I'm a bit disappointed that they announced this via email TODAY, being the same day they're doing the first one.

Phoning it in. I am not surprised.

This is deep undercover even for Eshoo. What does she look like? I couldn't tell you. She only comes to the district every couple of years to claim her landslide victory then spends the rest of the time in DC and on junkets.

Hmmm... "landslide victory" maybe that is the reason. The majority of the voters here in Mountain View reflexively vote Democrat regardless the candidate so they get what they deserve. Unfortunately for the rest of us we get a Representative who does not even show up.

Vote her out! I plan on voting against EVERY incumbent in our next election.

I am not surprised if she doesn’t hear any thing against the health care bill then she can vote with Pelosi as she always does and still sleep at night turn her out in 10

I'm glad to see that she is for health care and that is is reaching out to talk about all the FALSE information being spread by the health insurance companies and the "nay-sayer" Republicans.

Get the facts... Web Link

Pretty much everybody is for health care. Except children, who as The Onion reported, are strongly opposed to it:

Web Link

Seriously, though, if you look at who is showing up and acting all boisterous at town halls all across the country, it's not being astroturfed by Republicans. It's old people showing up because they are concerned about having their Medicare messed with.

I actually wrote to her and got a canned response. Citing a lot of statistics about the lack of affordable health care and how this is suppose to insure 97% of Americans. There is this lack of desire to talk about how to pay for this or the fact that government agency doesn not have any positive track record in managing anything on budget. The bottom line is that she will vote yes on the health reform the way it is written without consideration of the feedback. I like to see DC people eat their own food when this gets passed.

It's interesting that she is introducing an amendment for "generic drugs" when she is also the chief proponent of new multi-year exclusive drug patents for genetic engineering (i.e. local pharma-companies). It probably won't be too suprising to see who has given her major contributions!

It's not always the local Demo ticket voters who are at fault - its also Republicans who think businesses can do no wrong. As a research engineer - I'd like to know why one research/development technology deserves special protection (and more customer money) vs drugs developed by any other technology. Let the technologies (and companies) compete in a uniform market! [I also thought a $3B 'stem cell subsidy' was crazy - but got outvoted]

I'm also disappointed that Eshoo is having telephone talks instead of town hall meetings on health care reform, especially since she's holding an in-person town hall meeting on highspeed rail. However, Eshoo voted against Medicare Part D in part because it doesn't allow gov't to negotiate with drug corps to lower prices. She gets reelected because votes with her constituents who in this area are more liberal and work in or support new technology. I hope people don't decide now to vote out all incumbents, the mess this country is in is mostly due to the previous administration and the Obama administration has only had a few months to try to fix things. My own view on health care reform is that the US should move away from employment-based insurance. Although I have very good insurance through my employer, it's a disadvantage to American workers in the international labor market because when employers hire in most if not all other countries they don't have that expense. More employed Americans means more tax revenue and lower government expenses. What I think should be tried was proposed years ago, extend the Federal Employee's Group Health Insurance program to everyone. A choice of many private insurance plans with clear standards, one set of forms, and lower costs.

I sent my request to participate within minutes of receiving the e-mail. Got an auto-reply back saying they would get back to me. Then nothing...no response, no phone call at the appointed time, nothing.

Our colleagues at the Palo Alto Weekly also were unable to connect up with Eshoo's "telephone town hall meeting," which they'd hoped to cover.

However, just now I received the following press release from Eshoo's office:

Eshoo Hosts Telephone Town Hall for San Mateo County Constituents

Last night, Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo (D-Palo Alto) hosted the first of a series of Healthcare Telephone Town Halls for her constituents in the 14th Congressional District. Last night's Town Hall included constituents from the communities of Atherton, Belmont, East Palo Alto, El Granada, Half Moon Bay, Menlo Park, Pescadero, Portola Valley, Redwood City, and Woodside in San Mateo County

During the hour-long call, Congresswoman Eshoo answered questions from constituents covering a range of issues such as private insurers dropping patients because of pre-existing conditions, the impact of proposed legislation on small businesses, a discussion about the public option, and whether the proposed bill would add to the National Debt. A total of 7,040 people participated in the Town Hall meeting.

Last night's call was the first in a series of Town Hall meetings, with additional Telephone Town Halls scheduled for Monday evening at 6:40 pm, Thursday afternoon at 1:00 pm, and Thursday evening at 6:40 pm. Congresswoman Eshoo plans to have Town Hall meetings in every community of her Congressional District before Congress reconvenes in September.

To hear a webcast of last night Town Hall meeting, go to Web Link

For further information about the Telephone Town Halls, visit Congresswoman Eshoo's website at www.eshoo.house.gov.

Over 7,000 people from San Mateo country called-in. Wow. That is incredible. Most people cannot even name their Congressional rep. Yet, her she got over 7,000 people to call-in. Incredible. No, that's not the word I was looking for. Hmm ... ah, yes, it was incredulous.

I got through about half of the recording last night. All softball questions. Don't know if that's because nobody asked tough questions or because the tough ones were screened.

Why is Rep. Eshoo hosting a meeting on High Speed Rail? This issue is more of a state and local issue rather than a District 14 issue, and therefore should be addressed by representatives of the state legislature.
I called her office (650-323-2984) to express this concern.

(to be fair, she had initially scheduled a general-topic live town hall meeting for July 25 but she had to cancel it due to legislation kept Congress in session that Saturday).

Anyway, I recommend all citizens contact her (by phone or by her website) regularly for all issues that are important to you.

No big surprise here. Who wants to defend the indefensible. Institute another govt program that will not be financially sustainable

Her majesty cannot take time to meet her constiutents 'face to face'. I agree, it is hard to defend the indefesible and it is time for her to go

I'm her constitutent in Geneva, and I've had to file for asylum due to an intelligence case. She knows damned well about it and she won't answer me.

This woman should be booted all the way to Contra Costa county with one swift kick.