What the world really, really needs

... is more political speeches, especially if they're - snicker - from Ralph Nader.

Also in the realm of people with not enough to do to keep them busy:

Under Guinness World Record rules, a campaign speech must be at least 10 minutes long with at least 10 people at each stop who didn't come with the candidate.

Otherwise, Nader could go speed-dating and shatter his own record while trying out this line: "If you won't sleep with me, can I at least count on your vote?"

PUMA in name only

McCNN magnifies the anti-Obama wing of the Democratic Party by including conspiracy theorist Webster Tarpley as if he had ever been a Democrat. Here's the description of his latest book, Obama: The Postmodern Coup:

Barack Obama is a deeply troubled personality, the megalomaniac front man for a postmodern coup by the intelligence agencies, using fake polls, mobs of swarming adolescents, super-rich contributors, and orchestrated media hysteria to short-circuit normal politics and seize power.

Obama comes from the orbit of the Ford Foundation, and has never won public office in a contested election. His guru and controller is Zbigniew Brzezinski, the deranged revanchist and Russia-hater who dominated the catastrophic Carter presidency 30 years ago. All indications are that Brzezinski recruited Obama at Columbia University a quarter century ago. Trilateral Commission co-founder Brzezinski wants a global showdown with Russia and China far more dangerous for the United States than the Bush-Cheney Iraq adventure.

Obama's economics are pure Skull & Bones/Chicago school austerity and sacrifice for American working families, all designed to bail out the bankrupt Wall Street elitist financiers who own Obama. Obama's lemming legions and Kool-Aid cult candidacy hearken back to Italy in 1919-1922, and raise the question of postmodern fascism in the United States today.

Obama is a recipe for a world tragedy. No American voter can afford to ignore the lessons contained in this book.

Strong stuff! Is that meth I smell? Maybe he'll give Cynthia McKinney a try this year. I'd bet he's been voting for Ralph Nader in years past. After all, he's quick to deliver the Nader rationale:

Tarpley said a McCain victory might be the best result if Obama is the Democratic nominee. It would allow the party an opportunity to reflect and perhaps "radicalize it in a New Deal direction."

How has that worked out so far?

The irritating thing for a consumer of media is that Tarpley honestly flags himself as a "controversial book author," which ought to have cued Mark Preston to try Google. But, no, Preston doesn't bother or at least he doesn't tell his readers. Hey, that might get in the way of the received narrative.

Update (7/27): If you liked this item, why not try "Whiplash"?

Corvair stories

What sort of mathematical decay is Ralph Nader on? From a butterfly-effect 2.7% of the Presidential vote in 2000 to 0.3% in 2004, where will he wind up in 2008? I'm hoping for linear - minus 2.1%.

His mania for attention through running for President against the Democrats calls into question the validity of all his prior work.