Our election, the world's problem.

Our topic for today is the effect of the US elections outside our boundaries. I'm afraid it's a gloomy picture. At best, our Legislature will be deadlocked, and things won't change for the worse. Of course, in that case, another million or so illegal aliens will cross our border, our national debt will go up a few hundred billion dollars, we'll be two years closer to Social Security collapsing, and our energy problems will be even larger. Fortunately for the rest of the world, y'all will hardly notice. Unless something important comes up that can't get through our Congress, like assistance after another big natural disaster or new trade agreements.

Now, if the Democrats get their way, we're in big trouble. Ignoring all the social issues, liberal positions are not exactly friendly to business. As business goes, so our economy goes. So, if our economy crumbles, considering how connected things are today, almost everyone else is going down with us. Beyond the obvious problems this will cause - unemployment, lower standards of living, civil unrest - several countries, currently hovering on the edge of stability, might fall off the brink into civil war. China, for instance, is really only stable because of support from its growing middle class. Any major disruption of trade with the US will hit that happy group right in the face. For that matter, the governments of several the Middle Eastern countries are only in power because they share the oil wealth. A bad world economy will seriously slash the money flow, making them easy targets for revolutions. From Europe's perspective, that would be bad, very bad.

Speaking of the Middle East, the Democrats don't really want to fool with that part of the world. It's too messy politically, they don't care all that much for Israel, and, as a general principle, they hate spending money on our military. Thus, if funding for US military operations in that area get blocked, someone will have to take up the slack. Since it's doubtful that Russia or China will send troops, the burden falls to the EU. By the way, besides the danger of getting shot, maintaining a large well equipped military is quite expensive; so get your checkbooks ready.

OK, most of that isn't all that likely. Hopefully. However, there is one thing the new Speaker of the House (probably Pelosi) has promised to do, investigate. Actually, it was more like investigate, investigate, investigate. They have plans to look into everything from various business leaders, assorted large companies, everything every Republican has done for the last 12 years, the War on Terror, all the way to the War in Iraq (which they don't include in the general fight against Muslim extremists.) All of this will conclude to an effort to impeach President Bush. Naturally, this won't pass the Senate, needing a two third vote. It will, however, tie up our Government for the next two years. So, for the rest of the world, don't count on us for anything. We're busy.

the Grit