Look who's rallying vs. Obama in Portsmouth

[babylonsister]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/?last_story=/opinion/walsh/politics/2009/08/11/portsmouth_protesters/

Look who's rallying vs. Obama in Portsmouth
Joan Walsh


I'll be writing about President Obama's town hall in Portsmouth, NH Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, I wanted to get a sense of what kind of protest Obama might face there, and the Portsmouth Herald has a great story about the local extremists who are organizing against Obama's health care plan, and hoping to turn his meeting into one of the "town hell" so many Democrats have faced this steamy August.

Portsmouth Herald article here:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20090811-NEWS-908110370

It's a great group:

Jack Kimball, who runs a medical cleaning business named Great Bay Facility Services, is a leader of the right-wing Granite State Patriots, which organized the state's Tea Parties last April. He may be most famous for regularly changing the sign on his Route 1 business's billboard to trash Obama. He and his colleagues were early to organize "Town Hells" to harass Democrats. Here he is boasting about roughing up a counter-protester during a "No more socialism" protest at Carol Shea Porter and Jeanne Shaheen's offices in mid-July:

snip//

Pam Smith, another local who's planning to turnout Tuesday morning, is "assistant coordinator" of Glenn Beck's so-called "9/12 project," which aims to return the country to the state of shock, terror, mourning, grief and – for a few people – determination to kill anyone who could possibly be blamed for the 9/11 attacks (as in all Muslims and American liberals). Smith posted about protesting in Portsmouth on the Meetup site on Monday:

snip//

Corey Lewandowski, director of the Astroturf-seeming group "Americans for Prosperity," came to national attention as the campaign manager for former ultra-right Sen. Bob Smith's unsuccessful 2002 campaign against (now also former) Sen. John Sununu, who infuriated Sununu Jr. and Sr. for telling reporters (in the wake of 9/11) that Sununu might be soft on terror because of his Palestinian roots. Lewandowski then moved on to the staff of Ohio Rep. Bob Ney, who went down in the Abramoff scandal.

snip//

Former state Sen. George Lovejoy, founder of The New Hampshire Advantage Coalition, is a former Steve Forbes backer turned Mitt Romney supporter in 2008. Although Lovejoy is also a Tea Party activist, he plays a moderate on the issue of the "town hells." But he'll be turning out to protest Obama, too.

“We need to start to have a civil dialogue about the consequences of this proposal for average Americans, business owners, as well as the costs implications to the American taxpayers,” Lovejoy told the Portsmouth Herald.

Granite Grok, a Web site associated with all of the above, is listed as a sponsor of the Obama protests, is a hub that unites the various fringe segments of New Hampshire's right wing groups – the tea partiers, the town-hell organizers, and the crazy Birthers. Granite Grok linked the movement against health care reform to the Birthers, in a post insisting its "town hell" protesters are "much like the lady we saw passionately addressing Congressman Mike Castle about Obama's birth status." A completely uninformed and seemingly insane lady, it should be said. We'd already noticed the similarities between the movements, but Granite Grok's honesty should be praised.

I'm sure Obama is ready for the hazing Tuesday, but let's hope the mainstream media calls it what it is: an organized movement to lie about his agenda and link the various strain of paranoia to protest – and perhaps disrupt – his effort at dialogue. Tune in at 10 a.m. PT/1 pm ET.


-- Joan Walsh

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I hope the media unmasks these protesters

but I won't be surprised if they don't. Just hope Obama remains safe. If these bozos disrupt and won't allow him to speak, they will show themselves as what they are--an unruly mob. And if they do allow Obama to speak, he will blow them out of the water with facts and the truth.

[RepublicanElephant]

2. just how big a fool will these guys be with secret service around? nt