It’s funny how things sometimes work out. I’ll leave it to you to decide which is grassroots and which is Astroturf, beginning with the Americans for Prosperity group.
Sen. Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) have called for an emergency rally at the United States Capitol on Tuesday, December 15th at 1:30pm to send a clear message: hands off our health care. It now appears imminent that a vote on health care will take place in the near future. AFP-Maryland is encouraging citizens to have their voice heard by attending the rally tomorrow in Washington, DC.
“Apparently the Senate leadership still has not received the message from their constituents in regards to health care,” said state director of AFP-Maryland Dave Schwartz. “We do not want any more costly, ineffective government programs forced upon us. Enough is enough.”
Marylanders from every corner of the state will be heading to the Capitol to have their voice heard. Similar to the “Emergency House Call” in November, AFP-Maryland has helped organize bus stops throughout the state to bring citizens to the rally at the Capitol. While there, AFP-Maryland will also be encouraging citizens to visit their Senators and tell them to keep government’s hands off our health care. Details for area bus stops are below:
*BEL AIR (Greene Turtle parking lot) – 11am Departure
*OCEAN CITY (park and ride) – 9am Departure
*SALISBURY (Boscov’s) – 10am Departure
In the red corner, we have Health Care for America Now. I’m not on their mailing list so it was the folks over at Progressive Delmarva who posted that which I’m excerpting from – it’s billed as a “Conversation about health care reform and what it means to you.”
Informal discussion with physicians, medical students and health policy workers
Time and Date: Tuesday, December 15th, 7 PM
Location: Chesapeake College, Room 110,
Higher Education Center, Wye Mills, MD 21679Community physicians, medical students, and health policy workers from Johns Hopkins are partnering with Doctors for America to host a “community conversation on healthcare reform” at Chesapeake College. The event, open to the entire community, aims to promote constructive dialogue around health care reform. We also hope to answer questions about the current health care proposals and bills. Ultimately, to ensure that voices from the Eastern Shore are heard, we’ll write a summary letter of our conversations to share with Congressman Kratovil and the White House.
The format will be small focus group-style discussions. We hope to foster an environment where people can feel free to engage in constructive dialogue, ask questions and/or simply listen. Physicians, medical students and other public health practitioners will help guide these discussions. Light refreshments will be provided.
The part about this I’d be most interested in is the summary letter, although finding out if “Stephanie”, who astute readers will recall as the JHU doctoral student in public health from the Cardin conference call I covered, will be one of the participants helping to “guide the discussion” would rank a close second. I don’t think the AFP crew is allowing anyone to guide their discussion.
I joked with the AFP people that they should stop by the Chesapeake College discussion just to make sure both sides are heard, but their timing doesn’t quite work out right. More’s the pity, because only then will any “constructive dialogue” be heard.
I’m pretty sure the AFP is having their discussion guided just fine. Bachmann, Ingraham, et al will be doing the “guiding”, with FreedomWorks in the rear to provide the appropriate amount of corporate support for the astro-turf machine. As for the health care forum, that was organized by us, the Talbot County Democrats, Dorchester County Dems, and doctors/students who we reached out to. The next forum will be at SU.