The North Texas Tea Party is at it again, insisting that the bulk of the opposition to SB5’s reincarnations, HB2 and SB9, comes from out-of-state people and local Austinites motivated primarily by free food.
There is a core of about 1500-2000 of Austin residents college, homeless, and others) that could just about qualify as semi-professional protestors. We’ve seen the same ones at education rallies, pro-abortion rallies, gay rights rallies, etc. They consider it fun and worthwhile WHEN the free food is involved. But try asking them who their state rep or state Senator is.
(Dawnna Dukes and Kirk Watson. I did not have to look that up. But I digress.)
And now, our folks have found Craiglist entries offering to PAY people to show up, as has happened before; a standard MoveOn tactic. Add to that a NATIONALLY orchestrated effort for buses from all over (some possibly out of state) by the well-oiled community organizor types.
I was there yesterday. If there was free food, no one offered it to me. I was cheering and wearing orange, and yet I had to buy my own lunch. It’s almost like I wanted to be there because I believe in the cause. Hmmmm….
I’m wondering if anyone has photographs of these buses “possibly” coming from out of state. It would take many, many buses to get so many people to the Capitol. Anyone?
Then there’s the thing about the Craigslist ad. The NTTP blog does not provide a link or any other evidence of these ads, so I asked the author if he had links or screenshots. A quick Google search, however, turned up two pages addressing it.
Townhall.com has a brief (i.e. five sentence) piece by Katie Pavlich linking to a Craigslist ad (since deleted, as Craigslist ads usually are) and including the following picture (titled “ScreenShot2013-07-01at103755AM_zpsd0f53d76”):
Via townhall.com
That sounds very….general. At the very least, the fact that an organization is trying to hire activists in a town with more than 50,000 university students should not be surprising to anyone. To link this ad directly to the current protest effort at the state Capitol takes a bit of imagination.
A rather thorough debunking of the Craigslist claim came from Breitbart.com, of all places. John Sexton contacted the group that posted the ad and wrote the following:
I called Grassroots Campaigns and spoke to an individual there familiar with the ad. He explained it is part of an ongoing campaign being run on behalf of Planned Parenthood. PP has been hiring grassroots fundraisers since last summer. The Craigslist ad is part of that fundraising campaign, not an attempt to hire protest organizers.
There is another link on the ad itself which leads to this page offering full time “Assistant Canvas Director” jobs. The job description reads in part “Canvass in the field for four days per week, to train new and experienced staff in the field and meet personal fundraising requirements.” So it’s definitely a fundraising job.
Planned Parenthood is working with Grassroots Campaigns to hire fundraisers in Austin and also, it appears, in other locations around the country. These job listings are not part of the recent attempts to block SB5 though it’s probably not a stretch to imagine some of the folks will be participating in the protests.
From looking at his Twitter feed, I feel confident in saying that Mr. Sexton and I disagree on many things. That said, I am immensely grateful for his work to debunk this claim. The only way any progress is possible in the long-term is if the two (or more) sides can argue the actual issues, not slander one another. I try to refute misinformation on my side when I see it—and it does happen. I couldn’t leave a comment on the Breitbart story, so I tweeted my gratitude to Mr. Sexton.
.@verumserum While we probably don't agree on much, thank you for setting the record straight with this: http://t.co/LKj7RaOMs4
— d.wells (@wellslawoffice) July 2, 2013
He replied:
@wellslawoffice Thanks.
— John Sexton (@verumserum) July 2, 2013
I truly believe we should applaud good journalism everywhere we see it. I am not talking to you, North Texas Tea Party.
I visited downtown late afternoon in the middle of May and was approached by several canvasser working on behalf of Planned Parenthood. They didn’t hire them to be part of the rallies. They were downtown BEFORE the Special Session even geared up and SB5 was on the legislative agenda, so I call bull on that.
And why did the Pro-abortion change their normal colors to orange anyway? Kind of made it convenient for the ‘rent-a-mob’ operation. BTW: thanks for the classiness! http://hotair.com/archives/2013/07/03/classy-pro-abortion-protesters-drown-out-amazing-grace-with-chants-of-hail-satan/
I stopped reading at “pro-abortion.” You either don’t understand whom you are arguing against, or you can’t be bothered to understand. Nobody’s got time for that.
Out of scores of witnesses for THEIR side, not ONE said discussed her pregnancy with one of these clinics… then decided to KEEP the baby. Ergo, they ARE pro-abortion, NOT pro-choice. I DO know people who are ‘pro-choice’ but this wasn’t them.
That’s quite a backtrack from an hour ago, when you basically called my entire side “pro-abortion.”
Mike, I am one of the Pro-Choice, who made the choice to keep the baby. Does that qualify me to answer? It was a matter of quick judgement as to the color.We are in Austin, Tx, home of the Longhorns. Orange shirts are plentiful here, and most folks have at least one. Many of us ARE anti-abortion. I wouldn’t get one unless my life absolutely depended on it, and quite frankly, I defied that one when my life was in danger. However, I am not so arrogant as to believe I have the slightest right to tell another woman what choices she must make in her life, with her body. If you believe the bible is the word of god, then you will find that the bible is very clear about when life begins (when god breathes it into us) and whether abortion is murder or not (it’s not, but letting the mother die IS). No kidding, look it up. Most of us are fighting to keep Planned Parenthood open. They do a very small percentage of abortions compared to the other services they provide for women’s health.
If you are a Christian, remember that Jesus tasked us with loving our neighbor. Love isn’t praying for them to change to your way of thinking and telling them they are going to hell if they don’t change. Love is compassion. Love is understanding that we are all human, and we are all on our own paths, and that even though people take a path you don’t like, or make choices you don’t approve of, God loves them too. We have to deal with folks who claim to love god and love jesus, but they want to KILL US just because they don’t understand where we are coming from and pray for God to do unspeakable things to our bodies (like many of us haven’t already been through that). I’ve never encountered such violence and hatred as from the folks in blue who claim to be more righteous than me because I want to protect my right to govern my own body, and will stand up for them to have the same right to govern their own.
Anyway, I will pray for you that you are blessed with great success and happiness (my standard blessing for my friends), and that you are filled with the true love that Jesus tasked us to show to each other. It’s not always the easiest happiness to bear, but it’s sure worth it. <3
Lise’ out. Boom.
Lise’ out. Boom.
I am Pro-Choice. I was 19 and pregnant. It was a tough choice but I decided to keep my pregnancy and now have my 8 yr old daughter. And that was my choice. I am anti-abortion but I believe it is every womans right to make that choice for herself. Every situation is different.