All aboard the Astroturf bus!

By Michelle Malkin  •  August 19, 2009 11:17 AM

Chris Gautz of the Jackson (MI) Citizen Patriot reports that the SEIU and Organizing For America chartered buses from nearly 200 miles away to plant Obamacare supporters at a town hall meeting held by Democrat Rep. Mark Schauer.

All aboard the Astroturf bus:

Several readers have criticized the Citizen Patriot’s coverage of last week’s health-care rally outside U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer’s office, where hundreds came out — both to support and oppose — President Barack Obama’s reform plan.

The chief criticism was that we failed to mention that some supporters were bused in from around the state.

It is true, and it wasn’t included in the original story, but not because we were trying to slant coverage. The simple truth is it was a difficult fact to nail down.

You’re reading this story today because Tuesday I was able to confirm with the Service Employees International Union that it rented vans and encouraged people to carpool to the event. About 100 SEIU members attended, from as far away as Muskegon and Detroit, said Zac Altefogt, a spokesman for SEIU Healthcare Michigan.

OFA wasn’t very happy about being smoked out:

On Friday, we followed up with Organizing for America, which put out the call for supporters to attend the event. OFA state director Aletheia Henry assured us that her group had not bused people to the rally.

We wrote a short follow-up Saturday and thought it was resolved.

Then this week, some readers e-mailed us photos of supporters standing in front of a bus from Trinity Transportation parked several blocks away near Family Video, 1111 W. Ganson St.

My colleague followed up with Henry. We told her we understood OFA hadn’t chartered the buses, but we wondered if she knew who had. She refused to answer the question and then hung up the phone.

Seems like an overreaction to a news organization simply looking for a straight answer.

Hat tip: Jim Hoft, who maps the bus routes.

Posted in: Health care, SEIU

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Comments


  1. #1
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:25 am, Cathy B said:

    Bussss ted!

  2. #2
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:25 am, verogolfer said:

    Hope those folks are being paid for their time and effort in being bussed almost 200 miles. If so, then the administration could claim it actually is stimulating the economy.

  3. #5
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:30 am, Jeff2161 said:

    Wow, that will reduce their carbon footprint.

  4. #6
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:32 am, oldcollegeguy1980 said:

    I saw something very striking this morning. Over at the daily kook there is a posting of the pics from their meeting in Pittsburgh.

    I looked through the pics and they were the usual preppy with computers pics. Nothing real odd, some funny looking folks having fun, some serious looking folks not having as much fun. Just pics from a convention

    Then it hit me, the only black folks in these pics were either alone or seemingly grabbed by some lone liberal to show their face with a black person. It also struck me how few black folks were in that series of over 200 pics. And when I looked closer it seemed a few of the pics were of the same black people. They were just pimped to make it look like there was some even minor contingent of african americans.

    So for all there talk of diversity it seems the liberal kooks like their conventions just like their klan rallys.

    White very white.

  5. #7
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:32 am, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

    Obama and SEIU are but two of the vermin parasites eating us alive. Can they be removed before the damage is fatal?

  6. #8
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:32 am, shimauma2 said:

    Hope those folks are being paid for their time and effort in being bussed almost 200 miles

    That would be double dipping since most of these folks get a gov’ment check anyhow…not that double dipping is anything a demoncrap supporter wouldn’t do anyway.

  7. #9
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:33 am, Rogue Cheddar said:

    200 miles?! How green is that?!

  8. #10
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:34 am, Rogue Cheddar said:

    Some people will do anything for a WIC card.

  9. #11
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:35 am, John Deaux said:

    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:25 am, verogolfer said:
    Hope those folks are being paid for their time and effort in being bussed almost 200 miles.

    Oh, they’re getting paid.

  10. #12
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:36 am, rightisright said:

    ok, these folks are union employees we’re told, if so, when do they work or is this their union job?

  11. #13
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:37 am, rightisright said:

    Oh, they’re getting paid.

    That you can bet on…one way or another their getting paid and guess who’s paying them.

  12. #15
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:40 am, DBNinKY said:

    Oh, they’re getting paid.

    No doubt! But the sad fact is, no one in the media but FNC will notice it. To the MSM, this is just an above-board example of average, everyday Americans exercising their right to “free” speech!

  13. #16
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:41 am, Jeff2161 said:

    Just a broad meaning of ‘community’ organizing.

  14. #17
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:45 am, 7thson said:

    rightisright said:
    ok, these folks are union employees we’re told, if so, when do they work or is this their union job?

    Most of the recruits that the union gets to walk picket lines or protest come from the unemployed on the union books. These are usually the whiners and complainers who can’t keep a job and the non-productive who are the first to be laid off when a job finishes. When I was a union carpenter foreman many years ago, we referred to them as “warm bodies”.

    They do whatever the union tells them so they can work just enough to qualify the rest of the year for unemployment and keep their healthcare benefits.

  15. #19
    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:48 am, rightisright said:

    On August 19th, 2009 at 11:45 am, 7thson said:

    Appreciate your input, so, that means these people are incapable of thinking for themselves and need to be ushered through life with a hand out? Now it all makes sense.

  16. #21
    On August 19th, 2009 at 12:14 pm, spaceycakes said:

    Ew. Glad I wasn’t on that bus.

  17. #22
    On August 19th, 2009 at 12:15 pm, Flyoverman said:

    The Hessians were hired mercenaries who fought for money. The Continental Army consisted of patriots who fought for their freedom.

    Let the buses come.

  18. #23
    On August 19th, 2009 at 12:26 pm, shimauma2 said:

    On August 19th, 2009 at 12:15 pm, Flyoverman said:

    DUDE!! Awesome comparision! Well done; I’m gonna have to borrow that one.

  19. #24
    On August 19th, 2009 at 12:41 pm, Old Tanker said:

    Wow, I was just going to send this as a tip, it’s my home town and Mark Schauer is my congress critter (ugh) Schauer was just at my old employer the other day to talk health care. It is a union shop full of people who already have health care.

    link here

    As a correection, Schauer was not holding a town hall meeting, it was a planned protest. He only held a “telephone townhall”. He said that he won’t hold any townhalls because no one was coming. Of course he had his last one BEFORE this bill was made public…..bet people would show up now.

    BTW, Jackson MI. is the birthplace of the Republican party….

  20. #25
    On August 19th, 2009 at 12:56 pm, cheapseat said:

    JUST MADE MY FLIGHT PLANS FOR SEPT 12 TO D.C. IN IN THE MORNING OUT AT NIGHT, INEXPENSIVE, AND WITH THE METRO, NO CAB FARE OR HOTEL. ACCORDING TO OUR PREZ, IF YOU CONDUCT ANY BUSINESS THERE, IT’S DEDUCTABLE. TALK TO THE GUY NEXT TO YOU ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS, THAT’S A MEETING TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS.

  21. #26
    On August 19th, 2009 at 12:56 pm, JusDreamin said:

    I would also add, good for the Patriot for following up on the story.

  22. #28
    On August 19th, 2009 at 1:15 pm, iamsaved said:

    You’re reading this story today because Tuesday I was able to confirm with the Service Employees International Union that it rented vans and encouraged people to carpool to the event.

    The one’s I saw on TV were getting off school buses. Now maybe those who got off the bus were attending summer school because they weren’t the sharpest pencils in the box, but they sure looked too old to be riding a school bus to the event.

  23. #29
    On August 19th, 2009 at 1:17 pm, Dexter Alarius said:

    Get bussed around to vote.
    Get bussed around to protest.
    Glad I’ve got that ACORN neck pillow.
    /fraud_mode_off

  24. #32
    On August 19th, 2009 at 2:20 pm, By Choice said:

    I was in Phoenix on Monday when Obama spoke to the VFW convention. “They” busssed in people from Los Angeles with the likely hood of meeting “the One” as VIP’s and were PAID TO BE THERE. Probably 3/4 of the ones shown in all the pictures are NOT from AZ. What’s more. all the pictures showing the “guns” were taken on the Obama side of the street—total SET UP!!!!

    The “Astro-turfers” really had a great time.

  25. #36
    On August 19th, 2009 at 4:16 pm, Stewed Hamm said:

    It bears mentioning that Schauer’s district (MI7) isn’t one of those bizarrely gerrymandered creatures they have in Pennsylvania. Muskegon and Detroit are far outside of this district, and people not represented by Rep Schauer have no business displacing his actual constituents at a town hall.

  26. #37
    On August 19th, 2009 at 5:37 pm, gridlock said:

    Bill Clinton had to make do with just an El Camino with Astroturf in the back!

  27. #40
    On August 19th, 2009 at 9:06 pm, katablog said:

    Ho hum, does that mean I need to make yet another trip over to realitycheck to have them explain this along with the 2nd fake wacko doctor? Well at least it’s consolidated with flag now so I don’t have to report in two places.

  28. #41
    On August 19th, 2009 at 9:07 pm, Rogue Cheddar said:

    On August 19th, 2009 at 5:37 pm, gridlock said:
    Bill Clinton had to make do with just an El Camino with Astroturf in the back!

    I hear Hillary still suffers an occasiional flareup of turf toe.

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