Fun With Dick & Jane » Town halls

FWDAJ-Xtra: The Debut

Roger Benningfield — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:30:41 +0000

Greetings, FWDAJ Fans. I’m Roger, Jane’s long-time friend and occasional political opposite. I promised her months ago that I would try to crank out a (relatively) brief, podcastic response to FWDAJ, and after much procrastination, I’ve finally followed through. Don’t know yet if there are more to come… we’ll see.

Needless to say, it’ll be a bit different than what you’re used to hearing here. Hope it isn’t an overwhelming shock to the system.

FWDAJ 8-18-09

Jane — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:52:58 +0000

Another slugfest in the first half hour of FWDAJ today. I think Dick is sick of the health care debate. He insisted that there was no reason to pay attention because we don’t yet have a bill. I vehemently disagreed noting the importance of letting our reps know how we feel about Government health care. Dick was also gleeful that a Tea Party organizer was on TV saying they were sending out the word to Tea partyers to show up at these meetings. As far as I am concerned we need more “organizing” not less. Heck, our own president tells his supporters to “get in their faces”. What works for the goose…

We anticipated the Barney Frank Townhall in Dartmouth on Tuesday night. Neither of us even imagined that Frank would say things like: “Talking to you is like talking to a dining room table”.

We talked a bit about the left’s Alinsky methods. “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it.” Recent recipients (via Breitbart) of the Alinsky method include: George Bush, Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, The Mormons, Rush Limbaugh, Tea party goers, a beauty contestant, a Cambridge cop, and Town hall “mobs”.

Dick veered into his usual rant about how much he hates Rush.

The Joker poster, Milk carton politicans, Pharma’s deal with the White House and the “fishy emails” made small appearances as well.

FWDAJ 8-4-09

Jane — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:52:13 +0000

We started the program hopefully, with news that President Clinton was in N. Korea to facilitate the release of the two women hostages. Questions still remain about what we promised Kim Jon Il in return, but it’s a great day for those two women.

WE moved on to health care and the Town Hall meetings that have been attended by critics of the President’s plan. Dick had the talking points down – which surprised me – and suggested that the opposition was orchestrated. I told him to take a look at the signs. SEIU and MOVE ON tend do use machine made signs. Individuals not organized tend to make their own signs. I reiterated my latest attempt to contact my congressperson, Richard Neal. Attempt #6 was greeted with an answering machine. I assume he is at the beach.

At some point Dick gave me the now mandatory “I know politics and you don’t speech” and then we were able to move on.

We talked about the blue dog democrats – of which Dick says he is one.

I told the story of Sudanese journalist Lubna Hussein who is on trial for wearing pants in public. I have been particularly impressed by the solidarity other Sudenese women have shown by showing up at the trial, wearing pants.

We talked a bit about the rumor that Greg Craig, White house counsel would be fired as the scapegoat for the president’s foreign policy to date.

There was more, but you will have to listen.