Inspired By Glenn Beck, Protesters Overwhelm Town Hall Meeting With ‘Cat Calls’ And ‘Banging On Windows’
Inspired By Glenn Beck, Protesters Overwhelm Town Hall Meeting With ‘Cat Calls’ And ‘Banging On Windows’
An angry mob of protesters disrupted a health care forum today in Tampa, FL, which was attended by state Rep. Betty Reed (D) and U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D). More than 1,000 people showed up for the event, which was being held in a venue meant for just 250 people. As a result, “a large crowd gathered outside, and tensions were high among people who couldn’t get in.” From a report by the Tampa CBS affiliate:
As the building filled to capacity, angry protesters stuck outside began to scream, yell, and chant. At one point, those trying to get inside began banging on windows as Tampa Police officers quickly spread out guarding all entrances.
10 Connects photojournalist Kevin Carlson, currently inside the meeting reports at least one fist fight breaking out inside.
Castor reportedly “left the meeting early, saying she couldn’t be heard above all the shouting inside the meeting.” When police “on bullhorns” tried to send the crowd home, many refused to leave. Additionally, some protesters’ signs “bore an image of Obama with his face painted as the Joker, an image that drew protests of racism locally when it appeared on a Web site thought to be associated with the Pinellas Republican party.”
Watch an on-scene report from the local Fox affiliate:
So how did all these protesters find out about the town hall meeting? According to the St. Petersburg Times, many of them heard about it from Fox News host Glenn Beck’s 912 project and the local Republican party:
Instead, hundreds of vocal critics turned out, many of them saying they had been spurred on through the Tampa 912 activist group promoted by conservative radio and television personality Glenn Beck. Others had received e-mails from the Hillsborough Republican party that urged people to speak out against the plan and offered talking points to challenge supporters.
Beck has been a heavy influence on these “grassroots” tea parties and protests. In April, ThinkProgress spoke to attendees protesting outside the White House, and many of them said that they had heard about the event through Beck’s 912 Project.
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act ll.
act lll will be tragic.
:(
August 6th, 2009 at 9:50 pmOT, but it’s so important that everyone read this article in Business Week about how BigHealth has already sealed our fate with respect to healthcare reform.
You’ll be as sickened as I was after reading it, but it’s important to understand the strategy used to go after the Blue Dogs, convince them that BigHealth’s ultimate goal would be the best, and only, alternative to consider for Americans.
PEACE
August 6th, 2009 at 9:53 pmAugust 6th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
The last time I checked loitering, disorderly conduct, and rioting are all criminal offenses. Are police departments following orders from higher up? Showing their true allegiance? Or are they just afraid the teabaggers outgun them?
August 6th, 2009 at 10:00 pmThis was inevitable. It is yet example of uncivilized, cowardly behavior that is the logical outcome of the type of fear and hate-mongering, inflammatory rhetoric espoused by right wing pundits and the conservative base of the GOP lately.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:01 pmSo the pigs who scream and cry about creeping dictatorship just brown-shirted another meeting between two duly elected representatives and their constituents. Chimpy initiated the practice of dragging people away from his town halls who gave the slightest indication of dissent. Call your representatives, often, and let them here where you really stand.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:03 pmeyeswideopen1 says:
August 6th, 2009 at 10:04 pmGod!! I hope you are right but I fear my friend you give too much credit to the intelligence of the American public I know for myself I would be ticked off if I went to get informed and encountered these cretins
This is only the first week. They know not what they do stirring up these people.
I hope Beck loses more advertisers because of his involvement.
Spencer’s mom – I saw the article and I didn’t bother to read it because I feel that it’s premature of the writer to doom healthcare.
It’s not over yet. We still have another 3 weeks to go. I never thought I’d live to see an African-American President and now we’ve got one and a Latina Justice. I still have hope.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:04 pmAnd so it begins… We have to counter these attacks. Someone is going to get hurt, or worse, killed. These Repugs whipped these people into a frenzy. And it isn’t about insurance! It is about racism. Big Business better be careful. Americans are wising up to this crap. Just think of the people who showed up just to hear about the bill, and they are subjected to this.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:08 pmVery true, hormiga brava chavez.
And, I might add, times of great unrest are also times of great opportunity. It’s scary when legions of thugs are traveling around trying to silence the Representatives we elected but we have strengths in our system and history to suggest that scuffles will remain minor. And recent history suggests that the opposition is getting louder but not bigger.
Still. It’s long past time that those who are leading these groups are treated to some heated interviews with law enforcement.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:13 pmBREAKING… JOHN DINGELL (MI) WAS OVERWHELMED. 225 PEOPLE SHOWED UP. ONLY 40 WERE DINGELL SUPPORTERS. PROTESTERS HAD OBAMA/HILTER SIGNS. This is REALLY getting ugly.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:16 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Taser them all and haul them off for disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.
It’s all they deserve, and they’re totally asking for it.
Common street rabble. Fit to be treated like the animals they’re demonstrating themselves to be.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:22 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Why aren’t these people being arrested for disorderly conduct? What would it be like if this was an anti-war rally and the peace people were acting like this? We know the answer, they would all be in jail!
America is sick, very sick and we can thank the horrible republicans, Fox news, Rush and all the other hate mongers.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:25 pmSorry, Richard Stallman, it was the fascist right that engaged in these acts in the 30s. Check out what the Nazi students did to their professors.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:25 pmHey Pete – Yes, it’s time to call in the law on the chief architects of these protests before someone gets seriously injured or killed.
IMO – good healthcare is a RIGHT and we might have to press harder for that right. This is an opportunity to make a real stand. Just like African-Americans, Women, LGBT, and other oppressed groups fought for their RIGHTS in the past – that’s how we’re going to have to fight for our right to good healthcare. IT’S OUR RIGHT TO LIVE AND BE HEALTHY!
OK I’m stepping off my soapbox now.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:25 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
free speech does not equal freedom to derail democracy.
anarchic mob-righties are anti-democratic and anti-patriotic.
with no positive or constructive ideas, they resort to jungle violence and intimidation to advance their anti-cause.
because they’re inferior in development and ability, and lack the moral faculty that civilizes their superiors.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:26 pmJunniper@12, Get lost. After all the violence and the hatred being spewed, I’m in no mood to hear from a common troll. Normally I don’t feed trolls, but I’m really pissed right now. This so-called ‘freedom of speech’ is nothing but a manufatured protest by Repugs and Big Business using the downtrodden, unitelligent losers who are afraid of change. SO, GET LOST.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:27 pmFree speech doesn’t give you the right to silence others free speech.
Chanting in unison to drown out others free speech is not protected by the constitution and in fact is prohibited by civil ordinances.
What you people are doing is trying to silence the free speech of others and that makes you nothing more than criminals.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:27 pmNice threat, Stallman.
Who you going to shoot in cold blood?
When should we look for the coverage on CNN?
What flavor of innocent will pay for your inability to contain your ignorant rage?
August 6th, 2009 at 10:28 pmPhuck you, trolls.
The only people who’s rights are being infringed are our elected officials and those with an honest desire to learn more. The gang behaving like third-world fascists are all from the right. Every single one of them.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:29 pmRichard Stallman says:
The fascist left hate free speech, unless it’s Stalinist speech. The fascist left is going to be dealt with in a big way.
Really, Dick? You gonna come to my door and deal? I can only hope, pissant.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:29 pmJunniper -it’s not their right to free speech that we object to – it’s the noise and violence. They’re sent to sow discord.
AND
Richard Stallman @14, what do you mean we’re going to be ‘dealt with’?????
IT THAT A THREAT OF VIOLENCE???
August 6th, 2009 at 10:30 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
“The fascist left hate free speech, unless it’s Stalinist speech. The fascist left is going to be dealt with in a big way.”
I suggest you read history and find out the definition of fascism. It is the joining of corporate and government power. Last I looked, the average Republican more closely resembles a fascist. I am so sick of you people and your projections. You call everyone else by that of which you yourself are guilty. Go away now.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:30 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
These aren’t Republicans these are low-bred thugs who won’t be happy untill someone is dead at their hands.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:32 pmJunniper, when your health insurer dumps your ass one day and leaves you and whatever sick family member you may have with no choice but to die, remember how proud and free you are, ok?
August 6th, 2009 at 10:32 pm“Inspired by Glenn Beck”
Those four words really say a lot, don’t they?
August 6th, 2009 at 10:32 pmhormiga brava chavez says:
Richard Stallman @14, what do you mean we’re going to be ‘dealt with’?????
IS THAT A THREAT OF VIOLENCE???
____________
Sure sounds like it to me.
On the other hand, Richie could just be a socially inept putz who gets a pleasant tingling sensation in his trousers when he comes here and annoys people.
Hard to say, huh?
August 6th, 2009 at 10:33 pm@28, If I remember clearly, MSM called some of the protesters, ‘Hecklers’ MMmm.. Not only that, MSM coverage of the hundreds of thousands protesters were scant at best. Now we have manufactured ‘protests’ being organized by Big Business (including ‘Tea-Parties’) and MSM is calling them ‘grass Root’ protests. Give me a break.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:36 pmYou trolls claim that these empty-headed people are MAD AS HELL – But they need to get MAD AS HELL at their handlers who are just using them to further their cause. You’re yelling at and threatening the wrong people.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:36 pmrandyfaria says:
Listen to them demonstrate they don’t know what they’re talking about, or are repeating falsehoods they’ve been fed by a convicted fraud and a tv clown??
Forget it.
We got what the angry mouthbreathers wanted for 8+ years.
Now we get something else, and the angry mouthbreathers get to tough it out.
Quit being sore loser pussies and make some positive efforts to rehabilitate your all-but-dead political party.
Or would that be too hard?
I know, screaming is so much easier, and it doesn’t even matter what you scream.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:37 pmrandyfaria says:
You know, if you can’t afford a $1000 a plate fundraiser, you should cheer the news that This country has a chance to join the REST OF THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD in assuring affordable health care to every citizen who needs it. Unless of course, you’re really, really stupid. No one doubts your angry.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:39 pmThe only thing “peaceful” about Beck’s 912 project is how easily it is for it to go over with the lemmings who believe in that garbage.
Glenn Beck himself is an overt subliminal message of hate, intolerance, bigotry and totalitarianism. When his followers eventually go five steps over the line, I want the NYC D.A. on speed dial.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:39 pmHey DICK @ #14 – Stalin was a communist, fighting fascists in WWII. If you deal with “leftists” the way you dealt with your 9th grade history book, I’m sure we’ll all be safe …
August 6th, 2009 at 10:39 pmJust like it takes a major accident to get your town to put up a stop sign at that dangerous corner, unfortunately, it will take real violence at one of these events to get the attention of anyone who could stop it. Mob violence is on the way and it should be laid at the doorstop of Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, O’Reilly, and the RNC. The Democratic party needs to educate this country. And we need media ownership and election reform. Good luck with that. Will the brownshirts win?
August 6th, 2009 at 10:39 pmWe have listened to them, randyfaria. They don’t have a point.
They have a bunch of falsehoods and scary words fed to them by the most radical voices of the GOP. Then, they are incited to riot by the ignorant, divisive, violent bullshit from the same voices.
Frankly, the whole damn lot of them need a sound spanking. If they behave like tantrum prone toddlers there’s no reason to treat them as adults with adult sensibilities and dignity. If they want to participate they can respect the chair and the audience or STFU.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:39 pmrandyfaria @#26
Comparing the town hall corporate “demonstrators” and the repressed people of Iran is like comparing Cash for Clunkers with Katrina!
August 6th, 2009 at 10:42 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
If this health care effort is sabotaged, Many Blue Dog will be out on their asses in 2010, and ‘regular’ ones as well. Lord knows what will take their place.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:45 pmI want to see if Gleen Beck is man enough to take credit for his project. The Right wing can call this behavior what they want but I don’t see democracy working under these conditions. In fact, I haven’t seen too much Democratic behavior out of the Republican Party lately.
The Republicans have forgotten about America.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:46 pmI hope you ugly stupid reichwing fcukers SUFFER every single minute of the next 20 years of Democratic domination.
I really do. I hope your stupid empty heads explode. I hope you cry every day.
Furthermore, I hope MARRIED gay couples move in next door to every single one of you, and that their children throw their toys in your yards. I hope that the next Supreme Court justice is a gay black woman. I hope that Obama taxes your stupid racist churches and stops that colossal scam.
You get the picture. I want you to suffer.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:46 pmDBaJ – why don’t you tell us the real reason you don’t like Obama?
go ahead.
i dare you.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:47 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Have we no Tasers? Have we no pepper spray? Works on Democrats.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:48 pmIf one really didn’t wish to be a jackass? One would decry the violent and divisive creeps who are painting the elected government of this country as the mortal enemy of it’s people.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:48 pmI’m sure you’ve shared your true feelings with Chuck, and Jeff, and Bill, and Randy, and the rest of the dudes down at the bar – why dont you tell us?
August 6th, 2009 at 10:49 pmRepublicanz are the party of racists. when racists get fewer so goes the republicanz.
This is quite a teachable moment. Quite a teachable week or two…
August 6th, 2009 at 10:50 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
There is something obvious DBaJ is not getting – not acknowledging…
August 6th, 2009 at 10:53 pmIs DBaJ pretending he’s not a bigot?
I think we have a few stuborn racists in a country full of happy citizens.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:54 pmGlennBeck, provocateur, strikes again. I’d like to think there’s going to be some blowback on this, more than Beck loosing a few advertisers.
On the other hand, joe cantwell @ #1, this may be worse than you think; we may only be at Act I, with Act II to be tragic, followed by farce in Act III.
Kind of indicates where the “power” in the rePublicrite Party is though, doesn’t it? Michael Steele can’t even move anyone to denounce him with any passion, the reCongresscritters are getting yucks with jokes about lynching at their own constituent meetings, Darth Cheney is nowhere to be seen (probably checking the security at a new undisclosed location) and the party is being led into actual civil strife by a couple of DJs gone wild. Very fracking strange, to say the least.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:54 pmsure buddy. whatever you say.
your hood’s showin’.
better head back down to the bar, where it’s safe.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:55 pmDon’t Be A Jackass says:
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Response to #39.
What a horrible thing to predict. Lets hope that never happens. I can’t even imagine how the White House administration would react. We all know how they love to take advantage of a crisis for their own political gain.</em>
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Don’t Be A Jackass,
August 6th, 2009 at 10:55 pmI assume you were referring to the Cheney/Bush administration because I couldn’t agree with you more! Those guys took 9/11 and ran like crazy with it. Obama is still unraveling the mess.
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
It would indeed be interesting to see what future historians will write about this time, Ape-Man. We haven’t seen the death of a party or movement in this country within living memory but it’s hard for a student of history to imagine how the GOP will survive this crap.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:56 pmwell pete, with help like DBaJ around, it won’t take them long to settle into obsolescence.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:57 pm58 – that picture of them doing exactly what they actually did, which was actually wrong and mostly lies, and got all those people investigated and convicted and stuff?
y, that was crazy.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:58 pmThis is getting out of hand, and it’s getting more than annoying that Democrats, as usual, have no apparent strategy for countering it. Somebody is going to get hurt badly pretty soon here if some definitive action isn’t taken to quell this.
August 6th, 2009 at 10:59 pmif there’s anything the right really has going for it, it’s a very short attention span, and tendency to get distracted and wander off.
look for this tempest-in-a-teapot to subside once football season gets underway.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:01 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Oh, I don’t think so. Ask Bill Clinton about their attention span-and he was a white good ol’ boy.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:02 pmsorry DBaJ – that’s as far down your rabbit-hole I’m going.
have fun knockin’ yerself out with teh crazy.
remember – the UN’s comin’ t’gitcha!!!!
have a good one…
August 6th, 2009 at 11:05 pmIs Don’t Be A Jackass a bigot?
August 6th, 2009 at 11:05 pm“and the American people are speaking up”
The only thing these thugs are saying is that having a black guy in the White house is driving them insane and inciting them to violence.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:06 pm“…and an angry mob of Dullard-Americans is screaming out…”
so.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:08 pm@67
August 6th, 2009 at 11:08 pmI would say that is a fair assessment.
don’t be a jackass @#64
What does 911 and Bush’s greed and stupidity have to do with this?
Oh, yeah.
TREASONOUS REPUBLICAN LIARS!
August 6th, 2009 at 11:09 pmPerhaps it is time Progressives quit the Democratic party and join the Greens or Independents. Might give Obama and Rahm a much needed kick in the pants.
Nothing will make Reid an effective leader, he’s a milksop, probably well paid by Corporations. “Impeachment not on the Table” Pelosi is a very rich woman, her intentions are suspect.
Yes, I think I’ll look up the websites of Greens & Indies.
Also: P.D. I like your thinking!
August 6th, 2009 at 11:09 pmThough I’m sure it’s beyond the usual troll’s understanding I don’t object to the Reichwings politics so much as I find their actions to be stupid, ill-informed, and barbaric to the point of being unforgivable.
Once a candidate, party, movement, or cabal commits atrocities in my name and makes no attempt at conciliation or contrition? I’m done. I didn’t vote for President Obama and the Dems because of ideology. I voted for ability. And the only rational conclusion at this time is that there are no voices of moderation or reason left in the GOP. They are, as a group, incapable of making informed, rational, real-time decisions based on real-world events.
I get no joy from their demise. I would love to see two or more viable healthy parties in American politics. However, right now, there is only one and they are doing precisely what I voted them in for. They are putting out fires and addressing the immediate damage of the Bush Administration while cautiously approaching major legislation. They are responsibly using their mandate to govern the best they can despite the obstruction and outright sabotage of the childish remainder of the GOP.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:11 pmYou reap what you sow. When you call for mob behavior people feel empowered to engage in mob behavior. Should blood be shed then the Glenn Beck’s and Rush Limbaugh’s, etc. will have that blood on their hands just as surely as if they threw the punches. That is why we have incite to riot laws on the book.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:12 pmDon’t Be A Jackass says:
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Response to pete #49.
Lets not forget the picture the left painted of the Bush Administration.
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Don’t Be A Jackass,
I think the Republicans painted a very vivid picture of their vision of America the last 8 years. The left didn’t have to touch it up.
Don’t be surprised, I didn’t care for the picture myself. I found it too stark and brooding with a lethal touch of paranoia. I found it black and white, no color and lifeless. I don’t think you could touch it up if you wanted to.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:15 pmI don’t worry too much about these unmannered hordes of imbeciles showing up at these meetings…they are not the majority and this behavior is the last gasp of a fearful, dying beast…the trick is to stay calm, arrest those that deserve it and continue to drive home the message that America needs healthcare reform.
What we really need is single payer.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:17 pmDingell is my Congressman. He has been there forever and has faced token Republican opposition for his seat for all of my 20 year life. Either these people came from rural Monroe County or they came from another district. There’s no way the district that includes what Limbaugh calls ‘The People’s Republic of Ann Arbor’ would ever protest health care reform.
Oh, and just flag and vote down Being a Jack@$$, he isn’t worth a response.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:20 pm64. DBaJ sez:…
Flight has a pretty good point there, DoBeanAss(J). Shrub & Darth Cheney milked 9/11 for everything it was worth in trying to establish a national-security snooper state, in taking us into one misbegotten war while ignoring the fracas that was never completed that was supposed to clean out that festering pus-filled sore called alQaeda, and found numerous other ways to screw Americans, left and right.
The amazing thing is that the blue collar end of the “right” still thinks that Shrub/Cheney was the Second Coming of Ronald Reagan. Crap, even the First Coming of Ronald Reagan was just more big government for the benefit of corporate interests, and the second round, with Shrub/Cheney was just history repeating as farce, with tragedy mixed in to keep everyone interested. The farce part wasn’t done too well, but tragedies like Katrina and Rita were really well screwed up, weren’t they? Well, I digress…
I think most of the folks on this page are not so stupid as to think that “free health care” is anything but a rightest trope. They know perfectly well that health care costs money and that money comes out of everyone’s pocket, either via taxes which support indigent care, such as it is, or insurance company fees, which are not transparent in accounting; most insurance companies take the fees and do what they can to maximize return to investors and management. They are NOT reinvesting the money in improving the system. The only improvement they want is less payout and faster collection. They are NOT in business to help you, me, or anyone else, because they ARE in business – the business of profit, not loss.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:24 pmNucking Fazis
August 6th, 2009 at 11:26 pmThis is so sad. We are Americans, and yet greed and racism are tearing us apart. The Republicans have now resorted to violence because they use the fear of the one segment of the Party they have left. The older, white, aging population of mostly Southern folks who for years backed them because of fear of the unknown. I have seen the trolls try to defend them, and they offer lame excuses of ‘Free Speech’. I remember when Bush was in office and they would literally throw people out of rallys and fundraisers because they were wearing t-shirts they deemed ‘Inflamatory’ how these trolls have forgotten what is was like a few years ago.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:26 pmthe difference between anti-war protesters and these so-called “grassroots protesters” (according to the MSM at least) is that the former did not try to intimidate anyone or incite violence…while there has been at least one incident of physical assault. The other difference for you trolls too dense to figure it out is that one is grassroots while the other is corporate-funded, lobbyist funded ASTROTURF. I’ll let you figure out which is which…
August 6th, 2009 at 11:27 pmCome to think of it, it’s the exact same behavior we see at Republican rallies. Right down to identical chants. The difference being that, at Republican rallies, the keynote speaker leads said chants.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:31 pmHere’s a very relevant excerpt from “Delivered from Evil: The Saga of World War II”…
‘Hitler loved violence, believing that a speech accompanied by some violent act would be more vividly remembered. Thus, he welcomed hecklers, who gave his burly bodyguards the chance to plow into the throng with fists flying. He knew, of course, from his church-school days the power of reiteration; as thus as the litany of curses fell from his lips in calculated repetition, the large halls he favored would echo and reecho with the rising roars of his listeners. Hitler had made a science out of rousing audiences to a frenzy.”
Eerily similar to the tactics that the Republican party is encouraging right at this point. Of course, they would never themselves risk being in those meetings, unless you are a RINO (to them) like Mike Castle of Delaware. Let’s face it: the current Republican party is the closest the world has gotten to Fascism since the desperate times in the Great Depression. This is going to just get uglier and uglier.
That’s why I laugh when Being a Jack@$$ says that we are leftist fascists. It’s just crude projection.
I don’t think they care or understand that they are alienating moderates like me. I likely could have voted for the 2000 McCain, there is no snowball’s chance in hell I could have voted for him in 2008, especially after he picked Palin. I certainly haven’t changed many views over that time span. What’s changed is that the Republicans are forever shifting rightward and seem content in saying they weren’t conservative enough to win elections. :S
August 6th, 2009 at 11:34 pmRichard Stallman says:
This comment has been voted down. Click to read
Flagged and reported for inciting violence on 14.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:35 pmI feel much the same, Moderate Man. The GOP has been hijacked by stupid, greedy, childish people and there’s no way to spin that.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:39 pm“Hey! I got here late. Is this the democratic town hall meeting? Glenn Beck sent me here to terrorise you. He said if i mentioned his name i get a free ‘lynch the democrats’ t-shirt”
August 6th, 2009 at 11:43 pmMan. When they start telling everyone Glenn Beck sent them, it gets pretty hard to deny. Glenn Beck will therefore deny it.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:44 pmMeanwhile Dobbs is wearing the same stinky diapers he dirtied two weeks ago:
August 6th, 2009 at 11:48 pmhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#32323561
Don’t Be A Jackass says:
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Response to flight #59.
How can you even compare the events of 911 to any of the crisis that Obama has dealt with? Im sorry that your hopes and dreams of “free” health care are being are fading rapidly every day as new information comes to light and the American people are speaking up.
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Jackass,
You must pardon me, I forgot the “Don’t be a”, come to think of it so have you.
We could only have wished for a President of Obama’s stature during the 9/11 crisis. I think the outcome would have been far better for the country and the world.
Since Obama has taken office, his progress has been deliberate and consistent. I don’t see health care any differently than the stimulus package or Sotomayor. The economy is not fixed but the talk of a second depression has subsided. There is a confidence that Obama is providing the country, and is desperately needed.
In contrast, the Conservatives are providing what? Consider the contrast and the direction the voter will gravitate to.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:48 pmObama is cashing in on free political capitol provided by the Republicans. The last check I am aware of is the Republicans are still loosing in the registered voters. Their core is shrinking and I wonder why?
People want a democracy!!!!!!!
flight says:
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I want to see if Gleen Beck is man enough to take credit for his project. The Right wing can call this behavior what they want but I don’t see democracy working under these conditions. In fact, I haven’t seen too much Democratic behavior out of the Republican Party lately.
The Republicans have forgotten about America.
The Repiggies don’t give a flying fcuk about America.
August 6th, 2009 at 11:53 pmThis type of behavior must be called out as an attempt to silence and intimidate people who want health care reform.
In that sense, it’s similar to forced disappearances of one’s political opponents, except in this case, these goons are trying to ‘disappear’ the truth.
:|
August 6th, 2009 at 11:53 pmpete @ 73
I must take the time to commend you. Precisely stated.
humbly, flight
August 6th, 2009 at 11:57 pmHoly Cow!! You are on Fire! Very Nice…
ROTFLMAO!!!!!
:0
August 6th, 2009 at 11:59 pmpastcaring says
This type of behavior must be called out as an attempt to silence and intimidate people who want health care reform
I think the logic of this may be beyond a republican to understand. Ask one sometime. Ask them if they understand and they can paraphrase the simple idea stated above.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:01 amYou are mentally slow…that picture you speak of was a self-portrait…
:|
I work in a nest of those vipers, trust me I know…but my dignity requires me to remind them regardless of the outcome I know I’ll get…maybe someday I’ll give it up…
:]
August 7th, 2009 at 12:04 amPete – Well said @ 73!
August 7th, 2009 at 12:06 amThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Don’t Be A Jackass,
It’s always best to take one’s own advice.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:12 amThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
They are, as a group, incapable of making informed, rational, real-time decisions based on real-world events
I think it would be too scary to ever trust a Republican again.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:15 amI think it is about time to distinguish between free speech and civil disobedience. Is it so hard to understand? Banging on windows, fist fights etc is civil disobedience. Let the empty headed militant right spend their own money hiring lawyers to represent them in court, maybe they will rethink their stupid and childish behavior. Are they all so stupid they will follow a pill addict and an alcoholic?
August 7th, 2009 at 12:17 ammarwick says:
August 7th, 2009 at 12:11 am
Idiot. If that were true, President Obama wouldn’t be trying to REFORM anything.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:17 amGlenn Beck’s advertisers are backing away — help us increase the pressure
August 7th, 2009 at 12:17 amhttp://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/6/762769/-Glenn-Becks-advertisers-are-backing-awayhelp-us-increase-the-pressure
Maybe someday the people who didn’t get paid to cause a scene will realize they’ve been had. I’m guessing the ones who aren’t purely opportunistic shills who would sell their mother for a buck, have personality disorders, and probably raging alcoholic parents.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:17 amoops, my statement in #102 should be amended to say ex-pill addict and ex-alcoholic according to their bios.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:19 amAgain, Apeman?
Pray, what republican doth thou speak of?
August 7th, 2009 at 12:19 amIf anyone is an expert on going down it has to be little marwick.
Get off your kness btch, it makes you look cheap.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:19 ammarwick – you delusional hack – G.W. Bush was the worst POTUS EVER.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:19 amI don’t think that will happen until they lose their health insurance and hit stage four
August 7th, 2009 at 12:21 amThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
And of course kness is knees in #108. I have a hard time typing with marwick’s tongue up my ass.
Cute little shit that he is.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:26 amAnd redundant.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:26 amIt is fascinating, and so incomprehensible to me, to see all the Corporations sticking together in being against a Single Payer, or any Public Health Plan. And not just sticking together, openly colluding in causing violence while trying to kill it (Pub. health care).
Why does President Obama even hesitate to champion Single Payer when the benefits to our economy (let alone the American People) are so obvious?
It would give a swift and powerful boost to our economy, on many fronts: benefitting big Corporations as well as Small Businesses. It would create all sorts of jobs: Construction for building new hospitals & clinics to handle the increased number of patients, sales of medical equipment for the hospitals, computers, the creation of jobs from Surgeons down the labor ladder to janitors. And Colleges would be educating more students to become doctors, nurses, researchers, and medical records keepers.
The positive effects are so huge, so important, and so obvious, no person in a position of power & authority should be opposed to publicly-funded health care.
The insurance companies themselves could profit, too, if they used their brains and designed their companies to actually work, rather than serve as a cruel method to cheat and rob Americans and our Government.
Yet GE and VIACOM, NBC and the many corporate advertisers of the TV & Radio shows howling against Public Health, are sticking with the Insurance Companies, making sure their viscous lies, their violent tactics are aired in an approving way, repeatedly. Why?
August 7th, 2009 at 12:28 amMy partner and I went to the town hall meeting sponsored by Rep. John Dingell in the 15th congressional district of Michigan. We were unable to get into the meeting room. The scene outside reached a fever pitch a few times but no violence broke out while we were there. Without taking to much space here I can sum up my main observations. It was largely an older white crowd with a strong undertow of racism, anti-abortion ideology and homophobia. My second observation was that the liberal/progressive movement was far outnumbered in a crowd of about four hundred we were hard pressed to find three or four other pro health care reform liberals in the crowd. There were NO PRO HEALTH CARE SIGNS at all! The signs and talking points parroted right wing radio. While we were there the crowd surrounded the congressman’s wife twice and shouted her down twice. They used the same old radio talking points, no socialism, no abortion on demand, no free sex change operations (yes really). My conclusion is that there is a strong neo fascist movement that has taken over what used to be known as the Republican party. LIBERALS MUST GET INVOLVED! Three or four people in a crowd of four hundred is not enough. It is our duty as Americans to counter this fascist movement before they achieve their goal and plunge the country into chaos.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:28 amRepublicans love lies……
August 7th, 2009 at 12:29 amI am done. Anybody else want some of little marwickie’s gentle tongue before I send him home to the underpass?
August 7th, 2009 at 12:35 amchingebush,
I think our little marwick will now follow you around forever… Enjoy.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:37 ampjkool: Can you imagine the shrieks and howls of outrage if, say, Soros funded busloads of Progressives to attend these meetings, carrying signs saying: MEDICARE FOR ALL!
PUBLICLY FUNDED HEALTHCARE FOR EVERYONE!
GOV’T HEALTH CARE WILL STIMULATE THE ECONOMY BETTER THAN GIVING MILLION$$ TO AIG!
August 7th, 2009 at 12:37 amThere are no town hall meetings scheduled near me. (Eric Cantor is busy in Israel). What can I do to advance to cause of rational health care reform?
August 7th, 2009 at 12:38 ampjkool – I think that more of us will show up in the coming days. Our Congressmen should start the meetings with people who have gone thru healthcare disasters! Let’s see if these conservatives have any compassion for those who have been taken advantage of by the health insurance industries. Let’s see if they’ll shout them down!
August 7th, 2009 at 12:38 ampjkool,
The King of the Teabagger sponsors tried to make it sound as if Soros does exactly that on Rachel’s show tonight. God, what a loser. Naturally, Rachel killed him with kindness.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:40 amI hope America wakes up to the fact that the Republicans are nothing but a bunch of thugs who have nothing to offer but disruption. They have no answers. They have no ideas. They have no proposals. They have no solutions. They are just an angry mob trying to use violence for intimidation.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:45 amMaybe they want the Congressman to interpret this quote??
“The stimulus plan was divided into three parts. One-third of the money has gone to tax relief for families and small businesses. One-third of the money is cutting people’s taxes. . . . Another third of the money in the Recovery Act has been for emergency relief that is helping folks who’ve borne the brunt of this recession. . . . So that’s the second half. First half, tax relief. Second half, support for individuals, small businesses, and states that had fallen on hard times. The last third of the Recovery Act–and that’s what we’re going to talk about here today–is for investments . . .”–Barack Obama, Aug. 5
August 7th, 2009 at 12:54 amHi Zooey!
August 7th, 2009 at 1:02 amThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
I am just as alarmed as many of the fellow liberals/progressives who have posted here about the escalating mob anger at the town hall meetings.
But I respectfully disagree on what should be done about it.
As harsh as it sounds, if violence and tragedy becomes the next stage of these episodes, then SO BE IT.
I just hope there are lots of pics and video footage. Just like the kinds of images 45 years ago of bombed churches, firemen hosing women, and peaceful citizens being dragged from lunch counters and voting polls that brought the shame of the nation and the world down upon the racist reactionaries and their conservative enablers.
I am not supporting or advocating violence. I do not support a forceful response to these hired rabble, even by police officers. That’s exactly the kind of far-right photo ops they want. Instead, let them continue to act out their paid rage until an elected official or a peaceable attendee gets hurt by one of the unhinged nuts that is surely in their crowd. The last moderates and reasonable people in the Republican party will be driven away in disgust, and the fools who remain will be exposed for the racist, selfish, mean-spirited and dangerous losers that they are.
Let the indelible visual record show that one of their overzealous nuts hurt an innocent person peacefully exercising rights of citizenship. And while their lobbyist taskmasters and talk show pimps are running for cover to avoid massive lawsuits, the real outrage that results can be directed toward demonstrating that the majority of Americans favor passage of health care coverage that is fair, affordable, and accessible for all Americans.
August 7th, 2009 at 1:07 am“Michael Steele depicted in blackface”?
WTF?
Oh and by the way… depicting the president as Joker makes even less sense when the tag “socialism” is affixed to the image, because Joker, as everyone know, was an anarchist. Anarchy is the opposite of socialism.
So the teabaggers can’t even come up with a sensible cover for their racist cartoons.
August 7th, 2009 at 1:09 amThe only things I can add to what has been said already is that the Dems who are having town hall meetings need to have cops and people checking voter id cards. This will stop the protesters dead in their tracks. If they can’t get in, then the cops can order them to disperse or get arrested for disorderly conduct.
Second, it may be time for people who are outraged to go and demonstrate outside Fox News. It will be very uncomfortable for the people who work there when they see hundreds of people protesting.
August 7th, 2009 at 1:27 amYou can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can fool ignorant Glenn Beck-listening conservative Republicans all of the time, even getting them to believe that a public health plan that gives them more options, increases competition and lowers their healthcare costs is somehow a bad idea. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. But then these are the same folks who supported Bush and blindly believed all his administration’s lies. Dumb is as dumb does, and these people are as dumb as they get.
August 7th, 2009 at 1:27 amThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
WillowOrchid @ #119
Interesting that you say that.
I think that liberals can be reluctant to organize in a group effort because, let’s face it, we’re more likely to be non-conformist.
We’re short on blind faith, but will work tirelessly for a cause we truly believe in.
Although we may have shrugged off McCain’s (Rove’s) campaign ridicule of community organizers, I think those abusive remarks may be inhibiting our activism.
August 7th, 2009 at 1:36 amThis is especially true in states like mine, where the politics have become so socially devisive and personal, debate is rarely seen except in print.
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Cicero,
You keep using the word “Later,” but I don’t think you know what it means.
August 7th, 2009 at 1:43 amAnarchist is the perfect description of these thugs! Thanks Ralph!
August 7th, 2009 at 1:56 amSissy’s just being a cute little dishpit.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:00 amWell, it’s not quite the same as wanting to check IDs in order to allow people to vote. But I know you have a hard time understanding these obvious differences.
If there is a limited amount of space in a meeting hall, and the congressperson would like to speak with their constituents, it makes sense to let the constituents in first. If there’s any room left, the out-of-towners are welcome, if they behave themselves.
Which they won’t. So when they disrupt, out they go.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:02 amSissy, other than Teddy Roosevelt’s national parks initiative
August 7th, 2009 at 2:03 amI think you’re being too generous. Nothing about Sissy is cute.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:04 amMarwick, you supported the worst president in U.S. History, so of course you would be trying to distance yourself. If even a sheep like you has seen that Bush has been detrimental to our country, he must have REALLY been bad…
Oh Cicero, give the victim card a rest, will ya? Or at least stop complaining when people cry oppression…You GOPers always cry about how liberals are victimizing you while condemning those who are victimized by discrimination…
August 7th, 2009 at 2:04 amNever mind, the American people know a mob when they see one. They’ll sit back and wonder once again, “what else can the party of NO actually do around here other than hiss and scream and rattle windows?”
August 7th, 2009 at 2:06 amOk, so, depictions of GWB as monster, vampire, Hitler, beheaded with blood dripping, assasination chic, movies and books, that’s OK.
Condoleeza Rice depicted as a character from “Gone with the Wing”, a parrot with big lips, that’s OK.
Michael Steele can even be depicted in blackface, just fine.
Not at all. Most of the people here would have strongly censured any and all of the above slurs and threats. I read a lot of “Liberal” blogs and I have never come across even one of them. But spare me your links; insulting as they are, they are NOT incitements to racial hatred and violence, which the sloppy Photoshopped “Joker” IS.
There is a difference between mocking one’s opponent, and threatening him.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:08 amPlaying the sham victim is something that all little fascists are good at. Screaming about a papercut while your henchmen are beating the living tish out of people. Whining about representation while shutting down town hall meetings. You ‘tards think your fooling anyone here?
August 7th, 2009 at 2:10 am…..and another thing. The comments re: Bush=Hitler, Condi, etc. would be quickly Troll-rated at most sane Blogs. Pictures and remarks you point to would not last 5 minutes at Kos, Crooks & Liars, or here.
You and yours, on the other hand, cheer and encourage violent rhetoric, hatred, and violence.
Ladder,
August 7th, 2009 at 2:14 amWillowOrchid:
If Soros does charter a bus, I call shotgun.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:17 amWe can count on FOX, as in this video, to report these organized mob assaults as citizens just “wanting to be heard”, not that they are trying to shut down the meeting and make it impossible for anyone but themselves to be heard.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:21 amokie dokie: Imagine if Mr. Soros drove it himself! I like to sit where the wheels make a hump in the floor. I can rest my feet and maybe even save someone from being “thrown under the bus”.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:35 amI just watched Rachel Maddow interviewing Tim Phillips, the national president of Americans for Prosperity, who is coordinating the town hall demonstrations and bussing.
He’s a grassroots corporate activist???
Patients First???
More like Money First!
August 7th, 2009 at 3:08 amHow can these people be so strongly opposed to the Healthcare Reform Bill when is there is no such thing? There is only false rumor.
They abhor it when Obama spends 1 billion dollars, yet Dubya had a $800 billion giveaway to Big Pharma with no way to pay for it.
They say Obama is going to hurt our standard of healthcare—-without realizing that we rank about 37th in the world.
I’ll believe the recent polls that say Americans want reform 71%-24% before I believe that these loudmouths represent democracy.
August 7th, 2009 at 3:54 amI just wonder how people can be proud of this debacle.
This used to be the country that put a man on the moon. This was the country that built the Hoover Dam, Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge during the depression and all three structures are respected the world over and still functioning as if brand new to this very day. This used to be the country that led the world in the industrial revolution. We made the most and the best of everything.
Now we’re nothing but a hollow, empty shell of what we once were. Not perfect in any sense but, we had a sense of direction. We have devolved into a sick mania of fear based control. The corporations have a stanglehold on everything and everyone, especially our government. Health insurance companies are spending about $1.4 million every day to kill any reform of health care. $1.4 million a day! And the automatons screaming no just because they have some form of insurance or Medicare (you know, that government run socialized medicine that works very well) don’t understand that they could lose it or be dropped at any time because they became ill or had the dreaded “pre-existing condition.” Then what? They’ll never get it until they experience it. Even when presented with the truth and a detailed breakdown of what reforms congress and the president are trying to pass, they dumb themselves down even more, refuse to think for themselves and do the bidding for the corporations like good little minions. If the health care corporations are allowed to get away with this and real reform fails, they will begin to deny even more coverage and treatments in their lust for money. If this wasn’t so sad and pathetic it would be laughable.
But, what’s worse it that we’re being laughed at by the rest of the world. Take some time and talk to people who live outside the U.S. and get their take on all this ridiculousness. From people I’ve talked to the consensus is that we’re the laughingstock of the world because dumb, gullible and arrogant. The only thing we’re good at today is making up lies about different parts of the world so we can go kill whoever lives there. And there are a plethora of other bottom feeding corporations making easy billions from our worldwide killfest. Just follow our trail of blood and death. You’ll end up at the doorstep of a corporation gorging itself on blood money. It would be shameful if only we really gave a shit. Because we can do better. We’re capable of so much more.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:19 amBoycott all of Beck’s sponsors. Call them and say you refuse to buy their products until they stop sponsoring Beck! Hit them where it hurts. Here’s a list of Beck’s sponsors:
Campbell Soup
* Tel: 1-800-257-8443
* Email: Contact Form [link to company site]
* Twitter: @CampbellSoupCo
Kellog’s
* Email: Contact Form [link to company site]
Kraft Foods
* Tel: 1-877-535-5666
* Email: Contact Form [link to company site]
Nestle
* Tel: 1-800-225-2270
* Email: Contact Form [link to company site]
Pfizer
* Tel: 1-212-733-2323
* Email: Contact Form [link to company site]
* Twitter: @pfizer_news
Procter & Gamble
* Email: Contact Form [link to company site]
Walmart
* Email: Contact Form [link to company site]
* Twitter: @Walmartkelly; @Walmartmeeting; @Walmartkevin
Glenn Beck Radio Sponsors
DISH Network
* Email: Contact Form [link to company site]
* Twitter: @dishnetwork
GoToMyPC.com
* Tel: 1-888-259-3826
* Email: gotocustomercare@care.gotomypc.com
* Twitter: @gotomypc
LegalZoom
* Tel: 1-800-773-0888
* Email: Contact Form [link to company site]
* Twitter: @LegalZoom
Purina One
* Tel: 1-866-787-4621
August 7th, 2009 at 4:35 am* Email: Contact Form [link to company site]
I hope Don’t Be A Jackass hangs around for awhile.I didn’t get the chance to make themlook like an idiot but they did a fine job all by themselves. Still I rejoice in f ucking with the minds of the unstable and absurd…
August 7th, 2009 at 5:14 amIt’s time to call out the National Guard to quell these angry mobs.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:33 amWe are watching the death tantrums of the Right. It would be sad if it weren’t so funny.
August 7th, 2009 at 5:37 amThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Looks like the Insurance companies win again. I’m not sticking around to see my healthcare cost double or even tripled with-in the next year. Europe here I come. I suggest the rest of you do the same. Unless you can stand paying half your income for healthcare cost.
In 10 years when healthcare takes half of these teabagging birthers income. Guess who they will blame. The liberals who tried to bring them a public option.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:49 amwise latino says
August 7th, 2009 at 4:35 am
Boycott all of Beck’s sponsors. Call them and say you refuse to buy their products until they stop sponsoring Beck!
______________________________________________________________
Thanks for the list — that will be very helpful. However, we can take Proctor & Gamble off. They’ve already stated they won’t be advertising on Beck anymore.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:51 amHow about returning the favor? It would be nice to see a thousand Democrats at Fox Noise headquarters screaming and banging on the windows, wouldn’t it?
August 7th, 2009 at 7:21 amHow about returning the favor? It would be nice to see a thousand Democrats at Fox Noise headquarters screaming and banging on the windows, wouldn’t it?
They would be tasered, arrested and hauled off.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:29 amThe Republican base is so ignorant, fearful, and gullible, it is very easy to incite them with easily disproven lies.
They are too lazy to question the lies fed to them by the corporate controlled right wing mainstream media.
We know that this is what they suppport:
August 7th, 2009 at 7:46 amCorporate bureaucracy getting between them and their doctor.
Corporate takeover of health care
Corporate rationing of health care
Corporate account managers letting the elderly die to save money
Corporations profiting from people’s sickness
OK, apparently there’s a wingnut on the board giving vote downs. Wingnut, there’s no way that the healthcare issue is going away. I know you think that it can be blocked and it wont be brought up again for another couple of decades. This isn’t early 90s. People demand it now, especially with more and more losing their jobs with the worsening economy. The majority of Americans who demand healthcare reform with a public option will only grow and then after 6 months if it’s block, (and that’s a very big if) it will be back with a single payer and those voting against it in Congress will be targeted for voting out of office. You wingnuts can’t see long-term, even a year out because you’re dumb and have to be told what to think.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:50 amWingnut, let me give you an example: I know you believed after all your hate amendments against gays on the state level, the issue was settled. Was it?
August 7th, 2009 at 7:54 amYou can only temporarily delay the tides.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:58 amTime is on our side for progress and you can’t stop time…
August 7th, 2009 at 8:00 amWingnut, look at those in attendence at those rallies. At least half are bitter old people. Hello?
August 7th, 2009 at 8:08 ambitter old people that are on Medicare – govt run health insurance
the stupid is thick in those that believe anything FOX “news” says
August 7th, 2009 at 8:12 amTake a bunch of poorly educated town hall louts, whip up some hate and fear, and next thing you will see they are protesting things that will make their lives better and the Republicans and their corporate masters are stashing extra cash in offshore banks to avoid US taxes.
August 7th, 2009 at 8:35 amEfforts need to begin in Congress for the single-payer option introduction an hour after this current bill is possibly blocked.
August 7th, 2009 at 8:38 amSmoeone needs to take out Rush or Glenn. That will be a public service.
August 7th, 2009 at 8:39 amI heard an interesting radio interview on Bloomberg News (Capitalistic news in NYC, yes owned by Mayor Michael Bloomberg) from a CEO of a staffing agency, who says that of the permanent jobs lost, about 80% will be coming back as part time,temp or per diem jobs. I of course hear this and realize that these kinds of positions do NOT carry benefits, namely HEALTHCARE. SO, HEALTHCARE for all is Now a MANDATE!!
August 7th, 2009 at 8:42 amThese Town-hall protesters are pathetic. I have heard how one man is using his son in a wheel chair to gain sympathy on his son’s disability and yet when a woman tried to talk about her struggles with her health care bills, THEY JEERED HER. They called her names! UNREAL! A lot of these folks have Medicare! A lot of these folks have ‘Social Security’! And yet, people who are younger and don’t qualify, basically the protesters are saying “Fu*k you! We got ours! Tough sh*t for you!”
August 7th, 2009 at 8:46 am169 Alecto
flagged and reported for advocating violence.
August 7th, 2009 at 8:46 amAlecto, I understand your frustration but no sorts of comments like #169. It’s hard for me to keep a lid on it sometimes out of anger but I try out of respect for the staff at TP. They do an incredible amount of work and there are those out there who would tarnish that.
August 7th, 2009 at 8:47 amNot REPUBLICANTS, REPUBLIWONTS
August 7th, 2009 at 8:48 amI like old people and these individuals are hurting them all. A very serious argument can be made that a society can’t spend so much on those at the end of their lives and so little on those at the beginning and continue to survive.
Just saying.
August 7th, 2009 at 8:54 amI don’t know if other people have noted this already, but I think Krugman (again) hit it right on the nose. These people are angry white racists that the Repubs/health care lobbyists are using as their tools. What they really hate is that the era of white privilege is over. That’s why you have all these people who keep saying that they want “their” america back, a statement that has nothing to do with health care policy or even economic policy.
August 7th, 2009 at 8:57 amOne of the things which sickens me and disgusts me about this is the fact that most of the people who have engaging in these deliberate attempts at disruption are the same ones who never raised even the smallest peep of protest when the Bush administration made every effort to stifle dissent at Bush public appearances by selectively denying entry to anyone who they thought might not agree with Bush — even when there was no particular reason to believe that any of the people in question were actively planning to create a disturbance. Let’s face it…if progressives had engaged in crude hooligan tactics like this while Bush was in office, they probably would have been arrested and charged with whatever the police thought might have a chance of sticking.
Am I the only one who thinks these people bear an uncanny resemblance to the sheep in George Orwell’s book “Animal Farm” — the ones which the pigs encouraged to bleat “four legs good, two legs ba-a-a-ad” at the slightest provocation so that none of the other animals would have an opportunity to express an opinion?
August 7th, 2009 at 9:03 amI wrote this yesterday. We are already at Step Two:
August 7th, 2009 at 9:07 am
Amazing contrast here.
George W Bush put Americans in jail just for showing up with the wrong T-shirt on. These Americans didn’t even make a peep. They just showed up.
These retards that insist on defending pay or die healthcare and insist on protecting hundred of millions in for-profit healthcare ceo annual salaries are actually disrupting the process of democracy, but when the person that is being verbally and physically assaulted is not a fascist, authoritarian, imperialist that prefers a police state, these jerks are not put in jail.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:20 amThese people are the exact antithesis of what they say they represent, and unfortunately there are millions of them amongst the legions of know-nothings who watch Faux news and are egged on by the likes of Hannity and Beck. Their steady drumbeat of invective against Obama and progressive politics has led to this mob mentality and lynch party atmosphere. Now we can see the intent of the Birther movement to give these reactionaries some modud vivendi for their fascistic bevavior.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:24 amPerhaps a different format? Youtube,webcasts, neighborhood meetings held in schools, Public use channels? Would these louts act this way in a church meeting-room or basement? Healthcare concerns us all and we should have access to the information and be able to ask questions and give input. One does feel frustration and want to respond and push back, in the same manner these ignorant slobs are doing, as much as many would enjoy pushing back, it would make us as bad as the uneducated lynch mobs now disrupting civil discourse.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:27 amConservatives I’ve discussed this with actually seem to think that free speech rights mean conservatives, only, get free speech rights. They can talk and chant and curtail anyone else’s right to free speech.
But their ability to speak is inviolable. This is amazing. They really do believe it. Attempts to reason with them leads to arguments like “well, liberals don’t respect conservatives.”
Not real principled, but maybe we need a refresher on basic free speech rights.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:40 amThis whole was a horrible attempt to silence those that want healthcare reform by people who don’t even live in the districts they are protesting in.
However, when people wonder why no one was arrested, I call attention to the location of the meeting in the video – Ybor City. If you think this was a rough time, you’ve clearly never been to Gasparilla. The cops in Ybor have it under control, of this we can be sure.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:41 amThis shows how void of a reasonable dialog these people are. no one is stopping them. Where’s the beef?
August 7th, 2009 at 9:44 amI think it is about time to distinguish between free speech and civil disobedience. Is it so hard to understand? Banging on windows, fist fights etc is civil disobedience. Let the empty headed militant right spend their own money hiring lawyers to represent them in court, maybe they will rethink their stupid and childish behavior. — Aquarius2
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With all due respect, although I agree with you on the whole, I don’t think you really understand the concept of true civil disobedience. The whole point of true civil disobedience is that it is civil — it is a firm yet respectful and non-violent refusal to submit to what is perceived to be an unjust law and an acceptance of the penalties which will very probably be incurred as a result. What we’re seeing here is not the true civil disobedience of Thoreau, King, and Gandhi — what we’re seeing here is a disrespectful, aggressive mob mentality. Although I could be wrong, I’m not certain that civil disobedience is protected under the First Amendment since there are legal methods of protest and since civil disobedience involves deliberate violation of a standing law.
August 7th, 2009 at 9:59 amWhy aren’t these criminals arrested for disorderly conduct? Christ, they taser people to death for less.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:11 amAs long as nobody is injured and our Representatives/Senators do not fall for these latest thuggish tactics, this will all blow over. The Republicans are only making themselves look more and more on the lunatic fringe. This will not win them a single moderate voter. This is the equivalent to the Palin VP pick, or shouting “socialism” at McCain rallies. It gins up the rabid base, but turns off all the sane, reasonable, moderates.
Rest assured, WE will have the last laugh when all is said and done. The economy is already rebounding, and it seems likely we’ll have health care reform in some shape or form. This will be OUR victory, and no amount of misanthropes shouting in local town halls will stop our momentum.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:21 amWhat about the SEIU thugs who attacked a black conservative Obamacare protester in St. Louis and were arrested? I guess this is Chicago politics at it’s best…
August 7th, 2009 at 10:29 amJust goes to show how ignorant some people are, nothing more.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:38 amI am sure the GOP are collective beating their chests because they think they have finally won but they haven’t. They are nothing more the a group of thugs throwing a tantrum.
What about the SEIU thugs who attacked a black conservative Obamacare protester in St. Louis and were arrested? I guess this is Chicago politics at it’s best… — Aceomalley7
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How about making an effort to provide a link instead of simply making an unsupported claim? People can say whatever they like, but that doesn’t mean they can prove it. It isn’t as if it takes a long time or a heroic amount of effort to provide a link, after all. If you can’t post a link, the most obvious conclusion which can be drawn is that you don’t have one to offer.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:42 am#190 http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2009/08/tea-party-protesters-attacked-1-man.html
Check out the SEIU thugs in purple shirts beating on the black protester…will the MSM cover this?
August 7th, 2009 at 11:07 amtombaker says:
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“Taser them all and haul them off for disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.
It’s all they deserve, and they’re totally asking for it.
Common street rabble. Fit to be treated like the animals they’re demonstrating themselves to be.”
Would you propose doing the same to the ACORN protestors who broke into houses?
August 7th, 2009 at 11:22 amCicero says:
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
pags2 says:
The only things I can add to what has been said already is that the Dems who are having town hall meetings need to have cops and people checking voter id cards.
Wow. A liberal calling for people’s voter ID’s to be checked. Whod’a thunk it?
Here in Chicago we check voters ids, including the dead ones. Then they vote two or three times.
/snark
August 7th, 2009 at 1:44 pmSomeone needs to do something about all the right wing crap and nonsense that comes from all the media. Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity all of them. You have all these twisted republicians getting worked up from all of that. They are creating fear and hatred for our country and our president. It does all boil down to racism and facism. And they cannot except the fact that our president is black. They are too stupid to realize if Barack fails america fails.
August 7th, 2009 at 3:47 pmSounds like the townhall idea needs to be modified. Hell, just cancel them and accept questions and answer them via Email or Webcast. Let the teabaggers throw the tantrum at a public park or at home. We shouldn’t subject the elected leaders and concerned citizens to threats or potential harm by the Mobs that are responding to the idiot talk show hosts, who by the way have lovely health care and live in secluded gated communities and could care less about most of the people who listen to them.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:15 pmThey need to be arrested for disrupting the peace. It is clear that these people have no idea what they are protesting, because if the policy was that horrific their counterarguments would be enough. Instead they have to block the actual debate.
I guess you can all thank Karl Rove for that. I am not a McCain fan, but come on… a coke addict beat a war hero in the republican primary in 2000.
August 8th, 2009 at 12:56 amvery thanks for article
August 8th, 2009 at 7:34 pm