One Last Goodbye?

The crowd of over 2 million people in DC certainly gave the previous president one heck of a send off. Stay classy folks. From the protest earlier in the day where an inflateable Geroge W. Bush was propped up for people to chuck their shoes at to the march on Pennsylvania Avenue towards the White House where people also launched shoes onto the lawn.

Secret Service remained relatively calm during the protests even conversing with the protestors to let them know what was allowed and what was not. I think at last check, only one person was arrested which is not bad at all considering how we have seen some in the police force react with a disproportionate response. The protestors were not hurting anyone and the Secret Service let them do what is allowed under the 1st amendment in the Constitution.

Anyways, here is the video from an MSNBC feed where you can hear the booing and also the “Hey Hey Hey Goodbye” chant towards George W. Bush – the ex. United States President.

Also, let’s hold judgment on what kind of President Barack Obama is going to be until we actually see some results. The hype behind what he is GOING to accomplished has pushed the bar so high that it has completely set him up for fail. Then again, here is a man who was going up political establishments who had settled down in DC for years and defeated them. Hopefully President Obama and his Cabinet can make the right decisions and not necessarily the politically motivated or easy decisions. 

Some of you Iheard me joke about wanting an immediate change in the country overnight. Along those lines, it will be interesting to see which few areas he tries to fix first as he has already halted the mess that was the Gitmo trials and following the confirmation of his Secretary of State and Treasury, I guess he’ll announce somethings involving them as well.

Good luck America, next four years will be, if nothing else, interesting to say the least.

My United States Cabinet (2024)

So still sticking to theme of politics and with President-elect Obama nominating people to this Cabinet, I thought I would create a mock list of my Cabinet. Granted I will not reach the age requirement until 2024 – not that it makes a difference since I will never be a natural born citizen. Hypothetically if those rules weren’t in place, my Cabinet just might look like the one listed below.

The top set of nominees are listed in order of succession to the Presidency and the ones below are five positions that have cabinet-level rank, which allows these individuals to attend Cabinet meetings without being secretaries of executive departments.

Feel free to comment if you are listed below or think you should be listed but I just made this list yesterday and I know I am missing a few good people. Some of these people I haven’t talked to in quite a while but from what I remember left quite the impression. I think I did a pretty fair job of getting people with diverse views and not all left-wing nuts or right wing radicals.

Feel free to make your own Cabinet and feel free to share.

Office Nominee
Vice President and President of the Senate Krishna Hajari
Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike DiAmore
President pro tempore of the Senate Pam Ahn
Secretary of State Katie Murray
Secretary of the Treasury James Kong
Secretary of Defense Mike Bocchinfuso
Attorney General Vivake Prasad
Secretary of the Interior Brian Feraudo
Secretary of Agriculture Jason Rowe
Secretary of Commerce Kate Kelliher
Secretary of Labor Joscelyn Chang
Secretary of Health and Human Services Mark Angeles / Alexandria Gamboa*
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shivani Chopra
Secretary of Transportation Joseph Sullivan
Secretary of Energy Chad Edwards
Secretary of Education Lauren Scala
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tim Stanoch
Secretary of Homeland Security Ronak Savla
Positions that are not part of the Presidential line of succession
White House Chief of Staff Stephanie Albright
United States Trade Representative Hao Yan
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Amanda Grimes
Director of the Office of Management and Budget Justin Eusebio
Director of the National Drug Control Policy Eric Abrahamsen
Ambassador to the United Nations Tanya Manifold

* – The one pick I couldn’t settle on was the Secretary of Health and Human Services… Mark and Alex can fight amongst themselves to see who wants it.

Letterman Destroys McCain

John McCain canceled a scheduled appearance on CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” just a few hours before he was supposed to go on and tape the show that was scheduled to appear Wednesday night. However, since McCain has “suspended” his campaign, he personally called Letterman to say that he was immediately flying back to Washington D.C. to work on the bill regarding the economic crisis.

During the show though, Letterman learns that McCain was, in fact just down the street being interviewed by Katie Couric. Dave even cut over to the live video of the interview, and said, “Hey Senator, can I give you a ride home?”

Earlier in the show, Dave kept saying, “You don’t suspend your campaign. This doesn’t smell right. This isn’t the way a tested hero behaves.” And he joked: “I think someone’s putting something in his metamucil.”

“He can’t run the campaign because the economy is cratering? Fine, put in your second string quarterback, Sarah Palin. Where is she?”

“What are you going to do if you’re elected and things get tough? Suspend being president? We’ve got a guy like that now!”

The video is after the break: Continue reading “Letterman Destroys McCain”

Amendment XX, Section III

So an interesting question was raised the other day when it was asked what happens if someone is elected President on election day but dies before the inauguration takes place. It seems like the answer lies in the 20th Amendment, Section 3.

Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

So the Vice President would become President but I’m curious about the next part where it says “Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified “. What is the definition of qualified? Does that just mean be eligible to become President or is it a subjective matter that the Congress at the time shall determine whether the Vice President is qualified enough?

Also, take a look at Section 4:

Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

Just something to ponder.

So What If He Were Muslim?

A great piece by Ellis Cose on Obama and so what if he actually were a Muslim. It is a great point that is rarely brought up in the news these days and associating someone with Islam automatically becomes a negative. Personally I would have liked to see Obama come out from the start to say that even though he isn’t a Muslim, there is nothing wrong with being called one. He separated himself from that faster than Joe Lieberman with the Democratic base which has been a little disappointing. You have also seen him avoid any campaigning in Mosques or with Muslim groups but he has had little problems making campaign stops in Churches or Synagoges.

So yea, everyone knows he is still scared to be associated with the Muslims community and he pretty much knows they are going to vote Democratic this year as opposed to in 2000 when Bush pretty much got the Muslim vote in a landslide. You know why? Because of Al Gore’s running mate’s religion. It wouldn’t surprise me if some study finds the Muslim community (although I don’t know how many of them would publicly admit voting Republican just solely on that reason) 3 out of every 4 voted for Bush/Cheney over Gore/Lieberman. It’s without a touchy subject that no one wants to invoke a race or religion card because just face the facts, those two subjects play a key role in every election. Look at the religion of every President elected since John F. Kennedy and tell me what their religion has been. Is it just by coincidence that 50% of the Presidents of America have been either Episcopalian or Presbyterian, groups that make up a combined 4.5% of the ENTIRE population of the United States of America?

One can certainly say that the following 8 years were brought on themselves given that they knew the history with George H. W. Bush and everyone that was associated within his campaign (Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, etc.)… did we really expect something different from his son?

Now it’s Obama’s way of getting the best of both words – getting an entire community which probably makes up 8-10 million people in the country to vote his way with him having to do little to no campaigning because I think they/we learned from the mistake of 2000.

Here is an excerpt from the article I was referring to:

Of course, even if he were a Muslim, that should be no big deal. In a country that officially separates church and state, a man’s religious beliefs are his own affair. Still, nearly half a century after John F. Kennedy became America’s first (and, thus far, only) Roman Catholic president, we haven’t fully accepted the notion that all religions should have equal access to the Oval Office.

At the start of the political season, when Mitt Romney seemed to have a shot at the Republican nomination, pollsters sought to determine whether his Mormonism might hurt him. Nearly a third of voters, they found, were less likely to support a Mormon. But some 45 percent were wary of Muslim candidates. For Obama, that is a potential problem—particularly in a race that shows ever more signs of being extremely close.

To read the rest of the article, click the source below.

[Source: Newsweek – So What If He Were Muslim?
Wikipedia – List of US Presidents Religious Affiliations
Adherents – Religious Affiliation of U.S. Presidents]