Talking Points Memo's TPMMuckraker blog has a great post from Zachary Roth today about some leaked emails showing that CNBC apparently requested "lots of energy and lots of anger" at an upcoming health reform town hall.

Tea Baggers are hoping for a literal "riot" at an upcoming town hall event, in order to create a spectacle for CNBC's cameras. And the event will be hosted by a Democratic congressman who this week had a swastika painted on a sign outside his district office.

Yesterday, Tea Party Patriots national coordinator Jenny Beth Martin sent an email, obtained by TPMmuckraker, to a Tea Party google group. Martin told the group: "We have a media request for an event this week that will have lots of energy and lots of anger. This is for CNBC."

The Tea Party Patriots, as you'll recall, raised a ruckus during the national debate over the stimulus package. These emails will certainly give credence to those who argue that the "people's anger" at the health reform town halls is little more than Astroturfing. Another TPMMuckraker post points out links between the Tea Party Patriots and a small-government lobbying group. And the Astroturf rolls both left and right, according to a Huffington Post story by Sam Stein.

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