The history of the Congressional Record is littered with incivil pronouncements against political enemies.

We’ve had now indisbutably wrong-headed pronouncements — both gracious and not gracious — for the “Peculiar Institution” of slavery, for the KKK, and for Segregation.

Strom Thurmond pissed into a bucket in the Congressional Record.

We’ve had members of one party accusing the President from the other party killing people

It’s a record that demonstrates different constituencies’ concerns, warts and all, and the idiosyncracies of particular candidaates, and vicious dislike toward the members of the opposing party or opposing philosophy.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, and particularly his vice president Henry Wallace, are tools of Communism. Pearl Harbor notwithstanding, we should not go to war. John F Kennedy’s daddy stole the election against Nixon*. Richard Nixon is a crook. All in the public record!

So, with all that in mind:

Why were Corrine Brown’s words strickened from the Congressional Record?

Audio, video, and transcription found here, disappeared as it is from the record.

I come from Florida, where you and others participated in what I call the United States coup d’etat.

No, we’re not going to get over it. And we want verification from the world.

* Okay, I don’t know for sure if that one is in there. But, I must say, if it isn’t I would be supremely disappointed.

Re-occuring items, varies depending on the specific media peculiarity.

Today, it was a “Face the Nation” program. The host had on the RNC and DNC chairmen — Ed Gillespie and Terry Mcauliffe. Two people whose job description is, quite literally, “partisan hack”.

The host asks the question: “Are you calling Bush a liar?”

To wit, Mcauliffe responds “Well, there are serious questions blah blah blah.”

In the less Right-wing media, we have, say, Sean Hannity say “These left wing wackos are, without any evidence, calling our president George W Bush a Liar! It’s absurd”

Actually, it’s a fascinating game. If confronted with a left-wing wacko calling Bush a liar, the right-thinking conservative media figure will fire back with quotes from Bill Clinton*. Then, self-indulgently, will perform a mental jig.

Or, try this one out, in this case after quoting Kerry and Edwards Checkmate!. That’s a sort of verbal jig, I think…

See… Bill Clinton thought there were weapons of mass destruction too… (Remember, Operation Dessert Fox after Saddam kicked the inspectors out? When he supposedly used our intelligence to bomb suspected storehouses of weapons of the mass of the destruction. Or what remained there. Or something to that effect.) Therefore, Bush didn’t lie.

Actually, that story is open to constant revisionism, similar to, say, — for example — the testimony of Super-Defector Hussein Kamel.

Perhaps in this tug and nip game, where I’m supposed to side with one Party apparatus over another, it’s best to quote Colin Powell and Condelleza Rice from Spring of 2001… back when they stated that Saddam no longer had any capacity to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. Then we get to see to what extent either of us have meld our minds to fit the 2 party system.

Or, better yet, Colin Powell expressing his disappointment over his UN presentation. My favourite phrase, in reference to the evidence he provided, ” in some cases, intentionally misleading”.

At the moment, Joseph Wilson has found himself stuck walking back into the kitchen. He has been completely discredited, because — as far as I can tell — he lied about his wife being the person who suggested him.** I stare at what the Republicans are saying these days about Wilson, and ponder why that particular item is terribly relevant. Apparently, the entire thing was an elaborate set-up for Joseph Wilson to undermine the president. Though, in this case, I have to wonder why Bush Administration would take the bait and … expose his undercover wife… CIA Agent… expert on the weapons of the mass of the destruction.

Stare at Bush’s 16 little words, “British intelligence has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

The only way George Tenet allowed this into the State of the Union speech was with the opening caveat. “British intelligence has learned.”

Not a lie.

Some more revisionist history, the reason that Bush had to go to war at that precise moment:

“The larger point is, and the fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn’t let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power, along with other nations, so as to make sure he was not a threat to the United States and our friends and allies in the region.

It’s too bad that Saddam Hussein relented, and allowed the inspectors in… because then, you know, Bush’s storyline narrative would, maybe, be more coherent.

The inspectors went in, and were ordered out to start the bombing. It sounds vaguely familiar.

Actually, as a memento of the pre-war debate, recall that Bill O’Reilly said that if nothing was found, he would now become a whole lot more skeptical in trusting George W. Bush. When pressed, he acknowledged this quotation, and said that from now on he was going to be more skeptical in trusting George W. Bush. As far as I can tell… he still pretty much flacks for the Bush Administration.

…………

*Radio host Clyde Lewis, a few months back moving his audio stuff across town, ran into the material that made him angry in the late 1990s… “running over the same old ground.”

** Of interest is this Salon article which you need to view a quick ad to view. For me, the most bizarrely almost Fruedian bit comes at the very end: The Post article also contained one acknowledged error: In trying to build a case that Wilson’s Niger trip had actually bolstered the administration’s claims, Schmidt wrote that Wilson had told the CIA that Iraq had tried to buy 400 tons of uranium from Niger in 1998. In fact, it was Iran that Wilson said had tried to make the purchase, as the Senate report states. The Post ran a correction. Fascinating, due to what’s been making the headlines this past weekend.

From here, a Scott sayseth this:

So to all of you out there who are active, and who know who Larouche is, I would like to say we have a problem. The problem is that Lyndon, that dirty old man, is up to his dirty old tricks again, and I don’t mean spinning ever wilder conspiracy theories, or even stealing a few bucks from the local widow (though he’s doing that too)–no I mean brainwashing kids. I fell for their rhetoric for a short time, and since I left have been writing about what I saw there. The following is part of a letter I wrote to a professor who asked me what her students could expect if they joined the “movement” (read:cult).

Do not focus on the “politics” of his organization. For all intents and purposes the political side of the organization is just a sham–it really is more of a religion than a political movement anyway–the mantra really is give me your life and I’ll give you salvation.
Your students will be having the same methods of coersion used on them at the table that is used on members in closed rooms, on your campus on their lunch breaks, Larouchies will be out there preaching:”The end is near, join the Leader and be like him, and that will save the world.” And they will tell them to drop out of college to join, they will literally be brought into group meetings where every person in the room is pressuring them to drop out. You know when they have classes? Usually what happens is maybe one or two people will be from a local campus, usually someone they met that day. That person will walk into a room of twenty or so people, not really knowing that almost everyone there is already a member. As soon as someone comes to more than 1 or 2 meetings, they are psychologically profiled by the Regional leader and then the leader will talk to everyone about that person.
Example:”Frank has mommy issues, everybody needs to tell him he needs to stop sucking off his mother’s milk.” So then as Frank hangs around more and he is brought in for conferences and meetings, everyone is nice to him, but they in their own way, will make comments about Frank being a Mama’s boy. This may be true, or it may be that Frank just has a very close relationship with his mom, he’s 18, and still just a kid. So this “campaign” makes Frank begin to question himself, it undermines his confidence in his beliefs and values, while all around him there are people constantly restating the normal line of Larouche politics; nothing is what it seems, the world is ending, drop out of school, join me..yada yada. And there may be ten of these directives given by the regional leader. All designed to make the person, basically, have a nervous breakdown in a controlled environment. They will attack his hobbies, his friends, his values, his family,and his personality traits in these secret “campaigns”, and Fred will think that people he has hardly talked to think he’s a mama’s boy(or whaever they’re attacking that week)–his insecurity will soar.
Then what happens if that person decides to drop out and join full time is the real work on their mind begins. The same type of thing goes on, but then added in is a host of other tactics–the working for 12-14 hours a day will soften him up quite a bit, and the leader will keep a very close eye in the very early stages. After a few days of work the leader might lean in and say “hey you guys should all do something tonight, take Frank over to so-n-so’s house and read poetry. Frank will be up until 3 am, get up a few hours later and go back to arguing at a card table shrine for Larouche with everyone who walks by, all this time reinforcing what he has “learned” by taking the position for 12 hours a day. Frank will be plied with Larouche books to read from every side. Then something will come up that Frank has a problem with. He’s organizing at at a table one day and his partner, someone who’s been around for years, breaks someone down in the street who begins crying. Fred thinks it was cruel, so he goes to talk to the regional leader(the boss at each office). Now, all this time the leader has played “good cop”.
“Umm, Steve?” says Frank, “I saw Alex make someone cry at the college today, he was yelling at this kid about how he can’t understand Larouche because he’s a homosexual, and when the kid said no, Alex just kept poking him with it until the kid broke down and sarted crying.”
From out of nowhere the bad cop shows up.
“So do you need to go suck off your mother’s tit some more is that what this is about Frank? Alex has been off his momma’s tit for ten years now and he’s mastered Riemann’s geometry, have you?”
“Uhhh..no.”
“So the mama’s boy who’s never done anything in his life is going to come here and say ‘Alex made some homosexual kid cry and I want my mommy’…are you homosexual Frank? Is that it? Is that why you haven’t been able to raise any money out there? You’re too busy thinking about Mommy’s tits and Daddy’s dick to be a potent organizer?”
And this may go on for a half an hour. Mind you that Frank has just moved in to an apartment with 4 other Larouchies, he has just dropped out of school, and probably alienated most of his friends, and his parents, who all argued against him joining the Larouche Youth Cult. The leader will use every bit of personal information he has gathered about Frank in order for him to have a real breakdown. Frank, who now has nowhere to go, but has made a few “friends’ in the LYC, finally gives in. He sees that Alex was right for breaking down that kid, because that kid is evil, and Frank realizes that he is too. Frank realizes that he hasn’t worked hard enough for humanity to criticize Alex, and so he confesses to Steve.
“I’m sorry Steve, you’re right, I’ve been dependant on my mom forever, and she was turning me in to some crazy brainwashed consumer, I mean geez, she was sending me to college to learn about computers, like Larouche says that’s not even real. I guess she’s just like every other boomer.”
After he does so he feels a little better and stops crying, and his pulse slows down.
Steve says,”Well good. What I think you need to do is read Lyn’s book “The Reason Why Everyone in the World is Insane But Me”, and you should get Alex to help you on some geometry. Are you still into painting?”
“Yes, Sir, I like to paint at night sometimes still, it eases my mind.”
“You should focus on something else…try reading Lyn’ s book “They’re All Out to Get Me, I Swear”. Ok well, good talking to you.”

And Frank walks out feeling a little closer to Steve, and Steve has shown Frank that he is able to instill terror in him at any moment. This makes Frank unconsciously more pliant, he won’t raise another questoin like that for a month. But he will raise a question. And now Frank hasn’t had a good night’s sleep in 5 weeks, and he is becoming slightly malnourished as his pay has dropped from 300 a week to 100 a week because of a “mass leaflet mobilization” [and Lyn is going to travel Europe for a while, and he needs the nice table at the restauraunt]. The pay will continue to decrease.
Frank tells Steve he has to ask him about something again. Steve tells him to come to his office at 5. At 5 Frank walks in, and a Security Squad member is in the office also, the S.S. member stands in front of the door, and this time the yelling is more severe, and the psychological profile, having been honed, allows the leader to play Frank like a piano. Frank is a blubbering mess in twenty minutes. Frank’s brain which has initiated fight or flight, tells him to get up and walk out. He tries to do so, and the SS member begins working on him (verbally)while blocking the door, the two of them work on him until he sits back down, and takes his medicine.
It’s called “Beyond Psychoanalysis” a method devised by Lyndon Larouche in the late seventies in a series of papers (and subsequently taught to members after they are in for 6 months or so and have gone through the process–at least Scientologists are upfront about their psychobabble!)
Recently a young man, Jeremiah Duggan, committed suicide while at a Larouche conference, the clues to this case are found in the words of Lyndon himself:
From Beyond Pschoanalysis:
“The program [Beyond Psyche]is safely undertaken in the NCLC, where it could not be so with laymen, since the LCer has a self-conscious identity in the world, which the ordinary laymen lacks. Under some unfortunate circumstances, this experience, absolutely the most terrifying the human mind can know, can prompt suicides, or provide the impetus for psychotic collapse”

Well I guess NCLC (National Committe of Labor Caucuses) needs to be updated to ICLC (International CLC)–Jeremiah safely undertook his Beyond Psychoanalysis in Germany.
I ask you all not to treat LHL as just a kook, he’s a dangerous kook, and our society, as free as it should remain has given this monster far too much rope (or maybe not enough).

Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” is not a patriotic song.

Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up

The most jarring use of music I’ve seen in an advertisement in the past few years was the use of some lines from Clearance Clearwater Revival “Some folks are born made to wave the flag
Ooh, they’re red, white, and blue”, feel good patriotism for a pick-up truck.

Of course, put the lyrics in context and… it’s about how some rich guy gets to duck Vietnam through special favours that put him in the Texas Air National Guard, but the protaganist– the poor schmuck —

And when the band plays “Hail to the Chief”
They point the cannon right at you

It ain’t me, it ain’t me
I ain’t no senator’s son
It ain’t me, it ain’t me
I ain’t no fortunate one

That didn’t make too much sense, since… the lyrics are not clouded by any sentimentality.

John Mellancamp’s “Little Pink Houses”… well… you can excerpt some flag-waving, if you want.

Oh but ain’t that america for you and me
Ain’t that america we’re someting to see baby
Ain’t that america, home of the free
Little pink houses for you and me

… except for the fact that all the lines in the various verses tell stories of Disappointment, and settling for something less than expected, (and note the lines in the chorus: for you and me, as opposed to what the ruling elite have…:

Well there’s a young man in a t-shirt
Listening to a rockin’ rollin’ station
He’s got a greasy hair, greasy smile
He says: lord, this must be my destination
’cuz they told me, when I was younger
Boy, you’re gonna be president
But just like everyting else, those old crazy dreams
Just kinda came and went

There are other songs that find its way into flag-waving demonstrations of various types. But I can’t think of them at the moment.

Suggestions being taken. I will have to update this entry later.

I. So we have the anti-Bush sign (and t-shirt) slogan:

BUllSHIT.
(or, in some cases the sanitized: BU**SH**.

I must say that the anti-Kerry counterpart is… lame.

JOhnKErry.

II. (leader) “Hey! I’m running for president in 2020. That’s when I become eligible for the first time”
(me): “Hm. Need to get a headstart, I guess. Are you running against Jeanna Bush?”
“Jeanna…?”
(his partner): “George Bush’s daughter.”
(leader): Oh. Clever, but… no, that’s not my gimmick. See… I plan on cleaning up the street personally.
(me): Okay.
(leader): the Irish way. Right out of the pub… See, I’m Irish American, and I’ll just (shows his fist)… get rid of the prisons and roll ’em out like this.
(me): Ah… Move us right to the Law of the Jungle.
(leader): Right. You’re a Scott, right?
(me): Right.
(leader): My running mate, over there, he’s a Scott too.
(partner): Hi.
(me): Ah. So, you’ve got the Scottish vote and the Irish vote cornered.
(leader): Yep! On to victory!
(me): Kind of like how Dukakis had the Greek vote cornered…
(leader): Huh?
(me): Never mind.

Kerry is pablum. But my theory has always been that either nobody is beating Bush or anybody is beating Bush. Thus, I guess, the logical candidate for the Democratic Party is… pablum.

John Kerry arrives in Portland at 1:30 this afternoon. He’ll speak at Pioneer Courthouse Square at 5. Knowing, this isn’t enough to impress even the staunchest democrat, organizers have wisely invited Howard Dean to appear.You reminded to politely applaud windbag Kerry. The idea say democrats is that you’re not just elected Kerry..but getting rid Bush. Don’t think of this as a vote for Kerry. OK, WHATEVER. We’re having some kind of lame election shortly.

A crowd swarms around a coffeehouse a few blocks from the (well-cordoned off) Pioneer Square, and a block from where I’m standing. Yep! There he is, walking out of the limosuine… shaking hands, signing pieces of paper. I half-heartedly fish around my pocket to see if I can get him to sign something, but there’s nothing signable, and I would get no closer than 5 people away from the man’s hand.

Later, I walk around the blocks. I lean in the vicintity of the Pioneer Square Starbucks for a while. You’re close to Howard Dean’s speaking, but there is no view and it is the worst spot for the speakers. So I leave. I laugh at myself while I follow a couple other people who are peering through the empty Starbucks, straining their neck to see Dean — but unsuccessfully– from out the other window of the building.

I spot a group of Young Republicans across the street on the other block, waving Bush/ Cheney signs and some markered-up cardboard signs (“9 out of 10 Terrorists Support John Kerry” is the example de jour). I figure there oughta be some confrontation brewing over there, so I walk over there. It’s relatively embarrassing: they’re saying the Pledge of Allegiance, making sure to emphasize “Under God”, proving their Patriotism I suppose. Then they venture into a chant of “Bush/ Cheney! Bush / Cheney! Bush/ Cheney!” The Kerry supporters join in with a “Sucks!” … “Sucks…” “Sucks…”

Not terribly original, I suppose, but it’ll do.

A woman walks by and yells “I hope you all believe in Reincarnation because HITLER’s in the White House!” A Bush supporter chimes in with “Hey! Naziism is Socialism!” Sheer BRILLIANCE, the both of them! Reminiscent of this moment from the dualing Iraq War Protest / rallies when the two sides converged: into Tim Reilly’s microphone: “These guys need to read their history book. STALIN!”

I walk around the corner. I spot another crowd surrounding what is obviously a car, even though I can’t see the car. “Maybe Dean’s escaped over here”, I think, and rush over. A woman is sitting in the car, with the radio on Kerry’s speech, and that’s what the crowd is listening to… Hm.

I see some cardboard. If I had a marker, I would scribe in “Vote Skull / Bones 2004!!!” Nothing doing, though.

The speech ends. I find myself standing between the Bush supporters and two angry young radicals waving the old Iraqi flag. The Bushites haven’t noticed the radicals yet, and they dive into the National Anthem while the Kerry crowd dissipates past them. Someone invites the crowd to yell stuff into his cell-phone, concerning the Bush supporters. I shout “Kerry IS the Lesser of Two Evils!” The man shrugs “Okay.”

Then the radicals start chanting… “INTIFADA! INTIFADA! PALESTINE! IRAQ! INTIFIDA! INTIFIDA! PALESTINE! IRAQ!”

“Nothing good can come from this”, I think.

The Republicans turn around. “So you’re voting for Kerry, then?”
One of the two radicals says “NO… He’s a Zionist too!”

I walk away, while the Bush supporters tie the two angry young radicals in with Kerry. “Vote Kerry! Vote Kerry!” — pointing at them.

I can’t comment too much on Kerry’s stump speech. I clapped a few times when I was in agreement…

From the US Code, Title 4, Chapter 1, Sec. 8 (g): The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature. )

But… you know: if the president can do it, so can everyone, right?

I hang my signed flag PROUDLY!

Speaking of coups (and I was just a few days ago…):

Supposedly, FDR was slated to be the victim of a coup. but the would-be puppet-leader of the new regime shot it down (Smedley Butler). And he supposedly later shared the details to the forerunner of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee.

A bit too convenient, perhaps. But throw it in the “hm” category.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, on the Orin Hatch proposed-Amendment that would allow a foreign born citizen to run for president. : “There are so many people in this country that are now from overseas, that are immigrants, that are doing such a terrific job with their work, bringing businesses here, that there’s no reason why not. The key thing is you understand the political system and how it works. Look at the kind of contribution that people like Henry Kissinger have made. Madeleine Albright,”

Orin Hatch, Senator from the great state of Utah, on his proposed Constitutional Amendment: “If Arnold Schwarzenegger turns out to be the greatest governor of California, which I hope he will, if he turns out to be a tremendous leader and he proves to everybody in this country that he’s totally dedicated to this country as an American . . . we would be wrong not to give him that opportunity,”

For their parts, hefty figures of the Democratic party (including Bob Graham) endorse this proposed amendment, because it would allow a shining light from the 2002 election — Canadian born Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, to run for president.

Here’s the problem with an Arnold Schwarzeggar — Jennifer Granholm matchup: Arnold would win. Assuming he doesn’t rape a boy during his tenure as California governor. Granholm could be the greatest governor in the world, and Arnold would still parlay his Jay Leno appearances, a multitude of cable television Schwarzeggar movie marathons, and a handy list of movie catchphrases into a successful presidential landslide. (Heck, he did it in California!)

So…. I’d support that Constitutional Amendment. IF it included a clause that kept action-movie stars from the office.

The man is basically trolling around to do some anti-war in general anti-Bush proseltyzing.

“You know what Bush’s campaign slogan should be?” he asks one soon-to-be bus rider.
“No, what?”
“Bush and War for 2004.”

The bus rider smiles in agreement or in apathetic social congeniality, and gets onto the bus he’d been waiting for. So, the anti-Bush proseltyzer walks over to me.

“You hear what Bush said the other day? We’re Now Martching to Peace! Can you believe that?”
I shrug. “You hear the whole story of why he said that, didn’t you?” I ask.
“No,” he shakes his head.
“Well, what he said was that the economy went down — in this case meaning primarily the stock market — because ‘We were marching to war but now… now we’re marching to peace so, the stock market is rebounding.”

The man senses I’m a kindred soul of sorts, so he launches into what is, evidentally, the next phase of his efforts.
“You ever hear the station on my cap?”
I look at his cap. KBOO — the left-wing Pacifica-type radio station in Portland. “Sure, Sure.”
“My favourite show is on Friday mornings… Marlene (I forget the last name)’s show… at 10:00 there’s this guy, I forget his name…”
“Uh huh”
“He sounds crazy, and talks about stuff like the Bush Family’s connections to the Nazis and… I went to the website and, although he sounds crazy, the footnotes are all there.”
I sort of roll my eyes. I’ve heard the show. My favourite bit of “information” from the show was the fascist-underground connection between the well-connected anti-tax Movement Conservative activist Grover Norquist with the left-wing (and indeed, Communist) anti-war organizer Ramsey Clarke by way of a speaker that Clarke invited to speak at an anti-war demonstration that was in good standing with Grover Norquist’s organization. Scratch my head in wonder at this left-right fascist alliance!
“There’s this extreme right-winger from Texas who did this video about how Bush knew about 9/11.”
I smile and nod.
At this point, a young man — probably mid to late 20s, turns around and says “What was up with Bush’s activities at the time of the plane crashes?”
“Well, he was reading to school kids. When he got the word from the secret service, he just kept reading.”
“Yeah. I wonder what he was reading. Must have been some sort of Skull and Bones book or something.”
I say, “I think it was The Hungry Little Caterpillar.”

The bus comes around, and I get on it, leaving the other two to discuss their political matters.