Lindsay Beyerstein Clueless on Politics of Town Halls

I just watched Griff Jenkins' latest Fox News report on the ACORN thugs who showed up at Senator Arlen Specter's town hall meeting on Wednesday. ACORN now confirms that they bused-in protesters to the event. The first video shows Jenkins' report on Greta last night. The second clip is video footage of conservatives chanting "Don't Come Back" as ACORN bailed out with the astroturfed thugs.

Amid all the evidence of fake Democratic ObamaCare protesters, hardline leftists continue to hatch freaky scenarios of manufactured "teabaggers" who are allegedly swarming Democratic town hall meetings.

Lindsay Beyerstein's got an announcement at her blog for a panel tomorrow at Netroots Nation, "Investigative Techniques to Expose the Town Hall Mobs." A panel is scheduled for tomorrow: "Muckraking 101: Documents You Can Use."

In the comments at her post, Lindsay responds to the notion that the town halls are nothing more than a "tribal thumping":

What makes you think the town hall mob phenomenon isn't serious? Here's what's happening: Pharmaceutical and insurance interests are hiring lobbyists and astroturfing communications companies to stoke public anger about healthcare reform and the Republican party is cheering them on. This is an incredibly irresponsible campaign.

The protesters have already crossed the line from boisterous free speech to outright intimidation and even violence. Several Democratic congress members have reported death threats by teabaggers, police confirmed that a teabagger shadowing an Arizona rep "dropped" a gun at a meet and greet last week, police had to step between Arlen Specter and a protester at a town hall this week, another Democratic congressman had his office vandalized with a swastika. A teabagger activist got his twitter account deleted for encouraging fellow town hall attendees to bring their guns and hurt "disruptive" SEIU and ACORN members "badly".

There are at least two big issues here. First, somebody could very well get killed. (Last week David Axelrod suddenly got a Secret Service detail without explanation at the same time as he started speaking out against the mobs.)

These aren't spontaneous uprisings, they are organized campaigns that use blind rage as a recruiting tool. The groups are telling people lies to rile them up, like that Obama is going to kill their grandmother and take Medicare away. These are talking points that respectable lobbyists won't repeat on CNN but they're happy to hand out fists of cash to support crazies to say it for them. The corporate and political interests backing these tactics need to be held accountable. They are playing with fire.

Second, this is a campaign to derail healthcare reform which is the touchstone of Obama's domestic agenda. I don't know what could be more serious than that.

Investigative reporting on the Iraq war isn't something we can teach effectively in an afternoon. Whereas, the structure of the public record is such that anyone can learn a lot about astroturf groups, lobbyists, and political donors.

Now, it's one thing to agree that conservative lobbying groups have provided major support to the tea parties, and Fox News is certainly a partisan booster (no more than CNN's former correspondent Susan Roesgen is for the left). But to deny the events are organic, and to try and spin these demonstrations as "organized campaigns that use blind rage as a recruiting tool" is exactly the kind of irresponsibility that Lindsay decries.

My advice for her is to read my reports, "Astroturf at Adam Schiff Town Hall: ACORN, AARP, Organizing for America, SEIU, and Stalinist Apparatchiks for ObamaCare!", and 'Constituent Backlash Follows Adam Schiff Town Hall: 'Extraordinarily Corrupt Proceeding'; 'Rally for Universal Health Care'."

This is first hand reporting, but see also, Dana Loesch on a Democratic ObamaCare rally where no one showed up, "Obamacare Rally Was a Ghost Town."

Plus, the Democrats are declaring a "race war" on conservatives. See Matt Welch, "More Scenes From the Health Care Debate Race War."

I doubt these facts will come up tomorrow at Lindsay's "investigative" panel.

Related: JammieWearingFool, "Brooklyn Mobsters: 'You Are Bankrupting Our Country. You Guys are Crooks' " (via Memeorandum).

The Audacity of Dissent

From Gregory Gethard, at FrontPage Magazine:

Call them community organizers.

All across the country, Americans alarmed by the Obama administration’s proposed overhaul of health care have been coming together to vent their concerns in town-hall meetings and protests. Some are worried about the possible effects of ObamaCare on health care services, the cost of insurance, and the recovery of the economy; others are troubled by the intrusion of government into their lives.

Given his background, one might expect President Obama to take seriously this vigorous grassroots reaction to his policies. Instead, aided by Congressional Democrats, the White House has taken to painting this mass outpouring of civic discontent as a fringe phenomenon – driven by extremists, un-American in its aims, and requiring careful monitoring so that any “fishy” concerns and criticisms about the administration’s health care plans are reported to the proper (read: government) channels.

The town-hall critics won’t be so easily silenced. One of the primary reasons so many have flocked to these meetings concerns the cost of the reforms that the administration seeks. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the cost of the Senate’s proposed health care bill at $1 trillion. With a price tag of that size, many are concerned about its potential to increase the ever-growing budget deficit, which the Obama administration itself says will approach $1.84 trillion by 2010. A deficit that big, many worry, could have dire ramifications for the economy.

On the minds of many, too, is the possibility that the administration will raise taxes on the middle class – even as it has denied all intentions of doing so. But the arithmetic of health care reform only serves to bolster suspicions of a looming tax hike. In order to pay for the plan, the government must raise $544 billion in taxes, which will supposedly come from those making $250,000 per year or more. But given that consumer spending still has yet to rebound, and that personal incomes are still falling, it’s hard to see how instituting $544 billion in new taxes will benefit the economy. And if the rich don’t generate the required revenue, the middle class will likely be forced to pick up the tab.

Cost is just one of the contentious questions surrounding ObamaCare. Others are concerned about the government intruding into their health care. The administration boasts that they are simply creating a government-sponsored health care plan that would compete with private insurers. But this presents many problems for the private insurers with which the government intends to compete. According to Texas Republican Congressman Lamar Smith, who wrote in the Christian Science Monitor:

Obama's claim that "if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep your healthcare plan" rings hollow. Government intervention in private markets has consequences. A public option wouldn't "level the playing field" – it would destroy it. After all, a government plan can afford to lose money indefinitely. Private plans don't have that luxury. Unable to match the government's market manipulation, they'd soon fold. Employers would drop private insurance, thereby decreasing choice and moving the country toward a single-payer system. Without private insurers making up the difference, government-controlled prices would reduce the supply of healthcare services and lead to further rationing.

Many are also concerned about so-called “death panels” in which a government bureaucrat could be placed in a position to determine if it would cost too much money to keep someone alive. While there is certainly some hysteria about this fear, the fact is that the government does intend to play a role during end-of-life scenarios. If some version of ObamaCare is passed, doctors may be given an incentive to go over end-of-life counseling with patients; to receive these funds, a doctor must adhere to a government-enforced list of questions during these sessions. ABC News chief medical editor, Dr. Timothy Johnson, supports these provisions, but he warns that they may cross a line, saying that this provision “maybe has too much the flavor of reporting back to big government or big brother."

With so much to dislike in the health care legislation, it’s easy to see why people have been turning out in droves to town hall meetings. And the numbers show that people are against it: a recent Rasmussen Reports survey found that 53% now oppose the plan, up nine points since the end of June. Re The backlash against health care reform is also reflected in the president’s slipping polling numbers. According to a Quinnipiac poll, 52 percent of people surveyed no longer support the way Obama is handling the health care issue. And he currently has a 50 percent approval rating, down 7 percent in a single month – largely, it seems, because of health care.

Unable to convince the public to support its reforms, the administration, with Congressional Democrats leading the charge, has turned on the growing opposition. While Obama has started to bend the facts in his public statements about health care, other Democrats are making disparaging remarks about the vocal opposition at town hall meetings. In a USA Today op-ed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called the town-hall protests “un-American.”

More at the link.

Image Credit: The People's Cube.

Constituent Backlash Follows Adam Schiff Town Hall: 'Extraordinarily Corrupt Proceeding'; 'Rally for Universal Health Care'

There's a backlash afoot in the wake of Representative Adam Schiff's town hall even last Tuesday. My report on the event is here.

Here's a letter, from constituent John Nally, forwarded to me from the Pasadena Tea Party:

My wife, Kathy, and I attended the event you sponsored, directed and controlled at the Alhambra Library Center yesterday. We knew that your views on health care reform did not agree with ours; but we never expected to witness such an extraordinarily corrupt proceeding as the one you produced.

In your pre-event promotional efforts, you named this event a "Town Hall Meeting". I have attended and participated in many Town Hall Meetings throughout my lifetime. Your event last night was not a Town Hall Meeting in any sense of the term. In fact, your event was nothing but a unilateral propaganda effort that was rife with false assertions, half-truths, and insulting rhetoric, aimed at your constituents who happen to oppose your position on the Obama plans for medical care reform.

It was clear that the panel you handpicked to dominate the proceedings was put there to "run out the clock" in order to minimize your exposure to questions from your constituents who do not agree with you.

Your few feeble attempts to answer questions revealed to us a personal and, therefore, professional weakness of which we were unaware up to this point. But we were truly shocked by your rhetoric: your half-truths, your outright lies, your denigrating and dismissive attitude and behavior in vaguely addressing those who disagree with your position. We were extremely disappointed in our Congressman.

You "selected" only one question from the hundreds of written questions that were dutifully submitted by your constituents to your staff earlier in the evening. A screening process at that level of meticulous scrutiny crosses over the line into paranoia.

It was obvious that you had planned all along to move the event from the advertised meeting room to the outside so that constituents could not use a microphone at a podium. Your cynical and manipulative tactics in this regard prevented all other constituents in attendance from hearing the questions directly, as and when they were asked.

You, instead, manipulated an honest opportunity to engage with your constituents in a democratic process, the hallmark of legitimate Town Hall Meetings, into a corrupt process of having all questions filtered and manipulated by one of your minions at the only microphone on the stage.

The image of you and your minions, on an elevated stage, controlling the only microphone, and filtering and paraphrasing, to suit your own agenda, all messages sent up to you from your constituents below, will remain in the minds of all who were there last night, all the way up to, and including, election day, November, 2010, i.e., an elected official, talking down to his constituents.

Frankly, your performance was an embarrassment to your constituents. It will be remembered and spoken of often, in the California 29th Congressional District, as a pivotal point in our District's inevitable (after your performance last night) return to representative democracy by your removal from office.

John J. Nally

Plus, here's an anonymous comment published at my post, "Astroturf at Adam Schiff Town Hall":

Adam Schiff turned this "townhall" into a rally FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE. I was there with my husband, sister and brother and the OBAMA ACORN people were angry and would not let us speak. We started chanting "READ THE BILL" and some kid in a USC Keck Hall Doctor t-shirt (probably borrowed by a hard working pre-med student) got in my and my sisters face and told us to read the bill and to shut up. He then told me to take the bill out of my purse (what?) and start reading it. I told him I was NOT THE CONGRESSMAN - Adam Schiff was and it was my right to speak. He kept starring us down and making nasty comments to us the entire RALLY. IT WAS NOT A TOWNHALL. IT WAS TURNED INTO A RALLY. I BET SCHIFF got the word from the Whitehouse to not allow questions unless they were ACORN people. Very enlightening. Made us more angry and against this bogus bill than before I came. Adam Schiff was a total Pussy.

Sarah Palin: Statement on Obama's Health Care Plan

Chris Kelly, who is identified as a writer for Bill Maher's show, makes the most heinous smears in his essay at Huffington Post, "Sarah Palin Wins." Plus, Steve Benen keeps repeating the lies about conservative opposition to Ezekiel Emanuel's cost rationalization ideology, which is identified as the "Complete Lives System."

I've already debunked the left's BS, so let's give it up for Sarah Palin herself, who continues to prove she's the dominant personality in American politics today:

I join millions of Americans in expressing appreciation for the Senate Finance Committee’s decision to remove the provision in the pending health care bill that authorizes end-of-life consultations (Section 1233 of HR 3200). It’s gratifying that the voice of the people is getting through to Congress; however, that provision was not the only disturbing detail in this legislation; it was just one of the more obvious ones.

As I noted in my statement last week, nationalized health care inevitably leads to rationing. There is simply no way to cover everyone and hold down the costs at the same time. The rationing system proposed by one of President Obama’s key health care advisors is particularly disturbing. I’m speaking of the “Complete Lives System” advocated by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the president’s chief of staff. President Obama has not yet stated any opposition to the “Complete Lives System,” a system which, if enacted, would refuse to allocate medical resources to the elderly, the infirm, and the disabled who have less economic potential. [1] Why the silence from the president on this aspect of his nationalization of health care? Does he agree with the “Complete Lives System”? If not, then why is Dr. Emanuel his policy advisor? What is he advising the president on? I just learned that Dr. Emanuel is now distancing himself from his own work and claiming that his “thinking has evolved” on the question of rationing care to benefit the strong and deny the weak. [2] How convenient that he disavowed his own work only after the nature of his scholarship was revealed to the public at large.

The president is busy assuring us that we can keep our private insurance plans, but common sense (and basic economics) tells us otherwise. The public option in the Democratic health care plan will crowd out private insurers, and that’s what it’s intended to do. A single payer health care plan has been President Obama’s agenda all along, though he is now claiming otherwise. Don’t take my word for it. Here’s what he said back in 2003:

“I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care plan.... A single payer health care plan – universal health care plan – that’s what I would like to see.” [3]

A single-payer health care plan might be what Obama would like to see, but is it what the rest of us would like to see? What does a single payer health care plan look like? We need look no further than other countries who have adopted such a plan. The picture isn’t pretty. [4] The only way they can control costs is to ration care. As I noted in my earlier statement quoting Thomas Sowell, government run health care won’t reduce the price of medical care; it will simply refuse to pay the price. The expensive innovative procedures that people from all over the world come to the United States for will not be available under a government plan that seeks to cover everyone by capping costs.

Our senior citizens are right to be wary of this health care bill. Medical care at the end of life accounts for 80 percent of all health care. When care is rationed, that is naturally where the cuts will be felt first. The “end-of-life” consultations authorized in Section 1233 of HR 3200 were an obvious and heavy handed attempt at pressuring people to reduce the financial burden on the system by minimizing their own care. Worst still, it actually provided a financial incentive to doctors to initiate these consultations. People are right to point out that such a provision doesn’t sound “purely voluntary.”

More at the link. Plus, check Memeorandum.

Ezekiel Emanuel Spared! Senate Finance to Drop ObamaCare Death Panels!

I caught this segment featuring Ann Coulter on Sean Hannity's the other night:

"Totally ironically, Zeke Emanuel is on my death list. Hold the applause. I’m going to be on the death panel."

Plus, Pirate's Cove, "No Such Thing As Death Panels Removed From Senate Version."

Also, Allahpundit, "Breaking: Finance Committee drops “death panel” provisions from Senate bill." (Via Memeorandum.)

Note how the New York Times does Obama's bidding in this piece, "False ‘Death Panel’ Rumor Has Some Familiar Roots."

Bonus: "Ronald Reagan Speaks Against Socialized Medicine."

Hudson Crash Video: Plus, Air Traffic Controller on Phone During Collision

Tourists caught the small plane/helicopter crash on video:

Plus, from the New York Daily News, "Air traffic controller suspended, was chatting on phone with girlfriend during Hudson River crash":

The air traffic controller at Teterboro Airport was on the phone with his girlfriend during the mid-air collision over the Hudson River.

His supervisor had wandered off and wasn't even in the tower.

Horrified officials called their actions "unacceptable," even though they were not blamed for Saturday's crash.

Both controllers - who were not immediately identified - have been suspended and will likely be fired.

Crash probes by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration revealed the two controllers seriously deviated from their assignments at the time of the collision.

Nine people died when a single-engine Piper plane with three aboard clipped a Liberty Helicopters sightseeing chopper carrying a pilot and five Italian tourists. Both aircraft plummeted into the river.

The NTSB and FAA discovered the controller lapses by listening to audio recordings from the Teterboro tower.

"We learned that the controller handling the Piper flight was involved in apparently inappropriate conversations on the telephone at the time of the accident," FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said.

"We also learned that the supervisor was not present in the [tower] building as required."

Babbitt said, "We have no reason to believe at this time that these actions contributed to the accident" but he called the laxness unacceptable.

"We have placed the employees on administrative leave and have begun disciplinary proceedings," he said.

More at the link.

Also, the New York Times, "Controller Was on Phone During Hudson River Crash."

Hey, No Fair! White House Pissed - Critics Co-Opt Obama Organizing Playbook

From ABC News, "Analysis: Critics Co-Opt Obama Organizing Playbook":

The 20th century community organizer who used 21st century tools for his people-powered White House campaign now finds himself besieged by citizens airing their grievances at 19th century-inspired town hall style meetings.

Barack Obama's top legislative goal hangs in the balance and his popularity is suffering as critics co-opt his tech-savvy organizing methods, tag him as a boogyman and disrupt local gatherings on his proposed health care overhaul.

Is the groundbreaking campaigner, whose White House political arm is aptly called Organizing for America, being outmaneuvered?

"That's a fair summary of where things are at the moment," said Sanford Horwitt, a biographer of Saul Alinsky, the father of community organizing.

"The other side has the anger and the intensity, and Obama's side doesn't," Horwitt said. Harking back to the presidential campaign's tactics and success, Horwitt said, "This really first-rate community organizing has not revealed itself in the first months he's been in office, particularly when it comes to the health care issue."

The White House and its allies claim the protests are simply a fake grass-roots movement — "astroturfing" — but a USA Today/Gallup Poll this week found that most Americans believe the protesters' sentiments are genuine.

Fake?

You want fake? The Democrats got it. See, "ObamaPlants for ObamaCare!"

ObamaPlants for ObamaCare!

From Dana Loesch, Let's Talk Astroturf:

It’s the stuff like this that makes me type WTF. The San Antonio Tea Party has some proof of astroturfing coming from left field. While Democrats like to make baseless allegations as to the validity of tea party movement’s roots, they place ads on Cragislist (St. Louis had one advertising for paid, progressive activists, $90 a day) to attract employees to counter the tea parties. It would be funny if it weren’t sad.

Hey, this gig comes with health coverage too! Who knew?

I've written much about Democratic Astroturfing. See, "Work for Change! Paid ObamaCare Shills $10-15 hr!," and "Astroturf at Adam Schiff Town Hall: ACORN, AARP, Organizing for America, SEIU, and Stalinist Apparatchiks for ObamaCare!."

Also, from the Astute Bloggers, "BECAUSE OF HIS DEMAGOGUERY ON OBAMACARE, OBAMA HAS LOST ALL CREDIBILITY."

The Left's Masters of Disaster

From Nikki's blog, "Master-Haters and Master-Debaters:

I love liberals, I really do. They are America's retarded little step-brothers and sisters that we tolerate because Jesus wants us to be kind to our enemies. I think this health care debate is so fun to watch from the sidelines. Mostly because Obama's approval rating is worse than America's first retarded cousin, George W. Bush's at this stage of the game. I have written before about how extreme popularity is not good for any politician, it just gets the other side buzzing like hornets. This time its rightfully so. That probably sounds pompous and arrogant, but democrats ARE always wrong. I don't make the rules, I only point them out and try to enforce them. Suck on that lemon demon-ocrats.

It isn't shocking that when faced with disagreement and opposition the left turns to the HATER AND NAZI plan. We aren't debating, we are hating. Plan B, Operation Nazi racist, is the go to guy when things get rough for the demotards. First, assocrats start trolling Town Hall meetings and paint swastickas on donkey signs and yell Nazi stuff at the drunk Nancy Pelosi and blame it on the phants. This is the oldest trick in the book. You see republicans actually have jobs and pay for all your donkey shit, so we don't have time to spray paint. Plan C goes even further, You see it goes like this, how can anyone hate Obama? He is our first black President and that in itself should keep all the right-wing haters in check. It is after all our job to make sure Obama succeeds and only lefty white people can guarantee that for our good little negro. Remember the hissy fit by the media when Rush Limbaugh wanted to see Obama fail? It was as though someone had punched Mother Theresa in the face and called her a bitch in front of the Pope and then it was blasted all over YouTube. Chris Matthews wet himself he was so traumatized. Who doesn't want this worthless health care plan to fail at this point? Are we all haters because we don't like the government taking over our lives? People don't want the government to say who can and can't get married and yet we will soon have a government telling us that granny with the bad hip is old and gonna die anyway so she CAN'T HAVE THAT HIP? Are you liberals retarded? OOPS, yes you are.

More at the link.

Cartoon Credit: William Warren at Americans for Limited Government.

Town Hall Activists Are 'Bullies'

Here's another version the left's anti-democratic position on conservatives and the town halls. This time it's Steve Benen and the opposition to Obama's death panels. The Senate Finance Committee is stripping that provision from the bill:

Up until very recently, this provision was a common-sense idea that enjoyed bipartisan support. It would help seniors and their families plan for end-of-life care; it would help guide physicians and doctors; it would help save taxpayers money; and it would help honor patients' wishes. Even insurance companies are fine with it.

But after a right-wing temper tantrum, based on confusion and lies, lawmakers are prepared to dump the idea altogether.

Who wins? Unhinged activists, who are effectively being told that they'll get their way if they scream loud enough. Who loses? Everyone else.

It reminds me of kids who give the bully their lunch money thinking, "Well, if I give him the lunch money today, maybe he'll leave me alone tomorrow." I don't think that ever works.

Benen's screed reminds me of another schoolyard analogy: the sore loser.

Meanwhile, Rudy Giulani (no right-wing extremist) says Palin's death panel comments are on the money. See, "Giuliani Slams Dems on 'Death Panels' Issue."

Statement from the American College of Surgeons on ObamaCareGaffes

My friend's dad is a surgeon. She one of my fellow town hall activists, and she told me about this statement from the American College of Surgeons:

The American College of Surgeons is deeply disturbed over the uninformed public comments President Obama continues to make about the high-quality care provided by surgeons in the United States. When the President makes statements that are incorrect or not based in fact, we think he does a disservice to the American people at a time when they want clear, understandable facts about health care reform. We want to set the record straight.

Yesterday during a town hall meeting, President Obama got his facts completely wrong. He stated that a surgeon gets paid $50,000 for a leg amputation when, in fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation. This payment also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation. Private insurers pay some variation of the Medicare reimbursement for this service.

Three weeks ago, the President suggested that a surgeon’s decision to remove a child’s tonsils is based on the desire to make a lot of money. That remark was ill-informed and dangerous, and we were dismayed by this characterization of the work surgeons do. Surgeons make decisions about recommending operations based on what’s right for the patient.

We agree with the President that the best thing for patients with diabetes is to manage the disease proactively to avoid the bad consequences that can occur, including blindness, stroke, and amputation. But as is the case for a person who has been treated for cancer and still needs to have a tumor removed, or a person who is in a terrible car crash and needs access to a trauma surgeon, there are times when even a perfectly managed diabetic patient needs a surgeon. The President’s remarks are truly alarming and run the risk of damaging the all-important trust between surgeons and their patients.

We assume that the President made these mistakes unintentionally, but we would urge him to have his facts correct before making another inflammatory and incorrect statement about surgeons and surgical care.

There are some concluding remarks at the link (via Memeorandum).

Work for Change! Paid ObamaCare Shills $10-15 hr!

From Andrew Malcolm, "Wanted: Obama Healthcare Reform Volunteers Willing to Be Paid $15 An Hour:

The first picture at top from Malcolm's piece above. It's a classic shot of the manufactured, pre-print signs that the Democrats are distributing to their plants at the town hall meetings.

The second shot is from, Shelley, an American Power reader, from her Flickr page. Shelley says of the ObamaBots: "Professionally printed signs were passed out to them. I saw very few hand-made signs among the pro-Obama Care people."

It's true. At the Adam Schiff town hall Tuesday all the major leftwing groups were using pre-print signs. Some of the socialist radicals brought their own, but for the most part, it was a sea of "Reform Now" and "Put Single Payer On the Table" and "Standing Together for Health Insurance Reform." Hundreds of people were waving signs like this below on Tuesday night:

Here's Malcolm's comments:

It seems that, despite all the media attention lavished on e-mail appeals to his supporters, not everyone pushing for President Obama's embattled healthcare reform plan these warm August days is an idealistic volunteer in it for the sake of helping move the country forward and gaining medical attention for millions of uninsured Americans.

The website's large-type headline announces: "Work to Pass Obama's Healthcare Plan and Get Paid to Do it! $10-15 hr!"

It's a web ad on Craigslist: "You can work for change. Join motivated staff around the country working to make change happen. You can make great friends and money along the way. Earn $400-$600 a week."

So both sides appear to have paid lobbyists in this colossal summertime struggle for public opinion and control of the multi-billions flowing into the nation's burdened healthcare system.

It's true, to a point. If you ask a leftist, they'll say insurance lobbies and Freedom Works frontgroups are "Astroturfing" the town hall rallies. But the reality on the ground is that the Democrats are really mobilizing ObamaPlants and fitting them with pre-print manufactured signs. It's totally fake.

El Marco captured it perfectly in his essay last week, "Nancy and the Astroturfers." Some of the Latino demonstrators didn't even speak English. It wasn't as blatant as in Denver, but the ObamaPlants were out in force on Tueday night in Alhambra. See my photo-essay, "Astroturf at Adam Schiff Town Hall: ACORN, AARP, Organizing for America, SEIU, and Stalinist Apparatchiks for ObamaCare!"

Patrick Briggs, Red-Shirt Goon at Schiff Town Hall: Daily Kos Blogger, OFA Brute, 'Bush Lied, People Died' Antiwar America-Basher!

While working on an update for my Adam Schiff town hall reporting, I came across a comment at Daily Kos by pbriggsiam, a.k.a, Patrick Briggs, a Pasadena local with a long record of hardline leftist activism.

It turns out that Briggs is a Daily Kos blogger who runs his own website at Green Eggs and Ham. He's got a report up on the Schiff event, "Healthcare Townhall - Congressman Adam Schiff - Alhambra.

In 2005, the City of Pasadena ordered Briggs and his wife, Mary Gravel (pictured above), to remove two signs they had posted at their home in support of antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan. The couple had mounted one sign reading "Support Cindy Sheehan," and another with "War Starts With 'W.' Bush Lied. People Died." The signs violated city ordinances and the couple was threatened with a $500 fine. After initially complying with the municipal code, the Briggs' filed suit in Federal District Court alleging abridgment of their First Amendment rights. The ACLU brief is here. A Los Angeles Times report on the lawsuit is here. And ACLU's press releases are here: "Pasadena to Residents: Watch What You Say," and "Pasadena to Allow Residents to Hang Political Signs." The second ACLU report notes:

City officials say they plan to rewrite an ordinance regulating the posting of political signs on residential property and the city attorney has recommended the city stop enforcing some of the regulations until a new ordinance is written.

That's an important victory for the couple and for freedom of speech.

What's ironic is that, in my interaction with him, I found Patrick Briggs totally hostile to the political opinions of his opponents. Mr. Briggs was bellicose and confrontational - "NO SOUP FOR YOU!" He was essentially telling conservative activists at the Schiff event STFU. He was, in other words, a brutish thug. As I reported yesterday:

The guy ... is an ObamaCare goon. He was aggressively in-your-face making juvenile "L" for loser hand signs, telling conservative activists to "shut up and get out of the way." He kept yelling "loser!" loser"! "Health reform now"! He also started yelling "Wait until 2012!" at conservatives who tried to speak back to him. I talked calmly with the guy. I asked him "why should the democratic process come to a halt if your side won?" He couldn't answer the question. He was confident and said "Obama's health care is coming and you guys can try to win in 2012." I guess that's the street-level version of President Obama's "I don't want folks who created the mess doing a lot of talking."

That's right. Briggs didn't want to hear ObamaCare opponents "doing a lot of talking." He's a classic example of radical leftists who only support First Amendment rights when their issues are under challenge. If conservatives have an opinion, that's fascist and their views should be regulated as hate-speech. Typical.

In any case, Briggs is a hardliner with the Pasadena chapter of Democracy for America. The group is registered as a "Non-federal '527' Political Organization" under FEC guidelines and supports "progressive issues and non-federal Democratic candidates."

He also an Organizing for America cadre. He was the contact person for Tuesday's Democratic Astroturfing activities for the Schiff event. Here's the Oganizing for America link and information:

Time:	Tuesday, August 11 from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Host:	Patrick Briggs
Contact Phone:	626-664-3487
Location:	Alhambra Civic Center Library – Community Room (Alhambra, CA) 101 S. 1st St. Alhambra, CA 91801

As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Briggs is also a member of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena." Interestingly, it turns out that the church's Rector Emeritus, George Regas, has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration. A Los Angeles Times profile is here. Regas is closely allied with a number of hardline leftists organizations, including the neo-Stalinist International ANSWER. The All Saints Church is mentioned in this article, "A Small Protest Against Anti-War Elitists in Pasadena, California." And Regas is identified in a 2009 article here, along with both ANSWER and Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans.

In 2007, at the Democracy for America website, Patrick Briggs reported on Regas' push for impeachment proceedings against then-Vice President Dick Cheney. See, "All Saints Episcopal Church - Rector Ed Bacon Advocates Impeachment Investigations of Cheney in July 1 Sermon!"

Briggs signed this manifesto, "IMPEACHMENT: RESOLUTION TO IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY."

Plus, in 2007, Briggs threw his support as a DFA member behind the local grocery union's thug agitation (United Food and Commercial Workers). See, "Southern California Grocery Workers - When Unions Prosper, America Prospers."

Briggs' Pasadena chapter of Democracy in America was also an affilated organizing cell of the White Rose Coalition Protest at Pasadena's Rose Parade. Kevin Lynn of Democracy in America posted an announcement and photo for the event at Revolution, a local newspaper for the Revolutionary Communist Party (here). And, Cindy Sheehan published a commentary at AfterDowningStreet.org on January 1, 2008, "The White Rose and the Rose Parade." Daily Kos posted on the event the same day, "'IMPEACH" signs at the Rose Parade":

Check Discover the Networks' entry for AfterDowningStreet, here. And Gateway Pundit has a report, "It's Official -- Sheehan & Pals Will March Following Last Float In Rose Bowl Parade (Video) ... Update: Sheehan Gets Booed!!

Patrick Briggs, in the various capacities I've noted here, has either actively or incidentally promoted the work of these organizations. And by mounting signs on his home saying "Support Cindy Sheehan" and "War Starts With 'W.' Bush Lied. People Died," Patrick Briggs unequivocally endorsed the statements of a deeply troubled woman who called President Bush a "lying bastard," a "filth spewer," an "evil maniac," a "fuehrer," and a "terrorist" guilty of "blatant genocide."

And now, this man, Patrick Briggs, is out telling citizen anti-ObamaCare demonstrators to STFU, "you guys can try to win in 2012."

Other than that, I'm sure he's a real nice guy.

Briggs' Flickr antiwar photostream is here, with LOTS of America-bashing iconography. Also, a bunch of Patrick Briggs news citations at the Pasadena Public Library are here.

Tough Time for Democrats

From USA Today, "Town Hall Meetings Not For Everybody":

It's a tough time out there for Democrats right now, as we all know. Still, some soldier on, despite the protests. Democratic senators like Ben Cardin of Maryland, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Claire McCaskill of Missouri have held mulitple events and gone toe-to-toe with protesters.

Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., is holding town hall meetings just about every day.

Others, though, are giving up on the town hall format and looking for other ways to communicate with constituents.

Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., is the latest to say she will hold a tele-conference with constituents rather than a public meeting. Castor was involved in one of the nastier town hall events -- and it wasn't even hers. She was invited to speak by a state lawmaker at an Aug. 6 event and was scheduled to talk for 15 minutes, but she gave up when the meeting devolved into a shoving-and-shouting match. By one estimate, the meeting attracted 1,500 people and the meeting room held just 200 people.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Tex., has refused requests for a town hall meeting, and instead went on a local radio show to take calls about health care. He told the El Paso Times: "I'm not going to give people a stage to perform."

That's pretty much the spin you'll get from Democrats totally unable to defend ObamaCare.

New York Congressman Anthony Weiner tried to ban the local news channel from his Queens town hall on Wednesday, and we saw Georgia's David Scott town hall meltdown last week. Scott totally lost his temper, calling one constituent a "hijacker" for asking a question (just to mention a couple).

More at Hot Air, "Cardin Offers Weird Idea of Competition, Regulation in Town Hall." And The Hill, "Sen. Cardin Hears An Earful on Healthcare."

Also, check Memeorandum.

Video Hat Tip: CNN, "Maryland Senator Has Boisterous Health Care Town Hall."

The Not-so-Kind Face of Socialism

From Victor Davis Hanson:

The road to socialism is not natural. It must be paved with the hard work of class envy, demonization of the successful, and obfuscation that each new massive spending program that will raise both taxes and deficits (that’s the point, after all, to create so much red ink that we must raise taxes and redefine what constitutes income) must be passed immediately, without delay, now-or-never to stave off Biblical hunger, plague, and flood.

Congressman Anthony 'Single-Payer' Weiner Tries to Ban Local News From Town Hall

Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner, who represent New York's 9th District in the House, tried to ban local CBS 2-HD cameras from a Queens town hall event yesterday.

See, "Rep. Weiner Tries To Ban CBS 2 HD From Town Hall: Though Likely Fearful Of Backlash Against President Obama's Health Care Plan, Congressman Eventually Relents, Forum In Queens At Times Raucous, Heated, But Order Is Kept":

Representative Weiner is one of the biggest advocates for ObamaCare's single-payer takeover in the Congress. See, "Single Payer Gets a Vote."

Lots more at Memeorandum. See especially, Lone Star Times, "Obama Camp Plants Fake Doc, Che Fan at Jackson Lee Forum."

Communist Party USA Mobilizes for ObamaCare!

More evidence of the left's push for the communist nationalization of the American economy. From the website of the the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA):

Within our country, the Obamajority is needed to take to the streets in support of health care with a public option paid for by reversing the obscene tax giveaways to the super rich during the Bush years. If health care reform fails, it will be a giant step backwards for the Obama administration and for working people, the labor movement, African American, Latino, Asian-Pacific Island communities, women and youth on every issue including the economy, peace and democracy ....

Progressive forces are organizing to attend every congressional town hall meeting and counter the right-wing attempts to disrupt, take them over, and deny the democratic process.

Organizing for America (OFA) is planning thousands of events, door knocks and phone banks in August. In an email to OFA President Obama called on all those who built the movement for his election to step forward now. He reiterated, "every day we don't act, Americans watch their premiums rise three times faster than wages, small businesses and families are pushed towards bankruptcy, and 14,000 people lose their coverage entirely. The cost of inaction is simply too much for the people of this nation to bear."

The phone banks, rallies, vigils and marches in favor of health care reform that have been organized in the last few weeks around the country have had good turnout and media. Much more street heat and visibility is needed, with those who lack healthcare coverage in the forefront. Many excellent materials are available. The daily on-line edition of the People's Weekly World, as well as the weekly print edition, covers breaking news and provides a deeper understanding of the issue and how to win support.

See also, "Astroturf at Adam Schiff Town Hall: ACORN, AARP, Organizing for America, SEIU, and Stalinist Apparatchiks for ObamaCare!"

Image Credit: Serr8d's Cutting Edge, "Democrats STUNNED by opposition. Why can't we UN-AMERICAN PROLES just co-operate and ROLL OVER? (After all, They are our BETTERS, and they KNOW IT!)."

Hat Tip: Glenn Reynolds.

LaRouche Supports Single-Payer

Dan Riehl, speaking of the Democratic-left's ruthless reign of deception, notes that "no dirty trick will be left in the bag, no Big Lie will remain un-spun ..."

We see that again, with Meteor Blades' post last night at Daily Kos, "Rep. Schiff Turns Out 3000 at Townhall Meet":

Supporters of reform made up the bulk of the participants, although the LaRouchies appeared with their cult message and, of course, there were a few Obama-is-a-Nazi morons gathering their share of boos.

It's not just that theses comments are blatant lies, but that the meme that "LaRouchies" are right-wing tools has been so thoroughly discredited.

And see my post, "Astroturf at Adam Schiff Town Hall: ACORN, AARP, Organizing for America, SEIU, and Stalinist Apparatchiks for ObamaCare!:

LaRouche is a perennial candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination; and the LaRouche activists are just extreme left-wing publicity seekers. See Newsbusters, "NBC, CNN and MSNBC All Assign Communist LaRouche's Obama-Hitler Poster to Conservatives, Limbaugh," and the Weekly Standard, "Video: Democrats Bring Obama-As-Hitler Signs to Town Halls..."

The LaRouche forces, communists, are attacking the administration from the left. While the media and the netroots hordes are smearing conservatives as a bunch of "LaRouchies," that truth is that Lyndon LaRouche supports single-payer healthcare - along with the ObamaCare plants and socialist goons who were out in force at Tuesday's event.

Here's the statement from LaRouchePac.com:

Advocates for a single-payer health care system are on an organizing drive across the country to try to get single-payer into the debate on health care reform. The LaRouche movement supports single-payer, but nothing will happen on it until the Obama Administration's Nazi health care policy is defeated and the HMOs are defeated.

Fake Doctor Planted at Sheila Jackson Lee Town Hall Meeting

Via Gateway Pundit, "Figures ... Dems Are Planting Fake Doctors at Town Hall Meetings."

Gateway links to Patterico, who's done two posts on Roxana Mayer, who was reported in the Houston Chronicle as a "pediatric primary care physician":

One supporter, Dr. Roxana Mayer, a physician who does not live in Jackson Lee's district, praised the reform plan for overhauling a broken system.

“I don't know what there is in the bill that creates such panic,” she said.

See Patterico's post for the details, "Roxana Mayer: I’m Not a Doctor But I Play One at Town Hall Meetings." Despicable deception, but what's especially bad is apparently the Chronicle knew that Ms. Mayer was an Obama convention delegate at the time of publication - and thus the reporter id not detail the conflict of interest.

This is just one more in a line of Democratic deceptions coming out in the last few days. President Obama was caught planting participants at the yesterday's New Hampshire town hall. See Fox News, "White House Says Girl With Campaign Ties Chosen at 'Random' to Speak at Obama Town Hall." Also, "Question by a Malden Girl Becomes the Target of Conservative Critics."

Astroturf at Adam Schiff Town Hall: ACORN, AARP, Organizing for America, SEIU, and Stalinist Apparatchiks for ObamaCare!

Last night's Adam Schiff town hall was the biggest anti-Obama protest I've attended this year.

Here's the scene when I arrived a few minutes after 7:00pm. Representative Adam Schiff had just begun speaking. An estimated 3,000 people were in attendance:

The event was orignally scheduled to be held inside the Alhambra Public Library. Organizers changed the venue to the lawn at City Hall, across from Alhambra High School on 1st Street. I walked around to the other side of the demonstration to snap this shot below. This was as close as I could get. ObamaPlants had set up shop in folding chairs up front:

My friend Mark Goluskin attended the event. He suggests that "there were at least 2,000 people that showed up. And without a doubt, the majority of the crowd were opponents of the so-called health care 'reform'."

You get a sense of the excellent anti-ObamaCare turnout at this video:

At this one, Representative Schiff gets a "startling" welcome from conservatives:

Some demonstrators anticipated the ObamaCare thugs:

This group of conservatives stood right behind a huge batch of pre-print/chicken-wire/yard-sign ObamaBots. Most of the leftists had cookie-cutter signs, in contrast to the grassroots conservatives who have been protesting Democratic-socialism all year:

This gentleman was happy to pose with his poster, "Marxist Jihad:

This fellow might have more to say about ObamaCare's "death panels":

This guy's sign gets right to the point:

Okay, how about the leftists? A couple of young women, local communists, were trying to squeeze-in and settle among the AARP lawn-chair shills and SEIU plants:

The radical women were cadres from the "Freedom Socialist Party." According their Wikipedia entry:

The party views the liberation struggles of women, people of color and sexual minorities (such as homosexuals) as intrinsic to working class revolt, and it looks to these specially-oppressed sectors of society to provide revolutionary leadership.

The Lyndon LaRouche communists were out in force. Both the mainstream press and hardline netroots blogger are trying to pin the LaRouche forces on conservatives and Rush Limbaugh. But LaRouche is a perennial candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination; and the LaRouche activists are just extreme left-wing publicity seekers. See Newsbusters, "NBC, CNN and MSNBC All Assign Communist LaRouche's Obama-Hitler Poster to Conservatives, Limbaugh," and the Weekly Standard, "Video: Democrats Bring Obama-As-Hitler Signs to Town Halls" (via Memeorandum):

Below, this guy was handing me flyers from the radical Progressive Democrats of America, a Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich front-group. The guy's sign boasts the URL for the Coalition for World Peace, a partner with Code Pink and the neo-Stalinist International ANSWER:

Here's a local ACORN representative speaking to a reporter from the Spanish-language Univision network. ACORN thugs reportedly beat peaceful demonstrators at last week's Tampa Bay town hall meeting.

This woman was nestled in among the ObamaCare plants. She had one of the pre-distributed signs from the National Nurses Organizing Committee, a socialist single-payer health group.

The guy below in the red shirt is an ObamaCare goon. He was aggressively in-your-face making juvenile "L" for loser hand signs, telling conservative activists to "shut up and get out of the way." He kept yelling "loser!" loser"! "Health reform now"! He also started yelling "Wait until 2012!" at conservatives who tried to speak back to him. I talked calmly with the guy. I asked him "why should the democratic process come to a halt if your side won?" He couldn't answer the question. He was confident and said "Obama's health care is coming and you guys can try to win in 2012." I guess that's the street-level version of President Obama's "I don't want folks who created the mess doing a lot of talking." That's him with the sign below as well, "YOUR HEALTH VS. INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITS: WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?"

Local activists from the International Socialist Organization posed for pictures. This woman was very nice, but I got the feeling she was new to community organizing (not thuggish enough). She was selling copies of the Socialist Worker for a dollar:

As I was getting ready to leave, I saw Mr. Red Shirt Blowhard again (below). Notice his right hand is grabbing the strings of his hat? I just missed getting a picture of him making the "L" sign while yelling "loser!" at the conservatives standing at right. The guy's now listening to what the tea partyers had to say, and this is the moment when I asked him, "why should the democratic process come to a halt if your side won?" That's his wife to the right. She spoke more calmly with some of the conservatives. The tea partyers gave specific citations of key portions of the House bill. I gathered, amid her befuddlement, that Mrs. Red-Shirt hadn't read the bill:

This woman below let me take her picture a littler earlier. Her sign is totally appropriate to what conservatives are facing at the town halls: "STOP AMERICA'S ENEMIES: ACORN + SEIU + ORGANIZING FOR AMERICA = OBAMA!":

Here are the local news trucks along 1st Street, preparing their 11:00pm reports:

This morning's Los Angeles Times refused to run a story on the conservatives against ObamaCare. Instead we got a tear-jerker front-page report on the healthcare event this week at the Inglewood Forum, "Free Care and a Reality Check: Uninsured Flood Clinic at the Forum."

The local ABC7 news report was pretty good actually. I reported on it last night. See, "Adam Schiff Town Hall: ObamaThugs to Conservative Protesters - 'We Won in 2008' (So STFU)." See also, "Tempers Flare at Adam Schiff Town Hall in Alhambra."

Plus, some thoughts from a local blogger, "Better Dead Than Red - Reflections on Congressman Schiff's Agitprop Town Hall."

Adam Schiff Town Hall: ObamaThugs to Conservative Protesters - 'We Won in 2008' (So STFU)

Okay, the video clip below, from KABC-TV Los Angeles, is a good one. This is Debra Evans, in the photo here and at the video. I listened to her for a couple of minutes, and of course we only get a soundbite at the clip. Ms. Evans was feeding ABC7 reporter Leslie Miller with ObamaBull on health care. Notice Ms. Evans' paraphernalia. That's an Organizing for America badge at left, and a SEIU button on the right. The ObamaThugs were out in large numbers, and they were getting agressive.

Look at Ms. Evans' poster: "We Won in 2008! It Was About Change! Remember?"

In other words, "shut up and get out of the way," to paraphrase Dear Leader. I'll post the picture tomorrow, but I got a shot of one big thug making the "L" sign, for "loser," while commanding some of the conservatives to lie down and take it until 2012. (By the way, my son's peers in junior high school also do the "L" sign, although the local kids in our neighborhood are smarter than the SEIU bullies.)

In any case, check out the video:

KABC provides the AP report, "Obama Assails Health Care Foes.:

My previous entry is here, "Tempers Flare at Adam Schiff Town Hall in Alhambra."

See also, Michelle Malkin, "The Illustrated Guide to Obamacare Human Props." (Via Memeorandum.)

Tempers Flare at Adam Schiff Town Hall in Alhambra

Here's KTLA's report, "Tempers Flare at Local Health Care Town Hall":

Tempers flared during a boisterous town hall meeting on health-care reform attended by 3,000 people.

The event was organized by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D- Burbank). People who support President Obama's proposal to reform the system and those who liked things the way they are faced off with signs and shouting. But it appeared that most were in favor of changes to a current system that has seen employers' costs for employee coverage plans double since the dawn of the millennium.

There's more at the link.

Check also, the Pasadena Star-News, "Hundred of Protesters, Supporters Show Up to Schiff's Health Care Meeting."

It was more like "thousands of protesters, supporters" who showed up. I arrived right at 7:00pm, when Representative Schiff started to speak. I walked around and took a lot of pictures. My sense is the Democratic-leftists outnumber conservatives by about 2-1. Especially noteworthy was the large contingents of Organizing for America, SEIU, and assorted radical socialist organization that came out in big numbers.

Yet, I bumped into Jonathan Wilson of the Pasadena Patriots and his group estimated about 2,000 anti-ObamaCare protesters at the event, so I'll have to confirm some of the numbers.

I'll have my full photo-essay tomorrow, with personal stories. I'm going to get into contact with a couple of other tea party activists to get some feedback, and I want to check facts and get authorizations for posting pictures and identifying information.