Hot Button: Culture Briefs

Astroturf tea?

Liberals in the blogosphere and beyond have been quick to label Wednesday's upcoming taxpayer “Tea Party” protests as the product of imposter campaigns coordinated by Republican billionaires and interest groups.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman expressed this sentiment, widely held by left-wing bloggers at Firedoglake and Think Progress, among others, on Monday.

The “tea parties don't represent a spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment. They're Astroturf (fake grass-roots) events, manufactured by the usual suspects,” such as Fox News and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey's nonprofit group FreedomWorks, Mr. Krugman wrote.

“Those attacks are laughable,” said Eric Odom, one of the Tea Parties' chief national organizers. “It's easy for that side of the political aisle who is well funded to look at a model that is not funded and accuse it of being funded because that is what they are used to.”

“I'd love to know who to send the invoice to,” he joked.

What a number of right-leaning groups, such as FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity and Newt Gingrich's American Solutions, have done is provide information about tea parties to their activists.

“This is as spontaneous and as good as it gets when it comes to grass roots,” FreedomWorks spokesman Adam Brandon said. “Traditional groups on the right are helping out in different ways. American Solutions has a tool kit, we have a map to help people find tea parties in their hometown, but this is as far away from command and control as you can possibly get.”

Green eggs (no ham)

The White House's 2009 Easter souvenir egg is the “greenest egg in history.”

A press release from the White House boasted that the eggs were made in the United States from Forest Stewardship Council certified hardwood, meaning the wood comes from “environmentally and socially sustainable” forests.

In addition to the environmentally friendly souvenir eggs, the White House held yoga sessions and offered healthy-eating demonstrations to the 30,000 people who attended the event.

No word on whether “healthy eating” means no ham.

Trekkie treat

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