We broke $7,000 with 138 donors with an average donation of about $52.00, and are well on our way to 10k by the May 6th primaries. Well done. Actblue informed me they are in the process of making a thermometer like thing we can use to track donations, so I will post that in short order.
As to the picking other charities, I think we will try to start that next month when we have a full month, and just adopt a charity per month. I would like to try to use as apolitical a charity as possible, and off the top of my head I can think of a few that might generate some interest- Doctors without Borders, Oxfam, the Heifer project. Feel free to throw your suggestions in the comments and we can collectively hash it out over the next few days.
And now, some political porn:
That’s it. Enough is beyond enough. For what feels like the one millionth time, I just did some segment over at MSNBC on the theme of how Michigan possibly impacts Hillary’s position if the popular vote there is factored into the candidates’ running tallies. From now on, my official position is this: It is a b.s. line of argument from the Clinton campaign–and anyone else promoting it–because the Michigan primary results are fundamentally illegitimate.
As you know, left up to me, neither Michigan nor Florida’s delegates would be seated. Those states knowingly and flagrantly broke the rules. They knew what the penalty would be, and they did it anyway. Fine. But don’t come whining to us now about how, “Oh, we didn’t know that it would really matter or we wouldn’t have done it.” Well, cry me a river. I’m sure there are thousands of teenage girls out there who, if only they had known that they’d get knocked up by letting Bobby or Ricky or Darryl do it to them without a condom just that once, would have made a different choice. Behaving rashly has consequences (unless you’re a high-ranking member of the Bush administration). If we all could run around doing stupid things with the assurance that, whenever our actions wound up having a negative impact, we could beg for a do-over, the world would be a much different place.
I felt like I needed a cigarette after reading that, because it is what I have been thinking for months.
*** Update ***
This , from Karen Tumulty’s list of things that will end the nomination, made me laugh out loud:
1. Clinton Loses Indiana on May 6 and Pulls Out
There will be two primaries that day, but North Carolina is considered almost certain to go for Obama, which means Clinton will be putting most of her effort into Indiana. Privately, her advisers concede that it will be difficult to continue in the race if she does not win there.
BWAHAHAHA. My ass. The first thing the Clinton camp is doing with the money they raised after PA (well, the second, after paying off Mark Penn, I guess), is buying a truckload of post-hole diggers so they can move the goalposts some more. It is what they have done this entire campaign. Remember, she had to win Texas, lost delegates, and insisted she must soldier on. She was supposed to have to win massively in PA (double digits- 15-20%), a state tailor made for her, and really cut into Obama’s delegate lead to soldier on. She won by only 9% and did she concede? Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?
As we speak, the Clinton camp is still scheming to seat the Michigan delegates and is running around lying about the popular vote.
Nothing will end the Hillary vanity campaign until someone breaks out a large wooden stake. Period. Until then, it is more of the same old bullshit, and oh, btw, BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA HANGS OUT WITH SCARY BLACK PEOPLE.
Nothing will stop this destructive narcissist from going the distance. You are smoking rock if you think otherwise.
nightjar
Talk about political porn. Just watched a segment of Obama bashing on Hardball with Tweety, and the Carlson’s Margaret and Tucker. Among other barf material, Tweety declared the Rev. Wright officially “Obama’s Iraq”. Whereupon, Margaret C. nearly jumped her seat with orgasmic glee while shouting the praises of America’s sweetheart Hill-a-reee! That’s only a slight exaggeration on my part. Has to be the wankerific cable news seg of the year, maybe the decade.. Now turning off TV. Can’t take no more.
Notorious P.A.T.
I am a Michigan resident. I was told my vote would not count, so I (and thousands of other Democrats) did not bother to vote. Thousands more voted for Mitt Romney to send a big “screw you” to John McCain (that’s the kind of state we are).
Now Hillary Clinton comes along and says to us “don’t worry, Michigan people, I will make sure your votes are counted!”
Huh?
How can anyone possibly even pretend to know how our state’s votes or delegates should be counted?
Dreggas
God darnit, Ms. Cottle, you use your tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore.
– Taggart
Zifnab
Isn’t Florida also leading the nation in teenage pregnancy and herpes infestations or something? I know they’re big on the abstinence education down there, so perhaps this will teach those silly legislators to “Just Say No” to political whoredom. When will these folks learn about personal responsibility?
Notorious P.A.T.
Oh
my
god.
KCinDC
Even aside from the issue of knowingly breaking the rules, adding Michigan into the popular vote count is intellectually dishonest. The whole point of the popular-vote argument is that you’re supposedly measuring what the people truly want better than the delegate count does. But then you add in numbers from Michigan showing that 0 people there want Obama? Are we not supposed to notice that that doesn’t reflect reality?
Dreggas
In United Soviet States of America you don’t choose candidate, candidate chooses you. Or something like that.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Elitist.
Jake
Math and logic appear to be elitist tools.
Calouste
From a rightwing point of view, that means it’s good, is it? The surge is working and they greeted the soldiers with flowers and chocolates.
Or is Tweety buying into the pinko-commie fable that Iraq is a quagmire? I had him down to be more Bush-alligned than that.
Civilized Crank
Cottle doesn’t sound like a liberal… thank god there is some common sense left.
Jake
Among other barf material, Tweety declared the Rev. Wright officially “Obama’s Iraq”. Whereupon, Margaret C. nearly jumped her seat with orgasmic glee while shouting the praises of America’s sweetheart Hill-a-reee!
Yikes. That’s projectile-vomit worthy.
In other comedy, I caught about 10 min last night of Pat Robertson on his CBN channel talking about how he thinks Hillary’s won all the big states and has all the momentum. His host pointed out the delegate math, to which he responded “that’s what the superdelegates are for”.
Seems like everyone’s keen to keep the brother down.
Punchy
typical Obama fanboy.
Brachiator
And in another part of the political forest… while Hillary is weaving fantasies about her popular vote totals, and dismissing the value of Obama supporters, particularly Independents and younger voters, John McCain is re-branding himself as a moderate who is independent of Bush’s policies (McCain Criticizes Katrina Response as ‘Disgraceful’).
Senator Clinton’s spurious claim that she is the more electable, once and future nominee, is based on all kinds of false assumptions, among them that the Republicans have nothing in their bag of tactical tricks other than old-style Clinton bashing, which she has weathered before. These arrogant goons misjudged Obama, and they also misjudged McCain’s ability to outflank them.
Just another reason why the Democratic Party should put an end to the Hillary farce and focus on supporting Obama in defeating the GOP.
tom.a
I felt like I needed a cigarette after reading that, because it is what I have been thinking for months.
Uh, how about the American Cancer Society?
Pooh
Fascists! /Jonah
jake
You know, I’m not sure what the fuck he meant by that, either. Maybe Tweets doesn’t know. Maybe it was just a lame attempt to remind us that Obama’s middle name is HUSSEIN.
Desargues
Dear John, Tim, and all readers of this blog,
may I suggest ‘Operation Smile’ as a charity we could all contribute to? I think they do terrific work for one of the populations that most need our help. Please have a look at their website here:
http://www.operationsmile.org/
I don’t work for them, but I’d appreciate any publicity and/or donations this blog will generate. Keep up the good work.
nightjar
Mathews has been fairly consistent as anti-Iraq war. I suspect this seg will be available soon and some blog will post it.
Dreggas
Ya know, after watching the History Channel’s special marathon with regard to the history of Illegal Drugs and the scare tactics employed to get people to stop using the drugs when they were actually legal, I find the ACS and other anti-smoking orgs to be using the same tactics. Granted they have a point but I get sick of the scare tactic crap. Of course they’ve come a long way from saying smoking pot will make you a homicidal maniac. However some of the recent commercials coming out of the anti-smoking cabal seem to want to blame you and your one cigarette for killing everyone within a block radius ala the smoker in his home and the smoke going outside and down the street into a little kids lungs.
nightjar
Here it is, I think.
nightjar
guess not, sorry about that. It is up on the Hardball website.
mere mortal
Yeah, me too. I mean, the nerve of those states to try to give their citizens an important role in the most historic primary, and one of the most important elections in my lifetime.
They should have followed the rules: shut up and gotten in line behind the 96% White state and the 95% White state full of corn farmers. So let’s disenfranchise the primary voters of both states. It’s better than they deserve,
And there’s no way those states will be important in the general election anyway.
Roberta Taussig
I can see feeling no sympathy for Michigan, but Florida’s primary date was set by the Republican-controlled legislature. The Florida Democrats had no choice in the matter and so are suffering the consequences of someone else’s action — as if Betty Sue got pregnant because May Ann had unprotected sex. Not that I think their delegates should be seated, just that I think they should be cut a little slack in the rhetoric department.
Adam
That is complete bullshit. The delegate selection rules have a specific safe harbor for exactly that eventuality (Rule 21) that lets the state’s Democratic Party hold their primaries in accordance with the rules in case a hostile legislature tries to make the primaries noncompliant. The FL Dems didn’t bother with the safe harbor because they actually did want the primary on that date and they didn’t give a shit.
Martin
Uh. You do know that the DNC asked states to apply to take the 2 additional first states that they were adding in cooperation with the GOP. The parties were trying to get other geographic and demographic groups up front. Neither MI or FL applied. SC and NV won those slots. And FL and MI voted in favor of those rules.
And nothing was keeping them from holding their election on 2/5 – just one week later. Both state parties were pretty clear that they didn’t give a shit about the delegates, they just wanted the campaign money and attention:
I live in CA. I’m accustomed to that kind of mindset in the state. Anyone see a problem if CA starts playing that game – just jumping out there and doing whatever we want? After all, we’re a bit over 10% of the US population. CA did look at moving forward. If FL/MI delegates get seated, you can pretty much expect CA to go apeshit and start making demands.
Gary Ruppert
The fact is, Obama will be revealed for the gay communist he is, and Hillary will go down to tremendous defeat against McCain. Then the Democrat party will be consigned to the Dustbin of History.
Heartland.
Martin
Here’s the text:
Further, the date change was introduced by a Democrat (Ring – see my quite before). And FL did technically try to get safe harbor. Here’s the video of the attempt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r25wUeMAwdE
Unfortunately, the DNC had a copy of that video and saw it as a bullshit attempt at trying to move the date. What caused FL/MI to lose all delegates is that they both openly violated the rules and in Florida’s case, lied about it being the fault of the GOP. To make matters worse, the Florida Democratic party have been lying to voters about the whole mess to get them to put pressure on the DNC. Note that MI has been up front about what they did and why.
Dean offered FL almost $1M from DNC funds to help offset the cost of a caucus on 2/5. The DNC has never offered a state money to do that before. The party told him no.
cbear
We also lead the nation in the importation of stupid fucking Yankees. Y’all c’mon on down.
vwcat
The reason the media keeps asking these people about Mi. and Fla is because they are in the middle of an orgy of Hillary love. It’s be over a month of piling on Obama and promoting the spin in the press talks with Clintons campaign.
Must make drama. Since Obama has the nomination and they need to hide this from the masses they skew up the Obama is evil and Hillary is good to make the primaries ‘close’ and maybe extend her campaign for another month.
Rick Taylor
Do you have more about this? I’ve heard it before, but never found a link.
And unfortunately this link to a video has been taken down, but it showed the Florida legislatures are lying when they play the victim.
Josh E.
Yeah, because everyone knew back in September that this was going to be a really close primary. That must be why they did it. And they’ll get to vote in November, so you need not be so concerned about their role in one of the most important elections of your lifetime.
If they’re being denied their right to vote in violation of the Constitution, they should sue. Oh wait, they did. And the judge dismissed the case because rhetoric about disenfranchisement makes no sense when you’re talking about a party primary.
Obama’s doing ok in Michigan. Hillary, less so. Yet another reason she shouldn’t be the nominee. As for Florida, it’s idiotic for any Dem to rely on Florida, as anyone whose been paying the slightest attention for the past eight years should know.
Rick Taylor
I found another version of the link. The thing is I believed them when they said it was the Republican’s fault. I don’t like being played for a fool.
Jorge
Hey – I sent Obama $25 today but forgot to use the balloon-juice link. Sorry.
Rick Taylor
I see Martin already posted a similar link and answered my question to boot. Oops. My link does contain a bit of the hardball clip as well.
dwightkschrute
It may be somewhat regional but how about this for a charity:
Food on Foot
zoe from pittsburgh
I really can’t believe that Hillary’s latest strategy is saying she is “ahead” in the popular vote– she’s shamelessly lying.
How so?
Even if you include FL and MI (and by counting MI you’re giving Hillary votes and Obama 0) he’s still ahead because she’s NOT COUNTING ANY STATES THAT USED CAUCUSES.
So Hillary wants to include the votes in Michigan and Florida while actively ignoring the votes in the following states– Iowa, Nevada, Idaho, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Maine, Hawaii, and Wyoming.
If Hillary wants to honestly play the every-vote-must-count game she also MUST include some kind of an estimate of all of Obama’s caucus votes– which would put him (or merely keep) him ahead in the popular vote. SHE LITERALLY CAN’T WIN by the numbers unless she convinces 65%-75% of he superdelgates to support her. It’s just not going to happen. If it did it would be nothing more than a coup pulled off by political elitists! (giggle)
She needs to gracefully bow out so we can direct all of this energy forward towards the GE.
Jorge
I read this recently and it is a good point –
There are lots of undeclared superdelegates. There are very few undecided superdelegates. This thing will be over by June and it won’t go to the convention.
bhagamu
John, the Germans did not bomb pearl harbor.
Mary
bhagamu, we beg to differ.
nightjar
Meanwhile Thru it all Obama ticks up in national polling, and leads MCain via Rasmussen 47% to 45% Mccain. And further.
And today’s Gallup poll. Obama-Mccain tied at 45. Unchanged
It seems to me that all the Obama bashing’s only effect has been to revert back to the 50-50 ideology split we’ve had for some time now in America. He hasn’t lost any real dem support, except from the talkleft and Hilbot screamers. They don’t seem to be all that many in number. To my untrained eye, this is where we should be at this stage of the race.
People aren’t that tuned in and won’t be till later in the summer, and when they look up all they’ll see is an economic meltdown and the status quo, or worse, in Iraq. The hunger for change will be palpable at that point and they’ll have to decide who will bring the change they crave. It’s hard seeing them choosing a 71 year old lifelong republican, but who knows.
Warren Terra
By the way, did you notice that Obama is now only about 55,000 new donors away from having 1.5 million individual donors?
That’s about 20,000 new individual donors in the last 24 hours, including a handful through John’s ActBlue page. There is a reasonable chance the 1.5 million mark will go this week, and it seems almost certain to go before the next state votes.
KRK
Vendors and venues could start demanding payment up front.
Yes, please!
Adam
Looking at my previous comment, I should clarify that I didn’t mean that the comment I was responding to was “bullshit” — I meant that the excuse the FL Dems have been pushing about how they were railroaded by the big scary GOP and the DNC is punishing them for it blah blah blah is bullshit. It’s utter nonsense and they never get called out on it.
Rick Taylor
Forget it, he’s rolling.
S
John, your jcole@balloon-juice email gives an error 550-550. How do you fix that with your Mac? I am disappointed my love note was rejected.
John Cole
OUR ActBlue page. I have only given 50 bucks so far through the actblue link, as most of my donating was done previously.
This site is nothing without you all. Not to be all collectivist and shit, even though I am now a commie pinko liberal, but if it were not for the commenters and readership, this weblog would be little more than an insane person walking down the cybersphere ranting to himself. A sad spectacle, if you ask me.
And yes, that is how I honestly view things. I don’t understand people who have weblogs without open comments.
The Grand Panjandrum
For all the mouthbreathers so concerned about FL and MI go read this at the blog of an undeclared (but already decided) SD. Here’s the money quote:
When asked this question:
This was the response:
I highly recommend stopping to read this blog. Quite an interesting take. Several media outlets have verified the individuals indentity and agreed to keep the SD’s name confidential.
Hubris
If one counts donations that weren’t made by imaginary Balloon Juice readers residing in Michigan and Ohio, I believe your site’s ActBlue total is actually $5,397,213.
nightjar
Well, I’ve always believed it’s better to have hundreds of insane people ranting, than just one. Didn’t Confucius say that. Maybe not.
Just Some Fuckhead
I can’t think of a better way to minimize the sacrifice of Americans and Iraqis.
It would really be nice to see some sort of grass-roots effort launched over this to get that spittle-flecked rotting-mouth dry-drunk off of television.
myiq2xu
Yep. She’s zombie Hillary.
But don’t forget, the zombies always win.
John Cole
Why? Bush gave his last SOTU a couple months ago and has not done a press conference in a while.
/rimshot
The Grand Panjandrum
Resistance was futile.
You have been assimilated. Were are Democratus of Borg.
The Grand Panjandrum
Were = We. (I haz edikation.)
Some Guy Named Matt
Ah John glad to see you are helping to re-populate the liberal population. They were almost an extinct breed.
Jon H
“We also lead the nation in the importation of stupid fucking Yankees. Y’all c’mon on down.”
Well, we sure as hell don’t want the stupid ones up north. Tell you what, you can have the stupid Yankees and we’ll keep our tax money.
Ted
HA!
That really gave me a feeling up my leg.
Just Some Fuckhead
Ha!
Josh E.
But can’t Hillary just say “The superdelegates aren’t decided until they’ve actually voted at the convention. This just means I’ve got two months to change their minds.”?
nightjar
In the spirit of accuracy, after watching the clip again, Tweety said “It’s his Iraq” in the conversation over rev Wright. He said it twice, the first a mumble and when the black lady guest said “wha” he repeated it louder.
I will be holding a presser tomorrow to denounce, reject, renounce, condemn, censure, deplore, reprehend, and excommunicate my unfortunate words. And then offer a genuine OOPs.
Rick Taylor
That’s what frightens me. I don’t think she would do that, but there are a lot of things I didn’t think she’d do she’s done.
For that matter, when asked how she could possibly win given how far behind she is, she said everything is fluid, and even pledged delegates don’t have to vote for the candidate they’re supposedly pledged to, so she could try to change their minds as well.
It all comes back to Jon Stewart’s question to Obama: do you worry you’ll win the nomination, defeat McCain, and at the inauguration Hillary will still be campaigning?
Martin
Agreed. myiq and p.luk really drives the sanity home.
zoe from pittsburgh
I’ve seen my fair share of zombie movies and they actually generally lose in the end. Zombies generally get blown up or have their heads blown off or get eviscerated by lawmowers. (Like in Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive.) Although in Romero’s Night of the Living Dead the black man does get killed at the end– although by the police, not the zombies. He actually survives the zombies.
But I’m glad that someone seems to be taking some odd pride in Hillary’s similarity to the brainless, ravenous undead.
Mona
John, this charity project each month is a superb idea, and I would like to encourage donations to The Innocence Project (they have a donate button at their site), which has freed some 200 innocent men from prison. I cannot reproduce the foto, but this is the latest from their home page, my emphasis:
As the unreproduced foto would suggest, a disproportionate number of the exonerees are African-Americans who get stuck with an under-funded, overworked public defender system that has not a fraction of the resources the prosecutor’s office does. But plenty of white men have also been set free by the IP. Some of the exonerees have been on death row.
Krista
Oh stop it. You’re making me get all teary-eyed and stuff.
Adam
…Doesn’t that describe basically every weblog without readers (and even quite a few with them)?
Martin
I just remembered that Sully doesn’t enable comments on his site. John might be onto something here.
Jon H
My vote is for Doctors without Borders, particularly their project in Amman that provides reconstructive surgery for Iraqis injured and/or disfigured in the war, including children.
Adam
FL’s been perfectly upfront about why they moved their primary. They wanted to get in on more of that sweet election-year media orgy action. And here we are, still talking about them. We’re not talking about Iowa or NH, let alone the Super Tuesday states.
I’d say that the FL Dems achieved their goal.
Why the hell would they accept any of the DNC’s many offers to hold their primary in such a way that the votes would count? They were already willing to move their state primary up two weeks for literally no other reason than to get some free media coverage. That was the only upside.
And why would they care anyway? It’s not like those Florida Dem legislators are affected by whether or not their state delegates get counted or not. And if they were willing to throw away those votes in the first place, why would they take any compromise option and lose all the media coverage they’re getting now?
They already knew going in that if the primary move wasn’t penalized, it would clusterfuck the entire nomination system as other states moved their primaries forward without fear of retribution. They already knew that if the primary was penalized, Florida would lose some or all of its delegates. Those were always the only two possible outcomes.
Since their delegates weren’t at risk before, even attempting to move the primary meant they were willing from the get-go to put both their constituents’ votes and in fact the entire primary system on the chopping block just to get some media coverage. If they were ever concerned about those votes being counted, they wouldn’t have moved the primary in the first place.
Of course, media coverage is exactly what they got, and it’s exactly what they’re still getting. No mystery here. Simple political logic.
Martin
Oh, yeah, and he’s a congressman. And undeclared superdelegate. (Any guesses who he’s gonna back?)
Jess
John,
To put the shiny cap on your new commie liberal persona, I suggest donations to ACLU. Won’t that make the RedStaters’ heads spin!
But really–I’ve always respected the fact that, despite the wingnuts attempts to paint the ACLU red, it’s been pretty consistently non-partisan in its work to protect our civil rights. What better time to show them some love?
Jess
I second this!
TR
Christ, I saw that too and had to turn it off. WTF?
Genine
It certainly describes my weblog! lol But anyway, I’ve been coming to this blog for over a year. (I’ve only been commenting recently) This group here is particularly good.
The Other Steve
That’s not a rumor. myiq and p.luk have been peddling this strategy around here. p.luk specifically said in one of the threads the other day that they are trying to make Obama radioactive.
Martin
Like Michigan, they assumed that this process would work like most before it – that one candidate would pull well ahead on Super Tuesday and there’d only be one person standing at the end of the process, delegates or no. Voters would forget all about the fact that their vote did or did not contribute anything and besides, who would tell them otherwise?
The DNC one-upped them by including the no campaign pledge, which made it really fucking obvious what was going on. No money got spent in the state, voters were painfully aware of the situation when the candidates couldn’t come and couldn’t run ads.
Unfortunately, after Super Tuesday it looked like the delegates would matter, and now the state party really has to explain itself – especially to all those old jewish women down there who probably voted overwhelmingly for Clinton. An Obama win all because the state party decided to be cute may (and should) be remembered when these guys come up for reelection.
Ted
Have you seen a lot of the comments on Yglesias’ and McArdle’s blogs? It’s no wonder Sully is too cowardly to enable comments on his.
merrinc
I’d like to make a pitch for Best Friends Animal Society. It’s not just your ordinary animal shelter. They’re rehabilitating the Michael Vick dogs. They airlifted dogs and cats out of Lebanon after the only animal shelter in the country was bombed.
They’re sponsoring Safe Humane Chicago, a program designed to stop violence towards animals and humans.
b-psycho
Last night I had a dream that Hillary arranged to have Bill whacked so she could get sympathy votes. Seriously.
Note to self: less news, more drinking…
Conservatively Liberal
That is why this is THE political blog for me. Frank and open discussion, though heated and nasty at times, is the only way you can ‘get it out’ without holding back. That was my reason for my dropping out of participation at Kos, the fact that people can ‘hide’ what you say rather than letting people (if they agree or disagree) hash it out. For a ‘progressive’ site, that one sticks in my throat. But it is their place to run as they see fit, and it is my choice whether or not to participate.
Freedom baby! I like this place because there are some insightful (and ‘inciteful’) posters, and John, Tim and Michael post a story, sometimes with their brief observations, and they let the animals loose on it.
One thing I like about here is you get the bullshit with the good stuff, and we are free to take it or leave it. To say what we want, or not.
What John needs to do next is post a picture of him hugging a tree. That will send the wingnuts into a frenzy…lol
Zuzu
Doctors Without Borders always an excellent choice.
I started giving to Any Soldier and the related Treat Any Soldier, which, like Soldiers’ Angels, sends care packages to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. I always enclose a note sending supportive thoughts and wishing them a safe and speedy return.
I love to point out to wingnuts that I got the link off Michael Moore’s website. While I’m not a huge MM fan, he does put his money where his mouth is…so to speak.
“How Can I Help the Soldiers?”
Delia
Which, if true, only argues for the now utter insanity of both Clintons. If they had had the sense to quit while they were ahead, they would have been, well, ahead. Bill would still be regarded by most Democrats as a somewhat flawed man but outstanding President. Hillary would be viewed as a brilliant leader of the party and still a contender. The idea that they’re both total narcissists who think only of themselves and never of the greater good would still be a wingnut special along with the Vince Foster murder mystery. Whatever happens after this point, the Clintons have utterly destroyed their credibility within the party, and the longer they drag this out, the worse they make it for themselves. Hillary will never be a contender again.
Zuzu
Better MM link:
“How to support the American soldiers and help the people of Iraq”
Delia
In terms of charities I’m kind of fond of Oxfam. For holiday gift-giving, you can send your friends and family who already have too much shit donations in their name to buy needed supplies for people in the third world.
isit2009yet
What’s wrong, Gary? SadlyNo down??
Josh E.
Precisely.
Phoebe
charity nominations:
drug policy alliance
http://www.drugpolicy.org/homepage.cfm
human rights watch:
http://www.hrw.org/
I like all of those mentioned previously, as well.
Conservatively Liberal
I read at Kos that the Clinton campaign debt was in excess of $15 million at the end of March, which includes her $5 million loan. You can bet that they spent as much as they could in PA, so they had to rack up some more debt. Now subtract the probably minimal amount raised between the 1st and the 22nd, plus the “$10million” they raised after PA, and she is still in debt.
Now for a great idea that a poster at TPM Cafe reader blogs is suggesting for Obama. This would be an ingenious way to spend some of the primary money and use it to put pressure on the super delegates to make a decision. It is a fair use of campaign funds, and it takes aim at McCain, not Hillary.
If the supers have some ‘meat’ that they can hang their hat on, it may make a difference in the outcome. Plus it brings the states that have already held their primary back in to action via the super delegates. If the people like what they hear, that will only increase the pressure on the supers.
Good idea, and if it hashes that way at the Obama HQ, then I hope they do it. Targeting the voters in the specific areas where the undecided supers reside is a great idea. I like the fact that it puts Obama on a two front footing in his campaign; campaigning for the Democratic primary win AND not wasting time and going after McCain right now. It would show that while Hillary is having problems even running a good campaign, he has the resources to fight a two front ‘war’.
That will only serve to strengthen the view that he is an organized man who surrounds himself with organized people. I say ‘Do It!’.
Warren Terra
This is true, but her cash-on-hand was roughly 9 million (from memory). She started the month in a similar position (similar cash-on-hand, about a million less debt), raised 20 million, and spent it.
A lot of that debt is to her consultants, and surely no-one cares that she’s slow to pay Penn $4.6 million. But – as has been repeatedly noted – she frequently waits months to pay smallish sums to small vendors, the sort of people for whom getting their invoices paid on time directly translates to not laying off staff.
afferent input
I mentioned this in the previous thread. I nominate the National Center for Science Education, pro-science group that fights against pseudoscience like intelligent design creationism.
http://www.ncseweb.org/
Conservatively Liberal
If she has any money, it ain’t much compared to Obama and his bankroll. Here is a good post at Kos on a WSJ editorial saying that the contest is over.
They must understand math and logic, go figure. I can’t wait for the whine of the buzzsaws to start up about this.
Cain
I personally I haven’t seen the comments on Yglesias’s weblog. He doesn’t usually participate in them like John,Tim and Michael do right?
The great thing about here is the way trolls get eaten for lunch. Everybody wants to get into the act. Sometimes, it’s like that scene from Airplane with the hysterical woman and everyone smacking her around forming a line. haha.
I don’t think there is that kind of community or would be in any of those other progressive blogs. Certainly for me, I’ve spent many an evening laughing uproarously at the comments. Even PaulL likes coming here since he doesn’t get banned although he does get his ass kicked..
cain
TenguPhule
One of those words doesn’t belong there.
Conservatively Liberal
That is so true…lol! I love the analogy you came up with, it is a perfect fit for BJ.
Robert Sneddon
How about this for what’s going on in the DLC’s mind…
There’s no point in Senator Clinton dropping out now that the race is 90% over. Money is drying up but they can coast to the finish line even if they are running on fumes. She will stay in until the primaries are over and the numbers for pledged delegates are fixed. By that time a pile more superdels will also have announced their preferences and it will be obvious she won’t get to the convention floor with enough votes to make a real challenge. The key power the DLC will have is the *threat* of disrupting the convention, hence the MI/FL fan-dance and “popular vote” crap. With that as leverage they can force the DNC into pressuring the Obama team to deal, arranging positions of influence in the Obama administration, ensuring their policy positions have a place in the Oval Office and their lobbyists and special interest friends get “considered”. Once that deal is signed off (and it will be, Senator Obama is a Chicago politician when all is said and done and that sort of deal is mother’s milk to a true Son of Daley) then and only then will Senator Clinton be instructed by her handlers to stop campaigning and throw her support behind Senator Obama.
Right now only Obama fans are asking (or demanding) she pulls out now. The states still to vote are keen to hold their primaries, since there is an appearance that they will actually count for once (although in fact the competition has already been decided). They will get their turn in the circus ring this year though and that’s important to them. There are benefits to this extended process, in organisation and enthusing of Democratic Party supporters and voters in places where they rarely get any of the limelight. This will help swing marginal states towards Obama and also assist down-ticket races. As for the general election to come, you might notice that Senator McCain and the RNC aren’t actually doing any real campaigning yet. The idea that they would use the time gap between the definition of the two candidates to do mischief has not actually materialised, for various reasons — one of them is that it’s still eight months till November and any effort expended now will be dry history when it counts.
And remember, at the back of their minds, the DLC team are thinking “maybe the horse will sing”. If something goes horrendously wrong with Senator Obama’s campaign (the live boy/dead girl scenario) or his health (he is/was a smoker) then Senator Clinton is still in the race and ready to step in, unlike the rest of the candidates. The First Law of War (and Politics) is “Shit Happens”. Staying in the race is Senator Clinton’s Plan B.
p.lukasiak
That’s not a rumor. myiq and p.luk have been peddling this strategy around here. p.luk specifically said in one of the threads the other day that they are trying to make Obama radioactive.
don’t lie about what I wrote. I said he would be radioactive, but not because of anything Clinton does.
It wasn’t the clinton campaign that put up those two attack ads in North Carolina….
Paul
I actually had a book idea about that (although with a more generic politician than Sen. Clinton). With an obligatory leak in the midst of the administration, and a couple of reporters pursuing a story that might get *them* killed…
Krista
Sexist. ;)
zoe from pittsburgh
You know what? If we found out that the Clintons somehow were behind those ads it wouldn’t suprise me one bit. I think they’d do just about anything at this point– they’ve officially jumped the shark.
The thing about the Wright controversy is that most people presume it is hurting Obama without any evidence of that actually happening. So I hope they do run Wright ads in NC and we can know once and for all how they impact his popularity.
If the he’s-a-scary-black-man smear doesn’t work against Obama in NC then it really might not have the power that most of us assume it has. We’ll also get to see how well he fares when he’s up against several groups at once– the local GOP, McCain’s camp and the Clintons.
Sasha
. . . .
You need to watch more zombie movies.
May I recommend Shaun of the Dead?
Josh E.
Nah, they’re just push polling.
Good stuff. I wonder if they’ll mention that Obama has two black children.
Sanjuro
Charity nomination:
Remote Area Medical
chopper
see, i’m no good with those calls. the dude brings up her plan to lower the gas tax, i explain why its an idiotic idea and the guy gets uncomfortable because hes running offa script.
Jeremy C.
Pay Day Bitches! I just threw in my monthly $25 through your ActBlue page!
As for charities, what if we built a school every 60-90 days like this setup?
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/04/23/4hww-readers-school-in-vietnam-opens-its-doors-time-for-a-trip/
Another option would be to simply pool money every month and send it on to Kiva.org or some other microlender for it to be distributed to .
I’m sure the market-based and performance-feedback nature of these two options would resonate well with this crowd.
Zuzu
Okay, I just went over and threw a little in the ActBlue pot, even though I’d given the night before this idea opened up.
‘Cause I just had to be part of this fun !!!!
Zuzu
Wow, that’s an amazing concept.
I’ve given to an organization started by a couple of soldiers, which helps build and provide supplies for schools for Afghan children:
Operation Dreamseed
By the way, when you give your money to Kiva, you’re usually investing it, and you receive your money back (to reinvest if you like) once the entrepreneur has paid off his or her loan:
About Kiva
You can also make a straight donation to cover their administrative costs, which unlike the loan, is tax-deductible:
Kiva donations
Zuzu
Huh?
crshedd
Make a Wish Foundation
Krista
Zuzu, three links is the magic number. It puts you into automatic moderation.
Zuzu
Ah, thanks.
I always seem to have problems with multiple links.
mere mortal
True. Our only hope is that this destructive narcissist continues to ignore the news as he has told us he was doing until he can do no more damage.
Because the only candidate support he ever learned how to do was to tear down the other candidate, since as a Republican, he never had another legitimate option.
Somehow, I doubt our hopes will be fulfilled. Like most parents, you can only count on your children to be childish in the most destructive ways.