The AP and right-wing bloggers launch attempt to blame progressives for racist Tea Party signs

Who is Jason Levin? I had never heard the name before today, but if the corporate media and the right-wing blogs are to be believed he is the leader of a “nationwide network” that aims to infiltrate Tea Parties across the country. They tell us that his plan is to get progressives to go into the rallies and hold up misspelled signs with blatantly racist messages on them in order to make the Tea Party look bad. Now of course we all know that there have been many racist signs held up at previous Tea Parties in the past and the leaders of the Tea Party movement seemed perfectly fine with them, but now all of a sudden they are telling us that these signs are the result of this supposed “nationwide network” of progressives that Jason Levin heads up.

Today the Associated Press put out a story that was picked up by many major national news outlets which purported to inform the public about Levin's plans. The problem is that the article did not make any effort to tell us who Levin is and had even less to tell us about his supposed network of activists across the nation. All they tell us is that Levin claims to have “65 leaders” who are working for him across the nation. Who are these 65 leaders? The AP did not seem to want to bother to find out, but they did tell us the name of the website that Levin was supposedly organizing this effort from.

When I went to visit the site at http://www.crashtheteaparty.org/ it was immediately clear that the website was not very professional, if this was truly a major nationwide effort to discredit the Tea Party you would think they could have at least hired a professional web designer. A poorly designed site does not necessarily mean it is illegitimate of course, but if it turned out that the message board was frequented almost entirely by people who were Tea Party supporters that would make me a bit more suspicious. When I visited the site at 8:50 pm Central Daylight Time tonight this was the list of registered users currently online:



When you read names like “assholelibs”, “FUCKYOULIBERALS”and “IHateLibtards” don't you just feel the progressive love in the air? Now I suppose that people could try to argue that when this site was setup it was frequented by progressives but was taken over by Tea Party supporters once they found out what was going on. The problem is however that a quick glance through the posts in the forum shows that is not the case.

Jason Levin posts on the site under the name “Mad Hatter” and his very first post on the message board went up just five days ago on April 7th. It did not get a single response until April 9th and that response came from a Tea Party supporter. If this site was truly the organizing place for a nationwide network of progressives then why was Jason Levin the only person who even pretended to be a progressive on the site before the Tea Party showed up? And why did the AP run with this story before they even did any basic fact checking to see if this site really was the organizing place for a nationwide network that it purported to be?

I did some further searches for Jason Levin's name and there seemed to be very little information on him apart from what was published in the last few days over dozens of right-wing blogs. The right-wingers pulled up all kinds of information on the guy, they posted his home address, photos of him, his educational background, but they found absolutely nothing about his political affiliations or any history of activism. While they could not find anything about his political affiliations however they did happen find this self description that Levin posted on his MySpace page:



If these really are Levin's words he either has a serious mental illness or a very twisted sense of humor, either way however for the AP to run a major story on this guy's website and pretend that it is actually news shows that the AP has absolutely no journalistic credentials left.

Let us be clear: the racist and misspelled signs you see at Tea Party rallies were made by the teabaggers and as much as they may want to push the responsibility for them on to progressives they own them. I don't want anyone to show up at a Tea Party and pretend to be a teabagger, I want people to show up at a Tea Party event and stand up to the teabaggers by holding a counter-protest with messages that promote equality instead of hate. The teabaggers always do a great job of discrediting themselves and progressives have no interest in holding up their racist propaganda.

and the signs that are racist? How will they know the signs are racist? How will they know the signs are misspelled? No one educated will help them, or be associated with them. I think they have a real problem on their hands.

The problem I see is that most of the participants at their rallies seem to be plants. I mean the amount of racial and misspelled and just plain ignorant signs far exceeds the coherent ones. There must be 3 liberal plants for every one real teabagger!

They ARE in a pickle!

i knew it! but i'm lazy, and i didn't get any proof. you did, though! great internet detective work.

The bloody associated press put out this nonsense!

Keep this story alive, people, make sure the AP take responsibility. If the media ran such a story about the right, a huge flak machine would whirr into action. We need to be as active in our response to this libellous coverage as they would be.

ignorant racists..they do that all by themselves.

And, we have the video and the photos to prove it.

Not just make them seem like a rational, large scale national movement that is totally grassroots.

Yesterday they did a whole segment SPECIFICALLY trying to negate the perception that there is blatant and covert racism in Teabag party.

:rofl:

American Propaganda, in thousands of papers worldwide.

the international distribution network is alarming. People around the world read - and believe - this AP crap everyday, because their local paper re-prints it. Mine does.

Much worse than spammers will ever be.

Really? Spammers?

that AP spam, like most spam, makes people less apt to spend time reading more important things. It's not a perfect comparison.

Didn't Karl Rove plant a listening device or something in his office or some Republicans office and then blame it on Democrats?

Well, it's right out of that play book. I think this site is a set up. How is it that there are no liberals posting only baggers?

Smells like rotten fish to me.

Comment by *** 6 hours ago
yes -- *** -- you are correct -- it appears there are certain groups now targeting the tea party -- one of the creators of "crashtheteaparty.org" ,his name is Jason Levin wrote to the star ledger of newark saying that they will be infiltrating and trying to dismantle the group by making its members appear to be racist / homophobic / and moronic -- lets watch out out for these people !

Double agent stuff going on here. :tinfoilhat:

http://teaparty.freedomworks.org/events/event/show?id=3578713%3AEvent%3A61819&commentId=3578713%3AComment%3A93268

Does some incredibly savvy techie know how to find out about who is behind (really) crashtheteaparty.org?

Apparently Mr. Franklin's home base is Philly.

Here's the whois info: Heh!...WTF..some of the stuff in the whois is creating DU smileys in my preview. :rofl:

Domain ID:D158773927-LROR
Domain Name:CRASHTHETEAPARTY.ORG
Created On:03-Apr-2010 22:52:43 UTC
Last Updated On:06-Apr-2010 17:20:20 UTC
Expiration Date:03-Apr-2012 22:52:43 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, Inc. (R91-LROR)
Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:CR45137659
Registrant Name:Ben Franklin
Registrant Street1:3 chestnut lane
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Philadelphia
Registrant State/Province:Pennsylvania
Registrant Postal Code:19115
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.2157521992
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:crashtheteaparty@gmail.com
Admin ID:CR45137663
Admin Name:Ben Franklin
Admin Street1:3 chestnut lane
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Philadelphia
Admin State/Province:Pennsylvania
Admin Postal Code:19115
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.2157521992
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:crashtheteaparty@gmail.com

False names may have legal ramifications, at the least it could get your site shut down, IIRC (I may be wrong).

That's my understanding of the way it works.

The question is, did AP do a 'who is' search and not include this finding in article?

The registrant maybe in violation of a 'GoDaddy' rule under:

4. GENERAL RULES OF CONDUCT

2. You will not impersonate another User or any other person or entity, or submit content on behalf of another User or any other person or entity, without their express prior written consent.

Here is the link: http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/agreements.asp?ci=8924


Here is an article on false registration names:

link: http://www.domainnamenews.com/legal-issues/false-registration-domains-leads-severe-criminal-punishment/6898


<snip>
01|09|2010 3:27 pm EDT
False Registration of Domains Leads to Severe Criminal Punishment in the U.S.

by Adam Strong in Categories: Legal Issues - 11 Comments

A story in Dallas that made headlines regarding a massive cyber-criminal ring that defrauded telecommunications companies of millions of dollars, has also shed some light on a little cited provision in US law that involves domain names.

According to the Dallas Morning News , a group of 19 defendants were each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud.

According to court documents , the group used shell corporations, false identities, false representation and of course domain names to aid them in defrauding insurance companies, creditors, leasing companies, power companies and telecommunication companies for over $15 million in goods and services.

The false registration of domain names cited in Count 7 and 8 of the charges (page 51-2) states that defendant Matthew Norman Simpson and Michael Blaine Faulkner knowingly registered the domain names camophone.com and officelinkplus.com with false contact information and used this domain name in the course of committing a felony.
<end of snip>

I am going send a message to 'GoDaddy' concerning the findings of the 'who is' search...

link: http://open.salon.com/blog/greg_correll/2010/04/13/right-wing_hoax

Title: Right-wing Hoax? UPDATED

From the end of the article:

So I explored ARIN IP data for the site domain. Now it gets very interesting.

IP Address: 66.96.130.99 (ARIN & RIPE IP search)
IP Location: US(UNITED STATES)-NEW YORK-NEW YORK
DMOZ no listings
Y! Directory: see listings
Data as of: 23-Apr-2008

66.96.130.99 is enduranceinternational.com

CEO? "Steven "Steve" Sydness (born c. 1956) is a politician and businessman who was a North Dakota Republican Party candidate for one of North Dakota's United States Senate seats in 1992, and is the current CEO of the Endurance International Group in Massachusetts.<1>" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Sydness.

He is also on the board of a conservative Christian Science school.

Endurance also hosts this site: Eastside Republican Club and many others, including some Christian sites--but interestingly, no progressive or liberal sites. And they do NOT list the "crashers" site in their complete C license listings.

Why should they want to hide it, if "Levin" is just some schmo who paid to host his site there?

Cuz ever'one knows that they registered Mickey Mouse and Paul Revere to vote. :eyes:

You are correct. This is not a tactic any progressive would come up with.

The teabaggers need no help in looking like racist idiots. :rofl:

Definitely a hoax. The Facebook profile reads as if it was written by a Young Republican doing their best "undercover liberal" impersonation:

this is glaringly obvious. how could any journalist fall for it?

i can't find it.

Rove's Rejects > Breitbarts Boys

I saw that "black lesbian trapped in a white male body" in one of the posts upthread. This is, at best, a joke and, at worst, a RW plant. I read the article in the Tennessean this morning and wondered about it then. AP should be ashamed.

Although I'm sure most progressives would like to see the tea party implode, I doubt many of us would risk federal prison by threatening congressmen just to make the tea party look bad. Unfortunately, we hear of that all the time and when the feds look into it, they always confirm the teabagger connection.

As for the racism, there's video of one of them spitting on a black congressman. Again, I doubt a progressive spat on a congressman and risked arrest just to make those idiots look bad.

.. then it can only backfire.

It is not going to get them new supporters - but it will foster paranoia inside an already mentally limited and unstable group. They are all going to be on lookout for infiltrators at their next gathering.

With the way the right-wing/Repugs project their faults and foibles onto the progressive movement I wonder if this is an indication that they regularly infiltrate progressive groups in an attempt to make them look bad. Just wondering.

The forum seems to have been moved and it's got a new name. Google still has cached search results under their old name: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&rls=com.microsoft:en-US&q=+site:www.theobamaforum.com+the+obama+forum&ei=QJHES6qBBI65rAewnKSZDw&sa=X&oi=manybox&resnum=15&ct=all-results&ved=0CAIQqAQwDw

This is their host site: http://electionink.com/index.php

And this is their new location: http://electionink.com/forumdisplay.php/6-The-Obama-Forum

The freepers were all over it last year: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2302562/posts">Welcome to the Obama Forum (NO WHITES ALLOWED)


ETA The forum is obviously populated by a bunch of anti-Obama reich wing activists behaving as overtly racist Obama supporters.

Very nice work, Bjorn Against.

thinking they're all liberals? Will they start beating up on each other, because they'll see a liberal everywhere they look?

I don't know if Levin's for real or not, but he's introduced a great deal of suspicion within the ranks of the Teabaggers, and that's got to be disruptive to their cause. So maybe this will actually work.

If Mr. Levin truly wants to discredit the teahadists, why would he publicize it? When the police go infiltrate a drug gang they certainly don't advertise that they are undercover police. And it is a method which has worked for many years. So why would an amateur like Levin want to say, "Hey look at me! I'm a Liberal who wants to make the teahadists look bad!"? No, it just doesn't make any sense.
I am just a guy sitting at his keyboard and I saw that, so why can't the (supposedly) professional reporters of the AP see that?

They don't know which one among them is a liberal, and soon they'll start attacking each other.

None of them are real bright so maybe they will indeed start attacking each other.

"so why can't the (supposedly) professional reporters of the AP see that?"

I agree. Why would you set up an undercover, super-secret, infiltration group to bust up the baggers -- and then announce it to the world? Jason Levin could be a Repubican dirty trixter. His Facebook profile reads like a very inartful attempt by a benighted winger to pretend to be a progressive.

On the other hand, he might be a progressive who knows that all you have to do is find a gullible reporter, spew some bullpucky about having a network of spies and infilitrators working to make the baggers look stupid, and sit back and watch the fun.

Either way, finding a gullible reporter isn't difficult. And once the "story"hits the printed page, the rest of the "Liberal" (?!) Media are quick to run with it.

If the guy is a Repubican buttwipe, I hope to hell he's exposed quickly and made to admit his lies.

If he's a Progressive just playing an easy trick on the Media, I hope the same thing. This kind of trick can only hurt Progressives and help the Idiot Right.

Many thanks for doing the legwork that AP should have done. They should be ashamed to call themselves a news source.

Hekate

I think the email is rachel@msnbc.com

There was also this story:

Black conservative tea party backers take heat

By VALERIE BAUMAN (AP) – 6 days ago

ALBANY, N.Y. — They've been called Oreos, traitors and Uncle Toms, and are used to having to defend their values. Now black conservatives are really taking heat for their involvement in the mostly white tea party movement — and for having the audacity to oppose the policies of the nation's first black president.

"I've been told I hate myself. I've been called an Uncle Tom. I've been told I'm a spook at the door," said Timothy F. Johnson, chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, a group of black conservatives who support free market principles and limited government.

"Black Republicans find themselves always having to prove who they are. Because the assumption is the Republican Party is for whites and the Democratic Party is for blacks," he said.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jgsc8tVOOWtYQPQc6d5yLsbzjf4QD9ETR1380

I don't have a link, but I believe this is the article Keith Olbermann was making fun of on his show last week when Teabag supporters started yelling about the proof that there are plenty of blacks in their group and Keith retorted something like, "Yeah, all five of them!"

This is what the Obama Administration needs...a quick response unit to counter lies and distortion from the Right....a WAR ROOM if you will for Media Responses....

The Right Wing are so desperate there is no limit to what they will do.....i hope many others on this site will keep exposing the lies of the RIGHT....

well done!

So we are to believe this unknown person who started this site 10 days ago is a leader?
Does sound as if it is a RW tricks thing.
But why research when you can get a press release? When I first read this, I did a Whois search and got the same results as above.

Just let the RW have a place to play liberal for awhile.

I mean if it wasn't what they belived in, would they hold the signs?
Or are they being bussed around with the tea bagger bus?

so many holes in the story it looks like a worm bed.

The teabaggers are gearing up for "tax freedom day" and are holding rallies, most likely on the 17th. Check your local wingnuttery for details.

So here's what you do.

Go to the rally, just like any True Patriot would. Get other friends to go along, or meet you there.

Look for people with misspelled or racist signs.

Loudly and angrily begin denouncing them for being a liberal communist infiltrator to your group, "Out to tarnish REAL AMERICANS and the TRUTH THEY BELIVE!! You ain't one of us!! You're tryin' ta make us look like idiots! You spelled that wrong so you could get your picture in the LIBERAL PRESS so everyone will THINK WE'RE DUMB! WE AIN'T FALLIN FOR THAT NO SIREE!!"

You get bonus points for every non-friend who joins in.

they even believe their own bullshit... that's not the sort of "belief" one should be proud of... it's extremist, and a sign of emptiness. No wonder so many in that party are greedy...

Seems like everyone in rightwing talk radio and websites have been talking about this site and its proclaimed intentions of infiltrating the tea party movement.

Now what happens at the next gathering of fools? :evilgrin:


Now really; If you really were out to crash the tea party gatherings - would you create a publically accesible web page for it?

This is either a very well thought out prank or a backfiring false flag operation.

that is also on my Ignore list for unprogressive, unenlightened, BS blather. verrry interesting ...
of course, it could be a coincidence ...

Let's say it is a right wing wingnut trying to blame all the racism on the left. Let's just say that is the case.

The teabaggers are PARANOID. They don't have a clearly defined centralized 'mission' (that they know of - Dick Armey aside). They PRIDE themselves on their grassrooty-ness. Now - they don't know WHO is one of them, who is a pretender, if indeed there IS a pretender.

I see "Purity Tests for Teabaggers" in the works. I really do. This can only create confusion amongst already addled and unclear minds.

If torture loving Teabaggers are beaten to a pulp and asked if they're liberals, will they confess to being so? :shrug:

Look at the comments on this article:
http://bigjournalism.com/mvadum/2010/04/13/msm-yawns-as-leftists-plot-to-sabotage-tea-party-misuse-social-security-numbers/

Three comments from three different wingnuts:



They will turn on each other. This should be interesting to watch. ;-)

On their faces.

and the teabaggers with misspelled and racist signs aren't really teabaggers at all, then the estimates of attendance of real teabaggers at rallies and protests need to be substantially reduced.

to discredit the Teahadists. What a coinkydink

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/inside-man-how-a-prankster-plans-to-destroy-the-tea-party-movement.php?ref=fpb

Check out the comments under the report.

so a real person is behind this. He's an idiot.

It's stupid. Its wrong to interfere with anybody else's privilege of getting their message out. If he wants to set up a counter-protest that's fine.

Lots of commenters on TPM think this is funny and it will be great to set tea partiers turn against each other. But many tea partiers are truly mentally ill. I don't want to see a mentally ill person with a "Nancy Pelosi killed Elvis" sign getting stomped by a mob.

Anger in our country is leading to more violence. Some tea baggers could take this as an excuse to attack libs.

That should be a sign at the next Teanuttery

narrow minded as they themselves. Frankly, I could even hold up one of their signs-even for spit-without feeling ashamed.

This is just cover for all the kooks their organization is attracting. This is not a party of the people-this is a well funded Conservative side group masquerading as non-political-independent people party.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734664/usercomments

Their own paranoia may prove to be their own worst enemy.

I guess when right-wing nutjobs do it, no one cares

http://open.salon.com/blog/greg_correll/2010/04/13/right-wing_hoax

Because this is such a key piece of new info and I want to make sure people see it I have posted a new thread here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8145637

and are now trying to "mainstream" it. This move makes hand-lettered signs a big no-no. Therefore all signs will be professionally printed with the official party line. It's a coup.

...on Obama's REAL Kenyan birf certificate? :wow:
and all the hysteria and "THANK YOU ORLY FOR NOT GIVING UP! We GOT the uppity sekrit Kenyan muslin! She's PROVED he's not a nachral-born citusun! He and Michelle are secretly fleeing the country tonight! Sarah Palin will be President tomorrow!!" fantasies that flooded Freeperville? :wtf:
:spray::rofl:


I'm smelling a similiar aroma and waiting for a "3...2...1... PWNED!" :nuke:

:rofl: