Will the Menstrualcramp run...and flow?

Indiana--Now that the senate blue dog founder Evan Bayh has been outed (the public is apparently slow on the uptake, I noticed long ago) as being roundly conservative, thanks mostly to the health care battle going on in Congress and has announced he won't be running for reelection, some of the Hoosier state's progressives are looking...well, probably in the wrong place. It's a good idea in theory to nominate/draft pop singer John Mellencamp, but I really don't think he's qualified.

Not so long ago, Bayh was a "good guy."

A fellow Hoosier and friend from college put it well on Facebook: "I think he'd just sit there chain-smoking and going "HEY! HEY!" every once in a while. Maybe an occasional harmonica solo." At least he featured Edith Massey of Pink Flamingos fame in one of his videos...but he made-out with her, and let's be honest, that's just wrong.

Will the Indiana GOP (aka NSDAP) drag this part of his past into the political roundhouse theater (a barn, this is Indiana)? The world may never know. At this writ(h)ing, there's no comments on all this high-falutin' talk over whether he's going to run or even flow into a senatorial candidacy by June of this year. Ah, but the left and the right are shitting all over themselves about whether he will or won't (my take is that he won't). (F)Alternet had some really superficial and inarticulate things to say today, somehow drawing a supplement to the writer's paycheck as a result:

So, could Mellencamp perform in the U.S. Senate?

Could he be the right replacement for retiring Senator Evan Bayh, D-Indiana?

Forget the blah-blah-blah about celebrities in politics. We crossed that bridge decades ago.

The question is whether this celebrity makes the right connections with this state.

Mellencamp certainly has the home-state credibility. Few rockers have been so closely associated with a state as Mellencamp with Indiana.

Mellencamp has a history of issue-oriented political engagement that is the rival of any of the Democratic politicians who are being considered as possible Bayh replacements.

And Mellencamp has something else. He has a record of standing up for disenfranchised and disenchanted working-class families in places like his hometown of Seymour, Indiana.

In other words, he's worthy of the consideration that has led to talk of a "Draft John Mellencamp" movement. In fact, he might be just enough of an outlier to energize base votes and to make independent voters look again at the Democratic column. ("Senator Mellencamp?," Alternet, 02.17.2010)

They also mention that John's "friends with Bill Clinton," which to these eyes and ears is roundly wrong-headed on his part if it's true. If Clinton was ever a "friend" of the poor, I'm Abraham Lincoln. He's not going to run. Who would want to after the most recent generation of incumbents left such a titanic mess? Mellencamp prefers the quiet life on his property outside of Bloomington, Indiana, in Seymour. Cross your own bridges, we play euchre in Indiana, m-kay?

But where did this meme begin? Facebook, where else? It sure wasn't poor old Myspace. I have a number of friends on there nay-saying about the social networking site's influence, but this is a good example that they're not entirely correct, but they're probably used to it:

A Facebook group is looking to draft singer John Mellencamp to replace departing Democratic Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana.
It's adding fuel to the fire of speculation that he'll launch a bid.

He would join a growing number of Democrats considering a run following Bayh's surprise announcement he will not seek reelection. ("Facebook Page Fuels Mellencamp Senate Speculation," mystateline.com, 02.17.2010)

FB is a good way to get a meme going and that's a real power--so much so that Fox News panicked shortly after noticing the existence of the group and did a spot on Mellencamp being "too left." In a sense, that's pulling-the-strings of the string-pullers, a real tug-of-war to control the narrative, even if accidentally. But will he run? Should be run? I know, all this "blah-blah-blah" over celebrities running, but I was never a conformist, so that meme can go jump in a lake with everyone else, it's not fixing anything. We have covered bridges in Indiana.

And, hey, why not let Fox News have the last word since they usually insist on it?

...Speculation is swirling [around the bowl, or is it 'bowel'?] that the liberal Mellencamp may put down his guitar and run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Evan Bayh. ...

The Democratic state central committee now has until June 30 to pick someone to replace Bayh on the ballot.

U.S. Reps. Baron Hill and Brad Ellsworth are among the other names being floated. But so far, Mellencamp's name is drawing the most attention.

Mellencamp's publicist did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

("Speculation Swirls Around Potential Senate Bid by Rocker John Mellencamp," Foxnews.com, 02.17.2010)

Interestingly, and in character, the online article is significantly more toned down from the bluster and hyperbole of the TV version telecast today on Fox. But really, just because it sounds like a great idea doesn't mean that it is. Take a look at California after several years of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the GOP. At least they used the proper word in all of this, "speculation." I should add that I like his paintings, they're very good. M-kay?

"Fox preemptive strike against Mellencamp: ‘He’s way over there’," Rawstory, 02.17.2010: http://rawstory.com/2010/02/fox-preemptive-strike-mellencamp/

"Senator Mellencamp?", Alternet, 02.17.2010: http://www.alternet.org/news/145714/senator_mellencamp_grassroots_movement_swells_for_rocker_to_run_of_bayh%27s_indiana_seat

"Facebook Page Fuels Mellencamp Senate Speculation," mystateline.com, 02.17.2010: http://mystateline.com/content/fulltext/?cid=138222

The man's site: http://www.mellencamp.com/

"Speculation Swirls Around Potential Senate Bid by Rocker John Mellencamp," Foxnews.com, 02.17.2010: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/17/speculation-swirls-potential-mellencamp-senate-bid/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+foxnews%252Fpolitics+%2528Text+-+Politics%2529

Does D.C. Have Her Own Salon Kittys? (Revised version, originally written in June of 2007)

Washington D.C./Nazi Germany--It's highly doubtful that Deborah Jeane Palfrey knew anything about the subterranean activities of some of her associates, but could some of them have been agent provocateurs or spies? Or, with the capabilities of current surveillance technology, would it even be necessary? Could elements within the government and the two major political parties run sexual blackmailing operations under the color of legitimate investigations? Could foreign agencies be using escort services for similar ends? There is smoke.

Time and technology have changed the West's social landscape in substantial respects since 1933-1945 , but some things never change. Generally speaking, only the technology changes. This is another age, and some political tactics never die because they're always going to be useful later-on, and sometimes they get results. Instant communication was once the sole domain of the State, but today, we all have cell phones, pagers, laptop computers, GPS locators, unparalleled surveillance capabilities, and toys like the Blackberry and the new iPhone. Things have changed in the "secret world" as well, though the full-extent of these technological developments are unknown.

On Salon Kitty:

Although brothels were officially outlawed by the Third Reich, the elite Nazi SS security police had been authorized by Himmler before the war to engage prostitutes in intelligence gathering. The infamous Salon Kitty in Berlin's Giebachstrasse [11] was the brainchild of the Deputy Reichsfuhrer SS, Reinhard Heydrich. The high-class brothel was set up to increase surveillance of foreign diplomats and visitors as well as to gather dossiers on the sexual indiscretions of Nazi party big-wigs and government guests [Ed.-my emphasis]. ... (pp. 241-242) (heretical.com, "Love, Sex and War," by John Costello From Chapter 12: 'Black Propaganda and Sexpionage')

But Nazi Germany was hardly the precedent of this approach--it's ubiquitous throughout human history in various incarnations. The story of Samson and Delilah comes-to-mind. "Honey traps" or "plots" are nothing new, and the examples are common in the secret world. Interestingly, "Operation Kitty" was an overall failure for the Nazis controlling the enterprise. It didn't provide the huge-swath of intelligence that its creator--Reinhard Heydrich of the SS--had wanted, just a lot of compromising smut on NSDAP party officials and lower-rung functionaries.

This was most useful against other "Gauleiters" in the National Socialist hierarchy. Heydrich likely used some of this information, though the extent is unknown. Heydrich was assassinated by Czech partisans in 1943, and had been an architect of the "final solution." Interestingly, it was an "open secret" amongst NSDAP functionaries who frequented Giebachstrasse 11 that all conversations were being recorded!

The Salon Kitty was a German SD (Gestapo) establishment in which, according to German spy chief Walter Schellenberg, "...important visitors from other countries could be 'entertained' in a discreet atmosphere and...offered seductive feminine companionship. In such an atmosphere the most rigid diplomat might be induced to unbend and reveal useful information." Salon Kitty was set up in a large multi-storied apartment structure in a fashionable district of Berlin. Today, it's another kind of shop. It is described in The Schellenberg Memoirs (1956):

["]Double walls were built for the incorporation of microphones. These were connected by automatic transmission to tape recorders which would record every word spoken throughout the house. Three of our department's technical experts, bound by oath, were put in charge of his apparatus. The ostensible owner of the house [Kitty Schmidt] was provided with the necessary domestic and catering staff for the establishment to be able to offer the best service, food, and drink.["] (Spy Tech Agency.com, 12.02.1999)

The brothel's madam--Kitty Schmidt--had no control over the arrangement, and was a virtual captive of the regime, just like everyone else under the rule of NSDAP. It's entirely possible we have an entire network of this sort in North America today, just with different contours. This leads us to the role of sexual blackmail in politics.

There have been quite few "retirements" at the Pentagon under the Bush administration, and under Donald Rumsfeld's Department of Defense, there was an intense struggle for control of the Pentagon's bureaucracy. Of course, it hasn't been isolated to the DoD under Bush and Cheney. One can safely assume that the officer class of the United States are amply represented in the D.C. Madam's phone records, especially considering the presence of several numbers originating from Annapolis, as well as most of the region surrounding Washington D.C. Hotels adjacent to the Pentagon are also present.

There is a possible analog here from the era of NSDAP. In 1938, Hitler was finalizing his consolidation of power, but there were a few loose ends in the officer corps of the Wehrmacht:

For Hitler, the moment had arrived to clean house, to replace the crusty old generals with younger men eager to serve their Führer and follow orders, regardless of the consequences. The two highest ranking officers in Germany at this time were hold-overs from the days of President Hindenburg; Field Marshal Werner [V]on Blomberg, the Commander in Chief of the German Armed Forces, and General Werner [V]on Fritsch, the Commander in Chief of the Army. These stiff-lipped men with their rigid codes of honor were about to be toppled by that most vile of all things from their point of view, personal scandals involving sex. (historyplace.com, "Hitler Becomes Army Commander," 2001)

For Blomberg, it would involve the fact that the elder Field Marshal married a "former-prostitute," conveniently found in Weimar police records by Herman Goering, the founder of the SD. Himmler also got in on the game. Thanks to this information, on January 25th, Hitler could finally force Blomberg's resignation. Finally, no one would stand in-his-way, and there would be war. For General Werner Von Fritsch, things would be worse than Blomberg's predicament. Much worse.

He would be blackmailed by an obscure account in Gestapo files that he had had an homosexual encounter in an alley in 1935, the same year that Hitler purged the SA (Brown shirts) in the "Night of Long-knives." In short, Fritsch was felled by a "confidential informant." At about that same time, Stalin was using similar methods in purging the Central Committee of the Communist Party, killing his prey outright...because he could.

The irony was, the informant who "outed" Fritsch (the notorious Hans Schmidt--no relation to Kitty) had the wrong man. It was an officer named "Frisch." It didn't matter to the blackmailers and state pimps: Hitler moved swiftly to remove Fritsch anyway. Sixteen other generals would be removed through various methods, but the downing of Blomberg and Fritsch was that crucial beginning of total control over the German Army by NSDAP. Ironically, a number of these generals would be brought back as the war deteriorated...

"Hitler Becomes Army Commander," 2001:
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-army.htm

"Love, Sex and War,":
http://www.heretical.com/costello/12sexspy.html

Spy Tech Agency, December 2nd, 1999:
http://216.87.7.9/Intel%20Bulletin/Intel%20Bulletin%20019991202.htm

The Antisocial Personality in History

"It was wholly in keeping with this retreat from the game of politics that he increasingly lapsed, in terminology and in the tenor of his statements, back into the plane of irrationality. ...Strictly speaking, he never again returned to politics." --the late German Historian Joachim Fest, from his book "Hitler", pgs. 610-611. 1973. Translation, Harcourt, Inc., 1974.

[6] Let them now therefore be punished as their crime requires, and do not, while you condemn the aristocracy, absolve the people.
--Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, book 3, chapter 39, section 6.


Washington D.C.--In the first piece I did on Bush's core nature, I noted that the antisocial personality-type has a disregard for the lives and safety of others.

New developments in the war in Iraq bring-to-light another aspect: his absolute rejection of politics and compromise, abetted by the Republican and Democratic Party's incumbents serving in the legislature. This seems to be suddenly rearing-its-head to many observers, yet it has been at the core of his--and this political era's--personality and approach. There is an unfortunate parallel here: Hitler and Nazi Germany again, and the misconceptions surrounding the causes and actions during that period of European history. The reality is far different than the public perception of that era, often startlingly so.

After the Fall of 1938 it was clear that most of the German people didn't want a wider war. The Prussian officer class feared that a world war was coming, and made several desperate attempts to curtail Hitler's push (too late at that point without the resolve to assassinate him).

Remember: Hitler was not elected. This is a myth, and Kurt Vonnegut and many others have been mistaken on this point since the end of WWII. Hitler was beaten by Hindenburg in the 1932 Presidential elections, and the machinations surrounding his rise to power are complicated. The reality is that Hitler was essentially appointed Chancellor by President Paul von Hindenberg.

The Nazis demanded that Adolf Schickelgruber (sounds pretty Aryan) be installed as Chancellor of Germany with a number of Nazis entering the Cabinet. Hindenburg, Von Papen, and several other State conservatives allowed it for social peace in the streets and to keep the German Communist Party from making further advances politically. They did it to use Hitler and NSDAP as a bulwark against a healthy domestic Left. In a period of such social chaos, Hitler's pathologies weren't immediately apparent. But it is interesting to note that the antisocial personality type is easily diagnosed today in what are more domestically "peaceful" conditions:

The most effectively-diagnosed personality disorder is the antisocial personality. The outstanding traits of this disturbance are an inability to feel love, empathy, or loyalty towards other people and a lack of guilt or remorse for one's actions. Due to the lack of conscience that characterizes it, the condition that is currently known as antisocial personality disorder was labeled moral insanity in the nineteenth century. (Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2nd ed. Gale Group, 2001.)

This describes Hitler well from all of the accounts of his behavior behind-the-scenes, and is reflected in George W. Bush's public demeanor, policy decisions, and from his language in speeches (we don't know much about the private-sphere...yet).

Few want to admit it, but the majority in a society can become mad--but what of a significant minority that's capable of society-wide destruction? This is always possible in any developed nation, and at all times. We know this from accounts from the Middle Ages (the witch hunts), cults, satanic panics, psychiatric cults, abduction phenomena, and periods of political and cultural "demonism" like the Cold War's Red Scare.

In late-1938, the military-columns that paraded through Berlin headed towards Czechoslovakia were met with stunned silence and apathy by the populace. Hitler stood angrily at his balcony--nobody wanted what he wanted, there were no crowds, and the majority of Germans wanted nothing of his war-aims. If you thought everyone in Germany was behind Hitler, you were wrong. Scores-of-innocents died under the Allied aerial-bombing.

The German public had deep misgivings about the Nazi regime as early as 1935, after the "Night of Long Knives." This is rarely reported in the accepted history. After the autumn of 1938, Hitler gave fewer-and-fewer speeches and appearances before the public. Overall, the German people didn't adore him anymore and they feared his drive towards war. By 1944, he wasn't seen in public, and even rarely gave his famed radio addresses. Gauleiter Josef Goebbels did most of the public-speaking for the Nazi centre towards the end.

You can see a similarity here with the Bush administration--the more-reluctant the public has become, the deeper the President and his administration digs-in, illustrating no regard for the safety of the troops and the Iraqi people. They have deliberately cut-themselves-off from the American public physically, and whomever comes after them isn't likely to be very different.

This withdrawl is a general aspect of personality disorders: a stiffness and an unwillingness to change under changing circumstances, and n inflexibility and ossification of a personality. Granted, with the revelations of secret CIA prisons and illegal rendition (kidnapping, then torture), this should be no surprise, but expect future revelations that are considerably worse in their depravity. Where does this all come from? There is no consensus on the causes of antisocial personality disorder (APD), however:

The cause of this disorder is unknown, but biological or genetic factors may play a role. The incidence of antisocial personality is higher in people who have an antisocial biological parents. Although the diagnosis is limited to those over 18 years of age, there is usually a history of similar behaviors before age 15, such as repetitive lying, truancy, delinquency, and substance abuse. This disorder tends to occur more often in men and in people whose predominant role model had antisocial features. (http://www.psychnetuk.com/clinical_psychology/criteria_personality_antisocial.htm)

In Hitler's, Stalin's, and George W. Bush's case, their "predominant role model" was their abusive father. Ponder this relationship and how very publicly it has played-out. It's known that Stalin's father beat him and was emotionally-abusive, and there is evidence that Hitler's father was this way too.

Both Hitler and Stalin's mothers were the reverse of the fathers: loving and doting, while the father was distant and rejected them.

While we don't know the whole story regarding the Bush clan's culture, there are signs that George W. Bush has been repeatedly rejected by Sr. It's also not difficult to fathom that George H. W. Bush is a pathological-liar and a criminal with a tendency towards manipulation and deceit. Whether he has been physically-abusive to his children is unknown. Nonetheless, Bush Sr. ran the CIA, after all (often wearing-disguises at Langley so nobody knew what he was doing, even close associates and allies). He was also one of the masterminds behind Iran-Contra, and showed a deep-tendency towards sadism. The apple doesn't fall very far from the family tree here.

Bush Sr. has lied about his entire life, as well as the history of his family and their connections to the Nazi regime. Pathology is interconnected, and communicable, in the opinion of this author. A recent disclosure has revealed that he has had connections with the CIA beginning in 1953--an assertion he has denied for decades, and is still-denying with the release of key-documents this-week that prove otherwise. His recent breakdown at a speech might mean a fear of disclosure of the family-illness, and potential criminal penalties. Impeachment--it should be remembered--bars further-charges against an elected office-holder in our Constitution.

Yet, truth is always stranger than fiction and the "conventional wisdom." It appears that at least ten GOP senators are going to vote against further-escalation of the war, possibly more. This is becoming precipitously-close to the 2/3's majority in both the House and the Senate it will take to override a veto from the President. [Ed., 09.13.2008-Yet they ended up supporting even more funds for the wars in the Middle East and the so-called "surge."] What if he still commits the troops? He's up-for-grabs. [Ed. Or not!] Like Hitler on the eve of WWII, he's pushing it to where we will have to go as far as to unseat him. This fits the antisocial personality type, because many of them crave excitement and fear boredom or banality.

Hitler played this poker game with the OKW (the Military Command of the Wehrmacht), and for a brief-moment, they plotted a coup against him as some of them had done years earlier. It was the only option Hitler had left them, and he did it consciously as a matter of brinksmanship. The same applies to the Bush II administration. His advisers did their homework on how to bum rush the Constitution. Our option is massive civil disobedience and nonviolent non-compliance by the military and political-class, as well as those in all of the Federal bureaus (the bureaucracy). We have had a Constitutional crisis since 2000, but Americans love putting things off.

The current condition of our nation, our liberties, and on the ground in Iraq, are the cost of this inaction and lack of resolve and principles. We are all to blame, but we need to look at all those who somehow still support George W. Bush--they could very-well be sick. We might want to have our politicians tested as part of their qualifications for office.

Our Constitution should be amended so that it would disqualify anyone who tested-positive for psychopathology from holding public office. 3% of all men, and 1% of all women in America are antisocial personality types. And now we know why there are rich people...

Radically Revised, 09.13.2008

The Constitution of the United States of America (I know, it's been since High School):http://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm

DSM IV Info:http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2699/is_0002/ai_2699000257