The Stranger

That's right, Wu-Tang Clan still ain't nothin' ta fuck with, so post that shit twice, kid.

"...if there’s one person you’re allowed to hate, it’s Andrew Jackson." Sarah Vowell, TAL #107

Somebody should ask Sarah Vowell how she feels about her work being compared with Jon Meacham's portrait of Jackson as an amusing scallywag, rather than highlighting his genocidal-ethnic-cleanser side.

The Thermals are appearing tomorrow for anyone who's actually listened to music from the last 3 years.

Or just watch their videos on Crackle.com

Elenchos @ 2 proves, once again, that he is as ignorant of American history as he is of everything else.

The Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Seminoles, and Creeks exist today only because of Andrew Jackson. Removal sucked, and it was handled badly, but the alternative was annihilation by the Southern white rabble, egged on by their state governments.

There was no, repeat, no viable political constituency in the states where these tribes lived for allowing them to remain, and not much of one nationwide.

The law at the time subjected the Indian tribes to the states. Federal recognition of the tribes as sovreign was not then what it is now.

Jackson came under plenty of criticism from his own political base for paying the Indians even a nickel for their lands.

Jackson was no saint. He bribed the chiefs and threatened the tribes to get them to remove west of the Mississippi, and today the Indians accuse him of having broken his word to them, when in fact the encroachment of white squatters into Indian lands outstripped even Jackson's efforts to control it.

But hey, don't take my word for it. My sources are only Professor Robert Remini of the University of Chicago, the nation's pre-emininemt Jackson-era historian for the past quarter century, and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning historian for his great work "The Age of Jackson."

But everybody blames Jackson. It's cool to blame Jackson, haven't you heard?

Ivan, your contributions would make more sense if you could stand apart momentarily from whatever angry feelings you harbor toward me personally, so that you could just read the words in front of you with clear eyes. My characterization of Sarah Vowell's viewpoint is correct, and the question I suggest posing to her is insightful, particularly given the reflex to make a tie-in with her and Jon Meacham.

Jackson was not President until 1829, and the annexation of Florida happened in 1819.

He was the leader of attacks against Florida which was still owned by Spain (the First Seminole War). He was eventually military governor of Florida after the US took ownership (we paid $5,000,000 for it).

But at the time James Monroe was President.