Town halls turning ugly

[mesyn191]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

And the spin is that anyone who asks a tough question must be a political hack a neo nazi or a birther. I just do not think it is true.

Its not the questions that they're asking but the manner and intent with which they do so. These people aren't genuinely interested in having their questions answered, if they don't hear what they like they just shout down and boo the speaker/congressman. They are not interested in discourse, they're there to present a image to the rep./media, they're posers.

IOW I have no problem with reps/speakers being asked tough questions, nor do I believe that automatically makes the asker a neo-nazi/birther. That is your perception and not my intention if that is what you got out of what I said. I'm saying most if not all the people using these PR tactics right now are birthers, nutjobs, and yes even racists. Its faux grass roots, done by the very same people who did the Tea Parties, its the Jerry Springer version of political action.

If you like the shadenfruede you get when you watch some of these reps/congressman get shouted down, I have no problem with that, just bear in mind its all being done for the wrong reasons.

[D-Mack]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

A First Hand View of a Raucous Town Hall Meeting

August 05, 2009 4:51 PM

ABC’s Steven Portnoy reports:

There were no lobbyist-funded buses in the parking lot of Mardela Middle and High School on Tuesday evening, and the hundreds of Eastern Maryland residents who packed the school’s auditorium loudly refuted the notion that their anger over the Democrats’ health care reform plans is “manufactured.”

“I went to school in this school,” a man named Bob told me. “I don't see anyone in this room that isn't from Mardela Springs right now.”

“We’ve been quiet too long,” said a woman named Joan.

They came to yell at their congressman, freshman Democratic Rep. Frank Kratovil, and they were surprised to hear that the “Congress in Your Corner” event to which they had been invited -- by a robocall from Kratovil himself -- was not to be a public airing of grievances, but instead an opportunity for private, one-on-one sessions with the freshman Democrat.

..

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpu...l-meeting.html

Why is the MSM shoveling their stuff into blogs?

[WDCRob]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

This is what you get when you have an angry, racist, hateful minority riled up and choreographed by some combination of corporate patrons, K-street lobbyists and the official media outlet of the Republican Party.

They do what they're told and believe everything they hear. Given the difficulty many of these folks have with reality this will end very badly.

This isn't 'protest' it's thuggery.

As a columnist who regularly dishes out sharp criticism, I try not to question the motives of people with whom I don't agree. Today, I'm going to step over that line.

The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems.

[cjppjc]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

This is what you get when you have an angry, racist, hateful minority riled up and choreographed by some combination of corporate patrons, K-street lobbyists and the official media outlet of the Republican Party.

They do what they're told and believe everything they hear. Given the difficulty many of these folks have with reality this will end very badly.

This isn't 'protest' it's thuggery.

After this, definitely move to Rant & Rave.

[Rantly McTirade]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

This is what you get when you have an angry, racist, hateful minority riled up and choreographed by some combination of corporate patrons, K-street lobbyists and the official media outlet of the Republican Party.

They do what they're told and believe everything they hear. Given the difficulty many of these folks have with reality this will end very badly.

This isn't 'protest' it's thuggery.

'Wacist'? No corporate patron, flack, or poobah would be anywhere near anything that wouldn't pass muster with the NAACP, La Raza,any crapversity consultant, etc., so you're clearly confused on your conspiracies.
Unless you mean Al Sharpton and Jeremiah Wright? Doubtful.

[WDCRob]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

Right on schedule.

These are authoritarian cultists who cannot cope with the world as it exists, or the fact that a black man is President, or both. They are being incited to stamp out democratic debate and, now, to violence.

I say it again - this will end very badly.

[BigBagel]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

Agree.

One thing I have noticed in American politics lately. There seems to be the idea that if someone is arguing a point you don't agree with, that they should be shut up. As if there is a fear that merely vocalizing a thought somehow magically makes it valid. If people are idiots so what? What is to fear by letting them open their mouths and show the world what idiots they are?

I hate the shouters too, but sometimes that's what it takes be heard.

What we're witnessing is American politics is being brought down to the level of talk radio or one of those screaming political discussion shows on cable. All smoke and no fire.

[flintlock]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

After seeing more stuff on the news about these "town halls", I have to agree that they are becoming less than useful. A bunch of senior citizens shouting down each other is mostly what I saw. Not much real discussion there. They should organize a march or something if they want to protest. Of course no AC and scooter batteries run out after a few miles.

[sutro]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

TAMPA, Fla. -- A town hall meeting to discuss President Barack Obama's health care reform plan turned into a heated confrontation after more than a thousand people showed up in Tampa to voice their opinion.

Opponents shouted "Read the bill!" and held up signs as U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor attempted to address the crowd Thursday. There were reports of shoving and one man had his shirt ripped as a volunteer attempted to close a meeting room door. No one was arrested.

The Tampa chapter of the activist 9-12 Project says it encouraged members to show up and ask questions. The group was developed by Fox News Channel commentator Glenn Beck.

Police say an estimated 1,500 attended. Many had to stand in the hallway or outside the room.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/AP/story/1175951.html

There has been some comparison to Acorn in response to the original. Which TV network are they affiliated with in this way?

[SamAdams]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

Unfortunately yelling at them (or even throwing things at them, heck even beating them to within an inch of their lives...) won't accomplish anything, you're assuming they don't already know what they're doing is wrong and/or that they actually care. We're going to have to vote them out and replace them with people who just want to do the job the right way and not from a ideological viewpoint. I don't see that happening any time soon. Certainly not with this Jerry Springer approach to political discourse.

I think people are reacting to their "representatives" not listening to them. Obviously it is often an emotional reaction. So good if the people stop listening to their "representatives" answers. More than one of these "representatives" has completely ignored their constituents opinions and without reading legislation - given it their vote.

Our "representatives" could learn a thing or two from these crowds! If they got into some more fistacuffs around Capitol Hill perhaps they wouldn't be able to easily keep passing the piles of sh*t they call legislation. Maybe now they will at least think twice, that would be progress.

[Ghent12]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

I think people are reacting to their "representatives" not listening to them. Obviously it is often an emotional reaction. So good if the people stop listening to their "representatives" answers. More than one of these "representatives" has completely ignored their constituents opinions and without reading legislation - given it their vote.

Our "representatives" could learn a thing or two from these crowds! If they got into some more fistacuffs around Capitol Hill perhaps they wouldn't be able to easily keep passing the piles of sh*t they call legislation. Maybe now they will at least think twice, that would be progress.

I remember reading of physical attacks during heated arguments in the various legislatures of the 19th Century. I think what we have now is actually a step backwards--less intelligent, less passionate, just raw corruption it seems.

[Raz]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

"We're headed toward another world war and these fascists will lead the way. They don't yet feel free to set up camps but it's no more than an election or two away if we ignore the threat. Wait until oil is $300 a barrel, the idiots in this video will go Hitler youth on us all."

Many of these people are objecting to the "hush it, rush it" fascism of the Democratic leadership in the House, even if their fears are corralled by political groups on the Right.

If you fear the "Hitler Youth" of the future, what about the "Young Pioneers" (Neo-Stalinists) of the present: ACORN ?

[Raz]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

From the video that Metalman posted, we find that the organizers of the protest at Rep. Bishop's town-hall meeting was an outfit called the Conservative Society for Action.

On this outfit's website, 100% of the blame for the 2008 Debt Deflation Depression is laid at the feet Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi and the Community Reinvestment Act.

What % of the protesters at Rep. Bishop's meeting think that is God's honest truth?

I'm in that economic conservative camp that feels we where abandoned by nearly every Republican leader and voter after 9/11. We're wary of these people because they said nothing, ney, they disagreed with us when we complained about rapidly rising deficits during the credit bubble boom years. Deficits don't matter we were told by them, because that's what they were told by Dick Cheney.

The history of all this has been rewritten in a matter of months. Back in the old days - 2008 - the only people talking about deficits were fringe nuts on economic websites such as this one and the Ron Paul fansites. Nothing was said by the other GOP candidates about it until after they lost the election. Same goes for all of the supporters of the party that I talk to on a regular basis. It was pretty funny listening to the talking points about deficits and bailout packages change and emerge almost instantly in mid-November.

So there is no doubt that all of this stuff is going to carry over into 2010 and 2012. The big question is, do all of these people let the Republicans slide again once they're back at the seat of the controls?

Thank you for pointing out this "inconvenient truth" about the useless Republicans of 1998 -2008: George W. Bush, Trent Lott, Denny Hastert and company. The reason we've been handed over to these fascists of the Left is because these NeoCon phonies sold out almost every conservative principle that they supposedly spent the past forty years campaigning on. (It does anger me though that the media never seems to hold Demonrats like Barney Frank accountable.)

A few of my friends were really irritated when I pointed all this out to them beginning in 2002, and now that my prophesy of disaster has come true they avoid talking to me.

I wouldn't waste a mouthful of warm spit on the present NeoCon dominated Republican Party.:mad:

[Raz]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

Right on schedule.

These are authoritarian cultists who cannot cope with the world as it exists, or the fact that a black man is President, or both. They are being incited to stamp out democratic debate and, now, to violence.

I say it again - this will end very badly.

So everyone who disagrees with the fascist rush to socialism of the auto industry, along with the banking, insurance and medical industries, and the enshrining of "Green" as an altar upon which any revival of American manufacturing must be sacrificed is a racist? None of us can oppose Obama, Waxman, Boxer and Frank on principle, so we're all a bunch of racists??

Pardon my French, but your post is bull-thuggery of the highest order.:mad::mad::mad:

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Town halls turning ugly

So everyone who disagrees with the fascist rush to socialism of the auto industry, along with the banking, insurance and medical industries, and the enshrining of "Green" as an altar upon which any revival of American manufacturing must be sacrificed is a racist? None of us can oppose Obama, Waxman, Boxer and Frank on principle, so we're all a bunch of racists??

Pardon my French, but your post is bull-thuggery of the highest order.:mad::mad::mad:

I honestly think you might be a bit too restrained in this criticism.