Why the 'Chief Executive Threshold' is utter BS...

Years in office prior to assuming the US Presidency has no real bearing on presidential performance and historical rankings:

These seven presidents are consistently ranked in the 'better' half of all US Presidents. They have as little as 2 years of political office and as many as 14. Washington's 8 years as Commander-in-Chief debatably does not apply since it was not an elected, political office. This is also why Wilson's service as president of Princeton University only questionably applies. US Senators elected before 1913 were elected by the state's legislature, rather than via some form of popular vote.

Abraham Lincoln:
2 Yrs - US HoR
Total: 2 Yrs

George Washington:
(8 Yrs - CiC Continental Army)
Total: 8 Yrs, debatably applicable

Franklin D. Roosevelt:
4 Yrs - NY Gov
Total: 4 Yrs

Teddy Roosevelt:
2 Yrs - NY Gov
1 Yr - VP US
Total: 3 Yrs

Woodrow Wilson:
2 Yrs - NJ Gov
(8 Yrs - Pres, Princeton Univ)
Total: 2 (10) Yrs

Harry S. Truman:
10 Yrs - US Senate
<1 Yr - VP US
Total: 11 Yrs

John F. Kennedy:
6 Yrs - US HoR
8 Yrs - US Senate
Total: 14 Yrs

These seven presidents consistently rank at or near the bottom of rankings of US Presidents. They have service ranging from the (questionably applicable) 4 years of military service by US Grant as General of the Army to Nixon's 17 years of political service on the national scale.

Calvin Coolidge:
3 Yrs - MA Lt Gov
2 Yrs - MA Gov
2 Yrs - VP US
Total: 7 Yrs

Franklin Pierce:
5 Yrs - US Senate
Total: 5 Yrs

Andrew Johnson:
4 Yrs - TN Gov
4 Yrs - US Senate
<1 Yr - VP US
Total: 9 Yrs

James Buchanan:
10 Yrs - US Senate
4 yrs - US Sec of State
Total: 14 Yrs

Nixon:
6 Yrs - US HoR
3 yrs - US Senate
8 yrs - US VP
Total: 17 Yrs

Ulysses S. Grant:
4 Yrs - General of the Army
Total: 4 Yrs, debatably applicable

Warren G. Harding:
2 Yrs - NY Lt Gov
5 Yrs - US Senate
Total: 7 Yrs

Just for comparison:

George W. Bush:
5 Yrs - TX Gov
Total: 5 Yrs

John McCain:
4 Yrs - US HoR
11 Yrs - US Senate
Total: 15 Yrs

Hillary Clinton:
7 Yrs - US Senate
Total: 7 Yrs

Barack Obama:
3 Yrs - US Senate
Total: 3 Yrs

If Hillary's 'Threshold' is achieved somewhere between3 and 7 years of service, then does she argue that Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt and FDR should not have been elected? Were Nixon, Buchanon and Andrew Johnson inherently more qualified just because they sat in office longer?

Additionally ludicrous is her argument that while, Senator Obama is not now above the undefined threshold, he might somehow magically pass it between now and the DNC, qualifying him to be a vice president. But that would mean that he would be qualified to be President as well. You can't have it both ways, Senator Clinton.

Baseball > Civil Liberties?

Senate caves, votes to give telecoms retroactive immunity

So...Congress decides to basically rubber-stamp legislation the president asks for...but holds congressional hearings about whether certain baseball players used performance enhancing drugs? I've been looking, but I can't quite seem to find where it says regulating professional sports is their responsibility...

The Roommates and I have been talking...

...and we've come to a conclusion: Bush is a terrible Republican. $3,000,000,000,000 budgets? Who's the party of 'small government' again?

I can understand the general concept of fighting to preserve America for "the children," but, I hate to break it to you, but "the kids" aren't going to appreciate a towering, festering pile of debt, either, especially if all their civil liberties are gone too.

This has been your 3rd-quarter political update. Now back to the game.

EDIT: If it makes you feel any better, I've just run the numbers and $190bn/yr for Iraq/Afghanistan works out to about $6k/second. According to Wikipedia, 30 seconds of advertisement at Superbowl XLII cost $2.7m, which works out to $90k/second, 15 times the per-second cost of the Iraq/Afghanistan theatre of the "War on Terror"

A snippet of wisdom, as relevant as ever, on a Sunday morning...

"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men."

Samuel Adams

Just FYI.

Iraq/Afghanistan FY '08: $190,000,000,000 ($190bn)
Apollo Progam (1961-1975): $135bn (2006 Dollars)
Manhattan Project (1941-1946): $23bn (2007 Dollars)
World War II (1941-1945,American Expenditure): $3,300bn (2006 Dollars)
So, to summarize, one year in Iraq/Afghanistan is equivalent to the sum of the entirety of both the Apollo project (14 years) and the Manhattan Project (5 years), or one quarter of the average per-year expenditure of the USA during World War II. Which was an actual war, mind you. Like, with a declaration and stuff.

Washington's Farewell Address

It's a really good read. I recommend it to everyone. It's basically Washington's 'Fatherly Advice' to the young country. It's basically all still relevant today (perhaps even more so than when he wrote it at the end of his second term.)
FAREWELL ADDRESS (1796)

An Intriguing Use of Powerpoint.

Why Powerpoint is a double-edged sword

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Now playing: The Who - In The Ether
via FoxyTunes

Seriously, just read his blog...

...since I'm just going to keep linking to it.

They say the darndest things...

The presidents, that is.