Television cameras today gravitated toward Doug Lamborn supporters. Thank goodness this flag-waver showed up with a sign to confirm visually the nagging suspicion that his crowd was illiterate. Lamborn snickered, literally sniggered, about the success of the summer's tea party gatherings and his hopes for more. CHANGE THAT WORKS brought bingo cards with each square representing an Obamacare untruth Lamborn could be expected to roll out to frighten the audience. As he hit each phrase, players would shout "YOU LIE" until the eventual "BINGO!" The Gazette labeled us hecklers, but got a picture of Pattie scanning her scorecard, and me holding off an interloper. I hope the Gazette goes with this photo for tomorrow's print edition. Health Care Reform up against the forces of darkness. As audience members challenged Lamborn's presentation, sinister looking men would crowd in on us, some physically threatening, others trying to mumble through arguments. The net effect created a disruptive buzz which actually diverted our energies to engage the town hall forum. I found it effective to block their gaze by sticking up my hand, which also prevented their approach. Rita circulated handouts which cautioned the men against personal confrontations. News photographers captured the images, but note that none of these men would reveal their names. Loring documented the goons, including this one who addressed Loring's video camera with his best Tony Soprano impression: "How ya doin? Got a little camera?" Loring's video is already online. Mark will put together a CSAction video shortly. Gazette comment section troll MBurke has posted pictures of the meeting. Here's the full image, taken after the town hall meeting, all cameras on her. Yes, that's Doug Bruce in the background, pushing his latest attack on the Colorado Springs municipal budget. Anti-tax pig Doug Bruce was there handing out brochures about his stealth stormwater fee proposal.
Tag: Town Halls
Lamborn’s NO HEALTHCARE teabaggers want to hear from YOU
According to CSAction, snively congressman Doug Lamborn has sent out 70,000 mailers, billed to the taxpayer, to disseminate the insurance biz wingnut falsehoods about health care reform. He's hoping to reconstitute a teabagger assembly at a public meeting on Thursday evening, August 27, at the Valley Hi Golf Course on Colorado Springs' Southeast side. Get there early with YOUR message. 5PM, Chelton and Airport. The anti-tax teabaggers hate standing next to signs that don't represent them, so think of some slogans that do. How about: DO UNTO OTHERS, or FAITH HOPE CHARITY, or "as you did to the least of My brethren, you did it to Me." -Matt 25:40 CSAction has posted talking points and updates. Here are Mark's arguments: Representative Doug Lamborn has just sent out an estimated 70,000 mailers "prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense" that are full of LIES and disinformation about the healthcare reform bills. It's only estimated to be 70,000 because, when asked about the total number mailed, LAMEborn's Communications Director Catherine Mortensen, "I have the figures, but I don't have the authority to give them to you." Actually they don't have the authority to withhold that information because it's public record, given that this pack of LIES was "prepared, published and mailed at taxpayer expense." The mailer says "114 million could lose their current health care coverage under the bill". This is a LIE! This absurd figure comes from "The Impact of the House Health Reform Legislation Coverage and Provider Incomes," by the Lewin Group. The Lewin Group is a "research" and management consulting (lobbyist) firm owned entirely by the second largest health insurer in the nation, UnitedHealth Group. Furthermore, the "research" does NOT show 114 million LOOSING healthcare but CHANGING insurers, AND an additional 9.4 million being insured that are not now. It's a total guess as to how many would change over to the public plan, if offered. The 114 million was a figure the Lewin Group published in June, which they revised DOWN to 88.1 million in July, so it's not even their most current LIE. The Congressional Budget Office came to a different conclusion, saying that enrollment in the House Democrats' proposed public plan would total 11 million to 12 million people. The Lewin Group is part of Ingenix, a wholly-owned UnitedHealth subsidiary that was accused by the New York attorney general and the American Medical Association of helping insurers shift medical expenses to consumers by distributing skewed data. Ingenix supplied UnitedHealth and other insurers with data that allegedly understated the "reasonable and customary" doctor fees that insurers use to determine how much they will reimburse consumers for out-of-network care. In January, United Health agreed to a $350 million settlement with the AMA, and a $50 million settlement with the New York attorney general, covering conduct going back as far as 1994, when they were distributing skewed information to fight President Clinton's healthcare reforms. Next LIE in this mailer: "4.7 million jobs that could be lost as a result of tax hikes on small businesses". This absurd figure comes
Pam “Heil Hitler” Pilger gets it all wrong
Much is being made of the irony that the anti-health teabagger who shouted "HEIL HITLER" at a Jewish man who spoke in favor of universal health care, was herself wearing an ISRAELI DEFENSE FORCES t-shirt. Irony? I think the association originates from more than "irony." Thanks to having been interviewed earlier in the evening by a local TV reporter, the nutjob has been identified as Pamela Pilger of Las Vegas, Nevada. Online sleuths record that she and her husband are Sarah Palin supporters, etc, oink oink. Her telephone and address are available online, and I'm not terribly conflicted about disseminating that info. * From Mrs. Pilger's interview we learn she is a conservative, who believes in Christian values, excepting charity obviously. Pilger is likely a Christian Zionist, explained by her cross earings and IDF t-shirt. How could a politically charged t-shirt worn to a political event, be but chosen on purpose? And a Christian Zionist who mocks Jews, really no surprise there. What interests me about Mrs. Pilger and the t-shirt which seems at odds with her dimly-improvised retorts, is how she represents the American idiot: completely wrong. Pilger doesn't know enough to keep from making contradictory outbursts, but she does know: health care NO, Israel PRO. How is it that opponents of health care reform, for example, are wrong-headed about every issue on the table? Environment, war, labor, human rights, civil liberties, immigration, etc; and in Pilger's case, anti-health care and pro-Israel. These are not uniformly "conservative" values. They do not comprise an idiot's manifesto. Yet in practice, these disparate dictum flock inseparably. How can idiots be so consistent? If their antics reflected real grass roots idiocy, they'd be all over the board. What does an American idiot know of the Middle East, pro-Palestinian or con? Wouldn't an idiot xenophobe bigot most likely be anti-Semitic? Aka Pam Pilger? Whose idea, the IDF allegiance? Whose very consistent guidance are the idiots following? There's nothing idiotic about the neoliberal, exploitive agenda behind the ideological idiots. Are they such idiots that they cannot see that? Wingbat Pilger's t-shirt and her opposition to health care reform --in spite of confessing that her husband lacks insurance-- betrays that her idiotic fervor is not even her own. * (Even as idiot pawns, shouldn't they take responsibility for the Astroturf populist propaganda they are helping to lay? I hope an archive is being kept of their profoundly insensitive rantings. In the future, when these crackers Google themselves, the first thing they should see is their 15-minutes of infamy, yelling about how they don't want illegal immigrants stealing their tax-dollars, etc. Hold the bastards accountable for reflecting so poorly the average American. The idiots may never come around, but maybe their neighbors or associates will better be able to size them up. One day, perhaps their grandchild, improved by a marriage outside the family, will see the footage and marvel- Oh my goodness, my Grandma was not a very kind lady. More practically, imagine trying to eulogize Pamela Pilger one day, with her