Okay.  Can somebody explain to me what the hell “Howie G” is talking about here, because I’m not entirely sure.

Seriously.  Which is it:  Does Howie G
(a) believe that “European” is a fictional entity — anti-Larouche agents set up this blog and factnet poster , or
(b)is this his way of saying that his personality was “created” by the anti-Larouche agents?

This is not a rhetorical question.  ‘Tis one or the other.  The former would be a literal reading of his words, the latter a figurative reading.  The latter would make some sense of some kind, the former is completely nuts.  I simply do not know which side of the coin I fall on, but get the feeling that to solve this problem is to have the key to a few locks.

Next question.  What is this?, from October 2008 — and from someone who evidentally heralds from Montana:

It’s common knowledge in the conservative community that William Ayers recruited Barack Hussien when he was 8 years old. In addition to being used to deliver bombs to the homes of American Patriots in The Heartland, the young boy was also converted to a life-long homosexulist by the all-pedophile Liberal class and he spread this deviancy throughout the many madrasses he attended during his religious indoctrination. As a member of a ring of Muslin call-boys, Barack Hussien was able to infiltrate the Defense Department, where he entrapped, blackmailed and eventually assassinated Texas Senator John Tower, all on Ayers orders. This was only one of a long string of murders Ayers directed the boy to commit, all in an attempt to bring down our Democracy in order to replace it with a Stalinist-Muslamo hybrid state of repressive religious influence and strange food.

Ayers continues to control him. In the early 1970’s, the radical bomber put together a devious plan to take out Lyndon LaRouche’s printer, Ken Kronberg. The genius of the plan was the length of time it would take to execute, which would in turn, leave Ayers off of the list of suspects. He finally concluded his devious machinations on Aprill 11, 2007 by having Barack Hussien run Kronberg over with his own Toyota Corolla, making it appear to be a suicide. Curiously, all records of this event have been lost and the FBI has refused to make any statement on it.

Barack Hussien is the ultimate ….ummm…….what was the name of that Frank Sinatra movie where the guy gets brainwashed and then he gets elected? The Stepford Wives? Well, he’s the ultimate Stepford Wife, ready to go insane as soon as the layer cake is frosted, speaking metaphorically. You LIE-brals need to get your heads out of the sand and recognize that John McPalin is the only thing standing between us and a life of eating chick peas and pita bread for the rest of our lives, wearing a turban the whole time under the threat of the Muslin clothing police.

Okay.  I recognize this as a partisan Democrat mocking a Republican tying candidate Barack Obama to Bill Ayers more tightly than real — but in this rambling of conspiratorial tropes, WHERE DID KEN KRONBERG COME INTO THAT PICTURE?  Maybe I was wrong after all in saying that I don’t think Kronberg should have a wikipedia entry, except that the whole Larouche villa of wikipedia entries is screwy.  Apparently he’s lodged into the popular psyche somewhere.

Such matters tend to be pretty strange.  But everything is strange hereabouts.  Case in point:  In December, I ran into this list of British Jews.  Um… “a list of most of the Jews that occupy top positions in our country, some are very influential in many areas of our society while others in the list are not, at this stage of the investigation it is impossible to determine which Jews are guilty and which Jews are innocent.”  Interesting starting supposition.  Jeremiah Duggan made the list, which struck me as just a little bit weird.  Well, here’s another list of Jews that Duggan made, a tad more positive a purview.

And there’s this comment — which brings me back to the Howie G question — “Prove to me you’re real and not composite.”:

The Geithner/Paulson/GoldmanSachs plan is so bad even Lydon LaRouche makes sense ranting against it!

Couple that one with this guy, who last week I spotted at his blog wading into the tide of Larouche in having done a tad of research to convince him that there is “FAD” about him swarming about — but anways:

I am bracing myself for those dismissive comments that often arrive immediately after I point to a thought provoking video, article or speech that happens to reside on a site supported by Lyndon LaRouche or his various organizations. However, I have learned to base part of my judgement about thinkers and leaders by the people that they have influenced. If LaRouche can convince people like Portia that he is no “nutter”, then it seems to me that he has passed a very important test of legitimacy.

With a statement like that, it demands what he is requesting, hence comment #1:

The Introduction which stated “it is time to listen to the wise words of Lyndcn LaRouche,” got to me. A definate turn off. LaRouche once said:
“America must be cleansed for its righteous war by the immediate elimination of the Nazi Jewish Lobby and other British agents from the councils of government, industry, and labor.”

At least LaRouche has an original explanation for his anti-Semitism, the Jews are the agents of the Queen of England, who is the real ruler of the United Kingdom. The Jews are not the only tools of the British monarch, “Adolf Hitler was put into power in Germany on orders from London.”

I could not watch anymore.

Is this Ron Rod Adams a real person, or just a composite?

At least he didn’t cite Ramsey Clark:

… but Ramsey Clark is now working to free the remains of Geronomo from the Skull and Bones secret society, so that makes up for all that, right?

In truth, the “so bad even Larouche makes sense” entity linked to something where Larouche’s thoughts are corraled well enough that it makes sense of a sort — it could have been worse for him.  Might have linked to this all:

“This is fascism combined with insanity. It is a case of the criminal mind going insane.” […]

Perhaps no recent event better proves the point that the United States, and the Obama Presidency in particular, is under a vicious assault from an apparatus that, a half century ago, would have been openly called what it is—a bunch of lying Fascists—than the forced resignation of Ambassador Chas Freeman from his designated post as head of the National Intelligence Council (NIC).

Not that I’m going to call anyone who disagrees with the dumping of Chas Freeman as anti-semitic, but for the love of Gawd, really?  Half a century the “Israel Lobby” would have been called “fascist”?

And here’s your Webster Tarpley accolade fix!

Webster does an outstanding job articulating our collective reality and the way back from the brink of a new dark age. I suggest we listen and learn………..

Indeed.  He crafted that Venetian Conspiracy that Larouche is still using, didn’t he?   See also this list of evil-doers.

It’s worth noting what the Korean Central News Agency of DPRK has to say on this historic day where they send rockets out into the ocean, thereby freaking the world:

Item:  Pyongyang, April 3 (KCNA) — Daniel Alvarez Celi, chairman of the Ecuadorian Committee for Supporting Korea’s Independent and Peaceful Reunification, released a statement titled “The imperialists’ sophism on the DPRK’s projected just satellite launch can never be pardoned” on March 25.

Noting that use of outer space is not a privilege only for some countries, the statement stressed that all sovereign states in the world have rights to make a free use of outer space, whether they be big or small.

It further said:

Nevertheless, the U.S., Japan and the south Korean puppets are raising a hue and cry over the quite legitimate satellite launch projected by the DPRK. Such behaviors can never be allowed as they are a wonton violation of the international law on free use of outer space and a smear campaign against the DPRK.

ITEM: 

Pyongyang, April 3 (KCNA) — General Secretary Kim Jong Il Wednesday sent a birthday spread to Ri Song Su, a resident in Ryongsong District, Pyongyang, on the centenary of his birth.

Born as a son of a farm hand, he was subject to maltreatment and contempt as a member of a stateless nation. It was not until President Kim Il Sung liberated the country that he could lead a happy life under the care of the motherland.

He did farm work with all sincerity to repay the country’s benevolence. He has kept himself busy even since he became a pensioner. He likes bean paste and vegetable, never allowing himself to have unbalanced diet. He is moderate in living, never smoking and drinking.

He still cultivates his family garden and prepares with sincerity the aid materials to be sent to servicepersons of the Korean People’s Army.

AND, ITEM:

Round-table talks were held in the Czech Republic on March 19 and 24 on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of General Secretary Kim Jong Il’s election as chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission.

Displayed at the venues of the talks were works authored by Kim Jong Il.

The chairman of District No.10, Prague City, Committee of the Communist Party of Czech and Moravia said that the DPRK is advancing, holding high the banner of socialism under the leadership of Kim Jong Il. This gives great encouragement to us struggling for social justice, he added.

Noting that the DPRK is now invariably advancing toward socialism despite the changing world situation, he said that this is thanks to the powerful self-reliant military capability for defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation the Korean people have built up under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, chairman of the National Defence Commission, true to the behest of President Kim Il Sung.

And he expressed support for the just cause of the Korean people for national reunification, saying that Korea would be reunified without fail under the leadership of Kim Jong Il.

The chairman of the Rokycany City Committee of the Communist Party of Czech and Moravia said that Kim Jong Il’s election as chairman of the NDC was an event of weighty significance in the history of the Korean people’s struggle to defend Korean-style socialism and spoil the U.S. imperialists’ ambition for domination over the world.

Referring to the situation of the Korean Peninsula growing tenser due to the moves of the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean warmongers, he hoped that Korea would be reunified at an early date without intervention of outsiders, thus carrying into a brilliant reality Kim Il Sung’s behest and Kim Jong Il’s policy of love for the country, the nation and the people.

A congratulatory message to Kim Jong Il was adopted at the talks held by the Rokycany City Committee.

Ten years ago this week the world of conspiracy theories found their pop cultural reference point: The Matrix was released to theaters.  And with it, the question for hacks looking down at the masses who aren’t following the shadows closely enough on the video for a 9/11 trade tower falling:  Red Pill or Blue Pill?

It was a world with a recently impeached President.  There was great uproar when he bombed a chemical lab in Sudan — an aspirin factory, the collection of Republican hacks and Left-wingers roared.  There was greater uproar when he accidentally bombed a Chinese Embassy.  The nation was readying itself for a new baseball season with the homerun champions who had broken a half-century old single season record, to be broken a couple times hence with the same chemical diet — I wasn’t fooled: Steroid Addled Freaks.

Clinton was readying a bombing raid of Kosovo to oust Slobodan Milosevic.  With that, a taunt rang out against one of my high school’s graduating Seniors, entering the reserves:  “[Name] to Kosovo!  [Name] to Kosovo!”  Not the war he’d end up in, obviously, but it was good to keep current.  Today, Bill Clinton is heralded as a hero in Serbia, as he is in Northern Ireland for brokering the peace treaty with Britain — only now showing the tiniest of cracks of a few disgruntled IRA Nationalist acts of violence, somewhat easily lumped to the bad economy.  Too bad things didn’t work out as well in Palestine / Israel.

MP3 players had eked into circulation.  We were still a couple of months away Napster.  Which only meant that the file-sharing was un-coordinated: unfortuantely, whatshisname was filling his with that hot new act, Limp Bizkit (a rise to prominence aided by the old method of Radio Payola.)

When The Matrix came out, the computer geeks in my class started wearing the sunglasses — uniformly.  I can’t say it looked cool, nor can I say it looked dorky — it just sort of was.  It was a good thing they didn’t cotton to the rest of Keanu Reeves’s outfit, I gather — we’re a couple weeks away from Columbine and they’d probably want to shuffle away from the Trench-coat as quickly as possible.

There is a discussion at play at this moment of economic disaster which focuses on the rise of various types of conspiracy theories as a reaction to economic bad times.  At the end of the 90s, economy humming along albeit with certain cracks, the X-Files was the major water-cooler show, and people were bracing themselves for such a thing as the “Y2K” breakdown.  I don’t think anybody quite believed that one, honestly.  Another facet of the economic troubles coming to sway — particularly in line with yesterday and today’s events — the cracks of mass violence incubated with growing societal stress.  Never mind in the “dot com economic bubble” in the middle of 1999 we can count a particularly nasty mall shooting spree and Columbine, from my memory.

All of which, I guess, is supposed to be part of The Matrix we must free ourselves from, from the grip of some puppet-masters throwing us on the red pill (or is it the blue pill?) — a giant plot, all of it.  In an alternative universe, where a completely different set of events unfolded over the next decade — nothing to do with the wars we ended up fighting or the terrorist attacks we ended up having or the financial crises we ended up having– those wanting to use The Matrix as a metaphor would have had still had this movie to slam everything into.

I take the purple pill, thank you very much.  The red pill takes you ignorance, and the blue pill just takes you into a fantasy world — two sides of the same coin — or two dyes to the same pill.

For the first time, like — Ever — I think a gay marriage court ruling would end up benefiting Democratic electoral chances and throw a monkey wrench into Republican electoral strategy.  Iowa won’t be able to get a referendum for a constitutional amendment against this ruling and to sanctify “one woman and one man” until into 2012.  Hence, considering the first in the nation Iowa Caucus dominated by the population that gave its nod to Pat Robertson and Mike Huckabee, the news coming out of the first Republican State Nominating will be “Fill in the Blank Scary Guy” Wins.  Or, maybe Sarah Palin?

Of course, the actual victor for the Republican Party who might deign to try to win the election in November might do well to go with the New Hampshire strategy, and skip Iowa.

The Weekly Standard on the stands right now, and tucked one week back on the website, presents itself with the magazine’s quest to discover the start of the Republican Party Comeback.  We start with the Fred Barnes tedium hack-work of the week, but I don’t recommend reading it because it is the Fred Barnes tedium hack-work of the week.  Obama is in trouble.  Or soon will be.  He can read the political tea-leaves.  Will this to happen, and sooner or later — it will happen.  Or so seems to think Fred Barnes on a weekly standard.

More pertinent, this article poses the question:  A GOP Comeback — Will it start with New Jersey’s Chris Christie?

I don’t know.  That’s months away.  Why ask that question when you can ask the question about the New York Congressional District’s special election?  Will the AIG Scandal bring the Republican to victory in this longtime Republican district, vacated by a Democrat made into a Senator, carried narrowly by Bush in 2004 and Obama in 2008?  Wouldn’t it be the “start” of a “Republican Comeback” if the GOP wins this seat — in an hour as I type this?  Isn’t that the implication of the article?  And if the answer to that question is “yes”, doesn’t that conflict with the other article about the GOP Comeback?

The answer to the question of whether the AIG Scandal will bring the Republican to victory appears to be “no”.  The answer to the question of whether a Republican victory there presents itself as a sign of anything is, really, no.  The answer to the question about New Jersey is something along the line of — it’s a Democratic state with a corrupt political culture that suggests a Republican victory sometime — yet, that’s been the feeling for the past half a dozen political cycles and yet — .  So… no, in any case.

But I guess these are the questions that animate a partisan political magazine during its out years.

Scott McLemee, noted art and culture critic, shall now face an existential question offered up from “Leaterstocking”, noted Larouchian wikipedia Sock Puppet.  If there is no wikipedia article devoted to you, do you exist?  On March 26, 2009, as seen in a not easily link-specified place here:

The fact that there is no article about McLemee suggests that he may not be notable enough to be mentioned as a critic. Perhaps you ought to author an article about him if you disagree. But regardless, how does being an “award winning book critic” qualify him to offer criticism of political groups?

The perfunctory search engine search suggests that devotees to Carrol Quigley (good overlap there), Thomas Pynchon, Christopher Phelps, and the Spartacist League do not have this same problem with the matter of Scott McLemee’s existence.  But trimming Scott McLemee from the entry is key to Leatherstocking’s sense of balance:

I removed the neutrality tag, because I was satisfied that the article had been returned to a balanced state, but I see that Will Beback has tilted it once more toward his team’s POV.

“Neutrality tag” removed with the “clean editing job” (in the eyes of this Larouchian sock puppet) during the time that “Will Beback” was on vacation.  I bet Scott McLemee didn’t even realize he was on a team.  The LYM as a wikipedia entry poses the probelm that nobody much is paying attention much — there is another struggle to get a couple of dead-link college newspaper articles off, key in that the college environ is the primary place the LYM has a presence enough for anyone to care to demand an article.  Remove such and we are left with the only focal point that takes the LYM seriously at face value:

Remember that in Reliable Sources it says that fringey sources should be used only as sources about themselves and in articles about themselves or their activities. Thus, LaRouche sources may be used in this article, just as your writings would be appropriate in the article Dennis King. If the material is clearly attributed, the reader can judge its credibility.

But noted cultural and art citics have been removed from the discussion.  (Incidentally, Scott McLemee ceased a “Fringe Watch” on his blog, apparently answering the age old question “What is the role of a critic in a society?” with “Not to spend an undue amount of time commenting on perhaps fascinating, but largely irrelevant political sects.”)

I do not think the LYM warrants a wikipedia page.  In a better world, one where wikipedia editors don’t feel the need to bargain with participants of an elaborate playground mimicry of Mission Impossible shows, this LYM article would be surmised by the sentiments expressed with the Avi Klein citation, perhaps with some citation to some Larouche pronouncments, and perhaps with the items concerning Jason Ross (and there might be two too many “perhaps”es there)– and then tucked firmly into the wikipedia article on the “Larouche Movement”.  As is, the first thing we learn about the LYM on the wikipedia article is that their “war-room” is located in Leesburg — a fact that in its proper context is filed under “LYM planned as instrument to outlast Larouche”.
……………………………….

I have two problems with this British “Channel 4” news report on the “Justice for Jeremiah” Wiesbedan trek:

#1:  skip to the 2:42 mark and wait for the phrase “with views seen by many as anti-Semitic and anti-British“.  I suppose we haggle a tad with “anti-Semitic” and its role, and just what it is to reference a Locust here or there, but I’m wondering who views his call for War Against Great Britain as not being “anti-British”.  (Well, theoretically those who schlep that completely over to the “anti-semitic code language”, I guess — notably some posters at the neo-nazi “Storm Front” board.)
#2, and a wee bit more important, and this is something I harp on a bit:  Skip to 3:42,  “On their website, however, they expressed”.  For the love of god, if you’re going to report on what they expressed on their website, please expand your purview from that narrow line and mention the broader conspiracy it finds that the Duggans have been a part of Tony Blair and Dick Cheney’s goal to destroy Larouche.  (At the very minimum.)
……………………………….

And now it’s time for The “Howie G” Show.  First a few of the loopier comments he posted to former member “European”‘s blog:

Seems to be a couple of lines of inquiry.  Notice the brand new Larouche sock puppet at wi:kipedia (brand new, that is, unless it’s the nineteenth or thereabouts iteration of the figure who originally went by the Simpsons reference “Herschel Kurstofsky”) at Dennis King:

Not much biographical information in this article. He published a book in 1995 — anything since then? What does he do for a living? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Coleacanth

Colecanth, eh?  I don’t much know the answer.  Doesn’t Larouche have a line on that?  Something about Drug Money or something?
Which brings us to the next Howie G blog entry… for the life of me, I don’t see what from the LPAC link to a London Times piece I’m supposed to view as troubling regarding George Soros.  But if finding some sense of adventure from fleeing the Nazis excites “Howie G” , so be it..  There is a tinge of “huh” with this statement:
continues his anti-human tradition, by literally pushing drugs.

I suppose I advocate legalizing two things I’m not going to take advantage of: gay marriage and marijuana.  The latter is so anti-human that this. (Then again, that would have had to have been during an Aristotlean Dark Ages Epoch.)

Ironic, as I posted the list of evil conspirators gleaned from the essay “A Defense of Poetry” to a message board I frequent I had the response:
Uhh…errr…I can only assume the author was on a major drug trip whem he wrote that little jem. Or how does that old saying go?…
‘psychotics build imaginary houses and neurotics live in them.’
Unfortunately…
…………………………………………………

Some fascinating discourse on a Larouche speech found in the comments section here.  I guess this is what a Platonic dialouge in Leesburg would sound like?

IFUCKUBITCh says:  yea if we can all work together, we can destroy UK. If we fall into UK’s trap and keep fighting each other, UK is going to gain even more influence.
The gameplan:  nope UK & US will start the war, US will lose ground and then betray UK, US & Russia with send all their nuke to UK at the same time and end the war.

Load1Bongs1Not1Guns chimes in to put this man in his proper credentials:  That man is a former presidental canidate, and you are watching celebrities.

Calebsaccount defends the British:  your a ing hole dude, britians one of the best countries and arnt evil they are trying constantly to help the usa end what will soon be world war 3

Habs1009 lays out his view: world war 3 will start with a coalilation led by russia ft islam nations, ethiopia, turkey vs israel. it will be thwarted by jesus christ. another war will happen7 years later. all the nations led by the antichrist except for russia, china, india, japan, and north korea. the antichrists forces will beat russia the march on israel, after that the asians 200 plus million man army. they will all die

To put a spin on an old saying, “‘psychotics build imaginary houses and psychotics live in them.” Sometimes.
………………………………………………..

Like posting to an article from Adolf Hitler about vegetarianism.

A good friend sent me the link to this well produced video that makes some excellent points. I am fully aware that the source of this video may call into question its veracity, but I have been doing a lot of research for the past year or so and have come to the conclusion that FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) has been spread about LaRouche as well as about nuclear power.

Hm.  Note to the Org: Here’s a good contact for funding!
Meanwhile, another good source for the Larouche organization might to roll down is the list of commenters at this Alex Jones article.  They’ve tapped the same conspiratorial veins.  (But I guess they’d have to remove Obama from the equation in contact… for the moment?)

Though we’ll run into this from the “Science Movement” quadrant:

I also learned that British royalty is an elaborate front for the opium trade, and many other things my education and common sense had led me to embrace falsehoods.

Lindon, bless your heart, your village called, seems they want thier idiot back.

……………………………..

When Joshua Micah Marshall expanded his blog to this community type thing, I don’t think he had in mind providing a forum for Larouchies to peddle their propanda.  And so the question:

Admin question.  How does this diary with no recs make the rec list?
An interesting answer is proferred.  LaRouche is all powerful.
I actually accidentally provided one of these diary entries with a “recommendation”, making one recommendation two, thinking I would be able to deign who the heck recommended it by clicking.  Alas — I’m part of the problem.

This comment is the Comment on the Century!:

The Oligarchs and their low life lackeys are feeling the heat, eh, and you L.M. do not like that because laRouche is so very effective in rallying real patriots from around the globe against them? Tell the truth who do you work for? Bring forward your notable champion of vice and debate laRouche concerning the last 50 yrs. of current history as to what really happened to our nation and the world! Who has the balls to come forward? Your half-truths are bullshit, good to cover your own ass, but a slippery slope to hell for anyone who falls for it! For daring to speak truth to the unspeakable powers, thus unmasking these evil untouchables and their world class criminal tools, traitors, and fools, the fearless folk hero and true American patriot, Lyndon LaRouche was railroaded. Many of those same enemies of LaRouche and of our nation today, still remain protected by the opinion makers of the opinion makers above the law. He was in fact an American political prisoner of George H. W. Bush.! Unlike you and your fiends, LaRouche is the only living economist on the planet, who was always right! LaRouche’s ideas concretized as policy of the United States would save this republic, and the enemies of this nation do not want the nation state to survive under Globalization(Empire). What is needed now is an all-out mobilization to ensure LaRouche’s plan goes into effect—and that those who seek to block it are removed from power. If we would have listened to LaRouche the world would not now have come to endless bailouts and the brink of a new dark age.

Huh.Are you sure you’re not Webster Tarpley?

Anyway — attention Joshua Micha Marshall: dailykos can immediately delete these things when they eke into his “diary” community, why can’t you?

Bryon Dorgan is one of those Senators I frequently spot on the losing and right end of votes of, say, 94 – 5 — not relevant enough to be purchased whole-sale by those corporate conglomerates that form the Great Bi-Partisan Consensus.  So it’s not too surprising to see his quotes from the passing of a key 1999 Banking de-regulation (better to say “re-regulating”, as I don’t know that “de-regulation” exists in affecting these rules of the game) bill now bouncing about the Internet:

”I think we will look back in 10 years’ time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930’s is true in 2010,” said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota. ”I wasn’t around during the 1930’s or the debate over Glass-Steagall. But I was here in the early 1980’s when it was decided to allow the expansion of savings and loans. We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness.”

I never trust Triumphantalism of any sort, and tend to think any politician proclaiming a “New Era of Freedom” to be selling us Snake Oil.:

”The world changes, and we have to change with it,” said Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, who wrote the law that will bear his name along with the two other main Republican sponsors, Representative Jim Leach of Iowa and Representative Thomas J. Bliley Jr. of Virginia. ”We have a new century coming, and we have an opportunity to dominate that century the same way we dominated this century. Glass-Steagall, in the midst of the Great Depression, came at a time when the thinking was that the government was the answer. In this era of economic prosperity, we have decided that freedom is the answer.”

 — likewise I don’t believe in the “Silver Bullet” of a solution.  A quote from Bryon Dorgan not seen in this news account of interest in re-considering President Bill Clinton.:

“this bill will also, in my judgment, raise the likelihood of future massive taxpayer bail-outs.”

The Great Accomplishment that shines forth from the fans of President Bill Clinton, particularly in light of his predessors and successor, is his Balanced Budget and Emerging Surpluses.  Can we unequivocably say that, in light of “raising the likelihood of future massive taxpayer bail-outs”?  Clinton looks worse for wear right now.

This past month, the institution of the “Democratic Leadership Council” (hurling us to that scene in 1999) mysteriously was amplified as Evan Bayh (former head of said organization) announced a redundant Senate Caucus of, like a quarter of Senate Democrats and “three or four” mystery meat participants.  Their purpose appears to be to provide a right – plank for the Democratic President.  Harry Reid lent credence to them in stating this about the “left plank”:

He disapproves of liberal lobbying groups running advertisements targeting moderate Democratic senators trying to get them to support President Obama’s budget.  MoveOn.org and Americans United for Change have launched separate ad campaigns designed to pressure House and Senate Democrats to line up behind the administration’s ambitious fiscal plans. “These groups should leave them alone. It’s not helpful to me. It’s not helpful to the Democratic Caucus,” Reid said.

Case in point, Evan Bayh’s donors list — $123,000 from Goldman Sachs between 2003 and 2008; $1 million from securities and investments firms in donations from 2003 to 2008 .  An unhelpful point these activist ads would be bringing up.
… Gingerly?

A little odd because Obama is not much to stray from orthodoxy, for good and bad, and it might not do well to take another gander at his donors.  For Bayh and company, what policy propsoals are there to restrain?

The Vermont state Senate passed by a 26 to 4 margin Homosexual Marriage, proving the opponents of “civil unions” right in the slippery slope from civil unions to marriage.  Just as well that nobody cares much about this slide — opposition to these things is centered on the “Religious Right” and Vermont (and the New England States) have just surpassed Oregon as the most unchurched state in the Union.  The House will pass the bill sometime next week, I’m supposing?

Vermont’s Governor, Jim Douglas, has announced his veto.  I am not an expert on what level of “super” majority is necessarty to override a veto, but I gather 28 out of 32 is more than enough.  Something I don’t understand about Jim Douglas’s veto is the rationale.  It is a line familiar to those watching Evan Bayh form his Cacusus to flank right of the Obama Administration — “In these tough economic times, we can not concern ourselves with such divisive issues.”

Even on its own terms this line does not make sense for the situation in Vermong.  As represented by the elected representatives to the state, it divides the state 28 to 4 — and I have not seen any reason to believe a gap exists between the voting of the representatives with the electorate at large.  That is not very divisive.  Time is not being spent on this matter, which is to say time has just been spent on this matter, and the only way to now dig into that opportunity cost of “dealing with the economy” versus passing gay marriage is to force the Vermont legislature to put the measure back on the agenda and over-ride this veto.

So what does Jim Douglas want here?  If he just wanted to remain squemish at gays being in the rubric of “Marriage”, he could have just said so, let that be his reason for the veto, and let it go at that.  All I can think is that this clears the way for Republican fund-raising when the time comes that he lays site on a US Senate bid at Patrick Leahy’s retirement.  He appears to be a functional governor generally, and I trust the state knows what it’s doing in re-electing him by wide margins, but consider this a sign of the discreprencies with the reconciliation of a state party head in looking at the national party.

As far as I can tell, this is the current face of “The Republican Party”:

Okay.  The two people I am most amenable to replace from this list are Michelle Bachman and Jonathan Krohn — the first the “Crazy Aunt” of the week, the second that irascible 13 year old who charmed and wowed the “C-PAC” meeting, and left everyone else a little bemused.  Also, George Bush has done nothing to remeain here, but his presence lingers and until something fills the vacuum, there he sits… similarly to Dick Cheney, except he’s been out of his bunker a bit.

There are a good number of politicians who would be able to at any time break into this configuration, some people seeking a national profile wisely biding their time and letting this clusterfuck pass while consolidating a state or regional hold, other names from the past who are liable to stick their head out when they have a book to peddle.  But that will have to wait.  Right now, these 16 faces are your national Republican Party.  Good luck to them, I guess.