The orchestrated, handbook-guided extremist disruptions of town hall meetings on health care reform being held by members of Congress are turning into “a series of shout-downs and freak-outs,” says Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo.

“…something resembling right-wing performance art. [It's] a well-orchestrated national effort to mobilize teabaggers to go and shut down these town hall events with raucous demonstrations and generally making it impossible for the members of Congress to talk.”

“Teabaggers” refers to the fact that many of the groups behind the manipulated chaos are the same outfits that staged the phony grassroots “Tea Party” tax protests earlier this year. Then, as now, Fox News and other right-wing media outfits are trying to portray the actions as genuine revolts. Many of staged tax “protest” events drew just a handful of people, but closeup camera angles and breathless, fawning coverage seriously exaggerated the scope of the protests.

But now, they are armed with a battle guide from the anti-government group Right Principles that tells them to disrupt meetings “early and often….Watch for opportunities to stand up and shout…rock the boat…stand up and shout.” They are being encouraged by a growing number of health care reform opponents, including Republican leaders trying to kill President Obama’s reform initiatives.

The main goal of these disrupters is to kill health care reform, not debate it, not refine it, not find a middle ground, just kill it. (For a more detailed look, check “Swiftboating Town Halls” at The Progress Report.)

In a conference call with state and local AFL-CIO leaders today, Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, talked about her weekend experience in Philadelphia where a loud and vocal minority tried to shout down her and Sen. Arlen Specter during a town hall on health care.

She said about two-thirds of the audience was there to listen and ask questions, while the others simply wanted to yell.

Their intent is not to have a conversation. Their intent is to stop the conversation.

Sebelius said the nation is closer than ever to achieving real health care reform to provide quality, affordable care for all Americans. She pointed out that as health care activists get closer and closer to victory, the screaming protesters are becoming “more frantic” in their actions, as we have seen in the town hall meetings.

In Green Bay, Wis., on Monday night, Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen held a town hall meeting where, according to the Green Bay Gazette, protesters

repeatedly disrupted the event by shouting….Most of the crowd’s screams for three-quarters of the evening were incomprehensible.

In Houston, (see video), an Internet campaign by far-right activists urged people to attend and heckle Rep. Gene Green, reported Fox (sometimes, they get it right) Channel 26. Reporter Duarte Geraldino talked to the participants and found that “some attendees admit they don’t live in the district.”

TPM’s Marshall points out one of the more obnoxious stunts pulled at the recent meetings.

Then there was the case yesterday where a few folks at a teabag protest outside a town hall meeting in Hartford called on Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) to commit suicide as a way to cure his recently diagnosed prostate cancer.

That’s the kind of high-level discussion these folks specialize in. You can help counter the shrill shrieks. Visit our health care ally, Health Care for America Now (HCAN), and find a town hall meeting in your area where you can join union members in civilized health care reform activities.

Click here to send a message to your lawmakers to support comprehensive health care reform.

Here are three great op-ed pieces from around the country—Colorado, Pennsylvania and Maine—that highlight why the Employee Free Choice Act is critical to working women in this tough economy.

Linda Meric, the executive director of 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women, writes a great op-ed about the need for Employee Free Choice in the Denver Post. Meric notes the advantages that the chance to form a union offers to women in Colorado and around the country:

The Employee Free Choice Act is one sure way to address this gender-based pay gap. Unionization can provide important economic security for low-wage Colorado women and their families.

The benefits of union membership for women in low-wage occupations are even greater. Among those working in the 15 lowest-paying occupations, union members not only earned more than their non-union counterparts, they were also 26 percentage points more likely to have employer-provided health insurance and 23 percentage points more likely to have a pension plan than those who were not members of a union….

Health insurance is just one of the positive workplace standards unions can provide for working women. Union representation is also one of the strongest predictors of family-flexible workplace policies.

In Maine, three union members—Rebecca Westleigh, Shianne Valenzuela and Mary Hall—write in the Lewiston Sun-Journal about what union membership means for working women like them:

We all agree: having a voice on the job and collective bargaining rights has dramatically improved our lives and enabled us to support our families. We want to see those benefits and opportunities extended to all workers….

Now more than ever, we need to rebuild an economy that works for everyone. We strongly encourage our senators to support Mainers and women by voting for the Employee Free Choice Act. This common sense legislation would give workers the freedom to join a union without intimidation and bargain collectively for better wages and benefits.

And in Pennsylvania, Donna Bernhard, a registered nurse, explains in the Pottstown Mercury why her union matters to her, her community and the patients she cares for—and why all workers need the chance she had to bargain for a better life:

As a nurse, I know I can do my job because I have the support I need. I don’t have to worry about finding health care for my own family.

And the reason is because I and my co-workers bargain together as a union for higher wages, benefits and better working conditions.

But most people aren’t that lucky. Most experience intimidation, coercion and even firing when they want to form a union. According to polling, 60 million people would choose to form a union today if they could, but too few ever get that chance because U.S. labor law is too weak to help them….

I know firsthand the benefits unions bring to my family and I believe that our community would be better served by a system that restores balance in our workplaces.

It’s clear that protecting working people’s freedom to form unions is the best way to guarantee livable wages, health care benefits and retirement security to working people. As a result, it is also the best way to strengthen and expand the middle class.

More than three dozen Screen Actors (SAG) members, including several veterans of USO troop tours, joined some 400 workers from Northrop Grumman’s operation in Southern California last month to stuff personal care packages for U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and other overseas deployments.

Nancy Sinatra, who first entertained U.S. troops in Vietnam on the legendary Bob Hope USO tours, said:

Every time we send out one of these packages, I think about where they are going….And I always hope and pray that the person receiving the package will be able to come home.

In an El Segundo plant that normally produces F-18 fighter planes, SAG members and volunteer workers stuffed the two-gallon, zip-lock plastic bags with  personal items such as sun screen, packaged body wipes, granola snacks, playing cards, prepaid international phone cards, disposable razors and chewing gum.

In less than six hours, the volunteers stuffed 20,300 care packages—a USO single day record.

SAG members joining Sinatra and the volunteer workers on the assembly lines included Gary Sinise (”CSI: NY”), D.B. Sweeney (”Crash”), L. Scott Caldwell (”Lost”), Peter Reckell (”Days of Our Lives”), Robert Forster (”Heroes”), Kate Linder (”The Young & the Restless”), Joe Bologna and Renée Taylor and Erik Estrada.

Connie Stevens, another longtime USO trooper, also took part on the package assembly line. She recently appeared as one the 47 screen and stage stars in online video by Artists for Workers Choice that explains the case of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Click here for more information.

Today, the chorus of voices in support of the Employee Free Choice Act is joined by business leaders who know that workers' freedom to form unions and bargain is good for them, too.

The new coalition, Business Leaders for a Fair Economy, includes entrepreneurs, employers and leaders of businesses large and small who agree that a strong economy is compatible with the protection of workers' freedom to form unions and bargain. Indeed, these business leaders agree, workers able to bargain for benefits, wages and economic security are the foundation of an economy that works in the long term.

The coalition has released a new ad that will run in newspapers, like The Wall Street Journal, The Hill and Politico, aimed at the business community and political leaders.

Roger Smith, the president and CEO of American Income Life Insurance Co. and the chairman of the coalition's advisory committee, says that giving more workers the freedom to form unions and bargain won't undermine the economy—indeed, we can't build purchasing power and create stable prosperity without it:

I believe that in these tough economic times, we need solutions that protect workers and support long-term growth and sustainability for American businesses. It does not have to be an either/or scenario. I personally can attest you can be a responsible employer that respects workers' rights and have a thriving, profitable business accountable to its stakeholders.

Diana Ortiz, owner of Colorado-based Ortiz Enterprises LLC, is an award-winning small business owner who says workers need bargaining power to sustain businesses like hers:

As a business owner, I believe that workers should have the freedom to bargain with employers for good wages, health care and the opportunity to retire with dignity. Better wages mean that the whole community has more money to spend and to build our economy.

Smith says we need to rebuild the middle class if we're going to make the economy work again, and the best way to do that is by giving workers the tools they need to bargain for a better life:

Historically, giving workers access to unions and negotiating with them in good faith to reach fair collective bargaining agreements has resulted in a dynamic workforce with shared prosperity. It is imperative for the future of American enterprise that business leaders support policies that create a robust middle class. The Employee Free Choice Act is good for the middle class, and what's good for the middle class is ultimately good for our bottom line.

These business leaders join a broad coalition—ranging from economists to religious groups and environmental activists—who all agree that restoring workers' freedom to form a union and bargain is critical to long-term economic strength.

This is a crosspost from AFL-CIO Now blog.