GOING BACK TO DRAW ON THE CLINTON WELL AGAIN

BILL CLINTON

TO HAVE PROMINENT SLOT

AT THE DEMOCRATIC

NATIONAL CONVENTION

BILL CLINTON

STEPS UP

1999 G-8 Summit

Cologne, Germany

So -- Barack Obama personally offered Bill Clinton a prime-time slot in the 2012 Democratic National Convention -- Wednesday night, September 6th. Clinton has stepped up and agreed to place Obama's name in nomination, and to make the economic case for his successor. Some details and analysis, here and here. More Clinton here and here and here.

BUDDY GUY HAS A BIRTHDAY AND A NEW BOOK

GEORGE ("BUDDY") GUY

b. July 30, 1936

BUDDY GUY

On Stage in Boston

in the Early Seventies

When I Left Home is Buddy Guy's story, written with David Ritz and released recently. Two very informative reviews are here and here. A contemporary photograph and interview are here. The biography honoring his 2005 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is here. His own website is here, and that of his club, Buddy Guy's Legends, is here.

An homage for his birthday today, with several videos of performances over the years (including from the era in the photograph above), is here.

Another photograph of mine of Buddy Guy with Big Mama Thornton is here.

And finally, an interpretation in a photograph, here, described in a comment left by "Kevin" (thanks):

Fantastic shot. I love the way he is cutting through the darkness. Between his furrowed brow and the way his fingers are bending the string you can almost hear the blues he's playing.

BILL BRADLEY HAS A BIRTHDAY AND A NEW BOOK

WILLIAM WARREN ("BILL") BRADLEY

b. July 28, 1943

BILL BRADLEY AS

U.S. SENATOR (D-N.J.)

Published in the January 31, 1983, issue of

BUSINESS WEEK (p. 96)

As we are celebrating the Olympics, a tip of the hat to an American 1964 Olympics Basketball Gold Medalist, Princeton's Bill Bradley, celebrating his sixty-ninth today. Bradley went on to a professional basketball career and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983: "As a ten-year pro with the New York Knicks, 'Dollar Bill' was an integral part of a team of many all-stars and developed into one of the league's top forwards, helping to lead the team to the 1970 and 1973 NBA championships."

Bradley went on to serve three terms in the U.S. Senate (1979-1997), and ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2000. The sitting vice-president, Al Gore, beat him in that contest.

We Can All Do Better is the title of Bradley's new book. Linda Campbell has a review, here, in which she asks, "Can you see why I'm still fixated on Bill Bradley, the nominee who might have been?" Campbell notes that "Despite his broad experience and deep intellect, he couldn't persuade the Democratic in 2000 that he was the better man to put up against George W. Bush for president," but he keeps on plugging, discussing "things that matter."

More on Bill Bradley here and here.

"WE'RE ALL ON THE FRONT LINES"

AT THE OLYMPICS

OR

ELSEWHERE

WE ARE ALL

ON THE FRONT LINES

THEY TELL US

WILLIAM RUCKELSHAUS CELEBRATES EIGHTY

WILLIAM D. RUCKELSHAUS

b. July 24, 1932

WILLIAM RUCKELSHAUS

in his second term as

E.P.A. Administrator

Published in BUSINESS WEEK

August 22, 1983 (p. 108)

Hoosier and Harvard Law School; Princeton and the G.O.P; drill sergeant in the U.S. Army; time in two Washingtons and one Texas. Briefly acting head of the FBI, and then the second Massacree (after Elliot Richardson) in the Saturday Night Massacre. Founding Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (the EPA), under Nixon, in 1970, the year of the first Earth Day, and then, more or less literally, clean-up man the second time around, under Reagan. The headline for the BW story for which this photograph was an illustration was "The Environmental Impact of the EPA's Mr. Fix-It."

The EPA has two biographies for William Doyle Ruckelshaus, First Term (1970-1973) and Second Term (1983-1985); the former includes a biographical timeline (which does not, however, mention the Army service; that is found here).

There is a long 1993 EPA interview here; and a new oral history garnered by Douglas Brinkley described here and available online here (with a contemporary photograph here).

In celebration of his eightieth birthday, Ruckelshaus went fishing and caught a salmon said to weigh nearly twenty pounds (he lives in the state of Washington these days); photograph and story here.

KARK W. DEUTSCH BORN ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO TODAY

KARL WOLFGANG DEUTSCH

July 21, 1912-November 1, 1992

KARL DEUTSCH & STUDENTS

AT HARVARD

For more information on this renowned scholar

and teacher of political science, please see here.

GEORGE McGOVERN IS NINETY

GEORGE S. McGOVERN

b. July 19, 1922

Senator GEORGE McGOVERN

(D-South Dakota)

in the 1972 Presidential Campaign

Senator McGovern did become the 1972 Democratic nominee for the U.S. presidency; he was badly beaten in the general election, by the incumbent, Republican Richard M. Nixon. It was McGovern -- the Democrats under McGovern -- whom "Watergate" was designed to defeat. In the end it was Nixon's own undoing; he was forced to resign from the White House in August 1974.

Just thinking back and reflecting on my memories, I was tempted to say that George McGovern was Swift-Boated before the term was invented. Here was a World War II B-24 pilot who won the Distinguished Flying Cross made out to be some kind of weaselly wimp for opposing the Vietnam War (and we know how that turned out). But I see that some commentators seem to blame McGovern for being loathe to brag about himself.

So in honor of his ninetieth, a couple of mash notes here and here and here (and his congressional biography here; a contemporary photograph here).

RICH TRUMKA THEN & NOW

RICHARD LOUIS TRUMKA 

RICHARD L. ("RICH") TRUMKA 

Published in the April 30, 1984 issue of 

BUSINESS WEEK (p.70) 

Here is Richard Trumka in the early years of his presidency of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). He "inherited a union in turmoil," said BUSINESS WEEK in its December 12, 1983, issue (p. 90), and then caused some to worry that he was "trying to institute policies that could keep him in power for decades....." 

In the event, he served thirteen years as UMWA president, from 1982-1995, then became Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO from 1995-2009, and was elected its president on September 16, 2009, bringing with him, we are told, his "tough guy image" (more here). In another two years he was named one of ESQUIRE Magazine's 2011 Americans of the Year (story and photographs here). 

But now it is 2012, and the same Barack Obama Richard Trumka supported so forcefully in 2008 (video here) has elected to hold his convention in a right-to-work state.... Stay tuned. 

PHILIP SHARP IS SEVENTY

PHILIP RILEY SHARP

b. July 15, 1942

PHILIP R. SHARP

as Democratic

Representative from Indiana

Published in BUSINESS WEEK

March 14, 1983, p 26

Philip Sharp served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1975-1995. He then taught at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and became the director of the K-School's Institute of Politics. Since September 2005 he has been President of Resources for the Future (RFF); his website there, including a contemporary photograph, can be found here.

HUACA PUCLLANA, LIMA, PERU, AT NIGHT

A PYRAMID IN THE CITY

HUACA PUCLLANA

AT NIGHT

Lima, Peru

Huaca Pucllana is "a pre-Colombian adobe-mud ceremonial centre that takes you by surprise," wrote Mark Rowe in The Independent, "both with its staggering visual presence -- painstakingly precise brickwork furnished into the shape of a mini city -- and its location. You practically bump into it after turning the corner of a middle-class street." The shock is even greater at night, especially if you are riding in a car in the big city and this pyramid flooded with lights suddenly materializes, more ethereal than real (above). Could it be some kind of theme park? you wonder in the dark.

No, it is for real, and dates back to about 500 AD. There are a number of on-line resources for exploring different aspects of Huaca Pucllana, also known as Huaca Juliana. A good overall introduction, including to the history of the different peoples who have settled in this area, is to be found here. More is added, including a striking aerial photograph giving some sense of the scale of this huaca, or sacred place, here. For a young man's blog with a series of photographs focusing on the archaeological site, see here. For an up-close-and-personal look at the vertical bricks making up the pyramid complex, and a reminder that "you can chat up archaeologists and visit a museum displaying objects found in the excavations" -- and oh, yes, there is a "well-regarded onsite restaurant" too -- see here.

There are three websites to recommend which feature photographs of the contents of a couple of tombs and the mummies within. The tomb dating around 850 AD is discussed and illustrated here and here. And finally, the most striking photograph (no, not mine, unfortunately) -- of the mummified head of a pre-Incan Wari woman -- whose face bristles with character (and two "big, bright blue orbs in her eye sockets") is here.

A COOL PICTURE FOR A HOT FRIDAY

UP IN THE AIR

ON THE WAY TO BEIJING

MARK HATFIELD WOULD HAVE BEEN NINETY TODAY

MARK ODOM HATFIELD

July 12, 1922-August 7, 2011

SENATOR MARK HATFIELD

(R-Oregon)

Published in the March 29, 1982

issue of BUSINESS WEEK, p. 38

Governor of Oregon for eight years (1959-1967); U.S. Senator from Oregon for thirty years (1967-1997). Served in the U.S. Navy in World War II; one of the first to see Hiroshima after the bombing; the first "prominent Republican" to come out against the Vietnam War. Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee for eight years; came out against the 1986 Constitutional Amendment requiring a Balanced Budget (the deciding vote); "strong advocate" of public spending on biomedical research; known for directing funds to projects in his home state. A man of conscience and principle; a touch of scandal. Much more in interesting articles here and here and here and here; the basic facts here; a more recent photograph here.

GEORGE W. BUSH COMING & GOING: A PHOTO-INTERPRETATION

REALITY CHECK

GEORGE W. BUSH

A real photograph doubled

PHOTO-INTERPRETATION

Here we go with the Bush Tax Cuts again (see here). When they were being negotiated, it was promised promised promised that they would expire in 2010, and they would not break the budget.

Someone apparently had his fingers crossed behind his back.

Already they have been extended for two years beyond 2010; and now-- ?

Anybody remember when we were looking at surpluses (as Clinton left, and handed off to Bush)? Anybody remember when the members of Bush's party -- say it, Republicans -- made no fuss about deficits?

EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER b. July 10, 1921

EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER

July 10, 1921-August 11, 2009

THOMAS P. ("TIP") O'NEILL, JR.

&

EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER

shake on it at a soirée overlooking

New York's Central Park

during the 1976 Democratic National Convention

Eunice Mary Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the middle child of Joseph P. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy's nine children, got a B.A. from Stanford, married R. Sargent Shriver, Jr., and had five children. Beyond all that, looming large in her legacy, are the Special Olympics, which she founded in honor of her sister Rosemary ("Rosie").

A website in her honor is here; the New York Times obituary is here; and the CNN obituary is here; a tribute by her daughter Maria Shriver is here.

MONOCACY: THE BATTLE THAT SAVED WASHINGTON, D.C., 148 YEARS AGO

IN COMMEMORATION OF

THE BATTLE OF

MONOCACY

July 9, 1864

THE MONOCACY RIVER

Frederick, Maryland

The U.S. Civil War battle of Monocacy, or the Battle of Monocacy Junction, was fought a few miles downriver from the site of this photograph, in Frederick County, on July 9, 1864. It was a Union loss which delayed the Confederate forces long enough for reinforcements to reach Washington, D.C., and so foil the Confederate plan to take the National Capital.

Reenactments were planned for this past weekend; Saturday's was carried out, and there is a story and photograph here. Sunday's was canceled due to heat (here). Some useful pages from the Monocacy National Battlefield park website can be found here and here and here.

CATIE CURTIS TO SING TODAY

ON STAGE

CATIE CURTIS

Singer-Songwriter

Catie Curtis (see here) is appearing today at the Custom House Stage, New Bedford, Massachusetts, as part of the New Bedford Summerfest (see here and here). Her website is here.

A YEAR AND A DAY AFTER GEORGE WASHINGTON TAKES COMMAND OF THE CONTINENTAL ARMY, AMERICA DECLARES ITS INDEPENDENCE

THE UNITED STATES OF

AMERICA DECLARE THEIR

INDEPENDENCE

July 4, 1776

STATUE COMMEMORATING

GEORGE WASHINGTON

BOSTON COMMON

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

The United Kingdom sends the Magna Carta to Washington, D.C., to mark the bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence (photograph and story here)