Today settled into dreary. A nice 40 degree drop from last week's protesting weather, with plenty of clouds. I'll have to debate how much of a fair weather protester I am when the real weather sets in.

At the beginning of the hour, I had a nice lady stop by and ask me what SCHIP was. She didn't associate the acronym with the legislation, but knew what it was. We had a really good discussion of what could motivate President Bush to veto the legislation. Our conclusion was that he is simply out of touch with the whole concept of poor people, and lacks sufficient imagination or intelligence to make that kind of leap.

Speaking of imagination, we have a new sign in the mix, courtesy of my friend and mother-in-law, Dev.

I can't believe the lies and slander that the right wing spin machine unleashed on the Frost family this week. I spent several disturbing hours flipping through right-wing blogs trying to make sense of their whole position. I read some truly awful things, as well as some unbelievable attempts at self-justification. Did you know that according to these right wing geniuses you can insure a family of four for $70 a month? Yep. That's right. They just plain make this stuff up, because that number is just plain wrong. To insure a family of four is on the order of $1200 a month.

I have to conclude that the fewer facts they have to work with, the more vicious, ugly, and irrational they become. There is no dialog with them. They just want someone to kick. They will use any degree of half-truth or outright lie to make their case, and the shakier the case, the more outrageous they are. What I don't understand is where they get all this energy to hate poor people so much. They all need to just calm down.

This week's Iraq care package was the men's toiletries package from the good folks at TreatAnySoldier.