Free Minutes? Free Time? Call West Virginia for Hillary

Hillary needs our help in W. Virginia

Have you heard this story (from a Yahoo Group list)?

I’ve been talking with some people already on the ground in WV and the Obama camp is calling voters, NOT to get out the vote, but to ask for money – campaign donations. The gist of the call is that its not important that they vote, because the election is over, and then they ask for money to help put this primary campaign to an end and move on to the general election. Basically, they are telling voters its over. Then they ask for $400 donations. What the dollar amount is about, I don’t know. Perhaps they are just getting greedy.

Is the Obama campaign targeting voters in West Virginia with misleading telephone calls? If so, this is a very serious problem. It’s commonly acknowledged that Hillary will do very well in West Virginia. But a huge win combined with a huge turnout would sweeten the victory by adding significantly to Hillary’s national popular vote total. And that is what the Obama volunteers are trying to achieve with this cheap trick.

Confluencians Fight Voter Suppression

Let’s do what we can to counter this bizarre campaign scheme.

If you’re like me, you’ve got a lot of plans for the weekend (especially this mother’s day weekend) but, if you find yourself with a free minute or two, consider donating them to Hillary. Even if you can’t fit a full hour in, please try to make 5 or 10 calls sometime today.

I actually hate making out of state campaign telephone calls. But this threat has energized me past that fear. I think.

Hillary Clinton Call Center Tool

Saturday: Keep your head

Conflucians, the haka is getting very intense. There are senators we once respected going on news shows that some of us vowed not to watch for the next two weeks, who are saying insulting things that are designed to discourage us. Like Kennedy implying that Clinton doesn’t have noble American principles. This is just another version of “Our warriors are bigger, badder, meaner than yours” It’s all bluster because the real proof of their fortitude, getting a $%$#load more votes, hasn’t materialized.

Oh, and then there’s Chris Dodd telling Wolf Blitzer that the party will fall into line in November after we’ve all been dosed with Kool-Aid. Well, maybe party members might. But as of two days ago, I am no longer a member of the “Misogynists for Barry” party. So, their assumptions of automatic votes is incorrect. As an “unaffiliated”, they are going to have to bust their balls to get my vote now. They should take nothing for granted. And I would advise the party to not go pinning the blame or responsibility for this on Hillary. She’s been a mensch for the party and I’m sure she would do anything for it. But voters *are* born with free will and Democrats never were like Republicans who blindly follow their leaders. Some of us do not respond well to peer pressure. It means we are less popular than we might otherwise be but we are at peace with our consciences. No, I know what abuse feels like and I won’t take it from a party. They have to get right with me not the other way around. The Dean Democrats are on their own. Good luck to them.

Now, a lot of you are starting to feel helpless, like the forces against you are too strong. Well, that’s the whole point of a haka. But there are things you can do. Here are Riverdaughter’s suggestions for fighting back, reprinted from Thursday:

1. If you live in a state that has already voted, re-register as an “unaffiliated” voter. Tear up your current voter’s registration card and mail it to the DNC with a little note to tell them that if they don’t resolve the FL and MI delegation issue immediately, they can not count on your vote now or in the future. Also, encourage them to push Hillary and Obama to form a joint ticket with Hillary on top as this is the only viable option for averting an electoral disaster in November. They created this rift in the party. It’s their responsibility to unify it. Not ours.
2. Have a news moratorium for the next two weeks. For the next week, turn off every network and cable news program and catch up on your gardening. Watch only C-Span. If you have TiVo or a DVR, the cable and satellite companies do disk diagnostics every night to determine what you’ve watched and they pass this info onto the networks for ad sales purposes. You will make an impact if you abstain for the next week.
3. Save your breakfast, lunch and dinner money and send it to Hillary. She can use the money to buy ads in the remaining states. The Big Boyz have been very effective in discouraging people from donating and volunteering for her. If you send in $10 and everyone reading this does the same, we can help refill her coffers. Also, one day of fasting will give you presence of mind and remind you of what is so important here. There are millions of Americans who are one paycheck away from insolvency, who have to use a food pantry every month to feed their families and these people are going to get written off by the “new coalition”.
4. Volunteer for Hillary in West Virginia and Kentucky if you live in one of those states or one of the surrounding states. Hell, you don’t even need to do much. Just go there and stand at the side of the road with a sign. If you can’t be there, make phone calls for her. Let the country know that you aren’t going down without a fight.

I’m going to be in central PA again today for my brother’s 40th birthday party. Tomorrow, he is off to a training school in GA for five months and after that, he’ll be shipped off to Iraq or Afghanistan. This election is very important to me and I don’t want John McCain to be our next president. So, important that if I can do it, I may sneak over to WV on Sunday to hold up a sign at the side of the road. (This very much depends on time and logistics) I am very disturbed by reports that the Obama campaign or someone calling on its behalf are calling West Virginia voters to tell them the primary season is over and asking for donations for Barry’s campaign. But this is typical of Obama’s campaign. They have gotten as far as they have by suppressing Clinton voters in FL, MI, the caucuses and now WV and KY.

Obama is the weakest candidate that we could field this year and the Republicans are licking their chops that the Democrats are going to commit political suicide to appease snobby yuppies and AA voters who make up roughly 12% of the US population and whose strength as a voting block will be seriously diluted in November. If the Democratic party wants to play a stupid game of chicken with the women, working class, elderly, hispanic, gay voters and the REAL creative class voters that have been its loyal base, it had better be prepared to lose in November. Even with all of us onboard, Obama will lose. But maybe the party will learn something from this.

One final thing, Conflucians, there will be a lot of guilt tripping and meanness directed our way in the next couple of days. They are going to want to make us feel like traitors. Don’t give in. Now is the time to “choose something like a star to stay our minds on”. The counter haka only works if everyone sticks together. This is real unity.

It’s not over until the balloons drop in Denver.

also:

Jerome Armstrong at MyDD does a fearsome counter-haka.
Jeralyn writes about Hillary’s Take on the Electoral Map
Anglachel speculates in What if nobody comes to the revolution?