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24 Feb 2012 11:06

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Politics: How Mitt Romney’s dad lost his presidential momentum: Brainwashing

  • About 45 years ago, George Romney was looking hot. A popular Michigan governor who did well in the 1964 Republican primary (but did not win), he was considered a frontrunner in the 1968 race. Until this interview above, that is, done in August 1967 by Detroit news personality Lou Gordon. When asked about the Vietnam war, he explained why his views changed so that he was suddenly against the war. His answer? “When I came back from Vietnam, I had just had the greatest brainwashing that anyone could get.” This one comment derailed his campaign, decades before Twitter would’ve made that comment blow up like a forgotten third thing in a debate. MLive has a really great history on this interview that’s worth a read. source

02 Mar 2011 12:46

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U.S.: Nearly 43 years later, Sirhan Sirhan mounts a Manchurian defense

  • 6/4/68 Following a win in the California Democratic primary, Robert Kennedy was shot three times by Sirhan Sirhan, wounds that would kill him. Sirhan admitted to the shooting and claimed “twenty years of malice aforethought” went into the crime. He also claimed to have done it for his country, which suggests that Kennedy’s support for Israel likely played a role in the native Palestinian’s crime.
  • 3/2/11 A Sirhan lawyer, William F. Pepper, is taking a peculiar and pretty provocative case before the parole board, the 14th time Sirhan has appeared for parole since the shooting. Pepper plans to argue for both the possibility of a second gunman, and that Sirhan had been “hypno-programmed” into the murder. Moreover, Pepper claims he thinks he knows who did it, but declined to tell the press. source