An observation made by a wikipedia editor for the “Whig Party” on why the “Modern Whig Party” cannot be a part of this “Whig party” post.

All the Whigs are dead, as in all of them are buried in the ground or cremated or what-have-you. A recent party or parties that have used the name “Whig” can only be an homage at best, just like some (like Alvan Bovay) explained the choice of the name “Republican Party” for the GOP was an homage to name used in the purest days of the party of Jefferson, or so he explained or rationalized it. Anyone new or recent styling themselves with the name “Whig” should have their own new article if Wikipedia’s qualifications for addition are met, such as having third party sources write about them in the mass media, scholars and political scientists, etc.

And yet… when a member of the “Modern Whig Party” is elected to something, here’s what we get…

Philadelphians Elect First Whig Since 19th Century.
First Whig, Robert Bucholz, elected in Philadelphia in nearly 160 years .
Whigs Win For First Time In 150 Years.

Curious thing about the dates.

Philadelphia Voters Elect First Whig to Public Service Since 1854.
The Whigs Are Partying Like It’s 1856.

Given that the party was dead by 1856, it’s not good to party like 1856.

Well, at least this kicks Henry Clay back into the news, which is always a good thing.

Gotta love this explanation from the FBI as to why it was monitoring the website “antiwar dot com”.

On 12 September 2001, Garris received an email with the subject line “YOUR SITE IS GOING DOWN.” 

“Be warned assholes, ill be posting your site address to all the hack boards tonight, telling them about the little article at the moscowtimes and all. YOUR SITE IS HISTORY,” the unredacted parts of the email read. 

Concerned, Garris forwarded the threatening email to the FBI field office in San Francisco, where he lives. (It is contained in the disclosed FBI documents.) “It was a threat and I wanted to report it,” Garris said. 

But by 7 January 2002, someone in the field office characterized the message as “A THREAT BY GARRIS TO HACK FBI WEBSITE.” 

According to unredacted portions of the documents, that apparent mix-up was the first time antiwar.com came onto the FBI’s radar – a purview that would last at least six years.

How convenient?

Reminds me of something.

Other agents tracked down the company that made the VDC’s anti-war buttons and dropped in on the owner.  He revealed that the committee had ordered thousands of pins reading HOT DAMN!  VIETNAM DAY COMMITEE, displaying President Johnson’s picture upside down.  The buttons were of particular interest, according to an agent’s report, because “President Johnson has now become aware that his picture has been displayed in VDC demonstrations in an upside down manner.  He is provoked about this.”

An Upside down manner?

The Alabama Special Election.  Just read this q and a from the Guardian.

The Establishment Republican won.  After tapping down the “Establishment versus Tea Party” angle.  Bradley Byrne beat Dean Young by 52 to 48, and you can spot the difference between someone who spots Obama as being born in Hawaii and one who sputters before offering “Kenya”.

New Jersey Gubernatorial Election results.

K Kaplan   .6 percent
S Welzer    .4 percent
D Sare         .2 percent
W Araujo  .2 percent
H Schroeder . 1 percent
J Boss           . 1 percent

Roughly.  And the rounding is a little weird.  I’m mildly disappointed to see that the “NSA Did 911” candidate came in last.  But maybe people just didn’t like his name, and gravitated toward the multi-syllabic  “Arujo”.

New York City mayor election results.

A Carion  Independence                           .8 percent
A Gronowicz  Green                                    .5 percent
J Hidary  Liberal, Jobs & Education    .3 percent
J McMillan Rent Too High                        .2 percent
E Salgado        Socialist                               .2 percent
M Sanchez   Libertarian                             .2 percent
D Fein  Socialist Workers                          .1 percent
R Credico  Tax Wall Street                         .1 percent
M Greys     Freedom                                    .1 percent
C Person    Reform Party
J Melaragno  Affordable Tomorrow
S Sloan  War Veterans

McMillan, of course, gained some fame with his “Rent is too Damned High”, and while this is past his 15 minutes of fame it does account for his relatively good performance.  Oh, mercy.  I pay some mild attention to the returns for Randy Credico.  I am sort of bummed he didn’t do better — he lost out to the Socialist Workers candidate, for Pete’s sake!  But, for what it’s worth, this is a defeat — of sorts — for his champion of Webster Tarpley.

Northern Colorado mostly votes not to secede and form a 51th state.  Question:  to avoid animosity from Democrats through the nation (just 2 new Republican senators for Elizabeth Cheney to consider primarying), why not go join Wyoming instead?  Oh, wait.  That would destroy the rectangular state.  Damneditall!

Your final note from the Virginia Gubernatorial race.  Ron Paul stumping, to get the last Libertarian Party votes into the Republican column, and… well, it’s almost at Secession.

In Virginia, we await the election of a slimeball Democrat for governor against a slimeball Republican.  The cool thing, though, is his book of a few years’ back looks mildly interesting in the “Plunkitt of Tammany Hall” tradition — nuts and bolts of the slime of politics, take  it or leave it.  (A schtik the Rod Blagojevich tried to work with, but never quite pulled off — as he was hauled away.)

The problem with the extremist Republican running down ticket in the Lieutenant Governor’s race is… like, ticket splitting for two wings of the party, where one hurls epithets at the gays and the other hurls really loud epithets at the gays?  There is no straight guy (in the comedy parlance), so there is no comedy relief element with the lt governor candidate.

So we turn to the snoozer of the New Jersey race… and skip the major party candidates — lots of words will be spilled in the coming years about Chris Christie and he will be vetted now… and I’ll turn to… Others running for Governor.

William Araujo, Independent ^[10  [Note.  Peace and Freedom Party.]
Running mate: Maria Salamanca
Jeff Boss, Independent^[10]  [Note.  Wikipedia is incorrect.  This is the “NSA Did 9/11” line. ]
Running mate: Robert B. Thorne.  (Ah.  The “End the Fed” wing of the “NSA Did 9/11” party.  It’s all about balancing your ticket.)
Kenneth R. Kaplan, New Jersey Libertarian Party^[10]
Running mate: Brenda Bell
Diane W. Sare, Glass-Steagall Now
Running mate: Bruce Todd
Hank Schroeder, Independent^[10]
Running mate: Patricia Moschella
Steve Welzer, Green Party of New Jersey^[10]
Running mate: Patricia Alessandrini

All right.  What do I make of these candidates?  Hank Schroeder is for… I don’t know.  Schroeder is running under the slogans of “Economic Growth” or “Don’t Look Back“. You can never look back.  I saw a Deadhead sticker on a cadallic.

Others Running for Mayor of New York City.  (NEW YORK CITY???) (here abouts.)

Adolfo Carrion, Independence; Anthony Gronowicz, Green; Michael Sanchez, Libertarian; Dan Fein, Socialist Workers; Carl Person, Reform; Randy Credico, Tax Wall Street; Michael Dilger, Flourish Every Person; Jimmy McMillan, Rent is 2 Damn High; Joe Melaragno, Affordable Tomorrow; Jack Hidary, Jobs & Education; Mike Greys, Freedom; Erick Salgado, School Choice; Sam Sloan, War Veterans.

Here we see the Socialist Workers Party candidate spouting out radical slogans.  Interesting to note a few things.  One is the upholding of the Cuban Revolution.  Another is the no answer to “say something nice about Mayor Bloomberg”.  And the third is that he assumed Thompson would win the Democratic nomination — and called a Capitalist tool.  This is funny, considering that the Democrat who won is getting the “Red” treatment.

Of course, Dan Fein doesn’t agree.

And down in Alabama…
A tea party-aligned Republican said Saturday he would not support another term as speaker for John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), while his business-backed GOP opponent for Congress declined to say how he would vote.
Yeah.  And it’s all about Fiscal issues for the Tea Party backers.  California, or NEW YORK CITY???

And the election for mayor of Minneapolis, where one minor candidate grabbed some attention with… a couple of silly youtube ads… a more legitimate candidate tries getting in on the “how to nab a couple minutes of internet attention” by going all “1970s ‘Total Woman’ book” on us — seems an antiquated reference point to me, but … whatever.

“The first time I came here to Cape Town I almost got in a fight with the president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, because he was refusing to let Aids be treated,” Carter told the newspaper.
He said at the time, then-health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was standing with Mbeki.
“That’s the closest I’ve come to getting into a fist fight with a head of state”.

Jimmy Carter, ladies and gentlemen.

While I see the commentors there (hip to the politics in Africa) tend to the “Mbeki has it coming” tact, the commenters here (American politics as gossip) tend to the “I doubt it” line — Carter’s exaggerating his revulsion for effect.

This from a man who had so much trouble with a rabbit.