Paul Ryan Mocks Idea That Tea Parties Are Astroturf At A Tea Party Organized By A Lobbyist Group
Paul Ryan Mocks Idea That Tea Parties Are Astroturf At A Tea Party Organized By A Lobbyist Group
ThinkProgress first reported that corporate front groups run by lobbyists were orchestrating the radical anti-Obama tea party protests held yesterday. One of the front groups that mobilized the protests is Americans for Prosperity, an organization funded by oil industry money and run by Tim Phillips, a former partner in Ralph Reed’s lobbying firm. On Monday, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman noted these these “astroturf” campaigns were meant to appear as a grassroots, spontaneous protests.
Speaking at a tea party protest in Madison, Wisconsin yesterday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) mocked Krugman’s assertions:
RYAN: Earlier this week, a columnist from the New York Times wrote about these events and I want to read you a few quotes. What we have here today is an astroturf event, a fake grassroots event. These rallies don’t represent a spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment. What do you all think about that? [audience boos]
Watch it:
Ironically, the very event at which Ryan mocked the idea of astroturfing was one of the many tea parties organized by Americans for Prosperity.
In addition to arranging for buses to bring people to the Madison tea party, Americans for Prosperity staff wrote press releases to publicize the event, coordinated logistics, and even distributed talking points. Matt Block, the Wisconsin state director for Americans for Prosperity, shared the stage with Ryan, delivering one of the keynote speeches.
As critics have pointed out, Ryan and other GOP lawmakers are embracing the lobbyist-backed tea parties in a bid to return to the failed policies of the Bush administration. Ryan, the ranking member on the House Budget Committee, offered the Republican alternative budget last month. His budget not only cost $225 billion more than the Democratic plan, but gave the average CEO $1.5 million in tax breaks.
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Irony isn’t dead…why, every time a republican opens his mouth, the corpse is exhumed and walks again…
April 16th, 2009 at 5:35 pmIf busses were arranged to bring people in, is that truely a gras-roots, local, action ? And does that also increase my suspicion that many folks at the rallies were paid actors ?
I’m trying to remember the exact wording from the Wizard of Oz – don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtain who isn’t there.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:44 pmIn before a wingnut posts “why are you liberals against people protesting?”
Pre-emptive strike: We’re not against them protesting. We’re against the people organizing and promoting the protests pretending that they’re not organizing and promoting the protests.
Why are they hiding their involvement?
April 16th, 2009 at 5:46 pmDo these folks think out their slogans.
Everything Hitler did was legal. Debatable, but let’s accept it for right now.
So what does that mean for the stuff W did ?
April 16th, 2009 at 5:46 pmLet’s not confuse the organization of these events and its actual content and attendees. The people that come to these events expect them to be sites where they can vent about the government and voice their freedom of speech.
For many of the attendees, they were not given signs to hold (from what we can gather about this) and were not told what to say, but this is not to say that their planning and organization was by the same people.
These are Woodstock ‘94/Lollapalozza events. Provide a forum to the people supported by corporations, and they come with their own messages.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:47 pmI’ve said it before: anyone who needs to take a bus to a political event is protesting against their best interests.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:49 pmI’m curious — What is the basis for comparing Obama to Hitler?
April 16th, 2009 at 5:50 pmBlind, deaf, and mute to the truth,
but more than willing to pander to a group of people deliberately misled as to the content of their own well being.
Some things are way worse than pimping, and Mr. Ryan has subscribed willingly to one of them.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:51 pmTea Party-goers are scared white people…afraid of a changing demographic…
Intolerance for ambiguity and a need for social dominance are hallmarks of the conservative / right wing ideology.
Sad really…
April 16th, 2009 at 5:54 pmZooey, they both were supported by black people? They both were great orators? They both had two legs, two arms, two eyes, and two ears?
Or, who needs a basis?
April 16th, 2009 at 5:55 pmZooey Lepidoptera Says:
I’m curious — What is the basis for comparing Obama to Hitler?
They both have mustaches?
Oh, wait…they both have 10 fingers?
April 16th, 2009 at 5:55 pmOk guys, I get it. :-D
Thanks.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:56 pmMany messages were hateful, racist, and down right embarrassing. The biggest complaint seemed to be that our President is African American. What losers these hateful, racist protesters are.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:56 pmwho the hell is jesse russell…?
i’m not clicking on any sick stuff, but you put the name out like he’s someone to know… no thanks.
.
yesterday i heard a report noting how proud the righties are that they can embrace the technology and plan gatherings “too”!
woo hoo!
April 16th, 2009 at 5:59 pmzooey – he “gave good speeches too” …
April 16th, 2009 at 6:04 pmand took away the guns…
pete Says:
I’ve said it before: anyone who needs to take a bus to a political event is protesting against their best interests.
I don’t see all that much wrong with bussing in protests. Maybe someone is volunteering the use of a bus or paying out of their own pocket to help people that are part of the same belief. I wonder just how many people showed up to the Million-Man March by bus.
I don’t mind bussing, as long as it’s not to fill events to inflate numbers. Didn’t they bus people to the poorly-attended McCain rally in Florida near the end of his campaign?
April 16th, 2009 at 6:04 pmI’m wondering where they bussed the people from. Madison is much more known for its liberal politics.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:07 pmI think it’s because if you can’t afford a car or a limo you just got a tax break from President Obama.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:14 pmYesterdays “Protests” cofirm what we have been seeing since before election day.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:15 pmThe GNOP is now officially the party of the extreme right and those who are frightened of change. They will be out of power (god willing) for at least the next 20 years.
Thanks, Doodlebug Shayne.
I should have specified “GOP political event”.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:23 pmWhat I would like to see next is a call for a pat on the back. A ‘grassroots’ movement calling for people to come out and support their President. Just put it out that if you think the President is doing the best he can with the pile of crap he has been handed, come out and say yes.
Don’t have to agree with everything, just hold the thought he is seriously trying.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:31 pmI like that, Hoodathunktick. :)
April 16th, 2009 at 6:33 pmHoodathunktick.
We can only hope that someday these people will face reality, but I wouldn’t bet the farm.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:48 pmThe wingers rule is that words mean whatever they want them to mean. Commercially organized protests mean “grassroots”. Raising the defense budget while cutting specific programs means “defense cuts”. Being President for everyone in the country, and not just the favored few means “socialism-fascism-communism-nazism or any other -ism they can think of”. Up is Down, Day is Night, Left is evil, but, Right is RIGHT.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:57 pmCommercially organized protests mean “grassroots”.
Can you spell Monsanto?
Or was it Dupont with their better living through chemistry?
So sad when the right wingers blamed the lefty protests on ‘drugs’.
April 16th, 2009 at 7:05 pmI can’t believe these crazy nuts are saying that Obama is a Fascist, Hitler and a Socialist (among many others). America is a country where we can have many different “ideas”. In fact, some of the programs we have ARE indeed socialist in nature (Medicare and social security are two).
If these morons would stop and think before speaking, they’d realize that unlike Hitler, American presidents have 4-years with an opportunity for 4-more – duuuuu! Hitler could have remained in power like Kim Jong-il. I wish these right-wingers had an off-button!
April 16th, 2009 at 7:07 pmI just saw a GREAT VIDEO on youtube. Go into their search window and search for (anti tea baggers) and it should bring up a video with “Joe the Pretend plumbers” pic.
April 16th, 2009 at 7:25 pmWatch the anti tea bagger videos, there’s two of them. They are GREAT!!!!
The far right seems to think because hitler was a national socialist, he was a left winger. When in reality 99% of his views were RIGHT WING AUTHORITARIANISM. It’s a fact.
April 16th, 2009 at 7:41 pmLies upon lies. Layers of new lies on top of old lies. It just never ends with these worthless vicious vile REpubliCAN’TS, does it? The GOP will soon be joining the Whig Party, the Greenback Party and the Prohibition Party on the ashpile of history…
April 16th, 2009 at 7:58 pmAstroturfing, huh?
April 16th, 2009 at 8:01 pmThe sad thing about the tea parties is that most of the crowds were downright puny compared with all the promotion the events received on Fox.
April 16th, 2009 at 8:05 pmThe idea of a flat tax without deductions is appealing in part because it would be easy to figure what you owe. But, it puts more of a burden on those that earn less.
Instead of a flat tax, what about a sloped tax that kicks in at about $40,000 and increases gradually with an increase in income up to a rate of about 50% for the richest.
A flat, but sloped, line without deductions; that would be easy to figure and progressive.
April 16th, 2009 at 8:46 pmCorporate lobbyists using the pure rascist hatred element of the GOP to disrespect our President because he’s an African-American. Shame on Paul Ryan, Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey.
April 16th, 2009 at 8:46 pmI seem to remember that during the Bush presidency it was anathema to call him a Nazi or Fascist. Anyone who said that in public was pilloried and it was considered by the mass media of all stripes to be beyond the pale and “anti-American.” What was good for the goose should be good for the gander.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:54 pmDistraction.
April 16th, 2009 at 11:44 pmhttp://thekomisarscoop.com/2007/08/01/tax-dodging-helps-murdoch-buy-the-journal/
Finding out the specifics of News Corporation’s tax affairs is difficult because of the company’s complex structure. In its latest accounts, the group lists roughly 800 subsidiaries, including some 60 incorporated in such tax havens as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, the Netherlands Antilles and the British Virgin Islands, where the secrecy laws are as attractive as the climate.
This structure, dictated by Mr Murdoch’s elaborate tax planning, has some bizarre consequences. The most profitable of News Corporation’s British operations in the 1990s was not the Sunday Times, or its successful satellite television business, B Sky B . It was News Publishers, a company incorporated in Bermuda. News Publishers has, in the seven years to June 30th 1996, made around £1.6 billion in net profits. This is a remarkable feat for a company that seems not to have any employees, nor any obvious source of income from outside Mr Murdoch’s companies.
April 16th, 2009 at 11:56 pmkatydid Says:
yesterday i heard a report noting how proud the righties are that they can embrace the technology and plan gatherings “too”!
Except they don’t have the technology. Email lists and static web sites < social networking tools and mobile integration.
They might as well pat themselves on the back for having discovered typewritten text.
April 17th, 2009 at 12:47 amYeah, they’re great at planning. Can you say “permit”?
April 17th, 2009 at 2:32 amZooey Lepidoptera Says:
I’m curious — What is the basis for comparing Obama to Hitler?
—————————————————————-
….if any right-wingers ever give you an answer please share it, I have been pondering that thought for a while.
April 17th, 2009 at 3:09 amI was there and collected materials at the event, such as the “Teaparty Action Packet,” which had the list of speakers and solicitations for “Americans for Prosperity”. There were other whacky groups with inserts in this package.
They also had loads of buses bringing people in from all over the state.
April 17th, 2009 at 11:13 amHave you heard the latest about the clown Joe Biden, they released this nuts tax return and it shows this guy is a cheap skate tight wad. Just like a liberal democrat, in public they are purveyors of the poor and downtrodden, but they want YOU to pay for them. What a hypocrite.
April 17th, 2009 at 2:23 pmBeing you are dumb democrats, listen up, the tea party had nothing to do with the race of the bozo in the WH. Playing the race card is a cop out, there are plenty of justifiable reasons this dude is a dud. If you all were angered by Bush’s spending, why aren’t you lemmings outraged over this Obami’s 9000 earmark- trillion dollar budget.
April 17th, 2009 at 2:32 pmThe Paul Ryan clown is my House Rep. The three cities he represent each have double digit unemployment. Janesville, WI closed it’s GM plant and Kenosha, WI may close it’s GM engine plant. Paul Ryan is a tool of big business it amazes me how this guy keeps getting elected. He worte the republican budget, you know, the one with no numbers in it. If the republican way was the best way, would we be in this mess now??
April 17th, 2009 at 3:16 pmBaloney,
The problem with the hot air being release from you r blow-hole is this, we democrats did SCREAM as loud as we cold about Bush’s bad economic policies. You and your elk in return called us “Unpatriotic” for questioning your “Lord and Master” during a time of war. Well, stop your whinning about President Obama becuase he’s trying to fix the mess your party left the counrty in. Remember the last election, the people said hell no to the republicans. We wo, enjoy you s*** taco.
April 17th, 2009 at 3:34 pmBaloney Says:
You are a punkass troll. You are stupid and no one cares what you think about Biden or Democrats. Your ignorance is a stench upon the board and a disease vector to our genepool. For the love of God DO. NOT. BREED. Being you are an ignorant piece of garbage you can go suck your thumb in your mommys basement now while the adults talk. You brainwashed blithering idiot
April 17th, 2009 at 9:01 pmOK Pat obviously senile dementia has set in. Time to see the nice young men that will need to take care of you soon.burun estetigi rent a car arac kiralama
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