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.

Congressman Adam Schiff Town Hall Tonight: 3,000 People Expected; ObamaThugs Organizing for America to Field Large Turnout

I'm preparing to head up to Alhambra to attend a town hall meeting sponsored by Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff.

The event is getting a lot of attention.

There was a prayer vigil in Hollywood this morning along Sunset Boulevard. The Los Angeles Times has the story, "Healthcare Reform Supporters, Opponents Gather in Hollywood." It turns out that Lyndon LaRouche activists have come out of the woodworks to oppose ObamaCare, and the Times made sure to focus on a reported six individuals as representing some king of extremist opposition to the Democrats' collectivist agenda: The LaRouche contingents "were holding jumbo photos of President Obama in a toothbrush mustache similar to that worn by Adolf Hitler." These folks are from LaRouchePac.com. They've been showing up at a few events across the state, and Daily Kos and Firedoglake want you to know about it - all except the seven times LaRouche ran for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination!

Speaking of which, Dear Leader's Organizing for America has put out a communiqué: "Town Hall Health Insurance Reform Forum with Congressman Adam Schiff and OFA (Health Care Organizing Event)." The ObamaThug group has been working closely with the SEIU to "drown out" voices of dissent against ObamaCare.

A couple of days ago, Representative Schiff's office announced that the meeting would be open only to constituents living in the 29th Congressional District. Then, interestingly, I got a report yesterday from the Pasadena Patriots indicating that Schiff changed his mind:

We just received word from Congressman Schiff's office that tomorrow's Townhall is not limited only to residents of the 29th Congressional District. It is open to everyone ... Tomorrow's Townhall promises to be an historic event. Patriots from all over Southern California are converging on our district to lend their voices and support.

I sure hope so.

Another Pasadena blogger indicated that the leftists were busing-in agitators from around the county, "SCHIFF IN TROUBLE - OPENS MEETING TO BUS IN NON-CONSTITUENTS FROM LOS ANGELES."

No matter what, turnout is expected to be huge:

Tonight’s meeting is at 7 outside the Alhambra Civic Center library. Schiff says there will be a panel of experts to answer questions. He expects as many as 3,000 people to attend.

One blogger has written "An Open Letter to Congressman Adam Schiff," which includes the rather pointed message: " I command you to vote NO against Barack Obama’s Healthcare Train Wreck."

I'll have a report later.

Meanwhile, check out Gateway Pundit, "Reports: Tea Party Protester Assaulted by Union Thug In New Hampshire," and "Classy vs. Classless: How Bush Handled Critics vs. Obama" (via Memeorandum).

Ezra Klein: Town Hall Protesters Are Killing Democracy!

Here's Ezra Klein:

When you have to explain why your bill won't create death panels, and what will make sure that it doesn't, you've pretty much lost the argument.

That's an excellent point, and I'm glad he admits it, because the rest of Klein's essay makes the case that just asking if ObamaCare will create "death panels" is killing democracy. That's right, Klein argues that the concerns over Democratic plans for cost rationalization, felt by literally hundreds of thousands of regular Americans, amount to "unthinkable madness."

Klein links to an essay at the Post by Danielle Allen, "Health Reform's Hearing Problem: Both Sides Are Deaf to the Real Debate About Consequences":

In asking lawmakers to consider not merely the goals of their policies but also the experiential meaning of concrete realities that those policies may bring, they have a point. One can't answer them by saying: "These policies won't ration; there will be no death panels." If these reforms do either of these things, they will do so as a matter of unintended consequences. The appropriate answer, therefore, is to explain the institutional checks that will prevent the emergence of such unintended consequences.

Actually ,"unintended consequences" are part and parcel to policy evaluation. Leftists had no problem attacking the Bush administration's robust forward policy of democracy promotion, including wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, by excoriating neo-imperialist "blowback." Yet, now that the Democrats are in power, and when they're being asked legitimate questions - and whether folks are angry while asking the questions is immaterial - they throw up their hands and cry, "Ahh, this is madness ... you're killing the democratic process." Ezra Klein's basically endorsing the Pelosi/Hoyer formulation of criticism of the administration as "un-American." Leftists, people who are supposed to be all about civic participation and civil liberties, want to squelch freedom of speech faster than you can say "comparative effectiveness."

In any case, watch Glenn Beck at the video above. He argues, at about 2:40 minutes, that "I am so sick and tired of the media, and everybody else, equating union thugs with everyday Americans."

But you won't get that from Ezra Klein and the secular collectivists. All you'll here are smears of "Astroturfing" and "teabagging," and how the right's "hooligans" are destroying democracy.

Frankly, grassroots American democracy hasn't been quite this vigorous in some time, and we can thank Barack Obama's own hubris for that, not to mention the Pelosi/Reid/Hoyer faction's own sense of royal entitlement.

Meanwhile, our all-American town hall demonstrators just need to keep repeating: "You work for us"!

Arlen Specter: 'Do You Want to Be Led Out of Here?' Angry Citizen Walks Out on Town Hall as Crowd Fires Back at Specter: 'You Work For Us'!

Amid booing from the crowd, Senator Arlen Specter, at a town hall meeting this morning, yelled back at a gentleman who wasn't allowed to speak: "If you want to stay in here, we’re not going to tolerate any demonstrations or booing. So, it’s up to you."

Watch the CNN video. The crowd is cheering ecstatically in solidarity for their fellow consitituent:

And from the report:

Emotions ran high, with questioners complaining of government intrusion in their lives on health care and other issues. One man implored Specter and the government to "leave us alone," while another said the message Specter should take back to Washington is that he and others "want our country back."

The shoving incident occurred early in the 90-minute session, when a man started shouting that he had been told by Specter's staff that he could speak, but he didn't get one of the 30 cards distributed to people allowing them to ask questions. Another man stood up and shoved the protester, and Specter approached the men shouting for calm.

"You and your cronies in government do this kind of stuff all the time," the protester shouted before leaving the hall. "I'm not a lobbyist with all kinds of money to stuff in your pockets. I'll leave you so you can do whatever the hell you do."

The Politico's got a nice breakdown of what happened, "Arlen Specter Faces Fury: 'You Work For Us!'":

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) fired back Tuesday at a raucous town hall audience that booed and jeered him for more than an hour.

Specter immediately tried to temper the rough crowd, which started booing him before the question-and-answer session even began, with the blunt warning: “If you want to stay in here, we’re not going to tolerate any demonstrations or booing. So, it’s up to you."

But minutes later during the senator’s response to a question on whether Americans would be able to maintain their private insurance under the Democratic health care proposal, a protester who was not selected to speak stood up, walked into the aisle and began shouting at him.

“Do you want to be led out of here?” the senator told the man, pointing at him. “You’re welcome to go.”

Specter then walked toward the heckler who was being pushed back toward his seat by another member of the crowd.

“Now wait a minute,” Specter shouted repeatedly into the microphone. “You want to leave? Leave.”

“I’m going to speak my mind before I leave, because your people told me I could,” the protester said once the room quieted down. “I called your office, and was told I could have the mike to speak. And then I was lied to because I came prepared to speak.”

“I’ll leave,” the protester said, as several police officers stood nearby. “And you can do whatever the hell you please to do. One day God’s going to stand before you, and he’s going to judge you and the rest of your damned cronies up on the Hill. And then you’ll get your just deserts. I’m leaving.”

The man received loud applause and shouts of support as he walked out of the room.

So, what's the response among the chattering leftist-media classes? Blame the Repubicans, of course. Here's Mark Ambinder, "How Conservatives Are Blowing Their Chance":

Democrats are beginning to notice that opponents of health care reform have discredited themselves. They ramped up much too quickly. When smaller, conservative groups Astroturfed, they inevitably brought to the meetings the type of Republican activist who was itching for a fight and who would use the format to vent frustrations at President Obama himself. There were plenty of activists who really wanted to know about health care, and some who were probably misinformed -- scared out of their chairs -- to some degree, but the loudest voices tended to be the craziest, the most extreme, the least sensible, and the most easy to mock.

Yep, blame the Astroturfers. Typical. But let's not forget what's really going on: Americans want reform of healthcare, not a bureaucratic takeover that destroys the marketplace.

The left is losing this battle, and the townhalls are actually forcing the Democratic Party to do what what needs to be done: go back to the drawing board and write-up a market-driven reform plan that gives incentives for individuals to invest in ownership of insurance policies and health savings accounts. Reform should preserve functioning employee-based insurance programs (eliminate incentives for employers to abandon private markets); allow greater private competition, with individuals empowered to seek cost savings across state lines. Further, state-governments can reform Medicaid into a voucher program, which will help remove some of the stigma of public assistance in health care. As Arthur Laffer wrote recently:

By empowering patients and doctors to manage health-care decisions, a patient-centered health-care reform will control costs, improve health outcomes, and improve the overall efficiency of the health-care system.

More at Memeorandum.

Don't Insult Southerners: Hey, Michael Lind Gets it Right on the Left's 'Creepy Bigotry'!

From Michael Lind, at Salon, "Are Liberals Seceding From Sanity? The Left is Crazy to Insult White Southerners as a Group":

Back in the 1960s, Seymour Martin Lipset and Richard Hofstadter and other liberal sociologists, historians and political scientists, puzzled that anyone could support Barry Goldwater rather than Lyndon Johnson, concluded that Goldwater supporters were deranged. They didn't say so directly, of course. They said that members of the radical right were emotionally disturbed victims of "status anxiety." The evidence? They didn't vote the way that Lipset and other academics thought that they should vote. Therefore they had to be crazy.

In the decades since, far better scholars than Hofstadter and Lipset, for whom history and sociology are not exercises in partisan Democratic mythmaking, have established that Goldwater and Reagan Republicans often were highly educated, socially secure individuals who happened not to share the values of liberal professors and journalists. This scholarship has been wasted, to judge by the glee with which the liberal blogosphere, in the aftermath of the ephemeral "Birther" flap, has dusted off the old conservatives-are-crazy meme, and revised it to suggest that all white Southerners are crazy.

In a recent Washington Post column, Kathleen Parker quoted Ohio Sen. George Voinovich's assertion that the Republican Party is "being taken over by Southerners" to suggest that the GOP risks becoming a permanent minority party of the old Confederacy. In itself this is a legitimate point that I and many other critics of Republican conservatism have made for years. However, at Mother Jones, the blogger Kevin Drum used Parker's political argument as an excuse for all-too-typical liberal Southern-bashing. According to Drum: "There are, needless to say, plenty of individual Southern whites who are wholly admirable. But taken as a whole, Southern white culture is [redacted]. Jim Webb can pretty it up all he wants, but it's a [redacted]." Drum did the redacting on his own blog post, explaining he'd blacked out the offending text "on the advice of my frontal lobe".

Drum's creepy bigotry becomes clear when other groups are substituted: "There are, needless to say, plenty of individual blacks who are wholly admirable. But taken as a whole, black culture is [redacted]. Barack Obama can pretty it up all he wants, but it's a [redacted]." Or maybe this: "There are, needless to say, plenty of individual Jews who are wholly admirable. But taken as a whole, Jewish culture is [redacted]. The late Irving Howe can pretty it up all he wants, but it's a [redacted]."

Lind goes on about how in recent years California has in fact been more bigoted than Texas, blah, blah ... But his larger point is that, frankly, leftists aren't too smart. They should be appealing to white of lower SES instead of disparaging them as backwater hicks. And THAT'S the thing. As Lind points out:

Liberals should respect and promote the interests of working Americans of all races and regions, including those who despise liberals. They are erring neighbors to be won over, not cretins to be mocked.

What Lind doesn't do is explain why lefists are hostile to cross-cohort political alliances. There's a number of reasons, but the main thing is that leftist elites don't care about poor minorities or white Southerners. All they care about it political power to ram down their statist program of collectivism on the population. The left's bigtotry runs from blacks to rednecks and beyond. Frankly, folks like Kevin Drum are a dime-a-dozen across the leftosphere. This is what these freaks do.

More at Memorandum. And check the response Amanda Marcotte's response at Pandagon. And look for something at the biggest left-wing racist going, TBogg.

Tanking! Public Support for ObamaCare Falls to New Low

From Rasmussen Report, "Support for Congressional Health Care Reform Falls to New Low":

Public support for the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats has fallen to a new low as just 42% of U.S. voters now favor the plan. That’s down five points from two weeks ago and down eight points from six weeks ago.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that opposition to the plan has increased to 53%, up nine points since late June.

More significantly, 44% of voters strongly oppose the health care reform effort versus 26% who strongly favor it. Intensity has been stronger among opponents of the plan since the debate began.

Sixty-seven percent (67%) of those under 30 favor the plan while 56% of those over 65 are opposed. Among senior citizens, 46% are strongly opposed.

Predictably, 69% of Democrats favor the plan, while 79% of Republicans oppose it. Yet while 44% of Democratic voters strongly favor the reform effort, 70% of GOP voters are strongly opposed to it.

Most notable, however, is the opposition among voters not affiliated with either party. Sixty-two percent (62%) of unaffiliated voters oppose the health care plan, and 51% are strongly opposed. This marks an uptick in strong opposition among both Republicans and unaffiliateds, while the number of strongly supportive Democrats is unchanged.

Via Memorandum. See also Hot Air, Moe Lane, Power Line, Pundit & Pundette, and Weekly Standard.

White House Whines About 'School Lunch' Poster Mentioning Obama Daughters

From the Washington Post, "White House Objects to Poster That Invokes Obama Children":

The posters went up last week, 14 in Union Station. On each of the large displays, a thought bubble rises up from a picture of a beautiful 8-year-old: "President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don't I?"

A Washington nonprofit that advocates nutrition-policy reform paid $20,000 to get its message across and carefully maneuvered Metro's tangle of regulations to display its posters. Metro gave it a go -- but the White House did not, according to the group. Within 24 hours of the signs' appearance, the White House asked the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to take down the ads, which feature Jasmine Messiah, a vegetarian who attends a Miami-Dade County public school that, she says, offers no vegetarian or vegan lunch options.

The Physicians Committee has declined to take down the posters.

PCRM President Neal Barnard, a nutrition researcher, says he received a phone call regarding the posters Aug. 4 (a day after they went up) from Associate Counsel Karen Dunn and Deputy Associate Counsel Ian Bassin.

"They're very nice people. I like them a lot," Barnard says. "But they called and said: Please take those down, you can't mention the kids and so forth. . . . They felt that mentioning the president's children was off-limits. They said [they're] not going to allow the use of their daughters as leverage."

The fact that the poster mentions the president's children has been the main point of contention, though neither the children's names nor their images appear. That reaction doesn't come as a complete surprise; when Ty Inc. marketed dolls in January named Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia, the first lady made her objections clear, and the toy company stopped using the girls' names. The First Lady's Office declined to comment for this story.

There's a difference between a toy marketer and a public health advocacy group (the latter making an important point on public policy), although the administration's response is typical: DON'T CRITICIZE THE ONE!!

See also my earlier entry on the Obamas decision to sent their girls to the Sidwell Academy: "Moving on Up! Obama Girls to Attend Elite Private D.C. School."

The Healthy Lunches website is here, "Girl in Metro Ads Asks: 'President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don't I?' "

Jake Tapper also has the story, "White House Objects to "School Lunch" Advocates' Poster Mentioning Obama Daughters." But see also Memeorandum.

Barack Obama Tinky Winky Poster!

Not a big story, but I got a kick out of this Obama Tinky Winky satire. What's interesting is how blogger Doug Gibson is quick to denounce the "smears," despite Tom Bevan's "SATIRE" flag. As Bevan notes, right at the top::

"SATIRE ALERT: On the heels of the much commented upon Joker poster of President Obama, a new poster has emerged from an another anonymous artist that has people chattering once again...

Bevan's post continues:

Don't be misled. These new posters featuring Barack Obama's face imposed over the likeness of Tinky Winky may appear benign, but they're not.

Their intent is far deeper and insidious: to stir ugly racist thoughts in America's subconscious.

More at the link, and Memeorandum.

What's funny is Doug Gibson's post, "A More Sinister Obama Poster and Another Dumb Ad":

(UPDATE): I was too hasty posting this and was alerted via an astute reader in a comment that I had neglected to mention that Bevan’s take was satire, which is integral to my take on the issue.

I find it more childish than bigoted, but I am very disturbed at the casual insults directed at our commander in chief via this art, and the willingness of some conservative sites to feature it and even adopt it as a logo.

Look, I disagree more with President Obama than I did seven months ago. I’m disappointed he outsources legislation to political hacks in Congress. But he is an intelligent, thoughtful leader, and an impressive family man. Anyone who watches the First Couple together sees a long-married, middle-aged pair still very much in love who are doing a great job of raising their children. Decency is a requirement for those successes.

Gibson then posts a pathetic anti-tea party ad by the Democratic Senatorical Campaign Committee, "Stop the Mobs!" I love Gibson's Obama-Kool Aid line, indicating how Dear Leader "is an intelligent, thoughtful leader, and an impressive family man."

Yeah, impressive. And decent too. That's why he votes against Born Alive Infant Protection legislation, right.

Also, Gibson's obviously not a real political blogger, he just plays one online.

Obama's Plan for Single-Payer Universal Health

I wasn't going to bother with him. Dr. Ahmadinejad Chavez Biobrain, at my earlier post, "Large Majority Opposes ObamaCare Singe-Payer System!," writes:

Well I guess it's a good thing that Obama isn't proposing that we move to a single-payer system, huh? Or weren't you aware of that, Donald?

If it helps, here's a Health Reform for Beginners post that Ezra Klein wrote back in June. Yes, he's a liberal, but this is just basic stuff that even you can't disagree with. This way, you won't look so stupid when you try to scare people about Socialized Medicine or Single-Payer Systems which aren't under serious discussion.

The link is here.

Dr. Ahmadinejad Chavez not-a-real-doctor-who-posts-cowardly-under-a-pseudonym Biobrain likes calling me a "liar" as well as "stupid." But as I noted last night:

Dr. Biobrain has yet to prevail in debating me, although he's a glutton for punishment. I've been trying to ignore him lately, though, disgusted as I am with his recent outburst of unspeakable anti-Semitism. It really crosses a line.

That's why I was going to ignore his little slur this evening. But since AOSHQ's got a post up on it, I thought I'd show once again how dumb and dishonest Dr. Biobrain is. See, "Smokin' Video on Obama's Trojan Horse":

The compelling part of this, to me, isn't Obama's or Jan Shakowsky's statements that public option will lead to single payer. We've heard that. The compelling part is that Jacob Hacker, the man who "shopped" this plan to Congress (according to NPR), states unambiguously that his plan -- and he should know -- is expressly designed to displace private insurance.

Yes, "we've heard that." And I know that, or I wouldn't have made such a big deal out of the public's huge repudiation of singler payer. No, some things are self-evident, simply because THAT'S HOW THE DEMOCRATS WORK. They hate choice, individualism, and personal autonomy. That's why Americans are so genuinely mad. They don't like the Democratic oligarchs slamming a top down regime of "Sandmen" technocrats down their throats. This is not a bunch of hippies protesting a war and doing the flower-power bit before finishing college and joining a commodities trading firm. Nope, by now we've seen millions of people, over the course of this year, getting involved in grassroots activism to turn back the the shift to an authoritarian socialist model in the United States.

Ace links to Michael Barone's piece for good measure. See, "Video Proof: Obama Wants a Single-Payer System". Barone discusses Professor Hacker:

Speaking of the government option in 2008, he says, “Someone told me this was a Trojan horse for single-payer. Well, it’s not a Trojan horse, right? It’s just right there. I’m telling you. We’re going to get there, over time, slowly, but we’ll move away from reliance on employer-based health insurance as we should, but we’ll do it in a way that we’re not going to frighten people into thinking they’re going to lose their private insurance. We’re going to give them a choice of public and private insurance when they’re in the pool, and we’re going to let them keep their private employer-based insurance if their employer continues to provide it.”

Of course there’s no guarantee employers will. Many employers, single-payer advocates hope, will be happy to let their employees go onto the government plan. The Lewin Group, cited often by various analysts, estimates that a government-option plan, depending on how the law is written, could move as many as 100 million households off private insurance and onto the government plan in a few years.

Obama has never made his ultimate goal a secret; it’s the same as Schakowsky’s and Hacker’s. The video shows him saying in October 2003, when he was running for the U.S. Senate, “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer health care program.” He adds, “We may not get there immediately,” noting the Democrats must “take back” the White House and both houses of Congress — a condition fulfilled last Jan. 20.

Campaigning for president in May 2007, he says, “But I don’t think we’re going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately.” That seems to imply that his goal remains the same as it was in 2003. “There’s going to be potentially some transition process — I can envision a decade out, or 15 years out, or 20 years out, where we’ve got a much more portable system.” Which of course government health insurance would be. You couldn’t get away from it. The president’s defenders depict this video and others like it as a patchwork of irrelevant and misleading statements. They also cite Obama’s oft-repeated pledges that any health care bill he would sign would let you keep the insurance you have. They don’t address the point, raised by Hacker, that you can’t keep it if your employer stops offering it.

There you have.

Barone crystalizes what's been floating around all year. And so, back to Dr. Ahmadinejad Chavez Biobrain.

The guy's an accountant by occupation, but he's also a Democratic Party hack and was an alternate delegate during last year's primaries (for "The One," if I'm not mistaken). In other words, like the Dear Leader, Biobrain's ideological and political program is to lie, intimidate, and spread disinformation. That's what leftists do. They'll call you stupid, then bail out from the scene of the crime. Dr. Biobrain will go to work tomorrow, scamming his clients with bogus actuarial expertise, then come back here tomorrow and start up another mini-flamewar.

Good thing AOSHQ wrote on this. Saved me some time that I otherwise wouldn't have invested debunking Dr. BioDenialist one more time.

TBogg Mainstreams More Racism on the Democratic-Left

We have, once again, TBogg mainstreaming racism on the Democratic-left.

Here's this from earlier today, "“Oh my God, they killed beat Kenny! …You bastards!”:

Shorter Andrew Breitbart:

Lo, though you may beat upon us and refer to us using a term for a vulgar sexual practice that my wife totally will not do no matter how much I beg, we shall rise up again just like Kenny Gladney (although not in a wheelchair) for now he has given our movement a name: we are The Gladbaggers. Look upon our works, ye mighty MSM, and stop your giggling.

TBogg's getting a rise out of trashing Kenneth Gladney with sick racism and vulgar sexual slurs. Previously, "Kenneth the Teabagging Drama Queen." Interacting with his commenters, TBogg posts the "Wheelchair Stevie" image. The "nigger" jokes start immediately at the comments:

* House v. Field.

* I like the Joe Plumber reference. But, I was thinking that he may be the Rosa Parks of the Teabagging movement.

* Five seconds of shirt-pulling handbags and he turns into that kid from Malcolm in the Middle?

And then from another TBogg post,"Palin/Joe the Plumber/Jindal/Santelli/Taitz/Gladney 2012!":

* You have to look very closely to notice that Not Atticus’s lips are moving when the dummy talks. Great ventriloquist routine!

* In my postracial America, the fact that this idiot is black doesn’t mean jackshit ‘coz he’s still a freaking idiot! That’s postracialism I can believe in–just like I don’t care if MM is Asian, she still needs to STFU.

* ATTICUS!…ATTICUS!…ATTICUS!

Hunh? Oh. Sorry.

Next, check over at Daily Kos, "Alleged St. Louis Attack Victim" Has No Health Insurance."

* There he is fighting for truth, justice and corporate America and he himself cannot afford Health Insurance. He'll be worshiped as a "real Amurican" who toughs it out and knows his "place"...at the bottom of the ladder looking up, where he'll never be.

* Allow me to indulge ... a mean-spirited speculation here. Kenny was just laid off. He sees the success that Everyman RW poster children have garnered, especially those of color. One encounter with union thugs, and he now has a lawyer (thought it was only lefties who were lawsuit-happy?) and a begging bowl.

Is he looking to be a black Joe-the-Plumber?

Is he busy interviewing publicists and agents as we speak?

Note that Gladney is coverered by his wife's health insurance and he was unemployed, not laid-off. See Gateway Pundit, "Figures... Leftists Hurl Racist Insults at Black Man After Horrible Beating," and "FACT vs FICTION: Kenneth Gladney Corrects the Leftist Lies About the SEIU Attack That Put Him In the Hospital (Video)."

Large Majority Opposes ObamaCare Singe-Payer System!

From Rasmussen, "32% Favor Single-Payer Health Care, 57% Oppose":

Thirty-two percent (32%) of voters nationwide favor a single-payer health care system where the federal government provides coverage for everyone. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% are opposed to a single-payer plan.

Fifty-two percent (52%) believe such a system would lead to a lower quality of care while 13% believe care would improve. Twenty-seven percent (27%) think that the quality of care would remain about the same.

Forty-five percent (45%) also say a single-payer system would lead to higher health care costs while 24% think lower costs would result. Nineteen percent (19%) think prices would remain about the same.

There's wide political disagreement over the single-payer issue. Sixty-two percent (62%) of Democrats favor a single-payer system, but 87% of Republicans are opposed to one. As for those not affiliated with either major party, 22% favor a single-payer approach while 63% are opposed.

That last number, 63 percent opposed, would basically be for independents - that is, the swing voters whom the administration has increasingly alienated in healthcare and deficit reduction.

See also, the Astute Bloggers, "OBAMA WANTS TO REGULATE PROFITS, NOT JUST THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY."

More at Memeorandum.

Claire 'ACORN' McCaskill Slams Constituents at Town Halls: Voter Concerns - 'Are You Going to Kill Our Kids?' - Dissed as 'Mean' and 'Offensive'

Senator Claire McCaskill, the administration's top ObamaCare-shill, implicated in an ACORN fraud probe in 2006, lashed out at constituents at Missouri's Three Rivers Community College. Constiuents called President Obama a socialist and asked McCaskill if she was going to kill their kids (link):

The standing ovation from an overflow crowd suggested that Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill was in friendly territory. The shouts and jeers made it clear that public rancor over President Barack Obama's proposed health care overhaul remains incendiary.

The first-term senator took her message about health care reform to rural southeast Missouri on Monday, hosting town hall forums in Kennett and Poplar Bluff and meeting with county hospital workers in Hayti, one of the state's poorest communities.

The morning session at Southeast Missouri State University's Kennett campus was marked by polite dialogue and few signs of unrest. McCaskill even complimented the roughly 150 audience members for their "good Missouri manners."

The mood at Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff on Monday afternoon — despite an initial warm greeting and McCaskill's leading the audience of 500 in the Pledge of Allegiance — was far different. The loudest applause came when an audience member called Obama a socialist.

Another asked loudly whether McCaskill was "going to kill our kids or not," a reference to concerns over federally funded abortions.

A third asked, "Where's the birth certificate?" alluding to claims that Obama is ineligible to be president by people who contend his birth certificate is a fake and he was actually born outside the U.S.

"You guys are so mean," a visibly frustrated McCaskill said at one point. "It's almost like I give you good news, and you're still mad at me."

Also, at the video above, Senator McCaskill tells CNN's Brianna Keilar that "the notion that ... our government would do anything to cut short or dismiss the quality of life for our seniors is offensive..."

Or, in other words, it's "unpatriotic" to dissent from the administration's ObamaCare line. The truth is, Americans have legitimate concerns about healthcare cost rationalizations being proposed by the administration. As Wesley Smith points out:

Some of President Obama’s most influential health-care advisers have promoted rationing and quality-of-life judgmentalism. For example, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s brother, has suggested that we can no longer afford Hippocratic medicine, laid the intellectual groundwork for rationing based on age, and even stated that medical services “provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed.”

See also, Gateway Pundit, "Obamacare Gives Doctors Financial Incentive to Push Euthanasia."

Don't Pay for Health Care Reform on the Backs of Seniors

There's a heavy ad buy today on Fox News from the 60 Plus Association. Here's the accompanying article, "Massive Medicare Cuts Await Elderly Says New Ad From Seniors’ Group":

The 60 Plus Association, a 17-year-old nonpartisan senior citizens advocacy group often referred to as the “conservative alternative to the AARP” today released a TV ad warning the elderly that the healthcare proposal touted by the Obama Administration “means massive Medicare cuts in order to pay for healthcare ‘reform’.” See the ad 60plus.org.

“This strikes at the heart of the debate over the value of our seniors’ lives versus the cost of expensive treatments they need to stay healthy or get better,” said Jim Martin, President of 60 Plus.

Entitled “Sacrifice,” the ad states that seniors today, The Greatest Generation, have spent their lives sacrificing to protect freedom and strengthen our nation. From landing at Normandy, to raising strong families and building successful businesses, these men and women have remained dedicated to their country. Now, in seniors’ most vulnerable stage of life, President Obama and Congress are asking them to sacrifice even more by cutting Medicare to pay for healthcare reform, meaning long waits for care and even possible denial of care.

But perhaps the scariest part, the ad says, is that the government, not your doctor, decides if older patients are worth the cost. And the cruel joke is that many politicians are designing a health care plan for the country that they themselves are exempted from.

“Tell Congress don’t pay for healthcare reform on the backs of our seniors. They’ve sacrificed enough,” ends the ad.

The ad started today on national cable.

See also, "Seniors Are Scared of Obamacare...and They Should Be."