Director John Hughes has died unexpectedly of an apparent heart attack at age 59.
I’ve been wondering for a while how it is that a former health care exec whose company got smacked with the biggest fine in history for defrauding Medicare is managing to be the public face of the opposition to the president’s health care plan.
And now a CNN anchor of all people seems to be wondering too.
Haven’t seen a smackdown like this on the cable nets in some time. Watch.
Sorry to say it’s come to this. But it appears that the latest Birther Obama Kenyan birth certificate forgery trainwreck has spawned a full-fledged intra-birther civil war.
Just out from Business Week …
As the health reform fight shifts this month from a vacationing Washington to congressional districts and local airwaves around the country, much more of the battle than most people realize is already over. The likely victors are insurance giants such as UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Aetna (AET), and WellPoint (WLP). The carriers have succeeded in redefining the terms of the reform debate to such a degree that no matter what specifics emerge in the voluminous bill Congress may send to President Obama this fall, the insurance industry will emerge more profitable. Health reform could come with a $1 trillion price tag over the next decade, and it may complicate matters for some large employers. But insurance CEOs ought to be smiling.
Read the rest here.
Robert Reich surveys the America’s verdant fields of astroturf on his cross-country journey.
The early reports are sketchy. But apparently a mob of teabaggers began to riot after some were not able to get into a townhall meeting in Tampa.
“As the building filled to capacity, angry protesters stuck outside began to scream, yell, and chant,” reports local TV channel 10 in Tampa. “At one point, those trying to get inside began banging on windows as Tampa Police officers quickly spread out guarding all entrances.”
A reporter currently inside the venue says at least one fist fight has already broken out.
Late Update: The event was hosted by Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL).
Later Update: We’re getting overlapping reports. The Tampa Tribune reports to instances of “shoving and scuffles.” It seems like at least one incident occurred in cases where teabaggers trying to force their way through the doors after event organizers manning the door were no longer letting more people in. Reports also suggest the teabag crowd was organized through Glenn Beck’s “9-12 Project.”
Still Later Update: Here’s a page from the Tampa912 group’s Meetup page. Discussions leading up to the event. Some whacked statements, all pretty far right, but mostly pretty garden variety, people getting charged up to hit the event and give their member of Congress an earful. Poke around. See what you find.
So Damn Late Update: Video from a local tv station after the jump … Read More
TPM Reader JG reports in from the event …
I was at the riot/townhall tonight since it was about half a mile from my house and I’m always down for a freak show. I also attended the April 15th tea bag party down the street. This was the same audience, very old and very white (half the minorities I saw were in the media, literally). They did indeed close the doors–I stayed outside because I wasn’t about to be trapped in with the nutters for three hours. They started to chant “move it outside” and were infuriated about being somehow left out. I heard some people make the comparison that if they can’t run a meeting how can they run healthcare? (Is this the next meme?) It never ceases to amaze me seeing medicare recipients holding up signs saying “Just say no to government run healthcare” and there was plenty of that.
We’re getting a series of videos from the townhall down in Tampa. Here’s one video from one of the entry ways into the venue as the organizers were trying to shut the doors — apparently because they were over fire code capacity.
And some of the chants from inside, as reported by the St. Petersburg Times …
[Rep. Castor] pressed on, mostly unheard among the screams from the audience of more than 200.
“Tell the truth! Tell the truth!”
“Read the bill!”
“Forty-million illegals! Forty million illegals!”
The spectacle at the Children’s Board in Ybor City sounded more like a wrestling cage match than a panel discussion on national policy, and it was just the latest example of a health care meeting disrupted by livid protesters.
From tomorrow’s column by the Post’s Steven Pearlstein …
The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they’ve given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They’ve become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems.