My trip across middle America this weekend

[proud2BlibKansan]

On our way back from a wonderful Thanksgiving in Memphis. Went to Stax Museum which is just awesome and down to the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale. Had Thanksgiving dinner at the Paula Deen Buffet at Harrahs south of Memphis. Partied on Beale Street last night. Really a wonderful trip.

After driving 500 miles across MO and parts of 3 other states I have a few observations.

The economy sucks. We must have driven past a dozen malls today and not a one had a full parking lot. Isn't this supposed to be the biggest shopping weekend of the year? Also noticed closed stores at every outlet mall we drove by.

Took a brief detour through Cape Girardeau, MO. The Mississippi River is beautiful there and it's a pretty town. The college campus there is one of the prettiest I've ever seen. But right around the corner from campus is a HUGE new looking federal courthouse named after Rush Limbaugh, Sr. We think that's Rush's grandfather. I knew his family was powerful in SE MO but having a courthouse named after you is a whole new level of powerful. Or did Oxy Rush buy that nameplate for his family?

There is also some serious money in Cape Girardeau. Amazing for a city that size in an area of the state with a rather depressed economy.

I love Memphis. It's a cultural gem in the middle of the country. Between Elvis and BB King and Isaac Hayes, Memphis has a musical legacy to be proud of. But the poverty is astounding. We always go off the main drag to explore a city and Memphis is just sad. Lots of foreclosures and signs offering help with bankruptcies and help with legal matters, like traffic tickets and 10 year old warrants.

Just drove past a broken down truck in central MO. Sitting on the side of the highway and covered with anti-Obama health care signage. How wonderfully symbolic!

Only other political message we saw during this trip was a beautiful big sign on the side of a building in Clarksdale, MS urging folks to vote for Obama. It was so pretty I can understand why it has not been taken down. It was also right around the corner from a blues club owned by Morgan Freeman.

OMG we were just passed on the left by a red van with a lady in the front seat holding a baby who isn't in a car seat. Everyone in this car is appalled. Except me. :)

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Forgot to add all the anti abortion signage in SE MO

Where do these people get all this money?

Time to donate to Planned Parenthood again. Sigh.

[asdjrocky]

2. About a week ago I took a drive up I-5 through Northern Ca and into Or-

all the way to Salem.

What really struck me was at every single rest stop there was at least one person with an "out of gas, need help" sign. Some didn't even seem to have a car, they sat outside the bathroom with a sign. If I were a politician on a fact finding mission I'd say I found our system to be in deep, deep trouble.

Saw a few Obama bumper stickers. Say a small, "produce the birth certificate" billboard just north of Redding Ca, and saw one asshole in a big truck with a long work trailer and a Palin bumper sticker on back. I'll say, other than him, most of the people on the road through Oregon were courteous to the point of driving too slow. This guy, however, drove like an asshole.

I've taken a lot of road trips in my time, and I have to say I've never seen things looking so, frayed. It feels like the fabric is tearing.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Yes we've seen a lot of people with signs asking for money.

Very sad.

[truedelphi]

15. My tour through Goldman Sachs showed quite different results

Not a single executive held a sign saying they would work for food.

So some things are working out great!

[asdjrocky]

17. And I understand they're not worried about the flu. nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. Sadly true

[truedelphi]

20. Enjoyed your Op - well, not sure I should say I

Enjoyed it. But appreciated it - very timely, very true.

There are signs of some success in economy in my lil world.
Lake County CA has the highest arrest record of any County in Calif for marijuana growing. So since harvest time was very recent, many faces at restaurants and movie theatre etc.

Festive atmosphere all around. The straight "Christian" folks are pleased that Obama will be waging war on the Muslims of Afghanistan, and others are pleased for other reasons.

Schwartzenegger seriously considering legalizing the crop.

Why not tax the bonanza, rather than expending funds on prison cells?

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. Thank you

I heard about Schwartzenegger's parking ticket the other day.

[sandnsea]

4. I've driven St Louis - Little Rock

It is really a whole other world. Astonishing poverty and that was back in 2002 or so. I haven't been south of there since the 70s, but at that time MS & AL was a whole other world beyond rural MO & AR and I don't know that it's changed all that much. There's no way 2 Senators and a Congressman or two can change all these people. It's going to take a concentrated campaign.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. I'll probably get flamed for this

But I am always amazed by the litter in the south. As we drove into Arkansas the other day, one of my fellow travelers said "Welcome to the south, where they don't know how to find a trash can".

[C_Lawyer09]

22. That is exactly my reaction

I just moved back to NC from WA state. I do like things about each place. What I find most apalling here in NC, is that there is as much trash in the nice places as there is anywhere else. Which is to say in a park or at a lake where I went fishing today, there is large amounts of trash, and there are 20 trash cans. Pisses me off to no end. To lazy to throw the damn styrofoam worm carton in the can versus dropping it on the ground. I just don't get it. You'd think that fishermen would realize garbage wrecks eco-systems, and wrecked eco-systems don't have fish. Disgraceful. Next weekend I'm taking trash bags to Rhoads Pond and Little River, and I'm going to clean up some, as much as it infuriates me to do it.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

6. Thank you for this. I live in an area

that hasn't been impacted as profoundly as other parts of the country. I can no longer depend on the media reporting the truth. Many of us are hungry for
news documenting what's really happening to this country.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. You are most welcome

[liberal N proud]

7. Cape Girardeau, MO is Limbaugh's home town

It is redder than red in that part of the state.

There and the Northeast corner - Kirksville.


It may be bad in Cape Girardeau but here is a report form North Carolina that is just the opposite.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7105358

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. I know

Rush used to live here and not far from me. I know way too much about him.

We just found it odd that a town the size of Cape G. has such a big courthouse.

[cmd]

8. Our Ohio food bank has gone from serving 5000 a year to 5000 a month

A lady at one of our local Dem party's free events asked me for the half of a burger that I was going to throw away. We had plenty. I got her a fresh one.
I think we are going to be seeing some very desperate people this winter. I know it's time for me to step us and do more.

[rantormusing]

9. You should have eatten at Lamberts

OMG, there are only like 4 or5 of them in the midwest, and it sounds like you were close to one. It would have been a positive bump in your trip. I went to college down there, the catch phrase was Southern Hospitality, god what a joke.

I remember David Limbaugh is a major lawyer/commentator in Cape, so it's not surprising about the court building.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. Had lunch there today!

There are 3 of them in all. Sikeston, MO; Ozark, MO and Foley, AL.

[Subdivisions]

16. Home of the throwed rolls! Funnest place I ever ate. n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. It's a hoot

[Greyhound]

13. No, Lush like Bill Gates, is a scion of wealth and privilege parading as a "self-made man".

Just another example of failing his way to the top. He was worthless in school, was given a job w/the Royals where he sucked, was sponsored by and through Dickhead Mellon-Scaife who carried his worthless ass for years to build an audience of people even more stupid than he is.

A phrase I've seen more often here fits, "It's only called a class war when we fight back".

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. When Rush lived here, he ran around town partying all the time

He and George Brett were very close and they drank their way through the town.

And yes, he royally sucked as the voice of the Royals.

Brett still lives here. I have no idea if he and Limpballs are still friends.