This is What a Representative Democracy Looks Like
The American voter is very slow to anger, but when you mess them over often enough, they can get plenty riled up.
Word on the left is that is some centrally-organized effort like ACORN or MoveOn has put together for the past eight years. That’s patently untrue and anyone who really wants to know what’s going on can find some of the local organizers and get the real scoop from them. As happened with the earlier Tea Parties, some groups like FreedomWorks have gotten involved but they’re not the ones driving the movement. These gatherings are spontaneously-generated, with folks spreading the word on their blogs, by e-mail, and on Twitter. It’s a pretty neat thing to watch a town hall meeting announcement spread from housewife to blogger to computer geek to accountant, person by person, until they combine to form a voice loud enough and insistent enough to reduce a Senator to ineffective babbling.
Dan Collins was suitably amused by Specter and Sibelius’ attempts to toss a few hasty talking points at the crowd. Donald Douglas is simply exultant.
As am I. This is what is looks like when people decide to take representative democracy seriously. You can expect the left (and their BFFs in the media) to continue to pooh-pooh these demonstrations because if the people win, their dreams for a utopia where they get to tell the rest of us ignorant yokels blows away. I, for one, will be overjoyed to see their dream deferred again.
Other Posts of Interest:
- Specterenfreud: Turncoat Demoted to Committee Coffee Boy
- He’s Not Moderate. He’s Random. And Now He’s the Democrats’ Problem
- New Democrat Specter: GOP Killed Jack Kemp
Category: Our New Democratic Overlords, The Economy and Your Money, The Rise of the Nanny State
I'm interested in seeing the interaction between the Tea Party Express and the Healthcare Prevention Legislation will be like.
Promises not to be a bore.
All these people lacked were the pitchforks :~) It's really good to see the electorate waking up. 'Bout time, too. There may be hope yet for America.
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The level of disruption at these meetings is appalling and it rises to the level of misdemeanor assault. The police would be well within their authority to arrest these people. Hell, they already do it all the time when it's a liberal being disruptive, and rightly so. It's one thing to express your views, that is perfectly fine. But to deny the speaker's right to speak is going way too far. But it is a clear indication of how Republicans feel about this issue. Rather than having a real discussion, they only seek to prevent a discussion they know they can't win.
But notice the difference between how Democratic politicians handle this and how Bush handled it. If anyone so much as wore liberal t-shirt to a Bush speech, that person was removed by the authorities immediately, even he was completely silent. It seems conservatives can dish it out, but they sure can't take it.
[...] of Congress are beginning to see that as they come home to their districts with their attitudes and flimsy talking-points. This is what is looks like when people decide to take representative democracy seriously. You can [...]
Hmmm……. Cricket's Chirping (okay that's a lie, we don't have crickets). But you won't touch this will you, Jimmie. And for good reason, you are a polite person and your mother really did raise you right. I was raised in the proper upper class mentality of the East Coast. I thought it was a pompous joke. But even so, I still act in public discourse like a gentleman. I only act like an asshole on websites like this. It's a rare chance when you actually get to have a back and forth with a Senator. Especially in Pennsylvania. I've only done it once, and it was with Arlen Specter. And I was still in high school. And I schooled him with an IMF question. He didn't even know what the IMF was and why they were giving loans to Brazil. He voted on the bill, but he obviously didn't know why he voted that way, except that someone gave him money for that vote. He stopped the questioning phase and left quickly after that. And his security detail took the film from my camera when I had the shots of him leaving. He's always been a poseur, and he still is. I'm sending my money to the Sestak campaign. But you know what? He's got one little shot at the Republicans. That shot has a name: Pat Toomey. Just try to win with him in Pennsylvania. He's tried before and failed miserably. Now that Toomey has a bigger name now, he'll do worse. Toomey's only chance was to be anonymous and run against Sestak. But he's not anonymous. Everyone knows about him now, so he is doomed. That's the problem with conservatives now. People hate their policies. If conservatives can't fool people, they can't win. And Sestak's military career will pull him over Specter in the primary. Joe Paterno is retiring, so it's time for a new period in Pennsylvania. Sestak is it. No doubt, Rebublicans will say he has some spots on his record, but the guy retired as a Rear Admiral in the Navy. I think that might qualify as command experience. I'm proud of my uncle, who was only a captain in the Navy. Although my uncle never set foot on a ship and was a surgeon who ran a military surgical unit. But he did it in Vietnam. He doen't like being called "Uncle Charlie"
I didn't respond because what you wrote didn't merit a response. I can't answer every knuckleheaded thing you write here or I'd have very little time to do anything else.
"He doen’t like being called “Uncle Charlie”"
He doesn't like the memories. He spent a long time not seeing combat, he only spent it seeing the results. Maybe you should imagine the concept that these results are not so pretty. It's one thing to handle meat and blood, but it's quite different when it's a living human being. Try that, Jimmie, and then talk to me. How many lives have you saved? I'm guessing zero for you and three for me. I'm always called a pussy because I'm liberal/libertarian. But I can field stitch myself and anyone else well enough to make it to a hospital. I can keep people's minds in a place where they will survive when they have critical wounds. Can you do that? I saved a kid who had an eight inch diameter hole in is skull. Have you ever done something like that? And yet I'm some liberal pussy who doesn't understand reality. You want to know what a pussy really is? It's that guy I fought in in Amsterdam. He was a raging drunk hooligan from England, and I was just drunk. But he really wanted to throw punches. I didn't want to fight at all. I just wanted to stop him. I surely didn't want to fight. So I blocked him for three minutes. He got really angry about how I was blocking him, but that's not what really pissed him off. What pissed him off is that I refused to throw a punch. I told him one thing: " If you actually land a punch, you'd better run." He landed a good one that fractured the right orbital process of my skull and then he walked over to crush my glasses. And then he ran away very quickly. And for good reason, I'm vicious when I have reason to do harm to somebody. And if they break my glasses, I have reason. I'm fine with the skull fracture, but it's hard to get a new prescription in Europe. You don't f**k with a man's glasses. You conservatives think it's a strong man that fights, but it's a much stronger man that doesn't. You think you're a man, try fighting a fight where you don't throw any punches. Takes a lot to win that fight, doesn't it? A true man is strong enough to only block. You conservatives that love violence are simply wimps. You can't take a punch, and you barely know how to throw one.
Here ya go fostert. This link's for you…
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/04/this-is-what…
Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander.
Okay, so I watched the Tom Tancredo incident, and what happens? The police take them away. The Columbia incident appears to be the right wing Minutemen protesting, so I'm not sure why the liberals are at fault for a right wing group's antics. The logging incident has nothing to do with free speech, but much to do with who owns the trees. And let's get real about that. I as a taxpayer supposedly own them, but not really. Apparently I'm supposed to buy trees for the logging companies. I buy them, they get the right to cut them down and sell them. And do I get my cut of the profits? Surely not, they got to the Republican Party. As for Christian evangelists, creating a public nuisance is a crime. Liberals get arrested for that all the time. You conservatives are such wimps you can't take a night in jail like the rest of us? As for the cross stomping, I wouldn't do that, but it is protected speech and no person was harmed and no speech was disrupted. And I'll admit I'd be offended if someone stomped on a Buddha. But considering how many times I've faced discrimination for my Buddhist beliefs, I just brush it off now. I know damn well that Christians will never understand, so I don't even care. Maybe you should grow a skin as thick as mine. Or maybe you should just stop discriminating against me. Either way, I don't care. If you don't want my business, then I don't have any desire to give it to you.
That's really weak, and if that's the best you got, there's several hundred hours of Republicans preventing their elected officials from addressing their constituents. That's real disruption and actually a real crime. Now there was a a real crime committed in the Tancredo footage. And the police actually arrested people for it, as they should. When do Republicans get arrested for the crimes they commit? Never, obviously.
But even when you look at Malkin's footage, it was compiled from years of footage and they weren't elected officials trying to hold a responsible discussion of issues they will vote on. The recent disruptions are compiled over three days and are far worse. And they are disrupting elected officials trying to discuss a very real issue. But that's neither here nor there, we cannot expect Republicans to even discuss a very important policy issue. Want to talk? I'm here and will do it.
And this issue is real. It's a matter of life and death for me. If the current situation continues, I die in ten years because I am barred from buying insurance. If a situation arises where I might be able to actually become insured, I might live. And it's really simple: Republicans want me to die, Democrats want me to get treatment that might save me. I'd prefer to live, so I'm with the Democrats. If you Republicans want me to support your plan, it must include a chance for me to live. So far, every Republican plan is the same old death sentence. And it doesn't surprise me at all that you really do want to kill me. But don't expect me to vote for you if that's what you want for me.
And if you don't think the current situation is a death sentence, then pull some strings for me. Get your friends in the insurance industry to cover me. Prove to me that the private system works by getting your Republican Congressman to force a single insurance company to offer me insurance. And not the fraudulent insurance that only covers problems I am immune to. I'm talking about insurance that actually covers my potential health problems. And you must find a company that wants a person who is genetically pre-dispositioned to cancer, has more concussions than Troy Aikman, a neck that is highly unstable, a bee sting allergy that is not only the most severe ever recorded in history, but also can't even be explained by any doctor, asthma, bipolar disorder, and a sunken chest cavity. Surely your favorite insurance company will gladly take me right?
I'll offer this to the Republican Party: Whatever tax break you give me on insurance that I can't buy, I'll donate it back to the Republican Party on one condition: the Republican Party must pay for all of my medical expenses. Want that deal? Didn't think so.
Oh, and by the way, I didn't mention the weird diseases I've accumulated. The vast majority of them don't even have names or cures. But here's two you might have heard of: Malaria and Dengue Fever. Combine those with a dozen unknown diseases, and nobody knows what happens. I'm still trying to work it out myself. I've tried to get doctors to help. I've offered a bunch of doctors this deal: I pay $5,000 up front for continual treatment and $50,000 if you cure me. No takers on that one. And I don't even discuss neurological issues. If you saw my neck X-ray, you'd know why if you could read it. It's actually quite simple and a neurosurgeon explained it to me: people who have necks like this don't walk. When he first saw that film, he assumed I was quadriplegic already. When I walked in to see him, he was literally shocked. I asked him about surgery and what it might cost. And he explained that nobody has ever done a surgery like that (they still haven't, I work in the field now), and it wouldn't be recommended. And now that I know the field well, I just don't see how my situation could possibly be corrected. But until it is corrected, I can't get insurance. That X-ray is really scary, and it was admitted as evidence in a court case, so now it's a matter of public record. So I am simply doomed. I've lived with my medical problems for most of my life, and they aren't immediately life-threatening. But cancer is a huge threat and is very expensive. Everyone has their betting cube. Mine is simple. Three sides say 'cancer.' Two sides say 'quadriplegic,' and one side says I'm okay as long as I don't get stung by a bee. Want to roll that die? Insurances companies surely do not. And I don't blame them. But I have rolled that die, and I don't know how it landed yet. But I will find out, and it will be very bad. I only hope for death over being condemned to a wheelchair.
But there is one thing that is for certain: no private company will get anywhere near me. The government may not be great, but they are the only chance I have. Unless, of course, Jimmie comes through to convince an insurance company to cover me in exchange for donations to the Republican Party.
But really Jimmie, can we hear your defense of the current system or any of the Republican plans? You claim to have some kind of plan, so tell me how it works and why I would want to die under that plan rather than other plans I might die under.
I've already done that a time or two, fostert. I'm not inclined to do it again.
Well fostert..you _are_ going to die. I know that's a shock, but it _will_ happen.
In the meantime, your choice is to pay for your medical requirements yourself or do without.
Is there some reason why somebody else should pay for your health problems?