Ok For Me, But Not For Thee

by digby

I’m sure every one remembers the Townhall “strategy memos” put out by the tea bag people earlier this summer. Here’s one example:

– Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: “Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up. The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington.”

– Be Disruptive Early And Often: “You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early.”

– Try To “Rattle Him,” Not Have An Intelligent Debate: “The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions.

And, as we’ve seen, opponents of reform have carried those instructions out all across the country.

Proponents of health care reform, slow off the mark, recently distributed their own manual. And the right is outraged. Here’s the Traditional Values Coalition:

A Democrat Health Care Reform Now (HCAN) manual describes how to disrupt Town Hall meetings and to undermine the efforts of grassroots Americans to challenge their legislators on Obama’s government-run health care plans.

The manual was sent out to HCAN agitators by Margarida Jorge, who is a former labor organizer for the Service Employees International (SIEU). Jorge has long been involved in leftist politics and her Facebook lists the gay marriage group “Marriage Equality” as one of her favorite organizations. Jorge was an agitator for the Missouri Citizen Education Fund that accused John Ashcroft of supporting white supremacists. She’s clearly a hard-core leftist.

Her manual, “HCAN – Responding To Right-Wing Attacks In The Field” describes Americans who attend Town Hall meetings as “tea-baggers” – a gay pejorative – and as “right-wing activists” who are supposedly arriving at Town Hall meetings to be as disruptive as possible.

She advises HCAN agitators to:

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Contact Members of Congress to let them know HCAN agitators will be present.
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Plan with a Member of Congress ahead of time to help control the format of the Town Hall meeting.
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Choose a venue that is difficult for the opposition to access without being noticed. Make sure conservatives are kept as far away from the stage as possible.
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Bring more people than the other side has.
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Arrive earlier than the opposition to down them out. “Stack our folks in the front to create a wall around the Member.”
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Bring more signs and leaflets than the other side. Hold signs where TV cameras can see them.
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Don’t let the “right-wing” hijack the message of the meeting. Directly approach reporters and give them your story. Videotape the events and give the video to the TV stations.
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Encourage HCAN activists to interrupt conservative Americans who are speaking out.
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Phrase questions to strategically move the Obama message.
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Demonstrate by chanting slogans.
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Collect signs and leaflets that are not provided by you or your organization. “Another way to limit protesters’ ability to hijack your event is to confiscate signs or leaflets that they may be bringing into the venue from outside.”

All of these tactics are fascist in nature and are designed to stifle free speech and open debate on Obama’s socialist health care reform agenda.

TAKE ACTION: Attend a Town Hall event and give a copy of the HCAN action plan to a reporter when you enter the room. Explain how HCAN plans on stifling free speech at Town Hall meetings throughout the U.S. Give copies of the HCAN plan to your friends before the meeting to alert them to the tactics that will be used against them.

I’d laugh it weren’t so serious. What do you with people like this?

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