***SCAM ALERT!!!*** "Crash the Tea Party" is definitely a scam!!!!

A story has been circulating among the right-wing blogosphericals that purports to be about leftist/socialist "disrupters" of the Tea Party events on the 15th. It has cropped up on AP, and I predict it will go wide on Fox tonight. Malkin already covered it.



Someone named "Jason Levin in Albany" surfaced just long enough to give an interview to "someone", promoting "his site" http://crashtheteaparty.org/.

cttp2The funny thing is, there's no site there. I mean there's this one page with an image (no real text) that asks you to join them, to infiltrate the Tea party events, to carry racist and crazy signs. The site's link choices are to "crash" -- takes you to a discussion board (populated entirely by about 25 rightwing hoaxers).

<snip>

Huh?

Working in the net biz I investigated. A (rightwing) Free Republic commenter claims it was originally listed this way:

Domain ID:D158773927-LROR
Domain Name:CRASHTHETEAPARTY.ORG
Created On:03-Apr-2010 22:52:43 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, Inc. (R91-LROR)
Registrant ID:CR45137659
Registrant Name:Jason Levin
Registrant Street1:8575 SW Birch Street
Registrant City:Portland
Registrant State/Province:Oregon
Registrant Postal Code:97223
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.5039366588
Registrant Email:xenex11@gmail.com
Admin ID:CR45137663
Admin Name:Jason Levin
Tech ID:CR45137661
Name Server:NS2.IPOWER.COM
Name Server:NS1.IPOWER.COM

(There is a YouTube account for xenex11 -- funny: 2 of his only 5 friends are rabid rightwingers: http://www.youtube.com/user/xenex11#p/u/14/Y_XFYAcCOOs)

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?

Could it be that this is a disinformation campaign created by Republican/Tea Partiers to obfuscate their use of racist, homophobic, violent, lunatic signs at their rallies?



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

TPM did an interview with Jason Levin, published today:

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

... if you WERE going to do this, what possible reason could you have for talking about it publicly?

I believe the OP is correct.

and he probably is.

That blog is discussing him.

The term, by the way, that the teabaggers now insist on using once word got around that their use of teabaggers doesn't mean what they think it means.

did they notice that his strategy makes no sense?

How did they happen to get Levin's contact info? Did they try to confirm any of his claims? Another news story at least pointed out that none of it was confirmed. TPM just ran it credulously, unfortunately.

It's a rather naive interview I think.

http://www.verumserum.com/?p=13938



not one link to a progressive site or blog

* A-Team
* Ace of Spades HQ
* America Wake-Up
* Anchoress
* Beloved Spear
* Between Two Worlds
* Blue Crab Boulevard
* Boar’s Head Tavern
* Brutally Honest
* Christian Headlines
* Common Cents
* Conservative Hideout
* Dawn Patrol
* Design Inference
* Doug Ross
* Dr. Gov
* Evangelical Outpost
* Fishing the Abyss
* Get Religion
* Grey Thoughts
* Hot Air
* Hugh Hewitt
* Iowahawk
* Irrational Optimism
* Jill Stanek
* Jollyblogger
* JunkYardBlog
* Legal Insurrection
* Lion of Judah
* Magic Statistics
* Michael Medved
* Michelle Malkin
* Mommy Zabs
* NewsBusters
* Nova Scotia Scott
* Oblermann Watch
* Patterico’s Pontifications
* Pearcey Report
* Perfunction
* Philosophy Over Coffee
* Power Line
* Preterist Archive
* ProLifeBlogs
* Pugnacious Irishman
* Red State
* RedBlueChristian
* Right Wing News
* Ruby Slippers
* Scriptorium Daily
* Sister Toldjah
* Smart Christian
* Stand to Reason
* Stones Cry Out
* Stop the ACLU
* Telic Thoughts
* TheBlogProf
* Thinking Christian
* Touchstone
* UKnow I Am Right
* West Point
* Wintery Knight Blog
* Wizbang
* Zombietime


Stop the ACLU!!! Awesome! :headbang:

if they catch any of Levin's organizers."

Had to chuckle after reading this one. How will they know? And even if they did somehow identify a plant, what would that person be guilty of...impersonating an idiot? Being an idiot isn't a crime, or the jails would be full of Teabaggers.

not one of the other 65 alleged leaders of the crashtheteaparty movement have been named, not once, in any article.

something doesn't look right. as to whether Levin is a RW fraud or just a left wing prankster and PR whiz remains to be seen.

... and I guess I'm not surprised. A feeble attempt to innoculate themselves against their own fucked up ideas.

to push this rotten & false meme around the airways.

and how would that guy organize infiltrators in 65 cities?

Lee Atwater LIVES!

Something you would have found on geocities.

This is perfect cover for the Teabagger Tealaban to blame the crazy shit on us and not themselves.


Levin said he has 66 member groups (and growing) across the country planning to fan out at tea party gatherings on Thursday.

Liar.

FreedomWorks' plan to expose infiltrators like Levin and capture them on video at the Tax Day rallies on Thursday. The group is taking Levin's plan -- and the possibility of other infiltrators -- pretty seriously, and is planning to point out and confront anyone with a "racist or offensive" sign at a rally on Thursday.




Fucking scumbags.

They'll be suspicious of virtually everyone there. With any luck, it should be a cluster duck.

It stinks of a right wing excuse to cover their asses when teabaggers start making ugly racist remarks and getting violent. They are so fucking transparent.

Now if something bad does happen at a teabagger event - they will just blame it on the infiltrators and say that it was them that caused the event to go bad. This allows them to have it both ways.

for the idiots? For example here is a post from December 8th.

http://twitter.com/xenex11

# shares Proof that conservatives are WRONG about healthcare reform!!! http://tinyurl.com/yzzlzvn http://plurk.com/p/2wuozi 8:24 AM Dec 8th, 2009 via API

Greg, I came back to tell you that Anderson Cooper made a reference to this. OMG, I can't believe anybody would believe it! I just caught a couple of minutes, but he clearly made reference to these "liberals who are now going in and crashing the tea parties and trying to blend in and exaggerate all their worst characteristics." It was something very close to that, which is awfully close to this website you refer to. I mean it, man, you gotta get this out there and correct the record.

-APRIL 13, 2010 6:20PM
Right-wing Hoax?

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

MSM lapping it right up.

So this year when Huffington Post shows the 10 most vile signs from the teabagger parties, they can plausibly blame it on liberal imposters. Their base will think it's very plausible.

You've got to hand it to them, they think of everything, and they are extremely proactive.

The base thinks whatever they're TOLD to think.

It's what everyone else thinks that matters.

:evilgrin:


I don't think it is but it's a nice thought. ;)

So couldn't this guy be charged with internet fraud? Assuming he's asking for donations for a false cause, which I'm sure he is, he is defrauding all who donate.

Who wants to test this out and give him $1?

UPDATE #3

So this morning I spent about 20 minutes scrolling thru this guy Jason's Twitter back to his first twit in 2008 I believe. My conclusion so far? he is for real, a nutty sort-of leftist who thinks this would be hilarious to do.

It sounds dangerous to me; then again, exaggerating the nuts might just force them to start differentiating who believes what, and how far they really go. It might also get them accusing each other of being plants and spies based on extremity, which I have to admit would be pretty funny.

But again: dangerous. Guns are no joke, and these people use very violent rhetoric. Jason is getting death threats.

Finally: I will wait more days. I am still not completely convinced about what is going on. At this point, tho, it stretches credulity to think someone on the right would start left-leaning twits two years ago to run this scam.

Comment/link from alsoknownas: http://www.katu.com/news/local/90815614.html

This doesn't sound like the kind of guy who is being run by the Right.

So what an object lesson for me, all of you who commented, OS, everyone, methinks. It is SO hard to sort things out. But it does not excuse us from adding question marks, drawing tetative conclusions, and being skeptical, always.

That fellow Steve I mention down there in the main post? Almost certainly he is just a Republican. Republicans and Democrats get to own businesses, be hosts, without being impugned, and on the premise that's all there is to it, I apologize to him and his company now, here. I would hate to be singled out unfairly just for being a Democrat business owner.

We MUST, starting with me, be very careful. Fairness, engagement and deliberation together must not be compromised just because of dirty tricksters and scams by some.

The Right ran the board with their idea of the "American agenda", in the Bush years, using dishonesty and deception. It's logical and prudent to investigate. But always, ALWAYS with great care.

It starts with me. With us.

Do people really dedicate their lives to this, the Gannon story, etc.? Go volunteer. Fight for the oppressed. Something.

Make no mistake about it the people who are in charge of the Tea Party movement are the oppressors, when they lie to their public their lies need to be exposed.

By the way I have done a great deal to volunteer my time and fight for the oppressed, do you do anything besides tell people not to spend our time exposing right-wing hoaxes?

A lie unanswered stays a lie in the public mind.

Read some George Lakoff.

local teabagger mentioned that he's taking his "little friend" to the tax day rally & his wife's takin' her's, too. LOL! his "wife" has a penis?

http://bit.ly/9bcgP7 From TalkingPointsMemo.com

On Tuesday we told you about Jason Levin, a teacher from Oregon whose group, Crash the Tea Party, aims to bring down the tea parties from the inside. Now, as The Oregonian reports, his school district is investigating his actions after hundreds of calls and emails poured in calling for his dismissal.

The district is investigating whether he used work time to create his web site, crashtheteaparty.org. A school spokesman said he won't be disciplined for his political beliefs.

"That's a free speech issue," said the spokesman. "That's his thing, but what we want to make sure is that he has been appropriate in terms of his actions during his ... work time."

The Tea Party Patriots may be behind the flood of calls. The group included the school district's phone number and contact form in an email Tuesday to supporters.

More at link above.

His plan is brilliant because just by putting the idea of infiltrators out there, he doesn't have to have infiltrators at all. No one need to go to Teabag events to out crazy the crazies. They are so paranoid they will turn on each other, wondering if the person next to them is a "plant" an "infiltrator." For example, in another thread here on DU is a picture of a teabagger who smashed another bagger's sign, declaring
"he's a plant!" Now the other may or may not have been a plant, but the brilliance of the plan is that trust between the baggers will be destroyed, absolutely destroyed. In that same thread is a link to a WaPo article where a WaPo FAITH reporter tried to interview the teabaggers in Chicago, but none would talk to her, thinking she was a "plant." Look, anything that fucks with their heads is a good thing...if this teacher came up with the idea just to fuck with their heads, or to actually recruit infiltrators....whatever, the plan is brilliant.