So much for 'of the people, by the people, and for the people'

Well, it looks like this shut down might just happen. Won't it be wonderful to have our Federal government closed down for a while? We won't have to worry about listening to all the political jargon or any of the hateful comments from either side of the political fence. Oh wait, that's not what will happen with the shut down at all is it?

No, if there is a shut down later today, you can expect a huge increase in political jargon and name calling and instead there will just be a huge decrease in what the government normally does for us. That seems like a fair trade doesn't it? I don't think so either.

I'm not asking Washington to do everything for me, but I would at least like some mild form of promise that those politicians would be a little more faithful in the trust that the American people have placed in them. Most of the American people have much bigger concerns than what seems to be so important right now. At this point, I can't even tell what's so darn important that it gets in the way of keeping the basic operation of our country alive.

As I was thinking about writing this post, I thought of the words in the title that I snagged from the Gettysburg Address given by Abraham Lincoln. Why can't our politicians remember that this is a "of the people, by the people, and for the people" rather than a chance for elected officials to flex their political muscle? That's all I'm going to say about the subject for now.

Well, just one more thing...Dear Washington, please start thinking about the American people for just a minute instead of your own agendas and egos. (That goes for both sides of the party political machine.)

Good bye Geraldine Ferraro, You will be missed. (and some political ramblings)

OK, this may not make much of an impact of a lot of people, but I do feel I need to write about Geraldine Ferraro. For those of you who haven't seen news articles about her life and death, former Vice Presidential candidate, Geraldine Ferraro, died on Saturday morning from complications with her blood cancer.

I don't know much about Ferraro's career aside from her run for Vice President in the 1984 electoral campaign. That's right, you thought that McCain was the only guy to try to cash in on the women vote. Walter Mondale did the same things on the Democratic ballot in his failed attempt to become the President of the United States of America.

I don't remember much from the 1984 campaign, but I do remember Ferraro's nomination being a big deal even if it didn't make any difference in the outcome of the election. Quite honestly the parallels between Ferraro and Palin are quite strong with the exception of their party affiliations.

It's part of the political machine to try to appeal to as many voters as possible. That's the main reason that Obama balanced out his ticket with Joe Biden. It seems to be the political plan to provide some balance to the ticket even if it isn't in the best interest of the party.(* see below for my ranting) This can be similar to what happened when a young George Bush was placed on the ticket with Ronald Reagan, or an older Joe Biden was place on the ticket with Barack Obama. It also happened when Walter Mondale used Ferraro to balance his ticket.

Regardless of how Ferraro got on the 1984 ticket, she was still the first woman to be on a Presidential ballot for a major political party. This makes a small change from the message I was hearing from news reporter that Hillary Clinton was the first woman to run. In fact there have been quite a few. In 1964, Jo Freeman was the first woman to run for President and have her name appear on ballots. You can get a little history lesson on the matter by going here.
Ferraro was a native of New York and served the state in the House of Representatives of Congress from 1978 until her run for Vice President in 1984. She also ran for Senate twice but did not win those campaigns. she was appointed as United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Ferrao continued to be involved in the Democratic party even after she was diagnosed with blood cancer.

In the 2008 campaign, Ferraro was attacked while a part of Hillary Clinton's finance committee. This came because of her comments on the racial issues that were surfacing in the campaign. Ferraro also supported Sarah Palin as a candidate, not directly, but Ferraro said she was pleased to finally see another woman following in her footsteps as a Vice Presidential candidate.

That's about all I have to say about Geraldine Ferraro. She was an important part of New York and the political world. Her impact won't be forgotten.

*I'm not really a big fan of either party at the moment, but it would be in the best interest of the Democratic party for Obama to drop Biden for the 2012 campaign and pick up someone who won't be too old to run in 2016. Give the new person some political exposure to get ready for the next campaign. That's one of the biggest mistakes the Republicans let happen with the second Bush.

More political mudslinging (and it isn't even election season yet)

The very recent shooting this weekend in Arizona was a very jarring experience for the country. I just participated in a Presidentially requested moment of silence at the school I'm subbing at. There are still lots of questions about what exactly happened, how many people were injured and/or killed and the biggest question is if Representative Gabrielle Giffords will recover and when. These are important concerns and I don't have a problem with these issues. I'm hoping for a swift recovery for all those who were injured and peace and strength to get through this difficult time.

My issue is that we already have people blaming the attack on different political parties. This should not be a time to promote your political agenda. Instead, it should be a time for our country to come together. There may be a connection between Tea Party ads that targeted specific Democratic candidates, but that doesn't mean that the shooter made that connection. Let's at least wait until we know all of the details before we start the 2012 Campaign season. I'm still recovering from 2010.

Will Arnold ever be President of the United States of America?

For as long as I can remember, people have been talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger becoming President some day. The scary part of that discussion is that many of those people were serious about that possibility. Keep in mind that this was during the days when Arnold was playing the Terminator rather than having his face imprinted with CGI. He had moved past his days playing Hercules running around NYC and his self promoting video biography of his days from the body building circuit, but he was still just a big man with a funny accent.

These days Arnold has built some significant clout that could put him in position to run for office some day. He's married to a Kennedy, he's been the governor of California, and even though things didn't always go the way he planned in California, he did manage to keep the state in one piece in some pretty rough times.

So what's to keep the strong man from running say in 2012? There is the little detail of him not being an American citizen. At some point in the process of developing our system of government, the founding fathers decided that while foreigners were more than welcome to move to America, they certainly could not run for President. That makes sense to a certain extent, and what that means is that poor Arnold isn't eligible to be a part of that electoral race.

Is there a loophole? This is America, land of the loopholes. All Arnold needs is a Constitutional Amendment. That can either come through the Legislature or each state would have to have a vote on the matter, and if every state said yes, then it could happen.  If you think about the process, you can quickly determine that this would be a lengthy process. If there were a major push, and the majority of the country was behind it, the Amendment might get passed in 10 years. (Remember, you have to have state-wide petitions, each state would have to consider the proposition and have a vote on it before anything else would even be possible.)

So what about Arnold? As far as we know, he has no Presidential aspirations, but even if he did, he wouldn't be in any condition to run the country by the time he actually could. At 67, Schwarzenegger would be in his late 70s by the time he might be eligible to run for office. McCain had a hard enough time with the age issue during the last election, so I don't think that Arnold would make out any better on that front.

My money is on this answer being no, Arnold Schwarzenegger will never be the President of the United States of America. That's just my opinion. Feel free to comment on this topic below.

Will Michelle Obama's plan keep our kids from getting fat?

Today on the radio, I heard that President Obama has signed a new law that was a major project of the First Lady. What could this ground breaking legislation be about, and how will it impact our country? Well, it is a bill that set a Federal mandate for schools to remove vending machine that sell carbonated beverages and candy, and replace them with machines that will sell healthy alternatives.

That's not such a bad idea, right? It makes sense to keep all that junk food away from kids during school. This will keep them from experiencing sugar rushes and help them to focus in class. It will also teach some students the importance of making healthy food choices. There are plenty of advantages to this plan. Unfortunately, the bill declares that the purpose of this change is to reduce childhood obesity. I'm not against such a goal, but I don't think that this is going to have much impact on the problem.

Let's say your kid goes to school for around six hours each day. You probably feed them breakfast or they eat it at school. They have their lunch there, and then they come home for dinner. During the time that they are in classes, they might be able to find time to get to the machine one time. Is that one snack choice really going to impact their weight that much?

Now consider what happens at home for the other eighteen hours. Let's say eight of those are spent sleeping, but what happens during the rest of that time? There's no governmental agency set up to make sure your child gets all they need from the Food Pyramid, and no one is going to be checking to make sure those kids aren't getting junk food when you aren't with them.

Here's one more concern I have with this legislation: because the changing of the vending machines is Federally mandated, the Federal government has to foot the bill for the changes. According to the story I heard on the radio, this is expected to cost around four billion dollars. While it's not much compared to our current National Debt, it is still a lot of money especially when we are making choices about cutting the budget in so many different ways.

I'm not against the plan, but I'm concerned that it won't provide the results that the First Lady is expecting. I won't complain if I'm wrong on this one. That's my opinion on the matter. Feel free to leave me some feedback below.

Dear Washington, get something done...

I'm not going to spend too much time setting this one up. I'm planning on talking more about political parties down the road, but I'm just really frustrated with all the political talk around and since the latest election. All of the politicians are pointing fingers and blaming everyone else for all the problems are facing. Everywhere President Obama went on the campaign trail his message was that the Republicans were to blame for the problems our country faces. Republican were more than happy to point the finger at Obama and Pelosi. No one stood up and said "I'm part of the problem, but I want to be part of the solution."

Now the parties are so busy trying to fight over who has the most power that nothing may get done for the next two years. It's not one side or the other that is causing the problem. It's everybody. Why can't the politicians get over their egos and get something done for the American people. Let's stop fighting each other and start fixing the problems in front of us.