| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Nancy and the Astroturfers |
| 2009-08-12 |
| This was the scene when I arrived at Stout Street Clinic in downtown Denver. Nancy Pelosi is to pay a visit to the clinic within the hour. About 200 people opposed to Obama’s healthcare agenda braved the mile high Denver sun and high temperatures to show their opposition. Their signs indicate that they are well aware that they have been vilified and targeted in an Oval Office astroturfing campaign designed to discredit their opposition. After I was on the scene for about 15 minutes I got a call from one of my location scouts. “Hey, you gotta come down by the alley here. A bunch of Obama people just showed up.” I walked over to the far corner of the clinic and sure enough, freshly minted Obama supporters had arrived on the scene. An email circulated the day before by the local Democrat Party urged activists to come out to this event, and another one later that same day, claimed that “rich special interests” would be bussing “Teabaggers” there. Teabaggers is an obscure homocentric term that has been made a household word by the Democrat party. Tea Party participants are people who identify with that patriotic tax revolt of 1773. The Democrats’ reference to them as “Teabaggers” is a horribly crude example of how the left coarsens our public discourse. Soon more astroturfazoids began insinuating themselves into my photographs. Here I asked people to pose for me and the ‘zoids barged in. Like characters from Shawn of the dead they just kept appearing in my viewfinder. This is the first time in my life that I can recall a government in North America organizing protests of one group of citizens against another. This is standard operating procedure in countries with left-wing governments. This clinic is adjacent to Denver’s day laborer pickup street, Park Avenue. Being fluent in Spanish, El Marco asked these guys “¿hablan ingles?” “casi nada” was the reply from our amigo on the left. I asked him if he could tell me what the signs said. “¿Quien sabe?” (who knows?) was all he said to me, with a big grin. I’m kicking myself for not asking them how much they were getting paid to support the grassroots. Worth reading the whole thing. Lots of pics. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #3 Nancy's face is astroturf, and her mind, ( ). Nancy is miss walk, and miss boxer is chew gum. It really is a shame it has come to this. There is a depressing and urgent need to wrap this government up in their own red tape so tight they can't do anything at all anymore. And it is very needed. Since the Majority of Americans (not acorns) are now considered fake, does that mean we can renounce our citizenship to get better benifits now? |
| Posted by: newc 2009-08-12 17:39 |
| #2 It's a shame the rest of us have to suffer for the mistakes of San Francisco (election of Pelosi). |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-08-12 15:21 |
| #1 "Nancy and the Astroturfers" would be a good name for a shoegazer alt-rock band. It's a bad idea for a system of government. |
| Posted by: Mike 2009-08-12 14:16 |