Has any president ever been elected closer to his his families immigrant roots on either side?

I could'n't find easily where G.Washington's parents were born. I also remember some comments about whether Dukakis was American enough. Thanks for your help.

 Seward's?? Folly

In 1867 the United States bought Alaska for seven million dollars and some change. Some of the pundits at the time thought it was a bad deal and called it Seward's Folly after the secretary of State that negotiated the deal. Maybe the real folly wasn't Seward's but whoever decided to let it become a state in 1959. We should have given back to the native Alsakans and kept the mineral rights.

The State of Alaska get 80+ percent of its income from oil. To their credit they recognize their resources as the birth right of every Alaskan even though the United States bought and paid for the ground, not to mention the oil under their feet. This year every Alaskan resident -man,woman, and child will receive $3,269 thanks to a windfall profits tax imposed by Governor Palin.

This article from the Seattle Times:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008103325_alaskatax07.html

From the article:

"The tax is set at its highest rate in Prudhoe Bay, where the state takes 25 percent of the net profit of a barrel when its price is at or below $52.

The percentage then escalates as oil prices rise over that benchmark. Alaska gets about $49 of a $120 barrel, not counting other fees.

ConocoPhillips said that in total, once royalty payments and other taxes are added in, the state captures about 75 percent of the value of a barrel."

Now maybe you don't want to take a big oil companies word for it but thats still a big chunk of change.

The kicker is:

"An accounting benefit eases the sting for oil companies. They get a huge deduction on their state taxes when calculating their federal taxes."

 Now this explains  a few things.

1) Why Sarah Palin wants to drill ANWR now. This would dramatically increase the windfall revenue of her state.

2) Why the Alaska Independance Party would like to have all  the marbles.

3) This is more speculative, but it also might explain why Sarah Palin  wanted to get back Alaska to have her baby. Only residents of one year or infants BORN IN ALASKA in the last year are eligible for the oil dividend.

 

 

 Seward's?? Folly

In 1867 the United States bought Alaska for seven million dollars and some change. Some of the pundits at the time thought it was a bad deal and called it Seward's Folly after the secretary of State that negotiated the deal. Maybe the real folly wasn't Seward's but whoever decided to let it become a state in 1959. We should have given itback to the native Alsakans and kept the mineral rights.

The State of Alaska get 90 percent of its income from oil. To their credit they recognize their resources as the birth right of every Alaskan even though the United States bought and paid for the ground, not to mention the oil under their feet. This year every Alaskan resident -man,woman, and child will receive $3,269 thanks to a windfall profits tax imposed by Governor Palin.

This article from the Seattle Times:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008103325_alaskatax07.html

From the article:

"The tax is set at its highest rate in Prudhoe Bay, where the state takes 25 percent of the net profit of a barrel when its price is at or below $52.

The percentage then escalates as oil prices rise over that benchmark. Alaska gets about $49 of a $120 barrel, not counting other fees.

ConocoPhillips said that in total, once royalty payments and other taxes are added in, the state captures about 75 percent of the value of a barrel."

Now maybe you don't want to take a big oil companies word for it but thats still a big chunk of change.

The kicker is:

"An accounting benefit eases the sting for oil companies. They get a huge deduction on their state taxes when calculating their federal taxes."

 Now this explains  a few things.

1) Why Sarah Palin wants to drill ANWR now. Another windfall in revenues

2) Why the Alaska Independance Party would like to have all  the marbles.

3) Why Sarah Palin might have wanted to get back Alaska to have her baby. Only residents of one year or infants BORN IN ALASKA in the last year are eligible for the oil dividend.

 

 

I am new to this. I haven't lived in the states for two years and I've missed a lot, but I have been reading TPM for years mostly because it didn't drive me crazy and linked to other sites that didn't drive me crazy.

I've been watching it get crazier and crazier. It seems like everyone has forgotten what the whole point is. It certainly shouldn't be about playing "gotcha".

But maybe its not even about winning- the nomination , the presidency, todays news cycle, whatever. It could be about leaving the the country and the world just a little bit better place.

I support Barack Obama. I think he is head and shoulders above Hillary Clinton and John McCain as a potential president. But not in the usual sense. In fact, on policy, the differences between them all , are I think, washed out by the real world constraints that are placed on anyone who is trying to get elected. I would suspect that both Obama and Clinton are probably even John McCain know deep down that a single payer health system would be far more effective than what we have now. But in the current political climate to say so would be unthinkable because, we the electorate are unwilling to think or even to pay attention.

The difference between Barack Obama and the other two candidates is, to my mind , that Obama rests his hopes on getting people to think and pay attention.His opponents and most of the rest of us are counting on people not paying attention and most definitely not thinking.

If Obama can continue to trust that impulse whether he wins or loses he will have moved the his party and the country and probably the world to at least a marginally better place. But I think he will win. The American people know they have been hoodwinked

On the other hand, if we accept the mode of politics that we have grown into then we will as he said in his "More Perfect Union" then it will be one distraction after another

In article somewhere around 1995 the Chicago Reader published a profile on Obama in it he said this about Harold Washington (the popular Chicago Mayor who died in office) -"He was a classic charismatic leader," Obama said, "and when he died all of that dissipated. This potentially powerful collective spirit that went into supporting him was never translated into clear principles, or into an articulable agenda for community change."

There is danger in playing the think card. Traditionally the American people resent any politician that appears smarter than they feel. Obama I think can get past that because much of what he says resonates with people as their thinking.