Between Editions

I’ve decided to create a special page detailing the various initiatives and referendums that you will see on your ballot when you head to the polls.

Click here for access. You can also access this information by clicking the “Ballot information” link under the “Pages” column at the top of this blog.

Last night’s local political debate at the South Arkansas Community College Library was, well, not a debate.

No incumbents showed. Why? Some claimed they didn’t know about it. However, we published the information in the paper and here on Between Editions leading up to the event.

No excuses, as far as I’m concerned. If you’re running for public office, you should be more in touch.

Very. Poor. Showing.

Seems to me that voters in the following races should carefully consider this before they cast their ballots.

City Council Ward 2, Position 2: Democrat LaQuita Rainey held her own. I heard many comments about Rainey’s performance from those who attended. All thought she did well. On the “We Promise” debacle, Rainey said that the choice should have been “City of Promise, because what are we promising here? We can’t promise them jobs or affordable housing. What are we promising.”

Well said.

I wish I could have told you what Incumbent Independent candidate Judy Ward said. She wasn’t there.

City Council Ward 1, Position 1: Democrat Vertis Mason was a no show. I guess she was too busy preparing for her Thursday radio program. Her challenger, Republican Frank Hash, at times strayed off topic. When I asked him to evaluate the success of the El Dorado Forward initiative, he began talking about the El Dorado Promise.

Hash also said that he hopes the Promise doesn’t attract people to El Dorado who are just looking to take advantage of the Murphy Oil gift.

District 3 Justice of the Peace: Incumbent Harrell Chandler had a good excuse for not attending. He was in Colorado. I give him a pass on that one. His challenger, Republican Kermit Parks, performed well last night. He said that one of his goals, if elected, is to unite both county and city leaders. That’s something we desperately need. Parks is a formidable opponent.

District 8 Justice of the Peace: Incumbent Democrat Donny Crawford was a no show. No word on why. His Republican opponent Randy Hendricks claimed that he didn’t know about the debate until 25 minutes before it started. Mr. Hendricks, do you read the News-Times?

Hendricks agreed with Parks and said that city and county leaders should host joint meetings from time to time. He said his top priority as a JP would be jobs.

“The El Dorado Promise is great, but if we educate these kids and don’t have jobs for them, they’re not going to come back here.”

Here’s a post — with photos — from News-Times photographer Larry Singer:

On a well-traveled stretch of roadway between El Dorado and Moro Bay sits an unusual, and highly detailed, piece of life-sized folk art.

Resting in the Old Union front yard of Russell Rowland, who calls himself a political humorist, is a row boat filled with a variety of props, including a life-sized blow-up dummy representing the Republican presidential ticket. The items leave no doubt on Rowland’s take about our country’s woes.

Rowland said he got the Sarah Palin doll at a local emporium and the wig atop her bespeckeled head at Wal-mart.

The only thing missing from his creation, Rowland said, are lights, so motorists driving by at night can also appreciate his quirky sense of humor.

I’ll be helping moderate tonight’s debate at the SouthArk Library. It’s scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. and should last about two hours.

Races for El Dorado alderman include: LaQuita Rainey (Democrat) vs. Judy D. Ward, the incumbent (Independent) in Ward 2, Position 2; and Frank Hash (Republican) vs. Vertis Mason, the incumbent (Democrat) in Ward 1, Position 1.

Justices of the Peace races include: Harrell Chandler, the incumbent, vs. Kermit Parks (Republican), in District 3; and Donny Crawford, the incumbent (Democrat) vs. Randy Hendricks (Republican in District 8.

Any question suggestions?

**UPDATE**
Apparently, from what I’ve heard today, no formal invitations were sent to candidates. The JAYCEES are in charge of the event. Several candidates have told the News-Times today that they don’t plan to participate.

I mulled it over for a couple of days… . This is just too rich not to post, in case someone missed it.

This vice presidential debate spoof from the most recent episode of Saturday Night Live is probably one of the best skits in the show’s history. Tina Fey nails it. Again.

I think I’m gonna start calling myself “Joe Sixpack.”

I watched last night’s debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin from cover to cover. My thoughts: Palin was well rehearsed, but did not answer questions directly and succinctly.

It was a better showing, though, than what the world saw during the Katie Couric interviews on CBS.

Any comments?

Personally, I’m about ready to put politics aside for at least the weekend and enjoy MusicFest.

I can’t wait. Tune it at 8 p.m.

Think Mrs. Palin can pull it off? She didn’t in the Katie Couric interviews. That isn’t partisan politics talking, it’s the truth.

Tonight she must prove that she’s ready to lead the nation should John McCain be elected then die or become incapacitated in office.

We’ll see.

**UPDATE** After further investigation, and as you may have seen in an above blog posting, this is not Sarah Palin after all, but a clever look-alike hired by the New York Daily News to tag around Manhattan and fool people.

I found this photo while perusing the morning papers today. It’s Sarah Palin a look-alike and two guys with overly huge sunglasses, who make this photo look very bizarre. It’s an interesting cover shot for the New York Daily News.

It’s been a decade since the hanging chad incident in Florida, yet we’re still having voting problems in the U.S.?

We can spend billions on a war but we can’t buy voting machines that actually work?

I have preached this for years: The fundamentals of our democracy depend on the voting process. Without that, we are nothing. How can our government not provide a voting method — and voting equipment — that works?

From today’s Washington Post: “Faced with a surge in voter registrations leading up to Nov. 4, election officials across the country are bracing for long lines, equipment failures and confusion over polling procedures that could cost thousands the chance to cast a ballot.”

I’m outraged by this. How can we not be prepared for the most important event in our democracy?

How can the government continue to fail the people of the United States by denying them a chance to vote in a setting that will ensure that their vote is counted.

There should be mass uprising because of this, folks.

Mass. Uprising.

Click here for the rest of the Post story.

This column by Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert has been making the rounds lately. He presents some interesting points regarding Sarah Palin. Click here for more.

I’m sure you probably saw this, but it’s too good not to watch again. Former Saturday Night Live star Tina Fey IS Sarah Palin. Fey made a guest appearance — as Palin — Saturday in the opening sequence.

Michael Phelps, who played host on the show, bombed. Not so much because he flubbed anything. He just wasn’t that inviting as a host, in my opinion.

The New York Times today reports about the McCain campaign’s decision to sequester Sarah Palin from reporters:

“Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, said on ‘Fox News Sunday’ that she (Palin) would not put herself before a ‘cycle of piranhas called the news media’ until reporters started to treat her ‘with some level of respect and deference.’

“‘On Fox, Davis said that Palin would agree to an interview ‘when we think it’s time and when she feels comfortable doing it.’ He also said she is ‘not scared to answer questions.’

“‘Why would we want to throw Sarah Palin into a cycle of piranhas called the news media that have nothing better to ask questions about than her personal life and her children?’ Davis said, adding:

“‘Until . . . we feel like the news media is going to treat her with some level of respect and deference, I think it would be foolhardy to put her out into that kind of environment.’”

In bold (I bolded that section, not the New York Times) we see that apparently Palin must be ready, on her own terms, to deal with the scrutiny that comes when one is involved in big-time politics.

I’m sorry, but if the woman is not yet comfortable answering questions on a national stage — about her personal life, about anything, really — then she does not need to be the vice president of the United States.

Period.

I do agree that her personal life shouldn’t be fodder for the mainstream news cycle, but Palin can’t run away from the media because a few oddballs decide to ask about her pregnant teen daughter.

She should field those and any other questions. A simple “that’s not an appropriate question, let me talk about my policies,” would suffice in an awkward questioning sequence. Am I wrong?

Click here for more.

Oh, and ABC’s Charles Gibson has the first network interview with Palin later this week. They were very selective and chose someone who will likely have a snoozer of an interview.

The front of today’s Arizona Daily Star:

The speech was stirring toward the end, especially when McCain kept talking louder and louder over the crowd noise. It bothered me, though, that they played a “tribute” to Sept. 11, that was clearly a campaign video.

Onward to November.

A blogger commented that Tina Fey, former SNL queen, looks a lot like Republican vice presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. One hopes that Fey will make a guest appearance on the Sept. 13 SNL premiere to play Palin.

Palin

Fey

That’s right, folks. Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, spent between $299,100 and $313,100 on one outfit during the Republican National Convention. Most of the cost went toward a pair of 3 karat diamond earbobs.

How wasteful. But she and John McCain feel the pain of average Americans. Actually, I’m not sure any politician feels the pain of average Americans. Click here for more.