The swine flu seems to be spreading locally and into Ohio. After our local outbreak of the H3N2 variant a couple weeks ago, the same scenario is being played out at other Indiana county fairs and the Indiana State fair. Officials seem to be taking it seriously now. It would be a good idea to keep an eye out for news about this and add some relevant keywords to your news searches. I’ve noticed that some articles are not using the terms “flu” or “influenza”. It may be common for folks to downplay this but just remember that this virus is jumping from hogs to humans in a very short period of time.
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I’ve been traveling around my region a bit more than usual and have seen thousands of election signs along the county roads and city streets. I didn’t realize that there were still so many primary elections in other localities coming up. Our county’s primaries are over with and the candidates are busy handing out flyers and putting up billboards. One such candidate had a volunteer walking thru our neighborhood the other night handing out leaflets explaining why he was the better choice for the job of our district’s State Rep. It was a well worded brochure that seemed to properly cover some of the issues that most conservative voters are concerned about these days. After reading that I decided to visit this candidate’s website to learn a little more about him. I admittedly haven’t cared much about some of our local elections in the past and wanted to change that this year.
I read his biography and was somewhat impressed until I realized that something was missing, totally missing. No where on his website was the party that he was running under. I had a hunch that I knew which party he was but sent him an email asking which party and why this information was nowhere to be found. Here is his reply:
Thank you for your questions. I am running as a Democrat. To answer your second question, I didn’t include this information because I don’t feel as though my party defines my platform or my allegiances. I believe that it is more important that I run to represent all of the people in the fifth district rather than a predetermined platform. If you have any questions about specific policy preferences, I would be happy to answer those as well. Thanks again for your interest and I hope that my answer was sufficient.
One word stood out to me: ALLEGIANCES so I had to Google this guy. I googled both his name and his email address and all I can say is WOW. He has quite an allegiance alright, his history includes being involved in the formation of our local Occupy. It’s funny how his website and handout came across, cleverly-worded and conservative, yet this guy’s allegiances are clear to me: the Occupy movement and the local Teamsters Union administration. I can’t believe a simple Google search shed so much light on a candidate.
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