Time to step up and but our actions where our mouths are. This Congress is our chance, perhaps our last chance for serious energy and health reform. Just think of how deflated the reactionaries that our trying to shut down our discourse will be if we succeed.

Now more than ever, there's no reason to leave anything on the court.

Well, we just had a rally in Chicago organized by HCAN with hundreds of supporters. The dozen or so Tea-baggers who showed up were sidelined to a far-off corner across the street from us.

Their presence was a little like the people who come with pictures of fetuses and 'God-hates-fags' signs at other events.

FWIW, here are some pictures along with my (brief) account:
http://www.liberalminded.org/node/354

Went to a town hall in Oregon Aug. 3 run by our Sen. Jeff Merkley. He did such a great job of setting guidelines at the beginning--no more than one question to a person and allow that person to speak. About 80 people, a few vocal nuts ("this plan is to kill off old people like me," "Podesta and the Apollo Alliance (?!) are in charge of making this country a dictatorship," etc.) Jeff kept things calm not only by his rules but by his demeanor--never rose to any bait. At the end he took a poll of various options in health care reform and I believe a mix of private insurance/public option got the most votes. Was surprised that "keep the status quo" got so few votes, maybe less than 1/5 of those there, because they seemed so vocal it seemed like there were more of them. P. S. I looked up the Podesta/Apollo thing--turns out Glen Beck was raving about this conspiracy plot just last week on Fox.

There is a event at the Los Angeles City Council at 10am today

If you go to Organizing for America

http://www.barackobHCANama.com/index.php

And

http://www.healthcareforamericanow.org/

there are plenty of events which you sign up for!

Back to the Merkley townhall--he helped to keep it at "dissent not disruption" by defusing the opposition. When the placard guy ("No Socialized Medicine!") asked "Have you read ALL 1000 pages of this bill?!" Sen. Merkley said calmly "Yes. I am on the health committee and we've spent 15 weeks on it." When the sweet old grandmother, who first apologized for being a nervous speaker and then angrily went into Glen Beck's Podesta/Apollo conspiracy rant ("they're making American a dictatorship!" (fevered applause from the audience), Merkley acted perplexed and said he was not familiar with this but would she please come and talk to him about it AFTER the meeting. Really masterful, like watching a good teacher subtly keep control of a potentially unruly classroom.

I guess my point is we are not necessarily at their mercy.

All I have to say to President Obama and the Democrats is ... Welcome to the rewards phase of bipartisanship!

Like a puppy that $hits on the carpet, you've got to rub their noses in it and get your point across their behavior is not acceptable.

So when Obama decides to let the DoJ and Congress start investigating the crimes of Bu$h and company along with all the repuglican enablers, only then will bipartisanship be an acceptable diplomatic tool to offer.