The PR and lobbying corps is in full swing supported by Republicans eager to topple the Obama administration. They are commandeering Town Hall meetings such as the Broward meeting reported by The Miami Herald yesterday. But the Herald missed the story of who, exactly, is behind the outrage. It is a well-funded campaign by corporations, enlisting conspiracy theorists, and the health care industry to topple Obama and the Democrats.
The Herald is clearly confused how to report the story, without sounding biased; but to describe these Town Hall Events as an outpouring of natural outrage is just like what happened at the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Office in November 2000, when Brooks Brothers Republicans were parachuted in and reported by the media as local objectors to the recount of the contested presidential election. It was a lie then, and so too it is a lie now to report that ordinary middle-class Americans are dominating the Town Hall style meetings that are a routine fixture of the August recess from Congress.
The PR machine fomenting the notion that Town Hall meetings are well-attended by ordinary people who dislike the Obama health care initiative must have been thrilled by the recent Miami Herald story, "Tempers flare in South Florida over Healthcare Overhaul", August 6th). The report begins auspiciously: "The incident is like others that reflect nerves frayed by the nationwide debate. Democrats decry what they describe as a mob rule orchestrated by special interests trying to protect the status quo; Republicans call it genuine grass-roots concern over a costly government takeover."
But the article fails to examine the central question: who exactly is fomenting "the mob"? Rachel Maddow states it plainly: "It is professional, corporate funded Republican PR and should be reported as such." View her: here. Now you might not like Maddow, but you should pay attention to the irrefutable facts.
The organized Town Hall Takeovers are far from average middle class Americans. Consider one example from the Maddow archive. She discusses the website Reccessrally.com whose organizers include Ned Ryan, former speech writer for W., a field director for Bush-Cheney '04, and a raft of DC conservative lobbyists. The Sam Adams Alliance includes the former director of Illinois Republican Party. Let Freedom Ring includes the money man behind ads that supported burning images of 9/11 to promote the Iraq War, funding for the Swiftboating of John Kerry. Another group, Americans for Prosperity includes Art Pope, a millionaire and far right activist for whom the North Carolina Republican Party named its headquarters. The national chairman of Americans for Prosperity? David Koch, owner of the largest private oil company in US and the 19th richest man in the world.
Maddow notes: "These groups are experts at fake grassroots campaigns that represent corporate interests." It is the same money and interests who have claimed global warming is a sham. Just average Americans? Not by a country mile. The Miami Herald should do a much better job, in the future, reporting this scandal, because if we lose the opportunity for health care reform, it will be on account of the same political party that ran the economy off the tracks: that would be the Republican Party.
34 comments:
I don't know about the current town meeting protests, but your understanding of the Brooks Brothers Republican Protest during the 2000 recount is incorrect. As someone who was a witness to that event, I can tell you that it was indeed a very spontaneous protest.
It is true that a group of approximately 50 Republicans were flown in from Washington DC to monitor the recount in Miami-Dade County. Democrats were represented in similar numbers. The recount was conducted in a large public room on the 18th floor of the Stephen P. Clark Center (18-2, 18-3, and 18-4 combined as one room). Everyone (Republicans, Democrats, media) could witness the counting and the deliberations of the Election Board because it was all in public view.
Everything was going fine for about one week until the Elections Board abruptly decided to move the counting and deliberations to the rear of the Elections Dept. offices on the 19th floor. The department area was secured by locked doors and was not open to the public.
The protest began when the 50 well-dressed Republican observers (and some not-so-well-dressed media types like myself) were locked outside in the 19th floor lobby unable to see the counting. Soon after the shouting and chanting began, the Elections Board saw the error in their boneheaded decision and returned to the big, open counting room on the 18th floor. The protest was over.
So the 2000 Brooks Brothers protest was, in fact, a purely spontaneous protest, albeit with Republican outsiders as participants.
All the polls indicate that people are generally happy with their health insurance plan and are afraid it will be affected by the Obama plan. So why wouldn't those folks show up at a meeting where their feedback is being solicited? It seems that Gimleteye and Rachel Maddow are the true conspiracy cranks in this story.
I see the trolls are out here today! On the plus side, it means that people think your blog is important.
I love the astroturf comment #2. See, the problem with those kinds of statements is that they are lies, and the person typing it knows it is a lie, but is either paid well to lie or is a GOP operative.
Also, note that most people think there should be a public option. Funny this poster forgot to mention that.
USA: still number one in liars! Go us!
Obamacare = reparations.
http://www.cprights.org/
Have a nice day sparky!
#4 kindly gave us a link to...oooh Conservatives for Patients' Rights, founded by a guy who ran a for profit health care corporation that was fined a billion dollars for scamming the government. Yes, for health care. This is like asking the CEO of Halliburton if the US should invade more countries.
Is anonymous dumb enough to think or simply venal enough to pretend that someone like this cares one whit about anything other than profits? Your call.
The analogies from Sparky are great except for the fact that 1018 pages of this proposed nonsense have not been read by most people including Sparky. Furthermore the reduction of costs are based on age sort of a return on investment pitting younger Americans versus older Americans and a "panel of government appointees" determine who gets a kidney. NO THANKS, I'll keep what I have.
Call Linda Douglass and tell her you found something fishy on pages 1-1018.
Just goes to show you how desperate the right-wingers are to preserve the status quo.
It happened yesterday in Tampa too:
With fists pounding on exterior windows like a street mob out of a 1930s newsreel, a crowd of right-wing agitators against health insurance reform descended on a town hall meeting in Tampa, Florida, "banging on windows" until police and organizers were forced to end the event. The result? A violent mob silenced the voices of each and every American desperate to find a way out of the endless cycle of fear, shame and family bankruptcy brought on by an inhumane, profit-driven health insurance market.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-feldman/fists-pounding-on-glass-r_b_253518.html
#6. Argument #1: I haven't read the bill. Ergo, I should infer that there is something wrong with it. Really? Interesting idea: everything you haven't actually read yourself has something wrong with it. Oh, that's not what you meant? What did you mean? Ohh, you just meant to imply there was something wrong but not actually say that there was. Ooookay.
Argument #2 I have no idea what GOP talking point was massaged to come up with this silliness. You provide a linky and we'll discuss.
Argument #3 is my favorite: You get to keep your current health care--nobody's proposing to take it away. So anon. is--again--either misinformed, ill-informed or lying. Your call.
PS: If anyone seriously thinks any of this fearmongering claptrap is true, go to websites like fact-check or snopes and find out whether the arguments are based on facts or are like the ones here--bogus ones created by the health-care industrial complex and a GOP that--literally--wants your health care system to fail so they can blame it on the Ds.
PPS: Think about that for a minute. A major political party's strategy is now reduced to advocating the destruction of reform as its political platform.
A "well funded campaign, enlisting conspiracy theorists, designed to topple an adminstration"?
Oh, like MoveOn.org?
m
Factcheck.org, isn't that run by the leftwingnuts from Annenberg? They did a good job with Zero's COLB, now the second biggest story out there.
Healtcare reform is needed but the American people polled by Rasmussen are against 60-40. This plan that puts additional burdens on the states. Florida can't afford increasing the cost of Medicaid by 133%.
Get a grip sparky and hold on tight.
hi!
glad to see that you are following one of the key points of loser's rhetoric: when at first you lose the argument, change the subject!
is the next comment going to be (a) ad hominem (b) irrelevant (c) false or (d) another "ooh shiny"?
i can hardly stand the wait....
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/07/will-the-pharmaceuticals-rebel-over-dem-welching-on-obamacare/
Way better than Huffington.
Hey m I wanted a fair fight of at least five libs to one conservative.
Methinks sparky is a Keith Ollberman pseudonym.
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/07/will-the-pharmaceuticals-rebel-over-dem-welching-on-obamacare/
Of course you would think this was better... it is more conservative clap-trap.
well, i wasn't doing much this friday afternoon anyway :)
http://www.factcheck.org/
show me where they got something wrong, or didn't also critique Obama when he gets something wrong. you got nothin? oopsy.
as for polling, the general American public is strongly in favor of a public option for health care. Rasmussen is, of course *coincidentally* known for generating poll results that mysteriously always favor Rs. i know, who'd a thunk someone would support biased polling? it's not as if there's money at stake or anything. err....
i think i will take the Olbermann note as a compliment even though it seems he takes himself waaaay too seriously sometimes. dunno what he uses in his hair, either.
Sick 'em Sparky! Make them see if their insurance will cover the emotional trauma from facing reality.
As to the first anon that fantasized that the Brooks Brother Rebellion was anything other than a stunt by the Repugs - get a grip.
They put the event on their friggin' resumes.
http://www.markfiore.com/political/doctor-decline-hold-tight
Rabid NPA (No party Affiliation) here
I don't like the way the post office is run?
I'm not satisfied (not even close) with the way government transportation is run.
I'm not happy with the public education system
I don't like the government uses the military
I certainly don't want them having any more control over my body.
Call me what you wish
Would that be Cato the Elder or Cato the Younger?
Rasmussen had Obama winning by 11 percentage points, stop making it up Sparky.
Jill: no doubt the Elder, as he was quoted as telling his son to have nothing to do with physicians.
Our Cato also seems to prefer a state of nature. No doubt he could get by with his gun, but there might be a problem when he tried to buy more bullets, as there would be no roads. And no mail service. Or anything else, pretty much. But no matter.
as to the "gummint bein all up in mah healthcare"--well, if you are over 65, and i suppose if you are Cato you are waaay over 65--then the gummint is already up in your healthcare grille. and interestingly, most of the oldsters like medicare(!)
but i understand--you are under 65 AND you have a job that pays ALL of your insurance AND that company will NEVER fire you or lay you off AND even if they DID you have NOTHING wrong with you so you would be THRILLED to pay $300-600/USD/mo for your own healthcare (why bother to insure those pesky kids, anyway). so then you'd rather have a bunch of private sector insurance executives whose paycheck depends on not paying for your healthcare to make decisions for you!
you know, if you like that idea, how about this one: you just give me your money, and i tell you you have health insurance! i'll NEVER make you do anything! and i'm not the gummit!
Anonymous re: Rasmussen--You are correct. i believe i was thinking of Zogby.
but, that said, there is apparently a big difference for Rasmussen between issue polling and electoral polling. for the latter they are accurate; for the former, they tend to ask questions that are apparently skewed towards the GOP. so while it was wrong of me to imply that they are inaccurate as to election polling, i stand by the argument that as to issue polling (which is how this subject came up here) R has a GOP bias.
What the hell happened here? I went out for a few hours and you guys go bananas...
We stopped taking our medication because our employee funded primary care physician said it wasn't necessary.
Dog days of August G.o.D., too much heat and humidity. Need to move to Canada and not for the BOGUS healthcare.
Didja ever notice any breakthroughs in the Canadian Medical Association or the Merry Olde England monthly magazine? Me either. Only the AMA or New England Journal of Medicine, see made in America means something, at least when it comes to health.
I don't want government directed health care... I already get enough caca from the insurance company.
How about a novel idea?
Let's go get rid of the corruption in the system and then focus on expanding services with the savings.
I can't carry any more debt, including debt that is government induced. My salary doesn't cover the bills as it is and I am facing increases in property taxes, homeowners insurances and now income tax.
I have had enough. I am liberal moderate that is becoming more non-moderate.
my insurer refused to refill my prescription so i got some "refills" from a guy working out of a trailer in an empty subdivision. he told me he was redeveloping the place and that it was absolutely going to be the next big thing. a few hours later i happened across this thread and the rest is history.
We all are. And why is that?
The class system in this country is becomming more and more divided.
I am a registered Democrat, my husband was out of a job for 7 months, I could not pay for COBRA coverage...I would never, ever, ever go for Obama care, neither will any of the members of congress "They have great insurance". In my opinion this president and his cronies are attacking the people who are sincerely worried about a plan that has yet to be explained or even written, how can we possibly, as intelligent people allow a bill which has not fully been explained to be passed? Not even the PRESIDENT can explain what exactly is in this bill. After all if we sign for a mortgage or buy a new car don't we ask questions and read what we are signing first? I do? So why dosen't the congress do the same. The answer is quite simple "Just Say No". At least until you tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth!
i had never heard of the brooks brothers protest. that was interesting.
When people don't like the way the government runs the country, they can always move to a country where there is totally private healthcare. Now, which country outside the third world would that be? Which other modern country in this entire world would allow big corporations to decide who gets health care and who doesn't . Why do we allow these people to decide who lives and who dies. People that think our current healthcare system is the greatest in the world are also the one that believe anything Madison Avenue has been selling them for years. People that are trying to disrupt the reform of this major flaw that is disrupting the social fiber of our communities are either hired by these corporate giants or believe the rhetoric that is being put out there by them. The simple fact that there is an extreme number of responses to this entry should be proof enough of the tenacity of these companies to fight any sort of reform that might interfere with the bottom line. Their fear is that a competing government plan that doesn't depend on profits might disrupt the lifestyle of so many CEO's Just like the stockholders that thought Wall Street would keep their money safe, the consumer that thinks their private healthcare is looking out for the little guy will have to find out the hard way that this is not true. Why should I not have an option that is non-profit. Healthcare should be a right of all our citizens and accessibility should be equal. The irony is that this right-winged objection goes against so many teaching of Jesus, yet they claim to be such good Christians! You are your brothers' keepers, you morons!
Evidently you missed the SEIU folks being brought in to support the government backed plan and shout down, beat up, as in St. Louis, those who don't support Obamacare.
Hmm, looks like the LIFE OR DEATH PANEL will have to look at assault and battery as an illness when expressing your right to free speech.
There isn't even a written bill yet folks. Let's wait to get all bent out of shape when there is something on paper to get pissed off about.
Right now, the right wingers are losing there heads over speculation and manufactured injustice and the left is supporting a plan that does not exist.
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