Al Nye The Lawyer Guy

Lawyers: Are you still hard to find online?

If you don’t have a website, blog, or other type of social media presence online, then you’re missing an opportunity to connect with your clients and attract more business. But if you’re not particularly web-savvy and running low on funds, what can you do?

Check out this site for 50 Free Resources For Lawyers To Create Their Own Websites. These’s good information there for every lawyer.

Small Claim Cases in Maine

A small claim action in Maine is any suit for less than $6,000, not counting interest and costs.  The statute describes it as "a simple, speedy and informal court procedure" to resolve these types of claims. Though the compensation may not be large, the issues are often still very important to the parties.

 

A small claims action can be brought in the District Court where the transaction occurred, where the defendant lives, where the defendant has a place of business or, if the defendant is a corporation or partnership, where its registered agent resides.

 

A statement of claim is filed in the District Court and served on the defendant. Unlike most matters, the defendant doesn't have to file an answer. It is presumed that the facts in the claim are denied. The court has the ability to send the parties to mediation, and often does if a mediator is available.

 

The most unusual thing about small claims matters is that the rules of evidence mostly don't apply. This is to allow everyone to file their own claim without needing to hire a lawyer.

 

In most cases, you wouldn't want a lawyer to represent you in a small claim matter because their legal fee would be too high to justify the expense. And unlike lawyers in personal injury cases, no lawyer would generally agree to a no win, no fee arrangement.

 

So when should you hire a lawyer in a small claims matter?

 

One type of case might be when you need help finding the proper way to serve a defendant. Another might be if you're uncomfortable with confronting the other party and want someone to stand up for your rights in court. Finally, you may want to see a lawyer for the limited purpose of reviewing your small claim with you and making suggestions about how to win at trial. That way, you're only spending a reduced amount on legal fees to get limited advice.

New England Patriots Upend Miami Dolphins

Face it, this was a sweet win. The Dolphins embarrassed the Pats last year with their Wildcat offense and for a few plays yesterday, it looked like they might do it again.

But have no fear, the Pats regrouped at half time and went on to beat the Dolphins 27–17 in a satisfying win.

Randy Moss had a couple of fine catches and a devastating stiff arm that led to a 71–yard touchdown.

Except for an early interception, Brady had a solid game with over 300 years of passing.

Ane yet… and yet… the game was actually much closer than the score would indicate. The Pats should keep that in mind all week while they are gearing up for Manning and the undefeated Colts. The defense will be pressed to their limits next week.

50 Great Blogs For and By Law Professors

Although I have no clue why, my blog was included under the “Miscellaneous” category for 50 Great Blogs For and By Law Professors. As far as I know, I’ve never written anything specifically toward law professors, so I can only assume that my site was included for New England law professors who might be interested in the Patriots, Red Sox, or Celtics. 

But hey, any time someone wants to list my blog as “great” is fine with me.

 

Vanished by Joseph Finder

 

Vanished

By Joseph Finder

St. Martin's Press

$25.99, hard cover, 421 pages, 978-0-312-37908-7 (2009)

 

            Joseph Finder just keeps getting better and better with each successive book. Vanished is one that you don't want to start without having some free time on hand – because you'll have a tough time putting it down. (I began the book early Saturday morning and finished it before going to work on Monday.)

            Lauren Heller and her husband, Roger, were walking home after having dinner at his favorite Japanese restaurant in Georgetown. Suddenly, they're brutally attacked. Lauren awakens a day later in the hospital and immediately asks about her husband.

                        "Is Roger okay?"

                        Silence.

                        "Where's Roger?"

                        No reply.

                        She felt the cold tendrils of fear in her stomach.

                        "Where is he? Is Roger okay or not?"

            "A couple of policemen came by to talk to you," he said, "But you don't have to talk to anyone until you feel up to it."

"The police?" Tears welled in her eyes. "Oh, dear God, what happened to him?

A long pause.

"Oh, God, no," Lauren said. "Tell me he's okay."

"I'm sorry, Ms. Heller," the doctor said.

"What? Please. God, tell me he's alive!"

"I wish I could, Ms. Heller. But we don't know where your husband is."

 

            Their 14-year old son, Gabe, calls the one person he can think of that can find his father, Uncle Nick. Having served in the Special Forces in Iraq and now working as a high-powered investigator for a private intelligence firm, Nick Heller will do anything necessary to find his brother.

            What follows is the typical one-man-against-insurmountable-odds story detailing Nick's search to uncover what happened to his brother. Finder's plot twists keep the narrative moving and his writing is crisp and polished.

Who can resist a fight scene with an unarmed Nick against three men – one carrying a .45 Ruger, another pointing a Taser, and the third with flex cuffs.

I felt Talor clap a hand on my left shoulder, "Hands behind your back," he shouted, jamming his Ruger against my spine. "Do it now!"

At that instant, I stumbled, but not forward.

I fell backwards, right into him, catching him off guard. The momentum sent his gun hand sliding forward, through the gap between my torso and my right arm.

I didn't have time to think. Lighting-fast, I slipped my hands over his wrist while twisting to my right, his elbow vised tight against my side, and pulled down on his straight arm with a sudden sharp force, hyper-extending it.

The elbow is a complicated joint. It's a hinge made out of three bones that come together with a lot of ligaments and tendons. Most people can flex their elbows nearly one hundred and eight degrees. Force it beyond that, and you'll wedge the bony tip of the ulna under the end of the humerus, and bad things can happen. The bones can separate, or fracture, or simply snap.

I heard a snap.

 

Vanished is escapism at its very best.

Buy it here on Amazon.

 

Yankees Win World Series (Yawn)

The New York Yankees won another World Series. Ho Hum.

Is this a surprise to many people? As I posted recently, the Yankees far outspend any other team in baseball. In 2009, the salary of Alex (steroid) Rodriquez was more than Pittsurgh paid their entire roster.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the Yankees won the World Series with their 1^st place $208,000 payroll and their $1.5 billion new stadium. You get what you pay for.

No, what would come as a surprise would be major league baseball finally doing something to bring parity to a sport where one team unfairly gets to spend whatever it takes to win.

Of the 8 teams in the playoffs, 6 were among the top 9 payrolls in the sport. Of the 4 teams in the American League playoffs, 3 of them were in the top 6 payrolls based on salary.

Duh.

All of the playoff teams were led by the money-is-no-object eventual winner, the New York Yankees.

Just Imagine a Team...

Just imagine a team that played a professional sport where money was no object. Imagine a sport where there was not even a hint of an attempt to make teams comparable to one another in the amount of money they could spend to acquire and keep talented professional players.

Imagine a single team that could far outspend all other teams — spending 6, 7, or even 8 times what other teams in the same sport spent on the salaries of their players.

Imagine a team that in 2009 paid it’s top 4 players more than the total salaries of all active players on 18 of the current 30 teams in that sport. That’s right — four players on this single team earned more than the total salaries paid to all the active players on 18 other teams. (Keep in mind that most teams have a 40 player roster.) And if you look at the highest salaries of 7 of the players on this same team, the total would be more than the entire salaries paid to each of the remaining 29 teams in the league.

Imagine a team filled with the highest paid players — the best talent that money can buy. Do you think that such a team would have an advantage over other teams that could spend far, far less on salaries?

Imagine no longer. For that team is the New York Yankees.

 

Celtics Start Season Off Right

Nothing like starting on a high note. The Boston Celtics rolled into Cleveland to face Sir James and newly acquired Shaq. The 95–89 win over the Cavs was the first time the Celtics had won on their court in a long time.

Just goes to show that a big three is always (usually) (sometimes) going to win over a big two.

It’s a long season — but this is a great way to start it out.

Born To Run by Christopher McDougall

 

Born To Run

A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

By Christopher McDougall

Alfred A. Knopf

$24.95, hard cover, 287 pages, 978-0-307-26630-9 (2009)

"Born to Run" is really two books in one. The first part is about human physiology and the history of running. It begins with Christopher McDougall's quest to answer a simple question that he asked his doctor: "How come my foot hurts?" When his doctor game him an answer that he didn't want to accept (he wasn't really built for the sport and should find another type of exercise), it led McDougall to discuss running with leading sports-medicine specialists, legendary running coaches, shoe industry executives, and elite endurance runners. Eventually, this also led to him running a 50 mile race that practically no one had ever heard of before.

This is where the second part of the book begins – and this part will immerse you so thoroughly in the final race that you'll be breathless by the time the runners reach the finish line. But before detailing this grueling race in the Copper Canyons of Mexico (with of the best long distance runners in the sport pitted against the reclusive Tarahumara Indians), McDougall entertains you with other running races, like the 1995 Leadville Trail 100 mile event (where running sensation Ann Trason takes on all comers – men and women).  

He also vividly describes an unusual cast of some of the best ultra runners (runners who race distances longer than a marathon), including: Caballo Blanco (a mysterious loner who lives among the Tarahumara tribe), Scott Jurek (seven time winner of the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run), “Barefoot Ted” McDonald, and Young Guns Jenn Shelton and Billy "Bonehead" Barnett.

While writing about all these incredible characters, McDougall manages to convince you that each of us was born to run – that it's in our genes. He interviews anthropologists who describe persistence hunts where our ancestors ran down animals for food – not because they could run faster than their prey, but because they could outlast it.

McDougall also lets you in on a secret: everything you've been taught about running is probably wrong. He describes how the shoe industry over the last 40 years has done nothing for runners to make them faster or less injury prone. He quotes Dr. Daniel Lieberman, a professor of biological anthropology at Harvard:

"A lot of foot and knee injuries that are currently plaguing us are actually caused by people running with shoes that actually make our feet weak, cause us to over-pronate, give us knee problems. Until 1972, when the modern athletic shoe was invented by Nike, people ran in very thin-soled shoes, had strong feet, and had much lower incidence of knee injuries."

            McDougall gives alarming statistics about injuries (every year "from 65 to 80 percent of all runners suffer an injury"), and then points to other surprising evidence:

            In a 2008 research paper for the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Dr. Craig Richards, a researcher at the University of Newcastle in Australia, reveals that there are no evidence-based studies – not one – that demonstrates that running shoes make you less prone to injury.          

            Even more shocking, McDougall offers a study that proves that runners who wear the top-of-the-line running shoes are more likely to get injured than those running in cheap sneakers. So what can you do to enjoy running more and injure yourself less? McDougall has lots of suggestions, so pick up the book and find out.

            You'll be intrigued by the physiology portion of the book and so thoroughly inspired with the racing descriptions that you'll be unable to put the book down until the final climatic chapters. Even if you've never run in your life, the race in the Copper Canyons is inspirational and motivating. The book features super athletes who think nothing of running 100 mile endurance races; but it's also full of advice for casual runners and suggests what they can do to run injury free. At its core, the book is about all humans and why each one of us is … Born to Run.

Many national magazines have reported on this book. Here's the latest from the New York Times.

Buy Born to Run here on Amazon.

 

 

Senator Collins Getting Some PR

As I mentioned recently, with all the publicity Maine’s Sen. Olympia Snowe has been getting on the health care issue, where’s Maine’s other key politician: Sen. Susan Collins?

The Washington Post has a feature on her today. And, just like Sen. Snowe, Sen. Collins is equally adept at dragging out her time in the spotlight by not committing to her vote on the health care bill.

All in all though, the article seems fair.

Progress, Stability and the Struggle for Equality by Hugh G. E. MacMahon

 

Progress, Stability and the Struggle for Equality

A Ramble Through The Early Years of Maine Law 1820-1920

By Hugh G. E. MacMahon

Drummond Woodsum & MacMahon

$28.00, soft cover, 346 pages, 978-0-9664015-4-7 (2009)

 

           

Hugh MacMahon, a former partner (now "of counsel") with the law firm of Drummond Woodsum, has written an engaging account of the first 100 years of Maine law. As he notes in the preface, this semi-retirement from full time practice gave him more free time than he was accustomed to and he found himself "thinking about the historical development of Maine law."

So what did he do? One day, he decided to read the first hundred years of Maine law. Though he admits that he didn't read all of the decisions of the Maine Supreme

Judicial Court from 1820 -1920, MacMahon did "at least skim almost all of them and made notes on what seemed to be the most important cases."

For anyone who has had to do legal research that entails reviewing cases decided over 100 years ago, the task of reading even a majority of cases during this time period is mind boggling. (As a former law clerk for the Superior Court in Portland who spent a fair amount of time holed up in dusty stacks of the Cleaves Law Library, I am profoundly impressed with MacMahon's monumental task.)

After reading all that nineteenth century law, MacMahon became convinced that he needed to write about it.

 

Maybe, I thought, if I just start writing, I might begin to see the outline of a project that could be of some interest to others besides myself. Maybe someone starting out in the practice of law in Maine would find something here that, by providing historical context, would make their practice more interesting than it otherwise would be. Maybe something here would encourage someone to delve more deeply into the history of a legal concept and gain a new and helpful insight as a result. Maybe someone would encounter an idea here by which to test that person's own thoughts about the soundness of a rule of law. I'm sure that I would have benefited if, when I began to practice law in Portland, I had made it a point to study the history of Maine law. In undertaking this project, I therefore feel a special obligation to lawyers who are today just entering the profession here in Maine.

The title of this volume, Progress, Stability, and the Struggle for Equality, refers to the three themes – the importance of economic progress, the importance of maintaining a safe and stable society, and the struggle for equal rights under the law – that, for me, stand out most prominently in looking back over the entire sweep of the first hundred years of the development of Maine law.

 

            Lawyers, judges, law students and historians should rejoice in MacMahon's decision to write this book about the early years of Maine law. Its rambling pace, with somewhat arbitrary chapters of various topics of Maine law, prevents the book from being overly formal and too much like a law school textbook. Instead, the impression given is that of a knowledgeable senior attorney regaling the reader with key insights not only into the history of Maine law, but how it relates to modern events.

            Nor is the book without its biting sarcasm. MacMahon describes a series of cases involving people injured at work and the Law Court's uncompromising stand on behalf of employers. Claims by injured workers were routinely rejecting by finding that they were negligent themselves or their injuries were the result of negligence of their co-workers. It appears that MacMahon tires of describing the Court's misguided view that economic progress should come before employee safety.

 

We seem here to have reached a point in our ramble through the early years of Maine law when we need to pause and take a rest. The cumulative impact of these cases that involved gruesome accidents is painful and difficult to bear. We long for fresher air. So here, as we take a moment to consider the sorry circumstance of these Maine children who, many years ago, were injured while at work, let us take a moment to reflect on "The Golf Links," a simple verse penned by the American poet, Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn.

 

            The Golf Links

 

            The golf links lie so near the mill

            That almost every day

            The laboring children can look out

            And see the men at play.

 

            Much of the book reads like a tragedy, with Maine judges routinely siding with economic progress over public safety, committing the poor to workhouses without a hearing, prohibiting business on Sundays, allowing corporal punishment in public schools (along with the reading of the bible), and granting married women in Maine few rights

and no individual identity of their own. However, MacMahon manages to find the bright spots in our legal history where despite harsh results by the Court's majority, dissenting voices sometimes write prophetic opinions that later become accepted law.

            Regardless of whether you've been practicing law for five days or fifty years, Progress, Stability, and the Struggle for Equality will help you to understand our state's legal past and appreciate our present.

———————

Go here to purchase the book.

When The Game Was Ours - Larry Bird, Magic Johnson

The Boston Globe has a lengthy excerpt from an upcoming book where Larry Bird and Magic Johnson talk about their 1984 NBA playoff series.

I want that book! I want it today! I want it now!

Patriots Destroy Titans

59 -0. That was the rout that was the New England Patriots forced on the Tennessee Titans. 59 -0.

I’ve never seen such a score in the NFL. In the first half alone, Tom Brady threw for 345 of his 380 yards and five of his six touchdowns. The record book was shattered all over the place by Brady and the Pats.

It was 45 – 0 at the half. Brady was pulled early in the 3^rd after he threw another touchdown pass to Moss. Truthfully, about that time, I stopped watching.

I imagine Titan fans stopped watching much earlier than I did.

National GOP Chief Moos For Health Care?

In a brief article on the Portland Press Herald website, National Republican Party Chief Michael Steele said yesterday that he would be a "cow on the tracks" to stop the health care momentum. "Moo moo," he said.

He also predicted that Olympia Snowe would join in the opposition when it comes time for a final vote.

Moo, moo? The Republican Party must be proud.

Bad Day For New England Sports Fans

I wrote about the Red Sox after they lost their first game that they needed to help their pitchers and swing those bats. So what happens in game 2? Their second pitching ace does an adequate job and again the Red Sox bats are silent.

Red Sox go down 0–2.

In the third game played today at home, the Red Sox bats finally came alive and they were up by 2 runs in the 9^th with Superman Papelbon closing. This is the Papelbon who hasn’t allowed a run in 27 post season innings. So you have to think the game is wrapped up, right?

Uh, no.

At the worst possible moment, someone slipped kryptonite under the pitchers mound and Papelbon — only one strike away from extending the series with three different batters, allows a single on a two-strike pitch, a walk after a full-count, and a double sending in one run. Next comes an intentional walk and then a single scores two runs in the top of the ninth. The Angels go up by a run.

Game over, series over, Red Sox go home for the season. Swept in three.

But at least that made me ready for the Patriots at Denver. After the Pats led 17 -7 at the half and then their offense froze in the Mile High Stadium, I knew what to expect. After all, I’d just watched the Red Sox lead the whole game and give it up in the last inning.

So as I watched the Broncos score a field goal and then a touchdown with five minutes left, I turned off the tv. I’d just seen the Red Sox die at the end of their game, so I knew what was coming.

Sure enough (as I read online), the Pats could do nothing and the game went into overtime. The Broncos marched down the football field like they did the entire second half and then booted a field goal.

New England loses in the end, just like the Red Sox did.

Ouch.

No, double ouch!

                     

Senators Snowe and Collins on Health Care

Bill Nemitz has a column in today’s Portland Press Herald practically lauding Sen. Olympia Snowe for straddling the fence on health care and not publicly saying how she’ll vote.

I don’t know how it’s playing out in other areas of the country, but it seems that barely a day goes by when Sen. Snowe isn’t mentioned in some way as being the most important person in Washington due to her upcoming vote next week on the health care bill.

As everyone who is following the health care debate knows, Sen. Snowe is a moderate Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and her vote on the health care bill is deemed to be critical to its passage.

How will she vote? Will she stick with the unified Republican party and vote against the bill? Or will she buck her own party and do “what’s right for the country” and support the Democats in their efforts to reform health care?

Bill Nemitz writes:

Snowe isn't yet ready to tip her hand on whether she – the only Republican on the committee (and in the entire Senate, for that matter) who's willing to even consider supporting the bill – will actually vote for it.

She won’t say. So what else is new?

She’s been in the center of this debate for months and being on the Senate Finance Committee probably knows more about the bill than most of her GOP colleagues — and yet she says she hasn’t decided how she’ll vote.

Give me a break.

My guess is that Sen. Snowe knows exactly how she’ll vote and is simply dragging out the process until the last second. After all, it appears that 99 out of 100 Senators know how they’ll vote. Sen. Snowe knows that newspapers and the general public eat up every story that features her as the moderate Republican maverick who single-handedly holds the health care fate of the nation in her hands. You can’t buy that type of high profile publicity and it will go a long way to securing her continued popularity in Maine.

So why not keep everyone guessing?  Each day her status rises in the eyes of most folks in Maine. Heck, she’s probably known how she’ll vote for months — but why not keep folks wondering if all you get is positive press. Sen. Snowe is schrewd enough to know that the longer she drags out this process and keeps newspapers mentioning her name, the more most folks back home are delighted that every time they mention Olympia Snowe, they write that she’s a senator from Maine.

I have just two questions?

(1) If Sen. Snowe is going to vote in favor of the health care bill (and that’s a BIG if — my guess is that she’ll go with her own party), why didn’t she get on board early and help sway some of other Republicans to avoid all this political misery the country has been going through?

(2) Where is our other “independently thinking” Republican senator in this health care debate? Why is Sen. Susan Collins letting Sen. Snowe take the lead in this health care debate while she simply sits on the sidelines and marches arm-in-arm with her GOP colleagues?

This is what Sen. Collins says about health care on her website:

HEALTH CARE

 

A national leader in health care advocacy who has consistently supported programs to expand access to health care and improve health care, particularly for citizens living in rural areas, Senator Collins coauthored the Access to Affordable Health Care Act which takes significant strides toward the goal of universal health coverage by bringing millions more Americans into the insurance system. 

 

The proposed health care bill will expand coverage to everyone — much more than anything Sen. Collins has supported in the past. But if you want to know how Sen. Collins will vote on the health care bill, just ask any other Republican Senator in the county (except the one who hasn’t made up her mind yet), and you’ll have the answer.

 

 

Sox Bats Slump in Game 1

I’d say the Boston Globe is being kind when it writes about last night’s Red Sox defeat by the Anglels. Here’s the headline:

Sox A Bit Lacking in Game 1

Duh.

Losing game 1 of the American League Division Series with Jon Lester pitching against the Angels hurt. Opening the series with our ace getting handed a big loss is not what Boston hoped for. And it wasn’t that the Sox were “a bit lacking” as the Globe so politely put it: they simply couldn’t hit …  again.

No offense, but we’ve seen it before. Several times during the regular season — and often against top teams (hello Yankees), the Red Sox bats go quiet.

So what did the Sox bats do last night? Four singles. Four. Singles.

I don’t care who you have pitching: try winning a lot of games with those numbers.

So is the series over? Of course not. But the Sox need to improve their hitting and fast if they want to squeek by the Angels.

Teen Cited For Distracted Driving

Maine has a new distracted driving law and the Press Herald reports that a 19–year old was cited for distracted driving after she drover her car into a telephone pole and cut power to the neighborhood for the afternoon.

And wouldn’t you know it — the teen was from New Hampshire.

 

Red Sox Get Swept -- Patriots Prevail

So the Red Sox lost three in a row against the Yankees in N.Y. As everyone in the world who follows baseball knows, the Yankees are playing like the better team right now. The Sox ended up saying, “yeah, but wait until playoff time” — but I’m not buying it. You don’t let a team embarrass you with a three-and-out by pretending that you’re saving something for payoffs or that somehow everything will be different in a couple of weeks.

Please.

I should admit that a secret part of me wants the Yankees to win every game they play right through to the championship. Not because I like the Yankees — I can’t stand ‘em. But after spending a gazillion dollars on their players for this season, I’d like the league to wake up and admit that when an entire team pays it’s players less than what just one Yankee earns, the league needs team salary caps. You can’t have one team paying a billion dollars to their players and another team paying a million and think that the two teams are going to be comparable.

On to the Patriots.

It was a 26–10 win against the Atlanta Falcons, but it wasn’t pretty.  Five times in the red zone with only one touchdown — and that on a run. (Is that the Red zone or the Dead zone?) Ouch.

Sure, Brady threw a 36–yard touchdown in the 4^th quarter to tight end Chris Baker when it didn’t really matter. But Brady and his receivers looked like they have a long way to go before they get their timing straight.

But hey, a win is a win. This result was a whole lot better than last week.

 

Republicans Don't Want Any Type of Health Care Reform

Dana Milbank, a columnist for the Washington Post, says that Republicans have a Deaf Ear when it comes to supporting any type of health care reform.

Noting that Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) during the Senate Finance Committee meeting  early on stated that he didn’t “support a government takeover of the health-care system” — and then promptly fell asleep, Milbank wrote:

Bunning's nap was a fitting comment on how he and his Republican colleagues had received the efforts of the committee's chairman, Max Baucus (D-Mont.), to craft a bipartisan compromise on the mammoth legislation. Baucus made major concessions to Republicans: He dropped the "public option" for a government-run health plan; he tossed aside the mandate that employers provide health coverage; he cut the bill's cost and made sure it was all funded by revenue from within the health-care system; he stipulated that government funds would not go for abortion or to illegal immigrants; and he included efforts to curtail medical malpractice awards.

And what does Baucus have to show for his concessions? One by one Tuesday, Republicans delivered the same thanks-but-no-thanks message.

What Milbank points out is that no amount of concessions are enough for most Republicans (our own Maine Senator Olympia Snowe may be the exception).

And yet everyone that pays for health insurance — and certainly all employers who provide health insurance — know that the cost of insurance has climbed higher and higher each year with no end in sight.

In my case, for example, I’m lucky to be covered by my wife’s health insurance. But as a solo practitioner, I pay for a portion of the health insurance I provide for my full time secretary. in 2003, the cost of her insurance was about $1000 per year. It now costs around $3400. Other than routine matters, my secretary has never had any major claim against her policy — yet the cost has skyrocketed.

As a business person, I’m very interested in finding ways to make health care more affordable. All I hear from Republicans is no, no, no.

Tell me GOP members, what are your alternatives? Instead of just saying no and running cutsy commercials that end with “let’s reform health care the right way” — what are your concrete proposals?