Do you really know who bought that ad? Your neighbors? Probably not.

The GOP/TeaParty fueled campaigns have taken what Democrats merely hinted at as a strategy in 2008 and ramped it up to an artform - using front groups with only a passing connection to actual voters to take over our electoral system.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that I find this outrageous and a danger to our democracy. My posts on this subject are listed under Front and Astroturf Groups in the archives.

This ad is a prime example. Note the bullet points - two actual facts followed by three opinions that ignore the complexity of the situation, simplistically blaming ‘Obamacare’, Wall Street ‘bailout’ and ‘National debt’on Democrats rather than Bush era free wheeling spending and deregulation.

So this morning, on NPR, I was heartened to listen to a hard-hitting story about just how these groups operate - complete with interactive tools to help you better understand the mechanisms at play, and how they are are co-opting true citizen participation in the American electoral processes.

Access ‘Independent’ Groups Behind Ads Not So Independent here.

 

Read the story here, but go to NPR for the interactives:

These are the final frantic days of the campaign season. From Missouri to Hawaii, New York to California, political groups are jamming in their last attacks. It’s a banner year for attack ads — and the organizations making them — partly due to the sea of cash unleashed by a Supreme Court decision early this year.

Advocacy groups have popped up all over the country, raising and spending millions of dollars — without having to name their donors. Never before has so much of the congressional election campaign been waged by groups that operate independently of the parties and candidates.

But in reality, those so-called independent groups may not be so independent after all.

Who Are They?

The groups often bear ambiguous names — Americans for Job Security, Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, the 60 Plus Association. Many of them live through the generosity of anonymous donors. The ambiguity and anonymity blur the public understanding of who these groups are.

So let’s start with who they say they are.

One of the biggest players is American Crossroads, which has run ads like one in upstate New York that says Democrat Scott Murphy “broke our trust.”

“Now he wants our vote again? Fool us once, Scott. Shame on you,” it says.

Its sister organization, called Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, or Crossroads GPS, describes itself as a “grassroots advocacy organization that is committed to educating, equipping and mobilizing millions of American citizens.”

Another group, Americans for Job Security, calls itself “the only independent, bi-partisan, pro-business issue advocacy organization in America.” It’s running an ad in southwest Virginia that says Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher “has failed to protect our jobs.”

“Now it’s time Rick Boucher loses his,” it adds.

And then there’s the 60 Plus Association, which says it’s a “non-partisan seniors advocacy group.” It has an ad in Pennsylvania that says Rep. Chris Carney, a Democrat, “betrayed us. He supports Pelosi’s agenda 91 percent of the time.”

With these advertisers and others, the same words come up again and again: Grass-roots. Nonpartisan. Independent.

Their ads seem to imply the groups are homegrown. But every single one mentioned here is based within 20 minutes of Capitol Hill. Most of them, in fact, are in just two office suites.

As for their independence: It would be illegal for them to coordinate their attacks with the candidates they’re helping, or with Republican Party committees. But among themselves, they’re proud of the way they synchronize their efforts.

“If one group puts an ad on television in a certain congressional district, they let everyone else know that,” says Jonathan Collegio with American Crossroads. “This way they don’t double up on the advertising.”

What They Do

This teamwork didn’t happen by accident. But it’s hard to grasp just how interconnected these secret donor groups are — so it may help to take a look at this map.

In addition, here’s an example using someone you’ve heard of: Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s top political strategist.

Rove co-founded American Crossroads, which later set up Crossroads GPS. Together they’ve run ads in at least 30 races around the country. They both use the same media services firm to buy airtime for their ads, Crossroads Media, which isn’t related to them.

The Other Side

This is not a new strategy. The cash flowed freely — and often in secret — two years ago. Except then it was mostly in support of Democrats. Back in 2008, NPR traced one network from its funders, including a union and liberal financier George Soros, to an anti-war coalition and an attack ad against Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

But what Democrats developed, Republicans have mastered.

A big reason why: money. Early this year, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could spend unlimited amounts of money in partisan politics, and Republican advocacy groups have been flush with cash ever since. At the beginning of October, they had outspent Democratic groups by a 9-1 margin.

Democrats, including President Obama, are trying to make up for it by rallying the liberal base against that corporate money — but that can backfire, says Collegio of American Crossroads.

“In the eight days following President Obama’s remarks, we actually raised more than $13 million,” he says.

Where did much of money come from? Well, while American Crossroads has to disclose its donors, Crossroads GPS does not. It’s a legal loophole that looms larger this year than ever before, even for those that claim to be grassroots organizations.

And it’s enabled Republicans to build a wide and rich campaign network outside their party.

One last example of how just tightly the web is woven: B. Wayne Hughes made a fortune in the self-storage business. He sits on the board of the American Action Network. The way the group is organized, it’s unclear how much he’s given to it. But he recently gave $1.5 million to American Crossroads, just as the ad campaigns were ramping up.

That group says on its website: “We believe that a new direction for America starts with you — not with clever political ads, consultants and slick fundraising pitches.”

—30—

That last line is simply rich.  They must believe we’re complete fools.

If you really want to know who is behind these front groups, then always go to SourceWatch.org and plug in the entities’ name.

Friday Fish Wrap: October 1, 2010

October is my favorite month, and not just because of my birthday. Uh, there is a wishlist if you’re interested. Really, autumn is awesome for biking and just being. There isn’t a prettier time of year to just enjoy everything nature puts out there.

I love when the Rabbitbrush is in bloom. This was along one of my two standard morning bike rides, and it provided a great view of both wild Nevada and downtown Reno in the distance. The sky is really just that bluebird blue out here. That’s just one reason I wouldn’t live at sea level anymore.

A little further along the ride, there’s a few sheep in a small pasture. I laid the bike down and leaned against the fence to appreciate a border collie as she raced circles around the sheep, nipping hocks, and herding to her hearts delight. Occasionally, she’d stop and bound over to me for a bit of tail wagging, panting approval.

We were both having a grand morning.

Bernard Schwartz didn’t have such a good morning, and neither did any of his legions of fans, which included me. ‘Bernie’ - aka Tony Curtis - passed away at age 85.

I really am starting to feel old in that so many of the iconic film stars of my youth are now gone - Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn and so many more. We who knew them were greater for it.

You’ll notice over the course of this month that I’m offering up more breast cancer information. This is, after all, Breast Cancer Awareness month. As I do every year, I’ll be posting a wide variety of related information, from prevention to diagnosis, from treatment to survivorship issues- including what I think of Sharron Angle, Nevada’s TeaNut candidate for U.S. Senate. Sharron - who doesn’t support ‘mandates’ to ensure that all women have the option to get a mammogram, regardless of what their insurance company would offer, or not.

Those of you out there who are in one of those stages are encouraged to contribute your ideas and opinions. Feel free to voice your concerns.

One of my concerns: I think we’ll be seeing an upswing in younger new breast cancer cases. I say this in regard to the latest information that has come out about when women should start getting a regular mammogram.

The last media jolt on this subject was about a year ago, when it seemed that researchers had backtracked to a position of age 50 and over. It got a lot of attention - especially from women like me that were diagnosed in their forties. I was 49 at time of diagnosis, and my docs said the cancer had been there for at least two years.

Now, due to a recent Swedish study, they are reversing course to include women under age 50. The thinking goes that although the statistical odds are slimmer below fifty, what do you tell that woman who finds it at age forty-something. Gee, you’re a statistical anomaly, too bad?

But here’s why I think there could be a shift toward a younger population in the years to come: diet and lifestyle.

Woman of my generation (Baby Boomer) and older didn’t have access to the amounts of hidden hormones and other additives in the food supply. We also didn’t spend as many years carrying so much more body fat. Body fat promotes estrogen production. Our food supply (dairy and meat) is laced with it as well. Take a look at the young women out there - and adolescent girls as well. They’re really heavy - with ‘muffin top’ waistlines and enlarged breasts that we would have died for at the same age, back in another generation.

This speaks to too many calories and too much estrogenic activity. It’s a set-up for more and earlier breast cancer.

Stay tuned - as in vigilant.

Talking about Sharron Angle, I’m so weary of those Crossroads GPS ads about how Harry Reid having done everything short of asking every illegal alien in America to come to dinner at his house - and stay in the guest room for a few years while mowing the lawn. Karl Rove has been working overtime on this stuff - which goes far beyond any conceivable definition of ‘spin’. It’s outright lies.

And that’s not just me talking. FactCheck.org has an enlightening article called ‘Crossroads Jam Up’ which covers the reprehensible media blitzes Rove and Crossroads GPS have been levelling at several candidates in close races around the country - including Reid.

A Nevada ad exploits a gaffe by Majority Leader Harry Reid, who said last March that “only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good.” As he later explained, Reid meant to say that the previous month’s job loss was much less than expected. From FactCheck.org ‘Crossroads Jam Up’

The bottom line here is what damage the Citizens United Supreme Court decision will have been done to our electoral process by allowing unlimited money to funnel through third party Super PACs - of which Crossroads GPS is one - without any oversight or reporting. That’s right. Crossroads GPS is structured so that they do not have to disclose who gave them money or how much was donated. The evil doers can remain anonymous.

Isn’t that a grand thing for a democracy?

I’ve been drying more fruit and the declining tomato crop, and it’s been a real discovery. This dried stuff is the best damn snack/candy since beer in cans. I even took a mixed baggie of dried pears, apples and tomatoes with me to the movie and wow, that was awesome! It’s so fresh and just lightly sweet tasting. Plus it’s far more satisfying than sugary candy and stuff like that - I would guess that the fiber (especially when combined with drinking water) fills you up. Mr. Maven remarked that the dried tomatoes were ‘more’ … rather like a sweet treat than a vegetable taste. He loves them.

Give it a try.

We still get a lot of Natacha’s mail here. Forwarding takes time. But we both have noticed the incredible number of credit card offers that arrive here. None for us. They’re all for Natacha …

Let’s see - we pay off all of our bills every month. Hardly ever get a late charge, or a hold over to another month. Have sterling credit. But it’s very apparent that we are not the customer that the big banks want.

Natacha, on the other hand, isn’t a citizen and has practically no credit history, and they want her bad.

Uh, huh. That’s the free market, invisible hand, at it’s best, isn’t it?

I had a better than usual experience with telephone technical support this afternoon. I’d been having some really novel problems with Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 lately - the photo organizer thumbnails would open in really, REALLY intense colors. I did the usual - uninstall/reinstall the program. No help. And the problem was totally intermittant.

Here’s a screenshot ( TIP: always do a ‘snip’ screenshot and save it for when tech support calls back and the problem isn’t happening):

The screenshot above was worth a thousand words with tech support today.

Last Friday I got Adobe support on the line and the Indian guy over in Delhi or Mumbai really seemed to fix it. It’s something about the RGB settings. But it happened again today. Back to Adobe support.

Over the last year plus, I’ve had the enjoyable experience of working with a team of Indian software people and it’s actually helped my interactions with the telephone tech types over there. Today I was able to jolly along with Puneet P. Pahuja (now there’s a monogram!) as he wandered through my computer remotely - regaling him with funny stories about the challenges of developing completely novel software as service apps across two continents, eleven hours difference in time zones and cultural/language differences.

I’ve got to say, he really worked the problem - taking several breaks to research further. He finally really did fix it and left the color management/settings on my computer better than before. We parted with some laughs.

So the next time you get one of them on the line - you might want to remember that they are eleven hours different, which means they are often in the middle of their night. Also, just like your co-workers at the office - they are bored, consumed with the last little family crisis, hungry and cranky, tired, and most of all feeling really anxious over their inability - perceived or otherwise - to speak idiomatically correct American English.

I was teasing Puneet about this, but finally ended up congratulating him on a really exceptionally command of American English despite the ‘English’ English accent. I really could visualize his face lighting up - much like Jateen or Aneesh, a couple of my former co-workers might have.

In this way the internet has made the world smaller and better.

I’m looking forward to a quiet weekend - no out of town company. The weather is finally going to cool down to seasonal norms and that’s good - I have a couple of new sweaters I’m looking forward to wearing.

Sit. I’ll let myself out.

Cheers.

-maven