Friday, October 31, 2008

Weird Halloween Costumes From The All This Is That Inbox

Over the last week, these strange and unsettling costumes have hit our inbox. At least two are profoundly disturbing (the grinning kid wearing a Keffiyeh [an Arab or Turkish head-dress...although I never saw one in Turket last summer]), and the two- or three-year old dressed up as Hitler. Goldilocks and the bears doesn't rate much lower on the disturbing scale, either. The most interesting is the costume of the dolls, looking like some sort of bizarre Katamari.











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POTUS 31, President Herbert Hoover. . .the scapegoat


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As I've said before about Hayes, Taft, Coolidge, Bush, Ford (who barely qualifies), et al, my second favorite variety of President is the one-term Republican defeated for re-election. My favorite configuration is, of course, the two-term Democrat. I am sad to report that in my now lengthy lifetime, I've seen--and voted for--only one: POTUS 42 William Jefferson Clinton.

Run from office on a rail in 1932 by the FDR juggernaut, President Hoover's star has risen over the years.

In the book, The Herbert Hoover Story, Eugene Lyons writes: "A Fantastic Hoover Myth. . .It presents our thirty-first President as a heartless ogre, inept and callous and reactionary, who 'caused' a depression, then 'did nothing' to mitigate its horrors."

President Hoover is no longer blamed for causing the Depression. However, he was trounced by FDR and the nation then began the excruciatingly slow march toward recovery, and, a decade later, war with the Axis.

Years later, in 1947, President Truman enlisted Hoover to help with various issues, including flying to Europe to fix the food production pipeline in defeated and occupied post-Hitler Germany.

Flags in the classrooms at Kent Elementary were draped with black bunting for a month when Hoover died in the fall of 1964. It was a relief I think, going back to a time when Presidents died in bed, of old age.
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POTUS 30 - President Calvin Coolidge,


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President Coolidge was a quiet, sober and somber man, whose pained expression concealed a dry wit. In the middle of the night in 1923, he was informed of the death of Warren Harding. Coolidge's father, a justice of the peace, gave Coolidge the Oath Of Office, and he immediately went back to bed! He finished Harding's term, and ran for one on his own. Although he was eligible to run for an additional term (like LBJ), he chose not to.

Although he was a well-loved President, after leaving office his policies were increasingly blamed for the events that led to the Great Depression.

On being told of Calvin Coolidge's death, Dorothy Parker famously remarked of the taciturn President, "How could they tell?"
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Bad books for the kids at Christmas...

I don't know where these came from. . .they turned up in my inbox this week...











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Thursday, October 30, 2008

POTUS 29 - President Warren G, Harding, who didn't quite live to rue the day


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A Democratic leader, William Gibbs McAdoo, called Harding's speeches "an army of pompous phrases moving across the landscape in search of an idea."

President Harding is often considered the most corrupt President ever (check out "The Teapot Dome Scandal"), in a close horse race with POTUS 38, President Richard M. Nixon. Like Nixon, he was probably less an actual crook than a chronic and pathetically inept judge of associates. He was a machine politician and came to Washington with baggage: an army of wardheelers and bosses. Many were indicted and convicted and served prison time.

President Harding never had to face total ignominy, alas; he died on a west coast trip two years into the 29th presidency.

Some writers and historians believe he was poisoned by his wife, who was fed up with his infidelities. Some scholars give this credence since she would not agree to an autopsy.

President Harding was succeeded by his Vice-President, Calvin Coolidge. Keep cool.
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POTUS 28: President Woodrow Wilson - The President Who Short-Circuited & POTUS 28A: President Edith Wilson



President Wilson started out as an academic, working his way up to President of Princeton in 1902. He ran for governor, and won, in 1910, and was nominated for President at the democratic convention in 1912.

After winning re-election in 1916 on the premise that "he kept us out of war," he asked congress to declare war on Germany in 1917. The American presence in the war eventually helped tilt the balance in favor of the allies. After the Germans signed an armistice, Wilson went to Paris to work on the Treaty of Versailles and The League of Nations. Alas, in the midterms, the balance in Congress had tilted toward the Republicans. The Treaty died in the Senate.

After a long tour on the hustings to drum up support for Versailles and the League of Nations, President Wilson became ill.

On October 2, 1919, Wilson suffered a massive stroke that left him partially paralyzed on his left side. His intellectual capacity remained intact, but his emotions and judgment were shattered. No one suggested that Wilson resign. The 25th amendment was fifty years in the future. His wife, Edith, undertook a massive cover-up of his condition. She controlled access to him and made the decisions for him. In a very real sense, Edith Wilson was the 29th President of the United States (or maybe 28A).

It's a mind f**ker for us in the age of revved up Kleig-light journalism and media scrutiny to imagine keeping a President on ice for two years. Imagine if in 2006, President George W. Bush disappeared from public view, and we never saw him again. We get communiques from him, we never actually see him. He is somewhere behind The Closed Door, like Charlie, of Charlie's Angels, or even Howard Hughes. Any information we do get comes from aides. You no longer really even know who is behind that closed door. No one has the power to peek beneath the covers.

Although President Wilson gradually recovered from the worst effects of the stroke, he never got his game back. In the meantime, the Senate twice rejected the Versaille peace treaty. Wilson had refused to compromise and the United States never joined the League of Nations. President Wilson left the White House in March 1921 a broken man.
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Who do you love? A comparison of John McCain hugs with President Bush and Governor Palin.



No daylight between 'em. A hearty embrace, where Senator McCain even leans his head on The President's shoulder.



Best Friends Forever? Hardly. A most awkward embrace between the Senator and the Governor, who have now almost erupted into open warfare.
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Buyer's remorse:::::::::McCain campaign calls Sarah a whack job:::::Her team fires back::::::::::Palin goes rogue::::::Let the finger pointing begin!


An Awkward Embrace

The wheels have long since fallen off the McPalin bandwagon, and the finger pointing has begun. In public. The McCain camp clearly has a case of buyer's remorse, and the Palin wing feels like they have been kept under wraps and aggressively over-managed.

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, writes about a “demoralized” McCain campaign: “Palin is going to be the most vivid chapter of the McCain campaign's post-mortem. … Those loyal to McCain believe they have been unfairly blamed for over-handling Palin. They say they did the best they could with what they got.”



Anonymous McCain campaign leakers have now called Governor Palin a “diva," and even “a whack job.”

George Stephanpolous also wrote: "The Alaska governor herself has been pushing out on her own against McCain's handlers. In recent days she has been speaking her own mind about what she thought of McCain's strategy in Michigan, and what she thought of his decision not to go after Rev. Jeremiah Wright. "

From Atlantic Magazine: "There's a faction within the McCain campaign has begun to whisper about Gov. Sarah Palin to reporters. The faction includes staff members and advisers who consult with staff members. It does not seem to include any members of the senior staff, although the definition of the senior staff here is a bit elastic. This faction has come to believe that Palin, perhaps unwittingly, subconsciously or otherwise, has begun to play Sen. McCain off of the base, consistently and deliberately departed from the campaign's message of the day in ways that damage McCain."

Politico.com reports: "'She's lost confidence in most of the people on the plane,' said a senior Republican who speaks to Palin, referring to her campaign jet. He said Palin had begun to 'go rogue' in some of her public pronouncements and decisions. 'I think she'd like to go more rogue,' he said … 'These people are going to try and shred her after the campaign to divert blame from themselves,' a McCain insider said, referring to McCain's chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, and to Nicolle Wallace, a former Bush aide who has taken a lead role in Palin's campaign. Palin's partisans blame Wallace, in particular, for Palin's avoiding of the media for days and then giving a high-stakes interview to CBS News' Katie Couric, the sometimes painful content of which the campaign allowed to be parceled out over a week."



The New York Post said: "Things have gotten so tense between Palin and her traveling staff, an insider said, that she's overruling their advice — which was evident last week when she ignored GOP aides piling into waiting cars at a Colorado event and strolled over to the press corps for an impromptu talk."

From the Cable News Network web site: "'She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,' said [a] McCain adviser. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom."

UPI reported yesterday that "At a Tampa rally yesterday, Palin blasted the RNC for buying her a $150,000 wardrobe, calling it "ridiculous." Unsurprisingly, these were not the remarks that were sent to her in the morning by the McCain campaign.

New York magazine's Daily Intel column online reported that "The idea of Palin as running mate was sprung on McCain at the very last minute by his two strong-willed advisers, Fred Davis and Steve Schmidt. This weekend's New York Times Magazine story reveals just how short a time period it was between when Davis and Schmidt unilaterally presented their case and when the announcement was made by McCain (five days). According to the story, McCain made up his own mind, but in retrospect he may regret the timing and spin."

Whew!

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Digital art: You're Under Arrest!



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The Obama "Infomercial": A knockout, virtuoso performance

By Pablo Fanque, All This Is That National Affairs Editor
Illustrations: Jack Brummet




Barack Obama's televised "infomercial" was politically brilliant--a virtuoso performance that made it's case intellectually, as well as working the retail politics angle. You'd have to be a hard-hearted American to have not been touched by the message. To view this masterful talk and not be emotionally affected, in place of your beating heart would be a lump of bituminous coal.

Despite the never ending mud-slinging from the other side, all the name-calling, accusing him of "not being one of us," and the bitter invective being hurled from the desperate Republicans, Obama rose above it all and connected with the American people. No one needs to be scared of Obama. This was not the talk of a Molotov-cocktail flinging Bolshevik; this was a fellow American who mostly ignored party politics because he was talking along the heartline. Obama was talking to you. He almost completely ignored partisan politics and John McCain and Sarah Palin. He was there to close the deal with the voters.



I have been highly critical of Obama's cool in the past, and his inability to show emotion. He made up for all that tonight, with six days left in the campaign. His performance reminded me of Bobby Kennedy, who also knew how to connect with the people, and who also knew how to put politics aside. Tonight we saw the real maverick in the race. After this showing ( a speech?, a talk?, a message?, a multimedia assemblage?), if I was John McCain, I'd just concede the race tomorrow.
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Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Contra: Presidents I have voted against

I have had the distinct pleasure of voting against a large number of Republican Presidential candidates over these last years. I am leaving off the names of those I did vote for. . .they were all Democrats, and frequently I had to hold my nose as I pulled the lever, and later filled in the bubble or poked out the chad on the punchcard.

In retrospect, I was right. Even the weakest candidates we Democrats mounted would have made a better President than the hacks, lapdogs of big business, wardheelers, and feebs we ended up electing. Here's the list of who I have voted against since I reached the age of majority.



When I was 19, I got to vote against Richard M. Nixon (a man I would later come to greatly admire, but would never have voted for in any office higher than dog-catcher). I got to vote in this election because 18, 19, and 20 year olds were granted suffrage by the 26th Amendment to The Constitution, which passed in July 1971.



When I was 23, I had the distinct pleasure of voting against Dick Nixon's successor, Gerald R. Ford, a man I also liked, but couldn't stomach as President. He was a good guy and a weak President. He was President a little over two years.




At 27, I was able to vote against Ronald Reagan for the first time. When I was 31, I got to vote against him one more time.



At 35 years of age, I got to vote against Ronald Reagan's successor George H.W. Bush.

When I hit 39, I was lucky enough to vote against President George H. W. Bush again.



At the ripe old age of 43, I most enjoyed casting my ballot against Senator Bob Dole.


When I was 47 years old, I happily cast my ballot against George W. Bush.

When I turned 51 years old, I was able to vote against W. one more time.



And now, in one week, as I enter the voting booth for the very last time (Washington State will be shifting to mail-in ballots in the near future), at 55 years of age, I will most happily cast my vote against Senator John McCain, a man I sometimes admired a few years ago.

Is this a great country...or what?
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POTUS 27: Pres. William Howard Taft - Who Preferred To Be Remembered As Chief Justice


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President William Howard Taft was a judge, Governor of The Philippines, and later The Secretary of War. POTUS 26, Teddy Roosevelt, hand-picked him as successor. President Taft had a fairly uneventful Presidency and lost the re-election to Woodrow Wilson (POTUS 28), which was probably a good thing all around. Wilson was an OK President, and Taft was a good Supreme Court judge.

After leaving the White House, Taft taught law school for years and was eventually tapped to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. President Taft said in later years that he much preferred the bench to the Oval Office.
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POTUS 26 - President Theodore Roosevelt, the 20th century face on Mount Rushmore


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President Teddy Roosevelt coined the phrase "my hat is in the ring" and ran for President as a Progressive (aka The Bull Moose Party). I believe he is the last third party President (at least until we come back to our senses).

Theodore Roosevelt is remembered as POTUS 26, but this cat also held dozens of other fascinating jobs and posts: New York State Assemblyman, Governor of New York, Vice President, President, deputy sheriff in the Dakota Territory, Police Commissioner of New York City, U.S. Civil Service Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and Colonel of the Rough Riders.

At 42, he became President. He was a conservation President (and an outdoorsman and hunter), and during his White House years from 1901-1909, he designated 150 National Forests, 51 Federal Bird Reservations, 5 National Parks, 18 National Monuments, the first 4 National Game Preserves, and 21 Reclamation Projects. He provided federal protection for almost 230 million acres. That's a lot of real estate. Thank you Mr. President!

President Roosevelt "busted" trusts and helped control large, thieving corporations, began the Panama Canal project, and negotiated an end to the Russo-Japanese War for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

He talked about a "Square Deal" for all Americans, enabling millions to earn a living wage, and built up the Navy as our Big Stick ("speak softly, but carry a...").

"Of all the public men that I have known, on both sides of the Atlantic (and there are few that I have not known in the past thirty years), he stands out the greatest, and as the most potent influence for good upon the life of his generation." Viscount Lee of Fareham, English statesman.
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POTUS 25 - President William McKinley, the third assassinated President


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William McKinley is often been considered a lame President; a marionette controlled by cronies who was pressured into war with Spain by a hysterical press. Historians now lean toward seeing him as a decisive President who launched America on the road to world power through his use of tarriffs, his policy toward trade with China, his war against Spain over Cuba, and by annexing real estate we picked up in our adventures.

He was a populist president, usually taking the side of The People over the side of "private interests," e.g., Big Business.

In the 100-day war against Cuba, the United States destroyed the Spanish fleet outside Cuba, seized Manila in the Philippines, and occupied Puerto Rico. He also picked up Guam for his troubles, a couple of nice chunks of real estate for his troubles.

After re-election, his second term in office began well, but came to a tragic end in September 1901. He was standing in a receiving line at the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition when a deranged anarchist shot him twice. He died eight days later and was succeeded by his VPOTUS, Teddy Roosevelt.
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Tuesday, October 28, 2008

POTUS 23 - Benjamin Harrison, the last bearded President


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President Benjamin Harrison was a one term Republican. I love that phrase! One term Republican Presidents are my favorite species of Presidents...next to two term Democratic Presidents.

Harrison was 5' 6" tall, and the Democrats called him "Little Ben." President Harrison narrowly won the Presidency; he lost the popular vote and won the electoral college (like Pres. George W. Bush).

Following the death of his wife during his term in office, Harrison seemed to flounder. His party was severely beaten in the mid-term congressional elections. After losing touch with his core supporters, he just didn't have the gas to win the election. Although he was renominated by the Republicans, their luke-warm support cost him the election. He was trounced by Grover Cleveland (POTUS 22 and POTUS 24). He is mainly remembered today as an early proponent of free trade around the world.
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Music that matters: Neil Young



My favorite albums by Neil Young. I am, in particular, a fan of Crazy Horse, so you may not find so much of the gentler, tuneful, sylvan, or more mellow Neil here:

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (w/ Crazy Horse)
After the Goldrush
Harvest
Time Fades Away
On the Beach
Tonight's the Night
Rust Never Sleeps (with Crazy Horse)
Live Rust (with Crazy Horse)
Ragged Glory (with Crazy Horse)
Arc Weld (with Crazy Horse)
Harvest Moon
Sleeps With Angels (with Crazy Horse)
Year of the Horse (with Crazy Horse)
Greendale (with Crazy Horse)
Living With War
Live At Massey Hall 1971
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Must see video: Mashup of Downfall with the McCain-Palin campaign

The New York Times had a great article on Sunday about people using footage from the German film Downfall to create all sorts of mashups and confabulations. . .

This YouTube video mashes up the doomed McPalin team with our long-vanquished enemy, Der Fuhrer. The writing is strong, and funny. . .



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Monday, October 27, 2008

Good news/bad news: Feds break up Obama assassination plot

From Chris Matthew's Daily Hardball Briefing (which arrived a minute ago):

Breaking News - In the last hour we learned that federal agents have broken up a plot they say to assassinate Barack Obama and then go on a murder spree and kill about 100 African-Americans. We'll talk to NBC News Justice Department correspondent Pete Williams, who is covering that story tonight.

I haven't seen any other articles or posts on this yet, but The Hardball Briefing can be trusted.

Sad news, but good news that the plot is broken...
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POTUS 22 and 24: President Grover Cleveland, the man who was President twice


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The New York Times obituary of Grover Cleveland on 6-25-1908 is full of praise from all quarters and in 1908, many people placed Cleveland at the very top of Presidents, right up there with the men on Rushmore (which, of course, didn't exist yet).

From his stint as mayor of Buffalo, to his time as Governor of New York, he was considered a hard working and honest man known for his sense of duty. He took on Tammany Hall when it was risky to do so, and despite the machine having backed him for Governor. He was one of the good guys.

President Cleveland had a sex-scandal or two to live down: he was accused of fathering a son out of wedlock--a charge that he admitted might be true (!), because of his affair with Maria Halpin in 1874. By 'fessing up, Cleveland pulled off what we might think of as a "Bill Clinton" and won the election by a slim margin.

After two years as a bachelor President, Cleveland announced his marriage to his twenty-one-year-old ward (I thought only Batman had a ward!), Frances Folsom, the daughter of his former law partner. The press had a field day satirizing the relationship between the old goat and the recent college graduate, who soon became the most popular first lady since Dolley Madison.

Cleveland would lose his re-election bid, and is the first and last president to bounce back from a loss to retake the White House.

Historians consider him a President who strengthened the executive branch, but made no dramatic accomplishments, and had no real vision for the future. He is most remebered as being a bridge to the modern strong presidency as it would be practiced by Teddy Roosevelt and those to follow.
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John McCain: Blowin' In The Wind



Senator John McCain, whose campaign has become riddled with finger-pointing and back-biting, devastating leaks, increasingly glum news from the pollsters, and rifts with Sarah Palin, said he "trusted his senses," which told him the opinion polls were wrong.


Yesterday on NBC's Meet The Press McCain said: “Those polls have consistently shown me much farther behind than we actually are.”




“We’re doing fine. We have closed [the gap] in the last week. We continue to close this next week. You’re going to be up very, very late on election night.”
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FameStar biopic: The rise and fall of Jack Brummet



My famestar biopic. This is pretty interesting. It makes you realize we can all be Zeligs one day. You'll have to click here to see the video. It doesn't work quite right on blogspot (playing when the page loads, etc).
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Alien Lore No. 143 - The UFO we couldn't shoot down



Thanks to Jeff Clinton for this tip...for a rationalist, he sure comes up with a lot of these!

Every since Great Britain opened up their UFO files to the public, researchers have been mining some fascinating nuggets from the vaults. This story tells about a joint American-British attempt to shoot down a UFO. Most of this comes from an account that was published by Britain's National Archives last week. A few details come from an Associated Press story by Raphael G. Satter.

In the 1950's, an American fighter pilot was ordered to attack a UFO moving erratically over the North Sea with rockets. As he was about to launch his rockets, the UFO sped up mightily. . .and disappeared.

The story appeared in England's Daily Star newspaper but has never been confirmed or denied by the military authorities. An account of this was included among many released in the first 1,500 pages of UFO archives published in the internet.

The American pilot said he and another pilot were scrambled in May, 1957 to intercept a "bogey" seen on radar at the Manston Air Force Station Manston, 75 miles from London.



"This was a flying object with very unusual flight patterns," the pilot said, according to a typed manuscript of his account mailed to Britain's Ministry of Defense by a UFO enthusiast in 1988. "In the initial briefing it was suggested to us that the bogey actually was frequently motionless."

The pilot was given an order to fire a volley of 24 rockets at the UFO. "To be quite candid I almost s**t my pants!" the pilot said, saying he asked for confirmation—which he received.
Long retired U.S. flier Milton Torres told Britain's Sky News last week that he was the pilot and has spent the last 51 years trying to figure out exactly what happened. Torres never saw the UFO with his naked eye, but watched as it appeared on his jet's radar and sped off before he had chance to fire. "All of a sudden as it was coming in, it decided to take off and leave me behind ... The next thing I know it was gone," Torres told Sky News. "It was some kind of space alien craft. It was so fast, it was so incredible..."



As he locked on the UFO to prepare for combat, the object began to move wildly (sensing the lock-on?) before fading off his radar. The mission was scrubbed.

"I had not the foggiest idea what had actually occurred, nor would anyone explain anything to me," the pilot said. He said he was led to a man in civilian clothes, who "advised me that this would be considered highly classified and that I should not discuss it with anybody not even my commander."

Britain's military said it had no record of the incident. Neither did the U.S. military (what a surprise). According to the Associated Press story, "David Clarke, a UFO expert who has worked with the National Archives on the document release, said it was one of the most intriguing stories he had culled from the batch of files released Monday."
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POTUS 21 - President Chester Alan Arthur, Pres. Chester Alan Arthur - Accidental, Partial One-Term President, Owner Of Some Impressive Muttonchops


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Chester Alan Arthur was catapulted into the Vice-Presidency and Presidency on the basis of a pretty thin resume. Arthur had been Collector of Customs for the Port of New York, an important and powerful position. He was appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant but was fired by Grant's successor, Rutherford B. Hayes, under (probably false) suspicions of bribery and corruption.

Arthur is remembered as one of the most society-conscious presidents, earning the nickname "the Gentleman Boss" for his dandy dress and courtly manner.

Chester Alan Arthur was elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket with President James Garfield. His term as VPOTUS only lasted a few months.

Following President Garfield's assassination, he became President of the United States on September 20, 1881. He was often seen in the company of the socially prominent in Washington, New York, and Newport.

To the outrage of stalwart Republicans, the onetime Collector of the Port of New York and dispenser of political patronage became, as President, a champion of civil service reform. Public pressure, heightened by the assassination of Garfield, forced an unwieldy Congress to heed the President. He lost the few friends he ever had in the party, and was not nominated for his own full term in office, which he likely would not have completed. Early in his Presidency, he had contracted Bright's Disease, a fatal kidney disease, from which he died in 1886.
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Painting: self-portrait No. 26


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Sunday, October 26, 2008

A useful blog - Today on the interwebs




I have been enjoying the blog, Today On The Interwebs for a while now. As the author writes: "Every day, the interwebs is filled with an interminable supply of crap and one cool thing. Like a jet-powered bloodhound, this blog seeks out and posts that one thing."
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Alien Lore No. 141 - The psychic Sasquatch and their connection with The Greys

An interesting book just came to my attention via Jeff Clinton (the book is nearly ten years old): The Psychic Sasquatch: And Their UFO Connection by Jack Lapseritis.

Lapseritis contends that Bigfoot are "psychic and multidimensional," able to slip in and out of an unseen dimension, thus explaining how hard they are to pin down, shoot, capture, or photograph. Evidence is presented from first-hand accounts that Bigfoot works as a some sort of foot solder on earth, working with Extraterrestrials, as guards and scouts. The author is a UFOlogist and field investigator/scientist who has studied this issue for many years.
"In 1979, Mr. Lapseritis was first telepathically contacted by a Sasquatch and ET simultaneously, which was the shock of his life. To further complicate matters, the contact changed him and he developed psychic ability overnight, which triggered a spiritual transformation. At the time, he was Assistant Director of an urban Indian agency, worked as a hypno-therapist and had been lecturing at the Medical College of Wisconsin and was ill-prepared for such a happening. "
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Painting of soon-to-be former Senator Barack Obama


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Potus 20: President James A. Garfield - President for 200 days



President James A. Garfield, (POTUS 20) is another short-timer, whose Presidency ran from March-September, 1881. He was President for about 200 days when he was shot by a deranged lawyer. President Garfield survived but was finally killed, 80 days later, by his team of doctors.

Garfield is probably best remembered today as one of the four assassinated Presidents. His assassin, attorney Charles Guiteau, believed that God had ordered him to kill the President. Guiteau stalked the President for weeks, and passed up one opportunity to shoot Garfield because his wife was present.

James Garfield was the first left-handed President. And--is this cool, or what?--he sometimes entertained friends by simultaneously writing Latin with one hand and Greek with the other (woah!). He was the last president born in a log cabin; farewell to our prairie days.
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POTUS 19 - Rutherford. B. Hayes, a/k/a Rutherfraud



Rutherford B. Hayes, as the 19th President, began implementing policies to heal the nation after the Civil War. He had a reputation reputation for integrity as a soldier and politician. His election was the lengthiest , most bitterly contested, and corrupt presidential election in history. . .until the year 2000, when George Bush would make it look like a ramble in a sunny meadow.

After the Civil War, Hayes served as a governor and congressman, and by 1876, Republicans recognized that the scrupulous Hayes--a swing state war hero--was potential Presidential timber. His opponent, Democratic opponent Samuel J. Tilden of New York rolled up a plurality of 250,000 votes, but the vote in three southern states was close enough for both Republicans and Democrats to contest them. Congress set up a special commission which awarded the disputed electoral college votes. The outraged Democrats called Hayes "Rutherfraud" and "His Fraudulency."

As President, Hayes believed that military occupation bred hatred among southerners and prevented a national healing. Reconstruction was nearly over when Hayes took office in 1877. Federal troops were stationed only in New Orleans, Louisiana, and South Carolina. The federal occupation ended early in his administration. Alas, by the 1890s, the racist Democratic hold on the South resulted in a complete denial of voting rights for blacks until the 1960s.

Hayes ran for only one term. In retirement he worked for equal educational and prison reform.

President Hayes was the only President whose election was decided by a congressional commission. He was the first president to travel to the West Coast as president and the first to have a telephone and typewriter in the White House.
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Saturday, October 25, 2008

Keeping hockey mom/pit bull Sarah Palin presentable: Clothes: $150K; Hair: $36K; Make-up: $18K


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According to an article by Michael Luo in today's New York Times, the highest paid person on John McCain's campaign staff in October is Steve Schmidt, Rick Davis, Mark Salter, Charlie Black, Jill Hazelbaker, Amy Strozzi, Sarah Palin's make-up artist.

Yes, it costs money to put lipstick on a pitbull! Amy Strozzi, the Emmy Award [for So You Think You Can Dance?] winning makeup artist, was paid $22,800 in October.

Managing that famous head of hair isn't cheap either: Angela Lew was paid $10,400 as a communications consultant in October. Ms. Lew works out of the Hair Grove in Westwood Village, the very same place Cindy McCain gets her hair "done." That makes Ms. Lew the 4th highest paid person on the campaign.

Make-up artist Strozzi and hair stylist Lew were also paid around $22,000 total in September (for lipstick application "communications consulting," and hair-combing "GOTV" consulting).

The tally so far to keep ah-shucks hockey mom Governor Sarah Palin presentable:

Threads, shoes, accessories: $150,000
Hair: $36,000
Makeup: $18,000
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POTUS 18: Pres. Ulysses S. Grant - The Man Inside Grant's Tomb


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Pres. Grant is often portrayed in history as a drunkard. Historians differ on this point; no one disagrees that he enjoyed whiskey.

In the army, he served in the Mexican War and later became famous as President Abraham Lincoln's commander of the Union Armies (from 1864). After the war, he was elected to two terms as President and his administration was hit with numerous corruption scandals. He is buried in Manhattan. . .in the famous mausoleum along Riverside Drive, Grant's Tomb.
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POTUS 17: President Andrew Johnson - The worst President ever?, and impeached to boot


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While Andrew Johnson's predecessor, Lanky Link, is considered America's greatest President, Johnson is often considered the worst. It requires a crash course in The Reconstruction to understand how badly he f***ed things up.

When the Civil War broke out, Johnson was a first-term Senator in the proslavery flank of the Democratic Party. However, unlike the pro-slavery gang, he didn't want to split The Union in half. When Tennessee left the Union after the first election of Abraham Lincoln, Johnson broke away and became the only Southerner in the U.S. Senate.

Johnson wanted to save the union, but did not believe in the emancipation of slaves. Concerned about his chances for reelection, Lincoln felt that he needed a man like Johnson on the ticket in 1864. Lincoln's enemies could not easily depict him as a tool of the abolitionists with the scurrilous and racist Johnson as his running mate!

Just days after the Civil War ended, Lincoln was murdered. President Johnson now blocked efforts to force Southern states to guarantee equality for blacks. While Congress was in recess, The President rushed through his own twisted policies--handing out thousands of pardons and basically OK'ing slavery in a new disguise. When Congress reconvened, the Republicans began a political war against the President.

During the congressional mid-terms in 1866, President Johnson went on a speaking tour to campaign for congressmen supporting his policies. In speech after speech, Johnson personally attacked his Republican opponents in foul and abusive language. It often appeared that the President was drunk (many historians suspect he probably was). One observer estimated that Johnson lost one million Northern votes in this debacle.

Congress voted to impeach Johnson by a vote of 126 to 47 in February 1868, citing his violation of the Tenure of Office Act and charging that he had brought disgrace and ridicule on Congress. The Senate voted not to convict Johnson (he won by one vote), and he limped through the sullied term originally won by President Lincoln.
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