Righties Rally Against "Government Health Care"

Two questions

I haven't seen anything on this rally, so I have two questions for anyone who was there.
1.  Does this group (Caldera, Crank, etc.) agree there is a healthcare issue and simply disagree with the current proposed solution (which is their right)?  
2.  If they think there is an issue, did they offer any solutions during their rally that would provide reasonable, affordable coverage for the vast majority of the citizens?


"...Somewhere between left and right is the middle..."

---

by: mtnhigh @ Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 18:48:26 PM CDT

did they offer any solutions during their rally

Tort reform and portable insurance.

---

by: RedGreen @ Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 19:32:16 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Libertarians are against ALL government healthcare

The Independence Institute is not a think tank, it is a propaganda shop, a Libertarian talking-point factory. As Libertarians, they are against government, period. If they are taking their protest to the streets, then it is a sign of weakness, that they can't get their message out through media channels, and that they are actually worried about the reform momentum the Democratic Party is starting to generate.

I posted here yesterday to encourage people to pay attention to this rally. It is ideologically incoherent that the Independence Institute and American's for Prosperity would be sponsoring an anti-healthcare reform rally, without going the full monty demanding the end of medicare. I was kind of hoping for some guerilla theater, like a bunch of anti Medicare signs to clarify that these are right wing, libertarian anarchists.

Who is "Americans for Prosperity"?

This is part of the Tea Party astroturf network, well funded through right-wing channels. Open Left has some video of the Americans for Prosperity packing a town hall meeting in St Louis sponsored by Senator McCaskill.

And Now you have Cholera:

---

by: ParkHill @ Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 22:57:53 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Hahaha

I cheer your video.

---

by: sufimarie @ Wed Jul 29, 2009 at 00:24:04 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I'm all for prosperity....

It's too bad that many nations are doing better than us in so many ways.  Our decline has matched the rise of Republican/Libertarian ideologues taking hold of Congress and the presidency.  

"We're Number One!  We're Number One!"

No, we aren't. OK, maybe military expenditures.

"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd." -Bertrand Russell

---

by: parsingreality @ Wed Jul 29, 2009 at 10:20:54 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

This has nothing to do with healthcare

And everything to do with opposing the President and the Congressional majority.

---

by: Snead @ Wed Jul 29, 2009 at 13:20:30 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Yawn

Caldara is now officially a joke.

---

by: Half Glass Full @ Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 19:40:02 PM CDT

I'd love to see a crowd picture

I'd bet a number of the several hundred who turned up are on Medicare. They see no contradiction.

Sad.

---

by: gertie97 @ Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 19:49:20 PM CDT

Count away!

---

by: Canines @ Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 19:55:44 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Fine, all these people:

no public option for you. If you like your health care the way it is, then guess what? Nobody is going to pry it from your cold, dead hands.

(too far???)

---

by: sufimarie @ Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 20:19:20 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I see a lot of gray heads in the picture

How many of them are on Medicare?

When I use lots of words, they always form an analysis (and, while producing high volume, also produce high information-density).
--Steve Harvey, 2009

---

by: Ralphie @ Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 22:00:29 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I don't know...

But considering the righties have been shouting from the mountaintops that this new health care plan will kill elderly people - sick or not - I wonder what portion of the crowd would not have shown up if they knew their Medicare was safe.

"I have come to the conclusion that the making of laws is like the making of sausages-the less you know about the process the more you respect the result."  -- Anonymous IL State Rep. circa 1878

---

by: Phoenix Rising @ Wed Jul 29, 2009 at 10:18:28 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Or could attend because they are retired on Social Security.

The obvious hypocrisy of righties continues to boggle me although it shouldn't by now.  

"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd." -Bertrand Russell

---

by: parsingreality @ Wed Jul 29, 2009 at 10:22:59 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

"Several hundred"...

I often wonder how many the press means when they say that. Is it 300? Is it 1200?

Estimating the turnout at today's rally:

KCNC Channel 4 Denver: "several hundred"

Denver Post: "hundreds," "a few hundred people"

Denver Business Journal: "Several hundred people"

Can't any of you reporters take a stab?

The Denver Post reporter doesn't even ask the rally organizers how many attended, like the Post did when Michael Moore appeared at the Capitol. The Post said then that "organizers estimated [the crowd] at 2,000" when Moore appeared. OK, cut the organizers' estimate in half and you get a 1,000. (Or double the amount the police say were in attendance, as a rule). More people probably turned out to hear Moore promote universal health care than they did to protest it today.

Don't get me wrong. That's not a bad turnout from the photo. But it's no 4/20 rally...

---

by: Canines @ Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 20:08:30 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I count 134 in that picture

Probably 150 when the cropping & blocking by posters/flags taken into account.  150+ is "hundreds" if you round to 200 :-)

---

by: G Pulviczek @ Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 22:27:31 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I walked by the Capitol today

While this was happening.  Several hundred is a gross overexageration.  200 is pushing it.  

"It takes no compromising to give people their rights. It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no survey to remove repressions."
- Harvey Milk

---

by: J-Rock @ Wed Jul 29, 2009 at 00:36:04 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Free Market?

I'm yet again confused by this jargon. If these boys are so pro-free market, they why would they be against competition?

---

by: sufimarie @ Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 19:55:23 PM CDT

Logic is not part of right wing "thinking."

"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd." -Bertrand Russell

---

by: parsingreality @ Wed Jul 29, 2009 at 10:23:49 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

We have not a moment to spare!

It is time to IMMEDIATELY dismantle medicare, medicade and social security.  

Do you think if Caldera and Crank advocated that they would have had a single blue-hair at their event?


"...Somewhere between left and right is the middle..."

---

by: mtnhigh @ Wed Jul 29, 2009 at 00:50:54 AM CDT

I am in favor of free market radio

Caldera gets 15 hours of radio time a week which the government gives him and he/Independence Institute do not have to pay for that time.  That is not fair.  That is not free market, that is government monopoly of the 50,000 watt "blow torch of the Rockies."    Only the government in charge of granting that monopoly was controlled by the same party which lost last year, totally.  However, broadcast licenses do not expire when the party which granted them loses.

The Democrats won both houses of Congress and the Presidency; in Colorado, Democrats won the governor's office and the state legislature.  All the republicans have left is control of the public radio airwaves.....and that is all they need.  .....I predict the repubs will defeat health care reform and win big in 2010.......

radio is setting the agenda and mobilizing the base....it is brilliant and the dems think they are "too smart" to care about  talk radio......    

---

by: dwyer @ Wed Jul 29, 2009 at 07:59:23 AM CDT

Dems/Libs don't and can't "get it."

Just look at the Air America and NovaM fiascoes.  Gross mismanagement (often by the same people in both), internal politics, and often, just outright stupidity.

Couple all that with Dems/Libs being a herd of cats, and it's apparently doomed for failure.

OTOH, cons love to be part of a group of like thinkers and told what to think, so conservative talk radio has a hug audience. Goebbels would love them.  

"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd." -Bertrand Russell

---

by: parsingreality @ Wed Jul 29, 2009 at 10:30:23 AM CDT

[ Parent ]