Fun & Games With ACORN at the Kittanning, PA Benedict Arlen Town Hall Mtg.

[King 5.45]

Check out Kittanning's stats and description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kittanning,_Pennsylvania

Arrival:



Confrontation:



Departure:



Forgive me if I seem stupid, but I thought that the idea of a Town Hall was to give people in a given area the opportunity to meet with politicians and ask question of them, not to provide a venue into which specially selected tame audiences are bused in and out, to give the appearance of cheerful acceptance of whatever slop legislation the government chooses to try and ram down our craws.

[Ten*K]

you poor, disillusioned soul. There is no "America" anymore... Towns don't belong to the people who simply live there. It's attitudes like yours that keep man a slave to profit and selfish greed.

Who will help us live for other men? Will we ever be free of the damnable dollar? Why can't we all have a fair share? Who is John Galt?

[stephpd]

What? No shouts of 'Yankee go home!'

[Morel42]

It was to be expected.

Action, reaction, move.. Counter move..

Fox News constantly spews "America hates Socialised Medicine" with no subtext, and the the right plants it's people, so the left plants it's own..

Personally I find them both disgusting..

[misterpugsly]

and the the right plants it's people

Speaking as someone who was actually there, I saw zero evidence of this. A significant fraction of the left-leaning people arrived in a series of buses, all wearing the same shirts. The folks on the right arrived individually, from every direction. The vast majority of the folks on the right were retirees. People who are there as "plants" are not folks who need a cane to walk but show up anyways, even if it means sweltering in the sunshine instead of staying home and watching "Guiding Light." Unless the Tommy Dorsey fan club was sending out bulletins, what I saw was real grassroots anger.

I also was amazed at how many of them were veterans. (The guys near me were vets from Korea and Vietnam.)

I watched the session with Specter after I got home on TV. The folks inside that meeting were not a representative sample of the people outside. As I mentioned elsewhere, the ratio of against:for was well over 5:1, and probably closer to 10:1.

Who is John Galt?

"I swear - by my life and my love of it - that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."

[GuyMontag]

"I swear - by my life and my love of it - that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."

Sadly, I fear that Atlas is fighting a losing battle.
+rep for both of you

[PocketProtector]

Why do I think this is all going to end badly? The WH and it's cronies vs. America. It's stunning.

[Dredly]

It was to be expected.

Action, reaction, move.. Counter move..

Fox News constantly spews "America hates Socialised Medicine" with no subtext, and the the right plants it's people, so the left plants it's own..

Personally I find them both disgusting..

Morel I have to disagree with you on this... I haven't found any evidence provided from any new source, left or right, that supports this "astro-turf" bullshit that Pelosi, Gibbs, and crew have been spewing.

They are taking citizen outrage and instead of facing it head on they are accusing the people speaking of being plants... when we already have no doubt about it that the Obama Nation is doing exactly that.


I have watched both of the "Insurance town hall" meetings so far, the one in NH was clearly a plant, he couldn't even get a negative question when he asked for one, Montana was a little better with 2 or 3 negative comments but the message being sent is still crystal clear. "Health REFORM is perfect and we know everything"

He lies constantly, there is no way in hell that reducing tax deductions on donated money can cover this, there is no way that the "private option" will still be paid for by companies, and why should it? the public option is going to be outstanding.

Medicare is broke, it is not a sustainable system, Social Security is broken, its not a sustainable system, and we want to emulate that but "improve" on it to make the coverage better.

Insurance companies aren't the enemy, its a losing battle for hospitals and Insurance companies are not on the other side of the battlefield, Gov't is. Gov't pays 85% or less on most bills, insurance companies pay 115%+ and that doesn't include all the free care... and insurance companies are the badguy?

[customloaded]

Speaking as someone who was actually there, I saw zero evidence of this. A significant fraction of the left-leaning people arrived in a series of buses, all wearing the same shirts. The folks on the right arrived individually, from every direction. The vast majority of the folks on the right were retirees. People who are there as "plants" are not folks who need a cane to walk but show up anyways, even if it means sweltering in the sunshine instead of staying home and watching "Guiding Light." Unless the Tommy Dorsey fan club was sending out bulletins, what I saw was real grassroots anger.

I also was amazed at how many of them were veterans. (The guys near me were vets from Korea and Vietnam.)

I watched the session with Specter after I got home on TV. The folks inside that meeting were not a representative sample of the people outside. As I mentioned elsewhere, the ratio of against:for was well over 5:1, and probably closer to 10:1.




"I swear - by my life and my love of it - that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."

Whats your point about the Veterans?

[misterpugsly]

No particular point. I just noticed that a lots of the guys in the area in which I was standing were vets. Many were wearing hats or other articles of clothing that indicated such. I don't know what percentage of the population in general, or of the older generation, are veterans, but they were well-represented there.

I don't know what conclusion to draw from that. Perhaps there are more vets in the older generation than I was aware of. Perhaps they are more vocal about this issue. I do not believe it is indicative of any veteran-based astroturfing, though. I have read or heard nothing that would lead me to that conclusion.