Tea Party Protesters Channeling Joe McCarthy

The Huffington Post has photos of tea bagging protests from across the country. The protesters hold signs of President Obama on an enemies list with al-Qaeda, Iran, North Korea, liberals and the mainstream media. These protesters are channeling Joe McCarthy.

After several largely undistinguished years in the Senate, McCarthy rose suddenly to national fame in February 1950 when he asserted in a speech that he had a list of "members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring" who were employed in the State Department.[4] McCarthy was never able to prove his sensational charge.

In succeeding years, McCarthy made additional accusations of Communist infiltration into the State Department, the administration of President Truman, Voice of America, and the United States Army. He also used charges of communism, communist sympathies, or disloyalty to attack a number of politicians and other individuals inside and outside of government. With the highly publicized Army–McCarthy hearings of 1954, McCarthy's support and popularity began to fade. On December 2, 1954, the Senate voted to censure Senator McCarthy by a vote of 67 to 22, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion. McCarthy died in Bethesda Naval Hospital on May 2, 1957, at the age of 48. The official cause of death was acute hepatitis; it is widely accepted that this was exacerbated by alcoholism.

Photo by Erica Slead

There were also birthers amongst the protesters and anti-immigration signs.

Photo by Erica Slead

The protesters were bused in by Patients First. The group is funded by Americans for Prosperity. The founders of AFP millionaire Art Pope and billionaire David Koch. Patients First is a well-managed astroturfing movement. The people drawn to the protests are the most extreme conservatives. If they really equate Obama to al-Qaeda then explaining

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.