Cars

[This post is a work in progress]

Our family cars I remember (or know of):

Mid- Twenties, Model T Ford. This was taken in Milstead Georgia. Driving is my great-grandfather Columbus Turner Shaw accompanied by my great-grandmother Minnie Ziporah Wood Shaw. The little boy (with the dog) is my uncle James Edward Shaw (my daddy's brother. James was born in 1920.

1950 Chevy, black.

1954 Chevy Bel Air, blue

1956 Chevy, silver and white (became "my" car in 1963)

1960 Chevy, Suntan Copper and Fawn Beige, 9-passenger wagon

1962? Chevy, white

1961? VW Beetle, light blue

1964 Dodge -- Daddy Shaw (Grady Columbus Shaw, Sr.) bought this car just the year before his death. This is a picture of it parked in front of his barber shop in the community building on Main Street in Milstead, Georgia. You can see Elm Street beyond the car. The building on the corner of Elm and Main was the hotel. The house where my family lived my first three years was on Elm -- a bit of it may be visible in this picture.

1964 Mercury Comet, black, This was the first car I actually owned... very briefly! Here's my birthday card from my wonderful Daddy anouncing the gift. I'm not sure he understood how much I appreciated it, especially after he borrowed it and TOTALLED it! Poor Daddy. He was snakebit when it came to cars and major events like my 21st Birthday and his own marriage. He wore a bandage on his chin at his own wedding in 1938 and a prominent scar on that chin the rest of his life from the auto accident when he totaled his father's car that he had planned to use to drive his bride home in. They ended up riding to Milstead with Rev. Kilpatrick after the ceremony.

1969 Opel Kadette, blue with black top.(First car I bought myself)

1973 Chevy Blazer, (First car Sheila and I bought together, and the last "new" car I have owned.)

1972 VW Squareback, light blue

1965 Chevy pick-up, Red

19?? Subaru

19?? Honda Accord

19?? Dodge Aspen, burgandy

19?? Ford Aerostar minivan, silver & black

19?? Buick Lasabre

19?? Oldsmobile ??

19?? Pontiac Grand Am

1992 GMC Sierra

The Sierra gets loaded with pea gravel at Basic Concrete

1998 Ford Taurus

2001 Toyota Rav 4

The Rav4 gets a new back window after the lawn mower sent a bit of pea gravel through it.

2010 Toyota Camry

Joy, revisited.

Four years ago I wrote of the joy I felt at the inauguration of Barack Obama as our President.

This year my joy is just as great. Re-elected by over 4 million votes and a landslide of electoral votes the President has a mandate for his balanced approach to economic recovery and deficit reduction. He has proposed sensible and strong gun safety measures that will reduce gun violence while protecting Second Amendment rights. His immigration policies have been largely adopted by Marco Rubio and other Republicans. The Tea-Partiers have folded their efforts to hold our economy hostage with another debt-limit crisis. The health reforms of the first term are safe from repeal. The President and his proposals have the strong support of the American people according to the polls.

God bless our President and God bless the United States of America.

My 2012 Predictions in the Presidential Race

Here is my best guess about how the electoral votes will turn out on Tuesday. This concedes the following losses from the votes the President received in 2008. 

The Second District in Nebraska (1)

Indiana (11)

North Carolina (15)

Florida (29) 

I believe the President will narrowly carry:

Virginia (13)

Colorado (9)

I think the President will also carry the following 'battleground' states:

Iowa

Ohio

New Hampshire

Nevada

Wisconsin

The President will carry these states that I believe have never really qualified as 'battlegrounds' in this election cycle:

Michigan

Pennsylvania

Minnesota

That will give the President 303 electoral votes to 235 for Mitt Romney.

  [Election Eve Note: I see this is the same final prediction of Real Clear Politics and Election Projection - two conservative poll aggregators. I just spent a couple of hours making volunteer calls to voters in Florida. When the 9:30 deadline arrived I checked in on Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight and found Nate had turned Florida blue on his map. I'll take credit for that if Nate is right. ]

Now, I believe there is good (40% or so) chance that the President can also carry Florida. That would be great! 332 electoral votes!

Or even North Carolina!  (25% chance maybe)  347 electoral votes. I believe this map represents the best possible result we can expect, and it would require a point or two movement of the electorate toward the President.

I am also old enough to remember some very disappointing election nights, and there is still the small but real possibility that we could lose this thing (15% chance) if too many voters stay home and the more energized "antis" show up, as they always do. A small percentage of stay-at-homes could give FL, NC, VA, CO, NH, IA, and/or even, though less likely, OH away. That could be tragic. Please get out and vote on Tuesday!

Four years ago my prognostications did pretty well.

Gleaning Facebook: The Presidential Debate

Post 1:

Comments:

Dawn N Luke Andrews

Looks like a bag of empty rhetoric that better hold on tight because there is a rising tide about to sweep his smirking, adolescent behind right out of Washington

Terrell Shaw
You continue your astute, mature evaluations. I'm almost convinced Luke. Keep trying. 

Dawn N Luke Andrews
No delusions here....you are beyond reason in your adoration of this man. His behavior last night was evidence of his adolescent, petulant nature....smirking or scowling the whole time and looking far less presidential than his opponent. Fortunately, this will all be over in 2 weeks and we can begin a true recovery from the damage of the man-child in chief.

John Countryman
I appreciate the comic relief…

Steven Bell
a true recovery...ah

---------------

Post 2:

Great job, Mr. President. Romney played defense all night. Romney continues to deny his previous positions. And did I hear him right? Romney doesn't know Iran has a coastline?

Comments:

Greg McCary
Romney looked bad. He sounded tired. I think he lost it tonight.

Wanda Mulkey Dagraedt
Yep.. You're right on the coastline.

George Barton
I think I know where the Syria connection came from. During WWII, Iran was considered the USSR's path to the sea, to be re-supplied by the allies for their fight on the eastern front. The allies took over Iran and put the Shah in place to insure this route, and this was the beginnings of our problems with Iran. Romney just didn't quite remember this bit of history, but he was probably in the 8th grade when he learned it.

Patricia Canada
Terrell, I love you dearly. but if Obama is elected president the world will surely come to an end.

Terrell Shaw
If one listens to the right wing you'd think that, Pat. It's hilarious till you think of how sad it is that so many folks swallow that nonsense and really fear the fine young President who has led so ably through the recent economic crisis and also led the battle so successfully against al Qaeda.

Dan Bevels
Iran does in fact have a coastline. That's where our troops Biden was referring to were posted.

___________

Post 3:

"If the debate had continued another thirty minutes Romney would have endorsed the President." - (CNN guy whose name I can't remember)

Comment:

Howard Smith

Ain't that the truth!

___________

Post 4:

Comments:

Rodney Karstetter
The GOP is stating the President was trying to draw Mitt into a fight, but Mitt did not take the bait. LOL Drawing Mitt into a fight was not what Obama was doing. Why would Obama attempt to draw some one totally unqualified to be president into a fight. What President Obama was doing was clearly stating his record on Foriegn policy, and it is not the President's fault that Romney is so weak in foriegn affairs that all he could do was say he agreed with Obama, and his policies. It is not the President's fault that Mitt did not know that Iran was not a land locked country and it was Obvious that he was thinking of Iran as being Russia's access to the Sea. It was not the Presidents fault that Mitt's thinking of building up the Navy of pre WWII. The Presidents comments were so on point. "Govenor we have less horses and Bayonets" LOL this was a great revealing debate of how unqualified Romney is to be President.

J. Chris Lawler
And Obama is qualified? he has proven for the past 4 years he isn't.

Rodney Karstetter
J. I think you should stop watching FOX news and look into what the President has accomplished. The President has proven more qualified than the man he replaced these last 4 years. And tonight he has proven that Mitt is not remotely qualified to be the Commander and Chief when once again he did not mention the Veterans. He whole hartedly endorsed Obama tonight so you tell me then J. if Mitt agrees and Endorsed Obama's policies in foriegn policy and Obama is not qualified how scary then would it be to elect this guy. The Republicans should have ran a better candidate not this guy. So if you want what is right for this country and not what's right for the Republican Party who has moved to far to the right. The best choice in this election is Obama. This debate has shown this fact in bright neon flashing lights.

Terrell Shaw
Chris I sometimes wonder if my friends on the right live in a completely different realm. Four years ago:

- we were on the verge of depression

- al Qaeda was strong and Bin Laden was alive

- the US auto industry was on the verge of collapse

- our reputation in the world was at the lowest point at least since the early seventies.

- we were the only major industrialized nation without universal healthcare insurance.

- Mubarek & Gaddafi were in power

And the President's successes came despite unprecedented stonewalling by the Republicans.
And tonight the President was calm, friendly, thoughtful, factual, and forceful. His answers were responsive, eloquent, and accurate. Romney was weak, waffling from many previous stances, and came close to completely endorsing the President on foreign policy except for a few blatant untruths like the "apology" falsehood.

Rodney Karstetter
What these debates have truely proven imo is that Romeny is trying to show he relates to the middle class and the common man. However, his only experience he can draw upon is his youth when his father was making a better life for his family. It is amazing that his veiws of America are based not in the present but in the past. Obama strongly pointed that out tonight. Romney's policies for the milatary are from pre WWII, his views for the economy are from the 20s and his views on equal rights are that of the 50s. This is how Romney has to relate to the common man because he does not represent the common man of 2012.

Gleaning Facebook: Tax Returns?

There has been some controversy about Mrs. Romney's exact words. I've adjusted the graphic to give her the benefit of the doubt.

For the richest major party candidate in 200 years to campaign on his business prowess and yet refuse to release the basic tax information that we have had on all major candidates for the last several elections, is offensive to me. If he wants to apply for President the voters have a right to see his credentials. He admits that their release would be politically damaging to him. Did he avoid taxes altogether in some years? We don't know. Did he pay even less in taxes than in 2010? We don't know.

---------------

Former Gov. Mitt Romney, the richest man to run for President in 200 years, who has based his campaign on his business prowess:

I won't release my tax returns because people will criticize me for some of the information they find in them.

Hmmmmmmm....

So Mr. Romney, I paid taxes in 2009, did you?

Comments (Some comments were deleted before I could preserve them.)

Carol Payne
Here's the choice: Successful businessman who made a lot of money or a successful politician who spent a lot of MY money hhhhmmmmmm

Terrell Shaw
That doesn't work, Carol. Lowest spending increases under President Obama of any President since the Korean War ended. Here's an article from the Wall Street Journal about that:
http://articles.marketwatch.com/.../31802270_1_spending...
And unlike the Romney/Ryan plan, President Obama's plan would actually reduce the deficit acc. to the Congressional Budget office.

I just don't see how a man can apply to be our President on the basis of his business expertise and have the gall to refuse to show his tax returns. The only answer is exactly what he says: he's afraid they will hurt him politically more than stonewalling -- even all the Republicans calling for -- their release.

ARTICLES.MARKETWATCH.COM
Obama spending binge never happened

Obama spending binge never happened

Terrell Shaw
And over 70% of Romney's economic advisors are recycled Bush guys, being rewarded for their economic wisdom and prescience in the last decade. 

Terrell Shaw
Seriously, I absolutely supported both the Bush stimulus and the Obama stimulus as necessary evils in the context of an impending economic disaster... much worse than almost anyone realized even during the 2008 campaign. We are hurting still so badly that it is difficult to see the remarkable recovery, but it has happened. Events in Europe and elsewhere and gridlock here have slowed things and may yet stall it. But the President's policies, with -to be fair - Bush's last minute realization of what had to be done - began the jobs turn around within a month of the inauguration in 2009, and we were on the positive side with job growth, slowly, during 2010, and have had over two years of job growth since. Gridlock has meant the states & cities have been left with a horrible public sector job situation.

We are likely to continue to have split government, but I hope my Republican friends will pressure their GOP Senators and Congressmen to begin to work with the Democratic members to find workable compromises. We have a disfunctional Congress right now and that has demonstrably damaged the economy further.

Terrell Shaw
Yes the crux of the disagreemnet b/t us: I think the time to work at the deficit was 2001. The time for tax cuts and profligate spending (grin) was (an is) 2008-till now. We need short-term stimulus and long range deficit reduction. The President's proposals give us a start, tho only a start I admit. The Romney/Ryan plan (Is this yours too? Or are you Libertarian? Other?) will make the deficit worse and slow or stop the recovery. IMO, of course.
Curious, will you vote in Nov.? How?

Terrell Shaw
Tough love? Medicine may kill the patient.

Marlin Teat
I've released my college transcripts for all my jobs...has the President? And why not?

Terrell Shaw
Hey Marlin! Great to hear from you.

His college transcript? This is equivalent to Romney hiding his financial dirty laundrey from just three years ago?

Let's pretend the President, like me, made some gosh awful grades in college more than two decades ago. I hope he was more serious about his college career than I was as a freshman. What in creation does that have to do with anything? Maybe he, like me, collected some write-ups for [in the sixties they were called "demerits"]? What else? Nothing in those transcripts could possible relate to his reelection in 2012. His patriotism, intelligence, scholarship, knowledge, temperament, nativity, etc., etc., etc., has been settled by his election in 2008 and his outstanding performance as President.

You may disagree with his policies. You may dislike his political or social views. But his competence and qualifications are settled. He is President and, if you agree with his [and my] policy positions, is at least as competent as any other President. So, I say, stick to the issues.

And one of the central issues, magnified by Mitt Romney's campaign for eight years now, is Romney's business expertise and history. His tax returns are critical to our understanding of that. He is hiding something and he admits that by saying the reason for stonewalling is to keep opponents from using the tax returns against him.

--------------------

July 29, 2012 

Comments

Eddie Stokes
I think Mr Romney should show them. I also Think Mr Obama should open his High school and college records. I'm having a hard time with deciding between these two.

Terrell Shaw
Eddie it is so good to hear from you. 

The President probably is like me (and many others)... I'd hate for my children to see all my high school and college records. He is pretty forthright in his book about what his high school and college years were like. He did some experimentation that was unwise. If he was at all like me, he was not as serious about his academics as he should have been all the time. But we know about his eventual scholarship, his determination and perseverance, his leadership, his law school excellence. and of course he eloquence and successes as husband, father, State Senator, US Senator, and President/Commander in Chief. 

There is much for us to learn about Romney, especially in light of the emphasis his campaign has given to his business prowess. Do his tax records back that up? How much wealth has he shielded from taxes by sending it to Switzerland and/or the Caymans. Did he maintain a residence in Massachusetts after he left the statehouse, or was his voting there fraudulent? He's the richest major party Presidential nominee in 200 years. Did he pay even less in taxes than in 2010 --- or perhaps no taxes at all -- during some of those years?

You Olympians didn't get here on your own!

We have lots of instances of Mitt Romney making the argument for the President on healthcare, abortion, human rights, the economy, balancing of common welfare and free enterprise... and lots of examples of him excoriating the President for espousing the very ideas Romney himself has propounded in the past, even sometimes his last speech. Here is an especially delicious one:

"You Olympians, however, know you didn't get here solely on your own power. For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them. We’ve already cheered the Olympians, let’s also cheer the parents, coaches, and communities. All right! [pumps fist].” - Mitt Romney 2002

Exactly the message the President was giving business-folk last week when the Gov. decided to take him completely out-of-context.

Motivation, enterprise, innovation, invention, entrepreneurship, hard work, are so important, and this President has taken every opportunity to promote those qualities in the young people who look up so to him. But he also recognizes, as everyone should, that NO ONE achieves great success in any area solely on his own. We all owe our success also to ... well you know much of the list, and that a good deal of that list includes many many things we as a people have decided that we want to covenant together to provide for each other like [clears his throat] roads and bridges ... and even "communities built venues".

Our Congress is Disfunctional

Our Congress is disfunctional.

Virtually every bill in the Senate is blocked by filibuster. A majority of the Senate and a majority of Americans want to end tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas. But Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a bipartisan "insourcing" bill that would have have done just that.

The Bring Jobs Home Act also would have given tax incentives to companies that bring jobs back to the United States. The measure failed to advance despite a 56-42 favorable vote, because 60 votes are needed to end the Republican filibuster of the bill.

Earlier in the week, Republicans also used their ever-ready filibuster to stomp out the Disclose Act, which would have required (oh, no!) their fat-cat employers - errrrrr, contributors, to disclose campaign contributions of more than $10,000.

Our Georgia, errrr Corporate, Senators, Chambliss & Isakson, are part of the 42, of course.

Four Republican senators bucked their lock-step colleagues and voted with the people - Snowe & Collins of Maine, Heeler of Nevada, and Brown of Massachusetts (the last in a neck-and-neck battle for re-election - the opinion of the people is perhaps a little more important to him right now.)

Mitt's Bain

 

Gov. Romney made Bain the #1 reference on his job application to the American people.

Gov. Romney's the one who decided his lack-luster term as Governor wouldn't serve the purpose. Bain is his whole campaign.

“The costs of not releasing the returns are clear, therefore he must have calculated that there are higher costs in releasing them.” 

- George Will, pretty much the dean of conservative commentators

Now he shows us one year of info - a year during which he was already running for President and surely had at least one sensible advisor to help him keep his finances un-embarrassing.

Pitiful.

He has admitted that his records contain info that would be used by his opposition, and it must be worse than the info in the one he has already released. If the older records were virtually the same, he'd gladly release them and likely say "Na-na-na-na-na", at least mentally.

“He should release the tax returns tomorrow. This is crazy… you’ve got to release 6, 8, 10 years of back tax returns.”

- Bill Kristol, conservative commentator, Fox News

National Review, Will, Kristol, Perry, Paul, Bentley, Steele, Grassley, Barbour, Lugar, Frum, and lots more of the Republican leadership have called on him to, as Sarah! might say, "man up".

"The Romney campaign says he has released as many returns as candidate John Kerry did in 2004, and cites Teresa Heinz Kerry’s refusal to release any of her tax returns. Neither is an apt comparison [...]
Romney may feel impatience with requirements that the political culture imposes on a presidential candidate that he feels are pointless (and inconvenient). But he’s a politician running for the highest office in the land, and his current posture is probably unsustainable. In all likelihood, he won’t be able to maintain a position that looks secretive and is a departure from campaign conventions. The only question is whether he releases more returns now, or later [...]” 

- The National Review, leading conservative magazine

I disagree. I think he won't release them because he knows that he --
1) paid NO taxes one or more years,
2) will be documented to have seriously misled the public about his involvement with Bain after '99,
3) missed his financial commitment to the Mormon religion on one or more occasions, or
4) some other mortifying or even game-changing embarrassment.

“If you have things to hide, then maybe you’re doing things wrong. I think you ought to be willing to release everything to the American people.”

- Gov. Robert Bentley, (R-AL)

Gov. Romney really is in a Catch-22 bind. His emphasis on his business prowess demands he release them, but he has adamantly refused and will look weak if he backs down. And since by stonewalling he has succeeded in magnifying the issue, the embarrassment, whatever it is, will also be magnified.

“There is no whining in politics. …Stop demanding an apology, release your tax returns.”

- John Weaver, GOP strategist

Romney has been running for office for a lonnnnng time. He has won one race and served one unimpressive term as governor, renouncing his largest achievement. He is a smart, family-oriented, patriotic man but he is not, in my opinion, presidential material.

“…whenever you are asking for the vote of the American people you need to fully disclose what your holdings are, if you have any.”

- U.S. Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC)

Materially Governor Romney has some. And some.

I've said it before.

“Mitt Romney is not ready for prime time.”

- Terrell Shaw, Democratic blogger, Alone On a Limb

This chart shows part of the change that President Obama pledged to seek and has, in fact, achieved. He and all his fellow Americans had hoped it could have been even more dramatic, but few of us realized the hole we were in during the winter of 2008-9.

Mitt/Rick/Newt, with straight faces, call the President's policies "job-killing". Check out the facts one more time boys.

The President's policies have not yet brought us to full-employment, but they have allowed us to make a dramatic turn in the right direction. We can argue the causality, but fact are facts. The trend changed in the President's first month and reached positive job growth by a year later. Now we've had two full years of positive job growth. All this despite constant stonewalling by the GOP.

Gleaning Facebook: State of the GOP Presidential Race

The Republican Crazy 8s game is down to five with Cain, Bachman and now Huntsman out. I think Perry will be next to go. Ron Paul is not in to win, so he stays. Gingrich and Santorum will have decisions to make if they can't stop Romney in SC.

Stranger things have happened, but it is difficult to imagine that the American people will choose the paper-doll candidate as our president. It looks like he has the GOP nomination about locked up, though.

Comments

Carol Payne

So, what are you wearing for Easter?

Drew Fountain

dont forget Karger. Other GOP candidates (especially ChickenHawk Newt) set fire to the Republican log cabin, so Fred Karger had no chance.

John Countryman

The irony is that Huntsman was the only one with any sense or maturity.

Duane Parsons

I can now breathe a slight breath of relief as Jon Huntsman has withdrawn as a Republican candidate for President. IMO, he was the most qualified and would have been the most difficult to defeat in November, but he had touched the hand of Obama and never gained any traction with the not-Romney conservatives who are more interested in “beating” Obama than “winning” the election with a rational candidate that believes in science. Huntsman would have been a formidable opponent that may have won the “middle” in part because he has never signed a pledge.

Terrell

Huntsman is evidebce that even Ronald Reagan could not compete in the GOP this year. He's as conservative as any of them, but reasonable and reasonably polite. You gotta be absolutist, unbending, and demonizing of Obama to be considered by the current GOP.

Drew

You're right Duane. The present Republican nomination seems more akin to a TV Reality series (including the weekly eliminations). I would prefer the politicians say "hey - he's trying, but I can do better : here's how ...." and present some constructive ideas and counter-plans.

Terrell

Carol Payne: whatever is clean and near the end of the clothes rack. Fascinated that you are interested to know

Carol

It's a Wendell W Barnes Jr-ism

Wendell W. Barnes Jr

It's what we say whenever we want to change the subject!

Terrell

Y'all don't dig political haggling?

Carol

I hear enough of that on tv   I read fb to find out important stuff like who's gonna wash their hair tonight and where they ate and what they think of every play in MY favorite sport, football...