I almost feel sorry for Republican Congressman Mike Castle whose recent town hall meeting in Delaware was hijacked by an angry mob of deranged “birthers” demanding action to “take back” their country, and who then pressured everyone present into reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. Yikes.
17 Comments
July 23, 2009 at 9:15 am
Yep, that’s leadership.
Oops, messy, my leaders have tapped into something dark and ugly. What to do, what to do?
“I think, I think, um, I think we’re . . . um, almost out of time.” How apropos.
Standing up for decency across the land . . . The Republican Party.
My mild-natured mom would have put the lady in her place better than the distinguished wallflower from Delaware.
July 23, 2009 at 9:16 am
I read this 3 days ago.
July 23, 2009 at 9:19 am
Nothing like intimidation through patriotism…
It’s very reminiscent of the “improvised” Ron Paul gatherings across the US in 2008. They had a tendency to force the Pledge onto the unsuspecting people there.
July 23, 2009 at 9:20 am
“Oops, messy, my leaders have tapped into something dark and ugly. What to do, what to do?”
or…
“My god this woman is batshit crazy. How do I entertain her insanity as little as possible?”
July 23, 2009 at 9:26 am
John — Yes, so did I. This was the best footage of the event I’d seen to date.
Of course, you could always go start your own blog where you can yammer on all day long and post things faster. After all, you’re a welfare bum, right? Nothing better to do…
July 23, 2009 at 9:31 am
The startling thing isn’t the crazy woman, it’s the people applauding her and egging her on. There are generally crazy people in every crowd and they are always chomping at the bit to get at the microphone, but usually people just look at the floor and hope to God they finish quickly.
July 23, 2009 at 9:55 am
There are generally crazy people in every crowd and they are always chomping at the bit to get at the microphone, but usually people just look at the floor and hope to God they finish quickly.
That’s usually how Canadians handle it. I witnessed an incident on TVO’s The Agenda a couple of months ago in one their townhall-type episodes where a wingnut in the audience posed a question that didn’t merit a response from the panel. And that’s what the panel did….they didn’t answer it. Point blank refused to, even at Steve Paikin’s urging.
July 23, 2009 at 10:59 am
i’ve taken a new angle with birfers: i make fun of their inability to remove the resident alien from the oval office, then i demand that they, as true american patriots, donate to orly. i’ve been telling them that orly hired me to stir them up in order to get them to donate. i’m an asshole.
KEvron
July 23, 2009 at 11:20 am
Yup – John (Jonathon/welfare bum) – everything’s biggest, bestest and my dog’s bigger than your dog in the US – and their crazies are the craziest in the world – you should fit in well.
Story 3 days old – why did you bother to read the blog then. Pretty boring and wasteful life if you have to read old news.
July 23, 2009 at 11:22 am
KEv — I think it’s a brilliant tactic. Get the rubes to cough up their “hard-earned” dough and give it to a bunch batshit crazy loons that only serve to marginalize them even further…
July 23, 2009 at 11:23 am
By the way – I’m not anti-American (my paternal g-grandfather was American and came to Canada for a better life. He joined family who were Americans who were amongst the first settlers/pioneers in Canada – I’m just anti-idiots no matter what country they come from
July 23, 2009 at 11:49 am
bingo. and i’m as rude as fuck to them as i demand their donations, gestures of the patriotism.
one guy wants to fight me. i’m gonna string him along for a while.
KEvron
July 23, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Sandi — The whole “anti-American” thing is a total crock more often than not. As I’ve said before, my Dad lived in Washington, my sister lives in Florida and I’ve got many friends and extended relatives down there. Being critical of various U.S. policies (foreign and/or domestic) doesn’t necessarily equate to being “anti-American” — it’s a weak emotional argument usually employed by shallow people to undermine the legitimacy of the criticisms being advanced by imputing “bad faith” of some kind to their motivation.
July 23, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Ya, I have relatives in the US and one niece by marriage that “God damn it” works at Harvard – a Canadian gal that loves her country, but by gosh she didn’t want to pass up the opporunity. Yup, she visits quite often and loves both places. I think we should ban her from the family – she’s been out of Canada for several years.
July 23, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I saw this video on Olbermann and my first thought was that I probably would’ve gotten in trouble had I been there. When they shamed everyone in to doing the pledge of allegance I know I would’ve been glued to my chair. The whole idea of coerced patriotism (“9/11 changed everything!” anyone?) really doesn’t sit well with me.
Just saw a piece on Hardball tonight where Matthews was just laying in to G. Gordon Liddy (who really looks in bad shape) over this whole “birther” thing. The really sad part though is that these idiots have been getting a national platform from which proclaim their lunacy. Oh well, I guess the rating make it all OK in the end, right?
July 23, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Oh yeah, another thing I noticed when I first saw that video…take a gander at the audience; nothing but old, scared, white folk. Must’ve come there straight from their Limbaugh listening group. I almost felt sorry for that congressman when he said that Obama was a US citizen. One of the few time I’ve heard a Republican sound reasonable.
July 23, 2009 at 7:50 pm
C-C: I think Castle is actually a pretty decent guy; at least, from what I’ve heard. As I said, I too felt kinda sorry for him. How embarrassing to get shamed into swearing allegiance to the flag at the behest of an outraged mob of crack-addled dittoheads.