# Disrupting Town Hall Meetings **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 3, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176 "2009-08-03T16:17:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/181 "2009-08-13T21:59:37Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > And if you don’t have an argument, string together a bunch of platitudes. A classical non-answer. Respond to what I said about PC liberals shouting down conservative voices and then whining about having the same thing done to them. ---
**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/182 "2009-08-13T22:11:11Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I’ll take clichés for $1000 please Alex. What? What did you say? There’s too much PC liberal shouting to hear. ---
**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/183 "2009-08-13T22:12:29Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Didn’t you just post the same thing in another thread? Trying to earn extra credit at Bible college or something? I have to. It’s the only way I can be heard over all the shouting. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/184 "2009-08-13T22:15:07Z")
Please don’t triple post, and if you must, at least bring arguments that were answered fewer than 100 posts ago. ---
**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/185 "2009-08-13T22:19:29Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > :rolleyes: That’s even stupider than [this.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11434197#post11434197) You didn’t respond to the statement.:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![jakesteele](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ed8c4c/32.png) [@jakesteele](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jakesteele)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/186 "2009-08-13T22:22:38Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > I think you forgot something about sauce and geese. > > But seriously, you seem to be saying that it’s perfectly OK to use a tactic that you yourself apparently deem objectionable and counterproductive, simply because your opponents have used that tactic, correct? I love sauce and geese, tastes like chicken. Actually, no. I wish that neither side would resort to that. When somebody rants they are not taken seriously even if they have a good point. These are critical times in our country where decisions are going to be made that will determine what this country will be in the future. It is a time for calm, due deliberation on both sides. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/187 "2009-08-13T23:17:25Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > The whole thing is a shame. If the Republicans acted at all times with decorum and in accordance with the laws and standards of where they live they might have a voice at the table. As it is they not only have no say, but they are continually marginalizing themselves, ensuring that the Democrats will continue to be in charge for years to come. It’s depressingly counterproductive. You’re wrong. The big problem is that they **do** have a say due to Obama’s limp-wristed actions. Combine this with the fact that these tactics are now shown to have an effect far out of what they should, and political “discourse” in this country has just gotten a whole lot nastier. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Alienhand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@Alienhand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alienhand)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/188 "2009-08-13T23:40:17Z")
[nevermind] ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/189 "2009-08-13T23:42:15Z")
But sooner or later, it won’t work. No matter how loud those people may be, no mater how abusive, boiled down they are one vote each. The lobbyists for Big Money are likely to win this one, and killing it dead is the only way they win. The move to public health care already had the momentum, slowly built over the years of stories about corporate abuse. That will go away because we lose this one? No. What will happen is that every person who suffers from this failure will know who to blame. Dems who collaborated will face primary opponents, Pubbies who obstructed had best live in dead Red districts, or their ass is up for grabs. They can win this battle for temporary gains, but at ultimate cost. Politically, its like the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor: brilliant and astonishing tactics, a strategic disaster bordering on the suicidal. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/190 "2009-08-13T23:49:14Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > The big problem is that they **do** have a say due to Obama’s limp-wristed actions. Yup, that was my big reservation about Obama. He _really_ needs to start kicking some ass soon. The pubbies have known this sort of crap works for decades, and they also know that most dems are afraid to call em on it. It’s begining to look like Obama is just another one of _those_. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/191 "2009-08-14T00:21:53Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Yup, that was my big reservation about Obama. He _really_ needs to start kicking some ass soon. > The pubbies have known this sort of crap works for decades, and they also know that most dems are afraid to call em on it. It’s begining to look like Obama is just another one of _those_. Yeah, it’s gotten pretty disgusting. 2004, Reid: We’re in the minority, we’re totally helpless. 2006, Reid: We just need a majority and we can do something. 2008, Reid: We just need the Super Sixty and a President and we can do something. What will 2010 be? Sixty is too many and makes bipartisanship too tricky, so we’d like to be back at fifty-five? The Pubbies were just fine bulldozing the minority when they were in charge - return the fucking favor already. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/192 "2009-08-14T23:01:33Z")
The Boston Globe’s Wasserman sums it all up: [Town Halls](http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/outofline/2009/08/town_halls.html) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/193 "2009-08-15T00:07:20Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > The Boston Globe’s Wasserman sums it all up: > > [Town Halls](http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/outofline/2009/08/town_halls.html) Don’t forget the hysterically paranoid! ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/194 "2009-08-15T00:23:56Z")
He ran out of panels. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/195 "2009-08-15T02:43:23Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I was thinking more about questions from the audience. Besides, how are you going to enforce a rule that says “nobody can speak unless they live in the district”? **Show ID? If it were me, I would categorically refuse to show any ID. If they can’t make me show ID when the police stop me** , by golly they can’t make me show any to give some blow-dried blowhard in an expensive suit a piece of my mind about spending my paycheck. > 😃 > > Regards, > Shodan You are an unbelievably stupid person. And not very well informed, either. [Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiibel_v._Sixth_Judicial_District_Court_of_Nevada) > [@](#): > > Balancing the intrusion into the individual’s privacy against the extent to which the stop-and-identify law promotes legitimate government interests, the Court concluded that the Fourth Amendment did not prohibit Nevada from making it a crime to refuse to identify oneself to a police officer upon request. > > Furthermore, the officer’s request that Hiibel identify himself did not implicate Hiibel’s Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. There was no “articulated real and appreciable fear that [Hiibel’s] name would be used to incriminate him, or that it ‘would furnish a link in the chain of evidence needed to prosecute’ him.” Because Hiibel’s name was not an incriminating piece of evidence, he could not invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege in refusing to disclose it. Well, at least we can do something about your ignorance. Your stupidity is your own problem (and stop shoving it onto us here, would you?). ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/196 "2009-08-15T03:15:15Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > It’s all they’ve got. The only people left in the Republican party are the stupid and the stubborn. And I’m pretty sure there’s overlap. 😃 On the plus side, Dick Armey had someone play a little game of “connect the dots” on him and he no longer has his cushy law firm job. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/197 "2009-08-15T03:46:16Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > You are an unbelievably stupid person. And not very well informed, either. > > [Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiibel_v._Sixth_Judicial_District_Court_of_Nevada) I’m not entirely sure that **Shodan** ’s intention to speak is a reasonable indication of his intent to commit a crime, even if he is a shifty-looking motherfucker. You should probably read rulings before you use them as citations. ETA: In any case, that ruling would only apply in a state which has a stop-and-identify law. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/198 "2009-08-15T04:37:07Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I’m just saying, if you’re going to loudly, belligerently, obnoxiously protest something … hike up the skirt and be willing to be taken in over it. But could you imagine the shit-storm we’d be assailed with by Fox ‘News’ if some of these TeaBaggers got hauled out of a town hall meeting in handcuffs? Maybe that would help sort out who the true believers are, vs the liars and manipulators and “professional trouble makers”. I kind of like the idea they are being called teabaggers. Did they pick that name for themselves? I hope they did, that would be hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/199 "2009-08-15T04:46:52Z")
> [@jakesteele](#): > > Young PC liberals on college campuses invented the modern day “shout downs” where no conservative voice is allowed to speak. Remember the Minute Men? Liberals have become the new facists. If you can’t take it, don’t dish it out. Turn about is fair play. The pot calling the kettle black. If you live in a glass house, don’t throw rocks. Gee. Not that long ago, things were different - maybe a year? The Eevul Libruls were Commies and Lefties if they said anything. Now they are Fascists. That’ a hell of a change isn’t it. I know! Let’s set up free speech zones and all these “protesters” have to stay there. Anyone who wants to get in, has to take an Obama Loyalty Oath. We can have Homeland Security and FBI taking down names and checking library books and wiretapping. Almost forgot. Anyone who gripes about it, is a traitor. Let’s tell these “old guys” to get the fuck out of our America. Take your fascism bullshit and stick it where the sun doesn’t shine. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176/200 "2009-08-15T07:51:49Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I’m not entirely sure that **Shodan** ’s intention to speak is a reasonable indication of his intent to commit a crime, even if he is a shifty-looking motherfucker. You should probably read rulings before you use them as citations. > > ETA: In any case, that ruling would only apply in a state which has a stop-and-identify law. The point is, you in fact do have to identify yourself to a police officer. You can refuse to answer any other questions, but you do not have the right to not identify yourself. There is no such right in the US Constitution. He was wrong (yet again). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disrupting-town-hall-meetings/505176.md?page=11)