Clinton Cocktail Party: KY and OR Returns

Hi guys, I had a grueling 2.5 hour TC this morning with my international colleagues. I’m ready to relax. So, did anything good happen today?

We’re drinking, my friend, to the end of a long episode. So make it one for the ladies and one more for the road…

It ain’t over yet but I will be glad to put Puerto Rico away. My house needs a good cleaning. I think my kid grew three inches and I can’t even talk to the BFF without poll numbers tumbling out of my mouth. But oddly enough, CNN is reporting that 68% of exit poll participants are in no hurry to wrap this up. I think that means that they still want everyone to have a chance to vote and they are not ready to accept Obama as their nominee. The superdelegates should think about that and also consider that no one has been more inclusive of voters or more willing to reach out to her potential foes than Hillary. She really *does* unite. The superdelegates who are in the closet for her should be proud of that. She has emerged as a magnificent candidate and the voters in Kentucky are proving it. So, let’s lift a glass to the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning?

Welcome to the Clinton Cocktail Party. This is the time of the day when we can relax with friends and friends to be. The bar is to the left of the door and Rico, our bartender with flair! is serving your favorite swill. Tonight’s special is an Oregon Coast Crab Shock but you can order anything you like.

I’ve been through Oregon once when I was a child. I couldn’t see much of the state because the trees kept getting in the way. It turns out that they *do* have some good musicians from Oregon. I must have been looking in the wrong place. I particularly like this one, Tom Grant, who blends smooth jazz, sparkling piano and a soupçon of improvization for an energetic fusion. Here is a compilation of some of his stuff:

Now that we’re near the end, let’s not blow it with any unnecessary roughness. If you feel the itch to throw a trigger word, consider leaving it with Florence, our lovely check room attendant. The waiters will be circulating shortly with crab cocktails, tempura calamari and roasted garlic for french bread. Please drink responsibly and tip your wait staff generously.

Whoa! Ronkseattle found this story about a vodka drinking contest where Hillary drank McCain under the table. Yess!! Get the lady some Grey Goose and a straw.

(You can listen to the whole story here. It’s one of the several stories.)

Senator Kennedy Has Malignant Brain Tumor

The news is bad for Senator Kennedy:

From the New York Times:

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor.

Doctors for the Massachusetts Democrat say tests conducted after Kennedy suffered a seizure this weekend show a tumor in his left parietal lobe. Preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma, they said.

His treatment will be decided after more tests but the usual course includes combinations of radiation and chemotherapy.

Senator, our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family today.

Tuesday: Bird Brains

From Jacilyn:

It looks like people higher up in the food chain are considering a protest vote as well. Taylor Marsh writes that even Geraldine Ferraro is disgusted. And, predictably, the accusations of political immaturity are not far behind.

Let me set the record straight for those of you who don’t understand where this is coming from. This DNC and the Obama campaign have conducted the campaign season as if they took lessons from the Enron boys from the movie, The Smartest Guys in the Room. There’s something distinctly unDemocratic about the whole thing. It doesn’t pass the smell test. Cokie Roberts (of all people) mentioned it a couple of days ago. The process for picking a candidate is deeply flawed and *could* be easily manipulated to thwart rather than confirm the will of the people. It’s like the California deregulation plans that were just sitting there waiting for some clever traders to game the system for fun and profit at “granny’s” expense.

The system is flush with cash and one can almost imagine the operatives sitting at their monitors hearts pumping with adrenaline while they pull out all of the stops, reaching deep down into the modern American psyche in order to power play off all the weaknesses there that will result in a maximum payoff. Assertive women, men with hardhats, hillbilles, grannies ripe for rapping, gays and lesbians all provide targets for the aggressive young, male and pretentious to exercise their new social hierarchy. The level of viciousness is reaching a fever pitch.

Who is giving them permission to set aside their ethics and shuffle off the standards of acceptable behavior? Who is running the party that allows for the brutal suppression of one half by the unleashed id of the other half? I put the blame at the top of the party and Obama himself.

There is a price to be paid for such aggressive and insensitive behavior. People do have free will. The party belongs to the people who believe in its principles. Those principles of social justice, equality and shared responsibility can not be discarded for Change! without the party suffering some severe blows to its foundation. Going forward, the party becomes a fragile shell, easily blown to bits by outside forces because its foundations of support have been carelessly undermined.

This is where we are. The foundations of support, the people and principles that made the Democratic party viable and strong, are being callously destroyed by those who have been given permission to rig the system for one candidate over the other. Those of us who stayed with the party and our country through decades of movement conservatism, who volunteered our time and our voices, who suffered withering criticism and family divisions for not adopting Republican values, who protested the war, the attacks on science, the regression of women’s and GBLT progress in the public sphere, the subjugation of the working class have all been told that we’re not wanted anymore. Our party has evolved and we, like neanderthals, didn’t make the cut.

What is left is the Republican party and a Republican Lite party. There is no place for the “tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of the teeming shores”. Where is our liberty? Who will defend us? What has happened to our power in a union?

To those who are celebrating their triumph, light and joyous, unburdened by the working class and their entitlements, be careful. There is one power that we still have. And if we have to exercise it to bring you back into line and ground you in your responsibilities and obligations to us, we will.