Tag Archives: Republican

At Least Some On The Right Have Started Facing The Fear-Mongering.

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While many respected journalists and researchers have shot down the claims of birthers (written about here and here) and deathers (here), most in the right have ignored or encouraged such fear-mongering rumors for political purposes.  These have been damaging to our country and for civilized debate. Jon Henke has recently come out against these rumors, and the spreader of many of these myths, World Net Daily (no, I won't link to them).
he certainly made some waves last week when -- clearly, and appropriately, disgusted by Jerome Corsi's bizarre piece in WorldNetDaily suggesting that President Obama was preparing concentration camps to round up and imprison his conservative critics -- Henke urged his fellow conservatives to disassociate themselves from WND in every way possible.
He's also asked the Republican National Committee to reject WND and it's contacts as well.
That claim, of course, was massively undercut by Terry Krepel's follow-up reporting for Media Matters, which noted that "one of the organizations that has rented WND's mailing list is ... the Republican National Committee." With full screen shots.
Henke called upon the RNC to disassociate itself from WND, but they unsurprisingly have politely declined.
I encourage watching the discussion on Rachel Maddow's show, as well as visiting his site, The Next Right, which seems to be a sensible and respected right-wing blog.  I also suggest sending him words of support, as they seem in low supply at the moment. TheNextRight

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Corporate Sponsored Grassroots

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Rachel Maddow exposes the monied interests pretending to be "average Americans" who are fueling the outrage at these "town halls gone wild". First up, Recess Rally, sponsored by Michelle Malkin, Smart Girl Politics, Redstate, but also American Majority, and as Rachel points out, this group is hardly made up of average Americans even though they tout themselves as being a non-profit, non-partisan organization.

The people behind American Majority; Ned Ryun, former George W. Bush speech writer, Lonny Leitner, Regional Field Director for Bush/Cheney '04, Shari Weber, former Republican State Legislator, Matt Pinnell, a former Washington conservative lobbyist.

Rachel notes that American Majority is an offshoot of another Recess Rally sponsor, The Sam Adams Alliance. Their President, John Tsarpalas, former Executive Director of the Illinois State Republican party, their Director, Joseph Lehman, former Dow Chemicals engineer and president of the nation's largest conservative state level policy think tank.

Another sponsor of Recess Rally, Let Freedom Ring. Their founder, the money man behind the television ad exploiting 9-11 to promote the Iraq invasion. Another sponsor, the swift boaters.

Yet another sponsor, Americans for Prosperity, and their subsidiary Patients First. Americans for Prosperity's Director, Art Pope, who has the headquarters of the North Carolina Republican party named after him since he's given them so much money. Their Chairman, David Koch, the 19th richest man in the world who runs Koch Industries, which is the largest privately held oil company in the United States.

To talk about these town hall events as some organic outpouring of average American folks who have concerns about health care is to be willfully blind to what is really going on, which is professional P.R. operatives generating exploitative, manufactured, strategically deployed outrage in order to line their own pocket.

This is professional, corporate funded Republican staffed P.R., and it should be reported as such.




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A Look At The So-Called "Grassroots" Movements

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The Republican Party and Fox News have recently been talking about the so called  "Grassroots movements", similar to the "Tea Parties", recently sweeping the country.  These "movements" claim to be ordinary people, fed up with the government, spontaneously rising up and confronting their representatives.  What's recently been shown and proven however is that just like the "Tea Parties" before them, this has all been orchestrated by powerful right-wing lobbying groups and corporations.  These people have been instructed not only to show their anger, but how to STOP the civil discourse and debate required by a healthy democracy.

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