I remember some time last year, mortified Texas Republicans found themselves having to explain how it was that they granted a vendor selling campaign pins saying; “If Obama is President will we still call it the White House?” space at their convention.

All over the blogosphere, the Left went nuts with joy; and remarkably echo-chamber like talking points “See? See?!” they shrieked in smug elation “The GOP is filled with nothing but racists! Racists!! YAAAAYYYY!!!!”

As for me, my first thought was that this was far more likely to be a Democratic dirty trick. As far as I’m concerned, only a Democrat would believe that such a sentiment on a campaign pin would draw appreciative laughs from a Republican audience, so I looked for any story about this vendor – his name is Jonathan Alcox – that would also spare a few a lines to shed some light on his partisan affiliation, donation records, etc.

No such luck – for some reason, no one in the media thought to check up on that.

What I did discover though was that he was something of an equal-opportunity offender i.e. he makes political pins, stickers and buttons for sale to both Republicans and Democrats at their conventions. This was the button he sold at the TXGOP convention that got him into the news. The one on top is the one that got him and the TXGOP as collateral damage in the news. The one at the bottom is one he made to sell at the TX Democratic convention.

The kicker is this though – on the “Obama button” at the TXGOP convention;

“I only made 12 buttons to test them out … And, I only sold four. Two were sold to journalists who were looking for a controversial story to bring out of the convention.”

On the Bush-Chimpanzee button at the TX Democratic convention;

“… they sold out almost immediately.”

Ask yourselves, which one better reflects the mindset of its target market? And how come only one of these buttons made the news?

The jury is still out on whether or not Alcox was a plant by the other side (I think he was) – the TXGOP is not taking any chances though; Alcox has been banned from all future TXGOP conventions and the national conventions till further notice (i.e. forever).

But the issue of the Left trying to sabotage Republican/Conservative gatherings is not something that the jury is still out on – it is a fact. Online, we’ve seen co-ordinated trolling, mobying and astroturfing campaigns; people signing up, claiming to be Republicans/Conservatives and then posting racist comments in diaries in order to tar their targets. It only makes sense that they would take it offline.

April 15th (National Tea Party Day) is no exception.

Jeff Poor at Newsbusters reports;

On Fox News Channel’s April 7 “Your World,” host Neil Cavuto reported that the Tax Day tea party protests on April 15 will be “infiltrated” by their political opponents and led by left-wing activist organizations. He specifically named Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

“Only eight days before a nationwide tea party, some over-caffeinated crashers aiming to lay waste to it,” Cavuto said. “Reports of very well-organized infiltrators trying to mix in and rain on this parade. Talk about taxing.”

What bothers me is that the two organizers (Chicago and Sacramento) Cavuto interviewed in that news segment seem to be a bit naive about the aim of Huffington Post’s project to have signed-up “Citizen Journalists” go in and report on the various Tea Parties being held across the country. They seem to think that ACORN’s activists would be wearing their ACORN T-shirts (made with your tax money, BTW) and waving their oath to Obama placards. They seem to think the MSM – which has done its level best to ignore the Tea Party movement – are interested in reporting anything that would raise any difficult questions for their man god in the White House.

So, for all the people planning to attend a Tea Party, keep an eye out for people holding Confederate flags, “Kill Barack”, “God Hates Fags” signs, and other such questionable items and paraphernalia. Keep an ear open for idiots loudly screaming nonsense (racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic rants) they “think” Conservatives actually believe. Note that they would naturally head towards the TV cameras, partly to join their fellow Obama-worshipping “counter-protestors” (even while pretending to be Conservatives, Leftists can’t seem to shake their strong herding instinct) but primarily so they can make it into the news broadcasts later on that night.

Which is, of course, the point of it all. They want Tea Party organizers answering more awkward questions about the supposed racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. of their attendees than talking about Barack Obama’s boneheaded economic and fiscal policies – rather like how the TXGOP convention organizers at the end of it found themselves having to answer awkward questions about racist campaign pins they had nothing to do with.

So the aim is to make the Tea Party movement to look like a nationwide Klan rally of fringe kooks and troglodytes. And if there are no kluckers, kooks and troglodytes, then by Godaia, they would provide the kluckers, kooks and troglodytes themselves – after all, they know what we’re really like deep down inside. Like Lewis Lapham already writing and submitting an article panning Bush’s Speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention before it even happened, the folks at HuffPo have already written their story, what they’re waiting for are the embellishments to be provided by their agents on the field.

Once it’s on HuffPo, it would find its way into the MSM – as a huge number of MSM stories often do.

So consider following these agents provocateurs around around with signs with arrows pointing at them and “ACORN Fraud” boldly written on them. Consider carrying your own camera to record the people being interviewed by TV news reporters. Record yourselves and take pictures talking to other good-faith attendees. Record the speeches and post it up on YouTube to foil MSM and Lefty blogger creative editing (AKA Ransom Note Method). And just for kicks, sign up to the HuffPo’s “Citizen JournaFabulist” program and include “#huff” in your Twitter messages if you’ll be tweeting the event.

More links, details and suggestions nicely collated here. (Temple of Mut) as well as in Roger Simon’s comments section.