Friday Five - If I were President edition

1.

I would tell Saudi Arabia that I will only send Jewish women as ambassadors or representatives of any kind. I would leave it up to them to object and tell them that it is MY CHOICE, not theirs.

If they still object, I would give in and ask them, in exchange, not to send any Muslims or men to the US as ambassadors or representatives of any kind.

2.

I would tell the president of Iran that one of my advisors told me that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in the American civil service. I would ask him if he agreed with my advisor about religious minorities not being trustworthy. I would tell him that I will entirely follow his lead on this, without preconditions.

3.

I would withdraw all troops from Germany and station them in Poland. I would feel that I should listen to foreign public opinion and most Germans are now against American troops being stationed in Germany.

4.

I would start a nation-wide survey to find out if the percentage of positions created in universities to promote equality between genders and races that are filled by white men is somewhat equal to the percentage of white men among the general population. If I find that white men are underpresented in those positions I would ask the universities to explain to me what the people working in those positions have done to promote the hiring of white men until the same percentage has been reached.

5.

I would propose a peace plan for the Arab-Israeli conflict in which I state that both Jews and Arabs are of equal value and that both Arab and Jewish refugees as groups should be compensated equally by the opposite side. I would propose that the Arab League dictate what amount of money should be paid. The Arab countries must then pay that amount to Israel as the legal representative of the Jewish refugees and Israel must pay that amount to the PLO as the legal representative of the Arab refugees.

If anybody objects or disagrees with the plan, I will ask them to propose an alternative plan, which must merely meet three conditions:

(I) Arabs and Jews must not be treated unequally.

(II) Nobody must be forced to move to a place where he is likely to be killed or doesn't want to go.

(III) Nobody is allowed to move to a place where he is likely to kill.

I will continue to promote that plan at every occasion the subject is discussed and whenever the subject comes up. I will also regularly condemn Syrian occupation of Kurdish lands, should the subject of opressive occupations of other peoples come up.

Presidents dont have a lot of power, so this is not a "if I were king".  Hard to say since virtually anything would have to pass congress.

but...

1. I would run my mouth

2. I would probably be shot.

3. I would alienate all Politicall correct people

4. Would bar all the present press corps from the white house

5. Have the Justice department investigate all of congress - it is not the evidence that counts, but the appearance of impropriety.

Cause the last time troops went from Germany to Poland it ended real well

Sorry, couldn't resist!

The last troop movements concerning Germany and Poland were Russian troops withdrawing from Germany to Russia and Polish and East-German troops invading Czechoslovakia.

1) Start every announcemnet, State of the Union, Address, convention, speech, etc with the following words:

"First off let me say, I am not Bush. Now that we have that out of the way".

2) I would make sure every computer in the White House uses Stardock products.

3) I would force Microsoft to release the same Windows version Bill Gates uses.

4) I would tell Iran that we are actually concerned with their peoples lives and its why we on bugging them about the nukes and we will show them what could happen if they accidentally nuked themselves.

5) I would raise the taxes on everyone who voted for Obama.

1.  Fix the economy.  I don't know how but it seems like that should be the President's number one priority right now. 

2.  Repeal don't ask, don't tell.  Allow gays to serve openly. 

3.  Stop the ICE workplace raids and actually fine or criminally charge the employers who hire undocumented workers.  The lopsided enforcement has gone on long enough.  Streamline the immigration process.  It should not take so long or cost so much money.

4. Put the breaks on spending.  Cut programs.   Start tackling our debt. 

5.  Plan for withdrawal of majority of troops from Iraq. 

1.  Fix No Child Left Behind.  Quit using high stakes fill in the blank testing to assess student progress.  Educate teachers on best teaching practices instead of taking away money from schools that "don't make the cut."  Give power back to the states in regards to education.

2.  Cut non-essential programs.

3.  Instead of throwing money and food stamps at people mindlessly, I would REQUIRE that they choose some sort of vocational or professional program they are interested in, and I would require that they go through a financial responsibility course.  It's stupid to throw money at people and just let them have it.

4.  I would create a nation/world service program that was mandatory for kids right out of high school.  They could choose what area they wanted to work in, like the military, or working with the elderly, or in schools.  I think a program like this would help kids figure out what they want to do with their lives, and create much less student debt (because kids would know what they wanted to do in college before they went).  This work could also be church related.  THe point would be to focus on others and give back a little bit.

5.  Free ice cream on Fridays.

I want to meet the first politician who is against that.

Yes!

I would do that without telling anyone. That way the terrorists cannot plan their "victory" and don't know how long they have to survive/act quiet.

Do you realize that many food stamp recipients ARE working.  They are the working poor and struggle to feed their families.  Would you require a financial responsilbiity course for the corporate recipients of the billions in bailout money? 

kiss up

This sounds like a good plan to me, leauki. 

Yes, it is a good plan.

But the Arabs would never accept it. Israel would.

Five things I would propose:

1) All Americans have to pay a small federal tax whose amount is based on some trivial percentage of the total federal budget so that Americans who vote for politicians who promise new goodies will feel the pinch with higher taxes.  Failure to pay taxes means no voting in federal elections.

2) I would change corporate income tax rates to match individual taxes.

3) I would begin a phased withdrawal of most US troops from around the world, particularly Korea, Germany, and Iraq.

4) I would freeze spending across the board until we are running a surplus that would pay off the debt within 20 years.

5) I would cut spending for federal education and defense and permanently cap non-medicare non-social security entitlement programs.

1. Bring back the poll tax. I'd only charge a dollar but that would be enough to keep the riff-raff out.

2. Outlaw telemarketing!

3. hang all the lawyers

4. I'd release and deport our worse criminals to Iraq & Afganistan and THEN pull our troops out.

5. I'd start havin' a thang for cigars.

I haven't read anyone else's replies yet, so I hope I don't repeat too much of what others have said.

If I were president, I would...

1. Make peace with those we are at war with

2. Fight Poverty 

3. End the stupid TAKS test (or state mandated test), so that kids will Love learning more than ever

4. Make daily naps mandatory...we are a sleep deprived nation! (me included....:P)

5. Take mental health seriously...we need find a way to detect and treat mental problems at an early age so that those children won't turn into  screwed up adults.

Really? How?

Tony Blair has already offered peace to Afghanistan, before the invasion. Give up Bin Laden or give up power, he said. The Taliban refused to make peace. The same offer was made to Iraq in 2002. Turns out the reason they are our enemies is that they don't like us.

Tell me, how would you stop the Taliban and Al-Qaeda from attacking people, including Americans?

Israel has offered peace to the Arabs in 1948 (and was invaded for it), in 1967 (and the Arabs refused), in the 1980s (and the PLO started another war), and in 1994 (and the PLO broke the peace treaty in 2001). Making peace is a lot more difficult than it should be.

This is an interest shift in policy from previous attempts to encourage poverty.

How would you fight poverty? Dump another few billion dollars into programs that didn't work?

One good way to fight poverty is to exile all millionaires. That way the average income will go down and so will the poverty line. Hence fewer people would be below the poverty line and hence fewer people would be poor.

I don't see that kids will love learning more if there are no tests, or that loving learning more will make kids learn useful things to a useful degree.

That's a good idea.

Oh, yes.

Golly gee, Rose! here you've been Prez. for only one day and ya done gotcha a critic!

1. Neat!

2. I don't have a TV, hate almost everything they show.

3. They would object.

4. Of course, that would be considered a violation of international law. Ironically, that's pretty much what Iraq, Afghanistan, and Saudi-Arabia have done to the US and Europe.

5. I hope that won't be policy.

I really like that!

LoL...I see that.

Actually I just wrote down what came to mind. I guess I need to get myself some political advisors (takers, anyone?)...I do tend to see the whole picture instead of the parts, afterall.

I do want to reply to the state testing. I teach it...I can find so many ways to make it "fun" and "interesting" to the students, but in the end, it is pressure filled and just makes students resent being taught this way.

I am not against being held accountable for what I teach (I am pretty used to it now).  I just think there is a better way to do it (formative testing is something I'd like to see done).

I nominate Chris! I'm sure there's a movie scene with every possible senario of what could possibly go wrong that he could pull something from!

I have been a teacher once. I taught Linux at a computer school. But mostly I have been a student.

And I hated attempts of teachers to make learning fun and interesting.

Those attempts always ended up attempts to make learning fun and interesting for the majority. And I was always never part of the majority. But even when I was I didn't appreciate the fact that some students/children felt out of the loop because the majority now had fun and they did not. Some of those most interested in learning were usually not part of the majority of the class.

The traditional rules and tests system, although hated by everyone, at least manages not to exclude systematically certain students and created a team spirit when the class realised that everyone is in the same boat.

I don't know what you want to do to make learning fun but I have seen so many of those attempts go wrong because the teacher didn't take into account the group dynamics of the class that I am now against experiments. If your students overwhelmingly support your ideas, that's the moment when the class split up into a majority who are happy and a minority who are now outsiders kept out by the system.

Sorry, education systems are one of my pet peeves.

I would like to hear what ideas you have. I don't see working replacements for tests.

I'm sorry you feel so blah about the education system...you, of course, are one of many. Let me make it clear that I teach 5th graders...10 and 11 year olds.  It is safe to say that I cannot stand in front of a classroom and lecture all day...lol.  Kids need movement and interaction, something to keep them from falling asleep at their desks.  Of COURSE I am going to try to make it interesting. 

I have been "teaching to the test" for a good part of the school year for the past 8 years.  It takess a toll on students, teachers, and parents.  Our 1st test date is in March, and we have been preparing the students since September.  

What I want is a test at the BEGINNING of the year that will give me an idea of the level a student is at on a certain subject.  Not just some little benchmark test, but a real in depth one that will give me an idea of what I would need to work on with this student for the rest of the year. To me, a formative test would be more useful than the summative testing we have now. This is also beneficial to advanced students, who wouldn't have to be taught skills they already have mastered.

Thanks for challenging my replies, but I just did this out of fun, basically.  I guess I won't be winning any Make Believe JoeUser elections anytime soon, eh?