making the connection between this current effort and the nasty, inflamed rhetoric that characterized the McCain/Palin rallies at the tail-end of the presidential campaign? This current spate of bullying and now violent behavior seems to me to be the natural outgrowth. The seeds of hate were fomented and nurtured last fall, and they are being unleashed now.

This never happened at meetings with a war criminal, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. But now that the government wants to try to help people and save money, there are riots.

This country is a joke.

Health care reform is a joke whose real purpose is to protect Big Pharma and the insurance industry. Real reform will only come when the entire health care industry collapses from it's own dead weight. Let the crazies bring down health reform, they are actually doing all of us a favor.

The conservatives are on their deathbeads. They have been reduced to a Southern, old, white, regional party. This is probably their last chance to even be acknowledged.

This just may pull the Blue Dog Dems back to sensibility and they will vote for the needed national health care system.

Asking questions. Being heard. Organizing. Who the hell do they think they are?

Town hall meetings are supposed to be lectures. You show up, sit down, keep quiet, and speak only when spoken to. You are there to be told what your government is doing, not to ask what your government is doing. If you want to disagree, then do it in the privacy of your own home (if you still own one). These hard-working congressmen and -women don't need to hear your stupid, petty, ignorant concerns. Just shut up, sit down, and listen. And when we are done talking to you, you may leave.

Silly Americans. Who the hell do they think they are?

What they should do is have invitation-only meetings, or meetings where the attendees sign a loyalty pledge. And then, if anyone comes and you can see that they aren't actually loyal, like if they have the wrong kind of T-shirt, volunteer thugs can usher them out.

Of course, democratically elected representatives, supposedly representing everyone, wouldn't do that here would they? Well, would they?

Remember the shutting down of the recounts in FL in 2000? The Brooks Brothers riot of paid thugs flown in on private jets? They had a little more time to plan this time. While I'm sure there are people who doing this simply out of crockpot misunderstanding of public discourse and the spirit of townhalls, some of these people surely are operatives.

endless chanting, 'You work for us,' 'Tyranny, tyranny,' and 'Read the bill' is petty, ignorant and unworthy of reply.

I noticed that in both videos the protesters were complaining about ACORN keeping them out. The conspiracy to destroy America has many tentacles, yes?

Who attends a public meeting, by whatever name it's called, to try to hear what your elected representative has to say about what's been happening in congress, not only on the healthcare bill negotiations, but also on everything else.

Now imagine this meeting is rapidly disrupted by people shouting slogans that have nothing to do with anything your representative has yet said. Imagine that those shouting the slogans are sayings things as stupid as "no government takeover of medicare!"

Don't you walk away from that meeting determined to ignore, if not actively work against the same idiots that were responsible for disrupting the meeting and preventing your representative from being heard (Republican Astroturf organizations, as everyone well knows).

If you're an elected representative, how many times does this have to happen before you switch from being a bit intimidated to being angry. How long before you rise to the occasion by refusing to be intimidated and working to spite those making the attempt by doing even more of what the astroturf protesters are protesting against.

I suspect this entire intimidation effort is going to blow up in the Republican's faces and they will find, ignorant as they are of how healthy people react to bullying behavior, that when the House comes back into session, several of the compromises they've already forced into the health care bill will be rolled back and the bill will rapidly pass in a form many of us mid-to-left voters will like much better than what we were seeing before the recess.

I've been saying the same thing. And I'll never forget when people were being interviewed entering a Sarah Palin rally two young women were asked if Obama was a terrorist. After ignoring the interviewer for a bit, one turned and said, "YES! YES, he's a terrorist." Her friend, dressed all in dark, smiled and said, "It's all in the blood line." Who the hell uses ther term "bloodline" unless you're talking about dogs or horses? The neo-nazi crowd, that's who...and that's who was beginning to sniff around.

The Republicans are playing with fire. Persoanlly, I think the vast majority of Americans are ashamed and appalled by this poisonous circus. The end result may very well be the end of the Republicans as a national party.

I read yesterday that the AFL-CIO may provide...coverage for the embattled people on the dais.

The Brooksers really do need to clean up this tantrum they've generated. It would be too bad if it turned on its masters.

if the protesters were showing up and actually making sense - or even coming close to making a lucid, defensible point - nobody would have any problem. however, one of the cornerstones of a democracy is an informed electorate, and ours (particularly the frothing-at-the-mouth wingnuts who show up to these rallies to "have their voices heard" (read: be disruptive assholes)) is among the least-informed, most ignorant of any developed country. the things being said by these people and the GOP puppeteers who are leading them are so laughably absurd and ludicrously uninformed, that one begins to wondering what they're actually protesting, because they obviously have no idea what they're talking about.

these people are so dumb that they have no idea the level to which they're embarrassing themselves. that's the difficulty - you try to explain why their point is so off-point, and they don't get it. if it doesn't fit on a bumper sticker, it's too complicated for them. how do you win an argument with an 8 year old who just says "lalalala ... i'm not listening ... lalalalala"?