Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for January 02, 2010

Frozen Tundra in 2012? Shudder!

About yesterday’s banter on experience…

Regarding most of the issues they provide over, legislators are rank amateurs. How many in Congress are professional climatologists? Economists? Business managers? Actuaries? Physicians? Pharmacologists? Civil engineers?

(You know an actuary didn’t invent Social Security…)

Both the Prez and Congressindividuals need common sense more than specialized training, since scarcely anyone can be a well-rounded expert on everything. They need enough of that sense to recognize qualified talent outside their fields of expertise. Neither Obama’s nor Palin’s nor anyone else’s professional training is sufficient to reveal that kind of smarts.

Had I the opportunity to interview them, I’d ask them what eggheads they look to for expert opinion, in economics, foreign policy, etc.

She said I wouldn’t blink but she meant I wouldn’t wink - or would I?

AK: The president, as chief executive, has advisors and a cabinet. The members of congress, as legislators, have constituents. Apples & oranges? A good CE (business or government) needs smarts, common sense, and a relevant knowledge base. Can you picture (insert name of presidential candidate here) successfully heading up a major corporation? If not, he or she is probably not qualified to head up the country. Where’s Boopsie & what is B.D. drinking?

as a conservative, voting for mccain–$500.00 italian moccasins, 7 houses and i have no idea where they are all located; and palin–abstinance is okay for everybody else except my family, i was voting against my own best interests…

fbjsr:

Clinton was not convicted of perjury. Look it up. I understand that if you get your news from Rush and Fox News you might think that he had been. Tom Delay said if the Monica thing had not been discovered, Clinton would have been impeached for something else.

Gimme a break, you guys! Alaska speak is a LOT better than sold-out Chicago politics speak,

You mean sold-out Alaska speak is a LOT better?

Oh fer Chrissakes.

Clinton was impeached for cheating on his wife and lying about it. Terrific, THAT’s a “high crime?”

Meanwhile, Bush tells us that Iraq has WMDs, gets us into a war over it, and spills the blood of over 5000 US soldiers and hundreds of billions of our dollars … all over a LIE.

And the Republicans STILL excuse him for it????

No, the only decent thing the GOP can do after their last complete trainwreck of “governing” is to get out of the way, sit down and shut up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAVI16FSjxU

I’ve always loved the way right-wingers rationalize the Clinton persecution on the grounds that it was about the “perjury,” not the you-know-what-job. This allows them to dismiss the massive whoppers that Cheney/Bush told in order to get us into Iraq, on the grounds that it wasn’t technically perjury because Cheney/Bush weren’t in a courtroom under oath when they lied.

I have a solution for that: amend the Oath of Office (for all politicians and appointees, not just the President) to include the same oath of truth-telling that witnesses in court are required to take. That way, if they lie to us (say, by talking about yellow cake from Niger in the State of the Union speech), we can impeach and remove ‘em for perjury.

Of course, there’s not a snowball’s chance in Hades that our politicians would ever go along with such a scheme…

The only reason Bush/Cheney weren’t guilty of perjury is that they refused to testify under oath on 9/11, Iraq, Plamegate, or warrantless wiretapping. Remember Plamegate? “If anyone in my administration played a role in this, they’ll be fired”…um…”If anyone in my administration is convicted of a crime in this, they’ll be fired”…um…”It’s not illegal to out an non-official cover CIA operative if the President authorizes it”…um…”yeah, Scooter Libby did it, but he should be pardoned, because, you know, jail time is kinda harsh”. And this from the Governor who issued not one pardon or commutation in 163 death sentences in Texas, including for those whose defense lawyers slept through their trials or the one who had the mental capacity of a 14 year-old.

Clinton lost his standing as a trusted leader when he directly and unnecessarily lied to the American people: “I did not have sex with __ , period” (a more self-aware leader like JFK or Nixon would have said “no comment”). Clinton was asking us to believe in a false image of himself. Neither Obama nor Bush has ever done that. Has Palin?

Palin fits the Rublican need. Agnew for Nixon. Qualye for Bush Sr. Bush Jr for Cheney. Its how they like their leadership.

We need more Party’s. I know New Years just happened. What I mean is that we need to break the strangle hold of the 2 Party system. I don’t agree with either one on many levels. But because of the primary system I am nearly forced to choose. Perhaps it is time to update our system?

Perjury is a crime, but so is abuse of power. Congress had no business asking about his sex life.

Picture a smoke filled room; “We know he’s guilty, but there’s no evidence. Hillary’s handy with a paper shredder.” “Everybody lies about sex, especially in D.C., let’s just ask him about sex, then bust him for perjury,

every politician asks us to believe or accept a false image of his/herself.

bush/cheney violated their oaths to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,” something that is way more impeachable than lying about a bj.

Florchi: Does Halliburton qualify for a major corporation?

Relative to Chief Executive, have you noticed? Every successful General (or Admiral) in a military setting has had one characteristic in common; they can carefully choose a General Staff. These are the people they direct, and trust, to do the large-brush work on the huge projects involved in a military operation, and to choose their own staff to take proper care of the finer details.

In business, I’ve been told (and seen in action), you just can’t run an operation out of your shirt pocket larger than about $2 million a year (1980-or-so dollars). Same idea. It takes people you trust to take care of all the details.

As for lying, I cannot think of any President of the U.S. who has not lied to the American people. If lying is such a “High Crime” they all would have been impeached.

Thanks to the Dotyman for all his incisive and informative comments.

FriscoLou: As it applies to my earlier comment, I guess it would depend on how you define “success.” (successfully heading up….)