Tea Party origins exposed---surprise, it's corporate astroturf!

[Mikeystyle]

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You can see the archived 2002 web page at http://web.archive.org/web/20020913052026/http://www.usteaparty.com/

Also check out Rolling Stone's story on this: "Big Tobacco's Tea Party Ties Exposed."

[Berlum]

1. "Suckers. Ha ha. Smirk. Sneer." - Republicon PuppetMasters, Inc. (R - 1%)

"Ha ha, you pathetic TeaBagging Suckers are so easy to manipulate. Ha ha. Smirk. Sneer."

- Republicon PuppetMasters, Inc. (R - 1%)

[Laelth]

2. Not a surprise, actually.

That said, I am tickled to see the monster the R's created biting them in their nether regions.

-Laelth

[msongs]

3. odd how the tea party was so insignificant when the white republican was president and then... nt

[Populist_Prole]

4. Even though it had corporate roots

It was at first ostensibly a quasi-libertarian movement. What's really interesting too is just how quickly the socially conservative religious crowd took it over and it wasn't long at all before it just became another name for the far-right of the republican party.

[MisterP]

7. there's a fourfold structure to the GOP: corpos, right-liberts, fundies, and militarists

each of these has a strong nucleus (and even its own publishing houses and think tanks), so there's 10 individual links between all the four groups

and it's not like the right-liberts are *really* anti-corporatist!

[CJCRANE]

5. K&R nt

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. Yup! I looked up Citizens for a Sound Economy (the promoters of the Teabagger party)

And this is what wikipedia said:

Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) was established in 1984 by David H. Koch and Charles Koch of Koch Industries. Ron Paul was appointed as the first chairman of the organization. "CSE received almost $5 million from various Koch foundations between 1986 and 1990, and David Koch and several Koch Industries employees serve[d] as directors of CSE and the CSE Foundation."[1] In 1989, CSE purchased the financially troubled Tax Foundation and operated it as a subsidiary from CSE's offices until the split in 2004.[2][disputed – discuss] In 2003, Dick Armey became the chairman of CSE after retiring from Congress.[3] In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy split into FreedomWorks, for 501c4 advocacy activity, and Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Dick Armey stayed as chairman of FreedomWorks, while David Koch stayed as Chairman of Americans for Prosperity Foundation.

[freshwest]

8. ^^^^This!^^^^

[Le Taz Hot]

9. K & R

[Enthusiast]

10. K&R! I'm sure we'll see this on our network news.