Town Hall meeting

I got my first taste of a health care town hall meeting on Tuesday night (it just so happens it was my birthday too). Personally, I was glad to make it out in one piece. What a rough crowd at these things! Many of them do not know the issues and just want to get on their soapbox to preach their extreme agenda. I feel that something has to be done, but the issue is so complex you do not know whether it will solve the problems or if it is too broke to fix. It does not help when those that are extremely against it are saying that the plan would be tyrannical in nature (i.e.) death panels. It may sway those that are on the fence to not support it. Who knows, maybe Ted Kennedy's passing will provide some motivation to get this done.

RIP Ted Kennedy

Ted Kennedy, the senior Massachusetts senator, died Tuesday evening at age 77. He was the last of the four Kennedy brothers and the only one to die of natural causes. He was always considered the black sheep of the family but wound up being its patriarch and family leader. While he had his problems, one can say his record of accomplishment in the Senate will leave a legacy that may never be matched by any politician, even our current president. It does help when you serve for 47 years.

I was watching coverage of the motorcade in Boston today and it was amazing to see the amount of people who came out to watch. It makes me proud to have one of our great leaders from my home state. Saturday's funeral is scheduled to be on national television and President Obama will be giving a eulogy. He is going to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery next to his brothers. I am going to make a point of visiting his grave site there to pay my respects. My condolences to the family and all that knew him personally, which there were many.

County Fair

Thursday night I volunteered with Arlington Young Democrats at the Arlington County Fair. It is a far cry from the County Fair in Massachusetts, as there was lack of agricultural displays and activities (no sheep shearing, horse pulling contests, or oversized pumpkins). However, it seemed like a good time was had by all. Also, there was not a whole lot of healthy food there so I ate before going. The expo portion was also inside so weather was not an excuse to show up to that portion.

Barney Frank

Three cheers for Barney Frank for shouting down this speaker at one of his town hall meetings. I understand that politicians are responsible for listening to all opinions but this is ridiculous, especially since he is Jewish. It is scary that people in Massachusetts can have such strong views about the health care debate, especially alluding to Nazism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjF4YjvJLe4&feature=featured

Brett Favre

Apologies for not posting this week. I was doing something almost every night. Anyway, Brett Favre is back in the NFL. Honestly, him deciding every year whether he is going to retire and then change his mind is a great story for ESPN, however, fans are getting tired of it. All bets are that something will happen (injury, losing season) where he will regret his decision to come back. He will be playing for the Minnesota Vikings, his former arch rival. It is fairly obvious he is trying to settle some personal vendettas. I would like to see the reaction if it all blows up in his face and whether that will convince him to hang it up.

Y.E. Yang wins PGA Championship

Y.E. Yang, a Korean-born player who has only one victory on the PGA Tour, chased down Tiger Woods today at the PGA Championship to win his first major. This is the first time Tiger Woods lost a lead after leading for 54 holes and, more importantly, the first Asian player to win a major championship. This is incredible for the global game of golf and proves that Tiger Woods is human after all.

We expected that one day Tiger would lose a lead on a Sunday and an Asian player would win but not this week. This was truly an unpredictable year in golf where none of my top picks second tier list made it into the winners circle. This year showed that golf is the ultimate parity game and any player that tees it up in any tournament has a chance of winning. The PGA was the exclamation point on that with Tiger not coming through after leading for 54 holes.

Healthcare post

Check out this note from a friend of mine who is researching health care policy at The George Washington University. This gets to the basics of health care reform when it seems everyone else just wants to talk about the loud screaming protests. You may want to take a look at it before you develop questions and form opinions, especially if you go to a town hall meeting.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/note.php?note_id=112596679004&id=15909121&ref=mf