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Besides the chilling prospect of 21st-century America morphing into a cold war state — with Sheryl Crow in charge of toilet-paper rationing — there are also delusional fears about the government tapping bank accounts and convening “death panels,” as Sarah Palin dubbed them, to exploit the cost-saving potential of euthanizing the old and disabled.

- Maureen 'Cobra' Dowd, today's NYT op-ed

Gotta hand it to the GOP-stoppers and their cradle AND grave oldies show. Defend the unborn. Protect the undead. For everyone else there will be lower taxes and the question of whether the Granny-killing current President was born in the wrong country.

Maybe President Obama needs to speechify what the town hate debates are really about -- Chuck Heston's stunning realization that the life-sustaining wafer that keeps the depraved NYC of 2040 regular is ... is ... Barak, you've got to tell them that health insurance reform is ... people!

I'm guessing that the Dems think they have this thing locked up based on two calculations:

- Their sizable majorities
- Placate wavering centralists by foregoing Single Payer (not enough cashable campaign chips from Single Payer lobby as subtext)

What if the CBO's cred is greater than Obama's charm? What if it's just simply unAmerican to spread our CT-scans, ultrasounds, and stress tests around to the swelling margins of our most compromised citizens? And how did his location folks find six African-Americans to appear in the establishing shot in Portsmouth yesterday when there are seven in all New Hampshire?

What if American employers who never signed up to man the coverage lifeboats decide they would sooner let this legislation sink than swim? Is it really in their self-interest to de-privatize the risk pool? They can always shed a few more head counts. Otherwise social capitalism takes a hit the next time the boom goes bust. Then it's gonna be more than donut holes and infirmed elders falling through those safety nets.

I hope we Americans are not as confident as our Democractic majorities. This is not our father's silent majority that needs to clear its collective throat in the cry for health reform.

I called my congressional office to see what I could do about helping the cause and my attempt fell to the bottom of one staffer's VM box who skirts in-between district offices when the future of the economic world is not at stake. I think I'll ride by bike down to the site of his telephone today. I have no tissue story to tell. But I can show up in a public setting at an appointed time.