Archive for History
Who Remembers George Santayana Anyway?
Posted by: | CommentsOr Reagan, Bush (I & II), Clinton, Heritage, Cato, Hudson, Manhattan, and Gramm–Leach–Bliley, for that matter?
From this morning’s Washington Post:
The past decade was the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times, a sharp reversal from a long period of prosperity that is leading economists and policymakers to fundamentally rethink the underpinnings of the nation’s growth.
It was, according to a wide range of data, a lost decade for American workers. The decade began in a moment of triumphalism — there was a current of thought among economists in 1999 that recessions were a thing of the past. By the end, there were two, bookends to a debt-driven expansion that was neither robust nor sustainable.
There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well.
That pretty much sums it up. Nothing that WNC can’t solve by building a few more hotels and McMansions. That’s worked out pretty well so far, hasn’t it?
Top Thirteen Local Political Stories of 2009
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Pic lifted from Jason Sandford
With all these Top Ten lists floating around the internets, I thought I’d toss another reflective log on the fire. Add your own top stories in the comments, and you get bonus points if you put together a Top Ten Local Political Stories of the Decade.
Buncombe County Commissioners and Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce come out in support of I-26 Alternative 3. After the strong design work from the Asheville Design Center and unanimous support from the City Council, it looked like our community might move the mighty DOT to create something that actually works for Asheville. When the CoC and 3 of 5 County Commissioners swung in the direction of Alternative 3, further delay was guaranteed.
See the rest in ReadMoreLand… Read More→
The Anacreontic Song
Posted by: | Comments[Editor's Note: this entry originally appeared here on 7/4/2007, and was written by one of our former contributors who gave us permission to run it once again. It's one of my personal favorites - Admin Hooligan]
(This post has a soundtrack too – “Our National Anthem”, by Negativland, from 1993’s Free album. Click the player below to hear it.)
When someone says the word “America”, chances are that one of the things that comes to mind is The Star Spangled Banner, our national anthem. Its notoriously difficult melody has been known to bring even the most talented singers to their knees. There have been some very memorable and moving performances of it (Marvin Gaye at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game, Whitney Houston at Super Bowl XXV in 1991, even Jimi Hendrix’ interpretation at Woodstock) and, well, some not so memorable (Roseanne Barr and Hillary Clinton certainly come to mind, not to mention every third-rate pop and R&B singer who have this strange tendency to perform it with ridiculous amounts of melisma, and if I can find a clip of Pat Buchanan singing “God Bless America” – “from the vountins, to the fairies” – from a few years ago, I’ll link to that too for good measure).
A lot of people don’t realize that it was originally written as a drinking song! More info below the jump.
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Liveblogging the Dawning of a New Era
Posted by: | CommentsMonday Stuff You’re About To Know
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{Picture taken by a cat. Story here.}
Happy Monday, Hooligans. I hope y’all had a wonderful weekend in this bracing weather. Mine was full of citrus, parties, Rock Band, disc golf, and more. The week’s back at us, and it’s a couple of weeks before we can go into Holiday Mode. Here are some fun links to keep you up to speed.
“Dollar Bill” Jefferson, the Louisiana Democrat who got busted with ninety grand in his freezer, was defeated by Republican Ahn “Joseph” Cao. Good riddance to that sleazy guy. Democrats still have a net gain of twenty seats because of Mary Jo Kilroy’s victory in Ohio.
Via Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire comes this scathing interview by The Independent titled, “Mark Penn – The man who blew the presidency”. Fun excerpt:
“ So why did Penn say in a memo of March 2007 that Obama was unelectable? “Huh. No. It doesn’t say that at all.” Yes it does, if the facsimile published by Atlantic Monthly magazine is correct. The great communicator appears thrown. “Those memos, right, that came out, were really … er, were really, I think, show you, you know, just a piece, because … a small part, a piece of how we were looking to, I think, set up or solve the fact that he was a very strong candidate.”
Right. Now, you could say it is unfair to run every pause and splutter in a sentence like that, but it does give a sense of Mark Penn floundering. There is sweat on his top lip. The same memo shows how spectacularly he failed to see that Obama was in tune with the times: “All of these articles about his boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared towards showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light. Save it for 2050.”
Ouch.
What Are You Going To Do?
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve talked to a lot of you, so I know you’re phone banking, canvassing, volunteering on election day, working the early voting locations, and cajoling everyone you know to do what’s necessary to capitalize on this moment in history.
If you’re reading this, and you haven’t taken the step beyond voting to volunteer for the candidate of your choice, it’s baffling to me that you wouldn’t jump on the opportunity to throw the neocons an anchor. This is the time to do more and win big.
Barack Obama says this:
Give a hour or three to your candidate in this last week. You want to volunteer for the historic Barack Obama campaign in Asheville? Call this number: (828) 254-2379. How about working to elect Holly Jones to Buncombe County Commission to forever slam the door on the Old Guard’s good ol’ boy club? email volunteer@hollyjones.org. You want to see Liddy’s ass headed back to live at the Watergate or back in Kansas with Bob Dole? Then get with Kay Hagan’s campaign by contacting Valerie Thelen at 817-3856 or vjthelen@gmail.com. Don’t have a candidate, but want to use your energies to elect democrats at every level? Go here or get with Pat Scherer at hq@buncombedems.org or 274-4482.
Come November 5th, you need to know you did everything you could to change this county, this state, and this nation. To not only turn away from the politics of the last eight years, but to turn the page on an era that celebrated the more convincing liars over the most candid truth tellers. It’s a chance to be a part of steering towards a spirit of collaboration with honest brokers. It’s your time to put both feet on the political ground and make change in your neighborhoods and towns.
When your grandchildren ask whether you were a part of what happened back in ought-eight, I want you to be able to narrow your eyes, softly smile, and tell them that you took part in a realignment of American politics that brought them the right of health care, the end of the war in Iraq, and the restoration of civility.
So what are you going to do?
Barack Obama’s Acceptance Speech Tonight
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Hiya Hooligans.
Barack Obama’s big night is tonight at Invesco Field in Denver, and there are a couple of options for you if you’d like to be in community on this historic night.
The Democratic Party and the Obama campaign folks are hosting a viewing party at the YMI Cultural Center on Eagle Street downtown. Starting at 7:30pm -
Susan Fisher will speak, as will Mr. Hayes of the NAACP, among others.
First, we’ll watch the “I Have A Dream” speech on its 45th anniversary.
Then, we’ll watch the live broadcast as Barack Obama accepts our party’s nomination for President of the United States.
A cash bar and cash food will be available.
If your into a less organized scene, then come on out to Drinking Liberally at the Asheville Brewing Company, 77 Coxe Ave. The DL crowd will begin to gather at 7pm, and the speech will be on all the screens inside and out.
Exciting!
Happy Birthday, Katrina!
Posted by: | CommentsThree years ago this morning, Tropical Storm Katrina was upgraded to hurricane status two hours before making landfall in the southern tip of Florida and gained strength as it moved across the Gulf of Mexico toward Louisiana…
Then. Again.
Posted by: | CommentsSteve Rasmussen dug these old photos up while doing research on the Parkside debacle. See if you can:
1) Find the Magnolia Tree
2) Find the Old Jail
3) Identify the building left of the County building in this first photo
4) Recognize the old Sky Club
5) Guess the decade of each photo
