BAD ACCOUNTING, POWER CUTS AND GAPS

From the best selling book ..."The O'REILLY FACTOR" ... "Ridiculous note: Jesse Jackson, who likes to call himself a creative capitalist, has four not-for-profit organizations, yet he does not itemize on any of his tax returns. We do get some very interesting hints, however. His Rainbow/PUSH organization reported $1.3 million in travel and convention expenses in one year alone. Who got that money, which averages an astronomical $3,500 a day? Which corporation (or federal grant) supports the reverend's activities? How does he live so comfortably and travel in such high style? Why does the IRS look the other way? Why are the laws on disclosure of not-for-profit income and expenses being ignored? No, I don't have the answers ... yet." -- Bill O'Reilly

Which is accurate? Initially, the costs of moving Jackson's 20-month-old daughter and mother to Los Angeles were reported to be $40,000, into a $340,000 home, with support payments of $10,000 a month.

The most recent Associated Press report stated that the "leader of Rainbow/PUSH has acknowledged that the civil rights organization paid $35,000 in 'severance pay' to Karin Stanford (former head of Rainbow/PUSH)."

A Jackson spokesman said that included $15,000 in moving expenses and $20,000 as payment for work Stanford was contracted to perform for the organization ... and that Jackson pays Stanford $3,000 a month in child support. No mention of the house.

I'm with O'Reilly on this!

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It wasn't deregulation, but state government regulations and price controls that have created the necessity for rolling blackouts limited geographic shut off of power in California.

Former Delaware Gov. PETE duPONT in a Wall Street Journal column commented:

"The idea of price controls goes back four millennia to the Code of Hammurabi. It descended through Diocletian, Lenin, Hitler, Nixon and Carter. Price controls have always failed, and now they have failed badly again in California. If the price of electricity to consumers is capped, they have no reason to conserve, thus ensuring high demand. And generating companies have little interest in building new capacity when the price of their product was set politically rather than by the market, and they have a big interest in selling their electricity in other states, where prices are not capped.

"Silliest of all, the 1996 law forbids California electricity companies from signing long-term power supply contracts. They are required to buy in a daily spot market. This introduced a wild volatility into electricity prices, since the moderating influence of long- term price and quantity agreements was forbidden."

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Not only PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, but all of us face a growing national cultural gap that must be addressed.

As the nation's 43rd president, Bush inherits a country split not so much by economics or politics as much as by culture.

Exit polls of the Nov. 7 election provided the data for the following report in a recent Wall Street Journal column.

Two Americas?

Those who attend church more than once a week:

Bush 63 percent

Gore 36 percent

Those who never attend church:

Bush 32 percent

Gore 61 percent

Gun owners:

Bush 61 percent

Gore 36 percent

Non-gun owners:

Bush 39 percent

Gore 58 percent

Residents of rural areas:

Bush 59 percent

Gore 37 percent

Residents of cities over 50,000 population:

Bush 36 percent

Gore 61 percent

Married voters:

Bush 53 percent

Gore 44 percent

-- The Wall Street Journal

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Another comment on the same subject: The 2000 election has been characterized as dividing the country equally along urban-vs-rural lines. But the geographical divisions are less striking than the blurring of class and educational lines that used to define the parties. Only 4 percent of voters in exit polls identified themselves as "upper class," but they voted for Al Gore by a dozen points. Similarly, voters with a bachelor's degree plumped for George W. Bush, but graduate-school educated professionals voted for Gore. This group increasingly consists of teachers, social workers and lawyers, who don't always share the middle-class values of traditional Democratic voters.

All this may explain why members of the elite media have had such a hard time explaining how Democrats lost both the White House and Congress for the first time in almost half a century. They and their neighbors in Manhattan's Upper East Side, Beverly Hills and Washington's Kalorama neighborhood largely voted for Gore. But increasingly the voters who the Democratic Party claims it represents (with the conspicuous exception of government workers and blacks) are becoming indifferent or hostile to the party's message. -- John Fund

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"No one can get you to feel angry without your consent."

"A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for."

"If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got."

~Gary Rust is president of Rust Communications.