Here’s the Obama Hitler sign of the day, making the rounds.
Huh.

As always, the tendency is to pick out the most outrageous and inflamatory signage in these matters.  That disclaimer out of the way, I admit to having relatively little effect in the Hitler comparison derby for political figures.  In the war protests, the signs played off of various propaganda Hitler becomes a cartoony figure, and background noise.

This one, though.  Huh.  Just Huh.  Maybe no one at war protests during the Bush Administration had the sense of realism to approach the matter from that direction?

As for the Larouche organization, as we watch the dual Health Care protests on Capital Hill yesterday — Code Pink and assorted others into Lieberman’s office, Michelle Bachman leading a cast in the low four digits with Virigina Foxx speaking representing the “Tea Party” Movement…

where is the Larouche organization at now?  After single handedly organizing a “Mass Strike” through the Summer, (and the bit about Barney Frank got a mention in GQ’s list of the “50 Most Powerful People in Washington.”  There is another list of the “50 Most Powerful People in the Larouche Organization” — Rachel Brown did not quite crack it.) under the principles of Rosa Luxemberg, the organization has deemed the Tea Party Movement:

In direct response to the effect Lyndon LaRouche has had on the political situation in the wake of October’s phase-shift into an imminent spiral into a new dark age that will exceed the New Dark Age of the 14th century, Lyndon LaRouche today accused “the so-called “Tea Bag” movement of phony conservatives who call themselves opponents of Obama’s Hitler health policy, of putting itself at the head of an all-out effort by the British Empire to stifle the mass strike in the United States that threatens to topple the whole British-controlled health care debate and restore the United States to a Constitutional credit system rather than the British-Delphic monetary system. The phony “Tea Bag” movement,” LaRouche continued, which has sent bus tours across the United States, but is only drawing crowds of 300-1000, “set itself as its goal to coopt, preempt and demoralize the mass strike that began in August and led to the hundreds of thousands of ordinary American citizens attending thousands of town hall meetings called by senators and congressmen, to protest against Obama’s Hitler health policy.”

LaRouche called this “a transparent attempt to derail the mass strike, that reveals the desperation of the British Empire and its puppets like Obama, in the wake of the breakthrough agreement last week between China and Russia that represents a massive step towards the credit system that LaRouche has called for, […]

And etc.  That should absolve the Tea Party Movement of the Hitler Analogies, I suppose.  And in case any member of the Larouche organization is wondering where the “new dark age that will exceed the New Dark Age of the 14th century” is:
LaRouche also cautioned that “doubters in own ranks should know that they risk being exposed as idiots if they continue to doubt the massive phase-shift that took place in the middle of October, and the earthquake-like effect it has had on the mass strike.” LaRouche added that “they will be useless idiots, just as Lenin forecast” if they fail to shut their mouths and stop speaking bullsh*t.”

Does this mean they’re splitting their noxious role in the Tea Parties?  I guess so.  Hard to see how this does them any good.  They’re no longer hidden in groups of hundreds or thousands, now they’re heading on back over to Costume wearing against the Queen of England?  (That’s show Elizabeth III!!!)  And running down in groups of two or four to take the message to the Post Offices!

“We are here to get the truth out,” Frank Defalco said. “The economy is finished, it is never coming back.”
Protestor Carol Ruckert said that Obama’s health-care reform battle is a thinly veil plot to kill senior citizens.
“It is all a cover up for what they are doing,” Carol Ruckert said. “They are trying to ram through the euthanasia program. It is like what Hitler did in Nazi Germany. It is modeled on the Not Worthy to Live program.”
Those walking by largely ignored the demonstrators, and some denounced them outright.
Colleges, as per usual.
Taking donations.

Billington said the photo is supposed to represent the similarities between Obama’s end-of-life care policies and Adolf Hitler’s, which killed mentally ill people in Germany because it cost the state too much to care for them.
Billington said the photo is supposed to “stimulate thought and stimulate discussion.”
Besides disseminating information, the PAC members were taking donations. In a couple of hours they collected a little more than $100.
“Most people give us the thumbs up. Some people give us the finger,” Billington said.
He said they chose to protest in front of the post office because “people’s minds are thinking of sending messages to others,” making them more receptive to hearing new ideas.

Sounds very New Agey.  Anyway, a days’ worth of service garnered Billington and fellow trucker a little more than $100?  Really?
That should be enough to stave off the Costco “Free Sample Buffet Deal” that is, reportedly, the meal of choice for “Larouche Health Care Expert” (cited as such in the press!)  Nancy Spannaus.  (Hey!  Nothing wrong with the Costco Free Sample Buffet.)

One note worth a slight pause.

Sheridan said she avoided the booth.
“I believe in Obama, and they don’t,” she said. “I don’t think they should be allowed on government property.”

Careful there, Sheridan.  Belief won’t get you anywhere.
One thing to take away from that article, though, is that apparently Billington is at liberty to talk to the press — reliable enough as a man riding the tri-State circuit:  lives in New Jersey and protests every day, all over Connecticut and New York.  As opposed to, Dateline Rhode Island:
 The men, who declined to be interviewed for this story.  Instance #7.

Note to everybody: Do not throw piss-filled Balloons at these people.  Lest the comment here double back.
Also, a handy explanation to spotting a Larouchie from a Tea Partier:

Yep, the teabaggers (EDIT: Or possibly LaRouchies) have set up a little stand with a big poster featuring Obama with a Hitler ‘stache.
We know which via:
They have a bizarre fascination with Bach. Something along the lines of “Bach used polyphony, and the government must be polyphonic”.  Not a point a tea-partier would make.  I don’t know about the Civil War Camp Songs, though — you might have a convergence with that one.

I think it’s sad when anyone listens to anything Lyndon LaRouche says.

Sadness Generator #1:
As I seal the envelope to LaRouchePac, identifying my tax ID for political funding support (and in so doing calling into question my own credibility by publishing that here)
Good to be Self Aware. 
As I have stated to the LaRouche folks before, Lyndon’s credibility in Russia and China far exceeds his credibility here. Here in America he is unfortunately considered a wingnut. And when you attack Obama, calling him “clinically insane” you’re going to get that, despite any gracious attempt to excuse the attacks as a pent up expression of 60 years of political frustration.
He’s also not “considered a wingnut” by anyone but moonbats.  Meanwhile, Moonbats consider him a wingnut.

Sadness Generator #2:  LaRoucheisright:  Conservative and liberal are false categories. Those categories just put people in boxes.Join with LaRouche. Support “The LaRouche Plan” Go to

Sadness Generator #3:   Not that “We Are Change Philadelphia” takes it seriously.

Sadness Generator #4:  This clip was sent by my Big Bro, that was all for Obama until he had a five day visit with me ,i showed him many things that changed his mind ……ricklbert
LaRouche leads a discussion with patriotic forces in and around the US government as to how to save the United States from the British influence through the Obama administration.

Sadness Generator #5:  If there is a World War III it will be between The U.S. And Russia but, Russia doesn’t want to fight. They would rather like to do as LaRouche says and work with the U.S. because unlike us, The Russians are smart enough to see what is coming in the current future for the world and therefore The only next major thing that is going to happen is a general break down of the entire global economic system entering us into a new dark age so check it out at
Note the Confederate Flag.  Interesting.  Kind of anti-Linocln, isn’t it?  Anyway, I guess there are neo-Confederate Larouchies… unlike

Thought his background was interesting given his views. Is he a Zionist? A Larouche Zionist!?
As much as I dislike David P Goldman’s confession and saw it as self serving and knowingly dishonest… Goldman doesn’t deserve this write up as much as commenter “red in fc” at this blog post I posted to is a frothy mouthed partisan hack.

Mental Note: Run down “HK”‘s posts at “Wikipedia Review“.

I have the basic theory that the Democrats need an Alan Grayson.  It is the theory of balance — the nature of partisanship is such that the parties will sling shots at each other, and a whole mass of people will deem it all as “politics as usual”.  Nature abhors a vaccuum, and absent any sling-shot throwers, the “politics as usual” anti-partisans will just craft the storyline from the sling-shot throwers on the right to create in their heads a balance.  The meta-narrative needs two to tangle to stand up.

The first comments that attracted attention to Alan Grayson aren’t too much worth mentioning at this juncture.  His “apology” “to the dead” only mis-fired due to a single word he probably shouldn’t have used — but I don’t even want to draw attention to that one.

The comment that I want to defend is the “K Street Whore” phrase.  It received a bit of a knock from some of his usual defenders — the question is: would he have used that same term if he was referencing a male?

The answer is: Soitenly.
Theoretically we might have the problem with him with that phrase due to the

One problem, though, with him and that attendent controversy.:

But on Tuesday Mr. Grayson did offer what he called “my sincere apology” to Linda Robertson, the adviser to Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke whom he called a “K Street whore” last month on the nationally syndicated ” Alex Jones Show.”

On the ” Alex Jones Show,” Mr. Grayson said: “This lobbyist, this K Street whore, is trying to teach me about economics.”

The convroversy-causing comment was made on the Alex Jones Show???  That’s… disappointing.  Even if, listening to the interview, I see that Jones has tamped himself down.  I suppose Mr. Jones has a sort of dichotemy in his head when dealing with guests — he’ll leave the more insane for Texe Marr and Webster Tarpley.

But regarding Mr. Grayson, your websites worth knowing:

A group of outraged Florida voters has launched the Web site MyCongressmanIsNuts.com in a drive to oust Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson. […]

The site is raising money to defeat the Orlando-area congressman and the site’s organizers describe it as a “more appropriate alternative” to Mr. Grayson’s CongressmanWithGuts.com. […]

He also set up his own Web site – NamesOfTheDead.com – that claims to list people who have died without health insurance.

Start buying up domain names like that for resale.  There’s money there, I tells you.

It is amusing to see the chirping of Republicans, having saved the two party system on Election Day 2009.  In terms of politics as sports, it is pontificating on the success or failure of a third down pass for three yards for first down.  As well the “Sour Grapes”, in the true Aesopean meaning of the phrase as rationalizing negative news, in reaction to the NY House seat.  And I wonder what Gary Bauer has to say about these matters.:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Former Presidential Candidate Gary Bauer on the eve of mid-term elections Monday said that the electorate seems poised to make “change Conservatives can believe in.” Bauer is available for election analysis and commentary as one who played key roles in the races receiving significant attention.

Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, was one of the first conservatives to endorse Doug Hoffman in his bid to take the New York house seat. Bauer’s Campaign for Working Families committed tens of thousands of dollars in contributions and independent expenditures in Virginia and New York to promote conservative candidates and mobilize conservative voters. The Campaign is one of the largest pro-family, pro-life political action committees in America.
Bauer said, “Whatever happens tomorrow, Virginia seems to be headed back to the Republican column, and Democratic state New Jersey has an incumbent Democratic governor who clearly will not get 50 percent of the vote even with Barack Obama’s help. And in New York‘s 23rd House Race, a grassroots rebellion threatens to put a Conservative Party candidate into the Congress. It’s definitely going to be must see TV tomorrow, and as one who has been very active in the races, I do believe that change is coming.”

Something I need to do: check to see what media appearances this press release netted for Mr. Bauer.

Probably the most disconcerting problem spot for Obama on “Eletion Day 2009” — into next year’s midterm elections and into his re-election bid — is the Virginia outcome.  New Jersey is fine: one unpopular Democratic incumbent ousted by an unpopular Republican challenger in a state where the Republican Party was due for a victory, and the only reason it was close at all was the presence of Obama.  Move along, nothing to see there.

But Virginia?  Virginia sort of resembles the outcome of Georgia’s Senate run-off election in 2008.  The Democratic candidate there had tacked to Obama’s relatively impressive state margins, forcing the Republican just below 50 percent and into a run-off.  And in that run-off, he was — quite predictably — trounced.  Obama’s electoral coalition collapsed completely sans Obama in something of an “Emerging Market”, and everyone knew it was about to happen — hence Obama stayed away from it.  Creigh Deeds knew the electorate would look different than 2008, and proceeded to make that a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Indeed, in important ways McDonnell probably ran less against Obama than Deed did.

The irony of McDonnell’s smashing victory is that it follows two essentially successful Democratic gubernatorial terms.  Virginia’s one-term process offers a procession of quarterly “clean slate” choices where the election does not necessarily become a referendum on the last guy.  I guess it’s sort of set up for that purpose — that system has its small “d” democratic virtues.

The good news for Obama, running against his problems of unreliable base motivation, is that election outcomes in the blue parts of North Carolina — the Obama state with the lowest margin of victory and a ripe target for the Collapsed Electoral Coalition problem (I gather sort of most visible in the southern states) — trended ever more blue.  The other factoid moving forward to 2010: if the micro-level economy is not tangibly better, the Democrats need to brace themselves for losses with a capital “l”.  Never mind I saw in the supermarket check-out aisle a magazine commenerating his Nobel Prize — strange tidings.

Down Goes Hoffman!  Down Goes Hoffman!   Down Goes Hoffman!

Here’s where Drudge puts that election down, by the way:

Considering the elements coming together to push for Doug Hoffman, if NY-23 had gone the other way, would that have popped up first, instead of just a tidge ahead of Michelle taking his daughters to see Miley Cyrus?

I heard Roger Stone, Republican hack, at the start of the ballot counting just after the voting was done in NY23, sell the results for the district.  First of all, and I don’t understand the point in party hacks getting up to sell that “I think we’ll win this one” — not in the circumstances of 2009 where there aren’t major elections coming down the pike West-wise that might be tamped down in vote turn-out.  But Roger Stone saw the results: there obviously wasn’t anything to suggest the fait accompli of a victory, yet he spun that direction anyways.

Next, I saw Roger Stone sell the concept of the district as a Democratic vote-getter.  Obama narrowly won the district.  Fine, cool, great.  I gather the first Democratic presidential victor in the district?  (I know that FDR never won his home-turf in upstate New York, which I further gather is even less Democratic than these parts of New York.)  The other one was to point out the state-wide Democratic office-holders who won this district — Schumer in his last election, and Spitzer.  Those politicians won the state in a landslide — the district edged forward.

But you choose your facts to fit your storyline.  This, I think, is a more fitting fact storyline.  In the end, this race became a referendum on the strategies of the “Talk Radio” conservative and narrowly defined “Tea Party” audience.  They lost.  It’s not a political strategum employed by the two great Republican victors of the night who had broader electorates to appeal toward (and generally skirted the matter in the election of whether this was a referendum on national politics).  So, they can keep their Bachmans, as New York 23 would rather have someone tending to their parachiol matters.

So, how about that New York City mayorial race, huh?

At about 9 pm Eastern Time, the candidates and the media prepared to go through the ritual motions of lop-sided election races.  William Thompson reportedly was preparing to call Bloomberg.  Some media outlets automatically called the election.

Then the ballots were counted.  And the results showed.  Bloomberg up by a point.  Two points.  Holding steady at a point.  I imagine Thompson hurrying to write up a possible victory speech, a bit surprised by these circumstances.

I have no dog in this fight, but at this point I would admit I love a good upset, and bizarre scrambling electoral circumstances, and the biggest upset in American political history since Truman has a nice ring to it.   Thinking about it, the lesson would have been to pin-point when the diminishing returns of media saturation diminish to the point where it has negative value — complacency run amok.

There’s a couple ways of looking at the too-close result.  I am back to the cynical.  Bloomberg’s mega-bucks spend to make sure there’s no contest worked, weirdly and a bit deceptively sling-shotting a few points back in the process.  The question becomes whether money might have reallydone anything for Thompson.  And if an actual known name with historic electoral backing — Anthony Wiener — wouldn’t have had the effect of putting in different dynamics that would have resulted in the same effect.

Across the way, Chris Christie won election in New Jersey, reviving the old William Howard Taft wing of the Republican Party.  And you know what I mean.

Saw a bumpersticker.  I guess on an image of a ribbon the words “Vote Freedom”.  I’ll be sure to do that.  It occurs to me that this is a rather meaningless unspecified marker.  Everyone seems to be voting for freedom, with the belief that the other side is voting for Tyranny.

So I don’t know the bumper stickers’ politics.  There is another bumper sticker which suggests the car is owned by a cat owner.  Other than that, I have nothing.

I have, at this moment in scanning about the web, an irrational desire see election results of one kind or another.  I don’t even understand why.  I read, bemused, the comments of partisan charged commenter floating out there, against the easy conventional unconventional conventional wisdom that these elections add up to a few local races with local issues and people with an electorate that looks nothing like any electorate that will face Obama in 3 years.:

(bah.  Can’t find it. Website is slow to, I assume, election-result traffic — and in this case it has to be rather localized to the evening as opposed to larger election nights. It was a Typical spiel alleging that the liberal media would paint a Democratic night as significant, and a Republican night as hinging on the local.

Good luck to the residents of Virginia in upholding their pattern in electing Governors the following year of the other party than the president.
One thing that needs to be stated about these 70 Gubernatorial term slots.  Going back to the beginning of Virginia’s voting pattern, and the demise of the one party system at the end of the stuffy “Byrd Machine”.:  Here’s the first Republican Governor in Virginia since Reconstruction, and the Democrat he replaced who would then be the Republican that replaced him, a quick wikipedia sketch of the mechinitions of political realignment. 

Abner Linwood Holton, Jr. (born September 21, 1923) was the first Republican Governor of Virginia since Reconstruction. He was governor from 1970 to 1974. Holton was a member of the mountain-valley Republican Party (GOP) that fought the Byrd Organization and was not in favor of welcoming conservative Democrats into the Virginia Republican Party.  […]
In 1970, when forced busing was an issue in Virginia, Holton voluntarily placed his children (including future First Lady of Virginia Anne Holton) in the mostly African-American Richmond public schools garnering much publicity.
As governor he pushed hard to field Republican candidates in all statewide races instead of endorsing conservative alternatives. When segregationist Harry F. Byrd, Jr. broke ranks with the increasingly liberal Virginia Democratic party and ran as an independent for the U.S. Senate in 1970, Linwood insisted on running a Republican candidate rather than endorsing an independent. This eventually led to the nomination of Ray Garland.^[1] Byrd went on to win the three-way election with an absolute majority. Holton also encouraged a moderate Republican to run in the special election in 1971 to choose a successor for deceased Lieutenant Governor J. Sargeant Reynolds — another election which was won by an independent, this time populist Henry Howell.
The increasingly conservative Republican party turned their back on Holton and supported Mills E. Godwin, Jr. in 1973, the conservative former Democrat who had defeated Holton in the 1965 election. Godwin had turned Republican and supported “massive resistance” to desegregation.^[2][3] Holton was not eligible to run in 1973 anyway, as Virginia does not allow governors to serve consecutive terms. […]
After his retirement, Holton had supported moderate Republicans, including John Warner. As the Virginia Republican Party became more conservative, however, he found himself more in line with the state Democratic Party, ultimately endorsing several Democrats for statewide office, including his son-in-law, Governor Tim Kaine. Holton endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential contest.

Virginians voted for and against Freedom between 1965 and 1973.

On that other round-up, I rolled about the am dial.  I heard a dash of two hosts.  Mark Levine was particularly interesting, alerting us to the one year anniversary of the election of a Marxist Radical to the White House, and the ensuring year long ground-swell that is reaching one key moment in the election of Doug Hoffman in Upstate New York.  Obama Never Knew what hit him!  A speech prevailed upon atop music from Patton.  It’s show business, I suppose.

It is, of course, worth noting the reported surreality from residents of New York District 23.  The Enthusiasm Gap between National Observers and National Movement Conservatives holding this out as one giant Stand (note the local spending versus national) and the residents in the district waiting for the media attention to go away, please.

Exit polls are coming out from all the contests.  According to the exit polls, 97 percent of voters believe they voted for Freedom.  What’s interesting is to see the Gender Gap: where 95 percent of men voted for Freedom, 98 percent of women voted for Freedom, showing a giant gap in terms of attitudes regarding this “Freedom Issue”.  Not enough data has come in to look at generational splits.

From an interview in the Nation with Mikhail Gorbachev.

By the way, in 1987, after my first visit to the United States, Vice President Bush accompanied me to the airport, and told me: “Reagan is a conservative. An extreme conservative. All the blockheads and dummies are for him, and when he says that something is necessary, they trust him. But if some Democrat had proposed what Reagan did, with you, they might not have trusted him.”

By telling you this, I simply want to give Reagan the credit he deserves. I found dealing with him very difficult. The first time we met, in 1985, after we had talked, my people asked me what I thought of him. “A real dinosaur,” I replied. And about me Reagan said, “Gorbachev is a diehard Bolshevik!”

Maybe I’ll add more to this post later, political musings that touch on American politics through the years, or maybe I’ll leave it at that.