David Bergman’s gigapan photo of the inauguration

February 3, 2009

Can’t embed the photo here.  Panoramic photos are cool things to use to capture history.  Photographer David Bergman made a colossal, 1,464 megapixel photo of the inauguration of Barack Obama — you gotta see it.

Bergman described it:

I made a panoramic image showing the nearly two million people who watched President Obama’s inaugural address. To do so, I clamped a Gigapan Imager to the railing on the north media platform about six feet from my photo position. The Gigapan is a robotic camera mount that allows me to take multiple images and stitch them together, creating a massive image file.

My final photo is made up of 220 Canon G10 images and the file is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels. It took more than six and a half hours for the Gigapan software to put together all of the images on my Macbook Pro and the completed TIF file is almost 2 gigabytes.

Bergman is offering prints for sale.

Were you at the inauguration, on the Capitol grounds?  Check Bergman’s photo, and zoom in to see whether you can see yourself in history.

A smaller version of Bergmans GigaPan photo of the inauguration of Barack Obama

A smaller version of Bergman’s GigaPan photo of the inauguration of Barack Obama; go see the zoomable version at Bergman’s site, and marvel at the detail of faces

Tip of the old scrub brush to julie@century.

3 Comments | Barack Obama, History, History images, Images, President Obama, Presidents, Technology | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Quote mining Harry Truman, on confusing people

February 3, 2009

I think it was Mark Twain who said a lie can get around the world twice before the truth has got its boots on (feel free to correct me on that if you have a good source).

Whoever said it, it was right.

Now, we see that a mined quote can do the same thing as a whole lie.

Harry Truman is the victim this time.

Google turns up more than 27,000 sites with this quote, attributed to Harry Truman:

If you can’t convince them, confuse them.

Now I ask you, Dear Reader, does that sound like old Give-’em-hell Harry, the original straight talker?  Did Harry Truman really urge the use of confusion, when persuasion fails?

If you’re careful and persistent, you can turn up four Google hits for the accurate version, from his dramatic and historic campaign for election in 1948:

I don’t think you are going to be the victims this time of the old Republican doctrine:  “If you can’t convince them, confuse them.”

There you have it.  Harry Truman was not urging the use of confusion.  He was campaigning against it.

Last page of a comic book biography of Harry Truman for the 1948 campaign - Truman Library

Last page of a comic book biography of Harry Truman for the 1948 campaign - Truman Library

1 Comment | Accuracy, Bad Quotes, Campaigns, Famous quotes, Good Quotes, Harry Truman, History, History Revisionism, Political cartoons, Politics, Presidents | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

President Grant’s papers moving – to Mississippi

January 28, 2009

It’s either a sign of how old wounds have healed, or it’s another step in the cryptic and slow, cold war in which the South works to overcome the victory of the Union in the Civil War.

Ulysses S Grant as a Lt. General, Library of Congress image

Ulysses S Grant as a Lt. General; photo by Alexander Gardner, Library of Congress image

Associated Press reports (via Federal News Radio) the papers of President Ulysses S Grant will move from the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale,  to Mississippi State University, in Starkville, Mississippi.

The fact that a collection about a Union hero who helped topple the Confederacy has wound up in Dixie is not lost on [John Marszalek, a Civil War scholar and Mississippi State history professor emeritus who’s now shepherding the collection].

“There’s an irony in it,” he said with a laugh. “People recognize this for its scholarly worth, and I think what has happened over time is that people have come to realize that the Civil War is over and we’re a united nation again.”

Still, Grant’s return to the South doesn’t thrill Cecil Fayard Jr., the Mississippi-based leader of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

“U.S. Grant is not beloved in the state of Mississippi. Southern folks remember well his brutal and bloody tactics of war, and the South will never forget the siege of Vicksburg,” he said.

The Ulysses S. Grant Association, which owns the papers, decided to move them at the request of Marzsalek, who was named conservator after the death of John Y. Simon, the historian who had curated the collection during the publication of more than 30 volumes of Grants papers, beginning in 1962.  Simon lost his professorship at SIU last year, and died in July 2008.

The modern concept of a presidential library did not exist until 1939.  The first such library was the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Par, New York, established with papers donated in 1939.  There are now official libraries, parts of the U.S. National Archives system, for Herbert Hoover (who preceded FDR) in West Branch, Iowa, Harry Truman, in Independence, Missouri, Dwight Eisenhower, in Abilene, Kansas, John Kennedy, at Harvard University near Boston, Lyndon Johnson at the University of Texas, Austin, Richard Nixon at Yorba Linda, California, Gerald Ford library at Ann Arbor and museum (still under construction) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Jimmy Carter in Atlanta, Ronald Reagan at Simi Valley, California, George H. W. Bush at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, and Bill Clinton in Little Rock.  George W. Bush is working to establish a library and institute at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the library an extension of the National Archives, and the institute modeled roughly after the Herbert Hoover Institution affiliated with Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are honored with institutions, too.  Washington’s home at Mount Vernon, Virginia, is held by the Ladies of Mount Vernon Association, which originally saved the mansion; the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is in Springfield, Illinois.  Neither of those institutions has much formal tie to the federal library system.

Because of their places in history, even at the risk of enlarging the institutionalness and management problems of these libraries, I would like to see libraries established for Theodore Roosevelt, perhaps in South Dakota; for Woodrow Wilson; For Andrew Jackson, probably near his home in Tennessee; and for John Adams and/or John Quincy Adams, outside of Boston.  These institutions could bolster the spread of knowledge and preservation of history of our freedoms and liberties; if we were rich, it would be useful and productive to put libraries in Ohio — for William Howard Taft, or for Taft and Garfield and Buchanan — and far upstate New York for Millard Fillmore, perhaps at the University of Buffalo.  Libraries honoring James Madison and James Monroe could be useful, too, but would put a great concentration of such institutions close to Charlottesville, Virginia.

Resources:

Under the fold:  Quotations from U. S. Grant, from the Grant papers collection.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | Civil War, Historic documents, History, Libraries, Museums, Presidents | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Reading for government classes: Obama’s shift in governing philosophy

January 28, 2009

No, Obama didn’t change his mind.  He’s changing the way government does business — putting government on a more solidly-based, business-like model for performance, according to at least one observer.  That’s the shift discussed.

And it’s about time, I say.

Max Stier’s commentary on the Fed Page of the Washington Post quickly lays out the case that Obama’s making big changes.  Copy it for students in your government classes (or history classes, if you’re studying the presidency in any depth).  Stier wrote:

There are some fundamental reasons why our federal government’s operational health has been allowed to steadily deteriorate. It’s hard to change what you don’t measure, and our government operates in an environment with very few meaningful and useful measurements for performance. Perhaps more significantly, it is run by short-term political leadership that has little incentive to focus on long-term issues.

A typical presidential appointee stays in government for roughly two years and is rewarded for crisis management and scoring policy wins. These individuals are highly unlikely to spend significant energy on management issues, when the benefits of such an investment won’t be seen until after they are long gone.

(According to the Post, “Max Stier is president and CEO of Partnership for Public Service, a group that seeks to revitalize the federal government.”  I don’t know of him otherwise.)

Political appointees can be good, but too many have not been over the past 25 years.  A bad enough political appointee can frustrate even the most adept, dedicated-to-the-people’s-business career federal service employees, and frustrate the law and good management of agencies.

Let’s wish them all good luck.

Potential questions to follow-up this article in discussions:

  • Constitution: Under the Constitution, who specifically is charged with managing the federal agencies, the “federal bureaucracy?  What is that charge, in the Constitution?
  • Constitution, politics: What is the role of Congress in managing the federal bureaucracy?
  • Evaluating information sources: Do some research on the internet.  Is Max Stier a credible source of information on managing federal agencies?  Why, or why not?  Who provides an opposing view to Stier’s?  Are they credible?  Why or why not?
  • Evaluating information sources: Is the Fed Page of the Washington Post a good source of information about the federal bureaucracy?  (Students may want to investigate columnists and features at this site; the Fed Page was started as a one-page feature of the newspaper in the early 1980s, covering for the public issues that tended to slip through the cracks of other news coverage, but which were very important to the vast army of federal employees and federal policy wonks in Washington.)  What other sources might be expected?  What other sources are there?  (Federal News Radio is another site that focuses on the functions of the federal agencies — Mike Causey started out writing the column on the bureaucracy in the Washington Post; this is an AM radio station dedicated to covering federal functions in the federal city.  Other sources should include National Journal, and Congressional Quarterly, especially if you have those publications in your school library).
  • History, maybe a compare and contrast question: How has the federal bureaucracy changed over time?  Compare the size, scope and people employed by the federal government under the administrations of George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses Grant, James Garfield, William McKinley, Dwight Eisenhower, and Bill Clinton.  What trends become clear?  What major changes have occurred (civil service protection, for example)?
  • Analysis: How does the transition process from one president to the next affect federal employees and the operation of government?
  • Analysis: How does the transition of President Barack Obama compare with past transitions — especially that of President Franklin Roosevelt, who also faced a tough economic crisis, or Ronald Reagan, whose transition signalled a major shift in government emphasis and operation?

What other questions did your students find in this article?  Comments are open.

Leave a Comment » | Bell Ringers, Current History, Federalism, Government, History, Labor and unions, Lesson plans, Management, Organizational leadership, Politics, President Obama, Presidents, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Bush’s presidency in photographs – stunning

January 26, 2009

Blogging for the New York Times, filmmaker Errol Morris interviewed the top photographers from some of the world’s top photographic journalism agencies about their picks of photos that capture George Bush through his presidency. Yeah, some are goofy; most are not.

It’s interesting to read the photographers’ takes on their photos, sometimes different views on different photos taken at the same time and place.  Morris asks good questions, the photographers give great answers.

And the photographs are, in total, stunning.

You could capture these photos for a bell-ringer of some sort, if you don’t take them beyond your classroom.  If you don’t capture these photos, especially for history classes, you’ll regret that you didn’t.

Go see, and marvel, and learn.

Tears run from the eyes of President George W. Bush during a ceremony in honor of Medal of Honor winner Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham in the East room of the White House in Washington, January 11, 2007. Cpl. Dunham was killed when he jumped on a grenade to save fellow members of his Marine patrol while serving in Iraq. REUTERS/Jim Bourg

Here's one photo you probably didn't see in the U.S.: "Tears run from the eyes of President George W. Bush during a ceremony in honor of Medal of Honor winner Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham in the East room of the White House in Washington, January 11, 2007. Cpl. Dunham was killed when he jumped on a grenade to save fellow members of his Marine patrol while serving in Iraq. REUTERS/Jim Bourg"

Tip of the old scrub brush to Earthaid3.

1 Comment | History, History images, Newspapers, Politics, Presidents | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Duncanville kids at the inauguration

January 20, 2009

At least two kids from Duncanville were at the inauguration in official capacities today.  We’re hoping to hear from them.  (Send the blog some photos, Michael!)

Michael Rivera, doing graduate journalism studies at Western Kentucky University, got press  credentials to cover the events as a photographer.  The Riveras live across the street from us, and Michael and his older brother Jonathan dropped in over the Christmas holidays to let us marvel at how tall and handsome they’ve grown.

Daniel Brady is the bass trombone player with the U.S. Marine Band.  He graduated with our older son, Kenny, and played in the trombone section with our younger son, James.  We saw him 11 months ago as he sat in at a Dallas Symphony rehearsal, but he was pretty busy over the holidays, out of Texas I hear.  Some time in the past year he answered the call for a national audition for the Marine Band, and he won the slot.  The big question now is how he finishes his degree, I suppose.

Brady is famous among Duncanville’s champion, all-star trombones (and there are a goodly number of them) for sneaking away to get a job for a summer to buy a good bass trombone.  The day after he got enough to purchase the horn, he quit the job.  To the surprise of his parents, and to the grinning chagrin of the band directors who had hoped he’d stick it out as first chair tenor trombone, he insisted on playing the lower-pitched one.  Judging by his success, he made the right choice.

Michael took up photography early in high school, and shot thousands of pictures before he graduated.  He’s stuck with it through undergrad, and now seems to be well on his way at one of the nation’s better journalism schools.  I haven’t had the heart to tell him it pays so little, monetarily.  It’s a great job, other than the pay.

An inauguration is a good event to see, I suppose, though I walked out of the only one I ever attended.  Another story for another time.

Good luck, Brady.  Good luck, Michael.  Let us know what you saw and heard, will you?

3 Comments | children, Family, Personal, Presidents | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Obama said it

January 20, 2009

“We will restore science to its rightful place.”

Wow.

12 Comments | Barack Obama, Government, History, Politics, President Obama, Presidents, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Fly your flag today, for the inauguration of President Obama

January 20, 2009

The United States Armed Forces Color Guard presents the American flag and the different U.S. military service flags at the opening ceremony for the 55th Presidential Inauguration, A Celebration of Freedom, near the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., Jan. 19, 2005. More than 5,000 service members will take part in the 55th Presidential Inauguration. Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Tracy DeMarco

The United States Armed Forces Color Guard presents the American flag and the different U.S. military service flags at the opening ceremony for the 55th Presidential Inauguration, "A Celebration of Freedom," near the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., Jan. 19, 2005. More than 5,000 service members will take part in the 55th Presidential Inauguration. Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Tracy DeMarco

The law asks us to do it, but we only get the chance every four years.

Fly your flag today for the inauguration of the president, Barack Obama.

The flag flying today bears 50 stars, the 50th in honor of Obama’s birth state, Hawaii.

Today is one of those days we get to see the flag displayed with scrupulous attention paid to the proper methods of display.  If you see a flag attached to an automobile, for example, it will probably be on a special attachment on the right front fender of the vehicle, as the Flag Code suggests.  The free-for-all flag display methods of small town Fourth of July parades will be reined in.  At least, we hope so.

Fly your flag today — you’ll be glad you did.

Resources:

1 Comment | Barack Obama, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, President Obama, Presidents | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Disciples minister to preach National Prayer Service

January 18, 2009

This will make P.  Z. Myers shake his head — apologies, P. Z. — but those of us in the “mainstream,” or “liberal leaning” sect of the Disciples of Christ are quite happy that our general minister, Sharon Watkins, will preach the sermon at the National Prayer Service on Wednesday.

We’re such a politically polyglot group that we can be described as mainstream, liberal, or conservative with some accuracy.  Three presidents have Disciples roots — James Garfield, who was a Disciples minister before becoming president of a Disciples college in Ohio; Lyndon Johnson, who was a life-long Disciple, and who built a chapel on his ranch; and Ronald Reagan, whose mother was a devout Disciple, and who attended one of several Disciples affiliated colleges, Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois.

Watkins is the first woman to preach at this service in the history of the nation.

The National Prayer Service is one of those events that underscores the separation of church and state.  At the first Washington inaugural, it was held the same day as the ceremony, but after the official ceremony.  The attendees concluded the swearing in and other official ceremonies, then adjourned to a church a few blocks away for a sermon, those who wished to.

This year the sermon will be held in the National Cathedral, a majestic building which is actually an Episcopalian venue (where Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller are interred), miles from the federal area at the National Mall, and a day after the inauguration.

But watch:  There will be a band of religious radicals, fanatics, who will claim that the mere existence of this service somehow nullifies the First Amendment, and suggests that the government has a religious bias.  Do not believe them.  You know the history, and you know better.  Our government has great tolerance for religious displays, but no tolerance for religious bias, in our government.

I’ve wondered sometimes what would happen were the three Disciples presidents to meet.  If Reagan and Johnson ever met, I have not found the record of it.  I wonder whether Johnson, Reagan and Garfield could have found between them some subject of common interest for talk of substance.  It’s difficult to imagine Reagan and Johnson finding much common ground, one who revered FDR and the New Deal, and the other who campaigned against the New Deal almost from the day FDR died.  And yet they shared concepts of faith, and they may have found there common ground on which to stand, and talk.

I marvel at a sect that embraces, and celebrates, such diversity.  We think it makes for healthier theology, healthier congregations, and a healthier nation.

We can hope.

Below is the press release from Disciples News Service, with details about the service and how to view it or listen to it.  There is also a plea for clips from local papers — maybe some of you could do a good turn and clip any article that appears in your local paper, with the date and page, and mail it in.  It’s for the archives, you know — history.

Disciples News Service

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

National Prayer Service Updates

January 17, 2009
Dear Disciples,
Earlier this week it was announced that Rev. Dr. Sharon Watkins will preach the sermon at the National Prayer Service in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Jan. 21. Her sermon will conclude Presidential Inauguration activities for our country’s forty-fourth President, Barack Obama. Dr. Watkins appreciates the outpouring of support, prayers and well wishes she has received from Disciples and ecumenical colleagues everywhere since the announcement.
“I am so grateful that Disciples have a role in this historic moment,” said Watkins. “I am depending on your prayers for God to use me to deliver an uplifting and appropriately challenging message to our new President, vice-President and all those who will attend the service.”
Watkins will be joined by a diverse group of religious leaders at the prayer service, which will take place at the National Cathedral, starting at 10 a.m. EST.
A press release listing those who will participate in the service was released yesterday afternoon and includes another Disciples pastor, Dr. Cynthia Hale, Senior Pastor of Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Ga. Hale will be among those reading scripture. To read the press release that announces participants at the service, please go to:
www.pic2009.org/pressroom/entry/presidential_inaugural_committee_
announces_participants_of_national_prayer_/

Many of you have asked about opportunities to view the program. Our office has just learned that the program will be webcast in two ways. One is through the National Cathedral website at: www.nationalcathedral.org. The other option is to go to the Presidential Inaugural Committee website at www.pic2009.org.
We’ve also had a number of phone calls regarding the availability of tickets for the prayer service. Unfortunately, we have not been able to secure tickets for the service.
Please note that DisciplesWorld Publisher and Editor Verity A. Jones will provide special coverage of many Inauguration activities, including the prayer service. Jones will blog from Jan. 18 to Jan. 21 at: disciplesworld.wordpress.com. She also will post news stories to the Disciples World home page and send short updates from the DisciplesWorld “twitter” account. To read more about ways DisciplesWorld will keep you informed, go to: www.disciplesworld.com/dynamic.html?wspID=501

Finally, Associate General Minister and Vice-President Todd Adams asks that Disciples send in hard copies of newspaper articles that have been covered in your community about Dr. Watkins and the prayer service, so that we might keep them in our official archives. Articles can be sent to: Dr. Todd Adams, Office of General Minister and President, P.O. Box 1986; Indianapolis, Ind. 46206-1986.
To read the Jan. 11 press release from the Presidential Inaugural Committee that announced Dr. Watkins selection for the prayer service and to learn updates about events taking place during the Inauguration, please visit www.disciples.org.
Please keep Sharon and the many other Disciples who will be attending the Inauguration, National Prayer Service and other events in your prayers.

Blessings,
Wanda Bryant Wills
Executive Director of Communication Ministries

Tip of the old scrub brush to Bill Longman, “Bill in the Ozarks,”  and the DoCDisc Listserv.

Other resources:

4 Comments | Barack Obama, History, Lyndon B. Johnson, President Obama, Presidents, Religion, Separation of church and state | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

I get e-mail, from Hillary’s mom

January 17, 2009

Sometimes I don’t get e-mail from crazies.  Sometimes I get e-mail from people who make perfect sense.

Like this one I got today, from Hillary Clinton’s mom:

Dear Ed,

I’ve been so proud watching my daughter over the past few days as she begins a new step in a life so full of accomplishment. And I know she’ll continue to do great things for our country.

Now I have to ask you — for the very last time — to give her your help. This is our last chance to help Hillary pay down the debt from her history-making campaign.

I know how much it would mean to her to have your help this one last time. Please take this opportunity to show Hillary your support by making a contribution today.

Contribute today to help my Hillary in honor of all she’s done to help our country throughout her life.

Thank you for everything you’ve done for Hillary — I know you make a difference for her every day.

Sincerely,

Dorothy Rodham

Hey, PUMAs!  Are you paying attention?

Hillary Clinton’s campaign still has a debt of several million dollars.  The PUMA blogs complain that President-elect Obama isn’t doing anything to help her retire the debt.  Of course, there is a law that prohibits a president-elect from doing much of anything — he can’t transfer more than $2,500 from his campaign account, he can’t attend fund-raisers or sign letters.

So it’s up to Hillary Clinton to make her own campaign funds appeals.  And sometime early next week, the law will close off her opportunities — a Secretary of State can’t do much to raise funds.

Fans of Hillary Clinton can contribute small stuff — a million contributions of $5.00 will help a lot, for example.

Are PUMAs really fans of Hillary Clinton as they claim?  Now is the time for them to step up to the plate and knock one out of the park, if they are.

It’s time for all other fans of Hillary Clinton to step up, too.

Don’t you think she’ll make a great Secretary of State?

Stumble It!

Leave a Comment » | Campaigns, Politics, President Obama, Presidents | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Go get the lesson plans on presidential inaugurations NOW!

January 14, 2009

One more time, I gotta say that the lesson plans from the Bill of Rights Institute on inauguration is top notch.  I’ve shared it around our department, and several people are downloading it, planning to put the stuff to use.  It’s a good, solid lesson plan, it looks like something that will engage students nicely, and it’s on a topic that could not possibly be more timely.

But the free download goes away tonight!  Go get the thing NOW!

The Bill of Rights Institute includes these lesson plans as a no-cost download with Being an American: Exploring the Ideals that Unite Us, Second Edition.  That book is cheap, too — just $19.95 — so you can pay a bit, and still get this great lesson plan, plus a whole bunch of other good stuff.

But I’m an even bigger cheapskate, and I want this stuff to be ready to use on January 21, when our kids start the next semester.  The hours are ticking away.

Leave a Comment » | Bill of Rights, Current History, Freedom - Political, Government, History, Lesson plans, President Obama, Presidents, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

“I swear (or affirm)”: Ready for the inauguration?

January 14, 2009

Here’s a map that should be more viewed in America, but a map which has been much overlooked in the post-election euphoria, or post-election gloom.  It’s the map of electoral college results, still showing Republicans in a Soviet/Maoist red, and Democrats in blue:

Electoral College results from the 2008 presidential election - American Presidency Project

Electoral College results from the 2008 presidential election - American Presidency Project

Note especially the blue dot in Nebraska, around Omaha.  Nebraska splits its electoral college votes, giving each congressional district’s vote to the elector for the candidate who actually won in that district.  Obama won Omaha’s district; Nebraska is officially a red and blue state.  Maine also allows a split in electors, but this year did not see a split among the electorate.

America is not so red as some claim, even in the electoral college.  More states are surrounded by blue states than surrounded by red states.

Perhaps it’s time to find other ways to color these maps, so that we cannot so easily speak of a red state/blue state split that does not reflect politics, economics, or much of anything else in America.

Dallas students are out on inauguration day.  We can hope our government and history students will glue themselves to the television to watch the ceremony, but we know better than to expect it.

Will you discuss the inauguration in your classes, whatever the subject?  Here are some sources you could use:

12 Comments | Capturing history, Government, History, Lesson plans, Politics, President Obama, Presidents | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Lesson plans on presidential inaugurations: Free download on January 13 & 14

January 12, 2009

New lesson plans and other materials from the Bill of Rights Institute, on presidential inaugurations.  Even better if you’re a cheapskate like me, you can download the inauguration lessons for free, but only on January 13 and 14, 2009.

Bill of Rights Institute

Free-for a limited time only!

Bring the historic Presidential Inauguration of 2009 into your classroom! “Presidential Inauguration: History, Tradition, and the Constitution” helps your students learn more about Inauguration Day from constitutional, historical, and current perspectives.

Those of you who own Being an American: Exploring the Ideals that Unite Us, Second Edition can use your unique passwords to access the lesson at any time. If you do not own the curriculum, you can download the lesson for free for two days only: January 13-14, 2009. Download your lesson at www.BillofRightsInstitute.org/today!

To buy Being an American, Second Edition, which gives you a full week of lessons and access to all past and future Web-based materials, click here.

Best deal, especially for U.S. history, spend the $20 and buy the full set of plans.

Also, check out these 25 inauguration videos from the past, at HotChalk.

Leave a Comment » | Bill of Rights, Government, History images, History video sources, Lesson plans, Politics, Presidents, U.S. Constitution, Video and film | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Meanwhile, back in reality, Obama’s election certified

January 9, 2009

It’s one of those arcane and many argue archaic things the “founders” left us, but the electoral college’s process of electing the president of the U.S. rumbled to completion yesterday when Congress opened the ballots from the electors, and then certified that Barack Obama will be the next president of the U.S.

Preparations for the inauguration continue unabated.

But for those still clinging to their tinfoil hats, even as the deadline rapidly approaches to go to High Definition Television, January 9 and January 16 offer chances for the Supreme Court to overturn the election, by ruling Obama’s birth was invalid.  Some, confusing the Supreme Court with Congress, urge a landslide of letters to the Court itself (“that’ll show ’em!”).

I’ve managed to get myself banned at that last website.  I asked the author to make a case, to provide the evidence and arguments against Obama’s eligibility.  Such an appearance of gravity and Newtonian physics scares the bejeebers out of these groups.

One of the most intrigueing questions now:  What will the Bergites and Dononfrions do after inauguration? Are there enough of them that Pfizer is working on a treatment, or cure?

15 Comments | Barack Obama, Elections, Law, Paranoia, Politics, President Obama, Presidents, Rampant stupidity, U.S. Constitution, U.S. Supreme Court | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Remembering Millard Fillmore on his birthday

January 7, 2009

Millard Fillmore was born January 7, 1800. Had he lived, Millard Fillmore would be 209 years old today, and probably very cranky.

Millard Fillmore, official portrait - WhiteHouseHistory.org; 1857, by George P. A. Healy

Millard Fillmore, official portrait - WhiteHouseHistory.org; 1857, by George P. A. Healy

Would you blame him?  He opened Japan to trade.  He got from Mexico the land necessary to make Los Angeles a great world city and the Southern Pacific a great railroad, without firing a shot.  Fillmore promoted economic development of the Mississippi River.  He managed to keep a fractious nation together despite itself for another three years.  Fillmore let end the practice of presidents using slaves to staff the White House (then called “the President’s Mansion”).

Then in 1852 his own party refused to nominate him for a full term, making him the last Whig to be president.  And to add insult to ignominy, H. L. Mencken falsely accused him of being known only for adding a bathtub to the White House, something he didn’t do.

As Antony said of Caesar, the good was interred with his bones — but Millard Fillmore doesn’t even get credit for whatever evil he might have done:  Fillmore is remembered most for being the butt of a hoax gone awry, committed years after his death.  Or worse, he’s misremembered for what the hoax alleged he did.

Even beneficiaries of his help promoting the Mississippi River have taken his name off their annual celebration of the event.  Fillmore has been eclipsed, even in mediocrity (is there still a Millard Fillmore Society in Washington?).

Happy birthday, Millard Fillmore.

The Buffalo News, in the town Fillmore loved and worked to make great, said this morning:

Today is Millard Fillmore’s 209th birthday. Every year we vow to join those hardy folks from the University at Buffalo for their birthday observance at the monument to the 13th President on his grave in Section F in Forest Lawn. And every year the weather convinces us to stay inside. If you want to brave it, it starts at 10 a.m. There’s a reception in the chapel after the ceremony.

I’m in Dallas.  You won’t see me there.

All the living presidents meet today in the White House.  Will they toast Fillmore?

Millard Fillmore was a man of great civic spirit, a man who answered the call to serve even when most others couldn’t hear it at all.  He was a successful lawyer, despite having had only six months of formal education (a tribute to non-high school graduates and lifelong learning).  Unable to save the Union, he established the University of Buffalo and the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.  And, it is said of him, that Queen Victoria said he was the most handsome man she had ever met.

A guy like that deserves a toast, don’t you think?

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9 Comments | H. L. Mencken, History, Hoaxes, Millard Fillmore, Politics, Presidents | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

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