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crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
The news about people acting like they have no home training at these health care town hall meetings across the country will backfire against the Republican party. But regardless, I hope no one gets seriously hurt.
To me however, it does show the blatant hypocrisy of the right wing.
Remember in November of last year when Proposition 8 was passed? Remember how angry we lgbts got? Remember how we protested across the country?
While some of us went too far in our anger, the point is that it was a genuine outcry of rage. It was a genuine protest from a group of people who had been stepped on for too long.
Unlike this mess happening now in which the majority are white folks who are programmed by right wing groups with “talking points” or bombthrowers like Glenn Beck or Michelle Malkin (the proverbial child playing matches). And their guilliblity is made easy because they are too afraid to realize that their anger is not with the health care but with their inability to admit that they just don't like “THAT NEEEGROOOO” as president.
Think about it. When they shout and cry at meetings about “how they want their country back,” they aren't referring to health care costs or single payer options.
And speaking of Malkin, remember how she wept and cried with pseudo disgust over us “gay bullies” who supposedly attacked people via protests and boycotts? Remember how Mike Huckabee told only one side to the Phyllis Burgess incident (i.e. the anti-gay protester who was pushed and her stryofoam cross taken from her after she elbowed her way through crowd of anti-Proposition 8 protestors so that she could get on camera). Remember how the religious right portrayed the lgbt community on the whole as thugs who were allegedly threatening people, vandalizing churches, and shouting people down?
Well either I am in the Twilight Zone or there has been a shift. Malkin now approves of shouting people down and religious right groups are encouraging folks to show up at these town hall forums.
While Malkin specifically was quick to shine a very bright light on the excesses of the Proposition 8 protests, she is trying to downplay just how nasty these “tea bag” protestors are acting at these health care forums.
Apparently protesting in anger is only wrong when gay folks do it. When lemmings do it at health care forums, it's “democracy in action.”
Yet another way us lgbts are looked at as second class citizens.
23 Comments
They’re driving reasonable people away in drovesWould you want anything to do with these assholes?
Ha.. ugh.Malkin lives in my boyfriend’s uncle’s city of Colorado Springs. :/ Barf. She moved there last year, and it’s a nice place, but she probably thought it was crazy and evangelical enough for her. My boyfriend gets mad when I say that because he thinks it’s a beautiful place(and it is), and his uncle is really liberal, but that place is a batshit insane place.
Seriously, call me an idiot but there are ways to deal with thisTry not running a meeting with just a handful of security guards. Get some real peace officers in the mix who understand things like room capacity and fire codes.
Then set up a camera and a microphone outside. A disruptor can be heard one at a time by recording their questions and complaints so the congresspeople can listen to them later. But being forced to exercise your democracy one person at a time certainly does take the bite out of the mob! Sure they will get angrier but they will do it outside and they can’t say they haven’t been given the opportunity to be heard!
The last thing is to limit those in the meeting to the district of the congresspeople they represent. Sure its a little tougher on the Senators but it is mainly house members getting the business right now and you can’t bus in disruptors if meetings are being limited to the few zip codes of the people actually being represented.
All in all what I don’t get is the majority party getting the business as if they don’t have the brains, means, and where with all to stop most of these disruptions early with a little thought. Fact is if they want democracy give them democracy. just make them stand in line for it. End-o-mob issues.
Or just do it like most city council meetingsPeople have to come up to the microphone one at a time. If someone is disruptive or speaks out of turn, he or she is removed from the hall.
Also, give each perosn the same time to speak. Two minutes max. Once you have a turn, you can’t speak again.
There’s nothing wrong with imposing order on a crowd.
C-SPANOn C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this morning was Max Pappas from the odious right-wing group Freedom Works, and he called the DNC ad exposing the mobs backing “shocking” and of course denied all culpability, and claimed he couldn’t tell citizens attending the town hall meetings how to act.
The next segment had Ilyse Hogue from Moveon.org who gave her groups opinion of these bigots.
I hope to imbed a You Tube link to both videos.
That’s how I would run something like thisOne person at a time, and they have to take turns (three people cannot shut out everyone else.) Disruptors are ejected from the hall. The whole thing is recorded in both image and sound, so that when the ejected nutters start squawking about their free speech is being supressed, there is good quality video and audio of how abusive and disruptive the person had become before getting thrown out.
Seems like an obvious way to run these meetings.
The sad thing isthese people keep shouting about the right to speak and that they just want someone to listen to them.
But they don’t take five seconds to listen to others. They ignore the police officer trying to tell them that the room is at capacity (maybe because he’s black?).
We can talk about enforcing rules and methods of conducing a civil discourse (below) until we are blue in the face. How much do you want to bet that if you gave them 2 minutes to speak or enforce rules about not interrupting they would ignore those rules? Notice that a large number of these idiots have cameras. They want to be kicked out, refused entry or even arrested; that way they become martyrs to the cause and re-enforce the belief that they are the oppressed minority.
One final note, most states, cities, counties, etc. have laws against limiting public meetings to only residents (which is annoying when the opposition buses in a large number of “outside” protesters. But these laws are intended to allow anyone affected by the laws get a chance to speak. Even if they don’t live in the area in question.)
Also ifone of these people is kicked out of an event because they used up their two minutes or disrupted the event repeatedly. How long do you think it would be before a carefully edited video would appear on YouTube? Or even a badly edited video? That video would receive a lot of attention from the opposition, because it highlights how evil they believe we are and it will just push some of the protesters further to the extreme right.
Rachel Maddow asked a questionrelated to the Sotomayer hearings and the Republicans explicitly racist statements that applies here:
There’s really little use in playing “the race card” (as the Rethugs are doing with these teabagger crazies) if they didn’t think there was some political gain to get out of it.
Is there any political capital to gain out of this? Or is this a last gasp of the Dixiecrats?
It’s a last gaspThese are the final days of the tyranny of the right wing, and they know it, so they’re lashing out. They have been on top for so long they don’t know how to listen to anyone. Since the country’s founding they have used the Christian Bible to justify the superiority of the white male and that world view is falling. All the people who have bought into this mindset don’t know what to do now that their supposed superiority is being challenged. Strong women, gay men, transgendered people, people of color other than white, and people of non-Christian faith are “taking” their power, which they see as evil winning out. We will prevail in the end, but we need to keep up the effort. People want to tie themselves to power, which is why the right wing was so successful for so long. But we can break that power by being successful ourselves. We can show that logic is better for society than blind passion. The younger generations are getting this message in schools, which is why you see evangelicals on the home-school kick. But this just shows we’re winning.
Where are the riot police?I have a clear picture in my mind of all the cops in riot gear that were lined up along the route of the Iraq war protest marches in which I participated, proportedly to make sure our freedom of speech didn’t get too unruly.
Why aren’t any of them at these functions?
limit those in the meeting to the district of the congresspeople they represent.Good point.
Surely, they have IDs as they are the same people who pushed Voter ID legislation.
Nothing newI’ve been going to city council meetings for many years. Every city I have ever lived in has these rules in place.
1) No signs or banners allowed in the hall;
2) Speakers must approach a stationary microphone one at a time;
3) Questions are limited to two minutes maximum;
4) Only one question per speaker;
5) No speaking out of turn;
6) Those speaking out of turn or disrupting the meeting will be asked to leave; and
7) Those who refuse to leave can be arrested for disorderly conduct.
I have never seen anyone allowed to bring a sign into a city council meeting. Those who do are simply denied entry.
These people will back down if they know they will be arrested. Orderly meetings have been conducted this way for generations. Why should these town halls be any different?
lolyeah I’ve been at my share of city hall meetings too (I’ll pot about my most recent trip later).
For a part of the non-discrimination ordinance battle, we got around the “no signs” rule. We had bright yellow sheets of paper with the words “Vote For Equality” in big bold letters that wee carried up with us when we spoke. We made it seem like they were just pieces of paper at the bottom of our speeches or under our file folders. Except we held our papers up so you could see the signs, as if we were reading or double checking our speeches. The media noticed it, and showed it on their clips (still are, when showing stock footage)
Imposing orderNo, there’s nothing wrong with that to sane people, but that doesn’t seem to cover a lot of these people. They don’t see themselves as being the ones who are blocking other people from their right to be heard but making them follow rules would be completely unAmerican.
Kinda related, but I was wondering if since Dick Armey’s company is sponsoring the best angry mob that money can buy, can they be reasonably be referred to as “Dick Armey’s dick army”? It would be a lot easier to say than a lot of what I have been hearing.
This is more like a Town Hall Putsch.
Speaking of Prop 8Our community has to decide about 2010 vs 2012 for the repeal, and we have 1 week to decide.
http://pamshouseblend.com/diar…
And they probablyshowed up one minute before the meeting expecting to get front row seats!
That’s hilariousBut, a big difference from carrying picket signs and banners.
I was once stock footage. I was taped burning Gov. Pete Wilson in effigy in West Hollywood and NBC used it for years whenever they had a generic story about “civil unrest.”
It was cool footage. The flames were reflecting off my face and I looked positively evil (the bamboo pole was heavy and I was straining to hold it up).
Relatives would call and say, “I saw you on TV again.”
What these town hall meeting organizers need to do..Is CALL THE POLICE the moment these a**holes show up and ESCORT THEM OFF THE PROPERTY. F*ck their 1st Amendment rights. They seemed willing to ignore the 1st Amendment while W was in office. What’s good for the goose is good for the brownshirt gander.
There’s nothing in the First Amendmentthat permits people to disrupt public meetings. In fact, they are interfering with the rights of others — the right to free speech and assembly.
I can’t tape your mouth shut with duct tape and then claim that was just my way of expressing my political opinion.
These nuts are assaulting and harassing people.
Exactly. And that’s why the next time these idiots show up, the organizers should call the police and have them escorted OFF the property. That’s how you handle BULLIES. And make no mistake everyone-that’s what these people are. Bullies.
Now, now…anyone causing violence or interfering with other people’s speech must be a Democrat — just ask mmunson!