September 15, 2007 journal, South Carolina girl not left behind to find the USA on a map. It's right there beside Iraq an Afrika. Since she was 10 years old all she's heard is Iraq on television by our president who certainly could not find the U.S.A. on any map or Africa. In fact her wrangling language sounds a lot like our president. It may have been taught to her by her church in support of the president's war policy to shoot first and ask questions never. To count the dead bodies of American soldiers but not Iraqis, to count only those dead who died on the ground before they could be airlifted in which case if they die in the air it is of natural causes. That is better for his political career which needs to be tried in The Hague. But it hurts that she was from the Capitol of this state called Columbia, S.C. They cannot blame that on the Democrats. No child is left behind without a good dose of Iraqi war doubletalk that makes no sense whatsoever and changes every time you hear it. Quoting from the local newspaper The Beat, the editor, "From the mouths of babes-and whatever else you think of Miss South Carolina Teen USA Lauren Caitlin Upton, you'd have to say she is a babe on some level, perhaps more than one. Her unfortunate answer to a geography question during the nationally televised pageant launched millions of You Tube hits as well as multiple hits on our state pride as Ms. Upton became the unwitting symbol of all that is wrong with education in the United States in general, South Carolina in particular. In case you have been vacationing under a rock the last 2 weeks, she was asked, "Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can not locate the USA on a world map. Why do you think that is?" Immaculately attired in a jeweled blue gown, she took a deep breath and responded-to something. it came out like this: "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation do not have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq every where like such as and I believe they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help this South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our children". The fallout from her gaffe was immediate. No doubt other educationally challenged States breathed a sigh of relief and said "Thank God for South Carolina "-especially after she was described as a "student leader at Lexington High School, where she graduated in June with a 3.5 GPA ". The 18 year-old beauty queen later told Matt Lauer on the Today Show that she had been shocked and overwhelmed by the question and compared it to an out of body experience. In fairness, the idea that we evaluate our education system based on a pageant question posed by Mario Lopez from Saved by the Bell is patently ridiculous. So, its time to stop beating up on this young woman and give her credit for focusing attention on the dire map shortage that had previously escaped scrutiny... Lauren Upton's apparent non sequitur reference to Iraq is telling, however. The war is an ever-present subtext to most aspects of American life these days, a fact that the much hyped report of General David Patraeus has done little to mediate. That issue is not going away anytime soon". By James Sharon, editor of Miss Upton could be the president with crazy talk like this. Massive protests in Washington against the war but no one is home. One poll shows the military officers are best suited to make decisions on wars 60 percent, of Congress is 28 percent, of the president is 5%. They showed the fallen and they're all non commissioned officers except one warrant Officer who ranks between a commissioned officer and a non-commissioned officer. Officers seem to have better sense than to get in the line of fire. Briton will fall with the United States one & the same maybe even in this sub-bank crisis.