Boucher's Coming To Visit

This is your chance to meet your 9th District congressman and ask him any questions you might have, such as:

· Rick, are you and your wife going to give up your gold-plated Congressional health care plan in exchange for that which the rest of us get stuck with when your buddies pass ObamaCare?

· Rick, you're a strong advocate of Cap-and-Trade, a bill designed to stop global warming. Since the globe hasn't warmed at all this century, what exactly is your bill supposed to stop?

· Rick, you said in that sniveling letter you sent to the Dickenson Star recently that your climate bill would enable "growth in our region’s coal industry." Why then does your legislation also provide for extended unemployment benefits for all those thousands of miners who will be laid off by your legislation? Which is it? Growth? Or collapse?

· Rick, you recently announced your opposition to Appalachian Power's proposed rate increase. Yet experts agree that your cap-and-trade legislation will raise utility rates significantly. Which is it? Are you for them or against them?

· Rick, you have scheduled two town hall meetings during the Congressional recess. One up in Dublin and the other in Abingdon. Is there a reason why you chose to go nowhere near the coalfields while here?

· Rick, young, white, unmarried males would be foolish to purchase health insurance since statistics show the chances to be extremely slim that they'll ever get out of it what they put into it. Yet Obama's health care program will require that they all purchase coverage or be saddled with punitive taxes. Is that true? And do you support Americans being punished in such a way by their own government?

There's the short list. We can all add to it. We have a bit of time. You see, Rick Boucher's comin' slummin', but not for a few weeks.

Edgycater brings us the news:

In southwest Virginia's 9th congressional district, Democrat congressman Rick Boucher likes to fly under the radar. Avoid controversy and regularly remind folks of all the pork he brings home to the district. Boucher is holding two town halls on health care:

Tuesday, August 18, 2009
9:00 AM Edwards Hall
New River Valley Community College
Dublin, Virginia

Thursday, August 20, 2009
9:00 AM Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center
Abingdon, Virginia

Of course, this seems like Boucher is making himself available to the people. However, there are a couple problems. First, both town halls are at 9:00am when most folks are working. Maybe Boucher is depending on the unemployed and the government-dependent to be his choir for the day. Over the course of a month, don't you think a Saturday morning or weekday evening town hall could be arranged? The answer is, of course, "yes" if Boucher actually wanted to hear what the constituents have to say.

Good points all. The fact that Boucher has scheduled his get-togethers during the week and in the morning means I won't be able to attend. Nor will most working stiffs. And because both meetings will be held on college campuses, it can be assumed that he's angling to have a supportive crowd of fellow Democrats, academic types, students, and lots of others who don't hold down a real job show up.

But that'll be up to you, won't it?

I'm looking for a couple of volunteers to attend these two town hall meetings and report back to us what went on, in detail.

The meetings could be a real hoot.

Or, if Boucher goes unchallenged, they could be the normal snoozefest.

Again, it's up to you.

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I had never heard of this Edgycater until his weblog was pointed out to me by "Salt Lick" yesterday. Not much is made known by his personal profile other than the fact that he lives here in Virginia and is a high school history teacher. I like him regardless. And I've included his site on my Blogroll of Fame off to the left.

Keep up the good work, Edgycater.