Monday, August 10, 2009

Manufactured Dissent



Now that you have listened to the CSPAN caller, it may be time to look at who are the real astroturfers. From a Craig's List ad:

Now is the time to work for change

We need people like you—lots of people like you—to go out in communities around the country this summer and help make change happen. And you can earn money doing it. Earn $4,000-$6,000 this summer.

Get skills. Learn vital campaign skills including how to fundraise, run a news conference and mobilize activists.

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I'm surprised they didn't guarantee hook-ups.

Looking At the Left has lots of pictures and comments about Citizens vs the Obama Astroturfers.

Michelle Malkin asks, "Who is funding the astroturfers?"
If you believe the White House, there are 30 million Americans who support a government health care takeover. But if you look at the funding behind the Obamacare Astroturf campaign, it’s the same few Leftist billionaires, union bosses, and partisan community organizers pushing the socialized medicine agenda. Let’s connect the dots.

On Thursday, a national “grass-roots” coalition called “Health Care for America Now (HCAN)” will march on Capitol Hill to demand universal health care. The ground troops won’t have to march very far. HCAN, you see, is no heartland network. It is headquartered at 1825 K Street in Washington, D.C. – smack dab in the middle of Beltway lobby land.

In fact, 1825 K Street is Ground Zero for a plethora of “progressive” groups subsidized by anti-war, anti-Republican, Big Nanny special interests. Around Washington, the office complex is known as “The Other K Street.” The Washington Post noted in 2007 that “[i]ts most prominent tenants form an abbreviated who’s who of well-funded allies of the Democratic Party… Big money from unions such as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, as well as the Internet-fueled MoveOn, has provided groups like those at 1825 K Street the wherewithal to mount huge campaigns.”
It is not just Craig's List. Red State has lots of screen shots of the astroturf recruiters and links to other blogs discussing the topic. It looks to me like the astroturf campaign and the denigration of the Tea Party people is only serving to bring out more concerned citizens.

Here are the astroturfers you really have to watch out for:

SEIU in attendance
Image courtesy of Gateway Pundit


IMO all this is going to backfire on Obama and bring out even more dissenters from his program. You would think a politician from Chicago would understand politics better. But maybe not. Chicago is a one party town.

H/T Hot Air

Cross Posted at Classical Values

1 comment:

Neil said...

Illinois "politics" is a misnomer, at least at the state level and in Chicago. It's all a cozy, back-scratching, back-room-cigar-smoke extortion racket. It works out as long as all the interested parties get "taken care of", and so long as they keep it low-key enough so that the voters don't get out of hand.

I think that last bit was the part that Obama failed to learn. Machine politics really only works if the man behind the curtain...remains behind the curtain.