Right-Wing Turncoat Gives the Inside Scoop on Why Conservatives Are Rampaging Town Halls
By Frank Schaeffer

    The Republican Old Guard are in the fix an atheist would be in if Jesus showed up and raised his mother from the dead: Their world view has just been shattered. Obama’s election has driven them over the edge.

Consider Former Congressman Dick Armey. Several far right foundations and the multitrillion dollar health-insurance industry have teamed up with him to organize the far right foot soldiers of the Republican Party to intimidate people speaking on behalf of health-care reform.

They are using my old shock troops – given many of these folks were first energized by the Evangelical pro-life movement that my late father and I started in the 1970s. What we did to clinics they are now doing to congressmen and others speaking out for health care reform.

Continue reading The Corporate Hand Behind anti-Healthcare Rioters →

The Town Hall Mob

By PAUL KRUGMAN

There’s a famous Norman Rockwell painting titled “Freedom of Speech,” depicting an idealized American town meeting. The painting, part of a series illustrating F.D.R.’s “Four Freedoms,” shows an ordinary citizen expressing an unpopular opinion. His neighbors obviously don’t like what he’s saying, but they’re letting him speak his mind.

That’s a far cry from what has been happening at recent town halls, where angry protesters — some of them, with no apparent sense of irony, shouting “This is America!” — have been drowning out, and in some cases threatening, members of Congress trying to talk about health reform.

Some commentators have tried to play down the mob aspect of these scenes, likening the campaign against health reform to the campaign against Social Security privatization back in 2005. But there’s no comparison.

Continue reading Town Hall Mobs Part of Southern Strategy →

August 3, 2009

Let’s get down to the meat of the issue: Single payer is the only way to go. Sorry, corrupt insurance industry, you’ll have to find another way to rip people off — not by manipulating those most in need.

August 1, 2009

“Hello, My name is Robert Grace, and as your constituent, I urge the Representative to vote YES on Representative Anthony Weiner’s HR 676 amendment to the Energy and Commerce Committee’s healthcare bill.”

August 2, 2009

If Altmire voted on July 17 to deny PA and other states the right to establish statewide single-payer healthcare programs because he needs the financial support of the giant health insurers for his future congressional plans, then all is lost.

Ideals must be placed above personal gain if we are EVER to awake from the sickening nightmare of healthcare that haunts each and every one of us Americans.

August 5, 2009

To Whom It May Concern,

Today, I called the three offices of Jason Altmire. Aliquippa said he wasn’t sure if he would vote for reform, and other two gave the impression he was leaning away from health care reform. Altmire is a Blue Dog Democrat, meaning he works along with conservatives, and even advertises himself as a Centrist. He voted against the public option bill and has taken nearly 337,000 dollars from health care lobbyists who do not want reform.

We need to organize a massive phone campaign and hold Altmire accountable for reform. Here are the following office numbers. Remember, if the constituents raise hell, then he will be accountable to your votes. We need to come together on this. Too many poor people and working class people don’t have insurance. Here are the numbers:

Aliquippa Office
2110 McLean Street
Aliquippa, PA 15001
724-378-0928
724-378-6171 (fax)

Natrona Heights Office
2124 Freeport Road
Natrona Heights, PA 15065
724-226-1304
724-226-1308 (fax)

Washington, D.C. Office
332 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-2565
202-226-2274(fax)

Conyers at Rally by R. Schmetzer

by Bob Schmetzer, IBEW retiree and PA 4th CD Chapter of PDA member

The air was charged with excitement as the crowd gathered in the park facing the Capitol. The weather was beautiful, the Park manicured, the old growth trees gave shade, and blooming flowers graced the grounds under a blue and white clouded sky. Friendship abounded among the many different groups that gathered for a common cause.

On the stage, ” The Singing Grannies”, gave song about our plight and our dreams of a more secure future for our health care. It was a beautiful day to be alive and sharing this experience. Congressman John Conyers from Michigan came to the stage. I spoke with him about who I was and thanked him for his efforts and concern for introducing HB 676, Single Payer Bill.  He spoke briefly to the crowds still gathering about what has happened since the bill’s introduction.

Continue reading Notes on the Rally for Single Payer Healthcare in DC July 30th →

Why Single Payer Advocacy Matters Now More Than Ever

By John Nichols
The Nation
August 4, 2009

How should serious supporters of healthcare reform spend the month of August?

Not by getting trapped in the narrow “debate” between “party of no” Republicans who favor no reform at all, and Blue Dog Democrats, whose “reform” is to make a bad system worse.

And not by campaigning for “buzz words – “public option,” “employer mandates” – or whatever President Obama or Speaker Pelosi happen to favor this week. There will be plenty of advertising and organizing to that end, including a $15 million expenditure by the AFL-CIO.

Americans who want to tip the debate in the most progressive direction should take advantage an opening provided at the last minute during negotiations to get a bill approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

And they should do so by advocating even more aggressively for single-payer health care.

Continue reading Why Single Payer Advocacy Matters Now More Than Ever →