Move complete!

Mom is all moved.  NOT without some stress though.  However she is happy and all is well.  One thing to remember when you move your 80+ year old parents . . . . .they keep everything. I was talking to a guy at Hydro Street last night (had a meeting for an event) and he mentioned that he had the same problem. 

It seems 80+ year old's grew up in the depression, the real one, not this little economic stumble we had lately and because they had nothing back then, they have a hard time throwing out things now.

I won't get into all the details.  All is well though in Springfield IL.

While in Springfield, DJ and I visited Abe Lincolns tomb and a few other historic places including what DJ says, the guy with the biggest hot dog you have ever seen (more on that later).

Long story short, we got mom all moved in and a day later  DJ and I were back on the road for the 5 hour drive north.   As we were heading home a sign flashed by saying that the next exit was the famous Grain Elevator Museum.  

WELL - how can you turn THAT down. How often can you get to go to a Grain Elevator Museum.

So we got off the highway and sadly it  was closed!  However, there was much more to do in this little town.  It was Atlanta IL and it  was on Route 66.

Atlanta IL was a thriving little town on Route 66 until the interstate was built that went right past the town.  Now its just another tiny town that history forgot.  Lee Dunham formally of the Philadelphia Phillies was born here.

Giant Hot Dog Man

We wandered around town for a while and decided that maybe in the future DJ and I would drive the entire Route 66 from where it starts to it's finish, blogging and shooting photos the whole way.

66 starts on the lake front in Chicago and ends at the ocean in Santa Monica - what a fun trip that would be . . . . at least on paper! 

I'll have more photos but I suppose I should get some other work done.  While gone I had three orders for rather large images and I'm meeting the canvas guy today so time is short.  I'm ordering seven large pieces today and gotta make sure things are right.  
------------------------------------

Politics.  Anti Chamber and why.

BTW - did you know that of the bottom 10 States in economic growth, eight of them have Republican Governors?   And six of those eight are Tea Baggers.

Of the top 10, five have Democratic Governors.

And why do I hate the Chamber of Commerce?  Through out history the Chamber has been almost anti-american.

1930s    The Chamber of Commerce works to undermine FDR & New Deal.

1940s   Chamber endorses the "right-to-work" movement to undercut labor unions, opposes blacks serving in the military.

1950s    Chamber of Commerce strong backer of Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin and prime motivators of ideological witch hunts throughout the decade. Supports Jim Crow racism in the South.  Supports Eisenhower's Interstate Highway Act (a very good thing for our economy)  but, today the GOP is now refusing to support highways, attempting to force the gov't to sell off our highways to European investor, like has occurred in Indiana which sold their tollways for 70 years, and they spent the money gained in 3 years, so for the next 67 years no tollway money in Indiana will go to maintain any road in the state, it will all go to Europe.>>

1960s    The Chamber of Commerce opposes the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1964, both intended to bring the black population into mainstream society.  Does nothing to assist in destroying Jim Crow segregation.  Opposes the War on Poverty of Lyndon Baines Johnson.

1970s    Opposes creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (Nixon accomplishment) despite disasters like Love Canal and DDT.

1980s     They pushed the Reagan tax cuts which created short term economic expansion but failed to pay for said tax cuts which started America on path to ballooning deficit spending.  Deregulation campaign plants the seeds of the near Depression of 2007 under President G.W. Bush.  Refused to support sanctions of South Africa for apartheid.

1990s    pushed job killing NAFTA legislation and outsourcing of American jobs surges as a result.

21st Century    supports gutting the EPA, eliminating air and water pollution controls, supported the lie based Iraq war of G.W. Bush. Supported allowing the US auto industry to fail.  Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.  Supports pumping livestock with anti-biotics.  Major backer of the George Bush tax cuts that almost sent us into the 2nd great depression.  Supports privatizing the Social Security to create another artificial economic bubble.  Opposes food stamp program in favor of child hunger (children are the largest segment of the population in poverty today.

That is the abysmal history of the Chamber of Commerce in America.

So yea - While everyone things the Chamber of Commerce is good for towns the money they charge businesses does not REALLY help the country as a whole.