Rick Santelli, Chicagoteaparty.com, Angryrenter.com. Freedomworks, et al.

[drm604]

I was reading RedEarth's thread about how the whole Rick Santelli rant was part of a planned campaign: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5157810

That led me to GinaMaria's thread about how Chicagoteaparty.com was registered back in August. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5102005

This got me thinking about something I put in my DU journal back in May '08: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/drm604/27

It was about a website called angryrenter.com which is basically astroturf claiming to represent a grassroots renters' movement against any kind of government mortgage bailout. If you look at the site now, it mentions Obama, but of course it didn't when I wrote about it back in May. I'm not sure exactly when angryrenter.com went online but the domain was registered back in early March '08. If angryrenter is connected in some way with Chicagoteaparty.com and Santelli then this thing goes back even earlier the GinaMaria suggested.

And I think I can show that it is definitely connected. http://whois.domaintools.com/angryrenter.com shows that the IP address for angryrenter is 67.192.105.50. http://whois.domaintools.com/67.192.105.50 shows the following for 67.192.105.50.

OrgName: Rackspace.com, Ltd.
OrgID: RSPC
Address: 9725 Datapoint Drive
Address: Suite 100
City: San Antonio
StateProv: TX
PostalCode: 78229
Country: US

http://whois.domaintools.com/chicagoteaparty.com shows that chicagoteaparty.com is located at 72.32.231.8. http://whois.domaintools.com/72.32.231.8 shows the following info for 72.32.231.8.

OrgName: Rackspace.com, Ltd.
OrgID: RSPC
Address: 9725 Datapoint Drive
Address: Suite 100
City: San Antonio
StateProv: TX
PostalCode: 78229
Country: US

Now this by itself could be written off as a coincidence - they both just happened to use the same hosting service for their websites. But it's just one piece of the puzzle. Here's another piece - at the bottom of the front page of angryrenter.com there is a link to freedomworks.org, and the whois info for angryrenter.com shows this:

Registrant:
FreedomWorks
601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Suite 700 North Bldg
Washington, District of Columbia 20004
United States

Now, if you go to http://freedomWorks.org, what do you see? A picture of an angry Rick Santelli superimposed over an old drawing of the original Boston Tea Party, and the words "Are you with Rick? We are." and the lead article is about Friday's DC Tea Party.

So, Freedom Works started a website protesting Mortgage bailouts sometime between March 2 (the date angryrenter.com was registered) and May 10 (the date I wrote about it) and now they're jumping on the Rick Santelli Chicago tea party bandwagon.

But here's the kicker, if you check out the IP address for freedomworks.org you'll find that it is 98.129.129.184. And if you check out the whois info for that IP you will once again see:

OrgName: Rackspace.com, Ltd.
OrgID: RSPC
Address: 9725 Datapoint Drive
Address: Suite 100
City: San Antonio
StateProv: TX
PostalCode: 78229
Country: US

Now read the sourcewatch page for Freedom Works - http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=FreedomWorks - and then check out their predecessor, Citizens for a Sound Economy - http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Citizens_for_a_Sound_Economy.

CSE is often described as a "consumer group," but according to internal documents leaked to the Washington Post, 85 percent of its 1998 funding came from major corporations. "The 'citizens' in question companies like Amoco, Bell Atlantic, Citibank, General Electric and General Motors", Washington Babylon explains (p. 15). "During recent years, the CSE, headed by C. Boyden Gray, who acted as counsel to the president under George W. Bush, has opposed health care reform and a rise in the minimum wage, while championing corporate tax cuts, deregulation and a balanced budget."

Funding

The CSE - which is a 501(c)4 tax-exempt organisation - has a related funding arm, the Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation (CSEF) which is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organisation. (See The U.S. tax code and non profits for further details). In its 2002 Internal Revenue Service return, the CSEF listed its total revenue as being $3.9 million. <15> CSEF budget details

According to the annual report filed by the Foundations the board members to the two entities are shared. (The 2002 return also notes three other organisations - the Taxpayer Action League, the Tax Foundation and Citizens for the Environment - are other related entities with the same board members. The Tax Foundation and Citizens for the Environment were, according to CSEF's IRS return, created during 1998).

According to internal documents leaked to the Washington Post, 85 percent of CSE’s 1998 revenues of CSE's $16.2 million came not from its 250,000 members, but from contributions of $250,000 and up from large corporations.

The then CSE President, Paul N. Beckner, rejected the notion that the organisation was a corporate megaphone. "We aren't a group for hire ... There's a bright line that defines our independence. There is only one position we can take on most issues: the one that means less government and lower taxes. We choose the issues we work on, and we decide how that money is expended." <16>

According to Media Transparency, between 1985 and 2002, CSEF received $16,928,712 in 108 separate grants from only twelve foundations:

* Castle Rock Foundation
* Earhart Foundation
* JM Foundation
* Koch Family Foundations (David H. Koch Foundation, Charles G. Koch Foundation, Claude R. Lambe Foundation)
* John M. Olin Foundation, Inc.
* Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
* Philip M. McKenna Foundation, Inc.
* Scaife Foundations (Scaife Family, Sarah Mellon Scaife, Carthage) <17>

In 2002, CSEF gained $920,000 in grants from three of these foundations, accounting for a little under one-quarter of the organisation's revenue. The Claude R. Lambe Foundation was the most generous contributing $700,000 for general operating costs while the Scaife Foundation donated $175,000 and the John M. Olin Foundation $45,000.

Other CSE funders (not included in above funding total) have included:

* Archer Daniels Midland
* DaimlerChrysler ($25,000)
* Enron
* General Electric
* Koch Industries
* F.M. Kirby Foundation
* Philip Morris (>$1 million)
* U.S. West ($1 million)
* ExxonMobil ($75,000)
* Exxon ($175,000)
* Hertz ($25,000)
* Microsoft ($380,000)
* U.S. Sugar Corp. ($280,000)

All very interesting, wouldn't you say?

[Critters2]

1. Wow!! This pisses me off!

To organize this thing in such detail, and then make it look spontaneous...these people are just evil! Have you passed any of this onto the media? Not that they'd pay attention, but they should know someone's on to this scheme.

[drm604]

2. They think they are clever

but they leave tracks all over the internet. :rofl:

[Critters2]

3. I rec'd this, and am kicking again before I log off.

People need to see this! Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Those sneaky devils! :rofl:

[Prometheus Bound]

52. I think it's a clever (cunning?) plan. The problem is that you are more clever than they.

Nice work.

[NewJeffCT]

57. It is clever - how likely is it that this news makes it beyond the blogosphere?

Maybe a 10% chance?

[DBoon]

91. Another reason why domain registry info should be public

nt

[Divine Discontent]

103. and yet, they're incredibly dumb! it's a joy watching great DUers catch 'em! :) eom

[malaise]

61. Send this to KO, Rachel and Bill Moyers n/t

[annabanana]

86. KO & Rachel work for the same guys as Santelli. . . MOYERS, howeve

is free to move about the news flow..

[The Unknown Derelict]

4. Rec'd n/t

[cliffordu]

5. K&R

[DainBramaged]

6. Lanham Napier

Lanham Napier joined Rackspace as Chief Financial Officer in April, 2000, just a few short months before the technology industry hit rock bottom during the 2000 downturn. He is largely credited by Rackspace's own management team in keeping the company steady and setting it on its current path to profitability and success.

In January of 2001, Lanham was named President of the company, working side-by-side with then CEO Graham Weston as they pulled the company out of a cash-burning mode and established an operational discipline that set Rackspace on a permanent positive revenue track. In 2006, he was named Chief Executive Officer, further underscoring his key role at the company.

Early in his career, Lanham worked as an analyst for Merrill Lynch & Co. from May of 1993 to June of 1995. Prior to coming to Rackspace, he served as a director for Silver Brands Partners, a San Antonio investment firm.


Silver Brands Partners and DFC Investors. Sold to VIP Sales Company, Inc
a portfolio company of Friedman Fleischer & Lowe, LLC.
Discovery Foods, LLC Ownership: Silver Brands Partners and DFC Investors. Acquired by VIP Sales Company, Inc., a portfolio company of Friedman Fleischer & Lowe, in October 2006.

http://www.fflpartners.com/

Friedman Fleischer & Lowe was formed in 1998 by a group of experienced professionals led by Tully M. Friedman, Spencer C. Fleischer, David L. Lowe and Christopher A. Masto. The partnership focuses on investing in middle-market companies where the substantial strategic and operating expertise of FFL's principals can help management improve margins, make acquisitions, and grow earnings. Our first fund, Friedman Fleischer & Lowe Capital Partners, L.P., closed in September of 1999. We closed Friedman Fleischer & Lowe Capital Partners II, L.P. in June 2004, and currently have over $2 billion under management.

Our capital comes largely from US and international institutions: public and private pension funds, endowments, foundations, fund managers, and financial institutions. In addition, senior executives from industry and academia have invested in our fund as Executive Investors. They have been successful in a broad range of industries and disciplines, and their experience and perspective is an important resource.



ADVANCED CAREER TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Classroom-based career training
Framingham, MA

STEELPOINT TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
IT consulting focused on content management services and solutions
Boston, MA

CAPITALSOURCE, INC.
Commercial financial company focused on providing financing solutions to small to mid-sized businesses
Washington, D.C.

KORN/FERRY INTERNATIONAL
Global leader in executive search services
Los Angeles, CA

MONTPELIER RE, HOLDINGS, LTD.
Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd. is a Bermuda-based insurance and reinsurance company that focuses on the property reinsurance market
Hamilton, Bermuda


TEMPUR-PEDIC INTERNATIONAL
Manufacturer and marketer of visco-elastic bedding products
Lexington, KY

Milestone AV Technologies
Designer and marketer of mounting hardware for LCD projectors and flat-panel displays
Savage, MN

NCDR, LLC
Provider of pediatric dental care with a focus on Medicaid and SCHIP patients
Atlanta, GA

Wilton Re Holdings Limited
Bermuda-based life reinsurance company focused on traditional mortality reinsurance and life runoff business
Hamilton, Bermuda

BearingPoint
BearingPoint, Inc., previously KPMG Consulting, is a business consulting, systems integration and managed services firm
Mclean, VA

Guardian Home Care Holdings, Inc.
Provider of home healthcare and hospice services with a focus on Medicare and Medicaid patients
Silsbee, TX

GeoVera Insurance Group Holdings, Ltd.
Specialty property and casualty insurer focused on underwriting catastrophe exposed personal property coverage
Fairfield, CA
Baltimore, MD

Discovery Foods Holding Corp.
Branded frozen Asian entrees, Asian appetizers and fruit and vegetables
Hayward, CA
Tulsa, OK



DPMS, Inc.
Provider of pediatric dental care with a focus on Medicaid and SCHIP patients
San Ramon, CA



JonesTrading Institutional Services LLC
Institutional equity broker-dealer focused on executing block trades
Westlake Village, CA



Speedy Cash Holdings Corp.
Provider of alternative consumer financial services
Wichita, Kansas

Tully M. Friedman
Director
The Clorox Company
Oakland , CA
Sector: CONSUMER GOODS / Cleaning Products

Director , Mattel, Incorporated
El Segundo , CA
Sector: CONSUMER GOODS / Toys & Games

66 Years Old
Mr. Friedman is the chairman and chief executive officer of Friedman Fleischer & Lowe LLC (a private investment firm). Prior to forming Friedman Fleischer & Lowe in 1997, Mr. Friedman was a founding partner of Hellman & Friedman (a private investment firm) and a managing director of Salomon Brothers, Inc. (an investment bank). He is also a director of Mattel, Inc. He is also a member of the executive committee, a trustee and the treasurer of the American Enterprise Institute.


This entire operation was a well-planned and well financed charade.

[drm604]

14. You didn't have me until you mentioned AEI.

I'm still not totally convinced Napier has any involvement in this. I'm sure he knows nothing about the day to day operations at Rackspace. But it does bear further investigation.

[drm604]

7. Anyone know anything about Zachary Christenson?

He's the registrar of chicagoteaparty.com. He also owns http://zackchristenson.com which mentions chicagoteaparty.com and has the Rick Santelli video.

I'm Zack Christenson, the executive producer for the Milt Rosenberg show, which is like Charlie Rose, only better.

Milt Rosenberg? http://www.wgnradio.com/shows/ex720/index.html

[GinaMaria]

16. He's the executive producer of a show

for Milt Rosenberg. If you go back to RedEarth's post. He talks about the connection of Rosenberg to the whole Bill Ayers is a terrorist thing. I think there are also ties between him and Koch. Zack essentially works for Milt. This is also a way to get Ricky his own show as his contract is up this summer.

This is starting to look like a corporate uprising not a protest by patriots.

[drm604]

20. That is VERY interesting.

I would never have thought of a Bill Ayers connection. I guess that proves that they are fallible and their shenanigans don't always work. The Ayers nonsense didn't keep Obama out of the Whitehouse!

And I'm thinking that this whole Santelli Tea Party bullshit may be about to blow up in their faces.

[RandomThoughts]

8. Nice digging.

All the information is out there, fake orchestrated campaigns just count on nobody digging around. Corruption requires people to only see the fake surface, the cardboard false front. If you spend the time, and dig as you did, you expose the agenda really behind things like these. Deception and control.

And with respect, I got to say, nice work

Way to go! :thumbsup:



A little Mystery Men clip (as a compliment, nice shovel you got there)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xWZWswShdk

[drm604]

11. Thanks.

I think I'm one of 2 or 3 people on the planet who actually think that film was funny. :D

[RandomThoughts]

22. and it was loaded with metaphors

I always like that in film, but everyone interprets differently.

[Hugin]

30. You're the other 'Mystery Men' fan!!i!

Wow! :hi: :hug:

Oh, I love this!

"The Shoveler: So what do you say? Do we all gather together, and go kick some Casanova butt? Or do I eat this sandwich?"

Sadly, the whole soliloquy isn't on imdb, but, I've used this many times IRL.

[ProfessorGAC]

54. Nah!

My wife and i and two of our friends all love that movie. With you, it's already FIVE! So, it's WAY more popular than you thought! LOL
GAC

[NikolaC]

64. Make That Seven

My husband and I love that movie:). Hey, seven fans on DU alone, lol!

[Hawkeye-X]

98. Eight

From time to time, I dig out the DVD version of that movie and watch it.

I think it's funny as hell and was wishing for MMII.

Hawkeye-X

[ProfessorGAC]

123. Favorite Line

"We killed him." "We? I was standing over here?"
GAC

[Urban Prairie]

9. Great piece of detective work. drm 604...

I did something similar to this at GM as a young temp contract worker long ago, I discovered the employee source of mail fraud that even their salaried officers who were paid to do internal company investigations, could not catch.

Love this backtrack, connect the dots stuff.

[pacalo]

10. Thank you for this. I've been suspecting that the corporate world is behind all this.

When Limpballs gets air time on CNN & C-Span, then I read about highly-organized national revolts by the teabag-something-or-other & a new "conservatism" vs. "socialism" organization gets lots of media attention, my red flag goes up.

It's an organized, & probably well-funded, revolution being conducted by the corporate world.

[GinaMaria]

12. Great work!!!!!!

Glad to Kick and rec this.

CSE is often described as a "consumer group," but according to internal documents leaked to the Washington Post, 85 percent of its 1998 funding came from major corporations. "The 'citizens' in question companies like Amoco, Bell Atlantic, Citibank, General Electric and General Motors", Washington Babylon explains (p. 15). "During recent years, the CSE, headed by C. Boyden Gray, who acted as counsel to the president under George W. Bush, has opposed health care reform and a rise in the minimum wage, while championing corporate tax cuts, deregulation and a balanced budget."

The more you dig the worse it gets.... Is this a corporately sponsored uprising? If so, we have a serious problem.

Can't wait to show your thread to DH. He's the one who figured out the August website registration.

[drm604]

23. Who is DH?

Sorry if that's a stupid question. :dunce:

[EvolveOrConvolve]

32. It usually stands for "Dear Husband"

[GinaMaria]

78. DH = Dear Husband

more of a chat room abbreviation. Sorry. It can also mean Dumb Husband depending on the context, but I never use it that way. There's also DW for Dear or Dumb Wife.

Not a stupid question at all. Not very smart on my part to assume people would just know what I meant.:dunce: x2

[scarletwoman]

13. k&r Great work! Thanks for doing all the digging! (nt)

[RedEarth]

15. KR......

[GinaMaria]

17. Had another thought

Is this a well oiled machine? Have they done this before and the dots were not connected? They aren't just playing the media, they are the media. This needs some big time exposure.

[drm604]

21. Oh it's a very big machine.

I don't know how well oiled it is, but this kind of crap has been going on forever. Corporate front groups have been manipulating public opinion for almost as long as there have been corporations. The internet just makes the dots easier to connect.

[Kaleko]

101. Exactly right. Consider this:

"Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play." ~ Joseph Goebbels

and more recent:

"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media." ~ William Colby,

CIA Director from Sept. 1973 to Jan. 1976 under Presidents Nixon and Ford.
Colby was replaced by future President George H.W. Bush on January 30, 1976.


"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false."

~ William Casey,CIA Director from 1981 to 1987.

(Quote from internal staff meeting notes 1981)


Great research, drm. This should have legs to travel.

[City Lights]

18. K&R

Nice work! :thumbsup:

[OffWithTheirHeads]

19. Ahhh, ya gotta love our corporate masters

and pray that this gets the widespread attention it deserves.

[varelse]

24. good work

:kick:

[blogslut]

25. Chris Kinnan

Seems to be the person related to angryrenter.com and cse.org. From what I can tell, chicagoteaparty is hosted on GoDaddy while angryrenter and CSE are hosted at Rackspace. I'm not say the two entities aren't related. They are related in the fact that they are both astroturf-type efforts.

Chicagoteaparty shares a hosting server with 9,732 other sites @ DOMAINCONTROL.COM - That's a GoDaddy server, meaning it's relatively low-rent and the webmaster using is forced to share his hosting server with 9,732 strangers. Angryrenter and CSE are hosted @ RackSpace.com, which is relatively high-end - meaning CSE can afford to lease a dedicated server solely for their websites. Those websites are:



EDIT ADD: chicagoteaparty may have been moved to Rackspace but the move has not yet been indexed by WHOIS.sc.

[blogslut]

27. Well, there is this

CSE is responsible for this website:

http://usteaparty.com/

[drm604]

28. Look again.

Godaddy is the registrar for chicagoteaparty.com and they are using Godaddy's nameservers, but that doens't necessarily mean that Godaddy is the host. Look at the who is information for the IP address. whois.domaintools.com/chicagoteaparty.com gives the IP address as 72.32.231.8, so does a ping. The whois info for that IP address - http://whois.domaintools.com/72.32.231.8 - lists "Rackspace.com, Ltd." as the OrgName.

[blogslut]

33. Yes

I see that and that is why I amended my post. The point is, RackSpace is a long-lived server farm that specializes in managed servers. It costs more to host a site on RackSpace but that does not mean the company is unpopular. RackSpace attends to the server needs of thousands of clients. But keep in mind, RackSpace specializes in managed servers.

A managed server is different from a basic, virtual server. With a virtual server account, your individual IP is the same as the IP number of other accounts that share that particular machine. A managed server is one box, leased by one company, hosting all the domains of said company.

It could be that chicagoteaparty has moved to RackSpace hosting but that does not mean it is sharing the same physical server as angryrenter.com

[drm604]

37. I never said that they were sharing the same physical server, just the same hosting company.

And yes, it could be a coincidence that they are both on RackSpace. But sometimes coincidences add up.

If you read the Playboy article - http://www.playboy.com/blog/2009/02/backstabber.html - (which I hadn't done when I wrote the OP) you'll see that they also draw a connection between FreedomWorks and Chicagoteaparty.

And there is absolutely no question about a connection between FreedomWorks and Angryrenter. Angryrenter has "© 2008 FreedomWorks." right on their front page. So if Playboy is right then it would seem to follow that Angrenter.com was part of, perhaps the beginning of, this particular astroturf campaign.

[blogslut]

49. I'm not doubting a connection

As well, until now, I had not read the complete Playboy article, only a portion of it. Angryrenter and Freedomworks are absolutely tied because they share the same reverse-IP - an IP from a server that is (I'm guessing) leased and managed specifically for CSE.

However, the server that handles the chicagoteaparty site is on a completely different machine that is coincidentally hosted @ Rackspace. It is very possible that the mother company CSE (Citizens for a Sound Economy) has set up a smaller account for chicagoteaparty or the original domain owner, Zack Christenson, has moved the site to RackSpace and CSE is paying for it or whatever.

I accept that the Playboy article attempts to connect chicagoteaparty with the Koch family but the connection is mostly about their websites linking to each other. Right-Wing sites linking to each other is common. The fast rise of the 'tea party' as an Internet presence is notable. Then again, I remember a tea bag-type protest being proposed back in June by the PUMA bitters. Ha!

Are all these right-wing astroturf websites in a sick, incestuous relationship? Yes. Without a doubt.

[Hugin]

26. If you have a strong enough stomach, I'll bet you find the US Chamber of Commerce there somewhere.

Oy! What a den of thieves!

Nice work!

Very nice!

(and a thanks to Playboy too.)

[glinda]

102. AHHHHHH! The "Chamber of Horrors". They need to be dismantled totally.

[starroute]

29. More on the origins of Freedom Works

Citizens for a Sound Economy goes back to 1984 and, according to Mother Jones, was "created to anonymously leverage corporate contributions into debates on public policy." It has taken money from both the oil and the tobacco industries and has always been closely tied to Koch Industries. At some point it was chaired by Dick Armey, who also had a Freedom Works PAC. Around 2000, CSE was one of the ten largest recipients of funding from right-wing foundations. In 2003, its affiliated group, Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation, split off and renamed itself Americans for Prosperity.

The next year, CSE merged with Empower America to form FreedomWorks. Leaders of both those groups have long-standing ties with the Bush family.

http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=24

*C. Boyden Gray -- is chairman of Citizens for a Sound Economy, a conservative advocacy group. The Washington Post recently reported that Gray's organization has accepted millions of dollars to champion corporate causes, including payments from: affected sugar producers (to work against efforts to restore the Florida Everglades); Exxon (to fight against the campaign to reduce global warming); Philip Morris (to resist higher cigarette taxes); Microsoft (to weaken antitrust enforcement); and certain auto rental companies (to undermine Florida's tort laws).


http://www.newsweek.com/id/63861

Winks, Nods & Corporate Cash
By Michael Isikoff | NEWSWEEK
Feb 25, 2002

In Washington, lobbyist Ed Gillespie is known for his big-dollar clients--he was a $700,000-a-year consultant to Enron--and his tight relationship with the Bush White House. So when Gillespie started calling the leaders of conservative interest groups last spring, asking them to join an independent advocacy group to promote the president's energy plan, they figured Gillespie was discreetly doing the White House's bidding. "Administration officials generally don't ask for support directly," says American Conservative Union president David Keene. "It's more a wink and a nod. Everyone knows Ed is close to them, so a wink and a nod is all it takes."

Gillespie named his new group the 21st Century Energy Project. . . . NEWSWEEK has learned, the coalition was funded entirely by Gillespie's corporate lobbying clients. One of the firms that chipped in was Enron, which stood to gain from Bush's pro-energy agenda. Sources tell NEWSWEEK the now bankrupt energy company gave more than $50,000 to the project, secretly routing the money through one of its members, Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative interest group run by activist Grover Norquist. (Asked about Enron, Norquist replied: "We don't disclose our donors.") Another contributor: Daimler-Chrysler, which hired Gillespie to lobby against stricter fuel-economy standards. The automaker gave $50,000 to Gillespie's project, steering the money through Citizens for a Sound Economy, a conservative think tank.

Empower America was founded in the 90's as one of that decade's many anti-Clinton organizations.

http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientprofile.php?recipientID=523

Empower America claims a membership of thousands of grassroots activists, but one of its main functions is to give its co-directors access to the news media, talk shows and the highest levels of government.

For example, for the past 20 years, orientation sessions for incoming members of Congress were run by the Kennedy School of Government in Boston. In 1994, the incoming members instead attended an orientation run by Empower America and the Heritage Foundation. One of the highlights of the orientation session was a talk by right-wing radio/TV talk show host Rush Limbaugh, whom Bennett called "a symbol of encouragment." Limbaugh was voted an honorary member of Congress. . . .

Amazingly for a nonprofit entity, Empower America proudly declares political candidates to be among its "products." Its popular training sessions for reactionary candidates have enhanced the success of the pro-business theocratic right in recent years.

Its four co-directors are former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp, Reagan's UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, former Minnesota Congressman Vin Weber, and -- most visibly and actively -- Heritage Foundation Fellow William Bennett, former Secretary of Education and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities under Reagan, drug czar under Bush, senior editor at the National Review, professional pompous bluenose, and prolific author of such Pecksniffian titles as The Book of Virtues.

[mr1956]

31. Thank you!

Your research gives me the ammunition I need to counter the coming arguments. Sunlight is the best disinfectant against all kinds of scum.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

34. What can we do about things like these? nt

[drm604]

38. I'm not completely sure.

Posting here helps some. We need people like Olberman and Maddow talking about this. I think that they would both love this.

Also, if we could somehow bring it to the attention of the Playboy editors or the authors of the article they may do a followup.

I may shoot off a message to Larisa at Rawstory to see if it interests her.

Everybody should digg, pligg, twit, or whatever the hell people do these days to get this info out there. Email your friends, link from your blogs. Whatever you can think of.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

80. I'm doing that (letting others know) - thanks! nt

[LittleGirl]

35. Excellent research

I bow to anybody that can use these tools to prove a point. Just like the server move (IP address change of the 2004 election in OH) which is the critical point for me to say that I believe that election was, in fact stolen. I'm a technical geek so I can follow your points. Thanks!

[bjobotts]

36. Santelli's tea part bit is more like throwing people off their rooftops floating on flooded river

[20score]

39. Thanks for the research you did on this. I regret I only have one rec to give.

Great post!

[20score]

41. I also feel even better about my 'Wacky Fascists' rant now.

[girl gone mad]

40. What I don't understand is..

why they're drumming up fake outrage over the relatively tiny stimulus for mortgage rescue.

How does it benefit them?

Is it merely a distraction so people will ignore the trillions being thrown at the banks and big business?

[drm604]

42. That's a good question.

I'm not sure what the answer is but obviously they have some financial reasons for doing this. I first noticed angryrenter because they were running a banner campaign and banners for it were popping up all over the net. They wouldn't have spent that money if they didn't have a reason for it.

I would say that they are simply trying to turn the American People against Obama, and the whole bailout thing is a convenient way to do it, but the problem with that is that they started this astroturf campaign early last you before anybody knew who the winner would be.

Maybe there's some merit to your idea about a distraction.

[zeemike]

51. May I offer an uneducated guess?

Foreclosures work to the advantage of those people wanting to cash in there stocks and investments and move their money to a secure place.
And in times like this the most secure place is real estate. (Real estate is actually the only true wealth)
The bank forecloses on property and sells it at bargain prices. Those that buy it are investors/speculators that intend to make a killing in real estate as the price of stocks hits bottom.
In short, buy low sell high.

[GinaMaria]

79. They want to buy America and Americans for pennies on the dollar

They do this by pitting neighbor against neighbor. Trying to create anger, resentment and feelings you are being cheated by having to pay for someone else to have something better than you. While we focus our rage at each other, they clean up. It gives all new meaning to 'buy American'.

[zeemike]

88. Thanks for adding that

It is important to understand how as well as why.

[drm604]

83. I think you hit on it.

Your answer makes perfect sense.

[jmowreader]

67. It's RW rabble rousing, nothing more

They want the stimulus to be nothing but tax cuts, which have been proven not to work, so they're sending people out in the streets to demonstrate against things that might work.

Because me getting $10 more in my paycheck every two weeks is more important than you being able to stay in your home.

[CoffeeCat]

112. I think it's direct punishment to Obama...

...from the powers that be.

They're sending him the signal that when he does something they don't like--that they can orchestrate
reality, get that reality covered as "news" and destroy anything he tries to do.

I'd say this is a shot across the bow--letting Obama know that he will be screwed with if he
gets too "off the leash".

Good thing Obama is just the President to tell these criminal hacks to take a hike.

When Obama said the other day that "The American people can handle the truth"--he was most likely
referring, in part, to the cabal that has it's talons in our government, media and corporations.

[FrenchieCat]

43. Are you sending this to anyone, like TMP?

Cause this shit needs to be blown wide open!

[drm604]

44. Feel free to send a link anywhere you want. n/t

[FrenchieCat]

45. Will do!

Thanks!

Also should be submitted to OpNews, if you ask me.

[drm604]

46. Opnews?

http://opnews.com? That's for orthopedic product news.

[FrenchieCat]

48. It's late....

OpEdNews! LOL!

[KharmaTrain]

47. Looks Like This Is Going Viral...Check Out Koch

Good work. There was something just to "astroturfy" of this "tea party" bullshit and Santelli that didn't pass the smell test.

Check out the Playboy article on Santelli and his connections to the Koch family...it may just connect a bunch into your work.

[uponit7771]

62. Like whoa!!!!

[KharmaTrain]

71. It's Hit The Front Pages Of DKos & TPM...

This is our echo chamber at work...watch it hit the corporate media on Monday. Now let's see how GE/MSNBC handles this...having their own network complicit in this scam.

[GinaMaria]

87. Here's a link

CNBC Hoaxes America
http://www.dailykos.com/
Scroll down to find it :-)

[Number_Six]

50. Not even remotely surprising

The Corporati fear loss of control over their precious, so, they're gooning the 11 percenters along to do their bidding.

I guess once you get addicted to fascism.....

[zeemike]

53. you people amaze me

You are like the Sherloc Holmes of the 21st century.
Great work, and I am proud that you are on our side.

[AlabamaBrightBlueDot]

55. K&R

[Mari333]

56. kick

sent this whole thread to rachel maddow.

[myrna minx]

58. Has anyone sent this to Thom Hartmann? K&R for the great digging.

[uponit7771]

59. drm604, your work here is top notch...no doubt. Those dates and location of the IP address's

...aren't "coincidences" either.

[malaise]

60. Excellent post

K & R

[Mari333]

63. The Playboy article

http://www.playboy.com/blog/2009/02/backstabber.html

[NikolaC]

65. Great Information

I hope that more people hear about this outrage. Maybe send it to KO, Maddow, Raw Story?

[Waiting For Everyman]

66. Kudos! So once again, their "popular support" is a drummed-up deception.

Oh what a tangled web! They always have to work so hard to get people to oppose their own interest, don't they?

Another fun thing to do... take those physical addresses and search them up on the BBB.org website (Better Business Bureau). You might find some interesting entities sharing the same office building. That doesn't prove anything in itself, but it's often good for a "lead" or two to pursue further.

[Christa]

68. K & R

Send it to Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddox, Amy Goodman and anyone else who may be interested.

[fasttense]

69. Another Brooks Brothers revolt.

Like the time all the Republicon staffers descended on Florida to protest counting votes, Santelli's outburst struck me the same way.

The slave masters don't want their slaves fighting back: (from the playboy article)

"So today’s protests show that the corporate war is on, and this is how they’ll fight it: hiding behind “objective” journalists and “grassroots” new media movements. Because in these times, if you want to push for policies that help the super-wealthy, you better do everything you can to make it seem like it’s “the people” who are “spontaneously” fighting your fight. As a 19th century slave management manual wrote, “The master should make it his business to show his slaves, that the advancement of his individual interest, is at the same time an advancement of theirs. Once they feel this, it will require little compulsion to make them act as becomes them.” (Southern Agriculturalist IX, 1836.) The question now is, will they get away with it, and will the rest of America advance the interests of Koch, Santelli, and the rest of the masters?"

[TwilightGardener]

72. It struck me as a little fake/pre-planned, too, the Santelli rant. And then, of course, MSNBC

kept the whole thing going by having him on over and over again for interviews. Because GE must have a little bit of interest in all of this corporate fake-grassroots shit, too, I would guess.

[GinaMaria]

84. Staged Media Stunt, nodoubt about it. Your instincts

are right on about this. The corporations are waging war against the rest of us.

DUer Stephanie went to the teabagger's rally
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5157149&mesg_id=5157149

Part of her account from the event : gist of the message was summed up by one young speaker who took the megaphone to say, "The battle of the future will not be between liberals and conservatives, or Republicans and Democrats, but between Capitalists and Socialists." Of course everyone cheered.


I think that nails the motives right there. It's a war between their twisted version of capitalism and their twisted view of social saftey nets bought and paid for by the people who will use them (what they label as socialism). This is shaping up to be a bigger fight than just a staged stunt on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade.

[Binka]

100. When The Master Is Sad

Everyone must cry.

The slave owners of the 21 century are working their fat and well heeled asses off to make this maxim true.

[Stephanie]

121. Not really. These protestors are sincere. They're not smart enough to know they've been conned.

They're buying the Socialist meme hook line and sinker. They are not wealthy, they are not insiders (except for the organizers), they are simple Freepers who think Obama's come to take their money (which they expect to have someday soon) and give it to poor people, to take their guns, to take their American Way of Life. They are simple pawns. Many of them not quite sane. Most are intellectually challenged. Many are likely unable to actually earn a living on their own. They don't realize they've been manipulated and used by powerful special interests. They think they are leading when they are stupidly following.

The Brooks Brothers Rioters were DC staffers and consultants shipped to DC to pose as angry citizens. These folks are angry citizens, they're just too dumb to understand that their anger has been manufactured by the media and the machine.

[fascisthunter]

70. The Right WIng Movement is Phony, Morally Bankrupt and Funded by the Wealthy

[xxqqqzme]

95. Morally bankrupt, concentrated wealth and

power wielded behind the curtain & under the table - anyone else fearful for the life of our president?

[Skidmore]

73. Send this to the White House and to Huffpo, DailyKos, and a few others.

I doubt that KO will be able to report this because GE & NBC is involved. This is disgusting. Scaife. Feh. Some evil just doesn't die.

[Cerridwen]

74. Adding a K & R

Great detective work.

:yourock:

[xchrom]

75. kick

[1776Forever]

76. Excellent post - But are we at all surprised? Unfortunetly - No we aren't.

Thank you for the time to post this and your excellent reporting work!

[Numba6]

77. Market manipulation? Did Santelli, Kudrow have short positions before the orchestrated events? eom

[Spazito]

81. Excellent work!

Very, very interesting!

Recommended.

[annabanana]

82. FACE IT you big fat corporate motherfuckers.... you can't

FAKE a grassroots movement....

and you CAN'T HIDE either. .

not anymore

[sam kane]

85. you are so impressive, drm604, thanks!

I am afraid that they while shut down the internet because individuals can discover so much information.

[NorthCarolina]

89. Wow, impressive research indeed. Great work, glad you're on our side n/t

[WillyT]

90. Big K & R !!! - And... Nicely Played !!!

:yourock:

:hi:

[EC]

92. Should send off to Olbermann or Obama's

crew...

[drm604]

93. One more thing.

I should add to this the fact that Faux News was pushing angryrenter.com pretty heavily. That's probably not surprising to regular DUers but it's another data point that I feel should be noted.

http://www.google.com/search?q=%2B%22fox+news%22+%2Bangryrenter

[liam_laddie]

94. K&R for outstanding research, spreading the word! n/t

[Sukie]

96. Bump

I don't want this guy to get off the hook for this. Write emails and letters to CNBC. Santelli needs to get fired for this deception.

[Turborama]

97. K&R Great work!!!

Glad you're on our side too!! :fistbump:

:yourock:




:kick:

[rvablue]

99. Kicking for the excellent work and a fine catch! n/t

[FJoeThePlumber]

104. Is this the mastermind of the "tea parties"?

Check this guy out: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Brendan_Steinhauser

Works at FreedomWorks: http://www.freedomworks.org/brendan-steinhauser-biography

Wrote the "recipe" for the tea parties: http://theconservativerevolution.com/freedomworks/how-to-organize-your-own-tea-party-protest/

Shows up and speaks at the DC tea party: http://theconservativerevolution.com/freedomworks/video-from-the-dc-tea-party-protest/

Delivered Angry Renter petitions to capitol hill in May 2008: http://www.freedomworks.org/press-releases/photos-freedomworks-delivers-more-petitions-to-cap

Is this the mastermind of the "tea party" movement??

[drm604]

105. Good Info!

This is yet another connection between FreedomWorks and the whole tea party nonsense.

It seems like we've built a pretty strong case that FreedomWorks is behind the Santelli tea party crap, and their visible backing of angryrenters.com shows that they've been trying to build an astroturf "movement" against mortgage bailouts since early March '08 if not before.

So it's pretty unlikely that Santelli's rant was spontaneous in any way.

[CoffeeCat]

113. What does everyone think...

...about these behind-the-scenes orchestrators?

Do they just want the entire system to collapse? Do they want people to be foreclosed upon?

A lot of people bent over backward trying to demonize people who had lost their homes. They
were positioned as poor trash who never deserved a home, but got in one because they lied and
cheated their way into one--that they never earned the right to live in.

That was the meme.

Now, we have another bubble that is currently bursting. These are the upper-middle classers who
purchased a lot of house. They could afford it as long as nothing went wrong. As we all know,
a lot has gone wrong. People didn't get promoted, they lost jobs, they took pay cuts, and their
home values plummeted.

Why? Why wouldn't the mafia aristocracy that has its talons in our government---want these people helped???
They're culling arch conservatives from Limbaugh's audience--and attempting to whip those people up into
a frenzy and be a part of these artificial protests. Sure, they can get these people all hot and frothy--and
raging against "socialism"--but those people aren't the orchestrators. They're the tools.

Who is doing this and why?

That's the question we need to be asking.

[drm604]

106. I just noticed that this was your first post!

Welcome to DU. :toast:

And thank you for the good info. How did you find us?

[seemunkee]

107. Rackspace is a huge server farm

I know several companies that host through them. Having an IP resolve to them is not making the case that they are associated.

[DainBramaged]

109. Lanham Napier, go up and read my post about him

First of all with a name like Lanham, I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. Please notice his associations.

[drm604]

114. I really think that Napier may be a red herring here.

I can't think of any reason for them to involve the CEO of the server company in their activities. The most he could do for them is provide free or cheap server space, and server space is already cheap. I just can't see any reason to believe he's involved. Certainly it's possible but I see zero evidence pointing towards it.

[DainBramaged]

115. No, I think he is the sympathetic source for the plot........

you have to have friends in high places who can help you and we know how good the Pukes are at subterfuge.

[drm604]

117. I'm sorry but there's no evidence that I can see.

Certainly I can see how someone could get a gut level feeling that he's involved, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he was. But we have to go by evidence or else we'll be accusing everyone of everything.

You don't need friends at high places to purchase space on a server farm. You do need them to get the MSM to push you bullshit astroturf, but they have to be bigwigs in the media, not bigwigs in webhosting.

[drm604]

111. That's correct. I said that in the OP.

It's just one piece of the puzzle. When it's combined with other things it looks like more than a coincidence.

[DainBramaged]

108. Kick in the face of the Rethugs

[kestrel91316]

110. Investigative journalism is DEFINITELY NOT dead, lol. K&R.

[chollybocker]

116. All very interesting. kr

[Mr. Sparkle]

118. Great Job . One thing that is clear is that it's time to take corporations out of American politics

[BlooInBloo]

119. Cool. Just like the Kos diary.

[drm604]

120. Did Kos mention angryrenter? n/t

[Historic NY]

122. they are more like rat fu-kers, this needs to be exposed.