My PUMApology Of Sorts

Okay, where to begin?  First of all, I admit to being one of the most vocal opponents to Republican AstroTurfing of TEA Parties, townhalls and Recess Rallies against any and all things Democratic under the guise of being anti- anything Obama.  And, exposes like this Think Progress one that I came across courtesy of Edge of Forever at Not Your Sweetie, only reinforce my findings and strengthen my resolve to rail against the sneaky, fake grassroots public support tactics of the Rigid Right as vehemently and vociferously as I bitch about the same kind of Axelrovian Obaganda shenanigans from the obnoxious KoolAid ‘n’ Hopium Nation.

Be that as it may, there’s something to be said on behalf of those offended PUMAs who take exception to being labeled as merely being unduly manipulated tools of the evil right wing.  Though there is no doubt that many PUMA sites have been overly influenced by deliberate GoOPer infiltration, there’s more to the story than has as yet met the eye.

Happy AstroTurfing ObamaCare Day!

Today is AstroTurfing ObamaCare Day, didja know?  If you’re not a right wing anti-socialized medicine groupie, you probably didn’t.  If you’re just a regular old anti-socialized medicine groupie, you might just think it’s Protest Obama’s Non-Existent Health Care Plan Day, ‘cuz…well, that’s what you’re supposed to think.  Only the clued in are aware that “ObamaCare” is a Gooper dog-whistle.

In case you forgot it was coming up, or your neighborhood Fuck Health Care Reform Group neglected to send you your own personal hndy dandy “Get Out The “No” email in a timely fashion, Fox News printed a helpful announcement to remind you to do your part to further the cause of the side of your choice in The Great Dueling AstroTurf War:

If Democratic lawmakers thought all the furor over President Obama’s health care plan expressed this month at town hall meetings was dying down, they might be in for a surprise Saturday.

That’s when citizens are planning anti-”Obamacare” rallies across the country Saturday in all 435 congressional districts.

And their message is clear: We will not stand for socialized, government-controlled health care.

The same groups who made the “tax tea parties” possible in April are behind this weekend’s movement. American Liberty Alliance, FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity are working with The Sam Adams Alliance, among others, to stage the rallies.

AstroTurfing Works

The insidious danger of AstroTurfing as a political/public relations/advertising/marketing/propaganda tool lies in its seductive, yet simplistic beauty.  Once successfully planted, it has the power to take root and behave as if organic.  Artificially created out of whole cloth, if blanketed and aggressively enough tended and cultivated, it becomes sod-like and grows like wildfire.  Were this not true, Barack Obama would not be president today.

There is simply no other justification for Obamania.  Let’s face it, when our currently embattled, yet once almost universally beloved, Pretendident initially threw his hat in the ring, there was no groundswell of support.  If not for the determined efforts of his personal news network, MSNBO, and its tingly-legged staff of on-air “talent,” and partners, like Slate, the Washington Post, and The Root, (launched in January, 2008 by Henry Louis Gates) along with the repossessed former Republicans-turned-”progressive” (“reprogressives?” “fauxgressives?” lying, bought-and-paid-for Axelrovian shills?) Obama cheerleading denizens of the virtual, Sheeple-thought control compound of Sullivan’s HuffCheetoville, Outer Blogistan, Barack Obama would have been the mildly interesting also-ran his resume and accomplishments justify.  Yet, when combined with a few other timely elements of former newsman and then-current political PR hack, David Axelrod’s Machiavellian AstroTurf campaign, this 98th-ranked, inexperienced junior Senator, (D-Illinois Combine) suddenly became the darling of a racially repressed nation supposedly starved to that point for representation by a semi-competent black TelePrompter reader.

1-2-3, What’re We Fighting For?

Lately I’ve been wondering just what the PUMA movement stands for.  Are we a coalition of former Hillary Clinton supporters dedicated to holding the Democratic party accountable in an attempt to make them live up to their own principles, or, are we a pissed off group of anti-Obots sworn to oppose any and all things associated with anything and anyone He Who Cheated touches?  If we are the former, count me in; the latter, I’m out.

I am not of the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” school of thought.  Sometimes, the enemy of my enemy is my enemy too, only moreso.  That is certainly the case for me when it comes to Democrats vs. Republicans.  Just because the Democrats pissed me off royally with their thuggish, undemocratic tactics and policies, that doesn’t make me want to run out and embrace thuggish, undemocratic Republican ones.

Tea Party/Recess Plan AstroTurf designed to kill health care and all other forms of liberal/progressive reform is not attractive to me just because Obots promote Alinsky-style, “get in their face” HuffCheeto-esque tactics cut from the same cloth to pretend to promote it.  Both suck, and are only tools to contain and confuse the real issues both sides would prefer that everybody ignore.  Neither side wants to alienate the special interests dedicated to preventing real reform at any and all costs, and thus, would rather engage the voters in charades designed to obfuscate the issues by disingenuously stirring their emotions.   “Pay no attention to all the men and women behind the curtain, and we can keep screwing you to our hearts’ content,” seems to be the motto of both factions.

Obamboozlogandizing AstroTurf: 101

Obamboozlogandizing AstroTurf is the art of of spreading deodorized bullshit, aka, hopium laced KoolAid, to Sheeple, by preaching sanitized nonsense via the media and internet.  The goal is to hoodwink said Sheeple, by any means necessary, into believing that whatever claptrap being offered is the fulfillment of an as yet unarticulated dream, satisfying a wish, or need, they may or may not have any idea they had, while doing the opposite, without getting one’s hands dirty.

Of course, this technique is not exactly novel; it is simply an amalgamation of many Sheeple herding tactics from history, gathered under one umbrella, and wielded by Baracko and the Obacolytes.   Credit for the biggest block upon which this house of cards, smoke, and mirrors is built goes to Screamin’ Howie Dean, who, but for the shortsightedness of web cowboy Joe Trippi, might well be into his second term right now.  You see, Dean Trippi’s shared Achilles heel was their inability to appreciate the vital necessity of The TelePrompTer for pretenditicians seeking higher office.  Had Dr. Creeple People had a  Trusty TelePrompTer of his very own, chances are the Edvard Munch impression he did would never have happened; and, if it had, he could simply have read a heartfelt, fratboy written, cliche-filled, hackneyed speech by rote  the next day and been forgiven by all the teary-eyed bleeding hearts impressed with his Meetup fund raising innovation.

Obaganda

Propaganda is defined by Wordnet as “information that is spread for the purpose of promoting some cause.”  Sounds innocent enough, right?   However, Wikipedia gives us this definition:

Propaganda is the dissemination of information aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of people. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda in its most basic sense, often presents information primarily in order to influence its audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively (thus lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or gives loaded messages in order to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda.

About That Good Deeds and Punishment Thing

So, a few days ago, I finally decide to look into this Tea Party movement I had heard so much about, and I find out Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks, a known AstroTurfing machine, is in cahoots with some guy from Conservative Revolution, Michelle Malkin and Glenn Reynolds to promote these things as “grassroots” and make them viral.  Then, I look up “How To Organize A Tea Party Protest, which is Conservative Revolution/FreedomWorks‘ site that even lists the site owner’s (Brendan Steinhauser) email address, bsteinhauser@freedomworks.org, and Tax Day Tea Party dot com, take a look around there, find references to Don’tGo Movement, and Smart Girl Politics, along with the above-named cast of characters, and I figure, hey, PUMAs might not want to be associated with an obvious rightwing Astroturf campaign.

Silly me.

My PUMA Rant

This is a rant.

It seems that every day that the Pretendident manages to successfully navigate through without sticking his foot in his mouth, or his finger in the eye of someone, or a group of someones, worthy of PUMA respect, the resultant paucity of headlines causes the diligent bloggers of the PUMAsphere to turn introspective and compulsively begin to contemplate the future and direction of our nascent movement via our navels.  Thus, we begin to see a spate of “Where Do We Go From Here?” What Have We Accomplished So Far?” blog posts, chronicling our genesis and calling for “focus.”

Why?

Where do we go from here?  For now, we go where Barack Obama leads us.  Not like the Lapdogs of Cheetoville, or the Sheeple of Sleepy Hollow, or the lazy, compliant Mainstream Media Mafia, all of whom have proven far too susceptible to the mindfucking and astroturfing of his devious, duplicitous minions to be trusted; but, like bloodhounds, or, what we are, PUMAs, who have caught the scent of prey and refuse to be diverted from our mission.

Barack Obama did not win fairly by being a superior candidate, he won by manipulating the media’s message, using whatever means necessary.  PUMA was born to counter that by those who not only saw through his PuppetMaster’s manipulation, but were fucking outraged by it.  We were not all of a color, religion, gender, political party or single mind, and though most of us supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries, our rejection of her rival was only minimally influenced by her.   We always rejected Obama because of Obama.

Obama’s Mojo Working

Reading an Associated Press article with the headline “Americans Say Too Early To Judge Obama Performance“  it is clear that the particular brand of Obandini Davids Axelrod and Plouffe have been using to fertilize their Astroturf is working spectacularly.  The statements of people interviewed read as if Obamatrons were regurgitating pre-programmed responses implanted into their memory banks in anticipation of just such an occasion, the sort that PUMA bloggers and their readers encounter from paid Obots on a daily basis.   As we all know, sympathy for him from even those who didn’t support him enough to vote for him, followed by familiar, yet personalized, variations on the talking point themes of the day, is standard Obot procedure:

Alinsky-izing Limbaugh

The mainstream blogosphere, as opposed to the grassroots blogosphere, like the PUMAsphere, is slowly waking up to the fact that the country is being community organized through Astroturf by those promoting the “surprisinly liberal” guy who ran his campaign for the president as the person who was going to change Washington, politics and the country from the ground up.  Duh.  I keep wondering just what the heck these previously clueless KoolAid drunks, now slowly emerging from their self-induced haze, were thinking for the past two years.  Were they freaking deaf, dumb and blind?  The President Formerly Known As Barry has been spouting Alinsky and using his “get in your face“  tactics to promote his clear agenda all along.  “Change the system” is pretty unambiguous.  Why nobody thought to pin him down on exactly what that “change” entailed is beyond me.

But, now that Obrother has let the “he is who he is” cat out the bag, “moderates” and “centrists” are wailing and gnashing their teeth to powder, while walking around zombie-like, crying about how they’ve been tricked. Reading their bitching is just as funny as it would be if all of a sudden they noticed he was black.  The funny thing is, not only have they not been tricked in the way they’re now complaining about, they’re completely unaware they’re being tricked into thinking they have been.

RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)

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RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

Rules 3 and 12 of Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” are but the two most relevant to what’s happening right now with the Rush=Republican theme being pushed like a snowball deliberately kicked along down a mountainside, with predictably similar results.  With the clarity hindsight affords, we can now see that at various other points in the Obama Drama that has enveloped our day-to-day existence  since 2004, other Alinsky rules have been implemented successfully.  In fact, “Astroturfing,” though not invented by David Axelrod, is almost synonymous with “community organizing,” since both involve exploiting poor, and otherwise innocent, people through trickery.

“Community organizing” is the “art” of building a power base in order to promote the interests of the base, as the organizers see fit.  In other words, “community organizing” is not designed to provide training to people who have already united in a common cause seeking the means to implement their agenda, “community organizers” most often must convince those they claim to want to help that their help is indeed needed.  Alinky’s rules were for radicals; agitators, rabble rousers, not victims.  In fact, a case can be made that Alinsky’s radical community organizers only seek to exploit, thereby further victimizing the people they profess to help.  From Wikipedia:

Grassroots organizing builds community groups from scratch, developing new leadership where none existed and organizing the unorganized. It is a values based process where people are brought together to act in the interest of their communities and the common good. Networks of community organizations that employ this method and support local organizing groups include National People’s Action and ACORN.

“Door knocking” grassroots organizations like ACORN organize poor and working-class members recruiting members one by one in the community. Because they go door-to-door, they are able to reach beyond established organizations and the “churched” to bring together a wide range of less privileged people. ACORN, tends to stress the importance of constant action in order to maintain the commitment of a less rooted group of participants.

What “Is” Is

When Baracus Ceaser Obamacus incessantly cried, “Change!” from the rooftops via TelePrompTer in stump speech after stump speech written by the Cardboard Titty Groper at the behest of the Astroturfing PuppetMaster acting on behalf of the banksters bankrolling the hopium-fueled ObamaLove Train steamrolling into the White House, who knew he really meant restructuring the global financial landscape, huh?

The inventors of the soon-to-be patented (I’m sure) ObaSpeak have mastered the art of diversion through obfuscation that lesser politicians and wordsmiths have been practicing inartfully for millennia.  Thus, bailouts are not bailouts, and “nationalization” is not quite, exactly “nationalization,” per se.

I guess when you’re determined to “redistribute the wealth” on the downlow, you have to figure out a way to freak people out without freaking them totally out.  And, if you can come up with a way to trick them into thinking it’s their idea, so much the better.  That’s probably why the number of women in high places in the administration will always continue to be limited by design, we invented the “oh,honey, how clever,” ploy and can see right though it.  That’s why when it comes to the current global financial system restructuring going on right under the world’s nose, I sweetly call “bullshit, dear.”

I’m no economist, but I know screwing when I see it, even when I don’t know the people, or can’t identify the species of the animals involved.  And, oh, baby, oh, there’s some serious money screwing going on.

Before the banksters got together and financed the junior senator from Illinois’ meteoric rise to the top of the political trash heap, the world’s financial landscape looked very different.  Yet, in just a couple short years, the financial structure as we’ve known it has “collapsed,” almost in a curious tandem reverse/parallel tango with the seemingly unqualified and inexperienced young political phenom’s ascent.  Funny, that.

Now that there are no more large investment banks, as far as I know, news reports last year trumpeted the conversion to commercial banks of Goldman Sachs’ and JP Morgan Chase’s status as that of the last two, and the government has played favorites with which struggling banks and financial institutions to prop up, we now enter the “not really nationalizing, except we own ‘em” phase of the Bwah Ha Ha Plan.

How do we know that this is a Democratic UniParty plot, and not just a cleanup of the Bush administration mess?  Why, Harry Reid told us.  Not exactly in those words, per se; that’s not the way of ObamaCanCratSpeak.  From Politico:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he supports efforts of the federal government to dramatically expand its stake in Citigroup, but wants people to back off from the dramatic rhetoric.

“It’s not nationalization, it’s protecting the taxpayers’ interests,” Reid (D-Nev.) told MSNBC’s Morning Joe program on Monday.

“In the bailout, the TARP, that we made sure the American taxpayer had a way of getting paid back for their investments,” Reid said. “That’s what this is all about and it’s the right way to go.”

In other, normal American words, “yeah, we already own a lot of Wall Street, but, you’re getting a cut, eventually, so ixnay on the ationalization-nay, will ya?”  He forgot to mention that the 8 – 13 dollar cut you’re currently slated to get, just might be in Ameros in the near future.   Dollars will very soon be worthless, anyway, so kwitcherbitchin’.  Remember, TARP is bipartisan.

The Politico piece goes on to claim that Republicans are upset about, shhhh, nationalization, shhhh, but, didn’t that cross-party blog pioneer/ObaFluffer, Huff ‘n’ Puff, among every other news outlet on the planet, report last week that Lindsay Graham made the Sunday news show rounds planting the “we politicians can do it better” seeds in the Astroturf bs?  And, isn’t he just the cutest little Barney Frank alter ego across the aisle, hmmmmm?

Now even the Soros backed Center for American Politics‘ hatchet blog, Think Progress, is trumpeting the “if not nationalization, what?” drumbeat.  Even Republicans are beginning to see the futility of resistance. That the growing chorus of cacophony is reaching eardrum-splitting noise levels is probably just the inevitable response to the legitimate crisis of confidence currently devaluing the global economy, right?  I mean, we gotta do something, don’t we?

Sure.

So while the Spokesmodel-in-Chief dons his most comfortable Professor Man costume and publicly breaks up his lackeys into study groups, the better to memorize their approved talking points asssigned them by the Astroturfing, bankster-employed, stage manager/prducer who had them written and distributed, those who chose to remain clueless can take comfort in the fact that worldwide screwing of this magnetude has never before been attempted, so is likely not happening now.  It’s okay.  The thrill of telling you, “I toldja so,” will be just as sweet as it will be for other, less tinfoil- friendly PUMAs when the shit fully hits the fan and splatters us all.

Beware Obama Fatigue

Let’s face it, most PUMAs are sick to death of Barack Obama.  We recoil from the sight and sound of him stumbling through ghost-written, TelePrompTer read  speeches on our television screens, tens, that feel like thousands, of times a day, droning incessantly about something that only he can so successfully make seem like nothing.  And vice-versa.   However, where we once railed against the excessive exposure, shouting at our computers and TVs every time he, his name or likeness popped up in yet another puff or fluff piece of a sad excuse for a print “news” article or op-ed column, or tedious You Tube lecture, or “get your very own useless Obama trinket” commercial, we now just sigh.

We’re simply getting tired.

“Obama fatigue” was all the rage this summer after a Pew poll showed that Obaexposure had reached saturation point.  Coincidently, about a month  thereafter, the economy tanked, an event which diverted attention, and predictably, allowed the Obamachine to go into Obadrive with layers of Axelrod brand Astroturf and effectively counter all the prior negativity.  To allow this sort of signature combat maneuver to continue to go undefended is just as dangerous now as it ever was because it allows crappily written pump ‘n’ prop him up pieces of “ain’t he just the greatest thing since Mickey D’s” drivel to sneak into the public consciousness unchecked, except for rightwing Republican kneejerk “everything he does sucks” often baseless, yet predictable partisan responses, which can be easily refuted.  We PUMAs just cannot afford to be complacent without accepting at least some of the blame for his further chicanery and incompetence.

Frank Rich in the New York Times, and Pamela Gentry in the Huffington Post, both have “hush the Obama naysayers” pieces today touting the Nascent Neophyte’s “triumph” of getting the massive, unread “stimulus bill” through Congress that many economists claim won’t stimulate anything except the libidos of the crooks who porkified and passed it in the dark.  Though Rich’s piece is interminably longer than Gentry’s, both give literary raspberries to those critical of both the bill and the stumblebum method of passage.  According to these two, the mere fact that the bill was passed proves Obiteme is not only not incompetent, he’s shrewd, skillful and he’s smarter than everybody on the planet, to boot.

Of course, the fact that he still doesn’t have a Commerce or Health and Human Services Secretary, and his Treasury Secretary is a tax cheat nobody in the world has confidence in, is not mentioned by either opinionist.  Nor is the fact that Oblahblah and Associates have mounted a “lowered expectations” media campaign relative to his victorious, historic, stimulus bill, while ducking legitimate questions they don’t like.

And, just what is the great accomplishment of which they crow, anyway?  His attempt at bipartisanship was an utter failure, allowing Sen. John McCain, Sen. Lindsay Graham, and young Rep. Aaron Shock to access the airwaves all day Sunday trashing him and it, as John Boehner did on the floor of the House.  In fact, the net effect of the reality of Obama’s support for the bill is that more Democrats voted against it (7 in the House) than Republicans voted for it (3 in the Senate).

The main reason such cheerleading must be countered is that if it is not, the Obama “brand” becomes further entrenched in the American psyche without challenge, which is as fraught with danger as allowing Peanut Corp. to continue selling its products without reporting the salmonella outbreak.  If nobody raises a stink, people will keep right on buying Jiff because they like Mr. Peanut, regardless of the fact that he represents another company.

Kevin Price of BizPlusBlog, someone I know nothing about, underscores my point that the vast majority of Bicardi ‘n’ KoolAid drinkers know next to nothing about politics, and are those deliberately targeted by the Obama campaign, being overly susceptible to “branding.”  Price argues that Obamacamp’s manipulation of  the “gotta do someting, anything’s better than doing nothing, or we’re all gonna die”  or, “the ship is sinking, hurry up and jump aboard!” theme was directed at these folks:

There are two basic views of government. One sees the best government doing as little as possible and being focused on protecting individuals from other individuals and our country from foreign adversaries. The opposite extreme is that government should play a pervasive role in every aspect of our lives and that it should be the primary driver of our economy and society. The vast majority who have an opinion fall some where in between. Far more than those with an actual opinion have no real view at all. Those people are my concern here.

This uniformed majority are the same people who are driving Barack Obama’s extremely high approval ratings. They don’t really know what they are doing, or what they believe, they are merely very sincere. They think some action is, at least, action. But the actions of this administration will take generations to pay off and they promise to make things far worse than better.

Here’s the rub, most PUMAs are not political science majors, either.  We’re simply politically aware bullshit detectors.  The danger we face is that, like most fertilizers, the odor of Obandini can become tolerable with enough constant exposure.  That’s bad enough, but when the super slick fertilizer salesman touts the benefits of using his new chocolate flavored product on store bought vegetables, and even as an ice cream topping, some gullible folks can be persuaded to forget they’re swallowing bullshit whole.  Unfortunately for the rest of us, there are so many more of them.  And they’re more than willing to let the government promote the notion that fecalized fast food is nutritious and delicious while they sell it to us and our children by the pound.

We PUMAs just don’t have the luxury of Obama fatigue.

Axelrod Astroturfing Hughes House Plants?

Color me skeptical:

We all know David Axelrod, Puppet President Black Obama’s ventriloquist, knows how to plant Astroturf to create the illusion of grassroots support where there is none, as well as he knows how to cover it with bullshit to make it appear to grow.  Could he have had a hand in the “Obie Does Oprah Queen for a Day Goes to Florida” heart tugging, tear jerking, shmaltz-a-thon we saw earlier this week?

Does a bear shit anywhere it wants to?

On Tuesday, February 10, the Obamessiah took his “Greatest Hits of the Stimulus Package” show on the road to Fort Myers, Florida, after a brief stop in Elkhart, Indiana the day before, where he pledged to get those good folks back to work building gas-guzzling recreational vehicles nobody can afford just as soon as those sticklers for fiscal responsibility on both sides of the aisle in Washington get tired enough of having their arms twisted and get used to the wool over their eyes enough to help him bamboozle the Republic in peace, or at least be quiet about it.  In Florida, the Spokesmodel in Chief tried out his Monty Monte game show host chops, encouraging people to “come on down” and share their pain for a shot at the big wheel.  Going “boy, girl, boy, girl” through the handpicked crowd of pre-screened contestants (bypassing the too obviously delusional love-struck looneys, one of whom was unfortunately caught on camera during the scripted, pain-sharing portion) Obamboozle finally alighted upon a “young lady” who’d been patiently trying to get his attention like, for-ev-er, almost as long as the hyped up enthusiastic meth-head McDonald’s worker “boy” chosen after her.  The time, 12:57 Eastern.

In a stroke of happenstance too coincidental to be a coincidence, approximately 45 minutes later, Henrietta Hughes Had a Website, soon to be two, on her way to a total of five.*  Not long thereafter Henrietta Had a Home.

It seems Henrietta has had other homes, in fact, there are those who say she still has a home in her 37 year old unemployed son Corey’s name.  Due to a thyroid condition (Corey) and bouts with breast cancer, (Henrietta) the college educated mother and son have been unable to work, or afford $400 a month housing, being instead forced to live in their pick-up truck without a backseat, that no one has as yet seen and photographed.

Could this all be true?  Sure, this is America, at a time when we face huge economic pitfalls as a nation that threaten to put us all in a communal poorhouse unless a strong leader with a steady hand takes the reins and leads us confidently and competently to financial security.

We’re doomed!  Head for the hills! Run for your lives! Help! Help! Help!

(slapping self with cold water)

However, given what we know about the sneaky, underhanded way Axelrod and his ASK Public Strategies is paid to operate, the complete lack of scruples exhibited repeatedly by Team Obama, and the by now predictable modus operandi of the meticulously produced and stage-managed Obamadini Traveling Light and Magic Show, Henrietta Hughes is most likely a potted Astroturf plant.

And, for those who say, “poor woman, she has problems, how can you doubt her story?” I say, shut up, wake up, and stop being a KoolAid drinking, self-blindfolded, delusionazoid.  Henrietta Hughes and her son could very well be just as bad off as they claim to be, or they could be system-gaming petty crooks, and still be tools of the Obamachine.  You can exploit the truth just as easily as you can exploit a lie.  The point is not, is her story true, the question is, how’d she just happen to find a way to the front of the line to tell it?

Where was her son?

Where was the truck?

Where’d she get the dress, and where’d she shower, do her hair and makeup and put it on?

It’s really nice that the spirit of bipartisan, post-racial American charity is so strong that a white Republican woman can give a home to black, presumably Democratic woman who couldn’t vote because her car doesn’t have an address, even though her son does, just because that black woman had the pluck and grit to stand in line for a chance to ask the President of the United States for help.

It’s nice, but I ain’t buyin’ it.

*The link in the Canada Free Press article to Henrietta Hughes.org links to Hemrietta Hughes.com, even if you type it into the address line yourself.  Which could mean that there are only a total of four Henrietta Hughes websites, but it would still be curious.  Also, the CFP piece does not list the other 3 sites by name, but does provide owner info at the end.

The Genius of Obama’s Magic Donor List

You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about how and why Black Obama was shoved down America’s throats and all the attendant events surrounding the Obamenom of the Obamanationization of Omerica.  I think of how he came out of nowhere with money grown on trees dripping out of his ass, beloved of all though none had yet met him, and I go, “Huh?  What the fuck is up with that?”  Then I marvel at how fortunate he is to appear black on the anniversary of so many noteworthy events in black history that might otherwise have gone unnoticed, like the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech.  There’s not much doubt that were it not for the monumentousness of the historic nature of a having a candidate who appears to be black run for president, that one might have come and gone without proper deference being paid.  I mean, in normal, non-monumentally historically natured times, who the hell makes a big deal about a 45th anniversary?  So, right there, you have a reason to be thankful that there is Obama.

Then, there’s the inescapable fact that without the awe-inspiring presence of the Inspirer of Awe, black Americans like me might have continued to go about our business blissfully unaware of our longing for our collective, unspoken need to validate ourselves be fulfilled by installing a man who appears to be black in the Oval Office.  Without the Obamessiah deigning to play Joshua to Dr. King’s Moses, black Americans might still be inclined to lobby and petition the government for things previously denied, but now obviously guaranteed them, like, jobs, education opportunities, access to health care services and equal treatment under the law.  Thank God we don’t have to worry about stuff like that anymore.

Yet, the most wondrous of things to behold is the sheer genius, nay intellectual artistry, employed by the architects and engineers of Obamania.  A political campaign propelled by a new media source whose birth, growth and development mirrors the candidate, now president’s own, how lucky is that?  A campaign designed by a man as notorious for his ability to create faux grassroots support on his clients’ behalf, creating the illusion that the poison they spew is desired by teeming hordes of consumers, as he is for getting black guys elected, meets a candidate who appears to be black and whose past, failed attempts at community organizing can be exploited as a dedication to grassroots organization, are you kidding me?  Match made in Heaven my ass!  This…is…Kismet!

And, in the ultimate stroke of genius, corporate sponsors desperate for up close and personal access to power to buttress their inflated sense of self importance can be recruited as co-conspirators in this win-win good-for-everybody exercise in democracy at work by encouraging them to subvert the campaign donor laws while contributing massive amounts of cash necessary to promote the wondrous goodness of He Who Would Come To Be Known As The One to the huddled masses yearning to be seen as tolerant of black people.   By breaking up the obscene amounts of money being funneled into the campaign by corporate entities into individual employee donations, the campaign Astroturfer can not only grow the campaign donor list, he can inform the conveniently nascent alternative media sources of the wonders of perpetuating the small donor myth now afforded him by the swelled numbers of individual contributors.  In addition, the black man manipulating Astroturfer now possesses an alternate, invaluable tool for indoctrinating the gullible, since the real campaign donation sources include individual  mainstream media information disseminators among other purveyors of influence.  Thus, at any time, thousands of media and other influential employees of institutions of higher learning, government, and finance, can be directly contacted at a moment’s notice and given information, talking points and marching orders straight from the Astroturfer’s mouth.

Direct access to the validation seeking black Americans and their fellow hopeless country-men and -women desperate for change via the Bullies of the Blogosphere and the Mainstream Media Maniacs by way of the White House in 1 easy step through the courtesy of Corporate America.  Thousands of employees of Citigroup, JP Morgan, Pepsi, Time Warner, MTV, BET, Dreamworks, Microsoft, Stanford, Columbia, etc., along with the other “small donors” on the list, now get to hear straight from the Astroturfing man with the office next door to the president any time he feels like telling them something.  Now we know why Obama 2.0 wants us all to have stimulus package house parties.

Combine that with daily talking point exchanges between the White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel and two of CNN”s “Democratic strategists,” Paul Begala and James Carville, and you’ve got the country on information lockdown.

Gotta love that.

Now if I could just figure out who hired the Astroturfer in the first place…

Axelrod, Jarrett Subpoenaed?

Nope.  Though some folks would have you believe that, President Black Obama’s closest aides were not subpoenaed; the Cabbage Patch Weeble, impeached Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s records regarding any conversations, papers, etc., he had concerning the Dynamic Duo were, on December 8.  The next day, Blags was arrested, according to the media for trying to sell the only clean politician in Illinois state’s history’s curiously vacated Senate seat, the one that home girl Valerie Jarrett didn’t want, anyway, no matter what newly appointed White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said.  Then, Pope President  proclaimed Blagojevich guilty and his buddies not, and passed sentence that Hot Rod should save the state time and money and take the “Frankie Five Angels” option and kill himself, politically speaking, and resign.  Blago said, “Fuck you, and the unicorn you rode in on, Bozo Bitch.”  Blaggy probably took that position because, even though a lot of his troubles arise from his relationship with Antonin Rezko, the slumlord never helped him buy a house or housing project.

Back to the subpoenas.  U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who first pronounced judgment on Blagojevich in the press conference announcing his arrest, by matter-of-factly stating that he had Blags arrested to stop a criminal from committing worse crimes, obviously didn’t have enough to indict the obviously guilty Cabbage Patch Weeble, because he didn’t.  He issued a 78 page complaint, arrested the guy, let him go on paltry bail, then asked for a 90 day extension to make his case, even with all the subpoenas,  wiretapped conversations and new witnesses.  However, once St. Pat got the hot little Axelfuck/Slumlady docs in his hand, and listened to the tapes, he hauled Jarrett, her buddy Rahm Emanuel, and her boss, Mr. Clean in for questioning, even though His Holiness had by now, officially cleared himself and annointed his staff with holy water.

By this point, the Axelrove Astroturfing was in full swing, with the press not only convicting Blago, but aiding and abetting the Illinois Congress in trying to kick him out of office on any number of grounds, most notably his demonstrable madness, caused by his Bob Big Boy hair growing inward as thickly as it does outwardly.  Cabbage Patch said, “Suck my nuts, you ninnies, I ain’t going nowhere,” and appointed Roland Burris to Obuhbuh’s curiously vacated Senate seat to prove it.  Once the Astroturf Army picked their jaws up off the floor, they used them to flap incessantly that Blag’s “audacity” proved his insanity as surely as Obuyme’s proved his divinity.  It was on.

Since then, Blagojevich has prevailed, primarily because the political machinations of the media-enabled U.S. show government had no legal authority that would trump a sitting governor, so, we now move to the next phase, where the media-enabled political machinations of the Illinois show government rule.  While CPW (Cabbage Patch Weeble) mounts his own media blitz protesting his kangaroo court “hanging” (he couldn’t use “lynching“, he’s white) the pissed off pols in the Land of Lincoln gleefully admit that they have the power to remove him from office based on unproven allegations against him  because they’re not a court of law, but a Clinton impeachment-inspired political process (kangaroo court.)

But lawmakers quickly defended the process of a Democratic legislature ousting a two-term Democratic governor, noting Blagojevich’s complaints were an attempt to confuse the public by injecting criminal trial rights into an impeachment process that is purely political.

All the while, the ‘Turfers “report” the “important” facts against CPW, like the fact that his protestations “prove” his desperation, implying guilt, even though, any fool could see that anyone similarly ostracized and castigated, guilty or innocent, would likely run screaming, “Hey, listen to my side, you sanctimonious pricks!” to anybody who would listen.  It’s not like lynch mobs are always right:

While Illinois history provides little guide to a Senate trial and conviction of a governor, the last impeachment in the nation’s history—the 1988 conviction and removal of controversial Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham—illustrates some things that could happen.

Mecham unsuccessfully fought to delay his impeachment trial until after his federal trial on corruption charges. Though he was removed from office, the Arizona Senate failed to muster the votes necessary to give Mecham the political death penalty and Mecham, who was acquitted of the corruption counts, lost races for governor in 1990 and U.S. senator two years later.

*UPDATE: According to the Chicago Tribune, Blagojevich had some intriguing things to say in his 2-part NBC interview with Amy Robach.  While most news outlets are focusing on Blago’s statements regarding his reflections upon Ghandi, Dr. King, and Mandela, it seems the transcript reveals he made other statements worthy of note:

Maintaining his innocence in his interview with NBC, portions of which were aired Sunday and others to be aired Monday, Blagojevich said that upon his Dec. 9 arrest at his Northwest Side home, “I thought about Mandela, Dr. King, Gandhi and trying to put some perspective in all of this.”

At the same time, Blagojevich said “some national figures like Harry Reid,” the U.S. Senate majority leader from Nevada, “are frankly covering their own backside” by asking him to step down because of their discussions with him over the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama. Blagojevich is accused of trying to peddle the seat for an Obama administration post, a high-paying job or other favors.

“And for me to just quit because some cackling politicians want to get me out of the way because there’s a whole bunch of things they don’t want known about them and conversations they may have had with me ….. would be to disgrace my children when I know I’ve done nothing wrong,” Blagojevich said in a transcript of the interview.

UPDATE II: John Kass of the Chicago Tribune has more here about the real reason for Blago’s lawyer, Ed Genson’s bailing out, among other things.

Paparazzi President’s Press Pimping

Like it’s been some big, huge secret up to now, the press is starting to admit just how much they’re being pimped by the perpetual campaign machine of the soon-to-be-inaugurated-get-it-over-with-already as the Very Most Historically Historic First Black President Ever, Barack (the Obamessiah) Obama.  They’ve even coined a couple of words for the new phenomenon, “polebrity” and “celebritician.”  Oh, yeah, we be big pimped.

Claiming that the Obamessiah tires of the adulation, (like anybody’s seen any evidence of that) the Telegraph, reporting from Washington, D.C., puts the onus for the “new” media management strategy on those anonymous information leakers, “Democratic strategists.”  Guess these British guys never heard of David Axelrove and “Astro(turf rat)fucking:”

But Democratic strategists say his aides have seen an opportunity in the insatiable appetite of the public for information on the new first family.

They plan to use Mr Obama’s status as the world’s leading “Celebritician” or “Polebrity”, offering pictures of the Obama family and soft focus interviews with glossy magazines to maintain his popularity and help sell his political plans directly to middle America, starting with his plans for a trillion dollar stimulus plan to kickstart the economy.

Using his celebrity to appeal to the public over the heads of his opponents in Congress is just one way Mr Obama hopes to change politics in Washington. He is also planning to mobilise his vast network of supporters, and the database of 13 million email addresses he gathered during the campaign, to build pressure on Senators and Congressmen to push through his ambitious agenda.

Now the “news” that the president-elect got to be the president-elect by pimping the “news” media is being pimped by the president-elect in the “news” media.  Gotta love it.  The story goes on to tell us that after Obama’s Secret Service detail helped set up the Buff Barack Beefcake pictures in Hawaii, the jig was up, the cat was out the bag, the flimsy cover was blown:

After pictures of Mr Obama shirtless on a Hawaiian beach over Christmas made headlines around the world, paparazzi firms set up shop in Washington. They predict that a photograph of Mr Obama smoking (a habit he has vowed to quit) would fetch up to $100,000.

Gary Morgan, a British journalist who runs Los Angeles-based Splash News, one of the largest paparazzi agencies in the world, says Mr Obama’s Secret Service men assisted his photographers in getting pictures of the President-Elect on the beach.

He said: “Obama is the paparazzi president. The Secret Service was very cool with us. They knew what we wanted to do. They told us if we stuck to certain areas, we would be fine. They got to know who we were and it was very pleasurable working with them.”

Mr Morgan said Mr Obama has a “canny media team” who are “going to take full advantage of using people like us as well to get the message out.

Yeah, that “canny media team” has gotten him elected in every campaign he’s run since 2004.  A scorched earth, “by any means necessary,” news manipulating, fake support manufacturing dream factory without scruples will do that for just about any “celebritician” willing to pimp any bitch lacking the self-esteem to resist giving him the profits from selling herself cheap.  Why should the mainstream media tabloid paparazzi press be any different?

The American public isn’t, a fact the Axelfucking Obama campaign/transition/administration team is banking on and currently pushing in every former- and current-ly major news outlet from the Washington Post to You Tube.  In fact, President You Tube is the feature photo in the Chris Cizilla’s WaPo article bending over for the Holy Black One:

President-elect Barack Obama announced the formation of a new group known as “Organizing for America” that aims to continue the grassroots advocacy that the former Illinois Senator began in his presidential campaign.

“As President, I will need the help of all Americans to meet the challenges that lie ahead,” Obama said in a video message e-mailed to supporters (and reporters) this morning. “That’s why I’m asking people like you who fought for change during the campaign to continue fighting for change in your communities.”

The new group will be the flagship of “Obama 2.0″ as many people have taken to calling the transformation of the political organization created during the 2008 campaign.

The new group will work within the Democratic National Committee — led by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine — to advance the Obama agenda. “President-elect Obama has laid the foundation to meet the great challenges facing our nation, but we can succeed only if we build grassroots support for the administration’s agenda,” said Kaine in a release announcing the formation of Organizing for America.

That WaPo would see no possible problem or conflict in this unholy alliance is not surprising, since Brother Love dropped by their pad to grease them up as they dropped to their conveniently padded knees before he sent them out to trick on his behalf.  If you’re the priest doing the altar boy, you probably don’t see much wrong with the Scout leader picking him up for a long weekend.  The New York Times, who didn’t get kissed by Big Daddy, has a round-up of slightly less favorable, but not really contentious, reports.  You never know, IceBark Slim might decide to show them some love after all.

And don’t expect the full-court press pimping to lessen any time soon.  In fact, I can almost guarantee it will soon intensify to unfathomable degree, with David Axelrove not only moving into the White House to sleep between his puppet and his mate, but giving up his day job to do it.  According to Marc Ambinder:

First, David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, will give up an equity stake in his consulting firm,  AKPD, Inc., (The K stands for John Kupper, the P stands for David Plouffe, the D stands for John Del Cecato.)   Plouffe will be a senior adviser to the firm. And Larry Grisolano, a.k.a “Gris,”  a long-time Democratic consultant and an early Obama aide, will join the firm as a partner.  Grisolano managed the campaign’s targeting efforts and paid media expenditures; Del Cecato wrote, directed and produced many of its ads. I forget what Plouffe did, exactly, but his name sounds familiar.

Ha, ha, Marc.  You know as well as I do who David Plouffe is.  I believe his official title is “fluffer.”

Oh, and I found this interesting.

Spokesmodel-In-Chief Of The UniParty

Government of the people by popular demand.  Tough decision facing the country?  Take a poll, do a focus group, flip a coin, make a committee-written, TelePrompTer-read  speech.  That’s just the way things work today.  What does the public want?  What do the people need?  Who cares?  Decide what you’re going to give them, then send out your bright, buff spokesmodel with the pretty teeth to visit the press and sit on their laps and wiggle while he whispers your sweet nothings in their ears.  He gets paid, the media gets laid and the people get screwed.  We are a reality show, and we voted for the Survivor spokesmodel who “outwitted,” “outplayed,” and “outlasted”.  Just the way the UniParty who hired him wants it.

Barack Obama seems determined to Obama-fy the Democratic party, a fact which seems to confound those on the left who seem surprised by it, and delight those on the right relieved that he seems to be committed to his campaign promises of it.

At his rallies, Obama tells a joke he’s been telling since before Iowa, about voters who whisper to them that they are Republicans but they support him.

“Thank you,” he whispers back. “Why are we whispering?”

Republicans for Obama, Democrat for a Day, Obamacans; right-wing policy disguised as “bi-partisan,” outright co-option of conservative principles, courting Republican endorsements, all of these things have been integral elements of Barack Obama’s campaign since the beginning.  That he would embrace Colin Powell early on, support FISA and all his other “flip flops” should be enough to convince even the most delusional liberal, progressive Obamanut that he’s just not that into you.  Yet, so many otherwise rational people continue to promote that which obviously isn’t as if it not only could be, but already is.

How much of this irrational, illogical headlong, head-first smash through the looking glass is due to the media manipulation of the Astroturf King, David Axelrod is hard to say.  We can be sure that just about anything we read in the mainstream media, especially the Chicago Tribune, besides John Kass, or see on cable, especially MSNBC, is Astroturf, and though it would be  difficult to prove in a court of law, that Axelrod has undue influence in the blogosphere is beyond reasonable doubt.  Whether he simply employs bloggers to infiltrate and sock-puppet websites resistant to the charms of his puppet president to death with straw man arguments and Xeroxed talking points; creates faux sites promoting the Obamessiah’s mythical messianic qualities; or pays off the Blogger Boyz whose biz depends on boastful, swaggering pretense to political prowess and power, Axelrod is a formidable string-pulling shadow force, combining the “best” of his patented Astrotufing techniques with Republican “ratfucking” to Astro- or Assle-fuck the internet into submission to his will.  And there’s no reason to assume that his activities are limited to Democratic venues.

The result is unprecedented media manipulation, with entire news networks, venerable newspapers, and upstart Netroots, having myriad, and often conflicting agendas, working together to worship at the feet, suck at the teat, lick on the boots, and plant lips upon the ass of a man whose greatest talent is reading in public and smiling for the camera.

A spokesmodel.

As we head to the biggest, baddest, bashiest of inaugural bashes ever in the history of the known world, 5 x more expensive than the entire Democratic party has cash on hand, the least experienced, most ill-equipped and -prepared man to ever take the country’s reins embarks on a marketing and  media blitz that puts Beyonce and J-Lo to shame.  He makes no secret of his intentions, either, and nobody cares one whit.  He’s a symbol, like Prince.  But, unlike Prince, who claimed to be a symbol of slavery to a record company, Obama is a symbol of America’s celebration of it’s reluctant release of it’s slaves.  Having released it’s symbolic grip on the symbolic throats, and it’s symbolic boots from the symbolic asses of it’s real African American citizens, Barack Obama represents all the “change” America could “hope” for in the fulfillment of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream.  How considerate of Dr. King to struggle and triumph over oppression before giving his life, so that we may all celebrate his birth the day before his dream’s heir takes his rightful official place as his successor.

Parrrtaay!

In 1967, at Stanford University, Dr. King made a speech about the “other America,” a poorer, forgotten nation in stark contrast to the image of the privileged, preferred, yet limited reality, suffering in it’s shadow, comprised not only of blacks.  From the Black Agenda Report:

Many people of various backgrounds live in this other America. Some are Mexican-Americans, some are Puerto Ricans, some are Indians, some happen to be from other groups. Millions of them are Appalachian whites. But probably the largest group in this other America in proportion to its size in the population is the American Negro.

Dr. King’s point in this speech seems to me to have been that though it’s relatively easy to slap a pretty BandAid on a festering wound, the result of doing so without properly treating it first can be devastating, if not deadly.  Dr. King’s prescience has not gone unheeded, it has been exploited and corrupted.  For, while our soon-to-be President Obama actively promotes a “one America” concept, it is not that of an America that incorporates Dr. King’s “other” America, but subsumes it by ignoring it’s existence.  To celebrate Barack Obama’s election as though the wound has been healed is to celebrate illusion as accomplishment.

The man who smiles for the camera as he insists America is 90% of the way to racial equality while he opens the door to privatizing “entitlements” and advocates on behalf of a tax cheat, does so as the front person of a political party neither fish nor fowl.  As he said during his 2004 Democratic National Convention coming out speech:

Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes. Well, I say to them tonight, there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America — there’s the United States of America. There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America. The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

One America, one party, one leader.

Spokesmodel for the UniParty.

Obamacanacrats.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Obama Pimps The Press

First he takes them to dinner, then, he drops by for a visit.  Then, it’ll be time for his “bitches” to pay.  In the midst of his pre-inauguration David Axelrod designed, Astroturf manure-spreading press push, President-elect Barack Obama made nice with the gushing, quivering, sycophantic pseudo-journalists of the Washington Post, who have already publicly admitted their unprofessional love.  According to reports, legs were appropriately set a-tingling, considering their integrity-deficient kinship with their inordinately helpful brother in shlock.  Anyway, the unseemly hoopla was duly recorded by the diligent WaPo “journalists,” like Chris Cizilla:

President-elect Barack Obama has arrived at the Washington Post for an interview with the editorial board and White House team — including The Fix!

WaPo later reported on New York Times reporter Helene Cooper’s pool report, as did Politico’s Michael Calderone.  Got that?

After three and a half hours at his transition office, PEOTUS obama took another 6 minute ride through washington, arriving at 157 pm at the nondescript soviet-style building at 15th and L street that houses the washington post.

Around 100 people–Post reporters perhaps?–awaited PEOTUS’s arrival, cheering and bobbing their coffee cups.

Pool is holding in a van outside, while Mr obama does his washington post interview, and will exercise enormous restraint by ending report before saying what really thinks about this turn of events.

Helene Cooper
The New York Times

Calderone speculates that Cooper’s snarkiness is a result of the Times’ petulance at not yet getting a traditional pre-inaugural interview.  WaPo’s David Nakamura also relates the euphoria attendant to the Obamessiah’s descent among the unworthy:

Barack Obama visited the Washington Post to meet the editorial board and national staff, but his tour of the 5th floor newsroom nearly stopped the presses.

Staff writers, photographers, editors and employees from other departments lined the hallway after word spread that the President-elect would be walking through the newroom.

At about 3:15 p.m., Obama entered through a back hallway and began shaking hands, as professional newsmen and women reached over to shake his hand and take pictures. Obama was trailed by advisor David Axelrod, assistant Reggie Love, Post Chairman Donald Graham, Publisher Katharine Weymouth and Editor Marcus Brauchli.

Calderone further chronicles the resultant media hysteria, and the expressions of mock outrage issued by indignant WaPo staffers disputing the “cheering loonies” (my take) characterization…

“There’s no reason to think there were any reporters cheering,” said a Washington Post spokesperson, adding that there are “a lot of people who work in the Post building who don’t work in the Post newsroom.” Of course, those cheering could also have been bystanders gathered outside.

…but Ed Driscoll’s site provides a quote from the same WaPo broken link to a Howard Kurtz article Politico and the Post provided:

Camera phones flashed as Obama, trailed by Post Co. chief executive Donald Graham, began his stroll around the fifth-floor newsroom’s perimeter, shaking hands and greeting nearly 200 staffers.

Inside, as Obama finally came full circle around the warren of offices and cubicles, he declared: “All right, back to work!” And he had correctly analyzed the situation: All work in The Post newsroom had stopped.

Driscoll also left us a reminder of another example of Obama Porn (obscenely obsessive ObamaLove) from the primaries, featured in the following video.  When will somebody tell this guy there’s more to being president than spokesmodeling?  Then again, maybe there isn’t.

Selling Screw You Sheeple Snake Oil

Thus reads the true job description of astroturfing Democratic strategist/ventriloquist David Axelrod and his peevish puppet/dummy/Teflon TelePrompTer reading actor who plays president-elect on TV, Barack Obama.  Regarding the unpopular choice of anti-gay pastor Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation, Axelbama simply reiterates their oft repeated “reach out to enemies you disagree with…blah, blah, blah” disingenuous load of hooey disguised as placating mantra for those easily distracted by gaudy headlines over fine print.  Anyone with half a brain can see through such nonsense, while most of us are forced to work with people we dislike, primarily because we disagree with everything they stand for, at one time or another, most of us have the good sense not to invite them to our house parties.  Nor do we seek such people out to collaborate with on pet projects; in fact, we will often bribe co-workers to switch places with us if such situations are assigned.

Yet Axelbama happily spouts this happy crappy any time someone questions the wisdom of spitting in the face of one’s base this way.  Politico reports on Axelfraud doing just that this morning on Meet the Press:

Top Obama adviser David Axelrod strongly defended the selection of evangelical pastor Rick Warren to deliver the opening prayer at the inauguration, telling moderator David Gregory on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the nation needs to get beyond “shaking our fists” across a political divide.

The selection of Warren, a Californian whose “The Purpose Driven Life” has sold 20 million copies, prompted a fierce backlash from some of Obama’s liberal supporters — especially gay activists, who were miffed at Warren’s support for the Golden State proposition outlawing same-sex marriage, which passed in November.

“You have a conservative evangelical pastor who’s coming to participate in the inauguration of a progressive president,” Axelrod said from Chicago. “This is a healthy thing and a good thing for our country. We have to find ways to work together on the things on which we do agree, even when we profoundly disagree on other things.”

First of all, what does Warren working with Obama in this situation accomplish?  What does the country gain?  It’s hard to see where such an imposition of the President-in-Training Wheels’ will nets him much more of an advantage than drawing arbitrary lines in the sand.  Flexing one’s muscles simply for the sake of having teenage girls admire them is juvenile behavior beneath the dignity of the office the Obamessiah deigns to lower Himself to.  Unless of course, the whole point is to establish just who’s in charge, which begs the question, just who’s in doubt about that?

Everybody In Chicago Wants To Talk…Later

Rod Blagojevich, the Illinois governor accused of trying to sell the Senate seat president-elect Barack Obama curiously vacated in record time, is “dying to talk,” according to Politico:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich spoke with reporters for several minutes before taking a jog in snowy Chicago, telling them to “hang loose” to hear his side of the story.

“I can’t wait to begin to tell my side of story, to address you guys and most important, the people of Illinois,” Blagojevich said. “That’s who I am dying to talk to.”

Also, according to Politico, Obama himself is “frustrated” that he can’t talk:

President-elect Barack Obama said he’s anxious to “correct immediately” some media reports on transition team contacts with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, but would hold off until next week as promised to federal authorities.

“It’s a little bit frustrating,” Obama said Wednesday at a Chicago news conference. “There’s been a lot of speculation in the press that I would love to correct immediately. We are abiding by the request of the U.S. attorney’s office, but it’s not going to be that long. By next week, you guys will have the answers to all your questions.”

In the same article, Obama’s ventriloquist, David (Astroturf King) Axelrod, railed against being “hamstrung” by the Fed’s request to zip it where the internal investigation report is concerned:

“Nobody is more eager than we are to be able to release that,” Axelrod, a senior Obama adviser, said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And when you see it, it will corroborate what the president-elect has said, which is that he never spoke with the governor or any of his aides about this, and that there were no inappropriate discussions between members of his staff and the governor’s office in this matter.”

So, a couple of things jump out at me.  One, who says bribery and collusion, etc. are crimes that can only be committed among friends?  How close do you have to be to buy and sell anything?  I’ve never bought a car from a guy I had breakfast with the morning after.  Just saying.  Two, while Axelrove is vouching for everybody on Obie’s staff, (does that include Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Rahm Emanuel’s conversations with Team Baggo before Nov. 6, when he was officially announced as Chief of Staff?  Just asking.) who’s gonna vouch for Davey?  He has a long history with the Chicago Tribune…

At the age of 27, Axelrod became the City Hall Bureau Chief and a political columnist for the Chicago Tribune. He worked at the Tribune for eight years, covering national, state and local politics.

…which was also named in the Baggo complaint, and rumor has it, he’s planted some powerful political astroturf there.

Whatever Happened To Patti Solis Doyle?

With the recent news that former Obama “monster-calling-the-kettle-monster,” Samantha Power, has re-upped (now that a suitable amount of time has passed since her “resignation“) as one of 14 members of the  Agency Review “team-within-a-team” for the State Department transition, another “where are they now?” question comes to mind.  Where’s Patti Solis Doyle?  Given that the two women (Doyle and Power) have both been hostile to Hillary Clinton, putting Power in a position to influence Clinton’s appointment as Secretary of State is as much a slap in the face as was Solis-Doyle’s June addition to Team O, ostensibly as chief of staff to the then “as yet to be named” vice-president.  Now that Jo(k)e Biden has “as yet been named,” and elected vice-president, and has appointed Ronald Klain as his chief of staff, where’s Doyle?  And what was the purpose of hiring her for any position in the first place?

Solis-Doyle, was allowed to step down (shitcanned) as Clinton campaign manager in February, and was replaced by Maggie Williams, who served as chief of staff to First Lady Clinton, and had recently joined the team.  It was said at the time that Doyle’s “resignation” was primarily due to “family considerations,” not hurt feelings because of the addition of Williams to the staff, or Doyle’s soap opera watching incompetence in the face of a string of caucus losses which derailed Clinton’s air of “inevitability.”  However, make no mistake, she was canned.  So, why would Obama reward such incompetence with an obviously meaningless, mythical job?  Was it really just the big “eff yew and your veep hopes” many Clinton supporters took it to be? On Nov. 10, AP’s Beth Fouhy reported that Obama had offered Solis-Doyle a cabinet related position she was supposed to be mulling:

Democratic officials say President-elect Obama’s transition aides have approached Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s former campaign manager about taking a senior White House post.

These officials say Patti Solis Doyle is considering taking the job, although she worries about the effect it would have on her two young children. She was contacted about possibly becoming Cabinet secretary, a job that involves coordinating the efforts of the White House and cabinet-level agencies.

That’s the last word I could find on Solis Doyle’s whereabouts.  But it makes you wonder, was Obama merely paying a political debt to an ally’s family member, as MSNBC reported he said in June?

“Patti Solis Doyle I think is a terrific experienced campaign hand. She’s from Chicago. Her brother and I organized on the southeast side of Chicago when I first moved to Chicago as a community organizer, so I’ve known the family for a very long time. I think that she will bring not only a set of skills that we’re gonna need as we put our ticket together but shes going to be a terrific adviser and offer insight and judgment that will help us.”

It should be noted that due to Doyle’s longtime association with Obama campaign manager David Axelrod, as well as her Chicago family connections, her name was being bandied about by the Obama camp in mid-May, according to Politico:

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s former campaign manager and confidante, Patti Solis Doyle, and Sen. Barack Obama’s top adviser have informally discussed the former Clintonite’s going to work for the Obama campaign in the general election.

So, was Obama just clueless or cunning? Or, both?  Was Solis-Doyle a mole planted in Camp Clinton by Obama/Axelrod?  Or is she just a walking screwup-waiting-to-happen, turning everything she touches to crap?  That prospect makes knowing where she might pop up pretty relevant.  Then again, maybe Obama is just a lying manipulator, releasing Axelrod-inspired, Astroturf press releases designed to play the public.  A strong case could be made along those lines since “hiring” Solis Doyle put a female with a Hispanic surname on his roster, and Power always believed she would end up in his cabinet.  Speaking at Columbia University in March, Power said:

And, to the delight of many in the crowd, she even hinted that she could be part of that hypothetical cabinet. “Because of the kind of campaign that Senator Obama has run,” Power said, “it seemed appropriate for someone of my Irish temper to step aside, at least for a while. We will see what happens there.”

Considering that with her views on Israel, Power is considered worthy of State Department related rehire by The Most Awesomest President-elect Ev-er, and that Solis Doyle was given a job to nowhere for unfathomable reasons, it kinda makes Barack Obama’s “judgment to lead” a wee bit suspect, doncha think?  And it makes the prospect of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State seem like a deliberately laid rug about to be yanked just for the Camp Obama fun of it.

Roasting Rahm Emanuel

Here’s a little example of the interesting things you can find on a slow news day.  Today’s subject, Rahm Emanuel.  Most PUMAs are familiar with his bio, his reputation, and his Democratic Leadership Council, (DLC) memberhip, but  CSPAN Junkie has a video of the entire Sept. 20, 2005, Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy Rahm Emanuel Roast here.  CURE founder, Susan Axelrod, is the wife of Barack Obama’s brain, David, King of Astroturf, and their eldest daughter, Lauren, unfortunately suffers from the disease.  According to an April, 2007, New York Times Axelrod profile, Hillary Clinton has been a CURE champion:

It was January 1999, President Clinton’s impeachment trial was just beginning in the Senate and Hillary Clinton was scheduled to speak at the foundation’s fund-raiser in Chicago. Despite all the fuss back in Washington, Clinton kept the appointment. She spent hours that day in the epilepsy ward at Rush Presbyterian hospital, visiting children hooked up to machines by electrodes so that doctors might diagram their seizure activity and decide which portion of the brain to remove. At the hospital, a local reporter pressed her about the trial in Washington, asked her about that woman. At the organization’s reception at the Drake Hotel that evening, Clinton stood backstage looking over her remarks, figuring out where to insert anecdotes about the kids. “She couldn’t stop talking about what she had seen,” Susan Axelrod recalled. Later, at Hillary Clinton’s behest, the National Institutes of Health convened a conference on finding a cure for epilepsy. Susan Axelrod told me it was “one of the most important things anyone has done for epilepsy.” And this is how politics works: David Axelrod is now dedicated to derailing this woman’s career.

Below is a portion of the event, featuring master of ceremonies, Paul Begala, introducing now President-elect, then, Senator Barack Obama, roasting Rahm Emanuel.

Former political director to Bill Clinton, demoted to “closet-sized office” occupying policy adviser by Hillary, and advocate of mandatory Civilian Defense training, Emanuel, known as “Rahmbo” is, as you can see, well-known for his abrasive nature, which was highlighted in a Saturday Night Live skit this weekend that did not make the West Coast cut.

The Case For Hillary

The PUMAsphere has been alive lately with “The Great Hillary Stance Debate.”  Now assuming epic proportions, two opposing factions have emerged, those who feel that Hillary Clinton betrayed her supporters by stumping for Barack Obama and doing everything in her power to deliver the bulk of her 18 million voters to the Democratic selectee, and those who feel that HRC did what she had to do.  On blog after blog, PUMAs are venting their frustration at the outcome of the election by yelling and screaming at each other over this issue.

I understand both sides.  When I first started this blog, some of my earliest posts were of me telling Senator Clinton to take her pleas of “party unity” and shove them.  Barack Obama’s methods for securing the nomination were unforgivable; there’s just no way in hell I can ever respect him.  For me, the racial manipulation used as a p.r. tool in Axelrod’s “astrofucking*” campaign on Obama’s behalf, without regard to the damage done to both Hillary’s and former president Clinton’s reputations, not to speak of the potential damage to America’s youth and minorities when Obama’s inexperience shows itself to be as insufficient as it has always been, disillusioning those needy, gullible, and idealistic people who bought the snow job, hook line and sinker, is enough to disqualify him from even speaking in public, let alone running for any office, in my opinion.

But, I’m not Hillary Clinton.  My career and political future is not tied up in my party affilliation.  For me, changing parties was as easy as filling out a form online the night of the Rules and Bylaws Committee rape of democracy, and waiting for the mail.  I suspect, Hillary’s choices are a bit more complicated.

To those ranting and raving about getting their donations to Clinton’s campaign back, about how her actions classically resemble those of a woman suffering from “battered woman’s syndrome,” those typing in all caps on website after website about their devastating sense of betrayal, I ask, what would you have Hillary do?  Better yet, what would you do?

If your career was threatened by people you knew to be greedy, unscrupulous opportunists, easily seduced by the lure of record-breaking fundraising and the illusion of power unfettered, would you stand on principle and take on the bullies, knowing you would likely do so alone?  To whose advantage do you imagine such actions would be?  Would they not only hasten your demise?  Wouldn’t you feel at least a little motivation to do all you could to deflect the inevitable blame sure to come your way from the adolescent finger-pointers who would be only too happy to heap scorn and derision on your head, simply for the pleasure of it?

It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and play Monday morning quarterback when the only thing you have at stake is your opinion.  However, when it’s your ass on the line, when the thundering horde of humanity hurtling your way is made up not only of opposing team members, but the bulk of your own teammates, as well as half the people in the stands, the natural reaction is to try to get the hell out of the way and live to fight another day.

Am I happy about Hillary Clinton’s post-primary “support” of Barack Obama?

No.

But, again, I’m not Hillary Clinton.

And, I ain’t mad at her, either.

*”astrofucking:” a combination of “astroturfing” and “ratfucking.”

Hey Republicans! Vote Anyway

As a PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) survivor of Camp Barack Obama’s brand of slash-and-burn campaign tactics, I think it only fair to give dispirited Republican and Independent voters a heads up.  Snap out of it! You’re being played, big time. The inflated polls, the mainstream media predictions of a blowout, the pervasive blogosphere contention that “President Obama” is a done deal the whole world wants, are all examples of Team Obama’s business-as-usual tactics designed to discourage you from exercising your voting power.  I mean, if he’s as good as elected already, might as well stay home, right?

Over at Riverdaughter’s place, the Confluence, they call what’s happening a haka, named after the Maori war dance designed to intimidate opponents and discourage them from fighting.   I call it “astrofucking,” a practice perfected by David Axelrod, combining his successful shadow p.r. technique of manufacturing fake grassroots support, with old-fashioned Republican Segretti/Rove dirty tricks, i.e. “ratfucking.”  Given the success of “astrofucking” in the primaries (with a lot of help from the DeaNC) I implore those Republicans and Independents interested in actually winning this thing, to vote.  No matter what you hear; no matter what “authority” says otherwise.

Now, just as the PUMA position of actively promoting the Republican ticket is unusual, so too is the largely ignored-by-the-media reality that some Republicans don’t really want to win.  Whoever wins the White House is going to inherit a shitload of trouble; in one of his rare moments of clarity, even Joe (What The Hell Am I Talking About?) Biden admitted that much.  It’s even plausible to me that the active participation of Bill and Hillary Clinton as campaign surrogates, is the result of the post-primary realization of this reality and the implications relative to Obama and the DeaNC.  So, a lot of Republicans, understandably, are willing to sit back and let the Democrats take the blame for the massive screw-up on the way.  Personally, I think that’s a bad idea if you care about your country and really believe your party has a better way of doing things.

This is an unusual election year for a lot of reasons, but the bottom line is, this is not Barack Obama’s race to lose.  From what we experienced in the primaries, PUMAs know that this election is up for grabs, no matter who says what.  If you, like us, resent having your elections rigged from on high, if you believe that the voters should decide who becomes president, not the media, blogger bullies, or big money, backroom, corporate wheeler-dealers, the solution is simple.

Vote.

Like your life depended on it.

Take it from PUMAs, you can still win, as long as you don’t buy the hype.

When A Deer Becomes a Donkey

Oh, man, I’m finding myself in the Twilight Zone so often nowadays that I’m starting to like it here.   This latest Leary-like trip is thanks to the Denver Post:

Colorado Springs police say a deer head found in the parking lot of a Barack Obama campaign office is “a very disturbing event” that is being investigated as a threat.

Police Lt. David Whitlock said the deer’s antlers were cut off to make the head resemble a donkey, the Democratic Party’s emblem.

Police say campaign volunteers found the head Saturday night.

Tom Kise, a spokesman for Republican John McCain, says the incident is “despicable” and compared it to hate speech. Police say they have no suspects.

C’mon, first a bear, now a deer mutilated to look like a donkey?  Hello?  Anybody out there?  Then TPM graciously points the way down the Yellow Brick Road to Kookooville with this gem:

Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.

Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being “dangerously weak on crime,” “coddling criminals,” and for voting against “protecting children from danger.”

Puh-leeze.  We’re supposed to believe that dedicated McCain supporters, who have been subjected to one-sided media abuse, in addition to the fanatical Obama canvassers, blogger bullies and paid posters spewing filth + talking points on every website with the gall to actually try to hold their unqualified, lying candidate to some semblance of some sort of competency standards, were so freaked out by these rather bland “attacks” that they walked out en masse?  I’m not buying it.

I’m not buying that “assassins” planning to dress up in white tuxedos and top hats and drive really fast at Barack Obama while shooting at him, after shooting 88 black people and decapitating 14 others without getting caught at oh, say, 2, 3 murders at the most, are credible, either.  Gimme a fucking break.

Obama’s campaign manager, David Axelrod, King of Astroturfing,” has incorporated Republican “ratfucking” principles into his Felix the Cat bag-o’-tricks and “astrofucked” his candidate through the primaries and almost to the White House.  “Astroturfing” is the “art” of building fake grassroots support in order to bullshit the gullible into thinking there’s real grassroots support, and “ratfucking” is just what it sounds like.  All of the incidents cited above sound like “astrofucking” at it’s best, which is the same as at it’s worst.

A commentor over at HillBuzz, calling herself “Sarah P,” claims to be a paid “astrofucker,” though the descriptive appellation is mine.  Sarah P’s allegations however, leave no doubt that the name fits:

Ok, I want to clear my conscious a little. Hopefully you could make a blog post to help some fellow clinton supporters out.

I work for a campaign and can’t wait for this week to be over.

I was doing it for a job. I was not a fan of any candidate but over time grew to love HRC.

The internal campaign idea is to twist, distort, humiliate and finally dispirit you.

We pay people and organize people to go to all the online sites and “play the part of a clinton or mccain supporter who just switched our support for obama”

We do this to stifle your motivation and to destroy your confidence.

We did this the whole primary and it worked.

Sprinkle in mass vote confusion and it becomes bewildering. Most people lose patience and just give up on their support of a candidate and decide to just block out tv, news, websites, etc.

This surprisingly has had a huge suppressing movement and vote turnout issues.

Next, we infiltrate all the blogs and all the youtube videos and overwhelm the voting, the comments, etc. All to continue this appearance of overwhelming world support.

People makes posts to the effect that the world has “gone mad”

Thats the intention. To make you feel stressed and crazy and feel like the world is ending.

We have also had quite a hand in skewing many many polls, some we couldn’t control as much as we would have liked. But many we have spoiled over. Just enough to make real clear politics look scarey to a mccain supporter. Its worked, alough the goal was to appear 13-15 points ahead.

see, the results have been working. People tend to support a winner, go with the flow, become “sheeple”

The polls are roughly 3-5 points in favor of Barack. Thats due to our inflation of the polls and pulling in the sheeple.

Our donors, are the same people who finance the MSM. Their interests are tied, Barack then tends to come across as teflon. Nothing sticks. And trust, there were meetings with Fox news. The goal was to blunt them as much as possible. Watch Bill Oreilly he has become much more diplomatic and “fair and balanced” and soft. Its because he wants to retain the #1 spot on cable news and to do that he has to have access to the Obama campaign and we worked hard at stringing him a long and keeping him soft for an interview swap. It worked and now he is anticipating more access. So he is playing it still soft.

This is why nothing sticks.

The operation is massive, the goal is to paint a picture that is that of a winner, regardless of the results.

There is no true inauguration draft or true grant park construction going on. There will be a party, but we are boasting beyond the truth to make it seem like the election is wrapped up.

Our goal is to continue to make you lose your moral. We worked hard at persuasion and paying off and timing and playing the right political numbers to get key republican endorsements to make it seem even more like it was over and the world was coming to an end for you all.

There is a huge staff of people working around the clock, watching every site, blogs, etc. We flood these sites. We have had a goal to overwhelm.

The truth is here. I could go on and on, but you get the picture.

I am saying this because I know HRC was better for the country, and now realize this. I was too late by the time I connected to her. To me Barack was just a cool young dude that seemed like a star. I didn’t know him or his policies, but now I understand more than I care to and I realize his interests are more for him, and the DNC and all working like puppets with dean. I always thought a president wanted the better good for the country. The end result I see is everyone dependent on the government, this means more and more people voting for the DNC. This means the future is forever altered. I don’t see this as america, so I am now supporting John Mccain.

Sarah Palin is a huge threat, and our campaign has feared her like you can’t imagine. If it seems unfair how she has been treated, well its because she has had a team working round the clock to make her look like a fool.

this is a big conspiracy and I am so shocked that its not realized.

We released a little blurb the other day that the Obama campaign was already working on reelection and now putting our efforts towards 2012. This was to make it seem like it was above us to continue caring about 2008. Trust me, its a lie. David is very smart, but its a sticky ugly not very truthful kind of intelligence.

Its not over yet, but I think the machine is working. And its a hill to climb.

I will be quitting my post on nov 5th and my vote will be for John Mccain. Fortunately, my position has been a marketing position and I don’t feel I had any part of anything I would feel guilty for. But I look forward to getting out of this as the negativity and environment upsets me.

I wish you all well, and goodluck.

PS my name is not really sarah. but I am a female and I understand your plight.

Whether “Sarah P” is real or not, what she describes has been observed by everyone paying attention since the primaries began.  Way back, before a single vote was cast, an internet search of “Hillary Clinton” netted hundreds of mostly negative hits, while “John McCain” pretty much took you to his website.  But “Barack Obama” got back oodles and oodles of Obamalove spewing forth from one’s computer screen, threatening to drown an unwary information seeker in it’s ooey-gooey goodness.  One could not help but be impressed that a relatively unknown junior Senator with only one major speech/sermon (okay, maybe two if you count his announcement speech) to his credit could generate such an outpouring of affection from so many cyberlovers.  Clicking on one g-spot disguised as keyboard key after another, the sheer magnitude of magnificence one experienced by learning of his already unprecedented fundraising power and compelling charisma, took one’s breath away.  Remember Obama Girl?  Add a few rock star rallies, some celebrity-filled, creepy love chants, a bunch of fainting chicks, throw in a couple dozen “impartial analysts,” a little race-baiting, and who could not love the guy?

Me.

I thought it was bullshit then, and I think it’s bullshit now.

Old bullshit might stop stinking, but it’s still not something you want to keep around the White House.

Obama Up In Polls?

Go to just about any news site and you’ll probably see this headline:

“Voters Souring On McCain, Obama Stays Steady”

You will then read an AP Yahoo News story, identical to thousands of other stories carried on thousands of other outlets, with the last line:

AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

The info in this story will tell the woeful tale of the latest McCain poll misfortunes.  However, this one story, essentially Xeroxed around the country, and, probably the world, bears closer inspection.  The poll in question, conducted by Knowledge Networks, literally reflects the opinions of the same people who gave us the “White People Hate Obama” headlines last month, as well as “Dog Owners Like McCain Better” and “Football Fans Would Rather Watch The Super Bowl With Barack.”  I’m paraphrasing, but not by much.

You see, Knowledge Networks, the company that conducted the polls, just might be David Axelrod’s personal astroturf machine.  I have no proof of that, but given the firm’s history, and the polling results they’ve released this cycle, it doesn’t take a tinfoil hat and Twilight Zone music to go there.  Founded in 1998 by 2 Stanford University professors, Norman H. Nie and Douglas Rivers, the Menlo Park, California-based company’s founders could plausibly boast but a scant few degrees of separation from both Axelrod and Obama, if they were so inclined.

About Norman H. Nie:

One of the nation’s leading figures in survey research, quantitative social science and political science, Dr. Nie co-founded and is Chairman of SPSS (NASDAQ: SPSS), the leading vendor of statistical and survey software to the market research industry. For twenty-five years, Dr. Nie was a Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and a Senior Study Director at the National Opinion Research Center. Currently he is also Chairman of Knowledge Networks, a Professor (Research) of Political Science at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Institute for Quantitative Studies in the Social Sciences. He received his B.A. from Washington University and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.

About Douglas Rivers:

Douglas Rivers is co-founder and CEO of Knowledge Networks, and a leading authority on the application of statistical methods to social science. He has been a faculty member at Harvard, Caltech, UCLA and, most recently, Stanford, where he is a Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute. He is a Director of Preview Systems (NASDAQ: PRVW), a leading provider of digital rights management solutions. Dr. Rivers holds a B.A. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Hmmm…Harvard, Columbia, University of Chicago…where have I heard those names before?  Could these 2 guys be among those oh, so generous Stanford donors Obama has?  Or would their donations (if any) be listed elsewhere?  Nope.  Anyway, about AP- Yahoo News/Knowledge Networks poll methods:

The AP-Yahoo! News Poll is a unique study that will track the moods and opinions of a group of more than 2,700 people throughout the presidential election campaign. The study involves an extensive national survey of 2,714 people who will be re-contacted several times during the next year to see how their attitudes and opinions change over time. The survey is being conducted by Knowledge Networks of Menlo Park, Calif., under the direction and supervision of AP’s polling unit.

The survey is conducted online with a sample drawn from a panel of respondents Knowledge Networks recruited via random sampling of landline telephone households with listed and unlisted numbers. The company provides Web access to panel recruits who don’t already have it. With a probability basis and coverage of people who otherwise couldn’t access the Internet, the Knowledge Networks online surveys are nationally representative.

Of couse, KN goes into a lot more mumbo-jumbo sounding detail to explain why their sample is statiscally accurate, but…

For this series of polls for AP, The Knowledge Network number of people polled has fluctuated, for reasons which are unclear.   For this latest poll, the number sampled was 841 out of the original 2,714.

So, basically, KN gave some people some computers, then polled those same people over and over again, then told whichever guy showed up from AP what they found, who then wrote one story about each survey and passed it around.  The country.  And the world.

And, lest you think I just make stuff up, this is a list of recent AP-Yahoo News/Knowledge Network Polls from the KN press release website:

10/17/08
Voters souring on McCain, Obama stays steady – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

10/08/08
Undecided voters not satisfied with both candidates – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

09/23/08
Obama struggling to win over Clinton voters – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

09/22/08
Poll shows gap between blacks and whites over racial discrimination – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

09/20/08
Racial views steer some white Dems away from Obama – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

09/19/08
People prefer Obama over McCain as teacher – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

09/19/08
Obama tops McCain as football-watching buddy – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

07/18/08
Poll: McCain’s backers less fired up than Obama’s – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

07/08/08
Poll: Pet owners prefer McCain over Obama – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

Ayers – Obama: Where’s The Outrage?

Where’s the outrage about the William Ayers/Barack Obama association?  Not from concerned voters, from William Ayers?  Shouldn’t a guy who’s having his name dragged through the mud scream in  protest?  You’d expect a truly reformed, former radical to tell anybody who would listen, “Hey, can it with the terrorist stuff!”  I’m a respected academic; a professor of education, for Chrissakes, with a wife and grown kids!  Leamme alone, willya?  So, I know the guy, so what?”

But that’s not the kind of response we get from Ayers or Obama.  Ayers refuses to discuss it at all, and Obama avoids the issue as much as possible.   When Obama’s forced to respond, he says something stupid, like “He’s an English professor who lives in my neighborhood.”  Just the fact that they both work at the same university puts them in a little more proximity than that.  And neither of them are English professors, by the way.

Obama’s surrogates are even stupider.  In response to questions about Obama and Ayers’ supposed “first meeting” at a political coming out party in Ayers and his wife, Bernadette Dohrn’s home in 1995, David Axelrod actually tried to pass this bit of whimsy off as truth:

“When he went he certainly didn’t know the history,” chief Obama strategist David Axelrod told CNN – arguing for the first time since the story surfaced early this year that Obama was unaware of Ayers’ past.

Hello?

Exactly when was that first meeting anyway, Dave?  I guess when you’ve “astroturfed” half the country into believing a guy whose profession is running for a different office every few years is ready to be president, you start to believe people will buy your bullshit as milk chocolate if you say so.  This is not the first time Axelrod has said something in Martian to explain Obama/Ayers.  In February, he told Politico’s Ben Smith:

“Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school,” he said. “They’re certainly friendly, they know each other, as anyone whose kids go to school together.”

When it was pointed out that Ayers kids are damned near Obama’s age, their campaign tried to sell Ben this:

There’s been a bit of confusion about Axelrod’s line on the kids, who — as the Guardian’s Daniel Nasaw noted — aren’t the same age. Obama’s kids went go the the University of Chicago Lab Schools, where Ayers kids, who are much older, had gone. However, Bernardine Dohrn is still active at the school, and an Obama aide said that was the connection.

So, in cleaning up the “kids in school” cow pie, Camp O admits to a previously unreported Obama family/ Ayers family connection.

In 1985, Obama signed on to the Developing Communties Project,

Then he got a call from Jerry Kellman, an organizer working on Chicago’s far South Side for a community group based in the churches of the region, an expanse of white, black and Latino blue-collar neighborhoods that were reeling from the steel-mill closings. Kellman was looking for an organizer for the new Developing Communities Project (DCP), which would focus on black city neighborhoods.

part of the Alliance for Better Chicago Schools Coalition (ABC’s) documented at the link.

From Wikipedia:

William Ayers, associate professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago; co-director of the Small Schools Workshop; co-director of the Chicago Forum for School Change—an affiliate of the Coalition of Essential Schools;^[20] chairman of the Alliance for Better Chicago Schools (ABCs) coalition;^[21][22] former Chicago assistant deputy mayor for education (1989–1990);^[22] brother of John Ayers, executive director (1994–2004) of Leadership for Quality Education (an affiliate of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago) and former associate director (1987–1994) of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago; son of Thomas Ayers, former president (1964–1980), chairman and CEO (1973–1980) of Commonwealth Edison and former vice president (1980) of the Chicago School Board (my emphasis)

So, while it’s obvious these two guys go way back, if it’s innocent, why not just ‘fess up and be done with it?  But, hey, the same could be said about Obama’s official birth certificate, or baptismal records, or college transcripts, or medical reports; we haven’t seen any of those things, either.  Makes you wonder, what’s the big deal?  Why do people have to go to court to get access to documents you’d think the “transcendent candidate for hope and change and transparent governing” would be only too happy to lay his cards on the table about?  Only, Obama doesn’t just keep his cards close to the vest, he’s stuck half the deck up his sleeve to the elbow.

Now you’ve got this Barackaphile Robert Gibbs guy, mocking what the Obama boyz call “guilt-by-association smears,” ranting at Sean Hannity about Obama basher, Andy Martin, making the claim that since Hannity has interviewed Martin, who has been accused of anti-Semtism, that makes Hannity an anti-Semite, too.  The fact that unlike Obama and Ayers, Hannity probably doesn’t even know where Martin lives, let alone visit the man, escapes these geniuses.

And this team wants to run the country?

Where’s the outrage?

I got your “outrage” right here.

Obiden Media Debate Spin-Palin Great, But…

Obviously the press has received it’s official Camp O “what we’re supposed to tell them to think” memo about last night’s debate, since article, after article, struggles to find new and clever ways to make their tediously predictable, “she was great, but…” spin seem tolerably credible.  Espousing David Axelrod’s astroturf seed, these happy yappers are running off at the keyboard in gleeful abandon of reality.

Truth is, she smoked him. No matter how many stories are written about what the squiggly lines on the rigged little meters mean, or what all the drunks in the bar the writer was in, said, when it comes to perception, Palin won hands down.

As I said all along, my mind is not changed one iota about who I’m going to vote for.  “None of the above” is still my personal choice, so far.  But looking at the debate, it’s easy to separate the wheat from the chaff, or to be more descriptive, manure from the bull shit.

Joe Biden, and those who love him, are touting his superior foreign policy credentials as proof he “won.”  But it was not a foreign policy debate.  In fact, there’s no real reason to expect a vice-president to be overly-knowledgeable about…much of anything, really.  Besides, every time Biden opens his mouth, one is reminded of his tendency to insert foot, or say someone else’s words, or flat-out lie.  So, even if he “wins,” he loses, because the legacy of his own big, mouth-juicy foot will always follow him around, just to trip him up and make him fall flat on his Pinocchio nose.  Every time.

Palin, on the other hand, came across as everything Barack Obama claims to be; a wide-eyed, innocent, Washington outsider, hell-bent on reform.  More importantly, she projected small town all-America to…all America.  She was mom and apple pie standing on a stage taking up for the little people, just because, gee whiz, it’s the right thing to do.  The fact that stats and facts didn’t roll off her tongue worked in her favor;  she was a female Jimmy Stewart, and while she may not have been around as long as her debate opponent, she sure knows moose patties when she sees ‘em, and gosh darnit, knows how to turn ‘em into fertilizer, too.

So, the Camp O team can spin themselves dizzy laying fake grassroots seed from here to Alaska with their, “she did okay, but…” stories.  Hockey and soccer moms shopping in Wal-Marts for tube socks for Joe Sixpack all across the land just found themselves a shero.

And yeah, there’s an element of racism in the fact that Sarah Palin is so appealing to some voters simply because she’s an All-American White Woman, but so what?  If Barack Obama hadn’t tried to win the presidency by race-baiting and girl-bashing, it wouldn’t make any difference at all.  She probably wouldn’t even be in the race.

But then, neither would he.

Spin that.

The Debate’s Over, Let The Games Begin

Well, we all just watched a debate that will change absolutely nobody’s mind, and I, for one, am glad it’s over.  Listen, my mind’s made up; I hate Joe Biden and I don’t hate Sarah Palin.  I hate Joe Biden because he’s Barack Obama’s running mate.  I don’t care about Sarah Palin because she’s John McCain’s running mate.  I hate Barack Obama because he’s a creepy, curiously funded, incompetent, inexperienced joke of a candidate who wants to change America in fundamental ways.  I don’t like John McCain because he’s a Republican.

Nothing I saw or heard tonight changed my mind one bit.

All that’s left is to sit back and watch the spinmeisters lay Axelrod’s astroturf.

Running For King Of The World

In Friday’s debate, Barack Obama made a big deal about his ability to restore America’s world image.  Why should that be a big deal?  Is it?  Business Week debates whether when you get right down to it, the world might be initially pleased with a president so far from Bush on so many levels, (though really, the main difference is probably physical, imho) ultimately, will they be disappointed?  And, more importantly, exactly how is he going to accomplish such a thing?

CNN reports that Obama somehow relates world image to national security.  On the question of the potential of another 9/11:

McCain that another attack on the scale of the September 11 hijackings is “much less likely” now than it was the day after the terrorist attacks.

“America is safer now than it was on 9/11,” he said, “But we have a long way to go before we can declare America safe.”

Obama agreed that the United States is “safer in some ways” but said the country needed to focus more on issues such as nuclear non-proliferation and restoring America’s image in the world.

This is a song Camp O has been singing for months now, and it makes no more difference (or sense) to me now than it did when I first heard it.  Are we supposed to give up nukes so people will come play with us?  Why are so many people so concerned with who we elect as president, anyway?  Are they really, or is this just more Axelrod astroturfing?  There’s a World Wants Obama Coalition on the net, MoveOn.org has a page, “Obama in 30 Seconds,” with a diplomacy section dedicated to quick validation of the idea; who can forget his World Tour Like A Rock Star and the now famous, World Wants Obama poll?  Maybe Axelrod read Dennis Ross’ book, “Statecraft: And How To Restore America’s Standing In The World,” and took it to heart, though I’m not sure either one of us buys the whole “chicken-and-egg” premise that if people like what they think about you, the threat of danger is automatically sufficiently minimized.  Unless he’s making the case that for terrorists, to know us is to love us, what is the point of giving a good hot damn what the rest of the world thinks?  And, who would say that with a straight face?  That’s kind of a “blame the victim in advance” sucker bait attitude, in my opinion.  When you sit down to talk to foreign leaders, with or without pre-conditions, how effective can you be if you’re preoccupied with getting them to like you?  If the country is being governed properly, world respect will come.  If all it takes is having a guy with the “right look” to get the globe on board, maybe their opinion isn’t really worth cultivating.  At least, that’s what my mama taught me.

And, I’m sure Axelbama knows it, too.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

Barack Obama: But, Seriously, Folks

Okay, I’m cruising the internet, like I like to do in the morning, visiting my favorite news and “screw Obama” sites (they used to be “pro-Hillary” sites, but she’s an Obot now) and I come across a funny song on The Mountain Sage.  They got the song from a Time Magazine story about Obama and McCain’s now-famous, failed bi-partisan attempt turned Senate pissing contest, that lead to school-boy-like nasty-note exchanges, which was written up in today’s Washington Post, and blogged about at the time by Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynne Sweet.  Seems Obama channeled his inner Shecky at the 2006 Gridiron Dinner, complete with a song-and -dance routine.  (A real one, not the usual hemming, hawing, shucking, jiving, bamboozling, hoodwinking thing he always does.)  Man, oh, man, where was this guy last night?  I mean, sure, he and McCain, while not really saying squat of any significance about the financial meltdown, managed to lessen it’s global impact considerably, as evidenced by the complete lack of the same kind of urgency that plagued the media for the last few days in today’s reporting, but this…this could have been a game changer.

Sweet reports that Barack’s zingers were penned by none other than that astroturfing funnyman, David Axelrod, which makes me wonder if, when off-TelePrompTer, does David resort to sticking his hand up Obama’s ass shirt while he talks for him and makes his lips move?  Anyway, I just feel compelled to share the wit and wisdom of Barack Obama as he shared his Bob Hope-esque dinner show talents that night, in it’s entirety.  I’m sure that after experiencing it, you, like me, will be even more determined to end this man’s presidential hopes so he can get out on the boards where he belongs.  Also, be sure to visit Lynne’s Place for even more good times and hilarity from the other clowns jokers entertainers speakers that evening.  But, now, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, heeeeere’s Obie!

Thank you very much:

It’s great to be at the Gridiron dinner. Wow, What an extravaganza! Men in tails. Women in gowns. An orchestra playing, as folks reminisce about the good old days. Kind of like dinner at the Kerrys.

Nice to see you Mr. President and Mrs. Bush. I think it takes a great spirit for the President, who we all know is an early riser, to sit here until midnight and hear himself lampooned, when he could be back at the White House enjoying a quiet, peaceful night, watching TV and approving secret wiretaps.

I don’t see the Secretary of State is here tonight. You know, the President promised a muscular foreign policy. And anyone who’s seen the Condi Rice workout tapes knows he means business.

The truth is, I’m terrified to be here. Not because you’re such a tough audience, but because they’re serving drinks, I’m standing about 30 yards from the Vice President, and…Mr. Vice President this is too easy!

Mr. Vice President, I know you came here expecting to be a target, which, it turns out, may prove easier for you than shooting at one. But I do want to thank you: for years, we Democrats have succeeded in doing little more than shooting ourselves in the foot. You’ve taught us a valuable lesson: aim higher.

There’s probably only one person more sick of these jokes than you… and that’s your wife. It’s an honor to share this stage with Lynne Cheney — a great personage in her own right. Scholar. Author. A few years ago she wrote a book called, “Telling the Truth,�? or as they call it in the Vice President’s office, “Telling the Truth-24 hours later.�?

The Vice President and I do have one thing in common, we both married up. I want to acknowledge my wife, Michelle, who is here tonight. This is a true story: a friend sent me a clip about a new study by a psychologist at the University of Scotland, who says sex before a public speaking engagement actually enhances your oratorical powers. I showed this clip to Michelle, before we arrived here tonight. She looked it over, handed it back and said, “Do the best you can!�?

This appearance is really the capstone of an incredible 18 months. I’ve been very blessed. Keynote speaker at the Democratic Convention. The cover of Newsweek. My book made the best-seller list. I just won a Grammy for reading it on tape. And I’ve had the chance to speak not once but twice before the Gridiron Club. Really what else is there to do? Well, I guess…. I could pass a law, or something…
About that book, some folks thought it was a little presumptuous to write an autobiography at the age of 33, but people seemed to like it. So now I’m working on volume two-the Senate Months.

My Remarkable Journey from 99th in Seniority to 98th.

(With an introduction by Nelson Mandela.)

Believe me, when you’re the last guy to ask questions at every committee hearing, you have plenty of time to collect your thoughts. Especially when Joe Biden’s on the committee.

I’ll tell you, that Grammy was a big surprise. I thought, for sure, Jack Abramoff would win for his rendition of “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.�?

As I said, it’s great to be here speaking opposite Lynne Cheney. As you may know, Mrs. Cheney was a late substitution for Senator John McCain. And speaking of Senator McCain.

This whole ethics thing has been an adventure. I was really excited when they asked me to be the lead Democratic spokesman. But I don’t know. Turns out, it’s a little like being given the Kryptonite concession at a Superman convention. I mean, how did I know it was a freshman hazing? It gets a little depressing. So as I sometimes do when I get a little down, I wrote a song. Maestro?

(To the tune of “If I Only Had a Brain�?)

I’m aspiring to greatness, but somehow I feel weightless
A freshman’s sad refrain
I could be a great uniter, making ethics rules much tighter
If I only had McCain

I could bring us all together, no storm we couldn’t weather,
We’d feel each other’s pain
Red and blue wouldn’t matter, party differences would shatter
If I only had McCain

Oh why is it so hard, for honest men of good will to agree,
If we ever found a way to strike a deal, would we survive… politically?

When a wide-eyed young idealist, confronts a seasoned realist
There’s bound to be some strain
With the game barely started, I’d be feeling less downhearted
If I only had McCain

Still I hope for the better, though I may rewrite my letter
Cause I gotta have McCain
Needless to say, my Grammy was in the spoken word category!

I should say that I really do get along well with Senator McCain. But as you know, not everyone in politics does. Because of his superstar status, his virtuous image, the kind of hero worship treatment he gets from all of you, some of my colleagues call John a prima donna. Me? I call him a role model. (Think of it as affirmative action. Why should the white guys be the only ones who are overhyped?)

By the way, before I forget, raise your hand if Karl Rove didn’t tell you about Valerie Plame?

You know, The Gridiron Club is an aging institution with a long, proud history, known today primarily for providing a forum for jokes. To some, that may sound like the Democratic Party.

You hear this constant refrain from our critics that Democrats don’t stand for anything. That’s really unfair. We DO stand for anything.

Some folks say the answer for the Democratic Party is to stop being so calculating, and start standing up for principle. In fact, Harry Reid’s appointed a task force to study this option.

But really, they say our party doesn’t have ideas? We have ideas.

Take John Edwards. He’s leading a new war on poverty… from his Chapel Hill estate. And he’s educating us. I had no idea there was so much poverty in New Hampshire!

Speaking of New Hampshire, a lot of speculation that that 2008 campaign could come down to Senator McCain and Hillary Clinton. The thing I don’t think people realize is how much John and Hillary have in common: They’re both very smart. Both very hardworking. And they’re both hated by the Republicans!

A lot of folks want to be President, but, I mean, wow, it really has been a rough period for you, Mr. President. I missed the Oscars, so when I picked up the paper the next morning and saw “Crash�? in the headlines, I just assumed it was another Bush poll story.

And how about that ports deal? I feel for you, sir. It’s tough getting trapped in a storm, when no one comes up to help!

And then there’s the flap about global warming. You know, the Bush Administration’s been a little skeptical about the whole concept of global warming. It’s actually not the warming part they question. It’s the globe.

The President was so excited about Tom Friedman’s book, The World is Flat. As soon as he saw the title, he said, “You see, I was right!�?

But when people say the administration is hostile to science, that’s really a bad rap. Just last week they asked for a hundred million dollars for the NIH to fund new research into leech therapy.

I was told that this dinner is off-the record… no taping or recording of this event, unless, of course, secretly authorized by the President.

I completely trust the President with that authority, by the way. But just out of an abundance of caution, and not implying anything, I’ve asked my staff to conduct all phone conversations in the Kenyan dialect of Luo.

Truth is, this domestic spying has all kinds of useful applications for Homeland Security. And I have a suggestion, in this regard, Mr. President: You can spy on the Weatherchannel, and find out when big storms are coming.

You all watch the winter Olympics? Mrs. Bush was there, representing our country, and that was great. I’m sure a lot of us in politics were following that figure skating, because we can identify with performers who spin wildly and sometimes fall on their butts.

And the curling. Wasn’t that something? I hear Andy Stern from the SEIU loved the curling so much he’s trying to organize the sweepers.

I also enjoyed that biathlon, where they ski and shoot at the same time. Probably not your sport, Mr. Vice President.

Hey, it’s been great fun to be a part of this tonight. But before I go, I want to say a few words about the work you do.

For a democracy to succeed and flourish, people must have full and free access to information about what’s going on in their world and, yes, in their government.

The framers of the Constitution understood that, which is why the very first amendment deals with the indispensable freedoms of speech and press. Those rights, those freedoms, the access to information citizens absolutely require in a democratic society are no less important today.

Pursuing that information is not always easy. Sometimes you meet resistance from powerful institutions that would sooner operate in secrecy. And sometimes, as in Iraq, you literally risk your lives to keep the American people informed.

Tonight, even as we laugh together, I want to thank you for that important and often courageous work and extend my prayers to those journalists and their families who have made and continue to make great sacrifices to fulfill this essential mission.

And most of all, I want to thank you for all the generous advance coverage you’ve given me in anticipation of a successful career. When I actually do something, we’ll let you know.

Thanks for having me!

Oh, man, I wanna tellya, Barack, c’mon, you’re killing me!  I’m cryin’ here!  Wooooo…okay, I’m better now.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

Of Bubbas and Crackers

Clarence Page has an article about the “Bubba vote” that’s just sad.  But then, most of Mr. Page’s articles are, nowadays.  See, as a black journalist naturally seeking mainstream validation, Page and others, like Eugene Robinson and Bob Herbert, don’t even realize they’re being pimped out on behalf of Massah’s newest HNIC, “obasee-uh” appointee, Barack Obama, and thus, they happily acquiesce to the not-so-subtle beseechments of Camp O and “Call out the Toms and Bubbas fuh ya, suh, yessuh!”

In today’s Chicago Tribune article, Page hones in on “the Bubba vote”:

What’s Barack Obama’s biggest remaining obstacle on his road to the White House? A nationally prominent Republican sums it up in a word: “Bubba.”

“The Bubba vote is there, and it’s very real, and it is everywhere,” former House Majority Leader Dick Armey recently said. “There’s an awful lot of people in America, bless their heart, who simply are not emotionally prepared to vote for a black man.”

Using homespun comparisons of black vs. white “Bubba” definitions, Page contorts himself into a pretzel tying the “Bradley effect” to the “Bubba factor” using the recent AP/Yahoo News poll as justification for his concerns about the potential for “race-based voting to derail Obama’s presidential hopes.  Just another “objective” look at America’s bias against black folks, as defined by the astroturfing Axelrod-influenced media.

However, we’ve moved beyond mere “astroturfing,” defined as manufacturing fake grassroots support to give the illusion of real grassroots support.  When combined with the DeaNC, 50 state strategy and the Donna Brazile adaptation of Karl Rove “ratfucking” tactics, we now enjoy the benefits of Democratic party sanctioned “astrofucking,” or winning dirty by any means necessary.  Howard Dean has backed Obama since 2004 when his Democracy For America tapped him as one of Dean’s Dozen, and Obama’s adaptation of Dean’s 50-state theory has provided a vehicle for Howard’s quest for vengeance.  That Dean saw his presidential bid’s derailment as the fault of the centrist, Clintonian, Democratic Leadership Council wing of the party is no secret.  An opportunity for revenge had to be too tempting for the mad political scientist to pass up.

Brazile’s long-term friendship with Karl Rove is likewise, no secret, and she also expressed an affinity for tapping into the “Obama factor” years ago.  Though no friend of Howard Dean, their common desire to remake the Democratic party forges an uneasy alliance.  Like Dean, Brazile has conducted her undercover sabotage in plain sight, feigning neutrality when any blind fool could see otherwise.  Her actions throughout the primaries speak for themselves, as DeaNC Voting Rights Chair and race-baiting spokeswoman on CNN, Donna has maneuvered and manipulated opinion in a number of instances, and her Florida/Michigan, Rules and Bylaws Committee machinations unfairly altered the outcome of the primary contest by giving Camp O opportunities to exploit.

The above-referenced AP/Yahoo News poll was conducted by Knowledge Networks, a company founded in 1998 by two Stanford professors, whose press release page reads like an Obama supporter’s wet dream-come-true.  A sample of the polls done between April ‘08 and the present shows an Obama dominance in focus:

09/23/08
Obama struggling to win over Clinton voters – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

09/22/08
Poll shows gap between blacks and whites over racial discrimination – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

09/20/08
Racial views steer some white Dems away from Obama – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

09/19/08
People prefer Obama over McCain as teacher – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

09/19/08
Obama tops McCain as football-watching buddy – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

07/18/08
Poll: McCain’s backers less fired up than Obama’s – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

07/08/08
Poll: Pet owners prefer McCain over Obama – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

07/07/08
Old Guy Vs Change: McCain, Obama Images Take Shape – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

07/03/08
The ‘mushy middle’ hard to reach for Obama, McCain – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

07/03/08
A look at the political center – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

07/02/08
Obama would get more barbecue invitations than McCain – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

07/02/08
Poll: Public cool to Michelle, doesn’t know Cindy – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

06/30/08
9 in 10 see rising gas prices causing family hardship – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

06/26/08
Obama Winning Over Former Clinton Supporters – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

04/21/08
Economy the top worry, but barely affecting votes – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

04/18/08
Ongoing nomination fight hurting Clinton more than Obama – The Associated Press | Yahoo! News Poll

While Stanford University is a major Obama donor, there’s no evidence that Knowledge Networks is on the Axelrod gravy train, so…I’ll just leave it at that.

Yet there’s no doubt that Axelrod is involved with trying to get Bill and Hillary Clinton to do Obama’s bidding to white folks, especially in light of the fact that the DLC has just released a “toldya so” poll of their own, showing that no matter how many new black, young or latte-sipping voters they register, they still need the “Bubba” vote to increase dramatically.  That’s why Bill Clinton is being deployed to Florida, according to a Politico review of tonight’s Big Dawg appearance on Larry King.  Clinton said:

“You know, they think that because of who I am and where my politic[al] base has traditionally been, they may want me to go sort of hustle up what Lawton Chiles used to call the ‘cracker vote’ there.”

“Bubbas,” “crackers,” and all other assorted racists and bigots picking on poor Barack Obama is a theme not so much reflective of true American emotion, as it is of careful seeding and nurturing of deliberately laid astroturf.  The gardeners of this faux movement are guilty of ratfucking on a national scale, picking at our country’s racial scabs to advance the career of an inferior candidate for their own selfish purposes.  If that ain’t “astrofucking,” I don’t know what to call it.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

Polls Show As Long As Obama’s Black He Doesn’t Have To Be Good

And that’s kinda the point, isn’t it?  Like many bloggers, I’ve noticed the dramatic upswing in racially oriented reporting in the media regarding national attitudes and their potential affect on the Obama campaign.  Like those same bloggers, I wondered why.  Why all of a sudden are there so many polls, analyses and opinion pieces documenting and dissecting our common, or uncommon biases?  Is something coming down the pike so devastating about Barack Obama, or some aspect of his candidacy, that it needs to have our attention diverted in advance?

Probably not.

What lead me to this conclusion was a confluence of recent events; the rash of polls, the accusations of David Axelrod-style “astroturfing” against Sarah Palin, which were borne out, and a number of opinion pieces, one in the Chicago Sun-Times, by race reporter Mary Mitchell, in particular.  Now, I have no idea whether “race reporter” is part of Ms. Mitchell’s official employment designation, but since everything I’ve read that she’s written deals with the subject, I figured that must be her job.  Besides, you can tell from the picture that accompanies every post that she’s black, so, it must be at least sort of a big deal to her.  Anyway, it was after reading her take on the AP-Yahoo News poll when it all came together in my mind.

Now, we all know that “astroturfing” is the “art” of building fake grassroots support and that the acknowledged master is David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s campaign manager.  And, as today’s AP-Yahoo News poll about the effect of disaffected Clinton supporters on Obama’s candidacy shows, many of those polled are skeptical of Obama’s competence.  Many of them also happen to be white women.  Barack Obama is a black man.  Therefore, white women who supported Hillary Clinton are disproportionately unlikely to vote for the black man.

Get where I’m going with this?

Coming on the heels of the earlier AP-Yahoo News poll (or maybe the same poll with different data analysis) saying that racism among Democrats could cost Obama the election, the racial implications are magnified.  Now add today’s ABC News/USA Today/Columbia University poll showing that black people think having a black president is a very good thing, and it becomes clear that the intention is to make the election a referendum on race, not a contest between candidates.  Because when resumes are objectively compared, Obama loses.  Period.  Do not pass “Go.”  Do not collect squat.  Clinton supporters have always known that, it is the basis for our continued outrage and rejection of the Democratic ticket.  The “vote for him because he’s black and if you don’t you’re a racist” drumbeat is meant to be heard by all audiences and filtered through each individual’s and group’s particular lens.  (Yeah, yeah, I know it’s a mixed metaphor, but I like ‘em, so sue me, or suck it up).  Basically, Axelrod and crew gets to re-seed the oh-so-successful, combination “white guilt and black pride” astroturf planted early in the primaries and watch it grow.  Obama performs badly in the debates?  So what, he’s still black.  He attacks black people’s lifestyles, values and behavior?  Hey, it’s better than a white man.  He flip-flops on every hint of a campaign promise he’s ever offered from a TelePrompTer?  Yeah, but aren’t you proud to be an American?

The actual analysis of the various polls is irrelevant, they say what you would expect them to say.  Same is true of anything Ms. Mitchell writes.  Even when she says something relatively unexpected, like she did today, that Obama is not really black or white, it still comes down to a “yeah,…and?” kind of thing.  Because, while we as Americans still have a lot of racial hang-ups, our lives are not usually motivated, or even largely affected  by them.  But that’s not the point.  The point is we’re being bamboozled, hoodwinked and astroturfed by  an “internet community organizer” (Axelrod) who believes he is so good of an illusionist that he can sell us that by pissing in our faces, the astroturf will think it’s rain, and grow flowers.

And so far, the polls show he’s right.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

Bickering OBidens

Could the recent bickering between Barack Obama and his running mate Joe (Oops, I Did It Again) Biden be the first bricks being laid in the groundwork to dump old Joe for Hillary Clinton, who, according to Bill Clinton, doesn’t want the job anyway?

Maybe.

Today, Barack said that Joe “should have waited” before disagreeing with him, like there’s ever a good time to do so.   Here’s the video:

Looks like Obie got caught playing politics, while JoBi was being apolitical, i.e., honest.  Can’t have that in a running mate for an astroturfed presidential candidate, can we?  After all, appearances are everything.

The rumors of a planned Obama-Biden divorce are still floating around, (my favorite is the lack of available Obama-Biden merchandise is the “proof” that such a thing is in the works) however getting such a thing done might be a problem for a number of reasons.  What possible excuse might work?  The old “Muskie tears“  and “Eagleton-esque mental issues” routines are out, hoping Sentimental Joe might break down and turn on the waterworks, and the fun of watching him try to extract his foot from his mouth fast enough to say something even more stupid are the only reasons anybody shows up to see him speak anymore .  Health problems probably won’t work either, as long as McCain is in the race.  No, looks like Obi-Wan-NaBePresident is stuck with Shoeless (Makes It Easier To Insert Foot) Joe, which serves him right for picking a guy who said he sucked in the first place.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

I Was Wrong

Okay, I admit it, I was wrong.  Earlier today, in a post called “Astroturfing or Ratfucking” I put forth the theory that accusations of wrongdoing by agents aligned with the Obama campaign were being manufactured by the other side.   My reasoning was simple, no one would be stupid or inept enough to bungle a simple operation so badly.  I was wrong.

The Jawa Report claimed that an anti-Palin ad was produced by a firm associated with David Axelrod, Obama’s “Astroturfer in Chief.”  “Astroturfing” is the art of using phony grassroots support to give the impression of real grassroots support, or, the Obama campaign in a nutshell.  How could any organization ratfuck the country as well as Axelrod and friends have with the Obama presidential run, then turn around and make such a Bush League play?

Anyway, turns out the Jawa Report was right.  The video producer, Ethan Winner of Winner & Associates, sent them an e-mail admitting culpability.  The full text is available at the highlighted link, but here’s the gist:

The following is in response to questions I have received regarding the post on the Jawa Report website.

I produced and posted on the Internet the video entitled “Sarah Palin: A Heartbeat Away.”

The idea for the video was mine. No one paid me to produce it. The only out-of-pocket cost will be the fee for the voice-over narrator, which I will pay personally when I receive an invoice. Contrary to the allegation in the Jawa Report, the voice-over artist has never done any work for the Obama campaign. I retained her through a talent agency based solely on the quality of her voice.

Neither the Obama campaign nor any independent political action committee has had a connection with the making and/or posting of this video. Just like the thousands of Americans who have posted videos on the Internet regarding the current Presidential campaign, I produced this video as an expression of my right to free speech, which is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Sorry, Obama supporters, your guy’s team is even more pitiful than I gave them credit for.  See what I get for trying to be objective?  That’s it, from now on, no matter what, your guy sucks.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal

Astroturfing or Ratf*cking?

Astroturfing, from Wikipedia:

Astroturfing in American English is a neologism for formal public relations campaigns in politics and advertising which seek to create the impression of being spontaneous “grassroots” behavior, hence the reference to the artificial grass, AstroTurf.

Ratfucking, same source:

Ratfucking is an American slang term for political sabotage or dirty tricks. It was first brought to public attention by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in their book All the President’s Men

In common usage, “astroturfing” is Democratic “ratfucking,” which is a term usually attributed to GOP tactics.

Karl Rove is said to be the reigning king of ratfucking.  From Salon, August 13, 2007:

Donald Segretti, ringmaster for the Committee to Reelect the President of a gang of dirty tricksters engaged in what he called “ratfucking,” recruited Rove.

His alter-ego, David Axelrod, is today’s master of astroturfing through his company, ASK Public Strategies, which shares office space with his primary firm, AKP&D Message and Media, from which he astroturfs the campaign of Barack Obama.  According to a March 14, 2008 article in Business Week:

On behalf of ComEd and Comcast, the firm helped set up front organizations that were listed as sponsors of public-issue ads. Industry insiders call such practices “Astroturfing,” a reference to manufacturing grassroots support.

The reason I bring all this up is that the blogosphere is abuzz today with speculation that Camp Obama is behind a supposedly “grassroots” You Tube smear of Sarah Palin.  These allegations stem from a post on the website, The Jawa Report, which claims:

• Evidence suggests that a YouTube video with false claims about Palin was uploaded and promoted by members of a professional PR firm.
• The same voice-over artist has worked directly for the Barack Obama campaign.
• David Axelrod is Barack Obama’s chief media strategist.

• The family that runs the PR firm has extensive ties to the Democratic Party, the netroots, and are staunch Obama supporters.

• Evidence suggests that the firm engaged in a concerted effort to distribute the video in such a way that it would appear to have gone viral on its own. Yet this effort took place on company time.

• Evidence suggests that these distribution efforts included actions by at least one employee of the firm who is unconnected with the family running the company.

• The voice-over artist used in this supposedly amateur video is a professional.

• This same voice-over artist has worked extensively with David Axelrod’s firm, which has a history of engaging in phony grassroots efforts, otherwise known as “astroturfing.”

The “professional PR firm” in question is Winner & Associates, the “employee” said to be responsible for uploading, then yanking, the video is “eswinner” or Ethan S. Winner, son of company president Charles N. Winner and Leslie Song Winner.  Winner & Associates is a large PR group affiliated with an even bigger international PR group, Publicis Groupe, and sounds a lot like Axelrod’s ASK, though the Jawa Report links “eswinner” to Axelrod through a common voice-over artist used by the producers of the Palin smear video and Axelrod’s AKP&D firm.

The Jawa article goes to great lengths to “prove” it’s case, and I’m okay with it, to a point.  Even if all the connections pan out, one question remains.  Why would the “master of astroturfing” job out a smear campaign to a “major PR firm” stupid enough to leave it’s fingerprints all over it?

Doesn’t make sense to me.

On the flip side, there’s another “grassroots” entity making You Tube ads critical of one of the presidential candidates.  This one, “weneedmccain” has a series of anti-Obama ads up and it’s producer is just as cryptic.  Like the Palin video, these are professional quality ads, the voice-over artist sounds like an actor, not an “average guy” in his basement.  Yet when techPresident’s Micah L. Sifry went looking into “weneedmccain”’s identity, he concluded that “Michael Brown” was indeed just a really committed Republican private citizen with seemingly unlimited access to sophisticated digital recording equipment and the resources to use them at will.  Yeah, right.  Who is techPresident?  How and why did he get onto this story?  How did he debunk it within hours of reporting it? Why?

Seems to me, one aspect of “ratfucking,” which has been around longer than “astroturfing,” btw, might be to set up a compelling scenario of wrongdoing by the other guy and then yell, “fire.”  I’m just not so sure in this instance that the guys doing the yelling aren’t on the same team as the guys with the matches and gasoline on their breath.

PUMA

Just Say No Deal