Go to Alegre’s Corner!

Alegre (who along with Anglachel and our own Riverdaughter are three of the scary-smartest bloggers in the entire blogosphere) has a new post up by “encore encore” that is a “MUST READ”

Here’s a tidbit:

Into this ‘situation,’ comes Hillary Clinton, first credible female
running for president of the greatest nation on earth, for now anyway,
and a woman who ‘doesn’t get what the big deal is all about.’

She followed the women in business model, which is to prepare first
and then ask for the job.  She presented what she would do, not what
she is.

To her great and naïve surprise she was told that her confidence,
competence, enthusiasm, and enjoyment in campaigning was somehow
’emasculating’ Barack.

She was ‘too confident,’ plus ‘too competitive,’ and she made him look
unprepared during those debates, by knowing all the answers, and
having the best-crafted plans, and responding first to everything, and
by ‘forcing’ the media to compare the two of them she somehow
diminished him, which must have been what she really wanted to do all
along, to emasculate, to castrate, to ruin, to withhold, to be a bad
‘mom’ who didn’t ‘need’ a man.  In other words she didn’t pretend he
had the phallus, and she didn’t even seem to know she was supposed to.

So go read it already!

Is This Really Happening?

I keep hoping I’ll wake up and realize I’ve been having a horrible nightmare. And then I could chuckle to myself, “What a relief! It was just a strange, horrifying dream! The Democratic Party really didn’t force a total doofus on us poor long-suffering voters.” But, alas, it’s not a dream. It’s all too real. Barack Obama is really the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party. And with each passing day, he sounds less and less like a Democrat.

You’re Either With Us, Or Against Us?

Since we Democrats decided to run a woman, a Latino, an African-American and a hobbit (sorry, Dennis, I just couldn’t resist! Mwah!) for president this year, there has been a lot of discussion about identity politics. The discussions mostly run like this: Is it okay to vote for Obama mainly because he’s African-American? What about voting for Hillary mainly because she is a woman?

This, like most of the so-called “analysis” perpetrated in three-second soundbytes by the corporate media, is on a cartoon level of understanding. I would like to delve a little bit deeper into the (say it with me) nuances of what identity really means with regard to political parties.

President Bush famously said, “You’re either with us, or against us.” Not only was this statement symptomatic of his general addiction to faux cowboy-ism, but I believe that it was also, in a larger sense, the way Republicans think about the members of their Party.

The Honeymoon is Over

Yesterday morning, I woke up to the sound of thunder.  Almost immediately launched into a Bob Seeger song, then realized that it wasn’t a very good omen for a week at the beach.  Indeed it wasn’t.  The thunderstorm that passed through my undisclosed location at the shore shook the condo and made my bed vibrate.  The sky brightened in the morning but darkened again in the afternoon as we sat on the beach, towels wrapped around us, lips blue as the temperature plummeted to a balmy 70.  The cocktail party in the evening made up for it.  Lots of goodies and plenty of gin and tonics.  I forgot about the weather. This morning promises to be a bit more summerlike. I will venture back to the shore after renting a bike for Brook for the week.  Everyone is still asleep in the condo so I thought I’d update everyone.

As you can tell by the title, all those personality quirks and shortcomings that we glossed over during the orgasms of infatuation are now clearly in evidence now that the afterglow is wearing off.  It looks like he is the “turns over and goes to sleep kind” who probably wouldn’t retrun calls if he were single.  But now that the Democratic party has married him, they are in a bit of a bind.  He swept them off their feet and it is going to feel really awkward to want to divorce him.  But when even Big Tent Democrat starts writing stuff like this, you know there is a problem.

We tried to tell them that he was no good. Anglachel has a followup to some of her earlier posts and warnings in Classification.  We saw it coming, he only married the party for the connections but it was always the money he was after.  And considering who has been promoting him, the affluent liberals, libertarian Democrats, disaffected former Republicans and the young, are we really surprised he ditched his old lady as soon as he could?

What about an annulment?  Yeah, maybe we could scotch the whole deal in Denver.  No hard feelings, Barack, but we were both drunk in Vegas and we should just go our own ways.  Heidi Li has been gazing at the legal tea leaves and it looks like Obama is trying to force Clinton into some kind of prenup where she agrees to give up all possibility of nominating speeches and roll call votes in Denver in exchange for help paying off her campaign debts.  We can’t let this happen, guys.

Denver is becoming the new operant word.  The Just Say No Deal conference call last night was full of references to Denver.  After a minor hiccup last week, the coalition has come together and Diane is doing a masterful job helping to coordinate all of the moving parts.  We will be rolling out information gradually but there are a few things I’d like to make you aware of:

• The most important thing for all of us right now is spreading the word by any media or means necessary.  You can do your part in any creative way you can think of.  I suggested that PUMAs “mark their territory” in some organic way using natural elements such as sand, grass, shrubbery, or flowers to spell out PUMA.  Print it and let nature take its course.  Murphy is trying to arrange for Aerial ads over the east coast, CA and TX.  She calls them “air raids”.  The ads are pretty reasonable as far as cost goes but PUMApac could still use donations so if you can send a tenspot or a yuppie food stamp, go to PUMApac and make a donation.
• The credentials committee is scheduled to meet sometime in July, we believe it is July 21 in DC but we’re not absolutely sure.  I’m sure that the DNC would like to keep this soiree small and personal, you know, just a few invited guests, very low key.  F^*# that S#$*.  The last thing we want is for it to fade into obscurity.  We want to make sure the whole world is watching. To that end, we may need prot, er, celebrants at the location.  We will let you know what you can do as soon as we pin this sucker down.
• PUMAPac needs publicity.  PUMApac will be working with RiseHillaryRise and it is anticipated, with The Denver Group to hammer out an easy to digest message about what we want to see in Denver.  These groups have been very busy building regional and state organizations.  Honestly, Conflucians, I am astonished at the way this has come together in the past month.  The energy is out there just waiting to be tapped.  There is a whole nation full of discontented Democrats who are ready to eat raw meat over the way Obama was appointed.  Pretty soon, there will be interactive state maps with coordinators for arranging caravans to Denver.  There is imminent opposition research coming from Paulie Abeles group and there will be an 800 number for non netsavvy potential PUMAs.

YOUR job, should you choose to accept it, is to continue with the energy and joy with which you embarked on this course of setting things to right.  Nothing is settled until the balloons drop in Denver and from what Heidi Li writes, it looks like Obama and the DNC are fretting over uncertainty.  That gives me hope.  And even if we do not prevail in Denver, we can make our voices heard in November so that the DNC will never again forget who really calls the shots- the voters.

OK, Conflucians, I hear the condo stirring.  Off to make some coffee.  Ciao, Caros!

PS.  Thanks Kbird, Mawm and Gary for keeping things going in the morning.  I appreciate having something to read.  😉

Monday: Wish You Were Here

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from Hell,
Blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

And did they get you to trade
Your heros for ghosts?
Pot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We’re just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl,
Year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.

So Obama supporters, you think you can tell a messiah from a fake?  Can you discern “just words” from actions?  Can you tell medicine from snake oil?

Did they get you to dump Hillary, a proven progressive, for a ghost, someone whose positions we still can’t nail down?  Did they get you to trade your stands on Iraq, FISA, NAFTA, Separation of Church and State, Public Financing of Elections, Freedom to control your body… so they could court the right wing?  Did they get you to trade 8 years of prosperity, for empty words of change?  Did you trade the boring road of competency for a shot at being cool?

Oh How I wish… How I wish you were here with us.  We may be running over the same old ground, but we are transcendent.  Having seen clearly through the veil, we know we can tell heaven from hell.  So can you.  There is still a month left on the return policy.  You can still return your ghost and get a hero back.

Hurry, Hurry to the other shore.  Wish you were here.

Love,

Mawm