Have That Coffee With A Grain Of Salt

[BUMPED] Kate Zernike of the Times, eager to get on the right side of history, takes a loving, uncritical look at the Coffee Party, born in reaction to the first-ignored, then derided Tea Party:

Coffee Party, With a Taste for Civic Participation, Is Added to the Political Menu
By KATE ZERNIKE

Fed up with government gridlock, but put off by the flavor of the Tea Party, people in cities across the country are offering an alternative: the Coffee Party.

Growing through a Facebook page, the party pledges to “support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.”

It had nearly 40,000 members as of Monday afternoon, but the numbers were growing quickly — about 11,000 people had signed on as fans since the morning.

“I’m in shock, just the level of energy here,” said the founder, Annabel Park, a documentary filmmaker who lives outside Washington. “In the beginning, I was actively saying, ‘Get in touch with us, start a chapter.’ Now I can’t keep up. We have 300 requests to start a chapter that I have not been able to respond to.”

I know what you're thinking - the Coffee Party is all good because it was founded by libs.  And you are right!

Ms. Zernike's investigative skills failed her, but Ms. Park founded "Real Virginians for Webb" back in 2006 and volunteered for Obama in 2008.  Whatever.

[Prof. Jacobson documents Ms. Park's work for Obama and antipathy towards what she calls "tea baggers".]

Ms. Park, who has an impressive educational background, may be best known for her work on the documentary 9500 Liberty, about a controversial immigration resolution passed in Prince William County, Virginia.  She also had a brief stint at the NY Times a decade ago.

All of this will come as a shock to Ms. Zernike, no doubt.  Maybe the Times could use my subscription dollars to buy their reporters a subscription to Google.

Comments

[Janet]

LUN a little more info on Ms Park via Instapundit.
Strategy Analyst at The New York Times
Hmmmmmm

[Gabriel Sutherland]

According to Ms. Park, she previously worked for the NY Times.

[Clarice]

Hmmmm..

Ms. Zernike wouldn't know that. I am sure. NYT reporters are obviously forbidden to use Google as it would interfere with the pristine, fact free nature of their reporting.

[vinman]

Anxiously awaiting for the first massive Coffee Party rally in DC, with T-shirted activists packing motor coaches booked by local SEIU affiliates.

[eatmorefruit]

They won't hire her. She's foreign born. I only wrote that episode cause it was the right thing to do and will explain what really happened.

Obesity is the problem.......

[Jeff]

and of course only Dems have "positive solutions" so I guess their party is the "support the Dems against the obstructionist GOP" Party.
Isn't that the same as the Democrat Party ?

[Ignatz]

Copying the opposition's ideas usually works out great.
For instance, Ms. Park can start advertising on Air America. Oh wait.

[Rob Crawford]

Anyone found her link to OFA yet?

[Rob Crawford]

Oh, looks like I just did:

A video featuring Hu speaking about her support for Obama can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/UnitedForObama, a YouTube channel with videos produced by filmmakers Eric Byler and Annabel Park.

[narciso]

Gerald Seib has a slightly less risible column in the Journal, citing Phillip Giradi
'concerned conservative' and Bob Barr, to suggest the Tea Partiers are anti war on terror

[Rob Crawford]

Of course, William Jacobson found the evidence before I did.

[Rob Crawford]

Oh, and Jacobson even found some of her tweets, including this charming bon mot:

"cannot give it away to the tea baggers."

Such a charming little fascist.

[Rob Crawford]

Oh, and Zernike is the moron who thought a Brooklyn accent was evidence of racism. She's either lazy or a tool.

I emailed her to ask which it was. I'll let ya'll know if I get an answer.

[Janet]

Hey let's not let the Washington Post off the hook. Their article LUN was posted on Friday 2-26-10 by Dan Zak.

[Joey D]

Coffeebaggers or Coffeepodders?

[Dorothy Jane]

CoffeeFILTERS - because they will become a nice, free, extra mouthpiece for the MSM

[matt]

why do I feel like lately, the Democratic Party has descended to the level of argumentative 7 year olds?

"Oh yes you are!"

"Oh no I'm not!"

"are!"

"not!"

[Thomas Collins]

I'll bet they're not the Yemen Mocha Black crowd; I'll bet they're the crowd that puts swirly white toppings and milk and sweeteners and cute sprinklies and everything else that can be put into coffee to make one forget one is drinking coffee.

[Dorothy Jane]

Yes, Mr. Tom Collins - CoffeeSPRINKLEs is good too -

[Thomas Collins]

Sprinklies was not a typo, Dorothy Jane. My intellections at that moment lead me to end with KLIES. If S-P-R-I-N-K-L-I-E-S is not a word, it should be! :-))

[Jim Ryan]

Coffee Potheads

[Janet]

Liberal Activists Targeting Teaparty Energy

The Lattes...Tea Party wannabes

[Janet]

Yeah Jim I like Coffee Potheads! Too funny!

[Frau Türkentrank]

Coffeedreggers ...

[Thomas Collins]

Looks as if at least one other being in the cosmos thinks "sprinklies" is a word.

"Pg 122 - St Biddulph's Hundreds and Thousands

Hundreds and Thousands are little coloured candy strands about 5mm long that are used as cake decorations and to top ice cream with. Very decadent they are too. I have a funny idea they may also be referred to as 'sprinklies'. The brown chocolate version is often known as vermicelli, from the Italian for 'little worms'."

[Janet]

Coffee Pots as a group or Coffee Putz for the individual.

[Rob Crawford]

Oh, and Zernike's response?

Thanks for writing. I noted that the organizers worked for Obama. See this excerpt:

Eileen Cabiling, who founded the Los Angeles chapter, said she had campaigned for President Obama, but paid little attention to politics until the Tea Party convention and Mr. Obama's State of the Union speech, where he rebuked Congressional Democrats and Republicans alike for their inability to move on legislation.

As I said to another reader a few hours ago, Sunday I wrote a front page profile of a tea partier (two minutes with Google would have found that, too) and Monday I wrote something about the coffee party. It's hard to see how we could be more fair or balanced (although the coffee party story did not run on the front page, and the Sunday edition is distributed much more widely than the Tuesday paper.) Yet we get hit by both sides for bias. Hard to win in this climate, isn't it?

My response to her response:

You can actually report, with a straight face, that someone who campaigned for Obama "paid little attention to politics"? That someone who pays "little" attention to politics watched the SOTU speech? Is the ability to uncritically repeat a lie a requirement for working at the NYT? Is passing along a lie OK if it's attributed to the source?

I'm sure you get all sorts of hits from the left for "bias". Sure... No doubt they complain that your slander of Jason Mattera didn't go far enough.

[Dorothy Jane]

I love the word sprinklie. It is a wonderful word. I think Coffeespriklies or sprinklers is interchangeable - I knew it was not a typo I just thought 'sprinklie' makes them sound endearing. Which they aren't - although I now think coffeePOTs with the implied 'head' following 'pot' is quite catchy as well. So many choices! ;-)

[Thomas Collins]

I suppose you may be correct, Dorothy Jane, that endearing words shouldn't be applied to the Coffee Partiers. I just have this vision of them as intellectually vapid adults with childlike qualities. But I like all the other names that have been assigned to them on this thread.

By the way, I must confess that I am sipping Yemen Mocha Sanani (black with no sprinklies at the moment) as I am posting. I hope there is still room in the Tea Party movement for coffee drinkers. I feel as if that other crowd has sullied my beverage of choice!

[Rob Crawford]

I still think we should call gatherings of Democrats "Donkey Shows".

[It was an Arab who was killed, therefore it must be the Joos.]

I hope anduril is following Powerline's Scott as he continues with the Dubai murder affair. It looks like we can now add Jordan and Egypt to the list of countries interested in the victim.
=======================

[Clarice]

I asked Ms. Zernike why she's not revealed the background of the coffee party organizer Ms Park and she replied she didn't think it was relevant:

Dear Ms. Feldman,
Thanks for writing. I'm not sure why that is relevant - or is any more relevant than people saying that Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots was a Republican consultant. It would matter if I were suggesting that Ms. Park is a Republican, or trying to support Republican causes, or that Ms. Martin is a Democrat, or supporting progressive causes, which would make them wolves in sheeps' clothing. But in both cases, it's pretty clear what their politics are, and their previous roles are consistent with that.
Best,

Of course, as Professor Jacobson notes, by not revealing this information she allowed Ms Park to misrepresent herself as some one who had no animus to the tea party (see above quote of her reference to "tea baggers" by another poster) and in fact hoped some members of that party would join hers.
***

I referred her to Prof Jacobson's post in reply. Perhaps someone else cares to take is up with the paper's beleaguered ombudsman/public editor/whipping boy and front man.

[Rob Crawford]

I still think it's ludicrous to describe someone who worked for a campaign as "not involved in politics".

[Gabriel Sutherland]

If the Europeans start their own tea party movement may I suggest they call it the Espresso Party. Then they can align with the Tea Party people to form the low acidity, small government movement to take on these big government coffee people.

[My 9500 Liberty page]

I covered their documentary contemporaneously, and also caught them not disclosing the material affiliation of one of those they featured. If someone's going to link the name of their documentary to something, why link it to a friendly-to-them site like MoJo?

[Jack is Back!]

Captain Starbuck here.

We have a confluence of coffee nomenclature that needs much clarification and more originality to compete with the derogatory "tea-baggers" especially those of a sexual, sophomoric or exotic nature:

* Doppio's *

* French Pressers *

* Kaldi's *

* Lungo Nuts *

* Second Crackers *

* Tampers *

* Pullers *

* Skin(ny) *

[Rob Crawford]

LUWAK!!!

That's it... they're Kopi Luwak!

[Thomas Collins]

See LUN for more on the Kopi Luwak Party and on a possible "false flag" operation to help Harry Reid.

[narciso]

This is so astroturfed it's not even funny, in the LUN

[JM Hanes]

Thomas Collins:

Back when I was growing up (in Massachusetts!) the little colored sprinklies you could get on your ice cream cones were called "jimmies" (although it could have been "Jimmies" or Jimmy's). I have no idea why.

BTW, does anyone else regularly get the "Sorry, we cannot accept this data" message from TypePad here? When that happens, I have to copy my comment, refresh the page and paste it back into the composing box to post it successfully. It usually happens when I have previewed and edited a longer post, but TP sometimes rejects single paragraphs too, as it did the one above on my first try.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

I still think it's ludicrous to describe someone who worked for a campaign as "not involved in politics".

Working for two campaigns in two different years really isn't evidence of "involve[ment] in politics".

Oh wait. It is. The Land of Make Believe is alive and well. I bet they even have job creation there.

[the wolf]

"Tea Party" as a historical reference makes sense. "Coffee Party," on the other hand, makes no sense. Coffee is not the opposite of tea and coffee party has no analog to current or historical events. It's just lame.

And touting participation on Facebook (really) is just sad. Clicking a link on Facebook is the laziest, lowest level of participation.

[jimmyk]

These copycat things don't usually work, despite the NYTimes efforts to pump them up. See Air America. It comes off as a bit childish, and the fact is there really isn't much passion on their side other than hatred of the Tea Partiers.

JMH: Yes, I get those occasionally. Haven't figured out a pattern.

[jimmyk]

These copycat things don't usually work, despite the NYTimes efforts to pump them up. See Air America. It comes off as a bit childish, and the fact is there really isn't much passion on their side other than hatred of the Tea Partiers.

JMH: Yes, I get those occasionally. Haven't figured out a pattern.

[Jane]

"Coffee Partiers"

I think that's racist.

JMH, I still call them "jimmies". And I get a rejection notice any time I try and post one or 2 sentences with a link. No problem with the longer stuff.

[Maureen]

How about "Grinders"? That has a suitable sleazy flavor. Or is it too NY subway-specific?

[bgates]

any more relevant than people saying that Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots was a Republican consultant

That's a reference to a case that got MediaMutters all atwitter last year - Martin was on Fox and described herself as an ordinary American without divulging that she had done work for the Republican Party.

Looks like Zernike is adopting the "Bush did it" defense for media companies, and the NYT is going to start claiming it's holding itself to Fox News standards.

[Jim Ryan]

wolf: Your comment makes sense. However, the coffee party have no idea that the Tea Party's name is an historical reference in the first place. They think it refers to 1950's conservative tea parties such as those at June Cleaver's home. They're not "into" Founding Fathers stuff and have no recollection of the 1773 event.

[Clarice]

I DO ON OCCASION, JMH..I think what happens is that so many posts have come in while you were composing that the comment box is now on a prior page. First, always be sure the comment box is at the end of the thread, If you've taken a veery long time to compose on a hot topic you might want to copy the post before posting it t. If you find you can't post..check to see if the end of the thread has moved and if it has you move, too, and try to re-post.

[Insufficiently Sensitive]

How well does Annabel Park know and communicate with Rahm Emmanuel and David Axelrod, in her never-ending quest to keep King Obama propped up on his throne?

More important, how much of the 'stimulus' slush fund is being devoted to the organization and promotion of the astroturf "coffee" party?

[Jim Ryan]

Ouch:

Again, the China that people like Friedman envy doesn't exist. What's useful is the myth — the myth that a bunch of "enlightened" technocrats are (like Tom Friedman) smart enough to run everything.

[Jim Bunning]

Excuse me, Babs, but I wish you would call me baseball hall of famer Jim Bunning. I did a lot to earn the title.

[Clarice]

narciso, that's a really damning link. Someone really ought to pull this together for the Post and NYT ombudsmen..In the Post BTW, they gave Ms Park an online interview with readers and the same sort of glossy soft focus promotion.

[Janet]

Great link narciso. From that article a great question -

How could the MSMs have known? Annabel said herself that the Coffee Party was grassroots,

Does the MSM troll Facebook? Who at the WaPo is friends with Ms Park?

[Clarice]

We could refer to this folks--for symmetry's sake as coffee baggers.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

Jenny Beth Martin apparently is one of those swarmy Republicans that doesn't bother to seek compensation for their services to local Republican Candidates.

She started getting paid for what she was doing in 2007. For the previous 15 years she performed the same services without pay.

Zernike's pitches are almost reaching home plate.

[narciso]

From one of the post, in the link, leads to a Washington Poat article, where they say Obama
is "authentic" and was driven to volunteer for Webb, because of macaca, you can't make this up.

[Rick]

We should call this cut-out "movement" the Kaffee Klatch Klan. The perponderant German root of the term honors its authoritarian objectives.

Cordially...

[bgates]

Gabriel - even so, Zernike's cite of the Martin episode points to a need for increased vigilance by Fox. They've apparently become the de facto ethical standard for journalists everywhere, and if Fox lets things slide a little, naturally less professional, less well-regarded organizations like the New York Times are going to become confused about what is permissible.

[Jane]

I think we should find some really nasty word to describe those coffee grounds. And I also think that it is truly amazing that the same people who spent the last year casting aspersions on the Tea Partiers have decided to copy us.

It won't catch on. No one still supports their cause except the people who are paid to do so (SEIU) and then only if they are paid.

[Clarice]

It is inevitable with such a popular and amorphous operation that the professional sleazes would adopt three counter measures:
(a) a copy cat operation which is surely a cover for astroturfing.
(b) run candidates who pretend they are third party members of the tea party as they are doing in Nevada..to split the anti Dem vote and give Reid and people like him a better chance to stay in office
(c) discredit the leaders and members of the tea party. They've done this by having pretend racists with appropriate signs show up at events where reporters and photogs flock to them and fail to note their true background--EVEN when they know it.

This war is just beginning. Shoe clerks :Fall out..this is not for the faint hearted.

[narciso]

This is as genuine as Real Alaskans for Truth, the Winter Soldiers, Micah Wright,
Scott Beachamp, and other bold truth tellers
trampled by the man

[Thomas Collins]

My youngest child worked at an ice cream shop for three summers. I'm going to ask her whether those thingies sprinkled on the ice cream are still called jimmies.

[Sue]

You know, whenever someone is invited in for coffee in the movies, it generally means sex is involved. Shouldn't they have known this?

Also, coffee has always been a stereotypical sexual harassment beverage in the office place. Shouldn't they have thought of this?

[Jane]

"Tea" stands for Taxed enough already.

"Coffee" stands for "Congress obliterates founders for European entitlements"

[Gabriel Sutherland]

@Thomas Collins

I know them as jimmies as well. I only remember this term when my family moved to the Midwest from Colorado. But that was also around the time I started remembering anything. My folks are from Philly so the anecdote below may be a contributing factor.

According to some food blog, Jimmy was the guy that sold the chocolate covered sprinkles and it just stuck.

[bgates]

Sue, isn't coffee that horrible beverage that heartless multinational corporations use to scald the flesh of harmless old ladies?

What kind of a monster is Annabel Park that she encourages people to set widows on fire?

[Gabriel Sutherland]

MISSION: The Coffee Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.

Didn't the founders intend to have gridlock in the Federal government? The collective will was expressed in your state.

[Ignatz]

--These copycat things don't usually work, despite the NYTimes efforts to pump them up. See Air America.--

jimmyk,
See my 10:53AM post. I can't say my mind is great but apparently ours do think somewhat alike; my condolences.

[Porchlight]

"Coffee Party" is definitely racist. Don't forget, Bill Clinton said that in the old days Obama would be "serving us coffee." Are the Coffee Partiers trying to subtly hint that it was better back then? We know that libs reminisce about the good old days before new media, Palin, and the uppity Tea Party rabble began to make themselves heard...

[Mikey NTH]

They have an official Mission Statement? How...um...corporate of them.

[DebinNC]

Since coffee partiers is racist, how about coffee beaners? If Lou Dobbs used "coffee beaners", we'd have the added benefit of watching Rick Sanchez's head explode.

[Janet]

Like narciso said @ 3:05 -
This fake grassroots organization being trumpeted by the Washington Post reminds me of a group called "Appeal for Redress" which was also a fake grassroots organization trumpeted by the WaPo. They did 2 puff articles along with pictures for this group.
In that case Fenton Communications organized a conference call for reporters to unveil the soldiers' anti-war group. This was in Oct. 2006.

[narciso]

Like Yogi Berra said "It's like Deja Vu all over again" in the LUN

[Janet]

So HOW exactly did the Washington Post come across this "grassroots" effort? A conference call? A friend at the WaPo? The White House?

[DebinNC]

Why represent themselves as something they're not, when they're so easily debunked? Must be Chock full o'Nuts.

[Dave (in MA)]

TC:My youngest child worked at an ice cream shop for three summers. I'm going to ask her whether those thingies sprinkled on the ice cream are still called jimmies.

This is my local ice cream stand. Look at the 2nd row under "toppings and cones".

[Parking Lot]

the Commee Partiers

[Grant]

Chock full o'nuts has to be their official brand.

[Dave (in MA)]

Grant wins the naming contest.

[Parking Lot]

why call them Commee Partiers?

cuz I imagine they'd enjoy being called outright 'commies' about as much as the tea partiers enjoy being called 'tea baggers'

are they commies? irrelevant since tea partiers aren't teabaggers

[Clarice]

Dave, nice looking ice cream, but everyone in or from the Midwest knows those things are "jimmies", not *urgh* "sprinkles" or, even worse "sprinklies"

[Mike Myers]

Give me that old time Tea Party--not any of these weak imitations. We'll see how well Ms. Park does in stirring up an army of coffee partiers.

[Jane]

I think Deb was first - but Chock full o'Nuts. it is. I'm tweeting it.

[Parking Lot]

((We'll see how well Ms. Park does in stirring up an army of coffee partiers.))

don't you mean commie partiers? :)

[Clarice]

Have a look at Ms Park at Roots Camp DC..along with countless Fenton ops.
http://www.neworganizing.com/wiki/index.php/RootsCampDC

[matt]

If you read her bio,she is a full time activist. Documentary films, her deep involvement with Asian American organizations. She worked as a strategic analyst for the NYT.

She's basically a professional Asian. Had a GF like that who was a professional Latina. Leftist who worked in DC as a lobbyist for any and everything on the left with a Latin angle. That one didn't last very long.My only mea culpa was that she was hot.

Ms. Park about as apolitical as the National Endowment for the Arts. Tied directly into the White House. These people are boobs.

[pass the dutchie, not this abominable bill]

Dylan Ratigan on MSDNC just called tea partiers racists and had a leftwing hack from the SPLC quoting SPLC statistics saying hate crimes are way up and attributing this to the tea party. This guy really needs to go.

[Dave (in MA)]

Clarice, the description clarifies that they use "sprinkles" for the multicolored ones and "jimmies" for the brown ones. This preserves the supposed "racist" nomenclature allowing people who like to get upset about such things to continue to get upset about such things.
We always called 'em "jimmies" no matter what. I thought it was a Boston area thing. A local chain called "Brigham's" (founded by a relative of the founder of Brigham & Women's hospital) claims to have coined the name after the same "Jimmy" as was the local cancer charity The Jimmy Fund.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

The Coffee Party was supposed to be on MSDNC at 4:45. Ratigan brought the tee for Ms. Park I see.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

How do you run a "Real Virginians for Webb" group when you're not from Virginia?

The Swing State narrative just perpetuates these travelers as campaign free agents. Target a state. Move there. Start fostering additional imports. Register voters. Hold election. Leave.

If elections are a multi-billion dollar industry now, this will only get worse.

[Rob Crawford]

I think we should find some really nasty word to describe those coffee grounds.

I'm telling ya, "Donkey Shows".

[Dave (in MA)]

That one-ups the term teabagger, for sure.

[Extraneus]

From Dave's link:

Back in the 1930’s, James Bartholomew operated a new candy machine for the Just Born Candy Company making tiny hot-dog shaped chocolate sprinkly things. The company called them “Jimmies” in James’s honor. Though they’ve also been called sprinkles, shots, trimmets, toppetts and fancies along the way—we still like Jimmies.

[matt]

grounds zero?

[Stephanie]

Politics sure is getting sexual these days.

First we have teabaggers, then the dems respond with Donkey Shows...

And wasn't this have the house adopt the bill then send it to the president originally referred to as the "ping pong" option? LUN

[Dave (in MA)]

Rob, I should point out that I had to google that before I knew what you meant. http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:m9GXB_Lp8dkO5M:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4d/Face-blush.svg/36px-Face-blush.svg.png>

[Dave (in MA)]

Yikes.

[Rob Crawford]

Dave, I should be embarrassed for knowing what it means without having to look it up.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

FYI: William Jacobson received a call from Kate Zernike about his blog post.

Update: Interesting, I received a phone call from Kate Zernike, the author of the NY Times article, who felt that I did not sufficiently credit her article with disclosing Park's background and motives.

Link