“Ok in this play you’re the little boy and I’m the sunflower you’re going to pick.”

She’s five. It’s cute now.

Someone help me out here. Are these two clips from Fairfield?

American Stories, American Solutions: 24m 50s

American Stories, American Solutions: 26m 24s

I’ve been ignoring (as much as I can), the news that nearly 10% of the bailout plan is going to bonuses to the very people who screwed the economy.

Story here.

I don’t know who I am more pissed off at. The congress, Obama (judgement?) or my Democrat friends who supported: all despite evidence that this plan was rushed through and not supported by any respected economist.

Grrrr. The Boston Tea Party was started for less than this. What are we doing?

Do not vote a straight party ticket as some machines are having trouble reading that and may not count your vote(s) that way.  Not sure if it’s an issue in Jefferson County, but it’s good to be cautious.

Federal Office:
Obama /Biden

US Senator:
Tom Harkin - incumbent and a truly great liberal senator.  Has served many terms and has a consistent Democratic voting record.  Well respected in the Senate.  His opponent greatly lacks education and experience of any kind.

US Representative:
Dave Loebsack - tight race here, finishing his first term. Great guy, serves on House Education and Labor.

State Office:
John Whitaker - respected balanced Iowa Representative for 2 terms. Serves on Natural Resources, and Agriculture committees among others.  Very pro-environment without being anti-agriculture.  Very attentive to Fairfield and out Great Places bid.

County Supervisor:
Earl Shepard - best supervisor candidate we’ve seen in a long time.  Educated, experienced, progressive while respectful of local traditions.  He would work well with Dick Reed (current Supervisor) and whoever else is elected.  Really lucky to have him running.

Will Richards - this vote is less a vote for him, than it is against the two conservative, slightly anti-newcomer, Republican candidates. Not sure about his abilities, but would certainly be attentive to trying to improve communications and harmonious relations.

Unfortunately, another superior candidate, Curt Hanson, narrowly lost to Richards in the primary.  He would have been excellent - has cross-community respect and taught the last decade of teenagers in town how to drive.  Maybe next time….

All uncontested races - vote however you like.  There is a theory that voting “no” lessens the mandate to these uncontested candidates to keep status quo and not be open to change.   A lawyer friend suggested that method.  It’s hard to find voting records for the justices.  Another theory is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Obviously, vote to change the language in the state constitution.

A note about “balance:”

One of the latest, panicked talking points of the Republican party is to vote Republican to achieve balance in the legislature and not let the Democrats take over the Presidency AND Congress.  We think that balance can be better served by voting for the BEST CANDIDATE.  We may be achieving balance by having a Democratic Presidency and Congress to BALANCE the last 8 years.

The count is now eight people that have sent me this gag election coverage video about how I lost the election for Obama. I know I know, I deserved it with my Nader comments.

I just got back from the polling station. It was good and bad. It was good to vote for Obama and put that to rest. I’m crossing my fingers that he backs away from his movement to the right these past several months.

I voted for myself as County Sheriff, and Dawn as Auditor. That was fun.

The bad was that I was in line with five other people at 2pm today. None of them knew each other and all of them asked the election official the same question: “can I select to vote my party, and then select a candidate outside my party for one of the elections?”

I kept wondering . . . are they Republicans voting for Obama? COOL!

Then I noticed not one, but three McCain buttons/stickers among them. These are either Iowan Democrats voting for McCain, or Republicans voting for a Democratic in some other election.

In either case, between 2 and 230 pm today, at the Jefferson County courthouse in Iowa, there were FIVE people voting for McCain, and only ONE for Obama. Uh-oh. :(

The Play Room is celebrating!  We have new flooring and a total new look at Parks and Recs.  Bring the kids and come see!  Nov. 8th 3-5:30.  Games, DJ, and bake sale.

OMG this is so awesome.

I’ve talked to a few people who have voted already and they had no idea who to vote for in the smaller elections.  This is a problem for me even if I wait till election day.  I did get an email stating that, Will Richards and Earl Shepard  are the candidates to vote for on the Board of Supervisors. They are against hog confinements and such in Jefferson County.

In Seattle we would get the voter pamphlets from the liberal newspapers, NARAL, and others before we voted.  It was very helpful.  What do we do here?  I think Holly should put something out.  ;-)

Impressive. The comment about it not mattering if Obama was a Muslim is something I’ve been dying to here from one of our national leaders. Well done Powell.