Why is it most Democrats and other-than-hardcore-Republicans can't get excited about
the candidates thrust upon them and have to hold their nose when they vote?
Over and over it has been demonstrated that the establishment Democrats in DC are
most of the problem and don't have a clue regarding how to win the presidency.
Listed below are examples of Democrats that are straight-talking, right-thinking populists who have succeeded in spite being saddled with the millstone of hypocrisy and corrupt, self-serving elitism that DC insiders have burdened the Democratic Party with.
We can win in 2008 but it very likely won't be with a Kerry, Biden, Hillary or the like. It has to be a candidate that speaks truth to power and cares more for the people and this nation than they do for the trappings of power and personal opportunity that comes with elected office.
Over the years, corrupt politicians bent on self gratification, exploitation of power and profiteering over honest sacrifice and service to the people, have done enough to destroy the Democratic Party's image and need to be sent a clear and unequivocal message - we've had enough! Democrat's are taking their party back. Get out and stay out!
Gary
WHAT DO JOE MANCHIN, BRIAN SCHWEITZER, DAVE FREUDENTHAL, BRAD HENRY,AND ROCKY ANDERSON HAVE IN COMMON?
They're among the most popular Democrats in the country and you've probably never heard of most of them.
Undernews, April 24
SAM SMITH - When someone asks me who I want for president in 2008, I chase them away quickly with the answer: Rocky Anderson.
It isn't really true, but it symbolizes what I really think about the way the Democrats are once again fouling their own nest by spending more effort pleasing campaign contributors than reaching a natural constituency. The Vichy Democrats who have been wrecking the party since the early 1990s are still in control and unless there is a Dean-like revolt, Democrats will once again pay the price in 2008.
Rocky Anderson is the ACLU-card carrying Democratic mayor of the largest city in one of the most conservative states: Salt Lake City. Here's how Wikipedia describes him:"Under his mayorship, the city has purchased wind power, increased recycling, and is converting its fleet of city vehicles to alternative fuels. Anderson has supported initial measures to make the city more bicycle-friendly and pedestrian-friendly while opposing "monster" home rebuilding projects in the historic Avenues and Sugar House districts. He helped manage the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, and is a major proponent of downtown revitalization projects. He is an ardent opponent of tobacco use and has supported legislative measures limiting smoking; conversely, he is one of the most outspoken public critics of Utah's strict alcohol laws (state law permits the sale of alcohol only in restaurants, private clubs, and state-run liquor stores)."
Anderson opposes English-only legislation, supports gay rights and same-sex marriage, and has launched living wage initiatives. This is notable in the state that in the 2004 presidential election gave George W. Bush his greatest percentage of the vote of any state in the Union. . ."
In 2000, Anderson had Salt Lake City police officers end their participation in the DARE. program. He was characteristically blunt, telling DARE. officials: 'I think your organization has been an absolute fraud on the people of this country ... For you to continue taking precious drug-prevention dollars when we have such a serious and, in some instances, growing addiction problem is unconscionable.'."
Anderson attracted praise and scorn in August 2005 when, after accepting an invitation from the Bush administration to participate in a visit by the President, he sent an e-mail to local advocacy leaders calling for 'the biggest demonstration [Utah] has ever seen' to protest Bush's appearance at Veterans of Foreign Wars' national convention at the Salt Palace. Speaking to a rally in Pioneer Park (in downtown Salt Lake City), Anderson justified his protest against Bush, suggesting that the 'nation was lied into a war.'". . ."
Incidentally, Anderson was raised LDS (Morman) but is no longer associated with the church."
If Anderson actually did run there would be controversies over some of his management policies and his spending habits. But that's not the point. The point is that there are more where he came from, but you'll never know it if the media only covers Clinton, Edwards and Kerry.
The other politicians mentioned above are the most popular Democratic governors in the country, all with the approval of at least two-thirdsof the voters, all of them from red states. There are reasons to argue with each of them, but at the same time, all of them are more far honest than Hilary Clinton and more competent than most in Washington DC - pol, pollster or pundit. Plus they actually know something about winning red state voters.
The fact that such individuals get ignored by the Washington experts merely illustrates why the Vichy Democrats do so poorly. And they have not only sold out to major corporate interests that oppose much of what real Democrats stand for, they are also wusses.
For example, they're desperately afraid of the national security issue despite the president blowing one of the most expensive wars in history against a minor league country and despite the terrifying incompetence displayed by the Bush regime following Katrina.
If you look at the most popular Democratic governors, competence is a recurring theme. Senators don't have to be competent, they just have to know how to talk, especially on Sundays. But if you want to win in the heartland, it helps to have some usable skills.
The governors also tend to break the approved Democratic mold in someway. Manchin opposes abortion, Schweitzer is pro-gun. As long as the candidate is only a believer and not a bully, you can live with this. And the beauty is, politically, that you only need to be a single issue apostate to reach whole new constituencies.
No one in this list seems up to a presidential bout, although a couple might make useful veep candidates. But, remember, unless the Democrats find an alternative to the complacent, corrupt, and cowardly capital crowd, the party is going to lose anyway in 2008.
Undernews April 23 - http://www.prorev.com/indexa.htm
Monday, April 24, 2006
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Hello From Scratch and Dent, Tennessee
We've been out of commission due to power failure for a few days. No power, no cable, no computer access. We greatly appreciate those that have inquired about our welfare.
You've probably read or saw the reports on TV of the tornados that have plagued Tennessee recently. The one a few days ago on Friday came close. It's our county and towns that were hit. My daughter Michelle lives between Gallatin and Hendersonville and all except for daughter Jenna and husband Jason live within a few miles of the several paths the tornados took through Goodlettsville, Hendersonville and Gallatin. A total of eight are known dead in this county and over 50 were injured, some very seriously.
Jenna and baby were in route to a friend's house driving through Gallatin when the tornado struck. Four people were killed at the intersection where she had been three to four minutes before. A gas station she had just passed was leveled the manager killed and others injured. At the same intersection a mobile home sales operation was leveled and a woman in the office carried 200' north and into an Electric Service company that was leveled. The woman and two people at the service company were killed. Two trailer trucks at the intersection were picked up and flipped over.
This was the fourth touchdown or more of the biggest tornado. It had just passed through Gallatin where it hit the local college and several new car dealerships. Hundreds of cars were picked up high into the air, rotated around, bashed into each other and deposited in heaps, some looking like they had been run over by a speeding train. Engines were torn out and deposited several hundred feet away.
The storm was carrying debris from where it had struck down earlier as it passed through Goodlettsville where it destroyed an area behind the city hall, a nearby church and damaged the roof of K-Mart among other businesses and homes. Along the way through Hendersonville and Gallatin it cut a huge wide swath destroying homes, most completely leveled, others half demolished. Many hundreds of homes (upwards of 700 I have heard) were destroyed, most recently built.
Documents from the Lee Electric company and other personal papers from this area were found a hundred miles away in Kentucky.
I was on the cell phone with Jenna who was passing through Gallatin when she saw it coming towards her. She cried out a expletive or two, one having to do with excrement, threw her phone down then drove across a front yard and two ditches to a church and grabbing the baby, ran to the church basement. The church was just at the edge of the tornado's path and was spared. Jenna and her baby most certainly escaped death or injury by a scant few minutes. We were on pins and needles until a call from Jenna assured us she was safe.
My son Tracy was about a quarter mile from the tornado and saw it touch down growing from a dancing, twisting spout to a monstrous demon 300 to 400' wide as it raced along the ground devouring everything in it's path and spitting out a trail of mangled and broken pieces along the way. Tracy raced away after having been near it's path minutes before. He said he watched in amazement at the amount and size of debris the storm had collected around it, hundreds and perhaps a thousand feet in the air, whirling around like ornaments attached to a wildly spinning Christmas tree.
Tracy's house about six miles away, his two trucks and equipment trailer suffered hail damage. The rest of us and our homes were untouched except for the emotional scars, especially those suffered by Jenna who with her baby were so near death or serious injury.
Michelle was in DC on a school trip with her middle child Jonathon and his class. Michelle teaches 7th and 8th grade at Goodpasture, the school where both Jonathon and William attend and was a chaperone for the trip. Elizabeth was at her school nearby, Davidson Academy. Her and William were both safe. Eric was at work in Nashville and left to get them. Michelle kept in touch by phone during the whole ordeal.
Margaret and I and Tracy and his wife were without power for two days and Michelle and Eric were without power until last night since they were closer to the Tornado's path. Margaret and I are used to frequent power outages and are fully prepared with gas powered generator, gas powered camp stoves, lanterns, coal oil lamps, water jugs and hard-wired phone in addition to cell phones. The generator powers our TV, refrigerator, freezer and a few lamps.
They were predicting we would be without power for 4 to 6 days. Tracy and Eric both bought a generators on day two and hooked them up. About two hours later Tracy's power was back on along with ours. Poor Michelle and family lived for four days with a tangle of extension cords spread like the tentacles of a family of octopi all over their house. Eric spent $250 on cords and power blocks alone plus $600 for a generator - a good investment in this storm prone area.
We bought extra gallons of drinking water and filled the bathtub and buckets with water in anticipation of the local water tank running out if the power was off indefinitely. It sits on top the hill about a two blocks away and if it ran out would leave us without water since we live so high up. It happend once before when we were without power for almost a week. The tank depends on a big electric driven pump about half way down the hill to lift water to the tank at night. This tank supplies the head pressure for the local community. Those at lower levels would not be effected like us highlanders. As it is, living only slightly below the tank elevation, we have to have a shallow well booster pump to get us to normal water pressure. Tracy lives about ten miles away, high on a hill and in about the same situation.
I don't know if it made a difference but the evening of the storm we had four deer browsing in the back yard and two tom turkeys visited with our chickens while a hen traveling with them stood at the edge of the woods and watched. We've got BIG turkey down here. One tom had a beard about 6-8 inches long. Yesterday I heard a gobbler calling out in the woods behind the house and a hen chirped her answer. After a few more rounds of gobbles and chirps it got quiet as romantic liasons often do.
Tracy had a flock of around 50 or more turkey visiting his place on a regular basis last fall and also groups of deer came every night throughout the summer. Margaret and I had a deer cross the front yard two evenings ago and two sauntered across the road in front of us last night as we drove down the hill. They flipped their white flag tails in the air stiffly and proudly as we passed as if to say you can't touch this - we're too quick.
When we returned about an hour later the Jeep's lights scared up the Easter bunny on the side of the road. Bunny was so startled he sprang straight up in the air before scampering across the road in front of us. I don't know that I've ever saw a rabbit that thought he was a jack-in-the-box. He sprang straight up at least two feet or more as if he was bounced from a trampoline. It made Margaret and me laugh like kids.
The deer and other wildlife are becoming somewhat of a pest. A mother and her fawn were visiting us last summer. We keep a birdbath for the birds and a small low tub for the low-to-the-ground critters out in the side yard where we have a fern and Hosta lily bed. The deer when coming to drink suddenly developed a taste for Hosta lilies and within three nights had them all ate down to the stalks. So this year I have acquired a water sprinkler that has a motion detector switch on it. It comes on when anyone approaches and it begins shooting water in a broad pattern for a few seconds. It continues to come back on persistently shooting water if movement continues. Hopefully this will scare the deer off. We moved the water tub to a nearby location so the rabbits and other small critters can drink without getting a shower in the bargain.
The possums make their rounds each night checking to see if we might have left the chicken house door open and scavenge for garbage or whatever they can find. We have to keep our garbage lids weighted down in the trash bin but they still find ways to get in. They almost every animal alive they also like sunflower seeds.
The raccoons come almost every night and raid the bird feeders so we have to bring two of the feeders in each night. The other two are heavy metal squirrel and critter proof feeders. We feed black oil sunflower seed and thistle year 'round. The coons come up on the deck and sit on the ledge outside the large, low kitchen window. They stare in at us unafraid as we peer back just inches away with only two panels of glass that separate our noses. But if we open the back door they scamper across the deck and run under it. If you stand still for just a half minute or less their curiosity gets the best of them they slowly peek over the edge to see what you're up to.
We have several nesting boxes already occupied, a bluebird box having just had a clutch of eggs laid in it. This will be the first of two hatches this year. The same family has been coming for over twenty years. At least I'm almost certain it's the same family. It's their territory and their bird box. Bluebirds protect a territory of about 200 to 300 feet around their nest against other bluebirds so unless you have a very big yard it doesn't do any good to put up more than one bluebird box.
Also there is a wren nesting in a bucket that hangs inside the shed. It gets occupied every year so we don't move it.
In addition to the old John Deere tractor I have an 8N Ford that is presently not operating. It's my goal to tear it down and rebuild the engine this year. In the mean time the wrens love to make a nest up under the hood. I once had an old mail box that was mounted near a playhouse I had built for Jenna and it sat there with the door open. Unknown to us a wren built a nest inside and was hatching eggs. Someone, probably me, for whatever reason shut the door of the mail box and she was trapped inside and died a horrible death. I found her there a month or so later when I took the box down. I really felt bad about that and I try to keep things like that in mind so it doesn't happen again. Wrens will make nests in the most unexpected places. We love our feathered friends.
The turkey buzzards and the hawks routinely circle around overhead catching the air currents and up drafts as they hunt for roadkill or prey. When the chickens spot them they move under the big pine tree in their pen for protection. They're actually a little big for hawks or owls to carry off but they instinctively take cover, a carry over from when they were once wild birds and not nearly so well fed and bulky. Their ancestors once could fly as well and were small enough a hawk could easily carry them off. Like Howard Hughe's Spruce Goose they are now bred so big they can only lumber off the ground a few feet in the air and with great effort fly a distance of maybe thirty feet - and that only with a running start and going down a steep slope.
There are of course lighter breeds of chickens you can get that the wing power to weight ratio is large enough they can fly a little better. A fresh young leghorn can fly over a six foot fence and many of what they call game breeds can fly up into the trees to roost - especially the bantam chickens. Owls love bantams - that's why we don't have any - the owls get them. It seems every species has a place in the pecking order of life - unfortunately even the members of the same species. As the popular saying goes - sometimes you're the windshield - sometimes you're the bug.
That's all the news from Toad Hill, home for two grumpy old toads, three cats, eight chickens and a bunch of wild critters that share the neighborhood.
You've probably read or saw the reports on TV of the tornados that have plagued Tennessee recently. The one a few days ago on Friday came close. It's our county and towns that were hit. My daughter Michelle lives between Gallatin and Hendersonville and all except for daughter Jenna and husband Jason live within a few miles of the several paths the tornados took through Goodlettsville, Hendersonville and Gallatin. A total of eight are known dead in this county and over 50 were injured, some very seriously.
Jenna and baby were in route to a friend's house driving through Gallatin when the tornado struck. Four people were killed at the intersection where she had been three to four minutes before. A gas station she had just passed was leveled the manager killed and others injured. At the same intersection a mobile home sales operation was leveled and a woman in the office carried 200' north and into an Electric Service company that was leveled. The woman and two people at the service company were killed. Two trailer trucks at the intersection were picked up and flipped over.
This was the fourth touchdown or more of the biggest tornado. It had just passed through Gallatin where it hit the local college and several new car dealerships. Hundreds of cars were picked up high into the air, rotated around, bashed into each other and deposited in heaps, some looking like they had been run over by a speeding train. Engines were torn out and deposited several hundred feet away.
The storm was carrying debris from where it had struck down earlier as it passed through Goodlettsville where it destroyed an area behind the city hall, a nearby church and damaged the roof of K-Mart among other businesses and homes. Along the way through Hendersonville and Gallatin it cut a huge wide swath destroying homes, most completely leveled, others half demolished. Many hundreds of homes (upwards of 700 I have heard) were destroyed, most recently built.
Documents from the Lee Electric company and other personal papers from this area were found a hundred miles away in Kentucky.
I was on the cell phone with Jenna who was passing through Gallatin when she saw it coming towards her. She cried out a expletive or two, one having to do with excrement, threw her phone down then drove across a front yard and two ditches to a church and grabbing the baby, ran to the church basement. The church was just at the edge of the tornado's path and was spared. Jenna and her baby most certainly escaped death or injury by a scant few minutes. We were on pins and needles until a call from Jenna assured us she was safe.
My son Tracy was about a quarter mile from the tornado and saw it touch down growing from a dancing, twisting spout to a monstrous demon 300 to 400' wide as it raced along the ground devouring everything in it's path and spitting out a trail of mangled and broken pieces along the way. Tracy raced away after having been near it's path minutes before. He said he watched in amazement at the amount and size of debris the storm had collected around it, hundreds and perhaps a thousand feet in the air, whirling around like ornaments attached to a wildly spinning Christmas tree.
Tracy's house about six miles away, his two trucks and equipment trailer suffered hail damage. The rest of us and our homes were untouched except for the emotional scars, especially those suffered by Jenna who with her baby were so near death or serious injury.
Michelle was in DC on a school trip with her middle child Jonathon and his class. Michelle teaches 7th and 8th grade at Goodpasture, the school where both Jonathon and William attend and was a chaperone for the trip. Elizabeth was at her school nearby, Davidson Academy. Her and William were both safe. Eric was at work in Nashville and left to get them. Michelle kept in touch by phone during the whole ordeal.
Margaret and I and Tracy and his wife were without power for two days and Michelle and Eric were without power until last night since they were closer to the Tornado's path. Margaret and I are used to frequent power outages and are fully prepared with gas powered generator, gas powered camp stoves, lanterns, coal oil lamps, water jugs and hard-wired phone in addition to cell phones. The generator powers our TV, refrigerator, freezer and a few lamps.
They were predicting we would be without power for 4 to 6 days. Tracy and Eric both bought a generators on day two and hooked them up. About two hours later Tracy's power was back on along with ours. Poor Michelle and family lived for four days with a tangle of extension cords spread like the tentacles of a family of octopi all over their house. Eric spent $250 on cords and power blocks alone plus $600 for a generator - a good investment in this storm prone area.
We bought extra gallons of drinking water and filled the bathtub and buckets with water in anticipation of the local water tank running out if the power was off indefinitely. It sits on top the hill about a two blocks away and if it ran out would leave us without water since we live so high up. It happend once before when we were without power for almost a week. The tank depends on a big electric driven pump about half way down the hill to lift water to the tank at night. This tank supplies the head pressure for the local community. Those at lower levels would not be effected like us highlanders. As it is, living only slightly below the tank elevation, we have to have a shallow well booster pump to get us to normal water pressure. Tracy lives about ten miles away, high on a hill and in about the same situation.
I don't know if it made a difference but the evening of the storm we had four deer browsing in the back yard and two tom turkeys visited with our chickens while a hen traveling with them stood at the edge of the woods and watched. We've got BIG turkey down here. One tom had a beard about 6-8 inches long. Yesterday I heard a gobbler calling out in the woods behind the house and a hen chirped her answer. After a few more rounds of gobbles and chirps it got quiet as romantic liasons often do.
Tracy had a flock of around 50 or more turkey visiting his place on a regular basis last fall and also groups of deer came every night throughout the summer. Margaret and I had a deer cross the front yard two evenings ago and two sauntered across the road in front of us last night as we drove down the hill. They flipped their white flag tails in the air stiffly and proudly as we passed as if to say you can't touch this - we're too quick.
When we returned about an hour later the Jeep's lights scared up the Easter bunny on the side of the road. Bunny was so startled he sprang straight up in the air before scampering across the road in front of us. I don't know that I've ever saw a rabbit that thought he was a jack-in-the-box. He sprang straight up at least two feet or more as if he was bounced from a trampoline. It made Margaret and me laugh like kids.
The deer and other wildlife are becoming somewhat of a pest. A mother and her fawn were visiting us last summer. We keep a birdbath for the birds and a small low tub for the low-to-the-ground critters out in the side yard where we have a fern and Hosta lily bed. The deer when coming to drink suddenly developed a taste for Hosta lilies and within three nights had them all ate down to the stalks. So this year I have acquired a water sprinkler that has a motion detector switch on it. It comes on when anyone approaches and it begins shooting water in a broad pattern for a few seconds. It continues to come back on persistently shooting water if movement continues. Hopefully this will scare the deer off. We moved the water tub to a nearby location so the rabbits and other small critters can drink without getting a shower in the bargain.
The possums make their rounds each night checking to see if we might have left the chicken house door open and scavenge for garbage or whatever they can find. We have to keep our garbage lids weighted down in the trash bin but they still find ways to get in. They almost every animal alive they also like sunflower seeds.
The raccoons come almost every night and raid the bird feeders so we have to bring two of the feeders in each night. The other two are heavy metal squirrel and critter proof feeders. We feed black oil sunflower seed and thistle year 'round. The coons come up on the deck and sit on the ledge outside the large, low kitchen window. They stare in at us unafraid as we peer back just inches away with only two panels of glass that separate our noses. But if we open the back door they scamper across the deck and run under it. If you stand still for just a half minute or less their curiosity gets the best of them they slowly peek over the edge to see what you're up to.
We have several nesting boxes already occupied, a bluebird box having just had a clutch of eggs laid in it. This will be the first of two hatches this year. The same family has been coming for over twenty years. At least I'm almost certain it's the same family. It's their territory and their bird box. Bluebirds protect a territory of about 200 to 300 feet around their nest against other bluebirds so unless you have a very big yard it doesn't do any good to put up more than one bluebird box.
Also there is a wren nesting in a bucket that hangs inside the shed. It gets occupied every year so we don't move it.
In addition to the old John Deere tractor I have an 8N Ford that is presently not operating. It's my goal to tear it down and rebuild the engine this year. In the mean time the wrens love to make a nest up under the hood. I once had an old mail box that was mounted near a playhouse I had built for Jenna and it sat there with the door open. Unknown to us a wren built a nest inside and was hatching eggs. Someone, probably me, for whatever reason shut the door of the mail box and she was trapped inside and died a horrible death. I found her there a month or so later when I took the box down. I really felt bad about that and I try to keep things like that in mind so it doesn't happen again. Wrens will make nests in the most unexpected places. We love our feathered friends.
The turkey buzzards and the hawks routinely circle around overhead catching the air currents and up drafts as they hunt for roadkill or prey. When the chickens spot them they move under the big pine tree in their pen for protection. They're actually a little big for hawks or owls to carry off but they instinctively take cover, a carry over from when they were once wild birds and not nearly so well fed and bulky. Their ancestors once could fly as well and were small enough a hawk could easily carry them off. Like Howard Hughe's Spruce Goose they are now bred so big they can only lumber off the ground a few feet in the air and with great effort fly a distance of maybe thirty feet - and that only with a running start and going down a steep slope.
There are of course lighter breeds of chickens you can get that the wing power to weight ratio is large enough they can fly a little better. A fresh young leghorn can fly over a six foot fence and many of what they call game breeds can fly up into the trees to roost - especially the bantam chickens. Owls love bantams - that's why we don't have any - the owls get them. It seems every species has a place in the pecking order of life - unfortunately even the members of the same species. As the popular saying goes - sometimes you're the windshield - sometimes you're the bug.
That's all the news from Toad Hill, home for two grumpy old toads, three cats, eight chickens and a bunch of wild critters that share the neighborhood.
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