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Saturday, September 29, 2012

The Electoral College

Joe Lizura on set for a Starbucks fundraiser

9/29/12. My daughter asked me the other day about how the electoral college worked and why there was one. Today I saw a nice explainer piece on Yahoo, so I thought I'd share it:

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE AND HOW IT WORKS

Presidents are elected not by national popular vote but by an 18th century constitutional compromise called the Electoral College.

HOW IT FORMED

When framers were drafting the U.S. Constitution, there were two competing ideas on how to elect the president. One group said Congress should do it; the other said it should be a national vote of eligible citizens. There also were disputes over how much slaves should count in representation in Congress and over how power would be distributed between small and large states. The compromise became part of the second article of the Constitution, although the words "Electoral College" are not included. The electors pick the president and vice president.

VOTE TOTALS

Each state gets one electoral vote for each of its representatives in the House and Senate. The District of Columbia gets three votes. All told, there are 538 votes in the Electoral College. A candidate must have at least 270 to win. Except for Maine and Nebraska, states award all their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the state. In Maine and Nebraska, votes are apportioned by congressional districts. So in 2008, even though John McCain won Nebraska's statewide popular vote, Barack Obama won the 2nd Congressional District and earned one of the state's five electoral votes.

HOW IT WORKS

Each state's electors will meet on Dec. 17 in their home states and cast their votes for president and vice president. Congress will meet on Jan. 6, 2013, to conduct an official tally of the electoral votes. Vice President Joe Biden will preside and declare the winner.

PROBLEM AREAS

If no candidate gets at least 270 electoral votes, the election goes to the newly elected House of Representatives. Each state delegation in the House gets one vote, and a candidate must win a majority of the states to be elected president. This happened in 1824, when Andrew Jackson won the most popular votes and the most electoral votes, but four candidates split the electoral votes and no one received a majority. The race went to the House and John Quincy Adams, who came in second, was chosen as president. Three other times, candidates won the Electoral College even though they lost the popular vote — in 1876, 1888 and 2000.

This doesn't answer all the questions, so I'd also suggest going to Wikipedia and reading more as well, and that link is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_college

It's good to read and appreciate how our political system works - remembering that our system is actually a Republic for of governement - from the Pledge of Allegence: "And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation ....."

Joe Lizura
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Andy Williams R.I.P.

Joe Lizura San Diego, California. September 26, 2012. Well, it's late in the day here and before I go to bed I wanted to share a few thoughts about the passing of Andy Williams. It's been sad lately with the number of very talented actors, singers, songwriters and comedians passing away - It's almost as though the "old guard" of entertainment, whom we usually forever remember as young, are slowly leaving us with memories that will never take the place of the real thing.

Andy Williams is someone whom I always admired and respected as a very talented singer, actor and performer. His musical work was second to none with 18 gold records and countless television episodes and specials. I can remember very clearly the sounds of Andy Williams playing on my parents record player even though I was just a little boy.

His Christmas specials and albums were wonderful and two of my favorite songs - Moon River and The Theme From "Love Story" will always be remembered as though I was still a youngster. Yes, it was a bit of a sad day for me knowing that the world lost such a talented man.

Here is big part of the story from the San Francisco Chronicle that mentions just a few of his accomplishments:

With a string of gold albums, a hit TV series and the signature "Moon River," Andy Williams was a voice of the 1960s, although not the '60s we usually hear about.

The singer known for his easy-listening style and his wholesome, middle-America appeal was the antithesis of the counterculture that gave rise to rock 'n' roll.

"The old cliche says that if you can remember the 1960s, you weren't there," he once recalled. "Well, I was there all right, but my memory of them is blurred - not by any drugs I took but by the relentless pace of the schedule I set myself."

Mr. Williams' plaintive tenor, boyish features and clean-cut demeanor helped him outlast many of the decade's rock stars and fellow crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Perry Como. He remained on the charts into the 1970s, hosting hugely popular Christmas television specials and becoming closely associated with the holiday standard "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year."

Mr. Williams, who continued to perform into his 80s at the Moon River Theatre he built in Branson, Mo., announced in November that he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer and vowed to return to performing the following year, his 75th in show business.

The 84-year-old entertainer died Tuesday night at his Branson home, his Los Angeles publicist, Paul Shefrin, said Wednesday.

He became a major star in 1956, the same year as Elvis Presley, with the Sinatra-like swing number "Canadian Sunset." For a time, he was pushed into such Presley imitations as "Lips of Wine" and the No. 1 smash "Butterfly."

But he mostly stuck to what he called his "natural style" and kept it up throughout his career. In 1970, when even Sinatra had temporarily retired, Mr. Williams was in the top 10 with the theme from "Love Story," the Oscar-winning tearjerker. He had 18 gold records, three platinum and five Grammy nominations.

Mr. Williams was also the first host of the live Grammy Awards telecast and hosted the show for seven consecutive years, beginning in 1971.

Movie songs became a specialty, including his signature "Moon River." The longing Johnny Mercer-Henry Mancini ballad was his most famous song, even though he never released it as a single because his record company feared such lines as "my huckleberry friend" were too confusing and old-fashioned for teens.

"The Andy Williams Show," which lasted through the 1960s and into 1971, won three Emmys and featured Williams performing his stable of hits and bantering with guest stars.

He was born Howard Andrew Williams in Wall Lake, Iowa, on Dec. 3, 1927. In his memoir, Mr. Williams remembered himself as a shy boy who concealed his insecurity "behind a veneer of cheek and self-confidence."

- Yes, we lost a good one today, but we get to keep the memories. R.I.P. Mr. Williams.

Joe Lizura

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