ah hah! just got back from a trip through Official Web sites and they are finally beginning to post schedules.

Arizona Firedogs – Rep Ann Kirkpatrick is having an event today at 2pm –

Congresswoman Kirkpatrick Hosts “Chat With Ann” in Payson
Safeway, 401 E. Hwy 260, Payson, AZ 85541
2:00PM-3:30PM

am posting it here in case it’s too late to post in the google Tracker – posted all her info in the tracking tool

Thank you, CB! That’s great.

Wow, what fabulous tools!
and what a pool of information you have here — the Events Calendar, so vital and so vibrant.

I’m going to go search around to see what events are going on around me.

PREPARE FOR THE MEET-UP

Review the fine Don Briggs post about the best practices they used for an orderly and productive meeting where teabaggers failed to disrupt it.

I think it’s ESSENTIAL to contact our congress people ahead of time and have them prepare for their meeting by planning ahead with these practices, especially having police/security present and setting out the ground rules of what behavior is acceptable and what behavior will get a person ejected.

also: help congress people to understand it is essential to prepare for the meeting by having it indoors in an area where shouting outside will not be heard and where the space is well-defined (a closed room) so that people can be ejected without being arrested.

Just looked at Sherrod Brown’s website nothing up about his calender yet (know we don’t need to push him but sure know he likes hearing that folks are right behind him)

Nothing up at Voinovichs yet. We need to show up in large groups for Voinovich.

Scarecrow has a winner up at Seminal

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/6953
user
NYT Front Page: Have You Hugged Your Health Insurance Company Today?
———————————————————————

That would make a great sign to counter the “screamers”
Hug an insurance company executive the millions they make is just not enough

From my left nutmeg:Leaked “Dump Dodd” Town Hall Strategy Memo: Disrupt, Avoid Intelligent Debate

It’s clear now that the top-down Republican strategy on health care for the month of August (a strategy made possible in part by the Blue Dog “victory” of delaying floor votes on legislation until September) will consist of organized and potentially violent disruptions of town hall meetings scheduled by members of Congress with their constituents in their districts.

On Friday, ThinkProgress posted a leaked “best practices” memo (PDF) written by Connecticut right-wing activist Bob MacGuffie based on his experience taking part in such an organized disruption of a Jim Himes town hall meeting in Fairfield back in late May. The memo includes such advice as:

– Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: “Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up. The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington.”

– Be Disruptive Early And Often: “You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early.”

– Try To “Rattle Him,” Not Have An Intelligent Debate: “The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions.”

Read on . . .

And More: CT GOP Chair Sanctions Right-Wing Attempts To Shut Down Town Halls

In a comment in response to a post today on the Courant’s Capitol Watch blog, Connecticut Republican Party Chairman Chris Healy defended the right of crazed right-wing activists to attempt to shut down debate at town hall meetings with members of Congress across the state:

Also mentions upcoming town hall meetings in updates.

Thank you for making it one step easier to find events, and for spreading the word…recess is a great time to become part of the story your Rep takes back to Congress. And, as Briggs shows above, it’s possible to hold something orderly and productive.

Great handbook and great calendar tool.

Great tool Jane !!
I just gotta see which events I can attend!

but as we witnessed last Thursday at the Health Care Now rally last Thursday in D.C. if people are “orderly and productive” they may (were) be ignored by our MSM (including Rachel Maddow). although no reason to turn into a “screamer”

Blue Texan’s regularly scheduled post is ready for us: “Jamie Kirchick: Pervasive Republican Birtherism is the Fault of Liberal Blogs”

Yeah! Let us know where you’re going.

My rep Jackie Speier’s events are already listed at Veniceforchange (who is collecting all CA events).

However, Rep. Speier also has telephone town halls as well.

Healthcare House Call
Tuesday, August 11
begins at 6:50 pm

You can sign up here.

This was on the HCAN PA blog.
I generally don’t recommend health care activists follow the ins and outs of the legislative process in Washington. There is always a tug of war between progressives and conservatives and it changes as we move from one field of play to another, that is from one committee to another and then to the floor of each house of Congress. Bills get better and they get worse.

There is little that any of us can do to influence the details of legislation at each of these moments.

Seems like a view counter to what Jane Hamsher and FDL have been fighting for. Is Jane right about HCAN–are they useless?

Excellent. I’ve embedded the calendar with a link to this terrific guide.

I heard Presiden Obama saying what-all he wanted in a healthcare bill, & AGAIN accidentally forgetting to mention the public option &, oh yeah, saying how nice it was to be working with Chuck Grassley.

The video is on RealityChex.com — comment is at the end of the Chuck Todd interview — upper left column.

This right wing website posts both Democrat and Republican scheduled town hall meeting and solicits “protests” from right wingers. In case the link doesn’t work, it is “Politisite: Politics From the Right Side of the Web”

From CCAG:

Dear Friend,

As is tradition during the month of August, our representatives in Washington D.C. are returning to their districts to hold meetings and forums with their constituents. Members of our Congressional delegation have been hard at work on national health care reform, so this break gives them an opportunity to update us on their progress and to hear our feedback.

However, opponents of health care reform are mobilizing turnout at these August recess meetings with one goal: to stifle the voices of the vast majority of Americans who favor meaningful health care reform.

Reform opponents are disrupting events with Members of Congress all over the country, and in a recent segment detailing the tactics of these groups, Rachel Maddow summed it up by saying that “corporate lobbyists are organizing far-right hooligan tactics to disrupt civic meetings about health care reform.”

Can you attend one or more of the events below, to ensure that our Members of Congress hear pro-reform voices?

Wednesday, August 5 from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM
with Congressman Chris Murphy (5th Congressional District)
Stop & Shop, 498 Bushy Hill Road, Simsbury, CT [Google Map]

Thursday, August 6 at 5:30 PM
with Congressman Jim Himes (4th Congressional District)
Stamford Senior Center, 888 Washington Blvd., Stamford, CT [Google Map]

Thursday, August 6 at 6:30 PM
with Congressman Joe Courtney (2nd Congressional District)
Woodstock Academy, 57 Academy Rd., Woodstock, CT [Google Map]

Please check the CCAG website (www.ccag.net) for any updates to this schedule. You can find more information about the disruptive tactics used by opponents of health care reform here.

Thanks for everything you do,

John Murphy
CCAG Political Director

Thanks, Jane for this guidebook. It was a great idea to put this together. I hope you post it (or links to it) frequently.

I’m trying to get information about Rob Andrews’ schedule. He doesn’t do a lot of public events. I finally got the contact information for his scheduler. He is putting together a town hall meeting and when that information is available, supposedly they are going to let me know. I’ll post it here when I find out.

If you do go, take along a camera. A tactic I have found effective in responding to “professional agitators” is to take their pictures multiple times using a flash even in the day time. Who did what has been recorded. A photo makes them no longer anonymous. A photo makes them wonder why someone is taking their pictures. Photos make them less apt to act out. Photos also make them angry, so have a quick escape plan to get to a cop fast! OTOH assault puts them in jail.

I think that some of you are being lead by propaganda. I am retired and an Independent and conservative. I belong to a Tea Party and 912 Group. Both of our groups refuse to become aligned with the Republican party we get no funding from anyone. We refuse to have elected Republicans speak at our events. Both groups will lose a majority of our members because we do not where either party has taken America.
I have been asked to run for school board and been told that I can get the backing of the Republicans. I said that I refuse to join any party.
We have had corrupt representatives in Congress from this area representing both parties.
I do not condone any violence from our groups, Republican Funded Groups,Soros Funded groups, ACORN or groups affiliated with the Tides Foundation and neither should you.

The events you have listed for Senator Russ Feingold for Saturday, August 8 in La Crosse and Chaseburg seem to be bogus. I just spoke with the Senator’s Middleton office (608-828-1200) and was assured that no health care listening sessions are currently scheduled, and that they would be listed on Feingold’s website if they were, which they’re not.

http://feingold.senate.gov/listening/index.html

They asked that people please call and confirm this with them before going.

I had called to confirm these events and get some video, but this is what I found out instead. teapartypatriots.org still has these meetings listed, and perhaps I should go anyhow to see their teabagging followers find that their website’s info was bogus.

Let’s not have progressives making the trip there for nothing.