This attempt to stifle free speech is something liberals should be ashamed of.

Of course, anyone who would spend their time listening at keyholes for subversive talk against Obama’s socialized healthcare just so they can get a pat on the back for reporting them to the White House is pathetic anyways.

The mostly corporate funded press loves the perceived tension that this small minority of intellectual cripples can provide. You can see these protestors getting a lot more air time when compared to anti-war protestors of recent past, because the anti-healthcare protestors are serving the wishes of the media's parent corporations. “Don't mess with our profits, no matter how important it is.”

They hanged him in effigy. Did you miss that part?

Yes, I missed it. Nope, I don't support that at all.

What's the source of that, Lit3Bolt? The link you gave after that statement doesn't seem to address this, but instead gives allegations by some guy who wrote a book about cuts in Secret Service protection, which the agency denies.

One of your Instapundit links went to a story from ABC News, which included this bit of news:

Last week, someone hanged [freshman Democratic Rep. Frank] Kratovil in effigy outside his district office in Centreville, Maryland.

They hanged him in effigy. Did you miss that part?

Nothing good will come from this.

Since Nixon left office in disgrace, things were pretty even for 20 years. Dem congress, Republican president. Then came Clinton but the dynamics quickly shifted. Dem president, Republican congress. Then you have Bush where you had a severe power imbalance where Republicans confidently controlled all 3 branches of gov't. Lots and lots of Leftwing protests. Now we're seeing a oscillating shift to the Left and you're seeing Rightwing protests.

Protests in America are inherently a sign of weakness. When one side or another has no recourse, they simply protest and try to disrupt the operations of the other side (such as the 2004 Republican Nat'l convention).

So the main point of this that you can't decry these recent Republican tactics without condemning it on the Dem side as well, because it has happened before (especially if you lived through the 60s). So I agree with AR and the others on this, it's a bad tactic overall, and was invented by the anti-Vietnam protesters in the late 60s.

My ONLY caveat is that the Rightwing protests in this day and age (yes, I acknowledge there were leftist terrorist groups in the past) are the truly scary ones, because I believe the Right has more guns and is more willing to use them in despicable ways. Thus, threats of violence should be taken seriously and nipped in the bud lethally, because we've had numerous incidents of Right Wing violence in the recent past (the Knoxville Unitarian Church shooting, the Tiley murder, etc). Still don't believe me? Would you believe that threats against the President (Obama vs. Bush) have increased by 400%?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/04/early…

So when it comes to potential for violence in 2009, I'm a lot more scared of the Right than the Left.

That has always been an issue on the Right – Conservatives as a whole are just not the protester type.

As far as rudeness, certainly some of the people are expressing themselves in ways I wouldn't choose, and I don't think that calling the Reps liars and such is constructive. But the degree of exaggeration needed to call these people mobs is just absurd.

It is humorous hearing the left decrying organized dissent though.

Now, the unions are saying they will send in their thugs to silence any citizen who dares to question Obama’s socialized healthcare.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/06/unions…

How bad can this get?

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/83036/
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/83062/
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/83031/
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/83016/
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/83028/

I could keep this up all day. The Left is running terrified that the public has finally caught on to the REAL agendas, and is none too happy.

Funny how they are calling out claims of astroturfing. It wasn't that long ago that the President got caught with his hands in the astroturfing cookie jar with planted questioners and prescreened questions by the national media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou7SGNo5QHE

The planned 'shout-downs' are not designed to prevent rational communication. The people who are advocating that are telling people to shout down a Congressman if he's only giving doublespeak, talking point answers to questions. In some of the clips we've seen, the crowd erupts when people like Specter tell whoppers like 'We can't read the whole bill because we have to ask fast' (To which you can hear one guy in the crowd shouting “WHY??”)

That's not to say that some people aren't just venting anger, and being disruptive for no legitimate purpose. But to the extent that there's been some organization and prompting for a method to show dissent, the ideas being promoted aren't to prevent discussion, but to disrupt those discussions which are propagandistic and patronizing.