Astroturf Charlie Crist Protest

I love how members of the tea party keep needing to get pointers on how to protest from the GOP establishment. RROF South East Regional Director Diana Ramos sent this email out on what signs to use at a protest of a Charlie Crist book signing.

• Charlie Crist: Obama’s Favorite Democrat

• Charlie Crist: Obamacare’s Biggest Fan

• Charlie = Opportunist

• You Can’t Trust Charlie

• Failed Governor

• 3 Parties, 3 Years, Lousy Governor

• Charlie 2010 or Charlie 2014, Which One Do You Believe?”

I actually can't blame the Republican Party of Florida for telling the tea party what the signs should say. You can see tea party sign disasters here, here and here. I have to say this one is my favorite.

Dubious Rubio Gets An Astroturf Burn

Sen Marco Rubio gets a taste of astroturfing. Tea party protesters came to the Washington DC to voice their disapproval of immigration reform. Did these tea party protesters organize themselves? Of course not. Politico reports that Rep. Steve King organized the event.

“This bill is at its core amnesty,” Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who organized the event, told the sympathetic crowd. “We’re here to today… to take this debate outside the halls of Congress. If it’s not going to be good enough inside, we’ll take it outside!”

The Heritage Foundation was also at King's astroturfing rally. Apparently, the Heritage Foundation isn't letting former fellow Jason Richwine's discredited reports and ties to the white nationist movement keep them from being against immigration.

“Marco Rubio has not read his own bill!” said Robert Rector, a senior researcher for the Heritage Foundation.

I am no fan of Rubio but it should be noted that the Senate immigration reform bill is still being written. Rector hasn't read the bill because it isn't done.

This is essentially King and the Heritage Foundation calling all the media outlets and bringing and busing in a handful of tea party faithful. Politico and other outlets cover this like it is a big story.

Siobhan Harley Hired By Calvert Street Group

Rising Tampa Democratic superstar Siobhan Harley is moving to Tampa for her new job.

Harley will leave City Hall on Friday to take a job as a campaign manager with the Calvert Street Group, which does work in 30 states and Canada. There, she will be closer to her boyfriend, Patrick Kavanaugh, a law student at Vanderbilt University.

"I am a campaigner at heart," Harley said Monday. "I love the adrenaline rush. I love going out there and campaigning for a cause. I love going out and getting voters to the polls. I love winning."

Harley was the unofficial and very young campaign manager of Mayor Bob Buckhorn's successful victory over Rose Ferlita.

The Calvert Street group is run by Darden Copeland. CSG has been accused of being an Astroturf group for its opposition to the redevelopment of the Nolensville Pike fairgrounds. Copeland helped ran fundraising for Rep. Dick Gephardt's political action committee. Copeland went on to work on the Al Gore presidential campaign and later worked with former Bill Clinton with pollster Stan Greenberg.

Copeland is someone that could teach Harley political activism on a national scale. I wish Harley the best in Nashville. Her next stop might be the District of Columbia.

Tea Party in Decline

Peter Schorsch has photos of tea parties Tallahassee rallies from 2011 and 2012. The photos show what many people already know; the tea party is in decline. The Occupy Wall Street movement is where the energy and media attention is at.

The tea party movement was always going to burn out because it is an astroturf movement. The rallies in Schorsch's blog post were sponsored by Americans For Prosperity of Florida. The movement could never create itself on a grassroots level. The tea party members aren't smart enough organize. Think about it, how are racist activists, with misspelled signs, going to recruit citizens to fight to protect Wall Street banks and insurance companies? Only the most ignorant fight to end their own Medicare coverage. Eventually these people get bored and move on.

100,000 Strong in Wisconsin

The Tea Party started as an astroturf movement created by Fox News and corporations against against health care reform. (One the groups was Rick Scott's Conservative for Patients' Rights.) Unions are shrinking in America and President Barack Obama refuses to get involved in the Wisconsin. The media has not put union representatives on-the-air. This is a true grassroots movement.

100,000 people standing in the snow. This is real change.

Kendrick Meek Explains the Astroturfing Movement Against Health Care Reform

Kendrick Meek should be applauded for explaining how the insurance industry uses talk radio, cable news and campaign contributions to keep health care reform from happening. Meek is direct and concise. I had questions about him. He is really starting to hit his stride.

Dick Armey & Big Phama

Lindsay Beyerstein has an exclusive story on Dick Armey's involvement with Freedom Works and his lobbying activities.

One wonders whether Armey had much time left over for his lobbying clients at DLA Piper that year, which included pharma giant Sanofi-Aventis and the Medicines Co.. (Armey represented Sanofi again in 2008 and continued to represent the Medicines Co. through 2009.)

Freedom Works is one of the major astroturfing groups behind the tea party movement. Armey resigned from DLA Piper law firm. He told Politico the phama companies he was representing would face too much media scrutiny.

Lindsay brings up the points that these kind of lobbying and political connections should be brought out into the open. Her second point is big phama companies don't want the negative stink of the Freedom Works and angry townhall meetings. Her article is worth reading.

Quote of the Day

"Adolf Hitler issued six million end of life orders--he called his program the final solution. I kind of wonder what we're going to call ours."

Spokeman for Patients First, on Obama's health care reform proposal.

Believing government health insurance competing with the private insurance industry is wrong is one thing. Making comparisons to Hitler is batshit insane. The holocaust and policy proposals to offer health insurance to to 47 million uninsured Americans aren't the same thing. These people need to stop watching Fox News.

Here is the video of the nonsense. The quote comes at 2:20 in the video. The Patients First spokesman also compares America's Affordable Health Choices Act to the genocides committed by Stalin and Pol Pott. These anti-health care reform advocates are scary.

Patients First is an astroturf subsidiary of Americans for Prosperity. The two main backers of AFP are millionaire Art Pope and billionaire David Koch. The latter is the 19th richest man in the world.

Patients First is not a grassroots organization started by ordinary citizens. None of the protesters, at townhall meetings, are as wealthy as Koch or Pope.

Rachel Maddow has a good piece on Americans for Prosperity's bogus grassroots campaigns.

Tampa Tea Bagger Townhall Meeting Madness

The Tea Party actuivists were bound to get out of hand. Rep. Kathy Castor and State Representative Betty Reed hosted a health care townhall meeting. WTSP reports how law enforcement had to stop a near riot.

As the building filled to capacity, angry protesters stuck outside began to scream, yell, and chant. At one point, those trying to get inside began banging on windows as Tampa Police officers quickly spread out guarding all entrances.

10 Connects photojournalist Kevin Carlson, currently inside the meeting reports at least one fist fight breaking out inside. Some other journalists remain outside.

Police were called in to handle the civil unrest.

UPDATE 7:13pm

Police on bullhorns are trying to break-up the crowd outside the building on 1002 E. Palm Ave.

Many in the crowd are refusing to go.

A Talking Points Memo reports his experiences of the townhall meeting.

I was at the riot/townhall tonight since it was about half a mile from my house and I'm always down for a freak show. I also attended the April 15th tea bag party down the street. This was the same audience, very old and very white (half the minorities I saw were in the media, literally). They did indeed close the doors--I stayed outside because I wasn't about to be trapped in with the nutters for three hours. They started to chant "move it outside" and were infuriated about being somehow left out. I heard some people make the comparison that if they can't run a meeting how can they run healthcare? (Is this the next meme?) It never ceases to amaze me seeing medicare recipients holding up signs saying "Just say no to government run healthcare" and there was plenty of that.

I left before I saw any actual violence, but certainly believe it. The few pro-healthcare people who were there received an impressive amount of boos and name calling. "Get a job, buy your own insurance!"

Lots of recording devices out by nearly everyone. Uninformed people with cameras stoking hate amongst each other. These things are designed to get footage to get more people mad to get more footage.

Medicare and Medicaid recipients protesting about government involvement in health care. Many of the protesters organized through the 9-12 Project. The Tampa Tribune describes the 9-12 Project activists.

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 protestor'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.

Tea Party members disturbed a townhall meeting, compared President Obama to a homicidal supervillian and two reported fist fights. Does anyone believe these tea baggers "read the bill"? Many of these people receive some form of government health care and are protesting (what they preceive to be) government health care. The ignorance of these people are staggering.

These are the same people that labeled Obama a Muslim and terrorist during the campaign. Simple fact-checking would have proven these accusations to be bogus. The tea baggers do not care about that. Do the tea baggers believe private insurance are more important than the 47 million Americans without health insurance. Do the tea baggers get misty eyed and hearts beat loudly over the quarterly earning reports of pharmaceutical companies? Have all of them read Milton Friedman? The answer to these questions not very likely. The tea baggers are angry for the sake of being angry.

Update: Tea baggers in the meeting shout down Rep. Castor. TBO.com has the video. of tea baggers in the meeting shout down Rep. Castor. The tea baggers aren't interested in hearing what Castor has to say. They want to shout at her because it makes them feel good. Screw the people that want to hear what their Congresswoman has to say.

Update: This charming tea bagger admits he is an asshole. He calls people communists and tells them to get on welfare. He goes on an xenophobic rant and tells a woman to go back to her country. He claims his ancestors came on the Mayflower. He turns on the charm by yelling "Heil Hitler." Does anyone think this guy "read the bill."

Spotlighting Conservative Blogs

This photoshopped image was posted on the Florida conservative blog IMAO. The blogger Harvey titled the post "lolbama! Part 19." Apparently, photoshopping pictures of President Obama dressed as Mussolini is what passes for humor with Harvey. I found this blog from a Jim Johnson post spotlighting Florida conservative blogs. I would love to hear Johnson explain how IMOO is furthering conservative values.

Before conservatives lambast me for hypocrisy: I denounced Moveon.org for attacking General David Petraeus in their "General Betray Us" ad. It was thoughtless on the part of Moveon.org. People can agree or disagree with General Petraeus's leadership of the Iraq war. My view is Petraeus has proven himself to be a superior military tactician. The situation in Iraq would be worse if Tommy Franks was still in charge.

LindaSoG at Something... and Half of Something posted an article on Australian geologist Ian Plimer. Linda's interest is Plimer denies the possibility of global warming. Plimer is involved with the Natural Resources Stewardship Project. Their web site is currently not up. (Never a good sign.) They are a bogus nonprofit run by global warming denier Tom Harris. NRSP and Harris have been involved in atroturfing. The term means a fake grassroots movement started by corporate interests. Harris is executive director of the Friends and the Stewardship Project. The members have ties to the energy industry and little expertise on climate change.

Some who signed are unpaid advisers or "allied experts" of the Friends and the Stewardship Project, and are to speak at the Ottawa conference.

The non-profit, pro-action Vancouver-based website DeSmogBlog has been analyzing the list of signatories. The site, which is devoted to combatting what it calls "a well-funded and highly organized public relations campaign" that's "poisoning" the climate change debate, was established in December 2005 by Jim Hoggan, president of the public relations firm James Hoggan & Associates and a board member of the David Suzuki Foundation.

DeSmogBlog says the 18 people with signatures on the letter whom it has checked out so far have published relatively few peer-reviewed research articles – a common standard for scientific competence – related to global warming. Some on the list have been paid directly by the oil and coal industries to conduct scientific research, and many more are affiliated with fossil fuel industry-sponsored think-tanks, lobby groups and phony grassroots coalitions – dubbed Astroturf groups by critics. Another has withdrawn, saying he misunderstood what the letter was about.

Harris previously worked for the energy industry public relations firm Highland Park Advocacy Group. Clients included Canadian Electricity Association and the Canadian Gas Association. Highland Park will not publicly list their clients on their web site. The NRSP and High Park share the same address.

Another Harris anti-global warming nonprofit is Friends of Science. A University of Calgary found auditor report found the Friends of Science don't do scientific research.

* According to the Calgary Foundation, the Science Education Fund grant agreement with the University of Calgary was for "academic research in the science of global warming and the production of education modules." Yet FoS states that Barry Cooper's research fund is "directed towards debate of climate science" and to "encourage debate on basic climate science."

* The Calgary Foundation has repeatedly stated that the donee of Science Education Fund was the University of Calgary. Yet the University of Calgary refers to funding obtained by a "group of scientists", i.e. the Friends of Science, which implies that this organization is the true donee. But FoS is clearly not a "qualified donee" under the Canadian Income Tax Act. Moreover, as a political scientist, Barry Cooper has no relevant qualifications in the area of climate science research or education and is not a member of the funded entity in any case. In spite of the University's reference to Barry Cooper's "individual research", there is absolutely no evidence that he played any role in the funded activities; rather, to all appearances, his "climate change research" fund merely served as a conduit to support the activities of the true donee, the Friends of Science.

* The supported Friends of Science activities outlined in subsequent sections, such as the Climate Catastrophe Cancelled video and anti-Kyoto radio ads, do not accord with the stated Science Education Fund mandate of "academic research" or "education modules" in the common understanding of those terms. There is no evidence that FoS has produced any original, peer-reviewed academic research whatsoever. The FoS video, presumably claimed to be an "education module", to all appearances, has seen minimal use or endorsement as an educational tool in Canada. In contrast, An Inconvenient Truth is in widespread use in schools in Canada and internationally, and is slated for delivery to all schools in Great Britain. [78] The Vancouver School Board recently announced its approval of the distribution of The Inconvenient Truth to all Vancouver high schools [79], and the film was also recently approved by the teachers' cirriculum committee in Surrey, B.C.

The Florida conservative movements includes people that compare Obama to Mussolini and deny science. Jim, keep spotlighting Florida conservative blogs. The Right base scares people into the Democratic Party.

Astroturfing

People that follow the FOP are familiar with the term astroturfing. It is a bogus political movement that was actually conceived corporate sponsors of the GOP. In this case Fox News. Longtime lefty journalist William Greider perfectly described astroturfing.

Greider: "Grassroots program that involves the instant manufacturing of public support for a point of view in which either uninformed activists are recruited or means of deception are used to recruit them."

Nancy Pelosi called out the tea bagging miovement as astroturfing.

What we want is a new direction. In fact, in the President's initiative - in the Recovery and in the Budget - 95% of the American people get a tax cut. This is a tax cut for the great middle class. This initiative is funded by the high end - we call call it astroturf, it's not really a grassroots movement. It's astroturf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class.

Astroturfing can also be done for political campaigns. The McCain campaign was attempting to get Hillary Clinton supporters. The group P.U.M.A. (People United Means Action) pretended to be Democratic. P.U.M.A. founder Darragh C. Murphy is a longtime Republican contributor.