Heritage Foundation Helping To Coordinate Tea Party Protests

3:23 am EST March 9th, 2010 | Conservative | 16 Comments

The invisible hand of the biggest conservative think tank shows up a the tea party protests as a helpful organizer.

How grassrootsy!

Topic: Heritage Foundation, Tea Party

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16 Responses to “Heritage Foundation Helping To Coordinate Tea Party Protests”

Marco says:

March 9, 2010 at 11:17 am

But, but, but they’re just everyday people upset about a black man spending money.
Dennis says:

March 9, 2010 at 11:36 am

A year ago you guys were squawking that the Tea Parties were all bought and paid for by wealthy right-wing benefactors. Now if someone from the Heritage Foundation offers some assistance on a topic, this is supposedly a violation of the intended grass-roots purpose.

Nutroots attacks always have to go through several stages of metamorphosis before they get to one they finally settle on. None more so than than how they’ve covered the tea parties.
fafaroo says:

March 9, 2010 at 11:53 am

Dennis, you just linked to a post about how the Tea Party, from the very beginning, has been sponsored by the same old network of right wing think tanks in order to highlight the inconsistency of a post about how the Tea Party is being sponsored by the same old network of right wing think tanks.

The Heritage Foundation, which is funded by the Koch Family mentioned in the post you linked to, is providing the questions that the Tea Partiers want to ask Congress on tape. Which is to say that the Tea Parties are relying entirely on a right wing think tank to set their agenda for this event.

If these people can’t even come up with their own questions about health care reform how much thought do you think they’ve really put into this?

About as much thought as you put into your comments here, it seems.
Marco says:

March 9, 2010 at 11:56 am

Did Dick Armey bus in your comment, Dennis or did you post it yourself?
Dennis says:

March 9, 2010 at 12:02 pm

Dennis, you just linked to a post about how the Tea Party, from the very beginning, has been sponsored by the same old network of right wing think tanks in order to highlight the inconsistency of a post about how the Tea Party is being sponsored by the same old network of right wing think tanks.

That post was erroneous, fafaroo. It was never corrected, either. I guess the question mark in the header absolved your commanding officer of any responsibility as far as that goes.
justadood says:

March 9, 2010 at 12:20 pm

There’s People in Think Tanks!!

There’s People in the Grassroots!!

There’s People in Soylent Green!!!

(there’s no surprise in seeing Big Politics underpinning Conservative populism)
fafaroo says:

March 9, 2010 at 12:46 pm

Dennis, what part of that story was debunked? It may have been Santelli’s involvement with right wing funders but it’s been clear from the beginning that right wing, corporate funded groups have been funding the tea party “movement” from the very beginning.

From April 2009:

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.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/09/lobbyists-planning-teaparties/

You’re point that somehow the left wing attack on the Tea Party has been inconsistent is just ridiculous.

It’s always been about how the tea party movement is not as grassroots as its supporters claim. Always.
Jake says:

March 9, 2010 at 1:06 pm

Seriously? The Tea Partier’s can’t keep up this game much longer without some help. They’re unorganized, and they don’t seem to have an actual plan. http://bit.ly/auYQdl They’re just squawking about how corrupt the government is, but can’t seem to offer an actual idea. A neurotic fear of socialism and the big, bad government will only get you so far. That’s why they’re latching onto the Republican Party (or vice versa). One can do the fear mongering while the other can offer the solution.
Dennis says:

March 9, 2010 at 1:46 pm

Dennis, what part of that story was debunked?

Pretty much everything, Private First-class blogger soldier fafaroo:

The Mother of All Irony: Playboy Magazine Targets the Daily Bail

Ask yourself why Playboy pulled the article right away, too, blogger soldier fafaroo.

Ask yourself why your commanding officer never retracted it or even spoke of it again. Ask yourself why he falsely accuses everyone on the right of lapping up the conspiracy theories, but fails to acknowledge his penchant for doing the same.

I know your answer….he inserted a question mark. According to you, he was being ‘supple’, right?
fafaroo says:

March 9, 2010 at 2:02 pm

Pretty much everything, Private First-class blogger soldier fafaroo:

Ohhhhh Dennis, that’s probably one you’re running around high-fiving everyone in sight for, isn’t it?

I mean, that made your week, didn’t it?
fafaroo says:

March 9, 2010 at 2:23 pm

And Dennis, you wrote:

Nutroots attacks always have to go through several stages of metamorphosis before they get to one they finally settle on.

But the line of attack has ALWAYS been that corporate funded right-wing think tanks and PACS have been the fuel behind the Tea Party movement.

The attack hasn’t changed one iota since the people first started writing about it, largely because there is continuing evidence that this is, in fact, the case.

So your criticism of Oliver’s post makes no effing sense.
Quaker in a Basement says:

March 9, 2010 at 2:35 pm

Jim DeMint is PSYCHIC, I tell ya!
merl says:

March 9, 2010 at 5:32 pm

Get Government out of Medicare!!!11!!!
bikelib says:

March 9, 2010 at 5:51 pm

Dennis considers Newsweek to be a “very liberal” publication. Anyone who, in 2010, can claim that with a straight face has zero credibility on just about anything.
Dennis says:

March 9, 2010 at 6:09 pm

bikelib, you probably don’t think MSNBC is liberal either since it’s not liberal enough for you.

You guys argue over whether Jane Hamsher is liberal. If someone isn’t on board with you far-left nutcases, doesn’t mean they aren’t liberal. Same goes with Newsweek. The very liberal Newsweek, rather.
Marco says:

March 9, 2010 at 6:45 pm

This from the party who eats their own RINOS.