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Show Page 15 Monday, April 14, 2008 Credit: Card companies know all {Mcontinued from page 14 stating that charges weren't mine. Notarized? Who uses a notary public anymore? In legal terms it carries about the same weight as the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. The CitiBank credit card company has my security passwords, the secret names of my dog, social security number and all sorts of other double checks, but what they really need is a piece of paper through the snail mail. Meanwhile Mr. /Ms. Rodriguez has surly noticed the gig is up and will destroy all evidence. You could yawn this all off as somebody else's personal tragedy, but credit card companies are now a key player in national security. If you want the fast check-in line at the airport or you want to verify your address change with the U.S. Postal Service, all you have to do it let them scan your credit card. Apparently the only entities you can really trust are the credit card companies and the Division of Motor Vehicles. Yes, Master Card, Visa and the worst photographers in the world are really in charge of national security. Try checking in on a flight with anything but a major credit card and a state-issued drivers license and you'll be looking for a bus station. Just for extra paranoia, I'll throw in the U.S. Post Office because they issue most of the passports. This is the same post office that has never been known for their efficiency or choice of quality employees. After looking at this list again, it's hard to believe that any of us are still alive right now. \{'s exciting lo be a couple. If you ore ready ko announce an en^ajment or a recent marriage, let other; know. It'/ os ea/y a/ Joing to your computer. Dennis Hinkamp is mostly identifiable by fingerprints and the tattoo on his left shoulder. Comments and questions can be sent to him at dennish@ext.usu. edu. Click on WEDDING NEWS @ www.utah/tate/man.com and fill in your info. O r /end to office@jtatefman.ufu.edu. Published both online and in The State/man. Now, that'; Jood new/! -m GOP: Bush dragging down party [Mcontinued from page 14 PRESIDENT CALLS THE WR *WMMY\G --wws Galileo Processing, the global leader in financial services technology, is looking for the best employees in Salt Lake City. Positions available: » Web Programmer: PHP, SQL > Programmer: C/C++, Linux, SQL > Data-Warehouse / Business Intelligence - > Telephony: XML, Dialogic F i Development / Project Manager [: > Software Developer:Test Engineer » Operations Analyst > PLUS other tech and support jobs available! Ghraib. And five years later, what have we got? More than 4,000 dead U.S. troops, countless dead Iraqi civilians, no sustainable Iraqi political settlement, a U.S. military cracking under the strain, a new al-Qaida franchise in Iraq, rising {but neglected) extremist threats in other parts of the globe and a U.S. taxpayer bill of $508 billion to date (with long-term costs in the next decade estimated to exceed $1.7 trillion). What's more, as Petraeus acknowledged this week, there's no end in sight, As I said, it's a downer. Especially for the GOP. Over time, as more and more Americans have become convinced that going to war in Iraq was the wrong decision, President Bush's approval ratings have plummeted - and Bush appears to be taking the Republican Party down with him. According to a March 20 Pew Research Center study, Republican Party identification is at its lowest point in the center's 16 years of polling: Only 27 percent of registered voters will now fess up to being Republicans, a 6-percentage-point drop since 2004. And the decline is particularly notable in key swing states. It's not just the fencesitters who are shifting; core GOP constituencies are fleeing, too. In a warning sign of what the future may hold for the GOP, Republican Party identification among younger white evangelicals - 55 percent in 2001 - had plummeted to 40 percent by September 2007. The same trend has been true among military personnel, for decades a solidly Republican constituency. In 2004, 60 percent of activeduty military personnel who responded to a survey sent to Military Times subscribers identified themselves as Republicans. By 2007, that had dropped below 50 percent. (Military personnel tend to take screw-ups in Iraq pretty personally.) if political contributions are any guide, 2008 has the potential to be a good year for the Democratic Party with military voters; data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics found that the two candidates pulling in the most money from military donors in January and February were Ron Paul, the libertarian GOP candidate who favored withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraa, and Obama, who garnered nearly 30 percent more in military donations than presumptive GOP nominee John McCain. A lot could happen between now and November, but at the moment, the Democrats appear poised to retake the White House and con- solidate control over both houses of Congress. The economy's tailspin also may lead voters to punish the GOP - but for most of the past seven years, the primary driver of Democratic good fortune has been the Iraq war. Heck of a job, Bushie. Rosa Brooks is a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. 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