The American Petroleum Institute is starting a new astroturf movement called "Energy Citizens": rallies in "about 20 states" designed to:
"put a human face on the impacts of unsound energy policy and to aim a loud message at those states' U.S. Senators to avoid the mistakes embodied in the House climate bill and the Obama Administration’s tax increases on our industry."
You can download a copy of the API memo here, also discussed here and discussed here in a completely credulous fashion.
If you've been following our tea parties coverage, you're probably thinking: "corporate astroturf? Call in the tea partiers!" And, in fact, FreedomWorks did call them in to the Houston rally. However, those inside the meeting apparently didn't want to rub shoulders with the hoi polloi and turned them away, as you can see on the attached video. Bear in mind that the source is Public Citizen via ThinkProgress [1], so there's the possibility that it was faked up. However, that appears to be slight. While some will no doubt laugh at them for being useful idiots (OK, I admit it), it's mostly just pathetic. If the oil companies (or FreedomWorks' funders, or the Koch family) want a crowd, at the least try to get some money out of it. That's what it's all about, right?
[1] wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/08/20/oil-no-patriots
thinkprogress.org/2009/08/20/freedomworks-no-flags
Sun, 08/23/2009 - 20:22 · Importance: 4
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