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Inspired By Glenn Beck, Protesters Overwhelm Town Hall Meeting With ‘Cat Calls’ And ‘Banging On Windows’

By Amanda Terkel on Aug 6, 2009 at 9:47 pm

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.

Update

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) also faced an angry crowd at an event today, where he was repeatedly interrupted, jeered, and called a “liar.”

Related Posts

Climate Progress

Is this the fastest rebuttal of a denier study in history?

By Joe Romm on Aug 6, 2009 at 8:40 pm

The deniers have been trumpeting an atrocious study that made it into the July 23 edition of Journal of Geophysical Research, “Influence of the Southern Oscillation on tropospheric temperature.”  The top anti-scientific blog, WattsUpWithThat crowed, “Surge in global temperatures since 1977 can be attributed to a 1976 climate shift in the Pacific Ocean”:

A new peer-reviewed climate study is presenting a head on challenge to man-made global warming claims.

But let’s not waste time quoting that “atrocious paper,” as RealClimate puts it, with a couple of debunking links here.  The occasional atrocious denier paper sometimes makes it through the peer-reviewed process.  What’s truly remarkable here is that some of the top climate scientists in the country already have a response submitted for publication in JGR — see full article here.

Last year saw “A new Olympic record for retraction of a denier talking point,” but this would seem to be some sort of a world record for scientific rebuttal.

The 9 (!) rebuttal authors span the globe from Japan to the UK to New Zealand to Colorado and New York, reading like a who’s who of global climate science:  G. Foster, J. D. Annan, P. D. Jones, M. E. Mann, B. Mullan, J. Renwick, J. Salinger, G. A. Schmidt, and K. E. Trenberth.  Here’s the abstract:

Read more

Security

Development Agenda Stymied By Bureaucracy

By Guest Blogger on Aug 6, 2009 at 7:40 pm

Our guest blogger is Natalie Ondiak, Research Associate at the Center for American Progress.

ap090123018856 Secretary of State Clinton’s trip to Africa this week highlights two things: U.S. interest and engagement with the continent and the fact that the Washington foreign policy bureaucracy remains a mess. A Washington Post article yesterday highlighted the fact that nearly seven months into the Obama administration, no USAID administrator has yet been named.

From the beginning of the Obama administration, and even before, there have been calls for a shift in U.S. foreign policy that focuses not just on American military might, but also on diplomacy and development capabilities—the so called “Three Ds.” Secretary Clinton, in her first speech at the State Department noted:

There are three legs to the stool of American foreign policy: defense, diplomacy, and development. And we are responsible for two of the three legs. And we will make clear, as we go forward, that diplomacy and development are essential tools in achieving the long-term objectives of the United States. And I will do all that I can, working with you, to make it abundantly clear that robust diplomacy and effective development are the best long-term tools for securing America’s future.

This language describes the sustainable security concept, a more integrated approach to national security that integrates human security, collective and national security. A few days later she said:

You know, if we are serious about diplomacy and development and culture and politics and anthropology and sociology and all the things that we can bring to the table, then we’ve got to be at that table from the very beginning as we plan for the national security strategy of the United States.

But this is all rhetoric and no reality. Seven months have passed. Without an administrator, how can USAID properly function? Where are the U.S. development capabilities?

As it now stands, USAID cannot be an equal leg on the stool. It is not a cabinet-level agency and it has well documented personnel and capacity deficiencies. It is unclear what the relationship between USAID and the State Department will be. But if the State Department retains budget authority and the USAID administrator reports to the Secretary of State, the agency will be a stepchild at best.

When it comes to rationalizing the time it has taken to get an administrator in place, the conversation is dominated by mudslinging. Secretary Clinton called the vetting process a nightmare as the excuse for why no Administrator is in place. The name that has longest been bantered around is Paul Farmer, the visionary doctor and founder of Partners in Health. But recent reports suggest he is no longer in the running. No other names are being suggested. Why is the potential USAID administrator the best kept secret in Washington? Who would want to take a job at an agency whose mission is undefined?

Secretary Clinton’s arrival in Africa without an administrator in place sends an odd signal: U.S. diplomacy remains healthy, but development is a question-mark. In the countries Secretary Clinton is visiting, U.S. investments in long-term, strategic development are essential, not U.S. defense or diplomacy capabilities. The trip to Africa could have been the place where the USAID administrator was announced and the agency’s abilities and commitments toward the continent were highlighted. Instead, development remains in the background on Clinton’s Africa trip because the bureaucracy in Washington is broken.

Politics

Beck Jokes About ‘Military Tribunals For All Those Currently Serving In Washington’

By Matt Corley on Aug 6, 2009 at 7:30 pm

becktimeOn his radio show today, Fox News host Glenn Beck interviewed Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul, the son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), gauging how he fit his “checklist of things” that he wants in a politician. After asking Paul about abortion and health care, Beck asked with a laugh, “What do you think about military tribunals for all those currently serving in Washington?”:

BECK: What do you think about — I’m just going down the checklist of things that I want in a politician. What do you think about military tribunals for all those currently serving in Washington [laughing].

PAUL: You got me there. You know, the other thing we could do for healthcare is I think instead of having their great health care plan they all should have to go to the VA.

BECK: I think so, too. Seriously, about the military tribunals. Look, the reason why I asked that question — I’m not asking it seriously yet — what I would like to know is how do you propose to stay uncorrupted?

Continuing his penchant for doomsday fearmongering, Beck posited that the Obama administration might be “building an exoskeleton around our republic.” “They are feasting on it,” said Beck. “And when it can’t handle it anymore, they overwhelm that system, the exoskeleton will kick in and we’ll have a new transformative moment here in America.” Paul then took Beck’s paranoia up a notch by comparing the present moment to the rise of Hitler:

PAUL: I don’t need the job. I want to do it for a period of time because I’m worried about our country. I’m worried about the deficit and what it will do. I’m also, ultimately I’m not a doomsday sayer, but I worry about in Germany, in 1923 when they destroyed their currency out of that arose a Hitler. And I think when you have chaos, if you have economic chaos, you end up getting things that you don’t want sometimes, you know? And we have to be very careful that we don’t rewrite our Constitution or throw it out completely and we don’t get some kind of strong leader that’s going to help us or keep us from ourselves. And I think that happens in times of chaos. And I think we’re in danger of that with the level of deficit we have now.

Beck agreed, but thought that he didn’t go far enough. “I think we are in more than just danger of that. I think that is the road we’re on, if we’re not careful,” said Beck. “We’re headed towards — we’re repeating the Weimar republic almost to a T.” Listen here:

Climate Progress

China softens climate rhetoric, commits to emissions peak (again), shows flexibility on Western reductions

By Climate Guest Blogger on Aug 6, 2009 at 7:19 pm

This guest post is by Julian L. Wong and Austin Davis at the Center for American Progress.

Multiple news outlets have been reporting that yesterday’s news conference with China’s top climate change ambassador, Yu Qingtai, marked a significant departure from China’s established attitudes toward climate change. He also expressed a degree flexibility regarding China’s previous demands that developed nations pledge to reduce their carbon emissions 40% by 2020 from 1990 levels at Copenhagen this December.

It’s true: Wednesday’s conference provided a more explicit explanation of China’s position on climate change than had been offered previously. Yu reaffirmed China’s commitment to eventually reducing its carbon emissions while giving more specific details as to China’s position on the Copenhagen talks.

Great quotes like “there is no one in the world who is more keen than us to see China reach its emissions peak as early as possible” may have caused a stir among the western media, but this is not really news.

Read more

Economy

Bailed Out Banks Already Coming Up With New Risky Financial Products

By Pat Garofalo on Aug 6, 2009 at 6:39 pm

moneytrap1One of the problems with delaying implementation of the various regulatory reforms that are being proposed is that financial services companies are given ample time to get back to their old tricks. For instance, as executive compensation reforms stall in the Senate, Wall Street pay is heading back to pre-crisis levels.

And the same holds true in terms of consumer protection. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) has had to push back work on legislation creating a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), thanks to Republican and industry intransigence. And as BusinessWeek reported, “already some of the world’s biggest banks are peddling a new generation of dicey products to corporations, consumers, and investors”:

In recent months such big banks as Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) have rolled out newfangled corporate credit lines tied to complicated and volatile derivatives. Others, including Wells Fargo (WFC) and Fifth Third (FITB), are offering payday-loan programs aimed at cash-strapped consumers. Still others are marketing new, potentially risky “structured notes” to small investors…[I]t’s another scenario that worries regulators, lawmakers, and consumer advocates: that banks once again are making dangerous loans to borrowers who can’t repay them and selling toxic investments to investors who don’t understand the risks — all of which could cause blowups in the banking sector and weigh on the economy.

All of these banks, incidentally, received TARP money. For Wells Fargo, this is especially pernicious, as it is already being investigated for intentionally pushing minorities who qualified for prime loans into subprime.

The CFPA proposal is currently under siege on multiple fronts. Republicans are teaming up with the financial services industry to coordinate anti-CFPA messaging and events over the August recess, while regulators from already existing agencies are engaged in a turf battle with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner over the new agency’s creation. Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan — “who faces the loss of some of his powers if the plan is implemented” — has been deriding the CFPA because it “would make it more difficult and costly for large lenders to operate across the country.”

As we’ve seen, the current regulatory framework simply doesn’t provide adequate protection to consumers. And while Congress dithers, the banks are getting back to business as usual.

Politics

CNN’s Rick Sanchez leaves Rick Scott fumbling to justify his health care corruption.

By Amanda Terkel on Aug 6, 2009 at 6:16 pm

CNN’s Rick Sanchez ripped into Conservatives for Patients’ Rights founder Rick Scott today over his anti-health care reform advocacy efforts. Sanchez pointed out that Hospital Corporation of America/Columbia Hospital Corporation, which Scott founded, was charged with defrauding the government for more than a decade and had to pay the government a record $1.7 billion. “Some would argue, and it would be hard to say they’re wrong,” said Sanchez, “that you would be the poster child for everything that’s wrong with the greed that has hurt our current health care system.” Scott responded by pointing out that other companies also had to pay fines, which Sanchez responded was exactly the reason health care reform was so necessary:

How much more wrong can you be than what you just said? Not only is your company screwed up — and you just admitted to it — and you’re saying, look at all the other companies, they did the same thing! That doesn’t sound to me like a sterling system that we have, does it?

Scott became so desperate to defend himself that he tried to say the fines were paid after he left the company (even though the charges were from while he was there) and insisted, “No one went to jail.” Watch it:

Scott also said that the American public should “love” what his company has done for health care. But Scott didn’t start his hospital business for the sake of improving the quality of care in 1987, but rather wanted to “do for hospitals…what McDonald’s has done in the food business.”

Related Posts

Yglesias

Endgame

By Matthew Yglesias on Aug 6, 2009 at 6:14 pm

Within days, I expect the Supreme Court will rule that white firefighters are unconstitutional:

— Lying is a very effective political tactic and the press should be blaming itself, not the Obama administration, for its efficacy.

— Gelman & Sides on the 2008 election.

— DC ghost condo plagued by flooding.

— Consumer prices declining across the OECD.

— Using modeling to help contain pandemics.

People in the U.S. think of The Cardigans as a one hit wonder, but they have a bunch of good songs. I particularly endorse “I Need Some Fine Wine and You, You Need to be Nicer.”

Climate Progress

Is a 4-day workweek inevitable? Utah cuts energy use 13%

By Joe Romm on Aug 6, 2009 at 6:07 pm

Closing Utah state offices on Fridays has resulted in a 13 percent reduction in energy use according to an internal analysis of the nation’s most expansive four-day workweek program.

Since last August, about 17,000 of the state’s 24,000 executive branch employees have been working 10 hours a day, four days a week in an effort to reduce energy consumption and cut utility costs….

The state estimates that, collectively, employees will save between $5 million and $6 million annually by not commuting on Fridays and the initiative will cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 12,000 metric tons.

Even before we get desperate about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, even before the global Ponzi scheme collapses, gasoline prices are going to blow past $4 a gallon (see World’s top energy economist warns peak oil threatens recovery: “We have to leave oil before oil leaves us”).  So it seems inevitable that much of the nation will adopt the 4-day work week sometime over the next two decades — especially if the results of Utah’s program are replicated by others.

“I can’t even name all the places that have called us,” said John Harrington, state energy manager.

Aaron Newton in an Oil Drum post, estimates that a national 4-day work week would save 5% to 10% of the more than 8 million barrels a day he calculates that U.S. commuters use.  And he notes there would be other environmental and health benefits

Read more

Health

Could Democrats Circumvent The Senate Finance Committee And Move HELP Bill To The Senate Floor?

By Igor Volsky on Aug 6, 2009 at 5:39 pm

Yesterday, during an appearance on MSNBC’s The Ed Show, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) suggested that if the Senate Finance Committee fails to pass a bipartisan health care bill by the September 15th deadline, Democrats should begin moving the Health, Education, Labor, Pensions (HELP) Committee’s bill through the Senate.

Describing that the HELP bill — which passed committee after 11 days of mark-up and 160 Republican amendments — as a “bipartisan, American bill,” Brown warned that if Baucus tries to satisfy “conservative lawmakers” from small states, “it means a lot of others aren’t [satisfied], including, I think, the majority of the country.” The HELP bill isn’t “bipartisan on the big fundamental issues,” like the public option and the employer mandate, Brown said, “but neither was Medicare. We would have never gotten Medicare 40 years ago if everyone had waited for the conservative Republicans to join on board”:

We had 11 days of mark up, 11 days of considering amendments in the HELP Committee. I’ve been in the House and Senate for a total of 16, 17 years now, and I have never seen a bill, in all this time that had that much attention paid to it, that many amendments, that long a period of mark up. We accepted 160 Republican amendments, this is a bipartisan bill. It’s just not bipartisan on the big fundamental issues, but neither was Medicare. We would have never gotten Medicare 40 years ago if everyone had waited for the conservative Republicans to join on board. It’s a difference in views….There is a deadline of September 15th. We need to enforce it. If Senator Baucus can’t get a deal by then we need to move forward and pass this bill. And we should use the HELP Committee bill, which is mainstream Democratic bill, mainstream American bill, and begin to move it through the Senate.

Watch it:

Passing the HELP bill through the Senate may present some difficulty. Since the HELP committee doesn’t have jursidiction over Medicare, Medicaid, or financing, lawmakers would have to add the necessary provisions in conference or on the floor, in the form of amendments. Circumventing the Senate Finance Committee, while rewarding the hard work of the HELP Committee, would certainly outrage the defenders of ‘bipartisanship’ and it’s unclear how many senators would be willing to outsource key decisions to a conference committee.

Still, the President is determined to pass a health care bill this year and yesterday, during an interview with MSNBC, he left the door open to Brown’s approach. “You know, I am glad that in the Senate Finance Committee, there have been a couple of Republicans…who have been willing to negotiate with Democrats to try and produce a bill,” Obama said, “but they haven’t yet and I think at some point, some time in September, we are just going to have to make an assessment.” “I would prefer Republicans working with us on that because I think it’s the interest of everybody. That shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”

Transcript: Read more

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