You can purchase an autographed copy of Anything But Straight by sending a $35 check or money order to:
-------------------------
Wayne Besen
PO Box 25491
Brooklyn, NY 11202
This gets so damned old. These people show up and disturb public events by screaming and eventually wearing people down or people just don't want to be exposed to this shit and leave.
posted by Merlyn, at
8/10/2009 2:32 AM
What is so absurd about these right wing rednecks disrupting town hall meetings in a most uncivilized manner is that some of them believe that medicare is not a government run health care program. There were some chanting.."dont take away my medicare". Its laughable, they actually think medicare is not socialized medicine, the very thing they claim they're opposed to, while the public option Obama is seeking is not government run health care at all. If this kind of action derails passage of health care reform, then it will prove that the American electorate has to be the dumbest on earth for allowing it. The right wing keeps saying that we have the best health care system in the world. Well, we rank number 37 on the World Health Organization's list of health care delivery. If we're supposed to have the best health care in the world, why aren't those western countries with universal health care not abandoning theirs but imitating ours? Why don't the right wing fear mongers and haters answer that question?
posted by Anonymous, at
8/10/2009 1:18 PM
I was wondering why those who run these townhall meetings dont provide some big-time security and as soon as someone starts shouting, interrupting or talking out of turn, they are *immediately* removed. That way no one can say they're being denied free speech, even if it is a bunch of pre-packaged lies, but neither would they be able to shut down real dialog and the dissemination of FACTS!
posted by Anonymous, at
8/10/2009 1:30 PM
Gary, their purpose of course is to shut down debate on health care reform of any kind. The dems need to grow a pair and go after them starting with the White House. Right now, it seems as if they're afraid of them, exactly what the opposition wants. They've done a damn good job at fomenting fear and hate mongering and the dems aren't retaliating as they should. Time for the gloves to come off and sock it to them.
You should hear the fear mongering and hatred on WOR710AM radio in the NYC area early morning with that awful John Gambling and Joe Bartlett, a couple of ght wing commentators who barely come up against any oppposing views from callers who are overwhelmingly republican. They haven't one good word to say about this administration and the venom coming from their listeners on health care is mind-boggling. WOR radio I believe is owned by FOX I believe, little wonder why we're hearing all this hysteria. Anything that's good for America is obviously bad for republicans, they've truly earned the party of NO title. How on earth do they expect to attract the younger generation to their party with so much negativity on just about everything you can think of?
posted by Anonymous, at
8/10/2009 3:38 PM
Most disgusting of all, Sarah "the political whore" Palin recently scared senior citizens by claiming that Obama's health plan had a provision for a "death panel" that would decide whether or not senior citizens could continue to live or if they would be forced to die. Palin even claimed that her child who has Downs Sydrome (the son she pimps out for political gain) would be "forced to die" under Obama's health care plan.
I have always known that there are plenty of Republicans who have no decency, but this is so truly disgusting that I thought that such things would be beyond the pale, even for them, but apparently I was mistaken. Why aren't Democrats furious? Why are we not standing up in outrage at these sickening lies?
I saw a photo of one elderly woman at a Republican-led protest, holding a sign that said "God decides when people die, not Obama." This is just outrageous. I don't know what's worse, that the Republican party has sunk so disgustingly low or that Americans are not disgusted en masse about this disgraceful strategy.
posted by Chris L., at
8/10/2009 10:00 PM
Chris, all of a sudden, she's backed off and now saying that opponents should be civil and not shout down speakers. It seems she didn't get the support of her party as she'd expected, though most of them support the disruptions of course, in fact encourage it.
Maybe Obama isn't saying much even though he should just to paint the republican party even further into a hole that they won't be able to get out of.
I'm looking forward to NYS democratic representative, Anthony Weiner, to introduce symbolic legislation to abolish medicare to flush out the right wing opponents of this government health care program that has nothing to do with the public option and which isn't socialized medicine as they claim it is. Maybe this will shut the disrupters up once they realize that many of them are already enjoying the benefits of government run medicare. What idiots!
posted by Anonymous, at
8/11/2009 8:45 AM
Robert, I can't stand Sarah Palin. She is so full of it! Her "death panel" comment was so disgusting; scaring senior citizens into thinking that the government would tell them when they had to die. How ludicrous. The panel that Palin was referring to was simply a counseling session, paid for by the health plan, that would assist seniors in writing a living will if they wanted one, and it isn't even mandatory! Palin lied through her teeth about it, and she knows it.
Yes, Weiner's symbolic bill makes a good point. Medicare is indeed "socialized medicine" for seniors. My parents both have it and they can't say enough good things about it. If the GOP is against socialized medicine, then they will have no trouble voting to abolish Medicare. Of course, they will not. Its disgusting how the Republican Party is using lies, fear tactics and intimidation in this debate. They are devoid of the morality and ethics that they so often lay claim to.
posted by Chris L., at
8/11/2009 11:05 AM
I was talking to a judge the other day (one of our library patrons) who specializes in workers' compensation cases; she therefore knows all the ins and outs of the medical insurance industry. She told me the lies being told by the republicans were outrageous and that she, 'didn't see how any moral person could be a republican'. I've been saying that for years!
posted by Anonymous, at
8/11/2009 11:13 AM
Here is a relevant quote from Keith Olberman:
"Finally as promised, a special comment on this terrible moment in American history and those unfortunate and irresponsible Americans who have brought us to it. 'The America I know and love,' the quitter governor of Alaska Sarah Palin began, 'is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down's Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's death panel so his bureaucrats can decide based on a subjective judgment of their level of productivity in society whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.'
Course it is, Ms. Palin. And that is why is does not exist, has not existed and would never under this President nor any other President ever exist in this country. There is NO death panel. There is no judgment based on societal productivity. There is no worthiness test. But there is downright evil, Ms. Palin, and you just served its cause. You shouted 'Fire!' in a crowded theatre, a hot theater, and then today, tried to roll it back with 'no, no, sorry, not fire, I meant flashlights.' Too little, too late, too obvious. Madam, you a clear and present danger to the safety and security of this nation.
Whether the 'death panel' is something YOU dreamed, or something you dreamed up, whether it is the product of a low intellect and a fevered imagination, or the product of a high intelligence and a sober ability to exploit people, you should be ashamed of yourself for having introduced it into the public discourse, and it should debar you for all time from any position of responsibility or trust in the governance of this nation or any of its states or municipalities. But it will not."
posted by Chris L., at
8/11/2009 1:02 PM
I disliked the Rethuglicans a great deal before this latest fracas--now I absolutely despise them and hold them in the deepest contempt I can muster.
To go around frightening seniors like that is just the sadistic, underhanded, false-flag kind of bullshit I have come to expect from the 'Thuglicans. These people seem willing to stop at nothing to get their agenda accepted. This, however, is a new low even for them.
What pisses me off is how the Dems just seem to try to kowtow to them. Instead of calling them on their lies and obfuscation, we hear a thundering silence. Is this more of the "fierce urgency of whenever?" The Dems indeed need to grow a pair--I guess, though, this is what we have come to expect from the Obama administration. He is turning out to be a severe disappointment, not just for the LGBTQ community but for those who had at least some hope of health care reform.
posted by Merlyn, at
8/11/2009 1:22 PM
