From the Contra Costa Times.

Barack Obama

In 2007, the United States spent a total of $2.2 trillion on health care.  Of that $2.2 trillion, insurance company profits accounted for $13 billion.  That amounts to less than 1% of total health care spending.

Real reform would deal with the issue of why health costs are rising.  Clearly, from the figure above,  it isn’t because of health insurance profits.  Insurance rates are a reflection of the underlying costs of what is being insured.  I guarantee if I approached Lloyd’s of London and wanted insurance against a Martian invasion the policy would be pretty cheap.

No doubt about it, health insurance reform for the Democrats is about power.  Mr. Obama said during the campaign that he would “fundamentally remake” the United States of America.  I don’t think he was kidding.  Americans better realize what Mr. Obama’s end game actually is, and fast.  Hint.  It is not laissez-faire government.

Factcheck.org did a powerful analysis of the health care lie last June.  It is a great read, a fact versus fiction assessment that needs to be shouted from the rooftops as soon as possible.

“Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it. And this is mainstream media, who should — truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.”

Look for a retraction or an expansion of Mr. Penn’s remarks in coming days.  It would be hard to believe that Mr. Penn actually wants American journalists in jail for calling Hugo Chavez a dictator, but who knows?

Sean Penn is a big fan of Hugo Chavez.  Mr. Chavez rules his country with an iron fist.  Mr. Chavez plans on never leaving office.  Dissenters are routinely punished in the oil-rich South American country.  Sounds like a dictator to me.

Just as the health care drama in the capitol reaches a grand finale, congressional officials are warning employees to avoid the DRUDGE REPORT!

The Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works issued an urgent email late Monday claiming the DRUDGE REPORT is ‘responsible for the many viruses popping up throughout the Senate.’

The committee ordered hill staff: ‘Try to avoid’ the DRUDGE REPORT ‘for now’.

On Monday DRUDGE served over 29 million pages with NOT ONE email complaint received about ‘pop ups’, or the site serving ‘viruses’.

The site was seen 149,967 times since March 1st from users at senate.gov and 244,347 times at house.gov. [10,825 visits from the White House, eop.gov]

The Systems Administrator may want to continue taking her antibiotic until the prescription runs out.

Developing…

The Eric Massa story continues.

The story starts last week, when Massa, (D-NY) a freshman Congressman, was implicated in a potential sex scandal.  It came to light that he may have made inappropriate advances towards a male staffer.  A few days later, Massa came out with a statement saying that he would resign on the following Monday.  That yes, he uses extremely foul language in his inner office, and that the blame lies with him about it.

But now, a new story.  However, it’s a same old story.  Massa is a “no” vote on Forced Universal Health Care.  He has been in the past, and he continues to be now. The Obama Administration has already stated, in all sorts of language, that they will do whatever it takes to pass their Statist agenda.  Now, Massa is saying that the administration is behind this story – that the supposed “inappropriate advance” is total nonsense, and that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) is guilty of leaking the story, and perpetuating the myth.

Massa claims that it is not a string of incidents, but rather an incident.  One.  At a wedding of a Massa staffer on New Years Eve, and (my words) of guys being goofs. Massa’s wife was not feeling well, and they both left the wedding to go back to the hotel room.  Massa then comes back to the party to sing “Auld Lang Syne.”  He dances with the bride, with a bridesmaid and then joins a table of staffers – all men, and all single (except for Massa.)  One of the staffers turns to Massa, and jokes that Massa should make his move on the bridesmaid.  Massa then, according to his account, “…grabbed the staff member sitting next to me and I said, ‘What I really ought to be doing is frakking you,’ and then tossled the guy’s hair and left, went to my room, because I knew the party was getting to a point where I shouldn’t be there.”

Massa went on a radio station to explain this story:

Stories are now coming out regarding run-ins with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, including in the gym showers.  Massa is clear in his most recent statements – the Obama Administration has launched this probe, and has made it public (and leaked it!) in order to force him out of Congress because he is voting no on their Statist prize – Forced Universal Health Care.

Where is the truth?  What is the fiction?  What can be believed?  Why is it happening?

Massa, one would think, has a long way to go in proving any legitimacy in this claim.  He already came out last week and announced that he would be resigning. He mentioned some health issues (a recurrence of cancer.)  He already admitted that he owns this reality.  There is a very open and shut case that can be told about Massa.  This latest outburst could be spun as the last gasps of a dying man.  An angry, bitter, defeated and somewhat out of control man.

But the story is too close to the reality we already know about.  The Administration will stop at nothing to pass Healthcare.  Rahm Emanuel is known as a pit bull, with a history of obscenity-laden tirades and a remarkably gruff style (even President Obama has joked about Emanuel’s profanity.)  It seems to be well within the realm of possibilities that Massa has been hung out to dry by the Administration.  That Rep. Hoyer did leak the probe before it was concluded.  That there is a concentrated effort to get rid of him, so that his vote can not stop the House from passing any convoluted version of Forced Universal Healthcare they wish.

The Statist agenda fits this story.  Nothing can get in the way of their desired goals. The ends always justifies the means.  The possible ruiniation of a man’s career is small potatoes, especially when you consider that the administration is willing to destroy Capitalism to provide less effective health insurance to people who are already have the health insurance of their choice (all in the guise of helping others,) and throw others in jail if they don’t buy health insurance.

Massa is now reconsidering his resignation.  If he does stay in the House, one has to wonder if he will reconsider the “D” after his name, as well.

So they lose the 2010 election. They know that the governmentalization of health care is the fastest way to a permanent left-of-center political culture.

So there was President Obama, giving his bazillionth speech on health care, droning yet again that “now is the hour when we must seize the moment,” the same moment he’s been seizing every day of the week for the past year, only this time his genius photo-op guys thought it would look good to have him surrounded by men in white coats.

Why is he doing this? Why let “health” “care” “reform” stagger on like the rotting husk in a low-grade creature feature who refuses to stay dead no matter how many stakes you pound through his chest?

Because it’s worth it. Big time. I’ve been saying in this space for two years that the governmentalization of health care is the fastest way to a permanent left-of-center political culture. It redefines the relationship between the citizen and the state in fundamental ways that make limited government all but impossible. In most of the rest of the Western world, there are still nominally “conservative” parties, and they even win elections occasionally, but not to any great effect (Let’s not forget that Jacques Chirac was, in French terms, a “conservative”).

The result is a kind of two-party one-party state: Right-of-center parties will once in a while be in office, but never in power, merely presiding over vast left-wing bureaucracies that cruise on regardless.

Republicans seem to have difficulty grasping this basic dynamic. Less than three months ago, they were stunned at the way the Democrats managed to get 60 senators to vote for the health bill. Then Scott Brown took them back down to 59, and Republicans were again stunned to find the Dems talking about ramming this thing into law through the parliamentary device of “reconciliation.” And, when polls showed an ever larger number of Americans ever more opposed to Obamacare (by margins approaching three-to-one), Republicans were further stunned to discover that, in order to advance “reconciliation,” Democrat reconsiglieres had apparently been offering (illegally) various cosy Big Government sinecures to swing-state congressmen in order to induce them to climb into the cockpit for the kamikaze raid to push the bill through. The Democrats understand that politics is not just about Tuesday evenings every other November, but about everything else, too.

A year or two back, when the Canadian Islamic Congress attempted to criminalize my writing north of the border by taking me to the Canadian “Human Rights” Commission, a number of outraged American readers wrote to me, saying, “You need to start kicking up a fuss about this, Steyn, and then maybe Canadians will get mad and elect a conservative government that will end this nonsense.”

Makes perfect sense. Except that Canada already has a Conservative government under a Conservative prime minister, and the very head of the “human rights” commission investigating me was herself the Conservative appointee of a Conservative minister of justice. Makes no difference.

Once the state swells to a certain size, the people available to fill the ever-expanding number of government jobs will be statists – sometimes hard-core Marxist statists, sometimes social-engineering multiculti statists, sometimes fluffily “compassionate” statists, but always statists. The short history of the post-war welfare state is that you don’t need a president-for-life if you’ve got a bureaucracy-for-life: The people can elect “conservatives,” as the Germans have done and the British are about to do, and the Left is mostly relaxed about it because, in all but exceptional cases (Thatcher), they fulfill the same function in the system as the first-year boys at wintry English boarding schools who, for tuppence-ha’penny or some such, would agree to go and warm the seat in the unheated lavatories until the prefects strolled in and took their rightful place.

Republicans are good at keeping the seat warm. A bigtime GOP consultant was on TV, crowing that Republicans wanted the Dems to pass Obamacare because it’s so unpopular it will guarantee a GOP sweep in November.

OK, then what? You’ll roll it back – like you’ve rolled back all those other unsustainable entitlements premised on cobwebbed actuarial tables from 80 years ago? Like you’ve undone the federal Department of Education and of Energy and all the other nickel’n'dime novelties of even a universally reviled one-term loser like Jimmy Carter? Andrew McCarthy concluded a shrewd analysis of the political realities thus:

“Health care is a loser for the Left only if the Right has the steel to undo it. The Left is banking on an absence of steel. Why is that a bad bet?”

Indeed. Look at it from the Dems’ point of view. You pass Obamacare. You lose the 2010 election, which gives the GOP co-ownership of an awkward couple of years. And you come back in 2012 to find your health care apparatus is still in place, a fetid behemoth of toxic pustules oozing all over the basement, and, simply through the natural processes of government, already bigger and more expensive and more bureaucratic than it was when you passed it two years earlier. That’s a huge prize, and well worth a midterm timeout.

I’ve been bandying comparisons with Britain and France, but that hardly begins to convey the scale of it. Obamacare represents the government annexation of “one-sixth of the U.S. economy” – i.e., the equivalent of the entire British or French economy, or the entire Indian economy twice over. Nobody has ever attempted this level of centralized planning for an advanced society of 300 million people. Even the control-freaks of the European Union have never tried to impose a unitary “comprehensive” health care system from Galway to Greece. The Soviet Union did, of course, and we know how that worked out.

This “reform” is not about health care, and certainly not about “controlling costs.” As with Medicare, it “controls” costs by declining to acknowledge them, or pay them. Dr. William Schreiber of North Syracuse, N.Y., told CNN that he sees 120 patients per week – about 30 percent on Medicare, 65 private on private insurance plans whose payments take into account the Medicare reimbursement rates, and about 5 percent who do it the old-fashioned way and write a check. He calculates that, under Obamacare, for every $5 he now makes, he’ll get $2 in the future. Which suggests now would be a good time to retrain as a realtor or accountant, or the night clerk at the convenience store. Yet Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., justifies her support for Obamacare this way:

“I even had one constituent – you will not believe this, and I know you won’t, but it’s true – her sister died. This poor woman had no dentures. She wore her dead sister’s teeth.”

Is the problem of second-hand teeth a particular problem in this corner of New York? I haven’t noticed an epidemic of ill-fitting dentures on recent visits to the Empire State. George Washington had wooden teeth, but, presumably, these days the Sierra Club would object to the clear-cutting. Yet, even granting Congresswoman Slaughter the benefit of the doubt, is annexing the equivalent of a G7 economy the solution to what would seem to be the statistically unrepresentative problem of her constituent’s ill-fitting choppers? Is it worth reducing the next generation of Americans to indentured servitude to pay for this poor New Yorker’s dentured servitude?

Yes. Because government health care is not about health care, it’s about government. Once you look at it that way, what the Dems are doing makes perfect sense. For them.

©MARK STEYN

Hewitt is widely considered to be the rational voice on talk radio.  He lives in Southern California with his family.

From HughHewitt.com:

As noted by Senator Jon Kyl in my interview with him on Tuesday, February 23, (transcript here), the future of Medicare and the American health system depends upon votes that will occur in the House in the next few weeks, and we know who the swing votes are who will decide whether it passes or fails.  Some voted “yes” on Obamacare in 2009.  Some voted “no.”

The list below is every key House vote that could be “in play.”  Please call first those Democrats from your state.  Call the switchboard at 202-225-3121, but also call their district offices.

The message should be simple: Vote “no” on Obamacare.  Tell the staff or the voicemail that if the Member votes yes, you will contribute to their 2010 opponent and work in their district to defeat them.

There are two lists.  The so-called “Blue Dogs” who are supposed to be moderate are listed first.

The second list are those Democrats targeted by the ReverseTheVote.org effort by the National Republican Congressional Committee who are not listed among the Blue Dogs. (ReverseTheVote has targeted two dozen Democrats who voted yes for Obamacare in the fall but face difficult re-elections in eight short months. Contributions to ReverseTheVote.org are divided equally among these 24 campaigns.)

Again, start with those Members who are in your state, but then move to the entire list. Start with the Blue Dogs but please also call the Pelosi supporters on the ReverseTheVote.org list who need to understand this vote could decide their fate in November.  When possible, use the name of their likely opponent in your communication to convey that you are indeed informed and ready to work against them on behalf of their opponent.

The Blue Dogs:

Alabama

Rep. Bobby Bright – 2^nd District

DC Phone: (202) 225-2901

District Phone: Dothan (334) 794-9680; Montgomery (334) 277-9113; Opp (334) 493-9253

Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/bright/contact-form.shtml

Rep. Parker Griffith – 5^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-4801

District Phone: Huntsville (256) 551-0190; Decatur (256) 355-9400; Shoals (256) 381-3450

Link to E-mail: http://griffith.house.gov/?sectionid=7&sectiontree=4,7

Arkansas

Rep. Marion Berry – 1^st District

DC Phone: (202) 225-4076

District Phone: Jonesboro (870) 972-4600; Cabot (501) 843-4955; Mountain Home (870) 425-3510

Link to E-Mail: http://www.house.gov/berry/messageform.html

Rep. Mike Ross – 4^th District

DC Phone: 1-800-223-2220

District Phone: El Dorado (870) 881-0681; Hot Springs (501) 520-5892; Pine Bluff (870) 536-3376; Prescott (870) 887-6787

Link to E-mail: http://ross.house.gov/?sectionid=77&sectiontree=76,77
Arizona

Rep. Harry Mitchell – 5^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-2190

District Phone: (480) 946-2411

Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/mitchell/webforms/issue_subscribe.htm

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords – 8^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-2542

District Phone: Tucson (520) 881-3588; Cochise (520) 459-3115

Link to E-mail: https://giffordsforms.house.gov/contact/email.shtml

California

Rep. Mike Thompson – 1^st District

DC Phone: (202) 225-3311

District Phone: Napa (707) 226-9898; Humboldt (707) 269-9595; Mendocino (707) 962-0933; Yolo (530) 662-5272

Link to E-mail: http://mikethompson.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za.pl?/mthompson/contact/email_auth.txt&form=/mthompson/contact/email_form.shtml&pass

Rep. Dennis Cardoza – 18^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-6131

District Phone: Merced (209) 383-4455; (209) 527-1914; Stockton (209) 946-0361

Link to E-mail: https://writerep.house.gov/htbin/wrep_findrep

Rep. Jim Costa – 20^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-9308

District Phone: Fresno (559) 495-1620; Bakersfield (661) 869-1620

Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/formcosta/issue.htm

Rep. Loretta Sanchez – 29^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-2965

District Phone: (714) 621-0102

Link to E-mail: http://www.lorettasanchez.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=218&Itemid=17

Rep. Jane Harman – 36^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225 8220

District Phone: El Segundo (310) 643 3636; Wilmington (310) 549 8282

Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/harman/contact/email.shtml

Rep. Joe Baca – 43^rd District

DC Phone: (202) 225-6161

District Phone: (909) 885-2222

Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/baca/ht_zip_parms.txt&form=/baca/messageform.shtml

Colorado

Rep. John Salazar – 3^rd District

DC Phone: (202) 225-4761

District Phone: Grand Junction (970) 245-7107; Pueblo (719) 543-8200; Durango (970) 259-1012; Alamosa (719) 587-5105

Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/salazar/contact-zip.txt&form=/salazar/contact2.shtml

Florida

Rep. Allen Boyd – 2^nd District

DC Phone: (202) 225-5235

District Phone: Tallahassee (850) 561-3979; Panama City (850) 785-0812

Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/boyd/zip_authen.txt&form=/boyd/contact_email.html&pass

Georgia

Rep. Sanford Bishop – 2^nd District

DC Phone: (202) 225-3631

District Phone: Albany (229) 439-8067; Colombus (706) 320-9477; Thomasville (229) 226-7789

Link to E-mail: http://bishop.house.gov/display.cfm?section_id=13

Rep. Jim Marshall – 3^rd District

DC Phone: (202) 225-6531

District Phone: Macon (478) 464-0255; Dublin (478) 296-2023; Tifton (229) 556-7418

Link to E-mail: https://writerep.house.gov/htbin/wrep_findrep?HIP29329573301.1220.9427

Rep. John Barrow – 12^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-2823

District Phone: Augusta (706) 722-4494; Sandersville (478) 553-9215; Savannah (912) 354-7282

Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/barrow/webforms/issue_subscribe.htm

Rep. David Scott– 13^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-2939

District Phone: Jonesboro (770) 210-5073; Smyrna (770) 432-5405

Link to E-mail: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Iowa

Rep. Leonard Boswell – 3^rd District

DC Phone: (202) 225-3806

District Phone: (515) 282-1909

Link to E-mail: http://boswell.house.gov/?sectionid=81&sectiontree=4,81

Idaho

Rep. Walt Minnick – 1^st District

DC Phone: (202) 225-6611

District Phone: Meridian (208) 888-3188; Lewiston (208) 743-1388; Couer d’Alene (208) 667-0127

Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/minnick/contact-form.shtml

Indiana

Rep. Joe Donnelly – 2^nd District

DC Phone: (202) 225-3915

District Phone: South Bend (574) 288-2780; Logansport (574) 753-2671; La Porte (219) 326-6808; Michigan City (219) 873-1403

Link to E-mail: http://donnelly.house.gov/contact/email.shtml

Rep. Brad Ellsworth – 8^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-4636

District Phone: Evansville (812) 465-6484; Terre Haute (812) 232-0523

Link to E-mail: http://www.ellsworth.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=325&Itemid=

Rep. Baron Hill (Co-Chair for Policy) – 9^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-5315

District Phone: Jeffersonville (812) 288-3999; Bloomington (812)336-3000

Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/baronhill/IMA/issue_subscribe_parm.txt&form=/baronhill/IMA/issue_subscribe_verify.shtml

Kansas

Rep. Dennis Moore – 3^rd District

DC Phone: (202) 225-2865

District Phone: Overland Park (913) 383-2013; Kansas City (913) 621-0832; Lawrence (785) 842-9313

Link to E-mail: http://www.moore.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za.pl?/moore/contact/zip_authen.txt&form=/moore/contact/email.shtml

Kentucky

Rep. Ben Chandler – 6^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-4706

District Phone: (859) 219-1366

Link to E-mail: https://writerep.house.gov/htbin/wrep_findrep?HIP29329573301.26817.5636

Louisiana

Rep. Charlie Melancon (Co-Chair for Communications) – 3^rd District

DC Phone: (202) 225-4031

District Phone: Houma (985) 876-3033; Chalmette (504) 271-1707; Gonzales (225) 621-8490; New Iberia (337) 367-8231

Link to E-mail: http://www.melancon.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=205

Maryland

Rep. Frank Jr. Kratovil – 1^st District

DC Phone: (202) 225-5311

District Phone: Centreville (443) 262 -9136

Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/kratovil/contact-form.shtml

Maine

Rep. Mike Michaud – 2^nd District

DC Phone: (202) 225-2943

District Phone: Bangor (207) 942-6935; Lewiston (207) 782-3704; Presque Isle (207) 764-1036; Waterville (207) 873-5713

Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/michaud/webforms/issue_subscribe.htm

Minnesota

Rep. Collin Peterson – 7^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-2165

District Phone: Detroit Lakes (218) 847-5056; Marshall (507) 537-2299; Montevideo (320) 235-1061; Red Lake Falls (218) 253-4356; Redwood Falls (507) 637-2270; Willmar (320) 235-1061

Link to E-mail: http://collinpeterson.house.gov/zipauth.htm

Mississippi

Rep. Travis Childers – 1^st Districts

DC Phone: (202) 225-4306

District Phone: Tupelo (662) 841-8808; Hernando (662) 449-3090; Colombus (662) 327-0748

Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/childers/webforms/contact_parm.txt&form=/childers/webforms/contact_form.htm

Rep. Gene Taylor – 4^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-5772

District Phone: Bay St. Louis (228) 469-9235; Ocean Springs (228) 872-7950; Hattiesburg (601) 582-3246; Laurel (601) 425-3905

Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/genetaylor/webforms/zipauth.htm

North Carolina

Rep. Mike McIntyre – 7^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-2731

District Phone: Lumberton (910) 735-0610; Fayetteville (910) 323-0260; Wilmington (910) 815-4959; Bolivia (910)-253-0158

Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/mcintyre/issue.shtml

Rep. Heath Shuler (Whip) – 11^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-6401

District Phone: Asheville (828) 252-1651; Murphy (828) 835-4981; Sylva (828) 586-1962

Link to E-mail: http://shuler.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/shuler/ht_zip_parms.txt&form=shuler/messageform.htm

North Dakota

Rep. Earl Pomeroy

DC Phone: (202) 225-2611

District Phone: Bismarck (701) 224-0355; Fargo (701) 235-9760

Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/formpomeroy/ht_zip_parms.txt&form=/formpomeroy/messageform.htm

New York

Rep. Mike Arcuri – 24^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-3665

District Phone: Utica (315) 793-8146/8147; Auburn (315) 252-2777/2778; Cortland (607) 756-2470

Link to E-mail: http://arcuri.house.gov/IMA/issue_subscribe.htm

Ohio

Rep. Charles Wilson – 6^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-5705

District Phone: Canfield (330) 533-7250; Marietta (740) 376-0868; Bridgeport (740) 633-5705; Ironton (740) 533-9423; Wellsville (330) 532-3740

Link to E-mail: http://www.charliewilson.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=139

Rep. Zack Space – 18^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-6265

District Phone: Dover (330) 364-4300; Zanesville (740) 452-6338; Chillicothe (740) 779-1636

Link to E-mail: http://space.house.gov/?sectionid=61&sectiontree=26,61

Oklahoma

Rep. Dan Boren – 2^nd District

DC Phone: (202) 225-2701

District Phone: Muskogee (918) 687-2533; Claremont (918) 341-9336; McAlester (918) 423-5951

Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/boren/emailsignup.shtml

Pennsylvania

Rep. Jason Altmire – 4^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-2565

District Phone: Aliquippa (724) 378-0928; Natrona (724) 226-1304

Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/altmire/webforms/issue_subscribe.htm

Rep. Patrick Murphy – 8^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-4276

District Phone: Bristol (215) 826-1963; Doylestown (215) 348-1194

Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/formpatrickmurphy/ht_zip_parms.txt&form=/formpatrickmurphy/messageform.shtml

Rep. Christopher Carney – 10^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-3731

District Phone: Clarks Summit (570) 585-9988; Shamokin (570) 644-1682; Williamsport (570) 327-1902

Link to E-mail: http://www.carney.house.gov/contact.shtml#email

Rep. Tim Holden – 17^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-5546

District Phone: Berks (610) 921-3502; Dauphin/Perry (717) 234-5904; Lebanon (717) 270-1395; Schuylkill (570) 622-4212

Link to E-mail: http://holden.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/holden/email_zipauth.txt&form=messageform.shtml

Tennessee

Rep. Lincoln Davis – 4^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-6831

District Phone: Columbia (931) 490-8699; Jamestown (931) 879-2361; McMinnville (931) 473-7259; Rockwood (865) 354-3323

Link to E-mail: https://writerep.house.gov/htbin/wrep_const

Rep. Jim Cooper – 5^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-4311

District Phone: Nashville (615) 736-5295

Link to E-mail: http://www.cooper.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=117&Itemid=61

Rep. Bart Gordon – 6^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-4231

District Phone: Murfreesboro (615) 896-1986; Cookeville (931) 528-5907; Gallatin (615) 451-5174

Link to E-mail: http://gordon.house.gov/contact/contact_form.shtml

Rep. John Tanner – 8^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-4714

District Phone: Union City (731) 885-7070; Jackson (731) 423-4848; Millington (901) 873-5690

Link to E-mail: https://writerep.house.gov/htbin/wrep_findrep

Texas

Rep. Henry Cuellar – 28^th District

DC Phone: (202) 225-1640

District Phone: Laredo (956) 725-0639; McAllen (956) 631-4826; Rio Grande City (956) 487-5603; San Antonio (210) 271-2851; Seguin (830) 401-0457

Link to E-mail: http://cuellar.house.gov/Contact/ContactForm.htm
Utah

Rep. Jim Matheson – 2^nd District

DC Phone: (202) 225-3011

District Phone: South Salt Lake (801) 486-1236; St. George (435) 627-0880;

Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/matheson/contact.shtml

Virginia

Rep. Glenn Nye – 2^nd District

DC Phone: (202) 225-4215

District Phone: Hampton (757) 326-6201; Eastern (757) 789-5092

Link to E-mail: http://nye.house.gov/?sectionid=7&sectiontree=4,7

The ReverseTheVote.org Target List

Arkansas

Rep. Snyder –2nd District
D.C. Phone: 202-225-2506
District Office:
Little Rock: 501-324-5941
E-mail link

Illinois

Rep. Mellissa Bean–8th District

D.C. Phone: 202-225-3711
District Offices:
Schaumburg: 847-517-2927
E-mail link

Rep. Bill Foster–14th District
D.C. Phone: (202) 225-2976
District Offices:
Batavia: (630) 406-1114
Dixon: (815) 288-0680
Geneseo: (309) 944-3558
E-mail link

Missouri

Rep. Russ Carnahan–3rd District

D.C. Phone: (202) 225-2671
District Offices:
St. Louis: (314) 962-1523
Jefferson County: (636) 937-8039
E-mail link.

Nevada

Rep. Dina Titus
D.C. Phone: (202) 225-3252
District Office:
Las Vegas: (702) 387-4941
E-mail link

New Hampshire

Rep. Shea-Porter –1rst District
D.C. Office: (202) 225-5456
District Office:
Dover: (603) 743-4813
E-mail contact

New York

Rep. Tim Bishop–1rst District

D.C. Phone: 202-225-3826
District Offices:
Southampton: (631) 259-8450
Corum: (631) 696-6500
E-mail link.

Opponent: Chris Cox.

Rep. Michael Acuri–24th District

D.C. Phone: 202-225-3665
District Offices
Utica: 315-793-8146/8147
Auburn: 315 252-2777/2778
Cortland: 607-756-2470
E-mail link.

Rep. John Hall–19th District
D.C. Phone: (202) 225-5441
District Offices:
Goshen: (845) 291-4100
Carmel: (845) 225-3641 x49371
E-mail link.

Rep. Bill Owens–23rd District
D.C. Phone: (202) 225-4611
District Offices:
Watertown: (315) 782-3150
Plattsburg: (518) 563-1406
Mayfield: (518) 661-6486
Canastota: (315) 875-5115
E-mail link

Ohio

Rep. Steve Driehaus–1rst District
D.C. Phone: (202) 225-2216
District Office:
Cincinnati: (513) 684-2723
E-mail link

Rep.Mary Jo Kilroy–15th District
D.C. Phone: (202) 225-2015
District Office:
Columbus: (614) 294-2196
E-mail link

Rep. Zach Space
D.C. Phone: (202) 225-6265
District Office:
Dover: (330) 364-4300
Chillicothe: (740) 779-1636
Zanesville: (740) 452-6338 or 1-866-910-7577
E-mail link

Oregon

Rep. Kurt Schrader –5th District
D.C. Phone: (202) 225-5711
District Office:
Salem: (503) 588-9100
Oregon City: (503) 557-1324
E-mail link

Pennsyvania

Rep. Kathy Dalkemper–3rd District
D.C. Phone: (202) 225-5406
District Office:
Erie: 1-877-528-4948 or (814) 456-2038
E-mail link

Rep. Paul Kanjorski–11th District
D.C. Phone: (202) 225-6511
District Offices:
Wilkes-Barre: (570) 825-2200
Scranton: (570) 496-1011
E-mail link

Virginia

Rep. Gerry Connolly–11th District

D.C. Phone:  (202) 225-1492
District Offices:
Fairfax:  (703) 256-3071
Woodbridge:  (703) 670-4989
E-mail link

Wisconsin

Rep. Kagan –8th District
D.C. Phone: (202) 225-5665
District Offices:
Green Bay: (920) 437-1954
Appleton: (920) 380-0061
E-mail contact

EXPIRED: 02/27/10 – Tom “T-Bone” Wolk, 60, didn’t choose to be a musician. It chose him. Wolk was the guy with “the hat” playing bass guitar with Hall & Oates in all those videos on MTV in the early 80’s. Admit it. You remember.

RIP T-Bone

Like many guys Wolk’s age, he got the urge to play rock and roll watching the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show in his parent’s home in Yonkers, NY. He picked up an electric guitar and never looked back.

After being asked to fill in for Will Lee on Late Night with David Letterman, he played bass on the first gold rap record, “These Are The Breaks”, by Kurtis Blow in early 1981.

This caught the ears of Hall and Oates. He auditioned. Got the gig and over two decades later never looked back.

He also was co-director of the Saturday Night Live house band along with G.E. Smith from 86 – 92, and produced and played with some big names of that era including Carly Simon, Elvis Costello Shawn Colvin, Roseanne Cash, Cyndi Lauper, Harry Nilsson, Amanda Marshall, Paul Carrack, Jewel, Jellyfish, and Avril Lavigne.

Turn on the radio or pull out some CDs this week. Chances are you’ll hear some of T-Bone’s work without even knowing it.

He will be missed.

One such video “Seven Lies In Under Two Minutes” made the rounds this past fall.  However, it is the new tape that is sure to give the Glenn Beck’s of the world plenty of “red meat” as Mr. Obama says in the clip below.  The clip contains more than a few examples of Obama talking about the need for a broad consensus and a 60 plus majority to get anything of significance passed in the US Senate.

The interesting thing, in the tape above, is that Obama actually knocks Karl Rove, when he is presently acting just like what he accuses Karl Rove of being like.

According to ABC News, President Obama is set to call today for a “50 plus 1″ vote on his stalled health care measure.

Obama and Rezko

Before Barack Obama was selected as King of the Democrats, Slate wrote the following in 2006 about the Obama/Rezko real estate purchase:

It begins in 2004 with Obama’s $1.9 million book advance for The Audacity of Hope. In June 2005, Obama used the money to purchase a $1.65 million Georgian revival home on Chicago’s South Side—$300,000 less than the asking price. On the very same day, Rezko, a Democratic Party fund-raiser and developer, bought the adjacent empty lot at the asking price from the same owner (the house and the lot were previously owned by the same person). Rezko, who had raised money for Obama and known him since the senator attended Harvard Law School, did not develop the empty lot. In January 2006, he sold a 1,500-square-foot slice of it to Obama for $104,000, a fair sum in that market.

Here’s the question: Did Rezko orchestrate his same-day purchase of the lot at full price so that the seller would give Obama a break on the price of the adjacent house? Was Obama in on the deal? And did Rezko never intend to develop the lot, giving Obama a nice roomy side yard, a favor which he’d call in later?

Obama says he did talk to Rezko before the purchase, but only because a person who had renovated it for a previous owner had once worked with Rezko, who owns other properties in the South Side. He didn’t arrange the joint purchase with him. He bought the house at such a good price, Obama has told the papers, because it was being unloaded in a “fire sale.”

The main house sold in a “fire sale” according to Obama, but Rezko’s wife paid full price for the side yard?  Not likely.  Of course the sale was orchestrated between Obama and the man that had, to that point, raised or donated over $200,000 for Mr. Obama’s various political campaigns.  Give me a break.  After the sale, Obama actually paid for the lawn care of Mr. Rezko’s lot saying at the time that, “Right now my landscaper who comes and does all my work, I have asked him to go ahead and mow the lawn on the other side. My intention was to have the landscaper figure out some pro-rata cost for that mowing and send that bill to Rezko.”  Obama added, “I just haven’t had time to do it.”

Remember, there was no fence between the two properties at the time of purchase.  To a casual observer, they were the same property.  The press downplayed that fact because it made Mr. Obama’s deal look much worse.  A fence was later added, and Mr. Obama bought that fated piece of Rezko’s lot for $104,500.

I often wonder how blind partisan advocates can be.  The press, for letting Obama off the hook in the Rezko affair, and the far right wingers focusing on whether Obama was born in a secret Muslim village in Kenya (he was not).  By not focusing on Rezko, and the insider favoritism he represents, both groups failed to keep their eye on the ball.

The Obama Age, we now know, is about plenty of choice for a select few and much less choice for the many.  20 year olds no longer have the choice to have a credit card.  Health insurance companies will soon no longer have the choice of whom to cover in their private business.  All of us will have less choice soon when Obama’s tax policy is enforced in earnest.  But, back in 2005, Barack Obama was given the choice to buy a more expensive house than he could afford by a crooked political fixer.  Mr. Obama took that choice.  We should all be so lucky in the future.

Comparing and contrasting Obama the Statist and Obama the beneficiary of the Chicago political machine  is what it’s all about.   Bill Ayers was never the issue, Tony Rezko was.  Sean Hannity and the attack dog wing of the right would have been well served to focus on Rezko.  They still could be.

As we all prepare for ObamaCare and a host of other measures that are “for our own good” from the Democrats, we shouldn’t forget where Obama came from and the rules that those in Chicago play by.  They are surely not the rules the rest of us benefit from.