RW Thugs Disrupt Health Care Town Halls

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
RW Thugs Disrupt Health Care Town Halls
40
Tue, 08-04-2009 - 4:04pm

Unbelievable!!!


See videos here...........


http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/03/doggett-health-care/


Right-Wing Thugs Disrupt Health Care Town Halls


http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=13968


Disruption is emerging as the Right's method of choice for fighting health care reform as the August recess and the ground war for reform begin. Weekend town hall meetings in Philadelphia and Austin were both disrupted by shouting bands of the same basic wingnut type we saw at McCain-Palin rallies in 2008 and at the teabagging events of earlier this year. As previously, video from these events clearly demonstrates just how crazy the grassroots Right has become.


At the Austin event Aug. 1 with Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett (pictured here, see video), the usual suspects showed up shouting "Just Say No" and waving signs that included the usual symbols of communism and fascism worked into statements against "socialized" health care, in addition to an image of Doggett as Satan. The protestors' continued shouting throughout the event was clearly an effort to disrupt it and to prevent any other voices being heard. The same was the case at an Aug. 2 event in Philadelphia with Republican-turned-Democratic Senator Arlen Specter and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (see video). Here, wingnuts with bumber stickers on their heads shouted down speakers to the clear annoyance of others around them trying to listen. One woman held up a copy of the New American Bible and said, "This is the only truth," as though that were somehow an argument against health care reform.


These disruptive actions by Righties are not just an attack on health care reform but also an attack on democracy and open debate, since their express aim is to silence those with whom they disagree. The "me-first" mentality of anti-health care protestors was exemplified by one Carol O'Brien at the Philadelphia event, who told the Philadelphia Inquirer that extending health care coverage to 47 million uninsured Americans might mean that she would no longer be first in line at the doctor. "I don't want to have to wait for care," O'Brien said, clearly unconcerned about the amount of waiting others might have to endure without health care reform. Too bad Carol O'Brien is an unwitting stooge for an insurance industry that would deny care to her just as happily as she would deny it to others.


On the one hand I would hope that, in a public forum such as this, some rules of order might be enforced to prevent disruption and allow all voices to be heard; and that those who insist on disrupting could simply be removed just as they would be be removed from any other public forum. On the other hand I can't help seeing behavior such as this as an opportunity for progressives to demonstrate the depths of irrationality to which the Right has sunk. Good use was made of video from McCain-Palin events demonstrating all sorts of ugly behavior, and good use has been made of video showing similar behavior at teabagging events. As the long, hot month of August progresses I would only expect the wingnuts to get uglier and more brazen, and if they are going to insist on behaving this way we might as well make sure everyone sees the videos.


(See also: Huffington Post, TPM)

Photobucket      The WeatherPixie 

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 08-07-2009 - 3:36pm

Thanks. :)


"people across our land will be feeling the dire consequences of having to pay more and more for less coverage under our current health care system"


Every year DH's coverage cost him & his company more. Co-pays were $5 but every year those increase now it's $20. We have good insurance coverage with very little out of pocket directly for services.

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-20-2007
Fri, 08-07-2009 - 3:51pm

My wife and I are blessed to have great medical coverage too. Our costs have went up also, but still very doable for us.


I feel embarrassed sometimes at how little we have to pay for what we get, both in medical, as well as dental and vision care, while I see what some of our family members and friends have to fork out of their pockets for coverage not even close to what we have. There shouldn't be

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-21-2004
Fri, 08-07-2009 - 4:07pm

I'm just so grateful that no one on the left has EVER engaged in anything like this. All those memories of unruly war protesters, enviro-terrorists, anti-globalization riots, union enforcers, etc are clearly fictions planted in the media by those evil right wingers!


What I am confused about is, when my mailbox is full of increasingly shrill moveon.org calls to action, unions are bussing members around the country to rallies, and Nancy Pelosi is talking about fascist thugs, why is it the right wing that's engaged in politics, while the left wing is just seeing a grassroots revival?


Is everyone here young enough or so isolated that they haven't ever experienced honest-to-goodness dissent before? Are people so surrounded by people who feel just like they do that they can't imagine there are people who feel differently?

--


martinisnsushi - living the good life since 1963

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martinisnsushi - the two most important food groups!

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-20-2007
Fri, 08-07-2009 - 4:36pm

I just felt a drop of the sarcasm that was dripping from you.....thanks a lot.....lol.


I certainly understand people have differences of opinions. And I was a registered Republican for nearly 20 years, so I do have an opened mind when it comes to what conservatives believe in and aspire to have as part of their everyday life. Conservatism, in fact, is how I lean politically. It's the Karl Roves and Dick Cheneys of the world that completely turn me off to any right wing diatribe that spews from their closed minded mouths.


Dissent is a healthy thing. No argument there from me. I just wish the Keith Olbermanns (see, no bias here!!) and Sean Hannitys of the world would take a more balanced look at things rather than completely disregard the dissenters and make them out to be idiots. Both sides are guilty of that.


John Boehner is from my district here in Ohio. Do you honestly think that he's anything more than a full time dissenter for anything the Dems. have to offer? Even when he called out Pelosi as being nothing more than a liar when she said the CIA had lied about when and what she was told concerning the torturing, then later found out that the CIA had lied about it, do you think he would so much as make an apology to her? No chance of it. Those are the reasons why the Republicans will struggle mightily to ever hold our country's highest political offices again. People get tired of the hate mongerers that seem to have filled the right wing party. When it was the true Republican Party, they had a vision and the people who could make it work. Now it's made up of blowhards and folks that the majority of the nation are completely turned off to....me included!

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Fri, 08-07-2009 - 5:02pm

***What makes me roll my eyes are many of those 'protesters' are obviously over 65 & most likely getting gov't run healthcare benefits. These people need to look beyond their own front doors & realise many in this country are in dire straits.


Everyone should have access to healthcare.***


I've noticed the age thing too. I get so frustrated with this whole thing. I was in the bank the other day with my 5 yo. The bank has a TV w a teleprompter and this was the issue. Two, very well dressed over 65s behind me started discussing the matter behind me. They were going on about how people who made over $80K a year would get "free" healthcare and their taxes would go up, blah, blah, blah, ....lazy people...... It was all I could do to not turn to them and tell my story. Tell them about my partner, who gets up every morning and works his a$$ off in the hot sun (it was 97 degrees out), comes home dirty and tired, supports his child, can't marry the woman he loves or her "assets" will kick him off of "government subsidized



iVillage Member
Registered: 05-23-2008
Fri, 08-07-2009 - 6:50pm

It goes to show that the Republican Party are scared that they aren't going to get their way all the time.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sun, 08-09-2009 - 10:42am

"...how people who made over $80K a year would get "free" healthcare and their taxes would go up...."


Where do they get this 'stuff'?


I belong to a group of women all over 60, 12 approx., I would say 2/3 of them have computers but only about

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sun, 08-09-2009 - 10:43am
It's frustrating there can't be an

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sun, 08-09-2009 - 11:28am

Health care debate degenerates into brawls, death threats


http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/v-fullstory/story/1178311.html


Around the country, the debate over overhauling the nation's health care system has grown increasingly bitter and more divisive.


From Connecticut to California, angry demonstrators opposed to health care reform have disrupted recent town hall meetings held by congressional Democrats. They attack lawmakers for backing a "socialist agenda," shout questions without waiting for answers and repeat misinformation as fact, in some cases even accusing Democrats of favoring mandatory euthanasia for senior citizens.


On Friday, a Democratic lawmaker from Washington received a faxed death threat a day after he described angry town hall demonstrators as "a lynch mob." Rep. Brian Baird of Washington, who supports President Barack Obama's push to overhaul the health care system, said that he also received threatening phone calls. He canceled the rest of the town halls he'd scheduled during Congress' August recess.


A few Democratic congressional offices also have received threats connected to the health care debate. The U.S. Capitol Police has advised all of them to cancel their town halls.


"President Obama underestimated the free-fall the nation had already taken in partisan hostility when he talked about bringing change to Washington," said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who supports reform. "It has gotten worse. There is something at play here that is indescribable."


The demonstrations have grown more unruly. Six people were arrested Thursday after a forum on aging in St. Louis held by Democratic Rep. Russ Carnahan drew an overflow crowd of health overhaul opponents and backers who came to counter them.


In recent weeks, demonstrators in Maryland hung in effigy a Democratic congressman who backs an overhaul, and in Texas opponents erected a tombstone with the name of another. Police in New York had to escort a Democratic House of Representatives member to his car after a raucous town hall meeting on health care.


Congressional switchboards are lighting up, as well. Democratic and Republican offices both report a high volume of calls opposing an overhaul, and some Democrats have decided not to hold any public meetings during the recess because of the overheated atmosphere.


Aides to Republican members said the callers were generally polite, but worried.


"Lots of people are happy with their coverage and really don't want government meddling in their health," said Wendy Knox, a spokeswoman for Republican Todd Tiahrt of Kansas.


Democratic aides, however, said the callers are usually combative, often use profanity and accuse the lawmaker's staff of lying to them.


"They are much more aggressive, much more hostile," said Rebecca Black, a spokeswoman for Rep. Dennis Moore, a Kansas Democrat.


"I don't agree with people cussing them," said Bob Ballard, an organizer with Kansas City Tea Party, a conservative activist group involved in the protests. "I do believe people get very passionate, but passion and vulgarity are two different things."


So are facts and allegations. In calls to lawmakers and at the town halls, opponents charge, among other things, that proposed legislation would force them to lose their own insurance even if they're satisfied with it, or require euthanasia for seniors.


Neither is true, according to FactCheck.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan watchdog project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.


Republican congressional leaders point to the angry protests as signs that the public opposes Democratic plans to overhaul health care.


Whether the protests reflect a growing segment of voters upset over everything from the economic stimulus package to the auto bailout and now a $1 trillion overhaul of the health care industry, or just a narrow but very vocal minority magnified by the media - especially talk radio - the Internet and cable television, is unclear.


Recent polls, however, have found that public support for both the president and a health care overhaul has been slipping.


"Democrats are in denial," Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio said last week. "Instead of acknowledging the widespread anger millions of Americans are feeling this summer . ... Democrats are trying to dismiss it as a fabrication."


Backers of the protests include a variety of conservative activist groups, including the Tea Party movement, which grew out of protests earlier this year against Obama's $787 billion stimulus package. Some of their Web sites list every upcoming congressional town hall in the country held by lawmakers from both parties.


Democrats charge that the demonstrators are organized and scripted. They point to a memo widely available on the Internet called "Rocking the Town Halls," whose tactics - "Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early" - has been used at demonstrations around the country.


Ballard denied that the town hall protests were coordinated.


"We're a bunch of common people doing this, just a bunch of regular Joes who are concerned about what's going on in Washington," he said. "We don't guide our people to ask certain questions. We're not going to direct their speech. The First Amendment is of the utmost importance to us."

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Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Sun, 08-09-2009 - 12:12pm

Now Palins "death panel" comment. I don't understand how they can take a VOLUNTARY, option for a patient to discuss end of life care and twist it into a government plot of mass euthanasia. My father is dying right now. My 80 yo mother is soooooo confused about her/their options. She doesen't understand Drs. buzzwords. She didn't understand that when they said "they were making him more comfortable" it essentially meant they were trying to manage his pain and symptoms,