I just got back form Bozeman MT - bitter sweet, very emotional day

[kid a]

First off, heading out of Billings early AM I pass the "Americans for Prosperity" bus all painted up and heading west with it's "Keep your hands off my Health care" slogan up and down the sides. It's a VERY nice bus - the kind rock stars use. Not a very promising start to my day.

The saddest, most depressing experience was standing and inching forward in line to get in and passing the ignorant, misinformed, racist, and brainwashed idiots. That amount of stupid all in one place...really sad and depressing.

Once inside it was amazing - I saw friends from Billings, old college buddies from Bozeman, a few kids I knew from my classroom, and a whole crowd of basically knowledgeable, fair minded Montanans. There were a few grumblings about taxes and big Pharma and quite a few people angry at Max, but willing to listen. Obama gave a great, passionate and detailed speech, answered 8 questions, and made a whole lot of sense. This was my 3rd time seeing Obama in MT - first as the President - and I had a great time inside the hanger.

Then back out to the bizarre world of the bussed in freak show - ignorance is a sad sight.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Thanks for the report!

Well put indeed.

K&R

[elleng]

2. Good to hear you've seen him in MT 3 times!

Ignorance IS a sad sight! Hope I can avoid it; moving to a town less left than where I am now, and hope to avoid the baddies.

[gateley]

3. Thanks for the report! Many of us watched it and I think I can speak

for some others in saying -- wish we were there! And, I love your Governor!

So glad you were able to attend! :hi:

[PolNewf]

4. I think Obama has a thing for Montana

He has spent a disproportionate amount of time in the state.

[flpoljunkie]

5. Tim Phillips, The Man Behind 'Americans for Prosperity' co-founded Century Strategies w/ Ralph Reed

(We need to know who we are dealing with--those who are trying to stop health care reform in its tracks and gain the upper hand in 2010.)

Tim Phillips, The Man Behind The ‘Americans For Prosperity’ Corporate Front Group Factory

The rate at which the Koch Industries funded Americans for Prosperity (AFP) churns out front groups to promote its right-wing corporate agenda sets the organization out among similar conservative “think tanks.” This week, AFP created their latest front group called “Patients United Now,” an entity set up to defeat health care reform. Patients United follows a familiar pattern AFP has used for their other front groups: create a new stand alone website, fill it with lines like “We are people just like you” to give the site a grassroots feel, and then use the new group to recruit supporters and run deceptive advertisements attacking reform. This “astroturfing” model has been used by AFP to launch groups pushing distortions against other progressive priorities:

– The “Hot Air Tour” promoting global warming skepticism and attacking environmental regulations.
– “Free Our Energy,” a group promoting increased domestic drilling.
– The “Save My Ballot Tour,” a group that pays Joe the Plumber to travel around the country smearing the Employee Free Choice Act.
– “No Climate Tax,” a group dedicated to the defeat of Clean Energy Economy legislation.
– “No Stimulus,” a group launched to try to stop the passage of the Recovery Act.

Notably, AFP was also instrumental in orchestrating the anti-Obama, anti-tax tea party protests in April.

With nearly 70 Republican operatives and former oil industry spokesmen working behind the scenes of AFP’s various fronts and disclosures that point to ever increasing oil and corporate donations to the group, one must wonder, who is guiding this massive front group factory? The answer is Tim Phillips, the President of AFP who has built a long career of inventing fake grassroots causes. In Phillips’ official biography, there appears to be over a 10 year gap — but that period was when Phillips developed his very first astroturf groups to do everything from smearing his opponents with anti-Semitic attacks to laundering money for criminal lobbyists.

As a Virginia-based political consultant, Phillips got his first big break managing the campaign of Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). After serving as Goodlatte’s chief of staff for four years, Phillips joined former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed in 1997 to create an astroturf lobbying and campaign consulting operation called Century Strategies. The firm promised to mount “grassroots lobbying drives” and explained its strategy as “it matters less who has the best arguments and more who gets heard — and by whom.”

more at link...

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/05/29/afp-timphillips-astroturf/?sortby=toprated

[CitizenLeft]

7. Goodlatte is a birther, isn't he?

Figures.

[Honeycombe8]

6. Thx for the report. Very interesting to those of us who haven't been able to see

the big O in person, much less attend one of the soon-to-be-I-hope-historical town hall meetings.

[backscatter712]

8. You should have taken a picture of the Astrobus!

Broadcast that all over the Web and evaporate some of their credibility! Yeah, grass-roots my ass...

[Better Believe It]

9. What did you think of the Gov's remarks and what was the response?

[lunatica]

10. Thanks for attending and reporting on it

I'm 61 years old and for the first time in my life I find myself looking at people my age and older and wonder if they're ignorant Deather Teabaggers, or as a new DUer would call them, the ILLITERATI. I hate that the thought even crosses my mind. I really hate it!

It is saddening to wonder if people might be thinking the same thing about me just because of my age.

[HopeOverFear]

11. Will there be a video of this?

[havocmom]

13. here's a start for you

http://www.ktvq.com/global/story.asp?s=10931789

links on right to parts of the event on video, one is to video of the whole thing. Our gov, normally a pretty calm chap was really excited. He is a great governor.

enjoy.

[Cha]

12. Don't let the assholes get you

down. I saw the Town Hall Meet in Bozeman and it was awesome from my perspective on a local tv news webcam link!

How lucky were you to get in?!!:bounce:

[cayanne]

14. Where do you live in Mt?

nt

[Vidar]

15. Thanks for the first person report.