April 15th

means one thing: no more of those people dressed up as the Statue Liberty to advertise tax-prep places. So sad. So sad.

Today -100: April 15, 1910: Of old barbarism and Taft on women’s suffrage

The NYT calls Tenn. Gov. Patterson’s pardon of Duncan Cooper for the murder of ex-Sen. Carmack “the old barbarism”: “The view that the Coopers took of their relations to society and to their victim was worthy of an Apache, or a head-hunter of Borneo. Gov. Patterson’s view of his relation to the law, which he has sworn to respect and execute, is flagrantly aboriginal and savage.”

The House of Commons votes to end the House of Lords’ ability to veto legislation. It turned down a Tory amendment leaving it the ability to veto just one thing, Irish Home Rule. Now the bill goes... to the House of Lords.

President Taft gave a speech to the National American Woman’s Suffrage Association convention. Some of it was received with hisses, to the embarrassment of NAWSA’s leaders. I’ll give extended excerpts, and you can see if you find yourself hissing too.

He began by saying that back when he was graduating high school at 16, he was a strong supporter of women’s suffrage. He had read John Stuart Mill’s Subjection of Women, and his father was a suffragist. But “in the actual political experience which I have had I have modified my views somewhat.”

In theory, he said, representative government is good because “every set of individuals who are similarly situated in the community, who are intelligent enough to know what their own interests are, are better qualified to determine how those interests shall be cared for and preserved than any other class, however altruistic that class may be”. But there are two qualifications: “One is that the class should be intelligent enough to know its own interests. The theory that Hottentots or any other uneducated, altogether unintelligent class is fitted for self-government at once or to take part in government is a theory that I wholly dissent from — but this qualification is not applicable here.

“The other qualification to which I call your attention is that the class should as a whole care enough to look after its interests, to take part as a whole in the exercise of political power if it is conferred. Now if it does not care enough for this, then it seems to me that the danger is, if the power is conferred, that it may be exercised by that part of the class least desirable as political constituents and be neglected by many of those who are intelligent and patriotic and would be most desirable as members of the electorate. [Hisses] Now my dear ladies, you must show yourselves equal to self-government by exercising in listening to opposing arguments that degree of restraint without which successful self-government is impossible...

“If I could be sure that women as a class in the community, including all the intelligent women most desirable as political constituents, would exercise the franchise, I should be in favor of it. At present there is considerable doubt upon that point. In certain of the States which have tried it woman suffrage has not been a failure. It has not made, I think, any substantial difference in politics. I think it is perhaps possible to say that its adoption has shown an improvement in the body politic, but it has been tested only in those States where population is sparse and where the problem of entrusting such power to women in the concentrated population of large cities is not presented. For this reason, if you will permit me to say so, my impression is that the task before you in securing what you think ought to be granted in respect to the political rights of women is not in convincing men but it is in convincing the majority of your own class of the wisdom of extending the suffrage to them and of their duty to exercise it.”

NAWSA President Anna Howard Shaw later responded that she would “draw the voting line horizontally, not diagonally, and exclude from the privilege of voting not only ignorant women, but also illiterate men.”

An unknown, large vehicle

The US military statement said that “an unknown, large vehicle” approached its convoy near Kandahar, so they had to shoot it up. “Upon inspection, ISAF forces discovered the vehicle to be a passenger bus.” Really. What was their first clue?

An unknown, large vehicle

Today -100: April 14, 1910: Of pardons and plots and dirigibles

Tennessee Governor Malcolm Patterson pardoned Col. Duncan Cooper for the murder not a year and a half before of Edward Carmack, former congresscritter (1897-1901), US senator (1901-7) and racist pig (1858-1908). Carmack had run for governor against Patterson in the 1908 Democratic primary, and Cooper was a good friend of the governor, who was a witness for him at the trial. After the primary, Carmack libeled Cooper repeatedly in the Nashville Tennessean, of which he was the editor. Cooper wrote to Carmack, “If my name appears in The Tennessean again, one of us must die.” The next day it did, and one of them did. Cooper’s son, also involved in the shooting, will receive a new trial (and be acquitted).

In his pardon statement, Patterson calls Cooper “D.B. Cooper.” Huh.

The US ambassador to Mexico, Henry Lane Wilson, claims there is a plot to embarrass him, although he does not see who the plotters might be. They did so by leaking the text of a speech he gave to a newspaper in Spain. He said that Charles V, 16th century king of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, enslaved the bodies and souls of people in two hemispheres in the name of God, and that the rise and development of Mexican civilization was the result of Aztec and Toltec blood.

The largest dirigible ever built in France, the Clement-Bayard II, has been completed, with a lifting power of 7,700 pounds beyond the car and motors. It is designed to carry 20 passengers and four crew.

Obama press conference: Sanctions aren’t a magic wand

Obama held a press conference following the Nuclear Security Summit.

CONCRETE COMMITMENTS: “I said this morning that today would be an opportunity for our nations, both individually and collectively, to make concrete commitments and take tangible steps to secure nuclear materials so they never fall into the hands of terrorists who would surely use them.” As paper weights? Surely you need a weapon to put them in as well.

NO, JUST SHORT ULTIMATUMS: “This was not a day of long speeches or lectures on what other nations must do.”


IRAN AND NORTH KOREA WERE NOT INVITED: “We listened to each other, with mutual respect.”

WHAT EXACTLY WAS SERVED AT THAT DINNER? “Coming into this summit, there were a range of views on this danger. But at our dinner last night, and throughout the day, we developed a shared understanding of the risk.”

THEY’RE VULNERABLE AND THEY JUST WANT TO BE HELD: “I am very pleased that all the nations represented here have endorsed the goal that I outlined in Prague one year ago -- to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world in four years’ time.”

DAMN, LOOK AT THIS GAFFE, HE IS JUST LIKE GEORGE BUSH: “So we’ve committed ourselves to a sustained, effective program of international cooperation on national [sic] security, and we call on other nations to join us.”


THE CANADIAN THREAT HAS BEEN DEFUSED; I REPEAT, THE CANADIAN THREAT HAS BEEN DEFUSED: “Canada agreed to give up a significant quantity of highly enriched uranium.”

“PEACEFUL NUCLEAR ENERGY” – LIKE IT’S THE ENERGY’S FAULT: “for nations that uphold their responsibilities, peaceful nuclear energy can unlock new advances in medicine, in agriculture, and economic development.” Agriculture?

CBS’s Bill Plante asked whether all these agreements he was announcing weren’t entirely voluntary. Took Obama a while to admit there was no enforcement mechanism.

NOT A MAGIC WAND: “Sometimes I hear the argument that, well, sanctions aren’t really going to necessarily work. Sanctions aren’t a magic wand.”

Scott Wilson of the WaPo asked if it wasn’t hypocritical never to call on Israel to declare its nukes and sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Obama decided he was comfortable with his hypocrisy: “And as far as Israel goes, I’m not going to comment on their program.” Heaven forfend. “What I’m going to point to is the fact that consistently we have urged all countries to become members of the NPT. So there’s no contradiction there.” Bullshit, yes, contradiction, no. Later, he said more or less the same thing about Pakistan. He added that the security around Pakistan’s nuclear facilities was okay, but there can always be improvements, mentioning that time when US nukes were loaded on a plane without anyone realizing. Of course our military probably has fewer friendly ties with Al Qaida and the Taliban than Pakistan’s.

PHFEW: Asked if the sanctions he’s proposing for Iran aren’t exactly the tactic that failed against North Korea: “Well, I’m not going to give you a full dissertation on North Korean behavior.”


NOT A MAGIC WAND, REDUX: “As I said, sanctions are not a magic wand. Unfortunately, nothing in international relations is. But I do think that the approach that we’ve taken with respect to North Korea makes it more likely for them to alter their behavior than had there been no consequences whatsoever to them testing a nuclear weapon.” So, doing something which has no effect is better than doing nothing which has no effect.

SAINTLY, EVEN: “I think the work that we’ve done in recent days around nuclear security and nuclear disarmament are intrinsically good. They’re good just in and of themselves.”

A PARTNER WITH HOT SPOTS: “And I remain committed to being a partner with countries around the world, and in particular hot spots around the world”.

WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT: “It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower”.

SO THEY’LL BE MEASURE NOT IN DAYS OR WEEKS BUT IN TIME? “But I think on all these issues -- nuclear disarmament, nuclear proliferation, Middle East peace -- progress is going to be measured not in days, not in weeks. It’s going to take time.”

Reporting abuse

Guardian headline: “Vatican Tells Bishops to Report Abuse Cases to Police.” Boy, I hope the Vatican was a little more specific in its instructions, because to listen to some of the bishops lately, you can see them sitting in a police station showing the cops on a doll where the Zionist homosexuals abused the church.

Not swift

John McCain sends out an email via his PAC on the Supreme Court vacancy. It comes with a questionnaire. For example, it asks how the Senate should respond to Obama’s request for a swift confirmation process, and you might choose to check “Yes, I agree with President Obama that Senators should confirm his nominee as quickly as possible, without proper scrutiny of a nominee’s qualifications and philosophy.” McCain gives his own view: “I am committed to ensuring his nominee receives a vigorous and thorough confirmation process as mandated by the Constitution.” Because when you think vigorous and thorough, you think John McCain.

Today -100: April 13, 1910: Of hunting royalty, eggs, Tong wars, and co-eds1

When Roosevelt was in Rome, Abbot Lawrence Janssens of the Benedictines tried to visit him (he wasn’t in). Since the pope had refused to see TR unless he promised not to see Methodists as well, the Vatican publicly repudiated the abbot, adding, “It did not wish Mr. Roosevelt to bracket the Pope with other more or less royal personages he will boast of having hunted in Europe after his African hunt.” (Update: as a result, Janssens was soon forced out of his position as secretary of the Congregation of Affairs of Religious Orders.)

More attacks in New York on kosher meat dealers and shops in an attempt to enforce the meat boycott. Rumors have it that meat wholesalers in the city have been buying up eggs in large quantities in order to raise their price, thereby preventing them being used as a substitute for meat. And in Brooklyn, the high price of beef, pork, lamb etc has led to the poor turning to goat meat.

In rhyming news, Fong Hong has been shot in Tong war.

Tufts college will cease to be co-ed. A separate college will be started for women students.

Feather

When the (evil twin) brother of the late Polish President Kaczynski went to identify his body, Vladimir Putin, according to the London Times, “asked if he could go along as well”. Kaczynski said no.

Little-known fact: one of Putin’s hobbies is examining the bodies of airplane crash victims.

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The Jobbik party, a Hungarian nationalist party (and if you guessed that “nationalist” meant anti-Semitic and anti-Roma, you guessed correctly) won 16.7% in the 1st round of parliamentary elections. Now I’m afraid the London Times confused me somewhat here, since the story mentioning that the party “has a uniformed wing that marches in military formation” was accompanied by this picture.


It turns out that those people are not from Jobbik’s Magyar Garda at all but from the Association of Cultural Preservation for Hungarian Hussar Unit. The Magyar Garda look rather less festive,


although they do have the feather, which is a nice touch.

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Also from the London Times (that pay wall in June is beginning to worry me), someone in Kandahar asks about today’s incident, “Even they must know a bus is full of civilians? If they are afraid of a bus, how can they continue with an operation in Kandahar?” And the head of security in the Kandahar police dept dismissed protesters thusly: “They were unemployed people and some of the bus passengers.”

Today -100: April 12, 1910: Of housewives, Deadwood, and the dangers of polygamy

The Central Kentucky Women’s Clubs are objecting to housewives being classified in the Census as having no occupation.

This story is for you “Deadwood” fans: Seth Bullock, US marshal in Deadwood, has been invited to join his old friend Teddy Roosevelt (they met when TR was a deputy sheriff in ND in the 1880s) in England, and is going.

Morocco’s grand vizier has been poisoned by three of his wives.

Today -100: April 11, 1910: Of negro voting

Maryland Governor Austin Lane Crothers vetoes the Negro Disfranchisement Bill. However, he will allow a referendum creating a $500 property qualification for negroes.

Pope postponed punishing pedophile priest

NYT: “Bishop Cummins had first petitioned the doctrinal office to defrock Mr. Kiesle in 1981. He also wrote directly to Pope John Paul II. Cardinal Ratzinger requested more information, which officials in the Oakland Diocese supplied in February 1982. They did not hear back from Cardinal Ratzinger until 1985, when he sent the letter in Latin suggesting that his office needed more time to evaluate the case.”

What did they have to do that was more pressing than investigating a priest who tied up and sexually abused two boys? What was it they considered a better use of their time?

RIP

Polish President Lech Kaczynski has died in a plane crash. This blog expresses condolences to the surviving evil twin.

Today -100: April 10, 1910: Of Russian Jews, reincarnation, and bosh

The expulsion of Jews from parts of Russia is intensifying. And private schools are forbidden from taking a higher proportion of Jewish students than the quota enforced on the public schools.

The Theosophists have decided that William Sidis, the 11-year-old boy genius studying mathematics at Harvard, is the reincarnation of Euclid. Sidis responded, “What bosh!”

B&B

I’ve been totally stale and uninspired for days. It happens. Here’s something I wrote a couple of days ago and didn’t bother posting:

The British Conservative Party has lost the gay vote. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling (and is there a more Tory name than Grayling?) (Yes, yes there is: Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, parliamentary candidate for South Dorset – the grandson, or something, of Admiral The Honourable Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, owner of the best name in the history of the universe – who is calling himself plain old Richard Drax, which does make him sound like a Bond villain, but not like a complete tit) said that it’s okay for bed & breakfast owners to refuse to accommodate gay couples. Days later, David Cameron has yet to comment.

And then I had something about the danger to politicians daring to block gay men from their beloved B&B’s, but I don’t want to say something that could be misconstrued and endanger my chances of Obama naming me to replace John Paul Stevens.

Today -100: April 9, 1910: Of legislative orgies

The Speaker of the New Jersey House of Assembly denies that there was an orgy in the Assembly: “Not a single woman and no liquor of any kind were in these rooms at any time.” Instead, they were hard at work all night on the McCran Water Bill and the Railroad Valuation Bill. So that settles that.

Today -100: April 8, 1910: Of Republican discord

The news today is all about disharmony within the Republican Party.

The NYT thinks Secretary of State Philander Knox and Treasury Sec. Franklin MacVeagh are about to resign. The NYT is wrong; both served until the end of the Taft administration. But it analyzes the causes of their supposed respective discontents at length.

And the “story runs in Washington” that many Republicans would be perfectly happy to lose the House in November if the Republican “insurgents” were also hurt, since the R’s would still retain the presidency and the Senate and the D’s in the House would likely screw up and lose again in 1912. The NYT (which in 1910 was more than a little Republican-leaning) thinks this is wrong-headed, and that opposition to Taft’s unpopular Payne-Aldrich tariff might be a winner for the D’s, with discontent growing over high prices (a meat boycott in Harlem, for example, just turned violent, with women attacking butcher shops and pouring kerosene over meat purchased by women who violated the boycott).

The Indiana Republican Party’s convention refused to endorse the tariff, and Taft responded by canceling plans to visit Indianapolis.

And looming above all this: the imminent return from his year-long world shoot-em-up tour of the prodigal Rough Rider.

Today -100: April 7, 1910: Of dead animals, socialist utopias, and Jews

On his African trip, Teddy Roosevelt sent 11,397 specimens of slaughtered vertebrates to the Smithsonian. That’s 4,000 birds, 2,000 reptiles and batrachians, 500 fishies, and 4,897 mammals. That’s the difference between TR and Dick Cheney: Cheney never sent any lawyer specimens to the Smithsonian.

Milwaukee’s mayor-elect, the socialist Emil Seidel, says “There will be no Utopia, no millennium, none of the wild antics that our opponents have charged to us.” But he promises that the street cars will be cleaner.

At the B’nai B’rith’s annual banquet, President Taft said that he likes Jews “because they are essentially artistic, because they make excellent citizens, and are in favor of law and order.”

Old times, they... oh you know

Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell declares April Confederate History Month. Some might find this offensive, but I’m fine with it: maybe they’ll finally get it through their thick skulls that they fucking lost.

His declaration states that the Confederacy leaders and military “fought for their homes and communities and Commonwealth...”, oh, and something else, what was that other thing they fought for again?


“...in a time very different than ours today.” Which is what McDonnell said about his own college thesis.

“WHEREAS, all Virginians can appreciate the fact that when ultimately overwhelmed by the insurmountable numbers and resources of the Union Army, the surviving, imprisoned and injured Confederate soldiers gave their word and allegiance to the United States of America, and returned to their homes and families to rebuild their communities in peace...”


The declaration contains not a single word about slaves.

Today -100: April 6, 1910: Of Milwaukee reds, Illinois wets, and Rome Methodists

Milwaukee elects not only a socialist as mayor, Emil Seidel, the first socialist mayor of a major American city, but also a socialist majority on the city council (21 Social Democrats, 10 Democrats, 4 Republicans, with an even larger majority on the Board of Supervisors).

In Illinois, 28 towns voted for prohibition, 26 (mostly larger towns and cities) voted wet, several of which had gone dry two years before.

The American Methodist College in Rome issued a nyah nyah statement about Roosevelt’s spat with the pope, applauding Italians who had converted from Catholicism and saying that for the Methodists “To be anathematized by the Roman hierarchy is to be named a friend.” In response, TR canceled the reception he had planned at the American embassy, just in case some of the Methodists showed up.