Republican debate: That’s what freedom is all about

Transcript.

Herman Cain: “I believe that America has become a nation of crises. That’s why I want to be president of the United States of America.” The logic is impeccable.

Romney: “I spent my life in the private sector.” Please ignore my actual qualifications for public office and record of public office.

Gingrich thinks it’s “totally appropriate that we’re having this particular debate on 9/12.” He wants to fight “against the forces of reaction and special interests.”

Bachmann: “I’m a person that’s had feet in the private sector and a foot in the federal government.” And all three feet are righties.

Romney points out that Perry is not only calling Social Security a ponzi scheme, but says it’s unconstitutional, which makes Perry’s u-turn in trying to sound reassuring about Soc Sec problematic. Perry says it’s “not appropriate for America” to “support what they did in the ‘30s”... “And it’s time for us to get back to the constitution and a program that’s been there 70 or 80 years, obviously we’re not going to take that program away.” So he’s not going to take away the unconstitutional program but we’ll get back to the constitution. Clears that right up. Follow-up from Romney: so do you still want to return it to the states? Perry: “I think we ought to have a conversation.” Romney says that’s what we’re doing now, dude. No, says Perry, you’re just trying to scare seniors, by asking me questions that if I answered honestly would scare them.

Gingrich says the one who’s really scaring people on Social Security is Obama. Because Obama correctly pointed out that if the Republicans defaulted the government, SSI checks couldn’t go out. “Now, why should young people who are 16 to 25 years old have politicians have the power for the rest of their life to threaten to take away their Social Security?” So, privatize Social Security and take away that power. Or at least transfer it to Wall Street, which is so much safer than the full faith and security of the United States.

Gingrich says that you can balance the budget simply by “modernizing” government. Free money! No hard choices!

Perry: “I would suggest to you that people are tired of spending money we don’t have on programs we don’t want.”

Romney repeats his line about going from a pay-phone world to a smartphone world and Obama is still feeding quarters into the pay phone. Of course Michelle Bachmann keeps trying to stuff quarters into her smartphone.

Romney is against a national sales tax, because the rich would pay less and the middle class more (he doesn’t mention poor people, for some reason). So he would just end taxation on interest, dividends and capital gains, because that wouldn’t shift the tax burden away from the rich at all.

On the cervical cancer vaccine Perry tried to require, Wolf Blitzer turns to Michelle Bachmann because “You’re a mom.” As a mom, Bachmann is against “innocent little 12-year-old girls” being “forced to have a government injection”. Perry says it was all about “err[ing] on the side of life.” Bachmann says it was actually about drug company profits. Perry says “if you’re saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I’m offended.” Shouldn’t he be offended by the suggestion that he can be bought at all, not by the notion that he can be bought cheaply? Bachmann: “Well, I’m offended for all the little girls and the parents that didn’t have a choice. That’s what I’m offended for.”

Perry says Obama based Obamacare on Romneycare. Romney: “I’d be careful about trusting what President Obama says as to what the source was of his plan”.

Blitzer asks Ron Paul if someone who didn’t bother getting health insurance and then gets sick should be allowed to die. Yes, because “that’s what freedom is all about.” Yay, freedom! (Cheers from the audience at the thought of someone dying.) Paul then says that churches should take care of them (unless they’re filthy atheists, presumably). Also, health care is so expensive because there’s no competition, because there’s licensing, and we should just let fake doctors “practice what they want.”

Santorum: “what Governor Perry’s done is he provided in-state tuition for -- for illegal immigrants. Maybe that was an attempt to attract the illegal vote -- I mean, the Latino voters.” Little racist slip of the tongue in the middle of his racist remarks. Then he added that Republicans can attract Latino voters by making English the official language. “We’re a melting pot, not a salad bowl.” (Although funnily enough, if they assimilate into American society like Santorum wants, they’ll stop eating salads and eat more nachos.)

Gingrich: “I think that the day after we celebrated the 10th anniversary of 9/11 we should be reminded exactly what is at stake if a foreign terrorist gets a nuclear weapon into this country.” Way to bring everyone down after our “celebration,” Captain Buzzkill.

Santorum attacks Ron Paul for suggesting that 9/11 was a response to US actions. Rather, it was because “we have a civilization that is antithetical to the civilization of the jihadists. And they want to kill us because of who we are and what we stand for. And we stand for American exceptionalism”. They hate us for our exceptionalism.

Asked what they would bring to the White House, Santorum says that with all his children, he’d add a bedroom. And a display case for fetuses.

Paul would bring “a bushel basket full of common sense.” And a course in Austrian economics”. Well, which one is it?

Perry says he’d bring his wife. And his hair stylist.

Romney would bring back the statue of Winston Churchill that Obama banished because he’s a Kenyan.

Bachmann would bring a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, because I guess they don’t have copies of those things in the White House now, or access to the internet.

Herman Cain would bring a sense of humor, “because America’s too uptight.”

Huntsman would bring his Harley.

Today -100: September 13, 1911: Of imperialism and race wars

The Italian government has decided to seize Libya, taking advantage of the Franco-German conflict over Morocco.

A “race war” breaks out in Alexandria, Louisiana. A white student at the Baptist college bumped a black man, who hit him with a fence picket, killing him. White mobs have been attacking random black men, as is the custom.

Today -100: September 12, 1911: Of prohibition and censorship

Maine voters seem to have voted narrowly to repeal prohibition (Maine has been dry since 1858). Licensing laws still need to be written; towns will be permitted to remain dry.

The Trial of the Century of the Week has been that of Henry Clary Beattie, convicted of murdering his wife. The NY chief of the Bureau of Licenses now warns that no movies depicting the trial will be permitted to be shown. And a couple of the witnesses have been prevented from telling their story on stage in various places.

George Bush celebrates Nineelevenmas

I might have refrained from making fun of Bush’s chimp-like face if he’d had the decency to keep it to himself this weekend, but there it was, smirking at the dedication of the Flight 93 memorial,


trying to look all somber-like,


or possibly just falling asleep,


smirking next to his favorite comedy partner,


wondering how long this stoopid ceremony was gonna go on,


looking all squinty and somber-like at some flowers,


and (today) trying to look all dignitudinous at Ground Zero,


but not for long, ‘cuz he got to go a football game. New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys. Like we haven’t had more than enough in the last ten years of New York jets and Dallas cowboys.



Someone just told a dirty joke.

Some 9/11 nostalgia

A few quotes from myself (because if I don’t quote myself, who will?). These are from the proto version of this blog in the days after 9/11:

Like a lot of people before them, they came to New York with no more than a dream in their hearts, a knife, and many hours spent playing with the flight simulator.

The Empire State Building is now once again the tallest building in NY, which is as it should be. Some of us never took too well to the sacrilege of the World Trade Center. Speaking of which, the Empire State Building was briefly evacuated today after a bomb-sniffing dog made a mistake. Thrown off by the lingering giant-monkey smell, no doubt.

Congress is so desperate to act as if it has a role in this that members are talking about declaring war. Against what or whom, they do not know or care.

From a guy at an Internet firm in the World Trade Center: “I’m a combat veteran. Vietnam, and I never saw anything like this.” No shit, I’m guessing that’s because there were relatively few 110-story buildings in the rice paddies?

Texas postponed an execution. No sense of irony, the Texans.

I especially liked how [Bush] said at the Pentagon, “Coming here makes me sad.” The man is a walking emoticon.

Rep. Don Young of Alaska thinks the real culprits might be the
eco-terrorists.

Bush says that we will now rid the world of evil. I see him traveling the world fighting evil wherever it arises. Like that guy in Kung Fu.

Bush’s use of the word crusade is another reason they should never let him speak in public again. He couldn’t have said something more disturbing to the Islamic world than if he called bin Laden a sand nigger.

So that’s okay then

Tony Blair on the rendition of prisoners to Libya for torture while he was prime minister: “You can’t know everything the security services are doing.”

Today -100: September 10, 1911: Of cholera, conscription, duels, and rude Americans

In two towns in southern Italy, mobs storm the cholera hospitals, remove the patients and set fire to the hospitals, which they believe were actually created to put cholera patients to death. Some patients died in the fires, some died as they were being taken through the streets because they had, you know, cholera, and weren’t really up to a parade.

The French cabinet decides that it won’t release soldiers whose two-year conscription terms will come up later this month if Germany doesn’t release its two-year soldiers.

French feminist journalist Arria Ly (a pseudonym for Joséphine Gondon) wrote an article that raised a stir by calling for a class of celibate single professional women. Prudent Massat (or “the prudent M. Massat,” as the NYT garbles it), a (male) editor of the radical-socialist Toulouse Reporter, then published an article making fun of her ideas and basically calling her a lesbian. So she challenged him to a duel, demanding they exchange bullets “in the name of feminism.” He told her seconds (women, naturally) no, and then organized a protest meeting against her, at which she walked onto the platform and slapped him, twice, by way of repeating the challenge. After a few hours in a police cell, she accepted that the remarks were aimed at her ideas and not her character (although “de-sexed neurotic” sounds pretty personal to me) and withdrew the challenge (although she refused to apologize for the slap), and he wrote a letter of apology. However, a male admirer of Ly’s wrote an article that provoked Massat into challenging him to a duel. They got off two exchanges of fire, all of which missed, then they switched to swords and evidently still managed not to injure each other before the seconds stopped it.

Prince Adelbert, the third son of Kaiser Wilhelm, says that Americans are the rudest people in the world. Evidently some Americans refused his lunch invitation because they had a prior engagement and he, naturally, had never in his 27 years had his wishes disregarded. Two days later another American refused to play tennis with him because it was Sunday and it was against his religious principles to play.

You should pass it right away, evidently

Obama gave his little jobs speech to Congress yesterday.

BY WHICH I MEAN REALITY TV CONCERNS: “But the millions of Americans who are watching right now, they don’t care about politics. They have real-life concerns.”

WHO THIS PLAN IS FOR: “So for everyone who speaks so passionately about making life easier for ‘job creators,’ this plan is for you.”

OBAMA WILL PUT AMERICANS TO WORK BUILDING NEW SKIES: “Everyone here knows we have badly decaying roads and bridges all over the country. Our highways are clogged with traffic. Our skies are the most congested in the world. It’s an outrage.”

BUT IF YOU’RE NOT TAKING IT OUT OF OUR POCKET, ISN’T IT ALREADY IN OUR POCKET, SO IT DOESN’T HAVE TO GO INTO OUR POCKET BECAUSE IT’S ALREADY IN OUR POCKET? AND HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED HOW WEIRD THE WORD POCKET SOUNDS IF YOU KEEP SAYING IT OVER AND OVER? “Fifteen hundred dollars that would have been taken out of your pocket will go into your pocket.”

WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS: “Should we keep tax loopholes for oil companies? Or should we use that money to give small business owners a tax credit when they hire new workers? Because we can’t afford to do both.”

MATH WARFARE: “This isn’t political grandstanding. This isn’t class warfare. This is simple math.”

MOST? WHO ARE THESE APPEASERS OF WHOM YOU SPEAK? “Now, I realize that some of you have a different theory on how to grow the economy. Some of you sincerely believe that the only solution to our economic challenges is to simply cut most government spending and eliminate most government regulations.”

WHAT HE REJECTS: “I reject the idea that we have to strip away collective bargaining rights to compete in a global economy.”

RACE! “We shouldn’t be in a race to the bottom, where we try to offer the cheapest labor and the worst pollution standards. America should be in a race to the top.” Most expensive labor? “And I believe we can win that race.” Pollution standards aren’t actually a race, you know.

MAYBE NOT EVERYONE LIKES TRAVELING AS MUCH OF YOU, HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF THAT? “Ask yourselves -- where would we be right now if the people who sat here before us decided not to build our highways, not to build our bridges, our dams, our airports?”

HAVE YOU BEEN TALKING TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE’S DOCTOR? “The next election is 14 months away. And the people who sent us here -- the people who hired us to work for them -- they don’t have the luxury of waiting 14 months.” Seriously, we’re dying, aren’t we? You’d tell us if we were all going to die in less than 14 months, right?

He finished with a quote from John F. Kennedy: “Our problems are man-made –- therefore they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants.” And if there’s one thing that Americans have proven since then, it’s that Americans can be as big as they want.

We’re fat, is what I’m saying.

Today -100: September 9, 1911: Of mad monks and machine guns

Headline of the Day -100: “Mad Monk Predicts Attack on Jews.” In Russia, where there are many mad monks.

Persian government forces defeat the forces of the deposed former shah, using machine guns.

Today -100: September 8, 1911: Peace v. righteousness

John Shafroth, the governor of Colorado, is going to the New Jersey Divorce Convention (I don’t know what that is, but I’d guess it has something to do with standardizing divorce law nationally, or getting states to recognize divorces from other states) (update: elsewhere in the paper, NY State Senator Franklin Delano Roosevelt announces a resolution calling for a uniform federal divorce law). Gov. Shafroth so hates his lieutenant governor that he has barred him from acting as governor in his absence. Lt. Gov. Fitzgerald says he will break into the executive offices or call out the troops if he is barred from them.

I’ve mentioned the (female) mayor of Hunnewell, Kansas, Ella Wilson’s battle to the death with the city council, which refuses to confirm any of her appointments or even meet with her. As a result, no tax levy has been made this year, but she says she will appoint women who will serve without pay to the offices of city clerk, treasurer, marshal and streets commissioner.

Theodore Roosevelt pens an editorial in The Outlook attacking Taft’s arbitration plans as “shams.” He says “It is one of our prime duties as a nation to seek peace. It is an even higher duty to seek righteousness.” Wars in which the US put righteousness above peace include the Revolutionary, Civil and Spanish-American wars. He does not express an opinion on the righteousness of the War of Jenkins’ Ear. “I, for one, would rather cut off my hand than see the United States adopt the attitude either of cringing before great and powerful nations who wish to wrong us or by bullying small and weak nations who have done us no wrong.” (Colombia, which did us wrong by holding land Roosevelt wanted to build a canal on, might have something to say about that.) He lists various matters he thinks should not be subject to arbitration, including the Monroe Doctrine, the Platt Amendment with Cuba, the Panama Canal, racial exclusion of immigrants, etc.

Rudyard Kipling intervenes in the Canadian elections, denouncing the tariff reciprocity treaty in a message to the Canadian people. He says “Ten to one [90 million Americans to 9 million Canadians] is too heavy odds. ... It is her own soul that Canada risks to-day.” And once that soul is “pawned,” Canada will inevitably come to adopt American standards in all things. “She might, for example, be compelled later on to admit reciprocity in the murder rate of the United States...”

The (US) governor-general of the Philippines, William Cameron Forbes, issues an order: “The provisions of the act are hereby made applicable to all districts within the Moro Province. It is therefore declared to be unlawful for any person within the Moro Province to acquire, possess or have the custody of a rifle, musket, carbine, shot-gun, revolver, pistol or any other deadly weapon from which a bullet may be discharged, etc., or to carry, concealed or otherwise on his person, any bowie knife, dirk, dagger, kris, campilane, barong, spear or any other deadly cutting or thrusting weapon except tools used exclusively for working purposes and having a blade less than fifteen Inches in length, without permission from the Governor of the Province.”

Republican debate: What people are looking for is someone to get something done

Transcript, and if I’d known there would be a transcript this time, I wouldn’t have had to sit through that crap-fest. (Update: except the “transcript” is missing some stuff I wrote down).


AND IN SEVERAL MANSIONS: Romney: “Our president doesn’t understand how the economy works. I do, because I’ve lived in it.”

WHAT PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR: Santorum: “I think what people are looking for is someone to get something done.” He added, mysteriously, “I’ve done things.”

EVEN IF PERRY PRAYS FOR IT: Huntsman says he hates to rain on the parade of the Lone Star governor, but he did a better job of creating jobs in Utah.

WHAT KIDS NEED: Bachmann says there’s one thing she knows, which is one more thing than I gave her credit for, so good for her, except that the one thing was “Kids needs jobs.”


Ron Paul, a doctor, seemed to say that we don’t need an FDA to test drug safety because drugs do more harm than good. And consumers can decide if cars are safe.

Gingrich: “The fact that President Obama doesn’t come to the Reagan Library to try to figure out how to create jobs...” By reading the stacks of Reader’s Digests? “...tells you that this is a president so committed to class warfare and so committed to bureaucratic socialism that he can’t possibly be effective in jobs.”


Perry says Texas has an uninsured rate of 25% because the people of Texas “would like to see... the federal government get out of their business.”

Gingrich goes on attack against the liberal media, including the debate questioners, saying of the attempt to ask him questions about the candidates he’s competing against, “You want to puff this up into some giant thing.” Which normally is what he pays... oh, you’re all way ahead of me.

JUST POP THE HOOD: Santorum says no one did more than him in “working on the poor.”

Rick Perry then refers to Rick Santorum as “the last individual.” Probably forgot his first name.


Mittens: We’re living like an energy-poor country.

Bachmann defends her promise to reduce gas prices to $2 a gallon: “very time gasoline increases 10¢ cents a gallon, that’s $14 billion [I think the transcript is wrong and she said million] in economic activity that every American has taken out of their pockets.” Wow, every American had $14 billion in their pockets? Let me check. Hey, whaddaya know, she’s right! Fuck this blog, I’m buying Disneyland.

Huntsman says that the price of gas is actually $13 a gallon, “When you add up the cost of troop deployments, when you add up the cost of keeping the sea lanes open for the importation of imported oil” etc etc. So nice to see a politician admit that the wars are for oil.

YOU SHALL NOT CRUCIFY MANKIND UPON THIS CROSS OF GOLD: Ron Paul says he can get us all gas for 10¢ a gallon, because “you can buy a gallon of gasoline today for a silver dime. A silver dime is worth $3.50. It’s all about inflation and too many regulations.”

A NICE INTELLECTUAL CONVERSATION: Perry refuses to talk about what his book said about Social Security’s origins: “it’s a nice intellectual conversation, but the fact is we have got to be focused on how we’re going to change this program.”

CONTEST: What else does Rick Perry consider a nice intellectual conversation. Example: Which is correct, “Yee hah!” or “Yee haw!”?


Romney defends Social Security because “We have always had, at the heart of our party, a recognition that we want to care for those in need”. Say what?

SOME PROVOCATIVE LANGUAGE: Perry: “maybe it’s time to have some provocative language in this country and say things like, let’s get America working again and do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

Bachmann is against the mandatory vaccination of children “and especially by dictate to impose something like an inoculation on an innocent 12-year-old girl.”

WHOA, WATCH THE PROVOCATIVE LANGUAGE, TEX: Perry: “I hate cancer.”

HERE’S WHERE I HAD TO STOP THE DVR AND LAUGH FOR THREE MINUTES: Ron Paul: “These TSA agents are abusive. Sometimes they’re accused of all kinds of sexual activities on the way they maul people at the airport. So the airlines could do that.” He adds that 9/11 was the fault of the feds not allowing pilots to carry guns.

Paul has a plan to end all our wars: “if we did that and took the air conditioning out of the Green Zone, our troops would come home.”

Perry says Texas’s crappy education record isn’t so crappy, and anyway it’s crappy because Texas shares a border with Mexico. Stoopid Mescins.

And when Obama says the border is safe, “he was an abject liar to the American people.”

Ron Paul says darkly that the border fence all the other candidates want – “this fence business” – is actually “designed and may well be used against us and keep us in. In economic turmoil, the people want to leave with their capital. And there’s capital controls and there’s people control. So, every time you think of fence keeping all those bad people out, think about those fences maybe being used against us, keeping us in.”


Perry says he tips his hat to Obama over killing bin Laden but actually he gives more – well, the NYT transcript says props but I heard him say that he gives more probes to the Navy SEALS.

Santorum says Obama only bombed Libya because “the United Nations told him to.”

John Harris asked Perry which scientists he finds most credible on global warming. For some reason, Perry didn’t name any scientists.

Gingrich says he would fire Ben Bernanke tomorrow. Does the president have the power to summarily fire the chairman of the Fed? No, no he does not.

Gingrich wants to “liberate” much of Alaska for natural resource extraction.

Perhaps the greatest applause of the evening was when a question to Perry began by noting that he’d presided over 234 executions (the question was whether he ever had difficulty sleeping because he might have executed an innocent person) (No, he never has); the follow-up asked about that reaction. Perry said it was because “Americans understand justice.”

Today -100: September 7, 1911: Of blackguardism and hysteria

SC Governor Coleman Blease writes a letter to the NYT, which had rather mildly suggested that he might have better uses for his time than waging a war on the memory of Gen. Sherman. Blease accuses the NYT editor of “blackguardism... much of which is false and comes from a heart which is corrupt and from a head which is willing to lie or abuse in order to carry a point or win a temporary victory”. As evidence of his own high character he cites his election by “nearly 57,000 white voters”. He says that his defense of the Confederate army is not motivated by hatred for “the Yankee or the nigger.” He adds, “The Confederates were right; they fought for the highest of principles”.

The LAT quotes a circular put out by the Anti-Suffrage Association for next month’s Prop. 8 on women’s suffrage: “Women who assume the responsibilities of suffrage must either add it to present duties or lay down those duties to take up this one. The frequent low state of health among American women is a fact as undeniable as it is deplorable. When women generally vote and hold office, nervous prostration, desire for publicity and ‘love of the limelight’ will combine to produce a form of hysteria already increasing in the United States.”

The voice of the feral overclass speaks

British “Justice Minister” Kenneth Clarke blames the riots on a “feral underclass, cut off from the mainstream in everything but its materialism.” So at least they have one redeeming quality, is that what you’re saying, Ken?

A feral underclass is what happens when weak-minded bleeding hearts no longer let you hunt them down like the vermin they are, right Ken?

Today -100: September 6, 1911: Rumors of war

Truman Newberry, who was Roosevelt’s Secretary of the Navy, is charged with murder after running over an 8-year-old girl (or 7 years old, according to the article a week later saying the charges were dropped).

Rumors of impending war with France continue to grow in Germany. There are runs on banks in some places, and a story is running around that the ambassador to France was murdered in Paris. Rumors also arose from the early return of a regiment of German dragoons to their base in upper Alsace from maneuvers, however that was actually due to dysentery (the French army is also conducting maneuvers, which can’t be helping stem the ol’ rumor mill). Socialist unions in Germany have been talking about calling a general strike in the event of war. Non-socialist (which I take to mean Catholic) unions have been calling them traitors.

Today -100: September 5, 1911: Of parades, near-misses, and things that go boom

The mayor of Los Angeles orders the route of the Labor Day parade altered so it doesn’t go past the county jail where the McNamara brothers, accused of blowing up the LA Times building, are currently located.

During a firing exercise the USS Delaware fired its big guns at a repair ship rather than at its target. Well, they looked a lot alike. Fortunately, the Delaware also couldn’t shoot for shit, and missed both times.

In another near miss, a malfunctioning biplane knocks Sen. William Lorimer’s hat off, then crashes into a tree.

Rear Admiral Nathan Twining invents a dirigible aerial torpedo.

Headline of the Day -100: “Woman of 80 Grabs Negro.”

Smokescreen

The worst thing about Obama junking his plans to reverse Bush’s lowering of standards for air pollution is, of course, that people will die because of it, and he knows it. The second worse thing is that he justified it with the argument that protecting the environment and people’s lungs is an optional extra in bad economic times, that profits must always come first. But I want to point out the third worst thing, the craven sneakiness of announcing the decision in a news dump on the Friday before the Labor Day weekend. Obama’s promised transparency has turned out as transparent as the air over Houston.

Oh, and EPA head Lisa Jackson should have resigned in protest. I miss people resigning in protest over matters of principle.

Today -100: September 4, 1911: So that settles that

In Berlin, 200,000 attend a Socialist-organized protest against “the infamous war agitation” which is agitating for a war with France over the Morocco crisis.

Today -100: September 3, 1911: Of land sales, food riots, conspiracies and secessionists

The California congressional delegation is pressuring the State Department to press Mexico to sell the US a strip of the Imperial Valley 50 miles X 20, an area which includes a canal providing the valley with water from the Colorado River. During the Mexican Revolution, rebels demanded (and received) money not to blow up the canal.

There have been food riots in France. The NYT does not approve. It says that people have non-riotous recourse: “To refuse to pay prevailing prices for food is within the rights of all.” Just don’t eat; I don’t know why the French didn’t think of that themselves. Stoopid French people.

The Vatican denies being part of a conspiracy to overthrow the republic in Portugal and re-establish the monarchy.

Southern members of the American Bar Association are threatening to secede after the Association admitted a negro, Assistant United States District Attorney William Lewis.

Today -100: September 2, 1911: A man, a plan, a canal, a cockfight

President Taft bans cock fights, dog fights and bull fights in the Panama Canal Zone.

Headline of the Day -100: “Few Hoboes at Convention.” Hoboes, it turns out, don’t really go to hobo conventions.

This headline is also good: “CROWD GOADS AIRMAN TO FLIGHT AND DEATH; J.J. Frisbie Goes Up in Crippled Machine Because Kansas Spectators Call Him a Faker.” J.J. Frisbie. That name just screams out “man wearing a straw hat,” doesn’t it?

Some days there are no headlines of the day -100, then there are days like this when you get several in a row: “Sultan Receives Women.” “Receives” as in met with a deputation of them complaining about the treatment of women in the Ottoman Empire, not “receives” as in “received a new shipment of dancing girls.”

Rep. Charles Carter (D-OK) beats up four clerks in a store, with his fists and his cane, for allegedly insulting his daughter. The NYT offers an explanation: “Carter’s Blood is Almost Half Indian.”

Double, double, double your fun

Mitt Romney, 2011: I’m only doubling my mansion.

Mitt Romney, 2007: My view is, we ought to double Guantanamo.

Coincidence?

Today -100: September 1, 1911: When blackjacks are outlawed...

A New York state law goes into effect requiring the registration of all firearms and banning the carrying of blackjacks. Another new law makes it illegal for hotels and theaters to refuse admission to soldiers and sailors in uniform (unless they’re drunk).

Today -100: August 31, 1911: Of neutrality, fans, and gala picnics

Belgium is preparing for war, creating a military council to determine how to keep France, Germany and/or Britain from violating its borders if they go to war with each other over Morocco. Shells and ammunition has been sent to frontier forts, and artillery and machine guns to posts on the German border. Good luck with the whole neutrality thing, Belgium, you’ll need it.

General Electric has just finished making the most expensive electric fan ever, gold-mounted with an ebony switch. It’s for Queen Mary.

Mississippi has its first public hanging in 35 years (the NYT says that in the South, “executions are universally private and as far removed from the public gaze as possible”. Suuuuure they are.). You’ll be surprised and amazed to hear it’s a black man, who killed his wife. Stands were set up around the scaffold to sell the crowd sandwiches, coffee, lemonade, peanuts and everything else you need to make a day of it. “It was more like a gala picnic than the dispatching of a soul to eternity.”

This can’t possibly go horribly, horribly wrong

Indy: “Israeli Military to Equip Jewish Settlers with Gas and Grenades.”

Every single one

Today, Obama spoke to the American Legion’s annual conference. He found something good to say about every war every member of the Legion might have fought in. Here are his remarks about Vietnam:

When communist forces in Vietnam unleashed the Tet Offensive, it fueled the debate here at home that raged over that war. You, our Vietnam veterans, did not always receive the respect that you deserved —- which was a national shame. But let it be remembered that you won every major battle of that war. Every single one.

So yay for our triumph in Vietnam.

Still Dick

On the Today show, Dick Cheney explains the continuing benefits of having invaded Iraq: “What would’ve happened this week if Moammar Gadhafi had still been in power with a nuclear weapon in Libya? Would he have fled? I doubt it.” The logic is impeccable. The logic also gives the credit for Qaddafi’s ouster to Bush ‘n Cheney rather than Obama or the Libyan people.

Invading Iraq was “sound policy” because Saddam Hussein was “a major source of proliferation” [of weapons to terrorists]. He still offers no proof of that. And the war did not damage the US’s reputation.

Asked whether the US, having waterboarded people, could complain when another nation waterboarded an American citizen it suspected of being a spy, Cheney said, “We probably would object to it on the ground that we have obligations to our citizens and we do everything we can to protect our citizens. I think we would object because we wouldn’t expect an American citizen to be operating that way.” This is not a double standard, he explained, because the people we tortured, well, “These are not American citizens.” Not sure why he thinks other countries would accept the proposition that Americans, and only Americans, are too good for waterboarding.

He added, “I would argue that it’s important for us not to get caught up in the notion that you can only have popular methods of interrogation if you want to run an effective counterterrorism program.” Yes, that’s the problem with waterboarding: it’s not “popular.”

Today -100: August 30, 1911: The hope of the negro

In a speech in Virginia, Taft says that “those of us who study the question at all know that the hope of the negro is in his white neighbor in the South. ... the negro ought to come, and is coming, more and more under the guardianship of the South.”

Las Vegas, “a town hitherto devoid of large fame,” is thinking about setting up a divorce colony to rival Reno’s.

Chip chip chip

The British government is following the lead of American anti-abortion states like South Dakota by stripping the funding for abortion counseling conducted by groups that also provide abortions and shifting the funding to counseling conducted by Catholic and other anti-abortion groups. Because the Tories are all about offering women “independent” advice and information. And eroding their rights incrementally.

Today -100: August 29, 1911: Of trusts and ’roos behaving badly

Headline of the Day -100: “BATHTUB TRUST KILLED.; Government Also Reaches an Agreement with the Electrical Trust.” I hope they didn’t fiddle with the electrical trust while they were in the bathtub trust, because that would just be dangerous.

The battleship Wisconsin has fired its mascot, a kangaroo named Murphy, for “bad behavior.”

Today -100: August 28, 1911: Of Huckleberries and Hamburgers

Headline of the Day -100: “Huckleberries’ Pow-Wow.” There’s a Native American tribe called Huckleberries?

Mmm, Hamburgers: Headline: “Kaiser for More Navy. To Keep for Germany Her Due Place, He Tells Hamburgers.” In fact, the phrase he used is “the place in the sun that is our due.” We may be hearing more of that phrase from Germany in the future.

Today -100: August 27, 1911: Of real fires, fake fires, and non-existent canals

William Van Schaick, captain of the paddle steamer General Slocum when it caught fire in the East River in 1904, killing over 1,000 people on their way to a church picnic, is paroled after serving 2½ years for criminal negligence.

It really is a bad idea to shout fire in a crowded theatre. Some drunk does so in a movie theatre in Canonsburg, PA, and 28 people die in the stampede. There was no fire.

Interplanetary News of the Day -100: “Martians Build Two Immense Canals in Two Years.” According to astronomer Percival Lowell, who should know. Each of the canals is 1,000 miles long and 20 miles wide. Which certainly puts the Panama Canal into perspective.

Today -100: August 26, 1911: Of beards & bridges

When he was 21, Jonas Pendleton of Saybrook, CT, vowed never to shave his beard until there was a bridge over the Connecticut River linking Saybrook and Lyme. Now just such a bridge has opened, so Pendleton, now 81, marched off to the barber shop, but it was closed because everyone in town was watching the bridge-opening ceremonies. The next day, however, everyone in town was on hand to witness him being shaved.

The people of Saybrook, Connecticut really needed to get a life, is what I’m saying.

State Rep. Phil Hinkle (R-Ind) insists he didn’t pay rent boy to fill his hinkle

Actually, the post title is really all I wanted to say about the story.

Today -100: August 25, 1911: Of lynchings, block-busting, and hoboes

A negro accused of attacking a white woman is burned to death by a mob in Purcell, Oklahoma. The twist: he was captured by three black guys and turned over to the mob.

There was a report a day or two ago about an apartment building in Harlem that displayed a red T in its “To Let” sign, a coded signal that only negroes would be rented to. At the same time, the building started evicting its white tenants. The NYT notes that “Race prejudice in this city is capitalized, and this is the way the colored folk reap the rewards of the prejudice.” The way race prejudice is “capitalized” is that the building’s owner is blackmailing neighboring landlords with the threat of letting blacks move into a previously white street. Either they buy his building from him for more than its market value, or they’ll wind up selling their own properties to negro speculators at a ¼ discount. The Times suggests fighting such tactics by voluntary agreements of property-holders in a neighborhood not to rent to blacks. Problem solved.

Hoboes plan a 2,000-bum march on Washington to demand free national employment bureaus. If they can get there, that is. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is refusing to provide transportation (free transportation in box cars, naturally).

Quote of the Day, Sexology Division

From that NYT article about bisexuality being “real”: Ellyn Ruthstrom of the Bisexual Resource Center: “Researchers want to fit bi attraction into a little box”.

I’ll bet they do, I’ll bet they do.

Rat-cleansing

Japan’s prime minister will resign, after Japan’s debt is downgraded. Didn’t do it when caught repeatedly lying about exposure to radiation.

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Qaddafi: “All youth, men and women should go out to cleanse their areas from the rats.” Seems like an odd time to be worried about rats.

Juan Cole has some helpful advice on “How to Avoid Bush’s Iraq Mistakes in Libya.” #3. “Some Libyans are complaining about the prospect of retaining the same police as in the old regime, and want local security committees instead. A compromise would be to establish a strong civilian oversight over police.” The old police were hired, and promoted, solely on their ability to keep the Qaddafi regime in power. That’s their skill set. But forgive and forget, I guess. #6. “Consult with Norway about how it is possible for an oil state to remain a democracy.” Yes, if only Qaddafi had consulted more with Norway, none of this unpleasantness would have arisen. And, of course, #9: “Recognize Berber as a national language.” Or possibly Norwegian. I don’t know how Libya has survived without Juan Cole’s advice up until now.

Today -100: August 24, 1911: Of lynch mobs, missing enigmatic smiles, pogroms, and bitter Bleases

The authorities in Pennsylvania have been quite serious about prosecuting not just members of the Coatesville lynch mob who burned Zack Walter alive earlier this month, but also the spectators who did nothing to stop the lynching.

Police are investigating the disappearance of the Mona Lisa. They’re searching every crevice of the Louvre (which is closed to the public for the duration) because they’re convinced the painting couldn’t have left the building, say, just to give a fer-instance, under an employee’s coat.

The anti-Jewish riots continue in south Wales. The Times correspondent helpfully explains the cause: “It is just the spirit of indiscipline run riot.” And it’s Socialism’s fault.

Headline of the Day -100: “Gov. Blease Feels Bitter.” That’s Gov. Coleman Blease of South Carolina, who recently ordered that a history book being used in SC schools be re-written. At a convention of Confederate veterans, he complains that “some of the newspapers said that I was trying to dictate to the writer. I insisted upon putting into your histories in your schools that that infamous scoundrel Sherman and his army burned Columbia.” (In fact, that was and is far from being an established historical fact.) Blease also criticized Sen. Heyburn (R-Idaho), who opposed federal funds being spent on a monument to the Confederate dead at Vicksburg. Blease said it was beyond his comprehension how a Southerner in Congress could hear the Confederacy called an “infamous cause” without rising and calling the speaker a liar.

I call dibs

I can totally see myself wearing this while shopping at Trader Joe’s.

Today -100: August 23, 1911: Of missing enigmatic smiles

The Mona Lisa has been stolen from the Louvre. This “has caused such a sensation that Parisians for the time being have forgotten the rumors of war.”

China, according to the LAT, “is planning to allow the office of Dalai Llama of Thibet to lapse by not authorizing the reincarnation of a successor”.

Headline of the Day -100: “Will Try to Force Grout to Testify.” That’s Edward M. Grout, former president of the Union Bank of Brooklyn.

Biden in Mongolia

Some snaps from Joe’s visit to Mongolia. Sadly, he does not seem to have put on any amusing native headwear, but rather made Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold wear what appears to be a vice-presidential baseball cap. And did he actually ride that camel, for our entertainment? He did not.

Rick Perry is fed up, part 4

This is the fourth and final post on Rick Perry’s 2010 book Fed Up! (First post here, second post here, third post here).

Chapter 8 (“Standing Athwart History Not Doing a Damned Thing”) turns its attention to the Republicans, who aren’t fighting hard enough for tiny government. By merely trying to be less bad than Democrats, they are conceding. Other words Perry uses: capitulation, not standing up and fighting. He doesn’t see the job of politicians at the federal level as having anything to do with, you know, governing.

“Elected Democrats... simply no longer represent the values of the American people I know.” This is a bit awkward for Perry, because he has to explain that he was a D until 1989 (when he was nearly 40), and the historical chapters of this book have been dumping on everything the party has done since well before he was born. So he does that “I didn’t leave the party, the party left me” thing, but he says that it’s no longer the party of Andrew freaking Jackson, but has become the party of Roosevelt, Kennedy and Obama.

Bush’s “Compassionate Conservatism” sent the wrong signal that conservatism alone wasn’t sufficient or was somehow flawed. And Bush didn’t fight hard enough for fiscal conservatism.

Chapter 9 (“States Do the Work of the People”) argues that states do much better for the people than the federal government does. For example, dealing with the Katrina refugees? All Texas.

The feds stopped Gov Jindal responding to the BP oil spill with that stupid barrier idea. “Maybe Governor Jindal was right. Or maybe he was wrong... I don’t much care. Because as the guy on the ground trying to protect the people of his state, I tend to defer to Jindal’s judgment... It is his home, after all.” Perry doesn’t much care if Jindal actually knew what the hell he was doing.

Chapter 10 (“Retaking the Reins of Government: Freedom and Federalism for the Future”) is the conclusion, filled with every right-wing cliché he hasn’t already pounded into the ground: restore our founding principles, birthright as Americans, God-fearing people, last, best hope.

He wants a federal government “that focuses on the few things for which it is empowered and well suited – such as national defense, border enforcement, and foreign commerce” and wants Congress to meet a lot less often, just like the Texas Legislature.

WHAT HE SEES: “I see a people who can pray in their schools as they wish, and towns across America that can publicly celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or nothing at all.”

I’M PRETTY SURE COURTS DON’T REALLY TELL FETUSES WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG: “I see a world in which the unborn are allowed a chance at life unfettered by an activist court telling them what is right and what is wrong.”

He’s against racism, by which he means affirmative action, “flawed incarnations of the Voting Rights Act,” or a “race-based Native Hawaiian government.”

The future of America depends on reversing Obamacare. “Now, some Republicans seem to be hung up on the notion that we must be ‘for’ something and must indicate so by saying that we will ‘repeal and replace’ the legislation. That is such inside-the-Beltway nonsense and only confuses the issue for voters.”

States have to stop blindly accepting money from Washington, and aren’t bound to enforce federal law. He brings up medical marijuana in California again. He brings it up a lot, and it’s always California, although... hey Google?... 16 states have it now.

WHEN HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A REPUBLICAN TELL YOU THEY FEEL GUILTY ABOUT ANYTHING? “politicians with power seek more of it. The difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans will tell you they feel guilty about it.”

He wants a Constitutional amendment limiting spending, maybe a repeal of the 16th Amendment in favor of a national sales tax, term limits for judges, allowing Congress to override Supreme Court rulings on a 2/3 vote, and a series of “clarifying” amends, for example to restrict the meaning of the 14th Amendment. For someone who talks about the Founders and the original meaning of the Constitution, he sure wants to rewrite an awful lot of it.

Perry shares with Michele Bachmann the belief that all the policies he disagrees with are unconstitutional. Sorta leaves no room for negotiation.

The line that comes back to me is the one about how if you don’t want to be ruled by someone who shoots coyotes while jogging, you should just move out of Texas. I can’t wait to hear his answer when someone asks him – assuming someone other than me ever reads this book, and dear god why would they – what he suggests those people do if he becomes president.

Today -100: August 22, 1911: Of Welsh pogroms and concrete wars

Anti-Jewish rioting in Newport, Wales, with many shops destroyed. Unclear why.

Headline of the Day -100: “To War on Concrete.” The Greater New York Brickmakers’ Association of the Hudson Valley has declared war on concrete, claiming it’s not as fireproof as brick.

Rick Perry is fed up, part 3

This is the third post on Rick Perry’s 2010 book Fed Up! (First post here, second post here). Last post tomorrow.

Chapter 4 (“Washington is Bankrupting America”) is about debt debt debt, spending spending spending. It doesn’t say anything you haven’t heard from every Tea Bagger for the last umpteen months.

“Emboldened by the brazen [Perry’s use of adjectives is fun] abandonment of limited government under the New Deal and subsequent regimes [regimes!], from the Great Society to the current administration, Washington is steering America down a path to destruction.” Oh noes!

Social Security has “finally reached its tipping point. No more free lunch.” Did you know Social Security has been a free lunch up until now? Well it has, evidently. Perry likes to use the term “illegal Ponzi scheme” to describe it. “Deceptive accounting has hoodwinked the American public into thinking that Social Security is a retirement system and financially sound, when clearly it is not.” The Social Security Trust Fund “must be somewhere in Al Gore’s lockbox, right next to his notes from inventing the Internet and that global cooling data he doesn’t want anyone to see.”

Chapter 5 (“No American Left Alone: Health Care, Education, the Environment, and the Tyranny of the Modern Administrative State”) is about the evils of the feds telling states what to do.

CECI N’EST PAS HYPERBOLE: Obamacare “will make any current bureaucracy seem trivial and will destroy our nation’s health care system in the process.” He adds, “This is not hyperbole”.

And yes, he insists, there are death panels.

He doesn’t like No Child Left Behind. “The academic standards of Texas are not for sale. We will retain our sovereign authority to decide how to educate our children.” If, Rick, I think you meant to say if.

The EPA is “destroying federalism and individuals’ ability to make their own economic decisions.” Texas deals with air pollution just fine. Al Gore/global warming is “all one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight.” Weight, geddit? Cuz Al Gore is fat.

Chapter 6 (“Nine Unelected Judges Tell Us How to Live”) is about how the Supreme Court “arrogantly chooses to hide behind the Constitution while it implements its own policy choices” and forces Texas to “kiss the ring of the Court.” Which just sounds dirty.

If Perry sees a very, very limited legitimate role for the federal government, I’m not sure I saw any limits he accepts on the states “telling us how to live.” He complains that the Supreme Court forced on Texas legalized abortions, having to educate the children of illegal aliens, legalized sodomy, no prayers at football games, legalized contraception etc. And it has the nerve to tell Texas not to execute the people it wants to execute.

Perry’s not really saying that Texas should ban sodomy and contraception – that’s not the subject of the book – but he sure isn’t saying that it shouldn’t and thinks that these are things for the states, or as he puts it, “the people,” to determine.

AND WE WOULD HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT IF IT WEREN’T FOR YOU MEDDLING STATISTS: “We Texans like our guns. We don’t like meddlesome statists who want to infringe on our right to keep and bear them.”

Chapter 7 (“The Federal Government Fiddles: Ignoring National Security, Immigration, and the Enumerated Powers”) argues that the feds aren’t doing the few things Perry thinks they should do, especially their “unwillingness to secure our nation’s border.” Note the singular: Perry’s forgotten that the US has more than one border.

Mexican drug cartels are terrorists, terrorists I tell you!

THE WRONG KIND OF EXPLOSION, I GUESS: We’re not spending enough on the military, because of “the explosion of entitlement spending”

Obama’s 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review spent a full three pages on climate change. A full three pages!

The bullets of freedom

Quote of the Day: “If you can call any mobile number in Tripoli, you will hear in the background the beautiful sound of the bullets of freedom.”

Wacky Quote of the Day: Qaddafi, quoted in the same article, accuses world leaders of giving rebels “weapons to destroy our air-conditioners.”

Today -100: August 21, 1911: Of sprinklers and mobs

Post-Triangle Fire, the NYC fire commissioner says he will order fire sprinklers installed in 200 or so buildings.

A black preacher in Donaldsonville, Georgia killed a marshal. This is naturally followed by three days (so far) of rampaging by bands of whites throughout three counties, whipping and murdering any black person they can find, burning their churches and schools. The whites think the blacks were all involved in a conspiracy to murder the marshal because he’d been raiding their lodge meetings; the actual killer was chosen by lot or something, according to this rumor. The sheriffs of the affected counties couldn’t – or wouldn’t – stop the mobs, and refused to ask the governor to send troops. Most negroes have fled the area.

Today -100: August 20, 1911: That’s what it’s all about

Macabre-Ironic Headline of the Day -100: “UPLIFT LEADER A SUICIDE.; Frank Darst Throws Himself from a Milwaukee Hospital Window.”

Congress passes a statehood bill for Arizona and New Mexico, amended to meet Taft’s objections. It now requires the people of Arizona to repeal the provision for the recall of judges. They will vote on this at the same time as the elections for state officials, but if they vote the wrong way – no statehood. Something like the no-polygamy provision of the Utah constitution. And New Mexico will be required to make it easier to amend its constitution.

Three negroes are lynched in Jakin, Georgia, by a mob infuriated by the murder of the town marshal. Which the lynching victims had nothing to do with.

Papers read at a meeting of the British Dental Association – stop laughing – say that the human race is becoming ugly due to mouth-breathing. Which might explain why the Habsburgs look that way.

The British military will deploy war dogs” in a... dispute in British India with the Abors of Assam. Airedales, who will serve as scouts and sentries.

Headline of the Day -100: “Killed By ‘Hokey Pokey.’” Evidently hokey pokey is some sort of ice cream. Not a flavor but a type: cheap crap sold by street vendors. In this case, with ptomaine poisoning.

Today -100: August 19, 1911: A comedian walks into a stable...

Headline of the Day -100: “Humorists Fight Fire.”

Rick Perry is fed up, part 2

Continuing with Rick Perry’s 2010 book Fed Up! (First post here.) Chapters 2 & 3 today.

In chapter 2, he explains that the Founders gave Congress neither police power or the power “to make decisions about morality for the American people.” No, that’s for the states. Rick Perry is not a limited government guy, he’s a limited federal government guy.

Indeed, he’s even willing to let Massachusetts be Massachusetts: “I would no more consider living in Massachusetts than I suspect a great number of folks from Massachusetts would like to live in Texas.” Why, Massachusetts elects people like Ted Kennedy, Kerry, Barney Frank, while Texas elects folks like Perry, the kind of guy who jogs packing a Ruger .380 with laser sights, loaded with hollow-point bullets and shoots a coyote.

That’s not me saying that, that’s Rick Perry (p.27).

And under federalism, we have the right to exercise our liberty by moving to a state that better matches our preferences. That’s Rick Perry’s notion of liberty. He doesn’t seem to know the difference between a small 17th century Puritan colony and a gigantic state with a population of 25 million.

Indeed, population growth has rather undermined his discussion about how the Founders saw that people couldn’t control a national government in a country with a population of 4 million (1790), but could control their state governments.

With all this states’ rights talk, he has to address slavery. He notes that half the states were free and had the Underground Railroad. “This was federalism, or certainly local control, in action.” Actually, it was organized law-breaking, but whatever.

chapter 3 is about how the growth of the federal government’s powers came about. 1) judicial over-reach, 2) those darned Populists, 3) the New Deal, 4) the Great Society. Along the way he explains that the robber barons the Populists reacted against were great job-creators, that the New Deal was a failure, and that the 16th and 17th Amendments (income tax, popular election of the Senate) were wrong, and that Social Security sucks. It’s pretty much a cut & paste job from a variety of right-wing, non-academic sources (there are footnotes).

Bureaucracy

Indian anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare arrested because he refused to accept police conditions for the permit his “fast unto death.”

Hunger striking in India requires a permit.

Today -100: August 18, 1911: Tell us something we don’t know

Headline of the Day -100: “Chicago Likes Pigs’ Feet.” They eat 40 million a year. But not rich Chicagoans.