First of all, you start bussing in your people to disrupt and not debate, the other side is going to bus in theirs to disrupt your diruption. You really want to go down that road? Sure, like most zealots, these right-wing extremists are more interest in the trip than the ultimate dead-end where this vicious circle leads. Of course there are going to be scuffles and its only a matter of time before shots get fired at one these things.
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Who's the dangerous ones again?
Talk about SPIN from the OREILLY FACTOR!!!
First of all, the guy shown in the video on the ground getting beaten up is the "Union Thug", not your teabag buddy. Actually he is also a local pastor.
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The videographer appears to have happened upon the last nine seconds of a minor altercation on the sidewalk. The tape doesn’t show how the scuffle started. We do see the SEIU member, identifiable by his t-shirt, prostrate on the pavement.
About six seconds into the clip, a figure in a beige t-shirt and khaki pants with his back to the camera falls on his butt and immediately gets up and moves out of frame. It’s unclear clear what caused him to fall. Nobody appears to be punching or kicking anyone.
A few seconds later, we see a black man in a beige polo shirt and khakis darting around, trying to convince various police officers that he’s been attacked.
The man, later identified as 38-year-old conservative activist, Ken Gladney, doesn’t look savagely beaten: Gladney has no visible injuries and his light-colored clothes are clean and intact. At one point, he stops to exchange a few words with the videographer before trying to flag down a police car.
Lawyer Dan Brown later claimed to have seen SEIU members punching his client in the face and kicking him in the head.
The St. Louis County police cannot confirm whether the video is authentic or whether it shows what various parties claim to see in it. After the arrests, the police asked witnesses to come forward with statements, video, or photos of the incident.
“We have no idea the source of the video,” Officer Rick Eckhard, a spokesman for the St. Louis County Police, told In These Times, “If someone wants to come and say “that this is my video…” Otherwise, it’s just speculation. We haven’t received it.”
Officer Eckhard said police investigators are preparing a report for the county council’s office. The council will decide whether there’s enough evidence to issue arrest warrants.
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Former exec: Insurers fomenting town hall chaos
By Mike Soraghan
Posted: 08/12/09 05:12 PM [ET]
A former health insurance executive says the disruptions taking place at lawmakers' town halls around the country are the result of stealth efforts by health insurance companies.
Wendell Potter, a former CIGNA vice president, detailed what he said were past covert efforts by the industry. Though he said he does not have specifics for what is occurring now, because he's been out of the business for a year, it follows the same pattern.
"The industry is up to the same dirty tricks this year," Potter said at a Capitol news conference after meeting with House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), an avid supporter of the Democrats' plans for a healthcare overhaul.
"When you hear someone complaining about traveling down a 'slippery slope to socialism,' some insurance flack, like I used to be, wrote that," Potter added.
Potter said during his 20 years in the insurance business, the industry would funnel money to large public firms who would create front groups and find friendly voices in conservative media.
In particular, he cited front groups created to fight "Patients' Bill of Rights" legislation in the 1990s, as well as a campaign to discredit the Michael Moore film "Sicko," which harshly criticized the industry.
Slaughter joined in the attack, saying "the notion that this is going to be something devilish comes from the people who would lose money on it."
A health insurance trade group, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), sent a letter to congressional leaders earlier this week stating support for "bipartisan health reform" and denying any role in fomenting disruptions at meetings.
"There is no truth to the allegation that AHIP’s employee grassroots program is responsible for disruptive and inappropriate tactics at health care town hall meetings," wrote the group's president, Karen Ignagni. "We are urging our member plans to participate in town hall meetings to provide members of Congress with real-world examples of how they are helping to expand access, reduce costs and improve quality."
The town hall meetings of Democratic lawmakers during their August recess have been marked by shouting and heckling from vocal opponents of President Barack Obama's healthcare plan and from opponents of the protesters. There have been several instances of fisticuffs and some reports of guns being brought to events, usually legally.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has dubbed insurance companies "villains" and encouraged her members to focus on the companies' business practices, such as denying coverage for "pre-existing conditions."
The insurance industry has not launched open attacks on the overhaul plan, as it did against President Bill Clinton's plan in the 1990s. But it has lobbied to change specific provisions.
CKA Super Elite 
![[but]](./images/smilies/bootie.gif "Moon")
