Huck pulls out::::Ron Paul leaps in with a sure-fire way to energize the rights and tea-party--legalize heroin:::::Trump stumps::::::Newt Leaps in:::::And now, all the contenders will draw a bead on Mitt

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor
Illustration by Jack Brummet

Ex-Governor Mike Huckabee today pulled out of the Presidential contest.  I was surprised, although he has clearly been waffling, and his consultant Ed Rollins hinted this week that Huck was a no-go.  This is a definite game-changer.

“All the factors say go, but my heart says no and that’s the decision I have made,” he said.  Huckabee stressed the decision was not financial (many pundits have noted the vast amount of money he has made in the last couple of years on books and Fox--and he is building a very expensive home in Florida), or political.  He said his family urged him to run.  The polls showed he was a serious contender and that he could draw voters from outside the south and wingnut arm of the GOP.  He is known to really dislike fundraising, but was convinced recently that he could raise the cash for a serious run.  I'll admit, I don't agree with much--if anything--he says, but he has always seemed by far the most likable of that entire crowd. 

In the meantime, of the serious candidates, Pawlenty is in, Mitt is in, and Newt Gingrich is in.  Interestingly, Jon Ward, on the Huffington Post wrote today that "Perhaps no one will benefit more than Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) if she decides to run. She has the capability -- probably more than any other potential GOP candidate -- to unite social conservatives in Iowa in the manner Huckabee did last election."  God forbid!

It's always fun to watch the Republicans when they are out in the cold.  They start acting like Democrats.  I suspect everyone's gunsights (to use Sarah Palin's metaphor) will be focused squarely on Mitt Romney, who sometimes at least, seems to be the only possibly electable one of the entire pathetic bunch.

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We lost a handful of posts in the recent Blogger hiccup...

In case you were wondering, we lost a handful of posts in the recent Blogger hiccup...some art by Jack, a finger of the day by Mona, and an in depth look at Ex-Governor Mike Huckabee's Presidential prospects by National Affairs Editor Pablo Fanque. And, no, we had no backups. We back up once a week, alas.

Draft Resistance pamphlet from Seattle in the late 1960's

By Jack Brummet
Seattle History Correspondent

I worked part time as a draft counselor in a community center in 1970-72.  We worked mostly with people trying to file for conscientious objector status, took part in marches, letter writing campaigns, and distributing literature about the draft.  We weren't really part of the hard-core resistance movement (meaning we didn't perform acts of sabotage and most of our customers did not want to go to jail.), but we were fellow travellers and, really, just different branches of the same tree.

These pamphlets and posters remind me that everything was hand-made/analog in those days.  You can see in this flyer that they used three different typewriters (or different IBM type balls).  Maybe it was commercially printed, or maybe it was typed on mimeograph stencils and then duplicated.

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Anti-recruiting poster from the University of Washington, 1969: Shut The F***er Down!

click to enlarge

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Porn found at Osama Abbottabad hideout

By Mona Goldwater
Cross-cultural Affairs Editor


Pornography found at the Osama Abbottabad hideout/compound includes Men and Camels 3, Pulp Friction, My Bare Lady, and Sheepless in Montana. . .

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Alien Lore No. 204: Hitler's deal with The Greys

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Faces No. 208: Clown Wars/Clone Wars

Drawing by Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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An amazing & interactive chart showing the U.S. population center for the last two centuries

This is a pretty masterful interactive chart showing the center of population of the United States for the last 220 years--fascinating, and just maybe, an example of the far reach and influence of the information visionary Edward Tufte?  The center of population "is determined as the place where an imaginary, flat, weightless and rigid map of the United States would balance perfectly if all residents were of identical weight."

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Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov & The Russian DogBot

By Jack Brummet
Unexplained Phenomena Editor

Thanks to Jeff Clinton, our Number One paranormal and bizarre happenings tipster. 

Over the last few years, a lot of fascinating news and images have emerged from Russia and the former Soviet Union.  And this, like much of the news and images, is both difficult to pin down and incredible to imagine happening in what was then an extremely tightly-controlled society.  Neither Jeff nor I can determine if this is just an excellent PhotoShop hoax, or "real," whatever real actually means.

Gizmodo--whom I tend to believe--pronounces these images as excellent fakes (and say and, "like all good lies, there's a some truth in this story").

"According to recently unearthed—and completely fake—scientific papers posted in Russian forum Stepashka, the Soviets took over where the Nazis and Dr. Frankenstein left it: During the 1950s, a team of communist scientists from Moscow University and the Soviet Academy of Sciences led by Dr. Vladimir Demikhov worked on the creation of a giant robot controlled by a dog head in secret facilities created by Joseph Stalin."

Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov was an actual Soviet scientist (and one of the first people to believe that human lung and heart transplants were possible). He was both a latter day Frankenstein/madman and a scientific visionary.  He performed bizarre experiments with dog heads--including keeping them alive, separated from their bodies, and transplanting them to other dog bodies.  And just maybe, created a DogBot. . .

Click images to enlarge/zoom

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Faces No. 207 - drawings by Jack Brummet

click to enlarge

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Dennis Kucinich, about to be gerrymandered out of a job, considers carpetbagging to Washington State

By Pablo Fanque, Congressional Affairs Correspondent

Dennis Kucinich, about to be gerrymandered out of a job, is considering  carpetbagging in Washington State.  Representative Kucinich's 10th District seat in Ohio may well be eliminated next year as Ohio loses two seats in the House due to population declines.  Washington State will add a congressional seat next year.

In the fine carpetbagging tradition of Bobby Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, Kucinich is pondering relocating (at least legally, if not physically) to Western Washington.  Jay Inslee's seat may be vacant if he decides to run for governor.  Maybe Jim McDermott will throw in the towel.  He is always returned to Washington by huge majorities. . .even if he is a back-bencher, because our district is unrepentantly Democratic.

The Seattle Times pointed out an interesting Washington-Kucinich connection.  The Congressman says he saw a UFO south of Seattle, when he was staying at Shirley McLaine's house.

Kucinich's press secretary, Nathan White, claims that Kucinich has been urged by people in 20 states to move to their district and run for office.  Right.  White went on to say "As he has repeatedly said, he fully intends to remain in Congress; he just doesn't know in what district he will run."

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John Lennon sings "mother" live at MSG

Mother by John Lennon

Mother, you had me but I never had you,
I wanted you but you didn't want me,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Farther, you left me but I never left you,
I needed you but you didn't need me,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Children, don't do what I have done,
I couldn't walk and I tried to run,
So I got to tell you,
Goodbye, goodbye.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home.
Mama don't go,
Daddy come home...
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