Wouldn’t it be great if Nancy called them all back on Wednesday and asked, “Now would you like to take a vote?”

I mean, do they really all want to go through this the entire month? I think they could be persuaded to return for a quick vote on 3200, don’t you?

It’s Time to Embrace the Hoyer !!!

that’s right critters, you be sure and thank your Blue Dog colleagues and Mr Majority Whip – they are bringing the Koch-Armey Dance Monkeys Dance! grotesque to your district offices on August 22nd

Steny reminds me of a lounge-lizard Cadillac salesman.
He makes my skin crawl.

He is such a slimeball. His ambition to be speaker is SO clear.

Here’s an article from another blog that outlines what the Dems — and Obama in particular [hint: cancel that Martha’s Vineyard thing] — should be doing to get health care through.

http://pinkomag.com/2009/07/25…..mment-5479

[I’ve tried & tried to get this to work as a link. Mods?]

Unfortunately, they just don’t seem to care. They’re so blinded by their need to keep the money from the insurance, hospital and pharm guys rolling in, plus their fear of imagined constituent blow-back, that they just can’t think or act in a principled way.

given the statements from obama and gibbs today regarding coops, all these teabag protests seem like just piling on or the coup de grâce for health care reform

the real question is whether the decision by the white house (obama) of never putting a true public option on the table was one of design or incompetence…given rahm’s machinations from the beginning, i am going with design

i guess i will read about it same day in the funny papers

The Bush Dogs are not Democrats. They’re Eisenhower Republicans who couldn’t make it through the GOP primary process. Democrats who vote for them are on fools’ errands because they’ll stab progressives and progressive legislation in the back every chance they get. They can’t help themselves; it’s their nature.

i think quite a few people are in for a nasty surprise in 2010.

As I said to Sestak’s netroots outreach guy this AM, I am 100% in on the effort to topple specter… unless the dems fail to pass health care reform, and then I’m not doing anything other than attacking democrats as no different than republicans.

Rep. James Moran (D) of Northern Virginia (Arlington, Alexandria) has a town hall hosted by Howard Dean on August 24, if I’m not mistaken. I plan on attending this high-profile event and am hoping FDL can help organize people to counter these rent-a-goons. I wrote a health-care related letter to Moran, but also plann on calling his office to apprise his staff of the real nature of the vocal opposition he’ll be getting.

Quick OT: Happy 89th birthday to Helen Thomas. wOOt!

If only they were Eisenhower Republicans!

Here’s an idea: When right wingers start acting like brownshirts, maybe those on the progressive end of things can stand around looking confused and then run away with their tails between their legs. Oh, wait, that’s what already happens.

While this Moran town hall will not technically be inside the Beltway (it’s in Reston), Moran’s district mostly is, and the press should therefore find it easy to be there for a very prominent beat-down of the douchebaggers.

Steny reminds me of a lounge-lizard Cadillac salesman.

hey now. As an ex-lounge-lizard of distinction and accomplishment, I take exception to….

no I don’t. fuck him.

Maybe she will share her cake with Obama as it is his 48th Birthday.

I was at the Lloyd Doggett townhall that was rudely interrupted and contrary to some reports, the protestors were not in the majority or even close to half of the total number of people there. Most of them were bussed in from Bastrop and points southeast. Still in Doggett’s district probably but not from Austin. The Austin American Statesman bought the whole grassroots lie hook, line and sinker and afterwards, their blog was taken over by these idiots. I think there is going to be some major pushback against these tactics in the near future. For one thing, Mr. Doggett says all it did for him was make him even more determined to pass a plan with a strong public option. My suggestion is this: Start requiring voting cards to attend townhall meetings. That will at least weed out those people who are from out of district and are there just to disrupt.

Just fired off a letter to the editor:

Coming soon to a Townhall meeting near you: manufactured protests bought and paid for by the medical insurance industry. Playbooks in hand, many of these Astroturfers are being bussed from outlying areas to disrupt local Townhall meetings and prevent an open and honest discussion of medical insurance reform.

Desperate to keep a lock on your skyrocketing medical insurance ‘premiums’, insurance and pharmaceutical companies are spending 1.4 million dollars a DAY to prevent you from having a public option similar to Medicare or that awful, gold-plated, government-run medical insurance plan that our senators and congresspersons must endure. You know, the medical insurance that YOU provide for them. The one that they love but would like to prevent you from choosing.

1.4 million dollars a DAY. To prevent competition. 1.4 million dollars a DAY. Dollars that should be going to paying your mom’s hospital bills, but is going instead to muddy the discourse and intentionally confuse the public. 1.4 million dollars a DAY. While uninsured people wait for hours in line. In the rain. For medical care. In animal pens. In America.

Call your senators and representatives. Tell them that you expect them to provide an affordable, public, medical insurance option.

Oh yeah, as for Steny Hoyer: Couldn’t agree more. He’s as corrupt as they come, Hoyer and only in the business of representing himself.

Called Steney’s office and asked why his website wasn’t open to all of us and was told he gets so much correspondence, etc, and told her he is making crucial decisions concerning all of us, he should be open to communication from all of us.
Also told her the majority of people support health care reform and 72%
support public option.
Probably will not do any good but would suggest we all bombard his office.
And, any other blue dogs and reps you can get through to.

I’m in it to topple Specter no matter whether HC reform is passed or not. We don’t need candidates shoved down our throat.

You do understand where this is going don’t you?

All the angry nutters aren’t going to calm down and go home quietly.

Thank you!! Kratovil is a Blue Dog(and fellow Marylander), so I wonder if he’s said anything to Hoyer.

Here is a good diary on how to manage a town hall and thwart brownshirts:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo…..ns-shared.

These ‘teabag’ brownshirts should be forced to stand and speak for a minimum of 5 minutes with a coherent alternative plan, after they are asked, “Who paid you to come?” They can’t do anything but shout out sound bite lines written for them by their masters. But wait! That’s true of all current Republican representatives. Unfortunately, with leadership like Hoyer’s that’s what we’ll end up with: soundbite health reform.

We really need to hire Sgt Crowley and his fellow cops as security at these meetings to arrest those who engage in disorderly conduct.

When he asks for ID he will find that they are from outside the district and have no business there as well.

Calling Sgt Crowley.

The FBI has gotten notified about this organized thuggery by Freedumbworks and Americans for Prosperity(?)

This does not involve freedom of speech. The right wingers want to shout down and shut down government business at Democratic town hall meetings.

I have a way you can fight back and get health care.

Sign these 2 petitions for single payer health care

http://bit.ly/HR676

and http://bit.ly/single_payer_ross

Read our blog http://blog.democratz.org

You’re underestimating how well trained in propaganda some of these people are. We already have enough shills on tv speaking a minimum of five minutes with a coherent plan, i.e., the status quo.

But we already know that’s not what they’re coming to do. No, our aim here is to thwart disruptive behavior and prevent outbursts before they happen, so that town halls don’t become what the media will gladly call a circus. The diary above describes several excellent prophylactic measures for achieving this end.

Read the diary above on how Democrats handled security at their town hall meeting.

Excellent diary. I just forwarded to Steve Cohen for his Memphis townhall on Saturday. Forewarned is forearmed.

And so the response to wingnut thuggery is more calls, more letters to the editor, and more emails?

Um…

It doesn’t really matter whether the townhall protests/demonstrations are organized by insurance companies in collusion with FOX “news” and a bunch of Republican staffers. What matters is whether they are effective enough to cause the congresscritters to be content (nay, happy!) with a “reform” that essentially pays big bucks to insurance companies for modest improvements in health care coverage and prevents any movement toward the dreaded “public option” or single payer.

Well, since that’s the direction we’re headed anyway, the protests may be gilding the lily. But as for effectiveness? Yeah. Sure. They make a stink, they disrupt and discommode, and they force the congresscritters to pay attention.

This is one of several ways the wingnuts have found to be effective even when their reps are out of power, how they manage to consistently force their will on the body politic — regardless of all those calls and letters and emails from progressives, and regardless of what the majority of Americans want.

They’ve done it over and over and over again, tried and true. And they’ll keep on doing it as long as it works.

But make no mistake. It does work.

From the movie “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington”….
Reporter: “You got to love that Taylor Machine,.. Public Opinion made to order!”
Second reporter: “Yeah…. Taylor Made”

thanks for the link. what he’s proposing does sound excellent.

I emailed my Rep. Robert Wexler yesterday and told him to beware if he’s doing any Town Hall stuff down here in Palm Beach County this month. I suggested that they make sure anybody that wants to get in be from the district, since they are busing psychos in from out of town. It’s a good way to weed them out IMO.

is it possible to have security at these events to keep order and lay out the rules ahead of time?

wow! she’s one of my biggest heroines. how did you find out? and are we invited to the party? i do want to go.

And they’re off!

Let the Blue Dog days of summer end with the swiftboating of healthcare reform.

Thanks Steny, Kent and Max.

-G

Ahh, we think alike Margaret. I heard a commercial on the radio for another south Florida rep’s TH meeting (Tom Rooney) and it’s by invitation only, and he’s a republican.

Always, always, always take the high road. Calmly engage if forced and never lose focus. Let them expose themselves for who they really are. There were many examples of this throughout the Prez campaign where people were starting to worry about the frothing Repubs and the BigMedia happy to amplify the PR campaigns, but Obama always kept his calm…kept on the high road, and people noticed.

I was worried at some points during the campaign, but in talking with some Independent/Repub friends during the campaign, they really noticed the difference between Paylin and her crowd and how Obama was the adult. We should do the same here. People see things like the teabagger freakouts and realize which side they want to be on. History shows that truly transformational change usually happens this way. Some examples as a reminder as we face the bullies once again:

http://radgeek.com/gt/2008/11/…..sit-in.jpg

http://media-files.gather.com/…..3/full.jpg

Let them scream and intimidate all they want. Most people will choose the correct side when the hatred is so exposed like that.

True, true.

The rightwing just came out strongly for simply complying with law enforcement requests for and I.D.

Sounds like we have a winner.

-G

sadly, Wexler has already been hit by these crazies twice – about 2-3 weeks ago in what looks in hindsight to be a beta-test for this strategy -

From Wikipedia’s entry on Italian fascism:

and despite his movement being a minority of Italians moved to make his vision of Fascism a reality. In doing so he used the methods of organized violence, propaganda, and sometimes powerful but often Machiavellian logic. These too would become characteristic of Italian Fascism and its other nationalist cousins.

i see brendanx’s link @ 22 is an excellent summary of how to run an orderly meeting.

thanks brendanx.

I’d like to know how to get in touch with people from my district (no longer in the District, I now have a district!) planning to attend Moran’s town hall.

I think you’ve fingered Hoyer. Pure power is what he is all about. I recall last year at the convention, maybe it was one of Jane’s posts, which shows him moving through the corridor surrounded by a security guard. It is all about power.

just want to point out to those of you who don’t venture too far from the Lake shore -
Jane Hamsher is the only one making this irrefutable point. throughout Left Blogistan, there’s plenty of talk about the astroturf nature of these events, the lazy TradMed, and what if anything OFA will do in response – but Jane again, is the one voice consistently bringin’ it all back home

If you think that we think alike, you are mistaken. I’m not for invitation only, just constituents only.

The Health Care Now March/Rally went on in D.C. last Thursday. Thousands Marched, Reps were there. The only media outlet that covered that rally was C-Span.

Not a whisper about that rally on Chris Matthews, Keith’s,Ed’s or Rachels. They all showed the Obama Beer Summit clip at least a hundred times over the evening. Not even a whisper about the rally in D.C. that day not even a whisper.

Yet Rachel, Ed, Chris Matthews all covered the Republicans who were interrupting Reps who support Health Care reform yesterday had huge coverage by these talking heads. Chris Matthews even had the nerve to ask “where are the marches on the others side” What an ass (and I have stuck up for Matthew plenty) but he has his head up where the sun does not shine on this issue. Where the fuck were you last Thursday Chris Matthew’s? Where was your coverage of the Health Care Now march in D.C. last Thursday? Middle Americans were there, Doctors, nurses and other health care professionals who know exactly what the situation is in our broken health care system.

Where the hell was MSNBC’s coveage of this rally? They were focuse on the beer summit. And now Matthews has the slippery balls to ask “where are the marches from the other side”

Rachel is as guilty as Matthews on this one. She showed the same damn clip of the beer summit that evening and not even a whisper about that rally

Conservatives health care town halls
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#32275044

Last night Rachel Maddow spent 15 minutes covering the radicals interrupting our Reps addressing the broken health care system. BUT last Thursday Rachel did not give the folks on other side of the issue who held a rally in Washington D.C. RAchel did not give this rally one breath not a mention.

Maybe Rachel and Matthews should go watch the coverage of that rally on C-span since they completely missed covering it but covered the Obama beer summit ad nauseum

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/

Where were you last Thursday Ed, Keith (Howard Dean was the host) Chris Matthews and Rachel? Where were you when Health Care Now folks were at that rally in D.C. last week. I know showing the beer summit hundreds of times

have you gone over to the regional spots like Blue Virginia, or Not Larry Sabato ? you might want to try Moran’s facebook page as well and there’s always your local Precinct Captain

and back to Jane’s point about HCAN yesterday – this well publicized event is not in their ‘events’ database yet

One would have thought that they would have learned from the Iraq War vote. When you fold, you have a political target painted on you.

The Blue Dogs need to wise up and realize that if they pass something real and stand up against the money-brokers and the intimidation, they will start having a Democratic district instead of a marginal Republican one.

Political culture is not set in stone. Especially in swing districts. The Republicans know this; that’s why they are fighting tooth and nail to stop healthcare reform.

My prediction. After the 2010 election, Steny Hoyer either dramatically changes or is no longer leader of the Democratic caucus.

You were too well behaved. Or there were not 10 million of you.

And you mistake what Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and Ed Shultz are doing and what their limits are. Unlike Lou Dobbs, they do not have totally free rein with their shows. They are obligated to put on wingnuts; Ed has his Tom Tancredo and Ron Christie and Michael Medved quota, for example.

Good behavior and only a thousand in DC do not drive ratings. It sucks, but it’s true. To elevate a few thousand well-behaved people pushing for real healthcare reform would not raise ratings, and putting on something that does not raise ratings would be criticized as propagandizing. We don’t have a FoxNews that we can go to.

The Republicans along with their Blue Cross Dems have once again played Obama and the Dems for chumps. They’ve gamed the “system” a la the Brooks Brothers Riots knowing the media will give them favorable coverage as proof that the American public does not want healthcare reform. Only until the left takes the corporate media head on the right wing will continue drive the agenda and “policies.”

RAchel has clearly sold out. How much time has she spent on the “birthers” “beer summit”

They all missed that Health Care summit rally and then Matthews had the balls to ask “where are the folks from the other side” last night.(looking for the clip)

How in the hell did they miss this? They were just all too fucking drumk at the Obama beer summit coverage. Thank goodness for FDL and the blogosphere. If you were watching the MSM that day you did not hear a peep about this rally except for C-Span

http://www.healthcare-now.org/…..yer-rally/

Thanks.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/30-2
Still, single payer has been largely dismissed from serious discussion on the national level as politically infeasible.

“It’s off the table in Washington because of the politics,” said Laurence Baker, associate professor of health research and policy at Stanford University.

Health insurers and drugmakers have contributed millions of dollars to members of Congress. One of the top recipients of that money, said Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group based in Santa Monica, was Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, who was running the hearings when the arrests took place this month. He accepted $413,000 in drug and health insurance campaign contributions during that time.

Doggett handled the scurrilous attacks in just the right way – use the nastiness to show how horrible GOP astroturfers are when it comes to caring for some of our most vulnerable citizens. Can you say “Jujitsu“

How much time have bloggers spent on the “birthers” and Gates/Crowley? And how much promoting the Healthcare Now March and Rally?

And didn’t the Congressional Progressive Caucus step on the story by having their press conference at the same time?

I guess all of us have sold out.

Rachel Maddow has far more power than “all of us” Showing the same damn clip of the Obama beer summit the same evening she could have at least given the Health Care Now Rally would not have been asking too much

TarheeDem ” I guess all of us have sold out” You might think about speaking for yourself.

I think Rachel sold out on being fair and balance on this one.