The Turner Report Newsletter, which launched last month, is not just a collection of the links to posts from the Turner Report, Inside Joplin, Inside Joplin Obituaries and my other blogs, but it is also designed to increase the amount of local and state news and commentary offered by my one-man news operation.
This post includes the newsletter that was published Friday evening, with only one change. Normally, the obituary links on the newsletter include photos, but that does not work well in this blog format, so I only have the links here.
I would love to have your input on this new project and if you would like to be added to the Turner Report Newsletter mailing list, e-mail me at rturner229@hotmail.com. Thanks.
In two months, Billy Long's 12-year tenure as Seventh District Congressman will come to an end. It can't be said that Long never came to this area. He loved to come here and hobnob with elected political leaders and businessmen. When it came to you and me, however, there was always the possibility that he might wave at us if we called out to him.
During the entire 12 years, Billy Long never held a town hall meeting in any portion of the Seventh District- not one.
I'll take that back. He did hold one, count it, one town hall meeting, or at least that is how he publicized it. He held an electronic town hall meeting. That was in 2011- 11 years ago. Since then, he has made no effort to meet with the people who elected him (or those who voted against him).
You might be inclined to give Long the benefit of the doubt since he did try an electronic town hall meeting, but that meeting was a fiasco as I described it in May 2011 (yes, he hasn't even made a token effort at a town hall since the Joplin Tornado).
It was a glorious opportunity for constituents who might never have a chance to talk to the Congressman. Unfortunately, only five people were squeezed into the 60-minute meeting.Don't blame those people for taking up 12 minutes apiece of Billy Long's valuable time. That is not the way it worked. Long did not take his first call until approximately 13 minutes had passed and spent the last 10 minutes offering a glimpse of his radio talk show days as offered a mix of home-spun one-liners and assertions that he was still fed up.A portion of the remainder of the time was spent offering two polls of the telephone listeners, with the second one revealing the mind-numbing information that 68 percent of those "attending" the town hall meeting did not believe in First Amendment protection for those who burn the Bible or the Koran.The questions Long took were typically bland and offered more of an opportunity for the questioners to offer their opinions on softball issues while Long agreed with them. For each question, Long was able to dig into his treasure trove of long (pun intended) countrified stories, a couple of which even pertained to the subject.I was one of those who punched star-three to ask the Congressman a question. I did not anticipate getting through, but was still surprised when Long cut off the questions with more than 10 minutes left in the hour.
All through the years, Billy Long has continually told us he based his votes on what the people of the Seventh District were telling him. I have a good idea who those people were and once again, it sure wasn't you or me.
Two months from now, Eric Burlison will take the oath of office.
A town hall meeting or two would be a nice gesture.
***
Thanks again for spreading the word about the Turner Report Newsletter. This format has enabled me to bring you more than twice as much news and I am enjoying these little nightly chats. I encourage you to share the newsletter with anyone you think might be interested. Anyone who has received this newsletter and is not yet on the mailing list can join by e-mailing me at rturner229@hotmail.com.
From the Turner Report
From Inside Joplin
From Inside the Ozarks
From Inside Joplin Obituaries
Links of Interest
Joplin Police Department Incident Reports- November 16-17
Joplin Police Department Incident Reports- November 17-18
Joplin Police Department Dispatch Reports- November 16-17
Joplin Police Department Dispatch Reports- November 17-18
Bodycam footage shows arrest of Tyson CFO John Tyson (nypost.com)
Branson law enforcement investigates double fatal shooting (ky3.com)
Kanakuk camps operators sued over abuse settlement (ky3.com)
Today's Videos
(2521) Sarcoxie vs New Covenant Academy High School Girls' Varsity Basketball - YouTube- Sarcoxie Bears (complete game)
(2521) Firefighter injured while battling Carl Junction duplex fire - YouTube- KOAM/Joplin News First)
(2521) LIVE: Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes go over Sunday's matchup against the Chargers - YouTube- KMBC
If you have any comments, questions or would like to unsubscribe from this newsletter, please e-mail me at rturner229@hotmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment