Advocate misrepresentation and corporate skulduggery

In reading cooperkorman, I stumbled across a new and patently disgusting term.

"Astroturf": slang for corporate-backed 'grass-roots' advocacy groups, shilling the corporate lines, and purporting to represent the voice of the people. They're behind a lot of the tort reform movement, as well as Social Security reform, and a number of other campaigns that are generally aiming to curtail the rights of the individual.

Here is what started me off, but I'd recommend jumping right in here or here.


(Oh, and while I'm in a delightfully politically pissed-off mood: Jeb Bush, go fuck yourself. Terry Schiavo was tragically a microcephalic vegetable, but she's mercifully dead now, so stop beating her dead case to aggrandize your religious stance. And just give up on trying to get back at her husband for making a damn fool of you.)