http://content.usatoday.net/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=azcentral&sParam=31365845.story

It’s just a matter of time before somebody gets shot.  Perhaps you aren’t familiar with Appalachia or Rural South where this is part of the culture.

SG, have you read this? http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009083205/fascist-america-are-we-there-yet

You are right about the time to stand up and let this keep going. Perhaps you will check this site out:

http://www.ourfuture.org/

http://www.alternet.org/media/141865/glenn_beck%2C_rush_limbaugh%2C_lou_dobbs_enflame_scary_right-wing_rage/

I have made several posts saying that these media "pundits" are just stoking the fire.  When are people going to realize they are crying Fire in a crowded theatre?

http://www.alternet.org/politics/141860/inside_story_on_town_hall_riots%3A_right-wing_shock_troops_do_corporate_america%27s_dirty_work?obref=obinsite

Time to take a break from being so somber and serious: 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/11/jon-stewart-vs-town-hall_n_256272.html

There was an article in the paper a couple of weeks ago about a Baptist preacher in Louisville that is encouraging his  congregation to bring their guns to church.  He says it is teaching them the American Way.  How’s that for showing Jesus’ love?

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07312009/watch.html

Thought provoking and quality broadcast.

Federal Workers all the way up to the President have had Government run policies for decades that work quite well.  This also applies to the military and to medicare.  95% of what goes into these programs go directly to the patient costs, whereas only 80% of private healthcare premiums go to patient care costs, the rest going to bonuses, shareholders and an extra layer of the bureaucracy to run them.  We have the most inefficient and expensive healthcare in the world. 

I have many friends in Canada, France, England and Germany.  They all have told me that they do not wait for years for a procedure, and they laugh when I tell them how expensive prescriptions are over here.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07312009/watch.html

SG,  it also is being spearheaded by the ones who stand to lose a lot of money, BigPharma and the Insurance Corporations that made medicine a for-profit entity in the first place.  And, that is really scary, because they have the money and the resources to do so much damage to our Republic.  Note, I say Republic and not Democracy.  James Madison etal.wrote our Constitutional form of government as a Republic, to be governed by The Rule of Law.  Democracy is government by the people, but we are supposed to be voting on represenitives that go to the capitol and vote for the greater good.  Now, government is ruled by Corporations and Lobbyists, who have cynically convinced a lot of people that we should have a theocracy as well as Legislators who have sold their souls to the corporate lobbyists. 

Time to get the history books out and read about fascism.  It rears its ugly head once more.  As I said before, it only takes about 5-10 well placed goons in a crowd of un-informed people to start alot of trouble, and sooner or later, someone will get hurt or killed.  And, you are right about the racism.  That is why the Birther movement started.  They can’t say they don’t trust him because he’s black, so they do the next best thing by making him "different."

http://www.thedemocraticstrategist.org/strategist/2009/08/there_are_certain_very_instruc.php

This is a very thought provoking article.  See, it isn’t about the healthcare debate anymore.  This protest thing has taken on a life of its own.  Has nothing to do with health.  And, it’s going to get dangerous because soon or later, someone with a gun, some paranoid serial shooter is going to get admitted. 

I am very worried, Frank, by the BrownShirt custom of strategically placing a half-dozen or so goons in a crowd of people that can be manipulated into believing these outright lies.  They found a gun at a congresswoman’s town hall last week, and I read where someone was arrested yesterday of having a gun outside a meeting.  Our President should never have to worry or be placed in this kind of danger—sad to say of his own people.  But,  I think the fire has been stoked by the media big-wigs—Limbaugh, Fox,  Gingrich and Palin, and they know these are lies.  But, they are doing it anyway for the attention and the $$$.  Palin has a room temperature IQ, and she probably really believes this stuff about her baby and old folks. 

But, it’s the Art of Cynicism, I guess.  And,  I think of the GOP legislators that have let themselves become pawns of the BigPharma and the Corporations spearheading this nonsense.  It is a very sad and disturbing time in our nation’s story, and when one studies the history of fascism, which incidentally goes way way back in time,  it is very scary.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/11/jon-stewart-vs-town-hall_n_256272.html

Time for some levity….  :-)