NBC news ran a bit last night on conservative protests at “town hall meetings”. It was pretty neutral, but I couldn’t help but think about all the liberal protests that get free passes when they protest.

Here are links to some of their spin. Is it fair? Accurate?

http://tinyurl.com/lf9ywf

Sorry to double post, but two links puts me into moderation.

I quit GetReligion when they the level of anti-catholic rhetoric reached the level of “the Catholic Church was responsible for the holocaust”, but I looked over there and found this decent post on general problems of opinion vs. news reporting.

http://www.getreligion.org/?p=16081#comments

No broadband at the moment, so I have not heard the audio, but this AARP meeting in Dallas this last Tuesday is supposed to be pretty hot stuff.

It being an AARP meeting, though, nobody was physically assaulted, no.

Quo vadis, patria mea?

There was shouting and chanting, but no violence, at these affairs until Obama and the DNC sent in the union thugs. I thought dissent was patriotic? Apparently it has to be liberal dissent from a conservative administration. Freedom for me, but not for thee.

I predict dropping poll numbers for Obama and an increase in sales of flags and objects with slogans like ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ and ‘Live Free or Die’ affix’d thereon.

King George tried to mess with a nation full of fightin’ Irish and Scots, Puritans, Pilgrims and ex-con debtors from his prisons. Japan, Germany, Russia tried, the Liberals and Mohammedans, Chinese, North Koreans won’t be able to quench the taste of freedom.. This country has the same resolve as the men who died in the Alamo. Christians (and Texans) will only put up with so much and no more.

Our freedom came with the price of Jesus Christ’s blood and that of our ancestors.

We are proud of our Lord and our freedom and will fight and die for it.

No little twerp in a suit with a slick tongue and a law degree is going to take it away – no matter how many Chicago thugs and strongarm tactics they use and lies they tell.

He and the rest of his baby-killing thieving liberal cronies can manufacture a world economic crisis, steal us blind, but let them try to take away our freedom of speech (or the internet), our freedom of conscience and worship.

Well, we finally got our hackles up and now the left is quaking in their Birkenstocks as the blue-haired antediluvian crowd menaces them with their zimmer frames. Uuuu they’re scared!

God bless that poor guy! I hope he’s OK. And I hope he sues the pants off of the thugs who beat him. AND presses charges. Put ‘em away and throw away the key!

BTW, Whitestone, that’s about the first post of yours I’ve actually agreed with. LOL!

In the 1920′s, one of Hitler’s favorite tactics was to send storm troopers to disrupt political meetings of opponents and beat up the participants. However, Hitler, though evil, ran a well-disciplined army of fanatics and I doubt that The One’s hired thugs are anywhere near as efficient. And angry Americans will respond much differently than the German populace did to the storm troopers. On another note, have sent six emails, so far, to the White House’s official “snitch” site reporting myself for opposing Der Leader’s health care plan. Plan to keep doing this while waiting for the “knock on the door.” These clowns remind me of the Three Stooges short mocking Hitler and the Nazis.

I don’t see any type of uniting of anyone in the foreseeable future, nor do I think that “racial & political” tensions will ease and cease while Obama is in office. In fact I would suffice it to say that the divide and tensions will get worse.

Ah, yes-the tolerant liberal left. :^( I am so glad I had the good sense not to vote for Obama in the last election. He carried the thuggish tactics with him from Chicago.
Poor Mr. Gladney; How terrible for him. I agree with you, Diane. I hope he presses charges.

Since my senator is dimbulb Patty Murray, i should not throw stones, but man, that REp ya’ll have is pathetic.

Kenneth Gladney may well become a symbol for the oppressed conservative middle class and a folk hero.

I think we all need to calm down and live into the tension of this matter. Somewhere out in the middle of our differences, Obama is calling us to unity. I’m sure as a result of honest dialogue and seeking to understand the other, the opinions of those who are not yet ready to acknowledge the necesssity of progressive healthcare reform will be respected. We need to embrace change as we increasingly recognize that our country is doing a new thing. We need to remember that whatever happens, under our President all is well. And as people of faith, we must remember that the inclusiveness of the uninsured is more important than national bankruptcy.

Yeah, Jim, sociofascism rulz!

Racial epithets? That’s gotta be a hate crime! I am sure the Obama Justice Department will be all over this like white on rice.

I wish I agreed with Whitestone and Don. I think most of our people are lambs suckling at the public teat. I don’t see a lot of potential resistance here.

FW Ken–I never read GetReligion for the same reason you cite. Terry Mattingly has issues.

These clowns remind me of the Three Stooges short mocking Hitler and the Nazis.

LOL!

And Whitestone–I agree. Kenneth Gladney may well become such a symbol. I hope the Obama Thug Machine doesn’t try to destroy him, the way they tried to destroy Joe the Plumber.

JM,

We already know how Obama’s justice department will respond. They showed us in the case of the New Black Panthers who intimidated voters at a polling location in Philadelphia. When the NBP members didn’t appear for the hearing instead of pursuing a default judgment the Justive Department dropped the case. (Yhis link was found off the New Black Panthers web page.)

http://thebulletin.us/articles/2009/05/29/top_stories/doc4a1f42b32c161287079901.txt

There is also video on the web showing the incident, just search for New Black Panthers and Philadelphia.

The O-man and the goons are moving quickly. I am really surprised that the MSM even covered this event. Will the President say that the SEIU people “acted stupidly”, or will he try to pretend that the media misunderstood what happened.

Chris, you got a real winner in that representative. He was really pathetic!

We can expect more of this sort of thing from here on out. The Libs are “energized” and they think they can get away with it. It will be interesting to see what happens.

I hope Drudge picks this up. This stuff is so far beyond the pale. I hope the voters who brought in the current administration can see how they got the wool pulled over their eyes! Are y’all able to sleep at night?

Is it Kristallnacht yet?

Please pardon my ignorance, but what does SEIU stand for? (apart from attacking those who oppose them.)
Marie

Barack Obama told a crowd of supporters in Philadelphia back in 2008, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.” He added, “That’s the Chicago way.” The Chicago way includes “payoffs” to ensure loyalty. The government stimulus package is just such a carrot.

Marie,

Service Employees International Union.

What a mealy-mouthed piece of crap congressman. That bastard needs to be taken out in the next election.

diane -

Just to be clear: I wasn’t referring to Terry Mattingly as “anti-Catholic”, though I agree he has issues. It’s more that since their Catholic group member left, the blog lacks a Catholic point of view; his and Mollie’s posts, not from bad will, often end up analyzing Catholic affairs from a libcat template, particularly by referring to Catholic orthodoxy being “the Vatican’s position”. That’s not surprising, given their being journalists and all. It put me off, but probably would not have, except for one particular writer.

Thank you, CJ.

I was wondering what kind of work this union was connected to. What level of education they might be expected to have. My guess is very little, and probably no understanding of the Constitution and freedom of speech etc.

We are working on it, Midwest.

You get this kind of reaction from Americans where they get engaged in an issue. Of course the Obama Party is more used to the ACORN style of protest with the dull, mechanical “werefiredupcanttakeitnomo.”

Here’s is what I see: Obama was elected because he ran a better campaign and the People were concerned about spending in the Bush Administration. After announcing “I won” Obama got Congress to pass a spending package that made President Bush look like a miser. On top of that it was acknowledged that some who voted for the deal never read it. That was where the honeymoon ended but it still had enough steam to get Cap and Trade through Congress, but I think it is still stalled in the Senate. He has made countless mistakes and without a teleprompter his eloquence evaporates. Some of these mistates can be written down to being new to the Office. But some also expose a fundamental immaturity and unsuitability.

Now that he gets around to healthcare he is losing ground fast. He wanted to slam through the health insurance package as fast as he slammed the stimulus through. Opposition is rising and he responds by becoming beligerent. He asks citizens to forward e-mails that spread false information about his plan to the WH. I hate the exaggeration that gets thrown around but where did we learn about similar tactics? Hitler? Lenin/Stalin? Mao?

Frankly, my insurance works just fine for me. Sure there are gaps of coverage in the populace and sure I would like costs to go down. But it is widely recognized that the government can’t run Medicare.

Why should anyone think that our Dear Leader and his Congress can fix it?

I see eerie and very similar parallels between the trajectory of TEc’s uber-liberal revisionist leadership and Obama’s uber-liberal revisionist leadership.

Respectful, dissenting conservatives (many of them otherwise known as faithful Christians) will be harassed and persecuted.

midwestnorwegian,

A nice thought but I suspect it’s not going to happen. Russ’s reelection might be a lot closer than he’d like it to be but right now, I wouldn’t bet against him.

The Third is, or used to be, heavily Catholic but these Catholics are Democrats first and Catholics second. After all, we did keep sending Richard Gephardt to the Congress all those years. And there are probably enough union members here to give the egregious little slimebag the margin that he needs.

Christopher -

We call them “tribal Catholics”, among other things. Of course, some of the are quite active in their parishes. Some of them are even ordained… bishops.

Agreed Johnson, so far Russ would appear safe. Sad to say but St. Louis is not very fertile for the GOP.

No wonder Carnahan was uncomfortable. I’d be uncomfortable appearing in public wearing such an ugly suit even if I didn’t have to answer questions about union thug supporters assaulting political opponents.

Marie,

SEIU represents government employees, hostpital workers, hotel maids and private security guards (e.g rent-a-cops).

Congrats on your Instalaunche

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,
“Here’s is what I see: Obama was elected because he ran a better campaign and the People were concerned about spending in the Bush Administration.” I disagree with your assessment of why Obama won. It was really a matter of of “criticism fatigue”. I didn’t vote for Obama but was tired of the criticism I’d heard for eight years. Unfortunately Obama is still trying to pin the tail on the elephant to cover for his amateurish ineptitude.

Totally Off-Topic:

I just returned from our 40th Anniversary Mass for the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth, the details of which would interest none of you at all.

HOWEVER, what might interest some of you is that, in office dress, seated just behind our priests and deacons, was Bishop Jack Iker and 20 of his priests. They were, in fact, the only ecumenical guests who processsed. This is interesting on several levels, not the least of which was that Bp. Vann introduced Bp. Iker as “the Episcopal Bishop of Fort Worth.”

As of right now, there has been no statement from Bp. Gulik.

That is indeed interesting. Bp. Gulik need not look to get much attention from the RCs in Ft. Worth, no matter what happens to the diocese Bishop Iker heads.

I’ve never done anything like this but I’m giving serious thought to going to DC in September (09.12.09 March on Washington). Not completely unafraid, but more afraid of what will happen if people like me don’t start doing something to stand up to and against the madness.

I just returned from our 40th Anniversary Mass for the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth, the details of which would interest none of you at all.

None of us? That’s harsh.

I know, I know; it is pretty much off topic for Mr. Johnson’s Web log.

Llano Estacado, I will unfortunately not be in the country on Sept. 12. If I were I would be there.

FW Ken–that is waaay cool re Bishop Iker. I for one find it most interesting.

Catholic orthodoxy = “the Vatican position”? Bwahahaha. You’re rigth–that’s journalistic cluelessness for you.

I am dying to know which GetReligion writer you find particularly objectionable, but I won’t ask. As I say, I don’t read the dang thing, so I’m not up on who posts there besides Mattingly.

Diane
diane_kamer@yahoo.com (hint, hint)

I had an Instantlanche? Nobody told me!

Ken,
Bishop Iker’s presence and his priests, as well, is good news. I vistited Church of the Redeemer many years ago before the current Troubles bloomed. The then choral director and I shared the same alma mater. My wife sings in the church choir at Redeemer when she is in Fla. This past week she is in Fla.– while I make a living practicng law, and serving as chancelllor, pro bono, for a traditional Anglo-Catholic diocese that has lost its way.

“Kenneth Gladney may well become a symbol for the oppressed conservative middle class and a folk hero.”

Not unless we can make the MSM pay attention to a victim of something they approve of! The MSM has made so many heroes out of thin air in the past, but they will attempt to submerge this one!

The obamabots are praying that the righteous town hall anger can’t be sustained thru Nov. 2010 and 2012.
Stay engaged people.

My wife sings in the church choir at Redeemer when she is in Fla.

Redeemer in Sarasota? I know that church well–or at least I did, back when I was in college (slightly before the Flood).

Off topic, but in case anyone is interested – ladies and gentlemen, condole with me. As predicted, the Cats beat us today in the All-Ireland Hurling Semi-Final.

They didn’t hammer us, which was a consolation; winning margin was by five points. But it was much as you’d expect the game to be, and that’s our Senior Hurling campaign over for another year

See Peggy Noonan’s column in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/declarations.html

Katherine is correct. When Obama send in his brownshirts and union goons, that is when the violence broke out.

Wow Christopher – you hit the big time! Instalaunche!

Fuinseoig,
“All-Ireland Hurling Semi-Final”
Didn’t Wayne and Garth talk about this a lot?

For those of use who still remember rotary dial phones and party lines – what’s an instalanche?

I was at a Tony Robbins event recently. He opined that Obama was elected for a different reason: Hope.

People are scared, were scared then. In the face of fear and uncertainty, he offered hope. Unfortunately, no one offered certainty, which feels lots better.

Most decisions are ultimately backed by an emotional state — that is what Obama understood, and a large part of his success. He has very, very good NLP people writing his speeches and coaching his gestures, or at least he did during the election. Look on the web for obama speech nlp and you will see what I mean.

Too bad there was no one savvy on the other side. My opinion: the characteristic of being electable conveys with it a lack of fitness for the office, due to the process.

diane, here’s a link to the offensive article. Feel free to tell me if I was over-reacting:

http://www.getreligion.org/?p=12137

The guy does’t write for them anymore.

WARNING: The following is for liturgy wonks only, Daniel in particular:

It was a big diocesan Mass that ran about 2.5 hours; I can say the music was not as bad as in previous years (Sister Ex-Nun liturgy director retired), but that’s not saying a lot. Typically, congregational singing was good – these are folks who chose to be there, after all – but a few spots were unfamiliar and, therefore, rough. In other words, moments beautiful enough to cry, and a few to cry about in te oter direction.

Cardinal DiNardo from Houston was there – the Red Hat really does get special treatment — he had his own pair of chaplains and didn’t concelebrate. There were lots of white mitres. Bishop Vann sang the Eucharistic Prayer using a specially commissioned setting and it was… not my thing…

And now, back to our regularly scheduled politics.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled politics.

All right; my mellow has been unharshed.

How do you spell RECALL!!RECALL!! RECALL!!

This was supposed to be a pro-ObamaCare but it didn’t quite turn out that way

oops, pro-ObamaCare RALLY

FW Ken, that was one of the most obnoxious articles I have ever read. And, in the combox, good old tmatt defended Goldman. I-yi-yi. Any stick to beat the Catholic Church with, I guess. But you’d think that, as an Eastern Orthodox, tmatt wouldn’t want to go there. Contemporary Orthodox culture is rife with anti-semitism, and some well-known hierarchs and monastics are prime examples. Pot, meet kettle. But then, no one knows about that, whereas everyone knows about Pope Benedict’s visit to Israel, so it’s grist for the mill.

Now I remember why I don’t read that icky blog. Ick, ick, ick.

I fear Obama is closing Gitmo for foreign terrorists, but is opening a Gulag for American citizens.

Bring it ON!!

Jim, eat s&%^$ commie – if King Barry Hussein keeps pushing the only unity he’s gonna find is the battle cry of a revolution.

I am ready, just tell me when, I welcome the start of the next civil war at this point.

I look for future “incidents” to start with the union thugs beating up one of their own and then using that as an excuse to go after conservatives.

Anybody remember the Reichstag fire? I’m sure the critters in charge in DC do.

I haven’t visited “Get Religion” for ages, and after reading that article and its absurd comments I briefly thought of posting a comment to the effect that just as we Christians destroyed the pagan idols of the Greco-Roman world, these silly neo-pagans should make haste to fabricate their new idols and mud brick temples, so that we Christians can take them out a second time. But then I thought, pearls before swine, and even if the pearls are artificial (a work of artifice) the swine are real enough, so what’s the point …

Christopher, I’m sure you’ve found it by now, but here’s your Instapundit moment. He mentioned you by name.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, that’s what an Instalanche is. Glenn Reynold’s blog has huge numbers of readers, and if they click on the link, they can shut down smaller blogs. (Who did you used to be, by the way? Having trouble with shortening your handle, being a fussy female and all.)

Ken and diane, I don’t even want to read the comments, having read the main article Ken refers to.

I’m not sure if the article is stupider or the comments.

The stupidity is the truly offensive part to me.

Pearls before swine indeed.

Okay, I confess I read at least a few comments before giving up. Always ready to be amused, I enjoyed the outrage from a self-styled “neo-pagan” who objected to the Nazi horror being called “neo-pagan” and therefore implicating her screwy little cult in the Shoah. I grant that the neighborhood Wiccan is a pointless oddball and not related to Nazi ideology in much. However, they do at least share in general a foundational worldview (neo-pagan), whereas the Nazi leadership were clearly anti-Christian.

I’m afraid that I consider soi-disant neo-pagans to be poseurs, by definition. They’re making too much of it up, and they certainly don’t seem to believe in the existence of Thor the same way that they believe in the existence of Steven Hawkings or George Washington.

Ya’ll are making me feel so much better: I was afraid I was just getting cranky in my old age.

Of course, I could still be getting cranky.

Wow – A new title for me “liturgy wonk”. It makes me feel happy.

Thanks for the explanation Katherine. As for my new nom de guerre, I used to be “Tom (St. Louis).” As GC09 kept unravelling I thought to myself “what the fu*#” hence the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (militaryspeak for WTF). My real name is not much better. Feel free to call me WTF, Whiskey, or even Boozer. I’ll answer to just about anything.

The REALLY old school types will call you William Tare Fox. Your grandpa probably calls you Wills.

[...] As usual, the fringe of both sides of this debate sound very shrill. The usual accusations are flying about at this point. Here are two examples of what I view as foolish, but can also be shown as somewhat extreme examples of how important an issue this is. The first is a congressman losing his cool during an event. Watch the video. The second involves a short burst of violence at an event in St. Louis. [...]

Yesterday, I read a short article in the metro (or AM I forget which) which said that right wing news media was directly responsible for right wing violence, listing by name several prominent ‘right wing’ people such as Rush and Glen Beck and several loonies who had done terrible things apparently inspired by the aforementioned pundits.
But they were so fair and balanced, that in the last paragraph, they mentioned that there are leftists that do bad things too. They somehow omitted this event. Funny, that. I suppose hate speech is only hate speech if it might inspire a wacko to do bad things to people you agree with.