Western & Cowboy Poetry

Cookie has a great question for your representatives in Congress, “Isn’t it time for Congress to put their houses in order?” He says a few simple changes would be very helpful and maybe even boost Congressional popularity! They should:

• Leave their politics at the door and really do what’s best for the U.S. and its citizens.
• Require that each bill be on only one subject and that any amendments be germane to that subject.
• Eliminate the rule which permits one Senator to block 99 others from considering an issue.
• Require a supermajority vote on only the specific actions enumerated in the Constitution*. [On all other actions let the majority rule! See footnote.]
• Impose term limits of two consecutive terms for Senators and six consecutive terms for Representatives. [That’s a total of twelve years each!]
• Require members to recuse themselves on all issues which would benefit themselves, their family members, their business, or their campaign donors.
• Require that members be subject to insider trading laws and that their investments be managed by blind trusts over which the members have no control.

* MCCULLOCH V. MARYLAND, 17 U. S. 316 (1819)
U.S. Supreme Court

“This government is acknowledged by all, to be one of enumerated powers. The principle, that it can exercise only the powers granted to it, would seem too apparent, to have required to be enforced by all those arguments, which its enlightened friends, while it was depending before the people, found it necessary to urge; that principle is now universally admitted.”

The Constitution enumerates only the following seven actions as requiring a supermajority vote in Congress:

• Convicting an Impeachment (2/3 majority in the Senate – Article 1, Section 3)
• Expulsion of a member of one house of Congress (2/3 vote of the house in question – Article 1, Section 5)
• Override a Presidential Veto (2/3 majority in both the House and the Senate – Article 1, Section 7)
• Ratify a treaty (2/3 majority in the Senate – Article 2, Section 2)
• Passing of a Constitutional Amendment by Congress (2/3 majority in both the House and the Senate – Article 5)
• Restore the ability of certain rebels to serve in the government (2/3 majority in both the House and the Senate – 14th Amendment)
• Approval of removal of the President from his position after the Vice President and the Cabinet approve such removal and after the President contests the removal (2/3 majority in both the House and the Senate 25th Amendment)

Out in the cookhouse, Cookie is all excited. The airwaves are all a’twitter with tweets from a few twits.

It seems, due to the Supreme Court’s decision that corporations are “persons” and have rights attendant to that designation, a corporation might run for President of the United States! Of course they’d have to prove that the corporate person was “born” (incorporated) in the U.S. because off-shore “birth” such as incorporation in Kenya or elsewhere outside the U.S. would disqualify them constitutionally.

Beyond the birth requirement, corporate persons would also have to meet two other constitutional conditions…be thirty-five years of age and a resident within the U.S. for fourteen years.

Under those constitutional rules, some corporations would not qualify to run for President. News Corporation (Fox News), for example, was foreign born (i.e., incorporated) in South Australia and later became a naturalized citizen when it migrated to the U.S. and was incorporated here in 2004. Obviously, since it was foreign born, News Corporation would not be eligible to run for office.

On the other hand, General Electric would fully qualify for the office of President since it was incorporated in the U.S. in 1892…although why we would want to elect a 120-year old as president is beyond me! Obviously, GE would meet the additional qualifications of age and residence. Despite GE’s age, however, there might be some comfort in knowing that, if elected, General Electric would have a titular credential to become the Commander in Chief…comforting to know that, once again, a general might occupy the White House.

All of this, of course, brings up a somewhat related major question: how shall we handle alien corporate persons…those corporations born overseas which migrated to the U.S. but which have not become naturalized citizens by reincorporating in the U.S.? Should they be deported or should they be given amnesty with a fast track to citizenship.

Cookie reckons that the Supreme Court decision has raised some real questions for the electorate!

At breakfast, Cookie asked some interesting questions:

Have you noticed how some folks…

• use aliases when writing letters and emails to newspapers and internet sites;
• hide their identity behind masks when they’re demonstrating or defying the law;
• sign petitions and then sue to prevent their signatures from being revealed; or
• are otherwise just plumb afraid to stand up for what they believe?

Cookie says, “I can’t give these folks, and their causes, any credibility when they hide their identity to avoid accountability for their actions and viewpoints. If they can’t stand up for what they believe. they shouldn’t involve themselves in the first place! Period!”

He points out, too, that politicians can’t be anonymous. What they say and the way they vote is a matter of public record and that’s good. Sometimes, though, they forget that even their private activities are easily tracked and that’s how they get caught dallying in Argentina when they said they were gonna go tripping in the Appalachians. The media’s pretty good at reporting that stuff! It isn’t good politics but it makes interesting reading, especially when they’re caught with their hands in the cookie jar…doing the very things they’ve been railing against!