The Scratching Post Saturday Night – $10K in 3 days!!!!

Lovely and gracious Conflucians, Carol, aka Marilyn Monroe’s TWIN sister and resident Conflucian Fundraiser Master, has worked her be-yoo-tiful self throughout her July 4th vaction in LA to raise funds for Just Say No Deal’s $5 Bux & $50 T-shirt drive. Click on the coffee cup & T-shirt on the right hand column to donate!

UPDATE: The Confluence RAISED $10,000.00 in 3 days to pay down Hillary’s Debt!  Click at the jump for the Haircut!  The Monet of Mean has depicted Carol (aka Marilyn’s TWIN sister) giving our Madame Speaker a trim for just in time for her Sunday Service (h/t Fuzzybear!).  Rico will be serving complimentary Dom Perignon to celebrate the occasion!

As always, the now tuxed-out Rico will serve you Pink PUMAs and Mountain Lion Martinis.  Flo in her lovely Givenchy gown will be glad to show her Karate skills to any Smieglys that decide to drop in uninvited, as well as hold some of those words we say when we stub our toe against the coffee table.

We are also holding any trivia games you’d like to enjoy.  Angie the Seinfeld Trivia queen rocked the Friday Fundraising Fest last night.  So the floor is yours as this will operate as an open thread.

For the more studious minded, here’s an article that made my ladylike dispostion disappear, by Liz Sidoti at the AP:  Analysis: Obama revels in contrasts with McCain

Even so, a seemingly unfazed Obama tore through the week with McCain in his sights, giving the impression that he’s becoming at ease with his newfound role, and, perhaps, running for president on the whole. At times, he came across witty and hip, relaxed and confident, and much more comfortable than he was during the heat of the primaries.

Perhaps it’s because there’s now a measure of clarity in the race, with an opponent from the other camp with a completely different take on the issues. Perhaps it’s because polls show Obama slightly ahead while McCain has seemed unable to lay a glove on him. Perhaps it’s because the campaign days are lighter — at least for now.

 Perhaps Liz never heard of PUMA.

He’s Just Not That Into You: A Play In One Hopeless Act.

THE SCENE: The bottom of a church basement, the place of many an AA meeting. Coffee cups, cigarette butts and cookie crumbs are strewn everywhere. A long cafeteria-style table is at the front of the room, with a podium next to it. Seated at the table are MARKOS MOULITSAS, CHRIS BOWERS, ARMANDO LLORENS (BIG TENT DEMOCRAT), JOHN ARAVOSIS, ANDREW SULLIVAN and ARIANNA HUFFINGTON. The boys all wear chinos and button-down shirts. KOS has an orange band around his head – almost like a crown. ARIANNA is wearing her traditional camisole-as-shirt and eyeing the men flirtatiously. SULLIVAN sports a snappy bowtie.

At the podium are the authors of the book, “He’s Just Not That Into You,” GREG BEHRENDT and LIZ TUCILLO. Throughout this whole play, GREG and LIZ speak to the bloggers in a typical motivational-speaker way – in other words, as if they are eight-year-old children.

Above the podium a sign reads, “HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU.” GREG and LIZ also have nametags on. LIZ bangs a gavel to bring the meeting to order.

LIZ (brightly): Hello, everyone! I’m Liz –

GREG: And I’m Greg –

TOGETHER: And welcome to, He’s Just Not That Into You!

LIZ [sobering quickly]: Today, we’re here to talk to you about Senator Barack Obama. You all supported him pretty strongly in the primaries, didn’t you? [The bloggers all nod.] Now, why did you do that?

BTD: I didn’t REALLY like him better. I just thought he was more electable than Hillary.

KOS: He wasn’t Hillary! I hate that bitch! And besides, the Clinton Era is over. O-V-E-R!! The time of the blogger is NOW! We are crashing the gate! Obama is the progressive leader who will make our concerns his own. Power to the people!

ARAVOSIS and HUFFINGTON: Yeah! What he said!

SULLIVAN: I hate Hillary too, but Obama? He is Jesus and Elvis. He is the most historic, transformational –

GREG: Um, yes, we get it. Thank you, Andrew. Chris, what about you?

BOWERS: Obama is just like me! We drink the same beer PBR OMG OMG we go to Whole Foods!!! [becomes a little dizzy; ARIANNA solicitously pats his arm and offers him a drink of water]

LIZ: Whoa, take it easy there, Chris. I think we understand. Thanks, everyone, for your input. So, you guys all picked Obama as the nominee, and he won. Good for you!

[Everyone high-fives – HUFFINGTON leans forward, smiling and flashing her cleavage a bit.]

GREG: Yes, good for you. Now, let’s talk about what’s been happening lately. I heard he’s been going back on his promises and has stopped returning your calls. No matter what you do, you can’t seem to get his attention – and now he’s done something that really hurts your feelings. He voted to legalize Bush’s warrantless wiretapping and immunize the telecom companies from prosecution. Is that about on target?

BTD: Ha! Don’t make me out to be like one of these losers. I always saw Obama clearly. Pols are pols. Either he was lying then or he’s lying now, but no matter what, I’m going to vote for him because he’s a Democrat.

SULLIVAN: Oh, the FISA thing is no big deal. What is starting to bother me is his personality. Maybe he’s a little too full of himself lately. Still, there’s no denying what a transformational moment his presidency would be!

BOWERS: Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo. Hey, look at this pretty electoral map I made!

KOS: I’m very fucking annoyed. Those ridiculous PUMAs will only feel vindicated now. Of course, everyone knows he will still be a great President, so it will all work out in the end.

HUFFINGTON: Well, I have nothing to say on the matter. I’d rather talk about Karl Rove!

ARAVOSIS: Barack who? It was the Senate that passed the FISA bill.

[LIZ and GREG look at each other, puzzled.]

LIZ: Gosh, folks, you don’t seem to be getting what I’m saying here. Barack Obama promised to filibuster the FISA amendment bill if it contained telecom immunity. This was very important to all of you. You thought it made him special and progressive and unique. Then, he went back on his promise. Worse than that, Hillary Clinton kept her promise and voted against telecom immunity, so it looks like maybe you were wrong to hate her so. Meanwhile, Senator Obama has been “refining” more positions lately – including pretending he did not promise to immediately withdraw troops from Iraq and have everyone home in 16 months – but he says he will, right on his website!

Don’t you feel betrayed, like Joan Walsh? Don’t you feel like maybe, just maybe, he’s not that into you?

[All the bloggers squirm in their seats and are silent. Finally KOS takes the lead.]

KOS [standing]: Jesus Christ. I don’t have to take this crap. Obama’s my guy and I’m sticking by him.

BOWERS: [standing] Me too. And he loves me, he really does. I know it in my heart! He’ll come back to me after he’s President.

BTD [standing, disgusted]: Ahhhh, this New Age crap is for the birds. Obama’s a Democrat and that’s all I care about. I’m outta here.

ARAVOSIS: [standing] McCain sucks. Obama forever!

HUFFINGTON: [standing] Well I, personally, have no problems with what Obama did on FISA. He’s just pandering to get elected. I AM the one I’ve been waiting for. Good-bye! [they are all leaving]

SULLIVAN: [standing] Well, I personally think Obama’s just fine, as long as he doesn’t get too big a head. I don’t even know what I’m doing here. Later! [he follows the others out the door]

[LIZ and GREG look at each other in astonishment. Their cheery personas fall away and they become matter-of-fact. They shrug, then get to work cleaning up the coffee cups.]

LIZ: Worst case of denial I ever saw.

GREG: You said it, sister.

[LIGHTS OUT]

Obamaphiles: you’ve been had

Ever since Obama began his candidacy, the rest of us have wondered: how did a less than one term senator with virtually no qualification to be be president and no message but Change! make so much money in such a short period of time. Steve Soto at TheLeftCoaster sees an interesting correlation that many of you should stop and think about.

Before the primaries began, Obama had amassed $99 Million, almost as much as Hillary Clinton who had been amassing her warchest for years.  Where did that money come from?  Not only that but since Obama became the Presumptuous Nominee the money kind of dried up.  As Steve points out, the Obama campaign will try to pin this on Clinton and say that her supporters are holding back.  And this may very well be true.  But the decrease in funding started to happen back in March.

March? March? What happened back in March?  Oh, yes, i remember now.  Matt Yglesias, Chris Bowers, Josh Marshall and the other blogger boyz were going on and on about how it was mathematically impossible for Clinton to win.  Well, not exactly.  Without the voter suppression techniques that the Obama campaign used, it would have been very possible for her to win, but why get into that nasitiness?  The Obamaphiles don’t believe the Pure One would ever be that dishonest.  No, what Steve Soto uncovered, and what seems very likely, is that the money was directed at defeating Clinton.  It was made available for just that purpose.  Yep, thousands and thousands of maxxed out voters sending money for this one single purpose and then, just as suddenly, all drying up!

I mean, it *almost* seems like there was an influx of cash to Obama just when he needed it most with the specific goal of taking out Clinton and this influx of cash doesn’t seem to be sticking around for the General Election.  WHO would DO such a dastardly thing???  Who would deliberately fund a candidate who isn’t qualified for the least important cabinet position in the WH much less the presidency in order to knock out the strongest candidate that would go up against the Republicans in the fall?  Why, it’s almost ROVIAN in it’s simple brilliance.  It would be like having a lot of Republicans send money to the weakest Democratic candidate, reregister as Democrats or just vote for the Democrat in states where there were open primaries. I found a lot of such households in PA where the voter was just making mischief for the Democrats and never intended to vote for Obama in the fall.  LOL!  They were having a joke on us!  So much fun.

But, could it be that this is what happened with the fundraising money? That the ratfucking Republicans rigged the Democratic election by flooding the Obama campaign with cash and then beating a hasty retreat once they accomplished the dirty deed?  Hmmmm, there’s only one way to find out.  We need for Obama’s campaign to correlate contributions to party affiliation or previous contributions.  I mean, we’ve been so busy looking for Republicans among the PUMAs, maybe we’ve been looking for Republicans in all the wrong places.  Yeah!  Let’s demand that Obama release his contribution lists!  That would settle the question.  Wouldn’t he want to be rid of the taint of a Republican setup?  I mean, that would be sooo embarrassing if it turned out that he couldn’t win on his own merits and needed the help of sneaky Republicans.  it wouldn’t bode well for the GE, would it, if it turned out that much of his support was from Republicans who were just trying to game the system.

Oh, BTW, his campaign predicted a haul of $100 million in June.  He hauled in only $30 million.  What is it they say about past performance is not guarantee of future returns?