Posted on 03/21/2010 4:44:14 AM PDT by Walter Scott Hudson
This morning's Washington Post contains a report summarizing the last minute political wrangling surrounding tonight's vote on President Obama's government takeover of healthcare. Protesters gathered in Washington, hoping against hope to have their voice heard by those servants elected to the Hill, were characterized thus:
Throughout the day, thousands of angry protesters milled outside the Capitol; some hurled insults at black and gay lawmakers and shouted at Democrats to "kill the bill!" Meanwhile, Obama made a final pitch for reform, exhorting wavering lawmakers to rise to the aid of millions of uninsured Americans by taking "the single most important step that we have taken on health care since Medicare" was created in 1965....
The Republican message was being received loud and clear outside the Capitol, where angry protesters gathered and waved placards that said "Defeat Obamacare" and "Born in the USA not the USSR." Republicans were treated as heroes as they walked through the crowds, who patted them on the back and thanked them for their opposition. Democrats were greeted with jeers.
Black lawmakers said some protesters hurled racial epithets at them, and in one instance, spit upon them.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said that he was walking into the Capitol to vote when a protester spat on him. Police quickly responded and detained the protester, Cleaver said in a statement, but the lawmaker declined to press charges.
Others hurled epithets at Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a former civil rights leader, and Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) as they left the Capitol after Obama's speech.
"They were shouting the N-word," Carson told reporters. "It was like a page out of a time machine."
Observers also said that Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was heckled with anti-gay epithets inside the Longworth House Office Building.
"I have heard things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to get off the back of the bus," said House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest-ranking black official in Congress.
For those who are counting, that's 287 words out of 1,223, nearly 1/4 of the article devoted to how protesters against Obamacare are racist homophobes. Conspicuously missing is any mention whatsoever of any substantive objection to the bill, as if folks traveled from across the nation to gather at their capital for the sole purpose of calling John Lewis the n-word. The other three-quarters of the article is naturally replete with quotations and summaries of Democratic rationale in favor of the bill.
This is an outrageous eleventh hour smear of the majority the public, who have made their position on health care reform abundantly clear in poll after poll. There is no indication of any attempt to follow-up with the accused protesters or obtain their side of the story. It is inconceivable that racial epitaphs represented a proportion of the day's protest significant enough to exclude all other substantive reporting.
This should have been expected.
Exactly my point.
Police quickly responded and detained the protester, Cleaver said
We are going on Cleaver’s CLAIM that the police responded. Police records can confirm this - if true...
Change the message.
If these folks actually heard any of the alleged epithets you can be certain those words were hurled by Obama crowd plants. It’s the way they work and falling back on the old race card is their MO.
I suppose if were going to be transformed into the USSR, well need Pravda for our news.
How long is it, since Mr Limbaugh has been calling the msm the State Run Media? I think we are beyond Pravda, and the bandwagon is full.
LLS
Shout the truth brother!
LLS
A big thank you to all you “brilliant” Independents and gushing-with-love-for-humanity Progressives who elected these psychotic adolescents to power.
Thank you so much.
/s/
IMHO
CNN’s Brianna Kielar going on about the alleged racist, homophobic protesters now. Says this “puts Republicans in a bad spot” as they had “hoped to use the energy of the Tea Party protesters”, but now that “something like this goes down”, that will be hard to do. She did at least admit that the vast majority of the protesters are being civil, and that during lefty protests, some go over the line. However the whole spin is to the effect that the Tea Party movement has now been ruined due to alleged, unverifiable words uttered by unknown persons. Their word against ours. Play that race card.
Shades of what those in power said when, speaking at factories, Zinoviev and Lenin were shouted down in 1918.
I doubt that more than one out of a thousand of the protestors despises those evil thugs because several congresscritters are black and a couple are gay. Every decent real American should despise those evil thugs because they are anti-American socialists who are destroying our country. Their skin color and their perversions are irrelevant.
It's my understanding that may be planning to report, as some other outlets have, that racist epithets were hurled at members of the CBC during the Tea Party rally in Washington yesterday.
I was at the rally standing along the route where and when the members of the CBC walked to and from the Capitol and and I did not hear any racial epithets uttered. Cetainly, there were many, many people yelling "kill the bill" to them as they did to every member of Congress who walked by. I certainly hope you will exercise your journalistic integrity and not publish anything disparaging about the rally in reliance solely on assertions of the CBC who have their own agenda and without objective evidence such as audio or video recordings proving that the assertions are true.
KevinB
Manufactured accusations of racism is always the first and last weapon employed by liberals. The phony accusations have no credibility except among the liberals’ own ignorant membership.
Homophobia is a good thing if you really believe this is word and not a code. These deviants are in the enemies camp. BO is merely part of the team which seeks to oppress the average freedom-loving citizen. His team consists of the super-rich (eg Soros), the limo-libs in the Sodom called Hollywood, and american-hating old media, libs and progs. These are our enemies, make no mistake, all of them our enemies.
If anyone was screaming the "N-word and faggot" it was a liberal masquerading as an angry white (conservative) extremist.
That's what liberals ALWAYS do.
Here's the video, see for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SCs6pSE8_I&feature=player_embedded
The tea party is so strong, so right and so alive with the truth, that these progressive communists must do what every communist regime in history has done to suppress their opposition - lie, misrepresent and falsely accuse to discredit their obvious common sense opposition to this bankrupt ideology.
Makes me sick...
No, I challenged them to put up the evidence. If they run the story again I will send them that and other links. It is their responsibility to back up their stories though.
That is a great letter. Claims were made that someone was arrested. Who is he and where is he now?
Their word against ours?
Why, oh why, is their word always taken for Truth?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.