A certain unexplainable guilty glee has come upon me this inaugural day, knowing that George W. Bush’s presidency is on its inevitable death bed, that it will die a long-awaited death followed by an immediate funeral. Perhaps the departing helicopter ought to be outfitted with a symbolic hearse. Eight years of torment will finally come to an end, but the consequences of Bush’s misappropriated, misguided, mismanaged and miserable leadership will last well into the future. It has left the world that is less safe, an economy that is less reliable and a monetary system that is less credible. So good night! And good riddance!
UNITED NATIONS – Alone among major Western nations, the United States has refused to sign a declaration presented Thursday at the United Nations calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality.In all, 66 of the U.N.'s 192 member countries signed the nonbinding declaration — which backers called a historic step to push the General Assembly to deal more forthrightly with any-gay discrimination. More than 70 U.N. members outlaw homosexuality, and in several of them homosexual acts can be punished by execution.Co-sponsored by France and the Netherlands, the declaration was signed by all 27 European Union members, as well as Japan, Australia, Mexico and three dozen other countries. There was broad opposition from Muslim nations, and the United States refused to sign.See http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081219/ap_on_re_us/un_gay_rights
UNITED NATIONS – Alone among major Western nations, the United States has refused to sign a declaration presented Thursday at the United Nations calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality.
In all, 66 of the U.N.'s 192 member countries signed the nonbinding declaration — which backers called a historic step to push the General Assembly to deal more forthrightly with any-gay discrimination. More than 70 U.N. members outlaw homosexuality, and in several of them homosexual acts can be punished by execution.
Co-sponsored by France and the Netherlands, the declaration was signed by all 27 European Union members, as well as Japan, Australia, Mexico and three dozen other countries. There was broad opposition from Muslim nations, and the United States refused to sign.
See http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081219/ap_on_re_us/un_gay_rights
Finally, there is common ground: gay sex! And I was predicting the coming of Armageddon. It's huge blow to my ego, to be sure.
An Iraqi reporter threw a shoe at the lame duck while calling him a dog at his last press conference in Baghdad.
"This is a gift from the Iraqis. This is the farewell kiss, you dog," Muntadar al-Zeidi shouted in Arabic as he threw his shoe at Bush during a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The shoe narrowly missed the president's head. See http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-12-14-bushshoe_N.htm
Apparently, Islamic custom interprets the action as an insult even though the west interprets a similar action -- throwing your shoe for your dog to fetch and chew on -- as playful. Given his ineptitude and resultant dismal failures, the lame duck should be flattered that anyone bothered to show up at all, and treat the unexpected presentation of flying shoes a gift of relevancy.
It is interesting to note that none of the world's leaders condemned the Iraqi journalist for terrorizing a head of state with his shoes. Even the lame duck's body guards did not bother to surround him immediately to protect him from an onslaught of shoes that could be thrown by the other journalists. Unlike al-Zeidi, perhaps they viewed him as irrelevant, undeserving and dispensable: a worthless nobody. Perhaps that is what he has become.
[Ulcer] researchers have often suspected that perforations in the stomach lining were the result of stress caused by humiliation and shame. [R]ecent theories about bacterial infection have reduced the psychological hypotheses. That is, until the case of former first lady Barbara Bush and her ulcerated stomach lining.The blood cells that make up the immune system are called T cells because they resemble the 20th letter of the alphabet. When Mrs Bush was examined for a painful ulcer that caused her hospitalization recently, doctors discovered a mysterious phenomenon. The lines of the perforation formed an almost perfect W on the ultra sound of the former first lady.When radiologists consulted Presidential experts the enigmatic ulcer gave up its secret: " The lines of the stomach perforation clearly conform to the many disasters of this poor woman's son the President", offered Ulcer specialist, Dr Holey Moley, " You can trace the horrific path of worst President ever in the traumatized gut of his long suffering mother. There's the stolen election rift, the Katrina pustule, the 9-11 chasm and the intense scar of the Iraq Debacle. The strong old lady withstood the onslaught of a completely failing son without medical intervention until the second Great Depression. This was more than Momma Bush could endure and the poor woman ended up with a lengthy hospital stay and an ulcer that peaked for an unprecedented third time !!"The story above is a satire or parody. It is entirely fictitious.See http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s5i44708
[Ulcer] researchers have often suspected that perforations in the stomach lining were the result of stress caused by humiliation and shame. [R]ecent theories about bacterial infection have reduced the psychological hypotheses. That is, until the case of former first lady Barbara Bush and her ulcerated stomach lining.The blood cells that make up the immune system are called T cells because they resemble the 20th letter of the alphabet. When Mrs Bush was examined for a painful ulcer that caused her hospitalization recently, doctors discovered a mysterious phenomenon. The lines of the perforation formed an almost perfect W on the ultra sound of the former first lady.When radiologists consulted Presidential experts the enigmatic ulcer gave up its secret: " The lines of the stomach perforation clearly conform to the many disasters of this poor woman's son the President", offered Ulcer specialist, Dr Holey Moley, " You can trace the horrific path of worst President ever in the traumatized gut of his long suffering mother. There's the stolen election rift, the Katrina pustule, the 9-11 chasm and the intense scar of the Iraq Debacle. The strong old lady withstood the onslaught of a completely failing son without medical intervention until the second Great Depression. This was more than Momma Bush could endure and the poor woman ended up with a lengthy hospital stay and an ulcer that peaked for an unprecedented third time !!"
The story above is a satire or parody. It is entirely fictitious.
See http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s5i44708
Moving from one war zone to another, Bush flew secretly from Baghdad to Kabul, landing under cover of darkness for talks with Karzai and meetings with U.S. troops spearheading the fight against a resurgent Taliban. See http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081215/pl_nm/us_bush_afghanistan
What's the matter? Afraid for your own life when so many soldiers on the front lines had fought and died for your personal war with Saddam Hussein? Pathetic.
GW Bush sees Iraq through political spin in a vain attempt to save his legacy, while remaining manipulatively silent on the fact that he went into Iraq for WMDs that were never found, that thousands have died, tens of thousands were displaced and left homeless, and that there are those who are still living in fear, with anger or vengeance, all as a consequent of his lack of wisdom, intellect, judgment and vision to govern successfully, to bring peace to all nations and prosperity to all peoples. Today, the world is a more dangerous place, compounded by the economic turmoil which he could not have foreseen only because of his stupidity and his weakness of character, falling prey to those ruthless and greedy cronies he placed in positions of power. He is an unrepentent idiot, an alcoholic, a knee-jerk, ideological warmonger and one who knows no shame. What is truly sad is that he seems entirely oblivious of his faults. Perhaps it's about time he has another conversation with God, to get instructions on how to fix his mess in the remaining days that he is nominally the United States president.
In that God-forsaken, lame capacity, he went to Baghdad.
"For the first time in Iraq's history and really the first time in the region, you have Sunni, Shia and Kurds working together in a democratic framework to chart a way forward for their country," he said. See http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/14/bush.iraq/index.html
He forgets that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. How convenient.
He is also too dumb to realize that it is far more critical for him in his capacity as a leader to work with the Shia in Iran "to chart a way forward" than to waste time putting a political spin on his bloody mistake in Iraq, his "baby" from hell. But then again, I doubt he ever understood fully the qualifications of the job, its intricacies, or its burdens which he is, even after carrying them for almost 8 years, wholly unprepared to assume.
In his final days. he is continuing to demonstrate his utter failure as leader of the executive branch to solve the problems of the economic meltdown and his utter failure as commander-in-chief to finish an unnecessary war he unilaterally started in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan that he largely neglected.
[U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.] denied participating in the "pay to play" politics that Blagojevich is accused of in a federal criminal complaint. Jackson also said he was eager to talk to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald about his role."When it's over, I want every to know that I want my name back. ... I'm fighting now for my character, and I'm also fighting for my life," he said. "This is about my children being able to Google their name in five years and there be nothing there associated with them that suggests anything wrong." See http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/12/jackson.jr.blagojevich/index.html
[U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.] denied participating in the "pay to play" politics that Blagojevich is accused of in a federal criminal complaint. Jackson also said he was eager to talk to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald about his role.
"When it's over, I want every to know that I want my name back. ... I'm fighting now for my character, and I'm also fighting for my life," he said. "This is about my children being able to Google their name in five years and there be nothing there associated with them that suggests anything wrong." See http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/12/jackson.jr.blagojevich/index.html
Which is worse, the alleged act of corruption or the denial of the alleged act of corruption? Even if cleared, "Senate Candidate 5's" integrity maybe forever tainted.
"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush reflected on his own struggle with alcohol in a White House meeting Thursday that touted gains in the war on drug abuse." See http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/11/bush.alcohol/index.html "Bush ... quit drinking at the age of 40." Ibid.
There is not just a village somewhere that is missing an idiot, there is an idiot somewhere that is missing a brain not damaged by decades of alcohol abuse. No wonder the whole world is in the mess it is in today. I am speechless.
Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who is President-elect Barack Obama's choice for energy secretary, has been a vocal advocate for more research into alternative energy, arguing that a shift away from fossil fuels is essential to combat global warming.Chu, a Chinese-American who currently is director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, has in recent years campaigned to bring together a cross-section of scientific disciplines to find ways to counter climate change.If action is not taken now to stop global warming, it may be too late, he argues.Since 2004, Chu has been director of the Berkeley lab, the oldest of the Energy Department's national laboratories, with its 4,000 employees and a budget of $650 million. The laboratory does only unclassified work and under Chu has been a center of research into biofuels and solar energy technologies. He is a former head of the physics department at Stanford University.Chu, 60, brings additional diversity to the Obama cabinet.Born to Chinese parents in St. Louis, he grew up in the Queens borough of New York City. His father, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate and professor of chemical engineering, and mother came to the United States in 1943 and two years later decided to stay because of the political turmoil in China.One of the country's most renowned scientists, Chu in 1997 shared the Nobel Prize in physics with two other scientists for his research into ways to cool and trap atoms using laser light. By cooling atoms to minus-273 degrees Celsius, they found the movement of atoms can be slowed to a point where they could be trapped and manipulated.http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h9UxSs58fjw-Taa9KfDV1YccfgbgD9505J8G1
Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who is President-elect Barack Obama's choice for energy secretary, has been a vocal advocate for more research into alternative energy, arguing that a shift away from fossil fuels is essential to combat global warming.
Chu, a Chinese-American who currently is director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, has in recent years campaigned to bring together a cross-section of scientific disciplines to find ways to counter climate change.
If action is not taken now to stop global warming, it may be too late, he argues.
Since 2004, Chu has been director of the Berkeley lab, the oldest of the Energy Department's national laboratories, with its 4,000 employees and a budget of $650 million. The laboratory does only unclassified work and under Chu has been a center of research into biofuels and solar energy technologies. He is a former head of the physics department at Stanford University.
Chu, 60, brings additional diversity to the Obama cabinet.
Born to Chinese parents in St. Louis, he grew up in the Queens borough of New York City. His father, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate and professor of chemical engineering, and mother came to the United States in 1943 and two years later decided to stay because of the political turmoil in China.
One of the country's most renowned scientists, Chu in 1997 shared the Nobel Prize in physics with two other scientists for his research into ways to cool and trap atoms using laser light. By cooling atoms to minus-273 degrees Celsius, they found the movement of atoms can be slowed to a point where they could be trapped and manipulated.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h9UxSs58fjw-Taa9KfDV1YccfgbgD9505J8G1
Note to Dr. Chu: I am a proponent of nuclear power. Talk to the people at Areva and Thorium Power.
May 14, 2007: "Private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management on Monday agreed to pay $7.4 billion for an 80% stake in the Chrysler Group." See http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/cerberus-buy-80-chrysler-74/story.aspx?guid=%7B4AD60D92-DDC1-44F3-BD8A-4F425726D1D0%7D "Cerberus already owns 51% of the financing unit of General Motors Corp," Ibid.
Cerberus Capital Management has the cash to give to Chrysler, its 80% subsidiary, but refuses. Yet, it wants US taxpayers to bail them out. What? Chrysler is asking for public funds to bailout a private entity owned by a cash-rich private entity?
NO WAY!
Incidentally, "Cerberus holds controlling or significant minority interests in companies around the world. In aggregate, these companies currently generate over $100 billion in annual revenues." See http://www.cerberuscapital.com/about_comp_prof.html
As the next Secretary of State, will Hillary be able to carry Barack's message around the world or will she set her own agenda, using words that could undermine the underlying wishes of the President-elect?
I am fairly certain that Barack Obama knows better than to give his trusted messenger unbridled freedom to set foreign polices at will. The question is whether his checks and balances would fulfill his idealistic expectations.
Hillary is an excellent choice for Secretary of State for a hawkish administration, one that will not hesitate to annihilate Iran or start a new arms race with Russia, in much the same way that GW Bush or Senator McCain would like to have it. Unless I have misunderstood the President-elect, I think he is determined to employ diplomacy to its fullest extent before considering any armed conflict. This seems to be in direct conflict with Hillary's military goals which looks awfully similar to GW Bush's. After all, she voted to allow Bush to invade Iraq.
That is in the past. Now is the time to look forward toward a new and improved future. Thankfully, Barack Obama at is at the helm. And we still have Hillary. In many ways, I like Hillary.
If Hillary substitutes her sometimes hawkish attitude with an appropriate degree of humility, something I believe that she is able and willing to do, then she could be the most effective and influential Secretary of State in United States history, helping Barack Obama shape his foreign policies which, hopefully, would usher in a just and peaceful world.
For many around the world, there is not much to be thankful for this year when people have lost their businesses, jobs, homes or a chance at an education, when retirement savings of the working class and the accumulated wealth of the well-to-do have dwindled, when terrorists have struck again at the center of a free civilization.Leaders around the world have roundly condemned the killings in Mumbai, India, yet none of them have condemned the gun manufacturers who have profited from selling firearms to these terrorists.And who exactly are these terrorists? Are they like the Joker in Batman who enjoys killing, unmotivated by greed or ideology, or do they exist merely as the “bad cops” to lend purpose to the “good cops”? Or do they have a simple agenda? To have a voice in their existence, to have their own “thanksgiving” with their families and friends and to have hope for a better future for their children?I am not a sympathizer of terrorists. They have no right to take the lives of others, to cause others injury, to bring fear to those who only wish to go about their lives peaceably. They should be condemned for their action, and so should GW Bush be condemned for waging war in Iraq.This deterioration we face, from the environment to the economy, from our safety to our freedoms, is a result of our individual action or indifference and cannot be reversed by military might, as many in power might want to believe. When the resources of this earth are used and trashed for our immediate gratification and convenience, when we kill each other, our civilization is headed for extinction. Finding another planet to “start over” is a waste of time and pride, for we are unable to divorce our shortcomings from ourselves even though we are capable of removing ourselves from one planet to perhaps exist in another.Civilization cannot be perfected by a change of venue. Evil is in the hearts and minds of most. Those who are “well meaning” and whose extreme ideologies lie on opposite sides and bring them into conflict with each other. Both sides are evil, evil that is in shades of gray and not easily defined, evil that is often cloaked in self-righteousness. In the words of Justice Louis Brandeis: “The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning [unto themselves] but without understanding.”Understanding is not difficult to master but difficult to accept. It is the only means for compromise since understanding is rooted in reason rather than passion. Reason ought to give those who were born with talents and abilities the responsibilities to inspire and help those who were born without. Yet, as simple as this concept maybe, it is one that has not been internalized by many of the best and the brightest or many who are in positions of power, for their minds have been poisoned by the notion that survival is for the fittest. They forget, however, that they are hypocrites, for they are not subscribers to such a notion. They, of all people, are likely the first ones to clamor for medical help when they are ill and the last ones to put at risk their own lives to advance their agendas or accept death even when they are at their weakest.In this group are supposedly “the capitalists,” who are the most vocal proponents of capitalism (the type that is reserved only for the poor and the working class) and the most shameless benefactors of socialism (the type that covers only the rich and the powerful) when they are themselves victims of a free market. So do “the warmongers” and “the terrorists” who are opposite sides of the same coin belong here, for they are willing to go engage in battles and sacrifice the lives of others in vain attempts to compensate for their personal defects or to give themselves worth based on their war-making abilities. People in both these groups can be ruthlessly self-serving. For them, giving thanks to those less capable, less powerful or generally “lesser” than they, or to those under their dictates, seems like an empty gesture when their satisfaction and successes depend upon the expense of others.
Thanksgiving is an American tradition, but the spirit of giving thanks is universal. It ought to stem from an appreciation of life, of this planet and universe, of logic and reason, and end with enjoying and being thankful for the company of one another. From the beginning until the end, in that brief period during our brief simultaneous physical existence relative to time, we ought to learn about and appreciate the differences that make us unique, and be in awe of the similarities that connect us to the flow of humanity.
Timothy F. Geithner:
Mr. Geithner graduated from Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in government and Asian studies in 1983 and from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies with a master’s in International Economics and East Asian Studies in 1985. He has studied Japanese and Chinese and has lived in East Africa, India, Thailand, China, and Japan. http://www.ny.frb.org/aboutthefed/orgchart/geithner.html
While I am sticking to my first and second choices for Secretary of State, Fareed Zakaria and Colin Powell respectively, I find Barack Obama’s naming of Hillary Clinton to the post politically deft.
Firstly, since either John Kerry and Bill Richardson can claim credit for contributing to Barack Obama’s success (Kerry naming Obama the keynote speaker in 2004 and an early supporter of his run for presidency, and Richardson bringing the Latino vote), Hillary’s appointment silences them both since she got 18 million votes during the primary and unites the division within the democratic party.
Secondly, Hillary will provide a necessary counterbalance to Vice-president Elect Joe Biden whose knowledge of foreign policy made him the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That way, Barack Obama can play one against the other so that neither one of them can become overbearing.
Thirdly, Hillary has substance: intellect, articulacy and poise. All she needs is a scintilla of humility and she would be nearly perfect.
Fourthly, the goodwill that Bill Clinton has been generating with his organization, the Clinton Global Initiative, cannot be overlooked or minimized. Hillary will automatically bring all that goodwill with her wherever she goes.
Lastly, politics aside, I think Barack and Hillary genuinely like each other.
Together, they have all the ingredients to make an amazing team. I can’t wait to see how quickly and effectively they can unscramble Bush’s mess and restore respect around the world.
The mulit-headed snake Lieberman started out as a Democrat, became an Independent, then a Republican, and is now trying to become a Democrat again.
Where is the best place to put a snake? Where it can be watched constantly. How about making him co-commissioner of social security? Then his peers will know if he is not doing his job.
Oh, is that job beneath that of a U.S. Senator? Let Lieberman tell the nation and his constituents that fixing social security is not deserving of his time, intellect and devotion.
My pick for Hillary Clinton is not Secretary of State, but Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Barack Obama had already redefined the role of the politician for this century. It is no longer about the amplification of the microphone that broadcasts the repetitive sound-bites that incite fear or bash political decisions with hindsight (see footnote below). It is about having concrete answers for difficult questions. It takes the power of intellect, knowledge, understanding and analysis to navigate through the complex nuances of an integrated world to arrive at realistic, workable and reasonable solutions before problems arise. The grab bag, talking points politics that rallies "the base," incites passion, resentment or anger and instills fear will likely be a chapter that had been closed by the last election.
I am hoping for:
1. TRANSPARENCY -- a transparent government that focuses on long-term advancements rather than short-term political gains, airs high-level cabinet meetings on C-span, encourages broad participation and keeps democracy vibrant;
2. SOLAR AND NUCLEAR ENERGY -- an energy policy that concentrates primarily on solar and nuclear power and minimally on wind, "clean" coal, bio or fossil fuels;
3. NO HAWKISH FOREIGN POLICY -- a foreign policy that de-escalates tensions in the Middle East via a non-traditional, multi-dimensional type diplomacy (religious, economic, social, cultural, medical, educational and environmental), nullifies Bush’s missile shield agreements and halts the march towards Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD);
4. COVERT OPERATIONS -- a military strategy that emphasizes undercover operations over large scale invasions, eliminates non-emergent pre-emptive strikes and torture, and curtails wasteful, special-interest driven military spending;
5. NAME CHANGE -- a name change from the Department of Homeland Security to the Department of National Safety;
6. COMMUNITY WATCH -- a Department of National Safety that builds on effective neighborhood watch programs and community organizations, examines 50% or more of imported items and is conscientiously and constantly vigilant;
7. IMMIGRATION -- an immigration policy that ends illegal entry and identifies quickly and monitors closely legal non-immigrants who overstay their visas;
8. DRUG USE -- a drug policy that punishes those who deal in as well as those who use illegal substances;
9. ECONOMIC REGULATIONS -- an economic policy that regulates the proper valuation of assets, imposes fines and lifetime imprisonment on those who perpetrate fraud, breach fiduciary duties or betray the public trust in a significant way, measured quantitatively or qualitatively;
10. FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY -- a fiscal policy that balances tax revenues against aggregate spending (military and non-military);
11. TAX REVENUE ALLOCATION -- a tax form that allows each taxpayer to allocate his/her share of taxes to different departments within the government, the results of the prior year’s allocations to be published every January so that taxpayers can choose to re-allocate their tax dollars in the current tax year (non-individual and fiscal year taxpayers exempted);
12. MONETARY POLICY AND DEVALUATION REVERSALS -- a Federal Reserve chairman who is concerned not only with liquidity needs, mortgage rates, inflationary pressures and economic expansions or contractions but also with the value of the dollar against other currencies;
13. INFRASTRUCTURE RENEWAL, WATER PRESERVATION AND A NEW WATER GRID -- an economic expansion program that rebuilds the nation’s existing infrastructure, constructs new and tamper-proof "backyard" reservoirs on every block to collect snow fall and rain water and installs a water grid allowing the flow of such water, or freshly desalinated water, from a wet to a drought area;
14. PREVENTION HEALTH-CARE -- a health-care system that encourages prevention, exercise and a proper diet, discourages excess food consumption, smoking and drug use and rewards conscientious and dedicated health-care workers;
15. BASIC EDUCATION -- a return to excellence in education, teaching teachers and students grammar, the evolution of language, the gradual extinction of the adverb and the correct pronunciation of the word, "nuclear;"
16. VIOLENCE AND EXCESSES -- a national philosophy that rebukes violence in entertainment, excesses in indulgence and desires for instant gratification;
17. LIMITS AND TEMPTATIONS OF POWER -- an administration, from top to bottom, that is always mindful of a) the differences between totalitarianism and democracy, b) the limits of power, particularly powers that are in the presidential "twilight zone," and those below it that are subtle, self-serving and seemingly innocuous in isolation, but carry grave and lasting consequences when compounded and c) the omnipresent temptations that are all too often and too easily overlooked or rationalized; and
18. A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE -- an American understanding and acceptance that we live in a diverse world, that enlightenment can come only from learning about each other’s differences and being in awe of the similarities, that in order to build a peaceful future, everyone must have a stake, a common purpose guided by reason that leads steadfastly toward the ideal, that provincialism, ideology, arrogance or prejudice will only deter, if not destroy, the refinement of civilization.
Once upon a time, Senator Obama said something about airing his meetings on C-span. Will this promise be fulfilled?
It would be amazing if democracy can be transparent for transparency encourages participation and keeps democracy vibrant.
Please, NOT John Kerry. First choices: A) FAREED ZAKARIA; B) COLIN POWELL; C) CHRIS DODD
4thchoice: ANGELINA JOLIE AND BRAD PITT; 5th choice: BOBBY JINDAL
6th choice: JERRY BROWN, JR.
