Clinton Should Not Be In Nomination: Ignore P.U.M.A

Hillary Clinton Should Not Be In Nomination: Ignore P.U.M.A

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's name should not be put in nomination for the Democratic Presidential Nominee at the DNC Convention for several reasons. But before I state them, let me explain that I have supported the idea of an Obama / Clinton ticket for some time. But these reasons have caused me to be less enthusiastic about that, and to reject the idea of her name in the nomination process.

1) Senator Clinton lost the primary. For reasons that have been explored in depth, Senator Clinton lost the primary delegate race to Senator Barack Obama, and Senator Obama gained more popular votes than Senator Clinton.

2) I did not like the way Senator Clinton conducted herself after the end of the primary. At first, she was working for party unity, but did not rein in some of her supporters and did not have her husband former President Clinton fall in line and support Senator Obama 100 percent.

It's as if they were really cool as long as they though they had a chance for Hillary to be Vice President, but fell off the wagon when it seemed that was not going to be the case.




3) Senator Clinton did not rein in her former campaign spokesperson Howard Wolfson, who incorrectly stated that she would have won the Iowa Primary if Senator John Edwards had revealed his affair with Rielle Hunter then, instead of last week. But the fact is that after Edwards dropped about 80 percent of his delegates went to Obama and his staff was pressuring him to back Obama, which he did.

There's an idea that the number of anti-Obama Hillary people out there is equal in number to the pro-Obama Hillary people. That's really not true at all. We not only saw that was the case during the votes at the DNC Rules Committee meeting, but in a deep look at organizations like "Party Unity My Ass" or "P.U.M.A".

First, P.U.M.A's founder Darragh Murphy (pictured) has been a supporter of Senator John McCain, giving him $500. It's clear that when she has the money, she will back a Republican candidate. Her claim of posting a lawn sign for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick aside, because it's a lawn sign and not cash, Murphy only contributed $250 more for a Democratic Candidate, Hillary Clinton, than for McCain.




The other person who's aligned with the P.U.M.A people is Will Brewer, who has a tendency of aligning himself with questionable people who are also in P.U.M.A.

For ezample there's Andy Martin and Webster Tarpley. Martin is the person who started the "Obama is Muslim" smear campaign. Tarpley is not a Democrat at all, but a Lyndon LaRouche supporter.

And Martin said to be an alledged Antisemite according to David Weigel .

(A charge Martin says is false and defaming in the same blog account.)

Brewer is also aligned with Harriet Christian, who showed her racism for the World to see in the now famous video clip included in my video commentary.

P.U.M.A is painted to be larger than it is. It only has a $50,000 budget as Murphy has reported on Hardball, not several million, and there's no evidence to claim over 2 million supporters. A P.U.M.A conference held on August 8th, 9th, and 10th, showed that only about 40 people came (count the number of name tags on the table then consider the size of the table an the people standing who have name-tags), even though they planned to draw over 250 people. When they did not meet that mark, the conference was booted from the original Marriot hotel and had to be moved to the Country Inn near Dulles Airport. (P.U.M.A. conference photo below from Rumproast)



Why -- as small as they are -- do we hear from groups like P.U.M.A? Because the mainstream media: the newspapers and the big three tv news networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC), and CNN, Fox, and MSNBC, have a vested interest in making the political race look like it's not a "done deal" and thus get you to watch more often.

So, they give people from P.U.M.A a platform, but the reality is that they're a divisive group that's not even part of the Democratic Party and has no business at the DNC Convention. They are to be ignored so we can get on with the business of growing the Democratic Party to victory in November.

Netroots Blog Caltics Attacking Senator Diane Feinstein

I happened to visit the Calitcs Blog, when I saw an article calling for nothing less than the censure of Senator Diane Feinstein. Why? Because of her support for the FISA bill that just past, and her alledged role as swing vote confirming, as Caltics put it, the appointments of Michael Mukasey, President Bush's torture-condoning nominee for Attorney General, and Leslie Southwick, a racist and homophobic judge.

Yikes!

It seems that no action has stopped Feinstein, according to Caltics.:

We've tried everything to get Sen. Feinstein's attention. Phone calls. Emails. Faxes. Petitions. Protests. Smoke signals. We even launched an online petition supporting a proposed California Democratic Party censure resolution of Sen. Feinstein last November that spread like wildfire across the grassroots, with 35,039 Californians signing on in support.

The censure movement also catalyzed national media attention, fueled by endorsements from MoveOn.org, Progressive Democrats of America, the California Democratic Party Women's Caucus and Progressive Caucus, as well as 38 chartered Democratic Clubs across California.

A number of people have asked if the Courage Campaign would support holding Senator Feinstein accountable for caving on warrantless wiretapping by re-launching the censure resolution inside the California Democratic Party. It's an important question but, frankly, a censure resolution is merely a piece of paper unless there's a people-powered movement behind it.

That's why we're putting this decision in your hands today. If grassroots and netroots activists across California support a new censure resolution of Senator Feinstein, we will launch a censure campaign leading up to the California Democratic Party's next Executive Board meeting.

Yikes!

The problem is when is that meeting? The site of the California State Democratic Party presents the standing committees, but no meeting date for an "Executive Board."

I should have asked Cal Dem Party head Art Torres when I saw him at the Karen Bass event.

FISA is for "Foreign"

The last time I checked, the title of the FISA bill was Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, not "American" or AISA. What's the deal? Are we growing a nation of people who can't read? I have no problem with the FISA bill vote. But the other Feinstein matters deserve the once over. I'd stop short of calling for a censure, however. I think a fair reading of Feinstein's accomplishments is in order. Stay tuned.


FISA

Cal Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Willie Brown At SF Yoshi's Fundraiser

This is a video of a fundraiser I attended on July 1st at Yoshi's In San Francisco. The hosts of the event were Hala Hijazi, the President of Professionals VIP, and Former and Legendary Speaker of The Assembly and Mayor of San Francisco Willie L. Brown, Jr.

Speaker Brown was at his best, holding court, and at the end of her speech, he encouraged the crowd to "Drink. Drink. Drink. And then let me represent you for driving drunk!"

Brown is now an attorney at Kay and Merkle.

It was a great turn out, with everyone from Art Torres the head of the California Democratic Party, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and several SF supervisors like Aaron Peskin and Sophie Maxwell, to Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, and business leaders like Michael Johnson, who owns Yoshi's in San Francisco to Kofi Bonner of Lennar, and Steven Kay of Kay and Merkle, and my friend Beth Schnitzer who heads marketing for Pier 39 and Melissa Galliani who's the local sales manager of KFRC.

Darren McFadden At NFL Draft - Three Interviews With Oakland Raiders RB

I am in New York City for the NFL Draft. As part of our partnership with KRON TV Channel 4, San Francisco, we created these video interviews of Oakland Raiders First Round Pick Darren McFadden. You can see more of our coverage at http://kron2008nfldraft.com



Agent Ian Greengross On The Thursday Before the Draft talks about character and the chance of a holdout should the Raiders draft McFadden.



Agent Greengross after the Raiders pick McFadden and McFadden Press Conference



Darren McFadden Interview after press conference

On The Floor OF The Convention - Procedures and Waiting

Art Torres is about to introduce District Attorney Kamela Harris to speak on behalf of Senator Barack Obama. She stars by saying that someone asked her what she was doing in taking the stage next to Bill Clinton. Her answer was "it's part of the campaign; the audacity of hope."

There are now a LOT of Obama supporters as Harris speaks.

(Image coming soon.)

Willie Brown Fires Up California Democrats At Cal Dem Convention

Willie Brown set the tone for the convention delegates Saturday with this rousing speech.

Migden v. Leno For Endorsements at California Democratic Convention

As I write this and as you sleep, a game came to an end at 11 PM and it's 11:58 PM now.

That game was the hunt for 300 California Democratic delegate signatures on the part of State Senator Carol Migden and termed-out California Assemblyman Mark Leno, and their supporters at the California State Democratic Convention.

As I left the San Jose Convention Center to get home and then get some sleep for tommorrow's fireworks with the visit of former President Clinton and Senator Ted Kennedy, the Leno and Migden teams were racing from room to room, and even from hotel to hotel in search of delegates and signatures.

Basically, Leno -- in trying to oust the incumbent Migden -- has mounted a charge to gain 300 signatures to block the endorsement of Leno by California Treasurer Phil Angelidies. But the Migden forces anticipated this, and had embarked on their own effort to get 300 delegates to sign a petition to thwart the Leno petition, thus assuring that their endorsements remain intact.

Get it?

This is the rough and tumble of Democratic politics in California. It's dirty and at times ugly and slimy. It has other wise good people telling massive lies -- not Leno or Migden -- about who's backing them on fliers passed out at the convention. It has people milling about late at night on a Saturday, but making a fun time of it, with dance parties and cocktail hours.

Some of us -- me -- who had to drive back to Oakland, missed this late night fun stuff. But I'll get an update soon, and be there for what may be a major floor fight if the endorsements are successfully eliminate via signature.

Stay tuned.

Sf Mayor Willie Brown's Giving a Rousing Speech At Cal Dem Con

I'm at the California Democratic Convention and sitting at the Press Table in the general session hall at the San Jose Convention Center, listening to former San Francisco Mayor and Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown give a passionate and rousing speech on what it means to be a Democrat.

"Democrats are supposed to fight," he said to a standing ovation, "you're not a Democrat if you don't fight."

Brown's taking the assembled state democrats on a kind of "memory lane" but with a message. "We all need to participate in order to beat these Republicans."

Here's that speech: