(Cross-posted at Kickin it With CG and Clintonistas for Obama).

When Hillary Clinton conceded several weeks ago I was sad.  I truly wanted her to win the Democratic nomination and become the president in January 2009.

But....

It.Didn't.Happen.

Since that time we have seen the PUMA movement take hold.  Which for those living under a rock, stands for Party Unity My Ass.  I am not going to get into a diatribe about them because in some ways I understand what they are doing and somewhat how they are feeling.

- Disappointed that Hillary will not be the President in 2009?  Okay.

- Don't agree with some of Obama's policies?  Okay.

- Reviled at his campaign's tactics during the primary?  Okay.

- Think Hillary would have been the better candidate?  Okay.

- Dislike Obama?  Okay.

But you know what?  THE PRIMARY IS OVER.

And for those that are thinking of voting for McCain? Stop and think what you are doing -you are throwing Hillary under the bus.  Everything she stands for has very little to do with the Republican party ideals and voting for them would be a slap in her face.  Yes - a slap.

As my good pal Kysen wrote:

But, opting not to vote?
Voting only downticket?
Writing in Hillary?
Fine.
Whatever.
Seems a bit like holding one's breath to get one's way....but, at least it is not sullying Hillary's name.

So for the love of god - if you cannot vote for the Democratic nominee - people may not like your decision but will understand it.  But DO NOT betray Hillary and everything she stands for by voting for McCain.

(Cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama and DailyKos)

As a Clinton supporter, I think I had it wrong for a long time.

I heard Obama supporters talking about a new kind of politics - a kind which incorporated hope and change. For some reason, I decided this was a silly notion; I scoffed at Barack Obama's message: It was too idealistic, too vague. What did "Vote Hope" really mean? How had Obama rallied such a massive base of support around the nebulous concept of "hope"? Maybe that's part of what used to frustrate me - I simply didn't understand. Did his supporters believe his campaign would always stay positive? Every politician has to fight back against the opposition. They all get down in the mud, so didn't that make Obama just another typical politician?

It took me a very long time to formally "come to Obama," and an even longer time to understand his message of hope. I was looking at it the wrong way - I was trying to turn hope into something concrete and measurable, and I'd forgotten that some things can't be clinically analyzed or quantified. Hope isn't a static or tangible thing because it means something different to everyone. I do have hope for a new type of politics and a new kind of president in Barack Obama. I have faith in his ability to win the general election. He believes in the 50-State Strategy, and he perfected and implemented it with remarkable efficacy during the primaries. I have no doubt he'll use similar tactics in the fall as he makes the GOP fight for every stronghold. I have faith in his ability to govern and lead. He built his phenomenal campaign from the ground up and, with the help of his enthusiastic supporters, turned it into an unstoppable force.

(Proudly cross-posted at Clintonistas for Obama and Democratic PartyBuilder)

Is it just me, or is there something truly special about the Fourth of July holiday? I know, I know, it should be special to all of us because it's when we celebrate what our nation is about. I guess I'm just blessed that I'm able to see and experience this holiday in a special way.

It's fast becoming a tradition for me to march with my local Democratic Party in the world-famous Huntington Beach Fourth of July Parade. And when I march with my fellow Democrats in the parade, I notice something amazing. I also noticed this afterwards, when I was working with local Barack Obama volunteers on voter registration.

You know what it is? I'll tell you after the flip...

Politics is a strange, and often fascinating, process. People get involved with politics for any of a number of reasons. Some people view politics as a game. Others view it as a participatory sport. Some see it as a means to make a living, or in some cases, a fortune. I can understand all of those views, but I don't share them.

To me, politics is a means to an end. In my view, politics should be used to advance an agenda. When played for any other reason, such as fun, to gain power, for profit, or even as a means to pass the time, politics becomes about you. When this happens, politics ceases to be a means to an end and becomes nothing more than an ego trip.

What does all of this have to do with PUMA? It's really quite simple. The people in PUMA and like-minded groups have a purpose. You may not like their goals. I know I don't. You and I may disagree with their tactics, or their rhetoric, or even their goals, but that doesn't take away the fact that they are working towards an end result.

Happy Independence Day everyone!! Today our nation celebrates it's Declaration of Independence from the British Empire. After much sacrifice from that generation, our nation would go on to become the first that was built upon the liberal ideals of the Enlightenment. Our nation would become a bastion of freedom, and the "city on the hill" for the world to aspire to.

A friendly reminder, one that came to me as I was lurking on other sites.  Hillary Clinton still has debt from the primary campaign that needs to be paid down.  Your assitance, in the form of a contribution, enables Hillary to spend time doing what you want her to do; campaign for Barack Obama for President.  If you're a Hillary supporter, if you're a Barack supporter, the end result is the same.

Here's the link:

Contribution Details
Date: July 04, 2008 11:23 AM EDT
Contact: Dennis XXXXXXXX
1455 N. XXXXXXXXXXX #2304
Chicago, IL 60610
312XXXXXXX
Amount: $20.08

(cross-posed at Kickin it with CG and Clintonistas for Obama)

Last week the blog Clintonistas for Obama was locked by Blogger.  The following message was provided:

Dear Blogger User,

This is a message from the Blogger team.

Your blog, at http://clintonistasforobama.blogspot.com /, has been identified as a potential spam blog. You will not be able to publish posts to your blog until we review your site and confirm that it is not a spam blog.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

To unlock, a code had to be entered to request an editorial review from a live person, which took four days.  I also would like to preface that C4O's mandate is as follows...

We agree with Hillary Clinton, we support the progressive values she supports, and we share her dedication to making this nation better... That's why we support Barack Obama for President! :-)

The locking of the blog puzzled the group that posts there, and personally made me suspicious since C4O is the furthest thing from being spam.  So I decided to investigate this a bit further.  What I discovered was shocking and disturbing to be frank.  

My investigation began with a Washington Post article that exposes that the Obama smear emails originated on Free Republic. No shocker there. Freepers have been leaders of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy since its inception and full of smears, slime and innuendoes, especially about the Clintons.

But after the article was published, a Freeper, charged that the WaPo reporter has exposed the identity of anonymous posters in the past, and the WaPo article also "exposed" ordinary people who dared to think the rumour was important, but who denied being involved in the spamming.

The author is quite paranoid about it:

The article Mosk wrote today purports to be about efforts to track down where the `Obama is a Muslim' allegations began. However, it is actually a warning shot across the bow to opponents of Obama that they will be tracked down and exposed for speaking ill of the Obamessiah.

While it literally pains me to agree with a Freeper, is this what is going on?  Shutting down free speech online?  Finding the name and address of people who post anonymously on websites?  Reporters harassing them and exposing them to ridicule?  I am embarrassed to say that I have witnessed behaviour akin to this on 'progressive' blogs as well.

Which brings me back to C4O.  It seems that there is a concerted effort amongst a group to shut down political criticism of Obama.

Blogger offers readers the opportunity to flag blogs as spam or complain about objectionable content.  And apparently someone has been using this to shut down blogs that are perceived as critical to Obama.

Several sources, including Blogspasm report that several blogs that have been shut down by Google that are critical of Obama, and the suspicion is that Google is being manipulated to shut down the opposition.

Now no one could think that the Obama campaign is promoting such deeds, but when people attack and try to shut down sites critical of a political candidate - we all have to worry.

Is this really what some people have become, bullying and intimidation to fall in line with what is 'acceptable' discussion?  

The more we work to defeat this horrible candidate the less traction we seem to be able to get. It's time we reviewed some of our tactics and discussed new, more effective ones. During the primary, we tried to paint him as an inexperienced, ineffective liberal. That didn't seem to work. The fools voted for him anyway. It's time for something new.

The biggest problem we are having is that Barry won't stand still and let us smear him. We'll make up a new smear about him, like throwing Clark under the bus and then he'll do or say something that makes us look stupid. Well, I'm tired of looking stupid. Aren't you?

At first, we tried to say he was weak. Then he built a powerful campaign machine that beat Hillary, so our "he's too weak" claims had to be discarded. The next step was to claim he was "too good of a politician". That gave him too much credit so our new claim is that he is a 'typical' politician who was schooled in the rough-and-tumble Chicago school of politics. Please stay with this meme until we can come up with a new one.