astroturf

It was widely reported that the corporate-funded, small-government, anti-health care reform group Americans for Prosperity was helping to organize Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-Minn.) Tea Party at the Capitol today. ThinkProgress has video of AfP workers handing out signs and talking points to the Tea Partiers the group shuttled in from other areas. According to one [...]

TWI’s David Weigel went on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” last night to talk about his reporting on Americans for Prosperity’s “Defending the American Dream” conference this past weekend in Washington. Video after the jump.

More than 600 conservatives attended the second annual Americans for Prosperity weekend conference, bringing activists together and supplying them with tools and talking points.

PITTSBURGH — At the start of Americans for Prosperity’s “Send Specter a Message Rally,” I talked to Esko and Rebecca Polvi, who were holding signs that read “I’m with Astroturf … ” and “NOT Paid to be Here.” The signs, it turned out, were part of a batch created by some Pennsylvania AFP volunteers. From [...]

I haven’t blogged much on the “yo mama” contest between the Democratic National Committee and the National Republican Campaign Committee, but it’s been fascinating to watch. The DNC, keying off of reports revealing the Tea Party/health care industry/conservative grassroots ties of the people making fusses at congressional town hall meetings, released a page-long, darkly-written statement [...]

New organization seeks to prevent Guantanamo detainees from facing trial in Northern Virginia.

Two tweets by RedState.com’s Erick Erickson reveal the trickiness of portraying the Tea Parties as grassroots events. At 9:03:
Speaking at the Macon #teaparty today then headed to speak at the Atlanta #teaparty before being on with Hannity at 9:30 #TCOT

Matthew Yglesias and Jon Henke argue over whether the anti-spending Tea Party protests are “astroturf” — fake “grassroots” — because groups like FreedomWorks and the Institute for Liberty are helping to organize them. I don’t think that’s a huge deal, as these groups have been around for a while and have always organized events like [...]

The semi-grassroots, semi-astroturf “tea parties” against the stimulus get a thumbs-up from House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
In gatherings large and small and at kitchen tables across the nation, Americans who have played by the rules are growing increasingly angry about government rewarding irresponsible behavior and spending their money on bigger and bigger programs that [...]

The Republican National Committee passes along a local news write-up of an anti-stimulus protest in Denver that brought together hundreds of party operatives, moms with children in tow, anti-illegal-immigration activists and self-described libertarians, as well as  the people who are to anti-Obama activism what the 9/11 Truthers were to anti-Bush protests.