Impeach Bush - A Wasted Effort At This Point

By: Sarah Hutchins

"Impeach Bush! Impeach Bush!" command the posters, bumper stickers and protesters eagerly waving their signs around Portland. I smile at their valiant effort, but then a wistful thought snakes through my mind. Too little, too late.

As much as I would love to see George W. Bush booted out of the White House, sprawled on the concrete while passerbys sneer at his dopey face, it isn't a realistic goal.

Looking at Bill Clinton's case, it took months of trials to impeach him and despite the impeachment, he remained in office until the end of his term. Since Bush is less than a year away from the end of his term, an impeachment would be unlikely to remove him from office any sooner than planned.

A Web site called www.bushslastday.com has a wonderful timer counting down the seconds until Bush's term of presidency is finally finished.

Even if the U.S. government worked uncharacteristically speedily to remove Bush from office, Dick Cheney would then become the president. It seems superfluous to spend tax money to remove one scumbag from office just to replace him with another. I have seen "Impeach Cheney" signs as well, but people are still missing the bigger picture; that change will not become possible until Bush's cabinet is eradicated and replaced.

Supporting Barack Obama or John McCain is a good start. Yet, protestors' time would be better spent fighting for issues. The media often focuses on choosing Obama as president so he can clean up Bush's messes.

Supporting presidential candidates is a good idea as long as other important issues don't get swept underneath the rug. Protestors could spend time locally supporting the causes that make Obama a more admirable president than Bush.

Ending the Iraq War is paramount. As both the number of wounded soldiers and the death rate climbs, the situation is becoming increasingly desperate. There are few stories sadder than the 18-year-olds, fresh from high school, that want to protect their country but instead lose their life in a war centered on the president's greed.

In Obama's Blueprint For Change, he states that as president, "I will end the war in Iraq. I will close Guantanamo. I will restore habeas corpus." He promises that he would never allow such torture to occur as Bush has orchestrated at Guantanamo. A recent New York Times article reported that some people have been detained in Guantanamo now for six years under harsh conditions.

Perhaps if Bush were not so personally involved with established oil companies, he'd be keen on the idea of finding another source of energy. Once the fossil fuels are consumed, they're gone. It is childish to fight over it. Children are taught to share, but first I think that adults must learn this principle. Many countries have taken a mature stance on the energy crisis by looking for alternative, sustainable options.

On Obama's Web site, he suggests that this would create up to five million new green jobs. These jobs would start higher than minimum wage and have the potential for advancement.

New, sustainable, high-paying jobs are exactly what we need to boost our economy and the environment. Also, it would be a proactive step toward combating global warming.

Several recent reports are concerned that the polar ice cap could completely break apart this summer for the first time in human history. The melted ice would become fresh water, diluting the salt content in the oceans. Wild polar bears would be rendered extinct. Ocean currents, which control weather, could be affected. Major cities could suffer from flooding. The ramifications are not fully known.

Human rights are another support-worthy cause. With California becoming the second state to legalize gay marriage, now is a great time to follow in Canada's footsteps to advocate for gay rights for the entire United States. As president, Obama pledges to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and support gay rights for equality.

Obama will also support college students by creating the new American Opportunity Tax Credit to make community college and the first $ 4,000 of every student's higher education free. The rest of the tuition would be covered by up to two-thirds of the cost.

There are several other issues that Obama states that he supports which we could also try to improve locally. Taking care of our veterans, civil rights, improving education standards, creating affordable healthcare, fighting poverty and any other society-improving cause that you can think up.

If someone has the time to hold signs demanding to impeach George W., than perhaps reallocating that time to support these causes would be a better use of one's time.

How the cookie crumbles - Potential First Ladies Recipe Contest

In the midst of a presidential election year, we're being hit with political news left and right. But something outside of the nominees has come across the circuit recently.

Family Circle magazine is hosting a potential first lady cookie recipe contest, as they have for the past four elections. In the 21st century, however, it is extremely archaic to assume that potential first ladies occupy such a domestic tradition.

The newsworthy aspect of the cookie contest is that the first lady, who has won the recipe challenge in the past four elections, has been attached to the politician who wins the election itself. It's very impressive because, in a spooky way, a wife's cookie recipe can forecast her husband's success. But that is a mindset from past generations of nuclear families.

Today, female role models should not come from Betty Crocker. Women may still get married, have children and manage to run a household, but we also go to college, have careers and make names for ourselves that do not revolve around our famous chocolate chip cookie recipe.

The idea of the cookie contest may have come around to promote the first lady as a positive role model, but children should really be hearing about how she is married to a senator and a presidential nominee. She didn't marry so she could be a trophy on a man's arm.

It is a demeaning contest to be asking these successful women to come up with homemade cookie recipes when they, like most working mothers, probably buy the Pillsbury ready-made dough.

Between litigations, children and her husband's campaign, do you think Michelle Obama is really considering if cinnamon is the missing ingredient in her famous shortbread cookie recipe? Would Cindy McCain? Frankly, no. I do not expect that they ever, especially not now, have enough hours in the day to be creating cookie recipes from scratch.

I actually feel bad for Cindy McCain. The woman is an heiress to one of the largest Anheuser-Busch distributors in the nation, has a Master of Arts in special education and founded the American Voluntary Medical Team, which brings emergency medical care to disaster or war-torn areas in third-world countries.

Do we care if she has a homemade recipe for macaroons? She already got in trouble earlier in the year for plagiarizing a passion fruit mousse recipe from the Food Network. For the competition, she is trying oatmeal butterscotch cookies.

And should we be concerned about Michelle Obama's shortbread cookie recipe? It makes more sense to focus on the fact that she received her undergraduate degree from Princeton, graduated cum laude and received her Juris Doctorate from Harvard.

Maybe our society is afraid of having intelligent and successful role models and the cookie crumbs are more accessible to the public. Or maybe people can't seem to understand that a politician is more believable when he has an intelligent, self-supporting woman on his arm that chose him over all of the other men she could have taken.

If we want to get to know these women and use them as positive role models, we should be asking them about what they really know.

How does Michelle Obama actually balance her work, family and husband's career? How does Cindy McCain chair her father's company, run a NPO and maintain a smile for her husband's campaign? These men should feel privileged to be married to such successful women and not have them downplayed or domesticated into a Stepford wife.

First ladies should be intelligent, articulate and just as successful as their husbands. It makes no difference if they cheat with Bisquick or make batter from scratch. It does not change who they are. Even though the cookie results will not be revealed until October, I can safely say, we already have two winning women.

How the cookie crumbles - Opinion