All the President’s Men……

My dog Susie says

Who are these guys?

Since we already know a lot about President Obama, I decided to find out about Mitt Romney.

Personal Information: His full Name is: Willard Mitt Romney  (Do you think anyone calls him Willie?)

He was Born: March 12, 1947 and is 65 years old. (Wow, he’s way older than my Big Daddy)
His Father: George W. Romney, former Governor of the State of Michigan & President of American Motors. They made Jeep & Rambler during the 50’s & 60’s. (What’s a Rambler?)
He was raised in Bloomfield Hills , Michigan (Michigan is really nice for about 6 months out of the year) He is Married to Ann Romney since 1969; they have five children and a bunch of grandchildren.

Education:B.A. from Brigham Young University ,
J.D. and M.B.A. from Harvard University (Now this is just crazy smart)

Religion: Mormon – The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (Why were they late?)

Working Background:
After high school, he spent 30 months in France as a Mormon missionary. (But I doubt  it was the Riviera!)

After going to both Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School simultaneously, he passed the Michigan bar exam, but never worked as an attorney. (He’s smarter than I thought)

In 1984, he co-founded Bain Capital a private equity investment firm, one of the largest such firms in the United States . (Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns sure wished that Romney ran them instead.)

In 1994, he ran for Senator of Massachusetts and lost to Ted Kennedy. (Who didn’t?)

He was President and CEO of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. (Park City has the best snow on Earth)

In 2002, he was elected Governor of the State of Massachusetts where he eliminated a 1.5 billion deficit.

Some Interesting Facts about Romney:Bain Capital, starting with one small office supply store in Massachusetts , turned it into Staples; now with 2,000 stores employing over 90,000 people. ( I wonder if Mitt could do the same for an organic dog food company I’d like to start?)

Bain Capital also worked to perform the same kind of business successes again and again, with companies like Domino’s,Sealy,TheWeather Channel, Burger King, Warner Music, HomeDepot, and hundreds of others. (So, after eating a Cheeseburger for lunch and a Pizza delivered for dinner, you can listen to music while lying on a comfortable bed, watching TV for a weather update, thanks to Mitt.)

He was an unpaid volunteer campaign worker for his dad’s gubernatorial campaign 1 year.
He was an unpaid intern in his dad’s governor’s office for eight years.
He was an unpaid bishop and president of his church for ten years. (Where does the collection plate go?)

He was an unpaid President of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee for three years. ( Hope he got free skiing)
He took no salary and was the unpaid Governor of Massachusetts for four years. (But he got all the freelobster and clam chowder he wanted)
He gave his entire inheritance from his father to charity. (So he started with no money?)

Mitt Romney is one of the wealthiest self-made men in our country, but has given more back to its citizens in terms of money, service and time than most men. (See list of wealthiest Presidents below) And in 2011 Mitt Romney gave over $4 million to charity, almost 19% of his income. Over his lifetime, it’s been rumored that he’s given over $250 million to various charities.

To me, Mitt Romney seems trustworthy and qualified to run for President of the United States.

Because of the recent shooting tragedy in Colorado recently, all the “Presidential “ negative advertising was pulled and we all got a few days of no attack ads:  Thank Goodness!

Catch you later,

Susie and Sandy,

P.S. My big Mommy and Daddy always vote as independents. I don’t really know who they’ll vote for this time around. However, from what I’ve heard, both Mitt Romney (dog on top of car) and President Obama (eats dogs for dinner) have a way to go to before this Border Collie is convinced who is better!

Also, I researched what some of the past Presidents were worth in today’s dollars: 

1. Bill Clinton $100 million
2. George W. Bush $ 20 million
3. Lyndon Johnson $100 million
4. James Madison $101 million
5. Andrew Jackson $120 million
6. Franklin D. Roosevelt $ 90 million
7. Thomas Jefferson $212 million
8. Teddy Roosevelt $125 million
9. John F. Kennedy $400 million

And the most interesting fact is that the wealthiest and poorest of our past Presidents are considered our very best:

George Washington was worth $525 million and Abraham Lincoln was worth less than $250,000.  Who knew?

 

 

Dogs Have Olympics Too!

My dog Susie says

13 Hundred Years of Sport?

All the current fuss about America’s “Chinese” uniforms for the upcoming Olympics in London, got me thinking about when, where and what the Olympics are really all about. Did you know that they first started in 776 BC and ran for almost 1200 years before being discontinued? The original games were held in Olympia, Greece during this entire period. The contestants competed in 20 events including track, wrestling, boxing and chariot racing. And a cool fact was that the first Olympic Champion was a cook but he didn’t win for cooking.

One of the most interesting facts about these “Ancient Olympic Games” is that during the two weeks of competition all wars and feuds between cities and nations were discontinued. The winners were so revered that poems were written and statues built to immortalize them. Is this where and when the idolization of modern athletes of today began? Anyway, the Olympic games were discontinued around 400 AD because Rome had supplanted Greece as the premier power nation on Earth. The Greeks really didn’t like Rome or Italians in general, so the games were placed in hibernation for the next 1500 years.

In 1859 the Olympic Games were restored in Greece because of the individual generosity of a wealthy Romanian-Greek philanthropist. In 1896 in Athens, the games brought together 14 nations with 241 athletes competing in 43 events. The next two Olympics were held in Paris (1900) and St. Louis, Missouri (1904). Bet you didn’t know America had its first Olympic Games back then. And, more importantly, women were allowed to compete for the first time, before they even won the right to vote. Now, the London Games are expecting over 10,000 competitors from 204 nations to compete in more than 90 different events. That’s a bunch of uniforms!

Most humans don’t realize that for 20 years or longer there have been “Doggie Olympics” held in May, September and October in numerous states including Indiana, North Carolina and Colorado. Awards are bestowed for twenty different events for “Best-Tricks, High Jump, Limbo, Musical-Sit and Kisses” I know I could win for the limbo because I can crawl lower than any dog I know. And the gold medal will definitely be mine for Kissing cause nobody kisses better or more often than me! Two major reasons I can see for watching dogs over human competitors are: dogs are true amateurs that aren’t paid any money, and they also don’t need any fancy uniforms from China.

Catch you later,

Susie and Sandy

P.S. Since the first Olympic Games were contested exclusively by male athletes who were completely naked, what’s the big deal about the manufactured uniforms they now wear today? Maybe we should go back to the original Olympic “uniforms” not created by any country, individual or company. And since women are now allowed to compete, think of the huge ratings!

For more barks from Susie: http://sandy-steele.blogspot.com

For more information on Sandy Steele:  http://sandysteele.com