Posted on 08/06/2009 6:27:04 PM PDT by tcrlaf
Edited on 08/06/2009 8:09:35 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Tampa, Florida - Angry protesters and strong supporters are clashing inside and all around a health care reform town hall meeting in Downtown Tampa. The meeting which was scheduled to begin at 6:00 at the Children's Board of Hillsborough County drew hundreds of people who quickly began to overwhelm staff and event organizers at the front entrance.
(Excerpt) Read more at wtsp.com ...
More info from a posting on the WTSP website:
"From what I gather - EXTENDED:
SEIU & Castor (whose contributors are predominantly unions trial lawyers, teamsters etc] organize (pay to play) a townhall and announce it at the last minute as to reduce opposition voices.
Never the less, the word gets out at the last minute to citizen-led, unfunded grassroots organizations like 9-12 meetup group. Citizens opposed to government-run healthcare gather at the last minute to have their voices heard.
Exactly what Castor and SEIU did not want.
Inside, the townhall seated are mostly union members/supporters/people - yet seats remain empty. Hundreds of citizens outside. And yet public is not allowed in.
Castor makes speech turns it over to panel. Soon leaves.
People were prevented access inside to the meeting. Because of this apparent denial of free speech and bias -- and the seemingly blatant sham of a 'townhall' -- many began to shout, some banged windows & doors.
This is what I am surmising / what I am gathering from updates via Twitter.
Cowards. Thugs. And liars. (The Dems and their Union thug supporters)
good for all those who turned out in Tampa to protest Deathcare / Hellcare / Zerocare.
I love this line from your post....
“Inside, the townhall seated are mostly union members/supporters/people - yet seats remain empty.”
Does that mean no zombies, vampires or bears are seated?
"Dingell (D-MI) forum on health care forms gets raucous"
Updated at 8:15 p.m.
U.S. Rep. John Dingell was greeted with jeers and cheers today as he tried to explain why changing the nation’s health care system — as he has advocated for more than a half-century in Congress — makes sense.
Dingell, 81, told a health care forum he sponsored in Romulus that the legislation won’t pay for abortions, as some protesters said it would.
“There will be no payment of taxpayer funds for abortion,” he said.
As Dingell tried to begin the forum, Mike Sola, of Milan, interrupted the congressman repeatedly as he pushed his son, Scott, in a wheelchair, to the podium. He said proposed changes wouldn’t help Scott and called Dingell a fraud.
Even before the town hall began in Romulus, opponents of President Barack Obama’s health plan engaged supporters.
“You may be dead in five years,” Val Butsicaris, 60, of Taylor, shouted. “They may euthanize you.”
She referred to concerns of government rationing of care for the elderly.
Mel Hoffer, 67, of Monroe, a retired Ford Motor Co. employee, said retired autoworkers have no guarantees.
“We may need something to fall back on,” he said.
Earlier in Troy, about 200 people gathered outside the office of U.S. Rep. Gary Peters to let him know they don’t like Obama’s health care plan.
The organized protests that came to metro Detroit today followed others around the nation this week. In Petoskey on Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, faced shouts of “That’s a lie” and “You’ve lost my vote” at a meeting with senior citizens. I'd post the entire article on it's own but can't due to restrictions. http://freep.com/article/20090806/NEWS15/90806087/Dingell-forum-on-health-care-reforms-gets-raucous
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/article1025529.ece
From A Tampa Bay Online Article:
“Asked earlier today about possible disruption at the event, Kim Diehl of SEIU said, “We’re prepared. We have strategies to deal with it if it should come up.””
Imagine that....
SEIU, the AFLCIO, and Obama’s own stormtroopers, “Organizing For America” show up, and there is violence. Who’d a thunk it.
It’s EXACTLY what the Radical Socialist Democrats wanted!!
But wait, I thought Obama was elected to be a uniter.
For some reason, I thought that would mean NOT openly engaging his “army” of Union and ACORN members to go head-to-head with peaceful protesters. I was expecting something more subtle, like a gentle wave of his hand.
Can’t we all just get along? < /sarc>
Any video, or pics?
see
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2310091/posts?page=25
for first hand report - brief but there.
FReeper screamin sunshine was there - see their report at the end of the thread.
Guarantee you, next move, Obama will call up the Guard to patrol the meetings. That is what all these liberal talking points are about, so that he will have justification.
COMPLETE WITH THEIR OWN DR MENGELE, THE HOMOSEXUAL EZEKIEL EMMANUELE.
STOP THEM BEFORE THIS CREEPY SOB AND HIS RED SOB COMRADES ARE IN CHARGE OF DECIDING WHETHER YOU AND YOUR FAMILY LIVE OR DIE.
Sounds like a union thug event. Watch and see—Obama’s flunkies are going to hurt some innocent citizen real bad at one of these things so as to deter people from coming out. That is the Community Organizer’s MO.
I remember when the Philly thug union did this to two FReepers some years back to suppress opposition to their candidate (Ed Rendell).
That’s what we want. Images of a town hall with people outside trying to get in.
Politicians and strategists praise Patrick Gaspard highly, although he stays away from the limelight.
"Patrick is the best political mind of his generation in New York and maybe the nation," says Kevin Sheekey, who as Michael Bloomberg's right-hand-man has frequently worked and battled with Gaspard.
"I wouldn't dispute that," said David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist and Gaspard's cohort on the campaign trail. When reminded that such a title could be bestowed on Axelrod himself, the strategist said he was "happy to cede that" to Gaspard.
The Washington Post, among others, has announced that a longtime labor operative of Barack Obama's, Patrick Gaspard, will be named Obama's White House political director.
Gaspard served as national political director for much of Obama's general election campaign and was named deputy director of personnel for the transition effort. Prior to his work with Obama, Gaspard was the lead political operative for the 1199 branch of the Service Employees International Union, a huge and hugely influential union representing health care workers in New York. He spent the 2004 general election as the national field director for America Coming Together.
Gaspard was featured prominently in Ryan Lizza's recent New Yorker piece detailing how Obama won. Of his job interview with the Illinois Senator, Gaspard recalled Obama saying: "I think that I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director."
What is the point of a townhall where only one point of view can be expressed? It seems to me that this is a hijacking of democracy by Castor and his union friends. Take it out on the Congressman next November.
"The Difficulty of Tolerance"
"Must We Mean What We Say?"
These people are walking caricatures.
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