Two Key Details Emerge about Mob at Now Notorious Lloyd Doggett Town Hall

[Joanne98]

Lloyd Doggett's town hall on health care in Austin last week was one of the first such events that got national attention because of the outrageously thuggish tactics employed by the Teabagger mob. At the time, the media coverage suggested this was a spontaneous protest.

We now know that isn't true.

A Gazette reporter was there to witness an unruly hollering mob of people disrupt the meeting and personally insult Congressman Doggett. Conservative cable news and talk radio stations around the country hailed the event as a spontaneous outbreak of opposition to proposed healthcare reform. But it was later discovered that the Travis County Republican Party Chair had led an organizing effort to disrupt the event...

These people were Republican ringers, period. Keep in mind that Travis County went for Obama. This is hardly a right-wing stronghold.

There's a lot of good reporting in this article -- but this exchange is really important.

Congressman Doggett stressed that opponents of healthcare reform are also the opponents of Social Security and Medicare, which he said have worked "very successfully."

He added: "Near the beginning of the session…because they were holding up all these Tenth Amendment signs, I was saying, ‘Well, if that's your attitude about health care, then I suppose you don't really support Social Security and Medicare,'" Doggett said. "And they said, ‘Yes, we don't. We don't think they're good.'"

At which point, Doggett said, it becomes more than just a healthcare issue.

"I just think this fanatical insistence on repealing Social Security and Medicare is not just about halting the healthcare bill that's up there, but it's about rolling back about 75 years of progress."

This is a big part of the narrative that's been lost in the media's attempt to frame these town halls as a debate about health care reform. These crazies are not protesting health care reform. There's not even a bill yet and I'd wager if you ask 10 of these yahoos what they don't like about the bills in the House and Senate, 9 won't be able to articulate any details they find objectionable.

They're just throwing a temper tantrum over "SOCIALISM!" -- which in their wingnut brains applies to everything from TARP to the stimulus bill, and yes -- to Social Security and Medicare.

They're fringe, anti-government nihilists and they're not interested in the government reforming health care, or anything else. The media, however, continue to frame these events as a referendum on health care reform, which they are not. One side wants to reform health care, the other wants to lynch the federal government.

Not the same thing
http://firedoglake.com/2009/08/09/two-key-details-emerge-about-mob-at-now-notorious-lloyd-doggett-town-hall/

[TexasObserver]

1. Recommend

[Truth2Tell]

2. 4 minutes, 5 recs. Go directly to the greatest.

Do not pass go. Do not not collect $200.

[Joanne98]

3. And I found video PROOF of this....

At Dave Obey's townhall. These two "citizens" attack Obey.. At around 2 minutes into the video they admit that they would have protested social security and medicare too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OspZX8WkE8w

[notadmblnd]

4. I like how at the end it says if you want to help contact the Wisconsin GOP

but these are all spontaneous and there is no political or corporate backing for these staged protests.:sarcasm:

[handmade34]

5. pertinent take on the protesters

also.. was just watching TV and an ad came on, proclaiming that 'cap and trade' was selling a false global warming because the government just wants to take our money away from us, sponsored by the "Better Government Association" or so it said... I did a little research and found that the Better Government Association ( http://www.bettergov.org/ ) is a Chicago based non-partisan group doing pretty good things. The real Better Government Association filed a lawsuit against the fraud group and won. This new ultra right wing group ( http://www.webbga.com/ ) is calling themselves The U.S. Citizens Association and their website is vile, filled with lies and horrendous claims against the Obama Administration. We need to get the truth out about this organizations (I am still working to find out exactly who is behind it). It is true, all the bru-ha-ha is not really just healthcare- it is total anti-government and absolute fear of socialism. The ignorance is mind-blowing...

[nealmhughes]

6. That ruddy webgaga or whatever is aptly terminated with a dot com,

as it appears to be little more than an ad for some Levin fellow's book. I doubt it is Senator Levin, too.

However, we must note the dry humor used in the body when under the header of "education" the web author recommends people to listen to the Three Stooges (apologies to the Howard Brothers and Larry Fine for that one) of Sean, Rush, and Glenn.

It seems to me that teabagging is a lot like handling poisonous snakes as a religious rite: very strange, odddly compelling if witnessed from a far distance, and ultimately a sign of lunacy.

[ima_sinnic]

17. +1 for the analogy of teabagging "a lot like handling poisonous snakes

as a religious rite: very strange, oddly compelling . . ., and ultimately a sign of lunacy."

excellent, will have to use that! :thumbsup:

[Christa]

29. My compliments

It seems to me that teabagging is a lot like handling poisonous snakes as a religious rite: very strange, odddly compelling if witnessed from a far distance, and ultimately a sign of lunacy.

Sublime!

:yourock:

[bjobotts]

7. "It's the moment when honest to Hitler fascism begins and our last chance to stop it" Read this:

8/07/09...From Facism: are we there yet at Crooks & Liars:

“…That description sounds eerily like the dire straits our Congressional Republicans find themselves in right now. Though the GOP has been humiliated, rejected, and reduced to rump status by a series of epic national catastrophes mostly of its own making, its leadership can't even imagine governing cooperatively with the newly mobilized and ascendant Democrats. Lacking legitimate routes back to power, their last hope is to invest the hardcore remainder of their base with an undeserved legitimacy, recruit them as shock troops, and overthrow American democracy by force. If they can't win elections or policy fights, they're more than willing to take it to the streets, and seize power by bullying Americans into silence and complicity.
When that unholy alliance is made, the third stage -- the transition to full-fledged government fascism -- begins.

Snip

“…the guessing game is over. We know beyond doubt that the Teabag movement was created out of whole cloth by astroturf groups like Dick Armey's FreedomWorks and Tim Phillips' Americans for Prosperity, with massive media help from FOX News. We see the Birther fracas -- the kind of urban myth-making that should have never made it out of the pages of the National Enquirer -- being openly ratified by Congressional Republicans. We've seen Armey's own professionally-produced field manual that carefully instructs conservative goon squads in the fine art of disrupting the democratic governing process -- and the film of public officials being terrorized and threatened to the point where some of them required armed escorts to leave the building. We've seen Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner applauding and promoting a video of the disruptions and looking forward to "a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress."
This is the sign we were waiting for -- the one that tells us that yes, kids: we are there now. America's conservative elites have openly thrown in with the country's legions of discontented far right thugs. They have explicitly deputized them and empowered them to act as their enforcement arm on America's streets, sanctioning the physical harassment and intimidation of workers, liberals, and public officials who won't do their political or economic bidding.
This is the catalyzing moment at which honest-to-Hitler fascism begins. It's also our very last chance to stop it..."

They have no questions, don't want debate or discussion on HC. They want to prevent the dmeocrats from succeeding because they know it means political doom for these greedy profiteering corporatists. This is democracy vs fascist corporatism and I refuse to surrender my country to the gutter thugs.

[xxqqqzme]

34. Entry here:

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009083205/fascist-america-are-we-there-yet

Worth the read - some pondering to do.

[pinb1212]

8. I don't know a congressman or senator who wants

to do away with social security or medicare.I just see 2 programs that are going to be insolvent soon.
Is it a surprise that seniors would worry about 230 billion dollars in medicare cuts???

[Critters2]

10. Where did you get the figure $230 billion? Link, please. nt

[annabanana]

12. guess what... If EVERYONE was enrolled in medicare, it would

never be insolvent. Right now it only enrolls the oldest & sickest (the ones that use most of the resources).. If the youngest & healthiest were also enrolled, bingo.. solvent.

[SemperEadem]

39. Rep Weiner just gave them their chance to do so and they all voted no

yeah, these reps need to ask these teabaggin' morons if they want grandma's social security and medicare cut off so she has to go make senior porn for the sex tubes in order to pay for her doctor bills.

They don't remember what life was like for the elderly 80+ years ago... mainly because they don't read history books.

[Seldona]

9. K&R

[SpiralHawk]

11. The k and the r

eom

[and-justice-for-all]

13. K&R..nt

[Hannah Bell]

14. about as spontaneous as the outrage over the blue dress was, & funded by

similar actors.

we must always have our minds occupied with phony issues.

[caseymoz]

15. I think these tactics will probably backfire terribly-- but we can't assume they will.

and wait for it to happen.

[TheCowsCameHome]

16. These "franchise operators" are being found out as the frauds they really are.

That didn't take long.

[glinda]

25. I prefer to call them "shills".

[Papa Boule]

18. Just saw some coverage on CNN Headline News

The caption underneath the talking heads said something like "Democrats claim the GOP is orchestrating the protests." Screen grab:



This is what masquerades for journalism today. Facts are biased, I guess, so they can't just come right out and state the protests WERE orchestrated. They have to qualify it as if it's a "claim" and there's some doubt. And cut to a Republican talking head saying something like, "Oh hell no, this wasn't orchestrated, this was a spontaneous grass roots thing you have to expect when socialists dick around with our blessed American system of government God bless America."

Somewhere, truth, abused and battered, is weeping.

[Christa]

31. "Somewhere, truth, abused and battered, is weeping.''

Lovely put.

Thank you.

[Union Yes]

19. knr

[PVnRT]

20. K&R

:kick:

[fasttense]

21. Single-Payer is the only answer. We will continue to suffer with

the uninsured and under-insured until Single-Payer is introduced into the health-care world of Americans.

The GBO report on the public option proposed by the house states that by 2013, there will only be about 10 million people insured in the public option and most of them will be the health-care Insurance corporation's throw aways (people who are just too sick to make a profit off of.).

[euphoria12leo]

22. K&R

DU is a new site for me. I need some help please!! Maybe I should know this but I don't. Please tell me the meaning of
K&R and nt. Thanks. :think:

[RaleighNCDUer]

23. Kick and Recommend

Kick the thread by posting on it, so it stays at the top of the queue; Recommend by clicking the 'recommend' on the original post, flagging it to go to the 'Greatest Threads' page.

[Christa]

30. Welcome here. NT

[Douglas Carpenter]

24. KICK AND RECOMMEND!!!

[euphoria12leo]

26. K&R

Got it!!

[EC]

27. I just wish at these town halls they would offer a form on which

all these people who are against Social Security and Medicare have a chance to opt out...could be what is needed to add more money to the systems...Since they don't want it, they should have the option of opting out...then let's see how many of them follow through...

[kestrel91316]

28. Never forget: the wingnuts consider ALL taxes and the services they fund

to be "socialism" and therefore a great evil. Except for the military and death row and police.

[catrose]

32. OP-ED by this same Repub party chair on 8/8

She starts:

Drowning out the same old Democratic song
Rosemary Edwards, Local Contributor

Last weekend, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, was greeted by a crowd of activists, myself among them, who made known their displeasure with the health care reform bill.

"Just say no! Just say no!" we relentlessly shouted.

He had it coming.

Police and hospitals here this same excuse all the time as they cart abusers off to jail or try to patch up their victims. So remember: "GOP, the party of abuse."

If you want to wade in the bilge: http://www.statesman.com/search/content/editorial/stories/2009/08/08/0808redwards_edit.html

[FourScore]

33. This is thuggery, not democracy. n/t

[SemperEadem]

41. fukkery and jackassery, too.

[thereismore]

35. I support their right to move to Somalia. No gov'mint, plenty of guns for everyone. nt

[pscot]

36. Back to the top

K&R

:dem:

[opihimoimoi]

37. Bullies venting ...reasons vary...mostly all bad....They wanna win at something...even if THEY WILL

LOSE in the long run....blinded by hate/etc/ they cannot compehend the big picture...they are unable to describe their goals beyond their level...selfcenteredness with bullyism as a component...

[fascisthunter]

38. Firedog does the journalism, yet the billion dollar corporate media

can't. Check...

[harun]

40. Wingnuts call anything that isn't exactly what they want: Nazism, Socialism, Communism, Liberalism

etc.

They never have to engage in rational discussion of the topic so all they have left is vast generalizations to scare people.

[SemperEadem]

43. mainlining fear, as usual... it's their drug of choice

if they can find something to be afraid of, they have found their nirvana.

[Alcibiades]

42. Nihilists!

Absolutely. They believe in nothing.