It was only a few decades ago when our government actually encouraged us to grow gardens to feed ourselves.  Now, they encourage us to buy ever more cheap plastic foreign-made crap at Wal Mart, instead.

From 'sea to shining sea', the Big Boxes and their fellow travelers have wreaked havoc on our landscape and our communities.  Over the past few decades, our never-ending desire to save 14 cents on a hairdryer has in the long run cost us Main Street.  But as it becomes apparent that the cheap oil era is at its end, even Dick Cheney must be starting to realize that "the American way of life" is absolutely 'negotiable'.

Let's talk about rebuilding our food system and the places that we live below the jump...

And over in Africa, it appears that the brutal, ruthless dictator Robert Mugabe will be able to continue the destruction of the country that he led to ruin.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has dropped out of a presidential run-off (that wasn't even necessary in the first place, since he actually won the original election) -

The electoral playing field had become so one-sided, the incidents of violence and murder against his supporters so widespread, that Morgan Tsvangirai had to do something.

On Sunday afternoon he called a press conference in his Strathaven home in Harare's central suburbs and announced that his party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was pulling out of the presidential run-off scheduled for Friday, 27 June.

After a long and hard-fought Democratic Primary for US Senate here in Oregon, Jeff Merkley will now be our candidate against John McCain's running mate Gordon Smith (R-Bush) in this November's General Election.  We're now one step closer to taking down the last Republican Senator on the West Coast; and with the combined energy of the fantastic people from both the Merkley and Novick camps coming together, we'll do just that.

Meanwhile, while Oregon Democrats turned out in record numbers for this year's Primary...nearly one-in-five Oregon Republicans voted against Gordon(e) Smith (in favor of a 14-year long 'actively retired opthalmologist' who has never held elective office!) in the Republican Primary here yesterday, which is an eye-opening indicator as to just how weak Gordon(e) Smith actually is heading into November's election against Democrat Jeff Merkley.

I've always wondered what it felt like to cast a meaningful primary vote...for any office, really; but especially for President and United States Senator.  I finally got the chance to do just that this past Sunday; when I took a stroll on an absolutely beautiful sunny day here in inner SE Portland, and (finally!) dropped my ballot off at the Multnomah County Elections Division.

And it just so happens, that as I dropped my ballot off...the man I voted for in one of those races, our next President, was at that very moment speaking to 75,000 of my fellow Portlanders just across the Willamette...while elsewhere in that same crowd were a whole bunch of great, fantastic, excellent, beautiful, amazing, incredible (I'm running out of positive adjectives!) people who I had the great pleasure of meeting and working hard with over the last few months to send Jeff Merkley to the US Senate to replace Bush Republican Gordon Smith, and continue to add to the long and impressive record of progressive accomplishments that he's already built for us here as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives.

As an absolutely picture-perfect Pacific Northwestern weekend comes to an end, I got around to doing some thinking.  I walked over to the Multnomah County Elections Division earlier today, and dropped my ballot off there...while just across the Willamette from where I stood, our next President (love that front-page picture!  Always great to see "My Man" John Edwards!) was speaking to 75,000 of my fellow Portlanders.

Something struck me as I dropped my ballot off, though.  Along with countless numbers of Oregonians, I just took the first step tonight in a process that will ultimately leave Gordon Smith (R-Bush) out of work after the votes are tallied in our General Election here in Oregon in November.

I've been unemployed / marginally-employed very recently, and it isn't fun.  So, bleeding-heart liberal that I am...I've decided to take it upon myself to offer Gordon Smith some tips for finding work in this climate that he himself played a large part in creating.

We're down to only 3 days left until our votes are tallied here in Oregon on Tuesday, and it's hard to believe that this is the last weekend of our Primary season.  Candidates and their campaigns are hitting the streets everywhere on this absolutely beautiful warm and sunny Saturday here in Portland, and this year we have an embarrassment of riches in terms of progressive candidates running in contested primaries here in city, state and federal races.

I've chosen to work for and blog almost exclusively about one in particular this year, though - Jeff Merkley, our Democratic Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives, and the man who is going to take down Bush Republican Gordon Smith.  We have a primary to get through first, though...and a whole bunch of amazing people hit the streets of our city today to speak to our neighbors about why Jeff Merkley is the best choice for us to put on November's ballot, so we can finally get rid of the last Republican Senator on the West Coast!

Words (and drawings!) continue below...

As each day passes for George W. Bush's best friend in Oregon, the realization sinks in further that he is going to lose his seat in the US Senate race here this November.  Gordon Smith (R-Bush) has already made it clear to all of us here in Oregon that he has absolutely no use for us besides somehow manipulating a plurality of us to send him back to Washington every 6 years so he can continue to do yet more damage to our country with the rest of his Republican buddies out there.

However, with the recent news that the Senate race in Oregon is tied, our Salmon-Slaughtering Senator's fearful trembles have actually registered on the Richter Scale, and he's got two more pathetic attack ads ready which aim solely at Jeff Merkley, a candidate for the Democratic US Senate nomination and our Democratic Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives who just presided over one of the most progressive legislative sessions in state history.

As Bush Republican Gordon Smith continues to flail about wildly in a blind panic at the realization that he is going to lose the US Senate race here in Oregon this November, Democratic Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives Jeff Merkley continues to gain momentum in his quest to unseat our infamous salmon slaughtering weasel from Pendleton.

In addition to the recent news that Jeff Merkley is in a statistical tie with Gordon Smith among Oregon voters; more organizations have endorsed Jeff Merkley for Senate this past week, including 21st Century Democrats, and the Humane Society Legislative Fund.

Details below the fold...

We've been voting here in Oregon for a week already, and most of the political attention in our state at the moment might be focused on one certain race.  There's been plenty of attention focused on that one, and that will certainly increase as we get closer to May 20 when our votes are finally tallied.  But there's another major, major, major race here this year, also - we have a great opportunity to finally rid the United States Senate of Gordon Smith, an infamous Bush Republican who likes to pretend that he's a 'moderate' (yeah, and I'm the Pope...).

So now we know why Gordon Smith is trying to manipulate the outcome of our Democratic Primary by releasing attacks against Jeff Merkley -

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Oregon voters finds Smith leading Jeff Merkley by just three percentage points, 45% to 42%. In late March, he enjoyed a thirteen point lead. In February, he was ahead of Merkley by eighteen points.

The wind is attacking me.  My sign is not holding up to this onslaught much better, but it has one advantage that I do not.  I can help my sign, but my sign can not help me.  Well, okay...it sort of can.  It makes my intentions clear.  But it can't block the wind for me, unless I hold it up in front of my face.  But if I do that, I'd have a hard time smiling at people and saying hello as they pass by; and I'd also certainly bump into people, dogs, trees, and etc... as I walk in endless small circles trying to keep warm, while holding a sign in front of my face unable to see exactly where it is that I'm going.  

Tripping over things and falling down may very well amuse small children, but it won't help in our goal of gathering enough signatures of registered Oregon voters to add Oregon Food Bank to our state's charitable tax check-off program.  Which is why I'm out here grinning like an idiot for hours at a time, and really regretting my decision to have that second cup of coffee just before I came out here...

In the first stage of what sources say may be a prolonged insurgency against the forces of hunger and malnutrition in inner-city neighborhoods all across America; repeated sightings of peppers, onions, tomatoes, broccoli and turnips in these neighborhoods have liquor stores and bodegas on edge.

KwikShop on 4th says - "They're popping up everywhere.  Right outta the ground!  For years, that lot over there was just broken bottles and potato chip bags.  The kids'd stop by here after school and pick up their Pepsi and Cheetos on the way home.  But now, I seen 'em eating things like carrots and peas!"   ABC Liquors, Check Cashing, Payday Loans & Deli concurs: "We didn't think much of it at first.  I mean - those things are green, and they come from the ground.  They ain't even got no commercials!  Our cookies come in bags with cartoon characters.  Kids love that shit.  But now, those veggies are cutting into my business.  What's next, they gonna start drinking water?  Yeah, those fresh things got iron and vitamins and stuff; but where the kids gonna get their partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, Polysorbate 60, or their HFCS?  Not from cauliflower, they're not!"

Just some quick thoughts, and a personal story inspired by a beautiful article by Ray Ring in "High Country News" that everybody should really read.  Here's an excerpt -

I remember him most vividly when I’m driving by myself, no one there to distract me, and a song comes on the car stereo...

I’ll look over, and there he is, sitting on the passenger seat just like he used to. "Hey, Juaaan," I say, drawling the amusing nickname only he and I knew. He doesn’t turn, just sits stiffly and stares straight ahead, like he did in life. Or I’ll see him in the corner of my eye, standing in the corner of a room in my house, stiff with his hands shoved in his pockets. If I look directly, he vanishes. Many people have ghosts like this. We don’t talk about it to anyone.

Stepping in this weekend for one of my favorite dKos diarists, OrangeClouds115, I am going to share some thoughts on a couple of really good books I've recently had the pleasure to read.  I am also hoping that we can get some other suggestions from you all in the comments as to any new-ish books, articles, blogs, films, etc.. on general food and sustainability issues that you'd recommend.

For this diary, I am going to focus on Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto", and Ann Vileisis' "Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get It Back".

'Early to bed, early to rise....etc, etc....healthy, wealthy and wise.'  Well, I do rise early...and I am healthy and (ridiculously; I mean, ludicrously) wise; unfortunately, the key to wealth must be going to bed early (at least according to the aforementioned proverb...), which is something I haven't yet been able to master.  I'm working on it.

There is a motto that goes - 'Healthy Democrats are (good? better?) Democrats'.  Okay, no there isn't; I just made that up (I relinquish that copyright, by the way; it is now 'public domain!).

We are a community focused on politics, we seek to improve the lives of others.  I have noticed a lack of 'self improvement' diaries up in here (up in here...), though.  Is there any interest amongst us in an ongoing 'dKos Health & Fitness' series?  Let's find out, join me below...

In my opinion, Sundays call for levity.  Brevity, in addition to rhyming with levity, is also considered 'the soul of wit'.  I would argue, though (hey, that was a sort-of pleonasm...) that my verbosity is nothing if not witty.  Maybe (Definitely Maybe) I have a strange, dry-ish sort of humor - but I think the Wikipedia page 'defining' verbosity is one of the (unintentionally? intentionally?) funniest things on the 'internets', especially that boxquote-thingy at the bottom with the fine-print and everything else.  Ditto for the above link to the WikiPage on 'pleonasm'.

There doesn't seem to be a shortage of witty, funny commenters and diarists here in the D-K community (arrogant, narcissistic, cocky; ahem....what??? why are you looking at me???); and I, for one, always find myself wandering around Blogaria, and all over our Series of Tubes in search of funny stuff.  Join me under the fold.

Joshua Green brings us an interesting story in the March issue of The Atlantic, "They Won't Know What Hit Them".  

Like many other state legislatures last year, Iowa’s was narrowly divided. So all it would take to break the momentum toward a constitutional marriage ban was to tip a few close races. If Democrats took control of the House and Senate, however narrowly, the initiative would die, and with it the likelihood of further legislation limiting civil rights for gays and lesbians.

Colorado software mogul Tim Gill has a plan to stop the Box Turtles and Man-on-Dogs before they can make it to The Big Stage.  Follow me down below (what? get your mind out of the gutter...).

That guy in the Ford Explorer that suggested you go self-copulate for having the audacity to do the speed limit on your way home from work this afternoon?  He just might have saved the life of a drowning child at a public swimming pool last month.  The woman in the Jaguar that was driving close enough behind you to be able to tell the color of your eyes through the rear-view mirror?  She might have saved a choking child in a restaurant last week.  The actions caused by the social insulation that is intensified by the thousands of pounds of steel and glass surrounding these otherwise decent and caring people manifest themselves in what we call Road Rage.  We've also got Air Rage, Game Rage, Shopping Rage - even 'Wrap Rage'.  All of the aforementioned have been covered before, I'm treading no new ground here.  A related phenomenon occurs here on our 'Series of Tubes', though, and this is what I'd like to focus on below the virtual fold.

Think about the most charismatic friend / relative you've known.  Recall the ease with which they would connect with others in any kind of social setting imaginable.  The extreme self-confidence, the poise, the grace with which they carried themselves; all these things, the magnetic quality of their personality, just seemed to pull others into them.  These people are having conversations with the waitress on a crowded Saturday night at a diner in a town they've never been to, a complete stranger; and the vibe they're giving off to others is that of close friends who haven't seen each other in years.  We all know (or are, lucky meyou!) somebody who fits this description.

The thing with politics, though, seems to be that we discount this as a factor in elections.  We do this at our peril.  

Follow me over the jump, and maybe we can begin to (virtually) yell at each other about something more important than what former Kossack A typessays about Kossack B; and what Kossack C intends to do about this regrettable situation; and also, former Kossack D had better watch out because Kossack E has Kossack / former Kossack A/B/C/D's back!!!