My reporting from the first San Diego Coffee Party meeting generated my most comments ever for a post. It also caused me a bit of anxiety, because I was criticized by some of the people I had met for treating them unfairly. I have always cared deeply about the tone of this blog. Their actions since have only eased my conscience. Today, I received a follow up email from the national leadership about what the Coffee Party had decided were the most important issues facing the country. Anything about looming and ever growing debt and deficits at all level of government? No way, down with corporations is our motto. From the email:Hello B,Can't you just smell the fertilizer of the grassroots activism?
We have some exciting announcements to make.
Take the Coffee Party Priorities Poll in the next 48 hours.
Based on reports from Coffee Party USA meetings and online discussions, Money in Politics and Wall Street Reform have emerged as top legislative priorities for our community. Before we consider various solutions to these issues as a community, we ask for your direct input. There will be other issues and priorities as we go forward. This poll is to select our first actions to impact legislation at the national level. So please take the poll before NOON ET on Monday April 12th.
After you take the poll, go to coffeepartyusa.com and join a local Coffee Strategy Session on Money in Politics and/or Wall Street Reform in your community.
In the coming weeks, we plan to vote online about whether or not we support specific legislation on Money in Politics and/or Wall Street Reform (depending on results of the Priorities poll. So please take time to engage in informed deliberation -- in coffee shop meetings and our newly organized online forums.
As a community, let's show Washington how we create positive solutions together.
For Local groups: You can also choose your own issues to work on as well. We encourage you to go through a democratic process and take the time to make an informed decision.
-Annabel, and your Coffee Party Team
I removed some of their HTML coding in the above quotes so that you wouldn't click the link and get a cookie intended for me. Also, Anabel's return email address is at coffeepartyusa.org. And to think I was excoriated for suggesting that this might be a top down political organization directed from a national level.
Most importantly, the coffeepartyusa.org web site is actually hosted by the owners of democracyinaction.org domain. Here is what a Google search turned up when I type in democracyinaction.org:
A non-profit organization, DIA offers a web-based tool that progressive organizations to send emails to Congress [sic].And nothing says non-partisan, coming together as a community like "progressive;" DIA standing for democracy in action in the above quote. So there you have it, my hard evidence that the coffee party is just a masquerade for typical lefty astroturfing. They have no doubt, sucked in a number of innocent victims. I figured out that little nugget about the web hosting because I turned off "display html" in my email, which I suggest to everyone for the safety of their online experience.
I can't resist one more quote from the coffee party; after reviewing all these facts what do you think about their "about us" page:
And where is the lame stream media, who called the Tea Party astroturfers? I don't normally complain, because at some point an issue like the lefty bias in the news media ceases to be a problem and becomes just a fact; but sometimes the hypocrisy is a bit overwhelming.We are 100% grassroots. No lobbyists here. No pundits. And no hyper-partisan strategists calling the shots in this movement. We are a spontaneous and collective expression of our desire to forge a culture of civic engagement that is solution-oriented, not blame-oriented.
We demand a government that responds to the needs of the majority of its citizens as expressed by our votes and by our voices; NOT corporate interests as expressed by misleading advertisements and campaign contributions.
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