How many people?

[the doctor]

I hate to even post this, but...let me start by saying that I have lived in MS all my life and probably will remain in MS for the remainder of my life. The stereotype I believe mdb1 is refering to is that Mississipians are under-educated and poor. While personally I do whatever I can in my power to break this stereotype and as much as I hate it and struggle quite often to overcome it, it is quite true...statistically speaking, of course.

Now lets discuss.

the doc

[mudsucker]

I think mbd1 was not trying to sterotype. I am originaly from La. big dem. state but consider myself Rep. now weather I make 25k,50k,or100+k it may be enviromental but I moved to MS at 32yo. in 1992 already a born again Rep. Originally registered as a Dem. at 18 cause my parents were. So where do I fit into his scheme of things? I do not care really! Bush is doing what needs to be done. Maybe the spending is out of wack but we have not been attacked on our soil so far since 9/11. I know, it can just as well happen, but if a puke like Gore was in office, I think it would have happened a time or two by now!!!!!!!

[SoftCall]

doc - I don't disagree that MS has some serious issues with education attainment. My point is that so does MO.

The 1994 - 1995 SAT statistics show that If you look at the percentage of graduates taking the SAT, MS was at 4% and MO was at 9%. The variance in scores is immaterial because they are so close. If you combine the percentage mentioned above and the scores, both MO and MS are in the bottom ten rung of 40th - 50th. mdb1's references are like the pot calling the kettle black.

[mdb1]

Let's go back to the premise. It refered to 95 to 98% of this forum being in favor of Bush because they made more than 100k. My point was that this was a result of conservative upbringing and conservative peers, not a result of financial success. I never made reference to education or race. I actually am a construction worker so I know how I am stereotyped and I didn't resort to namecalling.

[featherduster]

Let me elaborate on my political thinking. I grew up believing that the government controlled too much and that many things would be better left to the people. Now later in life I came to understand that the things that the government controlled sometimes affected me directly and some didn't make a damn to me or anyone I knew. The things that I control such as my gun ownership, religious beliefs, right to abort or not, or toleration of gays are all directly under my control. The things I can't control, such as the rights of business' to move their manufacturing overseas, poking our military and democratic beliefs into the lives of people in other countries, trying to privatize anything and everything to strip the gov. of jobs(alot of people in Vicksburg depend on the gov. for jobs) and benefit big contributors from big business, down to privatizing social security so some financial institution can make more money from your money. The government is not such a bad thing. Sure there are bad people in it on both sides of the fence, but what has Bush really done besides carry us to war. We have completely deviated from the original plan to capture Osama. Only here recently has it been trumped up again to start the campaign run for November. Our jobs and future jobs for our children are steadily being shipped out daily. The stock market has started bleeding again on a false run because there are no jobs to back up the long term spending. I don't necessarily agree with either party, but I know which party helps the middle class American stay at work. The tax increases and decreases over the past few years haven't really affected my returns, because I don't make enough to realize any impact. These war efforts don't get funded by hot air. Anyone would be joking themselves to think that either taxes will have to be raised to recover this money or a program which may affect your retired grandparents, yourself or your children will be stripped to pay it back.. and I haven't even started on the enviromental issues yet that affects all hunters, I'll leave that for Benny.

[Delta Duck]

The govt is not all bad, they just waste so much money. Their are to many desks that money has to cross to get where it's needed.