Newscoma

Zen of Jazz writes at All That’s Evil an interesting post that touches on rural America and the changes in the landscape of this country in the past 70 years.

I had someone ask me how serious I thought the current fiscal crisis is, yesterday. I said, “it depends. How big is your garden? How full is your freezer? Did you pick up that backup generator?” And his answer was “Why? Do those things matter?”

Here’s the thing. The last time the economy was in this kind of shape, around 70 years ago, we were a mostly rural population, with small family farms. That meant that when there were no jobs, you still had your crops, and your livestock. You may or may not have had electricity, but you probably had a fireplace, and a acre or two of firewood growing. Your farm equipment mostly could be pulled by a horse, or a mule. If you were in the city, you were likely in a manufacturing job. If you had money, odds were fair that at least some of it was tucked under a mattress. If you heard about the problems soon enough, you could get at your money, in the bank…

Today, the population is urban and suburban, with very few people having as much as a garden, much less livestock. Your money is so many binary digits, in the memories of the computers at your bank, mortage holder, credit card companies, etc.

It’s a compelling read. The one thing I can say living in rural America is that the small farmers who grew food for their families don’t exist like they did in the past but that’s starting to change as small towns have felt the economic effects due to increases in costs because of transporting items to our humble area. There are more corporate farming operations now.

Oh, and my county has been placed on the ag disaster list that Gov. Phil Bredesen sent out on Tuesday.

Updated to add that Sadcox posted about this as well.

It’s the last day of the Democratic Primary. I know, it’s been a long primary season. I think it started in 1999 and I, for one, am ready for the next stage.

Today we have Montana and South Dakota. Tonight we have a big speech coming from Hillary Clinton that the major cable networks are drooling over.

As things in news and politics can change in exactly 12 minutes, I can’t see Clinton conceding today but then again, who knows. Obama leads in the delegate count 2,074 to 1,917 for Clinton, with 2,118 needed to clinch the nomination, and South Dakota and Montana award a total of 31 delegates. Our governator, Bredesen, is saying that he will throw out his choice after these primaries.

The Page is posting clues on if Clinton is leaving a trail of clues about her speech tonight. Interesting,  Nothing on the schedule later this week but comments about “superdelegates can change their mind.”

But there are some major things going on now in this country. When I talk to regular folks, they indicated they are weary as well with what feels like the longest primary season ever. We are still talking about gas here.

And what’s going on this week in Washington? Fixing the Farm Bill, which suffered a clerical mistake that has become a legislative nightmare.

And in this stream of consciousness blogging I’m vested in this morning, something cool happened yesterday. We did a story about a couple living on a fixed income that were basically rationing food a couple of weeks ago.

A woman called me and said that would not abide. She said on the phone “I have plenty and I want to share. I don’t want them to worry about eating.”

She called them to help out.

There are good folks in this world.

I’m sure you guys have already seen this article. I’ve been sadly remiss in my blog-reading the last few days.

In an interview this week with Politico, Bredesen said flatly that if the contentious slog continues until the Democrats’ late-August convention in Denver, the party would have a vastly diminished chance of recapturing the White House.

“They have a much steeper, rockier hill to climb if it goes to the convention,” the governor said over a dinner of rockfish and red wine. “You’re going to spend this whole summer — and lots of money and time and effort — trying to convince people that whoever isn’t eventually nominated, isn’t electable.

“That’s a heck of a hole to climb out of come the first of September,” he added. “What’s been going on for the last 90 days just gets worse and worse as the summer goes on.”

Bredesen also joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in warning that superdelegates should not overturn the outcome from primaries and caucuses.

If Obama were denied the nomination by Democratic insiders after winning the party’s popular vote, Bredesen said, “There would be hell to pay in the party for a long time to come.”

The rest of the interview is here.

Is Bredesen making a move with this?

Phil Bredesen- Last spring I had a temp job at the Knoxville News-Sentinel working at the front desk. Bredesen, the governor of Tennessee, was there for a meeting with the publisher. He shook my hand and asked my name. Of course I told him my name was Viggo the Destroyer and that he would bow before my wrath. No, I didn’t, but I should have. He seemed like a nice enough politician.

I think the blog The Prettiest Denny’s Waitress is really fun. And I really, really, REALLY want to tell someone I’m Viggo the Destroyer.
Phil will work.

Most days, I’m not a Gov. Phil Bredesen fan, I’ll be honest. He’s just way too Republican for me to be a Democrat. But, I gotta give the guy credit for taking up for the Sunshine Law of this state.

The governor said he had to change his view on the issue of open government when he first made the transition to government from the business world.

“I was flabbergasted and appalled at how you had to do business,” he said. “It just seemed to me almost impossible to hire people and do business.”

But over the years, Bredesen said he’s come to embrace the open government rules.

“I’ve come to realize you can work in this environment,” he said. “Yes, it has a substantial load attached to it in terms of how efficiently you can make decisions … but in the end government just works better if you come down on that side of it.”

And, I also believe that although government should run efficiently, it shouldn’t be convenient for the few in charge. That’s why it needs to be done where the public, which is the boss because it’s our money paying the bills, knows what’s going on.

I have heard from elected officials in my little sphere of the world for years the old “but we are friends” or “we go to church together.”

Well, just follow the rules and don’t talk about government business. Talk about your cats, your wife, the latest gossip on the street, Britney Spears, or the presidential election. If you were clever enough to get elected, then you should be clever enough not to follow those lame excuses and bring them up in defending the weakening of the law.

We follow the rules as private citizens.

This entire situation still just makes me shake my head .