(Annie — Oakley the Amazing Weimaraner’s sister — running in the Congressional Cemetery; taken with cell phone camera)
The Boston Globe has a fascinating long expose on Rose Kennedy’s life and letters. The most hilarious part of it though is on the third page in which she counsels her Senator son, Ted Kennedy, how to pronounce a word our incumbent president never quite manages.
From the piece:
She [Rose Kennedy] offered maternal advice long after her children had grown to adulthood. She told Jack to speak more slowly during his presidential campaign, as his Boston accent was hard for others to decipher. She told Bobby to get his hair cut during his 1968 campaign. In 1969, she sent her senator son Ted a letter that Barbara Bush apparently never sent her son.
“Dear Ted,” Rose wrote, “I wish you would check the pronunciation of the word ‘nuclear.’ You pronounce it as though it were spelled ‘nucular,’ but I believe it should be pronounced ‘nu-cle-ar.'”
My New America Foundation colleague Nir Rosen’s New York Times Magazine cover story, “Exodus: The Flight from Iraq” is up on the web now and well worth a read.
On Friday, we organized a fascinating array of speakers in a set of conversations on the future of the American and global economies. The question posed was “Will the Sky Fall?” and the general provocation of the meeting was that some progressives are beginning to take another look at whether or not we are measuring our economy correctly — inputs, outputs, tangibles, intangibles — and whether we should grab the next set of years as an opportunity to rebuild America’s public infrastructure — including educational system, physical infrastructure, broadband architecture, and R&D base.
The meeting was covered in full by C-Span, but the influential young blogger and a leading general among the “netroots” Matt Stoller offers some YouTube commentary and a short essay here. Matt and I will differ a bit here and there, but his take on the culture of elites discussing these issues is fascinating on its own — and his seeming dismissal of the “doom and gloomism” of those who want to strangle entitlements down is impressive, particularly since he doesn’t follow economic policy closely. His review is honest and something to note.
Last item before I go take Oakley & Annie for a walk is that this fellow, Dal LaMagna, has just bought my friends’ home across the street from me. Apparently, Cindy Sheehan stayed there the entire week week before last. I had no idea. But it’s prompted me to check him out — and he’s a powerhouse progressive activist that owns a firm, Tweezerman, that seems like it really believes in a socially responsible business model. He also seems to be involved in publishing the progressive magazine, Yes!.
I suspect we will get along — until I mention the many reasons I like Chuck Hagel.
More later.
— Steve Clemons
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