Old Yeller

If you haven't yet read Bob Cesca's piece about the hypocrisy of senior citizens railing against government health care, you should:

I don't claim to know the full stories behind the variety of senior citizens who have been recruited to disrupt these town halls, but one thing is clear. They're participating in a corporate lobbyist-driven campaign to prevent the rest of us from acquiring the same affordable, reliable public health care they enjoy. In other words, their government-run health care is excellent. So excellent that it can't be shared. And they're so intensely motivated in this selfishness that they're volunteering their time to infiltrate town hall meetings and loudly ambush public officials at the request of lobbyists who are very simply lying to and exploiting them.

It's on HuffPo here.

Call to Arms

Richard's got a strong new blog post up at HuffPo:

History buffs will recognize The Guns of August as Barbara Tuchman's classic history of World War I. The reference works now because August 2009 just opened with trench warfare on health care reform. Unfortunately, the right-wing mob is seeing some early superficial success. We need to enter the battlefield immediately to defend the President's top priority, providing a guarantee of good, affordable health care to all this year. This is a call to arms for the army of activists who powered President Obama to the White House.

Read the whole thing here.

Maddening

About 1000 people turned out for a rally in Chicago yesterday in support of health care reform. 2 dozen showed up with signs, stood off to the side, and shouted against. Is that the story you get from this report? Me neither.

 

Here are some photos from the rally. For reform:







Against reform:





Even mix? Not even close.

Funny Morning Photo

Sorry I skipped posting yesterday. Hopefully, a little AM chuckle will help you forgive me. Just snapped this shot on the walk home from the gym:



Is this the best solution for a bad car smell? Really?

Mad Me

Well, here's something fun. AMC let's you make your own Mad Men avatar. It's a fitting distraction considering I watched 5 episodes of Season 2 this weekend and am planning to try and finish in time for Season 3's debut on the 16th.

Meanwhile, this is the full scene I created online. That's supposed to me - the blond drinking the martini at work. (I know. It looks nothing like me, and it's missing a nose. Humor me.)

Kind Of Awesome

Look who just requested to follow me on Twitter:



Maybe I can teach him how to spell.

Gearing Up

Happy Monday. Here's what's on tap so far.

An opinion piece in the NY Daily News today suggests the Obama team start taking advantage of Wendell Potter:

Everyone is familiar with the street adage that one should not take a knife to a gunfight. They have probably even heard it way down in Washington, where the truth is hard to hear and even harder to see.

I would suggest that President Obama and his crew need to take that attitude into the health care battle with the Republicans. It is high time for the Dems to realize that you hunt elephants with elephant guns, not fly swatters.

(...)

The best ammunition for the elephant gun I have seen so far is Wendell Potter, who spent 20 years working up in the command towers for the health industry. While an executive employee of two health care behemoths, Cigna and Humana, Potter learned well how to bean-ball the truth whenever it came to the plate.

Potter has already been interviewed by Howard Dean on MSNBC and by Bill Moyers on PBS. He also has testified before Congress. But his has not yet become the household name that it should be. Obama and his crew should change that.

I agree. Now's the time to give it everything you've got. Opponents are going to be out all month in full force. Just take a look at what happened in Philly over the weekend:

When Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius and Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) came to the National Constitution Center to answer questions about health care reform, they were greeted by an overflow crowd of approximately 400 people, the majority of whom were supporters with legitimate questions.

Unfortunately, though, a well-organized, belligerent and loud group of right-wingers stood in the aisles and across the back and disrupted the town meeting throughout. They yelled, shouted and jeered, and it was clear that they were not there to participate, but instead to try to disrupt the meeting and make it difficult as possible for anyone else to ask questions.

Republicans and guys like Rick Scott are lying about reform to protect their own political or economic interests, and they are using fear and hate and scare tactics to rile up the fringe. We just have to hope Members of Congress are smart enough and tough enough to recognize the stunts for what they are and power through undaunted.