The #OccupyWallStreet Astroturf Campaign

OccupyThis and OccupyThat rallies are popping up all over the country, and these are anything but spontaneous outbursts of concerned citizens (from Daily Caller):

Occupiers say: 'Un trabajo es un trabajo' -- The hot new "Occupy [Fill in the blank]" movement is completely spontaneous, right? Totally grassroots? Wellllllll... TheDC's Michelle Fields reports: "A liberal organizer told the Daily Caller on Thursday afternoon that he paid some Hispanics to attend 'Occupy DC' protests happening in the nation's capital. TheDC attended the protest event, an expansion of the 'Occupy Wall Street' movement that began in New York City. Some aspects of the protest, it turned out, are more Astroturf than grassroots. One group of about ten Hispanic protesters marched behind a Caucasian individual from the DC Tenants Advocacy Coalition, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting rent control in Washington, D.C. Asked why they were there, some Hispanic protesters holding up English protest signs could not articulate what their signs said. Interviewed in Spanish, the protesters told conflicting stories about how their group was organized. Some said it was organized at their church, and that they were there as volunteers. Others, however, referred to the man from the DC Tenants Advocacy Coalition — the only Caucasian in the group — as their 'boss.'" The next time a lefty says you're astroturfed, Tea Partiers, don't take it personally. They simply can't conceive of someone doing it any other way.

Rush Limbaugh thinks setting up protests and riots and part of the overall Obama plan:

Jackie Calmes of the New York Times asked him, "Are you aware of this? Are you watching any of it?" And he expressed his solidarity, 'cause those are his foot soldiers.

This thing just didn't bubble up out of nothing. We now find out George Soros money is behind this, and there's no doubt in my mind that the White House is behind this. I wish I could tell you who, but a very prominent person asked me to never mention his name in this regard, but for months he has been telling me, "You watch, Rush, do not doubt me," he said to me, "Obama is setting up riots. He is fanning the flames for riots and eventual violence. That's all he's got." And now you look, all of this talk about millionaires and billionaires and people not paying their fair share and this relentless assault on achievement in this country has resulted in what? The appearance of a spontaneous combustion of angry white college students who are fed up with all the injustices that this country is famous for. That's his base.

However, Rod Dreher thinks these protests may actually be turning public approval in the direction the protesters hadn't planned:

I'm reminded of the big NYC antiwar march I covered in the march-up to the Iraq War in 2003. It was the same kind of thing. I was for the war, of course, but seeing the Loony Left on full display cemented my (erroneous) conviction that the war was the right thing to do. I just knew that anything supported by people so deranged-looking and behaving had to be wrong. That wasn't the case, but boy did those people and their "Bush = Hitler" nonsense hurt their cause with ordinary folks.

If the Wall Street protesters want to actually change something, they'll deal with the anti-Semitic rabble and the trustafarian nitwits. If they just want to express themselves, well, fine, but that's no way to build a meaningful, effective movement.

One thing for sure, the #OccupyWallStreet hashtag has been a target for all kinds of lampooning by conservative pundits on Twitter. Things such as this:

Hey #OccupyWallStreet , you've got clowns and animals, does popcorn and cotton candy come with that circus?

Hey #OccupyWallStreet , you need to go home. Mom needs you to take out the trash.

#OccupyWallStreet will quickly be co-opted by unions and Obama affiliates until they and the Obama 2012 campaign are indistinguishable.

Spare the baton, spoil the rioter. MT @toddstarnes: NYPD forced to use batons to beat back #occupywallstreet protestors

Hey #OccupyWallStreet ==>RT @abegreenwald: Capitalism produced Steve Jobs. Anti-capitalism produced Michael Moore. What's to debate?

And those are just the ones I wrote.