Astroturf

Astroturf: a manufactured, as opposed to an organic "grass roots movement."

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I saw an anti health care ad by a group calling itself "The Better Government Association."

Turns out they have more than health care on their mind. To quote from their website:

The mission of the BGA will be:

1. To inform the public on the fallacies of the information being spread by liberal socialist organizations and the facts on capitalism versus socialism;
2. To promote conservative capitalist candidates for public office at all levels;
3. To file lawsuits against unconstitutional laws and actions by government and counter-lawsuits to those lawsuits filed by the liberal socialist organizations; and
4. To form grassroots organizations to compete with ACORN.

Who are they?

Hard to say. Their website and press release contain no clue about who they are beyond a press contact quoted in a February 15, 2007 posting by "The Non Profit Times":

“We have to be very aggressive in our scripting,” said Lance Davis, director of marketing – political for InfoCision, based in Akron, Ohio. “You’ve got to hit them with a sledgehammer in the first five seconds of the call.”

Mr. Davis (a donor to Fred Thompson's lackadaisical 2008 Republican Presidential Campaign) is referring to political telemarketing, a specialty of InfoCision Management, exempt from "do not call" regulations, or any obligation to the truth. Succesful enough to have purchased naming rights for the football stadium at the University of Akron, InfoCision, which operates 32 call centers, is a "message mercenary." They'll provide workers who in turn will say anything for a price.

Political opposition isn't the only challege for the new highly partisan BGA of Akron. They're being sued for stealing the name of a much older non-partisan group of the same name based in Chicago.

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Washington Post Staff Writer Ben Pershing reports today (August 5): $52 Million Has Been Spent So Far on Ads in What Could Be Record-Shattering Battle.