Senate candidates:(monopoly two) Shoot straight

Well come on New Leader give the people some credit and give them some coverage of the "OTHER" two candidates in the race as well. Yes it is true that the monopoly two will spend money like it is going out of style to get *s*elected. Many believe as I that money is what is wrong with politics.
Why would anyone spend 3 million or so dollars to gain employment in a position that only pays less than 200K? POWER over the people.
Once again the SNL gives half a story, but hey they are consistent.

I'm Tom Martz Libertarian candidate for the 139th district, the only clear voice for the people of northern greene county.

Negative campaigns not worthy of Ozarks.

Maybe Jim Talent and Claire McCaskill think we Ozarkers are just dumber than a pile of rocks.

The two candidates for U.S. Senate say that we're important to their race. There are a lot of us and, well, for the most part, we like to vote. We're generally a conservative bunch, some of us coming from farms and far-away places tucked away in hollers. Both candidates seem to think that they're a lot like us.

So, why are they treating us like a bunch of darn fools? Maybe that's what happens when deep-pocketed fellas in fancy suits from the East Coast take over campaigns of good folk.

McCaskill started the silliness when she tried to make Talent look bad for taking money from that big chicken outfit in Arkansas, Tyson. We're not sure why that's such a big deal. Tyson, Wal-Mart, all of those big companies, they provide jobs in our communities. We're a hard-working people, and we don't care much who's signing our paycheck as long as we're paying our bills. The way we figure it, if the Tyson folks want to give Talent money, he shouldn't say no. Frankly, neither should McCaskill, which is why she had asked them, too.

But Talent is the one trying to pull the wool over our eyes these days.

He's been running a flashy television ad in our part of the world that makes McCaskill look like she's against God, apple pie and probably pickup trucks as well. The ad starts by saying that Howard Dean, that screaming liberal Democrat from one of the New England states next to where the Kennedys live, is McCaskill's hero. It's true, she said that. But she was talking about campaign finance reform. She said the way Dean raised a whole lot of money when he ran for president from small donations on the Internet is the sort of campaign she wishes she could run. She thinks that would be good for the nation, and, well, she's probably right. In that same interview, with a Kansas City columnist a few years ago, she said she wouldn't have voted for Dean for president.

But Talent's ad doesn't say all that. It figures we aren't interested in those details.

The ad also says that McCaskill's against terrorist surveillance, and, well, we just don't figure how anybody could be against that. Turns out that she just wants the president to follow the law, which is what a lot of newspapers said, too. Like most of us, she wants the president to keep an eye on the terrorists, even secretly, as long as he follows the provisions in law set out by Congress. A whole lot of folks in Talent's party suggested that he do the same thing — so did a federal judge.

We don't see how such a position makes McCaskill against terrorism surveillance. Sounds like a bit of a yarn to us, like that old story about daddy climbing up the tree and eating all them apples at one time. We like to tell stories like that around here, but we don't always believe them. Maybe Talent didn't get that message during one of his stops here. Neither, apparently, did McCaskill, based on her recent criticism of the president. She basically said that George W. Bush let those people die after Hurricane Katrina because they were poor and black. We've lived through a few disasters of our own around here, and we figure, Mother Nature doesn't discriminate. The president didn't seem to do a very good job after that big hurricane, but it seems to us it's because he put a horse trader in charge of the rescue effort, not because he didn't like black people.

So here we are in the Ozarks, with both candidates for this big Senate seat saying we're important to them, and yet they're talking to us like we're just plain dumb. We saw that ad where McCaskill's talking to her mama, and we suggest that somebody's mama ought to set both of these Missouri folks straight.

We aren't a homogenous population of simple-minded, uneducated hillbillies. We're a bright, articulate, engaged group of voters. Some of us are farmers; others are city dwellers and businesspeople. We care about the issues and we can see through the spin of campaign sound bites.

We don't care what your fast-talking friends from D.C. are telling you. If you want our votes, just give it to us straight.