We hold doctors, firefighters and teachers to high standards through accountability... yet we do not have any standards for weathermen.

Weathermen cause a potential risk to the public welfare. Failure to report accurate predictions may cause people to dress inappropriately (causing a vicious case of the sniffles), not bring along an umbrella (again, causing a vicious case of the sniffles), or worse yet, not prepare for severe weather.

Imagine if the city of New Orleans had had more than 36 hours as a heads up about Katrina. They could have left their evacuation plan untouched for days!

There should be two prongs of accountability to which we hold our meteorologists.

First, we should create a meteorologist-licensing program. In order to professionally predict weather in the media, one must have a license. To obtain this license, one must pass a competency test.

Second, we should cause meteorologists to show their record of predictions on screen during their segment. This includes a rain-and-shine average (think batting average), a standard deviation for temperatures, and a career number of times the weatherguy has interrupted your favorite television shows. With this information, we as citizens will know how much salt we should consume with their predictions.

These two reforms will allow Americans to know the answer to this age-old question: “Is our weathermen predicting?”

I fear that I may have reached menopause within seven-months of birth.

I do not regret my time of experimenting. In fact, some say I get that same look in my eye when I see those special dogs – and cats. When we try to make puppies, or kitpies, it is usually done in a private setting. We offend no one but each other.

It may be true that in most holy books it suggests the death penalty for same-gender sex. These holy books suggest death for other crimes like fibbing and intoxication. We generally allow people to fib in private matters. We generally allow people to acquire intoxication as long as it does not affect others. Same-gender sex should be treated the same way in this light.

If Fido wants to marry FiFi, then let him. If FiFi wants to marry FiFi, then let her. It’s Fido and FiFi’s choice, not mine. If Fido and FiFi start to do more than offend my taste – like injure my well-being – then we can legislate.

America is exporting manufacturing jobs to our trade partners. Considering the rigorous regulations in place, our businesses simply can not compete with their foreign rivals unless they produce elsewhere. What results is instead of safe, reasonable jobs, we have no jobs.

American trading partners want free trade; we should offer fair trade. Our friends to the south of the border provide for an approximately 62¢ minimum wage... one-ninth of the minimum wage in the United States. This comparison is simply unfair to the American workers.

Further, there are several safety regulations that exist in the United States that do not exist in our neighbor’s nations. There regulations make it more costly to do business in America compared to other nations – cheating Americans out of jobs.

The potential for free trade within North America is great and would be great for the American people, as long as it is fair trade. We should encourage our neighbors to the north and south to work towards better conditions and pay for their workers. This will eliminate the unfair advantage they share over Americans. Once we compete head to head, America will win out on the job market and the bottom line.

Over the course of six weeks, the United States has endured an over 12% drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an estimated 4% inflation rate, $100 per barrel oil, and a higher unemployment rate. Get ready for a ride, we’re heading for a capital-R Recession.

There is a long-term solution to the pending economic crisis, yet no candidate is willing to take the correct stand on the issue. Everyone is pursuing Reaganomic symptom relief instead of a cure for a larger economic problem.

The American economic policy pursued by Reagan, Bush-41, Clinton and Bush-43 push the consumer industries instead of building more capital resources. Tax cuts are a short-term solution used to delay a long-term problem.

The economy is directly related to how much labor and capital the country has. Capital is the sum of the resources – natural and manufactured – available for production. This includes roads, factories, machines and all the like.

The private sector has geared itself to produce consumer goods – things used and discarded. In fact, after September 11, we were told to go buy stuff like any good patriot. This pushed the crisis off another five years.

With the infrastructure, bridges and stock market collapsing, not even mentioning the housing financial crisis, America needs to invest in capital, not more short term paper solutions.

Rebuilding the backbone of our economy with a large, nationwide public works program is in order. This will involve the sacrifice of some luxuries in our day-to-day life. This small sacrifice is better than facing a second Great Depression.

Americans need a responsible leader willing to take heat for the correct decision, not one who panders to the short term desires of the voters. Americans need Molly.

As it should to any American, the content of one’s character should not be judged on the their cover. Some of my best friends colors are beige, rust, white, black, and even bald. I am currently single, but spend most of my personal time with a tuxedo cat – both black and white.

I see my friends for who they are – and I try to see everyone for who they are. I can usually sniff out troublemakers in disguise.

One of my childhood friends, a fellow dachshund, is not a proud papa. Perhaps ambitious at the time, his mate was a yellow Labrador. It took some courting and negotiation with the in-laws, but they lead as happy of a life as any other “full-breed” family out there… and their two kids are the sweetest pair of stretched big dogs I have ever met.

Like many, I am proud of my past. The dachshund is a hardy breed, headstrong and able to befriend just about anyone. That said, I am more proud to be an American. I’m sure you feel the same way, mono-breed or mixed-breed.

When implemented, the No Child Left Behind legislation called for accountability for public education through common assessments. No one can reasonably argue against accountability for any government agency. Providing a fair system of accountability is the issue at hand.

No Child Left Behind prescribes punishment for schools who are not improving their test scores and rewards for improving schools. This includes cutting of funds, allowance of transfers from the district, termination of administrators and eventual termination of the school itself.

Using a school as its own benchmark makes sense, to some extent. However, some schools that consistently perform at a superior standard will find themselves on the brink of funding cuts after ranking one of the best schools in the nation, due to a lack of improvement. On the other hand, schools with extremely low scores are able to stay out of trouble with marginal improvements. This punishes the good schools and enables worse schools’ problems in the long run. Schools should be compared to similar schools, the state, the nation and the world.

What about the effects on students… who said that standardized testing was ever a good measure of student performance? Thousands of American students suffer from test anxiety. Should we really demand students to pass a fill-in-the-bubble quiz in order to graduate? When is the last time anyone in the real world took a fill-in-the-bubble quiz?

Simple quantitative measures on student performance are not enough to value education. Qualitative measures are also needed to value districts, schools, administrators, and students’ achievement. Outside observers, student evaluations and faculty accounts can provide more than pass-rates and percentages.

Accurate accountability – not to mention less focus on exams themselves – will set American education in the right direction.

The short term goals of the operations should be twofold: secure Iraq in the short run and provide Iraq the assistance to secure itself in the long run.

Our troops have been and continue to be in danger. Thousands have died and thousands more have lost significant quality of life on Iraq’s battlefield. War is not easy. War is painful; war is costly; war is hell. War is also the final end of diplomacy.

One finds the rudimentary workings of grassroots diplomacy on the ground in Iraq. Domestic politics splintered into three factions with deep running beliefs provide for a difficult road for the Iraqi people. Building a network of political capital will take time.

The people of Iraq are caught in the midst of an international struggle as well as a domestic struggle. In a country about the same size as California, security is a prevailing issue. Warmongers from other parts of the world enter Iraq on a daily basis. Dissidents on behalf of al Qa’ida seek opportunities to recruit terrorists. What results is a potential powder keg.

Republican leadership emphasizes the need for a military strategy. Democratic leadership emphasizes the need for diplomatic strategy. Both parties miss the point.

The best Iraq strategy involves both a military and diplomatic strategy. By providing assistance to the Iraqi people to keep the violence out of politics, America can enable democracy in the Fertile Crescent.

The market structure of healthcare places doctors as price takers. Ironically, it is the private insurance companies who set the prices doctors charge insurance companies. The government gets taken along for the ride.

Reforming the bloated legal system would help doctors make healthcare affordable. Malpractice insurance for some doctors is well into six-digit land. This cost gets passed to people like you and me. Legislators and lawyers seem to be great at making anything overcomplicated, even McDonald’s coffee. Cutting the needless lawsuits – while maintaining a system for legitimate malpractice claims – will cut costs for doctors and patients.

Some argue the simple solution is to socialize the whole system. Some government assistance is not a terrible idea. Every dog has a bad day. Safety nets sound like the best idea since wheat kibble. However, having heard from other dogs who have gone to the doggy Veteran’s Administration hospitals, “universal healthcare” is a horrible idea. Feel free to go to the VA hospital in your area – and these people earned their keep for our country. Imagine being the patients.

The real solution behind fixing American medicine is a series of reforms. Getting people to get up and going for walks/exercise, getting people to get check ups and use preventative medicine, getting people to eat healthier foods, and other at home solutions can take the sting out of the healthcare budget. Money spent subsidizing these activities would be much better spent than on after-the-fact socialized medicine. I personally adhere to each of these causes, and the only interaction with vets I have endured was the standard check ups. After all, who really likes going to the vet for more than that?

Our nation has made a long history of accepting immigrants from all over the world. Granted, once American, these ex-pats are treated poorly. Early racist leaders like Ben Franklin poorly treated my heritage from Germany. Our image took beatings in the two world wars. Shih Tzus can tell a similar story, as American attitudes scoffed Asian migration. Our friends from below the Rio Grande will be able to tell a different story, assuming they start to follow our laws.

We should be patient with our new friends as they assimilate – and they should be patient with us as we work them into our system. A two-year long wait seems should when you can enjoy citizenship for the rest of your life.

Americans should not change our legal ways. We have become stronger and stronger by bringing in those willing to come here from around the world. What we should do, however, is enforce the laws on the books.

If we find anyone here illegally, then we should boot them from the nation and their place in the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s line. This is not a difficult concept. We should be able to provide the support needed for the staff in charge of this law enforcement. If we can pay people to regulate automobile parking, then we can pay people to enforce laws that directly affect our economy and national security.

We have decent rules in play. Let’s just follow them and punish those who do not.