Friday, September 23, 2011

Friday, September 23, 2011

Wondering how to celebrate today? Easy! Buy a Native American dog named President Checkers and roll around with him in the leaves. (the dog, not the Native American man... Sorry, Jamie)


Today is sorta, kinda Native American Day. It's not a national holiday, so not all states celebrate it and those that do don't all celebrate it on the same day. To my knowledge there's two days it's celebrated. Some states celebrate on Columbus Day, other celebrate the fourth Friday of September. Feel free to celebrate today by singing with the voices of the mountain, or painting with all the colors of the wind.



 You could also celebrate the first day of fall, or as I like to call it "mourning the death of the best season ever". Just kidding. As much as I hate to see summer go, fall isn't so bad. It usually has at least some of the heat of summer, with the added bonus of awesome tree art. Enjoy how beautiful God is today.




The country at large takes a natural interest in the President's dogs and judges him by the taste and discrimination he show in his selection... Any man who does not like dogs and want them about does not deserve to be in the White House.
-AKC Gazette, 1924

Dogs in Politics Day. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls...We've got a day set aside just to coo over the pets of political leaders. And perhaps judge them on it. So who's got a dog, and will that change your opinion of them?  I'm not here to sway a bias, I'm merely presenting the facts! Lets dig a little deeper, shall we?
Obama has a Portuguese water dog named Bo, W. Bush had two Scottish Terriers and a mut, Clinton had a Lab Retriever, H. Bush had two springer spaniels (mother and son), JFK had a Welsh Terrier, FDR had 7 dogs, Lincoln had none, and George Washington had 18 hounds. So, how do you judge their tastes?




And last, but certainly not at all least, Checkers Day! If you ask me, well I wouldn't mind one bit if you celebrated Checkers Day by playing a hearty round of checkers. But it's my blogging duty to inform you, with heavy heart, that Checkers Day isn't about playing checkers at all. In fact, I have my suspicions it may have something to do with the origins of Dogs in Politics Day.
September 23, 1952 was the day that Richard Nixon delivered his "Checkers Speech". At the time he was running for vice president under Eisenhower when some questions were raised about a secret campaign fund. A report in the NY Post alleged that Nixon had a secret fund of over $18,000 and he may have been using the money for personal, non-campaign purposes. While the fund did exist, there was nothing illegal about it, or keeping it a secret. Though there wasn't anything questionable about the legality of the money situation, it was an embarrassment to Eisenhower's campaign which was really pushing an end to government corruption.
On September 23, he appeared for 30 minutes on NBC explaining the situation, tearing down his political opponents, and promoting himself and Eisenhower. After explaining the money, where it came from, and what it had been used for, in an attempt to make light of the whole thing, Nixon did say there was one gift from his campaign he would keep no matter what- a cocker spaniel given to his 6 year old daughter. His name was Checkers.

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