Additional reporting by Yes to Democracy.

PUMAPAC founder Darragh Murphy is a vociferous opponent of Barack Obama's candidacy for president, but she will be the first to tell you she's a lifelong Democrat, and is just in this to reform the electoral process and protect women. Just today, on her website, she had this to say to "Republican interlopers":

We are still pro-choice, pro-equal-rights for women, LGBT, and people of color, pro sex-ed and pro-science. We like gay marriage. We like labor unions a lot.

However, Political Machine and Yes to Democracy have learned that Murphy's husband, Nik Langrind, runs a company called Zbridge. Here's what they do, according to their website:

Zbridge's mission is to make midsourcing the leading solution for the contract labor and consulting needs of the most technically advanced companies.

More than simplifying your choices regarding outsourcing options, Zbridge changes the equation: with midsourcing we bring China to your door.

And here's what Barack Obama wants to do, according to most of his speeches and his platform:

"We're going to take away tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas. We are giving (will give) them to companies that invest right here," Obama said in Dublin, Ohio.

I called Zbridge today for comment for this story. Nik Langrind declined to be interviewed.

The freshly-minted women's group "The New Agenda" has come out swinging against sexist attacks on Sarah Palin. From a press release:

"We cannot and will not sit idly by while another qualified candidate goes through what Senator Hillary Clinton had to endure. Issues are fair game. Sexist treatment is no longer fair game," said Amy Siskind, a co-founder of The New Agenda.

..."Our members were outraged that within 24 hours of Governor Palin's historic candidacy she was dismissed as "tokenism," she was referred to as a "MILF" (mother I'd like to f*uck), and chuckling male commentators said:" The only thing she didn't say was who needs some pie I baked this morning?" added Siskind.

I am privileged to count several New Agenda founders as friends, including Amy, but an equal number of my friends are New Agenda skeptics. More on New Agenda later.

I reached out to New Agenda for a specific MILF reference, and I'm waiting to hear back. If you google Sarah Palin and MILF, you get a lot of bloggy lad-mag chatter, a reference in a UK Times opinion piece, and the T-shirts pictured above. The vendor has not returned my request for comment.

While I applaud New Agenda for coming to Sarah's defense, the skeptic in me wonders about 3 things: If the MILF remark is restricted to under-the-radar blogs and flea-market T-shirts, why are they amplifying it in a press release? And why have none of my friends at New Agenda said "Boo!" about John McCain's identification for women of AILFs (Apes I'd Like to F*ck), or how Chelsea Clinton is not a TILF (Teen...etc.)? Finally, when will New Agenda come to Michelle Obama's defense?

Update: The T-shirt vendor responds at the end of the story.

I was at breakfast with some other journalists when I heard about the Sarah Palin pick Friday morning, and the conversations we had quickly encompassed the media narratives that we will soon be seeing, and already are. You can read my from-a-distance take here.

Even though I didn't do a story on PUMAs, they were on the lips of every journalist I ran into, as news of my surreal experiences with them, and their antics, spread by word of mouth.

The first thing I said, though, was that this pick would separate the true Hillary PUMAs from the GOP shills and pure, unadulterated Obama-haters.

It wasn't long before I got several text messages from people telling me that Darragh Murphy was on Hardball talking Palin up. You can see the video here.

I called Will Bower yesterday to get his take, and to ask him about reports from well-placed sources within PUMAPAC that they had paid for his travel to Denver. Here's the audio from that call, followed by my commentary and a great summation by one of our readers.

Update: I finally got the video to upload correctly.

On the heels of Hillary Clinton's announcement that she will formally release her delegates to Barack Obama tomorrow, The Political Machine has learned that the entire Ohio delegation, save one, has decided to vote for Barack Obama.

A source with firsthand knowledge told me that the lone holdout was in tears at the news, and still intends to cast her vote for Hillary.

This portends well for a strong showing of support for Barack Obama during the roll call, which may help Obama pick off some more of Hillary's holdouts.

This may also mean an easier night for Hillary's "whip team," responsible for keeping her supporters in line during the roll call.

The same source told me that there are a few delegates who are leaving Thursday morning, a sort of protest "staycation."

A near-unanimous showing for Obama is not the only hurdle he has to clear, but it is an important one.

Day One of my trip to Denver was starting to look like kind of a bust. Caleb Howe and I spent most of the day being lost, late, or looking for parking.

We went to the media party at Elitch Gardens, an amusement park, but didn't see anyone we recognized. I don't like rollercoasters or other barf-inducers, so aside from hanging out with AOL people, it was kind of a disappointment.

But then, on our way to the car, we saw this guy yelling into a megaphone, asking us to do a story about surviving fetuses. See, he knew that we were journalists trying to have a nice time, and thought he'd play editor.

I thought, though, why not do a story about it? I had ready access to a self-proclaimed expert on the subject, so I engaged him in a brief interview. He turned out to be Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue.

Here's the video of that encounter:

During my interview with New Agenda founder Caren Turner last night, the subject of PUMA and their political wing, PUMAPAC, came up. This is what she had to say:

We are not involved with PUMAPAC. I don't know where they are in terms of raising money, but I think they were, let's say, overly optimistic about the money they raised to retire Hillary's debt, and that put question marks in some people's mind as to whether we should affiliate with them at all.

It looks like she made the right call. Chief Pumas Darragh Murphy and Will Bower have each claimed to have raised $7 to $10 million towards retiring Hillary's debt.

However, an official Clinton spokesperson disputed that in a statement to me last month. Darragh Murphy's response was to wait for the July filings.

Now that July's fundraising figures are in, we can see how close PUMA got to retiring Hillary's campaign debt. From The LA Times, via Yestodemocracy:

Hillary Clinton whittled down her presidential campaign debt by $1.3 million in July, and presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama chipped in to help.

Here's PUMA's claim:

Hillary Clinton's staff, headed by Craig Smith, is forming a 40 member "Whip Team" for the Democratic National Convention in Denver, to keep her most rabid supporters in line during the roll call. From Politico:

"If people get down there on the floor and want to start blowing kazoos and making a scene we want to make sure we've got people who stand in front of them with Obama signs," said a person involved in the planning.

"Is it typical for a losing candidate to have their own whip team? No. But it's also not usual for a losing candidate to get 18 million votes either," said the person.

Convention staffer Myron Kazoos refused to comment.

My first thought was, if they're blowing kazoos, what good are the signs going to do? Are they sound-proof signs? (Actually, my very first thought was, "Whip teams? That sounds hot!")

My second thought was, "Will there be poo cannons?"

My third thought was, "Please, let them start playing kazoos!"

See, the grown-ups in this process have moved on to try and enact the things that Hillary fought for. A little "kazoo-certo" would go a long way towards showing who's serious about change and who isn't.

Update: In case I don't get to post again before Denver, some important notes for readers. I expect I'll be busier than usual, and might not get to the comments like I usually do. Fret not, loyal T-Bots. You can email me at TommyChristopher@comcast.net if it's something you want to make sure I'll see, even if you don't need a reply.

Also, bookmark this link and check it a few times a day if you want to keep track of me. Here's Caleb's, too. I will try my best to stay in touch, and I promise to read all of the emails. Wish me luck!

As I reported Monday, there's a new group of Hillary Clinton supporters making news now by calling for the dismissal, and more, of Chris Matthews. For "The New Agenda," a post-PUMA group of 30 power players, Matthews is just the poster boy for their initiative to shop a slate of women's issues to whichever political party wants their support.

The group had already received overtures from the McCain campaign, but founding member Caren Turner told me that she met with a senior official in the Obama campaign yesterday, with very encouraging results.

"I met with a very high ranking person in the Obama campaign (and presented) a list of asks.

How will your administration deal with the fact that only 17% of the US Congress is made up of women, will you come up with a corrective plan, and what will it be?

Under Federal law, 5% of small business federal contracts should go to woman-owned businesses, but we barely get 3.4%, and we own 30% of the small businesses. What will you do to correct that?

Professor Nancy Hopkins did a study that showed that since the Iraq War started, more women have died at the hands of domestic violence (about 6,400) than soldiers have died in Iraq (4142). What will your administration do to remedy this national disaster?

How will your administration correct the rampant sexism on the airwaves, and society at large?

She also says she would like to see these questions in the Presidential debates.

Some skeptics, myself included, wondered if this new group would give the Obama campaign a fair shot, or align themselves with the more pro-McCain PUMA movement, and their political arm, PUMAPAC.

There's a new group called The New Agenda, and they're coming for you, Chris Matthews. The LA Times reports that the group considers Matthews a good start:

The nonpartisan group, called the New Agenda, held its first meeting this week and established as one of several goals getting Matthews yanked from his long-running show, "Hardball with Chris Matthews."

Amy Siskind of Westchester, N.Y., a founder and Clinton supporter, said the group was urging that Matthews' contract not be renewed because "the kind of language he uses and the kind of behavior he exhibits in the public domain toward women objectifies them and leads to bad things for our society and to domestic violence."

Siskind would not reveal what tactics the group would use to get Matthews off the air. She likened the organization to the Navy Seals, saying their methods would be covert.

The group's press release goes into more detail about The New Agenda's agenda, which is indeed new. The group has a set of issues that they are shopping, but I guess Matthews was the "grabber." I talked with Amy Siskind on Thursday, and she said I should talk to Cynthia Ruccia about The New Agenda, that it's a much more interesting story.

So, I did. It turns out there are lots of "grabbers" to this story.

My friend, Denise Williams, had this assessment of PUMA's appearance on MSNBC tonight:

All it takes is one decent interviewer to cut through the nonsense. PUMApac and Just Say No Deal do not fare well under scrutiny outside of the fawning treatment they received at Fox News. The Washington DC Denver planning committee was a bust - see more here. I have a strong feeling that by the end of the month Darragh Murphy and Will Bower won't be getting too many more invitations to appear on national cable news programs- even from Fox. The bigger PUMA sites have devolved into rampant, crazy conspiracy theories and wild hopes of Hillary somehow still capturing the nomination.

Time to call the Humane Society. Roar.

Here's the video, followed by a little bit of behind-the-scenes deliciousness. Note the 2:20 mark.