Is the Obama Administration Behind An Astroturf Anti-Tea Party Website?

A new anti tea party website has emerged that is raising some serious questions and speculation. This is right out of Cass Sunsteins playbook. If this is the result of his influence, it makes perfect sense and is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Astroturf is the act of professional interest groups designing campaigns that appear to be grassroots efforts, but are not. It is what the left has accused the tea parties of being. Only more and more it looks like the anti-tea party movement is truly astroturfing.

Writing on January 15, 2010, Glenn Greenwald at Salon noted Barack Obama’s new head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Cass Sunstein, had championed creating fake websites and using outside 501(c)(3) interest groups to act as alleged independent champions of government policy and to “cognitively infiltrate” opposition websites, etc.

In other words, Cass Sunstein has favored the government using outside parties as government propaganda agents to paint their opposition as fringe and undermine their credibility. Kind of like what has been happening with the tea party movement – lots of SEIU members pretending to be tea party activists causing violence in front of TV cameras.

Sunstein advocates that the Government’s stealth infiltration should be accomplished by sending covert agents into “chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups.” He also proposes that the Government make secret payments to so-called “independent” credible voices to bolster the Government’s messaging

Considering Sustein’s recommendations, it is not far removed to speculate the Obama administration is behind a new anti-tea party website called The Other 95, which defends the government from tea party criticisms and attacks the tea party movement as fringe.

The website purports to be authentically grassroots, though one must wonder when the last time was any grassroots activist took the time to defend the government.

The designer is affilated with MoveOn.org and other leftwing sites and causes.

But most notable, the donations page makes donations out to Democracy in Action. Democracy in Action is not for individual activists to use. It is for small and medium sized 501(c)(3) organizations and others on the left. Among its clients? ACORN, True Majority, NAACP, and others.

Hmmmm. . . .

Let’s also remember that Center for American Progress, led by Obama’s transition team director John Podesta, has regular 8 a.m. phone calls to coordinate activity on the left.

It’s a play right out of Lenin’s handbook, forget Alinsky, to call the authentic “inauthentic” and then create something inauthentic demanding it be called “authentic.”

www.redstate.com...


Here is the new website in question. Funny, this site simply coughs up the same rhetoric that I've heard somewhere before. The only tax break I got was for installing new windows in my house. I only had to spend $10,000 to get it. and the bank appraiser told me that the new windows won't increase the value of my home based on federal guidelines. Why not??

The other 95

[edit on 20-4-2010 by jibeho]

[edit on 20-4-2010 by jibeho]

Considering how many people disagree with the tea party movement & basically considers them a bunch of nuts, this is hardly surprising.

And it is hardly surprising that a conservative website would attack an anti tea party web site.

This is just more of the political madness that is plaguing America.
If you are looking for a conspiracy, I suggest you take a deeper look.

A good place to start would be to examine how the tea party went from being an essentially libertarian movement to the vehicle of the GOP & Sarah Palin.

Originally posted by MrVertigo
Considering how many people disagree with the tea party movement & basically considers them a bunch of nuts, this is hardly surprising.

You mean considering how the MSM portrays them as a bunch of nuts and people just believe it without bothering to learn anything about the movement on their own? Nope, not surprising in the least.

Originally posted by MrVertigo
Considering how many people disagree with the tea party movement & basically considers them a bunch of nuts, this is hardly surprising.

And it is hardly surprising that a conservative website would attack an anti tea party web site.

This is just more of the political madness that is plaguing America.
If you are looking for a conspiracy, I suggest you take a deeper look.

A good place to start would be to examine how the tea party went from being an essentially libertarian movement to the vehicle of the GOP & Sarah Palin.

There are several factions within the general concept of "The Movement" The faction that has gained the most notoriety and subsequent press coverage is the "Tea Party Express" and there are plenty of threads as of late that discuss the topic.

This thread addresses the nature and synthetic origins of a specific anti TPM website and the astro turfing on both sides of the movement.

Originally posted by MrVertigo
A good place to start would be to examine how the tea party went from being an essentially libertarian movement to the vehicle of the GOP & Sarah Palin.

This should be in quotes considering it's the same nonsense that MSM wants you to believe. The Tea Party has remained constant in its original mission and message -- the opposers just want you to think they have lost direction.

As I've said in another thread, the current motivations for BOTH parties, seems to simply be to villify and slander the other party in order to create a very sharp division among the American people. Almost as if the sides of a battlefield were being created right in DC.

And yes, I realize that partisanship is not a new concept, however the current mood has gone way beyond mere disagreements, and it's certainly a sad day when even our President decides that publicly mocking American citizens is the right course of action.

If you think it's not working, compare threads from before the election until now, and you will see a change taking place. The majority of posts used to simply tear politicians apart, on an individual basis, now, entire threads are dedicated to simply ripping entire parties and movements to shreds -- no matter what they seem to stand for. Further, and this in my opinion is even worse, the labeling of members has increased ten-fold and the utterance of a simple opinion can now land you on some "list". To me, this is a direct reflection of the nonsense currently going on in the White House.

Whether it's an indication that the Obama administrations' tactics are working, or that MSM is making headway in controlling popular opinion yet again, or that ATS has been infiltrated by exactly what is talked about in this article.....has yet to be determined.

Here is the founder of the Tea Party movement -- you'll notice he's not a libertarian.

Eric Odom, founder of American Liberty Alliance (ALA), the group that launched and organized the tea party movement across the country, announced Friday what he calls a movement-minded news portal and his answer to the the Huffington Post. While the domain and branding are secret for now, Odom has given his news portal a temporary name, Project 73.

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com...

About Eric Odom:

Eric Odom is a 29 year-old conservative activist, blogger and partner in the online media firm Strategic Activism LLC.

Source: www.sourcewatch.org...

Reminds me of all the ads I saw in the Boston Globe when I was job hunting in the early 80's.

Nuclear protesters wanted: We pay $10.00 per hour for you to protest the building of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant.....

And of course the money came out of the "Standard Oil" slush fund other wise known as the Rockefeller Foundation with a Canadian big oil man, Maurice Strong sitting on the board of directors.

We are being manipulated by the big financiers who have their fingers in all of the different pies. I am sure if you trace the money it will go right back to the Bankster - Oilmen. After all as Sanchoearlyjones noted, All the EPA does is strong-arm the small Ma and Pa businesses and leaves the big boys alone. The USDA/FDA does the same thing when it comes to our food supply and the "banking crisis" was designed to take out the little banks.

All the banks do is play with the Monopoly Money they create at will and then use "accounting practices" to cry crocodile tears as they convince a gullible/corrupt Congress to hand over more American tax payer Wealth

It is instructive to read Strong's 1972 Stockholm speech and compare it with the issues of Earth Summit 1992. Strong warned urgently about global warming, the devastation of forests, the loss of biodiversity, polluted oceans, the population time bomb. Then as now, he invited to the conference the brand-new environmental NGOs [non-governmental organizations]: he gave them money to come; they were invited to raise hell at home. After Stockholm, environment issues became part of the administrative framework in Canada, the U.S., Britain, and Europe. International Man of Mystery: Who Is Maurice Strong?

The Classic Liberal: Who is Maurice Strong?

The U.N.'s Man of Mystery: Is the godfather of the Kyoto treaty a public servant or a profiteer

Whatever the origins of the Tea Party movement there can be little doubt that it has been appropriated by Fox News, Sarah Palin etc. for their own agendas.

This is a potential conspiracy all in itself & certainly worth looking into.

But claiming that an anti TPM website is covertly managed by the Obama administration is problematic for the following resons:

1: The Obama administration doesn't need to do this. The TPM is already marginalized & pigeonholed to the extent that the political threat is negligible.
Is this done by the media? Maybe so, but it is done nevertheless.

2: In the current divisive political climate there are plenty of ordinary people who strongly disagree with the TPM not to mention the political grass roots movements who operate independently of the Dems.
It is well within the capabilities & motivations for any number of these groups or people to create a website, there's no real need for a conspiracy.

3: This article is from Redstate.com, who obviously have their own political motivations. It is clearly in their interests to protect the TPM by attacking whoever is critical of it with whatever means necessary.
Being a clearly partisan website & accusing others of being partisan is, well, transparent to say the least.


My opinion is that this is essentially political spin disguised as conspiracy theory. Just like you would see on Glen Beck.

reply to post by MrVertigo


Check out the site and follow the link on the donation page. The site is full of cut and pasted rhetoric right out of Obama's campaign.

Why does Obama continually and publicly mock tea party members?

This is the work of Sunstein who was appointed by Obama.

Originally posted by jibeho
reply to post by MrVertigo

 

Check out the site and follow the link on the donation page. The site is full of cut and pasted rhetoric right out of Obama's campaign.

Why does Obama continually and publicly mock tea party members?

This is the work of Sunstein who was appointed by Obama.

1: maybe because they cut & pasted their stuff from Obama's stuff?
It's the internet. People cut'n paste. It doesn't prove they are in cahoots.


2: Why does Obama mock them? I haven't personally seen examples of this, but honestly, how would you feel about a group of people claiming you are a Nazi, a Marxist a Muslim & a terrorist all at the same time.

That's just hard to take seriously.

And I know that this may not be representative of the entire movement, but this is a big part of the organizations public image. An image the organization bears at least some of the responsibility for.

after going over the "Other 95%'s" website I don't think Half the tweets are from real people. Why would Conservatives and Tea Party people, think the Other 95%... was were it was at? Just another Liberal attempt to reproduce some kind of movement. The administration attacks and threatens the Tea Party Movement, but you never once saw George bush bully the Anti-War hippies. What a Thin Skinned little man, we have as commander in chief.

Could people please links to examples of Obama & his administration ridiculing and threatening the Tea Party movement?

I have not seen examples of this and I would very much like to know if this is really the case.

reply to post by MrVertigo



Here's one.

"I've been a little amused over the last couple of days where people have been having these rallies about taxes. You would think they would be saying thank you," Obama said to a group of Democratic supporters who shelled out between $250 and $1250 to attend.

But it remains unclear who will get the last laugh: the president or the Tea Party?

"What the president said last night was arrogant and smug and a perfect example of why the Tea Party is so intense and so organized" said Republican strategist Terry Holt

Obama Amused Tea Party Rallies

I can assure you that the tea party is the least of the Democrats worries. Hopefully they will run Palin/Bachman in 2012.

Originally posted by Target Earth
The administration attacks and threatens the Tea Party Movement, but you never once saw George bush bully the Anti-War hippies. What a Thin Skinned little man, we have as commander in chief.

No they arrested them and put them in jail. How short your memory is.

reply to post by Alxandro


"I've been a little amused"

That's hardly ridicule and certainly not threatening.

At worst it's a little bit smug. Hardly something to get worked up about.
But trust Fox News to do so regardless

Ok. Other examples?

reply to post by damwel


pretty short... the Anti-War protest kinda got out of hand.....
So The Hippies had it coming, and It was local law enforcement ... Bush didn't order it.

Wow, this site is un-apologetic transparent low budget propaganda.. freak'n hilariously desperate & phony... someone feels threatened.. "Count me in"..lol, really?..baahaha, felony stupid.

An ATS thread drew a similarly retarded conclusion: the tea party, supposedly, didn't care about whatever issue, ergo they were suspicious or somecrap.. as if the GOP & DNC "care".. lol.. or are not polluted mentally insane side show freaks, chronic liars and upward failing useful idiot drones incapable of original non party approved thoughts / opinions..

other98.com... rizonas-immigration-law/#comments

One group that you might expect to stand up against this obvious assault on Liberty has been noticeably absent: The Tea Party. What gives? Tea Partiers have marched all last year in the name of personal freedom, lashing out against what they perceive as a sinister growth in government’s powers. It seems natural then, that they would be on the front lines when actual tyranny rears its ugly head. But no, the Tea Party’s leaders and its members have been dead silent or supportive of the law. It seems that the Tea Party's ubiquitous “Don’t Tread on Me” flags should really read “Tread on That Other Guy, Instead.”

Originally posted by Jenna

Originally posted by MrVertigo
Considering how many people disagree with the tea party movement & basically considers them a bunch of nuts, this is hardly surprising.

You mean considering how the MSM portrays them as a bunch of nuts and people just believe it without bothering to learn anything about the movement on their own? Nope, not surprising in the least.

If the MSM is portraying them as nuts and people believe it, then the point is valid. Lots of people think they are nuts. It really does not matter why in this instance. If people do it because they are ignorant, then they are ignorant but that does not change the fact that lots of people do in fact think they are nuts.

If you want to make them look good, either flush Dick Armey and Sarah Palin or justify them. Until then, you will all look nuts with or without the MSM.

Originally posted by jibeho
Why does Obama continually and publicly mock tea party members?

When?

Before you get defensive, I am simple asking when. I am not denying anything or baiting you. I have not heard it but I do not listen to him speak often and have not read about it. I am more than open to the idea he does I am just curious what he has said.

[edit on 16-5-2010 by K J Gunderson]

Originally posted by Target Earth
The administration attacks and threatens the Tea Party Movement, but you never once saw George bush bully the Anti-War hippies.

LMAO!
No bullying, just lock them up in "Free Speech Zones" and keep them away from you or the media. Ah memory is short around here.