WHICH WAS TOO MUCH FOR SPACE CADET GINGRICH,
THAT CAROLINA PRIMARY, OR THAT CAROLINA MOON?

By Art Vinsel

Has Newt Gingrich been spending too much time out staring at the full moon, or did he run across a box of of old Buck Rogers comic books?

Friday at a Lakeland, FL Town Hall meeting., Arizona Sen. John McCain, a jet fighter pilot who has his feet more firmly on the ground than some people we might name, was moved to remark on Newt Gingrich’s sudden fixation on the moon.

We’ve been there and done tjhat–back in 1969–but Newt is afraid China is going to overtake the U.S. in space exploration. Someone should look into what’s in the space between Gingrich’s ears. Maybe green cheese?

Once uon a time when Camelot was young thriving, President John F. Kennedy made the daring prediction that America would send a man to the moon by the end of the ’60s decade. I’ll never forget as a young newspaper reporter covering the 1969 State Dinner at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles with President Nixon honoring the the three astonauts who first landed on Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor.

Now, on the eve of the Florida Primary after losing his point lead to Mitt Romney again, Newt Gingrich is trying to steal a page from the history of the Kennedy years.

Elect him President next November and by the end of his second term (presumptuous, isn’t he?) America wii have a space colony on the moon!

This is apparently a carrot on a stick to excite us about spending perhaps a trillion dollars better spent on hundreds of thousands of homeless veterans suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or other wounds and ailments from wasteful wars we’ve waged here on earth the last half century. Waged. Not won.

”I think we ought to send Newt Gingrich to the moon and send Mitt Romney to the White House,”’ quipped Sen. McCain, in one of the more gentle remarks that must have been made about Newt’s sudden interplanetary wanderust.

Gingrich has been vioiced around as a man who has bold ideas and grand visions, compared to that stuffy olfd other candidates, what’s-his-name, you know, the other filthy rich one, from Massachusetts. He doesn’t think big and looks down his patrician New England nose at that bitchen moon colony idea.

If China beats us there, they’ll probably just build a teahouse.

I didn’t know John Kennedy and I don’t know Newt Gingrich, but I know Newt
Gingrich is no John Kennedy.

MAVERICK PUBLISHER RALLIES FOR FREE SPEECH
IN HISTORIC L.A. PORT TOWN’S FARMER’S MARKET

By Art Vinsel

Outspoken newspaper publisher James Preston Allen led a free speech rally in
colorful, historic San Pedro. CA. Friday, a stone’s throw from Liberty Hill, where a monument recalls famed author Upon Sinclair’s 1920s arrest for inciting to riot, just reading aloud from the U.S. Bill of Rights.

The LAPD had warned the famed muckraking novelist to stay in Pasadena and not encourage tense dockworker unrest here, but he exercised his lawful rights and was busted on charges that could have left him languishing in federal prison. He was illegally held incommunicado, denied a lawyer for a week and freed after a great public outcry.

Allen, founder-publisher of his bi-weekly for 35 years, fared better, with a merry note to his appearance among the apples, oranges, salad greens and other winter produce, mouthwatering hot food from numerous vendors, plus jewelry and other merchandise as well as two sailor-costumed street musicians playing lively old sea chanteys.

Already a thriving seaport more than a century ago, San Pedro is home to the Port of Los Angeles, busiest container shipping port in the nation, with a treasured history of maritime, political and labor activism that’s well-remembered.

Clad in a summery white fedora hat on this 80-degree day, the Random Lengths News publisher and a dozen friends announced their mission, stressing their concern is only with the San Pedro Peninsula Chamber of Commerce and Farmer’s Market management; definitely not the hard-working vendors.

”Last Friday I was threatened with arrest for doing this,” said Allen, who said
he was accosted by a rookie Property Owners Business Improvemet
district (PBID) security aide who ordered him to cease handing out papers, which he’s done for years while also picking up fresh produce.

Allen’s contention is that an unwritten policy exists to discourage leafleters or perhaps orators from mingling in the Farmer’s Market area, which Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Betsy Shook firmly denies.

”That is not a chamber policy. We are well aware of the First Amendment,” said Shook, suggesting whatever problems may have occurred in the past were probably the result of miunderstandings by individuals with no authority. I can’t speculate on what other people have said and done.”

Some people passing out literature on the block,m closed every Friday, say they have been told they can only do so on the sidewalk. when the crowds are in the street. Others say they were ordered to stay on a distant street corner to hand out literature.

As for Allen’s confrontation with a new hire security guard. his PBID supervisor saw it and intervened, explaining the activity was perfectly legal and apologized for the misunderstanding.

For his part. the colorful publisher of the only newspaper published in San Pedro, who has ong been active in community affairs, he wants the Chamber of Commerce to add a speaker’s platform to encourage public debate at the
Farmer’s Market, just like the Old Days on Liberty Hill. a State Historical Landmark..

It’s Friday Thank You and have a great day. From ElectionCandidates.com.