“Surrounded by Liars and Thieves” by Satellite Nation
PUMA is having a Pre-Convention PUMA Conference to prepare and train people for Denver and beyond. If you plan to go to Denver and can also make it to DC — GO!
I’ve included boowitch13’s fresh video, “Surrounded by Liars and Thieves,” for your viewing and motivational pleasure. Do I want to set the mood that the PUMA 08 Conference will be angry and vengeful like the twenty-four year old Obamamen who spew at me? No! But, we can’t forget why we are doing this, and why we are here! It’s because we were swindled out of our votes and our rights as citizens by “liars and thieves!”
It’s time for us to gather, meet each other and plan for the future. Remember: Dean and Donna ‘n them began building their organizations and planned takeover back in 2004. Actually, they began earlier, if you count from when Dean began his Presidential run.
PUMAs have written, blogged, emailed, protested, petitioned, and broadcast our message through the mainstream media, and our own shows on blogtalkradio. Now it’s time to meet in the flesh, plan, and build our energy, vision, and intention for the future.
What can you offer? What’s your skill set to contribute to the planned protest in Denver, getting Hillary on the ballot, or creating our own media messages? What can you add to the movement? Do you connect well with people and like to talk and organize at the grass roots level? Do you like to write letters? Raise money? Network people together? Are you a tech genius? Video producer? Graphic designer? How can you add your talents to the cause?
What will be the message and purpose of our movement in Denver and beyond? At the PUMA CONFERENCE:
There will be workshops for those who are starting PUMA chapters, and other informative sessions on media training, fundraising, and boosting traffic to your blog/website during this election cycle.
At the end of the conference, each person will have a solid action plan for Denver and their potential plans through the November election for each possible scenario. They will have a clear picture of the PUMA movement itself, and how we will move forward.
Who Should Attend: Those who want to have an active say about the direction of the PUMA movement in Denver and the role of PUMA as it develops.
Who Should NOT Attend: Those who would need to choose between Denver and DC. Our conference is secondary and meant to act in a supportive role of the Convention itself.
COST: $250—Includes price of ENTIRE CONFERENCE and:
Lodging at FIVE STAR hotel – the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. for THREE nights (Thursday, Friday and Saturday)
Citizens speak out about how the DNC handled the Florida and Michigan votes and how they treated the democratic candidates.
ONE: Just so we’re clear. The video above shows where we were at on May 31, 2008, rallying to Count All the Votes in Florida and Michigan at the DNC RBC Meeting in Washington, DC. All the votes were not counted.
TWO: The DNC (s)elected presidential candidate Barack Obama instead of candidate Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote.
THREE: So, as the Democratic Party refused to acknowledge our collective voice, 18 million strong, we are selecting ourselves — The People, the original, inclusive base of the Democratic Party — and making our voices heard.
Of course, this is only the Reader’s Digest version of where we’ve been until now, but will serve as reminder and encouragement.
Talk about a bamboozlement. What a strategy. It appears that attempts to organize now, after the Hillary fact, are, well, several years too late, to put it mildly. This one bowled me over, like I’d been hit in the gut. It doesn’t mean that I’m giving up; I’m just saying.
Howard Dean, it seems, has been busy training Democratic operatives and bloggers in a highly organized manner for a while now. Where have I been? I hadn’t heard of DFA until this week. This from fellow blogger, Claudiabl*:
DFA (Democracy For America) along with Netroots Nation are organizations founded by Howard Dean for the purpose of “training” campaign workers and promoting progressive candidates
That makes sense, right? It makes sense to have launched such an operation, considering the ass-whooping Dean and company got in 2000 and 2004. At the time, there were rampant “what hit us?” conversations about how Republicans had organized at the grassroots level, situating themselves in local government and on school boards. And what with the “swift-boating,” we were patsies and pansies and weren’t going to take it anymore. (I can’t help it, even though Democracy For America was on my side and ostensibly formed for good progressively strategic reasons, my mind keeps wandering over to the Hitler youth movement as a comparable. I should be ashamed.)
Why Was DFA Founded?
DFA was founded to reform the Democratic Party:
DFA members are working everyday to build a stronger more progressive Democratic Party. We believe the Democratic Party must be driven by people-power and responsive to the needs of everyday Americans.
Why sure, “people-power.” Me too, I’m for that!
Too often, once leaders from any party get elected, they get tied to a culture of incumbency and insular thinking that is dominated by special interests. DFA members fight for a culture of activism and rebuild policies and platforms for grassroots empowerment. It is our mission to constantly revitalize the party with new members, progressive ideas, and effective actions.
Huh. I guess that the Clintons were among those cultural incumbents. Bill had been so wildly popular as to be elected twice (first time for Dems in 40 years), and accomplish so much for our country, that Dean couldn’t wait to take ’em down.
How Are DFA and The DNC Connected?
Evidently, DFA elected Howard to the DNC Chairmanship — Who knew? I had no idea how screamin’ Dean had gotten that position:
In 2005, DFA members elected our founder Howard Dean to the Chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. With the 50 State Strategy, Governor Dean has successfully delivered on our campaign commitment to stand up for Democrats and our principles in every district in every state.
Our work hasn’t ended with electing a new chairman to head the party, DFA members have run for all levels of party office from precinct captains to county and statewide party chairs. We don’t just talk the talk. DFA members do the work it takes to make change happen. Join us in our mission to reform the Democratic Party.
DFA, The DNC, and Obama
Dean had run a hallmark campaign in 2004. Indeed, it was the first Presidential primary campaign to make effective use of online technology to mobilize and raise contributions from small individual donors. Dean’s training of campaign workers and bloggers would seem like a dovetail fit with Obama’s so-called grassroots community organizing background, combined with the forces of the progressive grassroots moveon.org. Moveon caught the attention of Congress and the DNC with their effective online protest and voter campaigns beginning in 2003. I was an active member, from their Berkeley inception as they grew into a national movement, until their early endorsement of Obama which I protested.
A Florida progressive blog, Florida Politics carries along the DFA message in their state, and notes that their blogging software is similar the Daily Kos, apparently a bragging right. Lately, they’ve reported on the huge Obama operation being set up there, and the takeover by his campaign of a portion of FL’s previous delegate selection. Just as with Michigan, I wonder if the Sunshine State will Remember in November or warm to the candidate who blocked fair reflection and counting all their votes.
Integrating Activists With Grassroots Media
If you fish around on the DFA website under their trainers and training agenda, you will find that we PUMAs and Just Say No Deal Coailtion Members, and likely Hillary herself, ladies and gentleman, are very late to this table.
Last summer we did a session of Night School live from the YearlyKos convention in Chicago. We featured Chris Bowers from OpenLeft.com and Katrina Baker from Living Liberally to discuss building open progressive communities.
Of course it now stands to reason how the DNC could so “quickly mobilize” to announce their move to Chicago last week, and accomplish it over the weekend.
Early Involvement In Presidential Endorsement
Question: How did all the progressive causes that we — I and other Democratic Party members, now-refugees — fought for over our entire lives get absconded by people who seem ready and able to disregard us and our efforts? Hey, over here, I’m a progressive too. How did they choose to throw Hillary away? Or did she or her old-school campaign staff not see DFA as a force?
It appears that DFA had weight in making their early assessments of the Presidential candidates in terms of progressiveness. I don’t see any mention of Hillary Clinton being engaged with them. Perhaps they were deterred by Mark Penn’s purported initial barriers to her easy access, or perhaps Dean didn’t include her? Obama even used their training manuals for his trainings!
All throughout 2007, DFA members were engaged in the Presidential race. DFA kicked off the year with messages to the candidates demanding to hear their plans for ending the Iraq War and combating global warming – and Senators Edwards and Obama, Gov. Richardson, and Rep. Kucinich responded with special videos to DFA members. Gov. Richardson sent campaign staff to a DFA Training Academy and Sen. Obama’s campaign used the Training Academy manual for their trainings. (emphasis mine) This engagement culminated in November of 2007, with the largest online poll of the election season. Over 154,000 DFA members voted in response to “Vote for Me Messages” from the candidates in the race. As a response to the overwhelming support for progressive leaders, DFA launched the Unite for a Progressive President campaign.
Big Tent No More
DFA appears to send out strident press releases, endorsing their progressive candidates and slamming others within the Democratic Party who don’t go along. Evidently, they deemed Obama and Edwards the most progressive, crediting their organization with Iowa’s win, and challenging an unnamed candidate with: what’s all this inevitability talk, huh? Bwa ha ha ha ha.
So, it’s clear that the DNC Chair, under the auspices of Democracy For America, preferentially campaigned, and built an organization, to defeat Hillary Clinton from within, and from the git go — way before Iowa and months, if not years, before the DNC RBC Committee Meeting on May 31, 2008. Pardon me. I am now officially more than naive. I thought I kept up, but maybe I was just a “holiday Democrat” after all. Until this campaign season, I always thought that the DNC was a neutral body that contained all Democrats in “the big tent.” Oops, my bad.
Des Moines, IA – Democracy for America, our nation’s largest progressive political action organization with over 9,000 members in Iowa, has shown their power tonight in Iowa. With the one-two finish of Senator Barack Obama/Senator John Edwards in the Iowa caucus, it is clear that progressive voters are the key constituency in this election. DFA’s Unite for a Progressive President Campaign made the difference here in Iowa. Democracy for America’s Unite for a Progressive President Campaign brought together the strengths of the Iowa caucus process and the commitment of DFA members throughout the country. The 675,000 members of DFA gathered tens of thousands signatures on a national call to action, wrote over 6,124 letters to Iowa DFA members, and plastered the Des Moines Register with an ad asking Iowa Democrats to not leave their caucus until a progressive wins their location.“If you listened to people last year, it was as if there was no need to vote. There was all this talk about inevitability, but, tonight, Democracy for America’s members here in Iowa proved that primaries matter, progressive values are what make the Democratic Party strong,” said Jim Dean, Chair of DFA. (* bold format mine, itals theirs)
In sharp contrast to 2004, issues of concern to progressive voters have been front and center in this presidential race. The activism and involvement of progressive Democrats have transformed the Party and fundamentally altered the primary landscape. From universal health care to ending the War in Iraq to global warming, every Democrat in the race has seen the need to take a strong stance. Those Democrats who have taken a stance have seen their support increase among voters.
“Tonight’s caucus results are further proof that progressive voters make up the core of the Democratic Party – they are the key constituency in this election. DFA members and progressive Democrats support candidates who fight for progressive values: bringing our troops home from Iraq, expanding universal health care for all Americans, and fighting to end global warming,” said Arshad Hasan, Executive Director of DFA.
Dean’s Mission Remains The Same
Now I’m wondering exactly when did my candidate and I get voted out of the Party? It would appear as if the strong-arm tone and tactics that characterize many people’s encounters with the Obama campaign have roots in the mission of an organization that has been at play since Dean’s piercing scream. The fratboy doc never gave up. In fact, he has been very hard at work getting back at anyone who ever laughed at him, and is still intent on going all the way to the White House. Memory lane, y’all.
It appears that Obama is intent on winning no matter how many longtime loyal Dems or states he has to throw overboard. I wonder if Michigan voters can forgive and forget how he treated them in the primary? 55 percent voted for Hillary Clinton; Obama took his name off the ballot in a state where he was not expected to win, and his campaign blocked various re-vote and fair voter reflection measures. Is Al Gore to the rescue enough?
From The Hill, June 16, 2008 by Sam Youngman, on Obama’s return to Michigan and the AP Story about his nontraditional campaign strategy:
Obama’s two-day visit to the state underscores just how important his campaign views Michigan to its electoral success.
The Associated Press reported Monday that Obama’s campaign is looking at a strategy that would allow the Illinois senator to lose the traditional battlegrounds of Florida and Ohio, but he would need to hold onto three states Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) won in 2004 — Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Michigan. Gore won Michigan in 2000.
Just about every poll recently conducted in the state shows Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) with a narrow lead. The RealClearPolitics average of polls has McCain leading Obama by less than two percentage points.
Obama has an uphill battle against McCain in Michigan in his bid to claim the state’s 17 electoral votes.
Not only did McCain win the primary there in 2000, but he competed vigorously in this year’s primary before losing to native son and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) by nine points. McCain’s defeat there was considered respectable since Romney’s father served as governor of the state.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), one of the only Democratic candidates who didn’t remove her name from the Jan. 15 ballot, won the primary with 55 percent of the vote. Because there was still a full slate of Democratic candidates — former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.), New Mexcio Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.), although they were not on the Michigan ballot — it is difficult to tell how many of those who voted for “uncommitted” did so as a protest vote in favor of Obama.
Yee-upp. Shaking my head. Sigh.
More here on Obama’s new strategy. Hat tip to Riverdaughter. Wha hap-peen here? I thought this was to be a 50 stater. How many are overboard as of now? Apparently when you begin with 57, you can afford to lose a few. Okay, I be nice.
Most lifelong Democrats who are defecting en masse from “Our Party” have no illusions about the obvious drawbacks of a John McCain Presidency when it comes to our core beliefs. This is nothing less than a voter revolt. From The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English 2008:
re·volt / riˈvōlt/
• n. an attempt to put an end to the authority of a person or body by rebelling: a countrywide revolt against the central government | the peasants rose in revolt. ∎ a refusal to continue to obey or conform: a revolt over tax increases.
Should we stand idly by as our most basic rights of representation are stripped from us by our own Party in nothing less than a calculated coup? And now rumor has it that Clinton’s name will not be placed on the first nominating ballot. Wake up! This isn’t about winning or losing. This is about creeping fascism.
If the leftover and shiny brand-new Party members are so concerned about what would be further lost with four more years of Republican rule, let them fight that agenda themselves. After all, they said they could do it without us.
Obama has gotten new and crossover voters that will take up the slack.
We will win without you.
I wouldn’t be on Hillary’s side, if I were you, when it all comes down.
Since you all have decided that you are no longer Democrats, go to the Republican National Convention and stay away from our convention.
Leave us Democrats alone.
It is time for someone to kick his dumb A out of the party.
The problem is that we have too many of these losers running around parading as democrats.
They belong in the other guy’s party.
They should have considered their base and The Issues, which frankly Obama has no concern for nor record of supporting, before shoving him down our throats. They will not succeed, because in the long run Country and Constitution trump Party, brand, and bully tactics.
Obama supporters who would naysay this as petulance or shooting ourselves in the foot just don’t get it. In case you haven’t tried to swim out of the DNC, Obamalite, MSM net, our issues of contention are much, much broader than the sexism and misogyny that were promulgated freely and without check during the Democratic primaries. Our bigger beef has to do with the willful manipulation and coercion of rules, primaries, penalties, voters, caucuses, committees, delegates, and superdelegates by the Party Elite to select the untested, teflon-like candidate of their choice.
It is incomprehensible that the one candidate in the history of our country who has earned more votes than anyone else ever in a primary contest would not be placed on the initial ballot at her Party’s Convention.
Keep in mind the words of our founding fathers, but make no mistake, lest the thought police be tempted to come haul me off: I am not advocating overthrow of the government. I am providing justification from within our founding principles, to protest and withdraw from Our Political Party, based on same principles that hold representation sacrosanct. Although our 2008 situation is markedly less extreme than the colonies faced under British rule, can you see any similarities? From The Declaration of Independence, In Congress, July 4, 1776: (emphasis mine)
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
———–
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
Gallup’s Daily Poll conducted June 12-14, 2008 reports a virtual tie between presumptive Presidential nominees Obama and McCain. 44 percent of the nation’s registered voters are for Obama, 42 percent are for McCain. However, 15 percent are undecided, the highest percentage of the year so far.
This most recent tie brings to mind the one that Democrats just experienced on June 3, 2008, discussed here in “Did Hillary Lose? Not So Fast: Taking Stock.” In that tie, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, while Obama was declared winner due to Superdelegate and caucus wins, which gave them undue weight by awarding similar amounts of delegates for comparatively low representation. Before suspending her campaign one long week ago, Clinton had maintained that she was the candidate best-prepared to beat John McCain in November. (I can guarantee you this: Hillary would not be using gun ‘n knife fight analogies to frame her ideological arguments. Yes, I later found out it’s a movie reference, but still shaking my head — it’s a bit rough around the edges for this lady’s taste. But . . . I digress.)
The video above was published on YouTube on April 3, 2008 by a Texas Hillary Clinton delegate who decided to document the harassment she was receiving from the Obama campaign. The one below was published on May 18, 2008 by the same delegate, as she continued to be pressured. She was placed on their delegate roster, after repeatedly informing them that she is a Clinton delegate.
Ok…so I called the Obama campaign. Sure enough they had me in there as an Obama delegate. . . . He was acting like it was just all a big mistake, but once I stopped acting like a confused person and started laying into him, his excuse was, “I’ve heard you guys are doing the same thing. I’m not listening to you anymore. Click.”
So he knows what he’s doing and it’s deliberate and it’s on tape.
As I mentioned in “Raise Your Hand If You Think Florida’s Over”, a member of Obama’s staff is hammering Hillary’s Florida supporters, including Sen. Bill Nelson, who filed suit against the DNC to count all of his state’s votes cast, and Jon Ausman, Member FLorida DNC. It seems the Obama campaign is threatening to unseat Hillary delegates and replace them with their own. Can they just do that?
The nature of Obama’s campaign strong arm tactics, as seen in these two examples, is consistent with this “incident-report-summary-redacted” from El Paso, TX, which seems to document similar shenanigans. And remember the reprehensible treatment Obama supporters dealt to anti-war, progressive maverick, popular Houston U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), a loyal Clinton supporter.
From No Quarter on voter intimidation —
Comment by Evelyn | 2008-05-30 08:37:54:
. . . I was at the Texas Caucus and the Obama supporter’s took the Packets as early as 6:30 AM which they were told not to do, They never let go and then when time came to vote they took over the precinct by some of them pushing the people that were supposed to run it across the room to chairs. They called in incorrect totals for Obama instead of correct ones. He actually had 4 delegates and they called in 19 delegates.
Some of them ended up spending not only the night but a couple of days in jail, when my 88 year old Mother showed up, who can hardly walk on her walker, and they took her walker away from her when she said she was there to vote for Hillary. They said you are in the wrong place old woman; this is an Obama precinct, and you need to go across town. When I saw what was happening I called the police. . . .
No keeping things under the rug anymore. Obama’s coming out swinging and looks like he’s itching for a fight. What ever happened to hope and change?
Is this guy scary or what? Why is the presumptive Democratic nominee talking about a Presidential Election campaign in terms of a “knife and gun” fight? This is Presidential level discourse? Shouldn’t he be talking about ideas, programs, platforms, and policies?
He sounds like he’s inciting a riot in using terms like that. And what is shameful is that he lives from within a mindset that could even conjure up the analogy, and use it before an audience. This is just getting worse and worse. I guess he’s planning on skipping over that debate/town hall foolishness and taking it directly to the streets.
Barack Obama is warning supporters that the general election fight between him and John McCain may get ugly, but the Illinois senator is vowing not to back down.
“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said at a fundraiser in Philadelphia Friday, according to pool reports.
“We don’t have a choice but to win,” Obama said, joking that he has heard “folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles games.”
Obama again said that the GOP will make try to make him look “scary” to voters.
Obama pledging to swing back at the GOP drew much applause from the crowd.
Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant said Obama’s rhetoric abandons Obama’s campaign themes of hope and change.
“In the last 24 hours, he’s completely abandoned his campaign’s call for ‘new politics’, equating the election to a ‘brawl’ and promising to ‘bring a gun,’” Conant said.
Obama doesn’t need any help from the GOP to make him look “scary” — he’s doing quite fine on his own, thank you very much.
UPDATE: Here’s further coverage via Time Magazine of the event. It seems as though the PA leadership, as mentioned earlier, Rendell, Casey, are fully on board the Kool-Aid train. It’s a movin’ down the track, and it ain’t comin’ back. Woo woo! We’re dreamin’ if we think they’re a lookin’ back. Governor Mark Warner (D-VA) has, however, removed himself from VP consideration, reports Politico’s Ben Smith, after he accepted his state’s Dem nomination for the U.S. Senate race in November.
This powerful video from ILEwoman was added to YouTube on March 30, 2008, so perhaps many of you have seen it. It was new to me. I thought it was a poignant reminder of what we’re fighting for, and who was and is at the forefront of that fight.
Feat. Clinton supporter, Ed Rendell, before he turned his support toward Obama, endorsing a dream ticket, along with Chuck Schumer, Lanny Davis and others. That’s a link to those who want an Obama Clinton 08. Senator Clinton has disavowed such efforts since suspending her campaign, but what actually could she do? She was pressured out of making any bids, whether she wanted to or not, by saying she was putting on the pressure after the last primary. Who knows? I always thought it was an Obama == DNC ploy. Hillary had always said, whatever, for the good of the Party.
Many supporters say never on that one. It’s beneath her. She’d never, because of how he treated her, Michelle, Bill, yada yada. She’d be blamed if his administration goes south.
I’ll admit, I’m undecided on it. She would be in power and could move forward her agenda. Although, I can’t imagine it happening due to the DNC Chicago HQ chess move of the week. Who’s surprised after Obama announced last week, “I’m the head of the Party now”?
I know I will not accept another VP choice. But what If it so happened, after all this, that the DNC realized they had to have Hillary on the ticket to win, assuming Obama doesn’t self-destruct before that — which I doubt will happen with all this extreme orchestration —
Would you vote for a dream ticket? (Please keep it civil if you’re opposed, thank you.)
Lady Boomer NYC 
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