Hey NC Peeps

Shamefully, 3 of the Democrats in opposition to passing health care reform are from right here in NC.  If you live in the district of Heath Shuler, Mike McIntyre, or Larry Kissell, you know what to do– get on the damn phone and call them.  Seriously!!  Don't be afraid of picking up a phone– calls are much more effective than emails.  Here's the numbers for the DC offices:

Larry Kissel: (202) 225-3715

Heath Shuler: (202) 225-6401

Mike McIntyre: (202) 225-2731

If you call, let me know in comments and make me happy.

Tea Party compassion

Some "compassionate conservatism" in action as tea-partiers confront a counter-protester with Parkinson's disease.

Jon Chait's got an interesting take:

It's a jarring video. But it also captures the heart of what animates
the staunchest opposition to health care reform — a principled
opposition to the idea the fortunate should be forced to subsidize the
unfortunate. A person who has Parkinson's, unless he is very affluent,
is not going to be able to afford the cost of his own medical care. He
is going to need to be subsidized by healthier or wealthier people —
either by being lumped in with them in an employer-based insurance pool,
or getting government-provided insurance like Medicaid, or government
subsidies, or the enactment of regulations that force insurers to offer
him insurance at a regular price (meaning healthy people would pay
higher rates.) Any way you slice it, somebody else is going to have to
pay for his health care. But that's the kind of redistribution the right
increasingly cannot stomach.

 Is it wrong of me to hope that some of these people get stricken by diseases or accidents, over which they have no control, while they lack insurance?