Theory of 3!

So who's next? President Reagan died over the weekend, Ray Charles died today. So who is the next one? There is a theory of three. Three famous people die in rapid sucsession, that's just the way it is. So who is next or who do you wish it will be? Let me know, you know how.

Reagan Honored

What should we do to honor President Ronald W. Reagan? There are many suggestions out there. Put him on half the dimes so he and FDR share them. Put his face on Mount Rushmore. Put him on the $10 or $20 bills. What do you think? How would you honor this great president? Post it on the left, or email me at sharpeonair@yahoo.com.

Chirac

This has not been confirmed but apparently French President Jacques Chirac insulted the Reagan Family and the majority of the American People, again I haven't confirmed this, but I will try to find out and post it but it doesn't surprise me if he did say it.

It's Reagan week

Tom Brokaw (NBC Nightly News) and Dan Rather (CBS Evening News) have both expressed that the coverage of President Ronald Reagan is overkill. Let's put this into perspective. In the past 6 months the New York Times has placed the Abu Graib prison scandal on the front page 57 times, the story is 6 months old. NBC when "Friends" went off the air they covered it for a month. But we can't talk about a president for a week. This isn't overkill, in fact it's probably not enough. Ronald Wilson Reagan ended a cold war, improved the United States economy and made enough jokes to make us all laugh for decades to come. Tonight on Capital Hill thousands are standing in line waiting to see this great man while he lies in State in the Capital Rotunda.

Reagan More

Yesterday I talked about President Reagan and the critics. More came out today and I would say the worst is from columnist/cartoonist Ted Rall had this to say in his blog.

How sad that Ronald Reagan didn't die in prison, where he belonged for starting an illegal, laughably unjustifiable war against Grenada under false pretenses (the "besieged" medical students later said they were nothing of the sort) and funneling arms to hostages during Iran-Contra. Oh, and 9/11? That was his. Osama bin Laden and his fellow Afghan "freedom fighters" got their funding, and nasty weapons, from Reagan. A real piece of work, Reagan ruined the federal budget, trashed education, alienated our friends and allies and made us a laughing stock around the world. Hmmmm...sounds familiar. Anyway, I'm sure he's turning crispy brown right about now.

In case you don't get the last part, he's saying that he hopes Reagan is burning in hell.

Here is my idea, pull his cartoons and columns from everything that runs them. I'm sure you can find out all the information on who carries on his website.

He's not the only one who said this kind of stuff. I'll post more as I find it of course...

Reagan and More

I know I said I was taking today off, however, plans change and I will be posting as normal today. Let's start off with my favorite thing to read every day. Opinion Journal Best of Web talks about President Ronald Wilson Reagan and what some of the other political leaders are saying. President Carter talked about President Reagan, I won't print it here today, you can read the piece in the Opinion Journal. There is so much more in Opinion Journal today, just read it. It will take to long to for me to quote everything the above link is directly to today's Reagan edition.

I know I said I was taking the weekend off but I forgot about something very important. I know it's rather late but 60 years ago today thousands of men lost their lives for the freedom we now celebrate. Thank a veteran, of any war, but especially WWII if you know one. D-Day is today June 6^th. It is the celebration of the Allied victories at the beaches of Normandy France defeating the Germans and creating the beginning of the end of WWII. In Rememberance of those who have gone on before. Also in a sad note, President Ronald Reagan has died. He didn't make it to the 60^th anniversary of D-Day but as I told one of my friend earlier, he is safely home celebrating the day with those who went first. God Bless this country, God be with the Reagan family as they lose a Great American and the great communicator of the. The flags fly at half in honor of this great man. Godspeed to us all as we remember.

Weekend and Following

Hey, there it's the weekend before finals week at school. My apologise if you were looking forward to reading some things over the weekend. I will be taking the rest of the weekend and Monday off from the Blog but I'll be back at it on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Bill Clinton Cannont run

CNN is reporting that former President Bill Clinton can run for Presidential candidate hopeful, Senator John Kerry's Vice president. CNN claims that the United States Constitution does not prohibt a two-term President from serving as a Vice President. Unfortunately, CNN didn't do their homework. The 12th Amendment of the United States Constitution follows, please pay specific attention to the final sentence:

The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;--The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;--the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

I'll repeat that. No person constitutionally ineligable to the office of the President shall be eligible to that of the Vice-President of the United States.

What makes a person ineligable for serving as President? Article II section 1 paragraph 5 states the following:

Clause 5: 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.

If you don't satisfy any one of those requirments you are ineligable. Now in the 22nd Amdendmant of the Constitution it says:

Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Therefore, if you have served two terms as President you cannot be re-elected to the position. Therefore, you cannot serve as VP either. My thanks to Lars Larson for getting me going on the research for this. Also to House of Representatives website and to James R Whitson and his website for giving me the majority of the information contained here. If you have any more questions go ahead and give me a post or email and I'll try to help out a little more. Have a wonderful weekend!

Today's Opinion Journal

If there remains any doubt that journalists' fascination with the Abu Ghraib story is primarily prurient in nature, consider how often it's showing up in entertainment stories:

From a New York Times article on Broadway shows: " 'Little Shop of Horrors,' for example, risks reminding people of the torture scandal at the Abu Ghraib prison." Not as much as the New York Times does, though.

From the Denver Post's review of the movie "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban": "The Dementors get their due--they are spectral Azkaban guards surrounding Hogwarts in search of Black. How little Rowling could have known a few years ago what Middle Eastern events would make her look prescient: Like certain other prison guards, the Dementors are more intent on capture and punishment than sorting right from wrong."

And from the Boston Globe review of the same film: "It's hard to watch the relentless Dementors curtailing liberties both at Hogwarts and in the surrounding country and not think about the current occupation of Iraq."

Perhaps in an attempt at political evenhandedness, the Associated Press includes this gratuitous reference in a dispatch about a Bill Clinton speech: "Clinton made no mention in his speech of Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern at the center of the sex scandal that dominated much of his second term."

My thanks to James Taranto and Opinion Journal for this info.