It's Andy Jackson's fault, you know. Before Jackson, it was perfectly all right for a presidential candidate to be an aristocrat. But Jackson broke the mold.

 

Jackson, who served as President from 1929 to 1837, was the first chief executive to have been born in a log cabin, and the first to have made a virtue of it. Ever since, presidential candidates have tried to add some kind of log cabin story to their biographies -- born of humble origins to honest and hard-working parents, John Doe learned the virtues of honesty and hard work, not to mention family, and can thereby relate to all you honest and hard-working ordinary people out there. So vote for John Doe.

 

The log cabin mystique became entrenched so quickly that candidates with no honest log cabin credentials had to invent some. For example, William Henry Harrison (inaugurated and died in 1841) claimed to have been born in a log cabin, even though his real birthplace was a rich Virginia plantation. 

 

Abraham Lincoln had genuine log cabin origins. However,  at the time he ran for President in 1860 he was no backwoods farmer but a successful lawyer. He campaigned as "Abe the Rail Splitter," even though he hadn't split a rail in many, many years; and even though Presidents aren't generally called upon to split rails. It was the mystique of the thing that mattered..

 

The last honest-to-gosh log cabin President was, I think, James Garfield. But after all these years, we still buy into the log cabin mystique. Candidates still like to emphasize their humble origins and their poor-but-honest parents. And they are expected to present some anecdotal evidence that they struggled with  and overcame adversity.

 

Given the fact that some of our best president have been aristocrats (e.g., Washington, Jefferson, both Roosevelts) and our current White House occupant never struggled with anything more challenging than a pretzel  (do you buy the "I was born again and gave up booze" stories? I don't) it's rather charming the log cabin mystique survives. But survive it does, and I'd like to rate the current field of Dem candidates purely by log cabin factor.

 

1 (tie). John Edwards. Log cabin score: 10. From his website:

John Edwards was born in Seneca, South Carolina and raised in Robbins, North Carolina, a small town in the Piedmont. There John learned the values of hard work and perseverance from his father, Wallace, who worked in the textile mills for 36 years, and from his mother, Bobbie, who ran a shop and worked at the post office. Working alongside his father at the mill, John developed his strong belief that all Americans deserve an equal opportunity to succeed and be heard.

That's a classic "log cabin" story, even without the log cabin. Born to humble but honest parents, the candidate learned the virtue of hard work and is dedicated to helping common people like himself.

 

1 (tie). Richard Gephardt. Log cabin score: 10. From his web site:

Dick Gephardt grew up in the same working class neighborhood on the south side of St. Louis, Missouri, that he represents today in the U.S. Congress.

Gephardt's father, a milk truck driver and Teamster, taught him the value of hard work. His mother, a secretary, taught him an appreciation for the value of community and caring about the needs and aspirations of others. While his parents didn't finish high school, they instilled in him a lifelong desire to strive and succeed.

Classic log cabin stuff. That's how it's done.

 

3. Joe Lieberman. Lob cabin score: 9. From his web site:

He has done his best to honor the values -- faith, family and freedom, equal opportunity and tolerance -- that he learned from his parents, his teachers and his hometown. Joe's father worked his way up from the back of a bakery truck to own his own liquor store. His mom, like his dad, is the child of immigrants. Together, they worked hard to earn the money to send Joe to college -- the first in his family to go.

That's good, but I have to take a point off for the liquor store. Abe Lincoln's parents probably didn't know what a liquor store was.

 

4. John Kerry. Log cabin score: 6. From his web site:

John Kerry was born on December 11, 1943 at Fitzsimmons Military Hospital in Denver, Colorado, where his father, Richard, who had volunteered to fly DC-3's in the Army Air Corps in World War II, was recovering from a bout with tuberculosis. Not long after Sen. Kerry's birth, his family returned home to Massachusetts.

The first thing Senator Kerry wants you to know about his family is that they experienced hardship. It's also the last thing, as that's all he says about them. According to his campaign bio, Senator Kerry went right from infancy to the jungles of Vietnam. (If you can't be born in a log cabin, be a war hero.)

 

Years ago, the budding politician Kerry capitalized on his Irish name to climb the ladder of Massachusetts politics. But recently he (or somebody) discovered that his paternal grandfather had been an Austrian Jew who had converted to Catholicism and changed his name to Kerry from Kohn.

 

This revelation inspired much tongue-wagging about the Senator. But the grandfather died by suicide in 1921, more than two decades before the Senator was born. I'm inclined to believe that the Senator didn't hear much talk about ol' Grandpa while he was growing up and honestly didn't know he wasn't Irish. And, frankly, finding out that your ancestors were not Irish ranks rather low on the scandal scale, methinks. What really hurts Kerry is that his mother's family had money. Too bad. But I give him points for making an effort at a log cabin story, and the Vietnam experience is proof of adversity.

 

5. Carol Mosley Braun. Log cabin score: 5. From her web site:

Carol Moseley Braun was born in Chicago on August 16, 1947. Her father, a law enforcement officer, was a consummate renaissance man, a musician who mastered seven instruments and spoke several languages. Her mother was a medical technician. Together they encouraged their children to pursue excellence, embrace opportunity and follow their dreams. Her life reflects this philosophy.

It can be argued that African-American candidates have a built-in "log cabin" factor and don't need the log cabin backstory quite as much as the white guys do. Ambassador Mosley-Braun let's you know that her parents were professionals. It goes without saying that they were honest and hard working.

Kucinich was born in Cleveland, Ohio on October 8, 1946. He is the eldest of 7 children of Frank and Virginia Kucinich. He and his family lived in twenty-one places, including a couple of cars, by the time Kucinich was 17 years old. "I live each day with a grateful heart and a desire to be of service to humanity," he says.

I'm sorry, but this is just a little too humble. You are supposed to have parents who are poor but virtuous and hard-working, not parents who are deadbeats raising seven children in a car. Congressman Kucinich is to be admired for overcoming this background and making something of himself, but as far as log cabin stories go, this one is worrisome.

7 (tie). Wesley Clark. Log cabin score: 0. From his web site: 

Born in Chicago on December 23, 1944, General Clark grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1962, he graduated from Hall High School, where he led his swim team to the state championship. Always committed to public service, he went to West Point at the age of 17 and graduated at the top of his class in 1966. He also earned a Master's Degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

No, no, no, General. You are not even trying. Surely there was an honest, hard-working parental figure in your life, somewhere. And although you got yourself all shot up in Vietnam, which would make a great "overcoming adversity" story, there's nothing about that on your campaign bio page. Instead, your bio is all about your achievements and education and stuff. This is not acceptable.

7 (tie). Howard Dean. Log cabin score: 0. From his web site:

Governor Dean is a physician who previously shared a medical practice with his wife.

Lame. Of course, Govenor Dean is handicapped by the fact that he was born into a wealthy family and raised on Park Avenue, so it's best for him to stay mum about his parents. But surely he could generate some log cabin points by saying more about being a family physician in Vermont.

 

9. The Rev. Al Sharpton. Log cabin score: -5. His web site.

 

The Reverend Mr. Sharpton does not talk about his past much on his web site, even though the Rev. spent part of his childhood in public housing in Brooklyn, which could substitute for a log cabin story pretty well. Why doesn't he discuss this? Probably because there's too much about his past he would rather you didn't know.

 

Concerned about the appearance of disarray and feuding within his administration as well as growing resistance to his policies in Iraq, President Bush - living up to his recent declaration that he is in charge - told his top officials to "stop the leaks" to the media, or else.

News of Bush's order leaked almost immediately.

Bush told his senior aides Tuesday that he "didn't want to see any stories" quoting unnamed administration officials in the media anymore, and that if he did, there would be consequences, said a senior administration official who asked that his name not be used. [Joseph L. Galloway and James Kuhnhenn, "Bush Orders Officials to Stop the Leaks," The Philadelphia Inquirer, October 15, 2003]

You can't make this stuff up. Now on to regularly scheduled Hot Links:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thinking Right

Can the Crusader

Taxman and Robin

Bush's Filtered News

Minding Iraq's Business

Bob Herbert: Ugly Games

Slap a Condom on the Vatican

Paul Krugman: The Sweet Spot

Senate Grows Spine, Defies Bush

Congressman Nethercutt Draws Fire

UN Vote Will NOT Result in Help With Iraq

Salon Review of Ragin' O'Reilly's New Book

If you find more Hot Links feel free to contribute them in "comments."

 

 

So what's the blunder? Apparently, General Boykin's life mission is to channel the power o' JEE-zus to conquer the forces of darkness, i.e., non-Christians, particularly Muslims.

"Boykin has made it clear that he takes his orders not from his Army superiors but from God — which is a worrisome line of command." Arkin writes.

Further, Boykin has made it plain that our enemy in the Middle East is not Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein or even terrorism, but Satan.

In Iraq, he told the Oregon congregation, special operations forces were victorious precisely because of their faith in God. "Ladies and gentlemen I want to impress upon you that the battle that we're in is a spiritual battle," he said . "Satan wants to destroy this nation, he wants to destroy us as a nation, and he wants to destroy us as a Christian army." [Link]

Yeah, this is just the guy I want stomping around the Middle East looking for Muslim terrorists.

But for now, let us put aside the eternal question, "Just how big an idiot IS Rummy?" because there are some matters way beyond human understanding.

Instead, let us consider the beginnings of organized religion on this beautiful planet. (There's a whopping big irony here, trust me.)

Zarathustra, a.k.a. Zoroaster, lived about three (maybe four) thousand years ago, give or take a few centuries, in the general neighborhood of Persia (roughly, modern-day Iran). Zarathustra was the founder of Zoroastrianism, a religion that flourished in the Middle East for many centuries.

Now, the interesting thing about Zoroastrianism is that it had an enormous impact on other Middle Eastern religions, such as Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Christianity and Islam in particular maintain many beliefs that originated in Zoroastrianism.

Zoroastrianism became a religious philosophy to be reckoned with back when the Hebrew People were still, essentially, polytheists who worshiped their own tribal god. It was the Zoroastrians who first came up with the idea of a cosmos locked in eternal struggle between good and evil. In the Zoroastrian cosmos, there was one good god (Ormazd) and one bad god (Ahriman), and these two will fight the fight of good versus evil through the ages until at last they meet on Judgment Day, when Ahriman will win; and then the righteous will live in Paradise with Ormazd and his angels, and Ahriman and his devils will perish in a fiery pit.

The Hebrew people picked up bits and pieces of Zoroastrianism during their captivity in Babylon. Centuries later, Zoroastranism (which also went through a lot of changes through the years) would impact Greek religions, and thereby the new religion of Christianity as it was taken over by Greek-speaking gentiles (which explains why Christianity has more in common with Zoroastrianism than does Judaism). And the religion of Islam has deep roots in the mythologies of Zoroastrianism, which by the time of the Prophet Mohammed were inextricably woven into the values and worldview of Middle Eastern people.

So now let's go full circle to General Boykin and his belief that he fights on the side of good against Satan. Not to mention Osama bin Laden and HIS belief that he fights on the side of good against Satan. And the Religious Right, eager to be raptured away, are cheering for the End Times and the great Final Battle to take place soon, possibly in Zarathustra's old Persian stomping grounds.

So in a very broad sense, the lot of them are ready to slaughter half the population of the planet in order to play out some ancient Zoroastrian prophecies. Ain't humanity grand?

 

When President Bush appears at two California fund-raisers today, a luncheon in Fresno and a reception in Riverside, he will be padding a campaign war chest already bulging with $70 million and well on a pace toward an all-time record.

Officials at the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign reported Tuesday that the president and his team had raised $83.9 million to date but spent less than $14 million — a frugal 17% "burn rate" considerably below Bush's spending pace four years ago, when he was in a spirited fight for the Republican presidential nomination. [Edwin Chen, "Bush to Boost War Chest With State Trip," The Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2003]

So in what must be the most non-populist PR blitz in American political history, Bush and his minions fan out and speak to carefully vetted groups of ideological fellow travelers and adoring campaign contributors. And, oh yes, Bush's people arranged for him to say a few words at a frozen burrito plant near Fresno. Charming

But when's he gonna "speak directly to the people"?

Do you think, perhaps, he doesn't know where we are? Or that we exist?

 

... the administration is already putting its own people in place, gatekeepers who will manage that potentially lucrative union between American investment and Iraqi resources. Like Thomas Foley, an old business-school friend of the president's, and also one of his 2000 Connecticut campaign bosses. Foley will decide which of Iraq's roughly 200 state-owned enterprises are fit to survive.

Iraq is being set up for auction, and in Washington and Baghdad, the administration is lining up bidders. Lawyers and lobbyists, many with deep ties to the Republican electoral machine, are corralling investors ready to join in the enormous gamble. "If you go to the Four Seasons and shout out 'Who's working on a deal in Iraq?' everybody there will raise their hand," said Ed Rogers, one of the GOP's top lobbyists in Washington, according to The Hill. With non-American companies frozen out, and the UN withdrawing its mission, U.S. firms will be on their own, just the way the administration wants it. [Roger Trilling, "Bush's Golden Vision," The Village Voice, October 15-21, 2003]

You want to follow the money? Here it goes -- from our pockets as taxpayers into the pockets of war profiteers like Halliburton, which will cycle a good part part of the profit back to the Bush re-"election" effort and the GOP.

"So this will further undermine the pretense that we live in a functional democracy," said John Pike of globalsecurity.org, "meaning, you can look forward to another round of redistricting after the next election!" [Trilling, ibid.]

Today Bush summoned Republican leaders to the White House to tell them the $87 billion must be approved without condition. No strings. Just give us that money.

But back in the Senate, John Edwards said no.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Tuesday he will vote against President Bush's $87 billion request for Iraq, saying it's time somebody "stand up to him and say no."

The North Carolina senator, who last fall backed the congressional resolution authorizing the war, said Bush needs to change his policies to win his vote.

"I believe we have a responsibility to support our troops in Iraq. I believe we have a responsibility to help rebuilt Iraq. But our troops will not be safer and this mission will never be successful unless the president dramatically changes course," Edwards said in an interview with The Associated Press. [Ron Fournier, "Edwards Says He'll Vote Against $87 Billion Aid Package," AP, October 14, 2003]

I've been wanting Congress to assume more oversight of spending in Iraq. But Edwards may be right -- the White House must be cut off. Congress must assume control, not just oversight.

The Constitution clearly gives the power of the purse, including control of all military spending, to Congress (see Article I, Section 8). And in past wars and post-war programs, including the Marshall Plan, the President and Congress worked closely together to budget, appropriate, and distribute money. President Truman did not just accept congressional oversight to keep the spending; he insisted on it.

But Bush doesn't want to have to work with Congress, or the UN, or anyone else. He wants what he wants, and Congress is supposed to be a big rubber stamp. Bush must be forcefully told that he has no power under our Constitution to demand that Congress approves his spending plans without condition.

Of the other Democratic presidential candidates in Congress, Senator Kerry said Sunday that he is inclined to vote against the bill; Senator Lieberman will vote for it. Congressman Dennis Kucinich has said all along he will vote no, although Kucinich doesn't seem to understand that the troops cannot be beamed home next week and that money will have to be appropriated. As of this writing Congressman Gephardt has not declared how he will vote.

Right now the hottest part of this battle is being fought in the Senate. It is vitally important to rally support for Senators who will stand up to Bush. Click here to find out how to contact your senators. Email Senate majority leader Tom Daschle and ask him to please not cave in. 

And please email Senator Edwards and thank him -- the Republicans are already sending out press releases saying that Edwards is "choosing his liberal base over service men and women."

And I say Republicans are choosing power and corruption over democracy itself. The battle is joined.

What about the service men and women? The fact is, even when Congress approves funds, the funds have a way of not getting where they are supposed to go. For example, this Associated Press story says a quarter of U.S. troops in Iraq lack proper body armor, even though Congress approved funds for the armor in April.

Congress approved $310 million in April to buy 300,000 more of the bulletproof vests, with 30,000 destined to complete outfitting of the troops in Iraq. Of that money, however, only about $75 million has reached the Army office responsible for overseeing the vests' manufacture and distribution, said David Nelson, an official in that office. [Matt Kelley, "1/4 of U.S. Troops Lack Body Armor," Associated Press, October 13, 2003]

 

I have heard Ms. Gross relentlessly slice and dice guests on previous editions