AMERICAN FOLLIES

• It's a sad testimony about politics in the US these days when the simplest of gun control measures could not get approved in the Senate which is controlled by the Democrats.  Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) announced Thursday that the Senate will “take a pause” and return to consideration of gun legislation at a later date. Don't hold your breath waiting.  Polls show that 90% of the citizens wanted something - anything - done to stop the spread of gun violence across the nation but the influence of the corporate gun industry stood in the way.

• Housemate Karen Wainberg and I hit the streets today in Bath taking our Fair Budget door hanger literature to about 200 homes.  In three other parts of town volunteers did the same.  I'll be continuing this effort in the coming days and plan to distribute about 1,000 pieces in Bath before done.  We now have activists in 22 Maine communities passing out 10,000 such pieces of literature.

• I noticed today after I handed one of the door hangers to a construction worker he began reading it aloud to a couple other workers who were taking a break with him.  An older couple walking their dog stopped on the street and began reading the piece after I gave it to them.  It was good to see that folks did not just immediately crumple it up and stuff it into their pocket as often happens when I hand out literature.  In this case though the door hangers are very attractive, have a great piece of art on them, and are being distributed during our annual tax time when people are thinking about how the government wastes much of their hard-earned money on crazy follies like the occupation in Afghanistan.