but then, you probably knew that already.
Yes that is right, Charles Taylor (some one should really get him to change his name) is against two things that the vast majority of the country are behind and support: care for our wounded and disabled veterans and clean water.
Going off a
post from
daulton I found the info about Charles Taylor. It seems that Taylor has only voted with the DAV
13% of the time. Now it seems to me that the DAV is more than likely not a rabidly liberal organization dedicated to anything other than getting vets, particularly disabled ones, the care that they need. If you would like to see the actual votes you can go
here and type in your zip code. (For Taylor, you can use the Asheville Zip of 28815.) It never ceases to confound me that people can honestly think that the Repugs "support the troops" and care. They don't even support them while they are deployed, not to mention when they get back and have to wade through the underfunded bureaucracy that is the VA. In the homeless shelter that I have volunteered at in the past, I have heard the Vets tell me that one of the main reasons that they are there is because they were left floating by the VA, usually because there was just too much to do and too little staff.
The one really good thing about these sites, particualrly the DAV site, is that voting records don't lie. You can be sure that this has already gone out to my Vietnam Vet cousin. We shall see if it makes a difference.
And now onto clean water. A friend of mine involved in some anti-MTR (Mountain Top Removal) groups went to DC last week to lobby for the Clean Water Act Restoration Bill that is before the House. This is the bill that would put slit back into the CWA as a pollutant. This stuff is a major output of MTR mining practices. It is causing some real damage up here in the mountains, and as a whole MTR is an issue that is going to need to be addressed. (You can be sure that in the future it will be something that I will blog about some more)
Anyway, this friend of mine had some interesting things to say about her lobbying efforts. The plan was to meet with as many of the congresspersons that represent areas heavily affected by MTR, tell them why it is good thing to heal the CWA on this issue, and hopefully get them to co-sponsor the legislation. (At some point in the future, I will give you all a post on the whole issue and wrap her entire experience.) They met with quite a bit of interest and positivism, with the exception of Taylor and his office. Not only did they not meet with Taylor, no one from his office would meet with them at all. These were people that were registered voters here in NC-11! And neither Taylor nor one of "his people" would crawl out from under their rock to meet with a group of voters on an issue that is gaining support, not just from "crazy, radical, dirty, tree-hugging hippies," but a growing number of working class, rural Appalachian voters as well.
That being said, as far as I know Taylor has not attended any open candidate forum that has been held, that I know of. (I am always willing to admit that I am wrong.) As we enter the final planning stages of the forum that we hope to host here on campus, we shall see if the Man himself will grace us with his presence (highly unlikely), or if he will even have enough respect for the voters of Swannanoa Valley to send a surrogate of some kind. If he does not come, I sure hope his absence is noted by everyone. (Read: I wil personally make sure his absnece is noted. This would have nothing to do with partisan poitics but respect for our system enough to talk to voters face to face.)
`till later y`all...