Tea Parties, Coffee Parties, Cocoa Parties, New York Times

First came the grassroots political movement known as the Tea Party movement.

Then came another grassroots organization, the Coffee Party movement, characterized by its founder as "reality-based" rather than "fear-based". Jim Treacher:

Look out, all you crazy, racist, teabaggin’ Tea Partiers. There’s a new brew in town, and it’s full of beans! Or something. . .  

Much like the Tea Party movement, this is of course an entirely spontaneous response to massive expansion of government power. Except this time, according to coffeepartyusa.org:

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.

Got it? The federal government is the expression of our collective will. Just like it was throughout the Bush administration. Right? Hello? . .

Read the whole thing. Heh.

NOW comes the Cocoa Party movement:

Tired of the Coffee Party and the Tea Party? We’re the newest game in town!

I woke up this morning and realized I didn’t want tea or coffee. I wanted hot cocoa!

So I turned on my computer and in a few minutes founded a new political movement — The Cocoa Party!

Yes, it was that simple.

Then I got one of my friends at the newspaper where I used to work to violate all professional journalistic ethics by writing a puff-piece about me without revealing that I used to work there. Thanks!

Also, thanks for not mentioning that I used to really really really like Kool-Aid.

Now, in between fielding 100 emails an hour from new members wanting to start chapters from Wasilla to Waco, Twittering 17 witty tweets per minute, fielding calls from TV producers and journalists, and weeping with joy and sincerity about our wonderful country, I barely have time to consider that I’ve just revolutionized politics — all before lunch!

But enough about me. This is about The Cocoa Party! . . . 

Astroturfing:  It's what the Left accuses the Right of doing to divert attention from its own astroturfing.  The Left constantly accuses the Right of using the tactics it intends to use itself.

Fun Facts:

The Coffee Party Movement was started by Annabel Park, an average citizen whose first listed work experience was as a "Strategy Analyst" at the New York Times, 12 years after she started her BA at Boston University and two years before she finished it. Before finishing her BA in Boston, she was a D. Phil Candidate for three years at Oxford. More recently, she produced videos for the Obama Campaign.

The NYT reporter who wrote the puff piece on the Coffee Party movement, and who has declined to amend her piece to reveal Ms. Park's connection to the Obama campaign or her former employment at the NYT, is Kate Zernike, recently in the news for her bizarre, bigoted characterization of a CPAC speaker as playing to racial stereotypes because he has a Brooklyn accent. Challenge unaccepted: “Identify with time stamps where Mattera uses the ‘Chris Rock voice.’”

Being a New York Times reporter means never having to say you're sorry.

UPDATE: All the favorable, if questionable PR from the New York Times doesn't seem to be making the Coffee Party into a movement.

Oops: Another hidden resume for a Coffee Party organizer: John Edwards MO campaign organizer.