This has been a rather busy news day in Oconee County, Georgia

The turn out at the Oconee County Civic Center today for 10th District United States Congressman Paul Broun's Town Hall on Health Care was very diverse, packed as much as I have ever seen it for any event, and generally well behaved. I admit I was only there for a very few minutes as it took the better part of my fortunately early lunch hour to get there to snap these few shots.

I want to thank Shawn Wheeler at the Oconee County Civic Center for putting this event together with little notice and probably less appreciation.
Also Sheriff Scott Berry and his deputies who made sure the unusual parking situation did not get out of hand. I parked near right field at the Warriors baseball stadium. I doubt the Civic Center has seen that many people when school was also in session. They took a potential colossal clusterf*ck and made it work smoothly, perfectly and to the point. People did get rowdy and some blood was flowing stronger coming out then going in. Ryan Lewis tried to pass a bag of his passed kidney stones to Congressman Broun to illustrate that basic medical necessities are not covered by the  bare minimum insurance with the $10,000 deductible.

I also commend Congressman Paul Broun for coming down to talk to us. But I also wanted to let him know no one I communicated with saw any buses of people coming from any where near the Civic Center at the time of your event this morning, despite what you said to Glenn Beck. Aside from the rare charter of a UGA bus or a regular deluge of school buses, there is no mass transit in Oconee County, and being that you are a resident I would expect that you would be aware of that already.  But again my thanks for speaking today and I apologize for not seeing the entire power point presentation.

Thanks for coming and asking questions at this event. The turnout was fantastic on both sides. I think September will see a real turn around on this issue in favor of some sort of public option. Medicare has done a lot for my dad. I hope it does a lot for me some day soon. I want to see more insurance choices and competition and elimination of the pre-existing conditions clause preventing patients from changing providers.

The ironies in attendance were almost too numerous to mention in some of the angrier attendees in the front row. I saw former Bogart City Council member Woody Bruce get his blood pressure shot through the roof with some of his pointed displeasure with the massive turn out by more enlightened elements attempting to foster some sort of understanding and compromise. We are not going to solve anything by shouting at each other.

But please let the civil discourse continue. I saw a nice piece on WNEG about the event on the 10 pm cast that I will try to link to later. Saw Erica and Pat from the Oconee County Democrats. I honestly thought there would be more media there. Blake Aued did a nice live blog and finally got his chat label fastened on correctly a few strokes in. For all the hype, it had some fizzle. No one's minds were changed I would wager. But again I am grateful for those peaceably assembling. I love politics and I love Oconee County. I had to be there if even for just a few fleeting camera clicks.

The event was covered by the other local media in a busy day where Principal John Osborne was reinstated at nearby (3 miles) with a leak on the net of the website of the school then Blake Giles scooped the actual agreement although even Atlanta evening news by then had essentially reported such. It was a big day in a big way for media new and old in Oconee County and I am always fascinated at how we are portrayed outside of the Athens sphere of influence.

I am glad John Osborne is back at North Oconee High School. It became clear very fast that it had to come to pass. But for now let's stick to the topic at hand with a few more random photos of the few minutes I was at the Oconee Civic Center before noon today.