Hey Jazz, welcome to the fray that is this thread.
Glad my little sentimental rant about how we decide in the voting booth gave you a humorous bump. It wasn't my intention to give off a "wooooo... we're special-er than everybody else" vibe - I was responding to Hosts's posts (hee that rhymes) that almost exclusively had to do with finances and a financially motivated electorate. No claim to specialness here. Not Texas, so sir. But didn't we send the first batch west to settle Texas, way back when?
Oh, off topic a bit..... how come the dead tend to vote Democrat? Some dead Memphians voted for Ophelia Ford to take over her brother's vacated state senate seat after he was indicted in a fed sting called "Tennessee Waltz" last year. What is it that makes the democratic party more attractive to those already passed on to the other side? What do they know that we repubs don't?
Jake Butcher - now that's a name I haven't heard in years. He out of jail yet? Ned Ray is front and center at every democratic function, so he's still kickin. But you left out Ray Blanton..... remember when Ned swore in Lamar Alexander a few days early because they were afraid that Blanton would pardon a prisoner that was under federal investigation? Yikes but we've got a history with greedy governors.
Bet you're glad to be in Illinois, where nothing like this would ever happen.... ha.