My first presidential election vote was for Clinton in 92

my first vote was cast via absentee ballot. in the end, i voted for john anderson because i wanted him to get financial aid for his campaign.

in ‘76 i was too young to vote, but i had a t-shirt that my grandfather gave me that read, ‘grits and fritz in ‘76′ loved that shirt and wore it often.

went to the mcgovern library dedication in mitchell, sd, last saturday. mcgovern, clinton and daschle sat side by side on the stage. the power sitting there, together. amazing.

On the other hand, I really recall my first hockey goal!!

You certainly wouldn’t be the first. But then think of all the great male comedians and what they get away with…but I don’t.

FishGuyDave @ 140

Your initiative doesn’t (and can’t) address the issue of noncustodial parents who frequently change jobs, those who work irregular hours, those who work more than one job, etc.

You might also be careful with those who usually get paid in either cash or are otherwise — for tax purposes, at least — considered independent contractors, such as commercial fishermen. From personal observations with crewmembers, many mothers also seem to have trouble finding the fathers when they spend days or even weeks at a time out at sea.

This is why my initiative is so great. The custodial parent will receive the child support money in a timely fashion. The state will collect the payments, separate from the pay outs. The noncustodial parent who doesn’t pay on time will have to answer to the state rather than the powerless custodial parent.

I don’t know what the situation is where you are, Linda (California?). Here, noncustodial parents who are behind are hounded by CSED. If you’re behind on your support, you can:

* lose your driver’s license;
* lose your professional licensing (if any);
* have payments due from the State/Feds (income tax refunds, etc.) confiscated;
* have to defend lawsuits filed by CSED;
* if the custodial parent goes on TANF (welfare), the noncustodial will be sued by CSED to recover the State’s TANF expenditures.

Has all this improved support payments? Yes, it has. Has it eliminated the problems? Nope. As long as there’s a system, people will abuse it. Noncustodial parents abuse the system, but so do custodial parents.

A child support reform initiative that would get me excited would collect support from both parents, and dump it into a debit account. The card goes with the kids, and both parents receive statements on the account.

Abuses become clear pretty quickly.

BC

I first voted in 1972, for Nixon. I was young, stupid and didn’t understand exactly why Th Roosevelt (my then-and-now political hero) broke ranks with the R’s.

I haven’t voted for a Republican since then.

BC

Jimmy Carter 1980.

On my way to vote I hit my head on a low overhang in the back alley of my apartment building and gave myself a concussion.

I’m hoping it wears off soon.

Hehe. Must have been a contagious concussion, cuz I’ve been reeling a bit since about that time. So has the nation.

On my way to vote I hit my head on a low overhang in the back alley of my apartment building and gave myself a concussion.

I’m hoping it wears off soon.

I’ve always been a proponent of educating children about the voting process. I think more mothers would be engaged in it if their own children talked about it and the issues. Question is how to implement it. I used to take kids to vote with me–and talk about why. (Any handy child would do.) I miss having kids around.

Oh yeah…I turned 21 in 71. So looks like my age group has a strong presence here.