The Democrats are Actually Astroturfing

You probably heard Pelosi and her minions accusing the Republicans of astroturfing at all the townhall protests (meaning it's not a grassroots movement, just plants organized by high-ranking officials).

Anybody who's been at this week's Monmouth County protests got a very clear picture of what's going on. Protesters (Republicans or not) came completely disorganized, individuals getting together because they disagree with Obama's plans. There was no involvement of any Republican organization, township, county or state, except for a few Tea Party groups. On the other side, you had a handful of well organized groups, armed with literature and signs, members of OFA. OFA is not Acorn or MoveOn, it's not a proxy for Obama, it's his own organization. OFA's website is barackobama.com. You didn't have to ready the signs to see on whose side everybody was. If it was a hand-written sign, they were against socialized healthcare. If they had a profesionally printed one, they were for it. Also, while most of the protesters spoke freely (or read hand-written notes), ALL Obama supporters read from a printed statement.

So both at Frank Pallone's and Rush Holt's townhall meetings, Democrats were organized by the OFA from Washington (or is it Chicago?). They didn't even involve the county or state Democrats, because they weren't worried about a grassroots movement. It was all astroturfing. Vic Scudiery's organization was completely absent from both townhalls. At Pallone's, Democrat freeholder Amy Mallet wasn't even invited in, she was sent to the back of the line.

And this is not only in New Jersey. You might be familiar with Tim Bishop's townhall in NY, where grasroots protesters were faced by CWA union members in uniform, bused in from all over the state. When a Dem tells you that the protests are astroturfing, just ask for a specific example, because they can't give you any.

Obama's Czars

This guy compiled a comprehensive list of Obama's czars, with salaries, biographies, responsibilities, etc. A great reference tool.

I gotta get back to my history book and refresh my memory on what happened to the last dynasty of Czars.

More from the Rush Holt / Mike Halfacre Townhalls

I have a few things to add to my initial story on the Middletown townhalls.

First of all, here are two more views on the events:
Grace Cangemi's Report on the Town Hall Meetings
A view from the outside, from someone who also couldn't get to talk to their representative.

Mr. Bingley's "Because We Won"
He was lucky to get in and provide interesting insights into Rush Holt's townhall. The title of his article is actually Holt supporters' answer to the question "Why are you forcing this plan on us?"

Somehow, Rush Holt made Frank Pallone look like an open-minded, graceful, loveable guy. Pallone picked a 500-seat building, and stood there for 5 hours, until everyone who lined up was able to get inside. He also allowed anybody to get the microphone and speak whatever was on their mind. Holt, on the other side, picked a 238-seat auditorium, did only one session, and he didn't want anybody to speak. He took questions on pieces of paper and chose which one he wanted to answer to.

I also got a few more pictures of myself and other people, while waiting outside.

With our great RWE, Synnove

With Grace, the author of the report mentioned above

With our future Congressman, Mike Halfacre

RIP Teddy Kennedy

Finally, I was puzzled by what's Lyndon LaRouche up to. He's a radical marxist, who founded the Labor Party and ran 7 times for the presidential nomination (6 being for the Democrats), a far-left conspiracy theorist nutjob, and yet his people were there at the meeting, showing some of the most aggresive pictures, that you can see below. What's his beef? He thinks Obama is not communist enough??

Rush Holt Townhall - But with the Better Candidate, Mike Halfacre

For the 2nd day in a row, I went to a Democrat-organized townhall dedicated to the healthcare bill. You can read my earlier postings about Frank Pallone's townhall from yesterday, but today it was Rush Holt's turn to face the voters, at the Middletown Arts Center.

His opponent in next year's elections, Mayor Mike Halfacre of Fair Haven, announced his own townhall to take place near the Arts Center. He read the entire 1000+ pages bill and was ready to listen to anyone. Mike Halfacre's townhall was scheduled for 5:30pm, before Rush Holt's at 7pm. Problem is that when I got there, around 5:15, there was already a 200+ people line to enter the building, so nobody really was willing to go to the Mayor's townhall. Eventually the line started moving, and they closed the door right in front of me. The auditorium could only seat 240 people, and apparently I was no. 241. And while Frank Pallone yesterday did 3 sessions, so everybody could get in, Rush Holt only did 1 session and that was it. In the meantime, around 1,000 people lined up, so most of them were sent home.

Waiting in line with Rhoda

But guess what? Mike Halfacre was ready to take everyone that got turned away by Rush Holt, and welcome them to his "open for all" townhall. So most of the people that couldn't get in went around the building to attent his event. The proportion there was about the same as in the line: 90% against government-run health care, and 10% in favor of the Democrat bill. Mike had an opening statement, and then he opened the microphone for whoever wanted to say something or ask a question. Probably 40 people lined up, and Mike let each of them be heard. I'm not talking about Holt, who handpicked the question he wanted to answer, but even Pallone yesterday, while letting everyone come in, wasn't ready to listen to everyone in line.

Crowds turned away by Rush Holt, waiting for Mike Halfacre

Middletown's deputy mayor Scharfenberger, introduce Mike Halfacre

Mike Halfacre during his opening remarks

You might say it's easy to hold a townhall when the majority of the attendance supports you, but he allowed everyone to speak. There were Democrats saying stupid things who were booed and jeered, but everytime Mike Halfacre tried to calm the crowd, and asked them to respect the speaker and let them finish. His responses were always on target, no avoiding to answer any question. There was a series of good anti-socialist speakers, and Mike had a great way of managing the crowd. In the beginning there must've been over 300 people on the lawn, and although some Obamaniacs tried to create trouble, it was all solved in a very civilized way. I think Mike was a great speaker and did very well at entertaining the crowds. There were many people there who probably had no idea who he was, or didn't know he's running against Rush Holt, and who were definitely convinced he's the candidate to support.

As I said, Mike came as a very likeable person. Although the Police wanted everybody to leave when it got dark, at least 100 people stayed well after sun down, in almost total darkness, while Mike's campaign manager helt a flashlight for those speakers who needed to read something. And even the Democrats stayed till the end, not just to get to the microphone but just to listen. I think that Mike Halfacre should do this kind of event in as many towns as possible throughout District 12. If he does as well everywhere, and it appeared like he could do it even in a Dem-leaning area, I think he'll finally be able to unseat Rush Holt. At least he's the first opponent in years who can speak in public and openly discuss any issue with the voters.




The meeting inside finished before Mike's, and people coming out were saying that all the questions were screened, and that Rush Holt simply avoided to answer anything he didn't like. That wasn't the case outside, since Mike Halfacre insisted that everyone is being heard, and answered any questions that was addressed to him.

It was another very interesting day, although not as heated up as yesterday. And I met a lot of my Facebook friends that I'd never seen before, but who helped spread the word about the event.

For more details about Mike's campaign, you can go to his website, www.MikeHalfacre.com

More on the Pallone Townhall, With Videos

First of all, my friend Art was inside with the first group and here is his article. Tommy DeSeno also has a good report from the first session.

Again, I'm amazed at how many people showed up to oppose government-run healthcare. And I wonder, who was voting for this guy so far? Although Pallone's group seemed well-organized, there was no county Democrat involvement in the event, and no state participation as well. All the people writing questions, handing out signs and literature (who were very polite and civilized... to be expected when you're outnumbered 20-to-1) introduced themselves as representing Organizing For America. OFA's website is barackobama.com and they're Obama's field team for pushing his socialist legislation. So this had nothing to do with Pallone's local campaign and his grassroots supporters, it was organized from DC (or Chicago?)

Anyway, it was a good exercise in democracy. People were very civilized, there were no incidents, no shouting at each other, no loud arguments. We stayed in line for 2 hours, democrats and republicans, and we got along well, showing that this is not a personal matter, it's all about the issues.

Now back to the inside. As I said, a lot of people were cranky after waiting for so long. There was especially this group in the back corner who had some very funny remarks. Anytime a welfare recipient would come forward to read a statement praising Pallone, or praising the wonderful healthcare that China has (yes, there was a guy who said that), they'd shout "Get a job!". When Pallone said he supports federal funding for abortion, they yelles "Pelosi should've been aborted!". And when Pallone said that illegal immigrants, while not covered by his bill, deserve to receive free medical care, there was an outcry, and chants of "Send them home!".

But kudos to Pallone for standing up there through three sessions against a hostile crowd. Like one speaker said, he had a lot of guts to come in front of the voters, after the kind of bills he claims he wrote (healthcare, cap&trade).

Finally, here are some videos I took during the townhall meeting:

A constituent challenges Pallone to admit that the bill is all about Government controlling our lives:



A long-time Democrat voter tells Pallone that, due to the irresponsible spending he's supporting, he will not vote for him anymore:



A constituent asks Pallone how can government run healthcare, when Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are bankrupt. Pallone responds that Medicare and Medicaid are going very well.



A voter asks Pallone if he read the Cap&Trade bill and he answers he actually wrote it. Then the Congressman is challenged to answer why America is paying for Brazil to drill off its coast, but won't allow drilling here. Pallone can't answer this.

Frank Pallone Townhall in Red Bank

Today I went to Rep Frank Pallone's (D-NJ6) townhall meeting at the Red Bank Middle School. I was hoping to see at least 100 opponents, and to have the opportunity to ask him some uncomfortable question, but what I found there exceeeded all my expectations.

There were around 1,500 people for the meeting, and I think only about 100 of them were Pallone supporters. Everybody else was against him, socialism and government-run healthcare. It was a very interesting event, and although he didn't really answer any question, nor did I hear anything I didn't know, it really showed the support that Obama's plans have in Monmouth County.

The meeting was starting at 7pm, and I was quite late, got there at 6:15pm, after spending at least 10 minutes looking for parking. There was a huge line, already hundreds of people, snaking around the school grounds, out to the streets, coming back on sidewalk. And as we moved forward, the end of the line was moving farther and farther away. First thing I noticed was how many anti-socialist signs there were out there. The organizers were handing out supporting signs, and here's the thing: You probably know how Pelosi, Obama and the media says that townhall protests are highly organized by various groups? Well, ALL protesting signs were hand-written on sheets of paper. At the same time, there were NO hand-written supporting sign, they were all profesionally printed posters. Talk about who represents the grassroots...

Since the auditorium could seat only 500 people, they said they'll take 500 people at a time, then empty the building, take the next group... And I didn't make the first cut, so I waited about 2 hours to get in. Wasn't really boring, had a lot of nice people around to talk to. When we finally got in, around 8:30, it was obvious where's the majority. There weren't more than 20 people who were supporting Pallone. The crowd was loud, and often rowdy, maybe due to waiting standing up for so long.

First Mayor Pat Menna said a few words... Which nobody heard because we were still noisy. There was especially a very funny group back into the corner who kept jeering everybody, and they told Menna to "go get a job". When he said he's a lawyer they repeated "get a real job!" Then Frank Pallone had a very short opening statement, and he said right from the beginning that he's on the Health Subcommittee, and he crafted the bill. At that point, 480 errupted in booing, while the other 20 applauded.

The way the townhall meeting proceeded was this: There would be a question, or just a statement from an opponent. The crowd would cheer, applaud, even explode in a standing ovation. Pallone would either ask for the next question, mumble something avoiding a direct answer, or say "I wrote the bill, it's not true". Of course he'd be booed every time, but he'd avoid having to lie any more. There were very specific things that were asked from him, and he'd say it's not true, while the people would chant "Li-ar, Li-ar". Other very popular chants were "Vote him out!" or "Just say no!".

There were also a few questions from his supporters. Like someone said, 95% of the people were against him, and the other 5% were bused in. And they seemed to have brought only people in wheelchairs, thinking they'd avoid being booed off. Well, the crowd just didn't buy that, and jeered them, and it wasn't disrespectful to their disability, but to the organizers' attitude. Every supporter who got to the mike read a printed statement. They didn't even ask canned question, they were praising Pallone, Obama and Congress. Which doesn't mean Pallone didn't throw one of them under the bus, by mistake. It was the only supporter who didn't read a script, and she said her prescription drug costs $100k. Pallone asked "And you're not covered by Medicare" "Err... yes, I am, both Medicare and private" "And your drug is covered by Plan D?" "Errr... no... my private insurance pays, Medicare is a backup" "But I assume your still pay a lot. How much are your out-of-pocket expenses" "Errr... errrr.. I actually don't pay anything out of the pocket" "OK then, next question?". A lot of these people were just praising Pallone, reading poetry and quoting JFK, and they got booed to the point where Pallone signaled to his stuff to cut them out. Oh, and it was this Obama mama, who for some reason kept making obscene signs at me, who was obviously high, and said how much she loves Pallone and Obama and asked them to stick this bill up our a$$es.

So there's want really much that we heard from Pallone. He said he strongly supports federal funding for abortions. He got pressured into admitting that in NJ there's no discrimination for pre-existing conditions. He went further to admit that's the case in most states. Upon furtther questioning, he said that well, in Alabama you can be discriminated if you make $10k/year, and Medicare wouldn't pick up your bill.

Pallone also claimed that ObamaCare would be budget neutral. He said it will cost only 1 trillion, no big deal (although the CBO says it will be closer to 2 trillions), and that half of it is paid by new taxes, while the other half is covered by savings already made by the Federal government. Excuse me??? The government saved 500 billions and hid the money away? You mean we've saved enough money to lower the deficit by half a trillion, and nobody told us? Nobody bout this BS, there were like 3 minutes of booing.

Also when asked about the constitutionality of this bill, he said it's under the "public welfare" cause, but this is a longer discussion and I'll write a separate posting about it, since it's completely false. But the most we heard were the opponents' statements, from explaining how "successful" government-run healthcare is in other countries, to claiming that all this is just about the government controlling more and more of our lives. And the biggest results is that Pallone could see that his constituents are 95% against him. I don't expect him to change his mind on the bill, but I'm sure that many other Congressmen who just got elected on very narrow margins, riding the Obama wave, are gonna listen to "We the people".

Tomorrow in Middletown, we should let Rush Holt hear the same thing. Like here, there shouldn't be any discrimination at the entrance between supporters and opponents, signs were allowed inside here as long as there were no sticks.

I only have a few pictures of the crowd to include here, and I'll post a few clips to YouTube in a few days.

Pallone Townhall Preview: A Report from Piscataway

My friend Joe Schilp attended Frank Pallone's Monday townhall in Piscataway. Here's his story from the event:

This evening I had the distinct pleasure of attending the townhall meeting of my Congressman, Frank Pallone, Esq. The event was scheduled to go from 7pm to 9pm at the Piscataway Municipal Building, which is a very small building that holds about 100 people.

I arrived at 6pm to queue up and was stunned to see a Coach USA bus pulling out of the parking lot; that's right, folks, while the president, Congress and media claim that angry right-wing mobs are organized and taking over these events, the people I saw bused in were carrying professionally printed Pro-healthcare signs complete with the Obama logo on them.

So I parked and got on line with about 75 people in front of me.

The main topic of the forum was expected to be healthcare, though any topic could be discussed. The doors opened at 6:55 and people began filing in. At 7:15, the meeting began. (How can a gov't that cannot even start a simple meeting on time be trusted with healthcare?)

First to speak was Piscataway's illustrious mayor, my opponent in last year's election, Brian Wahler. The very first words that came out of Wahler's mouth, I kid you not, were that the "rules of engagement are as follows." That's right, he started the evening using war terminology. Rules of engagement? UGH! Then he proceeded to announce that we'd get an hour, the room would be evacuated, and the people still outside would be allowed in to get an hour.

Wahler talked for 5 minutes, then bragged about putting solar panels on the senior housing building. The funny thing is that almost a year ago to this very date, Wahler ridiculed my campaign promise to investigate the installation of solar panels on township buildings because "that would void the warantty on the roofs of all the buildings." Hooo-boy.

Anyhow, Pallone took the mic at 7:20 and spoke for exactly 13 minutes before opening the meeting to a Q & A. His staff announced that they'd randomly select people starting in the front of the room and work their way toward the back. Obviously, not everyone would get a chance to speak. Since the first people to enter were the bused people, 5 of the first 6 people who spoke were pro-gov't healthcare. But as the mic worked it's way to the back, 6 of the next 10 people were against it. In all, just 17 people got to ask questions.

Some of my favorite Pallone quotes of the evening were:

"We, federal employees, would be treated just like Wal-Mart (employees)," response to a question is Congress would take the same healthcare as the rest of us. This statement was met with hearty laughter.

"I always vote to have government funding of abortion." That's right, folks, he's proud to spend your hard-earned money paying to kill babies.

"I support Nancy Pelosi. Actually, Nancy is one of my favorite people."

Anyhow, I did not get a chance to speak on mic, but I did approach Pallone when my group was leaving I told him that the spending had to stop, that $9 trillion in deficit is irresponsible, that the auto bailouts failed horrendously and that all these taxes take away my ability to create jobs. He had no response, choosing to turn away to take a picture with a supporter.

I then left to see at least 300 people queued-up outside and I knew that at least half of them would not even get in the door.

If you are going to see him tomorrow, know this, they will try to take your name on a sign-up sheet; I chose not to sign-up. Get there early. Grab a pro-Obama sign even if you are not a supporter as it may help you get the microphone and people will be there handing them out. And say hello to Col. Rash. He was there this evening and, I suspect, will be in Red Bank tomorrow.