To hook's credit, I recall such a post:

joe_schmoe:

Quote :

"and tea partiers are not some spontaneous grassroots movement. perhaps the idea was at the very conception, but ever since it hit the ground, it's been pure astroturf. Tea Party events have been organized and funded by two major GOP policy groups: "Americans For Prosperity" (Ralph Reed / Tim Phillips) and "Freedom Works" (Dick Armey). Not to mention a metric shitton of free, glowing publicity from Fox News and every blowhard right-wing talkshow host. it's no wonder 80% of Tea Partiers are self-identified Republicans."

But Breitbart has certainly earned some public disdain from his misleading promotion actions in the ACORN & Shirley Sherrod things.

[Edited on September 24, 2010 at 1:54 AM. Reason : .]

9/24/2010 1:51:44 AM

^ Thanks, Supp.

[Edited on September 24, 2010 at 2:01 AM. Reason : Well, I certainly agree about Sherrod, but that's hardly the point here. ]

9/24/2010 1:54:28 AM

Quote :

"But in reality, the movement was truly grassroots."

LOL

you are way wrong on that one.

Quote :

"But that's not even the point. The point is that the "protesters" in question couldn't support any of the claims on their signs about hate and other smears. "

But do you agree or disagree that Beck has said many hateful things, and tons of lies?

Quote :

"Would you mind simply addressing the content of the video instead of attempting to make some indirect attack on me? You do realize that it took place at a Glenn Beck rally, right? "

It’s one jackass shouting at other jackasses to generate some video clips he can use to get the naive, like you, riled up.

The tea party is definitely not a grass roots movement (I don’t know how any honest person could believe this looking at the facts), and Beck definitely promotes misinformation from his soap boxes. These are facts.

[Edited on September 24, 2010 at 9:35 AM. Reason : ]

9/24/2010 9:35:01 AM

really? you have facts that there is no grassroots support in the tea party at all? really? all the people at those rallies are bused in and paid by some republican committee? really? I'd LOVE to see such evidence. I'd love to see the evidence that many of my coworkers are being paid by the RNC to undermine the RNC

9/24/2010 1:25:36 PM

^
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tea_Party_movement_funding

Funding by billionaires and lobbyists is not really grassroots.

9/24/2010 2:09:32 PM

that someone provides funding to help further what millions of people feel is not evidence of astroturf. I'm asking to show that all of the people who are showing up to these rallies are being paid to show up. I'm asking to be shown that the feelings of these people are not genuine.

What you and moron are doing is little more than ad-hominem. "Hey, this crazy guy Koch is paying a lot of money into it! Therefor it's all fake!"

9/24/2010 2:57:22 PM

Quote :

"I'm asking to show that all of the people who are showing up to these rallies are being paid to show up."

That's completely irrelevant to whether it's astroturfed or not.

9/24/2010 3:04:18 PM

absolutely not. if the people are genuine in their belief, then what the fuck does it matter that someone else is paying some part of the major financial needs of it? The people are running the show, not Koch. it's ad-hominem plain and simple. and that's all there has ever been against the Tea Party movement. ad-hominem. No discussion of what they are actually saying. Just simple calling them racists and the like.

[Edited on September 24, 2010 at 3:19 PM. Reason : ]

9/24/2010 3:18:28 PM

Koch actually did have a hand in getting the movement started through his "American's For Prosperity Foundation". In sense these people end up serving as pawns for major corporate interests:

From the New Yorker:

A few weeks after the Lincoln Center gala, the advocacy wing of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation—an organization that David Koch started, in 2004—held a different kind of gathering. Over the July 4th weekend, a summit called Texas Defending the American Dream took place in a chilly hotel ballroom in Austin. Though Koch freely promotes his philanthropic ventures, he did not attend the summit, and his name was not in evidence. And on this occasion the audience was roused not by a dance performance but by a series of speakers denouncing President Barack Obama. Peggy Venable, the organizer of the summit, warned that Administration officials “have a socialist vision for this country.”

Five hundred people attended the summit, which served, in part, as a training session for Tea Party activists in Texas. An advertisement cast the event as a populist uprising against vested corporate power. “Today, the voices of average Americans are being drowned out by lobbyists and special interests,” it said. “But you can do something about it.” The pitch made no mention of its corporate funders.


Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer#ixzz10Tst21gb

9/24/2010 4:34:05 PM

The TEA party is about as grassroots as Organizing for America.

Both claim to be grassroots movements, but both are mostly run from the top-down.

9/24/2010 5:55:08 PM

Quote :

"The people are running the show, not Koch."

Yes, people who spout nothing but vague uneducated nonsense or talking points they learned from Palin or Beck are totally running the show. They're not being manipulated at all by these political figures whose cult of personality they buy into completely.

Now, I'm not saying there is no one in the Tea Party able to think for themselves, or that there's no one in the Tea Party with genuinely thought-out beliefs against the expansion of government power... but they're very much in the minority. Mostly it's just a GOP shill.

9/24/2010 6:01:38 PM

Quote :

"absolutely not. if the people are genuine in their belief, then what the fuck does it matter that someone else is paying some part of the major financial needs of it?"

It doesn't matter, unless of course you are trying to say that group is grassroots when they are not.

9/24/2010 6:09:33 PM

what are some recent (past 20 years) grassroots organizations that have gained traction without the help of corporate financial backers or an entity with preexisting power lending their support?

getting betty white to host snl comes to mind

but then again, that happened as a result of her being in a superbowl commercial

9/24/2010 6:51:51 PM

Hilarious. I love this guy.

http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/glenn-beck-evolution-is-ridiculous----i-havent-seen-a-half-monkey-half-person-yet.php

Quote :

"On his radio show today, Beck wondered how many people in the country believe in evolution, and said he doesn't: "I don't think we came from monkeys. I think that's ridiculous. I haven't seen a half-monkey, half-person yet."

10/21/2010 9:13:24 AM

If by love, you mean weep for the huge chunk of society that takes the garbage this asshole says at face value, then yeah, love him. Wonder how long it'll be before I get a forward from my grandparents about evolution.

10/21/2010 11:22:00 AM

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand

Thats all, folks.

Quote :

"NEW YORK -- Glenn Beck later this year will end his Fox News Channel talk show, which has sunk in the ratings and has suffered from an advertiser boycott."

4/7/2011 8:48:46 AM

He'll still be working for Fox, and his show is still the top-rated amongst its competitors. The advertiser boycott says something, but he still has a massive following.

I wonder who the new face of malcontent will be.

4/7/2011 9:20:46 AM

Quote :

"I wonder who the new face of malcontent false content will be."

4/7/2011 10:27:45 AM

Chris Matthews?

4/7/2011 11:16:13 AM

It seems like he talks about the same thing every day.

4/7/2011 2:27:05 PM

He ran out of material. It happens to all great television shows eventually.

4/7/2011 4:13:36 PM

He flew too high on wings made of tin foil

4/7/2011 6:38:53 PM

Quote :

"but he still has a massive following."

hitler had a massive following too.

4/7/2011 7:03:14 PM

^ Yeah, that's saying something. Hitler was pretty fucking awesome. Autobahn, VW and shit.

4/7/2011 8:17:13 PM

Days like this make me wish Keith still had a show.

4/8/2011 6:20:26 AM