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FOR STARTERS, CONSIDER THIS VIDEO OFF YOUTUBE (VIA BRAVE NEW FILMS) revealing a serious lapsus linguć on John McCain's part about five seconds into same:

As if that weren't good enough, consider this online ad (again, from YouTube) warning of the clear and present danger Sarah Palin poses were she to wind up in the Oval Office, especially considering her known and notorious associations to the weird and unwholesome:

Please share these with your friends--but do so responsibly, please.

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FIRST OFF, A SLIGHT CHANGE IN THE ROUTINE OF DOWNLOAD, made in response to a rather kind and constructive suggestion of a visitor just the other day:

Out of deference to such wanting to watch videos such as are displayed from time to time, I have revised things so that the music (in this instance, "The Lonely Surfer" by Jack Nitzsche) no longer starts playing automatically when you visit this page; in other words, you need to turn it on beforehand.

I hope this is to your approval; should you have other questions, feel free to offer your comments. And thanks to he who made the suggestion.

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MEANWHILE, IN THE VIDEO DEPARTMENT, BRAVE NEW FILMS HAS THIS REVEALING VIDEO showing just why John McCain deserves to be considered as The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang of Indecision 2008, posing as he does a clear and present danger to Our Antient and Pecuilar Soverignty and Soverign Identity that the "New World Order" will easily exploit in due course:

As if that video weren't revealing enough of how dangerously irresponsible a McCain Presidency would pose to Our Beloved Nation as much as Our Soverign Identity as a Pecuilar Among the Nations, consider this freshly-released report from Americans United for Change as reveals the clear and present dangers to social order that denationalising State Social Security poses--this even as McCain repeats his insistence on denationalisation as the Last and Only Hope for State Social Security in the face of recent share-market turbulence (via The Associated Press):

GREEN BAY, Wisc. (AP) -- Wall Street turmoil left John McCain scrambling to explain why the fundamentals of the U.S. economy remained strong. It also left him defending his support for privately investing Social Security money in the same markets that had tanked earlier in the week.

The Republican presidential nominee says all options must be considered to stave off insolvency for the government insurance and retirement program, and top McCain advisers say that includes so-called personal retirement accounts like those President Bush pushed in 2005 but abandoned in the face of congressional opposition.

The aides tried to soothe voters concerned about the bankruptcies, takeovers and bailouts on Wall Street by declaring McCain favored only the option of such accounts, just for younger workers, and most likely in a conservative investment vehicle such as bonds.

Private accounts for Social Security are "always an easier sell when the markets are going up instead of going down," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's. "I don't think this is a good week to sell that one politically, but you're looking at the long term here. You're investing your retirement funds for 20 or 30 years down the road."

A headline Friday in the Manchester, N.H., Union Leader, the leading paper in that battleground state, underscored the political challenge. "Pension funds for workers take a hit," read a story about a roughly $500 million decline the past three months in the state's public pension fund.

Democrat Barack Obama opposes the accounts and has warned they could be a precursor to eliminating the government entitlement program. Critics also note that one of McCain's top economic advisers is former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, a free-marketeer who pushed the idea of a privatized retirement system as far back as 1988.

Obama, a senator from Illinois, has suggested shoring up the program by imposing a Social Security tax of no more than 4 percent on earnings above $250,000; currently, only the first $102,000 in income is subject to the tax. Income in the "doughnut hole" between those figures would not be taxed.

McCain calls such a tax punitive and counterproductive. He also says refusing to discuss private accounts amounts to political posturing. He says his willingness to broach the subject is emblematic of his "Country First" campaign motto and harkens back to bipartisan discussions between President Reagan and Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill Jr. the last time the system was revamped in 1983.

"We have to have some straight talk for America. The Social Security system is going to go broke. It will not be there for present day men and women who are working. And we have to fix it and we have to do it in a bipartisan fashion," the Arizona senator said Wednesday during a town hall meeting with running mate Sarah Palin in Grand Rapids, Mich.

He added: "We have to realize that the worst thing we can do is continue to allow these unfunded debts to mount, and to pass on to another generation of Americans a burden that we've imposed on them."

McCain aides bristle at talk of "privatizing" the Social Security system.

"He's not ever talked about outsourcing Social Security into the private sector," senior adviser Steve Schmidt told reporters Thursday. "What people talk about with regard to personal accounts is giving the American people an ability to have a greater return on an investment - it could be bond funds, for example."

Wyss, the Standard & Poor's economist, said the concept of supplemental private accounts is valid, but there are so many variables in constructing them it makes discussion difficult. He also warns that it's too late to make changes for the Baby Boom generation, which has begun retiring. That is reducing the number of workers paying into the system at the same time there is an increase in benefits being paid out.

By about 2020, more people will be drawing on the system than will be paying into it, and the government projects Social Security could be insolvent around 2040. Those projections change slightly each year.

"I think it's a good idea, but again, it doesn't solve the immediate problem," said Wyss. "And you also have to make sure you maintain an adequate safety net because you don't want people eating cat food in retirement."

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MEANWHILE, WHEN IT COMES TO TARGETED JOBS-TRAINING AND ASSISTANCE SCHEMES SERVING SUCH WITH SPECIAL PROBLEMS precluding their being able to find work by way of traditional channels (among them Job Corps, School to Work, Vocational Rehabilitation, Displaced Worker Retraining and Veterans' Readjustment), expect the imminent socioeconomic meltdown to mean that such programmes are unlikely to have real work available (and, in the process, limited or no pay in the process, what with sheltered workshops, for one, traditionally using a piecework-linked pay scale).

And, more than likely, the time having to be filled in the wrong sort of way, as if having to justify their "guaranteed" subsidy and grant allowances with activities inconsistent or otherwise incompatible with their stated mission of providing jobs and career training and placement assistance to such having special requirements and needs vis-a-vis the jobs market--all because the contract and subcontract work they rely on is unavailable or otherwise severely limited in light of market conditions.

Especially dangerous: The prospect of lectures heavy on racist, anti-Semitic or otherwise obscene rants, bromides and screeds which risk causing emotional harm, suggesting where clients thereof should consider themselves part of a New Order which will "graciously and of its own free will" say No to "helpless dependency" on State welfare and Social Security in favour of a Renewed Healthy Respect for Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life.

And embrace such without question or reservation as part of a New Order based on a "pure" free-market capitalistic model and paradigm to be looked upon as Great White Father of the Disenfranchised and Helpless Thanks to State Welfare (cf. North Korean propaganda depictions of "Eternal Leader" Kim Il Sung and "Great Leader" Kim Jong Il in supposedly hagiographic terms, notwithstanding their being in a sheer state of socioeconomic collapse already).

Which is something that the especially vulnerable and marginalised don't need, especially when seeking to exploit the limited and limiting availability of contract or subcontract work available to such "make-work" programmes and their being all the more vulnerable to outside suggestions likely tending to emotional harm. Harm which, in the end, may only make them all the more unsuitable for employment.

FOX PROLEFEED, FOR ALL OF ITS NOTORIOUS PANDERING TO RACIST, NATIVIST, JINGOIST OR OTHERWISE IGNORANT FEELINGS among its Target Audience of the Great Unwashed resident, by and large, @ the Park and Flush Trailer Park, must have this clandestine (yet dangerous) desire they hesitate to acknowledge openly:

Videlicet, their comments translating into Direct Action.

Especially such which manifests itself in Extreme Ultraviolence, even more so if death or serious injury ensues among such National Minority targets (including the disabled, such deemed "chronic and habitual" welfare cases, the homeless and the epicene) or substantial property damage ensues from the likes of arson, firebombing or gas explosion of deliberate origin.

Including all manner of witch-hunts and other specimens of mass hysteria among Fox Prolefeed's minions of the "right-thinking home folks" they claim to appeal to for news and information, preferably including torchlight marches featuring the Nazi swastika flag and/or the apartheid South African tricolour and the crowds singing the filthy, racist ballads of their fathers as well as the Horst Wessel and "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika" in rather loud voices that, under normal circumstances, would attract police suspicions for Loud Noise.

BUT:

Just in case the police start asking questions, Fox Prolefeed would likely be implicated by the ringleaders of such excesses of white trash debauchery palmed off as "patriot love," with Fox Prolefeed themselves having to find ways to avoid scandal "to protect our good name and reputation."

Especially if it happens that Fox Prolefeed is named as an Unindicted Co-Conspirator, so to speak, nonetheless prompting the courts to issue summonses against such reporters @ Fox Prolefeed whose remarks ignited such "spontaneous demonstrations of True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command," as would be so reported in a rather gleefully-suspicious stylee. And, for good measure, one Keith Rupert Murdoch, the majordomo behind Fox Prolefeed.

And, as it turns out, the rather-ironically-named British Sunday tabloid News of the World, whose "For Sarah" campaign for tougher laws against Notorious Pedophiles a few years back led to a series of vigilante marches and other Misadventures in Mass Hysteria rivalled only by the darkest excesses of McCarthyism in the 1950's between Land's End and John O'Groats.

In any case, Fox Prolefeed would love nothing better than to inspire exercises in "healthy patriot love" up there with the likes of Junior Anti-Sex League meetings which sought to eliminate carnal desire for the sake of Developing Ingsoc and Showing Healthy Patriot Love for Big Brother in His Kindness and Mercy. Only to be forced to play coward in case of implication by the ringleaders, resulting in those involved all along likely being "reassigned" to avoid giving potentially embarrassing evidence.

And yet go to great pains to avoid dropping any hints of the preceding being their real desideratum.

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SO MUCH FOR GOP VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE SARAH PALIN'S SUGGESTION THAT DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BARACK OBAMA is "palling with terrorists" to the extent of letting slip his lack of True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command--as if suggesting that National Minorities were incapable of showing said Patriot Love cf. White European-American Christians: Can you say "projection," boys and girls?

Especially considering what Keith Olbermann had to say the other night, revealing the nature and extent of Palin's associations with the weird and unwholesome, notably the so-called "Alaskan Independence Party" and her ties with a Kenyan witch-hunter notorious for provoking hysteria in a Nairobi suburb a few years back ... and these Amazing Revelations Worth Exposing to the Nation from Right Wing Watch:

Since Sarah Palin decided to go after Barack Obama for his essentially non-existent ties to William Ayers, maybe now is the time to remind everyone about the McCain campaign’s ties to Rob Schenck, who has a long history of militant anti-abortion activism, fines, arrests, and run-ins with President Bill Clinton.

Schenck, who was meeting privately with McCain as far back as early last year, received a VIP pass to the McCain campaign event where he named Palin as his running mate and even got a chance to speak with both of them personally.  And last month, when he hosted a forum, the Obama campaign dropped out at the last minute rather than legitimize Schenck and his views, but senior campaign McCain advisor Robert Heckman still attended the event, where other speakers compared Barack Obama to Hitler.  

Schenck first came to prominence back in the 1990s when, along with his twin brother Paul, he began his career as a militant anti-abortion activist, for which he was repeatedly arrested, often targeting Dr. Barnett Slepian who was assassinated by an anti-abortion activist in 1998 by a man who, according to another pro-life activist, was probably known to both Schenck and his brother.

On top of that, as we’ve pointed out before, Schenck also has a history of harassing Democratic politicians, especially former President Bill Clinton:

3 Charged in Scheme to Thrust Fetus at Clinton
14 July 1992
The Associated Press

Three anti-abortion supporters were arrested Tuesday after thrusting a container with a 19-week-old fetus at presidential candidate Bill Clinton.

"By the grace of God, Bill Clinton has been brought face to face with a victim of choice," Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry said outside Clinton's headquarters at the Hotel Inter-Continental.

Clinton appeared unfazed by the incident.

"They tried to hand it to me but I wouldn't take it," he said. "It was no big deal."

The incident occurred as Clinton left the hotel around 8:30 a.m. for his morning jog.

Harley David Belew, 37, of Binghamton; the Rev. Robert Schenck, 34, of Tonawanda; and the Rev. Joseph Forman, 30, of Marietta, Ga., were charged with three health code violations: transporting a fetus into New York, removal of human remains from the place of death and improper disposal of a fetus.

Minister's advice to Clinton draws Secret Service scrutiny
Pro-lifer cited God's judgment
26 December 1996
The Washington Times

The Rev. Robert Schenck, a pro-life activist, gave President Clinton some Christmas Eve advice as their paths crossed at the Washington Cathedral.

"God will hold you to account, Mr. President," Mr. Schenck said he told Mr. Clinton as he walked by to receive Communion.

 …

Mr. Schenck, general secretary of the theologically conservative National Clergy Council, said he was inspired to remind the president of God's judgment on his pro-choice policies when he realized he would walk past him in a Communion line.

"At that moment I said, `Here we are,'" Mr. Schenck said in a telephone interview yesterday. "It was a rare moment when you are this close to the president. As I got closer to him I thought, No. 1, it had to be brief."

Mr. Schenck said his comment drew on a verse in Hebrews 14. "I said it respectfully, in what I would call my pastoral voice."

Mr. Schenck is no stranger to the limelight - nor to President Clinton. In 1992, he led Operation Rescue's protest of Buffalo abortion clinics and participated in handing Mr. Clinton a dead fetus.

If Palin and McCain think that Obama needs to explain his vague ties to Ayers from years ago, maybe now would be a good time for them to explain why they have palling around with Schenck several times in just the last few weeks.

With that in mind, perhaps it was time to start asking the McCain/Palin campaign about their interconnexions to the likes of such weird and unwholesome types with police records for "anti-abortion activism" tending to the vile and disgusting--especially in light of their once again playing the "swift boat" card to save what shred of public confidence and trust they still have into Indecision 2008 among especially Joe Sixpack types facing even further risk and danger of socioeconomic dislocation under continued and continuing GOP dominion.

Dislocation which the "New World Order" can easily exploit.

The prospect of which the public should consider as all the more likely, like it or no. Even those who call themselves "patriots" to conceal their intemperate, sexually-deviant and otherwise dangerous ways.

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COME TO THINK OF IT, one question as ought be asked of John McCain @ tonight's Town Hall-stylee Presidential Debate (which appears unlikely) is just how long the esteemed Senator has been a confirmed and practicing monogomous heterosexual.

Especially considering whispers in Certain Circles suggesting that, back in McCain's days in Naval Aviation, he may have had affairs with multiple women, including, perhaps, those of the old demi-monde, before settling down to a "normal" married life (cf. the story line on the radio sitcom Life With Luigi, where Pasquale was forever suggesting to Luigi that he marry Pasquale's daughter Rosa for once and have a family just so he can settle down to a sense of normalcy).

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ANYHOW ... BEFORE LEAVING FROM MY MORNING ROUNDS @ THE MOTEL HERE IN WINONA, MAKING COFFEE AND KEEPING THE WATCH FOR THE MOST PART, Your Correspondent took it upon himself to get the annual flu shot @ the pharmacy section of the Hy-Vee supermarket.

Which, come to think of it, would be a good thing. Especially if you are in one of these subpopulations:

• All children from six months on, especially if they are on long-term aspirin therapy (in case of flu, there is the risk of contracting the rare but fatal Reye's Syndrome)
• Anyone 50 years of age or older
• Women who are or likely to become pregnant during flu season
• Those with prolonged health problems, especially heart, lung, kidney, liver or metabolic system disorders, asthma and Rare Blood Diseases
• Those with weakened immune systems because of HIV/AIDS, or treatments with steroids or retrovirals to deal with the side effects of chemotherapy
• Those with certain neuromuscular disorders
• Those resident in, or working in, hospitals, nursing homes or clinics, or otherwise caring for younger children or the elderly
• Those in essential positions, such as firemen, ambulance crews, law-enforcement agents and suchlike
• Those living in close quarters as are especially vunerable to large-scale flu outbreaks, including university dormitories, penal facilities and rescue missions
• Those in high-risk groups planning travel to the Southern Hemisphere between April and September, inclusive, or into the tropics or otherwise with organised tour groups @ any time of year

On the other hand, if you're allergic to eggs or have sensitivity to thimerosal (a mercury-based preservative commonly used in flu vaccines), or have had past bad reactions to vaccines, talk to your doctor beforehand. (There may be thimerosal-free vaccine available; just be sure to ask.)

The vaccine, and its administration, are fully covered by Medicare and some private health-insurance plans; otherwise, such will set you back around $20.

In any case, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," as the proverb hath it. Which can be said for the flu shot.

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SO MUCH FOR IGNORING THE LESSONS AND WARNINGS OF HISTORY @ OUR PERIL: The Barack Obama Presidential campaign has prepared the following video documentary to remind us all of the interconnexions vis-a-vis John McCain and Charles Keating of the now-defunct American Savings and Loan--a warning to Our Generation as much as posterity that a McCain/Palin ticket cannot be trusted without risking the "New World Order" compromising Our Traditional Soverignty and Soverign Identity as a Pecuilar Among the Nations:

If this won't drive McCain into Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang mode galore--especially with the Seven Dirty Words in abundance--then what will?

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STAYING WITH INDECISION 2008 FOR THE NONCE, Your Correspondent would like to bring to your attention the following editorial from the Jewish weekly Forward as comments on the recent stunt by the so-called "Alliance Defence Fund" as sought to create test cases challenging Tax Code proscriptions on churches and religious organisations making explicit endorsement of the McCain/Palin ticket pro Deo, patria et familia (or so they hope):

It is tempting to shrug off the campaign known as Pulpit Freedom Sunday as a futile attempt to change settled constitutional law. After all, among the thousands upon thousands of preachers who took to the pulpit across America on the final Sunday of September—and thousands of other clergy who addressed their congregations at other times during that weekend—only 31 pastors chose to knowingly defy federal law and instruct their flock to vote a certain way come November. That final number is fewer than the 50 first recruited last spring by the Alliance Defense Fund in its attempt to overturn a 54-year-old ban on political endorsements by tax-exempt houses of worship. And it's far fewer than the 217 clergy who signed a public pledge from the Interfaith Alliance agreeing not to endorse a candidate on behalf of their churches, mosques and synagogues.

Plus, it's a safe bet that those 31 pastors preached to the choir. Many clergy, especially those who lead large, influential and therefore diverse congregations, are understandably hesitant to color their pastoral mission with the reds and blues of a political campaign.

Still, these few and far-flung protesting pastors poked a finger in the eye of the Internal Revenue Service and American law, and that should not be ignored. According to news reports of some of the sermons, there was no mistaking their intentions (or their political leanings). "As Christians, it's clear we should vote for John McCain," the Rev. Francis Pultro told 45 people in Philadelphia from the stage of Calvary Chapel on the King's Highway. "We must vote against the candidacy of Senator Barack Obama. Amen," was how the Rev. Richard Bacon closed his sermon at Faith Presbyterian Church in Rowlett, Texas.

These defiant words were wrapped in the rhetoric of free speech, but that's nonsense. The law is not stopping Pultro and Bacon from expressing their beliefs on the worthiness of presidential candidates in private or in public—only from the pulpit of an institution that enjoys direct support from American taxpayers and, in return, agrees to remain neutral in political races.

Nor is the traditional role of the clergy, to speak in a prophetic voice against the social ills and injustices of the day—be they war, segregation, child labor or the genocide in Darfur—compromised by this speech restriction, contrary to what the ADF argues. In fact, there is more than 200 years' worth of evidence that America's novel attempt to free religion from government and government from religion has enabled both to carry on their important work.

If those 31 pastors want to continue to use the power of their pulpits to directly influence the ongoing presidential election—or any election, for that matter—then their churches should forgo their tax exemptions and disentangle themselves completely from the limitations that come with such a privilege. If not, the IRS should appropriately pursue those who violate the letter of the law and the spirit that has maintained a healthy distance between worship on Sunday and voting on Tuesday.

(Too, you also have the potential for many of these same churches who went for this stunt to attract supporters from the ranks of the weird and unwholesome coming to their defence--especially so the kind claiming that America is, was and will forever be a White European-American Christian Nation ... especially so if "Christian" is interpreted in a Primitive sense such as the Calvinist stylee.) 

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NO DOUBT ABOUT IT: THE ELMER GANTRY INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED RELIGIOPOLITICAL THOUGHT CAN BE COUNTED ON AS GOOD AND LOYAL DROOGS for the McCain/Palin ticket in Indecision 2008, no doubt enough to bring up the likelihood of the Religiopolitical Right hanging with the weird and unwholesome.

Case in point: This item from Right Wing Watch about the rather rambling comments of late from Dr. James "Focus on the Family" Dobson:

Today, James Dobson dedicated his radio program to reading out, word for word, Focus on the Family's October newsletter [PDF] in which he explains why he is now supporting the McCain-Palin ticket, though he continues to insist that he is not offering an endorsement:

It's probably obvious which of the two major party candidates' views are most palatable to those of us who embrace a pro-life, pro-family worldview. While I will not endorse either candidate this year, I can say that I am now supportive of Senator John McCain and his bid for the presidency.… In recent weeks, I have received some measure of criticism from those who feel that my "change of heart" toward John McCain is unwarranted. I understand those views and concede that the Senator continues to embrace positions that concern me. I don't apologize, however, for reevaluating our options in this election year.

Dobson then lays out the four developments that caused him to change his mind: the Saddleback Forum; the GOP platform, Obama's "liberal views," and McCain's decision to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate: 

Here is a woman who is a deeply committed Christian, and who is pro-life not only with regard to her policies, but in her personal life. She and her husband welcomed their latest child, Trig, into the world even though he was diagnosed with Down syndrome while still in the womb. Approximately 90 percent of babies with Down syndrome are aborted, but Governor Palin carried her precious child to term and now loves and cares for him despite the challenges associated with a special needs child. Similarly, her teenage daughter, Bristol, who became pregnant out of wedlock, could have bowed to cultural pressure to seek an abortion. Instead, she and the father plan to get married and raise their child together. Governor Palin has been married for 20 years, and by all accounts, she is a portrait of Christian motherhood and womanhood.

Of serious concern to Dobson is the possibility that Democrats in the next Congress will unleash a "wave of anti-family, pro-homosexual legislation," such as ENDA, which are direct threats to Christians: 

Large portions of the agenda promoted by homosexual activists will also be enacted. The implications for a federal hate crimes law are clear. People speaking against homosexuality have already been prosecuted under hate crimes laws both in the United States and abroad. If a federal hate crimes law passes, there will be little to prevent the government from endeavoring to control and curtail religious speech, especially from the pulpit. It is entirely possible that a pastor could be charged with inducing a federal hate crime simply by preaching from one of the many biblical passages that address homosexuality.

Dobson is likewise motivated by the importance of determining the future of the Supreme Court:

The importance of [electing a pro-family, pro-life President] cannot be overstated. Between 2009 and 2012, there will likely be two or more opportunities for the President to nominate new justices to the Supreme Court. Some court watchers say there could be as many as four resignations. That alone should give us serious pause as we consider for whom to cast our votes. In the months ahead, the Supreme Court will likely hand down rulings that will impact America for generations to come. We need a President who will nominate conservative, strict-constructionist judges to the Court. If that doesn't happen, the highest court in the land could become stacked—even more than it already is—with justices who will endeavor to legislate from the bench and impose a liberal agenda on the nation. It will likely affect the definition of marriage, religious freedom, and the protection (or lack thereof) of life in the womb.

As [Kyle] noted last year when Dobson was threatening to bolt the GOP if Rudy Giuliani secured the nomination, petulant threats from him are becoming an election year tradition … and just like with every other threat he's issued to the party, when crunch time comes, Dobson eventually falls back in line.

Or is it that the Religiopolitical Right's lackeys will be more than likely voting for the Constitution Party's candidate, Chuck Baldwin?

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MEANWHILE, YOU MAY WANT TO BE ON THE WATCH FOR "SPAM" E-MAIL FROM COMPANIES CLAIMING TO OFFER UNSECURED BANK CREDIT CARDS in spite of past credit problems or no established credit, yet without naming specific bankers ... and all the while claiming that "approval is guaranteed."

I say this in light of anecdotal reports emerging in the wake of the imminence of socioeconomic collapse suggesting where leading bankers were imposing tighter credit-quality standards for VISA and MasterCard issues stateside ... and could refer many such with problem credit to offshore issuers with (theoretically) looser credit-acceptance standards.

And for a price, besides.

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SOMETHING NEW FOR TO MOCK JOHN McCAIN WITH: Revelations @ RawStory.com connecting John McCain to a supposedly anti-Communist organisation with known connexions themselves to racists, anti-Semites and white supremacists--even if it was some 30 years previous.

As if that weren't enough, Gwen Ifill, who moderated the Vice-Presidential Debate last Thursday, may have been set up by the Zealots and True Believers of Neo-Conservatism, as RawStory.com explains:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had announced during Thursday's debate that she "may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear."

In other words, she "blew me off I think is the technical term," moderator Gwen Ifill of PBS said Sunday.

Palin avoided answering questions 10 times by being non-specific or simply pivoting away to another issue, Politico reported.

Ifill explained to NBC's Tom Brokaw how the event had been presented beforehand compared to what actually happened on stage.

She said that if the candidates decide they are not going to debate one another, "there is very little a moderator can do other than say, 'No, no, no, listen, please answer the question."

Furthermore, Pat "700 Club" Robertson has posted this letter to his Good and Loyal Droogs warning of an election-tilting "October Surprise" in form of "pre-emptive" Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, notwithstanding the clear and present likelihood of biased, manipulated or otherwise unbalanced coverage (for which historical precedent exists). (Too, there is also the possibility that the claims Robertson makes may have been aided by Al Cohol more so than a sincere belief in the Christus. Or, for that matter, certain hallucinogenic substances.

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PROOF OF THE MAXIM THAT "BAD LEADERS ARE ELECTED BY GOOD PEOPLE WHO DON'T VOTE:" Your Correspondent hath it that the McCain/Palin ticket, in their desperation to protect what remains of their dignity ahead of Indecision 2008 in the face of faltering public confidence and trust in their articles of faith, is dredging up (again) all manner of crude and pathetic smear stories supposedly connecting the dots vis-a-vis Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama and Weather Underground founder-turned-community activist William Ayers, knowing consciously and yet unconsciously that the stories have been discredited and neglect to mention clear facts:

1. That the Weather Underground's attacks occured while Obama was still in his childhood;
2. That the Federal case against Ayers was subsequently dismissed;
3. That Mr. Ayers has since renounced terrorism and violence; and
4. That the interrelationship between Ayers and Obama is one of shared support for community activism.

Not to mention the fact of a McCain/Palin tickt only risking further clear damage socioeconomic before any viable recovery can ensue (if that), considering their belief in the discredited articles of faith suggesting that deregulation, contracting out of non-essential services and keeping taxes all the lower without regard to the National Debt "just to create jobs" as are probably vapourware ... which can only mean further likelihood for the "New World Order" to exploit the American situation to hasten their desire for One-World Government based on Socialist Beliefs all the sooner.

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MEANWHILE, WHEN IT COMES TO FURTHER EFFORTS TO DISCREDIT THE OBAMA/BIDEN TICKET, AND TRY TO EXCUSE SAME AS BEING FOR G-D AND COUNTRY, Snopes.com wishes to call to your attention Urban Legends about a supposed online video featuring Senator Obama in Compromising Positions, e-mails of which are really nothing more than tricks to sneak viruses onto your computer ... and one connecting Obama to a class-action lawsuit "forcing banks to make loans to poor people."

Both of which have varying degrees of credibility, as will be evident on reading them.

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AND TALK ABOUT ELECTORAL DIRTY TRICKS GALORE: In keeping with this blogger's belief that "it's a small world, after all," after Disneyland and Walt Disney World, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reports thusly on a group of Austrian high-school students who chose to vote for right-wing politicos following a pilgrimage to the Nazi death camp site @ Auschwitz ahead of their recent elections:

An activist in an Austrian organization commemorating the Holocaust, who traveled last month with a group of 16-year-olds from his country to visit the Auschwitz Nazi death camp in Poland, found to his horror that the youngsters were planning to vote for the extreme right wing political parties in the Austrian elections.

The activist, in his twenties, said that despite their far-right leaning, the teens expressed a genuine interest in learning about the Holocaust, and approached the tour with the appropriate seriousness.

The election, in which far-right parties doubled their representation at the end of last month, was the first election in which the young students were eligible to vote. The activist said he overheard the students saying they were planning to vote for Heinz-Christian Strache's Freedom Party or Joerg Haider's Alliance for the Future of Austria - "because of the foreigners."

It was in fact those who were most interested in learning about the Holocaust were the ones who led this trend, said the activist. In response, the group's counselors tried to stress in their discussions the relationship between the lessons of the past and judgments on the present - but were unsuccessful. "The youngsters were unable to make the connection," the activist reported with regret.

Though the unprecedented success of the far-right in the recent election has many Austrians worried, it did not come as a surprise. It is a product of the larger parties' failure to maintain a stable government, a growing hatred for foreigners in the face of immigration from Eastern Europe, and a long-standing legacy in Austria of denying responsibility for the crimes of the Third Reich.

Massive efforts, some more genuine than others, to reverse this legacy have been undertaken in Austria over the last ten years, with some positive, but insufficient, results. For example, the question of the ownership of artwork displayed in a large exhibition at Vienna's Leopold Museum sparked an impassioned national debate. Austrian Culture Minister Claudia Schmied announced that legislation over the last decade regarding the return of artwork looted by Nazis to its rightful owners was not adequate, and allows museum patrons to circumvent the requirement to return the works. Her call to expand the legislation was met with strong opposition and with heated public and political discussions.

On the other hand, projects directly examining Austria's civilian responsibility for the fate of the Jews during the Holocaust have been flourishing recently. A large portion of these projects has been initiated locally by ordinary citizens, academic bodies, artists and NGOs. Thus, when residents of Vienna's Servitengasse Street began inquiring about the fate of the Jews that inhabited their homes before the Holocaust, the project turned into a large-scale research venture which included the name of every street resident and the contacting of their remaining relatives around the world. The project's findings were recorded in a book, a documentary film and an impressive memorial erected on the busy street.

Austria's denial of its role in the Holocaust can be attributed to an exonerating document that the allies signed in November 1943. The Moscow Declaration, signed by the foreign secretaries of the Governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, maintained that Austria was the first free nation to be victimized by the Hitlerean aggression. However, though Austria comprised 12 percent of the population of the Third Reich, 30 percent of the Nazi's victims were exterminated there.

The activist who let the group of students on a tour of Auschwitz summed up the experience, saying that the stance of Austria's far-right political movements does not only stem from an unwillingness to confront the past, but primarily from an inability to analyze the past in reference to the present. "The problem in Austria," he said, "is that though the education system teaches history, it has abandoned altogether the aspect of civics. In its absence, the students simply fail to comprehend the foundations of democracy and the direct link between preserving those foundations and the prevention of repeating historical tragedies."

A lesson, no doubt, worth learning from. And, come to think of it, a warning.

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THINK ABOUT THIS: What if there was a civil uprising on in your country, its capital was being besieged by almost-constant attacks by rival insurgent and terrorist factions--and nobody cared about it, let alone gave a darn?

Such is the situation in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, as the BBC elaborates:

The world should be shocked at the systematic destruction of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, and its residents, says lobby group Human Rights Watch.

The organisation told the BBC the city had become a zone of free-fire between government and insurgent forces.

It said if such a situation was happening anywhere else in the world, like Georgia or Lebanon for example, it would be considered a travesty.

Instead Somalia was the most ignored tragedy in the world today, HRW said.

Meanwhile, a group of 52 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has issued a statement saying the international community had "completely failed Somali civilians".

The aid groups estimate that almost 40,000 people had been displaced from Mogadishu in the last few weeks, with 1.1 million uprooted in the last nine months.

Meanwhile, certain misguided elements Who Should Otherwise Know Better will say that the Somali situation is "of no worthwhile interest to the average Joe Sixpack," as opposed to questions about Barack Obama's supposed want of Morals, Decency or Common Sense, which (so this same crowd expects us to accept as fact) only white European-American Christians can be expeted to have ... and that European-Americans are "racially and morally incapable" of committing Infamous or Heinous Crimes on the same level as "inferior races."

Come to think of it: After watching the following video, what would make you reconsider voting for McCain/Palin come November?

And since when should we "right-thinking Americans" have "no worthwhile interest" in matters where America is not directly involved, or otherwise does not affect Our Antient and Pecuilar Soverignty and Soverign Identity, and the defence thereof?