This is URGENT!! Take Action at Once!!!

I meant to spend the last few weeks beating the drum about this but I put it off, and now the end is near. The deadline for voter registration, if you want to vote in April's election, is Wednesday.

There may not be an election this April where you live, but there will be in Sugar Creek, Missouri. Just like the presidential election of 2012, for Sugar Creek residents and the people who love them, "This will be the most important election of your life!"

So if you live in Sugar Creek, please make sure that you're registered to vote. And if you don't live in Sugar Creek but know somebody who lives there, call them and make sure that they're registered. And tell them to call people, post it on Facebook walls, offer rides... anything short of a bribery to get the unregistered citizens of that community (or any community, for that matter) on the voter rolls and ready to participate in the democratic process the second Tuesday of next month!

Register to vote at City Hall, the License Bureau, any of the Mid-Continent Libraries, the County Courthouse, the Health Department, the Unemployment Office, or Family Services.  Pass this info along at once, please!

And once that's done, sit back and get ready for some REAL politics... an exciting election filled with intrigue and allegations that people will be writing about for years to come (well, Professor Joyboy and I, at any rate).

Stay tuned...

Not the Leigh Ann You're Looking For

Here's a glimpse inside my Gmail Inbox:

The one thing that all these messages have in common is that not one of them was meant for Yours Truly.  Every one of these messages was intended for some other Leigh Ann.

I thought it was pretty awesome when I got an early invitation to get a Gmail account back in 2005 or so, ahead of the crowd.  I was even happier to know that "my name at gmail dot com" was available, and I snapped it up at once, but didn't use it or give it much thought.

A year or so later I logged in, and something insidious had happened... there were thousands upon thousands of emails there.  Somehow I'd gotten subscribed to newsletters from every department store you can think of, dozens of TV and Radio stations, auto dealerships, realtors, just about any place you can submit an email address, women and girls named Leigh Ann who thought their email addy was the generic Leigh Ann at Gmail dot com were subscribing.

This wasn't the bad part.  As I would try to clean these emails out of the Inbox, I would come across personal messages from people who thought that "their" Leigh Ann was at gmail.com.  For a few months I would reply to these, letting the anguished friend or relative know that the Leigh Ann they were trying to reach wasn't ignoring them at all, but was actually at another email address.

Before too long, the task became overwhelming and I began to ignore it altogether.

Fast forward to 2013: My Gmail did what they once said couldn't be done: it started bouncing.  So my New Years Resolution became to take back my Gmail.

I've spent many hours unsubscribing and filtering messages straight to the Trash.  And as I did this in bulk, every so often the personal messages would start coming through again...  someone in 2009 offering condolences over a lost loved one of some other Leigh Ann... scorned lovers begging for another chance repeatedly, or just begging for a reply.  Messages from dozens of teachers, ministers, contractors, and auto mechanics.... Invitations and e-cards and well-wishes by the hundreds, receipts for things and reservations.

I'm trying to reply to the more recent messages, and steer the sender in the right direction. But if over the past six years or so somebody named Leigh Ann ignored the emails you sent to her Gmail, they might have just been going to the wrong Leigh Ann.  It's a good thing my name isn't more common.

Papa John's Appreciation Day

In light of Papa John's Pizza CEO John Schnatter's intention to cut his employees hours so that he doesn't have to provide them with health care (at a cost of less than 15 cents a pizza), conservatives are calling Friday, "National Papa John's Appreciation Day." 

It's also being called, "National Make Uninsured Minimum Wage Employees Work Twice As Hard While You Protest Their Right to Health Care and Hope They Don't Spit In Your Food Day."

Some people are calling it, "Help Papa John Schnatter Recoup the Millions He Wasted on Romney Campaign Contributions Day."

It's kind of like election day all over again, except this time people are voting with their wallets.

You can vote with your wallet to help a greedy millionaire oppress the workers who make him rich -

or

You can take a stand for free enterprise by giving your business that day to a local restauranteur, who would no doubt put the profits back into the community as opposed to stashing them in the Cayman Islands.

Maybe I'll go to Square Pizza on Friday ... they've got awesome old-school video games.

The Choice for Republicans Now

This is what the CNN website looked like on July 30, 1996. 

Bill Clinton was facing a  re-election battle against a new type of right-wing opposition, listeners of Rush Limbaugh who called themselves, "Dittoheads" and shouted out against anything they considered "Liberal."

Just like with Obama, from Clinton's first day in office the top priority of Republicans was getting rid of "Slick Willy".  If you click on the above picture, you can read the article about how Clinton wanted to pass an anti-terrorism bill, but the Republicans had concerns with "privacy" issues and were just generally being uncooperative, the way they had been about health care reform and everything else he tried to accomplish.

When Clinton was re-elected, Priority One remained getting rid of Clinton.  Scandal after scandal after investigation and then impeachment, with Rush Limbaugh and Fox News leading the outrage.  All the while, Al Queda was organizing and training and preparing for an attack that would make these same Republicans DEMAND the most invasive piece of legislation of our time, the Patriot Act.

Now: Here is the choice for Republicans.  You can continue to be led by men who have never been elected to an office, like Karl Rove and Grover Norquist, you can continue to take all your cues from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, or you can write to your legislators and tell the media that you want new roads and bridges built, health care reformed, and the Republican Party must tell Grover Norquist to take a hike.  They  must break their pledge with this Washington insider to never to raise taxes, especially on the very wealthy.

Please do not spend the next four years looking for ways to "get" Obama.  Please encourage and reward bipartisanship, and quit punishing Republicans who are willing to work with the other side (as in, don't demonize Chris Christie... thank him).

There is so much we can get done in America... but it will take a lot longer if we have to play the "Let's reject every single thing that a Democrat wants to do, whether it's right or wrong!" game. Like we learned on September 11, 2001, bickering about politics instead of taking serious matters seriously can have catastrophic consequences.

Romney and the Second Coming of Christ

Many people know I support President Obama for re-election because I believe in moving forward, and not backward to the Republican policies that got us into this mess.

But as a Judeo-Christian who has lost many loved ones to death over the years, one thing I have always looked forward to is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and to the Resurrection.  This was before I heard Mitt Romney say that when Christ returns, my OWN HOME STATE will be a seat of power.  Watch:



Romney says Jesus will reign from Missouri and Jerusalem.  But before Jesus (and my lost loved ones) can return, first there has to be a big war in Israel where people are trying to kill the Jews.  Since Romney is considering bombing Iran, a Romney presidency practically makes war in Israel a given. As much as I want to see my lost loved ones, I am opposed to any and all wars, and as much as I miss my dead friends and relatives, I don't want others to suffer and die just so I can be with them again, when they're in a much better place to begin with.

So with Romney as president, the odds of "the end of the world as we know it" go up dramatically.

A Romney presidency also guarantees the end of Medicare as we know it, the end of Social Security as we know it, and the end of health care reform as we know it.  But he might be able to bring about the Second Coming and bring the reign of Christ to MY HOMETOWN, but...

What if he starts a war in Israel, and it's not "the war" that brings Jesus back?  It seems risky...

So if Obama wins, I'll be glad that as a nation we'll be able to move forward, in spite of the inevitable Lewinsky-like impeachment distractions that will arise from a second Obama term, but if Romney wins the odds of being with my lost loved ones again will skyrocket.  It's almost enough to move me to the "undecided" column... but not quite.  I'll vote for the candidate that wants to heal the planet, not the one that wants to destroy it.