Post Debate Summary

It sounds like Obama got his ass handed to him. What do you think? And what were the night’s most memorable lines?

Here is a handy pundit pocket guide to scoring the debate:

• Pundits say tie= McCain won
• Pundits say Obama won= debate was a tie
• Pundits say McCain won= you were watching a different debate

Final Debate: Live Blog III

There’s only a little time left but there seems to be a lot of commenters tonight. Good! The more the merrier.

The next poll:

Final Debate: Live Blog II

This is a continuation of the live debate blog.

New Poll:

Final Debate: Live Blog Thread

Tonight is the last debate between Barack Obama and John McCain at Hofstra. We know how the media will spin it. gqmartinez at Corrente sums it beautifully:

1. Claim the race is already over.

2. Use 1. above to say that the losing candidate needs to have a “game changer”.

3. Make the debates such that no “game changer” is possible.

4. Declare that no “game changer” happened and so the losing candidate actually lost the debate.

If you want to follow the debate Conflucian style, watch it on C-Span and turn the volume down. Watch the body language. Then, rewind the DVR and listen. Do you get a different impression?

Oh, and now we have the ability to poll! So, let’s test it out.

Ready, set, go!

We Will Survive—Lessons From Yertle the Turtle

Well, where have I been, fa God’s sake? You know what they say? When times get tough, the Jews get cleanin’ — at least those of us raised by borderline obsessive-compulsive moms. My New York pad had been suffering from nine months of neglect after blogging up a storm for our gal, Hillary. My cleaning strategy (or was it a tactic?) fell under the rubric of build it and they will come, for all you clients who might have unknowingly been demagnetized by the New York film of white dust that seems to settle on everything in my little flat, despite air purifier. And there’s something about wiping the slate clean during the Jewish New Year that compelled me to also clean the space around me. So am I next to godliness now? Hard to say, God only knows.

Like many of my Confluence sisters and brothers, I imagine I’ve been suffering from an influx of fluctuating moods and diminishing incomes, having dedicated so much to our PUMA cause. Yes, as has been told repeatedly, we’ve been putting out fires all year. Just when we thought we’d found each smoking gun of Obama’s dirty dealings and his trail of broken promises that would put his campaign out to pasture and reward Hillary with her rightful place of stellar leadership, we would be surprised by the MSM, Dem leadership, and general populace’s silence. So we’ve been running this relay race, and frankly, we’re tired. Our team members have carried the baton when any one of us could not. Some of us have felt beaten down by hitting our heads against the wall with cries of illegality and the smarmy tactics and associations of the Obama campaign. Frankly, I’ve cited so many instances that I’m numb, so if you want a reference, just look at almost any post here, on my blog or that of any one of my blogroll links.

So what kind of horse am I to stop before the race is over? I’m not really stopping, I’m just refueling, and that means refocusing and looking for work. Blogging, as I have found, is almost like having a job, it just doesn’t pay the cash. After all, to do it right, one must read other blogs, comments, stay up on the news, have an opinion, gather audio/visual accompaniment, cite supporting resources, links, and articles.

What blogging has gotten us is that our PUMA protest voice has made a huge difference in forcing the truth into the media, which has largely obfuscated its purpose as keepers of the Fourth Estate. In one example, after all of our yammering, finally the ACORN improprieties in voter registration are coming to light in thirteen states of the union. Most of us are lifelong Liberals who refused to give in to the philosophy of “by any means necessary.” Reference to those words by Malcolm X were woven in as code during the primaries against Hillary and now against McCain.

When Obama says in grandiose speeches that people are trying to “hoodwink and bamboozle you,” he’s speaking in code. And most knife-twisting of all, the chief hoodwinking bamboozler is calling the kettle black or white if you’re John Lewis. Those words by Malcolm X are part of the “by any means” philosophy, which gets to the heart of why we feel so angry and hurt by his campaign. We are fundamentally against this way of being in the world and see this MO permeate every level of Obama’s opportunistic campaign at each step of the way — from the trail of broken promises to his associations with shady characters, from ACORN to his Fannie and Freddie on-the-take, and how he stepped on the heads of those who helped him rise to power. We’re frustrated because when we or the McCain campaign point out these things, we/they are called haters and racists in the most vile, stringent terms. We are called haters by a campaign and its followers who have threatened, shouted us down, made it unsafe to wear normal campaign gear, carry or post signs, speak out. We are called names by a campaign that has used people within their governmental capacity to stifle free speech. Why?

Saddest of all is that we are like the wandering Jews. Welcome, people, to my world. We have no home. My thousands of friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, people I’ve known for my entire adult life, going on forty years, think that I’m a pariah. I don’t talk about my views with them, as I’m usually met with a barrage of hatred toward the candidates I believe in or am placing my hope in to counteract Nobama. So, basically, I don’t go there. I just write to get out the word. I write to you and for myself as an outlet, and because I cannot stay silent. You are my new community, my solace, my rock, my connection to the reality I see — the reality that so many of my counterparts don’t see. It’s as if the truth before their eyes is invisible.

Remember “Yertle the Turtle” by Dr. Seuss? Obama is like Yertle in his unbridled ego and hubris, fake seal, O-plane, fake Greek columns. His attitude is cloaked in the language of noblesse oblige, but instead of by birthright, he will use the power he has garnered to re-distribute the wealth to the less fortunate. And the people, the other lowly turtles in the land, afraid or deluded, they will obey:

My throne shall be higher!” his royal voice thundered,
“So pile up more turtles! I want ’bout two hundred!”
“Turtles! More turtles!” he bellowed and brayed.
And the turtles ‘way down in the pond were afraid.
They trembled. They shook. But they came. They obeyed.
From all over the pond, they came swimming by dozens.
Whole families of turtles, with uncles and cousins.
And all of them stepped on the head of poor Mack.
One after another, they climbed up the stack.
Then Yertle the Turtle was perched up so high,
He could see forty miles from his throne in the sky!

So, as we say, we don’t really have a horse in this race. Again, as in prior elections, we are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils. We are forced to turn a blind eye toward a Yertle who has stepped on the heads of the people. But WE are like Mack. When Yertle the Turtle could not bear to see the moon rise higher in the sky than he himself, he ordered more turtles onto the pile, but poor Mack—suffering under the burden of the millions who followed their king—did the most simple, natural thing, and brought the tyrant down:

But, as Yertle, the Turtle King, lifted his hand
And started to order and give the command,
That plain little turtle below in the stack,
That plain little turtle whose name was just Mack,
Decided he’d taken enough. And he had.
And that plain little lad got a bit mad.
And that plain little Mack did a plain little thing.
He burped!
And his burp shook the throne of the king!

And Yertle the Turtle, the king of the trees,
The king of the air and the birds and the bees,
The king of a house and a cow and a mule…
Well, that was the end of the Turtle King’s rule!
For Yertle, the King of all Sala-ma-Sond,
Fell off his high throne and fell Plunk! in the pond!

So, all you wanderers who feel you have no home except for that of your fellow bloggers and protesters, YOU, WE will survive. We will continue to do what comes naturally, to put one foot in front of the other, and just . . . burp.

[cross-posted from Lady Boomer NYC]

PUMA Up, People!

We Are Just Getting Started!

Well, it’s coming into the home stretch now. Finally, after all the shocks and the agony and the disappointments and the activism, we are less than three weeks away from the final decision as to who will be our President next January.

Massive Hakas are being perpetrated by the media. Polls that are representative of only 20% of the people called are being shown and quoted as if they are valid. The screams of “RACISM” are coming almost daily from the Obama camp. The trolls are flop-sweating all over PUMA sites. And some erstwhile PUMAs are losing their nerve in a spectacular way, turning on their former friends and trying to work out their cognitive dissonance by shitting all over us on their blogs.

It’s time to PUMA Up, people. We are in for a whole lot of ugly.

I have said in the past that I thought Obama was unelectable. I said that because I did not believe that a person who surrounds himself with racists, money-launderers, voting fraud perpetrators and domestic terrorists could get elected President in this country. But I didn’t know how invested the media was in pushing him down our throats and covering up the radicalism, corruption and bigotry that informs his vaunted “judgment.” It is just possible that this blatant media push, combined with the ever-worsening economy and the understandable hostility towards the Republican brand after eight years of the Worst President Ever, could get him into the White House.

But whether Obama or McCain wins, our actions after the election will be the same. Being a PUMA has always been about two things: 1) Doing everything we can to ensure that the Obama wing of the Democratic Party is not successful in its attempted coup; and 2) Reforming the Democratic Party after the election. We may or may not succeed in the first step, but that is no excuse not to proceed with the second.

As Hillary quoted in her speech at the Convention, “When you hear the dogs and when you see the torches, JUST KEEP GOING.”

And so it shall be. PUMA POWER!!!

Cross-posted at Partizane

Walking on Moonshine

I used to think maybe I’d win, and now I’m almost sure
Now I’m still out on the campaign trail, the win to assure.

I just hope now for the duration, that nobody sees
On how many issues, I seem to have two policies.

I’m walking on moonshine– oh, oh
I’m walking on moonshine– oh, oh
I’m walking on moonshine– oh, oh
And don’t it feel good.

So what if we’re trillions in debt, and a mile in a hole
What we need is clearly more spending, and more on the dole.

Now if you’ve got money, look out– I’ll be coming for you
‘Cause I’ve got big plans, for which I will need your revenue.

I’m walking on moonshine– oh, oh
I’m walking on moonshine– oh, oh
I’m walking on moonshine– oh, oh
And don’t it feel good.

Now I’ve got the win in my sights, and soon I’ll have it made
If they bring up Wright, Ayers and Rezko, I’ll be unafraid.

There’s only one thing that I fear– if some journalist tell
That if I should win, our new first lady will be Michelle.

I’m walking on moonshine– oh, oh
I’m walking on moonshine– oh, oh
I’m walking on moonshine– oh, oh
And don’t it feel good.

Wednesday: Whoops!

Gimme Coffee!

I woke up late this morning.  Cold medicine will do that to you.  Even Hypergraphia the muse is still sleeping. So, this is an open thread.

Here are some ice breakers to talk about:

• When Obama challenged McCain to say it to his face, did he mean at tonight’s debate?
• Now that Obama has won tonight’s debate, how will the media say he did it?  With his grace and eloquence or his mastery of the material or his inspirational vision?
• And now for something completely different.  In The Wild Side, the NYTimes reports on a form of cancer in Tasmanian Devils that is spreadable.  They don’t get it from spreading a virus, like the Human Papilloma virus (HPV).  They spread it by contact with the cancer *cells* themselves.  Oddly enough, this is possible in humans as well, although it is very rare.  In the Tasmanian Devil case, it could lead to extinction.

Oh, and one more thing: We know that DFA is planning to train activists to put peer pressure on their friends, families and canvassing list. How do we know? They say so. Here’s the email from Armad inviting me to a training session to see how it’s done:

DFA Member –

This election is going to boil down to one thing: turnout. That’s good news, because that means the key to victory is in your hands.

Even better news: Our Get Out The Vote campaign will help you do it.

Studies show that peer-to-peer voter contact is the most effective way to increase turnout¹. When you ask friends to vote and they commit, they are much more likely to follow through. The same goes for neighbors, co-workers, and family. The statistics prove it — when you ask someone you know to vote, they won’t want to let you down.

That’s why our Get Out The Vote campaign focuses on mobilizing your social network. This Tuesday evening, DFA Night School returns for a special 50 State Victory GOTV session.

CLICK HERE TO RSVP

DFA Night School Special Edition – MyGOTV
Tuesday, Oct 14, 2008
8:30 Eastern Time

We’ll teach you the tactics and tools you’ll need to deliver results.

Our strategy is based on some of the best research available on voter turnout. Several studies show that voters turn out at higher rates when they believe their peers or neighbors will know if they’ve turned out or not.

It makes sense too. We all know that peer-pressure doesn’t end in high school. Let’s put peer-pressure to work and deliver victory for Barack and progressive candidates up and down the ballot.

Join us for Night School and help us get 3 million voters to the polls by Election Day.

RSVP RIGHT NOW TO GET THE SKILLS TO WIN

Our campaign also focuses on voting early. That’s because voting early cuts down long lines on Election Day. It frees up the campaign to focus on less likely voters. And it eliminates unexpected circumstances that might keep someone from voting on Election Day.

With our campaign, once you actually vote, we’ll send you a free “I voted for Obama” bumper sticker. It’s just one more way to make sure your friends and neighbors see you are working to make change happen.

Don’t miss this important Special Edition Night School.

RSVP TODAY!

Thank you for everything you do.

-Arshad

Arshad Hasan, Executive Director
Democracy for America

P.S. If you haven’t yet pledged to vote for Obama and get 3 more Obama voters to the polls by Election Day, now’s the time.

CLICK HERE TO PLEDGE TO WIN

¹ Yale University Institution for Social and Policy Studies: Lessons from Recent GOTV Experiments – Alan Gerber, Mark Grebner, Donald Green and Christopher Larimer (2006)
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Well, isn’t that special? Howard Dean’s brother Jim’s activist base training thousands of Obots to get in your face to put peer pressure on you to vote for Obama just like in high school. Research based psychological warfare, just what we need from another presidential candidate. And Obama is behind this 100%. I suppose there’s nothing illegal about it. It just feels really disgusting to me. Like siccing the popular clique on the rest of us. Aren’t we allowed to make these decisions on our own without peer pressure?