Proving for the umpteenth time why she is a national treasure, Boing Boing reader Rachel Maddow offers a capsule history of the Rent-A-Thug organizing that the Republicans excel at.

Clearly Republicans have nothing to add to the national debate about health care so they want to make sure that debate never happens. What a plan they have: Hire a bigtime PR firm. Rile up a bunch of couch potato Glenn Beck fans and bus ‘em to Tampa for a photo op! Health care won’t be Obama’s Waterloo, it’s going to be the Republican Party’s.

Republicans are assholes.

So, the SEIU thugs are okay because they are on the good guys side, right?

It’s almost predictable. I have no idea what Rachael is talking about. She is saying words that people poll for maximum effect.

This Congress needs to hear how angry people are. Where were you when the Code Pinkers went crazy and all the other leftist full time protesters. You neglect the huge populations of these idiot protesters who populate your side of the aisle.

The protesters have legitimate claims. You claim they are funded with millions from “K street lobbyists” and have “manufactured anger.” Give me a break, you just can’t handle it when public opinion does not support turning this country into a socialist society. You will see the American people reject these idiots in office the next election. Still, after that happens you will blame it on corporations, k street lobbyists, and other liberal punching bags. It is a pretty tired argument and the rest of the American people see through it.

Josh, you seem to be missing an important point here. If these are all genuinely concerned citizens, why are they attempting to obfuscate the healthcare debate instead of trying to contribute to the conversation? If they actually cared about fostering discussion then they would stop acting like hooligans and start trying to offer valid, constructive criticism.

If you would watch the debate that is going on you will see that neither side is trying to discuss anything.  Both are just trying to get their way with nothing constructive and no concern for building something decent.  You basically have the 50% of people who think they will get something for nothing behind the plan and the 50% of people who think they will be the ones paying the bill who are against it.

She’s amazing. A testament to the awesomeness of Northampton, MA. Her fill-in on Air America, the equally impressive, entertaining, and witty Bill Dwight is an acquaintance of mine and people would be well served to check him out.

I explored the issues involved in this on my blog Black Sun Gazette in an article called <a href = “http://blacksungazette.com/?p=433”>Fascism, American Style</a>. Simply put, there is no more a naked sign of fascism- the social movement, not the Church of Satan shock value tactic or the political swear word- than corporations getting together with politicians to bank roll right-wing good squads.

The Obama administration, for their part, has responded very tepidly to this, urging people to <a href = “http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/6/762676/-OFA,-PFAW,-Unions-Organizing-Against-Tea-Party-Mobs”>write their congressman.</a> I would quite rather see unemployed longshoreman and SEIU militants handing out bike chains and baseball bats.

Yeah. It’s like that. Fascists don’t want to debate. They want to kick your head in and make it so that no one can debate. Let the ACLU worry about their “right” to break up legitimate democratic discussion. I’ll worry about keeping them far the fuck away from anywhere working people are trying to organize.

Sorry, that’s obviously “goon squads” and I apologize for the naked HTML.

Is this really from the editor of “The Book Of Lies”? How fucking disappointing…

Coming from a Independent political perspective, I always wonder if these sweeping condemnations, from what I’m assuming to be a liberal viewpoints (sorry if Im wrong Richard) are really just bemoaning the fact that they are a bit “jealous” of Republican mobilizing?

You know..I really hate you because I’m NOT you?

Call them “assholes” and “Thugs” all you want..this IS a grand example of political mobilizing. Legally “disrupting” debates is a rich American political tradition.

Because it works.

I’m also kind of laughing that Richard is complaining that a Political party would have the gal to HIRE A BIG PR FIRM!

Thank Sweet-Baby-Jesus-On-A-Bike that the Democrats would never do such a heinous thing!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the American two party system..Keep your hands inside The Doom Buggy at all times!

Now lets get busy shining silverware! We’ve got a sinking boat to make pretty!

No one is ‘organizing’ me, nor paying me to oppose the proposed health ‘reform’ bill.  I haven’t attended any town hall meetings, but I will- if the bused-in union members will let me in. 

I won’t shout, but I would like to have my actual concerns heard, and my actual questions answered, instead of the straw man versions of them that are putatively ‘refuted’ and dismissed by the media.

In Maddow’s world, anyone who disagrees with her, must be a shill for some corporation.  Who pays her?  NBC (i.e. GE)- whose medical and industrial equipment sales stand to gain both from health care reform and cap-and-tax.

I don’t think she *is* a shill, but I do think she was hired because she already believes what her employer would like her to believe.

Some companies will benefit if these laws pass, and others will benefit if they don’t.  I, like the vast majority of people who are against these fatally flawed bills have nothing to gain by stopping them, but we, and most everyone else has a lot to lose if they pass.