That's a good question. His second term ended when I was ten years old, and I remember him well. In December 1960 my dad took me on a trip to D.C. We took a White House tour and he actually came out into the hall and waved at our tour group.

And next week on PBS - a new British documentary featuring Sailor Steve:

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...osdvdcover.jpg

:D


I jest - that must be a really cool memory to be able to share! :up:

:har: Nice!

One of the more serious mistakes our fore fathers made, in forming this country, was believing that the worst thing congress could do is pass an unjust or just plain lousy law.

This is why we have a pretty good system of checks and balances concerning legislation. The Executive Branch's concerns of a law must be addressed by congress before it becomes a law. At the same time congress, by ganging up, can override the Executive Branch veto. At any time the law results in any problems, it is evaluated by the Supreme Court. All in all a pretty good system.

However, the fore fathers exhibited some short sighted lack of judgement. The worst thing congress can do is spend money. Unfortunately, there are no external checks and balances to govern this power. All the checks and balances are internal. In congress we have one governmental body with the authority to not only collect money but to spend it. And this is one power that congress, regardless of political party, has used and used often.

Can we change this? Well again, the writers of the constitution were a little short sighted. One small phrase in Article 1 section 5. Nine little words....

We have one governmental body that is exclusively in charge of making its own rules.

So the body that has the authority to collect taxes and spend money with no external oversight is the only body that can change the rules about oversight. What are the chances of that happening?

I do wish the fore fathers could have looked beyond being only worried about "bad laws".

People banter the phrase "out of control spending" like it was some accident or disaster. There is no such thing as out of control spending in congress. They are very much in control. In fact, they are the only ones in control.

And "We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity" gave congress this power. Or more accurately, we were told we did by the fore fathers.

Now that is the funny post of the year.:har::har::har: