Posted on 03/14/2010 1:16:03 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
You can very easily discuss U.S. politics over a cup of tea or now, coffee. The much popular Sarah Palin 'hand reading' capabilities triggered Americans to find an alternative to the Tea Party. The alternative is the Coffee Party. I can't comment much on the goals or agenda's behind the two new political 'movements' on the US political scene, however, there is some indirect connection between the Coffee Party and Free Software (Muktware) or Open Source. The Coffee Party uses Drupal as their CMS, the same CMS which The White House Uses.
For those who don't know what Drupal is, "Drupal is a free and open source content management system (CMS) written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. It is used as a back-end system for many different types of websites, ranging from small personal blogs to large corporate and political sites, including whitehouse.gov and data.gov.uk. It is also used for knowledge management and business collaboration."
For those who don't know what the Coffee Party is, what I could gather from the site is "Coffee Party USA aims to reinvigorate the public sphere, drawing from diverse backgrounds and diverse perspectives, with the goal of expanding the influence of the People in America's political arena. We do not require nor adhere to any preexisting ideology. We encourage deliberation guided by reason amongst the many viewpoints held by our members. We see our diversity as a strength, not a weakness, because we believe that faithful deliberation from multiple vantage points is the best way to achieve the common good. It is in the responsible and reasonable practice of deliberation that we hope to contribute to society.
Coffee Party USA is made up of people acting independently of political parties, of corporations, and of political lobbying networks. To this point, all products created and hours logged for Coffee Party have been carried out in the spirit of volunteerism. In the coming months and years, we hope to transform our disappointment in our current political system into a force that will return our nation to a course of popular governance, of the People by the People for the People.
We are diverse ethnically, geographically, politically, in age and in experience.
We are 100% grassroots. No lobbyists here. No pundits. And no hyper-partisan strategists calling the shots in this movement. We are a spontaneous and collective expression of our desire to forge a culture of civic engagement that is solution-oriented, not blame-oriented.
We demand a government that responds to the needs of the majority of its citizens as expressed by our votes and by our voices; NOT corporate interests as expressed by misleading advertisements and campaign contributions.
We want a society in which democracy is treated as sacrosanct and ordinary citizens participate out of a sense of civic duty, civic pride, and a desire to contribute to society. The Coffee Party is a call to action. Our Founding Fathers and Mothers gave us an enduring gift Democracy and we must use it to meet the challenges that we face as a nation."
We have tea, we have coffee, now all we need are some snacks!
Ummm...Obamanoids advocating for a communist America are not Americans. They are communist Obamanoids.
If one follows the “what what they do not what they say” line the start of the coffee party speaks volumes as to the effectivness of the Tea Party movement.
Drupal isn’t uncommon. It is by far the best open source CMS available.
The following comment is from "akw1" on the linked website:
The so-called "grassroots" Coffee Party Movement, isn't so "grassroots".
The coffee party is partnered with democracyinaction, a 501(c)(3) organization, (meaning contributions to the latter are tax-deductible) whose motto is "wiring the progressive movement" for "social justice".
Democracyinaction gets its funding from the Open Society Institute (funded by GEORGE SOROS!). Democracyinaction is also linked to wiredforchange whose clients include the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the DEMOCRATIC Congressional Campaign Committee.
http://salsalabs.com/democracyinaction
And, here is Annabel, herself, urging Coffee Partiers to go to this website:
http://swampbubbles.com/person/annabel-park
The bottom line is that Annabel Park is a seasoned political activist who got frustrated with the fact that the Tea Parties were getting their message heard, and the liberals who support Obama were not.
So, she co-opted the Tea Party's format and told everyone that the intention is to promote "civility in discourse". The fact is, her intention was to amass enough people to get attention in order to promote Obama and his agenda, and get him reelected. She didn't care about civility when she was trashing the Tea Parties, though, and she originally said that her intention was to render the Tea Party obsolete.
If people want the same things Annabel Park wants, that's great - but, everyone who doesn't want to promote and support Obama and his reelection should know that they're being used.
Coffee Party = Branch of OFA = Astroturfing?
Thomas Paine in Common Sense (1776), wrote that the Loyalists were:
Interested men, who are not to be trusted; weak men, who cannot see; prejudiced men, who will not see; and a certain set of moderate men, who think better of the European world than it deserves. . . .
Annabel Park: From Netroots Nation To Coffee Parties?
Netroots Nation amplifies progressive voices by providing an online and in-person campus for exchanging ideas and learning how to be more effective in using technology to influence the public debate.
Bitter cup of Coffee Party: Digging up the AstroTurf on Annabel Park and the Obama Administration
In truth, Annabel is a longtime political wonk with a large number of leftist political connections.
Watch for the screen printed signs and purple shirts at their rallies.
I predict the coffee party will fail....much like Air America.
They won’t be able to help themselves, and will ‘organize’ and appoint officers, and create paid positions within the movement...and will have to rely on donations, $500 a plate fund raisers, etc...and then it just becomes another liberal extension of the Democrat party...nothing that inspires people, though.
Brown shirts marching to the Fuhrer’s orders.
Coffee Party USA
website = www.cpusa ?
http://www.cpusa.org/
Wouldn't be too surprised to find that they are getting stimulus money.
A. The Coffee Party is Chock Full o'Nuts.
Rim Shot
Sounds like this commie coffee organizer should have just crossed the border of her country instead of the Pacific...
He wants to assemble a bureaucracy that will encroach into every aspect of our lives--and punish those who dare to broach their rules.
Think of Obama, J F'n Kerry, and the eastern elite.
Cheers!
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