Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on March 2, 2010

Astroturf Cat | Photo credit to http://lilliandcosta.wordpress.com/

UPDATE, March 14, 2010, new info from The Lonely Conservative: Coffee Party Refuses to Appear on Fox News. Hmm… sounds dang suspicious to me. Be sure to visit Lonely Conservative for the story.

Also good reading at Another Black Conservative: Thousands show for Kill The Bill rally, not so much for Coffee Party kickoff

Funny piece at Nice Deb’s blog… Coffee Party Taking The Nation By Storm
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You do realize that the new “Coffee Party” isn’t grassroots and isn’t independent of the Democrat party, right? At least, that’s the word on the street, and those “street eyes and ears” have an uncanny way of being right most of the time.

You also know that this new “Coffee Party” was created by and is spearheaded by Annabel Park, a former New York Times strategy analyst who has volunteered for Obama in the past? Something the New York Times (her former employer!) neglected to mention when oohing and ahhing over Park, painting her as a “regular American” who wants to suddenly get involved in civic/political/real issues and concerns — to stop the fighting in Washington. Suddenly, for the first time — as if overnight, she wanted to be a part of change in America!

Except, when Park was involved supporting Obama pre-presidential election.

And, when she was involved in a pro-illegal immigration YouTube project in 2008.

And, when Annabel was actively involved in the political activist group The Real Virginians.

OOPS.

Astroturf-a-go-go! And embarrassingly sloppy reporting at NYT.

Strangely enough, Annabel’s mom is also in a video, attacking Sarah Palin — the video was posted over a year ago by UnitedForObama… she attacks Palin in Korean!

Plants, shills, and fakes are nothing new for the Democrat party, as we witnessed last summer during the townhall rallies and tea parties across the nation.

From the NYT piece:

Growing through a Facebook page, the party pledges to “support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.”

Well, isn’t that just dandy! Yes! Let’s hold all those Democrat leaders in Washington accountable for obstructing all the efforts of Republican leaders who have had their positive solutions for the economy and health care reform ignored. For violating the new pay-go bill. For running up record debt, and record unemployment. Like THAT is going to happen… this is genuine fakeroo astroturf. My translation of the party pledge: We support Barack Obama, no matter what. I can connect the dots.

Park’s LinkedIn Strategy Analyst page has been “mysteriously” (stop laughing) removed, but William Jacobson has provided a link to the cache file of the page.

Example of astroturf protesters… note the SEIU buttons and the sameness of the pre-printed signs. And a lot of faked, facially distorting anger as well:

Fake pro-ObamaCare protesters from the past, SEIU buttons displayed proudly with pre-printed look-alike signs, and over-the-top rage - all telltale signs of bogus protesters

Example of grassroots tea party protesters… note there are no union buttons or logos, and most of the signs are homemade (the pro health care sign in the lower left is obviously manufactured, and likely paid for by taxpayers), because most conservatives who are angry with government spending are, they themselves, FRUGAL. And they usually smile when protesting… don’t know why, but they do.

ObamaCare protesters in Denver, August 2009

Another grassroots tea partier, more smiling…

A real grassroots conservative protester - homemade sign, smiling... this gentleman is just too darned happy to be a liberal

And yet another grassroots tea partier, with more smiling…

More smiling at the 2009 Tax Day Tea Party Protest, Phoenix, AZ

Since Team Obama can’t silence the tea party movement as it enters its second year, we’ve now reportedly stepped into the “fight fire with fire” tactic. Which could mean anything supporting statism and Dear Leader needs to first be claimed to be ground-up, grassroots and must be named after a hot beverage (because imitation is the highest form of flattery, right?). Fight and undermine the tea party with the coffee party… adorable, in a progressive, tyrannical kind of way. Taking the whole socialist shill thing to a new level.

And then, have the Obama liberal media go into fawning overdrive to report the heck out of the Coffee Party, just a few days after its supposed conception on the Internet. Never mind that the liberal media blatantly ignored reporting on conservative tea parties for months, and when and if they mentioned them, made sure to denigrate and mock them.

The evidence that the Coffee Party movement is part of Obama’s many community organizing groups is growing. Growing like a cancer. We need to keep an eye on this, but in all honesty, I’m not yet worried. It’s like the failing numbers of liberal national news, liberal newspapers, and liberal radio. The support for them is dwindling, Americans are waking up to the propaganda they continue to spew, the lack of objectivity they embrace. Conservative Rush Limbaugh’s and Mark Levin’s radio audiences keep growing — Air America went belly up, declaring bankruptcy months, likely years, after it should have, but that’s because George Soros kept shoveling in more millions of dollars to keep that dying whale afloat. FOX News’ viewership numbers consistently exceed that of all the other major TV news… sometimes with their viewership numbers combined.

Viewership ratings for primetime shows starring liberals Chris Matthews, Joy Behar, and Rachel Maddow all lagged behind that of conservative commentary-comedy show Red Eye… and that baby airs at 3 in the morning. Red Eye is also beating the pants off CNN’s Campbell Brown, whose show airs at the coveted 8 pm slot. Red Eye’s numbers are stronger AT THREE IN THE MORNING. ABC News and CBS News have recently experienced huge layoffs… not so at FOX.

I suspect the Obama Coffee Party will go the same route as Air America, but better to be on our toes and be wary of this new liberal beast.

From Gateway Pundit, NY Times Plugs Team Obama’s Latest Astroturfed Org “Coffee Party”:

This is why it’s called the Democratic-Media Complex…

Kate Zernike, the same NT Times reporter who slandered Jason Mattera at CPAC, wrote another lib piece today promoting Team Obama’s latest astroturfed organization, the “Coffee Party.”

Fed up with government gridlock, but put off by the flavor of the Tea Party, people in cities across the country are offering an alternative: the Coffee Party.

Growing through a Facebook page, the party pledges to “support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.”

It had nearly 40,000 members as of Monday afternoon, but the numbers were growing quickly — about 11,000 people had signed on as fans since the morning.

“I’m in shock, just the level of energy here,” said the founder, Annabel Park, a documentary filmmaker who lives outside Washington. “In the beginning, I was actively saying, ‘Get in touch with us, start a chapter.’ Now I can’t keep up. We have 300 requests to start a chapter that I have not been able to respond to.”

Of course, Zerkike does not tell you that Annabel Park is a former Strategy Analyst at the NY Times who was one of organizers and operators of the United for Obama video channel . You would find that out at Legal Insurrection.

What horrid reporting.

From Hot Air, Oh, by the way, Coffee Party leader volunteered for Obama and worked for the NYT:

Nothing wrong with either of those things but they might have been worth mentioning in last night’s New York Times love letter to this exciting new nonpartisan civic group, might they not? William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has all the links you need, but before you read his post, re-read the Times puff piece and see if you can find any indication that this group skews left. WaPo, to its credit, made that clear in its own profile of the CP, noting that leader Annabel Park used to work for Jim Webb and listing as one of the group’s goals their intent to “push leaders to enact the progressive change for which 52.9 percent of the country voted in 2008.” The only clue you get in the Times piece is a quote from the CP website that government is “the expression of our collective will” and a mention that the founder of the LA chapter campaigned for Obama but wasn’t especially political until lately and had actually included tea partiers at their latest meeting. In fact, to read the Times, you’d think the Coffee Party and the tea party movement were kissing cousins.

From VotingFemale:

What is hilarious about all this is Democrat Party created pretense of a grassroots movement!! They never seem to get it. BS is BS and people aren’t buying it. They are now judged by their 14 month record of actions and in-actions.

SEIU, Socialist funded organizations like the netroot group MoveOn.org, and the like, will show up and pay folks to demonstrate.

Has the name ‘Obama’ become so politically toxic and corroded that it has to be discarded for a mimicked name like: Coffee Party? Looks like it to me.

From JustOneMinute, Have That Coffee With A Grain Of Salt:

Kate Zernike of the Times, eager to get on the right side of history, takes a loving, uncritical look at the Coffee Party, born in reaction to the first-ignored, then derided Tea Party…

I know what you’re thinking – the Coffee Party is all good because it was founded by libs. And you are right!

Ms. Zernike’s investigative skills failed her, but Ms. Park founded “Real Virginians for Webb” back in 2006 and volunteered for Obama in 2008. Whatever.

[Prof. Jacobson documents Ms. Park's work for Obama and antipathy towards what she calls "tea baggers".]

Ms. Park, who has an impressive educational background, may be best known for her work on the documentary 9500 Liberty, about a controversial immigration resolution passed in Prince William County, Virginia. She also had a brief stint at the NY Times a decade ago.

All of this will come as a shock to Ms. Zernike, no doubt. Maybe the Times could use my subscription dollars to buy their reporters a subscription to Google.

From Zombie, via Little Miss Attila: Join the Cocoa Party!:

Tired of the Coffee Party and the Tea Party? We’re the newest game in town!

I woke up this morning and realized I didn’t want tea or coffee. I wanted hot cocoa!

So I turned on my computer and in a few minutes founded a new political movement — The Cocoa Party!

Yes, it was that simple.

Then I got one of my friends at the newspaper where I used to work to violate all professional journalistic ethics by writing a puff-piece about me without revealing that I used to work there. Thanks!

Also, thanks for not mentioning that I used to really really really like Kool-Aid.

Now, in between fielding 100 emails an hour from new members wanting to start chapters from Wasilla to Waco, Twittering 17 witty tweets per minute, fielding calls from TV producers and journalists, and weeping with joy and sincerity about our wonderful country, I barely have time to consider that I’ve just revolutionized politics — all before lunch!

From Nice Deb, Coffee Party Creator Is Former NYTs “Strategy Analyst” And Obama Partisan:

Note to all new Coffee Partiers: You guys do realize that you’re dupes, right? This isn’t a ground-up movement, but a top-down one.

As long as they’re okay with that…

MORE:

Annabel Park was also part of a pro-illegal immigration YouTube project in 2008…

More:
Riehl World View: Annabel Park: From Netroots Nation To Coffee Parties?
Black & Right: Latest Obama Deception: The Coffee Party
The Camp Of The Saints: When I Take My Sugar To TEA… [Update at 1341]
Guardian: Coffee Party starts brewing
Scotty Starnes’s Blog: Real Astroturf=The Coffee Party Movement
Another Black Conservative: The Coffee Party: A Steaming Cup of Astroturf
Right Wing News: The Coffee Party Movement: More Of The Same Old, Same Old
Pierre Legrand’s Pink Flamingo Bar: Give Me Some More Of That Green Shoot Love Baby! Double Shot of it…!
Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Coffee Party Parasites

Categories: Conservatism, Freedom of Speech, Media & Communication, Social and Political Climate
Tags: Air America, Annabel Park, astroturf, Barack Obama, Coffee Party, conservatism, conservative, conservatives, Democrat, election, grassroots, journalism bias, liberal, liberal media, mainstream media, media, media bias, media coverage, Obama, political, politics, POTUS, Pres. Obama, Rush Limbaugh, tea parties, tea party, tea party movement, tea party protest, townhall protest, voters, voting