Obama: Destroying our economy, one step at a time

Remember this?

Obama said he wanted to bankrupt the coal companies.

Looks like he's making progress on that goal.

Pittsburgh-based coal company, CONSOL Energy, will lay off nearly 500 of its West Virginia workers next year and its CEO blames environmentalists dead-set against mountaintop mining who have waged “nuisance” lawsuits for the job loss.

But CONSOL Energy’s political problems are not unique to the mining industry, which has suffered under the Obama Administration. The Environmental Protection Agency is already holding 79 surface mining permits in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee. The EPA says these permits could violate the Clean Water Act and warrant "enhanced" review. And, agency went even further in October, announcing plans to revoke a permit for the Spruce No. 1 Mine in West Virginia.

Full article here.

Congress: Like Satan

This cracked me up:

One telling moment came after Hart asked each voter to write the name that comes to mind when they think of Congress. Bill, a 62-year-old retired automobile-industry executive and independent who backed Obama, wrote "Satan." When Hart asked why, Bill answered, "Because I wasn't sure of the correct spelling of 'Beelzebub.' " Now that's intensity.

I can't say I disagree with Bill.

Via The Conservatives and Insty.

Why Bernanke shouldn't be reappointed

This is all you need to see. It's so disheartening.

And note: it's a Democrat doing the questioning. Good for him!

Robert Gibbs: What a guy.

Watch and listen at about 32:47 -- he compares a women reporter to his young child. And she was NOT happy about it, either.

Via Instapundit.

Best news I've read all week

Every so often, I stroll over to Daily Kos to see what the lefties are saying. Today I found this:

Two in five Democratic voters either consider themselves unlikely to vote [in 2010] at this point in time, or have already made the firm decision to remove themselves from the 2010 electorate pool. Indeed, Democrats were three times more likely to say that they will "definitely not vote" in 2010 than are Republicans.

Ha! And then, even better:

This enormous enthusiasm gap, as well as some polling analysis done by PPP (and analyzed well here by Nate Silver), seems to make passing legitimate health care reform an absolute political necessity for Democrats. This polling data certainly should be something for Congressional leadership to consider, as they move along the legislative path. (emphasis added)

Seems like a good plan -- but only if you want the Republicans to completely take over both houses next year.

Just thought I'd share; I know my regular readers (all three of you) might be heartened by that bit of news. And I spared you the agony of having to read through Daily Kos.

You can thank me in the comments. :)

Juan Williams on Limbaugh and the NFL

Very good stuff:



Via Little Miss Attila

Hopenchange

Scary.

How's that public plan workin' for ya?

H/T Mommy Life (highly recommended; read this for a dose of real inspiration).

Captain "Sully" Sullenberger on virtues

Just heard Captain Sullenberger say this on Neil Cavuto:

"Part of what the book is about is a reaffirmation that cultivating seemingly ordinary virtues throughout one's life can prepare one to face extraordinary circumstances."

A perfect summation of what we should all try to do every day: Cultivate the ordinary virtues in our ordinary lives, and we, too, might achieve heroic status. Even without having to land a plane on water.

Another anonymous comment

The anonymous commenter stopped by again, here, a few days ago, but I've been too busy lately to post anything about it till now.

I actually don't work for Senator Kohl, although I gladly would work for either senator from my home state. I won't bother you with any more comments after this one, but I would like to say that there is no correct view - there are pros and cons to either party. There are democrats who genuinely care about the wellbeing [sic] of their constituents, and Senator Kohl is among them.

I won't post a screencap of the ISP info, because this time it wasn't from Senate.gov but from a private Internet provider in D.C.

My anonymous guest, you say there's no "correct view", there are "pros and cons to either party". Let's just keep talking about Cash for Clunkers for now, OK? We can get to the pros and cons of each party some other time, maybe.

I presented certain facts about Cash for Clunkers at the links in previous posts. Assuming those facts are true (and in this case, there's no argument from either side about the facts), we come to just one conclusion: This program was a very costly failure.

Senator Herb Kohl may very well care about the well-being of his constituents. But in this case, he was on the wrong side of the issue, and thus, inadvertently, harmed his constituents by spending their tax dollars in a counter-productive way.

A larger point: If Senator Kohl's concern for us leads him to believe that it's the government's job to guarantee our well-being, he will end up making more of those incorrect decisions. It's impossible for the government to guarantee our "well-being", however one might define that. However, in a misguided attempt to do so, they will pass more laws, increase the span of government control, and spend more of our tax dollars (sinking us ever deeper into a very dangerous level of debt), thus taking away more of our liberty and our individual and national economic stability.

That would definitely be an "incorrect" thing to do.

If you need more proof...

... that Cash for Clunkers was yet another horrible government idea, read this.

The basic fallacy of cash for clunkers is that you can somehow create wealth by destroying existing assets that are still productive, in this case cars that still work. Under the program, auto dealers were required to destroy the car engines of trade-ins with a sodium silicate solution, then smash them and send them to the junk yard. As the journalist Henry Hazlitt wrote in his classic, "Economics in One Lesson," you can't raise living standards by breaking windows so some people can get jobs repairing them.

In the category of all-time dumb ideas, cash for clunkers rivals the New Deal brainstorm to slaughter pigs to raise pork prices. The people who really belong in the junk yard are the wizards in Washington who peddled this economic malarkey.

If you're thinking, "but, still, it did something great for the environment!", think again: the upgrade to more fuel efficient models saved maybe one day's worth of gas consumption.

Go read the whole thing.

A little fisking of that comment from below

Now it's time to have some fun with the "Anonymous" commenter from this post. I almost hate to waste the pixels on this, as really, it's hardly worth the trouble. But, hey, it's my blog, and that comment is definitely a "target-rich environment", as they say. So, here we go!

"Anonymous" said:

I know you probably won't post this, [wrong! and that won't be the last time in this comment] since my comment does not mesh with your views, [what, you thought I was afraid of a little opposition?] but I hope that you'll at least read it. You are sadly mistaken regarding just about everything you write. [The power of your argument already underwhelms. "Just about everything" I write? Really?? Can you actually point out any places where my facts are wrong? No? I didn't think so.] Perhaps you've seen Glen Beck cry [OK, this is picky, but wrong again; it's G-L-E-N-N] and have been moved by his "genuine" sadness regarding the state of the nation. [No, not really, but my teen daughter wants to know if you've been moved by Nancy Pelosi's crocodile tears.] Perhaps you've watched too many hours of the Fox News channel so your views are no longer your own. [Novel theory, that. Whose views would they be, exactly, if not mine? You think my brain becomes property of FOX after a certain number of programs viewed? But I suppose those of you who watch "the CBS news channel" or "the MSNBC" or "the CNN" maintain full and complete ownership of your views, which spring, Athena-like, from your brows, yes? Anyway, don't sell me short; I happen to get my news from a huge variety of sources, unlike most lefties I know.]

I thank God every day that the Bush Administration is out of office and has been replaced by one that is concerned about things like bringing our troops home from an unnecessary war in Iraq [really? I seem to have missed that announcement from the White House], ending torture and abuse of prisoners, [wrong again; we didn't torture prisoners. I thought waterboarding might be torture -- until I learned that Christopher Hitchens volunteered to have it done to him, and that we do this to our troops as part of their training. Ipso facto, it's not torture. End of discussion], focusing on rehabilitation of incarcerated individuals, [huh? again, I must have missed this announcement from the White House, unless by this you mean sending Gitmo prisoners to Bermuda. Rehabilitation? HA!] and ensuring that our public schools have the resources they need to succeed. [Oh yeah, that's what our public schools need. More money. And on the back of the 47% of us who are taxpayers, I suppose, funneled through our completely broke federal government. What shocking brilliance.]

You may have a problem with social programs. A lot of you do. [By "a lot of you", do you mean those of us who are intelligent, productive taxpayers? But what do you mean by "have a problem with social programs"? We're certainly not opposed to safety-net programs for legitimate citizens who are truly in desperate straits.] I certainly hope that you refuse to take part in Medicare or Social Security. You should avoid those out of principle, right? [Actually, I'd be thrilled if a Congressman or Senator would introduce a bill to start scaling back on the promised Medicare and Social Security benefits for my generation, because we simply can't afford it. Rather than see our government completely wrecked by these out-of-control Ponzi schemes, I'd much rather see the programs severely scaled back. Including for myself. And if our government would make Social Security voluntary, I would most definitely opt out, immediately. But then you don't get to collect anything out of my paycheck for it, either.]

You say that the Cash for Clunkers program did not work. [No, I didn't just "say" it, I proved it. Did you bother to follow the links in that post? Cash for Clunkers was an EPIC FAIL.] You say that people are buying vehicles that they cannot afford. [Some of them did, absolutely.] However, you also advocate less government regulation of individuals, so shouldn't these people be allowed to make such poor decisions? [OK, this is where I don't know if I should laugh or cry. This is the most ludicrous statement that it makes me laugh... but then again, can someone with such poor logic really be working in our government? That makes me want to cry. Let's try this: I DON'T WANT THE GOVERNMENT TAKING MY MONEY TO GIVE TO OTHER PEOPLE TO MAKE BAD DECISIONS!!! If they want to make their own bad decisions, let them do it with THEIR money!!! Is that really so hard to understand??]

I certainly hope you are not a Wisconsinite, because I am, [I don't really hide the fact that I blog from Wisconsin] and would not want to identify [I don't think that word means what you think it means; you probably meant to say "associate". Don't worry, I don't particularly want to associate with you, either, though I wouldn't mind meeting with you and sitting down over a civilized glass of wine so I could explain my ideas to you. You might learn something.] with a town hall yeller [Wrong again. I've never yelled, ever, in a townhall meeting] such as yourself. Pathetic. [Nice. Thank you for the insults.]

Gee, that was fun.

According to my Sitemeter stats, you've been back to visit today, My Dear Anonymous Commenter. Please do stop by often.

Interesting visitor and "anonymous" commenter

This morning I received a very interesting comment on my post about the letter from Herb Kohl.

You should be able to click on the image below to enlarge it (or, as the cool bloggers say, "embiggen" it).

Anyway, that screenshot indicates my "anonymous" commenter most likely is an employee of the United States Senate. If I had to guess - and this is just a guess - I'd say it's probably a young staffer in Herb Kohl's office. The IP address indicates the U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms, which owns the IP addresses for the U.S Senate. (The linked Wikinews article is about other federal employees meddling with Wikipedia.)

Aren't you glad to know that a federal employee (or perhaps an unpaid intern) took the time out of his busy day to spend about 12 minutes visiting my blog?

And that he made sure to insult me? I'm a mere citizen, a taxpayer, exercising my right to free speech here, but this employee of the United States Government called me a "town hall yeller" (really? I've been to many townhall meetings and never once have I yelled at anyone) and "pathetic".

Last time I checked, federal government employees were supposed to serve the people, not insult them.

I guess to leftists, it's all the same. Serve, insult, whatever.

But please advise me: Should I call Senator Kohl's office and try to find out who the anonymous person was? Wouldn't that be kind of interesting? Maybe the Senator would want to know that his staffers are taking time out of their day to insult his constituents.

On the other hand, maybe that's OK with him seeing as he sort of does that himself.

Why do I feel like singing?!?

Ah, sweet, sweet schadenfreude!

Honestly, I am totally stunned (and completely thrilled) that Obama didn't land the Olympics for Chicago. I really thought he must have known he had it locked up (or that he was going to pull such under-the-table deals that nobody could resist him).

At the same time, I'm more than irritated that he risked the awesome power and prestige of the United States presidency on such a meaningless task.

Still -- HA! He failed, his giant ego has been taken down a notch, and Rahm and Da Mayor and Senator Burris all look like the bunch of corrupt, pathetic hacks that they are. That's worth something. In addition, the taxpayers of Chicago will be spared the expense of hosting an Olympics, with all the white elephant stadiums and venues left over afterwards.

But darn, I really wish I hadn't gone to confession already today, because this post is so horribly uncharitable that I feel the need to go back.

In the meantime, here's another song to celebrate Rio getting the Olympics:

A Letter from The Honorable Herb Kohl

I'd called his office to register my disapproval of the Cash for Clunkers program. Yesterday, I received a reply from him that can only be described as inane, unless you describe it as pathetic, unless you describe it as delusional.

Yes, actually, delusional is the word I want.

For example, The Honorable Senator said that the Cash for Clunkers program was an "overwhelming success."

Sure, if by "success" you mean destruction of a country's assets and wealth (700,000 usable, working vehicles were destroyed), and if you mean the artificial pulling forward of demand (vehicle sales are plummeting), and if you mean a complete waste of $3 billion of taxpayer money (rather than saving on fuel, the program will lead to the burning of more gasoline during the first few years of new car ownership).

If that's not enough, the program enticed a whole lot of Americans to turn in a car which they most likely owned free and clear to buy a new car with expensive monthly payments they very likely can't afford. Probably not the greatest idea during a severe recession with high unemployment and lots of other jobs on the line, not to mention that Americans are saddled with nearly a trillion dollars in revolving consumer debt (not including mortgages).

Oh, and once again our federal government showed its complete obliviousness to the "Forgotten Man": They took money from Group A (we the taxpayers, an ever-shrinking group) to give to Group B (the auto dealers who got the $4500 per car and had increased sales for a few weeks), in order to benefit Group C (the people who got the new fuel-efficient car to theoretically save a little bit on their gas expenses). We, the taxpayers, are the Forgotten Man in this scam.

As this article puts it:

[Cash for Clunkers] took $2.8 billion from the general roster of 300 million citizens and handed it tax-free to a small group of 700,000 citizens.

Topping it off, this tax-free benefit was only available to those who had not already bought a fuel-efficient car, thus rewarding people who didn't do "the right thing" in the past.

Nice job, Senator Kohl and President Obama. Once again you prove that you have no idea what you're doing and will most definitely bring this country to ruin.

Unmask the man

The following was written by my nephew, a sophomore in college, after he heard the aunts and uncles talking politics this weekend:

So I Googled Gadaffi because you guys were talking about how he's a big supporter of Obama and this is what I found:

Gaddafi based his new regime on a blend of Arab nationalism, aspects of the welfare state, and what Gaddafi termed "direct, popular democracy". He called this system "Islamic socialism", and, while he permitted private control over small companies, the government controlled the larger ones. Welfare, "liberation", and education were emphasized. He also imposed a system of Islamic morals, outlawing alcohol and gambling. Like previous revolutionary figures of the 20th century such as Mao and his Little Red Book, Gaddafi outlined his political philosophy in his "Green Book" to reinforce the ideals of this socialist-Islamic state and published in three volumes between 1975 and 1979.

So don't be surprised if Obama comes out with a "Little Blue Book" soon. Just thought it was interesting... ADIOS!

As was said in the post below, Obama needs to be unmasked as soon as possible, before he does so much damage that we'll never be able to recover.

"Unmask the man"

I absolutely agree with this Hillsdale College professor (h/t Instapundit).

If we are to comprehend what is going on, we must pay close attention not only to what Obama says but to what he conveys in other ways. His tone is nearly always moderate but what he hints at and what he intimates by way of body language often convey the opposite. Witness his warm embrace of Hugo Chavez. Behind the thin veneer of politeness, there is, I suspect, something ugly lurking. In the first of the autobiographies that he claims to have written, Barack Obama frequently speaks of himself as being in the grips of rage. We would do well to take him at his word. If we are to stop him from doing great damage to this country and to our friends and allies, we must take every opportunity that comes our way to unmask the man.

Go, read it all.

A July dinner

Today, browsing through drafts of posts that I just never got around to publishing, I found this one about the dinner we had on July 24th. Yes, it was so good that it deserved a post of its own. To wit:

• Grilled salmon fillets basted with honey-mustard-dill, garnished with fresh dill from the herb garden;
• Fresh cubed cantaloupe;
• Steamed asparagus with butter and lemon-pepper;
• My famous coleslaw made with cabbage from the garden (yes, those cute little cabbages in the photo above).

I need to remind myself of those awesome dinners once in awhile, because most days, I fall into a culinary rut.

That's it. Just thought y'all might want to know. :)

Today's March in DC

Estimates are that literally hundreds of thousands gathered today for the Tea Party in DC; the Daily Mail says up to two million. As saith the Instapundit, even at half that, it's huge, and impressive.

And of course, mainstream media -- the drive-bys, Obamedia, whatever you want to call 'em -- they'll ignore it. Completely.

Bless their hearts.

And I mean that in the most Southern way.

And now - I have to share a few things, for those few dear friends and relatives who stop by here (I know who you are, and I love it that you take the time to drop by to see if I've posted anything.)

• We've been making fresh salsa for the last month, ever since we bought one of these awesome gadgets at the State Fair. We've been using our own garden tomatoes, red onion, a little jalapeno or serrano, a glove of garlic, some cilantro and lime juice. Oh my gosh, it's good stuff. How will we ever go back to store-bought salsa?
• We've had a kid eruption in the neighborhood. Suddenly, this summer, about a dozen or more kids came out of the woodwork. Finally, after all these years, my kids were spending all day outside, coming in for dinner, and begging to go back out again until dark -- just like the old days of my husband's childhood. They rode bikes, played on the swing set, played tag. At night they played ghosts-in-the-graveyard and some new game called Bloody Murder. (Lovely, I know. But harmless.) Where'd they all come from? Well, some news kids moved in, and some of the already-here kids grew up just enough to join the gang. It's been fantastic.
• This was my summer of organizing. Every single room, including the garage and every closet, was taken apart, cleaned, decluttered, and re-organized. It is truly a thing of beauty. Unfortunately, it probably won't be a joy forever, as things always tend toward disorder. Especially with six people in the house.
  

Now, back to relaxing on the patio. We polished off the salsa; the youngest two are on the swing set; the husband and I are enjoying a cocktail while listening to the White Sox game. Life is good.

UPDATE: Just found this photo set at National Review... fanfastic! Oh, and one last comment: I saw a report on CNN today, after the rally, and noticed how completely clean the site was. No trash, no litter ... unlike after every single lefty protest, anywhere, anytime. Hmmm.

Eight years later

Hard to believe it's really been eight years. This morning I went down to the basement and dug out the old Chicago Tribunes we saved from September 2001; we had a little review of modern history around breakfast table. The kids were all so young then that they really don't remember too much about it. Interestingly, the Anchoress says that most young people don't really want to dwell on it; that's understandable.

I still remember the shock, fear, and deep sorrow I felt that morning. I also remember how I tried to protect the kids from the worst of it by having the TV off during our school morning, but running upstairs to check a different TV every so often. A second plane hit; then a tower fell; then a third plane hit the Pentagon; then rumors of more planes flying toward targets. Then, Flight 93 crashing into Pennsylvania ground. Even now, I'm not sure I have the chronology right; it's a blur of terror and shock. I know the north tower was hit first, but the south tower fell first; there were a few things I committed to memory because I wanted to always remember some specific, hard, facts about the day.

The uncertainty was terrible: how bad would this be? What more was planned? How many would die, and when would this attack end? I thought about a good friend who was a flight attendant for United; she was flying that day, as it turned out, and ended up being grounded on the east coast for several days, until they finally started flying planes again.

I still remember the heroes of Flight 93: I vowed never to forget their names. Todd Beamer. Jeremy Glick. Thomas Burnett. Mark Bingham. Here's a site with a timeline of the revolt by the passengers as they bravely stopped the hijackers from crashing the jet into the White House or Congress.

And tonight, I found this site with a story I've only just begun to read; it's hard to remember everything that happened that day, but at the same time, it's so very important to remember.

About Ted Kennedy

(Note: I drafted this post on August 30th, but didn't get around to publishing it till now. Maybe it's just as well, since President Obama once again reverenced the late Senator Kennedy in his speech last night. We cannot forget what this says about us.)

Mark Steyn said it all so well.

Like Steyn, I also have been thinking: what kind of nation reveres a man who did what Ted Kennedy did in 1969? What kind of state would elect and re-elect, over and over again, a man who was capable of doing what Ted Kennedy did to Mary Jo Kopechne?

Not to mention what he did to his first wife, Joan. Her life was ruined by Ted Kennedy just as surely as was Mary Jo Kopechne's, though obviously in a very different way. According to reports, Joan began drinking heavily after Teddy started womanizing, which he did, brazenly, publicly, and incessantly, for all their married life. She quickly descended into full-blown alcoholism, and is now brain-addled, permanently disabled, from the years of drinking. It's a heart-breaking story.

I spent a lot of time on my knees yesterday; my original intent was just to wash the kitchen floor, but I did end up using that time to pray a lot as well. I prayed for Joan Kennedy. I prayed for all the victims of abortion who lost their lives in part because Kennedy, vocally and fervently, pushed for the "right" for women to kill their unborn children. I prayed for Mary Jo. Those last minutes - hours? -- are too horrible to think about.

But more horrible, perhaps, is that this country allowed Ted Kennedy to get away with it, that he was considered a "great" man, that he was given a huge, public, Catholic funeral.

This says terrible things about us. Yes, I hope God was merciful to Kennedy; we all are obligated to pray that everyone is forgiven. And yes, I will pray for him. But I also will pray for his many victims -- and for all of us.

The Honorable Herb Kohl and me

Last Wednesday, a friend and I exercised our First Amendment rights: we peacefully assembled outside the Marquette University law school where Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI) was scheduled to speak on health care.

We stood on the public sidewalk with a few homemade pro-life signs as people walked by; many said, "Good for you!", or "I'm with you" as they passed. Most just averted their eyes or ignored us.

Including the illustrious senator himself. The Honorable Herb Kohl walked right past us on the sidewalk -- not three feet in front of me -- and when I recognized him, I called out in a friendly (and somewhat surprised) voice, "Senator Kohl!"

I thought maybe he'd turn, perhaps wave, acknowledge our presence, maybe see our signs, and perhaps even spare 10 seconds for me to say, "Please don't support any health care bill that covers abortion with public money."

But no.

He and his entourage kept on walking.

So, I called out again, "Senator Kohl!" He was only about 10 feet away but, amazingly, he and all his party just couldn't seem to hear me.

Finally, as he was about 15 feet away, ready to walk into the building, I called out one last time, "Senator Kohl!" He continued to ignore me. So as he stepped inside, I called out, "We the people!"

Now, I have to laugh at myself ("We the people"?!?) but I was just trying to express my utter frustration at his elitist behavior and his boorish refusal to acknowledge the existence of a few of his constituents, who'd taken time from their busy days to show up where he was speaking.

Imagine the irony: during the talk inside the law school, the Honorable Senator lectured the audience on the need for civility in our debates.

Imagine that. The oh-so-Honorable Herb Kohl, telling people to be civil, when he couldn't even be bothered to respond to a citizen who recognized him and greeted him on a public sidewalk.

It is most definitely time to throw the bums out.

Sorry if that's not civil enough for you, Senator Kohl.

Another great townhall meeting

Had I more time this morning, I'd update this blog with my latest political activities... but alas, we are having company over this evening, I had the carpets steam cleaned yesterday so I have to move everything back into place, then do some cleaning, hit the farmers market, go to the post office, do the grocery shopping, do the laundry, and start cooking. A little busy.

One of these days, I will update this blog, if for no other reason than that a promise is hanging over my head. After the election, one of my best friends and I talked about "what do we do now?" I said I'd think it over and post something.

Well, I thought it over, and I've been doing a whole bunch of things... and I know she is, too... but I haven't had any time to blog about it.

One of these days...

I love my fellow Americans!

I am thrilled everytime I watch these videos. And when I say "these", I don't mean just the ones at the link; I mean all of the townhall videos, from all across the country.

I'm so, so happy to know that my fellow Americans are not being fooled by our radical President and his plans to overthrow our system of government; they are not going to be bamboozled by a complicit press into accepting the nightmarish bills being shoved through our Congress.

We're witnessing the growing strength of a proud resistance movement. I've been in it for awhile now.

Are you?

Another one of those "still alive" posts

If you stop by here once in awhile, you already know I'm still alive because you've seen the tweets that show up on the right sidebar.

No tweeting today, however, as it's been shut down by some kind of hack attack.

The AP article at the above link sneers that Twitter is used for "tweeting about lunch plans, the weather or the fact that Twitter is down."

Perhaps. But if they were paying attention, they might have noticed that Twitter becamse a vital link for information coming out of Iran during the early days of the protests there, and is currently a potent source of truth about the Obamacare bills in Congress as well the other horrors coming out of this administration.

So I'm a little lost without Twitter right now. I was going to tweet about how I called Senator Kohl's office this morning to ask him, again, when he's going to be meeting with the citizens of Wisconsin during the recess ("those plans haven't been finalized yet", according to his Milwaukee office), and to urge him to please vote "no" on the extended Cash for Clunkers fiasco.

That bit of news will have to go untweeted.

But now YOU know, anyway.

And by the way, have you called your Senators today? Or your Congressman? We have to keep the pressure on, so that they know we are not going to tolerate our nation becoming a socialist state.

When you call, be sure to let them know that you are not being paid to call, or to show up at townhall meetings, and that you don't work for the health insurance industry or some evil right-wing organization. (Assuming, that is, that you don't!) Let them know that Nancy Pelosi in 100% wrong in thinking that our protest is astroturf.

By the way -- a little bit of irony -- I'm typing this post using the guest wireless available at my Dad's dentist's office, courtesy of Pro Health Care.

But that still doesn't make me a member of the medical health insurance lobby: just someone who's grateful for the free wireless made available to me today.