“Democratic National Committee’s press secretary Hari Sevugan said nationwide protests of democratic health care town hall events were “manufactured outrage” today on Washington Unplugged.”
That’s the talking point repeated all over the mainstream media.
Crap like this:
These mobs are bussed in by well funded, highly organized groups run by Republican operatives and funded by the special interests who are desperately trying to stop the agenda for change the President was elected to bring to Washington. Despite the headline grabbing nature of these angry mobs and their disruptions of events, they are not reflective of where the American people are on the issues – or the hundreds of thousands of thoughtful discussions taking place around kitchen tables, water coolers and in homes.
Why are people showing up to town hall meetings in droves and shouting down Democrat politicians and White House officials over the Democrats’ multi-trillion health care takeover? It’s manufactured outrage ginned up by some vast, rightwing conspiracy. Let’s ignore the fact that Democrats routinely bus in their people, or that no one was more “well funded” and “highly organized” than the Obama political machine.
But a snippet from a Politico article that is describing the vitriolic town hall meetings is telling:
Within an hour of the disruption, police were called in to escort the 59-year-old Democrat — who has held more than 100 town hall meetings since he was elected in 2002 — to his car safely.
“I have no problem with someone disagreeing with positions I hold,” Bishop said, noting that, for the time being, he was using other platforms to communicate with his constituents. “But I also believe no one is served if you can’t talk through differences.”
A registered Democrat confronting New York Democrat Steny Hoyer at a town hall in Utica said:
“Why would you guys try to stuff a health care bill down our throats in three to four weeks when the President took six months to pick what he wanted for a dog for his kids?!?! What are you doing? What are you doing? Are you willing to have your family members sign on to every bill that you pass?”
Pundits are now using the term “Town hell” to describe the outrage with which voters are confronting Democrats pushing for Obamacare. And it is by no means just Republicans who are utterly outraged and confronting their elected officials.
The latest Quinnipiac poll on health care is telling:
American voters, by a 55 – 35 percent margin, are more worried that Congress will spend too much money and add to the deficit than it will not act to overhaul the health care system, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. By a similar 57 – 37 percent margin, voters say health care reform should be dropped if it adds “significantly” to the deficit.
By a 72 – 21 percent margin, voters do not believe that President Barack Obama will keep his promise to overhaul the health care system without adding to the deficit, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University national poll finds.
American voters disapprove 52 – 39 percent of the way President Obama is handling health care, down from 46 – 42 percent approval July 1, with 60 – 34 percent disapproval from independent voters. Voters say 59 – 36 percent that Congress should not pass health care reform if only Democratic members support it.
Heritage points out:
The White House is losing the health care debate. Polls from National Public Radio, Wall Street Journal/NBC News, The Washington Post, Gallup, and Pew all show that the American people do not support President Barack Obama’s health care plan. The White House wants people to believe they are losing the health care debate because “scary … videos are starting to percolate on the internet” that are spreading “disinformation” about Obama’s health care plan.
Obama and Democrats are not just losing the argument among Republicans called in by insurance companies to raise havoc. They are in fact losing the debate with the overwhelming majority of the American people – as every single poll on health care shows. It is as disingenuous as hell to try to make the angry “mobs” as being Republican plants. Yet that is precisely what the Democrat Party is doing, and the mainstream media is helping them do it.
A message from the Obama White House shows just how Nixonian – and frankly Stalinist – this administration truly is:
There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.
This is an example – unprecedented in modern American political history – of a President of the United States seeking information on political opponents who are exercising their 2nd Amendment-protected rights. Imagine the appalled and angry outrage if George W. Bush had solicited the White House to create such an “enemies list.”
The whole affair very much reminds me of the Orwellian 1984 description of anonymous informers – including children against their own parents – spying on and reporting potential thought-criminals who might endanger The Party.
And of course it reminded me of another incredibly Orwellian statement from the Obama administration on the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program:
“This application provides access to the DoT CARS system. When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the US Government. Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT, and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign.”
Heritage.org suggests we turn in Democrats to the White House as “the people spreading disinformation about Obamacare.”
And in point of fact, we should turn in Obama to the White House for being one of the people encouraging anger and a mob mentality:
“I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face,” [Obama] said.
Or consider Obama saying he had no intention of laying off his campaign to intimidate AIG executives who were literally receiving death threats:
“I don’t want to quell anger. People are right to be angry. I’m angry. What I want us to do is channel our anger in a constructive way.”
Presumably, that meant trying to limit his followers from just shouting from the streets in front of AIG employees’ houses rather than actually entering the homes and murdering families. Which was nice of him, considering that only Chris Dodd accepted more contributions from AIG.
Hot Air provides the following list of exceptions to the Democrats’ charge of Republican extremism:
* People who want Congress to take more time debating healthcare are shutting down debate.
* Pres. Obama says the time for talk on healthcare is over, but his critics are trying to shut down debate.
* Harassing and threatening the families of AIG employees is awesome; razzing Representatives and Senators is totally bogus!
* Asking Representatives and Senators to read bills before voting on them is killing democracy.
* Sen. Specter saying “we have to make judgments very fast” is awesome. Booing him for saying so is shutting off debate.
* Healthcare protesters are “thugs” “shutting off debate”; antiwar protesters are “rowdy.”
The thing I find the most amazing is that – even if Republicans are doing EVERYTHING the Democrats claim they are (and they AREN’T), the Republicans are merely following in the example that has been set for YEARS by liberals. FrontPage Magazine provided a list compiled way back in 2001 of liberals routinely shouting down conservative speakers and disrupting events. Shouting and being disruptive was a tactic created by the left; how can they be angry if conservatives use it without their pointed heads exploding from containing the massive contradiction?
I found it amusing and utterly despicable at the same time to read about a 14 year old girl who – after noticing all the Obama T-shirts – decided to wear a shirt that said, “McCain Girl.” And was utterly and hatefully attacked for doing so. Just never forget that Republicans are intolerant and divisive, though.
The left is a group of people who come completely unglued if others do unto them as they did unto others. Hypocrisy defines them; it is their quintessential essence.
Barack Obama was a disciple of Saul Alinsky. And Rule 12 of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is: ‘Pick the Target, Freeze It, Personalize It and Polarize It.’ And as a business article pointed out, Obama has used that rule to effect again and again.
The White House is saying that the outrage over ObamaCare “appears to be orchestrated” and “organized” by rightwing organizations. The word “organized” should show how demonstrably ridiculous Obama’s outrage truly is, given his pride in having been a “community organizer.” And let us realize that “orchestrate” is merely another synonym for “organize.”
This community organizer is now mad that communities are beginning to organize to stop government health care they absolutely do not want?
I’ve seen about a dozen videos of so-called “mobs” shouting at Democrats. What I’ve noticed is that members of the audience would ask pointed questions, and the crowd only started shouting down Democrats when their elected officials give stupid and dismissive answers. When someone asked Kathleen Sebelius and Arlen Spector why Congress wasn’t even bothering to read the bills they were voting for, for example, nobody started screaming at Sebelius until she gave the utterly ridiculous answer that she had never served in Congress; nor did they scream at Spector until he answered that they had to work very fast and didn’t have time to read the bills that are transforming our society. And the crowd erupted in outrage at such stupid and contemptible answers.
Youtube video of Arlen Specter shouted down after saying “We have to do this fast.”
My own view is this: the Democrat establishment is trying to marginalize the huge crowds going to town halls to confront their elected representatives and telll them NOT to vote for this terrible health care bill. They want the Blue Dog Democrats to ignore the crowds and dismiss them as “plants.” They do so at their own political peril.
Tags: AIG, angry mobs, Arlen Spector, Bishop, Blue Dog Democrats, bussed in, communities organizing, community organizer, death threats, disagreeing with positions, disinformation, email, fishy, freeze, get in their faces, harassing, health care, highly organized, Kathleen Sebelius, losing the health care debate, manufactured outrage, mobs, Obamacare, Orwellian, personalize, pick, polarize, poll, Quinnipiac, read bills, rightwing, saul alinsky, shouted down, shut down debate, six months to pick a dog, Steny Hoyer, well funded, whitehouse.gov
Start Thinking Right 
August 6, 2009 at 10:36 am
We first heard from the birthers, with their fake “birth certificate” in hand and with their fake outrage. These are the same under tones that you saw from Republicans during the confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor, “you are not like us” or “you are too different”, “you are not main stream”. And then they act surprised when people do not vote with them, they are lost, no core beliefs, too bad.
In my opinion the Republican Party has been taken over the most extreme religious right (people who love to push their beliefs on others while at the same time trying to take away their rights) and that’s who they need to focus on if they real want to win. Good Luck, because as they said in WACO, “We Ain’t Coming Out”.
It’s funny we hear Republicans say that they do not want “faceless bureaucrats” making medical decisions but they have no problem with “private sector” “faceless bureaucrats” daily declining medical coverage and financially ruining good hard working people. And who says that the “private sector” is always right, do we forget failures like Long-Term Capital, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Enron, Tyco, AIG and Lehman Brothers. Of course the federal government will destroy heathcare by getting involved, Oh but wait our military men and women and the Senate and Congress get the best heathcare in the world, and oh, that’s right, its run by our federal government. I can understand why some may think that the federal government will fail, if you look at the past eight years as a current history, with failures like the financial meltdown, Katrina, and the Walter Reed Scandal but the facts is they can and if we support them they will succeed.
August 6, 2009 at 11:54 am
My God, Paul.
You are an ideologue of ideologues. Conservatives have overwhelmingly shunned the “birther” thing. I have written hundreds of articles, and have never mentioned it in ANY of them. Even ANN COULTER trivializes it – and just wrote an article ridiculing people like you for trying to make it an issue about Republicans. But you – you fanatic leftist ideologue that you are – throw this giant straw man in my face?
I don’t know for sure whether Obama was born in Hawaii or not, because, regardless of what you say, he has NEVER bothered to produce the long-form birth certificate that would set the matter to rest. The form he HAS produced is simply too easy for a non-native-born citizen to maintain. That said, on my view, it is not worth bothering with; because we don’t have the evidence that he WASN’T born in Hawaii, either. And we’re not going to throw him out now over that.
Interestingly, the left went after John McCain because he was born in the Panama Canal zone. I guess your leftist hypocrisy doesn’t allow you to be bothered by your double-standard. John McCain did something that your messiah has steadfastly refused to do: he produced his actual long-form birth certificate and set the matter to rest. That’s all that most of the “birthers” want him to do.
And you throw the “birther” thing in Republicans’ faces as though it proves they’re unhinged. But let’s point out that polls showed that FAR more Democrats – 35% – believed that George Bush was behind the 9/11 attack (the “truther” movement) – than this stuff with the “birthers” and Republicans. And the “Bush caused 9/11” thing had nothing but total lunacy to back it up.
So you’re just proving what a psychotic ideologue you are to come here and post these crappy talking points. You should be ashamed of yourself.
It doesn’t matter to you that Sonia Sotomayor is a demonstrated racist with her “wise Latina woman coming to a better decision than a white male.” It doesn’t matter to you that any white male saying anything like that would not only be destroyed, but crucified. it doesn’t matter to you that she has been overturned by the Supreme Court 7 out of 8 times. It doesn’t matter to you that one of those cases involved blatant discrimination against white firefighters punishing them for the simple fact that they were white.
Aside from the above, you are also simply factually wrong. As a liberal, you are a complete hypocrite, but consistent people should know that Barack Obama as Senator supported filibustering BOTH Bush’s picks, and it is also a fact that Sotomayor received more Republican votes than Samual Alito received Democrat votes. And should I remind you that the term “Borking” applied to Democrats massively escalating vicious tactics against conservative judges? Should I remind you that historically, Republicans have been FAR more supportive of Democrat presidents’ picks than vice versa? So your condemnation of Republicans for not supporting Sotomayor is both intellectually and morally full of crap.
You go on to say, “And then they act surprised when people do not vote with them, they are lost, no core beliefs, too bad.” You fool, do you not realize that Republicans are now out-polling Democrats in 8 of the top 10 most important issues, and that that number is actually NINE now with Democrats having lost trust in health care. And generic support favoring Republicans over Democrats by five points is now the highest its been in YEARS, completely flipping from what it was just a couple of months ago.
So you go on living in your little liberal bubble talking about the demise of the Republican Party.
Your opinion is worth squat, so I don’t want to waste any time with it. But I’ll say a couple of things:
I have a post on the founding fathers’ views on religion as being a CRUCIAL part of a free society. The quotes from the fathers – including Jefferson and Franklin – number in the dozens. So when you attack the Republican Party as being somehow hijacked by religion, you are de facto attacking the founding fathers and their vision for this country.
I would also point out that when you throw out religion, you have nothing left but Darwinian morality (survival of the fittest; The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life; that sort of thing). And you simply have no basis to tell me that I ought to want a government health care system to care for the poor, the minorities, the sick, and the elderly from a Darwinian premise.
We might go to state atheism where we have more than 100 million of our own citizens murdered by the government during peacetime. Maybe THAT would be a solution for “health care.” You people decry the intolerance of religion, and you’ve never SEEN intolerance until you see the intolerance WITHOUT RELIGION.
If you want government healthcare, please take a one-way trip to Cuba. As for me – given the fact that Medicare has an unfunded liability of $61.6 TRILLION, and given the fact that it is forecasted to go bankrupt by 2017 – I’ll continue to insist on something that actually works. It’s kind of pathetic that you refuse to do the same, and insist on a massive black hole of debt with DMV-level quality of care.
As for the blame of the financial meltdown, I wrote an article on that. Suffice it to say, the actual record shows that DEMOCRATS who were in complete charge of Congress between 2006-to date repeatedly refused to even acknowledge that there was a PROBLEM as Republicans pointed out, and refused to reform the system as Republicans tried to do going back to 2003.
As for Katrina, it’s interesting how Bush got all the blame given the complete failure of Democrats from the city to the county to the state level. The very moment that Governor Blanco finally declared a state of emergency on August 27, President Bush immediately responded by declaring a federal emergency and authorizing full FEMA resources. And then there’s the matter of hundreds of school buses that Democrat Mayor Ray Nagin let sit uselessly and get ruined when he could have easily saved over a thousand lives.
I would add that most of the government of Louisiana is now in Republican hands because Louisianans recognized how poorly Democrats handled the disaster. And the last time there was a hurricane that threatened Louisiana, Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal was widely praised for his GREATLY SUPERIOR handling over Kathleen Blanco.
August 6, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Comrade you are the eyes and ears of the revolution. Report your neighbor now. If you don’t have a computer there is a hot line setup at 1-800-USA-4KGB
August 6, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Oh, I already reported both my parents AND my grandma.
They committed thoughtcrimes against our glorious Brother Bama, whose caring, glorious, and courageous face fills my Telescreen.
August 8, 2009 at 9:29 am
Isn’t shameful how Pelosi and other democratic Congressman run from the town halls to congress saying were scared thier mobsters., and to think they were going for World domination. Heh heh lol.
August 9, 2009 at 2:30 pm
It is Democrats’ knee-jerk tendency to demonize and demagogue those who disagree with them. The funny thing here is that a lot of the “Republican plants” at the town halls are lifelong Democrats. And that polls show that independents are overwhelmingly against Obamacare.
August 11, 2009 at 10:50 am
How does shouting down to stop the conversation of the healthcare debate at town hall meetings, endears them to anyone. Especially when the organizations that are telling them where to go and what to do and say are Republicans political operatives, not real grassroots. How does shouting someone down or chasing them out like a “lynch mob” advanced the debate, it does not. So I think the American people will see through all of this and know, like the teabagger, the birthers, these lynch mobs types are just the same, people who have to resort to these tactics because they have no leadership to articulate what they real want. It’s easy to pickup a bus load of people who hate, and that’s all I been seeing, they hate and can’t debate. Too bad.
August 11, 2009 at 11:53 am
I just can’t understand the sheer stupidity of people like you, Paul.
“Especially when the organizations that are telling them where to go and what to do and say are Republicans political operatives, not real grassroots.”
You are only a narrow-minded idiot desperately searching for a talking point when you say they’re not “real grassroots.” And again, you hypocrite, you undermine your own case: YOU are HERE because of Democrat talking points. You’re not “real grassroots.” You’re just a liberal plant by your own damn twisted standards. You saw something, heard something, or read something, and as a result you are getting in my face. So I guess nothing you say has any validity and doesn’t matter.
Nobody “activated” the people going to those town halls, and you are a genuine ignoramus for thinking they did. They represent the polls – which are DEAD SET against ObamaCare. Rasmussen’s poll today is titled, “Support for Congressional Health Care Reform Falls to New LOW.” So those people you’re demonizing represent the clear majority of the American people.
From what I’ve seen right from the start, the people only started shouting when they hear a lie, or a dismissive answer. They don’t want their health care screwed with by the government that can’t run anything, and they have no patience for crap. When someone demanded that Congress actually READ THE BILL, they got furious when Kathleen Sebelius blithely claimed she wasn’t a member of Congress. And when Arlen Spector said they didn’t have time to read the bill because, “We’ve got important work to do,” the crowd came unglued. Claire McCaskill – who was the earliest to get an earful from an angry crowd – wisely took the exact OPPOSITE view to yours and admitted that the anger was very genuine. No plants.
It took me two seconds to find this demonizing Bush for holding scripted appearances – JUST LIKE THE ONE OBAMA HELD TODAY IN PORTSMOUTH, NH, WHERE THEY DID SUCH A GREAT JOB PRE-SCREENING THE EVENT THAT THERE WASN’T EVEN A SINGLE PERSON WHO HAD A CRITICISM.
Meanwhile, I’ve documented union thugs showing up to intimidate and even BEAT people who are merely exercising their freedom to assemble. So, again, I guess you’re just an ideologue for complaining about the people who get beaten rather than be upset about the REAL thuggish tactics.
A man with stage four cancer wearing a colostomy bag was repeatedly physically shoved while his daughter yelled, “Leave him alone! Leave him alone!” A photojournalist who was also physically roughed up at the event got the four burly men’s cards: they were from the pipe fitter’s union. A black conservative was beaten down and repeatedly kicked by union thugs. It’s nice to know that you’re only angry when conservatives shout in exercising their rights, but you’re fine with Nazi tactics.
For one thing, given that Democrats have been organizing events for YEARS and YEARS, why do you only now become outraged at it, you pathetic hypocrite??? Why on earth did you elect a COMMUNITY ORGANIZER if community organizing was somehow bad? Why didn’t you mind when conservatives were being shouted down? How does your head not explode from trying to contain the contradictions?
Here’s an article describing a Portland, Ore crowd of Democrats protesting Bush, using violence, intimidation, and even blatant death threats.
Here’s an antiwar crowd at a DNC event shouting down and physically assaulting a Fox News reporter trying to ask them questions.
Here’s a crowd of liberals shouting down Tom Tancredo after he said, “This is a free speech crowd, right?”
Here’s a crowd of liberals yelling down a speech by Virgil Goode.
Here’s on of liberals not only shouting down but storming a Minuteman speech.
Here’s one of David Horowitz being shouted down at a speech.
Ward Connerly and other conservative speakers have routinely been shouted down and never even allowed to speak. And this has been going on for years.
And all of a sudden you’re outraged. You hypocrite.
I put up an article that showed the MASSIVE paid funding for liberals to “support healthcare.” There’s nothing even CLOSE to that going on with Republicans. Your side is PAYING protesters even as you complain about conservatives “not being grassroots.” You would be ashamed of yourself if you had any sense.
You call the Tea Party people “tea baggers,” a gross sexual reference intended to mock and marginalize peaceful protesters. You anti-American jerk. The people who showed up at those rallies all over the country were exercising their 1st Amendment rights. No wonder you despise them so much. On the one hand, you tear into the town hall attenders because they’re “shouting.” But you prove again what a vile hypocrite you really are: the Tea Party attenders were completely peaceful. They weren’t shouting at anybody. You just hate them because you hate conservatives exercising their rights.
So the next time you want to see a hater, look in the mirror.
August 13, 2009 at 8:45 am
It is very American to want to help our fellow countryman. I believe in my government especially our men and women in our military, firefighters and police. You, not so much. Lets face it the previous administration did nothing (except start two wars of choice that are bankrupting our country with all the “war profiteering” contracts to Halliburton) well you and I will just have to agree to not agree. I did not believe any of the Republican rhetoric before the last election and I do not believe them now. I do not believe that your sentiments are in line with the majority, but your comments, funny stuff.
August 13, 2009 at 9:56 am
First of all, I served in the United States Army and have two campaign ribbons and a combat infantryman badge. I am a member of the Disabled American Veterans and the Military Order of the Purple Heart. I did volunteer work at a VA hospital until I moved away (too far from any VA hospital to continue). I make mention of those facts just to point out what a lying demagogue weasel you truly are.
I have to say I find it utterly laughable that you criticize Bush for “bankrupting the country” when YOUR guy has taken on more debt than every single president from George Washington to George W. Bush, COMBINED.
Yesterday they announced the budget deficit as of this point: it was $1.27 trillion. It is THREE times higher than Bush’s worst year ever. Any right/reason Democrats ever had to criticize Bush for fiscal irresponsibility is LONG GONE except for complete hypocrites as you seem to be. Bush spent billions more than he should have; now Democrats have spent TRILLIONS and TRILLIONS and demand more trillions to be spent. Your argument is beyond ignorant.
Warren Buffet sees massive inflation to handle our staggering Democrat-induced debt – AND HE’S OBAMA’S OWN GUY!!!
Allow me to cite CEO Magazine’s poll taken prior to the election:
Yep. They were right.
And we haven’t even SEEN real profiteering yet, as Obama’s unions and lawyers and ACORN get their slice of the pie. There’s more pork money sloshing around now under Obama than there has ever been in this country’s history. So you keep up your deranged wailing about Haliburton.
I frankly don’t care what you believe, any more than I care what the worst raving straitjacketed nutjob rolling around the floor of some asylum believes. All I can do is suggest that you might want to get some kind of a clue before you tell me about my “funny stuff.”
August 13, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Michael Eden: sticks and stones……sticks and stones…..
I do not believe that your sentiments are in line with the majority, but your comments, funny stuff.
August 13, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Way to falsely call me out for not supporting our soldiers (which I take to be a pretty nasty insult) and then blathering about “sticks and stones” when you’re the one just threw them.
As for the “funny stuff,” I guess I’m glad to be adding to the jollies of your day.