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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

As if Bush didn't have enough enemies.

Yesterday there was the news that a new pro-war astroturf media campaign called "Freedom Watch" was spending $15 million on television advertising promoting the president's "stand and bleed" Iraq policy.

Today, we get a breakdown (chart near bottom) of where they're spending their first $5.8 million, and (per Moveon's analysis) alot of the targets appear to be, in part, standing Republican Congressmembers.

(One note. Don't take the Moveon analysis of the "targets" as exact. Running ads in Philadelphia reaches far more than the politicians listed here, and in some cases, they list the House member without the Senator and vice versa.)

But, still, (from CNN) Freedom Watch's intent is fairly clear.
Freedom's Watch's web site also encourages grassroots action, calling on supporters to lobby their members of Congress to support the war in Iraq and "to protect America against the global war on terror."

Do you think they're really expecting grassroots pro-war action to influence the Dem representatives in all these ad markets?

So, what we have is a mysteriously funded astroturf group, being run by a Bush crony, running ads that in effect are targeting sitting Republican Senators and Congressmen.

Wow.

Later: A little more from Politico, "The big ad buy, funded by high-profile Republicans who were aides and supporters of President Bush..." (They have a list of some of the donors.)

The claim is that this group intends to exist as a longterm entity. Looks like Ari Fleischer has figured out how to feather his nest.

Later Still: Squamus mentions in the comments that if you call their 800 number, they'll connect you to you Congressman if you agree with their position. If not, it's "Have a nice day."

3 Comments:

  • You may have already seen this, but the operators answering the toll free number (1-877-222-8001) at the end of the pro-war ad targeting Republicans will only patch you through if you agree with the statement that “surrendering in Iraq will only open us up to terrorist attacks here at home.”

    If you don’t agree with that statement, the operator won’t patch you through. She told me “thank you have a nice day” and hung up on me.

    They won't even risk giving people the truth about Congress's phone number. Which, by the way, is (202) 224-3121 for the Senate, and (202) 225-3121 for the House.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:53 AM  

  • No, I hadn't seen that. Wow.

    I never would have called myself because I don't want to get on their list.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 7:14 AM  

  • And, I'll add that to the bottom.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 7:15 AM  

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