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Threats, Jeers Saturate Angry Health Care Debate

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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: August 19, 2009

Filed at 9:24 p.m. ET

NEW YORK (AP) -- The images are striking: One congressman's office defaced by a swastika, other congressmen heckled at public meetings, videos and placards likening Barack Obama to Hitler, private citizens with guns joining anti-Obama protests.

Outside one meeting hosted by Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, authorities detained a man with a sign reading, ''Death To Obama, Death To Michelle And Her Two Stupid Kids.''

In this season of searing political heat generated by the health care debate, these incidents have raised divisive questions of their own. Are they simply the latest twists in a long tradition of vigorous, public engagement or evidence of some new, alarming brand of political virulence?

''Hate, if it ever truly threatened to leave the political stage, is most definitely back, larger and nastier than ever,'' University of Missouri journalism professor Charles Davis wrote this week in his local paper, the Columbia Daily Tribune. He urged the media to put a spotlight on the hate, rather than ignore it.

To some political veterans, the phenomenon is unprecedented.

''There is more anger in America today than at any time I can remember,'' said Sen. Arlen Specter, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, after one of a series of town hall meetings at which he was jeered.

Many conservatives agree that the depth of anger is unusual, but insist that it is understandable as well -- with the health care issue overlapping with worries about the economy.

''People are frustrated -- they don't want to be lied to,'' said Mat Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based Christian legal group. ''Rather than just listening, they want be heard, and they feel Washington isn't listening to them.''

Another conservative activist, the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, said he was dismayed by the recent surfacing of threats against political leaders. But he noted that venomous rhetoric was nothing new in U.S. politics and recalled that former President George W. Bush had been called a terrorist and war criminal by some of his critics.

''You'll find on both ends of the divide -- the political left and political right -- the more extreme elements have completely different ideological viewpoints, but they are identical on imagery,'' Mahoney said. ''They use Nazi, Hitler, terrorist.''

Beyond the extremists, Mahoney said he was impressed by the backgrounds of the angry citizens appearing at recent town hall meetings. Unlike many left-of-center protesters, he said, ''these are people who normally stay home and don't get involved.''

One such political newcomer is Rick Smith, a 38-year-old North Carolina store owner who in the past thought protests were pointless. But recently he joined rallies and pickets targeting Kay Hagan, a first-term Democratic senator.

''I hope the freshmen have their eyes open to what's going on out here -- to see that they need to represent the people that put them in office,'' Smith said.

At some of the meetings, politicians and their critics have engaged in substantive dialogue over health care policy and other issues. At other times, the exchanges have been curt.

''On what planet do you spend most of your time?'' Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts asked a woman at a meeting Tuesday when she held up a poster depicting Obama with a Hitler-style mustache.

Andrew Kohut, who oversees public opinion surveys as president of the Pew Research Center, says the health care debate has fueled intense anti-government sentiment in some quarters.

''I also think the conservatives are frustrated politically -- they don't feel they have a leader,'' Kohut said. ''They're worried about a government takeover of health care and feeling not so empowered with a strong Democratic Congress. All these things lead to a summer of intense points of view.''

Kohut expressed doubt that racism was a major factor behind the hostility toward Obama, but others disagree.

African-American congressman David Scott, whose Smyrna, Ga., office outside Atlanta was defaced with a spray-painted swastika, said he also has received mail in recent days using racial slurs.

''We have got to make sure that the symbol of the swastika does not win, that the racial hatred that's bubbling up does not win this debate,'' Scott said. ''That's what is bubbling up with all of this. There's so much hatred out there for President Obama.''

For many of Obama's supporters, a new source of apprehension has surfaced in the form of private citizens showing up with guns outside venues where the president was speaking.

In Arizona, about a dozen people carried guns Monday outside the convention center where Obama addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars. And last week during Obama's health care town hall in Portsmouth, N.H., a man stood outside with a pistol strapped to his leg, carrying a sign reading, ''It is time to water the tree of liberty.''

That's part of a longer quote from Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that the tree should be watered periodically ''with the blood of patriots and tyrants.''

The Secret Service said the armed men were in compliance with state laws, and were neither trying to enter the meeting hall nor get near Obama's motorcade route. Nonetheless, their appearance raised concern in the liberal blogosphere that the trend could lead to violence.

''It just takes one wacko with a gun to cause a huge problem at one of these events -- if not trying to kill Obama then to kill others,'' wrote Kansas City Star columnist Yael T. Abouhalkah.

Matthew Spalding, director of the conservative Heritage Foundation's Center for American Studies, said Democratic leaders should not dismiss the surge of anger as an extremist-fringe phenomenon.

''There are components of liberalism that try to paint the whole thing as right-wing paranoia,'' he said. ''That would be a large political mistake. There's a sense that our country is at a great turning point, and there's widespread confusion and concern about where we're going.''

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"The more things change"

Updated 12:15 p.m. 8/20/09
By Garance Franke-Ruta and Sarah Lovenheim
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was greeted with shouts and boos at a town hall meeting on health care at a senior center in Dartmouth, Mass., Tuesday night, an event that was targeted by supporters of perennial independent political candidate Lyndon LaRouche. But the combative House Financial Services Committee chairman met fire with fire.

"On what planet do you spend most of your time?" Frank retorted when Rachel Brown of the LaRouche Youth Movement compared President Obama's push for health-care reform to the policies of Nazi Germany while holding up a pamphlet depicting the president with a Hitler mustache, a LaRouche anti-Obama health reform campaign image.

"This policy is actually already on its way out. It already has been defeated by LaRouche. My question to you is, why do you continue to support a Nazi policy?" Brown had asked.

"You stand there with a picture of the president defaced to look like Hitler and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis," Frank, who is Jewish, blasted back.

"Trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table," he continued. "... I have no interest in doing it."

Video of Frank's remarks quickly went viral online and was shown repeatedly on cable television.

Protesters had greeted attendees of the meeting, organized by the Democratic Town Committee of Dartmouth, by distributing pamphlets criticizing Frank's push for reform and Obama's plan. Images of Obama as Hitler were visible on several of the pamphlets seen in videos of the event. Some protesters held posters that read, "It's the economy stupid, stop the spending," the Associated Press reported.

Ray Medeiros, chairman of the Dartmouth Democratic Party, said the pamphlets came from LaRouche supporters, and that the woman who ticked off Frank was one of about 20 who came to the meeting. Brock Cordiero, the regional chair of the Massachusetts GOP, said Brown was passing out pamphlets from a table with a LaRouche PAC banner on it before the town hall meeting and that he and Medeiros spent a fair bit of time during the meeting trying to contain the disruptions the LaRouche supporters were causing. "They were there to cause problems," he said.

Cordiero, concerned attendees might mistake LaRouche supporters for Republicans, said he went out of his way at the meeting to repudiate the Hitler-Obama imagery in remarks to Frank. "I saw media reports there was Republican booing and jeering," said Cordiero Thursday. "That's not the case."

To those who interrupted Frank's remarks during the event, the congressman from Massachusetts jabbed, "Disruption never helps your cause. ... It just looks like you're afraid to have rational discussion."

Medeiros said that he had encouraged protesters, mostly young people, to leave but that they wouldn't budge. "This is a Democratic Town Committee meeting. We called the meeting to order!" he said he eventually yelled after one refused to clear floor space.

LaRouche PAC has been waging an intensifying campaign against the Obama and congressional health reform proposals since the president's nationally televised news conference of July 22, when he called for an "an independent group of doctors and medical experts who are empowered to eliminate waste and inefficiency in Medicare." The group has interpreted that statement as ordering euthanasia.

"LaRouche PAC members are giving leadership to these town hall meetings all around the country so we are being at any one that we possibly can," LaRouche PAC spokeswoman Nancy Spannaus told The Post of the group's presence in Massachusetts.

"Our Obama mustache poster....It symbolizes the fact that the president is attempting to implement a Hitler health care policy," she said. "At any town hall, you'll know LaRouche people are there if you just look for the mustache."

If you know of other town hall meetings happening nationwide, e-mail us at politicscalendar@wpost.com.

By Garance Franke-Ruta and Sarah Lovenheim | August 19, 2009; 8:21 AM ET
Categories: Health Reform | Tags: Barney Frank, Health Care

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Fwd: FW: The Passing of a Pioneer: Margaret Bush Wilson From: leslievanc@aol.com To:misaji@aol.com, l.w.day@comcast.net, meisrich@bellsouth.net, tigerpaws1114@aol.com, ssenat74@yahoo.com, treydfg@aol.com Sent: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:58:46 -0400 Download All | Margaret-Bush-Wil... (470KB) -----Original Message----- From: Fields, Carmen <Carmen.Fields@us.ngrid.com> Sent: Mon, Aug 17, 2009 11:54 am Subject: FW: The Passing of a Pioneer: Margaret Bush Wilson fyi cf The Passing of a Pioneer: Margaret Bush Wilson Posted on 14 August 2009 Photo by Maurice Meredith Internationally known and respected, locally born and raised, civil rights pioneer, attorney, and business executive Margaret Bush Wilson passed on Tuesday, August 11th, at BJC Hospital, at the age of 90. Margaret Bush Wilson changed America, while never losing her roots here in St. Louis. Margaret Bush Wilson was born January 30, 1919, the second of three children. America must have known the kind of woman she was to be, as one year later (almost in recognition of her arrival and preparation for her life) women won the right to vote. She received an early education on civil rights and public service as her mother, Margaret Casey Bush, was on the executive committee of the local N.A.A.C.P. Her father, James T. Bush , was a real estate agent and financially backed civil rights causes. When Mrs. Wilson was a child, Walter White (then head of the N.A.A.C.P.) stayed at their house while on a visit to St. Louis. Mrs. Wilson attended Sumner High School and graduated in 1935. After high school, she attended Talladega College and earned a degree in economics with a minor in mathematics. Whil e attending Talladega, Mrs. Wilson was awarded the Julia Prescott Fellowship to study abroad in India, where she met Mahatma Ghandi and Nobel Prize winning poet, Rabindranath Tragore. After graduation, she attended Lincoln University Law School (newly created as a result of the Gains vs. Canada lawsuit-and set up as a “separate-but-equal” law school for African Americans) which, at that time, was one of the premiere African American universities, along with Fisk, Morehouse, Spelman, and Howard. She earned her law degree in 1943 and became, at that time, only the second African American female to practice law in Missouri. After working a few years for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Electrification Administration, Mrs. Wilson married a law school classmate, Robert Wilson Jr. (who had just come back from World War II), and they set up a law practice in St. Louis. She joined the legal team on the historic Shelley v. Kramer case, which challenged housing covenants that excluded African Americans and Jewish people from certain neighborhoods in St. Louis and other cities. The case, which came out of her father’s real estate dealings, went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 1948 that the covenants were unenforceable. Mrs. Wilson presided over the St. Louis Chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. during the historic Jefferson Bank demonstrations. In early 19 60, she organized the first statewide N.A.A.C.P. conference in Missouri which became the Missouri State Conference of N.A.A.C.P. Branches, of which she also served as President. After presiding over the City and State branches of the N.A.A.C.P., Mrs. Wilson became the first African American woman to head the national N.A.A.C.P. She held the position of national chair for nine consecutive terms. When asked by male board members “What shall we call you? Chairperson? Chairlady?” she responded “As long as you recognize that I’m the Chairman of the Board, I don’t care what you call me.” Margaret Bush Wilson’s young life was touched by social and civil rights advancements and in her adult life she spearheaded social and civil rights advancements. Her story is one that is unique to America, unique to its time, and unique to a woman of character, competence and accomplishment. One of St. Louis’ greatest citizens, always willing and able to assume roles of leadership and fight for the right reasons, Margaret Bush Wilson will be sorely missed. At the time of her death, Mrs. Wilson still lived on Page in the home owned by her late father (she considered the house “part of the family”). Both of her parents preceded her in death, as well as her husband, and her older brother, James T. Bush Jr. (who died this year). Her sister, Ermine=2 0Byas, lives in Rochester, NY and her son, Robert Wilson, lives in Rio De Janeiro. Her life and legacy is an inspiration to them and to us all. Services for Mrs. Wilson will be held Tuesday, August 18, at All Saints Episcopal Church (2831 N. Kingshighway). Visitation will be from 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. Funeral Services and a celebration of her life will begin directly afterwards at 11 a.m. From: Jojhnsn@aol.com [mailto:Jojhnsn@aol.com] Sent: Sunday, August 16, 2009 7:31 AM To: Jojhnsn@aol.com Subject: The Passing of a Pioneer: Margaret Bush Wilson A recent inductee into the Lincoln University Alumni Hall of Fame at the St. Louis Convention, Margaret Bush Wilson was also a distinguished giant in our nation's struggle with Civil Rights! She'll be missed by ALL!  Joe    The Passing of a Pioneer: Margaret Bush Wilson ************************************************************************* ******* This e-mail and any files transmitted with it, are confidential to National Grid and are intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this e-mail in error, please reply to this message and let the sender know. Total: 1 Image(s) | View Slideshow Download Selected Download All Margaret-Bush-Wil... (470KB)

Hap' py Br BrBirthday!!!!!! Bert Lahr

The Wacky Peop[le Who Work There.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106561675

Funny story! There is audio (4 minutes) and a video clip of the winners of the Book Cart competition!


Thnx Charles Stone

Heard on NPR

"Steroids" are the standout subject at this years' American Library Association gathering!

Observed: Librarian with electric blue hair; Librarian with Pink Thunderbird!

Golden Bookcart competition won by Oak Park Illinois; something about "...Valkyries"?

"Support Your Local Library...and the Wacky People Who Work There".