Hello, I'm Bill Foster. Actually, my legal name is George William Foster, but running for office as George W. anything isn't a very good idea these days. I'm a scientist and businessman who is very concerned about where our country is heading. I want to tell the netroots a little about myself, what I plan to do in Congress and that I'm proud to be attending Yearly Kos where I hope to get a chance to meet some of you. I also encourage you to check out my campaign website, www.foster08.com.
When I was younger, my little brother and I started a business from scratch in our basement. With $500 from our parents and a lot of help from our friends we built a company that now manufactures about 70% of all the theatre lighting equipment in the United States. Our company provides hundreds of good jobs here in the Midwest.
I'm also a scientist with a PhD in particle physics from Harvard University. I've spent the past 22 years at Fermilab doing advanced research and leading teams of people building Fermilab's giant accelerators. I loved it. Along the way I built electronics, superconducting magnets, and helped discover the Top Quark - plus a whole lot of other things that would probably bore you to tears.
I want to talk about my views on Iraq because it is the most important issue Congress should be addressing. There is no member of Congress more responsible for George Bush's wrong-headed policies on Iraq than the current holder of this seat-- Dennis Hastert. We need to do everything we can to bring a responsible end to the war in Iraq and start bringing our troops home. I would like to think I've made a small contribution toward that goal. Last Year I went to work for the campaign of Captain Patrick Murphy. I camped out in the Ramada Inn across the road from the campaign headquarters and did a number of things for the campaign. The thing I'm most proud of is organizing the "Get Out The Vote" system for the campaign. In the last 72 hours our campaign knocked on 240,000 doors, and we knocked on 140,000 doors on Election Day alone. We empowered people to make a change. And now, Congressman Murphy is a leading voice in congress to bring our troops home.
And there are so many other things I want to talk with all of you about as this campaign moves forward - how I want to use my background as a scientist to get our country back in the business of innovating. Innovating to fight global warming and develop new sources of energy. Innovating to fix our health care system and find cures for debilitating diseases. I'll be at Yearly Kos at the Future Leaders event, the science caucus, the netroots candidates' event on Friday night and a few other events. I hope to see some of you there and I look forward to talking with you in the future about turning IL-14 blue.
There is no other seat across the country that will send as strong a message on ending this war than this seat.
STATE BLOGS
