RADIO TIDBITS

Last week, I heard a pro-war ad on one of the local wingnut radio stations. It conflated the war on terror with the war in Iraq and urged listeners to contact their representatives to "tell them surrender is not a option." This is a neat piece of disguising the real issues in Iraq and blaming others for the GOP's own national security failure. ThinkProgress found out that the group behind these ads is Freedom's Watch, a new astro-turf group backed by professional liars like Ari Fleischer.

This morning, I heard Bradley A. Blakeman, who is president and chief executive officer of Freedom’s Watch, on Slots Bennett's radio show and that confirmed my opinion that these ads are meant to energize the GOP base instead of offering any informed debate. According to a couple of analyses cited by MediaMatters, the ads are mostly playing in GOP districts in an apparent attempt to prevent the GOP congress critters from voting against Fredo's Excellent Adventure.