However, it is now evident that an ugly campaign is underway not merely to misrepresent the health insurance reform legislation, but to disrupt public meetings and prevent members of Congress and constituents from conducting a civil dialogue. These tactics have included hanging in effigy one Democratic member of Congress in Maryland and protesters holding a sign displaying a tombstone with the name of another congressman in Texas, where protesters also shouted “Just say no!” drowning out those who wanted to hold a substantive discussion. [Emphasis mine.]

Pelosi and Hoyer are obviously kidding themselves here, just as they have been about their grand plan for health care reform since its inception. Townhall attendees who aren’t protesting are certainly not there to have any sort of discussion about health care; rather, they’re there to be fed the same tired buzzwords and because they get a certain satisfaction in hearing views they’ve already accepted parroted back to them — admittedly, it’s probably similar to the satisfaction I get watching Fox News or listening to Michael Medved.

What the protestors are doing, then, is reminding them that there are alternatives. They’re reminding those who support the Congressional plan for reform that there are people out there who don’t see that plan going any better than the rest of the various schemes to come out of the liberal majority.

And, perhaps most importantly, they’re reminding Congress of that, too.

So while the clashes between supporters and protestors might not be the sort of debate we had all hoped for, in the end, it’s better than blindly swallowing the red pills and blue pills that the government is trying so hard to shove down our throats.

So I bookmarked Daily Kos and The Huffington Post, and I’ve started listening to NPR instead of talk radio (except Michael Medved; I refuse to stop listening to him). Since beginning the experiment I have admittedly stopped checking Daily Kos, because I can’t make it through a single blog post of theirs without being able to literally feel my blood pressure rising, but I’ve been listening to NPR whenever I drive (which isn’t that bad, really, as long as they stick to news) and reading Huffington every time I check Drudge — which is how I ran across this gem of a cover story.

I didn’t read most of the story — or at least, I haven’t yet — because I was far too busy skimming it, looking for a quote I saw below the big front-page picture of President Obama giving his speech (which can be found near the bottom of the article):

“Racism, he said, is felt ‘by African-American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion for simply kneeling down to pray. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.’” [Emphasis mine.]

Denied their rights, eh? By who, exactly, Mr. President?

Oh, that’s right: by you. You’re the one, after all, who promised so much and has delivered on none of it as far as gay rights is concerned. You’re the one who flipped on don’t-ask-don’t-tell, forcing your “gay brothers and sisters” to hide their sexual orientation. You’re the one (how is it that liberals can ignore this?) who has been against gay marriage since before you were elected.

I really hope the LGBT community picks up on this in particular. I mean, c’mon — I’m a conservative and this makes me mad. Not so much this specific instance of President Obama’s penchant for saying one thing and doing another; more the fact that he pulls stunts like this all the time and no one ever does anything about it. This is a blatant instance of hypocrisy and The Huffington Post (among other news sources) continues to worship the very ground he walks on, quoting him as though he were truly fighting for gay rights instead of sweeping the gay community under the rug, along with everything else he finds inconvenient.

I can only hope that, some day, the president will lay down the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Then maybe everything that’s been swept under the rug will come out a’swinging.

We’ve tolerated the crap coming out of North Korea for far too long. It’s about time someone finally considered taking action against them.

And yes, I’m well aware that there’s a (rather large) chance that this is just words, and that the Obama White House may very well back out or somehow screw this up as they have done on plenty of other issues.

That said, assuming they go through with this, there will finally be something that has been done this presidency that I’ll agree with.

It is now May 29th, 2009, and we have stopped talking about this.

The last I heard it mentioned was when Pelosi essentially ignored a question about it from a reporter during a lengthy, stupid press conference where she tried to gloss over the whole thing with plenty of talk about all the good she’s done. I mean, I realize that the Sotomayor nomination has given us plenty more to worry about, but we absolutely cannot drop this. The accusations Pelosi has leveled against the CIA are huge, and if we don’t keep on her about this — if we don’t absolutely hound her for an explanation until she either gives one or cracks under the pressure — then this story is going to quietly go away until it’s a mere distant memory; yet another thing the Democrats have done that goes unpunished.

We cannot let that happen. Not with something this big. We can’t let the Speaker of the House, one of the most important people in this nation and second in the presidential line of succession, just get away with making such an outrageous claim. If anything, her newfound refusal to talk about the issue at all should be making it even worse for her. Instead, it seems that she’s getting away with a ‘no comment.’

Over the course of Obama’s presidency, I have seen this happen way too many times: some Democratic political figure does something that is absolutely inexcuseable, and within a few days it’s forgotten.

That cannot happen this time.

This is too big.

Update: Yesss!

The first presidential candidate I ever voted for was John McCain, and I’m willing to admit that, at the time, I definitely had some doubts about whether it was the right decision. This is partially because, having been born in New York and having witnessed the tail-end of his gentrification efforts, I was a Giuliani fan until he dropped out of the race (and therefore considered McCain an inferior pick for the Republican ticket), but also largely due to having lived on a college campus for a year and a half preceding the election. As a philosophy major, I’d wager that around 90% of my friends are liberal, and most of them are rather far-left by my reckoning. While I certainly still consider myself a conservative, I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t wind up doing a lot of thinking about whether my political views were truly what I believed.

Even as I cast my vote, I wasn’t so much worried about Obama winning in general — I had a feeling at the time that an Obama presidency was inevitable. What I was worried about was that Obama would get elected, and it would turn out that he was an excellent president, as so many of my friends seemed convinced that he would be. What if he got elected and fixed all of our problems: stopped the financial meltdown in its tracks, managed to stabilize the Middle East and facilitate a bloodless retreat of our armed forces — what if it wound up being a Democratic president who managed to get it all done?

Now, though, it’s safe to say that my vote of opposition was worth it, because by my reckoning, Barack Obama’s presidency has been disastrous up to this point. Joe Biden is as hilariously loose-lipped as I knew he would be as soon as Obama picked him, Gitmo remains open (which I don’t have a problem with, but whatever), we’re still in Iraq, don’t-ask-don’t-tell is still in effect, the economy is even worse (just how bad does it have to get before it gets better, Mr. President?)… I could go on and on, but if you read RedState regularly, these policy and moral failings and more have already been listed in detail for you.

So, thanks, President Obama. It’s been a bumpy ride, but you’ve helped remind me why I am what I am — a conservative Republican, and a very proud one to boot.

That’s one good thing your presidency has brought me, anyway.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090518/sc_livescience/happinessisbeingoldmaleandrepublican

That’s two out of three for me.