Bachmann: ‘MoveOn.org people’ are not ‘real people.’

By Alex Seitz-Wald

While yesterday’s tea party rally outside the Capitol drew an anemic crowd of about only 300, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) urged supporters to keep up the fight against health care reform for the rest of the week. Bachmann warned that Democrats will bring in “MoveOn.org people” “to really beat the living tar out them” — presumably referring to lawmakers who are not sure how they’ll vote — and called on “real people” to “keep flooding here”:

BACHMANN: What they plan to do is keep everyone here and beat the living snot out of them through Saturday and then try to get the vote on Saturday. That’s their goal. So, the main thing is the more people that can just keep flooding here between now and Saturday to keep the pressure up. Because my guess is they’ll probably be bringing in a lot of MoveOn.org people on Saturday to really beat the living tar out of them. That’s my guess. So the more we get real people here, the better.

Watch it (beginning at 0:35):

Bachmann’s “real people” comment is reminiscent of Fox News contributor Sarah Palin’s claim that “small towns” represent “the real America” where people are “pro-America.”

M.C.L comment: Tea baggers real Americans? Tea baggers didn't care when Bachmann and her follow GOPers in the house and senate goose marched behind George W.Bush when he ran up the deficit. Tea baggers didn't care when 9 billion dollars in tax payers money vanished in thin air in Iraq, I didn't hear tea baggers gathering outside offices of congress people screaming read the bill when the Bush White House pushed through the Patriot Act and I certainly didn't see the Boner or his no lip sidekick over in the senate holding up and throwing down deficit inflating bills George Bush wanted.

Tea Party activists distribute signs paid for by the RNC at ‘Take The Town Halls to Washington’ event.

By Alex Seitz-Wald Tea Party activists from across the country have come to Washington for a three-week long “Take The Town Halls to Washington” rally, an effort to lobby undecided House Democrats to vote against health care reform. At a press conference for the event on Friday, the Daily Caller spotted signs and buttons clearly paid for by the Republican National Committee. Activists distributed “red-white-and-blue buttons and signs emblazoned with the words ‘Listen to Me!’” — an official RNC slogan — with disclaimers at the bottom of the signs reading “Paid for by the Republican National Committee:”

Michael Patrick Leahy, an organizer of the Take the Town Halls to Washington project that is bringing Tea Party activists to the capital to lobby Democrats on President Obama’s health-care bill, admitted that the RNC “did provide the signage,” but said he didn’t know the details of the arrangement with Republicans and couldn’t explain how the signs got there. “They just showed up,” he said.

An RNC official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Daily Caller that the signs were given to the group at its request. [...]

Leahy downplayed the significance of the items, explaining, “We’re taking help from anybody that has an interest in this cause.”

The Tea Party movement claims to be an independent, grass roots coalition unrelated to either party, but this is not the first time activists have been caught using materials or logistical support provided by Republican operatives or Republican-aligned corporate front groups. For example, many large Tea Party protests have used signs and buses provided by groups like Americans for Prosperity.

G. Gordon Liddy’s producer claims around ‘a million’ attended the GOP’s anti-health care reform rally

By Matt Corley

After the 9/12 march on Washington, conservatives falsely claimed that over a million people attended, when in reality the closest thing to an official count — numbers given by the Washington DC Fire Department to ABCNews.com — placed the crowd at “approximately 60,000 to 70,000 people.” Though today’s anti-health care reform rally has been much more sparsely attended, that hasn’t stopped conservatives from inflating the numbers again. On G. Gordon Liddy’s radio show today, producer Franklin Raff, who was on the ground at the rally, told guest host Joseph Farah that the crowd is “just as big or bigger than” the 9/12 rally, which Raff estimated “at about a million.” Listen here:

Capitol Hill police told NBC’s Luke Russert that the crowd was about 4,000. At around 2 PM eastern time, Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) posted an aerial picture of the crowd on her TwitPic page, clearly showing a crowd far, far smaller than “a million”:

M.C.L. Comment: I don't know why the media still covers these losers, a majority of the American public support a health-care bill with a public option yet the media go out their way to present the mega ditto-heads point of view on health care. Think about it during the early part of the Iraqi war where millions of people protested the war the media avoided covering them yet when you get a couple of thousand pasty, old, white and fat right wing monkeys throwing around their poo that's when NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN trucks go out to cover these nuts.

Bill Moyers: Tea Party Organizer Is Epitome Of Privilege (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post | Lila Shapiro

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/18/bill-moyers-tea-party-org_n_291625.html

This exclusive clip is from the latest episode of "Bill Moyers Journal," which airs tonight. In the episode, Moyers goes after FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey -- one of the key figures using large industry donations to fund "Tea Party" rallies around the country, such as the the 9/12 march in Washington DC last week.

"Here's the catch," Moyers says after showing video clips with protesters decrying "the lies" coming from the Obama administration. "Something these marchers who came to Washington at Armey's urging could hardly be expected to know. For most of his adult life, their leader has benefited from just the kind of government tax-supported health care he's fighting to keep them from having too."

It's a fascinating run down of Armey's adult life working in universities and for the government, made comfortable and secure by state-funded health care -- "the Cadillac of coverage."

"Dick Armey is the epitome of those people with power and privilege who are insured against the vicissitudes of life and want no government assistance for any suffering except their own," Moyers says.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/18/bill-moyers-tea-party-org_n_291625.html

Pressed On FreedomWorks’ Connections To Tea Parties, Dick Armey Lashes Out At TP As ‘Juvenile Delinquents’

By Lee Fang

On Thursday, Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks partnered with an anti-health reform group pushing to privatize Medicare to host a Republican rally outside the Capitol. Alongside speakers such as Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Armey proclaimed, “Give me liberty or give me death. Well, Barack Obama is trying to make good on that.”

Speaking to reporters and ThinkProgress after the rally, Armey pretended that the upcoming 9/12 anti-Obama march on D.C. was entirely “grassroots,” and that his corporate-backed group only provided “consulting.” In fact, most of the groups paying for the rally are front groups and phony think tanks fully-funded by big business to create an image of public and academic support for their special interest agenda. One of the most visible organizations mobilizing the protest this Saturday is the Tea Party Patriots group. As Talking Points Memo has reported, the Tea Party Patriots’ listserv is managed by FreedomWorks staffer Tom Gaitens. Not only is the list managed by FreedomWorks, but Armey’s staffers have final say on decisions such as the logo for the event this Saturday. Tea Party Patriots does not even hide its close affiliation with corporate front groups, since it lists FreedomWorks as a coalition partner. The Tea Party Patriots listserv was used to distribute the infamous memo from a Tea Party Patriots volunteer detailing how town hall attendees should “rattle” Democrats by interrupting their events with coordinated yelling and shrieks.

When ThinkProgress asked Armey about this close relationship with the Tea Party Patriots, he erupted in rage. He also denied even knowing his own employee:

Q: Mr. Armey you said you have no affiliation with the Tea Party Patriots group that’s organizing this rally, but isn’t it true that your staff members manage the Tea Party Patriots list serv?

ARMEY: Absolutely not.

Q: So Tom Gaitens is not connected to your–

ARMEY: Who? First of all who is Tom Gaitens?

Watch it:

Armey proceeded to call the ThinkProgress reporter a “juvenile delinquent.” Armey has lashed out before at critical questions, attacking Joan Walsh, saying “I am so damn glad you can never be my wife ’cause I surely wouldn’t have to listen to that babble from you every day.”

Gaitens — who helped organize the very first pilot “tea party” protests in February and demanded that “folks … need to intimidate Congress” — is listed multiple times on the FreedomWorks’ website as the Florida Outreach Director for Armey. He has not only won awards from FreedomWorks, but he also helped organize a tea party this year where Armey was the main speaker.

Of course, Armey’s deception is the very basis on which FreedomWorks gins up support for its causes. FreedomWorks maintains several other domain addresses to promote tea party events. Last year, the Wall Street Journal exposed FreedomWorks for building “amateur-looking” websites to promote the lobbying interests of Armey.