So after I was clued into this by atrios, I went to google and ran a quick+dirty search on google for astroturf. What is astroturf? It's simple: someone writes a letter to the editor extolling a particular viewpoint. In this particular case, it was the President's decision to cut the dividend tax for investors. Next, said letter is sent all over the world to newspapers, only the name and address are changed to reflect a person living within the delivery range of the paper in question. Small papers (with little time to do internet fact-checking) are perfect targets. Altering a word or two between revisions will also stymie basic searches, although too much modification defeats the primary purpose of Astroturf: to reiterate talking points ad nauseum across the nation. It's kind of like getting a free advertisement in every paper's opinion section. But let's get back to the facts.

If you go to google and search for the phrase Bush is demonstrating genuine leadership, you'll get a number of hits, even if the entire statement is within quotes. This should be the first sign that something's fishy. Having such a length sentence in quotes still return multiple hits is a red flag that something has been copied. I found this one at the Boston Globe:

WHEN IT COMES to the economy, President Bush has demonstrating genuine leadership. The growth package he has proposed takes us in the right direction by accelerating the successful tax cuts of 2001, providing marriage penalty relief, and providing incentives for individuals and small businesses to save and invest.

Contrary to the class warfare rhetoric attacking Bush's plan, the proposal helps everyone who pays taxes and especially the middle class. This year alone, 92 million taxpayers will receive an immediate tax cut averaging $1,083 - and 46 million married couples will get back an average of $1,714. That's not pocket change for a family struggling through uncertain economic times. Combined with the president's new initiatives to help the unemployed, this plan gets people back to work and helps every sector of our economy.

STEPHANIE JOHNSON

Milton

Silly, but it gets the point across. Here's a sentiment from Honolulu:

When it comes to the economy, President Bush is demonstrating genuine leadership. His economic growth package will take us in the right direction by accelerating the successful tax cuts of 2001, providing marriage penalty relief, and incentives for individuals and small businesses to save and invest.

The president's plan helps everyone who pays taxes -- especially the middle class. This year alone, 92 million taxpayers will receive an immediate tax cut averaging $1,083 -- and 46 million married couples will get back an average of $1,714.

That's not pocket change for a family struggling through uncertain economic times. Combined with the president's new initiatives to help the unemployed, this plan gets people back to work and helps every sector of our economy.

Dirk M. Maurins
Hawaii Kai

Odd that two people so far apart would use such similar language, right? When you begin to add up the numbers though, the technique is truly frightening. Most internet-centric devices to muster support have always relied upon the power to rally thousands to a cause with a simple mouse click or keyboard button. Want to flood the USDA with complaints about a particular policy? Just blog about it and the masses will oblige. Despite the unruly nature of such a technique, at the back of it all is a democratic freedom where everyone gets a voice. Astroturf is the opposite: it is the move of a few people (using technology for a bad purpose) to pretend to be thousands, to pretend to be voicing a "popular" sentiment through deception. Fortunately, the same technology that allows someone to fire off a thousand e-mails to a thousand newspapers also allows us to track them, and, if possible, nail them to rights. So I e-mailed the Globe about the issue, and they informed me that they're looking into it. I'll keep the fans updated.

Okay, you may not think it is, but SVG 1.1 becoming a W3C Recommendation is actually important. This marks the beginning of the end for Flash, as far as I'm concerned. Why? Because the new specs will be adopted into cell-phones, and adoption by major cell-phone players will force browsers to incorporate SVG into mini-browsers (for Pocket PC, Palm, Blackberry, etc.) which will then force the major browsers to embed SVG support. The end result? Free, open, text-based vector graphics for all. Which is a very good thing. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just disregard it.

As usual the weathermen were totally wrong. The snow was very light, and easily melted with the massive amounts of salt on the road. I remember that the goal of weather prediction was stymied by advances in chaos theory, preventing the sort of long term weather prognostication that many believed was possible even in the 1970s. However, that problem always revolved around long term trends, like a week or more. The inability to predict the correct amount of snowfall or even the duration of the storm (it was predicted to start in the afternoon but didn't begin until well after dark) is odd, given the increase in sensors scattered around the region.

Much like the inability to accurately predict the weather, the odd logic in our president's head is explained somewhat today in a piece by Michael Kinsley. It's like explaining a snowstorm after the fact: it's easy to do so in hindsight (though Kinsley, as usual, does it better than most) but there's no way to predict the next one. Unless that next one involves invading Iraq.

In preparation for the upcoming snowstorm here in the district, I switched the default style to my personal favorite, white and modified it slightly. Tell me what you think! I'm still waiting for a restaurant review from one of the triumvirate, but I suppose she'll come through sooner or later. And as far as that storm is concerned, it probably won't happen at all. The weathermen tend to be pretty bad down here at predicting snowfall. Everything else they're quite good at but for some reason snow always gets them mixed up.

I remember with longing the days of surpluses as far as the eye could see and the looming baby-boomer-induced deficits far off. Now, though, things have changed. As Glenn Hubbard himself can attest, rising deficits cause an increase in long-term interest rates, which drag the economy down. So why the continued craziness when we may still be in a recession?. It makes no sense. At this rate, once war breaks out, the markets will sink further, which could cause another financial meltdown, which could increase the size of the hole we're already in. The current ten-year prediction forecasts, even from the Administration, predict that we'll be in the red for the entire decade. That means an ever growing national debt. Way to go guys!

Despite being sick yesterday, I did a great deal of work from home. As usual, the triumvirate didn't step in to help me out. No matter. I should have a restaurant review up tomorrow after this evening, and perhaps some more political stuff today. But first, the good news! From the piece:

PRINCETON, NJ -- For the first time since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, George W. Bush's approval rating has dropped below the 60% level, now showing 58% of Americans who approve and 37% who disapprove of the way he is handling his job as president. In a Gallup Poll conducted just days before the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush's approval rating reached the lowest of his presidency, with 51% approving and 39% disapproving. After the terrorist attacks, his approval skyrocketed, reaching a record 90% in mid-September 2001. It has gradually declined since then, dropping below 80% for the first time in early March 2002, and dropping below 70% for the first time the following July. By December of last year, it was below the 65% level.

Check out the whole article and look at the economic data as well. It just goes to show you that the administration can't pull the wool over everyone's eyes forever. A great quote culled from Maureen Dowd today:

Craig Patterson, a 45-year-old ironworker in St. Louis worried about dwindling construction jobs, summed it up for USA Today: "I trust Bush with my daughter, but I trust Clinton with my job."

This easily displaces a quote last week in CQ when the House Appropriations Committee Democratic Staff Director, Scott Lilly, was asked about the tax cut's impact on funding of the "No Child Left Behind" education law of 2001. His response? "There's probably going to be some children left behind." Classic.

So as of right now, my bridge/firewall setup is working. It's not fully complete, yet, but the code at least functions the way it's supposed to. You'd think I'd be elated. Unfortunately, I'm sick. Grr. This hectic schedule is killing me. Too many political things to impart.

From yesterday's press briefing:

Q Does the President embrace the concept of the progressive taxation? Does he feel that a progressive system is somehow inherently unfair?

MR. FLEISCHER: No, he does. And, in fact, one of the things that is notable about the plan the President announced yesterday, or two days ago, is the President's tax proposal makes the tax code even more progressive.

Q How does it do that? It flattens the rates.

MR. FLEISCHER: Because the share of taxes paid by people at the top actually goes up. Because as you remove people from the bottom of the roles, thanks to the child credit, thanks to the acceleration of the income tax rate reductions and the expansion of the 10 percent tax bracket, you have fewer people actually paying any taxes at all at the bottom. Therefore, the burden that is left is shared increasingly with those who remain at the top.

So the statistics, the facts of the matter are -- and I don't think even the Democrats dispute this -- that the burden of those who pay taxes actually shifts so the upper-income groups pay a higher percentage of the taxes paid.

Uh, sure, Ari. That makes sense, because as we all know, poor people have tons of kids, so all those child tax credits will help them out. No one who's poor is single, or, god forbid, pays payroll taxes yet no federal income taxes. Those people simply don't exist, right?