“This is not a moment to gloat”: Health-care rally in South Park

| South Park | West Seattle news

Hundreds of people had packed the big event room at the IAM Local 751 Hall in South Park by the time Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Governor Chris Gregoire, U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee and Brian Baird and others took the stage for a rally this afternoon celebrating the recently signed health-care legislation. We were there for the first hour; the speakers we heard were taking care not to sound too triumphant – Sen. Murray said, “This is not a moment to gloat; this is a moment to build on.” Rep. Inslee said, “This isn’t the beginning of the end; this is the end of the beginning,” though he also took the opportunity to get in a dig at state Attorney General Rob McKenna‘s plan to sue to overturn the legislation:

Also among the speakers, the 11-year-old boy who was with President Obama when he signed the legislation, Marcelas Owens:

Not on the stage but seen in the crowd and mentioned from the podium – West Seattle’s Rep. Eileen Cody, a nurse by profession who focuses much of her legislative work on health-related issues, and former Gov. Mike Lowry. As for counter-protesters – there was a cordoned-off area outside marked “Free Speech ~~Zone~~ Area,” but no one was there (we should note, it was raining ferociously by then). Photo (added 9:01 pm):

eamchang March 28, 2010 (6:47 pm)

Journalists don’t say “we”.

miws March 28, 2010 (7:02 pm)

Ummmmmm……eamchang, I don’t think I’ve ever seen in the Seattle Times, or heard on KOMO TV, for a couple of examples, use the term “I”, when mentioning themselves collectively.

I don’t profess to be an expert on journalism, just know what I’ve learned from observation, but I don’t believe the term “we” is being misused here.

TR has many years in professional journalism.

You?

Mike

JamminJ March 28, 2010 (7:43 pm)

“a cordoned-off area outside marked “Free Speech Zone,” but no one was there”
.
I guess ‘tyranny’ and the desecration of our constitution wasn’t worth the trouble during a rain storm for the teabaggers to show up.
.

Danno March 28, 2010 (8:09 pm)

Sure, a “cordoned-off Free Speech Zone?” Perhaps you have forgotten that the whole country is a free speech zone by Constitution.

Mention moonbat idiocy and your comment is deleted, but no problem here describing individuals concerned about the runaway Budget and Taxes and a Congress that has no concern for the will of the people as persons who enjoy mouthing scrotums (tea-bagging).

WSB March 28, 2010 (8:51 pm)

Haven’t deleted any comments on this. No more in queue, either, but I’ll check the spam filter. Just got home after three hours away from the computer. Re: Free Speech Zone, that’s what the sign called it, I’m adding the photo now that my camera is charged again – TR
.
P.S. (8:57 pm) The sign, as you’ll see when I have the photo up in a moment, actually called it Free Speech Area. Sorry. The only reason I mentioned it is that I expected somebody to wonder if any protesters came, as had been the case at appearances last year to discuss health-care legislation, including an appearance by Rep. Jim McDermott in West Seattle.
https://westseattleblog.com/2009/08/video-34th-district-democrats-talk-health-care-endorse-yes-on-71

Al March 28, 2010 (8:31 pm)

So are we pretending that Fox News didn’t first coin the term “teabagger” now? Is there a new term that’s more acceptable to you? Lots of things have alternate dirtier meanings and they’re still commonly accepted. My guess is you wouldn’t be crying foul if the person had depicted “teabaggers” positively. I will admit that’s speculation on my part however. But seriously, how popular does media on the right have to get before we can stop having to hear about medias liberal bias? I will start watching Fox myself it will stop this seemingly endless whining.

JamminJ March 28, 2010 (8:45 pm)

“Congress that has no concern for the will of the people”

.
ummm, Congress was voted in by the people in a democratic election, if you forgot. The people did speak.

Seth March 28, 2010 (10:07 pm)

Concerns about about runaway taxes and a non-responsive Congress are valid ones, the derision I hold for the Tea Party is based on the despicable brown shirt-esque tactics being used by people protesting health care reform.

Shouting down meetings, burning effigies, outright threats on elected officials, and the intentional use of language that aims to stoke fear and anger are all the tactics of thugs and bullies, not patriotic individuals. Additionally they do little to further the cause of those concerned about the state of the USA, with its socialism for the elite and ruthless capitalism for the middle class and poor.

Interesting how the Tea Party is deathly silent on the use of public funds for two concurrent decade long wars. Or the infringement on individual liberties and the Constitution with the passage of the Patriot Act. Yet health care is the topic that brings out their rage.

Near Alki March 28, 2010 (10:29 pm)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shR4HZzr52o

So interesting, while campaigning for nomination…Obama criticizes H Clinton’s plan because it mandates coverage at 0.47 min.

Even better…Obama’s “purposed” plan costs less than 100 billion at 2.35 min….Today the actual burden is estimated by him at 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) we can’t get our country out of the 12 trillion (12,000,000,000,000) dollar debt we currently have…so why not make it 13 or 14 or 20 trillion.

We know what happened when good American’s and homeowners spent money they didn’t have, when they borrowed, and borrowed and spent and spent.

Finally…Yes, Seth I would agree…the Tea Party WAS deathly silent far, far too long.

JamminJ March 28, 2010 (11:16 pm)

“the Tea Party WAS deathly silent far, far too long.”
.
so why the hypocrisy??
.
why attend rallies for republicans who are also responsible for driving up debt. Why accept socialist unemployment checks, why use socialist government services, why use socialized medicine at the same time while condemning it?
.
Please, the anger is not about the cost of health care or debt. When screams of ‘off with his head’ and ‘he’s a muslim’ even before he was even elected was the mantra…it was way past policy.
.
anger, hatred, bigotry, and fear is the cause of the teabaggers. NOT the debt.
.

gary March 29, 2010 (12:19 am)

Why wouldn’t Tea Party folks be concerned over Obama’s astronomical spending increases during a recession? Why are new government jobs the only job-growth he is creating? Put down the kool-aid and stick to topics you know about JJ.

Al March 29, 2010 (8:00 am)

JJ is on the money in my opinion. Preach on! Gary you should maybe consider not writing off others opinions as brainwashed “Kool aid” induced dogma. Nobodys saying some of the tea partys concerns don’t have valid roots, what’s being questioned is the timing and level of outrage. We are all concerned about deficit spending. We are all concerned about our tax burden. However some of us qestion the motives of some (not all) of the tea party movements members. Why tax day rallies when our taxes haven’t been raised? Why the constant mischaracterization of everything the government attempts to reform as a takeover (where was the outrage for Medicare advantage?) why the utter lack of concern for the expense of war? Why the silence during the greatest challenge to personal privacy that was perpetrated during the bush administration? Why the constant drumbeat that the Obama administration wants your precious guns when there has been literally no indication that is true? So much of the tea partys rage seems based on worst case scenarios and their offensive chants “we need to take our country back!” make it clear there’s no room for the rest of us in their vision of America.

Smitty March 29, 2010 (8:28 am)

JamminJ said “teabagger”. Did everybody catch that?

Just making sure because it is so clever!

miws March 29, 2010 (8:38 am)

Right up there with the term so many conservatives are fond of; “libtards”, huh Smitty?

Mike

mar3c March 29, 2010 (9:34 am)

well, some of them *did* pin tea bags to their hat brims. just sayin’ that it took the tea baggers a while to realize that there was another connotation. once they got it, they tried to shake the label; we refuse to let them.
.
no worse than calling my political affiliation the “democrat party,” or the guy i voted for a nazi. or calling jim mcdermott “baghdad jim.” how about “hitlery” clinton?
.
seems like conservatives are good at coming up with cute labels, but they don’t like it when the same tactics are used against them. get used to it; politics is a blood sport, as the “left” well knows after decades of being beat up by corporate money.
.
but the worst part of this whole tea party/bagging discussion is that tea “patiers” seem to know nothing about the causes of the boston tea party. it wasn’t about high taxes.
.
like today, there were a variety of reasons for protest. but mostly the merchant-class colonists were upset about the british crown using colonial taxes to subsidize cheap tea from a giant corporation (british east india trading), dumping on the new world’s market, and driving small merchants out of business in an attempt to subvert colonial self-rule of their economy.
.
a more appropriate modern analogy would be if mobs of small business owners went to the port of seattle and started shoving shipping containers of cheap chinese goods into elliott bay with a giant bulldozer and demanding the u.s. government raise tariffs against china to level the playing field.

Sean March 29, 2010 (12:11 pm)

@ mar3c

Now that would be something to see!

mar3c March 29, 2010 (3:11 pm)

@ sean,
.
yeah, but such a movement that would require informed consumers, and we just can’t have that. bad for big business.
.
speaking of, no matter what your political stripe, every time you shop at the farmer’s market you make this community and this country stronger, and you make yourself healthier. it might seem more expensive – until you follow the money.
.
so high-fives to the merchants there and all west seattleites.
.
sorry for taking it o.t.

foy boy March 29, 2010 (11:19 pm)

I can’t believe the westseattle blog would let some one use the term teaba—–s. If you let people use this term, would you mind if I spoke of it’s slang meanning? It is plain the the westseattle blog does nothing but the jane fonda work out. To the left the left never to the right. Has there been any reporting on the recent repulican cacus in west seattle. Now that we the people have learned how to vote for free stuff, why even go to work. We can just vote that our food bill, our morgage payment, our gas bill should all be payed for by someone else. If you go to work the money you make is just for tv’s stereos or other fun stuff. I wonder how many of you dems. except your tax returns or send it back for the good of the country. You could earmark it to pay for 32 milion new health care applicants.

WSB March 29, 2010 (11:39 pm)

FB, a lot of words have an alternate meaning. If you are concerned about political slang, FWIW I just searched our comments file and we have exactly as many uses of “moonbat” as “teabagger” – 20 each. Data point.
.
As for the Republican caucus, I never received an announcement of it but did seek out the information and publicized it on both our sites. We were at the Democratic caucus only long enough to cover King County Executive Dow Constantine’s speech; if any Republican elected officials were speaking at last Sunday’s SW Community Center caucus, would have loved to have heard about it, as we would have gone there too. I have also said this publicly before, would love to see public listings of the 34th District Republicans’ meetings so that we can include them in our calendar as well as the 34th District Democrats, who keep an up-to-date website here http://34dems.org … Web searches for the 34th GOP point here:
http://www.kcgop.org/sitemax/GetInvolved/FindMyDistrictMeeting/tabid/66/Default.aspx
nothing listed.
.
TR

mar3c March 30, 2010 (6:38 am)

foy boy, your argument would hold water if i didn’t owe some corporate bank for my house, a corporation for my insurance, comcast, qwest, etc. the money i pay in taxes and toward public utilities is a fraction of what i pay to private entities.
.
sorry, bro. still a thriving capitalist economy, which is a great thing. we’re trying to get the top 2% – a tiny minority – from imposing policies on the other 98% simply because they have all of the wealth.
.
you’re helping them, but are they helping you?

Sorry, comment time is over.