Open Thread: Momentous Meltdown?

The past two days have been amazing ones for PUMAs. We are energized and excited. Yesterday we celebrated our first full month of existence. Look at how much has happened in just this one month.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama has been rapidly disappointing his most ardent supporters. Ariana is outraged. Markos has pulled back the maxed-out donation he was about to make to Obama’s campaign today. Vastleft has withdrawn his (admittedly very tepid) endorsement. Big Tent Democrat threatened to withdraw his too. Now, just hours later, BTD has been mollified for now based on a statement by Obama’s campaign about what Obama really meant. What will Lambert do?

And who will Obama throw under the bus next? Hmmm…already under the bus: women, old people, baby boomers, the Clinton Administration, his grandmother, Rev. Wright, Fr. Phleger, Tony Rezko, Samantha Power, various and sundry other staff members, the LGBT community, muslims, supporters of Israel, Appalachia, African American men, the Great Possum Seal, Cuban-Americans, Wesley Clark, Moveon.org, the fourth amendment, the establishment clause…who’s next? And will the Obama Campaign continue to self-destruct?

What are the superdelegates thinking tonight? I have to admit, I’m getting my hopes up for Denver in August. I think Marc Rubin is getting his hopes up too.

Speculate or talk among yourselves.

This is how THEY do it.

First, let me apologize beforehand.  I am not trying to make this about me.  I posted the clip of my FOX interview on Sunday, and I am posting it again, but this time it is to demonstrate the tricks of the con men and women that are supporting Obama, and how they will do anything to get him elected.

Our first example of posers to principles is a group called, of all things, News Hounds.

This is the interview as posted by NoQuarter.  Nothing new if you’ve already seen it in the previous post.

This is the link to the News Hounds. I wonder if Ed Rendell’s Hounds have anything to do with it? I don’t have time to research it. I don’t care. Whosever hounds they are, they aren’t very good. They can’t smell the ironic position they are in. The entire site is devoted to being media watchdogs for Fox, yet instead of playing the interview in its entirety, they chopped out the first half, where I talk about the RBC decision.
They don’t even have the excuse of editing for time. The clip is only 3:32 long, but nothing can get in the way of their narrative.
They do not want to talk about the ugliness of RBC. They want to save all their hate for Fox. There can be no critique of Democrats at this point. Later we will hold their feet to the fire.

The next item is a little more ugly business. This article is about Murphy, and accuses her of really not supporting Clinton. As evidence of this. The reader is told that an elections contributions search on Murphy shows only one donation to McCain and none to Clinton. This fits the narrative of their story, that we are all a Republican front group, and Murphy has been lurking in the wings, ready to assume the role of the outraged Clinton supporter to lure others to vote for McCain.
This is so ridiculous, and is easily debunked by doing a search for one’s self. I went to:

Huffington Post’s Tool
I’m so sure Arrianna Huffington is misreporting campaign contributions to help Murphy seem like a real Clinton supporter.

This article just wants to focus on a donation to McCain in 2000, but never wants to show you her donation to Clinton in Q2 of this year.

What a farce. This is the change we have been waiting for? Ordinary little smear artists and propagandists: We can all be one now I guess.

However PUMAs, the noble cat does not feed on this trash. Perhaps an Opossum would eat it, if it wandered to the garbage can hungry enough.
No my Pride, we don’t do this. We are on the right moral side of this issue. We cannot resort to their habits. PUMAs feed on live meat, the Truth.

I’m sure there is going to be a lot of this, and I don’t know if it is worth showing all of it when one of the purposes of it is to confuse people and distract them from the main arguments, so here it is again for you.

On May 31st the DNC broke its own Sunshine rules and went behind closed doors to negotiate a deal where Obama got delegates that came from voters who had chosen Clinton.
We will not condone this act of Anti-Democracy by voting for the candidate you installed. If we do, we are saying we are giving up our right to credible elections.

Super Delegates, listen. Nominate the winner of the popular vote before September, or hear us…

ROAR in November!

Tuesday: A History Lesson on the Battle of Hastings

Today, I would like to talk about warfare. (Now you must imagine RD dressed like some tweedy professor with a bald spot and a bow tie, patches a the elbows of my jacket, standing before you with an overhead projector and some colorful acetates.)

I would like to take you back to the year 1066AD.  We are in Anglo-Saxon England and we are in the midst of one of those turmoils where the exact heir to the English throne is somewhat in question.  It gets even more complicated when Henry II marries Eleanor of Aquitaine but that’s at least another century from now.  In 1066, the match was between Harold and William of Normandy.

On October 14, 1066, the two met at the Battle of Hastings, Harold and his army just arriving from some other nasty skirmishes to the north.  Harold employed a tactic called a “shield wall” in battle and it was enormously effective if a bit cumbersome.  The idea was that the soldiers at the front of the line would link shields with the men on either side of them.  Soldiers in back of the shield wall were then free to lob lethal objects over the heads of the ones in front and shoot arrows and were pretty much protected by the wall.  If a shield went down, someone from behind stepped up and filled the gap.  It was very effective and Harold used it well. But it did have one little problem…

At the battle of Hastings, Harold *should* have won the day.  He had the high ground and he had this amazingly well trained, if a little worn out, shield wall.  William’s men had to fight uphill and break on through the shield wall all the while facing some nasty archers behind the shield.  It wasn’t looking too good for William with his side taking some heavy casualties while the shield wall held.  Then William’s army started to retreat down the hill and when that happened, some of the shield wall got a little cocky, broke ranks and started chasing them.  Baaaad idea.  William’s troops rallied just when all seemed lost, turned around and broke through what remained of the weakened shield wall.  The rest, as they say, is history.

(RD looks around at the students, some of whom are playing with their cell phones, some are playing with their gum, some are sucking up to me in the front row,  while others have a completely befuddled expression on their face)

The reason I bring this up is because coalitions only last as long as they stick together.  They are strongest when they present a united front.  JustSayNoDeal is our coalition and the one who is out there everyday representing us to the media.  Our message is a simple one, “If the parties won’t uphold Democratic principles, who will?  If the voters don’t hold the parties accountable, who will?”  *We* will.  We are saying no deal to Obama because we want to hold our party accountable.  The coalition represents people who are going to voted for McCain, those who will write in Hillary’s name and those who may not vote at all.  Our greatest power is now before the convention.  But in order to make our case, we must stick together and present a united front behind which our members can lob verbal missiles and other strategic objects.

Some of you may see other groups who claim to be new coalitions or truncated versions of JustSayNoDeal.  Some of these are popping up in the comment threads.  We don’t know who these people are.  But one thing is for certain: they wouldn’t be doing this if we weren’t effective. They are trying to entice members away from the shield wall and weaken us.  As soon as gaps appear, like all of the non-McCain voters get up and walk off to a new coalition, the coalition that is JustSayNoDeal will start to fall apart and lose its strength. So, if you are tempted, if there are voices whispering how we’re all funded by Republicans (not true), or some other nasty rumors and you are being lured away, stop and think whether you are sacrificing your strength and investigate who is doing the luring. We do not know who is behind these efforts.  So be on your guard.  Accept no substitutes.

Hold fast.  Link shields.  Do not yield.  Just Say No Deal.