Florida is Not redy for Government Controlled Healthcare

[Karen Parker]

Ruckus erupts at Tampa town hall meeting on health care
Friday, August 7, 2009

A town hall meeting on President Obama's health care reform proposal turned into a spectacle Thursday.

TAMPA (Bay News 9) -- A town hall meeting to talk about President Obama's health care reform proposal turned into a near-riot in Tampa on Thursday.

Hundreds of people packed into the Children's Board offices in Ybor City for the meeting sponsored by state Rep. Betty Reed and the Service Employees International Union.

But when guest speaker U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor tried to talk about health care reforms, protesters started screaming and booing, drowning her out.

"I was afraid they were going to jump on her at one time," said health care reform supporter Ann Jenkins. "They were all in her face trying to scream. What they were trying to scream and nobody knows what that was and nothing got accomplished."

"Of course, I can't pass up an opportunity to basically let my feelings be known," said health care reform protester Chris Seeger.

Sponsors closed the doors on the overflowing crowd, leaving hundreds more pounding on the doors, waiting in the halls and chanting outside.

Several people in the crowd claim they were physically attacked.

Tampa Police were called in to get the situation under control.
:roll:

Video of Thursday night's near riot is currently one of the top videos on Youtube.

[J Scott]

Originally posted by Tim Wieneke:

So it's ok for the Democrats to have planted, organized protests - but somehow when Republicans have a former staffer who somehow happens to be there it's a huge conspiracy.

It's okay for EITHER party to have organized rallies at public forums. I never said it wasn't. In fact, I don't think anyone here said there was an issue with that.

The part that bothers me is the need to lie about your political affiliations? The woman shouldn't have been embarrassed by her beliefs or her political party affiliations.

If the woman had said that she was a former GOP official and was still affiliated with the party, that would have been fine. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, it would have been fine if she didn't say anything about party affiliation whatsoever and just voiced her opinion.

But, instead, she went out of her way to lie about not having any affiliations. There's enough lying in politics; people should be more upset about it when it gets called out, regardless of whether it was at the executive level or the local level, and regardless of which party it is affiliated with.