Voinovich Double Talk Express

The following just arrived in my email box and as it has a deadline of August 13, I thought I'd better get it out to all my creative readers. And thanks to all Iraq Summer Campaign people for keeping the heat up on these duplicitous politicians who try to pretend that they are opposed to the war but when the voting begins, you find them backing Bush while 70% of the population want the war over -- now!

Tired of seeing Senator George Voinovich say one thing and vote for the opposite?

In June, Voinovich said, “I believe we can accomplish more in Iraq by gradually and responsibly reducing our forces.” A month later, he voted against a bill that would set a timeline for U.S. troop withdrawal.

What better way to get George Voinovich’s attention than a huge 10’x20’ billboard? We will drive this billboard around the state as part of the “Voinovich Double Talk Express.” Our message will reach thousands of Ohioans, including the Senator himself.

We came up with a few slogans ourselves ("Cleveland Voinovich and his evil twin D.C. Voinovich" and "Voinovich's House of Waffles") but after much debate, we’ve decided to leave it up to the people!

We’re asking YOU to come up with a creative slogan for a full side of our “Voinovich Double Talk Express” mobile billboard!

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR MESSAGE TO SENATOR GEORGE VOINOVICH!

Please abide by these rules:

• No Profanity
• 100 character limit
• Must communicate a clear message about the war to the public and especially the Senator

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR MESSAGE TO SENATOR GEORGE VOINOVICH!

We will announce the finalists on Monday, August 13^th and a vote will determine the winner!

Peace,

Matt Hurm

Ohio Field Director, Iraq Summer Campaign

Garden notes

The zinnias growing along the Village Green's fence are glorious to behold. I think I've finally got a handle on growing great zinnias. The trick is to get them in the ground as soon as you buy them. Leave them for a day or so and they will start to wilt and never live up to expectations.

We've gone from drought to intense tropical storms and sweltering heat, with humidity, so thick you can almost swim through it.

So I didn't make it up to the Yell at Voinovich and Bush 41 Fund Raiser yesterday. The weather was extreme enough that I didn't want to get into a gas-burning vehicle and drive to the swank party to join in the fun. I hope a bunch of people showed up -- I was with you in spirit!

There's been no quality gardening time due to the turbulent weather. I've got green and yellow beans in abundance, peppers and eggplants growing rapidly and a few more squash. I've harvested exactly three tomatoes. There are multitudes of green ones everywhere, but none are turning color yet. Drat!

I have seen two grasshoppers in my yard. I have never seen them in my yard before. How very odd. Some friends are having Japanese beetle invasions, but by some oddity of nature there are none feasting on Dolly's pink rose bush. Dolly was the woman who owned and lived in my house from the early 50s until the 90s when she retired to Florida. She left me some very special garden delights, including the strawberries, the pink tea rose, and a fig tree! The latter is more like a bush and the figs never ripen all the way, but it is very pretty and it survives the winter without my doing a thing to help it through,

Today I wrestled and tamed a 9 ton pile of limestone and transformed my old rutted driveway into a charming gravel drive. Two neighbor kids helped me out and we were drenching wet in mere minutes from the heat and the intermittent storms. The wind kicked it up at one point later, after we'd finished the drive. Some major storm damage south of here. Nothing damaged here, thank dog! All gravel remained where it was placed.

How Progressive is Your Senator?

You can find out just how progressive your senators and your congressional representative are at Progressive Punch. Not only that, you can look at each member's voting record divided into key subject areas such as Housing, War & Peace, Heath Care under which all legislative action is listed along with your representative's vote compared with the Progressive vote.

How do they determine what is the Progressive vote, I asked myself and found their answer under a link to the page What is a Progressive Score? Essentially, they have developed an algorithm based upon key votes :

The algorithm that we've used to come up with these progressive scores is that we take ANY VOTE in which a majority of those progressives--so in the House say, if there were no absences, it would be 20 of the 39--voted in contradistinction to a majority of the Republican caucus then that vote then qualifies for the database. The same process is used in the Senate.

So how did my senators and representative figure on the progressive scale? With a Progressive Score across all issues of 94.81 Betty Sutton holds down postion 19 out of 433! Excellent way to jump in and represent us, Betty!

Incidentally, the house member with the lowest progressive score (a measly .81%) and dead last at 433 is a conservative representing Ohio's 4th District, Jim Jordan. Jim was named Pro-Life legislator of the year, according to his web site. Look at his voting record here and see how much he really cares about American families.

Next up, Senator Brown! I am happy to report that Sherrod is Number 5 in the US Senate with a progressive score of 96.41. He's higher than Ted Kennedy! The 4 senators with higher progressive scores are: Sidney Whitehouse (97.62), Benjamin Cardin (97.60), Bob Casey (97.02) and Jack Reed (96.61). Rhode Island must be the most progressive state in the country with two senators in the top four.

Senator Clinton comes in at a respectable 14th place with Barack Obama hard on her heels at 15. Senator Voinovich shows up in 58th place which sounds more middle of the roadish than bereft of common decency, however his progressive score is only 14.50. That means, that everybody from 59th place on is below 14.5! In fact, there are 34 senators with progressive scores lower than 10.0. The man on the bottom, truly representing the No Interest in Progress caucus, is John Barrasso from WY who has a score of 0. True, he has only been in office since June, but with his pro-life, anti-gay and let's all pray in school agenda he is sure to give John Cornyn (score 2.76/99th out of 100) a run for his money over the long term.

You will want to bookmark Progressive Punch, not just for the fun of checking out scores, but also because it is the one place I have found where you can actually track your duly elected officials voting records on specific bills.