Snapshots: Congressman Doggett's Health Care Rally, Take Two

Since his first town-hall meeting didn't go so well, Congressman Lloyd Doggett appeared at the CommUnity Care healthy kids fair in Northeast Austin this weekend to further discuss the health care reform bills now being considered in Washington. As before, impassioned citizens—both for and against the proposed reform plan—came out in droves, though this one seemed to encourage less of the disruptive vitriol that spewed forth from angry "Tea Party Patriots" last week.

Photos by Steve Hopson

Senator Cornyn was also in attendance

Contact the author of this article or email tips@austinist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Allen Y Chen in News on August 10, 2009 11:18 AM 0 Comments

Comments [rss]

Wes

Mike, put your tinfoil hat back in the closet, you're only seeing what you want to see. Most people recognized image in the poster as the Joker. Heck, it even spent a couple of days as a Google hot trend.

http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X&date=2009-8-3

Anthony Haley

I was there. I took a mobile phone pic of another clown carrying a sign depicting the President as a minstrel. I guess they think that's cute. I don't. I'm glad you posted the one above too.

http://twitpic.com/d6s4c

Wes

Minstrel? That has to be one of the most lame and passive-aggressive attempts at calling someone a racist that I've ever seen. Obama is clearly being depicted as the Joker of Batman fame.

Mike Agresta

Wes, the picture puts whiteface on a black man. It's the same approach as the cover of the alex jones Obama Deception movie-- a black face hiding a white man. Maybe they're ALSO insinuating that Obama is a supervillain, but clearly a major aim of the jones followers' "infowar" is to portray Obama as secretly white, someone who is not acting from his experiences as a minority American while making decisions as president.

Benyth

The reason that the opposition wasn't able to disrupt this event was that the supporters outnumbered them by about 10-1.

Doggett, being the god that he is, was respectful to the opposition and made sure that the questions alternated between the groups.

Cornyn slinked out of there without saying anything to a loud chorus of 'SUPPORT OUR PRESIDENT!' Chicken.

Elizabeth S.

I love the sign that says "You can disagree without being rude or disruptive." Nice.

Caiwyn

I find it condescending and more than a little hypocritical from a crowd that wasn't afraid to get rude and disruptive when Bush was in office.

davetx

The difference being that Bush's "town hall" meetings were attended by pre-selected crowds who wouldn't offer any opposition.

Wes

Bush certainly filled his town hall-style meetings with supporters. Obama's town hall-style meetings are attended by plants with scripted questions too. Congressmen like Doggett should have taken note and hired their own shills.