Caddo Monument Rally Bringing Outside Agitators to Shreveport

I am watching with unease all of the protests around Confederate monuments, most recently in Dallas and now in Richmond.  I am uneasy about the upcoming rally in Shreveport, not because our monument is in danger (it isn't), but because of outside agitators coming to our city.

Our monument situation is different than monuments in many of these other cities. Most of those are not on private land as ours is.  Shreveport's situation is unique.

That being said, there are still groups planning to agitate and protest in our city comprised primarily of people who don't live here:

A group invoking what it describes as southern cultural heritage and Christian values plans to stage rallies to protest the possible removal of the Confederate monument at the Caddo Parish Courthouse. 

The organizer, who says he represents the Gulf Coast Patriot Network, has used Facebook to get word out about the events planned for Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 in language that accuses groups such as Black Lives Matter of engaging in terrorism. The announcement has been widely discussed in social media.  

 The rallies were announced a few days before the Caddo Parish Commission’s Long Range Planning and Special Projects committee voted in favor of removing the Caddo monument. But the committee's vote Tuesday did prompt Rex Dukes to expand his outreach nationally, he said in an interview. Dukes said he founded the Gulf Coast Patriot Network.

While I commend and share their loyalty to heritage and history, I don't condone the outside agitation that comes with these protests.

This is the description of the event from the organizers:

This is a call out to all southern States to all citizen's of the Confederate States of America to come to Shreveport La to stand United as one and to all U.S. citizens that love history and wants it to be preserved and cherished to stand with us to protect our monuments and our southern heritage. This event is to bring about and unite all southern states to protect our history our monuments and our Battle flag and our way of life.we can no longer stand idly by as we are attacked buy the radical groups of ANTIFA, BLM, Cair, MBH, B100 groups that have merged together as one large terrorist group. It is time we show just how United we our as southerners and to show that we will no longer allow the destruction of are country. And to show that the SOUTH HAS RISEN once again to show that we will fight to keep our history and heritage in place.to preserve it for are kids and grand kids and for all the world to see. This event must go down in the history as the largest gathering of southerners to ever happen. GOD Bless Dixie and GOD Bless CSA.

I watched the violence in New Orleans and other cities through many live news feeds.  We don't want that here.

Both the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy have declined to attend these protests as organizations.  It's possible that some members will attend as interested citizens, however.

I now understand better why people in New Orleans didn't want outsiders protesting at their monuments.  In reality, what happens is that this increases the likelihood that the monuments will be removed or vandalized because of the negative attention.

And then there's the Antifa crowd that shows up once these protests are announced. They come with hate and they come with violence.  We do not need that in Shreveport.

I am all for peaceable protest and for the right to protest.  It's the outsiders and the ANTIFA crowd I am against.

Our monument has stood with dignity and peace since 1906.  It has been well preserved and maintained and stands on private ground, enclosed by a fence.  Clio, the muse of history, is pointing to the word Love in her book.  Let's let that continue to be the case.

When You've Lost Nicholas Kristof...

When you've lost Nicholas Kristof...

Avowed Obama supporter Nick Kristof is disgruntled with Obama's foreign policy:

Yet the president is taking prudence to the point of paralysis. I’m generally an admirer of Obama’s foreign policy, but his policies toward both Syria and Sudan increasingly seem lame, ineffective and contrary to American interests and values. Obama has shown himself comfortable projecting power — as in his tripling of American troops in Afghanistan. Yet now we have the spectacle of a Nobel Peace Prize winner in effect helping to protect two of the most odious regimes in the world. 

 Earlier this month Kristof called Obama out over a lack of support for the starving children of Sudan:

President Obama, you harshly criticized President Bush for failing to stand up to Sudan’s slaughter in Darfur. So now what are you going to do as Sudan kills again — on your watch? 

That Kristof is even surprised at Obama's "dithering" is naive; who can forget Obama's "dithering" while Iranians protested and died in the streets fighting for their freedom?  Hell, even Bon Jovi stood with Iran on that one.   Obama not only "dithered" in 2009 while Iranians protested, but he went out for ice cream, grilled with Bobby Flay, had a luau and, of course, played golf.

Why should Kristof think the Sudan would be any different?

Yesterday Kristof wrote:

Obama was forceful in demanding that President George W. Bush stand up to Sudan during the slaughter in Darfur, so it’s painful to see him so passive on Sudan today. When governments turn to mass murder, we may have no easy solutions, but we should at least be crystal clear about which side we’re on. That’s not too much to expect of a Nobel Peace Prize winner. 

What exactly did Obama do to win that prize again?

The Nobel Peace Prize 2009 was awarded to Barack H. Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples". 

 Oh, yeah.  Right.  Tell that to Neda.



Photo Credit:  Deborah Hakes/The Carter Center

Are Tea Party Protesters Given Leniancy at Rallies?

This is an interesting thought:  are Tea Party protesters given more latitude and preferential treatment than anti-war protesters?  The CSMonitor wants to know:

Tea party" activists successfully lobbied security officials in Raleigh, N.C., last Thursday to reverse a ban on carrying full-sized flagpoles and signs at a tax day rally. Antiwar protesters, however, argue that they're often not afforded such luxuries.Do tea party activists get preferential treatment from law enforcement officials? They have been able to carry guns to anti-Obama rallies, critics note, suggesting that there is a double standard.

What do you think? 

I suppose it depends on where the protest is.  I am reminded of this Acorn protest in Baton Rouge, however, where protesters were not even allowed to speak to each other.

The video of the protest in New Orleans that led to the attack on Allee Bautsch and Joe Brown was frightening.  I'd have been terrified.  These people look much scarier to me than any Tea Party protesters and look to be interfering with the business of a private establishment.

Do the people in the picture above look scary to you?  Do they look like they've been given special treatment?

The Shreveport Times Lets Their Bias Through

The Gannett owned Shreveport Times posted their article on yesterday's Tea Party protest with the usual bias and misinformation.  It's hard to believe Drew Pierson was at the same event that I was.  The headline is the first misleading fact in the post:

Hundreds Come Out for Tea Party

Hundreds?  I don't have a good crowd shot because there was no higher elevation for me to ascend to get one, so mine are all ground shots, and not panoramic, but I think we can conclude from the pictures that it was absolutely more than "hundreds" in attendance.

By 5:00 there were at least 800 there and that was thirty minutes before the event started.  By 6 or 6:30 there were easily 3000 there.  One security officer told me 4000 but even if you go with the more conservative 3000 broadcast by KTBS last night, it's still more than "hundreds." 

Pierson's bias comes through loud and clear in his reporting of the event itself when he writes of one of the speakers, Mike Johnson:

Johnson listed various offenses made by the current administration to Thursday evening's receptive crowd, gathered on the lawn next to the First Baptist Bossier and Bossier City Hall, such as the Thursday morning ruling by a federal judge in Wisconsin that the government-recognized National Day of Prayer, a Congressional act calling for the president to issue a proclamations urging the American public to pray on the first Thursday of May, was unconstitutional.What Johnson didn't mention, however, was that the lawsuit was filed by a non-profit atheist group, and was not only defended in court by the Obama administration, but Obama actually issued such a proclamation last year.

Besides misrepresenting what Mike Johnson was saying, Pierson misses the point and confuses the mission of the Tea Party.  Yes, protesters are angry and Obama, but it's not just Obama.  We're angry at all the liberal policies coming out of Washington and the disregard of the Constitution.  We're angry about the out of control spending.  The point Johnson was making was what he called the assault on religious values and the need for conservatives to defend their rights to prayer. 

Pierson makes no mention of the moving speech of Sharon McCullar; there would be little he could disparage there.  Sharon talked about, among other things, the military service of her sons and the sacrifices our soldiers make for us. 

It was a brief, token article and I suppose for that we can be grateful. 

I Went to a GREAT Tea Party Today!

I carried my still-sick-self to our local Tea Party this evening and even though I'm paying the price for it right now, I'm glad I went.  What a great experience!  So inspiring!  I'll tell it in pictures and in song.  Ready?

I got there around 5; I would have arrived at 4:30 but Bossier City has train issues and I was stuck in traffic for 30 minutes.  The Tea Party didn't start until 5:30 and this was the gathering crowd at 5:00:

The LA Outlaws was performing and warming up the crowd with traditional patriotic songs.  I didn't see any "infiltrators" in the crowd at all.  Our Tea Party crowd had people of all walks of life.  We had families and kids in strollers:

We had old folks:

And young ones:

We had the media:

And we had patriots who stood strong on two feet:

And on four:

Sharon McCullar was one of the speakers.  She brought tears to my eyes; what a wonderful speaker she is!  I sought her out after her speech to tell her so.  She's a Vietnam vet, a small business owner here in Shreveport (The Glenwood Tea Room), and she has two sons currently serving as Marine snipers.  One is on his second tour in Afghanistan.  She talked about the hardships her sons and all soldiers go through, and the sacrifices they make.  She talked about one of her sons who had to get an IV in one arm while he held his weapon in the other hand.  She spoke of the hardships of one mission where the soldiers "huddled like boys at a sleepover, trying to keep warm" while constantly worrying about IEDs and "whether or not he'll come home in a flag draped casket."  Don't forget our soldiers, she reminded us.  She implored the crowd to stand up and fight for this country so that her sons and all the others like them have a country to come home to.  Sharon McCullar rocked the house and she did her sons proud today:

We had signs:

And more signs:

And protests without words:

We even had a hot air balloon:

All in all it was a wonderful event and I can't praise our local organization enough.  They work so hard and are so organized.  Each event gets better and better.  I wish I was better at estimating crowd sizes but I really am not good at that.  Early on I heard a crowd estimate of 4,000 though.  I'll keep an eye on the local paper or television media and see what the experts conclude about the numbers.

One thing that strikes me about the Tea Party, at least at the events around here, are the young people.  The meme has been that the youth support Obama, "Obama has the youth vote tied up!", and he may have a share of support there, but it's not a lock.  I see more and more young people getting involved in these events.  I'll point to Kim Ebey, one of the members of our local Tea Party group; I don't know how old Kim is, but she's younger than me, so I'm calling her young.  She is TIRELESS.  She just got back from SRLC, she went to the 9/11 March in Washington, she is constantly involved and organizing and speaking out.  She has boundless energy.

I'll leave you with another lovely young face I met today:  Miss Emma Meeks.  She's eighteen years old and has been involved with the Tea Party, she said, since the beginning.

And here is Emma Meeks singing Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A.."  Listen to Emma and then leave me a comment and tell me if you went to a Tea Party today!

Shreveport-Bossier Tea Party Today

It's Tea Party Day in Shreveport/Bossier.  If you're anywhere close, come on out and spend the late afternoon with us on Texas Street, just west of First Baptist Bossier, next to the Paper Shack in that huge field.

Kickoff time is 5:30 and lasts until 7:30.

Events this year include speakers Tom Cryer, a Shreveport attorney, Senior Legal Counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, Mike Johnson; Don G. Briggs, President of Louisiana Oil and Gas Association; Chris Gorman, Executive VP of Tango Transport; Sharon McCullar, local businesswoman and wonderful speaker!  She's also a Vietnam veteran.  Royal Alexander will emcee again this year and once again the La. Outlaws will provide the music.

Organizers are asking that you bring canned goods for the food bank again this year.  There will also be voter registration available.  Volunteers are always needed so if you'd like to get involved, contact Kim at RedRiverTeaParty.com.  If you can't attend for one reason or another but would like to donate, go here to do that.

Bring your camera, your video camera and lots of friends!  I will be there and will be posting pictures and coverage later in the day.

Red River Tax Day Tea Party Event 2010

I've had some inquiries about a local Tax Day Tea Party this year and rest assured there will be one.  Red River Tea Party is finalizing plans and ready to kick off  this year in a new location.  This year we'll be on East Texas Street in Bossier City in that field between Paper Shack and First Baptist.  Be sure to bring lawn chairs or blankets to sit on and bring signs!  The time is 5:30 to 7:30. 

I attended the Tax Day Tea Party last April and the one in July and both were excellent. 

Events this year include speakers Tom Cryer, a Shreveport attorney, Senior Legal Counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, Mike Johnson; Don G. Briggs, President of Louisiana Oil and Gas Association; Chris Gorman, Executive VP of Tango Transport; Sharon McCullar, local businesswoman and wonderful speaker!  She's also a Vietnam veteran.  Royal Alexander will emcee again this year and once again the La. Outlaws will provide the music.

Organizers are asking that you bring canned goods for the food bank again this year.  There will also be voter registration available.  Volunteers are always needed so if you'd like to get involved, contact Kim at RedRiverTeaParty.com.  If you can't attend for one reason or another but would like to donate, go here to do that.

Bring your camera, your video camera and lots of friends!

Shreveport Protests Landrieu's Sellout to Obamacare

Update: Thanks to The Dead Pelican for the link and to @MichelleMalkin for the Twitter shout!

Yesterday afternoon I went to one of the statewide protests outside Mary Landrieu's offices. In Shreveport, under drizzling skies, about sixty people showed up in front of the Federal building where Landrieu's office is. Additionally, there were counter protesters, in support of Obamacare, also there; I'd say there were at most about 15 of them.

There were not tense moments, no drama, that I ever saw. Two or three policemen kept watch from the periphery and the occasional passing car would honk and wave at one side or the other. A couple of times a friendly shouting match broke out: "Kill the Bill" vs. "Health Care Now!" But no drama. Everyone was respectful and did their part.

A couple of folks from our side, the Kill the Bill side, went up to Landrieu's office to register an opinion. One lady, Janet, was told, "Well, you know Senator Landrieu is a huge supporter of small business!" and Janet replied, "Then I KNOW she's going to vote against this bill because this bill is going to just KILL small business." Again, everything respectful and polite.

The Red River Tea Party had collected letters and faxes from people who were unable to attend the short-notice protest yesterday and delivered them to Senator Landrieu's office.

I had heard reports through the day from email and blog comments that the Senate phone lines had crashed, that the lines in Landrieu's offices were continuously busy, and even one story of a constituent, frustrated at not being able to call in, went to Landrieu's office and was ushered out by security and told that "Senator Landrieu is not in the office." The one person working in that office had gone to lunch and would not be back for an hour and a half.

The big vote is tonight; I'll live-blog most of the events today as I did with the House debate. Check back in and don't stop trying to call. The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121 and here is the complete list of email and fax numbers.

Here is the local media story of the protest yesterday:

Protest at University of New Orleans

Via The Dead Pelican, we have this video taken October 15, 2009 when Obama visited the University of New Orleans campus. I have mixed thoughts about it but I couldn't stop watching it, even though it's longer than I usually post.



To be honest, and I may get criticism for this, I'm not sure the video puts either group in a great light. I get what their point is - free speech is being challenged. But some of these people are being, in my opinion, deliberately controversial and don't do much to help our cause against the radical policies of the left.

I think there's a way to get this done without getting a megaphone and getting in the face of the police. Even though it's her right to do it, I'm not sure it's the best way. Should we all just be mute sheep and "go behind the fence"? No, I'm not saying that either. But being the loudest is not always the best strategy.

Just my opinion.

The Rhetoric Over ObamaCare

The rhetoric with regard to the town hall protests and the opposition to ObamaCare has intensified to incredible levels over the past couple of weeks on both sides of the issue.

Protesters have been called everything from an angry mob to Nazis; yesterday Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer called them "Un-American." Incredible.

Sarah Palin was bashed when she referred to "death panels" in the bill. Maybe her terminology was lacking - the House bill doesn't actually SAY death panels, but what Mrs. Palin was referring to was likely the government bureaucracy that is going to deliever cost-effective health care protocols to your doctor regarding your care as a byproduct of your records that are entered into that centralized system set up by the Stimulus bill. That much IS in the House bill.

Palin wrote: "And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

I'd agree that her concerns are a bit hyperbolic, but they aren't all that far off base. Again, nobody calls it a "death panel," but the rationing of health care is certainly a reality that will have to be faced should the bill be passed in anything close to its current form. There is no other way to pay for it all. Taxing the rich certainly won't do it.

Politco has a piece today that takes a look at the inflamatory rhetoric we've seen lately. Roger Simon calls it an "age of rabid response." He condemns Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh for their responses to ObamaCare and quotes Limbaugh's comparison of Obama's health care logo to a Nazi swastika. (It IS similar - not just the logo but the entire graphic has unfortunate similarities).

Nancy Pelosi is in the thick of this as she was one of the first ones to say that town hall protesters were carrying swastikas and hanging likenesses of Democratic Congressmen in effigy. I didn't hear any condemnation from her when Sarah Palin was hung in effigy, but I guess that was different. I haven't seen any swastikas at these town hall protests either, but I'm sure there have been one or two. You'd have to watch a lot of YouTube videos of them to find very many.

I honestly don't think these Nazi comparisons are productive at all. I get where they are coming from: ObamaCare is clearly a socialist policy. Nationalized health care IS socialism. Period. Oh, he SAYS that's not what he's trying to do, but of course it is. The evidence is everywhere and has been since before the campaign. Of course, now we have lapdog MSNBC putting race into the argument by claiming that "socialism" could be the next "N-word." The inflamatory rhetoric on both sides is unproductive.

Obama himself contributed to this dialogue with his "get out of the way" and "don't do a lot of talkin'" comments. Everyone is entitled to express their concerns. He would do well to remember that.

Now that Obama is set this week to hold some of his own "town halls" (his are more staged than most), he's decided that it's okay to have dissent. He's gone from sit-down-and-shut-up to this:

"I think there's actually a pretty long tradition of people shouting at politicians in America," White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton told reporters on Air Force One when asked about the comments.

"The President thinks that if people want to come and have a spirited debate about health care, a real vigorous conversation about it, that's a part of the American tradition and he encourages that, because people do have questions and concerns ...And so if people want to come and have their concerns and their questions answered, the President thinks that's important. Now, if you just want to come to a town hall so that you can disrupt and so that you can scream over another person, he doesn’t think that that's productive. And as a country, we've been able to make progress when people actually talk out what our problems are, not try to shout each other down."

Meanwhile, the SEIU is still recruiting members to stuff local town hall meetings and drown out opposing voices.

In the end, the rhetoric escalates, and some Congressmen are either cancelling town halls, or not scheduling them at all, or phoning them in. None of this is productive to the process. I'd also say that it's a fight too important to back down from altogether. If ObamaCare passes, it changes EVERYthing about our country; it enables to government to have way too much control over every single aspect of our lives. This is why passions are so high. I'd suggest losing all the Nazi references; I just don't think they inform the issue.

But don't back down. Don't stop talking. And don't get out of the way.

What SHE Said!

Commentary at Hot Air.

Senator Vitter's Pineville, LA Town Hall

Senator David Vitter held a town hall meeting in Pineville, La. yesterday. Here, he welcomes "the angry mob":



Here is a full report of the meeting and two other videos. Overall it seems that the meeting was civil and everyone was well behaved. Vitter, of course, does NOT support Obamacare:

"Vitter described the Obama administration’s health care program as likely ending up to be entirely government-run and underlined the worries and fears this would bring, including rationing of health insurance, elimination of coverage and the reduction of health benefits to seniors. He said the health program in the United States was, for the most part, working well and only needed minor adjustments since many of the people without coverage were immigrants or those who didn’t want health coverage anyway."

Vitter had three speakers with him; one was a doctor, one a business owner, and one was from the Pelican Advisory Group. All supported Vitter's position against Obamacare.

You can go here to read the whole thing, or watch the other two videos.

(H/T: The Dead Pelican)

In Which Obama Reminds Us Once Again, "I Am President!"

This video just nauseates me. It sickens me. The list of adjectives I would use to describe him in this video are simply not fit for print. This is the most UNpresidential I've ever seen him, and that's saying something.

Peggy Noonan writes in her weekly column today that there is "a new tone in the debate, and it's ugly." We've seen one town hall meeting after another erupt into frustration and anger as Americans push back against national health care specifically, but loss of freedom and liberty in general.

The White House is compounding this problem with speeches like the one above. Deputy chief of staff Jim Messina told Dems, "“If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard.” Harry Reid defended the White House by saying, “They are just helping us understand the fringe that is trying to mess up our meetings.”

"The fringe." What's that supposed to mean? The American people? Voters? Taxpayers? Republicans? Conservatives? Moderate Democrats? "The fringe," according to Team Obama is likely the "astroturf" conservatives ginned up by big insurance to purposely disrupt town hall meetings for the purpose of destroying the Obama presidency. Paranoid much?

Back to the video, he says, reverting to street-swagga pronunciations, "I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talkin'; I want them to get outta the way so I can clean up the mess. I don't mind cleanin' up after 'em, but don't do a lot of talkin'!"

So he doesn't want to hear any opposing opinions; he just wants to ram his agenda down everybody's throats without dissent. That's not the American way. This is a democracy and people are allowed to voice their concerns. Sending SEIU thugs into town hall meetings for the purpose of stacking the deck is what causes problems. But those are the only opinions he wants to hear.

This man has not unified America - he's ripping it apart with his arrogance, his condescension, his socialist policies and his thuggery. I'm sure that statement will incite lots of angry comments from his supporters, but it can't be denied. America is in a bad place right now. People are scared. His administration has called Republicans "dangerous right-wing extremists." He's done everything he can to divide the country - us against them.

And we get condescension and arrogance in return. And lots of Blame-Bush.

Noonan said "All of this is unnecessarily and unhelpfully divisive and provocative. They are mocking and menacing concerned citizens. This only makes a hot situation hotter. Is this what the president wants?" Here I disagree with Noonan; she says, "It couldn't be." But I think he does.

He doesn't respect the American people. He's been all over the world apologizing for us. He's derided us all over the planet. Why should he respect us? His apology tours would lose their importance if he just came home and talked about how great America is.

He doesn't. He never does.

AARP Abandons Their Dallas Town Hall on Health Care

Linked!: Welcome Ann Coulter readers!

Watch this video from the AARP Town Hall on health care in Dallas, August 4, 2009. The AARP representatives did not want to hear from the members at all; in fact, once the members began to ask questions, the meeting was officially shut down. The members, however, continued without them. Stunning.



These members were not violent or threatening; they had questions. Just questions. And concerns. They were not plants by some insurance company or right-wing extremist group. They are ordinary citizens.

(H/T: Kim Ebey)

Quote of the Day

There is a certain irony in an administration denouncing ordinary Americans who get together to express what they believe and to confront authority, when that administration is led by a man who began his career as a community organizer, whose job, as I understand it, is to take ordinary Americans, get them together to express what they believe, and express demands against the authorities.

So it's unbelievably hypocritical. And, of course, as we just heard, this only happens when you have a conservative protest. It is called a mob. If it’s a liberal protest, it is called grassroots expressing themselves.

Charles Krauthammer

Your Dress Code for Town Hall Protests

Barbara Boxer descended into new levels of ignorance last night on national television on Hardball. You may recall that the left is claiming that nobody is really upset about Obamacare, that all these town hall protests we've seen in the past several days have been engineered by Big Insurance Companies, and that the "majority" of the people want Obamacare. Boxer now contends she knows this to be true because the protesters are too well dressed. WTF?



Well, let's take a look at one. Here is Austin, TX, August 1, 2009. I see t-shirts, cargo shorts, jeans, baseball caps, and some common cotton short sleeve button-up shirts.



If you freeze it at about :39 and just take a random sampling, one guy is wearing shorts that look sort of like these cargo shorts


Which are about $25 at Old Navy. There's someone wearing a t-shirt similar to this one, and sticking with Old Navy, it's about $8.

So if Boxer thinks these folks are "too well dressed" to have opinions of their own sufficient to drawing them to a town hall protest, what DOES she think the common masses would be wearing? Rags?

Michelle Malkin points to this quote by The White House yesterday in which Robert Gibbs calls the protests "manufactured anger":

The White House on Tuesday dismissed protests against President Obama's health care reforms in multiple states over the weekend as "manufactured anger" orchestrated by right wing groups and the Republican party.

"I hope people will take a jaundiced eye to what is clearly the Astroturf nature of grass-roots lobbying," said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs during a morning off-camera session in his office with reporters.

"This is manufactured anger," he said.

Seriously? Is that to say that these people don't have an argument? They just made it up?

Newsbusters has more on this, including a quote from Chris Matthews expressing shock that the nicely dressed middle class might protest Obamacare: "Wow!...It's not usual to see the middle-class in up arms, but these people look pretty well-off. They don't look like rich people but they certainly are not poor people demanding health care. Apparently they have what they want, they don't want it touched."

Between Gibbs, Matthews, and Boxer, I think the whole lot of them are totally out of touch with the American people. Whatever one's position on health care, Cash for Clunkers, Cap and Trade, the American people have a right to public dissent and protest.

I was unaware there was a dress code for that.

Update: I'm reminded by a reader that there may in fact be a dress code for protests:

(More at Hot Air)

Acorn at Obamacare Protest in Baton Rouge

Update: Welcome Instapundit readers! (My first Instalanche! Woot!~)

Update 2: Charlie Buras at The Old River Road has a follow-up to the incident - a response by one of the gentlemen in the video.


Acorn is out in force in favor of shutting down the opposition to Obamacare.

Yesterday, Michelle Malkin posted this video which shows Acorn folks going off on protesters in Suffolk County NY.

We saw Acorn present in Reserve, La., also; watch the short video clip and you'll see them.

The Old River Road posted this video today of what appears to be a Baton Rouge police officer silencing protesters opposed to Obamacare. Members of Acorn can be seen standing on the sidewalk glowering at the protesters as the police officer tells the protesters not to talk to anybody. Since when did it become against the law to talk in this country?



Acorn, the SEIU and other liberal groups are out in force for Obamacare, but I'm not sure how well it's working out for them. As we saw in Reserve, La., the rally for Obamacare quicky turned hostile and Sebelius seemed caught off guard. Moveon.org was taken off guard at the protest in Dallas earlier this week when far more tea party members showed up than they expected.

Keep the heat on, folks. In fact, turn it up! Here are the Blue Dogs; and here is an email and Fax list of members of Congress. Don't let Acorn win this one.

Protest In Dallas Against Obamacare

The gathering of members of the Dallas Tea Party in front of Sen. John Cornyn's office yesterday in Dallas, is indicative to me of the continued strength of the movement. From the beginning, liberals have underestimated what the tea parties were all about. In the beginning, the blamed Fox News and other conservative outlets for drumming up the tea parties. They couldn't have been more wrong.

What happened in Dallas yesterday, and with the tea party movement in general, is a clear signal that people have had enough of excessive government spending, whether from conservatives or liberals. That's the point about the protests that liberals have missed - tea party members boo Republicans also.

Yesterday in Dallas, Paula Anderson from Moveon.org expressed her surprise that so many tea party members showed up:

"We really did not expect them to show up." She estimated the crowd at about 130. "From our perspective we took names of everyone there, and we had about 30 people," she told Unfair Park. "And I would assume they maybe had 100." As it turned out, according to Jessica Sandlin, Cornyn's Texas press secretary, Tea Party-hearties also showed up to health-care legislation rallies in Austin and in San Antonio."

If they were surprised yesterday, just wait until September 12 and The March on Washington.

(Photo: North Texas Tea Party)

(H/T: Michelle Malkin and Memeorandum)

Bossier Press Tea Party Article & Links

Link to the Bossier Press article on the Tea Party...

Also, if you go to the SBTea Party page, you can watch videos of the speakers and also hear the recordings from the Mike & Spike booth. THOSE were fascinating!

And if you haven't watched Rev. C.L. Bryant's speech yet - shame on you.

C. L. Bryant: July 4, 2009