[ Note: Yesterday's post, "The State of Journalism in Nebraska" is featured in Crooks and Liars' "Annals of Journalism" this morning. Thanks, Mike!]
Eerie how this month’s “barking moonbat” prophesied this. (No, I didn’t consult my Magic Eightball. Just a coincidence of synchronistic happenstance.)
FreedomWorks, formerly “Citizens for
a Sound Economy,” controlled by the
Kochs since its founding in 1984.
(appropriately enough)
Only one small discrepancy: it wasn’t FreedomWorks. No: this time it’s Americans For Prosperity, third largest recipient of the Koch Brothers’ largesse.
The Koch Brothers, you might recall, were LAST month’s “Barking Moonbat(s) of the Month.” They’re rallying a mere five hours and thirty minutes from now, as I post this, at Pioneer Square in Portland (latest info). From the AFP blog:
AFP’s Hot Air Tour to Stop in Portland to Expose Hidden Energy Tax Hike in “Cap-and-Trade” Legislation, Nov. 18
AFP plans event on same day Al Gore travels to Portland to discuss climate solutions proposed in his new bookThe free-market grassroots group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is taking its nationwide Hot Air Tour to former Vice President Al Gore in Portland on Wednesday, November 18, to expose the extreme economic costs of cap-and trade-legislation to the American taxpayer.
“This cap-and-trade scheme is nothing more than a tax on energy—plain and simple,” said AFP President Tim Phillips. “Al Gore’s climate ‘solutions’ seek to further regulate our lives and burden the American taxpayer. Oregonians deserve to know the truth behind these proposals that may work their way into legislation.”
AFP’s Hot Air Tour has the goal of building grassroots pressure against costly state, local, and federal climate change policies. AFP has pledged to mobilize citizens in order to fight off any attempts to pass a cap-and-trade regulatory scheme.
In the summer of 2008, AFP flew its 70-foot-tall hot air balloon over Al Gore’s house outside of Nashville, Tennessee to expose the hysteria behind global warming alarmism. On Wednesday, November 18, AFP will take on Al Gore once again at Keller Fountain Park—this time to expose the economic dangers of cap-and-trade legislation.
Attendees will have the chance to listen to Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips and sign a petition urging their members of Congress to vote “no” on cap-and-trade…
Setting aside the aptness of the “Hot Air Tour“*, Tim Phillips is quite the character, himself.
[* They mean to be "arch" -- suggesting that all who oppose them are merely exuding "hot air," but "people who live in gas houses ...."
Merriam-Webster defines it well:
talk that is meant to sound important but does not mean very much
Here's a better definition:
Empty, exaggerated talk, as in That last speech of his was pure hot air. It is also put as full of hot air, as in Pay no attention to Howardhe's full of hot air. This metaphoric term transfers heated air to vaporous talk. [Late 1800s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer, 1997.
Either way, it astonishes me that the Wingnuts are so unself-conscious as to embrace this utterly appropriate assay of their credibility. I’m thinking of Michelle Malkin’s “Hot Air dot com” blog, as well.]
Phillips and the Northern Mariana Islands
In 1998 Jack Abramoff hired Century Strategies to pressure Congress to vote against legislation that would have made the U.S. commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands subject to U.S. federal wage and worker safety laws. The legislation came as a response to a federal report which found that Chinese women in the Northern Mariana Islands were subjected to forced abortions, as well as forced prostitution in the local sex-tourism industry.
However, in the mail-out campaign Phillips conducted to oppose the legislation, he stated that Chinese workers “are exposed to the teachings of Jesus Christ, [and many] convert to the Christian faith and return to China with Bibles in hand.”
Phillips and Nefarious Political Attacks
In 2000 Century Strategies worked on the “Bush for President” campaign. According to the Century Strategies, Phillips “spearheaded the direct mail, telemarketing, coalition building and strategic services” for George W. Bush’s campaign against John McCain in the 2000 primaries.
During the primaries, McCain’s presidential campaign was unraveled by an anonymous public relations operation that spread false rumours about John McCain and his family. The operation tarnished McCain’s reputation by sending leaflets, emails, and telephone calls to South Carolina constituents explaining to them how McCain’s adopted child from Bangladesh was really an illegitimate child he fathered with a black woman. McCain’s team never uncovered who was behind the campaign…. [more, much much more]
You might have heard of their attack on Gore in Florida a couple daze ago:
Gore’s presentation on climate change draws 800 as 200 protestors gather outside
By George Bennett
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 9:27 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009BOCA RATON — Confused Palm Beach County voters helped thwart Al Gore’s 2000 bid to become president of the United States, but he was introduced as “president of the planet” when he returned here Saturday night to deliver an environmental lecture.
The former vice president spoke on climate change at the Mizner Park Amphitheater to a crowd of about 800. More than 200 protesters gathered across the street from the event, and their boos and chants could be heard inside the amphitheater as Gore began his presentation….
But NewsBusters’ (“Exposing & Combating Liberal Media Bias”) Noel Sheppard is nearly orgasmic at this public protest of a private citizen speaking at a private event:
Al Gore Heckled During Global Warming Speech In Boca Raton
By Noel Sheppard
November 15, 2009 – 10:31 ETUPDATE AT END OF POST: Video of the protest prior to Gore’s speech!
Nobel Laureate Al Gore was heckled during a global warming speech he gave Saturday in Boca Raton, Florida.
Addressing a crowd of a thousand people at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, Gore was repeatedly booed by about 200 protesters stationed outside the open-air facility.
As reported by the Sun Sentinel Saturday (h/t NBer Blonde):
Stationed outside the Mizner Park Amphitheater, the protesters jeered at Gore as he took the podium and at those walking into the open-air venue to listen to the speech.
“This is the most dangerous crisis we’ve ever faced,” Gore said of climate change. He spoke over a chorus of boos from protesters, who were monitored by at least a dozen uniformed city police officers.
Many of the protesters were with the groups Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow and South Florida Tea Party, the latter of which feels that Gore’s views will eventually lead to increased taxes and flawed business legislation.
The protesters carried drums, bullhorns and posters. One read “Practice what you preach,” accusing Gore of not living a green lifestyle. Another poster read “The masses follow the asses,” depicting the protesters’ opinion that Gore’s message is not backed by scientific evidence.
I’m verklempt.* Talk amongst yourselves.
*****Update: Video of the protest prior to Gore’s speech (h/t NBer dbo)…
[* Aw. Noel resorts to Yiddish. If by "verklempt" Sheppard means "I hypocritically smear and write with utter bias while accusing those with whom I disagree of it," then yes, he is verklempt. If he means "choked with emotion," I'd settle for "choked with a garrote."]
And here’s the protest (click for YouTube.)
Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow? Founded in 1985. Sourcewatch:
The Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) was founded in 1985. It does policy and lobbying work on the environment from a libertarian perspective. It touts itself as a conservative answer to the Public Interest Research Groups (e.g. NYPIRG, ConnPIRG et al.), progressive lobbying groups concerned with environmental issues. The PIRGs raise much of their funding from student activity fees at college campuses around the country. CFACT has been involved in efforts to eliminate this funding, or found counter-organizations that would give right-wing causes a piece of the pie.
And, aside from the fact that so many CANNOT DISTINGUISH between “conservative” and “libertarian,” Wikipedia notes:
The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow is a conservative Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization whose stated mission is to promote free market solutions to environmental problems. According to its Web site, CFACT provides “a positive alternative to major environmental groups like Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, and Friends of the Earth.”[1]
[...]
Funding
CFACT is mainly funded by private citizens. A smaller proportion of CFACT’s funding comes from corporations in various industries, as well as foundations. Its financial backers have included The Exxon Mobil Corporation (although Exxon no longer donates to CFACT),[6] The Chevron Corporation,[7] The DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund,[7] The U.S. Council on Energy Awareness,[8] The Carthage Foundation, and The Sarah Scaife Foundation.[9]
Environmental issues
CFACT is a member organization of the Cooler Heads Coalition, which aims at “dispelling the myths of global warming through sound science and analysis.”[10] CFACT has also received more than $542,000 from industry foundations for its work on the the global warming issue, however Exxon Mobil no longer funds CFACT which receives the bulk of its funds from private citizens.[11]
CFACT chapters have protested in defense of environmentally sustainable oil exploration.[12] and in opposition to the Kyoto Protocol.[13] CFACT supports sustainable drilling in ANWR that meets high standards of respect for wildlife[14].
Gee. Wonder why Richard Mellon Scaife, Chevron, Exxon and their buds would want to openly try to shut down talk of global warming? And the “South Florida Tea Party” (just founded)?
Who We Are
After the huge success of the Palm Beach County Tea Party, the organizers of the West Palm Beach Tea Party decided to continue the Tea Party movement and start an organization devoted to Fiscal Responsibility, Limited Government, and Free Markets. This organization is called, South Florida Tea Party, Inc. It is filed as a non-profit 501(c)4 with the state of Florida.
Which means, of course, that they DON’T HAVE TO DISCLOSE THEIR DONORS.
Yeah. A bunch of angry “capitalists” funding a coordinated Brown Shirt campaign of political intimidation. Why does that sound familiar?*
Coordinate Brown Shirting?
Yes.
Brown Shirts @ Nuremberg in 1928
– when it still could have been stopped
[* And FUCK Godwin's Law. We OUGHT to have learned something from the history of Nazi Germany, but we didn't even learn from the lesson of Vietnam, and that was within the adult lifetime of the idjits who invaded Iraq -- although they spent a LOT of time trying to avoid any service IN Vietnam. I'm not calling them Nazis -- today. I'm saying that these tactics are beginning to look awfully familiar.]
I have talked about this ‘libertarian’ attempt at a hostile takeover of the GOP:
3 September 2009
“MSNBC Misses the Astroturf in its own Building”
http://hisvorpal.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/koch-machine-hostile-takeover-of-gop/… in future columns (although I’d really rather be working on my book) I’ll talk about the attempted takeover of the GOP by the hard-core crypto-Libertarians (who are the TRUE RINOs, having only infiltrated to subsume).
But, this is going even further. After the thuggish events at town halls this summer, this is evolving into ever more coordinated, more angry attempts to derail public debate and democratic discussion.
Much as everyone is scared shiteless of this statement, I’m going to make it anyway:
The Nazis took over Germany in the 1930s via intimidation and violence. The lesson was learned (evidently by “freedom-loving patriots”) that intimidation and bullying is the way to silence opposition, to magnify the size of your “movement” — remember, the Nazis were NEVER a majority party. They succeeded by shutting down all the other parties, and they did it through ever-escalating intimidation, bullying and violence.
Now, ask yourself, has the “teabagging” movement become more or less intimidating? More or less angry? More or less pushed by established and coordinated media? (Faux, Beck, et al.)
More or less?
At the beginning, the Brown Shirts were not that violent. But it escalated:
The precursor to the SA had acted informally and on an ad hoc basis for some time before this. Hitler, with an eye always to growing the party through propaganda, convinced the leadership committee to invest in an advertisement … for a mass meeting in the Hofbräuhaus, to be held on 16 October 1919. Some 70 people attended, and a second such meeting was advertised for 13 November in the Eberlbrau beer hall. Some 130 people attended; there were hecklers, but Hitler’s military friends promptly ejected them by force, and the agitators “flew down the stairs with gashed heads.” The next year, on 24 February, he announced the party’s Twenty-Five Point program at a mass meeting of some 2000 persons at the Hofbrauhaus. Protesters tried to shout Hitler down, but his army friends, armed with rubber truncheons, ejected the dissenters. The basis for the SA had been formed.
The “teabaggers” haven’t quite passed that threshold.
But how long before that “head gashing” starts?
We “good Germans” need to cast off our “everything is everything” and “have a nice day” somnolence and OPPOSE these bastards. Vigorously. If there was any lesson learned from Germany of the 1920s, it was that bullying and intimidation works, and it silences democracy.
You must oppose it before it’s too late.
It begins with rhetorical violence, but escalates to physical violence.
It begins with finding a scapegoat group to blame all troubles on: like “Jews,” or “Bolsheviks,” or “Liberals.”
It begins with a profound anti-intellectualism.
It begins with intimidation, escalates to violence, and riots. And then, some failed paper-hangar has the Reichstag vote him (or her, remember, Sarah P’s on her phony media-driven rock star tour) absolute “emergency” powers.
Then you invade Poland.
This continues to escalate. The call for assassins grows ever more shrill, and I fear for the health of our republic — severely weakened by eight years of imperial rule and the erosion of our fundamental rights, including our most ANCIENT common law right, the right of habeas corpus.
Did you really think that it was JUST those boobs who slickly stole the election FROM Al Gore, and ruled through secrecy and intimidation for eight years? No: they had a base. And that base showed up in Florida last week.
Again.
Did you think that electing Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress would magically “fix” things?
Did you think that this whole accelerating and increasingly irrational “teabagger” movement was just going to return to the vaporous madness from whence it sprang?
Think again.
And, do it before 6:30, if you’re in Portland.
Courage.
A special vorpal sword h/t to Kevin Grandia of Desmoblog.com, who have been conducting a parallel – and, until this moment, completely unknown to me — investigation of these same phenomena, leading to the SAME conclusions, more of less. Here’s some recommended reading:
The teabaggers ARE dangerous. Very dangerous, and most of the MSM is complicit in promoting their undemocratic tactics. One of the most appalling things I have noticed is the failure of our citizens to learn from history. Frank Schaeffer called the far right fundamentalists the American Taliban in a recent interview on the Rachel Maddow Show. We ignore these people at our own peril, and I fully endorse your admonition to oppose it before it is too late. The teabaggers and their puppet masters such as the Koch Bros., Armey, Cheney and Lizzie, Phillips, et al. have no other aim than total domination of the American citizenry and the imposition of theocracy, as they interpret it, on the world.
I follow the RightWingWatch blog to keep up with the machinations of the far right fundamentalists, and discovered today that they are having a huge impact in Africa on promoting discriminatory legislation toward LBGT persons. Although I am not in this demographic, this concerns me because every time these people are successful, it emboldens them to take up a cause to restrict the rights of another group and becomes an unending campaign to shape the world as they see it.
I wish all Americans could read your blog posts because they all contain well-researched information that is vital to the survival of any democracy. The continued existence of American democracy is in peril, and we must remain vigilant and be willing to fight until we either extinguish or marginalize groups like the teabaggers and their puppet masters.
Thank you for the kind words, Margie. I have nothing to add that you haven’t already said, except this: the evidence of HOW dangerous is beginning to pile up at an accelerating rate.