Delegate Account #1: We the Sheeple

This account is number one of a series that we hope to bring you with the help of Michele Thomas of 300 Delegates.  These are first hand accounts of what happened in the lead up and during the Democratic National Convention in 2008.  We hope to present new ones right up to the eve of the election.

Note to the media:  Here was a real story for you.  What happened during the convention should go down in history as one of the most infamous abuses of the primary voting system.  But we in the blogosphere have heard precious little media coverage of the story.  In an election year when the Democrats had everything going for them, the reason for their inevitable loss isn’t the fault of Hillary’s dogged refusal to leave the race, nor the entry of Sarah Palin, though both of those two events, both entirely reasonable, were contributing factors.  The primary reason why Barack Obama is going to lose is because he burned his bridges during the primary caucuses and during the largest caucus of all- the convention.  The media should be aware that these are not the days of falling trees, forests and no ears.  In the era of the Internet, the ability to get the truth out has a much lower threshhold barrier.  First hand accounts are always the most valuable.  When the narrative of the first hand account clashes with consensus reality, it is the consensus reality that starts to break down.  The media becomes progressively less trustworthy.  Hey, it’s your livelihood, not ours. We do this for free. Just sayin’.

Without further ado, here is the first hand account of sbc, a delegate from Portland, Oregon:

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Thoughts on the Denver Sham(e) by We the Sheeple

I was SO looking forward to this Convention.  Staying in a hotel w/ Arizona and Washington, my two former home states, I knew many of their delegates and wanted to reconnect.  Many of us were Wes Clark delegates and recalled how welcome we felt by the Kerry/Edwards people in Boston in 2004.

But there was this strange undertone when talking to some fellow delegates.  A furrowed brow or quizzical look.  “Hillary lost.  Don’t you ‘get’ it?”  I was repeatedly asked when I was going to “let go” or “get in line.”  After being berated on the streets of Denver for wearing my HRC T-shirt on Saturday, I was loaded for bear.  Don’t tell me how Obama is better than McCain.  My DOG is better than McCain!

Tell me what is it about Obama that is supposed to impress me.  His health care plan that leaves 15 million people still uninsured?  How’s he going to pay for it?  Rolling back my tax break?  That’s going to pay the $60 billion plus health care price tag?  Well, we really don’t know if it’s $60 or $70 billion.  His policy peeps can’ t seem to come up with a figure.  Or will that be covered by the AMT redo?  Or will THAT money go to shoring up Social Security?   Or infrastructure?  Or cancer research?  You know – his mother died of breast cancer while fighting those dastardly insurance companies.  (Will the trite People Magazine personal anecdotes never cease!)

Or is it his strong stand on filibustering any legislation that let telco’s off the hook for illegal wiretaps that inspired you?  Is that what he stands for?  Oh wait.  His FISA vote?  Did he do that while scratching his head and asking “What’s a filibuster?”

And he’s going to reform our broken educational system with what?  Vouchers?  Or even MORE faith based initiatives than Bush dreamed of – to the tune of $500 million a year?  Why not!  Obama’s Chicago Trinity United Church of Christ already pocketed $1.5 million in such programs.  And did anybody take note of the fact that Obama’s “community organizing” was done thru a church group?  This gets creepier by the talking point.

I guess I couldn’t recite Sen. Clinton’s policies chapter and verse either.  But I knew her RECORD.  She actually HAD a record.  What we thought we knew of Obama’s record seems tossed aside for the sake of political expediency.  Gun control?  Death penalty?  Um…where does he stand today?  Thursday?  How about next Thursday?  Please – someone tell me?

So here we are.  Once again adrift and bereft of any substantive leadership in the Democratic Party.

As a delegate, I kinda knew the “roll call” was going to be theater of the absurd.  I just didn’t think it would be that absurd.  The thing that broke my heart?  The text message from my sister who lives in NJ.  We were never a politically active family.  We were god-fearing daughters of a staunch Republican father but voting was never a required activity.  I convinced her it was important in 2004.  She’s a nurse.  She has three (gorgeous) kids.  She’s seen health care at its worst and deals with it everyday.

Last February, she bundled up her 3 year-old daughter and her 1 year old twin sons and put them in the stroller for the short walk to the courthouse to vote.  The Baby Girl (she does have a name but we call her the Baby Girl) proudly wore her Hillary t-shirt and her “I Can Be President” button and the polling place workers let her keep the button on.  My sister was thrilled that NJ came down on the right side of history in her primary.  My mother, an 80 year-old Japanese woman who was always proud of her country when she became a naturalized  US citizen, thought she would be able to see a woman become president in her lifetime.  When Gov. Corzine cast their 127 delegate vote for Barack Obama in Denver, my sister furiously sent a text: WTF!  My vote doesn’t count?

How am I supposed to defend a system that’s broken?  What civics lesson do I teach the Baby Girl the next time we walk past the courthouse where she went with her mom and her brothers to vote?  The courthouse is white.  The Baby Girl thinks THAT’S the White House and that’s where Hillary lives.  Do I tell her that there are still men out there who will try to hold her back, who will call her names and will tell her that she is “less than?”  Do I explain she will have to fight harder than ever because we couldn’t get it done?

I am all outta love with the hope ‘n change mantra.  Give me facts.  Give me substance.  Tell me how he’s going to get troops out of Iraq.  Immediately or after listening to the ground commanders?  And if the ground commanders say “don’t blink,” will he listen to them or get new commanders?  And can he PLEASE come up with a REAL stimulus package?  One that actually stimulates the economy.  Not one that send checks out so that people can pay off their credit card debt.  A jobs growth program that can carry us into the next decade, taking into consideration a truly global economy and an undeniable manufacturing dilemma?  And what about a small business plan?  THAT would show true initiative when it comes to women since women start small businesses at twice the rate of the weaker sex.  An actual PLAN, please, hold the rhetoric.

This weekend, I’m headed to do some serious diving/sailing in Hawaii, where the messiah went to high school.  I’m sure there’ll be plenty of Obama swag at the airport and on street corners.  Maybe a left over Hillary nut-cracker or two.  I’ll swim with real sharks.  Not the poseurs we are now left with in this political hell hole.

Apparently, BHO has recently taken a stand on what IS off limits.  Palin’s daughter and sexist comments about Palin herself are off limits.  It’s a sham(e) that he couldn’t take such a bold stand when Chelsea was being “pimped out” or when Sen. Clinton was being told “iron my shirt.”  Or when Tucker Carlson said he crosses his legs whenever he hears Hillary’s voice or when Alex Castellanos called a fellow Democratic senator a “white bitch.”  The anointed leader of this progressive party sat and didn’t say a word.  That would have taken real leadership and true leadership sometimes means taking a principled yet unpopular stand.  What would he have lost?  The nomination?  No – but he might have gotten my vote.   sbc

It’s a Conflucian “Caption This!”

I know my Conflucian bretheren can come up with something for this photo:

 Here’s my caption:

UPDATE: Join Matt tonight at 11PM ET, where he interviews Philadelphia lawyer Phillip Berg, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/My-Two-Cents 

H/T to Ben for suggesting this song, which sums up a lot of our feelings lately:

This is an open thread.  What did you do today other than hang out here? 

Caucus Fraud: Coming soon to your convention

After all, what is a party convention but one giant caucus?  And what has Obama’s campaign been up to the last couple of months but figuring out new ways of intimidating, bullying, deceiving and poaching Hillary’s delegates?  This stuff is second nature to the Obama campaign by now.  After all, It worked so well during the primary season.

You can get a glimpse of the documentary through this extended trailer.

John Siegal of WeWillNotBeSilenced has been working on a documentary to expose how the game was rigged and who pays for the damage to the process.  Says John:

The information in the film is especially jarring for those who were not in caucus states, but it is information that our party must face. There is a reason why half of all Hillary voters are not currently willing to vote for Obama, and this is a big part of it.As I told my friend Rep. Lois Capps, whose son in law is Obama’s National Communications Director, it would be unfair and unethical to delegates, both pledged and super, to withhold this otherwise untold story prior to their floor votes in Denver. This is, oddly, also an opportunity for unity; if the Obama campaign stated that they played rough in a caucus system that should be abolished, it would heal a lot of wounds.

We will have copies of the DVD with us if you need one in Denver.

http://wewillnotbesilenced2008…

John Siegel
Executive Producer, We Will Not Be Silenced
http://wewillnotbesilenced2008…

You can get a glimpse of the documentary through this extended trailer.

This is not just playing dirty. This isn’t just ratf%&ing. The result of rushing the caucuses and overwhelming the precinct captains contributed to the invalidation of the votes for Hillary in the Big D and Swing States on Feb. 5, 2008. In other words, what they did in the caucuses cancelled out my vote in NJ. My state paid millions of dollars for a primary that was a sham and a waste of time. And all because the Obama campaign just couldn’t help themselves from exploiting the weaknesses in the caucus system that were absent in primary elections. Hey, guys, just because it *can* be done doesn’t mean it *should* be done.

I don’t know how they thought they could get away with it. I guess they thought we voters would just turn a blind eye because we would be so grateful to have a Democrat in the White House. But this Democrat is no better than a Rovian Republican.

But wait! There’s more. The convention is also gameable. There are all kinds of ambiguities in the Rules and Procedures for the Roll Call vote and Vice Presidential Nomination. A delegate has 10 minutes to challenge his state tally. But how will the tally be announced? Will it be by PA? Electronically? How does one file a challenge? Details, details. Unless we pin every single one of those suckers down, Barack Obama will figure out a way to exploit the loopholes and cheat 18 million voters out of their votes. Of course, he will have the DNCs help.

But don’t worry, Conflucians, we will have the final say in November. They can’t rig voting machines quite as well as Republicans.

Normalizing Hillary: Connect the Vote Dots

Besides PUMAs, Just Say No Deal Coalition members, and those who have been paying close attention to the 2008 primary process, everyone in the US and some people abroad think that: Obama won the Democratic Primary; therefore, he secured the nomination; and he is being gracious by allowing Clinton’s name to be placed in nomination at the Democratic Convention.

In fact, the Obama and Clinton campaigns issued a joint statement on August 14, 2008 about it, and we have achieved a small victory. Or as Heidi Li Feldman puts it, we’re where we were in the first place. (Oh, forgive me: as Barbra WaWa might say: Were where we whah in the furst pwace.) The MSM is all over the story, asking if we disgruntled old ladies, gays, and republicrats are satisfied now? They claim that we’re just sore losers, and that we want Clinton’s name on the ballot because of her historic win as a woman. They’re touting it as symbolic. It’s not symbolic; it’s normal!

In fact, we are sore winners! Neither candidate won the requisite number of pledged delegates. Instead (rolling eyes, PUMAs repeating themselves, ad infinitum), Nancy Nine Percent Pelosi and Harry Reticent Reed pressured the Democratic Superdelegates to endorse a candidate prior to Denver. This act in turn defies their true purpose: to nominate the candidate who can win POTUS in November. In 2008, there are 855 Superdelegates with FL and MI according to Connect-the-Dots. CNN says it’s 825. Over 200 are uncommitted. Any SD can change their vote through the first ballot in Denver, no matter who they or their state or district endorsed.

Didn’t Hillary run on the assertion that she was the only Democratic candidate who could win the Electoral College in November? The virtual Nobama/McCain dead heat in the polls proves that she wasn’t lyin’, despite Obamamoneys-raised, European jaunts, and a vacay away from the barely investigative, mostly fawning MSM spotlight.

The Obama/DNC presumption is that it’s all a done deal. To dispel any doubts, Invesco Field/Mile High Stadium was booked as the site for what our movement, (and back in the day, Jesse Jackson) calls a coronation. Let’s be clear:

From CNN’s count, we see that neither candidate had the requisite 2,118 pledged delegates as of June 3 to clinch the nomination. Obama had 1763, Clinton had 1640, a 123 delegate lead for BO. It is difficult to find an accurate vote count that shows Hillary Clinton won the most popular votes of any primary candidate in history. Why? Real Clear Politics has Clinton at 18,046,007, Obama at 17,869,542, including MI and FL, with estimates for IA, NV, ME, and WA. There, Clinton nets +176,465 votes.

1. Why does popular vote matter when everyone keeps hammering on the delegate totals? Delegate counts are inconsistent, uneven reflections of the will of the voters, because they include caucuses. Caucuses represent far fewer voters than primaries, yet delegates selected in that process carry more weight.

Worse yet is the impact on the delegate count. While [as of 5/31/08] 2549 delegates earned in the primaries represent an average of 12,225 voters, in the caucuses each of the 515 delegates elected represents a mere 2,110 votes. Each caucus vote, then, is weighted 5.8 times greater than each primary vote when it comes to allocating delegates.

2. Why don’t PUMAs admit that Obama won more caucuses, which is why he won and Hillary lost, and stop changing the rules? In 2008, there are substantiated reports of caucus fraud. Please read Dr. Lynette Long’s research who concludes: “the Obama campaign willfully and intentionally defrauded the American public by systematically undermining the caucus process.”

3. If Obama now has enough delegates when SDs are included, why isn’t he simply the nominee? Superdelegates are party officials — both elected and un-elected. They can vote for whomever they wish at their Convention, regardless of their states’ vote, to make sure the most-electable Democrat becomes the nominee.

4. Why am I still writing about this, when Obama and Clinton agreed on 8/14/08 that Hillary’s name will be placed on the Convention ballot and up for a roll call vote? Because, it should have been automatic, as in every election since 1884. None of the other candidates came anywhere near Clinton, yet it’s a “negotiation”? Look at all these guys who were nominated, without even coming close to their opponents in delegate count. Courtesy of EdgeOfForever:

1972: Ted Kennedy – 12 votes on first ballot
Kennedy had no chance of winning, but his name was placed in nomination.

1976: Ted Kennedy – 1 vote on first ballot
Kennedy had no chance of winning, but his name was placed in nomination.

1980: Jimmy Carter – 1981 delegates
Ted Kennedy – 1225 delegates
Uncommitted – 122
Kennedy had no chance of winning, but his name was placed in nomination.

1984: Jesse Jackson – 465 votes
Jackson had no chance of winning, but his name was placed in nomination.

1988: Jesse Jackson – 1218 votes
Jackson had no chance of winning, but his name was placed in nomination.

2004: John Kerry: 2192.5 Pledged delegates
Howard Dean: 114.5 Pledged delegates
Dean had already dropped out, with no chance of winning, but his name was placed in nomination.

2008: Barack Obama: 1766.5 Pledged delegates
Hillary Clinton: 1639.5 Pledged delegates

5. Who are the delegates, and why shouldn’t they just go along with the DNC’s choice, Barack Obama? Delegates are elected by their grassroots supporters to go to the Democratic convention as representatives of the total votes cast in their state’s districts. Although they each may represent thousands of HRC voters, they can just change their votes as if we, the US voters, are not even in the picture! According to CNN,

Pledged delegates are not actually bound to vote for the candidate. Consequently, candidates are allowed on a state-by-state basis to review lists of delegates who have pledged their support and can delete anyone whose support they consider unreliable.

Surprise you? This could account for the DNC’s treatment of Clinton delegate, Sacha Millstone, or even what happened in Florida right after June 3, when Obama’s campaign began replacing his elected delegates with their own. I’m still not getting how someone who represents your, or my, or anyone’s vote could be intimidated into changing it and have that be part of the deal. Our deal. You know, the one we get as citizens. The deal, the one true thing we’ve got in this country that our guys and all those Iraqis are supposedly dying for and about. That democracy one person one vote representative thing.

6. How can the DNC represent the will of the people, if the delegates are pressured to support Obama as if he is the nominee, and they are afraid to publicly declare otherwise? How can there be “unity” if Hillary Clinton is allowed to be booed unchecked at even one of his events? DNC chairs and party officials, and delegates are being intimidated and threatened to not cast THEIR votes for Hillary Clinton. These are not THEIR votes. These votes are OURS. The delegates are merely our proxies. If not us, who DO they represent? How is this representative government?

Whether you agree or disagree, please learn about the process. Watch this three-part series, Democrats ’08: CONNECT-THE-DOTS, with Host Leslie Stevens. The program is sponsored by The Educational Foundation for the Integrity of the Democratic Process, Asheville, North Carolina. Bloggers, please post it! Readers, email it to friends and family.

[Connect-the-Dots Part 1]

[Connect-the-Dots Part 2]

[Connect-the-Dots Part 3]

Have you connected the dots? That’s why we’re not satisfied. It’s about the process being fair and reflecting the will of the voters. And, you can help!!! Call or email your delegates or any that you know TODAY. Ask them to sign the 300 delegate petition to ensure that Hillary’s name is placed in nomination. This petition was created by and for delegates. Email: hrc300delegates@yahoo.com.

Still, we’re not ready to make nice. . . .

[160 Years and Still Waiting — Rise Hillary Rise by DemocracyDame]

h/t to DemocracyDame for “Connect-the-Dots” lead and her video above.

(cross-posted at Lady Boomer NYC)