Hello Friends,

This is my first post. I am a first-time blogger and I'm learning as I go about it. So, if any of you have some suggestions about effective blogging, please pass them along to me. Most blogs I'm aware of mainly consist of the author posting his or her thoughts and inviting commentary to that. I have plenty of thoughts to share but I am even more interested in what I can learn from you. So I may use ideas from your comments as post topics to invite further commentary. In this way, we can all use this blog as a market-place of ideas to enrich our understanding of politics and to help us make informed choices when we cast our ballots this November. Thomas Jefferson wrote that a society can never be both "ignorant and free." I, for one, want to be free - too many of our forebears paid with their blood to ensure that. So it follows that I can not be ignorant of what is going on in my society concerning choices that are being made that effect me and the people who are making them in representation of me. In that spirit, I invite you all to join me in the choice to not be ignorant. In the end, this spirit will keep us all free...