The Astroturf Presidency
Who is Ellie Light?
I predict you’ll start seeing the question as a popular bumper sticker soon (a la “Who is John Galt?”…and voila, someone has already made a t-shirt!).
It’s a handy rhetorical rejoinder the next time the White House or your nutroots neighbors and co-workers try to tar the Tea Party or any other grass-roots revolts against President Obama as phony, top-down operations.
When Obama’s Soros-funded, Big Labor-directed, K Street-organized goons engage in classic projection and you need a glib way to call out the pot calling the kettle black, just snap back:
Who is Ellie Light?
A Cleveland Plain Dealer blog first broke the story over the weekend of a “suspicious” letter-writer named “Ellie Light” who submitted more than a dozen pro-Obama letters to the editors in recent weeks using addresses from Philadelphia to California and all points in between. Open-source-optimizing blogger Patterico has added much more information on both “Donald Trump Astroturfing” (“a letter published in multiple places from one person claiming to live in multiple cities”) and “David Axelrod Astroturfing” (“identical letters published in multiple places claiming to be from different people”).
Kudos to the Plain Dealer for smoking out the initial ringer and Patterico and his readers/tipsters for delving deeper. But so much for the rest of the vaunted gate-keepers of the Fourth Estate, eh?
The bogus letters are just the latest example of Obama theater — doctors in costumes, town hall stage props, trumped-up Obamacare anecdotes, kiddie proxies, etc., etc., etc.
Underscoring this administration’s dependence on centrally planned, teleprompter-dependent perpetual campaigns of manufactured support, the other half of Obama’s Astroturf Twin Power — David Plouffe — will soon rejoin Chicago cronies David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, and the rest to rescue the Democrats in a new expanded role as outside White House adviser.
A reminder from my August 21, 2009 column on Corporate Shills for Hope and Change:
Money from pharmaceutical firms and health care companies is dirty, evil, and corrupting – except when key members of Team Obama are pocketing it. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs derides grass-roots opponents of socialized health care as industry-funded lackeys with questionable motives and conflicts of interest. But what about the corporate shills at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
Two weeks ago, the White House embraced $150 million in drug industry ads supporting Obamacare. This week, Bloomberg News reported that White House senior adviser and chief campaign strategist David Axelrod’s former public relations firm, AKPD Message and Media, has raked in some $24 million in ad contracts supporting Obamacare – along with another p.r. firm, GMMB, run by other Obama strategists.
The ads are funded by Big Pharma, the AARP, AMA, and the powerhouse Services Employees International Union (whose Purple Shirts dumped $80 million in independent expenditures to get Obama and the Democrat majority elected). In trademark Axelrod-ian style, the special interest coalition adopted faux grass-roots names – first under the banner of “Healthy Economy Now” and more recently as “Americans for Stable Quality Care.”
Because, well, “Corporate Shills for Hope and Change” doesn’t have quite the same ring of authenticity.
Astroturf master Axelrod was president and sole shareholder of AKPD from 1985 until last December, when he resigned to take his White House position. His son, Michael, works there. So does former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. Axelrod is prominently featured on AKPD’s website, from a founder’s quote on the front page (“CHANGE IS SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO FIGHT FOR”) to the glamorous election night photos of Plouffe and Axelrod with the Obamas. AKPD still consults with Axelrod on “strategy and research” for the Democratic National Committee. The firm owes Axelrod $2 million, due in annual installments of $350,000, $650,000, $400,000 and $600,000.
That Axelrod and his old firm benefit mutually from their respective roles selling Obamacare should be gobsmackingly obvious. Axelrod pushes the White House plan on TV news shows. AKPD derives mega-income from ad contracts selling the White House-endorsed plan. The windfall allows AKPD to settle its debts with Axelrod, whose name, face, and high-powered ties are critical to future wheel-greasing for AKPD — and future salary-earning for Axelrod’s son and close associates.
The ‘Turf Gang: Gibbs, Plouffe, Obama, and Axelrod
Plouffe authored an op-ed for the Washington Post over the weekend crusading to save the Demcare government takeover. His Washington Post byline does not mention his position at AKPD and does not disclose his financial conflicts of interests in promoting Demcare while serving as senior adviser to AKPD, which raked in an estimated $24 million in drug industry ads supporting Demcare along with Obama-tied p.r. firm GMMB.
Another MSM failure to keep readers fully informed:
David Plouffe, campaign manager of Obama for America and Obama-Biden 2008, is the author of “Audacity to Win.”
On a related note, check out this recent Craigslist advertisement in the Astroturf gang’s hometown of Chicago soliciting paid canvassers for a Democratic National Committee-tied entity:
Background on Grassroots Campaign Inc. :
Grassroots Campaigns (GCI) is an independent organization that does strategic consulting, fundraising, and field organizing for good causes and candidates. We specialize in building and running face-to-face outreach operations in neighborhoods and in high-traffic public venues to build support for groups, issues, and campaigns.
GCI was founded in December of 2003, and by April of 2004 had opened offices in 40 cities throughout the country. By July 2004, we had over 2,000 staff knocking on doors and talking to voters on behalf of the Democratic National Committee. With continued work on behalf of MoveOn PAC in October, we added a volunteer force of 50,000 individuals canvassing their neighborhoods in 17 of the most hotly contested swing states of the 2004 Presidential Election. Since 2004, we’ve continued to partner with groups and campaigns to advance good issues, raise money for progressive causes, help take back Congress, and build activism at the grassroots level.
The people at GCI are seasoned organizing and fundraising professionals with a commitment to positive reforms. Our staff has over 150 years of professional experience. They have:
• Designed and implemented electoral, initiative, legislative, corporate, small donor fundraising, and petition gathering campaigns;
• Put together organization membership drives and raised over $500 million;
• Ran conferences of a couple hundred to a couple thousand college students;
• Trained thousands of professional organizers and campaign staff;
• Worked with scores of different groups on the national, regional, state, Congressional, local, and campus levels;
• Recruited and trained hundreds of thousands of volunteers;
• Helped launch or run over a dozen different organizations;
• Sat on the boards of directors for many groups and campaign steering committees.
Via Slate from 2004, GCI’s “for-profit canvassing” is seen as the “DNC’s secret weapon:”
Voters this fall in Democratic strongholds are witnessing an increasingly common sight. Staked out on busy sidewalks in at least 38 American cities, political activists carrying credit-card authorization forms are drumming up donations for the campaign to defeat George W. Bush. Outfitted in T-shirts emblazoned with star-spangled Democratic National Committee logos, these earnest young men and women come across as grass-roots volunteers of the most enthusiastic sort. Little old ladies interrupt their strolls to thank them for their hard work.
But appearances can be deceiving. The organization behind these fund-raisers is Grassroots Campaigns Inc., a for-profit company that counts the Democratic National Committee as one of its flagship clients. It’s a safe bet that few pedestrians talked into donating $149—”the price of a bus ticket from Washington, D.C., to Crawford, Texas”—realize that once these canvassers beat their daily quota, they keep up to 30 percent of the take.
In the rapidly shifting terrain of political fund raising, Grassroots Campaigns Inc. has emerged as a juggernaut.
“Appearances can be deceiving.”
Pretty much sums up the last year of the Obama White House — and the year to come with Axelrod, Plouffe, Gibbs, Jarrett & Co. working hard with their ringers and stagehands to put message over matter.
Who is Ellie Light?
***
Reader Bill e-mails about the Craigslist/DNC paid canvassing ad…
The ad offers a salary of $24k per year and says that the hours would be 80-100 per week.
Assuming 80 hours (the lower end)
$24,000/ 50 weeks (assuming 2 weeks paid vacation) = $480 per week
$480 / 80 hrs. = $6 per hour
Federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.I wonder if these community organizers will be advocating for an increase in that?
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Trackbacks
- How To Get Those Sweet Federal Blog-O-Bucks
- What the other side is up to « Asheville Tea Party
- Must Know Headlines 1.25.2010 — ExposeTheMedia.com
- Hot Air » Blog Archive » Democrats rethinking “blame Bush” strategy after Massachusetts flop
- New heights in Obama Astroturfing : Urbin Report
- Monday Morning Madness « Nebraska Redneck
- The Snooper Report
- Obama: The Left’s Moribund Hoper and Changer « VotingFemale
- Obama’s Three Versions; connecting the Administration’s scatter chart dots « VotingFemale
- Doing The Job The MSM Won’t Do « Grand Rants
- The Astroturf Brigade In Action « The Underground Conservative
- Rahm Emanuel: Americans Disgusted with Israelis: Stay Away from the Kotel
- » Links To Visit – 01/25/10 NoisyRoom.net: Where liberty dwells, there is my country…
- Jeremiah Films
- Michelle Malkin » David Plouffe: Spam czar
- Is Recent Astroturf Campaign Part of Dept of Justice Propaganda Unit? « Nice Deb
- INVESTIGATIVE CITIZENS (and California Citizen Activists) « Temple of Mut
- The City Square
- Who is Ellie Light? | Conservative and Republican Apparel at RightWingSwag.com
- I’m Beginning To See The Light « Around The Sphere
- Sockpuppets Confused About Astroturf « his vorpal sword
- Delusional Obama And The NObama Coalition 2010 — Hillary Is 44
- Mudville Gazette
- OBAMA’S OMNIPRESENT FAN: Who is Ellie Light? (images) « FactReal
- The Greenroom » Forum Archive » The Dark Side of ‘Ellie Light’
- sisu
- Ellie Light: President Obama’s SuperFan « Smart and silly
- HotAir: The Dark Side of “Ellie Light”; Attacks on HillBuzz « Just Americans Making Ethical Statements Weblog
- Rhymes With Right
- Residential Garage Doors
- Coffee Party Nonsense; Those who don’t understand the Tea Parties « Northern Thoughts And Reflections
- Michelle Malkin » Stop the special-interest, speech-squelching DISCLOSE Act
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Isn’t Holder employing a secret propaganda unit at government expense to visit blogs, write letters to the editor, etc, to buck up a failing Obama.
MiniTrue is part of Holder’s DoJ now.
Democrat propaganda on the tax payer’s dime, for your own good.
New astroturf organization at Facebook – “teabusters” – I had been getting 2 or 3 unsolicited emails from people I have never met before blocking them.
I wonder who started this group???
So, when was the last time a Rebup connected group actually PAID people to do its bidding?
I would guess that since BHO came onto the scene that the answer in near zero.
Especially when compared to the Dems.
Anyone keeping tally? I know the msm is not.
I don’t believe that 24K for 80-100 hours of work is LEGAL with the minimum 7.25 which at 80 hours is 30K+ and 100 hours is 37K+ so what the Democrats are looking for are SLAVES and what they are doing with that position is ILLEGAL not that they don’t do EVERYTHING ILLEAGALLY. I should think the Labor Board might want to take a look at that position!
Noted the point about the pay being $6/hour at the quoted rate of a low end 80 hour work week and $24,000/year. Course the next question is are they honoring overtime? Most states put overtime as anything over 40hours/week.
I notice the One loves the UN puke blue color. Not dark American blue.
Don’t know but Midge Hough is Chicago coordinator. She’s a recruiter, here is her resume.
Probably salary with a huge bonus payout.
You know what would be really cool?
Obama should give a special VIP guest seat at his State of the Union address to his most prolific letter-writing fan…
Ellie Light
Heh!
We are all John Galt now and EL is outside that clique.
Now you know why they warn people about scams on Craigslist.
I agree. A newspaper should check their sources. Yep, make sure the letter writers exist.
My question, (rephrased) –
Does that mean a newspaper in one part of the country should check every other newspaper in the country to see what letters to the editor the other newspapers have published?
I don’t know, though coincidents do happen. Laziness happens. Cutting and pasting happens. Lifting letters happens from other websites happens, too.
Don’t be silly. I will be putting $10 on the Lions to win the Super Bowl next year. The early line is 750,000 to one in Vegas.
It will probably be held in the editorial board room of the NY Times.
That will save a ton on cab fare.
Michelle was her usual articulate self on Hannity.
I wonder if she used the free Google Voice service to get local phone numbers and have calls forwarded to a cell phone?
Google Voice
Dear Michelle the following is an e-mail I received from a former hotair.com commenter.
Michelle,
I had been a commenter on HotAir for about two years and was recently banned by Allahpundit for calling him out as I feel that Allahpundit is a coward for hiding on the internet and not letting his actual identity be known.
You are now attacking this “Ellie Light” imposter for fraudulent letters to newspapers and even to the point that I totally agree with your stance on the “Ellie Light” issue, your protection of Allahpundit, at HotAir, leaves you looking like a hypocrite, as you have someone blogging on your own site anonymously, and when anyone questions him, they are banned from commenting on your site.
Michelle, I receive death threats on a daily basis by leftists on Yahoo Chat. I have had leftists post my name and address and my DD-214 information in chatrooms because I am so hated by the left yet this does not disturb me in the least, I have no fear of people hiding in their mother’s basements.
I feel your justified attack on “Ellie Light” and your protection of Allahpundit will harm your credibility and leave you open to attacks from the left.
Sincerely; nelsonknows
Dems have no problem violating labor laws and go after any Corporation or small business who does.
Maybe they could unionize and bankrupt them. Wait, then Obama would just bail them out.
Hey ellie light is that class of six graders obama told them if they didn’t write the letter they don’t get a pony.
And he did not tell them they could have a real pony, the phony.
No, he promised them a real pony, and there is none. Just like all his other promises.
We can triple spending and make it deficit neutral. Even a sixth grader will tell you that is loony tunes.
Just a little OT here, but have any of you noticed all the ads on the internet that start out with “Obama wants mom to go back to school”. You can hardly go anywhere without seeing his name in an ad.
There is another interesting bit of information about Ellie Light from a column by James Taranto in the Wall Street Journal.
“Ellie Vanelli
Is “Ellie Light” a real person? We have our doubts, despite having received an email this morning, ostensibly from her, denying reports that she is an Obama sock puppet. The “Ellie Light” emails have been showing up in our spam filter for some weeks now, along with similar contributions from the likes of “Jerry Armato.”
But Ellie seems to be especially popular: As the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports, Light’s letters have appeared in newspapers all over the country. She is usually identified as coming from a city within the circulation area of a local newspaper, although it seems unlikely that the same person has homes in, among other places, Daly City, Calf.; Mansfield, Ohio; Three Rivers, N.M.; and Waynesboro, Va. (The Plain Dealer has follow-ups here and here.) Blogger Patrick Frey has been obsessive in his tracking of Light.
Light’s latest missive doesn’t attempt to clear up the question of where she’s from. The email address is from yahoo.com, so it could be anywhere–but oddly, the message originates not from a Yahoo server but from an IP address in Brest, France. A week ago CNN asked, “Has Obama Lost France as an Ally?” Thanks to Ellie Light, at least the president doesn’t have to worry about that.”
Whoever is responsible seems to be using an IP spoofer. I saw another paper trace their email to Saudi Arabia. The WSJ explanation is that many Newspapers published a massive spam email. Typically the spamers send out letters fishing for dumb individuals who are ready to send their bank account and social security information to strangers. Here we have a case of dumb editors ready to publish unverified information. The question then becomes, who sent out spam to all the newspapers? Obama’s campaign staff has used such tactics before, and it wouldn’t surprise me if they were the ones who originated the “Ellie Light” scam. It may be illegal but do they need laws when they have badges? “We don’t need no stinking laws.”
Reading about “Elllie Light” reminds me that letter writing is nothing new. Ben Franklin did it, as an apprentice in Boston, and Hamilton/Jay did it with the Federalist Papers. Of course, they didn’t have the internet.
Who is Ellie Light?
Well, in High School, Michelle Obama was known by the nickname “Ellie”…
… and the MSM has portrayed the Obamas as bringers of “light”…