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Sic Semper Tyrannis

Thursday, May 29, 2008

My date with Paul Ryan, dreamy blue-eyed Congressman from Janesville, Wisconsin

Yeah, we hung out together with some of his AFP friends at his Tuesday evening Town Hall meeting.

Here's us at Janesville's Municipal Building (for some reason Janesvillians don't call it City Hall):

I'm the one in the green shirt, holding the camera.

It was fun. I arrived late, got to sit on a table in back so I could see all the action and hear most of it, and even got to ask a question. All firsts! Well, not the 'arrived late' part.

Wiggy was there, but he had to get on the bus, so minimal chatting. That's the back of his head in the bottom left of our pic.

I caught a lot of oil info from Ryan (with many cool graphs and charts). During the current and following gas crunch, if the man gets his info about the extent of US reserves out - and the fact that one big holding off the coast of Florida that's off-limits is already being tapped by others, things could change. See more on the oil crisis here.

I'll have to check the rest of the plan (there's a flat tax of 25%(?) in there, which is close to my proposed generous cut for Uncle Sam of 20%), and I've been personally invited by Paul to share info and suggestions for prison/criminal justice reform.*

Yes, I'm the person in the back with the badly bobbled question about his plan for that (there is no plan). Public speaking is harder than Ryan makes it look!

*You bet I will have suggestions on prison & CJ reform, but that's another homework session. Today I'll be moving on from the oil crisis (yes, I'm google chumming that one) to Malaria and other diseases in Uganda, particularly among the Karamojong warriors with whom I'll be working in July.