on Tuesday.  Sounds like a fairly inexperienced volunteer, coming in from out of state, and wants a read on the area and how to tone the campaign message as they hit doors in the area and so on.  I'm in southwest Ohio (Boehner's district) and wanted to see what any other Kossacks in the area might want brought up, if you don't also have meetings with him or similar reps.  I know Wulsin has some strong supporters hanging around here.  (And, BTW, he said they were going to have some sort of garden party in the backyard of one of Boehner's neighbor's, which is quite amusing.)

18,793 diaries stating Hillary should be VP later, the reasons given are all still pointless.

There are only two reasons of any validity to pick a VP, one good, one mediocre but possibly necessary.  Hillary just doesn't satisfy either.

Despite claims that have arisen onsite that 'no documentation' of child abuse exists to back up the Texas authorities' decision to raid the FLDS compound, AP today provided yet more emerging details of the results of the raid.

Ohio district 08 is not what one would call a likely play in most years.  R+12 or so, and home to ... John Boehner, the current minority leader.

But this is likely to be a year like no other in recent memory for Democrats across the country, and is possibly the best chance we'll have for years to unseat him.  Last time around, a protest candidate named Meier, who didn't even do any groundwork other than getting himself on the ballot from what I could tell still took 36.5% or so of the vote.

Boehner is a tough nut to crack, even without being the minority leader in the House.  But it looks like we have a real live challenger in Nick von Stein this time around, and not just a protest one.

In the wake of the Texas raid on a compound of Warren Jeffs' followers, we have seen diaries examining the 'lifestyle' of the FLDS splinter sect, and several that seemed written to propose that Texas lawmen had made a horrible mistake, and that these simple religious folk were being terribly persecuted for their beliefs and life choices...

Last week, we touched on food storage and methods to start a food cache, as well as some comments on gardening and networking.  One thing that got touched upon but not in depth, (as with most of my rambling generalities) was making sure that your cache allowed you to have both variety and proper nutrition.  I don't keep much in the way of processed foods in my cache.  Peanut butter is probably the most processed thing I store and use.

Why bring up nutrition when talking about emergencies?  The one thing you'll always have with you in an emergency ... is you.  If you've lost your emergency kits, if you're stranded in the wilderness after a mudslide or avalanche, if you're digging through the rubble after a tornado, the most important piece of emergency equipment you've got is your own body.  To be properly prepared, you need to be as fit and healthy as you can make yourself.

And though that sounds like something you'd find as a comment under a troll diary, it's not.  I've been part of the problem.  I'm an overweight, over-energy using guy.  I've worked in the same office for the last five years or so, and driven to work, then driven to lunch, then driven back to work, then driven home.  I tried all of once to bike in, last summer.  I got halfway and got caught in a downpour and was completely soaked by the time I got there, and had to call someone to bring me dry clothes, thus negating my having biked in.  But I read a diary...

So much for being prepared.  I was intending to finish this chapter this morning, but woke up with a blinding migraine, so I'll publish now just to make sure this part gets out as promised, and update it in a couple of hours.  If folks send me an email address, I'll email them when I put the updates in.

A hearty welcome to both those who dropped in for Chapter 0 on April Fool's Day and those popping in on the spur of the moment.  Chapter 0 (I'm in computers, we start counting at 0, sue me.) was the general teaser and index of the series to be, and, as promised, Chapter 1 is a collection of ramblings on food and food storage issues that relate to emergency preparedness.

While lack of water can kill you far faster, water is generally relatively cheap compared to food, and generally more available, except in limited circumstances which we'll address later in the series.  We all eat, though, and with weather getting more and more unpredictable, it's a nice feeling to know that if a blizzard is about to hit, you don't have to frantically run to the store and fight the mobs of unprepared folks.  In addition, food preparedness usually equates to money saved, which is a bonus in these tight economic times.

Welcome to Survival Sundays.  I hope your Sunday is as relaxing as mine is so far.  As we head into April, it's in that perfect not cold-not warm 55-60 range, windy, and mildly overcast, the perfect weather in my books.

I've been dropping in and out of Frugal Fridays, mostly in lurk mode for some time, and felt that perhaps a tag-along short term series could be useful, given the current 'climate'.

While Frugal Fridays is all about living life in a cost-effective fashion to stretch the budget, this series (well, if it generates enough interest for it to continue as a series) will focus on making yourself prepared for unexpected or expected emergencies.  There will be overlap, as a large part of being prepared lies in using your money effectively.

Follow me below the fold if you've ever had a sneaking suspicion that climate change, economic and societal unrest might be breathing down our collective necks.

As part of my clinical rotations in nursing school, I attended several Narcotics Anonymous meetings.  While at first I thought the intro, self deprecating statement, and group acknowledgement setup was a bit silly, I quickly came to realize the catharsis served much the same purpose of the Catholic confessional.  You had to face up to your own failings before you could list them out to another.

Well, I was just over in another thread, and read something that stopped me dead in my tracks and smacked that brutal mirror right down in front of me.  Someone asked just what I'd actually done.  Not what I said, but what I'd physically done.  Now that was in regards to supporting the troops, and sure, I'd sent some carepacks out, but it made me take a second thought to my behaviour on this site.

More below the fold.

Yesterday, when I pulled the mail out of the mailbox, I had my first piece of political mail from a Dem presidential campaign.  In faded sepiatones it proudly proclaimed 'Energy company employees donated over $650,000 to Barack Obama and got what they wanted.  This text was accompanied by a gas station with a sign listing gasoline at 3.49 and 3.59.  The fine print noted it as a mailing out of Columbus, Ohio and said the $650k number came from the 'Center for Responsive Politics'.

We'll hit the back below the fold.

A comment in a diary a couple days back got me to remember that basically I learned 'everything I need to know' about society by reading Robert Heinlein books.  While his works were always very well written and entertaining, he put forth some ideas that really seem appealing in these days of personal irresponsibility and political stupidity.

Today, I'm going to excerpt a section of Starship Troopers, which, while not necessarily one of the best reads in his canon, contains several very good (IMNSHO) monologues on possible ways to cure some of the current ills of society.  Either I just don't recall it being so bad as a child, or he was extremely prescient to see the way we were headed....

Now is the time to start working on shoring up our control in 2008.  This may sound silly, on the same day we finally hear Allen declare defeat, but there really is no better time.  Our candidates in 2006 no longer need us phone banking, LTE'ing, blogging on their behalf.  Sure, as election season swings into gear in 2008 we'll be working just as hard for them again, but now is the time to pick apart the races we lost, identify why we lost, why they won, and find the candidates who WILL beat them in 2008.

I don't think I've seen the 'issue' of gay marriage addressed in the way I see it on dK, though perhaps I haven't searched far enough back.  If so, I apologize.  

Ohio, like several other red states in the last elections, 'energized' its Republican base with the fear of 'gay marriage', resulting in large turnouts on the right, and swinging the election.  But is gay marriage even a political issue?  I say no, and here's why.