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Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) Town Hall Shouted Down With "This Is America!" And "What's Wrong With Profit?"
Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) was on the receiving end of some right-wingers disrupting a town hall meeting Monday night, the Napa Valley Register reports.
Speaking in a packed church, Thompson and other speakers were met by shouts of "This is America!" and "What's wrong with profit?" as they also tried to answer questions from supporters and critics in the audience.
The Napa Valley Register -- a conservative paper that endorsed John McCain last year -- now has a new editorial condemning the hecklers:
The display was unwelcome -- and unsuccessful if it was meant to move health care reform supporters toward considering the concerns of the critics. Several callers to the Register on Tuesday reported they were repulsed by the aggressive tactics of some members of the crowd.
To the degree the catcalls, chants and shouts were organized -- and it appears from events around the country that they were -- we strongly suggest that the organizers find more constructive ways to get their message out.
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Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
I said elsewhere, this is Marxist-Leninist thuggery. It's how Party people would take over a meeting at the beginning of the 20th century, shout down the government official by having the room packed with their abuse-hurling goons and hopefully before long the anti-revolutionary official who had been speaking would soon be on his way to a political prison or face a revolutionary kangaroo court.
August 5, 2009 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
This was, also, please recall, the tactics of fascist parties in Europe, and of course the Nazi student movement.
August 5, 2009 4:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Brown shirts in the beer halls
August 5, 2009 10:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh boo frickin hoo. Is this any different than Code Pink causing disturbances? How about plans to disrupt the RNC convention, or conservative speakers on college campi?
Whatever conservatives may do, it's learned behavior from the left.
August 5, 2009 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Keep it up, wingers! Pretty soon those who have legitimate concerns about health care will be inextricably linked to these goons! Way to progress the Party. Also too.
August 5, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whatever conservatives may do, it's learned behavior from the left.
Let's have that sink in for a moment. "Whatever conservatives may do, it's learned behavior from the left." Put aside for the moment the complete and hypocritical abdication of personal responsibility in this assertion, and look at the implication here. This is now the defense of the indefensible, which is to say that the bad behavior by rightwingers (note - I'm trying to cut honest, civil conservatives some slack here) is simply mimicking the ridiculous and ultimately unsuccessful behavior of their political rivals on the other fringe.
In other words, it's both reprehensible AND ineffective. Well done, wingnuts.
August 5, 2009 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Whatever conservatives may do, it's learned behavior from the left."
Well, it's an easy substitute for thinking. Which, judging from the quality of his comments here at TPM, is something that shooter242 badly needs.
August 5, 2009 10:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
So this is an admission that the tactics from the left are a bad example to follow? I agree but when in la-la land one must speak the language to be understood.
August 6, 2009 9:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
shooter,
there are many videos available of the right wing thugs disrupting these town hall meetings, since your point is its leaned from the left I imagine you must have videos of the left causing the same type of disruption at Republican meetings.
As to Code Pink; they disrupt Congressional hearings now and then, but as soon as they do, they're shown the door.
http://www.breitbart.tv/specter-sebelius-roundly-booed-defending-obamacare-at-philadephia-town-hall/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8UjY3YDlwA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 6, 2009 10:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
What amazes me is that "So what? (So & So) does it too!" is the excuse that my teenage son used for bad behavior when he was learning independence and was still totally self-centered.
Fortunately my kid quickly grew up, began to learn that others exist and quit using (or needing) childish excuses for bad behavior.
A lot of kids apparently don't grow up. Bad parenting? Bad seed? When you don't grow up I guess you can become a conservative hooligan.
August 6, 2009 10:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's there excuse because they have no other good reason. They are a joke and a disgrace. They are insignificant and are not a part of policy making so this is what they do
If they keep it up the only people in their party will be these idiots. Just take a look at them. Most of them are white, 50 and over, obesely overweight, and angry and angry at the wrong people. Oh and I forgot STUPID
August 6, 2009 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Gosh, I'd say the biggest difference is that the teabagger interrupters are shilling for big insurance whether they know it (or admit it) or not. What's their noble purpose? What's their principle? They'll be the first ones crying when their social security or Medicare are threatened.
Hypocrisy, genius.
August 5, 2009 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is there any more proof needed that the entire conservative movement is funded by wealthy ultra-conservatives like Sen. Ensign's father and like George H.W. Bush and his wealthy friends? Include in that group such names as H. L. Hunt, Joe Coors, Erik Prince of Blackwater/Xe fame (and inheritor of the Amway fortune) and the funders of the Enterprise Institute and the other conservative propaganda producing think tanks.
Keep in mind that Joe the Plumber was a paid shill for the conservatives as he went around spouting off to the media during the election. He was NOT some spontaneous individual standing up for what he believed. That was a career choice. (Probably couldn't get a plumbing license.)
Conservatism is a political movement funded by the super-wealthy to protect their fortunes and social status and to advance their methods of exploiting the majority of the people. In addition, since they control big corporations like Wal-Mart, they direct corporate money into the fight. That's why they push lower taxes, elimination of the inheritance tax and union-busting as such prominent issues.
And the teabaggers? They are paid-shills and wanna-bees who are trying to get a paycheck, much as were the members of the "Brooks brothers mob" that successfully shut down the Miami vote recount in 2000 Florida. Members of that mob have put it on their resumes when they apply for jobs since then. "Hey, wealthy masters! I have already served you well. Hire me again!"
Think America is a middle class nation? Not if the conservative masters have their way. Robert Michels' Iron Law of Oligarchy is at work.
August 6, 2009 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, no, no.
"Code Pink originated on October 2, 2002." -- Wikipedia.
The right practiced this tactic in the Brooks Brothers thuggery in early 2001 when your ideological fellow travellers forceably shut down election recounting in Florida, at the initiative of Rep. John Sweeney (Rep. NY) and other Republicans.
Next time check your facts before sniggering. You a birther too BTW, i.e. seditionist? Just wondering.
August 5, 2009 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is called a non-sequitur. I don't link Code Pink with breaking up vote fraud in Florida. More telling is that you have to reach all the way back to counting chads for an example of conservative "activism". That alone should tell you something.
As for whether this is productive behavior, we shall see. If nothing else the left is getting a taste of it's own medicine, and may tone down it's own tactics in response.
It could happen.
Maybe.
August 5, 2009 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
And obviously it doesn't tell any thinking or informed person anything.
8 years of ruin by your people. Ruin. Of course you didn't demonstrate against yourselves, didn't have the integrity.
Birther?
August 5, 2009 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
If that meets your definition of a non-sequitur, then you really need to invest in a dictionary. Overreach THIS's response pointing out that Code Pink did not invent the thuggery coming from the right wingers in these town hall meetings was right on point and totally relevant to your inference that these rightwing loons learned their reprehensible behavior from Code Pink. Actually these tactics have some very undemocratic and unAmerican origins. These grotesque tactics were imported into this country by Tom Delay and his cohorts when they bussed The Brooks Brothers thugs — GOP Congressional staffers — into Dade County Florida to stop the lawful and democratic counting of votes. Your unprincipled compatriots, shooter242, are just returning to old tactics — shout down and drown out democracy. Civil discourse is the enemy of the right; informed discourse is its archenemy.
As for Code Pink? Their disruptions, while not exactly defensible, are at least short and to the point. The Pinks state their message (and "Stop the War" is a far cry from "Stop Universal Health Care, Save Pharma & the Health Insurance Industry") and then take their medicine (getting hauled off), and the meeting/speech goes on without them. These clowns in the town hall meetings are shilling for pharma, the health insurance industry and the status quo. Their purpose is not to save young men and women from dying and not to discuss ways to reform a broken health care system. Rather, their sole purpose is to shut down the meeting and deprive the other attendees of an informed discussion of health care issues with their elected representative.
August 5, 2009 10:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Read up on the Brooks Brothers riot which was actually an organized Republican action. Republican as in a riot by aids to various Republican officials. The point is that your say the teabag thugs are like Code Pink, but you mean that the Tea Bag thugs are the Republican vote count thugs.
August 5, 2009 11:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Walking it back so soon Shooter? No Rovian guts?
You want REAL public protest take a look back at the labor and coal miner struggles of the 20's and 30's. And people DIED, for their beliefs, for their incomes, for their starved families.
You know NOTHING about US, much less other country's struggles, for rights. Or at least I accuse you of knowing nothing.
Foolish goon . . . . we will shout you down, AND beat you shamelessly with our words to reveal the ignorant fool you are for your lack of knowledge and demonstrated idiocy.
See ya at the NEXT town hall, hoss . . . I'll be in yer face. Heartily. With truth. And we WILL shut you down, and have you escorted from the premises so you can spew your hate in a free speech zone for your kind. Just like Seattle, and Minnesota. *G*
August 6, 2009 3:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
You go get em larue
August 6, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
There's no apostrophe in "its" dumbass.
August 6, 2009 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Uh, which example of its are you referring to. Its and It's are both legitimate. It depends on the usage.
August 6, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, yeah, they both have correct usages. But the parent poster only used one of them, and he used it incorrectly.
The line was "If nothing else the left is getting a taste of it's[sic] own medicine, and may tone down it's[sic] own tactics in response."
Now, if you want to get into the semantics of the response, runfastandwin is still correct. His line was "There's no apostrophe in 'its' dumbass." Which is true...the statement speaks only about the word in runfastandwin's sentence itself, which does in fact lack an apostrophe. Or, I suppose since he left out the comma, he's claiming that something's "dumbass" lacks a comma...in which case I'm just going to take his word for it.
But seriously now folks, if we're just going to sit around and grammar geek-out, let's try to be a bit wittier about it.
August 6, 2009 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love how you're trying to defend this crap by comparing it to the much-maligned CodePink. Is there any better indication that these tactics are blowing up in the GOP's face?
August 5, 2009 5:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
How could they learn anything from the left? The left was prohibited from every single Bush event! If they managed to get in they were forcibly removed! Even wearing a t-shirt that was not complimentary was grounds for removal!
Shooter -- remember Cindy Sheehan, whose son died in Cheney/Bush/Haliburton's war, who only wore a tee-shirt got pitched out of the State of the Nation (pack of lies)?
Don't be such a hypocrite!
Your big thing is Code Pink. Grow up! AT least they identify themselves from the get-go. Your far-right mobs hide as the cowards they are.
August 5, 2009 9:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, learned it from the left. And these are the same slobs who would condemn those on the left for acting disrespectfully. Fucking hypocrites.
August 5, 2009 10:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
yes, conservatives are too stupid to think for themselves and organize shouting hysterical mobs; noooo, way too complex for their neanderthal minds.
oh, wait, brown shirts and blackshirts in Europe - RIGHT WING. Clinic and Olympic bombers and doctor killers in U.S. - RIGHT WING. KKK and John Birchers and McVeigh and Aryan Resistance and its other bastard neo-nazi variants - RIGHT WING. Sarah Palin rallies and Pinkerton organized mass murders of strikers - RIGHT WING.
It's the only thing the RIGHT WING really knows how to do, when you think about it. And they don't even really know how to do it effectively. How stupid is that? It's RIGHT WING STUPID.
Shooter, why don't you go down to one of those meetings and shoot your mouth off - literally!?
August 5, 2009 10:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is different because the thugs are paid by the insurance industry, but pretend they are acting on their own. It is different because the thug's goal is to stop the discussion, not to get their side heard.
August 5, 2009 11:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, you just wanted to say "campi".
August 6, 2009 1:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yo Shooter, you just learn that talking point from yer corporate feudalist overlords? Or did ya think that one up all yerbrainyself?
Watch which way ya POINT that shotgun hoss, the end with the holes should face away . . . .
August 6, 2009 2:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
How about plans to disrupt the RNC convention,
How about Jiggles Limbaugh's Operation Chaos?
August 6, 2009 5:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, it is different. Since you are too dumb to recognize it, you must be told. If you were an intellectual, you would recognize the Beerhall Putch symbolism!
August 6, 2009 8:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Because, as we all know, conservatives only have our best interests at heart. They never have any selfish motives. Ever. Any bad things they do are only because the Left did them first.
More of what Republicans call accountability.
August 6, 2009 10:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think the communist and Nazi metaphors are a little overdone here. Most of these "protests" strike me as more like a riot in a nursing home.
August 5, 2009 10:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
MAAAAAAAAATLOCCCKK!
August 5, 2009 11:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
No kidding
If Republicans are betting the house on this, so is President Obama. If health care reform fails, then the other reforms on the table -- energy, financial reform, education, immigration, empowering workers -- will face more daunting odds. Many voters dismayed at the failure will stay home in 2010. Failure on health care may well strangle this era of reform in its infancy. That, of course, is what those on the right seek.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-borosage/health-care-reform-time-t_b_251964.html
August 5, 2009 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, the other thing I wanted to say is that it just may backfire on them.
I don't think most Americans would want Al Qaeda supporters incessantly screaming at a Congressman trying to hold a public discussion and they may not exactly dig this either.
Lawrence O'Donnell, filling in on the Ed Show, called it political terrorism. Strong term, but he has a point.
August 5, 2009 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Interestingly, when it's "right-wingers" shouting down a Democrat it's called political terrorism and when it's left-leaning students or Code Pink shouting down a Republican it's free speech.
August 5, 2009 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nope.
These aren't students, they're organized by wealthy interests who don't want to pay taxes and by health "care" robber barons. The money they spend getting your friends the goons squad to interrupt the democratic process is unprecedented. Code Pink wears uniforms and let's you know who they are, and there is no equivalence in scale, though I don't know or care enough about them to have an opinion as to whether I approve or not -- maybe not.
These industry stooges are trucked in from outside the districts with big financing and pretend to be local, concerned citizens. Spare no expense on your side to guarantee that the insurance tycoons get richer and richer while the average Joe gets chumped over his pre-existing condition.
Finally, you are trying to distract from what I said and there is nothing "interesting" about that.
Your reply in defense of these is just what a revolutionary what say, "There was a spontaneous reaction in the from of progressive forces." Stuff that: freedom of speech, my ass. Free for the goons you stand up for, as long as nobody else in the room gets a word in.
Are you a birther by the way, i.e., a modern-day Klansman? A seditionist? And do you by the way have f**king government medical care, Sarge?
August 5, 2009 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
August 5, 2009 4:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do your damn research yourself.
August 5, 2009 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just as I thought, you're no better than the people you disapprove of. Tsk.
August 5, 2009 6:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
See, that's a *real* non-sequitur, unlike your bloviation earlier.
August 6, 2009 1:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Umm...how about the posts right here on TPM for the past several days including memos written by corporate lobbyists exorting people to be disruptive at town halls?
The scroll wheel on your mouse there? You really ought to learn to use it.
August 5, 2009 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Right. How's the weather on Planet Xantar these days? Heh.
August 5, 2009 6:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
shooter's so stupid it hurts...him
thanks for the comic relief, dogshit breath
August 5, 2009 10:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Brain hurts. Can't think. Arrrrr. Need talking points.
August 6, 2009 9:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
he wouldn't dare do any research...He'd have to face the fact that what he believes is merely delusion. You know the chances of that are between zero and none.
August 6, 2009 12:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly. And whatever we showed him he was just say is somehow illegitimate. So no need to engage what is really a troll.
August 6, 2009 4:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, right. All those buses just showed up at the right place and time to pick up unplanned and unorganized groups of passengers.
You don't need to document the financial exchanges when the facts on the ground show their results.
August 6, 2009 10:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
You can read Paul Krugman's column from yesterday for your answer:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other/
August 6, 2009 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice strawman, ya got there.
Name one person here who ever believed that Code Pink was anything other than a bunch of self-involved assholes who seemed to be doing everything they could to set back the causes they were supposedly advocating for.
August 5, 2009 5:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
...we strongly suggest that the organizers find more constructive ways to get their message out.
Clarification: This is their message.
August 5, 2009 3:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Grrr...stupid tags...
August 5, 2009 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let the backlash begin.
August 5, 2009 4:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
The only reliable predictor of future behavior is past behavior. This is scary shit and it's only a matter of time and place before violence breaks out. Obama is under siege with 30 threats a day on his life. I hold the hate mongers and MSM liable. Every GOP elected official and the RNC should be put on the record to denounce these thugs!
August 5, 2009 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
My thoughts exactly. And I expect them to plead guilty to domestic terrorism charges if anything happens. Tell them that now if you meet a birther/seditionist, http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/mare_nostrum/ so they don't get the idea later that they can just say, "But I had no idea and how could you link it to me anyway, that seems very wrong and highly speculative and suspicious on your part."
Tell them right now to Overreach THIS! and you'll be hearing none of it if the devilry that they wreak arrives to its natural and probable outcome, heaven forbid.
August 5, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember, Beck told everyone on Monday to not be violent. He's free of any incitement charges...
/no, I don't believe it either...
August 5, 2009 4:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, he's just trying to get indemnified. "Burn down the King's Palace if you love Jesus except remember I always told you it would be terribly wrong."
August 5, 2009 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just like the man overheard in the movie theater
Whispering to coworker in seat next to him.
I don’t know what I am going to about Jamieson, maybe I should “FIRE” him. Yeah I should “FIRE” him.
Tell the guy who got trampled to death, in the mad rush towards the doors to escape. That’s not the FIRE you meant.
August 5, 2009 11:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Denounce? Dude, they're coordinating with them. Let's roll the tape on that infamous "break him"/"Waterloo" comment from DeMint, shall we?
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0709/Health_reform_foes_plan_Obamas_Waterloo.html?showall
Got that? DeMint was making that comment on a conference call with the very same astroturf assclowns who are organizing, paying and executing the teashirting campaign. They were organizing the very shit we're seeing now during that call and DeMint and Pence were giving the inspirational call to action.
And, meanwhile, Senate "moderates" were doing all they could to help by ensuring that bills would still be bottled up in committee when they Congress for recess.
At least DeMint does us the courtesy of not pretending to be on our side.
August 5, 2009 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Democrats ought to make surviving the tea baggers a badge of honor. Print up some T-shirts, make some buttons, make a big deal out of it.
And announce that if anything, the juvenile crappy behavior only solidified the resolve to reform the health insurance industry.
August 5, 2009 4:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent idea. Have a logo depicting a guy playing a fife and another guy playing a drum surrounded by a flow-through tea bag.
I'll let someone else do the actual artwork. Norman Rockwell, where are you?
August 5, 2009 5:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Make sure the shirts are brown.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung (help·info), abbreviated SA (German for "Storm detachment" or "Assault detachment" or "Assault section", usually translated as "stormtroop(er)s"), functioned as a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s.
SA men were often called "brownshirts" for the colour of their uniforms; this distinguished them from the Schutzstaffel (SS), who wore black and brown uniforms
August 5, 2009 11:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I for one haven't been this fired up since Senator McCain announced his V.P. This behavior has me plenty pissed.
August 5, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is silly, but am I the only one who cracks up at the double meaning of "teabagging"?
August 6, 2009 7:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
I do on a daily basis.
If they knew what it meant, it'd probably provoke strokes or heart attacks.
August 6, 2009 2:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is that what you freepers are telling yourselves now? That's some seriously weak shit.
August 5, 2009 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
These assholes are just angry they lost.
Americans elected the guy who promised them health care reform, not the guy opposed ot it, by a fairly wide margin.
At some point, it doesn't matter what they think. Elections matter. They lost. Get over it.
August 5, 2009 10:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
The funniest part was the mob in Texas. They were screaming and and acting a fool about opposing government-run health care and the Congressman asked them how many of them were on Medicare. You know most the protesters were on Medicare (a government-run health care). The fools actually raised their hands and did not realize they were opposing their own health care. In fact, there was only one man in the room who did not have insurance. He should have asked them to show support of their cause and reject their Social Security Medicare coverage. That was hilarious.
August 5, 2009 10:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
My compulsory health insurance is funded through an employer contribution of SEVEN NINETY FIVE/hr, that's over $16K/year. Add medicare taxes, out of pocket medical costs and my family spends more than $20k. I get invoiced out at higher and higher rates because of the spiraling cost of health insurance (while my salary remains flat), all the while competing with and often losing work to companies who don't offer health insurance, but have a wide pool of desperate layed off workers to choose from.
We barely ever have a sniffle, yet are shaken down for almost $60 a day; more than food, more than housing, more than anything.
And these buffoons in the audience are yelling "what's wrong with profit?".
How do they get these stooges to repeat that crap? I along with a whole boatload of regular working stiffs are getting flat out scammed. There is simply no kinder description of it, it's thievery through deception, conspiracy and truth concealment. And my fellow Americans are sticking up for the health insurance profiteers.
F you teabaggers, you suck.
August 5, 2009 10:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
What's wrong with profits? The response should be simple: Greed.
Sure, the truth is more complicated. For-profit drives much of our economy, but it's the excess of profit and billions in bonuses. The gap between the richest 5%, if I am remembering this correctly, is as high as its been since the roaring 20s. Obviously, our culture hasn't learned our lesson yet...
What's wrong with being a Birther? That's easier: Ignorant pawn.
These people are letting themselves be played by politicians. They're just alienating themselves from society. If we don't want militaristic fringes popping up around the country, we need to respond with composure. Being the better person in these situations is essential, imho.
There are times when I want to shout these idiots off the floor, but we have to let our system meet this challenge. I hope we'll see some real grassroots respond, and drown out the lunatics. I'm keeping my eyes out for meetings in the Boston area as I know there's teabagging going on here.
I think, obviously, the biggest issue is racism. I believe these people just cannot allow themselves to support in any way a 'non-white' president. They have awoken in a world that doesn't favor them outright because of their skin color as much as it used to. Boo hoo. No, they're just going to have to work as hard as they pretend they do whenever taxes come up.
And we have pundits trying out the repression tactic of race debate, which is: I don't see race. I treat everyone the same. I've heard this so many times before, but I just don't believe it. It's an aspiration without the effort. (I don't want to hear white people talking about race all day, either, though. I mean people can deconstruct the meaning out of any conversation to the point that I want to be tased repeatedly... in the throat.)
August 6, 2009 8:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
By the way, I agree that you (we) are getting scammed.
It's expensive to be poor. (Or, not rich.) I think Obama's proposal to have it paid by the wealthiest Americans is not getting enough traction. If people think that's incentive not to make money, then they weren't really motivated to make it in the first place. It's like not going to work because it's raining outside. Fools.
August 6, 2009 8:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
What I don't understand is why the Wall Street bailout is being paid for out of MY taxes. Why isn't Wall Street being taxed to pay for it?
I didn't screw up my business and the economy. Why don't the guys who did it get charged for fixing it? Tax the corporate profits, the bonuses, and all the salaries above a reasonable level until the total bailout is repaid with interest. That's interest at Wall Street usury levels, too, not at government levels.
August 6, 2009 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
All you tea-bagging birthers would be funny, if you weren't such sick, twisted bastards. Your comparison of the whoring mobs for the insurance and pharma companies to Code Pink is not even worth dignifying. When I showed up in DC on Inauguration Day, Jan. 2001, to protest the Bush/Cheney coup d'etat of 2000, I was rounded up and put in a fenced-in "holding station" two miles away from the Inaugural parade. So much for my "freedom". I guess the wingnuts have forgotten about the Dixie Chicks, whose careers almost died for saying they were embarassed to be from the same state as Dubya. What about their "freedom"? And what about the kid who was tasered for speaking at a public forum---"Don't taser me bro'!" Fact is, the long, eight years of the mental insanity known as Bushworld was a cancer on our nation. Our own so-called "leaders" bullied us into submission and threatened us if we tried to stop them. This is fascism. The Republican Fascists are angry because they lost and will stop at nothing to try to keep us serving their fantasy of America as a Corporate/Military/Religious complex.
August 5, 2009 10:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I worked for 2 months for Obama in Ohio. When Palen started stirring up the hatred of crowds they kept having to increase his security and suddenly we had police protecting our deputy field office. This is our time to choose a better future. We need to get back out there and support of country. "A people without vision shall not stand."
August 5, 2009 11:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is not a new tactic by the Goon squad.
Palin is now the leader of the FemiNazi movement.
Rush and his Right wing ministers of propoganda, are like previous ministers of hate just like the Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joeseph Goebbels.
Beck an Dodd are emmulating the era of McCarthism, using smear tactics, raising questions about associations or whether YOU"RE really an American. Asking; Do you Really have papers proving your an American?
Asking; Have you ever been a member of the Democratic Party? \
Just asking, in hopes the crowd will rise up and crucify those not like them.
August 5, 2009 11:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
p.s. Code pink?? LOL. Those ladies are loud, perhaps, but they are all women, and pacifists. Don't tell me the Big Bad GOP was quaking in their boots about little old Code Pink ladies.
It's a bit different when you have some big fat unwashed asshole guy in shades telling you to "shut your face" and following people to their cars.
August 5, 2009 11:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
First off, is this how the GOP intends to come back? I'm disgusted by them more every day. Even my hard core republican friends are embarrassed of what they thought was their party & how they "ACT" now & where they're headed. This is not how they'll attract new voters or keep the 5 states they have left.
Second, what is their goal? A totally divided nation, complete corporate takeover, endless teabagging, dumbing themselves down to the enth degree?
By the looks of most of these teabaggers, they should be all for health care & now that I think about it, major education reform too.
August 5, 2009 11:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just wait until one of them lose their jobs and their health care!!
August 6, 2009 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Know Nothings of the 19th century knew a lot compared to these tools.
August 5, 2009 11:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm not a fan of Code Pink, I think that their tactics are self-defeating. But they don't attempt to shut down meetings completely and they don't try to prevent other people from speaking. They typically show up in silly costumes, scream something, hold up a banner, and then they typically get thrown out of the meeting and the meeting goes on. When they don't get thrown out, they say their piece and don't attempt to prevent others from speaking.
Also, they are a fringe group that is not backed by the Democratic Party; on the contrary, they usually attack Democrats, and their leader, Medea Benjamin, has run as a Green Party candidate.
Sorry, the analogy doesn't work.
August 5, 2009 11:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
No why did you have to go and fuck up shooter's short-stroking it over a false analogy and embracing the abdication of personal responsibility by going all factual and logic on his/hers lame ass?
August 6, 2009 2:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
The reason folks reach back 8 years for conservative activism is that for 8 years you all have mindlessly endorsed and supported every reckless idiotic and criminal idea suggested by Bush and Co who were in control.
August 6, 2009 2:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Answering a rhetorical shout with a rhetorical question:
What's wrong with profit?
What's wrong with honest profit?
The health insurance industry makes money by pushing paper and bloviating. They don't do anything else.
August 6, 2009 2:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
No they make their money by charging as high a premium as they can squeeze out of their "customers" (who didn't have a choice) and then denying as much care as they can legally (and often illegally) get away with.
We pay in, they try not to pay out, and pocket the difference.
It's, as Ezra Klein put it, like a for profit fire dept. which makes all of its money letting a few houses burn down.
That little old lady whose coverage was denied ("experimental", "pre-existing", recission, etc. etc) is pure profit.
August 6, 2009 8:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
If this is the Republicans' strategy to bring independents back to their party, they have lost all reasoning skills. First, we voted for Obama largely because he promised to reform health care. Second, these extremist anti-government tea baggers, birthers and Palin worshipers have taken over the Republican party. It's not a party that a person with any degree of intelligence can relate to anymore. It's become a carricature of itself, a joke, and a shame to the legacy of Lincoln. Has the entire party completely lost its mind?
August 6, 2009 2:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
It never cesases to amaze to what lows the corporate whore's and or lackey's will stoop to infringe on other's constitutional right to assemble, and then do everything they can to be disruptive. OH yes the Code Pink was present at some of their more odious gatherings and for good reason as well as enumerated here and elsewhere,
But none of the partipants in this forum has caught the fact the meeting was HELD IN A CHURCH, now thats as much respect we'll get from them as we got seeing them shoot the doctor at his Church Door,
In our church up here in the NW their tactics would indeed be foolish, and an obstacle to their continued well being, we respect the lords house and there fore the intent of a peace full gathering. and it shall be so.6'4"250 and 6'7" 285 pound ushers encourage you to be respect full of all, and opposite discourse is allowed but not the blatant bullshit on display by fake teabaggies
and Insurance flakes sweating to keep their jobs.
Now as for shooter running his mouth as he does comes as no surprise, he has not learned the most famous words of all, and it was made a house hold word by ARETHA FRANLIN (R.E.S.P.E.C.T.)
This is about money and power, the Insurance company's have us between a rock and our wallets and we are being squeezed to satisfy their proclivity for bad investments and greed,
August 6, 2009 3:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
"...we strongly suggest that the organizers find more constructive ways to get their message out."
If they had a message I'm sure they'd be trying to get it out. It's clear that all they're trying to do here is make Obama's presidency a failure, no matter the cost for America or its people. Their goal is not to improve things but to regain power by turning everything from the Democratic party into failure.
Since there is no message to combat the only thing to do is politically judo-flip their asses by turning the light on these tactics and who inspired them and letting every voter out there know. Their actions speak quite loudly. It's time to amplify their exposure.
August 6, 2009 5:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent post and right on the money. They want Obama to fail - heaven forbid a brilliant black man is able to undue the ruin of the previous 8 years. If he succeeds, they are dead and they know it.
How anyone could be a member of the thuglican party is beyond me. I have several friends who left - (highly educated friends, I might add)
August 6, 2009 5:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
As a tactic to lessen the disruption at the pro-health-care-reform congressman's and women's town hall meetings, why don't all congresspeople coordinate their meetings to be held at the same time. That way out-of-town-disrupting-type-loud-mouths would be, theoretically, diluted in number at many pro-rallies-town-hall-meetings, right?
August 6, 2009 8:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you all for your comments. It goes to show that whatever idiocy conservatives can exhibit, the looney left will outshine it by orders of magnitude.
Heh.
August 6, 2009 10:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Congratulations for competing so effectively in the race to become the biggest bunch of idiots.
Perhaps one day you'll figure out that the goal is to look for solutions, not scream the loudest. The Democrats figured it out, which is why they are in power, suggesting policies and you are busy suggesting a national hairpulling match.
Until your tiny brain processes this reality, you'll remain at 18% party identification, losing gloriously at every election.
We're guiding policy, and you're writing snarky comments on a website. I can't think of a better state of affairs.
So no, thank YOU!
August 6, 2009 11:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
People who claim to believe in Bombing Democracy into other countries, and spreading Democracy, etc., etc., and yell they have the "Freedom of Speech" sure seem to be the very ones who...
Disrupt the very act of Democracy and Freedom of Speech.
August 6, 2009 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Only conservatives hide behind such childish excuses as, "the left does it too" and "we learned it from them". The way I see it, being a conservative is all about being an immature hypocrite who blames others for their troubles (Arabs, gays, Hispanics, Jews, liberals, etc.) and tries to defend the indefensible - without appeals to logic or reason, of course.
August 6, 2009 12:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm getting really concerned about the way this is playing out. Although it bothers me a great deal that the conservative wingnuts may win this battle and we may never get the Health Care Reform we want, there's a bigger problem at play here and that's: What is happening to our country??
I feel the Republicans have overstepped so many boundaries with their viciousness, that this country could be on the road to ruin, not unlike the Civil War, but without guns. How can we ever heal the wounds they are creating on a daily basis and get back to a saner time in our history?
I'm beginning to think that it's very possible that may never happen, and I'm really frightened - and extremely sad - about it.
August 6, 2009 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Will the victor be the one with the killer instinct?
Nice guys finish last?
Fratricide (from the Latin word frater, meaning: "brother" and cide meaning to kill) is the act of a person killing his or her brother.
Not hard to imagine, if a worsening economy or any other tribulation, that Americans would turn on one another.
Republicans have so denounced Government as the enemy; it's hard to believe anyone could muster enough credibility to prevent chaos or anarchy.
God wouldn't have to bring on Armageddon; humans will destroy themselves.
August 6, 2009 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fact remains they are a vocal minority.
I think numbers count.
August 6, 2009 9:55 PM | Reply | Permalink