The North Korean government’s “news service” never ceases to amuse me.  I am scanning the past several days’ worth of edicts to find out Kim Jong Il’s word on the breakthrough in negotiations — um… Feed the suffering Koreans his totalitarian regime is leaving derelict, and they dismantle their nuclear program, again– something which probably would have occurred a long time ago without the fingernails clutched tightly to the nearest immovable object in trepidation had we not delved into the sideshow of this “axis of evil” game in the first place.  There is nothing from the “news service”, of course.  That would violate the spirit of juche.  There is this, though.:

Pyongyang, September 4 (KCNA) — General Secretary Kim Jong Il appreciated a performance given by the art group of families of servicemen of KPA unit 963.
Put on the stage were chorus “Our country is the large family of Songun,” trio and story-telling “We love,” poem and story-telling “Legacy of soldier family,” quintet to the accompaniment of musical instruments “Blue sky over my country,” dramatic story-telling “Mother of soldiers,” chorus “General is the destiny of the motherland” and other colorful numbers of various genres.
The performers enthusiastically sang of their worthwhile life replete with the immense pride and self-esteem of acting as dignified women revolutionaries and optimism and joy and powerfully demonstrated the fixed faith and will and indomitable spirit of the families of the servicemen to devotedly defend the headquarters of the revolution and accomplish the revolutionary cause of Juche without fail while standing in the same trench with their husbands under arms.
Kim Jong Il highly appreciated the successful performance given by the members of the art group of families of servicemen of the unit, greatly pleased with their presentation rich in ideological content and high in artistry.
Among the audience were Secretary Kim Ki Nam, Department Director Kim Yang Gon and other senior officials of the WPK Central Committee and KPA commanding officers including KPA Generals Hyon Chol Hae, Kim Myong Guk and Ri Myong Su and KPA Colonel General Yun Jong Rin.
…………….

Iran.  From Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly blog:
Is the Bush administration planning to launch a PR campaign after Labor Day to soften up the American public for an attack on Iran? I’ll be honest: Iran rumors make the rounds of the liberal blogosphere every couple of months, and they never pan out. So I’m skeptical about the latest round of stories .

The problem is the rumors tend to coincide with a Fox News lead ratcheting-up offensive.  I can never quite cut through this particular Kremlinological study.

I find myself watching the clip of the end of the game between Appalachian State and Michigan, which through one particular measurement is the biggest upset in College football history.  The only problem is that I cannot find a Vegas line off the bat, but these are the type of match-ups in college football where the trade-off is that the favored team gets what is usually a glorified walk-through practice session and stats inflation as they run up a 50 point victory.  The other team gets a check for their troubles, which they plow back into the football program.  The phrase “Any Given Sunday” does not proceed to College football and match-ups like this one, a Top 25 program versus a Division 2 school.  At least not until this game.
I have a theory that major upsets such as this one tend to fall into one pattern.  Somewhere nearing the end of the third quarter a certain “gut check” arrives for the underdog, as the clock proceeds to the end of the game, the pressure builds on them — where before, they had nothing to lose because they weren’t expected to be where they are in the first place, now they do — and it shows.  The favored team tends to pull ahead at this point — and that is the gut check: the underdog is either going to counter and come back, or they will just fade away.  So you can just plug in the sports commentary from a preprogrammed set, without much imagination.
Perhaps there is a political corollary.  The political story I find myself amused with is the news that Larry Craig may not be resigning after all.  The wacky Arlen Specter talked him out of it.  I like this move by Larry Craig, if he follows through on it I almost, but not quite, would offer him support in his endeavors.  I imagine the Republicans shoving him to something like George Constanza on that Seinfeld episode where George couldn’t be fired, but was shoved out of his office space, and took it up as a challenge of perseverance.  But it is a rhaspberry to the way these these thing, and maybe that is the college football comparison I can make here.

Blipping on the screen the other day, which I left unread, was the title to an article at lewrockwell.com entitled “FDR: Our First Fascist President”.  I thought nothing of it — (#1:)  Hadn’t they already declared Lincoln that?  (#2)  The CCC has widely been declared fascist.

The latest issue of Reason, behind the cover that posits the “4 Biases of Stupid Voters” toward an article that tend to tell us more of their particular brand of libertarian bias than anything else –  (“Anti Market bias”.  Really?) — is a review of a book on “3 New Deals” — them being Hitler’s, Mussolini’s, and Roosevelt’s.  Careful to note, of course, that to compare is not to equate — ie: oppositional democratic forces held.  Perhaps because… FDR was not a fascist?
My basic reading of the Great Depression period always leads to a certain starkness, and randomness of options.  I believe the writers at lewrockwell and Reason would have had the US head down a model set down by the presidencies of Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge to handle the hardships of the Depression — ie:  nothing, let the Free Market work itself out, which is to say that whatever his faults — and there were any number of cynical lessons to be gleaned from Roosevelt (ie: the meaning gleaned from when the economy turned sour again in 1937 when Roosevelt tapered down federal spending), and whatever items from the New Deal we would be wise to never replicate — we’re better off than if we were in the hands of the contemporanious ideological idols of the lewrockwell or Reason staff.

It has been a long time since Economic Depressions have been considered a part of the natural economic cycle in the United States, and anywhere else in the industrialized (or post-industrialized) world, and I am weary of what would become of us if it did.  Just cite it as The age of Demagoguery, and move on.

A couple of weekends ago, Ron Paul was on the NPR quiz-show “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me”.  He was given a three question quiz about fringe presidential candidates, which included a question about the political career of one Lyndon Larouche, Jr.  As a whole, it was a stab in Ron Paul’s back — fringe candidate asked about fringier candidates.  I balk at the implication,  though, with ragards to Mr. Larouche — the same with the New Republic side by side profiles of Larouche as “The Crazy Who Is Not Running” with Dennis Kucinich as “The Crazy Who Is Running” — which, whatever one may say about Paul or Kucinich, they are not cult leaders.

Ron Paul finished off by saying that “Lyndon Larouche is always right.”  It is a joke I took as roughly equivalent to Homer Simpson’s line.   But apparently this was taken in Laroucheland as this weird sort of wink and nod from Paul — a semi-establishment figure sending a message to the huddled Larouchies.  Larouchepac issued a press statement on Ron Paul’s mention, and I passed by a Larouchie-written blog entry which considered it an act of communication.  It may be the case that the sentence is taken to heart as the least subtle axiom issued from out of Larouche.
As though the most libertarian elected official in Congress sees eye to eye with a sick parody of a Statist.
LL is/was always right. It is an axiom, proposed by Kepler. Remember: Lyn successfully predicted the outcome of a coin flip 594,375,820,001,1593 times in a row. What more needs to be said? 
In other news, this sad little story has been taken down:
http://ibykus.blogspot.com/2007/08/slandered-by-own-father.html

Depriving us all of one more insight into the mind of a LYM recruit, this one with the saddest of contexts.  I did not get there in time to offer up a comment.  Ah well.
And the latest EIR-ish pamphlet (as pertains to the standard lackadaisical non-solution to the Mortgage crisis)  is subtitled “The End of Our Delusion”, which… is apt.  Look for it when the LYMers do their “Rush” as the college terms begin… oh, wait.  Printing?

Here’s what I see on a sidewalk:

9-11 Was an Inside Job
(whatever9-11Conspiracywebsiteitis.com)
No It Wasn’t.

The “No it wasn’t” chalked in a different handwriting, of course, and in purple instead of white (as are the lines crossing out the original message).

I will be sure to note if s/he crossed out every other chalked 9/11 Truth advertisement.

1.  Karl Rove.

2.  Alberto Gonzalez.

3.  Larry Craig.

4.  John Warner.

5.  Tony Snow.

So we have those three members of the Bush administration have, within the past ten days or thereabouts, called it quits.  Enough ink has been spilled and enough and enough late night talk show monolouges have been tossed out and enough keyboards have been typed about Larry Craig.  John Warner’s retirement appears to be leading straight into the campaign announcement of Democratic Mark Warner, which appears to cement a Democratic Senate seat in the next cycle, and we should be busy salvaging as much “Senator Warner” stationary as possible for that turn-over.

I always suspect Karl Rove’s departure as a bit of a sham, but perhaps we just acknowledge that he, along with Gonzalez, have averted a political disaster and entrenched hyper-spin control with the Democratic Congress, but then again the Democratic Congress hasn’t much gumption in these things.

So there is Tony Snow, who left Fox News / Bush Administration to work for Bush Administration / Fox News.  Looking at his image, he has aged exponentially in his rather short tenure in the Bush administration.  I suppose I should just level that out to Cancer — and I note that Snow, in his farewell speech, talked about how Bush joked about his balding head — the cluelessness reminiscent of when Bush told the blind reporter to take off his shades.  Even in the best of times, with under the tutelege of a more honest politician (if such a thing exists), it is a job that grays your hair.

I’m a day late and a dollar short with this, because it is somewhat frivulous, but…

Nolan Cunningham.

Years ago, just a month or so into moving into Portland, I watched a small group of scamper away from the very same fountain.  They had done the same little stunt, poured soap into the fountain.  I walked away, and walked back.  When I came back, what I saw was a whole mass of peoples having fun, tossing bubbles around, making bubble sculptures, enjoying the scenic beauty of the overflowing bubbles.

I do not know the cost benefit analysis in terms of what it takes to simply drain the fountain and re-stock, so I cannot quite say how much this is worthwhile.  I hazard to guess it is worth it.  The fountain is dormant for about half the year anyways.
Which brings the odd statement about “shaming” the young man who did this.  I scratch my head at that one.  Now that we know his name and face, and as he does his community service, I suggest giving him a verbal pat on the back, a thumbs up.  One might also suggest how to avoid the security camera for the next time, if he should so choose to do so again.

Sorry, city government of Portland.  You lose in your game of “shame”.