Massive Tea Party Protests Against ObamaCare (UPDATED)

UPDATE:

AP Admits Rep. Heath Shuler Did Not Hear Tea Party Racial Slurs…After WSJ Writer Investigates

On the heels of a story a couple of days ago which used Congressman Heath Shuler as a source about how racial slurs were probably hurled at the Washington, D.C. Tea Party on March 20, the Associated Press has been forced to backtrack. Here is how AP writer Jesse Washington used what Heath Shuler supposedly heard to promote the idea of a Tea Party chock full of racists:
A fourth Democrat, Rep. Heath Shuler of North Carolina, who is white, backed up his colleagues, telling the Henderson (N.C.) Times-News that he heard the slurs.
Unfortunately for Mr. Washington’s premise, this little fiction has now been undone by Shuler himself. Here is the AP correction:
Rep. Heath Shuler is denying a report that he heard racial slurs yelled from a crowd of angry health care protesters outside the U.S. Capitol.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2010/04/15/ap-admits-rep-heath-shuler-did-not-hear-tea-party-racial-slurs-after-w

Really sucks when the facts don’t fit the MSM narrative.

UPDATE:

Another Leftwing smear attempt.

Via Joel Pollak at Big Government.

I was actually at the Tea Party march against the health care bill in Washington, D.C. yesterday. I don’t attend political events on the Jewish Sabbath, so I simply decided to go and observe, lending a quiet voice of protest. I was in our nation’s capital for the conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and wandered down by myself to Capitol Hill after morning services at the historic 6th & I synagogue.

I saw thousands of people–fifteen thousand, I guessed at the time–gathered on the west lawn of the Capitol building. There were American flags and lots of Gadsden flags (“Don’t Tread on Me”). I noted some of the more humorous signs (“I’m not wee-wee’d up, I’m pissed off”), as well as some of the more esoteric ones (“Restoration, not Transformation”). Almost all of them were home-made with poster-board and marker.

I did not see any comparison of Obama to Hitler, nor any sign advocating violence of any kind. I did see two signs bearing a hammer-and-sickle–which I personally find just as offensive as the swastika, though it is bizarrely trendy to some Americans. There was one sign with an image of Obama and the words “undocumented worker,” which was the only hint of Birtherism I witnessed. The rest of the signs were straightforward slogans: “Kill the Bill”; “Start Over.”

The crowd was far from uniform. There were black people, white people, Hispanic people–both in the audience and on stage. One of the speakers invoked the example of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as an inspiration–and the crowd roared its approval, as it did for mentions of Thomas Jefferson and John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. A few of the speakers invoked religious sentiments about abortion. That was as edgy as it got.

At one point, the crowd to the right of the stage started to boo loudly. It was impossible to see exactly why, from where I was standing, but soon a group of people–members of Congress, apparently–ascended the stairs to the Capitol. If media reports are to be believed, that was the moment when racist and homophobic language was hurled at Rep. John Lewis, and a protestor was arrested for spitting at Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.

……I don’t know why Rep. Lewis and the other members with him decided to walk right through the protestors. Did they intend to provoke the protestors? If so, few of those present seem to have taken the bait, from the video that is currently available. At least one did, though, and was arrested by Capitol Hill police–and so now the entire protest, and the entire nation’s opposition to the health care bill, is being tarnished.

Obviously, any such rhetoric and behavior is totally reprehensible and beyond the pale. It is an insult to the nation and to the Tea Party movement itself, which in my experience is made up of ordinary people from all walks of life who are opposed to the massive expansion of government we are living through at the moment. If what the media has reported is true, then an apology is certainly due to the country as a whole.

The only epithet I personally heard yesterday was the one hurled at us by two passersby: “Teabaggers.” Those who first promoted this phrase on MSNBC and who still use it today know exactly what it means. It is a crude sexual metaphor designed to denigrate ordinary people who are just standing up for their rights as best they know how, the way no party–not even the Republican party–has done in this debate.

Journalists have also contrived false accusations against protestors before–as in the case of a man who carried a rifle to one town hall meeting last year, whom MSNBC only showed from the shoulders down to hide the fact that he was black, while accusing the protestors of racism. There have also been racist attacks against black Tea Party protestors, such as Kenneth Gladney, who was assaulted outside a town hall in August.
http://biggovernment.com/jpollak/2010/03/21/eyewitness-to-tea-party-protest-adding-insult-to-insult/

Of course, the MSM’s latest anti-American patriot campaign was thouroughly dissected.  The MSM quickly vacated the story. Wonder why.

More:

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2010/03/21/media-lying-about-racist-attacks-on-black-reps-by-tea-party-protestersvideo-proof/

http://biggovernment.com/jhoft/2010/04/02/it-was-a-setup-state-run-media-conspired-on-racist-tea-party-attack/

UPDATE:
Tea Party protesters refused entry into congressional buildings

As part of today’s rally to stop the Democrats’ health care reform legislation thousands of protesters descended on the lawn of Capitol building. But many more were also using the occasion to visit the their congressional representative and tell them what they think of the bill.

However, Capitol Police recently stopped allowing any of the peaceful protesters to enter into congressional buildings. Crowds are now gathering in front of the House and Senate offices, demanding that they be let in to air their constituent concerns.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Tea-Party-protesters-refused-entry-into-congressional-buildings-88730582.html

Of course they were denied entry. What made them think that the Democrats would pay attention to them anymore than the Constitution?

Thousands descend on D.C. to protest socialist ObamaCare.

Just days after holding a rally in Washington, Tea Party activists returned Saturday to make one final stand against the health care reform bill ahead of an expected Sunday vote.

Thousands of Tea Partiers descended upon the Capitol in an effort to derail the march toward “Obamacare” by pressuring undecided lawmakers to vote “no” Sunday. At times protestors broke into chants of “Kill the bill!”

More than 60 Tea Party affiliates organized the event in the four days since Tuesday’s rally after organizers were flooded with requests to hold another one for those who couldn’t take off of work for the first one.

Saturday’s event featured actor Jon Voight, Reps. Mike Pence, R-Ind., chairman of the House Republican Conference, Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and Steve King, R-Iowa.

“This is the final push, and the Democrats’ last ditch effort to push through the most unpopular legislation in years,” Bachmann said.

After the rally, Tea Partiers plan to confront undecided Democratic lawmakers in their congressional offices and convince them to vote against the bill.

Ana Puig of Pennsylvania said she came with eight busloads of Tea Partiers.

“The people are excited,” she said. “They feel this is our last chance to really let these people here at the House know that we don’t want them to pass this bill. It’s unconstitutional.”

Puig said opponents are ready to “fight like hell to repeal this bill if it goes through.”

“The Tea Party Movement is real,” she said. “We are here for the long haul. This is just the beginning for us.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/20/tea-party-activists-make-stand-health-care-vote/

Four lawmakers, one movie star, one relative of President Obama and a broad coalition of 30 “tea party” and grassroots interest groups plan a noisy “Code Red” protest rally outside the Capitol on Saturday to call for the defeat of Obama’s heath care reform package.

The group will gather at noon in Senate Park, just a day before House members will likely take their vote on the lengthy and contentious legislation, which has been as closely chronicled by the press as the March Madness basketball rivalries.

Among the lawmakers planning to protest Saturday will be Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Tom Price of Georgia, Joe Wilson of South Carolina and Phil Gingrey of Georgia.

Academy Award-winning actor Jon Voight and Dr. Milton Wolf — Obama’s second cousin and a physician opposing heath care reform — will also join the fray.

Mr. Voight, who recently signed on with Fox to star in a new primetime drama “Midland”, is not shy about mixing his Hollywood background with his conservative activist instincts.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “will stop at nothing to fulfill her corrupt conquests. She will bring all of the corrupt ACORN liars to try to bully all the Democrats that may be having pangs of guilt knowing quite surely what their votes can and will do. If they’re bullied into saying ‘yes,’ it will destroy America,” Mr. Voight said.

The diverse array of interest groups scheduled to be on hand ranges from the Memphis Tea Party and the Tea Party Express to Let Freedom Ring, Americans for Prosperity and 60-Plus, a conservative seniors advocacy group.

“All of the groups have a mutual goal — to band together to communicate the frustration of the people and demand the termination of this health bill legislation,” said Jennifer Hulsey, co-founder of American Grassroots Coalition, which has organized the event.

The group will linger long enough on the National Mall to stage a candlelight vigil around the Capitol on Saturday night. Leaders say Mrs. Pelosi and her allies have resorted to parliamentary tricks to pass the health bill despite polls showing the legislation is increasingly unpopular with the public.

“The Democratic-led Congress is using procedural and legislative rules to ignore the overwhelming opposition to this,” said Mark Skoda of the Memphis Tea Party.

“The will of the American people is being subverted by these actions and the grassroots activists who make up this coalition are focusing their energy to kill the bill.”

The group has a Web site with updates on its activities at www.americangrassrootscoalition.org
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/19/voight-tea-partiers-plan-last-minute-protest/

From the American Grassroots Coalition site:

With the critical nature of a looming Congressional decision, a broad coalition of Tea Party organizations and leadership is launching the final push before a possible vote by the House. These events are being coordinated across the US and are aimed at communicating the frustration of the people while demanding the termination of this health bill legislation. While the DNC and the administration continue to obfuscate and confuse, this coalition is focused on getting activists involved prior to Pelosi’s maneuvering.

The following actions are planned for the next 72 hours:

•Calling campaigns to the House by constituents to vote no on the bill
•“Talk to Washington” health care town halls in Mississippi, Pennsylvania and other states
•Code Red rally in Washington, DC at 12 noon on Saturday at Upper Senate Park
•Nationwide “Virtual Vigil” on BlogTalk radio sponsored by DoctorsandPatients.org
•Candlelight vigil around the Capitol on Saturday night

Featured speakers at the Washington, D.C. Rally on Saturday will include:

•Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (MN)
•Congressman Tom Price (GA)
•Congressman Joe Wilson (SC)
•Congressman Phil Gingrey (GA)
•Actor & Conservative Jon Voight
•Dr. Milton Wolf, Barack Obama’s second cousin who opposes Obamacare
•Colin Hanna, Let Freedom Ring
•Jim Martin, 60 Plus
•Phil Kerpen, Americans for Prosperity
•Tim Phillips, Americans for Prosperity
•Andrew Langer, Institute for Liberty
•Kathryn Serkes, Doctor Patient Medical Association
•Mark Skoda, Memphis Tea Party
•Amy Kremer, Tea Party Express
•Jennifer Hulsey, American Grassroots Coalition
•FreedomWorks Representative
•Ben Cunningham, Founder of the Tennessee Tax Revolt
•Darla Dawald, Grassfire / Resistnet
Grassroots activists everywhere have worked to inform themselves, notify their representatives of their objections and take action in the form of rallies, meetings and calls into those representatives. Individual groups have worked to stop the health care legislation while coordinating with each other to amplify their message and their efforts.
MORE HERE: http://www.americangrassrootscoalition.org/

More from Michelle Malkin: http://michellemalkin.com/2010/03/20/day-of-defiance-nationwide-protests-as-slaughter-house-rushes-through-demcare/
This isn’t about “health care reform”, it’s about an abuse of power. There are so many items in this bill that aren’t even related to “health care reform” and that expand government intrusion, including the IRS.
A majority of the American people know a socialist takeover when they see it. We’re not buying into ObamaCare.