President Bill Clinton: Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (partial scholarship), undergraduate, Earned bachelor of science degree in foreign service. University of Oxford: studied government on a Rhodes Scholarship. Yale Law School, J.D. degree
President George W. Bush: Yale University, undergraduate. Received bachelor’s degree in history. Harvard Business School, earned MBA degree.
President Barack Obama: Occidental College, attended two years. Columbia College of Columbia University, completed bachelor’s degree in political science, specialized in international relations. Harvard Law School, earned J.D. degree
The last three American presidents, at least on paper, should have been more than bright enough to keep America safe, employed and optimistic for the next three generations.
What did we get instead?
War, economic collapse and national malaise.
President Clinton believed that government was best run by opinion polls, and despite his Rhodes Scholarship pedigree, couldn’t pick a mistress able keep her chubby little mouth shut. Real bright guy.
President Bush was so caught up in “being presidential” that he plumb forgot the conservative business philosophies he once embraced, not only overseeing the beginnings of the biggest corporate welfare bailouts in history, but providing his biggest political enemies (Big Labor) a reprieve just weeks away from the certain death brought on by generations of their own greed. Genius.
President Obama apparently either can’t figure out a ledger sheet (all the rich people’s money cannot balance his budgets), or he has surrounded himself with people unwilling to give him the real figures. Oh, and for a guy who is supposed to be a great American law scholar, someone needs to tell him the Bill of Rights is not something that state and local governments can choose from cafeteria style.
Poindexter.
Dull leaders often leave us with dumb ideas.
We spend millions of man-hours checking, searching, scanning and groping Irish grandmothers, Swedish tourists and Asian schoolchildren in security lines when almost all legitimate terrorists charged with plotting against our country have been Muslim males. Brilliant.
The world is broke and we average 45 homicides a day in America, and yet according to most of the media I have seen or heard in the last two months, the two worst human beings in this country are Rush Limbaugh and George Zimmerman.
With such wonderful inspiration at the top, is it any wonder that we see state and local governments sucking so bad (see the vacuum reference above)?
We put people who cannot add, subtract, keep a checkbook or follow up on paperwork in charge of institutions of higher learning (Paine College).
We consolidate campus operations and institutional staff as cost saving measures, just to be told that there will be no reductions in staff or salaries. (ASU and MCG/GHSU/WTF).
We have a public education system in Georgia that does not know how to track graduation rates. We have legislators who cannot draw maps. We have a mayor who can ride a bike, swim a river and jog six miles, all in the same day, but he can’t figure out how to hire an emergency management director.
We have a State Court judge who thinks that one person asking another person for a free ticket constitutes a criminal charge of disorderly conduct and, apparently, we have a number of cops who agree with him.
We have a city administrator who recommends settling lawsuits by writing big checks to people he recommended firing. Repeatedly.
We have Marion Williams.
And sadly, ladies and gentlemen, we have over 313 million Americans, almost 10 million Georgians, and just under 200,000 Augustans, who are not particularly inclined, as a group, to a damn thing about any of it.You Might Also Like:
Are Common Sense and Government Mutually Exclusive?
by Austin Rhodes
Maybe it took 47 years for the notion to finally sink in once and for all: American government, in virtually every community, and at practically every level, operates in a self-perpetuating vacuum that appears to be totally devoid of common sense, practicality and logic.
I used to be in awe of Ivy League educations, and the people who had the wherewithal to endure years of intense study and dedication to achieve advanced degrees and all the societal recognition that goes with it. You can’t fake that stuff, can you? I mean, they don’t hand out Arby’s coupons tied in blue ribbon when folks cross the stage and shake the hand of the dean of students… right?
Maybe they should.
Consider this list.
President Bill Clinton: Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (partial scholarship), undergraduate, Earned bachelor of science degree in foreign service. University of Oxford: studied government on a Rhodes Scholarship. Yale Law School, J.D. degree
President George W. Bush: Yale University, undergraduate. Received bachelor’s degree in history. Harvard Business School, earned MBA degree.
President Barack Obama: Occidental College, attended two years. Columbia College of Columbia University, completed bachelor’s degree in political science, specialized in international relations. Harvard Law School, earned J.D. degree
The last three American presidents, at least on paper, should have been more than bright enough to keep America safe, employed and optimistic for the next three generations.
What did we get instead?
War, economic collapse and national malaise.
President Clinton believed that government was best run by opinion polls, and despite his Rhodes Scholarship pedigree, couldn’t pick a mistress able keep her chubby little mouth shut. Real bright guy.
President Bush was so caught up in “being presidential” that he plumb forgot the conservative business philosophies he once embraced, not only overseeing the beginnings of the biggest corporate welfare bailouts in history, but providing his biggest political enemies (Big Labor) a reprieve just weeks away from the certain death brought on by generations of their own greed. Genius.
President Obama apparently either can’t figure out a ledger sheet (all the rich people’s money cannot balance his budgets), or he has surrounded himself with people unwilling to give him the real figures. Oh, and for a guy who is supposed to be a great American law scholar, someone needs to tell him the Bill of Rights is not something that state and local governments can choose from cafeteria style.
Poindexter.
Dull leaders often leave us with dumb ideas.
We spend millions of man-hours checking, searching, scanning and groping Irish grandmothers, Swedish tourists and Asian schoolchildren in security lines when almost all legitimate terrorists charged with plotting against our country have been Muslim males. Brilliant.
The world is broke and we average 45 homicides a day in America, and yet according to most of the media I have seen or heard in the last two months, the two worst human beings in this country are Rush Limbaugh and George Zimmerman.
With such wonderful inspiration at the top, is it any wonder that we see state and local governments sucking so bad (see the vacuum reference above)?
We put people who cannot add, subtract, keep a checkbook or follow up on paperwork in charge of institutions of higher learning (Paine College).
We consolidate campus operations and institutional staff as cost saving measures, just to be told that there will be no reductions in staff or salaries. (ASU and MCG/GHSU/WTF).
We have a public education system in Georgia that does not know how to track graduation rates. We have legislators who cannot draw maps. We have a mayor who can ride a bike, swim a river and jog six miles, all in the same day, but he can’t figure out how to hire an emergency management director.
We have a State Court judge who thinks that one person asking another person for a free ticket constitutes a criminal charge of disorderly conduct and, apparently, we have a number of cops who agree with him.
We have a city administrator who recommends settling lawsuits by writing big checks to people he recommended firing. Repeatedly.
We have Marion Williams.
And sadly, ladies and gentlemen, we have over 313 million Americans, almost 10 million Georgians, and just under 200,000 Augustans, who are not particularly inclined, as a group, to a damn thing about any of it.You Might Also Like:
President Bill Clinton: Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (partial scholarship), undergraduate, Earned bachelor of science degree in foreign service. University of Oxford: studied government on a Rhodes Scholarship. Yale Law School, J.D. degree
President George W. Bush: Yale University, undergraduate. Received bachelor’s degree in history. Harvard Business School, earned MBA degree.
President Barack Obama: Occidental College, attended two years. Columbia College of Columbia University, completed bachelor’s degree in political science, specialized in international relations. Harvard Law School, earned J.D. degree
The last three American presidents, at least on paper, should have been more than bright enough to keep America safe, employed and optimistic for the next three generations.
What did we get instead?
War, economic collapse and national malaise.
President Clinton believed that government was best run by opinion polls, and despite his Rhodes Scholarship pedigree, couldn’t pick a mistress able keep her chubby little mouth shut. Real bright guy.
President Bush was so caught up in “being presidential” that he plumb forgot the conservative business philosophies he once embraced, not only overseeing the beginnings of the biggest corporate welfare bailouts in history, but providing his biggest political enemies (Big Labor) a reprieve just weeks away from the certain death brought on by generations of their own greed. Genius.
President Obama apparently either can’t figure out a ledger sheet (all the rich people’s money cannot balance his budgets), or he has surrounded himself with people unwilling to give him the real figures. Oh, and for a guy who is supposed to be a great American law scholar, someone needs to tell him the Bill of Rights is not something that state and local governments can choose from cafeteria style.
Poindexter.
Dull leaders often leave us with dumb ideas.
We spend millions of man-hours checking, searching, scanning and groping Irish grandmothers, Swedish tourists and Asian schoolchildren in security lines when almost all legitimate terrorists charged with plotting against our country have been Muslim males. Brilliant.
The world is broke and we average 45 homicides a day in America, and yet according to most of the media I have seen or heard in the last two months, the two worst human beings in this country are Rush Limbaugh and George Zimmerman.
With such wonderful inspiration at the top, is it any wonder that we see state and local governments sucking so bad (see the vacuum reference above)?
We put people who cannot add, subtract, keep a checkbook or follow up on paperwork in charge of institutions of higher learning (Paine College).
We consolidate campus operations and institutional staff as cost saving measures, just to be told that there will be no reductions in staff or salaries. (ASU and MCG/GHSU/WTF).
We have a public education system in Georgia that does not know how to track graduation rates. We have legislators who cannot draw maps. We have a mayor who can ride a bike, swim a river and jog six miles, all in the same day, but he can’t figure out how to hire an emergency management director.
We have a State Court judge who thinks that one person asking another person for a free ticket constitutes a criminal charge of disorderly conduct and, apparently, we have a number of cops who agree with him.
We have a city administrator who recommends settling lawsuits by writing big checks to people he recommended firing. Repeatedly.
We have Marion Williams.
And sadly, ladies and gentlemen, we have over 313 million Americans, almost 10 million Georgians, and just under 200,000 Augustans, who are not particularly inclined, as a group, to a damn thing about any of it.You Might Also Like:
Posted in Austin