Today -100: October 13, 1910: Of defective senses of responsibility and sabotage

Roosevelt, speaking at a Knights of Columbus banquet on Columbus Day, predicts that one day there will be a Catholic president.

A rather dickish NYT editorial says that TR’s spontaneous decision yesterday to accept an invitation to fly in that plane is typical of the impulsiveness that makes him such a dangerous politician, with a “defective sense of responsibility”.

French Prime Minister Aristide Briand calls a railway strike an attempted revolution. He’s using a law intended for wartime to mobilize (i.e., conscript) railroad workers as reservists, and it’s not going down very well. Strikers have been destroying railway ties, which were called shoes (sabots). This is the origin of the word sabotage in French; it entered the English language in 1918.

The Jerry Brown-Meg Whitman debate: Women know exactly what’s going on here

This was the final debate between Governor Moonbeam (his porn name) and eMeg (her online porn name). I watched this one all the way through, no thanks to the Bay Area tv stations, none of whom carried it, and early on noticed for the first time that Brown’s voice sounds exactly like that of Tommy Smothers.

Everyone got to apologize insincerely, Whitman for never voting, and Brown for the staffer who called Whitman a whore (“That does not represent anything other than things that happen in a campaign”), though he undercut it by muttering that it was a private conversation and it was probably illegal to record it (it’s illegal to record someone on the phone without their permission; it is certainly not illegal for your answering machine to record a message, which is what happened here. Does Brown not even know the details of what, pathetically, has been the biggest story in the California election for days now?), denying that it was as bad as using the n-word about a black person, then saying that anyway Pete Wilson (Whitman’s campaign chair) used the w-word about public employees unions (in 1995). Whitman said that was a completely different thing, although it’s certainly the same word (Update: after the debate, reporters asked her to explain the difference; she would not). WhoreGate may be a negative for Brown, but there’s no sympathy vote here for Whitman, given the patent insincerity of her faux personal outrage and attempt to play the feminist card, saying darkly, “Women know exactly what’s going on here.”

Do they? Are you a woman? Do you know exactly what’s going on here? If so, tell us in comments exactly what’s going on here.

Whitman trumpeted her endorsement by the police union whose pensions she promised to exempt from her cuts, but said it was because she was tough on crime. She attacked Brown’s endorsement by the California Teachers’ Association, which is responsible for the “mess” in education. Evidently the cops can be trusted on criminal issues, but the teachers can’t be trusted on educational issues.

Brown asked Whitman how much money she’d save personally with her proposal to end capital gains taxes. “Shitloads,” she said, “shitloads and shitloads.”

Actually, of course, she wouldn’t answer. She did say she’s been out creating jobs and Brown’s been engaged on a “war on jobs.”

Both support two-tier pension systems for civil servants. Whitman noted, wistfully, “The existing pensioners we can’t touch”, without explaining why she wanted to touch pensioners.

Actually, I thought that phrasing was telling. She didn’t say we can’t touch existing pensions, but existing pensioners, which seemed to evince a personal hostility to the retirees who stand in her way, like they think they’re too good for cat food or something.

Brown accused Whitman, correctly, of not specifying where she’ll make the huge budget cuts she proposes (“She doesn’t have a plan. She said $14 billion in cuts. She doesn’t say where.”)

His plan: cut the budget of the governor’s office by 10 to 15%. That’s his plan. She pointed out that this was a minuscule proportion of the state budget; he said something about leading by example. So really, neither one of them has a plan. At the end of the debate, both were asked what structural reforms they’d support to California’s broken institutions. She called for two-year budgets, which is sensible in and of itself but would do absolutely nothing to fix the budget stalemate situation. He called for a majority vote in the Legislature for the budget, but not for taxes, which would do almost nothing to fix the budget stalemate situation. Once again, he proudly mentioned that Howard Jarvis (d.1986) voted for him some time after Prop 13 passed. Jarvis was a mean, bitter, anti-government crank of a sort we’re rather familiar with these days, and every time Brown brags about the old bastard, his soul shrivels a little more.

Governor Moonbeam (his screen name on Twilight fanfic websites) said he didn’t want to get into “that story” of Nicky Diaz, then of course did, pointing out that after 9 years of employing her, Whitman didn’t even get her a lawyer. Whitman said it broke her heart to fire her. Sure it did. After the debate, she said she’d moved on from “Gloria Allred’s political stunt.” So I guess her heart has healed up.

Brown: “I’ve been in the kitchen. I’ve taken the heat. She’s been in the bleachers.” Well, it’s not like Meg had to spend time in the kitchen. She had “help” for that.

(My posts on the 1st debate, 2nd debate.)

Today -100: October 12, 1910: Of flying ex-presidents

The Massachusetts Dems still don’t have a candidate for governor. You know what doesn’t help? Leaving the decision to a Committee of Four. Which is now split 2-2. Odd numbers, people, odd numbers.

Roosevelt goes up in a plane for the first time. For four minutes. It was a spur of the moment decision when he visited an air show in St. Louis. “By George, it was fine!” he exclaimed.


That plane would crash, killing that pilot, Archibald Hoxsey, in December.

Today -100: October 11, 1910: Of censorship, cheap politics, and a Southern non-strategy

NYC aldermen are considering establishing a public board of censors for moving pictures. Among the strongest supporters: movie house owners. The only opposition, in fact, comes from the existing private board of censors.

John Dix certifies that he spent no money to be nominated the Democratic candidate for governor of NY.

TR says privately, “By George, if I thought I could carry a single Southern state, I would willingly run for the presidency!”

Spon!

It is my sad duty to report that the coveted Golden Spurtle (that’s the award for the best porridge) has returned to Scotland (you will of course remember that an American won it last year), thanks to the invention by Neal Robertson of the Tannochbrae Tearoom in Auchtermuchty (of those words, I’m pretty sure I can pronounce tearoom) of a wooden, double-sided spoon he calls a spon, which gives twice the power to mixing and beating (that’s what she said) and puts more air in the mixture (a commenter on the Guardian’s story offers this historical perspective: “It’s a little known fact, that traditional Scots oats cooks, were constantly innovating their oat stirrers. That’s how we ended up with billy clubs, clothespins, dildos, and the like.”)

Says Mr. Robertson, “It was a wake-up call last year to see how seriously porridge is taken across Scotland and around the world.” Evidently the trick is always to stir clockwise because stirring counter-clockwise lets the devil in. Don’t want devil-flavored porridge.

Ending assassination abuse without ending assassination, because that would be crazy

It’s always nice to watch the official “liberal” mind in action. The NYT editorial page today takes up the issue of Obama’s assassination program, intoning Very Seriously that “assassinations are a grave act and subject to abuse”. And if there’s one thing we hate, it’s seeing something noble and pure like assassination being... oh it hurts even to say it... abused.

Evidently Bush committed such abuses, but “So far, President Obama’s system of command seems to have prevented any serious abuses”. The Times doesn’t explain what an unserious abuse in a program of assassinating people might be.

The Times says that the Obama administration should forthrightly assert that it only assassinates in accordance with international law and strictly, strictly I say, in self-defense. And it needs to be a last resort (well, pretty much by definition...)

We should get the permission of foreign countries before killing people there “if practical.”

The Times’s answer to the problem of abusive assassination is, of course, to bureaucratize the machinery of murder. Because there’s nothing like a few oversight committees to make assassination shiny and clean. And we should establish secret courts to issue assassination warrants, because there’s nothing like a piece of paper, with official stamps and everything, to make assassination shiny and clean. Do all that, and the Times and all Americans can sleep soundly at night, safe and secure and morally pure.

Today -100: October 10, 1910: Of nuns and upsets

Portugal’s new government is expelling the religious orders, including 233 nuns.

Headline of the Day -100: “Killed by Auto Upsetting.” Yes, I should jolly well think it would be.

Today -100: October 9, 1910: Of the Battle of Cameron Dam

With elections one month away, Massachusetts Democrats have no candidate for governor. The party convention descended into fist-fights and decided to leave it to a Committee of Four, but they haven’t managed to make a decision either.

The Battle of Cameron Dam is over. In 1900 John Deitz bought a farmstead in Wisconsin and found that his property included the logging dam, which he blocked in 1904 after a lumber company owned by Weyerhaeuser refused to pay the toll he demanded. The company orchestrated an ambush by a sheriff’s posse in July 1906 in which one of Deitz’s sons was nearly killed. He and his family held off sheriff’s deputies for the next four years, surviving the siege with food contributed by readers of a sympathetic newspaper editor. They finally succumbing yesterday (-100) to an onslaught by a posse of 60 men. Deitz’s log cabin, where his family including minor children held out, was riddled with 1,000 shots during the five-hour gun battle. One deputy was killed and another had his ear shot off. Deitz was imprisoned for murder but his folk hero status forced the governor to pardon him in 1921. There’s an interesting article from the Wisconsin Magazine of History available online.

Today -100: October 8, 1910: Of nervous Spain and demon dogs

Headline of the Day -100: “Spain is Very Nervous” (about the Portuguese revolution provoking imitators).

Doggy Headline of the Day -100: “BOSTON TERRIERS BENCHED. The Demon Best Dog Judged at Madison Square Garden.” Turns out that the best of show at the show of the Boston Terrier Club of New York is named “The Demon,” he isn’t an actual demon best dog.

Mrs Harriet Johnston Wood, a lawyer, in a speech at a meeting of the Equal Suffrage League, called for women to attempt to vote in the forthcoming elections as a means of challenging their disfranchisement in court. But in her speech she “indirectly” used the word nigger – which I think means she used it in some figure of speech – and a Mrs. Kate Butler told her to knock it off, that “people of a race whose members were received by royalty abroad [the recent reception of Booker T. Washington by the Danish king and queen] should not be mentioned by a name to which all right-feeling colored people took exception.”

Today -100: October 7, 1910: Of revolutions and bi-partisan slogans

Portugal’s King Manuel II, or former king I should say, escaped on the formerly royal yacht to Gibraltar. He will live in Britain the rest of his life.

Manuel’s uncle, The Duke of Orleans, has an explanation for the revolution: it was the fault of the Masons.

The minister of justice and worship in the new Portuguese regime writes the NYT with a list of its objectives, including the expulsion of monks and nuns and closing of religious schools. Also education, justice, colonial autonomy blah blah blah. The new president is the writer Teófilo Braga.

The NYT notes that the slogan “A vote for Stimson is a vote for Roosevelt” works for both the Republican and Democratic parties. “It ought to be a great saving.”

A terrible accident

By blocking US military convoys, Pakistan has gotten the US to apologize (a “terrible accident”) for last week’s helicopter rocket attack that killed two Pakistani soldiers.

If only the Pakistani government responded to the many US attacks that kill innocent civilians as strongly as it did to an attack that killed soldiers, we might be a little more impressed. When David Petraeus says he’ll work to see this doesn’t happen again, he clearly meant accidentally killing soldiers, not accidentally killing civilians.

Speaking of Pakistan, did anyone notice that Musharraf admitted yesterday that when he ruled Pakistan he funded militants in Kashmir?

Today -100: October 6, 1910: Of republics and swackhammers

The revolutionaries in Portugal have declared a republic, with a new flag and everything. Britain, bound by treaty with Portugal, may have to go in to protect 21-year-old King Manuel II, who has fled Lisbon. The NYT declares Manuel an “amiable king” despite “very vague rumors” of affairs with actresses and foolish extravagance.” For the record, he was totally fucking actresses.

Portugal would never have a king again. Fascist dictator yes, king no.

Name of the Day -100: a Woodrow Wilson campaign speech was chaired by one Austin H. Swackhammer.

Unfortunate Headline of the Day

AP: “New High Court Era: Kagan Makes 3 Women on Bench.”

(Good article by Barry Friedman and Dahlia Lithwick in Slate about “How the Roberts Court Disguises Its Conservatism.”)

Today -100: October 5, 1910: Of campaigns, revolutions, and gambling

Henry Stimson files a statement of expenses under the new campaign disclosure law: his campaign for the R. nomination for governor cost him $150.

But the NYT says Stimson’s campaign is doomed (spoiler alert: yes, yes it is. Doomed doomed doomed.) because many Republicans would just as soon see him lose if that would help prevent Roosevelt getting back into the White House: “Every man who has any stake in the orderly administration of the Government, in the maintenance of the integrity of the courts, every man who has respect for the country’s laws and its institutions, and who is moved to disquiet and alarm by Mr. Roosevelt’s appeals to mob passion and unreason, understands very well that this is the year to check and thwart his designs, not next year or the year after.”

In the meantime, the old governor Charles Evans Hughes is about to resign to take up his seat on the Supreme Court, so there will be a temporary governor until the end of the year, one Horace White.

A revolution has started in Portugal. Warships controlled by the rebels are bombarding Lisbon, and the king may have been captured.

One of the things NYC Mayor Gaynor finds on his return to work is that the police have been investigating the US Army Building on suspicion that it “was being conducted as a gambling house.” Evidently it wasn’t, and Gaynor has to write a letter of apology to the deputy quartermaster. What seems to have happened was that there was a gambling establishment over a saloon across the street from the Army Building and the two detectives who went to the Army Building were actually corrupt cops using the visit as a sneaky way to tip off the gambling joint that there was an investigation going on.

Today -100: October 4, 1910: Of revolting cops, and an Alabama negro in King Frederick’s court

Maryland Governor Crothers declares the Baltimore police board’s act in stationing of armed cops around hq to prevent being fired an armed revolt and an insurrection against the state, “and I shall take steps to put it down.” (What steps? There is no follow-up in the NYT in the next two weeks.)

The king and queen of Denmark entertain Booker T. Washington, the “first negro ever received at the Danish Court,” at Charlottenlund Castle. They talked about the Danish West Indies. The queen would like him to go there and apply the Tuskegee system of education.

NYC Mayor Gaynor returns to work, two months after his assassination.

Today -100: October 3, 1910: Of cops, censorship and queues

Governor Austin Crothers of Maryland is prosecuting two Baltimore police commissioners for incompetence and misconduct and trying to oust various other police officials, including the chief. But for two days the cops have been guarding police hq and the commissioner’s offices to prevent the temporary commissioners appointed by the governor taking over. Will he send the militia in?

18 leading British playwrights have penned a protest against the banning of Laurence Housman’s play about the attempt by George IV in 1820 to divorce Queen Caroline, Pains and Penalties, and a demand that there be a right of appeal against such bans. Bernard Shaw noted in the preface to his Plays Unpleasant that in 1737 Henry Fielding had “devoted his genius to the task of exposing and destroying parliamentary corruption, then at its height. Walpole, unable to govern without corruption, promptly gagged the stage by a censorship which is in full force at the present moment. Fielding, driven out of the trade of Molière and Aristophanes, took to that of Cervantes; and since then the English novel has been one of the glories of literature, whilst the English drama has been its disgrace.” The reason given by the Lord Chamberlain for the ban on Housman’s play was that it was about “a sad historical episode of comparatively recent date in the life of an unhappy lady.” Too soon? Queen Caroline had been dead for 90 years.

The former Chinese ambassador to the US is presenting the emperor with a memorial on behalf of Chinese living in the Americas asking to be allowed to stop wearing Chinese clothing and the queue (the long braid of hair).

Jerry Brown-Meg Whitman debate: The real tragedy here is Nicky

If Meg Whitman hadn’t taken such unpleasantly anti-illegal-immigrant positions, one might almost feel sorry for her. And the question she asked Jerry Brown in today’s Univision debate, “What would you have had me do?”, is actually pretty unanswerable; if she’d just kept repeating it he’d have been in an uncomfortable position. Many people find Whitman’s summary firing of Diaz after 9 years cruel and heartless to someone she claims to have considered as part of her family, but is Brown, California’s highest law-enforcement official, suggesting Whitman should have overlooked a violation of the law? Or instead that she should have checked Diaz’s documents more carefully and then reported her to the INS? Either answer would alienate a large swathe of voters. Instead, Brown responded with something about how Whitman should take responsibility and not blame everybody else, but that’s about the politics of it. What should she have done about Diaz herself?


Fortunately for him, Whitman’s politics are solidly anti-immigrant, opposing a path to legalization and telling an illegal immigrant Fresno State student at the debate that she shouldn’t have been given a university space that could have gone to a citizen, so Whitman couldn’t ask Brown how you act humanely in the light of inhumane laws, and she did in fact maintain the I’m-the-real-victim-here stance. She suggested that Diaz had been brainwashed by Brown’s henchmen: “The Nicky I saw at the press conference three days ago was not the Nicky that I knew for nine years. And you know what my first clue was? She kept referring to me as Ms. Whitman. For the nine years she worked for me she called me Meg and I called her Nicky.” Hmm, I wonder what could have changed that? Follow the clues, Meg.

By contrast, Whitman repeatedly referred to her summarily dismissed employee as Nicky.

Whitman suggested that the person who really exploited Nicky Diaz is Jerry Brown: “You put her out there. You should be ashamed for sacrificing Nicky Diaz on the altar of your political ambitions.” Oh, so very self-aware. “The real tragedy here is Nicky. After Nov. 2, no one’s going to be watching out for Nicky Diaz.” What’s stopping you from hiring her the best immigration lawyer in the state, Meg?

Whitman said, “I cannot win the governor’s race without the Latino vote,” so, um, good luck with that.

Asked to list three of their opponent’s positive traits, Whitman could only come up with two for Brown (he cares about California and has had a long career in public service) before resorting to, “And I really like his choice of wife.”


I don’t believe she answered the question about when she would take the polygraph she offered a few days to take. Steve Lopez of the LAT has already lined up a guy to do it.

(My post on the previous debate here.)

Today -100: October 2, 1910: Of dynamite, cholera, spectacular prances, souls, and diplodocuses

Today’s (-100) NYT includes some of the blurriest scans I’ve seen yet, some of it quite unreadable. Sigh.

Still, things were much worse at the LA Times, where dynamite exploded in the LAT building, setting off a fire in nearby ink barrels which engulfed the building and killed 21 people (the lack of fire escapes didn’t help).


Another bomb exploded at the home of the paper’s proprietor, Gen. Harrison Gray Otis (who was not home), who had been waging a vicious war against unions in southern California in general and unions at the Times in particular. The LAT put out a single-page edition a few hours after the fire, screaming for revenge. Its headline: “Unionist Bombs Wreck the Times; Many Seriously Injured.” That it was unionists who planted the dynamite was only conjecture at that point. But (spoiler alert) true. There was a big trial, with Clarence Darrow defending the McNamara brothers, and then himself for supposedly bribing jurors.

There’s a Wikipedia page on the bombing and trial, and books, including one I’ve read and can recommend, Geoffrey Cowan, The People v. Clarence Darrow.

Two planes hit each other in Milan in the first-ever mid-air collision. I believe both pilots survived.

France is pissed off at Italy, as well they might be, for concealing the outbreak of cholera in Naples.

Election cycles really were shorter back then. John Dix, who just received the surprise nomination to be governor of NY, has decided – with the election just five weeks away – to have a vacation before he begins campaigning. “Regarding his campaign plans Mr. Dix remarked: ‘There will be no spectacular prance about the State.’” Fun fact about Dix and vacations (and I’ll save you some anxiety and just tell you now that he will in fact be the next governor): in 1912 he was scheduled to take one aboard the second voyage of the Titanic, had there been one).

Thomas Edison says that there is no such thing as the human soul. So that settles that. Scientifically.

Speaking of science, Charles Brooks, the African explorer, wants the British government to fund an expedition into the Rhodesia swamps, because he hears tell that there are dinosaurs there, possibly diplodocus, beside which an elephant “looks like a small cat.” Also there’s a race of copper-colored people. And, um, unicorns. And, er, dragons.

Confidence man

Silvio Berlusconi wins another vote of confidence.


He followed it up with a speech to the Italian Senate in which he took credit for persuading Bush to bail out the banks, persuading Obama to negotiate a nuclear treaty with Russia, and persuading Putin not to conquer Georgia in 2008, thus saving President Saakashvili being “hanged from the highest tree.”

Caption contest!

Today -100: October 1, 1910: It’s Icicle-Dix in NY

The under-emotional Barack Obama figure of his day? Henry Stimson says, “I want to overcome the impression which I am told is current among newspapermen that I am an icicle. I am not an icicle.” He says the impression arose because the public has hitherto only known him as a US district attorney.

And the vote (of Tammany Boss Charles Murphy) is in: the Democratic nominee for governor of New York is one John Alden Dix, nephew of a previous governor and Civil War general of the same name. Like Stimson, he’s pretty obscure and has never held elective office, though he did run for lt. governor in 1908 (the term for state offices like governor was two years). Dix had to have his arm twisted to run, and his wife pleaded with him in tears not to.

Here’s how it worked at the D. party convention: yesterday I said that there were 14 named candidates for governor. But then Boss Murphy made his choice of Dix and the others all dropped out except for one joker, Congressman William Salzer, who insisted his name be put forward and lost 434 to 16. Murphy’s choices for all the other offices were put through “by acclamation.” Oddly enough, one plank in the party platform is direct primary elections.

Artist Winslow Homer dies.

Today -100: September 30, 1910: Of four hundred and fifty sad-eyed men

The NYT today is officially the gossipy mother of every Republican politician, with headlines such as “GAYNOR BUSY ON ’PHONE.; Talks the Whole Evening, Perhaps to Somebody in Rochester” and “Roosevelt Early to Bed.”

The prosecution of Oklahoma Governor Haskell for fraud in the purchase of federal lands is dropped abruptly. A recent circuit court ruling had created a statute of limitations of only three years, and this particular criminal enterprise began in 1902.

The New York Democratic convention has opened, under the firm control of Tammany Hall. “The convention session meant nothing. The real convention was in Mr. [Boss Charles] Murphy’s room at the Whitcomb”. While “Four hundred and fifty sad-eyed men [were] wondering whom they were to nominate for Governor of New York”, Murphy has yet to decide which of 14 possible candidates will run in the elections – which are just 5½ weeks away. NYC’s assassinated-but-not-dead-yet Mayor Gaynor, now almost recovered enough to return to work, is the only really popular choice and therefore Murphy’s, despite his independence from Tammany control, but he has said in a public letter that he definitely absolutely does not want it and would not accept the nomination.

Today -100: September 29, 1910: Of Stimson and fallen kings

Very much under Roosevelt’s direction (for example he, rather than the delegates as custom dictated, named committee members), the NY Republican convention nominates Henry L. Stimson (yes, the later secretary of war under Taft, secretary of state under Hoover and secretary of war again under FDR) for governor (you’ll recall that the popular Republican governor Charles Evans Hughes is heading for the Supreme Court in a few days). The NYT criticizes TR for “advocating direct nominations in the forenoon and dictating nominations in the afternoon”. They kind of have a point.

Headline of the Day -100: “King Had to Fall Down.” Italian King Victor Emmanuel was inspecting planes at an aerodrome when someone who didn’t see him started up a plane, which started towards the monarch. He and the Count of Milan had to throw themselves to the ground; the plane just cleared them.

California gubernatorial debate: They’re fooling around with a lot of fat

The first debate between eMeg and former Governor Moonbeam took place at UC Davis (Motto: Come for the dachshund races, stay for the, er...) tonight.

Whitman says putting Brown in charge of the budget is “like putting Count Dracula in charge of the blood bank.” Which was an old, unfunny joke when Dracula was still alive (1431–1476).

She sort of looks like a crucifix here, no?
Brown says “we’re all going to have to sacrifice.” Meaning college students and young people who won’t be able to afford to be college students because he’ll be increasing state university fees. “But I’d say those at the top, those at the commanding heights of our economy, should tuck in their belts first.” Tuck their belts into what? Does Jerry Brown not know how belts work?

Brown was asked if he’d run for president again: “if I were younger you know I would.” So he’s saying he’s too old to be president but not too old to be governor.

My prostate is like this big
Brown went on and on (as old guys will do) about why it’d be good to have an old guy as governor: “If everybody in state service worked as long as I have, the pension system would be overfunded by 50 percent, OK, and work until 72. By the way, if you elect me governor, I will not collect until I’m 76. And by my second term, I’ll be 80. So I’m the best pension buy California has ever seen.” I believe that’s his new motto.

Brown says he’d be more effective than the last time he was governor because he’s married now: “I come home at night. I don’t try to close down the bars in Sacramento like I used to do when I was governor of California.” At his age, he closes down the early bird specials.

Brown: “I pledge to the people of this state I will faithfully carry out our law on executions and I’ll do it with compassion but I’ll do it with great fidelity to the rule of law.” “Compassionate” executions. Must be what they taught him at that Jesuit seminary.

By the way, as attorney general Brown is desperately trying to get an execution under his belt, or whatever he uses to hold up his pants, before the election, but a federal judge halted Thursday’s scheduled execution because he’s not convinced that the lethal injection chemicals wouldn’t allow the executee to feel great pain while being paralyzed so it wouldn’t show. And all of the state’s sodium thiopental reaches its expiration date Friday.

Whitman attacked him for appointing Rose Bird to the state supreme court and said: “Jerry has a long, 40-year record of being quite liberal on crime.” And he once shot a guy, just to watch him die.

Brown: “We can cut. They’re fooling around with a lot of fat.” Boy, that’s an image I did not need in my head.

Jazz hands!
Whitman: “No company should put a call center in Phoenix, Arizona, they should put it in Fresno or Stockton.” The, um, call-out to Fresno is because last week she said Fresno “looks like Detroit. It’s awful.” Which is something we can all agree on. I believe that’s actually the city motto.

Whitman on not voting for all those decades: “I apologize to everyone in California.”

Whitman: “I don’t think you can buy elections. I think Californians are too smart.” She means that unions can’t buy elections, not that ultra-rich dilettantes can’t buy elections.

Whitman: “This state is in an enormous mess.” I believe that’s actually the new state motto.

Jazz hands!

No Apology Out of Butt

Follow-up: Last Tuesday our Headline of the Day (from the BBC) was “England Demand Apology From Butt.” Today: “Butt Makes No Apology to England.”

Today -100: September 28, 1910: Of cholera and conventions

100,000 of “the better classes” have fled the cholera outbreak in Naples.

The NY Republican Party convention votes Roosevelt in as temporary chairman, defeating VP Sherman, overturning a decision made at an advance committee meeting in August, from which several members had stayed away because they were told nothing important was going to happen. But the indirect primaries spoke (how it worked was that New York Republicans voted for delegates to this convention; the convention will choose the candidates for governor, congress, etc; one of the planks Roosevelt wants is direct primaries, but the convention is still divided on that issue), and progressive delegates outnumber Old Guard ones (567-445 on the chairman vote). Therefore, in the NYT’s words, “the Old Guard turned its State Convention over to Theodore Roosevelt this afternoon, body, soul, and breeches.” Oh, it’s that sort of convention.

TR’s speech called for a “war against dishonesty.”

Today -100: September 27, 1910: Everyone loves a parade

Oklahoma Gov. Charles Haskell (the new state’s first governor) is on trial for conspiracy to defraud the government in the sale of Creek Indian land, which he and his associates bought under false names for next to nothing.

The New York Republican convention opens tomorrow. TR is there, and Vice President Sherman, and everyone is in a spectacularly nasty mood. Fun.

On the corner of 3rd Avenue and 137th Street in NYC, a recently released mental patient, “wearing a black slouch hat bound around with a tasseled cord of gilt braid,” ordered some little boys to “fall in.” They did and so began a parade that grew continually, more boys joining it as it marched up the street. A cop commanded the leader to follow him to the police station. “Only if my regiment follows me,” he said, and so they did, though when they arrived at the station house, the killjoy cop dispersed the regiment.

Today -100: September 26, 1910: Of cholera

Officials in Naples, Italy finally admit that there is cholera in the city. One case. In fact, 80 have died of the disease.

Of course he did

Thomas Friedman column: “I was recently at a Washington Nationals baseball game. While waiting for a hot dog, I overheard the conversation behind me...”

You won’t have Balls to kick around anymore

Not that it matters, since Blair and Brown have made Labour unelectable for a generation, but the Labour leadership contest took place today at the Labour Party conference. To the disappointment of every British headline writer, Ed Balls was eliminated in the third round of voting, but Ed Miliband was finally able to vanquish his older brother David, who was ahead of him in votes in each of the first three rounds. Awkward!

“You’re Fredo.” “No, you’re Fredo.”

This blog predicted David Miliband’s failure two years ago when he was photographed with a banana.



Ed Miliband is 40, has only been in Parliament five years. Like many European politicians, he is not married to his partner, with whom he has a child. When do you suppose that will be possible in puritan America?

Nov. 2010 California proposition recommendations

(Update: results added, in purple. Will add exact numbers when available.)

Prop. 19. Legalizes marijuana for those 21 and older. Well, you’re either in favor of legalization or you aren’t, and if you consider marijuana more harmless than, say, tequila, and legalization a good way to bring revenue to state and local governments, redirect police and prison resources to real criminals, and strike at the power of the cartels and gangs, then Prop. 19 is a start. That said, implementation will be a mess, not only because pot will still be illegal at the federal level but also because Prop. 19 won’t really kill the illegal drug trade: people under 21 will still be buying, and the local governments that have put so many obstacles in the path of medical marijuana certainly won’t be more welcoming to recreational use, which means they either won’t permit commercial production and distribution or they’ll put such high taxes on it that people will continue going to the same old dealers.

The No ballot pamphlet argument suggests that 19 will increase car accidents because it sets no standards for determining when someone is driving under the influence of marijuana. Hey, district attorneys who wrote that argument, I’m pretty sure those would be exactly the same standards as we use right now.

Vote yes on 19, dudes, and stock up on some munchies.

Loses (54%), because the olds out-voted the yoots. It'll be interesting to see if this is one of those social issues that trends permissive over time, like gay marriage, or if people will always get wary of the demon weed when they get older.

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Props. 20 & 27. Redistricting. Again. And we have competing “evil twin” props.

Prop. 20 would give the job of drawing Congressional districts to the citizens’ commission created by Prop. 11 in 2008. I was against that one at the time because it created an insanely convoluted system to select a bunch of anonymous, unaccountable individuals to perform one of the most vital tasks in our democracy and for having quotas based on political party, thus “enshrin[ing] the two parties at the heart of the redistricting process... trying to pre-determine the outcomes of elections.” Click here for my 2008 argument against Prop. 11, which applies doubly to this extension of its reach. The commission is still in the process of being selected by state auditors, using who knows what criteria, so it’s too early to say what sort of a job they’ll do, although we do know that most of the volunteers were white.

The requirement that districts not break up “communities of interest,” which is defined as “shared interests... common to an urban area, a rural area, an industrial area, or an agricultural area, and those common to areas in which the people share similar living standards, use the same transportation facilities, have similar work opportunities,” would ensure that this all winds up in the courts, since class-segregated Congressional districts arguably violate the 14th Amendment even if class didn’t function as a proxy for race, which it does.

No on 20.

Wins easily (61.5%).

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Prop. 21. An $18 surcharge on non-commercial vehicles to support state parks and beaches; free admission to parks for the owners of those vehicles. On principle, I dislike hypothecated taxes, where a tax on one thing is dedicated to some unrelated purpose. The appropriate car tax and the appropriate budget for state parks are unrelated to each other and should be decided by – don’t laugh – the Legislature. Such decisions are kind of what they’re there for (in case you were wondering what they’re there for)(I know I was). Moreover, heavy users of the parks should not be subsidized, eliminating higher admission charges during peak times would create over-crowding, and state services should be supported by the progressive income tax so that the rich pay their fair share. Please lobby your legislators to do that, but vote no on 21.

Loses big time (57.8%). Not a good year to be asking voters to reach into their pockets.

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Prop. 22 bans the state government “borrowing” money from local governments and transportation projects. The No argument suggests alarmingly that this would cause schools to close and then burn down because all the fire departments would be closed, or something like that, because the budget process is so messed up it can’t function without stealing from local governments. Fix the broken budget process; don’t bankrupt the cities. Yes on 22.

Yes, 60.8%.

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Prop. 23 suspends air pollution and greenhouse gas laws when the state unemployment rate is over 5.5%. So Valero and Tesoro, the primary funders of this prop (which paid that young women who tried to get me to sign the petition for this prop by claiming it did the exact opposite), wants to close down its California refineries and import dirtier gasoline made in states with less stringent air pollution laws. It’s about the most greedy corporate-backed proposition I’ve seen since... that PG&E one in June. It would make pollution worse and do nothing to decrease unemployment. (Note to the Calif. secretary of state: the Yes argument shouldn’t have been allowed to use the false term “global warming tax.”) Vote No. And boycott Valero.

No, 61%. Valero et al thought they could convince people environmental regs cost them their jobs, the people just saw greedy polluters.

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Prop. 24 changes the way large multi-state businesses are taxed, closing recently created loopholes. Yes.

Loses big, 58.5%. Voters see a confusing technical prop, they vote no on general principles.

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Prop. 25 changes the current 2/3 vote required in the Legislature to pass a budget to a simple majority. But retains 2/3 for taxes, which I guess is the only way this thing could get passed, but which would therefore be only a partial fix for the broken budgetary system, leaving it hostage to a minority, which would still be encouraged in their obstructionism. Still, I would have supported it as a half-way measure, but they just had to add that childish faux-populist bit taking away the pay and travel & living expenses of every legislator each day the budget is late. That is precisely the same thing, morally speaking, as offering legislators a bribe in a brown paper bag in a parking garage: it is an economic incentive to vote a certain way. Any politician this would work on is not worthy of holding public office. It would put a coercive weapon in the hands of obstructionist wealthy legislators to use against any of their brethren who might actually need their pay. Do we really want to drive out of politics everyone who isn’t a multi-millionaire? I would love to change the 2/3 provision, but the pay-docking provision is a deal-breaker. No.

Yes, by a healthy margin (54.8%), which rather surprises me, especially with all the lying about it really being about raising taxes.

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Prop. 26. State fees would require a 2/3 vote in the Legislature, and local ones would require 2/3 in a referendum. Evidently some people think California doesn’t have enough gridlock in the Legislature now, that the budget process runs just too smoothly, so let’s require a 2/3 vote to, for example, raise entrance fees at state parks or increase restaurant inspection fees to keep up with costs, and let’s require expensive local elections on charging fees to businesses that sell alcohol. Mostly, though, this is really about the fees paid by businesses to pay for, for example, cleaning up pollution or oil spills they cause (Chevron is the largest funder of the pro-26 campaign). Those businesses hope that if they yell TAX TAX TAX loud enough, voters will be scared that there’s a conspiracy to subject them to “hidden taxes” if 26 isn’t passed. No on 26, another step in making California completely ungovernable.

Yes, 52.6%. When they saw which way the wind was blowing on 23, the oil companies switched their money into promoting this one, with commercials that were at the very least deceptive. We'll come to regret this (while at the same time somehow absolving ourselves of all responsibility for having voted for it)

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Prop. 27. Redistricting. If both 27 and 20 win, only the one with the most votes goes into effect. 27 repeals 2008’s Prop. 11, abolishing the citizens’ commission, making the Legislature again responsible for drawing up districts for all offices, and putting the maps up to the voters.

The authors decided to go all budget-populist and laughably call 27 the “Financial Accountability in Redistricting (FAIR!) Act,” focusing on 27’s least important provision, which restricts the money spent on the redistricting process to $2.5 million, which 1) saves a couple million dollars, big deal, 2) is too little for a fairly complex enterprise, 3) will be more than made up for by the cost of putting the maps on the ballot.

Okay, I hate the Prop. 11 citizens commission and want it killed, but I have some major problems with 27: 1) That $2.5m limit. 2) Districts are supposed to be contiguous and not divide cities or those darned “communities of interest” (here not defined at all), but are also supposed to contain precisely the same number of voters, literally deviating by no more than 1 voter, which is silly. 3) It’s pretty much up to the Legislature (I checked the prop’s language) whether there will be separate referenda for the congressional, state senate, assembly and board of equalization districts or whether it’ll be just one combined referendum. Since the referendum is the only check on gerrymandering by the Legislature, this is not a minor detail. 4) There is nothing in the prop about what happens if the voters reject a map. 5) I can’t tell when the referendum(s) are supposed to be held, but I’m assuming it would have to be in November 2011, a low-turnout off-year election, to be ready in time for 2012.

I’m conflicted. I would like the ill-conceived citizens’ commission abolished, but this is a pretty flawed alternative. On balance I’ll probably vote yes on 27, but I won’t be very happy about it.

No, 59.7%. No one trusts legislators to draw their own districts, and the whole thing felt like a sneaky trick.

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Comments, questions, rebuttals, praise, ill-informed abuse, mockery of the California initiative process, and votes on which prop is the most cynical abuse of the process are welcome in comments.

Negative impact

Military censors pictures of American soldiers (the ones about to be court-martialed for the sport-killing of Afghans) posing with dead Afghans, holding up their heads. A colonel seems to think it would have a “negative impact on the reputation of the armed forces.”

Today -100: September 25, 1910: Of exiles, sensation-seeking, and pet moo-cows

Nicaragua’s Estrada government (that’s the general, who is now president, not his brother, who was president for a few days last month; there were I believe 2 different presidents in between) sticks a bunch of the opposition Liberals on a ship bound for Panama.

TR will be in St Louis at the time of an air meet, but declined an offer to go up in a plane, suggesting that he might be accused of sensation-seeking.

In an interview, Woodrow Wilson accuses the Republicans of using the tariff “less and less as a means of protection – more and more as a means of patronage,” behind which trusts have conspired to raise prices.

Headline of the Day -100: “Will Take Cow to Taft.” The person who will take the cow to Taft is Jim Torrey, an 8th (!) cousin of Taft’s, and the cow is named Pauline Wayne, who will replace the Taft family’s late, lamented pet cow Mooley.

The Pledge to America (just like the Pledge of Allegiance but without Richard Stands)

The Republican Party leadership assembled, as is traditional, at the Tart Lumber Company (“Everything to Build Anything”), to solemnly issue a Pledge to America. It is as unserious a political document as has ever been put forth by a major political party at a major lumber company “Supplying Northern Virginia builders with quality lumber building materials and hardware since 1951”) in American history.

John Boehner is built out of quality building materials and hardware

It begins by denying the legitimacy of the American government. It’s worth quoting at length:

In a self-governing society, the only bulwark against the power of the state is the consent of the governed, and regarding the policies of the current government, the governed do not consent. An unchecked executive, a compliant legislature, and an overreaching judiciary have combined to thwart the will of the people and overturn their votes and their values, striking down long-standing laws and institutions and scorning the deepest beliefs of the American people. An arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites makes decisions, issues mandates, and enacts laws without accepting or requesting the input of the many.

That paragraph accusing the majority party of being a dictatorship is followed in the very next sentence by a complaint about “a polarizing political environment”.

Was there a coup that didn’t make it into the papers, when those elites “self-appointed” themselves, possibly while we were all distracted by the World Cup? If the R’s can state as a fact that the elected (but unchecked) executive and the elected (but compliant) legislature are thwarting the will of the people, they must have some means of determining the will of the people that’s superior to democratic elections, and I can’t wait to hear what that is. Magic 8 Ball? Sarah Palin’s Twitter feed? If elections are now discredited as a means of ascertaining the will of the people, why should an election won by the R’s be accorded any greater legitimacy?

OH, I THINK IT CAN: “The need for urgent action to repair our economy and reclaim our government for the people cannot be overstated.”

They pledge to honor the “original intent” of the Constitution, especially the 10th Amendment.

PRIVATE? YOU MEAN THE MASONS, DON’T YOU? “We pledge to honor families, traditional marriage, life, and the private and faith-based organizations that form the core of our American values.”

WHISPER? OH, YOU’VE GOT THE VOLUME ON THE TV YOU’RE WATCHING FOX NEWS ON SET AT 2 AGAIN, DON’T YOU? “Voices in and out of government whisper that our standing as the world’s leader of democracy and economic growth is ending.”

CHENEY SECRET ENERGY TASK FORCE, RING ANY BELLS? “What’s worse, the most important decisions are made behind closed doors, where a flurry of backroom deals has supplanted the will of the people.”

They say they have a plan to “create jobs, end economic uncertainty... end the attack on free enterprise”. Did no one tell them that the essence of the free enterprise system is economic uncertainty?

They will stop job-killing policies and the job-killing agenda, job-killing tax increases, the job-killing health care plan, and job-killing mandates. They really like the adjective “job-killing,” is what I’m saying.

They also really like the adjective “common-sense,” as in “We must put common-sense limits on the growth of government”. Of course decisions on the growth of government are entirely political decisions, there is no such thing as a “common-sense” size of government. The phrase “common-sense” is intended to put their ideological positions beyond discussion.

THAT’S A BIG IF: “If we’ve learned anything over the last two years, it’s that we cannot spend our way to prosperity.” Unless we buy winning lottery tickets, of course.

Some details: Freeze net hiring of “non-security” federal employees; permanently end bailouts; end taxpayer funding of abortion forever; keep prisoners in Guantanamo forever. Every bill will “contain a citation of Constitutional authority,” and be put up on the web three days before Congress votes. Small businesses can deduct 20% of their income. A congressional vote on any regulation affecting more than $100m in economic activity. Kill Fannie & Freddie. End stimulus spending immediately (which would leave many projects half-finished, Kevin Drum points out).

PRIDE AND DIGNITY? HAVE THESE PEOPLE EVER ACTUALLY HADA JOB? “for our workforce, there is no substitute for the pride and dignity that comes with an honest day’s work and a steady paycheck.”

ALSO, “WHERE’S THE REMOTE?”: “The trillion-dollar ‘stimulus’ spending bill has made ‘where are the jobs?’ a national rallying cry”. That’s a really odd rally.

JUST LIKE GEORGE CLOONEY: “Washington’s out-of-control spending spree needs no introduction.”

THEY PROMISED WHAT NOW? “Instead of putting the brakes on Washington’s spending habits as they promised, President Obama and Democratic Leaders have...”

A FACT-BASED CONVERSATION: “We will have a responsible, fact-based conversation with the American people about the scale of the fiscal challenges we face, and the urgent action that is required to deal with them.” Will have, future tense, because as everyone points out, they aren’t willing to name a single program (except TARP) that they plan to cut.

DAMN THE ‘60s! “Earlier this year, House Republicans launched the YouCut initiative to combat the permissive culture of runaway spending in Congress.” I just love that use of the word permissive.

THE ONE THING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WANTED: “The American people wanted one thing out of health care reform: lower costs, which President Obama and Democrats in Washington promised, but did not deliver.” Just one thing, lower costs. Not access for the uninsured, not coverage of pre-existing conditions, certainly not single fucking payer.

AND YET THE MINORITY ALWAYS SEEMS TO WIN: “The House of Representatives continues to move further away from its roots as a deliberative body, toward a centralized power structure where the majority does whatever it needs to win at all costs.”

“We will launch a prolonged campaign to transfer power back to the people and ensure they have a say in what goes on in the Congress.” This prolonged campaign will evidently involve... wait for it... a web site. Power... transferred.

They will fight extending Miranda Rights to foreign terrorists.

Missile defense, because, oo, Iran, scary. Sanctions on Iran, which “has declared its determination to acquire a nuclear capability”. That is a true but wilfully misleading statement, which 90% of people will read as saying that Iran has declared a determination to acquire nuclear weapons.

We will “establish operational control” of the border, whatever that means, “and prohibit the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture from interfering with Border Patrol enforcement activities on federal lands.” I’m not sure what that means, but I’m going to guess it means that the border fence can violate environmental laws.

A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR JAN BREWER: “We will reaffirm the authority of state and local law enforcement to assist in the enforcement of all federal immigration laws.”

YES, BECAUSE REPUBLICANS WOULD NEVER DO THAT: “We will fight efforts to use a national crisis for political gain.”

Today -100: September 24, 1910: Of assassins and mammies

The Japanese government denies that there was any plot to assassinate the emperor. But a bunch of anarchists have been arrested with bomb-making equipment.

A charter has been applied for for an institute to be established in Athens, Georgia to train young African-Americans in the culinary and domestic arts. It will be called The Black Mammy Memorial Institute.

Today -100: September 23, 1910: Of relics of a barbarous age and the death of Little Dorrit

Henry Neil, Secretary of the National Probation League, says that “if the right hand of fellowship were extended to burglars instead of the kick and threat, the world would be better, the penitentiaries would be emptied in a short time, and there would be no need of lock and key, bolt and bar.” So he’s had all the locks removed from his house, calling them “relics of a barbarous age.” The Times does not give his address (in Illinois, where he later became a judge).

Little Dorrit has died, or at any rate a Mrs. G. M. Hayman, whose family claims that Dickens based the character on her. They also say her brother, a cheerful cripple, was Tiny Tim.

Today -100: September 22, 1910: Of attempted assassinations, at home and abroad

Japan leaks the discovery of a socialist plot to assassinate Emperor Mutsuhito. The plotters will be sentenced to death by a special secret court. Supposedly, this is the only such plot in the last 2,500 years.

US ambassador to Turkey Oscar Straus has dropped plans to visit Russia, evidently because he was unwilling to accept the special passport necessary for him to visit St Petersburg because he is Jewish.

William Randolph Hearst responds to Mayor Gaynor’s accusations that attacks on him in Hearst’s papers resulted in his assassination. Hearst says the shooting must have affected Gaynor’s mind and regrets that “his experience did not abate his evil temper or his lying tongue.” Hearst goes on to make various insinuations about the corrupt forces allegedly behind the campaign to elect Gaynor governor. He ends politely, “I personally will not take advantage of your columns to criticize Mayor Gaynor politically, first because of his illness, and second, because his mental, as well as his moral condition, has eliminated him from political consideration.”

No, Biffy, I expect you to die

It seems like at least 50 people have been suggested as the “real James Bond,” but... Wilfred “Biffy” Dunderdale?

“Dunderdale, Biffy Dunderdale.”

Apologize, Butt!

Headline of the Day (BBC): “England Demand Apology From Butt” (the headline on my feed, not on the linked page). Something about cricket.

Ijaz Butt is probably a perfectly respectable and not at all humorous name in Pakistan.

Today -100: September 21, 1910: Of confabs and lynchings

Taft and TR met a couple of days ago, and talked amiably about whatever. Now TR is denying White House spin that he asked for the meeting, rather than Taft.

For a nice change of pace, some Italians are lynched in Tampa.

Obama town hall: Whacking Wall Street with a stick

Netanyahu wouldn’t extend the settlement “freeze” for something as small as keeping Middle East peace talks going. But he would do it in exchange for the release of the spy Jonathan Pollard.

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Obama held a “town hall” “discussion” in D.C. for CNBC.

HE’S THE REMINDERER: “But the thing I’ve just got to remind people of is the fact that it took us a decade to get into the problem that we’re in right now.”

YEAH THE QUICK FIX THING, LET’S DO THAT: “So there are a lot of plans in place that can make improvement, but it’s slow and steady, as opposed to the kind of quick fix that I think a lot of people would like to see.”

A lot of the questions were about why he hated rich people so much, including one poor woman who had to eat hot dogs and beans to keep her children in private school, and a hedge fund manager who says Wall Street feels like “we’ve been whacked with a stick” by Obama. Half of America didn’t hear any of the rest of the broadcast, just daydreaming happily about Obama whacking a hedge fund manager with a stick. The CNBC guy actually asked if Obama thought that “working for profit is morally inferior to the kind of work you used to do as a community organizer.” Obama says he doesn’t think that, although he so does think that.

GETTING YOUR FOOT IN THE DOOR WHILE YOU’RE TREADING WATER: “Now, as I said before, what we saw happening during 2001 to the time I took office was wages actually declining for middle-class families, people treading water, young people having more trouble getting their foot in the door in terms of businesses.”

IS IT THAT DREAM ABOUT YOU WHACKING A HEDGE FUND MANAGER WITH A STICK? “So if we’re doing all those things, I am confident that the American Dream will continue for the next generation.” And then, pfft.

On the tea party movement: “I think that America has a noble tradition of being healthily skeptical about government. That’s in our DNA, right? I mean, we came in because the folks over on the other side of the Atlantic had been oppressing folks without giving them representation.” Should a black man in America, even one whose ancestors didn’t come over in shackles, be propagating that particular origin story (although people whose ancestors were kept in chains for generations by the legal system might also be said to have a healthy scepticism about government in their DNA)?

WHAT THE CHALLENGE FOR THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT IS (FINDING A PLACE THAT RENTS OUT FIFES AND DRUMS?): “And so the challenge, I think, for the Tea Party movement is to identify specifically what would you do. It’s not enough just to say, get control of spending. I think it’s important for you to say, I’m willing to cut veterans’ benefits, or I’m willing to cut Medicare or Social Security benefits, or I’m willing to see these taxes go up.”

TELL THAT TO SEN. TOM COBURN: “But you know what, the truth is everybody here probably thinks it’s a pretty good idea that we regulate the food industry, for example, so we don’t get E. coli and salmonella.”

OH GOOD, IT’S ALWAYS GOOD THAT ALL STUPID VIOLENT OPTIONS ARE ON THE TABLE: “We don’t think that a war between Israel and Iran, or military options would be the ideal way to solve this problem. But we are keeping all our options on the table.”

BILL AYRES? REV. WRIGHT? YOUR SECRET MUSLIM PAYMASTERS? “Now, I stay up every night and I wake up every morning thinking about the people who sent me into this job.”

SO WE’RE TOTALLY BONED, IS WHAT YOU’RE SAYING: “I have put forward proposals that are going to require bipartisan cooperation in order for us to get government spending under control.”

And then he went to Philadelphia and bought not one, but two Philly cheese steak sandwiches. The economy is saved!

Questionable folks

Christine O’Donnell says of her having “dabbled into” witchcraft, “How many of you didn’t hang out with questionable folks in high school?”

Reached for comment, sheepish-looking former members of the Moorestown (NJ) High School coven said, “Ditto.”

Today -100: September 20, 1910: Of campaigning and cholera

Woodrow Wilson will confine his campaigning to a single speech in each county in New Jersey.

NYC Mayor William Jay Gaynor, in a letter to this sister which she gave to the NY Evening Post, accuses the opposition press (i.e., the Hearst press) of being responsible for his assassination by lying about what he said when he refused to ban movies of the Johnson-Jeffries fight (although he’s been avoiding reading or hearing anything about the shooting, and doesn’t even know the name of his assassin). The letter gives an extraordinarily detailed account of the sensations of being shot in the throat.

The cholera epidemic in Naples is over, according to the best scientific measure of the time: the blood of St. Januarius liquefied “in the presence of a great multitude.”