No More Incumbents Blog

I like to speculate for a half a minute on the idle thought that I had in regards to President Bush’s ineffectuality. It strikes me that it would be very difficult for a person to screw a as much as President Bush as. It would almost seem like you have to work at it very hard to be that successful at screwing a.

The same goes for Congress. Sure you can argue that there are people behind the scenes trying to make things worse pursuing their own special interests. I do believe that’s the case. However I also wonder if maybe they just don’t have the right tools for the job.

My grandfather always used the tell me that you have to have the right tools for the job. My father would reinforce this we would all look together for the right tools for the job sometimes for hours until we found just the right tools that we could do a job it would take five minutes. The hidden wisdom here is that if you have the wrong tool that job to take five hours or you might not be successful at all. President Bush than taking many many many hours and he hasn’t been successful all and so I wonder if maybe part of his problem is he doesn’t have the right tool for the job. Ditto that for Congress!

Now there are lots of potential tools or they may need to get the job done. I’m going to focus on one that’s often times very obvious and out in the open especially if you watch C-SPAN.

I’m talking about the furniture, the furniture in the Oval Office, the furniture in the Senate, and the furniture in the House of Representatives.

So this furniture has been around for decades if not hundreds of years. Congressman even carve their initials into the desks that they have.  It’s a long-standing tradition that goes back to the founding of our country, apparently founded by vandals.

The thing is anyone that’s ever worked in the modern world knows that older furniture often does not suit efficiency or modern equipment such as computers are laptops or phones even if it strikes me that maybe they’ve all suffered from an ineffective work environment. Maybe what they really need is some contemporary office furniture so they can establish a more efficient work area and possibly something that’s even more ergonomically correct.  Some ergonomically correct chairs and some efficient executive desks designed for maximum efficiency.

If they were more effective and efficient they might not need to take a month-long vacation every year and they could stick around gets more work done because they would be so tired. If they were more effective in my guild get more work done during the day. They were more effective they might not need all of those aides and support staff that they have lingering about it back in call. Most professionals don’t have 28th to help them out because got themselves. Many executives don’t even have secretaries anymore and it’s a little odd that Congress hasn’t taken the time to learn how to do its own work.

These are all little things, but they are easily fixable things. Anyone that has ever spent too much time fooling around searching for a lost tool, knows that sometimes those little things can distract you from the real work at hand. Maybe that is a small part of what’s wrong with our government.

As we rapidly proceed towards the end of the first decade of this new millenia, people are rapidly learning the importance of education.  Our high tech society is surging forward and anyone that does not find a way to keep their skills updated is rapidly finding that their services are both less valuable and in a more perilous position.

Combine this trend with an increasing cost of energy and transportation and our commuter nation is having to move away from being commuter students.  When I received my first two bachelors degrees, I drove about 30 miles one way through the Illinois corn fields (future biofuel fields).  Gas cost about $0.99 per gallon and that was 10 years ago. Now gas costs about $2.99 per gallon.  It would cost me an additional $20-$40 per week to go to school today.

Now, I’m not looking for my bachelor’s degree anymore.  I am more interested in achieving additional advanced degrees.  For many reasons commuting to school is just not attractive for me any more, and not necessary.  There are many schools such as Capella university that provide solid distance learning degree programs.

They recently provided a press release focusing on one of their professors that recently published a new book featuring the benefits of encouraging students with positive feedback.  In an online learning environment this is even more important as comments taken out of context can be misinterpreted into negative comments anyway.  A negative comment in a forum or e-mail or class can sound almost as bad as being cursed.

This week Microsoft announced that it would set up offices across the border in Canada.  One of the reasons that has driven this move is to gain access to Canadian workers and the the reduced cost of health care for hiring Canadian citizens.  Another reason has to do with Canadians rules and laws on immigrant workers.

It is easier for immigrants to move to Canada at times than it is to move to the US legally.  So Microsoft is setting up shop in Canada to take advantage of the available labor pool there.

We are happy to introduce one of our new sponsors, the Root Law Group.  They help people to immigrate to the United States legally.  The United States has been built up and renewed by immigrants decade after decade and century after century.  My own family is a good example from my native American ancestors to my Mayflower ancestors to my German ancestors that came to this country at the beginning of the century.

The Root Law Group enables our country to bring in good people from around the world.  Many countries around the world are in a competition to attract the smartest and most capable workers.  The United States is embroiled in a confusion over immigration that is making it difficult for good people to come here legally and encouraging many other people to come here illegally.

This is a healthy thing for our country, for its growth and for its continued improvement.  We can do a lot with people we have, but we have always improved much more rapidly based on the new ideas mixing with the old capabilities.  Our economic melting pot is being enabled by firms like the Root Law Group.

We are kicking of the King George ‘Pinochio’ Bush Photo Contest. (we mentioned this last week)  The winner of this contest will receive a free 16′ x 16′ photo on an enlarged canvas featuring King George ‘Pincohio’ Bush.

The rules are simple!

1. Subscribe to No More Incumbents via our Email Newsletter (see sidebar in left or Subscribe to No More Incumbents here)
2. The Contest is open to anyone living in the United States
3. A random drawing will be held on July 31st.  The winner will be contacted via the email they provide for their delivery subscription.  If they do not respond within 5 calendar days, we will hold a follow up drawing repetitively until we have a winner.
4. The winner will need to provide a shipping address in the United States and we will deliver the Canvas Free!

(He’s our king its up to us to do something to replace him with an actual President next time around.)

The canvas turned out excellent and I would like to thank CanvasOnDemand.com.  This type of enlarged photo will work great for our contest, but would also make a great birthday present or anniversary gift.

Right now this picture is hanging in my father-in-law’s living room.  He is under the impression that this is definitely not an amusing image as it is actually to close to real life.  In many ways humor does its best work when it is close to real life, you can help keep humor separate from real life by carefully selecting a better Presidential candidate and then President in 2008.