Atlanta Journal-Constitution gets fooled by GOP astroturf twice!

AJC: Astroturf letter #1 on 1/9/2003, by Misty Haynie.

AJC: Astroturf letter #2 on 1/31/2003, by Robert Rahm

President Bush is demonstrating genuine leadership.....

Astroturf is a form letter generated by the GOP through it's GOP Teamleader website. It has been published by a few dozen papers, but only the AJC and Santa Barbara News Press seem to have printed it twice. This is an old tactic by the GOP, Rush Limbaugh's dittoheads, and the Freepers. Now it is all computerized. The program will supposedly make a few changes in each letter, but key phrases usually stand out. Here is a google search for the phrase "President Bush is demonstrating genuine leadership." That was the key phrase in this round of letters. See how many papers printed an almost identical letter? The GOP trying to influence people through any means possible.

Via Atrios.

Update: After sending an email to the AJC letters editor, they wrote me back. Actually they wrote back several times. The first to say they knew thay had published a letter to the editor a few weeks ago they knew was junk. The second to say they try to maintain balance with their letters and "We try hard to find letters that praise him [Bush], for balance." The third said oops, you were right. Two almost identical had slipped in a few weeks apart. They were very nice, said they look for the "astroturf," and that they are rotating jobs some which caused some confusion. As I told her, even though I don't know why anybody would actually write one, I don't mind letters praising Bush. I just hope they would print true letters and not the GOP junk. I did get in a few jabs at columnist Jim Wooten, however. Hell, what did you expect?

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Presidential candidate Dean says state of the union could be better.

Primary Monitor: Democratic presidential hopeful Dean critical of Bush View.

"The president continues to threaten war without making a case for war; he promises to stimulate the economy yet runs the federal budget deep into debt and he proposes no serious health care reform."

"It would be un-American to plunge our country into conflict without clear justification."

"The Bush administration's borrow-and-spend fiscal policy does nothing to bolster a shaky economy."

"Not only does he have the wrong answer [on healthcare], he doesn't even understand the question."

"You can't spend the same dollar on a tax cut, a war against Iraq, a fight against terrorism at home, expanding health care, and improving schools and roads. President Bush wants to borrow to pay for it all."

I like this guy. The courage to tell it like it is. This government is getting into a terrible mess with these Republican policies, and we are going to have to work and pay to fix it. This is the guy to do that.

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Travel to exotic locations, meet interesting people, and then embalm them.

Hot Jobs: U.S. Navy Mortician - $6000 sign on bonus.

that's right! Been laid off? Run out of unemployment benefits before the Senate passed an extension leaving you out in the cold? Well now you can become a mortician for the United States Navy. You may have to relocate. The ad lists lists California, Arizona, Texas, and Michigan as possible relocation sites. I'm thinking you may be relocating to Iraq, but lets not get into truth in advertising right now. If you go to Detroit, I'm sure you can get a job moonlighting also. The murder rate per capita in Detroit is out of this world!

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