Here is a short video I created as my part to fight for the Public Option in health care reform
Organized disruptions of constituent town halls are un-American
Congress is in recess until September. At these times many go back to their districts and have town hall meetings with constituents to find out their views on issues the Congress member has been dealing with. It is one way to take the temperature of the electorate. During this recess and with health care reform on the table, conservative groups have been organizing so-called “grassroots” protests at the town hall meetings. They and their major insurance plan backers want to make it look like the “public” is opposed to reform and if the Congress person doesn’t agree then they shout them down and disrupt the meeting. These thug tactics by conservatives are un-American and give a false perception of major opposition to reform.
David Neiwert at Crooks and Liars wrote:
No one has a problem with right-wingers marching in protest of the health-care plans. That’s certainly their right. And no one minds that they choose to participate in these forums. But town halls were never designed to be vehicles for protest. They have always been about enabling real democratic discourse in a civil setting.
When someone’s entire purpose in coming out to a town-hall forum is to chant and shout and protest and disrupt, they aren’t just expressing their opinions — they are actively shutting down democracy.
And that, folks, is a classically fascist thing to do.
Are Republicans and their thugs killing off the Town Hall as a democratic forum?
But before you say “well liberals have done it before….”, Paul Krugman had this to say:
Some commentators have tried to play down the mob aspect of these scenes, likening the campaign against health reform to the campaign against Social Security privatization back in 2005. But there’s no comparison. I’ve gone through many news reports from 2005, and while anti-privatization activists were sometimes raucous and rude, I can’t find any examples of congressmen shouted down, congressmen hanged in effigy, congressmen surrounded and followed by taunting crowds.
And I can’t find any counterpart to the death threats at least one congressman has received.
The fact is that polls show majority support for Obama’s ideas on health care reform (starts with question 37) and the people who show up and disrupt the town hall meetings are the same people who can’t stand a Democrat is President, who has been encouraged by conservative groups and pundit douchebags, and many who are horrified that an African-American is President.
Rush Limbaugh got it wrong when he claimed the President and Democrats were using Nazi tactics in the reform debate, it seems the conservatives are doing the Nazi tactics. Back in the 1920’s Brownshirts would invade and disrupt meetings of other political parties in Germany. Even the Nazis learned that thuggery wouldn’t win them the election so they ended up reducing the influence of the Brownshirts and stopping the meeting disruptions.
When are conservatives going to learn the same lesson?
Police union president says he is disgraced President Obama is commander and chief
The fall out over the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates continued after President Obama made a comment about the incident at his Wednesday press conference. President Obama said that Cambridge Police acted stupidly in making the arrest. The president of the Cambridge Police Patrol Officer’s Association, Stephen Killion, said the comments were disgraceful and he was disgraced that Obama was commander and chief. Killion and others are blowing the President’s comments out of proportion.
Basically what happens is that police sometimes arrest people for disorderly conduct because they either are a threat to themselves or others – like if they are intoxicated and not driving a car – or if a cop gets pissed off.
They use that particular arrest to end the situation instead of just walking away or trying to defuse the issue.
From all reports Gates was pissed off and got into an argument with the police over his treatment. They thought he was breaking into his own home.
I’m sure Gates shouldn’t have got into the argument but the police should have defused the situation and left the scene as soon as possible. I’m sure the police officer felt defensive because Gates was complaining about how he was doing his job. Obviously there was a war of words or else they would have charged him with assault.
In my customer service training, I was taught not to get into an argument. Let the person vent and then end the contact as quickly as possible.
The whole incident reminded me of a video I saw sometime ago of a trooper writing a speeding ticket and the driver was insanely angry calling him all kinds of names and threatening to have him fired etc…. Here is the video:
World’s Wildest Speeding Ticket
Stephen Killion on the other hand has no excuse. He said something stupid. Its fine if you don’t agree with what Obama said but don’t say you are disgraced that Obama is commander and chief.
It gives away his political bias and isn’t even relevant to the incident or Obama’s comments.
What we really should be looking at since the death of Walter Cronkite
Uncle Walter passed away on Friday and so this weekend the press corp have been celebrating the anchorman who set the standard of what the press is suppose to be. It is ironic that as they celebrate the icon of TV news, current TV news is nothing like what Cronkite stood for or broadcast back in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
The current members of the press commented on objective and tough Cronkite was in his reporting. He told us all what we needed to hear and sometimes what we didn’t want to hear. That doesn’t happen today.
Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com says it better:
Despite that, media stars will spend ample time flamboyantly commemorating Cronkite’s death as though he reflects well on what they do (though probably not nearly as much time as they spent dwelling on the death of Tim Russert, whose sycophantic servitude to Beltway power and “accommodating head waiter”-like, mindless stenography did indeed represent quite accurately what today’s media stars actually do). In fact, within Cronkite’s most important moments one finds the essence of journalism that today’s modern media stars not only fail to exhibit, but explicitly disclaim as their responsibility.
Too bad it is all true.
It seems one Columbus TV station takes the day off on weekends
I guess I am too caught up in the 24 hour news cycle where I expect either breaking news or at least new stories to show up on my local TV station websites on the day the news breaks. It seems that the WBNS 10TV website takes the weekend off unless the news is significant.
On Saturday some ticket holders for an event at the Palace Theater showed up hours after the event had happened. The time had been changed but some people didn’t hear about it. The story was on 10TV’s 11 PM newscast but still wasn’t posted on their website at that time. The story was on the website for Channel 4 the NBC station.
The only story posted on the website from Saturday was a robbery suspect who was shot in South Columbus in the morning and they had the scores from the Indians and Reds games that afternoon.
10TV sister company, The Columbus Dispatch had 3 more Saturday story links on its front page.
The problem is that on Saturday and Sunday, there are times when the evening newscasts aren’t seen due to sports or other programing. Basically I wouldn’t know any local updates until 11 PM or later if network programing runs over.