Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda

Is it true that we shoulda had this conversation about PUMA a long time ago? Maybe.

In fact, here is a post of mine from November 18th, 2008, in which I ask the question, “What’s Next?” I think you will find a lot of striking similarities between my latest post, “Define and Conquer,” and this one.

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What’s Next?

November 18, 2008 · 1 Comment

What Now?

The PUMA movement is regathering, regrouping and re-purposing. Our first goal, to put Hillary’s name in nomination at the Convention, was successful. Our second goal, to prevent Barack Obama’s corruption of the election process and cynical use of misogyny and race-bating from being rewarded at the ballot box, and to break that highest, hardest glass ceiling for women, was not. However, as turnout numbers show, there were not enough PUMAs to swing the election when the Republicans themselves did not vote for their own nominee. But you may be encouraged to know that, according to exit polls, 16% of McCain’s supporters would have voted for Hillary had she been the Democratic nominee instead of Barack Obama. Since McCain received more than 58 million votes, that’s more than 9 million potential PUMAs. 26% of them self-identified as Democrats, which is about 2.5 million Party members that would not vote for their Party’s nominee.

But what to do now? The election is over, and we all still have the same concerns about Barack Obama (who is he and what will he do as President?); the direction the country will now take (will there be a New New Deal or not?); the fairness and transparency of our election processes, both primary and general; the utter and complete failure of the Fourth Estate to present anything resembling the truth about any of the candidates; and the rampant, unrepentant misogyny (and since Prop 8 passed, the homophobia) that has been revealed to exist in American society (emphasis added 5/19/09 – let’s see: New Deal, Fair Elections, Media Reform, Misogyny and Homophobia – sounds familiar, no?).

How do we act on those concerns, and where do we start?

The first step is to stand up and be counted. If you are a PUMAtic blogger and want to be part of the PUMASphere, email editor@pumasphere.com to be added to the blogroll at VotePUMA.com. If you are a commenter and don’t see your favorite blog on the list, you can ask the editors to include it.

The second step is to decide where to focus your energies. I think it’s pretty clear that my primary concern is the 30% Solution and modern feminism, so that is where my activism will take me. I personally have a couple of things in the works, including a radio show and working on ways to ratify the ERA, and I am always ready to lend my support to The New Agenda and its non-partisan activities on behalf of advancing women in politics.

And speaking of standing up for women in politics, here are two things you can join me in doing today:…

(post snipped due to the listed actions being outdated)

And you? What concerns you the most? What would you like to see PUMA become? (5/19/09 again – notice how I tried to start a discussion about where to go from here?)

Cross-posted at Partizane

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Unfortunately, my pleas fell on deaf ears at that time. People were too hurt and devastated to think about next steps so soon after the election. But now, many of us have recovered, and are ready for organization and action again. 

In my opinion, we should not obsess about shoulda, coulda, woulda. Let’s just realize that we’re still here, we still have a lot of energy and power, and that if we play our cards right, we can still effect real change in America.

What do you think?

My New Year’s Prediction: They Will Never Defeat Her – Or Us

Famous, Fierce and Fabulous

Remember how the frustrated Obama bloggers and the corporate media were screaming “Why Won’t That Stupid Bitch Quit” after Super Tuesday, claiming that Hillary was merely staying in the race for some strange, evil, stalker-ish reason? She was like Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction” to some, a racist who was trying to stand in the way of their Beloved Precious’ Big Moment to others. Never did they give a moment’s ink to the fact that Hillary and Obama were tied in pledged delegates, even with the unearned delegates that Obama stole from Hillary in Michigan and the artificial discounting of her delegates from Florida. Nor did they pause to reflect that Obama could just as well be seen as standing in Hillary’s way. She had been earning her stripes in Democratic politics for decades, whereas he had burst on the scene out of nowhere in 2004.

But, as we know, the Obamatons were victorious. And Hillary, in accordance with their fervent desires, has slunk away into obscurity, as befits a person with scary ladyparts whose last name is Clinton.

Or…maybe not.

Gone Fishin’

Woman At Work

Er, workin’.

Yes, sports fans, after six months of looking, I have managed to find…two weeks of employment! Who says the economy sucks?!

In any case, posting will be light for a while. But in my absence, here are some cool things to read, do and hear:

Me! And my fellow co-hosts of the new PUMA United Radio show, “The View…from Under The Bus.”

Produced by the fabulous State of Disbelief (who will weigh in from time to time, of course!), the show will focus on sexism and what we women, and the men who support us, can do to fight it. Join me, SOD, AngieNC, Afrocity and Regency for a fun-filled and snarky hour, this Wednesday night, December 10, after “The Lion’s Share,” at 9:30 pm EST.

Please, for the love of Jeebus, read this.

The Personal Is NOT Political

Brava, Murphy, brava!

Take action!

Join VotePUMA. Check out PUMAPac for daily actions. Join The New Agenda. Sign my petition, goshdarnit, so Carolyn Maloney (or another qualified woman) can take Hillary’s seat in the Senate. And when I say qualified, I do not mean Caroline Kennedy, who has absolutely no experience in the public sphere whatsoever. I’m sure she’s a lovely person, but we need a workhorse, not a showhorse.

Enjoy your week, PUMAs. Hope to see you again soon.

Congratulations, President-Elect Obama.

We Are Still Here!

(Note to self: I am too old to do shots of Southern Comfort with PUMAs in New York. Owwwww, my head!)

I understand the nature of the historic moment that many of my friends and family are celebrating. It is indeed a powerful statement about America, that we have finally elected an African-American man to the office of the Presidency. I want to shout out to my stepmother, who worked so hard on Obama’s campaign in Virginia. Knowing her belief and energy, I am quite sure that the massive turnout in her county was largely due to her efforts.

But as a woman, I have nothing to celebrate today; because Barack Obama chose to have his moment at the expense of another historic moment. And he used every nasty, misogynistic, Republican trick in his toolbox to do it.

I desperately hope that I am wrong about what kind of President Barack Obama will be. Based on the evidence of the past 21 months, however, I am not optimistic today.

Yet…there is still PUMA. 

The “My Voting Strategy” Series: A Must-Read.

Hear Us Roar!

Please do yourselves a favor and head on over to The Confluence today. In the top left-hand corner are links to posts by all the Conflucians which sum up their reasons for voting NObama. The posts will continue until we have all had our say.

Remember that no matter what happens tomorrow, take heart that you are not alone. We started something good, and it will continue to grow after the election.

PUMA POWER!!!

PUMA Up, People

We Are Just Getting Started!

Well, it’s coming into the home stretch now. Finally, after all the shocks and the agony and the disappointments and the activism, we are less than three weeks away from the final decision as to who will be our President next January.

Massive Hakas are being perpetrated by the media. Polls that are representative of only 20% of the people called are being shown and quoted as if they are valid. The screams of “RACISM” are coming almost daily from the Obama camp. The trolls are flop-sweating all over PUMA sites. And some erstwhile PUMAs are losing their nerve in a spectacular way, turning on their former friends and trying to work out their cognitive dissonance by shitting all over us on their blogs.

It’s time to PUMA Up, people. We are in for a whole lot of ugly.

I have said in the past that I thought Obama was unelectable. I said that because I did not believe that a person who surrounds himself with racists, money-launderers, voting fraud perpetrators and domestic terrorists could get elected President in this country. But I didn’t know how invested the media was in pushing him down our throats and covering up the radicalism, corruption and bigotry that informs his vaunted “judgment.” It is just possible that this blatant media push, combined with the ever-worsening economy and the understandable hostility towards the Republican brand after eight years of the Worst President Ever, could get him into the White House.

But whether Obama or McCain wins, our actions after the election will be the same. Being a PUMA has always been about two things: 1) Doing everything we can to ensure that the Obama wing of the Democratic Party is not successful in its attempted coup; and 2) Reforming the Democratic Party after the election. We may or may not succeed in the first step, but that is no excuse not to proceed with the second.

As Hillary quoted in her speech at the Convention, “When you hear the dogs and when you see the torches, JUST KEEP GOING.”

And so it shall be. PUMA POWER!!!

Cross-posted at Partizane and The Confluence

Madamab on The Radio Tonight!

Check out Riverdaughter for the details.

Extra bonus: The first live performance of “Obama’s Runway!”

Channeling Admiral Stockdale: Who Am I, and What Am I Doing Here?

You may wonder why I am suddenly writing about the economy all the time. Where are my Barack-bashing snarky posts? Has someone kidnapped me, the way so many bloggers have been kidnapped by, and assimilated into, the O-Borg?

Of course not. I’m still me, and I’m sure many snarky posts will be forthcoming. But frankly, I think the election is all but over at this point. Our next President will be John McCain, and our next Vice-President will be the glass-ceiling shattering Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin. (Yes, she knows how much she owes to Hillary Clinton, and so do we!) I am now seeking my post-election mission, and for me, it has to do with framing.

You see, I firmly believe that Americans are mostly in agreement about the major issues in our country. Polling shows that we support a social safety net (including universal health care) and would be willing to pay for it. We are ready for a new New Deal, a radical re-claiming of the American Dream. Hillary Clinton’s incredible success in the primaries, and her consistently superior polling over John McCain (when it was still being done), shows that her FDR-style message was heard, understood and appreciated.

Yet we have been manipulated by BOTH parties into thinking that we can never come together to solve these problems. We think of political parties as if they were football teams: We root for them, think they can do no wrong, and refuse to hold them to account when they collect too many penalties. And of course, we know in our bones that the other team sucks! Boooooooo!!!!

The Democratic Convention, Day 3 – Force It! and, What Now?

Well, well, well, wasn’t that an amazing spectacle yesterday? Can you believe the theme was supposed to be “Securing America’s Future?” Clearly it was nothing of the kind! The Obama/DNC Conglomerate abundantly demonstrated that the true message was “Force It!.”

If you are pressured by PUMAs into nominating Hillary and doing a roll call vote, Force It! to come out the way you want it to! After all, we can’t trust the people with something as important as Democracy!

Send Grandma Pelosi in to lecture and intimidate the delegates. Make them vote in secret at their hotel rooms, instead of in public at the Convention so that the result can be manipulated. During the roll call, have the vote totals “adjusted” so that they do not reflect the true count and (heaven forbid) favor Hillary. Instead of doing a full roll call, force Hillary into stopping it before her biggest states are called and to ask that Obama be nominated by acclamation.

Congratulations, Party Leaders: you have created the falsest display of “Unity” ever witnessed by the American people. You have intimidated the delegates into acquiescing, you have stolen victory from the real winner, you have forced the greatest President since Kennedy to bow to your Messiah, and you have elevated your cherished mediocrity over the truly extraordinary.

But I have one question for you.

How are you going to force the American people to cast their votes for Obama?

Something tells me in November, the people will speak. But it won’t be with voices. Instead, from the mouths of outraged voters everywhere, a giant PUMA roar will issue forth!

That’s what happens when you try to Force It! in America, Nancy, Howard, Donna and Barack. This isn’t Stalinist Russia yet. You’re about to be taken to school, and you will not like your lessons one little bit.

What now for PUMA as a movement, and for me as a PUMA? I have some thoughts I’ll share with you later today. But for the moment, I’m just sitting with my emotions and allowing myself time to grieve for the corruption of the Party I loved so much.

But I’ll tell you this much. We are not going to waste all of this energy and power. We are going to direct it for the betterment of our country and our Party. And we are going to awaken the slumbering giant of American patriotism and activism.

People United Means Action.

ROOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!

Attack of the Sweeties! An Anti-Troll Rant for Monday Morning

Vote Obama Or I Will Eat You!

(Disclaimer: All Obama supporters are not trolls – just the ones who go on PUMA blogs and scream at us for owning our votes.)

Well, well, well. It seems that the Obaman trolls (otherwise known as “sweeties”) are now seeing the writing on the wall. Their Messiah is going to lose, and lose big, to John McCain. And, like the petulant, idiot children they are, they are blaming the PUMAs.

Here is a lovely sampling of some of their oeuvre. This “person” is the only sweetie who actually attempted to address some of the PUMA concerns stated on the “What Is A PUMA?” page. Usually, they just insult.

And, btw, when, just when was the Obama campaign vicious and sexist?? Oh yes, that would be when Gerry Ferraro or Ann Lewis decided to say it was, regardless of the truth. Go work for the crybaby right-wing sneer and smear brigade. What did Molly Ivins have to say about Hillary in 2006? Hardly a male sexist, Molly.

Uh, wow. Not much of a refutation. Molly Ivins said something uncomplimentary about Hillary in 2006, so I should pretend that nothing in the 2008 campaign ever happened? That’s sweetie logic for you. I guess Obama never said she was “likeable enough,” “periodically down,” “claws coming out,” brushed her off his shoulder, gave her the finger, took the stage to “99 Problems (And a Bitch Ain’t One),” etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum? I suppose they have never seen this video either.

[cricket cricket cricket]

On another note, what about “Obama will be a horrible President” do these sweeties not understand? Well, everything, because they haven’t thought that far ahead. They actually believe that all he has to do is become the President, and in an instant, His very Presence will create a solid economy, an end to the housing crisis, a better environment, peace and the withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. All Praise the Great Obama!

Talk about stupid and naive. Senator Obama has no intentions of keeping ANY of his promises. Was the FISA vote really not a clue for you? The softening on abortion, on the Iraq withdrawal? Everything he says and does is for political gain. Or do you think that Joe Biden, in the Senate for 30 years, personifies “hope and change and a NEW kind of politics?”

Really, sweeties, what possible, reasonable excuse could Obama have for passing over Hillary in favor of Joe Biden? Oh, I guess we PUMAs have to “get over” that too. He should have asked because she got 1902 delegates! Asking Hillary to be VP, although I would have personally hated it, was an absolute political no-brainer and the ONLY WAY to unify the Party. Yet he didn’t do it. Why do you think it was? More of his “superior judgement?”