Tea Party Organizer Dana Loesch: No One Told Us to Show Up To Town Halls
From Greta Van Sustern's show Thursday night after the mess at Russ Carnahan's town hall meeting. Dana Loesch claims she's just an ordinary person showing up at these town halls to speak her mind and no one told her or any of the rest of them to show up. Just one problem with that. She's one of the ones telling others to show up, actively promoting these protests on her web site, on her Twitter page, and she works for 97.1 FM Talk in St. Louis, Mo., which has a big flashing banner across the front of its web site right now on how to get more info on town hall meetings.
And no one has ever said that the majority of the people showing up at these protests are not really genuinely angry Americans. We've just pointed out who the ones are whipping them into a frenzy with misinformation, like you, your radio station, Fox News, right wing blogs, and your Tea Bagger organization.
VAN SUSTEREN: The mob. Is that true? Joining us live is Dana Loesch. She's a radio host and works with the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition. Dana went to a health care town hall held by Senator Claire McCaskill's office.
Good evening, Dana. You're part of the angry mob, apparently. Your reaction to being called that?
DANA LOESCH, RADIO HOST 97.1 FM TALK: I want to know who this "they" is. Who is this they, Republicans? Because I'm not a Republican and not every single person associated with the tea party movement is a Republican, just like everyone who went out to protest Bush was a Democrat or anything else. It's -- it's just -- you know, and I'm tired of all these accusation that are just being leveled at us, like, oh, well, we're paid GOP hacks. Honestly, if I were in this for the money, I would have gone and worked with ACORN because, I mean, even though they paid their people late, still, at least they paid their people.
But these are just -- you know, these are moms, these are dads, grandparents, senior citizens, kids, college kids. All of these people are coming out just to voice their concerns. And it kind of makes me sad that we live in an era where the president of the United States and his political party would try to sort of, like, wash off people by saying that their valid concerns are just echoes of an angry mob. It doesn't maybe make any sense and it's really sad.
VAN SUSTEREN: Are you part of any group, or did you go to this meeting, this town hall meeting yourself? I mean, are you part of any club, or were you -- like, did someone just summons you, like, some organization, I mean, or did you just show up?
LOESCH: I just showed up. I don't have a satin jacket. I don't have a laminated club card, I just showed up like everyone else. And I went to Congressman Russ Carnahan's health care town hall forum just this evening and just, you know, with a bunch of other people. We just showed up. No one told us to show up. No one told us what questions to ask or even to ask any questions at all.
They just -- they have concerns about this health care legislation. And are our elected officials so out of touch with their own districts that they don't even recognize the people in their districts and they can't understand why they would have any kind of questions?
VAN SUSTEREN: What's the reaction? Does it seem that this whole sort of -- I'll use the term "grass roots movement" because that's what a lot of people are describing it as -- is it growing? (INAUDIBLE) on your own radio show. Do you think that people, after what happened in St. Louis -- is it growing, or is it staying the same or getting smaller?
LOESCH: Oh, no, it is -- it's definitely growing. It's definitely growing. We have these people who have -- for years, they've just sort of, like, sat on their sofas and yelled at the television and yelled at the newspaper. Now they are so motivated, they are getting up. They are sending e-mails to their elected officials. They're calling their elected officials. And they're showing up at these town hall forums to wait in line, take their turn and politely ask their questions or just hold up a homemade sign just to voice their concern about health care legislation and everything else.
VAN SUSTEREN: I would just add that I read a tweet from Senator McCaskill yesterday that was given to me. She is -- she's not insulting you guys. She's not -- she's not calling it some -- I forgot the term. But she has respect, at least it appeared, for the difference of opinion. Do you agree with that?
LOESCH: Yes, I do. She -- I saw that. She had tweeted and said that. She doesn't think that all of these people that are showing up -- she doesn't think that we're manufactured. And she's, like, you know, these are -- these are real people with strong opinions, and that's true. I hope that she can give some of her other colleagues a call and let them know that, like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and these other people that are coming out saying that we're just GOP -- it's kind of insulting, I mean, if you really think about it. It is absolutely insulting to all of these, like, average Jane and Joes that are going out there and that want their congressman's ear.
VAN SUSTEREN: Dana, thank you. We'll be -- of course, we're watching all of these. Thank you, Dana.
LOESCH: Thanks, Greta.
And a bit more on Ms. Loesh from TBogg--The Creamed Corn Mafia also does not care for your loud music and your slouchy pants:
Courtesy of elfin nitwit Dana Loesh, we see that the good folks who oppose President Kenyatta Obama's socialistic government-run health care are people who are already covered by socialistic government-run health care.
Does she read tea-leaves for a living?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Just another day in teabagger faux enraged land.
Also a woman at another Town hall said she appeared just a mom who appeared concerned about health care until a journalist exposed her as a GOP operative.
I suggest people call the FBI and complain about Dick Armey of Freedumbworks who has organized this national disruption of government business at town halls for representatives and Senators.
If you want health care read our blog at http://blog.democratz.org
and you will see some petitions you can sign to demand single payer HR 676.
Brother.
Did you notice that with all of the screaming and hollering at these town hall meetings that no discussion about different health care concepts occurs?
Also they selectively cull their images.
Even though she refers to college students being there the picture shows the elderly.
What I've seen on the video clips her supporters try to put on here, most of the people look approximately 30-45, and a fair amount of retirees. The 30-45 are particularly in your face.
That's not debate, that's Springer.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
...is loud white people. And, being a loud white person myself, I resent that.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
In the 60's and 70's they would call it street-theatre.
It's part and parcel of making this issue President Obama's "Waterloo" despite the fact that numerically they're not that significant an outpouring of public sentiment.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The NSDAP was small beer and just one of many groups of crazies running around Weimar Germany in the 20s, but they had friends in the media that made them look big and impressive.
I wanted to attend a get together with my Republican Representative but the nearest location for an open meeting was 100 miles away and during work hours. I will have an opportunity next week (taking time off from work) to ask my Republican Senator whether or not he believes that the health care reform contains "death panels" deciding the fate of the elderly, whether he believes that Obama is not a "natural born citizen of the United States" and why didn't the Republicans have a plan for those of us who are uninsured. We do need to hold our representatives accountable. I don't intend to shout him down.
@jusker. Well, good luck with getting an opportunity to ask your repub rep anything. If he is cagey like my Rep Pete Sessions(R-TX) he will insist that only the ladies 65 and older step up to ask questions, and then the gentlemen 65 and older;the least affected by reform and most likely to vote for Sessions. Sessions knows these people in his district aren't going to ask many hard questions. Though a few ladies stepped up to the plate.He called one of them silly. Sessions basically chicken-shitted out and hid behind the blue-hair skirts.
I live in a large gerrymandered district in westside Phoenix that is shackled to a huge area that reaches to California and the Grand Canyon.
Our "representative" Trent Franks is holding his meeting out in the hinterland - far away from our suburb at a pentecostal church.
Wanna guess which way that "meeting" is going to go?
It's nothing but ****ing theater.
I guess being a redstate "representative" pays Mr. Franks more than his former employer Halliburton.
Mr Franks arrived here years ago one step ahead of some investigations of his business practices in Texas.
Mick Piobr, is that notice posted anywhere?
Study the symptoms not the virus...
Since I am an Independent, I find it very appalling that the same people who ran healthcare reform into the ground back when Hillary was trying to make a change are back again. I just wish that you and others would read whats in the bill and not accept the nonsense that YOUR party is spewing out in the universe, misleading most and alienating others. This just shows to the whole world that our political system is flawed when it comes to get the true facts to the electorate. The GOP is still the party of NO and can not provide any alternative to reform healthcare because they are in the pockets of insurance companies and others who are diametrically opposed to any changes to our broken and very flawed healthcare system. If they truly want to call themselves concerned Americans, then they need to get on board and help affect change or shut the hell up....nuff said...
Paying Attention to the Real not the Memorex
But we kept it in the streets. Not at a public forum such as these.
Whenever Code Pink started carrying on and being loud, during the previous Administration, they were regularly carried out and charged with disruption or something similar. Even the Raging Grannies in Tucson occasionally got a trespassing rap.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
I was primarily referring to the clips on the site of outside the meetings.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
legitimacy?
Legitimacy not required. Just a way to prove that she's lying. Fos is at least good for that.
One of these days somebody's gonna start rounding up media figures and charging them with inciting to riot.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
This Fos?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8L-ZZSc8JU
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
One of the best "straight" guys ever! If I remember right, he didn't drink.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
Corporations don't want you to see or experience the simple awe and splendor in everything and anything that doesn't cost you one damn cent.
They want you busy, buying gas, cars, magic markers for protest signs, TV's to watch these morons . . .
Arrrrgh
The outright self-destructive gullibility and stupidity of today's Republican "teabaggers" and "birthers" is unparalleled in American political history. If you told these glazed-eyed cultist to put a gun to their heads and pull the trigger, it would not register in their brains that doing so would end their lives. Cause and effect is just too complex a concept to process.
...that go out there and politely ask their questions.." Couldn't agree more. Has she watched any video clips lately of these "average mom and dads...'politely' asking their questions"? What a joke. She sounds like she is sincere...great. But reality is a bit different that the smoke she is blowing.
I'm all for listening to constituents...even those I don't agree with. But to listen to angry mobs chanting stupid four word phrases to drown out exchanging info is absurd, and a waste of time.
I'm not buying it for a minute. Our country is really showing it's strain right now. The hatred on both sides is astounding. Reading some of the U-tube posts is downright scary stuff.
This woman is living in another world that I don't think is anywhere near the town of Reality.
I guess it would be beyond Greta's comprehension to ask tougher questions instead of giving legitimacy to Loesch, who tries to softpedal their confrontational protesting and attempts here to portray the members of the teabaggers as "ordinary Americans".
There is nothing "ordinary" about professional victims intentionally disrupting peaceful discussions with their anarchist drivel. They are extremist nut jobs that publically project and catapult the fear based propaganda they get from their Astroturf masters. Average people my ass.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
"In the interest of full disclosure..."
Remember when newspeople actually disclosed the affiliations of people they interviewed?
Of course honest disclosure died off when the MSM became a manipulative propaganda tool for corporate Amerika and ethical concerns became a nuisance to be avoided. Rather than let Pravda die a peaceful and deserved death, it became the rebranded model for these MSM authoritarian control freaks.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
She has organized tea parties under the arch, and I have no doubt she organized people to go to the town hall meetings. As a person who lives in St. Louis, with relatives that lean to the right, I can tell you those relatives are ill informed at best. Ms. Loesch takes advantage of people, especially senior citizens telling them there will be nothing left for their grandchildren if this passes. Imagine that more scare tactics from the right. I was also at Carnahan's Aging in America meeting, and I can tell you first hand that the people Ms. Loesch brought behaved so badly that none of the speakers could give their full presentation, and there were six speakers. Those of us their in solidarity would have been horse to out yell them, so the decision was made to behave. Even the MC said if you weren't here for aging then leave. The crowd was 60% pro health care 40% against in my opinion. Ms. Loesch and her group behaved so badly they even started a fight after the event was over.
... who were silent while the supreme court wiped their asses with the constitution in 2000, who did not request a single responsibility for the administration in charge when 9/11 happened, who remained silent even after every single premise used for the war against Iraq has proven to be a lie, when Bush let New Orleans drown, when the economy took a nose dive under Bush.
None of these idiots where anywhere to be seen, and their rage was pretty much nothing but full agreement with the administration then. Suddenly, we're talking about implementing a system which helps EVERY American citizen, and they collectively blow a blood vessel.
What the f*ck does their world look like, is the logical cacophony in their feeble little minds so deafening that they can't even reconcile their overwhelming hypocrisy?
;D
No I don't mind.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
As in "set in their ways." Those ways include a very basic, deep-down racism, homophobia, paternalistic/misogynistic attitude. And, as was pointed out in one of the clickons on the Blog Roundup this morning, this really got underway when Sara Palin climbed on the national stage, giving those kind of people a figurehead they could relate to, someone who spoke their language.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
If I don't try to laugh in the face of the current disaster that is our country
my outrage and anger will consume me.
Consumption be done about it?
Where were they? They were supporting it. They were siding with the people in charge and they believed that they would have be safe from harm because they were on the right side of a Holy Revolution. They were the supporters of tyrants because they themselves wanted to be above "The Other Guy" who votes differently, believes differently, and look differently than they do. Why are they coming out in droves now? They lost power. They aren't mad about anything else but no longer being in charge and being able to push the jingoistic xenophobia on the rest of us.
Politics in this country is becoming so polarized that I'm not at all surprised by these town hall hooligans. We are entering a state of emergency where violence will be used on a regular basis for political ends. There are very few out there that are more concerned with what is good for the people that we have almost no chance to wrest control of our nation back. The Corporate States of America will continue down this course until blood runs in the streets and we look like a poor African nation with heavily armed gangs controlling sectors of our cities.
Our politicians are bought and sold in back room deals. They are loyal only to themselves and their corporate masters. Special interest groups have more say than the public. Don't believe for one moment a single one of these weasels gives a damn what happens to you. Those that support Health Care Reform do so not because it's good for you. They do so because it can lead to political advantage, power, and wealth for them.
Does that answer your question?
Democracy is the road to socialism. ~ Karl Marx
Right on.
It's all about them having to endure having a black President.
"I want my country back (sniffle, sniffle)!"
My fucking ASS. By 2030 we'll be the FORMER United States of America thanks to these Gawd damn lizzard people.
It's quite simple really.
Head off the shady part of town, find a sells meth buy a bunch of it and just chain smoke it. By the time you've fucked you brain up enough and have enough holes in it, you will see what their world looks like.
...conservatives would have nothing to say.
I wouldn't say that.
Both sides tend to be incrementalists when it's their own ox getting gored.
But could you imagine what Eisenhower would've thought of these people?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Who are still level headed, but like with Islam, the lunatics are much louder and cause a bigger scene than the reasonable people.
they refuse to condemn the reactionary lunatics in their midst
I would like to point out that although Claire was a big supporter of Obama's in the Presidential race, I would not expect her to support this healthcare reform. Her husband owns a string of nursing homes...and her ascent in Missouri politics seems to be tied to his financing of her political interests.
Having said that..I have voted for her in every elections she's ran for, and will probably continue to, unless a more progressive candidate runs against her in a primary.
in a closed primary state, don't change your affiliation to indy or you'll be in for a surprise, jus sayin'
I just sent her an email yesterday asking if she, as one of my senators, would support a resolution condemning the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh who nonstop throw insults and hate speech toward Obama, Pelosi, and Democrast; who within the past week or so have called Obama a "racist" and made comparisons to Nazis; and who over the course of 6 months (Beck) has inferred that Obama is a Nazi by showing Nazis marching through the streets, at the same time he is talking about Obama.
Congress (and conservatives, including many on Fox News) passed a resolution condemning MoveOn.org when they put up those "General Betray Us" ads. Fox News has not condemned Beck at all and, in fact, has defended him by claiming that his "Obama is a racist" remarks are his opinion and not the view of Fox News.
Fox News and Congress need to do the responsible thing and condemn these haters.
"And it kind of makes me sad that we live in an era where the president of the United States and his political party would try to sort of, like,
washbrush off people by saying that their valid concerns are just echoes of an angry mob. It doesn't maybe make any sense and it's really sad."Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Shouldn't it be sort of or like, and doesn't or maybe, but not both?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
which was:
She apparently has lost all memory of the period from 1999-2008 when the President of the US and his GOP operatives, barred citizens from meetings and speeches, and had those who managed to slip-in and speak up arrested for exercising their rights.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Second- and third-generation protesting hippies.
"Courtesy is owed. Respect is earned. Love is given." --Unknown author, found in Guide to Texas Etiquette by Kinky Friedman
and they arent second and third gen...they are all children of the 60s who feel an emptiness not being able to protest something
I thought maybe you might know Dana....sorta looks like she might belong to a local coven!??
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Hence my comment on the very top of this thread.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
"Whooo cayres whaht yoooo thank?"
You mean like that?
They're disgruntled and angry, because what they want you to hear and comply with... is not what's going to happen. Put all the labels you want on these individuals, but once removed, you'll see the source.
I touched on the concept / activity back on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 05:43 around the time our President made that wonderful speech in Cairo or as I denoted at one point Karo... :-/ Thank U, ysb :)
It will always come down to an interpretation of our constitution and in the end... evolution will win out in more ways than one. Though it will continue to be realized by great sacrifices. These fundies will never stop unless "We the people" stop them. "It's a new day" and it frightens and angers them... sincerely.
Just like telling a child, no, you can't have that. Instead of throwing an childish tantrum, they're throwing an adult tantrum. The only differences, are the toys. :-/
Study the symptoms not the virus...
?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
... hold on :)
Amended: Thu, 06/11/2009 - 12:10 — ysbaddaden
That's a syrup,
Dont'cha mean Cairo?
Study the symptoms not the virus...
How no one tells a zombie to go looking for someone to eat, it just does it?
No they're just unpaid GOP hacks, but GOP hacks none the less.
Another uneducated, ignorant and typically ugly, Reslug street walker.
just another dj who thinks this is all a game for ratings
sick they may be
uneducated they are not
It's nice to see that this radio station, 97.1 FM, is part of the Fox News Radio network.
I've never listened to it; perhaps I'll turn it on briefly when I head to my parents this afternoon.....nah, I don't want to hear some BS which will cause me to get upset and lose control of my car.
Actually, I have a collegue at work that thinks the same way that the duped woman in the video does. My co-worker has also been suckered into believing that this is a genuine citizens movement. That is exactly how Herr Beck and the other original organizers are framing this thing in the extreme rightie media. So it is no surprise to me that she answered this way. That is what makes the tea baggers and the ResistNet so dangerous.
It's of course correct that this is ginned up by the reichest of reich wing, and our trusty health insurance companies. But it's the wrong tack. The thing is, this way, anybody who has the slightest doubt is being told, by this meme, that they're tools of the ruling class. Grandma doesn't feel like she is. She's worried, and she doesn't need to be lectured.
Why not appeal to fair play? Sure, come out, but come on, ask questions, argue, and give the supporters a chance to say what they want too. That way, you have a chance to distance grandma from the guys in the back of the hall yelling and interrupting. And you have a better chance at appealing to wobblers in the TV audience.
I wonder if Dana also pointed out the fact that the meeting in St. Louis was planned some months ago, and its agenda was to discuss Medicaid and Medicare for seniors? It was not to talk about the health care plan.
I would really like to know how many of these protesters at Democratic town halls are Republicans and did not vote for Obama? They certainly have the right to go to these meetings; it's the massive disruptions that are the issue here....and those are caused by these organized mobs!
Lying Sack.
me-oww!
Uh, huh. From her own web site: "Interesting to note: I got in through the side door with a handicapped friend and a handful of Carnahan staffers asked me if I was with Organizing for America. Apparently those folks get a warm welcome and shown to seats."
She couldn't wait outside with the others. She had to sneak in "the side door".
Loesch (aka Ms. Comments off) is a co-organizer of the St. Louis Tea Party coalition. On July 28th she posted an interview with Van Susteren where she was described as "a radio host and works with the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition...". Now suddenly she "just showed up" at an event. She has also posted her speech at the July 4th Tea Party. I suppose she "just showed up" there and the organizers were so impressed they just handed her the microphone.
She's linked to StoneZone and posted: "Speaker Pelosi then went so far as to claim that some protestors at town meetings were carrying signs bearing Nazi swastikas. This kind of hate-based attack with no basis in fact is beneath a Speaker of the US House of Representatives. Exactly." She seems to forget the pic that StLToday.com posted from the recent rally where a man carried a sign comparing Obama to Hitler. Or all of the other pics from rallies around the country where swastikas were on signs.
If I could use one of her favorite tags here (douchebag), I would.
Russ Weiss
We just showed up! What an absotively gimunguous coincidence!!
...because that's what happened to people who protested murder. these f-ing idiots are protesting to keep the status quo of 40 million uninsured people and many others whose lives are completely ruined by a medical emergency. wtf kind of idiocy is that?
anyway, i think this whole thing may be a side effect of high unemployment rates. who are the first to get laid off i ask you?
Dana Loesch is also a contributing editor at BlogHer. She posted something there the day before the "tax day tea parties" in which she talks about being "an organizer who's been involved since its inception". So not sure why she doesn't just say the same thing now, that she's one of the people helping to organize groups to attend these town halls.
Of course, she also said in that same BlogHer piece, "I can guarantee you that you won't see the sort of offensive effigies and signs at these protests that we've seen at some anti-Bush rallies", which inspired our post on the bad, worse, and ugly of tea party protest signs. I'm sure if you asked her now she'd say that there were no offensive signs at these townhalls either.
I live in St. Louis and have the misfortune of listening to 97.1 every now and then. This Dana chick is just one of many fear-mongers featured on the station.
When is the teabagger/talk radio crowd going to wake and realize that they're being duped? Rush Limbaugh figured it out long ago - a man can make a LOT of money by stoking the fear of small-minded and uninformed people. Coddling to the right has become a lucrative cottage industry, much like selling Chinese-made Jesus trinkets to gullible Christians.
Talking, he is lying. Republicans may claim all sorts of moral superiority but they are liars, thieves, fear mongers and hypocrites. I have learned to cope with them since I live in Texas. But they cannot be trusted and should be avoided. They have lied all through this non-debate about health care.
Why are these mouth pieces of Intellectual Stupidity given such wide news coverage? Yes I understand the debunking and absurdity of their screwed up perverse out looks and showing how ridiculous they are, however isn't it time we moved on.
Lets reverse the table and start using two and three supporters to their one empty headed point of view support every talk show does the same a 30 minute show and 2 minutes of support is given to the support of health care with NO real discussion and 28 minutes of wacko right wing BS.
What I am starting to believe is say enough to get people interested in the throw support behind the Wacko Right it is not the issue that is important just the ratings.
In case there was any doubt about Dana Loesch being affiliated with Fox, here it is in her own written word:
Dana's BlogHer comment
Jill, did you seriously just type "bring it on?"
Yes, it would be petty if I would behave the way I saw some behave over the past 8 years. You assume that I'm going to do that - based upon a stereotype which is unfair and politically prejudiced - but I am not.
And yes, the title was intentionally provocative because I want real, honest answers, not incessant defense of every criticism regardless of validity.
Dana Loesch
Mamalogues.com
Host and executive producer, "The Dana Show"
on Fox News affiliate KFTK 97.1 FM Talk
Submitted by Dana Loesch on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 13:03
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