Free Republic

<p>WASHINGTON -- If you were hoping for a repeat of those town hall meetings last summer where Democrats were confronted by angry voters who opposed President Obama's health care bill, well, forget it. They're cancelled.</p> <p>Democrats passed government-run Obamacare, despite strong grassroots opposition in their states and districts, and now these so-called "public servants" are unwilling to go through the democratic ritual of having to listen to what dissatisfied voters think of them now.</p>

Union Violence: An African-American is beaten up at a political rally by thugs shouting racial epithets, and after three months his assailants are charged with the moral equivalent of jaywalking. Why wasn't it a hate crime? The beating of Kenneth Gladney by people wearing the purple shirts of the Service Employees International Union outside a Missouri health care town hall meeting three months ago met all the classic definitions of a hate crime. Time was, the beating of a black man outside a protest rally, and the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators, would be headline news. Gladney was working...

1st Amendment: Mark Lloyd, a disciple of Saul Alinsky and fan of Hugo Chavez, wants to destroy talk radio and says free speech is a distraction. The new FCC diversity "czar" says Venezuela is an example we should follow.When Mark Lloyd was appointed July 29 as the chief diversity officer at the Federal Communications Commission, a nation focused on ObamaCare and a deteriorating economy took little notice. But as angry constituents flood town hall meetings and call in to talk radio, a man dedicated to silencing them sits at the right hand of the president. They share a common hero...

As the anger over the nation's movement towards socialism grows, Democrats' patience with town hall meeting protesters is clearly wearing thin. On Saturday, Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) instructed security guards to escort what ended up being a retired New York City patrolman out of a fiery Manchester gathering. Removed from the forum because he continually interrupted Shea-Porter and others in Manchester was Carl Tomanelli of Londonderry, who objected when her staff passed out health care stickers before the event began. He also objected that people outside Shea-Porter's Congressional district were in the room, including a young man who could not...

Via Gateway Pundit, although I’m certain there’s an alternative explanation. Maybe the leader of the Long Island Federation of Labor couldn’t make it to the town-hall forum in his own district, or perhaps his Representative was busy hiding, like many House Democrats this August. His attempt to pander to the actual constituents of Rep. Tim Bishop results in catcalls and a full minute of disruption. Jim also reports that the Magical Mystery Bus Tour continued for this meeting, with unions sending three busloads of people to the event. Even so, the angry constituents shout them down fairly effectively … or...

NY Congressman Tim Bishop tried to pack his town hall with unions on the ‘take’ for nationalized healthcare. The people of his district erupt in open rebellion when one of the union goons tries to speak! Union members, many from outside the district, were snuck into the hall beforehand in an effort to stack the deck with a friendly audience. The last straw came when one of the union leaders from outside the district was asked to speak. The citizens erupted in open revolt which almost led to violence from the union goons.

More than 900 residents met U.S. Rep. Tim Bishop's promise to approve only a health care bill that "improves on a status quo that is unacceptable" with a mix of cheers and boos at a packed town hall meeting in Farmingville Thursday night.

A local union leader was booed out of Rep. Tim Bishop's town hall meeting last night in New York.Like they tried to do here in St. Louis, union members, many from outside the district, were snuck into the hall in an effort to stack the deck with a friendly audience. There are reports that as many as three busloads were brought in.Things boiled over when Mr. Mitchell, head of the Long Island Federation of Labor, steps up to the podium and announces that he in fact does not reside within the borders of NY's First Congressional District.

Congressman Tim Bishop is holding a town hall meeting at Brookhaven Town Hall on August 27. Bishop's website states "Congressman Bishop is currently undecided on how he will vote on health care legislation." IF you wish to be inside and asking questions, please arrive early. We need to fill the room with our well informed membership and take him to task for his preordained decisions to follow Pelosi's marching orders. Bishop will parrot his rhetoric regarding health care so let's be ready to also ask him about the other policies and issues that comprise the tyranny that is enveloping us...

Just a week ago, I noted what a non-entity Minnesota’s other Senator, Amy Klobuchar, has been in the Senate. Yesterday, Klobuchar gave a demonstration of why she’s been the Unknown Senator and losing ground in the state during her tenure. Klobuchar held her one and only session of accountability with her constituents over the phone yesterday evening instead of facing the voters directly. Not only that, but the teleconference was somewhat difficult to join: U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar took the national health care debate to the phone lines Sunday night, talking with more than 10,000 Minnesotans about reforming the current...

After enraged constituents started showing up at Congressional town-hall forums to oppose ObamaCare, the unions acted quickly to counterdemonstrate on behalf of the Democratic agenda item. In at least one case, union representatives used violence to intimidate and harrass ObamaCare opponents. The same union, which represents a large percentage of government workers and would be presumably immune from any health-care reform action, issued memos demanding volunteers to “drown out” opposition to ObamaCare. But why? This report from the Detroit Free Press explains that the unions....

On Thursday, August 27 at 6:30pm, Congressman Tim Bishop will host a Town Hall meeting at Brookhaven Town Hall, located at 1 Independence Hill in Farmingville. The meeting is open to all members of the public. Congressman Bishop has spent the month of August focused on health care policy, including meeting with dozens of constituents to discuss where they stand, hosting tele-Town Hall meetings with thousands of people, studying the legislation that is currently before the House of Representatives, and personally calling constituents who have contacted his office. Congressman Bishop is currently undecided on how he will vote on health...

Not the first to go on the milk carton but the first to bail on her constituents — and it looks like she’ll have company. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, whose decision to duck town-hall forums surprised New Hampshire constituents who remember her pre-election town-hall antics, has decided to grace voters with her presence after all. However, she’s managed to schedule it at a time next Saturday when activists had planned to be elsewhere. Don’t worry about attending Rep. Paul Hodes’ forum, however. Granite Grok reports that Hodes is holing up in a union hall for his constituent outreach. Apparently, he feels...

On the eve of the August recess, members are reporting meetings that have gone terribly awry, marked by angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior. In at least one case, a congressman has stopped holding town hall events because the situation has spiraled so far out of control. “I had felt they would be pointless,” Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO, referring to his recent decision to temporarily suspend the events in his Long Island district. “There is no point in meeting with my constituents and [to] listen to them and have them listen to you if what is basically an...

I can't help it; I come from a long line of worrywarts. My wife makes fun of me because I am always worrying. Usually my concern surrounds my kids, family or even a close friend, but never a public figure. Not this time. What's worse is my worry's causing me to lose sleep, and it's not even someone I know personally. I am very concerned about Steve Israel, my Congressman. Congressman Israel is a great moral man who cares about his district. As a matter of fact, he always shows up at my Synagogue to make a speech. It happens...

The approach of Missouri represenatives to dealing with the outcry against the health care bill has run the gamut. In St. Louis, Rep. Russ Carnahan has held three disastrous public events. In Lee’s Summit, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver — no doubt influenced by the experiences of Carnahan and others — held a “tele-town hall” and a morning coffee, taking no questions from the audience, all the while insisting that “there is no health care bill” to talk about anyway. It appears Ike Skelton has one-upped them both. He hasn’t held, and apparently might not hold, any public meetings on the matter....

Leadership: Scores of congressmen and women are trying to hide from their constituents this August recess as the revolt over ObamaCare continues. If you haven't seen him or her lately, you might try your refrigerator.IBD Exclusive Series: Government-Run Healthcare: A Prescription For FailureIt's amazing how frightened of the community the party of the great community organizer has become now that the community has organized itself against his attempt to impose socialized medicine on the country. They cheered when he told them to get in the faces of their opponents. Now they won't show their faces, period. Senate Majority Whip Dick...

Dick Durbin, you spoilsport. The state's senior U.S. senator may (or may not) have made a wise decision to forego hosting health care town halls in his home state, but in any case he's denying us of a spectacle we deserve. After all, who isn't dying to see how a relatively close, personal friend of the president (and the No. 2 man in the Senate as Harry Reid's assistant majority leader) would handle the (planted or not) mobs that would turn out to shout him down? Some of those mobs may even be made up of liberals, now that Durbin...

LAST week on Long Island, opponents of the Democrats' government-take over health-care legislation outnumbered Obama supporters 10 to one. The ObamaCare foes toted American flags and signs that read "We Can't Afford Free Health Care" -- prompting one foe to stalk into the peaceful crowd, gesticulate wildly and shout unintelligible threats at the top of his lungs. These protests are an outgrowth of the broad Tea Party movement -- the coalition of fiscal conservatives and independents that caught fire after the Democrat majority rammed through the stimulus. The same Democratic Masters of Astroturf who encouraged their followers to use "in-your-face"...