Uppity Wisconsin

HillaryOn to the question of the evening - what will Hillary say?  Clearly things have been worked out to have Clinton release her delegates to Obama in one way or another - but I think the question is, will she sound convincing?  Will this finally drive the nail into the coffin of the PUMA movement?  

At the moment there's a Hillary testimonial running, and the Hillary signs are being passed out.  The tension is rising -- It's really surprising how much raw energy floats around the hall from time to time.  This is one of those times.  A few highlights:

Chelsea has introduced her, and she has taken the stage amidst pandemonium in the seats. 

Hillary has started speaking, and they're handing out the Obama Unity signs. None of them are getting up here into the Wisconsin seats - people are unhappy.Ah - they just showed up.

The Time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose.

None of us can afford to sit on the sidelines - this is a fight for the future and a fight we must win together.

No way, no how, no McCain.

Barack Obama is our candidate and he must be our president.

To my Sisterhood of the Traveling PantSuits - 

I missed a lot of the mainstream media's comments about Hillary's attire, cleavage, and nagging stereotypes of women.

And wow, this compilation of news bites from the Women's Media Center is really something. It's must-see viewing, especially for those of us - men and women - who don't describe ourselves as feminists.

As we say in Wisconsin, "holy cow!"

Over a pitcher of beer after a city-league, softball game at the Harmony Bar in Madison, Wis., I'm sure I heard one of the most open-minded political conversations going on anywhere among a group of people who will definitely not vote for the person they were discussing.

The conversation was about why Hillary should stay in the race.

An outfielder said, "If you were the first woman to have a serious bid for the presidency of the United States, would you drop out before everyone had a chance to vote? Would you want written in the history books that you were a quitter that way?"

Beer glasses were refreshed and the conversation poured.

Wow.

HRC's top strategist Mark Penn thought the democratic primary races were a winner-take-all affair. He didn't know that for the past twenty years, it's been proportional representation.

The republican primary race is structured as winner-take-all.

This critical misunderstanding makes sense if you consider Mark Penn is a republican and his PR firm is co-owned by McCain's chief strategist.

Time magazine details HRC's other mistakes.

Bottoms up!

It looks like Hillary Rodham Clinton agrees with McCain when it comes to visualizing 50+ years in Iraq ... as long as they can keep the public satisfied with low U.S. soldier death counts.

Said HRC:

"Senator McCain made the point earlier today, which I agree with, and that is, it's not so much a question of time when it comes to American military presence for the average American; I include myself in this. But it is a question of casualties," said Clinton. "We don't want to see our young men and women dying and suffering these grievous injuries that so many of them have. We've been in South Korea for 50-plus years. We've been in Europe for 50-plus. We're still in Okinawa with respect to protection there coming out of World War II."

Can someone in the MSM ask her if she still agrees with this b.s? Iraq is NOT Europe, m'kay?

- 2005 CBS "Face the Nation" interview  (see attachment with transcript below)

Once again, during Wisconsin's February Presidential Primary Election, hundreds of voter registration forms were received late. And once again, the group responsible was Women's Voices. Women Vote.

WVWV has strong connections to the Clinton campaign, and what's more damaging is that the group's robo calls provided voting misinformation targeting women and African Americans.

And no, this isn't idle speculation, or the work of unskilled interns. It's a pattern of voter supression that's ignited tens of thousands of complaints across 23 states.

NPR has the whole story, and calls the association with the Clinton camp "beyond dubious."

UPDATE: DailyKos has the whole breakdown. And note that each time a state has complained about the practice to WVWV they've said they'll stop it ... but they don't.

Presidential hopefuls John McBush and Hillary Clinton's support of a gas tax holiday for consumers will benefit oil company profits. Surprised?

Gas stations will continue to charge the same amount, roughly $3.60 per gallon nationally, but instead of paying federal taxes, they get to pocket the difference at the expense of U.S. infrastructure and safety.

How can these bozos claim there will be ANY savings to consumers?

Read more.

The nasty news no one's talking about regarding this insane gas tax holiday supported by McCain and Clinton, is that more than 300,000 transportation workers will lose their jobs due to lack of funds.

300,000 mostly white men will lose their jobs. Got that? Paying attention now?

The association also estimates that suspending the tax would divert about $8.5 billion from the Highway Trust Fund, which pays for road and bridge repairs and already faces a shortfall of $3.2 billion. Taking that tax money from the trust fund could endanger hundreds of thousands of jobs — every $1 billion in highway money supports 33,000 jobs, by one estimate — and would push more maintenance and construction costs onto the states.

Read more.

Update: John Nichols: A Baldwin shift to Obama could send crucial message

So, why is Wisconsin's most progressive elected official and superdelegate still declared, alone among elected state officeholders, for Hillary Clinton?

Good question for Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Madison).

What does it take from Clinton for Baldwin to jump ship?

Another good idea undoubtedly doomed to fail, but worth the effort to try:

Military Families Speak Out is challenging U.S. Senators -- starting with two named Obama and Clinton -- to filibuster and stop President Bush's request for more money for the Iraq war and occupation, another $102-billion.

Democrats aren't even talking about saying no.

The Democrats' plan appears to be to load up the bill with more domestic spending, rather than trying to stop the war spending. They want to add money for everything from storm-damaged national parks to local law enforcement grants to trying to use nuclear fusion to produce energy, CQ reports.

Instead of trying to stop the war, they've written Bush a letter, politely suggesting that he should change his strategy and plans. Right. That'll be happening any day now, no doubt.

Military Families Speak Out has a simple idea: Stop the war by refusing to fund it. That, you may recall, is how we finally got out of Vietnam.

They start by quoting Obama and Clinton, then ask them a simple question:

Hillary Clinton has gone blind.