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Only 18 more days, and counting!

Posted By: 2009 Is Gonna Be Fine - nm on 2009-01-02
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5 days and counting

Why won't Sarah Palin answer a spontaneous question from the press?  What is this candidate hiding?  How date the elitist repub party think they can railroad a candidate by us by dressing her in a skirt.


Meet the Press, Time Magazine, Today Show, Newsweek, George Stepanoupoulous. No soft balls like the View, Barbra WaaWaa or Fox propaganda machine.  We must stand up and demand answers from the repubs.  This is OUR country - demand accountability.


 


10 more days -- still counting..(sm)

Working on party favors.....


YES WE CAN


Only 1494 days to go and counting
x
Nope, 4 years 11 days (1471 days or 1383 til 11/4/2012)
You do really need to learn how to count until 11/4/2012 or 1/20/2013.

Also, sorry to hear in four years you won't care anymore.
I'm not counting my chickens yet.

Not unlike the leaders of this country, those chickens might appear healthy on the surface, yet be harboring something very dangerous and deadly inside.


I don't think it takes much for any reasonable person to fill in the blanks of what really happened here.  Wilson told the truth and disagreed with Bush.  Bush doesn't like the truth and particularly doesn't like people who disagree with him.  Therefore, the messenger must be destroyed.  If that includes an undercover CIA operative and all the people she worked with it, well, that just makes the revenge sweeter.  Period.


If anyone else did it, it would be considered treason.  If Bush does it, it's merely dirty politics.


The real question now is:  IS it illegal or just dirty politics as usual in Washington?  In my book, it's certainly immoral, unethical and I especially agree with the last paragraph of the article when it refers to our democracy being hijacked on the way to war.


I would love to see these scumbags indicted, and the only person I have any faith in IS Fitzgerald.  I believe if something illegal occurred, Fitzgerald will indict.


Anyone who paid attention to these elections knows how the Bush camp works.  Look what they did to John Kerry's courageous military service, when Bush himself was too much of a coward to put his own life in danger.


GT, I hope we all can survive the next 3 years.  Between avian flu, terrorism and a president whose hobby is playing GI Joe for REAL, I'm not very hopeful.


I'm looking for a reason to smile this week.  I hope Mr. Fitzgerald provides one.  To see that honesty and accountability are still alive and well in the U.S. and that all has NOT been lost would definitely make me smile.


Again, you're counting on (sm)
trickle-down economics, and I think we're all still waiting for that trickle. 
Who's Counting Bush's Mistakes?

Who's Counting Bush's Mistakes?


By Stephen Pizzo, News for Real
Posted on February 20, 2006, Printed on March 14, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/32382/


Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best, The louder he spoke of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. And no administration in U.S. history has spoken louder, or as often, of its honor.


So let us count our spoons.


Emergency Management: They completely failed to manage the first large-scale emergency since 9/11. Despite all their big talk and hundreds of billions of dollars spent on homeland security over the past four years, this administration proved itself stunningly incompetent when faced with an actual emergency. (Katrina Relief Funds Squandered)


Fiscal Management: America is broke. No wait, we're worse than broke. In less than five years these borrow and spend-thrifts have nearly doubled our national debt, to a stunning $8.2 trillion. These are not your father's Republicans who treated public dollars as though they were an endangered species. These Republicans waste money in ways and in quantities that make those old tax and spend liberals of yore look like tight-fisted Scots.


This administration is so incompetent that you can just throw a dart at the front page of your morning paper and whatever story of importance it hits will prove my point.


Katrina relief: Eleven thousand spanking new mobile homes sinking into the Arkansas mud. Seems no one in the administration knew there were federal and state laws prohibiting trailers in flood zones. Oops. That little mistake cost you $850 million -- and counting.


Medicare Drug Program: This $50 billion white elephant debuted by trampling many of those it was supposed to save. The mess forced states to step in and try to save its own citizens from being killed by the administration's poorly planned and executed attempt to privatize huge hunks of the federal health safety net.


Afghanistan: Good managers know that in order to pocket the gains of a project, you have to finish it. This administration started out fine in Afghanistan. They had the Taliban and al Queda on the run and Osama bin Laden trapped in a box canyon. Then they were distracted by a nearby shiney object -- Iraq. We are now $75 billion out of pocket in Afghanistan and its sitting president still rules only within the confines of the nation's capital. Tribal warlords, the growing remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda call the shots in the rest of the county.


Iraq: This ill-begotten war was supposed to only cost us $65 billion. It has now cost us over $300 billion and continues to suck $6 billion a month out of our children's futures. Meanwhile the three warring tribes Bush liberated are using our money and soldiers' lives to partition the country. The Shiites and Kurds are carving out the prime cuts while treating the once-dominant Sunnis the same way the Israelis treat the Palestinians, forcing them onto Iraq's version of Death Valley. Meanwhile Iran is increasingly calling the shots in the Shiite region as mullahs loyal to Iran take charge. (More)


Iran: The administration not only jinxed its Afghanistan operations by attacking Iraq, but also provided Iran both the rationale for and time to move toward nuclear weapons. The Bush administration's neocons' threats to attack Syria next only provided more support for religious conservatives within Iran who argued U.S. intentions in the Middle East were clear, and that only the deterrent that comes with nuclear weapons could protect them.


North Korea: Ditto. Also add to all the above the example North Korea set for Iran. Clearly once a country possesses nukes, the U.S. drops the veiled threats and wants to talk.


Social Programs: It's easier to get affordable -- even free -- American-style medical care, paid for with American dollars, if you are injured in Iraq, Afghanistan or are victims of a Pakistani earthquake, than if you live and pay taxes in the good old U.S.A. Nearly 50 million Americans can't afford medical insurance. Nevertheless the administration has proposed a budget that will cut $40 billion from domestic social programs, including health care for the working poor. The administration is quick to say that those services will be replaced by its faith-based programs. Not so fast...


Despite the Bush administration's rhetorical support for religious charities, the amount of direct federal grants to faith-based organizations declined from 2002 to 2004, according to a major new study released yesterday....The study released yesterday is confirmation of the suspicion I've had all along, that what the faith-based initiative is really all about is de-funding social programs and dumping responsibility for the poor on the charitable sector, said Kay Guinane, director of the nonprofit advocacy program at OMB Watch.. (More)


The Military: Overused and over-deployed.


Former Defense Secretary William Perry and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned in a 15-page report that the Army and Marine Corps cannot sustain the current operational tempo without doing real damage to their forces. ... Speaking at a news conference to release the study, Albright said she is very troubled the military will not be able to meet demands abroad. Perry warned that the strain, if not relieved, can have highly corrosive and long-term effects on the military. (More)


With military budgets gutted by the spiraling costs of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the administration has requested funding for fewer National Guard troops in fiscal 2007 -- 17,000 fewer. Which boggles the sane mind since, if it weren't for reserve/National Guard, the administration would not have had enough troops to rotate forces in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly 40 percent of the troops sent to those two countries were from the reserve and National Guard.


The Environment: Here's a little pop quiz: What happens if all the coral in the world's oceans dies? Answer: Coral is the first rung on the food-chain ladder; so when it goes, everything else in the ocean dies. And if the oceans die, we die.


The coral in the world's oceans are dying (called bleaching) at an alarming and accelerating rate. Global warming is the culprit. Nevertheless, this administration continues as the world's leading global warming denier. Why? Because they seem to feel it's more cost effective to be dead than to force reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. How stupid is that? And time is running out.


Trade: We are approaching a $1 trillion annual trade deficit, most of it with Asia, $220 billion with just China -- just last year.


Energy: Record high energy prices. Record energy company profits. Dick Cheney's energy task force meetings remain secret. Need I say more?


Consumers: Americans finally did it last year -- they achieved a negative savings rate. (Folks in China save 10 percent, for contrast.) If the government can spend more than it makes and just say charge it when it runs out, so can we. The average American now owes $9,000 to credit card companies. Imagine that.


Human Rights: America now runs secret prisons and a secret judicial system that would give Kafka fits. And the U.S. has joined the list of nations that tortures prisioners of war. (Shut up George! We have pictures!)


I could go on for another 1,000 words listing the stunning incompetence of the Bush administration and its GOP sycophants in Congress. But what's the use? No seems to give a fig. The sun continues to shine in this fool's paradise. House starts were up in January. The stock market is finally back over 11,000.


But don't bother George W. Bush with any of this. While seldom right, he is never in doubt. Doubt is Bush's enemy. Worry? How can he worry when he has no doubts?


Me? Well, I worry about all the above, all the time. But in particular, I worry about coral.


Stephen Pizzo is the author of numerous books, including Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans, which was nominated for a Pulitzer.


View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/32382/


I guess your not counting the states he won either
On the news today it showed popular vote from all the states that voted. He has over 300 more votes than her for the popular vote. She is saying she has the popular vote but she is not counting the states he won in. Funny math to me. Oh but I guess she should be nominated as one of her supporters said because she did win Puerto Rico today.
You must be using the finger-counting method,
try using both hands and all your toes. Your figures need to be multiplied by a factor of 2, one way or the other.
I'm even counting the nano-seconds!
.
You know, actually, if you continue counting this way, you'll miss it...because...sm
Because it'll be the night of January 20th, and you'll say one more day....and you missed it.

Just saying....

TWO - tomorrow we'll work on counting to THREE.
And JTBB "leans left" like Hitler "disliked Jews."
What part of 60-plus days of his first 100 days...sm
don't you understand. I think it's obvious to anyone actually researching his movements what his main goals are - and I don't in my wildest dreams see how in the world he can keep spending as he has been and wants to continue doing and cut the deficit in half by end of his term. IMO his chances are running out quickly. God help us all!
Counting by hand of 100 million votes would be a task...sm
Not that it is an unworthy one, I just doubt it will be done.

One idea was that the computer gives the voter a reciept of their selection and then the reciept, once verified by the voter, is deposited into the machine.

Brainstorming, I suggest they take it one step further and have a real time tally for each candidate per voting center. That way the voters can verify that their vote was casted, counted, and affected the number. The last voters, along with the volunteers could verify the final numbers for the districts.
The voting machines is a must to make voters confident their votes are counting...sm
But the Democrat party needs to delineate what separates them from the republican party as terms of what direction they will take the country. That is definitely uncertain. The chances of them getting their voters out to the polls will be better, I think.
Did anyone count Obama's blinks or are democrats the only superficial ones counting blinks? nm
x
after two days

of contemplation, I offer my opinion regarding the repub veep.  It is all just so much manufactured hype.  Unfortunately, repubs have had nothing to get excited about and had to watch on the sidelines as a hope and delight swept through the nation.  The repubs did kind of a bizarro world imitation of the real movement and forced McCain to pick a person he had met twice to create headlines.  Unfortunately, the hoopla is based on nothing.  It will die down soon and the Obama train will keep on rolling. The Jewish people will certainly not vote for a person who supported Pat Buchanan the rabid anti-semite.  Our older veterans will not take the chance of having a person in power who has not thought about foreign policy because she was too busy suing Bush to get the polar bears taken off the endangered list.   Mark my words, in 2 weeks the repubs will be chasing some pre-school friend of Obama in order to create another sensation.


Does anybody else, have days that you just wish...sm
could turn on the TV or the computer, and not hear something political....from either side....for just one day?

I think most people have made up their minds, or are close to it. But we get pounded every single day, by the candidates themselves, analyses of the candidates, ads that are misleading (by both parties, I believe, at times)....smear tactics...he said, she said.....I think that they meant..... etc......well, you all get my drift.

I'm to the point that I really only want to watch the debates, to see how they hold up there.

Anyways, I'm super busy this week, and anytime I even venture into where the TV is, my husband is watching financial shows on in the background, and gosh darn it, even all they do is interject political views.



Is it almost November yet???







The days of (sm)
ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country are long gone. Now it's all about gimmie. You're right, Kendra, it should be serious and respectful, but I'm afraid there's not much of that left these days, particularly for those in the government.
With less than two days to go
I just want to say a few final things. First off, I respect everyone's opinions on this board. The great thing about America is that we have the right to free speech. I just hope that we continue to have that right.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a day of fasting and prayer for those who do this. I hope that everyone who believes will be praying to God to put the right candidate in the white house. While many of us feel that it would be God's choice to have Mccain, there have been to many times when I have thought that God would have it one way and it's been the other. While I know that based on the Bible God would want me to vote against abortion and gay marriage, I still believe that if Obama wins he will be able to use him. If anything to bring the church to their knees and really seek forgiveness and revival.

While I am not voting for Obama, I will pray that he is kept safe. There are many people who will want to harm him simply for the color of his skin, and in this day in age that is awful, but still true nonetheless.

I hope that no matter the outcome of this election, we citizens can learn to put differences and party lines aside and work together to better this nation. Whoever wins is stepping into a big mess THAT BOTH SIDES HAVE CREATED and at some point we are ALL responsible for.

Lastly, I hope that after the election the tempers and name calling on this board can cease. We need to debate without bashing. I am just as guilty of getting hot tempered as anyone else, and I apologize for anytime I was out of line.

We are still in for some rough times, folks. I pray that God will keep us and help us through these troubled times.

Last but not least....

Good Luck to Mccain supporters, well wishes to Obama supporters! javascript:editor_insertHTML('text',''); LOL
76 more days
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SESr9D5Gd7A
Those were the days
There is no doubt in my mind that MQ is more profitable for the top level than TL ever was.  This is why it makes me so angry when people bash unions.  Without workers banding together and bargaining greed takes over and rich is never rich enough apparently.   I saw that a-hole Bill Gates testifying before Congress that he needed more top level (CHEAPER) workers because there weren't enough qualified Americans......sound familiar?  Unions may not be perfect but every benefit older workers like you and I received was won by the sweat of union workers who were willing to stand up for what was right and the benefits they won benefited even MTs, whether the newbies care to agree or not.  Unfortunately the unions have also become greedy and they care more about dues paying members than the rights of workers.  Just look at AAMT or whatever they call themselves now, they don't give a hoot about American MTs, they care about dues paying members whether they be Americans or Ethiopians!!!    AAARRRG.  I'm going to bed now.  I have a presentation to make to the Kiwanis at noon tomorrow which I had better get up early and prepare for or maybe I'll just wing it.  LOL
Only 16 more days!

Only 15 more days to go!
        
100 Days

Interesting analysis. I'll just link to it since it would take far too long to list all of  Obama's screwups here. 


http://www.nypost.com/seven/04252009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/100_days__100_mistakes_166177.htm


It sure is! Why, just a few days ago, you could buy

I do agree we are in the last days.
//
scary days

I will not vote republican for multiple reasons going back to the Reagun administration and I think Palin is a joke. It's like Dubya trying to put Harriett Myers on the supreme court - WHAT!!!!!  Lies? Lets talk about lies. Like being led into a war with no end in sight due to LIES. Our children being slaughtered in that country for nothing - except maybe oil. Tax cuts? I don't know about you, but I'm not in the upper 10% tax bracket, so I didn't reap any benefits from the so-called "tax breaks." Lets not forget the worst deficit this country has ever seen all due to Dubya's reckless spending. And never, never, never forget Katrina. That was genocide. Let's toss in Bill Clinton's "sexual misconduct." Hmmm.....I don't want anyone in my bedroom. That was Hillary's problem - not the country's. But we have Foley playing footsie with the congressional pages, whatshisname and his wide stance in airport bathrooms and don't forget that religious nut who was good buddies with Dubya and visited the white house on occasion that was snorting meth and having sex with a male prostitute. How's that for family values????? No child left behind? What a crock. We have been manipulated over and over by the current administration as well as by the media. They swallowed the Kool-Aid, too; until Katrina. It took that disaster to open their eyes, but they seem to have closed again. We have the patriot act, no habeas corpus and if the republicans get in again, they will line up the supreme court with their right-wing fanatics who think that everyone should abide by their MORAL rules. You cannot legislate morality. And anyone with half a brain would realize that abstinence does not WORK. Palin's daughter for example. Take away birth control, take away abortion - who's going to pay for all of these kids? The republicans aren't going to fund any programs to help them. Lets just step back 50 years and start all over again. My God! Wake up!  You'll find more babies in dumpsters and illegal abortions will wend their way back into society creating more misery and death. I value my rights. I value the right to decide what is best for me. I don't think it is the right of our government to determine the outcome of my life. I guess it does take 8 years to ruin a country. Look how divisive everyone is. Voting republican is voting against your own best interests. The trickle down theory DOES NOT WORK. You will not benefit from any of these proposals - they are proposed to keep big corporations and greed on the upswing. My parents retired with good pensions - will you? My parents had great insurance that paid the WHOLE bill - do you? My mother made more money when she retired (20 years ago) than I do currently. Wages have not gone up. Gas has gone up. Groceries have gone up. The cost of living has gone up as well as insurance policies, medications. Corporate America treats its employees like slaves. There is no compassion - just greed. Vote republican and you will fall on your own sword. Bill Maher said it best "Americans are stupid and are getting stupider; they deserve the leader they elect." I am praying Obama who graduated from Harvard due to his own sweat and hard work gets elected. He wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth and he knows what it is like to be on the ugly end of the stick. 


That was then and this is now...He just said it today of ALL days!!! sm
WHY WOULD anyone in their RIGHT MIND say such a thing TODAY of all days???? Unless they were completely out of touch with the people of America and what they're going through.

He is another Bush - PERIOD.
He WAS a good man. But his best days

Not the happiest new 13 days out.
xoxoxooo
for 3 days he's been fixing to get there?

These campaigns can fly someone across the country in mere hours, yet he TALKS about going for 3 days?  Of course, there's speculation that Obama wants to pilfer that house to find whatever documents are there that prove he wasn't born in the US.  Before you start flaming (like I really care, anyway), a life-long ACLU Democrat, etc. (Berg) has an interview on michaelsavage.com (the soundfile).  I heard it yesterday so didn't need to access it, but a friend of mine who has been on this issue for ages wanted to hear it.  Savages w/s was bombarded.  It may be available now. 


When Rush's Mother was at the end of her life, he broadcast for the duration in secret from Cape Gerardo.  I think it was 2 months.  It's something you just do and don't need to announce it to everyone. 


 


Ahh yes, GP - I remember those days too!!

no one could have told me that this industry would be like this 25-30 years ago....sad..


Only 17 more days, and the evil

You mean 14 days....you still can't count

As of 1 pm EST only 11 days and 22 hours to go
Now if we can just keep W's hands off any fountain pens, we're home free. 
And 1473 days - woo hoo
As for the fountain pen issue - I highly doubt it. Remember the damage clinton did up til he left office. I wouldn't hold your breath.
1473 days til what?
x
1470 days
x
"happy days are here again, the sun
is gonna shine again"  yessirreee, and all you "scared" people's heads will explode!!!  And yes, we will get what we deserve after eight years of the worst president ever!!
those things have already been taken out days ago... nm
x
Who's REALLY signing up for the military these days.

Military's Recruiting Troubles Extend to Affluent War Supporters


By Terry M. Neal
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Monday, August 22, 2005; 8:00 AM


There was an eye-opening article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette a few days ago that explored the increasing difficulty the military is having recruiting young people to enlist. As has been well reported in many newspapers, including The Washington Post, the Army and Marines are having a particularly tough time meeting recruitment objectives, in part because of Americans' concern about the war in Iraq.


When you dig deeper into the reason for this phenomenon, it turns out that parents of potential soldiers and sailors are becoming one of the biggest obstacles facing military recruiters. Even top military officials acknowledge this and unveiled a new series of ads this spring targeted at influencers such as parents, teachers and coaches.


But the Post-Gazette raises another issue. There has been much talk about the relationship between race and ethnicity and military recruitment. But what about social and economic class? Are wealthier Americans, who are more likely to be Republicans and therefore more likely to support the war, stepping up to the plate and urging their children and others from their communities to enlist?


Unfortunately, there has been no definitive study on this subject. But it appears that the affluent are not encouraging their children and peers to join the war effort on the battlefield.


The writer of the Post-Gazette article, Jack Kelly, explored this question in his story that ran on Aug. 11. Kelly wrote of a Marine recruiter, Staff Sgt. Jason Rivera, who went to an affluent suburb outside of Pittsburgh to follow up with a young man who had expressed interest in enlisting. He pulled up to a house with American flags displayed in the yard. The mother came to the door in an American flag T-shirt and openly declared her support for the troops.


But she made it clear that her support only went so far.


Military service isn't for our son, she told Rivera. It isn't for our kind of people.


The Post-Gazette piece focused on parental disapproval of military recruitment efforts, and dealt only tangentially with the larger question of class. What we do know is that recruiting is down across the board and that both the Army and Marines have fallen significantly behind their recruiting goals.


This is what the Army's hired advertising company, Leo Burnett, had to say about the ads targeting influencers that it began running in April: Titled 'Dinner Conversation,' 'Two Things,' 'Good Training' and 'Listening' (Spanish-language ad), the commercials portray moments ranging from a son telling his mother he's found someone to pay for college, to a father praising his son who has just returned from Basic Training for the positive ways in which he's changed. They capture the questions, hopes and concerns parents have about a career serving the United States of America and include families from many different backgrounds.


I asked Army spokeswoman Maj. Elizabeth Robbins for further explanation on the intent of the ads.


Clearly it was to talk to influencers, she said. She said studies have shown that today's young people yearn to serve their country in one way or another. The problem is that today the people who influence their decisions are less likely than they were in past generations to recommend [military service].


Why?


In part because the economy is strong, said Robbins. In part because they are concerned about the war. And in part because fewer of them have a direct relationship with the military or have ever served.


So would it be logical to conclude that, if the strong economy is one of the reasons it is more difficult to recruit, the most affluent parents should be the most difficult to reach? After all, their children have more options, including college, than less affluent parents? And if that's true, isn't it somewhat ironic that the military is paying millions of dollars ultimately to influence the behavior of the parents who are among the most likely to be supportive of the war in Iraq?


I disagree with your premise, Robbins said, arguing that the military is represented strongly across the board by people of all income levels and faces challenges in recruiting at all income levels.


Referring to the Post-Gazette anecdote, she said, One woman saying stupid things does not a trend make.


Actually, I did have a premise, but it wasn't unshakable. But because neither the Army nor the Defense Department keeps detailed information about the household incomes of the people who join, it was not easy to prove or disprove.


So let's approach the issue this way: In the 2004 election, household income was a pretty decent indicator of how one might vote. Voters from households making more than $50,000 a year favored Bush 56 percent to 43 percent. Voters making $50,000 or less favored Kerry 55 to 44 percent. Median household income as of 2003 was $43,318, according to the U.S. Census.


The wealthier you become, apparently, the more likely you are to vote Republican. The GOP advantage grows more pronounced for people from households making more than $100,000. People from households with incomes exceeding that amount voted for Bush over Kerry by 58 percent to 41 percent. Those from households making less than $100,000 favored Kerry over Bush 51 to 49 percent. And nearly two-thirds of voters from households making more than $200,000 favored Bush over Kerry.


Those making more than $100,000 made up only 18 percent of the electorate, which explains why Bush won by a narrow 2.5 percentage points in the general election.


This raises all sorts of complicated socioeconomic questions, such as whether the rich expect others to fight their wars for them. Or, asked another way, are they more likely to support the war in Iraq because their families are less likely to carry part of the burden?


Certainly, there are no absolutes here. Many of the wealthy are Democrats, some of whom support the war. Some of whom oppose it. Many of the poor and working class are Republicans, and support the GOP on Iraq.


By looking at long-term trends, it seems logical that some of those most likely to support Bush and his Iraq policy are also those least likely to encourage their children to go into the military at wartime. And it raises questions, such as, if you are among those most likely to support the war, shouldn't you be among those most likely to encourage your child to serve in the military? Shouldn't your socioeconomic group be the most receptive to the recruiters' call? And would there be a recruitment problem at all if the affluent put their money where their mouth is?


Several social scientists have studied the question of economics and class in military enlistment. Many of these studies don't look at the officer ranks, which might tend to counter some of the class argument. But officers, of course, make up a relatively small portion of the military.


Among the more recent studies was one done last year by Robert Cushing, a retired professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. He tracked those who died in Iraq by geography and found that whites from small, mostly poor, rural areas made up a disproportionately large percentage of the casualties in Iraq.


I talked to two other academicians who have studied the issue. Their conclusions, though reached prior to the war in Iraq, were helpful because of their understanding of the historical implications of the class question.


David R. Segal, director of the Center for Research on Military Organizations at the University of Maryland, said contrary to conventional wisdom both the poorest and the wealthiest people are underrepresented at the bottom of the military ranks, for completely different reasons. This trend held for both from the conscription years of Vietnam through at least the late 1990s.


Poorer people, he said, are likely to be kept out of the military by a range of factors, including higher likelihood of having a criminal record or academic deficiencies or health problems.


Back during Vietnam, the top [economic class] had access for means of staying out of the military, said Segal. The National Guard was known to be a well-to-do white man's club back then. People knew if you if joined the guard you weren't going to go to Vietnam. That included people like Dan Quayle and our current commander in chief. If you were rich, you might have found it easier to get a doctor to certify you as having a condition that precluded you from service. You could get a medical deferment with braces on your teeth, so you would go get braces -- something that was very expensive back then. The wealthy had more access to educational and occupational deferments.


Today's affluent merely see themselves as having more options and are not as enticed by financial incentives, such as money for college, Segal said.


The Army was able to provide socioeconomic data only for the 2002 fiscal year. Its numbers confirm Segal's findings that service members in the highest and lowest income brackets are underrepresented, but because those numbers chronicle enlistments in the year immediately following the 2001 terrorist attacks, it's difficult to ascertain whether this was a normal recruiting year.


Segal and Jerald G. Bachman, a research professor at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, have studied the correlation between a parental education levels and likelihood for their offspring to enlist.


Examining data from early to mid-1990s, they created five categories, with one being the lowest level. Perhaps not surprisingly, they found the children of the most-educated parents -- those with post-graduate degrees -- were the least likely to join the military. The children of parents with high school diplomas were three times more likely to enlist.


One of the interesting phenomenon of today's politics is that, in general, Republicans tend to be more educated on average than Democrats, with a larger percentage either holding a bachelor's degree or having attended some college. But Democrats represent a larger portion of the super-educated -- that is, those holding graduate degrees. So Democrats are made up of the least and the most educated, with Republicans congregated largely near, but not at, the top.


So how did those near the top of the educational tree do in Segal's and Bachman's study? They were half as likely as those in group two to enlist. And because there are far more people who have been to college or have bachelor's degrees than there are people who have post-graduate degrees, the former group has far more political influence, just in sheer numbers.


While there have been changes in racial and ethnic enlistment trends, with the number of black recruits dropping precipitously since the Iraq war, Segal and Bachman said they've seen nothing to indicate significant changes in the class -- of which education levels is a prime indicator -- trends in the military.


Journalists can get themselves in trouble by drawing simplistic conclusions based on less-than-exhaustive research, and we won't do so here. But we can at least raise the question of whether the rich are more likely to support the war because their loved ones are less likely to die in it.


Comments can be sent to Terry Neal at commentsforneal@washingtonpost.com.


© 2005 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive


Man Rescued After 18 Days in Attic.
NEW ORLEANS — Day after day, for more than two weeks, the 76-year-old man sat trapped and alone in his attic, sipping from a dwindling supply of water until it ran out. No food. No way out of a house ringed by foul floodwaters.

Without ever leaving home, Gerald Martin (search) lived out one of the most remarkable survival stories of Hurricane Katrina (search). Rescuers who found him Friday, as they searched his neighborhood by boat, were astounded at his good spirits and resiliency after 18 days without food or human contact.


It's an incredible story of survival, said Louie Fernandez, spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (search) search unit that carried out the rescue.


In recent days, search crews have been finding corpses by the dozens in the still-flooded neighborhoods of New Orleans (search), but not trapped survivors. The FEMA search-and-rescue boat navigating through the Eighth Ward didn't expect to find anyone alive at 6010 Painters St., but they planned to search the premises of a one-story wood house.


As the motor idled and the boat glided forward, they heard a voice.


Hey, over here.


JFK speech 10 days before his death. sm

Please take 5 minutes to listen to this.  It gave me chills.  He truly was a visionary and what a great loss to America. 


 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlEqtaWpKEU&search=JFK%20on%20Secret..


Rwanda, 800,000 dead in 100 days. sm
They pleaded for help from the UN and Clinton.  No one helped them.
Haven't been here in a couple days
I just saw this message and wanted to write back. I did vote for Clinton in his first term. I really liked what he was offering for the country. Was a better choice than Bush Sr. After 4 year of those 2 bozos (and the Gores) in there I voted for Dole (I think it was Dole running - its been too many years). Then when Mr. Stiff (gore) was running I thought no way, we finally are getting rid of those two ninny's so voted for Bush, then when Kerry ran I didn't vote cos I didn't like any. So I go back and forth. I read history. No matter what candidate you support, no matter how much you like them you have to be objective and look at the bad with the good and to me we need a person with better values than Clinton. We were so "zonked" (for lack of better term) with so many taxes with clintons were in it was awful. We never got ahead and never had anything. They showed exactly how much they cared about the low to middle income people - it's called NADA, nothing, zip, zilch, and screw you. They took care of their rich friends, lobbyist, and CEO executives while the rest of us literally got screw over big time. So, no I'm not left wing or right wing. I vote my conscious. Can't stand Rush Limbo, Hannity (the Leprecaun) and the absolute nonsense they speak. On the flip side I cannot stand the liberal talk shows either. I can't even think of the names of any of them cos I turned them off years ago and became a much better informed and calmer person. I just read both sides of opinions and make my own choices.
Really...143 days. I agree with Joe Biden.
"The job does not lend itself to on-the-job training."
There has been a big swing in past few days of
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They e basically being saying the same thing for days, that is why I am...
.
I have been wondering too. She has been MIA for a couple of days now. nm
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Just a reminder -- election is less than 12 days away . . .
xx