[Image from M. Malkin's blog]The opposition is organizing. They're not going down without a fight. Typically, it will be a dirty fight.
Last Friday, hundreds of protesters showed up in 30 to 40 cities nationwide to bluster against President Obama's stimulus package. The protesters "claimed that the well-coordinated protests had arisen spontaneously in response to a tirade against mortgage bailouts, delivered just over a week earlier, on February 19, by CNBC's Rick Santelli."
Michelle Malkin, one of those right wingnuts who wants Obama to fail, got all fluttery calling these "Tea Party" protests, claiming they were a "'fledgling grassroot movement.'"
Ms. Kane says that "some of the protestors even described themselves as the vanguard of a 'new conservative counterculture.'"
Ms. Kane also says that "those claims aroused a certain amount of skepticism, since similar activities in the past have proven to be not genuine grassroots activity but so-called corporate 'astroturf.'"
Aha! "Mark Ames and Yasha Levine allege in their blog at Playboy.com that the protests were planned well in advance, coordinated by old-line anti-tax organizations, and funded by right-wing corporate interests."
Ms. Kane has much more to say, but this is the kicker. There is a ChicagoTeaParty.com. "It was registered last summer by the producer of a right-wing radio show in Chicago and, [Ames and Levine] allege, is one of several tied to the anti-tax group FreedomWorks, which is among the sponsors of the current protests."
What we are facing in this country is the continued assault on effective government; government of the people, by the people, for the people. Entrenched interests and running scared. You can expect the political machinations of those entrenched interests to become down and dirty and become increasingly shrill as they cry about "socialism," and "communism," and "liberals" ruining our way of life.
The truth, of course, is the opposite. Unfortunately, too many of the dumb and dumber will believe them.
Read all of Ms. Kane's article here.
The hateful demagogue, Michelle Malkin's take is here.
A responsible rant with much more detail on corporate chicanery is here.
1 comment:
We had better begin to worry. The Dems do not have the majority they need in the Senate and still need a few Republicans if they want to pass legislation. The people protesting must have good jobs, have large reserves of cash and have medical insurance they can afford.
For the rest of us, if the Government cannot change the situation, we will go broke.
Doing nothing or tax breaks will not help the vast majority of the people of the US. They do not earn salaries over $200,000 and have not enough in safe investments to maintain their life style, many will go bankrupt. Most small businesses do not earn over $100,000 and many earn about what a decent job would pay. They will fall by the wayside unless Obama can begin to turn the economy around. Why they listen to Limbaugh is beyond me. They have much to lose if unemployment and health care continues to rise. Trickle down did not help most people and will not, especially in a bad economy.
Scare tactics do work and the Republicans are using them to their advantage.
I remember the Great Depression and it was not very pretty. I went to work at the age of 12 to help put food on the table. We could be going that way again.
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