I always take things like this with a grain of salt but today Governor Strickland signed an executive order establishing two groups to look into the issues surrounding broadband internet.
It's been a hectic week and I confess that I haven't really looked at the order yet but you can find it here if you're interested.
Since I mentioned the Farm Bill a few times before I should probably point out that it passed in the House today despite a large amount of Republican opposition. For more information on the vote you can read press releases from both Zack Space and Charlie Wilson.
There's also been few new Wilson and Space events added to the Left of Ohio Calendar today.
I was so ticked when I read this:
The White House issued a veto threat against a multibillion-dollar farm bill, complicating passage of the legislation as House members scrambled Wednesday to find $4 billion to pay for food stamps and other nutrition programs.
Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said the House bill, which extends government agriculture and nutrition programs, doesn't do enough to reduce subsidies to growers.
"We believe the bill put forth by the committee misses a major opportunity," he told reporters.
Now I'm no farmer but living in a rural area I know a little about how farm life is. They work their butts off and yet they still might not get any results if the weather doesn't cooperate. Around here farming is especially hard because the hills. I've known several people that have rolled equipment and not all of them lived through it.
These people deserve the help they get and it's shameful that the rich aristocracy in this country doesn't agree.
So I don't think I've mentioned it on here but I used to be really good friends with a (now broken up) small band. Through them I got to be friends with the members of yet another, now broken up, small band. When they broke up one of them went on to join yet another small band that later broke up got signed to a subdivision of Warner Music.
Why did I tell you that really long, boring, and off topic story? Because today that band, Scenes From A Movie, released their major label debut titled "The Pulse". Their cover art may be terrible and I may not know them that well but it's still cool.
You can buy it on iTunes, Amazon, Best Buy or from... well anywhere really.
So if your a rural Republican what's the best way to deal with the stereotype that your a gun loving redneck? To reinforce it of course! Besides, you've got enough guns & ammo to make to deal with any liberal sum bitches that might have a problem with that.
Sorry, but since I read this news story about a New Hampshire Republican fundraiser I've been hysterical. Apparently someone out there thinks it's a great idea to let a bunch of people fire off submachine guns and assault rifles to raise money.
BOSTON (Reuters) - A planned Republican fundraiser in New Hampshire aims to promote gun ownership in America by letting supporters fire powerful military-style weapons -- from Uzi submachine guns to M-16 rifles.
The Manchester Republican Committee is inviting party members and their families to a "Machine Gun Shoot" where, for $25, supporters can spend a day trying out automatic weapons, said organizer Jerry Thibodeau.
"It's a fun day. It's a family day," said Thibodeau of the August 5 event. "It's quite exciting."
Come on Ohio sphere, surely we can pool enough cash to get Jerid a flak jacket in time (8/5/07). It'll let him end his trip with a bang.
So what are the biggest three letters in news, CNN? Not today. Today it's BSB according to automated politics blog Memeorandum.
For those not familiar with it, Memeorandum is an automatically generated "blog" that creates posts by scouring the web for the top linked blog posts. They have four of them: Techmeme for technology news, Memeorandum for politics, Ballbug covers baseball, and WeSmirch for celebrity gossip. My feed reader, FeedDemon (it's $30 but I highly recommend it) does something similar but only with the 250-300 feeds I subscribe to. The Romney story is currently 3 0f the 8 top stories it found.
I think it's safe to say that Jerid's going to have some interesting stories to tell his grandchildren someday. He's definitely making the Ohio sphere proud.
I know it's still pretty early but I predict that this will be the big quote from the debate.
Of course I could be wrong.
You honestly can't imagine how much work went into that lame title. First it was "Romney Gives Blind Endorsements" but then it became "Can Romney Read?" and then "Romney Must Be Blind" before it eventually just deteriorated into me swearing about Romney being an idiot.
Don't know what I'm talking about? Go read this and watch the video first. Then go check out this follow-up post.
Did you do all that? Good. Now ask yourself "If Romney's so incompetent that he let's himself be photographed holding signs he doesn't agree with, is he competent enough to be running our country?" As my old science teacher would say "Uh... No".
Update: Jerid's video was picked up by TMZ and I've also seen clips of the video on CNN today.
Update #2: According to Plunderbund Jerid made #4 on "Countdown with Keith Olberman". It replays on MSNBC at midnight. It's also on YouTube.
I know I'm starting to sound like the president of the Zack Space fan club but Space is truly an embodiment of why I'm fascinated with politics. That said, when Space takes on an issue that really effects me like the lack of rural broadband internet he has my full attention.
This morning Zack Space held the first meeting of his newly formed "Connecting Appalachia Broadband Task Force" in Coshocton to plan out their goals and draft a mission statement.
One Again the members of the task force are:
It isn't completely sunshine and roses for this post though. I was tremendously disappointed that the meeting wasn't open to the public. Of course it's still way too early to pass any judgement on the program but transparency is rarely a bad thing. Internet access, like water and telephone service, is a utility and should be discussed openly. I know I would have tried to make the two hour trip.
It's also disappointing that I've yet to see any of the other Appalachian Reps. do anything about this issue on this scale. The problem doesn't just stop at the borders of the 18th district and if we truly want to connect Appalachia than we're we'll need to do more than just ride Space's coattails.
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