The price of freedom is having to put up with morons like this:
One of Tuesday’s big mysteries was the motivation behind anti-Obama protester William Kostric, the man who brought a loaded gun to the town hall meeting and carried a sign referencing Thomas Jefferson’s famous credo, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots.”
On Tuesday afternoon MSNBC’s Chris Matthews asked Kostric why he carried “a God-damned gun” to a meeting with the president, “given the violent history of this country with regard to presidents and assassinations,” and whether he supported the Birther movement. Kostric insisted his intentions were peaceful, and that he’s not affiliated with Birther groups.
But at least one of those statements doesn’t seem to be true. A right-wing activist named “William Kostric,” who’s left a lot of footprints around the Web, is listed as a “team member” of the Arizona chapter of We the People, the far-right group best known for joining a lawsuit challenging Obama’s right to be president based on his not being a U.S. citizen. Kostric told MSNBC he recently moved from Arizona to New Hampshire.
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Why is someone who is “peaceful” armed and dangerous? This guy is so stupid he doesn’t realize he is discrediting every right-of-center protestor in the country. The police said he wasn’t breaking any laws but thankfully he wasn’t allowed anywhere near the President.
From Allahpundit:
Considering the lengths to which the Secret Service normally goes to investigate threats against the president, I’m amazed he wasn’t hauled in for questioning at the scene as a potential threat. People are going to beat the Second Amendment drum in the comments, but (a) I doubt it would have sat well with our readers if lefties carrying Bushitler signs had shown up to Dubya’s events packing heat and (b) having a right doesn’t mean you’re obliged to exercise it, particularly in circumstances where it would be provocative to do so. I’ve knocked atheist groups for suing for the right to display a “Darwin tree” or whatever on public grounds next to a Christmas tree, not because they’re not entitled but because they’re being spiteful, incendiary douchebags by doing so. How is Captain Sidearm here any different?
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Here’s another spiteful incendiary douchbag:
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As Molly Ivins said:
It’s like, duh. Just when you thought there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties, the Republicans go and prove you’re wrong.
So the media will pay lots of attention to those two morons while ignoring this one:
Not a random 11 year-old
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Filed under: Barack Obama, General, Health Care Reform, Townhall Protests | Tagged: Barack Obama, Health Care Reform, Townhall Protests |
The Confluence 
That Kostric guy is so egregiously obvious I have to wonder if he’s a FBI agent trying to infiltrate the fringe-lunatic winger groups like they did with COINTELPRO
That would explain the lack of police reaction.
That’s a definite possibility, IMO.
The same thing occurred to me, except I thought it was an Axelrod plant – to quell protests by having people think of JFK, RFK and MLK and immediately bring their support to the Pres.
Julia Hall’s mother Kathleen Hall (seated on Julia’s left) is a big Obama supporter and has met Obama before.
The little girl is actually from Malden, Massachusetts, and her mother is an Obama-for-president campaign big shot, donating the full and legal amount to get him elected.
Obama was talking in New Hampshire.
Does the little girl from Massachusetts count as shipped-in Astroturf?
Ms. Hall was a coordinator of Massachusetts Women for Obama during the election.
So……why does she get a ticket to a meeting in New Hampshire, if she’s not even a constituent?
lol…yes
“You know a sales pitch is in trouble when it starts with Look, you gotta trust me, we’re not going to kill your grandparents!“
I just shot coffee out my nose. Ouch!
Meanwhile, so much for single payer
It’s Malkin but I don’t think the human props in this post can be denied.
The illustrated guide to Obamacare human props
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/12/the-illustrated-guide-to-obamacare-human-props/
We don’t need Malkin to know that Obama’s “event” was completely controlled, with shipped-in question askers and powder puff questions. Much like his press conferences.
But thanks for posting anyway.
You can’t get decent human props anymore…. I noticed the faces behind him don’t look as happy as they did during the selection …Their expressions seem to say , “where’s the exist ?” and ” where’s my check? “
John Stewart: “you know a sales pitch is in trouble when it starts with we’re not killing your grandma.”
http://www.hulu.com/watch/86378/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-healthraiser
You beat me to it, sorry….
No one should be allowed near the POTUS with a loaded gun. Period. If that’s not illegal, we’re in trouble.
or any kind of gun….
Or any other kind of weapon.
I don’t believe the Secret Service allowed that! Has that ever happened before? Usually they screen for weapons.
The guy wasn’t near the entrance of the event and was under observation by the cops.
Everyone entering the event was screened and no weapons were allowed.
Still, it’s disturbing that someone would do that.
It turns out that AARP isn’t supporting Obamacare after all.
Should we turn Obama in , for “fishy” propaganda?
Even if AARP had endorsed the plan, which they haven’t, it would be meaningless. AARP ended up endorsing Bush’s prescription rip-off plan. Lots of people cancelled their memberships over that one.
Some of these groups forget who they represent.
Bill O’Reilly interviewed an AARP spokesperson on Friday of last week concerning Nancy Pelosi’s statements that AARP was endorsing their legislation and he too said—nada. He seemed to be implying that AARP does not endorse legislation without a vote of the AARP Board which is a bi-partisan board. I think it is important to remember that AARP is in the insurance business.
Big time in the insurance business!
Explain that, please.
AARP is an ASSOCIATION. Many specialty and industry associations have group insurance plans that are made available to members who are otherwise unable to get the reduced rates only groups can get. They are hardly, “in the insurance business”.
Yes, they are in the insurance business in that they get commissions for insurance sold to their members. It’s a rather large source of income for them.
AARP is a non-profit group representing seniors. The non-profit owns a for-profit insurance company.
My mother is on the local board of AARP and participates in many of their activities.
She doesn’t have any AARP insurance.
If you buy insurance through the AARP where I am, you get Hartford Insurance.
This story isn’t as bad as the headline:
Buried further down it says:
So he had a pocket knife on his person and they found the gun in his car.
That’s funny. Crooks and Liars posted a photo of a man with a gun in a holster–supposedly this guy–but it didn’t show the face. WTF?
This was a different guy.
Salon has a photo of Kostric with a 9mm pistol strapped on his leg.
The caption says the photo was taken outside Obama’s town hall event in NH. My question is how does a nut like that get a carry permit?
Someone somewhere said that NH’s lawa permitted this as long as the weapon is in plain sight. Further, we all know that gun laws are wide wide open.
I wonder why he moved from Arizona to NH? And how long ago? It will be interesting to see what turns up about this guy. Maybe he is a government provocateur–who knows? It sure wouldn’t be the first time, as those of us who lived through the ’60s know.
Oh, I see. So now we have two armed guys. Wonderful. It doesn’t really surprise me in NH though.
Why in the heck would Obama mention that UPS and FedEx are doing fine competing against the USPS?
Since the USPS is about $8B in the red – his analogy doesn’t help his “government run health care” plan.
Seems like a stupid analogy since UPS and FedEx aren’t bogged down delivering junk mail…
( ah, you beat me to it…was just about to hit “submit” when I saw your comment. 🙂 )
Obama’s comment in response to a question about the competitiveness/survival of private companies in the face of a public plan (“UPS and FedEx are doing fine, it’s the post office that’s suffering”) was…what?…just fucked up or very telling? He seemed to be saying “I’m really for the insurance companies….I expect a public plan to flounder”.
If this wasn’t his meaning, then he seriously messed up yet another analogy.
I laughed out loud when I heard him say that.
Some salesman, eh?
Although USPS workers are treated like gov’t employees, the USPS is not a gov’t run organization and hasn’t been one for decades.
Right. Private entities can define the parameters of their service. eg. the Post Office must deliver to remote locations.
Another analogy I thought of is that parochial schools can eliminate undesirable students, so, of course, they have fewer problems.
I am not saying they should not have these prerogatives; they are private after all – just pointing out the difference.
Private entities can do that, which is one of the reasons the Rural Electric Coops came into being. The big power companies saw no profit in extending electricity to those areas. Doesn’t make them evil – but it does mean you had to come up with an alternative solution.
What is interesting to me that our govt has, in the past, found ways to extend help without overreaching and being intrusive. Even Roosevelt’s New Deal left a lot of control of how it was actually implemented in the hands of the states and local authorities.
Many people don’t know that, because it serves the narrative of both the right AND the left to say it was massive federal intervention. Yes, it was massive federal guarantees and money – but it did not go out of its way to be intrusive and centralized as far as implementation goes.
wmcb – You are a fount of useful information.
Roosevelt also did not JUST hand out money to folks to buy votes. He opened up federal WORK programs, where people were free to come WORK.
The CWA, the CCC that built all those parks and buildings, the dam projects, all those were WORK projects. Despite what many liberals and conservatives even today believe, Roosevelt was not that into just handing checks to “the little guy” willy-nilly. They had to come work for it. Some of the poverty programs gave short-term strings-free relief, but Roosevelt’s New Deal was not about sitting on your ass drawing a govt check, for the most part.
How does someone get near Obama with a gun?They check everyone for out of date bubble gum , much less a gun ! and then Chris Matthews goes off on him? …how convenient. To me the gun guy and the 11 year old are both kabuki
So he had a pocket knife on his person and they found the gun in his car.
opps! ….sorry, I didn’t see that before I posted.
And they found the pocket knife, which means he was searched.
hey as far as the guy with the gun that was on the vid.
down here in texas we can do the same thing if we want to
& how dose the girl from mass get into i town hall in NH . but then again we all knew this thing was going to be staged anyway
Having the right to do something doesn’t make it the right thing to do.
how can haveing a right to do something not be the right thing to
Since the town hall wasn’t conducted by a Senator or Representative, I think it was appropriate for residents of Massachusetts to be there. The New England states are very small, and I believe that area of New Hampshire is very close to Massachusetts.
It does, however, seem to be an amazing coincidence that she was called on by the President.
As for the gun, I would rather NOT see guns at protests, and agree that although it may have been allowed, it wasn’t a good thing to do.
It’s 50miles from Portsmouth NH to Malden Mass.
Not to mention Chris Matthews…………………..
They were both choreographed. Just interrupting health care debate with the usual scandal-last time it was Gates, this time a nutter with a gun.
Quite possibly, Laurie. Gotta provide something for Matthews and Olbermann to drool about that evening.
Axelrod is no fool.
Oh goody!
Rick “Man-on-dog-sex” Santorum is running for the 2012 GOP nomination.
I think the guy was an idiot to do it near this event. However, open carry is perfectly legal there, and in some states, people carry to political events all the time. I believe that one state (VA?) had over 100 people open-carrying outside the Republican convention – they were handing out literature on gun laws. No media went crazy, because they were not trying to provoke, merely educate and make a statement.
People here in Texas have guns on at times, since we have licensed concealed-carry. You may be eating dinner next to 4 guns and never know it. Guns in cars are fairly common, and perfectly legal. No one freaks out, no one gets all scared – we’re used to it, and it’s normal. The problem with open-carry laws is when some idiot uses it for display and provocation, paying no attention to circumstances. I have no problem whatsoever with 2nd amendment rights. None. But geez, have some damn sense!
Not the smartest thing to do near these current protests. He had a legal right, but could you BE more stupid in fanning the flames?? I don’t think he is a nutjob who wants to shoot anyone, I think he was foolishly trying to make a defiant political point. DUMB venue in which to do it. Really dumb. What an ass.
I don’t have a problem with guns per se either, but I don’t think they should be allowed near the POTUS. That’s just too risky. If something happened it would affect the stability of the entire country and the world. There have to be some limits. To be honest, I really wouldn’t like to have them in restaurants where people are drinking, etc., but I guess that’s up to the states to decide.
States that allow them in restaurants, etc don’t seem to have problems with crazy patrons shooting everything. The fact that you DON’T hear about that sort of thing pretty much says it rarely if ever happens. Very few crimes are committed by licensed gun owners – so much so that it’s a big deal when it does.
But yeah, there should be a VERY wide perimeter “gun-free zone” around the president. That’s just nuts. Even if the person intends no harm, it makes the job of the Secret Service too difficult – they can’t watch the law-abiding gun toters and watch for threats, too. It’s just dumb. Carrying for self-defense isn’t an issue in that venue, because you are not likely to get jumped and mugged or raped at a presidential town hall. Gimme a break. Leave your damn gun home in that case, or in your car.
Lots of folks with concealed carry permits never carry a weapon. It’s a ‘could if I wanted to’ kind of thing for some.
I actually know more women around here that sometimes use their concealed carry permit than I do men that do. But most of them don’t carry all the time – just if they are going to be downtown walking late at night, etc.
Do you ever get the feeling that things are being orcastrated?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090812/ap_on_re_us/us_militia_movement
Man with gun and sign calling for the watering of the tree of liberty + reports on militia movements = ????
I suppose we can expect this every time his ratings sink.
When are the Obamas going to go to their millionaire refuge by the sea?
You betcha, sam.
Come to find out, the Black guy outside the Dingell town hall holding up a huge “Obama as Hitler” sign , was an SEIU supporter.
People saw him sneak into the meeting through the side door with other Obama supporters AFTER he’d been outside with the sign.
Expect LOTS of this crap, going forward.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/watercooler/2009/aug/11/sen-cardin-gives-little-satisfy-town-hall-crowd/
“The Washington Times spoke to Mr. Banes after the town hall meeting ended, and he spoke further about his discussion with Senator Cardin. Mr. Bane mentions here how surprised he was that Senator Cardin knew little about Maryland health care.”
From all these comments, I do not think it is at all clear what really happened:
1. Is that photo with “someone” carrying a gun him or a canned photo used by whomever to illustrate the story?
2. Was he ever really found at the presidential talking point site carrying a gun?
3. It sounds like this happened long before the president was in the area—when did it happen—-when the president was there or hours before?
I think this is a distraction that has been conflated by Chris Matthews and obviously sent everybody into a tizzy. I’m not sure that we even have the facts of the case at all. But yes, the whole thing is dumb because you know the SS is going to be all over security and obviously, they were.
This is interesting and something I’d like to look into. From Kostric’s facebook profile (reported in the Salon article):
Amazing the info they can get on Joe, Jane and Magneto Plumber, but nada on their elected officials, or the bills being “discussed”, and signed.
Cannonfire is right – who needs to keep tabs on you when you’re handing them your behind.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
WOW, sam. He’s down to 48% disapprove.
Ruh-roh.
Sorry. That’s 48% approve. He’s under 50%.
It had to come with the clusterfarks they’ve been putting up for legislation. Not to mention his lies are becoming obvious to those who don’t pay attention to politics normally.
Yep. It’s stunning, really, what he & the party have just thrown away in their overreach and arrogance.
yeah but their “over-reach” is barely curb high. That’s the irony of it.
I tell you, I am all for Free Speech, but I truly think bringing guns is counterproductive and causing legislators to become fearful.
This is just ridiculous 2.0.
Did anyone catch Arlen Specter’s commentary about HC (insurance) reform?
😯 News to me???
Thought you should know, Allahpundit is a plagiarist.
He/she stole an entire passage verbatim from Camille Paglia latest article and never mentioned the fact it was NOT his/her own words/thoughts.
Title of Article:Obama’s Healthcare Horro
And this is what Allahpundit stole—>”But somehow liberals have drifted into a strange servility toward big government, which they revere as a godlike foster father-mother who can dispense all bounty and magically heal all ills.” Camille Paglia
I wonder who else Allah is stealing from.
that would be Obama’s Healhcare Horror**
Rachel Maddow – America’s deeply disturbing racial and violent discourse