A TOWN HALL REPORT FROM TENNESSEE: Reader Kathie Fuston writes:

Last week we attended Congressman Lincoln Davis’s Town Hall Meeting. It was the most unsatisfying event I’ve ever attended. It was packed, and the doors were locked prior to the start. The County Mayor and the Sheriff were turned away! And they are Democrats! We were there early, and had seats. For 3 hours, Davis sat on the stage with a foot high stack of paper in front of him (one of the proposed bills), while dozens of citizens lined both aisles to speak. Five people were pro-Obamacare, and all the rest were opposed. Tort reform and insurance sales across state lines were suggested by many. There was one 85 year old nut that called Obama an a**hole, but that was as ugly as it got – and he was lightly booed. Several people had read the proposed legislation, and quoted page and line, then explained why they were opposed. Also, many people pointed out that he was sent to represent middle Tennessee, not the Democratic party. These were normal middle-class people of all ages – the young were as concerned as the seniors.

At the end, Davis had the opportunity to win friends and respect by just acknowledging that he understood their concerns. He chose to ‘recognize’ a guy in the audience from his hometown, and asked if the guy remembered his grandad, who had a 50 caliber gun. Then he said that he was a big supporter of gun rights, and that he was a Baptist, and would never support a health care bill that stated that abortion would be government funded. It was unbelievable – he may as well have patted everyone on the head! He didn’t address the concerns of the group, and I will surely work hard for whoever runs against him next time.

Doesn’t sound very bright on his part.

THOUGHTS FROM 1799: “Let me place myself in the President’s chair, at the head of a party in this country, aiming to extend the influence of the governing powers at the expence of the governed; to increase the authority and prerogative of the Executive, and to reduce by degrees to a mere name, the influences of the people. How should I set about it? What system should I pursue?”

AFL-CIO PRESIDENT as head of New York Fed.

OUCH: “A few weeks ago, Eric Holder saw nothing wrong with Black Panthers using billy clubs to intimidate voters. Today, he thinks intimidating terrorists with cigars is a crime. Holder is the one who should be answering tough questions under oath.”

MORE NEWS ON THE RATHERGATE SCANDAL: Mary Mapes knew before she put the story on the air that George W. Bush, the alleged slacker, had in fact volunteered to go to Vietnam.

BILL O’REILLY: This is why people hate lawyers. What? People hate lawyers? Why wasn’t I told?

JOHN STOSSEL: Every Obama Critic a Racist.

A FALSE-FLAG OPERATION IN DENVER? Lefty vandalizes Democratic Party HQ, Tea Partiers blamed. Some people are suspicious.

All I know is that while these folks are talking about violence on the right, it seems like the actual violence is coming from the left.

UPDATE: Denver vandal has an SEIU connection?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Moe Lane: “I think that it’s time that extremist fringe supporters of health care rationing stop using violence to accomplish their goals. It’s not going to derail the democratic process, and it’s bad for the country in general.”

Plus, more from Westword.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: Reuters: Democratic fund-raiser charged in Citigroup fraud. “A major fund-raiser for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats was charged by federal prosecutors in New York in connection with a scheme to defraud Citigroup Inc (C.N). Hassan Nemazee, 59, was accused of one count of bank fraud for allegedly seeking a fraudulent $74 million loan from Citigroup’s banking unit, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Tuesday. Nemazee was a national finance chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, and a supporter of Sen. John Kerry’s run for the White House in 2004. He typically donates more than $100,000 annually to Democratic political candidates, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Charles Schumer, and sits on the board of the Iranian American Political Action Committee. . . . Nemazee is listed as having been among the top ‘bundlers’ of contributions to Obama’s presidential campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org, a website maintained by a nonpartisan research group, the Center for Responsive Politics.”

A GUN-TOTING PROTESTER THAT MSNBC isn’t upset about.

Maybe it’s because he’s white, not black? Racists.

JAMES TARANTO: Could Obama Lose Afghanistan?

Unfortunately, if Afghanistan is lost, it won’t just be Obama who’s losing.

ED DRISCOLL: Down the Memory Hole at CNN. With Suzanne Malveaux.

TOMORROW NIGHT: A Town Hall in Middletown, NJ, with Rep. Rush Holt. Plus, a get-together with Rep. John Adler in Westampton.

OBAMA SUSPENDS HONDURAS VISA SERVICE. “Never let it be said that the Obama administration took a defeat graciously. When the Honduran Supreme Court rejected the deal that Costa Rica offered, called the San Jose Accord, that would have reinstated Manuel Zelaya as president, the Obama administration had a choice: allow Honduras to make its own decisions and accept them, or try to pressure Hondurans to bend to American will. Guess which path they chose? The White House firmly believes in negotiation rather than law enforcement so much that they will suspend visa services with an American ally in order to enforce a policy cheered by Cuba and Venezuela. That makes as much sense as getting involved in the dispute in the first place.” Humility is for when you’re dealing with Iranians.

HUGH HEWITT: How to stop Obamacare for ten bucks.

FROM ORIN KERR, thoughts on the unpopularity of lawyers.

THE JOYS OF shoot-and-share.

CELEBRITIES who date porn stars. And the downside: “It starts to feel like you’re making a movie every time you have sex.”

AN EASY WAY to improve law school grades.

THAT’S, LIKE, SUCH A BUMMER, DUDE: Regular marijuana usage robs men of sexual highs. No similar effect on women, though.

VIDEO: Tracy Quan critiques the “pull-out” method.

Related: The number-one reason why condoms break.

UPDATE: “Leave our penises alone!”

WHY DO AMERICANS LIKE EUROPE SO MUCH? “Without the pretty buildings, what would often most strike Americans is the cramped space and a succession of petty inconveniences.”

I’M SHOCKED, SHOCKED TO FIND THAT Charles Rangel has undisclosed assets. “House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel, already beset by a series of ethics investigations, has disclosed more than $500,000 in previously unreported assets. Among the new items on Rangel’s amended 2007 financial disclosure report were an account at the Congressional Federal Credit Union worth at least $250,000, an investment account with at least $250,000, land in southern New Jersey and stock in PepsiCo and fast food conglomerate Yum! Brands. None of those investments appeared on the original report, which was filled out by hand and filed in May 2008.”

But he’s got the Sunlight Foundation admitting error: “Obviously, the 28 occasions we tallied of Rangel omitting information from his financial disclosures is inaccurate–it’s too low.”

REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.

I AGREE: Computers are more romantic than typewriters.