…in the media:
Jon Henke of The Next Right heard the first shot — the newspaper changed its story, literally — and exposed the sniper. The Times (whose parent company once employed me at Congressional Quarterly) initially, and correctly, thought it fair to note that the Service Employees International Union organized a counter protest at Castor’s event.
The paper also included this explosive quote from an SEIU official hinting at plans to instigate trouble at the event: “We’re prepared [for disruption]. We have strategies to deal with it if it should come up.”
That language provided important context about a group whose leader once described his thug-like organizing philosophy like this: “[W]e prefer to use the power of persuasion, but if that doesn’t work we use the persuasion of power.”
The rewrite of the story a short time later dropped the quote and changed the tone of the story to what Henke rightly called “something far more SEIU/Democrat friendly.” The second version downplayed SEIU’s role even though it was billed as an organizer, and it spun the story from the critical perspective of pro-Obama protesters.
I don’t think that the Obama honeymoon with the media is over. It’s just the honeymoon with the public (and particularly those who voted for him because it was “cool” without paying any attention to his record or actual statements) that is. So now they’re getting desperate to defend their paramour. It is nice to see the orgy getting smaller, though.
[Update a couple minutes later]
The White House (and the Democrats in Congress) against community organizing:
Nancy Pelosi, who will get her own bound volume in the annals of asininity, has outdone herself. When asked by a reporter whether the protests at various town-hall meetings represented legitimate grassroots opposition or were manufactured “AstroTurf” stunts, she replied, “I think they’re AstroTurf. You be the judge. They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care.”
Now this is a pas de trois of dishonesty, slander, and idiocy. Not only is Pelosi lying when she says protesters are bringing swastikas to these town halls, not only is she suggesting that American citizens are Nazis for having the effrontery to get in the way of Obamacare, but she’s also saying that the alleged swastikas are obvious proof that these protests are manufactured by slick P.R. gurus.
How does that work? What public-relations genius says: “Okay, we need these protests to seem like an authentic backlash of real Americans. Make sure everyone has enough Nazi paraphernalia!”
The combination of stupidity and venality of this woman would be hilarious if she weren’t third in line for the presidency.
It’s difficult for mere mortals like us to fully grasp the enormousness of the Democrats’ hypocrisy. Put aside all that talk of dissent being the highest form of patriotism. Overlook that Democrats would have upended jerry cans of gasoline and immolated themselves in protest if the Bush administration had asked people to inform on their neighbors. You can even forget that the DNC’s claims are untrue.
But how can we ignore the fact that the world’s most famous community organizer is whining about community organizing?
Free speech, community organizing, executive jets for me, not for thee. These people are nothing if not hypocritical.
[Update a few minutes later]
Organizing the wrong community.
[Another update]
In today’s world, the “radicals” are the ones who protest the takeover of a huge swath of the economy by government bureaucrats who have proven they can’t even run a program that gives free money away to car buyers properly. It is radicals who want to preserve the pillars of a system that over 80 percent of Americans still believe works — though certainly not perfectly.
In this new world, radicals are the ones who protest adding trillions to our debt and who have the temerity to ask if legislators have read the bills they sign. You’ve seen them. Those radicals who are ranting and raving about silly things like the Constitution.
So here is a plan. Instead of making the case for health care “reform,” let’s launch an offensive against citizens. Nazis. Fanatics. Mobs. Thugs. Whatever you call them.
And if you’re really patriotic, you can even report them.
The not-so-silent majority is waking up.
The not-so-silent majority is waking up.
Rand, I’m really trying to get a handle on what the true level of support is against the health care reform bill and other leftist legislation waiting in the wings. I myself am very sympathetic to those against it and I’m wondering if my natural bias is clouding my own perception of whether what you term the “not-so-silent” majority is really waking up.
According to Ramussen, Obama’s number took a sharp drop in late June and early July, but they have more or less stabilized at that level for the last three to four weeks. It would have been my guess to see his support continue to falter as the Democrats seemed to enter full panic mode over the last two weeks. But that hasn’t seemed to have occurred.
I wonder if the latest Administration shenanigans is only visible to those closely following what is happening in the health care debate. When I talk to others about such things they seem almost oblivious things that you, I and others that frequent your blog are paying attention to. I don’t follow the MSM to any large degree, but I can only assume a fraction of what the blogosphere is reporting is making it’s way to the public consciousness. At least so far that is.
I find it hard to believe that people with swastikas have been able to stay away from media cameras. If there was even one swastika there, the UP, API, MSM as an entity would be running that image non-stop, checking to see of the wearer was a Bush voter and Limbaugh listener.
Remember the going over Joe the Plumber got?
The only picture of a swastika taken so far was one with a red line through it, with the word “Obama.” So Pelosi was being disingenuous at best (what a shocker) in implying that the protesters are Nazis, as opposed to people protesting what they view (rightly or wrongly) as fascism on the part of the administration.
Those members of the public who are following it closely are certainly becoming more visible to their representatives and senators, and in the end, that may be enough.
Hal, I hope so. There is an all out effort by the Dems through the MSM to marginalize those who do speak out against them. It’s not clear whether they will succeed or not.
Mike, I’m sure it matters if the MSM succeeds or not. It’s pretty tough for a constituent to be marginalized when they’re right there in person at a congressional town hall meeting. See my comment on the thread below as well. I think Rand’s usage of the words “prairie fire” is quite apt.
Hal, I live in the SF Bay Area which is deep left so perhaps my experience may be less typical of what is going on across America. Any criticism of Obama by myself just reinforces many of my friends view that I’m turning into a right-wing extremist being guided by hate rather than logic. They are really believing that the “unruly mobs” are indeed “payed insurance company shills” who need to listen less to “Rush” and more to “NPR”. I have a feeling I’ll be losing some friends over this coming months as the rhetoric against those on the right ratchets up by the Dems and amplified by the MSM. The subtle hint that we are against Obama because of race is also becoming not so subtle anymore. Any resistance to the slander is seen as just more evidence against me.
As I mentioned, I may just be living in a area where the MSM’s message is resonating with people — it’s Pelosi’s home district after all. I just hope that what I see and experience on a day to day basis is the exception, not the rule, to what is general is happening across the country.
I think Rand’s usage of the words “prairie fire” is quite apt.
Credit Victor Davis Hanson for that.
“Any criticism of Obama by myself just reinforces many of my friends view that I’m turning into a right-wing extremist being guided by hate rather than logic. They are really believing that the “unruly mobs” are indeed “payed insurance company shills” who need to listen less to “Rush” and more to “NPR”. ”
And yet is is the very mobs in the heartland who run the powerplants and grow the food that makes these insular cities possible. But yet they insist on continuing to prod the bear.
When that Atlas finally shrugs, what are the cities going to do when their water treatment plants lack electricity and their grocery stores lack basic foodstuffs? NPR will save them I am sure.
Welp, did my deed for the day, ratted myself out to the white house:
I am Spartacus