I think Eabo has the midas touch, well at least from those who want to reform health care when he posted a diary about a fight outside a town hall meeting in St. Louis involving teabaggers and SEIU members.
Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly describes the incident:
Depending on which version of events you choose to believe, Gladney either initiated or was involved in a scuffle at a town-hall event late last week.
At least one prominent conservative blogger said Gladney was “brutally attacked” by SEIU members outside the event. After watching the video, there’s ample reason for skepticism. Gladney was, in fact, pulled to the ground during the fracas, but he seemed to bounce back up quickly, and is seen walking around soon after without any obvious injuries. His attorney has argued that Gladney was beaten during the fight, but there’s nothing in the clip to support that.
Two days later teabaggers protested outside SEIU offices in St. Louis with a special appearance by Gladney who appeared at the protest in a wheelchair. His lawyer spoke on his behalf (emphasis mine):
Gladney did not address Saturday’s crowd of about 200 people. His attorney, David Brown, however, read a prepared statement Gladney wrote. “A few nights ago there was an assault on my liberty, and on yours, too.” Brown read. “This should never happen in this country.”
Supporters cheered. Brown finished by telling the crowd that Gladney is accepting donations toward his medical expenses. Gladney told reporters he was recently laid off and has no health insurance.
The irony as explained at Think Progress is that Gladney would have been guaranteed affordable coverage and likely a subsidy to purchase insurance under health care reform.
I (heart) Republicans.
shiltone says
I wanna say “Sit down and shaddup, or you’ll find out what that high-deductible plan doesn’t cover!”
huh says
As in “That old fence is cool. It’s all irony.”
<
p>Here’s an other example. Sarah Palin’s latest Facebook post:
<
p>
<
p>I’m glad to hear her urging civil discoursel, but I’m not sure how Friday’s entry fits in:
<
p>
<
p>Evil? Yeah, that’s civil.
eaboclipper says
there are reports in the Kansas City Star that Gladney does have Health Insurance from his wife
<
p>http://voices.kansascity.com/n…
johnt001 says
If he has health insurance, I have to wonder where the money he’s begging for is going…
michaelbate says
I, along with several others from Wayland, attended Niki Tsongas’ Health Care Town Hall in Chelmsford last Saturday.
<
p>Rowdy and disorderly Right Wing extremists showed up and tried to intimidate Congressman Tsongas (and everyone else). They jeered and booed, often drowning out the Congresswoman and the speakers. During the question period, they brought up irrelevant issues and misinformation.
<
p>Others made excellent points (when it was possible to hear them) about the costs of private insurance, and the fact that we spend vastly more on healthcare than other countries, and have poorer outcomes. Some had heartbreaking stories of denial of claims by insurance companies. These factual statements were greeted with shouts of “Liar.”
<
p>By resorting to heavy handed tactics of mob intimidation, the opponents of health care reform are admitting that they cannot win in an honest and open discussion.
<
p>Shouting down speakers and disrupting gatherings strikes me as profoundly un-American, given that our country was founded on values of democracy and freedom, and on the belief that decisions should be made after civilized and orderly discussion. The shouters and disrupters, while no doubt claiming to be “patriots,” have nothing but contempt for American values.
<
p>I have yet to hear of any Republican politician repudiating these tactics. Instead they claim that these outrages reflect widespread concern about Obama’s policies. Where are the decent Republicans that we used to have, people like Ed Brooke, Elliot Richardson, and George Romney (who must be rolling over in his grave at the behavior of his son)? These Republicans (who would not be welcome in the party today) would have been outspoken in condemning these mobs.
<
p>Hopefully this disorderly behavior will show people the ugly face of this opposition, and will increase support for sensible health care reform.
<
p>Congresswoman Tsongas handled herself really well. Under great stress, she stood her ground, very graciously and diplomatically stated the facts and her position, corrected misinformation, and welcomed all suggestions and criticism. Whenever there was a grain of truth in the opponents’ statements, she commended them for it.
<
p>She stood firm in her commitment to a public option, which of course brought howling boos.
<
p>I came away with a vastly improved opinion of Niki Tsongas. I am proud to have her as my Congresswoman.
<
p>
eaboclipper says
I guess I have a different opinion and everybody can form their own if they’d like. Here is the entire event, put up in raw video form, unedited.
<
p>
<
p>I thought she handled herself well. And have stated that multiple times. The crowd wasn’t that rowdy for the whole event. Only at certain times. For the most part the crowd was respectful. Well except for the moonbat who knocked over an elderly conservative as the line formed.
stomv says
What is the significance of the red on the RMG map? That is, what are the criteria to turn a city or town red on the map? Followup: is it up to date?
joets says
if I remember correctly
johnk says
I think it’s some kind of pretend calculation, that adds up all votes not Deval Patrick against Deval and if the all others are more, it’s somehow considered a red town.
<
p>Pretty dumb, I would think you would not want to lie to people right off the bat on your blog.
joets says
it was something brought up when RMG was very new, and I’m not sure if that’s what it is.
huh says
Over on RMG
<
p>
stomv says
I might have done it a different way.
<
p>There are a number of ways to measure if a community is ‘red’
– state rep
– state senator
– US rep
– US senators
– governor
<
p>Now, if you divide that into 20% each, you can come up with two numbers:
1. The percent of elected officials representing that town which are GOP. Of course, for any city or town, that’s currently 0% – 40% since the gov, both US senators, and all 10 US reps are D.
2. The total percent of voter share combined for all five.* So, making it up, lets say for a given town it was 60% + 55% + 33% + (37% + 41%)/2 + 48% = 47%
<
p>Using either methodology (1) or (2), you calculate the percent for each city and town, and then shade each from ffffff (pure white) to ff0000 (pure red) accordingly. Seems that would result in a more accurate and more useful measurement.
<
p>
<
p> * take the two US senators, add, and divide by two so they aren’t overweighed.
stomv says
but I don’t know what you call rowdy.
<
p>I watched clip 1, it was quite nice.
I watched clip 2, and for more than 50% of the time (9:59), there were people shushing folks who insisted on talking over Congresswoman Tsongas. That’s rowdy. That’s disrespectful.
<
p>The boos and the claps at pause points? That’s fair game. It’s part of the presentation, and so long as you’ve got pause points for applause, booing is fair. But, the interjections mid-sentence? That ain’t cool.
<
p>
<
p>I’d like to see a session start in the morning and last all day. This would allow the Congress(wo)man to simply say: we’ve got 12 hours for questions, please hold them until the end and we’ll get to all of them.
<
p>Of course, it wouldn’t stop the jerks from shouting out trying to quash debate like they did with Congresswoman Tsongas, or any other member of the House.
<
p>
<
p>P.S. Video 2, 9:00 is the man falling over. One, he doesn’t look particularly elderly — from the back, middle aged. In fact, Video 3 8:00 shows him bending over without any slowing or feebleness at all. Two, there was no reason for anyone to know he was conservative at the time — it was a rush of people who wanted to line up to ask questions, coming from both sides of the aisle. Three, there was no reason to know the person who knocked him over (at least from this video) did it at all intentionally, and four, there was no reason to know the person who knocked him over was, as you use, a moonbat. I tried to hear the so-called elderly person’s question, but I couldn’t. Based on the heckles of the answer, I do suspect that he asked a question critical of the bill.
billxi says
Are rude. They will stomp on you to make their point. But they’re not nasty, they’re democrats. Only Republicans can be “Teabag Thugs”. I got it…It’s ok for democrats to be nasty for the cause…Everyone else is a thug.
michaelbate says
And I was there for the entire session.
<
p>Supporters of the health care initiative applauded, sometimes loudly, but never booed and jeered or tried to drown out opposing points of view.
<
p>Anyone who uses the term “moonbat” is showing us that they do not have logical arguments and are resorting to name calling.
<
p>I am still waiting for any Republican politician to repudiate these tactics of mob intimidation.
billxi says
UMASS Worcester was not an organized effort. Sorry dems. I know you want to believe everything is wonderful in Blueland, but it’s not. The electorate is upset. I learned about the event at 10:00 AM.My like minded friend e-mailed me. There is not a lot of organizing that can be done in 5 1/2 hours.
huh says
doesn’t mean EVERYBODY learned about it 5 hours before.
<
p>I’d say nice try, but it’s not even that.
billxi says
yup, that’s it.
huh says
Complete with talking points.
<
p>
<
p>”We the people” my ass. The American Liberty Alliance should change their name to Astroturf, Incorporated.
<
p>Or the Three Amigos Alliance.
michaelbate says
who in fact is an elderly resident in Sudbury, and someone who is definitely not given to violence.
<
p>She wrote to me:
<
p>”I was sitting in the front row, and when it came time for questions, I quickly got over to the microphone, and was first in line. Next thing, I see a Chelmsford police officer next to me telling a very muscular younger man behind me that no, I did not push him to the floor, that he fell when he was trying too hard to get to the microphone. The police officer continued by saying, “I was watching and I saw it”, and that was the end of it. It did cross my mind that this young man was trying to set me up for an assault charge. Pretty scary stuff.”