Department of Are You Freaking Kidding Me?

Obama gets his own nifty Great Seal

This guy reminds me more and more every day of GWB. Here's the article (emphasis mine)

Just before the president of the United States makes an appearance at a speech, a usually tall, muscular person with a machine gun hanging under his suit coat quietly walks on stage and hangs the presidential seal on the podium front.

It's an impressive looking thing that conveys a sense of the power of the top elected office in the land and, indeed, the free world.

But Barack Obama's crowd has decided not to wait for any of the formalities like a presidential election, an inauguration or even a nomination, which he still hasn't actually officially won yet. Wasn't it Hillary Clinton who was so sidely accused of thinking her nomination was inevitable?

Obama now has his own Great Seal already. And it is really, really big. It's big like the tires on those elevated pickups in the parking lot at NASCAR races where you look out the car window and see nothing but fist-sized lug nuts.

Obama's new seal looks really presidential, which is probably a coincidence, don't you think? Obama's seal has an eagle just like the president's seal and he or she is holding arrows to signify war, which Obama was against before it even started.

And it's got olive branches, which stand for peace, which we haven't really had since 9/11 but DailyKos promises will come as soon as we shoo out Bush and Cheney.

The seal's also got a terrifically impressive motto in Latin -- "Vero Possumus" -- which means "The possum speaks truthily."

No, just kidding. It actually means "Truly we're able," which translates as "Si se puede," which translates as "Yes, we can." Obama is clearly copying George W. Bush's Texas gubernatorial reelection motto from 1998.

Plus it's got Obama's website right up there too. Lord knows, he needs more donations because the poor White Sox fan from Chicago's impoverished South Side has only raised a little under $290 million so far.

As chronicled by our colleagues over at the Swamp, some folks figure he'll top a half-billion dollars before election day, now that he's scrapped his promise to take public funds, this year a measly $84 million to spend between Labor Day and Nov. 4. Public money was good enough for every other presidential candidate for the last three decades. But how could any serious candidate possibly get along on only $1.3 million a day?

During the Democratic primary voting, a lot of folks were fooled into thinking Obama agreed with public funds when he signed a pledge last fall to use them and told constitutents before that, "If we're still getting financed primarily from individual contributions, those with the most money are still going to have the most influence."

As Jill Zuckman notes in the Swamp, the John McCain camp is using Obama's own phrase -- "Don't tell me words don't matter" -- to skewer the Illinois senator on his finance reversal. But McCain doesn't have his own giant seal.

The Obama campaign is clearly counting on any stink over the broken pledge to blow over in the 136 days left before the election. And, of course, once Obama backers see the kind of first-class seal they're getting for $290-plus million, they may go along.

If Obama does raise $500 million, that'll mean he spent around two gallons of gas per vote. He raked in another $22 million in May, according to the Tribune's Mike Dorning, roughly the same as McCain.

Some people might be inclined to make fun of a grown candidate who's against an imperial presidency but needs a really Great Seal before he even gets the official nomination. Maybe they'd suggest that as good as things look now from the city of big winds, maybe he's counting his eagles before they hatch.

But even if he loses in November, for $500 million Obama and Michelle could build their own White House. And paint it any darned color they want.

For a video of Obama explaining his public funding reversal, along with subversive subtitles from the funny folks over at 23/6, click on the Read more line below.

--Andrew Malcolm

Voting? Who needs voting? Just claim victory and get on with it. Let the coronation begin!!

Here's the Deal

-I'm so over all of the sore winner attitudes of so many of the Obamaphiles.

-The DNC has succeeded in driving me from the party.

-I don't have a dog in this fight.

-I don't have any wish to endorse a candidate and it's too soon to "endorse" a candidate anyway. For all we know, either and/or neither "presumptive" nominee may or may not get the nomination in the end.

-My "endorsement" or my one vote won't make a damn bit of difference anyway. To me it's all become too much like mental masturbation. 

So I'm checking out for the duration. 

I'll miss my fellow "Hillary havens" but I'll check in on them from time to time. If something major happens that might have an impact on the general election I might check back in. Otherwise, best of luck to all of you who are willing to carry on!  

As for me...all I can say is, "Please wake me when it's over."

Yes, please spare us

Here's what Falstaff says. It's so good I have to reprint the whole thing here but please check out the blog as well.

Spare us your sympathy.

Spare us your understanding of “what we must be going through.”

Also spare us the less condescending form of that sentiment. If you feel inclined to express your understanding of what we are going through… spare us.

Spare us your calls for “unity.” Lines have been crossed that can’t be uncrossed. Hatred – vicious, vitriol-dripping misogyny, bullying derision and murderous rage – has been thrown around like confetti.

Spare us your apologies.

Spare us your appreciations for Hillary Clinton’s accomplishment in her “historic” campaign – with or without hedges about how “unfortunate” some aspects of her conduct were.

Spare us your “reflections” on the state of feminism – such as your “discovery” of a generational divide.

Spare us your lectures on how no “real feminist” could do anything but try to defeat John McCain.

Spare us your appeals to the institution of the Democratic Party – the institution whose base you have aggressively sought to throw out and whose values you have trashed, the institution that you have dragged into the sewer of disenfranchisement, whose principles and integrity you have soiled, in order to win.

Spare us your assurances that Hillary’s supporters will “come around.”

Spare us any mention of Kubler-Ross, or any stage of anything.

Oh, and Dr. Dean – spare us any future fund-raising appeals for the DNC. We do plan to work our asses off for Democrats running for the House, the Senate and in state and local races – but for the purposes of the presidential race, we’re Independents for now.

Clear enough?

Okay, now that you’re free from those feelings of responsibility, or guilt, or whatever gets you through the night, let us tell you some of the things we’d be happy to hear and see.

Please, don’t hold back on your most sincere frat-boy, triumphalist thoughts and feelings. Feel free to give them full-throated voice.

Feel free to drop your PC inhibitions on how fed up you are with all this feminist crap. In fact, feel free to use the following terms liberally: bitch, cunt, whore, slut, pussy, screech, witch, castrator, dyke, lesbo, frigid, and so on.

Feel free to spread your poetic and metaphoric wings. Feel free to surf the ocean of world literature, myth and pop culture for examples of monstrosity, soullessness, inhumanity and all manner of evil. (Suggestion: There are many cultures whose canons and myths remain unplumbed in this dialogue. I, for one, have hoped for imaginative analogies to such figures as Grendel's mother, Shiva, Medea, Hecate and Lady Macbeth, for starters.)

Feel free to blame Hillary and her dead-ender supporters for handing the election to McSame.

Feel free to chuckle over Hillary the Loser.

Feel free to shake your sober editorial head over her many jaw-dropping excesses.

Feel free to compose concerned or helpful lists of “what went wrong” with Hillary’s campaign.

Feel free to complain off-the-record to journalists about how Hillary is just going through the motions, and isn’t really supporting Obama’s candidacy.

Feel free to ask, all puzzled and hurt-like, “Can anyone explain to me how Obama’s campaign was sexist? I really want to know”

Feel free as the breeze to exult in the wonderfulness of The Movement.

And, oh yeah, feel free, once all this is over – once the damage done to the Democratic Party is clear, once we have lost an election that couldn’t be lost, once the tide of Beatlemania has ebbed, and the “passions of the moment” have cooled – feel free to grow up.

Then feel free to give us a call. We’ll be here.

Update: I'll continue to add links that demonstrate the points of this post.

Not gonna happen

Tom Watson, bless his Hillary-loving heart, has announced that he's joining the "Unity Party" in his post: Speaking Loudly With a Single Voice

He starts off by praising Hillary's campaign and then says (emphasis mine):

Yet, I have to say this clearly: Hillary lost, and she lost squarely on the playing field as it was laid out for all candidates. Moreover, Barack won. And he really did win in the fullest sense of the word. There can be no question that Obama also faced a stern test in terms of our national mores and prejudices, and that his primary campaign was a testament to his skill and talent - and yes, his vision for America.

After a number of Hillary-supporters comments Tom felt he needed to add an update:

UPDATE: As always, I appreciate comments here. And I've come a long way with bunch of ya. But I have to say I disagree strongly with Clinton supporters who say they'll never vote for Obama because they feel personally disrespected, because somehow the Democratic Party doesn't want their vote. Spare me. A little tough love, people: if Hillary Clinton can deal with it, I damned well hope you can. Her policy - his policy - is simply better. So lick your wounds and make your choice. And as it turns, Hillary and Barack are meeting at her home right now - Senator Obama giving an overt and very public signal of respect for Senator Clinton. Buck up!

Oh, really? "Lick your wounds" and "buck up". Please, tell us emotional Hillary supporters what else we're supposed to do to help screw ourselves over some more. 

One of my favorite comments came from CAE:

The DNC cannot have both a purge and unity. Ya gotta pick one. They picked the purge. The purged ain't coming back for the unity.

I couldn't agree more.

Here's my response to Tom's post (in it I refer to a Lance Mannion post that I carried in the previous post):

I've been a Democrat for my whole life. My mother idolized FDR and I campaigned at my school for Kennedy and then Humphrey. I've voted Democratic for 36 years. Well, it's over.

I've learned over the years that the GOP would do anything to win. Cheat, lie, steal votes and disenfranchise voters. But somehow I thought I was a member of a party who stood for the will of the people. What I found out from this primary was that my party was every bit as willing and able to do "whatever it took" to force their nominee on us. 'Will of the people' be damned.

I've been more and more disappointed in "my party" over the last eight years. When Gore gave up. When Kerry gave up. When Pelosi and Reid decided to take impeachment off the table. They haven't done a damn thing I hoped they would do. But, by gawd, this time they actually succeeded at something. They really pulled off quite an impressive coup. They've managed to alienate about half of their own party. Who'd of thought that was possible? Of course they don't get all the credit. A fawning media, who praised anything Obama and savaged anything Clinton, with their repeated calls for Clinton to bow out and their unconcealed, over-zealous support of an inexperienced, unvetted, "Elvis" candidate really helped clinch the deal.

Lance Mannion, in his post, "Booze, burgers, and broads: The art of managing the National Press Corps" sums it up really well. Read the whole thing: http://lancemannion.typepad.com/lance_mannion/2008/06/booze-burgers-a.html (Oh, and to be fair, Lance is also hoping for an Obama win now that he's "won" the nomination.)

Several readers have objected to my fairly mundane and obvious observation in Saturday night's post that National Press Corps hates Hillary Clinton and really, really, really doesn't want her to be President and that this has helped Barack Obama shape the perception that the campaign was over before it was over because the only way Hillary could win was in a floor fight at the convention and that would tear the party apart. This led to the accusation that Clinton wanted to tear the party apart. She only cares about herself and her own ambition, the party and the nation be damned. The idea that Clinton is a monster of ego who will do anything to win has been pushed and pushed since before she announced that she would run.

The National Press Corps and the Village Insiders hate the Clintons and they cover them accordingly using the Clinton Rules of Journalism, Rule Number One of which is that anything a Clinton does is done from the basest and most suspect of motives and Rule Number Two of which is that the smallest ethical irregularity on their part or even the appearance of what can be interpreted as an ethical irregularity is proof of a serious crime that they're somehow magically covering up and Rule Number Three is that their ability to magically cover up this crime that the Press has divined is there despite the Clintons' ability to magically cover it up is further proof that the crime was committed.

This has been going on for over sixteen years now......

The Insider Media hates Clinton and that worked to Barack Obama's advantage.

I know there are lots of people who for whatever reason have to believe that Obama is going to win the nomination because he's a knight in shining armor and his strength is as the strength of ten because his heart is pure. I won't argue with you, for the same reason I could never bring myself to tell my kids there's no Santa Claus. They had to find it out for themselves because I'm an old softie.

But there are others who want to believe that he won through the sheer force of his brilliance.

And I can't deny it. He has been brilliant.

Not all the time. But enough of the time.

The difference is that I think a sign of his brilliance has been his ability to fight dirty while appearing not to be fighting dirty.

So Tom I don't feel "personally disrespected by the Democratic Party". I feel betrayed and outraged. I don't give a damn if they want my vote or not. They're not getting it.

Congratulations Democrats!!!

But just a word of warning.

Here's Lance Mannion in his post, "Booze, burgers, and broads: The art of managing the National Press Corps".

I know there are lots of people who for whatever reason have to believe that Obama is going to win the nomination because he's a knight in shining armor and his strength is as the strength of ten because his heart is pure. I won't argue with you, for the same reason I could never bring myself to tell my kids there's no Santa Claus. They had to find it out for themselves because I'm an old softie.

Ssssh....Lance, please don't let the Obamaphiles hear you blaspheming The Precious.

As for me, I'm so glad to be a registered Independent. It'll be fun to watch from the sidelines as the inept, clueless DNC thrashes their way to losing yet another election. Their circular firing squad business had already gotten way too old for me.

This time they've really pulled their biggest coup ever - they've managed to alienate 18 million Democrat voters! Wow! I used to think it took the GOP to screw people over that successfully.

So congratulations Democrats! You're on your own with your Elvis candidate and kool-aid drinking Obamabots. And seeing how well divining your way to the nomination worked it can't be too soon for you to start declaring "victory" in the General Election. Good luck with that. This time I won't be a party to any of it.

Not a racist, a "realist"

17 Million

And counting...

PUMA

The "Party Unity My Ass" un-party is born! And I'm signing up today as a member! Thank you Riverdaughter!