100 anti-health reform protesters besiege Klein’s staff at Lighthouse Point gathering
by Bob King | August 6th, 2009It was supposed to be a routine public meeting by the staff of U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton.
By the end, The Miami Herald reports, about 100 protesters besieged Klein’s staff at a north Broward County library on Wednesday, yelling in opposition to Democrats’ health-care reform proposals and even questioing whether President Obama is really a U.S. citizen.
Similar shout-fests have sprung up at congressional town halls around the country. Liberal groups say the uprisings are the handiwork of a handful of lobbying groups backed by health insurance companies and others. (One such group, FreedomWorks, was also involved in promoting this year’s anti-tax “tea party” protests). Democrats have also promoted a “leaked memo” from one protest organizer in Connecticut, which advised the activists to “artificially inflate your numbers” by sitting near the front, and to shout so as to “rattle” the congressman, “not have an intelligent debate.”
As the Herald story notes, the GOP has fired back, with national party chairman Michael Steele accusing the Dems of using “name calling and outright lies to stifle all debate.”
Tags: FreedomWorks, health care reform, protests, town halls
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August 6th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
We first heard from the birthers, with their fake “birth certificate” in hand and with their fake outrage. These are the same under tones that you saw from Republicans during the confirmation hearings for Sonia Sotomayor, “you are not like us” or “you are too different”, “you are not main stream”. And then they act surprised when people do not vote with them, they are lost, no core beliefs, too bad.
In my opinion the Republican Party has been taken over the most extreme religious right (people who love to push their beliefs on others while at the same time trying to take away their rights) and that’s who they need to focus on if they real want to win. Good Luck, because as they said in WACO, “We Ain’t Coming Out”.
It’s funny we hear Republicans say that they do not want “faceless bureaucrats” making medical decisions but they have no problem with “private sector” “faceless bureaucrats” daily declining medical coverage and financially ruining good hard working people. And who says that the “private sector” is always right, do we forget failures like Long-Term Capital, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Enron, Tyco, AIG and Lehman Brothers. Of course the federal government will destroy heathcare by getting involved, Oh but wait our military men and women and the Senate and Congress get the best heathcare in the world, and oh, that’s right, its run by our federal government. I can understand why some may think that the federal government will fail, if you look at the past eight years as a current history, with failures like the financial meltdown, Katrina, and the Walter Reed Scandal but the facts is they can and if we support them they will succeed.
August 6th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
These meetings should be scheduled when
Glen Beck”s show is on, or Rush Limbaugh or the Flintstones. Angry, angry people.
What’s the matter with Kansas? (Florida?)
It’s the last throes of a dead ideology.
Bye bye republicans.
August 6th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
I’m against the health care plan. I want the same one that polititians, FF and teachers have. That’s all.
August 6th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Socialism for america.
August 6th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Hey Paul, why is it ok for for Dems to make fun of Bush and his policies and then when Repubs finally get off their collective asses and show some political gumption its an angry mob? It is so typical of all liberals to have such thin skin. A little show of unity by Repubs and it scares liberals to react like it could only be special interest driven. Well bad news to all liberals this is real and Dems better take notice or it will be a short lived majority in the House and Senate. People are not into new healthcare and do not want cap and trade. Our finances cannot handle all this.
August 6th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
What a bunch of pea-brains these protesters are. They are not even sure what they are protesting. As far as the citizenship issue goes, they may be right, he may be the ANTI-CHRIST!
August 6th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Any YAHOO can disrupt a Town Hall Meeting! Big Insurance & Big Pharma, who are spending over a million dollars a day in purchasing the allegiance of Congressional members, THANK ALL OF YOU MOUTHY, KNOW-NOTHING pawns for working to keep American healthcare ranked 37th in the world while 40 million Americans remain without coverage. Tokyo Rush and Dick Armey know they can mobilize their lemming force to try and defeat legislation that is, in fact, in the common man’s best interest.
August 6th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
[...] yesterday, a Broward County community forum with U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s staff turned into a raucous confrontation somewhat reminiscent of the 1913 premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. And [...]
August 7th, 2009 at 8:21 am
I live in Rep Klein’s district and I’ve emailed him twice about the health care bill and he or his staff have never responded. No wonder people are angry and show up to these events. I thought they worked for us.
I’m going to support Adam West now.
August 7th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Dear Chas:
If by united Republicans, you mean shout downs to stop the conversation of the healthcare debate at town hall meetings, well no, I do not think that type of behavior endears them to anyone. Especially when the organizations that are telling them where to go and what to do and say are Republicans political operatives, not real grassroots, as you try to imply. How does shouting someone down or chasing out (lynch mob) advanced the debate, it does not. So I think the American people will see through this all an know, like the teabagger, the birthers, these lynch mobs types are just the same, people who have to resort to these tactics because they have no leadership to articulate what they real want. It’s easy to pickup a bus load of people who hate, and that’s all I been seeing, they hate and can’t debate. Too bad.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Dear President Obama,
I write to express my concern about a new White House program to monitor American citizens’ speech opposing your health care policies, and to seek your assurances that this program is being carried out in a manner consistent with the First Amendment and America’s tradition of free speech and public discourse.
Yesterday, in an official White House release entitled “Facts are Stubborn Things,” the White House Director of New Media, Macon Phillips, asserted that there was “a lot of disinformation out there,” and encouraged citizens to report “fishy” speech opposing your health care policies to the White House. Phillips specifically targeted private, unpublished, even casual speech, writing that “rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation.” Phillips wrote “If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov .”
I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed “fishy” or otherwise inimical to the White House’s political interests.
By requesting that citizens send “fishy” emails to the White House, it is inevitable that the names, email addresses, IP addresses, and private speech of U.S. citizens will be reported to the White House. You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program. As Congress debates health care reform and other critical policy matters, citizen engagement must not be chilled by fear of government monitoring the exercise of free speech rights.
I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward emails critical of his policies to the White House. I suspect that you would have been leading the charge in condemning such a program-and I would have been at your side denouncing such heavy-handed government action.
So I urge you to cease this program immediately. At the very least, I request that you detail to Congress and the public the protocols that your White House is following to purge the names, email addresses, IP addresses, and identities of citizens who are reported to have engaged in “fishy” speech. And I respectfully request an answer to the following:
* How do you intend to use the names, email addresses, IP addresses, and identities of citizens who are reported to have engaged in “fishy” speech?
* How do you intend to notify citizens who have been reported for “fishy” speech?
* What action do you intend to take against citizens who have been reported for engaging in “fishy” speech?
* Do your own past statements qualify as “disinformation”? For example, is it “disinformation” to note that in 2003 you said:“I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care plan”?
I look forward to your prompt response.
Sincerely,
JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator
August 7th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Terry,
Rep Klein’s district is in Maryland where he really lives. He only lists a tool shed as an address down here in Florida and that’s a fact.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
http://www.flag@whitehouse.gov – Thanks, Senator, I’ll be sure to forward all the disinformation, bilge and e-axegrinding crapola to that address. You, Senator, are a freaking disgrace!
August 8th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
It looks like they went to ask Alice, when she was six feet tall, please what BS……Is that you Best?