Plan B Forum

A billboard advert in the US state of Iowa that linked President Obama to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin was removed on Wednesday morning.

The sign, which was funded by a group of local Tea Party activists, has been replaced with a community service announcement.

Text on the sign had read: "Radical leaders prey on the fearful & naive."

The billboard had angered many in the local community, including other Tea Party activists.

A representative of the Iowa group called the billboard's owner and requested the sign be removed on Tuesday evening.

A national Tea Party representative had called the controversial poster a waste of money, time and resources.

"It's not going to help our cause. It's going to make people think that the Tea Party is full of a bunch of right-wing fringe people, and that's not true," Shelby Blakely, of the national Tea Party Patriots group, told the Associated Press agency.

"When you compare Obama to Hitler, that to me does a disservice to the Jews who both survived and died in the Holocaust and to the Germans who lived under Nazi regime rule," Mr Blakely said.

A spokesperson for the 200-person group that organised the billboard said it was intended to critique socialism, but admits that their message was overshadowed by the fascist images.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us+canada-10636746

A representative of the Iowa group called the billboard's owner and requested the sign be removed on Tuesday evening.

A national Tea Party representative had called the controversial poster a waste of money, time and resources.

"It's not going to help our cause. It's going to make people think that the Tea Party is full of a bunch of right-wing fringe people, and that's not true," Shelby Blakely, of the national Tea Party Patriots group, told the Associated Press agency.

"When you compare Obama to Hitler, that to me does a disservice to the Jews who both survived and died in the Holocaust and to the Germans who lived under Nazi regime rule," Mr Blakely said.

I don’t believe this was the first time that a president had been compared to Hitler.

Lord Jim wrote:Looks to me like the Tea Party trying to police it's ranks

there is a very broad range of folks calling themselves "Tea Partiers"....

The national group expressed its opinion of the billboard, but didn't compel them to take it down.

Lord Jim wrote:Personally, I don't have any idea how the Tea Party is structured; I don't know if national organization even has the authority to impose policy decisions on local groups.

you'll find plenty of astro-turf

astroturf
(AS.troh.turf) n. A fake grass-roots movement.
—astroturfing pp.

Example Citation:
"Of the calls we are getting in the D.C. office, about half are Astroturf and half are real," said Mr. Milburn, in Mr. Hobson's office, using Washington parlance for calls that seem to be from individuals but are in fact orchestrated by lobbying groups.

—Katharine Q. Seelye, "Public Is Flooding Capitol With Impeachment Views," The New York Times, December 15, 1998

Earliest Citation:
Issue-oriented newspaper advertisements featuring clip-out coupons are often designed to show that the sponsor's goal has grass-roots support. But the "grass roots is AstroTurf in many cases, artificial turf," says Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Texas. A case in point, in his view, is the recent ad campaign by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States against increases in excise taxes on liquor. Bentsen reports that a third of the 190 coupons his office received were altered to express support for tax increases that the coupon says could raise the price of a bottle of liquor $2 and "put a lot of people in the beverage alcohol business out of work."

—"Playing on astroturf," The National Journal, April 19, 1986

Notes:
This word is a nice play on AstroTurf, a brand of artificial grass.

Related Words:
grasstops
netroots

Categories:
Activism
Politics

Posted on December 17, 1998

astroturf


v. The technique of using boiler plate text to advance a political agenda. "Astroturfing" is typically done by sending the same letter to every newspaper one can find. A certain number of newspapers will be duped into thinking that the letter is original and heartfelt when it is neither.
Many newspapers were astroturfed with the pro-Bush letters posted at the pResident's web site. Many newspapers were convinced that a number of soldiers worship Bush as the Messiah incarnate.
by fugitive Oct 9, 2004

2. astroturf


Creating the impression of public support by paying people in the public to pretend to be supportive.

The false support can take the form of letters to the editor, postings on message boards in response to criticism, and writing to politicians in support of the cause.

Astroturfing is the opposite of "grassroots", genuine public support of an issue.
Mike, admit you just got caught astroturfing. You're just pimping your own blog.

Microsoft didn't have grassroots support, so they created astroturf support.
by holloway Aug 17, 2004

3. Astroturf


Fake marijuana (not real grass)
Puff - puff - COUGH! - splutter
“That’s not ganga, that’s Astroturf!”