The Daily Dose/October 26, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience…
ALL OVER BUT THE IMPEACHING: 100 years from now, when historians are analyzing the end of the Republican Party, the rushing of GOP House members into a closed-door impeachment hearing might be looked back on as an important, if not defining, moment.
There was really no point to it. There were GOP members on the committees conducting the hearing and the stormtrooper’s sole purpose was to muddy the waters and make the process seem like an illegitimate circus. It had every air of desperate members of a dying party rallying around an indefensible president.
Fly In The Ointment: Their protest was without merit. There was not, and has not been, anything of substance from the GOP on the details emerging from the proceedings. All they have offered is blather about the process.
Constitution 101: This blather is without merit as Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution is very clear on the matter:
The House of Representatives … shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.
Dry, Technical Matter: That’s it. The Constitution otherwise offers no guidance, and offers zero barriers, to how the House goes about impeaching a federal official. They can do it however they see fit. They can hold their hearings in a US capitol conference room or they can hold them at third base at Nationals Park. They don’t even have to have a hearing nor do they have to impeach for a criminal offense. To quote Alexander Hamilton, writing in Federalist #65, impeachment is for:
…those offences which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.
Get Your Official Daily Dose Policy Right Here: Even considering the broad scope of the House’s impeachment powers, the president is being treated fairly. His basic defense of lying, smearing and tweeting has not, is not and will not serve him, or our country, well.
Today At The Site
It’s Read Free Week! Enjoy both The Diary of a Nobody and The Bottom Ten on the house.
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow has the latest from the Veteran Service Office. Today’s Diary.
Around 1300 or so I get a call from a kid named Ken…Or he sounded like a kid in his 20’s…Some research showed he’s actually a bit older than that…Anyway, he’s my counterpart at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), their district commander up here, and he said he was calling VSOs in the district and introducing himself…Yes, sir, an appropriate call to make but good gravy, this kid was a firehose of information…There were all sorts of programs he’d taken part in for those with PTSD and he wanted me to know about each of them and there were a dozen other things, so many I stopped taking notes…I ended up emailing him – poor kid has ‘kidney stones’ as part of his email address, thanks he said to his service in the sandbox – so he’s be able to send me the very latest and keep me in the loop.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
It’s Read Free Week: click here to enjoy the Week 9 NCAA Bottom Ten and here to enjoy the Week 9 NFL Bottom Ten.
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On This Date
In 1825 – The Erie Canal – connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes via the Hudson River – opens to commercial traffic. There were no civil engineers in the US at the time and the project was run by men with little surveying, engineering or construction experience. Construction also required innovations in felling trees, moving earth and cutting through limestone, challenges which were all met. Construction had begun in 1817 and the canal is estimated to have cut overland shipping costs by 90 percent. At the time it was the second-longest canal in the world today it is the sixth-longest.
In 1985 – In one of the most famous missed calls in the pre-instant replay era, umpire Don Denkinger calls Jorge Orta of the Kansas City Royals safe at first base when he was really out, leading to the Royals defeating the St Louis Cardinals 2-1 in Game 6 of the World Series. Orta was later thrown out at third base on an attempted sacrifice and the Cardinals weren’t helped by a passed ball and an uncaught foul pop up. The win tied the series at three games apiece, and the Royals won their first World Series title the following night, defeating the Cardinals 11-0.
In 1959 – Bobby Darin is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the fourth of nine non-consecutive weeks with Mack the Knife. It was Darin’s fourth Top 10 song and remains his only #1 hit. The song also went to #1 in Great Britain, peaked at #6 on Billboard’s soul chart and ranked #3 on Billboard’s 60th-anniversary chart last year. Mack the Knife was the first song to spend nine weeks at #1 on the Hot 100, a record that would later be matched by Percy Faith (Theme From a Summer Place) and the Beatles (Hey Jude). The song was replaced at #1 after six weeks by Mr Blue by the Fleetwoods for one week, before returning to #1.
Quotebook
One takes the most momentous steps unaware.
Dick Francis
In The Frame
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
The NCAA all-division record for the longest field goal is 67-yards, done four times, most recently in 1988 by Tom Odle of Fort Hays State. The all-time collegiate record is 69-yards, done by Ove Johansson of Abeline Christian of the NAIA in 1976.
Today’s Stumper
Which canal is the longest in the world? – Answer next time!
