Josh recently asked And for the Blue Team?

So I contacted my local Republican Congressman Lynn Westmoreland's office to find out when and where he is holding events during the recess to ask a question or two on health care. According to the person I spoke with he has no events scheduled, and isn't planning on holding any!  Hey TPM please let me know if your Republican Congressman is doing the same... is this coming down from RNC, or is this just a sign of ineptitude on Westmoreland's part?

Hopefull TPM will keep up with who isn't holding events during the recess...

In the midst of a debate in DC on one of the most important issues facing our citizens, Lynn Westmoreland is going to "represent" the constituents of his district without even speaking to them.

As Conservative commentator Bill Kristol has noted, the Government can provide a "first class" health care system to the citizens of this Country. Westmoreland has decided to be an outspoken supporter of the status quo health care system that is breaking the budget and forcing citizens to make tough decisions-are you going to pay the electric bill or buy the medication you need this month?

Granted, Westermorland has government provided health care so he probably hasn't heard of the struggles that everyday citizens face. I mean he might not know that our health care system is broken!

Everyday, citizens of the 3rd district are struggling to pay for their health care and Westmoreland isn't interested in hearing about it. We ranked 37th in the world for health care according to the world health organization-spending two to three times as much as other industrialized nations and getting worse care for it! We have Republican politicians like Westmoreland who think that the American citizens should just sink or swim-if you can't afford that medication, oh well...

All the while, people like my best friend Tonja die because they can't get the treatment they need. There are reforms that can provide quality affordable care, and keep insurance companies honest, but Westmoreland doesn't want to roll up his sleeves and work on that bill. He wants to be a do nothing congressman who is trying to keep Obama from being seen as successful. Shouldn't he prioritize the interest of his constituents over political tactics? The US system is uniquely inefficient, but the reality is that those inefficiencies are profits that health care lobbyists are spending millions every day to protect at the expense of citizens.

Westmoreland's opposition to health care reform proves the vacuousness of his claimed "concern" about the deficit (or worse... maybe he just lacks a fundamental understanding of the important issues he faces every day...). Anyone who claims to care about the long-term deficits will want to reform the health care system, anyone who wants to protect rent-seeking companies will want to protect the status quo health care system. Westmoreland has decided who he's looking out for... and now he wants to keep from having to explain himself to his constituents.

The reality is, if we don't get control of health care costs we can't take on the long term budget problems we face-the private sectors costs are rising faster than the medicare costs by the by. The IOUSA Budget Deficit Calculator allows you to see what the projected U.S. budget deficit would be, as a percentage of GDP, if the United States had the same per person health care costs as various other countries which enjoy longer life expectancies than the United States.

The only way we can address the deficit is to get health care reform--bring competition to the marketplace. Giving citizens the choice of a government plan keeps insurance companies honest, pushing down costs, and forcing insurance companies to provide a better service. As Republican Michele Bachmann has noted, a Government plan would "offer equal or better benefits than any plan -- but cheaper."

That's why Lynn Westmoreland and his buddies in the insurance industry want to stop health care reform in its tracks. Westmoreland wants to keep citizens of his district from being able to access the quality affordable care that Bachmann spoke of, because there are profits to be made from the broken system.

Even better, he's going to do it without even speaking to, or hearing from, citizens in his district! Conservative Republicans like Lynn Westmoreland are the reason why I decided to run for State House-if you can't represent the interests of your constituents you should find another job.

We need health care reform in this country and we need to clean house of elected officials who want to protect the massive profits being made without forcing companies to compete with a government plan that would provide, "equal or better benefits," and would be "cheaper."

Don't let Westmoreland get away with it! Well you can-he's proving that-but you get my point...

Call his office if (you live in his district... your own Republican if you don't) and ask him/her to hold events in there district during the recess-then promote those event dates and times on sites like DFA, DailyKos, and your local email lists...

You can't claim to represent your district if you haven't heard from them.

Washington, D.C., Office

1213 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-5901
Fax: 202-225-2515
Office Hours: 8:30 am to 5:30 pm M-F

Third District Office
1601-B East Highway 34
Newnan, Georgia 30265
Phone: 770-683-2033
Fax: 770-683-2042
Office Hours: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm M-F

For more see some of my recent posts:

Health Care in America

Why Markets can't cure health care costs...

Michele Bachmann on Health Care Reform: It would work...

Health Care Costs Part Deux...

Bill Kristol admits the obvious on health care...

CBO Chief Says Health Care Legislation Won't Lower Health Care Spending Rates....

James Wimberley asks a question about health care reform...

"There were 18,000 unnecessary adult deaths because of a lack of insurance"

New Rule: Not Everything in America Has to Make a Profit

Massachusetts doesn't hold the health care answer...

Health Care Reform Reality Check

http://jimnichols.posterous.com/on-the-health-care-frontOn the Health Care Front

Health Care Reform....

they claim they love competition...

health care reform

Is it rationing if my insurance company does it?

One last thing... health care crisis....

The Two Trillion Dollar Solution

Orszag on Health Care and deficit...

Baker on deficits from health care reform

Public Option and the fixation....

Health Care Reads...

Jason Pye points to us to recent Rasmussen poll: Americans Still Embrace Ideals from Declaration of Independence 

Then takes a leap in logic:

Despite President Barack Obama and Congress attempts to create a culture of dependency, Americans still believe in the basic premise of human liberty.

Its a clever chess move no doubt.  But there are multiple ways of interpreting the Ideals from the Declaration of Independence.  In fact huge amounts of paper has been created by political theoriests who have debated (and rebated, and redebated) what the original ideals were--and what their reasoning and intentions were. [side note: is redebated a word?  I'm not even going to check]  [side note part deux, does anyone else hear Richard Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra when you read the words "Ideals from the Declaration of Independence"]

But lets skip the Ivory Tower and move back to what real people think (which is far more useful in my opinion) [side note: did I just claim that Academics aren't real people?  I'm not going to answer that or I might reason myself out of existence...errr the future self at any rate]

For example:

89% of American adults agree that "we are all endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Only seven percent (7%) disagree on that founding premise.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness has always been a, interpret as you please, concept.  Go ask anyone if they like liberty and believe its fundamentally good.  Who is opposed to Liberty?  Aside from guys like this.    It all depends on what is or isn't liberty. 
Does a corporation have the same liberties as individuals?  Or can individuals, through the social contract agree to empower the state to protect them from egregious behavior of legal entities which can act in a manor that individuals wouldn't dare do (why else would limited liability exist? Because it protects owners from liability and irrational, risky and/or dangerous behaviors that they wouldn't do as individuals but the bureaucratic machine may do on its own--speaking abstractly).    Some think that government intervening in business behavior is an affront to liberty (whom I'm not really sure...of the ceo? shareholders?).  Some of us think that businesses are an abstraction that in and of themselves have no inalienable rights.

How about the pursuit of happiness...  that ones a doozy!  Take that one for a ride as you please.

Seventy-four percent (74%) agree with the assertion that "all men are created equal" while just 23% disagree.

Again, Red, Blue, Green, and whatever color the libertarians are; who doesn't believe all men are created equal?

Fifty-six percent (56%) agree with the view that governments derive their only just authority from the "consent of the governed." Interestingly, one-in-four Americans (25%) disagree.

What a culture of dependency is i'm not really sure... (I mean I have an intuitive feel for it and could make my case, but i'm not sure what others meaning of a culture of dependency is and i'm not making the claim so I'd have to leave it to them to make the case)   But what if the consent of the governed empowers the government to create a culture of dependency?  [side question: How can a government create a culture? Is there a specific law that was enacted or a number of things that in of themselves wouldn't do so? Wow so many questions are created from this one...]   

Other survey data shows that voters nationwide overwhelming trust the American people to make key decisions more than they trust political leaders. Those who disagree and hold a Political Class perspective represent a small minority of the population.

Shoot, that's one of the reasons I'm running for office.  I think electing someone for a fourth term is about as "political leader" as it gets.  Part of my campaign is going to be won or lost on making that case.     But outside of ideological lens how does one find this to be a resounding opposition to Obama and the Congresses attempts to create a culture of dependency [again I'll refer to above point on what that terms means]?    Nevertheless, happy fourth to Jason (whom you should be reading if you aren't), my cohorts in politics, and my blog readers--all five of you!   The governments investment in creating the computer and Internet has created a wonderful forum for Americans (and citizens all over the globe--from Iran to Mindanao) to debate, discuss, and quite often disagree on important political questions of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.    We are all truly blessed.    Now, go blow some stuff up--just don't do it around my dog as he flips out when he hears fireworks.

This post was on the fly.  I just posted (MANIFESTATIONS OF THE SAME MINDSET)  at my home blog and I thought it might be good to reflect on some of the "Obama is a socialist" meme that is very "in" on conservative talk shows and tv.

David Boaz from CATO write on how Obama isn't a socialist...

Is Barack Obama a socialist? Not really. Is George W. Bush a free marketer? Not hardly. In fact, right now they both seem to be pursuing policies that are neither socialist nor laissez-faire but rather corporatist.

I've posted on this before, Obama is not the problem... underfunded government and a heath care crisis are... part deux  and French vs. American Market systems... as well as many other times.  But this meme is still very popular....

Many of the people I talk to who are worried about Obama talk about how they look back and want the economy they knew when they were younger, or that their Parents, or Grandparents had.  Keep in mind, taxes were higher, government intervention in the economy was higher, unions were stronger, protectionisms on and on down the line. 

Government intervention in the economy? How about the GI Bill of Rights that sent a generation of unemployed young men to get their college degree's.  It almost single handedly created the middle class... (the government stimulus spending  plan called World War II didn't hurt either... nor did the Marshall Plan...)

Its also based around a fundamental misunderstanding of what real world capitalism--rather than some Philosopher's conception of it--is.  As i've noted many times before. 

Longing for the days of freewheeling entrepreneurship that never existed is not an argument that has any validity when it comes to a policy debate rather than some Ivory Tower debate in some philosophy department detached from the real world concerns of working people.

The terms we must maneuver within are those of industrial capitalism.  We must accept the facts about what capitalism is and what it isn't.  Capitalism has and always will be intertwined in government intervention in the economy.  As Edmund Phelps recently noted in the Financial Times:

In countries operating a largely capitalist system, there does not appear to be a wide understanding among its actors and overseers of either its advantages or its hazards. Ignorance of what it can contribute has in the past led some countries to throw out the system or clip its wings. Ignor­ance of the hazards has made imprudence in markets and policy neglect all the more likely. Regaining a well-functioning capitalism will require re-education and deep reform.

Capitalism is not the "free market" or laisser faire - a system of zero government "plus the constable". Capitalist systems function less well without state protection of investors, lenders and companies against monopoly, deception and fraud. These systems may lack the requisite political support and cause social stresses without subsidies to stimulate inclusion of the less advantaged in society's formal business economy. Last, a huge social insurance system, with resulting high taxes, low take-home pay and low wealth, may not hurt capitalism.

In essence, capitalist systems are a mechanism by which economies may generate growth in knowledge - with much uncertainty in the process, owing to the incompleteness of knowledge. Growth in knowledge leads to income growth and job satisfaction; uncertainty makes the economy prone to sudden swings

In Bad management is bad management... bad history is bad history I noted it was useful to point out that Toyota has had a huge amount of protectionism thrown their way by the government of Japan for them to become competative to begin with, as noted by Ha-Joon Chang in his book Bad Samaritans:

Once upon a time, the leading car maker of a developing country exported its first passenger cars to the US.  Up to that day, the little company had only made shoddy products--poor copies of quality items made by richer countries.  The car was nothing too sophisticated--just a cheap subcompact (one could have called it 'four wheels and an ashtray').  But it was a big moment for the country and its exporters felt proud.

Unfortunately, the product failed.  Most thought the little car looked lousy and savvy buyers were reluctant to spend serious money on a family car that came from a place where only second-rate products were made.  The car had to be withdrawn from the US market.  This disaster led to a major debate among the country's citizens.

Many argued that the company should have stuck to its original business of making simple textile machinery.  After all, the country's biggest export item was silk.  If the company should have stuck to its original business of making simple textile machinery.  After all, the country's biggest export was silk.  If the company could not make good cars after 25 years of trying, there was no future for it.  The government had given the car maker every opportunity to succeed.  It had ensured high profits for it at home through high tariffs and draconian controls on foreign investment in the car industry.  Fewer than ten years ago, it even gave public money to save the company from imminent bankruptcy.  So, the critics argued, foreign cars should now be let in freely and foreign car makers, who had been kicked out 20 year before, allowed to set up shop again.

Others disagreed.  They argued that no country had got anywhere without developing 'serious' industries like automobile production.  They just needed more time to make cars that appealed to everyone.

The year was 1958 and the country was, in fact, Japan.  The company was Toyota, and the car was called the Toyopet.  Toyota started out as a manufacturer of textile machinery (Toyoda Automatic Loom) and moved into car production in 1933  The Japanses government kicked out General Motors and Ford in 1939 and bailed out Toyota with money from the central bank (Bank of Japan) in 1949. Today, Japanese cars are considered as 'natural' as Scottish salmon or French wine, but fewer than 50 years ago, most people, including many Japanses, thought the Japanese car industry simply shoud not exist.  (p19-20)

The biggest problem I have with "leave it to the market" types is they lack an examples of major industrialized nations that have used the hands off approach that they hold in such high regard. There is a reason why we aren't still exploiting our comparative advantage in the fur trade--and personally i'm glad about that. Small Government "Capitalism" isn't viable because its not going to happen in modern industrialised nations--in fact its not even how we industrialized to begin with.  Many of them pine away to live in the agrarian economies of yore--which is a personal preference; or use theoretical arguments that are logically coherent in the abstract--which is fine for the Ivory Tower of academia.

But what matters is the real world, hard working Americans deserve an economy that works for them; our entrepreneurs deserve an economy that empowers them.  We need to be competing with the other industrialised nations of the world, we need to be focused on the future--using revisionist histories and academic theories isn't the way to create a strong, dynamic, competitive economy.

In the past i've used the local example of the Kia Plant More jobs from Government intervention in the "Free Market" to highlight these problems...

The Health Care debate is a very useful example of how conservatives claim to love markets but when it comes down to it truly don't.  Actually from their Ivory Towers they don't like governments and long for the days before the industrial revolution--which is fine, and some of their points to this effect are valid as academic questions,logically consistent, as they opine romantically about some far off utopia. 
 
But theory and the real world are two different things.  And when it comes down to it abstract reasoning doesn't matter.  What matters are the struggles, challenges, strengths, and humanity of everyday people living their lives.  One of my coworkers always says to me... "I load trucks, no book or idea is going to get that truck loaded and those packages to folks who paid me to get them there safely and quickly.  And no idea is going to feed my kid or pay for me to go to the doctor.  But if it helps improve the quality of my life then its okay in my book"
 
And he's right.
 
UPS could sit around and complain if Fed Ex had some way of providing cheaper services that more people want--making Fed Ex a more competitive firm than UPS.  Or UPS can compete in the market finding ways to cut costs, provide better more efficient service, and win customers through a job well done. 
 
When it comes to health care the private sector is terrified of actually having to face competition.  Because of this fear of not being able to provide services that people will want to buy they have turned to lots of straw man arguments and clever chess moves to try and protect them from the marketplace. 
 
We have two choices we can protect excessive profits from inefficient bureaucracies that have created the health care crisis and are doing a terrible job of it compare to the rest of the world... or we can prioritize our long term fiscal health, and the quality of life of our citizens before we start to worry about jet-set CEO's.
 
I side with hard working citizens who deserve a choice.  I don't think protecting private companies from some good old fashion competition is bad, scary, or the end of the world.  Actually for many it will be the thing that keeps them in this world.  If my best friend had the medication she needed for her untreated psychiatric disorder she'd be alive.  She was brilliant so she'd be doing something that would have been of great use to our society and our economic productivity.
 
If the public Medicare-like option is as terrible as ideologues, ivory tower types, and private industry says it is then people won't choose to turn towards to public plan.  N one is going to make people use the public option.  The point is to provide it as one more choice for people to look at, to see if its services, prices, and options fit their needs.  No one is arguing to get rid of private insurance--we're arguing that market competition works.  It doesn't matter why the government can do it better and cheaper... and for some it won't be better as they are happy with their private plan... what matters is that competition creates incentives for private companies to lower costs, become more competative, more effiecient, and provide better services.
 
Take two examples...
 
Look at the medicare advantage program...  where private insurance companies whom we allow to provide medicare services spend more than traditional fee-for-services.  The private sector likes to claim they do it better, but its just not so.
 
Look at the prescription drug benefit plan that Bush push through--where the government isn't allow to use its purchasing power to lower costs.  Meaning we have to spend more tax payer dollars so that private drug manufactures get more profits flowing to them.  Imagine a law that made it illegal for walmart to use its purchasing power because it was unfair to Target?  Thats the argument being made by folks who claim to love markets--but  happen to forget their "principles" when private profits are at stake...

More jobs from Government intervention in the "Free Market"

Being Chairman of the Henry County Democratic party has taught me a lot about organizing. But it is not surprising to watch the tone and invective that has appeared in the past week. Fear tactics, intimidation, and personal threats that lie just below the surface of far too many Republicans is something Democrats here in the South find to be quite common. I saw it as a human rights organizer after 9/11, as an anti-war organizer in the run up to the war, and have watched it grow during this campaign. After the conservative take over of the Republican party, the base of that party is fixated on beliefs that have no bases in reality. They hold these beliefs very strongly and it resonates within the culture here at a near pathological state. Its important to note the pathology--these are good people, they work hard and try to live upstanding lives. But in the midst of fear, and lacking the security of knowing things are going to be okay, that pathology starts to surface. Traitor, Communist, unamerican, the devil, satanist, f---'in coward; I've been called all these things right to my face by men far larger than myself swinging their arms in an erratic style. The aggressive postures, the tone, lack of any valid reasoning's for their beliefs has caused many who support getting affordable health care, a sane foreign policy, or books in our schools, to stay silent. I have citizens who want to volunteer for the Democrats but are terrified that their neighbors will find out they are a democrat and will therefore not do anything that can connect them to the party or Obama. Haven't you seen the emails-- Obama is a terrorist, Obama is a socialist... why haven't you heard Obama Osama, isn't that clear enough! Our way of life is at risk, it reads. I knew the "kill him," "terrorist" screams at recent events were on their way when my nephew sincerely asked me what I thought about people saying Obama is the anti-christ. He truly wanted to know what to think of this, you could see it in his eyes. And the reason he was curious was because kids can see when people are serious in their beliefs. Just below the surface of every smear email, or chuckle from a joke at a dinner party is someone who at some subconscious level is fearful and doesn't know how to protect their families from the outside world. I responded without blinking an eye and in a very serious tone said, "they have no integrity." After I said it I regretted it because as I mentioned before, these are all good people. But when fear gets mixed in with lack of education, lies, and incendiary language that pathology starts coming to the surface. In times of crisis people follow the herd. But you start to see those who are a little unbalanced--or a lot--come to the surface. The scary thing is they become the leaders, because they set the example and the tone. When people who need to be on medication, or in serious long term therapy start leading the crowd it takes the rest of us to stand up and say not on our watch. The majority of Republicans are Americans who want the same things as everyone else. But the move away from "intellecualism" and the evils of academia in the base of the Republican party has undermined what was and can still be great about Republicans. But leaders within the Republican party need to be held to task for not actively speaking out. I watch leaders in our local community; friends, family, elected officials sit in silence as some individual rants and raves. When the subject is on African Americans or just poverty in general its quite common to hear n---ger this, n---ger that. The conservatives around him sit and stare at the floor, cringe, or smile the awkward smile. The embarrassment often is more about someone saying what they too are feeling. With the economic crisis and the deterioration of our social safety net since the Reagan years; people are feeling fearful, angry, and humiliated. The silence of the media thus far is like the silence of local officials, community leaders, and friends who do know better but exploit this fear for their own personal gain, power, and economic incentive. This isn't a game and when a mass mailed email just crossed my path from a fellow chair here in Lynn Westmorelands district I was appalled but not shocked... My name is Melissa Wade and I'm the chair of the Pike County Democrats in Pike County Georgia and we hold our meetings at Ruth's Restaurant in Zebulon Georgia. Today upon exiting/paying bill (for food I bought to go) the owner preceded to spat at me about how awful it was that I registered gutter scum and those people do not deserve the right to vote. He went on and on and I paid my bill and told him it was a free country and we all have the right to vote and I couldn't take 8 more years. I took my meal home (to go - it was really for my republican husband who was sick at the Doctor). I get home, then he gets home and goes to eat it and it has a mouse head in it, cooked and placed on top of the green beans. This is absolutely horrible! They must have assumed that the meal was for me. We have filed a report with the police department, health dept., local paper, AJC, CNN, MSNBC. And no, we will never have a meeting there again. Sincerely, Melissa Wade Pike County Democrats Remember this is the 3rd Congressional District. Lynn Westmoreland recently called Obama "uppity" and then refused to apologize. He smiled his classic ahh shucks smile and said he didn't know that's what that word meant. A local editorialist at a small paper received a barrage of hate speech and emails to her editor calling for her to be fired because of her obvious bias when she criticized his statement. The "Liberal Media" make peoples eyes fume here. People don't trust the New York Times, Washington Post, or any major outlet. They truly believe the media is lying to them and trying to destroy their way of life here in their local community. A lack of education, basic understanding or issues, or information about what goes on up in Washington D.C. or the State House here in Atlanta is untutored and ill-informed. The right wing smear machine on right wing radio and TV feed these fears and frustrations. Lynn Westmoreland feeds these fears and frustrations when he calls the SCHIP bill socialism, "Hillary Care," and another example of the liberals being big spenders who want to take away your freedom. But what does any of that have to do with a program that would have gotten millions of low income children health care at the cost of about $23 a year per person? Don't get me wrong Lynn Westmoreland is a nice man, I've met him was and he does seem to be a good person. If he was hungry, I'd give him half my sandwich, but he is not qualified to be a congressman, he is not educated on the issues, and lacks the judgement to be in Congress. In short he is not a leader, and in tough times we need leadership. In the end its going to be the good people who remain silent that will be to blame if someone gets hurt from someone leaving one of these fear-monger "Country First" rallies. They'll be just a little chemically off, or have had recent traumatic events in their lives and they will explode. We are now watching the repercussion of 30 years of conservative economic policy, media smears, and individual intimidation. I've learned a lot this election. I've seen the best and worst of our society. Watching so many young men and women ask me if the felony on their record will keep them from voting. The excitement of a young mother, who fills out the voter registration form for her son (who looks like a younger brother) because, "he can't write too well." I've watched men and women who have never participated start to organize their neighborhoods and fight for their own interests with a sense of dignity and pride. For that you get jeers that Obama is a celebrity, that he's the Messiah, that he's an uppity n--ger. So welcome to our world America, we're glad its finally on your radar. In the end its going to be resolved by coming together as a community, state, and nation; and saying no to the fear. In the short term leaders in the Republican party should speak out against such invective, John McCain and Sarah Palin need to stop being the pep-squad, and the media needs to be vigilant in exposing every single event. In the long run its about better quality of life for working Americans--better education, better health care, better opportunity. These aren't bad people and I hate watching my left-er than thou friends gloat as the authoritarian impulse comes to the surface as if they are hoping for the lynch mobs to appear again just so they can be right. Finally we need entertainers such as Boortz, Hannity, and O'Reilly; to admit just that--they are entertainers and get paid for hyperbole and invective. Politics isn't a game, it isn't a Marylin Manson concert. At least Marylin Manson is man enough to admit he's just an artist and entertainer. Maybe with time they will learn to grow up as well.

I mean not to offend but with Obama pulling out of GA.  We be sunk this year at the state senate, state house and local levels.  Here in the land of "evolution is a theory you know," (just like gravity, the sun coming up tomorrow, and the light switch giving birth to the sun god named light buld.

Obama has smart people that are doing everything they can to win.  So tough brakes here in GA.  But as someone who watched their best friend die from heroin when she was fighting untreated/undertreated mental health issues.  People like Westmoreland need to be fired.  He's a nice man... and I'll give him half my sandwich if he's hungry.  But he is not a leader and knows next to nothing about policy...

http://campaignwindow.com/HenryCountyDems/blog/index.cfm?Fuseaction=ViewBlog&BlogTopicID=4173

For COntext, I know the Obama people have really smart folks on the case and this is the best move.  But here in Red America where "evolution is a theory, don't-cha-know!" (just like gravity, the sun coming up tomorrow, and your faith in the light switch bring the sun god known as lightbuld to life...  I mean no disrespect but as someone who watched their best friend die from heroin because of untreated mental health issues... people like Westmoreland need to be fired... and we need help to do it.  Magic doesn't work you know!  So no disrespect to all the volunteers, staff, and candidate all across the country.  But we be in trouble here in the deep south... like it or not...

on language...  

I want to say upfront... I hope I don't offend with my language on the issues at hand. I truly believe in making this about policy and not people.

But i'm going to hit and hit hard on policy and when people step over the line. I openly pass on my phone 770 312 6736 and email jim.nichols@gmail.com. And have contacted many leaders in the Henry County Republican leadership and spoke directly to this issue early on in the election season.

But as someone who spends a lot of time studying philosophy of language and cognitive science. These divisive words have huge impacts on our minds. 90% of our thought process goes on subconsciously. One example used in cognitive science is the phrase "don’t think of an elephant"

Like "Obama is playing the race card" It’s a clever way to say something without saying it directly.  And behavioral economics and cognitive science have shown the impacts of bias we don't even recognize.

Many democracts, especially party folks may disagree with me on this. But as someone who volunteers a whole lot of their time I’ve earned the right to brun a few bridges. Maybe my children can make up for my sins.

My mentor has taught me sometimes you kick someone out it they aren’t willing to work on their problems. I don’t know if I’m taking his lesson in the right way.

But I do know there are people sitting in psychiatric wards because we have a Health Care crisis on our hands and are undertreating them, I do know we have solders and vets sitting shrivvled up in corners from post-tramatic stress disorders we are failing to treat. We... we are doing it. We are accountable, and we are responsible.  I know these things.  I've seen the impacts first hand.

Democrats have to fight. And if the Republican Smear Machine wants to fight dirty then lets go... it has taken a repsectable party and turned it into a machine that divides our country.

Its time we fight back. So when I see Obama being charge with treason (what else do they mean by, "he wants to lose the war, so he can lose the election" or Lynn Westmorland calls him "uppity") i'm going to call a spade a spade.

I mean no disrespect to anyone Republican or Democrat if they are offend and will certainly take the time to discuss the issue to the full extent with those who so desire.

Most people want to talk policy and change the divisiveness in our political culture.  I comend them and hope they begin running for office and writing letters to the editors. 

But this is too important to let slide. This is about those without health care, this is about those without good schools. This is about those who have failed to get Osama and have only harmed on national security in the process. This is about 30 years of conservative economic policy that has taken one of the strongest economies in the history of the world and run it into the ground.

I just wanted to try to preemtively speak on this issue in advance. The right wing smear machine must be stopped. Bush/McCain won't do it. They lack the leadership.

Its time for change!

Its time for Democrats to knock on every single door. And make every single phone call they can.

Call me or email me to help out... I'm still behind on some requests and we're working to address that ASAP.

Your Chairman
Jim Nichols