Putsch Comes to Shove: Health Care Meetings Devolving to Chaos (Updated)

By Roy Edroso Fri., Aug. 7 2009 at 7:45 AM

Categories: Democracy, Exploring the Right Wing Blogosphere, Featured, Politics

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Well, those health care town meetings are going pretty much as you might expect: one in Tampa, Florida was punctuated by protesters yelling "Forty million illegals" and "Tell the truth," banging on windows, and then telling the St. Petersburg Times, "They can't even run a meeting, and they want to run health care?" Rightbloggers counter that their people were gated out of a similar event in St. Louis while union members were allowed ingress. (Several people were arrested at that meeting, including a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter. A reformer was among them, though the St. Louis Tea Party report seems not to notice.)

A health care reform group has sent out a memo on how to deal with protesters who "seek confrontation," which Gathering of Eagles NY characterizes as a "dirty tricks playbook"...

Pirate's Cove mocks a wussy Democrat Congressman for bailing on a town hall because he got one little death threat. John Boehner promises Democrats a "very, very hot summer." American Power is excited: "Now the Democrats are totally freaking out!"

Other relevant headlines: "Recapping the Pelosi Swastika Reports," "Town meeting disruptions and cultural fascism," "You better not say anything bad about THE GREAT OBAMA or his ideas!" "Kristalnacht Town Meetings," etc.

Too bad they're not having one of these things in New York -- we've still got some whistles and bandanas left over from Tompkins Square '88.

Update: Ha! Anthony Wiener put one over on us, holding an alleged Town Hall with only a couple hours' public notice, drawing only codgers interested in the $2 lunch. "There were none of the shouting protesters who've halted town-hall forums elsewhere," says a disappointed New York Post.

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