Tea Baggin

Dear Jane,
I think the most disingenuous thing about the tea bag day, is that it is far right Republican show off escapade being painted as spontaneous and grass roots. It is not and everyone knows it.

Digby has the scoop, and as usual, the reasoning. Corporate grassroots.

Now, none of this means that the people who show up at the rallies don't actually believe in what they're rallying for. It's primarily a team sport for them, and this is the conservative team's play. But most of them probably don't realize (and wouldn't believe if you told them) that they are rallying on behalf of a major media conglomerate and other vastly wealthy interests to support rich people and corporations at the expense of people like themselves. Of course, that is the organizing principle of the Republican Party in general, but it is spectacularly arrogant at a time like this.

If the press were to do its job, it would inform the public of this instead of regurgitating professional beltway press releases and pretending that these tea bagger parties are even coherent much less representing a legitimate grassroots anti-tax movement.

Save the Rich has become the most comprehensive site for understanding the truth about this gimmick. Below are some highlights for all you gentle seekers of the truth.

• Corporate lobbyists and their consultants are organizing behind the scenes.
• Fox News is encouraging turnout, sponsoring, and covering "Tea Parties" across the country.
• Republican officials are driving turn out.
• Protesters have no idea what they're talking about. At Tea Parties that have taken place over the last few days, attendees are more concerned with Obama's birth certificate than high taxes or government spending. Fringe gun groups, secessionists, anti-immigration activists and neo-Nazis are out in force.

I too applaud the efforts of Americans everywhere, regardless of political affiliation, to make their voices known. Fox News however is not a news organization. It is a propaganda device, nothing more. It is the primary media mover here.

Freedom Watch is a right wing Republican corporate activist organization led by the notorious Dick Armey. There is nothing spontaneous or even remotely non-partisan here. That's the truth.