Teabaggers Gets They Bitch-Asses Whupped in Bloomington Town Hall Meeting
800 or so people packed Bloomington High School North auditorium in Bloomington, Indiana last night for a Town Hall meeting conducted by Representative Baron Hill of Indiana's 9th Congressional District.
The Teabaggers were loud, but, by at least a third, the minority in the house. Dann Denny of the HT erroneously reports "thunderous applause" from both sides but really the only truly thunderous ovations came from the left.
I got there about 10 minutes late, just in time to see about 10-15 'Baggers storm out after Hill made a dumb remark about how it was "his meeting" and he "made the rules" in response to a journalism student who couldn't videotape. He qualified the statement by saying he didn't want a "Youtube hatchet-job," which is a perfectly good reason, but why make such a stupid statement in the first place? It's NOT his meeting, it belongs to the 9th Congressional District. (These last bits of information were relayed to me as the meeting ended by my friend Steve who saw this exchange)
The 'Baggers stormed out muttering but seemed mostly pleased to be getting out. One guy made a remark about having "better things to do" and either he or another guy added "getting drunk."
Well it WAS after 6, to their credit.
I was being stripped of my own camera at that time and sodomized by an ACORN volunteer/Congressional page for Hill at that time, so missed that little bit of action. No, not really. I kept my camera.
Inside, the tone was mostly civil and Hill kept a pretty good handle on things. But he obviously has his reasons for having a chip on his shoulder. The anti-reform people kept asking the same questions over and over. In particular "can we keep our current coverage?" He kept saying yes. At one point he said "You'll just have to trust me," which is never something you want to hear coming out of a politician's mouth, but it's hard to blame him for getting tired of people not listening.
There was a guy who said he had PTSD from being robbed (at gunpoint, I think) and was now $9,000 in debt.
Why is it whenever there is a microphone handy someone has to chronicle their mental illnesses? Or volunteer what medications they take?
The most compelling stories were two from (possibly) opposing viewpoints. One woman told of her parents having to divorce so her mother could get the care she needed without her father going bankrupt. She was very sincere and did seem traumatized by this, but her closing statement of "go ahead and boo me because I've already felt the pain" shut up the detractors pretty good. Personally, though an avid monogamist and general fan of marriage, I think a marriage is only as good as the feelings and intentions of the married couple, and that conversely, a lifelong and deep commitment between two people is more important than a piece of paper or government approval, so her statements about a family being "ripped apart" fell a little flat for me.
Jim DeWeese is a guy from my high school who now works as a prosthetics manufacturer. He and I have traded a few remarks over Facebook and he has some very legitimate concerns, not the least of which is that Tom Daschle is a whore for Anthem now and Jim hates Anthem/Wellpoint for very good reasons. More on that in future posts as I want to include some of Jim's writings to me and discus some things with him further.
The 'Baggers kept a'booin' and the Healthers kept a cheerin' for a while. Around 7 p.m., the scheduled ending time, I went to the hall and took my camera back from my new lover the ACORN volunteer/Hill page and waited for angry outbursts from the disappointed wing-nuts leaving. But mostly it was just muttering and head shaking, nothing really worth filming.
Outside, people were exchanging a few shouts and jeers at one another, and the Teabagger Airforce was gassing up near the football field. I saw this 60-odd foot hot-air balloon a few weeks ago over Ellettsville and it scared the shit out of me, as it is shaped like a bald eagle. It came over some trees low and backlit by the sun and I seriously thought the aliens had arrived or some scary shit was going down, then it came more clearly into view and I was immediately struck by the utter hypocrisy of the thing.
I did a little research; hot-air balloons run about $20,000, $30,000 to $40,000 if they are custom or special models, which this thing certainly is.
I hollered over at the pilots and ground crew and asked them how much one of those things costs.
"Do you want to buy it or do you want to take a ride?" asked Air Marshall Teabaggery in response.
"I might take a ride in it sometime, but right now I just want to know how much one costs," I replied.
"God Bless America," he says, after a pause.
"$30,000?" I yell back. "40?" Nothin.' Free balloon, I guess. Obviously, the hypocrisy is not lost on the numb nuts pilot that if he can afford a $30,000 toy he probably doesn't have much to bitch about on the financial front. Ah, well. No surprise here: Teabagger hypocrisy stands six-stories tall. Up, up and away, baby!
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