Montana protesters plan rallies around Obama event

[Kdillard]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iSTCPzGGzEMWHf29ICfz8d38Dm-AD9A1J6JO0

"Protesters plan to turn out in force when President Barack Obama brings his health care town hall tour to Montana on Friday and puts a conservative suburb of Bozeman at the center of the issue for a day.

Organizers expect as many as 500 people at a rally outside the Gallatin Field Airport hangar in Belgrade where Obama will hold the event.

Patients First said the protest is intended to show leaders the public is not happy with the expensive reform proposals. The group is affiliated with the Americans for Prosperity activists who came together during the "Tea Party" anti-big-government protests."




Lovely.

[Arkana]

1. 500 people? Well, I guess we better pack it in.

500 nutjobs from Montana are gonna PROTEST us!

[Kdillard]

4. If they are saying 500 I expect it to be half that amount.

[Arkana]

7. Well, yeah...I mean, I'd guess about 100 of them

will cut themselves shaving their neckbeards for the event, another 50 will find themselves glued to their chairs by a heinous mixture of sweat, dried spooge, Mountain Dew and Cheeto dust, and the rest will wank themselves unconscious listening to Rush.

[Kdillard]

8. lol.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Psst - the Secret Service has bigger guns that you, you fucks.

[polichick]

3. imo it's not smart to do this in Montana. I wish Obama paid more attention...

...to his supporters and less to enemies who'd like to see him dead.

[JayMusgrove]

9. I agree...........Iowa, and Indianna, and North Carolina

all would be more worth a visit from our national hero and President.

[polichick]

10. Or New York and California. I'm really tired of all the pandering to thugs. nt

[JayMusgrove]

15. New York and California are secure.......have no 2010 Senate

races where a Dem could win over a Rethug.

[polichick]

17. It shouldn't be about 2010 - I'd like the President to remember who voted...

...for him in 2008 ~ he's been kissing up to haters since Innauguration Day. Maybe he'll finally get it now.

[JayMusgrove]

23. So many days before the next election: rule #1 of a politician

You have to know that.


Maybe one visit each to 20-30 states before 2010, one to all 50 states before 2012.

You should know how politics works.

Be glad it's Obama as your President.......don't ask him to waste time in politically useless places.

[polichick]

25. I was thinking of safety and integrity, not politics. Silly me. nt

[jbnow]

29. People voted for him in every state and people hate him

in every state.
In normal circumstances people who support him would be who came to see him. People smile and reach for him wherever, just as glad to see him. These are not normal circumstances but protesters would be wherever he went.

He goes to hard places. When he talks about economy or unemployment he goes where it is worst and faces them.
He went to NH and he'd won there. He lost by 3 in Montana. In the previous two elections it was Bush by +20 and +25. They really stepped up.

I've had no problem with his choices. (I can think of some states where I would though)
Haven't noticed that he kisses up to haters, just that he doesn't hate in return

[stevedeshazer]

16. I disagree, but I see your point.

Maybe it's because I'm from the West, but I think Obama has nothing to fear from going to Montana.

I've spent quite a bit of time there and it's not quite the gun-happy place it's made out to be.

Double-plus good is Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

The President in Montana is a big freaking deal to Montanans.

I applaud him for going there.

[polichick]

18. Well, I hope it goes well - nice scenery anyway. nt

[quakerboy]

19. Can you pass Health Insurance Reform

without Baucus?

[polichick]

20. imo it's better to call out these fuckers (move.on ads, etc.) than to kiss up to them. nt

[quakerboy]

24. Agreed

I wish the presidents visit was an end run to get the people on his side and put some pressure on Baucus. In my mind that would be much more ideal than ignoring Montana.

To put it another way, I think Montana is a cheap market, worth far more in the senate and electoral college than its population would justify, and close enough to the center to be a winnable state. States like California and New York are the base wood of the democratic party, but states like Montana have the potential to be the nails in the coffin of the Republican party.

[polichick]

26. It'll be great if his visit does put the pressure on Baucus - it could happen. nt

[Uzybone]

22. Remember he is the POTUS, not the President of his supporters

There are plenty of good people in Montana too.

[falcon97]

27. Max Baucus is from MT.

He's the one, or one of the main ones, holding a bill up. Maybe the President is going to MT to put the heat on Baucus to get a bill out of committee. Maybe I'm hoping too much, but how about coming out on the offensive in MT to kick Baucus, Nelson et al into action!

[high density]

5. These people must have deep pockets

They sure do love paying for health insurance costs that grow at three times inflation.

[Hansel]

13. They get $1.47 for every fed $ they pay in taxes

Since the large blue states are supplementing them they can afford it.

I'm sure they will be full of lines about being self-sufficient and how people should pay their own way and how they hate socialism and spreading the wealth. Maybe they would be happy to pay back a 1/3 of the federal dollars they get then.

[JayMusgrove]

6. What are the gun laws in Montana?

Can kids carry weapons into schools?

Does Montana wish to take the place of Dallas in infamy?

Is there a college or university in Montana that admits people without any sign of mental retardation?

[eleny]

12. ...

http://crime.about.com/od/gunlawsbystate/a/gunlaws_mt.htm

[eleny]

11. Sounds like a 2 porta potty event - tops

I'm with the DUer above who predicts 1/2 will actually show up.

[flpoljunkie]

14. Tim Phillips, The Man Behind 'Americans for Prosperity' Corporate Front Group Factory

Tim Phillips, The Man Behind The ‘Americans For Prosperity’ Corporate Front Group Factory

The rate at which the Koch Industries funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP) churns out front groups to promote its right-wing corporate agenda sets the organization out among similar conservative “think tanks.” This week, AFP created their latest front group called “Patients United Now,” an entity set up to defeat health care reform. Patients United follows a familiar pattern AFP has used for their other front groups: create a new stand alone website, fill it with lines like “We are people just like you” to give the site a grassroots feel, and then use the new group to recruit supporters and run deceptive advertisements attacking reform. This “astroturfing” model has been used by AFP to launch groups pushing distortions against other progressive priorities:

– The “Hot Air Tour” promoting global warming skepticism and attacking environmental regulations.
– “Free Our Energy,” a group promoting increased domestic drilling.
– The “Save My Ballot Tour,” a group that pays Joe the Plumber to travel around the country smearing the Employee Free Choice Act.
– “No Climate Tax,” a group dedicated to the defeat of Clean Energy Economy legislation.
– “No Stimulus,” a group launched to try to stop the passage of the Recovery Act.

Notably, AFP was also instrumental in orchestrating the anti-Obama, anti-tax tea party protests in April.

With nearly 70 Republican operatives and former oil industry spokesmen working behind the scenes of AFP’s various fronts and disclosures that point to ever increasing oil and corporate donations to the group, one must wonder, who is guiding this massive front group factory? The answer is Tim Phillips, the President of AFP who has built a long career of inventing fake grassroots causes. In Phillips’ official biography, there appears to be over a 10 year gap — but that period was when Phillips developed his very first astroturf groups to do everything from smearing his opponents with anti-Semitic attacks to laundering money for criminal lobbyists.

As a Virginia-based political consultant, Phillips got his first big break managing the campaign of Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). After serving as Goodlatte’s chief of staff for four years, Phillips joined former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed in 1997 to create an astroturf lobbying and campaign consulting operation called Century Strategies. The firm promised to mount “grassroots lobbying drives” and explained its strategy as “it matters less who has the best arguments and more who gets heard — and by whom.”

more here...

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/05/29/afp-timphillips-astroturf/

[Critters2]

21. What does "turn out in force" mean, in a state with a population of, like, 23? nt

[TheKentuckian]

28. No point in hitting "true blue" states. What he needs is opposition to coolly smack down

Lovefests are between unimportant and counter-productive. Obama can handle the tomfoolery and will come out like a rose for it.