Bill Nelson in Bradenton Today

Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson is holding another Town Hall meeting in the Bay Area today. Nelson will be at the Bradenton City Hall at 3:30 this afternoon.

Earlier this month, Nelson held a Town Hall meeting in Pasco County. That's where he ran into Susan S. The result of that encounter was a diary by Susan atop the Rec List at DailyKos.

As Susan wrote it on DKos, that encounter went like this:

Nelson decided that since no one else had brought up the Iraq War, he would tell us his take on it. Unfortunately for him, he began his explanation with a disclaimer about how he and the Congress had been lied to about the intelligence going into the war. Well that was it for me. I yelled out to him:

"Then why, when you know they can't be trusted, when you know they lie to you, did you vote for the FISA bill that gives the incompetent Bush administration more power to spy on American citizens?"

Then, when the St. Petersburg Times mischaracterized her confrontation with Nelson, Susan wrote an excellent letter taking the Times to task for their careless reporting.

So, fellow Kossacks, anybody going to be in Bradenton today?

Susan S - On the Money Again

Susan S, whose courage to stand up for the truth translated into a Top of The Rec List Diary on DailyKos, has done it again. After the St. Petersburg Times mischaracterized her confrontation with Sen. Bill Nelson on FISA at Nelson's Pasco County Town Hall Meeting on Monday, Susan did not take it sitting down.

Susan wrote this excellent letter to the editor of the Times. The Times article characterized Susan's challenge to Nelson this way:

Why did he vote for a bill that allows expanded secret eavesdropping of foreign terrorists' phone calls?

Susan, in her letter, points out that her actual questions was:

why did he trust the Bush administration with expanded power to spy on American citizens without a warrant?

Susan's letter goes on to what, for me, is the money quote:

My outrage and that being expressed in editorials around the country is not about spying on foreign terrorists, it's about spying on American citizens.

This type of inaccurate reporting by the mainstream media (on the meaning of the FISA vote) is exactly the reason that an embarrassing number of American citizens still think Saddam was involved in the planning of 9/11. It might also explain why the public hasn't taken to the streets with pitchforks over the decimation of our Constitution by the Bush administration and its enablers in Congress.

I stopped writing this post to watch Kos and Harold Ford on Meet The Press. One of the points that stuck me in that "debate" was Markos saying that his biggest accomplishment was providing a forum where politicians and citizens could could converse without the mainstream "media filter". After MTP, I watched Harold Troxler on Brendan McLaughlin's excellent show, Flashpoint. At the end of their discussion McLuaghlin asked Troxler about the future of the printed newspaper. Troxler was quite right in describing the need amongst the public for good journalistic information. Maybe the newspaper poohbahs ought to be thinking more about the filters they put on that information.

Thank you, Susan, for exposing that MSM filter. I also want to thank you for giving credit where credit is due. You rightly pointed out that Congresswoman Kathy Castor voted against the FISA bill, as did the vast majority of the Democrats in Congress. Now we just need to keep working on our recalcitrant minority Dems.

Susan S Tops The List

Our own Florida Kossack, Susan S has a diary atop the Rec List right now at DailyKos. Susan attended the Pasco County Town Hall meeting of Senator Bill Nelson today. She was all prepared to ask him about his vote on the FISA bill last Friday. He didn't call on her. He did talk about how he was lied to to get him to vote for the Iraq war.

That was it for Susan. She did what any good citizen is supposed to do. She called Nelson to account. You need to read her diary, if you haven't already. As Susan was posting her diary, I was writing one here about Nelson's prior town hall meeting that morning in Pinellas. I was styling my meager effort as a (mostly) straight up news story. That's pretty much how I attended the town hall, just as a reporter. Susan attended the Pasco town hall as a citizen. Susan had the better idea.

Ironically, I ended my story on the Pinellas town hall with this:

Nelson continued his vacation with another Town Hall meeting later in the day in Pasco County. Enjoy your "vacation", Senator Nelson.

I wondered how much he enjoyed it when Susan was done with him.

Susan, you rock!