It is with deep regret and after much contemplation (an interesting variant spelling of “cowardice”) that I hereby resign from Correntewire.com blog and request that my name be removed from the masthead. This is no longer a site I wish to be associated with.

Do what you want with my previous writings; they belong to the blog and you can’t un-write history. A lot—indeed, as best I can recall, nearly all—of what I wrote here I am entirely proud of. But my business, interest and passion is getting Democrats elected to public office, including Barak Obama as the next President of the United States.

That does not seem to be a popular attitude around here any more and so I think it is best that I depart.  Read more 

Two weeks ago, OpenLeft initiated an effort to “diversify its front page” by publishing a series of posts which it described as being on the topic feminist and womanist perspectives on Hillary Clinton’s withdrawal from the race — and why this matters to progressives. After an excellent start with a post by Melissa McEwan, the experiment has failed. While OpenLeft maybe have “diversified” its front page by publishing the works of women (and African American women), it did so at the expense of the “feminist/womanist [FW] perspective.” Rather than FW perspectives, readers were treated to what can be most charitably collectively described as “Obama-ists” perspectives from women who identify as feminists. All three posts subsequent to McEwan’s were either dismissive of, or hostile to, anything that can be described as an “F/W perspective”.  Read more 

Ok, I may use profanity every once in a while but I usually do not get really angry.

I should have known better than click on that link that Lambert posted (I won’t reproduce it here). And I definitely should have known better than read the comments.

It started with the usual stuff that makes Lambert’s title so right on target: If you don’t support Obama, go fuck yourself or any variation of that theme, traitors, etc.

And then I read this and I thought I was going to lose it. Like my title says, I’m still trembling with rage:  Read more 

I guess I’m one of the few people who were there the first year as well as last year, and recall the last minute “fuck off” that we Little People received in Chicago from Her Nibs. Hint: She didn’t show. Blah, Blah, order and security and Seriousness blah, but if this is true, I’m even more glad I saved the money for the garden instead of the trip to Austin:

Gina Cooper opened the event by letting us know that any organized disruption would result in the protesters’ being escorted out and badges taken. As for the questioning of Speaker Pelosi, she said that impeachment and FISA questions were consolidated into 2 summary questions. Congressman Lloyd Doggett just introduced Speaker Pelosi. She got a standing O.

I guess condemning MoveOne and passing FISA along only sweetened such fruits as taking impeachment “off the table” and failing to find a way to stop war funding bills, despite the ability to do so when it suits her on other issues. Whatever.

“Thank you Sir, may I have another!” The motto of the “progressive” blogospherical leadership. Here is what I read today, instead of self-congratulatory gossip and back-slapping filling my inbox from attendees. But I suppose that middle picture isn’t Good Form, and Nanci shouldn’t be troubled with such. I will laugh long and loud and with irony-driven bitterness when Rahm replaces her in the Speaker’s job. And he will.

If you’re looking for new and exciting reasons to “get over it,” Michael Kinsley’s recent piece in TIME is not to be missed.

Aside from the standard arguments and moans —and he deploys plenty— Kinsley offers up a few “gems” that are worthy of both excerpt and comment. In the midst of a muddled plea that defies my best attempts at summarization, he informs democrats, particularly Hillary Democrats, of the steps that must be taken in order to guarantee a better America:  Read more 

As promised, here are my initial reflections (or intellectual masturbation, as PLuk would say… works for me too!) on the conception of social justice that I think PB2.0 should promote and apply to whatever structure it ends up having.

A quick response to Paul on the intellectual masturbation:

"In ‘why I write’, George Orwell claimed that all writers were motivated by some mixture of four motives. The first was ‘sheer egoism’, which must to some be present if (as Orwell assumed) a ‘writer’ is not someone who is not content to write but wants to publish. The second was ‘aesthetic enthusiasm’, which Orwell took to be some concern for the form of one’s work. The third was ‘historical impulse’, or, more broadly, ‘the desire to see things as they are.’ The last was ‘political purpose’ — using the word "political" in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter people’s idea of the kind of society they should strive after."

That’s a quote from Brian Barry’s book, Why Social Justice Matters, which inspired some (but not all) of the reflections below.

Again, my thanks to Lambert for offering me this opportunity.

I am one of the people who thinks that PB2.0 should be both about substance and structure. Both topics deserve posts of their own but in this post, I focus more on substance: a basic conceptualization of social justice.

What should PB2.0 stand for ?  Read more 

Speaker of the House Rahm Emanuel?

First Obama started moving part of the Democratic National Committee to Chicago. Then he began pushing to prevent Clinton’s name be put in nomination, contrary to all precedent.

Then he arranged to replace Iowa Democratic workers with his own staff and now he is taking control of the DNC voter files for North Carolina.

All this is keeping with the shock doctrine of hitting people with so many radical changes all at once that they don’t have time to take stock of what is happening and respond.

Why did he vote for the FISA bill, because he caved? Or because he wants police state powers when he is president?

So I can’t tell you why, but let me pose it as a hypothetical, because someone I know is going to try it in real life soon. What, if anything, do you believe Little People like us, can do to pressure Obama to remain true to progressives Democratic values, right now? When I say “Little People,” I mean all of us who ’only’ have several dozen to thousands of readers, or dollars, or connections- in contrast with those of the big Playahs, who have millions of those things.

I know a lot of you have chosen not to vote for Obama in the fall. That’s your right, for all that I don’t agree such a choice is constructive. But pretend with me: if you could march up to him right now and say, “Stand up and fight, publically and proudly, for [fundamental progressive value/issue X] right now, or else!” what would the “else” part be? Beyond, “or you won’t get my vote in the fall or contribution during the campaign.”

We don’t really have what I’d call “power” here in the blogosphere, not yet at least. But and still: it’s fascinating to read Open Left of late. If anyone can be said to be ’connected’ and ’in touch’ with the Village establishment, it’s these folks. And Dayum! Can you say, “not happy with Mr. Hope?”

It’s funny. Since I took my Pledge not to say anything negative about him until after November, it seems I can’t find anything but that in the progressive blogosphere. The feeling I have isn’t quite schadenfreude, nor bitterness, or even ’I told you so-ism,’ but the hope (heh) that it’s finally beginning, and we’re coming together to see that ’third way’ centrist DLC crap is just that. Crap. When ’mainstream’ blogs are getting it, I can’t help but smile.  Read more 

I’m jumping on this announcement by candidate Obama, because I hope to subvert the impulses of some of my fellow Fellows and some of our readers to make of this moment a chance to accuse Barack Obama of being a liar, breaking a promise, not really being about reform, undermining efforts to reform our increasingly broken system of elections, and other ways not to like Obama that I’m not clever enough to even think of.

You don’t need to go there; the VRWC is way ahead of you. As Roy notes, there is high comedy to be had in the deep disappointment of the McCain campaign, the Republican Party, and their right-winger supporters, most of whom have bellowed long and hard against any sort of limitations on the financing of political campaigns. Of course that was when they were the ones rolling in money.

Yes, I know, McCain has been an advocate, of sorts, and a sponsor, of sorts, of campaign finance reform, but when Obama states, as he does in the video message in which he announced his decision, that the entire system, including the so-called reforms of it, by which we finance our elections is “broken,” he’s right.

Here is as much of what Obama says on the video that I could get off the story as it appears in the NYTimes and Reuters:  Read more 

It’s really true that the full moon brings out the Crazy in people. And completely unrelated to that point, JimmyJeff Gannon runs a blog for the National Press Club. If that’s not a Zen moment of truth about our times, I don’t know what is.  Read more 

As it happens, (and in light of today’s endorsement) Naomi Klein has a column in the Guardian regarding Obama’s economic policies. And she’s not impressed, to say the least:  Read more 

Since VL’s thinking in offering his endorsement of Barack Obama is apparently premised on a cliche (’the lesser of two evils’), allow me to suggest that there is another, even more apt, cliche available…

Better the Devil you know, than the Devil you don’t know.

Does this constitute an endorsement of McCain — no. McCain’s record has been all over the place…he, like Hillary Clinton, has been running for President for the last eight years. Clinton, of course, spent the last eight years with her eye on November, because Democrats are supposed to be smarter than Republicans. McCain knew he had to go way right — and “support the President” — if he expected to win the GOP nomination.  Read more 

After the health care meeting, I came upon a group of three middle-aged women. One was holding some Obama literature and saying, “Actually, I’m having a lot of trouble getting over this.” I stopped and listened and joined in. All were Hillarians, still quite sore from the primary fight. I said something about the “orgy of hate.” One of them said yes, and it wasn’t just from the Obama people. She described how the Jim Lehrer show came to the local public TV station to do a piece on the primary. And (1) everyone in the discussion was male, and (2) every time the Hillary guy (a local county official) started to talk, the others interrupted him and talked over him and generally kept him from making his point. Six weeks later, she’s still furious.

The Supreme Court by a vote of 5 to 4 has just handed down a ruling that prisoners at Guantanamo do have a right under the U.S. Constitution, and in particular, the ruling restores habeas corpus to them, giving them the right to challenge their detention in U.S. courts. It does not specifically invalidate the entirety of the odious MCA as far as I can tell.

Need I tell you who the five and who the four were?  Read more 

The PROOF of RBC Fraud

A document included as an exhibit in the Nelson vs Dean Lawsuit that was filed in October 2007 in an attempt to force the DNC to seat the Florida delegation provides indisputable proof that the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee singled out Florida and Michigan for sanctions, and ignored violations of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

The document is a tentative list of state primaries and caucuses, and is dated September 13, 2007. The listing for Florida says (“P” designates a primary)

1/29/08 Florida P Date of state primary; date violates rules; Non-Complia  Read more 

So, I have to confess: I can’t find my Muse. Yes, I’m sick and tired over some RL crap that won’t go away, but it’s deeper than that. And I’m not sure exactly why. I keep driving back the little voice, that is so loud and obnoxious sometimes when I’m doing the standard political surfing. She says, “you know you just don’t care about this shit anymore.”

It may come from the horrible primary bullshit that won’t die. It may come from my inability to find affordable health care. It may come from the crushing burden of caring for those for whom no one else will care for, and which my moral values demand that I do. I guess I’m just not sure. Old Timers: is this normal? In the midst of a “hot” political season like we’re having now? All I seem to want to think about is sex with Jewish grrls and my flowers. I feel guilty, lazy, untalented, stoopid, etc.

I think most of you here grok it, even if you express it differently. HRC wasn’t my choice, but I can share with all of you my many fears about what a BHO admin will really mean, bring, create, destroy, etc. Just as I have disdain for his supporters who can’t call- no, I won’t go there. So where should the energy go, or rather, where is it to be found so I can get it back? I crapped out of supporting Harry and Nancy shortly after our Glorious Victory of 06, and I haven’t been sorry about that, those lying fuckwads. These days, my answer to ennui over national politics is “local, local, local.” It’s working, but at the same time, not as satisfying. Anyway, I’m rambling as I’m on the verge of a major migraine and about to go to sleep to fight it off. But I’m wondering, am I alone? So much of what I read on today’s intertubes seems so transient, so fake, so much not of the moment that matters to people who eat food and breathe air. Or, it could just be summer. What do you think?

The night of the long knives took the msn, DNC and the obamacan bully boyz of the netroots [trying to out-drudge, Drudge] over a year to produce a final kill. They gather around the corps of the candidate they had determined to kill; gloating, taking credit inwardly but outwardly sharpening their knives for slashing continuing wounds.

“The fault”, the many pontificated, “was her own. She made so many mistakes and he ran a faultless campaign.” The few with positive and praising comments usually included a barb, a snark or a regret that there was no more blood to be shed.  Read more 

Ever been in a bad relationship? This one has all the signs.

From the comments at Riverdaughter’s place:

Jeff, on June 10th, 2008 at 10:02 pm Said:

I guarantee come November–when you’ve all blown off a little steam at sites like this–the DNC and Obama supporters like myself will have talked you back to the true fold. And in any case– GREAT MEN LIKE SEN. OBAMA ONLY COME AROUND ONCE IN A GENERATION AND WE WILL ABSOLUTELY NOT ALLOW YOU TO DESTROY OUR DREAM!

There are sooo many issues I have with this statement.

1. What about our dream?  Read more 

[Hillary’s speech: Since bringiton has framed the issues so nicely, let’s use this post as an open thread for Hillary’s speech, which TalkLeft and RiverDaughter are liveblogging. CSPAN here.]

It would be a grave error for anyone to underestimate Hillary Clinton.  Read more 

The “Magic Number” is still 2025, or 2209. But its not 2118.

That’s because, in violation of the DNC charter, a secret meeting was held, and secret votes were taken — violations of specific Charter “sunshine rules” provisions. A deal was struck among Obama supporters on the committee to completely ignore what is known as the “fair reflection” rule (see note below), and to treat the constituency groups that had provided Hillary Clinton with considerable margins in two states (Hispanic/Latino voters, older voters, women, Jewish voters in Florida, older voters, working class voters, rural voters, and women in Michigan) as “half voters”.  Read more 

For those of you who insist on believing that Joe Lieberman is still something other than a Senatorial colleague of Barack Obama, that he continues to be some kind of mentor to Senator Obama, welcome news that Obama isn’t afraid to call Lieberman on his Joementum.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the self-described “Independent Democrat” who caucuses with the Democratic party in the Senate even though he has endorsed Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, got some tough talk from Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, yesterday about his advocacy for the presumptive Republican presidential candidate and the general tone of the campaign, Democratic sources tell ABC News.

Returning to the Senate after his securing the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama and Lieberman greeted each on the Senate floor in the Well as they were voting on the budget resolution.

They shook hands. But Obama didn’t let go, leading Lieberman - cordially - by the hand across the room into a corner on the Democratic side, where Democratic sources tell ABC News he delivered some tough words for the junior senator from Connecticut, who had just minutes before hammered Obama’s speech before the pro-Israel group AIPAC in a conference call arranged by the McCain campaign.  Read more 

Hillary Rosen, alleged Hillary Clinton supporter, has an amazing post up on the Huffington Post. It’s not amazing because of what it says about the primary. Instead, it’s an amazing look inside the Village mindset.  Read more 

Never mind, they’ll come back. They always do, you know. Women get cruelly battered and still keep returning to their batterer. BUT NOT THIS TIME!

“No self respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her self.” - Susan B. Anthony, 1872

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26966166@N0…

We still support Hillary despite the combined power of the Democratic Party hacks, the Media Whores, and the illicit money men of the Obama campaign who have waged a vicious, nasty, hate filled, sexist campaign against her.

They continually battered her and when they battered her, they battered us.  Read more