To: bentway who wrote (526780 ) 11/7/2009 2:28:42 PM From: tejek Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 1575761 What's amazing is that Bachmann lied that she organized this rally a few days after telling Hannity when and where people should go to meet her. "Populists" by mcjoan Fri Nov 06, 2009 at 02:20:04 PM PSTOne of the great services Rachel Maddow has done over the past several months is to show the powerful--and exceedingly wealthy--interests propping up the supposedly populist tea-parties. While the people participating probably feel like they're in the midst of some great groundswell of populist, grassroots movement, the sad truth is that their anger and resentment (and no small amount of racism) is being exploited by these corporate bastards in an attempt to protect their own billions. Matt Yglesias has more on this from yesterday's display:David Koch and Charles Koch of Koch Industries, for example, are #379 and #388 on the Forbes 400 list. They’re also major donors to a number of right-wing causes, including Americans for Prosperity, which is chaired by David. And as several AFPers were willing to discuss with my colleague Lee Fang yesterday, that Koch money helped pay for 40 buses to bring people to the tea parties free of charge, doughnuts, signs, etc.: [see video]It really makes all those predominantly old, white, angry people look even more like sheep. They pledge allegiance to FOX News and scream about keeping the government's hands off their Medicare, and Rupert Murdoch and the Koch's laugh all the way to the bank.Meanwhile, their queen Michele Bachmann, who trots out the fiction that yesterday's melee was organic and "unplanned,"is using yesterday's freak-show to fundraise. Update: You can watch the Rules committee hearing on hcr broadcast on CSPAN 2 or on the House webcast. And David Waldman is at the hearing courtesy of Chairwoman Slaughter's staff, who ensured that a blogger would get one of the five ten media spots available. You can follow his tweets from the hearing. - BarbinMDdailykos.com