Activists with HFFT confirmed in the last two weeks that the national tea party movement is definitely a top down organization with plenty of collusion from mainstream media slime greasing the way. It is quite apparent that the Republicorp plan is to hi-jack an army of awakening professional class activists into their machine.
On Facebook and in emails, I pointed out to operatives in the national tea party web that a true grass roots organization is bottom up, not top down, and that the model into which they were being herded is a grass roots fraud.
Richard Behney, "We Surround Them" co-organizer of a recent 500 person event in Fishers with his wife Laura, recently called the snakes out for what they are in the open email below, brilliantly copied to everyone on their Meetup.com and Facebook pages.
And to think we were worried the Indiana Defenders of Liberty Tea Party Activists were getting snookered!
Breaking just minutes ago, The Daily Paul dished up the background on the former Glamor Shots executive, Michael Leahy who plans to use the power of canned cream corn to harness national media as the sword to defend our Liberty.
The Behneys of Fishers have smarts and kahunas and I love it!
--Melyssa for HFFT
See also: Bloggers charge that "anti-stimulus' tea parties are coporate front
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March 20, 2009
Subject: A canned food drive ~ ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME??!
Mr. Michael Patrick Leahy,
Hi all ~ We were involved in a conference call last night with the National Tea Party Leaders and all of the Tea Party Coordinators and Organizers across the country (about 80 volunteers). The leader, Michael Leahy, announced that he wanted to include in all Tea Parties a food drive....for all Tea Partiers to bring a non-perishable food items to their individual Tea Parties to attract mainstream media attention. Well, this didn't sit well with a number of the callers, including Richard and myself. So....Richard sent a letter today to ALL of the Leaders, Organizers and Coordinators of the National Tea Party to voice the concern in diluting this event into just another food drive. Here is the content of that letter:
Mr. Michael Patrick Leahy -
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Did I understand you to say that you want us to include a food drive with the Tea Party event to appeal to the mainstream media…to give them something positive to report?
ARE YOU FREAKIN’ KIDDING ME!
“Sucking up” to the media is not going to provide creditability, certainly not in any positive manner, as to who we and for what reason we are gathering…no matter what “friendly”, “sensitive” olive branch that is offered. Certainly not a can of green beans! I am willing to offer one of my children as sacrificial collateral to the fact that the people who are and will be involved in the Tea Party events have individually given more in charity to their communities the past year than Barack Hussein Obama has given in his life time. I am not spending my time and monies, putting my job in jeopardy, and not giving my children enough attention simply for another CANNED FOOD DRIVE. The Tea Parties are about getting THIS government out of our homes, businesses, and lives…the Tea Parties are about FREEDOM!
The unifying message of these Tea Parties is/should be loud and clear:
CONGRESS, REPEAL THE STIMULUS PACKAGES NOW AND
UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA OR
WE WILL REPLACE EVERY MEMBER OF CONGRESS STARTING IN 2010.
Obama’s socialist administration, cabinet, and congressional comrades have us face down in the dirt, twisting our arms behind our backs…while working up their “toadies” in mob pitch…AND, blaming us for fighting back. A CAN OF GREEN BEANS IS NOT GOING MAKE THE BULLY LIKE YOU! Ask Prime Minister Chamberlain. Bullies (and congressional moderates and cowards) understand fear…we DO NOT need to advocate physical fear (yet), our fathers before us ALREADY PAID THE PRICE WITH THEIR BLOOD…but, they will certainly feel the “fear” of thousands of Americans standing up for freedom and gathering, demanding our representatives run our country’s business by the laws established by the Constitution of the United States – NOW – or they will be replaced starting in 2010 until ALL of them are out of elected government.
Now, if we want media attention, let’s take a lesson from the original Tea Partiers. The original men dressed up like Native Indians not to disguise their identities…everyone knew who they were. They dressed up like Indians to emphasize the “radical” point that they (Americans) were NOT going to be treated like “heathens” any longer by the English crown (government). You desire media attention? Titillate the main stream media by leaking that our Tea Parties are going to have an “anti-slavery” message…cameras WILL show up. Picture men, women, and children in chains (black face?) with banners and signs declaring “WE WILL NOT BE ENSLAVED BY THIS GOVERNMENT!” – “LET THE AMERICAN PEOPLE GO!” – “FREE US FROM THE WHIPS OF PELOSI AND REID!”
Oh, I could go on…but, to wrap up. The time is NOW. Our current events DEMAND (as they did at the American founding) that we answer the question: Are we subjects of this government, or are we a free people? A canned food drive DOES NOT express any urgency or resolve one way or the other. If you want to collect food…do it through your church or local organizations. If you believe you are FREE, and want to remain that way, come to a Tea Party event and be seen and heard.
We need STRONG leadership with a RESOLVE to protect and preserve freedom. Not the same tired tactics and suck-ups from the past…which have given up our freedoms won for us with blood from our founders. If I see or hear one more Republican politician – for instance, fellow Hoosier congressmen Mike Pence or Newt Gingrich – speak in a calm, civil tone…sucking up to “President Obama” and then adding how he disagrees with whatever policy, procedural process, or political happening of the day, like it’s business as usual, I am going to come unglued. I want to see my representatives being dragged from their prospective wells of congress, kicking and screaming, fighting for FREEDOM.
Mr. Leahy, resolve right now to run these events with strength, non-apologetically and with the intent to WIN BACK our freedom. Not to gain mainstream media recognition or acceptance by offering such STUPID and weak attempts to say “Hey, we’re nice guys, see all the cans of green beans we collected?”… or get the hell out of the way.
Oh! And don’t tell me “It’s too expensive and difficult to plan a tea party event for Washington D.C.” ARE YOU FREAKIN’ KIDDING ME?, again! I’LL PLAN IT, ORGANIZE IT, AND FIND A WAY TO PAY FOR IT! Anyone have the COURAGE to join me?
Now is the time to act. Our very FREEDOMS depend on it. Brother, we must be heard!
My name is RICHARD JOHN BEHNEY, the Indianapolis Tea Party organizer; along with my wife, Laura. I believe in Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness. I PLEDGE MY LIFE, FORTUNE, AND SACRED HONOR to uphold and defend, against enemies foreign and DOMESTIC, the Constitution of the United States of America!
Anything less is just radio talk show “chatter”. Canned food drive…ARE YOU FREAKIN’ KIDDING ME?!
FREEDOM,
Richard Behney
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Indiana's New Tea Activists REVOLT Against National Republicorps!
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21 comments:
Before participating in a Tea Party Know Who is Behind It
Friday, 20 March 2009, 1:19 p.m.
Hi all, I lifted this paragraph from George Ure's Urban Survival.com this morning. I think it is self explanatory and relates to the title of this article.
"So much of the news is pushed and shoved, this way and that, by largely unseen forces, that it frightens me for the kind of country my children will grow up in. Just another example of unseen hands? Go look up the WHOIS record on some of this seemingly "spontaneous" (city name) Tea Party web sites. You'll find in some cases that republicorp types are involved and that the site domain names were purchased in AUGUST 2008 (Ray Santelli didn't make his rant on CNBC until last month), which means the hidden hand is working an agenda over on that side of things, too."
The Whole World is Watching and the FEDS are too!
http://www.urbansurvival.com
http://www.rayelan.com/cgi-bin/members/forum.cgi?read=12723
Mr. Behney is an AMERICAN! Thanks for publishing his inspiring letter.
If you see anyone becoming aggressive or trying to agitate protestors or police - and especially anyone who is wearing a mask - point them out to authorities immediately and loudly, and clearly instruct other protestors to keep their distance and to recognize that suspiscious people may be present to discredit the protestors in the media.
Remember - there have been many incidents over the last few years where local, state, and federal authorities have been caught sending officers into protest crowds to stir up trouble, with the goal of making the protestors appear to be anarchists, irrational, or unreasonable. The ones who have been caught are the ones who were identified and videotaped by wary protestors, leading to admissions by security officials that the trouble makers were actually planted among the groups.
This is a message that should go out to all protest organizers.
Also - I would advise against using Facebook as a tool to coordinate anything. It's largest venture capital contributors are the organizations who were forced by Congress to shut down federal datamining of of citizen data. It doesn't make sense to use a citizen monitoring tool to coordinate a response to end unconstitutional activity.
Okay-there's a hidden hand everywhere and I can't help but think the government would love it if we all started arguing with each other and just stayed home...Now that is a real hidden hand at work- conquer and divide. I don't care who gets everyone out into the street to protest what is going on. You should know how hard that is. I still prefer to show up without the soup.
Where the heck were all of these "tea party" people and organizers over the past few years? Nobody in local LP, RLC, C4L, Fairtax, Indiana Voter's League or other groups that have been active in fighting for Constitutional Government, lower taxes or less government spending knows who any of these people are?
Where these people out in 2007 at the Indianapolis Tea Party? (some of them could have been - lots of people there - but ...)
Glad to have them on board but they seem to be isolated within the little "tea party" circles instead of reaching out to work with all of the other established groups. Just seems strange.
Sad to see you wasting your valuable revolt and reform time on arguing about who is the "most viable" revolter. We should all be against Obama's taxing, the Democrats regulations .. not just those espousing Pauline philosophies.
It's going to get much crazier.
I spoke with several minister friends are are livid about what's happening here in the USA. They mentioned to me that they are speaking directly against the government and educating their churches about the Constitution and how it relates to the Bible. One particular minister mentioned that he is asking his congregation to buy weapons, food, and other supplies because he feels we are going to have a civil war.
My beefs with this organization are this:
1. The flat out refuse to promote what anyone else is doing although we did a great deal of cross promotion for them.
2. They call themselves grass roots when they aren't. They are lying to people. The are a top down (not bottom up) organization.
3. A Republican named George Bush signed the first bailout! Obama has been in office for 3 months. I think far more blame belongs at the feet of the Republicans for the mess we're in.
4. The Republicans own zero accountability for what THEY have done to America.
It's obvious what this is. It's a way to harvest "grass roots" activists for the republican party and demonize Obama to further divide America.
Save the crap. We are grass roots and we know what it is and what it is not. And it NEVER starts with MSM and works its way down.
Hoosier for Fair Taxation,
You sound sad that you've lost the activist leadership. I've watched this happen quite a bit over the last couple years, frankly conservatives don't collaborate naturally. We all see ourselves as leaders and want to be complimented on our prior attempts, even if they failed. Many existing Republicans are mad that new ones have the gall to suggest they need change. Same for libertarians.
As for top down vs. grass roots, the entire TCOT movement which only started in November is grass roots. Micheal Leahy may be opinionated and pushy (like you) but he's just one of 4,000 conservatives on twitter who've banded together. The national tea party coalition is just one of those collaborative projects.
You would do yourself, and your movements a service by working with TCOT and conservative movements instead of complaining that they didn't mention you on their way to getting some publicity.
Briefs...for someone who doesn't know me, you make a whole lot of arrogant assumptions.
First of what is lost for HFFT? We've been planning the revolt before the tea party MSM lead republicorp front began. In fact 2/16 was our first planning meeting. The Chicago Exchange incident happened on 2/19, right? 2/19 was the same day the Revolt website and graphic launched.
Look what we've accomplished in just 5 weeks. Look how we networked with other grass roots groups. There is zero coalition building from the republicorps tea party effort.
What I do see are well meaning activists who need leadership and the fact that there is a vacuum in the Republican party. A canned food drive so the media will be empathetic? Please!
Thank god the Behney's spoke up. They may still continue to follow these frauds for a while, but the truth has a funny way of getting out. And I intend to preach it here as often as I can, where we lead in google rankings.
And the funny thing is that because of our google rankings people doing internet searches will stumble upon the truth in INdiana before they get herded like sheep in republicorp web.
Our main concern is the disturbing fact that the very UNREPENTANT Republican party is actively seeking to hijack well meaning novice political activists.
As far as being a leader, ask around I try to give this job away every chance I get.
Where were all of these "conservatives" when it came time to oppose the massive spending of the Bush Administration, the failure to address social security, the invasion of a weak foreign country, the stunning increase in Medicaid/Medicare benefits, failure to pass the FairTax, or even (less helpful to the economy), the Flat Tax? Was there even one year when the Federal Budget stayed the same or was less than the previous year? There were six years there to do all kinds of good things, but all we got was bigger government and more debt.
Republicans get religion when they aren't in power then, once in, they are just as big government and big spending as anyone else. Does anyone REALLY believe that Bush (or McCain) would not be employing Keynesian influenced economic solutions also? As has been often noted the past few years, at least with the Democrats you get "truth in advertising."
It is exciting to see all of these tea party protests and to see a new group spring up to support the effort. I think the argument is that we didn't need another new group fragmenting people and competing for resources, there were already existing groups.
The Republican Liberty Caucus exists for libertarian Republicans who still hope to someday restore the party to something it maybe once was when Goldwater was around.
The Libertarian Party is there for people who finally realize that voting for what you believe in is more important than supporting the 'club' that continues to let them down.
The Campaign For Liberty exists to promote smaller government, lower taxes, sound financial systems and Constitutional government ideals.
The Democratic Freedom Caucus is the Dems variant of the RLC.
We have all kinds of great organizations like The Mises Institute, Downsize D.C., Americans for Fair Taxation, The Peter G. Peterson Foundation and others.
I'm a bit offended by the note above suggesting that all of these great activists, including great people like Andy Horning who have warned about this stuff for years, should be reaching out to the new "tea party" folks. Should they not be contacting all of these others and saying, "Hey, we're finally on board."
Most of the reports I hear is that the tea party organization seems to be a bit insular and closed off, BUT, I have no first hand knowledge of this. Again, why doesn't anyone in any of these other organizations know who these people are?
Like I've said before, we need all the help we can get but we do need to be guarded against factions with common cause competing against each other. Everyone needs to lay aside their ego and their partisanship and realize that only by uniting efforts can effective change be brought about.
At the same time, there are people in Indiana that have put A LOT of time and effort into promoting the right things, often at great personal expense and detriment. People like Andy Horning (popular former LP candidate and pro-liberty activist), Ron Heilman (past State Director of Americans for Fair Taxation), Mark Rutherford (past long-time Chair of the Libertarian Party of Indiana), Melyssa Donaghy (Hoosiers for Fair Taxation, Indiana Voters League), Melissa Lineberry (Campaign for Liberty) and more recently Charlie Kochenash (current Indiana RLC head) should not be suddenly shoved aside or stepped over just because others all of the sudden woke up, many of them likely to go back to sleep once they get "their (party) guy" in the White House again.
I keep reading Richard Behney's letter over and over again. He's a patriot. I hope he doesn't get sucked in by the wrong people. Something tells me he's too smart for that!
I don't know many of you, or the people listed ... excepting of course Charlie Kochenash (current Indiana RLC head) from Porter County. I think Charlie will tell you that I'm all for shaking up the Republican Party no matter who's toes get stepped on.
But, I've also been party to a whole lot of conservatives (and Paulies, liberty types, and libertarians in that mix) knocking each other down to be the next great "reformer". Let's do some agreeing:
First, we agree that tea parties are the rage right now. So while they're the rage, great use them to tell lots of truths to citizens who didn't want to listen last year.
Second, Bush made some very big mistakes in handling the economic problems in 2007 and 2008. TARP was foolish. That said, he was a great defender of this nation.
Third, we all want government to get smaller, leaner, more efficient and less intrusive. Major on the majors, and keep the sniping to a minimum.
Got no beef with the idea. In fact, I love it SO much that I just purchased the domain IndianaTeaParty.com and launched a new blog today.
The Indiana Tea Party site will cross promote anyone doing anything for liberty in the state of Indiana!
The "official" republican controlled folks wouldn't do that!
We decided to help. What do you think about that?
briefs, I think, basically feels the same way that we all need to work together. Unfortunately, I also think anyone that singles out Ron Paul supporters as anything other than exactly right on most of the issues we face might be missing the point or lacking some historical perspective.
The clue here is in claiming that bush defended our nation. If we want to talk about Afghanistan and going after Al Qaeda, I might agree. Otherwise, the severe damage done to destroy our liberties and further rot the core of our economic systems with more debt, more spending, bigger budgets, further aggression against other nations and do so while claiming, marketing or branding himself as some kind of "conservative" or "free market" guy, which he CLEARLY was not, will prove to do more long-term damage than those terrorist attacks did.
How exciting it must have been for Republicans, pro-liberty conservatives and similar groups when the Presidency and Congress were completely controlled by a party supposedly friendly or maybe friendlier to at least their economic cause. For the first time in 40 years a chance to start unwinding the massive reach and expense of the state.
How disappointing it proved to be when after six years, government was ever larger, more expensive and far more invasive than ever.
To quote:
"if you had one shot
one opportunity
to seize everything you ever wanted
in one moment
would you capture it
or let it slip?"
Snap back to reality ... the ball was passed, there wasn't much time on the clock and *AIRBALL - CHOKE*
And now the buzzer has gone off.
Bush is gone, get over it. The target is Obama.
Melyssa, no one gives a rat's ass about your Google rankings.
All you people care about is grabbing the glory. This is so a-typical of the Paulies.
Times are tough and a food drive would benefit a lot of unemployed people right now. But no, this has to be all about you folks. Amazing.
Briefs, nice try but these people don't know what the word "coalesce" means. They're spiteful and full of anger. A literal step up from "a can of worms" when it comes to joining together for anything.
And they call Mike Pence and Newt Gingrich suck-ups?
Sheesh.
Since you're obviously not going to post my comment, I think an entire post about this is in order on my blog.
AWB...grow a set and post your full name, will you?
If the Republican party did indeed find God, then they would reach out to Liberty minded activists state wide. Guess what? The tea party folks aren't doing that.
It's too late for Washington D.C. We need to focus our efforts on our state, our own backyard, where we might have a fighting chance.
Where was the great Republican party during the time that Bush stole our country from us? Did you all of a sudden find God? I don't think so!
As far as not posting your rant, I was sick in bed all day and just now got to a computer (7pm) to publish your ridiculous cowardly anonymous remarks.
Happy?
Next time grow a set and sign your first and last name.
AWB, thanks for the kind words :-)
Hoosiers, hope you are feeling better. You commented, perhaps in anger to AWB, that Republicans should have reached out to your groups. I think that some Republicans have done exactly that.
I guess that was why I was so surprised at the venom in this post from my first response. Many Republicans are reaching and collaborating with liberty/libertarian/Paul movements in NW Indiana. I would agree with Sean that Hoosier Access is one of those places where we can all write and debate without the frivolous "I'm more worthy than you are" type epitaphs.
Keep up your great work, I'd just prefer you not attack others trying to do the same thing, even if you think you got there sooner.
Yes, briefs, I do know you. I do know that you enjoy shaking up the Republican Party, regardless of the toes that are being stepped upon.
Your disregard for stepping on toes was evident to me in 2008 when you essentially called all of "paulies" crazy on your blog.
But, in your defense, I do believe people have the ability to come back around and wise up and join the fight for Liberty. I mean look at Mike Huckabee. Anyone could predict Huckabee's stance on just about any issue during the 2008 presidential race. All they would have to do is go back about a week and listen to what Dr. Paul was saying. If my memory serves me correctly, you were a Huckabee supporter. As a Huckabee supporter, I think you have learned the art of "wising up". Perhaps my memory is failing me. If I had the time, I would try to go back and dig it up from your blog. But I digress.
While I can understand many of these folks concerns and happen to agree with a lot of them, I do agree with you Steve when you say that is an opportune time that we, as liberty-loving citizens, unite under the same banner and embrace ANY tea-party/revolt that stands to defend the rights of all of us.
As far as trying to appeal to the media by having a canned food drive. I too think it is absurd. We owe them nothing. Now don't get me wrong, I am in favor of charities and food drives. I like to participate whenever I can. But when those charities and food drives are organized for the sole purpose of boosting the image of their participants, I must politely decline.
"All you people care about is grabbing the glory. This is so a-typical of the Paulies."
"Many existing Republicans are mad that new ones have the gall to suggest they need change."
Dr. Paul championed the classical liberal principles that the GOP forgot about in 2008. The GOP's nominee for President suspended his campaign to rush to the senate to vote in favour of the initial bailout.
A lot of "Paulies" supporters are new to the party of the "big tent". They had no choice but to get involved in their party after watching some of the "existing" members fail to define a clear difference between the two leading parties. And whenever the newcomers tried to get involved, they were shut out. Indiana GOP state convention '08 anyone? How about the Nevada GOP state convention? It seemed to them that the "existing" members were more concerned with grabbing the glory for themselves than let a bunch of classical liberal newcomers come in and suggest the need for change. Being responsible for allowing the GOP to forget it's founding principles is no glory I would want attached to my name.
See you all on Wednesday!!!
I think AWB completely misses the point.
There are all of these examples where numerous different groups, with different leaders and activists all frequently work together, e-mail each other and invite each other to participate in various things when appropriate.
The comment about Obama being the enemy makes my point precisely. Is HE really the enemy, by himself? Or is he the result of a Federal Government and a Congress that is so far outside their charter that our laws no longer matter and anyone with an agenda can do whatever they want?
And, sure, Bush may be gone but large swaths of a complicit Congress are still there.
As for someone like Mike Pence, he is far better than most of Congress on economic issues and you will rarely hear me be critical of him in that regard.
And the whole "paulies" thing is just ridiculous. Yeah, he's a 73 year old guy with a squeaky voice and not as Christian Authoritarian or pro tax increase as a Huckabee, not as "tinker around the edges" and good looking as Mitt Romney and maybe wasn't the media darling like John McCain ... but he's one of the handful of people in D.C. who understands economics, is pro-life, for small-government, for lower taxes and honesty and transparency in government. Hell, he was a HUGE supporter or Reagan for President four years before the rest of the party got on board.
Yet, his own party's faithful continues to try and marginalize him and make fun of his supporters.
My goodness, I am grateful every day that he is there and love that he is finally getting the media attention he deserves and the credit for having warned us for years that we were on an unsustainable course.
Policy wise, for anyone that truly understands economics and history, I have no idea where Republicans can have some kind of problem with him. It almost has to be some kind of bias against his appearance or age. Very unfortunate.
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