Sarah Palin seems more appropriately represented by the "ass" mascot than any Democrat I've ever known. She claimed today that the President's health care plan would essentially convene a "death panel" to review cases and deny coverage to people like her child with Down Syndrome. This is the most ludicrous thing I think I have ever read in my life! The only thing "downright evil" about the current debate over health care is the desire of Palin and many others in the Republican party to distort the facts surrounding the issue and avoid engaging in a civil discussion in favor of fear mongering.

What is so "evil" about a public option in the health care system? The fact that insurance companies don't WANT to compete with another health care option that happens to be run by the government is not justification alone to avoid such an arrangement. I'm sure Comcast doesn't WANT to be regulated by the government over Internet and cable standards, but is that a reason not to regulate them - because they don't feel like it? The myth that the "public option" is going to bankrupt a multi-billion dollar industry is quite frankly completely ridiculous.

Here is the source of this story from the Associated Press, written by Mark Thiessen:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090808/ap_on_re_us/us_palin_health_care_14

I was pleased to see President Obama's newest endeavor designed to reach individual voters and encourage participation:

The White House Open for Questions - http://www.whitehouse.gov/openforquestions/

This site allows anyone with an email address to sign in and ask questions of the President.  The innovative part of this process (thanks Google for hosting this!) was the fact that anyone could also log in and vote on other people's questions.  The top questions will be addressed by President Obama at about 11:30AM.  Unfortunately, voting for this event will have closed by the time this blog is read.  However, I am hopeful that if this event is popular, the President will be willing to make this a regular event.  I encourage everyone to visit http://www.whitehouse.gov to see the President respond to these questions!

PS - If this is to become a regular event, I hope that the vast majority of the top questions aren't going to continue to be about marijuana as they have been.  I'm all for a frank discussion the subject, but if the community simply continues to vote this same topic into all of the top questions, it will be difficult to encourage the administration to address other pressing issues in this forum.