Charlie Rose

Max83  11/21/2012 03:06 PM Report

This is the best :-)

I just discovered this gem of a conversation last night. Most of you probably have seen it already. I am just sharing it for those of you who have not seen it yet.

Two of my favorite public figures in the world:

A Conversation on the Economy with Joe Stiglitz and Paul Krugman

Youtube Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd0Uz__ebzA

''What do you get when you put two of the most well known and most widely cited economists in the world, both Nobel laureates, on stage together? A healthy dose of economic reality.

That's what happened Tuesday night at the Fashion Institute of Technology's Haft Auditorium in New York City at an INET-sponsored event featuring Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz in a "Conversation on the State of the Economy," moderated by INET Executive Director Rob Johnson.''

Max83  11/14/2012 04:11 PM Report

I posted this brilliant conversation with Charlie Munger here on the comment in four different places last night and all 4 posts were deleted or are not showing up, so I am posting it again because I feel this video contains very important and very truthful and very clear information that needs to be shared with more people:

A Conversation with Charlie Munger

Youtube video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pph3Bg8Pihg

''The vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway shares his insight and wisdom at a Ross School of Business event.''

NeilMacCallister  11/10/2012 11:14 PM Report

Look how sad Tom Brokaw is in that photo above!! ..I believe I know why!

You see, he voted for Barack Obama again -- so that he could tell that to his 19 yr. old intern at the NBC offices, and maybe have lunch with her.

Then he heard that Barack Obama (..the man who missed his national budget by more than a TRILLION dollars each and EVERY time he tried!) had actually WON the election!!!!!

"OMG!! ..What will now happen to my retirement account? ..my savings???"

That weird look on Mr. Brokaw's face is just him trying to remember the phone numbers of his investment advisor and his tax accountant!

He now needs to get his money OUT OF THIS COUNTRY!!!!

(..along with Amy, David, Jon, Thomas, and Charlie himself!)

***

Bon Appetit, ..you useful playthings!! .. :)

MisterMittster  11/10/2012 01:27 PM Report

The Republicans are self destructing! Get this you morons! The republicans (as they are now) is on the way out! MARK MY WORDS

They are all over the place! WITH their heads up their asses! The really rich have got their big $ dollar signs so far up the republicans asses they wouldn't see reality for what it really is if it smacked them in the face. ... and so, that will be their legacy. .. What's the game plan NOW, Mitch (the bitch) McConnell?!!! To Make Obama a 2 (TWO) Term President?!!!!! YOU IDIOT!!!!!!!

You (the republicans) screww the middle class again. You (the republicans) will not only pay for it with your careers! MARK MY WORDS

MisterMittster  11/10/2012 01:12 PM Report

Ah Ha! I am quite perceptive and correct (as usual)' output-based-money' IS 'John Gelles'.

I was also correct about WHO would win the election! I wasn't 'Hoping' shit. I just see reality for what it is. And I do it better than these bozos (and many others) who do it for a living ie. it is their JOBS (which they don't do very well)(but they continue to persist)(how?). How? do they do it so well (paid good money for a pile of garbage, 'garbage' that is the fruit of their minds (limited but self absorbed minds) . Supported by What?! What did/do they did/do to entrench their survival for such Nothing in return?!!

Their "2 cents worth" really is Only worth "2 cents"; Yet, is that all they are paid.?.

Fire Them!!!!!

nothinglost  11/10/2012 01:16 AM Report

I watched the show today and was so surprised not to hear a thing about banks as if this is a totally separate topic.People being strangled by banks (partly of their own doing I would admit)is an intragal part of the problems facing all of us and certainly is a risk factor in losing so that entrepreneurial spirit that was talked about even 30 year olds can get discouraged. "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation" Thoreau was talking about banks at the time and really not much is different about today.

Max83  11/09/2012 07:27 PM Report

My suggestion to all venture philanthropists is to participate in ''The Rolling Jubilee'' movement.

Buy 1 Million Dollars worth of debt for 50,000 Dollars and abolish it. Imagine what Bill Gates and Warren Buffett could do if they each donate 1 billion Dollars to this cause. With 2 billion Dollars 40 billion Dollars of debt could be immediately wiped out.

For details: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9666748/Occupy-Wall-Street-campaigner s-buy-up-debt-to-abolish-it.html

NeilMacCallister  11/09/2012 07:48 AM Report

"Where is America in 2012"?

America is the sinking Titanic.

Barack Obama promised us that he would supply adequate lifeboats for all Americans (..if he can just get the money to buy them from "the rich").

Mitt Romney told us that our ship doesn't have to sink.

Americans voted for the promise of "adequate lifeboats".

Then Barack Obama got into HIS lifeboat and rowed away.

output-based-money  11/09/2012 06:17 AM Report

My new website is www.why-now.us

I'm thinking of dropping it in favor of this archive and the forums at amazon.com

On this show the other night (weeks ago) a great computer guru-entrepreneur mentioned that mobile digital equipment would be the thing to take over from the PC very soon. A friend said the Mini-ipad will soon become a phone. Of course I think I want voice input or an ABC keyboard to replace this damn QWERTY mess.

What say you?

output-based-money  11/09/2012 06:09 AM Report

My old computer is kaput. This one is a notebook. I tried to register on this CR show and archive and did not do that well. I am by name John Gelles -- and my screen name is the result of some confusion.

output-based-money  11/09/2012 05:59 AM Report

Tom Friedman's warning that mother nature and market priced money will determine our future must be heeded. David Brooks problem trinity of mounting debt, inadequate growth and plutocratic level inequality is also sound advice. And the overarching recognition that a single nation superpower needs allies and partners in war and trade is also before us. In my view this review of what's immediately in store for this nation and this audience was superb.

Silicon Valley in California; the Massachusetts, New York and Illinois technology regions; and other great American technology centers, are all here to solve our production shortfall in domestic green energy, infrastructure, education, health care and respect for pragmatism that once made us the arsenal of democracy.

What is really missing are logistical tools that trump mis-used profit and loss accounting and the willingness to prevent the seeds of evil intention from maturing abroad and at home. There have been war mongers; but the next war may be the end of life on earth. The day of the war monger is over. The day of the peacenik will never arrive. Peace is the profession of our "military scientists". These two words are not an oxymoron.

Our Republican half have gone overboard since WWII to successfully create plutocracy where Lincoln and his decent predecessors once planted a democracy. Theoretically, the few who have stolen more than their fair share of wealth, here and abroad, will build up the wealth of the bottom 90 percent, and especially of the poor, until democracy is again our aim and our achievement: an economic and political democracy -- inside a political economy -- that bases money on economic output not on debt alone.

Tom Friedman mentioned markets. But markets manage trade not armed forces. In the age when any nation can create bombs to poison us all, it has become necessary to prevent the rotten ones from planning the suicide of earth.

My solution is not war against the 99.9 percent of us who do not lead the nations of this planet. It is a police force made up of small special forces from great nations with established human rights observing regimes -- on the order of our joint teams -- that will capture and release for trial in courts of proven common justice and common sense, leaders who would destroy all innocent life just to be in power.

ShalomFreedman  11/08/2012 10:49 AM Report

One comment on one comment. Tom Brokaw's call for a 'soft power' American offensive to transform the Middle East. The remark shows a total failure at understanding what has happened and what is happening in the Middle East. Like many of the other Charlie Rose 'cheerleaders of the so - called 'Arab Spring' Mr. Brokaw does not seem to realize that radical Sunni Islamic forces,primarily the Muslim Brotherhood are taking country after country in the region. The Muslim Brotherhood forces are not about to take lessons from the PTA on how to bake brownies. These are people with a very firm even fanatical ideology for radical Islamic control not only of their own societies but of other regions of the world.

No one talked about it, but one aspect of renewal for the United States is its developing a hard-minded , realistic foreign policy. It should be aiding democratic forces wherever they are. It should not expect to bring Democracy to societies which have proven resistant to Democracy and Modernization.

Another element of this is that it must be different from these panelists who except for David Brooks seemed reluctant to even mention the biggest foreign policy facing this Administration now, a possible nuclear Iran. Again brownies from the PTA will not stop Charlie's dear favorite Mohamnmed Ahmadinejad from pushing for the bomb.

finalfantasytown  11/08/2012 03:48 AM Report

when God made some human races, the culture and weath were fully developed, and then a female emperess or president took control. They are mark and should be marked.

finalfantasytown  11/08/2012 03:36 AM Report

It is obviously that not all human races are able to self evolve. In fact, only very few of them can do this. The rest of them handle technology and make science to destroy nature. Thus, I think programmed culture death is very important for next generation.

finalfantasytown  11/08/2012 03:25 AM Report

this is fantastic discussion. I like this complicated state containing exciting attitude.I want to kiss each of you. Can I?

The direction already has been wrong since British conquered the world. Then second world war almost failed.

the price is some ancient countries will go to extinction. I don't think debt should be worried.

Trojan war has to be fully accomplished.

the system. currently, science and technology is not as advanced as mastering the system. But we are in myth era. Athena is focusing on the weaving work.

richard-lipscombe  11/07/2012 09:53 PM Report

Charlie well done - this was a useful and productive conversation around your table. If I may I have a few points that overlap the conversation you had.

America is apparently not the great wealth creator that Americans - including this group - still assume it to be. If it were then there would be no fiscal cliff. More wealth has to be generated - a new middle class has to evolve. Innovation and disruption will create a new American middle class not more government initiatives from Washington. Innovative disruption is most likely to happen in a home-based business in America today. These innovative small businesses are and will continue to create the new middle class but it will take a generation to mature.

America's top university education is a huge asset right now. How will this asset be translated into online education in the next generation - Stanford has already started to find out how to do that.

American's are insular. They do not embrace the world and especially the emerging worlds of Asia and South America. Americans have to become citizens of the world if they are to ever understand their new place in that world.

Americans have not understood that their old standards of living are not coming back anytime soon. It is not the economy stupid - it is the debt stupid. Americans have lived off private and public debt for the past 10-15 years and now that party is over and the bills have to be paid.

America's system of government needs urgent reform. Washington is full of delegates (elected to pursue a limited ideological agenda for their constituents) not representatives (elected to make decisions for or on behalf of their constituents). Delegates have to toe the line of their ideological constituents. Delegates can not be bi-partisan. Representatives can and must do deals - its in their DNA. Representative are bi-partisan by design.

Innovation and disruption falls on barren lands in central government - excessive control prohibits experimentation also the unintended consequences of missteps in policy at this level are great and hard to counter. State and local government provide much more fertile grounds for innovation and disruption. Washington is heal bent on centralising power - thus it is becoming a DEAD HAND on American society. The great myth is that America has too much or too little government - the reality is there is too much power in Washington. Government power and spending may be about right but it must be decentralised to states and local government to be effective. A small secretariat that is outward looking to the global issues America is facing is the future for government in Washington. Domestic crises often demand Washington intervention but not before they occur.

America is in decline because of the 'culture wars' that plague the whole nation. The notion that this is the century of women is simply wrongheaded and counterproductive - this must become the generation of opportunity for men AND women from all backgrounds (race, culture, socio-economic, et al) or this may well prove to be a generation of unnecessary pain and suffering due to culture wars.

Cheers, Richard.

Ricardo_Amaral  11/07/2012 08:23 PM Report

Here is my latest blog that I posted early in the morning on November 5, 2012 about 2 days before the actual results of the election was available:

Here is why Mitt Romney lost the presidential election of November 2012

http://hereiswhymittromneylosttheelection.blogspot.com/

*****

The Turning Point - Full Film – November 5, 2012

http://youtu.be/DcHszo89ugc

Press For Truth Presents: The Turning Point

You have been selected to attend the 60th Bilderberg conference in Chantilly, Virginia from May 31 - June 3, 2012. This conference brings together leaders of business, economics, media, finance, politics and military in a forum which will allow for open and off the record discussions of current events and global issues.

I must stress that this meeting is SECRET and by invitation only. We operate under Chatham House Rules, meaning you are not permitted to discuss anything that is said during the conference to members of the media or otherwise.

Please keep all of your arrangements confidential, including all of the information included herein. In recent years we have lost much of our control over the dissemination of information due to the rise of independent media sources and internet-based journalists. We intend to correct this problem and plan to discuss it at this year's conference.

The Turning Point - A Press For Truth Production

Produced and written by:

Steven Davies, Bryan Law and Dan Dicks

Edited by Steven Davies and Bryan Law

Music by Dan Dicks

.

tabs  11/07/2012 07:51 PM Report

NCP3:

On has noticed that within 60 days of the election 2 true Black Swan events took place.

The first Black Swan event took place during the second debate when Candy Crowely made the statement that, "President Obama did indeed use the word "terrorism" in association with the Benghazi massacre of 4 Americans. The next day she said that she was mistaken as to facts of her comment. This becomes a Black Swan in that it blunted Mr Romney's performance during the debate and possible trajectory of his campaign.

The second Black Swan was the advent of Hurricane Sandy and its impact on the Eastern Seaboard, where not only did it take the momentum of the Romney campaign off the front page it also gave President Obama a photo opportunity to look Presidential with a popular Republican governor. This too blunted the momenteum of the Romney campaign in favor of the President.

frankelee  11/07/2012 07:51 PM Report

I think the media couldn't be more wrong in their characterization of how epic and how rare and how important the age we live in is. It's just their usual love affair with sensationalism, even feel-good sensationalism most people would find sort of morally uplifting. Except their attempt to frame our problems as being so high stakes only serves to make these problems worse by raising the emotional stakes.

We're undergoing an economic recovery, the reality is economic recoveries are not action movies, they're slow, they're boring, they're plodding and we're almost there. We have deficit and debt problems, the worry almost entirely artificially induced by political rhetoric, and the solutions almost ridiculously simple. We spend too much money on four basic indulgences, and what we have to do is cut back a little on a few of them, in ways that would not require any great suffering on anyone and our financial matters would be in order. It's pure politics holding any of that up.

And while Hurricane Sandy caused a great amount of destruction, and admittedly drama for the news, the actions we will take to get a grip on climate change will be basic regulatory changes, percentages lowered for different pollutants, a few more tougher demands for more advanced equipment, nothing that will involve some partisan fistfight once the Republicans are ready to just do it.

And all we hear on the news are these sweeping declarations about how BIG the challenges we face are, how the politicians and the President need to get BIGGER ideas and rise to the challenge of these truly epic times, and it's all nonsense. All these problems have been caused by a decade of political games, and since I'm not a journalist I'm allowed to say, games created by the right, and solving the problems will be a few simple bills passed by Congressmen and women willing to start accepting the most basic of scientific and economic facts. The decade before us will not be exciting because of our governmental mismanagement, I assure you.

Max83  11/07/2012 06:55 PM Report

One more thing. I absolutely agree with Tom Brokaw, that the 21st century is the Century of Women. The female vote is and will increasingly become the most important vote there is.

The next frontier will be to have a female President of the USA.

tabs  11/07/2012 06:42 PM Report

NCP2:

This program's discussion centered on the American future in a now admitted "transitionary" phase for America. Here one presents just such a commentary on the American future that was written on or about 4/26/09 and was sent to Mr Rose via e-mail on or about that date. If one notices part of ones musings one states that "Agribusiness" will be the only viaable business left in America as all the others will have left for more cost effective shores, note this reaches the same conclusion about "agribusiness" as Mr Brokaw stated during the program segement that aired on 11/5/12. Further the reader should note that the following narative describes a process of how this future unfolds one event after another, and this reader should note for themselves how closely the events described matches those events that have transpired over the last 3 1/2 years and what events remain to transpire as one is describing a process known as the Arc of History or as the popular lexicon likes to state it, the "trajectory" that the US and Global economies are on.

The Sick Man Of The World

Sun, 04/26/2009 - 17:12 — tabs --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Getting a handle on this brave new age of change is intellectually difficult. For all that we have known since the end of WW2 is passing away. The idea of hearkening back to what we have known is the overwhelming tendency. Yet the face of America is changing before our very eyes and a brave new era of change is upon us. What will the new dynamic in America be is the question?

Some have indicated that President Obama is conducting "class warfare" while others state that he is a "technocrat" that believes in the centralized power of the state. One thing is certain that regardless of his belief system he is acting with a bold self assuredness that his ideas are not only right but that the American people want the change that he is going about to affect. This self assuredness may just be the the arrogance of the naive. For there is the law of unintended consequence to be reckoned with, and the old adage of what can go wrong will go wrong can be applied. As stated before no man can know with certainty what the future holds. One can only extrapolate from preceding events some kind of logical extension of events into the future.

If the past is pro log, then what the likely outcome of the current policies of the Obama administration hold is not one of cheer but grave concern. History tells us that any nation state, business, or individual that runs constant deficits will at some point in time become bankrupt. The massive stimulus and budget that the Obama administration has enacted or is about to enact is setting up a scenario where the economy will run like that of a person who has eaten too much candy and when the sugar high wears off will crash and burn. Only this time around there will not be the reserve of the full faith of the US government to fall back upon. For with the massive deficits the USD and borrowing capacity of the US will have been debased. The following will be a malaise similar to that of Germany in the 20's and 30's where there will be hyperinflation and massive unemployment. Instead of a scenario like that of America in the 1930's where the US enjoyed a base of manufacturing that was able to pull the US out of its economic malaise, that base has been dissipated over time and further exacerbated because of the Cap and Trade policies which will have further eroded that industrial base. As the cost of manufacturing in the US will have become prohibitively high to be competitive in world markets.

What does this leave for the American people? The only viable business left will be that of agribusiness as most of American manufacturing will have left these shores for more cost effective ones. The result will be massive unemployment or under employment for an American population that is largely urban or suburban. The cost of goods and services in the US will also be prohibitively high and those foreign manufactured goods will be out of reach for the average American as the USD will be virtually worthless. This then leads us to the viability of American capital markets, as the full faith of the USD erodes so does the locus of capital markets. With the enacting of further regulations with Washington being the determinate of those regulations it is likely that the US ergo NYC will cease to be the progenitor of capital flow. It might be a good guess that since China is the up and coming economic powerhouse in the world that Hong Kong might very well be the gate way of those capital flows in the future. This all portends that America will become the "sick man" of the world, much as the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires were of the early 20Th century.

Max83  11/07/2012 06:22 PM Report

Outstanding panel! I learned much form this discussion.

Fantastic phrases were used by the participants that I can very much identify with.

Amy Gutmann: ''You can be a member of the Elite, without being elitist.''

Jon Meacham is is absolutely correct when he points out the importance of politicans and leadership to have the ability to craft deals. The Art of the Deal needs to be focused on and needs to be cherished again. People that have the natural talent and are Artists of the Deal need to be glorified and looked up to in our society, not people that are Artists of the Steal i.e. corrupt bankers, financiers, lobbyists and speculators.

We have to let go of the notion that making a deal is to be weak and to find a compromise is not to stick to your principles.

Proper and positive deal making is not about compromising and selling out your ideals and principles but it is about being realistic and not being fundamentalist and to have the ability to cooperate and get along with other people that might be very different from yourself in mindset and perception and still be able to live happily and productively with each other where neither party feels that they have gotten the short end of the stick.

Many Americans have to realize that the American dream was never as much about Competition as it was about Cooperation.

Many Americans are too competitive in their attitudes and view of Life and they need to chill out more and focus on how they can help out their neighbors more instead of thinking about how they can best and most trump them.

Competitive Capitalism is evil, cooperative Capitalism is divine.

And of course the brilliant Tom Friedman's remarks were spot on.

I paraphrase here: ''If we keep taunting the two most powerful forces on the planet, the Market and Nature, to show us what they got, they will and already have shown the USA what they got.''

and

''If you are really concerned about the National Security of the USA, I would suggest you become Secretary of Education instead of Secretary of State at this time.''

''What goes around comes around''(Karma) I think is really what all this is about and the Republican Party and whoever else has not been living in Integrity and Truth is finding this out the fast and furious way now and it is about damn time :-) hahahaha

Thank you again to the Charlie Rose Show for sharing these brilliant minds and topics with us.

tabs  11/07/2012 01:59 PM Report

The American people have spoken and elections do have consequences. Americans have made their choice as to what road they wish to travel on down. One has felt since 1980 that the US government would conduct business as usual until it could not beg, borrow, steal nor print another dollar. To that end America is still right on schedule.

President Obama's victory speech clearly enunciated that the agenda of his Presidency has been reaffirmed by the American people. That his ideological beliefs had been redeemed by his reelection. From his point of view he truly believes that Romney represented the Special Interests in America and that his waging of "Class Warfare" was a crusade of representing all that is good and fair in America. Yet it is a far cry from being able to speak with soaring rhetoric of "hope, change, it being one America" and being able to govern effectively.

President Obama will return to the White House with renewed "inspiration" to move America "forward" on the Shining Path of his vision of what a prosperous and socially just America should look like. In his mind the accomplishment of this goal will be what he wants most and that is to be held in the same esteem as Abraham Lincoln. However for President Obama to be able to achieve that goal he would have to move in the complete opposite direction of what he intends to do and that is to tack hard to the starboard, and that would require dumping his own Party. The reason for this is simple and that is as the Robber Barron era died in 1929 to give birth to the Progressive era, so the Progressive era has died in 2008 due to the unsustainable amount of leverage it had accumulated. Many people understand the horizontal integration of economies but few understand the vertical integration of economies.

President Obama has listened to a long parade of intelligent business men's advice to which he nodded his head up and down. Yet while "listening" to them he never took any of that advice to heart, and now that he won reelection by going to "the bunker of his principles" he certainly now believes in his own efficacy and veracity.

charles76  11/07/2012 01:50 PM Report

Very good debate with a lot of substances but i was little concerned to hear David Brooks talk about 'death' whenever Charlie asked him a question about 'debt', it would have been great to hear his opinion on 'debt' and the fiscal cliff we're facing.

REMant  11/07/2012 12:35 PM Report

I mentioned yesterday that the next admin faces a recession as well as the budget shortfalls, which taken together, and with continuing problems overseas, means that a lot of this discussion was idle jabber. And that a good part of the electorate is riding for another fall.

What you are looking at in these election maps are those parts of the US which have been doing pretty well in the past few decades - the red states - and those which have not - the blue ones. That may seem counterintuitive, but not when you realize that much of the good times seen in the latter had been due to govt spending and monetary policy. And now, because of it, they are for the most part in deep trouble. The so-called swing states are those whose economies are middling, and/or have a sizable Federal presence, for instance, Va.

Those who've not been doing well are looking for more govt help, and since they are mostly now the more populous places, clamoring for election by popular vote, which was vetoed in the Constitutional convention. (Indeed, there's no provision for popular election of the president and vice-president in the Constitution at all.) Ironically, the president had a greater chance of losing were it not for the fact that his party is stronger in these heavily populated areas, favoring the electoral college system. Romney won his states by far wider margins than the president did his.

And I imagine those areas not doing well blame Wall St, hence ppl like Romney, for their plight. In classic silverite and socialist fashion the admin has done a good job shifting blame for that from the start. But it's clear the best Obama can claim is to be president of some of the people, and not the most prosperous some. So you can probably also expect him to continue to put the arm on the rest.

Yet the exit polls revealed some interesting trends: males and females, blacks and whites, youth, older voters and independents moved Republican, while only those between 30-44 and Hispanics moved Democratic. The middle-aged, I suppose, not only grew up in the grip of political correctness and the shadow of Iraq, but are also more tied to the system, while Hispanics, I expect, hope to get more of their relatives here. The latter has long been the Democratic Party modus operandi, tho how long they can continue to exploit it is questionable.

Vote totals at the moment show approx 12 million fewer votes cast than 2008, and also that the minor parties made few gains. But I imagine many would-be third party voters act like a counterweight voting against whichever party is in office.

Many will again argue the GOP needs to do a copycat number, which says little for their principles. But such a view will undoubtedly be overtaken by events. It should tho spell the end of the neocons, who, it should be reiterated, are not libertarians. Indeed, I think this election, as much as the last, more a repudiation of their policies than pro-Democratic.

The Post, I found yesterday morning, had dreamt up a way not only to stimulate the herd mentality in its readers but also discover for whom they voted. I found it disgusting and said so, and for a while my message graced the paper's online front page. But The Post's gang continued in the same vein, Ezra Klein predicting 290 electoral votes for the president and Dana Milbank suggesting he had heard Mitt's deathbed confession. (Milbank later confessed he wrote in the name of Chris Christie, but of course, living in DC it meant nothing, tho he has been somewhat critical of Obama of late, and would like many at The Post have a combination of Bush foreign policy and Democratic largess ala LBJ.) Gerson complained about turning politics into baseball statistics to which the Post faithful loudly retorted: sour grapes! Others looked with glee on the increasing diversification of the electorate. This election has made clear that if they can no longer urge ppl to vote early and often, media pols of this sort can still remind them which side their bread is buttered on, and that the end justifies the means, particularly the superannuated like Richard Cohen and Howard Fineman, both IMHO long overdue for retirement. The Democrats in Northern Va have always been a well-organized group, but they really outdid themselves yesterday, my 88-year-old mother receiving about a dozen in person calls and offers of assistance to carry her to the polls, which made me think yet another thing about his time in Chicago was not lost on the president.

Ms Gutman sounds like an idiot, university president or not; Myles Brand was a university president. Upon reflection, if you want to know what in America needs improvement, look no further than the ppl on this panel, tho Friedman might agree with that.

Since no one else did, I'll offer up some Constitutional amendments "to improve the system:"

1. Clarify what money is and the issue of a central bank

2. Clarify the taxing power so it cannot be used as a club

3. Require a budget and a balanced one

4. Repeal or clarify the 14th amendment to remove the imputation that it trumps state sovereignty

5. Fill out the missing judiciary provisions and deal with the question of Federal common law

6. Clarify the war-making power to prevent executive abuse

7. Make it plain the term militia in the 2nd amendment means exactly what it says and does not translate to support for a standing army

8. Clarify the time and manner of Federal elections to prevent them from being manipulated for partisan purposes, and prohibit the publication of election polls for the same reason

9. Clarify the obligation of the nation in the performance of treaties

10. Repeal the 17th Amendment to return power to the states

11. And make it plain the Constitution excludes all power in Congress not enumerated

Nearly no attention has been paid in recent years to these obvious and mounting Constitutional problems, as it seems no one considers the document relevant anymore. During the bicentennial it was observed that nearly no one would even sign it were the opportunity presented, preferring monarchy. On the other hand, the Declaration of Independence is not a plan of government, and I would not consider campaign contributions, term limits, healthcare or pensions in the same league as these questions of finance, war and sovereignty. If nothing else, court cases should be brought in as many as of these as possible.