MISSOURI TEA PARTY GROUPS HAVE NOT ENDORSED ROY BLUNT FOR U.S. SENATE

News Release:"Tea Party organizations, from across the state of Missouri, have NOT endorsed Roy Blunt in his campaign for the U.S. Senate seat. When we received a notification that Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, a strong supporter of Tea Parties nationally, and the originator of a "Tea Party Caucus" in Washington last week, will be coming to Missouri on July 31st to make phone calls with Roy Blunt from the St. Louis GOP headquarters, and to be a featured speaker at a Blunt fundraiser that night, we were shocked. We believe she has been grossly misled if she understands him to be a Missouri Tea Party candidate.

Tea Party participants believe the spending in Washington has to STOP. Roy Blunt voted for TARP and Cash for Clunkers. For Michele Bachmann to come to Missouri and give the impression that all the Missouri Tea Parties support Roy Blunt is an abomination of everything we have been standing up for. "Most Tea Party supporters I know will be baffled by Michele Bachmann helping someone with a record like Roy Blunt before the primary vote," said Jedidiah Smith, a Tea Party leader in Franklin County, Missouri.

"Missouri Tea Party groups are proud of our steadfast position not to endorse candidates and to remain independent of political parties. We encourage all voters to examine the voting records, positions, and values of all candidates, to determine whether they promote the core values of the Tea Party Movement: fiscal responsibility, constitutionally-limited government, and free markets." said Eric Farris, a Tea Party leader in Branson, Missouri. There are sixteen candidates running for the Missouri U.S. Senate seat."

NASCAR THIS WEEK

By Monte Dutton

Sponsored by Chad's Garage

High hopes for

Jeff Gordon

Jeff Gordon’s hometown could be considered Vallejo, Calif., where he was born, or Pittsboro, Ind., where he grew up.

Based on his record there, Indianapolis Motor Speedway is another place where Gordon feels right at home. He has won NASCAR’s annual visit to the Brickyard a record four times. (As an aside, Gordon has won five times at Infineon Raceway, the track closest to his birthplace.)

Gordon’s most recent Indy victory occurred in 2004. In the five races since then, though, Jimmie Johnson has won three times and Tony Stewart twice. Forty-eight races have passed since Gordon’s last victory anywhere. He won at Texas Motor Speedway on April 5, 2009.

Still, a winless Gordon is better than most drivers who have won multiple races this year ... literally. Gordon, 38, ranks second in the Sprint Cup point standings, trailing only Kevin Harvick, and has more top-five finishes (10) than any other driver.

"Our team’s been consistently running up front," said Gordon. "We just haven’t had the car to win or all the pieces as a team to get ourselves into victory lane.

"At times we’ve had the car. For whatever reasons -- blame it on me, blame it on incidents, I don’t like to point fingers -- but we haven’t gotten to victory lane. ... We think we’ve got some things up our sleeve for Indy, but I’m sure that’s what a lot of guys out there are thinking."

Only five drivers -- Richard Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarbrough -- have ever won more races at NASCAR’s highest level than Gordon. Three more victories would put him ahead of everyone except Petty and Pearson. But it’s been "82 and holding" ever since the 2009 Texas victory.

Some have speculated that the end of Gordon’s career is near. He disputes this.

"Man, I do (feel old) when I get out of that race car and everything aches," he said, "but no, I mean, I’m still enjoying the sport very, very much. I feel like I’m way more comfortable with where I’m at in the sport today. That’s fun. I like all the years of experience that now I get to benefit from.

"The only thing I’d change right now is getting some of those wins back. It’s tough. It’s very competitive. We know we’ve got to pick up the pace."

There’s a study out that says havin’ healthy social relationships increase you chances of livin’ longer by 50%. They say that’s better than the odds ya get if you quit smokin’ or loose weight.

Now that doesn’t mean you’ll live another thirty or forty years, but sociable people live longer and healthier lives accordin’ to this study.

I assume that if this becomes common knowledge, the health insurance companies will not only want to know if you smoke, are over weight, or have heart problems, they’ll wanna know if you’re a loner. How many friends do you have? How often do you get together? Do you play dominoes, cards, or shoot pool with your buddies? Be happy and get a 10% discount.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

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Weekly Columns

CLICK and CLACK

TALK CARS

Dear Tom and Ray:

My aunt called me the other day and said she had trouble trying to find the place where you put more windshield-washer fluid. She told me the only cover she found was one that said "Coolant." You guessed it - she put the windshield-washer fluid in the coolant reservoir. She then told me that she used a bottle of Windex instead of the diluted blue stuff you buy for car windshields. What should I do to help her, and what possible damage did she do? - Adam

Tom: Well, the first thing you can do to help her is open her hood and show her where the windshield-washer reservoir is. Then take a big magic marker and label it for her.

Ray: the next thing I’d do is take the car to a mechanic and have the coolant flushed out and replaced. But I don’t think she did any damage.

Tom: Me neither. If I had to guess, I’d say the dominant ingredients in Windex are water and ammonia. There might even be a little ethylene glycol (aka coolant) in there.

Ray: There’s a small amount of soap in Windex. But my guess is that any suds would be suppressed by the high pressure. It’s not like she put Dawn Dishwashing Liquid in there.

Tom: And she can feel good knowing she has the cleanest cooling system in the neighborhood.