ACORN doesn't need to sabotage the tea parties, they're doing a bang-up job on their own

Posted Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 9:59 pm

The latest news from deep inside Galt's Gulch - home to the last 300 organizers of the tea parties - is that ACORN is trying to sabotage the "parties" [1]. There's certainly the possibility that they might be doing that, but they don't need to for at least a couple reasons:

1. The partiers are already doing a great job marginalizing and discrediting themselves on their own, and
2. The "parties" are a great way to keep Obama's opponents occupied doing something completely ineffective.

For some examples of the first:
1. The claim that ACORN is doing something is made without even a shred of supporting evidence [2]. There are no pictures, no video, not even a first-person account. Not even hearsay. Anyone who's even slightly skeptical will probably think these people are suffering from a persecution complex.
2. The recent claim that the city of Cape Coral shut down a "party" was completely bogus. The organizer simply didn't want to abide by reasonable rules that the city had posted on their website involving events with more than 500 people.
3. I haven't been to an event or looked at all the pictures available, but I'm absolutely positive there are many more wacky signs than the one shown in this post, the "John Galt" sign at pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/74067, and those here: pereiraville.com/scribble/?p=7104. Signs like those are not a good sign vis-a-vis getting participation from those who are more mainstream.
4. Some of the groups promoting the events do in fact have links to the Koch family, no matter how much some might try to say that the only major hit piece on the "movement" has been debunked. At least the Atlanta event is linked to Grover Norquist. And, a major supporter of the "movement" as a whole has been Dick Armey. All of those support massive immigration; they are not in any way friends to those of us who oppose massive/illegal immigration. And, it would be incredibly easy for the MSM to begin an anti-tea party campaign that would hit home. The MSM has not done that already no doubt for the two reasons why ACORN probably needn't waste their time infiltrating the protests. But, they could if the "parties" ever took off. It wouldn't be that difficult for the MSM to succeed in portraying those behind the scenes - not the useful idiot local organizers, but those actually pulling the strings - as extremists.

P.S. In case anyone thinks I'm an ACORN supporter, see their name's link up above. I first started discussing them here in July 2004.

UPDATE: Scratch everything I said above! The New York Times has done a hit piece on the "parties", meaning they must be worried. Oh, wait, it's just a minor smear piece from Lawrence Downes: link. If they were truly worried they would have written a "news" article similar to those that they did on Sarah Palin.

UPDATE 2: Uh oh, now here's a real worry. Lee Fang of the Obama-linked Center for American Progress blog ThinkProgress offers "Republican Members Of Congress Embrace Radical Anti-Obama Tea Party Protests" (thinkprogress.org/2009/04/08/gopestablishment-joins-teaparties). It's typical childish tripe, but the fact that it's appeared there may in fact indicate that the Obama administration is at least a little bit worried about the parties.

[1] pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/75770
[2] teapartymay16.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=2956151%3ATopic%3A1261

Tags: 
acorn
new york times
thinkprogress
tea parties
lawrence downes
lee fang

Comments

levotb (not verified)

Mon, 04/13/2009 - 09:30

I want to thank the blog owner (who is clearly an anti-Invasion conservative as I am) for exposing yet more troubling info on those behind the Tea Party movement. Many of my conservative chat room friends are getting involved in their local Tea Parties and they need to know about traitor Grover Norquist's involvement as well as Open Borders RINOs Steve Forbes and failed former Congressman Dick Armey's group's involvement (Freedom Works). I was very disappointed to see Michelle Malkin's apparent throwing in behind Freedom Works. Malkin is a staunch anti-Invasion activist-writer. It just doesn't compute. I see by the update date 4/6/09 that the blog owner apparently isn't aware of some OTHER occurances set down by the Tea Party muck-e-mucks recently that I'm sure he and his readers will want to know more about. I have advised my chat room conservative activists to consider these before departing on their Tax Day protest. As I do with any conservative or supposedly conservative org, I look BEHIND that org to see who is pulling the strings. If their policy isn't what they say it is publicly OR if they simply want to keep that policy close to the hip, then I want to know about it before I join that group. Information found on blogs should be thoroughly researched and people vetted before coming to any clear conclusion. I did just such "research" with news that I received from a close Christian conservative friend in NY state who left a Tea Party event in disgust and emailed me about it immediately. She told me that her area organizer had turned against her when she brought up Obama's eligibility issue (Some of us believe that he is ineligible to be President and is a usurper). She left that event in disgust and humiliation. I then heard from another Christian conservative friend in Indiana that her local Tea Party organizer had told her that anti-Obama signs, signs questioning his eligibility "...are not allowed at these events and will be removed or their holders asked to leave". An alarm bell went off in my head. It was bad enough that Armey, Forbes and faux conservative Newt Gingrich are behind the Tea Party movement. But this sort of thing 1st Ammendment issue at the local organizer level made me think that the drective came from the top. So I called Michael P. Leahy who chairs the Tea Party Committee and asked him on the phone if these reports from NY State and Indiana are true and if it's a directive from him. He answered the question this way: "It's up to the local organizers how they conduct their rallies." He added, however, "The Tea Parties were designed to protest tax/economic policy. We don't want to make them into anti-Obama or Demo-bashing events." My question then is, "Who is passing and who is behind unconstitutional laws on mandatory government service and other Acts and bills? It certainly isn't the majority of Republicans or conservatives!" Then, Friday night April 10th, my Indiana conservative f

levotb (not verified)

Mon, 04/13/2009 - 09:39

Then on Friday night, April 10th, my Indiana conservative activist-friend emailed her local Tea Party organizer regarding signs and policy. Here is what he emailed her back, verbatum: *** "We are not going against President Obama. We are simply saying the spending and the taxation must stop....There is a good chance that we are going to be counter-protested and what they think is that we are a bunch of hard core Republicans that are bent against the President...We are not those people...We are stainding on 9 principles and 12 values... that is the basis for our fight and for our unity.... April the 15th is about sending the message that enough is enough...Stop spending our money.......stop taxing us so heavy..... This is to create community awareness that others are not alone either, that they can have a voice with us...... So bottom line...please don't bring any signs that say anything about Obama or any other candidate....We are not endorsing any candidates or any legislation as a group......" *** Those considering joining this movement (which is NOT a Patriot movement, by the way) should consider all this before signing up.