The Mom vs. the 80% President

You go, Cindy Sheehan! Thanks to this mother of a young soldier killed in Iraq, someone is finally having the persistence to ask a simple question. That question is: why are we in Iraq? All she is asking for is a direct, honest answer. It's no wonder that 'king W. is avoiding her...he doesn't have an answer because his state rationale has changed with each revelation that the previous reason given by his administration doesn't hold water.

So how does one ask such a question when the supposedly liberal media has all but given up on true investigative journalism? This solitary mother simply decided to camp outside his driveway as he takes the longest presidential vacation in 30+ years. He truly is the 80% president, since he has spent approximately 20% of his entire time in office on vacation at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, according to Mark Knoller, a CBS Radio reporter and as reported in the August 3, 2005, edition of the Seattle Times. And, according to that same edition of the Seattle Times, "Weekends and holidays at Camp David or at his parents' compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, bump up the proportion of Bush's time away from Washington even further."

Let's say the average person works 52 40-hour work weeks or 260 days. Now let's subtract 7 days for holidays like Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, and New Year's Day. That's 253 work days for the average American worker. At his rate of 20% off, 'king W. takes about 50 days or 10 weeks of paid vacation per year--which means he works about 203 days a year. I'd love to have a job where I could take 10 weeks off and still earn my full salary.

To be fair, his aides say during his vacation he receives daily briefings and signs required paperwork, etc.--sort of a work at home atmosphere. I don't really buy that as "working" as I often check in with work on days off or on weekends to see how things are going.

Since I've begun to ramble, let me finish by acknowledging the two issues here. 1) One solitary mother can do more to be persistent in order to ask a question than the entire U.S. Media and still be ignored by 'king W. and 2) 'king W. has what could be the most complex job in the Western World and, yet, apparently spends far less time at it than the average American spends at his or her job. Man, this guy must be like the best president ever! (Please read that last line with a strong tone of sarcasm.)