Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has no evidence whatsoever to back up her claim that protesters have been carrying “swastikas and symbols like that” to townhall meetings on health care as evidence of their political affiliation or sympathies, it appears she’s projecting her image of what she thinks these protesters her onto reality. She just assumes that those protesting Democratic policies would carry such symbols.
Does she really paint her adversaries with such a broad brush, believing them akin to Nazis while at the same time the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, whose job it is to keep Democrats in the majority and thus Mrs. Pelosi as Speaker has been whining that Rush is calling them Nazis! Talk about pots calling kettles black.
Basically, we’ve got a leading Democrat who ascribes fascist sympathies to her political opponents. She is one prejudiced lady.
And once again, why can’t a Democrat accept that there is legitimate — and passionate — opposition to her policies? Why must must she dismiss those who speak out as “astroturf”? Can anyone point to any evidence of her recent Republican predecessors, Dennis Hastert or Newt Gingrich, so portraying their political opponents while in office?
(Via Gateway Pundit who has more, including actual footage of protesters pasting the swastika on their placards.)
UPDATE/FROM THE COMMENTS: One of my critics contends that yes, indeed there were swastikas at some of the rallies. And he’s right. Only problem for his argument is that the protesters had signs showing that Nazi-appropriated symbol with a slash through it–to indicate opposition (or the actual word “No,” also to indicate opposition.
Given that the Speaker was comparing the protesters, as James Taranto’s observation below indicates, to Nazis, I have tweaked the post slightly to show my intent with the expression, “no evidence whatsoever.”
Let’s review her words again: “I think they’re AstroTurf. You be the judge. They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care.” Who carries swastikas? Nazis. Pelosi did not complain that the protesters were comparing ObamaCare to Nazism; she insinuated that they are Nazis.
The most charitable thing that can be said about the speaker’s comment is that it was no better than the speech she was criticizing. She likened her political opponents to Nazis, just as a handful of them had done to their opponents.
Look at the first 6 months of the Obama Administration:
They do not believe Dissent is patriotic, nor do they believe in karma for Bush Hatred.
O’Brian would have loved Obama and Pelosi. I’m sure our friends on the Left are looking for real estate for a Room 101 fior dissenters.
My only curse is that the Obama gets the same treatment that Bush did. And Pelosi misses a screw in one her 8 Congressional airplanes.
If only she acted like ol’ Tip….
I can’t fault her for calling her opponents Nazis, because it’s what I would expect. She has no choice. Nazis – or fascists – are worshippers of Big Government, or believers in its salvific power. They need to destroy contrary voices. That’s Pelosi in spades. She *must* draw attention away from what is basically her own Nazism. She is like the town adulterer who shrieks about the importance of fidelity and accuses others of adultery.
During the Bush years, it was rank and file Democrats who behaved like children. Accusing him of many nefarious things and being proud to put their babies in Tshirts that said: B is a poopyhead. Allowing their teenagers to wear ones that basically advocated killing the president. (was at a party where I actually saw a 16 year old wearing such a shirt, his parents were quite proud)
Now we find that the leadership of the party is no better. They actually have all the power, but are misusing and abusing it. By doing so they are becoming the worst offenders.
All I can say, may this backfire on them big time. Even democrats want to be led by adults, not spoiiled petulant children.
Leah, for some reason I have not been receiving any e-mails from you. Maybe something is wrong on my end, I don’t know.
(i.e., even when you include me on the addressee list 😉 )
Liberals and their racsim, Liberals and their anti-gayism(if that is even a word), Liberals and their hypocracy and Liberals and their Intollerance
Paul Krugman says opponents of ObamaCare are racists. Guess he didn’t hear about the Black Guy in St. Louis beaten up by pro-ObamaCare Union Thugs.
Is this what Obama meant by, “We’re going to hit back twice as hard?”
Pelosi is a trip. I remember when Mr Newt was speaker of the House and he got a little too partisian. The press and the opposition screamed HE IS THE SPEAKER OF THE WHOLE HOUSE! Not just one party. How things have changed.
Is it true now the Democrats will be bringing union thugs to all the town hall meetings? Buck up America. Don’t get pushed around by these so called liberals. I hope the moderates are watching. This is what you have wrought. Our young President last night of course throw gasoline on the fire. A true leader of all the people. Geez what a dope.
Obama tells those who disagree to SHUT UP. GET OUT OF THE WAY.
http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-dont-want-the-folks-who-created-the-mess-to-do-a-lot-of-talking/
It’s a long tradition, with them. The difference today is that we have recording devices and the interwebs (thank you Al Gore) to make it a little harder for them to get away with it.
People like Pelosi, you know, use Botox because their wrinkles show the mark of the beast.
gillie clearly heard her say “popsicles.”
I would enjoy the sight of Democrat implosion more if I had confidence the GOP could see and seize the opportunity being handed to them on a silver platter. Paul Ryan has a great health care alternative bill — where are the ads? What about the Republican responses to the Presidential addresses? Even if I hate everything the Democrats stand for, I at least admire that they understand that success in politics takes a certain amount of aggression. If our displeasure doesn’t result in votes, all our complaining is for naught.
When the Left Protested Bush, the Media Saw Only “everyone from grandmothers and students to veterans and mothers pushing strollers”
Are 51% of the voters ready for another election yet?
Prejudice? No. Certifiably insane? Yes.
Mental Health professionals out there must be praying that she seeks help and fast. This is a goonybird that is well past the level of crazy the Howard Hughes was.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/06/anti-obama-protester-comp_n_252815.html
http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/08/ss-nazi-sign/
Orly taitz also called the Media Obama’s Brownshirts
Nancy P waits for your apology.
Um, gillie, who is Orly Taitz. All I know about this individual is that he has been mocked and denounced on the conservative blogs I read.
Carrying a swastika with a slash through it means that person is opposed to Nazism and what it represents, gillie. And yes, that person meant to compare Obama’s statist policies to those of the German National Socialists. So, I will apologize to Nancy as soon as you provide evidence she denounced anti-Bush protestors who carried signs making even more direct comparisons to Bush and Nazism, even calling that good man Hitler.
You have tracked down one small sign. Follow the link above to Gateway Pundit to see just a small sample of the multitude of such signs in the Bush era.
Orly is a woman, not a man, GPW, leading me to doubt you read about “him” anywhere. Orly has been covered extensively on conservative blogs.
Man, proving you wrong is like proving the sun came up one day.
[Proving me wrong? Where? Not here. I said I knew very little about Orly. That I didn’t know her gender confirms my point. Go check Confederate Yankee to see where Bob Owens denounces Taitz. Bob is a conservative. His post on the matter was linked on Malkin’s Buzzworthy. So, the only coverage I read about her on conservative blogs was critical. I don’t read the nutcase conservative blogs you believe are mainstream. –Dan]
GPW: Here is one without a cross through it.
And Pam has a link to a video of a kid wearing a t-shirt with an Obama/H_tler t-shirt.
Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has no evidence whatsoever to back up her claim that protesters have been carrying “swastikas and symbols like that” to townhall meetings on health care
Again, we await your apology and retraction of the post.
Torrent, I’ll be glad to apologize when you show me evidence of Nancy denouncing said swastikas at anti-Bush rallies.
Followed your link, torrent, two of the posters has swastikas with the slash, the other had the “No” on top of the swastika.
No need for me to retract for Pelosi’s comment suggested that the protesters were the one with the ancient symbol the Nazis appropriated.
Please note, you only have isolated examples compared to the abundance of examples at anti-Bush rallies. So, let me repeat, if she denounced such comparisons, then your defense of that mean-spirited Democrat would have some merit.
Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has no evidence whatsoever
We’ve shown you photographic evidence.
Which part didn’t you understand?
Oh, right. People were mean to Bush.
Perhaps you’re right. Some people can’t move past the Bush years.
see my update to this post, torrent. It’s clear Nancy meant to liken the protesters to Nazis and you’ve only shown the protesters comparing Obama to Nazis, while denouncing the latter.
Wow, gillie’s ‘protesters are Nazi’s’ link shows that.. protesters aren’t Nazi’s? Bizzaro strikes again.
dumbass, can you read english? The words “No repeat” surrounding the swastika would indicate that the sign is against Nazi’s. Though I’d point out maybe he didn’t want any more hindus.
Gods, they are getting pathetic aren’t they?
So, to recap, the right-wing, who has already called Obama a fascist, a dictator, a murderer, etc. turned out to health care rallies in the USA in 2009 carrying swastikas (some with crosses on them, some not) to make the completely irrelevant but important political point that Nazis were bad, leading Pelosi to call them Nazis?
Watching you tap dance like this is *great* fun.
Jewish Groups Assail Nazi Comparisons Made by Conservatives in Health Care Debate
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/08/jewish-groups-assail-nazi-comparisons-made-by-conservatives-in-health-care-debate.html
The American Jewish Congress issued a statement, “The Limbaugh comments comparing Obama ( and Pelosi )to Hitler and the Nazis are grossly offensive and intolerable. They reflect a nasty and hyperbolic tendency on our political culture, one which makes reasoned discourse impossible, confuses disagreement with evil, and which makes it impossible to distinguish evil from ordinary politics. … It behooves all participants in the political process to unequivocally disavow the comparison and to make it plain that peddlers of such noxious comparison have no place in our politics, no matter how large their audiences. And all Americans should make plain their disgust at the comparisons by talk show hosts by a prompt use of the off button.”
also in that blog. . .
a spokesman for the groups “Patients First” — part of the conservative group “Americans for Prosperity” — describing the health care reform bill as pushing euthanasia for the elderly, which he compares to Hitler’s Final Solution for the Jews.
“When you reach 65 and every five years thereafter you’re going to have to have counseling session with some, um, some federal airhead,” he says.
“Part of this process is called End of Life counseling.” He says, a section of House Bill 3200. “And part of End of Life counseling can be an End of Life order. ’End of Life,’ what’s another word for that? ‘Death.’ ‘Order,’ what’s another word for that? A ‘sentence.’”
He says Josef Stalin, Pol Pot, and Robert Mugabe issued “End of Life” orders — in their respective genocides.
“Adolf Hitler issued six million end of life orders,” the speaker says. “He called his program the Final Solution. I kind of wonder what we’re going to call ours.”
In House Resolution 3200, page 425 refers to “advance care planning consultation,” defined as a senior and a medical practitioner discussing “advance care planning, if…the individual involved has not had such a consultation within the last 5 years.” This includes an “explanation by the practitioner of advance care planning, including key questions and considerations, important steps, and suggested people to talk to,” an “explanation by the practitioner of advance directives, including living wills and durable powers of attorney, and their uses,” and an “explanation by the practitioner of the role and responsibilities of a health care proxy.”
who’s dancing torrent prime. We’ve SEIU purpleshirts now. Also last time I checked gun control, abortion and ‘end of life’ planning were all great ideas in Nazi Germany. Not to mention Government Motors (VW), the abandonment of our allies, embracing of Fascists, etc.
The comparison can be made. Yet you’ve gone from taking Pelosi’s stance that the protesters were Nazis to saying that they’re calling their opponents Nazis. So now you’re attacking the protesters for doing the exact thing you were defending Pelosi doing.
Brilliant!
keep moving those goalposts GPW
She still waits for your apology
I didn’t want to get involved in this “dumbass” thing, but I must step forward and admit the truth. gillie is indeed a colossal dumbass, who frequently fails to read or understand his own citations. I’ve run into him doing it too, many times.
#28, pretty much a circular reasoning, like tossing a 2 headed coin.
Torrent: Huh. So you refer to a video linked at Pam’s House Blend to support how “offended” you are, and I presume Pam is as well, yet both of you are completely silent about the recent garbage being spewed on her site by a co-blogger and commentors when it comes to the military:
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/12307/blue-angels
Care to tell us again how much more enlightened Democrats are?
I get it, I can say Bush is a nazi but if I say Obama is a nazi I’M a nazi.
Wow she has the debating ability of a 3rd grader.
gillie,
your evidence has been shredded, much like your health care arguement.
Maybe in Bizarro world this means you won, but here on earth prime, not so much.
More space available, if needed.
Oh, right. People were mean to Bush.
But of course, Pelosi and her puppets like torrentprime encouraged and supported people bringing swastikas and Hitler representations to anti-Bush events.
The funny part here is watching torrentprime continue to defend his Pelosi.
Hey torrentprime, just a question; don’t you believe that any politician who commits campaign finance fraud should not only not be in any type of Congressional leadership position, but should resign from Congress? After all, it’s what you demanded for Tom DeLay, right?
Now do it for Pelosi, puppet.
People really need to read the book Liberal Fascism, by Jonah Goldberg. In it, he makes a convincing and scholarly argument that fascism (or nazism) is more correctly on the left of the spectrum, and is more closely associated with liberalism than it is with conservatism. Pelosi is the pot calling the kettle black.
Boy, both torrent and gillie really ARE dumbasses! And here I was thinking that Bruce was just joking.
Regards,
Peter H.