Author: NewMexiKen

Adios

NewMexiKen would fail to live up to my name if I don’t mention this op-ed piece by Tony Hillerman in Monday’s New York Times.

Now, with polls showing the race undecided, our puny five-vote delegation looks very important. And New Mexicans are not used to this. We are used to being ignored. We love it that way. One of the most popular monthly features in New Mexico magazine is called “One of Our 50 Is Missing.” It consists of reports about folks in other states refusing to accept our “foreign” credit cards, asking if one needs a visa to visit a friend in Albuquerque, or demanding a foreign postage charge to send the pair of shoes you’ve ordered from their catalog. Now, it seems, our fellow Americans finally know what country our state is in. I’m not the only one hoping that after tomorrow, they’ll forget.

Kerry 333 Bush 205

NewMexiKen has been optimistic about a Kerry victory since spring (admittedly with some periods of doubt). With large voter turnout seemingly everywhere today, I’m thinking it will be a good day for democracy and Democrats.

Kerry will poll more than 51% of the popular vote and win the electoral college by more than 100.

The Father of His Country

Fittingly enough on election day, NewMexiKen bring you a link to Jonathan Yardley’s review of His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis.

The Father of His Country, Ellis correctly observes at the outset, “poses what we might call the Patriarchal Problem in its most virulent form: on Mount Rushmore, the Mall, the dollar bill and the quarter, but always an icon — distant, cold, intimidating.” Ellis’s aim is to get beyond the monument into the man, and he does so in a convincing, plausible way.

Best line of the day, so far

“I am preparing myself for either outcome today. Should Kerry win, I will post an important statement called “A Time for Healing,” or something equally noble-sounding. Should Bush win, I shall post a statement of philosophical resignation tentatively titled “Good, Go Ahead, America, Choke on Your Own Vomit, You Deserve to Die.” The latter will probably require a little more tweaking.”

– James Wolcott

It’s the birthday

… of James Knox Polk, 11th president of the United States, born on this date in 1795.

… of Warren Gamaliel Harding, 29th president of the United States, born on this date in 1865.

Polk is generally rated among the “near great” presidents. Harding who died while president, is generally considered a “failure.” See this NewMexiKen entry.

Meaningless coincidence

The Washington Redskins have played home games before 17 presidential elections (beginning with 1936). When the ‘Skins have won, the incumbent party has stayed in the White House. When the ‘Skins have lost, the incumbent party has been beaten by the challenger.

Today the Redskins lost 28-14 to the Green Bay Packers.

Kerry’s victory Tuesday will keep this strange little statistical anomaly alive for four more years.

(By the way, the Redskins scored to tie the game late in the fourth quarter and could have kicked an extra point to go ahead. The touchdown was called back on an illegal procedure play. How’s that for an omen?)

Wednesday

Functional Ambivalent has some fine thoughts about what should happen Wednesday.

I hope and pray that we can go back to work with the celebratory feeling we should all have after watching another democratic miracle. We have, in the most vociferous and occaisionally acrimonious way, held our political leadership accountable, tested their mettle, and made our statement. And now it’s time to feel pride and wave the flag and take a break from calling each other names. On Wednesday it’s time, once again, to become simply “Americans.”

That’s the measure of patriotism, to me: Can you lose the election and then go along with what your countrymen chose, even though you disagreed with it?

It’s the birthday

… of Dan Rather. His frequency is 73.

… of Jane Pauley. She’s 54.

… of David Ogden Stiers. Major Winchester is 62.

It’s also the birthday of Michael (Bonanza/Little House on the Prairie) Landon, who was born in 1936 and died in 1991, and John Candy, born in 1950. Candy died in 1994.

It’s the birthday

… of Grace Slick. The Jefferson Airplane singer is 65.

… of Henry Winkler. The Fonz is 59.

… of Charles Martin Smith. Terry “The Toad” (American Graffiti) is 51.

Bless us all Chester

Albloggerque posted this Wednesday (sorry I missed it before now):

DOWNTOWN–Chester Nez rests on a plaza bench after the Kerry rally. Many in Boston credit Mr. Nez for breaking the Curse of the Bambino with a Navajo blessing. The WWII Code Talker and Congressional Gold Medal winner blessed the Kerry campaign in Albuquerque Tuesday night.

Apparently the Boston Red Sox called on Chester Nez to come to Boston and give a Navajo blessing to the Red Sox last April. After the team lost its 3 games to the Yankees in the ALCS they called him again. The local story goes that he walked out of his Albuquerque home, faced Fenway Park, and gave a blessing.

Now the Kerry campaign has him on stage with JK. And last night in Albuquerque’s Civic Plaza there he was extracting corn pollen from a little leather bag and letting it sift into the air in all 4 directions. The thousands of people at the rally were hushed during the brief ceremony…

Albloggerque has a couple of photos.

Fans of ‘The Princess Bride’ take note

NewMexiKen, having decided and voted, had also decided to lay off – as one blogger called it – “the liberal political crap” and stick to birthdays and history, [YAWN] etc.

Except Wonkette deserves recognition:

Ooops: He’s alive. And he’s condemning Bush. Which of course means that he wants Kerry to win. Unless he really wants Bush to win and is just by default endorsing Kerry in order to get people to vote for Bush out of spite. But then again, if we’re smart enough to figure that out, then maybe Osama knows that, too and he really wants Kerry to win, and is endorsing Kerry so that people will at first learn toward voting for Bush but then think that’s what Osama wants. . . So confusing. Clearly, we’ve fallen for one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is: “Never get involved in a land war in Asia”; but only slightly less well known is this: “Do not read about goats when death is on the line.”

Toying with the terrorists

After her first contact with a Department of Homeland Security agent, an Oregon toy store owner thought she might be the victim of a prank caller. But a second cryptic call left Stephanie Cox shaky. When the feds descended on Pufferbelly Toys, they showed their badges and made their mission clear: They were investigating a report that she was selling a toy called the Magic Cube, which they said was an illegal knockoff of Rubik’s Cube. Cox removed the offending item from the shelf, then contacted the manufacturer, who assured her there was no patent violation. Now, with the Magic Cube back on the shelf, Cox still puzzles over her Homeland Security experience. “Aren’t there any terrorists out there?” she asked.

Wired News Furthermore

It’s the birthday

… of Bill Gates. The former resident of Albuquerque is 49 today.

… of Julia Roberts. The Oscar-winning (Erin Brockovich) actress is 37. Ms. Roberts was also nominated for Best Actress for Pretty Woman and Best Supporting Actress for Steel Magnolias.

It’s also the birthday of Dr. Jonas Salk, developer of the polio vaccine. He was born in 1914 and died in 1995. The following is from The Writer’s Almanac:

In the 1950s, Salk turned his attention to the polio virus. The disease affected children and many of those infected became paralyzed or died. There had been larger and larger outbreaks of polio in the United States since the late 19th century. By 1952, more than 58,000 cases were reported and more than 3,000 children had died of the disease.

It was the height of the baby boom, there were more children in the United States than ever before, and parents were terrified. The outbreaks occurred in the summer, and parents kept their children home from swimming pools out of fear they would be infected.

Salk’s groundbreaking discovery was that a vaccine could be developed from a dead virus. Scientists were skeptical at the time, but Salk believed so strongly that it would work that he first tested the vaccine on himself, his family and the staff of his laboratory to prove it was safe.

When the vaccine was finally released to the public in 1955, polio infection rates were reduced to less than 100 cases a year, and Salk was declared a national hero.

It’s over

Michael Bérubé sums it up pretty well:

And surely some of you must regard victory itself as a prize of dubious worth. Until tonight, your team was legendary, and their legend shaped and defined your self-identification as fans. If you win the World Series, you win the World Series– and you become kin to the 2002 Angels and the 1980 Phillies. You will be elated (and drunk!) for a couple of days, sure. But then the championship will begin to sink in, and while some of you will say, as did a New York Rangers fan in 1994, “now I can die in peace,” others among you will be plunged into existential crisis.

This was written before last night’s game.