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Tea Party News – Input Requested
Posted by Prof | Filed under Uncategorized
We here at The Raffles have heard several stories about Tea Parties getting shut down or local dimwits trying to get them canceled; and even more about the supposed counter-protests, dirty-trick petitions from ACORN and other groups, and of course the H-P looking to report all the badness. So far, I can only dig up a few stories that seem to have any actual factual content.
Rutland, Vermont is supposedly cancelled.
Burleson, TX tried it too.
And of course, the lovely Cape Coral.
So, here is what we need from our readers:
1) If you are going to a Tea Party, in any city, please write somewhere on the Web what you saw, who you heard, and if you ran into any friction of any type.
2) Send us a link to your report. You can direct twitter us, email us, or just comment here on the blog with the link to your story.
3) PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES!
Now, folks, this isn’t shameless self promotion. I’m not going to say “No” to your input if you’re not wearing a Simon shirt. (Of course, if you are, or if you printed up one our signs, we will gladly show it off! We recognize PR value.) I don’t care if you just show up on your lunch break without a sign at all. We just want to be sure that the word gets out, that events neither get covered over blown out of proportion. We’d also like to document anything spectacularly idiotic the counter protesters try.
Here’s the best part: One lucky sender-inner will get a prize. Nope, not just a t-shirt from the Simon Jester store that anyone could order. Instead, we will pick a random participant and that person will receive a one-of-a-kind custom Simon Jester item. (It’s a surprise!)
So, break out those blackberries, digital cams, cellphones, etc. and keep us informed! See you all tomorrow.
Hey, Hey. Let’s be careful out there.
Tea Party Action
Posted by Wyoh | Filed under Promotion
Media coverage, such as it is, of recent Tea Parties:
(Via Glenn)
Tampa Tea Party Parking Locations
Posted by Wyoh | Filed under Propaganda Supplies
I played around with Google maps a little and got it to spit out the parking garages near Lykes Gaslight Park in downtown Tampa:
Veterans Affairs, A Model for the Rest Of Us?
Posted by Prof | Filed under What They're Not Telling You
I think it is safe to say that anyone who is paying attention has heard about the poor schmuck who essentially got mugged by police and VA officials for interviewing a minority patient at a VA hospital without permission.
Yes, because the VA demands a permission slip, kind of like the ones you had to have your mommy sign before you could go a school field trip in grammar school, for anyone to interview a vet under their care.
The good news is that this flagrant violation of the First Amendment has apparently been rectified. Three days later. And then only after the news organization who hired this stringer in the first place wrote a nasty-gram to the VA reminding them of the First Amendment and the fact that the U.S. Supreme court has somehow managed to not yet disallow it.
But this is only part of the story as I see it. In essence, the VA has decided that they are in loco parentis for their patients. Their claim during this incident is that a member of the media (and junior though he may be, he is still a member of the media) has to ask permission from the facility to do any sort of interview so the VA can “make every effort to protect the privacy of our patients.” The assumption there is that our country’s veterans are not capable of making their own adult decisions. Sure, these vets were adult enough to sign the dotted line. These vets were adult enough to be given training on the most sophisticated military hardware on planet Earth. These vets were adult enough to know that volunteering or accepting conscription meant that they were going to be asked to kill or die for our country and our Constitution. But they are apparently not adult enough to know how to talk to a reporter. They are apparently not adult enough to know that by speaking to a reporter that their words can be transmitted over airwaves or through cables and other people would hear or see their words. And the VA apparently thinks that our disabled vets are not even adult enough to know that their names might be attached to their words.
How bloody insulting can the VA actually be without, oh, I don’t know, accidentally infecting our vets with HIV or hepatitis.
I am a disabled veteran. (And, no, the nature of my injuries is not open for discussion.) I served in Desert Storm. I spent the last three years of my enlistment undergoing physical therapy and taking drugs that would get me arrested if not prescribed by a Navy doctor. I spent four years after being discharged under the care of the VA hospital in Birmingham, AL. I never saw the same VA doc twice in a row. It took months just to get a test scheduled, months more to get the results. I actually lost a job once because I told my boss if I don’t go to B’ham next week it would take four months to get another appointment, and he told me I couldn’t have the day off. During those four years, I was given experimental drugs by an intern who was doing a study and couldn’t get volunteers at a civilian hospital or a prison. I was given a pain drug that was a THC derivative so powerful that I couldn’t function through the hallucinations. The VA sent me powerful narcotics through the US mail that were stolen from my mailbox and not replaced. The VA required me to use private insurance or cash to pay for some of my drugs, but thankfully none of my treatments.
And I never got any better.
Not until I went cold turkey on my meds (with the resulting psychotic episode) and saved enough to go to a private doctor and pay her cash instead.
The VA had no agenda here. They weren’t deliberately trying to make my life miserable. They just didn’t care. They are trying to handle a gigantic mass of patients, some of whom cannot be fixed without surgery that they don’t have the budget to perform. They have to deal daily with patients who may not have finished high school, might be senile due to old age, could be drug addled or mind melted from illicit drugs or alcohol. So they are forced by neccessity to treat every single one of their patients the exact same way. They are forced to assume that anyone who comes through their doors is the lowest common denominator just to save themselves some precious time for the next 50 burned out old vets who come through the door today. We won’t even discuss the psychiatric problems some of these guys have and the dearth of programs to help. (Hint to the VA: sometimes the problem you are treating is not in the body, but in the mind. The extra ten seconds you spend with your patient might tell you that.)
And the VA has to have rules like this just to get through the day. They have to make sure that some of their more emotionally or psychically damaged patients are protected from the vultures who make up our American press corps. But it seems like a man who can get up and address a public forum is probably capable enough to make his own decisions regarding talking to a reproter after the town hall. It is simple math though; there is not enough time in the day to make rational and individual decisions regarding patients, so the VA, by default, has to stop anything that isn’t in their little rule book.
This is the face of goverment health care. This is the fate of us all with universal health care.
Because I Am Not A Subject
Posted by Wyoh | Filed under DisinformaFUN...Catch It!, Propaganda Supplies
Granted it’s an “unnamed aide” making this idiotic claim, but it sure looks like not only a bow, but a BOW, from here. And prompts our newest Tea Party sign:
Downloadable in large size on our signs page.
The City of No Love
Posted by Wyoh | Filed under Take A Stand
Add Philadelphia to the list of locations making holding a Tea Party somewhat difficult. Contact information via the link.
