Party Crashers!
by JC
Via TPM: “Our plan is not to shout them down… but to infiltrate them and push them farther from the mainstream.”
The scheme reads like a sequel to “Being John Malkovich”: Levin’s group of protesters plan to get in the heads of tea partiers at the Tax Day Tea Parties nationwide Thursday and manipulate them right out of relevance. They’ll dress like tea partiers, talk like tea partiers and carry signs like tea partiers. In fact, according to Levin they’ll be completely indistinguishable from tea partiers, except for one thing — they won’t be out-crazied by anyone.
This sounds like fun! Time for a Missoula Chapter of “Crash the Tea Party” anyone? Everybody’s favorite Rick Jore will be on hand at the Missoula Tax Day Rally, and the MIssoulian has other times and places in western Montana for rallies.
The Missoula rally, billed as a “nonpartisan, nondenominational rally of concerned Americans” by organizers, takes place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday in front of the federal building on Broadway.
And don’t forget to check out the Crash the Tea Party forums to see what events may be going on in your neighborhood!
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4&20 blackbirds 
April 13, 2010 at 2:54 pm
The right wing noise machine has been passing around this notice since this morning, at least.
April 13, 2010 at 3:09 pm
This tactic only goes to show that the arguments the tea party’s are trying to bring forward are valid and the only way to discredit them is to infiltrate with some crazies.
It amazes me how you can look in the mirror. Disgusting.
I’m a moderate and think listening to both sides is important. I don’t agree with everything they stand for, but I have big enough balls to listen.
April 13, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Lighten up, Francis.
April 13, 2010 at 3:29 pm
I’m sorry but I think you should take it a little more seriously. I’d oppose an effort to stifle the opinions of others, whether they be democrat, republican, black, white, gay, straight.
If we don’t listen to the opinions of others and respectfully agree/disagree, than lets revert back to apes.
Humanity is about more than just your opinion.
April 13, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Well I would certainly hope so.
If Levin is correct, and the Tea Party is a haven for racists, misogynists, the ignorant and the blindingly stupid (which I kinda think it is) then highlighting those aspects is not open to rational debate. Those people have no opinion to ‘respect’. They have ignorance and fear. I respect your opinion that it is right to defend their ignorance and fear, but I sure as hell don’t have to agree with it, or feel shame for that disagreement. Isn’t that exactly what you demanded of JC? Why yes, yes it is.
April 13, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Moderate? Maybe by tea party standards – a review of your comments tells otherwise.
April 14, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Because I don’t agree with you?
April 14, 2010 at 7:18 pm
Because your comments are more fitting of the Republican party, not Democrat.
April 15, 2010 at 5:19 pm
I don’t associate myself with either, democrats have their issues too.
I’ll admit I’m conservative when it comes to the idea of big government, out of control spending, and continued degradation of my rights.
However, my best friend is gay (well bi…depending on the day). I think its insane that she can’t marry who she loves. And I respect a woman’s right to chose, among other social issues.
As mentioned, I’m more conservative, and as you can guess my BF is more liberal. We can sit and talk for hours debating things respectfully. Sometimes I change my mind, sometimes she does, sometimes no one does and we laugh about how stubborn we are.
What boggles my mind is the opinion that a person who follows one political ideal or another shouldn’t be listened to. You can’t learn anything if you ONLY listen to those that agree with you.
April 15, 2010 at 6:57 pm
So you were only for discrimination of LGBT some of the time? When it came to housing or accommodations?
I’ve plenty of conservative friends. I’ve campaigned for people that many consider conservative (although not here in Montana. Yet.)
Curious – what rights of yours is the government degrading?
April 15, 2010 at 9:33 pm
You just jump to your conclusions don’t you? As I keep saying, there is more to the story than just your opinion so I was just asking the questions.
I supported the ordinance, not that I need to justify myself to someone as one-dimensional as you.
Now…moving on I chose the wrong word (see how I can admit when I’m wrong?). I meant diminution–or reduction.
April 13, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Credit where it’s due. Dave Budge posted this up on Sunday over at ECW.
I see this ‘agent provocateur’ campaign as little more than a catch 22. The Tea Party was making up this group before; all Levin did was instantiate their paranoia. I’ve long been a believer in the rock dictum “If they really think we’re the Devil, then let’s send them to hell.” But it does give them the ability to now excuse the crazies in their midst, by pointing the finger at Levin’s efforts. And as the insanity and violence escalates, it will be as easy to blame the Crashers as to admit the role of Beck, Palin and Bachman. Never forget, IOKIYAAR.
April 13, 2010 at 4:00 pm
kind of agree with tobie although perhaps not for the same reason. mine is more strategic. i think it muddies the water a little so the general public has a tough idea figuring out who the villains are…..
i prefer to be the good guys and i am a simple bear who is not a big fan of 3 dimensional chess. but really i think that jc is sort of pulling our leg a little here rhetorically…. i could definitely see the humor in imagining it.
April 13, 2010 at 5:32 pm
It’s a mission of mercy… Bringing humor to the humorless.
April 13, 2010 at 8:53 pm
I knew it. Its been JC behind the rare silly sounding or offensive signs you have all been complaining about at Tea Party events.
And from now on, everytime someone sees or hears something silly, offensive or racist at a Tea Party Rally, remember, its just JC. . . . .being silly, offensive or racist.
Brilliant move JC.
April 13, 2010 at 10:28 pm
Yep, I learned something during all those anti-war, anti-WTO and enviro rallies I participated in. Spent a lot of time tracking infiltrators and making sure that they didn’t egg on illegal activities.
Didn’t make any difference to the media or politicians, though. It all makes for good theater–be it phony, charade, or instigated. And jail is just as real for a tea bagger hyped up by a Palin as it is for one hyped up by a Levin.
April 13, 2010 at 10:14 pm
no, the scene doesn’t read like a sequel to being john malkovich.
it reads like using provocateurs to discredit someone’s constitutionally protected right to protest.
personally, i think using the tactics of the police state is bullshit.
but go ahead and feed the polarization if that’s what you think is productive.
April 13, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Does not the provocateur have the same constitutional right to discredit a protestor discrediting the president?
Jes saying…
April 13, 2010 at 10:38 pm
why don’t you just let them discredit themselves. i’m saying it’s a waste of time to use police state tactics to undermine teabaggers.
as for the president, he discredits himself by being an extra-judicial assassinating, corporate deal-making, war criminal.
April 13, 2010 at 11:12 pm
Um, first off, police state tactics require a police state to have the impact that they do. Infiltrating populist movements has a storied history outside of police agents provocateur.
Secondly, the sorts of discrediting you mention is unlike that of the tea baggers. Once is a matter of fact, the other a matter of fiction.
April 13, 2010 at 10:25 pm
easy rule is to say what you mean – mean what you say.
what others say is their problem.
April 13, 2010 at 10:39 pm
of course, there is a lot to be said for trickster…..
April 13, 2010 at 10:45 pm
many thanks to ms gopher for her appearance in supporting human rights last night….. the next new congresswoman of Montana if good sense has anything to do with it.
she would tear rehberg a new one in a debate.
http://www.melindaformontana.com/
April 14, 2010 at 7:15 am
A Tea Party supporter told me yesterday that the Missoula Libs are going to try to ram through a Rent Control ordinance. I have never heard Rye or Weiner ever talk about the subject although they are not afraid to take private property. Is this BS or is there a move to enact Rent Control in the name of affordable housing?
April 14, 2010 at 7:24 pm
You are blowing smoke, Chuck. Unintentionally, I’ll hope.
Engen would never go for something like this, yet along Rye or Weiner. I can’t think of one person that would think that what you propose might be something to be considered.
Rents aren’t bad here, anyways. There’s plenty of vacancies – everywhere. My landlord has a vacancy, and he never does during school.
April 14, 2010 at 8:02 am
Looks like you guys are rested up, ready to go.
Gotta work on your misspelling skills tho.
April 14, 2010 at 8:35 am
Swede, I am not surprised that you would stoop to the level of infiltrating a sincere and peace loving group to promote your agenda of hate but cross dressing to do so is going way too far. Although you do look pretty in pink.
April 14, 2010 at 10:58 am
The only racism I have seen in dealing with the Tea Party is the extreme left and racist black groups calling the large number of black Tea Partiers “oreos.” I am active in my local tea party and noticed the huge amount of racism the left had for the minorities in my group. I wondered if this was unqiue to my area and discovered it wasn’t:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/06/black-tea-party-activists-called-traitors/
It is estimated that 40% of the total number in all the Tea Party group is a minority. So, yeah: hate, racism, etc but only from the opposer’s. I have been to meeting after meeting and the only time I heard racism and hate was from the left. I am frustrated with all the hate and racism this states left is giving us.
April 14, 2010 at 11:11 am
You believe Fox News? They promote these events and direct their agendas and leaders, just so they can report on them as “news.”
Why do you think people refer to this side of Fox as “Faux News”? And of course they are going to fudge numbers however they want in order to lessen the appearance of the movement for less than what it is: a white separatist movement.
And if you don’t see racism when you look at all the signs in a rally depicting a black president in dozens of different racist ways (all the birther arguments), then you don’t have a clue as to what racism is. Or you’ve become so immersed in it that you have come to believe that racism is other than what it is. You have accepted racism as normal American behavior. And that is what defines the tea party in a way that the rest of us view as unacceptable.
And at the Missoula rally tomorrow, we’ll just see how diverse the crowd is, and what sort of racist signs and comments abound.
April 14, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Only racist signs you will see at the rally will be by the Party Crashers. You do realize that the Party Crashers cause 100% of all racist statements. And because Missoula is well over 90% White, I would assume, well it to be mainly white. In areas, that are largely black, the Tea Party is largely black, what do you know. You are a bona-fide racist JC. You judge and act by color, the pure definition of racism. Go to re-education, and cleanse yourself of that evil. Stop reading the Communist News Network and trusting the Always Biased Channel and actually see the rallies across the country. A diverse group of people, that actually think, unlike you.
Ahh JC, you must have a public education. Please, go to a real school, get your GED and learn some definitions. You have been caught under the propaganda of the loony left so long that you are a grade A retard (it fits the definition, you are far below a normal IQ.) I have been in a group of 500 Tea Partiers and the only racist statements were from the liberal blacks to Tea Party blacks and whites. I saw an infinite more racist signs for “Oreos” by liberals than anti-black by the Tea Party, because out of the 5k members I have met, not one person who judges by skin! Out of the anti-freedom liberal opposition, almost every person I met was racist. Got to call a spade a spade. And if you weren’t so afraid that minority groups will switch and no longer be oppressed by the libs, you wouldn’t want to make stuff up about the Tea Party. I’m 100% confident that no racist statements have been made. 100%.
Yes, I find political cartoons that depict George Bush as a monkey, racist, thanks for pointing that out. Liberals indeed are a racist lot. Yes, I find Al Sharpton worse than the KKK because he has gotten more innocent people killed in the last 30 years than them. I call racism when I see it. If its the KKK, or Jesse Jackson and his band of thugs. If they judge by race, its wrong. You on the other hand take fake statements. Did you know that the so-called racist Washington DC Tea Party statements were made up? Did you know every single case of racism by the Tea Party has been made up? You are such an idiot I can’t believe I wasted my time with a response. You are either stupid or ignorant. I’m assuming an IQ of 39 and a junior high dropout, so both? Go back to your mothers basement you oxygen waster, JC.
April 14, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Wow. Must have hit a raw nerve there or something.
At least we know where you stand now. Thanks for putting your cards on the table.
April 14, 2010 at 12:34 pm
You are welcome. In summary. The left doesn’t like the freedom the Tax Party offers. So they make stuff up about them to try to dissuade the public from joining. And they use the word “racist” because generally to a person such as yourself a racist means “a person the beat a liberal in an argument.” So I’m not surprised you pull the “racist” word so quickly. You are afraid of genuine truth, and its a knee jerk reaction. I understand, you afraid, and you are trying to use fear to make others afraid as well. Personally, I think people are stronger than you think.
April 14, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Wow! i’m not going to even attempt to defend myself here against such obvious tripe and flame bait.
April 14, 2010 at 2:36 pm
> Widowmaker added a new comment to the post Party Crashers!.
> You are welcome. In summary.
——————
That’s not a sentence.
——————
> The left doesn’t like the freedom the Tax Party offers.
————-
The freedom to be white and ignorant, apparently.
————-
> So they make stuff up about them to try to dissuade the public from joining.
————
Right. “They” make up stuff like calling congressmen the “N” word, calling them “faggots” and spitting on them. Stuff like throwing bricks through the windows of Democratic party headquarters, through congressional office windows, etc. Stuff about getting opponents in their gunsights and “taking aim,” and “reloading.” Stuff like open carrying by convicted criminals at political gatherings. Stuff about screaming so loud in constituent meetings so that no one else can be heard. Stuff like a white congressman calling the President a liar in a joint session of Congress. That legislator of course is from the great state of South Carolina, home of those many other distinguished politicians like Strom Thurmond, the racist unwed father of a black girl, and Mark Sanford, the avid Appalachian Trail hiker.
Nothing controversial about any of that.
—————-
> And they use the word “racist” because generally to a person such as yourself (sic) a racist means “a person the (sic) beat a liberal in an argument.” So I’m not surprised you pull (sic) the “racist” word so quickly. You are afraid of genuine truth, and its (sic) a knee jerk reaction. I understand, you (sic) afraid, and you are trying to use fear to make others afraid as well. Personally, I think people are stronger than you think.
———-
So, “widowmaker,” you seem to have taken English as a Second Language with Sarah Palin as a tutor.
If I want a considered opinion about anything, I’d certainly be sure to consult with someone as semi-literate as yourself (or Sarah herself).
April 14, 2010 at 2:57 pm
I didn’t realize spelling was a requirement on local blogs there Pilot. Your jealousy towards me oozes out of every word.
Btw, carrying openly at political events is perfectly legal. I carry my gun concealed or open everyday; to the park, store, farmers market, etc. Grow a pair get used to guns. Stop being afraid!
Like I said, quoting and using false events. Those words were never yelled. They. Were. Made. Up. Everybody now! Just because it keeps getting repeated, doesn’t make it true! It never happened! As for the bricks, a man was arrested for shooting out a GOP Reps window. So, by your conclusion of defending the radical left, the Tea Party should have used bullets.
Oh and, your reply should probably say sir, because you’ll be working for people like me your whole life. You need to think for yourself!
April 14, 2010 at 3:36 pm
frustration with the economy, lousy health care bill, two wars still wasting lives and billions, and the corporate lobby-run congress must go somewhere.
i just wish it would be the frustration of the vanishing middle class driving this revolt rather than a bunch of self-styled free marketers (many of whom are collecting social security and government pensions while they rail about government spending) who are being used by corporate interests and right wing republicans to further their fringe agendas i.e. derail a badly needed bank regulation bill with real teeth that might rein in some of the rampant greed and pilfery of our treasury by connected supporters of both corrupt parties.
but instead the tea party like widowmaker said,are disorganized, ineffective and generally ridiculed for supporting morons like sarah palin et al (obvious lapdogs of those in power) there is no need to counter their demonstrations. it is best to sit back and pay out more rope. i just wish there was a genuine uprising by people who work for a living against the real powerbrokers in this country rather than this punch and judy show that is orchestrated by the powers that be to keep us all busy at each others throats so they can loot us unmolested.
April 14, 2010 at 5:44 pm
i agree, pb.
April 16, 2010 at 12:19 am
I don’t think I’ve ever worked for a semi-literate boss and wouldn’t want to start now, “Widowmaker.”
If you weren’t the one who was actually afraid, you wouldn’t be carrying a gun, and you also may be overcompensating for a small appendage.
I could no more be jealous of you than I could be of a steaming pile of manure.
April 14, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Widowmaker, having had several semi-civil discussions with you, I’ve been reluctant to weigh in here. But now you’re just getting ridiculous.
Seems more like disdain to me. That jealousy thingy? You.Made.It.Up.
Carrying at political events, though legal in some cases, is exactly an implied threat. Those who do it, and carry signs proclaiming “Next time it will be loaded” is not even implied, it’s overt. And yes, intimidation by overt threat IS against the law. Now, are you going to tell me to “grow a pair and get used to guns”?
Teabaggers may be entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts. Eric Cantor’s window was *not* shot out by Norman Laboon. It was stray bullet. You even commented on the very post I put up showing that fact. And yet, in the very paragraph you attempt to convince others that the left is making things up, you make things up.
Educate yourself, Widowmaker. Laboon was arrested for posting a YouTube video threatening to kill Cantor and his family. After his arrest, it was discovered that Laboon has threatened several politicians, republican and democratic alike, including Obama when he was still a Senator. The guy’s a loon, not the holy grail of leftist outrage.
April 14, 2010 at 3:47 pm
I appreciate you weighing in Wulfgar. The louder, more aggressive peeps tend to pull me into the mud.
My point I was trying to make, but it appeared to get lost, even to me. The bricks through windows were not part of the Tea Party movement. Yes, people disagreed, but its not like there was a correlation. I used the gun shot to try and compare the lunacy of the two. A Rep gets threatened and a potentially stray bullet comes through his window. There is a new anti-large spending movement and bricks get thrown through spenders windows. Teenagers, maybe. Somebody mad at the bill; likely. An organized effort by one of the largest bases in recent history; hardly.
As for the jealousy comment; it tends to flame people like Pilot. So, I made a few exaggerated comments to infuriate his feeling of “I’m better than you” that he tried to slather across his comment.
April 14, 2010 at 1:17 pm
It’s a great week to be a moderate.
April 14, 2010 at 1:59 pm
Thanks for the clean up. Here is the thing, there are plenty of reasons to question the legitimacy of a lasting Tea Party Movement. There is a lack of agreed upon ideas across the nation. There isn’t really leadership. And there isn’t really lasting funding. I believe it will go the way of the Green party. Nader continues to be in the spotlight, and has minor relevance (the PIRG system in colleges). And just like how the anti-war rallies would have burning , neck hanging, effigies of Bush. The crazies come out in response to any response to disagreement to leadership. But, to blindly call the movement, without spending significant time actually part of it; hateful and racist is just ignorant. I’ve been to rallies in multiple states on multiple occasions and never saw any of these so called “racist and hateful” comments.
April 15, 2010 at 12:31 am
Salon.com
Wednesday, April 14
Joe Conason
How GOP consultants ripped off “tea party”
A year ago, “tea party” emerged as a right-wing brand with electoral potential. And a GOP firm planned its rip-off
Meet the new boss, same as the old (Republican) boss. Or so disgruntled tea party activists worry, according to an excellent report in Politico today on the true origins and control of the Tea Party Express operation by major California-based GOP consultants Russo Marsh & Rogers. Manipulation of the would-be revolutionaries of the right by the Republican establishment’s usual suspects isn’t exactly shocking news. But Politico’s Kenneth Vogel has unearthed an RM&R memo by Joe Wierzbicki that shows how boldly they planned the takeover.
Written a year ago, following the first tea party protests, Wierzbicki’s memo proposed to use the bus tours that became the Tea Party Express as a vehicle to promote Our Country Deserves Better, a PAC controlled by the consulting firm, and to position the firm for the 2010 elections. According to Vogel, the plan has been a huge success. The Russo firm’s PAC receipts rose from $600,000 in the six months preceding the Tea Party Express launch last July to $2.7 million in the six months that followed. Naturally, a lot of that money has flowed into the pockets of RM&R for services to the PAC and the Tea Party Express.
For angry activists who prefer their right-wing politics unadulterated by partisan scheming, the RM&R scheme is an outrage. Vogel quotes the PAC’s former director, Kelly Eustis, complaining that the consultants are using the PAC and the Tea Party Express as a cash cow, “keeping the firm afloat.” After being fired from the PAC, Eustis started his own rival PAC and went to work as a consultant for the Tea Party Patriots, a grass-roots group that regards the Tea Party Express as frauds and interlopers. His former colleagues at RM&R, said Eustis, saw the Tea Party as nothing more than “a brand name. We stole the brand name to make money.”
April 14, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Now you’ve got me curious. Exactly what kind of FREEDOM is the “Tax Party” offering? Considering your Freudian slip, one can only assume it’s freedom from taxes. I’m all for that. Let’s cut the defense budget by half (that’s over 250 billion a year) and watch the deficit plummet and our tax burden ease. See, that’s an easy answer, isn’t it?
(Notice, I’m not even talking about the Overseas Contingency Budget, the “black budget” or Congressional special appropriations. Hell, if we’d just get our soldier’s asses out of Afghanistan and Iraq, we’d save almost half of what we’d save by cutting the standard Military budgetary appropriation.)
April 14, 2010 at 3:58 pm
Wulfgar, I wouldn’t disagree with cutting every budget United States by half. Some by half, some by all. Paying off our national debt, and then cutting taxes to an amount that pays for what we have.
April 14, 2010 at 4:58 pm
all those corporate lobbyists chasing government money would disagree with that widowmaker. and they have congress by the short hairs.
April 14, 2010 at 5:16 pm
while tea partiers are kept busy lobbying sidewalks around their post offices tomorrow, the lobbyists for big pharma, boeing, bank of america, haliburten, blackwater and lockheed martin are taking your senators and congresspeople to lunch to make sure they keep spending as long as they are the ones to get it.
meanwhile you all honk and wave at each other like something is getting done.
the tea party was started by the same people who gave you enron, iraq and abramhoff spinoffs. astroturfing a pathetic faux insurrection by a bunch of poor old retirees and foxzombies suits them just fine.
what they really fear is if the middle of america finally has had enough and rise up to reclaim our country back from theives. that would be a party they could not control as well.
April 14, 2010 at 5:25 pm
i took my check to the post office today to mail with my return.
exxon could just phone their return in though…. http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/04/exxon-mobil-paid-zero-income-tax-offshore%20shelter-wal-mart-general-electric-forbes
April 14, 2010 at 5:11 pm
So you’re ok with making another 10 million or so people unemployed in one fell swoop?