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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (508388)	12/12/2003 12:19:19 PM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Euro is 1.2293 and moving up. money.cnn.com

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (508388)	12/12/2003 12:20:02 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

I suppose it's possible the Democrats' predictions of catastrophe and ruin in the upcoming presidential election are genuine. It is beyond dispute that Howard Dean is a more appalling candidate than George McGovern ever was. McGovern was an authentic war hero in World War II. Howard Dean showed up at the Army recruiting office with a note from his doctor and a fake limp to get out of serving in Vietnam –—before repairing to Aspen for several months of skiing. In Dean's defense, I suppose that, technically speaking, "spinelessness" would be considered a debilitating back condition. (According to The New York Times, this is the same as taking off in jets that fly at the speed of sound while training to be a fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard.) Moreover, the North Vietnamese were savage beasts, but they never attacked America on its own soil. It's a little different to be anti-war now. But we live in a different country. Apparently, some Americans think choosing the leader of the free world should be a process of people coming together to tell their life stories. ( At least that's a step up from the Democrats' 1996 presidential campaign, which, if I remember correctly, was about people telling their stories to grand juries.) In case Al Gore hasn't called you personally at home in the last 10 minutes to remind you: In the last election, this country gave a slight plurality of the popular vote to Al Gore. A plurality voted for Bill Clinton—twice. In the middle of a titanic struggle with a Soviet totalitarianism, this country elected Jimmy Carter President. If that's not enough to keep you up at night, here's one more: Hillary Clinton's "disapproval" rating has yet to reach 100%. Forget landslides: It's a wonder that Republicans ever win any elections at all. Consider that approximately 100 million people vote in presidential elections. The total population eligible to vote—including the infirm, the insane, the incapacitated and the bored—is only 180 million strong. And 20 million Americans work for the government. Or at least appear on government payrolls. It gets a little complicated when you're trying to define "work" in the context of a government employee. Indeed, more Americans work for federal, state or local government than work in any form of manufacturing. We crossed that Rubicon about 10 years ago. Admittedly, mixed in with employees in public welfare and housing and community development, there is one lone category of federal employee that tends to vote Republican: the military. That's why George Bush recently flew halfway around the globe to serve them turkey. But according to the 2002 census, there are more civilian employees working for the post office than for national defense or international relations of any kind (829,587 to 680,645). The entire military, both civilian and armed forces, employs fewer than 2 million people. Meanwhile, there are about 10 million government teachers or other education bureaucrats. (For a profession that is so overworked, undercompensated and undervalued, there sure are a lot of them.) Then there are the 22 million Americans on food stamps. And of course there are the 39 million greedy geezers collecting Social Security. The greatest generation rewarded itself with a pretty big meal. Still millions more Americans poach off your salary through literally incalculable government largesse, such as government contracts, corporate welfare, and all the bureaucratic quagmires for which there is no exit strategy, like the earned income tax credit, disability payments and workman's comp. It's interesting how difficult it is to locate information about the number of people living off the taxpayer. The government knows how many Alaskan natives have at least a bachelor's degree and live in a two-bedroom home, but it's impossible to track down precisely how many voters get checks from the government. At a minimum, there must be at least 60 million Americans who draw salaries, in whole or in part, from the government. This is based on the assumption that—except for members of the Supreme Court—there is probably very little overlap between government workers and Social Security recipients. Any overlap is surely more than made up for by the various other government payees. And we just keep getting more and more of them. Even when the private sector is suffering through recessions, job reductions, cutbacks, plant closings, unemployment—the taxpayer is still hiring! Hey, someone's got to process those extended unemployment benefits Ted Kennedy keeps demanding. Fortunately, there are some Americans who vote against their base self-interest for the good of the nation. God help us if the Democratic Party ever wavers on its three major planks: abortion, gay marriage and banning the Boy Scouts. (Perhaps they could save a step by figuring out how to automatically abort all future Boy Scouts.) humaneventsonline.com