Permalink-view this post with all comments 0 Post comment

Mary L sends this video of her protest at Paulsen's office where, mysteriously, counter protesters show up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6n38KfpOSA

 

Permalink-view this post with all comments 0 Post comment

Former Rep Jim Ramstad held regular town hall meetings in real town halls with hundreds of real people . Even in the face of stiff opposition in the Bush years, Ramstad, a Republican, would always show up, always face the voters and always answer questions.


Not so for our new Representative, Erik Paulsen, who campaigned as if he were Jim Ramstad Junior. The fact that he is far more conservative than Ramstad aside, Paulsen has invented a brand new kind of town hall -the Drive By Town Hall. Rather than actually meeting voters face to face he has set up a number of conference calls where only some voters are invited. While not preferrable to a face to face meeting it might make sense from time to time to have conference calls if they allow Rep Paulsen to communicate with voters when he is not in Minnesota.


However the devil is in the details. Invited participants are often notified of these conference calls on the day they happen, very often a matter of only hours or even minutes before they are scheduled to begin (hence the term  "Drive By Town Hall"). Worse yet is the utter impossibility voters have found getting on the call, even if they get the info beforehand.

Being charitable, one might suppose Rep Paulsen wants to try out new technology and just has not gotten it quite right yet. Perhaps hispeople are not tecnically savvy.

I would hate to believe he is trying to claim to be having town halls while really trying to avoid facing voters since his contentious and excessively negative campaign of 2008. Voters are finding out Paulsen is no Ramstad -is he avoiding us?

Permalink-view this post with all comments 0 Post comment

In our efforts to live within our "Reality Based Agenda" we think it important to know that the ads featuring Eric Paulsen thanking him for his vote on SCHIP, a health program that covers low income kids, were paid for by a number of groups including SEIU and the Pharmaceutical industry. The ads do not appear to have come from Paulsen or the GOP.

See, we'll start this blog off fair -and balanced!

Maybe Paulsen actually supports SCHIP or maybe the GOP allowed him to vote for something so he could lay claim to the "moderate" label in the next election. Hard to tell at this point. The stimulus, however is another thing and Paulsen voted against it as did all the Republican House members and all but three GOP Senators. The message is being received loud and clear -the GOP is digging in it's heels.

When the GOP controlled Congress the Democrats were simply ignored. When the Democrats controlled Congress in the last two years of the Bush debacle, the GOP broke records for filibusters in order to prevent Democrats from doing anything; all the while using the word "bipartisan", to make the absurd implication that the Democrats were excluding them.

President Obama has gone out of his way to include Republicans in his cabinet and in the decision making process necessary to fix the problems the GOP caused in the last 20 years. They are having none of it and neither is Paulsen.

But it's only a few months into the new administrationand Paulsen is off to a bad start of he hopes to lay claim to the moderate label.

 

Permalink-view this post with all comments 0 Post comment