Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Democratic National Committee released a new web ad on Tuesday evening, accusing the Republican Party of being taken over by an angry mob of "birther" conspiracy theorists and disgruntled partisans. DNC Goes All In: Takes On Birthers, Conservative "Mob" In New Web Ad
The spot, titled "Enough of the Mob," is as engaged as the Democratic Party has been to date with what its own leadership has deemed a fringe element of the GOP. But, with boisterous protests routinely interrupting Democratic town hall events and dominating news coverage, one DNC official put it succinctly: "We aren't going to back down from this shit."
The DNC blog Kicking Ass posted "Five Facts About Anti-Reform Mobs":
You’ve probably seen the TV coverage – angry mobs drawing devil horns on pictures of our elected officials, hanging members of Congress in effigy and breathlessly questioning President Obama’s citizenship – all in an attempt to kill health insurance reform and “break” President Obama.
We’ve noticed too, and we’re fighting back against the distortion and the lies.
This morning, DNC Executive Director Jen O’Malley Dillon emailed Democrats around the country (below) and we released a new web video to expose these mobs for what they really are: right wing extremists – funded by special interest lobbyists, and directed by GOP operatives – who are out to disrupt any thoughtful conversation about reform.
There's been a lot of media coverage about organized mobs intimidating lawmakers, disrupting town halls, and silencing real discussion about the need for real health insurance reform.
The truth is, it's a sham. These "grassroots protests" are being organized and largely paid for by Washington special interests and insurance companies who are desperate to block reform. They're trying to use lies and fear to break the President and his agenda for change.
Health insurance reform is about our lives, our jobs, and our families — we can't let distortions and intimidation get in the way. We need to expose these outrageous tactics, and we're counting on you to help. Can you read these "5 facts about the anti-reform mobs," then pass them along to your friends and family?
5 facts about the anti-reform mobs
1. These disruptions are being funded and organized by out-of-district special-interest groups and insurance companies who fear that health insurance reform could help Americans, but hurt their bottom line. A group run by the same folks who made the "Swiftboat" ads against John Kerry is compiling a list of congressional events in August to disrupt. An insurance company coalition has stationed employees in 30 states to track where local lawmakers hold town-hall meetings.
2. People are scared because they are being fed frightening lies. These crowds are being riled up by anti-reform lies being spread by industry front groups that invent smears to tarnish the President's plan and scare voters. But as the President has repeatedly said, health insurance reform will create more health care choices for the American people, not reduce them. If you like your insurance or your doctor, you can keep them, and there is no "government takeover" in any part of any plan supported by the President or Congress.
3. Their actions are getting more extreme. Texas protesters brought signs displaying a tombstone for Rep. Lloyd Doggett and using the "SS" symbol to compare President Obama's policies to Nazism. Maryland Rep. Frank Kratovil was hanged in effigy outside his district office. Rep. Tim Bishop of New York had to be escorted to his car by police after an angry few disrupted his town hall meeting — and more examples like this come in every day. And they have gone beyond just trying to derail the President's health insurance reform plans, they are trying to "break" the President himself and ruin his Presidency.
4. Their goal is to disrupt and shut down legitimate conversation. Protesters have routinely shouted down representatives trying to engage in constructive dialogue with voters, and done everything they can to intimidate and silence regular people who just want more information. One attack group has even published a manual instructing protesters to "stand up and shout" and try to "rattle" lawmakers to prevent them from talking peacefully with their constituents.
5. Republican leadership is irresponsibly cheering on the thuggish crowds. Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner issued a statement applauding and promoting a video of the disruptions and looking forward to "a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress."
It's time to expose this charade, before it gets more dangerous. Please send these facts to everyone you know. You can also post them on your website, blog, or Facebook page.
Now, more than ever, we need to stand strong together and defend the truth.
Thanks,
Jen
Jen O'Malley Dillon
Executive Director
Democratic National Committee
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Patt:
1. Because we have the most advanced medical care in the world. The treatments and equipment are expensive. We also have lots and lots of lawyers. This means malpractice insurance for doctors is very expensive. The consumer pays for this, via their insurance company. Also, we support the rest of the world. We develop most of the technology and most of the treatments.
2. I’ve never, in my entire life, had a healthcare claim denied, nor do I know anyone who has. Of course it happens. It happens with all insurance; auto, homeowners, etc. A corporation is in business to make money. Sometimes they go a little outside the bounds of what is right in order to do so.
3. I have no problem with them getting it, if they wanted it. There are 46 million uninsured folks in this country. Lets break that down. Of that 46 million, 12 million are illegals (up to 20 million depending who you ask), 9 million are children, 9.1 million make more than $75,000 a year, and 13.2 million are in their early 20’s. Illegals can and should not get healthcare paid for by state or federal tax dollars, all children are eligible for state healthcare programs, and of those that make more than $75,000 a year, most can pay for their own healthcare, but choose not to (such as myself), and most young adults choose not to purchase healthcare because they don’t think they need it. Add those numbers up – that leaves 2.7 million actual uninsured. Even that number isn’t accurate because its transient. Of those uninsured in this country, many are only uninsured for a short time. Also, those who truly cannot afford healthcare can get it from the state or government, or go to the ER for treatment. No one is denied healthcare in this country, period.
4. I’m not afraid of those with pre-existing conditions getting health care, they should just have to pay more for it.
5. I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on that. It all depends on who’s asking the question and how. I can show you polling from reputable sources that reveal 70% of Americans are happy with their healthcare and don’t want reform, and you can show me the opposite. The fact is, it’s all misdirection. And if you want an alternative, I’d say we should eliminate health insurance all together. Everyone pays their own way. Healthcare costs would fall dramatically and become much more affordable. Heck, that’s the way our parents did it (assuming you’re much past your late 30’s). Why can’t we?
Shelly, Brice and Ben,
Why does healthcare cost so much now?
Why should CEOs make millions of dollars, by denying healthcare to you and me?
Why are you afraid of Americans who don’t have healthcare getting it?
Why are you afraid of people with pre-existing conditions being able to get healthcare?
Most Americans believe a fix is needed. Please tell us your alternative plan.
I spoke tonight with Nick Coons, who intends to challenge Harry Mitchell for the 5th District seat. He said the crowd at a recent demonstration numbered at least a thousand and that the number of contacts he collected numbered in the hundreds.
If these events were really staged and demonstrators were mere shills, we’d likely have heard one of this thousand, at least, speak of what he’s been paid for shilling–and it’d be unlikely for a dark-horse candidate to have a productive afternoon of campaigning.
It appears, by the way, that this tactic of pretending that the protests are somehow fake and the protestors are paid shills is backfiring on the Left. Good. Health care reform is too important to be done quickly. We need deliberation, to find the root causes of the problem (economists already have, but the public doesn’t know) and to fix the market. We don’t need a feelgood quick-fix that leaves us no better off.
Are Republican groups organizing opposition? In some cases, sure! How is that different than it’s ever been? Senator Pelosi “astroturfed” her recent appearance in Denver, this after complaining about Republicans doing it. Except in her case, they actually hired people from a day labor center to carry professionally printed signs. Of interest is the fact that the day laborers could neither speak nor read english, and had no idea what the signs they were carrying even said.
Astroturfing is a tactic perfected by the Democrats and picked up by Republicans. It’s gone on forever. The fact remains on either side, no one is forced to attend any protest. We have free choice. To intimate different is dishonest. Every person there, whether organized or not, is there by choice.
Would any of you attend a protest against President Obama just because someone called you? Of course not. No more than I would show up to a rally for him. You have to want to show your support or opposition no matter what the cause.
How DARE you call us mobster and extremist. Why is it okay and the highest form of patriotism when Code pink destroys a recruiting station or when the like of Cindy Sheehan or moveon.org protest.
You people are hypocrites.
I am nothing but a small town librarian. I’m going to my townhall meeting because supposedly I was invited by Adam Schiff. I have a question or two to ask. Is this administration stripping us of our first amendment rights?
You people are the mobster and the thugs.
Robert, did you even bother to read the comment above? The e-mail is signed by Tom Jenney, who is the director of the local chapter of Americans for Prosperity, confirming that this political action lobbyist group is orchestrating this Astroturf campaign. There is nothing spontaneous about it.
Why are you scared of the truth?
Don’t forget to turn me in to flag@whitehouse.gov
That’s not Orwellian or anything, right?
I am on some right wing mail lists.
The “Americans for Prosperity” and the tea baggers plan to disrupt Gabby’s town hall tonight and picket her offices this weekend. AFPers will be wearing blue. Teabaggers will be wearing red.
Highlights from their email:
SOME IDEAS FOR SIGNS
My doctor is my choice!
Hands off our health care!
ObamaCare = Long lines, poor quality
ObamaCare = Death
Read the Bill, Gabby! Then vote NO!
Read Page 30 of HR 3200: Govt will decide who gets treated
Read Page 72 of HR 3200: All private plans must conform to govt rules
Read Page 124 of HR 3200: No one can sue the govt health monopoly
Read Page 149 of HR 3200: 8% payroll tax on large employers
Read Page 150 of HR 3200: 6% payroll tax on small employers
Read Page 167 of HR 3200: 2.5% tax on people who don’t go along
Read Page 272 of HR 3200: Cancer hospital payments will be rationed
Read Page 318 of HR 3200: Hospital expansions prohibited w/o govt approval
Read Page 335 of HR 3200: “Outcome-based measures” = Rationing
Gabby: Don’t let DC bureaucrats destroy health care
Don’t pull the plug on elderly Americans!
Fed up with govt health care
The VA almost killed me—ObamaCare will finish the job
If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it’s “free”
We say NO to ObamaCare
Where will the Canadians go for surgery?
Fascism: When govt decides whether you live or die
5) WHY THIS PROTEST IS IMPORTANT
This is the fight of the decade for American liberty. Now is the time to take a stand.
President Obama and the leftists in Congress wanted to hurry up and complete the national government’s takeover of American health care–before the public got a chance to find out what was in the legislation. We are grateful to report that the legislation does not look like it will move until after the August recess. That means we have a very limited window to act.
The same people who have taken over private banks and much of the auto industry now want to take over even more of the health care sector. The same people who make you wait in line at the Post Office want to create a system in which you will have to wait weeks, months, or even years for life-saving or life-improving medical services. The same kind of people who run America’s very expensive and very ineffective public schools claim that they will (somehow) maintain quality and control costs in the health care sector.
Some of the central planners in Washington want to give government the power to say which doctors you can go to, and which medical procedures you can and can’t have. President Obama is not sure whether the government should have allowed his own grandmother to get a hip replacement. Imagine how Washington bureaucrats will treat YOU!
We must take a stand NOW to protect elderly patients, to maintain the high quality of health services in America, and to preserve the essential doctor-patient relationship. Government has already distorted US health insurance markets by making private health insurance too expensive for many Americans, and by making American workers dependent upon on employer-provided insurance. But if you think things are bad now, wait until government completes its takeover of the medical sector. We must STOP the rapid march of socialist health care!
For Liberty,
Tom Jenney
Arizona Director
Americans for Prosperity
http://joinpatientsfirst.com/
http://www.arizonateaparty.com/
Sorry for the long post, but it’s important to see what we’re up against.