Ugh SO CONFUSING. So are these healthcare-focused town hall meetings across the nation 1) being constantly disrupted by belligerent, gun-toting angry nutballs or 2) the site of reasoned and civil discussion among people who, for the most part, are acting like grownups?
Who can say, right? All we know is that if it’s the former, then everybody can get excited about WAR in AMERICA and journalists can turn out many column-inches about the bitter death match between deranged capitalist yokels and a bunch of liberals who want to “socialize” your grandma at her sickbed. If the truth lies closer to the latter, then neither side can raise a lot of money or get heard on the teevee shouting insults.
But you can see why the DNC would try to start convincing people that passions aren’t running that high, since the angry wingnuts have been winning the argument. Or have they???
[YouTube via First Read]
Read More:
- Michele Bachmann's Own Constituents Were So Mean To Her!
- Bachmann Now Ordering People To Starve Themselves
- Diaperman David Vitter So Excited About Wingnuts Yelling At Him At Town Halls, He Pooped His Diaper!
- Tampa Town Hall Packed To Rafters With Yelling Nutballs
- Healthcare Themes To Become Loftier, Hopier
{ 49 comments }
Violent Partisan Bloodbaths.
Elizabeth Schubert: the poor woman’s Dana Bash.
Yeah, I went there.
Sara has revealed our dastardly CommiSocialMarxist plot. Under the guise of killing your grandmother, we were instead going to have “consultations” about capitalism’s unending rape of the world. Slowly but surely we would build an army made entirely of your grandmothers, and with our red granny tide, wash away the corporate pigs with nothing but cookies, hugs, the Grundrisse and healthcare. And now that you know, Tovarish, we must kill you.
Has the nastiness been predominantly at town halls in the South?
[re=386203]groove[/re]: Dana Bash became the poor woman’s Dana Bash once she hooked up with John King.
[re=386205]doxastic[/re]: Enough with the Grunrisse, splitter! It’s the 18th Brumaire or nothing.
If you’re going to have farce then let it be tragic. If you’re going to have a tragedy then let it be farcical. If you’re going to have an operation, move to Canada.
[re=386206]Big Liver[/re]: And Pennsylvania.
In the video, was that The Edge?
So if there is no video of contentiousness can there be news? Hm. Makes me wonder what news is. Think this kind of thought is going on in MSM news rooms? Naaaaaa.
[re=386203]groove[/re]: Dana Bash has a face like a rusty hatchet.
[re=386205]doxastic[/re]: So THIS is why I read all that Althusser, Jameson, Benjamin, et al… to help my grandmother to her walker after she lines the fatties up and blows them down for the sake of the revolution…
@doxastic: “red granny tide”
…ew
[re=386205]doxastic[/re]: Workers of the world untie.
What these meetings need is more people exacting cold blooded revenge on one another like Mel Gibson when he played the character, Payback, in the movie “Payback”.
Give me violent partisan bloodbaths or give me death. Or cake. It seems more likely now that Obama was never too interested in substantive health care change and is only too happy to watch it fail, so long as he can run for cover under the wingtards & blue ball Dems.
Oh well, I tried, he’ll say, as a gutted and gutless bill eventually finds its way to his desk. I want to be wrong but the Dems have been so comprehensively outmaneuvered and ill-disciplined, it’s hard to reach any other conclusion than that the Dems are bowing to their paymasters rather than the constituents who put them in office. As it ever was.
[re=386210]DoctorCulturae[/re]: I just wonder how many hundreds of town-hall have been held where nothing happened?
If a tree falls in the forest and Fox News doesn’t report about it, can we start drilling for oil?
Violent Socratic debates. At the next one, someone will have a sign reading, “Give Obama hemlock, and Michelle, and their two stupid kids.”
Hey, they have Elizabeth’s email address onscreen! I’m totally gonna ask her out. My old TV-reporters-with-the-same-surname-as-classical-musicians fetish is acting up again…
Who says that the argumentum ad baculam has no place in a reasoned and Socratic debate?
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Maybe the loons and their organizers got rightfully embarrassed after the Specter and McCaskill town halls, and the poor dumb crazies were told to calm down.
Friday Friday Friday Live from the Pontiac Silver Dome
***********************************************
* Wrestlemanina XXXVI: The Town Hall Meeting. *
***********************************************
Feature match:
National Guard Veterans.
(No one is going to get their health care)
—– VS ——
The Suburban Soccer Moms.
(My husband lost his job and COBRA is running out)
Be There …
There were no “shouting matches.” There were a lot of redneck retards shouting at people. Not matches.
[re=386217]hobospacejunkie[/re]: Democrats’ liberal base almost never gets fed. They’re too afraid of the wild eyed crazies who always seem to have the time to protest all day or go scream inanities at town halls. And the opposition has its unfettered media machine that is not allowed to be criticized by “balanced” media. They are allowed to make up any random crazy shit and tell people “this is what the bill says. Obama is going to personally go Steven Segal on your grandmother’s neck. It’s right there on page 425, appendix C, section 32.”
Yokels don’t then jump on their computers to check if any such page even exists in the bill. They grab the nearest piece of cardboard and a magic marker and go stand outside someplace to stop that evil Barry Sargento and his socialist cheese products from killing their Olds.
People like me? I know exactly what is and isn’t being proposed. I spend most of my day either at work or reading up on the details of things being discussed or posting about those things on our Wonkett. My group just doesn’t ever seem to make any noise outside of the internets, and for that I am sorry.
[re=386212]ForTheTurnstiles[/re]: Oh Althusser. The problem is that insurance companies are saying “hey you there, stop!” but somehow wingnuts think it’s the voice of Stalin’s ghost being picked up by their foil hats.
If by “winning the war” you mean, emblazoning one’s ferret face and faux fax on the conscience of America then, yes, the red staters are “winning”.
The problem is that the wingnuts are getting some traction, even if they are just a vocal minority. According to Grassley the Senate version of the bill dropped the end of life provision. The Dems are real wimps. There are related posts about Palin/Gingrich/Grassley at http://iamsoannoyed.com/?page_id=588
Mark Teichner looks like a guy who showed up at a fancy-pants restaurant wearing a golf shirt and the maitre d’ made him put on an ill-fitting jacket from the rack in order to be seated.
[re=386235]carlyt[/re]: It’s a problem. The republican’s believe that major decisions for the country should be made by only by the most loudmouthed and ignorant among us. And the democrats apparently agree. Wonderfuckinglovely.
[re=386235]carlyt[/re]: The end of life provision which is of course about a living will. I love when our gov’t gives in to stupidest lowest common denominator ideas. It happens here in Maryland- when our school system waters things down so as not to offend the right wing homophobe parents.
I’ll go with “Socratic debate” once more of the protesters start poisoning themselves, and I don’t mean with alcohol, nicotine, or pork rinds.
At his town hall in NH, Hopey almost seemed to be begging for someone to start screaming about his birth certificate and teleprompters. Maybe he’s got some ninjitsu whoopass he’s going to open a can of in Montana, I’m guessing Ezekiel 25:17.
@Darkness: The Democrats have a long tradition of trying to please those who most hate them at the expense of those who actually vote for them. And can you blame them for that strategy when it’s been such a resounding success?
Going to a town hall tomorrow to see Bernie Sanders. Lets see if there are any of the tea baggers protesting in the Socialist Republic of Vermont.
Any suggestions for my personal signage?
OK, I can’t believe nobody else has noticed that the local station’s call letters are WHAM. They don’t want your freeeeeeedom, girl all they want right now is you.
[re=386273]trickyrick[/re]: Teabags? I got your teabags right here! Wokka Wokka
[re=386252]WadISay[/re]: Hopefully. But only whilst sporting a bitchin’ Jheri curl.
[re=386273]trickyrick[/re]: How about a Dog Whisperer truism for the blue dogs “No Touch, No Talk, No Eye Contact”
Isn’t it crazily stupid and psycho that all of these morons ranting and raving about “government-sponsored health care” will gladly, hungrily and arrogantly collect their Medicaid and Medicare payments and money—-which are government-sponsored, taxpayer-sponsored, tax-money-sponsored government health care?
Morons!
trickyrick: “Death Before Dignity!”
Looks like she’s been hitting the pipe. Good for you Liz!
[re=386208]Numbat Dundee[/re]: [re=386205]doxastic[/re]: To the barricades! Oh, wait. The retards got there first.
Yeah, Hank Johnson (D-Tom) had one of those in Decatur, Ga. It was full of hippies, coloreds and polite old honkies asking reasonable questions and listening respectfully to the answers. Like we didn’t hate Hank Johnson ENOUGH for depriving us of the glorious freak show that is Cynthia McKinney. BOOORRRINNNNGGG.
[re=386273]trickyrick[/re]: Not signage, but you might hand out sheets with the lyrics to the Internationale. Come to think of it, that would be a nifty way to punk the screamers. Tell them it’s a traditional anti-fascist hymn and get them all singing it at the town hall riots.
[re=386273]trickyrick[/re]: I’m thinking of going to one in Dallas on Monday, but work might interfere… So I offer this up for public use:
We’re afraid of:
Black People!Secret Muslins!Insurance Reform!
[re=386273]trickyrick[/re]: Oh, the mind reels. I am always one for the Simpsons homage, a la:
GIVE A HOOT! READ A BOOK!
Or you could go the gasoline-on-the-flame approach:
KILL, BABY, KILL!
GOD HATES FAGS AND OLDS!
YOUR DEAD GRANDMA NEVER CALLED ME NIGGER!
That should do it.
I r dont geddit. Why are the wingnutz mad about them being portrayed as retarded fanatics and sensationalized by the media. Don’t they know:
Angry Retards = Sensationalism, Sensationalism = Ratings, Ratings = Money, Money = Corporations, Corporations = Capitalists.
Why are the wingnutz Marxists?
During Hopey’s town hall the other day Faux News cut away from it and the anchor actually said if there are any contentious questions or arguments we will of course take you right back there. God forbid Faux’s viewers should see people behaving reasonably for an extended period of time.
[re=386217]hobospacejunkie[/re]: Check out this bit from Washington Monthly’s reading of a Paul Begala op-ed. The op-ed itself I thought was mostly crap, but the two grafs highlighted here make a good point about taking the long view. I’m not disagreeing that the Dems have been behaving like a bunch of pussies and I’d like to see them grow some spine, but in my more hopeful moments I try to think like this:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/019484.php#more
[re=386456]imissopus[/re]: And Ezra Klein (and Yglesias) have good writeups about how little power Obama does have in getting something through:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/08/how_much_power_does_obama_have.html
Anyways, since that’s all serious stuff and all, Salon has a good report about Town Hall Crazies:
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/feature/2009/08/14/kittanning/
I’m with a patient so I’ll be brief. [Since she thinks I'm looking up her medical records while I do this]:
Give the tea-partiers enough rope and they’ll hang themselves. [Or to honor Socrates -- maybe they'll hemlock themselves.]
But you might want to check in on the really oppressive company unions — like the SEIU — to see who’s actually “oiling” the firearms of the tea-partiers. Town hall mtgs. almost always turn into debates about health care reform and company unions like the SEIU stand to gain more from supporting Obama bin Laden’s counter-revolution in health care than by opposing it. I think that’s what went on in St. Louis with Congress-arbeiter Russ Carnahan’s town hall gathering. The tea-party brigade went for the SEIU members in attendance. One man even had his shoulder dislocated by those thugs.
As it turns out, the man was actually a member of the SEIU. Still, his shoulder injury might have been the SEIU sending him a message because he ran for St. Louis mayor last March as a Green Party member.
Meanwhile, matters like the Employee Free Choice Act were barely mentioned. That’s a shame; I really like it when the tea-party fascists turn storm troopers over employee rights. Then again, no one seems to give a fig whether the Act passes Congress or not. Much less whether Obama will sign it into law.
[Oh s**t...I left my proctoscope in that patient I mentioned. It's probably wedged between two tumors or something.]
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