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June 30, 2012 01:38 AM UTC

"Hands Off My Health Care!" The Revolution Begins

  • 31 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols



Independence Institute President Jon Caldara speaks to 100-150 anti-health care reform protesters in Denver, Colorado. Anonymous photo

Eli Stokols of FOX 31 estimates about 100-150 protesters turned out today at the Colorado Capitol for the “Hands Off My Health Care” rally, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity in opposition to the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday upholding the Affordable Care Act–kind of a paltry turnout. But the story of even that small crowd begins earlier:



AFP protesters board a chartered bus in Loveland, Colorado, 6/29/2012. Anonymous photo

UDPATE: Another reader sends this photo of one of Americans for Prosperity’s chartered buses, perhaps the same one pictured above, on the east side of the Capitol today:



Anonymous photo

And here’s video of Americans for Prosperity protesters loading onto that bus after the rally:

Earlier in the day, Americans for Prosperity reportedly arranged chartered buses to pick up supporters in other areas of the state–the photo above is from Loveland–and drive them to Denver for today’s protest. It was a significant logistical effort to turn out only 100-150 people, a much smaller crowd than other “Tea Party” protests at the Capitol in recent years.


“End Medical Licensing”–a sign from today’s “Hands Off My Health Care” rally in Denver


“Obamacare Death Panel Mentors”–from today’s “Hands Off My Health Care” rally

But as you can see, the usual charm from the “Tea Party” set prevailed today, based on these photos of signage from the rally. “Obamacare Death Panel Mentors,” complete with Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Obama, leaves little to the imagination. We’re a bit confused about the first sign, though. “End Medicare?” “End Medical Licensing?” That’s a bit more “free market” than we expected. We kind of doubt a majority of Americans are going to buy in to that idea.

So maybe we’ve got this all wrong, and these 100 bussed-in protesters are just the beginning!

But if the intent was to show spontaneous outrage from America’s “silent majority” over the Supreme Court’s decision yesterday to uphold Obamacare, it sure looks like a failure. They couldn’t even get the crowd they got on bad weather days in 2009.

In which case, so much for the “revolution.”

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31 thoughts on ““Hands Off My Health Care!” The Revolution Begins”

  1. I was there today. There were at least 500 people there. Go look at the Denver Post’s photo, you can count more than 100 and it’s not even the whole crowd.

    Were you there? If not, stop lying!

    1. I just looked at the Post’s photos. That’s nowhere NEAR 500, unless they were really, REALLY spread out. Like to the City and County Building.

      1. The Post’s photo doesn’t have the whole crowd in the frame. But you can count more than 100. I know for a fact there were more there because I am an eyewitness. Where is Pols’s eyewitness?

        2. I went back and counted all the individuals I could see, and estimated how many might have been blocked from view by the speaker. I came up with 104.

          Granted, I went quickly, making it possible that I missed some and counted others more than once. So I’ll be generous and say there were 115 people in the frame of that photo.

          You can see how loose the crowd is. Not packed in at all, trailing off at the edge, plenty of room at the foot of the stairs. So it’s not possible that there were even another 100 outside the photo’s frame, let alone 400.

          It’s late on Friday, BOT. I know you’re in a hurry. Probably didn’t expect Pols to post this. I hate getting work RIGHT before the weekend, too. But come on… that’s pathetic spin.

          1. I also counted the crowd from the wide angle Denver Post picture and reached about 100 (and that probably includes some media).

            Not really close to the “at least 500” claim by GoOP.

            It’s funny to see how spread out they are.  They must not like to associate with their own kind.

            This is a great verifiable example of how full of bullshit GoOP and his ilk are.  They are truly delusional.  And they want to run the country???  

            1. There could have been 200 f you count the legislators who came outside, drivers,media passersby and general layabouts.

              But 200 or 2000 – I agree that death panels are bad.

    5. whatever, there is nothing grass roots or spontaneous about any event organized and financed by the Billionaires Boy’s Club that is Citizens for Prosperity.  And the “Hands off My Health Care” meme is as ridiculous as those old Tea Party signs demanding “Government Hands off My Medicare”.  

      If you have insurance and you like it, fine. There is nothing in the ACA about any kind of government plan replacing private insurance, not even a voluntary public option (a pity).  

      The only prosperity the Koch brothers and friends care about is their own. If you aren’t in the top .01% and you’re doing their bidding, you’re a fool, ArapG.  

      1. If every one of them had the Martian guy in their belly from Total Recall, then maybe. Probably two Martians would be needed.

        For the kiddies too young to get the reference:

  3. Republicans are out of sync now trying to recapture the howling foaming hysteria of 2010 over health care instead of staying on message about how terrific the Republicans in the House are at creating jobs.

    God this is going to be fun to watch.  Plus the Godfather of Romneycare is gonig to be the one to lead the charge.  How delicious.

  4. but I’ll admit I’m impressed that for a Tea Party sign with that many long words on it, the signmaker appears to have nailed the spelling.  

    1. Nor are CAT scans!  Abolish them all. If leeches were good enough for the Founding Fathers ™ then they are good enough for 21st century Americans too! Why do we even need doctors anyways, a barber has all the implements needed to give a good bloodletting!

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B…

      1. I wonder if they paid anyone to attend that rally.  I recall that there were at least rumors of that in previous health care rallies.

  6. Teh Tea Party © is not the Koch Bro’s high priority anymore. Now that Citizens let’s them outright buy the votes there is no need to create theater audiences.

  7. I noticed the timestamp on your last comment was 4:59. Nice job getting out on time! You, Kelly and everyone else at Peak have a nice weekend.

  8. You can’t shill this issue.  It’s past that now.

    Be sure of your numbers.  And be sure of your talking points.

    If you can’t do that, then shrink into the same background where you’ve hidden since the SCOTUS decision.

  9. Reading a few articles that try to determine the vague outlines of the Romney health care plan brings to mind a question:

    For someone who discovers they have a potentially fatal illness and can’t get health insurance, is it better they die quickly, or should they suffer awhile first?

    Some ideas from Romney, et al:

    “The challenge for Governor Romney is not just in the health-care context, but also putting it into the broader economic context,” Winston said, adding that Romney should stress that the best way for most Americans to obtain health coverage is to have a job.

    As we know, millions of jobs are just going begging (in China and India)!  I wonder what their health care plans look like?

    He has also promised that people with preexisting conditions will not lose coverage – so long as they continuously maintain insurance. Romney’s proposal would not, however, guarantee insurance for ill people who currently lack it.

    Ah, good old Catch-22 — if you already have insurance and you don’t lose your job, you’re golden.  

    Otherwise as Romney said “I’m not concerned about the very poor”

    At least his intentions are good:

    Romney’s political strategy here seems clear to me: He’s trying to drive a wedge between the poor and the middle class, convincing the latter that they lose out to the former when Democrats are in charge. And the strategy may work. It’s certainly helped Republicans before. But the big beneficiary of Romney’s plan to reorder fiscal priorities is not the middle class. It’s the very wealthy, who would get substantial tax benefits and who will usually be fine with weakened public services.

    So maybe Romney’s quote is misleading after all. It suggests that only the poor would be afterthoughts in a Romney presidency, when even many non-poor Americans would be forgotten, too.

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