Reports out of Florida indicate that Democrats have decided to do something about the emerging threat of those pesky voters talking back to their betters. You see, the way it works is the politicians talk AT the people, and the people shut up and listen. These angry people are doing it wrong.
In light of new video I have acquired, It's understandable that Democrats would want to stock up on Union security to put a stop to all that protesting. Witness the mob!
Reed said she set up the town hall with the help of Service Employees International Union, a large, politically active union that represents nursing home workers, among others. "I represent a number of people who ask questions about what's going on with health care, so I thought it would be good to put on a meeting and have the congresswoman come in and give an update," said Reed.
Asked earlier today about possible disruption at the event, Kim Diehl of SEIU said, "We're prepared. We have strategies to deal with it if it should come up."
That has been deleted and replaced with something far more SEIU/Democrat friendly:
The meeting was organized by Reed plus the Service Employees International Union, other unions and Organizing for America, a liberal group that grew out of the Obama presidential campaign.
Some opponents accused the organizers of trying to stack the crowd by allowing early admission to those on their side. Reed denied that, saying those admitted early were organizers setting up the room.
In any case, opponents appeared to outnumber proponents both inside and outside.
After doors to the meeting room closed, some of those outside crowded around the windows of the meeting room, where they held up signs and chanted.
In the last week or so, similar disruptive protests have erupted at town hall meetings in several states.
Democrats, including White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, have said the disruptions were organized attacks aimed at Democrats by conservative, anti-health care reform interest groups. Several protestors at Thursday's meeting in Tampa angrily rejected that contention.
Castor's staff said Reed planned the meeting and invited Castor before the controversy became so heated. Reed said she set up the meeting because, "I represent a number of people who ask questions about what's going on with health care, so I thought it would be good to put on a meeting and have the congresswoman come in and give an update."
Reed said she was shocked by the number of people who turned out and some of their reactions. "When you get to the point of possible violence, you've gone over the edge," she said.
In a news conference prior to the town hall, Castor had said, "I do expect some rabble-rousing." She said the protesters who have been appearing at town hall forums on health care "would have been protesting Medicare they would never have accepted Social Security."
Tampa police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said the department was told a couple hundred people would show up and sent a squad of 10-15 officers, two marked cars, two supervisors and some undercover officers. As the crowd grew, more were brought in mainly for traffic control, she said, but they also broke up some scuffles. She said no arrests were made.
So they eliminated the part about the SEIU being a "large, politically active union". They also eliminated the SEIU representative saying "We have strategies to deal with" the protesters.
In their place, they just inserted Democratic talking points. Terrific.
Nadia Naffe, who says police reports were file by people saying they were injured by SEIU people, as well as this: "The last thing I was before I exited the event were two women running over to a cop sitting in his vehicle, screaming, “Don’t you see that man over there has a gun?” The cop looked up and calmly replied, “Ma’am in this country people have the right to bear arms”."
A number of people in the news analysis business seem to be equating the role of liberal activists in making trouble for Republicans back in 2005, during the debate over Social Security privatization, with that of conservative activists in making trouble for Democrats over health care reform. [...] Seriously, I’ve been searching through news reports on the Social Security town halls, and I can’t find any examples of the kind of behavior we’re seeing now. Yes, there were noisy demonstrations — but they were outside the events. That was even true during the first month or two, when Republicans actually tried having open town halls. Congressmen were very upset by the reception they received, but not, at least according to any of the report I can find, because opponents were disruptive — crowds booed lines they didn’t like, but that was about it. [...]
So please, no false equivalences. The campaign against Social Security privatization was energetic and no doubt rude, but did not involve intimidation and disruption.
Reality:
NW Progressive Institute, March 2005: "a boisterous crowd which frequently interrupted the discussion with shouts and hard nosed questions. ... Democrats in the audience who were interrupting the panel.... the crowd erupted in anger... Democrats in the audience started shouting him down again."
Savannah Morning News, March 2005: "By now, Jack Kingston is used to shouted questions, interruptions and boos. Republican congressmen expect such responses these days when they meet with constituents about President Bush's proposal to overhaul Social Security."
USA Today, March 2005: "Shaken by raucous protests at open "town hall"-style meetings last month ... Santorum was among dozens of members of Congress who ran gantlets of demonstrators and shouted over hecklers at Social Security events last month. Many who showed up to protest were alerted by e-mails and bused in by anti-Bush organizations such as MoveOn.org and USAction, a liberal advocacy group. They came with prepared questions and instructions on how to confront lawmakers."
CT Republican Chairman Chris Healy was on Fox News today commenting on yesterday's radical thug-o-rama where old men and women were physically accosted and showered with dangerous chemicals from an "anti-war" mob
These knuckle-heads crossed the line, Christopher Healy, head of the Connecticut State Republican Party, told FOX News.com. "We're for free speech, not free bleach. We respect their right to protest, but do it civilly. Pushing, shoving, spitting, throwing harmful chemicals ? it's not the American way."
The only difference between what the unwashed hooligans did yesterday to the CT delegation and what the cybervandals and media enforcers are doing to Sarah Palin is this:
Bleach is supposed to remove dirt and slime. The media is hurling it at Palin.
On June 9, 1954, an attorney at a nationally televised Senate hearing posed this question to Senator Joseph McCarthy
You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
Over the last 72 hours we've seen the despicable spectacle of some of the most vulnerable people in society subjected to abuse for crass political gain.
The story is the same, whether it is this decades' high tech lynching of a conservative who doesn't play by the Left's rules; the cyberstalking of 17 year old Bristol Palin or the brute thuggish effort to burn the skin of old men and women in St. Paul.
The point is to punish political opponents, and to victimize the weak and vulnerable as a means to cower the strong.
I fear much of the Left has bought into their own apocalytyptic hype. Therefore, they cannot afford to let the public make a reasoned decision s to the nation's future. They must bully their opponents into submission.
Sadly, the closer we get to winning this election the worse this will get, But the bottom line is, many on the Left don;t have decency.
I may think the folks at Whole Foods are haughty and naive, but I don;t wish ill on them. But I sense that many of them are quick to disparage the faithful and the patriotic as less worthy than those who have seen the liberal light; thus, they get whatever their brethren dish out.
There is another thing for sure. After the bullies get done picking on the vulnerable, it's the turn for the stronger people to get bullied.
