I’ve been aware of this controvery, actually since sometime before even a couple of liberal blogs batted it about months ago. 

But those medical credentials are in question after a report from The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., found that Paul is not certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology, the most well-known group in the profession. Instead, Paul is certified by the National Board of Ophthalmology, a group he formed in 1997 to protest a policy disagreement with the ABO. His group is not recognized by the American Medical Association.

But Paul, who has been licensed to practice ophthalmology in Kentucky since 1993, says the fuss over his certification is unwarranted. “Do you think that they’re going to recognize a competitor?” he asked.
The GOP candidate once belonged to the American Board of Ophthalmology, but says he founded his own group after the ABO required younger doctors to renew their certification but grandfathered older physicians in. In a statement to The Washington Post, Paul said the group’s policy reminded him “of Congress passing health care legislation but exempting themselves from their own laws.”

So he set up his own “Rand Paul Doctor’s License”.  Of course he did.  This is the way the Blimp travels — through new coinage and new regulatory system that will evade a Centralized Government.

I have every reason to believe that Rand Paul is a competent Ophthalmologist — snide response to his “Accidents happen” statement about the Gulf Oil Gusher notwithstanding.  The result of that thought is something to the effect of the Goldwater / Paul stand on the Civil Rights Act: oh yeah, Barry Goldwater hired and hires black people and does not discriminate in his business practice.
I suppose if Rand Paul were to offer his unique certification system as something with more stringent requirement in addition to the government one, argue that that one is too susceptable to the Warren Harding / George W Bush school of Regulatory Oversight, he might have something.  Otherwise, his “do you think the AMA is going to recognize a competitor” winds us to the Craigslist School of Consumer Information.

The points about this supposedly novel article, which was posted with a point about Rand Paul and internet coverage of things, was actually a point brought up by Mark Ambinder at the supposed “Shock” of learning about Rand Paul’s views on Civil Rights.  Local media — the decimated newspaper industry– is hurting and becoming less equipped to cover the contours of local new politicians.  The thing I don’t understand about this argument is why I have not seen anyone bring it forward to the situation in the South Carolina primary race.  The explanation that Vic Rawl’s name recognition was bleak is passed on by various news entities without any further reflection on some implications:  I don’t think it’s entirely up to the “legitimate” Democratic candidate to keep his name identification to a respectable clip, and I don’t think it’s too much to ask for the Media to do survey dips of the whereabouts and whosabouts of the “other” candidates on the ballot.  Arguably they produce boring stories, in the case of the Vic Rawl campaign, but the news is not supposed to be always exciting.

I suppose Vic Rawl’s somewhat angry statements about some corners remarking on his low name recongition as though “he did as little campaigning” as his primary opponent — Mr. Greene — is…
… well, I take it that politicians who are not not all that likely to win in the General have a greater belief in their likelihood to win than the reality, and Vic Rawl is no exception.
For today’s thoughts on Jim Clyburn’s “Elephant Dung” comment, we turn to the rapidly shifting wikipedia entries on these related articles, where we see this comment:
The possibility has also been raised that Greene was put up by non-partisan political consultants that were bored.
I wish I could just leave it there with no further explanation, but the article goes on.: 
Nu Wexler, the former executive director of the South Carolina Democratic Party, commented “You have consultants doing this kind of thing just because they get bored, and they want something to tell good stories about. It’s almost like fraternity pranks.”

For my daily exercise of  “exploring the avenues” of this South Carolina result — wherever they go– and theydo lead in different directions — something shady going on, something not shady going on — brings us to — Point #1:
A review of the primary election showed that of the state’s 46 counties, half have a significant gap between the absentee and election day ballots. For example, in Lancaster County, Rawl won the absentees with 84%, while Greene won election day by a double digit margin. Rawl’s campaign manager also claimed that “In only two of 88 precincts, do the number of votes Greene got plus the number we got equal the total cast.
All right.  The question become: is there that massive a difference between what is likely a far better informed electorate voting absentee and the less informed electorate that run in the day of the election?  Actually, perhaps: it may be the case that the electorate voting absentee has a pretty good habit of looking at the voters’ pamphlet as they vote, even looking at these below the radar not hyped by anyone elections.
Or it may be Diebold.
Item #2 — and here you will see my bias in automatically assuming that Alvin Greene was the legitimate winner.  Does everyone remember Bob Conley?

I mentioned his 2008 Senate campaign a number of times — see here, and here.  This election nomination was the result, I suspect, some issues of agreement between him and the democratic rank and file — see Ron Paul and the wars, as well the nature of the residual Solid South Democratic Party in this electorate.  (See the third candidate in the Arkansas Democratic Primary that obtained ten percent running as a Tea Partier.)  Tell me if this isn’t vaguely familiar.:

Conley, who had switched to the Democratic Party from the Republican Party,^[7] was opposed by much of the Democratic establishment because of his controversial positions such as his vocal opposition to the immigration reform and same-sex marriage and his support of Ron Paul‘s presidential bid. A number of prominent Democratic figures in the state, including U.S. Congressman James Clyburn, supported Lindsey Graham over Conley in the general election.^[8] Political scientist Bill Moore claimed “The bottom line is, by not paying attention to this race, they ended up embarrassed by what has transpired: a Republican getting the Democratic Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate and a Republican who comes across as even more conservative than Lindsey Graham.“

Graham had $3.8 million. In fact, he’s spent more time on the campaign trail for John McCain than he has defending his own seat. Conley only raised $23,628 during the campaign. Conley was so unknown that even Graham admitted “Almost no one knows my opponent. The Democrats really didn’t field a — make a serious challenge — in terms of trying to find an opponent for me.“

Recently, from the odds and ends of the “Daily Paul”, I saw a video from the “Southern Avenger” who I guess you’d know if you have enough of a specific type of blog in your purview — railing against Lindsey Graham and making citations toward Bob Conley — it was a tedious commentary — but that was the last time I saw mention of Bob Conley anywhere.  The one thing to note about Conley, though, is that he did run a campaign and did state actual issues and positions and did attract his electorate and there is no doubt they knew what they were voting for — that cannot be said of the result in 2010.

It is worth mentioning that South Carolina does have Green Party candidate.  Naturally, the party appears to be salivating at their opportunity for increased vote total chances.  The one thing I will say is that I have spelled out my belief that all State wide and federal elections should come equipped with a required and necessary almost “Eat your Brocilla” type requirements to local media to cover Debate — as opposed to today where the underequipped challenger always makes the request and the entrenched Incumbent rebuffs the offer, except when they don’t.  To think further on my theory of the Debate requirement and fine-tune it — perhaps a minimal test might be put in place that could — in cases like South Carolina — have some minimal competence requirement that could leave Mr. Greene aside and put the Green candidate — Tom Clements — in his stead.

I’d also like to note something about the Green Party — as you ponder something in relation to the contest in Arkansas and you know — something a bit familiar with Bill Halter’s warning about Blanche Lincoln moving on after the nomination to this arena — does have a candidate in Arkansas.  They also had one in 2008, an election with no Republican Party candidate — thus the Greens received 20.47% — no idea how many were Republicans to Mark Pryor’s right.  Apparently the Green Party candidate there is the mayor of Greenland — population 907 as of the 2000 Census.  Make of it what you must.

Another interview with Alvin Greene — and it is here that I will suggest we can close the door on media interviews with Alvin Greene.  I do not see what purpose any more attention can serve.  Sure, Investigate all curious avenues — but keep some other avenues in mind which work against your claims.
I have a problem with Representative Clyburn.  I do not want to preclude a primary challenge against Clyburn, even from possible gadflys or incompetents, or the threat for 10 percent of the primary vote.  His “suspicion” against his primary challenger shades a little too far in precluding challengers.  As for the matter of the other flukey Democratic that beat the “Real” Democrat — that may just be the same Election Night Syndrome that brought Greene the nomination, and instead of strengthening the case for “Plant” shenanagins, strengthens the case for “The Credible Candidate didn’t wage a Credible Campaign.”

My question for Vic Rawls — after explaining the perimeters of his relatively piddling but highly typical when feeling that your candidacy is pretty well assured — and this is a point to be made to ALL candidates in his situation — by any rights, the probably challenger against the Incumbent, and far enough behind that you’re not likely to garner substantial backing for a credible “World Beater” campaign — seeing as the path to victory is such a steep climb — shouldn’t you be treating the Primary Campaign as an extension of the General Election and forcing your name awareness upward — that is the only way you’re going to put in effect anything except a static and flat donor base, and ensure against losing to Al Green.

Alvin Greene, as you see in the interview, is just not altogether there.  The two points of clearest reference come in with his “pivot” from “My Lawyer’s dealing with it” with regard to his Felony Charge over to the visible mind search to a sort of cue card “(2:55) Relates to the third issue I’m dealing with — Justice in the Judicial system — [trails off badly]”, and the exchange   to charge of mental impairment from state legislators: [4:00] “I say that back to them then… they’re the knuckle-heads” and on to his answer of if he’s [5:20] “No — Just” …

It’s good to see the Alex Jones “Prison Planet” website go to bat for Sharron Angle on the issue of Fluoridation.  My sense of rightful propriety has been restored.
I do have a sense of dread on certain campaign politicking against Sharron Angle, as I do against Rand Paul.  Harry Reid’s new ad, coming from an issue discussed in the primary against Sue Lowden, targets Sharron Angle for having promoted “Massages” for prisoners — this particular program coming from a service provided by the Church of Scientology.  We probably do not want to provide the prison population massages, though I do not think that is an outlandish idea — and that’s my problem here.  If we did have some massage program in the prisons, it certainly shouldn’t be this thing — the Church of Scientology having an ulterior motive.
My problem is that there are various Prison programs that will come across about the same to swarths of the electorate who veer toward the opinion that Prisons should resemble Attica, and that this is what Harry Reid is exploiting.  I don’t really want to see a flanking to the right on Prisoner treatment.  I almost would be happier if Reid proposed his own entirely different Prison Massage Program — something which, obviously, is never going to happen.

Similarly, the liberal talk radio host Thom Hartmann has come across a tad annoying in his discussing of Rand Paul.  “Wait until the Republicans in his state” learn about various libertarian stances from Rand Paul.  Top of the list includes Drug Decriminalization and cutting back the Pentagon budget.  Leaving aside the problem these positions are not held by Rand Paul, and for a minute pretend they are.  Hartmann is, eseentially, proposing that the Democratic candidate — Jack Conway — defeat Rand Paul by defeating stances that Thom Hartmann supports.
As opposed to against …

“I don’t think anybody’s going to be missing a hill or two here and there.”

The thing about Carly Fiorina’s “is the mic on” gaffe — other than her non-apology apology for a matter which I think the public is pretty understandable in a “I can relate” kind of way of knowing that people say crude things in private that they wouldn’t in public —
The thing about Carly Fiornina’s comment about Barbara Boxer’s hair is that having undergone chemotherapy for breast cancer and all that entails — to her hair, for instance — I would think that would provide her with some grounding of perspective against such catty and superficial disparagmennts.
Regretably, Fironina is not beyound using her experience with “Cancer” card in a debate where his opponent brought up something about her CEO-record, and she responded with a non-sequitur time-line wise which suggested the issue was beyond bounds — “Did you hear what I just said?”.

Okay.  I DARE the Democratic Party in California to run another refashioned “Demon Sheep” ad!  The closer to the original ad the better.
Just like I dare the Republican Party to refurbish the Dead Kennedy’s song “California Uber Alles” for the Gubernatorial race between Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown.  Though, I suppose Jello Biafra would not be one to give clearance for use of the song — his opinion of Jerry Brown has evolved.

Rounding things up here … Okay.  Fine.  Rick Barber for Congress.  Weee!  Also, note to Bob Etheridge: Um.  Everyone’s a blogger and everyone’s carrying around a video, you know that right?  I also need to note a good reason not to donate to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — as we see here, money will be spear-headed to the effort to elect this guy.

There is some rather odd reporting regarding the Missing Six Year old boy.  It was enough to make me suspect smoke signals are being sent — a quick radio report snippet that “tips are coming in from all over” — a Psychic called in that she conjured up his presence in Northern California, and a report came also came in from Northern California of a spotting with him with an elderly couple — that was checked up in, and it turned out to be a boy with the same appearance.

All right.  Good to know (perhaps?) about the high profile nature of the case coming up with a mist-sighting — but did we really need to know that a “psychic” called in?

Mostly, I suspect, we’re just filling time here.  It’s a story that’s got to be left into the public awareness, but there really just is not anything of substantive news.  Drop information on donation fund for “Search and Rescue” efforts, and what else?  It’s a sad story, and in a flash I can come up with a number of scenarios.  A “bad outcome” scenarios are more likely than than a “good outcome” scenarios.  From what I gather, the best outcome is that he was kidnapped by very benevelont (though, I guess, emotionally needy) kidnappers who are taking good care of him.  Seriously — you have anything better than that?

Meantime, the local chapter (or whatever) of the “National Alliance” has taken full advantage of the situation.  If you’re in whatever parts of the city, you’ve seen those godawful yellow stickers they place — in the dead of night, naturally — at posts.  “Preserve the White Race”, and blah de blah.  They’ve cheap adhesive, such that to remove them is to end up with difficulty scraping them off — by design, I suppose.  So, yesterday, and today, in the front of a free newspaper dispenser (The Portland Tribune, I believe) what is there?  A flier.  “Missing” — picture of a baby “White Children’s Future”, and blah de blah.  I, naturally, pulled them out, crumpled them, and threw them away.

The search for the explanation for why Alvin Greene won is … interesting, but probably rather trivial.  Barring the “Diebold Machine” line of thought, I will just say that if his candidacy was a Republican Dirty trick, it is a dirty trick that recognizes the randomness and information void in South Carolina, and a type of Dirty Trick tossed out to work at crap-shot intervals, usually unexploded.

Keep in mind that nominations like his… happen reasonably regularly.  Too many elections with curious variables for them not to occur.

What we’re looking for becomes a quest for Impulse Biases against a broad background of an Information Vacuum.  It is here that variables such as ballot placement and prejudice toward monosyllabic names — or perhaps unconcious admiration for Alvin and the Chipmunks or Al Green — comes across as the deciding factor.  Coming off a blogoland discussion advocating that Judgeships should not be elected officials due to their positions of responsibility not really being conducive to public ‘s ability to qualify and rate them — leading the job into an information vaccuum and into a crap-shot liable to be filled by narrow interests OR short spurts of politicization on the part of the judge — I’d think that Nate Silver and 538 could just move some of those arguments into his analysis — found here and here.

It appears that race was not a factor, but I would not have been surprised if it had been.  Keep in mind this would only be the case against a lack of meaning in the broader campaign, and a lack of campaign focus.  We had a good case study of a white politician defeating a black politician in a heavily black electorate because qualifications and positions had been clearly spelled out: Artur Davis lost the Alabama Democratic Gubernatorial Nomination because of his record and his opponent’s record.  I do not know who appeared first on the ballot, and I can state clearly that that was not a meaningful factor.

Here is my thought experiment.  Consider an elected position of, say: Abjunct Facilitator.  What does this job entail?  I haven’t a clue, which is why I’m going to ask two distinct electorates to vote on the it.  I’ll give you two candidates: Samantha Blout and Edward Blanche.  No other data is supplied.  One is before a group of women, the other a group of men.  Who wins?
How about we give a Provo electorate and a Berkely electorate a choice between “Joe Friday” and “Sunday Butterfly”?  Fuzz it and make it less obvious — this name, I’m guessing, suggests nothing about background yet I’m guessing has an effect: “Nick Spacey” versus “Fred Aldrin”.

The real interesting race might be between a “Sam Fry” and a “Sam Frye”.

As for Alvin Greene, the disturbing thing is reading some comments on various posts that abound about this story. 

rickroberts, I live here. I am telling you, none of the local newspapers covered this race. There were no “voter guides” for this race. One alternative weekly, “The Free Times,” actually did run a pretty decent piece on Greene in May, asking “Who is this guy?” I think the Greenville News also had a paragraph about him.

There’s this sort of incredulity on this concept of “voter’s guide”.  I would think this would be a necessary de rigeur component of a state’s election system — a voter’s pamphlet — paid in part by candidate’s filing fees, I would think.  It’s disturbing to me if it is not the case.

Regarding his media interviews– here, here, and here — I would like the man much better if his answer to the question of how he won and what his campaign consisted of was something of a more blunt — “I put my name on the ballot and the people voted for me.  Deal with it.”  Read his comments here on his supposed campaign — and I just find myself now waiting for someone somewhere in South Carolina to come forward and discuss any political interaction they had with Alvin Greene “Pressing the Flesh”.

And this wikipedia comment:
If elected he would be the first African-American in the Southern United States to win a seat in U.S. Senate since Reconstruction^[1] when Republican senators Hiram Rhodes Revels and Blanche Bruce represented Mississippi in the 1870s. He would also be the first popularly elected African-American Senator from the South.
strikes me as the Alvin Greene campaign, or some sympatic figures, putting the best light on his nomination.  It is a bit weasley — he’s not the first black candidate, and frankly has fewer qualifications than either the damned blue doggish Harold Ford of Tennessee or… the state Senator from Mississippi who ran in Mississippi in 2006 and 2008 — Erik Fleming, both of whom once fit the wikipedia article focus that “ would be the first African-American in the Southern United States to win a seat in U.S. Senate since Reconstruction”.  (If you want to know why I know of Erik Fleming, it’ll pop out at you if you read through his wikipedia article.)

.. and for the Progressive Base who came out in support of Bill Halter to sock it to the anti-union Blanche Lincoln — skip to 4:00 on the last video and you will see that this man, Alvin Greene, stating that “We don’t have Unions here in South Carolina and I want to keep it that way… I’m for keeping South Carolina free… Union Free — I’m a moderate Democrat, that’s… one of the… Moderate Democrat positions.”  It is a bizarrely scripted explanation for his position, I am thinking, and suggests we can’t even give him points for not being a calculating politician.  But I guess you can hedge that against his desire to Unify the Koreas into one Democratic government… if you think he’s capable of bringing that about.

 

(* We’ve found ONE SINGLE PIECE OF EVIDENCE of a Campaign… here.)

… for that matter, the Separation of Corporation and Education fades — but that happened during Good Times as well.  Take it away.

When his budget for pencils, paper, and other essential supplies was cut by a third this school year, the principal of Combee Elementary School worried children would suffer.

Then, a local church stepped in and “adopted” the school. The First Baptist Church at the Mall stocked a resource room with $5,000 worth of supplies. It now caters spaghetti dinners at evening school events, buys sneakers for poor students, and sends in math and English tutors.

The principal is delighted. So are church pastors. “We have inroads into public schools that we had not had before,” says Pastor Dave McClamma. “By befriending the students, we have the opportunity to visit homes to talk to parents about Jesus Christ.”

What is interesting is that the “Religious Right” — or elements thereof — tended to take a stand against some corporate slidings into public schools’ space and curriculum — and so this paragraph about Oklahoma’s Legislature (recently making a lot of hard-headed Abortion policies) is interesting.

The dash for private funding has raised concerns. The Oklahoma Senate last month voted down a bill that would have allowed advertising on school buses, a move supporters said would prevent teacher layoffs. “Do we want our school buses to look like Dale Jr. (NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt Jr.) is driving them?” says state Sen. Steve Russell, an Oklahoma City Republican who opposed the bill. “What’s next? How about Starbucks on the side of our M1 tanks?”

It just might be a cause of who gets the soul of your children  — read one way, that’s what that article amounts to…

For the poe-news message board’s news story on BP buying up Search Engine Search phrases…

This picture is not from the Gulf of Mexico (those are korean workers).

Out of the first 6 pictures, only one has anything to do with the BP oil disaster (a sad oil soaked bird, from a website that never mentions BP or Gulf of Mexico), 3 are of people cleaning the mess, saving the world, getting things back to normal, and one is a cute cartoon of a sad seal.
I’m glad at least this one keeps coming up when you look for BP in google images

The Seal is mis-reported, it’s actually an otter.

This leads to a weird conundrum, though.

In its emergency plans in the event of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP made clear it knows how to save “seals, sea otters, and walruses” in the Gulf waters. The only problem is, no such animals live in the Gulf.

Indeed, it appears BP literally copied and pasted emergency response plans to apply to any spill in the world, regardless of the reality of the local ecosystems. While “seals, sea otters, and walruses” are a concern for oil spills in colder waters, there are none of those animals in the Gulf.

Homeland Security Wire noticed the errors after a report from USA Today highlighted other aspects of BP’s total lack of preparation in the event of a disaster as catastrophic as that in the Gulf.

BP’s 582-page emergency-response never anticipated an oil spill as large as the one now gushing on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico; a closer reading shows the document was not much than a boilerplate, cut-and-paste job used by BP from region to region; in a section titled “Sensitive Biological & Human-Use Resources,” the emergency plan lists “seals, sea otters and walruses” as animals that could be impacted by a Gulf of Mexico spill — even though no such animals live in the Gulf; the plan was approved in July by the federal Minerals Management Service (MMS), a toothless agency accused by lawmakers of being in the pocket of the oil industry.

Anyway… I suggest typing in various animals of sea animals, whether indigenous to the Gulf of Mexico, with or without “BP”, and see what shows up — if BP swallowed up various animal searches in their mad purchase.

In relation to this comment for this news article:
Hey Gerry Tuoti, this story should be on Frank vs Brown, not on the two people holding signs. Headline says they annoyed the public– why does the Gazette believe that? Were there complaints to the police department? Or is this more Gazette editorializing their opinion rather than reporting the facts. Your article says they refused to be photographed–with an accompanying photograph where the guy clearly isn’t avoiding the camera. Stick to the facts!!!

I think it’s now open to question whether Rachel Brown is even on the ballot.  The answer is, apparently yes.  Having cleared that hurdle — sure, Brown versus Frank.  Really, you want to relive that clip? 

Let’s run through some of the odd repercussions of the Tuesday Primary elections.  The Media is reporting it as a “Night of the Women”, rather tediously — see Jon Stewart’s Wednesday program for some apt mocking of that meme.  But I will report it as a great night of Stealth Campaigns.  It’s with this thread in tow that I can stick in the latest antics of the Lyndon Larouche Movement as a rather severe example of a national phenomenom.

Monday and into Tuesday morning, the blogosphere was rocked with speculation that Orly Taitz – the most prominent name in Birther Conspiracy Theorists–  just might win the Republican nomination for Secretary of State against a certain re-election for the Demcoratic Incumbent.  Her opponent was a man not much campaigning who had not established any name or presence — apparently a former player for the Jacksonville Jaguars, but my wikipedia search on Monday pointed to a Bowl Game he played in college and to a stint in (I’m not kidding here) the XFL.  Money quote from the politico article.
“For professional Republicans right now, the main tactic in regards to Orly Taitz is prayer,” said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College and a longtime observer of California politics.
It turned out well.  It’s hard to ascertain who counts as the Stealth Campaigner here, but Orly Taitz was a known enough quantity — her name registered well enough and out of the “Vaguely aware” category that 75 percent of the Republican party voted against her.

Fate played a trick on the Democratic Party faithful.  Schaudenfruede was reveresed.  South Carolina threw up a surprise win for an unemployed man who filed the $10k filing fee with a personal check and then disappared.  I may be the only person in this country who will go to Bat for Alvin Greene.  Or, actually looking over the blogosphere, I am not — though my good company mostly consists of Republicans enjoying a moment of Schaudenfrede and a chance to throw spit-wads at Democrats — though there’s also the cynical like me in his bunch of supporters.  My first impulse is “Good for him”.  The questioning of why and how this unemployed man dumped ten thousand dollars on a pointless ballot spot is shoved aside to question — why did Carly Fiorni dump $80 Million into a biad that’ll get her such a lousy six digit pay-check?  In respect to the bid of the South Carolina Democratic Party’s request for him to step aside, I urge Alvin Greene to get his Rod Blagojevich on and demand just compensation.  At any rate, maybe he can parlay his Stealth Campaign victory into Reality Television Spot.
See, Alvin Greene’s opponet — name no longer of any import — the supposed Legitimate Candidate — had about as little chance of victory as Greene.  Maybe there is something to the Weakness of the Media in covering poltiical candidates, even down to the flakes and flukes at the bottom of the ballot.  And people have been wondering whether the coverage of Orly Taitz is something of over-kill: it stopped her from being on the General Election ballot, right?

One more Stealth Campaign to note, though to a different effect — the winner of the Republican Primary Contest for Senator from Nevada — Sharron Angle.  Upon winning her nomination, her campaign website was scrubbed away and down-sized to a simple “Contribute” button.  And there we move forward — the Republicans just did the seemingly impossible and re-elected Harry Reid to another term — you know that, don’t you?

But the Winner, and Still Champions.  A Confederacy of Dunces.  Just when I thought that my capacity to be astounded by the absurdity of the Larouche organization had been tapped — they manage to outdo themselves.  In December of 2009, Summer Shields announced his primary challenge against Nancy Pelosi.  This was one of a trio of Larouche Youth Members campaigning, and moving their foces into a organizing force of electoral politics — the Movement’s purpose for the year 2010.  They made various tea party appearances.  They launched with a Press Conference at the National Press Club — “a leadership that can inspire young people, but also inspire the tired, angry frustrated Americans to get out”.  And from this ground, they scored a breakthrough in Texas.  Kesha Rogers SHOOK the Texas Democratic Party as, “The victory in the 22nd Congressional District yesterday by LaRouche Democrat Kesha Rogers sent an unmistakable message to the White House, and its British imperial controllers: Your days are numbered.”

Hm?
“Whenever you hear someone with a British accent talking about this on behalf of British Petroleum they are not telling you the truth.” — Congressman Anthony Weiner.  (But Gad, it took the org forever to jump onto that one.)

So, with the Right Moment of British – bashing coming forward, Momentum, surely, was with them… right?

Mass Strike conditions evident — just see the protesters in front of a campaign appearance from Obama for Boxer and the other Democrats — it spilled over over-seas with a sign alerting to from Bueso in Germany – “Erst Kesha, dann Kascha” (First Kesha, then Kascha) — en route to their usual .04 percent vote total.

It was quite a political contest, wasn’t it?  Here’s the whirl-wind tour:
Memories… of the way we used to be… Misty Water Colored Memories…

Of the way we were…

Of the way… we… were…

I think I can be forgiven for, after seeing the financial reports available online, seeing Robert Beltran’s $300, reading the Larouche Organization pump up the promise of defeating Nancy Pelosi, reading the reports on the Great Post Office Campaign, seeing the inspiration go down to Carol Smith Johnson in allowing her to wage her campaign in Indiana and garnering 8 percent of the vote, reading Howie G pounce on “Watch out for Summer Shields in California” — you can forgive me for ASSUMING that all the i’s were dotted, and the t’s were crossed, all the lower-case j’s were dotted, all the o’s were circled — the $1,740 filing fee processed or the 3,000 valid signatures gathered (shouldn’t be too difficult, right, with that Mass Strike happening and all) — you can forgive me for ASSUMING that Summer Shields was on the goddamned ballot.

But you know what happens when you assume?  Well, usually you make as Ass out of You and Me, but in this case you just make as Ass out of the Larouchies.
But here we do have this clever solution to a problem the org has with these campaigns.  In the past, the Larouche org ran candidates, but reportedly they stopped doing due to attention being delivered to the candidate themselves as opposed to the cult leader.  But we now run ashunder in a need for a fund-raiser purpose and organization tool for future recruits, in the post Larouche for President Era.  So why not run a Phantom Congressional Campaign — if you leave the man Summer Shields off the ballot, you will keep him from the Media Spotlight, saving the mentions in the media — allowing future campaign events on the Summer Shields Campaign website to spotlight future Cadre School shows (ie: Indoctrination Seminars).  Money well avoided in Spending!

That is, unless you want to believe, this:
I emailed someone at the Oakland LYM chapter about Summer’s ballot status. This is the responce I got,
The party hacks blocked Summer from running in the primary as a Democrat, so he’s a write in candidate. No word yet on the results.
Apparently they didn’t care all that much of this supposed Party Hack block job.  In the past, when the Democratic Party has blocked delegations won in late season low attention primary battles, the Larouche org has cried foul.  When the Texas Democratic Party dis-associated themselves with Kesha Rogers, they’ve cried foul.  Here?  Just a post-humous rewriting of history to record their great Primary Dance as a “Write In Campaign”.  And with that, Lyndon Larouche has now taken the lead over Harold Stassen for largest number of Presidential Bids, Larouche having been a Write-in Candidate for every Presidential Election since the days of Socrates!

 …………….

Okay.  I’ll bite.  Let’s see how the election results turned out for the candidates Howie G endorsed over here.

Tom Fiegen = 9.4 percent
Tyler Gernant = 24 percent (the winner of the primary had 39.)
Nancy Price = NARROW VICTORY!   (Not expected to win in November)
Danny Tarkanian = 23.3% (third in the Nevada contest).
Art Dunn, a LaRouche endorser in 2004 = 11.3 percent

Also, it probably comes as a surprise to everyone listed except Dunn that the Larouche org has, on some level, claimed them.  Today, I see they’re also laying claim to Blanche Lincoln’s victory — strange, as Obama’s support of Lincoln opened up a cleave between him and the Democratic Party rank and file.

In Wikipedia Editing News, the Larouchies are demanding to know why a supportive sentence of a former Soviet Union official keeps being cut out of the Larouche article.  I assume this renewed interest in this old chestnut comes from an interview that the org is currently trumpeting of an appearance in some Russian publication or other.  Such follows the removal of “Albert Sumlin” from the proceedings after another chest-nut attempt in editing the article regarding Jeremiah Duggan.

There’s been this ad in the back of the two “alternative weeklies”, along with the ads for various phone sex and hook-ups and other strip clubs.  It’s been there for the past couple of months maybe.  It’s sliced into two halves.  One shows a close-up of a Guy’s Butt in some pair of uncomfortable looking underwear, the other a woman in an advanced state of undressed.  The idea is that there’s a strip joint with men undressing in one part of the building, and women in the other.

Yesterday, looking through the Willamette Week, I couldn’t help notice — the guy’s butt had been replaced by a woman.  I don’t know if this means that the “Men’s Revue” thing is dead, and the laws of supply and demand have taken it into a certain direction — something as seen earlier in Nevada.