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...“You would be surprised at how many Republican Latinos there actually are in the state of Nevada. There are quite a few of us,” said Alex Garza, a Hispanic Republican activist. “I think the numbers are there; we just haven’t organized as well as the Democratic Latino organizations.” The potential political power of Latinos is an oft-told story in Nevada and elsewhere, though any happy ending at the polls usually is enjoyed by Democrats. ...During the Republican presidential candidates’ nationally televised debate in Las Vegas last month, they were asked how they would speak to the Latino community. Newt Gingrich...

Complete title: ACORN Officials Scramble, Firing Workers and Shredding Documents, After Exposed as Players Behind Occupy Wall Street ProtestsOfficials with the revamped ACORN office in New York -- operating as New York Communities for Change -- have fired staff, shredded reams of documents and told workers to blame disgruntled ex-employees for leaking information in an effort to explain away a FoxNews.com report last week on the group’s involvement in Occupy Wall Street protests, according to sources. NYCC also is installing surveillance cameras and recording devices at its Brooklyn offices, removing or packing away supplies bearing the name ACORN and handing...

HANOVER, N.H. — Barely 48 hours before nine Republican presidential hopefuls are scheduled to debate at Dartmouth College, signs began appearing on campus Sunday evening announcing a demonstration in support of the Occupy Wall Street protests. A “Students Stand With Staff” organization with ties to the Service Employees International Union is organizing the event. The group plans to hold its rally on the center of campus during the four hours immediately preceding Tuesday evening’s high-profile debate. Sterling Beard, a senior at the college and editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review, a conservative campus newspaper, told The Daily Caller that organized labor’s...

Nationally, Democrats say they intend to campaign against the tea party movement. But locally, Democratic officials and activists in at least four states now stand accused of collaborating with tea party candidates in an attempt to sabotage Republican challengers in some of the closest House races in the nation. The charges of dirty tricks are being leveled in Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Jersey and Florida--and they involve more than a half-dozen contests that could tip the balance of power in the House. The accusations range from helping tea party activists circulate candidate petition sheets to underwriting the creation of official Tea...

. . .Mr. Saint, a former newspaper reporter and political press secretary, founded his firm 26 years ago. It specializes in using political-campaign tactics—petition drives, phone banks, websites—to build support for or against controversial projects, from oil refineries and shopping centers to quarries and landfills. Over the years, it has conducted about 1,500 campaigns in 44 states. Mr. Saint says about 500 have involved trying to block a development, and most of those have been clandestine. For the typical anti-Wal-Mart assignment, a Saint manager will drop into town using an assumed name to create or take control of local opposition,...

The Coffee Party Heats Up Tired of all the Tea Party talk, Annabel Park decided to throw a Coffee Party—and 200,000 people showed up. By Steve Tuttle | NEWSWEEK Apr 22, 2010 When Annabel Park imagined what it would be like to head a new national political movement, here is what she had in mind: a coming together of engaged, intelligent citizens who had tired of the angry rhetoric and accusations of the Tea Partiers; Americans of all political persuasions joining in a spirit of equanimity to discuss the nation's problems, and maybe even share a laugh. It was this...

When Annabel Park imagined what it would be like to head a new national political movement, here is what she had in mind: a coming together of engaged, intelligent citizens who had tired of the angry rhetoric and accusations of the Tea Partiers; Americans of all political persuasions joining in a spirit of equanimity to discuss the nation's problems, and maybe even share a laugh. It was this beautiful vision that danced in Park's head on a recent Saturday as she made her way to Busboys and Poets, a cafe in Washington, D.C., for one of nearly 500 Coffee Party...

This my friends, is astroturfing. Just look at all the coordinated signs and T-shirts. Busloads of government union employees gathered in the Illinois state capital to demand lawmakers increase the income tax by 33 percent. We’ve told you for years the current rate of spending at the federal, state and local level was unsustainable.

When the health care reform bill was signed into law last month by President Barack Obama, Bev McClellan of Hampton was happy and inspired enough to do something she hadn't done in years — write a letter to the editor. "It was a long time coming," McClellan said about health care reform. "I am a self-employed, self-insured person and I believe reform will put me in a much better position." Outside of typical election year letter-writing, no other domestic issue in recent memory has prompted more readers to write letters to the editor in opposition or support of health care...

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) -- In one chair sits a rural retiree, his financial security shot in the slump, a humble Southerner who's never thought much about politics. In another seat is a born Northerner, an inner-city native, a relative of a civil rights giant. And nearby, circling a table, are an economist, an artist, a onetime John McCain supporter and a long-haired guy who's rich in Woodstock memories. Meet these members of the Coffee Party Movement, an organically grown, freshly brewed push that's marking its official kickoff Saturday. Across the country, even around the globe, they and other Americans in...

Surprise! Surprise! It turns out that the "grassroots" organizer of the "progressive alternative" to the Tea Parties, the Coffee Party, has been exposed as an Obama political operative. If you had read the profiles of the Coffee Party founder Annabel Park (photo) in the Washington Post or New York Times you wouldn't have had a hint as to her extensive political activity in the 2008 Obama campaign. So how did William A. Jacobson of Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion discover this "deep secret" that the two major newspapers with their vast resources were unable to find? Well, it required the "tremendous effort" of...

Dem Astroturfing Campaign Targets Conservative Talk Radio By Lachlan Markay Created 02/26/2010 - 13:16 Conservative dominance of the talk radio airwaves continues, but liberals are making concerted efforts to get their voices heard through large top-down campaigns. Organizing for America--the campaign arm of the Obama administration--is rolling out the astroturf in an effort to get liberal voices heard on the nation's most popular (i.e. conservative) talk radio shows. The campaign is called "On the Air." Visitors at radio.barackobama.com [1] (talk about grassroots!) are provided with a phone number of a conservative talk radio show, and a list of health care...

radio.barackobama.com The fate of health reform has been a focus of debate in living rooms and offices, on TV and online -- and on talk radio. And since millions of folks turn to talk radio as a trusted source of news and opinions, we need to make sure OFA supporters are calling in with a pro-reform message.

<p>Remember all those accusations last summer from the Obama White House and Democratic congressional leaders like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that the Tea Party movement was nothing more than an astroturfed mirage paid for by a few rich Repubican donors?</p>

More attacks on the Tea Party movement, this time by one of the unions. Democrats and union leaders assured everyone the TEA Party movement was pure astroturf and fake, funded by finance and insurance companies favoring Republicans. It was not true, and now Fox News reports a supposed grass-roots effort to bash the TEA Party movement is funded by unions.

About 100 members of a progressive organization rallied outside Rep. Mike Honda's Campbell office today to try to keep health care reform alive. Numerous speakers shared their personal health care stories, some told with tears, some told with anger. Similar rallies were scheduled by MoveOn.org members and their supports in more than 100 cities around the country. Representatives of MoveOn said now is not the time to give up, regardless of the upset victory of Republican Scott Brown in the Massachusetts senatorial race, which means the Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. "We want to show the public...

.. Left Coast Rebel made me aware of a comment left on his blog by someone claiming to be Ellie Light. The comment was left by someone using the screen name Winston44. In searching out that name, I found a Twitter account under it that has barely been used. The account has never tweeted and follows 18 individuals, with 9 following it. Given that we usually add people we know when we first open a Twitter account, I looked to see who the first individual was that Winston44 added. That would be Adam Segal. Adam J. Segal, President, The 2050...

I noted in an earlier post that some recent Astroturf had been tracked by this blogger to the Democrat party. I’m worried that it got lost in the mass of updates, so I am noting it again, and doing a step-by-step demonstration of a similar Astroturf job from Organizing for America. Go to Organizing for America’s web site. There is a page you can use to write letters to the editor.

From – Mon Jan 25 06:42:56 2010 X-Account-Key: account11 X-UIDL: UID204928-1203640919 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 X-Mozilla-Keys: Return-path: Envelope-to: hotair@edmorrissey.com Delivery-date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 07:38:46 -0500 Received: from tosh-PC (host11-164-dynamic.59-82-r.retail.telecomitalia.it [82.59.164.11]) by (Postfix) with SMTP id DBC0C1E1C6AB Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:38:30 -0600 (CST) Received: from [82.59.164.11] by web335.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:22:20 GMT Message-Id: Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:22:20 -0400 From: “Ellie Light” User-Agent: Mozilla 2.0 (Macintosh; I; 68K) MIME-Version: 1.0

Ever since the grass roots tea parties began, the progressives have tried to minimize them. They continue to call them, Tea Baggers, Nazis, Right Wing fringe, and of course Astroturf. The Astroturf charge is the most ironic as David Axelrod the President's Political adviser was once labeled by Business Week as The master of "Astroturfing", which is what PR industry insiders call the practice of "manufacturing grassroots support."According to Business Week, one of Axelrod's Astroturfing campaigns stealthily spent $15 million convincing Illinois taxpayers that their power would be shut off if they didn't approve an increase in their electric bills....

Ellie Light sure gets around. In recent weeks, Light has published virtually identical “Letters to the Editor” in support of President Barack Obama in more than a dozen newspapers.Every letter claimed a different residence for Light that happened to be in the newspaper’s circulation area. Associated PressPresident Barack Obama has both detractors and fans. A curious number of his fans are named Ellie Light.“It’s time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything,” said a letter from alleged Philadelphian Ellie Light, that was published in the...

Isn't it amazing how the left and it's media will always claim that conservatives are nothing but astroturfers yet here we have video proof of astroturf training.

Prior to the final televised debate of the special Senate election in Massachusetts, both sides had their supporters out in force to make a show for the media. One group sporting yellow Sheet Metal Workers Union t-shirts over their winter jackets appeared to be supporting Martha Coakley. However, an amature video, already removed from Youtube, showed some of those Coakley supporters speaking candidly about being paid by the union to attend. One man said he did not want to be there but, had to come down in order to receive $50 from the Union. The Astroturf is green, even in...

Now, a Tea Party has formed in the state of Florida. Does it make sense that someone who is truly conservative would want to divide the Republican votes? How does this keep democrats from continuously taking seats? America is a country where people are constantly trying to better themselves financially. The get rich quick scams are proof of that. Interesting enough, we are also a society based on the internet and if you let your fingers guide you, the truth can be revealed. Let’s talk about some truths. Truth 1: The creator of the Tea Party is an Orlando based...

AT&T's top lobbyist, Jim Cicconi, sent a letter to all of the telecom giant's 300,000 employees on Sunday, urging them to express their concerns over a net neutrality proposal under consideration by the Federal Communications Commission. Check out his letter and comments on the Actuarian Outpost Web site. The letter was the latest move in a lobbying frenzy days before the FCC votes on a proposal to create new net neutrality regulations. High-tech giants wrote to the agency to support the rules, while dozens of lawmakers from both parties have protested the rules as potentially dangerout to economic growth. "We...

Advocates of imposing "network neutrality" say it's necessary to ensure a "free" and "open" Internet and rescue the public from nefarious corporations that "control" technology. Few proposals in Washington have been sold employing such deceptive language -- and that's saying something. But few public policy ideas can boast the unashamedly socialist pedigree of net neutrality. The modern Internet is a creation of the free market, which has brought about a revolution in communication, free speech, education, and commerce. New Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski apparently doesn't like that. He stated last month the way Internet service providers manage their...

An AT&T executive has asked employees to post opposition to net neutrality rules being considered by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on an FCC Web site using their personal e-mail addresses, prompting accusations of unfair advocacy by an opposing group. The AT&T letter, sent this week by Jim Cicconi, senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs, asks employees to go to OpenInternet.gov and use a personal e-mail address to join the discussion forum there. The letter then gives five talking points that AT&T employees can use to argue against net neutrality in the days leading up to Thursday’s...

Extreme anti-choice groups including Operation Rescue just launched a new attack on personal rights. The groups are encouraging people to display their photos online with a sign stating that they are the "majority" who oppose federal funding for reproductive health care. The problem is, it's a lie. The groups are touting data from a year-old poll of only 2,481 voters that had a two percent margin of error. Since when did so few people represent the "majority" of the 3 million American citizens today? Almost more outrageous is the question this poll was based on. Respondents were asked, "President-elect Obama...

Politics: The administration stages a photo-op with handpicked doctors who support its health care reform. Fortunately, most doctors still believe that the first rule of medicine is to do no harm. It would seem some doctors still make house calls. Some 150 of them made one at the White House Monday in an attempt to give a booster shot to the administration's chaotic and stalled health care reform drive. Rather than a grass-roots uprising of physicians, this was a classic case of AstroTurfing. Attendance was by invitation only, and 40 of the 150 were said to be members of Doctors...

I walked by a bunch of Liberals today in San Francsico who work for Healthcare for America Now who were also pushing Gavin Newsom for Governor of CA. The keep parroting the Democratic party line of "big insurance" keeps us all from free healthcare...greedy CEOs... Who funds these people? Has anyone heard of them?

The Dems, with help from MoveOn.org (seriously, move on already) and ACORN plan to mobilize on health care this week. How's this for a "grass roots" effort? The plan for a series of grass-roots demonstrations Tuesday to promote President Obama's health care agenda calls for tightly scripted events.. Health Care for America Now (HCAN), which is backed by a coalition of labor unions and liberal groups including ACORN and MoveOn.org, organized the protests to target insurance companies and drafted the plan, which describes the demonstrations as part of its "insurance enemies project." The document, a copy of which was obtained...

At high noon on one of the hottest days of the summer, a small group of senior citizens sweated it out in front of state GOP headquarters in Raleigh, N.C., asking the Republican Party to stop using what they called "scare tactics" to turn senior citizens against overhauling the health care system. It could be the start of a silver backlash against what some say is a misinformation campaign about health care reform. The members of the Alliance for Retired Americans were angry about a recent column by national GOP Chairman Michael Steele, who said health care reform would lead...

NY Congressman Tim Bishop tried to pack his town hall with unions on the ‘take’ for nationalized healthcare. The people of his district erupt in open rebellion when one of the union goons tries to speak! Union members, many from outside the district, were snuck into the hall beforehand in an effort to stack the deck with a friendly audience. The last straw came when one of the union leaders from outside the district was asked to speak. The citizens erupted in open revolt which almost led to violence from the union goons.

A local union leader was booed out of Rep. Tim Bishop's town hall meeting last night in New York.Like they tried to do here in St. Louis, union members, many from outside the district, were snuck into the hall in an effort to stack the deck with a friendly audience. There are reports that as many as three busloads were brought in.Things boiled over when Mr. Mitchell, head of the Long Island Federation of Labor, steps up to the podium and announces that he in fact does not reside within the borders of NY's First Congressional District.

More than 900 residents met U.S. Rep. Tim Bishop's promise to approve only a health care bill that "improves on a status quo that is unacceptable" with a mix of cheers and boos at a packed town hall meeting in Farmingville Thursday night.

Via Gateway Pundit, although I’m certain there’s an alternative explanation. Maybe the leader of the Long Island Federation of Labor couldn’t make it to the town-hall forum in his own district, or perhaps his Representative was busy hiding, like many House Democrats this August. His attempt to pander to the actual constituents of Rep. Tim Bishop results in catcalls and a full minute of disruption. Jim also reports that the Magical Mystery Bus Tour continued for this meeting, with unions sending three busloads of people to the event. Even so, the angry constituents shout them down fairly effectively … or...

After enraged constituents started showing up at Congressional town-hall forums to oppose ObamaCare, the unions acted quickly to counterdemonstrate on behalf of the Democratic agenda item. In at least one case, union representatives used violence to intimidate and harrass ObamaCare opponents. The same union, which represents a large percentage of government workers and would be presumably immune from any health-care reform action, issued memos demanding volunteers to “drown out” opposition to ObamaCare. But why? This report from the Detroit Free Press explains that the unions....

...by stacking the deck in their favor, encouraging members (Obamabots) to come early, per this e-mail I received today from Brandyn Keating, Virginia State Director of the DNC front group "Astroturfing for Obama" (aka Organizing for America). "I wanted to send you an urgent invitation to an important town hall with Rep. Jim Moran this Tuesday, August 25th.He'll be talking to constituents and gathering feedback. Whether you ask a question or show your support with a sign, attending this town hall is a powerful way to show where you stand and thank those in Congress who are fighting for reform....

The national healthcare movement was doomed from the start. TV clips of shouting matches at town halls and fear-mongering by cynical politicians may be lamentable, but we are witnessing something more profound than the collapse of civic discourse. The failure of a movement that could rightly claim over 70 percent public acceptance just a month ago, exposes the inherent failure of movements of any kind to effectively address our society’s ills. That’s right. Mass organization may just have been a twentieth century thing: collective actions of all sorts—good and bad—were responses to the corporatization of government and industy. As such,...

In town hall meetings billed as opportunities for Americans to ask health care questions of an "open" and "transparent" administration, the White House may be selecting President Obama's own supporters to ask non-compromising questions. The White House insists that attendees are selected at random, but a closer look reveals many questioners range from Obama campaign donors and Organizing for America volunteers to single-payer health care lobbyists and Service Employees International Union members. Medicare backer and a 6th grader The blogosphere is still on fire with stories about possible "plants" at an Aug. 11 Portsmouth, N.H., health care town hall. An...

Will media that savaged Joe the plumber now go after the fake doctor? When regular citizen "Joe the Plumber" asked an innocent, heartfelt, but challenging question of presidential candidate Barack Obama last year, he ended up getting skewered by the "mainstream" media. Every detail of his past was looked at for possible motives and nefarious associations. Democratic state officials in Ohio even thumbed through his records illegally to find dirt on him. That somehow doesn't happen with liberals. A woman at Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee's town hall meeting in Texas recently claimed to be a pediatrician and stood up to...

On Monday, President Obama will be coming to speak in Phoenix. Special interests are attacking the President and his principles for health insurance reform, and we need to show that the American people are standing up for change. So we're inviting supporters like you to gather nearby to publicly show our support. Please join us -- here are the details: What: Show of support for President Obama Where: Northeast corner of Washington Ave. & Central Ave. Phoenix, AZ 85003 When: Monday, August 17th 7:00 a.m. Last fall, when Swiftboaters and special interests attacked President Obama, folks like you came to...

Patterico and Lone Star Times capture yet another banner moment from a town-hall forum hosted by Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) . In this clip, Roxana Mayer introduces herself as a doctor (a general practitioner for four years) in order to support ObamaCare and Jackson-Lee in a fairly hostile crowd. For her efforts, she gets a big hug from the Congresswoman, an image which the Houston Chronicle featured prominently on their website coverage of the event. But was Mayer really a doctor? Not only was Mayer not a doctor, Roxana Mayer was an Obama delegate, as Patterico discovered with some digging....

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said today she does not know the woman who falsely claimed to be a physician when she made a statement supporting the White House's health care overhaul at the congresswoman's town hall meeting Tuesday. The woman, a University of Houston student named Roxana Mayer, is not a licensed physician, although she called herself one at the meeting and was incorrectly identified as such in Wednesday's editions of the Chronicle. In an e-mail to the Chronicle today, Mayer said she'd been advised not to talk further about the matter, but did not say who counseled her....

Plant at now infamous town hall where Sheila Jackson Lee answered her phone claimed to be a doctor... but she lied... she isn't Houston Chronicle DID zero homework. Also, falsely representing yourself as a physician may be illegal under TX law (still developing). more at link

Taking Rep. Lee's (D-TX) track record into account, and knowing her fondness for all things Obama, I would say that it's a pretty fair assumption that she did. Thanks to Patterico's Pontifications and Lone Star Times we have the video clip and story of Roxanna Mayer at a town hall meeting, hosted by Rep. Lee, introducing herself as a doctor (general practitioner) of four years. Turns out that she's not a doctor (nor a Sheila Jackson Lee constituent) at all, but an Obama delegate.

I was reading the Chron’s piece about Sheila Jackson Lee’s town hall, when something caught my eye: One supporter, Dr. Roxana Mayer, a physician who does not live in Jackson Lee’s district, praised the reform plan for overhauling a broken system. “I don’t know what there is in the bill that creates such panic,” she said. In this video, Mayer claims to be a general practitioner, eliciting applause and even a hug from Queen Sheila: I’m not sure why, but something didn’t smell right. So my colleagues and I did a little digging, and wouldn’t you know it? Roxana Mayer...

A new coalition on Thursday is launching $12 million in television ads to support President Barack Obama’s health-reform plan, in the opening wave of a planned tens of millions of dollars this fall. The new group, funded largely by the pharmaceutical industry, is called Americans for Stable Quality Care. It includes some odd bedfellows: the American Medical Association, FamiliesUSA, the Federation of American Hospitals, PhRMA and SEIU, the service employees’ union. The ads start airing at about 11 a.m. ET Thursday. The group is likely to be the biggest spender in support of health reform. The campaign will serve as...

Facing a barrage of questions Wednesday over the friendliness of the audience at President Obama's New Hampshire town hall meeting, the White House insisted that all questions were selected at random -- including one from an 11-year-old girl whose mother worked as an Obama organizer. Julia Hall of Malden, Mass., grabbed the microphone Tuesday during Obama's town hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., and told the president she saw signs "outside saying mean things about reforming health care" as she walked into the building.

Since at least May, this newspaper has received suspiciously uniform letters to the editor expressing support for Democratic health care reform plans. The letters come in the same format, use the same talking points and often contain the exact same language. We have found that they came (and are still coming) from Organizing for America. That's President Obama's own campaign organization. Its Web site is www.barackobama.com. That's interesting because last week White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dismissed thousands of Americans who have protested against Democratic health care plans. He said these citizens displayed "manufactured anger," and he warned of...