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Bozeman (Apple Cart News) - August 27, 2008

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer revealed a critical aspect to the plans for a unified government in North America in an eerie replay of Stan Jones' speech during a CSPAN debate in the 2006 US Senate race.
Unnamed sources are confirming a plan by the recently minted 'petro-dictators' to establish an office in Bozeman in order to advocate media control, night time curfews and random spot checks for oil abusers. They say that anyone caught with oil on their breath will not be tolerated and summary ejections from the city could result if their plan is accepted.

EA (an Helena based group called Energy Alarmists) is decrying the plan. Spokesman Ira Green feels that " addiction is a real problem, if we just banish people who can't control their carbon footprint, it's only a matter of time before the shoe is on the other foot".

Ralph Nader and Bob Barr ought to consider a national debate tour like the famed Lincoln Douglas debates. Both are making the case that they should be included. Most likely they will be excluded by the Presidential Commission for Debates and such a tour might compliment their efforts better than a gamble to shoot for the Big Show.

I'm sure McCain and Obama would struggle on some level with either opponent. Nader stakes many claims in the American Polis and Barr also has a claim to a national spotlight more so than the Greens and Constitutional Party. To be sure, Barr and Nader should participate in any such third party debate, but one can certainly appreciate their tactics and goals in the matter.

Charlotte Grimes offers some insight into the process of political coverage by journalists in my own regional paper. It seems to be making the blogosphere rounds too. One of my State Chair colleagues in Washington (Scott Lindsley) responds in kind;

The fact that you are addressing the issue of third party media coverage is encouraging.

Of course there should be reasonable barriers for entry into the news and the debates. But should they be so high that one has to mortgage your home to be heard just because you chose to be of a less popular party?

Here's my crack at it (after the jump).

Ever since the maudlin meandering of NBC and the diminutive big headed Bob Costas took over Olympic coverage, who knows how many years ago now, I haven't been exactly glued to my seat watching. If you tune in at eight you get twenty five minutes of the American wunder story of the day and by nine you get the event itself, which if Googled, one knows or finds the results immediately before the superficial drama that helps sell the Venus Breeze.

While I kind of felt bad for Marion Jones when she was shackled by the self righteous State for simply lying to it, the whole gotta win attitude coupled with the worship my wholesomeness didn't have my tears caught rolling down a cheek. So when the two young men from Latvia beat the self-assured and spoiled American stars of "beach volleyball" that I happened to actually catch today, I found myself taunting my overly inoculated six year old patriot-USA(!) with chants of 'Latvia ! Latvia !

I was somewhat intrigued when popular Libertarian blogger Tom Knapp started the Boston Tea Party soon after the 2006 Portland massacre. An online political party that hearkened to the radical sensibility with a savvy for the political seemed an interesting notion without any real threat to LP work and activities. A place where members could vent and fume within their own diaries and entries and perhaps still effect meaningful activism within the libertarian community in general. Fine. Sometimes a great notion . . .

The current self-flagellation from its members and current standard bearers for office is a greater reflection of petty narcissistic traits and ambitions that one finds within splinters of a small movement, than any real grassroots or political effort. To be sure, most of the current brouhaha is based on the success of reform elements within the LP and the eventual nomination of Bob Barr. But there has also been a disproportionate coverage of their activities within the small third party blogosphere and even some mention in the higher echelons of typical political coverage. I'm beginning to think about getting sixteen of my buddies together to form the American Anarchist Party so as not to be left out. At least there would be no compromise on real principles.

Your candidate sucks. Know this as you prepare your guy for the fight in the fall. He just flipped on FISA & matching funds. Things he pledged not to do. Who hired Samantha Power and James Johnson ? I have have to say as an atheist, it was hard to get worked up about the Reverend Wright. But I do get worked up about ballot access and candidate debates. Both of which your guy fails miserably about. Now I hear he's going to help bail out multi-millionaire Hillary Clinton and her campaign debt, go figure.

I suppose touchy feely crap is the stuff of modern political candidacies, but I'm still waiting for substance. I know the average Ivy League graduate in the MSM thinks those memoirs and books we're the right stuff, but I'm unswayed. But is he the darling that the disgruntled right would have us believe ? As far as I'm concerned the dude can't even bowl, so Harvard degrees in law are meaningless. There simply is no evidence that he understands economics or anything beyond the typical pandering of a main party politician. My vote for President of the United States has always been 'wasted', as a denizen of New York, there's no doubt that my fellow collectivist citizens and their deep desire to hope and have change will carry the day for Obama. This is just a quick protest note to goad your idealism a bit.

Well it looks like Hillary has come home. At least to the extent that she carpet bagged into my own home and decided she could represent me in Washington. As there seems no limit to the capacity that New Yorkers will allow the Democratic Party to walk all over them (witness Hevesi and Spitzer), it is fun to reflect on the last two years. The naked and raw ambition of the Clintons has never been a question for little 'ol me who had to endure the embarrassment of the listening tour in 2000.

Even though I know they exist, I never found the ardent Hillary supporter willing to discuss the ideas or issues that she presumably represented for us. Rather it was always how horrible the Republicans were or some other equally vague bromide or premonition. So let's take a quick look at the highlights of the POTUS chase for our favorite daughter from, Illinois, Arkansas and DC.

While some in the minarchy camp are deriding the effort of Crispin Sartwell and his challenge to statists everywhere, I'm rather enjoying these YouTube spots. It's kind of like bite size packages of anarchy in University quality lectures, without having to get a parking permit. While we may be no closer to the pure Pennsylvania ticket (especially now that Kent has moved away) the challenge of the state as legitimate continues. Perhaps political posturing and pandering aren't the way as technology opens these new paths. But I do wonder what would have happened to Thoreau's soul had the Internet been available 150 years ago . . .

My Life as a Kurd and a Terror Suspect

There is a Fox News meme that has been going around since early March which includes the case of Yassin Aref. It has provided fodder for every right wing blogger who sees terror plots around every corner. Hopefully the release of Son of Mountains will persuade thoughtful people to counteract this hit job, not only in the blog world, but everyday life about such matters.

Even when the local news and national news broke about this arrest in August 2004, I had extreme doubts and reservations about a 'sting' and the alleged ties to a real terrorist plot. After reading Aref's book all those doubts are washed away. The man was framed, setup and hung out to advance the political agenda of Karl Rove and his unwitting conspirator George Bush. Fortunately that's not even what the book is about. Aref's life as a Kurd, his suffering, forbearance, faith and understanding about the human condition may well become the bellwether for literature in the 21st Century. We've certainly had enough from the poor rich bastard stuck at Yale in the 20th Century.

After an entire political season with Chris Matthews, I have tired of him completely. Apparently just over seven hundred thousand people a night do not. While I'm not a fan of reference posts, a new piece in the New York Times Magazine reveals what I have thought about him all along. Mainly, that he is a bloviating apologist for people in power.

While this feeling is always vague and based on his performance on the tube, it's nice to see some journalism that takes on the man himself. He does equate himself with Hemingway, him and his producers aren't capable of understanding that even an upstate bumpkin like yours truly will suffer through his Sunday morning schtick with mucky mucks, at least during the dead of winter. But when push comes to shove, it only takes little Jon Stewart to out him for the fake that he truly is. Is it any wonder that he totally missed the boat on John McCain and melted for Obama once it became obvious ? I miss David Brinkley.