LT Saloon

…yes, we do “hope.” But will it be, or even have a chance to be, “as advertised?”

Here we go again. We’ve circled the sun another 300 plus times, the seasons have swirled around us by four and someone… something… is getting ready to or flip a switch, or press a button, or signal a computer, to drop a ball on Times Square.

Worse than believing in an old bearded man who never dies and goes down fictitious chimneys at every home worldwide, just one night every December, every year …

As feeble minded as the Neo Con who believes Bush can do no wrong…

Many revelers all across the country actually seem to believe it’s being dropped exactly when their time zone oriented “new” year rolls around: Central Time, Mountain Time, Pacific Time, Lithuanian time, Bongo Bongo time; only that’s not a ball. It’s a boiling pot with preacher in it. When it hits the bottom a bell goes off and revelers feast!

What, A1 doesn’t sell a sauce specially formulated for the formerly ordained, now somewhere between rare to well done?

It’s our regular prerecorded New Year’s “miracle.” At 12:00 midnight, wherever you are, some snot nosed baby thumbs his nasal orifice at humanity as Old Man time gratefully keels over saying, “Damn, I’m glad to be outta here!”

As we will be after tonight; once 08 becomes 09 and a few weeks pass.

In just a fistful of days we hopefully move on from torture is not torture, away from where not paying attention is considered being a responsible leader, past considering using an American tragedy for political gain fair game, as far away as possible from the obscene concept that a victim shot by a Vice President has to apologize for the audacity of taking away from his greatness… or just being in the way of the gun, light years beyond the idea that bodies floating in swill that floods the street of a great American city while mercenaries shoot anyone on site for any reason is acceptable; or beyond using such horrendous events as an excuse to funnel money to corporate friends: not rebuild, and definitely the opposite end of the universe from mercenaries who execute whole families and machine gun down crowds and passerby-ers in Iraq…

Dare I continue?

No, least you vomit all over your computer screens.

Will the new year bring “better?”

Burping up another over wrought cliche’: yes, there is hope. But is hope enough? I doubt it. The forces that made Bill Clinton’s life Hell, and anyone who wouldn’t lie about him, are taking down the War on Christmas “your enemy’s guts,” pagan warrior-based, garland. At the same time they’re also preparing to slice, dice, smear and butcher anything, anyone, who isn’t them: especially those represented by the presidential seal.

Happy New Year, America!

But, despite Mad Max-like economic times, I’m so glad to be here. The little bratty children who called themselves “adults” are leaving, though they don’t have their beaten tails tucked between their legs as they should, it’s glad to see them go. Kind of like when the cousins visited when you were all kids and stayed way too damn long. You know, the ones who; instead of playing with you, thought “play” was tormenting you while insisting you were the immature one for not accepting the torture?

I now understand the “audacity of hope,” but know that “audacity” may well become known as the operative word in that phrase.

Storm clouds on the horizon tell me that the new precedent will let the guilty go free and unpunished for the sake of a better future: a bad precedent as far as recent history goes. Look at what happened to Nixon and his get out of jail card buddies. Notice how it eventually morphed into trading arms with the enemy with many of the same cast. Who wrote this Broadway musical, the same demons who made the deal at a crossroads called Nixon? Did they make the same deal for 2000? 2004? And what will the massive shrug off of Buschco guilt actually achieve?

I’m frightened.

But I am glad to be here. Hope you are too. Let’s enjoy what we can and fight the good fight against what we shouldn’t have to tolerate. We have been wandering in a desert absent of decency while thirsting for it: intellectually starved and parched while the president insists our children “is learning.”

We have been lost in some less than Z grade “documentary:” The George W. Bush/Linda Blair-like Witch Project. The past eight years have been more than enough to turn your head 360 degree. And the projectile has splattered us all; some worse; and some far more dead, than others.

But the clamps are about to be released that have held us here; at least we hope so.

The jail cells unlocked, for now.

And I think the sun is shining outside.

Or at least I have hope it is.

-30-

Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 30 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.

© Copyright 2008
Ken Carman and Cartenual Productions
All Rights Reserved

Rod Blagojevich has been a thorn in the side of the state’s business, real estate and health insurance interests — he passed or advocated laws on such things as universal health care for all Illinoisans, stricter penalties on ‘bad paper’ lenders, and tougher regulations on corporations — that made them all loathe him.

The Chicago Tribune newspaper, reliably Republican and owned by the Tribune Media Company, has been aching to get rid of Blago practically since he took office, calling for his impeachment mainly because he sought to rein in their power. (Think about the story the BM are trying to hang Blago on in this regard: He supposedly called up the Tribune and tried to get some of his more ardent critics on the Trib editorial board fired; it was then alleged that he withheld a state bailout to TMC when the Trib refused to fire them. It passes hilarity to see the Washington Punditrocracy gasp in outrage over threats of withholding government aid unless someone is fired or reassigned – Karl Rove has been playing this game this since Junior was governor of Texas. And it passes understanding why TMC, which was a profitable concern in that pre-Sam Zell era, would need a bailout from the taxpayers. Let’s also recall that the Tribune admitted it sat on stories on the investigation at the request of Fitzgerald — in other words, the Trib became an arm of the Federal prosecutor’s office in order to ‘get’ Blago. Somehow this serious lack of journalistic ethics has escaped the notice of the overheated Big Media, dipping their paddles in another empty ‘Whitewater’ farce.

Blagovich’s corruption or abuse of office, whatever it turns out to be, did not involve national security, so I fail to see any reason for the Trib to cooperate with Fitzgerald except that they wanted him gone since he wouldn’t play ball with the mighty Tribune Media Company.

Then there are the curious activities of Patrick J. Fitzgerald himself.

As even the New York Times has noticed, the charges against Blagojevich are paper thin — Blago talking on the phone and thinking out loud about taking a bribe for a Senate appointment, knowing he was under surveillance, can be passed off as a bad joke or ‘just talk’; lacking an actual bribe or proof of an arrangement to sell the US Senate seat, all Fitzgerald has is intercepted conversations between Blago and his Chief of Staff that amount to zilch. The same is true with the $8 million in state aid to a children’s hospital; the group got and kept the money regardless of Blago’s alleged threat to withdraw the $8 million unless they forked over $50,000 in a campaign contribution. Since the $50K never changed hands, and the $8 million was never withdrawn, you have a baseless threat.

In fact, there’s no evidence that Fitzgerald has yet brought forth that Blago received a bribe from anyone – it’s all been just talk, but that didn’t stop Fitzgerald from publicly convicting the man without a trial. The prosecutor’s excuse for precipitously arresting Blago to prevent him from selling the Senate seat just doesn’t hold water – why not wait until the deal is made and then have actual proof of a bribe? Certainly the Senate would reject anyone appointed under such conditions, so there would be no problem there.

Let’s breakdown Fitzgerald’s extraordinary behavior in this case and his possible motives:

First off, a prosecutor as experienced as Fitzgerald doesn’t editorialize in a press conference on the defendant using such words as “crime spree” and his off-the-cuff comments about Lincoln. That is unnecessarily inflammatory and completely unprofessional. He also doesn’t allow an FBI agent to grab the microphone and render his ill-informed opinion on the advanced state of corruption in Illinois. (Incidentally, according to USA Today, 18 states rank ahead of Illinois in political corruption convictions — including Florida, Alabama and Palin’s Alaska.)

By doing this, Fitzgerald has soured any possibility of finding a jury without a prejudice against the defendant, and blatantly violated Department of Justice policy, thereby providing solid grounds for a judge to dismiss the charges on a defense motion. Why would Fitzgerald do something this stupid?

The only reason I can think of is a partisan one — before he’s even taken office, the GOP is desperately trying to taint the popular Barack Obama with the ‘relentless corruption’ of Chicago and Illinois, even though Obama’s from liberal Hyde Park, an area of the city which is a long-standing bulwark against the corruption of the various local and state Dem political machines, and, what’s more, he never got along with Blagojevich in the first place. (Yes, I know Fitzgerald made a point of saying Obama was not involved in any corruption, but that didn’t stop the Big Media, with the help of the RNC’s daily Talking Points, from predictably connecting those invisible dots in an orgy of innuendo and inference, repeating the magic words “Blagojevich.” “Obama,” “corruption,” “Chicago,” “Illinois” in the same sentence. This is precisely the way Junior sold the war in Iraq: he kept repeating “Saddam,” “Al Qaeda,” “9/11,” “terrorism” and “Iraq” in close proximity until many just conflated the words together and assumed Saddam must have been behind the 9/11 attacks in some way.)

Also, this seems to be an attempt to cast the Democrats as every bit as corrupt as the Republicans. Some Dems are corrupt, of course, but nowhere near as corrupt as the Bush-Cheney-Rove-DeLay-Abramoff gravy train of bribery of the past decade. Blago talked about selling a Senate seat — BushCo sold off everything that wasn’t nailed down, including an entire nation, and got Americans, Afghanis and Iraqis killed and wounded in the process.

Finally, the GOP is in trouble with working people right now, thanks to the party’s opposition to the auto bailout and preserving union jobs — this makes a nice distraction for the BM from reporting that story.

Remember, Blago was arrested one day after he came out in support of the union workers sit-down strike at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago and cancelled all state business with Bank of America until the strike was settled. That amounted to, potentially, a billion-dollar loss to BoA.

Recall as well that Fitzgerald is currently employed by one of the most politicized DoJ’s in history, lead by Michael Mukasey, a man who can find no Republican wrongdoing – not even authorized torture — and, if he is shown any, refuses to prosecute it.

If Fitzgerald had been following the usual routine for a federal corruption case, he would have empanelled a Grand Jury, secured indictments, and then announced to the public the charges, as he did with Scooter Libby.

Instead, he grandstanded for the media in a press conference, inserted his personal opinions into the case, dragged an FBI agent to the stage for no reason, and virtually destroyed any chance at a conviction.

Let’s also not forget that although Fitzgerald indicted and convicted Lewis Libby, he let Karl Rove off the hook after Rove changed his story five times and never did charge anyone in the actual leaking of Valerie Plame’s identity. Lawyers who don’t work for Fitzgerald have said that it is unimaginable in an ordinary case for a witness to change their sworn testimony that many times without being charged, at the least, with obstruction of justice, yet Rove walked free.

But the BM are not asking these questions, instead running off at the mouth with the pathetic pettiness, loopy gossip and echo-chamber memes of the ‘got nothing’ inside-the-beltway speculation that is pumped out as news these days.

Here’s my take:

I don’t think the Blago case will go anywhere; Fitzgerald may get a few indictments, but they’ll be thrown out of court. Blago’s impeachment is also doubtful: since Fitzgerald is not sharing his evidence – incredibly, he’s still investigating this case after arresting the suspect (you’re supposed to investigate first) – the impeachment panel has little real evidence to go on except Fitzgerald’s biased public statements and media accounts of those statements. That’s not enough to impeach. Already the Illinois Supreme Court has tossed out Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s farcical ‘unfit to serve’ claim, so that’s going nowhere as well. It’s all been lots of smoke and no fire, so far.

I think Fitzgerald, who has studiously polished up his public image as a ‘white knight’ prosecutor, will use the Blagojevich prosecution, even if it’s a bust, as a springboard to enter politics, probably in a run for the governorship as a Republican, just like the gag-inducing Big Jim Thompson before him. (That’s a neat ethical dilemma in itself – prosecutor besmirches the reputation of the sitting governor and the Democratic Party so that he can then run against the alleged corruption of that party that he very publicly exposed, but couldn’t convict on, due to his press conference grandstanding on the case to bolster his political campaign.)

This is not intended as a defense of Rod Blagojevich; he’s probably a typical political slime bucket in the ‘Hizzoner’ Chicago tradition but, nonetheless, he has some very powerful business forces that want him out of office, and he deserves to be treated as innocent until proven guilty. Up to now, the BM and Fitzgerald have convicted him before a jury has even seen the evidence and, no matter if he’s cleared of all charges, his reputation and political career are permanently ruined.

My guess is Fitzgerald may even quietly drop most of the charges by March – without palpable irony, he’ll blame the firestorm of media coverage as the major reason, a conflagration he ignited, likely for his own political advancement.

That may well be the actual case of political corruption here.

“Where any of you got the idea
you were wise enough
to judge anyone else,
I’ll never know,
I talked about humankind’s boon,
and said you should all
acknowledge your feet of clay,

“But, of course, you got it wrong again,
instead of being kinder and forgiving,
you dare use my name to
despise and complain
and drone the timeless tired human tune
of hate, vengeance,
and compelling others to obey.

“It doesn’t matter how many times you are
born again, for, in truth,
you are born only once;
and it doesn’t matter what
pious guise your words assume
nor any other homilies you bray,

“If you can’t act on my philosophy,
you can baptize yourself ’til you drown,
and sing hymns until hoarse,
and cry to the stars and moon,
and it won’t make even a whit’s difference,
whatever you pray.

“You could, indeed, make of
this world a paradise,
but you choose differently,
but maybe someday you’ll learn,
probably later rather than soon,
what a pity it is that
you could have created this world
two thousand years ago
or yesterday.”

He finished his drink
and got up to leave the bar,
then sighed deeply and said:
“Whatever webs you weave
on deception’s loom,
remember just this of what I say;
peace and love for one another
remain the only way.”

Copyright 1999-2008 R.S. Janes

His cup?

Crossing oneself when passing an altar?

His words?

Oh, we know what the most stringent of orthodox Christians believe, not only because of the celebration of his birth placed at the end of this disciple-like twelve month cycle-circle, but because that view has long dominated humanity’s vista; too often forced down our collective throats to the point of “gag.” If it were up to the most fundamentalistic of the orthodox it would be all we are allowed to see, all we could consider; something that must lead to severe punishment if contradicted; as if just saying “happy holidays’ instead of “merry Christmas” is actually some conspiracy, or vile crime. We may not burn or physically torment those considered heretics: those deemed theologically incorrect much any more, but we often go way out of our way to avoid offending those who use offense as mere method to silence others.

I have always been intrigued by Jesus.

Who was this man that inspires so much devotion? Who was this enigma who walked the sands of what is now Israel some odd 2,000 years ago, whose teachings have spread worldwide? We know that the myths which surround Jesus weren’t born with him. They were around long before Jesus was born. Other deities and prophets have been supposedly “born of a virgin,” or “raised the dead.” There were many during that time who claimed to perform miracles.

Jesus and stories about him have stayed with us. Not one of the other wannabe stories can match the depth of that story telling, or the amount of stories told; leaving fading footprints in the form of footnotes being washed away by time… at best.

I am sure the orthodox would insist they; and they alone, have kept the flame alive; firmed up his footprints so all can know the one, the only, “true” religion. But what is “orthodox” changes, from Jews in high positions who led Jesus to the cross, to the Puritans who fined any sign of celebrating his birth. Yet Jesus lives on… not because, but despite, orthodox attempts to maintain theistic purity.

Jesus has resisted being nailed down by any one group of believers; any single sect, ever since he was born; probably on some date other than what we celebrate. Throughout history, when the Catholic Church, or otherwise orthodox, or Fundamentalists, have attempted to anchor him to a singular kind of cross, he has ripped himself free. People flock to him from all kinds of theological persuasions, and various variations; interpretations, of his story. And his story has embraced them.

New interpretations of his story have grown; become controversial movies, despite attempts to create serious shrinkage.

Christmas wrappings.

All these variations and interpretations remind me of Christmas wrappings.

The kind of Christmas presents Jesus still gives are actually wrapped in interesting paper: learning from each other; through discussion and the scholars who have studied and assessed the various scriptures both in the Bible, and writings banned from it. The orthodox have a long list of banned gifts. They’re checking it twice. Snooping into lives to decide who they consider naughty, or nice. But no matter how hard they try, stories and interpretations of stories, live on, revive: ripping themselves off of crosses and rise again.

The power of words is amazing, isn’t it?

On a website called The Chimp, a few weeks ago, we gathered; as often we do: believers and not, in what I consider a holy event: discussion. One thread claimed Jesus was Black.

Here was my response to the “Jesus was Black” claim…

“This is only true if you accept the rather absurd premise that racial make up is either Black or White: the same mistake Neo Cons and rabid fanatics of all kinds make about life in general.”

‘A man of color?”

“Yes.”

“Not ‘white?’”

“Certainly.”

“But even the question betrays, once again, our tendency to focus on form, not substance, on the absurdly inconsequential rather than the crucial.”

“To paraphrase…”

‘It’s the message, stupid.’

“With the excesses of Nicaea, provable biblical alterations (see Bart Ehrman’s many books) and all we don’t consider; there’s enough here to argue about and discuss. What did he really say? What did he mean? Even the disciples didn’t agree.”

“Instead our arguments seem to center around the intellectual equivalent of what flavor bubblegum he might prefer.”

I understand: my response seems to contradict all I’ve typed so far.

Imagine the most perfect Christmas gift possible. A gift to all. One that works in so many ways; a gift that for a boy can be a bike, for a girl a doll, for an old man a loving old woman to live his final days with, a gift that makes otherwise self absorbed give unto others… This, intended or not, is the gift Jesus gives us.

And I intentionally smeared my own cynical opinions all over one interpretation, one revision?

So, yes, by posting that opinion I felt more than a little guilty. Who am I to criticize attempts to unwrap the gifts he continues to give with one’s unique perspective? Yes, who am I? “I” am the same as they: a person with the right to contribute to that vision; not all that unlike yet another stumbling, bumbling… always behind the Master and his message, disciple. The very kind of person Jesus reached out to, attempting to touch them with words… hoping they’ll find meaning.

Hey, if it brings them closer to the message, then that’s a wonderful thing. I was also reminded of Klan members and suicidal cultists who abuse this these gifts use Jesus as if he were a weapon or some purer, holier than thou, hand grenade.

The story of Jesus means nothing if we cannot understand it; each in our own unique ways, and attempt to bridge gaps between our differences; learn from each other. I was simply sharing my own perspective, hoping to learn too.

None of this is new. Indeed one must call it a “tradition.”

Squabbling amongst followers is as old as his ministry itself. The disciples fought amongst themselves. According to Bart Erhman, in Lost Christianities, the Ebionites attacked those who would eventually become the more successful; orthodox… winning side, if you wish… shortly after the crucifixion. They believed, for example…

“Peter, not Paul, is the true authority for understanding the message of Jesus. Paul has corrupted the true faith based on a brief vision… Paul is thus the enemy of the apostles, not the chief of them… a heretic to be banned.”(Pg 184)

Let’s flip this theological coin…

The Marcionites, of course, would have probably felt comfortable switching Peter with Paul, Paul with Peter in that paragraph. Some followers; various kinds; including some of the Gnostic sects, might have inserted Mary in the authority position. Others, soon to be considered orthodox, would consider Mary’s gender closer to “enemy…” a unique circular firing squad made up of the same names of quarreling folk musicians.

Yes, I did manage to find some way to use that joke a second time, if you remember my previous column on this subject.

Sue me.

My lawyers eagerly await your call at 1-800-SUE-AKEN. That’s right, 1-800-SUEAKEN. Operators aren’t waiting.

There are many stories of Paul and Peter visiting and revisiting “churches,” if one can really call them that during a Christian meets lion era, attempting to correct what the other had taught. Are these true stories? Well, let’s just admit that the accepted text of the Bible more than hints at such squabbling between disciples; so it seems likely.

Little is known beyond the manger story until his ministry. Luckily, as Bart Ehrman points out in Lost Christianities, various stories have been snatched, sometimes literally, from history’s fire; like The Infancy Gospels. One can be assured many of the stories in Infancy were tales that Nicaea would never have approved in any version of the Bible. Even if true, they don’t reflect well upon the image they wished to carefully craft. In one, Jesus strikes a child dead who won’t play with him: then raises him from the dead later. In another he models bird from clay only to be told it was the Sabbath, so he gives them life and they fly away. Not as bad as the first, but back when these books were debated violating the Sabbath was more problematic.

After killing a teacher who punished Jesus for being a wise guy, pun intended, Joseph told Mary…

“Do not let him go outside. Anyone who makes him angry dies.” (Pg. 205)

I ask again… are these stories true? Probably not. But like the stories Nicaea accepted that many now insist must be true “word for word…” can you imagine what they might be saying about those who walk our streets and inhabit our TV screens 2,000 years from now? How might stories about Bill Clinton, or Barack Obama, or George Bush, change hundreds of years from now… thousands of years? And we have a lot more power individually and collectively; a lot more sources to help keep the stories straighter than they ever had. Not that we use them all that well. The path has always been more than a little crooked. If just a few years later some believe the poorly placed lie “Saddam never let the inspectors in,” what chance does truth have?

More of a chance than 2,000 years ago.

The light provided by our mass media culture is powered thousands of watts, billions of pages, an almost infinite number of dots on screens. And, yes, these are paths that the bleak, pitiful blackness of convenient lies use. Yet all it takes is a few, maybe even one, to make the light a bit more bright; less bleak. There are trillions of individual avenues on which truth might ride worldwide, waves on which might surf into our auditory canals… somewhere, somehow the truth usually has a chance; no matter how small or insignificant. Back then: pretty much none of the above. A story told and passed on may have done so more slowly, but had much more unchallenged power.

The very word “gospel” has a double meaning due to just how effective Nicaea was in establishing a claim of “absolute truth,” insinuating that anything not “gospel” is a lie, a con, dishonest and heretical. This was, perhaps, the ultimate attempt to glue, nail, spike and weld the corpse of Christ into a cross of one design. It almost succeeded, yet never will. Jesus, or at least his myth, is too powerful to be held by any mortal sacrifices made in the name of one set of believers or another.

While it is true that mass murder has been committed in his name, without that name one can be sure those eager to commit genocide, fratricide… as well as all the gruesome ways to slaughter each other kill with or without a “cide,” would simply find some other way to contribute to the collective moral suicide of the human race.

Jesus didn’t do this to us: we did.

Many of the words Jesus is claimed to have said point at us like Marley. He is every ghost; we are Scrooge: hoarding what we think only we have an exclusive right to, sharing what we have in pittances. His ministry reaches beyond the grave, knocks on the door of the human heart whispering, “Let me in.” This is the real strength of Jesus and his story, though those who claim to be the only true purveyors of his message will do anything to convince you otherwise.

As the body twitched and quivered into the arms of Death; animals approached. They ripped out legs, broke off arms. Scratching out eyes with claws, others attempted to shred and plunge their way into his body so they might eat his heart. To this day they still fight over a carcass that should be gone by now, but keeps regenerating. But despite this amazing regenerative ability, the body was still a body; risen or not… nothing more: a mere vehicle for the man, the prophet, the “Savior.” They’ve displayed his supposed parts; what he held or may have been wrapped in, a cup, piece of a cross… as if they have magical properties and hold the secret to his powers. Perhaps they will never realize, “He is not here.”

From birth to death we have fought to be by his side, but too often listen only to our own perspective, or insist those who agree with us are his only chosen messengers; the only ones on his side. This battle is reflected in the Bible, in all the books never accepted into the Bible and in all the differing faiths. Most of all… it’s reflected in those so tired of how we treat such disagreements and discussions; the single mindedness, that they shun the topic totally.

Jesus did not choose those who were closest to him who agreed with each other. Why have we insisted on doing so since?

I believe even if we misunderstand his message, Jesus would want us talking about, discussing and reaching out to each other: attempting to understand his ministry. The real miracle really wasn’t fish and loaves, walking on water or tears from some statue. The real miracle is he lives on in our attempts to understand and be more like we think he might wish us to be. This despite all we are told has to be; must have been: nothing more and nothing else possible.

No other human in human history comes close to achieving this miracle born thousands of years ago. It’s not a flashy kind of miracle like multiplying bread or walking on water, though one might argue it is one way to raise what some the dead again and again… despite bullets, bombs, beheadings and torture.

Miracles do happen. They’re just not always quite what we expect, or believe, them to be.

-30-

Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 30 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.

© Copyright 2008
Ken Carman and Cartenual Productions
All Right Reserved

[...]

MCM: The fact that Obama won so handily has caused a lot of us to sit back and relax. There’s been a lot of popping of champagne corks and people drawing the conclusion that the system must work, because our guy won. Well, this is not a sports event. This is self-government.

In fact, the evidence strongly suggests — and we haven’t had a chance to talk about this since Election Day — that Obama probably won by twice as many votes as we think. Probably a good seven million votes for Obama were undone through vote suppression and fraud, because the stuff was extensive and pervasive, in places where you wouldn’t expect it.

The Illinois Ballot Integrity Project was monitoring the vote in DuPage County, right next door to Obama’s, you know, backyard, Cook County. And two of them, in only two precincts on Election Day, saw with their own eyes 350 voters show up, only to be turned away, told, “You’re not registered,” people who were registered, who voted in the primary. All but one of these people was black. That’s in Illinois.

People at the Election Defense Alliance have discovered, from sifting through the numbers, an eleven-point red shift in New Hampshire. That means that there’s a discrepancy in Obama’s disfavor, primarily through use of the optical scan machines, an eleven-point discrepancy in the Republicans’ favor, OK?