Harpers Magazine - Great Story On Astroturf/False RW Grassroots Protests Sponsored By Corporations

[TomCADem]

You have probably heard about how Americans for Prosperity now, headed by the infamous Jack Abramoff, which organized the false grassroots anti-healthcare reform organization, Pataients United Now:

http://patientsunitednow.com/

You have also probably heard about the campaign of harassment of healthcare reform townhalls being orchestrated by Freedom Works, which is headed by Dick Armey:

http://www.freedomworks.org/

Well, you are probably wondering where did they come from, and how did the right wing develop the organization behind these pro-industry grass roots movements who are comprised of people shouting rightwing slogans in support of billion dollar corporations? Well, Harpers magazine had a great article that focused on Abramoff, and how rigthwing astroturfing can generate big money. Of course, the major networks rarely investigate the backgrounds or genesis behind these so-called grassroots movements. Sadly, many of these protestors have no clue that they are mere extras in a corporate driven campaign.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/08/0082132

The wrecking crew: How a gang of right-wing con men destroyed Washington and made a killing

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On January 3, 2006, Abramoff pled guilty to bribing a member of Congress, evading taxes, and defrauding his clients, but what made his case memorable were the incredible details: the millions of dollars Abramoff and his confederates casually squeezed out of clients, the luxury restaurant he opened in order to hand out the goodies more efficiently, the golf trips to Scotland, the gleeful contempt he expressed for nearly everyone in his voluminous emails, and, later, the desperate wriggling of prominent Republicans as they tried to deny their old pal.

* * *

For some in winger Washington this is an idealistic business, but what gives it power and longevity is that it is a profitable business. I mean this not as polemic but as a statement of fact. Washington swarms with conservative ideologues not because conservatives particularly like the place but because there is an entire industry here that supports these people—an industry subsidized by the nation’s largest corporations and its richest families, and the government too. We are all familiar with the flagship organizations—Cato, Heritage, AEI—but the industry extends far beyond these, encompassing numerous magazines and literally hundreds of lobbying firms. There is even a daily newspaper—the Washington Times—published strictly for the movement’s benefit, a propaganda sheet whose distortions are so obvious and so alien that it puts one in mind of those official party organs one encounters when traveling in authoritarian countries.

There are political strategists, pollsters, campaign managers, trainers of youth, image consultants, makers of TV commercials, revolutionaries-for-hire, and, of course, direct-mail specialists who still launch their million-letter raids on the mailboxes of the heartland. Remember the guy who wrote all those sputtering diatribes for your college newspaper? Chances are he’s in D.C. now, thinking big thoughts from an endowed chair, or churning out more of the brilliant usual for one of the movement’s many blogs. The campus wingnut whose fulminations on the Red Menace so amused my friends and me at the University of Virginia, for example, resurfaced here as a columnist for the Washington Times before transitioning inevitably into consultancy. A friend of mine who went to Georgetown recently recalled for me the capers of his campus wingnut, whom he had completely forgotten until the guy made headlines as the lead culprit in a minor 2004 scandal called “Memogate.” Later he worked for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, teaching democratic civics to Iraqi politicians.

There is so much money in conservatism these days that Karl Rove rightly boasts, “We can now go to students at Harvard and say, ‘There is now a secure retirement plan for Republican operatives.’” The young people who, like Jack Abramoff before them, have answered conservatism’s call over the past three decades were obeying their conscience, perhaps, but they were also making a canny career move.

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[Cha]

1. I don't care how much money they make..it's a

deadender job.

[TomCADem]

3. I Dunno. The Article Appeared In Mid-2008, Yet Abramoff Has Made A Come Back

When I first read the article back them, it sounded like the epitaph to a notorious career, since the scandals surrounding Jack Abramoff were still fresh in the minds of the public. However, just one year later, Abramoff is back once again using corporate money to organize and mislead members of the public to once again demonstrate, lobby congress, and disrupt civic discourse on healthcare for the benefit of Abramoff's corporate clients. It takes a special person to take money from corporations to organize people to demonstrate against their own self-interests.

[starroute]

12. Abramoff has nothing to do with this

He's still in jail. He was on the board of United Seniors but has no connection with either of the organizations mentioned in the OP. The MO is similar, but Abramoff is long out of it.

[TomCADem]

13. American for Prosperity Is Headed By Tim Phillips, A Former Partner Of Ralph Reed

Americans for Prosperity is led by Tim Phillips, who was a former partner with Ralph Reed's Century Strategies. That organization became well-known when it was revealed in a Senate investigation that convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff was laundering money through Century Strategies and Americans for Tax Reform to oppose legislation that his Indian tribe clients wanted to defeat.

http://men.style.com/gq/features/full?id=content_4608&pageNum=7

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THE SINS OF RALPH REED
From star foot soldier for the religious right to GOP lobbyist with questionable ties to Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed is finally losing his Teflon luster

In June 1997, Ralph Reed left the Christian Coalition to open his own consulting shop, Century Strategies, just outside Atlanta. His plan was to get “pro-family” candidates elected across the country—congressmen, governors, senators, state representatives, lieutenant governors, even Georgia’s labor commissioner—and he started rounding up clients. Former associates say he was “a fantastic salesman,” promising neophyte candidates that he’d raise three times more money for them than he’d charge in fees, that he’d leverage his celebrity contacts, that he’d rake the grass roots for votes. That was the appeal, Reed’s political juice. But those same associates say he didn’t provide much beyond the salesmanship part. “He’d say, ‘We’re gonna sign up 10,000 people and make 25,000 phone calls,’ ”says one, “but he knew nobody’s going to go back and count how many phone calls we actually made. That was Ralph all the way.”
Three of Century’s candidates lost their primaries (though one had dismissed the firm before voting day), and a fourth dropped out of a California race. In November, Century lost at least six more races. In an e-mail to Abramoff six days after the election, Reed noted that he’d lost Governor Fob James’s reelection bid in Alabama, Kentuckian Gex “Jay” Williams’s run for a U.S. House seat, and Gary Hofmeister’s campaign in Indiana’s Tenth Congressional District. Given the national tide, those were probably not in the cards, he wrote, but we fought like dogs.

Hofmeister, who still considers Reed a friend, doesn’t quite remember it that way. Four months before the general election, he wrote a letter to Tim Phillips, Reed’s partner at the time, wondering when the cavalry would be coming. “Even apart from my friendship with Ralph, I was rather amazed that I received no congratulatory call from Ralph after the primary nor on anything else,” he wrote. “My point is definitely not that I want to change horses…but only that as the president of the firm, I would think he should have at least a bit of contact with his clients.” After the letter, Hofmeister says now, “I pretty much got back zero.”

That was a pattern, former associates say. “We lost nearly every big-ticket race,” one says, “except for Coverdell and Richard Shelby, who weren’t going to lose anyway, but we claimed them as victories. The fact is, across the board, if the races weren’t premier, Ralph simply wasn’t there.”

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[donco]

2. Twenty first century brown shirts. nt

[hootinholler]

4. I hope you get some traction with this.

I've tried, you're doing better.



-Hoot

[Gabi Hayes]

5. are the frickin candy ass dems going to start talking about this ALL the TIME, like they should?

this is the way fascism works, and they don't seem to have the guts to play hardball with these monsters

I heard Candy and Wolfie talking about this today, saying it's just fine and dandy that these people are doing what they're doing, even if they're being astroturfed, cause the astroturfers deserve to be heard, too!

they didn't use those exact words, but it's exactly what they meant

this is going to be the M$M response, you can bet:

"corporations are people, too"

SCOTUS codified it over a 100 years ago, yes?

[Cha]

6. Of course, candy and wolf would think this..

that's what they do on cnn.

[Gabi Hayes]

7. amen....did you see SoCalDem's Mr. Fish cartoon tonight?

I have to go now, cause this is pissing me off too much......

M$M is THE problem of the day, as they just do what their bosses tell them to do.

you know, all those liberals who run the corporations that own the five or six media conglomerates that are the source of almost all of news that the vast majority of consumers ever see/hear/read

ever read "Rich Media, Poor Democracy," by Bob McChesney? that spells it out pretty well. he's done lots of stuff since then, but that's pretty seminal

[Gabi Hayes]

8. oops...it was babylon sister. here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6213540

[Cha]

10. HOw true is

that..from whatever!

[Stephanie]

9. Patients United Now - Is it a PUN?

[omega minimo]

11. Google "Wise Use Movement"

:thumbsdown: