Last Sunday, August 2, the Orange County Congregation Community Organization held a prayer vigil for healthcare reform at the St. Callistus Parish in Garden Grove, California. From their website, I take it this organization holds several such gatherings every year, on various topics.
Here is a PDF of the program. As you can see, there were several speakers, most of them from local churches. There were a number of prayers, a choir, and a dance company. One of the speakers (listed under “Focus on National: Healthcare Reform”) was Rep. Loretta Sanchez, who gave a five-minute presentation.
Now the Right is using a video of Rep. Sanchez’s part of the program to accuse her of disguising a “townhall” meeting as a prayer vigil. A number of sites are doing this, accompanies by the usual hatespeech. The comments manage to include a lot of anti-immigration and anti-Catholic rhetoric as well.
Putting aside how many times the Right has wrapped religion around a political issue — Justice Sunday, anyone? — it wasn’t a bleeping town hall meeting.
Just shows us that the Right will use any opportunity it can find to spout hate.
The comments certainly show just how much racism, etc. is involved in the anti- health insurance reform group.
I saw the pharmaspam on Google Reader again. Interestingly, it’s only on this most recent post now, and not on the previous post. All previous posts are titles-only.
I should point out that this is not a big deal, since I usually click through to read the posts on the site, rather than on the reader. Still, I thought you might want to be aware of this problem. (I don’t know if you use multiple RSS sources, but the address for the RSS feed I’m using is: “www.mahablog.com/feed/”)
I left a message at google webmaster tools to ask what to do about it. I’m not seeing the same thing in Feedburner so far, just google.
I’d like to rub their noses in their folk lore mumbo jumbo fantasy.
http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=haught_29_5
“The comments certainly show just how much racism, etc. is involved in the anti- health insurance reform group.”
Right it is almost pure racism, disguised as anti-healthcare, anti-taxes, tea-baggers for teabags, etc. It is nothing more than racism. Obama has not proposed a concrete health reform plan that specifies anything, nor has he raised anyone’s taxes. What he has done is awaken, offend and enrage the racist sensibilities of a good many low-information troglodytes in this country. I would guess somewhere on the order of 30 million or so (at least half of the folks that voted for him), and they are not going anywhere. And now that Sarah P. has officially joined the most radical of the shit talkers, I guess it’s the official position of the Republican Party. It’s only fair she was #2 on the losing ticket! She has been up until now the darling of the most hateful wing-nuts. Rush says he’s a Nazi, and now Sarah P. says he’s the Colored Dr. Kevorkian (emphasis on Color).
Everytime a republican shows up in public, print, television, he or she should be asked if they think Obama wants to have “death panelsâ€. Just yes or no do you think Obama is a foreign born fascist hell bent on murdering old folks and Sarah P’s latest son? Yes or No. They should have to answer that question everyday until Palin owns up to her comments.
(at least half of the folks that voted for him)
I meant at least half the folks that didn’t vote for him?
I like the idea of holding the health care town hall meetings in a church. That might be a winning strategy.Think how embarrassing it would be for those who want to disrupt or how intimidating it would be to others.
Some churches are involved pro a health care plan, at least my Mom’s is. She told me about 6 months ago that the preacher had asked them to write a letter asking for health care for children. My Mom was worried that it would cause financial hardships for parents struggling to feed their children so she wasn’t sure about doing it. I told her if she was worried it would cost struggling parents, write what she wants, free health care for children. I didn’t click on the links…not in the mood to tolerate people spewing hate.
I like the idea of holding the health care town hall meetings in a church. That might be a winning strategy.
First, let’s be clear that the program in which Rep. Sanchez participated was not a town hall meeting. Second, I think the response from the Right is clear — they hate the Left more than they respect religion. Any church or religious group that hosts a progressive program becomes a target for their hate.
The first experience I had with ‘tea party’ behavior was at a Health Care Forum with Congressman Gene Green (he didn’t show) atAssumption Catholic Church on July 24. There were even 2 rows of nuns in habits and these people still shouted ‘socialism’ ‘communism. A woman with an autistic son swore that the new health care would not provide care for her son. (she actually looked a little like Palin.)
I think many of the protestors want their 5 minutes of fame and we should give it to them. Invite them to the podium, give them a microphone and see what they say. Most of them do not have facts and figures, only hate and lack of understanding. I am beginning to wonder what country I am living in.
Their right to spew evil should not be publicized without our right to hear their reasoning.
They need to listen to what others say instead of trying to shout them down. Give them their own 5 minutes. I’ll bet there are very few of them willing to be in the spotlight spouting their nonsense. We need names and political affiliations as well as where they live in general, not specific addresses. We must not fall to their level.
Recall that the rabid rightists are masters of projection; they like to accuse others of the crimes they wish to commit themselves. So I take it seriously when they speak of death panels. It’s a warning of what they themselves would set up, if they had the chance.