When I saw the report, that's all I could say or think.
Unbelievable!
Why would anyone carry an assault rifle to a political event, to a town hall meeting or to a speech? Who would do such a thing at an event where the President of the United States was to speak?
And to speak about health care, the nation's health and wellness?
Nothing new here though. Last week guns started showing up in the hands of people at other meetings and rallies dealing with health care reform.
Last week, at a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire where President Obama spoke, a man carried a sign that read, "It is time to water the tree of liberty." The same man had a pistol strapped to his leg.
Have a look at the story here.
Or, the video version here, reporting the presence of more than one person carrying assault weapons.
Maybe we need a holiday. You know, everyone go home, take a week off, calm down and decide to come back to the conversation or even debate with a bit of reason and maturity.
Lots is going on here.
What do you think?
.
Unbelievable!
Why would anyone carry an assault rifle to a political event, to a town hall meeting or to a speech? Who would do such a thing at an event where the President of the United States was to speak?
And to speak about health care, the nation's health and wellness?
Nothing new here though. Last week guns started showing up in the hands of people at other meetings and rallies dealing with health care reform.
Last week, at a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire where President Obama spoke, a man carried a sign that read, "It is time to water the tree of liberty." The same man had a pistol strapped to his leg.
Have a look at the story here.
Or, the video version here, reporting the presence of more than one person carrying assault weapons.
Maybe we need a holiday. You know, everyone go home, take a week off, calm down and decide to come back to the conversation or even debate with a bit of reason and maturity.
Lots is going on here.
What do you think?
.
Agree--no one should bring guns to a political event.
ReplyDeleteI think Obama should take 3 1/2 years off. Nothing he says about health care is logical. The American people aren't buying what he has to sell but he is determined to ram some sort of "change" down our throats.
The one good thing is that one doesn't have to go to paid entertainment these days--just tune in to a Robert Gibbs press conference.
Chris, I'm glad you come here. You keep providing material for us to respond to.
ReplyDeleteHealth care reform is a must and without a public payor option all of the talk and debate and work will lead us no where that is better. Insurance costs to serve high admin and profit costs have driven costs and access through the roof and, much like the financial sector, there is no control mechanism in place to govern the industry. By comparing the admin cost of the Medicare system to the costs of the private insurance system you can actually find a way to pay for a huge chunck of the cost to cover everyone with a public option. Obama's plan lets you keep your overpriced health care policy if you want to. Those who can't afford that and many of the rest of us would prefer a Medicare type product hands down to what we have now. Further, the public health outcomes would be much, much better.
Health and health care should not be a commodity or an investment opportunity traded for profit. Contrary to your view, Obama makes lots of sense. . .he is trying to confront reality and do what is best for as many people as possible.
Anonymous:
ReplyDeletePerhaps you didn't hear--Medicare is going broke.
Chris -- as are people with and without health insurance who have the misfortune to get sick.
ReplyDeleteAnd for those of you who keep saying that the government is inefficient -- should read a recent article from Mother Jones that says we have virtually outsourced our government to "private" industry. So if it is inefficient -- that old private industry is to blame.
Medicare may be going broke, but not due to some innate flaw. Medicare is going broke because it depends on private healthcare, which if you hadn't been following the news, has been on a slippery slope of major doo-doo for the last 20 years.
ReplyDeleteThe sort of reform Pres Obama is suggesting would enable the nation to shift to the more efficient process offered by a truly non-profit, public system. Then, Medicare would not be broke and neither would millions of Americans who lose so much in major health crises.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 11:07
ReplyDeleteMedicare depends on private healthcare? I don't know what you mean by that.
Anonymous 11:57
The fact is, in recent years, medicare administrative cost per beneficiary have substantially exceeded those costs for the private sector. For a discussion of this see The Heritage Foundation for June 25, 2009.
In a rare moment of truth-telling, Obama admitted that "FedEx was doing just fine. It's the post office that's always having problems."
Chris, surely you realize that Medicare depends upon private docs. My parents' doctors were paid by Medicare, but didnt' work for the feds. I expect that is what Anon intended.
ReplyDeleteI'm asking this for information. I understand medicare doesn't reimburse very well which is why some doctors do not like to take medicare patients. If we had everyone under something like medicare, who would want to spend all the time and money going to medical school?
ReplyDeletePossibly men and women who felt a calling to helping, healing and assisting others in time of need, as well as keeping people well and productive. And the reimbursement rates are not that bad. Surely good enough for a person to make a fine living with much respect. But, meybe then every other developed nation in the world just has medical students and medical pros who are not motivated by money. Must be something in the water here. What do ya think?
ReplyDeleteHas everyone forgotten about the image of an assault rifle at a town meeting? It's a frightening reflection of the madness surrounding this debate and our own inability to conduct civil discourse. God help us.
ReplyDeleteEvery threat against Obama at protest meetings is investigated by the secret service as well it should be.
ReplyDeleteWhat's "unbelieveable" is that no one was ever arrested for threats against President Bush at protests when they displayed signs that called for his death. People threatned President Bush all the time and none of the threatners at protests were ever arrested, questioned or investigated.
To see some of the hate-filled signs see: "DEATH THREATS AGAINST PRESIDENT BUSH IGNORED FOR YEARS."
Every legitimate threat made against any president is taken seriously and investigated thoroughly. That of course is not the point of the post. It goes rather to the insanity and extremeism of the current debate about health care.
ReplyDeleteOn August 12, a man was detained at a town hall meeting and turned over to the Secret Service for displaying a sign that said, "Death to Obama." Obama was not there and the man was not armed. But the threat itself is a federal crime according to the United States code.
ReplyDeleteIf you will follow the link in my last post you will see many hate-filled signs calling for death to President Bush. No one was ever detained at a protest against him.
Double standard anyone?
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ReplyDelete