Presidential Succession

I hate politics; I love conspiracies and love to play “what if”.

Let me set up the rules first so you understand my thinking.

– Order of Presidential succession

• The Vice President Dick Cheney
• Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
• President pro tempore of the Senate Robert Byrd
• Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
• Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson
• Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
• And on and on …
  

– Rules for being president

– No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.

– Rules for being speaker of the house

– You must be 25 years old, have been a citizen for the past 7 years, and reside in the state you are going to represent at the time of the election.

Here’s my question. Let’s say President Smith and VP Jones are in office and Arnold Schwarzenegger runs and becomes Speaker of the House. In a wild turn of events, President Smith leaves office to become a porn kingpin and VP Jones is impeached on charges of fondling members of the cabinet, which she vehemently denies.

That makes Arnold Schwarzenegger president …. or does it since he IS NOT a natural born citizen, but he does fall in line as Speaker of The House as dictated by the Constitution?

********** Edit **********

Ahhhh Haaaaa! I found the answer, but I want to know what you think WITHOUT Googling. If you must know read here.

Highlight to see answer:

The only exception to the line provided in the law states that to ascend to the Presidency, the next person in line must be constitutionally eligible. Any person holding an office in the line of succession who, for example, is not a naturally-born citizen cannot become President. In this case, that person would be skipped and the next eligible person in the line would become President.

What is VERY compelling is the clause about the Presidential Disability here.

Which states the President can drop it and pick it up for a few days. So if President Smith comes back from pimpin’ Schwarzenegger CAN be VP.

Caveat – self-removal

One aspect of the 25th that we skipped over is this: the 25th provides for the President to remove himself from his role, placing the Vice President directly into the role of Acting President. In this case, the President informs the Speaker and President Pro Tem of his disability and upon doing so, the Vice President becomes Acting President. By simple declaration of ability, reversing the prior message, the President can resume power at any time.

This part of the 25th Amendment has actually been invoked, with little fanfare. The second President George Bush turned over power to Vice President Richard Cheney in June 2002 while he went under general anesthesia for a colonoscopy. Previously, President Ronald Reagan delegated his powers to Vice President George Bush when he also underwent surgery, but in the case, Reagan expressly denied invocation of the 25th Amendment. The first President Bush did fall ill a few times during his term, but he never invoked the 25th. In 1996, a panel of historians urged that presidents take greater care when there was to be planned disability such as general anesthesia. Presidents Clinton and Bush both had made formal but secret arrangements for transfer of power in such circumstances, and Bush’s 2002 declaration was the first time the recommendations were put into effect.

You’ve gotta read this …

No intro .. just read here

Rachel Papo: Serial Number 3817131

I like photography. I like looking at pictures. Secretly, I like looking at your pictures and critiquing them. “(Mmmm, too much living room wall in this one) – (Are those little people in this shot the subject?)”

I subscribe to a few photography blogs, I participate – when I can – in Weekly Word Challenge hosted by Tink. I have my own tiny photography business and I’m an occasional commenter on Photosig.Com.

Yesterday I ran across a photo portfolio by Rachel Papo, “Rachel Papo is an Israeli who was born in 1970 in Columbus, Ohio but was raised in Israel.” So we’re contemporaries.

Never heard of her until yesterday, but she made me think about the Israeli people. Most of the images she took are of 18 year old women in boot camp for their mandatory 2 year military service. This is very similar to our draft in the 1950’s and is still common in many countries.

What I find amazing is that Israelis are all for protecting their country and their way of life despite being surrounded by people who hate them and want their postage stamp of land. It saddens me the U.S. has lost a lot of that patriotism in favor of “hate the government – I wanna do my own thing”.

It never ceases to amaze me that no one wanted Israeli land before 1947. Now they HAVE to have it because the Jews have it.

I don’t like Muslims for many reasons. This being one, others are because they are hate mongers who teach their children to hate and kill.

However, I invite you to view some of Rachel’s pictures. There are no captions, probably for good reason. Enjoy.

Rachel Papo: Serial Number 3817131

7 Degrees

****** Edit ******

All people listed below were on one of my favorite game shows BEFORE MTV turned into a sess pool of crap.

Watch Clips Here

REMOTE CONTROL!!!!

And the results are in. You guys got pretty close. They were all hosts on the MTV game show “Remote Control”. Sonia did pretty good as well as someone else. I’ll check the comments again. Here is a little biography of each.

Ken Ober (born Ken Oberding) is an actor and former game show host. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1957. [edit] Career Ober hosted four game shows over the course of his career. He is most widely known for his role on the MTV game show Remote Control [1], which he hosted for five seasons spanning 1987 to 1990. Ober is known amongst ’90s and ’00s audiences for his hosting jobs on Make Me Laugh [2], Smush and a relatively obscure ESPN game show called Perfect Match (according to Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows Volume 2). In 1995, Ober hosted a Los Angeles talk radio show with former Brady Bunch star Susan Olsen. The show, known as “Ober and Olsen,” aired on 97.1 KLSX. Most recently, in 2002, Ober served as supervising producer for Colin Quinn’s Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn [3], which was a reunion of sorts as Quinn was the announcer on Remote Control. He was also a guest on one episode.

Colin Quinn was born in Brooklyn to an Irish-American family and was raised in the Park Slope section of the borough. His gravelly Brooklyn accent and idiosyncratic mannerisms are trademarks of his stand-up act, headlining at top comedy clubs across the country, including Caroline’s Comedy Club in New York City. Before becoming a comedian, Quinn worked as a bartender. He stopped drinking in the early 1980s after several bad experiences with alcohol, including drunken blackouts and nights spent in jail.[1] After quitting bartending, Quinn began his stand-up career in 1984. He first achieved fame in 1987 as co-host of the MTV game show Remote Control, which he did for three years. In 1989, he hosted A&E stand-up showcase Caroline’s Comedy Hour, and acted in and wrote the comedic short Going Back to Brooklyn along with Ben Stiller. Much of his early comedy career focused on stand-up and writing for shows like In Living Color. He later co-wrote the story and was an associate producer for the movie Celtic Pride, starring Damon Wayans and Dan Aykroyd.

( after you read this you’ll realize how hard it was for me to find a picture of Kari with her clothes on)

Kari Wührer’s first television break was working for MTV as a VJ and as a co-host in Remote Control (1987), before moving on to film. After appearing in Andrew Dice Clay’s The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990) and the leading lady role of Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time (1991), she then starred in over a dozen straight-to-video sexploitation movies, most notably Sex and the Other Man (1996), Vivid (1997) (also released as Luscious), and Spider’s Web (2001). Wührer appeared in the television series Swamp Thing as Abigail from 1991-1993. Wührer came to mainstream fame in 1997 on the series Sliders as Maggie Beckett, joining the cast as a regular and staying until the show ended in 2000. Later mainstream movie roles include Anaconda (1997), Berserker (2001) and Eight Legged Freaks (2002). Wührer is also well known by many gamers for her role in Westwood Studios’ PC game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and its subsequent expansion pack, Yuri’s Revenge as Agent Tanya Adams. Wührer signed a record deal with Rick Rubin and her debut album was called Shiny, released in 1999. She plays the guitar and the flute as well as sings. Wührer, who considered an offer to appear nude in Playboy in 1998, was later voted #76 on the FHM 100 Sexiest Women of 2000.[2] #73 in the FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2001,[3] #36 in Maxim magazine’s 50 Sexiest Women Countdown (1999), #64 on Celebrity Skin’s 100 Sexiest Stars of All Time, and #4 in the Celebrity Nudity Database most popular actresses (1999). Her breast implants encapsulated during the filming of Spider’s Web (2001) so she had them removed.[4] She later wrote an article for the September 2002 issue of Glamour Magazine about the insecurities that led her to get implants early in her career and the sense of self-acceptance she acquired. After its publication, she appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and discussed the pressure she received from a prominent record producer to get the implants, during what she called “the era of the Video Vixen”.

*****

What do these people have in common? If you’re over 32 you should know.

We’ll discuss later with another well thought out post.

Things that will make us think.

Sorry, no Friday pictures or things on my mind. At 5:45 AM this morning the following post sounded like a really good idea. We’ll now test that theory …

I was born during the Nixon administration. I did not know that until today. I really did not care. But now I know. As such, most EARLY memories of my childhood included snippets of pictures from Walter Cronkite and the nightly news. I remember vividly someone pushing a Bell Huey off of an aircraft carrier during the news cast. I remember the hostages in Iran and the number of days being posted on the video screen on the Today show shortly after Kaptain Kangaroo. I remember being glad those dirty Russians got their a$$ kicked in Afghanistan.

I came home from class one day in college and watched some crazy Germans knocking down the Berlin wall and swearing I would keep my current world atlas which has and East and West Germany as well as Yugoslavia. I was shocked a few years prior Serbia was the site of the winter olympics.

Vietnam left a definite memory on me. It was the last war we fought before we started having to clean up after being picked on in Beruit and Nicaragua. In college the rush of patriotism during Desert Storm was great. And I’m a little more sad and cynical with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Around 5:45 AM this morning I learned something about war. Now wars are fought for very simple reasons. Patriotism is not one of them. Wars are fought for power or money. Don’t believe anything else you hear.

I truly believe Johnson prolonged Vietnam to benefit Bell Helicopter and General Dynamics two HUGE constituents in Texas. Kennedy was about to sign the withdrawal papers when he went through Texas for the last time. Seriously, I believe Johnson had Kennedy killed. Vietnam was a war we couldn’t win. We could have won it, but we never REALLY could win it. It was a war over ideals.

Successful winnable wars ( See Stings “Russians” “There’s no such thing as a winnable war” – I disagree ) are wars over border disputes. Un-winnable wars are wars over ideaologies. So does Desert Storm and the war in Iraq look different now? We can bomb the livin’ bugeezuz out of those places and those people will still not turn from their ideology a la Sting’s Russians.

Desert storm was a war over a border conflict. We kicked Saddam’s a$$ back to Baghdad OUT OF KUWAIT.

I feel bad that we are entangled in Iraq and Afghanistan is totally an idealogical war.

When we look at Israel and Palestine that’s so muddy. It’s both about borders and ideology. Oh what a mess.

So let’s watch Russians by Sting.

Raaaaawk Star

Someone asked for a sound clip of the band. Three caveats. First, these are mixed for “the house” which means it’s mixed for hearing in the audience not for listening on a CD or over the internet. Second, if you turn it up REALLY loud you MIGHT hear me. The guitar you DO hear is the guy singing. Finally, there is no delay or reverb or any retouching so this is raw sound which sounds not so good.

God Is Great

Happy Day

P.S. – I would never play a Gibson guitar.

I Couldn’t Pass These Stories Up

Paris Hilton says Britney Spears is ‘a great mother’

Isn’t this like Mussolini saying Hitler is a great civil rights leader?

Australians mourn actor Heath Ledger

I would be bothered that my greatest acting was “Brokeback Mountain”.

Did we all miss:

The Patriot
Monster Ball
10 Things I Hate About You

And I wonder what it will be like to watch “The Dark Knight” where Ledger plays the Joker.

An Ode To Sugar

Lia at A Tale Told By An Idiot says there is no ode to sugar. So I wrote one.

Oh sugar, let me eulogize thy virtue.
Thy sweetness comes, now on my tongue,
On wings like The Eagles.

Give us this day our daily dose
Let us not be detoxified.
Thy kingdom come, on cereal as well as in heaven.

Pour some sugar on me
Let me roll in it’s goodness
Shade not thy sugar tree
Let not caffeine steal away thy sweetness.

Sugar Ray
Sugar Shack
Sugar Bomb
We all want some, pour some sugar on me!

.

Well …. ya …

My daughter is sitting on the kitchen with me putting her balsa wood dolls she bought at the crafts store on the fridge. I’m sitting here trying to collect the thoughts I have into a post about things that seem to make me a cynic.

None of this has enough to constitute a paragraph … only bullet points.

– Huckabee got hammered for making statements about the First Amendment. My first thought was, “Well, ya, he graduated from SW Baptist Seminary, what do you expect,” and then I thought some more and I said to myself, “Well, isn’t he exercising his First Amendment rights?” And then I thought, “Didn’t the REVERAND Martin Luther King say similar stuff?”

– I finally got a sample of the band I’m in. Guess what, you can hardly hear me.

– I’m tired of my throat being sore.

– The more I think about it, the sadder I am Kurt Kobain blew his head off. I think he had some good music left in him.

– I think the more we focus our efforts on pointing out how wrong other races are, the more we lose ground. We really should be looking inside of our race and correcting our own problems.

– The problem with society is that it’s made of people who forget. In 2 to 3 generations we forget about the accomplishments of those before us who struggled. If we really did learn history we’d learn our future is tied to the past.

– I bought some knitting needles and some yarn. I want to learn to knit a scarf. I fear this project will take forever or I’ll have to pay someone to do what I really want to do myself.

– My garbage is picked up on Mondays and Thursdays. Most federal holidays fall on Monday. That means I don’t get my trash picked up as much as other people in the city. Ya, so? …

– I don’t think we should have holidays named after people, like Columbus Day or Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Holidays should commemorate events, like Armistice Day, or VJ day or the 4th of July.

– My wife and I listened to “Funky Cold Medina” last night in the car while little a was sleeping. I bet if you are under 30 you don’t know who Spuds McKenzie is or Alex from Stroh’s. I miss being able to dance to Rap.

What’s On Jef’s Mind

Oh man lots to think about today. What a week.

– I’m 3 weeks out of surgery and for the first time I slept through the night. And THAT is one reason I got this all done.

– What’s a good Irish Whiskey? The nurse at the ENT is VERY Irish and she said her mother swears by whiskey and honey when she can’t sleep. So does anyone know of a good Irish whiskey?

– I have made so many new blog friends lately due largely to my lack of chocolate and coffee affection and some kind of choconot thing contest. Thanks to Avery for the intro. I am sorely behind on my “Choose a Blog” drop down additions. My apologies.

– AI has been writing again! YAAAAAA!!!

– My wife is finally finishing her 2 week master’s class today. So while all the tonsil stuff has been going on I’ve been kid sitting and trying to hold the house together. LORD I need my wife! She gets extra good SWEEEEEEET LOVIN tonight for all she does.

– Lindsay “Firecrotch” Lohan will be doing her community service in … get this … the morgue! I have one word for this … necrophilia. Someone needs to explain that “doing” and “community” aren’t what she thinks they are.

– Bobby Fischer is dead. How can you be so brilliant but such a wack job? Ya see, if Tom Cruise was brilliant or a rocket scientologist or something, I might cut him some slack, but good gosh …

– Why am I so fascinated with the small of a woman’s back?

– I’m totally into a couple of U2 songs lately. Bad and Pride. I’m so ready to go home and learn them. I’m a big guitar fan of The Edge. First of all he’s a Fender Strat guy. Second, a long time ago I read an interview where he said, basically, “Ya know some guitar players can play really fast, I never could, I look at those guys as athletes.” I could never play blistering solos, so I knew he was about the melody and texture of the guitar. Watch a couple of videos.

Bad

Pride

And my first favorite U2 song – Sunday Bloody Sunday