Counting Sheep Politically


               A shepherd  was tending his  flock in a remote  pasture when
          suddenly a brand-new Jeep Cherokee  appeared out of a dust cloud,
          advanced toward him and stopped. The driver, a 20-something fella
          wearing a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses, and a YSL
          tie, leaned out of  the window and asked the shepherd,  "If I can
          tell you exactly  how many sheep you have in your flock, will you
          give me one?"

               The shepherd looked at the young guy, then at his peacefully
          grazing flock, and calmly answered, "sure."

               The  young man  parked  his car,  whipped  out his  notebook
          computer, connected it to a cell phone, surfed to a NASA  page on
          the Internet  where  he  called up  a  GPS  satellite  navigation
          system,  scanned the  area, then  opened up  a database  and some
          Excel spreadsheets with complex formula. He finally printed out a
          15-page report on his hi-tech miniaturized printer, turned around
          to the shepherd and said, "You have here exactly 1,586 sheep!"

               "Amazing! That's correct! Like I agreed, you can have one of
          my sheep," said the shepherd.

               The shepherd watched the man  make a selection and bundle it
          into his Cherokee. When he was finished the sheepherder said, "If
          I can tell you exactly what  your political persuasion is and who
          you work for, will you give me back my sheep?"

               "Okay, why not," answered the young man.

               "You're  a Democrat and  you're working for  Jesse Jackson,"
          said the shepherd.

               "Wow! That's correct," said the young man. "How did you ever
          guess that?"

               "Easy," answered the  shepherd. "Nobody called you,  but you
          showed up  here  anyway. You  want  to be  paid for  providing  a
          solution  to a  question I already  knew the  answer to.  And you
          clearly don't know squat about what you're doing. Now, can I have
          my dog back?"