Reclaiming Huey Long On 75th Observance of His Death

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Friday September 10, 2010 · 11:32 AM PDT

2010/09/10 · 11:32

Sen. Huey P. Long, Jr. of Louisiana died 75 years ago on September 10, 1935, after being shot in the state capitol in Baton Rouge two days earlier. He was a man with a legacy that is far more complicated than he's portrayed in the snippets of references to him in most histories or the distortions of popular fiction.

The piece I'd like to refer everyone to on this 75th observance of his death is the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography from 1969: Huey Long by T. Harry Williams, which was written while many of the sources from Long's political career and life were still alive. Below are a couple of paragraphs from the beginning of Chapter 1, "Not Even a Horse" (with apologies to Mssr. Williams, I have elided a couple of terms he used for historical verisimilitude).

The story seems too good to be true--but people who should know swear that it is true. The first time Huey P. Long campaigned in rural, Latin, Catholic south Louisiana, the local boss who had him in charge said at the beginning of the tour: "Huey, you ought to remember one thing in your speeches today. You're from north Louisiana, but now you're in south Louisiana. And we got a lot of Catholic voters down here."

darrelplant

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Thursday September 09, 2010 · 3:25 PM PDT

2010/09/09 · 15:25

Five years ago, in the drowning of New Orleans, a milestone of Louisiana history went almost unobserved: the 70th anniversary of the assassination of the state's controversial Governor and then US Senator Huey Pierce Long, Jr.

This year marks that event's 75th anniversary, and here at Daily Kos the name "Huey Long" is now associated with the scheming of a campaign operative for a man who represents the opposite of what the real Huey Long stood for. This is an attempt to set the record straight for Huey Long, who was shot on September 8, 1935 and died on September 10, 1935.

darrelplant

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Monday July 19, 2010 · 7:48 AM PDT

2010/07/19 · 07:48

Today is the 88th birthday of George Stanley McGovern, as I mentioned in my diary on Friday: A Real Macho Man. Since then, it has been reported that he had a special celebration lined up for this morning:

As an Army Air Corps combat pilot during World War II, George McGovern never had to bail out of a crippled B-24 and never had to ask his crew to jump, either.

So Monday, his 88th birthday, the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate and former South Dakota senator is going to experience what he never did 65 years ago.

He's going to go skydiving, falling through the heavens above Brevard County near the Kennedy Space Center in eastern Florida.

Monday George McGovern Turns 88. A Real Macho Man.

darrelplant

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Friday July 16, 2010 · 6:05 PM PDT

2010/07/16 · 18:05

Peter Beinart's out with a book about American hubris in foreign policy, trying to pick up some points by admitting that he just might possibly have gotten a few things wrong about the Iraq War. In doing so he tries to pour himself into the mold of other foreign policy pundits who have come to realize their previous positions were in error, but claim that they've figured it out so we should all listen to them now.

But where people like Beinart draw the line in their mea culpas is in giving credit to the people who were right in the first place. It's the Francis Fukuyamas and the Colin Powells who get the accolades in his book; men whose ideas and ambitions made them useful to others intent on pursuing misguided ventures. The people who opposed stupid wars in the first place get short shrift.

One of those men, George Stanley McGovern, will turn 88 on Monday.

darrelplant

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Wednesday November 26, 2008 · 11:48 AM PST

2008/11/26 · 11:48

In yesterday's midday open thread, Kos linked to a Washington Post story about how conservatives are going to try to move more forcefully onto the internet in the future (despite the current countervailing meme that the netroots has been repudiated by post election events like the Senate letting Joe Lieberman hold onto his chairmanship).

Earlier this week, as a part of my own studies into iPhone programming, I ran into a similar story on Politico, about a discussion group about the use of technology in the 2008 presidential campaign that included staff from both the Obama and McCain camps.

darrelplant

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Saturday November 22, 2008 · 4:48 PM PST

2008/11/22 · 16:48

UPDATE: OK, I give up. I thought a post telling people to laugh at someone looking into lenders preying on old ladies, with a title that is an imperative command followed by a reference to the reader as a monkey was pretty obvious, but apparently a lot of people here not only have no bullshit detector but they -- as Derek Zoolander would put it -- "don't read good," either. Consider this your snark warning.

Yeah, Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich is one laughable dude. From his marriage's incredible height and age disparity to palling around with Shirley Maclaine to proposing a Department of Peace to imitating Tennessee Ernie Ford, just about everyone can agree that the man's a clown.

Dennis Kucinich, the Democratic congressman from Cleveland, was in his Washington office browsing the Internet when he came across the story of Addie Polk from the Akron Beacon-Journal:

At the age of 90, Addie Polk found herself in foreclosure this week, about to be forced from the home she’s lived in for nearly 40 years.

darrelplant

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Saturday July 19, 2008 · 11:58 AM PDT

2008/07/19 · 11:58

Eighty-six years ago today, in the little town of Avon, South Dakota, George S. McGovern was born.

The son of a Wesleyan Methodist minister, McGovern entered college at Dakota Wesleyan Univertisy in Mitchell, South Dakota in the fall of 1940, where he began a degree in history that was interrupted by his deployment as a B-24 bomber pilot to the European theater in 1943. He flew thirty-five missions, winning the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions during a flight in which his plane was seriously damaged.

After the war, he returned to finish his degree, then briefly studied for the seminary at Northwestern University before returning to his first interest: history.

For a few years, he taught at Dakota Wesleyan, the school where he met his wife, Eleanor, during the war, but in 1953 he accepted the challenge of the state Democratic chairman to rebuild the party in solidly Republican South Dakota.

A short stint in the House and his political work led to President John F. Kennedy appointing him as the country's first director of the Food for Peace program. He ran for and won the 1962 Senate campaign in South Dakota while suffering from an attack of hepatitis picked up from a contaminated needle used to give him a yellow-fever injection. In the White House.

darrelplant

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Wednesday June 11, 2008 · 2:31 PM PDT

2008/06/11 · 14:31

An odd but mildly entertaining fact: Though the vote was largely split along party lines, several of the 24 Republicans who voted to refer Representative Dennis Kucinich's (D-OH) articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush to the House Judiciary committee had the same last name as Democratic representatives who voted for the motion!

There's

Robert Brady (D-PA) and Kevin Brady (R-TX).

John Hall (D-NY) and Ralph Hall (R-TX).

Hank Johnson (D-GA) and Tim Johnson (R-IL).

Stephanie Jones (D-OH) and Walter Jones (R-NC).

Patrick Murphy (D-PA) and Tim Murphy (R-PA).

Charles Wilson (D-OH) and Heather Wilson (R-NM).

That's a quarter of the Republicans who voted for the motion. That doesn't even take into consideration the two Florida Republican Diaz-Balarts.

From darrelplant.com

McGovern for Veep

darrelplant

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Tuesday June 03, 2008 · 1:16 PM PDT

2008/06/03 · 13:16

Today's the South Dakota Democratic primary, and there would be no better place for Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama to announce this choice for his running mate: former South Dakota Senator George S. McGovern.

McGovern was right about Vietnam and Iraq. He spoke out in 1965 for recognition of the Cuban government, saying that sanctions wouldn't work to bring down the Castro regime. He advocated opening relations with China years before Henry Kissinger made his secret trips for President Richard Nixon. He's been a ceaseless advocate for ending poverty and hunger around the world, something that was recognized by President John F. Kennedy when he gave McGovern the reins of the Food for Peace office. He tried to warn the American public about Nixon's role in the Watergate affair even before the 1972 election, but the voters didn't listen. Read More

ABC's Own Poll Shows Voters Had Different Priorities

darrelplant

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Thursday April 17, 2008 · 11:17 PM PDT

2008/04/17 · 23:17

In remarks to Greg Sargent about the questions asked at ABC's Democratic primary candidate debate the other day, co-moderator George Stephanopoulos is quoted as saying:

"We decided to focus at the top on the issues that had been at the center of the debate since the last debate. Everything we brought up in that front section had not come up since the last debate. And they all focused on the same theme -- which candidate would be a stronger Democratic candidate in Novembber." [sic]

"This is the core question for the campaigns, and a lot of Democratic voters right now. That's why we decided to lead with it."

Interestingly enough, that's at some variance with what ABC's own poll reported today, based on data collected between April 10th and 13th.

darrelplant

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Tuesday April 15, 2008 · 8:52 AM PDT

2008/04/15 · 08:52

Whatever happened to Colin Powell's Pottery Barn Rule: "You break it, you buy it"?

Iraq's Financial Free Ride May End

By ANNE FLAHERTY

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iraq's financial free ride may be over. After five years, Republicans and Democrats seem to have found common ground on at least one aspect of the war. From the fiercest war foes to the most steadfast Bush supporters, they are looking at Iraq's surging oil income and saying Baghdad should start picking up the tab, particularly for rebuilding hospitals, roads, power lines and the rest of the shattered country.
"I think the American people are growing weary not only of the war, but they are looking at why Baghdad can't pay more of these costs. And the answer is they can," says Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

Ben Nelson, of course, was one of the bright lights who voted to invade Iraq in the first place.

darrelplant

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Monday March 24, 2008 · 9:06 PM PDT

2008/03/24 · 21:06

Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz embodies the worst of the worst of his profession so far as I'm concerned. I don't regularly read him, I briefly tried to watch his CNN Reliable Sources show but couldn't take it for long, but I've seen lots of him by accumulation over the years.

But I happened to notice that he was doing one of the Post's "Live Discussion" segments today, just a little before it began, so I went and submitted a question.

Imagine my surprisae when the first question of the day turned out to be from here in Portland, Oregon! It just wasn't my question. Kurtz was asked why the pundits asked to weigh in on the Rev. Wright/Obama "controversy" have been overwhelmingly white. Kurtz brought up the fact that he had two African-Americans on his panel Sunday. Although he also had Michael Medved, and that may have been like having a whole fist on the scales. Read More

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