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Astroturf In Action: Right-Wing Billionaire David Koch Pays For 40 Buses To Haul In Protesters
News Type: Event — Seeded on Sat Nov 7, 2009 7:53 AM EST
Article Source: Think Progressadvertisement
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the corporate front group founded in the 1980s by Koch Industries billionaire David Koch, worked closely with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) to orchestrate the anti-health reform rally today. As ThinkProgress reported yesterday, AFP has been encouraging right-wing activists to board their buses — free of charge — to attend the rally. While AFP does not disclose all of its corporate donors, foundations controlled by David and Charles Koch provide millions in yearly funding, and David continues to chair the AFP foundation and preside over AFP's annual convention.
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 | Jewish Organizations Condemn GOP For Standing By As Tea Party Protesters Waved 'Vile' Anti-Semitic Signs | Think Progress | Sat Nov 7 | 127 |
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{"commentId":10538905,"authorDomain":"btco"}
ThinkProgress found at least a dozen AFP staffers standing at their designated bus drop off point near the Capitol, handing out signs, directions, talking points, petitions, and donuts to protesters. Many of the people who work at AFP are longtime Republican operatives, like Ben Marchi, the AFP Virginia director who previously worked for the National Republican Congressional Committee and for Rep. Tom Delay (R-TX). Victor Zapanta produced this video report of AFP staffers talking about their exploits at the rally today:
AFP STAFFERS: We have 25 buses just from Pennsylvania, New Jersey we probably have 5 or 6 from Maryland.
AFP STAFFERS: We have about 40 buses coming.
Yeah this is bull. A fake grass roots campaign with paid staff and marketing material.
And the biggest idiocy of all is these people are rallying against a plan to end the death of thousands of Americans each and every day by providing health care.
I say, pass the bill already, ignore these idiots on parade. It's the best thing to happen for the American people in my lifetime. Get it done.
{"commentId":10538905,"threadId":"718970","contentId":"3471412","authorDomain":"btco"}
- 4 votes
#1 - Sat Nov 7, 2009 7:57 AM EST{"commentId":10542330,"authorDomain":"PrimarySources"}
These fake grass roots campaign are meat and potatoes for the right, in particular. Not long ago, I wrote an article that completely exposed the idealogically driven, covertly non-grassroots nature of the Tea Party movement (I won't spam you with it, but if anyone wants I can send a link), and this is identical.
{"commentId":10542330,"threadId":"718970","contentId":"3471412","authorDomain":"PrimarySources"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":10543509,"authorDomain":"btco"}
Please share !!! I interested.
{"commentId":10543509,"threadId":"718970","contentId":"3471412","authorDomain":"btco"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":10543773,"authorDomain":"PrimarySources"}
{"commentId":10539009,"authorDomain":"the-spirit"}
Uh huh. And when ACORN and SEIU bus in protesters, that's just good old-fashioned community organizing, right?
The only standards liberals have are double standards.
{"commentId":10539009,"threadId":"718970","contentId":"3471412","authorDomain":"the-spirit"}
- 1 vote
#2 - Sat Nov 7, 2009 8:16 AM EST{"commentId":10539032,"authorDomain":"btco"}
Oh spare me spirit. Really, we are talking about billionaires who made their fortunes on the backs of sick Americans fighting real reform efforts to improve the actual health of real Americans.
{"commentId":10539032,"threadId":"718970","contentId":"3471412","authorDomain":"btco"}
- 4 votes
{"commentId":10539059,"authorDomain":"the-spirit"}
DC is a parking nightmare during the work week. The only practical way to get to a rally on Capitol Hill is by bus. As for billionaires who made their money on the backs of Americans, explain George Soros.
Hate makes people stoopid.
{"commentId":10539059,"threadId":"718970","contentId":"3471412","authorDomain":"the-spirit"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":10539123,"authorDomain":"btco"}
Hate makes people stoopid.
Please write that 1,000 times on a blackboard and remember it.
Read the article, listen to the paid employee explain the bus situation. This article is about the so called grass roots campaign that is anything but grassroots, not Soros, ACORN or any of that, get with the program.
{"commentId":10539123,"threadId":"718970","contentId":"3471412","authorDomain":"btco"}
- 5 votes
{"commentId":10539904,"authorDomain":"ispeedtoo"}
Community Organizing is what this was!
{"commentId":10539904,"threadId":"718970","contentId":"3471412","authorDomain":"ispeedtoo"}
#3 - Sat Nov 7, 2009 9:47 AM EST{"commentId":10540132,"authorDomain":"btco"}
Community Organizing is what this was!
Yep, bought and paid for by billionaires.
{"commentId":10540132,"threadId":"718970","contentId":"3471412","authorDomain":"btco"}
- 4 votes
{"commentId":10542340,"authorDomain":"PrimarySources"}
Yeah. Just like the Tea Parties.
/sarcasm.
{"commentId":10542340,"threadId":"718970","contentId":"3471412","authorDomain":"PrimarySources"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":10541236,"authorDomain":"zdrakes"}
The Kochs are billionaires. They made their money in the oil and gas industry and have enjoyed every government benefit through the massive corporate welfare program that has supported these endeavors for all of modernity. Koch is a prostate cancer survivor. So he has enjoyed great medical care and beat an illness that would have killed him if he hadn't been as fortunate as he has been.
So why does a guy who has enjoyed every benefit this country has to offer spend his hard earned money to kick less fortunate people away from medical screening, diagnosis and treatment? Why would he spend his money to perpetuate a failed system that costs thousands of others their health, their well being, their loved ones and their lives? The answer is probably multi-factorial ---bad company, poorly developed ethics, half-cocked ideology and of course the bias of self benefit.
We don't have to answer this question. It is enough that we all realize these movements are not what they seem. These are not masses of interested people who have paid their way to Washington to protest the way anti-war demonstrators did during the many barely publicized protests during the past decade. They are the astroturf, the artificial flowers, the canned music, the plasticized cardboard cutout props of the insurance and health care industry. Michele Bachman and her ilk spewing their hatred and attributing their rabid zeal to the faux fathers of this nation are no more than publicity stunt with which all our media is complicit.
{"commentId":10541236,"threadId":"718970","contentId":"3471412","authorDomain":"zdrakes"}
- 2 votes
#4 - Sat Nov 7, 2009 11:33 AM EST{"canLink":false,"threadId":"718970","isPrivate":false}
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