'These are our tactics, damnit! Who do these conservative mobs think they are!'
It’s a sad fact the right just doesn’t know how to fight like the left does. We’re simply too nice, and too civil. But now, the fear that we could lose this once great nation to socialism has brought conservatives to attention. The right is now successfully utilizing some of the same tactics the left has employed for years – demonstration and protest.
Barack Obama and his followers are none too happy about this development and, frankly, they are utterly confused as to how to fight back. First, they called the peaceful Tea Party protesters racist and domestic terrorists. Now with fired up conservatives standing up to the men and women of congress in their home districts, they find they must resort to calling the concerned citizens simply asking question of their elected officials, fascist “mobs.”
Democratic Strategist Lanny Davis took his turn at bat yesterday at Politico, accusing conservatives of thuggery, using fascist tactics to cause disruption.
Worse of all, he wants to “have the media name names, publish photographs, and do interviews of those responsible…” This comes on the heels of Linda Douglass, Communications Director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, who just this week asked all citizens to report any “fishy” talk, emails or websites to the White House so they can investigate any “disinformation” about healthcare.
Here are Orwellian words of Lanny Davis from yesterday, August 5:
The “shout downs” organized by the Republican right meet one of the classic definition of “fascist” tactics–defined as using shouting and disruption to deprive the civil and respectful debate of ideas. There is literally no defense to these tactics. I don’t criticize those who feel genuine anger or fear and show up to meetings to express those emotions. But I do call out the tactic of screaming and disrupting a meeting and the fact that this is a systematic tactic by thugs who want to prevent civil discourse, not promote it.
Let’s have the media name names, publish photographs, and do interviews of those responsible for approving, even organizing these techniques. And let’s find an investigative journalist – are there many left – to prove these so-called grassroots shouters are, or are not, being paid.
It took a year or more to prove that the so-called grassroots protesters shouting and pounding on the windows of the vote counters in Dade County – successfully stopping the vote – were really paid Republican congressional staffers, many then on the public payroll, and from the Republican National Committee and the Bush 2000 presidential campaign staff.
Will that story of paid people to disrupt and block discussion organized by the Republican Party or tacitly encouraged while Republican rightwing organizations organize them at least be investigated?
We know we’ve been saying this a lot lately, but is it 1984 yet?
Bonus: If you’d really like a good laugh, go over to MichelleMalkin.com and read
A message from Lanny Davis to The Mob to see how he’s trying to explain that he we all just misinterpreted him.
Source: Politico
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I want them to take pictures and names. Right now the protesters are being painted as swastika-wearing fringe lunatics. Seeing that it’s not a bunch of brownshirts that are upset, but instead are our neighbors and our friends, will only help.
Lanny Davis, on the other hand, can kiss my ass.
I think its safe to say that the dem’s r grabbing at straws because that race baiting they been pulling is falling on death ear
I feel like Howard Beal…..
“I’m a human being, goddammit! My life has value!”
“I’m as mad as hell,
and I’m not going to take this anymore!!”
^ Your life has value unless the ROI on prolonging your life is too low. Get it right, man!
The libs crack me up. They are acting like “we are so goooooood, we are so generous with other people’s money, how can they NOT like us???”
Yes, Tinavane, they have been using the race card waaaaay too much. Just like the boy crying wolf, people aren’t listening any more. Many people have realized that libs cry Racism! on *anything* that bugs them, whether it’s actually racist or not. I’ve come to realize that anytime, anywhere I challenge a liberal agenda, somebody out there will accuse me of being racist, nazi, kkk, hater, etc. I’ve heard it so often I don’t even care now, hahaha.
The Democrats are reacting badly to the first amendment and democracy. Big surprise. Amazing the trash mouths of not only this numb skull but also Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer. Radical progressives trying to take control of our every freedom. Americans have caught on and their mad.
MORE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITY BY CONSERVATIVES!
http://arkansasnews.com/2009/08/06/lincoln-disruptions-of-health-care-meetings-sad-un-american/
Lincoln retracts description of health care protests as ‘un-American’
Posted on 06 August 2009
By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
By John Lyon
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Efforts to disrupt town hall meetings on health care reform are un-American, U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said today, though she later issued a statement retracting the remark.
“It’s so sad, because it’s diminishing to the process, it’s diminishing to our outcome,” Lincoln said in a conference call with reporters. “I think it’s sad that they choose to do that. I think it’s un-American and disrespectful.”
A few hours later, Lincoln issued the following statement: “Although I do believe that some of these protesters are disrespectful of other citizens in the audience who truly want to ask questions about health care, I shouldn’t have used the term ‘un-American.’ I support the right of every Arkansan to speak out and have their voices heard. I would just ask that we all continue to work in a constructive way to rebuild our economy and fine-tune out health care system so it works for all of us.”
Lincoln made the comments a day after U.S. Reps. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, and Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, faced heckles and jeers at a public forum on health care reform at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock. Disruptions have been reported at other lawmakers’ town hall meetings on health care around the country.
Lincoln said the disruptions are not spontaneous.
“There are Web sites that are out there that are telling people and soliciting people to go and disrupt these meetings and to stop this process and to eliminate the opportunity for our country to become stronger by making our health care delivery system more efficient,” she said.
One such solicitation, in a memo authored by Bob MacGuffie of the Web site Tea Party Patriots, urged opponents of health care reform to “spread out in the hall” wherever a lawmaker is holding a town hall meeting.
“Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep.’s statements early. If he blames Bush for something or offers other excuses — call him on it, yell back and have someone else follow-up with a shout-out,” MacGuffie wrote.
“I think there’s definitely organized campaigns, and some of them want to be counterproductive,” Lincoln told reporters. “As some of those talk radio guys have said, they just want to see things fail. They want to see the president fail, they want to see this fail. And I think that’s so sad and so disappointing. We can work together.”
Saline County resident Jeannie Burlsworth, chairman of the conservative grassroots group Secure Arkansas, was in the audience at Wednesday’s forum at Children’s Hospital. Several members of the group attended the forum to ask questions and express their concerns, she said.
“Really, I felt like Congressmen Synder and Ross got off pretty easy, considering (the fact that) the people, they’re scared. … They’re wanting some answers, and rightly so,” Burlsworth said today.
Responding to Lincoln’s comments about disruptions, Burlsworth said, “It’s sad that she can’t feel free to face her constituents and talk to them. … She has to answer to the people she represents. I’m not saying that to hurt anyone. I’m just saying that she’s got to face reality here and realize that she works for the people, not the other way around.”
Also in the audience Wednesday was Bob Porto, an organizer with the Pulaski County Tea Party. Porto said local Tea Party leaders discouraged members from attending because they believed Arkansas Children’s Hospital was not the proper venue.
“Very few of those people in the room did I know,” he said.
Porto said the Pulaski County Tea Party believes in respectful debate and does not support disruptive behavior, but he said many people are understandably frustrated.
“I think we are seeing people who feel that their expression, or their ability to communicate, isn’t being heard, so they’re doing what they can to be heard,” he said.
Lincoln said she encourages people not to “succumb to the shrill and the myths that are out there,” including what she said was a myth that people will not be able to keep the health insurance they have now.
“If they like it, they’re going to be able to maintain what they have,” she said. “We just want to make it better and more efficient so that it costs them less and that their outcomes are better.”
Lincoln is scheduled to return to Arkansas Friday for the August congressional recess. She said she is looking forward to visiting with constituents but has no plans for a town hall meeting on health care.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, announced Thursday he will hold a town hall meeting on health care Aug. 14 at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia. The meeting will be Ross’ 37th health care forum since April.
The congressman also said he has launched a Web site on health care.
The second there is any kind of government plan in place, employers will be looking for loopholes & excuses to drop health benefits left and right. I can’t believe the Dems don’t understand this. I suppose in their little world, they believe that a for-profit corporation with stockholders will continue to pay thru the nose for something their workers can get from the gov’t for free. Cause Dems believe everybody is good and loving and kind and likes puppies.
Funny how those jokers never wanted to know who was behind International ANSWER like they “care” about this.
to all the birthers in La, La Land, it is on you to prove to all of us that your assertion is true, if there are people who were there and support your position then show us the video (everyone has a price), either put up or frankly shut-up. I heard Orly Taitz, is selling a tape (I think it’s called “Money, Lies and Video tape”). She is from Orange County, CA, now I know what the mean when they say “behind the Orange Curtain”, when they talk about Orange County, the captial of Conspiracy Theories. You know Obama has a passport, he travel abroad before he was a Senator, but I guess he fooled them too?
Well, gee, Paul, this topic wasn’t about Obama’s missing birth certificate. But nice of you to bring it up since you obviously could not defend your boy Lanny. Which Saul Alinsky rule is that one, I forget?
Yaknow, I’d heard that there were idiots out there equating the healthcare protests to the birth certificate controversy, but I figured it was a myth, that no one was actually that stupid. Now I’ve seen one in the wild!
I must thank you. I lived in and did business in Orange County for 25 years and somehow I completely missed the fact that it was “the capital of Conspiracy Theories.” Thank you for filling in this obvious gap in my knowledge.
By the way, you are aware, I suppose, that lunatic leftist representative Loretta Sanchez was elected and continues to get reelected in Orange County. Wait! I understand now. She’s probably a closet conservative and secret cog in the Grand OC Conspiracy to destroy America.
Paul,
I’m not nearly as worried about Obama’s missing birth certificate as I am about his missing love, concern and affection for this country.
I believe in the right to express your opinion, but when you are disrupting town hall meetings, a tradition that goes back to the days before the Revolution, you are explicitly going against the values that our forefathers fought and died for. Town halls are for reasoned debate, where everyone gets a say. The intimidation tactics of these “protesters” make a mockery of the United States of America. Peaceful protest does not entail screaming and interrupting people during town halls in order to keep others from having their opinions heard. Funny thing is that many of these protesters’ concerns are dead wrong. I saw footage of one of these people claiming that the Bill contained a single payer plan and that Obama was pushing the single payer plan hard. Maybe if they didn’t listen to Fox News every day, they would know that the bill actually does not contain a single payer plan, and the President has not been pushing for one.
The White House’s attempt to refute these bogus claims has culminated in a program asking people to send in the emails that deliberately disseminate wrong information in a feeble attempt to scare people into voting against their own interests. This is not 1984. If you want to use 1984 as an analogy, why don’t you look to the previous “conservative” administration which strong-armed a warrantless wiretapping bill through Congress? They wanted the legal right to observe what Americans were saying for no reason at all, without any oversight. THIS is more akin to “big brother,” and how convenient that you forget this so quickly. Perhaps you should look at things from a more neutral perspective, instead of demonizing everything the dreaded “liberals” do?
I also find it funny that you claim conservatives are “too nice and too civil” to fight. This is an absolute farce. How convenient that you ignore the hate spewed forth by the right-wing mouthpieces on Fox News like Bill O’Reilly. Do you forget the assassination of Dr. George Tiller? The assassin submerged himself in the hate speech (O’Reilly calling Tiller a “baby killer” and a nazi repeatedly, as well as other conservative tv and radio personalities demonizing this man) and eventually murdered a doctor. How is that too nice and too civil? How often do you hear of left-wing lunatics murdering people for political reasons?
I do applaud your concern for Americans’ rights to express their opinion without fear of persecution. As citizens we should all have the right to say what we desire, as long as we don’t interfere with another person’s right to the same thing. America was founded on debate, and this is why we enjoy the freedom to speak our minds. We should all protect our fellow citizens’ right to speak even if we disagree with what they say, just as they should do the same for us. We’re all Americans, don’t forget that.
Thanks for the laughs, Alex. You appear to be such a parrot it is fun to watch you and see if Dear Leader’s lips actually move, but he is good and I didn’t catch it once. But anyway, thanks – Oh, sorry if you were serious here, I thought you just wanted to try your hand at comedy.
As if the man who killed George Tiller needed Bill O’Reilly to tell him that Tiller killed thousands of babies.
Lanny Davis, a wimpy Elmer Fudd type whose head you could bang with a two by four and he’d STILL be a socialist.
Lanny Davis is a sniveling liberal worm. I don’t know why O’Reilly and other Fox shows have to put him on in an effort to be Fair and Balanced – - you don’t see MSNBC or CNN putting Hannity or Newt Gingrich or Karl Rove on to balance out their crap, do you? I watched O’Reilly tonight – for the first time in a while – and I had to look at his ugly mug.
I’ll glady take pictures for him to publish. Can I send him a snapshot of myself? Does he want a head shot or full body?
Davis, in my mind, is perhaps the sleaziest person leftover from the Clinton years. He will say and do anything to protect those he is sanctioned to protect.
A true sleaze ball
“The White House’s attempt to refute these bogus claims has culminated in a program asking people to send in the emails that deliberately disseminate wrong information in a feeble attempt to scare people into voting against their own interests.”
They can’t refute the claims because they’re true and they’re in the bill – if they’re not, blog about it or send in a letter to the editor and disprove them. You would know if you read it, but, of course, you haven’t because you are an idiot who is FOR something that you haven’t read, so you don’t know WHAT you are mouthing off about. Silly.
O’Reilly had nothing to do with George Tiller’s murder. George Tiller was a baby killer. Get over it. If you want to talk about hate speech, try going to a gathering of CODE Pink or ACORN or read the Daily Kos. Or how about the lefty loony who is hoping Glenn Beck kills himself on the air? Or how about those at the DK who are sooo gleeful when a Republican dies or gets cancer. How about all the crap STILL being spewed about Sarah Palin. Don’t even try that holier-than-thou-Liberals are all goodness and light crap.
“How often do you hear of left-wing lunatics murdering people for political reasons?”
Che Guevera, Raul Castro, Tiennamen (sp) Square, Kim Jong Il.
Oh, and don’t forget, Fred Phelps is a registered Democrat. Gee, wonder what his hate speech has incited?
“They can’t refute the claims because they’re true and they’re in the bill – if they’re not, blog about it or send in a letter to the editor and disprove them. You would know if you read it, but, of course, you haven’t because you are an idiot who is FOR something that you haven’t read, so you don’t know WHAT you are mouthing off about. Silly.”
Oh yes. Mass Euthanasia for Seniors is in the bill. Covering illegal immigrants in the public option is in the bill. Provisions that will require most Americans to pay 50% of their income in taxes are in the bill. Provisions for the government paying for abortions are in the bill. Obama will ban private health insurance, that’s in the bill too! …except these aren’t, and these are just some of the misinformation that’s being spread to people. Don’t presume that I’m an idiot who hasn’t read the legislation, as I have been doing extensive research about this subject. If you have read it like you claim you have, then you will know that the claims I posted above are all bogus, and yet they are being spread like wildfire over the internet and airwaves. Do you not see that this is a problem?
“O’Reilly had nothing to do with George Tiller’s murder. George Tiller was a baby killer. Get over it. If you want to talk about hate speech, try going to a gathering of CODE Pink or ACORN or read the Daily Kos. Or how about the lefty loony who is hoping Glenn Beck kills himself on the air? Or how about those at the DK who are sooo gleeful when a Republican dies or gets cancer. How about all the crap STILL being spewed about Sarah Palin. Don’t even try that holier-than-thou-Liberals are all goodness and light crap.”
Please explain how he had nothing to do with it. When you constantly attack and portray human beings as monsters, you provide a justification for fringe lunatics to accept murder as the next logical step. Have you not read anything about the killer? That is exactly what happened in Tiller’s case. The fact that you say “He’s a baby killer. Get over it.” is disgusting. Whether or not this is true, he was a human being and there was no justification in ending his life. Who are we to judge others? This is a free society where we are free to debate different viewpoints. None of us should ever advocate the murder of someone who believes something different than we do. That’s anti-American.
How can you excuse O’Reilly yet bring up code pink or dailykos as hate speech? There are bad and immature people on both sides. Don’t just ignore the one you support. Plus, I’ve never read anything on dailykos that likened people to monsters, or Adolf Hitler, and yet this is what I hear from Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh.
Let’s make a distinction here. Political commentary is not hate speech. No one is advocating that people should hate Sarah Palin for who she is or what she does. They make fun of her for political mistakes she has made. Making fun of things people say is not hate speech, but advocating that people are monsters and must be hated is.
“Che Guevera, Raul Castro, Tiennamen (sp) Square, Kim Jong Il.
Oh, and don’t forget, Fred Phelps is a registered Democrat. Gee, wonder what his hate speech has incited?”
The countries you reference are left-wing in name only. Cuba oppresses free speech and jails political opponents, as does China. North Korea is the worst example. It’s a state built on the worship of one man and his progeny that purposely starves its own people. Left-wing lunatics are hippies, Communists (and no, the Soviet Union was not Communist. Read Marx), and so on. Not the traditional supporters of dictatorship.
And Fred Phelps is about as far from left-wing as you can get. Just because you may register as a Democrat doesn’t mean that you hold the same views and actually are one. Very, very bad example. I can register for the White Power party, but that doesn’t mean I’m a far-right racist lunatic. It’s as easy as writing a party on your voter registration form.
Please keep the personal attacks to a minimum. We’re all adults here.
Uhm, Alex, who put you in charge here?
Quote: Please keep the personal attacks to a minimum. We’re all adults here.
Again, you are persistent with your little act, but as a writer I can tell you less is more. Try making your points with fewer words and more people will actually pay attention.
dee mac…i couldnt agree more I dont want to read a 4 page essay by some obama planted agent…oh wait they dont plant people…cough cough…only the RNC does that…..
Wait, so anyone that has a differing opinion is a “planted Obama agent?” You really have no idea, do you? I’m simply a bored, jobless college graduate who stumbled upon this little gem and wished to express my own viewpoint. Isn’t that what the internet is about? Believe me, I sure wish I was a planted obama agent, at least I’d be getting paid.
And I find it funny that both of you are unwilling to read a few paragraphs of comment, yet you dutifully read the above article which is much longer. If you aren’t willing to contribute to the discussion, then why reply at all?
Oh, I almost forgot – Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican. I guess those that went against him were…Democrats?
Some interesting reading for our liberal fellow citizens:
————————
The Fascist roots of Democratic Socialism aka modern liberalism
If you’re on the left and still refer to the right as ‘fascists’ then a short history lesson is in order. You may be shocked at the genesis of your so-called compassionate ideas.
The Fascists were completely against individualism in general and especially against individualism in a free-market economy. Their agenda included minimum-wage laws, government restrictions on profit-making, progressive taxation of capital, and “rigidly secular” schools.
http://ker-plunk.blogspot.com/2008/02/fascist-roots-of-democratic-socialism.html
—————————–
Sound like any political party we have today?
Interesting read, if it wasn’t grasping at straws to compare liberals to fascists.
If you’d like a more accurate description on what liberalism is in this country, I’d like to point you to this:
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/ShortFAQ.htm
Good basic read about liberalism, of course with a pro-liberal slant
We could probably trade links for days on any ideology, with bias in either direction.
Here’s what I found to be a fascinating read on the tendencies of some people to turn into control freaks, no matter where they are on the political spectrum. IIRC, the author is a liberal college professor, and it is mostly aimed at the neocon extremeists that ran the country during the first part of this decade.
I see this mindset in *lots* of people, whether lib or con, and it’s a bit scary. The book title is The Authoritarians, is in PDF format. Takes some time to read but you might find it worthwhile.
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
As to Lanny’s round-up comments. You have my picture, my address, phone number, and all sorts of other information about me. So far you haven’t been able to shut me up, stop my pen, or end my influence. In fact, the longer you all keep this up, the larger my audience has become and the more they are coming up with ideas about their own liberty and right to fight for it. So, keep demonstrating your desperation, it is only helping those of us over here who have been a part of the VRWC since the days we were just known as Conservatives.
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, Medicare and Medicaid and 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 and Katrina but the facts is they can and if we support them they will succeed.
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.
Editor- Who did Loretta Sanchez replace, that’s right crazy man “Bob Dornan”, God is good!