I Don't Like You Either.

Jon Swift on the Kos Boycott (My Quote of the Day--Maybe the Year)

Ah, Jon Swift.  You never fail to make me laugh through my gritted teeth.  The piece cited here is one of the great satirist's best ever.   The following is an excerpt, but there is more, lots more (my favorite bit may be his remarks on Lord Kos's so-sensitive response to the frustration and pain of his diarists---to read, click on the link).

What has especially irked Clinton supporters about Obama supporters at the Daily Kos is that Kossacks for Obama have learned what politics is really about. Politics is not about getting someone elected or changing the world, which anyone who has taken a look at the ability of the Daily Kos to actually get people elected should know. Politics is about feeling good about yourself. Who cares if Obama gets beaten in the general election; he will make everyone who voted for him feel really good inside. That's how Ralph Nader made people who voted for him feel in 2000. It didn't matter whether he had a chance to win or not, it only mattered that his supporters didn't feel icky by voting for Al Gore or George Bush....

I don't know what the average age of Kossacks is but judging by the level of their writing, it appears that most of them weren't even born when Bill Clinton was President. But they have studied enough history in school to know how terrible those years of peace and prosperity were since they directly led to the war and economic downturn we are experiencing now and understandably they don't want to go back to that...

In Support of the Kos Boycott

Diarists  at Kos---which I admit I rarely look at---who support Hillary Clinton have decided that enough's enough.  Good for them.  It's about time Clinton supporters start speaking up against the abuse and insults of the Hillary-hating  O-bot contingent of the Obama supporting wing of the Democratic party. 

Here's an excerpt from Allegre's last post, taken from where it's cross-posted at No Quarter----I refuse to link to Kos.

DailyKos is not the site it once was thanks to the abusive nature of certain members of our community. 

I’ve decided to go on "strike" and will refrain from posting here as long as the administrators allow the more disruptive members of our community to trash Hillary Clinton and distort her record without any fear of consequence or retribution.  I will not be posting at DailyKos effective immediately.  I will not help drive up traffic or page-hits as long as my candidate – a good and fine DEMOCRAT - is attacked in such a horrid and sexist manner not only by other diarists, but by several of those posting to the front page.

The Media & Obama: Good Intentions Paving a Rough Road

by Damozel and D. Cupples  | We've been worried about this for weeks -- a possible backlash from Hillary Clinton's supporters against pro-Obama (anti-Hillary) media outlets and the passive-aggressive bashing of Hillary that appears to be approved by the Obama campaign.

Apparently, the backlash is already gathering hurricane force -- if a recent Pew poll reflects voters' opinions.

Obama's Angry Minister? Clinton's Fault (According to TPM)

Remember back when everything was Bill Clinton's fault?  Apparently it's Hillary's  fault that ABC news published a story about Obama's very angry minister and TPM has decided to "tell it like it is."

The simple fact is that we wouldn't be seeing this stuff now if it weren't for the fact that this is the kind of campaign Hillary Clinton's campaign has decided to wage -- often directly and at other times indirectly by not reining it in in her supporters when it crops up on its own. Wright is news today because Ferraro's been news yesterday. Are her comments racist? That's a loaded, too copious, word. And there've been cases where the Clinton team has gotten a bum rap on these matters. What I do know, however, is that Clinton's campaign and her surrogates have injected the subject of Obama's race into this campaign too many times now for it to be credible to believe that it is anything but a conscious strategy.

Lincoln's quote of Matthew 18:7 is instructive here: "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh."

It is insufficient to say that Republicans will do this in the fall so there's nothing to be lost in hearing it now from Democrats.

Oh, Josh Marshall. 

Yes,  Hillary has magic powers over/powerful connections with the media.  We've all seen how well the media treats her in comparison to Obama. "Tell it like it is," indeed.

I dreamed initially of a Clinton/Obama ticket that would run for eight years, followed by an Obama/Edwards one that would last for the next eight.   It seemed like the perfect beginning to a new era of Democratic government.

This is BREAKING MY HEART.  I love TPM; I like Hillary; and I'd like Obama if he'd make his 'surrogates'---hate that word---play nice and play fair.

Obama's Earmarks

Once again, the Obama campaign is pressing  Hillary Clinton to reveal information without holding itself to the same standard it requires her to meet.  Here's an article in the AP:

Sen. Barack Obama is open about the pet projects he's tucked into federal legislation, but it's a different story when it comes to the extra spending he added to state budgets while serving in the Illinois Legislature.

Public records reveal some of the projects he sponsored as a state senator, from literacy programs and park improvements to drill team uniforms and jazz-appreciation events. They add up to more than $6 million.

But that covers just two of Obama's nearly eight years in the Illinois Senate. State records don't detail his projects from other years, and his presidential campaign has not responded to repeated requests from The Associated Press for information.

While silent about Obama's spending in Illinois, his campaign has criticized Democratic presidential rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for withholding similar information about her years in the U.S. Senate.

Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said Thursday that her position should prompt voters to "ask why she doesn't believe they have the right to know she wants to spend their tax dollars."  (AP)

As the article says,   "Since entering the U.S. Senate and launching his presidential campaign, Obama has made a political issue of openness."  Turns out the operative words are "since entering the U.S. Senate and launching his presidential campaign."

Keith Olbermann's Comments on the Clinton Campaign

The title of Larry Johnson's review pretty much sums it up:  Olbermann’s Cheese Slides Off the Plate,.  he recommends that we just boycott MSNBC  Done and done!

We used to be BIG Olbermann fans at Buck Naked Politics, and now we've all pretty much unanimously decided to pull the plug.  It's saddest for D Cupples, for whom Olbermann topped the list of famous people she'd like to have lunch with. 

I just remain amazed that these journalists---or at least, their corporate masters--- don't see the long-term consequences of their blatant lack of objectivity or even-handedness.

Bye, MSNBC.  I won't miss you.   Okay, maybe I'll miss Tweety a little bit---I expected him to bash Hillary, and was kind of used to it, and I love his big blonde bobblehead, his thatchlike hair, and squeaky voice, even when he's saying things that make me want to snatch him bald-headed.  But I suspect him of secretly really fancying Hillary, like the kid in my mother's Depression-era storybooks who dipped the pigtails of the girl he LIKED-liked into the inkwell. 

But Olbermann?  No, there's just no excuse for it.  No excuse, I mean for this (transcript at Crooks and Liars).

I guess MSNBC thinks they have no Hillary supporters in their target audience.  And by now, they're probably right. 

And obviously, Obama's campaign by now has decided he can get elected without the nearly half the party that prefers Hillary. 

Sean Wilentz at TNR: "The Obama campaign has cleverly played...the "race-baiter card"and yet blamed Hillary Clinton."

This piece is a response to the shameful New York Times op-ed 'The Red Phone in Black and White,' which I didn't bother to cover because, like Sean Wilentz, I found it depressing, and because, unlike Sean Wilentz, I don't get paid for my opinons. 

The thirst of 'the Obama camp,' so-called,  to see Hillary Clinton destroyed morally as well as politically is beginning to trouble a lot of Dems who aren't necessarily supporting Hillary.  Is it possible to persuade them to dial it back or is it already too late?

Sean Wilentz goes a lot further than most critics, accusing the Obama campaign of 'race-baiting.'  With respect to Orlando Patterson's op-ed, he says that his reading "required a singularly tortured and biased "close reading.""  And he says a lot more besides: 

Camille Paglia's Hillary Hate: Still Going & Going & Going...

Camille Paglia still hates Hillary, though for different (although similar) reasons.  Hillary is still the wrong archetype; always was, always will be, forever and ever world without in amen.

I saw the first Hillary signs going up this week: a thin, white-haired, but very determined elderly lady was trying to wrestle one into the ground near zipping traffic on a county highway. I thought, "Hmm ... Hillary's demographic?" Obama is certainly a darling of youth, the wave of the future. (Salon)

Obama, on the other hand, is a 'dewy and somewhat reserved newcomer,' beloved of the intelligentsia, with 'the patrician elegance of John F. Kennedy.'  Gaaaah.  Also: heh.  According to La Paglia, Hillary's demographic consists of white-haired little old ladies.  All the cool kids---and La Paglia---want Obama.   

Oh, who cares what Camille Paglia says or does about Hillary or Obama? Her area of expertise is the androgyne in art history, art, and literature literature, with a side of Madonna and Keith Richards and their "hieratic assertions of charismatic personality."  Yes, yes, I read her Sexual Personae Book back in the Nineties.  I liked her Sexual Personae book.  I wish she and Salon didn't believe that her literary/artistic take on pop culture qualifies her for political punditry.  She's always trying to blind her readers with jargon. 

Which is why, oh Brad of Sadly, No! ("How Does this Woman Get Paid to Write Again?") I so revere thee:

Quote O' the Day #1: Paul Krugman on the Progressive Crazies

He writes, and it is a true word:

One measure of how crazy people on at least one side of the Democratic nomination struggle have become: I’ve gotten a number of complaints that the end of my last — entirely non-political — column, “hope is not a plan,” was a swipe at Obama.

Um, guys, it’s a phrase military types use; I started using it a lot when Iraq went pear-shaped. In fact, if you Google it, the first entry that comes up is a book about the Iraq war.

I’m sorry to say that a large part of the progressive movement seems to have lost its sanity. (Krugman)

Were we Dems always like this? 

Oh, shut up. 

The Democratic Campaigns: Too Ugly to Watch Anymore

The Ferraro statement---which she is now trying to defend by accusing the Obama campaign of reverse racism---and the Sinbad nonsense were the final straws for me.  This ridiculous, unseemly, shaming, disgraceful sniping has GOT TO STOP.  With all the surrogates and advocates shooting off their mouths, it's become a spectacle too distasteful for me to comment on.  Read the articles yourselves and marvel at the growing ugliness.  These are Democrats slanging Democrats, mind you. I refuse to watch or read any more of it. 

Yes, Hillary has had a raw deal in the media and particularly on the internet---Kevin Drum is so right. 

The online feeding frenzy against Hillary Clinton is driving me crazy. And that's despite the fact that I support Obama and, all things considered, think Hillary should probably withdraw from the race.

More on that later — maybe — but for now I just want to make one comment: the current attempts to tar Hillary as a racist have gone way, way over the top. They're revolting....