Unfit

But what is already apparent is that John McCain is running the sleaziest, most dishonest and race-baiting campaign of our lifetimes. So let’s stopped being shocked and awed by every new example of it. It is undignified. What can we do? We’ve got a dangerously reckless contender for the presidency and a vice presidential candidate who distinguished her self by abuse of office even on the comparatively small political stage of Alaska. They’ve both embraced a level of dishonesty that disqualifies them for high office.

Josh Marshall

I Do Kind of Like That Sarah Palin

Well, anyway, everybody’s out there campaigning. And today, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sen. John McCain was there with Sarah Palin. And they were having lunch at a diner, and I thought this was so sweet. She was cutting his meat for him.

McCain was sitting there at the counter, wearing his Diamondbacks baseball cap, muttering about hippies.

John McCain is old. In fact, he is so old that his blood type has been discontinued.

I do kind of like that Sarah Palin. She looks like the flight attendant who won’t give you a second can of Pepsi. “No, you’ve had enough. We’re landing.”

Sarah Palin looks like the waitress at the coffee shop who draws a little smiley face on your check.

— David Letterman

Today, Barack Obama took his daughters to their first day of school, which was sweet. And in a related story, John McCain took his daughters to pick up their Social Security checks.”

Experts say that since Sarah Palin became the vice presidential nominee, there’s been an actual spike in the sales of her style of eyeglasses. … Yeah, with Palin’s glasses, you’ll be able to see everything, except what the hell your teenage daughter’s up to.

— Conan O’Brien

Nine Nine

Cliff Robertson is 85. Robertson won the best acting Oscar in 1969 for Charly. Most recently he has played Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben.

Joe Theismann is 59. Allegedly his name was pronounced Thees-man until he went to Notre Dame and they realized that Thighs-man rhymed with Heisman (as in the Trophy). No, really. (Theismann was runner-up to Jim Plunkett of Stanford for the Heisman in 1970.) NewMexiKen was at RFK that Monday night in 1985 when Lawrence Taylor broke Theismann’s leg.

Once-upon-a-time child star Angela Cartwright is 56.

Hugh Grant is 48. Is it just me, or do he and Phil Mickelson have the same goofy look?

Adam Sandler turns 42 today.

Best supporting actress nominee for Brokeback Mountain, Michelle Williams is 28.

Otis Redding was born on this date in 1941.

Though his career was relatively brief, cut short by a tragic plane crash, Otis Redding was a singer of such commanding stature that to this day he embodies the essence of soul music in its purist form. His name is synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying. Redding left behind a legacy of recordings made during the four-year period from his first sessions for Stax/Volt Records in 1963 until his death in 1967. Ironically, although he consistently impacted the R&B charts beginning with the Top Ten appearance of “Mr. Pitiful” in 1965, none of his singles fared better than #21 on the pop Top Forty until the posthumous release of “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” That landmark song, recorded just four days before Redding’s death, went to #1 and stayed there for four weeks in early 1968.

— Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Redding wrote the song known as Aretha Franklin’s signature hit, “Respect.”

Try a Little Tenderness

California and the Compromise of 1850

California was admitted to the Union as the 31st state on this date in 1850.

Admission of California as a free state (that is, no slavery) was the first in the series of five measures known as the Compromise of 1850.

The second measure organized the New Mexico Territory (which included present-day Arizona), settled the Texas-New Mexico boundary, and paid Texas $10 million to abandon its claims in New Mexico (everything east of the Rio Grande). The act also stated: “That, when admitted as a State, the said territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission.” In other words, slavery in New Mexico would be decided by the people of New Mexico. This became known as “popular sovereignty.”

The third measure was the organization of the Utah Territory (which included Nevada and western Colorado) with an identical provision about slavery.

The fourth was a revised Fugitive Slave Act, amending the law passed in 1793. This act set up commissioners authorized to issue warrants for fugitives and order their return. The commissioners were to receive $10 when the person apprehended was a fugitive slave. They were to receive $5 when they decided he/she was a free person. Fugitives claiming to be freedmen were denied a trial by jury and their testimony was not to be evidence in any of the proceedings under the law. Citizens aiding fugitives could be fined or imprisoned.

The fifth measure was the abolition of the slave trade (but not slavery) in the District of Columbia.

Like most political compromises, there was more for each side to dislike than to like. Slave states disliked California’s admission as a free state. And they disliked the end of the slave trade in D.C., not because it was important but because it demonstrated federal power over any aspect of slavery. Many northerners objected to the Fugitive Slave Act; and many violated it.

And, of course, slavery in the territories became the prime issue of the 1850s, the election of 1860, and coming of the Civil War.

This isn’t your grandfather’s Republican Party

Despite significant evidence to the contrary, the McCain campaign continues to assert that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told the federal government “thanks but no thanks” to the now-famous bridge to an island in her home state.

The Wall Street Journal

The question is: what of it?

There is absolutely no penalty for lying, in politics. None. Zip. Nada. Sarah Palin could stand atop a stage and declare herself moon-goddess of Endor, and it wouldn’t make a bit of difference. Yes, the papers would correct her. There would be a few cable stories on how there was no prior record of her being declared a moon-goddess. In the end, however, it would not matter, and it would not matter because Republicans have decided that it does not.
. . .

So what of it, if Sarah Palin says crooked things with a straight face? Name me one Republican who will object. Name me one — just ONE — diehard conservative who will be angry at the lie, instead of praising her for it. To hell with facts, there is another election to be won.

This is why I consider the Republican Party to be, at this point, a wrecked party. There is no self-consistent philosophy other than the acquisition and protection of their own power: there are certainly no moral or ethical boundaries that the party will internally enforce. John Edwards, a Democrat, had his political career effectively terminated when news of an affair came to light; a Republican can visit a prostitute wearing a diaper, and find himself easily forgiven. You can lie, you can staff your government with morons and ideologues, you can give a speech saying one thing while doing the exact opposite …. but you would be hard pressed to find even a single, lone Republican in Washington willing to buck the moral collapse of their own party.

Hunter, Daily Kos

Two country music immortals

… were born on September 8th.

Jimmie Rodgers, considered the “Father of Country Music,” was born in Meridian, Mississippi, on September 8, 1897. He died from TB in 1933. Jimmie Rodgers was the first person inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and among the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

James Charles Rodgers, known professionally as the Singing Brakeman and America’s Blue Yodeler, was the first performer inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He was honored as the Father of Country Music, “the man who started it all.” From many diverse elements—the traditional melodies and folk music of his southern upbringing, early jazz, stage show yodeling, the work chants of railroad section crews and, most importantly, African-American blues—Rodgers evolved a lasting musical style which made him immensely popular in his own time and a major influence on generations of country artists.

Blue Yodel No. 9

Patsy Cline, the most popular female country singer in recording history, was born in Winchester, Virginia, on September 8, 1932. She died in a plane crash in 1963. Patsy Cline is an inductee of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Cline is invariably invoked as a standard for female vocalists, and she has inspired scores of singers including k. d. lang, Loretta Lynn, Linda Ronstadt, Trisha Yearwood, and Wynonna Judd. Her brief career produced the #1 jukebox hit of all time, “Crazy” (written by Willie Nelson) and her unique, crying style and vocal impeccability have established her reputation as the quintessential torch singer.

Crazy

Even the lobo has stopped howling

In my 10th year in Albuquerque, NewMexiKen buys season tickets to University of New Mexico football. And what happens? Two of the six home games have been played already and the Lobos are 0-2. And not that good.

First, a 26-3 loss to TCU, then yesterday a 28-22 defeat by a mediocre Texas A&M team. And two of yesterday’s New Mexico scores came in the last six minutes when the game was likely out of reach. Earlier two interceptions led to two A&M TDs; a fumble lead to another. Ugly.

And the crowds have been small (70% of capacity yesterday) and listless (as one might expect in games where the home team is down 16-0 and 14-0 early. Some dental group sponsors shots of fans flashing their smiles during breaks in the action. Any UNM fans smiling yesterday should have been tossed from University Stadium.

This Saturday a third home game, this time against NewMexiKen’s very own alma mater, The University of Arizona, off to its best start in years. I’ll be wearing red again this week, but it’ll have an A on it, not a NM.

(A little boy about 5 or 6 sat in front of me yesterday with his dad. The kid watched the action on the large TV on the end zone scoreboard. To my knowledge he didn’t look at the field once. A few more games like the first two and that may be true for all of us.)

Mindset List

This month, almost 2 million first-year students will head off to college campuses around the country. Most of them will be about 18 years old, born in 1990 when headlines sounded oddly familiar to those of today: Rising fuel costs were causing airlines to cut staff and flight schedules; Big Three car companies were facing declining sales and profits; and a president named Bush was increasing the number of troops in the Middle East in the hopes of securing peace. However, the mindset of this new generation of college students is quite different from that of the faculty about to prepare them to become the leaders of tomorrow.

Beloit College Mindset List

Here’s some of the 60:

For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.

They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.

GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.

Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.

Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.

Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.

Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.

Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.

All have had a relative–or known about a friend’s relative–who died comfortably at home with Hospice.

Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.

The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.

Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.

Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.

We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”

There have always been gay rabbis.

IBM has never made typewriters.

McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.

The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.

Authorities have always been building a wall along the Mexican border.

Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.

Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.

Personal privacy has always been threatened.

Caller ID has always been available on phones.

Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.

The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.

They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”

Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.

Soft drink refills have always been free.

They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”

The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.

98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.

Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.

Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.

Grandparents Day

Today is Grandparents Day. Cash, checks and fine wines accepted.

Grandparents Day was the brainchild of Marian McQuade of Fayette County, W.Va., who hoped that such an observance might persuade grandchildren to tap the wisdom and heritage of their grandparents. President Jimmy Carter signed the first presidential proclamation in 1978 — and one has been issued each year since — designating the first Sunday after Labor Day as National Grandparents Day. The first official observance was Sept. 9, 1979.

US Census: Grandparents Day 2008

Wisdom and heritage R us.

September 7, 2008

Elizabeth was born on September 7th in 1533. The queen Virginia is named after.

Anna Mary Robertson was born on September 7th in 1860. Grandma Moses lived until 1961, and only started painting at age 76.

Two-time best director Oscar winner, Elia Kazan was born on September 7th in 1909. Kazan won for Gentleman’s Agreement and On the Waterfront. He had three other directing nominations.

David Packard was born on September 7th in 1912. The “P” in HP.

Senator Daniel Inouye was born on September 7th in 1924. He’s 84 today.

Tenor saxophonist Theodore Rollins — Sonny Rollins — was born on September 7th in 1930. He is 78 today.

Buddy Holly was born on September 7th in 1936. Just 22 when the music died.

Gloria Gaynor was born on September 7th in 1949. Still surviving at 59.

Go on now go walk out the door
just turn around now
’cause you’re not welcome anymore
weren’t you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye
Did you think I’d crumble
Did you think I’d lay down and die
Oh no, not I
I will survive
Oh as long as i know how to love
I know I will stay alive
I’ve got all my life to live
I’ve got all my love to give
and I’ll survive
I will survive (hey-hey)

Julie Kavner was born on September 7th in 1951. NewMexiKen liked her best in Awakenings, but we all know her as the voice of Marge Simpson. She’s 57 today.

W. Earl Brown was born on September 7th in 1963. He’s Dan Dority of Deadwood and 45 today.

Now that’s a hall monitor with some street cred

NewMexiKen just posted this last year, but I believe in recycling to help protect the planet.

NewMexiKen has been reading Angie Debo’s excellent 1976 biography of Geronimo. I recommend it. Here’s a couple of trivial items I thought were interesting.

When Geronimo’s and Naiche’s (son of Cochise) bands were consolidated at Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama, in 1887 and 1888, the post doctor was Walter Reed. Yes, THE Walter Reed.

A school was eventually set up at the Alabama camp, where the Apaches were prisoners of war — men, women and children. Geronimo reportedly monitored the children’s attendance and deportment, walking up and down the aisles with a stick.

I’m thinking many of our schools today could use Geronimo patrolling their classrooms.

The Apaches were relocated to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1894.

Update: Finishing the biography, amused to learn when that Geronimo traveled he would sell photos and autographs and even the buttons off his coat. He’d sell the buttons to people gathered to see him come by at the train station, then before the next station he’d sew on a new set of buttons.

Geronimo also rode in Teddy Roosevelt’s inaugural parade in March 1905. The Apache would have been about 75, nearly 76. It was said he could still vault onto his pony. This NewMexiKen post has a photo of Geronimo taken at the St. Louis Fair in 1904. He died in 1909, about age 80.

Special Public Service Announcement

With the election just 8 weeks away NewMexiKen wanted to pass along this public service announcement. Because of difficulties counting ballots in Florida after the 2000 vote, and in Ohio after the 2004 vote, and in New Mexico after any vote larger than for 8th grade class president, there has been a change of procedures nationwide.

All who wish to vote for Barack Obama for President are still supposed to vote on November 4.

All who wish to vote for John McCain for President are supposed to wait and vote on November 6.

Remember, November 4th for Obama, November 6th for McCain. Don’t show up on the wrong day.

Batshit crazy in fact

So let me get this straight.

A Gallup Poll late in August found that 81% of the American people were “dissatisfied with the way things are going in the United States at this time.” 18% were satisfied, and 1% don’t know what the hell they think.

Right now the election is seemingly close; Gallup says 45% favor John McCain.

We’ll grant that the 18% who say they are satisfied will vote for the incumbent party. That still means that 27% of the American people who are dissatisfied intend to vote for the party that got us here. (18+27=45)

Or, put another way, 27% of the electorate are insane — that is, doing the same thing over again and expecting different results.

The world’s best-known and best-loved woman

Jane Addams was born on September 6th in 1860.

Miss Addams has been called “the greatest woman in the world,” the “mother of social service,” “the greatest woman internationalist” and the “first citizen of Chicago.” With her idealism, serene, unafraid, militant, was always paramount. Devoted to the cause of social and political reform, to the betterment of the economic condition of the masses, to world peace and to internationalism, Miss Addams’s influence was world-wide. She was, perhaps, the world’s best-known and best-loved woman.

She made enemies. Her views were sometimes considered dangerously radical. Socialists and other radicals met at Hull House, and her opponents sometimes forgot that her liberal attitude in permitting such meetings did not include a membership in the groups she tolerated. In the World War her efforts for peace were unabated even when the United States entered the struggle and the wartime hysteria which ensued obscured for a time the American public’s realization of Miss Addams’s purity of purpose and character.

Above from Ms. Addams New York Times obituary in 1935.

Here’s some more:

Miss Addams moved into Hull House in September, 1889, and it was her home thereafter. It was then between a saloon and an undertaking shop, and there was an annex to a factory in its rear. Thousands of the foreign born–Miss Addams always held welcoming arms to the strangers–including Poles, Jews, Russians, Italians, Greeks, Germans, Irish and Bohemians were welcomed there. Negroes were also cordially received.

Persons later to be famous lived there in those early days. Among them were Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Swope, who were married there, Mackenzie King, later Premier of Canada, Francis Hackett, and Professor John Dewey, dean of American philosophers, and his family.

Hull House grew to be known as one of the largest and best-known of the nation’s settlements. It commenced with the ordinary activities of children’s clubs and free kindergartens and later it sponsored courses in languages, literature, music, painting, history, mathematics, elocution, dancing, wood-carving, pottery, metal work, bookbindery, dressmaking, lacework, cooking and basketwork. A labor museum was also established at Hull House.

Dozens of clubs were organized to aid working women. A lunch room was opened, as was a nursery for the children of employed women. There was also a gymnasium, a natatorium, a penny savings bank, a lodging house, as well as a circulating library and an employment bureau. Miss Addams personally directed all these activities, which were models for hundreds of others throughout the world.

Of course, she was just a community organizer.

September 6, 2008

Jane Curtin is 61.

Jeff Foxworthy is 50. Some Foxworthiness:

  • “I’ve been to all 50 states, and traveled this whole country, and 90 percent of the people are good folks. The rest of them take after the other side of the family.”
  • “If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you’ll be going, ‘you know, we’re alright. We are dang near royalty.'”
  • “You may be a redneck if… your lifetime goal is to own a fireworks stand.”

Rosie Perez is 44. Ms. Perez was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar in 1994 for Fearless.

Macy Gray is 41.

Author Alice Sebold is 45.

She was a freshman in college when one night she was attacked while she was walking home, dragged into an underground tunnel, and raped. She thought that she was going to be murdered throughout the experience. When she later talked to the police, they said that a girl had recently been murdered in that same tunnel, and so she should consider herself lucky for having survived. A few weeks later, Sebold spotted the rapist on the street, and she went to the police. He was arrested, and Sebold testified against him at the trial. The rapist was convicted and received the maximum sentence, and Sebold thought that the end of the trial would put the experience behind her.

The Writer’s Almanac (2007)

Of course, that wasn’t the end of it. Follow The Writer’s Almanac link to learn how the aftermath led to Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, the best-selling book of 2002.

Author Robert M. Pirsig was born on this date in 1928.

In 1968, [Pirsig] decided to take a trip by motorcycle from Minneapolis to California with his twelve-year-old son. He thought he’d write a travel essay about the journey, but the travel essay turned into a book about using Eastern philosophy to come to terms with his life. He called the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974). It was rejected by 121 publishers before one publisher finally took a chance on it. It went on to become the best-selling non-fiction book of the 1970s, selling more than 4 million copies.

Robert Pirsig said: “I think metaphysics is good if it improves everyday life; otherwise forget it.”

The Writer’s Almanac (2007)

Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette was born on this date in 1757. Not yet 20, Lafayette was commissioned a major general in the American army by the Continental Congress. (It helped that he served without pay and funded his own troops.)

Lafayette was wounded at Brandywine, served Washington loyally at Valley Forge and during an attempted cabal against the Commander-in-Chief, saved American troops and supplies in Rhode Island, was instrumental in obtaining vital French assistance from Louis XVI, and was on the field at Yorktown in 1781 when the British surrendered. By then Lafayette was 24.

Best line of the day, so far

I’m finding the Republican attempts to derail the conversation from the actual state of the country really depressing and disgraceful this year. They practice Orwellian politics of the crudest sort. They are trying to sell a big lie–that the election is about the social issues of the 1960s, or Barack Obama’s patriotism or his eloquence, or the “angry left,” when it’s really about turning toward a more moderate path after the ideological radicalism and malfeasance of the past eight years.

Joe Klein, Time

If you’re on-board with what the GOP is doing, fine — but at least admit it to yourself.

But as for NewMexiKen, their America is not the America I live in.

Charlie Brown has never knowingly taken steroids

From McSweeney’s Internet Tendency (2006). Funny stuff. A couple of excerpts:

DISTRICT ATTORNEY OTHMAR: Wah wah-wah wah, wah, wah wah-wah-wah wah?

CHARLIE BROWN: I’m sorry, sir, but I didn’t knowingly lie to the grand jury.

D.A.: Wah-wah-wah-wah?

BROWN: I did not knowingly take steroids, sir. Period. Snoopy gave me something to make me throw harder, but he said it was flaxseed oil and vitamin drops. I was tired of having the ball hit back up the middle and all my clothes torn off.

BROWN: My head’s always been this big. Ask Sally. And I’m not going bald; I’ve never had more than three hairs, sir.

Two best lines

Two best lines from Charles Pierce:

The other night, I heard John King on CNN earnestly explaining to me the difference between “Wal-Mart Moms,” “Soccer Moms,” and “Hockey Moms.” Basically, it caused me to wonder why smart women don’t just go around to the cable news outlets explaining things with Louisville Sluggers. As Alison Porchnik says to Alvy Singer in Annie Hall, “No, I love being reduced to a cultural stereotype.”

Worst visual of the convention: watching the Palin family hand baby Trig down the line every time the camera went on. They could teach something to the U.S. 4X100 relay teams, I’ll tell you that.