This is pathetic

Green Party VP nominee says she may vote for Kerry

Green Party vice presidential nominee Pat LaMarche is “so determined to see Bush lose that she would not commit to voting for herself” and running mate David Cobb, the Portland Press Herald reports.

Tell me Pat, why you are running? You claim to want to build the Green Party, but your actions are now making it an absurdity and a laughingstock.

Says political scientist Larry Sabato: “It’s a rare thing, even for a splinter party, to have a nominee for vice president indicate she is not sure for whom she is going to vote.”

Other phrases besides “rare” come to mind - like “unheard of” and ”gaspingly stupid.” How can anyone take a political party seriously when a major candidate says she may not even vote for herself?

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Well that’s just great, PoliZeros, you’ve bashed Greens and slapped Nader upside the head. Now what?

This does become a possibility, doesn’t it. Sigh…

The DemoGreens have taken over the Green Party, and if David Cobb, as expected, polls less than 1%, then the more radical Greens may be able to take back control of the party after November. By “more radical”, I mean those who genuinely want a third party, and not just be a daring trendy adjunct to the Democratic Party, however astoundingly thrilling this might be to some.

Among the many problems with Cobb is that there now will be no outside media coverage for Greens and the already miniscule fundraising will slow even more, especially considering that Greens are notoriously cheap, and that little to none outside money will be coming in. Did I mention Cobb has the charisma of week old leftovers? 

Pro-Nader Greens will try to get Ralph on the ballot wherever they can, including California, and will take the signatures wherever they get them, including Republicans. This approach, of course, leaves them wide open to the “spoiler” charge. However they view building a third party as worth the risk. I see using the extreme right to get Nader on the ballot as a tactic almost guaranteed to turn on them and bite them badly. We shall see.

Third parties do need to be built, now more than ever. Yet neither Nader or the Green Party appear to have had any contingency plan for their respective current dilemmas. Maybe it’s time to think of building other parties, parties that plan ahead more, do lots of outreach, and build coalitions.  

We are in a turbulent pre-election season, the turbulence and uncertainty will increase as the election nears, and with it all sorts of fractures and fissures will occur. These can be opportunities too, y’know.

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Bush meets actual journalist. Becomes upset

On the eve of his recent sojourn in Europe, President Bush had an unpleasant run-in with a species of creature he had not previously encountered often: a journalist.

He did not react well to the experience.

Meanwhile two noted theologians have announced that God, who apparently addresses them directly, has informed them Dubya is the annointed one in 2004.

Sean Hannity: God is “no Democrat”; Dennis Miller: Jesus “prefers Bush to Kerry”

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Abducted Marine had reportedly deserted

The officer said Corporal Hassoun, a 24-year-old Marine linguist who was born in Lebanon, was shaken up after he saw one of his sergeants blown apart by a mortar shell.

“It was very disturbing to him,” the officer said. “He wanted to go home and quit the game, but since he was relatively early in his deployment, that was not going to happen anytime soon. So he talked to some folks on base he befriended, because they were all fellow Muslims, and they helped sneak him off. Once off, instead of helping him get home, they turned him over to the bad guys.”

“It’s all we know right now,” the officer added.

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Founding fathers were among first auditors

The Pilgrims’ story from a business history side had an accounting scandal that was the ancestor of Enron and Tyco. Pilgrims sought financing and a charter to settle in America that were supplied by a group of early venture capitalists. The details of the agreement were unclear and no bookkeeper accompanied the group to America. A business manager sent to America by the financiers to run the business returned to England and borrowed money on behalf of the Pilgrims, and then spent it on travel, gifts and a London pub.

Sort of like the Adelphia folks building golf courses for themselves.

Colonization efforts—Sir Walter Raleigh’s “lost” colony in North Carolina, the Jamestown colony, the Pilgrims’ colony and the Puritans’ colony in Massachusetts—were all done as “joint-stock” ventures with wealthy capitalists in London financing the colonial efforts.

Hmm, a grumpy Socialist might opine that the American colonies were then just an investment scheme, and all the hoopla about “freedom from taxation” which justified the Revolutionary War was just a cover for the American ruling class grabbing the spoils from the British ruling class.

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