President Astroturf: Some Things NEVER Change
No doubt you’ve already read many accounts of Obama’s recent August 11th visit to Portsmouth High School. Here’s a summary from the NHTPC’s vantage point.
RELENTLESS PRESS
From Monday up until 5:00 PM Tuesday, NHTPC organizers were barraged with media requests from ABC, CNN, NBC, Al Jazeera, WBUR, and The Lowell Sun to name a few. By the end of Tuesday many of us had done several live shots including Good Morning America, FOX News, MSNBC, and Hard Ball, plus audio interviews with Rita Cosby of WOR, Brian Tilton of WTPL 107.7 NH, and WBUR Boston’s public radio. This writer was even chauffered up to the MSNBC tent by a young producer, as the rain was still coming down heavily and lightning was still shooting across the area where they’d parked their satellite truck at 9:00 AM.
What I was able to find of these video and audio clips are in separate, previous posts. If you find any others, please send…
If you were there, you’ve probably wondered as we have, how so many media outlets could have shot so many miles of footage, yet played so little of it on TV…
Seacoast Online wrote this article about preparations for the protest.
HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY
Knowing it would be difficult to get chosen to be inside the hall, protesters started lining up in the early hours of August 11. At first, there were only about a few hundred of us lined up along the street leading to the high school. But soon, led by the fearless leader of the Granite State Patriots, throngs of protesters who had met at a remote location, marched down the street to join us, and were met with cheers. The liberal astroturfed crowd across the street stood there slack-jawed at the sight of them as they streamed by for a full 5 minutes. Despite Democrat Party Chair Ray Buckley’s sorely inaccurate prediction of a “few dozen” of us, there were now clearly thousands of us, and we were in the majority.
NOT A REAL TOWN HALL
During the course of that long day, a wispy-voiced interviewer from WBUR asked me why I thought our NH Representatives Shea-Porter, Hodes, and Shaheen might be refusing to hold in-person town halls.
Could it be, she asked, because this event with Obama would already have given us a fair chance to ask questions of the president himself? The idea that we would get a chance to ask questions and get any satisfactory answers from the president were pretty slim, I assured her.
I further stated that not only was the event totally inadequate, it was our NH Representatives that should be accountable to us, and that we would continue to press for real constituent contact despite the fact that national press has noted they are still in hiding.
Each time I spoke with the press, I had to remind them that we were not being funded or directed by any outside forces, and that our major purpose was to make sure our opinions were heard.
The few times I was able to see or hear what was going on inside, I cringed as Obama spun one lie after another, the biggest whopper being that he did not support the ‘single payer’ system of government health care. This video (and many others) would seem to indicate otherwise.
Most reports from inside the hall confirmed that the crowd was a stacked deck running about 90% Obama sycophants, including one little girl who asked an obviously loaded question.
It was later discovered that despite Obama’s greeting of ‘nice to meet you’, the little girl turned out to be the daughter of a political operative with leftist ties, and that the child had actually met the president’s family before, and had even played with his children. So much for spontaneity.
Among the people who applied for tickets successfully, those chosen to ask questions were even told how they should dress.
BUSTED!
The health care proponents are really getting desperate. This week there was an incident that demonstrated a brazen attempt to create the false perception that doctors want government to manage health care at Representative Sheila Jackson Leigh’s town hall meeting. It featured an Obama operative who falsely represented herself as a ‘doctor’.
She said she thought by doing so, it would ‘give her more credibility’. Have these people no shame?
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE HYPOCRISY
As for Speaker Pelosi’s accusations of “astroturfing” from the opposition, the NHTPC can vouch for the fact that our only attempt to be “organized” was to send an eblast to our subscribers. No money was paid to us, no directions given by any national lobbyist or insurance group or GOP, no signs were printed and distributed, no free boxed lunches handed out, no free t-shirts were worn, and no hourly wages paid — to anyone.
Others who did not get our eblast likely came on their own after reading about the presidential visit in the press. Speaker Pelosi apparently is comfortable ignoring the fact that dozens of astroturfed groups, paid for by outside corporate interests, regularly rent charter busses and ship their paid rabble rousers in for these events.
This event was no exception as you can see from this excellent video created by an observant NH citizen.
Some members of the media heard astroturfers offering money to students if they would wear their organization’s shirts for a ‘few hours’. Even WMUR admitted that Obamacare supporters were bussed, but failed to realize that the cowardly Obama would eventually be slipped into the hall via the back entrance and never have to face the angry crowds.
Among the pro-Obamacare astroturfed groups in attendence were SEIU, ACORN, OFA, Planned Parenthood, Greenpeace, Granite State Progress, AFSCME, etc. many backed by the millions of communist George Soros.
DISRUPTION OR DEMOCRACY?
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi accused us of being unAmerican, disrupters, and “astroturfed”, etc.
In her book, Nancy Pelosi tells us how much she admires “disrupters.” “Sometimes,” she wrote, “it is necessary to disrupt the status quo. That is the tradition of our country. Our Founders were disrupters – magnificent disrupters. Martin Luther King Jr. was a disrupter, as were the suffragettes. It is the American way. The change that resulted from these leaders has made our country greater. How can we follow their lead?”
When Speaker Pelosi spoke to crowds of people in San Francisco, she was rudely interrupted by the far left.
Her reaction? “Your advocacy is very important” she said. “I’m a fan of disrupters” she later proudly proclaimed. (at 2:05)
I guess when it’s for something she believes in, it’s OK. When it’s not something she believes in, it’s not?
In 2006 Carol Shea-Porter said “I always believe in speaking up. I think that’s what we’re supposed to do.”
Click here for more quotes. Apparently she changed her beliefs quite radically since then. Except for a set up town hall with AARP, both she and Hodes remain in hiding. Even the national media has picked up on this.
Indeed!
CONTROVERSY
The event was not without controversy. NBC cameras discovered a holstered weapon on William Kostric’s leg.
Portsmouth police investigated and properly deemed him legal and allowed him to stay. Kostric was not interested in going inside or seeing the president and was quite obviously not in any way dangerous to anyone. To us in NH, it was much ado about nothing. I daresay there may have been others who were carrying but not openly.
However, the leftist nutroots bloggers are still spewing and buzzing their indignation, applying every possible cliché to the situation. One even suggested that Kostric should have been wrestled to the ground and tasered without giving it a thought. How fascist of him.
Later MSNBC’s Chris Matthews (Hardball) tried to badger Kostric about his open carrying at the protest but Bill remained calm, and spoke well to the issue of the right to carry, as well as disarming the rabid Matthews on many other issues.
Note that this writer and many others refused to speak with Matthews who is noted for talking over his guests.
GOVERNMENT NEVER DOES IT BETTER
Everywhere socialized medicine has been tried it has failed. Just ask Massachusetts.
The deficit has increased by $181B just in July of 2009 alone. Vice President Joe Biden made the inane comment that to prevent bankruptcy, we must spend more money.
Why did Arlen Specter say we needed to pass some sort of a healthcare legislation ‘fast’?
We don’t believe this is about health or care, but about the power to control people in the wake of a crashed economy.
We must not stop the fight against these broad powergrabs by this administration and their questionable advisors. The groups listed on the right are supportive of our message of freedom. We are NOT funded or fueled or directed by any national group. We, the grassroots, shall overcome.
More photos of astroturfed signs…
More photos of grassroots signs…