Kosmas to Vote Yes

Suzanne Kosmas announced on Friday that she will change her vote from No to Yes on ObamaCare. Although, she expressed reservations about the bill earlier this year saying it was “fiscally irresponsible” she intends to vote for it now. Here is her explanation in her own words:

Last November, I voted against health care reform because I did not believe the bill before the House was fiscally responsible. Health care reform is, at its core, an economic issue, and addressing rising costs was always one of my highest priorities. Last year’s bill simply did not do enough to rein in costs or to reduce the federal deficit.

“The bill before us now represents the single largest deficit reduction in over a decade, saving nearly $140 billion in the first 10 years and over $1.2 trillion in the decade to follow. This legislation provides truly fiscally responsible reform, and it contains the strongest measures ever enacted to help eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in the system, to rein in skyrocketing health care costs, and to stabilize Medicare while preserving benefits.

“Families and individuals can keep what they have and can continue choosing their doctors. Small businesses get $40 billion in tax credits to provide care and can join together in exchanges that offer affordable choices. And reform will close the donut hole in Medicare prescription drug coverage while improving benefits for our seniors and stabilizing the system over the long haul.

“This health care reform bill also holds insurance companies accountable by preventing them from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions, by making sure they can’t take away your coverage if you get sick, and by eliminating the arbitrary caps on coverage that send many families into bankruptcy.

“We now have a bill that, while not perfect, represents the change needed to put the economy and our health care system on a sustainable and positive path – a bill that includes numerous ideas from both Republicans and Democrats.

“It was my commitment to families and businesses in Florida’s 24th District to be a voice for fiscally responsible, common-sense solutions and positive change for our children and their children. This bill represents those priorities, and that is why I will vote yes.”

Tweetle Dum Tweetle Dee

The explosion of twitter has everyone tweeting these days about something. celebrities, news anchors, congressmen, senators, and even the white house seem to have something to tweet about.

But on twitter, you are not judged by the quality of your tweets but the number of followers that you have. A new website called We Follow tracks the number of followers for everyone who has submitted their tweet feed.

As I was poking around on there I came across some startling revelations that may reveal some insight into today’s culture. We follow ranks the top ten twitterers- regardless of category.

Our president Barack Obama, who thinks that he is the most important man in the world, has 1,623,513 followers and is ranked 6. But Oprah, CNN, Brittney Spears, Ellen DeGeneres are all ranked higher than him. In fact, Ellen has almost twice as many followers with 2,323,281. But she was slightly edged out by Ashton Kutcher at 2,610,810 who is ranked number 1. So I guess Ashton Kutcher punked all of you!

In the news category, George Stephanopoulos is ranked eight with 883,663 followers while David Gregory is ranked 12 with 761,379. Anderson Cooper ranked 24 with 272,951. And Katie Couric again brings up the rear at 49 with 37,614 followers.

The latest Nielsen ratings had David Gregory (NBC) in the lead followed by Charlie Gibson (ABC) and Katie Couric (CBS) bringing up the rear again. That is fairly consistent with their twitter rank. Charlie Gibson was not ranked. Maybe George Stephanopoulos should be anchoring the nightly news. Hmm…something for ABC to think about. Somehow, Katie Couric has more TV viewers than twitter followers. Must be a fluke!

Rush, Hannity, Glenn Beck are not listed and have no ranking.

In the politics category, Al Gore is ranked 2, with 1,156,450 followers slightly behind Obama with 1,156,450. Makes you wonder exactly, how Obama won the last election, since Al Gore has the personality of a tree! John McCain is ranked 5 with 931,603- behind NPR and Time Magazine. But he has more followers than all the nightly news anchors. Martha Stewart was slightly more popular than McCain with 969,514 followers. Mitt Romney is ranked 59 with 12,255 followers- Katie Couric has twice as many followers as him. Hmmm…

Under the blogger category Perez Hilton is ranked 2 with 1,146,482 slightly behind P Diddy Sean Combs who is ranked 1 with 1,388,423.

So what does all this mean? Well, Obama won the presidency with a strong grassroots campaign on the internet- using a variety of social media that was largely ignored by the Republicans. While our party is trying to delve into the arena now- we still have a long way to catch up to get our message out.

The numbers also reveal that politics is not high on twitter users minds. This may just be a reflection of the attitude of voter apathy- or the frustration of voters to effect change. It might also be a result of the sluggish economy- people tuning out politicians and tuning into entertainers like Ellen and Oprah.

But the fact remains that twittering the future. More people are tapping into mobile news with their phones and ipods- especially in our on demand society. The more ways that they can keep in touch with their constituents the better.- The first rule in politics is to go where the votes are- and the sooner that politicians adapt to the new media the more likely they are to appeal to younger voters.

The US has 535 legislators (US House and Senate). As of now, 170 on twitter. Florida is allotted 27 legislators. Out of those 27 only 7 are on twitter. Of those, 5 are Republican. They include:

Let’s encourage more of our representatives at the state and federal levels to use twitter and other online social marketing sites to keep in touch with their constituents. Tweet the Vote!

Here’s a Tip Hillary!


So, Hillary didn’t tip the waitress, again.

Here’s a tip Hillary… that waitress was a democratic, working class, poor, single mother trying to raise two kids. Essentially, your consituent and you can’t find some change in your pocket to help support her and her family?

Oh.. that’s right, you think the government should take care of her. Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret.. YOU ARE THE GOVERNMENT!

I wouldn’t count on that waitress giving you a tip in the form of a contribution, if you know what I mean.