Updated at 10:20 pm by Psychodrew

Well, the teabaggers got their wish. The forum began at 6pm and quickly descended into chaos. One local headline reads, Violence at Tampa health care forum. It was supposed to run until 9pm, but ended at 7:15pm. Much of Rep. Castor's speech was inaudible because of the teabaggers screaming "No to socialist health care" at the top of their lungs.

This is from the Tampa Tribune's story about forum.

What was supposed to be a town hall forum on President Barack Obama's health care reform plan this evening turned instead into a shouting match, complete with shoving and scuffles.

The forum featured Tampa legislators U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor and state Rep. Betty Reed and was scheduled to start at 6 p.m. It ended about 7:15 p.m. with Castor only able to say a few words, most of which were inaudible because of the shouting from protestors.

SNIP

Chants were popular. When Castor first tried to speak, the crowd drowned her out by repeating, "You work for us.'' Other chants included "Tyranny, tyranny,'' and "Read the bill, read the bill.''

A crowd of 200 or more moved from the building's entrance to the windows outside the room where the meeting was being held. They held up signs and chanted. Some of the messages on the signs were: "Read the bill'' and "No to socialist health care.''

Several of the protester's signs bore an image of Obama with his face painted as the Joker, an image that drew protests of racism locally when it appeared on a Web site thought to be associated with the Pinellas Republican party.

Original post below the fold

The Cambridge police weren't being "stupid," they were being bullies.  Read the police report, written in the words of the arresting officer.  Dr. Gates was on his porching yelling at the officer for his behavior when the arresting officer decided that Dr. Gates did not have the constitutional right to speak his mind on his own property.

As I descended the stairs to the sidewalk, Gates continued to yell at me, accusing me of racial bias and continued to tell me that I had not heard the last of him.  Due to the tumultuous manner Gates had exhibited in his residence as well as his continued tumultuous behavior outside the residence, in view of the public, I warned Gates that he was becoming disorderly.  Gates ignored my warning and continued to yell, which drew the atention of both police officers and citizens, who appeared surprised and alarmed by Gates's outburst.  For a second time I warned Gates to calm down while I withdrew my department issued handcuffs from their carrying case.  Gates again ignored my warning and continued to yell at me.  It was at this time that I informed Gates that he was under arrest.

Whether you agree with Dr. Gates' characterization of the events (as reported by the police--Dr. Gates hasn't given his side of the story), shouldn't he have had the right to express his anger in his own home?  The only thing disorderly about Dr. Gates' behavior was his unwillingness to kiss the officer's ass.  

I've been a waiter, a bartender, a restaurant mananger, a teacher, and a school administrator.  I've been yelled at more times than I care to remember.  Someone with a calm head would have walked away and allowed Dr. Gates to rant and rave on his porch.  Arresting Dr. Gates was an act of intimidation, not law enforcement.

I hope that Dr. Gates sues the police department and takes them to the fucking cleaners.

Yes, he is.  For all the talk about the first black president and what it means for America (and by that I mean all the back-slapping by Americans who are proud to not be racist), people seem shocked--SHOCKED--that the President of the United States could identify with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, the Harvard University professor who was arrested for disorderly conduct (read: mouthing off to the police) by officers responding to a possible breaking and entering at the professor's home.  After the president stood before the media and the American people earlier this week to discuss the need for health insurance reform, all anybody can talk about is how the black guy (Obama) stood up for the black guy (Dr. Gates).

h/t AMERICAblog

I guess that when a Conservadem complained that the pressure from the left was not "helpful" meant that it was not helpful to the big health care interests who oppose meaningful health care reform.  From The Plum Line:

Looks like pressure from the left might be getting results, albeit limited ones, in the case of "centrist" Dem Senator  Blanche Lincoln, who has been resisting any commitment to backing a public health care option.

Lincoln, who's getting hammered by ads demanding she commit to the public option, has now shifted towards supporting one, at least in rhetorical terms. In a piece for today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, she says health care reform should include a public plan or a non-profit substitute.

Here's the key graf from Lincoln (the piece is subscription only):

   Health care reform must build upon what works and improve inefficiencies. Individuals should be able to choose from a range of quality health insurance plans. Options should include private plans as well as a quality, affordable public plan or non-profit plan that can accomplish the same goals as those of a public plan.

Let this be a lesson.  The next time the White House says to back off, don't.

When the XinJiang uprising began, the government didn't waste anytime reigning in the internet.  From the Washington Post:

Following last weekend's deadly riots in its western region of Xinjiang, China?s central government has taken all the usual steps to block citizens from accessing foreign web services: aside from crippling Internet service in general, the authorities have blocked Twitter, removed unapproved references to the violence from search engines and has now apparently moved to bar its citizens from accessing Facebook from most parts of China Mainland just now. Two weeks ago, the government had already blocked just about every Google service, including communication tools like Gmail, Google Apps and Google Talk.

Web2Asia's George Godula writes:

"As of today 8pm Chinese time Facebook seems not to be accessible from most parts of China Mainland anymore. On the China Telecom connection of our Shanghai office the service vanished at around 7:45pm. Friends in Hong Kong are reporting that they can still access the website."

Joe Sudbay of AMERICAblog describes the political homophobia infecting the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats.

Political homophobes aren't gay-hating in the traditional sense. In fact, publicly, most are strong supporters of LGBT equality. But, behind closed doors, many Democratic leaders, consultants, Hill staffers and the rest will vociferously argue that there is no political benefit to actually supporting LGBT rights. Political homophobia is rampant among some Democrats. In some ways, it's worse than blatant homophobia, since we think most Democrats are on our side. And outwardly, they are.

Political homophobia dictates policy in DC more than we'd like to think. I believe it's happening in the West Wing right now. I've been told by several people that while the president's chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel, isn't a homophobe in the traditional way (he always voted the right way when he was in the House), he is always the first person to suggest that his colleagues (and now boss) avoid gay issues. He'd rather not deal with them because he thinks they're bad politics.

CNN is reporting that the Secretary of Defense is looking at "selectively enforcing" the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.

Gates says he is now looking at ways to make the ban "more humane" including letting people serve who may have been outed due to vengeance or a jilted lover. The remarks were made in a transcript released Tuesday by the Pentagon.

SNIP

"What we have is a law -- be it a policy or a regulation -- and as I discovered when I got into it, it's a very prescriptive law. It doesn't leave much to the imagination for a lot of flexibility. And so one of the things we're looking at -- is there flexibility in how we apply this law."

The secretary appears to be proposing interim measures. "If somebody is outed by a third party ... does that force us to take an action? And I don't know the answer to that, and I don't want to pretend to. But that's the kind of thing we're looking at to see if there's at least a more humane way to apply the law until the law gets changed."

From MSNBC:

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered that Democrat Al Franken be certified as the winner of the state's long-running Senate race.

The high court rejected a legal challenge from Republican Norm Coleman, whose options for regaining the Senate seat are dwindling.

Justices said Franken is entitled to the election certificate he needs to assume office. With Franken and the usual backing of two independents, Democrats will have a big enough majority to overcome Republican filibusters.

You can read the decision here.  I can't get near a television, so I'm not sure what the talking heads are saying.  At Fox News, I'm sure it's something about the liberal activist judges trying to steal an election.  I might just have to watch O'Reilly tonight to see him suffer.