A-1 (imported) wrote: Thu Mar 20, 2003 3:57 pm To top it all off I read today where this guy is worth about 2 BILLION dollars, almost 4 times more than the Queen of England.

To my mind, this is one of the strongest things you can say about a public official. If they enter an official as a poor person, and eventually become quite wealthy, you have to assume that the only way that could've happened is through graft, corruption, or out-right theft.

Willie Brown, the former Speaker of the House in California (and currently Mayor of San Francisco), fits that profile. Many of the Senators in the US fit that profile, which is unseemly at best.

The Queen of England, in fact the entire royal family, doesn't quite hit that profile. (They're weird, and the family's wealth was undoubtedly taken from the old model that the King *was* England and its wealth was his.)

I don't like where this is going, certainly, but believe that the heads of many of the countries are quite, quite mad. (Ours included.)

MSNBC upgraded his personal wealth to 7 BILLION in a newscast tonight.

jab, you are soooo right!

A-1