Cocktails at The Scratching Post: August Memories

Hi, guys, I’m stalling on my packing, again.  The other conferees should be arriving in DC tonight to begin the festivities tomorrow morning.  But Brook has a ceremony for her final day of camp tomorrow so I will be getting in late tomorrow night.  😦

In the meantime, I am musing over the Hillary Web chat today and like Kbird, the whole thing seems vaguely reminiscent.  It makes me think of August, 1991.  Mikhail Gorbachev was the President of the Soviet Union.  He was a loyal communist party member.  His wife Raisa was a scholar on the subject of communism and frequently tweaked Nancy Reagan’s buttons.  She was delightful!  Anyway, Mikhail was a reformer with a soft spot for laborers.  He thought the whole system needed an overhaul so he introduced a couple of concepts to encourage openess and restructuring or perestroika.  He was encouraging a period of internal self examination. That openness set some machinery in motion but not quite what Gorbachev had expected.  Instead of wanting a reform of communism, the public seemed intent on getting rid of it.  The unrest had gone viral and was rapidly escalating in intensity.

Who is this man and why does he have a map of the Malay peninsula on his head?

Umm, that didn’t go over too well with some of the soviet hardliners.  So, while Gorbachev was vacationing in the Crimea, eight hardasses staged a coup.  They put Gorbachev under house arrest, told everyone he was “sick” and cut the phone lines to his dacha.  If my memory serves me correctly, somehow he smuggled out a video of himself to give the world a heads up. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, er, Kremlin, Boris Yeltsin took advantage of public sentiment and stared down the coup plotters.  International attention was riveted on what was going on.  Would there be another Tianneman Square event or would that somehow be averted?  In three days, it was all over.  The coup plotters were overthrown, the statue of Lenin was dismantled and the Soviet Union was no more.

Now, to me, it sure looks like the powers that be would like Hillary’s online fans to sit down and shut up.  The natives are getting restless and they are in a dither.  So, they have Hillary under virtual house arrest and strongly encourage her to get hold of the situation.  She has to play the game but if anyone can’t see through the answers to the questions from this morning, they aren’t paying attention.  She’s stated several things that just don’t ring true, like Obama’s committment to universal healthcare.  Are you kidding me??!

The bottom line, guys, is that this is rapidly spiralling out of the control of the DNC, the media and even Hillary herself.  The 18,000,000 voters will have their say.  We will not get in line.  We want our voices heard at the convention and we have every right to expect that our votes will be honored in a fair, open and transparent way.  So, if any of you were discouraged by the unity pony stuff she was mouthing, don’t be.  The Dean Democrats are getting nervous and confused.  But we aren’t under Hillary’s control.  She is not responsible for what we do and a forced webchat with those of us who are causing them the most grief is going to fail.

Crank it up to 11, PUMAs!

Welcome to the Cocktail Party at the Scratching Post.  I am your hostess for tonight.  You will find our bar to the left of the door.  The nice looking dude with the amazing tan and flair with the bottles is Rico, our bartender.  Tonight, we are offering causmos at $10.00 for help pay the small vendors that still need to be paid from Hillary’s campaign.  You can make a donation here.  We are also offering Pink Pumas to help defray the cost of the PUMA Den in Denver.  We’ll try to coordinate another fundraiser in a few days to help Gary and Mawm fuel their RV to Denver.  If you’d like something a little more topical, Rico is making a Soviet.  But you can order anything you like.

Tonight’s entertainment is from another era.  Doris Day sang with Les Brown’s band back before she was a virgin (it’s an old joke).  This song is bouncy and light, perfect for an evening when we’ve been fed Unity Pony all day but the message underneath is the one we’re really listening to.  I Ain’t Hep to that Step, But I Dig it:

Ladies and Gents, we run a classy joint here.  Everyone is welcome, even OPUMAs.  But let’s keep the ugly scenes to a minimum.  Check your trigger words with our lovely checkroom attendent, Florence.  The waiter’s will be circulating in a minute with panseared scallops with creme fraiche and domestic caviar, shrimp and grits and peach compote, cheese and crackers.  Please drink responsibly and tip your wait staff generously.

A condition of harmony? Or enforced allegiance?

I found a note (in my handwriting) on the passenger seat of my car a this afternoon: “HD’s Soviet-Style Convention” it said. And I would LOVE to write something about that. My eighth grade teacher was OBSESSED by the Soviet Union and she spent an entire eight weeks covering it’s history and The Communist Manifesto. So you’d think I’d have some background on the issue. But I don’t. That was the first class I ever flunked — and the story of why I wasn’t held-back a grade in punishment is part of the family mythology to this day.

Still, I remember one thing: they didn’t go for public disagreements in the Soviet Union. They liked a show of unity. Where the “show” was more important than the “unity”.

Sound familiar?

Tom Vilsack Doesn’t Get It. (Heh heh, I said Vilsack.)

Well, well, well. Isn’t this interesting.

Will Bower was just on Neil Cavuto’s show. He did us proud – explaining why we want Hillary’s name in nomination and why Senator Obama is unacceptable to us. (Let’s say the word “flip-flop” was prominently used.) Will said that under no circumstances would he vote for Barack Obama, and neither would most PUMAs. 

Then, Governor Tom Vilsack was on to respond.

He basically said, “No no everything is fine we are going to have unity Hillary is supporting Obama Bill loves Obama everything is beautiful and there will be no trouble at the Convention la la la la la I can’t hear you!”

Cavuto asked many pointed questions, but the response was always the same.

“Awwwww, those poor little Clinton supporters. They’re upset. They’ll get over it when they realize how great Obama is on the issues and how much better things will be when Obama is President.”

Is this guy fucking kidding me? I am starting to think that there is brain eraser in that Kool-Aid.

Hello, Democratic Leaders? YOUR CONSTITUENTS ARE TALKING TO YOU. Why aren’t you listening? What is wrong with you?

Our problems with Obama are based on the issues. We are not Republicans who go crazy because we are afraid Obama is not Christian enough to keep all the little zygotes from being murdered in their wombs. We don’t care if his middle name is “Hussein” and we don’t think he is a secret Muslim being brainwashed by Angela Lansbury to murder all the white people in their sleep. For Jeebus’ sake, WAKE UP! We don’t think Obama will be a good President because he is a liar, a total opportunist who will betray anyone and everyone in order to gain power and prestige. He has no beliefs. He has no principles. He loves himself more than should be humanly possible. And, he’s being financed by huge corporate interests who have no desire to rock their financial boats.

In short, he reminds us of George W. Bush.

All I can say is, if you think this Convention is going without a hitch, Mr. Sock Puppet Vilsack, you are out of your freaking mind. And if you do manage to nominate Oba-moi, please know that he will never, EVER be President of the United States. You and your pathetic, elitist comrades-in-Unity(TM) will be going down in flames.

PUMA!

Thursday: To Do List

Get out your RemembertheMilk accounts, your Blackberry calendars, your Covey planners.  Take this down as your to do list today:

• Strip Donna Brazile of her Superdelegate status.  After all, she told us she would leave the party if Superdelegates decided the primary result and, by golly, I intend to hold her to her word.    Her behavior this season has been one enormous conflict of interest on TV and as a member of the Rules and Bylaws committee.  Who among us will ever forget how we, the so-called “Old Coalition” were written off for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Models with PhDs in Architecture?  Do you remember how she used her mama’s words to scold Hillary’s campaign and accuse them of cheating? How many of us remember how she predicted race riots if African-Americans didn’t get their way, reducing a segment of our population to domestic terrorsists and regressing 50 years of the civil rights movement?  Who has time for riots these days?  Anyway, Donna’s got to go.  I can’t think of anyone who has done more to destroy the Democratic party this year than Donna.  We owe it to loyal Democrats everywhere to make sure she gets her place in the history of infamy but safely away from levers of power.  Here’s how you do it (copied shamelessly from GeekLove):
• • The steps outlined in the video to pressure Donna Brazile to keep her promise are:

  1) Write a certified & return receipt requested letter to the DNC demanding a meeting of the Rules and
  Bylaws Committee (RBC) to strip Donna Brazile of her superdelegate status.

  2) Have the letter notarized.

  3) Mail to this address:

  Democratic Nat’l Committee
  Credentials Committee
  Attn: Alexis Herman
  430 S. Capitol St. SE
  2nd Floor
  Washington, DC 20003

• Don’t miss Hillary Clinton’s webchat. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend because I will be at work but the rest of you take notes. 
• Check out Victor David Hansen’s piece at RealClearPolitics.  He harshes the DNC’s mellow by painting a big picture of Obama the Presumptuous Nominee.  The Dauphin of Democracy should be way ahead of “white haired old dude” at this point in time.   Can we have Hillary back now??