Health Care Astroturfing

So, who are the people "astroturfing"? The following is from an SEIU email instructing union members attending a health care townhall on how to act and to try and hide the fact that they are part of an organized effort by urging them to create "homemade" signs. I also like the part where the opposition is simply based on "Fox-news style ignorance" rather than a true difference of opinion. Oh and the SEIU crowd "are the sane, educated side". Right...

If you plan on staying outside the building (or have to because the venue becomes full), please make and bring a sign. The anti-reform signs are homemade and look like they are real constituents (some of them are constituents, but some are paid to be there). Positive educational signs work best, rather than sarcastic ones or nasty ones. Their “facts” are based in complete Fox-news style ignorance. Remember WE are the sane, educated side. These rallies are photographed and the media will print or publish great signs. (see below for sign ideas from Nancy Cronk.)

and

Some sign ideas from Nancy: Every week, 14,000 Americans lose their health care. No Rush - health care reform has been on the table since 1949. Reform means choice. Keep your own plan if you want it. Health Reform NOW. Thank-you Barack Obama. Everyone deserves Health Care. Health Care for all - it’s the moral option. Jesus would not deny anyone. Every other modern country insures everyone - why not U.S.?

I don't know what kool-aid they are drinking but this statement is so far from the truth that their noses MUST be growing!

Surveys show we are the majority.

Ha! Sorry but repeating the same lie often enough still does not make it true. All recent polling shows health care reform either dead even or a majority against.

Update:

And I am rather surprised that this actually made the LA Times! They will get their union cards revoked for accidentally covering this story: Wanted: Obama healthcare reform volunteers willing to be paid $15 an hour. a web ad on Craigslist: "You can work for change. Join motivated staff around the country working to make change happen. You can make great friends and money along the way. Earn $400-$600 a week."

What is really funny is that the article can not help but include "both sides appear to have paid lobbyists". There is a big difference between paid Washington lobbyists and the implication that those protesting against reform are paid. The only paid protesters that the LA Times gives evidence of are those supporting the reform plan.

More Update:

And this gem!

Roxana Mayer introduces herself as a doctor (a general practitioner for four years) in order to support ObamaCare and Jackson-Lee in a fairly hostile crowd. For her efforts, she gets a big hug from the Congresswoman, an image which the Houston Chronicle featured prominently on their website coverage of the event.

Not only was Mayer not a doctor, Roxana Mayer was an Obama delegate, as Patterico discovered with some digging. What’s more, the Houston Chronicle apparently knew this and failed to include it in its glowing coverage of Mayer’s appearance.

They are getting so desperate that they are getting sloppy! All of this could have slipped quietly under the radar a few years ago but no longer (thank God!).