The Real AstroTurf By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY , plus my own comments

Free Speech: The White House and Congress claim the anti-ObamaCare uprising is artificially organized. But the violent — even racist — union counterattacks, urged on by Democrats, are the real Rent-a-Mobs.


Newsweek columnist and TV pundit Eleanor Clift last week gave her Democratic friends a warning: "Unless Obama and his surrogates find the language to reassure the majority of Americans with health insurance that they will be better off under his reform plan, the AstroTurf opposition we see playing out now on our TV screens could morph into the real thing."

Clift is right to warn that the president's plans for a health care revolution in America are in political peril, but notice her self-contradictory description of the current populist revolt. If those many millions of Americans happy with their health insurance are unconvinced that ObamaCare will make things better for them, doesn't that suggest that the widespread opposition we're seeing this summer already is "the real thing"?
They've heard what's being planned. They know that the president's promise that they can keep their present coverage will mean little when the government-run "marketplaces" start dictating private insurers' coverage, killing who knows how many current plans and giving employers the incentive to stop offering medical insurance altogether.
They've heard about Section 1233 of the House health care bill, in which the federal government will "recruit doctors to sell the elderly on living wills, hospice care and their associated providers, professions and organizations," as the Washington Post's Charles Lane described it last week, adding: "You don't have to be a right-wing wacko to question that approach."

You also don't have to be goaded on by insurance companies or talk radio hosts to express your worries to politicians at town halls.

Indeed, it is the opposition to this opposition that is aggressively and meticulously organized. White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina last week gave the order to "push back twice as hard."

And the national field director of the union-backed Health Care for America Now (HCAN) on Aug. 4 apparently sent out a four-page, single-spaced, 2,500-word-plus "how to bully" memo.

The document, featured on the Talking Points Memo Web site, says "it's important that you take away right-wingers' opportunities to talk with reporters." It tells operatives to "confiscate signs or leaflets" of those opposing ObamaCare. It adds: "Make sure that you assign marshals to take care of moving the crowd."

Human Events recently exposed a memo from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stating that congressional Democratic leaders and the White House are "working in close coordination with" HCAN and other union-backed groups in organizing a pro-ObamaCare PR blitz this month.

The White House-ordered push-back has extended even to racist violence. Thugs at Rep. Russ Carnahan's St. Louis town hall meeting last week beat and knocked down a black man, Kenneth Gladney. One called him the N-word, according to Gladney — all because he was distributing "Don't Tread On Me" flags.

There's no evidence behind the wild claims of Pelosi and other ObamaCare proponents that the grass-roots protests against them are artificially manufactured.

But there is well-documented proof of the coordinated planning that has led to violent White House/Pelosi-backed thuggery.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Obama and pelosi are nothing more than schoolyard bullies with brass knuckles. When groups like ACORN protested they were praised for their efforts. Its community organizing and democracy in action, but when ordinary citizens express their outrage and frustration they are bullied, called UN American, swastika waving angry mobs. WTF? We are angry and we have a right to be. The town hall meetings are being stacked against the protesters. It's oh so obvious to anyone with two good eyes. They aren't listening to the citizens who are saying, HEY WE DON'T WANT THIS ! STOP ! SLOW DOWN ! So now they are being bullied and persecuted by these union thugs into at the very least being made to look bad and at worst actually being hurt by physical violence-perpetrated by said union thugs. I have seen actual footage of some of this and I AM OUTRAGED ! Is this not AMERICA? or is it AMERIKA? We have to decide as a nation whether we are going to tolerate this kinda of behavior from our government or whether we are going to stand up as a nation and say NO MORE ! We have the right to ask the hard questions of our leaders and not be ignored, bullied, pushed aside,and at worst physically attacked. No matter what side of the aisle you are on this goes oh so much deeper than any of that. This goes to the core of what we are as a nation. Are we really free to question our leaders and do we still have the right to expect honest answers? Or has that time come and gone. I personally think we are on the brink of something really awful happening to this country. Folks no matter what your political persuasion need to seriously examine what is really happening in this country. We are slowing loosing the right to be heard if our opinion is different from what the government politicians have and that is really really scary. It should be if you still care about having true freedom of speech and still care about making your voice heard, I mean truly heard. Just think about it folks please. Don't let the thugs win, both in and out of government. They will rob us of something so precious to the core of this country, that once its gone, I don't know if we will ever get it back. That would be a tragedy of titanic proportions.