I would vote for my boss! How would you vote?

[martin_fierro]

Howler Cookies

INGREDIENTS:

    * 3/4 cup butter, softened
    * 1 cup white sugar
    * 1 cup brown sugar
    * 1 egg
    * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    * 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
    * 1 1/4 cups quick cooking oats
    * 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
    * 1 teaspoon baking powder
    * 1/2 teaspoon salt
    * 1 cup chopped pecans
    * 3/4 cup flaked coconut

DIRECTIONS:

   1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease baking sheets.
   2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar.
Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Combine the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder and salt; stir into the wet mixture until just blended.
Finally, fold in the pecans and coconut.
Dough may be a little dry.
Shape dough into walnut sized mounds and place 1 1/2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.
   3. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Cool on baking sheets.

[ElkGroveDan]

NEITHER WOULD THE LEFTIST MORONS

You are wrong. The leftists make careers in government at all levels. They inhabit every level of the policy making apparatus. Sure they utilize lobbyists, but they don't need them as much as we do.

[Izzy Dunne]

[VRWCmember]

On the outside chance that you are really interested in discussion of the merits of your boss’s campaign platform, here is a discussion of the merits of each plank. 

 

Platform Plank (Position)	Merit of Position
Fair Tax	Depends on what “fair tax” means.  Some people think a confiscatory and redistributive income tax is fair.  If by “fair” you mean a flat tax, or a tax based on consumption, the idea is worthy of discussion.  A simplified tax code with lower tax rates, elimination of double taxes on dividends, etc. would be beneficial.
Term Limits	This requires a constitutional amendment, and the GOP ran bringing this to a vote in the 1994 Contract with America.  They kept their promise and brought it to a vote where it would have passed had it only required a majority vote.  There was insufficient support to pass a constitutional amendment.
Eliminate Congressional retirement plan as it exists today	Many people believe the hoax email that claims that the congressional retirement plan is this massive lucrative boondoggle.  While it is probably generous, it is nothing like the urban legend email. While reform is worthy of discussion, this is probably not an issue worthy of a campaign platform in a national election.
Push a real energy policy that dictates solar, ethanol and geo-thermal technology. o Policy would be phased in during my term and not a 20 year plan as most politician’s plans	Any national energy policy that dictates the direction of research and development, rather than freeing up resources to be used for the most productive methods and technologies available, is a terrible idea.  Policy implementations of this nature take time, so the idea that you could mandate a major change and phase it in within 4 years is naïve at best.
Greatly reduce the amount of money paid into the UN. Use this money to expand the education system in the US.	Reducing funding of the UN is a good idea, but expansion of federal funding of education systems is a bad idea.  Here’s a better idea.  Cut the federal education department budget in half, and then give the entire amount to the states in the form of block grants to use for education however the states see fit (proportioned according to the school age population of the respective states).  This would return control over education to the local governing bodies closer to the people.
Push to have members of Congress paid by their states and not federal funds. o       Members of Congress can only get pay raises if their constituents approve by 2/3 vote. o       Eliminate Congressional credit union o       Members of Congress would reside in home state majority of time and not Washington o       Ensure members of Congress hold quarterly hometown meetings.	The state versus federal funding of congressional salaries would require a constitutional amendment, and is not really a good idea.  Congress is a federal – not state – position, and the federal government is responsible for paying for it.  The congressional credit union does not need to be eliminated, but the members should have to manage their accounts just like every other citizen does.  The idea of greater accountability to constituents is good, but mandates such as forcing reps to spend more time in their home states and less in Washington or mandating hometown meetings would not likely do much to achieve this objective.
o       Eliminate lobbyists since at its core it is collusion and racketeering which is illegal for citizens and Congress should not be immune. o       Bring the insurance and pharmaceutical businesses in line o       Eliminate many loop holes today that encourage law suits. Make stupid people accountable again.	Lobbying is a legitimate activity.  Any attempt to eliminate or vilify this activity is worthless and counterproductive.  Making congress subject to the same rules they impose on everyone else is a better idea. More regulation of pharmaceuticals and insurance companies will only lead to higher costs and reduced access to treatment and medicines. Tort reform isn’t about loopholes but rather about protecting people from frivolous lawsuits.  Tort reform is worthy of discussion and a legislative priority, but it should be proposed more intelligently than it is presented in your boss’s list.
Investigate a standing military whereas everyone serves two years in the service of their choice following graduation from high school.  If you drop out of high school you will serve four years	Well this idea is a real stinker and a complete non-starter.  Our volunteer military has served us well for a long time and mandating 2 years of service for all would be contrary to the whole notion of freedom and liberty upon which this nation was founded.
Driver’s license would be issued at 16.  The initial cost would be $2500.  Record would be reviewed when 18 and some monies may be refunded.  All licenses would cost $1000 for everyone.	Why would you want to make licensing of drivers a federal issue rather than a state issue?  This is a really stupid idea to make a platform in a campaign.  Also, making the cost so high would eliminate most low-income and middle income families from being able to get their teenage drivers legally licensed.
Drug dealers and child molesters would be put to death	What about states that do not allow the death penalty?  How do you define drug dealers?  Is the kid who gets seduced by the easy money so he sells a few joints to his friends subject to the death penalty?  How do you define child molester?  If the 19 y/o has sex with the16 y/o whom he has been dating since he was 16 and she was 14 (he just turned 19 and she’ll be 17 next month, so they’re really only 2 years and 2 months apart), would he be in jeopardy of being tried of a federal capital crime?  Sorry, but even though I have no sympathy for either drug dealers or child molesters, this is a bad idea to use as a plank in a campaign platform.

 

[ElkGroveDan]

If we eliminate lobbyists, we the people become the lobbyists by way of letters, campaign contributions and votes.

It sounds nice but it will never work that way. For starters, lobbyists do a whole lot more than walk in and say "vote for this" or "oppose that". As legislation is working it's way through the legislature who is going to work on details of regulatory language with legislative staff? Who is going to insist on minor but important technical fixes to bills as they move from one committee to the next?

The public policy process is far, far more complex than what you learned in your 7th grade Civics class. Cards and letters are nice, but a whole lot more goes on prior to actual votes on legislation.

[Living Free in NH]

Investigate a standing military whereas everyone serves two years in the service of their choice following graduation from high school. o If you drop out of high school you will serve four years

That's what the military needs - people who don't want to serve.

If you drop out of high school you will serve four years

That's what the military needs - idiots.

The world need morons to pick up litter along the highways. More prisons would be nice, too.

Greatly reduce the amount of money paid into the UN. Use this money to expand the education system in the US

Although the UN has too much of our tax dollars, so the the education system. GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK!

No vote from me...

[CSM]

"Eliminate lobbyists..."

Uh, his first point would take care of that. Your boss (really you trying to appear like a conservative, but not knowing that true conservatives would actually think beyond stage one) hasn't really thought this thru.

[Old_Mil]

• Fair Tax

• Term Limits

• Eliminate Congressional retirement plan as it exists today.

• Push a real energy policy that dictates solar, ethanol and geo-thermal technology. o Policy would be phased in during my term and not a 20 year plan as most politician’s plans.

Good ideas so far.

• Greatly reduce the amount of money paid into the UN. Use this money to expand the education system in the US.

I like the idea about reducing the amount of money we turn over to the UN. In addition we should drastically reduce the amount of money that we spend on foreign aid. Furthermore, this money should not be turned over to the education system which already spends an astoundingly large amount of money to produce poor results. While you're at it, eliminate the department of education and turn control of the schools over to the states.

• Push to have members of Congress paid by their states and not federal funds. o Members of Congress can only get pay raises if their constituents approve by 2/3 vote. o Eliminate Congressional credit union o Members of Congress would reside in home state majority of time and not Washington o Ensure members of Congress hold quarterly hometown meetings.

A better idea: how about pegging congressional salaries to "average" salaries? So if the average American earns $32k a year, a congressman earns $32k a year.

• Eliminate lobbyists since at its core it is collusion and racketeering which is illegal for citizens and Congress should not be immune.

Great idea. Only individual citizens should be able to participate in the political process and donate money, and the amount should be capped at say $10,000. Corporations are not citizens and should not be able to influence the political process in America. One of the problems with corporate contributions is that it opens the American electoral process up to foreign influence.

Bring the insurance and pharmaceutical businesses in line o Eliminate many loop holes today that encourage law suits. Make stupid people accountable again.

I'm thinking that "making stupid people accountable again" doesn't fly as a policy position. As far as the insurance, pharma, and the lawsuit business some more specifics would help.

• Investigate a standing military whereas everyone serves two years in the service of their choice following graduation from high school. If you drop out of high school you will serve four years

Maybe. I'm not knowledgable enough about this issue to know what all the implications of such a move would be. • Driver’s license would be issued at 16. The initial cost would be $2500. Record would be reviewed when 18 and some monies may be refunded. All licenses would cost $1000 for everyone.

I'm not a big fan of policy that limits the ability of Americans to be upwardly mobile and so I don't think I'd support such a policy.

• Drug dealers and child molesters would be put to death.

You'll get no argument for me on that issue.

[darkangel82]

IATZ ping.