Unreported

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Allison has a new article up at Truthout all about the Koch brothers’ spider web: giant corporate cash disseminates to an array of astroturfing and non-profit groups, including one that set up a partisan website staffed with hack reporters designed to discredit Democratic candidates. Read and share the article!

Also, Fullerton police beat a homeless, mentally ill man to death. A disturbing video of the event has been circulating the internet in which the homeless man, Kelly Thomas, can be heard crying for his father.

Here’s a fun example of astroturfing in its purest form: A woman attending a town hall event for Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI), and–while loudly raising objections to the Democrats’ health care reform proposal–insisting she’s just a regular concerned citizen. Except, she’s actually a GOP official.

Heather Blish was vice-chairman of the Kewaunee County GOP until 2008. She actually worked for Kagen’s opponent, and, according to her own resume, is affiliated with the Republican National Committee.

via ‘Grassroots Protester’ Actually GOP Official | TPMDC.

Blish is only the latest example in a series of outed GOP/healthcare industry cronies, who are desperately trying to convince the rest of America that it is average citizens – and not corporate interests – who are at the heart of the healthcare reform backlash. Rachel Maddow has done an excellent job of highlighting the most nefarious displays of astroturf, such as Americans for Prosperity (AFP) headed by Tim Phillips. AFP has a rich tradition of creating front groups to fight reform involving global warming policy, labor, and now health care.[youtubevid id=Af_RYTAKEe8]

While appearing on Maddow’s show, Phillips denied the charges that AFP has been actively working to derail health care reform by bussing people across the country to protest against pro-health care reform politicians. I guess those buses are just for display, and no one rides inside. If they aren’t for importing protesters, AFP might as well use the bus money on full-page newspaper ads. At least it would save gas. Ya’ know…since no one is riding inside them. Right, Tim?

But AFP’s most publicized achievement has been its ability to work in concert with right-wing groups and organize all of those town hall spontaneous screamfests we’ve seen on the TV. Phillips and AFP are able to fund these meet-ups of Average Joes because of generous contributions from Koch Industries, a privately held $90 billion oil and gas conglomerate, which may explain how Tim fuels his buses. Other donors include the oil giant Exxon, which lists AFP as a recipient of (in some years) hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Maddow. Although, Phillips claims AFP is not funded by Exxon. Maybe. At least, they haven’t taken Exxon’s money this year. Or rather, Phillips would “be happy to go back and look at the records” just for Rachel’s sake. What a sweetie.

Maddow also exposed that Phillip worked for nine years at Century Strategies, a lobbying firm born from the loins of Ralph Reed of Jack Abramoff fame. For almost a decade, Phillips’s specialty was manipulating Christians into voting Republican. That’s the same base that fears immigrants, any person depicted as a dangerous “other,” (see: Our Kenyan-born, Socialism-loving, terrorist Lord and Master) and has generally been at the beck and call of the Republican Party ever since President Nixon first figured out he could scare white Southerners with the idea of uppity black people.

“Orchestrated outrage” is the term Maddow uses to explain these town hall mob events. To illustrate the “orchestrated” part, Maddow read a memo from a group that calls itself Right Principles first leaked by Think Progress. The  memo details how protesters should behave at town hall events (emphasis mine).

Under the heading “Inside the Hall” it says:

You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early. If he blames Bush for something or offers other excuses — call him on it, yell back and have someone else tallow-up with a shout-out. The goal is to rattle him.

When the formal Q&A session begins get all your hands up and keep them up…. The balance of the group should applaud when the question is asked, further putting the Rep on the defensive.

Creepy, specific, and the exact behavior of the satellite agents sent forth into town hall meetings to derail any chance of a truly democratic, civil process. The memo was written by Bob MacGuffie, who is associated with an organization called Freedom Works, a Washington DC lobbying firm run by former Republican Majority leader Dick Armey. Smell that astroturf.

The New York Times’ Paul Krugman retold a sad example of this Bridge to Misunderstanding built by the healthcare industry:

There was a telling incident at a town hall held by Representative Gene Green, D-Tex. An activist turned to his fellow attendees and asked if they “oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.” Nearly all did. Then Representative Green asked how many of those present were on Medicare. Almost half raised their hands.

The disconnect comes from propaganda campaigns run by the healthcare industry – from places like Freedom Works and Americans for Prosperity. As Wendell Potter, the former health executive turned whistleblower, told me in a recent interview, one of the healthcare industry’s favorite reform-busting tactics is to set up front groups they fund, “but that funding is not known to the public, to communicate the industry’s points of view through these front groups,” says Potter. He adds that these groups always have pleasant names (like Freedom Works and Americans for Prosperity). These groups are used to disseminate propaganda in talking points and scare tactics (like the big, bad threat of Socialist Healthcare).

These PR firms also set up “third-party advocates” where they’ll look for individuals, and other groups that might have some connection either through business or ideology with the health insurance industry, and they’ll feed those groups and those individuals with talking points to make sure that they have a lot of people and a lot of organizations expressing their points of view.

Sound familiar? By the time an unsuspecting person is through gorging themself stupid on a steady diet of regurgitated private healthcare propaganda from politicians, who are funded by Big Healthcare, right-wing radio and television personalities, and talking points from corporately sponsored satellite groups, they’re whipped up into an absolute frenzy inspired by lies and fear.

Beyond playing the roles of Astroturf Agents, these corporate sponsored reform derailers are also acting as an odd breed of Agent Provocateurs. Traditionally, Agent Provocateurs work for the state. They’re an undercover cop or corporate spy that works to entice or provoke another person or group to commit an illegal act. In this case, the Provocateurs repeat private healthcare talking points (loudly,) which incites a mob reaction. Protesters hang effigies of pro-reform politicians and resort to violence. Politicians shy away from town hall style discussions because the chance at civil discourse has dissolved into death threats being hurled at them from a raving, furious mob.

Then, the healthcare industry gets to point at the mob reaction and say, “See? Americans don’t want reform.” This is a way for Republicans, Moderate Democrats, and Big Health to incite violent reaction without getting any blood on their hands. It’s a sneaky way to plant Manchurian Agent Provocateurs, who have no idea they’re being used to promote corporate agendas, namely to kill any chance of a public option. Not only do they not know they’re being used as shills for corporate interests, but they’re also confused about the issues, as the Krugman example above demonstrates. Most Americans don’t even understand that they’re currently enjoying a large “socialist” program: Medicare. They’ve been — quite simply — brainwashed into believing America is under attack. From what, exactly, no one can tell you. Socialists, maybe. On the other hand, it might be the Kenyans.

This kind of Manchurian Provocateur practice is underhanded, cruel, and the opposite of democracy. And in the words of Rachel Maddow, “it should be reported as such.”