Walking out of Borders, in the corner of my eye where the Clearance Shelves by the exit/entrance door I saw that the LaRouchites had stashed a bunch of the latest Lyndon LaRouche pamphlet — suggested donation $5 — my experience tells me that you can’t grab it from someone who’s waving it at you without the demand of $5, which makes the LaRouchite different from the Scientologist, evangelical Christian, or “Jews for Jesus” pamphleters (but then again, they don’t hand out any literature more substantive than — say — a Jack T Chick tract), but ubiqutious enough to the point where if someone really wants one they’ll find it for free wherever the LaRouchites decided to stick it — in this case, in the front door of the Borders store. In the end, their need to evangelize meets up with their need to raise money.

After my double take, I walked over, grabbed the whole batch of LaRouche pamphlets, and without missing a beat, without looking over as I opened the door, dumped them in the garbage can that sits right outside of Borders.

As the race for the Texas Democratic Party Chair comes to a head, check out the LaRouchite ‘s answers to the questions. Leaving aside the sort of hazy sloganeering, I notice some turns of phrase that were obviously derived from LaRouche.

#1: We must do as Franklin Roosevelt did, reach out to those in the lower 80% of familty income brackets.

#2: I am prepared to take Texas “Out of the Bushes and into the Future.”, LaRouche derived from Jesse Jackson, but what are you going to do?

#3: These are democrats who served the nation well because they understood the importance of taking policy discussion outside of the inner sanctums of the Democratic party and out of the financial hands of scandrels like Feliz Rohaytan, into the hands of the people. Two for Tuesday! “inner sanctums” and “financial hands of scandrels” [SIC} like ahem “Feliz Rohaytan.

#1b: to the lower 80% of familty income brackets

#4: I have hit the pavement day in, and day out, as a leader of the most potent political force in the nation, the LaRouche Youth Movement, in the fight to bring down the infamous “Hammer” Tom Delay. […] I have been in the center of the fight to bring down Dick Cheney and the entire neocon appratus.

#5: Lakesha is a breath of fresh air from the same old baby boomer men that always end up running.

I’m a bit confused. When we “reach every Texan”, including the “lower 80% of familty income brackets” 80 percent? EIGHTY? Why not 85% or 75%?, are we going to exclude the baby boomers?

The most important election since the last election in the California 50th district, a few months ago, and the most important election until the next election in the California 50th district — this November, with at least two of the same candidates that took part in the last election a couple months ago and will be involved in the election this November.

I hate this procedure. It started when Democratic candidate Francine Busby failed to win 50 percent plus one in a special election to take over Duke Cunningham’s vacated seat, Duke Cunningham having been — um — summarily dismissed because… um… Duke Cunningham holds the title, quite literally, as the Most Corrupt Congressman in American History.

Her vote total was a perilous 44 percent, enough to suggest the very real possibility that her Republican opponents could easily swarm around and win the seat in June… and then, of course, win the seat again in November. Frankly, for the sake of the sanity of the good folks of the San Diego area, that election should have been it until November — nobody should have to endure three goddamned election contests pitting the same candidates in a seven month period. But it isnn’t it, and Busby’s 44 percent runs us all into the the Democratic Party’s 2006 electoral problem:

“The 2006 midterm elections are a political analyst’s nightmare. The national climate seems to portend big changes, yet race-by-race analyses reveal formidable odds against a Democratic takeover of either the House or the Senate,” veteran elections tracker Charlie Cook says in his latest National Journal election preview.

Several structural problems confront the Democrats in the House elections. Just three- to four-dozen House races out of 435 at stake are truly competitive. And among the 18 Republican seats that are open, only half are in districts where “Democrats have a remote chance of winning,” Mr. Cook says. Making matters worse, the Democrats were able to recruit only second- or third-tier challengers in many key districts where the Republicans looked vulnerable.

I have this gut feeling that the Democratic Party really needs to win Randall “Duke” Cunningham’s old seat tomorrow in order to have a credible claim on winning the House in November. The last “Most Important Election” before April’s primary election that brought us Bilbray versus Busby was the Ohio contest that brought Paul Hackett perilously close to winning a heavily Republican Ohio district. But again, he did not win the race. The Democrats are, at the moment basically brushing up against the wall, and if Busby doesn’t break through that wall tomorrow… well, the “Culture of Corruption” was crafted in the backyard of Republican Blood Red districts.

On the other hand, and here’s where this thread dangles out: should Busby win, watch out! Or so goes my theory of Electoral politics circa 2006.

I have not gotten around to reading the article in the Rolling Stones stating what I’ve brushed back and forth on: Was the 2004 election stolen? I tend to blur past a lot of things blog-wise, and I do note a couple “unimpressed” bloggers admist a sea of comments that skew toward, simply enough, “read this” — link, perhaps a couple of paragraphs snipped, followed by another comment of “Read This”. I meant to read it yesterday, but… for whatever reason… I hit some kind of wall, and fell asleep for hours and hours and hours. I did bumpkis yesterday.

Yes, I was there in 2004. (Whatever “there” means.) I remember early drippings that Kerry had won. None of which came to pass as the news covered the election returns — John Zogby’s reports of a Kerry victory — and a pretty sizeable one at that — gone to waste. And I still ponder the sudden disappearance of that reliable measurement: the Exit Poll. (Reliable since 1952, at least and in races without a candidate people aren’t embarrassed to say they voted for: Trafficant was famous for being underrepresented in Exit Polling). I heard the reports that Karen Hughes took Bush aside and told him that he had lost. I heard the reports that Greg Palast tried to give Kerry his dossier, and Kerry bellowed “I know the election was stolen”, and I know that Kerry headquarters immediately disowned this story once Palast put it out there.

But the voting made sense. This is a national election, however much you want to localize and “bring out the vote” in individual states, and trends that flow through Ohio are going to show themselves in how other states voted. And that is where I’ve always been stuck with Ohio.

My mind wanders back to 2002.

A senior official in US President George W Bush’s re-election campaign was sentenced to 10 months in prison on Wednesday for his role in suppressing votes in a key US Senate race, a scandal that Democrats charge may involve the White House.

James Tobin, 45, one of three Republican campaign operatives convicted in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in a 2002 election, was convicted in December of two telephone harassment charges.

The New Hampshire Senate race was replete with this particular dirty trick — a coordinated Republican attack to keep Democrats from voting. I do not remember if the margin of victory meant that this mattered, but this is the most affirmed effort of alleged “stealings” of 2002 Senate races — which goes on to Georgia where Diebold supposedly swung the election. For what it’s worth, if Max Cleland had gone on to win the election, he would not be that strange breed of Democratic Rock Star he is today.

The darkest and most conspiratorial offing is Minnesota. I guess I’d have to google “assasinate Wellstone” to bring this one up. The proprietors here are after larger things: this is not Cleland, Kerry, and Gore being deprived an office, where they’d sway a few dollars from one powerful interest to another. This is Wellstone, Allende, JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King Jr being assassinated because they were going to “ACT”…

For what it’s worth, The National Review — and Robert Novak — believe that Tim Johnson’s defeat of John Thune in the 2002 South Dakota race was stolen. This is because the votes from the Indian reservations were the last counted, and the classic model of stealing an election — the Mayor Daley model — is to keep your strongholds uncounted until the end, at which point you spring forward with however many votes you need to win the thing. But I smirk here, because the very next issue’s cover was “How Tribal Socialism is Destroying the American Indian”, and Robert Novak’s public comments on the matter have never been articulated beyond “But… but… Tim Johnson’s victory came from the Indian vote!”

“The cops here are nice here. The cops in Texas are mean. That’s because this is a Union state. Texas is Bush Country.

The people in Oregon aren’t open. They’re all in their own little world. Texas is different — I say ‘hey!’ They say ‘hey’. Here, everyone just avoids you, hands in pocket, shoulders shrugged.

I think I’m going to become a male stripper, or a Jigalo. My name will be ‘Rusty Bones’. ‘Hey! My name is ‘Rusty Bones’. Chick-a-lick-lick boom cha!

I’m an anarchist. But I’m not like these other anarchists. They all form into an Anarchist Army, and when you do that, somebody ends up at the head of the Anarchist Army, and who’s this leader? A goddamned dictator! Supposed anarchy. I’m not like them. I even voted for Bush. I voted for Bush because he’s the best chance of completely destroying this country. I wish I could vote for him again for a third term. Actually the person I want most is Reagan. Reagan. Now there’s a guy who can destroy a nation!!”

I would suggest that his professed views make him not an anarchist but instead nihilist.

I Know some DARK secrets of Murder about Mr. Pross
that is NOT B.S. and he is dangerous in a position
of POWER. Please respond to this e-mail
THIS IS REAL

Dark secrets of Murder involving Gordon Allen Pross? The rumours are true! (Huh?)

I’m having trouble conjuring up a corrupt and ruthless Organized Crime exercise with Gordon Allen Pross in the mix. But I’m informed that “this is real”, “this is not b.s.”, and “he is dangerous in a position of power.”

But his position of power looks to be receding. Or maybe it was diffused through his two high points: his allegiance to 25% of the fourth congressional district of Washington State to his allegiance to 2% of the entire state of Washington’s Republicans — as opposed to the two mid-points of 2% allegiance to the 4th district’s Washington Republicans.

Party Support of 1998 House Campaigns

PROSS, GORDON ALLEN
L 24 DEM C $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0
HASTINGS, RICHARD “DOC”
W 68 REP I $10,117 $0 $0 $0 $577,761 $450,596

So, dispensing with the Democratic Party and the Republican party, who and where does anybody know where Gordon Allen Pross buried the bodies? And, assuming the bodies are there for a political purpose, to what end are they buried?

I shrug now. I know nothing. I will not impugn the integrity of Gordon Allen Pross, who at this moment I assume is innocent of anything except that which was sort of famous for — Pross, who in his last campaign used his 1988 arrest for eluding police and the week in jail he spent in 1996 for assault to illustrate his fight against government. If you have evidence of anything beyond this, feel free to contact the authorities.

The famous fight between Arlen Specter and Russ Feingold of the Senate Judicial Committee discussing a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which went along these lines:

“I don’t need to be lectured by you. You are no more a protector of the Constitution than am I,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., shouted after Sen. Russ Feingold declared his opposition to the amendment , his affinity for the Constitution and his intention to leave the meeting.

“I’ve enjoyed your lecture, too, Mr. Chairman,” replied Feingold, D-Wis., who is considering a run for president in 2008. “See ya.”

… was all held in secret.

And yet we know all about what happened.

I suppose when such high drama conflict occurs, the news is just going to have to be leaked out. Probably by the staff of Russ Feingold, who makes the point about the Republicans Congress’s warped priorities. Arlen Specter’s point is simply how tedious he (and seemingly the 99 other Senators, give or take a Senator Byrd) of Russ Feingold’s branding himself as “Mr. Constitution” — in his case to put a finer point on it “Mr. Civil Liberties”.

What Arlen Specter is branding himself as these days I do not know.

The “next black GOP Congressman” ends his television assault ad, an assault against the attack by illegal immigrants and homosexuals and the foreign Jihadists and Jesse Jackson against bedrock Conservative American values, with a shot of the lily-white (and white bread) Beaver Cleaver in the back seat of the station wagon.

Because we want to return ourselves to those great 1950s. When illegal immigrants weren’t flooding the borders, homosexuals were safely tucked away in the closet, Islamic extremists were nowhere to be seen, and Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were not getting all uppity. And life was just swell. Especially for people of Vernon Robinson’s skin color in the South.

Because his opponent, Brad Miller of North Carolina, is all for illegal immigrants’ homosexuals’, Islamic Extremists’ and Jesse Jackson’s coordinated attack on bedrock Conservative American values.

“The aliens are here but they didn’t come in a spaceship, they came across our unguarded Mexican border by the millions. They’ve filled our criminal courtrooms and invaded our schools. They sponge off the American taxpayer by clogging our welfare lines and our hospital emergency rooms; they’ve even taken over the DMV. These aliens commit heinous crimes against us, like Maximiliano Esparza who raped a nun and strangled her with her own rosary.”

Maximiliano Esparaza. Raped a nun. Strangled her with her own rosary. These are the type of things that the Illegal immigrants are doing, don’t you see? From their battle-line bases, the DMV. They took over the DMV!! Their secret line of attack is to have us waiting in long lines, and while we’re occupied stuck in these long DMV lines, then they will take over because nobody’s there holding down the fort because we’re all waiting in line at the DMV!

Press 1 for English? NO! Vote Vernon Robinson for English.” Cue Spanish-speaker giving the “Hey Gringo! Vote for Vernon Robinson for Congress” in Spanish.

Maximiliano Esparaza. I remember him. But when I remember him as Willie Horton. The first story you see on his news page (a creature of candidates’ web sites mostly devoted to upbeat news items on the candidate) is Suspected Alien Shoots an American Citizen at a North Carolina Waffle House. The politics of Fear is in full effect.

Three ads.