If there are five more disgruntled "progressives" out there than the ones quoted in this article I'd be surprised, and if they're out there, they're idiots. This sounds totally like the punditry giving themselves something to do. Who did you think he would pick for his cabinet, Arianna Huffington? He'd like to govern the country competently. Wouldn't that be nice, disgruntled progressives?

Gosh, after three weeks of peace and calm and paying attention to other things, I can feel that old irritation edging back, but this time it's about what I'm reading in Salon, the place I always felt was expressing MY side. I refuse to feel irritated. I'm just going to skip over these "you call this CHANGE??" articles, and remind myself that it's a good world if that's all the politicos have to carp about.

Bravo, Joan. But we (normal people) are going to have to get a LOT better messaging going than we have so far. One idea I'm suggesting to my Congresspeople is for them to begin just politely asking people who ask a question or stand up just to scream, what kind of health care THEY have, for the record. If they say none, then we the taxpayers are already footing their bill, (the freeloaders). if they say they have GREAT health care, that's worth noting. Easy for them to gripe, they've got it made. If they say Medicare, they're already in a government run public option. If they say, none of your business, I'm a patriot! .... that says something too, what are they afraid of, what have they got to hide? They'll get together and come up with some asinine group answer, no doubt, but let's get them on the record, at least.

Congressmen should also start asking them -- and each other -- if they really believe insurance companies don't have real "death panels." If someone is diagnosed with leukemia, I'm pretty sure the insurance bureaucrats convene a panel to consider their "customer"'s life or death and how much it's going to cost.

Go get them, Joan. Thanks!