Post-election Fatigue

Tuesday was Primary election day in Arkansas. The ads were flying fast and furiously. Some were amusing, some were tacky. But, there were a boatload of them and we got really tired of them.

I mean really tired!

So, in an effort to curb campaign spending, (and in a bigger effort to effect a de facto enactment of term limits) I'm dragging out my old Plan to re-vamp how folks get sent to DC to run (and ruin) our lives:

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2009

Moogie's Fun and Revolutionary Plan for Public Service Reform in D.C.

In a moment of blinding clarity, I have stumbled upon what could be the salvation of our nation and our Republic.

We have to chunk out our system of federal elections and start over from scratch.

The states may continue to do whatever they please for intra-state elections pursuant to the Tenth Amendment, and that'll get the Feds off their backs for a whole lot of stuff, primarily because the Feds will have been forced to acknowledge and abide by the Tenth Amendment. If folks don't like what policies their state is enacting in connection with a particular issue, like, say, same-sex marriage, then they are free either to try to effect change in their state through legislation or move to another state whose laws more closely reflect their beliefs. Hello, Republic! A confederation of independent states who are free to follow the will of their citizens, not the sometime-well-intentioned-but-often-cuckoo citizens of Soviet Socialist Massachusetts or Pelosi-world.

You may not be aware of the fact that I was -- fairly recently -- a strong opponent of term limits. I believed institutional memory to be a very important component of orderly government -- we shouldn't have to re-invent the wheel time after time after time simply because no one was in Congress or the Governor's mansion who could remember what happened the last time someone came up with the same boneheaded idea, or how badly its implementation failed. Today, I simply don't care. There are too many boneheaded ideas floating around this ol' world to prevent their redundancy, so opposing term limits is no longer on my radar.

The notion of needing to devise some reasonable facsimile of term limits brought me to the election of our Republics' representatives in D.C. -- so, let's just get all Constitutional about it and return to the Founding Fathers' notion of true "public servants" in which people are called to serve their fellow citizens for a brief amount of time, not to make a career of meddling in the lives of every citizen.

We can retain the Constitutional requirements for eligibility to serve (e.g., age, natural-born citizenship, residency) -- they're pretty sensible. But as for the actual "election" -- there will be no further federal elections.

We're going to have a National Public Service Lottery.

Every eligible U.S. voter (eligibility to be determined by each state) will be required to purchase two lottery tickets: one each in the POTUS/VPOTUS Scratch-off in which only two tickets have all the magic numbers (indexed to population or voter registration; details and cost to be worked out later), but the Presidential Powerball Number on one ticket wins the White House and the runner-up moves into One Observatory Circle at the U.S. Naval Observatory as VPOTUS, both for the Constitutional term of four years. No one may win the POTUS/VPOTUS Scratch-off more than two terms in a row.

Additionally, the eligible voters of each state and territory will be required to purchase similar lottery tickets for Senator (lotteries to be staggered to accommodate rotating 6-year terms) and Representative: one winner per slot per state.

Of course, we'd have to do away with the Electoral College and replace it with a Commission of Electoral Inspection to determine the qualifications and eligibility of winners. The Commission could be composed of 3 members (to have a tie-breaker), appointed, one apiece, by the President, The Senate, and the House of Representatives. Vacancies occurring in Congressional office could be filled by vote of the vacant office's State Senate; presidential succession would be in effect until the following lottery.

Would there be a chance for cheating or corruption? Of course. Is there now?!?! (Hello, ACORN.) Would some mind-numbingly unqualified folks win the Public Service Lottery? Um, duh -- but what's the difference between that and the current system?

Could the loss of institutional memory be regretted, especially in the House of Representatives? Most probably. But, tinkering with the details could find a reasonable compromise to extend and rotate terms in the House, so let's not throw this idea out without trying it.

It's fun! It's a revenue generator! It's a regular fruit-basket turnover in D.C.!! It's Moogie's Revolutionary Plan for Public Service Reform in D.C.!

I've given you the bones -- now, hammer out the details.

It could work. And there would be no ads or robocalls! Someone needs to bust out some Petitions.

Attention, Tiger, Moogie Has a Plan to Save Your Lunch

I know he's probably very busy with rehab after his surgery, but I believe Tiger Woods is missing a golden opportunity this spring.

He has, over the years, avoided a number of the smaller tournaments on the PGA schedule, for whatever reason. I recall an open letter to Tiger on the editorial page of the Times-Picayune a number of years ago. It was from a self-identified little old lady. In it, she implored Tiger to come to New Orleans and play in the Zurich Classic, (or maybe it was the HP Classic, before Zurich became the named sponsor, but I digress) telling him that seeing him play in person was one of the few things she really wanted to do before she strolled through the Pearly Gates. He hasn't played there yet.

Phil Mickelson hasn't played there often, but in 2006, the year after Katrina, he went to New Orleans with his whole family, did some work on a playground, and made a substantial cash donation to relief efforts. It bought him immeasurable good will in the Crescent City.

Tiger hasn't played the FedEx St. Jude tournament in Memphis either. As a matter of fact, there are a quite a few of them out there where Tiger has never teed off, and that has ticked off quite a number of his fans. Hence and therefor, I offer Moogie's suggestion for the Tiger Woods Tour of 2014:

Yo, Tiger! Take a little trip to all the tournaments scheduled this season while you can't play, and make personal appearances. Sign a few autographs, kiss a few babies. It would do wonders for your reputation, and give a huge boost to the tournaments' coffers and attendance. You could let your girlfriend, Lindsey, tag along; she could sign a few autographs, too.  Let people take pictures with your cute kids. You'd be a huge hit! And, you could keep your name out there in front of the public -- you don't want to fade from memory now after working so hard to get back in golf fans' good graces following your, er, misadventures that landed you in the sex addiction clinic and divorce court.

It's a capital idea! I'd settle for a small percentage of your next purse as compensation. C'mon, Tiger. Wise up!

Ukraine: Conspiracy Theory du Jour

I'm working on the iPad, and I'm not very adept at cutting and pasting, so there will probably be no links. And you'll have to trust me on the veracity of my facts. Just remember that I was a docent at the National D-Day Museum, so I'm pretty accurate on my WWII era trivia.

I've been thinking.

That can be dangerous sometimes, according to Pepper.

Anyway, I now postulate that the Young President's administration has potentially been doing an intentional run-up to this Ukraine mess, coupled with the tanked economy, in order to reach a more sinister end.

Hence, a significant reduction in the Defense budget was recently announced due to policy changes in Iraq and Afghanistan, along with a need to pare the budget.  Also, we will shortly experience a drawdown in troop strength which will reduce our military readiness to levels not experienced since the isolationist period following WWI. Seriously.

So, if we find ourselves needing to amp up troop strength because Russia is rattling swords, how can we prepare to pitch in to help our "treaty" partner, Ukraine? (While Ukraine is not a member of NATO, it is a signatory to the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, which was designed  to give some comfort to the emerging nations after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Today, Kiev demanded enforcement of the accord.)

Facing similar need, after WWI, when our troop strength was cripplingly impaired, what did we do to prepare to save the world as the bad guys were gearing up to overtake as much of it as they could?

We instituted a draft, of course!

So, here comes The Draft!

But, you might say, what about those opposed to VIOLENT military service? We mustn't compel them to engage in conduct that they find distasteful! Of course not.  So, what if there will be an option for nominal "national service?" The Young President could then have his "civilian force," first alluded to in the campaign for his first term. And, then what?

I leave you to ponder that.

And, seriously. Think about it.

A Look Back in Time -- Christmas 2005

We'll see if this works.  It's mainly for Lou -- she asked for a picture of Moogie's Mansion because the old girl might become the subject of one of Lou's paintings!  (If so, maybe she'll post it!)

Anyway, the best picture I have of the Mansion appeared in the Christmas newsletter I composed in 2005 while we were evacuated after Katrina.  I rarely do Christmas newsletters, but 2005 was such an eventful year, I needed to do it so I could remember everything.  And seeing as the Christmas season has rolled around again, hence and thusly, I present (hopefully):

Woo hoo!  It worked!

(and there is much less of several of us to love these days in the poundage department!)

Merry week before Christmas!