At Ryan for Kentucky, we believe that the playing field has been tilted against working families for far too long. My whole life, it seems that war has been waged on union workers and workers attempting to form new unions. I have witnessed this personally in a union fight. Although initially, 80% of the workers at our warehouse signed on to become union, the long process allowed the company to come in and "behind the scenes" peel off these votes. How? By turning worker against worker. Promising promotion of certain workers, and higher wages and more benefits if the union failed.   Read More »

Exxon Ed Whitfield has been trying to clean up his voting record for this election year. He knows it is a bad year for Republicans, and that he has been a shameless enabler of every failed policy of the Bush Administration. All the election year scuffling to clean up his record cannot hide the fact that he has been a constant, bitter opponent to reform of our healthcare system, and of providing equal access to those in poverty as those with wealth to healthcare. Lets look at some of Exxon Eddie's votes to limit the access of healthcare to working Americans.   Read More »

Lease of property issue heads to United Methodist 'supreme court'
A UMNS Report: United Methodist News Service
By Linda Green
July 18, 2008 | DALLAS
http://tinyurl.com/5oecqy

Photo caption: The United Methodist Judicial Council will be asked to rule whether or not Southern Methodist University can lease land for a presidential center for less than fair market value.

A faculty member of Southern Methodist University wants The United Methodist Church's highest court to rule on whether the leasing of property to The President George W. Bush Foundation violates the university's articles of incorporation and subsidizes a political view point.

The Rev. Jeannie Trevino-Teddlie, director of the Mexican-American program at Perkins School of Theology at United Methodist-related SMU and a delegate to the South Central Jurisdictional Conference from the Central Texas Annual (regional) Conference, asked for a decision of law that will go to the United Methodist Judicial Council this fall.

"The main thing I am most concerned about is that by leasing property to the Bush Foundation, at less than fair market value, we are in effect subsidizing a policy institute that has a specific political ideology and ideological point of view," she said, adding the denomination's law book, the Book of Discipline, allows church property "to be used for the work of the church and not to subsidize a political point of view."

In February, SMU officials approved giving the Bush Foundation a 99-year lease to build a presidential library, museum and policy institute on university property. The lease is $1,000 for 99 years--renewable for up to 250 years.

Trevino-Teddlie asked Bishop Robert Hayes of Oklahoma, who was presiding over that session of the South Central Jurisdictional Conference, for the ruling of law. Hayes said he will determine if it "was within the bounds of SMU to lease this land for the amount of money that they wanted."

"I have to examine her petition and determine whether I feel that the conference has violated the terms of the Book of Discipline," Hayes explained. "I will write and respond to her seeking a declaration of law and submit it to the Judicial Council."

The council will then examine the question and Hayes' decision and "make a ruling on whether I am correct or she is correct" when it meets in October. The council reviews all bishops' decisions of law during annual and jurisdictional conference sessions.

The delegates to the South Central Jurisdiction, owners of the Southern Methodist University, on July 17 affirmed the leasing of the land to the Bush Foundation. Along with that approval, the delegates asked that the university's integrity be protected.

Trevino-Teddlie said allowing the institute on the campus of SMU is "contrary to what the United Methodist Book of Discipline allows, and I would like to get a ruling on that."

Her question for a ruling of law asks: "Is the approval of the lease of property of Southern Methodist University by the South Central Jurisdiction and Southern Methodist University, at less than market value, to the Bush Foundation for the purpose of establishing a policy institute, in conflict with the articles of incorporation of Southern Methodist University, the rules of the South Central Jurisdiction and/or The Book of Discipline, specifically Para. 2503.4, which requires all United Methodist property to be 'kept, maintained... for the benefit of The United Methodist Church and subject to the usages and the Discipline of The United Methodist Church'" and said lease would subsidize a specific political and ideological point of view?"

While the library and museum have been welcomed by many United Methodists, others have opposed the institute fearing it will be a partisan think-tank.

"The issue is the policy institute," Trevino-Teddlie said. "The United Methodist Church should not be in the business of endorsing any political point of view--whether that is democrat, republican, green party--that is not what The United Methodist Church has stated the use of Methodist property is for. I think there is a violation there."

Acknowledging that seeking the question of law makes her walk a fine line with the university that employs her, she emphasized, "I am a Christian first. I am speaking out of my faith and to me that is all that is important."

I will make an admission. I don't want anyone to think that here at Ryan for Kentucky we are not fair. Our Congressman, Exxon Ed Whitfield, besides supporting Big Oil, Energy, and their record profits has managed to do a little good. Yes, Exxon Eddie has managed to be a defender of horses. Now, at Ryan for Kentucky, we love animals too, and applaud Whitfield for being a defender of horses. But, we must ask, what about the PEOPLE?   Read More »

I keep thinking back to the Spring of 2000. George W. Bush was already a shoe-in for the GOP presidential nomination and he was about to begin his 'search' for a running mate. Listening to his father, the former president, he called on old family friend Dick Cheney to help with the search. To my surprise, but not with a shock, the person that Dick Cheney found to be the perfect running mate for the future Village Idiot, was....DICK CHENEY!!

They even had to go to court THEN because Cheney was, as was Bush, a resident of Texas, and the law states the two on the ticket cannot be from the same state. And they needed a very 'friendly' judge to say it was alright for Cheney to suddenly change his address back to Wyoming and allow it to be a legal move....which of course, he did.

Anyway, as soon as that was done, I warned EVERYBODY that would listen to me to "watch your gasoline prices" if these to jokers were accidently elected...which of course, the did....well, OK they were CHOSEN by the Supreme Court.

9/11 gave this bad ventriloquist team all of the excuses they needed to start the ball rolling on Operation "Today America, Tomorrow the World"!!

Oil and gasoline prices have been on a tear ever since their inauguration. But what was the BIG picture really all about? What was the target of this evil scheme against the American people?

Well, fellow Democrats, we are now living thru the dropping of the other shoe. It started with American oil companies, at this late date, being allowed to work the Iraqi oil fields for the first time in decades, since THEIR biggest roadblock for over 3 decades was, in fact, Saddam Hussein, who while raving against the US....lost his head....literally.

And NOW, once again at THIS late date, the sudden answer to the HUGE increases in oil and gas must be more off-shore drilling and of course, ANWAR! Forget about the fact that the only effect will be MORE profits on the bottom lines of those who bought both the governorship of Texas, but the US presidency......BIG OIL!! No help for Americans or their decaying lives and economy.

There is an honest belief within all of the voices....in my head....that the possiblity exists for SOME price corrections after the November elections. Why, you might ask? Well, the loudest of the voices in my head says it is because Big Oil, OPEC, and the Bush and Cheney families in particular, are taking full advantage of the situation of White House control, to pad their profits and bank accounts BEFORE an unfriendly Democratic administration takes over the government and world leadership. After that, they will need to try to build new bridges to replace those they have BURNED over the past 8 years!!

9/11 would have only been a small blip on the price of oil, by itself. It was the American coup d'tat of an Arab dictator that DIDN'T do business with us, that started the price gouging and the market speculation and manipulation of the price of crude oil!

There are still many Democrats who want Bush and Cheney impeached for their crimes. But it is way too late for that. However, I believe they could BOTH, along with Rumsfeld and some others, be tried in an international court for CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY!!

Oh, dammit........I am sorry.......Phil Gramm thinks I am just WHINING again...........

I keep thinking back to the Spring of 2000. George W. Bush was already a shoe-in for the GOP presidential nomination and he was about to begin his 'search' for a running mate. Listening to his father, the former president, he called on old family friend Dick Cheney to help with the search. To my surprise, but not with a shock, the person that Dick Cheney found to be the perfect running mate for the future Village Idiot, was....DICK CHENEY!!

They even had to go to court THEN because Cheney was, as was Bush, a resident of Texas, and the law states the two on the ticket cannot be from the same state. And they needed a very 'friendly' judge to say it was alright for Cheney to suddenly change his address back to Wyoming and allow it to be a legal move....which of course, he did.

Anyway, as soon as that was done, I warned EVERYBODY that would listen to me to "watch your gasoline prices" if these to jokers were accidently elected...which of course, the did....well, OK they were CHOSEN by the Supreme Court.

9/11 gave this bad ventriloquist team all of the excuses they needed to start the ball rolling on Operation "Today America, Tomorrow the World"!!

Oil and gasoline prices have been on a tear ever since their inauguration. But what was the BIG picture really all about? What was the target of this evil scheme against the American people?

Well, fellow Democrats, we are now living thru the dropping of the other shoe. It started with American oil companies, at this late date, being allowed to work the Iraqi oil fields for the first time in decades, since THEIR biggest roadblock for over 3 decades was, in fact, Saddam Hussein, who while raving against the US....lost his head....literally.

And NOW, once again at THIS late date, the sudden answer to the HUGE increases in oil and gas must be more off-shore drilling and of course, ANWAR! Forget about the fact that the only effect will be MORE profits on the bottom lines of those who bought both the governorship of Texas, but the US presidency......BIG OIL!! No help for Americans or their decaying lives and economy.

There is an honest belief within all of the voices....in my head....that the possiblity exists for SOME price corrections after the November elections. Why, you might ask? Well, the loudest of the voices in my head says it is because Big Oil, OPEC, and the Bush and Cheney families in particular, are taking full advantage of the situation of White House control, to pad their profits and bank accounts BEFORE an unfriendly Democratic administration takes over the government and world leadership. After that, they will need to try to build new bridges to replace those they have BURNED over the past 8 years!!

9/11 would have only been a small blip on the price of oil, by itself. It was the American coup d'état of an Arab dictator that DIDN'T do business with us, that started the price gouging and the market speculation and manipulation of the price of crude oil!

There are still many Democrats who want Bush and Cheney impeached for their crimes. But it is way too late for that. However, I believe they could BOTH, along with Rumsfeld and some others, be tried in an international court for CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY!!

Oh, dammit........I am sorry.......Phil Gramm thinks I am just WHINING again...........

In this year of many new voters in the Democratic Primary season, and many more that have finally started to vote again due to any number of different reasons, I have not been able to shake this voice that keeps coming to me in my head at times that aren't always well suited for me to be hearing voices.

But this is the voice of Robert Doyle Meador.....my Daddy. He went on ahead in 1989, and I have missed him so much. Especially when I am trying to repair my car (which I never learned well because I didn't pay attention during those lessons in life)...and when I am trying to do home repairs (ditto)...and many other times.

But no more than when I am dealing with or thinking about....politics. Daddy was a World War II veteran, who won a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart taking out a German machine gun nest while being shot up so badly that his partner was killed and the Germans must have thought that he was. Much blood, similar to what I see when I cut myself shaving, was left soaking into the sun drenched French soil in the hedgerow country just outside of St.Lo, France.

That experience, which was followed by 3 months in an Army hospital, molded the political views of the man to whom I DID pay attention to when talking politics. In his entire lifetime, he voted for ONE Republican for ONE office....Dwight D. Eisenhower for president in 1952, and out of loyalty after serving under him in Europe. (He said he vowed after only about 2 years of Ike, that he would NEVER vote for anything but a Democrat for the rest of his life....a vow he held to).

In 1960, he found his third child...all of 5 years old...to be very interested in the party conventions that year, and the goings on within them. He allowed me to sit on his lap, and share with him HIS first live view of a political convention. And since there was a definite LACK of interest from Mama and my older siblings, I was able to enjoy his complete attention and wisdom on the subject.

Every election year, from that point on, Daddy and I watched whatever live coverage was available of both the Democratic and Republican conventions...and we did so with extremely intense vigor. He was, and I believe still is, very proud of my party activism and my letters to the editors of both local and major market newspapers.

In 1976, he told me he was completely amazed by my knowledge on the small and early campaign of a little-known peanut farmer, who was the Governor of the State of Georgia. He quickly became a believer in my cause and my candidate, and got even more politically active along side his bouncing baby boy of 21, who was stumping locally and nearby areas for the eventual Democratic nominee, and President of the United States, Jimmy Carter.

Daddy always believed that ONLY the Democratic Party represented the needs of the average American. Those of moderate to scarce means of supporting themselves. He taught me to believe, that although smaller government has some positive qualities, government could and SHOULD be the protector of all....ALL Americans. Not just the chosen few, but ALL Americans. And that it should be one of the main sources of relief for Americans who work hard, obey the rules and STILL can't get over that hump of an obstacle that seems to always be in their path. That if you take care of the least of us, it benefits ALL of us....including the rich and powerful. He always admired the accomplishments of the young governor of our neighbor to the northeast, Arkansas...in later years. And although I know he would have been extremely disappointed with the stupid goings on of the next Democratic president, that he didn't get the opportunity to cast a vote for.....he would have been, like the son he raised, a huge fan of President Bill Clinton and would have been as excited, as well, about the candidacy of the former First Lady. But disappointed in the outcome of the primaries? Probably. Enough to vote Republican or not vote at all? Neither would have been an option that even entered his mind.

He was a big believer that if you didn't like where your party was heading.....work like the devil to CHANGE IT FROM THE INSIDE!!

If I should miss voting.....at almost ANY level, but definitely in a presidential year.....he, I believe, would be rolling over in his grave.

Most people think that their Daddy is one of the greatest men ever put on this Earth. Count me as one of those and with two thumbs up!

But Daddy was 36 when I was born. So we didn't get to pass the football alot, or play catch with the baseball (I had an older brother for that), and as I said, didn't pay much attention when he was working on the car or the house. But where some fathers and sons share hobbies like hunting, guns, cars, etc......Daddy and I shared politics and a love of the process AND the country that our participation, as we see it, is required!

So, although some of the new voters that came aboard during the last 7 months or so may be more supporters of a particular candidate......I believe that our system of democratic participation can ONLY work within the party system. And that without those of us, on all sides, that stick with our respective parties no matter whom we end up nominating, the party system would collapse. And whatever came along to take its place, would never be as inclusive and encompassing as what we were graciously given by Our Founding Fathers.

So, as for me, the party whose legacy includes Thomas Jefferson and Robert Doyle Meador, will be a big part of the legacy that I leave my children and grandchildren.

And that voice in my head continues...........



A proud, albeit NEW supporter of Barack Obama 2008!!

I keep reading editorials and news stories about how the Constitution seems vague on war powers, and I don't see what all of the confusion is about.

They act as if the president being Commander-in-Chief and Congress being given the power to declare war is somehow conflicted. Why?

If the Constitution is followed, only the people (thru their elected representatives) have the power to declare war on another nation. After that is done, it is the president who is Commander-in-Chief over the armed forces that engage in that war. Nothing could be clearer or simpler.

Of course, since World War II Congress HASN'T declared war against anyone! They have chosen to nuckle under to the Executive Branch and "give the president the authority" to go to war....(see Invasion of Iraq).

Congress MUST untangle the messes of their predecessors and take back the "checks and balances" that the Constitution REQUIRES when it comes to the Executive Branch! Pelosi and Reid have GOT to get their butts OFF the fence they have been sitting on since the '06 election, and actually decide that they are NOT subservient to the White House.

If Congress is to be the representation of the American people within the federal government, then it is up to the leadership to....well.....LEAD!!!

The ONLY reason that serious matters like "war powers" seems confusing to otherwise fairly intelligent people, is because CONGRESS (both sides of the aisle) have ALLOWED their power to be usurped by what is supposed to be, at MOST, a co-equal branch of government.

Before this war-mongering idiot still in the White House decides he needs to start ANOTHER war before he moves on to continue his job as an employee of Big Oil (but at another address)......Congress must get a handle on the power question once and for all!!

 Register to vote, and send Voltage to play at the Democratic National Convention.  We have songs that are perfect for the event already written, and I am already the number one democrat at the DNC.

   Read More »

As our party's convention nears, and the REAL general election cycle is getting ready to kick into gear, it has been much nicer reading the posts from the Clinton hardliners, the Obama hardliners and those of us wishy-washy Democrats who will always vote the party line no matter what.

They are becoming much more civil and understanding. I have to admit, it has been difficult for this old Texas Yellow Dog Democrat to read of party loyalists who won't be voting for our nominee by either voting for John McCain or by just not voting on the presidential part of the ballot at all. Having said that, I honestly believe that very few of you folks will actually be staying at home. Because you all know, as well as I do, that our down-ballot contests are every bit as important as the battle at the top of the ticket.

I have nothing but the utmost respect for all Democrats. Although we may differing ideas about how to correct the problems of our nation, especially the ones created by having to deal with a Grade A, top-of-the-line, total IDIOT in the White House since 2001, we DO have the same goals and overall ideals that we believe in.

I feel comfortable in saying this because Democrats are the most caring, concerned and responsible party in the history of these United States. There will always be somethings that we NEVER agree on, but what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, and we honestly, at least at the grassroots local level, know that the power of the many, as compared to the power of the few and the rich, will be the only cure for what ails us.

And although I have felt like there were many on here during the primaries that were more "independent" than Democratic, I honor all of the true Democrats in whatever decisions they choose to make in November, and to what level of party support they feel their conscience can ha