More scattershooting on a Thursday afternoon...

--- Vice President Dick Cheney threw red meat at the conservative Republican base this afternoon when he appeared at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport's Sun 'N Fun Pavillion. In addition to God, the flag, guns, and Iraq, the Veep sounded off an angry diatribe about John Kerry's mention of Cheney's lesbian daughter during the debate against President George Bush Wednesday night. He even called Bush's judicial nominees mainstream! That just shows you how far out of touch Bush and Cheney really are! If my distant cousin Charles Pickering is part of the so-called mainstream than I am proud to be part of the fringe!

--- Auburndale based radio station WTWB, owned by Lakeland megachurch Carpenter's Home Church but operated under a time lease agreement by former Polk County Sheriff's spokesperson and Republican activist Lynne Breidenbach, carried the Cheney political rally live in it's entirity. The station, which I like to call Republican Radio 1570, is strictly conservative talk radio which does not have any programming of a progressive direction. Personally, I would call it nothing less than an in-kind contribution to the Bush-Cheney campaign.

--- The Democrats had their own stars in Central Florida today. Former "Cheers" star and director Ted Danson was in Tampa today to discuss enviromential protections, and former Texas governor Ann Richards met with military moms and wives.

--- Although we are the centre of the I-4 Corridor with a population of nearly half million people, Polk County is often overlooked in favour of the larger metro areas of Tampa/St. Petersburg and Orlando/Daytona Beach. Even Osceola County tends to get more attention because of it's suburban proximity to Orlando and being home to part of the Disney complex. But today the National Public Radio program All Things Considered featured a segment in which reporter/anchor Melissa Block met with a group of four Polk County voters who watched Tuesday's debate in Auburndale. Two Republicans, one Democrat, and an Independent was the makeup of the group.