Update: Welcome Instapundit Readers!
In Raleigh, NC this morning, HCAN held a pro-Obamacare rally at the state capital. I was among a relatively small but vocal group of counterprotestors stationed across the street. At our peak, we numbered about 70, and most of us stayed through the entire event.
The pro-healthcare crowd was several hundred strong, and for good reason – they arrived in at least three and possibly 4 full-sized tour buses (see pics below). One of the buses came in from Wilmington, which is a couple of hours away, and while I have no idea where the others came from, they sure as hell weren’t from around here.
Two of the buses were parked right around the corner and down the block, so it was no big feat of detective work to follow the o-bots back to them at the rally’s end. The other two (that I saw) were parked in a lot another couple of blocks back, but I lost track of them after they pulled out so can’t say for certain if they were both O-bot vehicles. No matter though,two buses, four buses, whatever…. it’s just further proof that these pro-Obamacare organizers fear what their rallies would look like if they didn’t bring their own crowd.
Their rally was predictable – a few speakers whose job it was to play the emotional angle, a couple more telling the crowd why they deserved free healthcare, and the requisite incindiary black preacher-type who I was told but unable to confrm was president of the Durham NAACP chapter. This man in particular drew loud boos from our side of the street when he invoked the name of God in his insistence on free insurance on the backs of taxpayers. Real fire-and-brimstone crap from this guy, sort of like Rev. Wright without the overt racism.
Oh, and there were many, many identical pre-printed signs.
What struck me about the pro-obamacare crowd was how completely willing they were to disregard the consequences and realities of taxpayer-funded government-run healthcare. It was all about what they were entitled to, what they deserved, how the billionaire insurance companies were allowing them to die in the streets, etc, etc…a real mix of fantasy-land sensationalism and pie-in-the-sky nonsense. It really leads one to wonder – and I say this with absoutely no malice – just how tenouous a grasp on reality the bulk of these people have.
One in particular caught my attention (sorry, no pic) – this one guy spent a large portion of the rally facing and waving a dollar bill at us from across the street. Try as I may, I was totally unable to figure out what his point was. If the cops weren’t doing such a good job of keeping our two sides separated, I might have gone over to him and pointed out that the people looking for a handout were behind him, not in front of him.
Our people were awesome, of course. The signs were good and the passion strong. If I have one concern, it’s that we need to get better organized. This sentiment was shared by several other people I spoke with, and the general feeling was – based on turnout at past events – that if the communication had been better, we could have turned out significantly more people. This is something I am going straight to work on tonight.
A couple of personal notes: On the way back and forth between bus parking areas to get pictures of the O-bots ‘grassroots’ transportation after the rally’s end, I had a couple of interactions with some of the pro-reform people. The first one, an older black woman, was having trouble holding on to her armload of pro-obamacare signs on her way back to her car, dropping one in the process. As I passed, she asked if I could help her out and I did. She dropped another, and I got that one for her as well. Just two human beings who had both just minutes before been screaming at each other from different sides of the street, now pleasantly and peacefully interacting with each other. I was struck by the sheer normalcy of the moment. Yes, I left it alone.
A few minutes later, a small group of obamacare people walked past me in the opposite direction when one of the women, carrying a pro-reform sigh, said to me “can I get a thumbs-up?” I said “nope”, and kept on walking. After a few more paces though, I turned around and called over to her. When she turned around, I told her that I didn’t mean to be rude, and that however this healthcare disaster shakes that it will need to work for everyone. She said “me too, so how about a thumbs-up”, but I responded “not as long as you’re still carrying that sign”, and we went on our respective ways.
If there’s an aspect to this whole thing that I am having trouble dealing with, it’s how this administration’s far-left policies and aspirations have normal Americans choosing sides and at each others throats. At one crosswalk, it was me and about a half-dozen obamacare people and it was just….I dunno….weird. I don’t like having to size up my fellow citizens as friend or foe, but I guess that’s just where we’re at right now in Obama’s Amerika. I long for the day when the aforementioned ‘normalcy’ returns to our society, but I also know that those days may well be behind us.
No matter how troubling I find our current situation or how it weighs on me personally though, I will continue to fight for and defend what I know to be right, because it’s about so much more than just me. It’s about a future for my wife, my kids, my friends, family, city, state and country. It’s about joining with my fellow patriots to stomp out the flames of tyranny before they become a bonfire. It’s about restoring greatness to a nation being brought to its knees by an element -Â fronted by a smooth-talking con man – whose goal is to take over industry, destroy capitalism and the free market, and to take from those who produce and contribute to give to those who do neither.
Next weekend I’ll be installing a new timing belt, water pump, crank and cam seals and valve cover gasket on my ancient Corolla in preparation for the trip to DC on September 12. A strong showing here can not only help kill HR3200 (and HR676) once and for all, but put congress and the white house on notice that we will not be disregarded any more. Lest we forget, amnesty is next.
Two Obamacare buses down the block from the rally
Obamabots boarding the bus post-rally
More O-bots board the bus
Another Obamacare bus around the corner
Close up shot of the above bus
Patriots! About 70 at our peak.
A Patriot calling for a simple plan that will work.
Patriots!
Patriots!
Apparently the drama club got out early today. The misguided soul on the right is oblivious to the irony of his sign, which reads "Let them eat Advil".
Patriots!
Patriots!
O-bots display their lovingly-crafted and totally original grassroots signs.
Spotted on the way out, an Obamacare sign in the trash. Yup, that about sums it up.
…..
-Cnation
El Marco graphically exposes organizing for America’s fraudulent bullying tactics in Denver. Shocking but true, opposition to Obamacare is being squashed and consent manufactured by the White House and Obama activists. Although the White House denies their single payer goals, that seemed to be the main message at the rally in Denver, where the message was carefully controlled.
And they get paid by the hour, too.
I’m opposed to the bills that are being discussed, and I appreciate your efforts and the report. But I don’t like dehumanizing the other side as “Obamabots” or calling your side “Patriots”, implying the others are not patriots. This simply makes the divide you lament more rancorous, not less.
Perhaps the guy waving the dollar was letting you know he was being paid to be there.
Thanks for this terrific write up. I was unable to attend today, but will try to get the next one. You are going to be helping to organize, you said? Information will be right here, or where do we look? Are there buses going from Raleigh to the 912 march?
Andrew Myers: I agree they should not be dehumanized. But they don’t care what’re in the bills, they never read them. They do whatever Obama wants (pays) them to do. They even carry the same signs, spilling the same propagandas. They look human, but act like ‘bots. Anyway, if you prefer, we could call them “Obamatons”: humanized Obamabots.
I also agree we should not call the anti-Obamacare protesters patriots, call them “dissidents”. They dissent from those in power, the un-unAmericans.
OK, let’s call them “statists” then. Would that not be accurate? Is it curious to anyone else that American flags are only carried by the pro-freedom side? Not just this rally but always.
If we are worried about nomenclature and simple semantics, fine, try this on for size:
The paid-for ‘activists’ that are bussed in to “perform” for the camera are intruders and the enemy.
The protesters against the socialist agenda of TehOne are the National Guard of our Republic.
You are so wrong. B. Hussein Obots are not Americans. They are an ugly new breed of jerk. A nation unto themselves, wholly unlike anything remotely American. One of the first thing Americans must do is realize this: B. Hussein Obots hate, YES HATE, everything about Americans. Free Speech, Free Enterprise, Limited Government, Individual Responsibility. American is a state of MIND. B. Hussein Obots have ZERO tolerance for that state of mind.
Sorry, Andrew, but you need to assimilate this reality.
On the choosing sides thing, when sides are chosen in a local arena such as a country or region, the feeling of betrayal, on each side, intensifies any interaction including the amount of force used. Witness the French revolution, the Bolshevik revolution and the Civil War.
If that is what’s coming, then those who are forcing the side choosing have a lot to answer for.
The other side are clearly NOT patriots. There is nothing in the Constitution allowing the federal government to take over the health care industry. The entire principle of limited government on which the country is based is being violated by these people. They cannot make any claim to being patriots. Obama may be American by birth but he is anti-American by choice.
So we are long past the point of making nice. When the guy that wrote this has to stand on a street corner with a bunch of thugs who think nothing about using the force of government to rob him then there is no way things will ever end well and there is no way we will ever be whole as a nation. You cannot feel entitled to your neighbor’s wealth without your neighbor looking upon you as a thief — for indeed you are. That you outsource your work to the government says more about your courage and your competence than your morals.
If you want to see the strife that is coming you only have to look at how vicious the strikes are in socialist countries. When the power is centralized and there is no other outlet for something such as health care or energy etc… then political violence of all sorts is done in the streets.
My wife, a registered democrat, received a call from her Gongressman, John Adler NJ, to advise her he would be holding a town meeting at the local VFW tomorrow, Sunday, and invited her to attend. The hall is small – probably has a capacity of 150. I’m wondering how many of the registered independents and republicans he represents received calls to attend?
Yes We CON!
Yes We CON!
Often the name of the printer is in very small print on those professionally manufactured signs. I do not suppose you can check any of them for that? It might be an interesting followup.
The assumptions made in this article and comments are disheartening. It assumes that those in favor of health care reform with a strong public plan option are robots; are looking for a hand-out; are less productive, somehow, than the “patriots” out there.
My spouse and I are in our early 30s and earn over $230,000 a year. You might call us HENRYs (High Earners Not Yet Rich, as Forbes does.) Our taxes are certain to go up in the Obama administration, particularly if health care comes to fruition.
We earn our salaries because we worked hard in high school, went to good colleges (and still have the debt to show for it), and then interrupted our earning careers to attend graduate school.
We didn’t get caught up in the housing mess (which I understand is also typically blamed by “patriots” on those who got subprime loans they couldn’t afford, or the Community Reinvestment Act — never mind that almost 90% of subprime loans were made by mortgage brokers and others not subject to CRA.) We live in a modest house and have a mortgage payment that’s about 5% of our monthly gross income.
We give money to charity, we save, we help family when we need. And, again, we’ll have a larger tax bill in the future — which means less of those things.
And we don’t mind a bit.
We were not born into this world islands upon ourselves. Whatever natural talents we were born with, had we been born in Nigeria, or Thailand, or Hayti — we never would have the opportunity, the wealth, the quality of life we have in America.
Today’s self-styled patriots would say that is due to capitalism and freedom. Yes — but it’s also due to the mutual, shared, multigenerational investment we have made in government.
It’s due to the availability of public schools. To student loan programs that helped us attend college. To the hospital where — with public assistance — my wife’s life was saved as a premature infant in the mid-1970s.
To roads paid for with tax dollars, and to railroads, an electrical grid, water and sewer. To libraries, to the parks where we played as children.
My grandparents paid taxes that supported government infrastructure investments that continue to serve us today. The taxes we pay today pay for tomorrow’s investments.
I have no qualms over my taxes going up further — even though we paid close to the average median American family income in income taxes alone last year — because I realize that, without doing so, our health care system will collapse.
Health care costs have risen faster than the cost of inflation for decades. Today’s private employer-based health insurance system is an historical accident, the result of an IRS ruling during WW2 that allowed employers to skirt wage and price controls to offer insurance benefits to employees.
There are many market-based things we should do as a country to fix the problem. But tort reform alone isn’t going to do it.
I consider access to medical care to be a basic human right, as do the vast majority of first-world countries. Like it or not, underlying the “patriot” argument is a disagreement on that basic point.
My challenge to all self-styled patriots: I imagine most of you are happy with the status quo because you today have excellent or at least good health insurance through an employer.
Take a vow, right now, that you will never accept government funds for your health care, or go on the backs of a hospital as a charity-case, if you or a child or a parent becomes ill and you can’t afford the treatment.
Because, you see, without reform, a good number of you will lose the generous coverage you have today by 2020.
It’s easy to say your “agin’ it” when the times are good. But bad times are coming. The employer-employee health care cost burden is shifting to 60-40 from 70-30. Companies like Walmart offer very scant medical insurance coverage. The benefits of globalization — greater world peace through prosperity — will shift more and more middle-class jobs overseas, leaving a burgeoning, competitive service sector whose cost efficiencies don’t translate to benefits.
Government can screw things up royally, yes. But so can markets. And I’m not willing to make health care something I leave to the markets.
Sign me, also a patriot in Durham
KennedyCare!!
What could go wrong?
also a patriot, does it concern you at all that the administration seems to be at war with the free enterprise system ? Or that Medicare will go bankrupt in 11 years ? “And I’m not willing to make health care something I leave to the markets.” So you prefer to leave it to the people who don’t pay taxes, like Congressman Rangel and the Treasury Sec ? I have news for you. The only health care you will be able to find in five years may be free market as doctors drop out of Medicare and will not participate in a similar single payer plan.
15. Also a patriot:
Most Americans don’t make anywhere near $230K and a 60% tax would interfere with there ability to pay their bills. How much of a sacrifice do we need to make? Instead of letting yourself be taxed to contribute to Nancy Pelosi’s vacations, why don’t you make yearly significant contribution to a local non-profit health clinic?
Also a Patriot wrote:
“I consider access to medical care to be a basic human right, as do the vast majority of first-world countries.”
The fallacy in this is easy to see. Such a “right” requires the force of the state be set lose against its own citizens, to force them to provide it. Any “right” that demands servitude from others is not a right, it is an entitlement, granted by an authority with the power to coerce.
You are free to donate all the money you wish to private charities who further your views. I submit that you would achieve better results by lobbying against government medicine, and using your own money to support chosen charities. But this country will have no Constitution and no liberty left if you gain the power to force your views on others.
Rights are not “created” either by public consensus or an act of the legislature. Rights are grounded in human nature, and recognized by a proper government. There is a right to pursue one’s own happiness–because individual thought and action are the essence of human life–but there is no right to a guarantee that one will achieve it.
Such a guarantee can be enacted only by coercing those who are to provide it–and thus destroying their liberty. This is an inescapable contradiction. It turns others into servants of those claiming the right. But there is no “right” to enforced servitude.
As to other countries, why don’t the undeveloped countries–who have the greatest masses of destitute citizens–grant this “right”? The answer is that this is not a right–it is an entitlement, a grant to the service of others. To impose it there must be enough successful others–mainly, a struggling middle class–to be plundered to pay for it. Such wealth does not exist in countries that have not adopted capitalism.
As to the first world countries, look at their histories of organized plunder, and consider its cultural implications. Many people accept the nanny state because authoritarian rule is deep in their culture and their history. Many do not look ahead to provide for their own lives–they assume that “Government” or “Society”–monumental abstractions they endow with supernatural powers–will take care of them.
Look at the economic consequences in their medical research industries–especially pharmaceuticals–and you’ll see that without US drugs, they would be offering a “right” to substandard care indeed.
You may consider access to medical care a basic human right, but the Constitution is the law of the land. Access to medical care is not an enumerated right in the Constitution. Why is that so hard to comprehend? The 10th amendment guarantees that rights not enumerated to the federal government are reserved for the states and/or the people. As for your vow not to accept government funds for health care, I accept on one condition – return all funds I’ve paid throughout my lifetime, with interest from when I paid them, and I’ll gladly pay for my own care for the rest of my life.
To Patriot in Durham:
Like you I am a HENRY. Child of immigrants who came to America with nothing, I attended public school, studied hard, went to a top college and graduate program on financial aid, am now in my 30s working and paying far more in taxes each year than my parents ever made.
I share your concern that healthcare is already unaffordable for many and is becoming more so with time. However, I urge you to consider why that is so and whether expanding the government role will really do anything to help this, rather than the reverse.
I don’t think it is fair to blame the healthcare mess we have (and I agree it is a mess) to “the market”. The market is very bad at one thing, which is making sure that poor people have the resources to survive. And I agree that there is a role for government to play here, just as we give food stamps to the poor. But overall, healthcare in the USA isn’t very market-based at all. When I go to the hospital, I have no idea what anything costs. This is due to the overwhelming role of insurance which as you pointed out is basically a historical accident of the tax code. My friend who is uninsured often tries to ask what is the price of various treatments — typically there is nobody at the hospital he can talk to, who even knows the answer. It seems to me that this lack of price transparency due to (private as well as government) over-insurance plays a major role in cost escalation. Procedures such as LASIK and cosmetic surgery, which are not covered by insurance, have come down in price over the years, while almost all other medical costs have skyrocketed.
It doesn’t make sense from the perspective of simple arithmetic, to say that if the middle class can’t afford medical care, that somehow a government which is largely funded by the middle class can provide this to the people. (Some may think the answer is to soak the rich, but there are too few of them — or should I say “us”, since you and I are both paying more than our share — to make this a viable option. We are already taxed heavily, with more to come to pay off our government’s bills. In the long run the government will have to look to the middle class for the revenue it needs, as in Europe where the median family pays far more in taxes than in the US.) The only sustainable solution is (using the President’s words) to “bend the cost curve” so that the average person can afford health care. I will again make the analogy to food. You say that healthcare is a human right, so presumably you agree that food is also a human right. We give vouchers (food stamps) to people who can’t afford food, while having the bulk of people pay their own way. If we instead had a government-enforced “universal food” program, I find it hard to imagine that food would be more accessible to the middle class, rather than less; they would pay higher taxes, while mainly restricting themselves (because they have less after-tax money and can’t afford otherwise) to the food that the government is willing to subsidize.
The problem with healthcare in America isn’t that our society isn’t willing to pay for the vulnerable — we do a great deal of this, through programs such as SCHIP, Medicare, and Medicaid. The problem is the ever-rising cost. And just as the free market is bad at providing for those too poor to participate in it, the government is truly atrocious at cost containment. For instance, MSNBC reported (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22184921) that Medicare fraud costs taxpayers $60 billion/year — this is more money, for instance, than the combined profits of all US health insurance companies. More to the point, all these programs, Medicare in particular, are growing astronomically in cost and threaten to crowd out other societal priorities as they devour government dollars that could go to things such as education and the environment. I agree that it is a matter of urgency to fix this. But having government take over the entire medical industry is far more likely to result in national fiscal insolvency than it is to make health care affordable for the middle class.
I am a registered nurse who has worked in the healthcare field for over 35 years and I have to say I was at this rally and drove myself from Wilmington, NC to support a cause I strongly believe in. I am more than disheartened at the rhetoric in most of the posts from the delusional people who call themselve patriots while they lie, fear-monger and support paying CEOs of Insurance Companies $103,000 AN HOUR!!! Delusional thinking is impervious to reason. We can only hope that the United States has more intelligent, mindful persons, capable of critical thinking like the one who wrote this post, than the delusional calling themselves patriots.
I too love my country, and along with the majority of American people who voted, I voted for President Barack Obama. Our President is a highly intelligent, principled leader. Our President has stated that he wont sign a bill that increases the national deficit. He wants to reform health care because the insurance companies have a monopoly on our health care. They control the costs, they decide who is covered when they get sick, and the President wants to END paying subsidies (our tax dollars) to the insurance companies and instead use that money to pay for reform that will benefit every American. Health care is a profit making business for the insurance industry, and they will lose billions if the Health Care Reform Act is passed – that is why they have spread so much misinformation. This is both an economic issue and a moral issue. I too care about the future of my children and grandchildren and I want to know that all of our children will have the highest quality health care, and that their country will not become a third world country as a result of the greed of insurance company CEO’s and Dem & Rep. congressmen who take money from insurance company lobbyists.
With a public option, all Americans will have a choice – that’s what “option” means, Insurance companies will have to lower prices and offer greater benefits to compete. With the Health Care Reform act, no-one will be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions and insurance companies cannot refuse your application with their company.
Please do not deny your fellow Americans quality health care. Please stop fighting against your own best interests. Go to http://www.whitehouse.gov and learn the truth! If you truly believe you are well-informed you will listen to both sides before you decide.
Amazed
I am also a registered nurse currently working in a Chicago hospital and I have been a nurse since 1991. I sincerely disagree with you for several reasons . First, as an RN, you did not completely assess the situation why these people were protesting against the Obama health care proposal . Some of them read the proposed bill HR 3200 thoroughly and were dismayed at what they had found , some of them were disgusted that Congress and the Senate as well as the President of the United States were in a hurry to get the bill passed so that the President will sign it into law without anybody in Congress as well as the Senate and most of all, the President having the read the bill in its entirety. Some of the protesters were out there because they have experienced first hand how government controlled health care in Massachusetts and Tennessee became a financial disaster in those two states and how it affected health care in a very negative way by way of cutting cost on those people who need it the most.
As a nurse, you should had observed that the President and his staff, the senators and members of the Congress and their staff as well as union workers are exempted from the proposed bill. If all of our elected officials are not only willing to give up their platinum plated health care insurance plan but are also courageous to be the first ones along with their families to experienced Obama Care fully without the ability to opt out or excuse themselves if the proposed plan promotes hardship upon them. Then those people you deemed as liars, fear mongers and delusional would not be protesting on the streets. But since our elected officials are not brave enough to have themselves submit to the Obama health care plan? Why should we, the American people, be forced to accept second best ?
Ms Amazed, I learned a long time ago that if my leaders hold themselves to a different set of laws that are advantageous to them, I will have every right to demand those same laws to be applied to everybody else.
And btw, hurling insults and using your nursing profession to bludgeon other posters without addressing their legitimate complaints often reveal poorly on the person using nursing as a shield to protect herself from criticism.
It’s posts like yours that lead me to wonder if some people are capable of thinking for themselves.
Stephen Hemsley, which is who you’re referring to – makes $3.2million salary per year. Do the math. The “Sick For Profit” video, which is probably where you got this particular talking point, is wildly misleading. Yes, the man has stock options worth a fortune, but those stock options have practically nothing to do with the price you or I pay for our insurance. Just like in any other industry, normal market forces determine what we pay. The people who are perpetuating this nonsense – namely the Obama administration in conjunction with OFA and the unions, are only creating a villian so that people like you have someone to point to and say “it’s HIS fault”, and you’ve bought into it lock, stock, and barrel.
In the mean time, I’d like to know where your outrage is over the 60+ BILLION dollars in annual medicaid fraud? Why not demand that our government get that under control before assuming that they’d be able to handle a public insurance plan in any more of a competent manner?
Aside from the fact that the federal government lacks the constitutional authority to do any of this, this government is simply not qualified to handle the massive programs they’re proposing. They have neither the competence nor the honesty.
Tort reform. Vigorous investigation and prosecution of Medicaid fraud. Border and immigration enforcement and cutting hospital services to illegal aliens. These are areas where a tremendous savings could be realized without handing an entire industry over to government. Which, no matter how you couch the terms, is exactly what you are supporting.
My mom was an RN for years up in New York; it’s a job that requires a certain type of person…I’m sure you have great compassion for the uninsured and that your heart is in the right place, but the cure you’re supporting in this case is worse than the sickness.
-Cnation
Our president is one of the most extremely unprincipled men – even by beltway standards – ever to darken the doorway of the white house, and wholly unqualified to hold the office of president. The man is a snake, a race hustler and con man.
Barack Obama will sign the first bill that makes it to his desk. Count on it.
Do you understand what a monopoly is? An entire industry made up of hundreds of individual, separate entities cannot be a ‘monopoly’. It is impossible.
…based on market forces, just like your local automobile dealer, grocery store, or nail salon..
why is it that supporters of this administration are unable to accept the fact that the people are rejecting this bill on its substance, not at the direction of the insurance companies, and certainly not because of any great love for those companies. The proposed bill stinks from front to back.
With no disrespect intended, there are two types of people who continue to perpetuate this, possibly the single greatest lie in any of the proposed legislation – those who believe it because they simply don’t know any better, and those who do understand and support the direction this will take us, but won’t admit it. Well, three types actually, if you count those who couldn’t care less as long as they get their free stuff.
With the public option/insurance exchange plan, the federal govt will set the rules under which all private companies will have to play. The normal reaction by the insurance companies to the requirement that they cover everyone regardless of preexisting conditions would be to raise premiums to compensate for the increased risked they are being forced to take on. That is how business works. However, the proposed bills will also cap premiums, preventing the insurance companies from doing what they need to do to remain financially viable. Ultimately, this unsustainable financial condition will force them out of business, leaving the federal government as the last man standing. Bingo, single payer. This is by design.
The federal government doesn’t create an entity, or a ‘brand’, in hopes of it competing fairly in the free market. They never have and they never will. The government brand exists primarily to ensure the survival of the government brand, and since the federal government doesn’t need to worry about profit or loss, they will run this thing just as inefficiently and incompetently as they have Medicaid, Medicare, and social security.
As I wrote to another commenter, the federal gov’t has neither the ability, constitutional authority, or integrity to pull this off. Government healthcare is a loser, and it will bankrupt us.
-Cnation
I saw Ben Niolet’s coverage in the N&O and he completely missed the bussed in “protestors”. I emailed him the following:
Mr. Niolet,
I read your story in the Sunday News and Observer closely. The reason is that I wanted to compare it to a post by a Raleigh blogger who also attended. Yes, he is conservative but I wonder how he could have noticed that the “pro” healthcare protestors were bused to the rally in an organized fashion and you did not. In fact, it appears that one busload may have been shipped in from Raleigh. This is relevant as we have been told by those close to the Administration that opposition to the President’s proposed “reforms” are organized by the Republican party, insurance companies and others. In fact, they have been accused of astroturfing, meaning a fake grassroots campaign. However, it appears that this was exactly what this rally was yesterday. By contrast, the anti-Healthcare “reform” rallies do not bus people in and the level of organization is usually limited to letting people know the time and date. I cannot help but think you missed a major component of this story by not noticing and/or not reporting on the organized nature of yesterday’s “grassroots’ protest. A link to the post by Conservative Nation is below.
http://conservativenation.net/2009/08/29/hundreds-of-obamabots-bussed-in-to-raleigh-nc-pro-obamacare-rally/
I meant to say, Wilmington.
Cnation,
You are correct. Also, no private entity can compete with a govt. sponsored one that can lose money for an extended period. Thus, single-payer will become the order fo the day. I wonder how the poster you were responding to squares his claims about a “public option” with comments by people like Barney Frank who admit that this is a first step to single-payer.
ncfreedom.us had some bus info for the 9/12 DC march posted on their site, but it’s kind of a mess over there right now and I can’t find it.
From the 912dc.org site, here’s a list of buses coming into DC:
http://912dc.org/getting-here/list-of-buses-coming-to-dc/
There is one leaving from Raleigh, but you should probably hurry.
resistnet also has a ride board towards the bottom of this page:
http://www.resistnet.com/group/northcarolinataxpayermarchondc910912
I’m sorry I don’t have any better info for you at the moment, but I’ll be happy to pass along whatever I find out.
-Cnation
I am confident that the great majority of those who wholeheartedly support the Democrats’ “health reform” efforts have never worn a military uniform, for if they had, they would know the Federal Government is incapable of efficiency (i.e. “hurry up and wait”, $600 commode seats, etc, etc, etc, ad nauseum.) Those who have served and still support it are either disingenuous or just plain stupid.