I like this..

Gee, this is sooo surprising!

Bloggers charge 'Tea Party' anti-stimulus protests are corporate front

Muriel Kane Published: Sunday March 1, 2009
Print This Email This

UPDATE (at bottom): Playboy's story apparently taken down.

Update: I stashed a copy of the original article here

When a few hundred protesters showed up in each of some 30 or 40 cities nationwide on Friday to object to President Obama's stimulus plan, they claimed that the well-coordinated protests had arisen spontaneously in response to a tirade against mortgage bailouts, delivered just over a week earlier, on February 19, by CNBC's Rick Santelli.

Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin enthusiastically called the "Tea Party" protests "a fledgling grassroot movement" and some of the protesters even described themselves as the vanguard of a "new conservative counterculture." Those claims naturally aroused a certain amount of skepticism, since similar activities in the past have proven to be not genuine grassroots activity but so-called corporate "astroturf."

Now fresh revelations suggest that the skepticism may be well-placed. Mark Ames and Yasha Levine allege in their blog at Playboy.com that the protests were planned well in advance, coordinated by old-line anti-tax organizations, and funded by right-wing corporate interests.

"What hasn’t been reported until now is evidence linking Santelli’s 'tea party' rant with some very familiar names in the Republican rightwing machine," they write, "from PR operatives who specialize in imitation-grassroots PR campaigns (called 'astroturfing') to bigwig politicians and notorious billionaire funders. As veteran Russia reporters, both of us spent years watching the Kremlin use fake grassroots movements to influence and control the political landscape. To us, the uncanny speed and direction the movement took and the players involved in promoting it had a strangely forced quality to it. If it seemed scripted, that's because it was."

As described by Ames and Levine, Santelli's call for a "tea party" in Chicago next summer was quickly picked up by a website called ChicagoTeaParty.com and spread from there to the Drudge Report. However, the ChicagoTeaParty.com domain is not new. It was registered last summer by the producer of a right-wing radio show in Chicago and, the writers allege, is one of several tied to the anti-tax group FreedomWorks, which is among the sponsors of the current protests.

FreedomWorks is the latest incarnation of an organization formerly known as Citizens for a Sound Economy, which was founded in 1984 "to anonymously leverage corporate contributions into debates on public policy." CSE had close ties to Koch Industries and became one of the major recipients of grant money from conservative foundations and major corporations such as Exxon, Philip Morris, and General Motors.

In 2003, CSE's affiliate, the Citizens for a Strong Economy Foundation, split off and renamed itself Americans for Prosperity. (That group is also a sponsor of the current protests.) CSE itself merged the following year with Empower America -- another fake grassroots group created by Republican Party insiders to promote conservative candidates -- and formed FreedomWorks.

Posters at Democratic Underground have found that a number of anti-bailout and anti-stimulus groups are hosted by the dedicated servers of Citizens for a Sound Economy. In addition to cse.org, empoweramerica.org, and freedomworks.com, those servers also host such domains as angryrenter.com (which was registered in March 2008 to oppose bailouts for mortgage holders), destimulus.com, earmarkpledge.com, nowallstreetbailout.com, and usteaparty.com.

Any connection ChicagoTeaParty.com may have to this network is not clear, since it is not among the domains hosted on the CSE servers. However, the involvement of FreedomWorks in the protests and the appearance of the apparently related domain "usteaparty.com" suggest that those seeking the origin of the "Tea Party" protests in this area may be on the right track.

UPDATE:

Playboy has apparently taken down its story. The Atlantic's Megan McArdle has the full text.

The link between Santelli and the so-called astroturfing groups "is potentially libelous, which is, I assume, why the article disappeared this morning," wrote McArdle.

"If I were Santelli, I'd sue. Aside from the fact that I have absolutely no reason to question Santelli's sincerity, I find it pretty hard to believe that any private group would be willing to front enough money to make it worth a television correspondent's while to risk all his future salary payments."

Republican blogger/pundit Michelle Malkin laid down covering fire for the "tea parties," lampooning their alleged ties to Santelli.

"The wheels of the 'Tea Party' movement had already been set in motion by folks who probably had never heard of Santelli — let alone the Koch Foundation — when they decided to take to the streets," she wrote, after calling reporters Mark Ames and Yasha Levine, who authored Playboy's piece, "loons."

A phone call to Playboy media relations went unreturned late Monday.

Stephen C. Webster contributed to this report.

Join The Resistance

OK, for the final time.. How the system works.

Throughout history, humanity has suffered incredible injustices and abuse from its governments and leaders. The powerful crave more power. The Rich crave more wealth. The people take it on the chin, because they think that that is what they are supposed to do. Eventually the status quo becomes unlivable. The people stand up, go find their leaders, go all Clive Barker on the elite and start the whole cycle over again.

Example. The Bourbon Dynasty of France.. circa 1600's. The Bourbon kings amassed the wealth of the Nation into their pockets, partied their asses off and impressed the other European blue bloods with lavish parties. They lit up their hills and reveled while the starving masses starved below. Eventually, the masses had enough and the next day, they had to invent a new device to kill the aristocracy fast enough.

Skip to the present. American ingenuity has solved the "Easy Target" problem of the Bourbons. Instead of one group taking the blame for the economic imbalance, have a two-party system. Make sure to polarize the two groups beyond any rational thought, that way the people on each side will have to stay way the fuck away from the people on the other side. As long as you ca keep 40% of the population spitting insults at the the other side , there will never be enough cohesion to allow for revolution. And don't lose any sleep over the 20% who have enough common sense to stay independent. Both sides hate them.

If you don't believe me, look into the support and financial backing of any politician. They are all paid equally by the same groups. Big Pharma, Oil, HMO's etc... "They are as rich in English title as Scottish ones. Why would they risk that to fight for their country?" -Edward the Longshanks from the Movie "Braveheart".

I saw a game plan that actually made sense the other day.. Fire the Fed and the IRS. Institute a flat tax. Mandatory public funding of all elections. Total transparency of gifts and ifluence. Limit the President to one 6 year term. Limit Congress and the Senate to two terms each. Judicial Appointments to be reviewed by the Public, amd Judicial terms beung indefinite, but not for life. Make a voter ballot style removal procedure. I would add, reinstatement of the 7-7-7 law. Break up the media monopoly. End the War on Drugs. Retract the Hanes Act. Allow Community WI-FI Programs to launch by removing corporate injunctions of Taxpayer benefits for the systems they already paid for.. etc etc..

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it would be a good start.

In Memory of Lee Fuller

Average Joe, on March 27th, 2009 at 2:25 am Said:

“The government, made up of our elected representatives, the people we chose to represent our interests in Washington, D.C., and our various state and local government centers, has become a political machine operating on the principal that if something is popular, then it’s OK. This “government by popularity poll” has gotten us into the mess we’re in today, and doesn’t seem capable of getting us out of it.”

Not trying to split hairs here… but the popularity debacle of which you speak is called “democracy” in lay man’s terms. The Greeks experimented with it a few thousand years ago and discarded it as a valid form of government once they realized that; “Given the opportunity, the empowered people would invariably vote to give themselves the sum of the treasury.”

That being said.. and of course, being evidenced by recent events… What do you suggest as a solution? I am sincerely interested in your answer and am not here facetiously.

I anxiously await your response.

Side note... As was once told to me by a wise man....

"It is easy to start a reform movement. Everything sucks. No one likes that. Point out the vague negative effects of which the majority believe they are experiencing and you can hook them all in the short term. In the long term you fail, because wiser men than me have been trying, in vain, to solve those problems since the beginning of human history. Yeah, its all fucked up.
We know that. We just don't know how to fix it." -Lee Fuller (R) Texas

Wha? The Fa?

When Bush wire tapped everyone, Beck and the Bunch said, "Trust your leader" When Fallujah was genocided in 2004 by the US forces using chemical weapons, they said the same. Habaes corpus, gone. Torture, accepted. Nations invaded, atmosphere destroyed, oceans raped.. all of the media but Olberman waving flags to hide their duct taped mouths and no one had a problem...
Then a black guy moves into the white house and its the end of the American Dream? No one else find this funny?

The State of the Nunion (pronounced new niun)

I have a basic problem with the factions arguing this issue. My problem is that I can remember events and parties involved for longer than any network commercial break.
I am against the bail out! I was against it when conservatives were doing theirs. I am against the liberal labeled amount as well. I was also against the unweighed and uncounted pallets of $ shipped to Iraq.
!2 months ago, I was a leftist dissident in this country. Today I am a right wing-nut. My opinions have not changed. This happens to me every 8 years or so. Our govt changes it's position on a perceived political spectrum/graph, but it's actions, behaviors and agenda stay exactly the same. We are told to blame "them" and watch "them" while our freedom is flanked and eaten from both sides...

Science Fiction franchise Project 912 forced to launch early, creating the very first Open Source series in the history of media

Paranoid conspiracy Science Fiction site Project 912 is forced to launch early in the wake of Glenn Beck's paranoid conspiracy site 912 Project.

Open Source Entertainment
A team of producers, directors, and actors calling themselves Project 912, who have spent the last year developing a science fiction franchise for the Internet, have moved the launch of the world's first open source science fiction series forward several months, in part due to conservative talk show host Glenn Beck's launch of a similarly named site. The Project 912 team is currently filming episodes in the Pacific North West and was set to launch the site May 25 2009.

The storyline revolves around an underground resistance movement fighting a secret war against multi-dimensional beings known only as "The Threat". The Threat controls every aspect of our society through five corporations, Infinity Cable, Hygea Pharmacueticals, Hancock Worldwide, DemTech Foods, and The Kinkaid Group, known collectively as "The Fist". The only way for the resistance to see any member of the Threat is to take a highly addictive drug known on the streets as "Clear".

The first season's "Series Bible," laying out the plot parameters which content creators must adhere to, is available online at Project 912. Anyone can download it, create content, and then upload their content to the Project 912 website as an open source submission. As people add content, the storyline will adapt to reflect the public input. Later versions of the Series Bible will evolve as additions are added by the community, making it a completely dynamic experience. The main storyline will be available on Project912.com and a worldwide content creation contest will soon be underway.

Andros Sturgeon and the Future of Entertainment
"My earliest childhood memory is of sitting at the knee of my father; author Theodore Sturgeon, at science fiction conventions and hanging out with the original cast of Star Trek." Says concept creator Andros Sturgeon. "I've always been fascinated by the amazing ideas fans would come up with, and am well aware of some of the incredible fan films which have been made based on other franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek, some of them better than the original stories they are based on. While I believe that this kind of user-created content is the future of the entertainment industry, no one in Hollywood does, and if they say they do, they have no idea of how to do it.

"We have a social networking site up and running at http://project912.net. On this site, people can create characters, upload content and soon, they will actually be able to play those characters online in a 912 RPG.

We have a whole list of really innovative ideas that we will be launching in the next few months, including smart phone apps and exclusive video on demand content.

Project 912 vs. The 912 Project...enter Glenn Beck
The Project 912 team had the intention of launching the entire endeavor in early May of 2009, when on Friday March 13th, the Project 912 email box was suddenly filled with people wanting to join The Human Resistance.

"I hadn't launched yet, but all of a sudden, we had 60,000 visitors in the course of a few hours. Project 912 was the most Googled item according Google Trends," says Sturgeon. "I had no idea why, but it didn't take long to figure it out."

Beck’s launch of his “9 Principles and 12 Values” Project, which was initially showcased by a Prime Time Fox News Special, led to the unexpected mass exposure and subsequent early launch of Project 912.

"The hilarity of the whole thing is that Beck's site is all about a government conspiracy.” Sturgeon added, “You know, Obama and Pelosi are boogie-men, out to take away our guns and our freedoms and what not, while no one is paying attention. Our site is about multi-dimensional beings who control everything, having taken away our freedoms while no one was paying attention. We've been inundated with emails from Beck's followers who don't realize the difference between science fiction and what he says on his show."

Contest
Aside from filming original content, Project 912 will be launching a contest in the next few days for fans to create original content. There are plans to hold film festival in Portland this summer.

The "Team”
In addition to Andros Sturgeon, the Project 912 team includes among others, actor Rod Piper, writer George Clayton Johnson, and acclaimed viral video producer Andi West, known to millions as Reverend X of Blasted Reality, Creator/Editor of the blog sites A Post Apocalyptic and Killing Time.

###

For more information, go to www.project912.info. Or you may contact Andros Sturgeon directly at press@project912.com

A Letter from my Boss

Subject Heading: Glen Beck's 912 project VS. SF internet series project912

What is Project 912? Why are thousands of Glen Beck's viewers either accusing me of hacking his site or joining something called the "Human Resistance"? How did my website get 50,000 hits in an hour thanks to Mr. Beck?

My name is Andros Sturgeon. I am an Internet Media Producer and Entertainment Pioneer. I'm producing an online Science Fiction series here in the Pacific Northwest called ‘Project 912'. Without a doubt, it will be the most subversive series in the history of entertainment. Science Fiction is in my blood, passed on from my father, author Theodore Sturgeon .

A bit of background. About a year ago, I had an idea for a Science Fiction series. A damn good one. Something so unique and so original that I knew it would have legs. I grew up in LA, worked in the industry for almost 10 years and knew a few people. Made some calls set up some meetings and flew out to my old stomping ground in Hollywood.

I pitched 'Project 912' as a TV show... as an online game. As a social networking site. And much, much more. ‘Project 912' is as revolutionary as the Iphone... transfiguration into a whole new entity. It's Web 3.0 or maybe 3.1. Nothing like what we are doing here has ever been done before.

And that was the problem. Lots of doors slammed in my face. A few more on my foot.

So I went back to the drawing board and decided to go completely outside the studio system. I've been quietly working on this for the past year. Next thing I know, Mr. Beck creates a site that sounds very similar to mine and from what I can tell, even gave out my URL, project912.com, by accident, forcing me to pre-launch a bit earlier than expected.

Right now, I have an army of about 40 volunteers, a screen writing team, a storyboard artist and a production team ready to go. Every day people ask to help out. We are just a few weeks from principle photography. But we aren't stopping there. We have an entire world of web content. We have a social networking site up and running and we are designing an online game. The guy who runs the web design part of the Project found an illustrator out of nowhere and is creating a six issue graphic novel. That's being worked on as you read this. Look me up on IMDB.com and you'll see I've gone from 1.8 million in ranking to 250,000. And we haven't gone live yet. The reaction and support was surreal to begin with.

So it's rather funny that I'm getting emails from Glen Beck fans. See, as I said, my series is entirely subversive. It's about a secret war between humans and hidden beings known as "The Threat." In my storyline, everything you experience in this world is put there and manufactured by The Threat to keep humans as a slave workforce. It's a vast, paranoid conspiracy.

The only difference between my storyline and Glen Beck's is the substitution of "The Threat" for the names "Nancy Pelosi and "Barack Obama".

Even funnier is the notion that in going to my site, a frantic message tells you have stumbled onto the human resistance, yet it is quickly obvious that one is dealing with a work of fiction.

However, my email box is currently filled with paranoid rants from Beck's fans, asking me if they can join my resistance thinking my site is his.

I'm not sure if it says more about Beck's fans that they can't tell the difference between reality and Science Fiction, or more that my storyline feels completely real to people.

We'll find out when we go live in the next month or two.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me here:

Andros@atsturgeon.com

Thank you,

Andros T. Sturgeon

www.project912.com/.net/.info

Glenn Beck, Irony and a Twist of Fate

It would appear that Glenn Beck has launched a web site with a similar url to Project 912. It would also appear that he either gave out the wrong url or that his viewers misunderstood the address and have been visiting us.

What Project 912 is...
An open source multi media entertainment concept which is still in development.
The story line has been created.
Multiple web sites have been created as anchors for the concept.
A web series of short video clips is currently in production in Portland, OR and surrounding areas. A 6 issue comic book is being finished at this moment and will be going to the publishers by next month.
A social network has been launched to help content creation and to be the base for an online role playing game.

Well, he's off to a great start...

Key components of the secret structure developed under Bush are being swept away: The military's Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, facility, where the rights of habeas corpus and due process had been denied detainees, will close, and the CIA is now prohibited from maintaining its own overseas prisons. And in a broad swipe at the Bush administration's lawyers, Obama nullified every legal order and opinion on interrogations issued by any lawyer in the executive branch after Sept. 11, 2001.

"IDF not targetting civilians" says one honest IDF officer

I would have to agree with him there. The IDF is not targeting civilians... Hell, they are not targeting anyone or anything at all. As can be seen in this AP photo. Israel is simply pointing their weapons systems at the Gaza area and firing. Each one of the smoke trails shown in this picture is the tell tale tail of an explosive warhead. The blown-the-fuck-up area those trails lead to is a densely populated civilian area of Gaza. This is only one picture of one moment... The UN thinks there may be War Crimes being committed by the IDF. The UN is blind, deaf and useless, but even it can grasp the painfully obvious.

I have been saying for years that the Zionist leadership of Israel was engaged in a reenactment of the Holocaust, only with themselves reenacting the Third Reich's part in it. Well, I guess they could not live up to the German's obsessive compulsive engineer's methodology. So, if at first you can't succeed, use all those inhumane weapons you bought from the US. Fuckin' Brilliant. Since the US seems hell bent at doing nothing to stop this genocide, we can only hope that it continues it's do nothing policy when the rest of the world steps in and turns Israel into a parking lot. I am not taking a side in this conflict other than, if the US won't stand up against the slaughter now, why should it stand up in the very near future against the same tragedy.

Welcome to the end. My only friends, the end.

As We Near the Last Throes of this War Crime...

A Wink and a Smile for the Rot

She is a wicked, sarcastic white chick with a Black Panther alter ego... Truly a dichotomy as hard as the times we live in!

The Hurry Up and Wait Strategy of the Bail Out

Bail out. Bail out. Bait out. We had approve it. It was an emergency. Nothing could delay it, not reason, logic or democracy. One would expect that with such need, the implementation of said urgent salvation would be immediate or at the very least, a priority. So why is it that a month and a half later, they have yet to do anything with the money?
Because the bail out was a cleverly duplicit code named for the last action of rats on a doomed ship. Our economy, in theory, is a free market economy. In reality we have a command economy that is experiencing a premeditated murder- suicide. Our fiet currency is being drowned in a bath tub. How is that possible?

Well, at the onset of an economic downturn, the government allocated a market manipulative amount of money for the sole purpose of manipulating our economy. Investors have now waited for weeks for the allocated money to be divided and en route to its new beholden charity. No one will invest in anything until that money comes out of limbo and is used. There is no point in investing in anything so long as the major factor influencing profit or loss is governmental interference. Yes, the government knows what they are doing. No they are not doing anything to positively influence our economy. They are merely waving their bail out over the market like a voodoo totem. Every day they wait, the economy suffers more and becomes less likely to stabilize. Write and call you Senator and Representative and tell them that economic sabotage is treason. Do it today.

Touch the Spider

This sums up my thoughts well.

I feel the need to explain myself

Thanx to a comment I received from someone, I feel the need to explain just where I am coming from politically.

9 years ago I was put on the federal watch list of right wing militia psychos. I have stated repeatedly that Clinton should have been impeached for the massacre of the Branch Davidians at Waco. Anyone who believes the "Official" story is severely lacking in the ability to think critically. Let's just look at the 1st point of that story. Heavily armed ATF agents were dispatched to a Religious Compound to check on the well being of the congregation's children. Does that sentence make any sense? No. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire Arms? There is nothing in their Charter that kids can even purchase. Normally, agents from CYFD or a similiar state agency would make the housecall, accompanied by Sheriff's officers if need be. After that part, the official story really falls apart fast. So, there I was as an outspoken Right Wing Domestic Threat.

For the last 5 years I have been listed as a leftist threat. Yes, even to the point of temporarily blessing the no fly list with my presence. Why? Cuz I made some educational videos about basic physics and released them onto the web. Due partly to my having taken Physics at one point in my life, but mostly due to my having blown a lot of shit up, I could not accept the "Official" story of 911. Well, that made me a Leftist Threat and possible Domestic Terrorist. So if you look at the records, I flip flopped like FAA Testimony before a Congressional Commission. (That's quite a bit of flappin!)

Funny thing is, I have not changed.
My political views are quite plain and understandable. I want small government. Tax money to go towards uplifting social programs, improved infrastructure and education. And for us, the US, to get out of the business of killing people all over the world. Let me explain these 3 ideas.

By small government, I do not mean classifying 80% of what the government does so no one can see the size of it.
I mean, returning traditional county and state responsibilities, like law enforcement, to the counties and states.
I want to know that an aspirin is an aspirin, but I should not have to sneak into Canada to buy it. We have Anti-Trust laws on the books. Use 'Em.
We have Labor Laws on the Books. Enforce 'em. Punish the Companies hiring illegal immigrants and they will be forced to stop. Then, with no demand for them here, those immigrants will be far less likely to make the trip. That beats the hell out of building a garrisoned Fortress America wall and quartering an army in the Southwest.
Also, have reviews of Pork Barrell spending that actually effect the originators of the crap legislation.

Uplifiting Social Programs? Well, like Workfare, or funding vocational and higher education for everyone and yes, if need be... welfare. We spend enough money a week fucking up Iraq to feed every person in this country 3 out of those 7 days. So yeah, I'd much rather see everyone with a big block of Government Cheese than the eyes of one more Iraqi child with nothing left but the need to seek revenge against us. But here, if you have not seen that enough those eyes, I made this for you.

Finally, the part about not killing anyone. That I believe is self evident in the words "...get out of the business of killing people all over the world". I know it might be hard for some to grasp, but if you kill a person, you do not win the Hearts and Minds of the people who loved that person. So, if you do not want the people of the world to feel compelled to strap bombs to their asses and run at us, you need to stop giving them reasons to do just that. So stop bombing them. Eventually, they won't want to grow up to be terrorists anymore.

I'd like to thank Trolly for being stupid enough to inspire this writing.

Thanks, you friggin' idiot!

I Guess Nixon Really Wasn't a Crook... Comparatively.

At least he was trying to steal an Election. I can accept a person that gives in to the "Big Score" temptation. What I hate are the friggin' tweaker types. The petty theft. The shoplifting crap you'll never use. And most of all... The petty-cheap-rich thieves.

You know, the wealthy husband who throws a tip on the table, but once the wife looks away, he snags the $4 back. I know you've seen 'em. Somebody drops money in the store and their miser ass swoops instantly, then helps the person look for the "lost $5" for half an hour. Yeppers. I hate those people, don't you?

So, I guess that means that we hate Sarah Palin too!

Check it. Sarah Palin rang up over $20k jet setting her kids around with her. Sound like a good parent? Yeah, at first it does sound that way. She wanted her kids involved in her life. Too bad none of the places she went to had a damn thing for kids to do!

Basically, aside from her fraud-for-cheapness-retrograde-book-cooking, I have a problem with this whole scenario. There are two things in this world that I despise.

1)Child bearing for no reason other than to milk the Welfare system a little more.

2) Illegal Forced Child Labor. Especially when that slave labor is State Sanctioned.

Well, Palin is guilty of one of these two heinous acts. You decide which for yourself. Either she was dragging her kids, who had no business being there, all over the country on the Taxpayers dime. Just flying that First Class Welfare ticket with no plans on earning it, or she was forcing her poor Oliver Twistish children to travel long hours and endure that misery in order to use them to perform tasks and labor which she apparently thought to be beneath her well paid staff. Forced child labor. Children picking up the unwanted civic responsibilities and duties of the State. Even Sam Walton would despise her for that.

So, do you really want a Perpetual Welfare Mother/Child Abuser/ Petty Thief sworn in as our Leader? Sure all our leaders have been thieves and liars, but at least they knew how to think big!!

My Old Vid using "Crazy" by Gnarlz Barcley

And the lyrics...

Gnarls Barkley Lyrics
Crazy Lyrics