According to an article in the online version of the Boise Weekly, Idaho Rep. Walk Minnick is planning on some town hall meetings--by phone--during the August recess. They are to be held on Aug 19th and 31st at 7 p.m. Not sure how this is going to actually work. Does that mean everyone is gathering in one place and he will be there by phone only?
There seems to be a low profile for town hall meetings around the Inland Northwest. In the same article it mentions that, according to Northwest Public Radio, "the town hall meeting in Post Falls last week went well for Minnick."
Wait slow down...a town hall meeting in Post Falls? Here is part of the article by Northwest Public Radio:
POST FALLS, ID - Health care reform is dominating many of
the discussions between Northwest Congressional members and their constituents
this week. In some parts of the country, representatives are running into
organized protests. But in north Idaho, Democrat Walt Minnick received a polite
reception at a Rotary Club meeting yesterday. Correspondent Doug Nadvornick
reports.
Does that say a town hall meeting or Rotary Club Meeting? I thought so. This just means local business owners, not the general public. Just members of the Rotary....that doesn't constitute what a "town hall" meeting should be--members of the community as a whole..housewives, grandparents, health care workers, college students, etc....the COMMUNITY!
I'm not sure where all this town hall meeting stuff began. They kind of snuck up on me. Are they supposed to be about our opinion on health care? Or the recession (which doesn't exist if the government says it doesn't)? Or global warming? Or WHAT?! When people mention health care, we are told by the president that this isn't what they are about...so what are they for?
I find the reaction of the politicians 'running' them very interesting. Are they really interested in what we think? Or is their way of just 'showing' that they are listening...and now that they find out we have some real opinions of their job and our government, they don't really want to listen.
Another question? How do they find all the smiling people that they put behind the podium? Do they look up who has the local prescriptions for Prozac or who buys the most Crest Teeth Whiteners and invite them? Or do they have two lines entering the town hall meetings--the smiling and non-smiling lines? I just don't know.
What I would like to see...is a website that lists all the elected officials who have actually read the president's health care bill. Maybe it's not full of pork...but it does seem to be full of something. At one time I read that it was 4,000 pages long! And that next to no one has read it through! How scarey is that!?
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