Who's Smarter?
Hollywood vs. Bush Administration

A pertinent posting from the Internet and various mail groups:

The Hollywood group is at it again! Holding anti-war rallies, screaming about the Bush administration, running ads in major newspapers, defaming the president and his Cabinet every chance they get to anyone and everyone who will listen. They publicly defile them and call them names like "stupid," "morons" and "idiots." Jessica Lange went so far as to tell a crowd in Spain that she hates President Bush and is embarrassed to be an American. So, just how ignorant are the people who run the country? Let's look at the biographies of these "stupid," "ignorant," "moronic" leaders, and then at the celebrities who are castigating them:

President George W. Bush earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University and an MBA from Harvard Business School; served as an F-102 pilot in the Texas Air National Guard; began his career in the oil and gas business in Midland in 1975 and worked in the energy industry until 1986; elected governor on Nov. 8, 1994, with 53.5 percent of the vote. In a historic re-election victory, he became the first Texas governor to be elected to consecutive four-year terms on Nov. 3, 1998, winning 68.6 percent of the vote, with 49 percent of the Hispanic vote, 27 percent of the African-American vote, 27 percent of Democrats and 65 percent of women. (Someone began circulating a false story about his I.Q. being lower than any other president's. If you believed it, you might want to go to URBANLEGENDS.COM and see the truth.)

Vice President Dick Cheney earned a B.A. in 1965 and an M.A. in 1966, both in political science; two years later, he won an American Political Science Association congressional fellowship; chief of staff to Gerald Ford (at age 34) from 1975-77; six-term Republican congressman from Wyoming, 1978-89; secretary of defense to President George Bush, 1989-93; CEO of global energy conglomerate Halliburton. 2. Secretary of State Colin Powell was educated in the New York City public schools, graduating from the City College of New York (CCNY), where he earned a bachelor's degree in geology. He also participated in ROTC at CCNY and received a commission as an Army second lieutenant upon graduation in June 1958; received MBA from George Washington University.

Secretary Colin Powell was a professional soldier for 35 years, during which time he held myriad command and staff positions and rose to the rank of four-star general. His last assignment, from Oct. 1, 1989, to Sept. 30, 1993, was as the 12th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest military position in the Department of Defense. During this time, he oversaw 28 crises, including Operation Desert Storm in the victorious 1991 Persian Gulf war. Before becoming secretary of state, Powell was chairman of America's Promise - The Alliance for Youth, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to mobilizing people from every sector of American life to build the character and competence of young people. His awards include two Presidential Medals of Freedom, the President's Citizens Medal, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Secretary of State Distinguished Service Medal, and the Secretary of Energy Distinguished Service Medal. Several schools and other institutions have been named in his honor and he holds honorary degrees from universities and colleges across the country.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld attended Princeton University on Scholarship (A.B., 1954) and served in the U.S. Navy (1954-57) as a naval aviator; congressional assistant to Rep. Robert Griffin, R-Mich., 1957-59; U.S. Representative, Illinois, 1962-69; assistant to the president, director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, director of the Cost of Living Council, 1969-74; U.S. ambassador to NATO, 1973-74; head of Presidential Transition Team, 1974; assistant to the president, director of White House Office of Operations, White House chief of staff, 1974-77; secretary of defense, 1975-77. Mr. Rumsfeld continued his public service in a variety of federal posts, including: Member of the President's General Advisory Committee on Arms Control (1982 - 1986); Special Presidential Envoy on the Law of the Sea Treaty (1982 - 1983); Senior Advisor to the President's Panel on Strategic Systems (1983 - 1984); Member of the U.S. Joint Advisory Commission on U.S./Japan Relations (1983 - 1984); Special Presidential Envoy to the Middle East (1983 - 1984); Member of the National Commission on Public Service (1987 - 1990); Member of the National Economic Commission (1988 - 1989); Member of the Board of Visitors of the National Defense University (1988 - 1992); Member of the Commission on U.S./Japan Relations (1989 - 1991); and Member of the U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission (1999 - 2000). Mr. Rumsfeld served as chairman and CEO of General Instrument Corporation from 1990 to 1993. General Instrument Corporation was a leader in broadband transmission, distribution, and access control technologies. Until being sworn in as the 21st secretary of defense, Mr. Rumsfeld served as chairman of the Board of Gilead Sciences Inc., a pharmaceutical company.

Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge was raised in a working class family in veterans' public housing in Erie, Pa. He earned a scholarship to Harvard, graduating with honors in 1967. After his first year at The Dickinson School of Law, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served as an infantry staff sergeant in Vietnam, earning the Bronze Star for valor. After returning to Pennsylvania, he earned his law degree and was in private practice before becoming assistant district attorney in Erie County. He was elected to Congress in 1982. He was the first enlisted Vietnam combat veteran elected to the U.S. House, and was overwhelmingly re-elected six times before becoming governor of the state, serving from 1995 - 2001.

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice puts everyone to shame with her credentials on foreign affairs. She earned her bachelor's degree in Political Science, Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974; her master's from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. (Note: Rice enrolled at the University of Denver at the age of 15, graduated at 19. Both of her advanced degrees are also in political science.) She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Morehouse College in 1991, the University of Alabama in 1994 and the University of Notre Dame in 1995. At Stanford, she has been a member of the Center for International Security and Arms Control, a Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and a Fellow (by courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. Her books include "Germany Unified and Europe Transformed" (1995) with Philip Zelikow, "The Gorbachev Era" (1986) with Alexander Dallin and "Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army" (1984). She also has written numerous articles on Soviet and East European foreign and defense policy, and has addressed audiences in settings ranging from the U.S. Ambassador's Residence in Moscow to the Commonwealth Club to the 1992 and 2000 Republican National Conventions. From 1989 through March 1991, the period of German reunification and the final days of the Soviet Union, she served in the Bush administration as Director, and then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In 1986, while an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, she served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1997, she served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender-Integrated Training in the Military. She was a member of the boards of directors for the Chevron Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the University of Notre Dame, the International Advisory Council of J.P. Morgan and the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors. She was a Founding Board member of the Center for a New Generation, an educational support fund for schools in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, California and was Vice President of the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, who are these celebrities? What type of education do they have? What are their experiences in affairs of state or in national security?

The facts on their educations and backgrounds:

Barbra Streisand: Completed high school Career: Singing and acting

Cher: Dropped out of school in 9th grade Career: Singing and acting

Martin Sheen: Flunked exam to enter University of Dayton Career: Acting

Jessica Lange: Dropped out of college mid-freshman year Career: Acting

Alec Baldwin: Dropped out of George Washington U.Career: Acting

Julia Roberts: Completed high school Career: Acting

Sean Penn: Completed high school Career: Acting

Susan Sarandon: Degree in drama from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Career: Acting

Ed Asner: Completed high school Career: Acting

George Clooney: Dropped out of University of Kentucky Career: Acting

Michael Moore: Dropped out during first year at University of Michigan Career: Movie director

Mike Farrell: Completed high school Career: Acting

Janeane Garofalo: Dropped out of college Career: Stand-up comedy/acting

While comparing the education and experience of these two groups, we should also remember that President Bush and his Cabinet are briefed daily, even hourly, on the War on Terror and threats to our security. They are privy to information gathered around the world concerning the Middle East, the threats to America, the intentions of terrorists and terrorist-supporting governments. They are in constant communication with the CIA, the FBI, Interpol, NATO, the United Nations, our own military and those of our allies around the world. We cannot simply believe that we have full knowledge of the threats because we watch TV and read news on the Internet! We cannot believe that we are in any way as informed as our leaders. These celebrities have no intelligence-gathering agents, no fact-finding groups and no insight into the minds of those who would destroy our country. They only have a deep-seated hatred for all things Republican. By nature, and no one knows quite why, the Hollywood elitists detest conservative views and anything that supports or uplifts the United States of America. The silence was deafening from the Left when Bill Clinton ordered the bombing of a pharmaceutical factory outside Khartoum, and when he attacked the Bosnian Serbs in 1995 and 1999. He bombed Serbia itself to get Slobodan Milosevic out of Kosovo, and not a single peace rally was held. When our Rangers were ambushed in Somalia and 18 young American lives were lost, not a peep was heard from Hollywood. Yet now, when our young men and women in uniform are in Afghanistan, Iraq, South Korea and other places where their lives are in danger every day to protect the very freedom that allows Hollywood leftists to speak out, these stars held rallies against the war and against our president - without being educated, without being briefed and without being experienced. Shame on them.

Newsmax.com
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2003/5/14/110356