Truth and lies

[unixronin]

The lies:

Obama says Americans' voices should be heard and Americans want health care reform, while Nancy Pelosi and others like her say that opposition to Obama's health plan is astroturf and accuse opponents of disrupting town hall meetings.

The truth:

One of Obama's Health Care for America Now organizers is caught on tape outside a town hall meeting in Skokie, Illinois instructing supporters in how to shout down opponents and block them from speaking, as he hands out HCAN stickers.  ("Quality, affordable healthcare we can all count on."  Hmmm ... "[mumble] we can count on" ... where have I heard that before?)

Now tell me with a straight face exactly who is astroturfing here, Ms. Pelosi?

It's crap like this that leads to the Rasmussen poll announced Monday that found 57% of Americans would vote to just fire the whole of Congress, every last Representative and Senator, and another 18% aren't sure but would consider it.  Only 25% would vote to keep the Congress we have.

(Yeah, I know, the GOP is claiming that this means a swing back to the right as God and, oh, say, Babe Ruth intended.  But the same article reports 69% of Republican voters believe their party has lost its way and does not represent the party's base any more.)

Previous Rasmussen polls this year have found that 50% of voters say members of Congress manage to keep getting re-elected because the elections are rigged.  Only 23% believe Congressmen are re-elected because they do a good job of representing their constituents.  The remaining 28% are unable to explain Congress's remarkable job security. 75% say members of Congress are more interested in their own careers than they are in helping people, 72% believe Congress listens more to special-interest lobbyists than to the constituents they supposedly represent, 77% believe that friends and relatives of politicians get special treatment when seeking government favors, 74% trust their own judgement more than Congress on economic issues, and two thirds of Americans believe that no matter how bad things get, Congress can always manage to make it worse.

Comments

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

well, let's phrase it another way...

what has congress, the govt in general, or obama in particular done in the last year that's "a huge win"? or wins if they did do something.

nothing is really coming to mind.

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(frozen)

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Are you sure that's even an honest video? Not dubbed? In any event, "They do it too," is a child's argument. When the dust has settled, the connections between the big insurance firms, the radical-right political organizations, and, finally, the actual people on the ground, are well established and predominant. There are no comparable connections on the left.

See here (http://adviceunasked.blogspot.com/2009/08/scaling-malkin-in-response-to-krugman.html) for citation of actual data on voter behavior and polling. The matter is neither so awful as we fear, nor so good as we hope. The human tendency to see patterns in noise is a huge enemy here; there is less evil and more randomness than imagined.

(frozen)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

When the dust has settled, the connections between the big insurance firms, the radical-right political organizations, and, finally, the actual people on the ground, are well established and predominant. There are no comparable connections on the left.

You just go right on believing that, if that makes you feel better.

(frozen)

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Allow me to congratulate you for insulting my judgement and the ethics of my friends as well.

(frozen)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but this is an argument upon which past experience seems to show no evidence on earth will sway your opinion. So I'm just not going to even argue the point with you. Sorry if that offends you.

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

wow, americans aren't nearly as stupid as i thought...
(that's not saying much.)