Obama donor and supporter forces cancellation of Atlanta tea party

July 6, 9:36 PMPolitical Buzz ExaminerJames Hyde

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Obama donor and supporter forces cancellation of Atlanta tea party. There are four things President Obama cannot do without: Teleprompters, his PDA, Air Force One and being liked. In response to the April 15 TEA (Taxed Enough Already) parties, he engaged in infantile and cynical mimicry. By so doing, he demonstrated visceral behavior affirming his obsession with being liked by mocking those who don’t like his policies.

There he stood at yet another well-scripted town meeting, the champion of “openly debating the issues.” He was slightly hunched over, his thumb and forefinger clenched as if he were holding a teabag. The act was not only childish, but bitter and acidic for any politician (see the YouTube video below).

What happened?

Just prior to July 4th the locations of planned TEA parties comprised so many red dots on a Google map of the U.S., it looks like a World Health Organization “flu contagion progression chart.”

But the red dot and plans for the Atlanta TEA party, which attracted 20,000 on April 15, no longer appear on that map. In the eyes of Obama supporters a TEA party that’s gaining momentum is dangerous. They may have believed that this year’s gathering would attract many more people than did the April 15th rally. So, a philanthropist to left wing candidates (Obama) and causes (Obama’s inauguration) managed to deprive the group of its planned venue only days before the protest was to take place. That left the group unable to find a new site in time to protest in union with other TEA parties. And the way he did it is what gave birth to scandal.

The TEA party group’s plan had been to hold the event at the Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, GA, in front of an old Macy’s building, and planning for it had been on going since March. The group strategized openly and without objection from anyone—until the last minute.

At their site, Atlantateaparty.net, the Atlanta group posted the following press release.

“The Atlanta Tea Party was forced to cancel its Independence Day celebration in Gwinnett, after losing it's location due to the objection of Gwinnett Place Mall (a Simon company.) The Tea Party had been scheduled to take place in the parking lot of the old Macy's building at Gwinnett Place since March.”

Said Julianne Thompson, event co-organizer, "The old Macy's building is on private property, and not owned by Simon Malls, however the mall manager asked the property owner and I to come in the office on Thursday of this week [June 25], and told us Simon does not want political events on it's property. They were also concerned about the fact we were using the term ‘protest.’ Although the event was on private property, the mall was able to assert authority on the matter due to reciprocal property easement agreements."

Woah, woah, woah. Hold on a second. There are some glaring ownership discrepancies in the above that are as obvious as a cold front slamming into a warm front. But no one sees the purple thunderheads rising.

The opening paragraph states that the Simon Company owns Gwinnett, but in Ms. Thompson’s statement, she says that Simon does not own the mall. Nonetheless, the Simon Company managed to engage in subterfuge by invoking “reciprocal property easement agreements” prohibiting such gatherings. They did not deny access because the company owns the property and objects to the protest.

I decided some good old investigative reporting was necessary so I checked the listing of malls the company does own. Sure enough, I found that the Simon Company does indeed own Gwinnett Place Mall.

So, if Simon owns the mall, who’s “the [mystery] owner” called into the mall manager’s office with Ms. Thompson?

What’s been missed here is that no one (Web sites, blogs or news outlets) has picked up the discrepancy and its significance. Instead of claiming ownership of the mall as the reason for refusing to allow the TEA party to take place, Simon cleverly told the mall manager to use “reciprocal property easement agreements” as the excuse. We don’t know what the easement agreement says, although it could provide that no large demonstrations can take place on mall property. Had he used ownership rights and trespassing as his objection, Martin Simon would have created a conflict of interest that could have involved Obama if Simon’s company took stimulus money. There is no indication that it has or will, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.

If you own the property, you have every right to bar anyone from using it for any reason. But by doing so as late as he did and in the manner he did, he was obviously pandering to Obama’s best interests, but not in his capacity as owner.

While the Atlanta group’s unification of protest with other TEA parties held on the 4th was denied, in the press release, Thompson announced new plans. "The Atlanta Tea Party” she says, “has a great team and is already planning for the July 17th Tea Party Patriots Protests at Congressional offices all across Georgia over nationalized healthcare." In the end, this may be the silver lining in the gathering clouds mentioned above. Support for Obama’s healthcare plan is a leaning, shrinking tower according to a number of polls. The reason most cited for pulling support is the inability to pay for it. That makes it an ideal TEA party issue.

That aside, WorldNetDaily  pinned the blame directly on the Simon company in more specific ways by giving us a snapshot of what and who Simon is and what he supports.

1. Gwinnett Place Mall shut down the Atlanta Tea Party.

2. Simon Property Group owns Gwinnett Place Mall.

3. Melvin Simon (a Forbes 400 billionaire) is Co-chairman of Simon Property Group, Inc.

4. Melvin Simon has provided large political contributions to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Al Franken, John Edwards, the DNC and many other Democrats and Democrat organizations.

5. Melvin Simon was a major contributor to Barack Obama’s inaugural committee and has given at least $1 million to the William J. Clinton foundation.

6. Melvin's wife, Bren, personally donated almost $100,000 to various political candidates, was a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, and contributed to President Obama's inaugural committee.”

Except for item 1, there’s nothing reprehensible, illegal or even suspicious about the company’s or the Simons’ political philanthropy. But what the list does establish is proof that a financial relationship with Obama’s campaign and his inauguration existed.

Most politicians are scared to death of anything a contributor does that even hints at a scandal. They’re afraid they could be sucked into a conflict of interest by association. Stand-up politicians either return the money or find a way to distance themselves from the donor. No sign of either is happening now.

That begs two questions: 1. Did Obama have anything to do with this? There’s no smoke anywhere on the Net. Besides, he’s way too smart to have been involved. 2. Did he know about it? That may be another matter entirely. People who give candidates money are always willing to boast to their beneficiaries about anything in which they engaged on behalf of the candidate or office holder.

The hope is to gain some extra payback leverage when needed. It’s classically Mafiaesque. “I do a favor for you, and when I need it, you do a favor for me.” A favor done + favor to be done=conflict of interest by using the influence of the president to get something the donor may need or want. That’s why I for one will be watching what the Simon Company may need or want, especially if they get any Stimulus money. If they do, it should appear in their annual report, unless they try to bury it, but that’s hard to do under the rules governing accounting practices.

What is known is that Obama can’t tolerate the idea of any kind of dissent, and he engaged in a misstep a few days ago that mortified him. As a result, he doesn’t need anything that even implies dirty tricks or a conflict of interest right now.

His mistake gives a full tank of gas to the TEA party movement. He engaged in some surprising Bushonian “Mission Accomplished” theatre. The president strode proudly to his usual perch, a podium with 12 teleprompters, and announced that his Stimulus package “was working.” Everybody got giddy until the following day.

It was then that any semblance of truth about his statement was shattered into 100,000 pieces. The jobless rate shot up by 100,000 more jobs than the previous month. The rate had been declining month-after-month. This was the first increase, and it was substantial. It pushed unemployment up to 9.5% and its highest levels in 26 years. Inexperience or faulty strategy caused the embarrassment. Before declaring his plan efficacious, he should have waited a day to see what the jobless rate would do. Or, he could have known the latest number and tried to mitigate it with a rosy declaration. In either case, it was a mistake. This is what the tea parties are keeping an eye on.

But presidential issues are a constant, and the day after the unemployment news came out, a White House press briefing descended into angry mayhem. It looks as if the president is no longer the media darling he has been. White House press corps dean, Helen Thomas, and other reporters leaned on Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about how staged the president’s endless town hall meetings are and asked whether or not the questions are handed out to participants ahead of the charades. Gibbs tried to deny it, but questions clearly pent up until that press conference came tumbling out.

Thomas angrily pointed out that Obama’s is the only administration in U.S. history that calls reporters the night before a press conference and tells them they’ll be called on the following day. What Thomas is also clearly furious about, and pointed to with indignation, was her perception (seconded by others) that the administration is both controlling and manipulating the press. That’s a very damning charge seldom made, but when it is, if you’re president, you’ve got a huge problem. It’s a signal that you’re losing and may already have lost press credibility, and it takes a long time to get it back.

She also tore into the hypocrisy of Obama’s main campaign promise: “My administration will be open and transparent.” So far, it’s been neither, and she was very spirited in her comments about that.

Press Secretary Gibbs then made the unforgivable mistake of trying to laugh off her tirade. Everybody who deals with the White House press corps can tell you that you don’t laugh at Helen Thomas—ever. She and other reporters were clearly agitated by Gibb’s embarrassed, gulping grin.

I bring this up because the White House press corps may now start studying Obama as they should have been from the first day. It’s important too because the TEA parties may start getting more press attention.

The TEA party groups are beginning to focus on Obama’s catastrophic healthcare plan. Everyone in Congress seems to agree that the administration still hasn’t come up with a plan to pay for it. Unless Obama prints more money—and risks sending us into hyperinflation—the only other option is to increase taxes on everybody.

Obama swore during the campaign that anyone making less than $250,000 would not pay “one thin dime in new taxes,” (does “Read my lips” sound familiar?). He realized, once he spent some time in the Oval Office, that that promise would be thrown on the broken-promise heap with his other fractured pledges.

Fortunately, the TEA party movement is alive, well and growing. What makes it unique and successful is the lack of political homogeneity. It is strictly a grass roots movement of which no one political group can claim ownership. Its membership comprises people from the left and right, conservative and liberal, with healthy representation by Independents who provide the swing vote in presidential elections. They, in particular have backed away from Obama according to polls cited by Dick Morris and others.

What is homogeneous is the Jeananne Garofalo crowd, who deliberately skew the intent of TEA party attendees. Her radical blinders won’t allow here to admit that there are people out there who honestly and rightly disagree with Obama’s policies. Instead, she paints activists as people who object to Obama’s skin color. It’s the old and tired Liberal standby argument when all else fails: play the race card with a broad brush.

But it’s become clear that she’s been minimized as nothing more than a Liberal demagogue who demonizes anyone who disagrees with her or Obama, and does so with little or no evidence to support her accusations. She sees a TEA party sign or two she thinks is racist and she then paints the whole movement prejudiced with her broad brush of self-indulgent outrage.

I think the ride is about to get bumpy for Barak Hussein Obama. The growing TEA party movement can help stop the march to Socialism and he knows it. But the movement needs to coalesce in Washington, not just in the cities and towns in which they now take place. TEA party organizers should schedule a massive march on Washington. If millions show up, there’s no way the press can turn a blind eye to the protest. The movement must take its valid complaints to the seat of power. It worked for the advancement of civil rights and to end the Vietnam War. It can also help stop insane and out-of-control spending.

And the responsible press needs to look hard at the reasons why the Atlanta TEA party was sabotaged. It would have appeared as 300-point-type headlines on the front pages of most newspapers had it been an act committed by a Bush backer. It’s time to end the hypocrisy now and re-establish journalistic integrity.

As for the mall’s owner in the Atlanta case, FaultLineUSA has started a boycott of the goods sold in Simon-owned malls, of which there are many. Boycotts are enormously powerful. The threat of one makes shop owners very nervous. You can view the list of malls at the company’s site. FaultLineUSA also provides a draft letter you can send to the Simon Company here.

Obama’s economic policies are becoming exponentially more disastrous for this country. There are and will continue to be those who try to still the chorus of dissent. They need to be confronted, so I urge you to send Simon either your own message or that provided by FaultLineUSA. Those who voted for Obama got sold a bill of goods, not at all what they expected. The TEA parties are only the beginning of many protests to come.

 About Political Buzz: The articles here are presented for the benefit of people who may not understand or are misinformed about the basics of the anatomy of  a political issue. The articles may present or expose both sides of the story, but in no way do I promise to withhold my opinion. I encourage comments and emails, and answer as many as I can, but I reserve the right to delete hateful comments or attempts at demonizing those mentioned in an article.