Scratching Post Saturday Night – Democracy is more important than my LadyParts

 

We are the ones no one was expecting, and boy are they pissed.  Our votes are PRIME REAL ESTATE – but if the O-borg, particularly Joe Conason from the New York Observer, keeps writing stuff like this, what makes you think we’re voting for “Mr. Yes He Can’t?”

To take her at her word — as those who constantly proclaim their devotion ought to do — means joining her behind the new Obama-Biden ticket. Rather than sulking over the slights and stupidities of the primary, she speaks about the disastrous implications of a Republican victory as well as the policies and values she holds in common with Sen. Obama. Do the rejectionists think that her speeches on his behalf are insincere — that when she says she wants him to win, she is being false? Such assumptions are an insult to her.

Still more confounding is the threat by some of her supporters to defect to John McCain. His campaign’s latest commercial features a grinning Clinton supporter who praises his “maverick, independent streak” as well as his “experience and judgment,” and promises that “it’s OK, really” to vote for the Republican. Is this the politics of revenge? Is it the cult of personality? Is it just stubborn idiocy?

Whatever else it may be, it is not OK. No, it is emphatically not OK to mislead Sen. Clinton’s supporters into lining up behind a candidate whose positions are the opposite of hers, whose judgment on many issues is woefully deficient, and whose maverick independence is no more than a memory.

Sen. McCain, too, deserves to be taken at his word — which makes it all the more astonishing that anyone who claims to have voted for Sen. Clinton would consider voting for him. He has declared his firm opposition to reproductive rights and promised to appoint Supreme Court judges who would restrict those rights. He would continue the U.S. occupation of Iraq and may well expand the war to Iran and beyond. He opposes universal health care and denounces Social Security as a “disgrace” that should be privatized. He dropped his principled opposition to the regressive Bush tax cuts and his support of immigration reform to pander to the Republican right.

Speaking of right-wing Republicans, their encouragement of the intransigent Clintonites is a clue for the clueless. The sudden affection lavished on Sen. Clinton by neoconservatives and other assorted wingnuts could hardly be more transparent or insincere — or predictable as soon as Sen. Obama, their erstwhile favorite, secured the Democratic nomination. Pundits who beseeched Democrats to join the Obama campaign as a crusade to destroy the Clintons now demand respect for her. But their insincerity is blatant. They merely want to exploit her most disappointed supporters, whose eagerness to cooperate in that strategy is mystifying.

Private opinions about Sen. Obama and his chances of victory notwithstanding, Sen. Clinton clearly understands that her own political future, her family’s political legacy and the causes she holds dear will all depend on the vigor of her support for the Democratic ticket this fall. And despite persistent hisses of complaint from both the Obama and Clinton camps during the convention week, she knows there is no upside in recalcitrance and no downside in enthusiasm. As a lifelong advocate of racial and gender equality, she should appreciate the historic moment that she and Sen. Obama have the privilege to share on the public stage. None of her supporters should stoop to tarnish it.

You know what Joe?  F__K You.  F__K you and your vote stealing candidate.  Had you done your job as a journalist, you would’ve discovered that Obama stole this convention through caucus fraud, SuperDelegates donations through Nancy Pelosi’s PAC, with the help from the RBC and Fake Role Call meetings.  So get your nose out of my uterus. I will support DownTicket Dems even if they were a participant in the Death Of Democracy in the Democratic Party – because they will ensure that McCain and Palin’s power do not go unchecked.  And numbers say that in 40 years and 5 Republican presidents with very conservative Supreme Court majorities haven’t turned over Roe v. Wade, so why should they now?  Obama stole a campaign and attacked with his rabid cyber-dogs and cultlike supporters in the media.  What makes you think he’s going to protect MY rights as a woman after he let misogyny be the main weapon to suppress dissent?  Democracy is much more important to me than my uterus, so go do your job instead of deciding what my ladyparts should be doing/thinking.

Rico has his Pink PUMAs and Mountian Lion Martinis – Flo has her catchers mitt, so Smiegels beware!  For entertainment tonight, nothing like a good Latin Jazz timbal duet between Tito Puente and Shiela E. 

PLUS: Join Matt from “My Two Cents”  11PM ET tonight!  Topics: DNC convention, McCain’s stunning VP pick, polls, tactics used to sway Hillary supporters/pumas to Obama through fear and doubt. Special guests will drop by to weigh in!!!  http://www.blogtalkradioshow.com/My-Two-Cents

¡Que viva los PUMAs! (Long live PUMAs!)

Fair is Fair!

If you are a feminist, womanist, or a liberal/progressive who thinks women should cast their votes based solely or primarily on “woman’s issues” then you cannot rightfully criticize any woman who casts her vote in order to help a woman break the glass ceiling and become the first female Vice President.

If you have argued or agreed with the idea that there is nothing wrong with African Americans voting for for an African American candidate over a white candidate, even if the white candidate has a longer record of working to advance the interests of African Americans and advocates policies that are more beneficial to the African American community, then you are a hypocrite if you criticize a woman who votes for another woman based on gender, even if the male candidate advocates policies that a more beneficial to women.

As a white male, I don’t have a dog in this fight.  I have never criticized the overwhelming support given to Barack Obama by the African American community.  I think it is perfectly logical and reasonable for them to support an African American candidate in the hope of seeing him become the first African American President of the United States.  I also understand why so many women supported Hillary Clinton.

My issues with Barack Obama have nothing to do with the color of his skin, and my support of Hillary Clinton has nothing to do with her gender.  But anyone who supported Barack Obama in whole or in part because of his race, cannot criticize anyone who supports Sarah Palin in whole or in part because of her gender.  Fair is fair.

The primary campaign was historic because it saw one of the two major political parties select a Presidential nominee who is African American.  It would have been just as historic if Hillary was selected as the nominee, because she would have been the first woman to reach that milestone.

This election continues to be historic because the “highest, hardest” glass ceiling that has kept women and minorities from either of the two highest offices in the country will be shattered regardless of who wins in November.  If the person who shatters that glass ceiling is Sarah Palin, I will have mixed emotions.

I will be happy and proud to see a woman reach the nation’s second highest office.  I will be sad because that woman is a Republican, and because Democrat Hillary Clinton deserves the honor of shattering that barrier.

If the Democratic leadership had not been infected with CDS, they would have given Hillary the Presidential nomination that she both deserved and rightfully earned, and had he run a clean campaign they could have selected Barack Obama as her running mate. 

Had the Democratic leadership done so, both candidates would have blasted the glass ceiling to smithereens in November, and a more experienced Barack Obama would be perfectly positioned to follow Hillary into the Presidency eight years from now.  That would be sixteen straight years that the Oval Office was not occupied by a white man.

But the Democratic leadership was too full of hatred for the Clintons, and Barack Obama too arrogant and impatient to wait or to allow a woman to go first, so John McCain and the GOP have seized the golden opportunity presented to them.  Until yesterday morning I thought John McCain would more likely than not defeat Barack Obama in November.  Barring any unseen developments, I am now certain of it.

Four years from now, the Democratic party will have a final opportunity to ensure that the first woman President of the United States is a Democrat.  They can nominate Hillary Clinton, and watch her beat either McCain (if he runs for reelection) or Palin (if she is nominated to replace him.) 

She would also beat the stuffing out of any other Republican the GOP could nominate.

So if you supported Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Presidential nomination, don’t come whining to me about “McSame” or “4 more years of Bush” when McCain and Palin open a big can of “Whoop-Ass” on Obama and Biden this November. 

If you do, this will be my response:

“I TOLD YOU SO!”

Welcome New Readers!

We’ve been checking our site statistics an have noticed a huge spike in the number of people who have caught onto PUMA Power.  We are Democrats and our mission and purpose is to wrest the Democratic party back from the young, ideological thugs who have temporarily taken up space with teh DNC.

Our message to you is simple:  You own your own vote.  You can cast it for whomever you like.  As a Democrat, you are under no obligation to support the ticket if you do not think it was won fairly.  As a Democratic primary voter, you went to the polls in your state and cast your vote in good faith that your intentions would be recognized and honored.  We now know this was not the case.  Your state spent millions of taxpayer dollars to run the primary for the Democratic party but the party felt no obligation to follow its own processes.  Your state extended the courtesy to the party but if you feel that the party did not act in good faith, you may want to contact your State Attorney General to lodge a complaint.  The way the primaries and convention were conducted stronlgy suggests a pre-determined outcome and it that is true, the primaries were nothing but a sham and a fraud perpetrated on voters by the members of the DNC.

Going forward, we will be forming a New Democratic Party for those of us who consider ourselves true Democrats.  We will be supporting and endorsing downtciket Democrats to ensure divided government in the wake of the McCain/Palin victory in November.  Please see PUMAPac for details.

And if you are so inclined, help us pay off Hillary Clinton’s campaign debt.  As little as $10 combined with all of the other contributions will go a long way to settling the obligations to small vendors.  The Obama fundraisers were supposed to help us do it but they reneged on their promises to do so.

Thanks for checking in.  We know it can’t have been easy for you during the convention last week.  We saw a brilliant, energetic, dedicated public servant get a pretty raw deal from her party.  But we are not wallowing in our beer.  We are motivated to take our party back.   So, find a buddy, hold hands, stick together and, united, we will make the powers that be the powers that *were*. You are not alone.

Roll Call!  Tell us where you’re from.

Saturday: Truth and Consequences

The Obamaphiles continue their charm offensive to woo and cajol us to vote for Obama.  How sweetly they shower us with attention and affection.  Soon, they will have us eating out of their hands, our tiny little bird brains filled with brilliant Barackian light and music.

F$&* that $*%^!

Can we please get a better brand of troll here?  The ones we have been assigned are insulting our intelligence.  Let’s knock these myths down one at a time:

1. McCain has skin cancer.  He could *die* in office.  DIE, I say!  Then, Sarah Palin would be President.  OMG!  She’s only been a governor for 2 years!  Woe is me!  What shall become of us??? Truth: Tim Kaine has been governor of VA for exactly as long as Palin.  He was on Obama’s short list for VP. So, if Kaine was experienced for Obama, Palin is experienced enough for McCain.  Plus, the Republicans have maintained a more natural order in their ticket.  John McCain is “mentoring” Palin.  It looks logical and good spirited.  As to the health issue, skin cancer, like melanoma which McCain has had, is curable if caught early.  People with John’s skin type, which happens to be mine also, have to be extremely vigilant about noticing changes in the skin but it *is* possible for us to lead healthy, productive lives with sun protection and immediate treatment of lesions.   He’s more likely to die of heart disease.
2. But she’s so inexperienced.  How would she handle the presidency if she had to step in? Truth: Barack Obama has been running for president for as long as Sarah Palin has been running Alaska.  In fact, she is likely to step into the top spot with more ease than Obama because her experience as an executive is more relevant than his as a legislator.
3. She’s a former beauty queen. Truth: Former beauty queens get scholarships to college.  She got one.  She seems to be very smart.  Very tenacious.  We liked those qualities in Hillary.  Plus, she’s easy on the eyes.  So, she shows that women can be attractive and smart and powerful.  And the people screaming “former beauty queen” are showing their bigotry towards women.  I’m so glad we’re getting this all out in the open this year, aren’t you?  Otherwise, we would have spent the next 40 years co-existing with you troglodytes and sleeping with you and stuff, never knowing what you were really thinking.  Now, we can feel confident that if you don’t measure up in bed, it’s not our problem.
4. She’s anti-choice. Truth: We know what she is but if Obamaphiles insist on calling us post-menopausal, dried up pussies, you shouldn’t be surprised if we are suddenly unsympathetic towards young female Obamaphiles who find themselves unintentionally pregnant.  Some of us fought those battles in the 60’s.  Some of us took advantage of the battles won in the 70’s and 80’s.  Some of us continue to fight in the 90’s and 00’s.  But we’re not your parents who are responsible for getting you out of every scrape.  YOU are responsible for your own fate.  If you don’t like the anti-choice leanings of your next president and vice president, work your ass off for downticket Dems so Republicans can’t ram through any more anti-choice legislation.  You’re old enough.  Do it yourself.  Besides, you female Obamaphiles had a choice in Hillary Clinton who was committed to prtecting your reproductive freedom.  Instead, you picked a man who is actively courting evangelical voters and watering down the pro-choice section of the Democratic platform.  And you have the nerve to call US dumb?
5. She thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution. Truth: So do I.  And I’m a scientist that eats evolution for breakfast.  Hear me out.  Creationism is one of many theories about the origin of life.  Yep.  Betcha you guys forgot about spontaneous generation and the garbage theory (sort of like scientology).  In fact, in my 10th grade biology class, all theories were presented.  It took about 2 days to go through spontaneous generation, the garbage theory and creationism (taught by way of a Navajo myth.  What can I say?  My High School was progressive.)  Once that was over, we spent the rest of the quarter talking about natural selection.  You may be surprised to know that some Christian colleges like Messiah College where Monica Goodling was an undergrad are very natural selection friendly.  They have to be if they are teaching biology in an accredited program.  That’s the way life and biology work and they acknowledge it.  Students are presented with many theories and they are left to sort it out for themselves in an atmosphere that respects evidence based science.  That’s the way it *should* be.  Besides, you can beleive in natural selection and also that your creator caused it to be the way life originated.  Ain’t nobody’s business if you do.  And it keeps the crackpots out of the science class.
6. She’s no Hillary Clinton.  Truth: And neither is Barack Obama.  If the Democrats wanted Hillary Clinton to save Obama’s bacon, really the DNC’s bacon, they should have put her in the top spot and made Obama VP.  That would have been an unbeatable ticket.  Palin seems to have a lot of qualities that Hillary supporters admire.  No, she’s no Hillary Clinton but we didn’t get Hillary despite all of our efforts and the warnings we gave.  It seems like the Democrats are completely blindsided by Sarah Palin.  Heck, we knew she was coming.  She or Christie Todd Whitman were going to kill the Democratic ticket.  But did th DNC listen?  Nooooo. Tough noogies.
7. McCain is only pandering to you wimmin. Truth: Yup.  And???  You think we’re too stupid  to realize this?  Of course he’s pandering to us.  He’s a f%*(ing politician.  That’s what successful politicians do.  They reach out to voting blocs and offer them something.  I know that the Democratic party has abandoned this approach this year because they are above all of that and we’re just supposed to fall in line and hand over our votes like good little girls.  Obama is transcendent and Hillary was just too down to earth and common.  That’s why she needed to be purged.  Or maybe the Democratic party really is just that Good Old Boys club and they only used women’s rights as a come on.  We’re not too stupid to see that.
8. You’re all going to vote for McCain because he picked Palin and it’s all identity politics. Truth: Not necessarily.  Some of us will never be able to cross that ideological divide.  But Palin was the deciding factor for a good many people here.  McCain did something that the DNC refused to do- honor women voters.  As Chicago Dyke said:
   

   More than anything else, she is a clear warning: someone in the McCain campaing has a brain. Bigger than Rove’s, bigger than McCain’s. Fear that, if you long for Democratic victory this fall.

   More than anything else, we want to punish the DNC for turning its back on voters who went to the primary polls in good faith to vote for Hillary Clinton, expecting that our votes would be recognized.  We voted for her in overwhelming numbers in some major D and swing states and our votes were taken from us in the interest of “unity”.  Our delegates were harrassed and intimidated, our persons and characters insulted and derided, our candidate of choice, a brilliant, energetic, dedicated public servant, reduced to a figurehead of “your time has come and gone”.  We were told in no uncertain terms that OUR chance to lead the country had slipped through our fingers in favor of a bunch of amateurish, idealistic, young thugs.  I gotta tell you in advance of the November purge that that attitude went over like a lead balloon.  We will not let you get away with it.  Some of us will stay home.  Some of us will vote N.O.T. (nothing on top).  Some of us will write in or vote third party.  And, now, because of Sarah Palin, some of us feel we have some place to go.

9. The Democrats have no one but themselves to blame.  Oh, absolutely true.

The Art of VP Selection

There is a delicate art to selecting a Vice President. It is a big decision, because it says a lot about you as a candidate, and telegraphs your weaknesses to the other side.

The Republicans scheduled their convention later than the Democrats, and so were almost guaranteed to get a look at Barack Obama’s pick before making theirs. In a sense, they had a big advantage there. But what else is new? As we all know, they are very, very good at this game.

Let’s see what each Presidential hopeful’s choice says about him, eh?

Senator Joseph Biden

Barack Obama picked Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), a guy who’s known for his gaffe-tastic tendencies, but who is a Washington Insider with years of foreign policy experience. He did not pick Hillary, despite the obvious fact that doing so might be the only thing that would help him win in November (and myriad polls backed that assertion up at the time).

This pick tells me:

1. Obama can’t put his own feelings aside in order to do the right thing for himself and his Party.
2. Obama doesn’t have enough experience to be President, and is especially weak in foreign policy.

After taking a gander at Obama and his continued humiliation of Hillary Clinton and her voters, and seeing how un-democratic and unfair the fake roll call vote that nominated Barack Obama was, John McCain picked national unknown Sarah Palin for his Vice President.

Saturday: I own my vote and you own yours

This is the year I learned that a lot of people think they can control my vote. It seems the country will completely fall apart if I don’t promise – today, yesterday – to vote for Barack Obama!  And the whole world is at risk if I even flirt with the idea of voting for McCain. Now I’m always interested in talking about it but, these people (people?) have the strangest way of engaging in these conversations that I’ve ever experienced.

I’ve never been insulted so often for a vote I don’t intend to cast. You see, as of today I don’t intend to vote for John McCain.  I happen to believe that Barack Obama is unelectable making it a complete waste of a bloody nose for me to vote for him.

Although at the rate this campaign is evolving, I could change my mind about that….