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About as quickly as the election results were published, President Bush
announced he was now ready to spend some of his political capital. Many of
us breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed only right since he has been spending
our capital for the past 4 years. We were relieved until we realized what he
really meant. Let's review what's going on now that the President feels he has
a mandate:

On the heels of the election, as soon as the fear that bad press might effect
the election results was gone; an attack was launched on Fallujah. After
weeks of aerial bombardment, the troops moved in to take the city. The Red
Crescent (Red Cross) reported, that as many as 6000 Iraqis have been killed
in Fallujah. Muhammad al-Nuri, spokesman for the UN information network,
Irin said: "Moving around the city was very difficult as a result of the huge
number of dead bodies scattered everywhere". 300,000 Iraqi citizens fled the
city before this attack. After this mass exodus only the insurgents, the infirmed
and those who could not find a way out of the city remained. The city is now
pretty well leveled; estimates are: it will take in excess of 2 years to rebuild the
bombed out homes. The US reports; we captured and/or killed about 1200
insurgents. During the month of November we lost 135 of our fighting men
and women: 71 of our people were lost in Fallujah alone. There were 600
wounded. This equals the highest monthly mortality rate since the beginning
of this war. Al Zarqawi remains at large.

Our conservative Republican Congress passed the Appropriations Bill for the
2005 budget; 3320 pages, $388 billion dollar. 11,772 pet projects (pork) were
included in the bill amounting to $15.8 billion dollars. According to Time
Magazine amongst those items worthy of increasing our deficit were: $500,000
for a Nordic Ski Center in Alaska, $70,000 for the Paper Industry International
Hall of Fame, $4.989 million to renovate Bathhouses in Hot Springs Ark. and
$100,000 for the Punxsutawney Weather Museum ... A boon to groundhog
Phil's future accuracy no doubt. "It's obscene. We have taken it to a whole
new level," says Arizona Representative Jeff Flake, a leader of the House's
Conservative Republican Study Committee. "We frankly look worse than the
Democrats did in their heyday." Says Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for
Common Sense".

Yet the Bush administration decided not to send any representatives to the
international conference on eradicating land mines that opened in Kenya this
week. The reason given: our cost for participation in the conference would
have been between $80,000 to $90,000. Mark Hizney of Human Rights Watch
points out: "This is a weapon (anti-personnel land mines) that claims more
civilians than it does military, denies the socioeconomic use of land and claims
casualties now ranging somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 people a
year". Seems we took the conservative rather than the compassionate road
here.

Oh and this little gem, found in the Appropriations Bill, was reported on
Newsday.com : One of the "two stealth provisions that popped into view last
week would expand the circle of members of Congress and aides allowed to
see individual tax returns that are appropriately off limits to practically anyone
outside the IRS. The provision was discovered by Democrats and disavowed
by Republicans who insisted it was inserted by House staffers without their
knowledge"... It appears this provision will be stricken from the bill by
Congress. Good thing, it gives me the willys to think about Tom Delay looking
at my tax return.

Does anybody know what the terror alert status is today? Haven't heard much
about that lately. To find out; click Current Level ... you will be surprised! I
wonder why we haven't heard much about the threat level since the election?

If you find that many of your Christmas purchases are a little more expensive
this year, or that higher gas prices just don't seem to go away; you might want
to explore the condition of the dollar in the international market. Due to our
high deficit and our national debt, the dollar is being devalued world wide.
Today for every $1.00 item we export we receive about 77 cents. For every
$1.00 item we import we pay $1.30. This is tremendous deal for travelers, Oh
no not us, those travelers who want to visit this country gain the benefits. If we
wish to visit Germany and want to withdraw $100.00 Euros in cash; your debit
card will be charged $130.00. The dollar devaluation and it's effects are
mentioned only in passing in the nightly news but it affects us each day.

The value of the dollar and how it rises and falls is a complicated phenomena.
In simple language though it boils down to 2 rather simple factors. #1. As a
country we spend more than we take in, thus we have to borrow to pay our
debts. #2. We buy more than we sell on the international market. More money
is going out than coming in! The cost of freedom doesn't come cheap; war is
costly. Couple that with tax cuts that reduce our revenues and then shelling
out $100,000 here for Punxsutawney Phil and $4.989 million there to fix up the
bath houses in Hot Springs; I think you can see why other countries who lend
us money might view the American economy as a bit irresponsible.

There are some schools of thought who believe this is a self correcting
situation. As imports go up in price we buy less and as our exported products
go down in price other countries buy more. My personal experience has been
that when I have to pay more for a product, like gas, and I'm already spending
more than I make; I eventually make the correction: but it's a tough correction
to make and I certainly don't come out ahead or mildly close to even.

Next time we will review some of the Administrations current and proposed
Environmental Policies. This is an area where we as humans are the most
vulnerable and seem to be the least aware of what is happening.

So Here we are... What do we do now?

Whether you were on the Red Team or the Blue Team the game is over (till
next time) and we are all standing out in this field together. Though we fought
tooth, tong and toenail over some issues, we all basically want the same thing.
Peace, economic security, personal safety & comfort and a sane and safe
world in which our children and grandchildren can grow up. Those are the
things we are really care about. It's time to quit glaring at each other from
across the divide. It's time to start looking in depth at what our elected officials
are doing and how their activities affect those things that are really important
to us personally.

Time now to set aside the ideologies, and look at the practicality. Scrutinize all
that is going on in Congress and at the White House. If what they are doing
truly makes sense to you (regardless of what party is doing it) support it. If it
doesn't make sense, oppose it as fiercely as you know how. But most of all
research what you are hearing: look at both sides, then decide your direction.

Take Care
Paul







					The Spending of Political Capital

				By a Compassionate Conservative, Christian President