You know… I had forgotten that Jeff Gannon had a blog. In the vein of psuedo-professional hacks for specious agendas who upon their downfall get themselves blogs… we now have the Judith Miller Blog.

Two different animals, to be sure. I don’t believe Jeff Gannon was ever believed to have had credibility, and in the end he was just a bizarre curiosity — an easy escape valve for Scott McClellan in the asinine rituals of the Press Corps, to be sure, but mostly he just a small cog in the online right-wing echo chamber. (It is believed that he played a part in the defeat of Senator Tom Daschle, and for that Democrats are secretly grateful.) Judith Miller caused more harm — and I’ve repeated a highly simplified mantra of her much larger and more damaging place in a more specific agenda. (Gannon = “Conservative Movement”. Miller = “War with Iraq”.)

Sorry about what happened to Jeff Gannon’s dog. If Judith Miller’s dog dies too, I’ll offer my condolences for her as well.

“We can not remain silent. We have met the enemy, and it is us.”

Thus saideth Trent Lott, letting the air out of an investigation Dennis Hastert and Bill Frist were threatening to have over who leaked the information to the Washington Post that — um — we have Gulags in former Soviet nations… for the information was passed around in a Republican Conference meeting (from Vice President Dick Cheney’s mouth) just before the Washington Post article was published.

The questions we have before us… what is the name of that Republican Senator (or Republican staff member) has a conscience to leak that to the press? And just how much does Trent Lott want to screw with the Republican Leadership that threw him overboard when he embraced Strom Thurmond’s 1948 presidential campaign? And what is the implication of changing the word “he” to the word “it”?

The trouble with these special elections is that they combine precincts so your polling place can wind up being quite some distance. Mine was and for some reason, I decided to walk to it. Went right through the ballot in about twelve seconds and I felt like I wanted to ask the workers there, “Hey, you got anything else I can vote on? I came a long way to get here.” — Mark Evanier.

Even more hoo-hawing than the mid-term elections (and keep in mind that even the presidential year elections are shrugged off by half of us Americans), we have the off year elections. You will remember that in 1993, we found out that the right kind of Republican could take New York City, this is one who’s married three times, once to his cousin, has roomed with gay roommates… 2001, we found out that they can elect another kind of Republican: a billionaire who can ride the coattails of that other type of Republican who’d turned his reputation over overnight on September 11. 2005, we find out that he (one who is in reality a Democrat with an “R” after his name) can basically buy his way to a 20 point victory over a Democrat with a “D” after his name. But this is neither a victory for good or for bad, so let’s move on.

Some things that went right in the Election 2005 Scheme:

#1: The Dover, Pennsylvania School Board Elections. All eight members up for re-election to the Pennsylvania school board that had been sued for introducing the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in biology class were swept out of office yesterday by a slate of challengers who campaigned against the intelligent design policy.

#2: Chris Coleman Defeats Randy Kelly 69 percent to 31 percent. A minority (or pluralistically minority opinion, if the case may be:) Dave Hueffmeier left the Rice Street Library polling place and said he was going to vote for Coleman but changed his mind and voted for Kelly because he got tired of everyone dwelling on Kelly’s Bush endorsement. “I’m so annoyed by this whole idea that you should not vote for Kelly because he supported Bush,” Hueffmeier said. “That has nothing to do with the running of St. Paul. It’s irrelevant and ludicrous.” I’m pretty sure that if you go to the “Democrats for Bush” page circa 2004, you’d find Randy Kelly #3 in the list of “Democrats for Bush” behind Zell Miller and Ed Koch.

#3: Tim Kaine over Jerry Kilgore for Virginia Governor: Bush put his reputation on the line by campaigning at the eleventh hour for Republican Jerry Kilgore – in a reliably “red” state that Bush won last November by eight percentage points – yet Kilgore was hammered by the triumphant Democrat, Tim Kaine. On Wednesday, some Republicans will undoubtedly argue that their Virginia defeat should not be viewed as a barometer of the national mood or as a referendum on the president and the GOP. But the Bush administration raised the political stakes and invited that perception by the evidence of its own actions. The White House sent the Republican National Committee into Virginia to build and run the voter-turnout machine. Bush himself appeared with Kilgore on Monday night in an effort to energize the party’s conservative base. In recent days, GOP officials had privately voiced concerns that a decisive defeat in Virginia could trigger a “meltdown” in the national party, and Kilgore aides complained to the conservative National Review that Bush had become a drag on their candidate.

You will remember the year 2002, when Bush’s last minute stumping moved Norm Coleman and the other close Republican candidates over the top. Times change. I must note, however — and this is a “for what it’s worth” — Virginia was the closest Southern state for the Democratic Kerry in 2004 (short of Florida)… more so than Arkansas… it is the one southern state that seems to be trending slightly in the Democrats’ direction (and thus, watch to see if outgoing Virginia governor Mark Warner wins the Democratic nomination in 2008).

There are some things worth groaing about with the election of Tim Kaine. Democrat Tim Kaine wrapped himself up tightly around the bible, and his Catholic faith. Though, to be fair, he used it to defend himself against attacks on his anti-Death Penalty stance (which he’s politcally moved himself to a position of “I personally stand against, but it’s the law so…) — which means its not a “Republican-Lite” situation or, worse, the creation of a “Sister Souljah”/ Triangulation moment (to embarrass those dastardly “Secularists”)… but that just means the warning signs in the air of a “Faith”-based left to compete against the Religious Right.

#4: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s package of measures to revive California appear to have suffered a knock-out blow in a bruising night at the polls for the Republican Party across the US.

With 90 per cent of votes counted at 1.25am (0930 GMT) today, all four ballot initiatives endorsed by the muscle-bound Republican “governator” had failed, two of them by wide margins.

I’m not going to say “Terminate Schwarzeneggar”, but…

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger showed up to his Brentwood neighborhood polling station today to cast his ballot in the special election — and was told he had already voted. […]

The governor, however, was allowed to use a regular ballot.

Har de Har Har.

#5: Maine Question #1 victorious. The vote reversed a trend that dates back to 1998, when voters narrowly rejected a gay rights law in a special election. Voters again opposed a gay rights law in a follow-up referendum two years later. […] The reason this is a good thing is because it annoys this guy: “I genuinely feel that we should not give anyone special rights,” said George Jablon of Augusta, who is retired. “We built the greatest nation in the world on biblical principles, and now we’ve abandoned that.”

#6: This is good news. Or maybe it’s not. I don’t know.

I’ve run out of steam. I see that an anti-tax measure went down to defeat in Washington, a defeat that paves the way to road pavement. That’s a good thing. Washington’s anti-smoking ban’s passage bugs me, and I can explain my mixed feelings on anti-smoking bans later, particularly if pressed. The “Reform Ohio” measures failed — perhaps it’s those dastardly Diebold Voting Machines? Jon Corzine defeated Doug Forrester in the New Jersey Senate race, which I guess moves us to one of the big 2006 Senate races (is this Jon Corzine’s selected replacement versus the popular New Jersey Republican?) And that “Creationist / Intelligent Designer School Board Ousted” story is meted out over news coming out of Kansas. (For that matter, the Maine gain for gays and lesbians is meted out with a defeat over gay marriage in Texas.)

Okay. Thus end it and, for the Voting Public, 2006 is right around the corner. There, we will get a clearer view of what direction the United States will take for the immediate future.

………………..
UPDATE, and a couple addenums: #1: On second thought, the Texas Marriage Ban was a good thing… its language bans marriage, which — heck — let’s go ahead and throw it out of the state. #2: The Republican spin on Kaine’s victory in Virginia is that it shows how out of touch the Democratic Party is — Kaine ran as a Conservative — late term abortion, gun control, gay marriage. Interestingly enough, the party that ran promotions proclaiming Kaine’s “Conservative Credentials” was The Republican Party, as a dirty trick to suppress the Democratic vote.

(I think I heard this one on Thom Hartmann, but I can’t be entirely sure.) After recently gaining power to his premiership, Kruschev is giving a speech before the politboro, promising the end of Stalin’s policies of mass-murder and promising a new Openness to Soviet affairs.

A lone voice yells out from the politboro “Yeah, but where were you when Stalin was in power?”

Kruschev gets angry, and demands “Who said that?” Silence. “Who Said that?” Silence. Pounding on the podium, “Who said that?!” Silence.

Kruschev then smiles. “You are right where I was when Stalin gained power.”
………………………….

II. Oddly, it was `parables’ of this sort which were lurking in my mind way back in 1980 when I predicted the fall of the then USSR…

Another one: Stalin, Kruschev, and Brehznev(sp?) are on a train, discussing the important matters of state that await them at their destination. The train comes to a stop.

“I will remedy this,” says Stalin, when nothing happens to get the train moving again, and proceeds to have the engineers shot.

But the train remains still.

“I will remedy this,” sas Kruschev, and has the engineers `rehabilitated’ (quite the accomplishment, if they were dead – replacement crew?).

But the train still doesn’t go anywhere.

At this point Brehznev reaches over and pulls the curtain down over the window, blocking the view. “Well, we can at least pretend we are moving,” he says as he leans back.

Their actions denoted each leaders style, yet none of their actions was enough to `get the train moving again’. To accomplish that goal would have required change of a sort they could not tolorate – yet very desperately needed all the same. Governments that last any length of time are ultimately rooted in social contracts between rulers and ruled. By the end of the 70’s the leadership of the then USSR was in a position of not being able to full fil its social contract obligations to its subjects without massive change of a sort they could not accept. Modernize (effective end of communist rule), go to very hardcore stalinism, or collapse into anarchy – those were the options I put forth in that long ago high school paper.

A heroine of the time…a not young woman by the name of Tatanya Zaslavanska (sp?). When the USSR’s problems started getting really acute in the early 1980’s, the Poliburo called her in to one of their meetings. She described, in great detail, a catastrophe. All but one of them mere gawked at her, not quite grasping what she was saying – they thought she was *predicting* a crisis they could possibly *avoid* were they clever enough or determined enough. Only one member of the Politburo figured out that she was not predicting a future event, but rather describing the (then) *present* situation. That fellow was Gorbachev.

Worth noting – one of the other Politburo members present at that meeting was a very, very nasty fellow named Romanov. From the few bits that were dropped about him after the fact, had he come out on top…well, very possibly most of the major cities of the northern hemisphere would now be glowing radioactive craters.

And one final soviet parable…

`We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us.’
……………………….

The USSR was already in a state of dire crisis before Reagan became president and reignited the arms race (Detente was the deal before then), let alone before Chernoble happened. It had actually been in extremely serious trouble since the early 70’s. However, it was in the interests of the leadership on both sides to conceal this: the leaders of the USSR could not do so without tossing themselves out of power, and far to many political and economic careers were being made in the US by the Cold War to give the issue serious consideration.

……………..

Thus enter The Committee on Present Danger, re-ignited during the Carter administration to defeat “Vietnam Syndrome”, and with Team B ( information here) supplying the “evidence” of the renewed Soviet threats:

In 1974, Albert Wohlstetter, a professor at the University of Chicago, accused the CIA of systematically underestimating Soviet missile deployment, and conservatives began a concerted attack on the CIA’s annual assessment of the Soviet threat. This assessment—the NIE—was an obvious target.

In 1976, when George H. W. Bush became the new director of central intelligence, the PFIAB lost no time in renewing its request for competitive threat assessments. Although his top analysts argued against such an undertaking, Bush checked with the White House, obtained an O.K., and by May 26 signed off on the experiment with the notation, “Let her fly!! O.K. G.B.”

I once said on this board (perhaps even on this blog I’m cutting and pasting this exchange to) that George Bush Sr had a marathon 14 year presidency. This is what I was referring to, tossed in the middle of the Carter administration when Carter relented to a massive military buildup… (from there, we move on to the “October Surprise” and then onto the 12 years of Reagan / Bush.)

There was this Phil Hendrie piece about a husband who was angry at his wife, because as his wife kept disrupting his Superbowl viewing (eagerly jotting down the stats of the Ravens blow-out of the Giants) by cavorting around with her friend in lingerie. With that in mind, I forgot about the second NFL sex scandal of the year (the first being Minnesota Viking’s Team Orgy Cruise):

Two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders were arrested at a bar where witnesses told police the women were having sex in a restroom stall, angering patrons waiting in line. […]

Thomas, who made the trip to Florida for Sunday’s game between the Panthers and Buccaneers, was released from jail on $500 bail before police learned she was not the person she claimed to be.

In other cheerleading news, apparently the standard homoerotic undercurrent common with jocks and jockery flowed through the locker room of the Cleveland Browns this week:

“We showed really good resolve. It started on the plane home (from Houston). Then we pumped each other up in practice. We had our skirts on. We were cheerleaders. That doesn’t happen everywhere. That’s why this is such an enjoyable struggle, if there is such a thing.” — Trent Dilfer.

This brings to mind bad Pep Rally bits I saw in high school, before I had the means (ie: Driver’s License) to escape those things.

You can be forgiven if you didn’t notice, but the British Royal Family recently took a tour of the United States, to considerably less fanfare than Princess Diana’s tour(s)… a fact that sparked the British to ponder American aversion to royalty:

America’s history as a republic makes it harder for them than we suppose to embrace our Royal Family with warmth, or even to feel much interest in them. Diana, Princess of Wales won hearts in America partly because she was, as her critics here complained, the antithesis of what most people expected a royal to be like.

That is not fair. This is the most testing royal tour of America since King George VI and Queen Elizabeth responded to President Roosevelt’s invitation in 1939, on the eve of war in Europe. I was fond of Diana, because we shared the dream of ridding the world of anti-personnel mines, so cruel to poor people living off the land; but I admire Camilla for her courage. This is a brave trip that she and Charles are undertaking. We should forget our prejudices and wish them well…

The truth is a bit more complicated. Americans hate royalty, but are we’re thrust with it nonetheless. Occasionally we’re given an opportunity to reject it, and when we do it’s rather liberating and can result in some curious results.

If I were to compile a list of the names of esteemed politicians — Governors, Representatives, Senators, Presidents — who are the offspring of former governors, representatives, senators, presidents… it would be a long list indeed. In 2000, the American people were tossed with George BUSH (son of… um… GEORGE BUSH, who was son of Prescott Bush, who was son of…) and Al Gore (son of… um… AL GORE!!!)… and that was part of why the campaign and election was so uninspired and insipid.

But then again… one of the reasons that Jesse Ventura won the Minnesota governorship (I suspect)… the Democratic primary had been a campaign that had been dubbed the “My Three Sons” campaign: Hubert H. “Skip” Humphrey III (son of … um… HUBERT freaking HUMPHREY!!!), Ted Mondale (at least Walter didn’t name him after himself), and Mike Freeman (not particularly famous outside Minnesota, but the son of a popular governor.) This is in deference to the two non-sons who were running — and who did better than one of the “three sons”, but nonetheless didn’t fit the narrative.

In my blog entry on “1986: Lyndon LaRouche’s Political Peak”, publishing an old article about how LaRouchites screwed up the Illinois Democratic party in 1986, I made a mental note of the gubernatorial candidate they screwed up: The Gubernatorial candidate that was stuck running with LaRouchites was Adlai Stevenson III, son of two-time failed Presidential candidate, Illinois governor, and namesake of that which we call the “Stevenson Moment”… ADLAI STEVENSON, who himself was the grandson of a former vice-president ADLAI freaking STEVENSON!!! My theory on this election was that Adlai Stevenson, circa 1986, was rejected by the public via the elevation of the LaRouchites. The people had had enough with Stevensons.

And so it goes… I was happy when Mary Kennedy Townsend lost her election in 2002. And I hope to gawd that we get out and then “Stay out” the Bushes.