Friday, March 29, AD 2024 1:32am

Nancy Pelosi Calls Protesters Un-American

[Updates at the bottom of this posting.  Most recent update at 6:54 pm CST 8-10-09]

Nancy Pelosi, the liberal Democratic Representative from San Francisco, wrote early this morning in a special USA Today Nancy Pelosi 1editorial that those protesting against government run health care are “un-American“.

It is clear to Representative Pelosi and her cohorts that the majority of Americans do not want further government intrusion into their lives, hence Mrs. Pelosi’s attempts at demonizing ordinary Americans.

Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.

She is referring to the many town hall meetings where Americans were voicing their displeasure to government run health care.  Deliberately smearing Americans for voicing their opinions.

Sadly, the mainstream media is doing their part in painting these town halls as darkly as possible, regardless of the evidence that SEIU goons, Blueshirts, have already attacked health care protesters.

Let’s wait until the 2010 congressional elections and see their opinions voiced in turning back European style socialism by voting these malefactors out of office.

Update I: House GOP Leader John Boehner (Ohio) ripped his Democratic counterparts Monday for labeling those disrupting lawmaker town halls as “un-American.”  Read the rest of this here.

Update II: The guy that beat up Mr. Gladney:

Elston K. McCowan is a former organizer – now the Public Service Director of SEIU Local 2000 – and board member of the Walbridge Community Education Center, and is a Baptist minister, has been a community organizer for more than 23 years, and now, he is running for Mayor of the City of St. Louis under the Green Party.

McCowan accused the Mayor of setting fire to his van . . . because that’s what big city mayors do in their spare time, I guess.  He also called [St Louis Mayor Francis] Slay a racist.  And, on election night, McCowan thanked the family who voted for him.  It was quite touching, actually.

McCowan is not a rank-and-file, card-carrying union guy.  He is a director with SEIU. He IS the union.  He ISSUES the cards. Andy Stern himself might as well have kicked Gladney.

Read the rest here.

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mommalu
mommalu
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 6:44am

Nancy Pelosi is un American to say what she said. Our founders scuffled all the time. Time to come down from your ivory tower congress and listen for a change instead of shoving things as us we dont want. The protests will not stop til you listen and do what the people in your areas want.

m.
m.
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 7:35am

Be fair, for heaven’s sake… You don’t have to like Nancy Pelosi (I don’t) and yu can be against the health care plan, but she did NOT call the protesters “Un-American” She said:

“Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American”

Let’s discuss this issue and quit trying to put words in the mouth of anyone…

Tito Edwards
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 7:37am

m.,

Read my article carefully.

I mentioned what you said and I explained how she referred to protesters as un-American.

She doesn’t distinguish between mob attacks (which have been done by the Dems) and actual grassroots protesters.

mommalu
mommalu
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 7:52am

Quit spinning. Nancy Pelosi is against anyone who wont take her poison pill. You must think Americans are stupid. Go USA. She works for us and will soon be fired.

mommalu
mommalu
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 7:54am

Nancy Pelosi is trying to drown out our opposing views by calling it un American. She is trying to punish us for not agreeing with her horrific lack of healthcare plan

cminor
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 7:55am

Well, if you go to the source, you’ll notice that the sentence in context points pretty directly at anti-Obamacare protesters, some of whom have had the unmitigated gall to chant slogans (!) at Pelosi and her buds.

Funny, since from where I’m sitting it looks like an awful lot of that trying to drown out opposing views is coming from Pelosi, her buds, and some of their hired or coopted punks.

mommalu
mommalu
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 7:56am

obamas union thugs have brought the violence to the scene. they beat up a black man at one rally and yesterday shoved a camera in a ladys face. they are bringing the violence to the scene and they have been endorsed by the whitehouse to go stir things up. there was no violence before just yelling

Detter
Detter
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 8:19am

OK, so the people show up and don’t have something like Acorn T shirts, or union Ts and professionally manufactured signs and such are the typical Americans? I get it…If you have one of those Ts then you can drown them out.

It is after all a one party system and we are to sit down and shut up. I get it.

mommalu
mommalu
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 8:33am

i have been to 3 tea parties. i went on my own with my senior citizen car. absolutely no organizing. you go if you want. you go informed and that is what is killing congress. they expect us to be stupid and too busy to follow the issues. congress if first time meeting their voters and they know more than them. Americans will win this cause we are patriots and we fight to win.

awakaman
awakaman
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 1:44pm

Obama & Pelosi aren’t the only ones who like perfectly scripted townhalls and speaking engagements. Did Bush ever have a public forum to which tickets were not restricted to only fawning sycophants – only one that I can think of that press conference in Iraq where he had a shoe tossed at him. If these forums dealt with the “WAR” on terror and there were persons speaking out US policy in the middle east who would be calling people un-American then – who did call people un-american when they spoke out against the war – go to your back issues of National Review dealing with those Un-patriotic Conservatives who dared to opposed Bushes war in Iraq.

I think both sides are terribly hypocritcial.

paul zummo
Admin
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 1:59pm

Did Bush ever have a public forum to which tickets were not restricted to only fawning sycophants

I don’t recall Bush and Cheney calling people who disagreed with them un-American. Oh, but there was that one article in NR (written by the guy that most conservatives have long ago written off as being a total sellout idiot). I guess that makes the two sides equivalent in some weird, wacky way,

Tito Edwards
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 2:05pm

Welcome to Bizarro world Paul.

mommalu
mommalu
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 3:21pm

bush is gone. move forward zummo. america is speaking and congress must listen or get the boot pure and simple. it is not about how nice anyone speaks it is about how well the congressman listens and answers. simple stuff

paul zummo
Admin
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 3:29pm

Errr, mommalu, I was responding to awakaman.

awakaman
awakaman
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 3:42pm

Sorry Paul & Tito:

I am obviously Un-American (or bizzare) for not recognizing the greatness of the Bush presidency and the War on Terror. You have proven my point – engage in strawman agruments as opposed to addressing the facts.

Did Bush or Cheney call people who opposed their policies Un-American I don’t know or remember – but their agents Limbaugh, Hannity, Mark Levin, O’Reilly, Beck, The Weekly Standard, FOX News, and NRO sure did. Either that or “you didn’t support the troops”. It wasn’t just David Frum it was the entire Mainstream “Conservative” Media.

e.
e.
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 4:29pm

“I am obviously Un-American (or bizzare) for not recognizing the greatness of the Bush presidency and the War on Terror.”

Oh yeah —

I forgot about all the devestating terror attacks that took place on U.S. soil subsequent to 9/11 due to the remarkable incompetency of that very administration.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 5:38pm

(written by the guy that most conservatives have long ago written off as being a total sellout idiot)

Mr. Frum is a libertarian of a sort atypical among journalists and academics but (one suspects) fairly common among rank-and-file voters of a libertarian orientation inasmuch as he does not attribute the disagreeableness of the world abroad to the bumbling of the governments of the United States and Israel and tends to share Arthur Vandenberg’s view that we are no longer innoculated by geography to this disagreeableness. I would doubt he is a sellout; he was just never your ally (or mine) bar on a restricted range of questions.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 5:40pm

I forgot about all the devestating terror attacks that took place on U.S. soil subsequent to 9/11 due to the remarkable incompetency of that very administration.

None of Mr. Bush’s discretionary appointees were in charge of the Massachusetts Port Authority, nor did they generate the Chinese walls within the FBI.

Art Deco
Art Deco
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 5:41pm

Did Bush ever have a public forum to which tickets were not restricted to only fawning sycophants – only one that I can think of that press conference in Iraq where he had a shoe tossed at him.

Which of us (including you) was keeping a catalogue of the public appearances of either man?

e.
e.
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 6:24pm

Art Deco:

Perhaps you would’ve been much more relieved had another 9/11 occurred during Bush’s presidential terms; perhaps then you could glory on how incompetent his administration was in preventing a subsequent attack on U.S. soil all throughout his extended terms — the again, such leftists are known to glory in the deaths of innocent civilians so long as their political aims are celebrated in the end!

Art Deco
Art Deco
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 6:39pm

No.

Tito Edwards
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 6:49pm

Awakeman,

Don’t stop engaging in dialogue. Just because we disagree we don’t have to be disagreeable.

paul zummo
Admin
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 8:17pm

am obviously Un-American (or bizzare) for not recognizing the greatness of the Bush presidency and the War on Terror. You have proven my point – engage in strawman agruments as opposed to addressing the facts.

Umm, do you even know what a strawman argument is? From this paragaph, obviously not, especially since it is you who just created one.

Did Bush or Cheney call people who opposed their policies Un-American I don’t know or remember –

The answer is no. The rest of your comment is therefore gibberish.

J Young
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 8:49pm

I suspect the point of Pelosi’s comments weren’t to name call, rather to distract American’s for actually debating the health care legislation. If she can demonize the protestors their concerns become less important. Amercan’s see this bill as another step towards socialism, where our liberties are slowly being eroded. For real health care reform, it must start with tort reform. The medical malpractice in the US has assumed crisis proportions, and is the single largest contributor to insurance and health care waste, estimated over $200B every year. Fear of litigation pervades all aspects of medical practice, if forces our doctors to act and behave in ways that are contradictory to their medical profession. This is because the spector of lawsuits erodes professional integrity and promotes the practice of defensive medicine. Forty years ago only 1 in 7 physicians were sued during their careers. Current estimates indicate that 1 of 7 physicians are sued every year. Recent reports indicate that half of all physicians make clinical decisions that are influenced by either an extreme or a strong desire to minimize the possibility of lawsuit. With the money that is saved on Tort Reform we would be on our way to paying for many of the uninsured.

gbd001
gbd001
Monday, August 10, AD 2009 10:09pm

Pelosi is an embarrassment, not only to her party, but to her country.

Solarzar
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 9:07am

This article misrepresents Nancy Pelosi’s comments. She is not against disagreement. She is talking about the rude, shouting, unwilling to let others talk behavior that is being fostered and encouraged by some front groups for a conservative lobbying firm, Fox News and some Republican sites. Nancy Pelosi is not saying disagreement is anti-American, she is stating the disruptive behavior which interferes with the actual discussion is anti-Amreican because it is not allowing discussion. It’s unfortunate that a Catholic site would so clearly misrepresent the Speaker’s words and intent.

Tito Edwards
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 9:13am

Solarzar,

If you read the context that she wrote the article in, she is implicitly denigrating the point of view that contradicts her world view.

Secondly, the fact that you refer to anyone protesting government intrusion in peoples lives as ront groups for a conservative lobbying firm, Fox News and some Republican sites clearly demonstrates your disdain towards others that hold views dissimilar to your own.

You’ve outed yourself as one of those that finds it difficult that there are others out there that actually have views different from your own.

That is the fallacy of those on the left. You’re allowed to disagree, just as long as you don’t disagree with your point of view.

To use your condescending words, it’s unfortunate that a liberal would so clearly show contempt towards other Americans that don’t share your politics.

paul zummo
Admin
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 9:20am

Fox News

I have no particular love of Fox News, and frankly I think all television news is complete crap, but why does every single person who derides conservatives bring up Fox News? Do they really think that we’re all just sitting there awaiting our marching orders, oblivious to any other information out there?

Well, they probably do, but that only speaks to their limited sources of information and constrained worldview.

awakaman
awakaman
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 9:20am

Art:

1. Please see the following article from that “balanced” news source FOX News:

“There is an active campaign underway to try and disrupt and disturb his [President Bush’s] events in hopes of undermining his objective of fixing Social Security,” White House spokesman Trent Duffy told FOXNews.com. “If there is evidence there are people planning to disrupt the president at an event, then they have the right to exclude those people from those events.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,153720,00.html

2. I would not refer to David Frum as a libertarian. He like most Neo-Cons have a love for the State, at least one that they control and have no problem with big government and higher taxes so long as it advances their agenda. I suppose you are only addressing his position on abortion, but a pro-choice position on abortion does not a libertarian make.

Tito Edwards
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 9:27am

Paul,

What rankles liberals is that most Americans, not conservatives, watch Fox News instead of CNN or MSNBC, which is their favorite source of biased programming.

With that said, I don’t watch Fox News either.

Though it is interesting the bitterness and contempt that many liberals do have for Fox News.

Awakeman,

Thank you for rejoining the conversation.

Solarzar
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 11:35am

I bring up Fox News because they specifically encourage protestors to challenge the town hall discussions of Health Care. You are correct that I don’t agree with Fox News but I do agree with disagreement. I did read the interview with Nancy Pelosi, I’m not outed as anything. I agree with free speech, but that is not the same as people shouting and disrupting the discussions preventing the dialogue. Also, Fox News tells not relate news, it fosters misinformation. In addition, I have never been anything but a registered Republican who served 21 years in the Marine Corps and currently works for the Department of Defense. But I do believe whether you like Pelosi or not, this article misrepresents her point. I do despise Fox News, because it is not news, it is propaganda and it is against free speech. So if you choose to define me, I will help. I am someone who has served and continues to serve this nation. I am not against any view, I am only against views based on false information and lack of fairness to the truth.

Rick Lugari
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 11:38am

I seldom ever watch broadcast news either, but when I do I go to Fox news.

One, even though most of the commentary personalities would fall on the right, the actual reporting isn’t seething with a particular bias, and you’ll actually see negative things said about the Pubs, where you won’t see negative things said about the Dems on other networks.

Two, as much as I dislike Hannity and O’Reilly, I have never seen such despicable commentators as those who lead up MSNBC.

Three, and perhaps most important, Fox is at the forefront of having a wide lineup of extra-talented woman anchors and commentators.

Tito Edwards
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 11:41am

Solarzar,

What part of “front groups for a conservative lobbying firm, Fox News and some Republican sites clearly” did you misread?

I didn’t accuse you of being a Democrat nor of not serving your country… which has absolutely nothing to do with my original point.

You’re a liberal for bringing up “conservative lobbying firm(s) and Republican sites”.

paul zummo
Admin
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 11:43am

I bring up Fox News because they specifically encourage protestors to challenge the town hall discussions of Health Care.

Here’s Charles Krauthammer, on Fox last night riling up the protesters:

he Democrats are pulling a rabbit out of a hat, and the Republicans (or conservatives) are handing the Democrats the rabbit. The Democrats have no argument. They have no facts. They don’t even really have a bill.

And if people were just to stand up and quietly and civilly raise questions — “the money doesn’t add up,” “the CBO has said that you say it is going to control costs, but it increases it by $1 trillion,” all of this stuff, it’s really out there — they would be winning this debate as they were before the town halls.

What’s happening is this is causing a backlash. It’s completely unnecessary. It is shooting yourself in the foot. If you want to demonstrate, you want to shout, you do it outside carrying signs. When you walk inside [the town hall meeting], you ask questions.

This is going to have two effects. Public opinion will make people, if anything, rather unsympathetic to those who oppose the bills.

And secondly, it’s going to give a great excuse for the Democrats, when Congress returns, to push a partisan bill with no Republican support and say it’s because the opposition is not — is simply oppositionist without any arguments and is acting in an irresponsible way.

Yeah, really sounds like he’s egging people on there. And Mort Kondracke, another loony right-winger of course, was even more critical.

Solarzar
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 11:44am

If I choose to dislike Fox, that is still not the point. Let me be more clear, Hannity specifically has encouraged misinformation and false informatin and encourage people to challenge the Health Care debate, as had Glenn Beck. Now if Fox wants to encourage fair and balanced I’m not asking it to censor news reporting, but it has an obligation to correct misinformation. Locally I prefer my Fox channel, but I do not appreciate corporate Fox programming under the banner of news. That’s my preference, and when I state they have encourage the disruption you will find it with several of the woman anchors you mention, Hannity, Beck and O’Reilly. That’s more than an occassional item. Whether you like any other news or not is your choice, however, I hear many sources of information and read. My decisions are based on that. This article is biased again Nancy Pelosi in language and intent which makes it unfair. Notice how quickly I was labelled a liberal, I didn’t like others point of view and how quickly I had to be wrong in my point of view. I didn’t challenge anyone’s point of view only the bias of this article.

Solarzar
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 11:45am

Excuse the typos on the last post. I often think ahead of my fingers.

Tito Edwards
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 11:46am

Solarzar,

Many of us here at AC do not like nor have much respect for Hannity or O’Reilly.

And to be fair, I don’t have cable period, hence why I don’t watch FOx News, nor CNN, nor MSNBC.

paul zummo
Admin
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 11:46am

Also, Fox News tells not relate news, it fosters misinformation. In addition, I have never been anything but a registered Republican

Bash Fox? Check.

Claim to be a life-long Republican? Check.

Do I think this person is a seminar commenter? Double check.

Tito Edwards
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 11:47am

Solarzar,

Please disregard the last two lines of my comments towards you for the 11:41pm comment posting.

paul zummo
Admin
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 11:51am

and encourage people to challenge the Health Care debate,

Oh no, he’s telling people to “challenge” the supporters of HC reform. The man is truly a Nazi in disguise.

Also, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity are not and do not claim to be straight news anchors in the traditional sense. They are opinion journalists – no different in that sense than Olberman and Mathews on MSNBC.

Anyway, from the sounds of it you spend a lot more time watching Beck, O’Reilly and Hannity than any of the people who actually are conservatives on this site do. Unless of course you’re just spewing talking points from leftist websites, and there’s no way that could possibly be true.

Solarzar
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 11:55am

What is a seminar commenter? And why am I a troll?

Also, you there is a direct line to a lobbying firm that began the instructions on how to disrupt the town hall meetins. I’m not in a place to relay the specific information but I didn’t make it up I saw the interviews and read the articles. Does it have to be false if you don’t believe it?

When you name a person as a liberal with disdain, when you choose to use terms with dismissal are you being open to discussion? You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but I didn’t challenge anyone on this forum. I challenged the article as being biased, and the language is.

And I challenged media misinformation. This why the discussion gets sidetracked, it turns into a personal attack or dismissal instead of a discussion of differences.

Tito Edwards
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 11:57am

Solarzar,

“front groups for a conservative lobbying firm, Fox News and some Republican sites clearly”

Liberal talking points.

Whether you got it from HuffPo, Daily Kos, or Vox Nova, liberal is is liberal say or do.

paul zummo
Admin
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 11:58am

And I challenged media misinformation. This why the discussion gets sidetracked, it turns into a personal attack or dismissal instead of a discussion of differences.

You haven’t made a single substantive comment. You’ve made vague assertions about Fox News, and spent the rest of the time whining about how people choose to respond to your comments.

e.
e.
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 11:59am

Since when did Fox’s Hannity, O’Reilly and the like pass off for the News of the Right — especially given the fact that these are largely the feeding posts of the Neo-cons?

Also, you don’t see me mocking the biased leftist shows like Stewart’s Daily Show, which often actually passes for legitimate news for most, if not, all liberals!

Solarzar
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 12:06pm

I will agree that using Hannity, OReilly and Beck in the same breath as Fox News is unfair on my part.

Tito I think I know which comments you are asking me to ignore. Fair enough.

Also to Paul’s comments I have a talk radio show so I do spend time researching many of these issues. I came across this site because of research I was doing and only chose to comment because I believe the Catholic church should spend more time presenting the information with less bias.

Since you don’t know me I am also a biblical scholar who spends a great deal of time reading and studying the bible. As a former Catholic I do find many of the views expressed in the political arena to be counter to a Christian view. Can they disagree, absolutely. But first present the unbiased facts.

What are facts.

1. Many groups are disrupting Town Hall meetings.

2. Repulbican sites (not all), are listing Democratics town hall meetings (not Republican) as sites to debate the Health Care issue.

3. The lobbying form run by Dick Armey has put together a program on how to disrupt the Democratic town hall meetings.

4. The health insurance companies have put together a campaign to fight against the Health Care initiative by calling it socialism (how many times have you heard that).

5. An M Street conservative lobbying firm has sent Health Care information buses to various states and they have been captured on film reciting the “euthenasia” mantra that is not in the House bill on Health Care.

6. Do you have to believe anything I day – No. However, this isn’t an emotional rant. It’s a different view of the Speaker’s comments based on these points.

So we can agree to not agree.

Tito Edwards
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 12:08pm

Solarzar,

Thank you for engaging us in this conversation.

There may be links from a lobbying firm, but you have to admit that this is a small group when you look at the whole sample.

Solarzar
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 12:14pm

Tito,

You may be right. Back to my original point, whether you like Nancy Pelosi or not the framework of her statements are some of the overt “disruptive” behavior, not disagreement.

That was my disagreement with the article, and not with others views. Since you seemed to know each other I just attempted to put my views in context.

Thank you for sharing your views.

paul zummo
Admin
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 12:17pm

Actually, some of your facts are disputable, and others are hardly damning. People are organizing protests? Shocking!

But yes, let’s agree to disagree.

e.
e.
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 12:47pm

Solarzar,

I still don’t have the foggiest idea what you’re attempting to demonstrate, especially given the opinions (rather than “facts”) which you’ve presented before us as what should solidify some God-only-knows contention concerning some saintly depiction of Pelosi as anything other than arrogantly biased.

Tito Taco and Paul Zummo might agree with whatever fertilizer you’re selling them as “facts”; however, I am still quite awed how easily they’re taken by your style of argumentation which seems more so likened to a peasoup fog; yet, I guess what passes off for legitimate debate these days is this kind of refuse.

Solarzar
Tuesday, August 11, AD 2009 12:55pm

e,

I didn’t think they agreed with what I said, only agreed with our disagreement.

Also, my only point was I felt the article was biased to Nancy Pelosi’s opinion, and I don’t believe they agree.

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