More Thoughts On Jacko - Michael Jackson's Trial Continues

A comedian has to have already said this, but::::::::::::::::shouldn't Michael Jackson's plastic surgeon and dermatologist be on trial for something?
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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 17: Pres. Andrew Johnson - The Worst President Ever

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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 screwed things up.

When Civil War broke out, Johnson was a first-term Senator in the proslavery wing of the Democratic Party. He differed with them in that he didn't want to split The Union. 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.

Days after the Civil War ended, Lincoln was assassinated. 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 essentially allowing slavery under another name. When Congress reconvened, the Republicans went to 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 vile and abusive language. On many occasions, it appeared that the President was drunk. 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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Happy 202nd Birthday Meteors

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202 years ago today, around 2,300 meteorites weighing between one quarter ounce and 20 pounds fell on the town of L’Aigle in northeastern France, 100 miles from Paris.

No one was killed. No one was even hurt. It was the first time scientists could verify that stones could come from outer space.

How the scientists figured it out is anyone's guess. Doctors at the time still believed that "humors" in the blood caused all illness. Bloodletting was the cure-all. Doctors didn't even wash their hands until the late 19th century, when Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister's findings led to antiseptic surgery. Antiseptic practice saved thousands of lives during the Franco-German War, and yet American and British doctors--who killed far more people than they saved--long resisted the theory of sepsis.
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POTUS 6: President John Quincy Adams - First Son Of A President To Become President And The First President To Become A Congressman Post-White House

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John Quincy Adams, the son of POTUS No. 2, attended Harvard and held several diplomatic posts over the years. He was elected to the Senate in 1803 and from 1809 on, held many other dipolomatic posts. As Secretary of State for James Monroe, he worked closely with POTUS 5 to formulate The Monroe Doctrine.

In 1825, no presidential candidate received a majority of electoral votes. Adams, with the support of Henry Clay, was elected President by the House over Andrew Jackson. His independence did not sit well with The Federalists, who kicked him out of the party.

Leaving the White House, Adams ran for the House as a Whig, and stayed there many years, and in fact, experienced a stroke on the floor of the House and died two days later.
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VPOTUS Nelson Rockefeller Gives The Finger To Protestors

This is one of my favorite political photos. At a campaign stop for Senator Bob Dole (on the VP's left) in '76, Nelson Rockefeller was heckled by protesters over his Vietnam war policy. Rocky ricocheted it. Soon after this, and unrelated to the famous finger, an appellate court ruled that giving the finger was not legally obscene.
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Myth # 8: The Consumer

provenance unknown

I don't know where this came from, but it's true. At least about videogames.
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POTUS 25: President William McKinley - Puppet Or Visionary?

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William McKinley has 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., business.

In the 100-day war over 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.

His second term 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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POTUS 39: President James Earl Carter - Not As Bad A President As You Have Been Led To Believe, But Rather A Victim Of Circumstance

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I remember how proud I was of Jimmy Carter, that Tuesday in November, 1976, when he stomped President Gerald R. Ford. It was my second Presidential election, and my first election had been a disaster, for me, and for the country.

With Ford's departure, the White House would finally be swept clean of the detritus of Dick Nixon. President Carter was my kind of people. Even among hillbillies, there are a few who rise above their mean beginnings. Of course, his brother Billy Carter was more my kind of people with his constant beer infusions, improvident talk, and public urination.

I didn't take long before things didn't go so well for President Carter, even though he would win the Nobel Peace Prize eventually. The last year of his admininstration was scarred by the Iranians holding a large number of Americans hostage. They would not be freed until the moment Dutch Reagan took the oath of office. Runaway inflation didn't help his election either. Since his forced retirement, the former President has worked tirelessly for various causes, most notably Habitat For Humanity.

He is the only person to be sworn in as president using his nickname. President Carter was also the first president born in a hospital. Jimmy Carter caused quite a stir when he said he had lusted many times in his heart after seeing pictures of women such as those in Playboy magazine. He instituted the first live televised phone-in broadcast from the White House in March 1977. He also began regular Saturday morning radio addresses to the American public.
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Poem: Coyote Comes Home Like A Salmon

Crossing real estate lines
That mean nothing to him,
Coyote traverses the pale fog
Driven in from the sea.
He has a loan of time
To walk through his old salal tangled home.
Sneaking through nettles and Oregon grape,
He carries his battered canoe
Along magnolia darkened clay
Back where he grew from whelp to pup.
Down whitewater roiling over boulders
He feathers the current with his paddle,
Turning in the current like a leaf.
The spent river slinks into the sea.
Pipers spoon their bills in the sand for clams
And robins claw at earthworms.
A diving hawk sends smaller birds
Tumbling into hysterical flight.
His bones feel fragile as obsidian
As he watches the green Kalopanish stop
And they all come to the end:
The river, the creek, and God's old friend.
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Jack Brummet
poem started in 1983, finished 4-23-2005.
That took a while!

Jack Brummet And Keelin Curran On The I.R.T. Local, 1982

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Happy Birthday Bill!

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William Shakespeare was born April 23, 1564, 351 years ago. Although he was writing fairly early in the development of modern English, no one has come within spitting distance of the master.
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