November 5, 2024

Idavox Archives

Archived articles originally found on the One People's Project website.

READING THE TEA LEAVES, OR WHO'S UNDER THE TEA BAGGING?

Well, the latest right-wing hissy fit has come and gone but one thing has lingered. People are talking about who has been pushing the so-called Tea Party rallies that were held on April 15, and it is interesting that the same people who gave us the Minuteklan, Terry Schivao protests, the pro-war counterdemostration called Gathering of Eagles, and just about every other right-wing hissy fit that ended up on the Fake News Channel were also a part of this. Now a lot of groups have been called out for spearheading what was touted as a “grassroots” effort on the part of “ordinary people”, but we want to submit the name of one that has been a constant in all of these things. We have talked about the Lancaster, PA PR firm Diener Consulting in the past but now is a good time to put them in the spotlight again. If you want to know what is going to be the latest PR move by conservative blowhards, look for this group ran by the son of the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition. The problem with this group is that publicly they push the neo-cons. Under the radar however, something else is going on. In other words, they beg your attention.

 

By Spock

A big fuss has been made about a new “grassroots’ conservative movement called “Tea Parties”.
This image is supposed to invoke the rag-tag revolutionaries who dumped tea into Boston Harbor in protest of taxation without representation in England back in 1773.

In the street theatrics is an interesting idea and it did bring a large crowd for conservatives who don’t have a strong record in organizing large-scale protests.

But who organized it and brought the numbers out? How much of this was based in everyday people jumping in a grassroots protest?

Bets from this end are that this was a project orchestrated by the political consulting group “Diener Consulting” or under its other name “Response Unlimited,” the multi-million dollar direct mailing, fundraising and political consulting firm.

Based out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Waynesboro, Virginia, this right wing direct mail scam group is responsible for organizations like The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, various pro-life groups, as well as all the John Tanton eugenicist and nativist based orgs such as Numbers USA and F.A.I.R.

Diener is run and operated by Phil Sheldon, the son of Rev. Lou Sheldon– founder of the Traditional Family Values Coalition. The goal of this firm is to set up groups and organizations, collect personal info of its members, claim the groups require funding, then take it all to the bank.

How?

They then sell the personal info they collect to other groups and organizations as direct mailing lists, and they keep a large percentage of the funding donations sent to the groups they market for, usually none of the funding actually goes to any of the causes they collect for.

Anti-racist journalist David Neiwert wrote about those right wing scam artists when they tried to milk the Gilchrist campaign:

“During Gilchrist’s ill-fated run for Congress (under the banner, no less, of the far-right Constitution Party) in late 2005, he evidently hired the Diener Consulting team to help run the campaign’s public relations. Simcox had reportedly already retained Diener for help as early as spring 2005.

Diener has only a perfunctory Website, but one of its associated operations — a mailing firm called Response Unlimited — offers much more. RU is a business that gathers mailing lists of potential “conservative” contributors and distributes them to various right-wing organizations. Its client list is a virtual Who’s Who of the American right, including the Republican National Committee.”

http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2006/06/rift-in-minutemen.html

In digging a bit further another name pops as connected to the direct mail part of Diener: “Response Unlimited” Mr. Philip Zodhiates.

Philip Zodhiates’ involvement is most likely the reason behind the myriad of Tea Bagging Party threads appearing on such noted neo-nazi forums such as Stormfront and VNNForum.

There was a large White Nationalist turnout; a report back from the Pittsburgh Tea Bagging Party claims a number of Keystone State Skinheads present, and openly carrying guns.

But how did Zodhiates get the White Nationalist contacts? The SPLC wrote an article explaining the Diener/Response Unlimited/Neo-Nazi connection. From their article:

“For eight years, a major direct-mail firm “specializing in the Christian and conservative markets” has been selling lists of the readers of America’s leading anti-Semitic newspaper and, since about 2001, its successor publication.

Response Unlimited, based in Waynesboro, Va., and headed by Christian Right activist Philip Zodhiates, charges $100 for the rental of every 1,000 names of subscribers to the now-defunct Spotlight newspaper. Founded by veteran anti-Semite Willis Carto, The Spotlight carried anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic and wildly conspiracist articles interspersed with ads for Klan, neo-Nazi and related hate groups.

Zodhiates also peddles lists of subscribers to the American Free Press, which replaced The Spotlight when that tabloid was shut down amid legal and financial troubles surrounding Carto. The Free Press began immediately after The Spotlight fizzled in 2001 and picked up many of its predecessor paper’s propagandists. Today, the Free Press carries stories on Zionism, secret “New World Order” conspiracies, American Jews and Israel. Mixed in are advertisements for outfits like Pete Peter’s Scriptures for America and Kingdom Identity Ministries — practitioners of Christian Identity, a theology that claims that Jews are the literal descendants of Satan.”

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=612

Diener also employs a consultant named Mary Parker Lewis who has a strong connection to Stormfront. Parker Lewis was the Diener consultant who reached out and recruited members of Stormfront and other Neo-Nazis to work on Jim Gilchrist’s congressional campaign.

Diener is the one with the racist direct mailing lists, and also has Ron Paul direct mailing lists.

This explains why Tea Bagging Parties were posted all over Stormfront and Ron Paul forums.

Translate »