The LaRouchites stand behind a giant placade saying “Kerry / Edwards 2004” — obtainable at various Democratic and Kerry campaign headquarters, and in front of a sign that says “LaRouche Youth Movement” — and a picture of Lincoln, FDR, and… LaRouche.

One LaRouchite has “Kerry / Edwards” stickers all over himself.

It makes sense. Cults co-opt memes; LaRouche co-opts “Anybody but Bush”. It appeals to the kids.

The Tom DeLay Campaign has claimed that his opponent, Richard Morrison, is using LaRouchites as surrogates, and is intimating that references to his corruption scandals are ipso-facto conspiracy – mongering. The same reason he filed a frivulous lawsuit against Howard Dean, one he has no intention of following through with… tie Morrison in with “East Coast Elite Liberals”, and with “Nutball Conspiracy Theorists”.

(The Dean-founded organization’s ad shows a batch of newspaper headlines, which makes one wonder how to define the word “libel”.)

Time to look up those zen exercises to practice in the event of…

well, whoever wins. Zen is good. Zen is the word. Zen is what is needed.

A tree falls in the woods.

A man hangs by a fraying root off a cliff, and eats a strawberry.

Things like that.

The endorsements for the Kentucky Senate race in the state papers goes one of two ways. Jim Bunning’s recent behaviour suggests he’s simply losing it, his campaign has done nothing to relieve us of the suggestion, and his opponent is able and not too ideological so as to be good to do the job for Kentucky. OR. This is how Jim Bunning has always behaved.

It’s the “Doldering Aging Eccentric” card. Kind of worked for Strom Thurmond. Fritz Hollings of South Carolina has thrown in the towel because he doesn’t want to become that punchline.

There was to be a Senate debate on “Meet the Press”. Bunning declined.

The strategy bols down to downplaying any suggestion that the race is closing (thus we get comments from the RNC of the DNC spending some money on the race that “they’re welcome to throw their money into a sinkhole”, and thus the “Meet the Press” snub can be cited, cynically, as just below the dignity of a man who’s cruising to victory), laugh off verbal flubbings and clueless remarks to both eccentricities and attacks on as dirty campaigning. Have the Senior Senator pump him up, and have Bunning only perform in the most scripted of matters. (See also the circumstances of how he handled the debate he had to do.)

I note two Bush attacks as of late. (1) What an outrageous claim Kerry makes regarding Tora Bora! (Never mind the newspapers covered the situation back in 2002, not forwarded to critical discussion due to the still smoldering 9/11 afterglow Bush was enjoying.) (2) The Kerry campaign, devoid of forward-seeking ideas on defense matters, has resorted to simply responding to the day’s headlines. Particularly, the headline that tons of high-powered conventional explosives are missing and now likely in the hands of the Iraqi insurgents — something the IAEA warned the Administration to take care of.

Which is just as well. Bush said he doesn’t read the newspapers. Apparently Bush is making clear distinctions between him and Kerry: Kerry does read the newspapers. Jim Bunning, for his part, when asked about the group of national guard soldiers who refused to follow an order that seemed suicidal remarked that he never heard of the incident, and that he doesn’t watch any news except for Fox News. There’s a punchline there, but I don’t know what it is.

I give Fox News more credit than Jim Bunning does. I know they covered the story. How they squared it with the Fox News mandate of glorifying the troops, promoting a uniform “happy warrior” image, and selling the Bush line on supplying needed military equipment I don’t know… beyond, of course, “isolated incident”.

Lurking for after the election, buried in obscure sub-committee, is a bill sponsored by former-kitten killer* and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist called “The Kitten Extermination Act of 2004”. Should Bush win election, it will immediately pass congress and go into effect.

(I’ve always wanted to start an Internet Rumor…)

*No, really. He used to kill kittens. Look it up!

I’ve heard of at least three low-rent movies that are marketed as sort of the “anti Farenheight 9/11” (a movie I haven’t seen, and a movie I’m not sure if I should see.]

One is a haliography of Bush focusing on his faith… honey for the right-wing evangelicals. The website to it offers a person who, quote-in-quote, “mistakenly purchased Farenhight 9/11”, can turn that one in for this one.

The second one had a spurt of activists trying to get it into a theater as “counter-programming” to Moore’s film. A batch of happy “Morning in America” images, entitled something like “America’s Heart and Soul”. The only image I saw of the film is of somebody who looks like Larry Bird pushing a retarded child who happens to be bound by a wheelchair… devoid of context, you imagine he’s pushing him right down a hill into a gutter. For their part, the directors disassociated themselves from this marketing push, saying the film was not in any way partisan.

The third film… Fox News is flogging right now based on some second or third rate actor who supposedly is having a hard time in Hollywood after appearing in this movie. “Farenhype 9/11″… “exposes Bill Clinton’s weakness”, “shows that Michael Moore is a douchebag”, and “shows George W Bush’s steadfast resolve in the face of terrorism”. It has the virtue of being, at least from what I know, of being a direct response, as opposed to the one that showed Larry Bird throwing a wheelchair-bound retard down a hill.

Two versions of the poster exist.

A raw outline drawing of your typical alien. The headline says, “People Vote Earth People”

A word balloon so as the alien is saying “Why are they so frantic? They are in a race. They do not understand. I wish there was some way I could materialize in my true formation to show some of the truths I know of. I wish I could help them. Unfortunately because of their history of mass persecution and genicide I don’t feel comfortable at all with such a vulnerable situation.”

A cryptic, pro-voting message. It leaves a lot of blank space at the bottom. The blank space is filled in version #2 of the poster, and this is a rough memory:

“I wish I could tell them that Voting and elections are charades. A way of making it seem like the powerless have power, even while everything that is happening is outside of their control.”

The “If voting made a difference, they’d make it illegal” attitude. An anti-voting message.

I don’t know what to make of the two versions of this poster. Who dun it. Why they exist. Which is the authentic vision the artist had in mind.

All I can say is that some words are, strangely enough, white-outed. I may have to take a closer examination of the two versions to compare and contrast.

“What time is it? 6:30?”

A curious question. 6:30 is an absurdity.

“More like 9:30,” I say — even though it is more like 9:50, it’s difficult to shake the “thirty” rhythm in supplying an answer.

“Yeah. You’re a little late if you’re thinking it’s 6:30”, another man says. He then goes off on a little flourish about the death of summer and the coming of winter. “It’s autumn. October. The season of chaning leave colors. In the year of the Red Sox.”

“Ah… I see,” the man lost to three hours ago says. “The sun has moved to the other side of the Earth.”

“No. The Earth has rotated its axis around the sun.”

Next comes a long disgussion of East, West, North, South. “What states are the furthest north, the furthest east, the furthest west, and the furthest south? Here’s a hint: One of them is three of those.”

I walk to a different location, and hear — mid conversation:

“I live by ‘something or other’ Ministries… a real right wing group, and they‘re after me. Someone other than I called a veteran who lives in my neighborhood ‘Trailer Park Scum supporting a war for the Security of Israel’, and someone said I said that, so now they‘re after me. Everybody‘s against me!”

A one-sided discussion continues with him and another man, and somewhere he says: “I used to be a Libertarian, now I’m a Communist. Happened after Post-Contract With America America. If Peru can provide health care, why can’t America?” AND:

“I’ve talked with some very smart folks for the past few weeks. Handing out pamphlets. I think everyone should read this?”

He pulls out a Lyndon LaRouche pamphlet. He offers it to anyone and everyone. Nobody bites.

“Vote for Kerry.”
Someone shrugs, “Already have.”

The man who thinks it’s 6:30 comes over, mumbles something or other. The former Libertarian Communist LaRouchite Kerry supporter says to me, “I’m dumb, but I’m not as dumb as he is.”

I half want to say, “You’re not dumb”, but I just go ahead and give a smirk and a knowing nod.