The Republicans and the conservative movement in America has become unhinged according to Frank Schaeffer because...
"They can't compute that their white man-led conservative revolution is dead. They can't reconcile their idea of themselves with the fact that white men like them don't run the country any more -- and never will again. To them the black president is leading a column of the "other" into their promised land. Gays, immigrants, blacks, progressives, even a female Hispanic appointed to the Supreme Court... for them this is the Apocalypse.
...No, I don't believe that these people are about to take over the country. No, the sky is not falling. But the Republican Party is. It is now profoundly anti-American"
Above Quote from Frank Schaeffer
"...FDR once met with a group of activists who sought his support for legislation. He listened to their arguments for some time and then said, "You've convinced me. Now go out and make me do it."
He understood that the more effectively people created a sense of urgency and crisis, the easier it would be for him to push for progressive legislation."
above quote from We Need More Protest to Make Reform Possible by Peter Dreier at The Nation , August 7, 2009
Todays Menu:
Town Hall meetings still being disrupted by Phony Grass-roots protesters
Their aim is to shut down civil and meaningful discourse
Having lost the election in November Republicans are determined to have Obama and America fail
The chief orchestrator of these angry mobs works for healthcare industry
One of the main spokespersons against healthcare reform Rick Scott defrauded the US government & was ordered to pay fines of over one billion dollars
Anyway Brave New Films has released a video in support of healthcare reform to fight back against lies, propaganda, misinformation of the Republican shills for the healthcare industry:
" Denied Claims Placed At Health Insurance CEO's Doorstep " by Arthur Delaney at Huffington Post Aug.6, 2009
"A new video puts denied health insurance claims on United Health Care CEO Stephen Hemsley's doorstep.
The video, made by Brave News Films' Robert Greenwald, intercuts stories of people suffering because of denied claims with images Hemsley's fancy homes, along with details about how much money Hemsley's got ($744,232,068 in unexercised stock options, for example)."
Rick Scott's healthcare corporation was found guilty of defrauding the government and taxpayers and paid out fines of over one billion dollars and yet claims the people should trust criminals like him and be against any real healthcare reform. These healthcare corporations are no better than Halliburton and other corporations which defraud the US government on a regular basis and see this as merely part of the way to do business in America by cheating as much as possible and to cut corners to increase profits. Will Americans once again fall for this sort of propaganda and spin.
"Rick Sanchez Grills Rick Scott On Town Halls, Medicare Fraud" by Rachel Weiner at Huffington post August 6,2009
CNN's Rick Sanchez went hard after Rick Scott, leader of Conservatives For Patients' Rights, first on his role in the anti-reform town hall protests and then on his old company's Medicare fraud.
Scott questioned the organization's role in disruptive protests at Democratic town halls
So Sanchez went after Scott's stance as an unbiased observer, given that he founded Columbia/HCA, a health care company found guilty of huge Medicare fraud.
Scott was ousted by his own board of directors in 1997 in the midst of the biggest health care fraud scandal in U.S. history, a scandal that ultimately led to a payment of $1.7 billion to settle charges including the overbilling of state and federal health programs.
Scott defended his former company, saying other health care companies had paid fines too. Sanchez cut in: "You are the guy that is sitting here telling us we can't allow the government to do this because it won't work and they might take over or do some things that are wrong. How much more wrong can you be than what you just said? Not only has your company screwed up and you just admitted it ... You are saying, look at all the other companies, they did the same thing."
Scott dodged the accusations, denying any involvement in the fraud or in paying the fines. After accusing him of "playing with the facts," Sanchez concluded:
I guess the point I am making, though, is look... some people are going to look at your record and some of the things that you and I just talked about and say, this is the guy who is leading this charge. Is he the one that we should be listening to? Not exactly a perfect past when it comes to what's right for taxpayers and patients.
"Right-Wing Turncoat Gives the Inside Scoop on Why Conservatives Are Rampaging Town Halls" By Frank Schaeffer, AlterNet. August 7, 2009.
The GOP is willing to disrupt the health care debate if they can't win it. Yesterday in Tampa, a mob of Glenn Beck supporters nearly caused a riot.
Having failed at the ballot box, having watched their Fox News-organized "tea parties" fizzle the intimidation tactics which the Republicans have embraced are being used in a well-financed, top-down orchestrated fake grass roots campaign by corporate interests to try and protect the profits of the insurance business. Armey's FreedomWorks is organizing against health care reform. Armey's lobbying firm represents pharmaceutical companies including Bristol-Myers Squibb. Armey's lobbying firm also represents the trade group for the life insurance industry. FreedomWorks is supporting the status quo at all costs. (They are also fans of fossil fuels. Armey's lobbying firm represents Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the UAE, on energy related issues.)
Last year, the Wall Street Journal exposed FreedomWorks for building "amateur-looking" websites to promote far right interests of Armey. FreedomWorks represents a top-down, corporate-friendly approach that's been the norm for conservative organizations for years. How do I know this is the norm? Because I used to have strategy meetings with the late Jack Kemp and Dick Army and the rest of the Republican gang about using their business ties to help finance the pro-life movement to defeat Democrats. I know this script. I helped write it.
...Democratic members of Congress are being harassed by angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior at local town halls. It's the tactic we used to follow abortion providers around their neighborhoods. "Protesters" surrounded Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and forced police officers to have to escort him to his car for safety. We used to do the same to Dr. Tiller... until someone killed him.
How Can The Right Stoop So Low?
I used to know Dick Armey quite well. One of my sons even worked for him as an intern. I knew Armey in the context of his being a fan of my late Evangelical Religious Right leader father Francis Schaeffer. (Back in the day when I was a right wing "pro-life" organizer who has long since quit the Republicans in disgust at their -- our -- descent into extremism and hate.) Armey was once a decent guy, whatever his political views. How could he stoop so low as to be organizing what amounts to America's Brown Shirts today?
I think I know what happened to him, Gingrich and the rest: They can't compute that their white man-led conservative revolution is dead. They can't reconcile their idea of themselves with the fact that white men like them don't run the country any more -- and never will again. To them the black president is leading a column of the "other" into their promised land. Gays, immigrants, blacks, progressives, even a female Hispanic appointed to the Supreme Court... for them this is the Apocalypse.
...No, I don't believe that these people are about to take over the country. No, the sky is not falling. But the Republican Party is. It is now profoundly anti-American.
...What Can Be Done?
It's time that this whole shabby (and insane) business be exposed, vilified in run out of town on a rail by whatever responsible Republicans -- if any -- that are still in the party and who want to see the fortunes of their party revived. Republican leaders taking insurance industry money via lobbying firms and using it to organize what amounts to roving bands of thugs not only need to be exposed but thrown out of the public debate forever. They should become absolute pariahs.
It's time to give this garbage in name: insurance industry funded fascism.
"Fists Pounding on Glass, Right-Wing Violence Stops Tampa Town Hall" by jeffrey Feldman, at Huffington Post,August 6, 2009
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. Moreover, by using violence to shut down civic discussion between neighbors, this right-wing horde trampled underfoot one of the most sacred and historic symbols of American democracy.
...Today in Tampa, that bright American town hall tradition came crashing down at the hands of another, ignominious trend in political life: the politics of intimidation, threat, and violence. This is the brand of politics that wields the toxic force of fists and the sound of breaking glass to cut off healthy civic exchange. This is the brand of politics that fills the public square first with talk of violence, then promises of violence, and then violence itself.
This is also the brand of politics that media coverage is quick to gloss over -- quick to conceal behind some false notion that violence is on both sides. Do not believe it.
Americans trying earnestly to gather with their neighbors and engage in discussions about health insurance reform should beware of every account they read that depicts town hall disruptions as generic, two-sided violence. Beware, because these descriptions are false.
The health insurance reform debate in this country is not a fight between two violent sides. It is a peaceful discussion that right-wing mobs are trying to stop and prevent. Tonight they used violence in Tampa to successfully stop that peaceful discussion from happening.
and Peter Dreier argues that those who in favor of reform of the healthcare system and other policies must make their voices heard by peaceful demonstrations and by using the internet and media effectively and if necessary to be willing to take part in acts of civil disobedience :
We Need More Protest to Make Reform Possible by Peter Dreier at The Nation , August 7, 2009
..People have to believe not only that things should be different but also that they can be different. Anger has to be mixed with hope. And to be effective politically, that hope has to be mobilized through collective action--in elections, meetings with elected officials, petitions, e-mail campaigns, rallies, demonstrations and even, at times, civil disobedience.
Protest--including civil disobedience, demonstrations and large-scale marches--is not the same as mindless militance. It is not riots and rock-throwing. To be effective, protest must be strategic and disciplined, and it must capture the public's imagination and conscience. People must view the cause as just and empathize with the protesters. As Martin Luther King Jr. explained in his famous "Letter From Birmingham Jail," civil disobedience makes sense only when all other means of reaching decision-makers have been exhausted and people's frustrations have boiled over.
...We confront the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression, with tens of millions of Americans suffering privately and silently while Republicans and centrist Democrats thwart efforts to bring about much-needed reform.
...FDR once met with a group of activists who sought his support for legislation. He listened to their arguments for some time and then said, "You've convinced me. Now go out and make me do it."
He understood that the more effectively people created a sense of urgency and crisis, the easier it would be for him to push for progressive legislation.
Having a president who inspires people to act collectively on their own behalf can make a difference. It gives people hope and courage to defy obstacles.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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