Griper Blade: Buy a War and Get a Free Large Fries

You've got to love groups with names like "Freedom's Watch." The very name is a accusation -- if you don't agree with them, you hate freedom. Unfortunately, Freedom's Watch doesn't have a damned thing to do with freedom -- it's a phony astroturf organization dedicated to convincing americans to stay in Iraq until time stops. It might as well be named "Flag Eagle Liberty Patriots."

Like all astroturf orgs, Freedom's Watch claims to represent the people, despite the fact that there's no big public groundswell for their effort. According to the Center for Media and Democracy, FW "is a new White House front group of prominent conservatives mascarading as a grassroots movement (i.e. astroturf) which began a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign on August 22, 2007 'to urge members of Congress who may be wavering in their support for the war in Iraq not to "cut and run".'"

The group, led by former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, plans to spend $15 million on an ad campaign to keep wavering congress critters on board. Don't expect a lot of progress on that front. In a stunning display of the group's lack of political clout, Sen. John Warner -- who the Washington Post calls "one of the most influential Republican voices in Congress on national security" -- is now calling on President Bush to begin withdrawal from Iraq by September 15th. This just days after FW announced the launch of its campaign...

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