QUICK, THE ZOLOFT - AT 5:43 P.M. ET:  Reader Gregory Koster alerts us to a posting at Huffington Post that shows the wild-eyed rhetoric of the left regarding the health-care town meetings:

It's truly a sad state of affairs when civil, civic discussions of most significant social legislation in years, town halls about national health care, are reduced to a series of staged media events for 24-hour cable news channels.

Well, there's respect for the citizenry, right off.  It's also truly a sad state of affairs when legitimate concerns of citizens, especially seniors, have been treated with contempt for months.

So far, among TV news operations, only MSNBC has investigated these people in depth, starting last Friday when Newsweek's Richard Wolfe (filling in for Keith Olbermann) first headlined the corporate-funded roots of these loudmouthed disrupters, aka Astroturfers (artificial grass-roots support.)

Same old leftist story.  All opposition is either 1) funded by sinister corporations, or 2) part of a vast right-wing conspiracy, or 3) organized by stupid people.

And what to do about these evil people?

Get Up In Their Grills: Don't just sit quietly and let these congenital know-nothings take over meetings and try to rattle our Congressional reps. Fortunately, as the Huffington Post's Sam Stein reports, many unions are gearing up to do just that -- to directly engage these wingnut Tea Party alums at town-hall meetings. Good on them.

Notice the subtlety, the restraint, the drive for intellectual excellence.

Sign Language Print up big signs for each meeting reading "I'M WITH STUPID." Also draw a big arrow on each, and every time one of these loudmouths (they're often wearing ball caps or carrying Bibles) stands up and starts ranting, just stand next to him/her and hold up the sign. Makes a good photo and great "B-roll" for TV!

Brilliant.  Really brilliant.  These are deep thinkers.  I'm overwhelmed.

August 9, 2009