Right-wing radio host and blogger Bill Post of Salem has uncovered a horrendous political scandal: Jim Bernau, CEO of Willamette Valley Vineyards, appears to be a closet liberal.
Post was able to break this blockbuster of a story, according to his blog, because an alert listener tipped him “that there was a bus at the McMinnville David Wu Town Hall meeting Monday night that was, as the listener described, ‘filled with Obama Health Care supporters with ACORN connections and the bus was sponsored by Willamette Valley Vineyards.’ We carefully asked for the caller to prove that in some way. Well, just minutes before we went on the air, he emailed pictures of the bus and boy did that start a firestorm.”
Well, not so much a firestorm as a small bonfire.
The Bus Project is an organization founded by Jefferson Smith (now a state representative from Portland) with the aim of encouraging people – especially young people – to register and vote. Pretty radical, huh? But wait, it gets worse.
One of the photos e-mailed to Post shows the side of the bus decorated with slogans like “Education,” “Election Reform,” “Equal Rights,” “Environment,” “Economic Strength” and “Health Care.” My god, Chairman Mao could’ve written that stuff!
Post writes on his blog that “‘THE BUS’ is part of an offshoot of ACORN called: The Bus Project and Politicorps which are EXTREME left wing groups which on their own website say: ‘to elect Progressives to the offices in swing areas.'” A search of the ACORN website revealed no reference to either “the Bus Project” or “Politicorps,” but the righties have been so obsessed with ACORN ever since the last election campaign that they see its slimy tentacles reaching everywhere.
A comment from “Dan” on the Oregon Catalyst site explains the ACORN/Bus Project connection (pay close attention now, because this gets tricky): “The Bus Project is a Bus Federation partner. The Bus Federation, along with ACORN is part of Health Care For America Now. Health Care for America is just another MoveOn/Soros front … “
So because the Bus Project is affiliated with the Bus Federation, and the Bus Federation and ACORN are both affiliated with Health Care for America Now, the Bus Project is an “offshoot of ACORN.”
You follow that? Nope, neither did we.
Incidentally, Health Care for America Now’s website says it’s a coalition of “more than 1,000 organizations in 46 states” – which means there are a hell of a lot of sneaky ACORN / MoveOn / George Soros / socialist / communist fronts operating out there. (Other members, incidentally, include such sinister organizations as the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Nursing, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation for Independent Living, the National Cervical Cancer Coalition and the YWCA.)
Bernau told Post and others that he supported the Bus Project because he thought it was a good idea to encourage young people to vote. But since the Bus Project has progressive leanings and Bernau supports the Bus Project, that makes Bernau a progressive – which, in the conservative worldview, is the same as a socialist, which is the same as a communist, which makes Bernau the ideological, if not moral, equivalent of Joseph Stalin.
What especially infuriates Post about Bernau, as he writes on the Oregon Catalyst site, is that Willamette Valley Vineyards “has a history of being a strong supporter [of] many free market and Republicans candidates in Oregon.” Various comments on that site also express outrage at Bernau’s betrayal of the Glorious Cause.
“These guys have lost my business forever,” writes “Max.” “From now on, it’s Boon’s Farm.” (The Eye has no way of proving it, but we have a feeling it’s ALWAYS been Boon’s Farm for Max.)
On the whole, though, we predict Willamette Valley Vineyards has little to fear from a right-wing boycott. Conservatives are “real Americans,” and “real Americans” drink BEER. (And not that elitist “microbrew” stuff either.)
This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2009.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Sounds to me like you have found something new to whine about. Then too, weren’t you the one claiming that “right wingers” were organizing these town hall protests? Now it appears that it is the “left wing” that is doing so.
BTW, did you ever find a town hall meeting where “right wingers” were bussed in to protest?
Two thumbs up!
“BTW, did you ever find a town hall meeting where “right wingers” were bussed in to protest?”
I don’t have any problem with how they get there — they could arrive in chauffeured limousines for all I care. My problem is with how they behave when they get there.
BTW the word you wanted is “bused.” To “buss” somebody means to kiss them.
What is the matter folks? Truth hurt you again to the point you have to vote down my post?
Of course, as is usual for this forum, you didn’t bother to state any facts to support the negativity of the OP.
Show me where any Conservative group is bussing people to various town hall meetings en masse? You whined about people in Madras being from outside the area. Where is your “whine” about people being bussed from outside the area by leftwing groups?
The right wing IS encouraging and organizing the town hall protests, and the left wing is encouraging and organizing people to counter the right-wing protesters. Nothing wrong with any of that; it’s called “democracy.”
Like I said, the problem isn’t how they get there, it’s how they behave after they get there.
The problem is that when the “right” goes they drive themselves there, and the “left” calls them “astroturf” protestors, “anti-American”, etc.
When the “left” goes there they are bussed from other areas, and suddenly they are a “movement”.
BTW, the Founders feared a democracy. That is why we are a Democratic Republic even if in name only anymore.