Fox spent weeks promoting apparent tea party scam
December 31, 2009 4:00 pm ET by Matt Gertz
TPM Media's Zachary Roth reported
earlier in the week that the political action committee that organized
the Tea Party Express -- Our Country Deserves Better PAC -- funneled
almost two-thirds of its spending from July to November back to the
political consulting firm from which it was spawned, Russo, Marsh, and
Associates. More than $850,000 of the money the supposedly grassroots
PAC collected went to the firm of GOP political operatives who ran it.
For those who may have forgotten, the Tea Party Express was the faux-grassroots operation that Fox News hopped aboard
in late August, after the network's promotion of the health care town
hall meeting disruptions but before they started flogging the 9-12
protest. (It's so hard to keep Fox's political activism
straight!) It was a nationwide bus tour organized by a political
action committee whose mission is to oppose President Obama and other
Democrats; with a pedigree like that, how could Fox resist?
Fox News heavily promoted the Tea Party Express; the Our Country Deserves Better PAC
even used Fox's promotion in
a fundraising
email. Then Fox's Griff Jenkins hit the trail
with the Express, following that bus around the country, throwing
journalistic integrity aside as he declared its riders "the America
that Washington forgot."
But somehow, Jenkins missed out on the real story: how loyal
tea-party-goers were separated from their hard-earned cash, which was
funneled to fat cat Republican political consultants. Russo, Marsh, and
Associates salutes you, Fox News. They could have scammed the tea
partiers without you, but it probably wouldn't have been nearly as
lucrative.
The original Tea Party participants must be rolling in their graves at this shameful madness.
Who cares? This is a non-story to most of the millions of tea partiers who don't give or take money and are out there working to get the country back.
Frankly my dears, we don't give a damn...
NWO clones? Isn't that some kind of wrestling group? I'm not sure where you are going with that one. Sounds creepy.
* Clearly, no longer can a dictator count on East-West confrontation to stymie concerted United Nations action against aggression. A new partnership of nations has begun. And we stand today at a unique and extraordinary moment. The crisis in the Persian Gulf, as grave as it is, also offers a rare opportunity to move toward an historic period of cooperation. Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective — a new world order — can emerge: a new era, freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace. An era in which the nations of the world, east and west, north and south, can prosper and live in harmony.
o Speech to joint session of Congress (11 September 1990), as quoted in Encyclopedia of Leadership (2004) by George R. Goethals, Georgia Jones Sorenson, and James MacGregor Burns, p. 1776 and Confrontation in the Gulf; Transcript of President's Address to Joint Session of Congress The New York Times. September 12, 1990.
I'll tell you who has our country. Corporate lobbyists that own your Republican backside. If they sponsor a Tea Bag Party, through a group like Dick Armey runs, people like you attend on your own dime to fight reform of the healthcare giants who are screwing me AND you!
Is the raw embarassment of what your guys did for the last 8 years so deep and desperate that you'll attack the next guy because he might show you what being Presidential is all about?
Your comments affirmed what Samurai Cowboy stated so clearly. Intelligent people don't take to the streets with mispelled signs under such manipulated and misguided circumstances.
You all look like a bunch of low-class fools out there. It's not like you're going to get better health insurance premium pricing than me for being a fool.
Still, I gave you a thumbs up.
*blowing a note on my pitch pipe* a-hem...
"WE GOOD GAWD-FURRIN' AMUR'KINS WILL TAKE OUR COUNTREE BACK FORM THE TERROROIST MUSLIM ATHIEST COMMUNIST NAZI BARAK HUSEIN O'BAMA!!!!! YOU LIBURULS ALL HATE AMERICA AND WE WILL STOP YOU AND YOUR HOMOSEXUL SOCILIST AGENDA!!!! GET A BRAIN YOU MORANS!!!!"
So, how was that? Do I get any points in the 2010 Wingnut of the Year contest?...
Oh, and the judge from Texas... well, his head just exploded.
I do hope you meant to follow your post with a /s?
"...Six people averaged $266; that's not grassroots. I kill bugs and cut grass for a living. I'm splurging when I spend $19 at Chili's. Outback Steakhouse is reserved for Mother's Day," Stublen says..."
Stublen is a tea-party activist upset that the tea-party movement has been upsurped by GOP fat cats in the tea-party express(supported by Faux).
"Conservative activists decry GOP consultants for dropping $1,600 on a fancy meal—while hijacking their grassroots movement.
— By Stephanie Mencimer
Wed Dec. 30, 2009 8:47 AM PST
Would a true Tea Party patriot drop nearly $1,600 in donor money for a small meal at a fancy steakhouse? Robin Stublen says no, and he's mad as hell about the profligate expenditures of a GOP political organization that has glommed on to his grassroots movement..."
http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/tempest-tea-party
So you call this a non-story huh? Not to Robin Stublen. It seems MH you need to be better informed,your movement is being hijacked and you are being played for a fool. Read the whole article, I provided the link. Happy tea-bagging...Sucker!
You people are heavy and I'm tired of carrying your ilk.
Your NWO is over. So is the fake second coming. "Who cares"? apparently you do.
Back from WHAT, from WHO? Face facts that when you did have the country for 8 years, you and yours started 2 wars on lies and deception that took over 3,000 of our patriots lives, you and yours tanked the economy to within steps of a financial disaster
never before seen since the great depression, not to mention the record rate of foreclosures, 10+% unemployment and stores going out of business. Sorry, but you didn't have the love for this country then, and your not going have another chance - ever again!
Funny about that violence thing -- about 12 acts of it, including murder of one of us, was done by the likes of you dangerous progressives...
Hmm.
Acts were done. If you're going to flaunt your supposed polyglot credentials, maybe should work on that whole subject-verb agreement thing.
By the way, happy new year, s novym godom, bonne annee, und prosit neujahr.
I can't help NH out with any of the other stuff; the imagined millions, the NWO, the murder and violence, and the taking back of the country from somebody or something all seem to be wild hallucinations.
I do understand that the teabaggers don't give a damn. That's obvious.
In fact, under John McCain's tax proposals, more of them would have seen tax increases than under Obama's!
A worldview that fears tax rate hikes under Obama when you're a person making well under $200,000 or a couple making well under $250,000 is ignorant.
No point in debunking your garbage about your taxes going up, since you've already made up your alleged mind about that, but I will be listening for the inevitable post that tells us that Obama hates Christians, Mama, apple pie, baseball, and fuzzy little kittens, and suggests that he sacrifices white babies to Beelzebub in the White House Rose Garden. Maybe then you'll actually be interesting...
you never said what constructive things you do, in your "un-spare" time, to change everything. we await details.
proof please.
When do we start passing the snakes around?
No, it isn't. Tongues (which were always intelligible languages, not mindless babble) were a sign of blessing during the times of enscripturation, and ceased nineteen centuries ago. Anyone doing them today is practicing paganism, not Christianity.
Being able to spell correctly and use proper capitalization and punctuation... now, that's a blessing.
I do fine with punctuation and spelling but typing is an issue. probably due to the teacher who told me I dont need to know how to type because of my gender.
Nice excuse, little man! Of course, my father who passed in November at age 77, learned typing in high school in the 1940s, which served him well as a duty sergeant at the English AF base at which he served in the 1950s. I often wish I'd followed his example, and not just in the typing department...
Fine. In this case, it means they're wrong.
The ability to learn and speak, or better speak without knowing a foreign language is alive
What on earth does that mean?
and Paul for one listed languages as a blessing and if he was wrong it draws st luke into question.
I already pointed out that it was a blessing during times of enscripturation, which means during the times of the inspired writings of the apostles. Swing and a miss, rrastro.
I do fine with punctuation and spelling
Then why are you missing the periods from so many of your sentences, not to mention commas where they should be. Your grasp of the language is, at best, at the early middle school level.
but typing is an issue.
Fine. Learn to type, and then rejoin us.
probably due to the teacher who told me I dont need to know how to type because of my gender.
Once again, the party of personal responsibility blows it. Don't blame your teacher for your lousy presentations.
Oh please don't go there.
Even though there are some on the right who are light on their education, you have to understand that they are not all "dumb country hicks".
All you have to do is look at people like Dick Chenney. He is an extremely intelligent man who has decided he knows more than anyone else about how the country should be run.
Some people are going to be led, no matter what. If you want to make a difference work on pointing out the falsehoods that the media spends so much time dissemenating.
In fact, the Tea Party types LIKE being stupid they sneer at educated people as "liberal elites."
Many people sneer at liberal elites because they dislike being told that small government is stupid and the only reason things are expensive is profit.
American health insurance was put in place during WWII, when there was a national wage and price control schedule. Employers gave health benefits (a loophole) instead of wage increases (controlled).
Let's talk about efficiency. Would anyone say "It will be efficient to tell this bread-making company that it has to become expert at health insurance plans, so it can choose one or more of them for its employees?" Let's assume for a moment that these are the best bread makers on Earth, what makes them any good at picking a health insurance plan, from among all the ones offered, for their 100s of employees?
The current "system" is nothing anyone would have ever designed, and includes things like multi-million dollar salaries for people whose main job is to return value to shareholders, i.e. profit off the health insurance of others.
To them "liberal media" means asking a sitting governor and candidate for vice president what newspapers she reads. It was a "trap" by the "liberal media" that they asked a question so complex that the candidate couldn't comprehend or answer it.
(As I've said before, I refuse to believe that Sarah Palin wrote a book on the grounds that it's apparent that she doesn't even READ them.)
If the tea party members and "conservative activists" think people like me are condescending and scornful of their opinions and points of view, it's because they've EARNED it.
Also, there is a misunderstanding here: No one is claiming that small government is inherently stupid. No one WANTS government that is too big. What people want is government that does what is supposed to do and when you have government that spends appx. 50% of revenues on militarism and wars FOR DECADES, people start demanding that some balance be restored to "our" priorities for what government does by demanding that government balance that 50% with at least a little more spending on other priorities, namely education and health care at this point.
Because corporations have more rights than individuals (check the total amount of derivative investing in the last 6 months compared to the GNP), people start demanding that government redress the imbalance by acting more on the behalf of individuals.
The future is warped just as much by imbalance in favor of corporations as it is by imbalance in favor of government. Most Liberals want to see balance restored with a re-ordering of our priorities as a nation, re-ordered to put Human needs and rights ahead of transnational corporations.
And lets just drop all that expensive government supported police/fire protection,National defense,public highways,public schools,FDA/EPA/FAA/OSHA/,etc..etc..and all other socialist regulations..government is so bad so useless!!! Every person on his own..pay to drive on every road ,pay no taxes...pay for ur own everything...police/fire protection,etc.Take cash to the Hospital tho they might not take a check!!
sleazoid and intelligent aren't, by definition, mutually inclusive. i'll give you sleazoid, but mr. cheney has yet to display much in the way of actual intelligence. heck, after all those defermets, he still couldn't be bothered to finish school.
I wonder how much Cheney gives to the tea party thingee? or should I say how much he receives from them?
I actually have a college degree. Yes; imagine that (and no, it is not a degree I found online somewhere)! And (I hope you are sitting down), I work in higher education. Granted, there are not that many like me; as you know our public universities are strongholds for the secular/progressive/politically-correct agents of change. The reason I am dangerous is that daily I am privy to the ideology, plans and methods of social change that are firmly in place at our institutions of higher learning. And I am a political activist of the worse kind: a traditional conservative who does her research and who reads news sources not only from the U.S. but also from outside the country. I visit progressive/secular-leaning sites all of the time. I do this for several reasons. While the main reason is because I truly do want to understand and communicate, I also garner information that I can research. As for violence, believe me; I hear plenty of comments from progressive/secular-leaning sites that tend to stir up hatred, anger, and thoughts of violence towards people like me. My greatest hope is that we can somehow find a way to get along in this country! No matter what side of the political skirmish a person is on, it would behoove us all if we could figure out a way to respect one another’s perspectives and ideas as to how to live one’s life, because hatred is not working.
Oh.
Care to cite any? Since you're so well-educated, you do know how to post a link, right? So bring on all thie left-wing violence you claim is out there!...
*crickets*
Just as I thought...
Then why do you sound like you rea/watch/listen to nothing but Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the Drudge Report? After all, there were plenty of educated men who forced Galileo to recant the fact thet the earth orbits the sun...
sorry you just aren't credible..
Now if we could could just get a set of audited financial reports on those "Freedom Concerts" - expenses, actual donations to the Foundation, how much of that came from people sending money above the ticket price, etc.
That would be most interesting reading! Then we could match up the "tens of millions" donated (just look at the website of the speakers' bureau representing InSannity) and what the Freedom Foundation reports for their Scholarship Fund...
Someone posted this before
It's an insult to the word "Scam" in your endeavor.
Fox News is at home in the Gutter.
The closest contrast i can give is Tiger Woods & his "Putter"
Speak truth to power.
Mr. News
You cannot make this stuff up.
Somebody's been, and is being, duped. Straight up!
So they're typos, not errors in English? Sorry, that gets no sympathy from this old English teacher. Your computer isn't to blame for your frequent inability to use capital letters and proper punctuation. Your grasp of English is so far from perfecto, it's pathetic.
I dont type well. my grasp of english is a total mystery to you...on the other hand it gives me joy to know that a person is annoyed
No--so you said.--rrastro
Thanks for the understatement.
my [sic] grasp of english [sic] is a total mystery to you...
Not at all (and there's your first failed attempt at mindreading). I know substandard when I see it. What is a mystery is why you care so little about what a fool you make of yourself.
on the other hand it gives me joy to know that a person is annoyed [sic]
Hey, if you've got so little of a life that that gives you joy, I'm glad to oblige. But the truth is, I'm not annoyed (that's your second failed attempt at mindreading--you're on a roll!). I point it out to you just like I might point out a non-functioning brake light to a fellow motorist. I'm simply alerting him to a situation that should be fixed, in a situation that would make it better for everyone.
You also assume that the action at issue actually contributes constructively to whatever the goal is.
All of us need to talk in the open about these aspects of political action in much much more detail.
Besides the obvious grammatical issues, let me introduce you to a new concept: vested interest. As in, the corporatists aren't in this whole astro-turf teabagging thing because of principle--they're in it to increase their corporate profits. Now, could you kindly explain how GM would have profited in your remarkably idiotic hypothetical?...
comprendes?
Now, is any of this actually true (links come in so
handy for this!), or are you just pulling it out of your lower intestinal tract again?...
To him thats a fair exchange. Of course unless he is in the top 2% of the country making $200,000 and over for individuals and $250,000 for families he will see a tax-cut anyway,but we are talking about someone that doesn't let facts destroy a well established fantasy that us liberals aren't tax-payers and work for a living.
These are hard
to dispel and why unite with others that have similar interest in improving
society when you can be used by giants like GM? Is there any other way to interpit demonstrations in support of health insurance companies right to deny care or blasting ACORN for calling attention to AIG bonuses while people are thrown out of their houses? I even heard Laura Ingrahm twist the famous poem by the priest during WWII that began with: First they came for the communist,etc.,etc.,etc., into First they came for the rich and I was not rich so...these tea-baggers are suckers and their proud of it. To me it would be like a slave protesting the abolitionist. Beleive it or not their were some.
on the other hand if bush tax cuts expire, as obama once suggested, my taxes go up, and not a little
Indeed, almost certainly due to ARRA money from eeeeevil Hssein O'Bama's American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, which I'm sure you would be eager to refuse...
If the tax cuts expire, as they are pre-set to do by law, your taxes almost certainly not go up (unles you're admitting to us that you're an insrance-company executive, in which case your taxes deserve to go up), and maybe all those community services might continue. Unless you have a jones for cutting funding to police, schools, and highway construction and maintenance...
when the tax cuts expire how will my taxes not go up? they cante expire and live on
It is too bad that the legislators won't just lower the age to get medicare down to 40. Medicare is a very efficient government program. Ninty-five percent (95%) of medicare dollars goes into healthcare. About 60% to 70% of the money paid into the private insurance companies goes into healthcare. The private insurance's 30% to 40% that does not go into healthcare makes the insurance CEOs rich billionaires. These CEO's got there by finding ways to not pay out on claims. It's a sick industry literally.
Medicare was originally put in place to have the tax payer take on the burden of providing healthcare for the elderly, those who would cost the private insurance companies too much money. It's all about the private health insurance companies making their billions of dollars in profits. It should be illegal for private health insurance companies to make a profit. They should all be made into nonprofit businesses. Making a business of denying peoples' claims is criminal.
The money for the big guys is obvious and the little guys don't really mind 'cause the big guys are helping draw a lot of attention to the movement
and, yes, it is about money to the tea-baggers: smaller government and hence less taxes (to pay for a smaller government) are just fluff to obfuscate the truth that less taxes means you keep more of your money. Sure, you work hard for your money so why should you have to give any of it to Uncle Sam? Okay, so maybe you tea-baggers are okay with giving a little, your fair share, to cover the cost of schools, roads, military, social security, medicare, fire departments, police protection.....but not to support some one less fortunate, by golly! Very Christian of you all.
It's all about money - money is the true God of tea-baggers
All idiots are welcome to reply.
the real irony is if they had paid this kind of money in taxes it would have at least fixed a pot hole or paid a cops salary or bought a set of new books for local students insted it now enriches the life of the already super rich who pay less in taxes then 98% of the population
I also hope you realize that many liberals are also devoted Tea Party members as well.
Just another case of the democrat party whistling, well you can see...
Speaking truth to/about progressives with a shout out to those potential/probable waterboarders who either A) allowed another islamic terrorist to get onto a plane or B) who gave their lives in the defense of the country. Choose the obamaway, the politically expedient way.
Oh, I'm sure it will, proudmoron. Things like causing all remaining thoughtful Republicans (such as mari) to ditch the Party of No Sense...
No, it's just how our dear leader views the work and/or personnel of the CIA. One day they drop the ball (of course a lot of days they were accused of lying to congresswoman pelosi, needed to be investigated for torture by the socialcrats) and the next day they are the salt of the earth and heroes. It just depends on which way the political winds have driven the prez's audience.
Heck, I'm just glad he didn't identify the attacker as a terrorist, let alone an islamic terrorist! But I believe he did say the islamic terrorist had acted stupidly, now that's getting tough on 'em.
Now, Rupert Murdoch and his K Street boys are cashing in.
Nice Try Media Matters. You know, if you people would remove the blocking tool you must have on your browser that prevents you from going EVERYWHERE except MSNBC and Media Matters, you might find out what is really happening in your country. And you might even begin to care, unless you're just too much in dire need of being temporarily pampered so you can be permanently pimped by a communist regime. And what’s with this “loving to smell someone’s schadenfreude?" (Which you can't even spell right) I’m pretty sure that qualifies for censorship, fines and a small jail sentence under Obama’s 49th Czar’s tyrannical guidelines for “hate speech.” I LOVE THIS SITE! You and your nervous kvetch is so obvious, there are days you get the whole office rolling on the ground. It makes our day, all day, every day! Keep up the loonytoons! I just hope when this “fantasy” Tea Party from a fantasy bus takes back our nation that you guys can keep on being so funny, we’d really miss it if you couldn’t.