama bloggers then claim that it is Clinton and her supporters who are dividing the Party! And they wonder why Clinton supporters are so angry. They wonder why people who do not support Clinton but simply care about honesty are so angry!

Read the whole thing. You’ll be glad you did because you’ll be ready do the Hillary haka and beat your chest back at them.

How dare Hillary run for President?

As suggested by Grace (Updated)

[UPDATE]

I have two things:

First here’s the link to donate to Hillary’s campaign in Pennsylvania. We can specify where we want our money to go. And I’m only waiting for advise: How should I distribute my donation? Choices are, TV Airtime, Online Ads, Radio Airtime and Signs.

Second, PLEASE follow the video to the YouTube site to recommend and comment on Hillary Clinton: Mad As Hell/Bitch. They’ve had a lot of viewers today, but they could sure use some public love from us. Out of over 7,000 viewers, they’ve had only 225 ratings. And many of their comments are negative and abusive.

We can change that for the better!

Hillary’s Plan to Revive Research Starts with Breast Cancer

Hey all you geeks out there. Remember the NIH? Yeah, that’s the place a lot of you camped out at for a few years doing post-doc work solving crystals and running assays and groovy $&*( like that. Bush et al didn’t really believe in research though because, you know, most of that stuff relies on evolution and we all know the world is only 6000 years old. So, our research institutions have been sorely neglected.

Well, Hillary is going to revive the ailing United States scientific research community, starting with a $300 million infusion to the NIH for breast cancer research. Friends, can stem cell research be far behind? Wow! I am so looking forward to that. Just think of the progress we will make in the biotech fields when we can use stem cells to run better more accurate assays and grow human tissues instead of less than adequate facsimiles. Maybe we can catch up on 8 years of being dragged back into the 19th century.

* The image above is of BRCA1 (Breast Cancer Susceptability Protein) that can be retrieved from the publically available repository at the Brookhaven Protein Data Bank.

Update: Commenter Marco thinks that Obama will shortly release his own copycat policy.  I predict it will be $500 million for research into erectile dysfunction.

Monday- Lookahead

Light posting today from me. I have a lot of catching up to do at work today. My voicemail box appears to be full and I don’t even want to discuss my email. But I love my job and it’s great to be back.

In the meantime, here are some things to peruse and ponder:

• In If the System Made Sense, Clinton Would Be Far Ahead, Sean Wilentz at Salon discusses how the Democratic party’s primary system is less than democratic. People like Kos would like to obscure these truths with petty rules and cackles of inevitability and insurmountatudiness (is that a word? It is now). But what Obamaphiles conveniently ignore is that the reason we had a SuperDOOPER Tuesday this year is because states like CA, NY and NJ always felt left out of the nominating process by having their primaries so late in the season. So they moved them up to have impact. And Clinton carried most of the 800 lb gorilla states on Feb.5. Do the Obamaphiles really think that now that we’ve gone out of our way to have our say that we are going to defer to Wyoming? Nagahappen.
• Anglachel hits another one out of the park in Reality Bites. It’s time for the Obama supporters to get a grip. Meteor Blades, bless his heart, wrote a diary yesterday asking Clinton to unite behind Obama for the good of the party. I just have to include a critique of Meteor Blade’s diary by Conflucian Lori. It’s priceless:
  

  Over at Talk Left, the adorable BTD linked to the most pathetic diary from Meteor Blades I’ve ever read on Kos. To quote Bill Murray, the man has no dick. Seriously.It’s this whole self-important Kleenex weight meander about how he’s met Bill, but he’s never met Hillary but he wants her to know that he went to see her speak in LA and she was wonderful although he disagreed with her on some things. But now, sadly, he has to tell her the horrible, horrible truth. Not that he’s a misogynist or anything like that, but he needs you to know, that it’s his unfortunate duty to join the 12,592 other diariests at Kos and PLEAD with her that she must drop out. because, well, obama can’t do it. Oh yes. Oh, the pity of it. He wants to be honest – he has endorsed Obama, but that has nothing to do with this – so don’t go there. He confesses he hasn’t been as diligent in protesting the muck as he should have been and he apologizes for that. But for the sake of the children – YES, THE SAKE OF THE CHILDREN – including Chelsea and his own daughter Tiffany Vanilla Cherry Dawn Hot Cross Buns (who are just a year a part, don’t ya know), Hillary must step aside. It’s her duty. Oh, it’s true he likes much of her platform but she’s weak on foreign policy stuff – and Obama, he’s just sooooooo dreamy. Now, if the situ was reversed and obama didn’t have even a 30/70 chance (as Clinton doesn’t now) of winning, he would be calling on him to drop out. Even though he endorsed Obama. And you know what, if Hillary would just leave the contest, EVERYONE COULD UNITE BEHIND OBAMA! Wow! Wow! Wow! And every day Clinton stays in is ANOTHER DAY FOR MCCAIN!!!
  Here’s the end:
  And where we are is caught in an unresolved contest whose ultimate results – four weeks or four months from now – are all but inevitable. As a fellow blogger by the name of Kid Oakland wrote in a most excellent essay a few days ago, Senator, right now is a Clinton moment. Right now you can have an instantaneously positive impact on the coming general election that will never again be as powerful. You can seize the moment, today, tomorrow, early next week, and give the Democratic nominee an edge in November. Or you can hang in there and hamstring us. Please. Acknowledge what you know to be so. Every day you wait is a day for John McCain.

  It’s an entire diary of public masturbation – porn for Obamaphiles. All this flailing, groping around and there is no place for him to go with it. It’s not rooted in anything genuine. Just in this self-serving, anxiety ridden, obviously having no fun, masturbation – honestly, I have no idea what to call it.. I did not know we had so many pathetically scared Democrats in this party. I don’t know what to say about it. And if this post isn’t acceptable, please feel free to delete. I’m just absolutely mystified as to how an adult could ever publish anything so flaccid.

  Oh, remember, Meteor Blades has no dick. That’s one thing that i can say with certainty.

  Lori, that is the comment du jour. But getting back to asking Clinton to sacrifice herself for the Tofu Candidate- please. Are you kidding me?! For one thing, Obama hasn’t won anything yet. He and Clinton are still roughly tied and the nomination will be decided by Superdelegates. (Not a coup, Kos. SDs are part of the nominating mechanism in cases like this) But in the unlikely scenario where he wins via the DNC’s 48 State Strategy, Obama and his supporters are going to have to do some major ass kissing to win us back. Let me make this perfectly clear: it is not OUR responsibility to embrace this cypher of a senator with no voting record, this amorphous change agent who shapeshifts for his various target demographic groups. It is the responsibility of his supporters to urge him to win legitimately by waiving the RULZ, NOW!, to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations as is because he wouldn’t cooperate in a revote. And if that means he takes a temporary and perhaps insurmountable hit in delegates, so be it. Don’t dump this guilt trip on US.

• I’m going to PA this weekend to help out. It’s spring in PA and the trees are in bloom (bring your Allerest). The race is tightening, guys, and Obama can be expected to spend mega bucks trying to win this one. Hillary has to win by mucho votes so if you’ve got the time, come to PA for the next couple of weekends and take in the rolling green hills of Central PA, the diverse ethnic neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, the historic landmarks of Philadelphia and make a little history yourself. You can volunteer through this link or contact one of the PA offices found here.
• One more thing:  Nobody outside of the netroots knows who Mark Penn is and those who might have seen him on Hardball, for example, will have noticed greasy haired Joe Trippi and rat faced David Axelrod in the same frame.  You know, that Joe Trippi who ran Edwards’ campaign into the ground by putting all of his eggs in the internet basket and casually spreading rumors?  And that David Axelrod who came up with the race baiting strategy?  Great company.

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Sometime Monday Morning . . . . . And NOW, it’s Official!

Congratulations Riverdaughter!