Coffee Party Parasites

[shagdrum]

Coffee Party Parasites
The New York Times and Washington Post are promoting a group called the "Coffee Party" organized by filmmaker Annabel Park.

The Coffee Party is a political parasite which presents itself as something it is not. As reported in the NY Times, Park presents herself as not hostile to the Tea Party movement, and in fact, hopes to bring some Tea Partiers into her group:

“We’re not the opposite of the Tea Party,” Ms. Park, 41, said. “We’re a different model of civic participation, but in the end we may want some of the same things.” ....
Ms. Park and chapter organizers said they would invite Tea Party members to join their Coffee counterparts in discussions. “We need to roll up our sleeves, put our heads together and work it out,” she said. “That’s, to me, an American way of doing this.” ​

n fact, a simple internet search (which the NY Times apparently is not capable of doing) reveals that Park organized the Coffee Party for the specific purpose of undermining the Tea Party movement.

Park is a former Strategy Analyst at the NY Times who was one of organizers and operators of the United for Obama video channel at YouTube:

A Korean-American filmmaker is in charge of creating video clips that are playing a role in increasing support for Senator Barack Obama, the frontrunner for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

"I found that people have little understanding of the change that Senator Barack Obama is advocating. I thought from my experience in using videos for civil movements that videos would be the best way to promote the need for change and for Obama. That's why I decided to work for the Obama campaign," Annabel Park said.

Joining the contest in December last year as chief of a promotional video team, Park has produced some 20 five-minute video clips which have generated a positive response. A clip interviewing actress Kelly Hu in support of the senator was viewed some 10,000 times, and a music video called "Oh Bama" [embed below, Park appears at 1:35]] drew wide attention. She has also produced Spanish-language videos to draw support from Hispanics.

The 40-year-old Park is leading an Obama promotional section on video-sharing site YouTube (www.youtube.com/unitedforobama) with around 10 other volunteers.​

YouTube- Music Video "Oh Bama" for Obama
Park's Twitter history leaves no doubt as to her hatred of the Tea Party movement, and the formation of the Coffee Party as a counterweight:

It is very clear from Park's background, and her own Tweets, that the Coffee Party simply is part of the perpetual Obama campaign, a means by which to subvert the real grassroots Tea Party movement by co-opting part of the message, but in a way which supports keeping Obama in power.

Much like a parasite which feeds off of and ultimately takes over the host.

 

[fossten]

So can we call them 'beanbaggers?'

 

[shagdrum]

Join the Cocoa Party!

Tired of the Coffee Party and the Tea Party? We’re the newest game in town!

I woke up this morning and realized I didn’t want tea or coffee. I wanted hot cocoa!

So I turned on my computer and in a few minutes founded a new political movement — The Cocoa Party!

Yes, it was that simple.

Then I got one of my friends at the newspaper where I used to work to violate all professional journalistic ethics by writing a puff-piece about me without revealing that I used to work there. Thanks!

Also, thanks for not mentioning that I used to really really really like Kool-Aid.

Now, in between fielding 100 emails an hour from new members wanting to start chapters from Wasilla to Waco, Twittering 17 witty tweets per minute, fielding calls from TV producers and journalists, and weeping with joy and sincerity about our wonderful country, I barely have time to consider that I’ve just revolutionized politics — all before lunch!

But enough about me. This is about The Cocoa Party!

MISSION
The Cocoa Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see chocolate in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of chocolate, but the expression of our collective will to drink hot cocoa, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as cocoa-drinkers. As voters and caffeinated volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward the addition of those little marshmallows, and hold accountable those who want to ban hot beverages altogether.

We’re so grassroots, we’re weedroots.

About Us

We are diverse — whipped cream, cinnamon, mint-flavored, soy, or straight-up old-fashioned.

We are 100% weedroots. No astroturf Obama-campaigning former New York Times employees in the Cocoa Movement, no sirree! No grassroots racist fascist redneck Neanderthal Teabaggers either! 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 ludicrous propaganda that is entirely blame-oriented.

We demand a government that responds to the needs of the majority of its hot beverage drinkers as expressed by our choice of mugs or cups; NOT corporate interests as expressed by misleading coffee advertisements posing as legitimate journalism!

We want a society in which hot cocoa is treated as sacrosanct and ordinary citizens drink it out of a sense of civic duty, civic pride, and a desire to taste something delicious. The Cocoa Party is a call to action. Our Founding Fathers and Mothers gave us an enduring gift — chocolate — and we must drink it to meet the challenges that we face as a nation.
​

Oh wait — I forgot: We don’t hate those Teabaggers or those upstart Java Jivers! No really, we don’t! In fact, we’re just like you guys. Honestly. You prefer one kind of hot beverage, we prefer another kind — it’s all good. Can’t we all just get along? But remember, there’s only room for one hot-beverage-weedroots movement in this sweet country of ours — so abandon your deeply held beliefs and principles and join our 100% authentic political uprising today!

 

[foxpaws]

I think I'll have to look into the sprinkle faction of the cocoa party... But only if they align themselves with the schnapps sect...

It is pretty apparent the left doesn't understand the 'tea party'. I know I have had a hard time. A group that is so loosely connected is fairly hard for either side to comprehend. Both Republicans and Dems are huge machines, the Tea Party lacks the 'machine' part. Dems understand Reps, and the other way around, because, in reality, the way they conduct 'business' really isn't that different. With the tea party they don't have a point of reference.

It is best to leave the tea party alone - they appear to be fairly self destructive on their own.

 

[shagdrum]

It is pretty apparent the left doesn't understand the 'tea party'. I know I have had a hard time. A group that is so loosely connected is fairly hard for either side to comprehend. Both Republicans and Dems are huge machines, the Tea Party lacks the 'machine' part. Dems understand Reps, and the other way around, because, in reality, the way they conduct 'business' really isn't that different. With the tea party they don't have a point of reference.

I would agree with that.

It is best to leave the tea party alone - they appear to be fairly self destructive on their own.

I would not agree with that.

 

[shagdrum]

Why the Tea Parties Mystify the Media
Posted by Flagstaff



Tea Parties and their participants have been an ongoing mystery to the media, including some commentators that we sometimes think are relatively unbiased. When it comes to the participants, even though they’re acknowledged to be mostly independents and Republicans, the pundits have strange ideas about what motivates them, where they came from, and what they mean for the future of the Republican Party. One reason is that the media pundits are all too ready to accept the Democrat spin on any issue. Another reason may be that they and we have the wrong mental picture of the electorate.

When people called “independents” are imagined, where are they placed in the political spectrum? Usually, they’re thought of as being between the Democrat Liberals on the left and the Republican Conservatives on the right. They are the moderates, occupying the middle ground, neither liberal nor conservative, neither Democrat nor Republican. They are pictured as torn between both camps, willing to go with the one that appeals to them on some particular issue, but not very strongly interested in either philosophy of government. That’s why Republicans are often encouraged to create a “Big Tent” that will attract these uncommitted voters on their left flank. This picture is probably accurate in some cases.

But this vision of independents becomes very confusing when applied to the Tea Partiers, and as a result, some of the pundits, listening to Democrat spin, label them “haters” and racists and fringe characters of all sorts–gun nuts, rubes, angry white men; fearful, uneducated and uninformed boobs, you name it. But it’s only confusing because that stereotype isn’t an appropriate description.

They are obviously more than slightly energized by a philosophy of government, the one that says the federal government is too big, too intrusive, too expansive, too expensive, and out of control. But this implies that, rather than being the aforementioned boobs, they’re as well-educated and better informed than the average man on the street. They certainly know enough about the issues to ask questions about them, and they don’t like the answers they get back.

They aren’t just anti-Obama, and there’s really nothing to indicate that either hate or race is a motivating factor behind the movement. They aren’t even necessarily anti-Democrat–many of them are probably disaffected Democrats. And it’s not helpful to describe them as “haters” who are anti-everything unless you also identify the object of the projected “hate.” That object is not the President–it’s the huge government, and the increasingly intrusive government, and the exponential growth of government that he’s advocating. You could as well say that they’re “lovers”–they love smaller, less intrusive and less expensive government that is controlled by the Constitution.

They are fearful, but not because of ignorance, and they’re not afraid of a Black President, as is always implied. They’re afraid that their modern-day Captain Edward Smith is in the process of steering that Titanic government into a field of icebergs from which his successor won’t be able to escape. Those are their motivations. To dismiss them as merely “angry and afraid” (media code for “irrational, ignorant racists”) is to disparage them as irrelevant, which they obviously are not. Yet the left has tried to do that, perhaps because they’ve given up on winning any of these voters to their side.

If we accept this alternative view of Tea Party supporters, they aren’t hard to explain at all. It’s only because the media pundits want to believe they’re some new expression of extremism that they haven’t understood them yet, and why they don’t recognize where they’ve come from. I would describe them as a group of voters who would be Republicans if the Republican Party could convince them it stood for the things they want–a government that’s under control, that follows the Constitution, that isn’t trying to do everything for everybody while taking their money in taxes to do it. (In fact, that’s basically what the Republican Party says it stands for. The Tea Partiers would just like to see Republicans acting on those principles, not just more often but all the time.) Picture them not on the middle ground between the Democrat left and the Republican right, but as an overlay stretching philosophically from somewhere left of the political midpoint all the way to the right, soaring above the Republican party. They haven’t come from anywhere; they’ve been there all along. They are conservatives and conservative-leaning independents, Libertarians, Republicans, and even Reagan Democrats that the Republican Party has been ignoring for years.

If the Republicans want to expand the size of their tent, they don’t need to put on faddish Liberal pretenses to entice the odd passerby in through the side entrance. They need to blow the roof off the tent, replace it with a giant magnet of awareness, understanding, and responsible conservatism, and let those millions of independents, Libertarians, and disaffected Democrats and Republicans come pouring down from the sky above. It will happen if Republican leadership responds to their pleas, not for Compassionate Conservatism, but for effective, Principled Conservatism, conservatism with a backbone.

This is not news to Democrat strategists. It’s precisely why they’re afraid of Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh and even Glenn Beck (not a Republican) and every Tea Party speaker and supporter who firmly believes in and convincingly advocates conservative principles. Those philosophical trailblazers already have the attention of the American people, including independents. Democrats are afraid that Republican Party leadership just might start following that trail as well. They had a glimpse into the future last Thursday, as Republican after Republican gave conservative, principled reasons for their opposition to ObamaCare. It’s a future Democrats don’t want to contemplate.

 

[fossten]

I think I'll have to look into the sprinkle faction of the cocoa party... But only if they align themselves with the schnapps sect...

It is pretty apparent the left doesn't understand the 'tea party'. I know I have had a hard time. A group that is so loosely connected is fairly hard for either side to comprehend. Both Republicans and Dems are huge machines, the Tea Party lacks the 'machine' part. Dems understand Reps, and the other way around, because, in reality, the way they conduct 'business' really isn't that different. With the tea party they don't have a point of reference.

It is best to leave the tea party alone - they appear to be fairly self destructive on their own.

Yeah those elections in IL, NJ, and MA really were debacles.

Funny how the left and the media continues to try to smear the Tea Parties despite their 'self destructive' nature, eh?

The reason you lefties don't get the Tea Parties is because you assume astroturfing must be taking place, but you can't find any evidence of it. Classic case of projection.

 

[shagdrum]

Join the Cocoa party on facebook.

 

[shagdrum]

It seems that the liberals may be actively trying to tear apart the tea party movement.

Since the mocking, smearing and marginalizing didn't work, it appears they may have turned to other tactics like manufacturing alternatives to the tea party movement and running candidates under the tea party name to divide the conservative vote. Not to anyone's suprise, the sycophant mainstream media willingly plays along.

Manufactured actions like this could support the idea that the tea parties are "self-destructive"...

New liberal talking point being created?

 

[foxpaws]

It seems that the liberals may be actively trying to tear apart the tea party movement.

Since the mocking, smearing and marginalizing didn't work, it appears they may have turned to other tactics like manufacturing alternatives to the tea party movement and running candidates under the tea party name to divide the conservative vote. Not to anyone's suprise, the sycophant mainstream media willingly plays along.

Manufactured actions like this could support the idea that the tea parties are "self-destructive"...

New liberal talking point being created?

The Tea Party doesn't pull from democrat bases and will be absorbed eventually into the GOP... That is what I mean by self destructive. Because of their lack of cohesiveness, and their continued claim of having no 'one' leader (their spunky independence) there isn't really anywhere else for them to go. They can't support 3rd party candidates effectively - they will just kill their chances, along with the GOPs chances and the Dems would be left. “Better the Devil you know than the Devil you don't”. So, they will eventually have to toss their votes to the GOP.

If that is what they want, to change the veneer of the GOP - they probably will accomplish that. However - assimilation is on the horizon. The GOP will continue to be a machine and the tea party as it becomes a faction of the GOP will become just one of many voices within the party and eventually it will just fade away. The tea party people will start working for Republican candidates if they want to 'make a difference' and will end up supporting the party.

It is what happens to most 3rd party groups - they get absorbed by one of the larger parties.

I thought at one point that they might have a chance - to pull from both parties and become a viable 3rd choice. But, that isn't going to be the case, they alienated the 'middle left'.

A few cases where there has been some success in a third party - the Progressives at the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s is one, but eventually they sort of fell apart and were 'taken in' by the Dems. They did change the veneer of the party however...

 

[fossten]

The Tea Party doesn't pull from democrat bases and will be absorbed eventually into the GOP... That is what I mean by self destructive. Because of their lack of cohesiveness, and their continued claim of having no 'one' leader (their spunky independence) there isn't really anywhere else for them to go. They can't support 3rd party candidates effectively - they will just kill their chances, along with the GOPs chances and the Dems would be left. “Better the Devil you know than the Devil you don't”. So, they will eventually have to toss their votes to the GOP.

If that is what they want, to change the veneer of the GOP - they probably will accomplish that. However - assimilation is on the horizon. The GOP will continue to be a machine and the tea party as it becomes a faction of the GOP will become just one of many voices within the party and eventually it will just fade away. The tea party people will start working for Republican candidates if they want to 'make a difference' and will end up supporting the party.

It is what happens to most 3rd party groups - they get absorbed by one of the larger parties.

I thought at one point that they might have a chance - to pull from both parties and become a viable 3rd choice. But, that isn't going to be the case, they alienated the 'middle left'.

A few cases where there has been some success in a third party - the Progressives at the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s is one, but eventually they sort of fell apart and were 'taken in' by the Dems. They did change the veneer of the party however...

Boy you really are dumb if you believe all that bull. Been surfing DKos lately, huh?

The fact is that the Tea Party was and is a grassroots entity. Its goal is to reduce spending in Washington by both parties. Its success is noted by the recent elections, the media smears, and the imitation by the lame lefties. It doesn't have to 'go' anywhere. That's where your logic breaks down - your vain assumptions as you try to attribute your typical voting bloc characteristics to the Tea Parties.

You keep treating it like it's being directed by a central authority. Where is your evidence that Tea Parties are working for the GOP?

Good luck with all of your 'thoughts.'

 

[foxpaws]

Boy you really are dumb if you believe all that bull. Been surfing DKos lately, huh?

The fact is that the Tea Party was and is a grassroots entity. Its goal is to reduce spending in Washington by both parties. Its success is noted by the recent elections, the media smears, and the imitation by the lame lefties. It doesn't have to 'go' anywhere. That's where your logic breaks down - your vain assumptions as you try to attribute your typical voting bloc characteristics to the Tea Parties.

You keep treating it like it's being directed by a central authority. Where is your evidence that Tea Parties are working for the GOP?

Good luck with all of your 'thoughts.'

Foss - I know it isn't being directed by a central authority - I pointed that out as a 'flaw' (their lack of cohesiveness). And their success is the GOP success...

The only candidates that will bend to them are GOP candidates. I would really surprised if they support any Dem candidates. The Dems won't be pandering to the tea party, unlike the GOP. Are you going to go to the dance with the girl who says will do anything for you, or the one that looks right through you...

Remember that girl says she will do anything for you-but, once you get to the dance - there is a good chance she will be ignoring you.

I think the dems could lose the house - the senate-tougher- with only 33 seats up this time. But, what then? If the tea party just supports GOP candidates - they will get absorbed, they won't be any different than Young Republicans. A faction of a larger group.

I know the dems are starting to look at them - not as some outside threat - but just a very vocal arm of the GOP.

 

[fossten]

Foss - I know it isn't being directed by a central authority - I pointed that out as a 'flaw' (their lack of cohesiveness). And their success is the GOP success...

The only candidates that will bend to them are GOP candidates. I would really surprised if they support any Dem candidates. The Dems won't be pandering to the tea party, unlike the GOP. Are you going to go to the dance with the girl who says will do anything for you, or the one that looks right through you...

Remember that girl says she will do anything for you-but, once you get to the dance - there is a good chance she will be ignoring you.

I think the dems could lose the house - the senate-tougher- with only 33 seats up this time. But, what then? If the tea party just supports GOP candidates - they will get absorbed, they won't be any different than Young Republicans. A faction of a larger group.

I know the dems are starting to look at them - not as some outside threat - but just a very vocal arm of the GOP.

Funny how you call lack of groupthink a lack of cohesiveness. You can't have it both ways.

Exit question: Is it possible for you to focus on one point without rambling on and on like a 7 year old?

 

[Calabrio]

Just thought this warranted some more attention:
CNN Omits 'Coffee Party' Founder's Past as Obama Volunteer
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthe...y-founders-past-obama-volunteer#ixzz0hN4NEsqc

...Annabel Park, the founder of the so-called Coffee Party, worked as a volunteer for President Barack Obama's presidential campaign, during an interview on Wednesday's American Morning. The anchors also didn't mention Park's past work for the liberal New York Times....Park worked .... an organizer and operator of the United for Obama video channel on YouTube

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthe...y-founders-past-obama-volunteer#ixzz0hN4hO5r4




What part of the "Tea Party" message do you think makes them incompatible with Democrats, foxpaws?

 

[fossten]

Foss - I know it isn't being directed by a central authority - I pointed that out as a 'flaw' (their lack of cohesiveness). And their success is the GOP success...

The only candidates that will bend to them are GOP candidates. I would really surprised if they support any Dem candidates. The Dems won't be pandering to the tea party, unlike the GOP. Are you going to go to the dance with the girl who says will do anything for you, or the one that looks right through you...

Remember that girl says she will do anything for you-but, once you get to the dance - there is a good chance she will be ignoring you.

I think the dems could lose the house - the senate-tougher- with only 33 seats up this time. But, what then? If the tea party just supports GOP candidates - they will get absorbed, they won't be any different than Young Republicans. A faction of a larger group.

I know the dems are starting to look at them - not as some outside threat - but just a very vocal arm of the GOP.

You're sorely mistaken in your view of the Tea Parties. They are not party affiliated. Keep telling yourself that they are, though. It keeps you underestimating their potency.

The fact is that both parties have suffered brand damage by embracing big government - the Dems more than the GOP. The Tea Parties are the real thing and they are about shrinking the size of government. Time for you to get over it.

 

[foxpaws]

You're sorely mistaken in your view of the Tea Parties. They are not party affiliated. Keep telling yourself that they are, though. It keeps you underestimating their potency.

The fact is that both parties have suffered brand damage by embracing big government - the Dems more than the GOP. The Tea Parties are the real thing and they are about shrinking the size of government. Time for you to get over it.

Foss - they may be the 'real thing' but they will be absorbed into the GOP... if you only back one party's candidates, what differentiates you from the party - nothing...

Resistance is futile...

 

[fossten]

Foss - they may be the 'real thing' but they will be absorbed into the GOP... if you only back one party's candidates, what differentiates you from the party - nothing...

Resistance is futile...

Wrong! Tea Parties will be most effective in the primaries. The GOP has a blue blood faction that needs to go. You have it backwards - the Tea Parties are trying to CHANGE the party from within. The Tea Parties' strength has already struck fear into the hearts of Democrats as well. Nothing like a groundswell of grassroots outrage to mobilize a base and defeat the other party, eh?

Too bad you don't understand that.

 

[shagdrum]

What part of the "Tea Party" message do you think makes them incompatible with Democrats, foxpaws?

Well fox? We are still waiting...

 

[fossten]

Exit question: Is it possible for you to focus on one point without rambling on and on like a 7 year old?

I'm still waiting too, foxpaws...

 

[foxpaws]

Well fox? We are still waiting...

Ah - teaparty incompatibility with Dems...

Oh everywhere - size of government, taxes, regulations...

The tea party actually aligns best with the libertarians - why aren't they embracing those candidates? Libertarians have a party system, they are on the ballot everywhere usually (at least here they are always on the ballot), they fit the 'small government' mantra far better than the Reps.

Republicans like big government, don't you think all this talk of smaller government by them is just a ploy to move the tea party members into their corner? What have they done in the past - increase the size of government, increased the debt (hugely), both things the tea party is against. If I were a tea party member I would go by actions and not by rhetoric. The Republicans can talk the talk - but they won't be walking the walk if you go by recent history.

Perhaps they are just naive - those tea party members.

 

[foxpaws]

I'm still waiting too, foxpaws...

7 - well maybe a teenager with ADD...

 

[foxpaws]

Wrong! Tea Parties will be most effective in the primaries. The GOP has a blue blood faction that needs to go. You have it backwards - the Tea Parties are trying to CHANGE the party from within. The Tea Parties' strength has already struck fear into the hearts of Democrats as well. Nothing like a groundswell of grassroots outrage to mobilize a base and defeat the other party, eh?

Too bad you don't understand that.

From without Foss - not from within - that is why they will probably just be assimilated eventually.

Too bad you don't understand that...

 

[fossten]

From without Foss - not from within - that is why they will probably just be assimilated eventually.

Too bad you don't understand that...

Still wandering around in search of a thought, I see. Too bad you don't understand that you don't even have a point.

You're really boring to talk to anymore. No substance whatsoever, just smilies and little quips. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

 

[Calabrio]

From without Foss - not from within - that is why they will probably just be assimilated eventually.

Too bad you don't understand that...

If one of the political parties were to actively embrace and respresent the philosophy embraced by this organic movement, why would that be considered a bad thing?

Apparently you don't understand, the "teaparty movement" is not about self-perpetuation or accumulation of power.

It' not a political party, it represents a political movement.
If a party adopts it and assimilates the values of fiscal responsibility, constitutional limited government, and personal liberty and responsibility- that's the purpose. The people at Tea Party events aren't "activists" like yourself. They aren't flash mobs, like the Democrats like to buy, or union thugs. Most of them were awaken from their complacency and they only participate in these events because they feel they have to, otherwise people like you, will work in the shadows to fundamentally transform our country