Tea Party Express Tour In Fort Collins, Colorado

The Tea Party Express tour bus made a stop in Fort Collins Colorado. The event took place on November 3rd, 2009. These are photographs from the event

March On The Media Denver Event

On a sunny October 18th afternoon in Denver, Colorado, local activists from various organizations gathered in front of local news organizations to stage a protest that was aimed against their news coverage. The groups think they are being ignored by the local and national press with respect to their concerns on issues such as health car, cap & trade etc… these are photographs from the event.

09/12/2009 Rally on the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol Building

In a show of solidarity to the 1.5 million citizens who marched on Washington DC, more than 3000 citizens converged on the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol building. 16 people organized the event. The sentiments expressed by the speakers and the crowd reflected a perception hat politicians in Washington are treating the federal budget like a winning lottery ticket with an endless amount of money. These are photos from the event.

Counter Protest at North High School Pro-Obama Rally

At an event sponsored by Organization For America, about 500 people supporting Obama’s health care plan converged at North High School in Denver for a rally. The event took place on 08/28/2009. As the event was about to get under way, left wing organizers advised people that they could not bring signs onto the grounds of the parking lot where the event was being held. It allegedly did not matter if the signs were supporting or opposing the proposal.

When walking into the parking lot where the event was to be held, local community organizers would tell everyone they have to sign in with their name and address. One lady scoffed and just kept walking forward. When they stopped me and told me to sign in, I took the pen wrote “Bob” on the sign in sheet and kept going.

As we got further in, they took the signs away from people. But when one looked around, a lot of people were holding signs supporting Obama. The signs read “Thank you” and “Health insurance reform now.” At the event they yelled chants like “What do we want? Health care! When do we want it? Now!”

Meanwhile, on the outer perimeter of the high school, locals who are opposed to Obama’s plan held signs protesting the proposals. Cars would pass by and honk in support of the people opposing the plan. On occasion there would be supporters who would argue the theories of socialism vs. capitalism. In one incident an Obama supporter came by, ripped a sign out of a woman’s hands and hit her. The locals in this group chanted “We don’t want Obama care. Because it aint free and it aint fair!”

In the process of both sides debating one another, the Obama supporters failed to explain how the system will work if there is no financial funding for more doctors and medical specialists.

While there are assertions that the Republicans in Congress have not provided solutions legislatively, Senator DeMint of South Carolina has introduced S. 1875. This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code for the purposes of giving people a tax credit for having certain kinds of medical insurance. There is a section in the bill that also repeals the alternative minimum tax. As of 07/25/09, this bill was referred to the Senate Finance Committee. The Congressional Research Service summary reports that the bill also allows uninsured individuals a tax credit for a limited amount of their insurance costs.

Senator DeMint has also introduced a bill requiring people with non immigrant Z visas to carry health insurance. A Z visa is basically a work visa that a person from a foreign country carries when they come to the United States to work. This was S. AMDT 1197 to S. 1348. Basically it was an amendment to an immigration reform bill. This amendment was rejected in committee on 06/07/07.

The details of both pieces of legislation can be found on the Senators web site.

8/22/09 Obamacare protest

At a time when the Obama White House is changing its message strategy over health care, the citizens at this Fort Collin’s Colorado event do not seem to be buying it.

In the 2nd Fort Collins event in as many weeks, locals occupied 3 of the 4 sides of the Mulberry Street/College Avenue intersection to rally against Obamacare and other policies of the current White House. As they held their signs, cars and trucks drove by and honked in support of them. The event took place on August 22, 2009. On August 21st, Congresswoman Betsy Markey (D-CO) held a town hall meeting in Greeley, Colorado. At the meeting she said she read the bill and then made a comparative analysis to the plan that members of Congress get. She essentially said they are the same thing. After saying that, most of the people in the audience said “that’s a lie!”

Congresswoman Markey and her press aides were not present when the group showed up at her office. There were no arrests made at this event.

The August 22nd event was peaceful. An hour after the demonstration, the crowd marched with their signs to Congresswoman Markey’s office. One they got to here office, there were chants of “Where is Markey?! Where is Markey?!” and “hey, hey ho, ho, Obamacare has got to go” then a guy with a megaphone added “and Markey too!” and the crowd broke out in laughter. The crowd then proceeded to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and sing “God Bless America”

Obama Visits Grand Junction, Colrado to push health care agenda

President Obama visited Grand Junction, Colorado on August 15, 2009 in an attempt to swing the pendulum in his direction on the health care debate.

On the outside of the high school in which he was speaking it protesters on both sides of the debate gathered on opposite sides of the street shouting slogans in support of, and in opposition to the health care plan.

The supporters yelled slogans like “yes we can” and “we’ve got the votes” while the detractors yelled phrases like freedom not freebees!” And “no more ACORN.” While the back and forth banter was in progress a bus full of left wing supporters joined them as the police tried to do crowd control.

It was soon realized that the president had already been in the school while the protests were in progress. As a result of that event, the crowd marched toward where his motorcade would exit and continued their routine.

There was an audio feed of the town hall meeting outside. A University of Colorado student challenged him on the validity of the public option. In the president’s response, he said ““I think there are ways that we can address those competitive issues, and you’re absolutely right, if they’re not entirely addressed, then that raises a set of legitimate problems. But the only point I wanted to make was the notion that somehow just by having a public option you have the entire private marketplace destroyed is just not borne out by the facts.” Yet the President did not elaborate in terms of specifics about the virtues of the public option.

Press Release: Citizens Invite US Rep to Her Own Town Hall Meeting

FORT COLLINS, COLORADO, A community town hall meeting will be held Aug 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the Council Tree Library in Fort Collins. The only thing missing from this meeting might be Northern Colorado’s US Representative, Betsy Markey (D-CO).

After numerous unsuccessful requests to receive Markey’s town hall meeting schedule Kelly Trosper, a Fort Collins resident, and several of his frustrated friends, have taken the unusual step of scheduling a town hall meeting on behalf of Markey — and inviting her to speak.

“With the August recess nearly half way over, we can’t wait any longer. When other Reps across the nation are adding extra meetings, we still don’t have a schedule from her. This is a forum to discuss urgent topics, to include Health Care reform. We’re having to set one up ourselves, because our Rep isn’t making herself available,” says Trosper, who hopes she will attend.

In case Markey doesn’t attend, the group will have a video of the proceedings delivered to her along with letters that come via email to nocotownhall@gmail.com.

Trosper and his friends are calling their grassroots effort the Northern Colorado Townhall Committee, and have set up a Web site for other community members awaiting information, www.nocotownhall.com.

Trosper says the Northern Colorado Townhall Committee’s objective is to provide a forum for community members to discuss what is important to taxpayers in Northern Colorado.

“If she won’t put together a town hall for us, the folks of Northern Colorado who elected her to represent our views to D.C., we’ll put one together for her.”

For more information:
Kelly Trosper
nocotownhall@gmail.com

August 14th, 2009 Anti-Obamacare Rally in Fort Collins, CO

While a lot of Americans are afraid the health care legislation will turn into an economic clunker, the citizens Fort Collins, CO, event were no exception.

At noon on August 14th, citizens opposing the proposed health care legislation gathered just 4 blocks from Senator Bennett’s office for a rally. Congregating at the intersection of College Avenue and Mulberry Street, a variety of people from Larimer County gathered protesting not only the health care bill, but some people holding signs indicate that the spending policies of the Obama administration.

Some of the attendees at this event have voted for Obama and are having buyer’s remorse. Those voters said that they did not vote for this kind of change. As people held up signs displaying their unhappiness with the administration, cars drove through the intersection and honked in support.

At 1:00 pm, the group walked 4 blocks to Senator Michael Bennett’s office. They were met by one of his representatives who took questions. Because she did not speak real audibly and did not have a microphone, it was difficult to determine what her answers were when people asked what Senator Bennett’s position was on the health care legislation, the cap and trade legislation, as well as other issues. However, people who managed to get close enough to her to hear her advised that her most frequent response was something like, “no comment,” or “I can’t get into that.”

Tomorrow President Obama arrives in Grand Junction, Colorado, for a town hall meeting in an attempt to reverse the political direction in which the debate is going. A while back, the Obama communications team liked the idea of phrasing the debate in terms of “health insurance reform” as opposed to “health care reform.” This seems not to be working depending on what poll you read.

Protesters Greet Congressman Perlmutter as he Visits Constituents

If you want to get an idea of a population’s pulse, go to a local town hall meeting. This particular event was anything but normal.

Congressman Perlmutter (D-CO) was greeted with protesters expressing their support of and opposition to H.R.3200. The event took place on 08/08/2009 at a local grocery store and started at 1:00 PM in Brighton, Colorado.

Before Congressman Perlmutter arrived at the town hall meeting, he had a bunch of protesters outside ready to greet him. There was a sign near where he was going to sit that said “no videotaping.” When talking with Kevin, a local news photographer, he quipped “they can’t tell us not to shoot” video. As the crowd grew larger, the security seemed to acquiesce to the idea that physical security is more important than the prospect of a videographer shooting video and putting it on YouTube.

Right as the event was to start, one side of the crowd sang “God Bless America.” After the singing started, the Congressman’s supporters chanted “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! The status quo has got to go!” as the event progressed, skeptics of the bill chanted “Socialized medicine doesn’t work!” while supporters of the bill shouted, “Yes we can!” one of the protesters told me “Yes we can what?” and scoffed because she thought it sounded too vague.

In a normal town hall meeting with a Senator or Congressman/Congress woman, the lawmaker has a microphone and calls on people in the audience to ask question. In this scenario, Congressman Perlmutter sat at a desk behind a wall and there was a queue of people who reportedly had questions for him about the health care bill. Because it was crowded and noisy, it was impossible to hear what questions were being asked.

In America’s time honored tradition of protest, the citizens who attended today’s event were sending two messages. If they were for the bill, they were showing support by showing signs of “thank you” and other signs of support. If they were against the bill, they were essentially the Democrats in Washington that Congress really is the opposite of progress.. If Congress and the White House have observed YouTube and other outlets, there seems to be a significant number of skeptics.

Protest & Counterdemonstration On The Health Care Issue

Upon Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Denver, demonstrators show up to protest the health care bill. People on both sides of the debate protested in support of and against the legislation

While Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and Majority Leader, Harry Reid come to Denver to give a speech for the health care legislation, demonstrators for and against the bill converged near the building where they are speaking to exercise their First Amendment rights.

The location of the demonstrations and counter demonstration was outside of a Denver homeless shelter. When the protesters against the bill shouted “just say no!” a person for the bill would shout “yes!” On other occasions, the people would shout “hey hey ho ho the status quo has got to go!”

It should be noted that Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) advised that the demonstrations that you see on YouTube and other places is not manufactured outrage. It is genuine concern about the legislation. In an interview with Fox News this morning, Senator McCaskill warned her fellow Democrats, “this is real grassroots anger.” She went on to add, “I don’t think manufactured is the right word. I do think both sides are organizing”

Some people had protest signs advocating a single payer system. While everyone would be covered under a single payer system, a lot of people claim that there would be more patients than doctors to cover them.
One major concern among the demonstrators is how to pay for the implementation of the bill. Indeed, the “Cash For Clunkers” program ran out of money in 4 days. Then Congress refunded it with a $2 billion dollar bill and Obama signed it into law this morning. Additionally, people fear that the bill will cost more and do less.

No one was arrested at this event, even though the protests were very spirited in their positions on the issues. Before the motorcade came through, the Denver Police and Secret Service had protesters stand on opposite sides of the driveway entrance. After the motorcade drove in, the demonstrators yelled things like “hands off my health care!” and “health care now!” They stayed outside of the building until she and her fellow politicians left the building. That was about four hours.