Do You Know the Bill of Rights?

The qualifications to hold a Senate or House of Representatives seat are very low. You must meet an age requirement and be a resident of the state you represent. There is no requirement for specific education or experience. You do not need to know the U.S. Constitution.

Thus we have the case of Christine O’Donnell who is running for Senator from Delaware. Her opponent, Chris Coons, gave an approximate yet accurate summation of the first part of the establishment clause, “Government shall make no establishment of religion,” O’Donnell responded by asking, “That’s in the First Amendment?” The exchange takes place at the 4:40 mark in the video below.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper recently took a deeper look at O’Donnell’s repeated claims of constitutional expertise and filed the following blistering report, noting that beyond the First Amendment, O’Donnell needed to be reminded of what the 14th and 16th said, despite claiming to have conducted “a deep analysis” of the founding document.

O’Donnell blanks on First Amendment

Should we ask our representatives about the Bill of Rights?

Despite Warnings, Mexico Still Draws Americans

FALCON LAKE, Texas (AP) — Despite a bloody drug war raging just across the border, some Americans living near Mexico act as if it’s still a backyard playground.

In the last two weeks alone, two American tourists have been killed in Mexico in vicious attacks — one while riding a Jet Ski and another when his bus was hijacked. And a Mexican police commander investigating one of those deaths was killed this week, his severed head delivered in a suitcase to a local Army post.

But Texas officials keep encouraging boaters to enjoy the bass fishing on a border lake. And Gov. Rick Perry has not urged people to take any special precautions.

Tiffany and David Hartley decided to take Jet Skis across Falcon Lake, which is divided by the border, to photograph a historic church. They were on their way home when pirates opened fire, killing David Hartley, according to his wife.

Just days later, a student from the University of Texas-Brownsville was shot and killed in Mexico. Jonathan William Torres, 19, was one of two people killed when his bus was hijacked in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville.

The State Department has issued repeated travel warnings to Americans traveling to or living in Mexico, with a particular focus on the area just south of the border. The warnings say that kidnappings are occurring at “alarming rates” with U.S. citizens often the target.

See the link to Mexico Vacation Awareness on the right of this screen.

Sarah Palin Tests 2012 Message

So far Sarah Palin has come off as a sloganeer with little real message. This new slogan could easily rally her followers. It goes to the heart of everyone wanting to restore America to greatness.

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By ANDY BARR | 10/11/10 12:21 PM EDT Updated: 10/11/10 12:47 PM EDT

Sarah Palin spoke publicly over the weekend about the 2012 race for the first time in months, mapping out what she sees as the themes for the presidential election.

“These two elections, 2010 and 2012, go hand-in-hand,” Palin said Sunday at a business conference in Bakersfield, according a report from NBC. “The theme of 2010 has got to be rebuke their errors, reject, repeal; and then the theme of 2012 — it’s renew, revive and restore.”

Up until the weekend, the former Alaska governor had been deflecting almost all 2012 speculation by saying only that she was focused on November’s midterm election.

But in her speech Sunday, Palin outlined the message she or other potential Republican candidates should push to counter President Barack Obama.

Palin said that Republicans should pledge to “renew our optimistic, pioneering spirit, revive our free market system and restore constitutional limits and our standing in the world, as that abiding beacon of freedom.”

The message, she said, should be “not transformation but restoration with a ‘Great Awakening’ that we already feel emerging across America.”

“We will win this year, we will win this year,” she said. “And I believe we will win in 2012.”

via Sarah Palin test drives 2012 message – Andy Barr – POLITICO.com.

Consumers Cut Back Credit Card Borrowing

Associated Press report dated October 8, 2010

Consumer borrowing fell again in August as consumers cut back on credit card use for the 24th consecutive month, the Federal Reserve said Thursday.

Borrowing by consumers declined by $3.3 billion that month. It was the 18th drop for overall consumer borrowing in the past 19 months.

Americans are borrowing and spending less as they face widespread unemployment and uncertainty about their financial futures. The reduced use of credit by consumers is a drag on the recovery, which has yet to show a sustained rebound.

Another cause of the decline in credit is banks’ slow recognition that many debts will not be repaid. Banks gave up on $42.5 billion in credit card debt in the first half of 2010, according an analysis by the website CardHub.com. The annual rate is more than twice what it was in 2007.

Households are expected to continue cutting back on borrowing as long as incomes stay flat and jobs remain scarce.

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My prediction: No matter what the politicians, economic gurus, and other so-called experts say or do, America is in for a period of slow growth. Unemployment has been stuck in the 9% plus range since May 2009. There is nothing on the horizon that indicates a change. We will just have to learn to live with this reality for the next few years.

The Congressman Remained Quiet

A Congressman was seated next to a little girl on an airplane so he turned to her and said, “Do you want to talk? Flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.”

The little girl, who had just started to read her book, replied to the total stranger, What would you want to talk about?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said the congressman. “How about global warming, universal health care, or stimulus packages?” as he smiled smugly.

“OK,” she said. “but let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff – grass. Yet a deer poops little pellets, a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse produces clumps. Why is that?”

The legislator, visibly surprised by the little girl’s intelligence, thinks about it and says, “Hmmm, I have no idea.”

To which the little girl replies, “Do you really feel qualified to discuss global warming, universal health care, or the economy, when you don’t know shit?”

The congressman remained quiet for the rest of the flight.