"How Is This Poem by Nobel Laureate in Literature Czeslaw Milosz Relevant to The Democratic Party As It Currently Exists?" (originally posted May '08)

for Vast Left



A Task


In fear and trembling, I think I would fulfill my life

Only if I brought myself to make a public confession

Revealing a sham, my own and of my epoch:


We were permitted to shriek in the tongue of dwarfs and demons


But pure and generous words were forbidden

Under so stiff a penalty that whoever dared to pronounce one


Considered himself as a lost man.


. --Czeslaw Milosz

Lest We Forget

The inimitable Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Let it be a lesson to us all.

Riding the (Cotton) Unity Pony (Periodically)

Yo, sweeties. What's wrong with these pictures?

Nothing! So--don't get your panties in a twist like ho's who bitch about a guy calling a girly-dog a girly-dog.

Just STFU.

It's all kewl!! We're so POST-sexism! It's just a cardboard cut-out! Re-lax!! Chill! Sniggering frat-boy sexism is so who cares? Feeling up a cardboard titty iz just high-spirited blogger-type boyz having boyz-y fun! RE-lax!


Sexism is like bad weather -- and rape. As long as it's inevitable, why not lie back and enjoy it??



No Laughing Matter.
Favreau

Hope & Fear & Unity Pony DeathWatch

I remember waiting for the O.J. Simpson verdict to be announced.

I remember how I felt after it was announced, too.

Waiting for Obama's VP announcement is triggering traumatic memories of that period of on-tenterhooks waiting.

I'm really worried for my party, and for my country, hoping for the best and fearing the worst.

And I'm not the only one.

I'm not.

Nope.

No VP For You, Hilly -- AND It's All Your Fault!!

Oh, lookee, boys and girls!

Here's a great -- and so WELL-TIMED -- hit-piece on Hillary!

Wow!

It's like Golden Oldies Night, replaying the top ten Obamist anti-Hillary smears!

I have like SUCH nostalgia happening!

Gimme some spin.

You want Hillary for VP? No way!

She's -- RACIST.

She's -- INCOMPETENT.

She's -- TOXIC.

She's -- TOTALLY OUTTA CONTROL.

Just in case you were wondering why presumptive nominee Barack Obama, who is not man enough to run with Hillary, is still not man enough to run with Hillary.

; )



----
Plus: "If the witch is dead, why is The Atlantic trying to drown her?"

And a reprise: Fucked In The Head
Watch

Kudos to Vast LeftWing Conspiracy.

Update: So maybe they'll "let" Hillary be nominated after all? Isn't that the rulez? Or are they just flogging a Dead Unity Pony?

Shape-ist Commies Fake Uber-Cute Kid Singer

Here's something fun. It might take your mind off the resurrected Unity Pony Deathwatch. Not to mention taking your mind off the painful Karl-Rove-wet dream internecine warfare within the Democratic party, as Obama continues the audacity of putting a virtual Beretta to its head (for its own good, mind you), forcing it to march off at a spanking pace in a direct anti-progressive direction, while reassuring us all that, just as all animals are equal, all directions are equal, but some are more equal than others, so shut the f*ck up, everyone, k?

OLYMPIC CHILD SINGING STAR REVEALED AS FAKE

The little girl who starred at the Olympic opening ceremony was [LIP-SYNCHING] and only put on stage because the real singer was not considered attractive enough, the show's musical director has revealed.

Pigtailed Lin Miaoke was selected to appear because of her cute appearance and did not sing a note, Chen Qigang, the general music designer of the ceremony, said in an interview with a state broadcaster aired Tuesday.

Photographs of Lin in a bright red party dress were published in newspapers and websites all over the world and the official China Daily hailed her as a rising star on Tuesday.

But Chen said the girl whose voice was actually heard by the 91,000 capacity crowd at the Olympic stadium during the spectacular ceremony was in fact seven-year-old Yang Peiyi, who has a chubby face and uneven teeth.

"The reason why little Yang was not chosen to appear was because we wanted to project the right image, we were thinking about what was best for the nation," Chen said in an interview that appeared briefly on the news website Sina.com before it was apparently wiped from the Internet in China.

Lin was seen to perform the patriotic song "Ode to the Motherland" as China's national flag was carried into the stadium, a key moment in the three hour ceremony.

"The reason was for the national interest. The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings, and expression," said Chen, a renowned contemporary composer and French citizen.

"Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects. But in terms of voice, Yang Peiyi is perfect, each member of our team agreed," he said.

He said the final decision to stage the event with Lin lip-synching to another girl's voice was taken after a senior member of China's ruling Communist Party politburo attended a rehearsal.

"He told us there was a problem that we needed to fix it, so we did," he said, without disclosing further details of the order.

Yeah. Like they're doing in Tibet.

It's not genocide. It's culling.
Full link, here.

Obama: Just Not Man Enough to Run With Hillary

It's pretty stupid for a presumptive nominee not to run with someone who would pretty much guarantee a Democratic landslide in the fall, don't you think?

So, why is Obama being stupid?

Why is Obama not happily, eagerly, throughtfully, planfully, excitedly, passionately offering Hillary Clinton the VP spot?

It makes no sense, does it?

He doesn't need 18 million votes?

His ego is too fragile?

He's scared that Hillary Clinton might, periodically, both outshine him and outthink him?

And he just doesn't want to be out-shone nor out-thunk? So he's willing to put the outcome of the election at greater risk to prop up his (male?) ego?

That would be a sure sign of Testosterone Deficiency Syndrome, sweetie. A troubling thought. Makes him look weak. Makes him look like a Schwartzenegger girlie-man. Makes him look like a total, well --- pussy.

Barack Obama needs to cowboy up for the good of the Democratic Party.

He needs to clean up his act.

Obama's current behavior is completely unacceptable. The pandering to the right, screwing up on FISA, backpedalling on choice, calling the Clintons racists, failing to address his sexism, not backing single payer health care, etc. etc.

Wimping out on naming Hillary VP is the worst of his worst, and this failure alone may cost the Democrats the election.

Look how things are shaping up:

In the two months since Barack Obama captured the Democratic nomination, he has hit a ceiling in public opinion polling, proving unable to make significant gains with any segment of the national electorate.

While Obama still leads in most matchups with John McCain, the Illinois senator’s apparent stall in the polls is a sobering reminder to Democrats intoxicated with his campaign’s promises to expand the electoral map beyond the boundaries that have constrained other recent party nominees.

That gap between expectations and reality comes as Democrats enjoy the most favorable political winds since at least 1976. At least eight in ten Americans believe the nation is on the wrong track. The Republican president is historically unpopular. From stunning Democratic gains in party registration to the high levels of economic anxiety, Obama should have a healthy lead by almost every measure. Yet, in poll after poll, Obama conspicuously fails to cross the 50 percent threshold.

ABC News Polling Director Gary Langer asked, “If everything is so good for Barack Obama, why isn’t everything so good for Barack Obama?”

Will Obama be getting over himself anytime soon?

Will Obama be growing some cojones anytime soon?

And if not, why not?

.

------
And here's Big Tent Democrat on Another Reason Why Obama Should Choose Hillary as VP.
Here's VastLeftwingConspiracy on the Huge Unseen Elephant in the Democratic Party Room where Unity Pony was supposed to be.
Here's Alegre on why this race is so close when it shouldn't be.
Here's Anglachel on male privilege and the Edwards story: Yes, it is about the f*cking.
And here's Obama backpedalling on choice. Let's do fill the universe with more unwanted children who can grow up to be miserable and/or criminal and/or murderous like Ted Bundy, Osama, and Dirty Bush, eh?

NETROOTS NATION IN SECOND LIFE -- BE THERE OR BE SQUARE DUDES LIKE CLUELESS JOHN MCCAIN WHO CAN'T EVEN DO HIS OWN EMAIL OMIGOD

Come on down, fractured little Democratic Party, come on down to Netroots Nation in SL, listen, talk, interact, get all politically passionate, and work things out while you tango, virtually speaking.

Couldn't be easier.

Really.


Click on "there's more" and read through Pb's diary. Then click through to nninsl.org.

(And somewhere around here is poor little party Unity Pony with her big round sad eyes, and yes, you can -- you can feed poor little Unity Pony a virtual carrot if she'll open her mouth which she probably won't till she calls for her food-taster; yes, you can -- you can bash her over the head with a virtual FISA stick and rip out her timid centrist IV or feed her to a PUMA or hassle her silly about refried bushist fascist faith-based initiatives ugh.

Or even unaccountably fall suddenly back in love with her, holding her pink little hoof to your heart, offering to put her up for canonization while you tantalize her with platefuls of cheap arugula.

Yes, you can.

It's virtual reality so you can virtually do whatever you virtually wish . . . well, kinda . . . just follow the trail of virtual spangles . . . . or are they virtual sparkles . . . . a virtual trail of blood and sweat and spangles and sparkles and tears . . . a trail of tears that leads to virtual Unity Pony's vast flower-filled suite in Intensive Care at Netroots Nation in SL, metaphorically-speaking.)

We can do it, can we not?

Yes, we can.

Unity Pony Flutters Sparkle-Ridden Eyelashes

Oh my GOD.

Markos comes out as a PUMA Obamist!

In the New York Times, no less! Be still my heart!

"I will continue to support him,” Mr. Moulitsas said in an interview. “But I was going to write him a check, and I decided I would rather put that money with Democrats who will uphold the Constitution."

w00t!




Guess I'll have to stop calling him a nappy-headed ho, eh?

Its My Party & You'll Cry If I Want 2 Not Send U Munny Cuz Yr Not Sayin The Right Stuff Yet Sweetie

Whee. He wants my money. He wants money from former Clinton supporters. Can he ask for it? Why yes, he can!

Obama's FISA Cave-In, fundie courting, netroots dumping, crowd-booing Gov. Granholm via throwing of Clinton Dems under bus whilst soliciting munny from them; driving Dem bus all the way to Chicago without asking anyone's permission because of being the Chosen One, running campaign that happily uses racist frames to demonize Clinton & Clinton Lee-Atwaterly in the name of "whatever makes one's candidate win is ethical 4 the end justifies the means," sweetie, dissing Clinton by pressuring Dean to keep her name off the ballot in Denver, la-di-da, la-di-da, la-di-da.

But--it's all good. Obama wants our votes and our money. Me, I want my party back.

Out of respect for some parts of blogtopia (Skippy coined that) I have promised my vote, as a Puma Obamist, though I came really really really really close to joining Dems Who Fucking Hate McCain 4 McCain (VastLeft coined that). (Oh, and I am in love with Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy, btw. Please read all his posts, referenced above. Then we can talk.)

Vote, ok. Because John McCain is a fascist pig.

But not my wallet & not my heart. Not so far, not so fast.

What's wrong with me, eh?

This is what's wrong with me. Part of it, anyhow. (There are more things, but let's do that later.)

"Tensions Remain Betwen Obama and Clinton Supporters."

BLOGGER READS ARTICLE ON INTERNETS TUBES, SMACKS RIGHT HAND ON FOREHEAD LOUDLY, CRYING OUT IN ANGUISHED INCOMPREHENSION.

Obama meets with Hillary Clinton supporters; he's looking for money. They're talking about him addressing the concerns of Clinton supporters.

(And remember, he JUST said this. This is not a quote from months ago. He JUST said this. After all the brouhaha about sexism.)

Does he listen and respectfully respond?

F*ck, no. It's like FISA. (Where he listened respectfully and caved in.)

The Chosen One listens, and responds with this:

“However, I need to make a decision in the next few months as to how I manage that [the inexplicable continuing wrath of Clinton-supporters] since I’m running against John McCain, which takes a lot of time,” Obama said.

“If women take a moment to realize that on every issue important to women, John McCain is not in their corner, that would help them get over it.”

BLOGGER SPITS COFFEE AT THIS JUNCTURE RIGHT HERE. COUGHS, CHOKES.

"Get over it"?

Okay, you bitchez, you heard what the man said -- he's got important GUY shit to do, ladies. He's running against Johnny-boy! This is the big leagues, not the League of Lady voters! He's way too busy for our whiny shit.

Just f*cking get over it!


Obama Campaign Targets Clinton Donors.

You Don't Own Me - The most amazing bloopers are here

Bludgeon Me Not With Roe v. Wade

I know that John McCain is a sexist pig. He's a Bushist Fascist Republican, after all. I expect him to be a cunt-calling, dumpy-wife-dumping, Chancellor-Merkel-petting, pubic-hair-on-the-coke can, government-forced maternity kinda guy.

Liberal/progressive Democrats I expect not to be cunt-calling sexist pigs.

Or even regular old garden-variety sexist pigs.

Litmus test: IF sexist, THEN non-progressive. Q.E.D.

I mean, how hard is that?

So when those on the left side of the aisle begin shrieking like those on the right, I get a little worried.

I'm worried.

And not just about poor little cotton-candy pink Unity Pony with her big round sad eyes, puking and retching in the ER, waiting for 2 days to be seen because the hospital found out her health insurance was bogus and tossed her out of the ICU.

What worries me is all this stuff about Hillaryists being responsible to save Party Unity Pony.

Uh -- not.

It's the malign acceptance of sexism (in Big Tent Democrat's term) among so-called progressives that is driving large sections of its base into the arms of -- someone.

Someone else. To McCain/The Greens/sitting out this election/none of the above/not sure yet call me later.

This breach was caused by the behavior of deeply gender-biased otherwise adult boyz who just don't get it, and needs to be healed by actual progressive men who do 'get it'. Like sending Nixon to China. Those boyz -- and you know who they are -- aren't going to listen to girlz in the first place, and they haven't. If they'd listened when we first spoke up -- and speak up we girlz did -- they wouldn't still be in the mess that they're certainly in.

And it is their mess, not ours. It is the bilious stench of classic neanderthal testosterone-deficient sexist sniggering fratboy crap, coming from, of all people, "progressives," that has contaminated our Democratic political environment and spread through the body politic like Ebola.

It's got to stop.

Real progressive men can save Unity Pony, so
this is a call to arms.

Arise, cool dudes, and join the Sweetie Rebellion.

Ball's in your court. ;)

(Note to self: did one just indulge oneself in a rescue fantasy? Hm.

Let's reframe: Marine on point discovers dangerous enemy target, calls in airstrike, transmits relevant coordinates.

Yes, it's just a metaphor, people. But it works.)

Unity Pony DeathWatch?/Unity Pony ResuscitationWatch?

I think I'm evolving. That's a little scary. I woke up this morning and found my mind had, of its own accord, changed.

Again. Well, you know how broads are.

A couple of days ago I decided, having teetered on the brink for some time, and with consultation with people I respect and shutting out my experiences with vitriolic persons who behave like Bushist fascists in Liberal Democrats' clothing, NOT to follow the Way of the Puma (and those of you who know what I'm talking about know what I'm talking about).

This morning I discovered that I want Hillary Clinton to be on this ticket any old way at all, even as VP.

Framing it thus: Hillary consents to be VP, and her role as VP changes by specific agreement with her running-mate, from the role of all previous Vice-Presidents: she assertss power as VP, with her own portfolio of issues, such as universal health care. The Democratic party and Barack Obama throw their support behind the ERA. The Democratic party, all of it, figures out that to be sexist equals not being a Democrat. The party re-defines itself in a civil manner, rejecting this odd virus of demonizing that it has somehow caught from Karl "Miss Piggy" Rove.

Demonize the demons of the anti-habeas corpus, moral/fiscal bankruptcy-of-America, pro-torture crowd for a change, why don't we?

Thoughts?


Update:

Remember Bushist George Will, who really really wanted Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race for the good of his party?

Well, now he really really wants Hillary Clinton NOT to be Obama's VEEP. Then George says that Obama would look pussywhipped if he chose her. Hm. Someone's got his panties in a twist. Maybe Unity ticket = Democratic Party landslide?

Paul Krugman, one of the few who really gets it, "Who, us? Sexist?"

HOWARD Dean tells it like it is. At least he knows how to use the S word. A beginning. On the other hand, the article is accompanied by a headless shot of Hillary's cleavage. New York Times. Feh.

This is a great clip, by Sarah Haskins via Shakesville, of Obama and McCain both targeting Hillary Clinton voters: TARGET WOMEN: SUFFRAGE.

They Shoot Unity Ponies, Don't They?

So, I'm having a moral quandary.

I'm good with being anti-McCain.

But -- every time I think about getting on the Obama bus, I find I want to throw myself under it instead.


Here's Anglachel, on "Bittersweet Acceptance." Yup. What she said.

And a little something from big tent democrat, one of my two favorite Obama-supporting bloggers. What I like best about BTD is that he gets it. May his getting-it-ness increase and pervade the universe.

And more about women and the media whore media's sexist sniggering fratboys (and their fratgirl enablers.)

And here is Bob Somerby, toward whom I, like, totally bow down with folded hands, w00t!ing.

Play Nice, Dem Boyz 'N Girlz -- Or We'll Rip Off the Head Of Dem Party Intra-Party Unity Pony & Stuff It Down Its Day-Glo Neck

Yes, boys and girls, it's time for another butterlamp offering being offered here to save an endangered species -- poor poor pitiful Party Unity Pony, who lies on her deathbed with her tongue hanging out, gasping for breath, with her big round sad eyes looking really, well, sad.

She's the last of her lineage; her very existence is hanging by a thread.

Please consider taking this time to save the endangered life of Dem Party Unity Pony of Intra-Party Civility and Working-Togetherness.

Our butterlamp offering involves advocating a simple alteration in technique.

Sure, it's easy to make vitriolic political remarks, and doing so can seem oddly pleasurable.

We're asking that every Dem boy or girl, before they write, say or do something shriekily disparaging, to stop and apply the Miss Piggy Test -- asking themselves, hey, if I write or say X, Y, or Z -- will this give Karl Rove a hard-on?

I could give examples, but you know just what I mean.

"Hillary is X! Barack is so X! Bill is even X-er! Michelle = even more X than Hillary! Isn't it awful! How could she/he! How could they? Rrrawk! Rrrawk! Rrrawk!"

Save Dem Unity Pony. Do your part. It's okay to be angry, it's even ok to be furious with one another. (I feel these feelings all too frequently myself, these days.)

But -- set a boundary. Take a breath. Take a breath and apply the Miss Piggy test.

Will reading this/hearing this actually give Karl Rove a hard-on?

Because, you know, lately he's having waaaay too many.

.

.

A Poem Tinkerbell-ianly to Resurrect the Magical Unity Pony Of Democratic Intra-Party Civility & Working-Togetherness To Defeat Bushist Fascism

(Yes, I know I've posted this poem so often that to post it again is really like beating a dead horse. Pony. Whatever. But I'm doing it again, so sue me.)

Think of this poem as a virtual butterlamp being offered in order to raise the spirit of community and magically resurrect the Magical Unity Pony Of Democratic Intra-Party Civility & Working-Togetherness, a pony who currently lies pitifully abed, with her big round sad eyes looking really, well, sad.



ON ANGELS

All was taken away from you: white dresses,
wings, even existence.
Yet I believe you,
messengers.


There, where the world is turned inside out,
a heavy fabric embroidered with stars and beasts,
you stroll, inspecting the trustworthy seams.


Short is your stay here:
now and then at a matinal hour, if the sky is clear,
in a melody repeated by a bird,
or in the smell of apples at the close of day
when the light makes the orchards magic.


They say somebody has invented you
but to me this does not sound convincing
for humans invented themselves as well.


The voice--no doubt it is a valid proof,
as it can belong only to radiant creatures,
weightless and winged (after all, why not?),
girdled with lightning.


I have heard that voice many a time when asleep
and, what is strange, I understood more or less
an order or an appeal in an unearthly tongue:


day draws near
another one
do what you can.




--Czeslaw Milosz

Is It Time to Euthanize the Democratic Party's Magical Unity Pony? By Which I Mean The Magic Pony Of Intra-party Civility!

I dunno yet.

I have my doubts. I have written about them at length. Well, part of me has doubts. Serious ones.

(Please note that I am using "Magical Unity Pony" not as a reference to a single campaign, but to highlight the magical possibility that Democrat versus Democrat conflict will not result in a continuing shrieking bloodbath, as it so far is doing. I am sorry that there are, and have been other interpretations of the the Pony Thing, my bad, but the Pony here under discussion of being put down is now and only the Magic Pony of Intra-Party Unity & Civility.)

And yet -- this morning another part of me awoke and came to the keyboard.

I found that today I cling to hope that, horribly broken at both ankles as poor Magical Party Unity Pony is, we might find a way still to save her.

With the thought of her foremost in my mind, today I Googled "The Southern Strategy," in search of a cure for our poor ailing Magical Party Unity Pony.

I found quotes about Nixon, and that part I knew about, but at the bottom of the Wiki article was a section that was all about "The Southern Strategy in the 2008 Democratic Primary."

Aha. That is what I was looking for. Because, at first glance, I couldn't figure out what Nixon's Southern Strategy had to do with the 2008 Democratic Primary.

It read:

"Pundits such as Rush Limbaugh and Roland Martin have suggested that the campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton would use a "Southern strategy" to suggest that African-American support in South Carolina for rival Barack Obama was related to his race and not his individual appeal to voters.

Limbaugh said they will be "[g]iving nothing to Obama, blaming it all on racial identity politics, or crediting it for that. You watch. They'll do something." In [Limbaugh's] view, subsequent primaries would be affected by the introduction of race and follow the pattern of the Southern strategy."

Now, gentle readers, I don't know where you come from, but where I come from, Magical Party Unity Pony definitely dies when Democrats hear and believe in frames cooked up by Rush Limbaugh, the man who created the great American concept, "feminazi."

Is that true for you as well, fellow Democratic Party Magical Unity Pony of Intra-Party Civility And Working-Togetherness enthusiasts?

.

-----------------------------------
There's this.

Then, there's this.

And especially, there's Hillary vs. The Haka, an exercise in bluffing and intimidation.