Who's watching Specter's Town Hall

on GEM$NBC

Good to see police there.

get on tee vee! :eyes:

Easily convinced by any loud, hateful voice on the radio.

This is a fairly well-known psychological trait. The question, as always, is how do we come to believe what we believe. Many do not distinguish between belief and knowledge -- and those who do find it difficult to achieve mutual clarity in drawing the line. (See any discussion on tobacco, guns, death penalty, etc.)

... I feel like I'm listening to one side of a tapped phone-conversation, reading this thread! ...

got up with no number and started attacking Specter verbally. Police were going to escort him out but Specter stopped them and handled it quite well.

They're back to taking questions by number

:hi:

what crazies

What a fuckin' nutball...

and incoherent gibberish too

if he had a question he should have had a number

30 "cards" for people to ask questions - not prescreened by the way. If he did not receive a card he could not ask a question which I think was his point. There is not unlimited time at these events so I understand the Senator's system. But just because he did not have a card didn't mean he didn't want to ask a question. I agree that Sen. Specter handled it well though.

Nothing important to say there.

Senator- "We don't have a bill in the senate."

Wackos- "Boo!"

unpatriotic for daring to criticize Bush

The same place Spector was maybe? In the Bush camp?

as they really are. "god will judge you'..........pullllleaze.

All the older politicians will now realize the ugliness that the repug party and its media outlets have unleashed. We saw it germinate in the Palin rallies; now the crazies have taken over. I am worried about Obama's townhall meeting today. I hope there's a huge contingent of Secret Service there.

from cradle to grave.

"The illegals shouldn't be here!"

"tort reform!"

How many talking points can one moran get into a question?

on the table for discussion. At least he is willing to have everything discussed.

I wouldn't give too much credence to anything Arlen SAYS--he is known to be a spectacular flip-flopper after saying what he knows you want to hear.

the country (Texas) so I don't keep up with everything Arlen says or what he really does. Thanks for the fair warning.

in the audience

Keep the gubernate out of my medicare.

Systematic destruction of our country. Turning into Russia - Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah chile you're too young to be so fugging stupid.

He's doing some serious yeoman's work.

:eyes:

are there any democrats in the crowd?

Specter is answering her question well. He's taking her seriously and helping her.

This young conservative thing doesn't like the current admin and is making no bones about it.

:rofl:

Let the morans speak. :rofl:
Specter is really handling this well - I'm shocked I tell you.

and she brought her own cheering section with her.

.

government.

So, when do you plan on starting?

What a load of crap.

those teabaggers would tell uninsured family members to either go to the ER or file for bankruptcy...they are heartless.

and fill the front of the rooms.

How have these disruptors managed to have so many of the numbers.

Still I'm glad GEM$NBC is covering this.

I just watched one woman complain of the "systematic dismantling of the country". Dear Jumpin' Jesus Jehosapahat, where was this dame during the last eight years? bush and cheney peed all over the Constitution every damn day and I'll bet this wackaloon said nothing about it.

The ignorance and narrow-mindedness of these people is astounding.

They aren't taking care of the sick. This is happening everywhere, the sick need PAID HELP to help take care of them.

Selfish bastards.

She claimed that govmint had awakened a sleeping giant. (And a very ignorant one at that.)

Loved the guy who wants ALL language in every govmint bill to be written at 6th grade reading level. (In the US that really means 4th grade level.)

:eyes:

liar liar pants on fire!

there is a lot of dumb in that room

I can't imagine having to face these pathetic "morans" and their misinformed BS questions.

had moderate Repubs and many Dems vote for him. These are the Rick Santorum voters.

A popular democratic president will bring out the democrats.

Doesn't this strike anyone else as being strange?

Also, why have these meetings during the typical workday? Why not evenings or on a weekend?

They only chose to show meetings that contradict the factual story line of RW organized disruption.

CNN msnbc (who's revenues are derived from the pay-or-die industries) chose to cover this because it was know that the crowd would put forward many of the paranoid memes of the pay-or-die industries.

Just listen to all of the hosts discuss how civilized and well informed this crowd was. :wow:

the level of understanding or lack thereof.

Dumb down everything to their moronic level. F**king stupid people.

I want to watch the loonies

A nurse.

and now he spouts the RW talking points. He wants tort reform (so says his fellow sheeple). Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! :rofl

No one's going to take the mike from him, LOL!

for sure

Said he is not part of the "astroturf crowd" yet they filled in his lapse of memory by shouting "tort reform"

lies come easy to this filth

several years ago. I read that the number of medical malpractice lawsuits filed here in PA has declined by more than 40% since the law was enacted in 2002, but my health insurance premiums have continued to climb at record rates.

but about what I have no idea. I think they might just be really unpleasant people.

And what is this repeated thing on "tort reform"? So tort reform is going to provide insurance for the uninsured? It's going to make sure that insurance companies don't drop the ill? Tort reform is a straw dog, assholes.

For any bills that ARE written, they need to be worded in plain, ordinary language, understandable at the Junior High School level.

These things need to be written so that as many people as possible can understand them. They need to skip the Washington-ese bullshit already....

To make a determination. Look at the controversy over "natural born citizen" - sounds simple but in 200+ years no court has made a final determination. The law has to be detailed and has to use the terms to specify every point or it will be subverted.

Sorry - I do not agree with dumbing down the entire country to the level of these tea baggers. There are summaries available for the bills, read those if you cannot wade through the legalese. But don't expect the law to be written for an eighth grader and expect it to be specific enough to not be gotten around by crooks.

Even that can be misunderstood/misinterpreted/misused by people intent on fogging up the issue.


Why did the Catholic church hold such power over its believers for so long? Because everything was done in Latin. Good way to practice malevolent exclusivity when the general populace doesn't understand what's being said.

Same thing for bills and laws. Yeah...not everyone is going to understand, even at an 8th grade level. But when language is so twisted as to be totally incomprehensible, that just gives the government all the more reason, and power, for pulling the wool over the eyes of its people.

The more people who CAN understand these things, the more people will bother to read them and at least be somewhat more informed than many people are now.


Edited to add:

People call the "other side" stupid and ill informed. Not advocating for simplifying the language would be as illogical as taking away someone's access to soap and water, then calling the person a dirty filthy pig because he IS dirty.

When most people I know try to explain things to someone, they do end up "dumbing down" the talk. You don't talk to a five year old the same way you'd talk to a college student, and vice versa.

If we want the ignorant amongst us to understand what's going on in this country, unfortunately, we'll have to bite the bullet and "dumb down" if that's what it takes. I guess some people think they're above that sort of thing...

:shrug:

Have you ever tried to read the municipal code for the town or city where you live? Opaque legalese, I am sure, even if you live in a tiny village without many laws. But that is what is needed to make sure all the legal bases are covered.

Remember a few years back when Florida passed an amendment to the state constitution about pigs in crates? The intention was to prevent factory farms keeping pregnant sows in crates so small they could not reach their piglets. The factories were doing that because a certain percentage of sows will kills their babies.

But the amendment was so badly put it that, as my MIL said, "A pregnant woman cannot keep a pig in a crate." But the amendment passed - the beginning of the real stupidity in Florida.

bank accounts. says he won't support any bill that has that. Why doesn't he say that this is not being proposed? That was one of the misinformation points put out there that was debunked in one of the articles posted here this week.

wouldn't support it, he suggests it could be in the final bill.

I no longer have tolerance for people like him.

because they don't know what they are talking about.

people'. What does that have to do with health care reform? Have all the stupidest people in Pennsylvania been crowded into one room?

and you lost.

Whenever it comes to Democratic spending priorities like health care reform, there's, of course, NEVER any money to go into them but Republicans, however, can apparently spend money with impunity as long as they tell us that it's for tax cuts or military spending. I'm glad that President Obama isn't buying into that nonsense and is pushing ahead with his health care reform agenda and I think he did a particularly good job at his presser pointing out that reforming health care reform will ultimately help the economy.

and his re-election chances.

Most of the folks there feel he betrayed them by switching parties. He's got balls for walking into that mess.

:rofl:

She said that if a man is 70 and gets cancer, he would be written off. Specter got pretty ticked.

But I know what you mean.

My TV is "stuck" on Nickelodeon right now. Although, to be fair, the dialog on "El Tigre" is a lot more intelligent than what seems to be going on at Specter's Town Hall.

of the people asking questioned seem dumber than a bag of hammers they do not seem to be crossing the line into thug behavior (the guy who bitched for 5 minutes about not being able to speak came close). Just seems like uninformed individuals exercising their civil rights to me.

from all the rest of us.

is supposedly kicking the disrupters out. He's trying to keep this in control. Were he not, I'm sure you'd see the howling masses doing their thing.

hall that has been covered live instead of clips from cell phone videos that make both sides look bad. A viewer tuning in to see what all the hubbub is about and to see these "un-American" disrupters were doing would be left with the impression that these people may be wrong but they are not thugs like many on the left have been claiming.

But issuing death-threats, threatening members of Congress with physical violence, and effigy-hangings are NOT covered under the First Amendment.

"Many on the left" is an interesting turn of phrase, by the way.

town hall meeting. My post was about THIS meeting - the first that I have seen that was carried live by the MSM, and how viewing THIS meeting would "play in Peoria".

a thinking person chose to educate themselves, they could go to youtube and look all day long at how civilized these folks are. Here's a few examples if you're really as clueless as you seem to be...

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/11/cardin-protests/

have been following this very closely but thanks for the link anyway - it was a good refresher. My point is was that most people in america are NOT as "tuned in" as we here on DU are. Since these town halls have been in the MSM and after the hubbub over Speaker Pelosi's comments about "un-American" many more may be tuning in to see what is going on. What they saw if they watched only this town hall was mainly vigorous, boisterous debate by people that seemed generally concerned (but dumber than a bag of hammers). The guy at the beginning was out of line and could have been removed (by the police not whomever first tried to remove him - plays into the union thug meme) but I liked how Senator Specter handled it.

The "good hearts" of all those screaming, angry, selfish lunatics are going to take care of the sick. Yeah, right.

They don't like Obama and want him to fail miserably to make a point. That's how I see their outlandish and uncivilized behavior.

asses?
This is so Rethug orchestrated that it isn't funny. They want their country back!!

They didn't care when Bushco was ripping up their beloved Constitution and invading their privacy right in their ignorant mugs while laughing heartily. Plus, many of the people screaming "leave us alone" and "don't touch our health care" look to be one unplanned jog away from a heart attack. For their sake and because some of us are humane, let's hope they have sufficient health care coverage if the worst ever befalls them.

Dumb asses!

Unbelievable! :sarcasm:

select their commissioners? These people are batshit crazy. Never have I seen such a well orchestrated inversion of reality. The mob is accusing the government of wanting to do what the private insurance companies have been doing for ages.

Don't expect M$Greedia to point that out.

I guess it was okay when Bush lived there, because he only spied on Muslins (sic) and other America-haters.

The stupid would be hilarious if it wasn't so very, very real...

And Specter had not heard this lying rumor. :eyes:

Just catching the tail end of the forum but was there some intelligence displayed that I missed?!?

Arlen Specter is a gentleman, so I doubt he would call any crowd of bunch of ill-informed, ignorant, stupid a-holes.

They are his constituents.

to continue to fly. By calling them "well informed," he is telling them that they are right!

they knew all the right wing talking points.

That Ratigan dude on MSNBC said the same thing about the mob being well-informed and asking "intelligent" questions. I suppose you and I were in another room getting a cup of coffee when the mob 'intelligentsia' were handed the mic.

Has to be.

We elected Obama to get this done....idiot.

You lost. Deal with it.

That the way it goes.