Here are excerpts from the December issue of Harper's Index:
• Average amount U.S. customs officials paid to build each of twenty-one houses for employees in rural Arizona: $680,000
• Average market price of houses in the area: $86,500
• Number of U.S. universities that have received military equipment from the Defense Department since 1998: 117
• That have received mine-resistant vehicles: 6
• Estimated minimum number of U.S. government contractors eligible to access classified information: 930,000
• Percentage of women worldwide who believe that energy conservation
is a “vital issue”: 68
• Of men: 47
• Chance that a witness called to testify before a congressional committee
is female: 1 in 4
• Portion of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 in 1960 who had never been married: 1/10
• Portion today: 1/2
Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2004—Clinton Library Opens - What's the Legacy? The William J. Clinton Presidential Center, to be dedicated on Thursday, is a futuristic glass-paneled rectangle cantilevered over the banks of the Arkansas River, evoking Mr. Clinton's metaphoric "Bridge to the 21st Century." It is a reflection of a man who famously crammed just about everything into his speeches and his presidency and has now crammed them or their facsimiles into this shrine he hopes will shape his legacy.
I still don't know if Bill Clinton represents a bump in the ongoing election decline at the presidential level for Dems, or a poorly-imitated but effective strategery for winning votes in a national and not just a regional sense. Or maybe Presidential politics really is about who you like more and who you dislike more. Or maybe a combo of all of the above.
There is no question that Bill Clinton was the most gifted politician of his era, a trait I don't think his spouse necessarily shares, nor does everyone who was associated with him (although there's talent in that bunch). And gifts like Bill's make up for a lot. My family liked his policies and hated his sideshow personal life. But since when have Presidential elections been about policy?
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90 inches of snow! CNN says that's possible for Buffalo.
— @mikiebarb
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