The worst has happened. The satellite dish is dead, gone, finished. It is an ex-satellite dish. I know I said before I was secretly hoping for that to happen so I could have the cathartic joy of blasting the thing to pieces with a shotgun, but there’s a problem. The problem is that I need a new rig to replace the old rig, and that stuff ain’t cheap.
On top of that, I’ve reached the point where I need to upgrade my hosting package to handle all the visitors to the blog. If you stopped by earlier this week you probably saw the tasteful “BANDWIDTH EXCEEDED” sign provided by my hosting service. The blog has grown immensely since I started it two years ago, and needing to buy more bandwidth is usually a very nice problem to have. Until it gets to the point where you can’t afford it.
It’s always feast or famine in the life of a writer, and this is definitely a famine year for me. I hate having to ask for money, but at this point my options are pretty limited. A few months ago I had the brilliant idea of saving money on my health insurance by cutting back drastically on the coverage and raising the deductible to some unspeakable level. Naturally enough, almost as soon as the new policy went into effect, I got sick. I’m too reclusive to feel comfortable discussing my medical situation, but suffice it to say that most of my pennies are going to pay for doctor visits and lab tests and maybe a bit of surgery — all the stuff that is no longer covered by my health insurance. (But boy, I sure am saving money on those premiums!)
And so, if you can find it in your hearts and wallets to help keep this show going, I will be forever grateful. A few bucks from a few faithful readers, and I’ll be able to re-dedicate myself to the noble task of blowing smoke up your ass and mine!
I set up two thingamajigs, so you can donate by PayPal or using the Amazon Honor System. Every little bit helps, so anything you can do is wonderful (even a dollar).
PayPal thingy:
Amazon Honor System thingy:
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Posted by Violet under Reclusive Leftist on May 30, 2008, 9:01 pm EST
I still don’t have regular internet access and I don’t watch TV, so I’m out of the loop. But I hear things — weird, disturbing, almost unbelievable things — and so I’m grabbing a few minutes here on my Dad’s computer before a family birthday party for this brief announcement:
When I wrote this post on Democratic party history back in April, I was not calling for the assassination of Barack Obama. Just thought I’d get that out there now before the Gestapo shows up at here at the house.
Sorry to post and run, but I’ll leave you with something to think about: if the collusion between the Obama campaign and the media continues like this, will that pose the most severe threat to free speech in this country since a) the Alien and Sedition Acts, b) the 1917 Espionage Act, c) the McCarthy era, or d) the Patriot Act of 2001? Discuss amongst yourselves.
There is no question that a line was crossed yesterday, by the media and the so-called progressive blogosphere. Personally, it has put me on the fence: if Senator Obama becomes the nominee, do I take a break from politics until November or do I actively campaign against him?
I’ve been wrestling with the same issue, but I know now what my answer is. Barack Obama has run the dirtiest, most dishonest campaign I’ve ever seen from a Democrat on the national level. His mob-like supporters terrify me. And his media enablers are catastrophically dangerous. They must be stopped. Must be.
Update #2: Vastleft has penned the definitive self-diagnostic tool for anyone who thinks Hillary’s RFK remark was in any way ominous: Are You Fucked In The Head? (The bloggers over at Corrente obviously have internet connectivity and everything so they can actually post on this mess. I bet they’re elite latte-drinking types who live in cities and don’t have to perform prayer chants in front of a satellite dish just to get their email. Damn their eyes.)
Hey, everybody. Just checking in here from my father’s computer. The news is funny, eh? “Barack Obama begins search for running mate” sez the New York Times. Does that actually work? To just assume you’re going to be the nominee even though most people voted for the other person? Since the other person in this case is female, it just might. That is, after all, the time-tested method for dealing with an uppity woman. Just ignore her. Or if you have to pay attention to her, laugh. Roll your eyes. Silly woman, don’t you understand you’re not wanted here? This is men’s work.
It reminds me for all the world of those earnest young women back in the 19th century who petitioned to be admitted to university, patiently demonstrating that they’d mastered Greek and Latin and calculus and Newtonian physics and surely, surely they were qualified to embark on higher studies? Surely they would be admitted? Yes, please? And the university deans just patted their heads and sent them back home.
Hillary’s like that. She knows everything, or as close to everything as you’re going to get with a politician. She’s the smartest, most qualified, most capable person up for the job. And most Democrats agree; that’s why they voted for her. But the Boyz just keep pointing and laughing. Silly woman, don’t you understand you’re not wanted here?
With apologies to Edward Albee. No, actually I’m not going to do that today, but someday — yes, someday I’ll write a post based on The Zoo Story — have you ever seen The Zoo Story? Wonderful play — and the monologue in the middle is like 20 pages long and it’s called “The Story of Jerry and the Dog.”
But never mind, I’m not doing that today.
Okay, so! You know my satellite? The one I hate? The one I lie awake at night plotting to destroy with a 400-gauge shotgun? I think it’s dead. Or the modem is dead. Or the cable between the satellite and the modem is dead. Whatever it is, it’s dead.
According to the Technical Support Specialist in India who helped me this morning (and I swear to God, one of these days I’m going to say to one of those people, “you know, the retroflex thing that you do there with the consonants, are you aware that you’re doing that?”), anyway, according to her, the Evil Satellite Empire no longer services my modem. My modem, it seems, is ancient history. It’s Sumerian. It’s a Baghdad Battery. Maybe if I filled it with lemon juice I could get enough voltage to electroplate a teaspoon; other than that, the thing’s useless.
No, I haven’t started drinking yet today. Why do you ask? I’m sitting in my father’s study using his computer. So of course I’m not drinking. How could I be drinking?
Long story short, I’m getting a new modem! Shipped to me from Maryland by Federal Express, and at no cost to me! Because I’m such a wonderful customer! And when it arrives — then, then we shall see. Whether the problem was with the Sumerian modem or the cable or — be still my beating heart — the satellite dish itself. Because if it’s the latter — you know what I’m thinking. Me, a shotgun, and that goddamn dish fragmenting into a thousand sparkly white pieces as I blow it to kingdom come.
Posted by Violet under Reclusive Leftist on May 20, 2008, 10:54 am EST
Via Taylor Marsh comes word that Obama is already offering reasons why he’s going to lose in Kentucky (Fox News, chain mails, stupidity), including this gem:
“What it says is that I’m not very well known in that part of the country,” Obama said. “Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So it’s not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle.”
Taylor remarks:
No, this is not a made-up quote from The Onion. He actually believes this, apparently. Problem is, a quick glance at a U.S. map reveals that Illinois actually borders Kentucky and is clearly closer than Arkansas.
Is he really this geographically challenged? Of course the logic of his thinking is plain enough: Kentucky = white racist hicks = Arkansas. Chicago = My Kinda Town. That Chicago is in Illinois, and that Illinois and Kentucky actually touch, are meaningless details; in Obama’s mind, Kentucky might as well be in another galaxy. (I wonder if Illinois residents realize that he’s only representing Chicago — or at least the non-Kentucky-contaminated part of Illinois — in the Senate?)
Mostly I think he just doesn’t care. Yeah, yeah, the Great Lakes are in Oregon and Arkansas is next to Kentucky and there are 57 states, and geez, can we just stop now and declare me the nominee?
Yesterday afternoon I was extremely honored to participate in a conference call with Sen. Clinton and a bunch of other pro-Hillary bloggers, thanks to the good offices of Peter Daou, the Clinton campaign’s internet guru. The Senator was warm, gracious, and every bit as sharp and energetic as ever. (How does the woman do it?) Her voice was raw from talking all day, but that didn’t slow her down.
I’ve been away from the computer for most of the past 24 hours, so I’m just now sitting down to file my report, as it were, with you all. Let me just run quickly through the key points and highlights of the call:
First of all, Sen. Clinton sounded absolutely, 100% committed to staying in this race. I got no sense of her giving up. In fact, she spent several minutes thanking us, the blogging community, for continuing to make the case for her with the public.
Her new ad running in Oregon captures her current attitude about the situation: the pundits and Sen. Obama can say she’s out, but she’s still very much in — and still working hard to win votes.
She said, “Finally! We have acknowledgement that we are actually ahead in the popular vote!” And she feels that she’s on track to continue to perform very well on that count through the remaining contests.
She gave us a quick rundown of the argument she’s making to the super-delegates: it’s the map, not the math. Her strength is in the swing states, boding extremely well for the general election. Obama’s pattern of support, in contrast, makes him a weak bet in the general. (See Bringiton for a masterful presentation of this argument.) The supers need to exercise their judgment to pick the strongest candidate — and that’s Hillary.
She’s absolutely committed to getting Florida and Michigan seated, and commented on the irony of the Democratic Party disenfranchising its own members in those states.
The May 31 DNC rules committee meeting is very important, and the more press and public attention we can develop around that, the better. (I’m scrambling around for links to the various demonstrations being planned — I think there will be delegations from Florida and Michigan as well as women’s groups.)
She said how much she regretted all the vitriol and hostility and sexism that’s been thrown at her supporters. She herself is impervious to it by now, but it distresses her that so many of her supporters have been subjected to this. And she took time again to thank all of us for standing up for her and being courageous.
This just in! I was about to finish up this post when I saw that Taylor Marsh recorded the whole conference call, so you can listen for yourselves. Cool! By all means, give it a listen. You’ll see what a bundle of inspiration Hillary is — smart, knowledgeable, energetic, down-to-earth, warm — and how frankly thrilled all us bloggers were to talk to her. Huge kudos to Peter Daou for organizing the call and to the Senator herself for reaching out to us.
Apparently, according to FOX News, the Obama campaign has hired 400 bloggers to influence the public discourse and sway Hillary voters to “remember we are all Democrats”, to give up Clinton’s cause, and to become dutiful citizens of the Obama Nation.
Also, it’s been noted by several HillBuzz readers, that Obama volunteers are being told to ratchet down the anti-Hillary hate, because someone in the campaign realizes Hillary Clinton supporters are not very likely to support Obama if he becomes the nominee.
Okay, I lied. I’m not really welcoming Axelrod’s latest cadre of paid “opinion shapers.” I’ll just be handing out these convenient laminated Pocket Guides (note the blue section) and gently shutting the door in their faces:
What’s that? We’re all Democrats? Oh, that’s nice. Okay, you have a nice day, you hear? Bye-bye! Thanks so much! Bye! Mm, you too! Bye! Thanks again! Okay, bye now! Bye!
Obama, speaking at the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco, raised eyebrows Monday at a fundraiser for Sen. Barbara Boxer when, as we reported, the Illinois Senator described his Democratic colleague from California as “a fighter, a leader, a charmer, a cutie.”
The remark “set off a lot of murmuring,” said one Democratic strategist in attendance, “among a lot of very strong powerful women around Boxer there who were offended.”
The descriptive of a powerful feminist senator raised “a strategic question: is (Obama) ready for prime time? You don’t call a U.S. senator a ‘cutie,’” said the strategist, whose take was echoed by others.
Actually you do, if you’re Barack Obama. U.S. senators, journalists, pharmacists, factory workers – they’re all “sweeties” or “cuties” to Obama. As long as they’re female, that is. (Can you imagine him as President? Look out, Angela Merkel.)
What the hell is this man’s problem? He’s my age — mid-40s — and there is no excuse for this. He should know damn well not to talk to or about women in that manner. It reminds me of my first job back in 1980, when the male boss called all the women in the office “honey” and expected them to fetch him coffee. Workin’ 9 to 5…
But let me get back to that Boxer article from last year. Listen to this next bit (still quoting the unnamed strategist):
From an opposition research point of view, this marked “a swing and a miss” by Team Hillary: “It would have been easy to get the blogosphere and make sure Fox News and Drudge Report knew about (the quote), and watch it go .. because in a few months, nobody could have gotten away on it.”
The irony.
See, way back in February of 2007, people like me and that strategist and the women surrounding Sen. Boxer and probably the journalist who wrote that article — we all thought that something like publicly referring to a female senator as a “cutie” would be an automatic foul. We thought that public expressions of sexism would be frowned upon.
Thousands of Hillary Nutcrackers later, we know better. “Cutie” and “sweetie” are the least of it.
But the pushback is here. People are pissed. The premature coronation of Obama this past week — after Hillary won Indiana, after she won West Virginia in a blowout, when she’s sitting on the lead in the popular vote — was the last straw. Since the fat-cat politicians and pundits don’t give a good goddamn about sexism, we’ll just have to raise a stink ourselves. Just us chickens (and some enlightened roosters).
Cynthia Ruccia and Kimberly Myers went on Bill O’Reilly last night to explain why the treatment of Hillary is a deal-breaker for women and why they plan to leave the Democratic party in protest. The tubes have been burning up ever since with people trying to find out how they can contact Ruccia and help out. People have even been emailing me, and I didn’t know anything about it until this morning. HillBuzz has the name of the group and the contact info.
Steve Corbett is a radio host in Pennsylvania who apparently reached his own breaking point yesterday, and is now launching Operation Turndown to let the DNC know that we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!
Riverdaughter has a terrific round-up post this morning with more suggestions on what we can do right now make our voices heard: Friday: Fast II and Call to Action.
ABC’s Political Punch reports on “female supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton who are angry — at the Democratic Party, at the Obama campaign, or at the general situation that sees their candidate facing tough times, in their view, in part because of sexism.”
I’m glad our collective voices are starting to make an impact. But the amazing thing is that the guest blogger behind this piece, Rick Stein, talks about the whole phenomenon like it’s something through the Hubble Telescope that’s so far away and vague and weird that nobody can be sure what the hell it is. Dig it:
I confess to being a man who has not always seen what his female friends and colleagues see as sexist in this race. What do you think? Has Sen. Clinton faced particular (unfair) challenges because of her gender? More than Sen. Obama has faced because of his race?
Is it humanly possible to be that oblivious? I mean, if Stein were a tree sloth or something, sure. Tree sloths sleep a lot and I get the impression they’re not all that plugged in to the news. But how can any sentient non-tree sloth American be this clueless? We’re talking Hillary Nutcrackers, people. “Iron my shirt.” An anti-Hillary 501c called C.U.N.T. Another one called “Stop running for President and make me a sandwich.”
Oh, and if you even mention any of this, you’re either silly or a bad person.
Actually, none of that would probably help Tree Sloth Rick. I suspect he’s like the Obamabots who read all that stuff and still clog up my moderation queue with inane comments about how sexism doesn’t exist, how there hasn’t been any misogyny in this campaign, etc., etc.. No idea what we’re talking about. Hubble Telescope. Mysterious smudges of light.
Edwards endorses Obama. Why today? To distract attention from Obama’s humiliating defeat in West Virginia, of course. Anything to keep people from noticing that Hillary is winning.
Jay Cost at Real Clear Politics has a spreadsheet showing how Hillary could end the primary season with the lead in the popular vote. The three key contests are West Virginia, Kentucky, and Puerto Rico. The spreadsheet is interactive, so you can play with the numbers to test various results.
Last night Hillary out-performed the prediction for West Virginia, taking 41% of the vote (which also had higher turnout than predicted) for a net of 147,328 votes.
If she goes on to perform as predicted in Kentucky and Puerto Rico, she’ll end this race with an easy majority in the total popular vote. That’s assuming you count Florida, though you can leave Michigan out.
And yet the media has collectively decided that the race is over, nothing to see here, move along. It’s astonishing. It’s the most blatant example of journalistic manipulation I’ve ever seen.
Consider if Hillary and Obama’s situations were reversed. Can you really imagine the national media ignoring the guy like this? Ignoring the fact that the two candidates are neck and neck, that the guy has just won a primary in a swing state by more than 40%, that 17 million people across the country have voted for him? Can you imagine the media simply yawning and saying, “geez, when is this chump gonna drop out?”
Edited to add: I forgot to point out that Hillary is ahead in the popular vote now, using the same metric as we did after Pennsylvania:
I didn’t see it live, but I hear it was good. Here’s the video, which I certainly hope to watch soon. Soon but not yet, because my satellite is having a personal feud with YouTube. (Quick off-topic psychotic fugue: one of these days I’m going to overcome my antipathy for firearms, go out and buy a great big honking shotgun, and blast that fucking satellite dish to smithereens.)
Anyway, for now I guess I’ll just look at the little embedded objects and fantasize about what Hillary might be saying.
