Remember when the Democrats and media assured us that the Tea Party protesters and folks turning out at town hall meetings were nothing but organized astroturf rather than genuine grassroots activism? Well, what should we call this?

The plan for a series of grass-roots demonstrations Tuesday to promote President Obama's health care agenda calls for tightly scripted events and an "escalation" of efforts against "enemies" of reform.

Organizers insist there is no comparison to rowdy summer town hall meetings and recent "tea party" protests that have challenged White House policies.

But Health Care for America Now (HCAN), which is backed by a coalition of labor unions and liberal groups including ACORN and MoveOn.org, organized the protests to target insurance companies and drafted the plan, which describes the demonstrations as part of its "insurance enemies project."

The document, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, details specific talking points, tactics, props and strategies to stage the protests. It lists goals that include action that "mobilizes our base by animating existing anger about private insurers."

The HCAN field plan dictates that each protest will include a minimum of 30 participants, target only health care insurers CIGNA, WellPoint and United Health Care and showcase what it calls "victims," or people who have either lost insurance, can't afford it or were denied coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions.

Got that -- they've scripted out the talking points, are providing props and signs, and even determined the minimum number of participants who will be brought in to these staged events. But then they deny that their activities are anything other than a reflection of the feelings of the American people.

Sounds like astroturf to me -- much more so than any of the events of the summer by opponents of ObamaCare.

H/T Founding Bloggers, Marathon Pundit, Prairie Pundit, Let Freedom Ring

Posted by: Greg at 03:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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