Just Say No Deal Coalition Interview on Sirius Radio
Just Say No Deal spokespersons, Will Bower of PUMA and Diane Mantouvalos of HireHeels.com, were on satellite radio today. This is the question and answer part of their interview.
On the show, Will and Diane effectively frame the questions — including “he won, she played negatively, DNC, 50 state campaign, caucus problems, the rules, and switching things in the middle of the game” — that many democrats have about the protest vote movement. They address why we are standing on principle and justice, rather than blindly supporting a Party that went astray.
Will introduced himself at The Confluence yesterday:
Two big things happened to me this year. I became a writer for the Huffington Post *and* I became an administrator for the largest pro-Hillary group on FaceBook (called “Hillary Clinton for President – One Million Strong”), which then had a membership of 27,000 people.
A third big thing happened to me. I met Harriet Christian at the DNC’s RBC hearing. You can read my account of it here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/will-bower/my-evening-with-harriet-c_b_104594.html
I also met someone else that night — “Sista Christian Louboutin” of HireHeels.com. It was Sista who later mentioned me to Diane Mantouvalos and vice versa. HireHeels.com, of course, was the nucleus around which “Just Say NO DEAL” would later be born.
Will describes how Just Say No Deal was quickly formed and caught on fire:
After another member of the FaceBook group (Thuc Nguyen) created some images for us, I took the PUMA / Party Unity My Ass concept to my FaceBook group with the idea of having it be a mascot and a call to arms…. and it caught fire there *immediately*. Within a few days, “The National” contacted us for an interview, which you can read about here:
http://thenational.ae/article/20080607/FOREIGN/763911149
Meanwhile, Diane was preparing the conference call that would give birth to “Just Say No Deal”. Being that she knew of me through “Sista” and through The Huffington Post and through the PUMA article in The National, I was invited to participate.
Press coverage and an angry electorate that felt swindled made for a quick launch:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/06/13/1138240.aspx#comments
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/06/13/a-clinton-backer-turns-to-mccain/
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/256106
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0608/McCain_mingles_with_Clinton_supporters.html
* Hat tip to commenter Henry Dubb for posting interview link on The Confluence. And to the Confluence who published Will’s intro letter, excerpted here. Thanks to Will and Diane for their organizing wizardry and for articulately stating our concerns to the public.
Lady Boomer NYC 
Princess reporting for DUTY from sunny miami….
Ladybloomer flatters – but the praise goes to the our newly created insulated-from-vitriol blogosphere – without u guys there IS no coalition.
SIRIUS yesterday — XM tomorrow — at JUST SAY NO DEAL – we are equal opportunity offenders 😉 And we’ve only just begun —- Washington Post later this week — but expect the counter-attacks to begin — don’t lose your nerve and you will gain back your party (or create a new one 😉
Ladyboomer Rocks — i’m guessing Williamsburg or Chelsea…
I met her on the Upper West Side – on Sunday June 8th… along with about 150 other people who for the most part were bound and determined to “just say no deal.”
Hi Lady et al,
Kudo’s to Will Bower, my friend, who has written some of the few pro-Hillary articles “allowed” on Huffpo.
Additionally, much appreciation is given to Diane who formed the umbrella under which many websites and blogs have been given the chance to be seen………http://justsaynodeal.com
The media attention has been essential for getting our PUMA voice out of the blogosphere and into the mainstream consciousness. We all have different approaches in PUMA, but our mission is coalesced into one…no vote for Obama.
My personal website ( under construction) is a part of those listed on justsaynodeal.com, and I receive an abundance of mailings, both hopeful for Hillary, and threatening…from Obama supporters, of course.
I created the first PUMA group on Facebook, after learning of the meaning of PUMA through Will and some others. (PUMA, It’s Just Not For Sneaker’s Anymore.) We have grown, yet remained stalwart in our beliefs. A couple of other groups formed after that, because you can never have too many PUMAS!
I encourage all to visit my simple site, http://swingcrats.org and leave a comment. I am collecting them, tallying them, and will be presenting them as proof of the cohesiveness of our mission.
Hillcrats……I’m a boomer and proud of the only qualified candidate, Sen. Clinton.
Lady, let’s have lunch (ewe, not the dating service)…………NY is my turf, too:)
a.g. Thanks for writing. I think the challenge now is to coalesce and organize around a positive vision of how we can use all this “juice” to create a better one than we got given. Yes, let’s do lunch in the City.
Princess wears Prada — The City, baby!
akron — I was there too — Who knows who I met — we’ve all got undercover names!
I will never vote for racist Obama: He is corrupt with Tony
Rezco