The Americans for Prosperity "Hands off my Healthcare Express" tour bus made a stop in Waynesboro today with Senator\Governor George Allen and State Senator Ken Cuccinelli who is the GOP Candidate for Virginia Attorney General...
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This tour bus is traveling across Virginia to bring the message regarding the Health care bill that the Obama administration, with the help of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, are trying to push through Congress...
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As described by AFP...
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"Some in Washington think Americans’ passion at August town halls was a fluke, but you and I know better. As the details of legislation are released by Congress, the level of government intrusion attached to health care reform becomes a frightening reality."
"The promise that ‘if you like what you have, you can keep it’ rings hollow when people see the reality of what Congress is proposing"...
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"Some in Washington think Americans’ passion at August town halls was a fluke, but you and I know better. As the details of legislation are released by Congress, the level of government intrusion attached to health care reform becomes a frightening reality."
"The promise that ‘if you like what you have, you can keep it’ rings hollow when people see the reality of what Congress is proposing"...
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Senator Ken Cuccinelli with comments regarding the bus tour and the truth about the proposed Health care reform bill...
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Americans for Prosperity Virginia State Director Ben Marchi speaks with George Allen, Senator Ken Cuccinelli, and Scott Sayre (Restore the Founders' Vision) looking on....
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Ben Marchi responds to comments made by MSNBC Rachel Maddow to this as an "Astro-turf" effort and then goes on to discuss the ratings of her MSNBC show...
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NewsVirginian coverage...
4 comments:
Tim Phillips, The Man Behind The ‘Americans For Prosperity’ Corporate Front Group Factory
The rate at which the Koch Industries funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP) churns out front groups to promote its right-wing corporate agenda sets the organization out among similar conservative “think tanks.” This week, AFP created their latest front group called “Patients United Now,” an entity set up to defeat health care reform. Patients United follows a familiar pattern AFP has used for their other front groups: create a new stand alone website, fill it with lines like “We are people just like you” to give the site a grassroots feel, and then use the new group to recruit supporters and run deceptive advertisements attacking reform. This “astroturfing” model has been used by AFP to launch groups pushing distortions against other progressive priorities.
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/05/29/afp-timphillips-astroturf/
Anonymous,
Thanks for your comment and information...
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****Please notice that I have allowed and kept this message, viewpoint, and data up as a comment without moderation or restricting it being viewed as some local bloggers do if you dont agree with my post. Had to get that in for I had a conversation going this week on how I am NOT a journalist and in fact favor the Right. Please check name of blog "RIGHTSIDEVA"***
Like the Rachel Maddow show as refrenced in the above video, there seems to be an intense effort to discredit AFP as a "Grass Roots" effort or orginization. This effort avoids what AFP has done and continues to do in bringing important issues to light and to rally a large base of Americans to speak out and about these issues. AFP may not fall completely into the "Grass Roots" slot that some demand but they have been very effective of bringing issues to light and inform citizens as to what is going on in government. Maddow took this attack route in her interview of Tim Phillips which I happened to see and she did it to discredit the effort...
Are they not true Grass roots for some at the top have organized other groups as listed in the link you provided? Depends if you look at the issues or look at the perceived motive. Is Media Matters or Move-on.org grassroots with all of the backing that they get from Soros and other rich guys? Not a claimed grass roots orginization but how many people have noticed the recently changes Pepsi logo looks alot like the Obama logo and the top guy at Pepsi has donated much money to Obama? Or How about Progressive Insurance who top guy is also a big DNC contributor?
Some of the groups your link provides include:
:"The Hot Air Tour ~ Which provides info and data to the public that Al Gore and many enviro groups do not inclued.
Free Our Energy ~ Which promotes U.S. energy independence and drilling for more of our known resources...
Save My Ballot Tour ~ Is Unions everywhere a good idea? Lets talk business sometime... Seen that story about VA Military absentee ballots this past week?
No Climate Tax ~ Group to "defeat clean energy legislation" or to question the extreme direction being pushed thru with poor data?...
No Stimulus ~ How is that stimulus package working out? Unemployment near 10% and look where the tax money is going?
These groups may have started by those involved by people in AFP and maybe thats why so many people are flocking towards AFP and their functions? Maybe this is why people are going to other sources for their info for they have had it with many of the mainstream media sources and their viewpoints\agenda? ***Please do not include Rachel Maddow in "Mainstream media" for I just looked at her ratings***
I have attended two of the seminars they have had in DC and found the speakers to very informative and side sessions very beneficial. I have also attended and blogged about other events that AFP has put on. I find them well organized and well done with much data to back them up.
I found this on michaelmoore.com:
“Wendell Potter, the former chief public relations officer for CIGNA Corp., has turned whistleblower. He points out that the industry routinely uses actors and actresses to invent stories about the Canadian system, a universal system based upon the U.S. Medicare system.
Potter points out that people routinely die or suffer needlessly in the U.S. due to rejected care. He adds that the insurance industry sent its employees to the town meetings to fight for their jobs. The industry also hired paid agitators from public relations firms hired to provoke outbursts at those meetings. This is outrageous.
Potter stated that when Michael Moore’s movie “Sicko” opened in France, the insurance industry sent 200 members to watch and report back to the insurance companies. The industry had its propaganda machine well-oiled before “Sicko” opened in U.S. theaters.
According to Potter, the current debate about reform is a sham. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is the insurance industry’s leading recipient of campaign financing in congress.
Congress is trying to derail any meaningful reform by forcing those who don’t have insurance to pay for it. This gives the industry a whole new market, underwritten by taxpayers.
Harper’s Index in September noted that the increase in premiums for citizens since 2002 is 87 percent. During that period, the top 10 insurance companies’ profits increased 428 percent. The chance that an American family will go bankrupt from health insurance costs is seven in 10.
The health-insurance industry is a kleptocracy. These voracious pirates are plundering a public that needs a health-care system that protects citizens.
We do not need the insurance industry. The insurance industry should be permanently banished, with all of us paying premiums into Medicare for all.”
This is an emotional issue for many Americans. This so-called “public option” in Government run health care presents serious challenges for us. As Consumers we should be able to compare the cost and quality of health care services. How much is a specific surgery at one hospital, as compared with another? http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/media/
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