but I will not lift a finger to help Barack Obama.

those who can’t stand Obama at any price should look for down ballot races they can get interested in, or entertain themselves by reading when Hell froze over

this kind of organized opposition to our existing democratic party oligarchy (see anlgachel) is very important.

it gives people of like mind a way to share their concerns and to understand that they are not isolated.

as for actual voting behavior,

folks will sort out for themselves what they want to do on voting day.

personally, i decided a month or ago that i would not vote for senator obama as president. he does not have even a fraction of the the experience i have a right to expect of a democratic candidate for president. furthermore, will not reward the kind of behavior i saw from the obama campaign

and

i will not reward the kind of behavior i saw coming from the current dnc leadership.

the mccain bogeyman can’t be used to scare me.

in particular, mccain is a military man. the top leadership of the american military right down to the newest colonels desperately want out of iraq. that extended occupation is ruining the military.

mcain will get us out of iraq, and fast.

domestically, a strong democratic congress can counter mccain in legislation and in appointments.

i will never vote for mccain,

but i will not help an obama campaign slide into the presidency. there’s too little know about the intentions of this group to turn over this powerful office to them.

that once I would have been willing to put into electing whoever won the nomination, and work my butt off for real universal health insurance. I already contacted my local HR676 organization and have a meeting and a rally on my calendar.

(And we shall see what happens with HRC and BHO, I feel anything could happen, including a straight-down-the-line fulfillment of the media narrative. As for my vote, I dunno yet.)

0. Continue to set the record straight on process issues like disenfranchisement and voter suppression

1. Down ticket races

2. Universal Health Care, and, for me at least

3. Progressive Blogosphere 2.0, which we’re going to need whether the right (McCain), or the center right (Obama), or the center (Hillary) takes the Presidency. Duty now for the future, and shove the Overton Window left. Because it would be really nice if the next time the blogosphere didn’t fold like a deck chair.

Meanwhile, it’s clear enough that the Obama faction wants no part of me or those like me, and why would they? After all, I’m a racist. And surely they deserve to work with people they’re comfortable with.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

Superdelegate pledges are not votes. Seriously, this is Florida 2000 all over again.

I believe the count that put Obama “over” included Super Delegates who wouldn’t announce publicly but were willing to tell the AP.

Hey, could that be the reason for the immediate rush by the party elite to demand all Supers declare RIGHT NOW? Perhaps they’re afraid when the Clinton campaign calls around it will find that Obama’s majority may be a few votes short. Better get everyone to go on record behind the chosen one right now.

Not that the AP or Axelrod would lie to us about such a thing. Never.

Also I intend to continue my bi weekly donations to HRCs campaign. Until she asks me to stop, I’m sending her some love.

Interestingly, my mom is a pretty good barometer of what the MSM is spewing (I just can’t watch, I try, but, I just can’t). This morning she told me that yesterday on The View (OK, I know, just stay with me on this one..) Barbara Walters said people are afraid that if HRC gets the nom that Bill Clinton will take her senate seat. Well, at first I thought it was another BO campaign smear but I like this idea. It’s amazing to what lengths these folks will go. And as if New York would be upset with Bill Clinton as their senator! They’d be dancing in the streets!!!

I love this job!

That is a critical datapoint.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

the enemy of any kind of activity like this is propriety,

putative socially correct behavior,

social pressure to appear reasonable, sensible, a good loser, a team player, a loyalists, etc.

i posted this previously here and at no quarter:

it provides a specific, concrete way for power to begin flowing TO us “democratic voter” people.

the TAKE THE PLEDGE campaign.

how about this for citizen action independent of the democratic party.

the superdelegates are politicians. politicans can be moved by two things only:

-money

and

-fear

how about using the latter to do this:

across the country, in states or in large cites,

citizen organizations called

‘TAKE THE PLEDGE”

are set up in the states,

especially in the SWING STATES,

or in cities or counties.

these organizations would conduct a drive to allow clinton supporters to either

- sign a “TAKE THE PLEDGE” petition

or

- send an “I’VE TAKEN THE PLEDGE” e-mail to that organization.

the exact wording of the pledge is not important, slightly different variations of this

“if senator obama is the democratic nominee, i either will not vote for president in the general election or i will write in senator clinton’s name.”

would be fine.

the political point of these petitions or e-mail drives would be to demonstrate

to the superdelegates in each state

that the democratic party faced the likelihood of large numbers of defections from the party if senator obama is nominated.

this effort would be especially effective in spreading fear among the superdelegatesn in the “swing states”.

in a swing state, even a relatively small number of defections would be disastrous for senator obama. the superdelegates understand the math of this very well, far better than most of us “mere voters”.

these drives would continue up until the democratic convention in denver in august,regardless of what senator clinton decides to do after june 3.

the target of this effort is the superdelegates.

setting up organizations like this across the nation should take relatively little money and would exploit the ready availability and ease of communication which the internet offers.

personally, i am tired of being treated like i was some kind of non-existent person by politicians who do what they damn well please with a party that i have supported all my life.

it’s not their party, it’s our party.

feel free to borrow these ideas or amplify them any way and anywhere you have a chance.
Reply to this comment

Comment by orionATL | 2008-05-22 12:43:39

regarding a “take the pledge” campaign,

i will add this.

the point of this effort would not be to present petitions to the superdelegates. that is not necessary. plus actual petition drives are made very difficult by the need to check signatures.

the point with this campaign would be to provide an opportunity for strong supporters of senator clinton to develop a sense of solidarity, to communicate with each other, to mutually voice their support for senator clinton by “taking the pledge”.

the superdelegates know full well that even a small 5% defection from normal democratic voting patterns can spell disaster in a swing state.

The AP’s Report from yesterday:

The AP tally was based on public commitments from delegates as well as more than a dozen private commitments. It also included a minimum number of delegates Obama was guaranteed even if he lost the final two primaries in South Dakota and Montana later in the day.

I hadn’t remembered where I saw this point made, but when I went back and looked it was by our own Myiq2xu in a Talk Left thread. Good work, Myiq!

in one of the posts from yesterday…

it seemed the AP was releasing new propaganda every hour yesterday afternoon.

There was also a post over at Talk Left about an actual meeting taking place between SDs with Salazar leading the way…

but in that article Salazar claimed that they couldn’t come to an agreement?

Serious Mindfucking.

I first heard about this ’plan’ on Hardball Monday evening…

Andrea Mitchell (IIRC) claimed that there were 30-34 House SDs who were planning on backing Obama, but it was supposed to be ’publicly’.

Still lots of daytime left though.

I’m thinking about what happened with Gore. We were ready to go demonstrate but he asked us not to…we could have been in the hall in Florida with those GOP aides and staffers from DC!

What’s a great show of public support for Hillary?

(BTW Don’t forget to write her and tell her to stay in!!!)

I think letters to the editor might be a good idea too—make the media know that millions are very unhappy with all of this, and that it will affect voting in November for sure.

It’s not just older women, which is what tv seems to think.

Remaining Colo. superdelegates endorse Obama

The senators’ meeting today followed one Tuesday where the group discussed how each would issue their support for one of the candidates. But events overtook the undecided group, as Obama won the nomination through pledged delegates in Montana and South Dakota and endorsements from other previously uncommitted superdelegates.

Sen. Salazar defended his decision to remain neutral until today. He had said repeatedly in the past that he had hoped he would not need to pick between the two.

“I’m delighted that it’s over,” he said.

As he headed into the meeting, Sen. Salazar said he believes Clinton will concede.

“It’s been a very long journey, and I think she needs a little time to decompress,” he said. “That’s probably what she’s doing today.”

After the gathering, Sen. Salazar said it was his hope to one day “see a woman as president of the United States of America. That’s not going to happen in 2008, but I hope it happens sometime in my lifetime.”

And I hoped I could see two Democratic senators voted in as Colorado’s senators, who had the stones to live and act as Democrats 24/7 instead of weak GOP facsimiles. Well, that might not happen in *my* lifetime, either. Did I mention that the SD Mark Udall’s running for the other Senate seat? No? Man, he’s making it hard to remember to send a check….