Overflow crowd at Maryland town hall
Reports from Democrat Rep. Ben Cardin’s town hall meeting tonight. Overflow crowd. Conservatives in the blue state turned out in force:
Towson Maryland)-After the office of Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin admitted to receiving over 1,600 RSVP’s for its health care Town Hall, they must have been surprised at the more than 2,000 citizens that showed up according to witnesses and University Police.
An urgent request to the AFL-CIO for forces to “counter” those opposed to healthcare was able to result in the a large group of supporters in line hours before the doors opened but was not able to counter the voices of those locked out of the meeting.
Sign carrying protesters both for and against the health care bill took up positions on both sides of the road in front of the event with a core group of about 50 supporters being opposed by nearly 300.
The supporters were approximately 15 red shirt wearing “Progressives of Maryland” and another group of about 15 yellow shirt wearing union members. The remainder of the group was made up of aging hippie types and young college students.
For Maryland, an extremely liberal state, the turnout was amazing for the conservative movement. They countered the typical 2-4-6-8 cheers of the union members (read from script sheets) with “All we are saying, is pay your own bills” sung to the tune of the Beatles “All we are saying is give peace a chance” while the crowd swayed back and forth.
Viva free speech:
Protesters and counter-protesters at a town hall meeting tonight at Towson University on proposed federal health care reform will not be allowed to bring their signs into the building and will be restricted to sidewalks away from the building, according to organizers.
Susan Sullam, a spokeswoman for Sen. Ben Cardin, said about 1,600 people have indicated their interest in attending.
She said she expects a number of those attendees will be there to express opposition to health care legislation under consideration in Congress.
Other groups, such as one organized by Silver Spring-based Progressive Maryland, will attend to “rally against health reform opponents and for health reform now,” according to an e-mail sent out this morning by Matthew Weinstein, state coordinator for Health Care for America Now and Baltimore regional director for Progressive Maryland.
Protesters on either side of the issue will be restricted to sidewalks near the university’s Center for the Arts.
They will not be allowed to bring in signs or placards, Sullam said.
“Towson University will not allow that at any of their facilities,” Sullam said. “This is a town hall meeting. It’s not a rally and it is not a protest.”
And smell the authenticity!
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Trackbacks
- Americans Will Not Stop Protesting… « NEOAVATARA
- Nearly 2,000 Show Up to 500 seat Town Hall meeting for Ben Cardin in Maryland | Fire Andrea Mitchell!
- Catholic leadership concerned that Obamacare will lead to federal funding of abortions « Goodtimepolitics
- Are the proponents of Democrat-led Health Care Reform racist? « Mark Epstein
- Overflow crowd at Maryland town hall « The Right Cup of Tea
- This is Brilliant « The Right Cup of Tea
- Who is ‘un-American’? [Darleen Click]
- Liar, Liar, Pelosi’s Pants Are on Fire: More Americans Opposed to and Fear Government-Run ObamaCare Than Fear Health Insurance Companies « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- “Town Hall” or “Town Hell”? Congressman Mike Pence & John Boehner Respond to Pelosi’s Insults Against Americans Exercising Free Speech about ObamaCare (video) « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- Attack of the Purple Shirts: Malkin on Beck about Democrat-Approved SEIU Members Intimidating, Beating Up ObamaCare Town Hall Protesters (video) « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- White House Using Twitter and Facebook To Spread Lies About ObamaCare And What You Can Do About It – New Petition From ACLJ | The Substratum
- Cardin Town Hall in Towson reports | Inside Charm City: Baltimore, Maryland blog
- Congressman Frank Kratovil Escapes Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Finding Refuge In The Calmer, Cooler Middle East. « Ztower
- Cardin Town Hall « Maryland Politics Blog
- URGENT: MIAMI TOWN HALL MEETING – Senator Bill Nelson 8/13/09 « FactReal
- The Great Socialist Takeover – Peter Ferrara’s Blistering Study Of ObamaCare | The Substratum
- Blame TOTUS: ObamaCare & Dem Party Thrown Under the Bus by POTUS… Obama Babbles “Health Care Plan Is Like, Uh, Post Office” and “Ponying Up” or Something Like That « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- Some Dogs Are Smarter Than Liberals (video) « Frugal Café Blog Zone
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Categories: Health care, Tea Party
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It’s about time Obama and his enablers in congress came out of their collective comas and understood that the people of this country do not want their frightening socialist health care system.
Why do Union members hate their kids so much?
I guess they’re gonna need some more nightstick-toting Black Panthers to show up.
Ya know. Just so they can have some “alternative” viewpoints.
*It is at it has always been:Politicians lie, America dies, only this time it is for real.
*We need healthcare reform, but we must fight these socialist bastards until they are sidelined, then we can implement a reasoned approach as befits a Representative Constitutional Republic.
*These socialist policies,if allowed, will surely lead to an economic tsunami that is not survivable, so we must fight once more for our liberty; It is truly that stark of a contrast.
The Democrats look like a basketball team that has always seen 1/4 court defenses suddenly being pressed full court, man-to-man, nose-to-nose.
Their reaction is frustration, anger, and railing at the “lack of enforcement” of what THEY THINK the rules are.
They are thoroughly disrupted. Nothing works. They have hit rock bottom and started to dig.
Gotta love it!
BTW: Fox News interviewed Cardin. He thought most who attended were from his district–apparently they “checked” in some manner. He added, however, that the crowd (about 90% white and about 10% black) was not representative of his district, which runs about 65% (or so he said). Evidently, Obama supporters couldn’t be bothered enough to get off the couch. Go figure.
The hippies have got to HATE having evil Conservatives sing this at them!
This makes me very happy.
They already know that most of us in this country don’t want their socialism. That’s why they’ve been trying to get the legislation rammed through Congress and signed into law before vocal opposition to it can emerge. Notice that the full implementaion of Obamacare is years away-2013. Their number one goal is to pass the law, which would give them the permanent upper hand. Once they do that, they can implement what they want when they want.
The wrench in the works is that open opposition has emerged. Obama’s standard Alinsky approach to opposition in the past has been to ridicule it in order to shut it down. This time, the opposition is becoming more resolute. If it wasn’t freaking him out, he wouldn’t be asking people to snitch on their neighbors.
Google “Frank Kratovil,” (D) from Maryland’s Congressional District #1.
Jake Tapper from ABC attended Kratovil’s Town Meeting on Healthcare last week and described the poor Congressman as physically shaking when he had to attempt to answer his constituents’ questions, and couldn’t.
Kratovil initially attempted to hold “one on one-confessional” style meetings behind a closed curtain in order to avoid the crowds, but his constituents would have none of it.
Kratovil calls himself a “Blue Dog Democrat,” voted against Obama’s first stimulus bill, voted for cap and trade, says he doesn’t know how he will vote on health care…and is therefore pissing off all sides in his district.
Alas, it must be tough trying to demonstrate your ” political independence” by occasionally yapping really loud at the end of Nancy Pelosi’s short leash.
We’re as mad as hell, and were not taking it any more!!!!
Doesn’t Senator Cardin realize he isn’t Rep. Cardin of the 3rd District any more? Senator the whole State of MD is your district. MD has a large minority population of about 25%.
I am amazed and impressed by the American people for recognizing this for what it is. The Democrats don’t know what is in the bill. . . they only know talking points to sell it.
They know what phrases people like and respond to, but they don’t really know what they are talking about. None of the proposals will do anything to reduce health care costs. Most will dramatically increase them.
I don’t understand why they think this outrage is fake. You can’t fake being this angry. If Republicans could organize this, they wouldn’t be irrelevant now. These people are angry. I hope that they don’t have to get more aggressive for the Democrats to actually believe they care and they are angry and they don’t need any more incentive to be angry aside from the thought that Congress is going to throw money away on health care that they don’t have to.
The people saying this is racist. People aren’t protesting Obama. People are protesting at Congressmen town halls. It’s not Obama that people are mad at. It is Congress for wasting our money.
It’s time to call unions what they are – thieves, thugs and racketeers. It is long past time to ban their political involvement, and terminate their tax-advantaged status.
that would be good start, unions have long out lived their usefulness…at this point so has congress. They need to know who’s country this is and don’t ever let them forget it again.
Rep. Sam Farr (D, California) will get an earful from me and others tomorrow night here in the People’s Republic of Santa Cruz. I have decorated a white T-Shirt with the words, “Hi. I’m a Mobster” written in big black letters.
Wish me luck!
You go, vickisoup!! Good luck. Ask Farr who he “represents”…his constituents or Obama/Pelocchio/Dingy Harry, et al? Fortunately, here in in my neck of SoCal, I’m represented by a conservative…Brian Bilbray. And, Darrell Issa is right “next door.”
I hear screams of “They will never take me alive!” – - but we have the VOTE!
Gee, what’s with all the name calling from the free speech left? And coming from a U.S. Senator’s staff, at that! Does the know it all staffer realize that her terms for the questioning patriots, “Tea Baggers,” and “Birther’s” is extremely derogatory?
By the standards being set by the left in this country, is it now okay to call all those on the left who are pro-Gay Marriage, “Homo’s” or “Ass assassins?” Or those who support this massive theft by the government, “Thiever’s?”
Remember all the campaigning by the left, who ran as conservatives, condemned all the vitriole, and pledged to end the politics of personal destruction? Well, they lied!
So, we can all now refer to the Democrat/liberal/Progressive/Statist/Commie/Thieving/Butt Pirates as “The Reprobate Degenerate Liars.”
I have always been proud to be an American. But it makes me so happy and more proud of all the patriotic Americans standing up against socialism. Thank you.
Good luck, Vicki. You’ll do fine! Don’t forget your camera and/or camcorder!
I am part of the mob but colburn and infone are my sen. So i know my view are being helped.
Email addresses for your pleasure!
’sean_mckew@cardin.senate.gov’ and ‘Jerome_Stephens@cardin.senate.gov’
Please feel free to send your opinions of their “invitations”.
Question: Where were all these people on election day?
It’s great they’re turning out but if they had worked this hard last November we wouldn’t be IN this mess… maybe another mess, but not this one.
The Republicans Party officials can only wish and dream that they could organize anything like what is going on at these events.
Why are we not hearing more from them?
Why are they not having town hall meetings giving their thoughts for or against Obamacare?
Un-freakin’ believable. The clown doesn’t even understand his own job, but he knows how to fix health care.
I don’t know why there is a mindset that if the elected representative doesn’t attend it is not a town hall meeting. Those who want to have a town hall meeting should organize and have a town hall meeting. Establish a venue, publish a list of items that will be discussed, invite the elected representative, if they don’t show up put an empty suit at the front of the room to represent them and their value to democracy, be civil, camcord the whole event, invite the media, and email/mail copies of the meeting video and attendance list to the elected representative, the whitehouse, and the major news outlets. If several hundred townhalls were held in this fashion the so called “fear” in our elected representatives would turn to outright terror.
Love it, hopefully by 2010 the song will be “Gang on the run…” sung to Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run.
Not sure, like you I wish they would have turned out. Gov. Palin was my reason to vote, but the beltway GOPs bad habit of going along to get along was huge disincentive for some.
Maybe they will get in a turf war with SEIU thugs and put on a show for the rest of us?
Rep Jeff Flake, (R) AZ-6, Town Hall Meeting was full long before scheduled start time.
Just for the record this song wasn’t sung by the Beatles, it was actually John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
Living in Maryland, I heard sound bits from the town hall on the radio this morning. Sen. Cardin definitely got an earful. He knows that people in MD are not happy about a government takeover of healthcare. However, he’s a Moveon.org liberal and will vote for it anyway. He knows that in a state like MD, he won’t have any problem being reelected.
The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise. Pass it on.
Went to a Town hall meeting in Mooresville NC –10th district–Patrick McHenry(R) opposed to Obamacare. The city hall chamber was packed–only holds 361. Over 1000 more were outside and lined the the streets. McHenry went to the lobby and outside and spoke to the crowd and told them he would do a second town hall meeting to address their concerns. Cheers reverberated throughout the building. The meeting lasted 3 hours and he answered questions from every single person who asked to be heard. Isn’t that the way it should be? About 5-6 Obamacare supporters spoke. Rest were in opposition. This was his 43rd town hall and he was blown away by the size of the crowd. No union thugs.
Michelle has a typo in the lead sentence. The article is about SENATOR Cardin from Maryland.I think you’re referring to REPRESENTATIVE Cohen from Memphis, TN. But, yeah, I couldn’t believe it when he said the crowd didn’t look like his district.
St Louis Post Dispatch this AM full of letters to editors saying we must be respectful and lower our voices or we won’t be heard. we must have a civil tone in our debate. I say to hell with them until the Democrat legislators stop telling us B. S. answers in these public meetings….We Are Born to Raise Hell!
I think the left is trying to get the genie back in the bottle. They are trying to make this thing about health insurance reform when it has become about government interference and socialism. The reaction of folks who are opposed includes the bigger issue of too big, too costly, too invasive government of which the health care stuff is a piece. Because the left knows their political lives and power depends on the discussion not getting to the bigger issue are trying like crazy to get the discussion stopped and re-framed back to an issue they think they can win.
I’m thinking its too late. This health care plan is undeniably socialism and government control/power grab. We know it. We won’t allow it to happen quietly.
In an effort to keep his promise of transparency, Obama wants our personal information. Yeah..ah huh, alrighty then.
Just say no for a change.
Seems to me the first question needed to be asked to these politicians in these town halls is, “Have you read the entire legislation?”
If “No”, why are they attempting to act as if they are on top of things and know what the criticism are about?
If “Yes”, have any of the copies that are available and start asking them point blank questions from the legislation.
They will cook themselves one way or the other.
Ditto – once again, while conservatives are concerned with being respectful and have all appearances of appropriateness, the left will cut us off at the knees. Once again we fall victim to their guilt tactics and they dictate how we should conduct ourselves at townhall meetings. Are you kidding me we are buying into this again?
I’ve heard criticism from some that the citizens who show up at town hall meetings are ‘too loud’ strident, unpleasant… I have watched ‘progressives’ leftists, Democrats attack Bush and his policies in a much more hateful way. I’ve heard people like Reid and Pelosi personally attack their ’stated enemies’…now when it is being turned around on them they scream anti-americanism… what a joke, like they even know what that means.
I think the American public has finally awoken to the fact that the only way to be heard is to shout. Clearly the politicians in Washington ARE NOT listening to rational debates and letters from home. The Democratic party and Obama is not allowing opposing views, input from REpublicans and are pushing this bill (that they don’t bother to read) as fast as they can so the American public is kept ignorant of it until it is law. This will not stand.
The founding Fathers came to the realization that just words against a tyrant are not enough… you have to made yourself heard..
If the town hall meetings have become less ‘courteous’ the Democrats like Cardin can only blame themselves to ignoring their constituents for years. Cardin has been in Congress far too long…he has become too powerful, and doesn’t need to listen anymore. He makes the perfect case for term limits.
By the way Cardin suggested it didn’t represent his district because it was 65% black….. amazing isn’t it. I guess he doesn’t feel he has any responsibility to the 35% non-black constituents. The whole Democratic party feels that way….. those that didn’t vote for them are not important. Not a very good way to broach the next election I’m thinking.
I am a conservative, union govt. teacher and am appalled at how these community organizers called SEIU (and other union thuggers/puggers) threaten, intimidate, harrass, scare, brutalize the majority of us who refuse to take this crap from govt. I tell you what, when my district in MI starts up this fall, I better not hear this garbage of support for a socialist, govt, payer healthcare system.
BTW, there are lots of us in my district who are not libs and it’s refreshing. In fact, another teacher in my district ran against Dale Kildee the past 2 elections! I have told him to run again (which he will) and I bet this time he could beat
our lib.our “partisan” rep.Of course they know what it means (anti-americanism)– they invented it!
Though they ARE missapplying the title here– kind of an “I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I?” type moment!
Truth be told, they’ve understood this from the get-go.
The problem is they DON’T CARE.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Why not?
They did it for 40 years.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Not as surprised as lgm will be when he sees the number of the crowd can be verified by *horrors* the po-po!
Well, at least the colors were appropriate.
These Democrats are showing themselves to be true “useful idiots.”
THE LEFT secured john mccain’s candidacy for the republican party by crossing lines and voting in fla. where their democrat vote was not going to be counted. this gave us the wonderful choice between a third generation avoid communist and a rino who has run on his war hero status for 30 years. america couldn’t believe prez allah (bbuh) was really a communist despite his father, his mother, his grandparents all expressing they were communists. these same intelligencia of the electorate make american idol the number one watched show on t.v. need i say more. now they are shocked, SHOCKED, to find that nancy and prez allah (bbuh) are taking the gubmint deep into communism. yes communism, central planning, five year plans, use the media to lie to the stupid people about what wonderful things are happening, and if the people start to protest, have the secret police talk to them or re-educate them at a gulag. any of this sound familiar?
Ummm.. thanks, but I know how to conduct myself appropriately. When the discourse is honest and civil, I’ll be civil. When I know I’m being lied to, when I know I’m being treated like an idiot, when I know they are packaging Socialism and stealing my liberty, I know how to conduct myself appropriately!
Anyone who saw Michael Steele shred Cardin to pieces in their three televised debates for the open Maryland Senate Seat in 2006 knows EXACTLY why Cardin brought “help” to this venue: he can’t debate his way out of a week old, wet, paper sack! He can’t handle ONE SINGLE, SOLITARY dissenter (the before-mentioned Former Maryland Lt. Governor Steele), let alone 2,ooo+! He should have had the thugs on hand when he debated Lt. Gov. Steele!
It looks like my Congressman (John Yarmuth, D-KY3) has found a way to avoid any opposing views at his townhall meetings.
Today I got a call letting me know that he’ll be holding a “telephone townhall” on August 24 at 6:00 p.m. and he’ll call me back then so I can participate.
Actually, I was surprised to get the call since I’m a registered Republican (a minority in the Louisville area). Now I’m curious if I’ll actually get a callback and if I do, will my call be “dropped” if I offer an opposing opinion?
This is the ditty that could go viral!
Is incredible the MSM ignores the hordes of real Astroturfers wearing their colors to these townhalls. Not hard to miss the Purple, Red, or Yellow shirted gang of thugs at these gatherings. Who are the real constituents and who are there to squelch debate? Duh, Ida know?