Town Hall Wednesday--Change of location

To accommodate a larger crowd, Wednesday's Town Hall meeting has been moved to the following location:

Ranchview High School
8401 Valley Ranch Pkwy
Irving, Texas 75063

Pete Sessions' office requests that people RSVP . Constituents of the 32nd District of Texas are invited to attend the Irving Town Hall Meeting. For more information or to RSVP, please contact Congressman Sessions' Dallas District Office at 972.392.0505. The time is the same, 7:00-8:30 p.m.

No need to worry about disruptive behavior from groups like Glenn Beck's 912 Project or other people hopped up on caffeine from drinking all that tea; sources in other parts of the country tell Sessions Watch that those "screamer" groups are only targeting districts with representatives from the Democratic Party.

They're also starting to tone it down, after seeing themselves on YouTube spouting nonsensical misinformation about "death panels," shouting down cancer patients who've been denied insurance coverage, and generally making complete idiots of themselves. So take a deep breath, y'all, bring a friend, and come on out to the town hall. To help you prepare, we'll post a list of questions you've been asking in the comments area in "sound bite" format--and remember, it's not just a town hall about health care, you can ask anything.

UPDATE: In answer to the most-often asked question, yes, Democrats in TX-32 should attend these town hall meetings. A Democrat who attended the Richardson town hall meeting reported that the political make-up of the audience reflected that of the District, with Republican-leaning questions at approximately 55% and Democratic-leaning questions at 45%.

Remember, even with creative gerrymandering, this is not a heavily Republican district, so come on out Democrats, Libertarians, Green Party and everything in between! Even though he won't vote for your interests, Pete Sessions needs to hear from you!

Who knows? Pete Sessions might get tired of hearing from people who don't agree with him and decide he doesn't want to be a Congressman anymore, which is one of our goals at Sessions Watch--helping him decide that the job he really wants is with the Boy Scouts, the National Association for Down Syndrome, or some place where he doesn't have to hear from people like us! It could happen! So, yes, do come on out, everybody, and ask your question.

Town Hall Video and Commentary

Sessions Watch would like to thank regular commenter and Republican precinct chair John Peterson for his video of Pete Sessions' introductory remarks at Thursday's town hall meeting; John also wrote an article about the meeting, which provides a good summary for those who missed it.

John's working on activating the comments section of his blog; if you comment, please be respectful--John's putting his real name out there, unlike Sessions Watch, which is a group of what we refer to as "Congressional mystery shoppers."

Until John's comment box is activated, please feel free to comment here.

The video and article are available at this link: Pete Sessions Town Hall Meeting Summary.

UPDATE: Another report from Richardson is available at Ed Cognoski's blog:

And, for the benefit of the Republican club in Park Cities who requested it, here's the video clip of another Texas Republican, Joe Barton, asking the insurance industry execs if they felt bad that people die because of their policy of rescission. It's worthwhile viewing, and a reminder that the real fight for reform is not between Democrats and Republicans, but between the American people and a for-profit health care industry that's become too greedy:

The complete list of articles about last night's meeting are as follows:

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? Sessions town hall report by David Smith, The Examiner

Sessions uncommitted to reading all legislation before votes

by David Smith, The Examiner

Sessions discusses health care proposal in Richardson by John Nielsen, Dallas Morning News

Last Night, Pete Sessions Turned Health Care Debate Into an Easy-to-Swallow Pill by Kimberly Thorpe, Dallas Observer

Town Hall Blog

If you have pics and video of tonight's event, post the link to your blog, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, etc, into the comment section of this post. Interesting observations will be highlighted in the next blog post.

Upcoming Town Hall Meetings with Pete Sessions

Right after Sessions Watch posted a diary asking about Pete Sessions' plan for health care, we got two emails, one from Park Cities Democrats (see comments in previous post), and this one from a Republican Sessions Watcher, telling about two upcoming town hall meetings. (*sigh* Sessions Watch is always the last to know):

I saw this on Pete Sessions' website:

Richardson Town Hall Meeting
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
7:00pm – 8:30pm

Richardson Civic Center/City Hall • Grand Hall
411 W. Arapaho Road
Richardson, TX 75080

Irving Town Hall Meeting
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
7:00pm – 8:30pm
Irving City Hall
825 W. Irving Blvd
Irving, Texas 75060

It says you have to RSVP, but for town hall meetings, I think we can just show up, can't we?: "For more information or to RSVP, please contact Congressman Sessions’ Dallas District office at 972.392.0505." After reading about Lisa's experience, I'm nervous about calling the office! lol! Not really, but can't we just show up without an RSVP? With our schedules, I never know 'til the last minute if we can go to things like this.

Yes, you can attend without an RSVP. Town hall meetings are open to anyone in TX-32--and, actually, anyone outside the district can attend, too. Sessions Watchers from the 32nd have attended town hall meetings with our neighboring districts Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30), Kenny Marchant, (TX-24) and Sam Johnson (TX-3). No one ever asked for an RSVP, and all seemed to enjoy "playing to a full house."

If anybody goes, please take pics & post on your blog, facebook account or whatever, and post the link in the most recent comment box. We still don't have an email account for this blog; right now, individuals just collect emails and pass along the information or post anything that needs attention into the most recent comment box.

When election season heats up, we'll get one email address for everything, and make sure someone's available to check it at least once a week.

So, Pete, What's your Health Care Plan?

Several Sessions Watchers have sent this link to Pete Sessions' rant against the health care reform proposals currently in the House and Senate:

“During a deep recession and historic 9.5 percent unemployment, unaffordable health care only deepens the financial and personal crises many American families are facing today. Yet the Majority has produced a job-killing, government-mandated health care plan financed on the backs of every American family, senior citizen, small business and employer. With a price tag of over $1 Trillion dollars, the Democrats’ plan would cut Medicare options for seniors and raise taxes on any employer or individual who does not embrace a government-run health care program...

What he fails to tell us, of course, is that he and every member of the House and Senate enjoy "government-run health care" that sounds sort of like what's being proposed--a menu of private insurance plans at a group rate that would spread out the risk pool by including everybody in the country. A public option would be included, to keep the private insurers honest, if nothing else, making them actually do what we pay them to do, instead of boosting profits by kicking sick people off the rolls.

Sessions Watcher Lisa, a self-identified political independent, wants to know what Pete Sessions would propose as a health care reform measure. She sends this message to fellow Sessions Watchers:

Is anybody going to one of Pete Sessions' town hall meetings when he gets back to the District? If so, can you ask him about health care? I don't want to, because Pete Sessions scares me!!

lol! Lisa goes on to recount a time in 2006 when somebody asked a health care question:

It was a moderated town hall meeting with Pete Sessions and Will Pryor. It wasn't a debate, exactly, because they didn't talk to each other. They went one at a time, with people from the audience submitting questions for the candidates, which were read by the moderator. Pete Sessions went first. Towards the end of his time, the moderator read a question someone wrote, thanking Pete Sessions for the Family Opportunity Act, which allowed parents of kids with Downs Syndrome to buy into Medicaid. The moderator went on to read the rest of it, asking if he would also support a bill in Congress that would allow anyone to buy into Medicare...

(The bill she's referring to is H.R. 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act). So what happened when Pete Sessions heard that question? Tell us, Lisa:

He went ballistic!! He turned all red in the face, and yelled "Who wrote that??" He stared at the audience like a teacher would if someone threw a spit ball or something. There was some nervous seat-shifting, but nobody spoke up! He went on a rant about how the Family Opportunity Act only benefitted low income families, how he didn't personally benefit--and whoever wrote the question never said he benefitted. He angrily denounced any program that would expand the Medicare program, and kept demanding that the person who wrote the question stand up and talk to him about it. Well, nobody was going to admit to having written the question after he blew up like that! The moderator kind of gave a nervous laugh, and suggested that the person who wrote the question could ask him about it in private at the close of the Town Hall. Pete Sessions agreed to do that, but he left! As soon as Will Pryor got up there to answer questions, Pete Sessions took off! I can't remember what Will Pryor's reaction was, but he took that question before taking the ones directed specifically to him, saying that he didn't know about the bill, but said that if he was in Congress, he's look at it and see if it was feasible, and so forth--you know, the way a real Congressman should answer a question, without getting all mad about it!!!!

When Pete Sessions comes home during the August recess, Lisa would like for some brave soul among us to ask him what his plan is for healthcare reform. Lisa doesn't go to his town hall meetings anymore, because, as she said, she's afraid of him! One last word from Lisa:

Looking back, it's kind of funny, because at the time, Pete Sessions had just put this thing on his website calling Democrats "unhinged"! lol! I guess it takes one to know one. :)

Volunteers, anyone?

Pete Sessions' blimp blunder

Pete Sessions claims to not like earmarks. So how come he directed $1.6 million to a blimp company that's never actually made a blimp before? And how come he supports a blimp business that's not even based in his district? Politico wants to know...

Rep. Pete Sessions — the chief of the Republicans’ campaign arm in the House — says on his website that earmarks have become “a symbol of a broken Washington to the American people.”

Yet in 2008, Sessions himself steered a $1.6 million earmark for dirigible research to an Illinois company whose president acknowledges having no experience in government contracting, let alone in building blimps.

What the company did have: the help of Adrian Plesha, a former Sessions aide with a criminal record who has made more than $446,000 lobbying on its behalf.

Sessions spokeswoman Emily Davis defends the airship project as a worthwhile use of federal funds and says it could eventually lead to thousands of new jobs in Sessions’s Dallas-area district.

But the company that received the earmarked funds, Jim G. Ferguson & Associates, is based in the suburbs of Chicago, with another office in San Antonio — nearly 300 miles from Dallas...

Read more at Politico.

There's also a good op-ed on The Examiner by Dallas County Republican activist and transportation expert David Smith:

Second verse, same as the first. Unfortunately, nobody in the Republican Party has stepped up to challenge Rep. Pete Sessions. And in the Republican-dominated 32nd District of Texas, that means the lesser of all evils remains our Congressman.
U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions is once again being implicated in questionable practices in his tenure in Washington. Already his name has been linked to Ponzi scheme con artist "Sir" Alan Stanford, Malaysian investor-donors and casino deals in another State. Now the King of Corruption has to answer for why he saw fit to stand up in public and say, "Earmarks are bad" with John McCain then turn right around and gain funding for a hot air balloon company in Illinois, no less...

So, David Smith, interested in running for Congress? We have 2 Democrats interested, and probably a libertarian. What we need now is a Republican Party primary challenger...anyone?

Pete Sessions votes against small business research and innovation

In an overwhelming vote of bipartisanship, the House passed H.R. 2965, the Enhancing Small Business Research and Innovation Act. Pete Sessions was one of only 41 members of Congress to vote against this bill (See Roll No. 486). For those who would like more information about this bill, Tom Price (R-GA) offers an analysis at his website Republican Study Group (Tom Price voted in favor of the bill):

H.R. 2965 would reauthorize the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) and the Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) for two years, through September 30, 2011. The SBIR program provides grants meant to aid certain small businesses grow in scope trough three phases of project development, implementation, and commercialization. The STTR program requires certain federal agencies to set-aside a percentage of their extramural research and development budget for the purpose of developing projects produced by small businesses. In addition, the bill would expand the amount of agency set-asides for SBIR and STTR programs and increase the maximum amount of individual awards for small businesses...