freedomworks

Corporate proxies calling themselves the Tea Party stalk the halls of government:

Dozens of people wearing "FreedomWorks Override the Veto!" t-shirts and stickers descended on legislative offices this morning to try to convince conservative House Democrats to side with Republicans to override Gov. Bev Perdue's veto of the health care bill.

"We are the conscience of North Carolina," said Bobby Pittman of Wilson, who wore an orange Tea Party shirt. "We can't afford the health care bill."

But if you want to donate to "the conscience of North Carolina", you have to make out the check to a Foundation with an Arlington, VA national office:

Now available with 15% less astroturf!

"They try to portray themselves as some sort of grass-roots movement, but they are a classic example of what those on the left would call astroturf," Meckler said of the Tea Party Express. "They are fake, they're not from the grassroots. These are longtime Republican political activists with their own agenda."

Even as Meckler touted his Tea Party Patriots as representative of the grass-roots movement, he also announced his group had received the $1 million donation from a single contributor. The contribution came with conditions, Meckler said, including one that requires the donor's name to remain secret despite the tea party movement's stated commitment to openness.

That's one big-ass grass root right there. That would take a backhoe to pull up. Or dynamite. Better use dynamite.

Poor Jim Rogers just can't win:

About a dozen protesters from the conservative group FreedomWorks marched outside Duke's uptown Charlotte headquarters during the meeting. They targeted Duke's support of a trading system for carbon "credits," or permission to release the greenhouse gas, that is envisioned in congressional energy bills.

Shareholder Tom Borelli of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank in Washington, said Rogers has "set our company on a risky course" by its advocacy.

I've realized that Patrick McHenry has been a water carrier for banking interests. What I hadn't realized was how low McHenry, along with Dick Armey's army, would go in serving his corporate paymasters.

According to Credit Union Times:

Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC) has written Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass), Chairman of the House Financial Services, seeking a hearing on the issue of individuals and organizations allegedly using non-profits to manipulate real estate and other markets.

As an example of this possible manipulation, McHenry used the Center for Responsible Lending, an affiliate of the Durham, North Carolina based Self Help Credit Union.

The basis of McHenry's complaint is a bogus report February 21st by the Consumer Rights League a front group for the predatory lending industry operating out of FreedomWorks national HQ whose sole purpose appears to be attacking the Self Help Credit Union and, in particular, the affiliated Center for Responsible Lending (with, no mere coincidence, the same acronym, CRL) calling it a "predatory charity".

The John Locke Foundation and Freedomworks are orchestrating an imminent media flurry of Bill Graham friendly anti-tax snow-jobs over a non-issue by claiming that an "option" to tax will result in a $1 billion tax hike. They are hoping to get a lot of mileage from a 4-page "report", replete with "ifs", "mights", "coulds" and "woulds"..

Dick Armey himself sent this FreedomWorks alert out Monday Dec 11th:

My fellow freedom-loving friends, I have an urgent message for you. Legislators in Raleigh are planning a new $1 billion tax hike for North Carolina. As our friends at the John Locke Foundation have pointed out in a new study, “Their scheme would take one cent from the 2.5-cent local sales tax and give it to the state. In exchange, the state would give local governments the option to raise the sales tax rate by another cent.”