The Awl http://www.theawl.com/ Be Less Stupid Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:53:05 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.2 Town Halls: Confused Angry People Say "No" To Not Giving Health Care To Immigrants? http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/town-halls-confused-angry-people-say-no-to-not-giving-health-care-to-immigrants http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/town-halls-confused-angry-people-say-no-to-not-giving-health-care-to-immigrants#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:53:05 +0000 Choire Sicha http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/town-halls-confused-angry-people-say-no-to-not-giving-health-care-to-immigrants PHOTOSHOP THIS, DEATH PANELERS
Wonkette went to Jim Moran's health care town hall in Virginia and all they got was the sadness.

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]]> PHOTOSHOP THIS, DEATH PANELERS
Wonkette went to Jim Moran's health care town hall in Virginia and all they got was the sadness.

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2 comments

]]> http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/town-halls-confused-angry-people-say-no-to-not-giving-health-care-to-immigrants/feed 2 The Last of the Hot Summer Town Halls: How We've All Been Fooled By The Health Care Debate http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/the-last-of-the-hot-summer-town-halls-how-weve-all-been-fooled-by-the-health-care-debate http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/the-last-of-the-hot-summer-town-halls-how-weve-all-been-fooled-by-the-health-care-debate#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:48:29 +0000 Abe Sauer http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/the-last-of-the-hot-summer-town-halls-how-weve-all-been-fooled-by-the-health-care-debate Confronting DorganAbnormally interesting town hall meetings have caused some in Congress to make their August events invitation-only. This tactic, a favorite of the Bush administration, has been bemoaned by the right as cowardice. Senator Byron Dorgan, who puts the D in the Red State of ND, went ahead and held meetings anyway. I went to a few to see what the fuss was all about. (Hint: It's not about health care.)

If our Congress can be measured on a scale of feces (and it should), Senator Byron Leslie Dorgan is closer to adorable rabbit droppings than, say, the diseased swine diarrhea that is Michele Bachmann (R-MN). A three-time senator, Dorgan is the author of Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics Are Selling Out America. One of only eight senators to vote "No" on 1999's financial deregulation, he is now famous for saying: "I think we will look back in 10 years and say we should not have done this, but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past."

Despite his brave stand on behalf of his flock during a period of unchecked growth and dumdum optimism, many now say outright that they do not trust him. Also, he blogs for the HuffPo. Best of all, Dorgan is fit, nearly svelte, a graying, trustworthy John Edwards, a man for whom flat-front L.L. Bean slacks were invented. Because who wants to trust health care reform to some fatso?

My first stop was the Mayville Senior Citizen Center. It's a tiny ag town between Fargo and Grand Forks along the Red River. Not 20 miles the other side of the river is Minnesota's 7th Congressional district, represented by Collin Peterson (D-MN)-who you may have recently heard is in a bit of trouble after saying he doesn't do town halls anymore because "Twenty-five percent of my people believe the Pentagon and Rumsfeld were responsible for taking the Twin Towers down."

Bingo!

All week here, during old people hour (i.e., the nightly news) on the TV, commercials from the Club for Growth were in heavy rotation. The commercial's gist: "Old people will be forcibly put down unless they oppose reform." During my drive to Mayville, Excellence in Broadcasting® is on and Rush was giving "just the facts" on the H.R. 3200 bill.

On the way back, it was Hannity. Both mentioned "death panels."

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]]> Confronting DorganAbnormally interesting town hall meetings have caused some in Congress to make their August events invitation-only. This tactic, a favorite of the Bush administration, has been bemoaned by the right as cowardice. Senator Byron Dorgan, who puts the D in the Red State of ND, went ahead and held meetings anyway. I went to a few to see what the fuss was all about. (Hint: It's not about health care.)

If our Congress can be measured on a scale of feces (and it should), Senator Byron Leslie Dorgan is closer to adorable rabbit droppings than, say, the diseased swine diarrhea that is Michele Bachmann (R-MN). A three-time senator, Dorgan is the author of Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain-Dead Politics Are Selling Out America. One of only eight senators to vote "No" on 1999's financial deregulation, he is now famous for saying: "I think we will look back in 10 years and say we should not have done this, but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past."

Despite his brave stand on behalf of his flock during a period of unchecked growth and dumdum optimism, many now say outright that they do not trust him. Also, he blogs for the HuffPo. Best of all, Dorgan is fit, nearly svelte, a graying, trustworthy John Edwards, a man for whom flat-front L.L. Bean slacks were invented. Because who wants to trust health care reform to some fatso?

My first stop was the Mayville Senior Citizen Center. It's a tiny ag town between Fargo and Grand Forks along the Red River. Not 20 miles the other side of the river is Minnesota's 7th Congressional district, represented by Collin Peterson (D-MN)-who you may have recently heard is in a bit of trouble after saying he doesn't do town halls anymore because "Twenty-five percent of my people believe the Pentagon and Rumsfeld were responsible for taking the Twin Towers down."

Bingo!

All week here, during old people hour (i.e., the nightly news) on the TV, commercials from the Club for Growth were in heavy rotation. The commercial's gist: "Old people will be forcibly put down unless they oppose reform." During my drive to Mayville, Excellence in Broadcasting® is on and Rush was giving "just the facts" on the H.R. 3200 bill.

On the way back, it was Hannity. Both mentioned "death panels."

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]]> http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/the-last-of-the-hot-summer-town-halls-how-weve-all-been-fooled-by-the-health-care-debate/feed 33 A Rock 'n' Roll Song About Town Hall Meetings http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/a-rock-n-roll-song-about-town-hall-meetings http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/a-rock-n-roll-song-about-town-hall-meetings#comments Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:00:28 +0000 Choire Sicha http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/a-rock-n-roll-song-about-town-hall-meetings Set to what is apparently the karaoke track to Billy Idols' "Rebel Yell," here is a song about health care protests. My mind is a little blown?

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]]> Set to what is apparently the karaoke track to Billy Idols' "Rebel Yell," here is a song about health care protests. My mind is a little blown?

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]]> http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/a-rock-n-roll-song-about-town-hall-meetings/feed 14 Republicans and the Town Hall Strategy: "Political Terrorists" http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/republicans-and-the-town-hall-strategy-political-terrorists http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/republicans-and-the-town-hall-strategy-political-terrorists#comments Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:01:21 +0000 Choire Sicha http://www.theawl.com/2009/08/republicans-and-the-town-hall-strategy-political-terrorists OH FUN2008 Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Pearlstein warns today in his Washington Post column that he is going to go "over the line." This sounds exciting! But actually he just asserts some basic facts in this bullshit, fabricated, ridiculous and saddening summer-long political propaganda fest over healthcare. For instance! "The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems. "

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]]> OH FUN2008 Pulitzer Prize winner Steven Pearlstein warns today in his Washington Post column that he is going to go "over the line." This sounds exciting! But actually he just asserts some basic facts in this bullshit, fabricated, ridiculous and saddening summer-long political propaganda fest over healthcare. For instance! "The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems. "

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