Tuesday, February 02, 2010

The Tea Pirates

In a rather short time, a small group of ruthless political entrepreneurs have been able to exploit the economic anxieties, anger, distrust and  legitimate fears of many struggling Americans in an organized profit making operation network that has trademarked itself as The Tea Party Movement.

Lobbyists and corporate front groups, operatives and profiteers, many of whom are experienced public relations professionals have rapidly been able to set up a sophisticated social networking portals and online solutions to control the information with in this "movement". Ostensibly as "gatekeepers" to these supposedly open forums, they have been able to control the flow of information, set out the agenda and give "marching orders".
These Tea Party Profiteers are making millions cashing in on the movement by selling Tea party support to candidates and policies which continue the legacy of Bush era unregulated capitalism and corporate bailouts.
Here's a capsulated who's who of the players:

Eric Odom, a regular on FOX News as a spokesperson for the movement is at the center of the profiteering. He controls dozens of websites and possibly hundreds of forums through "Ning" technology  based social networking. He controls two for profit consulting  companies: American Liberty Alliance and Strategy Activism, LLC. In a self promotional video on YouTube, Odom explains how he has developed stealth type marketing and attack web sites.

Alan Fuller: The partner of Odom in his Strategic Activism, LLC., he also has a firm called Flat Creek Public Affairs. Flat Creek has several Republican Congressmen as clients as well as the current candidate for the Colorado Senate, Jane Norton. Fuller corrals tea party support for American Majority, a Republican training organization.

Glenn Beck, the most powerful promoter of the tea parties in the media promotes gold during his shows as the only way to hedge against the coming economic disaster he fortells. He never mentions that gold compaies are his primary sponsors, or that the gold companies he promotes, like Goldline, have predatory fees, selling gold for 35 to 40% more than its market value. He cemented hishold over the tea parties by launching his own 9.12 project network of social networking sites, which of course are hosted by his profitable media compay, Mercury Radio Arts.

Tea Party Nation is a for-profit business which is the organizer of the  upccoming Tea Party Convention at the Swank Opryland Gaylord Hotel in Nashville. The conventions "grassroots" ticket price is $550 per person and sells silver tea party jewelry and is able to offer Sarah Palin $120,000 to speak. They also have a social networking board.

Dick Armey who has a long history of organizing conservative grassroot causes in support of his corporate clients. He presets himself as an ideologue with his "non profit" Freedom Works. He rails against the Wall Street bailout and government efforts to rebuild the economy, but his own lobbying firm represented AIG, Lehman Bros and Merril Lynch during the bailouts. His "non profit" organization still pays him a lobbyist salary of $550,000 a year. 

:Tea Party Express The Tea Party Express bus tour, and affiliated political action committee, has raised funds using tea party messages. The Tea Party Express effort has been a slick public relations gimmick of the Sacramento-based consulting firm Russo, Marsh and Rogers (RMR). RMR has worked on several stealth campaigns for Republican clients, including the underhanded push to recall Gov. Gray Davis (D-CA). In any case, the Tea Party Express, which RMR staffers operate, has proved to be a cash cow for RMR — in 2009 alone, it plunged at least $1,025,559 of money it raised back into RMR.
The profiteers say that the original American revolutionaries cast their tea into the Boston harbor as a simple rejection of taxation, so the modern tea party movement should similarly reject increased financial regulations, health reform, and taxes on the rich. But the history tells a different story. Boston revolutionaries rejected subservience to the East India Company, a British-run international corporation. They cast the tea into the harbor as a symbolic message to say that their taxes should go back into the American community, not subsidizing the profits of London elites and foreign corporations. Now, Republican tea party profiteers are trying to exploit the movement, pushing them to oppose policies which would actually liberate the middle class and crack down on international corporations. Despite the populist rhetoric, the profiteers see the tea party movement as a pool to extract fundraising dollars and volunteers for Republican campaigns. Indeed, RNC Chairman Michael Steele, himself a former lobbyist, has said that he has an “expectation” that tea partiers loyally tow the Republican line.

5 comments:

Laci the Chinese Crested said...

Wow, I couldn't have said it better.

beezling said...

There's plenty more where that came from

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-brantzawadzki

microdot said...

I know that this is the tip of the iceberg. In all of the debates and finger pointing of the dysfunctionalism of American Government, we ignore the elephant in the room.
Here we have media, which purports to be "entertainment" engaging in mass disinformation and propaganda techniques as a willing tool of an opposition party who has become subservient to the money generated by this monster.

Murdoch is not an American citizen, but he is allowed to reap massive profits by the use of a sensationalistic method which is subversive to the functioning of the American government.

mud_rake said...

Yes, EXCELLENT post! Now the question becomes: how do we 'educate' the American masses to this band of ruthless, barbaric pirates?

That always is the sticking point. Always!!

microdot said...

I actually believe that Barack Obama is trying to address this by the recent confrontational encounters he has had. Today, in spite of the liberal blogosphere asking him not to attend, he went to the Annual Prayer Breakfast...this is the group that is referred to as The Family, they have made the attendance at this event a sort of 50 year old tradition
They include the American legislators who backed the Ugandan Homosexual Death penalty...
Obama used the occasion to condemn them, address the birther movement and those who would attack his beliefs.
Has he been sudying Kung Fu again?