…but is playing one in the blogosphere. Problem is, he’s got it all backwards – it is NOT the GOP driving this movement (and ANYONE reading the ‘Grok knows that Republicans are often targets here):
Astro-Turf Teabagger Campaign Disrupting Town Halls
by: Dean Barker Tue Aug 04, 2009 at 08:12:11 AM EDT
TPM spent most of yesterday covering the astro-turf teabagger campaigns happening all over the country to create the false impression that more than a tiny minority oppose health care reform. It’s all very much like the Bush v. Gore staged "riots" of 2000. It falls right into the playbook of trying to delay a vote on health care reform until after the recess. This way there’s time to play games with astro-turf in congresscritters’ home districts. Delay = a better chance of killing reform. No different, really, than Judd’s strategy.
The goal is to create a media buzz, and thus drive a narrative that we’re all happy with the current health care nightmare. And already The Grey Lady fell for the bait.
A reader sent along possible evidence emerging of this happening in New Hampshire, though at the link it’s not clear whether the NH Teabaggers intend to be intentionally disruptive. And here is an account of a town hall meeting in Indiana where the teabaggers failed to disrupt the meeting, and some good lessons learned.
TPM is Talking Points Memo, known to be one of the major sources of, obviously, messaging for the Left. Walk that backwards and you find former Clintonista John Podesta of the extremely Leftist group Center for American Progress (funded by George Soros). Why is that important? He’s allegedly part of that infamous 8:45 am "taling Points Memo call" in which leading Lefties (White House staff, MSM, and activist groups) determine what are the things to "move" in the media (old and new). It seems like Dean has thrown in with tham and isgoing true to form:
If you can’t debate them, go Saul Alinsky (ridicule, demonize) on them!
In other words, if you cannot debate the merits (and I have invited Dean onto the show multiple times and he refuses to accept for an actual debate on issues), slime them. Problem for Dean is, you gotta do the homework if you’re going to make the slime accusation. If one goes to the last link he has (partially replicated here), this is what you’d find:
Congressional Town Hall meetings during their August Recess
By Skip Murphy on August 3, 2009 7:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
We have received an Alert from the NH TEA Party Coalition concerning our local politicians and what they are doing during their Congressional August Recess….
Yeah, that’s me – Skip Murphy – posting on GifordGOP (for the record, I also post on a lot of other sites as well. For full disclosure, I also used to be the Gilford Town Republican Chair – which from I have since resigned). Now, Dean KNOWS who I am – we’ve talked on the phone, we’ve emailed each other, and we’ve sparred a bit in the blogosphere (but he never, ever wants to debate head on).
Trust me, I’m not astroturfed (like SEIU and ACORN) – I do this for free!. Frankly, being a free market booster (as opposed to a socialist leaner like Dean), I WISH some of these groups that they are talk about funding things (e.g, the insurance companies) would actually throw some coin this way (hey, gotta pay the hosting service somehow!). Heck, a little while ago, we even took money from PETA here on the ‘Grok (even as my most favorite meal is a medium prime rib from T-Bones).
So, if anyone from an insurance company wants to advertise on the ‘Grok or on Meet The New Press, I can make a deal!
BTW, Dean – your friends might be thinking that I’ve called you a nitwit. On a scale of 1 to 10, would you would rather be called a dim bulb or a bad sexual innuendo? I thought so. So much for the civility on the Left that we hear so much about.
And to think, when Blue Hampshire went dark a while back, I even offered to host BH on my server for nothing – one blogger trying to help another as originally it was thought to be a hacker attack (versus the guy that ginned up your CMS holding you and a bunch of others up for more money). Now, I get called a "teabagger" (and I doubt he meant it as a member of the TEA Parties) for my trouble of offering??
