Yeah, what Harry Taylor said...

Add Harry Taylor, 61, a Charlotte NC real estate broker, to my list of heroes.

At one of George W. Bush's "town hall meetings" in Charlotte, this is what Taylor had to say to the President:

"While I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water. If I were a woman, you'd like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice about whether I can abort a pregnancy.

"What I wanted to say to you is that I -- in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened, by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency. I feel like, despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself.

"I really appreciate the courtesy of allowing me to speak what I'm saying to you right now," Taylor said. "That is part of what this country's about."
At one point during this, Bush laughed at the man, saying "I'm not your favorite guy." What kind of President laughs at and mocks a very serious comment like this? Bush is disrespectful and obviously unabashed. Taylor, on the other hand, speaks calmly, respectfully, and is even complementary at the end.

These town hall meetings of Bush's are a mockery of intelligent discussion. They're no more serious than a press conference with the latest boy band filled with hundreds of swooning prepubescent girls. It's a fan club is what it is. Most people at these meetings stand up to say they agree completely with the President, wish him luck, send him their prayers, commend his courage, kiss his feat, praise the lord, and dance around with poisonous snakes. I think you have to make one hit for the Republican party before you can get a ticket to these things, to prove that you'd kill for the President. The liberals and people who do not agree or like Bush (the large majority of the country at this point) who do get through, well, that's who the attendents of the next town meeting have to kill to get in.

They're staged, screened, washed, rinsed and repeated the same in every city. Obviously, because any random sampling of Americans would turn up a majority of people who don't like him and wouldn't have nice things to say to him.

THANK YOU, Harry Taylor, for representing the majority.