THE RACE OF THE CENTURY:  KP GEORGE VERSUS KESHA ROGERS; Texas 22

NOT A LEMONADE STAND
I believe the top pic is illegal. Campaigning on government property —OOOh.  Hardball Politics, eh?

The Kesha Rogers campaign has been ROCKED TO THE BONES by the reposting of a campaign video onto the GOOGLE NEWS AGGREGATED media outlet “Burnt Orange” under the headline Kesha Rogers Calls for Execution of President in Campaign Video.  The point of contention comes in the dual use of the reference to Obama needing a dose of “pentothal of sodium” — which the Kesha Rogers campaign maintains is used in truth serum, and her detractors point out is “usually the first of three drugs administered during most lethal injections in the United States”.
The blog post has made its way to various outlets, most notably some sketchy spam blogs related to the popular music sensation Ke$ha, and the point of controversy has been picked up into a message emailed to local Democrats by  Fort Bend Democratic chair Stephen Brown,  Also found here.  And some additional comments here:  Getting further with the Democratic Grass-roots:
Gothmog:  I live in Fort Bend County and was at the County Executive Committee meeting when they drew for Ballots. Kesha is a nut case and scares me. I am a precinct chair and was happy to vote to support KP George against Kesha.
TBF:  I was a precinct chair in 2008 when I volunteered for the campaign. I usually just vote straight dem but now I have to pay attention so I don’t inadvertently vote for someone like this.

The Kesha Rogers campaign has posted on its campaign website and onto burnt orange, a response that reads, in part:   Any talk of assassinating the President is to be condemned and prosecuted, in my view, because it is morally reprehensible and would unleash a form of social chaos in this country from which it is doubtful we would ever recover.  
If you are not crazy but are simply malevolent, you betray yourself as a flack for the Democratic Party or the Obama campaign, engaged in the most despicable kind of dirty tricks against my campaign.  Kindly cease and desist.

A commenter at burnt orange,LSadun FIRED BACK: It’s hilarious to see you calling KT “crazy or malevolent”. Those are exactly the words I’d use to describe your video. Not the sodium pentathol line (which can be read either as referring to truth serum or to an execution drug), but the nastiness and absurdity of the entire video.      A couple of months ago I walked past some LaRouchites who were pushing literature at a (DC) subway station behind a poster of Obama with a Hitler mustache. What I said then applies equally well now You’ve got a First Amendment right to peddle your filth, but it’s still filth.
Hm. There is a parallel with the Australian CEC Glenn Isherwood Noose-waving incident that comes in play here.  Just what is a waving of a noose suppose to mean here?
The actual history of the Larouche Movement, and by extension the Kesha Rogers campaign, concerning the topic of the Assassination of Barack Obama would make for a fascinating study.  Suffice it to say, the Larouchies believe that the British Empire has it in the back-pocket as a possible tactic should their puppet (Obama) become expendable, and if a lone nutcase were to be the culprit, perhaps responding to a pronouncement along the lines of “Obama should back down or he might be hung“, that would just be proof of the British Emprie’s psychological manipulations.

Larouche and Obama, it should be noted, go way back:
From the latest Discussion with the Larouche Slate
http://larouchepac.com/node/22628
At about 21:00, after a few minutes of talking again, in particularly ego-maniacal fashion, about his past successes in forecasting and the SDI victory and his continual persecution by his enemies, you can hear Larouche utter the following: “The Obama administration has been running operations against me for years, especially since 1989.”  (Hey!  Somebody is paying attention!  Check this link out here.  Ala Laroucheplanet, I see.)

The message from Fort Bend Democratic chair Stephen Brown  (making the rounds, seen here at the “Brazoria County Democrats Page“) is deserving of a longer look.  The “restoration of an obscure 1933 banking standard” is, I believe, a worthwhile cause, though it’s hard to see it as at the complete expense of anything else.  I do not believe that their “main goal is to elect Members of Congress” (I don’t think they give a rats’ ass about the idea), but it may not be worth quibbling over.  But I do find this interesting:
A Rogers’ victory on May 29 is not only a distraction for those of us working hard to re-elect PresidentObama, but it also hurts our local, qualified candidates who need a surge in straight-ticket voting during the general election.   Everyone, from judicial candidates to state representatives, should be concerned about sharing the Democratic slate with Rogers.
Without saying it bluntly, it is an admission of a simple fact that Democrats in the district know, and it’s not worth pretending otherwise: a Republican Incumbent is going to win the race.  What we’re left with from there is an uncomfortably uninspiring pitch, but a true one, that hampering this ledger in the long slate of Democratic candidacies would harm candidacies above this position on the state level and below it on the local level.

So we have this note from the Fort Bend Star:  Please remember the name and vote for anyone but.  It is KP George.

And message from DU:  Seriously. All of the laDouche people are sick.  We have made it very clear to our delegates to stay away from them. Don’t engage. Don’t listen to them sing. They are like mermaids luring you into a life of a cult. These people are extremely strange and just f*&^ing sick bastards.   keep your distance. Treat them like a dog humping your leg and just let them finish.

In other Kesha Rogers campaign news:
KESHA ROGERS  PIGGY-BACKS ON KEITH JUDD‘s WEST VIRGINIA DEMOCRACTIC PRIMARY PERFORMANCE
Study the 2008 map of where Obama did better than Kerry in blue and McCain did  better than Bush in red, found here.  The red streak is where Obama will get some embarrassing Primary results.
From a campaign statement:  But this is our party, not theirs.  We represent the Democratic Party of Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon LaRouche, which they have abandoned, preferring instead the pro-Wall Street, anti-Constitutional policies of George W. Bush!  But Obama has not yet abolished elections — though he might want to, after having four in ten Democrats vote against him in the West Virginia primary — and has not yet taken away your right to vote.
Nay.  Editing job quickly:  We represent the Democratic Party of Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon LaRouche and Keith Judd.  There you go.
Simply put, this battle represents one between the Keith Judd / Lyndon Larouche / Alvin Greene Democrats and the Adlai Stevenson / Lloyd Bentsen / Barack Obama Democrats.  No, that last set is not my favorite set of Democrats, but it beats the first set!
(Toss Huh Kyung Young into the mix while you’re at it?)

STORY NUMBER TWO:  WHERE ARE YOU, SUMMER SHIELDS, 8th District CALIFORNIA?

Well this is mighty interesting.  Summer Shields has disappeared from the “Slate of Six” candidates.  And the Larouche Candidate roundtables now holds the 5 candidates, instead of 6.  What this means, we can only speculate:
Maybe future EIR issues, when reminiscing about the wonderful words of LaRouche on the occasion of (insert circa 2009-2011 Weekly Report stuff), will Photoshop Sky Shields out of old screencaps.
“And then both Cerretani and Hoefle laughed at LaRouche’s marvelous joke about chimpanzees. In this Weekly Report the three had discussed a great many things vital to humanity as we know it…” as the western portion of the table looks suspiciously empty.
Summer Shields, who won praise from radio host Michael Savage in his 2010 effort unseat Nancy Pelosi, only to win not a single vote due to not getting on the ballot — is joined in disappearing with Sky Shields, who once sat by an awkward joke about monkeys and was then seemingly given the reward of John Hoefel’s seat position.

 STORY NUMBER THREE:   DIANE SARE, NEW JERSEY 5… DEBATE TIME   As always, I’d be surprised if she won, but the Democrats in this district should proceed with weariness… consult Texas 22.
NEW DEBATE IN NEW JERSEY Following the abrupt withdrawal of Teaneck Deputy Mayor Adam Gussen from the Bergen Grassroots CD 5 Democratic debate with Jason Castle and La Rouche candidate Diane Sare two weeks ago, a new debate will be hosted by the Teaneck Municipal Democratic Committee on May 20 from 3 to 5 PM at the Rhoda Center in Teaneck. Marine veteran Jason Castle said, “I am happy that the voters of the district will have the opportunity to see all of the candidates present and contrast their platforms.”

Location: the Rodda Center, Room # MP1, 250 Colonial Ct, Teaneck, NJ.  Time: 3 PM to 5 PM
The Candidates attending will be Jason Castle, Adam Gussen, Diane Sare.
Sigh. To  Laura I. Zucker Teaneck Democratic Municipal Chair (or whoever) … feel free to host a debate between Castle and Gussen, sans Sare.  But if Sare has to be in the debate, be sure to delve along the lines of, like, these silly things regarding Themonuclear War.

In the other campaign slate news:for Massachusetts 4, Rachel Brown’s campaign website now features a sterling picture of John F Kennedy — pointing to a NAWAPA video.  She is running against a Kennedy.  Rachel Brown will also be marching in a parade on Sunday, May 20, 2012 – 1:00pm to 3:00pm.  Bill Roberts shows himself delivering the paperwork for Michigan 11.  And Dave Christie is all about NAWAPA:
Congressional Candidates Dave Christie (WA-9) and Bill Roberts (MI-11) sat down with NAWAPA XXI principal author Michael Kirsch to discuss the importance of Dave and Bill’s upcoming tour of crucial regions of the NAWAPA XXI project.
Thought of the day:  Canada pretty much vetoed the proposition, taking it as a wholesale grabbing of their natural resources.  In order to get this thing moving forward, the Canadian Larouche Team is going to have to pull their weight, and probably won’t be of any use to rail against Obama.  
Other campaign highlights:  Be not deceived. Obama’s full frontal attack on the Supreme Court is nothing less than the final phase of his “Hitler dictatorship.” Obama has now effectively adopted the “fuhrerprinzip” of the Nazi legal theorist, Carl Schmitt.

STORY NUMBER FOUR:  JACQUES CHEMINADE PROVES KING-MAKER FOR SOCIALIST PARTY CANDIDATE HOLLANDE
Yes.  We must ask this question  WHAT FAVORS DID CHEMINADE GET FOR THROWING HIS SUPPORT TO HOLLANDE?  Rallies weight to succeed Francois Hollande and these are bad moves undermine the morale of the outgoing president. Looking shameful opportunism after the debate, Jacques Cheminade – 84 969 votes in the first round, or 0.27% of the vote-just called to vote for the Socialist candidate. Nicolas Sarkozy never ceasing to repeat that the election will play out in a handkerchief, it would seem that these precious votes that will make the difference might have escaped him. The problem now is what was negotiated behind the scenes. In the right circles, we talk about thirty districts and a state secretariat to spatial planning and construction of a landing strip for alien spacecraft on the Campus Martius.
The cynicism of Francois Hollande decidedly left speechless. After yielding of the ecologists and promised the release of nuclear energy in less than six months then the Left Front in accepting the principle of collective ownership of means of production before 2014 and the opening of several gulags in Morbihan for employers CAC 40, the following become hostage to Mr. Cheminade and his guru the strange American Lyndon Larouche.
While we do not come to trial ill Nicolas Sarkozy, who would campaign under pressure from Marine Le Pen. Instead of looking at the mote in our brother’s eye, eh …

Making fun of a French car-Bike exchange?
So my little Cécile Duflot, to become minister of your desired lifestyle as you can go and get you brush your hair done by a wind turbine. This is 0.2% of Jacques Cheminade who saved the Corrézien of Rouen, and it is up to him to be blisters of the intergalactic transport minister, but not!

STORY NUMBER FIVE:  POST OFFICE TOUR and media round-up

Dateline Rapid City  Nestled at the bottom of this week’s Pennington County Commission agenda is an interesting item: “Request for support of congressional bills HCR107, HR1489 and the NAWAPA water project – LaRouche PAC.” […]
The movement of perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche is largely before my time (though they had a resurgence a few years back with protests against President Barack Obama’s health care reform proposals), but I know enough that the name jumped out immediately to me. […]
They want the commission to “urge Kristi Noem to endorse the following:” […]
That post-it note on the front page of the top document was put there by the commission assistant; LaRouche representative Ron Wieczorek, who lost the 1998 South Dakota Democratic Congressional primary, was the one who dropped off the initial packet of information. Wieczorek considered speaking at the public comment period at the commission’s last meeting; he or Fairchild will probably present the LaRouche information at Tuesday’s meeting:

Douglas Wiken Says:
April 30th, 2012 at 7:17 pm
Restoring the Glass-Stegall act is not a bad idea even if La Roche organization is for it and all the banks to big to fail are against it.
Thad Wasson Says:
April 30th, 2012 at 8:05 pm
Someone tell these LaRoche guys that congress hasn’t declared war since Bill Welsh and the Claremont Honkers got their first six man football championship.

(Historically, Canada sort of vetoed the NAWAPA Project, deeming it a wholesale assault on their natural resources.  The Larouche Movement has yet to address how they will get around the Canadian problem).

Dateline Wisconsin

“I know LaRouche,” one man shouted angrily, approaching Channon and Mathias, then walking away. “He’s a nut! He’s a nut!”

He declined to be identified, as did several young men who stopped and asked for information, either expressing support or sheer curiosity. Many others walked by indifferently or declined to be engaged in debate.

 Dateline Wayland Boston
As post office customers came and went, the demonstrators called to them to come to the table and learn more about the LaRouche PAC’s efforts. A few individuals did come to the table either to chat quietly or to vehemently disagree. A couple of people declined to come closer, but replied from a distance that they found the message “offensive.”
Wayland Police Chief Bob Irving said in an email that dispatch had received a few calls about the demonstration, but the demonstrations involved “some people exercising their right to free speech on a public sidewalk.”
“Should it become a hazard for traffic or create any other impediment to public safety,” Irving continued in his email, “we will work with the protesters/organizers to insure [sic] that their, and everyone else’s, rights and public safety are protected.”

Signs of Spring:
What his minions probably don’t realize, however, is that they’re actually doing the President a big fat favor. The way I see it, if they can get one – just one – frothing-at-the-mouth teabagger to write Lyndon in on the ballot in November, then that’s, like, one Google ad that Obama doesn’t have to run. And the thing is, these people are just dying for a legitimate excuse to not vote for Obama besides, well, you know. So if Obama’s Hitler, then that just makes everything perfectly clear and happy in their minds. […]
Carrier 8 (approaching like someone trying to act casual, points): You (inaudible) Obama/Hitler poster.
LaRouche Clone: Oh, yeah…well, I don’t know if you’re aware-
C8: Because that sure (inaudible) freaks.
LRC: What’s that?
C8: Yeah! (exeunt)

Letter to the Editor:  I had the same experience in downtown Los Altos. They yelled at me after I told them that they should be ashamed of themselves and should learn about history.

Dateline Michigan.  Alex Jones Interlude.  Alex Jones: The Nation’s Most Influential Larouchie
A flyer recently placed on parking meters in downtown Grand Rapids pictures President Barack Obama next to a Nazi swastika, threatening that a “Holocaust is coming.”
“Obama is a puppet,” reads the handout that decries the Affordable Care and the National Defense Authorization acts. “Hitler’s Nazi Germany has been revived in the U.S. and the target is Americans.” […]
Jones took the card off of two others, believing it was inappropriate to force an audience to see the printed rant that pairs Obama with an atrocity like the Holocaust.
“I certainly respect the right to an opinion, but this is a sick opinion,” said Jones. “People have a right to say what they want, print what they want and hand it out, but that gives me a chance to say no. It has gone too far when it’s put on public meters and to a captive audience without a choice.
“I know conservatives don’t like (Obama), but with the swastikas, it’s just too much for me.” […]
Readers of the card are referred to a website to sign a petition that espouses tea party ideas and urges people to support Ron Paul. The views there come from a woman who claims to live in Grand Rapids, but listings for a person by the same name were disconnected or answered by people who denied knowledge of the flyer and the petition. […]

More updates on this exciting story:  Doug Koopman, a political science professor at Calvin College, also believes the impact is minimal. The distribution was apparently limited to five parking spaces, and three of the cards were grabbed by a person who took offense to the literature.
And Kurt Nimmo at Alex Jones site retorts.
This becomes more interesting still, in light of a previous article from AIM contributor Cliff Kincaid against Larouche by way of a supposed connection with Alex Jones (one which has later manifested itself as Larouche has become a frequent guest and Jones’s sights have began occasionally referencing the organization as sources):
JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY ISSUES critical attack, seeming to WARN members against associating with this cult
From The John Birch Society:  Though often overlooked in the media and the world of politics, LaRouche also wields some influence, though just how much remains unclear. He controls, for instance, a vast network of entities ranging from publications and cultural initiatives to “intelligence”-gathering operations and even political parties on the other side of the Atlantic.  […]
But while LaRouche’s views on the monetary system sometimes resonate with advocates of sound money — at least initially — his statements hardly outline a plan to move toward a free market-based system. Like honest-money activists, LaRouche supports ending the privately owned Federal Reserve monopoly. He has also expressed support for a gold standard. […]
Aside from economic and monetary matters, many of LaRouche’s supporters are initially attracted to the movement by an array of positions that match their own. LaRouche is generally anti-war, for example. His opposition to radical United Nations “solutions” to address supposed “climate change” — formerly known as “global warming” and still based on largely discredited UN theories about humanity’s role in the process — have won him some supporters, too.
Cultural elements play a big part in his recruitment efforts as well, with LaRouche supporters organizing all manner of conferences and talks supposedly related to classical music or similar fields. According to people who have attended such events, however, they tend to end up being used to push LaRouche’s views and collect more followers.
Cue British Dentist joke at Ron Paul Forums.  (Note again, the youtube clip in support of Diane Sare that compares her favorably to Ron Paul as against her opponent being unfavorably Barack Obama.)

Executive Intelligence Review citation review
Canadian oligarch Maurice Strong is one of Vice President Al Gore, Jr.’s closest collaborators, one of Lyndon LaRouche, Jr.’s most long-standing oligarchical opponents, and a leading proponent of the policies of Malthusian zero growth that have propelled the AIDS pandemic forward.

US Sponsored Protest Movement in Malaysia.
Harley Schlanger on Dr. Deagle.
Douglas Degroot on Iran over Sudan.

Of course Lyndon LaRouche and his cult followers just do not seem to mind to support a fellow cult of personality which is what Omar al-Bashir has going around his government.  And why are these traitors appearing on Iranian state run television without any action?

Larouche is a paper philosopher king and that amounts to nothing.

The Unflattering Conmparison Game

David Lindsay alludes to Larouche in reference to Newt Gingrich.

 SHE BLINDED ME WITH SCIENCE
You might think that de Lange, Treadgold and Lyndon LaRouche make for strange bedfellows, but when you have nothing better to turn to, I suppose — as Steven Stills so memorably sang — you have to love the one you’re with. Rather a pity for all their credibility, what little might be left of it.

But he’ll have the last laugh when the LaRouchies petition to put him on the ballot after he’s dead (LaRouche lives! Like Frodo and Rabbi Schneersohn).

 Making fun of Sarah Palin and the “Liberal Establishment” that did her in.  With a Fletcher Hanks graphic on the sidebar.

HISTORICAL NOTES
1984 ballot access rulings Helping out Gary Johnson and the Libertarian Party.

Joel Bellman on the day Orson Welles died
The following week, as it turned out, based on some previous investigative reporting I had done, I was subpoenaed to testify as an expert witness in a civil lawsuit brought against the Lyndon LaRouche political cult. After almost two full days on the stand, getting pounded in cross-examination by the LaRouche attorney – an aggressive former prosecutor – I was exhausted and anxious to get back to my documentary.
As I was about to pull out of the parking lot, I snapped on KNX for a quick news update, only to hear: “Actor-director Orson Welles was found dead today in the Hollywood Hills home where he had recently been staying. Officials said he had suffered an apparent heart attack, and died alone. Welles, 70, was best known…”

The big news from yesterday’s slate of state primaries is Richard Lugar losing to Richard Mourdock.  This had been seen from a long time back, and all that one watched on Election Day was the size of the margin.  This result now sets up a race where the Republican would beat the Democrat by 30 points to one where the Republican will beat the Democrat by 15.   And while the positive signs with this one is that it heralds an age where incumbent politicos are forced to start be running around to make a perpetual case to their constituencies, and while I do have to wince and say “er… six terms is quite a while there, Lugar”… the implications for the present and future of this great nation can be seen when you shift through the subtext of Lugar’s two concession speeches.

The other big item for the big night of underwhelming returns.  This is worth noting.  At least I think so.  West Virginia’s Democratic Presidential Primary Results.  Results so far:

Barack Obama  70,348   57.57 percent
Keith Judd         51,840   42.43 percent

Famously, Obama got whupped by 44 percentage points by Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential primaries — just as everyone in the media was throwing away the facade and admitting that he was the certain nominee.   According to the campaign memoirs, when Obama looked at the campaign schedule and asked if he should go in, he was told flatly and bluntly “No.”  For the 2010 Senate race, Obama is sidelined and the Democratic operatives that came flying in was Bill Clinton (that sort of trick we saw through a swarth of the country — see also Kentucky).

It is one of those states I knew random no name person would win a hefty percentage of the vote against him.  And there it is.  Statistically we have a good perimeter to judge the pro-Hillary vote against the anti-Obama vote of 2008.

If we go ahead and discount a pro- Keith Judd contingency.

Who’s Keith Judd? He’s prisoner #11593-051, currently serving out a sentence for making threats at the University of New Mexico. In 2008, he caused a minor stir for making the Idaho primary ballot, confounding state officials, who thought they had rules preventing that sort of thing. Unbowed, he ran again this year, delivering FEC reports every quarter — although said reports are typically just essays containing his current worries about the Republic. From April

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58372028@N00/7162126418/in/photostream/

According to the inspiringly thorough VoteSmart, Judd’s criminal record is distracting us from an impressive resume. He’s credited as “Founder, World Peace Through Musical Communications Skills, 1963-present,” and “Member, Federation of Super Heroes, 1976-1982.”

It is worth comparing to previous results for the man:
4. Finished third in the 2008 Idaho Democratic primary with 734 votes, or 1.7 percent.
Might have done better, I suppose, if it weren’t for the fact that there aren’t any Democrats in Idaho (as there are in West Virginia.)

Notable too
8. Lists his religion as Rastafarian-Christian.
These are how things change.  It was highly notable when John F Kennedy won the West Virginia primary (through, um, corrupt vote buying, but never mind)  because it was a sign that America was ready to vote for a Catholic President.

So now we just do the delegate math.  Wikipedia has a handy chart for you to keep track… or they would, but it’s a very wobbly page in terms of its information.  An unfortunate belemish for wikipedia.

Randall Terry’s delegates were thrown off by a technicality.  John Wolfe Jr has one from doing well in Louisiana, though I haven’t been followed up on the attempt of his vanquished opponent in law-suiting it away by campaign improprieties.
Also notable, the near victory of Jim Rogers in Oklahoma — right up against but just short of the 15 percent threshold.  (I wish he had those 3 delegates that wikipedia says he has.)

I’ll continue to follow the exiting Democratic Primary race, which is now… right up there with how the Republican Primary has always been (ie: I knew and you knew Romney was the nominee, and we were just going through the motions there.)

Debunk Word History
During the 16th Congress (1819-1821) Felix Walker, a representative from western North Carolina whose district included Buncombe County, carried on with a dull speech in the face of protests by his colleagues. Walker later explained he had felt obligated “to make a speech for Buncombe.” Such a masterful symbol for empty talk could not be ignored by the speakers of the language, and Buncombe, spelled Bunkum in its first recorded appearance in 1828 and later shortened to bunk, became synonymous with claptrap. The response to all this bunk seems to have been delayed, for debunk is not recorded until 1923. […]  In 1923, William E Woodward, a writer with a reputation for giving the blunt facts about respected US institutions, coined the term debunk in a best-selling novel called Bunk.

There are, oddly enough, two books that were published last calendar year that seek to knee-cap the reputation of Grover Cleveland — to debunk his historic legacy as unscrupulous and honest with unimpeachable integrity.  To a Fault.  These qualities tend to lead one to over-look his faults and thus peg him at the top 33 percent of all those famed “Presidential Poll” lists I hanker back to every once in a while (for no good reason).  He was a man abandoned by his political party at the end of his presidency, and for awfully good reasons — his conservatism was getting more doctrinaire and annoying to the growing populist swelling masses.  But if Cleveland emerges as somewhat … dare I say… Nixonian, what does that leave him?

I’ve leafed through the books, though haven’t read them.  From what I can see, arguably Cleveland comes out okay with the book with the long sub-title — the one that calls him “The Supposedly Virtuous President”.  The scandal is apparently set in historical stone — not really up for debate.  It is a mar — he defamed the writer of a newspaper article which was, over – all highly gracious of him and praiseworthy but set up some embarrassing medical details he sought to cover up.  (And did until a decade after his death.)
Still, considering that Cleveland’s one calling card is “Integrity”, it works in the way of “Attack his strengths”.

The other one… well.  Part of Grover Cleveland’s legacy comes from having survived and even thrived after a sex scandal and illegitimate son came to light.  “Tell the truth”, he said, and thus the public didn’t care.  But this came off a price — the defamation of the wife’s character and sending her to an insane asylum.  Also an allegation of Rape, which had been sidelined for political expedencies.  Very serious offenses, I would say, easily brushed aside in the late nineteenth century when society would just deign them the province of “hysterical women-folk” — today makes Cleveland not the kind of guy you’d cite when charging off the pointlessness of a political sex scandal.

What is behind the new Grover Cleveland attack machine?  Connect the dots, follow the money, and get back to me… must be a shadowy group out there working to sour the public on Grover Cleveland… but to what end?  I myself am looking forward to seeing other basically forgotten presidents have their hatchet jobs take place.  Let’s start with the one I’ve kept up a hagiography of sorts here — Chester Arthur!

Reading the Portland Mercury’s endorsements…

After basically going over reasons the “Big 3” candidates stink, they roam through a three other candidates and nearly endorse Cameron Whitten — or a write in for a man they consider much maligned and under-appreciated, the lame-duck incumbent.  But then gives us this…

And Whitten, while funny and smart and passionate, isn’t quite ready to run city hall—as either a political boss or technocratic manager. The same thing goes for the other earnest candidates we invited: Bill Dant, college student Max Brumm, and Scott Fernandez. (But wouldn’t it be fun to see someone like Whitten in a debate against Dan Saltzman in 2014?)

Fair enough.  That makes sense.  Doesn’t like him for mayor.  Thinks he would make a good candidate for city council against Dan Saltzman — or at least a fun one.  Skip to the endorsement of Amanda Fritz in her race against Mary Nolan and we get —

And as for Nolan, if she can stand waiting two more years, we think she’d also make a good opponent for Saltzman.

If I’m getting this right, the Portland Mercury is eager to see a city council race where Dan Saltzman is challenged by Mary Nolan and Cameron Whitten.  They will then endorse Mary Nolan and enthuse that Cameron Whitten was a good gadfly.  Which is not a bad role, perhaps, except that one has perhaps 3 losing electoral bids before even a paper like the Portland Mercury brushes one aside completely and quits being “impressed”.  I suppose this puts him in the “Qualified Activist, not Politician” category, with political electoral campaigns as a tactic that brings diminishing returns.

There is something of a trend that follows through.
We’d also encourage another candidate in the race, Teressa Raiford, to stay involved at city hall. Raiford, an African American activist whose family has been personally touched by the pain of gang violence, spoke unflinchingly to both Fritz and Nolan about the realities of inequity in Portland. The city needs more voices like hers.

It would’ve been better if a well-funded rival had taken on Novick—forcing him to sharpen his pitch to voters. But two opponents do deserve special mention. Jeri Williams, a sex-trafficking survivor and a person of color from East Portland, brought real power to our discussion of issues like cop accountability and equity. And Mark White, a Powellhurst neighborhood activist and the former co-chair of the city’s defunct Charter Review Commission, effectively, naturally, highlighted the need for real charter reform in Portland.

Yeah, well…

One comment for the Mercury… this endorsement for Jeff Reardon in an Oregon state legislator should have made print:
We’re for anybody but Mike Schaufler,

Overall, from the comments:
THE MERCURY SHOULD JUST HAVE SAID, “FUCK IT” AND ENDORSED FRANK CASTANO FOR MAYOR. THAT WOULD AT LEAST HAVE MORE INTEGRITY THAN THIS PANSY-ASSED WAFFLING ON THE DECISION.

In some ways I just have to say… when you have 3 bad choices for mayor… and state as much in your endorsement issue… I would go for the larkey answer (one of the other candidates or a write-in) and then face up to the 2 bad choices question in November.

Political punditry is a thankless task… analyzing what you believe the public’s perception is…. and not wanting to simply state your own perception as being the public’s.  (A lot of people don’t even try to do that much.)

My guess is Obama needs to do the “I ordered Bin Laden’s Death!” thing — for one it puts to shame this element of parody in how the Republican / Conservative Movement portrays any Democratic Administration (And Romney floated it with a retort about “Even Carter wouldadunit”  … EVEN CARTER) —

which is how I always thought the matter would support his re-election politically.  A silly opposition narrative looks even sillier …

… but we may have such a bifrocated electorate that the sullying forth on Fox News, the sheer hypocrisy of the charges … ignoring the shamelessness during the Bush Administration from the same damned world of pundits and politicos … won’t enter into the equation.  We’re butting heads, everyone chooses to believe what they choose to believe, that’s all…

… But my guess is it needs to be along the lines of Point Number 3 for Obama 2012, and not Point Number 1 in order for “I Gots Obama” to be an effective pitch.  At Point 3 you’ll get a nod of “Ah.  Yes”.  At point 1 you’ll get “Yeah, whatsever.”

In other Obama 2012 news: his slogan “Forward” is getting blasted.  And so they march to Wikipedia.  Apparently Marxists used it in the past to demarcate the direction they claimed to be taking things.  Yeah, well.
The web publication of Glen Beck weighs in.
Time for Democrats to look around for any Republican at any point in the past who used the tepid and tedious slogan “Forward”.  Surely everybody remembers Warren Harding’s big “Forward” push.  (It was the name of a publication by Moderate Republicans in the 1960s / 1970s, I think… but the Moderate lost the party war.)

We’re getting through the “Ballots are out.  Vote” phase of the May Primary elections.  I would like to vacate my election endorsement of Cameron Whitten.  He’s running around the city naked with a billboard hanging over (Cameron Whitten for Mayor).  I guess you get the public’s attention somehow — but not the way to bring your attention.  Don’t know if he’ll do this on today’s May Day events — it’s a cloudy day with certain rain coming.

Still… the big 3 candidates stink, so I guess vote for him… or whomever.