I have never seen a network so devoted to a wingnut cause like FOX is with their BIG coverage of the teabaggers tea party scheduled for April 15th. Check out this video clip I made just from one show.
Wall Street gladly took their $700 billion wingnut welfare cash without blinking an eye -- with Neil Cavuto demanding McCain's people cough up the cash for his peeps -- but somehow Rick Santelli's rant against "losers" who are having trouble paying their mortgages was just an incredible faux outrage and has become dear to Roger Ailes heart.
It's the rich and out-of-power Republicans who are organizing these events, and it's not an accident. They are trying to kick-start a broken conservative movement by making a huge effort to tap into the 25% of people who hate President Obama. Roger Ailes has gone "all in" and is waiting for the river card as he uses Beck, Cavuto and his merry band of disenfranchised conservatives to lead them on their disingenuous mission.
Here's the thing. The right lost its ability to be spontaneous sometime back when Phyllis Schlafly was pounding the ERA. They require structure and leadership in order to function, which is one reason why their movement and their party are so stuck. (They proudly call themselves dittoheads, after all.)
So, it's no surprise to learn this:
Despite these attempts to make the “movement” appear organic, the principle organizers of the local events are actually the lobbyist-run think tanks Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works. The two groups are heavily staffed and well funded, and are providing all the logistical and public relations work necessary for planning coast-to-coast protests:
– Freedom Works staffers coordinate conference calls among protesters, contacting conservative activists to give them “sign ideas, sample press releases, and a map of events around the country.”
– Freedom Works staffers apparently moved to “take over” the planning of local events in Florida.
– Freedom Works provides how-to guides for delivering a “clear message” to the public and media.
– Freedom Works has several domain addresses — some of them made to look like they were set up by amateurs — to promote the protests.
– Americans for Prosperity is writing press releases and planning the events in New Jersey, Arizona, New Hampshire, Missouri, Kansas, and several other states.
This type of corporate ‘astroturfing‘ is nothing new to either organization. While working to promote Social Security privatization, Freedom Works was caught planting one of its operatives as a “single mom” to ask questions to President Bush in a town hall on the subject. Last year, the Wall Street Journal exposed Freedom Works for similarly building “amateur-looking” websites to promote the lobbying interests of Dick Armey, the former Republican Majority Leader who now leads Freedom Works and is a lobbyist for the firm DLA Piper.
Americans for Prosperity is run by Tim Phillips, who was Ralph Reed’s former partner in the lobbying firm Century Strategies. The group is funded by Koch family foundations — a family whose wealth is derived from the oil industry. Indeed Americans for Prosperity has coordinated pro-drilling ‘grassroots‘ events around the country.
If any members of the press are reading this, I hope they can see that this is the story, not the sad little dupes who are voluntarily calling themselves tea-baggers.
I wonder how many of these protesters tea-baggers make over $250,000 and are facing an uptick in their taxes? I bet most of them have received a tax cut, so the nonsense about taxes is capricious at best. They are trying to create a mob of Joe the Plumbers, people who are ignorant about their own needs and eager and willing to swallow the culture-war propaganda their moneyed con men leaders dish out.
