freedomworks

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Tea Party leaders stand with Rand Paul on amnesty for illegal aliens (Jenny Beth Martin, Sal Russo, Matt Kibbe, Freedomworks) - 03/21/13

Three Tea Party leaders have now indicated that they support or won't oppose Rand Paul's plan to legalize almost all illegal aliens in the U.S. That plan would fail miserably and it isn't in any way conservative. The three leaders are:

Proof Tea Party is astroturf: Koch group tried to start Teaparties in 2002 - 02/12/13

If you trust their defenders, the Tea Parties were a spontaneously formed grassroots group initiated by Rick Santelli's 2009 rant or a slightly earlier anti-tax rally organized by Keli Carender. Those same defenders will deny that the Koch family has anything to do with the Teaparties.

Dick Armey angrily quits FreedomWorks over "principles"; gets $8 million golden parachute (Matt Kibbe) (SEE UPDATES) - 12/04/12

Former House majority leader Dick Armey has resigned as Chairman of FreedomWorks, one of the main organizations pulling the strings on the Tea Parties movement. Armey's resignation letter is at [1] and, as you can see, it wasn't an amicable split. Don't worry about Armey however: he'll be getting an $8 million golden parachute [2].

Marco Rubio, Barack Obama, George Bush, Dick Armey read from same script on immigration - 06/27/12

I don't know if some third party writes the lines and talking points that illegal immigration supporters use, but sometimes it certainly seems that way.

Freedomworks uses Teaparty-approved Alinsky tactics... against Teaparty (not a learning experience) - 06/29/11

As discussed on the tea parties page, the teapartiers could have pushed their same aberrant ideology using much more effective and much more civil tactics. Instead, they chose to act like a childish caricature of the far-left: throwing tantrums at public meetings, standing on street corners waving loopy signs, engaging in cheap stunts, playing dress-up games, smearing and lying, and on and on.

Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Limbaugh, Hannity paid to promote FreedomWorks, AFP, Heritage (Koch, immigration) - 06/18/11

Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity are paid large amounts of money to promote groups like FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, and the Heritage Foundation.

War on Electability: FreedomWorks to oppose Mitt Romney; what the GOP can do (Tea Party) - 05/25/11

Freedomworks is going to actively try to prevent Mitt Romney from getting the GOP nomination [1]. I'm not a fan, but Romney is one of the few electable current or potential candidates. So, the tea parties - controlled in large part by Freedomworks even if they don't know it - might bring their NY-26 magic to the national stage and help elect Barack Obama to four more years. What the GOP can do about this is to declare "war" on Freedomworks right back: 1. Somehow, some way make an argument that libertarian-oriented policies (or the LibertarianLite version that teapartiers favor) just don't...

Teaparty leader Dick Armey now wants Mitch Daniels for president - 04/29/11

Teaparty leader Dick Armey of FreedomWorks has announced that Mitch Daniels would be the "perfect pick" for president (link, video here). Let's review:

Tea Party used to push corporate agenda (Institute for Liberty, Monsanto, Asian paper company) - 03/31/11

If you've been following our extensive tea parties coverage, you'll know where this is going (and if you're a teapartier, you'll have no clue): Last fall, [Institute for Liberty's] president, Andrew Langer, had himself videotaped [ peekURL.com/vM87wLC ] on Long Wharf in Boston holding a copy of the Declaration of Independence as he compared Washington’s proposed tariff on paper from Indonesia and China to Britain's colonial trade policies in 1776. That's from "Odd Alliance: Business Lobby and Tea Party" by Mike McIntyre of the New York Times (link) about how the Institute for Liberty and...

Amnesty author Mike Pence for president? Dick Armey, Club for Growth, others hype him (UPDATE: he's out) - 01/21/11

Back in 2006, Indiana Congressman Mike Pence proposed his own "compromise" amnesty plan. He may have gotten the idea for that plan from a proposal by billionaire heiress Helen Krieble, and also in 2006, Krieble, Pence, and Dick Armey of Freedomworks appeared at an event to promote comprehensive immigration reform. The latest bad idea from their general camp is to try to draft Pence to run for president. Those backing the idea include Armey, Chris Chocola of the Club for Growth (known around here as the "Club for Profits at Any Price"), former Rep. Jim Ryun, and Brent Bozell. Per Armey: “What...

The anti-corporate Tea Party? No: will oppose some corporations, give others a pass (FreedomWorks, useful idiots) - 11/23/10

FreedomWorks [1] have a new effort to get the tea parties to espouse an anti-corporate message. The teapartiers, Fighting the Power? Not so fase: if you're familiar with both the teapartiers and Freedom Works, you know there's a catch, and indeed there is: they're only going to get the tea partiers to oppose *some* corporations, while helping or ignoring another set. Don't worry: the teapartiers will continue to be useful idiots for some corporations, just not all of them. From this: Jesse Jackson isn't the only activist that can use corporate boycotts for political purposes. Starting next...

DiverseTea: tea parties to fight charges of racism... by enabling far-left concepts - 09/13/10

FreedomWorks - the group that pulls many of the strings on the tea parties movement whether the teapartiers want to admit it or not - is launching a new effort called "DiverseTea" (wouldn't "DiversiTea" be better?). They're doing minority outreach in an attempt to show how diverse the teaparties are (link): The ads [to be bought by Freedomworks], which will be accompanied by a yet-to-launch website, will showcase diversity in the tea party ranks by calling attention to movement leaders who are African American, Hispanic and Jewish... “The goal is to build a platform for a diverse group of tea...

Tea Party "Patriots" Admit Failure (They Just Don't Know It) - 09/12/10

The Tea Party "Patriots" have released a promo video in which they admit that they've failed. And, to compound that failure, they don't realize that they're admitting that they've failed. You can see their promo at peekURL.com/vudfmnw and my video response is attached (and also available at peekURL.com/v5ky22y ). The script of my response is below, first some notes: * See tea parties for my extensive coverage, including things you won't hear from them or their other opponents.

Glenn Beck "Restoring Honor" rally linked to Dick Armey (Koch too?) - 08/28/10

Earlier today, Glenn Beck held a "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington DC which was attended by somewhere around a few hundred thousand people; certainly an impressive turnout (UPDATE: see below). Thankfully I didn't watch it, but Part 1 of Beck's speech is at peekURL.com/vqlzrtm and Part 1 of Sarah Palin's speech is at peekURL.com/vyn3lcr Any response to the borderline lunacy offered by Beck would become novel-length; for the novella version, see the dozens of tea parties posts. A few quick notes: 1. Apparently Beck unveiled or was planning on unveiling something called a "Black-Robed...

McCain trounces JD Hayworth in GOP primary; who's to blame (tea parties, Palin, Scott Brown...) - 08/25/10

In last night's GOP Senate primary in Arizona, John McCain trounced JD Hayworth with 59% versus 29% for Hayworth (and 11% for Jim Deakin). To a certain extent, McCain's win was due to him spending around $20 million on advertising and him pretending to be tough on immigration matters. Defeating McCain would have sent a strong message to the Beltway establishment, the mainstream media, and other amnesty supporters. Instead, those who should have opposed him either didn't oppose him, didn't take a position, or engaged in useless or counter-productive activities. Who shares the blame? 1....

Even Dick Armey realizes how toxic the "Tea Party" label is - 06/17/10

Even Dick Armey of FreedomWorks - a main stringpuller on the tea parties movement - now realizes that the label "Tea Party" is toxic and politicians should avoid calling themselves "tea party leaders". Recall that last month the Koch family - without which there might not be a tea party movement - also backed away from the tea parties. From this: ...Armey said (Rand Paul)’s "bigger mistake" came in his victory speech after securing the nomination, when he said "I have a message from the tea party. ... We've come to take our government back" and added: "This tea party movement is a message to...

How D.C. Douglas helps Freedomworks and Teaparty - 05/18/10

One of the reasons why there's still a tea parties movement is because their loudest opposition is a match for them when it comes to incompetence. The latest example of that opposition's incompetence comes from D.C. Douglas ("DCD"), the voiceover actor who was fired by GEICO Insurance after he left a voicemail for FreedomWorks ("FW").

How Crash the Tea Party could be effective (Brendan Steinhauser of Freedomworks knows!) - 04/14/10

As exhaustively detailed at the following link, the tea parties are a massive magnet for massive stupidity. They can't do anything right and the only reason they aren't little more than an embarrassing blip on U.S. political history is because their opponents are only marginally smarter than they are. Instead of trying to intellectually engage the partiers and show how they're wrong, those opponents have engaged in a long series of similarly childish activities, such as calling the partiers names or the like. The latest example is the "Crash the Tea Party" group (crashtheteaparty.org) which...

"People's Surge Against Obamacare 2.0": another ineffective Freedomworks scheme (Brendan Steinhauser) - 03/12/10

On Tuesday, March 16 FreedomWorks plans a "People's Surge Against Obamacare 2.0" in Washington DC at which they expect "1,000 if not more people" to be "bused in from various parts of the country" in order to protest Obama healthcare. They'll then be sent out on a fool's errand (link): [FreedomWorks' director of federal and state campaigns, Brendan Steinhauser says:] "We're telling people to go right into the three House office buildings: Cannon, Longworth and Rayburn. Find your congressmen, whether they are in the cafeteria, their offices, in the halls or hiding under their desks, and tell...

Dick Armey + PJTV + Glenn Reynolds + Dana Loesch + CPAC = just how dumb are tea partiers? - 02/19/10

Earlier today, Glenn Reynolds posted what might be the shortest summary of just how incredibly dumb and gullible those involved with the tea parties are (pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/94212). Savor it: THE CONTRACT FROM AMERICA: Dana Loesch Interviews Dick Armey at CPAC. That links to a video at Pajamas Media. So, we've got: * Reynolds, someone who among other things has encouraged his followers to swarm politicians, hold up bunny ears behind their heads, and throw tantrums like little children... * PJTV, which converted Joe the Plumber into a war correspondent then an echo chamber talk show...

Teaparty fooled again: "Contract from America" has nothing about immigration - 02/18/10

Earlier this month I discussed the ineffective, immigration suggestions that had been submitted for the Contract from America. Now, those behind the effort have narrowed down the list of suggestions to 21 and want their visitors to choose their top ten. And, there's not a single choice about immigration: thecontractfromamerica.org/default.aspx

Sarah Palin, Dick Armey, Grover Norquist, Scott Brown support John McCain; what J.D. Hayworth supporters can do - 02/15/10

Sarah Palin, Dick Armey of Freedomworks (see the update), Grover Norquist, and newly-elected senator Scott Brown are all supporting John McCain in his Senate re-election bid. Meanwhile, Chris Simcox dropped out of the GOP nomination earlier today, and has endorsed McCain's strongest rival, JD Hayworth. The last is running as the True Conservative against the RINO McCain. 1. This is yet another example of how the tea parties types are useful idiots; all four of those first listed above are associated with that movement: Armey helped organize the major Washington DC protest, Norquist has helped...

Take Back America PAC from stimulus lobbyist, illegal immigration supporter Dick Armey - 12/15/09

The Take Back America PAC is a new organization from Dick Armey's FreedomWorks; if you're considering sending them any money please read the following links first: * Dick Armey did stimulus bill-related lobbying for a couple companies around the same time as Freedomworks was incompetently opposing the bill. It's unknown what his lobbying consisted of, but there's a more than fair chance that his actions didn't result in the stimulus being less than it was. * See this 2007 video of Dick Armey supporting those who come here illegally. He's been a supporter of massive immigration for several...

Dick Armey lobbied in regards to the Stimulus Plan; what did he do? - 11/20/09

Disclosure documents show that tea parties organizer, head of FreedomWorks, and former Rep. Dick Armey lobbied in regards to the stimulus plan. The documents don't indicate what the lobbying consisted of, but there's certainly a fair possibility that he wasn't lobbying to reduce the amount of the stimulus.

Liberals cheer racism, repudiation of U.S. sovereignty at tea party protest by Nick Espinosa (Daniel Tencer) - 11/16/09

Daniel Tencer of RawStory offers "Tea partiers punk’d into supporting removal of white people from US" (rawstory.com/2009/11/tea-partiers-punked-white-people video at peekURL.com/v5h3vrp). Both the underlying story and his treatment of it are explicitly anti-American:

Ironic: Dick Armey's support for massive immigration leads to more spending, bigger government - 11/12/09

Back in 1995, Tea Parties leader Dick Armey of FreedomWorks spoke at the Cato Institute about various topics including immigration (cato.org/pubs/policy_report/pr-ja-da.html), and his remarks are incredibly ironic: his immigration policies lead to the opposite of the other policies he claims to support.

Max Blumenthal smears tea parties in "Teabagger Tour" video - 09/15/09

Low-wattage smear artist Max Blumenthal offers what he calls "The Unauthorized 9.12 Teabagger Tour", video attached (note the nice Euro touch in the date). I haven't yet watched it, but I'm going to guess that he's cherry-picked the more extreme attendees of the 9/12 Washington DC rally rather than trying to offer some sort of counter-argument to their more valid points; that's what people like him do.

Irony deficient Christopher Knight of LAT: "Glenn Beck's '9-12' logo based on communist and socialist designs" - 09/14/09

Christopher Knight of the Los Angeles Times offers "Glenn Beck's '9-12' logo based on communist and socialist designs" (link), a hilarious example of someone - in this case some sort of art critic - just not getting the joke. His shocking news is that the logo used for 9/12's march on Washington was lifted from Communist symbols. That's obvious, and it was intentional. To help Knight understand this, he should refer to the classics. See this discussion last month about how FreedomWorks controls the "grassroots" movement, specifically the logo: In that FreedomWorks response, forwarded to the...

9/12: Tea Party march on Washington DC live coverage (Glenn Beck, Freedomworks) - 09/12/09

Later today, one or two million (maybe less) extreme fiscal conservatives will be marching on Washington DC demanding that the government listens to them and their Randroid concerns. And, we'll be there - virtually speaking - offering coverage of this momentous event featuring millions of people throughout the day. Literally thousands of busloads of true patriots - as opposed to the other, non-patriotic Americans - will be bussed in (at their own expense) by FreedomWorks (run by the corporate lobbyist Dick Armey). Hopefully many will be wearing period costumes and playing fifes, since we know...

2007: Dick Armey sticks up for illegal aliens, "bless their hearts" - 09/04/09

The attached video is from October, 2007 and features Dick Armey of FreedomWorks (also a tea parties organizer) sticking up for illegal aliens. He claims "I don't like illegal immigration", but then engages in indirect baby-waving in order to in effect support it. While the video is a recent upload to Youtube, it's been available for a while at Reason Magazine (including a couple comments from me: reason.com/blog/show/125183.html). Not only that, but FreedomWorks hasn't been trying to hide his comments and has Reason's post re-printed at their site: freedomworks.org/news/dick-armey-on-illegal...

"Energy Citizens": tea partiers' love for corporations goes unrequited (FreedomWorks) - 08/23/09

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...

Helen Krieble's absurd Red Card "Temporary" Workers "Solution" - 06/23/09

Helen Krieble - president of the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation, an heir to the Loctite fortune, and an associate of Dick Armey - has been pushing her own guest workers plan for a few years.

Tea parties have arrived! Paul Krugman does hit piece on them. - 04/13/09

Paul Krugman of the New York Times might have done the tea parties a great big favor by giving them a great big pinata to whack at: the fact that Krugman tries to do a hit piece on them (link). Shortly after engaging in ad hominems and losing his train of thought for a few paragraphs, he says this: ...it turns out that the tea parties don’t represent a spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment. They’re AstroTurf (fake grass roots) events, manufactured by the usual suspects. In particular, a key role is being played by FreedomWorks, an organization run by Richard Armey, the former House...

Instapundit chats with tea party "facilitator" from Koch-linked group - 04/08/09

Over to Glenn Reynolds (pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/75986) for the latest on the "grassroots" tea parties: PJTV: I talk with PubliusPundit - and Tucson Tea Party organizer - Robert Mayer, and with Tea Party facilitators Matt Kibbe of Freedomworks and Chris Bond of Americans for Prosperity about tea parties and where they should go next. Click their name's link for more on the AFP; at least as of November of last year the chairman of their foundation's board was David Koch of the Koch family and they'd received money from that foundation; do a search for Kochtopus if you aren't familiar with...

The stupidity of the tea parties rolls on, at much reduced rate - 03/30/09

1. Over the weekend, there were apparently just three "parties": Buffalo; Stamford, Connecticut; and Essex County, Massachusetts. 2. The aftermath of the one in Essex County is promoted by Glenn Reynolds at pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/75093 and pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/75109. About a hundred people showed up. The Congressman for that area appears to be John Tierney, a Democrat. In 2004, he got 213,000 votes and his GOP opponent got 91,000. That means that the 100 people represent 0.05% of the votes he got, and 0.1% of the votes his opponent got. I'm sure he's scared out of his wits. 3....

"Tea Parties": an astroturfed Koch family movement (FreedomWorks, Instapundit, Rick Santelli) - 02/28/09

[SEE UPDATE 2 BELOW] Now I know why Rick Santelli disgusts me: the "Tea Party" stimulus protests may be an astroturfed project of the wealthy Koch Family (called "the Kochtopus", see this).

Melanie Morgan "storms" Arlen Specter's office over stimulus bill, does nothing useful - 02/10/09

Melanie Morgan of Move America Forward offers "Why I stormed Sen.

FreeRepublic delivers to-be-ignored letter to Specter about stimulus - 02/09/09

Earlier today, a group of people from FreeRepublic including their leader Jim Robinson ("JimRob") presented a letter to Arlen Specter's office opposing the stimulus plan (link).

Dick Armey, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Mike Pence, and Helen Krieble do lunch - 09/26/06

From their press release: FreedomWorks Foundation sponsored a luncheon for Capitol Hill staffers to discuss immigration reform that will balance both security and economic concerns. In particular, the forum will examine options for strengthening our borders while establishing procedures that provide law-abiding workers a legitimate path to the American workplace. FreedomWorks chairman and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey was joined by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Congressman Mike Pence (R-IN, 6), and Helen Krieble, President of the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation. It was her...

Big Business Balks at Bush Propaganda Plan - 08/29/05

President Bush has created the Orwellian-named "Americans for Border and Economic Security" to push for his massive guest worker amnesty scheme. Now, Bloomberg reports, Big Business is balking at the plan: ..."There is a reluctance to sign up for something that might turn out not to be the type of immigration reform bill we want to see," said John Gay [1], who runs a coalition in support of guest-worker programs that includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, First Data Corp. and Marriott International Inc. Republican lobbyists including Ed Gillespie, the party's former national chairman, and...

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