I want to put together a massive conspiracy theory that pulls together the circumstances of the Petraeus Sex Scandal with the demise of Hostess Foods and the Twinkee.  Hey!  They happened in the same news cycle — that can’t be a coincidence, can it?

Election Re-caps

Vote percentages by sub-group?  Sigh.  Who knows?

Predictably enough, Mitt Romney fell to the common losing presidential candidate trap and believed, to the end, he was on the verge of winning — dismissing the signs that he wasn’t.  His case is a little more troubling than most — who tend to slide into the “Enthusiasm of the crowds” bubble — because he fell into some polling fantasy that put minority voting down closer to the 2010 level than the 2008 level.  Still, Romney’s internal bubble polling is probably not as bad as the woeful Dick Morris — and of curiosity, in the wake of the worst pundit in American punditry, Steinberg’s 1996 article on Dick Morris is posted here.
The partisan post-mortems hinge over to the “Romney had the Momentum, which popped at the Big Storm”.  Never mind that from what I can see, there were maybe two days this calendar year that Obama might have failed the “If the Election were held today” test — basically, immediately following the first debate.  (A debate, that by the way, polling dropping wise was only as bad as Reagan 84’s first and Bush 04’s first.)  Chris Christie comes to be a boogie man in some overly partisan corners for touring New Jersey with Obama.  It is notable that all RNC officials and Republican big-wigs downplay this attack — and more notable to the point:

A new poll shows Christie’s job approval rating has rocketed to a personal record of 77 percent…
It will fall sooner rather than later, of course.  Whether it goes back to the partisan-edged 40s or up into the safe upper 50s range is anyone’s guess (I note that the “Democrat Socialist” in the Senate won his first Burlington mayoral re-election bid off of public approval during a storm — non one cared that it was a bunch of pinkos who cleared the road during the Big Blizzard), but the fact remains whether by hook or crook he is perceived to have done a good job here.

And Working against Public Opinion, indeed:  Diane Sare has thrown her hat into the ring  –Due to the murderous incompetence in the handling of the preparations for, and aftermath of, the recent hurricane, I have decided to announce my candidacy for Governor of the State of New Jersey, as an Independent in the November 2013 elections. My association with America’s greatest economic forecaster, Lyndon LaRouche, and my participation in weekly policy discussions with him and former LaRouche candidates makes me far more qualified for this job, than anyone currently considering running from either party.
The choice is yours: work with me and the rest of the LaRouche Slate to organize a national economic recovery, and make the state of New Jersey worthy of the contributions of Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Alexander Hamilton, and many other great thinkers; or stick to stupid “party politics” and drop dead under the policies of Bloomberg, Christie and Obama. You decide.

Yeah, well Howie G is psyched.  (But Howie G rolls into sports commentary here Commentary from Howie G:  Yankees, you lost because of Obama, you must destroy Obama.)

I suppose you could have the theory of exposing it all as merely a successful photo-op in public relations.  But probably not.  The “Independent” run is an interesting gambit — away from the Democratic primaries — and I am wondering if whatever was afoot during her 2010 Congressional bid — bringing along the “Reform Party” candidate of Mark Quick (dropped by whatever the Reform Party apparatus was) is going to come into play with this one.

Texas results for Kesha Rogers’s race.  Kesha Rogers LOSES.  Kesha Rogers edged her percentage up a couple points in what is a district that has a few fewer Democrats.  But not by much in partisan breakdown.  Looking at the numbers for the House race... And the county for President Brazario, Harris, and Fort Bend… party line voting predominates, and not much else.

ULSTERMAN’S IDENTITY REVEALED???? Election Aftermath.  Well, isn’t this ironic.  On  The question of Ulsterman
If Romney wins, we’ll find out soon enough when Ulsterman cashes-in on a tell all book.
BTW, I think that Wall Street Insider may possibly be Lyndon LaRouche. Whatdoyathink?
Well, I don’t really see anyone citing Ulsterman except the Larouchies, so who knows?  (That being said, I’m not so far into the depth of Internet Conspiratorial malarky that I’d see people tossing around Ulsterman as a matter of course.)

THE POST OFFICE TOUR IN POST OBAMA RE-ELECTION AMERICA

Dateline Alex Jonestown:
.I figured if he`s connecting with Alex there must be some good in the guy. […]  Anyways the two Lyndon LaRouche guys and myself talked about a wide variety of topics that are talked about on the show and this forum.They were eager to get my address and phone number,ect and get me to join up.They asked for a donation which I gave them a few bucks.Then they said I was in luck that they were even holding a meeting tonight.I declined on giving them my personal information and going to their meeting.
As I walked away to my car it hit me how similar it all seemed like a cult situation.Decades ago I was hit with a similar sales pitch with Scientology members.They wanted my personal information and wanted me to attend their meetings.
So interestingly enough there turns out to be a fair amount of Lyndon LaRouche  cult threads on the internet.Not saying what I`m throwing out here is fact.
It`s just my gut reaction.I`m just curious what some you folks might have to say.I don`t know about anyone else but my “gut” might be the best bull sh it detector there is.
I may be in the minority here but I suspect that all is not kosher in larouche land. Larouche publications may carry some good material but their history is bizarre and contradictory to the say the least. As much as I am loathe to recommend Wikipedia, its entry on him and the movement leads to some disturbing questions if you care to check that out as a starting point.
Not really a fan politically, although his theories on Riemannian geometries are interesting
The problem with that organization is there is too much power at the top of that organization.  When Lyndon dies, I don’t know what’ll happen to them.  I don’t see a clear number two person being groomed.  That’s also the danger with AJ’s operation, but he’s only in his upper-30’s, and not 90 like Lyndon.  Also, I can see a great effort for him to build up his staff, so if something ever did happen to him, I think the current crew could continue easily.

Dateline  Waynesboro
Some agreed with the message given by Tony Esposito and Joe Billington, both of Upper Darby, but others told the men they should be ashamed of themselves because Obama is their commander in chief. […]
“Obama is a national security threat to the U.S.,” Esposito said, noting LaRouche supporters feel a nuclear war with Russia and China is imminent.
Esposito said other reasons behind their efforts to have the president impeached include drone attacks that killed hundreds of Pakistani civilians, his committing of U.S. forces to war in Libya without Congressional approval and the “Benghazi assassination cover-up.”
The volunteers set up booths across the country urging people to take a stand.
Tony Esposito of Upper Darby, a volunteer with LaRouchePAC, encourages Georgia Blevins of Newburg to impeach President Barack Obama. Blevins said she supports their efforts, and signed up to help the movement.

Always fun to see some street theater in the area too.
I to agree that something has to be done to stop Obama from destroying our country. I highly recomend that everyone watch the documentary on Obama’s America 2016
Mel Halterman why are they idiots? because they don’t like him? I didn’t vote for Romney or obama, but honestly obama is destroying the usa from the inside out, he pretty much said fuck you to the rule’s and went to war with libya with out the approval of congress , he needs to go.

More from Waynesboro
Police went to the scene for an “unhappy person,” but no charges were filed, and the person did not create a scene, Sourbier added. […]
LaRouche is an economist and political activist who ran for president five times between 1976 and 1992.  [hm.]
“Obama is a national security threat to the U.S.,” Esposito said, noting LaRouche supporters feel a nuclear war with Russia and China is imminent.
[AND then there’s...]  It’s about time,” Georgia Blevins of Newburg said after speaking with Esposito. “Everybody needs to stand up.

 Huh.  Probably a clue to my “socialism” is my sometimes enthusiastic reading of Lyndon LaRouche literature. He’s an FDR Democrat who, like me, despises the likes of Obama and Clinton just as much as the Bush Dynasty. I realize these folks are in fact all mental cases who live in fantasy-land, imagining they are the intelligent protagonists of a “New World Order” that is in reality a rehash of European feudalism. People like FDR and Hubert Humphrey and John Kennedy actually cared about America and American people, and would not bow to the Queen, let alone ignore all the bars against having Brit subjects/citizens/dupes, enamored at the prospect of kissing the feet of Brit Royals and maybe even being “knighted”, have the power to run our country.

MOCK THEM 

Obama the New Hitler?
They’re LaRouchies! I didn’t know they still existed! I thought they had all converted to Ron Paulites. They were against the war, the Federal Reserve, and thought Obama was no different than Bush/Cheney. I’m sorry, I’m a bad person,
From Liberal Baby Boomer:  Has there ever been a more ridiculous presidential candidate in American history than Mitt Romney?  Maybe Pat Paulson? What about Lyndon LaRouche? There was that time some party ran a pig. […]  So, I can see a strong argument that LaRouche is less ridiculous than Mitt.
On Libertarians and etc.   You are never going to get the looney fringe vote, there is always a Larouche , a Perot, or a Ron Paul to mop those up.

WORLD TOURING

Steinberg was identified in the official program as a writer for Executive Intelligence Review; a critic of the ‘neoconservative movement;’ and a contributor to ‘Middle East journals’ such as Al Watan and Al Sharq in Saudi Arabia.

From the “Virginia Tea Party” posting of this press release…
The conference was attended by diplomats from Western Europe and Africa and by media from the United States, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South America. The entire event was recorded by three TV networks, including LPAC TV, which will be posting the full video of the press conference, along with a transcript, within the next 24 hours.
Yeah, they have an in on a Virginia Tea Party thingy.   Where have they said this before?  It is indicative that the walls are closing in on Obama.  Repeat, Rinse, Repeat.

Press TV interviewee chimes in with this introduction…
He (Caleb Maupin of the International Action Center) is joined by two additional guests on Press TV News Analysis program: Richard Weitz with American conservative non-profit think tank Hudson Institute and Mike Billington with theExecutive Intelligence Review weekly newsmagazine, both from Washington. …
And this comment:
Caleb Maupin: Before I answer that I just want to make clear that I have nothing in common with Executive Intelligence Review or with Mr. Lyndon LaRouche but I will [etc]

Mike Billington speaks there.

The liberal blogosphere, lead by dailykos, has been watching with baited breath to see if and when Romney dips below the 47.5 mark, ala rounding to a full figure brings Romney to the “47 percent” of his campaign lore.  Whatever they consider fun, I suppose.

Other arbitrary measurements are listed at that kos blog page — they off-set the Republican arbitrary measurements along the lines of, oh, Obama being the first president re-elected with a percentage less than his first time elected.  Him doing better than Bush.  We get into some weird partisan wrangling around these parts — in his pre-election “Vote Romney” editorial, Charles Krauthammer chimed in that this is lives up to Big Election with Big Things at Stake line, after the election results came in, he charged that Obama won, sure, but he did so by going small.  Grover Norquist we see moving from his position that the Republican nominee don’t matter much because all we need is for someone to stamp in what the Republican congress sends him to a position of Redistricting has given us the House for the next decade, so there.

I’m looking at this “land unchecked” and pondering this factoid:  if a bunch of California is off-setting, that means we can move into the margins and see if Roseanne Barr has picked up percentage points…

Gary Johnson Libertarian New Mexico 1,265,100 0.99% 0 James P. Gray California
0 Jill Stein Green Massachusetts 458,411 0.36% 0 Cheri Honkala Pennsylvania
0 Virgil Goode Constitution Virginia 119,281 0.09% 0 Jim Clymer Pennsylvania
0 Roseanne Barr Peace and Freedom Hawaii 64,620 0.05% 0 Cindy Sheehan California
0 Rocky Anderson Justice Utah 41,204 0.03% 0 Luis J. Rodriguez California
0 Tom Hoefling America’s Iowa 38,828 0.03% 0 Jonathan D. Ellis Tennessee
0 Other 225,503 0.18% — Other —

Okay, compare this to my last tally, and what do we get?

It looks like Gary Johnson has moved up a hundredth of a percentage point — incidentally by the liberal wanking Romney 47 watch he has gotten to his percentage point; otherwise no.  Stein gets the extra hundredth of a percentage point as well.  The other candidates have gotten additional hundreds of votes, but no hundredth percentage point changes.

From The Nation

Case number one: if Henry Wallace had won the vice presidential nomination in 1944, he would have become president when Roosevelt died in 1945, and we probably would not have bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and could have avoided the cold war as well. […]  A Gallup poll in July 1944 asked likely Democratic voters whom they wanted on the ticket as veep. Sixty-five percent said Wallace, while Truman came in eighth, with just 2 percent. Roosevelt announced that, were he a delegate, he would vote for Wallace. Claude Pepper, a Democratic senator from Florida, tried to nominate Wallace at the convention, but the conservative party bosses, who opposed him, adjourned the proceedings. “Had Pepper made it five more feet [to the microphone] and nominated Wallace,” Stone argues, “Wallace would have become president in 1945 and…there might have been no atomic bombings, no nuclear arms race, and no Cold War.”

It was all in Roosevelt’s hands, and Roosevelt was being disingenuous the whole way through.  He picked Truman (or asceded to the pick of Truman) and Truman it was.

Case number two: even with Truman as president in 1945, it was not a foregone conclusion that the United States would drop the bomb. Generals Eisenhower and MacArthur both opposed it, along with most of the other top generals and admirals—and they were joined by many of the scientists who had developed the bomb. If only President Truman had listened to them…

This all would go against Truman’s nature.

Case number three: if JFK had not been shot in 1963, Stone is convinced he would have pulled US forces out of Vietnam and negotiated an end to the cold war.

Pick the evidence you must and ignore all other evidence.

Case number four: if George W. Bush had listened to his intelligence agencies in 2001, the 9/11 attacks would not have taken place.

And he’s one for four!

Dateline Georgia
“I care more about this country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge,” Chambliss told Georgia television station WMAZ on Thursday. “If we do it his way, then we’ll continue in debt, and I just have a disagreement with him about that.” […]
“Grover Norquist has no plan to pay this debt down. His plan says you continue to add to the debt. I just have a fundamental disagreement with him about that,” Chambliss said.
Norquist, in response, noted that Chambliss was an author of an open letter to him last year from three Republicans promising support for revenue generation from the “pro-growth effects” of lower tax rates.
“Senator Chambliss promised the people of Georgia he would go to Washington and reform government rather than raise taxes to pay for bigger government,” Norquist said.

AND
Chambliss, who is up for re-election in 2014, was asked in the interview whether Norquist would retaliate against him.
“In all likelihood, yes,” Chambliss said.

See here
Remember Karen Handel? She was the subject of national interest several months ago when Handel, a former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and staunch opponent of abortion rights, directed Komen for the Cure to cut off all grants to Planned Parenthood. […]
“She’s considering it,” says Rob Sims, a Republican campaign consultant who worked on Handel’s unsuccessful run for governor in 2010. Kay Godwin, the co-chairman of Georgia Conservatives in Action, says Handel is among those she’s hearing who could successfully challenge Chambliss.

…………………..

The classic line of attack where the big money capitalist wig would use the social issues they don’t particulary care about to down their slightly off key figure.

Dateline South Carolina

Graham, by contrast, held a conference call with West Virginia’s Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin to tout bipartisan support for foreign aid. “Foreign relations are not a Democrat or Republican issue, but an American issue,” he insisted.
Replies Rand Paul: “I don’t see myself campaigning against a Republican in a general election ever, that’s why I think it’s extraordinary that Graham is supporting a Democrat in a general election.”
The battle lines are drawn. The Club for Growth’s president already hinted in September that Graham would be on the conservative pressure group’s target list. “If you are looking over the horizon of 2014,” he told a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, “the sun may rise over South Carolina.” Tea Partiers are anxious to collect another Republican establishment scalp.”
………….

His bi-partisanship, of course, sucks a bit, as it basically skews over toward protecting the Military Industrial Complex.

One question though…
“I don’t think it’s any secret that Lindsey Graham has not always represented a consistent, pro-growth record,” Chris Chocola, the group’s president and a former Indiana congressman, said in a telephone interview. “If an attractive alternative — a viable alternative — emerges, we’d take a look at the race. And I don’t think we’d be alone in that.”

Does an organization that prefigures “Tea Party” get to be called a “tea party group”, as opposed to tea party astroturf organizer or something?
Also, as for candidate… how about 2008 Demcoratic candidate Bob Conley?

Dateline Tennessee

Tea Party members were further angered this weekend by a Nashville fundraiser Alexander hosted for several Republican moderates, including Olympia Snowe of Maine and Richard Lugar of Indiana, that are disliked by many Tea Party member for their willingness to compromise.

“Apparently Al Franken and Harry Reidcouldn’t clear their schedules,” one local conservative wrote to The City Paper.

I believe Lamar Alexander was running somewhat to Bob Dole’s right in the 1996 Republican Primaries.
A question… is there any Democratic Party nominee in these three states who can sit in the wings and pick up moderate (or quasi-moderate) Republican support going into a general election?  We note that the trio of candidates who are claimed “at risk” because Grover Norquist is chomping at the bit all lie in the South… So, for instance… Dateline Maine and the new “Least Conservative Republican in the Senate” gets the query: so…?  Do they dare do a Christine O’Donnell?

This was weird.  I passed by a group of bar-hoppers leaving a bar — the individuals located in a gray area between full control and a tad tipsy.  And I heard this jab tossed backward:

“You’re like… The Trenchcoat Mafia!”

And then a woman in the group made her way out of the exit, and I see, yep, she’s wearing this sort of long trenchcoat.  She laughs at the jibe and repeats it.

Quickly scanning them I see that, yep, they’d have been in high school in 1999.  The Trenchcoat Mafia, to refresh one’s memory (and set a couple things straight) were a cliquish set of students at Columbine High School, largely graduated in 1998, a pair of mass murderers on the edge of this social grouping making for an unfortunate retro-fit recoloring of their high school years when it was plopped into a popular narrative via media distortions off of peer misapprehensions.  I would be tempted to suggest this would make for a horrible high school reunion experience, but (1) they’d be largely the type to forego such things anyway (2) Technology has largely shoved high school reunions aside (a positive aspect of facebook finally) and (3) I imagine any high school reunion out of Columbine would be a little odd.

None of this figures into the chuckling toss-aside.  It is a strange reference point.  It’s about the same as “Don’t drink the kool-aid”, but probably rather narrowly generational specific in probable usage.  Just a few years older and the likely automatic jestering reference would be to a creepy (sexual assaulting) flasher.