"I guess fear mongering is only a bad thing when conservatives and Republicans do it."

Even beyond than that. The tea party attendees do not intend to fear monger or intimidate (other than "threatening" to withhold their vote, to support good non-encumbent candidates and other electoral activities). Those who are pushing misguided health care reform are openly fear mongering.

Which, considering that 80% of Americans are satisfied with their health care, is a pretty silly thing to do.

"Even beyond than that."

(ahem) I'll be teaching a syntax seminar next week for anyone who wants to learn to formulate similar, brilliant phrases ...

Congressman Kennedy while politically powerful is socially inept at having anything to do with the voters. His handlers have him so isolated that he wouldn't know how to answer a legitimate question off the top of his head. He keeps bringing up the violence against his family in these forums as a touchstone to Camelot. He is a court jester and Rhode Islanders would be better off without him in 2010.

Could not agree with you more Justanotherjoe.

I think he is cooked. Now lets see if the brain dead people in this state who keep him in office have seen the light.
Naw,Pinch me I think I'm dreaming again.

How's my spelling Old Time Lefty.

""Unfortunately, these town hall meetings have been hijacked by these Tea Party folks and extremists who really take away from the honest dialogue on the facts of the debate and end up seeing this issue devolve into fear mongering and the peddling of misconceptions," [Kennedy] said, referring again to the sign that referenced his father's death."

Am I the only one who translates this as "I only want to hear from the people who agree with me"?

I read something different into Kennedy's language. I hear the same ring in comments from Pelosi, Mathews, Olbermann and others on the extreme left.

If and when some crackpot loner decides to unleash his demons and (lets hope not) acts out in violence toward someone in power... They want it already fixed in people's minds that it's the fault of Tea Partiers and talk radio.

They are so crafty in their lies it's sickening. Pure evil. These are really bad people.

Great point George-these devils will sacrifice a minor liberal just to get their excuse to attack dissidents and gun owners. [Snip.] Let's hope nothing violent occurs and we'll solve this at the ballot box.

Thankfully, we haven't had the gun nuts strutting around with pieces in Rhode Island that we've had in other states. While Patrick may sound alarmist to a Rhode Islander (and I'm not particularly a fan of his, either - Justin makes a valid argument in the ProJo about the nature of his event), given the relative deocorum of the events here, he certainly speaks the truth about what's happened in other states.
My only regret is that somebody else didn't bring up this valid point earlier, given the Pavlovian responses, right or left, to the Kennedy name.
BTW, if anybody read Doonesbury last week ("My mother's accepted farm subsidies for 43 years")...

Patrick is a nitwit. Hopefully Joe Berstein is correct that much of our troubles nationally, and locally will start getting taken care of at the ballot box next election.

People like Rhody get all flustered about a few people legally carrying guns openly at some events.
I personally don't think it is a constructive thing to do because it makes too many people nervous,and after some of the mass killings that have taken place,I'm not sneering at them.
Believe me,it isn't the guys carrying openly to make a point that worry me.It's the maladjusted or mentally ill people who are carrying illegally that have me concerned.
I do think that there should be a firearms free zone when the President is appearing.It just makes common sense.I was around for the Kennedy assassination and it was traumatic for the nation.We don't need a repeat.We almost did have one with Reagan,and the guy was politically motivated at all-he wanted to impress an actress he didn't know and who it turns out is gay anyway.
No one took a shot at Bush because the replacement was even more scary to the people who hated Bush.
I have carried firearms legally all my adult life and I just don't when I go to certain places like hospitals.It isn't appropriate in my opinion.

היי, אני רוצה להמליץ לכם על הדברה והדברת מזיקים עם נסיון של שנים רבות בתחום ההדברות , ריסוסים ולכידת נחשים.