Rep. Steve Chabot’s (R-OH) town hall meeting was riddled with protests last night as voters voiced their frustration with the GOP’s focus on deep spending cuts rather than providing jobs.
Before the event began, dozens of protestors gathered outside the auditorium with shirts that read “Tax Wall Street. End the Wars. Public Investment in Jobs.” They held signs blasting Chabot’s votes on the Ryan budget – “74% Of U.S. Seniors Say: Hands Off Medicare” – and the debt ceiling – “Revenue, Not Cuts”. Chants of “Where are the jobs? Where are the jobs?” and “What do we want? Jobs! When do we want them? Now!” also broke out as constituents filed into the meeting. Watch video here:
Please read the whole post over at ThinkProgress.org for more details.
A sign posted in front of the town hall meeting stated "For Security Purposes, Cameras are NOT permitted", but the corporate media is allowed to bring in cameras. Hmm, interesting.
What the sign really should say is . . .
“For Republican Job Security Purposes, Cameras Are NOT Permitted.”
Watch, as brave Americans take cameras away from elderly American citizens in the name of "security"
In fact, Rep. Chabot's staff told ThinkProgress that they wanted to "prevent" people from "making a show" of the event. In the name of Freedom Republicans will ban you from exercising that freedom, unless you are going to scream at Democrats. But when Republicans defend the rich at all costs and screw the other 98% of America, people get pissed, and that makes Republicans sad, because the last thing Republicans want the public to know is that the ideas Republicans are putting out are massively unpopular.
And yet the Corporate Media was allowed to film the townhall event. Maybe if the constituents at GOP held town halls were corporations they would have more rights to freedom of the press.
But if you are like me, you suffer from a terrible disorder called "having a memory". This disorder makes you remember that the last Republican President was a total disaster of Herbert Hoover sized failure, and you will also remember when GOP politicians were saying that every American has the right to confront their congressman to their face, as long as that congressman is a Democrat, but now the tables have turned and teabaggers who were elected to Congress are getting a taste of their own medicine, and they don't like it very much, no, not at all.
Hell, the teabagger congressman of Pennsylvania Lou Barletta, who ran on transparency, is refusing to hold town halls for his constituents because he claims "no one else is."
He said he has tried to hold town hall meetings, but hecklers have made them so disruptive that he can’t get his message out.
“What other elected officials are having town hall meetings?” Barletta asked. “How can you blame someone who has been in office for eight months why no jobs are coming here? I hope these protesters are asking all elected officials, especially those that have been in office for years, what they are doing to bring jobs here.”
Mr. Barletta should talk to his GOP colleague Mr. Chabot, or any of the other 174 members of congress who are holding town halls during this recess.
Cowards.
More below the fold . . .
And where is that Corporate Media covering the outrage being expressed at GOP hosted town halls? Silence.
Because the corporate owned media is more than happy to ignore citizen pushback against a GOP agenda that would make life more difficult for the working class while cutting taxes for corporations and the super rich who bribe them.
And as Republican politicians go to great lengths to make sure that only the questions and questioners they like get to attend their town halls, such as Paul Ryan's pay per view townhall and Alan West's pre-screened questions only townhalls, among others, Republicans have achieved at making it more difficult for voice of dissent against their special interests only style of governance to enter their sound-proof RW echo chambers.
Because bringing Democracy to the Middle East and Economic Freedom to the Marketplace is hard when Americans keep insisting that they have the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of a citizen owned press. And even if those citizens you claim to represent are demanding that we tax the rich, end the wars and pursue a publicly funded jobs program, well, that doesn't count because they didn't contribute to your political campaign, did they Mr. Republican?
So cheers to the Ohio residents of Steve Chabot's district who showed up in droves and gave these lying teabaggers a taste of their own medicine. If it's good for the goose, it's good for the batshit crazy corporate harlots. I would love to see more of this, but since the corporate media will refuse to cover it since it screws with their pre-formed narrative I guess it will be up to us, We The People. So bring your cameras to these events, and when wingnuts who want to make sure that no one records their lies ask you to leave, remind them that the constitution is designed to protect "freedom of the press" and that means EVERYONE, not just the corporate gate keepers who decide what is newsworthy and what is not.
Remember, they only call it Class War when the working class fights back!
So Republicans are afraid to face the constituents they are screwing over for their big money backers, but just a year ago they were insistent that members of Congress should face their angry constituents, and that is was their duty to do so (as long as they are Democrats). I wonder if these GOP corporate shills are avoiding meeting the lobbyists who bribe them?
Well, I can take an easy guess at that answer.
Update: from the comments, brilliant. I couldn't agree more.
Rep. Barletta Refuses To Hold Town Hall Meetings
because he is "afraid" of a few "hecklers" and can't get his "message" across? Any MoveOn members out there willing to run an ad in Barletta's district about his refusal to hold town halls? I would be willing to contribute to run the ad. You see, it's okay when Teabaggers disrupted President Obama's town halls on health care reform with shouts and heckling, but it's not okay when Democrats and Progressives do the same thing to the Teabaggers. It's the old double standard - do as I say, not as I do. Time to let Barletta's constituents know about this!!
by Ballerina
Peace and love to you and yours . . .
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