Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Decision time: keep arguing about the last election, or try to win the next one?

75% of people clapping liked the show!

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Second rate reporter says what?

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

So very ready.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

I really should read my own blog.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

When I was faster i was always behind.

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Archives for 2008

Hillary Must Go

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I will not tolerate more of this bullshit from them:

This morning brings the news that the campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, has launched a new website where they are announcing how they are officially preparing to make the case that the rules of the Democratic nomination process should be changed.

Don’t like the rules- change them. Isn’t that precisely what has been wrong with the criminal Bush administration the past eight years?

The Clinton Strategy is clear. Remember the scene at the end of Platoon, when Captain Dale Dye, in the role of Captain Harris, orders in arty and bombing runs on his location when the base camp was over run:

Capt. Harris: Snakebite leader, Ripper Bravo Six, we’re gonna need you soonest be advised I’ve got zips in the wire down here, over!
Phantom Pilot: Roger your last Bravo Six, Snakebite lead we can’t run it any closer. We’re hot to trot and packing snape and nape but we’re bingo fuel. It’s your call, Six actual, Over.
Capt. Harris: Snakebite leader, Bravo Six, for the record, it’s my call. Dump everything you got left ON MY POS. I say again, I want all you’re holding INSIDE the perimeter. It’s a lovely war. Bravo Six Actual and Out.
Phantom Pilot: Roger your last Bravo Six. We copy it’s your call. Get em in their holes down there. Hang tough, Bravo Six we are coming cocked for treetops. Whiskey to Echo… Snakebite Two, this is lead. Last pass on zero niner. Watch my smoke to target, expend all remaining. Follow my trace…

That is their plan. Blow up the party and hope they are the ones still standing when the smoke clears.

I just sent 25 more bucks to Obama.

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Hacktacular

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The games continue on the right:

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama sought Tuesday to clarify his wife’s statement that she is proud of the U.S. “for the first time in my adult life.” He said her newfound pride is about the political system and was not meant to disparage her country.

He commented after Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, made a veiled reference to Michelle Obama’s recent remarks.

Cindy McCain told a Wisconsin rally on Tuesday: “I’m proud of my country, I don’t know about you, if you heard those words earlier.”

Barack Obama, interviewed on WOAI radio in San Antonio, Texas, expressed frustration that his wife’s comments became political fodder.

At this point, is it fair to ask Cindy McCain what parts of her adult life she remembers?

At any rate, Captain Ed remains unconvinced and is “not buying it.”:

And let’s not forget that American politics drove all of these accomplishments, too. It’s our representative democracy that created the force that made all of that possible. Just as with any other enterprise, it has its crooks and incompetents, but American politics has also produced men and women who have changed the world, including FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan, and many more.

How can one live as an adult and not take great pride in those accomplishments?

Michelle Obama means what HE thinks she meant, and not what she actually said or what she actually claims to believe. Who would have thunk it? Do any of these people know what the word “really” means? Captain Ed has proven himself to be such a hack the past few weeks we are moving him to Blogs We Monitor And Mock- it must have been his annual dose of CPAC kool-aid, but he is now as crazy as Red State.

For a full round-up of the right-wing blog stupid, check memeorandum.

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What Is Next For the Clinton Campaign

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The gutter:

ABC News has learned that a group of Democratic politicos have set up a new independent 527 organization called the American Leadership Project (ALP) with the express purpose of helping Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, beat Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, in Ohio, and possibly Texas and Pennsylvania as well.

Free from campaign finance rules, ALP will not be legally permitted to coordinate with the Clinton campaign, but it is clearly intended to help her.

***

“Our purpose is to encourage audiences to look beyond the campaign speeches and political rhetoric to specific proposals to address these core issues,” says an ALP mission statement obtained by ABC News.

The plan right now is for the TV ads to never actually mention Obama — rather, the statements about rhetoric vs. reality will go after him through implication, the contrast between Clinton and Obama already being so well-known.

Of course, the Clinton campaign is pulling their best Sgt. Schultz and knows nothing, nothing at all about this. Earlier, a valid question was raised in the comments:

Looking over the race, how much of Obama’s criticism of Clinton have been o f the nature that would harm her and the party’s chances in the general election? I seriously cannot think of any. While everything—EVERYTHING—coming out from the Clinton camp is stuff that can be picked up and used by the Republicans in one way or another or is designed to damage him as a candidate going forward as much if not more than it impacts him now…

He seems to have stuck more or less to contrasting the two of them before Democrats while she goes on stage last night and claims he’s not ready to be PResident.

They will destroy the Democratic party rather than give up this nomination. And don’t tell me I am a Clinton hater for pointing out what is now obvious to everyone. The only thing the Clinton campaign can do at this point is go negative, and they are going to go full-bore negative.

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Blowout

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There is no other way to describe what Obama did last night other than to state that it was a blowout. He won by a 17-18 point margin in Wisconsin, and he won the Hawaii caucus by over 50. Not only that, but TPM discusses the exit polls:

The exit polls show that Obama cut deeply into Hillary’s core constituencies in racking up his sizable victory in Wisconsin tonight.

Obama made it very close among females, losing to Hillary by the slimmest of margins, 51%-49%.

He won by a sizable margin among middle-aged voters, 53%-46%.

He won by decent margins among voters with an income less than $50,000.

He won by big margins among self described moderates and conservatives.

He won overwhelmingly among people who decided in the last week or the last three days, though Hillary won narrowly among those who decided in the last day.

He won narrowly among members of union households.

I defy anyone to find any positive news in any of that for the Hillary camp. It is just over. That doesn’t mean they will roll over and give up, and I expect them to get particularly vicious, as that is what they always do when they are in political trouble. I would not be shocked if by the end of the week the Clinton camp is mainstreaming (or trying to, at least) the Sinclair nonsense (or something like that).

Finally, and most devastating to Clinton, was this exit poll result:

Although Wisconsin Democrats were least likely to say “electability” was the most important candidate attribute, they also identified Obama, not Clinton, as most likely to win in November, by 63-37 percent.

Electability was the super delegate argument, and even that has now been stripped from her.

The real problem for the Clinton camp right now is there really is nothing they can do- their attacks have been rejected, yet there really is no way for them to lift Hillary’s positives. All they can do is to try to chip away at Obama’s support, and every time they do that, it is so ham-handed and nasty and stupid that the voters reject it and support Obama more. I fully expect three weeks of them throwing Wolfson in front of the cameras at every opportunity, unshaven, bags under his eyes, and sporting the upper lip sweat we all know and love, to scream about plagiarism (itself a bunch of rubbish). That really is all they have left.

The only thing that can save Hillary right now (and even then, I don’t think there is anything that can be done), would be for Obama to completely blow it. Right here, right now, it looks like this race is over.

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Getting Lee Greenwood

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I’m up late thinking politics after the evening’s events. Specifically I’m thinking about being a patriot, or rather, how proud I am to be an American.

I can identify with Michelle Obama (aside from the slight not-being-a-black-woman-in-America thing). In 2004, I went to a Houston Texans football game. It was the only nationally televised game that year, a Sunday Night game against the Packers. The stadium was probably 1/3 Packer fans. John will be proud to know that the only team I’ve seen approaching that were the Steelers and Saints. At one point, the crowd broke out into a “USA” chant, which morphed into a chant of “Four More Years.” I was shocked into silence. I felt utterly, completely hopeless.

During Obama’s Speech after Iowa, the crowd broke into a chant of “USA.” There was no morphing — not into “O-ba-ma” and certainly not into “Four More Years.” The chant meant something. It stood, on its own. I was, again, shocked at what I saw, and even more at what I was feeling. It felt real. It was hope.

* A few points to keep in mind. I was pulling strongly for Kerry at the time and had spent the last several months locked in futile arguments with my parents concerning Kerry’s vision and my fears over Bush’s. Since they are strong fiscal and national security type conservatives, my argument hinged on Bush’s lack of military and post war foresight and his utter ignorance of fiscal discipline. Their argument consisted of “but Kerry might be worse.” I will say that no one in our section was chanting either platitude.

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Obama From the Back Row

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I attended the Obama rally tonight at Houston’s 20,000 seat Toyota Center. On the news they said 16,600 attended, but several thousand with Standby tickets couldn’t get in — I know because my girlfriend was among them.

The scene from the Toyota Center’s southwest corner 2 hours before the doors opened:

Obama, moments into his speech:

The two and a half hours before Obama came out were filled by staffers exhorting the crowd to vote both in the primary and caucus, as well as an offer to have the campaign text reminders to anyone in the audience who signed up. There were three volunteers for the Houston campaign (all female) who led the crowd in chants of “Obama ’08,” “Yes We Can,” and “Fired Up, Ready To Go” in a back and forth style reminiscent of my “Texas Fight” days in college. A six year old girl lead the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance (which Obama TOTALLY DIDN’T COME OUT FOR by the way) — It was a little weird because the flag was right over my head, and I didn’t like 40,000 eyes boring into my pasty face. Then I thought of the kindergartner on stage and my plight receded. I liked the “Yes We Can” Video leading up to Obama’s appearance, and was surprised myself at his early showing after confidently predicting we would see him around 9:30.

I was a little disappointed in the speech, to be honest, although the crowd was incredibly energized. I thought he seemed tired, and he stumbled a few times. He came across much better on the clips I’ve seen on TV. As to the crowd demographics, I’d estimate they were 75% African American, and about 20% white, though not just college kids by any stretch. The groups of black families I saw were absolutely inspiring. They stretched all possible boundaries — I saw four generations come in together dressed in their Sunday finest, infant in the great grandmother’s lap. I was surprised at how few Latinos I saw. I know Hillary is supposed to have a large lead in the demographic, but I saw only a few outside the stadium, and none from my seat in the arena. There were two separate Si Se Puede chants, however.

I think come March 4th Obama will take Houston based on a huge turnout in the African American community, and will probably take Austin comfortably. Dallas’ demographics favor Hillary a bit more. The suburbs will be a very interesting tell this year — they are largely conservative, and if they go for either Dem in anything approaching significant numbers it could make Texas an extremely interesting state to watch in the general.

Apologies for the poor quality on the second picture. I attempted to cut down the glare, but we were in the worst possible spot for pictures.

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