Questions about Lyndon LaRouche

[Midnight Rambler]

Every now and then, I happen to notice a mention of Lyndon LaRouche here on DU, usually followed by a number of posts going on about what a crackpot he is. I am not one of his supporters. In fact, I confess to being quite ignorant of who this guy is and what he's all about. From what little I've been able to glean, I know that he's a perrenial presidential candidate, spent some time in prison, and that most people consider him to be strictly for the tinfoil hat crowd. So I was wondering if any of you might be able to educate me with some reliable info on this guy. I'm not looking to join his movement (tinfoil types really don't hold much appeal to me), I'd just like to know what the all fuss is and why he's considered a crackpot.

[AlCzervik]

1. go here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_LaRouche

And don't even get me started about the run in i had with his supporters in San Francisco when i was with my kid who ended up crying becasue they were so aggressive and awful, i thought i was going to get arrested.

[Midnight Rambler]

3. I met some LaRouche supporters at UT

They didn't seem aggressive at all. In fact, all they were doing was handing out his newsletter or whatever it is at a table they had set up on campus. It had pics of all the PNAC guys on the cover and the headline was something about how evil they all are. This was a couple of years ago right around the buildup to the war, or maybe just as the war was starting, and I had never heard of LaRouche before, so I was mildly interested, thinking anyone who thought Cheney, Rumsfeld & Co. were evil bastards was okay by me. But I don't think I ever read the pamphelt.

Anyway, thanks for the info. Very enlightening.

[Dr.Phool]

2. LaRouche was a member of SDS back in the '60s

They split up into 4 factions on ideological grounds. He founded a party called the US Labor Party. I ran across them in the early '70s, and went by their office to talk. I left thinking "These are some real whack jobs". He was a hard core Communist back then, and evolved into a right-wing loon, talking about the Tri-Lateral Commision conspiracies and the Queen of England being a heroin dealer.

I guess now he's a "Democrat" and just as crazy as ever. Back in the '70s, I saw a few recruits sent for training somewhere in Detroit, and they came back "changed". Kinda like Moonies.

[OneBlueSky]

4. LaRouche may be nuts, but he performs a valuable service . . .

he's actually on the right (i.e. correct) side of a number of important issues, and when he latches onto something he can be vicious . . . he understands BushCo and what they're doing to this country . . .

it's his proposed solutions that are usually problemmatic . . .

[Liberal In Texas]

5. Complete nut case. Stay away. n/t

[sleipnir]

6. Next time you see the LaRouche people asking for signatures...

Just ask them...

"Isn't he a convicted felon?"

And see what happens! It's loads of fun and can at least fill up an hour of your time! I love the different responses I've gotten from many a petition holder.

[insanity]

7. I had the great misfortune of hearing him speak

Last year I was doing a Model Presidential Nominating Convention in Portland, OR were a number of high profile democrats spoke, however none were as entertaining as Lyndon LaRouche and his band of brainwashed kids. The college kids tried siging us up to work and shouted moronic chants I thankfully frogot.
When LaRouche spoke he said, "I knew this race would come down to me and Kerry, and I was right." He had someother memorable one liners, but the point is he needs a good reality check.

[Midnight Rambler]

9. Wow. He actually said that?

If it wasn't for those guys at the table on campus, and later DU, I'd never even have heard of him. I suspect most people haven't either.

[rman]

8. convicted felon - the other side of the story

The government alleged that LaRouche, Billington, and the others, had conspired to borrow money from political supporters, for political purposes, with no intention to repay the loans.
http://larouchein2004.net/exoneration/exon5.htm

*

...an illegal and unprecedented involuntary bankruptcy action--initiated by the same Justice Department prosecutors, and approved by the same federal judge, who later oversaw the frame-up criminal trial of LaRouche in Alexandria, Va.
...
The involuntary bankruptcy--which made it illegal to repay these loans!--was the essential precondition for bringing criminal charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud against LaRouche and his associates.
...
Never before in U.S. history had the government itself been the petitioner in an involuntary bankruptcy case.
...
They secretly went to the Bankruptcy Court on April 20, 1987, and obtained an order allowing the government to immediately go and shut down the companies. That evening, Hudson deployed FBI agents to surveil the offices of those companies. Early the next morning, U.S. Marshals seized the offices of the three companies and sealed them.
http://www.larouchepub.com/exon/exon1.html

*

On Aug. 31, 1995, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark testified before an independent commission of inquiry, probing criminal abuse of power by top officials of the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI. Clark spoke of the frameup of leading American political economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche as the single most grievous case of prosecutorial abuse he had ever encountered.
...
Among the documents later released exposing FBI criminality, was a 1973 FBI headquarters Cointelpro memorandum on LaRouche and the NCLC, showing that the FBI was considering supporting an assassination attempt against LaRouche by the Communist Party USA.
http://www.schillerinstitute.com/health/dc_js_on_kkkatie.html