As the Tea Party movement has gained momentum during the last 12 months, it seems few Tea Partiers have caught on to the troubling past of the man at the center of their movement: FreedomWorks chairman, former House Majority Leader and recently-retired lobbyist extraordinaire, Dick Armey.
As chairman of FreedomWorks, the group credited with mobilizing the Tea Party movement, Armey is the movement’s de facto leader. Yet Armey’s years spent lobbying for a group recognized by the State Department as being a terrorist organization—should give Tea Partiers pause.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/...
Sometimes I wonder what Republicans are up to. It seems that for Republicans - and regardless of what it does to our country - if it pays, it plays.
FreedomWorks is a conservative non-profit organization based in Washington D.C., United States. FreedomWorks trains volunteer activists and wages campaigns to encourage them to mobilize, engage fellow citizens, and influence their political representatives. Several of FreedomWorks' campaigns have been described as "astroturfing," or projecting the false impression of grassroots organizing.[1][2][3] FreedomWorks' spokesmen have denied this characterization.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Only one month before that populist moment on Capitol Hill, Armey was employed as a lobbyist by leading international "consulting firm" DLA Piper. In that capacity, from 2005 to 2009, Armey promoted the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, otherwise known as Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), which the State Department has branded a terrorist group. Armey lobbied his former colleagues on behalf of legislation that would have provided taxpayer support to the MEK.
Armey’s work as a lobbyist—during which time he also served as chairman of FreedomWorks and organized Tea Party protests—is not mentioned in his FreedomWorks biography. This omission can perhaps be explained by the anti-lobbyist sentiments held by so many Tea Partiers. At the first national Tea Party Convention held in Nashville in February, former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin spouted off on the Obama administration’s failure to eliminate lobbyists and cronyism in D.C. during her keynote speech and the crowd burst into loud applause
http://www.inthesetimes.com/...
A "bargaining chip" between Tehran and Washington?
During the Iraq war, U.S. troops disarmed the PMOI and posted guards at its bases,[67] but also protected and gave logistical support to the group because the it believed the group to be a high value source of intelligence on Iran.[68] The PMOI are credited with revealing Iran's nuclear program in 2003 and alerted Americans to Iranian advancements in nuclear technology.[69]
The same year that the French police raided the PMOI's properties in France, Tehran attempted to negotiate with Washington DC, proposing to withdraw military backing for Hamas and Hezbollah as well as give open access to their nuclear facilities in return for Western action in disbanding the PMOI, which was revealed by Newsnight, a BBC current affairs program, in 2007. The BBC uncovered a letter written after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 where Tehran made this offer[70] The proposition was done in a secret letter given to Washington through Switzerland's help. According to the BBC and to what had been understood by the US State Department, the letter had received authorization from the highest levels of the Iranian government. According to Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff of State secretary Colin Powell, interviewed by the BBC, the State Dept would first have positively considered the offer. But it would ultimately have been rejected by the office of Vice-President Dick Cheney.[71]
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The link to Dick Armey's lobbying activity:
http://www.opensecrets.org/...
2007 was a banner year for Armey’s work on U.S./Iran relations. Ghaemi shelled out $400,000 for Armey and his team of Capitol Hill lobbyists. There were two bills before Congress that year that would have had a profound effect on U.S.-Iran foreign policy and could have potentially benefited a group of exiled Iranians greatly—namely MEK. Armey, during his time as Ghaemi’s voice on the Hill, became the outspoken proponent of MEK, repeatedly urging Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to remove the group’s terrorist designation.
In a 2007 article written by Armey in The Hill, he said the Bush administration would be wise to utilize MEK, which is violently opposed to the current Islamic regime. "Supporting the democratic opposition holds great promise for promoting the cause of freedom and democracy in Iran, particularly the group feared most by the regime (MEK)," wrote Armey, who concluded by saying "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." This statement had never before been so true.
http://www.inthesetimes.com/...
MeK’s lobbying efforts are nothing new. In 1994, over 100 members of the House signed a letter to the president advocating that MEK be removed from the terrorist list. Privately, several signatories have said they were embarrassed about the move and now look at Iranian-American group that walks in their office with suspicion.
Here in lies the problem. Front groups for the MeK are positing themselves as ambassadors of the Iranian-American community. They urge members of Congress to resist dialogue and push military confrontation, as this, MeK contends, is what Iranian-Americans want. And with no other Iranian-American in sight, many believe them.
Part of my job at NIAC is to dispel this myth and voice the concerns of the majority of the community as reflected by NIAC’s membership, which spans 44 states. But the real burden lies with you. At this time of increased tensions between the US and Iran, Iranian-Americas who favor diplomacy cannot afford to remain outside the political discourse. Contact your member of Congress, write an op-ed in your local newspaper, or ask NIAC how you can get involved.
http://niacblog.wordpress.com/...
What we appear to have here is a Republican pattern - get paid $$$ by lobbyists and contributors, and be a good soldier and start a war to earn your money.
Remember John McCain and his Georgia lobbyist on his campaign - and the conflict with Russia in the run up to the last election?
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The outbreak of war in Georgia on Friday offers a disturbing and somewhat surreal taste of what to expect from John McCain should he become our nation's Commander in Chief. As the centuries-old ethnic animosities between Georgia and Ossetia boiled over into another armed conflict, drawing in neighboring Russia, McCain issued a stark-raving statement from Des Moines that is disturbingly reminiscent of the language used in the lead-up to NATO's war against Yugoslavia in 1999, a war McCain zealously pushed for:
.."We should immediately call a meeting of the North Atlantic Council to assess Georgia's security and review measures NATO can take to contribute to stabilizing this very dangerous situation," McCain said.
Calling on NATO to "stabilize this dangerous situation" is not going down well with Russia, where images of dead Russian peacekeepers and of frightened Ossetian refugees streaming across its borders have put the country in a very vengeful mood. It's hard to imagine what measures NATO could take under a McCain presidency, but in the mind of a man who thinks US troops should stay in Iraq for 100 years, and who runs around singing "Bomb Bomb Iran!" it's not hard to guess--and even harder not to be horrified by what it may mean come January 2009, should he win.
http://www.thenation.com/...
From Iran's perspective, the US position on MEK is both ambiguous and at times hypocritical. On the one hand, the MEK remains on the US State Department's list of banned terrorist organizations, yet the group remains on Iraqi soil, albeit disarmed and under surveillance by coalition forces. The MEK has cultivated a loyal following among an outspoken network of US politicians, former and active government officials, members of the defense establishment, journalists and academics advocating violent regime change in Tehran. The MEK is even credited in some of these circles for disclosing aspects of the Iranian nuclear program [9].
At the same time, it is accused of fabricating intelligence information to boost its profile in the US. With their call for regime change in Iran and pleas for international support, media-savvy MEK representatives based in the US appear regularly on the cable news show circuit and other forums in Washington in a campaign reminiscent of the one led by Ahmed Chalabi and the network of Iraqi exiles who mustered American support for the Iraq war [10]. The MEK has also gained legitimacy as a liberal and democratic force for positive change in Iran, despite evidence to the contrary.
http://www.atimes.com/...
Or maybe it's all just about the money.
On January 19, 2009, Graham Makohoniuk, a part-time trader and a member of Ticker Forum, posted a casual invitation on the market-ticker.org forums to "Mail a tea bag to congress and to senate".[30] The idea quickly caught on with others on the forum, some of whom reported being attracted to the inexpensive, easy way to reach "everyone that voted for the bailout." [31]
Forum moderator, Stephanie Jasky helped organize the group and worked to "get it to go viral."[32] Jasky is also the founder and director of FedUpUSA - a fiscally conservative, non-partisan activist group that describes themselves as "a group of investors" who sprung out of the market-ticker.org forums.[33] The group had previously held DC protests in 2008.[34][35] On January 19, 2009, Jasky had posted a formal invitation "to a commemorative tea party."[36] She suggested they all send tea bags on the same day (February 1, 2009) in a coordinated effort.[32]
The founder of market-ticker.org, Karl Denninger (stock trader and former CEO),[37] published his own write-up on the proposed protest, titled "Tea Party February 1st?," which was posted in direct response to President Obama's innauguration occurring on the same day, and railed against the bailouts, the US national debt and "the fraud and abuse in our banking and financial system" which included the predatory lending practices currently at the center of the home mortgage foreclosure crisis.[38] Karl Denninger, who helped form FedUpUSA in the wake of the March 2008 Federal Reserve bail out of Bear Sterns, had been a guest on both Glenn Beck and CNBC Reports.[39][40] By February 1, the idea had spread among conservative and libertarian-oriented blogs, forums, websites and through a viral email campaign.[41]
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The story of the original "grass roots" activist:
Outside the Harborside Event Center that day was a woman named Mary Rakovich who was fresh off a few hours of activist training from the Washington-based conservative group FreedomWorks. She had recruited six to 10 people to carry signs ridiculing the stimulus bill that Obama and Crist were promoting inside.
The stimulus foes were outnumbered by anti-abortion protesters. But they attracted the notice of Fox News, and Rakovich was interviewed live that afternoon.
Nine days later, with CNBC's Rick Santelli's rant heard 'round the world, the term "tea party" would become indelibly attached to such protests.
http://www.liberty.com/...
And the origins of FreedomWorks - Citizens for a Sound Economy - which is heavily funded by big business and big money:
Funding
CSE had a related funding arm, the Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation (CSEF). According to internal documents leaked to the Washington Post, 85 percent of CSE's 1998 revenues of CSE's $16.2 million came not from its 250,000 members, but from contributions of $250,000 and more from large corporations.
Between 1985 and 2001, CSE received $15,993,712 in 104 separate grants from twelve foundations:
Castle Rock Foundation[citation needed]
Earhart Foundation[citation needed]
JM Foundation[citation needed][2]
Koch Family Foundations (David H. Koch Foundation, Charles G. Koch Foundation, Claude R. Lambe Foundation)[citation needed]
John M. Olin Foundation[citation needed]
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation[citation needed]
Philip M. McKenna Foundation, Inc.[citation needed]
Scaife Foundations (Scaife Family, Sarah Mellon Scaife, Carthage)[citation needed]
Other CSE funders (not included in above funding total) have included:
Archer Daniels Midland[citation needed]
DaimlerChrysler[citation needed]
Enron[citation needed]
General Electric[citation needed]
F.M. Kirby Foundation[citation needed]
Philip Morris[citation needed]
US West[citation needed]
$380,250 from ExxonMobil (1998–2001)[3][unreliable source?]
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Their first campaign appears to be the scoffing of Global Warming. Now this.
A little about their tactics:
Controversy
Oregon Citizens for a Sound Economy was accused in 2004 of encouraging George W. Bush supporters to help get Ralph Nader on the ballot in Oregon.[4]
On July 23, 2006, the Washington Post reported on the organization's tactics in signing up as members people who did not know about the organization, by enrolling them as members during unrelated insurance transactions in order to boost membership numbers. The group obtained about $638,000 and 16,000 members through the sale of insurance policies in this way, according to the report.[5] When someone signed up for insurance through "Medical Savings Insurance Company", they were also automatically signed up for Citizens for a Sound Economy without their knowledge, the report asserted. Their information is subject to be rented out as the Medical Savings Insurance Company deemed fit, which is not uncommon for many groups who obtain client contact information. The dues they paid also paid for Citizens for a Sound Economy projects.[citation needed] Critics suggested the effort as a way for this group to inflate their membership rosters, and more exactly, by taking dues from people with no interest in the groups' politics.[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
And a little about their founder:
David Hamilton Koch (pronounced /ˈkoʊk/ "coke", born March 5, 1940) is an American engineer and businessman. He is one of the co-owners (with older brother Charles) and an executive vice president of Koch Industries, a conglomerate with major petroleum and natural gas holdings that is the second largest privately held company (after Cargill) in the United States.[1] He lives in New York City.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Gee, I wonder what a major petroleum and natural gas company would want with Iran? Seems Dick Armey is tied to the Iran thing in more than one direction.
So big money got together and started a supposed "grass roots" organization to fight for no taxes. Hmm. How could that ever serve their interests? /snark
Seems tea party members resemble a dupe.
Main Entry: 1dupe
Pronunciation: \ˈdüp also ˈdyüp\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from Middle French duppe, probably alteration of huppe hoopoe
Date: 1681
: one that is easily deceived or cheated : fool
http://www.merriam-webster.com/...
And it seems the message big money is sending to Washington is "do what we want or we overthrow you!"
Where have we heard THAT before?
Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940), nicknamed "The Fighting Quaker" and "Old Gimlet Eye", was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps, and at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in U.S. history. During his 34-year career as a Marine, he participated in military actions in the Philippines, China, in Central America during the Banana Wars, the Caribbean and during World War I, he served in France. By the end of his career he had received 16 medals, five of which were for heroism. He is one of 19 people to be twice awarded the Medal of Honor, one of three to be awarded both the Marine Corps Brevet Medal and the Medal of Honor, and the only person to be awarded the Brevet Medal and two Medals of Honor, all for separate actions.
In addition to his military achievements, he served as the Director of Public Safety in Philadelphia for two years and was an outspoken critic of U.S. military adventurism. In his 1935 book War is a Racket, he described the workings of the military-industrial complex and, after retiring from service, became a popular speaker at meetings organized by veterans, pacifists and church groups in the 1930s.
In 1934 he was involved in a controversy known as the Business Plot when he told a congressional committee that a group of wealthy industrialists had approached him to lead a military coup to overthrow Franklin D. Roosevelt. The individuals that were involved denied the existence of a plot, and the media ridiculed the allegations. The final report of the committee claimed that there was evidence that such a plot existed, but no charges were ever filed. The opinion of most historians is that a coup was not imminent, but that some wild schemes were discussed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Oh, the tangled webs we weave...