Here’s the only video I’ve seen so far. 

I heard that union members got there around 3pm then the constituents were allowed (wonder if those union members were constituents as well).  Howard Dean was supposed to speak as well.  All I saw were the super duper lines outside, which made me proud to know that so many people came out to voice their opinion, whatever it may be.  Would love to hear your thoughts, experiences or related links.

Update:  Thank you for the first-hand reports coming in from those who attended.  Please keep them coming!  The news outlets are now reporting on the town hall:
Washington Post
MyFox5 (includes videos)
Washington Examiner (reports that it “Descended into Chaos”)
ABC News 7 (Very meager reporting here!  Step up ABC!)

Here are some “Tweeters”:
Jim Geraghty

Meanwhile Wolf will have a Town “Call” meeting (which I think is pretty lame, but pretty much in line with most VA Republicans).

Taiwan is a no-show at Miss Universe Pageant.

…in Brazil as the WSJ reports.  Looks like the support could top $10B.  Maybe it is part of the stimulus package.  Drilling is bad here, but fine there?  I thought that if it’s bad, then it’s bad.  I guess I should use the same logic regarding torture:  bad here, but fine if we look the other way if our enemies are tortured as other-than-US facilities.

AARP has confidence in our government; so, you should, too!  Their site attempts to promote the reform by identifying Myths vs. Facts, providing a few facts for every myth.  They basically parrot what our politicians are telling us.  Why don’t I have the warm and fuzzies?  Here is the first myth:

AARP:  “Myth 1:  Health care reform is socialized medicine.”
Me:  Depends on how the bill is written.  Shall we address the bill?
AARP:  Truth:  Health care reform will preserve employer provided coverage.
Me:  So, if the employers are offering its employees govt-provided coverage (single payer), how is this not socialized medicine?  The recently proposed bill limits the ability of insurance providers to compete (how can they compete with the govt?).
AARP:  Truth:  Public option would allow for greater choice and force competition.
Me:  Who wants to compete with the govt? Who can compete with the government?  I cannot run my business $1 Trillion dollars in the red, but my govt is chugging along with that debt or greater (depending on which set of books you look at).  As insurance companies slowly go out of business, competition slows and prices go up.
AARP:  Truth:  “Every proposal that Congress is considering would allow people to choose their own doctors and hospitals.”
Me:  Ok, but will those doctors be able to choose, in their expert opion, the right care when it is appropriate?  How will the current bill affect my doctor’s choice of how to treat me and when.  As it is now, doctors are scared of being sued and therefore scared of not treated/testing for every possible scenario.

I’ll have to find the latest version that the House Committee approved and test these Myth/Truth ascertains.  More myths to come.  Anyone out there with some insight?  Any AARP members who will be non-member in the near future?

By now, many of us have seen the youtube video or read the Drudge Report headline “SHOCK UNCOVERED: Obama IN HIS OWN WORDS saying His Health Care Plan will ELIMINATE private insurance.”  The White House has responded with their own video saying that the video was basically a mishmosh of Obama’s words taken out of context (Let them be clear!).  Since those news people online seem to do better investigative reporting that other new outlines that will remain un-named, you may see the unaltered version of Obama message here.

It’s pretty clear that what the White House is saying is not the same as its intentions.  Who should be upset about all of this?  Should it be those who feel that insurance companies, while not perfect, should continue to exist and compete against each other (and not the government) for customers?  Or should it be those who feel that single-payer (Govt paid) insurance is where we need to be?

Looks like Cal-eee-forn-eee-a is pushing to legalize pot to shore up their budget shortfall.  Wonder when this is going to go national?  There are a lot of things that we can pay for with tax revenue from pot:

1. Health Care for Everyone (in the form of pot)
2. Greener Everything (what kind of carbon footprint does pot have?)
3. Education for all…everyone can have a PhD!
4. Everyone has a home, cell phone, Internet access, car, wii and Pop Tarts

Once it’s nationally legalized, can I get farm subsidies to grow it?  I think I could get one for being a really bad farmer…hmmmm.

I haven’t read too much on it, but wasn’t Prohibition repealed in 1933 when federal government was trying to save the economy?  Just thinking…if pot doesn’t work, we can just name off the vice that we’ll legalize for the revenue…what a wonderful government we’ll have with an endless revenue stream!  All our problems will be solved!  Woo hoo.  Can’t wait.

Read this article about a new Russia-Nigerian gas company named (I kid you not!) Nigaz.

Other marketing blunders (I’m sure there are several others):

• Nova (a Chevy) means “does not go” in Spanish
• Vista (Microsoft) means “frumpy woman” in the country of Latvia
• Irish Mist (alcoholic drink), Mist Stick (curling iron from Clairol), and Silver Mist (Rolls Royce)—Mist means dung/manure in German
• Zyklon Sneakers (Umbro)—Zyklon was name of gas used by Nazi regime to murder Jews in concentration camps
• • Honda Fitta (car)—Fitta is an old, vulgar word for women’s genitals in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish

And the snickers and laughter heard round the world.

Find out how your representatives voted here (you shall know their names) and here is what they voted for (HR2454). 

For: 219
Democrat: 211
Republican:  8

Against: 212
Democrat:  44
Republican:  168

Which Republicans sold you out:
Reichert-Washington
Bono-California
Castle-Delaware
Kirk-Illinois
Lance-New Jersey
LoBiondo-New Jersey
McHugh-New York
Smith-New Jersey

And let’s not forget the sane Democrats who voted against the bill:
Altmire-Pennsylvania
Arcuri-New York
Barrow-Georgia
Berry-Arkansas
Boren-Oklahoma
Bright-Alabama
Carney-Pennsylvania
Childers-Mississippi
Costa-California
Costello-Illinois
Dahlkemper-Pennsylvania
Davis-Alabama
Davis-Tennessee
DeFazio-Oregon
Donnelly-Indiana
Edwards-Texas
Ellsworth-Indiana
Foster-Illinois
Griffith-Alabama
Herseth Sandlin-South Dakota
Holden-Pennsylvania
Kirkpatrick-Arizona
Kissell-North Carolina
Kucinich-Ohio
Marshall-Georgia
Massa-New York
Matheson-Utah
McIntyre-North Carolina
Melancon-Louisiana
Minnick-Idaho (I da ho, you da ho…sorry, couldn’t help myself)
Mitchell-Arizona
Mollohan-West Virginia
Ortiz-Texas
Pomeroy-North Dakota
Rahall-West Virginia
Rodriguez-Texas
Ross-Arkansas
Salazar-Colorado
Stark-California
Tanner-Tennessee
Taylor-Mississippi
Visclosky-Indiana
Wilson-Ohio

Now that it goes to the Senate, if you haven’t already contact them, get to it.

New York Times reports on a Veteran Affiars hospital that had over 79% error rate for one type of prostate cancer treatment.  That is, the hospiatl botched the treatment 92 in 116 tries.  In addition to the botched treatments…

“The team continued implants for a year even though the equipment that measured whether patients received the proper radiation dose was broken. The radiation safety committee at the Veterans Affairs hospital knew of this problem but took no action, records show.”

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (who I understand is THE authority for radiation treatment) was one agency who was supposed to oversee the radiation treatments.  Maybe the government can set up a new agency to protect us from itself.

Obama gave a speech today touting a “new beginning” (I don’t even want to know what that means) to the Muslim World.  It was, as usual, a great speech.  Understanding.  Mutual respect.  Freedom of religion.  Women’s rights.  Good stuff.  I was fine until this part: “Summit on Entrepreneurship.”  That’s where my eyeballs started to bleed. I began to wonder why Obama is such a fan of Entrepreneurship in the Muslim world.  Maybe he believes it’s a uniquely Muslim phenomenon.

Make no mistake.  The Government has staged a hostile takeover of three major facets of our nation’s economy:

First, our financial sector is already firmly in Government’s hands.

Second, our manufacturing and energy sector is on its way.  How?  Let me connect the dots:

• Government Bails out GM and Chrysler.–CHECK
• Government asks GM CEO (employee of GM for 30 years) to step down.–CHECK
• Government converts its GM and Chrysler assets into Preferred Stock (which means it has voting rights…it didn’t have to do that, it could have just issued bonds)–CHECK
• Government owns over half the voting rights of GM and Chrysler–CHECK
• THEN the Government send them into Bankruptcy (couldn’t have done that BEFORE owning them, that would be CRAZY).
• Government creates a brand new division of GM to build little munchkin cars that noone (currently) wants to buy.–CHECK
• Government Motors then decides to spin off Hummer, the most gas-guzzling of the gas guzzling cars to another company–in China–for a profit–CHECK.
• Government then begins pushing HARD an “energy” plan which would (by Obama’s own admission) drive gas prices WAY up–COMING SOON
• The people of the United States like good citizens are then encouraged even more (through EXTRA tax incentives on top of the ones that are already in place) to buy the little piece of junk munchkin cars–call it “The People’s Car”–because they can’t afford a gallon of fricking gasoline–GOD HELP US ALL.

Result? Federal Government has taken over the energy industry and a huge chunk of the manufacturing sector–which narrows down further the ability for anyone to compete with the Government, therefore ENTREPRENEURSHIP in the energy and manufacturing sector goes away.  Noone can find a decent job that doesn’t involve dealing with the Federal Government.  And guess what…at the Government’s OWN admission, carbon emissions planet-wide doesn’t go down ONE BIT for decades…DECADES.

Next is Health Care:

• Government spends $19 billion on creating a system where doctors (many who are entrepreneurs) are bribed into putting their patients’ medical information on a DHHS managed database.–CHECK
• Government creates a “Nationwide Exchange” where people can compare plans…all of which will be forced to accept pre-existing conditions without exclusions.
• The private plans on the “Exchange” become too expensive, because (as happened in NY and other states) guaranteed issue results in noone buying insurance until they desperately need it…for a “pre-existing” condition.
• Government steps in to fix this “crisis” by creating a “Public Option” where tax-subsidized plan options are made available to compete with private plans…Those who can’t afford it are given a “hardship exemption” so they get it for free. (OH, and by they way, now it’s against the law NOT to get ANY coverage)
• Doctors (small business owners) who have stopped accepting coverage from Medicare and Medicaid will now be forced by law to do so, along with accepting “Public Option” patients.
• Finally, it becomes against the law to pay cash for medical treatment, because the DHHS can’t control it, so for “safety reasons” all transactions will be made through Government insurance coverage or maybe one or two (”bailed out”) insurance companies who will provide benefits to a few Government-owned companies in the Financial, Manufacturing, or Energy/Utilities sectors.

The result? The Federal Government has destroyed any aspect of Entrepreneurship in the Health Care sector and instead has full operational and informational control over your health care through the handy dandy DHHS database.  So whether you’re covered by a DHHS “public option” or benefits through a company (which will likely be owned by the Federal Government), your health care will be finely controlled by Bureaucrats in the Department of Labor and the DHHS.

Why am I telling you all of this?  What can we do?  They ignored us on the Financial sector, they’ve been ignoring and are continuing to ignore us on Manufacturing and Energy.  They will ignore us on Health Care as well.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that the only option left is for 37 states to call for another Constitutional Convention to create an amendment to clarify the tenth one.

But if that seems to extreme, at least understand this.  If we don’t act locally, starting RIGHT NOW…

Next is housing and education.  Then it’s all over…