Day: January 18, 2004

Letter from a Kucinich Supporter — That Explains the Two Percent

My wife and I were having a discussion the other day about who exactly those 2 percent of Democrats are who tell pollsters they’re supporting Dennis Kucinich. After all, Kucinich should be polling slightly higher than that even if he was only getting the vegan vote.

This is a candidate, after all, who was actually beind in fundraising to perennial Democratic nutcase candidate Lyndon LaRouche for the third quarter of 2003. Kucinich supporters can’t possibly think he has a chance to influence Democratic politics, much less win the nomination, can they? Well, yes, apparently some of them can. Here’s the opening paragraphs of a letter from a very confused Kucinich supporter published in the January 8 edition of the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times,

Re: Kucinich takes antiwar message to Islamic center.

I was pleased to see coverage of congressman Dennis Kucinich in the Dec. 31 City&State Section by Adam Smith. However, I think it is a mistake to give much weight to these “national polls” because I have seen Kucinich ahead in many online polls, which can be found at his Web site: http://www.kucinich.us/

And they let these people vote. Oy.

Source:

Candidate offers vision of hope. Letter to the Editor, Marcella Respini, St. Petersburg (Florida) Times, January 8, 2004.

She May Have Helped Murder Three People, But Hey — She Really Loves Her Dogs

A regional chapter of Norwegian animal rights group Dyrebeskyttelsen recently published a calendar for fund raising purposes. The calendar featured photographs of celebrities and others, including a photograph of convicted murderer Kristin Kirkemo Haukeland posting with her three dogs.

Haukeland was convicted of being an accomplice in a 1999 triple homicide that stunned Norway. Anne Orderud Paust, 47, her father Kristian Orderud, 81, and Marie Orderud, 84, were found murdered in tier family home in May 1999. All three victims had been shot at close range in one room of the house.

Anne Orderud Paust’s deceased husband, Per Paust, had been a diplomat, and Anne was an adviser to the Norwegian defense minister. Both had been subject to numerous death threats. In 1998, a bomb was found under Anne’s car, so initial speculation was that there might be some political connection.

Instead the murder turned out to be a straightforward dispute over inheritance of the family home. Haukeland aided her ex-boyfriend and two other people in murdering his mother and grandparents.

So why is Haukeland now gracing the calendar of an animal rights group? Dyrebeskyttelsen member Lene Lotvedt, who took the picture of Haukeland that graces the calendar, seems to think that Haukeland’s criminal conviction is a relatively minor matter. According to Norwegian TV station Nettavisen,

You can’t just discriminate people just because they are in jail,” Løtvedt stated.

Løtvedt said that what Kirkemo Haukeland is convicted of has nothing to do with why she was chosen as a model. She assures that the choice was made independent of her current life situation.

“The people we selected for the calendar, we selected because they love animals,” Løtvedt explained.

Apparently they want people who love animals — just not the bipedal homo sapiens kind.

Sources:

Convicted triple murderess as calendar girl. Carin Pettersson, Nettavisen, January 9, 2004.

Advisor to Oslo defence minister and her parents found dead. Deutsche Press-Agentur, May 24, 1999.