Until now many of the often-illegal antics perpetuated by several individual protesters from Wisconsin seemed to be random acts committed by disillusioned agitators. But we have learned that these acts have been highly orchestrated and perpetuated by a group whose members are told to deny their involvement in the group. A group, we’ve discovered, which is financed by Big Labor.

With that funding comes clout. They have shared the stage with Deomcratic Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, a candidate for US Senate. They’ve hosted prominent Democratic legislative speakers such as Wisconsin State Representative Cory Mason and Minority Leader Peter Barca.

These protesters have played a key role in many of the most visible events in and around the State Capitol since February. This week, their organization was listed alongside the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and United Wisconsin as key organizers behind the recall of Governor Scott Walker.

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The #OccupyWallStreet movement that been embraced by Democratic politicians, liberal pundits, progressive groups, Big Labor and celebrities was actually created and is being led behind the scenes by far-left anarchists whose goal isn’t reform, but the total annihilation of the American economic and political system.

“Occupy Everything” is the culmination of a decades-long effort by militant radicals to create and fund a mass movement that has broad popular appeal. With the enthusiastic help of the institutional left, that effort finally seems to be working.

Case in point: Lisa Fithian. Fithian is a career “community organizer” and anarchist who specializes in “direct action” protests, and who has close ties to labor unions. She has been on the ground at the #OccupyWallStreet demonstration since its inception.

Local television station NY1 interviewed her as an ordinary “woman on the street,” presenting her as just another well-intentioned New Yorker who’s worried about the big, mean banks.

NY1 did not mention that Fithian lives in Austin, Texas, and failed to inform its audience about Fithian’s true motivations or her lengthy activist resume.

“Wall Street is certainly the heart of why we’re here. It’s the corporations — the big banks in this country have been destroying this country.”

Lisa Fithian says she’s not part of any official group–that this event is the work of many people coming together with the same message.

“Overfees or high mortgages, student loans–the banks are touching every aspect of our lives.”

She says banks and the wealthy have taken money for their own interests and their own survival.

“And the people here are saying enough of that.”

Inspired by events around the world, she drew the analogy to Tahrir Square in Egypt, and says the power of the people is leading to change.

It doesn’t take much digging to discover the real Lisa Fithian. (more…)

In recent weeks, I have been interested in Google and in the telecommunications companies.  It’s not the typical “institutional left” topic on which I usually tend to focus.  At least, not on the surface.  The truth is, these industries ARE about the institutional left.  And if the Obama administration and the media reformists on the left get their way, the institutional left will achieve some very significant goals over the next few years in their push to see all media publicly owned.  That is, unless we all start paying more attention.

Before I give you the big picture, let me start with a recent example.

Last month, Sprint, one of the big three telecommunications providers, raised its early termination fees (ETFs) on “advanced devices.”  These devices are smartphones, tablets, netbooks and notebooks, as Sprint outlines in one of its support documents online.  As MSNBC.com explains, ETFs are the carrier’s way of retaining customers, and Sprint has essentially doubled its fees to $350 beginning September 9^th.

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Tonight, President Barack Obama made good on his threat to Eric Cantor to take his case “to the American people.”

The people he’s counting on most, however, are not the general public, but the small core of left-wing activists planning nationwide protests at congressional offices tomorrow.

Former “green jobs” czar Van Jones let the proverbial cat out of the bag today in a column at the Huffington Post entitled: “Tuesday: Rallies Everywhere to Save the American Dream“:

Enough is enough.

Speaker Boehner’s decision last week to walk out in the middle of negotiations with President Obama was the last straw.

The time has come — at long last — for America’s super-majority to stand up against the extreme, hostage-taking tactics of the Tea Party minority in Congress.

Tea Party Republicans would rather shred America’s safety net and also risk tanking America’s economy than raise taxes one penny on their super-wealthy donors and corporate backers.

This Tuesday at noon, everyday Americans will finally have the chance to be heard, across America, at the local offices of every member of Congress. The American Dream movement — which includes dozens of organizations and thousands of individuals who are standing up for the middle class and working class families — is calling for emergency mobilizations across the country tomorrow.

Our only chance to move the Republicans is to make sure that the dire consequences of their actions are laid directly at their feet. So with other leaders of the American Dream movement, we’re putting out an urgent call for every patriotic American to show up outside Republican congressional offices on Tuesday at noon to deliver a crucial message: “Don’t destroy the American Dream.”

Last May, a frightened teenager was trapped inside his home when a mob of SEIU astro-turfing thugs (estimated at 500 strong) trespassed on his front lawn to protest to intimidate his father, the deputy general counsel of the Bank of America. While the protesters caught the family by surprise (allegedly aided and abetted by the police), unbeknownst to them, Fortune’s Nina Easton was a neighbor to the victim and exposed the injustice for what it was.

Now, though, another gang of astro-turfing thugs has targeted (yes, targeted) the private home of a real estate developer for the audacity of building a WalMart that will employ up to 1200 DC-area residents.

With unemployment in Washington, DC at 10.2%, it is hard to imagine anyone not wanting to see jobs added. That is, unless that someone is a union that doesn’t like the fact that WalMart operates its U.S. stores union-free.

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UPDATED***

The left is afraid of the election of Marco Rubio as Senator of Florida in the exact same way as they were afraid of Sarah Palin when she was chosen as the Vice Presidential nominee by John McCain. It has been clear from the beginning that both are ascendant as potential game-changing political stars and need to be destroyed. So it’s no surprise that Arianna Huffington tweeted the following:
The reason why so few Senators are chosen as Presidential nominees is that the job is not an executive position; Governors tend to be preferable because they have executive experience. Rubio was just elected to to vote “yes” or “no” on things, which is why Arianna’s analogy of “dictator” is incomprehensible and utterly unrelated to his leadership position. There is nothing dictator-like about a Senator. So what exactly was the Queen of social news media’s tweet really about? (more…)

In response to the announcement that I would provide my analysis on ABC News from Arizona on election night, like-clockwork, from the George Soros-funded Media Matters to Keith Olbermann to Huffington Post to Daily Kos to Talking Points Memo to Twitter (#boycottABCNEWS), the institutional left began on Friday to inundate ABC News with a wave of partisan objections and unfounded allegations against me.

Make no mistake: this is a calculated “astroturf“ intimidation campaign by the well-funded and frightened-for-their-political-lives institutional left to quash dissenting voices. It’s what they do.

What was ABC News’ response?  Not standing up for free speech and the 1^st Amendment.  Not sticking by their original invitation.  Not standing up for diversity of opinion.

Instead, on Saturday, ABC News issued an official statement that was immediately heralded as a victory by the anti-free speech forces on the left:

Since conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart announced on his website that he was going to be a participant in ABC’s Town Hall meeting at Arizona State University, there has been considerable consternation and misinformation regarding my decision to ask him to participate in an election night Town Hall event for ABC News Digital. I want to explain what Mr. Breitbart’s role has always been as one of our guests at our digital town hall event:

Mr. Breitbart is not an ABC News analyst.

He is not an ABC News consultant.

He is not, in any way, affiliated with ABC News.

He is not being paid by ABC News.

He has not been asked to analyze the results of the election for ABC News.

Mr. Breitbart will not be a part of the ABC News broadcast coverage, anchored by Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos. For the broadcast coverage, David Muir and Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg will contribute reaction and response gathered from the students and faculty of Arizona State University at an ABC News/Facebook town hall.

He has been invited as one of several guests, from a variety of different political persuasions, to engage with a live, studio audience that will be closely following the election results and participating in an online-only discussion and debate to be moderated by David Muir and Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg on ABCNews.com and Facebook. We will have other guests, as well as a live studio audience and a large audience on ABCNews.com and Facebook, who can question the guests and the audience’s   opinions.

George Stephanoplous quickly tweeted, “Breitbart NOT on ABC network broadcast http://bit.ly/bgkseJ.” (more…)

Remember back in late March when we caught Harry Reid astroturf “supporters” throwing eggs at the Tea Party Express bus?

And remember how we caught them on camera blaming me for the act they perpetrated, even calling the local police?

Remember then Harry Reid’s local police force driving away when they found out the Democratic Party-directed union astroturf squad was behind throwing the eggs — and not me?

Remember how we caught on tape Nevada Democratic Party Field Director Brian DiMarzio organizing the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 357 who were the ones who threw the eggs?

And remember a befuddled DiMarzio telling a police officer that I was the one who threw the eggs, and speaking to the IBEW Local 357 on a first-name basis?

Well, Mr. DiMarzio, formerly an employee of the AFL-CIO — go figure! — is still employed with the Nevada Democrtic Party even though his nefarious exploits made it on to national TV.

According to the Nevada State Democratic Party website, Mr. Dimarzio is still employed as their Field Director. Until March, I didn’t know what Democratic Party political field directors were until I saw one directing union thugs in the field.

How much money does that pay in this tough economy?

Speaking of big-time salaries within the Democrat/Big Labor Axis:  Remember Eddie Gering?

(more…)

In response to the success of the Tea Party rallies in April 2009, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) accused the nascent movement of being “astroturf”–a political term of art for a faux movement funded by traditional powers to give a cause the appearance of independent grassroots support.

Pelosi repeated the “astroturf” slur in August 2009 as Tea Party activists showed up in large numbers at healthcare townhall meetings.

Five national tea party-related rallies have been held in our nation’s capitol in the past year and half. If there was evidence that thousands of tea party activists were getting free bus rides to these rallies, surely the media would have made certain the whole world knew about it.

On October 2nd, the NAACP and national labor unions will give tens of thousands of people free bus rides, free lunches, free T-shirts and free Metro farecards as inducements to attend the One Nation Working Together rally being organized by a coalition of radical leftist organizations at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has promised to give free bus rides from major metropolitan areas within twelve hours of D.C. The United Steelworkers are also busing in demonstrators from across the Northeast. Even the Screen Actors Guild is ‘getting on the bus.’

(more…)

Texas Democrat Kesha Rogers campaigned for for Congress with Obama-Hitler signs.

The signs even have the tag- “Paid For By Kesha Rogers for Congress” – on the bottom.

But, the state-run media won’t run this photo.

They won’t publish this photo because it doesn’t fit their narrative. Remember last year when the Democratic-Media Complex reported that the tea party protesters were waving Obama-Hitler signs? What the media purposely omitted from their stories was the fact that the protesters waving these astroturfed Obama-Hitler signs were radical left-wing extremists. They were radical activists from the LaRouche organization. But, this didn’t fit the state-run media’s narrative that tea party activists were radicals and racists so they omitted this from their reports. (more…)

Last week, I wrote here at BigGovernment about Ben Scott, Policy Director for the liberal advocacy group Free Press, being outed as the true author of a pro-net neutrality letter supposedly written by Representative Jay Inslee (D-WA).

Soon after, The Hill’s technology blog “Hillicon Valley” ran a story with an explanation from Inslee’s staff:

“But Inslee’s office told Hillicon Valley on Tuesday that Scott did not, in fact, draft the letter on behalf of the congressman. Rather, as Inslee’s staff scrambled to put out something last week in support of the FCC’s goals, it consulted old documents and industry talking points for ideas. A staff member ultimately typed the new letter on top of the Word document that Free Press previously sent Inslee — the date of which was May 7 — meaning the meta-data still reflected Scott as its author.”

At first glance, this sounds halfway plausible. While I’m not an expert on meta-data as it relates to documents like this, my understanding is that it’s possible that writing over top of another person’s original document could lead to a situation where the content is attributable to one person (or organization) while the meta-data suggests authorship by another. This led me to a couple of questions. Did the National Journal, which originally reported the story, get it wrong? Did Inslee’s office legitimately make a mistake by overwriting talking points from Free Press with their own letter, leading to this confusion? Was I, then, wrong to point out the potential conflict associated with a group that decries “astroturfing” allegedly writing a letter for a Member of Congress? To help answer those questions, I decided to reach out to Representative Inslee’s office directly to clarify exactly what happened. The result was…not encouraging.

(more…)

The financial reform bill is finally in its home stretch in the Senate, but Americans have yet to fully engage on the issue.  In fact, in recent weeks as I’ve worked with various grassroots leaders across the country to discuss the bill, its impacts on our economy and on us as American citizens, I must admit, it’s probably the first time I’ve ever found myself frustrated at the progress of activism.

It’s a complex issue, and let’s face it, not exactly an exciting one either.  But that’s precisely what the left is counting on.  So, whenever I find myself feeling frustrated that others might not share my same level of fervor on the issue, I remind myself of its complexity and lackluster appeal.  And then, I proceed directly to the source – the bill itself.

I hone in on a few key points in three categories that resonate with most activists I know:  Big Labor, Big Government, and Big Brother.  Put those together in the context of Big Banks, and they spell out big disaster.

As the left goes on demonizing Wall Street and big bankers on one hand, Democratic lawmakers on the other hand are busy making sweetheart backroom deals with them up on Capitol Hill, promoting their legislation to the public as “consumer protection.”  But really, such measures are nothing more than payback to the likes of three-way mortgage entitlement partnership stronghold of the Bank of America, Center for Responsible Lending and Fannie Mae.

Meanwhile Democrats and Obama allies like Organizing for America are also using the issue as a shameless fund-raising opportunity.

The banks actually SUPPORT this bill – so don’t let that “Main Street Not Wall Street” message fool you, no matter which side of this issue you’re on.

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You’ve no doubt heard liberal Members of Congress and other interest groups calling the Tea Party movement “Astroturf,” a play on the term grassroots.  Like our good friend Nancy, for example…

Or the liberal pro-net neutrality group Free Press, which has an entire section on its site devoted to “outing” so-called Astroturf operations.  This page includes a handy-dandy widget with a graphic of large corporations pulling the strings of Congress. Pretty clever, really.

They claim that the whole movement is the invention of a bunch of Beltway insiders backed by piles of corporate cash.  For them, it simply does not compute that ordinary Americans could be fed up with trillions of dollars in debt, tax hikes, and runaway regulation.  It MUST be the orchestrations of rich puppet-masters in DC, right?  Instead of spending hours debunking those claims, I’ll point to a post I made on the National Taxpayers Union’s old blog after the massive 9/12 March on Washington.  Several hundred thousand people from all across the country, none of whom were paid, will do a better job of dismissing these silly claims than I could here.  Instead, let’s focus on liberal activists employing exactly the kind of shady strategies that they accuse us of using.

So, that group I mentioned, Free Press?  The ones that have a page on their site to expose “Astroturfing?”  Last week, they were outed as being the true authors behind a letter supposedly written by Congressman Jay Inslee (D-WA).  The letter is being passed around to various Congressional offices to solicit support for FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s radical effort to thumb his nose at the limits of his regulatory authority, which I blogged about here recently.  But the properties of the electronic file itself show that the real author of the letter was not Mr. Inslee or a member of his staff, but none other than Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott!

(more…)

The Illinois Federation of Tax Eaters, also known as Organized Labor, rallied at the State Capitol in Springfield April 21^st, demanding a tax increase to pay for the government services they provide.

The crowd was not lacking in amusing examples of absurdity.  Take, for example, the Chicago teacher who hammed it up for the camera: “Where’s the money? Where is the money? Save our children! Give up the bucks! Where’s the cash? We need it fast!”

With that type of rhetoric, perhaps she would fit better in John Dillinger’s gang than teaching our future. And naturally, it’s all about the children.  What’s most offensive about teachers’ union tactics is the breadth with which they use children as human shields to strong-arm their agenda.

Or take the other tax eater who shouted into the microphone, “Raise my taxes! Raise my taxes!”

Or the SEIU official who led the “Yes We Can” chant just yards from the table selling Barack Obama t-shirts and posters.

Or the AFL-CIO guy who explained to the crowd, “People are hurting.  That’s why we need a tax increase.”

(more…)

UPDATE: The bounty is now $100,000 for any audio/video footage of the N-word being hurled at Congressmen John Lewis and Andre Carson.

***

After 14 months of committing 100% to health care reform, the day after the signing of the Health Care bill was to mark the Democratic Party’s new primary concern: destroy the uprising, annihilate by all means necessary, the Tea Party movement.

The first sign that a plan was in place was the ham-fisted, high-camp posturing of the most controversial members of the Democratic caucus walking through the peaceful but animated “Tea Party” demonstrators on Capitol Hill. There is no reason for these elected officials to walk above ground through the media circus amid their ideological foes. The natural route is the tunnels between the House office buildings and the Capitol. By crafting a highly symbolic walk of the Congressional Black Caucus through the majority white crowd, the Democratic Party was looking to provoke a negative reaction. They didn’t get it. So they made it up.

The proof that the N-word wasn’t said once, let alone 15 times, as Rep. Andre Carson claimed, is that soon thereafter — even though the press dutifully reported it as truth — Nancy Pelosi followed the alleged hate fest, which allegedly included someone spitting, by walking through the crowd with a gavel in hand and a shit-eating grin on her face. Had the incidents reported by the Congressional Black Caucus actually occurred the Capitol Police would have been negligent to allow the least popular person to that crowd – the Speaker – to put herself in harm’s way.

That crowd was a sea of new-media equipment. Not only were tens of thousands people armed with handicams, BlackBerrys and iPods, so also was the mainstream media there, covering every inch of the event. Why did not one mainstream media outlet raise the specter that perhaps a video would exist to prove the events occurred? I am still dealing with the same press telling me we didn’t prove that ACORN was aiding and abetting criminal activity because we “did not provide enough audio and video evidence.” (Insert laugh track.) Is there not a blatant double standard at play here? Nancy Pelosi tipped her hand that race was a central part of her strategy. She invoked the Civil Rights Act and compared it with the universally reviled health care bill. Her caucus is doubling down on the civil-rights rhetoric. There are no coincidences.

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Goo goo g’joob:

Early today we pointed out video of the unidentified eggman of Searchlight, Nevada.

If you have any other evidence on the rent-a-thugs of the IBEW Local 357 caught in this series of videos who even dared to call the police and accuse me of what they had done, please email feedback@breitbart.com.  We are looking to do a series looking into this chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.  Why would they go to such length to agitate, misdirect, threaten, vandalize, and lie on behalf of Sen. Harry Reid and why would the police turn a blind eye to their misbehavior?

BONUS OBSERVATION:  The most eccentric union astroturfer featured a mouthful of something that looked like chewed up Saltine crackers (at 85% oral cavity capacity).  While one thug was threatening violence against me and the Eggman himself was claiming himself a moral high ground for the Democratic Party on race issues and while others were shoving their signs into my face and into the lenses of cameras filming the scene, the Saltine-spewer screamed at me with cracker particles exploding out of his mouth while no words were remotely decipherable.  Each agitator seemed to have trained skills of misdirection, incitement, and other forms of intimidation.  Is anyone aware of the Saltine-mouth-spew tactic?

Organizing for America (formerly Organizing for Obama) has a Health Reform Action page which encourages members to write a letter to the editor. After typing in your zip code you get a list of local news outlets with radio buttons you can click:

The next page gives you a large comment box to compose your letter and in the sidebar are a list of suggested talking points:

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This latest example of mainstream media fraud comes from St. Louis, and features coverage of the so called “Coffee Party”.

The following clip is only 2 minutes long, so watch all of it, and then look at the images below to understand why this video is nothing short of media prostitution for their progressive cause.

This report attempts to paint a picture of a moderate, open minded movement in the process of conducting early, friendly gatherings.

:25 – Brewing yes, but steamed? Well, not if they can help it.

:45 – Leaders of this group say civility is their first priority

:55 – We’re not looking to balance extremes. When we sit down for a cup of coffee, we’re not at each other’s throats.

1:37 – Organizers say they are just volunteers, and invite those with different opinions to join their effort to swallow their pride in the interest of progress.

1:44 – [Organizer] I don’t particularly think it is useful to sit at a table with only people who see things the way I do.

But context is everything, and this report ignores some glaring facts which betray the lies being pushed in this story.

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As a member of a very successful Tea Party in Quincy, Illinois it is my distinct honor and privilege to offer my thanks and congratulations to this astroturf response to the tea parties. This hard hitting website has taken the MSNBC format to a new level. Hit us again guys, because while you spend never-ending union dollars attacking Tea Parties, we are repairing the change you said we could believe in, one candidate at a time.

This tiny group of Tea Bashers says its mission is “To prevent the Tea Party’s dangerous ideas from gaining legislative traction.” You might want to watch something other than the mainstream media. In case you haven’t heard, we have already gained legislative traction, which I’ll venture a guess that this was the reason for the emergency birth and delivery of your premature website.

We can’t think of a better way for organized labor to spend its time and money. I am so thrilled with your approach I may donate to your cause myself.

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The Democratic majority objected to my appearing at a House hearing this morning addressing AstroTurfing in the global warming advocacy industry. The majority were not amused by the prospect of a discordant note being struck. As such, the Republicans will have no witnesses. They have agreed to this after being challenged. In Washington, we call times such as these “weekdays”.

The hearing actually has devolved into something of an effort to rehabilitate certain Members who are now imperiled by their vote for the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, particularly Tom Periello of Central Virginia (my Congressman, who has been hoodwinked by someone into stating, in defense of his vote, that the reason we are losing jobs to India and China is because they’ve already passed Waxman-Markey-type laws. Really. I agree we need to find out who is spreading such scurrilous tales to our lawmakers).

So, Rep. Periello will open the proceedings with a statement. The hearing was already delayed once because he refused to let anyone see what he was going to say in advance. They might ask questions. I don’t think that’s much of a threat.

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