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Hillary’s Bloggers, Disenfranchisement & a Wide Open Thread

By SusanUnPC on April 7, 2008 at 10:44 PM in Hillary Clinton, Open Thread

A new site for Hillary’s bloggers is up. It is named, appropriately, Hillary’s Bloggers. If you write diaries for other blogs, please cross-post at this new blog. Now, check out this flag and the petitions below:

48-star-flag.jpg

If you believe — as we do — that the votes of the citizens of Michigan and Florida should be counted by the Democratic party, sign these petitions:

(1) Emily’s List, which works tirelessly to raise funds for women candidates around the country, has posted this petition:

Help elect a Democratic president

To: Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean
Senator Hillary Clinton
Senator Barack Obama

I urge you to allow the votes of Democrats in Florida and Michigan to be counted. The voters in these states have a right to be heard, just like millions of other voters across the country. The right to vote, and have that vote be counted, is a core constitutional value. Please do not disenfranchise nearly 2.3 million Americans.

(2) Hillary Clinton has posted a petition at her campaign site that urges that the voters of Florida and Michigan be counted.

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NOW: What else is going on in the world?

  • JoeySky

    I will sign up at the new website and register myself as an official Hillary Blogger. Maybe we should have a membership card.

    • LandOLincoln

      I’d rather have a membership button, to match the “Wes Clark Democrat” button I’ve been wearing for 4 years now.

      (Disclaimer: I’ve been a Democrat my whole life, but lately it’s been damned hard to maintain that party loyalty when the party bigwigs seem determined to sell us out, to the extent of sandbagging the only successful Democrats in the last 40 years in order to prop up an empty suit and Republican-lite like Barack Obama.)

      Bottom line: I’ll proudly wear my choice on my sleeve–or wherever.

      • http://hyper-educated-uppity-woman.blogspot.com Uppity

        One of the two brothers-in-law who began the Draft Wes Clark for President grass roots internet campaign is a long-time friend of mine. We both ran for office at the same time one year and that’s how we got to know one another. (Not Wes, the guy who started the campaign, lol).

        I liked Clark a lot. He was no sexist pig like Obama, that’s for sure.

        • BernieO

          I wish the Clinton campaign would feature him in an ad which also points out the support she has from all those generals. It would help a lot in NC.

  • http://hyper-educated-uppity-woman.blogspot.com Uppity

    I signed up and tried to post twice to say hi. I hit Preview and I get ‘Sorry, can’t find that page”. So I give up. For now.

    • http://noquarterusa.net/ SusanUnPC

      I told the people in charge. Thanks for reporting the problem, Uppity.

      • JoeySky

        i have problem sign up too. I’m still waiting for my confirmation email. it has not arrived yet after 30 mins.

        • SirScud

          INCOMING>>>>

          It appears that the Clinton campaign’s disorganization is contagious, who would have ever thunk it?

          • http://hyper-educated-uppity-woman.blogspot.com Uppity

            It appears that the Obama campaign is working day and night to help elect John McCain and render the democratic party irrelevant. Again. Who would have ever thunk it?

  • truthteller2007

    Obama claimed he has more foreign policy experience than Clinton and McCain at a fundraiser in San Francisco this weekend. His only foreign policy experience entails spending Auchi cash on his Rezko mansion. And that is foreign policy experience we can do without.

    • BernieO

      Here’s a link to what he said:
      http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/oo-oo-ive-been-to-europe-i-can-be-president-too/

      Be sure to read it. That is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard a candidate say. It really needs to be spread far and wide so that people get a feel for just how naive and overconfident this guy is. His ego is almost a large as Bush’s. Sadly that is why the media loves him just like they fawned over bush. Ditto for McCain. It’s the cujones factor.

  • flyarm

    Tonight TAMPA NEWS 11PM..there is a turn in the Fla Delegates..Micheal Steinberg i beleive was his name is re-applying the lawsuit he had taken to the appelate court in Georgia..he is claiming reverse discrimination of something similar to that …sorry it caught me by surprise on the news..he said South Carolina got to move up because the majority of Dem voters were African American ..and Nevada got to moce up their primary because of a Majority of Hispanic Democrats..and he said white were discriminated on In Florida..Florida got the delegstes stripped while SC and Nevada didn’t.

    This was just on Tampa local news..i will look for the link now..

    fly

    • AF catfish

      What’s tragic is this will finally come to the fore after Obama gets the nomination. It’s just burning too slowly right now.

  • AF catfish

    I don’t know if anybody saw Corey Booker on the talk shows Friday, but he went out of his way to defer to and credit his elders who sacrificed and fought in the civil rights movement so he could be where he is today.

    Also I’ve heard people urged Booker to run for Governor but he said it was important to pay his dues, be mayor for now and move on to other things later.

    He was saying all the things I wish Obama would say. Booker is the package, would be nice to see him be president someday. I try to like Obama but it just isn’t clicking.

    • kenoshaMarge

      I saw Booker on Moyers and was very impressed. This man, who is reported to be a good friend of Obamas BTW is head and shoulders above him.

      He does more than talk the talk. As he is now, I would not only have no problem voting for him, I would love to. (That is if I could just get over my racist ways.)

  • Shainzona

    Susan – is this taking the place of HillarysVoice blog site? We should all congregate in one spot, if possible!

  • jwrjr

    Clinton was on the Ellen Degeneres talk show Monday morning. The audience seemed to be quite supportive.

  • Ann

    The following is an editorial from State Senator Ted Deutch regarding the gaming of the rules where Florida is concerned — please read and forward:

    Palm Beach Post
    “Democrats’ ballyhooed rules offer fix”
    By Ted Deutch
    Special to The Post
    Sunday, April 06, 2008

    Finger-wagging at Florida Democrats has been in vogue among some political commentators and Washington insiders these past few months.
    They find their sound bite-quality lecture powerfully succinct: “You broke the rules, you get no delegates, and your election does not count.” While this argument has become conventional wisdom in some places, it is fundamentally flawed. Before the delegate debate goes any further, stop the scolding and examine the facts.
    Let’s be clear that the rules that we have been discussing are the delegate selection rules for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The rules cannot tell a state or its voters whether the results of a legal election are valid; they only govern the selection of delegates to the national convention.
    A record number of Florida Democrats, more than 1.7 million voters, went to the polls for the Jan. 29 Florida primary, and not one of them broke any rules by exercising his or her right to vote. But the DNC has said that they don’t count.
    Last week, DNC Chairman Howard Dean announced his commitment to work toward a solution to seat the delegates in Denver. But instead of considering any of a host of possible new or proposed “solutions,” the focus of this debate should be the language of the actual rules, the states that violated them and the penalties imposed (or waived) because of those violations.
    Rule 11 clearly prohibits primaries or caucuses from being held prior to the first Tuesday in February, except in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, each of which is assigned very specific limits on when they may hold their contests. Florida Democrats were penalized for violating Rule 11 when our state moved the primary seven days too early. Michigan Democrats, whose state moved 21 days early, were penalized, too. Oddly, Democrats in three other states that violated the rules were not.
    Iowa, permitted to go “no earlier than 22 days before the first Tuesday in February” (Jan. 14), moved its caucuses to Jan. 3 – a clear-cut violation. New Hampshire, granted the freedom to hold its primary “no earlier than 14 days” (Jan. 22) ahead of the pack, also broke Rule 11 by moving to January 8. And, of course, South Carolina, “no earlier than seven days” (Jan. 29), defied the DNC and moved to Jan. 26.
    So what penalties, if any, should the rule-breaking states be subject to? According to Rule 20.C: “The number of pledged delegates elected … shall be reduced by 50”percent.” The rules do not say that the votes of Florida Democrats do not count. Indeed, the penalty established by the DNC’s own rules is based upon the results of the primary; therefore, the results of the primary must be valid.
    It’s clear that Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Michigan and Florida all violated the same rule and should be treated the same. But that’s not what happened. While the rules designate a 50 percent delegate reduction, the DNC imposed the death penalty – a 100 percent reduction – on Florida and Michigan. Amazingly, the other “rule-breakers” got no penalty at all.
    The DNC has chosen to waive the rules when it believes that it suits the DNC’s purposes. If the DNC insists on treating Florida differently, then it should be reminded that its own rules establish a 50 percent penalty rather than the death penalty given to Florida Democrats. As a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, I believe that we had a legal primary with record turnout; thus, all of the delegates should be seated according to the Jan. 29 results. But I acknowledge the validity of the argument by Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign that turnout may well have been higher had the candidates waged full-fledged campaigns here. Rather than continue this divisive debate, the DNC should simply return to the rules that it drafted.
    For Dr. Dean to truly move this process forward, he should publicly acknowledge immediately that the rules do not say that the votes of Floridians do not count; the rules require that the votes are counted. Thus, when the national popular vote is tallied and analyzed, it must include the 1.75 million votes cast by Florida Democrats in the primary. Florida Democrats voted, and the rules say to count the votes.
    The chief purpose of the DNC is to elect a Democratic president. Arbitrary enforcement of the rules at the expense of millions of voters impedes that goal. For the sake of all 50 states, the DNC must count Florida’s 1.75 million votes and seat no less than half of our delegates based upon those votes.
    After all, the rules are the rules.

  • kazi222

    Please. How can we conveniently disremember signed pledges to not participate in MI and FLA primaries at the beginning of this primary season? And how can we disremember the statements at the beginning of this primary season about those primaries and those delegates? Where was the talk then of “disenfranchisement”? There will be no disenfranchisement. The delegates from MI and FLA will be seated at the convention in a way that is fair to both campaigns and follows the rules of the DNC. This is a diversion from issues folks.

    • LandOLincoln

      Oh, I dunno–maybe the same way you lot have “conveniently disremembered” that Obama himself said–in November of 2007 IIRC–that he would make sure the MI and FLA votes counted and delegates were seated not matter what the results of their primaries turned out to be?

      • http://hyper-educated-uppity-woman.blogspot.com Uppity

        I love that. Obama Himself. The Lord Baby Jesus spoke!

        There is nothing we have “forgotten”. There is nothing we will forget. And Florida and Michigan voters have even more to remember.

    • J. Diamond

      a diversion from the issues? what issue could be more important than whether or not democrats will be counting votes cast in a legal election?

      The rules cannot tell a state or its voters whether the results of a legal election are valid; they only govern the selection of delegates to the national convention.

  • MP98

    I see you’ve removed my posts.
    Can’t tolerate dissent, can we?

    So much for intellectual honesty.
    But, that’s no surprise – coming from the mindless left.

    FROM LARRY JOHNSON: WE CAN HANDLE DISSENT FINE. I DO NOT TOLERATE MINDLESS STUPIDITY AND TROLLING. BUH, BYE. YOU ARE ON MODERATION NOW. IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY OTHER THAN HURLING INSULTS BRING IT ON. OTHERWISE, GO AWAY.

    • MP98

      A while ago – before your Hillary obsession – I came to this site and gave (or tried to give) a reasoned support for the Bush foreign policy.
      Not Bush – as I agree with the policy – but find him, and his circle, to be incompetent buffoons.
      I did not engage in name-calling or profanity.

      My attempts were met with a torrent of name-calling (“troll”, “asshole”, etc) and profanity.
      No adult responses.

      OK, I realized that this is a site for entertainment (and responded in kind), not serious discussion – unless the discussion is slavish agreement with Valerie Plame, Hillary Clinton and the “permanent” (unelected) government.
      The only “dissent” seems to be whether Hillary should wear blue or red pants suits.

      That’s fine. It is your blog. BUT, don’t hold it against me for occassionally checking in for entertainment.

      • http://www.food4humanity.org HoosierHoops

        while ago – before your Hillary obsession – I came to this site and gave (or tried to give) a reasoned support for the Bush foreign policy.

        Wow Mp!! i didn’t think that was possible.
        If you can give a reasoned support to our current foreign policy.. I’m all ears.. I won’t call you a troll..you’d be Einstien genius or something..

    • http://www.food4humanity.org HoosierHoops

      ahhh. Larry, Thanks for not banning me the other night when i got drunk and got all frustrated over this election cycle..It only takes a few beers then I’m all about being pissed off.. Again I’m sorry to you and all the other posters here and i guess i should stay away from the beer, It doesn’t take much. ( hey, at least i wasn’t at a strip club at 3am brandishing a weapon ) :)
      You know how crazy we hoosier hillbillies can be.
      Did anyone watch the NCAA championship game last night? What a game! I love seeing tall guards push the ball and control the game. very athletic moves.
      Congrad’s to Bill Self and the Kansas team for winning the national championship.
      it’s 11 days before Jordan gets back from Iraq..

      • Taters

        Hey HH,
        I’m on the road, in Nashville. With all that’s been going on as of late, I was assuming it would be tough for you to make it. Feel free to email me. nagoyaDOTkidAThotmailDOTcom
        Love ya brother, hope all is well.
        Kind Regards,
        Bobby

      • TeakwoodKite

        HH, If it is one thing I understand is the depth of your families anx, I send good thoughts to them.

        I’ll have few when we know your son is home safe. (and his mates)

        PS. Your post had the effect of bringing focus to what is important.

        God speed. Did the asprin help?

  • Salo

    J-Pod and Horowitz are going to have a field day with Obama.

    Senior O was some type of Real Actual Leftie with published 5 year plans for Kenya. Again something that the press completely missed/suppressed. I missed this myself and i’ve been looking around for things.

    Given my own political philosophy this is a good development–but i’d still have prefered it if the wider public were made aware of the fact that Senior O was a Real Leftie.

    the policy papers, are all available in journals and other library materials…the press know they exist and are obviouly saving them up for a later date.

    Was this connected to the Odinga stuff alluded to by the web site owner??

  • Joe

    Here’s an interesting analysis of the rules governing the 6 states that moved their primaries and caucuses early and how Howard Dean applied the rules arbitrarily:

    http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/04/06/a1e_deutch_commentary_0406.html

  • Centrocitta

    John Yoo. Naturalized Korean creep. A guest in my country. He should be tried for war crimes and deported!

    • simon

      John Yoo. Naturalized Korean creep

      I was thinking yesterday Cheney’s crew of Pentagon morons was starting to make the real north Koreans look bright.

      • Centrocitta

        Indeed. I’d also call some members of this group extremely cagey. And that’s why I supported the DC lawyer who sued the Korean owners of a dry cleaning establishment for losing his suit pants and then offering him someone elses pants insisting they were his. Personally, I get right down upset when somebody tries to insult my intelligence, particularly if its an immigrant who wasn’t raised with the American values I was taught. But the DC lawyer lost this case. Maybe John Yoo asserted some influence. Obviously, he wasn’t raised with American values either.

  • ybnormal

    Interesting thing about the ‘hillarys bloggers’ website; it features a banner ad at the top for McCain.

    SoapBlox the host, says in one of their own blogs,
    http://www.soapblox.net/blog/showDiary.do?diaryId=940
    “I’m kind of kicking around the idea of offering the most basic SoapBlox package for free.
    The condition being we’d run a banner ad at the top of your site to offset the costs we’re no longer collecting from hosting charges.
    Would any of you be interested in this? Would you switch from a $15/month plan to a free plan in exchange for having a banner ad across your blog?”

    Looks to me like what they do now is both collect the fee AND run the banner ad, apparantly with no control by the group/person putting up the blog.

  • ybnormal

    Open thread – other breaking news
    Parallel stories:

    All three (Clinton, McCain, Obama) will get to question Patreus today, which can be seen on C-Span.

    While simultaneously, Maliki calls for Al-Sadr to disband his army, and while Al-Sadr appears to be leaning the opposite way.

    I can’t help wondering what the long term effects are that the U.S. ’08 campaign and the developing Iraqi politics are going to have on each other.

  • kenoshaMarge

    Everywhere you go little Obamatrons are telling all the Hillary supporters to give up, it’s over, you’ve lost. Which makes ya wonder if they’re so all-fired sure they’ve won why in the hell do they want Hillary to give up, give in, and move along.

    There are a few voices of reason here and there trying to somehow bring some unity (without pony) back into the Democratic Party.

    What many do not seem to understand is that many women, saw and realized for the first time that the Democratic Party really has no use for them other than in a supporting role.

    Now there are many fine actresses in supporting roles. Doing a wonderful job and making us proud. The problem is that the Democratic Leadership, The DNC, the MSM and most of Left Blogostan apparently believes that women should only be allowed supporting roles. And some of us, in fact many of us, are really pyst off about that.

    And so some of us, in fact many of us, are quite ready willing and able to tell the Democratic Party, The DNC, the MSM and most of Left Blogostan to go to hell.

    Don’t try and scare us with tales of the evil McCain. We don’t find him half as frightening as the fact that a significant portion of our Party and the media are not only accepting of misogyny, but leading the way.

    What they can’t seem to see, or won’t see, is that pyssing on a significant portion of your constituency is not smart politics. And pyssing off a significant number of your viewing audience is not smart either. So we’ll be perfectly happy to make our displeasure apparent at the polls and with our remotes.

    And when you get tired of blaming Bill and Hillary Clinton for the fact that John McCain is preparing to give his acceptance speech take a good long look in the mirror.

    I personally will vote in November even if Obama is the candidate. But I won’t vote for him. I will write in Hillary Clinton, vote for a few worthy Dems down-ticket and go home happy in the knowledge that I performed my civic duty by voting and my duty to myself as a woman by not voting for either Obama or McCain.

  • John

    1. Hillary suggests that McCain is qualified to be President. Result: Outrage from Obama and Media, demanding apology.

    2. Randi Rhodes calls Hillary a Whore at Obama event. Result: silence from Obama camp.

    3. Ed Schultz calls McCain a warmonger at Obama event. Result: Obama camp dissasociates itself from Schultz’s comments.

    What the hell am I missing here?

  • PamFlorida

    The DNC (Donna Brazille, et al) and Obama campaign miscalculated the consequences of penalizing FL. & MI. voters. The political in-fighting and personal interest in efforcing arbitrary “rules” will deliver the GE to McCain.
    The Republican strategy in FL. was to undermine the growing democratic base. It worked-the DNC eliminated all of the state delegates, then the republicans punished the state by reducing delegates by half.
    Gov. Charlie Christ (the prime mover in the manipulation of the primary) was supported by Jeb Bush, the Bush family & $$$$ Republicans. Christ is actively campaigning for McCain. When McCain announces his VP choice, Christ could be the final nail in democratic coffin the GE. Ya think???

  • rjj

    It was a ratfuck?

    I didn’t know that. I was seriously otherwise occupied when this was news. If it is true, the Dems are too stupid to live.

    Will someone confirm this is true/false?

    The Florida legislature voted to move the Primary date up in front of the allowable date set by DNC. Charlie Christ signed it. Charlie Christ and the Florida legislature all knew exactly what they were getting up to when they moved the date. They did it in the face of the facts, their election was not going to be valid and they knew it. It was to their political advantage to play hardball with DNC. The Florida Democrats went along. (a really truly stupid move)

    http://chuckfor.blogspot.com/2008/03/charlie-christ-is-disengenuous-liar.html

    ARGGHHHH!

    • SirScud

      INCOMING>>>>>

      Wake the fuck up people!!! Changing the date of the Florida primary was the EXCLUSIVE work of the Florida legislature, which is controlled by the Republican party. The Democrats in Florida had no control over this stupid political move, and to claim that they “went along with it” is not only uninformed nonsense, it is patently ignorant!
      The national Democrat Party made it publicly known to all members, long before the Republicans in Florida created this problem, that it would not sanction an election primary held before the traditional date of the Florida primary; and all of the 2008 Democrat candidates signed off on this policy of their national party. Subsequent to the unsanctioned primary, one candidate has recanted on the pledge to not recognize the primary. This in no way can be construed to mean that all of the other candidates support the disenfranchisement of Florida Democrats; it simply means that one, of many, has decided to misconstrue the situation, promulgated by Republican chicanery, in an attempt to gain an undeserved political advantage.
      Does anyone really believe that there is any Democrat candidate who does not value the votes of the Florida Democrats, and does not want their votes to be counted? What kind of silly fucking Rovian nonsense is going on here?
      Both the Florida and Michigan state Democrat Parties will work out a way to seat a delegation at the national convention, in concert with the rules of the Party that simply require that the delegates reflect the will of the Florida voters.

  • truthteller2007

    Barack Obama also hates France.

  • jimbo

    MP98
    Hey stupid twot. If we become France at least we would have competent health care.

    Ditch this piece of shit troll.

  • chris

    Apparently you need a web dictionary you right wing loon

    TROLL(def): Someone who lurks websites in order to create flame wars while saying nothing of substance.

    (and you couldn’t possibly give us a history of Fascism could you? It wasn’t a left wing movement you nitwit)

  • jes

    Maybe you should educate yourself a little better before you start throwing out terminology that you don’t understand. Actually, facists seek to suppress democracy and the rights of the voters. Like Obama and his cult of thuggish minions who are quite content to have disenfranchised millions of voters in FL and MI.