TTH w/ Halverson on Health Care Reform

At 6:30pm CDT, I participated in the Telephone Town Hall with U.S. Representative Debbie Halverson (D - IL 11) on the subject of health care reform. Political Illiteracy's liveblogging feature is new, but I recorded as much as possible of the event as it happened. (See below.) I'm left with a bad taste in my mouth. This was not an open forum, it was spin. Congresswoman Halverson had the town hall moderated for content: only the questions her moderator approved were asked. The one caller who did get through with an opposing viewpoint was promptly hung up on. The Congresswoman's behavior, from failing to meet her constituents face to face, controlling what questions could be asked, to having to gall to hang up on a constituent mid-sentence, was nothing short of appalling. As for the ideas presented during the "telephone town hall", I've interspersed my comments throughout the relevant live updates below.