AS IF THE END RESULT OF SUPER TUESDAY'S AGGOLOMERATION OF CAUCUSES AND PRIMARIES was likely to remain all the more unclear, owing to the sheer numbers of such voting or otherwise caucusing (Minnesota being in the latter category) en bloc in one day ... let alone the continuing troubles singer and actress Britney Spears continues to go through, in the process set to become the Frances Farmer of the 21st century (especially with her father's appointment by the courts as conservator--well, good luck in that respect!) ... Your Correspondent submits the following video per YouTube as evidence that appearences can be deceiving, and then some:

There is nothing that seems to anger the Religious Right quite like discussions of faith within the political sphere that do not coincide with their own right-wing agenda.  For example, Ryan Anderson of First Things attacked Catholics United for taking "its favored policy and baptize it in the name of the church" regarding the debate over SCHIP while Religious Right leaders were up-in-arms and accusing Democrats of "[hijacking] the language of faith in order to hide the truth about their real agenda" and confuse Values Voters.  Barack Obama's Christian faith, in particular, has come in for intense denunciation, being labeled "woefully deficient" while his church membership "suggests a lack of judgment."   

And now American Life League president Judie Brown has decided to add her voice to the chorus of those who think religion is solely the property of the Right:  

"It is one thing to profess to be a believing Christian, and another to, by your actions, either confirm that you are indeed a believing Christian, or that you are using your so-called Christianity for the purpose of political gain," says Brown.

Brown says that in many cases--such as Obama's and Clinton's--she sees politicians "using their professed Christianity for political ends, without even recognizing what it means to be a Christian, and I find that rather sad."

Rather sad, indeed.

=============

WHICH MAKES THIS AS GOOD A TIME AS ANY TO CALL YOUR ATTENTION to People For's special freecall hotline to report any instances of voter intimidation, interference, harrassment and suchlike you may encounter:

1-866-OUR-VOTE

Remember to keep this number handy in any case. And don't hesitate to be ready to call.

As well, contact your local law-enforcement agencies, especially if such campaigns of intimidation involve leafleting on windscreens, mass mailings and tasteless flyers displayed on the community notice board of your local supermarket.

*************

THE DEATH IS BEING REPORTED OF A RATHER INFAMOUS LOCAL GADFLY HERE IN WINONA by name of Sister Lillian Elezar Kral; she passed away the other night @ a local care facility @ 80 years of age after a prolonged period of failing health.

She gained some national media attention and notoriety in 1981 after making such a ruckus of her being expelled from a Catholic religious order for "insubordination" (or so she suspected), hoping to attract some help. Only it turned out that (and I base this on past acquaintenance) she had quickly become her own worst joke, particularly so following a Notorious Incident in 1982 as would see her arrested for Disorderly Conduct by disrupting Mass with her displaying two bottles of liquor and shouting epithets @ the celebrant.

It became even more obvious that she was on an even steeper slope when she began to associate herself with lurid anti-Catholic tract publisher Jack Chick (even having designs to sell her story to him for documentation in tract form) and, still later, with extreme anti-government movements--and using that frame on the back of her bicycle to say as much, displaying missives from the likes of Lyndon LaRouche, "Bo" Gritz (whose third-party 1992 Presidential bid got prominent notice therein) and the so-called "North American Freedom Council," an anti-tax group later evolving into NORFED (as in the so-called "Liberty Dollars" designed solely to destabilise the Federal Reserve System in the name of "reforming" same, supported on what turns out being lead ingots from the Monongahela Metal Foundry spray-painted to create the illusion of gold or silver).

Shed no tears for Lillian Kral, readers. Her associations with the weird and unwholesome were probably the final nail in her coffin vis-a-vis any credibility she had in the Minnwissippi.

*************

SOMETHING FOR PARENTS TO THINK ABOUT IF THEY HAVE DESIGNS on expecting their kids to make something of themselves on their own, as in not expecting any help or support from their parents:

There's a scene in the Oscar-nominated mockumentary Surf's Up where Tank "The Shredder" Evans, after showing off to the ur-camera his nine trophies in the Big Z Memorial Surf Classic, recalled that his mother had him surfing literally ab ovo (i.e., from the egg)--there's even a mock photo showing the unhatched egg of Tank "riding the nose" while his rather scowling mother (in curlers, note) can be seen in background.

(BTW, "The Shredder," himself shown to have a rather nasty repute for playing dirty--same even being suggested as a reason that kids should look to him as a role model of sorts--is a king penguin.)

*************

ONE THING MORE (AFTER PAUL HARVEY): Your Correspondent hath it that Bezeq, the Israeli telecoms company, is launching a new "kosher" wireline telecom service to meet the partucular needs of haredi (ultra-observant, Orthodox for the most part) Jews.

As in blocking access to the likes of sex-call lines and other "inapproriate" telephonic content.

For now, the kosher phone service will be available free of additional charge.

How much longer before we start seeing so-called "Christian" wireline telecoms services (Alternative Service Providers, more than likely) here in the "morally superior" United States modelled on Bezeq's "kosher" service (as in with automatic blocking to "inapproriate" or "indecent" pay-per-call services)?   

OVER RECENT MONTHS, CERTAIN RELIGIOUS FANATICS have been pushing the notion, reinforced by Isaiah 35:8, that Interstate 35 is somehow predestined as the Highway of Holiness thus prophesised.

Hence, dictating all manner of prayer drives and "Purity Sieges" aimed @ a general moral "reclamation" along its entire distance between Laredo, TX and Duluth, MN (including that section of the Kansas Turnpike between the Oklahoma line and Emporia), attracting the attention of The 700 Club and other conduits of pseudoreligious Zealotry and True Belief as are, perhaps, secretly funding the whole campaign.

Yet, Your Correspondent imagines the likelihood for this whole "revivalist" movement along the same I-35 corridor seen by the Greater Producerist Movement as the sinister NAFTA Superhighway-in-embryo perhaps backfiring upon those involved.

Especially when it happens that certain adult businesses as are targets of the occasional "Purity Siege" decide to turn the tables on such a campaign with claims of, among other likely such, Criminal Syndicalism, Conspiracy, Unlawful Trespass and Unlawful Interference in Interstate or Foreign Commerce--especially when exists the possibility of enhanced penalties for Racketeering or Syndicalism per RICO.

Not to mention the likelihood of certain prayer vigils perhaps being targeted by Divine Wrath.

*************

PRODUCERISM, A VARIANT OF CONSERVATIVE POPULISM, holds dear as its articles of faith:

• The working classes (in particular poor, undereducated and easily-influenced "white trash") as are responsible for the development of capitalism with American characteristics, and its antient and pecuilar role and place in American soverign identity, are entitled to "antient and pecuilar rights, privileges and powers" "as of right."
• However, their privileged and traditional status is under threat and attack,
  • on the one hand, by the forces of Wall Street, Jews and Freemasonry as dominate the business and financial communities; and
  • on the other hand, by "inferior peoples" such as immigrants, blacks, other National Minorities and "chronic and habitual" welfare cases "having reckless and utter disregard for industry, self-reliance and personal responsibility."
• Therefore, it is to be seen as one with both national as much as racial duty and honour to defend the free-market capitalist system, and its special role and place in American soverignty, against the threats being directed as above, from within as much as from without, and "by whatever means necessary."

Excuse me, but doesn't it seem as if producerism has that certain sense of doublethink inherent--as in seeking to defend capitalism (on the one hand) and yet (on the other) challenge the same capitalist system's role and place as a threat to morals, decency and common sense vis-a-vis the working classes responsible for the same?

And what sort of alternative capitalist model would producerists have in mind--a so-called "pure" capitalism dominated, for the most part, by weird and unwholesome elements, only making matters worse for the same working classes which producerist thought seeks to defend by its embracing laissez-faire thought?

En 'n Ander Ding:

Have the Lower Classes, perhaps, heard of cooperativism as a means to an end of their own empowerment and salvation from the chains of free-market capitalistic excesses?

And what stands in the way of their accepting such a model?

*************

WITH INDECISION 2008 CERTAIN TO BE ALL THE MORE CRITICAL to deciding the path which the United States will take in the 21st century--remaining the vanguard of liberty and democracy, or using such as patsies to cover for an emerging tendency towards Fascism--the account of Balaam's Donkey (see Numbers 22) may be worth recalling as inspiration for how to reclaim the nation and what it stands for.

(Basically put, Balaam, who was sent in by the Moabites to vex Israel, was riding on his faithful donkey in his mission when, on three occasions, the Angel of the L-rd spooked Balaam, each time prompting Balaam to beat upon the donkey. Only after the third such instance, as occured in a very narrow alley, the donkey turned the tables and rebuked Balaam to his face.)

Come to think of it, while Your Correspondent was having dinner the other day, he was thinking about whether Balaam's Donkey may have delivered that rebuke in a voice not unlike that of the Donkey character in the Shrek series--by way of G-d, of course, who, we are told, put words into the donkey's mouth to rebuke Balaam.

In any case, let's not forget Balaam's Donkey ahead of the elections this year.

Hopefully, reader, you will have figured out by now who, for the sake of analogy, was Balaam ... and who was Balaam's Donkey.

(BTW, did you know "shrek" is Yiddish for "monster"?)   

AS YOUR CORRESPONDENT WRITES THIS THE LATEST ITEM IN THIS PARTICULAR WEBLOG, it just so happens that the Minnwissippi is not only under a Winter Weather Advisory, but is also seeing "thundersnow."

As in heavy snow accompanied by occasional overtures of the old thunder and lightning.

Which, by later in the day, could include seeing the snow mix with freezing rain, straight rain and/or sleet, gradually segueing into a rain/snow mix of the finest(?) order. And which could mean schools having to let out early as a precaution.

Once all the snow melts in spring (as it eventually will), expect the melt to help ameilorate the quasi-drought conditions prevailing of late.

*************

IT'S NO WONDER HIS FRAUDULENCY WANTS TO BE SEEN ONLY IN HAGIOGRAPHICALLY-GLOWING TERMS when it comes to his legacy, judging by the following recent editorial from The Capital Times down Madison, WI way:

President Bush does not use e-mail. The most secretive chief executive since Richard Nixon does not want to risk having his digital communications revealed as part of the official record of the republic he is sworn to serve and protect.

Other Americans do rely on the Internet, however.

Unfortunately, our off-line president has set the tone for a White House that is almost ridiculously disengaged when it comes to the challenge of preparing the United States for a digital future.

A Bush administration report released Thursday claims that high-speed Internet access is now available to virtually every American. This self-congratulatory document suggests that, during Bush's tenure, the United States has taken the right steps to ensure that we have "an environment in which broadband innovation and competition can flourish."

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

When George Bush assumed the presidency in 2001, the United States ranked fourth when it came to broadband penetration -- the measure of access to digital services.

Now, as Bush enters his last year in office, the United States has dropped to 15th place.

"Declaring mission accomplished won't reverse America's rapid disappearance from the ranks of world broadband leaders. Just ask the tens of millions of Americans still stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide," says Derek Turner, who has authored several reports criticizing failed U.S. broadband policies.

"Americans pay far more for much slower Internet connections -- when they can get service at all -- than the rest of the world. Too many people still live in areas that cable and telecom companies refuse to serve, and many more can only purchase slow and expensive connections that can't in all seriousness be called broadband," explained Turner, who serves as research director for Free Press, the nation's media reform network. "Yet while the Bush administration stands by and cheers over Internet connections barely faster than dial-up, countries like England and South Korea are bringing affordable and fast broadband to their citizens. Americans will be left on the sidelines as these countries reap the huge economic and social benefits of innovative technologies."

"What do these countries have that we don't?" asks Turner.

His answer: "A national broadband policy that goes beyond empty platitudes."

That's right, but it is only part of the explanation. Other countries also have leaders who read newspapers, watch television news programs and use e-mail.

America has George Bush.

Not to mention Fox Noise and its "reject-the-evidence-of-eyes-and-ears" mentality (a/k/a "pretend the problem doesn't exist"), as evidenced recently by Bill O'Reilly's contempt for homeless veterans and the poor, undereducated and easily-influenced of society.

*************

IF YOU THINK OIL COMPANIES' SHOCK SPIKES IN GAS PRICES FROM TIME TO TIME are an exclusively American problem--consider the case of the Australians.

Consumer-advocacy groups Down Under hath it that the four leading gas retailers there (BP, Mobil, Caltex and Shell) deliberated spiked gas prices to coincide with the Christmas, New Year's and Australia Day holidays, only to roll same back once the holidays passed. Said groups contend that such arbitrary spikes were intended solely to maximise profits over these holiday periods, with little or nothing to do with supply and demand.

And with potential for consumer harm and detrius.

=============

STAYING IN "THE LUCKY COUNTRY" FOR A MOMENT, Your Correspondent hath it that a number of local councils have been stashing away local-government funding from both the Federal and state governments to the point where the good taxpayers are not getting value for their tax dollars when it comes to government services.

More likely than no, stashing such in interest-bearing accounts without clear or proper justification for same.

Can the same be said to occur here in the "morally superior" United States?

=============

IF I MAY EXPLAIN FOR A MOMENT WHY IT IS, @ TIMES, THAT I REFER TO THE UNITED STATES as "morally superior" in this blog:

Its intent is outright and deliberate sarcasm @ the expense of the so-called Religiopolitical Right (more than likely pseudo) and its belief that the United States was somehow "predestined" or otherwise "divinely ordained" to be the Portal and Gateway to Heaven, as well as the Center of the Earth, the Universe and the 28 Known Galaxies.

Especially so the rather contentuous contention that free-market capitalism with American characteristics, and the defence thereof, is that of American soverignty and soverign identity "antient and pecuilar," and vice versa.

Now you know.

After all, sarcasm can be a potent weapon of opine.  

READER, AN APOLOGY IS IN ORDER @ THIS TIME for the tardiness of posting the quasi-daily comments on the news.

Seems that Your Correspondent was rather tired after some shopping @ the Kmart here in Winona, followed by luncheon @ the Hy-Vee, same city, requiring his taking a nap following his return home. It sometimes hath to be that way.

So, if any inconvenience was suffered by you, my apologies.

*************

"Mothers of River City! Heed that warning before it's too late! Watch for the telltale signs of DEGENERACY!!! The moment your son returns home from school, does he rebuckle his knickers ...BELOW THE KNEE?! Is there a nicotine stain on his index finger? Is there a dime novel hidden in the corn crib? Is he starting to memorise jokes ... from Capt. Billy's Whiz Bang?! Are certain words starting to creep into his vocabulary--words like "swell" ... and "so's your old man"?

THUS MEREDITH WILLSON HAD PROFESSOR HAROLD HILL WARN THE GOOD MOTHERS OF RIVER CITY, IOWA in The Music Man on both stage and screen that "Ya Got Trouble."

This after warning the community about the presence of a pool table in the community being but the first step towards the Moral Degeneracy of Youth--only to learn soon afterwards that the city's mayor operated the pool hall in question.

(The reference to Capt. Billy's Whiz Bang turns out to be anachronistic: While Mr. Willson's 1956 Broadway musical, becoming a movie in 1962, was set in 1912, it would not be until 1919 that Capt. Willard Fawcett would launch that particular magazine, quickly becoming popular for its "Explosion of Pedigreed Bunk" in the form of risqué and @ times scatological jokes, puns and cartoons.)

I bring up these lines from The Music Man to bring up the likelihood of the so-called "Parents' Television Council" perhaps being its own worst joke in trying to protect Right-Thinking American Families (as in white, middle-class, Levittown models) from "filth and degeneracy" in films and TV in the wake of their winning moral victory from the FCC last week (as in assessing a collective fine of $1.4 million against 52 ABC network stations for showing an episode of the since-decommissioned NYPD Blue as showed brief, out-of-context glimpses of bare buttocks notwithstanding warnings of content prior to the start of broadcast).

I say this because you have to imagine this council's frequent and repeated actions before the FCC perhaps:

• being insincere to the point of raising questions whether their complaints are being made in good faith and without prejudice;
• triggering outbrteaks of spontaneous hysteria exploiting to unfair advantage weak-minded and vulnerable members of the community (usually poor, undereducated or homeschooled and easily-influenced) liable to respond all the more to appeals of this ilk;
• designed solely to cause needless waste of time and resources on the FCC's part, diverting essential resources from more pressing matters (as well as created added work burdens for mailroom and mail intake staffs);
• based solely upon isolated, out-of-context passages;
• relying on identically-phrased, carefully-scripted, even heavily-nuanced, boilerplate messages sent in e-mail alerts; and
• belying the possibility of the PTC having interconnexions with weird and/or unwholesome elements to the point of raising questions of possible racketeering tending to exploit the vulnerable.

Which are questions enough to raise before the FCC, especially considering where it's been acknowledged that the vast majority of "obscenity" or "indecency" complaints so received are phrased almost identically (so raising questions of such being based on boilerplate) and tend, for the most part, to come from culturally-deprived environments (as in the Park & Flush Trailer Park and other bastions of "white trash" poverty, stupidity and ignorance) as are obvious plum targets for the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right's "winning of hearts and minds" efforts.

Never mind the likelihood that these same lower-income areas (@ least to these same Pseudoreligiopolitical Right elements so exploiting) are all the more likely targets for "dumping" campaigns the Extreme Right would love to engage in vis-a-vis pornographically depraved prolefeed.

And deliberate dumping of prolefeed, @ that.

=============

COME TO THINK OF IT, THERE ARE MORE PRESSING AND OBVIOUS PROBLEMS CONCERNING THE LOWER CLASSES as are deserving your attention.

To have the likes of Fox Noise expect the "right-thinking" to "reject the evidence of eyes and ears" (i.e., pretend they just don't exist--nay, should not exist in the One True Centre of the World, the Universe and the 28 Known Galaxies), as well as pretend to a gross and deliberate stupidity in the name of G-d, Country and Family Values, is nothing short of disgusting.

Yet, @ the same time, Fox Noise wants the Lower Classes to see free-market capitalism as the Great White Father, their Last and Only Hope and Salvation from Enslavement to State Welfare and its Promotion of Socialistic Tendencies.

Hence: Doesn't this make Fox Noise guilty of doublethink, pure and simple?

*************

AS THIS WAS GROUNDHOG DAY, there is a great difference of opinion between Punxsutawney Phil (who saw his shadow this morning) and Sun Prairie Jimmy (who did not) over whether winter's exit will follow within measurable distance.

Being Midwestern, Your Correspondent prefers Jimmy's take on the situation.

Hence: Would you rather trust Punxsutawney Phil or Sun Prairie Jimmy? Comments can be left in the usual space, subject to their being tasteful and inoffensive. 

FOR YEARS, IN THE SEVERAL BLOGS YOUR CORRESPONDENT HAS PUBLISHED ON THE INFORMATION STUPORBAHN, he has been a firm believer in using the "open letter" device from time to time to call the widest possible attention to issues of serious import.

The hope, no doubt, of urging readers to share the "open letters" with any and all friends and contacts they may have as a way of getting action taken.

This time, my target in the "open letter" department is such among the Pseudoreligiopolitical Right who are rather slavish in their hard-wired acceptance of Fox News Channel as the One True, Pure and Reliable Arbeiter of News and Information for Right-Thinking Christian Americans (as in, more than likely, the poor, undereducated or homeschooled and easily-influenced).

Please read and pass along, preferably through the "send by e-mail" facility following. However, I will NOT tolerate spontaneously-generated "freeping" campaigns whose sole purpose is to cast discredit or disrepute upon this blog.

*************

To whom it may concern:

In view of what may best be described as unswerving Zealotry and True Belief on your part in Fox News Channel being the One and Only Cable News Channel Worth Viewing among Right-Thinking Christian Americans by virtue of its being (to use their rather lame slogan) "Fair and Balanced" (as in presenting a conservative "counterbalance" to other news outlets seen as "liberal-leaning" and, hence--by your way of thinking--"leading to error") ...

And in view of your frequent campaigns crossing the line @ times into misguided or warped hysteria against real or suspected "indecency" or "obscenity" in films and TV programming, much of it designed, for the most part, to increase needlessly the Federal Communications Commission's burden of work to the point of harrassment by proxy with what may best be called baseless, frivolous or otherwise wasteful complaints based on isolated instances as may lack proper context....

Your Correspondent would like of you to consider the following:

First off, to ponder these remarks from the 1922 court case Halsey v. New York Society for the Supression of Vice, considered a landmark in censorship history for these remarks:

No work may be judged from a selection of such paragraphs alone. Printed by themselves, they might, as a matter of law, come within the meaning of the [obscenity] statute. So might a similar selection from Aristophanes or Chaucer or Boccaccio or even from the Bible. The book, however, must be considered broadly as a whole.

(In other words, a work being challenged as obscene or indecent must be considered in the context of the larger whole. The point of which would later be affirmed in the 1973 Miller v. California Supreme Court ruling allowing the use of a "prevailing community standards" test for obscenity, so long as the work in question was taken as a whole.

(That, and same clearly and unambiguously depicting sexual and/or excretory activities and/or organs in a "patently offensive" manner, appealing solely to prurient interest, and utterly lacking in redeeming educational, literary, political or scientific merit.)

Once that's out of the way, I would urge you to visit the websites Fox Attacks: Decency and Fox News Porn, and watch the videos so featured. Especially so on the latter, paying especially close and careful attention to the cut and styling of the dresses worn by female newsreaders.

After seeing the videos in question, I want you to think carefully of the following:

• Why would organisations like yours as speak out all the time about suspected "indecency" in films and on TV continue regarding Fox News as the only "reliable" cable news channel when their female newsreaders wear what you would consider "indecent" or "provocative" dress on camera?
• What prevents your organisations from launching "action campaigns" against Fox News Channel based on the suggestive cut of dress worn by female newsreaders?
• Are you receiving any sort of donations, "hush money" or payola from Fox News Channel, News America Corporation, or any "foundations" or "trusts" so affiliated, on a continuing basis? Is the receipt of such conditional upon your silence towards the same sort of "indecency" you frequently accuse the closely-affiliated Fox Broadcasting network of carrying?
• Why would you continue to support Fox News Channel as the only credible cable news channel worthy of viewing among those you call "right-thinking Americans," knowing consciously (and yet unconsciously) all the while about the "indecent" or "suggestive" dress worn by their female newsreaders?
• Does not your holding such double standards make you, in essence, guilty of doublethink? And what is your defence to the charge?
• Are you, somehow, secretly thinking that the Lower Classes must be somehow lacking in morals, decency or common sense? Have you no shame in this respect?
• Are you now, or have you ever been, an alcoholic, drug addict, sex fiend or maniac, spousal or child abuser, sufferer of loathsome social or mental disorders, chronic and habitual gambler or spendthrift, undischarged bankrupt, or have a record of prolonged time in jails and/or psychiatric hospitals?
• Were you abused in childhood? Was it sexual?
• Have you no sense of Decency, Sirs, @ long last?
• Have you left no sense of Decency--the same Decency you claim to be defending and protecting, and invoking G-d, Country and Family all the while?

Perhaps it was about time that you had some real shame for once, after cooking up manufactured such designed solely to whip up hysteric delusions in such among the poor, undereducated or homeschooled and easily-influenced (not to mention emotionally vulnerable) who you enjoy coveting as a bunch of easily-manipulated droogs.

What will you have to say NOW after you see the Harsh Reality of what you've been supporting all this time?

And what have you to say to the charge of doublethink--which is a rather obvious description of your mindset under these circumstances?

Awaiting your logical and sensible response (preferably through the Comments section), I remain

Disobediently yours,
ILUDIUM PHOSDEX
(die egte artikel--aanvaar geen plaasvervangers)

--commentary remains on tap here @ The Exaggerator.

So, without much ado:

*************

THE KLAN AND THEIR KIN PROBABLY DON'T KNOW IT, but we have it on the word of a certain J. Edgar Hoover, late Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (not to mention Patron Saint of the Law and Order Movement, especially the kind relying on the depraved and the downright sadisto), that even the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) had designs on establishing a soverign National Homeland along the Tidewater and Mid-South coasts.

Hoover notes this in a chapter of his 1958 anti-Communist masterpiece Masters of Deceit devoted to how the Communist Party sought to exploit racial issues for "winning of hearts and minds" among blacks and National Minorities across the United States based on doublethink; articles from 1948 and 1952 are cited in substantiation, as well as a series of Comintern (Communist International) directives starting in 1928.

Though now seen as an historical relic with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, there are probably still copies of Masters of Deceit around in local biblios and used-book stores, not to mention the Five-Foot Shelves of John Bircher types and other misguided "patriots."

=============

AND SPEAKING OF THE WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S COLLECTIONS of radical periodicials, Doug Moe, columnist with The Capital Times in Madison, explains their significance to researchers especially in a recent column published in the wake of revelations that GOP Presidential wannabe Ron Paul's name was used on newsletters as carried racist, white-supremacist and productionist propaganda:

Why were these newsletters collected in Madison and almost nowhere else? Because the Wisconsin Historical Society in general and its longtime librarian Jim Danky in particular have worked diligently to catalog all manner of seemingly fringe publications, because as this week demonstrates, you never know what may one day be important.

"We acquired them because we try to cover politics comprehensively," Danky told me Thursday.

They have perhaps the best collection anywhere of leftist, underground publications. And the Historical Society's collection from the political far right was praised in an essay by Chip Berlet in the Sesquicentennial Issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History.

Berlet, who is with Political Research Associates in Massachusetts, wrote: "There are other collections at libraries and archives around the country, but none offer the range and depth of the collection combined with the cheerful staff knowledge and painless retrievability. The society's periodical collection is a national treasure as far as our staff is concerned, and we mine it frequently. Where else can you find a librarian who asks if the particular type of hate-group newsletter you are looking for is Ku Klux Klan, racial nationalist, neo-Nazi, Third Position, homophobic or Christian Identity?"

*************

WHY "PATRIOTISM" AND "GOING BACK TO THE LAND" DON'T QUITE MIX WELL: Consider this interesting article from The Public Eye, magazine of Political Research Associates, as illustrates an obscure (yet interesting) article of faith in the Producerist/Populist parthenon best described as "back to the land."

Or, as the Nazis called it, Heilige Blut und Verschmutz ("Holy Blood and Soil").

Which, put simply, calls for "right-thinking White Christian Americans" to evacuate the cities and "return to the land" of rural and small-town America if they expect to see any chance for moral and cultural redemption and salvation based on "Traditional Values" models common to the Producerist agenda. And reinforced with allusions to the likes of Die Voortrek from the Cape of Good Hope to the Highveldt via the Karoo between 1828 and 1838 among the Afrikaner Peoples of South Africa seeking to escape "enroaching British persecution" and "preserve [their] honest and simple ways" as farmers and pastoralists "guided in large part by their simple Calvinist faith," among other hagiographic-sounding bromides having no value save pandering to racist feelings.

Come to think of it, can you imagine a "return to the land" sentiment as a thematic undercurrent of Die Bransoner Muzikschaukultur and its "nutritious patriotism"?

*************

SHELTERED WORKSHOPS MUST ENJOY THRIVING ON FEAR about changes brought about by socioeconomic uncertainities brought about by circumstances beyond the grasp of many of their disabled clientele.

I should know. I can relate from experience.

Ahead of the likelihood for contract and subcontract work that sheltered workshops traditionally depend upon becoming rather limited, there will likely be delays in the job assignments being issued to discuss possible alternatives to kill time "just in case," claiming that restrictions attached to the subsidies they receive precludes their laying off employees during slack work situations.

One likely option being the screening of movies likely containing scenes of Extreme or Depraved Ultraviolence that, studies have suggested, could cause psychological or emotional harm in especially such with emotional or developmental disorders as make up the bulk of sheltered-workshop clients. Movies which, in any case, have nothing to do with the sheltered workshop mission of jobs and career training for disabled persons otherwise @ competitive disadvantage trying to find work.

Let alone the fact that the vast majority of sheltered-workshop clients are on piecework positions paid special reduced wages that, based on time studies and related analysis, aren't considered adequate enough to be deemed "substantial and gainful" to seriously consider supplanting Social Security benefits, let alone consideration for work in the community (and requiring all manner of ruses on the facility's part to cover up the "real" reason of their being kept back: to maximise per diem subsidy payments).

In any case, considering where recession is likely and contract or subcontract work that sheltered workshops traditionally rely on from local industries is likely to dry up or otherwise become limited, expect many sheltered workshops to call their clients into Urgent Assembly as will tend to be heavy on emotion-fuelled platitudes and bromides such as these:

• Because of ongoing budget cuts, subsidies which the workshop receives are likely to be cut further all the more.
• To make up for the subsidy cuts, the workshop will likely ask local industries for all the more work "to keep our clients busy," but will be reluctant to do so because of "quality issues," "past-due bills" or some other excuse covering up for the real such: the deteriorating socioeconomic situation.
• The bankers with whom the sheltered workshop banks with will be all the more unlikely to extend lines of credit because of "serious financial problems" on the workshop's part, and what's more, its suppliers are about to insist upon cash payments in advance, further depleting what limited reserves they may have.
• Appeals to their sense of "cooperation" (read: silence excusing a deliberate stupidity) to make sure the sheltered workshop can remain "a beam of sunlight in an otherwise dismal economic picture" locally.

On top of that, clients are all the more expected to look the other way for the sake of "protecting the established order," ordained by "Natural Law" as expects the Upper Classes to "maintain their traditional rights, privileges and powers***entitled them by unwritten law and custom;" anything else will only "undermine a sacred and inviolate law" with the potential for "undermining public confidence and trust" in those among positions of authority and power over time. And anyone trying to work outside The System in finding work should only expect disappointment, especially if their name turns up on "watch lists" secretly issued employers of persons not to be trusted with employment as possible "rabble-rowsers," "troublemakers," "disloyal" or worse.

No wonder sheltered workshops love using scare tactics as a way of keeping their vulnerable clients in a state of fear and paranoia just to maximise their subsidies while work becomes unavailable or severely constrained. Under such circumstances, the excuse expected to be used of clients as to why they have to remain in a no-future milieu is one of "emotional well-being."

How many employers would want to hire psychoemotionally disabled workers off the sheltered workshop system just because they need some "emotional well-being" in the first place?  

AS IF THE FIRST OF THE MONTH BEING ON A FRIDAY WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOUR CORRESPONDENT, it just so happened that he had to get some shopping out of the way, not to mention getting his rent with the local council paid ... his city bus pass for the new month purchased ... and his iced tea maker being cleaned out, it having been awhile since that was given a decent cleaning.

In that last instance, I prefer prepared coffeemaker cleaners over vinegar, which can get to be rather smelly. And in any case, it's one cycle with the solution, followed by two cycles of water to rinse out. (This time around, it's Dip-it Automatic Coffeemaker Cleaner.)

And you wouldn't believe all the hardwater and lime deposits that came forth following the initial cleaning cycle!!

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FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO STILL SEE THE SO-CALLED "RON PAUL REVOLUTION" AS THE LAST AND ONLY HOPE that America has for "liberty, peace and prosperity" in Indecision 2008, the good people @ The Nation have some thoughts about Ron Paul's socioeconomic programme, or want thereof, as should be worth thinking about:

The little man who wasn't there at the Republican TV debates is Ron Paul, the short-of-stature libertarian physician and Congressman. The debate moderators, who are threatening to become the ruin of electoral politics in the United States, almost never turn to ask Paul a question--that is, when he is allowed in the hall to participate.

On the occasions when they do toss a question Paul's way, they seem not to listen when he answers. And when he's finished, they turn away as if he hadn't said anything. Granted, libertarianism is a little outré and can sound as if it is close to anarchism. But there are times when Congressman Paul says things that are worth listening to.

He is the only candidate who brings up what is happening to our money, which is another way of saying that he is worried about why the cost of buying groceries is going through the roof. While the other presidential contenders are silent on the topic, Paul reminds us that "government officials consistently claimed that inflation is in check at barely 2 percent, but middle-class Americans know that their purchasing power--especially when it comes to housing, energy, medical care, and school tuition--is shrinking much faster than 2 percent each year."

Paul is the contender who seems to understand that the Federal Reserve Board is not the Vatican and that its chairman, Ben Bernanke, is not the pope. It's a fixed practice by our politicians to treat whoever is the chairman of the Fed as though he were endowed with infallible powers.

On Wall Street, the sharper ones know better. They understand that lowering interest rates every time the stock market swoons will eventually, or even a lot sooner, bring a world of pain down on us. As it is, thanks to the Fed, interest rates are lower than the rate of inflation. This anomalous condition is called "negative interest," and for savers it means that their money is disappearing even as it rests safely tucked away in certificates of deposit.

For people who understand that their money is evaporating in front of their eyes there is a mighty incentive to rush out to the mall while that money is still worth something. For the moment a stampede to the stores by inflation-spooked people may please the economic pooh-bahs because current theory has it that people will buy lots of stuff, which in turn will create lots of jobs. But after they've spent their retirement money, then what?

Then people can spend their economic stimulus money. Left undiscussed is how the government is going to get the money it plans to hand out to anybody who has a pulse. Maybe Uncle Sam can borrow it from the Chinese or the Arabs--although both groups are losing enthusiasm for making loans to be paid back in ever-shrinking dollars.

Neither the Europeans nor the Brits with their higher interest rate euros and pounds will have much interest in investing in lower-rate dollars. There don't seem to be many people left we can con into bailing us out of a mistake we repeatedly make.

The Federal Reserve Board can print the money, which is exactly what Ron Paul is afraid of. The more it prints, the less it's worth. The US suffered through years of high inflation in the 1970s and, from the standpoint of personal income, has never completely recovered.

If he could, Ron Paul would abolish three-quarters of the government, which works out to meaning that about three-quarters of what Ron Paul says falls into the "impractical dreamer" category. That leaves one-quarter--but that fraction of his agenda is, no pun intended, on the money.

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ON THE OTHER HAND, THE IDEA OF GOVERNMENT-SANCTIONED WASTEFUL AND FRIVOLOUS SPENDING in the name of socioeconomic stimulation (preferably among the Lower Classes, and in such cases preferably by way of Wally World) inspireth these remarks from columnist Jerome Christianson @ the local gazetta, wondering if the idea is really worth it in the end:

Welcome to government by T-shirt slogan: “When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.”

With an economic crisis looming, the best our leaders can tell us is, “Hit the stores and hope for the best.”

Talk about Alice in Wonderland economics — first we spend ourselves to the brink of disaster, and now we have the great minds of Washington insisting that with a little help from the Fed we’re going to spend ourselves out of it. Does this make sense?

Let us review: Let’s start with a president deciding to put the Iraq war on the national Visa card; add to that all the folks cheerfully signing on to buy houses they can’t afford with loans they can’t repay, all the while putting $1.10 on the credit cards for every dollar in take-home pay. Meanwhile, if anything in your shopping cart isn’t stamped “Made in China,” it was made in Korea, Indonesia or Vietnam. Gas is up, food is up, heat is up, and our spirits are down.

So how do we cure what ails us? Why Uncle Sugar’s going to send most of us—the ones with jobs and first-world incomes—a nice little check; something to make us feel a little better, at least until Election Day.

Well, all I can say is I sure hope my kids remain childless. I’d feel guilty about borrowing that money from my grandkids. They’re the ones who’ll be paying it back—as if we care.

I tell you, we sure can be a sorry, snively bunch.

Faced with a Depression far deeper and far grimmer than anything most of us have experienced, President Franklin Roosevelt told our grandparents and great-grandparents they had “nothing to fear but fear itself.” Our current president just tells us about all the things he wants us to be afraid of. And, to our shame, we take him seriously.

Other generations were called upon to dig deep and sacrifice for the common good. We’ve been called upon to dig deep and sacrifice for the Gucci at Macy’s.

Think about it. When our country faced down the real Hitler after the real Pearl Harbor—that was after 11 years of the Great Depression, mind you—where did the money come from to build the tanks, the bombs and the B-29s? Uncle Sam hit up the American people, and they bought the war bonds and saving stamps, paid the taxes, put up with rationed gas, rationed sugar and no new cars for the duration. More recently, when Americans asked their president what we could do after Sept. 11, Dubya sent us to the mall.

It says more than we should like it to that we, the American people, are generally identified simply as consumers. When I think about it, more than anything, it brings to mind a nest full of naked, baby birds — beaks gaped open, waiting eagerly for whatever it is that will be stuffed down their throats next.

Not always. We once were a nation of producers—the “Arsenal of Democracy” we boasted, and with every justification. There was a time when people bought and owned what they did in order that they could better do what they did—raise a crop, make shoes, cast steel, build a cathedral. And they did it with pride.

Maybe it’s that pride that made those generations different from ours.

Faced with truly hard times the president and the Congress bought us Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, our own City Hall and, if you look at the curb in the older parts of town you can still find stamped into the concrete “WPA 1936.” This president and this Congress look to buy us a PlayStation or Wii with the money landing in a bank in Shanghai.

And our country is in need of the money politicians are suddenly eager to have us spend—just as it was three quarters of a century ago.

Indeed, the bridges they built then are falling; the water mains they laid then are leaking; the national character they built is crumbling. In the ’30s, the president and the Congress looked for ways to put money into their constituents’ hands—constituents who needed work, needed heat, needed food for the family table. This president promises to veto increased funding for heating assistance, for food stamps, for the unemployed and the Congress will go along rather than risk their promise of big screen TVs to the reasonably affluent.

And no, if the check arrives in my mailbox, I won’t stamp it “Return to Sender.” I’ll just write it off as another example of wasteful government spending, stick it in the bank and go on with my business. I gave it to them once with the intent that they make good use of it—build a road, feed a soldier, buy a textbook—and they let me down. They’re letting us all down.

Better yet: Might I suggest turning over any rebate cheques you get (if @ all) to the Bureau of the Public Debt, using the same as Voluntary Gifts to Reduce the National Debt Held by the Public.

Unless someone out there can show cause why maintaining the National Debt @ such high levels as now ($9 trillion and climbing) is necessary for the sake of National Identity. (You can leave them in the Comments section.) 

And PLEASE, spare us the "political reasons" patsies and platitudes!