Monthly Archives: February 2012

Whether what happens between April and June will improve Romney’s chances of beating Obama, or worsen them, depends on which Romney shows up on the campaign trail. The one that walked away with Florida was not the carefully groomed rationalist, given to describing Obama as a “nice guy” who is “in over his head”. He was a vicious and, at times, sarcastic campaigner who told sneaky lies (or maybe, he approved that anti-Gingrich Spanish-language ad in his sleep) and seemed to relish poking at Newt’s doughy rhetoric.

Voters, already lukewarm about Romney, are not fond of the new version. Up until last week, he had been skating by on a favorability rating of about 40%, with 30% unfavorable. The latest polling flips that ratio, and hitting a new low with independent voters: just 23% have a favorable view.

 

Mitt Romney’s Negative Win In Florida’s Primary (Anne Marie Cox, Guardian)

Video: Jon Stewart Dissects Mitt Romney’s Private Sector Credentials (Gawker)

 

EUROPE’S NEW fiscal treaty was specifically crafted to minimise the prospect of a referendum in Ireland, The Irish Times has learned.

As Fianna Fáil joined other Opposition groups in demanding a referendum, a high-level European official said elements of the pact were written with the objective of avoiding a public vote in Ireland.

The official acknowledged that the matter was likely to end up in the hands of the Supreme Court but said the EU authorities still hoped there would be no plebiscite in Ireland.

“We drafted the text for the treaty so that he has a chance to avoid a referendum,” the official said in reference to Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
“But this is not a political decision. You know that this is a decision made by the constitutional court.”

Asked whether the authorities in Brussels believed a referendum was likely, the official said it was more a matter of hope. “It’s not in terms of likely or not likely, it is hopefully or not hopefully, so we’d hope they don’t need to go to a referendum.”

On the challenge facing the Government in any referendum, the official said it was “perfectly well” known that the answer the public gave would not be the answer to the question posed. “So it is nothing to do with democracy.”

Fiscal treaty designed to avoid Irish referendum, official says (Irish Times)

(Photograph: Jock Fistick/Bloomberg)

In August 1865, newly emancipated slave Jourdan Anderson –  working as a free man in Ohio and earning $25 a week to support his family – received a letter from his former master requesting that he come back to work on his farm.

Jourdan responded in spectacular style, dictating a response of which the following are just excerpts :

Dayton, Ohio,

August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house.

Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars.

Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor’s visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams’s Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future.

Jourdan ended the letter with this masterclass in sarcasm:

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Jourdon Anderson.

Full text: (well worth reading) at Letters Of Note 

Thanks Bibi Baskin Robbins