I had hoped that the lesson of Brown being elected would do some good.  Indeed, Obama seemed to suggest that today in interviews.  He correctly noted that people are angry.  The problem is, he is not getting what they are angry at.

I got this today and it seems to suggest they learned the wrong lesson.

Yesterday’s disappointing election results show deep discontent with the pace of change. I know the OFA community and the President share that frustration.

We also saw what we knew to be true all along: Any change worth making is hard and will be fought at every turn. While it doesn’t take away the sting of this loss, there is no road to real change without setbacks along the way.

We could have simply sought to do things that were easy, that wouldn’t stir up controversy. But changes that aren’t controversial rarely solve the problem.

Our country continues to face the same fundamental challenges it faced yesterday. Our health care system still needs reform. Wall Street still needs to be held accountable. We still need to create good jobs. And we still need to continue building a clean energy economy.

Since the left is buzzing that Joe Wilson is a Health industry darling for taking donations from the health care industry, I did some checking.  Thanks Eugene, for getting me curious.

So off to opensecrets.org and here is what I found.  Yes, Joe Wilson did take $244k from the health industry.  Here are his top three industry contributors:

• Health Professionals $244,196
• Lawyers/Law Firms $211,870
• Real Estate $195,179

Wow.

But then I did more checking, and compared to his contemporaries, he is a frugal piker.

Pelosi:

• Lawyers/Law Firms $689,225
• Transportation Unions $563,600
• Health Professionals $555,750

Reid:

• Lawyers/Law Firms $3,285,351
• Casinos/Gambling $1,521,470
• Real Estate $1,013,256
• Health Professionals $932,876

So, I popped over to the industry section, and found these totals for the health care industry:

This cycle so far:

• 2010  Total:   $12,051,244
• To Democrats:  $7,028,002
• To Republicans:  $4,997,478

2008

• 2008 Total:  $95,185,139
• To dems:  $50,024,729
• To Repubs:  $44,890,149

 Hmm.  So digging into the health care industry, who are the top recipients?

In the speech to congress last night, Obama said this:

There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false – the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.

This prompted Rep Joe Wilson (R, SC) to vocally call him a liar.

So….who lied?

Answer:  Neither and Both.

The problem lies in the nuance of the statements.

The reforms do NOT apply to illegals, but they also do not include any provision to actually check to see if someone is illegal, so they are shadow rules at best. 

Factcheck.org sums it up:

The president is correct: The House bill contains a section (Sec. 246) titled “NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS,” which states: “Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.”

The health care debate continues to heat up and shows no sign of letting up.  today we had a pro health care supporter chew off the finger of an opponent.  Sick.

Both sides remain entrenched and passionate but it occurs to me that both sides live in a comfort zone of extremes.

For example, the left wants to make this an imperative of moral conscience, that we must provide health care to all, and the only other option is to do nothing. 

The right mandates its refusal to bow to government run health care, sometimes ignoring that there are already government run health care systems in place now. 

And somewhere in the middle, perhaps, the truth may live.

Maybe there is a way to modify what exists now to extend coverage to those who need it without giving the government carte blanche to seize control over another industry.

I am sure it was a futile gesture, but he makes a compelling argument against the health care plan.

His opening point was good.  The democrats, having control of the debate, have locked us into a yes or no argument.  Either rape and pillage the system, or do nothing.  All the various ideas in between, lost.

And they claim they want a bipartisan debate…

Here are an interesting pair of videos.    The first is a fisking of a cartoon explanation of health care, filled with strawman arguments with  no economic sense at all.  The original is below it.

The author of the fisking actually went easy on him, I found dozens of other fallacies in his naive presentation.  The cartoons were cute though….

 The original, for comparison.

The entire health care issue has gone bonkers. 

MSNBC runs an edited video of a guy packing guns at a protest and insinuates its a racial issue, conveniently ignoring that the unedited video shows this to be a black man wearing guns, not a white one.  Should they be called MSDNC?  Nice to see the race baiting continues.

And some mutter about the crazy conservatives also conveniently forgetting some of the gun toting demonstrators are FOR health care reform.

And then there is the whole notion of reform.   If you protest the health care takeover you are against reform completely, but no one on the left apparently wants to admit there is a huge area of other options between do nothing and Government takeover.

John Mackey the CEO of Whole Foods runs an editorial detailing many of those options and now faces a boycott by liberals because he dares to suggest we can fix it without socialism.

Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.

At Obama’s town hall meeting the there are so many plants now they should be called greenhouse meetings.

Here is the story:

Video: Astroturfing at Obama’s NH “town hall”

Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit has the video evidence of the strategy used by Barack Obama to get a roomful of complacent supporters at his Portsmouth, New Hamsphire “town hall” yesterday. The group he launched, Organizing for America, had supporters bused into the event — and they went directly to the head of the line to get into the forum. It’s the quickest and most effective way to ensure that the President doesn’t have to answer any tougher questions than those about the “mean signs” of his opponents:

Andrew Malcolm says this shows a desperation in the administration, and that even with the White House organization, Obama’s losing on the ground:

While Obama’s poll popularity has slipped somewhat, the popularity of his keystone programs has slid dramatically. Now, we fully understand why the president set that early August deadline for a completed bill. His internal polls predicted the kind of coalescing opposition we’ve seen recently in congressional town halls around the country.

Again, it is amazing that this kind of organized campaign to support the Democratic agenda is considered OK, while identical campaigns to oppose it are demonized and vilified.

All throughout August, our members of Congress are back in town. Insurance companies and partisan attack groups are stirring up fear with false rumors about the President’s plan, and it’s extremely important that folks like you speak up now.

So we’ve cooked up an easy, powerful way for you to make a big impression: Office Visits for Health Reform.

All this week, OFA members like you will be stopping by local congressional offices to show our support for insurance reform. You can have a quick conversation with the local staff, tell your personal story, or even just drop off a customized flyer and say that reform matters to you.

We’ll provide everything you need: the address, phone number, and open hours for the office, information about how the health care crisis affects your state for you to drop off (with the option of adding your personal story), and a step-by-step guide for your visit.

Free Colorado has a great series of videos, all of which interviewed people to ask how they feel about being called as a mob.

What is clear is that at the core of the protests are regular people.  Are organizations also trying to spur protest?  I would imagine so, the same way that I get 3 or 4 letters from democrats asking me to attend the rallies and speak out in favor of health care.   Like this one from Obama himself.  Apparently only the community organizer in chief is allowed to organize.

See more on that site.

Rather then name calling why not listen to what people are saying?

Maybe congress should take their input and incorporate it into law, you know, like a representative republic should do…

…Because I keep getting letters from him to organize.

This is a direct cut and paste from one such letter received last week.

This is the moment our movement was built for.

For one month, the fight for health insurance reform leaves the backrooms of Washington, D.C., and returns to communities across America. Throughout August, members of Congress are back home, where the hands they shake and the voices they hear will not belong to lobbyists, but to people like you.

Home is where we’re strongest. We didn’t win last year’s election together at a committee hearing in D.C. We won it on the doorsteps and the phone lines, at the softball games and the town meetings, and in every part of this great country where people gather to talk about what matters most. And if you’re willing to step up once again, that’s exactly where we’re going to win this historic campaign for the guaranteed, affordable health insurance that every American deserves.