The Tattered Cover Bookstore is a venerable institution in Denver as a successful independent bookseller.  On Tuesday night there were two book signers.

One was George McGovern, the lion of peace on the Left who was soundly defeated for the presidency even though “everybody I knew” voted for him.  An eminence, a presence. And a noble warrior.    I worked for McGovern in ’72 and was totally devastated by his crushing defeat.  He, like many retired Dem officeholders, has gone on to do good works after leaving office. A good man, a symbol of the lost liberalism of thirty years ago.

The other author that night was Markos, creator and facilitator of the DailyKos community.

I sent off an e-mail early Monday morning to my usual mailing list with links to several blog items about the new Supreme Court Nominee.  Early Tuesday morning I received this response from Roger, my 22 year old son.
Hey pops...
Why are many of the people in the blog comments talking about splitting the nation? I'm confused; they make it sound like a good thing. Personally I love my country, all of it. I wish it were as easy as just splitting the union and attempting to hoard the educated and the $$. But I hope it's not about that.
I can't cut my body in half and expect to keep on living. Sure there are parts that I don't like but it's those parts that I don't like that push the better parts of me to do better, to turn my deficiencies into assets.

I was actually pretty curious – what would it be like seeing this president up close and personal?  What would he have to say?

It all started with an e-mail from my congressman inviting me to get tickets to attend the Social Security Town Hall Meeting.  I couldn’t pass that up and sent off the e-mail to my progressive friends so I wouldn’t be alone.

I carefully covered up my Kerry sticker with brown paper, scrawled Bush on it, and drove to the meeting early enough to get a good seat.  Going through security was pretty routine, easier than the airport. Walking in and watching the room fill up, I could tell immediately that this was not a gathering of Democrats.  Of the 1,000 people present there were maybe a dozen people of color – and most of them were Secret Service.

McCain appeared in Denver yesterday with Bush.  They started their road show with their Freedom is on the March routine.

McCain added his bit with the following quote:
"The winds of Democracy are sweeping Europe. The old Europe is on its way out."

Uh, John, I think we've had democracy in Europe for a really long time now.

Has anyone had experience attending these Bush Social Security shows?

We'd like to make a point and would benefit from experience & ideas.

What do they search for, could we get banners in?

Are questions allowed by folks inside?

Do they do loyalty checks at the door if you have tickets?

Any ideas for actions with about six to eight attendees.

The tax cutting justification we often hear from the right wing is that the “American People” can spend their money better than the government can.  If only it were so!

Instead of paying taxes for a common good like health care, we pay the highest prices in the world for pharmaceuticals.  And we are not allowed to shop across the northern border or band together to negotiate prices. Our local paper warned us to expect to pay 50 cents a gallon more at the pump this summer.  Our home heating bills have skyrocketed this year because the Natural Gas Supplier jacked up their prices to pay fines they earned by ripping off California consumers.

Coercive capitalism is picking my pocket – not taxes!

If I were the CFO of the largest financial enterprise in the universe, I don't think I would spend my time running around the country like Henny Penny hollering that the sky will be falling 35 years from now. I would be very worried about the chasm that could be opening beneath us. The largest deficits in our history have created a Birth Tax of $35,000 for every baby born today. Four Asian countries hold 40% of our national debt. One day last month, they all decided not to buy T-Bills for one day - but we didn't get the hint. A couple weeks ago South Korea suggested they just might move some of their bucks into Euros and the Stock Market sagged. We still didn't get the hint.

Bush, Cheney and Snow are spending the next 60 days campaigning for something the American people clearly do not want.  The more Bush has campaigned to change SS the more people don't like it.  The congress returned from break with a clear message that Social Security is still the third rail of American Politics.

So,while three of the top officers of government are on the road -- who's running the show?  Who's watching Lebanon, Iraq, Dharfur?

Wouldn't this qualify as at least misfeasance if not malfeasance in office?