Real American Blogger

First a Monday morning Separated at "Birth" for ya (sent in by a loyal reader):

Nebraska state Senator (and former Air Force Lieutenant Colonel) Bob Krist...

And G.I. Joe:

(real American...logos)

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After our last post about the protesters at Senator Ben Nelson's west Omaha office, we received lots of comments about who could park where and when and why.

We received this fairly detailed response from one of the protesters, and thought we'd let you see the whole thing:

I am a member of the Omaha Chapter of Americans for Prosperity.


It is our group who has been sponsoring the weekly protests at Ben Nelson's office every Tuesday for the past six months. I just wanted to clear up some misinformation generated by the bloggers.


No matter how bad the weather we were there. Most Tuesdays we met with his staff. Right after his final cloture vote he kicked us out of his parking lot on 76th and Pacific. We then parked across the street and continued to protest. In January we found out that he was moving his office. Right up to the move he refused to tell us where.We found out anyway.


He moved from a highly visible location with plenty of public parking to a off-the-beaten-path location with no public parking within several blocks.


The first Tuesday at the new location, we went into his office and asked what the "rules of engagement" would be. His staff told us we couldn't park in the parking lot because we were protesting. We argued that we were constituents, petitioning our elected official. (We had requested a meeting with Nelson several times but he wouldn't meet with us.) We asked if MoveOn or Organizing for America came would they let them park in the parking lot and they said yes. The staff had let them use their private parking lot in January for a protest. They also told us that the other tenants, all doctors, wouldn't want us parking there.


The following week we got permission from one of the doctors to park in the back parking lot, as it was a large lot and hardly anyone parked there. We also found out that the doctors were not opposed to our protests.


Next week, during our protest, the building management came out and told us if we didn't leave in five minutes, she would have our cars towed. We told her we had permission from a tenant and she said that didn't matter. A couple of days later, all the doctors got an email from management saying that all "unauthorized" cars would be towed. So what's "unauthorized?" They have patients who park there.


Last week we parked our cars off-site and either walked or shuttled to Nelson's office. We had the best turnout yet. They called a tow truck but there were no cars to tow. I wonder if the management got stuck with the bill. I think the truck driver was amused.


We will continue to park off site. They can't kick us off the sidewalk. We won't protest this week in honor of Holy Week. This week we will pray that Nelson finally sees the light.


No phony self-deprecating ditty like Nelson's last night at the Press Club nor $500.000 in commercials defending his vote or another whiny op-ed in the Omaha World Herald will deny the fact that two-thirds of Nebraskans opposed the government-run health care bill. He did not listen to us. We will continue to protest until he does.


We are asking him to admit his vote for the Health Care Bill was a mistake and to work with us to have it declared unconstitutional or repealed.


By the way, Nelson knows this bill is designed to bankrupt insurance companies and replace them with a public option. All of his explanations for voting for the bill are all over the map and even contradictoy. He simply sold us out.

So there you have it kids. Interesting, no?

Funny that Nelson's office thought they could keep the new location a secret and that a tow-truck was called when there was nothing to tow. Why would someone call a tow-truck if there were no illegally parked cars? Hmmm.

In any case, remember all those cars back in 2008 with the Obama bumper stickers right next to the "Dissent is Patriotic" sticker?

Don't see those so much anymore...

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The gang over at the Objective Conservative believes Democrat Gary Kudym will be the selected to fill Chuck Sigerson's spot on the Omaha City Council.

We have no reason to disagree. Feel free to discuss.

(And while you're at it, be sure check out some of the other Nebraska political blogs: the always great Uncle Wiggly's Heartland Notebook , Right Wing Professor, and Plains Feeder, amongst others.)