Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Eastern Washington does gay marriage… somewhere

Monday, December 10th, 2012

Here’s the predictable map breakdown of counties voting for and nay on gay marriage.  The one county in Eastern Washington that came out in favor in the one centered with the college town of Pullman.

So, what you’re watching on the day of the Big Jubilee of Gay Marriage in Washington State… Or Something I’m watching — the Rural Gay Marriage rate in Washington State, ala Eastern Washington.  Yakima, for instance?

If any same-sex couples plan to wed in Yakima County after such unions become legal Dec. 6, they haven’t shown much interest to the Auditor’s Office.
While other county auditor offices, such as King County, have received enough interest to open for extra hours when the new law takes effect, Yakima County Auditor Corky Mattingly said her office has no such plans.
Mattingly said her office has received one phone call specific to same-sex marriage so far.
It’s also not something the county plans to keep tabs on, although such licenses are public record.
“We won’t be tracking how many same-gender couples get licenses,” Mattingly said. “We treat them just like any other couple.”

Hm de hm hm.  Compare that, of course, with...

historical moments in the eye of the beholder

Sunday, December 9th, 2012

From JFK:  The Man ant the Myth, Victor Lasky, 1963.  The bias is certainly against Kennedy, and Lasky is unable to see anything good out of Kennedy.  Also it should be pointed out in partisan terms, Johnson wasn’t the boogey man and could be shuttled aside against the real enemy of Kennedy.  Thus, this:

The break that Johnson had been waiting for came on Tuesday.  In routine fashion, Kennedy headquarters had sent wires to various delegations requesting an audience for Jack.  This was the sort of miscalculation which Kennedy had feared.  Johnson replied with a telegram suggesting a joint caucus of the Texas and Massachusetts delegations and a debate on the major issues.  Kennedy declined the honor and assumed the debate was off. Lyndon assumed no such thing and announced that Texas would hold an important business meeting at 2:15 pm, and the delegations would expect Kennedy and the Massachusetts delegation in the grand ballroom of the Biltmore.  The spider was spinning his web.  […]

At 2:45 pm, Lyndon rode in with his boys from the Cattle Country.  Dressed in tv blues, he was all set for his showdown.  Unlimbering his oratorical artillery, Lyndon asked whether anyone who could speak for Kennedy knew where the Senator was.  The Senator was upstairs in Apartment Q, not knowing what to do.  The phone rang.  It was Governor Hollings.  “You’re going down to that debate, aren’t you?” Hollings asked.  Jack said he didn’t think so.  “You’d better get down there,” drawled the South Carolinian.  “I’m watching that commentator on TV and he’ll ruin you if you don’t.”
It was 3:12 pm before the author of that book on political courage arrived in the jam-packed ballroom.  And Lyndon was right glad to welcome him.  Lyndon, in presenting his colleague, said he was “a man of unusually high character,”  ” a great intellect” as well as “a dedicated and devoted public servant.”  Lyndon sounded very sincere.
As he rose to speak, Kennedy’s trembling legs made his trousers flutter, and beads of sweat tumbled from his upper lip.  He made a set speech about the need for developing natural resources, facing up to new problems, and so forth.  We stand, he said, on the Razor Edge of Decision.  Against Kennedy’s conciliatory remarks, Lyndon unloosed a barrage of sarcasm, the likes of which have rarely been heard in a face-to-face encounter.  Johnson pistol-whipped his guest unmercifully.  He repeatedly drew attention to Kennedy’s voting record and Senate absenteeism.  He questioned Kennedy’s devotion to the former and reminded his audience that he was for rural telephones long before some people had ever seen an outhouse. And he brought up the religious issue, an action that did not appear to appeal to Kennedy.  “I think, Jack, we Protestants proved in West Virginia that we’ll vote for a Catholic,” he bawled.  “What we want is some of the Catholic states to prove that they’ll vote for a Protestant.”
With each sharp shaft — and they were coming quickly — the Johnson loaded room hooted and cheered.  The back of Kennedy’s neck began to redden, though his face remained expressionless.  His hands trembled as he appeared to be making notes on the back of an envelope.
And, bellowed Johnson, where were certain people during all those quorum calls on the civil rights bills?  “There were 45 roll calls on civil rights in recent months,” he observed.  “Lyndon Johnson answered every one of them.”  But, he added, there were some people who would like to be President who failed to set much of a record.  “I know Senators who missed as many as 34 of those roll calls,” he thundered.
Bobby whispered in to brother Jack’s ear.  Kennedy’s face remained expressionless.  And when Johnson finally concluded, Kennedy arose and made jokes.  “The Senator wasn’t specific in his remarks about voting on civil rights legislation,” said Kennedy.  So I presume he was talking about some other candidate.  Then, accompanied by brother Bobby, Jack Kennedy hurriedly rushed out of the Texans’ den of iniquity.   Superman had more than met his match in Big Daddy.
“Flogged and whimpering, Kennedy bit it off and departed,” reported Murray Kempton  from the battle scene.  “This is the posture to be expected of all Booth Tarkington adolescents.  The Kennedy boys are essentially punks.  As he himself said to this repository of the affectations of politicians yesterday, this is the way weak people act.  There are men and there are boys.  Lyndon Johnson, say what you will, is a man; Jack Kennedy is a boy.  No matter what anyone else might say, Lyndon placed Jack across his knee and spanked that shrunken bottom. […]”

……………………….

From Robert A Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson:  The Passage of Power, 2012.  Caro is constructing a narrative where Johnson falls mightily from the perch of power up to the time he becomes President — Kennedy serving here as a foil of a strong political figure he underestimate but who then cuts him up, and thus we get this:

It was only a form telegram, but when Johnson received it, he seized upon it as the opening he had been waiting for: the opening that could, even at this late moment, change everything — a chance to trap Kennedy into a debate.  “I want to get on the same podium with Jack,” he told Irv Hoff.  “I’ll destroy him.”
Connally, Reedy, and Busby, when they were called in, were unanimously enthusiastic: “one major error” by Kennedy, Connally felt, and the Kennedy bandwagon, which he believed was not yet on completely firm ground anyway, would be overturned.  […]

As he took his seat on the stage, Kennedy wasn’t at ease — a reporter noticed his leg shaking under his trousers — but no one  seeing only his face would have known it.  And when he rose to speak, looking at the ballroom that, as one Texas reporter wrote, “Johnson had packed full of his folks,” Kennedy said with a smile that he was glad the vote for the nominated wasn’t taken there.  “I doubt whether there is any great groundswell for Kennedy in the Texas delegation,” he said.  The audience chuckled at that, and laughed when, after promising to campaign for Johnson if Johnson won the nomination, he said, “And if I am nominated, I am confident that Senator Johnson will take me by the hand and lead me through the length and breadth of Texas.”  He said he wasn’t going to argue with Johnson on the issues — “because I don’t think Senator Johnson and I disagree on the great issues that are facing us” — and said he admired him for his work as Majority Speaker.  […]  When Kennedy sat down at the end of his opening statement, there was quite a bit of rather warm applause.
Johnson started off on Phil Graham’s “high road.” although it was an arm-waving blustering journey […]  He had gotten a Civil Rights Bill through the Senate, he said, but not every Senator had been present to help him.  “Six days and nights we had 24 hour sessions,” he said, shouting every word.  “Lyndon Johnson answered every one of the fifty quorum calls.  Some men who would be president answered none.”  He had voted in forty-five roll calls, he said.  “Some Senators missed 34.”  A Texas legislator, George Nokes, leaned over and whispered loudly to the other people in the aisle, “Lyndon sure bear-trapped him, didn’t he?”
After a brief, whispered conference with his brother, Kennedy rose to reply.  Johnson’s face had been grim as he spoke.  On Kennedy’s face was a grin.  Senator Johnson had criticized some Senators, he said, but he had not identified those he was talking about, so “I assume he was talking about some other candidate, not me.”  The grin broadened.  “I want to commend him for a wonderful record answering quorum calls,” he said.
People in the audience started to chuckle, and then others started to laugh, and a wave of laughter swept over the hall.  Turning to Johnson, Kennedy shook his hand for the photographers, and walked out of the hall, his little band following him.
Watching Johnson as Kennedy spoke, Arthur Schlesinger saw his face change.  “Johnson felt that Kennedy had the drop on him,” he was to say.  That was what the Texas delegation thought, too — even those who, like Jim Wright, had been Johnson’s “eager disciples.”  Wright, a very tough politician — […] was to recall decades later […] “By the time he ended, he had our admiration — begrudging but admiration.”  In fact, in describing the debate, Wright bestowed on Kennedy what was, for a Texan, the highest accolade possible.  Jack Kennedy, he was to recall, had reminded him that afternoon of the legendary Texas Ranger who was sent in 1906 to a city down on the Rio Grande border […] “only one Ranger?” “only one riot” […]

“Really, it didn’t come off as we had expected it to,” Jake Jacobson says.  […] “He got cured once and for all of getting into a debate with Jack Kennedy,” Irv Hoff says.

no more Demint Juice

Friday, December 7th, 2012

One item off of Jim Demint’s  Senate career that sticks in mind, as he wheedled and pumped up his “Tea Party” endorsements and pac money contributions… Sharron Angle had juice with Jim Demint.

Angle, who has hammered Reid for cutting deals in Washington, goes on to say that the Tea Party movement gives her “juice,” or clout, and offers to share it with Ashjian. “That’s really all I can offer you, is whatever juice I have, you have as well,” she says. “You want to see DeMint, I have juice with him….I go to Washington, D.C. and want to see Jim DeMint, he’s right there for me. I want to see Tom Coburn, he’s right there for me. I want to see Mitch McConnell, he’s there.”

This was mostly hoo-hum stuff — she’s trying to get a third party spoiler to back out by arguing her coming influence with power-brokers such as Jim Demint.  Nonetheless, what sold it into the “crazy train” sphere was the phrasing — “I’ll have Jim Demint Juice”.  Yes.  Jim Demint Juice.  Exactly what you want.  Naturally Harry Reid pounced on this “juice” talk and released this ad.  “Made with real Demint”.

And now he’s quitting the Senate to head the Heritage Foundation.  Reportedly the reason is that he doesn’t like being in the Minority.  Or, to put it another way… doesn’t have enough Juice after all.  He has to go elsewhere to get more juice.

the pop culture / political complex

Wednesday, December 5th, 2012

From The National Review’s “Now What?”, hand-wringing after the election.  Jay Nordlinger “Against the Tide” — this is from a mish of his article online and a slightly variation that is in the print edition.

When Hillary Clinton said “It takes a village,” a lot of conservatives objected. The full saying is, “It takes a village to raise a child.” One can certainly understand the objections. But, in an important sense, it does take a village to raise a child. Children are shaped by everything around them: in the home and outside it.
 Way back in the mid-1980s, Tipper Gore wrote a book called Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society. Tipper and her husband were dabbling in a kind of social conservatism at the time. They dropped it quick — because all the cool cats, such as Frank Zappa (I remember him specifically), mocked and reviled them. Social conservatism is not the way to rise in the Democratic party. They rose.
Who runs the village?  What are the forces that shape men and women?  Well, we could name education, IK through graduate school.  The movies.  Popular music.  Entertainment television.  The news media.  In all of these areas, the Left holds sway.  Where does the Right hold sway?  Country music, talk radio, NASCAR, it’s hard to go on.

From Michael Knox Beran’s article on how Obama won 8 of the nation’s ten richest counties and what this means for the whole “Country Club” thing, “Obama’s Coddled Elites“:

And why should they keep track of them (deficits, tax dollars), when the most respectable oracles of the coastal suburbs — the New York Times, PBS, Diane Sawyer, Andrea Mitchell, David Letterman, et alia — readily assure you that under President Obama “it’s all swell”?

Too busy going back to the well of Clinton — Lewinsky jokes and Bush Dumb jokes is that last one, methinks.

Well, if hey Left is getting Obama re-elected through its powerful bases in the Hollywood media, what is the Right left with?  They have the important niches in the Military Politico Complex, I think.  Jay Leno, maybe?  Also all military related movies.  Red Dawn and the remake of Red Dawn… from John J Miller’s appreciation of Red Dawn:

The violence of Red Dawn serves a grander purpose than cheap thrills: It means to show that the Second Amendment is in the Constitution for a good reason. Early in the film, the camera lingers on a Chevy truck’s bumper sticker: “They can have my gun when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.” Then the image tilts to the ground, where a Soviet pries a pistol from the cold, dead fingers of a fallen American. It may feel like an ad for the National Rifle Association — recall the late Charlton Heston’s rallying cry at the 2000 NRA convention, “From my cold, dead hands!” In this case, the slogan works as an ironic epitaph. As the story of Red Dawn plays out, however, America’s gun culture allows the Wolverines to fight back.

Red Dawn also fights forward. In 2003, the movie made the news when U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein. The deposed Iraqi dictator was discovered in a location known as “Wolverine Two” in a raid called “Operation Red Dawn.” The code name was the brainchild of Army captain Geoffrey McMurray, then 29 years old. “I think all of us in the military have seen Red Dawn,” he told USA Today. “Operation Red Dawn was so fitting because it was a patriotic, pro-American movie.” Milius applauded the effort, telling the Los Angeles Times that the soldiers who found Hussein “are Wolverines who have grown up and gone to Iraq.” A handful of liberals uttered dutiful harrumphs, noting that in Iraq, Americans were the oppressing invaders and the Iraqi insurgents were the scrappy rebels.

They just refuse to let go — and they’re already mobilizing against the new Red Dawn. In September, Joe Leydon of Variety mocked “a premise arguably even sillier than the original Red Dawn.” He may have a valid point. In the 2012 release, the Soviets are gone, tossed upon the ash heap of history. Their replacements are the North Koreans, whose attempted conquest of the United States requires not just an old-fashioned suspension of disbelief but an indulgence of gobsmacking ignorance.

 More on the implausibility of the Red Dawn redux scenario, here.  And how maybe something can be said for cutting Defense spending out of it.

The new version of Red Dawn, like the original, centers around a foreign invasion of the U.S. The country that manages to invade this time is North Korea, a pariah state with a military budget generously estimated at $9 billion, compared with about $650 billion for the U.S. The North Korean economy is so battered that famines are a regular occurrence. This inadvertently lends the movie’s plot a smidgen of plausibility, since any North Korean invasion of the U.S. probably could be defeated by a misfit band of teenage dropouts.

Originally it was China, but China wouldn’t let it — and the studio needs that market and all — so it’s changed from one implausible scenario to a more implausible one.  Just as well — let’s lose all illusion of “moral in the story” of Military Preparedness.  (No.  That’s what Eliot Abrams claimed.)

From David Sirota’s “Back to Our Future” on 80s pop culture and its political imprint

In 1997, after reports that “Red Dawn” was one of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh’s favorite films, MGM/United Artists vice president Peter Bart revealed to Variety that when his company first considered the movie’s script, the studio’s CEO “declared in no uncertain terms that he wanted to make the ultimate jingoistic movie.” The studio subsequently recruited Reagan’s recently departed secretary of state, retired general Alexander Haig, to serve on MGM’s corporate board, “consult with [‘Red Dawn’s’] director and inculcate the appropriate ideological tint.” Though the screenplay’s first draft strived to lament the tragedies of war, Bart recounted how the studio “demanded to know why [it] should try to remake ‘Lord of the Flies’ when it could instead try for ‘Rambo.’” […]

For that access, the military began exacting a price. The Pentagon’s focus on juveniles created the heavy hand it was beginning to use to shape popular culture in the 1980s. Increasingly, for filmmakers to gain access to even the most basic military scenery, Pentagon gatekeepers began requiring major plot and dialogue changes so as to guarantee that the military was favorably portrayed. In a Variety story from 1994, the Pentagon’s official Hollywood liaison, Phil Strub, put it bluntly: “The main criteria we use [for approval] is … how could the proposed production benefit the military … could it help in recruiting [and] is it in sync with present policy?” […]

As if that carrot-stick dynamic weren’t coercive enough to aspiring filmmakers, the Pentagon in the 1980s expanded the definition of “cooperation” to include collaboration on screenplays as scripts were being initially drafted. “It saves [writers] time from writing stupid stuff,” said one official in explaining the new process.

And so we have Will and Grace and Red Dawn, and I guess it’s the perimeters of what we get elected.

iron-clad rulership as not seen since the 19th Century

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

Here’s an editorial of… “Huh”.   GOP Senators Need to Radicalize.  Yes.  Because…

Over the last two years, Nevada Sen. Harry Reid has ruled over the United States Senate like some kind of 19th century potentate.

How?

Reid has single-handedly blocked legislation, prevented the Senate from voting on healthcare repeal

Har de har.

Reid decides what amendments will be offered and by whom, leading to an increase in the number of times the GOP has had to resort to the filibuster.

Har de har.

And vulnerable Democratic Senators that need to be targetted in 2014?  Alaska’s Mark Begich, Arkansas’s Mark Pryor, and Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu (all of course) and, of course…

as well as Minnesota’s Al Franken—the accidental senator who likely won election only because of illegal votes cast by convicted felons.

Har de har … Wait.  What?

Well, there’s this comment…

I lived in MN – if you don’t have first-hand knowledge don’t comment! There was definite voter fraud. About 1,000 felons (still in prison mind you) voted for him and there were more people who voted than were in the princinct. I’d say those two things alone prove voter fraud. He only won by a few hundred votes.
I left the state 3 years ago because it has been ruined by you left-wing communists.

3 years ago the Left-wing Communist Dictator of Minnesota would have been… urm… Tim Pawlenty?

Two more tea party primary pickers out there!  Their ideological crimes in italics.

In Texas, the victory of Sen.-elect Ted Cruz over establishment-backed Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is fueling speculation that Sen. John Cornyn could be in for a primary fight of his own. Cornyn recently penned an editorial calling for spending cuts but didn’t nix tax increases entirely.
But in a state as big and expensive to run in as Texas, it seems unlikely another candidate could duplicate Cruz’s win.
In Kansas, tea party activists are looking for someone to challenge Sen. Pat Roberts, who so far has remained silent on the issue of tax increases.

Hm indeed.

On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Claire McCaskill pointed out that she’d met Grover Norquist for the first time backstage, then asked a pretty good question: “Who is he?”

in theaters now, Lincoln

Sunday, December 2nd, 2012

I’ve heard some positive reviews of the new Lincoln biopic… from people who like this sort of thing — who like forms of slow mo speecifying with reminiscent Ken Burns esque film-making.  It’s “Oscar Bait”, but good Oscar Bait…

Then there’s this dissent.  Making political points and getting over to…

he tension driving the film is between Lincoln’s conviction that the Constitution must be amended to ban slavery before the Confederacy’s surrender, and the countervailing political pressures to negotiate an immediate peace and sacrifice all chance of a 13th Amendment. Lincoln’s argument rests on the status of slaves not as people but as war contraband belonging to the victorious North. The amendment’s enactment, therefore, is depicted not as a triumph of morality but, as the result of clever lawyering, petty patronage and personal will.

The action centers on the governing elites, depicting Lincoln as the ultimate insider. Thus, if you are only going to see one Lincoln biopic this year, I heartily recommend instead Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which—after a brief theatrical run this summer—is now available on DVD. Its fantastical narrative is actually the more truthful in showing how revolutionary change gets accomplished through the militancy and mobilization of outsiders and the oppressed.

Just to make the bottom down approach, I guess.  I suppose they’ll only love a Jefferson biopic if it slides into this realm.

Wake me up when the Chester Arthur biopic comes out.

 

Time to connect the dots

Thursday, November 29th, 2012

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?

Rogers increases vote total a couple percentage points; plugs hair care

Wednesday, November 28th, 2012
RIP, Former Loudon Times Mirro Editor George Barton

Barton was best known for his work at the Loudoun Times-Mirror in forcing the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI to investigate political activist Lyndon LaRouche and members of his group for fraud.
He worked with former reporter Bryan R. Chitwood on a series of stories that brought the allegations to light.
“Nobody wanted to do that story because they really didn’t think it was that big of a deal. George basically got Bryan interested and said ‘get what you can get.’ Bryan forced the IRS and the FBI into doing something. Finally it was making the authorities look bad because this newspaper is continuously running stories on the issue,” said Doug Graham, a former Loudoun Times-Mirror reporter who worked for Barton.

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.

And on this item on How Kesha Rogers does her hair.  This is a good way to make money, plugging endorsements.  What I need to know:  Does it violate FEC rules?
 Kentucky.  Perry Clark defeats Chris Thieneman in the heated District 37 state senate race.  Hard to pet this.  Here remains a State senator who will surely sign up for a Larouche lead Impeachment drive.  But… he also favors medical marijuana.  And just defeated a Republican candidate who may have been legally disqualfied for the seat.  Interesting about Perry Clark — I appeared to have fooled someone in the state media by citing him as Larouchian Presidential timber (to into the archives at this blog and look for the links)– don’t say this blog hasn’t had any affect.
The New York Times has an appropriate fluff piece on on retiring (voluntary or otherwise) Congress-critters on Capital Hill.  And we get to what appears to be forever in any Barney Frank political re-cap…
In terms of crankiness and general obstreperousness, Mr. West may have to yield to longer-serving members, especially Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, whose salty commentary, assorted takedowns and snap-crackle talk show banter is known far outside the Beltway. He once told an attendee at his own town hall meeting that “trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to have an argument with a dining room table.”

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.

Amherst Discussion.   I hate those moronic tools.
My favorite NH loony was the guy who had the giant Trojan horse on his lawn and a sign “US out of the UN.” It may be gone now, but it was there for year.
My SIL passed them at her PO.   As she went by she said “you guys are nuts.”   On her way out one of the men said in a whiny voice “we’re not republicans you know.”   the larouchies are a blight on the landscape wherever they are.
I wonder what will happen when that old fart finally croaks. I wonder if his followers will mount a power struggle or all commit mass suicide, it’s that insane a cult.   He annoyed my aunt, he wanted to date her in high school. She said he was awful even then.
boy would I like to hear your Aunt’s stories!  They’d be fascinating!!!!Stormfront discusses the Larouchies, subscribes to Dennis King’s premise.
A lot of people wonder why Lyndon LaRouche seems so obsessed with Britain and “British bankers” conspiracy theories. Well, I think it’s possible he is just afraid to name the Jew. When you look at how well his organization is doing in Germany and other European nations, you can understand he doesn’t want to do anything that’ll jeopardize his organization and possibly get him banned.
 Protesters from a fringe political group spent Thursday afternoon outside the Niles Post Office with signs that read “Impeach Obama” and showed a depiction of President Obama as Adolf Hitler.
The two protesters said they are with LaRouche Political Action Committee, a group supporting eight-time presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche. The movement advocates the impeachment of Obama and claims he is part of a conspiracy to control world events.
According to Leaderpub.com, they say they are from Chicago and will be sharing their message in cities across the country.

Dateline Woodlands
She says the LaRouche Pac has an understanding with the postal service and the group is allowed to be on federal property with their propaganda.
However, Montague says they are not allowed to interfere with postal operations, impede entry to the office, or talk with citizens on property.
She says the LaRouche rep must walk off federal property to engage in a conversation about their plight or agenda.

Dateline NY
We found these guys around the New York Public Library near Bryant Park yesterday afternoon. And judging from the pictures here, you know why we had to stop and chat it up. Larouche PAC is a political action committee whose main goal is getting Obama impeached (yay!) and installing a leader who won’t be swayed by Washington’s ways.
Dateline Rancho Santa Fe
“They’re not gracious people,” Woolley said. “I’ve asked (patrons), ‘Please don’t talk to them, don’t give them any money, and don’t sign any petitions,’ because if they don’t have any of those three things, eventually they’ll go somewhere else, won’t they?” […]
nconsistent with the feedback she’s been receiving. She said the reason people are offended is because they don’t like what they’re saying about the president.
“The country is very polarized right now. What we’re saying is really flying in the face of popular opinion,” she said.
Woolley said the group has become even more offensive since the recent election and was more aggressive during their last visit to the Village. She said they followed people to their cars, and blocked them from going in and out of the market. […]
“They’ve caused nothing but problems for two years, and I think people are just at their wits’ end,” Woolley said.
Dateline Election after:
Funny you should mention that! On my way home this afternoon I saw four losers sitting on a tree lawn on a main street with a table where they were trying to get people to sign “Impeach Obama” petitions. They even had the requisite picture of Obama with a Hitler mustache.
Must be the Lyndon LaRouche douches They set up in front of the post office in my town once every 2 months or so.

Dateline Hurst
“This is one of the best sites in the area for receptability,” said John Jambor. “It’s blue-collar, and that’s the people who are hurting.”
Jambor, who said he’s been working for the political action committee for 37 years, was hanging out Monday and Tuesday with fellow LaRouche PAC employee Ian Overton at the Tarrant County sub courthouse on Grapevine Highway. Amid posters bearing photos of President Obama with a Hitler mustache and accusing him of crimes from cover-ups to murder, the two implored passersby to join them in a campaign to impeach the president.
There was no petition to sign, but Overton and Jambor offered folks a chance to get regular updates through a form that also allowed them to donate money.
Several people entering or leaving the sub courthouse stopped to talk with the men, who said they were returning to Houston Tuesday evening.
Many of those who stopped were eager to oust Obama. But most weren’t enthusiastic about being associated with LaRouche, the 90-year-old perennial presidential candidate (eight times and counting — note: no: 8 times and done) who served time in prison for tax code violations and conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

Dateline Sammamish

On Thursday, Nov. 8, Sammamish Police responded to a report of a theft from a political action group that has been frequently on the sidewalk of 22800 block of NE 8th street with “Impeach Obama” signs and pictures and slogans equating Pres. Barack Obama to Hitler. The group reported that two women came up and stole their political flyers and clipboards and posters (which were not intended as free handouts) after members of the group got in a heated argument with them. One of the activists at first said she had been assaulted, but eventually recanted that claim.
Police visited the women who allegedly stole the clipboards and both admitted they had done so. According to the police report, one of the women was very upset and embarrassed and stated that she knew it was not the right thing to do, but being of Jewish descent, the images of Obama as Hitler made her furious.
The women returned the items and the group said they were no longer interested in pursuing charges since the items had been returned.
 Dateline Australia in the Discussion — “Wow.  These crazies were pushy“.
I was at work today and these two crazys showed up, stated that they represent “an independent political party” (their exact words) and then started going on about how the Australian economy is fucked. So I said to them “look I’m already a member of a political party”. Their response “is it helping Australia?” I said “they represent what I agree with”.
Then they spurted on about how the major parties in Australia are both fucked because they represent the “popular view” and not what is right, etc. We’re all doomed. […]
Also, I don’t know what they were thinking going business to business instead of door to door (residential) – if you’re going to go business to business to promote your political party, then you do it to talk business. You know something like – “Hi, my name is Daniel, I’m a member of the Liberal party, would you like to know a bit about what we’d like to do help local businesses?” No? “Well then is there anything you’d like to discuss?” Nup – end of discussion.
Funny how no one has ever heard of this Lyndon la Roche till now.
Looks likely a spin off of the Greens …aka not worth venting your spleen over.

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.

Democratic Underground discussion:
The civil war has been low intensity.   It will become obvious. Will they kick the crazy uncle out again, like they did to the John Birchers? Fun fact, the John Birch and the Tea Party are a product of the Koch family.
Did Koch fund Larouche? n/t
Yup, very early on.
I don’t know why this doesn’t surprise me.  they have had their filthy hands in the cookie jar for a long time  (Hm.  Evidence of that, please?)
Even the hopelessly Occupy Staten Island group, before it experienced a coup d’etat by a couple of Lyndon LaRouche, Jr.-style ultra-“left" extremists
 Funny note on that here.  I once thought this guy Ford was on the ball, but I see he is working alongside the Larouchies and is featured often in Counterpunch which is an anti truth rag that carries some good stuff in order to slip real garbage CIA propaganda under the radar.
La Rouche having remote controls controlling the 9/11 attacks from a grassy knoll kind of weird. Co-op raids were pretty standard on Bertox for
Rick Potvin:  I discovered the Canada Action Party recently …
Hm.
We’re ready for LaRouche!  (Click to see how.)
On the FEMA Camps idea:  Glad to know that the John Birch Society has really been able to contribute to public discourse. Maybe the Birchers and the LaRouchies can get together and create a Unified Conspiracy Theory explainer for all of us who are obviously too  blind to see the truth.
On a man who’ll “unfriend every Obama voter” and etc:    How long before this dude covered with “Seatbelts = Nazis” buttons, erecting signs about E.B.T. next to the highway gets the cops called on him by his libertarian neighbors? Sounds like a LaRouchie, but less organized. I see him shouting the overthrow of the US at school buse while safely standing in some well defined area of public land.

Who are what query:  the LaRoucheites are the purest example of what define irl trolls. They arbitrarily idolize Alexander Hamilton and Rosa Luxemburg.

He’s been around forever and has somehow managed to get even weirder and crazier.
I looked at the PAC site & the biggest issues seem to be opposition to empiricism and the need to travel to Mars.
I guess it’s impossible for a Terran relying on perception to understand this mugnificence.
Luckily they are merely an annoying cult at the moment and will likely remain that way because they are a whole lot of unfun. But if they loosened up on the control of members lives and went form cult to a political movement, then that would be a very bad thing for US politics.
I once saw a LaRouche member trying to hand out (HAND OUT, and having trouble) their magazines and he approached a woman who was sitting at a bench and eating to tell her about the impending crisis in steel production.
He opened the magazine and pointed to an image that looked like a graph showing “steel production” and “time”, a plotted line, and a title at the top saying “projected steel production”. He said enthusiastically: “And you see how LaRouche demonstrates through this animation that after this point steel production will go into an intractable crisis and…”
“But there’s no data or figures on this graph” interrupted the woman.
“No” he replied and then very seriously, “it’s an animation. And it shows through animating the projection of steel output that there will be the steel crisis and only LaRouche’s Industrial Mandate Plan would be able to…”
“But what do the points on the graph mean – it’s just a plotted line, there’s no information of how much time or how much steel this represents”
“Oh,” he said as if it was a silly misunderstanding, “You see: it’s an animation!
“But what does that mean?”
“It animates how steel will decline”
“But from what!?”
“This animation demonstrating it.”
I do wonder where they’d been getting their money from. I’d guess Libya but who knows.
Back in the 70s I heard someone say that a LaRouchie told him that a nuclear power plant ought to be constructed at the inner harbor right in the middle of downtown Baltimore. A strange and sinister cult.
Ever been to Baltimore? He may have been on to something. What did the Smiths sing, “come on nuclear bomb”?

HaHAAAAAAA, Lyndon LaRouche, oh man, that guy and his followers are crazier than a bag of cats. They’re practically a cult, been around for years. My cousin had a friend who got involved with them and practically disappeared, they moved him to LA or some such to do pretty much what you saw that guy at the Post Office doing.
hey’ve been hanging out outside our Post Office all summer. I always ask them is LaRouche liked his time in the Federal Pen.
They sit outside the DMV here…I think they may have even won a lawsuit for the right to do it  That’s how you know they’re off…  Who the fuck sues for the right to sit at the DMV all day???
Direct him to this site:  www.timecube.com
I’ve seen them in the past at my local Post Office. I didn’t know they were still around. Bat shit crazy people.
They’re out by the local courthouse annex down the street from me all the time. I still remember LaRouch running his ads the night before the Presidential elections. Those folks give tin-foil hats a bad name. I see them outside some gun shows as well.
Don’t need to, timecube is by LaRouche. Gotta be, its the only thing that explains that website.
We have one of those, he hangs out at an intersection in town. Got himself arrested at the state fair a year or so ago, I think.

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.

A letter for NAWAPA.