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Michelle Malkin has a teabagger timeline. She seems to have left a few things out.
December 2004 — I learn from the Rude One what "tea bagging" means.
December 16, 2007 — Ron Paul supporters have the first anti-tax Tea Party, reinact dumping of tea into Boston Harbor by tossing banners into a box.
August 2008 — ChicagoTeaParty.com registered by Zack Christenson, "a producer for a conservative radio talk show host" (Milt Rosengerg) according to the New York Times. On August 28th, he also emails Michelle Malkin after the NRO’s Stanley Kurtz goes on his program to talk about his investigation into the Obama/Bill Ayers relationship.
January 25 2009 — Seattle school teacher, former actress and Young Republican Keli Carender starts her blog, Redistributing Knowledge. Calling herself Liberty Belle, her first post says conservatives need something "BOLD and DIFFERENT and REAL."
January 26 — In her second post, Liberty Belle says "There are tens of millions of us, if not more. I think if we chose a day to show the world, scary coworkers be damned, that we exist and we are just as passionate about the direction of our country, that we could maybe finally find each other."
February 1 — FedUpUSA calls for people to send tea bags to members of Congress — "a Commemorative Tea Party."
February 10 — At 10:06 am, Liberty Belle says "Anyone in the Seattle area? I would like to stage a Porkulus Protest here." It gets one comment in response. At 12:52 pm, she puts up another post to announce that the protest is on. The first comment comes the next morning.
February 11 or 12 — Liberty Belle appears on the local Fox News radio show hosted by Kirby Wilbur, who is on the board of the Young America’s Foundation (which produces CPAC). Makes no mention on her blog.
February 12 — At 1:28 pm, Steve Beren, the GOP candidate who ran against Jim McDermott in 08 who works for an internet marketing firm, starts promoting the event. Says that Carender has appeared on the Kirby Wilbur and David Boze (KIRO radio) shows. Does not mention that he’ll be speaking at the event.
February 12 — At 2:27 pm, Liberty Belle says she will appear the next day on KIRO radio and announces that Steve Beren will be speaking at the event.
February 15 — Michelle Malkin picks up Liberty Belle’s announcement. Suggests Coloradans need to do the same.
**First rally organized on a three week-old blog with help from folks from Fox News Radio, the Young Republicans, The Young Americans Foundation (CPAC), and a GOP House candidate who works for an internet marketing firm.**
February 16 — Malkin apparently first to use the term "tea party," but she uses it for comparison to the protests: "From the Boston Tea Party to your neighborhood pork protest." Announces there will be a protest in Denver the next day. Links to a post that says she will be speaking at it. Instapundit links to Malkin’s protest photos, says there will be one in Denver the next day and that "people are trying to organize them in Nashville and NYC."
February 16 — Denver Metro Young Republicans put up a post (since disappeared, but cached here) saying Americans for Prosperity "will be holding a protest on the Colorado Capitol steps tomorrow (Tuesday) from 12:15-2:00." Americans for Prosperity is the right wing think tank where David Koch, billionaire co-owner of Koch Industries, is Chairman of the Board. Ed Frank of Frank Strategies, who sent a videographer after me last weekend, is a consultant for Americans for Prosperity.
February 17 — Malkin goes to Colorado for the event, still called a "porkulus protest." She says: "Jim Pfaff of Colorado Americans for Prosperity, Jon Caldara and the Independence Institute, former Rep. Tom Tancredo, and several GOP officials and state legislators spearheaded the event. The Independence Institute is funded by the Coors Foundation’s Castle Rock Foundation, and "operates as a mini Heritage Foundation in Colorado." Jeffrey Coors sits on the board.
**According to Michelle Malkin, second rally organized by Koch/Americans For Prosperity, Coors/Independence Institute, Former GOP Congressman and Independence Institute Fellow Tom Tancredo**
February 17 — Malkin announces that there will be a protest in Mesa, Arizona when Obama is there the next day. "KFYI is taking the lead," she says. KFYI is the Clear Channel station that kicked "Goldwater Republican" Charles Goyette off for speaking out against the war.
February 18 — Mesa Arizona "porkulus" rally (still no mention of tea). "Look at how illiterate some of these illegals are," KFYI shock jock Bruce Jacobs says, pointing to Hispanic demonstrators. He hosts the event with fellow KFYI host, former GOP Congressman JD Hayworth.
**Third rally in Mesa, Arizona organized by right wing Clear Channel radio station and hosted by six term GOP Congresmman**
February 19 — Malkin announces "anti-porkulus" Kansas protest on Saturday the 21st (8:56 am). Glenn Reynolds and Malkin promote it on Pajamas TV. Not one mention of "tea party" yet.
February 19 — Rick Santelli rant: "We’re thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July. All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, I’m gonna start organizing." First mention of the term "tea party." Clip goes straight onto Drudge.
Within hours, a site called officialchicagoteaparty.com went up, with the domain name registered to Eric Odom. At the time he was working for a group called the Sam Adams Alliance, a 501 c(3) non-profit that legally can’t engage in political activity. Its chairman, Eric O’Keeffe, is on the board of the Club for Growth. He’s since been taken off the website, but it’s cached here.
Odom is one of the organizers of the Tax Day Tea Party group, and Matt Stoller accused him of astroturfing during the Drill Drill Drill campaign. Last year the Alliance started "an ambitious project … to encourage right-leaning activists and bloggers to get online and focus on local and state issues."
February 20: A Facebook page goes up calling for Tea Party demonstrations across the country:
Rick Santelli is right, we need a Taxpayer (Chicago) Tea Party
Rick Santelli is dead right! Enough bailouts of everyone who acted recklessly! It’s time to stand up for all the regular people who played by the rules! Taxpayer Tea Party!
Listed admins include Odom and Brendan Steinhauser of Dick Armey’s Freedomworks. The creator is Phil Kern of Americans for Prosperity, and the Facebook Group leads back to a site called taxpayerteaparty.com, run by Americans for Prosperity.
These people claim they’re just "activists" who are operating independent of organizational ties. We’ll give Stoller the last word on that one:
What is most stupid is how conservative think tank fellows and GOP consultants can’t tell the difference between themselves and grassroots activism that represents ‘new’ thinking. Actually, what’s most stupid is the phrase "we have a Twitter army that simply has yet to be matched in size", but whatever. According to his website, Eric Odom works for a conservative organization called the Sam Adams Alliance, whose CEO is on the board of the Club for Growth. The Sam Adams Alliance is focused on transparency, ‘fiscal responsibility’, anti-corruption, anti-affirmative action programs, and fighting against eminent domain. The site recommends you read a bunch of books by Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, as well as a few others attacking the big socialist menace and defending private property. And this is new how exactly?
Aside from the idiocy of Odom and the various GOP consultants and think tank fellows twittering all day, Odom is so stupid he doesn’t understand that he works for a conservative movement organization. He’s not a grassroots activist just thinking of stuff to do on his own time. This is his job.
The pushback against the "grass roots" nature of these demonstrations has been remarkably successful. Nobody seriously thinks it’s a "grass roots" movement and its astroturf origins are clear. Which is largely due to the failure of Odom, Kern, Steinhauser and others to competently cover their tracks.
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Obviously they have their little network echo chamber which may or may not bring out supporters.
I don’t know that pols are moved by protests. The anti war ones were massive and world wide and completely ignored by the media and the pols.
Considering how much effort it takes to demonstrate, large number should be a big message, but it isn’t.
In the EU they can stop everything for a hour or whatever if the call for a general strike and everyone gets the message whether they support it or not.
No justice – no peace.
TERM LIMITS – gets results now!
(YUCK – she’s skeerie looking)
I’m not so sure I agree with Jane’s conclusion about covering tracks. I think the crowd-sourcing nature of the internet is daunting fact-finding machinery. It goes beyond just having people who search for things. People involved in uncovering things are physically dispersed, meaning it’s likely someone will actually be able to see in-person some little-known aspect of a story, like the office directory in a building or some other tiny detail that normally wouldn’t be online.
On top of that, you see unbelievable stuff somehow seeing the light of day like never before. As an unrelated example, where did the audition videos for the NOM “Never Ending Story” anti-gay commercial come from? That’s just some amazing leakage. It’s a problem when things go through many hands, some of those hands may not be so sympathetic to the cause of the conspiracy.
But most important of all, the internet offers an amplifying outlet for information that rivals all of the paid-for media these groups rely on, so it’s becoming a level playing field.
It just may not be possible to cover tracks anymore in the internet age.
Which is largely due to the failure of Odom, Kern, Steinhauser and others to compently cover their tracks.
U2
And that’s why they are after controlling the www.
Sam Adams is a beer.
Teabaggers are whiners…
malkin says that David Hogberg was the first member of the msm to cover the burgeoning revolting tea baggers. Member of the mainstream media? Hogberg? C’mon, man.
Rally the mobs. Lesson Number One in The Fascist’s Handbook…
I’m a really mean person, I guess, but I hope that some Klan members show up in full dress white with the pointy hats. Wonder what the “baggers” would say about that?
so stupid. in their effort to make it grassroots, they’ve made it too grassroots. so many people in so many organizations all acting so independently and doing it on the same day with the same jive and one central website. and it was all started by that mon/blogger in washington…. no, the one in CO…., no somebody in KS, …. no AZ…. For such a spontaneous movement, they’ve kept pretty good tabs on everybody.
they would say “It’s ACORN people trying to make us look like a bunch of loons.”
I wish I could get around well because I would love to see one of these parties. I think it would be a hoot.
hey, what’s with malkin and CO? i think that’s where she is today. she live there?
When 69,456,897 teabaggers elect a President then, and only then, I’ll believe they represent a grassroots movement.
BRAVA!!! There’s the big, hairy and excessively invisible 800 pound gorilla right smack in the middle of timeline.
HOWIE RICH — the progenitor of the Sam Adams Alliance and the Americans for Limited Government.
Any time you see a protest which is anti-tax, Rich has his mitts in it, and he’s using some of the farthest right tactics to propel his anti-tax ideology. He’s Grover Norquist’s doppelganger, only richer and likely more powerful because nobody has managed to put a brake on him yet.
Any time you see a state ballot initiative related to reducing taxes, the chances he’s behind it are excellent. Ever seen a pink pig effigy used to protest taxes? He’s the man behind the pig.
If you can expose this guy for the anti-American freak that he is and stop his pro-wealthy protectionist activities across the country, states might actually SAVE money by avoiding his ballot initiative abuses.
Be careful what you ask for, because you may just get it.
Term limits qualify as a bad idea, even for Presidents. Think about it — Clinton could have easily won a third-term nomination. Do you really believe that Dubya Bush could win an election running against the Big Dog? He had to cheat to eke out two wins over fairly uncharismatic Democratic candidates as it was.
I forget the date, but the 911 Truth Movement had a Tea Party a couple of years ago, to figuratively throw the 911 Commission Report overboard because of its fraudulent foundation and bases.
Guess Malkin wouldn’t know about that?!
NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT.
In fact, that’s EXACTLY what some of the ballot initiatives across this country have been promoting on behalf of Sam Adams Alliance/Americans for Limited Government/Club for Growth.
The state of Michigan pushed through term limits, and their budget crisis dragged on for more than a year because inexperienced legislators did not know how to negotiate a reasonable compromise. We literally ended up with the state police being shut down for lack of funds before the crisis was resolved.
NO. HELL NO. You need to think about legislators like Teddy Kennedy and Russ Feingold and Sheldon Whitehouse when you yield to right-wing talking points like that; do you really want these kinds of solid public servants to be out on their ear to make room for morons who can’t find their way around government?
The solution is an engaged citizenry who understands the value of real leadership in public office, who understands there must be a deep field and a farm team of potential candidates to primary the hell out of incumbents any time the incumbents fail to represent their constituents. And the engaged citizenry needs to understand this must happen in every state and district across the country, from dog catcher to the presidency.
There is nothing wrong with getting new blood into elective offices. Sure you need an enlightened electorate who would reject right wing people and their dumbass ideas.
But we need to get rid of the the nepotism the flow of cash to incumbents.
Institutional memory is bogus because you can stagger terms or have longer terms, but not repeat. and repeat and repeat.
I’ve come to believe that with THIS electorate this is the SHORT TERM solution – YES to term limits.
Here, check out the Flickr photostream for Americans for Prosperity.
Note the big fat pink pig on the trailer in this photo.
That same pig was here in Michigan in summer/fall of 2007, being used as a prop by an anti-tax organization cooperatively supported by Club for Growth and Howie Rich’s Americans for Limited Government; the budget crisis was escalated by anti-tax efforts combined with the results of an earlier move towards term limits for state legislators.
If you check the photostream you’ll see more overlap between the AFP and the ALG. It sure looks to me like Texas is the next target; no doubt explains Gov. Perry’s recent bizarre speechifying about the economy.
Same pig has been in Montana and Oregon during budget and tax crises, likely manufactured by the same nebulous people. And the same pig was bought and paid for by Howie Rich.
These same forces are shock doctrinaires; they are bankrupting states by setting them up to fail through anti-tax and other ballot initiatives which whittle away at states’ revenues and services, undermining all government from top to bottom.
Was that Roger Ebert getting his teabag freak on??
THAT is the REAL problem.
Far more people know who is in the lead in American Idol than who their own congressperson is.
Until this problem is solved, there is no democracy.
Seems a bloody shame we can rely on people to vote for an American Idol and not for a better congressperson.
Until more people participate in civics, there is no democracy.
Term limits will not work if people do not educate themselves and participate, because they will be choosing from among people hand-groomed for them by the same fraudsters who set up this useless exercise in driving up sales of tea bags.
Think about it: the people at these events are mistaking what’s happening for democracy.
Or maybe “Whoa, their going life size! Only they forgot the strings on tabs on the top of their bags. Bummer. But hey, that just makes ‘em grassrootsier!”
When the cororatists see the sales numbers on teabags maybe others will get involved in “”grassroots”" politics. Maybe there will be canned hams thrown into the harbor, or digiorno frozen pizza protests. when will they start being ticketed for littering?
missed the most important date of tea party;
December 16, 1773
founders were fed up the king LOWERED taxes for his homeys (not pissed he raised taxes)
a most important point;
Koch industries are the REAL puppeteers behind will Krystol, the Cato institute, the pnac, they are the real puppeteers pulling Chaney’s strings, pulling Rush’s strings, pulling hanity’s strings
there is not one doubt in my mind they orchestrated this charade
Wow, that’s one rude pundit. I don’t think I’ve been to that place, before. But the definition is right for the argot version.
Jane:
I so appreciate your in depth reporting. I like that you name names. Maybe people will think twice before picking up that next 6 pack of Silver Bullets and remember where the money goes.
I just wish Fakes News would have used all this bluster to get people to protest the war, or the Patriot Act, or torture, or encourage Bush/Cheney impeachment, in the past.
They do not see the need to lead a protest against homes being foreclosed on and jobs as well as billions in tax evasion dollars still going overseas while money gushes to the wealthy elite.
Cool — for more on the teabaggery, and other issues, check out http://hellodollyllama.blogspot.com/
Come visit!
Welcome!
Thanks for visiting. We try very hard to keep to this – references to outside sites limited to one per day.
Comment away!
You’re really going to have to do more homework, perris. Koch is just the money.
This is one huge matrix and it’s fully integrated from state/local level to national level.
For instance: Keli Carenderer is NOT a newbie to this. She fits the classic M.O. of the Young Republicans, a la Grover Norquist and Karl Rove. She got picked up very quickly as a point of origin for this reason.
She’s already earned her cred with regards to gun rights; now doesn’t that seem like a very odd topic for a person who’s been labeled a “young mom-blogger” to address in a public forum? As you can see from the news article linked in this graf, the Porkulus festivity wasn’t really the first time she’s taken a position of public activism — which tells you there’s more going on here.
What I want to know next: What’s Keli’s real name, assuming Carenderer is her married name? We know now she’s at least 29 years old and a mother; what school did she go to? Has she been with Young Republicans since she started college — meaning, 10 years?
And how many times has she already been out front in the public eye on gun rights? I suspect the incident in the article I’ve linked isn’t the only time; I’ll even bet this is Keli at the gun range, and that she’s in other photos in the same photostream related to the same topic.
She didn’t happen by accident. And Koch is only the money.
Even the A-frickin-P now acknowledges that they’re totally astroturf. Great work Jane!
Thank you, Jane! I have been reading about “teabaggers” and “teabagging” for several years in blogs and never could get a definition. At Corrente they even have a glossary but don’t have that term. Now thanks to you and The Rude One I have a mental picture of the meaning. Somehow, “grateful” doesn’t fully cover my feelings.
welcome aboard. I fear that is what they would say.